Finally ... a vacation!

Greetings all! Just in case anyone's wondering where I am next this weekend and next week and why I haven't made any incredibly interesting posts ... Roy and I are going on VACATION!!!

Yessireebob ... a whole week. We're spending the first part in good ol' San Angelo, then we're headin' for the Texas coast! Gonna be beach bums! So,I'm finishing up my stuff at work today, then away away we go.

So, while I'm gone, I figure I'll leave you with some recommended readings for you to amuse yourself with while you wait anxiously for my return.

• Boing Boing - A directory of wonderful things


• Frank's Interociter - My pal Frank keeps us up to date on his life in Japan (which is actually incredibly interesting! Lots of pictures!)


• Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me - The absolute best show on NPR. Really funny analysis of the week's news


• Car Talk - Roy's favorite show on NPR (and my second favorite, following close behind Wait Wait)


• Whedonesque - For all you Browncoats out there. All things Whedon.


• All my Flickr photo sets - Feel free to browse, leave comments, etc.


• Google Video Blog - The latest and greatest video clips on the net


• Google Blog - What will google take over next??

That should definitely keep you busy for a while. Enjoy! ~K

There's only one "One"

A few weeks ago, my (way cool) sis Lizzie sent me the link on YouTube to the new (well, new to me) "One" vide with U2 and Mary J. Blige. I like it ... kind of. There's been a lot of talk (...about this next song ... Maybe, maybe too much talk ...) on the mailing lists between people who like this version and people who just can't stand it. I'm stuck somewhere in the middle. Of course, Mary isn't going to just do a copy of the song -- you expect her to add her own "flavor" to it. And I like (mostly) what she's done with it. But ... it just seems at times like she won't stop singing. Part of what makes the song so powerful is how "clean" it is. (I hope this makes sense.) At the end, when you're supposed to hear the guitar and how Edge plays it so beautifully, Mary completely sings over it, and I think it loses a lot because of it. So, that's my brief analysis of the new version of the greatest song in the world. And without any further ado, I bring you U2 and Mary J. Blige with "One"...

U2 and Mary J Blige - One


Just for fun, I thought I'd bring back some memories with this (incredibly cool) version of "One" done by REM and U2. Back in the good ol' days, when there was a Democrat in the White House ... *sigh* ...

REM & U2 - One


However, let's end this post by reminding ourselves what "One" is meant to sound like. Below is the band playing the greatest song ever at Live8.

Do you hear us coming, Lord
Do you hear us call
You me knocking, knocking at your door
You hear me calling
You hear him call
You hear him scratching
Did you make him crawl

U2 @ Live8 - One


God, I love this song!

Update:The link to the Mary J. Blige/U2 video has been fixed. ~Kat (10 Sept 2006)

U2 // fast forward (MTV 1983)

I can absolutely kill an entire evening looking through U2 videos on YouTube ... which I've just about done tonight. Just found a really good interview with the band from way back in 1983. Adam and Larry actually contribute quite a bit to the interviews. Be sure to take a moment to appreciate Adam's 'fro. Edge looks a little stiff at first ("Uh, my name is Edge, and I play the guitar"), Larry picks on the grass, and Bono waxes poetic about breaking down barriers. Enjoy!

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3

I *do* believe in fairies!

Today I just seem to have U2 on the brain. But I do have one non-U2-related post to make. Today, on Boing Boing, they posted about a website that documents fairy-sized doors that have been "popping up" around Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Boing Boing: "Many of Ann Arbor, Michigan's buildings sport "fairy doors" that are just a few inches high, set unobtrusively into their facades. These doors appear to be purely ornamental (or, possibly transdimensional gateways into the Land of Faery) and this site collects images of them." Link

I loved looking through the site. It reminded me of when I was young and watched movies like "Darby O'Gill and the Little People" and I wondered if would wonder if leprechauns, banshees, and fairies really existed. I found myself looking through these pictures and reading the captions hoping to find some hint that maybe, just maybe ...

Click on any image below to view the site.















I think one of my favorite pictures is the last one (above) of the boy who has set up a "fairy trap" in his elementary school, where a fairy door has appeared. No fairies caught yet, however!

***drool***

Just finished reading...

Now that I've graduated (woohoo!) and have free time on my hands, I've been reading for fun again! I figure I'll blog about the books I read from now on ... if I like them ... and maybe if I don't like them. I just finished reading two books by Donna Tartt: "The Secret History" and "The Little Friend". Below are my blurbs about the books.

The Secret History
This was a really good book ... but in a really weird way. By the end of the first page, you are told by the main character, Richard, that he and the eccentric group of classmates kill one of their own group members. What you don't know is why, how, and what leads up to the murder.
Review in brief: Weird, but very good. "Classic."








