The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century :: Joey deVilla's Personal Weblog

Go Check Out Global Nerdy!

Joey deVilla — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 16:53:51 -0400

The photo above, plus interesting stories about the tech world, are good reasons why you should head over to Global Nerdy right now.

Remember, that's "www.joeydevilla.com"

Joey deVilla — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 10:18:51 -0400

This is just a quick note to let you folks know that the old URL for this site, accordionguy.blogware.com isn't going to be active for much longer. Make sure you've bookmarked the new URL, which is...

The "Bye Bye Boobies" Party

Joey deVilla — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 10:11:10 -0400

On Saturday, Wendy and I attended our friend C.'s "Bye Bye Boobies" party, an event to celebrate her upcoming breast reduction surgery (which takes place today).

The party featured a lot of breast-themed food presented in a lovely spread, pictured below:

Among the items were this lovely chocolate boob cake:

...and this bodacious lemon boob cake:

...and, of course, melon bowls:

Wendy and I wanted to contribute, so we used our ice cream maker to prepare some appropriately saucy flavours. Before heading to the party, I took out a Sharpie marker and whipped out some signs for the ice cream. When this computer fad blows over, I could go into the sign making business for ice cream shops and coffeehouses.

Here's the sign for the first flavour: "Plain" Jayne Mansfield, better known as vanilla:

The next flavour was made with one very ripe canteloupe: Melons sorbet:

Here's the one for the ice cream with a banana base (Wendy pureed two very ripe bananas into the standard ice cream mix) and chocolate chips made from a chopped up fancy-pant high cocoa content bar -- Touch My Monkey:

And finally, here's the sign for the Oreo Cheesecake ice cream. It had 10 smashed-up Oreo cookies in it, and the base contained cream cheese, sour cream and the juice of a lemon, which gave it a distinct cheesecake flavour. You probably shouldn't have this fat-licious flavour too often.

Our thanks to C. for throwing a great party, and best of luck with the surgery!

"I LOVE DURAN DURAN!"

Joey deVilla — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 17:24:11 -0400

"I fuckin' love Duran Duran!" he says, but in the video below (shot last night in Accordion City's Koreatown neighbourhood), I'm actually playing Nine Inch Nails' Head Like a Hole. Still, a compliment is a compliment...

It's Accordion Awareness Month!

Joey deVilla — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 16:11:01 -0400

It's the first of June, which means that once again, we're in Accordion Awareness Month! I strongly urge everyone to celebrate it by playing the accordion, enjoyign accordion music and even sending Accordion Awareness Month greeting cards.

I plan to celebrate by playing some accordion karaoke with friends tonight at Clinton's. If you're in the neighbourhood, please drop by!

(Big thanks to Nicole, who reminded me that I should post something today.)

Schrodinger's LOLcat [Updated}

Joey deVilla — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 11:43:06 -0400

Update -- Sunday June 3, 2007: Now I know who created this LOLCat image -- see below the image for details!

Tired: Schrodinger's Cat. Wired: Schrodinger's LOLCAT!

Click to see the image on its original Flickr page. Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.

(Wondering what a LOLcat is? Start here, then go here.)

Who's Behind This Picture?

Three people are behind this image:

Justin Wick came up with the idea
Kevin Steele, with whom I used to work at Mackerel Interactive Multimedia, took the photo, which is of his cat Xena.
Dan "dantekgeek" Lurie, whom I know from the #joiito IRC channel, put it all together. Here's the Flickr page where it first appeared.

Do the Stupidest Thing that Could Possibly Work

Joey deVilla — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 10:48:40 -0400

Over at at my tech blog Global Nerdy, I've got a new essay titled Do the Stupidest Thing that Could Possibly Work, which you might find interesting if you're wondering about the future of tech and software development.

In the Philippines, We Take Karaoke Seriously

Joey deVilla — Thu, 31 May 2007 16:00:50 -0400

Me singing some accordion-enhanced karaoke.

Unlike here in North America, even the toughest bar in the Philippines -- even the ones with real-life pirates -- are likely to have karaoke. That's how hardcore we are about it. In my immediate family alone, we collectively own 4 karaoke machines (6 if you count my PlayStation 2 and XBox with their karaoke-based games).

And believe me, that's nothing. Here's a story from ABS-CBN news...

