Thursday, June 30, 2005

Yahoo My Web 2.0 vs Filangy

So yesterday I kind of got excited about My web 2.0 and while I still thing its cool I'm leaning back towards filangy again. "What?" I hear you say. I know that didn't make any sense to most of you so I'll explain. First off I'll explain what they do. Have you ever wanted your bookmarks on every computer you use? Have you ever wanted to find a page you've been on before but forgot to bookmark it. Do you find yourself scrolling through your bookmarks trying to find the one you want among the long list. Have you ever thought to yourself, "I bet GodsMoon has done some research on this, If only he were here!" Or "Man that was hard to find, I wish I could make it easier for my friends to find!" Of course, I have an answer to all those questions. Several company offer most or all of these features. The list includes: del.icio.us , Furl, A9, Yahoo's My Web 2.0, and Filangy. All off them have there pros and cons. But for the moment after trying out most of them I'm sticking with Filangy. It does all the great things that you hoped for above plus other great stuff. Filangy is also a rapidly growing developing service. Its super easy to use. Just sign up, download the toolbar (or don't download anything and just use the bookmarklet) and your good to go. It will now index every page you visit so if you want to find it again you can just do a quick search with one of 2 words that you remember from the page and it will bring it right up :) If you really want to find something easily than you can bookmark it (or 'Webmark' as they call them). Once you bookmark something you can tag it, like gmail (if you don't have gmail you need it, just ask me), and add notes to it to remind you why you bookmarked it ;) Once you have something bookmarked then you can share it with other people, like me. So while I may not be right there to tell you exactly how to fix your terribly annoying ad popup problem you can just search through my webmarks and find the article that I use when I try and fix your laptop. Isn't that amazing! If you would like to view and search my webmarks you can. I've provided a link just under my site search box on the right of my site. While you're at it you mine as well sign up for filangy yourself (though you don't have to) and start sharing what you what to remember with me. For a minute yesterday I got excited yesterday because yahoo released something that was similar but after using it a little bit I find that it is not as good as Filangy and I think I'll stick with them until I find something better. I'll let you know if I do.

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

OOOHHH NOOOOO, Spam!

"86 percent of the addresses posted to web pages received spam. It didn't matter where the addresses were posted on the page: if the address had the '@' sign in it, it drew spam. " - Email Address Harvesting: How Spammers Reap What You Sow
"Outdoing most analysts' worst predictions, spam accounted for 82 percent of all U.S. email last month." - May 5, 2004
Wow that's a lot of spam.
So what do I do? Obviously I shouldn't post my email with an @ sign in it.
First off: don't post your email where you don't have to. It is recommended that you post your email on your blog for people to contact you privately though. So here's several solutions.
  • You can write you email like this: GodsMoon [at] gmail [dot] com This takes a lot of space but it works.
  • you can Make an Email Image like this one This is my preferred way of doing it at the moment. The Email Image Maker lets you choose from all the most popular email domains.
  • If your email address is @yourwebsite.com or something like that then you can use this image creator.
  • Another possible way is to use JavaScript. Most of the techniques I've seen on the internet I wouldn't recommend. Most of them seem to leave the @ sign in and thus would not work. This one seems like it would work and it seems reputable.
  • I'm not sure if this one would work or not but its worth mentioning. It simply encodes your email. The site has a page rank of 7 and is listed in dmoz.org so it probably works but I'm not sure its full proof.

Tags:

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Monday, June 27, 2005

Looking for some quick entertainment?

If you can read, visit this absolutely hilarious ingenious random fictional blog from a guy that I sort of know. www.xanga.com/nonnobis1963. You should probably start at the beginning of the story though.

If you cannot read, please visit this little piggy... go on... click on him.

I hope you are entertained.

