Murphee K dot com Rants http://www.murpheek.com/archive.asp?ct=9 Murphee K dot com - Officious Website The Accidents http://www.murpheek.com/archive.asp?NewsID=139&ct=9 So, ho-kay, two out of three of us have been in not-too-terrible but nevertheless bad accidents lately.  One of them isn't me.  GUESS WHO'S DUE FOR A TRIP TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM.  :0

Who you turn to during such moments of crappy karma are...your family?  OK OK OK, that, my friends, is a totally crappy segue to my mentioning that we're playing a show this Saturday, August 2nd, at Melbourne.  Chris, Ronnie, and I will ride to Wickham Park to play in an open air pavilion at an event -- dubbed 'Random Acts of Music' -- starting at 3 in the afternoon in front of mostly friends and family.  (See?  Now the segue is finally making sense!)  And to complete the set, my sister's band The Ridicules is playing too!  So come see us play, it'll be a cozy affair!  A cozy punk rock affair?

Hey, let's end this on a semi-positive note!  It looks like some of my flickr adventures have finally paid off:  Schmap, a publisher of free digital travel guides, have put out their newest Schmap Orlando Guide, and they have decided that one of my pictures should adorn the Downtown Disney Marketplace.  You can see how my picture of a LEGO dinosaur was included here (and if you don't have an iPhone, like me, you can see how it would look like here), which then conveniently links to my original, CC-licensed flickr page here.

Hooray for doing something long enough that eventually somebody would take notice!
]]> GP wears seatbelts and avoids jump ropes 2008-07-30T20:03:06-06:00 How I won an award / show on May 14th! http://www.murpheek.com/archive.asp?NewsID=129&ct=9 Disclaimer: whatever I say here is my opinion and should not be construed as a press release by my employer :)

I work for a company that participates in the NAB Show, an annual show held by the National Association of Broadcasters.  So, every first quarter of every year, there is a massive push by all the companies to come up with innovative ideas to demo at the show.

This year, I was tasked with developing an AWESOME chat application (emphasis: mine...and yours when you finally see it) that integrates with the shows and commercials that you see on your television.  (Read the real press release here.)  Now, what's interesting about this application was that it was conceived one late afternoon while chatting with the Vice President and General Manager of the company, basically just rambling about the cool things we could do in our industry.  It turns out, a co-worker of mine had a similar idea, and so lots of his ideas were integrated into this application.   This application, which I will call FanChat, because that's what it's called, was developed mainly by me but backed by years of experience by my unnamed co-worker.

Fast forward through all the patent filing, the designing, the end-to-end prototyping, the burnt midnight oils, and a last-minute push after being pulled off the project to work on another critical application, an early version of FanChat was unveiled at the NAB show, with much anticipation -- and some anxiety -- on my part.  That anxiety would soon be quelled first by relief and then elation.

Long story short, I won an award.

Well, not me, but my AWESOME chat application won a BroadcastEngineering Pick Hit award.  My reaction was best summed up by my unnamed co-worker: "we did it, we actually did it!!"  Yeah, I couldn't believe it either.

ANYHOO, between the days in which I was coding up this AWESOME chat application, I managed to find a new drummer for MPK.  Yay!  His name is Ronnie, and I really enjoy his enthusiasm.  That is all the compliments that you're getting for now, buddy.  TOUGH LOVE.

Also, we have a show on May 14th at 1982 w/ UK band Pendleton.  This will be broadcasted LIVE ON THE INTERNETS like last time (erm, hopefully, assuming my laptop doesn't burn out).  Guys in Pendleton: tell your UK friends to come watch and/or chat!  And then maybe, JUST MAYBE, we can finally come to an agreement around the spelling for colour/color.

More details to follow as always.
]]> GP assures you: IT REALLY IS AN AWESOME CHAT APPLICATION 2008-04-24T20:22:49-06:00 So awesome http://www.murpheek.com/archive.asp?NewsID=120&ct=9 I just noticed today that 'awesome' shows up a lot in this website; check it out: 17 out of 118 posts have at least one occurence of the word.

Considering the source, 14.4% sounds about right.

