Sometimes you’re up late, browsing around on the web, and something hits you. You get immediate inspiration– you’re not sure how you can achieve what you’ve just thought of, it might be impossible, and it might not be worth your time, but it’s too late: you’re going to spend the next 6 hours trying to figure it out.

This is what happened to me last night, after I read a very simple and straightforward tweet from my good friend Clint:

Shit. There goes my time.

Kopp’s Frozen Custard is, if you don’t know already, a frozen custard & burger place whose home resides in Wisconsin. Their food is pretty incredible albeit probably pretty terrible for you, but hey– it’s Wisconsin. I love it so much that I made an extremely dorky YouTube video about it.

Anyway, it was time to create a twitter account for the frozen custard restaurant.

Step 1. Scrape the HTML

The flavors of the day for Kopp’s are displayed on their front page, embedded in an iFrame. It’s just a PHP script that updates every day with the new flavors.

Of course, at this point, Kopp’s could’ve easily made an RSS feed for their flavors and I wouldn’t've wasted any of my time. But, it also means I couldn’t've done this relatively fun project, so I’m a little unsure of my stance on the lack of a feed.

So, since Kopp’s didn’t offer a feed, I had to make one. After a good amount of searching on the web, I found a service that makes feeds from basic HTML sites, an “HTML scraper”. It’s called Feed43.

On Feed43, I was given the ability to input a website (the flavor list) and then given the option to narrow down variables within the HTML. I successfully retrieved both flavors from the list and embedded them into an XML format that would look good on Twitter.. Essentially, it was like this:

Flavors of the Day for [Date]: [Flavor 1] & [Flavor 2]

Pretty simple, huh?

So that (or, so I thought) concluded the scraping part of the process.

Step 2. RSS to Twitter

A quick Google search for “RSS to Twitter” comes up with quite a few responses. A lot of the services have been shut down, but one seemed to fit the ticket quite nicely: twitterfeed.

“Feed your blog to twitter,” they explain on the site. If only it were that easy.

Quickly making a Kopp’s twitter account then inputing the information into the twitterfeed preferences page, I was sadly greeted by an error:

We couldn’t find valid date/time stamps on items. Please make sure your feed contains valid pubDate entries for each post.

And this is where it all went downhill. Twitterfeed requires a pubDate on each feed post because when it checks every given interval, it compares the date of the most recent tweet it’s posted to the most recent feed post. If there’s a newer post, it tweets. Simple enough, right?

Well, the feed from Feed43 didn’t include pubDate, as you could probably gather. Why twitterfeed requires pubDate, I’m not so sure, because Twitter automatically rejects duplicate tweets. I’m assuming it’s just a nice thing to do so that twitterfeed doesn’t bring down Twitter with countless pings (although, maybe it would be a good plan considering what they could do to finally get money out of the project).

So, it wasn’t going to be this easy.

Step 3. Trying (& Failing) to Add pubDate to Feed

Basically, at this point, I had to find a way to somehow inject pubDate into the newly-created Kopp’s FlavorFeed™. It didn’t matter what time or date it injected (because of what I explained earlier about Twitter blocking duplicate tweets), it just needed to be there to make twitterfeed happy.

Yahoo Pipes came into mind right away, so I set off to try and use that.

What a pain in the ass. After dicking around for a good 2 hours or so, trying to insert pubDate into the feed using modules and connections and doohickeys, I had nothing to show for myself besides a mangled RSS feed that changed every time I refreshed it. Twitterfeed threw out every version I could throw at it. I don’t blame it.

Step 4. Taking a Step Backwards

I gave up on trying to toss pubDate into the feed, so I tried to find some other HTML scraper that would give me a feed back with a date in it.

