Jeff's Corner Blog

Sunshine

2011-03-11T10:14:00.001-06:00

Ok, folks. I've got one if those topics that will blow your mind. One that'll make you go, "Huh, I guess I never thought about it that way before."

Sunshine is one of the few natural wonders from which, almost without exception, humans derive happiness. How incredible is it that little particle/waves can engage our brains so universally? How astonishing is it that a little water vapor in the sky between us and the photons traveling from the sun can depress our mood so entirely?

Think about how many songs are about sunshine. I'm not talking about songs that have the word sunshine in them occasionally. I'm talking about songs that are ABOUT sunshine. I can probably name about eight off the top of my head. Can you think of as many songs about fog? breeze?

There's something intrinsically compelling for humans about this particular force of nature, even though, if we're talking about the physics of what's going on, the process of sunshine isn't nearly as interesting as fog, wind, or frost. The fact is, humans like sunshine, and we must like it from the bottom of the neanderthal parts of our brains.

And that's why I'm happy the sun is shining today.

Entertainment center

2011-03-08T09:49:00.000-06:00

More iphone 4 homescreens

2010-08-31T16:35:00.003-06:00

I got a few comments after the last post, so here's a couple more retro home screens.

Mario:

And Megaman. The first is designed to be used for the lock screen, the second for the home screen. Charging, firing.

Super Metroid Background

2010-08-29T14:16:00.005-06:00

With help from various sprite rippers at Shy-Guy kingdom and GIMP, I put this together:

Here's what it looks like on my homescreen. Ridley's hiding behind Stanza, ready to spring when you swipe to the next screen. I forgot that iOS dims the image towards the bottom of the screen, so Samus' ship is a bit darker than I intended.

TTSlam 3

2010-05-17T19:08:00.001-06:00

Ttslam3 by Jeff Dare
Download now or listen on posterous

TTSlam3.mp3 (9420 KB)

In this Slam: - Famous natural landmarks - Split second - Zombie Movies

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TTSlam 2

2010-04-02T07:25:00.001-06:00

Ttslam2
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TTSlam2.mp3 (3722 KB)

This week: Famous moments in comic books - sdrawkcaB - Comedy Classics

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18: Trivial Trivia Podcast: Recent TV Shows - Music Clips - Beetlejuice

2010-03-26T13:33:00.001-06:00

18: Trivial Trivia Podcast: Recent Tv Shows - Music Clips - Beetlejuice by Jeff And Sarah
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18_ Trivial Trivia Podcast_ Recent TV Shows - Music Clips - Beetlejuice.mp3 (16615 KB)

Episode Eighteen!

In this episode of the Trivial Trivia Podcast: TV shows from the last five years - General Music Clips - Beetlejuice - The Lickipedia Listener Challenge - trivialtriviapodcast.com

Enjoy!

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TTSlam 1

2010-03-18T08:28:00.001-06:00

Ttslam1 by Jeff, Mike, And Sarah
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TTSlam1.mp3 (8359 KB)

Please welcome the newest member of the Trivial Trivia fleet - Trivial
Trivia Slam! Hosts Jeff, Mike, and Sarah give you a short, concise
trivia quiz-show in three rounds: General Knowledge, Music Clips, and
Movie Clips. This week, General Knowledge will be on famous game show
hosts, and your task for Music Clips is to find the common bond. Can
you name the movies you hear in each Movies clip? Good luck! ***
Please leave comments at trivialtriviapodcast.com ***

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17: Trivial Trivia Podcast (v.2) US Presidents - Disney Music - A Few Good Men

2010-03-14T10:37:00.001-06:00

17: Trivial Trivia Podcast (V. 2) Us Presidents - Disney Music - A Few Good Men by Jeff And Sarah
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17_ Trivial Trivia Podcast (v.2) US Presidents - Disney Music - A Few Good Men.mp3 (16030 KB)

Episode seventeen!
In this episode:
- US Presidents
- Disney Music Clips
- A Few Good Men
- The Wikipedia Listener Challenge
Plus, Mike from the Top 5 podcast Spectacular joins us!

This is a second version that fixed a few editing issues.

Enjoy!

