Today: Boston - Crash at Vigoda's

Tomorrow: Aruba: swim-up bar, beach bar, full-service spa, game room, Dunkin Donuts on premises.

Saturday day: A little wind- or kite-surfing perhaps.
Saturday night - Wyclef Jean.

Sunday: More Aruba, board ship at night.

Monday: Set sail for Bonaire.

At some point: Set sail for Curaçao.

Saturday next: head back to Aruba, bounce over to New York City.

Sunday next: Land at home, reunite with MacGyver.

Peace.

Come on, Sharon, man up.

It's so easy!

Jon Birge kindof sums it all up:

"For the first time in a long time, I felt that going to the theatre was worth $8. In fact, after the opening battle scene, I remember thinking, 'That's worth eight bucks if I die right now.' Fortunately, I survived to see the rest of the movie, which was all profit after that."

It's even better in Digital.

I ended up seeing it once on Thursday and twice yesterday! As a reward, the Dreamweaver team went together in the afternoon. Then, Mer and I had tickets to a Digital screening, so I took her again. Couldn't have done it without her, if you know what I mean!

What a gnarly, scary, awesome movie! It definitely ranks up there with the best. Episode III is kindof hard to categorize, because it's the 'keystone' movie between two very different trilogies. Brilliance, really.

But hard to watch three times in two days. What have I learned? A few things:

1. Never pontificate about killing your arch enemy. Do or do not.


2. If you are told to wait on a fiery lava planet for your safety, don't believe it.


3. If someone tells you that they've studied the dark side, chances are that they are a pretty good liar. Maybe they have a few tricks (or a lightsaber) up their sleeve.


4. If you turn to the dark side in order to save someone's life, don't, like, try to kill that person.

Everyone has a moment, while watching Episode III, when the entirety of the saga hits home for them. For me, it didn't sink in until after the third viewing, when Mer and I got home and were trying to figure out what to do with ourselves.

It was a choice between playing the game, or watching the DVD that came with the soundtrack. We decided to watch the hour-long series of vignettes called "A Musical Journey".

See, for me, the saga was as much about the music and the sound as it was about the visuals. When we didn't have the movies to watch, my brother and I would play the soundtrack over and over. So, to see the two trilogies flash before me, set to the most gripping of the soundtrack selections, was an emotional ending to two days of shock.

Yes, my advice to you is: see it again, this time in Digital, and bring your buddy!

Here is Mer with her "Phinally Done" lollipop. Yes, they give you a TREAT when you hand in your dissertation at UC Berkeley!

Six (6) years of work and six (6) months of writing came to a close earlier this week as my brilliant wife Meredith handed in her 220-page seminal paper on cell division. She blogged it over on Flickr.

Congratulations, Dr. Mer! You! So! Totally! Rock!

[Update: Pictures from Graduation Day]

'Twas the day before Star Wars
And in all the houses,
The kids all were stirring
And clicking their mouses.

Tickets were purchased
And handled with care
'Cause soon we'll be standing
In lines over there.

At Metreon
And Century
And local ones, too.
They milk us for more
Than is proper or true.

But none of that matters
Because it's the time
Of the season for Star Wars,
And making a rhyme.

What, you haven't tried Basecamp yet?
It's free for one project.

Yes, it's easy.
Yes, it helps you organize things.
Yes, it's AJAX.

I'm using it to help me get my butt in gear about this whole band idea.

Are you a male bass vocalist in the town of San Francisco? If so, drop me a line.

First, Widgaholism. Now, Widgitis.

Help, I have too many Widgets!
Dashboard Clients are eating all of my cycles!

At least they're not creating mass destruction.
Watch your back.

Got several emails today from folks at the MIT Media Lab:

Our goal is to develop InventionDB.com as the "Wikipedia" of creative projects, resources and the people who created them. A place where you can search for great resources and also see them in applications. A place where you can freely gain audience for your project and build your portfolio. A tool that will embrace and support the emerging open-source hardware/design community.

Looks keen. Wish I had time to submit my rocket-boots idea for their contest!

Wife: "Yahoo! Traffic?! You don't even drive!"
Husband: "I'm a Widgaholic. I can't live without Widgahol!"

Yes, isn't it cute? Everyone has Tiger now. Finally! I've been working with it for about 10 months, so most things aren't a surprise to me, except for all the cool Widgets.

Top Ten Widgets that Someone Needs to Make
(but not me 'cause I have no time for people's stupid Widget requests):

10. Strong Bad Email Reader Widget
9. Apple Bug Reporter Widget
8. Star Wars Episode III Countdown Widget
7. Apple Remote Desktop Viewer Widget
6. iCal Notifier Widget
5. iTunes Shares Available Widget
4. New Widget Downloads Widget
3. New Flickr Photo Browser Widget
2. Surf's Up Widget
1. Voice Sticky-note Widget

So, get on it! I need more Widgahol!

Last weekend, we visited New York for Jove & Donna's Wedding. It was the first time that all eight of my graduating a cappella group (Sixteen Feet) have been together in eight years! It was a beautiful ceremony - I got to be a part of it - as Jove sang to his bride, and folks participated in a combined Quaker / Jewish tradition. Check out the pictures here.

At the reception, we warmed up a little bit with some of the party favors (video clips by Mer):

After folks had a chance to dine and relax, I gave my toast. "The first time I met Jove..."

The boys were doing the intro to "Naturally" in the background, and after I told the story of meeting Donna, we broke into a full rendition of the song:

Then Jove joined us for a Special Donna Version of "Come Go with Me":

Later in the evening, after the reception, seven of us gathered for some more seranades (Ken had retired to be with baby Dora). Here is some of "Duke of Dubuque" featuring yours truly:

and a bit of the ending:

After which, we pulled together the classic "Every Time I Turn Around":

and some "Kiss the Girl":

Followed by a 'high risk, high reward' version of "Cantina Band", the bar music from Star Wars:

Somehow, it all came flooding back to us, and it was just as fun as when we were in college. Must have been the four years of singing together 3 times a week, all that time on stage, opening for Dave Matthews, recording two CDs, traveling to Italy, reunion concerts, and - oh yeah - our wedding, Ken's wedding, and Jon's wedding!

Thanks Jove and Donna, for bringing us back together for the weekend. We really should do this more often.

Labels: video