OffLine OnLine

Buy this shirt (or the hat, etc)

Enjoy this strangely catchy Pi tune (it’s an excerpt from a longer song).

3.1415…

I’ve been tracking my shirts over the past few years. I’ve shipped them off to other states, other countries and other continents. But one continent seemed to always elude me. Until now…

Antarctica Shirts

My shirts have successfully made it to Antarctica! OffLine may not be as well known as some of the bigger apparel shops out there (though I should be, get the word out please!) but at least I’m on all 7 continents now!

I’ll admit it though, I cheated, I made sure the shirts got to Antarctica by contacting two brothers who are there. On the other hand, I have sold my Antarctica designs so maybe one of those folks brought their things out to Antarctica without me knowing so I’m still counting this… so there!

Thanks go to Eli and Nate! If you’d like to follow them they are on Twitter as “elisfanclub” and “n8duke”.

If you’d like to hear my audio about this listen to the Utterz:

PS if anyone knows an astronaut going into space soon, I’d like to send them a free shirt
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The wreckage of a pirate ship abandoned by Captain Kidd in the 17th century has been found by divers in shallow waters off the Dominican Republic, a research team claims.

Article from LiveScience.

The article says the wreck hasn’t been looted. So, I don’t know about you Matey, but I want to know where the Treasure be!

Hark ye Merry Makers, let us reflect on Dot Coms past…

What was the world’s first .com? … Now were sure many of you think you know and some really do know, but those that think it was think.com better think again, think.com was the third…we think.

The DNS was created in 1984 and in 1985 top level domains were defined. The first top level domains were COM, ORG, EDU, GOV, MIL and ccTLD.

In April 1985 cmu.edu, purdue.edu, rice.edu and ucla.edu were the first registered domain names.

Northrup.com is the first big name I spotted in the Top 100 list, it was registered November 7, 1985. See the full list here.

One of the first things to strike you about this book is its physical attributes. And yes, I do include the cover in this proclamation. The cover design shows a photograph with the strange and familiar tinting of photographs taken in the 70s bordered by the title of the book and author’s byline written as if on yellowed paper by a Bic ballpoint pen. When you hold the book itself you may notice its relative thinness and lightness.

What’s inside though is heavy. In a good way.

Wil shares a little over a dozen stories from his life with the reader. If you are a reader of his blog or his other online writing venues you may recognize the cores of one or two of them; however, they have been expanded upon. With Wil, we bounce from the past of the 1970’s to the present, sometimes in the same story. Each tale is artfully yet succinctly told in a style that is very personal. Of note to geek readers are the tales of his introduction to D&D, his fascination with Star Wars figures and stories of reflecting on his Star Trek experiences because of present events in his life such as a documentary and meeting with Ron Moore and Jonathan Frakes again. But all the tales are great reads, geek slant or not. They offer a look into Wil’s life but also make you reflect on your own.

And now we are back to the weight of the book again, in the sense that a light book is generally a short one. And indeed this book is 136 pages in length, compared to a Lord of the Rings tome, that is light. However, in an age of pixel reading, its length makes for a delightfully quick read in whatever spare moments you may spend away from the various monitors in your life and you’ll find yourself spending several minutes after each story dwelling on it. In that sense the book is heavier than it may seem.

Links:
Monolith Press publisher of “Happiest Days of Our Lives”
Full Disclosure, Blog Entry: Wil Wheaton Sent Me His Latest Book: “The Happiest Days of Our Lives”

I’ve been out of town for a week but the day I left I discovered a nice surprise in my mailbox, a signed copy of “The Happiest Days of Our Lives”!

I’m including a picture of the book and my biz card which started the surprise gift giving. The short story behind this is that when we met on the plane to Vegas he saw my store business card and commented on one of the designs on it “You have increased your alcohol tolerance“. So sometime after the trip I sent him a shirt with the design and an accompanying letter with a reference to traveling back in time before we used email. He then surprised me with a signed copy of his book and a handwritten note (thus one upping me in the Wayback machine).

I said it when I first met him but I’ll say it again. Wil Wheaton is an awesome geek! Thanks Wil!

I’ve just started reading the book (I didn’t take it with me on my trip as I was out in the wilderness and didn’t want to destroy it) but I’m enjoying it immensely.

Link to the quick post I made when I met Wil.

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Just playing around with Animoto, a very cool app which apparently has just gotten the news that Google is going to feature them as an OpenSocial developer.

This app is fun to play around with yourself, you can make free 30 second videos, pony up $3 for a longer one or subscribe for a month and get an all you can eat deal. It’s in beta so a lot of features aren’t ready yet, but it already beats the heck out of other slide show services. One thing I’d like to see that next comparable rival Fliptrack has, is the option to more finely tune your pictures in the timeline.

I’m hoping ye’ve already got yerr pirate garb?

But no matter, today’s the day to have at it!

Google Earth, already pretty much the coolest internet gizmo around has recently added a built-in flight simulator! in version 4.2. Joystick support is a little wonky. If you want to use your joystick, enter flight sim mode via the menu, not the keyboard shortcut. Here’s a pic of me in the jet, buzzing the Khumbu Icefall on the approach to Mount Everest. Now if they would only add ordinance…

Talk Like a Pirate Day is September 19th so practice your “Arrr!”s and check out this collection of Pirate Garb and Gifts.

Of course we’ve got the Jolly Roger but you can also see my original takes on Pirate Life like this striking Black Pirate Ship design.

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