I implore you… go to this video site now. What an amazing experience brought to you by Arcade Fire, Google, Radical Media Production, B-Reel, Magoo 3D studios and more. What a way to introduce a new video for a new album. Kudos!
Author Archives
30
Aug 10
Arcade Fire Wilderness Downtown Video
7
Aug 10
What’s with the missing pictures?
If you’re a regular reader of my 1,000 Days of Chenda photo of the day project, then you will have noticed the outages. The problem has been that the service I used to host my photos — Posterous.com – was down, due to a Denial-of-service attack. Basically an attack that flooded their servers, so that normal users didn’t have access. Everything should be up and running again. Thanks everyone!
15
Jul 10
Angelina Jolie Attends Comic-Con
It’s been confirmed that Angelina Jolie will be at Comic-Con 2010 to promote her film Salt. Bunch of lucky nerds this year!
July 22-25
San Diego Convention Center
15
Jul 10
iPhone 4 Captures Chachi in San Francisco
I just love this little video. Our friend, Randy Garcia, of the band Chachi created this video on his iPhone 4. It is a brief montage of our weekend in San Francisco to see Pavement and shoot a couple of Chachi music videos. Enjoy!
14
Jul 10
Steal These Banners!
Since Los Angeles is in the midst of a heat wave, I’m going to have to make this one short. Effin’ Nerds has finally stepped up our game from the Little Leagues to the Minor Leagues in the blog promotion biz. We’re making banners in hopes that someone will steal them and post them all over the Internet. No fancy downloading service here… just right click for the full size and steal away after the jump.
13
Jul 10
1,000 Days of Chenda
In my ever evolving love-hate relationship with revealing too much online, I’ve decided to take the plunge and give the Internet a peep inside of my world for 1,000 days. Read on Citizens of the Interweb, this story is made in social networking heaven.
It all began when I downloaded the Hipstamatic app on my iPhone to take some graduations pictures. When I finally tried the app, I had a cross processing love affair. For a buck ninety-nine, I got my passion for photography back. Two snaps up and a bottle of non-toxic developer. Mkay?
A few days later on my Facebook feed, I noticed a friend of mine uploading her mobile pictures to posterous.com, as an all mobile photos blog. Then bing! The lightbulb in my tiny brain went off and I decided to start my photo blog right away.
I have a handful of friends who have done 365 photo projects and they were fun to flip through. So I leaped onto the bandwagon with no hesitation. This project is no different, but I did set up a few arbitrary ground rules for myself.
1.Photos will be taken with the Hipstamatic App.
2.Photos will be mailed in directly from the iPhone.
3.All pictures posted must be taken on the same day.
4.One day = one picture. No more, no less. Any tubular left-over pics will be spit out into my Twitter feed.
5.An even larger collection of out takes will eventually show up on this blog.
6.I am allowed to take as many photos of food or objects around my house as I please. My daily mantra will be, “Not everyday is a fabulous and adventurous day. We do what we can.”
7.If I don’t make it to even 100 days, no big whoop. There are thousands of cat pictures to keep the Internet happy, right?
I finally made the decision to autopost to effinnerds.com today — Day 50. Can you believe it? If all goes well, posterous will be sending a picture a day to this blog. So ladies and gentleman, I’d like to present:
1,000 Days of Chenda
VIEW ARCHIVES OF PHOTOS SO FAR:
11
Jul 10
The Gates: The Vampires of Wisteria Lane
It’s surprising that with the decline of quality television that a network show like The Gates would sneak by without much fanfare. Sure, the vampire thing has reached its peak, but you’ll want to indulge before it becomes passe.
The newest paranormal mystery explores the dark secrets of a gated community full of vampires, witches, and werewolves. I like to think of it as a cross between Desperate Housewives and True Blood. I would definitely recommend this for your Sunday night wind down.
The Gates is on Sunday nights at 10pm and goes up against Cold Case and America’s Got Talent.
10
Jul 10
MAKE: Chicken Tetrazzini
If you ever watched The Soup in 2009, you know that there is a certain dish that became a pop culture phenomenon. That’s right, Chicken Tetrazzini! Here at Effin’ Nerds, we’ve begun to step away from the microwave and begin cooking the old fashioned way. What a better way to start than with some Chicken Tetrazzini!
I got the recipe from my iPhone’s Betty Crocker app, but you can find it at BettyCrocker.com. This recipe is a lot easier than the version found on Epicurious. Here are the ingredients from the website. Keep reading…
29
Jun 10
Matador at 21 in Las Vegas: Pavement, Sonic Youth, Belle & Sebastian
Matador Records is turning 21 and to celebrate the milestone, they’re gathering the best of the best Matador’s legendary past. Pavement, Sonic Youth, Belle & Sebastian, Guided By Voices are just a few of the acts on the ticket. Check back on their website (matador.com) on July 5th for more details on ticket sales. Big shout out to Emily at Loud Cloud Crowd for the IM this morning.
DETAILS:
Matador at 21
October 1-3
Palms Casino
Las Vegas, CA
7
Jun 10
iPhone 4 WWDC 2010 Video
Here’s the iPhone 4 video. It truly is an amazing piece of technology. The Apple Kool-Aid is so delicious!
16G – $199
32G – $299
…with AT&T 2-year contracts. Ugh! I know!
