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    <title>Drew Barnard &gt; Blog</title>
    <link>http://www.drewbarnard.com/Blog/</link>
    <description>Developed by founder Drew Barnard, this site offers insights on web technologies &amp; design, hiking and camping in the great Pacific Northwest, photography and anything else that he can conceive.</description>
    <language>en-us</language>
    <copyright>Copyright 2001-2008 Drew Barnard</copyright>
    <lastBuildDate>Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:57:00 PST</lastBuildDate>
    <ttl>30</ttl>
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      <title>eHarmony Rejection</title>
      <description><![CDATA[I just received this one via email, and nearly spit coffee all over my keyboard. Maybe i&#39;m just in a weird mood today, but this shit cracked me up mang. haha  .......and yeah, i can totally see myself typing in &quot;my dick&quot; to that question.]]></description>

      <link>http://www.drewbarnard.com/Blog/post.asp?postID=88</link>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 20 Nov 2008 11:35:43 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Lunchroom Banter (Volume I)</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Lunchtime at my office often involves random &amp; obscure conversations. Most of these will not make sense if you weren&#39;t there, but I like to capture a part that made me laugh. We often talk about things that should not be talked about at work. That&#39;s just how we roll.   	David Gaona: I am still on my diet and really trying to loose more weight. I&#39;ve lost 10 pounds in the past month. 	*silence* 	Moulik Kothari: Cut your hair. ]]></description>

      <link>http://www.drewbarnard.com/Blog/post.asp?postID=87</link>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:08:51 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Florence and the Machine</title>
      <description><![CDATA[I guess i&#39;m pretty late to the party with Florence and the Machine, as she&#39;s one of the many UK pop starlets to have made their inevitable crossover here to the States. Seriously, there seems to be someone new every other month, and after a while you just stop paying attention. My first introduction came a week ago with the new video for &quot;Dog Days Are Over,&quot; and damn does that voice demand attention. Her voice is just absolutely amazing, and you really have to hear it for yourself, as I would do it injustice (maybe a big, voluptuous version of Feist?) to try and describe it. I&#39;m sure comparisons will be quick to the Kate Nashes and Amy Winehouses of the world, but I think it would be an understatement to say that she&#39;s got the chops to trump all of those kinds of expectations and make a huge splash over here. The new single will be out December 2nd on IAMSOUND, which also released her debut single &quot;Kiss With a Fist&quot; back in June.        Florence and the Machine - Girl with 1 Eye {purchase}:        ::MP3::        Florence and the Machine - Hospital Beds (Cold War Kids cover) {purchase}:        ::MP3::   ]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:56:45 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>5 Songs for Friday: The Eighteenth</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Each and every Friday I post 5 songs that caught my ear throughout the week. There is a link to buy material from the artists whenever possible. Musicians need to eat, so I encourage you to buy whatever you like.      John Lee Hooker - Stop Jivin&#39; Me {purchase}:        ::MP3::        The Temptations - Papa Was a Rollin&#39; Stone {purchase}:        ::MP3::        Nina Simone - See-Line Woman {purchase}:        ::MP3::        Arlo Guthrie - City of New Orleans {purchase}:        ::MP3::        Louis Armstrong - St. James Infirmary {purchase}:        ::MP3::   ]]></description>

      <link>http://www.drewbarnard.com/Blog/post.asp?postID=85</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 14 Nov 2008 16:48:44 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Hendrix Drummer Mitch Mitchell Found Dead in Portland</title>
      <description><![CDATA[R.I.P. Mitch Mitchell the original drummer for the Jimi Hendrix Experience. He apparently died of natural causes in his hotel room at Portland&#39;s Benson Hotel. Yahoo! has the story:   [L-R] Noel Redding, Jimi Hendrixand Mitch MitchellPORTLAND, Ore. - Mitch Mitchell, drummer for the legendary Jimi Hendrix Experience of the 1960s and the group&#39;s last surviving member, was found dead in his hotel room early Wednesday. He was 61. Mitchell was a powerful force on &quot;Are You Experienced?&quot; the 1967 debut album of the Hendrix band. He had an explosive drumming style that can be heard in hard-charging songs such as &quot;Fire&quot; and &quot;Manic Depression.&quot; The Englishman had been drumming for the Experience Hendrix Tour, which performed Friday in Portland. It was the last stop on the West Coast part of the tour. Hendrix died in 1970. Noel Redding, bass player for the trio, died in 2003. An employee at Portland&#39;s Benson Hotel called police after discovering Mitchell&#39;s body. Erin Patrick, a deputy medical examiner, said Mitchell apparently died of natural causes. An autopsy was planned. Bob Merlis, a spokesman for the tour, said Mitchell had stayed in Portland for a four-day vacation and planned to leave Wednesday. &quot;It was a devastating surprise,&quot; Merlis said. &quot;Nobody drummed like he did.&quot; He said he saw Mitchell perform two weeks ago in Los Angeles, and the drummer appeared to be healthy and upbeat. Merlis said the tour was designed to bring together veteran musicians who had known Hendrix &mdash; like Mitchell &mdash; and younger artists, such as Grammy-nominated winner Jonny Lang, who have been influenced by him. Mitchell was a one-of-a-kind drummer whose &quot;jazz-tinged&quot; style was a vital part of both the Jimi Hendrix Experience and the Experience Hendrix Tour that ended last week, Merlis said. &quot;If Jimi Hendrix were still alive,&quot; Merlis said, &quot;he would have acknowledged that.&quot; Mitchell played for numerous other bands but was best known for his work in the Jimi Hendrix Experience, which was inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame in 1992. According to the Hall of Fame, he was born July 9, 1947, in Ealing, England. Hendrix, Redding and Mitchell held their first rehearsal in October 1996 [sic], according to the Hall of Fame&#39;s Web site. In an interview last month with the Boston Herald, Mitchell said he met Hendrix &quot;in this sleazy little club.&quot; &quot;We did some Chuck Berry and took it from there,&quot; Mitchell told the newspaper. &quot;I suppose it worked.&quot;  ]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Thu, 13 Nov 2008 14:13:51 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Starfucker - Rawnald Gregory Erickson the Second</title>
      <description><![CDATA[I&#39;ve been sitting here for the past hour or so watching videos and looking outside as the rain continues to lightly scatter around my apartment. It only seems appropriate that I would happen to come across this fun little animated video from Portland&#39;s own Starfucker - who&#39;s self-titled debut I highly recommend - of which the song is pretty simple, but has a really nice bassline and just enough of a quirky melody to help me forget about this crappy weather.      Starfucker - Rawnald Gregory Erickson the Second {purchase}:         ::MP3::  ]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Tue, 11 Nov 2008 16:56:27 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>5 Songs for Friday: The Seventeenth</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Each and every Friday I post 5 songs that caught my ear throughout the week. There is a link to buy material from the artists whenever possible. Musicians need to eat, so I encourage you to buy whatever you like.      Stephanie Schneiderman - Twenty Slivers {purchase}:       ::MP3::Stephanie is a local Portlander, and I will definately be keeping an eye out for her upcoming shows.      Lhasa de Sela - De Cara a la Pared {purchase}:        ::MP3::        Iron &amp; Wine - Peace Beneath the City {purchase}:        ::MP3::        Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson - (Ghost) Riders in the Sky {purchase}:        ::MP3::        Son Volt - Windfall {purchase}:        ::MP3::   ]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Fri, 7 Nov 2008 16:16:27 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>For a Brighter Tomorrow, Today</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Administrations come and go. Half feel inspired and half feel let down every four years. Dramatic statements about moving to another country fly freely and self-righteous gloating swells living rooms and office buildings alike. But whomever you voted for, whatever the outcome, the real proof of this election&#39;s success is in how motivated people in this country finally were about presidential politics, about government. For the first time in my adult life I feel like the democratic process worked. For one day we were all united as a collection of free people to support the cause of lending our voices to be counted. For once, on the morning after an election, I feel pride instead of shame when looking at voter turnout reports. As with any relationship, finding out that the other person still cares enough to try&hellip;that&#39;s just the shot in the arm you need to continue to believe in the relationship as a union, to keep on working for it yourself. And really, the real prize has nothing to do with the White House. The future is now. Holograms have arrived.      Sam Cooke - A Change is Gonna Come {purchase}:        ::MP3::   ]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Wed, 5 Nov 2008 07:19:01 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Obama Wins Election!</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Okay, seems like everybody is calling it now and seems pretty offical... Obama Wins Election!  Barack Hussein Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States on Tuesday, sweeping away the last racial barrier in American politics with ease as the country chose him as its first black chief executive. Mr. Obama&#39;s election amounted to a national catharsis - a repudiation of a historically unpopular Republican president and his economic and foreign policies, and an embrace of Mr. Obama&#39;s call for a change in the direction and the tone of the country. But it was just as much a strikingly symbolic moment in the evolution of the nation&#39;s fraught racial history, a breakthrough that would have seemed unthinkable just two years ago. Mr. Obama, 47, a first-term Democratic senator from Illinois, defeated Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, a former prisoner of war who was making his second bid for the presidency. Mr. McCain, 72, conceded the race in a speech to his supporters shortly after 11:15 p.m. Eastern time.  I&#39;m not even sure what to say at the moment... man, i feel fucking exhausted. ]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Wed, 5 Nov 2008 00:09:24 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>GoBama</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Go Vote Today! Yes you can (unless you&#39;re not a US citizen, are under 18, or forgot to register). If you don&#39;t know where to vote at, try this handy tool.I just dropped off my ballot downtown and feel very confident about my decision. Tonight I will be watching the polls from a barstool at Bink&#39;s with my beautiful girlfriend and several friends. Hold on to your pants. The Future is here.   &quot;In the end, that&#39;s what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope?&quot; - Barack Obama  &quot;Today we are engaged in a deadly global struggle for those who would intimidate, torture, and murder people for exercising the most basic freedoms. If we are to win this struggle and spread those freedoms, we must keep our own moral compass pointed in a true direction.&quot; - Barack Obama  &quot;So what if she is preposterously unprepared to run the country in the midst of its greatest economic crisis in 70 years? She looks and sounds like a winner.&quot; - Frank Rich, NYTimes  &quot;As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where - where do they go? It&#39;s Alaska. It&#39;s just right over the border.&quot; - Sarah Palin, Campaign Trail &#39;08  &quot;I hate to position her as such a victim, the last thing any women needs is another victim, but I cannot help but feel pity for her. She is so categorically unfit for the position that the whole thing is starting to feel as cruel and reckless as the pigs&rsquo; blood poised above Carrie at the prom.&quot; - mattababy And, just in case you&#39;re stuck in a long line, here are some election-based (in some way or another) tunes to stick on the old iPod: The Submarines - Vote :: MP3::          Death Cab for Cutie - President of What?&rdquo; :: MP3::          Kinky - Presidente :: MP3::          Radiohead - Electioneering :: MP3::          Sunset Rubdown - They Took A Vote And Said No :: MP3::        ]]></description>

