Tag Archives: Warwick

Raiders of the Lost Ark

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For those of you who know what I do for a day job, it will come as no surprise that my career choice tends to at times consume much of my time. Nor will it surprise you that when I get home the last thing I want to do is go on the computer. And so that partially begins to explain where I’ve been and why there hasn’t been too much going on at digitalflood.com for the last few weeks. A harsh winter and an old house that demands me paying attention to how much snow is outside to avoid minor things like– oh I don’t know having my propane regulator freeze so I loose hot water or having my water pump freeze so I lose all water tend to occupy your time.

With all that said, those of a keen eye may have noticed the Code Info page of our site keeps going up a tick or two everyday. Appearances can be deceiving and just because the main page isn’t changing it does not mean there is nothing “going” with the site. So this was the case with my latest endeavor that required much experimentation and playing with our underlying code.

This was all in an effect to make a quick recovery of my employer’s web site at http://www.warwick.net. The site is the web portal for my employer (WVT Communications) and homepage to many of our broadband Internet subscribers. Literally taking down that site is like turning off Google as far as our little web world goes in Warwick, NY. There was therefore a sense of urgency to restore the site when a slight mishap took down the existing (though arguably older) web engine.

It took me about 16 hours of straight time, but I managed to get the framework and branding done. There’s going to be a lot of grunt work needed by my associates at work to get the content filled in, but what you see before you is a CMS driven site that is Web 2.0 in look and feel. It has consistent branding and sensible layout. It loads in less than six seconds. It has a web search feature. Access to our various online portals (including web mail and bill pay) and content fed via RSS streams, as well as, mash up widgets. The result is a full featured basic launch point that is easy to navigate and yet feature filled. It loads well in any browser and depreciates when accessed by mobile device to speed up load times. Considering the time line (three days) and the budget (zero bucks) I am quite pleased with the accomplishment.

In so many ways this is a preview of what I had planned for df.com before I was drawn to put out this fire first, but in so many ways it also helped me understand some new directions I wish to go in that will lend itself to better structure here. So yes while there has been no news– there is good news nevertheless. Stay tuned.

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DF Pirate Radio – “Absolut Pimping@The Disco!”

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Title: Vol. 6 Episode 3 (Click link to play) Rel: 1/21/10
Description: “Absolut Pimping @The Disco!” – MC Mary @ The Disco! turned twenty one years old on January 17, 2010. That turned out to be a Sunday. The original plan was to record a mix session ahead of time and then record the live interludes at the bar during her birthday party. The mix session went well enough (and is the actual session you’ll hear here), but that’s about all that went right. First it got really icy out and down poured the whole night of the birthday party putting a kabash on any plans to record at GW’s Pub & Grill in Chester, NY. Then when we moved the party to Fratello’s in Warwick, NY it turned out that even though the next day was Martin Luther King Jr. day that most of the Chaos and Fiesta Crew had to work the next day– thus only a limited number (read: five) of people turned out.

Things started looking up when DJ digitalflood and MC Mary’s brother Tom knew the bartender. The drinks started and that itself proved to be a problem (more on that in a bit). There were also an odd number of older middle aged folk at the bar who insisted on blasting bad glam rock thus further kabashing any plans to record live. So we resorted to drinking and that lead to MC Mary consuming enough alcohol to kill an entire herd of moose. That didn’t complicate the party itself (which was fun enough either way), but it did kill any plans to record the next day.

Exhausted by a long weekend, DJ digitalflood took the next night off from production and was only able to catch up later in the week to actually mix the raw live session into the final cut you see here. Now given all of this, this episode should be an absolute disappointment at the disco– it is not though.

