Saturday, March 25, 2006

Today Joanne and I went to Richmond

We got up early and left Easton to go see Joanne's uncle Horace. He recently became very ill and had a very rough stay in the hospital. His condition was bad enough that many members of the family came up (or down) to make sure that they got to see him at least one more time.

It was very fortunate that he was in good spirits today. For a 98 year old man, he's been hanging in there. His skin was very thin and his hearing aids were broken or lost in the hospital, so it's hard for him to hear. This next week they are going to start giving him physical therapy to help him get up and moving again.

Horace is a very friendly man who has lived an amazing and adventurous life. I hope that he is able to make it to 100 - the world is better with him as a part of it.
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Popped Culture Theater

I've been a fan of Popped Culture Theater about as long as Yahoo's Internet music. For those who are uninitiated, PCT is a series of short animated cartoons that lampoon some of music's more popular artists.

This link will take you to whatever PCT videos Yahoo! has put out on the 'net. Enjoy!

Yahoo! Music - Search
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Friday, March 24, 2006

YouTube - Real Life Simpsons Intro

This is incredible. Somebody went through the trouble of re-creating the opening of The Simpsons in real life!

YouTube - Real Life Simpsons Intro
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Thursday, March 23, 2006

Cute Conservative: Read This if You Live in America!

Cute Conservative: Read This if You Live in America!

If you feel depressed because you live in the US, read this!
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'South Park' Responds: Chef's Goose Is Cooked

I've got to admit that I find a lot of humor in South Park. While I would likely be offended at some of the stuff they say, I realize that they make fun of everybody. That means that they make fun of me, too. And if you can't laugh at yourself, you're never going to make it in this world.

Tonight I came across this article from the Washington Post, giving a synopsis of the 10th season opener.

'South Park' Responds: Chef's Goose Is Cooked: "In the episode, pals Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman are thrilled when Chef, who'd left South Park to join the Super Adventure Club, returns. But in school the next day, he says to them, 'How about I meet you guys after work and we make love . . . come on children, you're my sexual fantasy, let's all make sweet love.' Those are the printable things, anyway.



Ever Wonder Why You Get So Much Spam?

RED HERRING | Email-Mining Firm Pays $1.1M

Here is the story of a large Internet marketing company selling email addresses in violation of their privacy policy.

And you didn't win that free iPod, either.
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Monday, March 20, 2006

Help Wicomico Sheriiffs Get Collective Bargaining!

Tonight at our Jaycees meeting, one of our deputies came to discuss their desire to gain collective bargaining powers.

These brave men and women get very little in the way of pay raises and retirement benefits. In addition, if they are disabled while doing their job they receive no compensation from the county - only social security benefits.

I think that this is a shameful how we treat these public servants. If you agree with me, make sure that you sign their petition to put their status to a referendum vote.

For more information straight from the FOP, you can click the title link. A link to a recent story from our newspaper is included below.

The Daily Times - www.delmarvanow.com - Salisbury, Md.
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Sunday, March 19, 2006

Custom Ringtons on Verizon Razr

I just got the Verizon Razr VC3 and am exploring what you can do with it. I found a really easy way to get custom ring tones without paying large sums of money for them:

1) Sign up for a vzwpix account if you don't have one. This is how you get picture messages to your verizon phone.
2) Find or make an MP3 ring tone that you want to use. Make sure that you are abiding by copywrite laws (that is part of the reason why the ring tones cost so much money). :-)
3) Rename the mp3 file so that it has a .mid extension. (ie, newringtone.mp3 is now newringtone.mid)
4) Send the mp3 ring tone to your vzwpix account (yourtendigitphonenumber@vzwpix.com)
5) After a minute or two, you'll have a new message on your phone. Using the right soft key, save the file to your phone.
6) Change the ring in your phone using the standard instructions. You'll find your saved file last on the list of available ring tones.

I did this today, and now my ring is the beginning of "Take on Me" by A ha.

Saturday, March 18, 2006

It is joannes birthday !

Here is joanne right after she turned 28 years old. We are going to ocean city and rehoboth to celebrate.

UPDATE: We went to the Home and Condo Show at the OC Convention Center, and then to the Rehoboth outlets where she bought a swim suit and I got some hot sauce at Peppers!

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Wednesday, March 15, 2006

BBC NEWS | Technology | Viruses leap to smart radio tags

BBC NEWS | Technology | Viruses leap to smart radio tags

RFID tags will have a huge impact on business and our personal lives once they become widely adopted.

Recently, a bunch of really smart people figured out how to put a virus on them. Better that we fix the problem now before they become more popular.

Amazon's Newest Product: Storage

Have you heard about this? Amazon is now selling storage space!

Amazon's Newest Product: Storage

Check out this site for local news

I stumbled upon this site, topix.net, as a provider of local news. Using RSS feeds (like the one I offer), topix is able to scan and aggregate local news from newspapers, tv stations, and blogs.

Overall, I think it will prove to be very useful. Enter your own zip code and decide for yourself.

Salisbury, MD News
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F i n a ' D r e a: Flavor Flav?

F i n a ' D r e a: Flavor Flav?

I ran across this blog post tonight and had to share it with you for a few reasons:

1) It involves Flavor Flav!

Remember him? He was a rapper for mega-influencial 90's hip hop group Public Enemy. Flavor was the skinny Chris Rock-ish guy who added the flavor or humor to PE's militant-black-islamic message. He wore a clock on his chest. Anybody who can pull that off is mega-cool.

2) It's written by a white, 22 year old mom. Her description of Flav is right on point, to the extent that it almost sounds absurd. It's good for a laugh.

3) It's a very nice looking blog. Mine looks like every other blogger site out there.

