Hello!

If you’re finding this blog for the first time from my HTML5 Drum Kit from this post on Ajaxian.com, welcome to my meager site!

I feel like a cobbler who has no shoes of his own – or perhaps, one that is wearing a brand name instead of his own. I haven’t invested proper time on my personal site. For that I apologize. I’m working on a better version (possibly either a custom CMS or moved into ExpressionEngine). Hopefully I’ll get to do that over the fourth.

I’ve done a few other things, namely some stuff with <canvas> a year ago or so. It’s all in the RandomThink Labs, which are all pretty ugly right now visually, but hey, that’s part of the cleanup/rework I want to undertake. All the code in the labs is under an MIT license and also available at this GitHub repo if you want to just grab it all.

Thanks for stopping by!

Originally published at RandomThink.net. You can comment here or there.

Seriously, I need to do something to refresh this excuse of a blog. I used to post about stuff. Then Twitter came along and I find it just so much easier to spout off in 140 character bursts.

Part of me is tempted to clean out the domain and start fresh. I only have one or two posts that get any sort of regular traffic, and one of them is like four years old now and totally irrelevant. However, I have some sort of nostalgic attachment to this domain.

I own a couple of variations of my name, as well as a few other random domains that could be interesting to start something fresh on. However, I’m just not sure.

I’m not sure moving from one domain to another would really help, though. I blame social networking. Anymore, I talk so much about the day-to-day on Twitter and through the occasional Facebook status update that stuff just doesn’t stick in my mind long enough to get to the blog.

On occasion, I get a wild hair to come in and redo things in here. Move to Expression Engine perhaps, or really take the time to craft up a nice WP theme, either using Carrington as more than its default state like it is now or building off of Sandbox or something. Then I remember the other side projects I have brewing, all of which are of higher priority than this site.

The things I stew on longer, to think about and share, are primarily of a technical nature anymore, and it feels funny to go blathering on about jQuery in this environment because it’s generally much more personal. At the same time, I find that it’s one of the more exciting things I deal with on a day-to-day, and I mix it into tweets about other stuff, so perhaps I shouldn’t be concerned with crossover here.

I’ve also thought about keeping this place personal and using more of a normal-namespace type blog (I own 2 or 3 variations of BrianArnold.___) for more technical, professional stuff.

If anyone even still reads this, I’d love a comment, to get some feedback. I’m not sure it’s worth even really bothering with at this point - hard to say.

Originally published at RandomThink.net. You can comment here or there.

For those not in the know, MacHeist is back. It’s a large bundle of Mac software for an amazing price, and it seems to create this huge amount of drama in the Mac software developer community. As someone who’s just started to get into Apple development (iPhone for now, maybe more later), I find the responses really interesting, especially the people who are so vehemently opposed to selling product at such a markdown (currently $626.75 worth of software for $39, 25% of which goes to a charity of the purchaser’s choosing, with potential to be $975.70 worth of software - still for $39).

Personally, coming from the perspective of development, I think it’s a great way to reach out to people who may not normally dive into your products. To draw an analogy, a common argument as to why piracy isn’t a big deal is often that the pirates aren’t people who’d buy the music/software anyways, so it’s not a lost sale. I see MacHeist as the same thing, except that the developers do get a small amount of money.

I already own one or two of the applications in MacHeist 3, and so now I have dual licenses (as I don’t really know anyone else I’d have gifted the licenses to), so those devs are actually getting more of my money than normal — and I’m okay with that, because they’re great products. I’ve bought into every MacHeist so far, and out of all of that, I maybe actually still use one or two of the apps. The rest linger, gathering digital dust and cobwebs, eventually to be AppZapped into oblivion (the irony being that I got AppZapper in MH2).

Delicious Library would be an exception worth noting. I still use it on occasion and enjoy it, and I’ve paid for the upgrade to DL2. I wouldn’t have used it, were it not for MacHeist, and now he’s gotten more of my cash because I’m willing to pay for a product I enjoy.

I happily bought into MH3. It’s an amazing deal. These developers are getting some of my money that they normally wouldn’t have, and charities benefit. I don’t see myself using 90% of it more than for a few days as an amusing cheaply-paid trial. If I wind up sticking with some of them, I’ll become a paying customer for further upgrades, as well as a word-of-mouth promoter, because I like to make noise about great software.

Incidentally, if you want to dive in, and use my MacHeist referrer link, you’ll unlock another piece of software or two for me, although it’s not a big deal either way.

Originally published at RandomThink.net. You can comment here or there.

