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On a more personal note, we had a really fun night last night.  After dinner, we wanted to head down to the Store Arch Bridge to see the Red Bull Illume exhibit.  We saw a large storm coming, but we decided we’d risk it.  When we got to the exhibit, we found that the photos didn’t start projecting until sundown about 9:30pm, so we decided to wait it out.  But there was a huge wall cloud coming from the northeast, so we decided to take shelter in the Guthrie Theater building.  The new Guthrie is a spaced-aged design that is tons of fun to explore and includes many great overlooks of the Saint Anthony Falls area, so it was an ideal place to watch the store blow over.

First we stood out on the Endless Bridge, which is a cantilever stuck 178 feet out of the side of the building and puts you right above the center of the beautiful downtown river area.  We watched a huge wall cloud move across the sky and even withstood 70mph winds for a minute or two.  Then, of course, the rain started pouring, so we went into the indoor part of the Endless Bridge.

After hanging out in there for a bit, we went up to the Dowling Studio space, also known as the “Yellow Box”.  This was an even higher overlook of the river area, but all the windows were colored a bright yellow.  I’d never been in this space, but it was really fun to watch the sun set and lightning flash through the sky in this alternate yellow world.  After the rain fully subsided, we went back to the Endless Bridge to see the lightining flash through the sky in its real bright purple hue.  It was amazing to see because you could see lightning for miles around in all directions.

Towards the end of that, we watched the huge lit-up photos from the Red Bull Illume exhibit turn on and it looked amazing.  (You can see a photo taken from the same spot on the home page of the Red Bull Illume site if you browse the photos at the bottom a bit.)  We then went down there and found some amazing photos, most of extreme sports of all kinds.  They were amazing, and if you have time some evening to come down in the next week, you really should do it.  The exhibit seems to be open pretty late, because the photos were still lit up at midnight when Isaac and I left the theater as well.

That’s right, Isaac and I actually had to hurry past the Red Bull exhibit because we wanted to catch this weekend’s blockbuster film, Hellboy II: The Golden Army.  In usual St. Anthony Main theater fashion, we walked in 3 or 4 minutes late for the start of the film due to 10 minutes of ticketing lines, but the rest of the experience was positive.  The second installment of Guillermo Del Toro’s Dark Horse Comics adaptation almost matches the first one, although most of the “character development” revolved around a romance of some sort for almost every major character.  It was nice to see more of Doug Jones’s Abe Sapien character, although he rarely kicks butt.  Del Toro goes a bit overboard, in my opinion, with the sets and otherworldly characters, making some look too much like Pan’s Labrynth, which brought me a bit out of the Dark Horse Comics characters, I think.  Ron Perlman continued to do a great job as the reluctant but prideful superhero, Hellboy, while I felt Selma Blair’s character continues just to be an emotional wreck.  The theater was pretty packed, but who knows if the series will warrant another installment or if Guillermo Del Toro will be doing it after the next four years or so on the Hobbit projects.  All in all, it was an entertaiing film, but definitely not one I’m gonna run out and buy on DVD (just like the last one).

I love watches.  I’ve had a watch for most of my life, and I just like the fact that the watch makes it so easy to check what time it is.  (In my case, it’s nice because I can get it up close and look at it really easy too.)  I didn’t have a watch for my senior year of college, and I guess I got by just fine, but I really do like a good watch.  My most recent watch buttons are not working, so I’m going to ramble on a bit about what I want and how I cannot seem to find it.

For at least the last decade, I’ve been using Timex digital watches.  I think I started out with a large digital Ironman watch, and I just loved the functionality.  Of course, the alarm is great, but some of my favorite features are the stopwatch and the countdown time.  I actually use the countdown timer every week to remind me that my load of laundry needs to be changed every week.  Also, you can keep track of the time in another time zone, so if you’re traveling around a bit, you can remember what time it is at home.  These are the features that make the digital functionality a must-have.  Plus, the Timex watches are all laid out the same, so once you know how to change settings and o things on one, you know them all, and they’re very intuitive, such that I’ve almost never referred to a manual.

For the last seven or eight years I’ve had Timex’s analog-digital hybrid watches, which I’ve also loved.  These feature a great analog display on a metal armband and case that has a digital display inside the bottom of the face.  It looks really stylish, but also is very functional.  I got the metal armband because the cloth armbands would, after time, start to get damp and smelly from sweat, but the metal, I’ve found, just starts getting deposits of dead skin cells and gunk in the cracks of the band, so I guess it’s a little better.  I also love the Indiglo nightlight technology that lights up the entire watch face for great viewing at night, which is another thing that Timex seems to have perfected in the watch space.

