19Dec

2011 Christmas Mix

Ever since I found out from Brandon in 2007 about X-Entertainment’s Streaming Christmas Playlist, I began creating my own Christmas CD every year. The only rule is that it must fit onto an 80 minute CD. Usually, my mix is done on December 1 but this has been a strange year. If you know me, you know I love Christmas more than any person should. My lights and tree are usually up before Thanksgiving and cards are sent and gifts bought by December 1. But I just haven’t been able to get into it this year. It was a strange fall to culminate a strange transitional year. And sad things have befallen family and friends so it has been hard to get festive.

Because I was throwing a Christmas party on the 16th, I had to get the 2011 mix out the door quickly. I had low expectations when I started it and for a while it seemed like it was just going to be mostly tracks from the She  & Him Christmas album. Thankfully, it actually turned out pretty well. There’s an extended melancholy section in the middle though so fair warning if you’re looking for a more upbeat mix.

Click here to download the 2011 mix. Highlights include a couple tracks from the She & Him Christmas album, The School’s Kiss You in the Snow, Summer Camp doing a nice remix of the Waitresses’s Christmas Wrapping, a Zombie Christmas and See You Next Year by Emmy the Great, and Chris Garneau’s Christmas Song.

The 2010 Christmas mix was one of the best and included a cover of The Chipmunks by Tegan and Sara, The Weepies’s All that I want, The Raveonettess doing a new Christmas Song, The School’s Let Me Be The Fairy on Your Christmas Tree Tonight, and Lucky Soul singing the saddest Christmas Song ever: Lonely at Christmas. Download that one here. The 2008 and 2009 mixes will be up soon.


25Mar

The Return of Web Logging or Another Fake Handshake?

In November 2003 when this web log was created, Welcome to Blog (now Another Portland Blog) predicted that one day every man, woman, child and pet in the United States would have one (B. Hartley, personal communication, 2003). Turns out he was close as “web log” needs to be replaced with the Facebook or the MySpace. And just think, back then I was worried that every man, woman, child and pet would take to the InterWebs to write cogent and well thought out arguments about issues of pertinence creating an InterWebs with too much information. Turns out they would take to the InterWebs to update their the Facebook statuses, put up useless vlogs, and rancor about useless issues on the comments section of web logs and newspaper articles.
Anyway, leave it to procrastination to bring me back to this antiquated form of communication. I actually have a couple of things to post. Whether I will or if it will be the classic fake handshake remains to be seen. For now, however, for the -5 readers still reading, I have converted the classic movie The Pumpkin to 480i SD DVD format. Which basically means, as it was converted from a VCR tape that was itself copied from a VCR source tape, you can probably see more of the tape imperfections than in the compressed version that was posted 5 years ago. But here it is, in four digestible parts (they’re each about 500 MB so right click and choose “Save File/Target/Link As…”). Username and password are both pumpkin. If you choose, you can grab one of the myriad video splicing programs, splice the files together, and burn it to redbook DVD to have something to play on your antiquated DVD player.
Part the First
Part the Second
Part the Third
Part the Fourth


17Nov

Need Something on the Front Page of this Thing

You know you have not been doing the web logging lately when there are no more posts left on the homepage due to inactivity.


29Mar

Oh, Weddings

So my friend Wilderness is getting married at the end of April and his wedding invitation contained an innocuous question: favorite song. Now, this is, at first glance, an innocuous question. For me, it should be obvious. My favorite band of all time is Simon and Garfunkel. My favorite Simon and Garfunkel song is The Boxer. Hence, that should be my favorite song. Yet, that question is insidious because you just can’t answer using the preceding methodology. One’s favorite song needs to tell everyone one’s musical sophistication and pretension (i.e. the listeners must at once be overwhelmed by the goodness of the music and stupidity for not having the same great taste of knowing that song) and cut across genres, moods, motifs, themes, and playlists. For example, I know what my favorite Simon and Garfunkel song is, my favorite Portland indie song, my favorite Beethoven piano sonata, but favorite song? Can it include opera arias? Vietnamese music? Musical scores from movies?
Anyway, since nobody reads this thing anymore, I am longer in shame of revealing my terrible taste in pop music and so, until Wilderness’s wedding, I shall be generating lists and trying to choose a worthy yet pretentious song as a non-bias point estimate of my favorite song. Incidentally, I started off with 10 songs for Wilderness’s Wedding (i.e. 10 songs having to do with l’amore (which, incidentally isn’t the same as the top 10 songs I would want played at my wedding) and had a really hard time populating it while the Top 10 Songs for breaking up was done in about 10 minutes.


20Feb

WWC Podcast 2: Hot and Sour Soup

So here’s the 2nd WWC podcast. A little better this time and much more banter! Oh, genetic epistemology!


11Feb

Oh, Projects that Never Get off the Ground!

