Monthly Archive for March, 2007

Bucks season over, another year hoping for good draft, AGAIN

Good thing I’m a die-hard Bucks fan because last night would have been the last straw.

There’s absolutely no reason for the Bucks to lose to the Charlotte Bobcats by 16 points. Probably the most glaring thing is Bucks’ 24 turnovers to Charlottes 7, yes 7.

Atrocious.

You can’t blame this one on injuries, either.  Charlotte has had more than their fair share of injuries this year (and last).

I don’t know if Larry Krystkowiak is the answer or not, but dang it, something needs to change.

No tags for this post.

Weighing in on new coffee choices

45142239_85cbb6e9ba_o2.jpg

With McDonald’s throwing it’s hat in the “coffee ring,” I think things are going to get better for us coffee drinkers.

The competition is a good thing. I expect Starbucks and the other highfalutin coffee joints to get more affordable for us cheapskates.

McDonald’s has reeled me in on two occasions now. One with a free coffee coupon and the other with an iced coffee billboard. The free cup of coffee didn’t seem that spectacular to me. It was a dark roast, which I like, but the cool, insulated cup leaked on the bottom. Yes, the bottom. The iced hazelnut coffee wasn’t that bad. It could’ve been a little sweeter. Seemed like a pretty good value — a larger than expected cup for $2.00.

My beloved QuikTrip is the “team to beat” in this competition, IMO. I can make it how I want and can mix it up whenever I feel like it — and it’s the cheapest and fastest.

Anyone like to weigh in? What’s so special about Dunkin’ Donuts coffee anyway? Anyone tried Caribou Coffee?

No tags for this post.

Wild Reverse Music Video by Mute Math

Have you seen this wild Mute Math video that’s all reversed?

Here’s the reversed video, reversed:

No tags for this post.

Steampunk telegraph sounder clicks out RSS feeds in Morse Code

I like RSS and all, but this is a little overboard. I mean, really, a Steampunk machine tapping out an RSS feed in Morse Code??

Makes me wonder what this guy does for a living…

No tags for this post.

I’m a such a sucker for good puns

Here are the ten first place winners in the International Pun Contest (supposedly):

  1. A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons. The flight attendant looks at him and says, “I’m sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger.”
  2. Two fish swim into a concrete wall. The one turns to the other and says “Dam!”
  3. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can’t have your kayak and heat it too.
  4. Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says “I’ve lost my electron.” The other says “Are you sure?” The first replies “Yes, I’m positive.”
  5. Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain during a root canal? His goal: transcend dental medication.
  6. A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse. “But why?” they asked, as they moved off. “Because,” he said,” I can’t stand chess-nuts boasting in an open foyer.”
  7. A woman has twins and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt and is named “Ahmal.” The other goes to a family in Spain; they name him “Juan.” Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she also had a picture of Ahmal. Her husband responds, “They’re twins! If you’ve seen Juan, you’ve seen Ahmal.”
  8. A group of friars were behind on their belfry payments, so they opened up a small florist shop to raise funds. Since everyone liked to buy flowers from the men of God, a rival florist across town thought the competition was unfair. He asked the good fathers to close down, but they would not. He went back and begged the friars to close. They ignored him. So, the rival florist hired Hugh MacTaggart, the roughest and most vicious thug in town to “persuade” them to close. Hugh beat up the friars and trashed their store, saying he’d be back if they didn’t close up shop. Terrified, they did so, thereby proving that only Hugh can prevent florist friars.
  9. Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and, with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath. This made him a super calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.
  10. And finally, there was the person who sent ten different puns to friends, with the hope that at least one of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in ten did.

Some other funny ones:

  1. How about the midget psychic bank robber? The newspaper headline read: Small medium at large.
  2. Jurisprudence fetishist gets off on legal technicality
  3. Did you hear about the firefly that flew through the fan? He delighted himself to no end.
  4. How about the fly that flew through the screen door? He strained himself.
  5. Two antennas met on a roof, fell in love and got married. The ceremony wasn’t much, but the reception was excellent.
  6. A jumper cable walks into a bar. The bartender says, “I’ll serve you, but don’t start anything.”
  7. A dyslexic man walks into a bra.
  8. A man walks into a bar with a slab of asphalt under his arm and says: “A beer please, and one for the road.”
  9. Two cows are standing next to each other in a field. Daisy says to Dolly, “I was artificially inseminated this morning.” “I don’t believe you,” says Dolly. “It’s true, no bull!” exclaims Daisy.
  10. An invisible man marries an invisible woman. The kids were nothing to look at either.
  11. I went to a seafood disco last week…and pulled a mussel.
  12. Two termites walk into a bar. One asks, “Is the bar tender here?”
  13. Two cannibals are eating a clown. One says to the other: “Does this taste funny to you?”

No tags for this post.

Review:Consuming Worship’s Rendezvous

rendezvous2.jpg

Been listening to the new Rendezvous album from Consuming Worship on my way to and from work for the past few days.

As for my overall impressions:

It’s not really a corporate worship music CD like I was expecting it to be. It’s a listening/personal meditation/worship CD. I can (sort of) sing along with most of the songs, but I can’t envision any of these songs as part of a corporate worship service.

As for my taste in this worship music — In general, I like lots of LOUD guitar and drums. If it’s not rousing and upbeat, I have a hard time getting into it. I wish Rendezvous would have recorded the album with a live band instead of everything synthesized. I think #4 and #9 could have been even better recorded with live instruments.

