The Best Photo I've Ever Taken

This is a photo of my daughter that I took last week. It is the best photograph I’ve ever taken. I have been reading more on photography and how to get the shot. I know this is still a little out of focus, but I really like it. It hasn’t been color corrected or re-touched in Photoshop. I hope you like it.

Nathan Bozeman and Holomove Corp

It seems there is some sort of alternate reality game that started recently. Last year there was one that Microsoft was sponsoring where you had to find the identity of Loki. She turned out to be three separate people and the winner gets to go into space.

Anyway, there's another one that seems fairly interesting. This guy Nathan got a job at a company called Holomove and he inherited an office that used to belong to a now dead scientist. He finds lots of strange things and is determined that something is going on.

If you are interested here's some information to get you started on it. I found this on the Wired blog, and Nathan has his own blog.

Check it out, and who knows... maybe this is sponsored by Google and the winner will go to the moon. ;-) Then again, maybe I am only interested in it because I went to Bozeman, MT for college.

Creative 50 - I work with two of them.

It's been a long time since I've posted. A lot has happened in the past year. My wife and I had a beautiful baby girl. We named her Inara Iris Spatafore. She was born 2 months early, but she is doing incredibly well.

In other news, I quit my job tried to start my own interactive agency, but then I got a call to come work for McCann Worldgroup. Answering that call has been the best career move I've made since I moved out of Montana. Anyway, enough about me. Two of the people that I work with were named to Creativity Online's annual Creative 50. This list of 50 people represent the biggest innovators of the year. Although the list includes the Google founders (I'm not sure what innovations they came up with last year), but it also includes the Coen Brothers.

Here's a link to the profile of the two guys I work with:

http://creativity-online.com/?action=news:article&newsId=125181&sectionId=creativity_50

What Does Happen When You Put Dish Soap in the Dishwasher?

A few days ago I told Leanne that I just remembered her telling me we were out of dishwasher powder. I said that I was just going to use some standard dish soap. "NO! Don't do that! There will be suds everywhere if you do that." Oh, yeah, I didn't think of that. Boy I'm sure glad I said something to her and she stopped me.

Now, Leanne is in Peru, and I decided not to go to the A's game. My fingers hurt too much to play Guitar Hero. What to do? Oh, I know! What actually will happen if I put dish soap in the dishwasher?

In my heart of hearts I know that Leanne is right. If I put a bunch of liquid soap in it will just suds up and go everywhere. So let's just put a little bit in and see how bad it is. I put maybe a tablespoon of liquid detergent into the dishwasher and set it off. Once it filled with water I let it run for 20 seconds. Then I opened it.

Sure enough there were suds everywhere. Just like Leanne promised. Part of me felt like calling a bunch of girls over and having a rave here in my apartment, but I'm sure that I'd get in trouble for that. I guess I'll just have to clean up the mess.

What is the best method for cleaning up the suds. Gasoline would cut the bubbles and the heating element in the bottom would react with it for a great party. My renters insurance would also get a little exercise out of that one though and I don't feel like dealing with that. Now I know that the acid in vinegar would reduce the surface tension in the water and possibly break the bubbles down, but I don't have any vinegar and I'm too lazy to go get some.

The trick at this point is that you won't actually get rid of all the bubbles. Liquid detergent is designed to bubble up in extraordinary ways (especially the cheep stuff we buy). So what you need to do is to make the bubbles small enough and dense enough that they will act like frothy water. Salt has the ability to help you do this. Also, oil will add additional help in that it will also help reduce the surface tension in the water. I added a healthy quarter cup of pickling salt (smaller granules will dissolve faster) and about 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. I turned the dishwasher on for 2 minutes and then cranked the dial over to the drain setting. Opened it up after letting it rinse a couple of times and *pow* it's all clean.

So for all you out there looking for something to kill a couple hours I'd recommend this one. Who knows maybe the experience will serve everyone someday.

Pac-Man Championship Edition

There's a new Pac-Man game available from XBox Live Arcade.  Microsoft/Namco got the original author of Pac-Man to draw up some new mazes for the pellet chomper to run through. I got the demo version of it the other night and played it for about a half hour, and I have to tell you it's really good. I will probably slap down the 800 points ($10) to buy it. I just have to get one more song to 5 stars on Guitar Hero first.

It's a great game, the new mazes are pretty cool. The whole screen is not filled with pellets. Instead as you finish the pellets on the screen more appear. It makes the game a bit more fun, and it makes me think I'm doing better than I really am. I only have the demo version so I haven't tried all the new maps, but I know that Leanne is anxious to try it out. She just needs to get home from Peru. ;-)

It seems to me that this is all that really needs to be said for an updated version of the 2D classic game. New mazes, and updated graphics give it an overhead 3D feel. However, some people feel the need to complain about the 800 points that it costs. 800 points cost about $10. In fact for $10 you are getting what is essentially a brand new Pac-Man game. I'd pay $30 for a brand new Pac-Man game. So why does Microsoft feel the need to defend the pricing? Well I'm sure it'll come as no surprise to all of you that I don't need Microsoft to justify the pricing, and I doubt that anyone that has ever written production level software would argue the price either. Way to go Microsoft, please do more of these.

I have an Xbox, now I need Halo2

Today Bungie is updating HALO2 to remove cheaters. This is a great idea. Now I think I'll actually buy HALO2.

Rayman 3

How much fun can a creature without any limbs have? Well in GameBoy land, that poor creature can have a lot of fun. Read on to find out more.

Has anyone seen my GameBoy Advance SP?

Nintendo Updates the GameBoy and I was among the millions of people to get one. This is yet another raving review for it.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

Finally a brand new Legend of Zelda game. Now I finally have something to do for the next week.

Sly Cooper and the Thievious Raccoonus

Sly Cooper is a platform game the way that platform games should be made. This Playstation 2 game is very addictive, but be prepared to finish it in one sitting.