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17: Trivial Trivia Podcast: US Presidents - Disney Music - A Few Good Men

2010-03-12T13:30:00.001-06:00

17: Trivial Trivia Podcast: Us Presidents - Disney Music - A Few Good Men by Jeff And Sarah
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17_ Trivial Trivia Podcast_ US Presidents - Disney Music - A Few Good Men 2.mp3 (16480 KB)

Episode seventeen!
In this episode:
- US Presidents
- Disney Music Clips
- A Few Good Men
- The Wikipedia Listener Challenge
Plus, Mike from the Top 5 podcast Spectacular joins us!

Enjoy!

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Episode 16: Trivial Trivia Podcast: Food - Music Clips - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - The Great TTP Easter Egg Hunt

2010-02-18T11:12:00.001-06:00

16: Trivia Trivia Podcast: Food - Music Clips - Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade
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16_ Trivia Trivia Podcast_ Food - Music Clips - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.mp3 (12483 KB)

Episode sixteen!

In this episode:
- Food
- Music Clips
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

And the Great Trivial Trivia Podcast Easter Egg Hunt!

Enjoy!

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15: Trivial Trivia Podcast: 2009 in review - Beatles music - Sister Act II

2010-02-01T20:12:00.001-06:00

15: Trivial Trivia Podcast: 2009 In Review - Beatles Songs - Sister Act Ii
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15_ Trivial Trivia Podcast_ 2009 in review - Beatles songs - Sister Act II.mp3 (21482 KB)

Episode fifteen!
In this episode:
- 2009 in review
- Beatles songs
- Sister Act II
- The Wikipedia Listener Challenge
TrivialTriviaPodcast.com
Enjoy!

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Episode 14: Trivial Trivia Podcast: 90s Cartoons - General Music - UP

2010-01-05T16:07:00.001-06:00

14: Trivial Trivia Podcast: 90S Cartoons - General Music - Up by Jeff And Sarah
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14_ Trivial Trivia Podcast_ 90s Cartoons - General Music - UP.mp3 (15932 KB)

Episode fourteen!

In this episode:
- 90s Cartoons
- General Music clips
- Disney/Pixar's UP
- The Wikipedia Listener Challenge

TrivialTriviaPodcast.com
Enjoy!

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A very special TTP message

2009-12-16T06:22:00.001-06:00

A Very Special Ttp Message
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A very special TTP message.mp3 (1869 KB)

Hi everyone!

Not quite episode 14 yet! Sarah and I are in the hospital with our
newborn son and thought we would say hi!

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Episode 13: Trivial Trivia Podcast: Batman Movie Villains - Movie Soundtracks - Grease

2009-12-01T14:36:00.001-06:00

13: Trivial Trivia Podcast: Batman Movie Villains - Movie Soundtracks - Grease
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13_ Trivial Trivia Podcast_ Batman Movie Villains - Movie Soundtracks - Grease.mp3 (20195 KB)

Episode thirteen!
In this episode:
- Batman movie Villains
- Movie Soundtrack clips
- Grease
- The Wikipedia Listener Challenge
TrivialTriviaPodcast.com
Enjoy!

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Episode 13: Trivial Trivia Podcast: Batman Movie Villains - Movie Soundtrack Clips - Grease

2009-12-01T14:18:00.001-06:00

Episode thirteen!
In this episode:
- Batman Movie Villains
- Movie Soundtrack Clips
- Grease
- The Wikipedia Listener Challenge

Enjoy!

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Podcast Alley

2009-11-02T13:35:00.001-06:00

Hi everyone! You can now vote for the Trivial Trivia Podcast at Podcast Alley!

My Podcast Alley feed!
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Episode 11: Trivial Trivia Podcast Halloween Edition: Candy - Horror Movie Clips - Hocus Pocus

2009-10-26T12:17:00.001-06:00

11: Trivial Trivia Podcast Halloween Edition: Candy - Horror Movie Clips - Hocus Pocus
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11_ Trivial Trivia Podcast Halloween Edition_ Candy - Horror Movie Clips - Hocus Pocus.mp3 (11279 KB)

Episode Eleven! Mwah ha ha ha ha haaaaaaa...

In this episode:
- Candy Trivia
- Horror Movie Audio Clips
- Hocus Pocus
- The Wikipedia Listener Challenge

http://TrivialTriviaPodcast.com

Enjoy!