Created by Train Horn

I’ve been holding back on posting this one, because I wanted to wait until Jason had a chance to see it in person. Not sure why, just, felt like I wanted to share with him and a few others in person before I went and said it more loudly.

Nearly three years ago, I talked about our new Honda Accord. I was very excited about it at the time, and I made the comment that “it’s kind of like a big Civic”.

However, it turns out, I don’t really like bigger cars.

I really don’t like to complain too much. Frankly, I’m blessed to have been able to get the car at all, and am very thankful for the three years that it carried me from A to B. However, I never felt comfortable in it. I mean, perhaps I was physically comfortable, but it just felt way too big for me. I never developed a good sense of space with it. I was never comfortable parking it. It was much harder to drive comfortably than the Pilot ever has been.

For the past few months, we’ve been thinking about what to do with the Accord. We figured we wouldn’t be keeping it. We went to a number of dealerships and test drove a few cars, but nothing felt quite right. There was one car that we hadn’t test driven yet that I wanted to check out, but we just couldn’t find the time.

Well, the Pilot was nearing the end of its lease, and we were in talking to the financial people, and they noted that the Accord was coming up due, and if we were willing to wrap up both vehicles in one day, they could get us some breaks. Then they suggested that they had some cars we could try out, and a salesman brought around a Honda Fit.

The month after we got the Accord, Honda brought the Fit to the US. For years, I have been reading about this car, and really, it’s all I’ve wanted since. It doesn’t hurt that it’s gotten really good ratings for years now and is incredibly economic when it comes to fuel. We test drove it and both of us fell in love. It’s really a good fit for us.

I want to take some nice daylight pictures (like I did for the Accord), but for now, here’s a picture from the website (again, like the way I posted about the Accord).

On the whole, I’m immensely pleased. It’s way more fun to drive than the Accord ever was. It’s much more fitting to me. It’s smaller, more nimble, way more fuel efficient, and even safer than the Accord, and I fully look forward to driving it for at least the next thirteen years.

I may even pick up an amp and some beefed-up speakers. For old time’s sake. (My cars in high school had ridiculously overpowered audio systems for such small cars.)

Originally published at RandomThink.net. You can comment here or there.

So yeah, I made it six days into NaBloPoMo. That’s amusing. Oh well. I enjoy writing and all, but trying to do it as a daily thing wound up turning it into something of a chore, and that’s not pleasant.

Life has been ridiculously busy and shows no signs of slowing down. Things are kind of crazy and chaotic. I’m recovering from a cold that made me take a couple of days off. I’m level 79 in WoW although aside from the sick day yesterday, I haven’t really played in any serious capacity in a month or more. I’m juggling the day job with no less than four side experiments/projects, and Lisa’s working on thesis research. Life is just speeding along and it feels hard to take a moment to sit and reflect.

I turn 30 in a couple of weeks (February 1st, specifically). I was reading an old post from ~3 years ago, talking about how from 2002 to early 2006, I had over 580 posts. Now? This will be post 680. Only 100 posts in the last three years. I’d like to post more, I just don’t take the time to stop and write it all up. I feel like I should though, because, well, it makes for good ways to remember things. I still haven’t fully put all the posts that I wrote up in Europe up here, and that was nearly two years ago now (which is so hard to believe).

On the other hand, I’ve considered archiving this whole blog and starting fresh. Total reboot. Maybe a split, wherein I have a more personal blog and then a more “professional” blog where I can nerd out about jQuery and JSON and AJAX and blah blah blah without boring the people who come here for more personal stuff. Still noodling some ideas there. I posted one mockup the other night (built with the amazing Balsamiq Mockups, expect a post on that soon hopefully)

I also fully intend on fulfilling the photo meme. I got some ideas for pictures that I liked. I just haven’t actually taken the shots yet.

Originally published at RandomThink.net. You can comment here or there.

I saw this meme posted and thought it sounded interesting, so I figure, I’ll post it up here. It seems like an interesting way to get to know people better.

• Ask me to take pictures of any aspect of my life you’re curious about.
• Leave your requests as comments to this entry. One request per person.
• Please look at the previous requests as to not do repeats.
• I’ll snap the pictures and post them.

I’m adding an additional caveat, in that I reserve the right to deem something too personal to post out here. Not that I expect people to be asking for pictures of a sensitive or overly personal nature, but hey, it seems worth attaching a disclaimer.

I may make a general state of life post at some point soon, or perhaps like my makeover in Albuquerque the Magazine, I’ll wind up never writing about it. Only time will tell!

