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Matt and I got up early-ish on Saturday to score some Radiohead tickets. We had four computers in the living room, each with the Ticketmaster site open and pointing to the event page. We hit F5 repeatedly while "No tickets available" was flashed in the browser window until about 10:05am, at which time the page changed and we were greeted with a choice of how many tickets to buy.

I picked 2 tickets and quickly hit "submit", and about 7 minutes later I had sealed the deal! We'll be seeing Radiohead in March for the first time, and I'm thrilled.

This post could easily gone in a different direction. If we'd been unable to buy tickets, it would be a long rant about the absurdities of modern music ticket-buying. As it were, we played the game well, but it's silly that the game was necessary at all. Maybe some day bands will figure out that there are better ways to sell tickets that reward fans and penalize scalpers. Until then, I'll keep firing up several computers and hitting F5 over and over ...

My fate as an electrical engineer was sealed at a young age. Sometime during my early childhood, when visiting the thrift store with my mom, I managed to find and convince my parents to buy a radio electronics experimenter's kit. It had about 30 different components with springs to hold bits of wire. I'm pretty sure the thrift store version was missing some of the wire jumpers, but my dad was nice enough to make some bits of wire for me to use. I couldn't find an exact picture, but it looked something like this:



The instruction manual used two approaches to building each experiment: one listing the 1-to-1 connections between the numbered springs, and one with a full schematic. I remember thinking how hard it was to understand the schematic of even the simplest circuits. Thus, I stuck to the crutch of the numbered connection lists.

At one point during the 3rd grade, I remember looking forward in my science textbook and discovering a section on electronics. It had experiments like potato batteries, simple logic using switches, etc. I asked my teacher if we would be reading that part of the book, and he replied, "Maybe, and we might even light up a lightbulb!" Having built amazing circuits such as a morse code transmitter, I was completely unimpressed, and I felt terrible for it. He was trying to get me excited and I was a cynical 3rd grader. I'm sorry, Mr. Wilfong!

Eventually I discovered that they made bigger ones. With more blinking lights! It became a common item to ask from Santa, and eventually I was able to upgrade to the 200-in-1 kit, which looked exactly like this:



See that row of six LEDs on the front? I'm sure I killed more than one of those by running current through them without a resistor. They'd shine so bright! The nicer kits came with a guarantee that the manufacturer would replace the common parts that got fried ... and I fried several of them.

Eventually my dad and I decided to get the Cadillac of experimenter kits, the 300-in-1, which we both tinkered with:



By then I was in high school, and eventually the internet and programming got the better of me, but those hardware-focused days made me love the basic idea of real-life electronics. I even finally learned how to read a schematic ... as a college sophomore. It's so obvious now!

When I originally moved into my apartment a few years ago and began putting up photos around the living room, I planned for the future by using 3M's "Command Adhesive" interlocking fasteners. They're not for heavy stuff, but for lightweight items like my foamcore-backed photos, it's the perfect technology. Today I started taking down the photos, and they came right off the wall without leaving a mark and without damaging the back of the photos.

It's the little things in life that make me happy. I love when a product does exactly what it's supposed to do.

I recently registered on a site that offered the following security questions:

• What is your maternal grandmother's first name?
• What was your high school's mascot?
• What is your father's middle name?
• What was your best friend's name in high school?
• What was the name of the street you lived on as a child?
• What musical instrument do you play?
• What was the name of your favorite teacher?
• What is the name of the highway closest to your home?
• Name your elementary school?
• What is the name of your funniest relative?
• What is the name of your smartest relative?
• What is the name of your richest relative?

Highlighted in red are the questions that are easily found using searches within public records, and blue questions are those that can easily change over time. That leaves one question, but the site requires three. That would be no big deal if they'd let you enter your own ... but NOOO. Who designs these sites?

Last night I watched a 2.5-hour commercial, known popularly as The Transformers. After the first 10 minutes of noticing several glaring product placements I started making a list, with the bold items being particularly egregious.

• HP
• Cisco
• eBay
• USA Today
• Yahoo!
• Panasonic
• Washington Redskins
• The Strokes
• Burger King
• Chevy Camaro
• Cadillac, Hummer
• GMC
• Pontiac Solstice
• CBS
• PIAA
• Taco Bell
• Apple
• Nokia
• Energizer Bunny
• Radio Shack
• XBox360
• Mountain Dew

Searching these out was fun! The movie was absurd and a lot of the script was downright awful, but it was made passable by watching for in-movie brand placement. The Chevy/GMC/Pontiac stuff was through the roof absurd, with numerous camera movements based on slow pans across the front grills of various GM vehicles. eBay's obnoxious place in the storyline was also overboard. I suppose I can ignore Cisco since it was merely their phones plastered all over every government office, rather than their actual brand name ... but these offices had some serious phone technology! Some of those phones had multiple 14-line attachments, but does anyone really need access to more than 30 phone lines at once?

So I'm working from home today with the TV on in the background.

It amuses me how TV advertisements during the holidays are not adjusted to match the altered demographics of vacationers. They're still catered to the unemployed, injured, or elderly.

"Do you need a job? Get a degree in just 2 months from Shady Online University!"

"Did you ignore your boss's rules and hurt yourself at work? You can still sue someone!"

"Are you having trouble getting your meds from the store? Sign up to have them mailed to you with no startup cost! (only $20/mo. afterward)"

Must resist urge ... to do this to every photo ... on CNN ...

Sing it with Merkel: "Fie dollah footlooooooong"

I got my taxes done this weekend with the help of TaxAct. For those of you still procrastinating, I recommend it; it's free for Federal, but with a few extra fees for State and for state e-file, I spent about $21 to get all my taxes done and submitted electronically.