Uh oh, look at what I just did.
]]> GP(MPK) is incrementing the count variable 2007-09-25T19:16:05-06:00 stripcreator http://www.murpheek.com/archive.asp?NewsID=116&ct=9 Sometimes the process of making a new MPK Adventure, i.e., the coming up with the idea, the consideration of angle shots, the actual drawing thereof (by far, the hardest part), the inking, the cleanup of the scan, the dialogue, the coloring, and the flickr picture/band T-shirt gathering is just too much work for some jokes.  I mean, whenever I make a comic, I make sure that it's worth my time, so when a joke entails just drawing talking heads, I go, "Man, I don't wanna draw this!"

For these types of jokes, I use stripcreator, a website where people can make their own comics with characters from popular webcomic strips.  And hey, it's also made by Brad of Brad Sucks fame.

In the future, I'll figure out a way to integrate the comics I made to this site.  But for now, you can view the first one, "Which song?", by clicking here.

I can't believe I just found out about this.
]]> GP(MPK) had a punchline somewhere lying around 2007-06-03T17:02:34-06:00 Emotion Engine http://www.murpheek.com/archive.asp?NewsID=110&ct=9
[3/16 Update]:  Order has apparently been restored!  I don't know exactly what caused yesterday's problems since the problem occurs intermittently, but I suspect that there were too many connections being opened and not closed.  BAD BAD BAD!  Anyway, onward with yesterday's post!

There's an OK news article over at Wired News today about Koji Kondo, the dude guy DEMI-GOD who composed the theme song for Super Mario Bros.  (Read: OK as in "satisfactorily written" and not "would have been better if it weren't for the mere mention of that dude from G4, Tommy Tallarico...yes, I'm still mad at you, G4, for killing TechTV!").  Guys, I totally confess!  I didn't really know who composed that theme until now!  And I call myself a VG music fan!  My excuse is that I didn't keep track of video game composer dudes until I started playing Final Fantasy 6j.

ANYWAY.  About the comic.  I was watching a scene in Good Will Hunting one night where the main guy asked the therapist about finding the RIGHT one and the therapist then proceeded to answer with a long-winded story about the Red Sox and love-at-first-sight and how you just "know" it and he pretty much answered it in a very unscientific way.  I came away feeling kinda jilted.  Incidentally, I started reading A People's History Of The United States by Howard Zinn, which was mentioned in the movie, and I find out days later that the main guy -- the actor/screenwriter, not the character -- actually lived next door to Howard Zinn when he was a kid.  Previously thinking it was a hearfelt recommendation for a book, now I feel like I was lied to BY THE ENTIRE MOVIE.  But then I remembered it was ALL FICTION and I calmed down, but still, did it really have to be so FICTIONAL?

Firefox users!  I highly recommend you download the Popup ALT Attributes extension, which fixes a bug in Firefox that prevents you from reading the entire, multi-row alt text of an image and/or link.  You don't have to -- NO ONE'S FORCING YOU TO -- but I do believe you'll get a lot more of the "hidden" funnies this way.

Lastly, of course, some attributions are in order:  the background pics in panels 1, 2, 3, and 4 were taken by pikkus, Zach Klein, Patrick Denker, and elle_rigby of flickr, respectively.  Flickr is totally awesome!  It allows me to easily search for images with the CC Attribution License.  Sexy!  Also, I like Mates of State and Dr. Frank (of MTX).  (I should read his blog; I always learn a new word whenever I hear a new MTX song.)
]]> GP(MPK) avers that you've found the RIGHT person once you've both uttered the same punchline to a comic in unison. 2007-03-16T11:00:23-06:00 Buy the albums you want for $1 (and unload some CDs in the process) via Lala http://www.murpheek.com/archive.asp?NewsID=102&ct=9 There's a new music CD-swapping website that allows members to trade CDs via listing the CDs that they "have" and CDs that they "want."  Members can unload their CD collection via shipping their CDs (authentic ones, not burnt copies) to other members with whom they've agreed to trade.  Those receiving the CDs via the trade pay only one dollar.

