I sat trying to figure out how to best describe them and the best I can come up with is a mix between Latin rhythms, classical music, and rock. Their covers of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” and Metallica’s “Orion” are worth a listen, but I personally find their own tracks more exciting.

I’m pretty excited that Ratatat is coming to Seattle soon. Recently I’ve been listening to their self titled CD a lot at work. The songs sometimes sound so simple but they just have a great melody to them.

If anyone is interested they are playing at Neumos on March 27, 2007. Tickets are only $13.

Just to give you an idea of what they are like, here are some videos I found of them playing live.

• Ratatat – live at the Gypsy. Dallas, Tx
• Ratatat – live at SFBH Wellington

Inspired by Jamie’s entry on gender and conversation I thought I’d share some thoughts on a book I recently read called Self-Made Man: One Woman’s Journey into Manhood and Back.

Norah Vincent, the book’s author and a journalist for the L.A. Times, spends 18 months as a man and writes about her experience. To disguise herself she has help from a professional makeup artist, a voice coach, and a trainer. After perfecting her alter ego Ned, she takes on various roles in the community and engages in participatory observation.

Out of all of the situations she places herself in, one of my favorites is in the first chapter where she joins a men’s bowling league. Even though she was a terrible bowler and the men gave her a hard time, it was always in good fun and they were actually quite encouraging. The conversations she has with these men were mostly standard guy bullshit (some of it pretty funny), but there were the occasional guy heart-to-hearts that seldom happen in the company of women.

What I particularly liked about the book was Norah’s attention to the details. At one point she describes her first handshake as a man introducing himself to another.

Our palms met with a soft pop, and I squeezed assertively the way I’d seen men do at parties when they gathered in someone’s living room to watch a football game. From the outside, this ritual had always seemed overdone to me. Why all the macho ceremony? But from the inside it was completely different. There was something so warm and bonded in this handshake. Receiving it was a rush, an instant inclusion in a camaraderie that felt very old and practiced.

I have obviously experienced many handshakes as she describes, but never have I thought about the ritual itself in such detail. It also makes me wonder; do all women think it’s ridiculous and exaggerated?

I also found it interesting that she felt compelled to tell the people she met the truth about her experiment and book. I was actually a bit surprised more people were not angry or upset.

In the end the book was fun to read and insightful. Norah seems to learn a lot about herself and manages to shed light on the complex gender differences people deal with everyday.

And without further ado: Pup by Drew Weing.

I worked at the Catalyst booth last year as an undergrad and I have to admin it wasn’t my favorite activity. Sure, it was interesting to talk to the various people who stopped by, but for the most part it pulled me out of my comfort zone.

For this year’s BizTech I still worked at the Catalyst booth, but this time as a fulltime employee. I have to say that it was actually a great experience. Many people stopped by our booth and had nothing but kind words. It was also a chance for me to hear some firsthand accounts of how people are using our tools and what things they would like to accomplish with them in the future. By the end of the day we had a whole page full of people interested in being contacted for usability studies; how sweet is that?

So what did I learn today? I learned that sometimes I get so caught up in the support emails and bug fixes that I forget about the many users who are happy with our tools, that sometimes I am my harshest critic, and that sometimes just talking to a few happy users is all it takes to remind me why I love doing what I do.

1. Locate where you were on Windows Live Local
2. Choose the view (aerial/bird’s eye), zoom level, and direction that gives you the best perspective
3. Mark your location by right-clicking on it. Choose Add Pushpin. (I’ve been titling mine “I was here”)
4. Clear any other pushpins and mini-windows you don’t want showing up for other users
5. Click the Permalink link near the top left and copy the URL it gives you
6. Go back to Flickr and add the link to the description of your photo with this: <a href="URL">link text</a>
7. Tag your photo for future reference (I used the tag “Geolocated”)

I’ve seen a few people doing similar things with Geobloggers and I’m sure there are people doing similar things with other technologies. There’s probably a more efficient way to do the same thing, but for now I think this is good enough for me. I like the extra bit of information it adds to photos and love the idea of using both technologies together to provide a richer experience.In the interest of gathering all similar photos together I’ve created a Flickr group called Geolocated. Feel free join and add your own Geolocated photos.

My PersonalDNA reading:

You are a Considerate Leader.

• You tend to find beauty in form and efficiency, as opposed to finding it in broad-based, abstract concepts.
• You’re not set on one way of doing things, and you often have the skills and persistence to find innovative ways of facing challenges.
• Relating to others so well, and understanding their emotions, leads you to trust people in general, even though you’re somewhat shy and reserved at times.
• Because other people would benefit immensely from your understanding and insight, you should try to be more outgoing in social situations, even when they make you uncomfortable. Others will want to hear what you have to say!

Read the full report

Wikipedia defines a signature as:

A signature is a handwritten (and sometimes stylized) depiction of someone’s name (or some other identifying mark) that the person writes on documents as a proof of identity and will. It acts as a seal.  

Can someone please explain to me how retyping my name serves this purpose? I’m sure there is some legal reason why this is required, but in all honesty this is a huge waste of everyone’s time. If the sole purpose is to confirm that the user has read and agrees to the terms said above then ask them to check a box and save them from useless typing.