So what’s the problem?  Well, I think I take pretty good care of my watches.  They say they’re “water resistant”, but I’ve found that’s not the case as much as I’d like.  All the analog watches have the dial on the side that you use to adjust the time on the watch and that dial has rusted out on every single watch I’ve had.  It’s not like I’m wearing them while swimming or showering, but I do wear it while doing dishes or in places where my arm might get a bit wet, and taking off the watch and stowing it away from water would be a big nuisance.  Somehow, on the watch I had 4 or 5 years ago, clouds of water formed underneath the watch’s clear covering and then the watched stopped completely shortly after.  On this current watch, it’s been working like a champ for almost four years, although the buttons have been getting a bit rusty and it’s been reacting a bit to my skin.  But, just last night, one of the buttons has completely stopped working such that I cannot use any of the digital features of the watch besides the current time.  (I can’t even turn off the alarm that most likely goes off every morning at 5:27 am.)  I did have the battery on this watch replaced once within the last year, and it has worked really well.

What I would like to find is a watch that lasts for much longer.  I’d rather not have the buttons and face get tarnished or rusty.  Also, I want something simple and stylish, not complicated-looking.  I want to know if there are better digital watches out there.  I’d even be willing to forsake the stylish analog part in the place of a professional-looking digital watch.  Anyone have a watch you use and like that has these features?  What’s your experience like?

While looking around, I was intrigued by the Casio Wave Ceptor digital watch.  It’s got a square design and a big time display, plus all the usual options.  But, at the hefty price of $160, there’s a bunch of extra cool features.  The watch gets its time updated from the atomic clock in Colorado automatically and it also includes a battery that recharges via light from the sun.  These are both interesting developments, especially the second, because I expect that’s where the price increase is.

My problem is that these features leave a lot of questions, and I tried to look around on the ‘Net a bit, but I couldn’t find any good answers or places to get these questions answered.  First, if at some point I had to replace the battery, how much does a rechargeable battery cost?  Second, if the battery will last for a long time, is the construction of the watch good enough that the buttons and case won’t wear out before the really nice functions?  I’ve only paid $50 or $60 for my earlier watches, so if I’m going to pay much more, it’s going to have to last for most of a decade.  There are other similar models without the recharging capability that I might look into, but I’d love to hear input that anyone has.

A couple weeks ago, a friend who usually requires me to comment on the latest news from Apple told me that she wanted to hear more about me and what I’m up to on my blog.  She also asked that I post those on top of the technology posts, then just a couple days ago she asked me, “What’s Drupal?” and I told her to get reading.

In the past, I have posted slightly more personal goings-on on my blog.  But, thanks to the evolution of the Web 2.0, I get to do those types of things in bunches of ways.  First, there’s services like Twitter and Pownce that allow you to post a quick little message to your friends.  Both of these can be easily posted from my phone, so it’s easy to post directly what I’m up to.  (I use a service called TwitterFeed to just post to Pownce and then they cross-post it to Twitter for me.)  Here’s what I’ve been talking about on Pownce/Twitter for the last couple months:

• I posted my regular goings on during a March trip to Arizona.
• I talked about my love for artists like Andy Hunter and John Reuben, as well as being hopeful about the new Coldplay.
• I commented on the squealing power brick on Kevin’s computer.
• I posted random, out-of-context quotes from life here in Dinkytown.
• I overrreacted a bit when housemates were burning stuff in the kitchen and it made the house reek.
• You can pretty much get me to do anything if you offer me fresh Chipotle burritos.
• I posted links to some of my favorite content from HomeStarRunner.com.
• I professed my love for jQuery (which I get to learn about more today with the Lullabots).
• I got my bicycle out and have rode it around a couple times.
• I “live-blogged” some of the talks from the People of Praise men’s retreat by posting some of the more pivotal points in the talk.
• I quoted Sixpence None The Richer and Avril Lavigne.
• I posted about last weekend’s adventures camping near Taylor’s Falls, MN.
• I’ve made a couple comments about this week’s Lullabot workshop as well.

The second place you can see stuff I’m interested is on my Google Reader Shared page.  I use Google Reader all the time to keep track of sites that get updated, and if you have me listed as a Google Talk contact, you should see my Shared Items right in your Google Reader (or you can use the page).  Here’s some cool items I’ve shared as some of my favorites:

• Dietrich gets a knife for his 10th birthday.
• Notifications of major new releases of WordPress or Drupal, as well as a case study of the new FastCompany.com and Drupal usability testing.
• Joel on Software on headphone jacks and web standards.
• Shaun Groves talks about Compassion, helping kids, and how Twitter makes you dumb.
• Info about the amazing Google App Engine.
• Lots of cool ThinkGeek products that caught my eye.
• A demo of Google Charts and ranting about Microsoft.
• A former teacher’s meditation on John The Baptist from the men’s retreat.
• A bunch of hilarious Twitter one-liners from Merlin Mann, a Mac lover and productivity expert.