Here’s where Dapper came into play. Dapper seemed to be a Feed43 for those who didn’t know what they were doing (an easier version). In some ways, this was great– it was painless to isolate the variables I needed– but then it also was a huge pain in the ass in itself. It didn’t give me nearly the same editing power that Feed43 gave me. Instead of being able to output what I had wanted before (Flavor of the Day for [Date]: [Flavor 1] & [Flavor 2]), all it could give me was [Date]: [FLAVOR 1], [FLAVOR 2].

But you know what? I decided to take Dapper up on its offer and not stress too much about losing an ampersand and a prefix. Twitterfeed let me add a prefix of my own, limited to 20 characters, which I REALLY don’t understand, meaning I had to do with “Flavor for [Date]” instead.

However, in the end, it worked and now I have a twitter feed that updates daily with Kopps’ Flavor of the Day. Hooray– I finally allowed myself to get to sleep. At 8AM.

Kopp’s Frozen Custard FlavorFeed™ on Twitter (@kopps)

What I’ve Learned & What I Can Do Better

I made a lot of compromises to get the Kopp’s Twitter FlavorFeed™ to work. I ended up having to use multiple web applications which could easily change in a day to completely mess up the feed and then the tweets. I was unable to style it in the way that I wanted. In a perfect world, I would’ve written some code all on my own that would automatically parse the information from the Kopp’s website and then update the Twitter account– what I have now is definitely a rickety, hacked up version of what could’ve been.

Actually, scratch that. In a perfect world, Kopp’s would have an RSS feed for their Flavors of the Day. Lesson learned.

But they still make some damned good frozen custard.

It all started when I decided to update Wordpress. I backed up my theme and upgraded– thank god I backed up. Everything I had got deleted, so when I uploaded my theme back up, the plugins I had installed were missing. A quick Google search reinstated my twitter plugin, but the WP Audioscrobbler plugin wasn’t so easy. This one came up with the message from the original coder’s (Marc Hodges) website:

“You’re probabaly looking for a WP plugin or some other code.
Please note that all development and support of any code no longer happens. In other words it isn’t here.
The reason being that I’d written the code for myself and decided it to be nice enough to share but people kept asking for help or whatever and it was too much bother than it was worth.
Sorry to disappoint you.”

So, it then proved near impossible to find the plugin.

I’m not sure what I think of Marc’s decision to wipe it off the internets due to the questions he was getting about the plugin. I understand that it probably was quite annoying to get endless questions about something he just wanted to make and let go, but it seems a little mean to just remove it altogether with no ability to download it again.

Anyway, I found the plugin and I’ve uploaded it to my website for downloading. Of course, all credit goes to the amazing Marc Hodges for writing it– I don’t have such abilities (hence the downloading and installation of said plugin). If anybody (see: Marc) has any issue with this, let me know and I will take it down.

I have a feeling, however, that he won’t mind it being offered somewhere else.

Download WP Audioscrobbler (6 KB)
To install: Just drag into your /wp-content/plugins folder. Activate and customize as needed.

Thanks, Marc. Where ever you are.

The Bolt Bus in South Station in all its glory

Boston -> New York

2:30 PM
In South Station. Only one person in line. A little bit of me is afraid that I will have the same driver from last time.

3:00 PM
Well, I just boarded the one-and-only Bolt Bus (I’m using their wi-fi as I write this!). I mentioned it in a previous post, and now I’m on my way to New York City.

The line was short until about 10 minutes before, when a bunch more people joined in the line. I paid $1.00 for my ticket, and I think it’s already been worth it. The bus is brand new (it has that new… bus smell) and the driver, Daniel, is fresh and excited to drive (complete with a playful welcome). I was able to join the (read: free) Wi-Fi right away, and the first thing I did was take a speed test. 317 kbps down, 133kbps up. Better than I was expecting.

4:40 PM
All’s well on the bus. The wireless has been very consistent save for one connection drop for about two minutes. It’s been great to browse craigslist and IM and what not. Sent a couple photos (including the one in this post) over the wireless without worry. Passing through Hartford– traffic seems decent and I’m assuming I’ll get into NYC at the scheduled time (7PM).

