Here’s my desktop today.  The black icons are my favorite :)  Background image is from digitalblasphemy.com

Shall I use my powers for good . . .or for awesome?

Thrice’s new video for “In Exile” from Beggars debuted today on myspace music. I had a chance to see Thrice live at the Avalon in Hollywood on monday, and not only are they cool guys, but put on a great show. Check out the video:

Happy turkey day.

I love music, which is why I’m always showing off what I’m listening too over there on the right. Some time ago I automated the process of looking up album artwork using the Amazon API and posting it to my blog.

This approach has a couple advantages over things like last.fm wordpress plugins, like being able to select exactly what you want shown, and automatic linking to amazon for affiliate commissions.

I’ve packaged everything up into a wordpress plugin and put it on my github page here: http://github.com/jaredmoody/wp_now_playing

It also comes with a nice applescript so you can submit what’s currently playing to your blog with a single click:

I’d love some feedback on it, and patches are also more than welcome.

Please report any issues on the github page, thanks!

Seriously, can we get some new outfits please? This could be anybody.

After the success of last year’s TLC Camps, I was asked to come back and be a part of not one, but three TLC camps this year, and couldn’t be more excited. The first camp has come and gone, but here were some highlights of the first weekend. (Names changed for privacy).

The goal is to offer life-changing paths, build hope, friendship and memories for these at-risk teens.

The next two dates are Jul 31-Aug 2 and Aug 28-30. I’m again setting a goal of raising $400, which covers the cost of one kid going to camp. Chip in and help make a difference in the life of a teenager.

You can give online here:

Also, I can’t post photos of the kids for legal reasons, but to the right are some photos on flickr of the band for the first weekend.

Teen Leedership Camps Promotional Video

http://teenleadershipfoundation.org

UPDATE Camp was fantastic, and while I didn’t quite meet my $400 goal, over $200 still went to TLC. Awesome!

I recently discovered the gaping void blog.

Here’s one of my favorites:

Amazing.

This week I re-watched Fight Club. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen it, but realized in the middle of it that one of the reasons I like it is because it forces me to question the reality that surrounds me. I like movies that do that because I think we all need it every once in a while.

There are so many messages fed to us, so many lies repeated continually that we begin to believe them. I need to buy this to be happy. That is what I need to do with my life. This is success.

If we don’t stop every once in a while and take a good hard look at ourselves and the decisions we’re making, and why, it’s easy to have our priorities upside down.

Stop. Question. Challenge. Think.