      <link>http://www.drewbarnard.com/Blog/post.asp?postID=79</link>
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      <pubDate>Tue, 4 Nov 2008 12:14:17 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Happy Halloween!</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Hope you have a safe and fun halloween! &nbsp;&nbsp;]]></description>

      <link>http://www.drewbarnard.com/Blog/post.asp?postID=78</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:08:21 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>5 Songs for Friday: The Sixteenth</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Each and every Friday I post 5 songs that caught my ear throughout the week. There is a link to buy material from the artists whenever possible. Musicians need to eat, so I encourage you to buy whatever you like.      Pale Young Gentlemen - The Crook of my Good Arm {purchase}:        ::MP3::        Her Space Holiday - Sleepy Tigers {purchase}:        ::MP3::        The Helio Sequence - Hallelujah {purchase}:        ::MP3::        The Broken West - Auctioneer {purchase}:        ::MP3::        Vetiver - Miles Apart {purchase}:        ::MP3::   ]]></description>

      <link>http://www.drewbarnard.com/Blog/post.asp?postID=77</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:57:49 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Paula&#39;s Teddy Bear</title>
      <description><![CDATA[I found this picture last night while mindlessly fumbling around the internet and it really touched me. Those eyes seem like they could tell a thousand stories.  A teddy bear sitting on a grave of a women called &quot;Paula&quot;. I don&#39;t know her but based on her year of birth, I&#39;m guessing that the teddy bear was a gift from a grandchild.Via Dries Buytaert.]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Wed, 29 Oct 2008 10:13:13 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>New Wilco for Jaymie</title>
      <description><![CDATA[My girlfriend is a big Wilco fan, and thanks to Muzzle of Bees for pointing out that Wilco shared two new songs at this year&#39;s Bridge School Benefit. The audio quality isn&#39;t the greatest since they are live recordings, but nonetheless, they are good songs. Wilco has apparently finished demoing their next abum and might have the finished project ready for release next year. I hope you enjoy them baby!     Wilco - New Song #1:              Wilco - New Song #2:          ]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Wed, 29 Oct 2008 10:03:08 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Manly Bike Sale</title>
      <description><![CDATA[A colleague of mine sent me this yesterday and I got a good laugh out of it.  Bike for sale What kind of bike? I don&rsquo;t know, I&rsquo;m not a bike scientist. What I am though is a manly guy looking to sell his bike. This bike is made out of metal and kick ass spokes. The back reflector was taken off, but if you think that deters me from riding at night, you&rsquo;re way wrong. I practiced ninja training in Japan&rsquo;s mount Fuji for 5 years and the first rule they teach about ninja biking is that back reflectors let the enemy know where you are. Not having a rear reflector is like saying &ldquo;FUCK YOU CAR, JUST TRY AND FIND ME&rdquo;. The bike says Giant on the side because it&rsquo;s referring to my junk, but rest assured even if you have tiny junk that Giant advertisement is going to remain right where it is. I bought this bike for 300 dollars from a retired mercenary that fought in both World War 1 and World War 2 and had his right arm bitten off by a shark in the Phillipines while stationed there as a shark handler. When he sold it to me I had to arm wrestle him for the honor to buy it. I broke his arm in 7 places when I did. He was so impressed with me he offered me to be his son but I thought that was sissy shit so I said no way. The bike has some rusted screws, but that just shows how much of a bad ass you are. Everyone knows rusted screws on a bike means that you probably drove it underwater and that&rsquo;s bad ass in itself. Those screws can be replaced with shiny new ones, but if you&rsquo;re going to go to that trouble why not just punch yourself in the balls since you&rsquo;re probably a dickless lizard who doesn&rsquo;t like to look intimidating. The bike is for men because the seat is flat or some shit and not shaped like a dildo. If you like flat seated bikes you&rsquo;re going to love this thing because it doesn&rsquo;t try to penetrate your ass or anything. I&rsquo;ve topped out at 75 miles per hour on this uphill but if you&rsquo;re just a regular man you&rsquo;ll probably top it out at 10 miles per hour. This thing is listed as a street bike which is man-code for bike tank.  The bike has 7 speeds in total: Gear 1 - Sissy Gear Gear 2 - Less Sissy Gear Gear 3 - Least Sissy Gear Gear 4 - Boy Gear Gear 5 - Pre-teen Boy Gear Gear 6 - Manly Gear Gear 7 - Big Muscles Gear  I only like gear 6 and 7 to be honest. Additionally, this tool of all immense men comes with a gigantic lock to keep it secure. The lock is the size of a bull&rsquo;s testicles and tells people you don&rsquo;t fuck around with locking up your bike tank. It tells would-be-thieves &ldquo;Hey asshole, touch this bike and I&rsquo;ll appear from the bushes ready to club you with a two-by-four. Bike is for 150 OBO (and don&rsquo;t give me no panzy prices). From Best of Craigslist.]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Tue, 28 Oct 2008 09:16:51 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>5 Songs for Friday: The Fifteenth</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Each and every Friday I post 5 songs that caught my ear throughout the week. There is a link to buy material from the artists whenever possible. Musicians need to eat, so I encourage you to buy whatever you like.      Brett Dennen feat. Femi Kuti - Make You Crazy {purchase}:               Talking Heads - This Must Be The Place {purchase}:               Daniel Martin Moore - It&#39;s You {purchase}:               Etta James - I&#39;d Rather Go Blind {purchase}:               Galactic - Funky Bird {purchase}:          ]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Fri, 24 Oct 2008 08:03:04 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>5 Songs for Friday: The Fourteenth</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Each and every Friday I post 5 songs that caught my ear throughout the week. There is a link to buy material from the artists whenever possible. Musicians need to eat, so I encourage you to buy whatever you like.      Menomena - Weird {purchase}:               Anna Ternheim - What Have I Done (Acoustic) {purchase}:               Spoon - I Turn My Camera On {purchase}:               Roots Manuva - Let The Spirit Move You (Hot Chip Remix) {purchase}:               MIA - Paper Planes (DFA Remix) {purchase}:          ]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Fri, 17 Oct 2008 17:04:57 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>The Stench of Panic</title>
      <description><![CDATA[The reason that Oktoberfest directly precedes election day in this country is perhaps the one well-placed blessing of the year. It certainly seems as though the McCain boys are all taking part, because rarely does a campaign, even one as desperately beleaguered as this one, go so far off the deep end so quickly. The GOP bought too far into its own bullshit rhetoric over the past eight years, assuming that the public would still come along for the ride. Terror! Fear! Evil Do-ers! They were lurking in every shadow, hiding in corners and bus stops. Scheming behind Fourth Amendment protected phone lines. Loitering just outside the cold sweat nightmares of innocent Americans. How quickly we forget that insanity, that Manchurian Candidate hysteria. Some six long years go, swarthy vigilantes from parts unknown were going to put anthrax in your cable bill and blow up your local supermarket. And those damn filthy, terrorist sympathizing, Democrats weren&#39;t going to lift a finger to stop them! And like the stumble-stepped ravings of some four-AM drunk, the Republicans just go on shouting those same old lines out into the darkness. Barack Obama is a secret muslim. A terrorist. An arab. A Marxist. He is other and different and impossible to understand. He&#39;s whatever the thing you fear right now happens to manifest itself as.&nbsp;But the Republican party has just now realized that most Americans are shaking in fear, not of the invisible enemy, but of the paper monster. To hell with anthrax - if there&#39;s a letter more toxic than a notice of foreclosure, I&#39;ve yet to read it. People care a lot less about terrorism when they suddenly don&#39;t own anything worth blowing up. And it&#39;s a bit hard to care about something called the Weather Underground when you can&#39;t even make the rent on your shitty basement apartment. But don&#39;t tell that to old man McCain - he&#39;s got his heart set on pulling out a sqeaker through a carpet-bomb campaign of brick-shitting fear, and he will keep hammering away at the cloudy, smoke and sawdust suggestions that despite better than half the country supporting the man, Barack Obama hates America. McCain tried to scare people with claims about inexperience, and that didn&#39;t work. He tried to scare people with tall tales of taxes, and even that GOP staple fell flat. So now he&#39;s going full on fearmonger! Going, as he openly admitted to Jon Stewart several years ago, &ldquo;to crazytown&rdquo;. It used to be that they secluded this stuff. Kept it hidden, away from the prying eyes of the traditional media. If there were competent sociopaths running this cowardly mud drag, we wouldn&#39;t hear about push polls to Jewish towns in Florida saying that Obama supported the PLO until sometime next March. I&#39;ll say one thing for Cheney, he knew how to keep his minions on a tight leash, and he wielded his brand of bowel liquefying hate like a samuri spinning a katana. The McCain folks, in comparison, are blasting away with a twelve gauge in a crowded mall. They&#39;ve forgotten that the nastiest of this sort of filth needs to be kept inside the base. It needs to be the quiet thrum of that fringe freakshow ten percent that would vote the party line even if they tried to run Zombie Reagan for office. The majority of Americans don&#39;t want to hear that much crazy coming out of a man to whom they might be handing nuclear launch codes. And they&#39;ve grown tired of the implausible deniability of sending your hatchetmen out to spread the lies and then waving them away, innocent faced, the next day in front of the press. The public knows what Swift Boating is, Johnny boy, and they don&#39;t like it. They&#39;re tired of hearing about how Barack Obama might be Kenyan or how John Kerry looks French. They want to hear about how they&#39;re going to pay their electric bill. How they&#39;re going to send their kids to college. How they&#39;re going to retire before they hit eighty. John McCain&#39;s wonderfully insulated world, while not as cushy and worry free as George W. Bush&#39;s, doesn&#39;t have room for those sorts of plebian concerns. And he knows he can&#39;t win by speaking to them, because all he has are empty platitudes about low taxes and something he daren&#39;t still call trickle-down economics. Because by now the public is tired of being pissed on.]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:55:05 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Sarah Palin Debate Flowchart</title>
      <description><![CDATA[I love it!&nbsp; &nbsp;]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Sat, 11 Oct 2008 14:34:34 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Missing Socks</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Note: This popped into my head this afternoon while I was at lunch. I have no idea why. Maybe its all the biking i&#39;ve done in the cold mornings lately. And just incase your wondering, my socks are just fine.  I used to have socksbut alas they&#39;re no morethough I peered in the cupboardsand I searched on the floorI looked in the freezerand under the stairsin the end I presumedthey&#39;d been taken by BearsI phoned the Portland Zooand demanded they seethat my socks weren&#39;t being wornby a chimp or a beeThey checked all their chargesand said there&#39;s no truthin the thought of my socksbeing on claw or on hoofI called the Police into ransack my housebut their search unearthed nothingnot even a mouseI gave them permissionto question my clothesbut the answers they gotwere that &quot;nobody knows&quot;And as I type thisI&#39;ve learned nothing newmy socks are still missingand my toes have turned blueMy ankles are chilledand my knees miss the heatso tonight spare a thoughtfor my poor little feet]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:24:53 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>5 Songs for Friday: The Thirteenth</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Each and every Friday I post 5 songs that caught my ear throughout the week. There is a link to buy material from the artists whenever possible. Musicians need to eat, so I encourage you to buy whatever you like.     Jim Noir - My Patch {purchase}:        I love this song. It&#39;s from LittleBigPlanet! and everytime I hear it, I just want to dance.      Delta Spirit - Trashcan {purchase}:             Don Chambers &amp; Goat - Pig Luck {purchase}:             Ruby Suns - Tane Mahuta {purchase}:             Emiliana Torrini - Me and Armani {purchase}:         ]]></description>