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Episode 10: Trivial Trivia Podcast Extravaganzathon Podtacular: US Geography - 70s Music - Demolition Man

2009-10-19T13:36:00.001-06:00

10: Trivial Trivia Podcast Extravaganzathon Podtacular: Us Geography - 70S Music - Demolition Man by Jeff And Sarah
Download now or listen on posterous

10_ Trivial Trivia Podcast Extravaganzathon Podtacular_ US Geography - 70s Music - Demolition Man 1.mp3 (20617 KB)

Episode Ten Extravaganzathon Podtacular!

In this episode:
- US Geography
- 70s Music
- Demolition Man
- Bonus Round with Robin from Trivia War!
- The Wikipedia Listener Challenge

Drum Snare by by Heigh-hoo on the freesoundproject.org

http://TrivialTriviaPodcast.come

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9: Trivial Trivia Podcast: Ad Slogans - Music Clips - Back to the Future Part II

2009-10-02T10:10:00.001-06:00

9: Trivial Trivia Podcast: Ad Slogans - Music Clips - Back To The Future Part Ii
Download now or listen on posterous

9_ Trivial Trivia Podcast_ Ad Slogans - Music Clips - Back to the Future Part II.mp3 (22013 KB)

Episode Nine!

In this episode:

- Famous Ad Slogans

- General Music Clips

- Back to the Future Part II

- Wikipedia Listener Challenge

Enjoy!

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Idea for an iPhone app

2009-09-27T01:52:00.000-06:00

Ok, everyone likes ebooks, and everyone likes audiobooks.

How about an app that does both?

I'm pcturing an app that you can switch back and forth freely between
audio and text. Say you're reading a book, you're in the middle of the
chapter, and your eyes are tired, or you have go mow the lawn, or you
have to drive somewhere, but you want to continue with the story. In
this app, all you would have to do is click on a paragraph, and the
audio version of the book would pick up right there iohtout skipping a
beat. when you're ready to start readig again, just click the screen
again, and you're back in the text.

The tricky bit of this app us that you'd have to have the sound files
marked with the start of each passage. I picture combining Librivox's
service where volunteers read books outloud, and stanza, where readers
can DL ebooks for free.

The trick is how to implement the design. So let's assume that you
have a public domain book in both audio on librivox and text in
another public domain database, like how Stanza stores its books.
theoretically, the books have already been broken up into chapters
electronically, in both formats. On Librivox, books are records by
chapter, where each chapter is a separate mp3 file (or other file
format). Therefore, the text and audio formats of a book could be
linked in the way described above, chapter by chapter. This idea could
be implemented right now on that basic level.

However, this is not the level of synchronicity I envision. Rather, I
see text and audio being linked on a sentence for sentence basis. This
would require a greater amount of work from volunteers, who would have
to somehow manually link each sentence of text to the spoken sentence.

I see this being accomplished in one of three ways. Each is not
without its difficulties.

One, somehow incorporate a voice-to-text service such as the ne used
in Google Voice transcriptions. The difference would be, the service
would have the text already, and would merely have to match up the
sounds it was hearing with a specific passage of the text.

Two, when volunteers record their chapters for Librivox, find some way
of electronically marking each sentence in the sound file. The app
would be able to find those markers and then match the correct passage
with the correct portion of the audio file. This could be made easier
by utilizing the audio recording capabilities of the iPhone. Readers
could touch text on the screen with a finger as they read, giving the
app markers to link the audio and text.

Three, find some way for other volunteers (after the recording has
already been made) to link text with audio. I envision a program, or
different mode in the app I'm describing here, where readers follow
along with the audio and make links in the text to the audio's current
position. This may be my favorite option, because it could simply
build upon material that has already been created, without having to
re-record the audio. We could possibly have something that listed the
reader's "stats", like how many markers they did that day.

I wish I had the iPhone programmng skills to be able to program
something like this.

Episode 7: Trivial Trivia Podcast: Movie Quotes - Music Clips - Spaceballs

2009-08-30T09:20:00.001-06:00

7: Trivial Trivia Podcast: Movie Quotes - Music Clips - Spaceballs by Jeff And Sarah
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7_ Trivial Trivia Podcast_ Movie Quotes - Music Clips - Spaceballs.mp3 (20917 KB)

Episode Seven!