An entire CD for one dollar.  Awesome!

This is legal.  And it won't be illegal soon because some form of this already exists in eBay, except Lala provides a slick interface and employs the currently trendy social networking meme.  And hey look, Wired has some credible pronouncements about them.

Here's my experience thus far:

Positives:
  • Buying CDs for one dollar just goes without saying.
  • Allows me to find and purchase very RARE CDs for a dollar.  No more trips to the Japanese import store!
  • Technically, I don't have to ship anything.  Ever.  Even if I don't have anything in my "have" list, I can still get CDs from other members for one dollar.
  • VERY slick and highly intuitive interface (gotta love DHMTL, er I mean, AJAX).
  • Recommends music based on the CDs that you've listed on your lists.
  • Allows me to unload my gaudy CD collection (and forces me to rip them before trading them away).  (Note to self: my CD collection sucks!)
  • 20% is given back to musicians.
  • Signup takes seconds and trading CDs requires very little effort.
  • A music catalog that continually grows with each new member (already surpassing Amazon, et al).
Negatives:
  • I am NOT MAKING ANY MONEY OFF OF THIS.  But then again, it would be hard to do so unless I put my CDs on eBay (wherein they will most likely remain in limbo).
  • Not everyone has the CDs that I want.    For example: GO!GO!7188.  Amazon does not have them (at least the ones that I want) and other sites charge more than thirty bucks because they have to import it from Japan.  No friggin' way.
To me, this is the online version of local record stores wherein you spend hours going through each aisle looking for rare and collectible CDs.  Except Lala's search takes nanoseconds.  And now that I think about it, Lala is going to cut off the local-record-store-middleman, although I hear that there are plans to integrate local record stores with Lala.

Everyone wins!
]]> GP(MPK) scrambles to rip all of his CDs...also, should "CD" be capitalized? 2006-06-11T16:04:42-06:00 June Playlist http://www.murpheek.com/archive.asp?NewsID=101&ct=9 Dearest non-family peeps who visit my website,

I've been listening to a lot of JRock music lately.  Oh man, it's friggin' great!  And hot!  It's great and hot!

What's not-so-hot is that I cannot find them anywhere other than going to the Japanese imports store and paying top dollar.  And no one seeds when I grab a torrent.

Shame on you other pirates!

Onward.
Asian Kung-Fu Generation - Siren
Asian Kung-Fu Generation - Blue Train
Cibo Matto - Working for Vacation
Asian Kung-Fu Generation - Kimi no Machi Made
Mr. T Experience - Some Foggy Mountain Top
Dan Reitz - Bedtime
Foo Fighters - Everlong
The Unlovables - Doot Da Doot
Asian Kung-Fu Generation - Rewrite
P.S.  If you've ever watched Full Metal Alchemist, there's a good chance you've heard Rewrite before.

[Bonus link: J-Revolution!]
]]> GP(MPK)'s thinks his adolescent years spent playing SquareSoft RPGs have influenced his musical choices. 2006-06-07T20:55:13-06:00 SkypeOut now free to US and Canada http://www.murpheek.com/archive.asp?NewsID=99&ct=9 Dearest awesomest Skype,

For someone who doesn't own any of your stock, I write about you a lot.  Quite a lot.

I've promised myself that I wouldn't mention you again, but today I just couldn't resist dialing in.  Because today, you've announced that Skype users can call landline/mobile phones for FREE so long as both caller and callee and in the US or Canada.

So awesome.

Now if you could only fix that half-second latency*, I'd jam out cross-country more often.

But still.  So awesome.

(*The last time I tried to jam with someone with Skype, the apparent half-second delay between us was enough to throw us both off.)
]]> GP(MPK) wonders what Vonage is going to do about this. 2006-05-15T19:00:55-06:00 May Playlist http://www.murpheek.com/archive.asp?NewsID=98&ct=9 Dearest beloved youth,

What happened?

How did I arrive at such a state of dereliction?  Did I put my shoes on this morning and suddenly posit that youth is no longer a valid ascription?

How arbitrary!

