Merry Christmas!

My classes are over for the year, and I finally got out to a movie last night. Head over to my blog to read all about it. Right now I'm taking a short break from your Christmas presents. Do you see all those little pieces all squished together in the image above? That's the entire hour and sixteen minutes of Dlog goodness which will soon be coming your way.

PS. Even though I got slighted out of seeing the "Dark Knight Rises" Prologue, Dumb Dumb Dog, Edwardo and I have completed The Dlog Prologue, and you won't need to search for bootleg copies to see this masterpiece.

BC OnLine No More

So today I got a letter in the mail (hand delivered with signature confirmation) telling me that if I didn't change the URL for my blog a foreign nation would sue me.

No joke. Do not laugh.

So now, after a little consideration I have decided to actually comply and change the URL for my blog. It is no longer bconline.blogspot.com (which would be so obviously confusing for people from a certain country that I can't believe it has taken this long for them to complain) to bencrum.blogspot.com.

Not that I am actually posting anything there anymore... just FYI.

sykecow.com for latecomers

This week in my Physics lab I must determine the speed of sound here at my home in Colorado, which by the way varies constantly, and is different than the speed of sound wherever you are. I posted the picture above simply because it's probably one of the coolest pictures ever taken. On a side note, if you haven't been there yet, head over to sykecow.com

Up on the roof.

While going through some old papers (looking for Syke drawings) I came across this:

My Niece Addy

Here's a picture of my beautiful niece... Addyson Suhr. I especially like her shirt.

Concerned Citizens Unite!

I recently decided to create a petitionthat addresses privacy concerns over on Facebook.

Don't worry Choo Choo, I left him a note!

Simple Math

If a train is headed east at 40 mph and another train is headed west at 60 mph, and if another train has a speed equal to the sum of the passengers on all three trains divided by the amount of rainfall in the Brazilian rainforest during the month of June, what will be the railroad company’s annual profit?

This is not simple math.

[Segue alert]

Simple Math is the latest album by the group Manchester Orchestra. It’s a 10-song disc (download) that from start to finish (45 minutes) really is something beautiful. I don’t know the biography of the band to bring in any interesting fact about the meaning behind any of the tracks. I’ve heard that it’s an album that kind of mirrors the lead singer’s life. I’ve also heard that the lead singer… hold on while I Google his name, Andy Hull, is the son of a preacher. That seems to be a vogue label these days so we Crums had better cash in.*

For the MO on MO you’ll have to do some research on the Web.

It’s guitars, drums, a children’s choir, mixed in with some string arrangements and some trumpet blasts. If that isn’t enough of a description to entice a listen I don’t know what would. You’ll just have to trust me on this.

So whether your preferred medium is vinyl, cassette (I’m actually not sure they are available on this), CD, MP3 or web-stream… If you’re looking for an album that will rock your socks off, do the Math!!

*Note: I think most of the members of the band The Kings of Leon grew up as traveling preacher kids.

!!Parental Advisory - This album does contain a few curse words!!

Almost there... plus a belated Mother's Day video.

I'm sure that the next post here on the family blog will be a very impressive one indeed, to honor such a momentous feat in blogging. As for this post, I told Mom that I'd repost this, which is why I am. Honestly this is one of my favorite episodes of "the Dlog", is it weird that I laugh everytime I see it?

Records

The Satisfaction of modern records

This morning I entered 4 download codes from 4 records I recently purchased. This isn't what I like best about records -- what I like best is how they force you to actually sit down and listen to music -- but it is one of the most satisfying aspects of modern vinyl. It's really nice and convenient to just open iTunes and download an album (or song) but then what do you have? I would much rather wait for a good cloud-based music service to be available (rdio is good, but not what Lala was or what Spotify would be) than download a song to a single computer (or device) and then go through the hassle of putting it on multiple other devices and computers that I use throughout the week.

With a record I know what I am getting. I am getting an object that I put into my record player and it works. It does not work in my iPod or CD player or computer... just the record player. I expect to listen to that music in one place; my living room. It's nice to download the music and have the option to transport it, but really, if I want to listen to it at work or at home I will usually just play it off of Grooveshark. I know this isn't the model for everyone... in fact, most people would rather download the song once to their iPhone and play it through the built-in speakers or plug it in to their stereo. That's cool (expect the built-in speaker part -- music should never go through those). The end.

P.S. The currently downloading song in the image is Mumford & Sons' Dharohar Project which you can listen to here

Art Contest

Click over to my blog to read about a sweet art contest!!

Tetris Heaven

Playmobil, 2011

For those of you out there still interested in playing with Playmobil, but are sick-and-tired of the lame pirates, cowboys and knights, check this: The brand new Playmobil Apple Store Playset. Now your kids can become cult followers of Apple products before they can even spell i-phone.

Available at Think Geek: $179.99

Nate is back

I am working on assembling the art work I have created over my long life and uploading it to my blog. I hope that this is an enjoyable change from my two random posts each year.

The Force is Strong With This One

It took me longer than I had planned, but I am happy to report that I am finally finished editing Nate and Katie's wedding video. For those who didn't get to attend I hope to have captured the spirit of the occasion. For those who were there, especially Katie and Nate, I hope that it will bring back good memories. And for those who don't like Dumb Dumb Dog... I've got some bad news for you!

Nate and Katie should be receiving their copy in a few days, the rest of you will follow shortly. Enjoy.

Fontastico

Michal gave me an amazing book for Christmas called Alphabesties and Other Amazing Types, a children's-ish book with pictures of animals (for each letter of the alphabet) created from type. Unfortunately I can't bring myself to let the boys read the book without serious supervision... maybe they will enjoy this video:

The Alphabet from n9ve on Vimeo.