For web geeks like me whose design ambitions occasionally outpace our abilities, it’s always fun to come across tools like this:
Just give it the URL of any image anywhere on the web (such as, for example on your own site) and it generates color palettes for you to use in your design, based on the colors in the image.
Look for yet another new Room 34 site redesign in the near (or not-so-near) future using this tool!
Although before long (well, about two years) I wanted nothing more than to get out of there, I have to admit, southern California did have an almost mythical allure. Maybe it was the perfect weather 50 weeks a year… or the close promimity to natural wonders of sea, mountain and desert… or the fact that we lived in a place that people all over the world actually know about, thanks to Hollywood, that just made the place seem important.
At any rate, practically speaking, there was a great triumvirate of businesses throughout “SoCal” that made life seem just a bit more heavenly than anyplace else on Earth. I loved them mostly because of their conspicuous absence back home in Minnesota. But one by one, they’re appearing here in the hinterlands.
First there was IKEA. And it was good.
Today, delight of delights, the second opened for business… Trader Joe’s.
Now, if only we could get In-N-Out Burger to expand east (and, for that matter, north) of Phoenix…
If you think this is funny, you are one. A guy I know sent this to me… apparently it’s someone’s signature on Slashdot:
Recursive: Adj. See Recursive.
And on the subject of “geek tests,” I tipped off that same guy to the existence of the great Nerd, Geek or Dork Test.
Just a friendly reminder to clear your cache… or at least force a refresh. I’ve recently changed a few elements of the design of my site, including the background image. So if you’re still seeing the orange band on the left side (and, now, repeated behind the body of the page), please refresh!
You should be seeing a tiled background of isometric cubes (think Q*Bert), and various font styles have also been updated.
Not that you care. But if I wanted the orange band to still be there, I’d have left it!
I was perusing some of the older articles on my site today, such as the one about Bucker and Garcia. For those of you who don’t remember B&G (or, shame on you, were too young to experience them), they’re the one-hit wonders behind everyone’s favorite video game themed song, “Pac-Man Fever.”
Well, as we can see from this video, they’ve still got the fever.
It clearly is a home video, apparently shot in the home music room of either Buckner or Garcia (although I notice that the plaque on the gold record says “Presented to Mike Stewart). Our heroes are set up with a pair of microphones and appear to be performing the song. Buckner (I’ll assume top billing means he’s the lead singer) most definitely is singing live, but the backing music sounds suspiciously canned, despite Garcia’s keyboard (and miraculously chorus-like backing vocals).
I got suspicious when I realized Garcia was lip-syncing the backing vocals even though Buckner was really singing, and when the guitar solo appeared, note-for-note and bend-for-bend consistent with the original that’s permanently etched into my brain from the 8 billion times I listened to the song in 1983 alone, I finally realized what was going on…
You see, it was fairly common for singles released by Columbia Records at the time to include an instrumental version of the song on the flip side. And that is what was playing in Buckner’s spare bedroom. He was doing karaoke to his own song.