From: Design, Personal By Bevans on Sunday, July 27, 2008

I've been working on a logo for myself in one of my classes, and I just wanted to post it here for people to see and comment on. What do you think? It's definitely not finished, and I certainly need to simplify it. The blue strips going through it aren't intended to be something that is always there.

From: Entertainment, Links, Personal, Technology By Bevans on Friday, November 02, 2007

I've been meaning to write a hard-hitting post about politics or religion or something for a while now. But that day has not yet come. Instead, I'm going to share some of my favorite podcasts that I listen to each week.

For those of you who don't know, Podcasts are audio files (usually in MP3 format) that people produce on a regular or semi-regular basis. Their primary purpose is to be loaded onto a portable music player, or just listened to on your computer. And contrary to popular belief, no Apple products are required. I listen on an iRiver H120 while driving to and from class each day. The drive is usually about 40 minutes long, so I've got plenty of time to listen.

A great resource for finding new podcasts on pretty much any topic you can think of is the Podcast Directory on Digg.

So anyway, here they are.


The Ricky Gervais Show

Unfortunately, this one has ended, but you can still find the whole collection on the net (try BitTorrent), or my hard drive. And it's probably the funniest thing I've ever heard. The format is simple: 3 British guys talking to each other. The first (of course) is Ricky Gervais, a comedian/actor/writer who's probably most famous in the US for co-creating the tv show The Office. The second is Stephen Merchant, the other co-creator of The Office. The third is Karl Pilkington, their unemployed friend.

Most of the hilarity comes from just letting Karl speak his mind, with the other two reacting. Most of the stuff he says is ridiculous, inaccurate, or just plain crazy, yet also oddly poignant. When talking about the creation of the universe, he ponders, "Was the Big Bang really that loud, or did it just seem loud because there was nothing there to drown it out?"

They did a 12-episode "season" for free, then did 2 seasons of 6 episodes as part of a subscription experiment (don't worry, most podcasts are free) and then 3 holiday specials last year. Most are about half an hour long.


SModcast (feed)

This one gets its name from the last initials of the show's two hosts: filmmaker/writer/actor Kevin Smith, and producer Scott Mosier. Scott is often busy though, so Kevin's friends or wife sometimes fill in.

This one is probably only interesting if you're a Kevin Smith fan. In fact, it's probably only interesting if you've watched both "Evening With Kevin Smith" DVDs and came away wanting more. Smith and Mosier talk about whatever comes into their heads, from personal experiences to stuff they saw on YouTube.

It's usually about an hour long, and they do one every week or so.


The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe (feed)

This one is hosted by several members of the New England Skeptics Society, and they discuss the latest in science, pseudo-science, and scams, with particular focus on debunking and exposing subjects like the paranormal, conspiracy theories, the medical field, and so on.

They also have some great guests on the show each week, like Jimmy Carter, Bill Nye, Adam Savage (Mythbusters), Matt Stone (South Park), and Teller (he was actually talking too). There are also plenty of relative unknowns that are also very interesting; last week, the guest was an epidemiologist who was talking about the flu vaccine (short version: get it), the bird flu, upcoming pandemics, and how the human race will eventually be wiped out by viruses. Fun!

This one is a weekly feature, and it's usually over an hour long.


Webcomics Weekly (feed)

This is a pretty interesting look into the webcomic world, from 4 prominent webcartoonists. They cover everything from artistry to business to marketing to technology, and so on. It's aimed at other webcartoonists, but I find it pretty interesting anyway. It's also a weekly feature that's about an hour long.


NPR

Ok, I know what you're thinking. NPR is a radio station. But they also have almost ALL of their programs from around the country available in podcast form.

Wait Wait Don't Tell Me is a very funny quiz show where the questions come from the week's news and events. Car Talk features two hilarious New England brothers attempting to diagnose car problems from callers. Science Friday...well, I think the name pretty much explains it.