Perhaps these songs have expedited the conjuring of childhood memories.  Verily, their constant repetition didn't discourage the sweet melodies from fully seeping into the primoridal brain, evoking images of laughter, beaches and the unrestrained consumption of Doritos.  Mmmm....

Onward.
Cast Of Thousands - Recovery
GO!GO!7188 - Aa Seishun
GO!GO!7188 - Aoi Kiretsu
GO!GO!7188 - Ruriiro
GO!GO!7188 - Ukifune
A sidenote:  how is it that our primitive inner brains, designed to survive preemptive tiger attacks, are able to cope with UML diagrams and .NET APIs?

A mystery!!!
]]> GP(MPK) ruminates because it's his favorite pastime. 2006-05-03T20:35:51-06:00 A more holistic MySpace hack http://www.murpheek.com/archive.asp?NewsID=97&ct=9 Dearest MySpace and your oft-vilified profile layout,

Your continued popularity remains as one of the most perplexing mysteries of the interweb.

It's stupefying.

How do you manage to keep attracting so many new suitors with that eyesore of a layout you got on?  Plus, you make it so hard for everyone to dress you up that it's equally perplexing that you're actually forgiven for it.

You must be really good in bed.

But yeah yeah, I get it, beauty is in the eye of the internet troller (notice that I didn't say 'stalker' or 'sexual predator' or 'cousin Jimmy'...you have enough pressure these days) and that it's all about the social aspects of it, stupid.  But come on, everyone else around you is going all slick and sophisticated and Web 2.0-ey.  Do you really want to be remain obstuse and gaudy and AOL-ey?

Luckily, you've acquired some thoughtful friends who had the same concerns and subsequently made valiant attempts to make you look more presentable.  In fact, a quick google search reveals that, in terms of approving new friend requests, you have about the same level of discernment as most of your suitors.

Sadly, although their hearts were all in the right place, they just provided an easy way of making you look even worse.  Astounding as that sounds.

That is, until now.

Before I go on, I must make an exception to the previous paragraph:  there were a few who were brilliantly successful at upgrading your threads.  Their approach, however, was essentially placing a curtain over you -- that is, a static image -- which is an ok solution.

I was looking for a more durable solution.  And this is where Mike Industries comes in.

Mike employed a more holistic approach.  What he managed to do is akin to performing open-heart surgery (to say that it is a mere facelift is a severe understatement) -- all of the hacks I've read have mentioned that your codebase is massive.  (Disclaimer: I've never tried to hack it myself.)  This guy scoped and analyzed into your barest levels to produce a customizable template that anyone can use.

As a result, look at you.  I mean, LOOK AT YOU NOW!
]]> GP(MPK) got de-friended by people who were cleaning up their friends lists again. 2006-04-23T18:46:02-06:00 Google Calendar + SMS show notification = musicians' wet dream http://www.murpheek.com/archive.asp?NewsID=96&ct=9 Dearest beloved Google Calendar,

Do you believe in love at first sight?

I don't... well, at least I did once.  But then I found out months later that I had at least contributed to the delusion.

Let's do hope that that's I'm not deluding myself here again.

Because, if I am thinking clearly, you're going to make all touring musicians' lives easier.  And here's why:

Musicians will be able to post all of their show dates on their calendars and can make it available to the public via sharing.  Fans, in turn, can subscribe to said musicians' calendar and would have access to all the information (when, where, etc.) about their shows.  If they are interested in attending the show, the fan can copy the musician's calendar entry into their own, and they would get automatically notified about it.

It gets even better:

One of the notification options is SMS.  So, said fan could, say, be out one night looking for things to do and, if said musician is playing that night, you'll send said fan a reminder text message about the show on their cell phone at or around the time said musician will be playing.

You're so nice.

This saves musicians from cold calling their friends about their shows.  Or repeatedly posting bulletin board messages on myspace.  Or mailing list.  Or ignoring restraining orders.

Of course, that doesn't mean that they'll stop doing that.  You know how relentless some musicians are.

It's no wonder you're unlisted.

So if people want to subscribe to my calendar, they can go to their Google calendar account and search for Murphee K.  Fortunately, I'm boring so there's nothing on my calendar right now.

