So, the other day I decided to check out ASU's UTO blog, maintained by Dr. Adrian Sannier, and I came across this post, which states:

Currently, there are over 350 comments left on that East Valley Tribune article, most of which are from anonymous ASU employees. I thought that it was a particularly interesting topic and I went to see if the Arizona Republic had also covered the article. So, I went against my promise to never visit azcentral.com (maybe I'll get into why I hate that site at another time), and I found the following links:

• ASU Employee Salary Search
• University of Arizona Employee Salary Search
• NAU Employee Salary Search

Naturally, I looked myself up and found my 2006 salary, title, and department, along with my wife's respective information. At first, I was slightly shocked. Then, I thought, "Hey, I should look up what my co-workers make!" Then, I did and I realized that I have mixed feelings about such a service.

The service is wonderful because it allows people to be snoopy and know how much so-and-so makes, which is wonderful especially if you work at one of the state universities. Also, and this is the real purpose of the website, it's great for a taxpayer to see how salary monies, which are, for the most part, tax dollars, are distributed to state employees. People here are really weird about their salaries being known, and this undermines that notion, which really tickles my fancy. I love undermining people's fears.

The service is unnerving because it's a little weird that anyone in the world can just go online and look up where I work, what my title is, and how much money I make. Furthermore, why isn't this service available to all branches of taxpayer-funded organizations? Why can't I look this stuff up about local school districts? What about the people who work for the City of Tempe? Sure, I can look up job descriptions and see salary ranges, but it doesn't name names and salarize salaries! [The shnozberries taste like shnozberries!] I feel a little bit pigeonholed because I work for an organization in which any employee can be found and Joe Schmoe over at the Department of Education has his privacy.

How do you think you'd feel if this kind of information was available about you? Do you think it's fair that services like these are limited strictly to university employees? Gimme feedback, friends!

Oh, and what do you think of the whole issue with Adrian Sannier?

I happen to be friends with some extremely creative people. One of those friends is named Nicholas Chatfield-Taylor. He and I met while we were interns for Applied Minds, Inc., an incredible thinktank based in Glendale, CA. We were actually living in a guest house on Dr. Danny Hillis' property... coincidentally next door to Steve Vai's house.

After the internship, Nick went off to the Pratt Institute in New York City. He studied art or photography or something. He also was the photographer for my wedding. Since then, his notable projects include ENN SEE TEE shirts and the following music videos:

He was recently interviewed by Chief Magazine and worked on a film called B.I.K.E., which played at Slamdance (another film festival that runs at the same time as Sundance).

I think Nick is going to be something like the next Spike Jonze. As I've mentioned, I'm incredibly lucky to know him and to have the privilege of calling him "friend."

For all you do, Nick... this post's for you. We salute you!

Last week, I walked by an SUV in the parking lot of the building I work in at ASU. It had a bumper sticker that looked like:

The first time I saw it, I just shook my head and rolled my eyes. But, then I saw it again the next day. And the day after that. And the more I thought about what that bumper sticker was saying, the more incensed I grew. After this past weekend, I grew the resolve to write a letter to this person and leave it on his/her car. It is not my intention to attack the person or his/her beliefs about the war, but to clarify and ensure that the person has an actual understanding of how fallacious such a statement is. As I did a quick Google search to see if anyone else had tackled the issue, I found a letter written by Father Frank Pavone, which I will quote in its entirety:

I do not believe I could have written a letter more succinct or graceful. Obviously, I am not a priest, nor do I attend a Catholic church, but I cannot agree more with this priest in his evaluation of the ridiculous notion that war and abortion can, and should, be compared. What angered me most about the bumper sticker is that it's such a silly and immature ad hominem attack.

It just makes me wonder: what would this person have said about the Revolutionary War, Civil War, or either of the World Wars? How could independence, freedom of slaves, and domination/control of the mass populous by dictatorships been stopped at those times? How would Hitler have responded to peace talks? Is it worth making compromises with these people?

For those of you who don't "get it", check out i can has cheezburger.

For those of you who STILL don't get it, don't worry about it.

For those of you wondering what's going on with this site: I'm a little busy. We've had some stuff come up in recent time, not to mention the newborn baby, so I've been busy. Since last posting, I've grown a beard.

So, a lot of things have been on my mind lately. It's been a while since I've posted anything on this site, but there's been no shortage of aggravation in my life all the while. Today, I feel like using the site as an outlet of my frustrations:

• The STUPID new Gawker website redesigns
• Unoriginal, new music
• Stupid coupon discounts
• Fast food prices
• The iPhone

That should be enough for today. If you're my wife and you're reading this, just realize that I need to do this every once in a while. Haha. Let's go!

