Consider yourself updated, blog

The first episode of J&D FTW is out in the world, and has been seen 29 times thus far (about 1% of the audience Elevator Trap has captured). Many thanks to Chris and Qualler's Pop Culture Blogulator for posting us (especially to you, Quallz)! I'm looking forward to getting the next episodes up, as the second episode already looks much better than the first.


P.S. I just rated the first season of GREEK five stars on Netflix. You may not have seen that the DVDs came out, so be sure to do that sometime today.

Joe and Dave For the Week Site

I threw together a site for Joe and Dave For the Week. Its just hosted here for now - right over on Joe and Dave For the Week.

Joe and Dave for the Week: Episode 1 - Boulder, CO

I'm happy to introduce the first episode of Joe and Dave for the week! The basic idea here is that any time Joe or I travel somewhere, the other gets to pick a location for us to visit. This will force us to explore the city, and also lets everyone explore new places vicariously (just a little bit).

Eventually there will be a website, a podcast and possibly t-shirts, but for now you can find the first few episodes right here.

Its pretty basic, and we're doing it with the cheapest technology possible, but I'm excited to get something going! Seems like Joe and I talk about big ideas all the time, but this is pretty much the first one that's ever seen the light of day. So simple as it may be, I am very proud to present Joe and Dave For the Week: Episode 1 - Boulder, CO.


Joe and Dave For the Week: Episode 1 - Boulder, CO from David Ryan on Vimeo.

Side projects

Sorry for another drought in blogging lately. I've been spending most of the time I used to write on the blog (typically the first couple of hours after work) messing around with some side projects instead. There's nothing better than teaching yourself AJAX on the porch with a beer in your hand and the sun in your face.

I'm pretty interested in how people communicate using the internet. That specific topic is something I would love to play with all the time if I could, and I'm always trying to learn skills that acutally allow me to build tools & toys for myself or other people to use. If you remember Shoutboard (a very simple message board that anyone could post to here on the site), that was sort of the very first step in learning how to construct an idea I've always liked; a site that is completely editable by anyone who visits it. Sites like Wikipedia, forums, blogs, etc, all allow people to edit the sites they visit (often under moderation), but I'm interested in what happens if you completely hand the structure and content of a site over to the masses. I think I did a write-up of that whole idea here back around when Shoutboard first went up, so I won't go into that again.

While that idea has sort of fallen by the wayside (though I may revisit it at some point), I've recently picked up several new projects. I'm happy to say that in most cases these projects are partnerships with good friends. Some are more ambitious than others, but I've come to appreciate that working on any random project that will help me learn is fun, and could actually prove valuable. It makes me think that it might be nice to work on web projects like these as an actual job someday.

Most of those projects aren't ready to be discussed publically yet, but keep an eye out in the comping days and weeks for some stuff to make its debut. I'm pretty excited about a lot of it, and I just wanted to let you know that the lull in stupid posts will probably pay off with stuff that might actually be interesting.

Insanity watch

# of views of Elevator Trap on Youtube: 2,420.
# of ratings: 4 (all perfect)

Back on the train

The first day of my return to the CTA is in the books. Day one, several trains get stuck under ground for 2+ hours, leaving passangers to evacuate through emergency tunnels. Thankfully, this was on a different line, but it feels ominous, like a message from the train that it knows I'm back and I won't get away so easily this time... I try to stick to trains that remain above ground, but sometimes I do end up in a tunnel on my way downtown.

My rides were actually quite smooth, with only one delay that lasted more than a few minutes (great track record when 1 out of 2 rides is significantly delayed and I think that's good). The only major annoyance thus far was the guy who was listening to My Sharona way too loud on his headphones, singing along and drumming on the hand rail I had to share with him. I already miss the isolation of driving in - it's going to be a great two weeks.

Quick car update: I'm dropping it off this weekend, and I'm told I should have it back by next Friday (in time for that trip). I put on temporary plates yesterday, so it is again legal to drive, and let it run for a bit to see if anything leaked or made bad noises. Current expected work: paint & mount new bumper, replace grill & trim, replace headlight & mount, replace headlight washer, replace airbag sensor(s), repair or replace several metal bits called 'shelves', and a little body work to fix bends and paint cracks on the hood and left fender. Oh, and mount a new license plate holder. That's $3,800.

My $500 bloody nose

Not my nose. My Saab's. (Soft weeping.)

I'm trying to shy away from these personal life stories, as they're probably pretty boring, but I figured this one could be an exception.

