Geeky
The Surfactants — “Aussenseiter”
My son and I put this together at the last minute. As a result, it didn’t get shown at Zinema 2 last night during the Homegrown Music Video Festival and it won’t be shown at during the encore tonight … however, you can see it on Sunday at Chester Creek Cafe and you can watch the hell out of it on the web. Thanks to Annie Dugan for organizing another great event!
Willie the Warlock
Yesterday I was out at The Princess Bride with a couple of goslings and other uberfans at the Zinema for their excellent Saturday-morning-movies-for-the-whole-family series. That would have been awesome enough, but they threw in free juice boxes for the kids, but it got even better. In the place where we expected the opening previews, or maybe a video short to roll we were treated to this 2006 video, by Duluth’s Willie the Warlock
Dragon Port Co-operative Gaming Society
The name isn’t set in stone. It’s my vision for saving the game space currently occupied by Dragon Port Games & Comics.
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Geek Prom ’02: A lil’ documentary
The first Geek Prom was held April 13, 2002. Enjoy the video memories, my fellow nerdwads.
The PDD Calendar Transition Team
Left to right in our photo are outgoing editor Abigail Schoenecker, intrepid intern Emily Haavik and … announcing the new PDD Calendar editor – Lawrence Lee.
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8-Bit Duluth
Can anyone give me a walkthrough of the dungeon underneath the Seaway Hotel?
Duluth-Area BBS
Recently, I stumbled on this website, which lists BBS numbers that existed in the 218 area code in the 80s and 90s. The BBS or bulletin board system was a precursor to web forums. People usually used BBSs that were physically in the same area as they were, since their computer would actually have to call the BBS and would incur long-distance charges just like any other landline phone call.
I never used a BBS, but I remember other kids talking about them furtively in my computer programming class in 8th grade. Sadly, my trusty VIC-20 lacked a modem.
Did anyone here use these or other local BBSs, or better yet did anyone actually run one? If so, please nerd out in the comments.
Nerd Culture Update
A few Nerd/Geek Culture updates… (more…)
Millinery Classes? Learn to make hats?
I’m gauging interest in the notion (ha!*) of teaching some small classes in millinery — that is, traditional hat-making. Not so traditional that you knit and then felt, but rather the kind that leads to possibly a fedora, but with many other shapes and options.
If I find that there is interest, I will go forth and find an appropriately sized space. You can see my work at moesewco.com, which I just mentioned in another post on a mostly unrelated subject, so please bear with me.
* A notion is a sewing item that is not fabric or thread — like buttons or scissors.
Mellow Iceberg Rides
The scene down at the lake these days.
2012 Main Street Model Contest
Hey everyone, I’m Kaylee Rose. I was selected as an eligible entrant in the 2012 Main Street Model contest. Today through March 19 I need your votes everyday! It would be an absolute dream to be part the Maurices team and represent everything the brand stands for! Please check out the link below, read more and vote for me!
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Cinnamon Roll is a loving cat
Let me start off by saying that I am already easily amused, and the sleep deprivation is not really helping in that matter.
So, I was reading the DNT’s Pets of the Week article, and found a picture of Cinnamon Roll the cat waiting to be adopted. Most of the time, these pictures are of animals looking super cute begging to be adopted, but Cinnamon Roll’s expression made me laugh. “Adopt me, or don’t. Whatever.”
Being easily amused (refer back to point A), I whipped up some simple edits that made me laugh – maybe they’ll make you laugh too (if not, try sleep deprivation). (more…)
A Nerd Nite Boss’ Guide to Duluth
Beloved Duluth nerd Crystal Pelkey has an article in the debut issue of Nerd Nite magazine profiling the nerdiness of Duluth. The nationwide magazine is published out of Brooklyn, NY. (more…)
Images from Diorama-rama 5
Well, somebody had to.
Mu-Tron Love
The Current released Local Current, Vol 2 a few weeks ago. I couldn’t help but notice that someone in the art department there has a mutual appreciation for the Mu-Tron Phasor, an effects pedal from 40 years ago.
In last year’s Homegrown Field Guide ad, we Photoshopped up my Mu-tron Phasor. Someone at MPR has a better collection of vintage gizmos, they used the Mu-tron Phasor III. (more…)
International Book Giving Day
A 7-year-old boy in Duluth created something called International Book Giving Day last year. This year the effort is actually going international. It’s on Feb. 14, a great alternative to Valentine’s Day. Since it’s kind of a blog-driven initiative I thought I’d link to my post about it here.
Urban Girl Interrupted: Duluth boy’s vision goes global
Google Kansas Starts Hanging Tubes
“Google Inc. will begin construction today in Kansas City, Kan., on its long-awaited, much-coveted ultrafast Internet service. The company planned to make the announcement this morning in a blog post by Kevin Lo, the Google executive heading up the project.”
PDD user account registration problem fixed
Anyone trying to create a user account for Perfect Duluth Day from Saturday night to this morning, probably saw this:
The problem is fixed, and creating an account should work now. We apologize to those who were frustrated by this.
PDD transferring to new server
Server Migration
Here is what monitors look like when one spends his Saturday night migrating Perfect Duluth Day to a new VPS server. The amount of data currently used by PDD is 3.4GB, needless to say that takes a little while to transfer and reconfigure.
Oh, side-note, the old server was in Canada the new one is in the USA. I feel so patriotic right now!
Amazing Aurora!
It’s visible in Finland — as in northern Europe, not Finland, Minn.
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A Little Help from my Friends
I recently got hosed big time by Go Daddy. My domain was up for renewal and instead of notifying me, they sold it. Now I have a new domain, but I lost my search engine standing (my old site was numbers 1,2 and 3 for a Google search of my name). Anyway, if you have a minute, give my new site a click and help a guy out. Thanks.
Old iMac + not-so-old MacBook =
We acquired an old iMac, went to upgrade the OS today and got an error about it not having an Intel processor …. we like the big screen and the prioress has a not as old MacBook she wants to DX for an AirBook.
(1) Is there any way for a common man to take the good parts from the MacBook and update the iMac?
(2) Are there any other suggestions for the old iMac? Can we load some flavor of Linux on it for the web-savvy here at the Mission?
PDD Background Color Change
As most of you have probably noticed, Perfect Duluth Day has changed its background colors. The changeover started several days ago, and there have been some issues with the old colors popping up in a few spots …
… but we think we’ve taken care of all of those issues now. Please let us know if you see the old colors popping up anywhere.
Also, let us know if you love or hate the change. If you love the change it will make us feel good. If you hate the change we will get all defensive and accuse you of having poor taste.