Sarah and I were looking through photos of our newborn baby, Gabriel, and found a few where he looks JUST like I did when I was his age. Let's see if you can figure out which one is me and which one is Gabriel. And no cheating, Mom!

I just posted a new guitar lesson about improving your guitar technique. Please check it out. Even if you're a really good player, there's still some stuff you might get out of it.

Read guitar lesson 11

Some of you have probably been wondering where I've been and why I haven't updated the site. Well, Sarah and I had a baby on May 3 and I've been trying to get some freelance work in while I'm on parental leave from my normal, full-time job at ASU.

Today, I'm announcing the launch of my latest work: A-Z Photo. It's a site for Dave Getz, a local photographer, who also happens to run www.plasmatv.com out of the garage in his home, selling millions of dollars in plasma televisions every year. He's a very talented photographer and he took some beautiful pictures of my sister's wedding back in January. You'll see some of them on his wedding photo gallery.

Check it out! And feel free to leave comments on how beautiful and incredible you think the site is.

Okay, since I'll probably never have the time to implement these things, I thought I'd lay out a few ideas I've had over the course of time.

Then, I'll give out the details of the Arctic Monkeys contest I'm running.

Deeeeeeaaaaath

There's only one thing I'm scared of about life: death. I hate death. I hate that I have to die at some point. It's the only thing I'll ever HAVE to experience alone. There's no comfort. There's nobody to help me with baby steps to get there. I'm just going to have to die someday and face it. And it could be tonight.

Yeah Sarah, I know that's morbid.

The only awesome way to die would be for Mr. T to kill me.

Anyway, because we ALL have to die, I thought it might be an interesting idea to kind of market that. I'm sure I'm not the first one to think of this, but I'm too lazy to google and see if someone has already created the services I'm about to describe.

Living Will

First off, I think it'd be great to create a site with a paid-membership that would keep a living will for you. On this site, I could create a database of everything I own that I want to go to someone when I die. And if I get something new that's important or significant, I can just log into that site, enter it into the database, and notate who I'd like to give it to. Because I'm so scared about death and I have nightmares about dying, I think about this stuff a lot.

Letters from the Grabe

The other idea I have, which could be associated with the living will site, is a "last letter before it's too late" site. There's always that friend or relative you haven't talked to in a long time. Let's say you were to die tonight, wouldn't you have loose ends? Of course you would! So, you'd log into the site and start writing letters and attaching e-mail addresses to them for the letters to be sent off when you die. What's even creepier is that you could make your own death announcement come from YOUR e-mail address. I can just imagine how creeped out my friends and family would be to receive an e-mail from "the graaaaaaaaaave."

There are things I don't want to say to people while I'm still alive, but if I can express those things after I'm dead, then awesome! But, how would I get those letters sent? I mean, if I die, I can't log into the website and say that I died. My solution:

Before you die, you need to ensure that two or three people very close to you know about this site (but of course, they won't have access to the content you've entered). You also have to enter their names and/or e-mail addresses into your account with a special password for those people to use in order to confirm that you've died. This way, if you actually do die, the site will send an e-mail to the other two or three people to confirm that you are, indeed, dead. So, when you die, you just have your friends confirm your death and then all your last letters get sent.

Now, don't forget that these people you assign this "special" privilege to cannot be in the same geographical location as you because if THEY die with you, then you're in trouble.

And, yes, I'm aware of the logic flaws in this application, but if I were to REALLY implement it, I'd get it working pretty gud.

Arctic Monkeys Contest!!!

Thanks to the incredimazing Rosemary Simon at Cornerstone Promotion, I have a copy of a POSSIBLY-RARE, UNKNOWN-IF-IT'S-LIMITED-EDITION Arctic Monkeys vinyl record containing unreleased music and a track from their newest album, Favorite Worst Nightmare--an album that I will be reviewing in coming days--and I want to give it to YOU. Here's what you need to do:

Leave a comment on this blog post with your guess as to when Sarah's and my newborn baby will arrive AND his weight. You can also leave a name in the comment and if we happen to choose the name you give, then you'll get... SOMETHING ELSE. If you guess the date, weight, AND the name, then I'll throw something in there REALLY special for you (including the Arctic Monkeys record).

Anyway, be sure to leave your e-mail address in the e-mail field when you leave a comment. This way, I'll know how to reach you. I, obviously, don't know when this contest is going to end (doesn't that make this contest more exciting??), but I can tell you that he's due on May 16.

Details

Here is the tracklisting for the 12" vinyl for the single Brianstorm:

1. If You Found This, It's Probably Too Late (new, unreleased)
2. Brianstorm
3. Temptation Greets You Like Your Naughty Friend (new, unreleased)
4. What If You Were Right For the First Time? (new, unreleased)

If you are a close friend and you happen to know the couple of names Sarah and I have chosen, please don't spoil it for everyone. You're still eligible to win the record, though.

Also, all the cool people are listening to Podcasts from Fader Magazine.

Yesterday, I had to go to A5U's HR department to hand in a form. When I approached the desk, I noticed that there was no one waiting in line ahead of me. So, I said, "Hi," to the lady behind the counter. The only thing that stood between me and her was a little red ticket dispenser with numbered, perforated pieces of paper. You know, the kind you used to get at the Department of Motor Vehicles.

With a smile, she said, "Hi there. I can help you after you take a number."

Seeing as there was no one else standing at the desk, I thought she might have been joking.

So, we stared at each other.

I raised an eyebrow.

She's still smiling.

I slowly [read: sarcastically] pick a number from the circular, red take-a-number system. She reaches for her little remote control to advance the number on the ticket number display.

"Number 65?"

"Yeah, that's me," as I deposit my special service ticket into the Ticket-Receiving Receptacle [TCR].

"Okay, how may I help you?"

"I'm here to hand in this form."

"Okay, is there anything else I can do for you?"

"Umm... no, thanks."

Immediately, it reminded me of:

Now, I understand it's not this woman's fault that she has to operate under these conditions, but there's a line between being a helpful customer service representative and being a puppet. At the very least, she could have just helped me out, then taken the number out herself, and put it in the number-receiving receptacle (not that I'm SO lazy that I couldn't pick a number myself--it's the principle of the thing!).

So, last night, I discussed this hypothetical story with Adam and we came up with a few ideas.

• Bring my own take-a-number spool and have her take a number so I can respond to her when I call her number.
• Since these tickets are likely used to keep track of how many people are "served" by the HR department, I could take multiple tickets at a time and skew their data.
• Again, take a bunch of tickets and either tear them in half, distributing small pieces into the different TCRs, or go around hiding the tickets around the office and making her go find them.
• Walk in, take a number, walk out, come back a few hours later, and repeat.

Any suggestions from the peanut gallery?

Recently, I posted about my hero, Mark Erickson, and his life-changing Infinite Solutions and I've stumbled onto some "hidden" videos that aren't available through his website. I'm what you might call a "cyber-sleuth."

You can thank me in the comments.

And don't forget his latest tutorial on how to find dinosaur bones!!

Hey, I run a popular website, so I might as well use it for my own financial benefit, right?

My Universal Audio microphone preamp is now on eBay. Have at it, kids!