So, Dave and I have been talking about doing a podcast for WWC for the longest time. Thankfully, sheer laziness has saved the world.
Lodge and I, however, seem to have plenty of free time these days. Hence, the first WWC podcast! Like the first episode of anything, this one is riddled with errors (forgot the garlic!) and we’ll probably nervously change the subject when speaking of it years from now. That being said, enjoy!
Note: Note: Full recipe available at http://www.phooeyhoo.com/cookbook/ginger_shrimp.pdf and full WWC cookbook available at http://www.phooeyhoo.com/cookbook.


09Feb

Attention Raleigh Drivers …

… for the love of God, please turn off your brights!!!
That is all.


07Jan

Snowtoro!!!

Oh, dear God. This is the cutest thing ever! Thanks, Sho


06Jan

Six More Days and I Wonder …

… why aren’t I on a road trip in Spain with Mario Batali, Mark Bittman, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Claudia Bassols?


05Jan

Seven Days Left …

… of comprehensive exam hell for me. With one week to go I can honestly say that the act of going through a Ph.D. program is something that no normal sane human being should ever want to subject themselves to. It’s like volunteering to jump through a series of flaming hoops, each one more fiery and dangerous than the last. Did I mention that it’s all self imposed as well? And that the rewards are minuscule and don’t even translate into more financial gain? That if anything, you’re losing money because you’re not making money during the best money making years of your life?
So what great insights on educational research, learning theories, educational psychology, epistemological and ontological realty, or hierarchical linear modeling did I have today? None, only that the Beethoven opus 133, the so called grosse fugue may possibly be the greatest thing ever written. More tomorrow night.


31Dec

Harambee!

Harambee!
That is all!


05Nov

Why is This Night Different From All Other Nights?

Because the United States of America, only fifty years removed from the civil rights movement and 143 years removed from slavery, has elected a black man to be its next president. I am stunned, awed, and proud. And to think that only two years ago I told Nicole that I did not believe a non-white male would be president during our lifetimes.



12Sep

Just Another Fact to Consider

Thus, chicken displays may be a useful tool in identifying those with manic psychosis. However, the results suggest a complex process of chicken imitation formation. Female psychotics produce more displays than their NC-State female peers, but male psychotics produce poorer (more disorganized?) displays than NC-state males. Thus, different variables will be needed to identify male and female psychotics….


08Sep

Rogé Federé

In the words of Andy Roddick:

“Yeah, I mean, the guy has only made two Grand Slam finals this year. I would love his bad year. I would love it. It would be great. I’d be really happy with right now.”


05Sep

Hanna

No, not Hannah May- …. never mind. I’m not even going to entertain that. (Besides, one has an “H” and the other doesn’t.) I’m talking about my first hurricane: Hurricane Hanna (now downgraded to Tropical Storm status) which is due to hit the southern North Carolina Coast at 2 AM and then roll into Raleigh before noon. 50 mph winds are the estimate in this area which I think are actually slightly less than the top minds from the ’96 Oregon storm.
Update: Well, that was a letdown. I think we may have gotten a few showers this morning but that’s it. Back to work, I guess!


02Sep

Vijay Wins Again

So having used Chrome for one hour I think it may have just replaced Firefox. It’s faster, seems just as good, and doesn’t crash my PDFs. If Google lives up to their word of one tab crashing not causing the other tabs to crash, I think Firefox is out and Google and Vijay’s blue pastoral colors win again.


27Aug

The Curse of Phooeyhoo.com

In February 2004 the person that writes this blog succumbed to the promise of a Movable Type platform that saves comments and allows flexible template customization. He blogged regularly for a while but hasn’t written a word since May 2007. In similar fashion, this person also succumbed and hasn’t written since April 24, 2007 and, by his own omission, only because some fools had been commenting the hell out of one post.

It would appear the move over to this server will silence your blogging forever. Be forewarned future phooeyhoo.com users! We lure you with lots of server space and fees as low as a beer every time you see me. But, the price is your eternal blogging soul! (Ha, ha, ha! – said in evil Phillip Fry Laugh from Futurama.) Well, now that I’ve effectively silenced this space, I can write whatever the hell I want, right? In previous times of parsimonious blogging, I always came back with either an interview with myself or a bulleted list. I think I shall do the latter.