Man slain for singing off-key in videoke bar

For singing out of tune, a jobless man was shot dead by a security guard of a videoke bar at the height of an argument in San Mateo, Rizal Tuesday night.

The victim, Romy Baligula, 29, was shot in the chest and was pronounced dead on arrival in a local hospital.

Senior Superintendent Felipe Rojas, acting Rizal police director, said the suspect, Robilito Ortega, 43, was arrested by responding policemen and yielded a caliber .38 revolver with five live bullets.

Rojas said Baligula and his companions were having a drinking spree at the Jullives KTV bar where Ortega worked as a security guard.

Prior to the incident, Ortega approached the table of Baligula’s group and shook hands with each of them, apparently in a show of friendship.

When Baligula started to sing, Ortega even danced to the tune. But when the song progressed, the suspect reportedly commented that the victim was out of tune, triggering a verbal tussle.

At the height of the argument, Ortega pulled out his service firearm and opened fire at Baligula before fleeing.

Rojas said policemen patrolling the area heard the gunshots and responded to the scene and eventually arrested Ortega.

Dave, who sent me the link to this story, wrote "I will never do karaoke in the Philippines," to which I responded "Lightweight." They should try to incorporate firearms-assisted judging into American Idol.

Staircase Drawers

Joey deVilla — Thu, 31 May 2007 11:34:43 -0400

Here's a clever space-saving idea: a staircase with drawers embedded in the steps:

Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.

Of course, the drawers can pose a safety hazard: you'd better be the type of person who closes drawers -- if not, you'd be setting yourself up for a nasty spill one night when you go downstairs, half-awake at o-dark-thirty.

Latest Articles on "Global Nerdy"

Joey deVilla — Thu, 31 May 2007 11:16:44 -0400

In case you missed them, here are the latest articles from the tech blog I do with my buddy George, Global Nerdy:

LOLCODE, the LOLcat Programming Language: I can has programming language?
Shut Up and Play: "We’re users. We don’t hook up our headsets, we mute your voice, and we just play the damn game. We’re not here to make friends, and if you extend an invite, it will just get rejected. We rarely leave feedback. For us online gaming isn’t social; most people on Xbox Live aren’t worth being social with."
Cyberwar Ain’t What It Used to Be: This one got Global Nerdy BoingBoinged for the second time in a week -- a comparison between cyberwar as depicted in William Gibson's Neuromancer and as it happened in Estonia.
A number of links on Microsoft Surface: Microsoft's Midnight Surprise, Microsoft’s Midnight Surprise, Revealed: Microsoft Surface, This Thing’s Gonna Make Porn AWESOME! and Microsoft Surface, Sun Starfire and Apple Knowledge Navigator Videos.
Mesh Conference 2007: A quick note on the Mesh Conference, which wraps up today.
July 17th: Guitar Hero Encore Rocks the 80s:Lookin' forward to this game!
“Spam King” Robert Soloway Arrested: Is there any way we can get Soloway sent to the prison after which the TV series Oz was modelled? Please?

"The Difference of Love"

Joey deVilla — Thu, 31 May 2007 11:01:53 -0400

Click the photo to see the original at full size.

The photo above, titled The Difference of Love is getting a lot of discussion on Reddit.

My own feelings on the matter are best summed up by this musical number from the television series American Dad:

God's Business Plan

Joey deVilla — Wed, 30 May 2007 14:56:44 -0400

All the best business plans got started as scribbling on napkins...

Click the photo to see it at full size. Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.

Virgil Could Use a Hug Right About Now

Joey deVilla — Tue, 29 May 2007 17:41:08 -0400

Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.

100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know

Joey deVilla — Mon, 28 May 2007 13:30:11 -0400

According to the folks at Houghton Mifflin, every high school grad should be familiar with the words in the list below. I'm not surprised that I was unfamiliar with the word abstemious given its meaning, and moiety is now part of my vocabulary.

