Dr. Horrible is terrific

If you haven’t already seen it, you should take a few moments to watch Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.  The film is initially being distributed on the internet, and can be viewed as streaming video for free through July 20.  It’s also available for download from the iTunes store, and will eventually be available on DVD.  Dr. Horrible has become a tremendous success in a very short period of time, illustrating a uniquely potent distribution model that is causing many to rethink traditional Hollywood practices.  It’s this summer’s “Blair Witch Project,” but way cooler, and a lot catchier.

Dr. Horrible is masterfully played by Neal Patrick Harris (who rose to fame for his portrayal of “Doogie Howser, M.D.,” and more recently, as the character Barney in “How I Met Your Mother”).  I won’t give away the plot, but I will say that it grows on you.  I almost tuned out after the first minute of Part 1, which starts with a leisurely pace that seems painfully slow at times.  But the tentative tempo is a clever way of setting the scene for the bittersweet love story that is both disarmingly cute and decidedly strange.  And to top it off, it’s a musical, a genre that apparently still has a lot of life left in it.

Now Optimized for the iPhone / iPod Touch

Today I installed the excellent WordPress plugin WPTouch to my blog at DrThompsen.com. With this plugin installed, my blog is now optimized for display on the iPhone or iPod Touch. If you have one of these devices, check out how Dr.Thompsen.com looks on it. You’ll notice a very compact, highly readable, clean and “iPhone” like appearance.

The folks at BraveNewCode have really done an excellent job with this plug-in. It was very easy to install and configure. They provide a template for customizing icons, and I was easily able to create my own “badge” that appears if you add my blog to your iPhone’s home screen.

In fact, I like the look of this “mobile edition” of my blog so much, I’m hoping that BraveNewCode releases a full WordPress theme based on the WPTouch plugin. They do offer a minimalist theme called Minimalia, which looks both simple and flexible. They suggest on their website that a 2.0 version of the theme is in development. It would be great if they integrate some of the WPTouch flavor into this theme.

Now broadcasting on Mogulus.com

I’m trying out the beta of Mogulus Studio on mogulus.com.  It’s a pretty slick web 2.0 application for creating personal video channels.  I posted some short videos from a train trip I took this past weekend. Check out the channel I created on http://www.mogulus.com/drthompsen.  They even let you post a “widget” of your channel on your blog…




I’ll have to kick the tires around a bit more, but so far, Mogulus Studio looks like a great app.  And it’s free (if you agree to have their ad banners on your channel). There is one caveat: since it’s flash based, don’t expect to use it on your iPhone.  At least not yet.

Where’s Dr. T?

Recently at the RECAP conference at West Chester University, a colleague mentioned that I hadn’t updated my blog in awhile.  That’s true, but to be fair, I was having some technical difficulties…

My hosting provider (ixwebhosting) had moved to a new server farm in April, so I needed to migrate content to the new system. My first priority was to get comwiki.org and communicationstudies.org set up properly, and that took some time.  I left my personal blog for last, and by the time I had gotten around to it, the backup servers at ixwebhosting apparently went off-line.  

So I had to rebuild my blog from my own backups.  While I was at it, I also upgraded the WordPress software to the latest version.  And I’m trying out some different themes to spruce up the appearance of the blog.  I hope to have things back to normal in the next few days.  

Improve your vocabulary while feeding the hungry

Visit freerice.comI spent a few minutes at this website recently, www.freerice.com, that seems like an intriguing way to help fight hunger.  Essentially, the site presents a vocabulary test which rewards each correct answer with a donation of 20 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program.  The cost of the donation is underwritten by the banner ads on the page.  

The site claims to make no profit from the ads, but some have questioned whether this is the case.  For example, see this article on readwriteweb.com, or this one at aftrsmedia.com. But both of these naysayers base their calculations on each correct answer netting 10 grains of rice.  When I visited the site recently, the rate was 20 grains of rice per correct answer.  Perhaps the site owner raised the rate because the revenue from the pay-per-click ads was averaging out to be worth more than 10 grains of rice.

In any case, it’s an interesting idea.  Check it out.  And for trivia buffs, try freeflour.com. Every correct answer earns a spoonful of flour.  I wonder…if I visit both sites enough times, will I be able to say I helped feed the hungry rice cakes?

Obama was here

So today was the big day at West Chester University. I’ve never seen such excitement on this campus! I thought it would be big, but I never imagined it would be this big. Over 2,200 wildly animated people crowded into Hollinger Field House to watch Chris Matthews interview Barack Obama on MSNBC’s “Hardball College Tour.”

To be honest, I’m not a big fan of Barack Obama, and I’ve still not decided who will get my vote.  It’s a long way to Election Day, and a lot can happen in the next few months.  But I have to admit Obama made a rather positive impression on me at this event. He really is eloquent, and he seems like a very sincere and passionate person.  I’m not sure what kind of President he would be, but if he does win the election, I think he could bring some positive changes to Washington.  

I’d like to hear from Hillary in person before the primary vote.  I was impressed with Chelsea Clinton when she visited our campus last week.  I know there are those who dislike Hillary, but I think America might benefit from a woman President.  And I thought it was telling when Chelsea she said she thought her mom would make a better president than her dad was.

And although I’m not particularly impressed with John McCain, I will probably watch how he does when he appears with Chris Matthews on the next stop of Hardball’s College Tour (April 15 at Villanova University). It would be interesting to see if the Villanova crowd gets as excited as the one here at West Chester.

Below are a few pictures of the event.  You can see more photos on my web gallery.