      <link>http://www.drewbarnard.com/Blog/post.asp?postID=68</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 10 Oct 2008 13:20:54 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>If the Candidates Were Trains...</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Enough said.&nbsp; &nbsp;]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Fri, 10 Oct 2008 12:01:38 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Shower Power!</title>
      <description><![CDATA[How awesome is this lol?!?&nbsp;&nbsp;]]></description>

      <link>http://www.drewbarnard.com/Blog/post.asp?postID=66</link>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 9 Oct 2008 17:24:22 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>BTA Releases Results of Bike Commute Challenge</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Last night in southeast Portland, the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) toasted another successful Bike Commute Challenge. The event, which has been held every September since 1995, is a friendly competition between workplaces to see who bikes to work more. All participants log their commutes online to compete for bragging rights and awards. This year, the Bike Commute Challenge had its highest rates of participation ever. Records were broken for number of workplaces (1,073), number of participants (10,689 people), and number of miles ridden (1,235,219.03). How fucking awesome is that! According to the BTA, these numbers are double what they were in 2005. Another fantastic note about this event is that of the 10,689 individuals that participated, 2,869 of them signed up as new bike commuters. The victors in all the different categories were honored last night. Below is a complete listing of the winners in each category (many companies had over 90% of their employees commuting the entire month!):  Business or nonprofit organizations with 1 employee reporting 100% commute rate  Andrew Holtz - Holtz Report Dr. Jeffrey D Sher Peggy Pfenninger - Camera Graphics Cheryl Hummon - NW Zoo &amp; Aquarium Alliance Charles Carroll - New Outlook Financial, LLC  Michelle Blackwood - Acupuncture Works LLC   Businesses and nonprofit organizations with 2-4 employees Eclipse Foundation, with a 100% commute rate  Businesses and nonprofits with 5-24 employees Stumptown Printers, with a 96.6% commute rate  Businesses and non-profits with 25-99 employees  First place - Community Cycling Center with a commute rate of 78% Second place - Chris King Precision Components with a commute rate of 62.3% Third place - Wallis Engineering with a commute rate of 62%   Businesses and non-profits with more than 100-499 employees First Alternative Co-op of Corvallis with a 38% commute rate  Businesses and non-profits with more than 500 employees *my teams category NCNM with a 12.6% commute rate  Public agencies with less than 25 employees Portland Parks and Recreation- Adaptive and Inclusive Recreation program with a 61% commute rate  Public agencies with 25-99 employees Office of Sustainable Development with a 45.7% commute rate  Public agencies with 100-499 employees City of Portland Bureau of Environmental Services with a 26.5% commute rate  Public agencies with greater than 500 employees Oregon Department of Environmental Quality with a 9.2% commute rate  Special Mention:  The Brian Reynolds distance award given to commute with highest mileage Rick Martin with 1400 miles in 20 days of commuting  Bike Shops less than 8 employees  South Salem Cycleworks with a 94.6% commute rate  Bike shop with 9-15 employees  Bike Gallery Downtown with a 98.4% commute rate  Bike shop with 16 or more employees  Bike Gallery Hollywood with a 92.4% commute rate  Most new bike commuters prize (they&rsquo;ll get a special Breakfast on the Bridge at time and place of their choosing) NCMN My team, which was comprised of 10 participants, logged just over 2,800 miles. Awesome work guys &amp; gals, let&#39;s keep it up! I wanted to thank everyone at the BTA for hosting such a succesful event, and take my hat off to everyone who participated in this years challenge. I know that I personally had a blast and will continue commuting by bike as many days as I can, rain or shine! p.s. A special thanks to my amazing girlfriend for showing up and supporting me and all the riders, and then topping off the night with a great meal. Thanks baby :)  Cheers, Drew]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Thu, 9 Oct 2008 15:17:49 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Ryan Adams - Tractor Tavern, Seattle, WA 2000</title>
      <description><![CDATA[There has been a lot of Ryan Adams love over the past few weeks while he is gearing up for the release of the Cardinals new LP Cardinology (October 28th). In the meantime, I have been digging through old Ryan/Whiskeytown bootlegs. The below acoustic show is a new favorite: recorded September 9, 2000, in Seattle, at the Tractor Tavern, during No Depression magazine&#39;s 5th anniversary party.  Ryan Adams - Born Yesterday            Ryan Adams - Oh My Sweet Carolina            Ryan Adams - To Be The One            Ryan Adams - Amy            Ryan Adams - Call Me On Your Way Back Home            Ryan Adams - To Be Young (Is To Be Sad, Is To Be High)           Ryan Adams - Damn Sam (I Love A Woman Who Rains)            Ryan Adams - The Fools We Are As Men            Ryan Adams - Just Like A Whore            Ryan Adams - No Depression Jam             Ryan Adams - I Want It That Way (Backstreet Boys)            Ryan Adams - Hey There Mrs. Lovely           Ryan Adams - Dancing With The Women At The Bar (Whiskeytown)            Prior to the release of Heartbreaker, Adams had not had an album out since 1997 - Whiskeytown&#39;s Stranger&#39;s Almanac. He has certainly made up for lost time. ]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Mon, 6 Oct 2008 00:17:18 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Sarah Palin Sex Tape</title>
      <description><![CDATA[I just found this one and I nearly choked to death on my sandwich....  ]]></description>

      <link>http://www.drewbarnard.com/Blog/post.asp?postID=62</link>
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      <pubDate>Sat, 4 Oct 2008 04:13:28 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Z-Trip Obama Mix - Free MP3 Download</title>
      <description><![CDATA[What happens when one of North America&#39;s brightest lights in the DJ/Mix/Mash Up world, Z-Trip, gets fired up about the election? Well he teams up with artist Shepard Fairey and throws some fundraising parties. Then he puts together a 58 minute mix and gives it away online. You can download the whole big mix here. Below I have edited the first three minutes of the mix to give you a taste of what&#39;s to come.  Z-Trip - Obama Mix [Edit]          The website also encourages everyone to register to vote. The Z-Trip/Fairey fundraisers were called &quot;The Party For Change.&quot; I&#39;m down with that. Here&#39;s the word from Z-Trip himself:   &ldquo;Recently, Shepard Fairey and I threw some fundraisers for the Obama campaign. We called them &ldquo;The Party for Change&rdquo;. [If you don&#39;t know who Shepard is-among many other things-he is the one responsible for the image on the right]. I&rsquo;ve been wanting to put the mix I&rsquo;ve been doing at these shows online, in hopes of spreading the word to people who need to hear it most. So, here it is: [zipped vbr mp3 / 84.7 MB]I encourage you to download it and pass it along to anyone you think should hear it. Feel free to burn copies, share it with friends, family, co-workers, strangers, and especially anyone you know is on the fence about this election. I&rsquo;m also putting out a radio friendly version, in case anyone wants to broadcast it. Please share the message. Educate those who may not know what is really going on. There is still time. If you, or anyone you know, isn&rsquo;t registered to vote, I encourage you to make it a priority and fix that before it&rsquo;s too late. This election is WAY too important for anyone to not get involved. If you need more information on how and where to register, vote, or participate, please check the links below. I honestly feel if we make our voices heard, this time WILL be different.Peace,Z-TRIP&rdquo; ]]></description>

      <link>http://www.drewbarnard.com/Blog/post.asp?postID=61</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 3 Oct 2008 12:44:23 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>5 Songs for Friday: The Twelfth</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Each and every Friday I post 5 songs that caught my ear throughout the week. There is a link to buy material from the artists whenever possible. Musicians need to eat, so I encourage you to buy whatever you like.     Blitzen Trapper - Black River Killer {purchase}:             Don Chambers &amp; Goat - Highwater {purchase}:             Patterson Hood - Heavy and Hanging {purchase}:             Okkervil River - Lost Coastlines {purchase}:             Cold War Kids - Hang Me Out to Dry {purchase}:         ]]></description>

      <link>http://www.drewbarnard.com/Blog/post.asp?postID=60</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 3 Oct 2008 08:27:26 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>LittleBigPlanet!</title>
      <description><![CDATA[LittleBigPlanet has me foaming at the mouth. The game&#39;s promise of limitless customization offers nearly endless possibilities of gameplay, and i&#39;m sure everyone will want their very own Sackboy and Sackgirl toy. I&#39;m actually thinking about buying a PS3 just for this game! :)LittleBigPlanet can&#39;t possibly get here soon enough, just watch these videos to prove my point.        &nbsp;&nbsp;]]></description>