Of course, this was all after I spent a few days attempting to do everything by hand. I've always filed a 1040EZ in the past, because it really is pretty "EZ". However, this year I had a 1099 that made things complicated, so I had to do a normal 1040. The actual 1040 is a piece of artwork. I believe this 2-page is actually a dimensional portal, whereupon you can look through a single line-item and discover two or three additional forms required to determine the actual value of that item. If my meager salary and simple income structure requires 6 pages of forms, I imagine that the return of, say, Bill Gates consumes about 2 trees' worth of paper and must be shipped to the IRS by private jet.

Reporting my 1099 (which constituted 3.6% of my income) required two additional forms. By the time I had downloaded and looked over these additional forms, I knew that I'd be willing to pay some of that hard-earned money not to do any more by hand. Luckily I stumbled upon TaxAct, which saved the day for a reasonable $21.

My parents, on the other hand, got a notice from the Uncle Sam the IRS had not received their FY2001 tax return. Since my parents usually get a refund, this was not a big deal; they wouldn't have to worry about late penalties, interest payments, and all that. This year being 2008, however, meant that they were now beyond the 7-year deadline to re-file and receive the refund due to them from that year. This means that the IRS sat on their refund for 7 years until it expired, then notified my parents that their return was missing. Doesn't that just make you feel all warm and fuzzy (and patriotic) inside?

1. What did you do in 2007 that you'd never done before?
Went to Europe in May; took on a full-time job in June; moved to my own place. I guess I can't say "finished school" because I sorta did that back in 2005 as well.

2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I stopped making them because the hardest self-commitment to keep is one that society expects to you to break.

3. Did someone close to you give birth?
We're not terribly close any more, but I loved looking at photos of high school-friend Megan Williams' (now Davidson) baby Layne, who was born this year.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Fortunately not

5. What countries did you visit?
Finally I have a good answer for this one: Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Czech Republic

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?
A closer friendship with fellow photographers, a functioning website ... is a girlfriend too much to ask?

7. What dates from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
May 7-28: my first trip abroad, and it was awesome.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Planning and executing, with Julia, our trip to Europe, with no help from a travel agency except to purchase our IDs and Eurail passes.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Keeping my weight down, visiting the gym, meeting new people. I get so bored at the gym, and my favorite way to socialize is over good food, so it's hard to stay/get fit.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I got pummeled by a Boston College football player. Video proof. The result was a hyperextended right knee that bothered me for months, but it made for a great story.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
My Sony flatscreen TV. I get giddy every time I watch it. I don't think any electronics purchase has ever made me so instantaneously happy, and that's saying a lot.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Julia, who did a great job on our Europe hostel reservations. We stayed in some really cool places.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Is it too cliche to say that George W. Bush continues to do so on a regular basis?

14. Where did most of your money go?
Food and gas tend to nickel and dime me, except that instead of nickels and dimes, they're usually fives and twenties.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Both my TV and my new speakers. Nothing gets me tingly like watching an awesome movie with great video and sound. Do I sound like a Circuit City ad? Crisp, clean bass is to die for.

16. What song will always remind you of 2007?
Meat Loaf's "Paradise by the Dashboard Light", which I sang at karaoke, only to forget how terribly long it is and how long it takes to get to the funny part.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. Happier or hardened? Happier.
ii. Thinner or fatter? Fatter.
iii. Richer or poorer? Richer.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Work on personal projects, such as my website and mofoto, and take more artistic (rather than journalistic) pictures.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Wasting time when I get home from work.

20. How will you be spending (did you spend) Christmas?
As is the tradition, Christmas Eve was at my mom's mom's house in Kennesaw, and Christmas Day was spent in Carrollton with my dad's parents.

21. How will you be spending (did you spend) New Year's?
Having over lots of cool people to my tiny apartment. Hopefully everyone enjoyed themselves.

22. Did you fall in love in 2007?
Naah.

23. How many one-night stands?
Zero.

24. What was your favorite TV program?
The Daily Show, or possibly Mythbusters since the writers' strike began. I don't really watch that much TV.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Nobody.

26. What was the best book you read?
1984 ... again. I have a bad habit of rereading books rather than reading new ones.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Arcade Fire, thanks to Matt's suggestion. I can't wait until they come back to Atlanta.

28. What did you want and get?
My HDTV, a full set of real speakers, an apartment with a useful kitchen, real cookware, a job.

29. What did you want and not get?
Not much - I'm looking at a Canon 40D, but I can wait. I've had my Digital Rebel for more than four years now, and it's served me incredibly well, but I'm ready for some new features that I've wanted for some time.

30. Favorite film of this year?
Either Hot Fuzz or Ratatouille. I just watched Ratatouille in HD (someone ordered it On Demand), and it was so beautiful that I cried.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I was 25 and I had a few celebratory dinners with friends and family.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
This one's hard to answer - winning the lottery? Getting married to the love of my life? The question is a little too wide open.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007?
Jeans, an undershirt, and a golf shirt. When it's cold, a long-sleeve shirt.

34. What kept you sane?
Having several friends move back to Atlanta after extended trips or time abroad. I thrive on spending time with friends.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Either Zoe Deschanel or Maggie Gyllenhaal.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
I have rarely been as angry as I was when I watched Frontline's "Cheney's Law", primarily because I know how helpless I am to change any of it.

37. Who do you miss?
Javy. That kind of distance (Atlanta to Hong Kong) is really hard to handle.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
Julia and I met an Australian girl named Fran at a full restaurant in Prague. I saw her looking around for a table and something inspired me to ask her to join us (Julia had gone to the restroom), which is pretty out of character for me. She turned out to be a really fun person, and we had lots of cultural stuff to talk about.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007:
See #38 - be more outgoing around strangers, take small risks that have great potential rewards.