Yesterday afternoon I drove home during a thunderstorm that included lots of lightning. When I got inside my answering machine was dead, florescent bulb in the bathroom was dead and my modem had trouble finding the Internet. I had to replace all three.

This morning my neighbor called to let me know lightning struck the tree behind my house and that bark went flying. And so, without further ado, I give you a couple of photos.

Looks lke a feline made the tree a scratching post.

A friend sent this to me this morning. He thought of me because of the dots involved in the game. I thought of you sifters because of the cat in the game. Can you circle the cat?!?

Circle the Cat

The Times-Picayune just sent me e-mail that New Orleans Mayor, Ray Nagin, his wife and staffer have all been quarintined in China. This is after a person on his flight came down with swine flu symptoms. Read more details here.

This is the third time I've found a $1 dollar bill (portrait of George Washington) stamped by the site wheresgeorge.com. When I find one, I just go to the site and enter identification information. Then I can see where the dollar bill has been and keep track of where it going when it leaves my hands. Here's the map for the dollar bill I have now.

There is a sister site for Canadians called whereswilly.com. The FAQ had this in case you wondered who "Willy" was:

'"Willy" is Sir Wilfrid Laurier - The first French Canadian Prime Minister. He held office from 1896 to 1911. His portrait is on the Canadian $5 bill.'

June 1st marks the beginning of the 2009 Hurrricane Season. There's already a tropical wave in the Gulf of Mexico. Have a look here. Well, the storms don't always abide by the dates that begin and end the season. Anyway, here are this year's list of names. Do you see your name?

Atlantic

Ana
Bill
Claudette
Danny
Erika
Fred
Grace
Henri
Ida
Joaquin
Kate
Larry
Mindy
Nicholas
Odette
Peter
Rose
Sam
Teresa
Victor
Wanda

Pacific

Andres
Blanca
Carlos
Dolores
Enrique
Felicia
Guillermo
Hilda
Ignacio
Jimena
Kevin
Linda
Marty
Nora
Olaf
Patricia
Rick
Sandra
Terry
Vivian
Waldo
Xina
York
Zelda
 

A friend of mine shared a link for a zombie radio play. He plays one of the roles.

It Begins Part 1

NSFW for Language.

Enjoy.

Yesterday I attended the Old Algiers Riverfest in New Orleans. This kid was dancing up a storm in front of the stage. Here are links to two other videos I filmed.

River Fest Steppin' 2

River Fest Electric Slide

To see more photos of the Fest:

Levee View

Stage

Tents

 

 

 

Dailybooth is a social networking site built around taking one's photo everyday. It's set up so that folks can follow others and others can follow folks. And folks can comment on one another's photos.

Well that's probably more than I want to take on, but it is an interesting twist on the current social networking trends.

Here is an example profile.

Back in July of 2007 I signed up for a Twitter account. Someone mentioned it in an article and I thought I’d check it out. It wasn’t until February 2008 when a group of bloggers on BlogCatalog decided to follow one another that I began to participate. Still, I wondered about the value of using the site.

Last summer I noticed some local screen names that had regular conversations about local topics. Then there was a lunch meet-up invite. Well, I went and ate lunch with a group of local bloggers. After that I added more screen names of folks I met that day.

After Gustav, several of them posted information about the conditions back in the New Orleans. I was still up in Memphis trying to decide when to drive back home. Also, a local weekly newspaper, that I follow, was giving updates via Twitter.

During the past year, I’ve enjoyed checking out articles, photos and videos that others link in their messages. Some folks are very witty with their messages.

Before leaving my house Thursday afternoon I was skimming through tweets. I then went to the newest tweets that came in while I was reading older messages. Many of them had to do with the plane that went into the Hudson River. One tweet even mentioned seeing the plane go by his apartment as it descended. It's a different way to read about events taking place.

Recently Mashable posted a couple of articles to help users choose “who to follow” and “how to get followed.”

The 10 Users You’ll Meet on Twitter

FOLLOW FAIL: The Top 10 Reasons I Will Not Follow You in Return on Twitter

On Thursday Twitter launched this "follow" suggestion tool: Find people. Follow them. There is also a site called TwitterGroups that may be useful for finding like-minded users. If it helps you to see whom I am following and the messages they are posting, you are welcome to do so.

Search for Twitter has returned. It's useful for finding specific topics among users.

Previously I posted a list of my bookmarks.