Friday, June 24, 2005

Free Web Hosting

So I found this page:Free Web Hosting. Its all about free webhosting. I really wanted to start a server of my own but if somebody will give me a decent on for free, then I could settle for that. Eventually, if I get enough money earned from my google ads on the left, I'll move this site to www.godsmoon.com but right now I'll have to make due with what I have. If you would like to help me out click on one of the ads. :)

Riverbend Festival 2005 Day 9 Report

Day 9 was the final day of the Riverbend Festival and might I say it was one of the better days at Riverbend. I got there late but got to see most of Gaelic Storm and they were awesome. Some of the best drinking songs I've ever heard and they were making using of the drinking part of 'drinking songs' for sure. The whole group was very talented and several members of the group played multiple instruments. For instance, the guy that played the crazy handheld Irish drum thing (help me out here, you know what I'm talking about, right?) also played the didjeridoo. I don't know how I know what a didjeridoo is but I can't think of the name of that Irish drum. Oh well. After Gaelic Storm and played their encore my group split up with everybody going to see Pat Benatar except for me. I went to go see PaPa Mali. Papa Mali was quite good but I didn't stay for long because I remembered that I left my cell phone in the car and there was no way for me to regain contact with them. Luckily I found them before they had picked out a final destination in the middle of a very crowded lawn. On my way to find them I passed the child talent search stage and at first I thought I heard somebody playing the radio. I heard songs by Ozzy and Metallica but suddenly realized that it was 2 kids off to the side of the talent show stage rockn out. These kids must not have been more then 12 and yet he was soloing on the guitar better than several of the artist I had seen previously at Riverbend. This was followed by a drum solo that was equally as good. I was impressed but had to find my company so I didn't stay long here either. Pat Benatar was alright. Nothing to get too excited about, unless you absolutely love the 80's, in which case it was a dream come true. ;) The fireworks this year were pretty decent. I think perhaps they were better last year and they were about on par with the fireworks they had for the grand opening of the pier.
In conclusion to Blogging Riverbend Festival I must say that I had a good time, even though I got behind a little there at the end. I would have to say the best act that I the 9 days was Gaelic Storm followed closely by Phat Phunktion. Both of which were on the UnumProvident Stage. I hope you enjoyed reading the reports about Riverbend. If I feel like it, I'll probably blog Riverbend again next year. But for now I'm back to the exciting life of a college student that occasionally has something exciting happen to him. :)
more pictures

Saturday, June 18, 2005

Riverbend Festival 2005 Day 6, 7 & 8 Report

I didn't get a chance to make it to Riverbend on Day 6 due to the fact that my car was in the shop overnight. However, I did manage to catch a ride to see Batman Begins. I must say it was incredible. Anyway, my car is now fixed and running better than ever, as it should be for the price I paid.
Day 7 was somewhat disappointing with nobody noteworthy at all. They only moderately exciting thing that happen is my interview with the classy miss Rue.
Riverbend Day 8 was much better with the highlight being Colin Hay from Men at Work. He was surprisingly good. I especially liked his new stuff. He brought his somewhat English speaking wife along with him and she danced crazy like on the stage the whole time. Motor City Josh played before Colin Hay. I only caught they tail end of their act but it was quite good with a lot of variety. Afterward I when to go see the old folks of the Cumberland Trio. The Trio had about 8 members... so I guess that makes sense. Anyway they played some good folk music and even had somebody dress up in a very huggable lion suit and sit down front with the little ones. After that it was off to the bluegrass sounds of the Biscuit Burners. They were a young group with a female lead singer. I enjoyed listening to them, but it was not enough to keep me awake so I had to go before the end of the set. I took lots of picture. Go check them out.

Thursday, June 16, 2005

laughing with Peggy "anne roth" Rue

this is an audio post - click to play
This was suppose to be an interview but mostly its just laughing.

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Riverbend Festival 2005 Day 5 Report

Day 5 was Family/Faith based night at Riverbend. What does that mean exactly? It means the Rock 105 closed their booth, but lots of churches where giving out free stuff. It means that the daily pass is only $5 but the bands are mostly crappy. It means that there are lots of and lots of little kids, but free Little Debbies. Over all it wasn't too bad. The only show I wanted to see was Newsboys, and as usual they put on a great show. They definitely had the crowed involved more than any other group that has play as of yet. Not having any particularly good bands to listen to I was left to take pictures and talk to friends mostly. I took a lot of pictures and I hope you enjoy some of them. The days interview was of Super Dave. He was super nervous and almost backed out on me, but I managed to sucker him into talking with me.