abjure
abrogate
abstemious
acumen
antebellum
auspicious
belie
bellicose
bowdlerize
chicanery
chromosome
churlish
circumlocution
circumnavigate
deciduous
deleterious
diffident
enervate
enfranchise
epiphany
equinox
euro
evanescent
expurgate
facetious
fatuous
feckless
fiduciary
filibuster
gamete
gauche
gerrymander
hegemony
hemoglobin
homogeneous
hubris
hypotenuse
impeach
incognito
incontrovertible
inculcate
infrastructure
interpolate
irony
jejune
kinetic
kowtow
laissez faire
lexicon
loquacious
lugubrious
metamorphosis
mitosis
moiety
nanotechnology
nihilism
nomenclature
nonsectarian
notarize
obsequious
oligarchy
omnipotent
orthography
oxidize
parabola
paradigm
parameter
pecuniary
photosynthesis
plagiarize
plasma
polymer
precipitous
quasar
quotidian
recapitulate
reciprocal
reparation
respiration
sanguine
soliloquy
subjugate
suffragist
supercilious
tautology
taxonomy
tectonic
tempestuous
thermodynamics
totalitarian
unctuous
usurp
vacuous
vehement
vortex
winnow
wrought
xenophobe
yeoman
ziggurat

If you're a Simpsons fan, the word chicanery should be familiar to you ("Oh, Mr. Homer...What has reduced you to such cheap chicanery?"). If you remember your Phil Hartman-era SNL, you might recall his use of the word jejune ("Compulsion" by Calvin Kleen). Monty Python fans will have run into a form of expurgate (the bookstore skit), lugubrious appears in both Lou Reed lyrics (The Original Wrapper) and an old Zippy the Pinhead comic strip and I recall the word sanguine being used in an 80's-era X-Men comic.

My Articles at Global Nerdy

Joey deVilla — Mon, 28 May 2007 12:51:29 -0400

Over at the tech blog I write, Global Nerdy, I've got these stories:

Lara Croft, Then and Now: A review in pictures of the evolution of everyone's favourite hot archaeologist.
Advertising: Best Left to the Professionals? Ad execs are unimpressed with the contest submissions for Heinz ketchup's "create you own ad" contest.
Sony's Very Special Screws: Maybe Sony thinks that they're selling stuff to the U.S. military.
Zombies Less Annoying Than MySpace Users: I've always suspected it, but thanks to two stories from last week about Apple Stores, I now have proof.
A Million Fools and Their Money Have Been Parted: Believe it or not, a million Zunes will have been sold by the end of June. I had no idea there were that many people out there with serious head injuries.

Portland's "Jesus is Lord" Neon Sign

Joey deVilla — Mon, 28 May 2007 11:45:25 -0400

John Philip Green, Pete Forde and I went out one night in Portland to check out Ground Kontrol, an place that's both bar and arcade devoted to 80's pinball and video games (I wrote a little bit about the arcade in Global Nerdy). Along the way, we passed by a glowing red neon sign that proclaimed "Jesus is Lord" and couldn't resist posing beneath it. You know, just in case The Rapture happened that night, or perhaps we might get discovered as supermodels. You never know.

We took the Max, Portland's light rail system, from the convention center to the stop at Skidmore Fountain. The place's name is so spot on that it's downright Dickensian:

The light rail stop at Skidmore Fountain, Portland, Oregon.

Here's John, posing underneath the sign. Jesus, please send him some venture capital!

John looks like he believes. Testify!

Pete struck a good pose:

Pete: "Dear Jesus, please give me a brand new drum kit..."

And here I am. Yea, though I walk through the valley of darkness, I have no fear, for I have a big honkin' accordion:

Me: "Yay-us! The power of the accordion compels you!"

More from That Pre-Keynote Performance at RailsConf

Joey deVilla — Mon, 28 May 2007 11:19:25 -0400

Here's a great shot that New York-based Ruby guy Sebastian Delmont posted to Flickr -- it's of that pre-keynote performance that I did with RailsConf organizer Chad Fowler:

Click the image to see it on its Flickr page

Texas-based Ruby guy Sean McMains took a video of the whole performance:

The Tamago Double Mac: Two McFoods in One

Joey deVilla — Sat, 26 May 2007 11:51:22 -0400

Having trouble choosing deciding whether to have an Egg McMuffin or a Big Mac? In Japan, you can get both in a single package: the Tamago Double Mac (tamago is Japanese for "egg"). You get the two burgers for the Big Mac-ness, bacon and poached egg for Egg McMuffin goodness, pepper sauce to make it its own thing, and optional cheese.

Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.

Adding an egg to a burger isn't anything new. The Kiwis put fried eggs on their burgers, and fried eggs are optional at the American chain Fatburger.

To push the Tamago Double Mac over the top, you could give it the "Fat Kreme" treatment: replace the bun with a Krispy Kreme donut sliced bagel-style.

