This is another plug for a project of Vance, this time in conjunction with Jenn.

Everyone's played Rockband, right? The game where you get 2-4 people together and play fake guitars, a decently-realistic drum set, and an all too real microphone.

Well some people don't like the feel and noise of the drum heads, so a few people have been making pads that adhere to the heads. But none as cool as the ones made by Jenn and Vance. Their first batch: Super Mario Brothers-inspired Mushroom rock band drum pads.

Hopefully more will follow.

Well, it's been a very automotive weekend. Since I'll be going on long drives the next two weekends, I figured it would be good to get the 120,000 mile maintenances done. Got the timing belt replaced yesterday, and today I changed my oil and spark plugs. There was a very good price on oil at Kragen this weekend - $.50/quart, which works out to $62/barrel. I should buy their output and sell it on the open market.

The inside of the car is also as clean as it's been in nearly 2 years.

Gotta love Podcasting at UCSD: It lets me fulfill my fantasy of sitting in on a buffet of learning without leaving my office. I usually end up starting a couple of podcasts, but only sticking with a few through the end of the quarter. If I wanted to listen to all of these, it would require 20.5 hours a week. So usually i end up sticking with the ones that don't require deep concentration, the ones I can listen to in the background at work. I hope a side-effect of this will be an improvement in my ability to listen to speech without actively focusing on it.

The ones I've started listening to:

ECON 103 - International Monetary Relations

Definitely interesting, the instructor's pretty good. Some of the concepts are mind-twisting, though. I need to get an iPod so I can listen to these away from the computer.

ECON 109 - Game Theory

OK, so I still haven't listened to the first episode of this one. It'll probably be too chalkboard-intense to really absorb much via a podcast.

HILD 12 - Twentieth-Century East Asia

Pretty good lecturer, though it sounds like the material he's covering deserves a lot more than 1 quarter. I mean, a century of history for all of East Asia?

HIUS 155B - Religion and Law - Civil War to Present

I listened to the first half of this class last quarter, and it was quite insightful and engrossing. No doubt this quarter's will be as well. This is a guaranteed keeper.

POLI 103A USP 109 - Calif Government & Politics

A whirlwind tour through how California government works, and how it got to be that way. This promises to be a fun class to listen to. I'm definitely listening to this one, too.

SE 2 - Structural Materials

Like the first two classes, the kind of class I'd like to listen to, but might be too technical for background listening while working.

SIO 1 - The Planets

Not sure about this one. Spends way too much time talking about logistics, need to hear more material to decide.

How could Forbes write an article about what your car says to the opposite sex without talking about Hyundais?

(Ok so it's actually a pretty worthless article; it just made me think of that song - which I've never heard, but my boss has quoted many times.)

According to the US Drought Monitor, Alabama's droughts have improved from "Exceptional" to merely "Extreme". Which means they're still worse than "Severe", but hey it's a step in the right direction.