In this episode:

- Movie Quotes

- Music Clips

- Spaceballs the Movie

- The Wikipedia Listener Challenge

- The NEW movie quotes challenge

Enjoy!

trivialtriviapodcast.posterous.com

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Hello World

2009-08-24T14:50:00.004-06:00

Everyone, meet James Warren.

James, Everyone.

Episode 6: Trivial Trivia Podcast: Inventions - 90s music - Blues Brothers

2009-07-12T11:41:00.001-06:00

6: Trivial Trivia Podcast: Inventions - 90S Music - Blues Brothers by Jeff And Sarah
Download now or listen on posterous

6_ Trivial Trivia Podcast_ Inventions - 90s music - Blues Brothers.mp3 (20407 KB)

Episode six!

In this episode:

- Inventions

- 90s music

- The Blues Brothers

- The Wikipedia Listener Challenge

Enjoy!

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Why haven't I gotten a google voice invite yet?

2009-07-09T09:33:00.004-06:00

Dear Google,

I am kinda upset with you.

I mean, usually, I love your services. Everything's free. I check googlelabs.com constantly for new developments, and I read your multitude of blogs almost every day. I am an avid user of (in no particular order):

- Maps (both on the laptop and the iPhone)

- Docs (including spreadsheets and forms)

- Gmail (I read the article, and DO meet the requirements for being a Gmail ninja master)

- Chat / Audio Chat / Video Chat

- Contacts (Have the iPhone set up so that my google contacts and iphone contacts constantly sync with each other. One list = One entry for each person = :)

- Sites (well, actually, Page Creator. Sites kinda blows)

- Search (I use the integrated Safari search bar most of the time, probably at least 15 times a day, if not more)

- Feedburner (for about ten of my OWN feeds)

- Picasa (combined with Feedburner, allows me to imbed photo albums right on my webpages)

- Sketchup (Yes, I even participated in some of the contests in the early days)

- Reader

- Calendar (Sarah and I have this thing set up with iPhone sync where our phones display each other's schedules so I don't have to constantly say "I have to check with Sarah first")

- Blogger (of course)

- Video/YouTube (Uploaded a couple of political videos to ask the candidates during the YouTube debates)

- Groups (good way to have a mailing list without having to maintain it)

- Google Earth

As you can see, I'm a power google user. I'm loyal enough to trust you with my most valuable information, though some say I shouldn't. You've helped me through breakups, job applications, HTML syntax, and God knows how many other crises. You've helped me build sets, talk to my family, keep track of my schedule, even remember my grocery list.

Why, then, have I not received a Google Voice invite? I could be an entirely more powerful user with this amazing tool. Sure, I know your voice recognition skills aren't exactly perfect yet, but I forgive you.

You know why I want google voice? Two words: Spam, bro. I want to be able to give my phone number away with impunity. Not sure if the job I'm applying for is a scam? No worries. Cashier asks for my telephone number? No worries. Kids decide they want to start pranking me? No worries.

Look, just give me my Google Voice invite! Now! I want it! I want it now! I want it i wantitiwantitiwantiWANTIT!

Edit 7/15: ThankyouThankyouThankyouThankyouThankyouThankyouThankyou

Episode 5: Trivial Trivia Podcast: Human Anatomy - Music Clips - Night at the Museum

2009-06-26T17:59:00.001-06:00

5: Trivial Trivia Podcast: Human Anatomy - Music Clips - Night At The Museum by Jeff And Sarah
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5_ Trivial Trivia Podcast_ Human Anatomy - Music Clips - Night at the Museum.mp3 (18647 KB)

Episode five! (written out with letters)

In this episode:

- Human Anatomy

- Music Clips

- Night at the Museum

- The Wikipedia Listener Challenge

Enjoy!

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Episode 4: Trivial Trivia Podcast: Civil War - Musicals - Transformers

2009-06-21T11:39:00.001-06:00

4: Trivial Trivia Podcast: Civil War - Musicals - Transformers by Jeff And Sarah
Download now or listen on posterous

4_ Trivial Trivia Podcast_ Civil War - Musicals - Transformers.mp3 (21136 KB)

Episode four!

In this episode:

- The Civil War

- Broadway Musicals

- Transformers

- The Wikipedia Listener Challenge

Enjoy!

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It's official

2009-06-14T13:16:00.001-06:00

Sarah and I are engaged!