Gawker

So, I used to be a regular reader of Gizmodo and Consumerist... until the last couple of days when they decided to re-design their sites. All of the sites owned by Gawker Media, in fact, are going through this awful re-design. What's so bad about the new layout? Let's take a look.

First of all, most, if not all, of the story content used to be on the front page. Now, you have to click through "the jump" to read entire posts. What's annoying about this is:

• Gawker servers aren't that fast
• I have to click a bunch of times to read a few stories
• I feel like they're using me for ad impressions
• Everything feels squashed
• Headlines and pictures are smaller and it's harder to tell where a story starts and ends.

This isn't an issue of "Well, nobody likes change." This is an issue of "nobody likes this bad layout." Seriously, read the comments! They had a good thing going with their last re-design and it shows in the comments. This time around, everyone's angry.

All this to say that I've officially switched from being a Gizmodo reader to being an Engadget reader.

You might think all this is self-righteous triviality, but I argue that this is a question of the effectiveness of how user interface design can affect the end user. There is a big, hidden issue to think about here.

New Music

So, the new Dream Theater album sucks. I mean, it's just bad. Check out these lyrics from the oh-so-cleverly-titled song "Prophets of War" ... I know, you already know where this is going:

You know what else isn't that good? The new Nine Inch Nails album and the new Bjork album. Just mediocre stuff. Oh, and you know what's REALLY disappointing? The new Chris Cornell album. Come on, guys! I've been listening to all of you for years! Dream Theater, unfortunately, has been the band to most often disappoint. Octavarium was another stupid album. There is one good song on DT's Systematic Chaos:

I guess my big issue with these artists is that I expect more of them. Bjork's newest album, Volta, sounds like a more mellow, not-as-good re-hash of Vespertine, which is an album I hold near and dear to my heart. And, I promise you, this isn't a case of "I don't understand why people like Bjork... there's no melody." Listen to Innocence on the new album and then 5 Years from Homogenic. They're basically the same song. Ugh.

Stupid Coupons

What's the deal with bad coupons to restaurants? For example, Schlotsky's sends out coupons all the time where you can save $1 or $2 if you buy two sandwiches and two medium drinks. Thanks! Or, there's another restaurant where the discount is offered only on Wednesdays and Sundays, or something like that. Thanks! Or, what about Eddie Bauer's coupons? 15% off purchases of $100 or more.... I don't know about you, but I've never seen $100-worth of clothing I'd like to buy from Eddie Bauer... ever. Or, what about getting a free burger somewhere if I buy a drink AND fries? Thanks!!

I actually have coupons to scan that I'll post at a later date.

Fast Food Prices

Last time my wife and I ate at Arby's--to quote The Simpsons: "I'm so hungry, I could eat at Arby's"--it cost $12. $12. For fast food. I went to McDonald's the other day and Sarah wanted a chicken sandwich... I couldn't find one for less than $3.99. What's the deal?

Fast food chains are the only place where you can get beef cheaper than chicken.

The iPhone

If I have to see one more article about the iPhone on a tech website, I'm going to... well, I guess I'll just ignore it. What's the deal with people going "gaga" over a $500 phone? It's a cool phone, but... so what? Suddenly, it's the most popular tech topic out there. And if you've gotten a chance to play with an iPhone, you're suddenly an iGod on the internet. It's so ridiculous.

In two months, no one is going to care. That's one of the benefits of technology and its inherent obsolescence. People just stop caring.

Okay, I'm done.

A while back, I wrote about Big Creek Pentecostal Church stealing the Word of Grace web branding and site template. Well, they're at it again. It seems that taking down the original stolen site was a temporary move and the webmaster must have felt that enough time had gone by that we'd all forget. Luckily, my friend, Matt Adams happened to stumble across the site and find the re-stolen template.

Awesome.

Now, the question is: what can we do? I don't work for Word of Grace and I don't want to interfere, but this issue gets me so "hot and bothered" that I hate to let it lie.

So, here's what I'll do...

E-Mail Jim Mullins at jmullins@bigcreek.org

That's the guy you want to e-mail. That's the guy who's in charge of the website and the same guy who claimed that he paid for the stolen site template. Chalk up another victory for good, honest, Christian ethics.

If you go to Big Creek Pentecostal Church, I'd really be questioning what else is going on at your church.

Well, I'm officially making the switch to the new site theme, which I hope you like. Aside from the facelift, I plan on updating a lot of content, consolidating some things, and adding a new "Music" link in the main site navigation. I realized that this site is more than a blog and I want to feature that. I create a lot of original content that orbits around music and I'd like people to more easily access that content.

Anyway, some of those things aren't done and you might find some broken links and whatnot here and there. For that I apologize. Hopefully, I'll actually get to fixing those things.