spablab.com

The long lost 1997 or 1996 AB sessions recorded in Chicago off 4-track finally surfaced and dubbed to mp3. An experimental album that was finally abandoned for Fueled with Fiction.

Download full album here (21MB)

Homemade video from one of my favorite bands.

This is the first test of using Kaltura on my Drupal page. Kaltura has given me 10GB of free space.

Kaltura has a module for Drupal to run video and audio from inside one's site and you get 10GB for free (I missed the 100GB for free). Exciting news, and I want to try it out after Christmas.

[link]

I'm finally going to make the plunge and get a full house system air cleaner. I'm totally sick of smelling the asshole's smoke from below us. I had an HVAC guy come out about 2 weeks ago and recommended the Trane Clean Effects electronicstatic precipitator for $1800 (includes installation). This is quite a lot of money, but after doing some research on the web and reading the Consumer Report's Dec 07 Air Purifiers: Filtering the claims article, the Lennox Healthy Climate 16 filter system is $350 for the unit, and probably a bit more to get it installed. There's a place here in Chicago that is a Lennox service dealer, so I'll be talking on the phone with them tomorrow. According to Consumer Reports, the Trane is only slightly better, but a lot more work to clean and costs more energy to run. Here's hoping this works out, because I spoke with a lawyer and there's nothing we can do to stop this guy. At best we could have the association pay for it by blaming the building's ventilation, but I doubt the Board would approve.

I went out and cleaned the snow off the car, which was like feathers due to the extreme cold. I then proceeded to clean and salt the steps leading to the car. That's probably it for me outside today, sadly. It's sunny out, but with all the raging shoppers and -30 wind chill temps, there's really little point. Thankfully I went to the store yesterday and bought some groceries.

Looking forward to Christmas next week and catching up with several friends. While it will definitely be a white Christmas in Chicago, I think it will just be a wet Christmas in southern Indiana.

All last night I could hear the sleet slapping against our windows. By morning it was a wintry mix of mainly snow and ice. They had first predicted between 6"-14" of snow, so our work Christmas party yesterday decided not to have an official after work party at a local watering hole because of the approaching foul weather. What's even more odd is that I talked to my mom this morning and she said it was in the mid-60s in southern Indiana. WEIRD.

Supposed to snow for two more days. Maybe I can get Julian on his sled and pull him around.

Last Friday Julian came down with stomach flu and because of how much he threw up in such a small amount of time, we rushed him to ER where he got IV, and tests. It's pretty hard trying to treat a sick kid when you're not sure what's wrong with them and they can't tell you much either. So for a couple of days it was puke and poop filling the air in our place. By Sunday night it hit me and it hit hard. I was vomiting by 10pm and again around midnight before finally ending. The next day I felt rough and by evening it had made it's way south for yet another night of fun, plus I became very dehydrated and hit the water and electrolite solution every hour. Eventually I was ok, but wow, stomach flu is no fun.

Last year after hearing several people go on about how good Smallville is, Sonya and I decided to start renting them off Netflix. This was back in July 2007. Last night we finally finished up mid-season 8, which is where the show now currently stands. Everyone knows about the Superman mythos and has seen the old tv show in the 60s and the Christopher Reeve movies in the early 80s, and read the comics. With so much already invented, the creators of Smallville has taken this somewhat boring, all super strong, superhero concept into something way cooler than ever before. I always liked Superman, but found his strength too simplistic and boring. I liked his origins, and his villians, but tossing cars around wasn't enough. Smallville puts the myth into a more realistic concept of how basically aliens started all the problems within the Earth, and how Clark has grown up with remorse of his addition to Earth, as well as those outer space beings that have ties to his origins that have occupied the same space. Absent is his tights and cape, his glasses that hide him, and up until now flying.

Season 1 starts out from Clark's high school beginnings and how meteor rocks (i.e. kryponite) start this whole wave of odd behaviors and how Lex Luthor fits into the story. So for the first three seasons you get a lot of teenage freak drama where Clark is trying to cool the flames of how meteor rocks affect humans in odd ways and how the people respond to this in mainly devious and fatal ways. But by Season 4 the show goes beyond this into a new phase that is pretty damn cool.