I have owned the newdeep.net domain name since April 2005. Three and a half years now. And how long has there actually been a website there? Probably about 10% of that.

Well, that changes today. After being a blog aggregator, discussion board, file-hosting site, HTML test bed, ES.com redirect, nuclear power technician and 400 error, I am pleased to announce that NDDN will be my professional home for the foreseeable future. This means that my graphic art and my non-site-related written material will be going here, as well as portfolios and potential client material.

But don't worry! I'll continue to post here every other month, just like I have in the past.

Kidding.

Well, not really.

now playing on iTunes/iPod: silence

Labels: personal, site

Helvetica the typeface was created in 1957 from sheer awesome.  In fact, it contained so much awesome that it was used on subway signs, in corporate logos, on television, in the Mac and iPod GUIs, and even on the goddamn Space Shuttle!  In 2007, to celebrate the font's 50th anniversary, Helvetica the documentary was released to attempt to explain its awesomeness.  The film opened to overwhelmingly positive reviews, and spawned a related exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art entitled "50 Years of Helvetica" that showed how one minimalist typeface was able to permeate life on this earth.  Whew.  That's a lot of responsibility for one little font.

Labels: gdhu, internet, media, personal, site

now playing on iTunes/iPod: silence

Labels: bestof, site

... or at least that's what the calendar says.

I swear, sometimes spring in Minnesota feels like karmic retribution for the awesome summer and autumn we usually get. Or maybe I've just been spoiled by the past few springs. Every day, when I log on to weather.com, I'm greeted by the same dismal forecast: clouds and a high of 40° with a chance of snow showers. Then, I click on the ten day forecast and see the high bounce between like 35 and 41 for the rest of the week. When does this shit stop? Alls I want is a chance to not have to wear my pea coat everywhere, and maybe break out the flip flops. Doesn't seem like too much to ask.

In site-related news, I am trying to tweak things in the design to allow my recently-created Twitter account to have a place on the page. You know, right below the "about me" box. And another thing: you may have noticed a Google AdSense box on my page. That's not a mistake; I'm seeing if there is money to be made here. I'm also going to be putting in direct links to the iTunes Music Store where I log my currently playing song. So, if you approve of the website and would like to help me out a bit, think about clicking through here before buying stuff from the iTMS.

Thanks, dudes.

Your pal,
Ehren

now playing on iPod: Matt Nathanson "Angel"

Labels: internet, personal, site, weather

now playing on iTunes: PMB "Can't Miss What You Never Had"

Labels: GOTW, personal, site, tech

ever since the venerable Blogwise bit the dust, I've been without a blogrolling service. today, to hopefully increase my blog's visibility, I registered at Technorati. also, nowe that I have the new design in place I can update with some frequency again, and I'll kick it off with a grip of concert reviews starting with Thursday's show at the Fineline featuring Mandy Moore and Ben Lee.

as always, comments and suggestions are more than welcome.

now playing on iPod: John Mayer 'Wheel'

Labels: internet, local, media, personal, site, web2.0

version nine of the site is now in release candidate status. I'm still playing with the CSS and some shit will undoubtedly be buggy, so like poke around and let me know if something is terribly amiss.


Ehren OUT


now playing on iTunes/iPod: music

Labels: site

I've been tinkering. it's hard to tell, but I've been working pretty hard at getting a new design and stuff up to revitalize this site. well now there is a way to tell: ES.com Labs. this is where I'll be posting new design mockups and blog layouts, and other features like Gallery that I don't really have a place for. ES.com version 9 has been a long time coming (almost 22 months in fact) but I'm not launching it till I feel totally confident.

thanks for viewing.

