VaughNet

I’ve recently begun a fascination with the Jeeves and Wooster stories by Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse. While you’re likely familiar with the notion of Jeeves as a know-it-all, proper English butler, you may not be familiar with its origins.

In fact, Jeeves was born in 1917 along with Bertie Wooster. Jeeves serves as Bertie’s valet (not butler).

The essential concept that drives the Jeeves stories is that the brilliant valet is firmly in control of his rich and foppish young employer’s life. Much of the comic effect derives from the fact that the clueless Bertie Wooster, who narrates most of the stories, is for the most part blissfully unaware of how he is being manipulated. When Bertie gets into one of his scrapes, leading to an unwanted social obligation, legal trouble, or marriage engagement, Jeeves invariably comes up with a subtle plan to save the day, often without Bertie’s knowledge.

To this point, I have made it through a number of stories collected in compendiums and novels. I believe it is best to begin at the earliest stories and read each collection chronologically as themes and references from previous stories find their way to later Wooster-Jeeves “situations”.

Despite being written nearly a century ago, the characters and situations remain entertaining and often hilarious. The pre-World War II English slang is oddly addicting and entertaining all on its own.

I don’t believe there is a whole lot of drama left, but the local results may be interesting.

I went to the FirstLook event for UNLV basketball at the Thomas & Mack last night. It was the first time that something like this had been tried at UNLV and in the MWC, I believe.

There was a decent turnout of about 4,000 fans and it was a good time. Kenny Mayne emceed the event via video on the new scoreboard. The Rebels look like a solid team, but some of the most exciting players will be redshirting this year.

If you’re at all familiar with podcasts or British comedy, you’ve likely heard the five seasons of the Ricky Gervais shows that began as a free podcast and later moved to Audible shows. The genesis of the podcast was a show that aired in London on Xfm from November 2001 to April 2006. In the beginning, it was never meant for Karl Pilkington to have such a big role, but he quickly became the focus of the show while he was/wasn’t “pressing the buttons”.

The best source for information is easily Pilkipedia. Easily the best thing available, aside from the more recent podcasts, are the Xfm shows which can be downloaded from Pilkipedia. I don’t know how many hours it amounts to, but I’ve been listening to it for weeks and I’m not yet halfway through.

There are a few video podcasts available as well.

I spent the night at Grape Expectations in Henderson, Nevada learning about wine making with a group of friends. By the end of the night we had decided to make a barrel of our own. We’ve decided on a Bordeaux style blend. Essentially it is 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, and 10% Cabernet Franc. Our grapes are ordered and we will be back at the facility in early October to get the grapes crushed and de-stemmed. A week later we will be press the juice from the must and put the whole mess into a barrel. I’ll try to take some pictures as the process moves along. It looks like it’s going to be a good time!

If you would like to make your own barrel of wine I highly recommend Grape Expectations and the CWO (Chief Wine Officer), Charlie Peters. He is very friendly and patient with all of the questions that inevitably come up. For more information, check out their web site and give Charlie a call.

I tend to go through phases when it comes to listening to podcasts. I’ll find one that I will really enjoy for a few weeks and then move on to the next one. You Look Nice Today has been at the top of my list for a few months now, so I thought it was worth a mention.

You Look Nice Today is an audio-based Journal of Emotional Hygiene, staffed by lonelysandwich (Adam Lisagor), scottsimpson (Scott Simpson), and hotdogsladies (Merlin Mann). The three subjects in question met on Twitter.com in some kind of weird cosmic accident. As you might expect they have a Twitter, along with a Flickr group, and a Vimeo channel.

I won’t be buying the new iPhone 3G anytime soon, but I was very excited for the release of the new iPhone firmware update.

The new firmware releases few smaller updates such as an improved calculator, MobileMe support, contacts search, and better email attachment support, but I am most excited about the non-cracked iPhone owner being able to install software on their phone. The software ranges from free to over $20, but the majority of non-free programs are in the $5-$10 range. The purchasing and downloading of the software is dead simple and can be accomplished either through iTunes or directly from the iPhone or iPod Touch.

After just a day I have downloaded over 15 apps, five of which I have paid for: Twitterrific Premium, Enigmo, MotionX-Poker, Super Monkey Ball, and Texas Hold’em. The premium apps tend to make really good use of the accelerometer in the device. My free apps include an eBay client, BoxOffice for local movie times, the Evernote client, and MPG for keeping track of my gas mileage. There are a few more, but I have gotten the most use from these so far.

With the addition of apps, the iPhone appears to have finally grown up. Is it complete? I don’t believe so. There is still plenty of room to add functionality and with a devoted developer community, it should be an interesting thing to watch.

The Commons are a collection of copyright free photographs from sources such as the Library of Congress, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Smithsonian Institution. There is some amazing old stuff and if you have a whole day to burn, be my guest.

The Mars Phoenix Lander has confirmed the discovery of water ice on Mars. The team kept their eyes on some bright stuff in the dirt that sublimated, thus eliminating the possibility of something more static such as salt. A time lapse of the event can be seen here. You can follow the mission via the lander’s Twitter feed. More pictures are available on the main site.