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Wow!

About a month ago, my hero Glenn Beck had actor, writer, artist, etc. William Shatner on his television program for an hour-long interview. I missed it and didn't record it so I was very pleased to find out it was re-run this last Friday and got snagged on my DVR.

Wow!

That interview was just amazing and, surprisingly, contained almost no Star Trek content whatsoever. There were some clips from Star Trek shown when they were talking about Shatner's reputation for "overacting" but that's about it.

What did they talk about for an hour if not Star Trek? Some politics, some philosophy, some Shatner history, and alcoholism (Shatner's third wife suffered from alcoholism and it ended up claiming her life.)

Maybe I enjoyed it so much because it was just an almost-informal hour of discussion between two of my favorite people.

It looks like some dude on YouTube has done the honors of capturing the entire hour in six parts. At least he a real job of capturing the video and didn't just smack a Flip video camera in front of the TV like I've seen some people do!

Here are the obligatory links:

• Glenn Beck & William Shatner - Part 1
• Glenn Beck & William Shatner - Part 2
• Glenn Beck & William Shatner - Part 3
• Glenn Beck & William Shatner - Part 4
• Glenn Beck & William Shatner - Part 5
• Glenn Beck & William Shatner - Part 6

Some people have seen this, but now I've uploaded it to YouTube.

This is a video I put together on September 12, 2001. I guess it was my way of dealing with the grief I was feeling after the 9/11 attacks. The footage was taken in 2000 while I was in New York for the LinuxWorld conference at the Javitz Center. My buddy Chadd and I walked from Midtown to the World Trade Center.

I'm not sure why I hadn't uploaded this video before, but I was inspired to do it tonight. You can watch it on YouTube by going here.

You can also read my September 12, 2001 entry.

Episode 2 of Solitary World has finally hit the YouTube!

In this episode, I talk about NetworkManager which is software for Linux that makes connecting to networks easier and more intuitive. My buddy Dave Baker and I discuss a ridiculous press release that was released in June about research into teens and the Internet. The results will shock you! Well, not really.

Watch the episode on the Solitary World website or on its very own YouTube page.

Fozzout.

And here's the second part of that Sons Of Nothing concert I uploaded to Google Video. See previous entry for the others. This is Sons Of Nothing in Spokane, WA July 2006.

• (11) Shine On You Crazy Diamond
• (12) Run Like Hell
• (13) Pigs (3 Different Ones)
• (14) Not Now John
• (15) The Great Gig In The Sky
• (16) Visiting Mussolini
• (17) Set The Controls / Astronomy Dominé
• (18) Brain Damage / Eclipse
• (19) Another Brick (Parts 1-3)
• (20) Comfortably Numb
• (21) Childhood's End

I went on a video-uploading rampage last night and uploaded a whole DVD's worth of video from a Sons Of Nothing show from last summer. We played at The Big Easy in Spokane, Washington. It was one of the nicest venues we ever played at and the whole experience was great fun. I really regret we didn't have two or three cameras capturing the event for posterity.

The audio comes off the soundboard and sounds great.

So, sit back. relax, slip yourself something if that's your thing. Envelope yourself in the music of Sons Of Nothing as they pay tribute to Pink Floyd (and play a couple of their own tunes.)

• 1 - Speak To Me/Breathe
• 2 - On The Run
• 3 - Time
• 4 - In The Flesh
• 5 - What Do You Want From Me
• 6 - Welcome To The Machine
• 7 - Mother
• 8 - Mr. Serious
• 9 - Wish You Were Here
• 10 - Echoes

That's the first set from the show. I'll put putting up the second set as well in the next day or so.

[From the episode blurb on solitaryworld.net].

This is the very first Solitary World episode. Many weeks went into creating this and it's not the greatest piece of work, but it's not the worst either.

Originally, I was going to do a piece dispelling common misconceptions about the First Ammendment's Establishment Clause and I was going to call the segment "A Moment Of Truth." In the end, I decided this was too broad of a subject with way too many facets for the time we had. It really surprised me how ambitious such a seemingly simple topic could be to cover.

This episode starts with an introductory preview of what is to come. I hope this will remain a staple of the program.

Next is the production support section. Production would not be possible without the support of the dryer and people like you.

Finally, we reach the beginning titles. These are a wee long. I think we'll trim them and make it tighter for future episodes.

The first actual segment of the episode: a segment we call Mandatory Media. This features a review of Porcupine Tree's latest CD. This obviously took up most of the time spent to produce. Consult-o-bot Thom was a tremendous help in writing and recording this piece. Maybe someday I'll post some outtakes. They'd be a riot.

After the Mandatory Media segment, I threw in the Amaze-O-Cut parody. This is nearly 10 years old now, but is still funny. The star is the lovely and talented Marie... Well, it was Marie Barry at the time, but she's going by a different last name now.

Finally, we end with me talking about the vague and nebulous nature of this project.

 Finally! It's done!

 You can watch it on YouTube or on the Solitary World website.

