RubberDuckMuseum.com

My friend, Scott Sucher (located over in the blogroll), just had an article published that changes 200 years of gem history.  His “hobby” is making exact replicas of unique diamonds and gems for museum pieces and exhibits.  This is what happens when a passion just takes off!  The article is very technical, but the general concepts conveyed through the accompanying photos just comes off as intriguing.  Get the whole story right here.

Update: Oops, my bad.  The link to the article isn’t the full article, and gives you an option to purchase the magazine.  Still, kudos to Scott for being published and literally changing diamond history.

Every once in a while my imagination runs away with me (alright, more often than that to tell the truth).  Anyway, there was a Krispy Kreme next to work here that closed down due to the great Atkins Revolution of the “early aughts”.  I always wanted to open up either a recording studio/record store (calling it Doughnut Shoppe Records) or a small workout studio (calling it Lunch Hour Fitness).  And someone else got to it and it became:

*sigh* What are ya gonna do?  Hope it’s tasty.

I’m going to do some crazy stuff regarding this year’s release of the iphone in conjunction with Leo and twitlive.tv. I figure if I run over to the local apple store and take some video with my phone I can go back home and upload it to Leo while he does his 24 hour marathon of coverage.  I’ll copy what I can here so you, my loyal patrons, can see how it goes.

Annnnd so I tried and did not get any play from Leo, so here are the videos I took from the Albuquerque Apple Store and the Westside Albuquerque AT&T store.

Albuquerque Apple Store iPhone line @ 5pm 7/10/08

Westside Albuquerque AT&T store iPhone line @ 9:30pm, 7/10/08

Now Leo or Dane can come get em!

Update: Brian told me the video won’t play and it looks like the format my phone takes is different than what it says.  Here are ones you can really watch

iPhone line - Albuquerque Apple Store - 5pm -7/10/08

note in this first one I keep calling it the new iPod at first…I was so nervous (sad little man)

iPhone line - Albuquerque Westside AT&T store - 9:30pm - 7/10/08

try those on for size.

As I’ve previously addressed, I am going to try and move to make this site more financially sound, and in doing so, I have come across someone that I think deserves support.  Dan Miller has written many books including 48 Days to the Work You Love and No More Mondays, which talk about doing something really rewarding when it comes to work.  So I signed up to be an affiliate to sell his 48 days book.  You’ll see it in the right hand strip towards the bottom, and if you feel sometimes that there is no hope in your worklife, consider reading a terrific inspiration like Dan.

I realize that you could go just about anywhere else for a cell phone review (like CNET), but sometimes people want variety!  Well, based on events outside the realm of the museum, I had to reactivate a cell phone (goodbye, freedom).  I no longer had feelings for my old Nokia 6102 (note:  if anyone has a data cable for this phone that they no longer want, please contact me).  So, I trotted on down to the AT&T store to see what they could do for me.  Subsidized down to free was the Samsung SLM (aka SGH-a747) which seemed to be the best choice between this flip and a slider (which had more features, but wasn’t as interesting).

After a couple weeks, I like the SLM’s functionality.  It’s also slimmer (heh) and smaller than the old Nokia I have for comparison.  Calls are easy to make, and while I’ve combed the manual to see that I can load music, I want to load it with video as well.  Samsung (and probably AT&T) steer you to streaming and downloads over the phone network, but do not talk about loading from the PC, and therfore avoiding the horrendous cost of data without the data plan.  I’m still pursuing loading video from a PC so that I can watch stuff on the bus.  This would move me away from replacing my  old ipod, as I could have video on one device and audio on the other.

So it’s also got a 2 megapixel camera that does video, and mine came with a half gig micro sd card which just begs me to be filled up to upload all sorts of stuff to the vast wasteland we call the internet.  I’ll try to do a followup as to how a video project I am thinking of develops.

All in all, I like the SLM and consider it a good, low cost, cell phone for the subsidized market.  Thanks for dropping by!

My fellow patrons, my apologies for the recent lack pertaining to posting and floating fowl encouragement.  The anniversary came and went, and I somehow made posting into a job, which I had no intention of doing, but I hear many in the republic of Blogostan run into.  Maybe it was burn-out, but I suspect it really was external forces that needed the attention of this administration that lowered the priority of my communications to the droppers by of the ‘net.

I think it best to start with old news and the goal achievement.  Yes, back in post number two I had set up goals and so far, 67% of those goals were achieved this year.  I think we continue to talk about God’s love for all and His committment to us through His Son, Jesus.  Folks, He sent Jesus down for us in an ultimate sacrifice, and I cannot stand in the way of that message.  I will continue with bringing the light of the world to the ‘net.  Second, I think the site has been amusing and has brought forth things like lijit (which didn’t work out here) and animoto (which is super fun).  I again, want to continue with bringing interesting and amusing content.

The only goal currently not being met is the self funding of the site.  Attempts have been made with Google adsense, but the fact is that after starting sometime in September, the site has garnered $1.14.  I want to start a new avenue of revenue, but it hasn’t really happened.  This is the weakest effort in goal, but I did not set out for the museum to be a bankroll, but a megaphone with some pictures of the generosity of people around me.  Who would have guessed it would have come to this?

In closing, once again I thank you patrons, I thank Brian, and I am thankful for the freedom available to me to do what I do when I do it.  It has been a great year, and I look forward to what the museum holds for the future.

Thank you, God Bless the Museum, and God Bless the ‘net!

That’s right folks, I got to wrestle the swamp cooler (as seen in the animoto slide show in a previous post) last night and we ended up in a draw.  I couldn’t replace the pulley, but I did get it running so we would be cool for the latest heat wave.  I hope you liked the Animoto show, and if you are interested in making a show longer than 30 seconds, please use my referral code ‘cbuwelyq’ and get 5 dollars off of the 30 dollar/year membership.  I, in turn, get 3 months free if the referral code is used.  It’s amazingly alot simpler than it looks to create.  Thanks for your consideration!

Wow, I somehow made it through a year on the site!  Let’s see, I’ll be sure to get a birdseed cake.  Hee hee hee.

But really, none of this is possible without God, duck donors, Brian, and those of you who drop by to see what I have to say and sometimes click through the ads.  And speaking of ads, I’m thinking about replacing them with something more financially, and consequently spiritually, rewarding.  More on that later.