Yes We Carve!

Latest great web find: Yes We Carve, a site devoted to all things Barack Obama and Halloween. It's full of stencils, instructions and pictures of uploaded jack o' lanterns. We were planning on doing our own election themed jack o' lantern even before finding this site. I'll post picture hopefully next week!

2009 Pennys

Look for new pennys in your change in 2009. The US Mint revealed the designs for the obverse of the often maligned $0.01 piece Monday. The temporary redesign is in recognition of the bicentennial of President Abraham Lincoln's birth and the 100th anniversary of the first Lincoln cent. The four designs represent four phases of Lincoln's life.

• Birth and early childhood in Kentucky (1809-1816)
• Formative years in Indiana (1816-1830)
• Professional Life in Illinois (1830-1861)
• Presidency in Washington, DC (1861-1865)

After 2009, there will be a new design to replace the current one, which until now had not changed in 50 years.

Class of 2012 Mindset List

Beloit College in Beloit, Wis., has released their College Mindset List for the Class of 2012. I love reading the list every year, even though it makes me feel old. The list was designed to help college professors understand the worldview of their new students, most of which are 18 year olds, born in 1990. Check out the list here.

A couple of items on the list struck me.

3. They have always been looking for Carmen Sandiego.
7. Gas stations have never fixed flats, but most serve cappuccino.
9. Electronic filing of tax returns has always been an option.
15. Martha Stewart Living has always been setting the style.
22. Clarence Thomas has always sat on the Supreme Court.
28. IBM has never made typewriters.
29. Roseanne Barr has never been invited to sing the National Anthem again.
31. They have never been able to color a tree using a raw umber Crayola.
32. There has always been Pearl Jam.
33. The Tonight Show has always been hosted by Jay Leno and started at 11:35 EST.
34. Pee-Wee has never been in his playhouse during the day.
36. They may have been given a Nintendo Game Boy to play with in the crib.
37. Authorities have always been building a wall across the Mexican border.
46. The Green Bay Packers (almost) always had the same starting quarterback.
49. Soft drink refills have always been free.
58. Radio stations have never been required to present both sides of public issues.

Random Wednesday

Some funny ethnic stereotyping from Saturday Night Live.


2008 American Idol winner David Cook performing U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For." It was just ok for me. Kind of pitchy. He played it safe.


New Barenaked Ladies kids CD called "Snacktime" is out now. How did I miss this?


How about the Top 10 Worst Films about Jesus?

Since my last political post, Obama has picked up 10 super delegates. The magic number is down to 46.

The track listing for the upcoming re-master/re-issue of U2's 1980 debut album, Boy, was finally leaked to the web. Most of the bonus tracks have already been released as part of the Compete U2 Digital Box Set on iTunes. I'm rather disappointed in this track list. There's really only 2 unreleased tracks, 1 unreleased mix and 2 unreleased live tracks. I would have liked to have seen more from their pre-Boy demos. Here's the track list for the second disc:

1. I Will Follow (previously unreleased mix)
2. 11 O'Clock Tick Tock (single, also released on The Complete U2 digital box set)
3. Touch (B-side of "11 O'Clock Tick Tock" single, also released on The Complete U2 digital box set)
4. Speed Of Life (previously unreleased track)
5. Saturday Night (previously unreleased track)
6. Things To Make And Do (B-side of "A Day Without Me" single, also released on The Complete U2 digital box set)
7. Out Of Control (U2:3 version, also released on The Complete U2 digital box set)
8. Boy/Girl (U2:3 track, also released on The Complete U2 digital box set)
9. Stories For Boys (U2:3 version, also released on The Complete U2 digital box set)
10. Another Day (single, also released on The Complete U2 digital box set)
11. Twilight (B-side of "Another Day" single, also released on The Complete U2 digital box set)
12. Boy/Girl (Live at The Marquee, London) (Also released on The Complete U2 digital box set)
13. 11 O'Clock Tick Tock (Live at The Marquee, London) (previously unreleased)
14. Cartoon World (Live at The National Stadium, Dublin) (previously unreleased)

Treat Your Mother Right

A mother's day message from Laurence Tureaud, AKA Mr. T. I pity the fool that doesn't respect his momma.



Found at the I Am Fuel, You are Friends blog.

New Obama Video

Check out this incredible video created by Will.I.Am and other Barack Obama supporters!

My wife, the felon

Cathy had quite a shock the other day when she saw this picture on the WRTV6 web site. Her first thought was "Huh, that looks a little bit like me." It was in the back of her head all day, until our neighbor asked her, "Did you see the picture of the women stealing money from the Village Pantry online? She kind of looked like you!" So, the story is, this women was caught on surveillance video twice in January taking money from the cash register at the same Indy area Village Pantry! This picture looks more like Cathy than the other one on the web site and this women is heavier than Cathy. But.......it could have been a disguise. Where was Cathy on those days...............?

