February 28, 2005
It was great to see Jamie Foxx win the best actor award during the Academy Awards tonight. He was definitely the most deserving of all the actors nominated because he turned out a brilliant performance in Ray. His performance was one of the best in recent memory and overall; I think one would be hardpressed to find many differences between Jamie Foxx’s interpretation of Ray Charles and the real man himself. Jamie Foxx was that good!
I think, for me anyhow, the best part of seeing Jamie Foxx win the award is that he is the first actor in recent years to win the same year that he actually deserved to win. Denzel Washington won for Training Day when he should have won for The Hurricane and Russell Crowe won for Gladiator when he really should have won for The Insider. Those are just a couple examples of some of the oddities of the Oscars.
Congrats to all the other winners throughout the night that Hollywood pats itself on its own back. The award show was slightly boring this year but at least Chris Rock made it worthwhile to watch!
February 27, 2005
A wicked new plug-in for Wordpress was released today which adds the ability to display your most recently listened to songs from your Audioscrobbler profile.
What is unique about this plug-in, compared to the one I was previously using, is that it allows for easily formatting the output of the songs in an unlimited amount of ways. To top it off it links to the Audioscrobbler song pages for each song that you have listened to.
I have replaced the previous Audioscrobbler plug-in I was using with this one. Take a look at the sidebar to get an idea of what it does and look for the heading, “Auralicious.”
On Friday at 3pm PST we held the inaugural deviantART signature chat in #devart on the deviantART Messaging Network with suzi9mm. She was present in the channel for roughly 40 minutes, fielding a variety of questions from the large group of deviant on hand for the event. To call it successful would be putting it mildly; the signature chat was a blast from start to finish.
If you really are interested in getting up close and personal with your favorite artists on deviantART then the signature chats will be exactly what you are looking for. Our intent is to hold sessions with the most beloved artists on the site as well as deviantART administration. Our goal is to allow people the opportunity to ask the questions that they have always wanted to, of their favorite artists and staff. There is a horde of questions that can be asked and we will make every attempt to allow for a time when they can be asked.
Beyond the obvious, these events are just outright fun. It is a blast to see the interactivity between the community-at-large and the single deviant on center stage. Questions and comments are flying in at record speed, from every angle, and somehow we are able to make something exciting and fun out of all this chaos.
I already expressed gratitude on behalf of the entire deviantART staff to suzi9mm in the recent news article about the inaugural signature chat. This time I would like to take a moment to thank her personally.
When we first came up with the idea for the signature chats suzi9mm was the first person suggested and ultimately ended up being our primary selection to be the focus of this inaugural signature chat. One of the Operators from the Message Network @dministration approached you and asked if you would be willing to take part in this adventure. You graciously accepted the offer to be our guest in a signature chat that was supposed to have taken place 4 weeks ago. That original date was dropped, at the last moment, due to certain internal issues but even with that you ended up dropping by #devart and fielding questions in an unofficial capacity.
When we finally came up with a date that was going to stick you made yourself available the week previous, just in case, as well as this past Friday. Your unselfish attitude towards this entire endeavor has not been overlooked; we have always loved you but this gave us even more reason to. During the chat you were an exceptional sport; you played the game like no other and captivated the audience with your answers to some difficult questioning.
For all that you have done for this opening event, and just for being a wonderful artist, administrator and person, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. You made a chaotic event a lot of fun and for that I am extremely grateful.
Thank you very much Jenni.
For those of you that missed the first signature chat worry no longer. We will be conducting signature chats once every two weeks, featuring your favorite artists and administrators. The next one is currently in the planning stages so stay tuned to deviantART news for an announcement about upcoming events!
February 24, 2005
Apple unveiled their new iPod lineup today and it is a beauty. It would appear that they feel the competition breathing down their back so they took some preventive moves with this latest offering.
The prices on just about all the iPod’s has dropped. The 4GB iPod Mini is down to $199 from $249. The new 6GB iPod Mini runs for $249, the old price of the 4GB iPod Mini.
The 30GB iPod Photo costs $349, while the 60GB device costs $449. Previously, Apple offered a 40GB model for $499 and a 60GB version for $599. Lowering the cost on the color screen enabled iPod Photo’s almost makes the color screens a standard feature rather than a sought after one. It would appear, at first glance, that is the move Apple might be making.
What I find most intriguing about this new lineup is that the only 4G monochrome screen model available is the 20GB iPod. This make the argument that the color screen enabled iPods is the wave of Apple’s future.
Too bad I already have a 3G 20GB iPod otherwise I might be inclined to indulge!
Jason Kottke is trying to see if he can work on his blog for a year off of donations that would ultimately lead to roughly 50% of what he was previously making at his other job. I sincerely wish him the best of luck with all that as he most certainly deserves it! The most interesting aspect in all of this is to see whether or not he will be able to live off of the whole micropatron idea that he has started.
It is wonderful to see people capable of working on the very thing they love. Imagine if we all worked on a job that we loved working on each day. Would that not make waking up and heading to work so much easier? Work would be a blast under circumstances like that.
Time will tell; good luck buddy!
February 21, 2005
I am looking for someone interested in designing an 88×31 propaganda button for jarkolicious dot com. The one I was using I made but it looks horribly unfashionable. Maybe that gave it character all its own but overall it was a meager attempt at graphic design!
So, anyone? The winner will net themselves some deviantART goodies, all paid for by yours truly.