4) I think she's married to some guy named Travis. That rawks!

Read on and enjoy...
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Friday, March 10, 2006

Tonight we get some culture

Joanne and I are at the Country School in easton to see Seusical. It is a musical written by Eric Idle of Monty Python and some other people I've never heard of.

The kids did a great job on the musical. I especially liked the costumes, which brought to life many of Dr Seuss' best characters. The set consisted of some truffula trees, which had me hoping that the Lorax would take part. Unfortunately, the Lorax was missing. :-(

If you want to learn more about Seussical, I found this online quiz that tells you want kind of Seussical character you are. I am the Cat in the Hat, who Joanne dislikes because he is mischievious and gets others in trouble. A word of caution on the quiz, there are a lot of ads and popups. Make sure you have a popup blocker, or Firefox which is even better.

Thursday, March 09, 2006

We are @ the casting crowns concert!

They look a lot Bigger in real life. Joanne and i are having a great time!

Overall, I thought this was a pretty good show. Everybody was a bit more evangelistic than I like, but the musicianship was good.

You can't tell in this picture, but this group is a bunch of dorks! Since I was a dork, I thought that was great.

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Cisco adopts SIP

I'm very excited about the future of VoIP - unfortunately there have not been many compelling reasons for most businesses to adopt the technology. To date, primary motivation comes from cost savings when you can use VoIP systems for toll bypass. Because of this, VoIP systems are adopted by larg(er) companies with multiple locations that can show a cost savings and those who like to spend a lot of money on cool new gadgets.

VoIP systems will become more prevalent once there is a "killer app" out there that makes these systems a must have. Integration between your computer and telephone is going to encourage businesses of all sizes to take a serious look at VoIP.

Now that Cisco has finally gotten on board with SIP (Session Integration Protocol), VoIP adoption should become more worthwhile for a single location business. I point to two main reasons: SIP will make VoIP systems more intelligent, bringing convergance closer to realization; and secondly, SIP systems will be more interoperable.

By being able to combine a product such as Cisco Call Manager with lower priced phones from another vendor, there will be more pricing pressure put on the industry. While I find the Cisco VoIP system to be the most interesting, you're shelling out a lot of cash vs. a traditional POTS.

Monday, March 06, 2006

Readers speak about Blogs in Salisbury

There is a lot of buzz about politics in our city. Dissatisfaction in our local government and local media have led to a large number of local blogs which try to give us a new viewpoint and analysis about what is going on in Salisbury.

The Daily Times just published a reader's forum about blogs. It seems that enough buzz has been created to make them take notice! Perhaps it will change the way that they report the news for the better.

Click here for the Internet version of what was recently published. You'll also find links to some local blogs that I like to read on occasion.

Sunday, March 05, 2006

Blogger Categories

I've been playing around with Blogger a bit to see what is available to make my blog a bit more unique. One feature of TypePad that I really liked was categories, which Blogger does not offer.

There are a few methods to give yourself categories. One of the more popular approaches is to use delic.io.us tags. That involved signing up for another service, etc. It was too much work.

Here is an easier method that I found:
1) Create an @blogger.com email address for your "master blog" so that you can post via email
2) Set up a new blog for each category
3) Tell blogger to send new posts to your email address
4) Create a rule that forwards posts created in your "sub blog" to your "master blog" post email address
5) Add links on your side bar to each of your "sub blogs"

If you think that these instructions were too complicated, here is the link where I found this tip. You'll notice the steps are the same as mine, but there are a lot more words. ;-)
Blogger Categories for everyone, by Oldcola
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Saturday, March 04, 2006

Where do you fall on the Political Compass?

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I came across this web site today. You answer some questions, and then it plots you on this graph. They also plot famous politicians from around the world and history to see where you compare.

The Left-Right axis is pretty self explanatory. Put communists and people like Saddam on the left, and Thatcher and Dubbya on the right.

The Authoritarian-Libertarian axis might be new to some. Absolute control by the state would be up top, and total anarchy goes on the bottom.

Who is closest to my spot on the graph? The Dalai Lama! The graph w. famous people may not be on the same scale as this screenshot, so it's hard to make a comparison other than we're in the same quadrant.

What does this placement say about me? I guess it boils down to this: I believe that the gubment should stay out of our business, and only step in when people are in need of help or commerce can't regulate itself in a manner that benefits the public as a whole.

Where do you rate?

MmmMmm...ribs!

Today i am smoking ribs for the first time. I've boiled/grilled them once, and they weren't really that good.

For the rub I used Tone's Southwest Seasoning blend, which I purchased at Sam's Club. At about $6 for a huge container, I figured that it was an inexpensive way to purchase a lot of flavor. It was applied last night, and allowed to sit on the ribs for about 12 hours. Most rubs are ground to a fine powder and this is chunky, so it will be interesting to see how things progress.

This is the first time that I'll be using Wicked Good Charcoal's "Competition Blend" exclusively. The last few times I've grilled or smoked I mixed it with Big Green Egg Charcoal. It seemed to take a bit longer to light, but the temp jumped from 140 to 225 in less than a minute. I put the rest of my hickory chips in the fire, and there is a little bit of water in the bottom of the drip pan.

Ribs hit the grill at 9:15 AM. The guy at About.com writes that ribs take at least 4 hours, but they get better with more time. My hope is that I can keep them at 200 - 220 for about 8 hours, when Joanne should arrive from the Easton diocesian convention.

FINAL RESULT: I pulled the ribs off the smoker around 6:45. Some were tender and moist, others were a bit dry. The seasoning was a bit strong, so it detracted from the ribs. Next time I'll find some sort of paprika-based rub with a milder flavor.


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