Pre-Order starts June 15
Available June 24
6
Jun 10
How to Spot a Google Verification Gmail Scam
If you’ve gotten an e-mail from Gmail asking you to verify your Google account, step away from your e-mail box. That’s not Google — the most powerful information gathering company in the world — who is asking for your personal info. The e-mail is simple and plays on your fear of losing your Google account. The e-mail continues to ask for your account name, password, and country. These red flags are so obvious for those of us who are addicted to the Internet, but let’s reiterate for the tech novice. NEVER give out your password or personal information in your e-mail, unless you know for sure that it is a trusted source. [editorial note: The red bar with the message from Google did not appear until I reported this e-mail as a phishing e-mail. This screen shot was taken out of my SPAM folder, as an afterthought.]
It says it's from Gmail... It replies to Google, right? WRONG.
The problem with this e-mail is that it is cloaked and looks like it is sent by the Gmail team. But let’s looks deeper.
Gmail has a nifty option to “Show Original” e-mail. Once you click on this option, you will see a page like this pop up…
Now, let’s look at the return path. You’ll see who is getting the reply e-mail that you send with all of your personal info. This address should reflect the address that you see in your actual e-mail. In this case, your reply e-mail will be going to alexsan@mastercoolman.net. I know Google is pretty cool, but “mastercoolman.net” is not one of their many domain names. This is a phishing scam. You should report this to Google right away.
So, I went to the website to see who this mastercoolman was, but it was pulled down. If you’re neurotic like me, you’ll probably take it to the next step and search the Who Is database for mastercoolman.net. Well, I did. And this is what I found.
It looks like Go Daddy pulled the plug on this domain name for spam and abuse. Yay! But let this be a lesson to us all. We are in an age where we cannot afford to take our electronic communications for face value. Please dig deeper and be sure you’re sending your information to the intended recipients.
The case of the Google Verification Gmail Scam is closed!
19
Apr 10
Guerrilla Gardening for Earth Day 2010 in L.A.
Even in a world of earthquakes and volcanoes and off-shore drilling, there are still groups of people out there who are hopeful and want to make a difference in the world. Los Angeles is not exactly known for going green or a hipster subculture, and yet in the midst of the traffic and aspiring actors there is a little movement called Guerilla Gardening. They have a simple mission: beautify Los Angeles while having fun. These gardens are reminiscent of the neighborhood gardens in Manhattan…without the actual property or fences. Because they are gardening public spaces, the gardens are free for all of us to enjoy. The next event is in honor of Earth Day. Details can be found on the flier above or their website: laguerrillagardening.org
WHAT IS GUERRILLA GARDENING?
They say that they were “a group of friends looking for a fun activity and a way to brighten up a local neighborhood.” Here’s a sample of what they did at Spaceland in Silverlake:
BEFORE
AFTER
ANOTHER BEFORE AND AFTER:
HAPPY EARTH DAY, ROBOTS!
12
Mar 10
Nom Nom Truck
Looks like Nom Nom ain’t just for cats. Humans love to munch, too. I was delighted when the Nom Nom Truck appeared near my office park today. I will say that the Banh Mis are worth $5, but being a girl who grew up on them, it just seems wrong to pay more than $2. Inflation! I had the grilled pork banh mi and it was delicious. They also offer BBQ pork, Lemongrass chicken, Tofu, and the “Deli Special” — which I suspect is the OG banh mi with the fatty meats and pate. If you happen to see the truck parked near you, pull over and pick up a 12-inch for five bucks. It’s totally worth it.
You can get more information at nomnomtruck.com or follow their schedule on Twitter.
Here is their weekend schedule:
Friday, March 12th:
11:30AM-2:30PM:Ocean Park and 31st
6:30PM-9:30PM: Yogurtland @ 2130 Sawtelle Blvd. in West LA
Saturday, March 13th:
12PM-4PM:@ The Brig
6:30PM-10:00PM: Yogurtland @ 2130 Sawtelle Blvd. in West LA
7
Mar 10
Yes! NPR Talks About Their Favorite Pavement Songs
Ok, so I just wanted an excuse to post something about Pavement. Check out this article where NPR staffers discuss their favorite Pavement songs at NPR.org. Of course, the didn’t list my personal favorite — Range Life — but you can’t win them all, can you? You can also see Pavement tour dates at MatatorRecords.com.
California dates include:
April 18, 210 – Coachella in Indio, CA
June 25, 2010 – Greek Theater in Berkeley, CA
6
Mar 10
The Great Atlantic Garbage Patch
It looks like the news can get more depressing. A massive garbage patch was discovered in the Atlantic Ocean that is 1,000 miles long. It is the Atlantic Ocean’s answer to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which has been making news for the past few years.
The patch was found by student researchers participating in the Sea Education Association’s semester academic program, who over 22 years deployed thousands of fine-meshed plankton nets in the area to discover the makeup of the patch. [smartplanet.com]
So now that we have more confirmation that we suck as a species, what can we do about it?
Stop Using Styrofoam
It’s made of petroleum, it’s flammable, and it’s hard to recycle. But if you must use it, here are some tips for trying to reuse or recycle from greenlivingtips.com.
Trade in Your Plastic Bottles for Canteens
For the price of about 18 bottles of water — which is, what, a week’s worth? — you can get yourself a canteen. Sure, they require some effort and maintenance, but what else are you doing with those five-minutes of your life?
Trade in Plastic Bags for Reusable Totes
Disposable bags have always bothered me because they simply can’t support the weight of my most prized items: beer, wine… oh yeah, milk and orange juice. Say goodbye to double bagging and hello to saving the damned planet.
Give a Hoot, Don’t Pollute
If you’re going to ignore all of the hippy dippy attempts to save the planet, the least you can do is throw your damned trash away. If you put it in a trash can, it’ll have less of a chance of making into the ocean. It also makes it easier for bottle and can collectors who rummage through our trash in order to make a buck from recycling. Give them a break, will ya?