Tonight's recommendations will be few...

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Interview with SuperDave at Riverbend

this is an audio post - click to play

Riverbend Festival 2005 Day 4 Report

Day 4 of the Riverbend Festival was the Bessie Smith Strut. Its hot, crowded and free. Oh yeah... and there's usually good blues music too. This year was decent. I think it was just the mood that I was in, or perhaps it was the fact that I had eaten every little, but all good music seemed to be lounge blues. Not really having a good place too lounge while listening to lounge music just makes me what to lounge all the more. This, of course, left me wanting food in a nice sit down restaurant. We first tried going to BW3's but after not getting any service at all, we swung over to TGIF, which I must say was quite delicious.
I did manage to hear some of the groups before I left though. The Black Diamond Heavies were very good. However, they don't have a bass guitarist, and since I play bass guitar, and happen to really like blues bass guitar I found there music missing... bass. The lead singer/guitarist of the Black Diamond Heavies is a large man and can be rather scary at times too. So that was a little creepy. The Rockin' Jake Band was not so much Rockin' as I thought they'd be. Disappointing really :( They sounded like zydeco, but they too were missing something. Tinsley Ellis, on the other hand, was very good, but after listening to him only a little while I ran into the lounge dilemma mentioned above and left to find refreshment. Over all, it was a hot day at Riverbend.
See more pictures

Monday, June 13, 2005

Interview with Merlaak at Riverbend

this is an audio post - click to play
You must excuse the long pauses, he gets easily distracted.

Riverbend Festival 2005 Day 3 Report

Day 3 was not too exciting music wise. Most of the bands were either country or not good. But there are other things to do at Riverbend than listen to music like sign up to win all kinds of stuff and eat really over priced food, which is exactly what I did. I finally broke down and bought some tokens, cause I was craving a corn dog. I like me a good corn dog. This particular corn dog was not exactly fantastic but it did sustain me enough to continue on my journey from one end of the festival to the other.
I didn't get to play my day out completely because the riverbend website was down and it takes me a while to compile all those audio links. It turns out that there really wasn't anybody that I wanted to hear until Michael McDonald with the CSO. We set up our chairs early on the front row of the non-VIP section. We had pretty good seat, but the way they have things arranged I still felt like I was half a mile away from the stage. I guess that's why they have the projection screens every where. The CSO opened with some music from Phantom of the Opera (I love that music). Michael McDonald was pretty good. He had a female drummer that could sing and play the drums very well. She was awesome. Michael McDonald played several Motown songs along with some Doobie Brothers songs. I was getting a little tired tired from signing my name to so many entry forms to win stuff and figured I should go check out Coalition for Peace before I left. Coalition was decent even though I was tired. Its just too bad they were on the Budweiser stage. It has the worst sound quality of any of the stages at Riverbend. On the way back to the cars I interviewed my good friend Anne.
I almost forgot. They're is a nice group of photographers at riverbend called JoePix. They'll take your picture for free and then you can go to their website and send the picture to friends or do whatever you want to do with it. Its cool, free, and today is their last day at Riverbend so if you haven't have you picture taken yet, look for the guys in the purple hats.
More Pictures from the day
Tonight it the BESSIE SMITH Strut down on MLK. Its free and always has great blues music. Even if you don't have a pin come on down.
Recommendations:

black diamond heavies and The Rockin' Jake Band are both playing at the Miller Plaza. That's where I'll be hanging out all night, so come join me. On a side note I would strongly recommend that you leave then its over. Its been known to be not a great place to be after its over, but don't worry about anything while its going on there are police every where.