The Little Friend
I really, really liked this book. The Dufresnes family lives in the shadow of the brutal murder of Robin, the family’s first child and beloved son. The suspect trail turns cold and no one is ever arrested, and the broken family is emotionally haunted by the tragedy. Over a decade later, Harriet, now an ornery, precocious 12-year-old, decides to find the identity of her brother’s killer and finds herself in more danger than she could have ever imagined.
Review in brief: VERY good! Read this book! My only complaint is that it does leave a few unanswered questions that make you wish there was another book that continued the story. Read a few pages at Amazon.com!

Geek Like Me!

I am *so* proud of Vicki! Last Friday night (...into Saturday morning) she and I attended the midnight charity screening of Serenity at the Addison Studio Movie Grill. Once we were able to pull ourselves away from watching Mike, the absolute fastest bartender either one of us has seen ( ... and Vicki's seen quite a few!), we mingled with our fellow Browncoats and had ourselves a right nice shindig.

Corina was nice enough to loan us her Jayne Hat, and I wore it for a while, but Vicki wore it for the vast majority of the evening. She looked so cute!! Click on Vicki's picture and browse through the pictures.


Pretty cunning ... don't ya think?!

Mentos + Diet Coke ...

You've probably seen the video online of the girl doing the Mentos & Diet Coke experiment (if not, click here). I stumbled upon a new M+DC video that IMHO is much, much cooler! Check it out...

Happy Serenity Day!

SERENITY NOW/EQUALITY NOW
47 Screenings In Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand, United States

Joss Whedon's Serenity on the big screen.
On Joss Whedon's birthday.
To benefit Joss Whedon's favorite charity, Equality Now.
... And Vicki and I will be there! (Along w/ Corina's way-cool Jayne hat!)

• 9pm: Pre-screening shindig @ Addison Studio Movie Grill
  
• 12am: CAN'T STOP THE SERENITY, BABY!!!
  

I've been cited on Boing Boing!

One of the coolest websites -- Boing Boing -- cited some info I sent in regarding one of their posts! Now this may seem very minor to you, but this is really, really cool for me! Click the image below to see the original post.


Sweet! Needless to say, I emailed all the folks I know who read Boing Boing!

Proof!

As *proof* that I actually did graduate, I've scanned in the proofs for the professional graduation pictures that were taken at the ceremony back in May.







Still waiting on the school to mail me the actual degree. Can't wait to get it framed and up on my wall!

Hello! Photos!

As promised, I have uploaded my photos from the Vertigo USA concert.

Click on the images below to see the entire set.





















Click on the images above to see the entire set.

Vertigo USA!

Greetings all!

Last Friday, Fatima and I saw the U2 tribute band Vertigo USA perform at a local restaurant/bar called Firewater, and it was truly a *wonderful* time! The band was really good -- Bono (aka Alan) was really good at copying all of Bono's mannerisms. We sang at the top of our lungs for three hours. The band played several songs from the last two albums as well as several classics. Surprises included "Party Girl", "Ultra Violet", "Spanish Eyes", "Out of Control", and "Sweetest Thing".

I was able to shoot some small video clips of the Vertigo USA's performance. Below are Real Video links to these clips. These were shot using the compact video option on my camera, so they're pretty small; however, you can resize and it's a little easier to see. Enjoy!

Vertigo USA Video Clips

Bullet the Blue Sky

Mysterious Ways

God Part 2

In God's Country

Spanish Eyes

Where the Streets Have No Name

Party Girl



More photos will be posted soon ... promise!

Bats! (And a really great hotel!)

Last week, my co-workers and I attended the IOL Conference down in Austin. It was a really great conference -- lots of geeky educational stuff. What was really nice was that it almost completely related to instructional design, which is what I do. Usually, when you go to a e-learning conference, there is one -- maybe two -- tracks that apply to design ... which is fine. But this conference, each time slot had 4 or 5 difference sessions that we wanted to go to, which was great. So, we all kind of spread out and got the most out of it.

To kick off the conference, Wednesday evening we spent a lovely evening on what my fellow attendees called "The Bat Boat". We floated along the narrow strip of the Lake Travis that stretches up into downtown Austin, and once dusk arrived, we watched as millions of bats took flight from underneath the Congress Street bridge. What I found truly amazing was how organized these creatures were in this. They began by coming out of the left side of the bridge, then gradually moved to those coming out from under the middle area, then from the right. Very organized. And of course, I had my camera in had to document the event.

Click HERE to see the entire set.












Oh, and my hotel room (at the Hyatt Regency) had a really great view overlooking the river and the Austin skyline. Of course, I snapped a few (dozen) photos of the view from my room.

Click HERE to see the entire set.