Originally published at RandomThink.net. You can comment here or there.

Some time back, I recall Lisa telling me that she pulls up this picture when she needs a quick pick-me-up. It’s a picture we had taken out at her mom and dad’s house in Tijeras. I’ve since taken up the habit. It works well for me too. So, here you go. You can see it too.

Lily hasn’t really gotten much bigger, although her ears have more hints of silver now.

Originally published at RandomThink.net. You can comment here or there.

I’m really finding myself in need of some inspiration today. I put the idea for an inspiration post on Thursday to help carry through the rest of the week, and have found that this week, it’s more timely than I could have ever imagined. This week has been one of the roughest I’ve had in awhile, but my pains this week don’t really compare to some. So, I present to you, a video that, while old, seems so much more powerful now.

The Huffington Post has an article by Will.i.am talking about why he recorded “Yes, we can”. I recommend starting the video, reading the article while the song plays, and then you’re welcome to come back and read my ramble after the cut.

Originally published at RandomThink.net. You can comment here or there.

I may come back and do a Working Wednesday post to try and keep the theme going (and I do have an idea for something to write on that theme), but I figure, for now, I should just put something out.

Last night, watching the returns, I got chills several times over. I’m sure I cried a little. I wish I could say that it was due to overwhelming emotion that for the first time in my life, I’ve been on the winning side of a vote, but that wasn’t all of it.

Barack has a long road ahead of him. To have lost his grandmother so close to the election had to have made giving last night’s speech so immensely difficult.

Another friend of mine lost his grandmother this week. I’ll be attending that rosary tonight. His whole family has always treated me like I were family, and even if I haven’t seen them recently, I know that while it’s not my family, I’ll feel very at home with them.

I lost my grandma back in 2003, some months after having lost my dad.

Last night was just a lot of emotion, from both recent events and triggered memories, and I really can’t find words to properly express the emotion.

Democrats: We’ve handed you the keys. Please do right by us. As a nation, we’ll be watching very closely.

Here’s looking forward and hoping to finding joy and peace in the days, weeks, and months ahead.

Originally published at RandomThink.net. You can comment here or there.

Only seems fitting to point out some election-themed links.

• Barack Obama - I’ve sent my vote his way. The more I’ve read and the more I’ve researched, I can’t see myself voting any other way. Between his increasingly hard right shift, his horrible selection for VP, and general change in conduct over this campaign, I can’t in good faith vote for McCain. In a sense, I’m voting more against McCain than I am voting for Obama, but it’s still something I feel is important to do. Please, get out there and vote. Even if we don’t agree, just get out and vote. Do your duty. Please.
• Obama in tears - Obama lost his grandmother yesterday. Having lost mine in 2003, and having another friend who just lost his, I’m all too familiar with such pain, and seeing him with tears running down his cheeks makes me feel that much better about him.
• Wassup 2008 - I link to BoingBoing for this one because they have the video embedded, but also link to the original video and such. The original group from the Bud commercial were brought back together to do what eventually results in an ad for Obama, but no matter who you’re voting for, it’s funny to see them reprise the roles. Rewatch the first one - it’s really quite similar.
• FiveThirtyEight.com - One of the best sites for statistical analysis of the presidential elections. As of this writing, they estimate that Obama has a 98.1% chance of taking the election. I hope they’re right.
• FactCheck.org - A great site that does analysis of pretty much everything the candidates say. On the whole, it basically seems that Obama is really good at stretching truths (such as his 95% household tax cut claim, which is actually 81% according to the Tax Policy Center), whereas McCain and co. have basically been launching one horrible lie after another (part of why I’m not voting in his direction, I have to say).
• Google Maps Voter Info - If you haven’t voted, and don’t know where to go to vote, look it up.
• 2008 Elections Gallery - There are a variety of maps available here. The one I’ve linked is for live election results. Linked on Twitter by Bishma, recommended by my friend Angela to be appended into this post, it seems like it could be a neat map to watch as the results come in.

I have to say - I’m going to be so glad when all of this is over. I’m looking forward to not coming home to multiple voicemails from various political groups and whatnot. Also, let it be known that you’re welcome to comment, but don’t expect a reply if it’s political in nature. I’m sharing these links because they seem fitting for today. I’m done discussing my reasons, and it’s all kind of moot anyways, since I’ve already voted, and hopefully you have too.

Get out there and vote, and be glad that it’ll (hopefully) all be over soon.