There are thousands of different feeds to choose from, and some are even compilations of all stories relating to a particular subject (like movies).


Assorted WoW Podcasts

Yes, I'm a Warcraft nerd. I listen to 3 WoW podcasts: The Instance, Legendary Thread, and the WoW Insider Show. They all talk about the same news stories about the same game, but I enjoy listening to their differing opinions and reactions.

Think of it like being a baseball fan and watching ESPN, Fox Sports, and...some other sports news channel.


So there we go. I'm always looking for new ones, and if I do find some, I'll be sure to post them here. And if you have one that you think I'd like, feel free to send me a link. Even though I've been listening for a while now, I still feel like I've barely scratched the surface.

From: Bragging, Design, Personal By Bevans on Monday, October 29, 2007

Here's a little something I did for another class project. It's done entirely in InDesign, which is to MS Word as Photoshop is to Paintbrush.



I just took a screenshot from the movie 300 and duplicated it using nothing but text. It was pretty fun to throw together.

I'll probably be posting more projects here in the coming months, providing of course that I have something worth showing.

From: Bragging, Design, Money, Personal By Bevans on Monday, October 01, 2007

Double-Click Geek Ale: The best way to drink yourself unconscious playing video games in your parents' basement.

Well, here's the new design I was talking about last week. I made it for one of my classes (assigment: create a product label) and I think it's definitely some of my best work. I was partially inspired by the Summit logo (my dad has a t-shirt of it), which I've always really liked.

I was thinking about how currently-existing beers are always marketed as the perfect companions for watching your favorite sporting event, and since I'm not really interested in most sports, I decided to come up with something that might appeal to me. If I drank.

As always, I've slapped it on t-shirts, sweatshirts, mousepads, mugs, bags, and most of the other stuff that's available at CafePress.

From: Bragging, Personal, Technology By Bevans on Friday, July 13, 2007

I'm really excited. I just ordered a new laptop.

"But Bevans," you may say, "you're broke as fuck. How can you afford a $2,600 laptop?" The answer: student loans. No, really. Now that I'll be attending Brown College (starting next week) I need a laptop, because they require them there. So everything works out: I fulfill a requirement AND get a kick-ass laptop.

I got the best one that I could find for $2,600. I chose Dell, because they seem to make great laptops, and also because they seem to be the only ones selling laptops powerful enough for my needs (besides people like Alienware and Voodoo, who happen to sell them for crazy prices).

I'm really glad I'm in a Graphic Design program, because that means that I can satisfy both my professional and leisure needs with one machine without having to give one or the other precedence. It'll process large graphics and high-res video AND make my games look amazing with high framerates.

So here are the stats. They're not the best that Dell had to offer, but for $2,600, they're pretty good.

• Model: XPS M1710 (Black)
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7400 (2.16GHz/667MHz/4MB)
• Memory: 2GB DDR2 SDRAM 677MHZ
• Video Card: 256MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900
• Screen: 17 inch UltraSharp TrueLife Wide-screen WUXGA
• Hard Drive: 80GB 7200RPM SATA (I know this is kinda small, but I intend to upgrade it later)
• Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium Edition
• Other: 8X DVD+/-RW, Built-in Bluetooth, Wireless ethernet, etc.

Now, the hardest part will be waiting for it. It isn't set to arrive until about the 30th.

UPDATE: Now it's looking like it'll be here by the 25th. Woot.

From: Personal, Politics, Ranting By Bevans on Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Sorry folks, I've decided not to run for President in 2008. My 2000 campaign was a bigger success than I ever imagined (I got one vote), and I honestly don't remember if I ran in 2004. But in 2008 you will not see my name on your ballots.

Why? Because, quite simply, I don't want to be the one to have to clean up Bush's mess. I don't want to have to fix the colossol clusterfucks in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran (just wait). I don't want to be the one to try to patch up our international relationships. De-Bushifying our education, healthcare, welfare, social security, and numerous other public services would be a major undertaking, and I just don't want to spend all my time doing that. I don't want to have to break up all the illegal monopolies that have formed and flourished thanks to Bush's "let big business do whatever the fuck it wants" policy.