Already there are two books available on Twitter:

Twitter Revolution: How Social Media and Marketing is Changing the Way We Do Business and Market Online by Deborah Micek & Warren Whitlock (foreword by Robert Scoble)

Twitter Means Business: How Microblogging Can Help or Hurt Your Company by Julio Ojeda-Zapata

Folks who want to trade follows are welcome to post them in comments here. On Twitter I am dotartdude. Keep in mind that this phenomenon is still evolving

One last thing . . . For the experience to be worthwhile, a user should follow others that interest her/him. It may mean pruning a follow list at regular intervals.

It was only a matter of time . . .

http://www.aksalser.com/game.htm

Mark Bradford, "Mithra"

 

Friday afternoon I traveled to the Lower Ninth Ward, in New Orleans, to see artworks that are part of the biennial, Prospect.1 New Orleans. The New Orleans Contemporary Art Center has organized biennials before, but this one, curated by Dan Cameron, is much larger. It includes 81 artists whose works are scattered across 17 New Orleans locations. If it were called an “art world’s fair,” it might be clearer to folks just what it is.

A couple of weeks ago I started visiting the sites on the official biennial map. The majority of the works I saw today were located outside, which gave me an opportunity to shoot some photos. Above is a photo of artist Mark Bradford’s piece “Mithra.”

His works usually are made from what he finds on the street. His other works, that I’ve seen, include a lot more painting. This one was more of a constructed piece – an ark in fact. You may have guessed that Bradford does have a sense of humor about the site location for his artwork. There are old posters that are falling apart on the sides of this structure.  The Lower Ninth Ward was flooded when a barge hit a floodwall during Hurricane Katrina. Much of the neighborhood close to the wall was destroyed. There are large areas of empty lots now – including this one.

In addition to the biennial there are exhibits referred to as satellite shows. There are also gallery shows and other events in connection with the biennial. The biennial started November 1st and will end on January 18th. Already there is talk about the next biennial Prospect.2, which would be in 2010.

When I went to bed last night it was cold and raining outside. I woke up to this. My car is somewhere under there. My lawn is covered and the sidewalk has slush on it.

The last time it snowed was Christmas Day 2004. We don't have snow very often in Metairie, Louisiana. When it does snow, it doesn't last very long.

On Halloween I managed to photograph the Great Pumpkin in Uptown New Orleans. So yes, the Great Pumpkin does exist. Here's the proof in living color.

Just click on the link and you'll see an interactive picture of President Palin at her desk in the Oval Office.

Palin as President

Oh, and whatever you do, don't touch the RED PHONE, mkay?!?

Last night was the kick off for the New Orleans Film Festival. It runs October 10th – 16th. I attended two film showings at one of the three locations being used for the festival. Now I’m mapping out what I’ll see during the next few days. Yes, that may mean some hopscotching between locations. So far I’ve purchased two 6 film passes – saving a little on admissions prices. As you can see I’ve been by the film postcard table.

A fellow plurker posted this Wayne John review, of ten avatar creation sites, on Plurk today.

10 Cool 'Create an Avatar' Web Sites

• gravatar

• SimpsonizeMe.com

• South Park Studio

• Face Your Manga

• DoppleMe.com

• Meez.com

• Build Your Wild Self

• Portrait Illustration Maker

• TizMe.net

• DigiBody's Caracature Maker

• Block Head Iconizer

 

If you make a new avatar with one these sites, post a comment.

YouTuber Rgmonster posted a marshmallow eating challenge video back in January of 2007. Participants place one marshmallow at a time into their mouths and attempt to say “chubby bunny” each time. The point is to see how many will fit. He manages to stuff his mouth with seven before gagging.

At some point YouTube featured his video. So if you run into videos with “chubby bunny” in the title, you know who begat this madness. A search of those two words on YouTube generated 2,030 results.

And now for a few words from the peanut gallery . . .
 

Tropical Storm Gustav (downgraded as I type) is not even in the Gulf of Mexico nor is it over Cuba, yet the local forecasters are already panicking our local populace with reminders about supplies they should purchase and things they should do in preparation. Here’s a bit of humor concerning the National Hurricane Center’s forecast cone.

The Weather Channel shows the cone and where the storm may hit along the Gulf Coast. Right now it extends from Texas to Florida.

Here are seven computer model projections. More of them have shifted west since I last looked at them. A high pressure system has been sitting over Florida. High pressure systems help protect an area. Too bad one isn't over my area right now.