Sunday, June 12, 2005

Interview with Anne Roth at Riverbend

this is an audio post - click to play

Riverbend Festival 2005 Day 2 Report

I got called a "Mother F@#$%*!", but I had a fun time so it wasn't so bad. Right before BOYZ II MEN when on this larger lady in a black tank top starts yelling and cursing at this elderly couple because the rain had become much lighter and they still had their umbrella up. Their umbrella was apparently blocking her view of the stage that nobody was playing on at the moment. I, for some slightly offended and felt compelled to stick up for the elderly couple. So, I politely suggested to the anger woman that she could stand up if she couldn't see. Well, that set her off. She started calling me, and anybody with in shouting distance, ugly names. She was obviously not a happy person and would probably have complained if I had just handed her a 20 dollar bill. I know I should have but she made me laugh a little bit to myself. I really wanted her to come to this site and leave me a comment telling me how she felt. Perhaps I'll make some business cards to pass out to people.
Well on to the music. I met a friend to see Sean Smith shortly after she had been attacked by a drunk man's umbrella (umbrellas just cause problems, go buy a rain jacket). Sean Smith was alright, however not fantastic. After he finished, nobody that was worth seeing was playing so I decided to go get some ice cream. I'm trying to go as long as possible without buying tokens (Riverbend uses tokens instead of money to help cut down on theft) so we went outside the gates to Ben and Jerry's for some fabulous ice cream. After that we went mark our territory for BOYZ II MEN. After the above mentioned fiasco and the group had started we noticed that a lot of excited looking people were walking into the VIP section. We quickly discovered that they were letting people with out $5 passes into the VIP section so we got in line. Anne got in before me and I made it in shortly thereafter. Apparently they had plenty of extra seats so they were letting people in for free. I feel a little sorry for the people that were standing next to me because they had just wasted $5 on a ticket but was rather pleased to get such good seats. I am a guy so I can't say that BOYZ II MEN was 'good' but I can say they were quite the showmen and not feel emasculated. They even through roses into the fans... 50 feet below them. I didn't really know any of their songs but was rather impressed by the show. The last show of the night was Up with the Jones. They were insane. The lead singer was wearing a gown from Erlanger hospital and did a very good job of looking unstable. Needless to say the rockers managed to keep my attention despite me being very tired. I definitely need to park closer next time.
Recommended list:
  • Jessica Lynn Thommason - 5:00-5:30 PM She's the only one playing at this time so you should go see her.
  • Noaxident - 6:15-7:30 PM
  • Roger Alan Wade - 8:00-9:15 PM
  • Michael McDonald with the Chattanooga Symphony & Opera - 9:30-11:00 PM
  • Coalition for Peace - 11:00-12:00 AM

Pictures from day 2 uploaded

While you're waiting for me to post about day 2 you can go look at the days pictures. By the way if you want to join me at Riverbend you can always look for the guy wearing this hat. I'll be wearing it everyday.

