I do a lot of karaoke and like to sing a lot on my own. I'm a natural amateur when it comes to singing. Anyway, I searched for a web-based microphone monitor and couldn't find one. I basically want to hear my own voice through my headphones as I'm singing so I can match it up with the mp3s I'm playing.

So I just went ahead and created one: flash-based mic monitor.

I just released Version 1.20 of Tarot for the iPhone. You can Download it here. This update adds a TON to the original "Party Tarot" app that I initially submitted. I used a lot of black magic tricks to get this latest version as slick as it is. Sales have been great and the reviews and feedback have also been great.

If you haven't tried it, check it out and submit a review!

This is something I've been thinking about lately, especially in regards to concepts such as Flow and autotelism. I've decided to be a little bit of a "lazy" programmer, which doesn't harm anybody but me since I own everything I make. But basically the way to be a "lazy" programmer, is to spend the most time on things that are fun/easy and ignore or downgrade the features I don't care about. The result is that I end up perfecting the features that I'm best at, and the other features become just satisfactory. If the work I do succeeds, it will be by virtue of the work that I cared about the most, and so I will naturally get more projects that cater to that competency.

Laziness can lead to problems, let's say, if you're too lazy to make an appointment. But, I don't think the onus is on the laziness. I think the onus is on you scheduling something you can't keep.

I don't think there's anything noble in having your life filled with permanent struggle and self-sacrifice. I do believe in some sacrifice for some causes, but to spend your whole life in an aggressive "making it" mode, is a form of self-annihilation to me.

Here in Austin, TX, it's more-or-less cliche that we live in a city of struggling artists. I took a defensive driving course earlier this week from a comedian that started out by saying, "I'm a comedian, script-writer, actor, etc., who just hasn't made it yet. Sounds like everybody else here, doesn't it?"

I have paradoxical views on success, especially creative types of success. On the one hand, I really want to "make it" and reach the highest peaks. On the other hand, I do believe that for everybody who reaches the peak, there's many many more who spend their whole lives on the slopes.

So if I were to be honest with myself, it's more likely that I'll live on the slopes than reach the peaks. So really, the wise thing is to make sure you're happy with yourself regardless of whether you're the rare individual who reaches the top or the more likely slope-dweller.

Yet at the same time, you often have to have faith that you'll be number one in order to get there. What you expect from yourself has such an impact on what you will try. And plus, you very well may end up being number one. After all, rank 1 is never empty. And so why can't it be you?

For the longest time, I felt that the Internet could never produce a convenient way to get song lyrics to users. For the longest time, every time you searched for song lyrics, you'd get copies of copies of inaccurate lyrics, riddled with mal-ads, or there wouldn't even be lyrics, just the titles of songs.

I just realized that the solution is already out there, it's called Song Meanings. They just basically moved the topic of conversation from "lyrics" to "song meanings," which indirectly makes the lyrics more accurate. Now whenever I search for song lyrics I type in "name-of-artist - name-of-song song meanings" into Google and am instantly satisfied.

Now the next challenge is to see if Google can convince their engine that "song meanings" is a better alias for "lyrics" when searching for quality song lyrics.

I have about 250 contributions to Wikipedia since October 2004. Mostly minor edits, like grammar changes.

I don't believe in free will. I believe in a vast spectrum from cheap to expensive will. You just choose how much psychic energy you want to spend. And even the process of making that choice can be expensive or cheap.

I'm not sure whether our reservoir of psychic energy is unlimited or finite. People under severe torture, for example, consistently don't crack. So that's +1 for the human spirit.

If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, click here to download Party Tarot. $1.99. Please be sure to download it, rate it, and review it!

Girl Talk

The previous entry is a great example of how a medium's weaknesses become its strengths.

The fact that web videos have to be small and splotchy enable having three music videos arrayed together like that on one screen. TV doesn't do that. The best they have is Picture-in-Picture which nobody uses.

There is something really satisfying and empowering about going to YouTube, clicking on the HTML code, hitting Ctrl+C, then going to my blog and hitting Ctrl+V, repeated 3 times, and creating that.