Meanwhile, Over at Global Nerdy...

Joey deVilla — Fri, 25 May 2007 17:21:02 -0400

The image that goes with the Global Nerdy story abou tkids huffing compressed air. Click it to see the story.

Here's a reminder: Global Nerdy, the tech news site that my buddy George and I write, is an ongoing concern! Here are the most recent stories:

Spam’s “80-200″ Rule. 80% of the world's spam -- and remember, they say that about 90% of all email traffic is spam -- comes from 200 operators.
Makin’ the Gas Smell Like Ass. I knew kids huffed no-stick Pam and Pledge furniture spray to get high, but did you know they also huffed the compressed air you use to get rid of dust?
iPod Amnesty Bin at Zune Headquarters. Ther Zune team's internal jab at the iPod.
Dialog Box of the Week. Its buttons are labelled in such a way that you can't tell which one initiates which action.
Why PR Doesn’t Work for High Tech (or: Guy Kawasaki is Wrong, Wrong, Wrong!) Guy and I differ on why PR doesn't work for geeks.

Playing Accordion at the RailsConf Keynote

Joey deVilla — Fri, 25 May 2007 16:30:56 -0400

Photo by James Duncan Davidson. Click to see it on its original page.

Yes, it's total bias on my part, but one of my favourite moments from last week's RailsConf conference -- the premier conference for Ruby on Rails developers -- was playing the intro musical number for the evening keynotes -- me on accordion, along with conference organizer Chad Fowler on his ukelele. It's not every day that I get to break out the accordion in front of an audience of 1600!

Photo by James Duncan Davidson. Click to see it on its original page.

We took the Radiohead single Creep and changed it from a song about unrequited love and self-loathing to a little ditty about Rails and its creator, David Heinemeier Hansson. Here are the reworked lyrics:

Writing applications
Used to make me cry
But you wrote a framework
So friendly and dry

You're a supermodel
And I hear you code too
You're so effing Hansson
David Heinemeier Hansson

But I'm a noob
I barely wrote depot
What the hell am I doing here?
I don't belong here

(Falsetto part)
Da da da da...
David Heinemeier Hansson
has_many
has_one

The song's chords are pretty simple: G - B - C - Cm, over and over, so rehearsing it didn't take very long. Here's a video that Aaron Huslage shot during our rehearsal just outside the administrative area:

Here's the video of the actual performance, shot by one "KeeperPat":

This makes this the second RailsConf at which someone performed a musical number with the words "David Heinemeier Hansson" in the lyrics (why the lucky stiff did it last year with lyrics about how Hansson was killed by Robert Scoble after a flamewar). It's a tradition now!

I'd like to thank Chad Fowler for going along with the musical suggestion and for being an excellent musical partner. Maybe we could do it again next year -- perhaps a ditty where we mention everyone in the Rails Core Team by name?

If the Baby Gets a Stroller, I Want a Stroller Too!

Joey deVilla — Fri, 25 May 2007 10:30:25 -0400

Seen in Seattle (and soon, across the internet):

Click the photo to see it on its original page.

Mom's teaching her kid this valuable lesson: Walking is for suckers.

Remixes of "Identifying Wood"

Joey deVilla — Wed, 23 May 2007 17:21:33 -0400

Remember the cover of the book Identifying Wood, which I featured last week?

An anonymous commenter pointed me to a FARK challenge to remix the book cover. FARK got the idea from this entry in the Make blog, who in turn got the inspiration for the entry from my post, which I built around a photo from my friend Miss Fipi Lele.

(I'm quite honoured that the folks at Make check out my blog!)

Here are some of my favourite results:

I'll Be Here All Week

Joey deVilla — Thu, 17 May 2007 14:08:54 -0400

I'll be at RailsConf in Portland, Oregon all week, which means that the building shown below is my home for the next few days:

Since this is a pretty tech-y conference, a lot of my posts this week will be in my tech blog, Global Nerdy. The party photos will get posted here and in Global Nerdy.

With a Name Like That, I'd Have Trouble Sleeping Too

Joey deVilla — Thu, 17 May 2007 10:29:40 -0400

Inventing the Future

Joey deVilla — Thu, 17 May 2007 00:00:00 -0400

"Perhaps someday in the future, people will exchange punch cards of their favourite bikini girl printouts. And maybe, if computers get advanced enough, pictures of cats with humourous captions."