ES

now playing on iPod: Pat McGee Band "Must Have Been Love"

Labels: site

I've been laying pretty low of late, internetwise; there's been a ton of stuff going on.

here is a list of stuff I'm working on for the site, to hopefully be completed before May 21:

• slight facelift of the site, and migration to Movable Type software
• Flickr integration for a future themed photoblog based on this book
• a weekly podcast downloadable from the site, or a weekly vlog posted to YouTube
• other stuff, as I get inspired
  

I hope this proves to you that I still think about this place. ROCK ON

ES

now playing on iTunes: Stephen Kellogg "Lucky Eleven"

Labels: personal, site

OH MY GOD EHREN POSTED TO HIS WEBSITE

no I haven't forgotten this site, though it seems like it. I've just been busy with you know, life. it's been blowing up lately and for the first time in quite awhile I feel like I'm in just this awesome place where everything seems to be coming together, and I'm trying to not do a lot to disrupt that flow. except... Blogger sortof did that for me by making me sign in to extra shits to access my content. but hey, that is the way the mop flops. I'm gonna try to start posting on a weekly basis from here on out, because while my old pre-laziness pace wasn't exactly frenetic, it was enough to make this whole website thing feel like a chore, and I really really don't want that to happen again. so stay close, keep on clickin' and I'll do the best damn job I can to entertain everyone out there.

Happy New Year, guys.

sincerely, Ehren A. Stemme

now playing on iTunes: John Mayer 'Covered in Rain'

Labels: internet, personal, site

OH MY GOD THE TWINS WON THE DIVISION



I know it's been far too long since I posted something worthwhile here. I'm not in a mood to write about anything that has happened to me in the past three or so months, but I promise I will be doing semi-regular updates again very very soon.

thanks for viewing.

Labels: local, site, twins

for the time being.

it's gonna be a crazy few weeks for me, so I'm gonna be holding off on frequent updates for a month or so (not like they've been streaming in by the assful in the first place) and what time I do have to work on the site will be spent migrating the balance of my old content to v8.0 compliance. oh, and recovering from my sunburn.

thanks for your support, and I do urge you to check out the sidebar to see what's new. later!

now playing on iTunes/iPod: silence

Labels: personal, site

wow, it's been a while.. sorry. well, I've been pretty busy but at the same time not a lot has happened. the big plans I had for last weekend never really came to fruition so I pretty much just sat around. um, I also finally went to a Twins game today. it's really interesting that they can have an awesome outing one night, then the next day when I actually decide to attend a game, they get their asses handed to them on a big silver platter carried by one CC Sabathia. thanks a lot, you fucks.

I've also been spending a lot of time helping the Followers gear up for the '06 tour, which I am super excited about. there's also a decent amount of trepidation there, but then that's kinda par for the course when you're dealing with a horde of mostly unruly teenagers. I feel bad for poor Rob, who's probably gonna have a full head of gray hair by the end of the tour, and he may just spontaneously combust from the stress level. either way, I'm gonna be entertained.

THE BALL PARK IS FIINALLY BEING BUILT I'm gonna just start doing all my shopping and eating in Hennepin County. because that will, unless my years of construction wisdom fail me, heighten the construction pace to almost human levels to enable the first game to be played next Thursday rather than 2010. I mean, my god, I'll be like 206 30 by then. I CAN'T WAIT.

I saw this article at Yahoo! today. that's good research right there. oh and also? what's the deal with Yahoo! rolling out this new front page, and not building in compatibility with Safari? I mean, it's only the most used Mac browser out there. and the lack of video content compatibility also angers me. I mean, one would think you'd wanna build in support for the OS choice of affluent gay creative professionals.

I'm done, totally tired. plus I think I have another vomit inducing headache coming on. later!

now playing on iTunes: Jim Gaffigan Beyond the Pale

Labels: internet, local, mac, personal, site, twins

so I'm sufficiently drunk for the second night in a row. I should probably have that looked into. but for now, since I haven't updated in the longest and I'm in a state where I don't really care what I say, here are some bullet points for the day:

I finally got my RAZR V3c. 'twas about time, since the Samsung keeps taking periodic dunps on me. I love it except for the fact that Verizon decided to disable OBEX profiles for some inane reason, and I had to enter all my phonebook info in maually. this was a drag, which also led to...

unfortunate drunkdials that I already regret I called two people having a good time because my over-neediness and insecurity compelled me to call them and see if I could somehow join the good time. I also called a couple other random people, and left a rather incriminating voicemail at one number. hopefully, she'll just delete that one and forget that I ever called her.

