Who doesn’t love halloween? Every year i have fun, but there’s always that “What the hell do i wear this year” dilemma. Well, this year i went back to my roots – beer and music. I seriously considered being a giant speaker – but its a bit too impractical for an active guy like myself. So that left me to stare at my favorite beer – Racer 5. While looking for a giant beer bottle costume, i noticed a speed racer outfit, and thought “Speed Racer 5” would be a good double costume. A couple days later, it was made (yes, i made the whole thing with some guidance from alice)
In searching for pictures of what speed racer and racer 5 looks like, i came across this awesome site called beeroftheday.com. It’s a really nice site – clean, tight, “less is more” philosophy .. great for when you’re drinkin’ beers.
I love wordpress.com, but I’m finally ready to move on. They are a free site, and i’m glad i started off blogging with them, but now its time to run my own site.
Welcome to ChadNorwood.com. I have much more control here over themes, plugins, stats, among other things. For now, i’ve picked a basic theme to get the ball rolling, ya know, get the new URLs up and running. Expect it to look a little different over the coming weeks.
I am so happy to see my friends rallying around Otto to raise the money he needs (see last post). Good people.
But I’m also happy to have creative friends that actually do stuff. If you know Jason and Monica, they’ve thrown many great events, and their latest project, swapsf, is awesome (no, jason doesn’t own that word). But i’m not here to plug that – i’m here to plug a short play – The Old Ones. Sorry, you can’t see it live, but you can watch “The Old Ones” on youtube.
Our big brother needs help. Luckily, he has many friends and family helping him – especially Lee on the ottoshutt.com blog. But the most important thing is how Otto and others are facing this challenge. Otto says it all better than i could even imagine. He has always been one of the guys you look up to, a natural leader, but now Otto is one of my heroes.
Last weekend Shayna and I had our housewarming, and it was a great success. We had many friends show up, delicious food and beverages, and good times had by all. Well, until about 7pm when we had to leave because the noise was bothering the old ladies upstairs. We knew it might happen, so we just got everybody to go around the corner to Dovre club, bar at 26th and mission. The housewarming was planned to go from 2 till 10, so we had a few people show up after 7pm. One of them, Stephanie, said it best when she said “This is the best housewarming at a bar i’ve ever been to”. Amen. Thanks everybody for coming !!
Just gonna share some geekiness in this blog – short and sweet.
First, how to make your own custom ringtones (tested with several verizon phones)
- Download Audacity (Windows or Mac) and Lame mp3 codec. This lets you cut a 10 second selection sample from your favorite mp3.
- Download and install Lame mp3 codec (copy to wherever audacity is).
- Drag your favorite mp3/wav file to Audacity and make a selection that will be your ringtone. Best if its between 3 and 20 secs.
- File – Export Selection as MP3. First time it will ask you where Lame mp3 codec is, tell it. Then Give ringtone a name, save to disk.
- For Verizon – Email it as attachment to <your_10digit_cellphone_number>@vzwpix.com. For example, 4151234567@vzwpix.com
- Done.
iPhoto – merging multiple iPhoto libraries for free. I couldn’t agree more with this dude.
Google Analytics – been out for about a year, but i just started using it. You basically add some javascript code to the end of every html page you want to track, and google does an amazing job of showing you stats and other useful info. Really. And its great to manage different domains, or setup multiple profiles within a domain. Once again, google is way better than anything else thats ever tried to do this. Sux that i can’t do it on wordpress.com .
Oh, and not a geek thing, but give some love to my friend otto – he needs it and deserves it.
About 2 weeks ago I noticed my bike, a 1993 Honda Nighthawk, was not where i left it on the street. I was not upset, i don’t really ride it that much anymore (not since January before my RTW trip). So i figured i’d get some insurance money and just move on. I filed a police report on Friday the 28th, about a week after i saw it last.
Surprisingly, 10 days after i told SFPD it was missing, they found it. The police actually found my motorcycle. wow. And it was found only a few blocks away from where i left it in upper haight. Apparently whoever stole it was using it and just parking it in the street like he owned it. Smart. I was surprised and asked the cops lots of questions, and they gave me concise answers.
- Who found it? Dunno – anonymous call.
- Will it be investigated further? no.
- Anything else gonna happen? no, its now removed from stolen vehicle list.
- So thats it, i can take it now? yes, just show us your Drivers license and sign this.
Yay! I guess… Actually, i rode it across town to do an errand around 5pm and i was very happy to be on my motorcycle. So I am glad i have it back. Once my bike-friend Tony looks it over and makes sure the thief didn’t do any damage, i’ll be good to go.