I’ve noticed the power plugs, on the back of the aisle seat, are a little awkwardly placed. Luckily there’s nobody sitting next to me, so I can let the power cable dangle as much as I want. Whatever the awkwardness, it’s worth it to have some juice.

7:32 PM
We arrived 32 minutes late due to traffic (not due to BoltBus, of course). As we got into the city, our driver Daniel was honking like a maniac at a bunch of different intersections. Not sure how much I liked that (again… one dollar.). Our drop-off point was outside as I expected, right by Penn Station. As we pulled in, some guy in the seats said “let’s have a round of applause for the driver for the best dollar we’ve ever spent,” and everybody clapped. I felt awkward joining in… I guess this is what separates bus travel from all others. Besides, he’s getting paid a flat hourly rate– he has nothing to do with the dollar fare.

New York -> Boston, 3 days later

The dismal “bus stop” from within the bus

9:10AM
“We treat everyone as first class citizens,” says our driver, Kenny. The bus is about 10 minutes late, and I can see how they save a lot of their overhead– their stop in NYC is on the side of the road. And that’s pretty shitty when it’s rainy and wet outside (i.e. NOW). While I was waiting I met with an older couple who had also already taken the bus and asked what I paid for my ticket. $7 I told her. She paid $10. Right before we get on the bus as it arrives, she lets me know about MegaBus and their $1 service (nevermind their creepy-looking mascot). There are not many people on the early Monday bus– there are a few empty rows. Kenny is just as excited as the last driver. He’s explained that they picked the best drivers from both Peter Pan and Greyhound. “We know that Greyhound has a bad reputation. There’s no yelling,” he says, “unless you’re disrupting others on the bus!” He laughs. Yeah, I’ve had a bad experience on the bus before. The wi-fi works right away (as I write this), and we’re off.

1:40PM
We’ve arrived back in South Station. We’re 40 minutes late, but that’s because of the crappy weather and the quick stop (that I was thankful for) 3/4 of the way through.

Conclusion
All in all, I feel like the experience I’ve had with Bolt Bus has been a positive one. They have brand new buses, excited drivers, free wifi & outlets, and very competitive pricing. However, it should be noted that having an actual spot in Port Authority in New York City instead of outside on a street corner would be nice, but this I’m sure would increase the ticket price.

What also sucks is that if you go to their website to buy tickets, you can find that almost every weekend (Fri-Mon) ticket through August is at least $7, and usually $10. Looks like it’s going to be hard to pick up that elusive $1 after all; it would be nice if they didn’t sell their tickets so far in advance so that people could actually have a chance of getting them. I wouldn’t be surprised if one person just went through and grabbed every Fri-Mon $1 ticket through August. After all, it would only cost them 24 dollars.

Would I ride on it again? Sure. Is it better than the train? It’s not as on-time or comfortable, but they do have onboard wi-fi, and that’s a BIG plus. Will they eventually lose exciting and friendly service and get worn down just like the other bus lines? Probably, but $1 is inexpensive enough to double check down the road.

I’ve been full of stuff to do (read: trying to direct a short film), so I thought I’d break away from the stress and create a little “digital mixtape”– one big MP3 full of a few songs– to make me think ahead towards summer. It’s a little experiment to see how something like this would work out. Of course, you should tell me what you think of it (the music and its medium).

I’ve flanked both the beginning and end with Vampire Weekend, a band my friend John (right) just introduced me to. Supposedly you can’t mention their name in Brooklyn lest a thousand hipsters attack you, proclaiming that “it’s so last summer when it was a pirate pre-release download. It’s nothing since it’s hit the blogosphere!” Also inside is a little bit of George Brassens, a crazy French artist whom I love and reminds me of my good friend Michele. I’ve tossed a couple of other randoms in there that I hope you’ll enjoy.

