Category — links

a bit long, but I like this kind of stuff

I saw a link from Dan’s blog to an Ellroy interview on NPR and I wound up looking for some old book tour videos of him speaking. I couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for, but I did find these two clips from Conan which cracked me up.

Ellroy’s a good author but he’s even better at selling his books imho:

Clip from 97:

Clip from 99 where he makes Chappelle laugh. I wonder if Chappelle got the idea for “Clayton Bigsby” from this:

Just because KuzJen got me going on a tangent, here are some music vids….

You don’t have to watch them all, just play them in the background while you work.

Put the Message in the Box

Way Down Now

Ship of Fools

Fisherman’s Blues

The Whole of the Moon

via Cuatro-

“The two most thought provoking articles I’ve seen on health care reform:

How American Health Care Killed My Father (The Atlantic)

and

The Cost Conundrum – What a Texas town can teach us about health care (New Yorker) ”

good reads

My friend Mike S. down in LA has a film project called Project Monkeywrench. He says it’s like “This American Workplace.” With resentment and sabotage. He’d like to get word out about it, so I thought I’d post one of his emails. 

Hey, Everyone.
I launched this last year, and due to the unbelievable response, I’m launching it anew.
Making a short. Need your voices…stories, and so on.

It works like this: I want to hear your anonymous stories of workplace sabotage. Steal a ream of paper? Delete that important file…or file server? “Accidentally” forward that confidential email and get someone fired? Edit subliminal messages into that film you are cutting?

Call 1.877.MKWRENC and tell your sabotage story.
That’s 1.877.659.7362

I’ll edit the audio into a short film. Think “This American Workplace.” With resentment and sabotage.
All confidential!

STICK IT TO THE MAN!!!! AND PLEASE FORWARD…some of the best stuff came from people I don’t know…in regional dialects I barely understand.

Even if you don’t have a story of your own, the most important thing is that this gets out…please circulate.
http://www.bombshelterfilms.com/monkeywrench.html

THANKS FOR YOUR TIME!
Mike Saenz

And if you’re interested, here’s an interview with Mike on DVDfile.com talking about editing Special.

In case you haven’t been keeping up with The Flood-

The Muni Hump and Run story you may have seen Amanda and I chatting about on Twitter and FB (munidiaries). [updated w/ video from NBC news!] *even Joyce has seen him.

10 Best Burgers in Texas- via todd. I’m not sure I agree with the list but whatever. That pic of the burger from Chris Madrid’s is horrible though- their burgers look much better usually.

Twilight comic (see mike draw)

Indian Mangoes

And my favorite story of the week came via a link from Laura F in Vermont: The LearJet Repo Man

And then there’s this video which I loved – esp the ending

via Bryan

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Good quote:

David Vitter- what a perfect spokesman for teabagging.

Address Book Sync (for Mac) synchs up your contacts’ Facebook profile pics to your Contacts application on your Mac. You can decide whether or not you want to switch the pics so if you already have a nice picture of your friends you won’t automatically override them with some goofy profile pic they may be using this week. [free, but donate via paypal if desired]

Want to annoy some millennials in your office? Download a dog whistle app from iTunes. Set it to high and let those young whippersnappers try to figure out where the noise is coming from. There’s one called “Dog Whistle Free” and another called “Dog Whistler (Free)“. They’re fun for about a day and a half… Not new, but a good reminder of options in iTunes– an old Lifehacker.com post on how to mark the correct settings to convert a file to “audiobook” in iTunes Link. And for those of you who love your moleskine journals– they added a print wizard to their site so you can print up various pages (text, contact list, calendar) and glue/paste them in your journals here.

So Kevin emailed me the “IronMan In April” details. I’ve copied the email below. Check it out and sign up.

Despite my massive cold at the start of the month, I’ll be doing the IMIA as I did last year (my progress last year). I’d really encourage you all to try – and partner up if you prefer. Kev’s email—

“Swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, run 26.2 miles, brag for the rest of your life.” John Collins – Founder of the Ironman triathlon I invite you to participate with me in Iron-April. As spring begins, the challenge is to cover the Ironman triathlon distance, in the three sports of triathlon, during the month of April. This is a challenging, yet attainable goal for most folks and a great way to break out of winter. What does it take? The total miles for a typical week might look like this:

.5 mile in a pool

28 miles on a bike

6.5 miles running or walking Sound like too much? There is a 2-person division (see below) If you work out 6 days a week, your week might look like this. . . Monday – walk 30 minutes (1.5 miles)
Tuesday – swim 20 minutes (.5 miles)
Wednesday – bike 1 hour (13 miles)
Thursday – REST
Friday – walk/run 30 minutes (2.5 miles)
Saturday – bike 1 hour (13 miles)
Sunday – walk/run 30 minutes (2.5 miles)

Of course, there are tons of different ways to get the miles. For some, it might only require working out 2-3 times a week. But, this gives you an idea of what it would take to gain the 140.6 miles of swimming, biking, and running during one month. Stationary bikes and treadmills are fine ways of covering the distance. During April, I