Click the photo to see it at full size.

The Joys of United Airlines' "Economy Minus" Seats

Joey deVilla — Wed, 16 May 2007 21:12:29 -0400

After being cooped up in United's "Economy Minus" class for about five hours, I've finally arrived in Portland, where I'll be attending RailsConf for the rest of the week. Nice-lookin' city you folks have here, by the way.

Not an actual photo of my seat, but a reasonable approximation I found with Google Image Search.

I pity anyone 6" and taller who flies in United's Economy section -- at 5'11", my knees almost touch the seat ahead, and when whoever's in front of me decides to hit the recliner button, there's barely enough room to read a magazine, and I can forget about using the laptop.

United adds insult to injury with the false luxury of their "Economy Plus" section, an area of economy with the legroom that they should be offering as a baseline. While you do get the extra legroom, they're still the same narrow seats, which means that you're going to get quite up-close-and-personal with your neighbour, and oftentimes your neighbour's elbows. Luckily for me, I wasn't sitting beside anyone in the 250-pounds-or-more weight class, in which case I'd have been dealing with "spillover" issues as well.

The other problem with Economy Plus seats is that you either have to have a lot of miles on their frequent flyer program or pay something close to full fare to get them. If you're lucky, you'll have the option to upgrade to one when you're checking in -- I got offered one for an additional $60 when checking in at Pearson this morning.

I think I'm beginning to understand where air rage comes from.

Thanks a lot, United. You'll always be the airline of last resort to me!

A Creepy Ad from the Seventies

Joey deVilla — Wed, 16 May 2007 00:00:00 -0400

Believe it or not, the ad below comes from an issue of Tiger Beat, circa 1976. It's creepy in a way that only a Texas children's beauty pageant meets the Disco Era photo can be:

Click the picture to see it at full size. Magazine scan courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele."

Check Out “Global Nerdy” for RailsConf News!

Joey deVilla — Tue, 15 May 2007 22:20:37 -0400

If you're going to RailsConf 2007 in Portland, Oregon or just interested in what's happening there, let Yours Truly be your reporter! I'll be posting reports at my technical blog, Global Nerdy.

I'll be covering the premier Ruby on Rails conference from all angles, technical and social, from the all-day Rails Guidebook tutorial sessions on Thursday to the main conference, which runs Friday, Saturday and Sunday, to whatever extracurricular hijinks 1,200 nerds, a lot of the fine local craft beer and an accordion can get into.

You'll Only See This on the Director's Cut

Joey deVilla — Tue, 15 May 2007 00:00:00 -0400

Damn you, Photoshop! Damn you all to hell!!!

Click the picture to see it at full size. Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.

Book of the Week: Identifying Wood

Joey deVilla — Mon, 14 May 2007 17:50:33 -0400

"Yup," says the guy on the cover of Identifying Wood, "that's wood, all right."

Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.

The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century :: Joey deVilla's Personal Weblog

Go Check Out Global Nerdy!

Remember, that's "www.joeydevilla.com"

The "Bye Bye Boobies" Party

"I LOVE DURAN DURAN!"

It's Accordion Awareness Month!

Schrodinger's LOLcat [Updated}

Who's Behind This Picture?

Do the Stupidest Thing that Could Possibly Work

In the Philippines, We Take Karaoke Seriously

Man slain for singing off-key in videoke bar

Staircase Drawers

Latest Articles on "Global Nerdy"

"The Difference of Love"

God's Business Plan

Virgil Could Use a Hug Right About Now

100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know

My Articles at Global Nerdy

Portland's "Jesus is Lord" Neon Sign

More from That Pre-Keynote Performance at RailsConf

The Tamago Double Mac: Two McFoods in One

Meanwhile, Over at Global Nerdy...

Playing Accordion at the RailsConf Keynote

If the Baby Gets a Stroller, I Want a Stroller Too!

Remixes of "Identifying Wood"

I'll Be Here All Week

With a Name Like That, I'd Have Trouble Sleeping Too

Inventing the Future

The Joys of United Airlines' "Economy Minus" Seats

Recommended Reading

A Creepy Ad from the Seventies

Check Out “Global Nerdy” for RailsConf News!

You'll Only See This on the Director's Cut

Book of the Week: Identifying Wood