Listen to our podcast!

2009-06-11T15:37:00.003-06:00

From our website:

Hi everyone! Sarah and I decided to start our own trivia podcast. The best way for us to get more listeners is to have more listeners in the first place.

Welcome to our trivia podcast! In our laboratory-condition recording studio (not.) we borrowed (stole.) the best ingredients from other trivia podcasts to bring you what we like to call "The best podcast about trivia, music, and movies, from central Illinois EVER."
We include three rounds in every episode: General Knowledge, Music clips, and Movies, plus a bonus Wikipedia Listener Challenge every show. Friend us on Facebook or send us comments at TrivialTriviaPodcast@gmail.com, and you can receive a shoutout on an upcoming episode!

Subscribe to the Trivial Trivia Podcast (iTunes)

Become a fan on Facebook

Fastest free Podcasting

2009-06-03T02:26:00.004-06:00

As I've been teaching, I always wanted to do a little more to post sound files on the class web page so that students could listen to and practice their parts. The problem was, the process was always too clunky. After recording the parts, I had to spend time using a web form to upload them, and that little bit of extra work convinced me that it wasn't worth a priority on my to-do list.

After spending just about forever looking for a good solution, I've discovered Posterous.com. All I have to do is record my sound file and attach it to an email. The service is free, and they give you 1 Gig to start with, as opposed to podbean.com, which only gives you 100 Meg.

Sounds like I could set up a very easy Mac workflow using the built-in microphone and a piano. Voice parts on the internet in no time!

No seriously. Check out jwdare.posterous.com. Posterous has a nice embedded mp3 player, too, so students don't have to worry about downloading hassle. I finished this all in about 2 minutes of recording and posting time. I think it would be way less if I could find faster recording software. Audacity is powerful, but it's just too clunky for what I need.

Now ideally, I could open software on my macbook, record an audio file, and hit one button to upload it so my students could see the file immediately. This will have to do in the meantime.

EDIT: Found a freeware program called, oddly enough, Audio Recorder. I had to mess around with it for a while to get it to record directly to mp3, but everything works now!

Giant Cross

2009-05-26T17:51:00.001-06:00

On the way to EFFINGham.

Career Idea

2009-05-18T12:53:00.000-06:00

I wish I could get a job as someone who predicts, with a large degree
of accuracy, what the turnout of a serialized sci-fi episode will be.

For instance, I know without looking it up (I swear I have not done
this) that this guy is the bad guy, even though he appears to be
harmless.

I'm watching Startate sg-1, season 9, episode 12.

Sent from my iPhone

Allerton 09

2009-05-17T16:10:00.002-06:00

Posted some new photos from our trip to Allerton on Sunday.

Here's my favorite:

Dismal

2009-05-15T18:40:00.001-06:00

Time to start gathering up two of every animal.

Happy Anniversaries!

2009-05-09T14:18:00.001-06:00

My parents - 31 years
Sarah and me - 18 months. Little catching up to do.

Sarah and I are heading over to the Harvest Moon drive-in to see the new Star Trek movie.

We love that our date will be wind-powered!

Concert Choir

2009-04-27T18:55:00.002-06:00

Attended Concert Choir's last concert yesterday. It was very sad to see Doc's last concert, and I'm really glad I went. I was so touched to be able to sing with the choir.

I can definitely understand his pain. He's getting elbowed out of a job after 27 years. Just imagine.

Will post a batch of photos soon.

Domain and address updates

2009-04-24T11:24:00.001-06:00

Ok, so. Here we go.

Google's told me that they're going to discontinue the googlepages service. Therefore, the address jwdare.googlepages.com will stop working in the next month or so. I will place a link to the new site from the old site. If you're seeing this on a page with a green background with the title to the left, you're in the right place!

You should set your favorites/bookmarks to http://jeff-corner.edicypages.com. Do it right now so you don't forget!! (Grandma Shirley, just ask me how, and I'll help you out.)

I know I told you last week that I'm going to use the address http://jeffdare.com to forward to my personal homepage (ie, Jeff's Corner, with this blog, and photo gallery). Instead, I've decided to use the domain for my professional website. Feel free to check it out.

It's like the best Bond villain name ever.

2009-03-28T20:24:00.001-06:00

Ok, sorry for the third post of the day.

