Kevin Purdy

My friends laughed, but I still think he looks better
than a Window. Or even an Apple.

I love autumn, but I’m not a fan of Halloween. Sure, I dug the free candy and seeing my family all abuzz when I was a kid. But those simple joys are gone, and in their place are gouge-priced costumes, cheap-looking lawn inflatables and “parties” that confirm Hell is other people in “Sexy Cop” or “Dwight Schrute” costumes.

Yeah, I’m jaded, and maybe I just need a good party to be invited to, or a home to dish out candy from. Recently, however, I discovered one thing I could legitimately get excited about — pumpkin carving.

My parents always bought the pumpkins and spread the newspaper on the kitchen floor for my sister and I, but neither of us progressed much beyond the two triangles and half-moon mouth scheme — not that it mattered much. My friend Josh and his girlfriend, however, have an infectious enthusiasm for Oct. 31 and all its trappings, and managed to raise the gourd gashing ambitions in myself and my wife.

You just knew typing “Tux” and “pumpkin stencil” into Google would bring back hits, and while I was kind of amused to learn that stencils are an actual business for some artisans, the open source nature of my favorite penguin means that nobody can, or at least should, charge for his likeness. My wife chose the panda logo from the World Wildlife Fund for the same kind of mix of altruism and unbearable cuteness.

Basically, I’m really looking forward to showing up at next year’s party with my own roll of specialty pumpkin knives and three-level shade stencils of Buffalo’s skyline. Or, uh, Sexy Tux.

Colors I can never wear, but love to have on my desktop

Over at Lifehacker, I took a screenshot tour through installing the latest release from Ubuntu, 7.10, or “Gutsy Gibbon,” as it’s code-named. I plan to offer a few more comments here on what’s still missing from the most popular/buzz-worthy Linux distribution, but overall, I’m pretty satisfied.

The official release drops Thursday, and anybody can try out the system without touching a thing on their computer by downloading a “Live CD” at Ubuntu.com. Pop the CD in your drive, restart your computer and see what works, what doesn’t, and why Digg is always yakkin’ about the ‘buntu.

It might not generate the same kind of heat as the next OS X release, but for open source fans, it’s a twice-a-year scene, and it totally freaks us out.

… allows me to try my hand at the art and craft of productivity blogging?

Well, this, namely.

It also partially explains why I haven’t had a post up here in a while, because I’m doing my own life-hacking and working to fit all my schedules together.

I’m looking at the upcoming weekend as one of the last before holiday matters (Pop-singer-performs-Christmas-standards discs are already on sale!), work demands and yet another wedding leave me heavily obligated. I’m thinking it’s time crack out the ol’ GTD again and commit to it.

For now, me and the 20-minute nap might start getting to know one another a lot better.

Only Thom Yorke can properly express the disillusionment
generated by his recent headlines.

I didn’t really notice that I had an AM station on my car radio while I was driving home tonight … until I heard a CBS News announcer say this:

Well, those looking to escape the “Karma Police” have their chance … the band Radiohead is asking fans to …

And you probably know the rest of the story, despite head-scratching lines like that. It’s cheesy and kind of sad, yet somehow not the worst one out there! Inspired Sickly fascinated, I ventured into the relevance-clutching music journalism (and blogging!) to see if there was anything even better worse. Here’s the bounty:

• OK, Now What, Mr. Computer?: Cinema Blend reaches just beyond the lengths of anything relevant to the story to pull out this gem. Saved only by the fact that it is, after all, a pretty ridiculously great album.
• What’s at the end of Radiohead’s Rainbows?: Points for actually mentioning the underlying news that the world’s most critically-acclaimed band is releasing a new disc. Demerits for making the boys from Oxfordshire into leprechauns.
• RADIOHEADING IN A NEW DIRECTION: NY Post headlines are like fresh guacamole — you always forget how good they are until the next time you sample one.
• Radiohead’s digital album: Priceless: What a clever, funny headline.
• Radiohead’s Rainbows Ready to Shine: Much like E! itself, it’s kind of phoned-in and doesn’t really tell you anything you didn’t know. So, in a way, kind of perfect.