I got into a little fender-bender on Monday morning, which resulted in some very localized damage to the 9-5 (didn't even bend any body panels). The front bumper, left headlight, and lots of little plastic bits need to be replaced, which means I'll be exercising my $500 insurance deductible and only feel relief it isn't more (the headlight alone is over $1,000 and the whole bill is over $3k). It's kind of crazy to think that this small accident costs almost 1/4 of the price I paid for the car to fix.

Its not a very exciting story - a woman in a Jag nailed the brakes at a yellow, I didn't expect it, and was probably distracted, and ended up about five feet short of stopping distance. I couldn't have been going more than five miles per hour when I hit her (her back bumper just needs some paint work). She's fine, I'm fine, she pops right out of the car with a smile on her face and a southern accent and says "you know, the same exact thing happened to me six months ago," and goes on to tell me how much it'd cost to fix. Of course I was just thinking, "hey, stop playing that dirty trick on people and maybe you can stop fixing your bumper." But honestly it's my fault, which is the worst part of the whole thing.

I've already spoken to insurance, filed the police report, gotten an estimate, and lined up the guy I want to fix it (the body shop my dealer referred me to). I was lucky that the car was still 100% drivable, as it made all that pretty easy. Now I just need to wait and see if my desired body shop can get their quote approved by my insurance company. I also need to replace a front license plate (which was initially bent up and later fell off, much to my chagrin. I also really need to go get an IL drivers license, as the only reason I don't have a massive ticket right now is that the officer who processed my paperwork was a nice guy. (I was actually also pulled over later in the day by a cop who thought I looked suspicious driving around in a busted up Saab in a semi-bad neighborhood (where the body shop is) and he could have ticketed me as well).

So, all in all, this weel I will:
-Get a replacement or new license plates for my car
-Get a new drivers license (AKA giving in)
-Hopefully have my body shop start order parts
-Double hopefully drop my car off for repairs

I'm desperately hoping to have the car back by a week from Friday, when Maria and I were supposed to visit Iowa. I really don't know if that'll happen - its all up to how long it takes my insurance company to okay the repairs and how long it takes my body shop to get parts.

The other result of this is that I'm taking the train for the next couple of weeks. The car, as I mentioned, is perfectly drivable, but until I get the air bag sensors replaced and a new front license plate I'd be nervous driving it much. (Also, it looks pretty embarassing at the moment.) I actually think this will be a good thing, as I'll get the car back and resume driving having been completely recharged on my hatred of the train.

Incomprehensible

I like to think about things that we take for granted every day, but would be completely incomprehensible if we weren't around them. I think the following things fall into that list:

*Liquids
*Eating
*Fire

Adventure Shop

Ask Maria - I often lament the lack of adventures and antics (and capers) in my life. It was be pretty nice if a group of incompetent assassins came out of nowhere and tried to kill me, leaving only me and my well-meaning yet untrained friends to get to the bottom of this mystery. Well, at the Adventure Store, you could finally get into some bizarre tales (so long as you commit to it and have some cash).

You come in, pick your adventure from a catalogue (which only reveal tantalizing bits of information from each adventure), and purchase an Adventure Kit. That kit contains instructions, sure, but also all of the weird little things you'll need ("Use the handkerchief to unscrew the light bulb in the hallways and break it on the floor; the sound of crunching glass will alert you if Pat comes home before you finish stealing one of his electric drum sets.").

None of the adventures would be life threatening, but they would all be really complex and weird and the fun would be in just doing whatever the thing says. You could also potentially have every adventure end up at a bar you own, where you'd make a killing (adventuring brings a mighty thirst). My initial impression is that every adventure should get you out of the house, going to places you wouldn't normally go to, and also creating something physical (it should also not just be a scavanger hunt). You would need to make locations and instructions specific, but with general places such that anyone could accomplish them ("find a convienence store" vs "go to the 7-11 on Washington St.").

Quick aside: I know this is EXACTLY like The Game, but it's sort of a DIY The Game. Also, every adventure should probably begin with everyone yelling "Leon!!!"

I've tried to come up with the first adventure to post online, but its hard. Maybe someday I will. Through thinking about that, though, I realized it'd be really cool if you could sign up online, and an automated system could email you / text you instructions at appropriate times. There could just be a list of items you'll need to have on-hand to complete an adventure (leaving you up to getting those things before you start). See? Everything's a website.

P.S. This idea had coauthors. I can't remember who. Claim cownership in the comments.