I hope that you all had a good Easter. I personally had a very good brunch with some friends. And it was good. It looks like spring is actually going to make it. I'll wait till I see leaves on the trees, but I'm happy for now that there is no more snow on the ground, even in the shady crevices.

I've been thinking mainly about eggs and rabbits this weekend, but there is something I wanted to try out. My friend Brian was saying yesterday that all radio sound effects can be done with a shoe and a bucket of sand. I would normally say that this is a load of crap, but when you hear something from Brian, you can bet that there is some truth to it. The plan is to test this theory and post the results here online. Then you can decide if it is true or not.

What I need you do for me is to think of some good sound effects and I'll see if I can make them with sand, some shoes and a bucket. I'll give you a starter list:

- A dark and rainy night
- Thunder roared in the background
- A cold wind blew
- Frogs chirped

Posted by Colin J Allen at 1:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Sorry for my absence readers. I have been busy. Why don't you have a look:

http://www.allentartan.com

I decided that I needed to get this site done and it pretty much is good to go. This site will be uploaded on allentartan.com and allantartan.com shortly. This site is beta right now, but it's late and I wanted to show you what I just made.

Update: There are some issues that I have to deal with before this site is ready for public viewing. That's how these things work. If you are part of the 90% of the world that uses Internet Explorer on a PC, the site looks quite weird. If you want to see how it is supposed to look, view it with Firefox. It a wonderful browser that I think you should add to your computer in any case.

I'll have everything fixed this week...

More Update: Phew! Just one or two minor things and this site is ready to go. It should be live by the first week in April.

Posted by Colin J Allen at 12:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

More non-reading fun for you today. I hear that the latest and greatest online trend is podcasting. I personally think that this is a whole bunch of hype over nothing too special. From a technical perspective, it is nothing new. But for whatever reason, every radio station I listen to seems to be promoting their podcast. It's new! It's cool! It's TiVo for Radio!

Not that I am one to follow trends or anything, but enjoy my first podcast (podcast - stream). I got a little crazy with the recording, and made one more (podcast - stream).

For those of you savvy enough to know that an honest to goodness podcast is supposed to be done through an RSS stream, I am sorry to say that I do not have enough recordings to do that. I'll consider it if I keep at the audio fun.

Happy Monday folks.

Posted by Colin J Allen at 1:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Isn't Photoshop just the greatest?

Spring is coming folks, and I can’t seem to get it off the mind. It’s in the 40s today, and I can't believe how balmy that feels. Soon it will hit the five-ohs, and that will make me very happy. Sure it is supposed to snow this weekend, but winter's grip is loosening... and I am excited Spring is such an optimistic time of year, much unlike the above photo.

Posted by Colin J Allen at 5:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I forgot that today was Saint Paddy's until I was on the train and everyone was wearing green. I saw a hispanic guy wearing a green hat. An Indian teenager wearing a green Irish football/soccer shirt. And so on.

Funny how this holiday says more about the US than it does about Ireland.

Sure I don't have a drop of Irish in me, but I'll be having a pint tonight! It may even be the color green. Ahhh.

Posted by Colin J Allen at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Even though I can barely move, I had fun snow boarding yesterday. It is funny how something so enjoyable is so painful the next day. My mind is clear, but my body is filled with an uncomfortable amount of lactic acid. Ah, but what is life if you don't venture towards the pleasure/pain barrier once in a while?

The boarding was about as good as it can get. Few people, warm temperature, inches and inches of fresh snow, good partners and a cheep lift ticket. I should have gotten on the slopes more this winter, but at least I did make it out there.

Getting beaten up on the slopes reminded me that I need to get out and exercise more. I don't feel bad for not doing much for the last few months, it has been too damn cold. But I can smell Spring coming, and with that I am excited to get out and move around. I am not sure how I am going to keep healthy this next season, but I am considering running again. A few miles around the park would do wonders.

But maybe I can do something else. Hmm. Maybe it is time to start up hand ball. Racquetball is too expensive and tennis is, well, tennis. This is something I'll have to look into.

Posted by Colin J Allen at 7:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)