Edit: 9:25am: Added the 2008 Elections Gallery link.

Originally published at RandomThink.net. You can comment here or there.

Over the years, I’ve changed the look of RandomThink.net several times. It started its life as a Movable Type blog, and when they pulled their license fee stuff out some years back, I made the jump to WordPress, which I’ve been using for years, and with every major release, it seems like I wind up moving to a new theme.

Several times, I’ve tried designing my own look, and pretty much every time, it has been painful. The previous theme (with Gryphon in my head) wasn’t too bad, for a hand-rolled design. Some of my older readers may remember a particularly ugly theme I had at one point. Dark blues and greens. Seriously, I have no idea what I was thinking.

I built that theme on Sandbox. Code-wise, Sandbox was amazing. It was built on an amazing XHTML foundation, and gave designers a lot of room to play without having to change the DOM very much, if at all. I really liked Sandbox, but without solid design ability, it was immensely plain and simple — and as I have demonstrated time and time again, I’m not exactly talented in visual ways.

So, now I’m using the Carrington Theme, by Crowd Favorite. Carrington looks decently pretty by default, but should still give me a really strong foundation for design, while also giving me some more room to play in the code without altering the templates directly. Visually, it’s not quite me, but it’s a good sight better than what I’d crafted up before.

There’s a chance I’ll be using Carrington with a stock look for quite awhile, so I hope it doesn’t offend.

Up next: my first Monday in the sequence. Will I be writing up a musing? Will I be going off the rails already? Who knows? Stay tuned.

Originally published at RandomThink.net. You can comment here or there.

I suspect a lot of my readers are aware of NaNoWriMo, which is short for National Novel Writing Month, ten years strong now. The idea is to write a novel over the course of the month of November, assessed by word count. I believe the eventual goal of NaNo writers is to reach 50,000 words. I’ve had friends try, had them fail, had the succeed, but no matter what happened, I felt good for them because they got something done.

That being said, I’m not exactly a creative writer. I can very distinctly picture a small book I self-published as a child, in elementary school. I went over a waterfall in a raft, but I totally made it out okay. I don’t really think I’m destined to write amazing fiction works.

However, I do wish I were more of a blogger. I used to write more. It’s not that I don’t communicate much these days, but between things like forums and Twitter and comments on others’ blogs, I don’t really write much for myself, in my own space.

Apparently, I’m not the only person wishing they wrote more, and thinking that NaNo would be something to try to hop along. There’s now NaBloPoMo, which is short for National Blog Posting Month. Perhaps after ten years, it won’t sound as odd to me as it does now.

Anyhow, it’s good enough for me, hopefully, to give this thing a shot. I’m going to see about posting once a day for the entire month of November. Said posts may be short and/or sweet, but there’ll be something here every day. Since TheBon is also doing NaBloPoMo, and that’s where I heard about it this year, I’m going to borrow her ideas (with my own tweaks) for a daily set of themes, in order to help me out. I don’t promise I’ll stick to the themed ideas, but it’ll give me something to work with if I’m feeling dry of ideas.

• Monday Musings: Somewhat more focused thoughts on some topic I’ve had in my mind recently.
• Tubesday: Since the internet is a series of tubes, I’ll use Tuesdays to explore or highlight what I’ve ran across in the prior week. I suspect that my heavy use of Google Reader is going to help me a ton here.
• Working Wednesday: Seeing as I’m frequently dabbling with junk on the ‘net, various pieces of code and such, this’ll be a good excuse to put some of it out in front of you all for thoughts. I hope and expect this post theme to help motivate my work on my JavaScript canvas play. I’m also considering using Wednesday to actively alter the look of this blog (yet again).
• Thursday Inspiration: Hang on baby, Friday’s comin’. I’ll use this day as an excuse to find something inspirational or motivational to finish out the week.
• Photo Phriday: Not Photoshop Phriday (may be NSFW, be warned), but just an excuse to post some pictures that I may have taken during the past week, or perhaps I’ll finally get around to talking about pictures from Europe, or someone else’s photos. Whatever it winds up being, there should be associated photos.

As for Saturday and Sunday, I may reuse a theme or post something a bit more meta. For example, tomorrow’s post may very well be about the new Carrington Theme I’ve installed. I just started talking about it some more here, but I need to stop! Hammertime. I mean, save it for tomorrow.

In fact, that sounds like good advice. So, come back tomorrow for more. Or perhaps you should just add my RSS feed to your reader. More to come.

Originally published at RandomThink.net. You can comment here or there.