I also experienced a downswing in traffic due to a preventable server outage. who knew that hosting bills needed to be paid periodically? well, I did, but I forgot to update my card info when I got my new checkcard. whoops! my bad... it's not like I've had anything of significance to post because I'm busy working on...

the OS X Browser War! yeah this asinine idea continues to eat up my time. I'm currently spending most of my time this week browsing teh internets with Camino, though this post was written in Firefox to ensure compatibility. hopefully by the end of the century, I'll have something meaningful to file in regards to my browser report.

THE TWINS ARE IN SEASON AGAIN yay for baseball! Torii Hunter homered on the first spring pitch he saw, and Lew Ford and Joe Mauer chipped in with their own solo shots to power the Twins into a 6-3 victory over the Beantowns. I know it's super early still, but hey, spring training rules the roost.

the last two things I'll mentions are: I know I've neglected the site, yet again, but I do promise to do better in the spring months, and the RAZR's megapixel camera should make it easier to post to the photoblog that hasn't been touched in eight months. also, I've been crushing on this one chick for a while, but I think it's pretty obvious to everyone that knows the situation that nothing is gonna happen. so I decided this afternoon that I'm gonna let it drop and move on. I've pretty much known that I should have done this like a month ago, but it's better late than never in my opinion.

see you in the morning, after I sober up!

now playing on iTunes: Stephen Kellogg 'My Sweet Charade'

Labels: drunk, mac, personal, site, twins

I'm getting pretty damned tired of Firefox for OS X, with it's constant freezing and hiccuping, and lack of integration with the Tiger shell. on top of that, the latest security update borked all of my plugins. thus, I'm starting a project that I'm dubbing the OS X Browser War. yeah, Macworld, MacAddict and countless other sites have done it, but not to this scale I think. so far, the browsers I've downloaded successfully are Firefox, Netscape, Camino, Shiira and Opera, and I'm working on getting Internet Explorer and Mozilla to go along with the inhouse fave Safari. over the next two weeks I'll get up close and personal with each browser, and present my findings.

this'll be some nerdy fun!

now playing on iTunes: Hootie 'She Crawls Away'

Labels: mac, site

*graphic as in, I show you pictures and comment on them, not that I show you nasty shit ad wait for a reaction

so, now that I'm finished with my painting project, here are a couple of things that have been in the back of my head this week:

1) Halliburton went to my website for some reason. here's the proof:


now what does this mean, exactly? I'm not exactly sure. but if the government or its contracted cronies in the private sector are sniffing around, that gives me some cause for worry. but then, if they're using IE6 on Windows, maybe I shouldn't worry quite so much.

2) Matt McConaughey movies are now so generic that they don't even bother using unique posters. cookie-cutter rocoms now apparently equal cookie-cutter posters. check out the callout posters for 'How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days' (2003) and 'Failure to Launch' (2005) and tell me there aren't crazy similarities. just for added measure though, here they are, side by side:

so sad :( but hey, at least the 'Failure' poster team fixed all the random baseline problems in the '10 Days' poster.

3) stop redesigning your site, ESPN seriously. up there with Page3, 'Cold Pizza' and Stephen A. Smith, the biennial redesign of ESPN.com has got to be one of the worst ideas Disney has come up with. example: I loved the design they took on just after 2001, and grew very attached to it. here is a screenshot showing that wonderful design (Twins picture intentional):

see? simple yet bold, and effective, with minimal use of Flash graphics. FLAWLESS. but of course, like the late-90s SportsCenter, that means it wasn't destined to last. cue the pug-fugly, Flash-overloaded designs of 2004 and 2006, respectively:

big ups on them for using the Helvetica typeface in the latest incarnation. but guys, please don't capitalize 'the' anymore. it makes my penis sad.