In fact, undoing all that Bush has done to this country and this world is going to take decades, so I may not even run in 2012 or 2016. We'll see.

Another reason for not running is that I'll probably be labelled an "enemy combatant" or something and hauled off to a secret prison somewhere, just for writing this post. Naturally, that would put a major strain on my campaign. So it's best to just leave it to someone else for now.

In the coming weeks, I'll be offering my opinions on the other losers running for President in 2008. And what a sorry bunch of...

From: Health, Personal By Bevans on Thursday, July 05, 2007

I found this list of 10 Things to Know About Procrastination from a well-respected psychology web site. As I was reading it, more and more I was saying "yea, this is definitely me".

To pad out this post, I'm just going to cut-and-paste some excerpts that I think are particularly relevant to me.

• They don't pay bills on time. They miss opportunities for buying tickets to concerts. They don't cash gift certificates or checks. They file income tax returns late. (Oh shit, my taxes!)
• "Telling someone who procrastinates to buy a weekly planner is like telling someone with chronic depression to just cheer up," insists Dr. Ferrari.
• Procrastinators drink more than they intend to—a manifestation of generalized problems in self-regulation. (I've always suspected that this was true, which is one of the reasons why I don't drink.)
• They distract themselves as a way of regulating their emotions such as fear of failure.
• One of the types: Avoiders, who may be avoiding fear of failure or even fear of success, but in either case are very concerned with what others think of them; they would rather have others think they lack effort than ability.
• Just over the course of a single academic term, procrastinating college students had such evidence of compromised immune systems as more colds and flu, more gastrointestinal problems. And they had insomnia. (Oh yea, I've definitely got the insomnia.)
• Procrastination has a high cost to others as well as oneself; it shifts the burden of responsibilities onto others, who become resentful. Procrastination destroys teamwork in the workplace and private relationships.

Well, that's about half the article right there. But the rest is definitely interesting too, and worth a read.

UPDATE: I just found another great article on the same site, called Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature. And if any of you out there ever visit Digg, you'll probably notice that I just get a lot of this stuff from there.

From: Family, Personal, Vacation By Bevans on Wednesday, June 06, 2007

For the past 15 years or so, my family and I have enjoyed going up to our permanent campsite east of Hinkley, where we have what is essentially a cabin: a large camper attached to an even larger, fully-enclosed porch that my dad, grandpa, uncle & I built.

We bought the camper used, and it was built in 1977. Needless to say, it was getting old. It had a lot of water damage, and was basically just worn out.

We have a much newer, a little bit smaller that we bought a couple years ago for travelling (yes, we owned two campers and five cars, for just 4 people) since our other one became a permanent fixture (not only was it attached to our porch, but it was also 37 feet long and we had nothing to pull it with). Therefore, we finally decided to get rid of the old one.

My dad somehow found someone to haul the thing away. He didn't sell it, he just said they could have it if they hauled it away. Once it was gone, he added another wall to the porch to enclose it fully, and now we just park our newer camper up there and take it where we want with our SUV.

Whoever it was that hauled it away owned a camper-selling business, and now they're trying to sell it for $2,000. They're never going to get that much, but I admire their chutzpah.

You can see it and some interior shots at http://www.oaklakerv.com/77YellowstoneFW.htm. It looks a lot nicer than it actually is. They haven't fixed it up or anything; it looks like they just took some photos as soon as it rolled onto the lot. They haven't even taken down our old shower curtain or knife rack or anything.

Definitely a fixer-upper. As in, needs a new ceiling, some new walls, some new shelves and benches, a fridge, and it still has orange shag carpeting in some areas (which looks even worse than the stuff Kev's parents used to have on their basement walls). And new tires. And the siding is all dented up from hail. But the structure is good.