… yes!!

Below, for your viewing pleasure, is a video of fireworks being shot off of the tallest building in the world. I don't think there's much more that can be said about this.

If you click through to youtube, there are a TON more of these listed in the related videos.

Since a ton of people are going to refer to this year as "Two-thousand twelve" instead of correctly calling it "Twenty-twelve", I propose an entirely new method – dropping the first two digits entirely.

No more confusion. 2007 is "seven", 2012 is "twelve". It only becomes an issue when we get to the 2100's. Does it start over? I don't care, the future can figure that one out!

I'm sure some people do this already. Awesome! Keep it up.

A couple months ago I tried to find a way to stream video from my PC to my Roku XD.
I had two requirements:
1) It needed to be free
2) It needed to be (relatively) easy to set up

You know what I found? A whole bunch of nothing.
Jump forward to a few days ago, when I accidentally stumbled on Plex (plexapp.com).
Plex has two parts, a server that you run on the computer (Mac or Windows) that you want to stream the video from, and a client (available for iOS, Android, Roku, and others) that you run on the device you want to stream video to.

Setting up the server is pretty painless. Download and run the Plex installer, and then after the Plex interface launches, tell it where to find your media. There are several preset categories (such as Movies, Music, TV Shows) that you can all point to different locations on your computer.

Setting up the Roku is even easier. Go to the Channels menu and add the private channel "plex". Once the channel shows up on your Roku, you just have to launch it, choose the settings option, and then choose the option to scan for Plex servers.

I've been thinking about this since Thanksgiving (there's almost always a platter of cheese, crackers, and summer sausage).
Of all the cheese I can think of, there's only one that I don't really like. Swiss.

Swiss is tolerable maybe even ok on sandwiches or burgers, but alone, or just by itself on a cracker – BLECH!.

Luckily the darn stuff has holes in it, sparing a random section of my tongue from the swissness with each bite.

Last night I got to talk to a scammer. Good times.
A friend of mine had his gmail account compromised and used for the "London mugging" scam, where the scammer sends messages to friends and family claiming to have been mugged in a foreign country (I guess London is the typical location) and that they need money wired to get themselves back home.

Ha.

I was also watching Breaking Bad at the time. Double ha.

Here is the conversation I had with el scammerino:

7:52 PM Brian: Hey
are you there ?
7:55 PM sparx: yes. hi!
Brian: am not too good
sparx: no? what's up?
7:56 PM Brian: I'm stranded in Manila Philippines with my family
got mugged at gun point last night
scary!
7:57 PM sparx: manila? i thought you just left for puerto rico last night
Brian: No
I was hit on the head but getting better
all cash,credit card and phone was stolen
7:58 PM sparx: did they take your wheelchair? can you still move around?
7:59 PM Brian: thank God we still have our life and passport safe
8:00 PM sparx: your wheelchair though, do you still have it? do you still have the meth you smuggled in your wheelchair's frame?
Brian: our return flight leaves in few hours but having troubles sorting out the hotel bills
i need your help
sparx: if you lost my meth i'll fucking kill you
8:01 PM DO YOU HAVE THE GOODS?!
Brian: yes i need your help
8:02 PM sparx: there's still an hour until the swap. there will be $80,000 in the breifcase. take out what you need to get back, i'll consider it a loan
8:03 PM *briefcase. sorry, can't spell.. got pretty pissed when i thought you lost the product
8:04 PM still there?

The chat status went idle, which is why I tossed in the "still there?" – I was really hoping I would get to play more with my new friend. 🙁

A few years ago when I was looking to slam down the debt I had accumulated, I ended up creating a spreadsheet and charting everything I owed (car, credit cards, student loans, etc). While the initial data point was intimidating, I made it my goal to make the line go down as much and as quickly as possible. That simple spreadsheet motivated me to cut my spending and use the extra money to decimate my debt.

Fitocracy.com is the fitness analog of my debt spreadsheet.

Fitocracy uses a point system. You log your exercises and earn points. After you've accumulated enough points you "level up" – much as you would if you were playing a game like World of Warcraft/Dungeons & Dragons/etc.

There is also a heavy social aspect to the site. You can join groups of people with similar interests or goals, you can follow your friends and keep track of their progress, you can even comment on and congratulate people for certain workouts or for reaching goals. So if the gamification (yes, it's a real word) isn't a big enough hook to keep you motivated, you can also get your friends behind you to keep you from slacking off.

Fitocracy is currently in closed beta right now, so if you want to try it, you'll need an invite code – which I just happen to have a few of :).

If you'd like to join and follow me you can use this link (only 9 invites left at the time I wrote this): http://ftcy.co/tEziaJ my invites have run out – try one of the groups below.

If you're a fan of the Penny Arcade webcomic, this invite link will put you in their group: http://ftcy.co/uXhMAR

There's also a "Getting Fit for the Zombie Apocalypse" group that I joined: http://ftcy.co/vSvdgj

Check out this video – a superconductor "locked" in a magnetic field.

I've seen a similar demonstration in the past, but I don't think they used nearly as large of an object.