      <link>http://www.drewbarnard.com/Blog/post.asp?postID=59</link>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 2 Oct 2008 19:48:48 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>The Veep Debate</title>
      <description><![CDATA[I continue to ask, &quot;What was John McCain thinking in selecting the gaffe-prone Gov. Sarah Palin?&quot; In what has now become a disturbing pattern, the Alaska governor seems either unable or unwilling to avoid embarrassing statements that are often as untrue as they are outrageous. Recently, for example, in an exclusive interview with news anchor Katie Couric, Palin gushed, &quot;When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn&rsquo;t just talk about the, you know, princes of greed. He said, &lsquo;Look, here&rsquo;s what happened.&rsquo; &quot; Apparently the former Alaskan beauty queen failed to realize that in 1929 there was neither widespread television nor was Franklin Roosevelt even President. Sometimes the Idaho-native Palin seems to confuse and embarrass her own running mate. Shortly after her nomination, she introduced a &quot;John McAmerica&quot; then she referred to the Republican ticket as the &quot;Palin-McCain administration;&quot; and finished by calling Sen. Obama, &quot;Senator George Obama.&quot; The Palin gaffes seem to be endless: on her way to Washington to meet the national press corps, Palin, the mother of five, once again stumbled &mdash; this time characterizing Senator Biden as &quot;Congressman Joe Biden,&quot; who, she chuckled, was &quot;good looking.&quot; But then Palin only compounded that growing image of shallowness when introducing her own snow-mobiling husband Todd, &quot;as drop-dead gorgeous!&quot; And when asked about the controversial McCain ad suggesting that Barack Obama had introduced explicit sex education classes to pre-teenagers, the Christian fundamentalist Palin scoffed that it was &quot;terrible&quot; and that she would have never had allowed such an unfair clip to run - before retracting that apology under pressure from the now exasperated McCain campaign staff. But then, according to press reports, wild Sarah only made things worse still by announcing that paying higher taxes was the &quot;patriotic&quot; thing for Americans to do. This week, the gun-owning, moose-hunting Palin also promised blue-collar Virginians that she would protect their firearm rights - even, if need be, from her own running-mate: &quot;I guarantee you, John McCain ain&#39;t taking my shotguns, so don&#39;t buy that malarkey. Don&#39;t buy that malarkey. They&#39;re going to start peddling that to you. I got two. If he tries to fool with my Beretta, he&#39;s got a problem. I like that little over and under, you know? I&#39;m not bad with it. So give me a break. Give me a break.&quot; Palin may have had some experience in Alaskan politics, but at times the former small-town mayor seems unaware of the pressures of running a national campaign in a diverse society. For example, Palin - who has had past associations with reactionary groups - caused a storm earlier when she characterized Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama in seemingly racialist terms: &quot;I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.&quot; Such stereotyping suggested that the Alaskan was not aware of the multiracial nature of American politics - an impression confirmed when in her earlier gubernatorial run, she had once suggested that to enter a donut shop was synonymous with meeting an Indian immigrant. The recently-elected Governor Palin was further rattled by media scrutiny, when, in a moment of embarrassing candor, she confessed, &quot;Mitt Romney is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be vice president of the United States of America. Quite frankly he might have been a better pick than me.&quot; That confession followed an earlier deer-in-the-headlights moment, when the nearly hysterical Palin urged a wheel-chair bound state legislator to rise: &quot;Sally, stand up, let the people see you!&quot; The Palin gaffes are no surprise to those who have followed closely her previous races. They cite her aborted governor campaign, when she was forced to pull out after fraudulently claiming that her working-class family had been Idaho coal miners - in an apparent case of plagiarism of British Prime Minister candidate Neal Kinnock&#39;s stump speech. Palin once boasted: &quot;I started thinking as I was coming over here, why is it that Sarah Palin&#39;s the first in his family ever to go to University . . . is it because our fathers and mothers were not bright . . . who worked in the coal mines of Northeast Idaho and would come up after 12 hours and play volleyball?&quot; It did not help Palin that reporters quickly discovered that while as a student at the University at Idaho she had been caught plagiarizing and also misrepresented her undergraduate transcript. Most recently on the campaign trail, Governor Palin apparently promised a vocal supporter that the United States would certainly not burn coal to produce electricity - even though roughly half of current U.S. power production is coal-fired. The same uncertainty seems to extend to foreign policy. Under cross-examination, Palin appeared confused about her own recent trips abroad, first claiming that her helicopter had &quot;been forced down&quot; in Afghanistan, although other passengers suggested the landing was a routine cautionary measure to avoid a possible snowstorm. Palin likewise had alleged that she was shot at while in Baghdad&#39;s Green Zone, although there was no evidence from her security detail that she had, in fact, come under hostile fire. The Obama campaign has lost no time in hammering at the former hockey-mom Palin&#39;s foreign-policy judgment, alleging that shortly after September 11 she once suggested sending $200 billion to Iran as a &quot;good will&quot; gesture, and reminding journalists that in repeated interviews, Palin had called for dividing Iraq into three separate nations, despite Iraqi resistance to such outside interference. Palin, the nominal head of the Alaskan National Guard, has also falsely insisted that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Mullen had once suggested that we were losing the war in Iraq and that the Bush administration had sent Undersecretary of State William Burns to Teheran to meet with Iranian officials. In response to Palin&#39;s unbridled misstatements, journalists have coined the term &quot;Palinism&quot; - the serial voicing of sweeping declarations that are either insulting, or untrue - or both. No wonder rumors mount that Sen. McCain is now seeking a possible graceful exit for the gaffe-prone Palin, even as the Obama campaign continues to make the contrast with their own sober and circumspect Joe Biden.   You should take another minute to read this great article. Ciao,Drew]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Thu, 2 Oct 2008 19:27:10 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>What is Your Carbon Footprint?</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Carbon footprint stands for our environmental impact in terms of the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) that we release into the atmosphere. Our economy is centred on the use of fossil fuels, such as coal and petroleum. All industrial activity entails burning these and this creates CO2 emissions. By purchasing manufactured goods and making use of services we add to our carbon footprint, and the total of our environmental impact is the sum of all these contributions. The main contributors to our carbon footprint are: household electricity and heat, transport, food and clothing. All of these can be translated into a number of tons of CO2 per annum released into the atmosphere.  All the goods that we consume are either transported in freight vehicles, shipped around the world in containers, or both. This contributes to our carbon footprint. This is especially true in a global economy where manufacturing often takes place overseas. The carbon footprint of food that has travelled from overseas can be high. Purchasing local produce is one way to reduce our environmental impact, but this doesn&#39;t mean that local produce has a zero carbon footprint. For example, agricultural irrigation requires water that has to be pumped through the network at an energy cost.There are ways in which we can reduce our carbon footprint. In our use of energy, our carbon footprint depends on how green is the electricity that we use. A household has a lower carbon footprint if it derives part of its power from renewables. If we drive an electric car our carbon footprint is that of generating that power (which could be high if it was fully generated at a coal-fired station). Renewable energies have the lowest carbon footprint, and the only CO2 emissions involved are those that took place in the manufacturing and maintenance of the device that is employed. Carbon is not in itself a bad thing. It is the foundation of all organic life. Living organisms wouldn&#39;t exist without it. Unfortunately CO2 is also the cause of global warming. The excess of CO2 in the atmosphere is also responsible for the increased acidity of the oceans.Global Warming is an environmental issue that is continuing to harm our planet. The definition of Global Warming is &ldquo;the increase in the average temperature of the Earth&#39;s near-surface air and oceans since the mid-twentieth century and its projected continuation&rdquo; (wikipedia.org).  The polar bear was officially listed as threatened under the U.S. endangered species act (ESA) on May 14, 2008. This the first creature brought under the act&#39;s protection for habitat loss that is linked to global warming. The official reason given was loss of Arctic sea ice and predictions that the ice will continue to decrease. Although global warming has been identified by most atmospheric and polar scientists as the main reason for Arctic warming and melting of sea ice, the U.S. Interior Department did not use this as a reason and clearly signaled it would not apply the law to greenhouse gas emissions.  Our carbon footprint is part of a bigger picture, our ecological footprint. This is our net impact on the environment. In addition to CO2, we are responsible for the emission of other greenhouse gases. Also we create a continuous amount of trash, most of which ends up at landfills. In addition, we have another footprint that is quite significant to the environment and has nothing to do with global warming. This is our &ldquo;toxic footprint&rdquo;. This is the hazardous ingredient of our &ldquo;trash footprint&rdquo;. It encompasses all toxic substances that we release into the environment, especially into the oceans. Our planet has a capacity to assimilate a fraction of our &ldquo;toxic footprint&rdquo; but not all of it. As a result our oceans are increasingly toxic to marine ecosystems.Please help reduce and offset your carbon footprint, not just for yourself, but for generations to come.Cheers,Drew]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Wed, 1 Oct 2008 23:13:24 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Zombies!</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Found this little gem today, The Outbreak, pure choose your own adventure style. Choose with care. Chances are very good that your brains will be zombie food.  The interactive execution here is very well produced for online consumption. The video clips are short, the video quality looks great, and overall its fun to engage in the story. (yes, you can survive if you make the right choices).  Braiiiiiiiins, Drew]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:33:35 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Bailout a Bust</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Kinda funny, but it seems some of the guys were watching the news rather closely and knew the moment the last vote was placed and tallied, a few seemed rather pissed off that the $700 billion bailout plan wasn&#39;t passed by congress today.hmmm... maybe i don&#39;t have a good enough understanding of the whole thing, but my gut feeling was to let the shit hit the fan; let wall street and these financial companies go under if needed, let the system work itself out... but again, that was just my gut instinct. WASHINGTON - The House on Monday defeated a $700 billion emergency rescue package, ignoring urgent pleas from President Bush and bipartisan congressional leaders to quickly bail out the staggering financial industry.Stocks plummeted on Wall Street even before the 228-205 vote to reject the bill was announced on the House floor.When the critical vote was tallied, too few members of the House were willing to support the unpopular measure with elections just five weeks away. Ample no votes came from both the Democratic and Republican sides of the aisle.Bush and a host of leading congressional figures had implored the lawmakers to pass the legislation despite howls of protest from their constituents back home.The overriding question for congressional leaders was what to do next. Congress has been trying to adjourn so that its members can go out and campaign. And with only five weeks left until Election Day, there was no clear indication of whether the leadership would keep them in Washington. Leaders were huddling after the vote to figure out their next steps.A White House spokesman said that President Bush was &ldquo;very disappointed.&rdquo; [source]]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Mon, 29 Sep 2008 16:22:55 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>5 Songs for Friday: The Eleventh</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Each and every Friday I post 5 songs that caught my ear throughout the week. There is a link to buy material from the artists whenever possible. Musicians need to eat, so I encourage you to buy whatever you like.     Pale Young Gentlemen - Clap Your Hands {purchase}:             The Helio Sequence - Keep Your Eyes Ahead {purchase}:             Moondoggies - Changing {purchase}:             The Rosebuds - Life Like {purchase}:             Mos Def - Ms. Fat Booty {purchase}:         ]]></description>

      <link>http://www.drewbarnard.com/Blog/post.asp?postID=54</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 26 Sep 2008 15:35:00 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>House of Cards</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Well, I was going to write a real post, but then I almost choked on my tea when I read this. And now my mood for the day is shot.  In relation to our wonderful government&#39;s proposed idea of a Wall Street bailout:   &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not based on any particular data point,&rdquo; a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. &ldquo;We just wanted to choose a really large number.&rdquo;  At least try to make us believe you know what you&#39;re doing. [source]]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Thu, 25 Sep 2008 13:04:24 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>A Legal Question</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Is this considered statutory rape?  ]]></description>

