Visitors seem to crawl out of the woodwork whenever I talk about music, so today's post will consist of random whimsies about the music in my mind and on my playlist.

• A faux 70s pad sound can turn a mediocre song into a catchy one, like Black and White Town (325KB MP3) by the Doves. You can forgive a lot in a song when it sounds a little retro .


• I'm a sucker for that Chase credit card commercial featuring Five for Fighting's 100 Years . It's so shamelessly over-the-top sentimental that it works. This doesn't mean I'll get a new credit card though.


• I think Love Machine (580KB MP3) by Girls Aloud is a perfect example of harmless cheesy pop. It has cute lyrics too . Nikka Costa's Til I Get To You has some very clever lyrics . I like clever lyrics.


• I can't decide which song has the more infectiously catchy beat, Jump (503KB MP3) by Mike Monday featuring Stella Attar, or Que Onde Guero (504KB MP3) by Beck. What do you think?


• I can't decide which song is more infectiously obnoxious, Get Right by J-Lo, or -- actually Get Right wins hands down. A near miss would be One Thing by Finger 11.


• Kylie Minogue has some horrible music but I like it anyways.


• I don't see why everyone likes Franz Ferdinand so much. He has some pretty decent songs but the man is incapable of carrying a tune . On the other hand, Shaznay Lewis has a very unique and pleasing voice (496KB MP3).

Today's funny video from my archives is a funny commercial. Be warned that there's swearing in the audio, so don't watch it at work unless you're a VIP in a single office (8MB MOV)

Happy Birthday, Uncle John!

The End

Thank you for accompanying me on my trip down Memory Lane this past week! As the month of July ticks by, the URI! Zone will finally be a decade old, and we will celebrate with Internet chocolate ice cream, or maybe chocolate-coloured hyperlinks on a vanilla background, done tastefully on a plate of CSS. We will also celebrate by sending BU to the Outer Banks for vacation, so there will be no updates for the remainder of the month. You will have to amuse yourself by doing a comprehensive viewing of the Photo Gallery to find more pictures like the ones I posted yesterday.

While I'm gone, please feel free to share your thoughts and opinions about the URI! Zone in the comments section. What did you like? What sucked? Why did you keep coming back every day? What sort of enhancements should I do to the site to prepare it for the eleventh year of its existence? These are the types of essay questions I'd like answered in my absence, and the best answers will win a small prize, like a sand crab or an oddly shaped piece of driftwood.

In all likelihood, the Zone will return pretty much the same as it is now, because the interface today is the result of years of trial and error, and I kind of like it. It's neat-o. But if you suggest something that's ingenious and not much work to implement, you could see your idea in living colour!

See you in August! Happy Birthday Uncle John!

Friday Fragments

♣ 2007 is already halfway over and barrelling towards its inexorable conclusion, even though July has always been the least frenetic of months for me. Having written a full year of daily posts since the previous site anniversary, I tend to get a little burnt out on updates when July rolls around, as can be seen by all the updates I did in July 2002.

♣ As recently as three days ago, I'd actually planned on making July "Let's take Wednesdays off for the entire month and see how long it takes readers to catch on" month, but seeing Brianne and Philip reload the page every twenty minutes for updates on Wednesday morning guilted me into writing about English class.

♣ Unlike Anna, I never disliked Government class because I had a wonderful government teacher named Mr. Esformes. His sole teaching approach was to wear away at a familiar analogy, gradually getting more and more worked up as the class went on, until moments before the bell rang when he would dramatically rip away the exterior of the analogy to reveal how it tied into American Government. On the days that it worked, it was brilliant -- on the other days, his concepts didn't quite make the leap and students would get stuck trying to assimilate two vaguely-related concepts while he did nothing but point between the two on the chalkboard and plead, "Can't you see how these are related??"

♣ The feeling was not unlike playing a game of Pictionary where the drawer can't think of anything else to draw so they just frantically move their pencil back and forth between a picture that appears to be an inflated deer's bladder and another that might be a weapon of mass destruction until the timer runs out (at which point they frustratedly exclaim, "IT WAS PHILOSOPHY!"

♣ Speaking of deer, I saw a deer in my backyard last weekend, ambling lazily between the badminton net and the shed before disappearing into the common grounds. The common grounds behind my house are just barely a forest the way most adult movies stars are just barely 18 (plus or minus twenty years). This means that the deer had wandered down a forest corridor roughly six hundred yards long and thirty yards wide just to enjoy my lawn, so I guess I should be flattered. I always knew my house would get me a lot of doe. Maybe I can domesticate one and get myself a nice lawn fawn for decoration.

♣ Speaking of fawns, which are the babies of that species, Diana and James had a baby last weekend. Benjamin Goldlust was twenty million inches long and weighed 6 pounds 5 ounces. We are very close to forming our own football team with all of these progenies (or, for the sports-impaired, our own raid party to down Kel'Thuzad). Congratulations!

♣ Someone tried to donate a "Behind the Scenes" World of Warcraft DVD to the bookstore where Rebecca works -- recognizing that it would not be worth donating to a prison or highly sought after by the Dupont Circle crowd, she wisely gave it to Ben (Anna's husband, not the up and coming raid leader who is now six days old).