My boss on Google Maps

View Larger Map


I just noticed today that a Google Maps Street View is now available for Bloomington! This is great. These are better photos than we have available at work from the County Assessor and they put buildings in context. My goal is to never have to leave my desk again! Just kidding. My co-workers and I wasted a good 20 minutes this morning scrolling around the virtual Bloomington. I even found a image of my boss out for his mid-morning walk. A co-worker determine that the pictures must have been taken in early August 2007, because of a theater marquee announcing an upcoming show in late August. No pictures available of our house yet, unfortunately. I'm curious how often Google plans on updating the images and how much this is costing them.

Some treats for Halloween

New Bono interview at RollingStone.com Check it out here.

New Ryan Adams interview at Paste Magazine. Check it out here.

I unfortunately missed the Ryan Adams show at the Murat last week. It apparently was phenomenal. If you're interested, check out a recording of it at The Internet Archive. Great sound quality on this recording. 29 songs, 3+ hours. He did 8+ minute versions of Off Broadway, Easy Plateau, Magnolia Mountain, Cold Roses, Goodnight Rose, and Peaceful Valley. Maybe I'll catch him the next time he rolls through town.



You can look forward to Halloween pictures of Parker for tomorrow, hopefully. In the mean time, check out this online Jack-o-lantern simulator.

Google gadgets

Google has a bunch or really cool "gadgets" available for web sites, blogs, MySpace pages, etc. These are all short scripts that can run on another web site and some of which take advantage of RSS or the existing, extensive Google databases, or other on-line data. You might see some of these pop up on the Roach Family Blog soon. Check them out here.

New eBay feature

This is a test post of a new eBay feature, eBay To Go. Use to post interesting auction finds on your blog or web site.

Pac-man's Skeleton?

Found this on the web. Ever wonder what's under Pac-man's shiny yellow skin? This sculpture was created in 2002 by French artist Le Gentil Garcon with help from a paleontologist.

You're on notice!

Check out the Steven Colbert "On Notice Board" Generator. Now you can call out those that you find objectionable with your own On Notice Board, just like on The Colbert Report. What out "Chicago Bears," you're on notice.

Play-Doh Cologne?

I found this on the web today. It's definitely bizarre. A company called Perpetual Kid is offering a Limited Edition Cologne that smells like Play-Doh, in commemoration of the modeling clay's 50th birthday. The web site states that the fragrance is "meant for highly-creative people, who seek a whimsical scent reminiscent of their childhood." What's next? Candy that tastes like white paste?

Stormtrooper Day Care

Stormtrooper Day Care,
Originally uploaded by THX 1981.

Found on Flickr. What a great web service. My questions is, was the baby born or cloned?

Springfield, USA

Here's a great web find I stumbled across yesterday. It's an online map of the hometown of the Simpsons, Springfield! It's rather entertaining. It reminds me of the old Chamber of Commerce city map/posters with enlarged building in their rough location and a small advertisement of the business. Not accurate enough to use t to drive by, but still visually appealing. From the web site:

Although we'd like our map to be as accurate as a map to any imaginary place can be, our main intent is to preserve the comic spirit of Springfield, document its unique identity, and to have some fun at the same time.

If you have trouble locating the Simpson's house, like I did, it's in quad 2, north of downtown. Evergreen Terrace is located in Pressboard Estates addition.

Industrial waste for toddlers

I stumbled across this page today. It's Superfund for Kids, a web site about the EPA's Superfund contaminated land clean-up program. Just what every kid wants to learn about! It even includes coloring book pages: "a polluted town, a worker removing contaminated material, a truck that is removing barrels of waste, and the same town cleaned up." You can't spell Superfund without "fun"!

From snorgtees.com.........

So that's how Pac-man works?! I always assumed he was organic. Buy the t-shirt from snorgtees.com

Google Sketchup

I created this image this week using Google's new free version of Sketchup, a powerful, yet simple 3D modeling program. From the Sketchup web site, the program lets you:

• Click on a shape and push or pull it to create your desired 3D geometry.
• Experiment with color and texture directly on your model.
• Real-time shadow casting lets you see exactly where the sun falls as you model.
• Select from thousands of pre-drawn components to save time drawing.
• Interactive Sections.
• "Sketchy Rendering".
• Dimension & Annotation.

Check it out! It lets you quickly and easily create a 3D visualization of objects. I'm sure I'll use it at home and work. Google just keeps getting better.

Roach house,
Originally uploaded by jcroach.

Yahoo! Mail Beta

Cathy and I are both Beta testing the new Yahoo! Mail interface. Overall, I like it. It looks and functions much more like Outlook than a web based service. You can preview messages like in Outlook. The biggest disappointment so far is how closely the RSS aggregator is tied to the "My Yahoo!" service. When you first open the Beta service, it loads all of your RSS feeds from your My Yahoo! page. You can't place them in folders and if you delete one it is deleted from My Yahoo! also. I wish they weren't so closely tied together. More reviews to come as I use it more. If you want to become a Beta Tester, go to this web site.