I've bought my domain and had it forwarded here.

JeffDare.com - kinda snappy, huh?

Gen-Ee-OUS

2009-03-28T15:08:00.005-06:00

Made a great trip to google docs to save myself a lot of time this fall when, hopefully, I'll be wanting a lot of contact information from students. In the past, I've just had students write down their info on papers and had to do manual data entry. Rather, my better half has done the data entry.

But as we all know, data entry bites the big one, especially with students who can't write their name clearly, let alone their email address. So now, I've created a simple web form with the Forms option in Google Docs' Spreadsheet which will ask students for their addresses, phones, and emails, etc.

The information will populate in the spreadsheet automatically, which I'll be able to access anywhere (even from my phone). It is seriously sweet when I can load up this spreadsheet, hit a student's number, and dial that person right away.

So now, I can just give students a ten-minute filling-out-a-contact-info-form assignment that they complete on the internet. No data entry, no trying to read chicken-scratch, no sorting pieces of paper, no wasting trees. Google Docs adds a time-stamp to each submission, so I'll know whether students completed the assignment on time. The results are sortable and searchable, so I can pull up all the students in a certain class, or search for a particular student.

Combine this with the upcoming Google Voice, and I can even give kids a number to reach me on my cell, or send a text message with driving directions to my madrigal group.

'Lina and Me

2009-03-28T09:38:00.000-06:00

'Lina and Grandma Ann

2009-03-28T09:01:00.001-06:00

I win!

2009-03-25T23:56:00.000-06:00

And the trogdor comes in the niiiiiight!

iPhone app

2009-03-23T14:06:00.002-06:00

Found a cool one!

It's a photo scavenger hunt game. You go around looking for the items named in the program - say, a wooden spoon. You take a picture of a wooden spoon with the phone's camera, and then other people evaluate your picture.

You earn points for other people rating your pictures as correct, or rating other people's finds. New hunt items are updated every day. Kinda neat!

http://photo-scavenger-hunt.com/

Here's what I want

2009-03-18T13:24:00.001-06:00

I want an iPhone app where I can take a picture of a text URL, and it'll load that website up in Safari.

Awesome

2009-02-28T21:57:00.000-06:00

Untitled

2009-01-25T14:39:00.001-06:00

Sarah's friend Steph and someone who is clearly NOT Sarah having a bad
hairday.

Yup.

2009-01-20T11:30:00.000-06:00

Ouch

2009-01-17T23:00:00.001-06:00

Last day at Metamora

2009-01-16T07:31:00.001-06:00

Yes, that's a negative sign.

Aww

2008-12-23T21:27:00.001-06:00

Madrigals

2008-11-24T20:34:00.001-06:00

Madrigals performing at the Mid-Illini Madeigal Sing on Nov. 24th.

I love my school district

2008-11-07T14:06:00.001-06:00

What's that? Why, yes, we did get a Tai Chi instructor for our
institute day.

Halloween in Performing Arts class

2008-11-07T10:35:00.001-06:00

Haiku

2008-11-06T22:05:00.002-06:00

Wolf and hologram
On the set of CNN
Beam me up, Scotty

Lady in red suit
Refused to answer questions
Sarah Palin sucks

Barack Obama
Makes us believe in ourselves
Saying "Yes We Can"

Go band!

2008-11-01T18:17:00.001-06:00

First playoff game vs Champaign Central. Sarah was rooting for the
other team. She was sorely disappointed. :)

World, meet half of Sarah's brake roter

2008-10-24T16:06:00.001-06:00

The other half is on the ground.

Sarah vs the sleepy toys

2008-10-18T16:18:00.000-06:00

Sleepy toys win!

Cookout tomorrow

2008-10-10T14:01:00.000-06:00

Work, work, work! Too much to do, too little time! Gotta get the
bathroom finished, lawn mowed, dishes cleaned!

Side note: picture of Adam from last year. Hi, Adam!

The folks at Mona's in Toluca

2008-10-04T19:06:00.000-06:00

Three Peas in a Pod

2008-09-27T11:21:00.001-06:00

Sarah, Rachel, and Grandma Ann

I have good suckups

2008-09-25T13:32:00.001-06:00

My treble choir ladies are also coolio.

Ahhh. . . Quittin time!

