luminary blur

I feel I’ve been neglecting Luminary Blur for a while. Normally I’d blame it on procrastination or disinterest or really good TV shows (how about that Lost finale). This time, however, I’ve got some good reasons.

• Building a podcast network. Yes, a network. “Doesn’t a network require more than one podcast,” you ask. Indeed it does, and I’m proud to say that the Kwinix Podcast Network now features two regularly produced podcasts. The first is The Switchcast, which amazingly is up to four episodes with the fifth coming any day now. Mac vs. PC, OS X vs. Windows, iPhone vs. Windows Mobile. It’s always a lively debate and I anticipate more intense discussions as the launch of the 3G iPhone is almost here. The newest addition to the network is Dinner Voyeur, a fine dining podcast featuring Scot T. Kokandy. While the first episode was a solo effort, Scot is looking forward to bringing more collaborators into the mix to create some lively discussions around the finest restaurants in Chicago (and beyond). In fact, if you know of any establishment that begs for Scot’s podcast treatment, send him an e-mail. Finally, to create a more “unified” feel to the network, I’ve created an intro that identifies our shows as belonging to the Kwinix Podcast Network. I’ve embedded it below for your listening pleasure—don’t worry, it’s only eight seconds long.
  Kwinix Podcast Network Intro
• Building a website. This is something I used to do a lot and wouldn’t mind doing it more often. I’ve become quite a Joomla expert (I’m currently building a new version of my mom’s Pella Community Day Care site) so when my old college roommate asked me if I was interested in deploying a site for Gonzales Regal Miniature Dachshunds, I jumped at the chance. The site is done for the most part and the first litter has arrived.

I guess that isn’t too much but these two projects have really taken up a lot of my time for the last few weeks. I hope to continue to develop both my podcasting prowess as well as my website development expertise. Thanks for journeying with me.

written by Ben \\ tags: Dinner Voyeur, Kwinix Podcast Network, Podcasting, Tech, The Switchcast

Tomorrow I leave for Iowa to spend my New Year’s Eve with family. I’m especially excited to be going at this time due to the upcoming Iowa caucuses on Thursday, Jan. 3rd. In fact, my parent’s town has been the subject of several recent news stories. I just missed both Mike Huckabee and Fred Thompson, who were in Pella this morning. Perhaps there will be more high-profile visits coming up over the weekend—I wouldn’t mind seeing any of the candidates although it would be cool to see some of the higher-profile ones, including Hillary Clinton, John McCain, or Barack Obama.

Due to my time away, I may not be updating until the new year. But look for pictures/videos at that time.

Happy New Year!

written by Ben \\ tags: Politics, Vacation

Just got back from my two-day Christmas marathon with my Illinois-based family. I will be heading out to see my actual family (Iowa-based) on the 29th. I’ve posted a Picasa slideshow embed after the jump of our Christmas Eve gift exchange. Video should be added soon.

Also, Happy Christmas to all…hope you got everything you wanted and more!

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written by Ben \\ tags: Christmas, Photos

I’m heading out of town tomorrow afternoon for a nice restful Thanksgiving in Pella, IA. Therefore I probably won’t have much time to post a proper blog entry until Saturday (and I think I have a good idea for one brewing) so I’ll attempt to communicate my activities via Twitter since they are aggregated here anyway.

In other news I just read that Facebook will be removing the “is” from its status updates. All those clever work-arounds Brett Terpstra figured out for MoodBlast? Might not matter any more. Pity, because they were very very useful. Personally I’m looking forward to MoodBlast 3—seems that a lot of changes are afoot.

written by Ben

My vacation photos are now available! Here is a link to the album on Picasa:

Vacation 2007: Mall of America & Norman, OK

Of course, there’s a Picasa flash embed after the jump if you’re so inclined. Click away!
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written by Ben

Trying my first blog post from the iPhone. Not sure how well this will work…it would be nice if Wordpress had a dedicated iPhone management console. Maybe it does, I’ll have to investigate that. Anyway, I’m still in Norman for another 12 hours and then on to Kansas City. (My my, typing with two thumbs takes some practice.) I think I’ll cut this one off here and post a bit more when I get home.

written by Ben

The trip to the Mall of America was, for the most part, uneventful in that nothing bad happened. In fact, it was rather fun. We stayed at the Ramada Mall of America in Bloomington, MN, which is right across the street from the mall and IKEA. We were also fortunate enough to be chosen as one of the five “Guests of the Night,” which entitled us to a variety of prizes including two reduced all-day passes to The Park at MOA (which used to be called Camp Snoopy and is slowly transforming into Nickelodeon Universe). While there aren’t that many rides, it was very uncrowded on Monday so my sis and I were able to ride most of the rides several times. It was a nice chance for she and I to occupy ourselves while mom did the shopping. That’s not to say that we didn’t shop - I picked up a few things at IKEA, Bow Wow Meow (pet stuff), and made a stop at the Apple Store.

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written by Ben

I still haven’t figured out how to import Blogger posts into Wordpress. My iPhone had an attempted delivery at 7:13pm last night. And I have a lot of pictures to go through from the White Sox game on Sunday. Caution: 629 words ahead.
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written by Ben

Just a quickie here. Heading out in about an hour - got a busy day tomorrow. Church, then White Sox game, then dinner. In the meantime, here are some pictures to enjoy.

(Picasa Web Ablums flash embed after the jump).
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written by Ben