W. Andrew Loe III

Summer is here in Seattle. Mallory and I took full advantage of it last week and took our fancy picnic basket (thanks Mom!) and some tasty treats to Volunteer Park. We took some pictures of our Picnic in Volunteer Park.

Mallory was satistfied.

Summer has finally hit in Seattle, I think its time for some well deserved Vitamin D. Tonight I will be having a picnic in the park before reading my book in the grass and watching the sunset.

While tinkering away with Evan Weaver’s sweeper (a ruby gem for updating id3 tags of mp3s based off last.fm’s fingerprint database) I started clicking around my last.fm profile. I’ve been a religious scrobbler for a few years now (nearly 20,000 songs since May 4th, 2004), but I had never stopped to think about how powerful all of this data could be. I mostly used last.fm for its music recommendations; my profile page will suggest artists for me to explore based off what I have listened to in the past.

Today, I discovered an even cooler feature: events. Last.fm knows what I like, and it knows about lots of events (concerts, shows, festivals). By combining this data, the service can build me a custom calendar of upcoming acts that I may be interested in! I’ve created a quick mash-up using 30 boxes iCal support to display the information on the web, but I have already added this calendar to my personal google calendar. Now, even as my music tastes change, and I move around, I will always have calendar of upcoming events in my area that I will likely be interested in attending. It makes even more sense that CBS spent big money to acquire these guys.

someecards

Epic.

After a tough search, I finally found an apartment I really like. The rent is reasonable, and the place is HUGE! I have covered parking out back, with a back door entrance that is only a few feet from my parking space. Inside are beautiful hardwood floors, cool and funky details, and great lighting. The front window faces the west, so the whole apartment, especially the main room, are full of afternoon and evening light.

718 10th Ave East, Seattle, WA (My unit is the middle floor on the left.)

Big front window.

From the kitchen looking forward.

Wood floors.

A few quick photos of my new workspace.

So I finally got it, bone stock now, unlikely to remain that way.

Fancy Ride!

Its probably time to announce that I am no longer gainfully unemployed. I accepted a position as “Web Development Engineer” at OneHub.com. Starting on February 18th I’ll be living and working in Seattle, WA. Scary.

The Whale Hunt is an experiment in human storytelling.

This is undoubtedly one of the coolest things I’ve seen on the internet in the last few years. The concept is amazing. The photographs are epic. The interface is innovative.

Greenpeace has announced the results of the contest to name a whale they are tracking. After a flurry of internet popularity, Mr. Splashy Pants has come out on top, fueled by the worldwide attention. Greenpeace is now urging the world to “save Mr. Splashy Pants.” With a name like that, how can you not just smile?