2008-09-24T16:18:00.001-06:00

I Made This!

2008-09-22T16:57:00.001-06:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: ERADFFEJ <eradffej@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Sep 22, 2008 at 5:22 PM
Subject: I Made This!
To: Jeffrey Dare <jwdare@gmail.com>

I helped push all this debris, flotsam, and jetsam out from Mom and Dad's slip at the marina. All this from one slip. Not pictured is the picnic table that ended up next to the CarolLee in the water. At least no one was hurt in the big flood. Cheers!

Our First Metamora home game

2008-09-20T10:39:00.001-06:00

Sarah on the field at our first home football game. She's carrying
Morgan, who belongs to Chris, the marching band director.

Update

2008-09-12T17:30:00.000-06:00

We were without our accompanist all week (big trip to Disney), so it
was a good time for robe fittings. My iPhone thinks our robes are
orange, but I promise you, they're red. Sarah and I decided to stay in
instead of go to the game, since it's raining. Go Redbirds, and happy
Friday!

I'm in jail.

2008-09-08T15:40:00.001-06:00

No, seriously. Woodford county public safety facility, where someone
was just brought in under arrest. Not me, luckily. I'm just here so
they can take my fingerprints to make sure I'm not a criminal.

Things are going great! We're definitely into the swing of things
here, and things are zipping along. Sarah and I decided to go camping
this weekend, and on Oct. 11th, we're having a cookout for friends and
famly.

Cheers!

Progress Report

2008-09-01T18:12:00.000-06:00

Went to see the folks and future sister-in-law at the CarolLee. Good
to see them. Yesterday we started to paint the bathroom. It took us
about half an hour to find a wallpaper border we both liked. (Sarah
says an hour). We finally chose some nice colors, and put down our
first coat of primer today. Pictures to come.

We are, of course, wishing we had a second shower - we had to make do
with washclothes, and we'll have to go to the gym to shower tomorrow
morning.

Cheers!

Congrats, Tyler and Jennie!!

2008-08-24T09:30:00.001-06:00

Engaged 8-22-08. To check out the bling on that ice, see Photos section.

She's legal! Stay off the streets!

2008-08-22T17:09:00.000-06:00

School year update!

2008-08-20T20:48:00.000-06:00

Whew! Whirlwind of activity in the choir room makes it so busy, I have
to talk to myself between periods to get everything done. Between
frantically making copies for a one hundred person choir, and figuring
out what the heck I'm doing for the beginning acting class, I haven't
even had time to breathe. The students are great, and very helpful, as
is the accompanist and the rest of the music department. I'm really
looking forward to this year!

Two days down, 178 to to!

Dear Family

2008-08-17T16:42:00.000-06:00

Dear family,
It has recently come to my attention that certain family pictures in
my posession, and displayed publicly, are terribly out of date. Please
remit non-former-girlfriend-containing, non-grainy-from-the-90s family
photos to me, your brother and son, posthaste.

Your loving jeff,
Jeff

Fun at the hospital

2008-08-11T22:38:00.001-06:00

Waiting for Sarah to come back from a scan.

State of my universe

2008-08-10T09:58:00.004-06:00

1. The unpacking process has been very slow. There are still furniture pieces and boxes in the garage. We did finally get the heavy sleeper couch moved into the office where it fits *perfectly* on the wall near the door.

1.5. Yardwork is beastly. I finally bought a used lawnmower from a guy in Marquette Heights. Sarah started the lawn, I took a short turn, and then she finished it. It started out at jungle length, and took about 2 1/2 hours to finish. Sarah's hands really hurt after she finished, and she had a blister or two to show for it.

2. I meet the core members of my choirs tomorrow during a Madrigal Dinner summer rehearsal. Someone decided it was a good idea to start singing Christmas music in August.

3. I've been working hard at getting my office at school in order. I'm a folder, paperclip, electronic labeler, and Post-It fiend!

4. Bought and set up an Airport Express with Airtunes for my office and classroom, which means I am able to surf the web on my laptop wirelessly, and play music wirelessly from my laptop through the classroom speakers. Another cool alternative is to plug my laptop into the sound system and control iTunes using the Remote application on my iPhone. I totally excel at using technology to improve my instruction!