As far as my personal summer is concerned, I’m hoping to be in NYC interning at some production company. I’m really excited for that.

So, here’s your mixtape:

[audio:summer2008mixtape.mp3]

Download (MP3, 37.6MB): Summer 2008 Mixtape

Here’s the song list, in order:

Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows - Lesley Gore
Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa - Vampire Weekend
J’ai rendez-vous avec vous - Georges Brassens
Hi - Psapp
15 Step - Radiohead
La première fille - George Brassens
My Rollercoaster - Kimya Dawson
Franny Glass - Will Stratton
Voices - Jon Brion
Nantes - Beirut
Let Me Tell You About My Boat - Mark Mothersbaugh
Oh! You Pretty Things - David Bowie
Oxford Comma - Vampire Weekend

What I thought to be kind of a fun way to spice up the home screen on the iPhone thanks to the recent iPhone 1.1.3 Firmware Update.

View a little more information on the Flickr page.

However, none of them really seem to paint the exact picture I made. So, I thought, since the media can’t really get a full grasp as to what happened, I thought I’d explain a little. So, here goes.

In response to…

…the situation on the bus.
The way this whole thing got started was when I posted the very same e-mail I sent Peter Pan about my experience. What I said in there I believed to have happened and included my feelings about the situation. I never felt physically threatened but instead just felt annoyed and cheated out of an early ride home. He was punishing an entire busload of passengers because of one of them who happened to complain about his driving. While this is very immature, it wasn’t some sort of act of kidnapping or terrorism or any shit like that, in my opinion. A lot of what he’s said in the media he didn’t inform us (I.E. the stop he could’ve made and didn’t). The driver in question was actually relatively nice to me as he suggested I get on his bus which was leaving a good half an hour earlier than my original bus.

…the swing of the media.
In all of the interviews I’ve given, I’ve told all that I can remember from the event. Of course, they ask me what I think about the situation, and I think they’re disappointed when they find that I didn’t feel physically threatened. When they take the things I’ve told them, they take only the parts that interest them out. For example, today I was interviewed by Channel 7 WHDH Boston, and they asked me a series of questions. Repeated three times was the question “how did you feel about the situation?” as though the answer I had given wasn’t interesting enough. They asked me what I felt should happen to the driver, and I basically said what I’ve said here a few times: He was being silly and immature, but I didn’t feel threatened really. They (or whomever) can interpret that as they may and do what they think is necessary.

…the possibility of the bus driver being fired.
This is one of the top things people either question or tell me their opinion about. “What do you think should happen to the driver?” In response to this question, I leave it completely up to the bus company. I feel what he did was wrong, but I personally don’t believe this is something to lose his job on. In The Boston Globe recently, they stated that “Bryant said the story of the bus ride, which has been reported by other media outlets, has unfairly characterized him as a ‘monster.’ ” I really couldn’t agree more. Again, was he in the wrong? Yes. Was he being immature? Yes. Should he be fired? It’s up to Peter Pan.

…the picture in the Boston Globe.

Let’s not talk about that.

To whom it may concern,

While normally I take the Amtrak train between Boston and New York, I decided this last weekend that I’d take the Greyhound bus. I purchased my ticket online and proceeded to the gate. My bus out to New York last Friday was 2 hours late, but the traffic was bad, so this wasn’t my biggest gripe.

However, my 1:00PM ride back on Sunday to Boston on the Peter Pan bus line was an absolutely terrible experience.

When we arrived at our only stop along the ride in Framingham, MA at 4:35 PM, about 20 minutes away from Boston, the people who had gotten their tickets to Framingham walked off of the bus. I was surprised and delighted to see that we were about 25 minutes ahead of schedule and that we would arrive in Boston ahead of time– something I was looking forward to after my previous trip. However, after the bus driver stood outside for 5 minutes to smoke a cigarette, he came back inside the bus and made an announcement:

“Usually,” he said, “on Sundays, I leave right after I drop off the passengers. You’d be about thirty minutes early. However, on the way here, I was told on my radio, ‘are you alright?’ I said, ‘yeah I’m fine,’ and they had told me that someone on this bus had called in and said that I was swerving all over the road and falling asleep.’”

