So it’s a lazy Friday evening (believe it or not) and I figured I might as well post a few of the interesting things I’ve found wandering around the internet this week. First off, I love it when people know how to use a little bit of humor. For example, when faced with the impossible, why not make the best of it? So, say I want to visit Paris, France. Not all that unreasonable of a goal. Now… say I want driving directions from Goshen, Indiana to Paris. Impossible you say? A quick trip to Google maps and you’ll quickly realize that route is indeed possible! Check out the directions around step 19. “Swim across the Atlantic Ocean: 3,462 mi.” Props to Google. No need to give a canned error when people ask for the “impossible,” just respond in kind

And speaking of humor, I just got caught up with my news and found another web designer with a great sense of humor. When Mike Davidson, the CEO of Newsvine realized that John McCain had not only used one of Mike’s design templates on MySpace without giving credit as he had requested he didn’t write an angry message, he pulled a quick prank! Perhaps not turning the other cheek, but what a great way to get your point across.

To finish things off… a bit of coolness, tho not humor. The reactable has been on Google Video’s Shakers and Movers list a few times over the past days & for good reason. In case you didn’t guess from it’s name, the reactable is a “multi-user electro-acoustic music instrument with a tabletop tangible user interface.” Long story short, you put “shapes” on a table and can make music. Cool idea hu? Watching the demo movies is the best way to figure it out tho. Hope you enjoyed!

P.S. Thanks Brunk relatives from Harrisonburg for a fun time last weekend, it was great to see you all again!

This week has been wonderfully full of music! To start out with I did something that I haven’t had a chance too since High School, lead music at church. Merle, pastor at East Goshen Mennonite, invited me to get an ensemble together for Sunday’s music. Although it was trickier than expected to get a practice organized it was a lot of fun and a good way to get in at least a little choralesque singing.

Next was a little musical tribute, I guess you could say. Digikitten has game open right now called the “Pixel town pounce” where 17 virtual plots of land are open for anyone to create a digital pixel art building to populate the town. I thought it would be fun to join in & decided that I would take my inspiration from a real-life building… the Goshen College Music Center. The project ended up being terribly time consuming, but was a lot of fun & a brand new type of art for me. If you’re interested you should check out the latest additions to Pixel town.

Finally, a musical post wouldn’t be complete this week if I didn’t mention the Goshen Performing Arts Series. On Tuesday Beth & I were lucky enough to get to see the Soweto Gospel Choir. I knew nothing of the group coming in to the performance but my goodness was it pretty amazing! filled with energy, color & beautiful harmony. One of my favorite songs of the night was Lelilungelo Ngelakho, written by Joseph Shabalala (a founding member of Ladysmith Black Mombazo), and the melody that Paul Simon’s song Homeless is based on. And as if that amazing music wasn’t enough, they announced the lineup for next year’s performing arts series which includes (brace yourself) Chantecleer, Sweet Honey in the Rock, and John McCutcheon! I guess it’s not such a bad thing that Beth & I will be in Goshen next year after all

Here’s a test… from which poem did the title of this post come? …anyone? Before I just give away the answer, let me tell you a little background to the question. To tell the truth, I actually couldn’t have told you the right answer until about three minutes ago. I would have told you it was from the short story Mimsy were the Borogoves by Lewis Padgett, which is partially true as it does contain the first stanza of the poem. I read this short story a few months ago after Beth gave me The Science Fiction Hall of Fame. Mimsy were the Borogoves was one of my favorites, combining mystery, fun twists and even math, but I hadn’t thought of it recently until suddenly a movie trailer caught my eye as I was watching TV. Turns out someone in Hollywood liked that story too because they’re turning the 30 page short story into a full length film! I don’t know what it is, but I just love it when I can make an association between something I’ve read & a movie. Like when the Butterfly Effect came out and I could say, “yup, they probably got their original idea from reading A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury.” Even if these movies don’t follow the plot of the short story at all, just to know the background information, to have that little sneak peek into what’s to come on screen is loads of fun for me! So, I’m definitely looking forward to the day when The Last Mimzy hits theaters (I wonder if they know they misspelled the title? ). In the meantime you should definitely check out the trailer. Now, the part you’ve all been waiting for… the answer to my original question. The title of this post is the first line from the poem Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll.

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Have a good one, and read more Sci-Fi!

Sadly, today is the last day of spring break at Goshen College. Even more sadly… this year I don’t go to Goshen, so I didn’t even get a spring break hehheh, but no fear, I still had a pretty great week. In leu of the tipical week long jaunts to warmer places I got to take a mini-vacation with Beth! Since she had never been to Canada we decided that would be a wonderful destination. All in all, we had a great time exploring Toronto: enjoying views from the CN Tower, exploring the Bloor-Yorkville Ice Fest ‘07 and even doing a little shopping Check out a few of the photos from our trip in on photos page.

A bit before spring break I had a flashback to college life, of sort, when my SST group lead a chapel. It was a fun time getting together with the group again and remembering fun memories from Perú. It also made me realize how much I am slowly drifting out of college life. This is kind of a sad realization, but I’d say I have plenty to look forward to in the “real world” and I suppose you can’t be in school forever. Anway, I was in charge of the photo slideshow for chapel. If you’re interested in seeing a few more photos from Perú, you can watch the slideshow on YouTube. Just make sure you turn on some Peruvian music, I didn’t have time to add a soundtrack to the slideshow.

And last but not least, yes… we are making progress on wedding plans. If any of you are the type that enjoy being ahead of the game & are already working on making travel plans I’ve added a page on our wedding website detailing the shedule, driving directions & lodging options for the weekend. So check it out, and tell anyone who has questions about the wedding to visit the site. I’m keeping it as up to date as I can Happy March all, take it easy!