I’d say that if you want to know what I’m thinking about and doing, just bookmark the Pownce and Google Reader pages and keep up with the reading.  If I do have longer, more thoughtful posts to put up, I will keep posting them here.  Also, a regular feature showing off my many stylish T-shirts may be in the works as well for this blog.

Many of my loyal readers know that I’m into Drupal in a pretty big way. Lots of things are going well for Drupal these days, including a better-than-ever release of Drupal 6 and a community’s who only major problem is handling the exponentially rapid growth. Last week, tech celebrity Chris Pirillo announced a project called Gnomepal where he encouraged developers and users to use Drupal as a core for a community platform. It’s just another reason why I think Drupal is the web framework of the future and that I hope I’ll be able to develop with Drupal more in the future.

First, Chris talked of Drupal as a “community platform”, but what does that mean? A community platform is a website where all aspects of an online community can be attached or created. Drupal’s web site calls its software a “content management platform” and “community plumbing”. This is very accurate because Drupal is made up of many modules that work on top of the main core of the site. At the core of the site is the basics of managing news items and basic pages of a website, but with only a couple clicks you can add a blog for each user (or subset of your users) or a discussion forum or an RSS aggregator of a number of specified feeds. I have literally implemented all of these in a matter of minutes on basic sites to facilitate community. In this way, a website for an online community can be started in minutes and features can be easily added to accommodate growing needs.

What’s so great about a community platform? On many of the sites that I build at work, we often use three or four open-source applications - sometimes a CMS that manages pages, a blog, and a discussion forum, and then there may be some custom work to tie them together or bring in custom functionality. The problem is that each application has its own administration and logins. Not only do the owners of the site have to keep track of four different accounts, but the users of the site have a disjointed experience and have to sign up multiple times as well. This type of community platform allows you to make one site with all these different parts that integrate better and all use the same login account. The only downside is that, because it does everything, it does not do everything well. For example, WordPress is perfect for a blog and exactly what I use here because the features are more specialized for a blog. But if I wanted a blog and a forum, I’d install Drupal because users only need one account and the site is better integrated by design.

Second, what is a “web framework”? A web framework is a collection of functions and libraries that speeds up the web development process. The web framework is built on top of an existing language and speeds up the web application development process. Examples of web frameworks include Ruby on Rails, Django (for Python) and Zend Framework (for PHP). We use Zend Framework at work and it really helps in making custom applications because there’s a system for database abstraction as well as systems for managing URLs, templating, and much more. It takes a bit of work to understand and get used to the framework, but once you get the hang of it, it speeds up the development process a bunch and still gives you the ability to override or extend the functionality gracefully.

Although Drupal does not use an MVC pattern like most of the other frameworks, it is a powerful web framework. All extensions are written as modules, and functions for themeing, rendering and organizing forms, etc. are all available from the Drupal core. Many of the contributed modules even provide their own functions for adding your own modules on top. Although Drupal’s web framework API is a bit different than the major web framework players, it is still a great development system. And, again, one of my favorite things is that this web framework comes with a extensible Content Management System from the first moment you install it, giving you a shortcut to building most applications.

In the end, though, there is a problem. I’ve adopted Drupal as the platform of choice for a community platform, for example, on my music website, inReview.net, as well as the basic content management system for most sites I manage. The problem I’ve had is figuring out how to figure out problems and learn more. Through the Drupal book and asking a question or two in IRC and on drupal.org, I have gotten a long way and been able to develop a number of custom modules. However, in the development of inReview.net, I have gotten to the point where I’m spinning my wheels a lot. I’m trying to make as much of an automated site as possible but I cannot figure out how to organize and tie in the artist data throughout the site. I know Drupal can do it, but I cannot figure out a way how. I’ve tried posting a question about it on drupal.org, but I’ve never received an answer. I need some outside help, but I’m not sure where to get it.

The free options are to just read up a lot about stuff on drupal.org, but that takes a long time of reading and does not directly answer my problem. I could try networking and learning a bit at a local Drupal group, but their meetings already overlap with a People of Praise meeting I already have. There are a couple other local groups of Drupal developers, and maybe next time a Drupal Day is organized, I will go, but there seems to be no real low-cost solutions to my problem that don’t require a bunch of time I do not have. I already do other free things such as a free Drupal podcast which has given me lots of ideas.