What you are about to listen to is the finest “Cut Like Crack” mix session to date. It breaks all boundaries of rock, rap, and everything in between. It is part noise experiment and part dance party soundtrack. It is an accumulation of all that DJ digitalflood has mastered over the course of the last year. It is at times raw. At times confusing. But when things come together there is an undeniable sense of absolute perfection at the disco. And so, the session is published as a stand in for the MC Mary annual Fiesta Party mix, but in no way is it a poor substitute. This is the real deal mix. Enjoy.
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Update – MC Mary’s B-day Party

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Quick update on MC Mary @ The Disco!’s birthday party: We’ll be moving the festivities to Warwick, NY due to the impending inclement weather. The National Weather Service is predicting a freezing rain/slush for this evening. It’s already starting to ice up and because of that we don’t think Chester, NY is the best option. Worse case– we’ll postpone until next weekend. Stayed tuned for updates at digitalflood.com. If we are going to cancel– we’ll do so before 8:30 pm EST this evening. If you want to catch up with us tonight shoot me a text and I’ll let you know where we are.

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Help Haiti Recover via The Red Cross

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1/12/10 Earthquake in Haiti Map - Courtesy of BBC.co.uk

1/12/10 Earthquake in Haiti Map - Courtesy of BBC News (http://news.BBC.co.uk)

As you may already know, Haiti has suffered a completely devastating earthquake that rated a whopping 7.3 on the Rictor Scale. The earthquake was centered only a few miles from Haiti’s capital city of Port-au-Prince. The earthquake hit yesterday (Tuesday January 12, 2010) and was followed by multiple aftershocks. The end result of the earthquake is the entire city and surrounding area is completely destroyed.

An estimated 100,000 people are dead already. Another 3 million people hae been injured. The survivors and wounded are left to attempt to survive in a completely crumbled city with little medical facilities and even less fresh food or water. The scope of this natural disaster is unprecedented for this century. In fact, you would have to go back some two centuries to find another earthquake of this magnitude occurring in Haiti.

Haiti is a highly impoverished country to begin with. They have suffered mass outbreak of HIV, a civil war that ravaged the country, and a series of hurricanes– all in the last five years. This event, however, eclipses those previous tragedies and has only escalated the suffering amongst the Haitian people. The average person in Haiti lives on $2 a day (or around $60 a month). Compare that to where I live in Warwick, NY where the average person lives on $62,000 a year (or roughly $5,167 a month) and you can see how little the people of Haiti have to start out with. Lump something of this size on their backs and there is no way Haiti can recover on its own.

Thus, digitalflood.com will be running for the next month a banner on the site pointing you to the American Red Cross donation web portal  where you can select the “International Response Fund” and directly send money to Haitian relief efforts. We ask that you please send whatever you can whether it be a dollar or a hundred dollars. Every cent literally counts and time is of the absolute essence. We thank you for both your generosity and support in advance. The people of Haiti will appreciate any effort you can make to assist them.

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DF Party 2009: Holiday Shenanigans

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digitalflood Party 2009: Holiday Shenanigans

As the Canadians say, "Come on down, ay!"

Let the shenanigans begin! This Saturday December 26, 2009 at 9 pm EST we will be meeting at GW’s Bar & Grill in Chester, NY to celebrate two birthdays and one great holiday season. It is both Skinner @ The Bar and Shannon’s birthday. Shannon is turning twenty one years old. Skinner is a bit older than that… but we’ll leave his actual age up to your imagination. There will be live music at GW’s. We’ll then be ending up in Warwick, NY after GW’s to conclude things at Halligan’s Irish Pub sometime early morning on 12/27/09. Both bars are great locations to party. There will be a cash bar at both bars.

I would hope you’d be kind enough to buy the birthday boy and girl a nice frosty beverage in their honor– it’s the least you could do and all that I ask. If you need more information drop me a line.

You’ll find the official invite poster on the right. Click it to make it larger (that’s what she said… hahahahaha… oh never mind).

Remember it’s 21 to both enter and drink at both bars. There may be a cover charge. And all party crasher jerks will be ejected by rather large men who don’t take kindly to good time wreckers. If you need a place to stay there’s a Holiday Inn Express across the street in Chester, NY and a whole bunch of bed and breakfast inns in Warwick, NY.

All my friends are of course invited to come so don’t say I didn’t ask you to go… cause I just did. 😀

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