5. Sarah and I visited my folks at the CarolLee. Beautiful day! Had dinner at the Captain's Cove.

My life in boxes

2008-07-31T19:58:00.001-06:00

Rockin The Suburbs

2008-07-31T18:20:00.002-06:00

Well, Champaign, actually. Sarah has a final Girl Scout meeting tonight. Then we finish cleaning up the apartment, attend a wedding, and turn in our keys. We're planning to go to a new restaurant in Urbana tonight called 88 Broadway. Dueling Pianos!!

Sarah's site

2008-07-30T21:17:00.002-06:00

Just added a link in the sidebar to Sarah's Yummy News. I helped her set up a blog and website just like this one.

Also added an email subscription box above the google ads, so you can receive email updates whenever I update the page!

I'll have new house pictures and school updates really soon!

Back in Champaign

2008-07-23T14:32:00.002-06:00

Packing! Moving Sunday.
It was great to see all the folks this weekend. It seems like they really liked having Sarah there as well. See you next time! Photos to follow.

Rockin It Up In Washington

2008-07-16T16:35:00.001-06:00

Cleaning, dusting, networking, gaming, fighting, etc.

Posted with LifeCast

2008-07-12T17:58:00.001-06:00

Trying things out! I'm visiting Tyler in Lafayette, IN for his b-day.

Geolocate this post

Posted with LifeCast

Full Update

2008-07-02T09:49:00.004-06:00

1. Job:
In May, I interviewed for and accepted a position at Metamora Township HS in Metamora, IL:
Metamora HS
MTHS Fine Arts

2. Home
Sarah and are moving to Washington, IL (about ten minutes from the high school). We'll be moving mid-late July.
Map of Washington, IL

3. Website
Now that we're in the interim between finding a new home and actually moving in, I have a bit of time to work on the Corner. I'm about to work on updating the links on the left.
Also, I'm working on a great slideshow to put at the top of the main page.
Old links for reference:
Champaign Central Choirs
Petting Zoo Productions

New house photos

2008-07-01T18:42:00.001-06:00

Check out the photos section for photos of our new house in
Washington, Il. The image quality isn't that good since I pulled the
stills off a low-quality video I took of the place. More photos/video
to come. Our move will be around July 26th. Cheers!

Happy New Year 2008

2008-01-05T11:49:00.001-06:00

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Photo update

2007-12-29T12:12:00.001-06:00

Hi guys! I went to sylvi's house you see some friends: Sylvi, Ames,
Eric, Hannah, Peter and David were there.

How Fine It Is

2007-09-01T19:38:00.000-06:00

Happy retirement to the Tree House of Tree House Summer Theater and Petting Zoo Productions fame! The Ludwigs had to pull it down last month because they're building a new house on their lot. Tree House kids helped, too, including Greg, who played the title role in The Wiz. Thanks to Luddy for sending me these pics.

Check out the photos section for the retirement ceremony, plus a cast photo from Laramie Project.

How fine it is!

Art!

2007-08-21T20:54:00.000-06:00

I recently bought a painting at World Market. I thought walking into the store that is was a health food store, but it turned out to be more of a Pier One with stuff from all around the world. I was disappointed about the lack of organic carrots, and wasn't going to buy anything. I was almost out the door when I saw this. The piece is an original oil painting by a local Central Illinois artist. I've hung it over the piano and moved the Jazz Trumpeters into my home office. Photos>

New Photos page

2007-08-19T13:28:00.000-06:00

Finally got around to converting all my photos over. Behold the New Photos page in all its glory!

New graphic on main page

2007-08-05T13:38:00.001-06:00

Neat graphic up top. Pretty sweet, huh? It's one of PictureTrail.com's Flicks.
Plus, I moved offices last week, so I put up some shots of the new one.

Two new videos

2007-08-04T19:02:00.000-06:00

Posted two more Videos from the Family reunion.

Jeff's Corner revamped

2007-07-31T18:00:00.000-06:00

Check out the new and improved Jeff's Corner!
I've posted some family reunion photos in the photo gallery. (I'm working on putting all the photos on my Picasa account)
I consolidated all my videos on one page, plus I added a new one: Videos.
I've also embedded this blog! This is going to make it easier to update my site!

Check it out!

2007-07-30T22:23:00.000-06:00

I now have a blog feed for my site. You can embed them in your website!