Chris Barr

Green Tea

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

I've been drinking a lot of green tea from Adagio recently because I got a sampler pack for Christmas. It's a great way to try out all the many varieties they carry, and now I know which ones I like and which I don't.

Out of the gren tea sampler I got, my absolute favorite is Citron Green. It's infused with lemon and lime flavors, which gives it a nice citrus flavor - which is very refreshing. I normally drink it hot in the mornings, but I've had it cold a few times as well and it's just as good.

Next, I've grown to like Genmai Cha, which has popped rice and popcorn along with the tea leaves. It sounds a bit strange, but it's got a very sweet and nutty flavor. It's become one of my favorites. Lastly, I really like the Gunpowder green tea. This is just a good and strong tea. It's not too overpowering though.

I'm beginning to run out of tea leaves now and I'm going to have to reorder soon, and I'll be reordering larger containers of these teas I listed above. With that order, I'm probably also going to get the White Tea sampler pack as well. I don't think I've ever had any white tea before, and I'm always up for something new.

Facebook Apps

Saturday, February 23, 2008

I love the idea of Facebook apps, they let developers get known by nearly the entire Facebook community for their hard work, and they allow people to even further the social networking experience. There's a lot of great apps out there that are actually very useful, fun, and promote a great user experience.

The problem with Facebook apps is the users, and how Facebook deals with them. For the majority of the apps out there, when you add it you must invite at least 20 friends! For some reason the majority of users are fine with this, but lets call it what it is - spam! Unless you actually want an app, or legitimately think a friend of yours would like an app you've found, there is no reason whatsoever to have invites for an app, let alone forced or required invitations!

Now this problem lies with the developer of the application. They are the ones who choose to force you to invite 20 friends to add an app. This is purely an ego thing for them I'm sure - "Look how many people have installed my app!" According to ReadWriteWeb, Facebook will soon be punishing stupid applications, and rewarding the good ones. They determine stupid apps as ones that serve no purpose, spam the users, and no one actually uses - meaning people are just blindly accepting app invites.

Another completely separate problem are the people who just blindly accept every app they get an invite to. People like this end up with a ridiculous looking profile that almost rivals MySpace. Take a look at the picture to the left, this is one of my Facebook friends who has been adding apps like crazy! She has 71 applications installed!

This included 4, count em, 4 separate walls that all do the same thing, an app displaying their loyalty to Starbucks and what her favorite drink is, and the ability for your friends to let you know if they think you're hot or not. There reaches a point when you have unused and empty app containers, your profile picture appears 8 times on your own profile, and your finger becomes tired form using the scroll wheel, that you need to re-think how you use Facebook.

Lunar Eclipse

Thursday, February 21, 2008

In case you didn’t know, there was a total lunar eclipse last night, and we won’t be able to see another one until 2010.

I stayed outside for several hours last night to capture every stage of the eclipse, and I got about 150 pictures of it, but I had to narrow it down to just a few for the image below.  Feel free to click and download this thing at any size you want.  The largest size fits Apple’s 30 inch display, so hopefully it will fit yours.

I learned a lot about astral/moon photography doing this also.  A small 2 second exposure actually gives the moon enough time to move and blur the photo slightly.  Two seconds!

Mac Scratches

Dang it, I scratched the crap of of my MacBook Pro!  I was sitting on the couch and I reached down to get my cat, and my laptop slipped off and hit the corner of my coffee table.

I don’t really know of anything that I can fix this with, but I had an idea of possibly taking some sandpaper or steel wool to the lid and roughing it up a bit.  This might give it a cool brushed metal look, but I haven’t heard of anyone doing this before, so I’m not so sure it’s a good idea yet.

Ideally, I would love to get my MacBook Pro laser etched, but I can’t find anywhere locally that uses high powered lasers.  I could ship it off to some company to do it, but that starts to get expensive.  Here’s some great examples of laser etched MacBook Pros.

• Tribal etching
• Japanese art etching
• Pixelated photo etching
• Vector art etching
• Floura/Fauna etching

Alternatively, I found a company called Gelaskins that sells adhesive prints of artwork you put on the back of you laptop.  Here’s my favorites:

• Growth
• All Directions
• Swinging DAIM

Kaizo Mario and Quantum Physics

Monday, February 18, 2008

Want to see one of the hardest games ever created?  Someone modified the levels of Super Mario World to be incredibly hard, and they call it “Kaizo Mario”.  Here’s level one being played

Now if you want to see something even crazier, how about 134 people playing that level at the same time?  That’s right, 134 different plays of this level all superimposed on top of each other.

For a better explanation of that video, and what it has to do with quantum physics, you’d be better off reading the creators homepage: http://msm.grumpybumpers.com/?p=20

How to Deal with Junk Mail

Thursday, February 07, 2008

Do you get junk mail every day from credit card companies? I sure do, sometimes multiple offers each day! I've decided to write a simple tutorial on how to easily deal with your junk mail. Sure you could easily just throw it away, but that's not secure and not the least bit fun.

Step 1 - Recieve Junk Mail » This is the easiest step. Just check your mailbox and you're bound to find some. Open the envelope and make sure it contains a business reply envelope.






Step 2 - Tear it Up » Now comes the fun part. Set aside the business reply envelope, and tear up everything else into small pieces. This means the original containing envelope as well.






Step 3 - The Transfer » Now, take all the pieces you've torn up and put them into the business reply envelope.






Step 4 - Make it Fit » Now this is a lot of stuff to put in such a small envelope, but you can make it fit - I believe in you. Use tape if you have to.






Step 5 - Repeat » I got two credit card offers in one day, so I was able to send both companies their papers back, because they want them back and all I'm trying to do is help.






Step 6 - Send it » Now put them in the mailbox so that they can return to their rightful owners. Make sure you put the flag up on your mailbox!

Pelican Point Golf Course

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

This past weekend I had the opportunity to take some photos of a golf tournament help by my church.  I got to ride around with my friend Kristen in a gold cart and just take pictures of each team.  I had my Nikon D80, and she had her D40x, and we both got some really great shots.  Here’s a few of the highlights, click each photo to view it larger on Flickr.

LED Light Drawing Pens

Monday, February 04, 2008

I think these things are going to have to be my next photography project.  I love taking long exposure photos, and this would really help give them more color and originality.

They look very simple to make, it’s just a matter of sitting down and doing it some time.