I know, I know.. keaven dot com has the same look for nearly 5 years, and then suddenly .. BAM .. redesign after redesign. [sigh] What can I say.
Anyway, I really like this new layout, called Aspire. It warms the cockles of my heart, you might say. Hope you like it as much as I do 
Last Sabbath, John and I went with my parents to the Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens (part of the U.S. National Park Service). It was pretty hot, but we still had a very nice time. I took a bunch of pictures while we were there. If you are so inclined, you can flip through the pictures, or you can try viewing the following video compilation of pictures:
I made this at a site called ANIMOTO. It really is pretty cool. For free, you can use up to 15 pictures to create a 30 second video clip. If you want to be able to do full length videos you can either pay $3 per video, or $30 for a year of unlimited video creation.
You can even import your pictures from a number of locations, such as Facebook, Photobucket, and Picasa. Once your video is done, you can upload it to YouTube (right through the ANIMOTO interface), download a copy of it, email it out to people, and post inside blogs. I think this is pretty cool. Oh, and for $5 you can even download a hi-res, DVD quality version that you can archive, or use to show at parties on your television 
Anyway… thought this was cool, and wanted to share!
Yes, yes.. I admit it. I have fallen victim to the micro-blog craze. I’ve had an account with Pownce for a long time, but never really used it (the only reason I got it was to support dear ol’ Kevin Rose). I’ve also had a FaceBook account since.. well.. since way back when it was only available to college students.
Anywho… recently I began actually updating my FaceBook status on a semi-regular basis. I installed the FaceBook toolbar for Firefox (which I HIGHLY recommend) which gives me a little pop-up showing my friends’ status updates… so I started updating mine more often.
A few days ago I noticed my friend Roy had become a fan of something called BrightKite. Naturally I clicked on the link and read up about it. I liked the idea of “checking in” and seeing who was in the area… and possibly helping to create an interactive profile of locations, so I found someone with invites to spare (the service is in Beta at the moment) and got myself an account. This was closely followed by activating a Twitter account.
I suddenly found myself in a position where I had multiple micro-blogging sites (each of which has a target audience), and no desire to send 100 messages to different sites whenever I wanted to say I was doing something. Normal people at this point would simply have picked one or two and left it at that. I, however, was determined to find a way to sync everything together so I only had to send one message, two max, and have everything be updated automatically for me. I tried a few different methods, but they were all either clunky, or screwed something up (like HelloTxt updating Pownce twice for every message.. wtf?).
The answer turned out to be yet another beta service: Ping.fm
As of this posting, Ping.fm can update the following services for you:
If you use it with an actual blog (like Blogger or Live Journal) you can post whole bloggs.. title and all. This service is fast, reliable, and super easy to use. There is an AIM bot so you can even update by sending an instant message (I did that for the first time this morning ). There is a fantastic moble aspect that is fast loading so you can send out quick messages from your phone’s browser. You also have a unique email address you can send messages to if you want. Fantastic. I love it.
At this time, Ping.fm does not sync with BrightKite. That’s okay for me, though. BrightKite is a little different. I check into locations there, not just update status messages. BrightKite can update your Twitter location though. Which is cool.
Anyway… the long of the short of it is, with Ping.fm I have all my micro-blogging synced finally. And I am really liking the BrightKite concept of location-based social networking (they’re not the first ones to do it, but it’s the one that has sucked me in 
).
If you would like to try out BrightKite let me know. I have a few invites.
If you would like to try out Ping.fm let me know. You can sign up and get a beta account, but you need the current betacode… which changes frequently. Let me know if you would like to sign up and I can get you the most recent betacode.
As you may, or may not, be aware… I hate working out. That bares repeating: I 
hate working out. That being said…
I work out a lot. By “a lot” I mean I work out most mornings, with a buddy of mine from the office, when I get to work. When I was over at NAS, I worked out two or three times a week with a (slowly dwindling) group after work. Since I’m working out BEFORE work now, I don’t really push myself too hard, and usually keep it very, very (dare I say… VERY) short… about 20 minutes… the bare minimum.
We’ve been working out for a good few months now, and I initially lost about 10 pounds (going from 200 to 190) in the first month… and haven’t.budged.since.
I found a site where I can enter my food, exercise, and weight on a daily basis. On the front page of keaven dot come there is now a nice little slider at the top. This is linked to my profile at Fat Secret and will automatically update every time I do a “weigh in” there.
My reasons are two fold. First, by making this more public I create a sense of accountability which would help motivate me on those days I want nothing more than to just eat a pile of doughnuts (Which is just about every Wednesday). Second, I hope that by putting this “out there” like this, other friends of mine might be nudged into a little lifestyle self-examination and maybe join me in goal setting and nutrient counting
Okay… anyone who has known me for any length of time knows that American Idol is not a show I set my watch by (Only one show has ever held that honor… no comments, Roy!). I tune in from time to time throughout the “season,” but usually end up turning the channel when the bleeding from ears gets too bad. I usually just wait until the top 6 or so to watch more regularly… by then it’s usually safe enough
I know, I know.. i can’t help it. Being a classically trained singer, most of these Pop “stars” just grate against my ears. There are a few, however, that have real honest-to-God talent.
Thus, this post.
A friend (who watches the show far more often then I do) IMed me a while back. “Dude, this kid looks how I imagine you looked at that age.” Heh.. okay, I bit. I clicked the link he sent and checked out this contestant. Again, for those who know me, it comes as no surprise that my initial reaction was, “Well, hello there.” Yes, yes, the perv in me got the jump on the initial-reaction bit, I admit it.
However…
Until tonight, I had never heard him sing. I’ve only seen two shows this “season” and not even complete shows at that. This evening, however, I jumped to YouTube and saw in the “what people are watching right now” section none other than David. So… I clicked
Wow…
Yes.. wow…
Dude is cute, sincere, humble, and has one of the best voices I have heard on this show. I am amazed; Speechless, even. I doubt that I will keep up with the show, but I will not be surprised if this kid makes it to the finals. Hell.. don’t be shocked if he wins and you find his albums on my computer heh…
EDIT (2/26/2008): Thanks, Jamie, for pointing this out… David was a Star Search contestant when he was younger. Check it out:
Heh.. I remember the original Star Search… the one hosted by Ed McMahon. The one Britney performed on, heh.