So, I think that means I need to spend some money to figure out more about Drupal. I could hire consultants from Lullabot or Bryght or somewhere to figure out and develop a solution, but that is just investing in my site and not my own learning. Plus, hiring consultants such as these could be very expensive. The solution, I think, is the Lullabot Training series. These world-class Drupal consultants have helped Warner Bros. Records, Sony Records, MTV.co.uk, Participant Productions and many others to create great-looking sites that leverage all the benefits of Drupal. Plus, they’ve done week-long training sessions in most major cities and even are bringing it this week to Australia. It is almost $2,000 to get a week of training, but it seems like it may be the answer to digging into Drupal a bit more. They are spending a week next month in Minneapolis, and I’m thinking about attending. I think I’d learn a lot from the classes, and just getting a week to play around with Drupal and have some guidance will probably be exactly what I’m looking for.

What do you think? I’m leaning towards thinking $2,000 of investment in my Drupal skills is probably worth it. Should I go? Is there something else I could do? Have you been to a Lullabot training and did it help you? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

For the last couple years, most of my circle of friends have all signed up for Gmail accounts and hang out on Google Talk. It’s much slicker and nicer than Yahoo!, MSN, or AIM, mostly because it’s done in a Google smart way. It makes it really easy to contact all my friends because, more often than not, my friends are online, but it does still have its downsides, just like all the other services.

Among my friends, the “status message” has become the mode of communication. A month doesn’t go by where some of my friends talk about how much they love that their Google Talk contact list is like a virtual “living room” of their circle of friends across the country, and I agree. It is fun to read everyone’s status message, and great to be able to hear what’s going on in people’s lives or to find out what they’re seeing/watching on the Internet.

However, the main problem is that I only really have time to hang out in this “living room” for about 12 hours per week, on average. I have a couple hours on the weeknights of Monday and Tuesday and then some blocks of time on Saturday and Sunday. Almost daily I hear, “Did you hear what was on so-and-so’s status message?” Of course I didn’t! I was at work! (And no, the management at work wouldn’t look kindly upon me chit-chatting it up all day.)

The best way to overcome this problem, in my opinion, is to use a service such as Twitter or Pownce as well as or instead of Google Talk. These services are basically another place to input your current thoughts or goings-on that also includes an archive of statuses. Persons can post comments on your message. Your friends could also get your latest status message sent to their cell phones, if they like. You can download some sort of application that will keep the latest statuses of your friends on the side of your screen, just like Google Talk, if you want. Sure, there’s some status messages that are of the moment and not worth having a big archive of, but when someone posts a cool video or interesting article, I’d rather not hear about it three weeks later in a conversation where I’m the only one of 40 people who didn’t hear about it. I like this because then I can subscribe to the RSS feed and read about it later that evening or the next day when I have time, and then I can take part in the conversation. If I do come up with a quick thought that I post on my Google Talk status, I always also post it on my Pownce page, whether via the website or the handy little Adobe Air app, because I want you to hear about it even if you’re not online at that millisecond.

Last night, we wanted to go caroling, but it was pretty cold out, so we didn’t. Instead, we decided to bring some caroling cheer to the online community. Here it is:

UPDATE: This video was removed from YouTube due to “artistic differences”.

We shot it pretty quickly, and within a half hour we had the title added and some cut out by using the new iMovie 7. It was really easy to use once I figured out the interface. There was a nice integration feature with YouTube, but we weren’t able to use it because YouTube was slow and down at times. In the end, though, it was a nice, quick little video.

A couple years ago, a favorite band of mine announced that the rides at the Mall Of America were lame. All of us were like, “Of course!” What was once called Knott’s Camp Snoopy has always had a dozen or more rather tame rides. The best was a nice flume ride with two drops, the first one in the dark. Also, the “Mystery Mine Ride” was an IMAX screen with chairs that moved in synch with the movie. I’d been on a couple fun rides in that machine. A year or so ago, it was renamed the Park at MOA and has remained pretty lame. But, it seems that may change.

This spring, the Park at MOA will be transformed into Nickelodeon Universe, and there’s a bunch of interesting work going on it currently. Here’s what I’ve found as far as information.