Saturday, June 11, 2005

Riverbend Festival 2005 Day 1 Report

So yesterday was a great first day of Riverbend and as I predicted, Phat Phunktion was great. To start the day off I was going to meet some friends to get some food and to get my pin. I got downtown a good while before anybody else did. So I took a trole with my camera. Took some pictures of the contruction of the new park next to Coolidge park from Market Street bridge. I thought since I didn't have a pin yet I'd go to the nearest enterance to Riverbend and pick up a program so I wouldn't have to remember which bands where playing where. The nearest gate happend to be the new one beside the new aquarium and the water flowing over the stairs. The gate was completely unmanned. I was rather dissapointed that they didn't have a program but I got to walk right in without a pin so I thought I'd go to another gate and see if they had programs at a gate that was possibly staffed. The Am South gate, and the main gate were staffed but no programs. :( I've been walking a round for about 20mins now, right next to the gate people that are suppose to be looking for pins, and nobody has said a word. I walk out yet another gate and go eat with my friends. After supper we all, with our pins, went back in the new gate that I went in and it was still not staffed. We didn't get there in time to see Rhonda Vincent, like I had hoped but we did catch the end of Saphire's first act after a brief and somewhat painful stop at Roy Harper (the yodling cowboy). The woman of Saphire were very talented and knew there stuff. They're the type of band that doesn't bring a playlist with them they just play what ever comes to mind and the moment. They were a bit racy but I suppose that's to be expected from woman that play the blues. Nevertheless, they were quite good and we stuck around to watch most their 2nd after Phat Phunktion. Phat Phunktion was a full of energy and played some great funk of thier own as well as some of the classics. I love big groups bands and they had 8 members that jammed well together. If you missed it, I told you so...
So here's the recomended list for tonight, along with requested audio clips when I could find them. (I'll organize these later but for now I just wanted to publish this for yall before it gets too late) hopefully this will help some, sorry I didn't get my schedule worked out just yet.
  • Sean Smith: "skillful artistry and musical style, Chatanooga-based (and UTC alumni) Sean Smith has captivated the ears and minds"
  • Mint Condition: R Listen
  • Freekbass: Really funky bass guitarist mp3 sample
  • Radio Daze Big Band: Big band of course, not too bad Boogie Boogie Bugle Boy 3.4 MB
  • Jonell Mosser: ok female contemporty/country vocalist Listen
  • Rob Russell & The Sore Losers: "American Roots music that encompassed bluegrass, country, blues, swing, and punk"The Score well this song isn't too bad but not sure about the rest of them. Go see Boyz II Men instead.
  • Jennifer Daniels: "earthy folk rock"Listen (you've probably hear this song) a staple at Riverbend and always worth seeing.
  • Lauren Ellis: "multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter, especially known for her slide guitar playing" listen
  • Garret Tucker: guitarist that tries to hard website listen if flash
  • Up With The Joneses: "Chattanooga’s straight ahead, hard driving Rock n’ Roll local favorites" Always a good show.
  • Brad Passons: good local acoustic singer/song writter listen
  • Rodney Crowell: "leader of the new traditionalist movement of the mid-'80s, his ambitions extended far beyond the movement's parameters." Don't Get Me Started I have no idea what that means, but it sounds mostly like country too me.
  • Capt. Soularcat:" With their roots deeply embedded in Blues and Rock & Roll, Rome, Georgia's Capt. Soularcat combines the old and the new to create an incredibly unique sound." listen in flash funny name but sounds pretty decent
  • BOYZ II MEN: you should know how this is. Listen

Friday, June 10, 2005

Blogging Riverbend Festival 2005

I will be blogging Riverbend Festival 2005. This will be my first attempt to blog a large social event and I think it will be fun and informative. For those of you that don't know, Riverbend is an annual music festival in Chattanooga, TN that goes on for 9 days and has 1 main stage, 4 side stages, and a kids music contest stage (I won't really be paying attention to is stage at all). I plan on being there every day and taking plenty of pictures each day. It starts tonight and since I've been to Riverbend a couple of times now and know my way around I feel I can give a pretty good account of what happened. I've also done some research on the bands playing tonight and will give you my recommendations.
  • 5:00-5:30 PM - Brady Hughes: is the only one playing at this time so you mine as well see him. I won't be there till later.
  • 6:15-7:30 PM - Mindy Smith: Good guitar but slow country worth checking out.
  • OR 6:30-7:45 PM - Peacemakers: 'Chattanooga'’s best veteran Rock n Rollers'. I couldn't find anything else out about them. They might be decent.
  • 7:45-9:00 PM - Rhonda Vincent: really good bluegrass mostly really fast bluegrass
  • OR 8:00-9:15 PM - Saffire: blues trio that's all woman with funny lyrics
  • Instead of Kid Rock at 9:30-10:45 PM - Phat Phunktion: in your face new sounding funk. I'm really looking forwardrd to this group
  • OR 9:30-12:00 AM - Jon Cleary: gripping, intimate guitar with drums
  • If you happen to stay late Saffire is playing again at11:00-12:00 AM
  • OR 11:00-12:00 AM - BLAZE: classic heavy metal band
So that's what I think will be good tonight. Tomorrowow I'll give you a full report on the evenings events and give you recommendations for that day. I'll also have lots of pictures so don't forget to check them out. :)
See you there.