      <link>http://www.drewbarnard.com/Blog/post.asp?postID=52</link>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 24 Sep 2008 01:05:32 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>5 Songs for Friday: The Tenth</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Each and every Friday I post 5 songs that caught my ear throughout the week. There is a link to buy material from the artists whenever possible. Musicians need to eat, so I encourage you to buy whatever you like.     Badly Drawn Boy - Once Around The Block {purchase}:             Beck - Youthless {purchase}:             Horse Feathers - Finch on Saturday {purchase}:         I discovered this local act via a Willamette Week article. Great band. I am looking forward to seeing them live.      The Steeldrivers - If It Hadn&#39;t Been For Love {purchase}:             Grizzly Bear - On A Neck, On A Spit {purchase}:         ]]></description>

      <link>http://www.drewbarnard.com/Blog/post.asp?postID=51</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 19 Sep 2008 13:54:50 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Where to Find Great High Resolution Wallpaper</title>
      <description><![CDATA[I&#39;ve never been big into custom wallpaper/desktop pictures on my computer, mainly because I&#39;ve never found a really good repository of them. Today, via a random Google search though, I came across Interface Lift&#39;s great wallpaper section. Holy crap there&#39;s a lot of good stuff in there.  All super high-resolution.  All unwatermarked. Afternoon Shadows is workin&#39; nicely right now:  Apparently the site has been around for at least a couple of years, but hey, it&#39;s new to me, so I figured I&#39;d spread the word to any of my fellow tree dwellers.]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:16:26 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>No More Comment Spam</title>
      <description><![CDATA[A couple of days ago, I got tired of seeing all the empty comments and put together some logic in my site&#39;s code to perform several &quot;checks&quot;. It&#39;s no silver bullet, but it did cut the amount of comment spam I get down to a fraction of what it was before. And it should scale in a way so the spammers can&#39;t easily program their way around it.No, it doesn&#39;t require any extra work for you to post your comments. :)]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Thu, 18 Sep 2008 12:23:42 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Culture War on Wheels</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Having dispensed with the question of whether an African-American or woman will ever make it to the White House, conservative Culture Warriors have moved on to defining and dividing Americans over their chosen mode of transportation. These two images have been floating around the right wing blogosphere under the shrieky, all-caps headline, &quot;THIS IS ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW.&quot; Somehow or another this strikes me as a promising development. ]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Thu, 18 Sep 2008 10:41:23 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Government Bailouts</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Heard a little about this in the news this morning while getting ready to head out for work. Most of it went over my head, but the fact that the government is stepping in and shelling out $85 billion to bailout AIG --- fucking nuts.How on earth can we possibly sustain this kind of bullshit? I mean, seriously...  NEW YORK - Wall Street stumbled again Wednesday, with anxieties about the financial system still running high even after the government bailed out the insurer American International Group Inc. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped about 300 points.The Federal Reserve is giving a two-year, $85 billion loan to AIG in exchange for a nearly 80 percent stake in the insurer, after it lost billions in the risky business of insuring against bond defaults. Wall Street had feared that the conglomerate, which has its tentacles in various financial services industries around the world, would follow the investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. into bankruptcy.&quot;People are scared to death,&quot; said Bill Stone, chief investment strategist for PNC Wealth Management. &quot;Who would have imagined that AIG would have gotten into this position?&quot;He said the fear gripping the market reflects investors&#39; concerns that AIG wasn&#39;t able to find a lifeline in the private sector and that Wall Street is now fretting about what other institutions could falter.The two independent Wall Street investment banks left standing - Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley - remain under scrutiny, as does Washington Mutual Inc., the country&#39;s largest thrift bank. Morgan Stanley revealed its quarterly earnings early late Tuesday, posting a better-than-expected 7 percent slide in fiscal third-quarter profit. It insisted that it is surviving the credit crisis that has ravaged many of its peers.]]></description>

      <link>http://www.drewbarnard.com/Blog/post.asp?postID=47</link>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 17 Sep 2008 14:02:24 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Nikki McClure</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Nikki McClure makes extraordinarily beautiful papercut illustrations in a woodcut-like style. You may have seen her calendars or notecards, or recognize her work from books or magazines.Update: Nikki has an upcoming show, &quot;Vote for Survival&quot;, coming to Needles &amp; Pens on October 10. If your around that area, you should definitely check it out.]]></description>

      <link>http://www.drewbarnard.com/Blog/post.asp?postID=46</link>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 17 Sep 2008 13:46:11 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Urge Sierra Pacific to Be A Better Corporate Citizen</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Sierra Pacific Industries plans to cut down a million acres of California&#39;s forests in the next 50 years. SPI is one of the biggest landowners in California and owns most of the forest lands in the Sierra. Our forests are not all parks, like most American&#39;s believe.SPI has one of the worst environmental records of California&#39;s logging companies due to its years of clearcutting practices and steadfast resistance to adopting to a more sustainable forestry model.ForestEthics is applying pressure to Sierra Pacific and you can help.&nbsp; &nbsp;]]></description>

      <link>http://www.drewbarnard.com/Blog/post.asp?postID=45</link>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 17 Sep 2008 13:16:20 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>5 Songs for Friday: The Ninth</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Each and every Friday I post 5 songs that caught my ear throughout the week. There is a link to buy material from the artists whenever possible. Musicians need to eat, so I encourage you to buy whatever you like.     Leonard Cohen - Dance Me to the End of Love {purchase}:             Hazmat Modine - Bahamut {purchase}:             Calexico - Crystal Frontier {purchase}:             Menahan Street Band - Make the Road By Walking {purchase}:             NOMO - Round the Way {purchase}:         ]]></description>

      <link>http://www.drewbarnard.com/Blog/post.asp?postID=44</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 12 Sep 2008 15:56:51 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Guys, We&#39;re Still Alive!</title>
      <description><![CDATA[New super collider did NOT suck us into a black hole.  These days I&#39;ll take my good news where I can get it. Didn&#39;t get sucked into a black hole today&hellip; awesome. Though I admit that there&#39;s a morbid part of me that thought that&#39;d be really funny when I first heard about it. Who&#39;d have thought that the human race - and indeed earth itself - would end from a man-made black hole? ]]></description>

      <link>http://www.drewbarnard.com/Blog/post.asp?postID=43</link>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 10 Sep 2008 19:16:52 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>The Dude Abides: Ten Years Later</title>
      <description><![CDATA[&ldquo;The Dude abides. I don&#39;t know about you, but I take comfort in that. It&#39;s good knowin&#39; he&#39;s out there, the Dude, takin&#39; &#39;er easy for all us sinners.&rdquo; - The Stranger  To abide is to accept without condition or question, and the Dude reminds of us that again in 2008. This year will mark the 10th anniversary of White Russians and 10-pin, of nihilists and thousand-dollar blow jobs, ringers and Larry Sellers, rugs and toes. This year marks a bowling frame&#39;s worth of Big Lebowski, one of the first real classics in a film era that&#39;s for the most part still too young to know which of its progeny will persist. The fact that the has achieved that status so soon-even five years ago, you could have made the argument&ndash;is a credit to the Coen brothers, their quirky plot and quirkier cast of characters. But, by and large, it&#39;s a credit to the Dude, but not for his amiable, stoner nature, nor for the frosty cream-and-kalua residue on his mustache. He is what we wish we could be.  For the driven, the career-minded, the productive or maybe just the normal-for you and me and nearly everyone else-the Dude&#39;s life would seem enviable only in fantasy, and possibly not even then. He&#39;s lazy. An oaf. A philistine, even, with no real direction or sense of cultural value. He smokes pot, pays his rent late or maybe not at all and participates in a &quot;sport&quot; that seems immovably lodged in 1950s middle American tradition. He writes checks for 61 cents for milk to stir into his glut of caucasians, and his only form of identification is a grocery store club card. If you were to imagine, with real-world constraints in mind, what his bank account balance looked like or how his credit scored, you might double check your own savings for peace of mind. But the point of the Dude isn&#39;t to be a stoner Credence fan, even if that facilitates how he lives his life.  For the Dude, life is water and he is the duck&#39;s back-it slides off without soaking him even if he does get a little wet sometimes. He&#39;s reactive to it, more than anything, something that we proactive types find difficult to fathom, yet somehow wish we could do. Maybe that&#39;s why Steve Buscemi says in a DVD interview, &quot;Everybody wants to be the dude,&quot; even if no one can figure out how without losing their job.     Bob Dylan - The Man In Me:            Kenny Rogers - Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In):           The Big Lebowski: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack ]]></description>

      <link>http://www.drewbarnard.com/Blog/post.asp?postID=42</link>
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      <pubDate>Tue, 9 Sep 2008 17:01:57 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Greetings From Wasilla</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Before VP candidate Sarah Palin crystallized her views on the future of US energy policy in her &quot;drill or do nothing&quot; speech to the Republican National Convention, we only had a vague idea of her record on transportation and development, gleaned mostly from her time as mayor of the tiny town of Wasilla.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; As news of Palin&#39;s past continues to surface, here&#39;s Slate with a Wasilla video postcard. Says reporter and narrator Alex Sheshunoff:   &ldquo;You read that Palin was the mayor of a small town, and you think of central squares and tree-lined sidewalks and neighbors who give pies to one another. Wasilla isn&#39;t that kind of place.&rdquo;   EDIT: Well, it seems that the video isn&#39;t working for some reason. Click here to view it, it&#39;s great!]]></description>

      <link>http://www.drewbarnard.com/Blog/post.asp?postID=41</link>
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      <pubDate>Mon, 8 Sep 2008 16:06:37 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>5 Songs for Friday: The Eighth</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Each and every Friday I post 5 songs that caught my ear throughout the week. There is a link to buy material from the artists whenever possible. Musicians need to eat, so I encourage you to buy whatever you like.     What Laura Says - July 23 {purchase}:             Emily Loizeau - L&#39;Autre Bout Du Monde {purchase}:              Bobby Blue Bland - Rockin In The Same Old Boat {purchase}:             Ike Turner and the Kings of Rhythm - Getting Nasty {purchase}:             Rodriguez - Sugar Man {purchase}:         ]]></description>

