From Kottke via 37signals, trap-jaw ants that use their jaws to fling themselves high into the air:
Pretty darn cool.
The Archives
I don’t often join Facebook groups anymore (let alone invite people to them), but my friend Jon’s group I Deradioed a Girl: Get Katy Perry Off the Air is …
It’s been a while since I blogged about what I’ve been reading, so it’s time for an update.
From that list, Brothers Karamazov has sort of fallen by the wayside, …
I’ve previewed a few popular television shows over the last handful of months and I’ve noticed something troublesome: they’re not as clean as they used to be. It’s not …
Since it’s just over halfway through the year, I figured I’d check in on my New Year’s resolutions for 2008 and see how I’m doing:
1. I’ve read 19 books …
We had full company runthrough for the show tonight. (The show is Long Ago & Far Away, the New Play Project one I mentioned a few weeks ago.) …
I just read a bone-chilling article by Naomi Wolf (which I found linked on Political Irony) called Fascist America, in 10 easy steps. And she’s spot on. …
Four things. First, I need to spend more time reading. Seriously.
Second, I hit up the bargain book sale today outside the bookstore and now have exactly 1,000 books. …
You know, being twenty-five isn’t all that different from being twenty-four when you look at life as a continuum, especially one that could be eighty or ninety years long (not …
My brother-in-law told me about The Itch today at dinner, and holy smokes, that’s fascinating. In a morbid sort of way. (Just wait till you get to …
Back in the 1840s, the Saints established the University of Nauvoo. Joseph Smith said that it was to “enable us to teach our children wisdom — to instruct them …
At work a few weeks ago we took the MBTI, which is the Myers-Briggs test (except it’s not really a “test,” mind you :P). We turned the bubble …
13. Wordle
Wordle is the new tag cloud. You can feed it any text — paste it in or give it an RSS feed (like I’ve done below) — and …
14. Man overboard
Life is fragile.
As some of you may have seen on the local Utah news, Craig Decker went missing yesterday. He was in a boat on Utah Lake with …
I’ve finally upgraded my camera. I decided to go with a relatively cheap body (Canon EOS Rebel XT) and instead put my money into lenses. (The camera came …
I was reading in 2 Nephi 4 this morning, and Lehi’s statement to the children of Laman intrigued me:
If ye are brought up in the way ye should go ye …
17. Our only hope
I recently found a cool YouTube video from creativebits on real-time gradient-domain painting. It’s the next generation of the clone tool — and wow is it sweet. …
From the American News Project comes a rather interesting video. Here’s the caption:
On June 26, 2008, John Yoo and David Addington, two leading architects of the Bush administration’s …
We had a division lunch at Bajio Grill the other day, and while I was sitting there eating my burrito, I had a few thoughts. Wasn’t it just a …
First, a nice article from the Edmonton Sun on Project Gutenberg:
Think of Newby, Akrigg and Hart as a breed of literary Indiana Jones — searching along forgotten bookshelves, instead …
Advance disclaimer: read this post with a grain of salt.
So, there was an interesting bit in the newspaper this morning. (The following quote comes from the AP, whereas …
Are we developing ADD as a society? I came across two interesting articles on similar themes, one from the Baltimore Sun titled Plugged in, zoned out, and the …
23. Wired digits
I stopped by my parents’ home for an hour tonight and played the piano, and while I was playing through some of the David Lanz music I grew up with, …
24. Magazine clouds
Yesterday I discovered MagCloud, which Derek Powazek says is “the future of magazine publishing”:
MagCloud enables you to publish your own magazines. All you have to do is upload …
We dropped my brother Dan off at the MTC today. With gas prices on the rise and both food and utilities getting more expensive by the day, we figured …
Firefox 3 has been released! I am happy. :) (I’ve been using the beta and RCs for the last couple months, and it’s been nice but not …
Next week we’re going to have auditions for our next New Play Project show, Long Ago and Far Away. It’s a set of seven short (ten-minute) plays, one of …
28. Silver bullets
The other day I came across this passage in Bruce C. Hafen’s book The Broken Heart (page 5):
Our understanding of the Atonement is hardly a shield against sorrow; rather, it …
29. Ode to modesty
I just wanted to thank all the girls out there who dress modestly. This is of course dangerous territory to be treading in, and I’m fully expecting to get …
This morning I found out that Tree of Blood did indeed get accepted. :) It’ll be produced as part of New Play Project’s Long Ago and Far Away show …
Being somewhat obsessed with productivity, I’ve long been in search of the perfect to-do list killer app. For almost a decade I’ve jotted down to-do items on sticky notes …
J.K. Rowling gave a rather good commencement address at Harvard this past Thursday, entitled “The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination.” (Thanks to Joni for …
Tomorrow at 10 a.m. San Francisco time is the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, and boy am I excited. There’s been a slew of rumors floating around as to …
34. 280 slides
Cool new web-based Powerpoint clone called 280 Slides:
Chris at Wait till I come! mentions this about it:
The most amazing …
This morning I came across an article by Roland Martin entitled What would Jesus really do?:
Ask the nonreligious what being a Christian today means, and based on what we …
36. Tree of blood
There were enough good submissions to the New Play Project Long Ago and Far Away set that they’ve added an extra round of finals, and my play Tree of Blood …
37. Badges of honor
Sleep deprivation is not a badge of honor. It’s true. The past few days I’ve been running on empty and it’s taking its toll. (Luckily it’s …
38. Visual crack
Paul Graham’s got an essay on procrastination and distraction that hit home for me:
So one way to beat procrastination is to starve it of distractions. But that’s not as …
39. Big buck bunny
Big Buck Bunny is out. It’s a ten-minute short film created entirely with free, open source software, with all of the 3D modeling, animating, and compositing done in …
[Cross-posted from Blank Slate.]
From the 37signals post Workaholics fixate on inconsequential details:
Good advice for anyone who wants to be more efficient: When you’re sweating for hours over a …
I’m finding that I learn as much (if not more) from my failures as I do from my successes when it comes to dating. Which isn’t to say that …
42. Geni in a bottle
At the prodding of a friend I’ve started trying out Geni again, and it’s definitely starting to grow on me. (It’s sort of like Facebook but for genealogy.) …
Finally. After months of teasing and premonitions, the I-told-you-so has solidly arrived: my sister April got engaged last night. I pretty much knew it was coming all along …
44. Loftyisms
This afternoon while manning the box office and concession booth at our matinee of Swallow the Sun, I decided to finally start writing a mission statement for myself. I …
I recently found out that there are videos of several of New Play Project’s latest sets of plays online at Gashler Media. Our latest set, Lost and Found, …
46. Prince Caspian
I’m not entirely sure what’s going on, but I feel busier than I’ve been in a long time. Objectively speaking, though, I don’t think that’s actually the case. …
Last week I interviewed for a new job as a web designer at the Harold B. Lee Library, and this afternoon I found out that I got it! :) …
48. Tweety bird
After resisting for a long time, I’ve given in: I’m now on Twitter. :) (Username bencrowder.)
Why’d I join? For a while I felt like Twitter was just …
49. Walking on water
Two thoughts on art from Madeleine L’Engle in her book Walking on Water:
All children are artists, and it is an indictment of our culture that so many of them lose …
Good post by Joe a couple weeks ago (I’m behind on my Google Reader reading :)) on art and the modern world, specifically about nudity:
Honestly, I think that part …