Thursday, June 09, 2005

I still don't have a server

If you've been reading this blog since the very very beginning you'll know that one of the things I was trying to do was start my own server. Well as you can tell from the word 'blogspot' in my address bar up there I was unsuccessful. Sad day really. I was beginning not to miss a server that bad with the great photo uploading service of Hello, and uploading other files(markably flash files) with myfilestash. However, today I, once again, am missing having a server. *Tear*. As you may have noticed the flickr picture that I have in the far right side bar are now faces of random people, and are not my own pictures. I kinda stopped using flickr ever since I started uploading my pictures to there own photoblog, just because it was a hassle to upload them to more than one place... and I'm lazy.
So, I had this really cool idea of replacing those flickr images on the side there to my pictures from my photoblog. I found out how to do this with SSI. Unfortunately, I have to have a server other than blogspot to run SSI or any server side scripts. This blog is also an experiment with what all I can do for free. I haven't spend a penny so far on this blog.

If you would like to help support development of this blog you can always click on my google ads to the left or alternately you can donate a large some of money to me with paypal or something. All money received will go back into this blog in one form or another, so your investment will be worth it, I promise.

PS this is day 2 of using Head & Shoulders shampoo and I still have dandruff. hmmm how many days to I have to use this stuff for it to start working?

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

I like crunchy things

I discovered the other day that I like crunchy foods. As I write this, I'm eating a small bag of Gardetto's. I like toast, fried stuff, and crunchy candy. I don't really like gummy worms but I love oreos. French toast is good stuff, and crunchy bacon is the way to go! None of this limp bacon stuff. I also really like corn chips, or any type of chip. The fairly new Ritz Chips are by far my favorite chip. Man, those things are good. Perhaps its just a dislike of chewy things, but if it crunches chances are I'll like it. I hadn't really payed much attention to food texture but with my good friend Roxie I discovered that I seem to have a certain affinity for crunchy food, not that other foods are bad, its just hard to beat that crunch.

For more information call: 865-GeoFurb

Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries

I find this most fascinating.
HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE :: Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries
I hadn't ever really thought of books in terms of degree of harmfullness. I haven't read any of the books on the list, though I've heard of most of them. Maybe I should read some of these sometime. I'm sure on the surface most of these books seem very harmless if not down right peaceful. But the devil too works in mysterious ways.

For now just remember that, "repetitions is the key to learning... and brain washing".

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

Hey the President was a C student!

Yale grades portray Kerry as a lackluster student - The Boston Globe - Boston.com - Washington - News
To all of you that might not have the best of grades all the time. I just thought that I'd let you know that it doesn't matter all that much. After all you can still be President of the United States. To most of you this probably isn't much of a surprise. You might say, of course, 'W' is a C student, he can't even say "nuclear". However, don't get all excited just yet because in the last election the competition wasn't much better. Kerry "got a cumulative 76 for his four years" on a 100 point scale. Bush actually had a 1 point better score with 78 his first 3 years (4th year they changed the system).
So this just goes to show you that you shouldn't study too hard in school if you want to run for President... I mean study hard and even if you fail its not the end of the world and you can still reach your dreams, except if your a doctor, in which case if you fail I might die. So you better not fail. But other than that, it will be alright.
Isn't that nice to hear now that school it out and you don't have any pressure from classes.
;)
Tags: (I'll explain these in a later post.)

Monday, June 06, 2005

This past weekend

So I thought I'd post something today to try and get back on a regular schedule of posting things. What continues to be in the foremost of my mind is how I burninated my finger and how it hurts when I put pressure on it. Luckily the wax that was melted into my skin has now removed its self without my intervention. However, it is now blistered very well and hurts whenever I apply any pressure to it. A couple of weeks ago I had unfortunately acquired blisters on the big toe of both of my feet from hiking. I pricked these blisters with a pin and drained them. They very quickly retreated back to being calluses and the pain went away. I think perhaps that this is why my finger blister is hurting, its full of fluid with no where to go. I am considering draining my burn blister but I'm not sure if this is a good idea or not considering the nature of the injury. Until I decide I guess I'll just deal with it.

Tags:

Friday, June 03, 2005

I burnt myself and it hurts

So I thought it'd be a good idea to catch some wax on fire and then pour it on my finger while it was still on fire.
I guess I was wrong.
If feels a little better now but man it hurt last night. I now have a mild 2nd degree burn on my index finger that still has wax in it because it hurts too much to peel the wax off the burn. I hope that won't cause any problems.