      <link>http://www.drewbarnard.com/Blog/post.asp?postID=40</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 5 Sep 2008 15:47:05 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>New Alberta Eatery Goes Big for Bike Parking</title>
      <description><![CDATA[The place is called the Radio Room (NE 11th &amp; Alberta) and according to a posting on Portland Food and Drink it is owned by four partners, one formerly of the well-known Doug Fir Lounge on East Burnside. What they&#39;ve done is set aside a large portion of the front of their lot to create a roomy bike parking area. They&#39;ve installed eight staple racks on top of paving stones and the result is a very welcoming space for folks who arrive by bike. I didn&#39;t have time to speak with anyone at Radio Room, but my hunch is that the idea and execution of this came directly from the owners. I&#39;m still trying to find out if/how PDOT was involved. Either way, it&#39;s great to see a business give so much prominent space for biking customers.   ]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Wed, 3 Sep 2008 18:37:48 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>CrackBerry</title>
      <description><![CDATA[I bought a new phone today (BlackBerry Curve 8310), and as much as I hate to admit it, I totally dig it. I never pictured myself with a CrackBerry BlackBerry, but hey, whatever.The thing that I like the most about it is the fact that it comes with a built-in GPS unit, so it will be great to take hiking. It also has tons of features that I will most likely spent way too many hours configuring and customizing. Im still getting used to the small keyboard, but I think with a little practice, I will be typing 100 WPM.    ]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Tue, 2 Sep 2008 21:13:05 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Portland Bike Parking: Corral vs Oasis</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Greg Raisman of the Portland Office of Transportation takes Streetfilms on a tour of bicycle parking facilities in Portland, Oregon. Watch the video and learn the pros and cons of on street bicycle parking (a bicycle corral) vs a sheltered bicycle parking oasis. And check out this article to read about the next bicycle parking amenities in Portland.    ]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:26:59 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Six New Songs by the Decemberists</title>
      <description><![CDATA[While watching the American&#39;s destroy every gymnast in the world, I stumbled upon a bunch of new Decemberists songs. I haven&#39;t been keeping up with the band lately (most of these are from earlier this year), but a few of these might win me back. &quot;The Hazards of Love 1 and 2&quot; in particular sounds amazing; it reminds me of Radiohead&#39;s &quot;Follow Me Around&quot; - and it&#39;s not just the tuning. All of these are live recordings.   Colin Meloy - Burying Avy:           Colin Meloy - Hazards of Love 1 and 2:           Colin Meloy - Night/Rake:           Colin Meloy - Valery Plame:           Colin Meloy - Hazards of Love 3:           Colin Meloy - Raincoats:         ]]></description>

      <link>http://www.drewbarnard.com/Blog/post.asp?postID=36</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:00:37 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>5 Songs for Friday: The Seventh</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Each and every Friday I post 5 songs that caught my ear throughout the week. There is a link to buy material from the artists whenever possible. Musicians need to eat, so I encourage you to buy whatever you like.   We Are Scientists - Impatience {purchase}:           James Jackson Toth - Beulah the Good {purchase}:           Marching Band - For Your Love {purchase}:           Bon Iver - Skinny Love {purchase}:           Fleet Foxes - Blue Ridge Mountains {purchase}:           ]]></description>

      <link>http://www.drewbarnard.com/Blog/post.asp?postID=35</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 15 Aug 2008 11:06:29 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>It&#39;s a Girl!</title>
      <description><![CDATA[I just found out that Ashley Nicole Barnard was born this evening! Mother &amp; daughter are both doing very well. This is very exciting news and a very welcome addition to the family. More to come soon, need to make a few phone calls :)]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Mon, 11 Aug 2008 22:02:53 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Isaac Hayes :: August 20, 1942 - August 10, 2008</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Soul legend Isaac Hayes died today at the age of 65. He would have turned 66 in 10 days. Hayes was a longtime songwriter and arranger for Stax Records in Memphis, playing in the studio&#39;s backup band and crafting tunes for artists such as Otis Redding and Sam &amp; Dave in the 1960s.   From the late 1990s through 2006, Hayes provided the voice of &quot;Chef&quot; for Comedy Central&#39;s animated series &quot;South Park,&quot; as well as numerous songs. The role introduced him to a new generation of fans, but he left after the show lampooned his own religion, the Church of Scientology.  He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002. In a CNN interview at the time, Hayes credited his success to &quot;adjusting and constantly evolving, expanding and trying to stay as young as I can.&quot;  Rest in peace, Isaac...   Isaac Hayes - I Never Can Say Goodbye {purchase}:         ]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Sun, 10 Aug 2008 18:48:43 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Biking Kicks Butt</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Biking is fun. Biking is fast. Biking is quiet. Biking is cool. Biking is healthy. Biking is simple. Biking costs less for us. Biking costs less for our cities. Biking costs less for the planet. Go ride a bike. And spread the word.]]></description>

      <link>http://www.drewbarnard.com/Blog/post.asp?postID=32</link>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 30 Jul 2008 17:28:07 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>5 Songs for Friday: The Sixth</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Ah, there&#39;s nothing like great new bands to sink your teeth into. And whereas I tend to discover most of my new favorites out of season, these match up perfectly with the great weather we&#39;re having right now. So throw on some shorts or a sundress and get ready to jump up and down. Each and every Friday I post 5 songs that caught my ear throughout the week. There is a link to buy material from the artists whenever possible. Musicians need to eat, so I encourage you to buy whatever you like.   Of Montreal - Wraith Pinned To The Mist and Other Games {purchase}:           The Dutchess &amp; The Duke - Reservoir Park {purchase}:           Saul Williams - Sunday Bloody Sunday {purchase}:            The Field - A Paw in My Face {purchase}:           Radiohead - 15 Step {purchase}:          ]]></description>

      <link>http://www.drewbarnard.com/Blog/post.asp?postID=31</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:45:06 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Ah, Summer. Time for Internet Procrastination</title>
      <description><![CDATA[With the dawn of summer comes the twilight of internet activity. As you might expect, with the weather turning warm and sunny, overall time spent on the internet dwindles, and I&#39;m no exception. I&#39;m sure you&#39;ve noticed a slight decline in posting frequency here at db.com, and I&#39;m also sure you can guess the cause. And you would be, at least partly, correct.]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Wed, 9 Jul 2008 18:36:25 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>5 Songs for Friday: The Fifth</title>
      <description><![CDATA[I&#39;m going to celebrate our country&#39;s independence my usual way - by consuming way too much alcohol and passing out falling asleep in a pile of weeds in a undetermined location. But for everyone else, I&#39;ve compiled a list of wholesome all-American music for your Fourth of July weekend. Each and every Friday I post 5 songs that caught my ear throughout the week. There is a link to buy material from the artists whenever possible. Musicians need to eat, so I encourage you to buy whatever you like.   Au - Are Animals {purchase}:           Rumspringa - Gold Mine {website}:           Voxtrot - The Start of Something {purchase}:            Port O&#39;Brien - I Woke Up Today {purchase}:           LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends {purchase}:          ]]></description>