But when I become un-boring, they'll automatically get a text message about it.

And I'll have you to thank for it.
]]> GP(MPK) texts you later. 2006-04-16T00:32:32-06:00 Fie on you, Textamerica! http://www.murpheek.com/archive.asp?NewsID=95&ct=9 Dearest beloved Textamerica,

You and I have known each other for a long time.  One year, 11 months and 3 days, to be exact.  And in that time span, we've had our fair share of difficulties which, up until now, I've turned a blind eye upon in lieu of severing our erstwhile working relationship.

Oh sure, when you caught me red-handed stripping out your banner ads, I've let it go and I've placed the ads back.

When you've cutoff the rss feed to non-pro account members, I've let it go (and thankfully you've made it available to me again).

Oh, and when you've forced me to upgrade to a pro account (read: paid) so that I can continue to edit my custom html -- when it was previously free -- it was a hard pill to swallow, but even that I've let go.

But this...  hoo boy, this may be the last straw...

What happened is sometime last week, when I uploaded you a photo, I've noticed that the pic that you've rendered was more pixelated than usual.  After some investigative effort, I found that you've somehow set your Max Image Size field to 460px instead of the usual 640px, and you did it without my consent.  And as bad as that sounds, here's the kicker: you wouldn't let me set it back to anything above 460px!

So my pics continued to be pixelated.  And I received neither warnings nor error messages whatsoever.  I mean, you have my number.  Was it too much effort to call?

So now I'm thinking, this can't be bug.  But after repeated queries with no explanations, I am convinced that it is.  And apparently a lot of people in Google Groups were wondering the same thing.  One guy found a workaround: revert to an old girlfriend template and start over.

Which leads me to conclude that the bug lies in the new templates: I think the new 2006 templates imposes a max image limit size on a template-by-template basis (I've noticed the new ones have a limit of 547px), and somehow the template that I was using on you had a limit of 460px.  So, starting you over with a deprecated template freed me from the size limit.

And your nagging.

So alas, I got you looking the way you were before.  Like starting over?  Hi, my name is GP, and our love-hate relationship is making me wanna jump ship and open a Flickr account.
]]> GP(MPK) wants to be friends again. 2006-04-12T22:43:31-06:00 April Playlist http://www.murpheek.com/archive.asp?NewsID=94&ct=9 It's been a hella crazy hectic past week and a little decompression is in order.  I finished that report I was working on, and I am finally able to relax now that there's no more basketball games that give me fits (Go Gators!); it's about the only thing I watch on television nowadays.

But the time I used to spend staring at the box is gradually being replaced by the time I now spend browsing random music videos on YouTube.

Which brings us to this month's playlist.

Onward.
Select Start -- Zelda*
GO!GO!7188 - Kamisama no Himatsubushi*
Asian Kung-fu Generation - Haruka Kanata*
Dirt Bike Annie - The Wedding Song*
Further Seems Forever - The Moon Is Down
Dirt Bike Annie - Halter Top
Alkaline Trio - Fine Without You
(If you have iTunes, sample the playlist here.)

* - not in iTunes

Man, I need to go outside.
]]> GP(MPK) hearts those crazy asians. 2006-04-06T18:28:28-06:00 Automated guitar tuner http://www.murpheek.com/archive.asp?NewsID=93&ct=9 I like automation.  That's why when I heard about this self-tuning guitar, I was immediately intrigued.  Check out the video, it's like magic!

Everything should be automated.  Whenever I pack my stuff to move from one apartment to another, I wished all of my crap packed themselves.

When I was in high school, I wished all of my AP History position papers wrote themselves.

Maybe I'm just lazy.  Or maybe I'm just spoiled by all the conveniences that are available to us.  Want music?  Go download it now!  Want video?  Go download it now!  Want to fly to Trinidad and Tobago and skip a week of school?  Go and buy a ticket now and tear a hole through that credit record!

But I digress...

With all these modern conveniences, you'd think that we'd have put all the extra time to better use.

And yet here I am blogging this.  Don't I have to finish a report by tomorrow?