I personally noticed this a bit along the way.

“And, since someone said this, and aggravated me, I’m going to aggravate you. We aren’t going to leave until 5 o’clock [25 minutes from then]. And no, you can’t go out and smoke.”

The driver kept us captive on the bus. Some people voiced their opinions, some even apologizing for whomever called the company that he was swerving. One person said, “I don’t know why you’re punishing all of us for something one person said,” and he replied, “one apple spoils all of the rest.” A woman asked if he could continue “because of the baby.” He said, “What baby?” The woman replied, “my baby,” picked up her child and showed it to him. “No way,” he said, and stood there, staring at us.

The bus driver continued to stand at the front of the bus, glaring at us, the passengers.

Finally, about ten minutes into the wait, one gentleman stood up and said he wanted to get off of the bus and asked the driver if he could get his bags. “No, you can’t,” he said.

He then asked again politely for the driver to get his bags. He still wouldn’t let him. The driver asked if he was going to Framingham, and the gentleman replied that he wasn’t, and he said that he couldn’t let him off of the bus, making up some excuse as to why. He argued for another five minutes to no avail. He was letting no passengers off of the bus.

This kind of behavior by an attendant is absolutely unacceptable. Peter Pan’s slogan is “The People Professionals,” but clearly this is not the case.

While I understand that a bus usually has to wait for the specific time to leave, he explicitly stated that he didn’t need to. But, most disturbingly, he would not let any passenger off of the bus. The mother with her child were forced to stay on the bus until they left, the gentleman wanting to leave wasn’t allowed to, and he stated in the beginning that nobody could leave to smoke at all.

When we left the Framingham station, I was seriously worried about the situation. He didn’t refer to anything he had said and left without saying a word.

No matter what situation happens, the customer should be considered important, whether that means not telling the driver that someone had called, or properly training these drivers to not react in this way to words of complaint. Even if he wasn’t swerving, this type of behavior is absolutely, no doubt, unacceptable for a professional company.

My experience was absolutely disturbing and I plan on never taking the Greyhound or Peter Pan bus in the future, opting to spend more money on the Amtrak lines because of this awful occurrence.

Sincerely,

Brian Moore
brian [at] brianmooremedia.com

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I followed these instructions, but had to compensate for the fact that I had almost no tools. Instead of drilling holes of any sort, I had to heat my colander and plastic bowl over the stove first, then thwack at it with the sharp end of a hammer. I did this during one of the World Series game (Woo! Go Sox!) and definitely looked like an idiot. I must say though, I was a bit surprised when my downstairs neighbor came and knocked on my door complaining about the banging and asked if I could do it “during the commercials.” I understood.

So, I took some photos with it on both film and digital. The film ones came out beautifully, but sadly they are drying right now. Here are some of the digital ones:

And here’s the ringlight in a reflection of my mirror (with me as a dork):

To see more, check out the Flickr set I made for it.

Meanwhile, for my FILM 1 class, we were assigned to do a lighting test project using a Bolex camera with 16mm TRI-X Reversal film. If you don’t know what any of that means, it doesn’t really matter. Basically we (my group and I) shot this on a film camera– one of those dealies with the cranking and the filming!

We had to light the scene (duh. it’s a lighting test), and do it at different contrast ratios. It’s pretty evident in the (relatively successful) outcome:

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Lighting is fun, huh?

That’s right. It’s a mini doughnut maker. Yes, it will make me fat. Yes, it’s unhealthy. But by buying it for me, you would most likely get a constant supply of doughnuts as well, as I think I’d love you so much that I’d do such a thing.

Meanwhile, a more substantial post will come in the near future once I get a little more unbusy.