      <link>http://www.drewbarnard.com/Blog/post.asp?postID=29</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 4 Jul 2008 15:48:08 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Wall-EEEEEEEEEEE</title>
      <description><![CDATA[I imagine it would be absolutely wonderful right now to work at Pixar studios. To be an animator, hell, even a janitor (well, not really) - anything to have that association with a studio who&#39;s films continue to grow and mature, while pushing the boundaries in computer animation.  As far as recent animated films go, my holy trinity consists of The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, and Ratatouille. The latter of which I just happened to watch only a few weeks ago. Also as you may have noticed, two of those are from Pixar. Though, after watching Wall-E last night, it has easily bulldozed it&#39;s way into that trifecta of animated perfection. This has been my most anticipated release this entire year, and it delivered in ways that I couldn&#39;t have possibly imagined.  When I first saw images for Wall-E, I wasn&#39;t exactly sold. At the time, I was still a little put-off with Cars, and thought that Pixar was possibly on their way into an inevitable downward slump. Obviously, I was wrong, but I was still a bit skeptical. What looked like some lame rip-off of Short Circuit&#39;s Johnny 5 robot, became more appealing the second I watched the first trailer. The idea of a lonely robot and it&#39;s search for companionship, that crushing loneliness on a deserted Earth. These were themes that struck a nerve with me, and I knew that this was something I needed to see.  We witness Wall-E&#39;s day-to-day chores, with almost minimal dialogue - outside of a few live-action scenes played out through holograms. This is the type of thing where Pixar excels, in making the very most out of tiny details and subtle actions. It has a sense of palpable gravity, as we actually care about this little robot&#39;s actions. You can feel the emotion through his eyes, as he watches the clips of Hello Dolly while inside of his room full of treasures that he&#39;s found throughout his time. You instantly understand that loneliness that he feels, that need to share this uniqueness with.  This movie is so many things at once-post-apocalyptic sci-fi, Chaplin-esque physical comedy, a cautionary tale on consumerism, amazing eye candy, and, above all, a love story with robots. The real success of this movie is that Wall-E, a computer-animated robot, conveys real emotion, and his loneliness and longing comes across more realistically that what you&#39;ll find from most live actors. Add to that the best animation Pixar has done yet (above all in the opening scenes on earth look absolutely real), and the fact that Wall-E is one of the cutest things you&#39;ll ever see on film, and you have a movie experience that is definitely worth seeing. The film isn&#39;t perfect, as the second half of the film becomes a little more like what you would expect from a family-oriented cartoon. It&#39;s still really well done, but the first half sets such a creative precedent that a second half that would be the highlight of most any animated film seems like a (little bit of a) let down. But still, Wall-E is truly a unique film, one that is so ambitious that you can forgive it for where it doesn&#39;t take you, since it&#39;s already taken you somewhere you never would have gone otherwise. Like all of Pixar&#39;s best, I can safely rank it among the best animated films made.]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Wed, 2 Jul 2008 19:03:12 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>5 Songs for Friday: The Fourth</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Since it is now officially Summer, I wanted to toss out a few Summertime tracks for your listening pleasure. Put these on your Summer driving mix, roll down the windows, turn up the volume, and see if the trees start to dance (if they do, pull over - you&#39;re likely on LSD). Each and every Friday I post 5 songs that caught my ear throughout the week. There is a link to buy material from the artists whenever possible. Musicians need to eat, so I encourage you to buy whatever you like.   DJ Jazzy Jeff &amp; The Fresh Prince - Summertime [purchase]:           Blitzen Trapper - Furr [purchase]:           Elliott Brood - Write It All Down For You [purchase]:            The Black and White Years - Power to Change [purchase]:           Nina Simone - Gimme Some (Mike Mangini Remix) [purchase]:          ]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Fri, 27 Jun 2008 08:01:36 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Some Thoughts on Comment Spam</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Over the last two days I&#39;ve been innundated with comment spam. Furthermore, there&#39;s been a fair bit of discussion amongst bloggers regarding the splog phenomenon. Here are a couple of thoughts on the subject, though nothing earth shattering.  Of most interest is the timing of the spam I received. I had let this blog go dormant for about six months, and during that time did not get a single item of comment spam. However, when I started posting again a couple of weeks ago, the spam started flooding in. What this tells me is that the spammers are listening to Technorati or some such and spamming only active blogs. As an expermient I&#39;ve turned off my Technorati and Ping-o-matic updates. We&#39;ll see what happens.  Turning off the blog search engine pings doesn&#39;t upset me much. Most traffic is driven to my site from Google, and the Technorati search is so laden down with splogs that it is quite literally useless. I just typed in the name of my town to see who might be blogging about events here. Of the 20 entries Technorati displayed on the first results page, 17 were from splogs. Useless. It would be interesting to know how Google filters out the noise.  Speaking of Google, can&#39;t we get some relief from that corner, something more than the rel=&quot;nofollow&quot; attribute. All this comment spam and referrer spam is there for one reason: to game the Google page rank system. So long as Google enables spammers to monetize a link, then there will be spam. And clever ideas like Internet Stamps isn&#39;t gonna help. In a four year old post, Mark Pilgrim explains why.  Despite the above, here&#39;s a potential solution that&#39;s only occurring to me now, so bear with me. It&#39;s very similar to your standard public key authentication technology, but instead of a chain of trust (with Verisign or the U.S. Post Office at the top), it&#39;s a web of trust ala PGP&#39;s system. All news aggregators and browers have a button for generating a digital identity. Every time you comment on a blog you send along your ID by digitally signing your text. At some point, possibly the same inflection point that causes you to add someone to your blogroll, you can &quot;trust&quot; this commenter. Now here&#39;s the good bit, the Web 2.0 bit, news aggregators/browsers can subscribe to the trust lists of others and add them to their own trusts list, therefore easily expanding your circle of trust.   ]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:35:20 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>5 Songs for Friday: The Third</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Wow. Total suckage on posting this week. Please accept my most sincere apologies, Internet. Each and every Friday I post 5 songs that caught my ear throughout the week. There is a link to buy material from the artists whenever possible. Musicians need to eat, so I encourage you to buy whatever you like.   Dr. Dog - The Ark [purchase]:            The Steeldrivers - Blue Side of the Mountain  [purchase]:           Eksi Ekso - Killing Texas [purchase]:           What Made Milwaukee Famous - Sultan [purchase]:           Nick Jaina - Maryanne [purchase]:         ]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:34:07 PST</pubDate>
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    <item>
      <title>It&#39;s Like Being a Dictator of Your Own Little Country</title>
      <description><![CDATA[I was on the phone with my father the other day and the topic of how Tabor is doing came up. It really made me think back on how many good times, and a few bad here and there, that we have both gone through. We talked about how much energy he had when he was a puppy, and how much of a challenge it was for him me to control that. He is almost 3&frac12; now, and has really come along ways.  No, I haven&#39;t taught him how to generate a second revenue stream by pretending to be a horse. Nor, for that matter, how to gain finer motor control with his tail, thus converting it into a more prehensile version in order to do things such as dust the living room. No, instead I&#39;ve reached another kind of milestone in our his development: He now punishes himself for misbehavior. And I can do little to stop the maniacal laughter that ensues.  The arc of his behavior since I got him has gone something like this:   March 2005 - August 2005: Bites everything. Chews everything he gets scolded for biting (human limbs not excluded). Thinks jumping is the best thing ever. Runs from captors, refuses punishment, frustratingly small enough to evade 100% capture rate September 2005 - March 2006: The Era of Woof - Dominated primarily by discovery of vocal chords and the power they hold. Nothing is safe from reproach, including air, stationary objects and imaginary things. Still jumping, albeit only on me each morning. Still chewing, but tenderly and on the sly. Backpacks are new favorite toys and daily chase sequences delight all involved except the humans. Now too big to hide under furniture, thank God March 2006 - present: Woofing lessened, now reserved for complaints and bouts of boredom. Biting of humans almost non-existent. Chasing eliminated from repertoire. Self-punishment achieved   Somehow, someway I figured out how to get him to drop whatever it is that he&#39;s stolen (kitchen towels, usually) and by simply saying &quot;Release&quot;, he does the walk of shame, with head hung low, and will walk to the other room. I no longer scream like a maniac, threaten to throw him off the overpass or even touch a hair on his head. All it takes is, &quot;Tabor&hellip;release. *point* No more, please.&quot; BAM. Who knew that controlling the behavior of another living creature would bring such a surge of power! Control! TOTAL DOMINANCE! Being a parent must be such a rush.  Sure, I still have plenty of things to work on, things such as:   Lesson 48: Claws were meant to rip open carcasses. Not Dad&#39;s leg. Use with caution or they get removed with pliers Lesson 108: Just because your head is at dinner table height does not mean that it&#39;s a truck stop for parking your massive dome during a meal. You don&#39;t control this house, as you wear no pants nor do you have opposable thumbs Lesson 283: Contrary to popular belief, I do not want to play ball every 30 minutes. Throwing your bowl across the house or ramming your face into the screen door does little to convince me otherwise   All in all, though, we&#39;ve made considerable progress. And seeing as the list of lessons that he needs to master only goes to around 500, I should be wrapping things up just around the time he looses control over his bowels due to old age,&hellip;which means I get to start all over again. How awesome is that?]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Sun, 15 Jun 2008 19:24:28 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>5 Songs for Friday: The Second</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Each and every Friday I post 5 songs that caught my ear throughout the week. There is a link to buy material from the artists whenever possible. Musicians need to eat, so I encourage you to buy whatever you like.   The Fling - Lonely Fool [purchase]:           The Sugar Oaks - Los Rebeldes [purchase]:           Moscow Olympics - Cut the World [purchase]:           Setting Sun - How Long [purchase]:           Ndidi Onukwulu - The Lady &amp; E [purchase]:         ]]></description>

      <link>http://www.drewbarnard.com/Blog/post.asp?postID=20</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 13 Jun 2008 16:14:48 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>The Smell of Spring</title>
      <description><![CDATA[I woke up this morning to something that I have not seen in weeks; sunshine. It&#39;s amazing what a little sunshine will do to your soul. When you get that first scent of spring in the air you really start to see how vivid the colors around you really are.I grabbed my laptop &amp; camera and rode to my local breakfast joint. For as many times as I have been there, I&#39;ve never noticed that they served cereal, let alone Trix! I didn&#39;t think twice before ordering the largest bowl on the menu. It was actually quite funny to eat cereal. I am not much of a morning person, therefore my breakfast&#39;s are usually far and few between. I felt like a kid again, and it was awesome. After breakfast I rode to my usual coffee shop for a vanilla latte while I watch people go about their daily lives. It&#39;s fascinating to just sit and watch people. Rich people, poor people, relaxed people, busy people, soccer moms, hippie girls, crazy peope, even crazier people. I have always found enjoyment in people watching, they amaze me. A few hours later after much needed relaxation and mindless web surfing, I rode back home and The Dog&trade; and I went to 10,000 acres park for a few hours. It was good to finally get him out of the new house. He is having a bit of a hard time adjusting to the new digs. While we were their I ran into an absolutely beautiful and funny girl named Jennifer. She is bartending at a nice restaurant downtown for the summer, trying to save enough to go back to medical school. We talked and let the dogs play together (she has 2 golden&#39;s) for about an hour. We swapped numbers and are planning on checking out some local music soon.Well, I am off to get ready for the week. I hope your weekend was filled with laughter and smells of spring.Cheers. ]]></description>

      <link>http://www.drewbarnard.com/Blog/post.asp?postID=19</link>
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      <pubDate>Sun, 8 Jun 2008 22:23:32 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>5 Songs for Friday: The First</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Each and every Friday I post 5 songs that caught my ear throughout the week. There is a link to buy material from the artists whenever possible. Musicians need to eat, so I encourage you to buy whatever you like.   Wolf Parade - Language City [purchase]:     	      E.S.L. - Prove Me Wrong:           Al Green - What More Do You Want From Me [purchase]:           Plej - Freaks [purchase]:           Cineplexx - Droga Paliativa [purchase]:        ]]></description>

      <link>http://www.drewbarnard.com/Blog/post.asp?postID=18</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 6 Jun 2008 17:26:05 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Shave and a Haircut, Two Bits</title>
      <description><![CDATA[ I just found out that legendary blues and r&amp;b singer, songwriter, and guitarist Bo Diddley passed away yesterday at his home in Archer, Florida. According to his family, the cause of death was heart failure. He was 79 years old.  MANDATORY BO: From 1960.  IN HIS PRIME BO: &ldquo;I want everyone to repeat after me: Heeeeyyyyyayayayayyyaaaaayyyyyyy!&rdquo;  Thanks, Bo. R.I.P. ]]></description>