  • This summer I did a two week road trip in California starting from Portland, winding down to Crater Lake, over to the coast and down to the Redwoods, all the way down 101 to Santa Barbara, back up again to Sequoia National Park, through San Francisco/Berkeley, and then back to P-Town. Photos were taken. Some have been posted to the Phooeyhoo Photo Gallery. More will be posted soon. I have put on a password to protect the innocent. If you know me and want to see the photos, the password is the state I’ve lived the longest in, all lower case. I guess if any strangers are desperate enough and want to sit down and type in all fifty states, they deserve to see the photos.
  • I am in love with the Brits. I love the accent, the way that bloody is a real honest to goodness curse, and the copious use of “right!” When an inebriated British researcher planted a wet kiss on me at ICME, it was a highlight of my life. My love of the Brits extends to British pop and by extension to Scottish band Camera Obscura. I am not a huge fan of ABBA, however. Yet, I recently found a hauntingly beautiful a cover of Super Trouper by Camera Obscura that I am in love with. I am truly ashamed for myself that I like an ABBA song.
  • Dave and I have never really been known for our outstanding musical taste. I believe one person described it as isomorphic to that of pre-teen girls. Oh, well. On one last musical note I will say that I heart Kate Nash (and Lily Allen too, come to think of it.). Made of Bricks has been out for a while, but was recently released in the States. Check it out. If you’re not sure, NPR has a free Kate Nash concert available free through streaming.
  • Okay, I lied. One last musical note. Besides the Brits, it looks like I have a thing for lesbian singing duos too as the Ditty Bops are one of my favorite groups and this week I have been enjoying Tegan and Sara while trying to survive the grad school. A quick search shows that I’m not the first of my friends to discover this. Oh, well. Another PDX Blog/Welcome to Blog is right, though. Back in My Head is very addicting.
  • More later. See: I’m so lazy that it takes me a good 24 hours before continuing a silly bulleted list … right!
  • I hate Ph.D. school. I am tired, burned out, and exhausted. Did I mention that I’m tired? Why did I ever think this would be a good idea? I’m not balanced, don’t really want to be a Tier I researcher, and think that this entire thing is cruel and destroys the hopes and ambitions of our best young people. I am only going on because 1) It is way too late to get out of the game, 2) I’ve lived the last four years in poverty … what’s two more years?, and 3) I want to be that professor that teaches really good classes, rants on about thousand year old dead Egyptian pharaohs, takes three day weekends, is rarely seen during the summer, and falls asleep during dissertation defenses, yet has associate tenure so nobody can really do anything about it. Hell, Piled Higher and Deeper is right, I just want a frickin’ job after I finish enduring this hell.
  • Joe Biden looks just like John Penick.
  • OMG: Julia Child was a spy! I’d like to put up for proposal that a Julia Child unit be added to the next Command and Conquer game.
  • Kevin Duckworth died. We’ll miss you, big guy.
  • Who knew that even Roger Ebert despised Jay Mariotti?

09May

New-Old Philosophy

The more I think about it, the more I’m beginning agree with Nicole’s assessment of morality. People are inherently good, but lazy. Just like I believe that I am an inherently good web logger, just lazy. I hope to get not so lazy in the next couple of weeks.


19Apr

WWC Publicity

Unbeknowest to me, Whisking with Chlamydia has received its first radio spot! And it shows. Before the radio spot there were .2 downloads of WWC per day. That number went slightly up to 1 download per day before regressing back to the mean.
But, yes. My good friend Alex Sergay performed two outstanding readings from WWC when he filled in for the radio show Pandora’ Lunchbox on WCBN Ann Arbor. This marks the fourth time I’ve been featured in some way on that radio station. (Those poor, poor listeners.) The first time, I was wished a happy birthday by Alex and a cute co-guest. The second time, I played a wonderful mix of opera, Vietnamese V-Pop, and Rilo Kiley the likes of which have never been seen again. Then, last December, Alex put up part of my Ultimate X-Mas playlist that included such hits as Christmas Smorgasbord and The Hat I Got for Christmas is too Big. I’ll have to post that one of these days. But this, the fourth, has to be my finest hour or something. Maybe I will go ahead and do that cooking podcast after all while my celebrity is high.
Anyhoo, here are clips of Alex reading my recipe for burgers and how to boil pasta. Thanks, Alex!


07Apr

April is Indeed the Cruellest Month

I was e-mailing this rant to a friend when I remembered: I have a web log that I hardly post to anymore. People complain on their web logs. I can complain on my web log!!!

But like the great poet himself said, April is indeed the cruelest month. Hierarchical linear modeling final tomorrow morning at 10 AM, fly to Salt Lake
City (ugh!) at 2:15 for NCTM, attend boring keynote, finish stats homework that night, give presentation on Tuesday afternoon, attend boring sessions on Wednesday, fly out Thursday at 7 AM,
not back in Raleigh again until 4 PM. Two stats lectures will also have been
missed due to this great trip to the Mormon state. Group meeting on Friday to discuss book chapters. Have I
started writing my book chapter? Well of course not, that would be useful! Why did I decide to go to grad school again?


30Mar

Whisking with Chlamydia Version 1.0 Released!

Dear Friends and Family,
The phooeyhoo.com staff would like to announce the release of version 1.0 of WWC, i.e. Kenny’s cookbook. It’s been posted to the WWC homepage. Besides tons of copy editing, some recipes have been rewritten for clarity and my perfected recipes for hot and sour soup and raspberry white chocolate creme fraiche ganache tart are included. Happy reading and happy cooking!


09Feb

We’re Up Again: Sort Of

Not that anybody has noticed due to the lack of posting on this blog in, well, forever, but my wonderful hosting company has not been able to fix the corrupt cgi-bin on phooeyhoo.com so I moved the backend (i.e. Movable Type) over to karmalearn.com. Everything seems to be okay so far but if anyone has problems commenting or seeing entries, let me know (that would be the folks who continually come to read about the Princess Maker 2).


24Jan

Research Interests

Yeah. That about hits the proverbial nail on the proverbial head.