The above photo is the former location of the Mystery Mine Ride. This whole section of the Park has all been gutted, it seems. The IMAX theater of the Mine Ride may still be back behind those doorways on the right, but I’m not sure of that. Here’s what’s directly to the right below the Pepsi Ripsaw coaster hill:

Most of the area has been newly cemented with a line area, so the loading for the ride may be here. Over in the center of the first photo is the preview of the new coaster, which now bears the name of Nickelodeon’s biggest star, Spongebob:

The Rock Bottom Plunge, I believe, is a roller coaster that is supposed to even go upside down. It looks like there may also be a bit of water involved as well, but we’ll see.

The other ride I noticed being worked on seems to be located directly in the center of the park. The fountain and little streams going to it are at least gone for now, as you can see:

This attraction will go straight up like the Power Tower at Valleyfair, I guess. With these additions, it will make the recreational area of the Mall of America a somewhat exciting place to be.

In other Mall of America Phase II news, there is finally some changes happening in the location of the expansion. Here’s a couple snapshots I got:

In the second photo, there’s a number of dumpsters, although I don’t know what they’re full of. Towards the far right of the second photo is the dirt and machines where they may be digging in order to start building. However, by all plans I’ve seen, that area seems to be the area assigned to a Great Wolf Lodge hotel/waterpark connected to the Mall of America. (I expect the Waterpark of America is already beginning to shut down.)

I’ve been unable to find any concrete information on when or if the Mall of America Phase II expansion will happen, but since I work nearby, I guess you can expect some updates when I find somehting.

As many of you know, for almost a decade now I’ve been running a music review website. It started out on GeoCities, but thanks to the writing and hard work of many people, it’s been at cMusicWeb.com for years, and it did pretty well as an independent, alternative source for honest reviews of Christian music. It was a good run, but in the last couple years the contributors have just gotten too busy with family and other commitments so the site has lacked a bit.

For the last year, we’ve been slowly building a new site, inReview.net. Over the years, we’ve found, like many Christians, that the small subcategory of “Christian” music does very little to define the listening habits or lives of most Christians. With inReview.net, we’re hoping to build a group of Christians who like writing about music and sharing some of their favorite music.

Speaking of which, this is where y’all come in. I know that many of you, as Christian brothers and sisters and (some of you) members of the People of Praise, enjoy music a lot. We enjoy all kinds of music - not just “Christian” music, but music by rappers, rockers, and folk artists (among others) who have something meaningful to say. (Let’s face it, I also listen to some who probably don’t have much to say too.)

I’m looking for people to write for the site. Our writing staff at the moment is very small, and we’d love to put out more reviews, but that takes people and time. Writing really isn’t that hard, especially when it’s about an artist or album that you’re really passionate about. Or, if you’re a music lover who wants practice in writing, this is a great place to start too. Not many of us, and certainly not me, are considered professional writers, but we strive to write honest, in-depth critiques of the music we hear and the music we love.

We’ve got a number of things lined up for this coming year, and if you’re interested in joining us, please contact us at inReview.net. We’d love to have a regular commitment of about one review per month, but just a good one-time feature or review is great. Also, persons to cover music news or maybe even avid music listeners who just want to blog free-form about it are welcome. There’s no pay at this point, but if we can start to sell advertising and cover costs in the future, there may be some. This isn’t just open to you as my friends, but if you know anyone who is interested please pass on the word.

In other news, to better keep the website going, I’m thinking of getting a new computer, more specifically a MacBook Pro. If anyone has any comments or thoughts on other computer options, I’d love to hear what you think.

No, this is not related to web stuff, but it is mint. A couple days ago I found, while perusing the local convenience store, the new 3 Musketeers Mint bar. Since 3 Musketeers is one of my favorite candy bars, I knew I had to try it. I’d say it was pretty good.

To get the idea, take the ingredients and taste of a York Peppermint Patty and put it in the size and texture of a 3 Musketeers bar. It’s a bit smaller, but it has a mint filling in that airy 3 Musketeers style. Then, of course, there’s dark chocolate on the outside to hold it all together. It was tasty, although nothing really new.

Speaking of new, the best new candy bar as far as I can remember is the Reese’s Fast Break. And also speaking of tasty, fattening foods, tomorrow is the opening of everybody’s favorite waste of money, the Minnesota State Fair. Believe me, there’s not many ways to drop money faster without buying a brand new computer. But dang, that deep fried 3 Musketeers on a stick was really good!

I was leaving the light rail platform and noticed for the third time today a new MetroTransit ad affixed to the entrance of the platform. Check it out:

Apparently it’s not marketed at me, because it makes no sense. As much as I can figure, it seems they’re saying that they don’t have bridges that collapse. Or something. If it makes sense to you, maybe you can enlighten me.

UPDATE: Here’s some new information I found.