Update: 6/30/07

And here's a picture of the lucky couple after getting married... I'm posting this before getting up at 4am for yet another plane flight to Wisconsin tomorrow morning.

We had a great time at the wedding. Laura in particular had a wonderful time being a bridesmaid and walking down the aisle again with Jason's brother:

Good luck to Maggie and Jason, have fun!

Update: 6/29/07

We made it to the beach! I've read that air travel has been a nightmare around the country this week, but we breezed right through the airports and made it to Florida in about 90 minutes. You can't beat that.

We're down here for Maggie and Jason's wedding. The last time we saw Maggie and Jason was in November of last year.

For two nights we will be staying at the Yankee Clipper, an architectural eyefull brought to life by Sheraton Hotels.

This evening we attended the rehearsal dinner and Laura was able to snag a picture with her college buddies Courtney and Anne Marie.

We took a water taxi along the intracoastal to get to the restaurant -- that's when I took this picture of Maggie, the beaming bride:

And that's a wrap. I bumped into a few really funny videos online I'd like to share. Has anybody heard of Mike Rowe, the salesman form QVC? Apparently this guy has quite a following on the Internet. He'll bring you this week's Friday video.

Update: 6/17/07

This weekend, my friend Doug let me take a test run of his Kärcher power washer.

I've had a lot of fun with it this weekend and I think I'm going to buy it from him -- barring any sort of explosion form overuse this afternoon.

I've been having 1600 PSI of fun blasting the dirt off of all sorts of things.

Out of yesterdays labor, the pièce de résistance was the front walkway. The cement had not been cleaned in six years. After about 90 minutes I had the cement squares gleaming like well manicured teeth.

All told, I enjoy the suburban sprawl. I am really glad we came to Charlotte. A year ago we were living in an apartment that vibrated because of the adjacent laundry room. We carried the house hunt from the city to suburbia and ended up somewhere completely unplanned.

It's nice to be settled in our own home.

Update: 6/09/07

My buddy Sam once told me that his favorite kind of story was the rags-to-riches type where a guy goes from nothing and then suddenly has it all. Think Henry Hill from Goodfellas or John D. Rockefeller.

He went on to explain that an even better story was to watch that same guy lose it all in the end. This is a point most people don't admit, but it's so true.

I don't think Sam is alone, it's practically an American anthem to cheer while celebrities burn. Look at the trainwreck that is Paris Hilton:

This story was on every frontpage news source for several hours on Friday, and I'm sure it caused much excitement among many a corporate cubicle.

It's a surreal thing to watch on TV, a mix of news and entertainment where the news bends towards what people want to see.

Is this great news because it's got a little of everyone's favorite kind of story? Or is this a great story because it's got a little everyone's favorite kind of news?

Update: 6/07/07

It's getting hot down here. Super hot. Back when I was into the saltwater fish hobby, the underwater flora thrived under high energy lighting. That lighting was usually pretty expensive.

I feel like I can bring the fun and science of underwater corals to land in the form of botany and trying to grow plants in my backyard. That, and the power of the sun is free.

Here's a picture of the humble beginnings of my first tomato plant. More specifically, my first tomato!

Don't let the macro shot fool you. It's about the size of one of those super bouncy balls you get at grocery store vending machines. I'd say it's about 1x1 scale on your computer monitor right now.

Doesn't it look delicious?

Here's your Friday video. My brother Peter will get a kick out of it, these guys can move!

Update: 6/03/07

Last night we watched Devils Playground, a documentary that won Official Selection at Sundance Film Festival in 2002. It focuses on the Amish tradition of "Rumspringa," a time when young adults are given the choice to officially join the church or abandon it.

I thought it was an exceedingly relevant movie to watch, since everyone at some point will evaluate the values of their upbringing and decide which ones to keep or let go. I won't lie, I'm going through a bit of that myself.

Without giving away too much, I'd say the most interesting character is a teenager named Faron. Faron is the son of a preacher and deals methamphetamine for fun and profit.

He insists that he will eventually join the Amish church, but does not want to completely give up the "English" life -- the Amish term for outsider living. When asked when he would come to a decision, Faron replied:

I might some day, I might not. Jesus didn't get baptized until he was 32.

Doesn't hurt that Aphex Twin delivers a great soundtrack on this DVD. I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good documentary.

Update: 6/02/07

I'm a big Internet fan and I like to recomend good websites as they come along. Unfortunately one of my favorite new genres of sites has gone stale. More specifically, I feel like there is a market correction coming for the "Web 2.0" space. The genre hasn't moved the needle too much in the last year. A year ago I defined Web 2.0 as

Social networking websites that fool people into generating self-obsessed content so they can put advertisements next to it.

I had such high hopes for these websites. Each one offered the chance to create a new profile, a new message in a bottle to encapsulate my virtual soul and sail along the waves of the vast Internet. The promise, I suppose, was improved social connectivity with others -- and maybe even social change?

Now I'm tired of creating profiles and left to wonder am I better off having contributed to Myspace, Facebook, Youtube, Wikipedia, Photobucket, Yahoo Answers, Digg, Reddit and others? Do I feel more connected? Have we accomplished something as a group?

In order to be useful, I'd like to see these communities collaborate and get something done in the offline, non-virtual world. More specifically, I'd like to see them give back to me in a non-virtual way. I'd be impressed if a website could sway a political debate, change the way we look at news or even exchange currency. I'm talking about empowerment, not just another time killing application to experience through a computer screen.

In sum, these websites fail on two levels: most users are still socially isolated, and the communities as a whole fail to produce anything that eclipses traditional media outlets like television or print -- which in my mind, is evidence of true change.

At current course and speed , you can expect these sites to go the way of the 2001 Internet bubble. All sizzle and no steak. TechCrunch recently ran an article about Amp'd Mobile:

What can you say about a company that blows $360 million in funding other than wow! No doubt some people will see the demise of Amp’d Mobile as the tip of an industry iceberg and certainly it would be one of the biggest, if not the biggest corporate failures of a Web 2.0 related company.

If you interested in Web 2.0, I recommend Mashable, a social networking blog or Michael Arrington's TechCrunch. Check out the TechCrunch "Deadpool" for more stories like Amp'd.

I encourage you to read an article or two and see if you feel the same way I do. I think Web 2.0 has to be one of the more popular, albeit useless trends on the Internet today.