that's it for now. actual insight to come to the site over the weekend

now playing on iTunes: DMB '#41'

Labels: internet, media, personal, site

so about two weeks ago, it snowed for the first time here this winter. ecstatic because I wouldn't have to suffer through another brown Christmas, I posted a lyric snippet by the fictional Billy Mack from one of my favorite movies, 'Love Actually'. (I realize now that I butchered them, but I don't really care enough to correct them.) apparently one of the spiders at Google found it last week, and like a bad YTMND fad Google referrals relating to the post kept popping up: (I blurred out the actual IP's because I'm nice like that.)


that's just a sampling. over the past week or so, about forty people arrived at my site via searches for 'Christmas is All Around'. they weren't all U.S. visitors either; I got referrals from Italy and uh, the Phillipines. so apparently the movie is there too and uh, I learned something today.

...

well, I thought it was amusing, dammit!

now playing on iTunes: Guster 'Homecoming King'

Labels: christmas, internet, media, personal, site

...I feel it in my toes
Christmas is all around me, and so the story goes
I feel it in the wind, everywhere I go
so if you really love Christmas come on and let it snow

IT'S SNOWING. I'm so glad.

now playing on iTunes: John Mayer 'Break Away'

Labels: christmas, media, site

Now playing on iTunes: Iffy "Double Dutch"

Still playing (and frustrated) with the format of this damn thing. I switched the primary font to Franklin Gothic, and it appears that isn't a standard font on pre-XP computers. But you know what? If you don't have the font fuck y'all. Or just like, deal with the default one.

I'm also tooling around with Dreamweaver, a program that sucks if you don't know how to use it, and one that would benefit from the patience I lack. Sorry guys.

The big 25th anniversary shindig for my parents is right around the corner. It was pretty sloppily prerared as we just decided right before Easter to throw it, but it's getting done. The house is getting clean and Heather's been doing the running around making sure everything is straight with the food and the guests and everything like that. So hopefully it'll go well. We'll see I guess..

Labels: personal, site

Now playing on iTunes: some crap by Huey Lewis.

I'm still playing with the blog layout. One day I'll get it. For right now though, it still kinda sucks. Sorry about that!

So the Twins won again. It's scary that they can get away with pulling out these victories, especially with Torii, Mauer, Mientkiewicz and LeCroy hurt. Lew Ford has proven he belongs on the big club while filling in for Hunter in center, and Henry Blanco is certainly a surprise behind the plate. Who would have thought that a veteran catcher making the major league minimum and carrying a lifetime batting average lower than Jessica Simpson's IQ could be the guy we look to for clutch homers? But stranger, more frightening things have happened in history. Just look at New Coke.

Labels: site, twins

Now playing on iTunes: stellastarr* "My Coco"

Well if you're one of the 2 readers who frequent this, you'll notice the absence of the gray backdrop and in its place a drab Blogger.com default scheme. Reason being, I gave in to popular (among people I know anyway) opinion and downloaded Mozilla Firefox for my web browsing needs. Upon doing so, I found that my blog page wouldn't load correctly, so I vainly spent an hour or so looking for a new skin that was pleasing to look at. I suppose next time I just need to get off my ass and learn how to code CSS.

Firefox isn't the only new thing for me; yesterday I started sporting the Kyocera SE47 slider phone. Sweet. It's a pretty nice little phone, it doesn't take up a lot of room in my pocket and it's loud as hizell unlike the LG I had for about a year. So that's cool. Yay for materialism.

On other fronts: Failure Sports One is still holding out and not making themselves available to cable or satellite outlets. Oh, and I'm still making better onscreen graphics than they ever will [yet another example]. So eat my ass, Pohlad. I get my Twins info from ESPN.com or Yahoo, my baseball-on-TV fix from Extra Innings, and a good dose of Herb and Gordon curtesy of WCCO. Hah, looks like you LOSE, motherfucker! Wait, that makes no sense...

Oh and by the way, I was lying the other night about putting up a new post after finishing my homework.

Labels: site, tech, twins