Silly distractions.
]]> GP(MPK) tunes out. 2006-03-27T23:27:17-06:00 March Playlist http://www.murpheek.com/archive.asp?NewsID=92&ct=9 This is this month's playlist.  The thing that I'm most afraid of about my publishing this monthly on the interweb is that people are going to think I have bad taste in music.  But then I remember that this is my website.

Take it or leave it.

Onward.
Descendents - I'm The One
Cake - Meanwhile, Rick James...
Descendents - When I Get Old
Cardigans - Heartbreaker
Fiona Apple - O' Sailor
Mr. T Experience - You You You
Today Doesn't Count - Another Wasted Page*
(If you have iTunes, sample the playlist here.)

* - not in iTunes
]]> GP(MPK) missing the Gainesville music place. 2006-03-16T18:06:39-06:00 Nine-hundred-plus free mp3s from SXSW http://www.murpheek.com/archive.asp?NewsID=91&ct=9 You can now download a MASSIVE collection (actually two of them) containing 900+ mp3s from artists performing at this year's South By Southwest Festival.  This is the second straight year that they are being offered for free, and I've still yet to scour through all of last year's collection.  I wish I can feed this collection into Pandora so that it could filter through only the music that I would possibly like.  Someone write a plug-in for this.  I bet you'll make bank.

As for SXSW itself, I still haven't decided whether or not I'll be making the trip to Austin.  Probably.  Maybe.
]]> GP(MPK) with a share rating of 0.376 2006-03-13T20:47:23-06:00 Cool bird comics http://www.murpheek.com/archive.asp?NewsID=89&ct=9 A friend of mine (from Cork-, er, um The Getback) has recently started a webcomic.  My favorite one so far is "The Gun Shop" (fourth one down), which has a striking resemblance to MPK Adventures.

Check out the first line from that strip:
being outside this here gun shop with no money is a total cocktease / like your mom!
It gets even better from there.  Keep it up, Jose!

[Note to self: Maybe I should start making comics again, or maybe I should start playing shows again.  Tough call.]
]]> GP(MPK) has on a black Corky shirt 2006-03-05T21:46:27-06:00 Video game pianist http://www.murpheek.com/archive.asp?NewsID=88&ct=9 Today, I stumbled upon this video.  After watching it (but not before regaining my sanity), I didn't know whether to get back on music or give up on it altogether.

Thank you, Video Game Pianist, for making all of us look bad.
]]> GP(MPK) is late on the game 2006-02-26T19:07:35-06:00 February Playlist http://www.murpheek.com/archive.asp?NewsID=87&ct=9 Some are old, some are new, some are not in iTunes (linked if that's the case).  At any rate, these songs have been on constant repeat.

Onward.
Karmella's Game - Coming Going Leaving
Yellowcard - Down On My Head
The Get Up Kids - Overdue
Pretty Girls Make Graves - This Is Our Emergency
Propaghandi - Hate, Myth, Muscle, Etiquette
The Unlovables - Feelin' All Emo (Since I Broke Up With You)
Pinhead Gunpowder - Big Yellow Taxi
(If you have iTunes, sample some of the playlist here.)

Damn you, Sony Pictures, for stealing ihatevalentinesday.com (no linky linky for those jerks).
]]> GP(MPK) doesn't know and won't hurt himself 2006-02-13T20:12:11-06:00 Monsters in my closet http://www.murpheek.com/archive.asp?NewsID=86&ct=9 I have trouble sleeping purely because there is something unresolved in my subconscious.  Career planning, rock stardom, comic-sketching, photography, a new location, social status, the meaning of life -- these are the things that hinder me from restful slumber.  The more ambitious aspirations usually have no immediate plans of action associated with them, and paradoxically I tackle those first.  So the more easily resolved ones remain hanging, like a fruit, or a carrot, or whatever.

In other news, I switched from coffee to tea in an effort to decrease my daily caffiene intake.

Having said that, imagine what I'd be brooding about nightly if I were still coddling my caffiene habit.
]]> GP(MPK) listens to diggnation, obviously 2006-01-30T19:57:35-06:00