I accidentally a show, is this bad? / Progress
Posted on July 19th, 2009
Filed under: Music News — Karl Olson @ 4:42 am
Details are in the show section, but I’ve got a show at The Blue Moon on July 30th. I will try to rehearse up, but this is my first show in a year; it should be an interesting experience as such. Also in attendance will be Death Star and I think also Press Start to Rock and/or Snickerpuss. Kinda fuzzy on those details.
Meanwhile, Rai and I set up a makeshift recording booth at her house, and I lent her a solid USB mic so she can record vocals for her album. This should, theoretically atleast, speed up progress on her record considerably.
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Stupid Internet Tricks
Posted on July 1st, 2009
Filed under: Videos — Karl Olson @ 3:50 pm
So, having the Google Ion has resulted in me having a camcorder handy at all times. Additionally, most of my co-workers also have mobile devices with cameras built-in. What the result of this? Scads of silly videos. If hearing about the exceedingly boring minutia of my life via twitter wasn’t good enough for you, perhaps this shall quench your need:
Karl Mixes The WoW Mt. Dews
Karl Makes Cellphone Music
Karl @ the iPhone 3GS Launch
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Oh, BTW
Posted on June 13th, 2009
Filed under: General — Karl Olson @ 1:46 pm
I’m in Canada visiting Danielle (aka Nursehella.) Been pretty good so far. We went on a little hike around Zuckerberg Island yesterday, and we would have hit the Ainsworth Hot Springs had they not been closed this week. We also tried our hand at making tempura which came out ok, and I’ve done a little exploring around the town(‘s dollar and discount stores,) while Danielle was working at the local Chamber of Commerce (as she’s saving up to go back to university.) It’s certainly lovely to see Danielle again, and it’s been a nice little break, leading into what will probably be me grinding on XML and CSS at the office next week.
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Well I’ll Be…
Posted on June 12th, 2009
Filed under: General — Karl Olson @ 4:48 pm
It seems that widgetizing and twitterpating my layout was easier than I thought; I really should have done it a while back. It’s even a bit closer to what I was originally going for with the layout for the sidebar. Now to tweet about said updates to my blog.
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Blog Upgrade
Posted on June 12th, 2009
Filed under: General — Karl Olson @ 3:51 pm
You know web management has become easy when the blog can grab the update and upgrade itself. Of course, this is a bit of a reminder that maybe I should think about glossing the site’s look up at some point, or atleast adding a plugin/widget that can grab the twitter updates and jam them into the layout some how. Since that would mean editing the layout, well, maybe it’s time to kill two birds with one stone.
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Chase(ing)Status
Posted on June 10th, 2009
Filed under: General — Karl Olson @ 8:39 pm
So, like a ton of other people, I’m now banking with Chase since WaMu decided to loan money to any fool asking for it. As I anticipated, I finally had some problems as well, ones I was only able to remedy because I have a cellphone functional in Canada, a secure internet connection and enough drive to not let the first operator blow me off, and the problem only didn’t completely screw me over and make me look like a broke sleezeball was because I happened to be in the right places at the right times.
You see, even though I’ve traveled to Canada countless times in the past few years – something an analysis of my credit history would not only show, but that could be analyzed and tracked without human intervention (IE: it costs nothing and if anything saves people work.) Never once back in the WaMu days did I have an ounce of problems with this. I could use my card in Canada with the same ease as Washington, Oregon, California, Minnesota and so on. However, not only did Chase throw a fit and put my debit card on hold after a few vanilla transactions in Canada (buying snacks at a grocery store – that’s so fraud,) they managed to leave the wrong phone number to get back to them (my reception is sketchy here so I missed their call) and then I had to wander about their website for a good piece of time to find a valid phone number because they didn’t send me any emails or leave any messages in my Chase online banking account. Oh, and their web layout is mediocre.
All that would be stupid enough, but they leveled their game up by then being smart aleks on the phone who basically wanted to blow me off rather than refer me to fraud services as if I couldn’t or wouldn’t take my money to another bank or a credit union in a heartbeat the second I had to fight to get at my own money. I am a customer, and while, yes, as a former retail employee I know customers are not in fact always right, I know when my freakin’ debit card has been declined; I’m no clod or yokel, and I refuse to be treated like one. I may not be a Chase customer for much longer if that’s their attitude though.
Feel free to suggest some alternate banks or credit unions that act decent in the comments or via email.
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I/O Video
Posted on June 4th, 2009
Filed under: Videos — Karl Olson @ 1:20 pm
So, since Google hooked everyone up with video recording devices (I mean, cell phones with cameras,) I took the opportunity to shoot some video for the company. However, I’m in these videos, so it’s relevant here as well. Check out the videos at youtube.
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what anime cons can learn from i/o
Posted on May 29th, 2009
Filed under: General,Pictures — Karl Olson @ 2:54 pm
It’s not the ridiculous freebies (though working on the anime companies to get rid of their old single DVD backstock as a bag stuffer would be slick, just like how they got rid of their VHSes back in the day) it’s not the elements that blatantly crossover anyway (late-night parties with crazy dancing, great music, awesome sociable people, and the like are welcome at any nerdy con, and are in full effect whether you’re at I/O, PAX or any anime con,) no it’s more simple than that.
You see, the Google I/O badge had a little schedule guide w/ map jammed right in the back of the badge, and you could easily fold it over to the section of the schedule you were probably there for anyway (like Android panels or OpenSocial Panels.) Now, maybe you couldn’t quite do it the same way at a big anime con with scads of panels, but putting a simple script on the con’s website that’d allow proactive attendees to print a little list of all the panels they wanted to hit that they could jam in back of their pass would be super convenient.
Oh, and the self check-in option at would be neat to replicate as well. It could dramatically drop the wait time in lines for pre-registered guests at least, and at large cons like AX or Otakon, wouldn’t be much if any of a cost burden. If anything, you may be able to free up volunteers for more pressing business.
PS: Check out the first round of Google I/O media from me, namely photos.
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at IO/cutting it close
Posted on May 27th, 2009
Filed under: General — Karl Olson @ 4:35 pm
So, I’m at Google IO, tapping away on the company’s new android phone – an excellent development as it finally gives us not only a spare phone, but one running cupcake.
However, this morning was the closest I’ve ever come to missing a flight ever; I made it to the gate a mere 15 minutes before take off.
The 4am wake up would be taking its toll right now if were not for the free soda everywhere in the convention center.
Lastly, anime cons could learn a few things from IO, and I am not even talking about the free smartphones.
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pill takin / espresso makin / flight takin
Posted on May 26th, 2009
Filed under: General — Karl Olson @ 8:11 pm
So, my neck is still messed up, and I have an ear infection (which astute readers may notice is the trillionth ear infection I’ve gotten – I intend to see a specialist about this once my other maladies have calmed down) so added to my Soma and Advil are is that classic standby, Amoxicillin, some Prednisone (to aid the Advil in tamping down the muscle inflammation,) and Sudafed (the real kind, not that PE rubbish.) As they would say on Sealab 2021, “eat some more pills, pillhead.”
This the day before I fly down to San Francisco for Google I/O (I should be ok to fly as long as I hit the Advil and Sudafed up right before the flight, otherwise that’s going to hurt like all get out.) Still, I’m looking forward to my first real business conference/convention.
In undeniably positive news, the family has ended up with a top notch espresso machine with steam, so I’ve been enjoying some awesome, cheap coffee drinks. Almost gives me a reason to get up early in the mornings beyond work 😉