♣ It seems like it's about time for a new storage format to come along and replace DVDs. Hopefully they will be smaller than CDs and DVDs but hold more information and have a fun acronym. I'm voting for "WeeVDVs" simply because it's fun to say. Plus you could exclaim "For your birthday, I got you Heebie Jeebies on WeeVDV" out loud and annoy the people around you ad nauseum. Try it out!

♣ Speaking of birthdays, today is my Uncle John's birthday and tomorrow is Kwan Burke's birthday. Happy Birthday! Have a great weekend, everyone!

Chad Darnell's 12 of 12

12:53 AM: Coming home late from a dinner in Arlington (at least, late for a suburber).		8:34 AM: Waking up to a chest cat.
8:53 AM: Soft-boiled eggs and toast for breakfast.		10:12 AM: Easing into a busy day with a couple episodes of Alias, which Rebecca is watching for the very first time.
11:30 AM: Finally getting my ass in gear with a belated shower.		12:52 PM: The cats' water gets temporarily moved off the counter while we make various dips for a cookout.
3:25 PM: Blowing bubbles for Kiwi.		3:32 PM: All sorts of foods and dips, including bacon-wrapped scallops.
4:20 PM: Kiwi finds a friend who will feed her delicious sticks and grass.		4:36 PM: Cookout!
7:53 PM: After playing badminton we taught Ella how to do card tricks.		8:09 PM: Time for a single game of pool.

See more 12 of 12ers at Chad's site!

Paint Selection Day

It's time to decide which paint colors are worthy enough to exist in the same house as PUFFIN BAY GREY, Nougat, Windjammer Blue, Milk Chocolate, and whatever the name of that girly blue in my guest bedroom is called.

In Case You Did Not Believe that Cirque du Soleil Was Crazy

Chad Darnell's 12 of 12

6:32 AM: Showered and ready for the world.

7:00 AM: Sydney watches the bagel I'm eating.

7:07 AM: Prepping the rarely-used netbook for travel.

9:08 AM: Doing some work while Amber micromanages.

11:32 AM: Sphinxing is the new planking.

11:59 AM: Packing some bags for traveling light.

1:18 PM: Lunchtime for cats.

3:41 PM: Rewatching Orphan Black on the treadmill.

4:30 PM: Learning some German.

5:36 PM: Grilling meats.

5:50 PM: Dinnertime for humans.

6:58 PM: Playing Portal Stories: Mel.

8:02 PM: Bonus Picture: Creeper who idled in front of my house for at least 7 minutes while glancing up at it repeatedly, who only left after another neighbour walked by. He picked up another guy on the corner before driving away. I've got my eye on you, POMINA.

Memory Day: Snapshots

This picture was taken one year ago today, in Chamonix, France.

Rebecca had just arrived here to do her crazy hike around Mont Blanc and was taking a rest day to see the sights before the hike began. Meanwhile, I was at home with Booty grilling entire steaks for myself and watching heist movies.

Chad Darnell's 12 of 12

12 pictures of your day on the 12th of every month

6:17 AM: Showered and ready for work.

6:32 AM: Breakfast.

6:46 AM: In the home office, ready to write about things and stuff.

10:05 AM: Good morning!

12:10 PM: This is a robbery. Hand over the adult food.

12:28 PM: Spoons are for wusses.

1:15 PM: Afternoon Beat Saber workout while Maia naps.

3:05 PM: Bottle service before a trip to grandma's house.

5:03 PM: Maia performs a magic trick. (Those flowers used to be a rabbit).

5:55 PM: New stairs to conquer.

7:31 PM: Home from grandma's, exhausted and disheveled but possessing a tin of Toasted Oats.

8:46 PM: Guess who's home!

Chad Darnell's 12 of 12

12 pictures of your day on the 12th of every month

6:18 AM: Day 122 of Quarantine: Showered and ready for the day.

6:27 AM: Bagel for breakfast.

6:46 AM: Getting some early morning work done.

9:14 AM: It's morning time!

9:43 AM: Puzzle for breakfast.

10:46 AM: Building a house for bunnies, a treehouse for bunnies, and a funny car for bunnies.

12:51 PM: Home from the Farmer's Market and having mac and cheese for lunch.

1:32 PM: Elsa is teaching us how to play Let It Go.

1:42 PM: Running on the treadmill and rewatching 12 Monkeys, Season Two.

3:12 PM: Rehabilitating my web development skills.

5:51 PM: Wings and gyro from Joe's for dinner.

7:06 PM: Zoom call with Rebecca's college friends.

Chad Darnell's 12 of 12

12 pictures of your day on the 12th of every month

6:32 AM: Showered and ready for work.

6:39 AM: Bagel for breakfast, paired with leftover meat/cheese party rolls.

8:17 AM: Breakfast for babies.

8:54 AM: Maia is off to Claude Moore summer camp (Pirate-themed).

10:28 AM: About to dial in for my 10:30 meeting.

11:21 AM: A working lunch of party leftovers.

1:53 PM: Running a mile and finally getting around to watching the last, self-indulgently long episode of Stranger Things.

3:24 PM: Relaxing in the living room.

5:03 PM: Frozen-themed Legos.

5:28 PM: The thunderstorm arrives just after our dinner delivery.

5:35 PM: Half rack of ribs from Sweetwater Tavern for dinner.

6:23 PM: Necessary bath after combing his hair with a yogurt-encrusted fork.

8:29 PM: Bonus picture: Double rainbow!