Tumblr

I’m playing around with Tumblr some more. The RSS feed should redirect automatically. Web version is davextreme.tumblr.com.

It’s a very polished application. As much as I like being able to tweak everything on a self-hosted site (and I do), I like the ease of a third-party service. What it doesn’t have is an import feature, so I can get my Movable Type posts into it. Batch post edit would be nice. But I’ll play with it a bit and then either point my domain there or move the posts back to here.

I Thirst!

I Thirst!, a Venn diagram.

Jay Leno Losing His Audience to DVR Machines

Jay Leno Losing His Audience to DVR Machines

Evelyn Violet Ely

Evelyn Violet Ely
Originally uploaded by davextreme

Born at 3:04 PM on Sunday, November 29, 2009, 6 pounds, 13 ounces, 19 and a half inches long. Katherine and Evelyn are both doing great.

Peter and the Wolf

Recommended companion to Fantastic Mr. Fox: Suzie Templeton’s 2008 Academy Award-nominated, stop motion-animated Peter and the Wolf short. If you have Netflix, you can stream it.

Christmas Playlist 2009

I’ve been very carefully building a Christmas playlist for the past few years. I only add one song a year, and I only listen to the songs on the list between Thanksgiving and the Epiphany. There are now nine songs on the list.

1. “The Fairytale of New York” by The Pogues
2. “Hallelujah” by Jeff Buckley
3. “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” by Judy Garland
4. “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” by John Lennon
5. (New) “White Christmas” by Bing Crosby
6. “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” by Dean Martin
7. “Baby It’s Cold Outside” by Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Jordan
8. “Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy” by David Bowie & Bing Crosby
9. “Merry Xmas Everybody” by Slade

My mom has Bing Crosby’s Christmas album on vinyl. As a kid I used to love playing records, and she has a great collection of Christmas albums. It’s hard to pick, and I already have a Bing Crosby tune on the list, but if anyone is allowed to appear twice on a Christmas playlist, it’s Bing Crosby.

Previously

The Year We Had Two Thanksgivings

I refer to this from time-to-time when people complain about Christmas starting earlier each year. In fact, it’s been going on for at least 80 years. Just as SNL has never been as funny as it used to be, Christmas shopping season has always started earlier than it used to.

From the FDR library, The Year We Had Two Thanksgivings.

After Six

Put This On links to a fashion-based 30 Rock joke. The setup and payoff of this gag make up one of my favorite understated jokes on the show. It highlights the mayhem of Liz’s life and the nature of Jack’s character perfectly.

Real Simpsons House

Real Simpsons House

"Exclusive" iTunes Extras

Ars Technica has a piece about iTunes Extras, a new scheme where you get bonus materials with movie downloads like you get with DVDs. A few thoughts:

1. A big pet peeve about DVDs for me is having to bother with animated menus. I really just want to put the disc in, hit play, and, you know, watch the movie. I haven’t bought a movie from iTunes, but I wonder if the extras add this annoying extra step to watching a movie. Surely there’s a way to still be able to get to them that still lets me get straight to the movie, since that’s what I want most of the time.
2. The main point of the above-linked article is that the extras from iTunes are not exclusive, but are also available on the DVDs. But why would I want exclusivity? Exclusive content means I’d have to buy it twice to get all the bonus materials (if I wanted them).