I’ve been working on some new stuff on the side.

First, I threw together a blog for Lauren. I’d done the design a while back, and just put it together tonight. If you find any bugs with it, let me know, since I basically just cloned mine and switched out the images and changed a few of the CSS properties.

Second, I’m working on an interactive calendar for Sarah’s site (which I can’t show you, because it’s still in production). I’ve found a PHP calendar that will display a month and its events, but you have to re-load the page to view each month. I’ve also found a JavaScript date-picker that constructs the months and, when you click a date, fills it into the date field on a form. It doesn’t pull from a database. So I’m going to have to merge the two together with some AJAX. A big undertaking, but I’ll have the calendar in my toolbox after that.

Third, I promised Janelle a re-design of her blog, since I’ve gotten better at design since designing hers initially. This will have to wait until I’ve made some progress on Sarah’s site.

Stolen from Facebook:

1. Go to Wikipedia. Hit “random”
   or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
   The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.
2. Go to Quotations Page and select “random quotations”
   or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
   The last four or five words of the very last quote on the page is the title of your first album.
3. Go to Flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
   or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
   Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
4. Use Photoshop or similar to put it all together.

My results:

Note: I did not use this song in my wedding. But it would be really cool to have the bridal party walk down the aisle to this song:

(That’s not an “official” video—just a fan who wanted to make his own video. If this song sounds familiar, I know they’ve been using it on ESPN as background music for some football segments.)

There’s a big entrance at 3:18, although it dies down toward the end of the song and builds up right up to the end, which leads into the bride walking down the aisle.

I’m well on my way to planning weddings. Great. Now I have to do something to prove I’m not gay. At least I talked about football in this post.

I’ve been having some recent conversations at work about music, and out of one of them, Sigur Rós came up. I can’t believe I haven’t discovered these guys yet. They’re absolutely amazing. Their album Takk (they don’t exactly speak a lot of English) is amazing. Here’s a song off of that album.

Musically, they’re in the same vein as Explosions in the Sky and Mogwai, although they’re quite different. It’s like pure, unbridled emotion in the form of melodies and counterpoints. There is some singing, but it’s all in Icelandic.

I got turned off to them because the first album of theirs I heard was their rare EP with Mogwai, which is more like ambient noise than music. Not so with their other stuff. Their album Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust is really good too. Not the most engaging stuff, but absolutely beautiful.

As an aside, the group of us from work are all going to see Watchmen next weekend, so we get to talk about music and good movies. (Well, hopefully it’s good.) We’re going opening night (Friday), so I’ll try to get a review up here the next day for all those wondering how it is.

For Dagney’s birthday tonight, a group of us went swing dancing. Now, I know, some of you might be saying, “Wow, Brandon, I didn’t know you swing danced!” Well, I don’t. Let me tell you why.

While I’m generally good at picking things up when using my mental prowess, I’m absolutely terrible when it comes to using my physical prowess. I have flashbacks to the PlattForm volleyball league a year and a half ago, where I was an embarrassment not only to PlattForm Interactive, but also to America. I played soccer for half a season—half a season!—in high school, only to be taken out injured for the rest of the season. Seeing as I was second-string mid-fielder for the junior varsity team, this was not a huge loss for my team.

I talked to a few other wallflowers tonight about dancing. “Oh, I’m terrible,” said one, “I have absolutely no rhythm.” I shook my head. “I don’t have that excuse,” I replied. (I’m a drummer.) “Oh, I forgot about that,” the man said. An awkward silence followed. I mean, what’s the proper response to that?

man: “Well, maybe it’s because you’re white?”
me: “I’m legally Alaskan Native.”
man: “Uh, is there much dancing in Alaskan Native culture?”
me: “I am mildly unsettled by this conversation.”

But let’s take a closer look at swing dancing. For those unfamiliar with the basic step (the first thing they teach you in swing class), it’s a three-step. There are actually four steps, but one occurs on an upbeat, so it’s only three counts. Every single song they played tonight was in 4/4 time signature, which means there were four counts to every measure. If you still don’t get it, here’s a play-by-play for three measures:

So you see my frustration, as a drummer and logical thinker. I feel like I’m taking crazy pills, here!

Anyway, despite the rhythmical blasphemy that is swing dancing, I actually had a pretty good time tonight. So happy birthday, Dagney! But seriously, do not get me anywhere near a dance floor (unless I am holding a guitar).

Because it took me so bloody long to find this code online and make it work with what I wanted, I’m documenting it here.

<b>javascript</b>
document.oncontextmenu = window.oncontextmenu = function(e) {
  var obj = (/msie/i.test(navigator.userAgent)) ? event.srcElement : e.target;
  if (obj.nodeName=="IMG" || obj.nodeName=="img")
    return false;
}

Just place that in the head of your HTML document and you should be good to go. Disables right-click on images only—it will work on the rest of the page.

Smashing Pumpkins, Cheap Trick, Hanson members form band

My very talented friend, Jason Watson, made some videos for church that are definitely worth a see:

New videos

Janelle is the voice of Katie, and Janelle and I co-wrote the scripts for both “How to Raise Your Parents” vids. I think there are going to be more of them too. I’ll keep you posted on those.

Alright, I’ve made this a few times now, and it’s always amazing. Here’s what you’ll need:

• One large head of broccoli
• A few cloves of garlic (depends on how much you like garlic… I use somewhere around four larger ones)
• Olive oil
• Sesame oil
• Salt

Mince or finely chop the garlic and stick it in a large pan with a generous amount of olive oil. Don’t put it on quite yet—you only want it slightly brown by the time you put the broccoli in.

Cut off the tips of the broccoli and, if necessary, cut larger pieces into smaller pieces. You don’t want too small, but you want something you’ll be able to fit in your mouth. I’ve heard a lot of people say that they don’t like the stalk. This is usually because it’s tough and chewy. Well, it’s actually just the outside layer of the stalk that’s tough and chewy. Get a peeler and peel the stalk, then cut it into bite-size pieces. (About halfway through this process, put the garlic on medium heat.)

Once it’s in the pan, sprinkle some sesame oil and salt over the broccoli. I don’t remember exactly why, but you’re not supposed to use sesame oil as a cooking oil—it’s just for flavor. Sprinkle some salt, and sauté for somewhere around ten minutes, stirring occasionally. You’ll see parts of the broccoli turn brownish and crusty from being fried in the olive oil. Take it off the heat before it gets more than a little brown around the edges.