'Who Took Those Photos?!'

FlickrFan demo at Yahoo Brickhouse
Originally uploaded by Steve Rhodes

The AppleTV is on in our house nearly 24-7, but not for TV. My favorite thing about it is still its screen saver, which dances across the flat screen while your music library plays. One thing that was missing from both AppleTV and iPhone was integration with Flickr, as I lamented last summer. Last month Dave Winer fixed this with FlickrFan. Looking at your own pics on AppleTV is fantastic, but having a window into the Flickrverse from your media center is truly amazing. Especially when you have a child around to help choose the tags. Just channel Julie Andrews ("I simply remember my favorite things") and you have some really superb, commercial-free, video-free, and free-like-in-beer entertainment.

Here are instructions for using FlickrFan with AppleTV and iPhone. You gotta have a Mac. But you probably do.

Honk If You're There

Illuminating
Originally uploaded by Lady-bug

Watched "I Have A Dream" with my 4-year-old this afternoon. He wanted to know when he could go to the mountaintop.

Shaking Off Holiday Cobwebs

I tried like hell to make sure no one played Cannon in D at my wedding. I failed. (I like to think everyone fails.)

Also enjoying: the various iterations of the Taco Bell Cannon available on YouTube. (This is the kind of thing I tend to forward to Marty hoping he'll expound on the trademark ramifications.)

Apropos of none of the above, and nothing really: Nuns, anyone?

Always

reincarnation
Originally uploaded by Mike D'Angelo

(Talking about sex is a picnic compared to this stuff.)

Mommy.
Yes?
When we get old, will we turn into bones like the dinosaurs?
Um. Yes.
Why?
Um. That's just the natural way of things honey. Things are born, they live, they, um, turn into bones.
But I don't want that to happen!!!

Um. But it happens to everything honey. Plants, animals, trees...

But not people!!!
Um. Yes, people too. You have a long, full, happy life. But it doesn't last forever.

But I don't want that to happen!!! I want another life.
Well. Some people think that does happen. Nobody knows for sure what happens to the part that is you, the Tyler part. But some people think that when your life is over, you start a new life, and this happens again and again and again. They call it reincarnation. There's a story about cats: that they have nine lives. It's just a story, but it's kind of like that.

I'm going to have another life.
Well, maybe you will. But what happens when that life is over?
Then I'll have another, and another.
Well, maybe you will. But here's what I think. I think you get one chance. One chance to have a good life. And you have to be kind, the best person you can be. So when you get to the end of your life, you're happy. You think, I did as good as I could do.

But I can't always be good!
I know. No one can. But you always want to know you tried your best. And then, that's how you live forever. Because the people you knew think of you always, and the good things you did, and how much they love you.

Mommy.
Yes?
Will you think of me always?
Always.

Straight No Chaser: 12 Days Christmas, Chanukah, And Toto

For my dad, who forwarded this and wanted to know where to buy the (currently out of stock) CD:

This must be making the rounds; see the inimitable Bob Lefsetz and the amazing BOCA compilations referenced in the 2000 post he quotes.