The Life and Times

Stone Temple Pilots @ Hollywood Bowl

2008-06-27T21:52:00.000-05:00

I was there!!!!!!

I didn't know I was married...

2008-05-10T01:30:00.001-05:00

John Burkert & Doris Malinowski Wedding - August 3, 1957

The Bird and the Bee - Polite Dance Song

2008-01-15T22:15:00.000-06:00

G3 in Anaheim

2007-03-25T02:26:00.000-05:00

I met with John Petrucci before the show and had him sign my Ibanez RG guitar. The show was Paul Gilbert, John Petrucci and Joe Satriani. Gilbert and Petrucci were great.

Quote of the Day

2007-01-15T17:37:00.000-06:00

I have always wished for my computer to be as easy to use as my telephone; my wish has come true because I can no longer figure out how to use my telephone

- Bjarne Stroustrup

Quote of the Day

2006-12-16T18:53:00.000-06:00

If you knew how much I love you, you would run away.

- Jon Crosby

Quote of the Day

2006-11-19T01:06:00.000-06:00

[I've] got a caterpillar body and a butterfly brain.

- Jerry Cantrell

South Park on Evolution

2006-11-10T00:14:00.000-06:00

Since I posted Carl Sagan talking about Evolution earlier, here is South Park's version:

Quote of the Day

2006-11-06T01:31:00.000-06:00

You know "that look" women get when they want sex? Me neither.

- Steve Martin

Quote of the Day

2006-10-26T01:26:00.000-05:00

Dogs are forever in the push-up position.

- Mitch Hedberg

Carl Sagan on Human Evolution

2006-10-23T22:51:00.000-05:00

Richard Dawkins on the Colbert Report

2006-10-20T02:09:00.000-05:00

Richard Dawkins was on the Colbert Report the other night. Dawkins has picked up the torch once carried by Carl Sagan by speaking publicly to promote science and reason and to discredit the supernatural and superstition. As always, Colbert's satire is priceless.

Quote of the Day

2006-10-20T02:05:00.000-05:00

The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them.

- Mark Twain

Seabeast by Mastodon

2006-10-13T00:18:00.000-05:00

The State - Barry & Levon ($240 of Pudding)

2006-09-20T02:52:00.000-05:00

Quote of the Day

2006-07-31T19:50:00.000-05:00

Only two things are infinite, the universe and the stupidity of mankind, and I'm not sure about the former.

- Albert Einstein

Congratulations Joe and Naomi!

2006-07-25T22:45:00.000-05:00

My buddy Joe just had a baby girl, Kianna.

Quote of the Day

2006-06-07T23:13:00.000-05:00

A stupid man's report of what a clever man says can never be accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.

- Bertrand Russell

Quote of the Day

2006-05-13T23:49:00.000-05:00

It is more convenient to follow one's conscience than one's intelligence, for at every failure, conscience finds an excuse and an encouragement in itself. That is why there are so many conscientious and so few intelligent people.

- Friedrich Nietzsche

Driving to California: Day 2

2006-05-02T03:14:00.000-05:00

I made it. I'll add some comments later.

Driving to California: Day 1

2006-05-01T02:42:00.000-05:00

What a crappy day to drive. Illinois was rainy until I hit Springfield and then it rained buckets at the Missouri-Oklahoma border. I made it all the way to Amarillo in 15 hours. I managed to get a few pictures.

St. Louis Arch

Busch Stadium.

Big Ass Cross in Texas.

Opeth

2006-04-28T00:12:00.000-05:00

If you are looking for something different, check out these videos. The first one is heavy, the second is soft.

The Drapery Falls

Harvest

Both songs are from the album "Blackwater Park", which you can find on iTunes.

Flash game for the Air Force Reserve

2006-04-17T09:38:00.000-05:00

This is a flash web game Seb and I did for an Air Force Reserve proposal. There are only 5 levels to show off the basic gameplay. Seb did all the art, I did the programming. I got the idea from the old moon lander games. Something I would change if there were future revisions, is to add a visual confirmation when you drop a person off at the hospital. There is no way of knowing on level 5 if you have successfully dropped a passenger off. When you land, the passenger should pop up next to the hospital as confirmation.

Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby

2006-04-12T18:10:00.000-05:00

I need to learn how to program in Ruby. Specifically I need to learn 'Ruby on Rails'. I need it on the resume. Ruby is a difficult syntax for those ( like me ) used to C syntax. It would take a delicately written piece of genius tutorialship to sink Ruby syntax into my C-thinking brain. And I believe I have found such genius: Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby. Words can't do it justice, I have already said too much.

Quote of the Day

2006-04-06T22:00:00.000-05:00

With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.

- Steven Weinberg

IMLF - The Instant Messaging Liberation Front

2006-04-05T18:51:00.000-05:00

I am going to only use Skype from now on. If you need to contact me, I won't be on ICQ or MSN anymore. My Skype account is 'johnburkert'. I can't find an instant messaging client I like on Windows and I am tired of the clutter and confusion of all the contact lists from each different instant messaging account I have.

Quote of the Day

2006-03-23T17:05:00.000-06:00

If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time.

- Bertrand Russell

Songs that the kids will enjoy

2006-03-14T14:51:00.000-06:00

Sebastian sent me a link to a page of demos his buddy Dave made. It motivated me to put some of my old stuff that you can find here.

(Warning, Opera doesn't display xml pages properly and I'm in love with xml/xsl so you are going to have to choose your browser accordingly.)

XBOX Liver Gamercard Dashboard Widget

2006-03-12T14:41:00.000-06:00

I made a widget for the Mac OS X dashboard that displays your XBOX Live Gamercard. You will need to register at www.xbox.com to get your gamercard setup, then just enter your XBOX Live Gamertag into the widget.

Get the widget here.

Quote of the Day

2006-01-19T16:28:00.000-06:00

If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.

- Carl Sagan

I <3 Nightwish

2006-01-11T01:02:00.000-06:00

First, you need to listen to this.

I'm not kidding, but then you also have to check out this one.

Right? Are you with me? You are thinking, "This music should suck...but I can't stop listening to it!". Such has been my life for the past week. I can't stop listening to Nightwish.

Quote of the Day

2006-01-06T14:50:00.000-06:00

The most erroneous stories are those we think we know best - and therefore never scrutinize or question.

- Stephen Jay Gould

Quote of the Day

2005-12-22T11:31:00.000-06:00

A thinker sees his own actions as experiments and questions--as attempts to find out something. Success and failure are for him answers above all.

- Friedrich Nietzsche

Boy Anachronism

2005-12-16T00:00:00.000-06:00

I am addicted to this song.

Quote of the Day

2005-12-07T21:30:00.000-06:00

The average man, who does not know what to do with his life, wants another one which will last forever.

- Anatole France

Quote of the Day

2005-08-05T11:40:00.000-05:00

The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy - I mean that if you are happy you will be good.

- Bertrand Russell

Quote of the Day

2005-07-18T12:23:00.000-05:00

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

- Aristotle

Dynamite Kat and Maze Master 3D

2005-07-17T15:28:00.000-05:00

I found a phone emulator for the web and have posted the 2 mobile phone games I did last year. You will find them here. You will need the Java Runtime if you don't already have it. You can get that here.

Goodbye Windows, Hello OS X

2005-07-16T14:04:00.000-05:00

I have been using a 12" Macintosh PowerBook G4 for the past few weeks. I am sure I am not the only person tired of the Windows interface. The whole hardware/software package for the PowerBook is very sexy. No Windows laptop comes close. My initial fear was being hindered by the lack of software and dev tools available for OS X. So far, so good... I have been able to do my job(s) perfectly on it. XCode and Smultron are the Mac counterparts to Window's Visual Studio and Context. With the switch to x86 architecture right around the corner, I imagine we'll see alot more software available for OS X. Now I need to convince my work that it needs a memory upgrade and a faster hard drive... for work of course, World of Warcraft has nothing to do with it.