      <link>http://www.drewbarnard.com/Blog/post.asp?postID=17</link>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 4 Jun 2008 18:21:38 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>50 Things</title>
      <description><![CDATA[I&#39;ve seen folks do these &quot;100 Things about Me&quot; exercises, and I always find them interesting. Problem is, I&#39;m an under-achiever. So I thought I&#39;d just rack my brains for 50.My full name is Andrew James Barnard When I stand up, I&#39;m 5&#39;7&quot;I&#39;m the youngest of two children: 1 brotherI enjoyed childhoodI once whined to my mom that, &quot;I&#39;m bored.&quot; She schooled me right there on the spot that there&#39;s so much to do, and most of it is wonderful. That is advice that I still honor to this day My dad was fascinated with family, gadgets and goofball humor. I got most of that from himMy first computer was a Commodore 64In high school I always wore a baseball cap, but I was never good at sportsMy greatest feat in high school was class president, and the most bong-tokes in under 5 minutesCollege was too fast, but going back seems unseemlyI went to one baseball game, we lostI used to think Fat Tire was my favorite beer, but it&#39;s too complexI like subtletyYour mobile phone can beat up my mobile phone. Mine just makes callsI am constantly losing my phoneI voteThe abuse of typography and bad webdesign gets under my skinI can&#39;t remember calendar dates of significanceI&#39;d rather be in the driver&#39;s seatI wear no jewelry, aside from that earring I briefly had in high school and realized it made me look gayIf I gave you a tour of my digs, it would take about in 2 minutesI couldn&#39;t grow a full beard until I was 2925 things is starting to sound a lot better than 50 things at this pointI&#39;m 31 years old I am an avid recycler, and have been for 20+ yearsI like to keep things simple. This is different than subtleI only know my checking balance because I just bought the new Builders and the Butchers CD onlineI like to tidy other people&#39;s housesI don&#39;t sort my laundry by colorIf I cover up signs on horoscopes, I can relate to all of themFolks I talk with all seem to want one thing: peaceI want that as wellI hope to rule the bingo table at the old folks homeI have no life planI want to travel moreNot a fan of mowing the grassI&#39;m a huge fan of music, especially BluesI&#39;m an awkward hugger, however, after much practice, I do it gladlyI like animalsI have one 3 year old black lab named TaborI enjoy photography, and want to learn moreI love to people watch, they amaze meI like natureCamping is my way of unwindingI live in beautiful Portland, Oregon and don&#39;t see myself moving, everI ride my bike to work on average of 3 times a week, and want to do it moreIn the back of my mind, I think I need more sunI am a night personGiven the choice of a urinal or a tree, I&#39;d rather pee under the starsI enjoy adulthood, for the greater partWow, you&#39;re still here! Thanks for making it to the end of these 50 things. Explore other parts of my site to fill in the blanks.]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Tue, 3 Jun 2008 16:49:03 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>100 Mile Diet</title>
      <description><![CDATA[I was at lunch with a colleague about 2 months ago and we were talking about his new &quot;100 mile diet&quot;. I had never heard of it before, but am going to now try it.Basically, all the food you get should be grown within 100 miles of your house. This really supports local farmers, reduces the amount of fuel needed to transport the goods, and is just an all-around good practice. I read an article online where you can pay $500-$700 a year to a local farmer&#39;s co-op, and in return you get a weekly crate of fresh, in-season produce for approximately 37 weeks. Pretty darn cool in my opinion.I found a few websites where you can lookup local co-op&#39;s:LocalHarvest100 Mile DietOrganics to YouIm sure there are more websites out there, but these are just a few that I used to start this new venture.]]></description>

      <link>http://www.drewbarnard.com/Blog/post.asp?postID=15</link>
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      <pubDate>Tue, 3 Jun 2008 14:01:40 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Feeling Drawn</title>
      <description><![CDATA[With the oil execs on the firing range at Capital Hill recently, one of my friends threw this Jim Borgman cartoon into my inbox. I thought that it&#39;s timeliness was well deserving of a post on the life blog. Here&#39;s hoping your day is filled with bicycles and free of $4+ gas. ]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Mon, 2 Jun 2008 15:02:55 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>I Voted Today</title>
      <description><![CDATA[That felt really good.]]></description>

      <link>http://www.drewbarnard.com/Blog/post.asp?postID=14</link>
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      <pubDate>Tue, 20 May 2008 19:46:31 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>He Really is a Rockstar</title>
      <description><![CDATA[An estimated 75,000 gathered on the banks of the Willamette River in Portland on Sunday to see Barack Obama.&quot;Wow! Wow! Wow!&quot; were his first words, as he surveyed the multitude, which included people in kayaks and small pleasure craft on the river.It is &quot;fair to say this is the most spectacular setting for the most spectacular crowd&quot; of his campaign, he told the crowd.Previously, the campaign&#39;s biggest crowd was when the candidate spoke to 35,000 on Independence Mall in Philadelphia. ]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Sun, 18 May 2008 14:03:59 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Blog Is Almost Complete</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Even though I really hate the word Blog, I am almost done coding that section. There is still a few things that I need to complete, hooking the comment&#39;s to the database, truncating the text on the landing page, adding a RSS feed, creating an archive section, and a few other odds and ends.  I have gone ahead and &#39;activated&#39; the link to it, and plan on posting alot more. Stay tuned! ]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Wed, 7 May 2008 17:41:02 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>The Wretched Life of an Insomniac</title>
      <description><![CDATA[The first thing to go is your sense of humor. Then goes the desire to do the things you used to do, then the desire to do anything at all. Parts of your body ache that you don&#39;t even know the names of, and your eyes forget how to focus. Words you once knew aren&#39;t there anymore, and there&#39;s less and less to say. People you care deeply about fall by the wayside and you let them go. The seconds tick by like the fading memories of yesterday.  Insomnia is a problem that I have lived with for as long as I can remember. It is a problem that I have recently confronted with myself and have tried to understand. Insomnia is a problem that most insomniac&#39;s don&#39;t want to talk about. &quot;Oh, you know, I had a bad night.&quot; is my most common response to friends and colleague&#39;s. &quot;Well, Drew, what do you have to lose sleep about? You&#39;ve got no problems.&quot; is the typical response. If I had been up with allergies or a sick puppy, now that&#39;s something worth talking about. If I just can&#39;t sleep, now that&#39;s weird. Anyhow, chronic insomnia is not just &quot;another bad night&quot;. It&#39;s not like a night when you can&#39;t sleep after having too many drinks, or when you are stressed from a hard day at work. Chronic insomnia is a bad night that goes on and on, night after night, all while knowing that you are going to go through it again in a few hours. Sleep is personal, sleep is intimate. Sleep is interwoven into the fabric of our everyday life. Sleep is something that we need. We all have a relationship to sleep, that is individual and distinctive as we ourselves are. Most of those same people never think about what a good night&#39;s rest is, and how much they truly value it. I am trying to find my own way with insomnia, come to terms with it after all these years and learn what works for me and what does not. I closely observe, and attempt to manage my sleeping patterns, without obsessing about it. I use the word &quot;manage&quot; with a slight grin on my face. I don&#39;t manage this beast. I live with it. I live around it. I toss and turn with it every night, gingerly, cautiously, careful not to provoke it. I do my best to subdue it, dull it&#39;s claws, avoid it&#39;s fangs, knowing that at any moment it can pounce on me and tear me to bits. But manage it? I wouldn&#39;t go that far.  ]]></description>

      <link>http://www.drewbarnard.com/Blog/post.asp?postID=10</link>
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      <pubDate>Sat, 29 Mar 2008 04:19:03 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Writing Code &#38; Baking Cookies</title>
      <description><![CDATA[I have implemented a new feature to my site. You can now expand and collapse the right menu! It also writes a cookie to your local PC, so when you return to the site it remembers your settings. Mmmmm, cookies.]]></description>

      <link>http://www.drewbarnard.com/Blog/post.asp?postID=9</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 29 Feb 2008 18:02:29 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Trek Soho S</title>
      <description><![CDATA[I am so in love with this new single-speed bike from Trek. Now I just wish I had $550 burning a hole in my pocket. And I gotta say, Trek has a really good website.]]></description>

      <link>http://www.drewbarnard.com/Blog/post.asp?postID=8</link>
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      <pubDate>Tue, 26 Feb 2008 22:55:02 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>If It Were Only That Easy</title>
      <description><![CDATA[Since I have been re-developing my website over the past week or so, I was painfully reminded how much I hate my home network. I currently have 5 computers running at home (hence the hefty electricity bill). I am running:     My main PC (a.k.a The WoW Tower)   A terabyte MP3 server   DNS server to let them all talk to each other   ISA firewall server to block all the nasties from infecting the above said servers &amp; PC&#39;s   The Laptop-o-Doom   Well, you might ask, what&#39;s the problem with that? My &quot;Main PC&quot; is what I have been doing all my development and testing on since it has the largest screen and CPU. The issue at hand is that I connect to my webhost via FlashFXP to transfer files. I can connect and download without problems, however, I cannot upload anything to the remote webhost. I have checked, unchecked, and re-checked every possible option in both FlashFXP and ISA Server 2006. I have also tried several different FTP applications, but they all have the same issue. The frustrating thing with this mess is that I am able to connect and transfer files in both directions via my laptop. So, basically, if I am not behind my firewall, everything works just dandy.  So again you might ask, why not just work on your laptop? Well, after I give you that look of &quot;no shit sherlock&quot;, I begin to shake and describe how much I hate working on laptops, especially a laptop with a 14&quot; screen.  On a not so synical note, the website is moving right along. I am not setting a deadline for completion this time, as I just want to take my time and develop the best looking and most intuitive site that I can create. Feel free to contact me if you have any feedback/comments/bugs/etc... I hope you enjoy it!]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Mon, 25 Feb 2008 22:02:54 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Back</title>
      <description><![CDATA[After a long website hiatus, I will be spending lots of time finishing my site. Stay tuned!]]></description>

      <link>http://www.drewbarnard.com/Blog/post.asp?postID=6</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:16:27 PST</pubDate>
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    <item>
      <title>I Almost Just Peed My Pants</title>
      <description><![CDATA[This is absolutely hilarious. Tough little guy. Read the story and see more photos of the world&#39;s smallest body builder here. ]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Tue, 12 Feb 2008 14:35:05 PST</pubDate>
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    <item>
      <title>Re-coding In Progress</title>
      <description><![CDATA[I am working on going through each and every line of code to make the site compatable with IE. I am also tweaking a few graphics and adding a little more functionality as I&#39;m knee-deep in code. Most sections wont work right now, but I will post the pages and more info as I get them out.]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Thu, 6 Dec 2007 01:23:38 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>Browser Compatibility Issues {update}</title>
      <description><![CDATA[I have decided to re-use this look &amp; feel and rebuild the code from the ground up. I started working on it last night and made better progress than I though I was going to. I am hoping to have the entire site IE &quot;friendly&quot; by the end of this weekend!]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Sat, 28 Jul 2007 20:47:01 PST</pubDate>
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    <item>
      <title>Browser Compatibility Issues</title>
      <description><![CDATA[For all who visit this site, it is still under construction and I add as many new features as time allows. With that said, I must make a confession. I built this site using only FireFox as my test browser. It has been pointed out many times that this site looses alot of functionality when viewed with Internet Explorer. For all you IE users out there, I appologize. But seriously, go get a real frickin&#39; web browser!  With all joking aside, I have not updated the site with fresh content in quite awhile. I am debating on whether or not I want to completely re-design the site to make it compatible with all browsers, or spend the time to fix all the IE bugs. I really like the current design, so I am leaning towards fixing it up. Feel free to contact me and tell me what you think. Fix it or start from scratch?  Now that you have downloaded, installed and are using FireFox, go enjoy some of my pictures!]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Fri, 27 Jul 2007 15:15:17 PST</pubDate>
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      <title>New Photo Gallery Functionality</title>
      <description><![CDATA[I have added some fancy new functionality to my photo gallery so you can now rate each photo from 1-5. I will be storing these ratings so I can eventually display the highest rated photos on my site.  The site is still under heavy development, and as of right now the only things that works is the photo section and contact form.  Now go check out my photos and start voting on the one&#39;s that you like!]]></description>

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      <pubDate>Fri, 27 Jul 2007 09:49:36 PST</pubDate>
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