It's been a few days, I know, but I've mustered up two things to blog about. First, the band.

The band

As many already know, I'm involved in this local rock band -- Sons Of Nothing. I do all the visual and audio effects at the live shows (using Linux, surprise, surprise) and contribute in various other capacities such as management, marketing, promotion, etc.

Anyway, there are a couple items to report from SoN-World. First, the band is opening up for the Iron Maidens (an all-girl Iron Maiden tribute act) this Friday at Club Vegas (445 S 400 W in Salt Lake City).

While Sons Of Nothing is perhaps best known for its popular Pink Floyd tribute shows (FloydShows), the band members also record their own music and have a CD, their third, coming out in May/June called Clarity. At the show on Friday, we will have free CDs bearing one song -- "Mr. Serious" -- from the new CD. I think there will a couple other freebies on that CD as well, so it should be a nice preview.

I'm privy to some of the recordings, mixes, versions, etc. of songs leading up to the final versions that will be going on the CD and I'm excited for it to be June already. The songs are sounding so good!

If you're not familiar with Sons Of Nothing's original music, it's difficult to categorize, but I'll try. It's probably best fits in the "progressive rock" section near artists such as Rush, Marillion, (old) Yes, and Pink Floyd (just can't escape its influence).

If you're interested in what Mr. Serious is like, check out this video I put on Google Video from a performance earlier this year.

Herein lies an update.

Working on family DVDs

I've been trying to spend some time working on some DVDs of family videos. Previously, I had some made up of the years before Maya was born and shortly after Maya was born. Lucy was feeling a bit left out and asked if I'd make a DVD that included footage of her, so I jumped ahead to a few months before Lucy was born.

I just finished that DVD. June 2000 - Dec 20, 2000: 4.1 GB of DVD video. I separate each event into its own title on the DVD and produce a menu that lets you skip to a specific event/title or play all. Each event is preceded by a CG title sequence.

Most of the time, I don't really edit much out of the video, but some of the longer ones, I cut up extensively. For example, there was a trip to the zoo in this DVD I just finished. I think my edits make it a lot more fun to watch.

It seems the only time I ever have to work on any of this stuff is on the weekends... so I try to do as much as I can.

Home improvements and basement

Now that Autumn is fully upon us, I have begun transfering my limited home improvement skills from the yard to the interior of the house.

A couple weekends ago, I put low-voltage boxes and keystone jacks in the walls of our family room to make the installation of our home theater system more attractive and professional. I also have three network cables coming up behind the TV. One is for a videophone Christine brings home from work. I'm thinking about building a media PC so I can watch video I download on the TV.

We've been doing some planning in the basement as well. We decided to cover up one of the doorways for my office, so I got that framed this weekend and I've got a sheet of wallboard ready to go up there.

I messed something electrical up in the lighting circuit for the office -- only two of the four recessed can lights would come on when I turned the circuit on. I finally got a tester and figured out where the problem was. I had to cut a hole in the ceiling and get into the junction box by the second light and re-connect the leads going into one of the wire nuts and wrap it good.

I don't know if it's possible, but I'm hoping we can at least have two bedrooms done in the basement by Christmas. Right now, it's looking like we're going to move the plumbing for the bathroom in the basement and that means cutting up the cement floor: not fun. The way it's plumbed right now, however, imposes some very undesireable limitations on what we can do. For one thing, we have to install a shower if we keep the current plumbing. There just simply isn't enough room for a tub. By relocating the drains, we'll be able to have a tub, a bigger bathroom, and more.

Trailering

Because we knew we were going to be doing more construction work in the basement, we'd been thinking of either picking up a beat-up pickup truck or a trailer to pull behind the Subaru. About two months ago, someone was selling a small utility trailer nearby and I bought it. Since then, I've been gathering all the necessary hardware to hitch it up to the car. It's been quite a learning experience for me.

I pulled the trailer down to my parents' today without the electrical hooked up to it. I still need to replace the trailer-side connector for that and finish connecting the wiring harness on the car side.

Too busy for politics?

I have been so busy the last couple of weeks, I haven't had much time to listen to talk radio or download and listen to MP3s of the Rush Limbaugh show (I'm a Rush 24/7 member). I don't feel too bad about it, though. From what I have gathered, most of the chatter has been about the Harriet Miers nomination, which I don't really care that much about. I'd be fine if she had gone through and was confirmed. I'm fine with Bush nominating someone else. It seemed to me the people on the right who didn't like her were all Ivy League legal snobs (i.e. Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, etc.) Rush Limbaugh didn't have anything bad to say about Miers, specifically. He only thought the president did an unnecessary thing by nominating a stealth candidate for the Supreme Court when the GOP is in so much power -- that it makes the administration look weak.

It's all moot now, though, right?

I did, however, buy a somewhat politically-oriented book: Millionaire Republican : Why Rich Republicans Get Rich--and How You Can Too!. I'm about halfway through it and enjoying it. It's very easy reading and despite the fact the author is quite obnoxious, it contains some very compelling information.