VinceArter.com

Archive for June, 2008

Elaine got everything done for her realestate brokership. Check out the cool logo. It’s neat to see your name on all kinds of signs around town.

My family and I have been affected by the high price of gasoline in the US (compared to what we used to pay) lately and I notice everything when I go to the pump. Well today I was surprised when I saw that the QuikTrip in my neighborhood started requiring all cash customers to either pay first (before pumping) or use a PumpStart Card.

I had never heard of such a thing and decided to do some research on it and found out that it is an attempt to help avoid the growing amount of fuel theft. Made sense to me (not that I like it) in regards to rising fuel cost. Lately in St. Louis people have been hitting car dealerships to steal gas from cars on the lot (see article). Then I found out this intitiative has actually been going on since 2005 (see article).

Oh well … another change … I found it interesting and discouraging (for several reasons).

V2

V3 (my 21 year old son) and I went to see the new M. Night Shyamalan move The Happening. I have to say it was pretty good. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being the best) I’d give it 8 out of 10.

I won’t tell you about the movie because I don’t want to spoil it but it’s a good premise and a very interesting story. The characters aren’t very deep but the story is very engaging. I will say it is his goriest movie to date. It was very violent and bloody and is noted as being his first R rated movie (because of the violence).

V3 and I both enjoyed it … if you like bizarre stories and gore you’ll like this movie.

V2 (Vince Jr.)

I had been looking for an RSS aggregator (and more) and something that works kind of like Yahoo Widgets (but doesn’t suck). I found KlipFolio awhile back and it is really a neat little app if you want to keep in touch with several sources of information. It’s very easy to use and the new Beta for Version 5 has some neat new features.

I love the Facebook Friends update … I don’t have to log in to see my friends statuses. I even created some shortcuts to Twitter and Facebook to updates so I can update more frequently.

The programming interface is basically JavaScript and XML … I wrote a small Klip (like a web part in SharePoint) in just a few minutes (was building a clock and the object model didn’t work as expected). Anyway … it’s a pretty neat little application if you like that kind of thing. In combination with TrueLaunchBar and Actual Window Manager (the two utilities I just can’t live without) you get a lot of power, freedom and control over your Windows environment.

Vince

Well … I guess you should listen to his music and you will be convinced. They guy just has massive amounts of style and cool.

If you like good jazz and/or just unbelievable guitar skill you gotta check Mr. Pass out. My dad (Vince Arter, Sr.), who I consider one of a living legend in jazz and R&B (classic R&B) guitar plays a lot lot Joe Pass.

Anyway … check him out … give him a listen. This is what I aspire to. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Pass

Vince