The cover design and the inserts are stinkin’ awesome. Props to Brandon Hill on the design.

Here’s my take on each of the tracks:

  1. Oxygen - This one’s pretty good. Probably my third favorite.
  2. Worthy to Be Blessed - Not too bad.
  3. You’re Everything - The lady that sings this song sounds like Twila Paris. I’m not a big Twila Paris fan. It’s a slow song, too. Next.
  4. Desire of My Heart - I think this is the best song on the CD. It’s catchy and there’s some guitar in it.
  5. You Are the Artist - Really good words on this song. The vocals, well, it’s that whole Twila Paris thing again.
  6. Be Still - Makes me want to be still…………zzzzzz. Oh, uh. Yeah. Um…
  7. I Stand Still - Songs that tell stories are good.
  8. I Thank the Lord for You - Er, Twila Pa… Next.
  9. Psalm 30 - I think this is my second favorite song. Nice and upbeat.
  10. Blessed Be - I can’t get into the smooth jazzy, electronic sound. Next. Oh, wait — it’s the last song.

Have you heard it? What did you think?

No tags for this post.

Gore Implores Congress to Save Planet; I Implore Gore to Shut Up

060615holysmokemirx.jpg

The more Al Gore talks, the hotter the planet gets. Like I’ve said before: follow the money.

The Environmentalist Movement is anti-big business under the guise of being altruistic.

Here’s some good reading:

Nine Lies about Global Warming

Nine Facts about Climate Change

No tags for this post.

New My Yahoo annoyance remedied with Greasemonkey Script

I’ve created and posted new Greasemonkey script that will get rid of the annoying ads in the new My Yahoo QuickLinks drop down box. (If you haven’t switched yet, here’s the link.)

Here’s the before:
ql_before.jpg

Here’s the after:
ql_after.jpg

Much better, huh?

Download the script here.

I used this example as the basis for my script.

Firefox is so great.       What’s more fun than re-writing pages with JavaScript?

No tags for this post.

Missing Boy Scout found alive.

I’m sorry, but of course he was found alive.   He’s a Boy Scout.   Duuuh.

No tags for this post.

Spriglet #3: Pocket Key Pat

keys.jpg

Spriglet #3: OK, this is borderline O.C.D., but it’s something I’ve gotten into the habit of doing. Whenever I get out of my car, I always immediately put my keys in my pocket and then pat my pocket just to here the keys jingle. Guess I started doing it after I locked my keys in my car. Haven’t locked them inside it since.

No tags for this post.

Do you pee in the shower?

OK. Somehow we got into this discussion in our small group meeting tonight. We’re taking a poll for our next meeting.

Do you pee in the shower?
Yes. It’s no big deal.
No. That’s gross.
View Results

If you feel strongly about this topic, make your opinion known by leaving a comment using the comment link below the post title. You can post anonymously if you’d like.

No tags for this post.

NATIONAL CHAMPS!

987912.jpeg

Wow. MNU started off the game down 0-11 but came back and laid a beat-down on Mayville State, outscoring them 47-29 in the second period. Final score: 78-60.

That big banner will look real nice hanging in the Cook Center. Congrats to tournament MVP Adam Hepker. He’s probably going to need to sit in the ice tub for a while.

I exchanged e-mails yesterday with David Boyce, the Kansas City Star reporter that’s been following the Pioneers. Here’s something cool he said:

Rocky keeps getting better as a coach. He’s put together an amazing NAIA team this year, one that I think is the best in Kansas City. In a tournament at neutral site, I think MidAmerica would come out on top against UMKC, Rockhurst, Park, Avila and William Jewell.

I especially like that part about Jewell.

No tags for this post.

Pioneers in Finals!

pioneerslogo1.jpg

The Pioneers made quick work of Northwestern last night, winning 81-71.     In the finals, baby!

No tags for this post.

Spriglet #2: Cubes for Carpet Craters

carpet_divot1.jpg

Spriglet #2: After a long and strenuous evening of impromptu furniture move-age, you’re shocked to notice the scattered carpet divots all over the room. Simply place an ice cube on each carpet divot and let it melt.   As the carpet dries, the divots pop back up.

Some wise person once said:

Moving your furniture around all the time is a sign of mental instability.

That being said, the carpet divots are really a sign of deeper mental issues. You might want to seek out professional help.

No charge for that one. ;)

h/t: scott

No tags for this post.

Pioneers in NAIA DII Final Four

pioneerslogo1.jpg

w00t!

The Pioneers dispatched Mount Vernon Nazarene on Friday night and Indiana Wesleyan last night. They play again tomorrow night vs Northwestern (IA) .   This is the second straight year the Pioneers have made it to the Final Four.   Pretty Sweet.

No tags for this post.

Plenty of Potent Pipes Potential

yahoopipes21.jpg

Right after griping about Yahoo, I’m going to give them some props for Pipes. I’m big on RSS. What’s cooler than being able to hack together a feed based on whatever they heck you want?

Technically, I could take all 61 RSS feeds that I’m subscribed to in Google Reader and mash them up into a single RSS feed and filter it with Pipes. That’s pretty cool. I think I’ve only scratched the surface with it too, there’s an interactivity element to it as well that I haven’t tried at all.

In my first experiment I mashed up the feeds from two of my co-workers blogs with the feed from this site. Here’s the page if you want to take a look. You’ll probably have to have a Yahoo! Id to see it.

It basically reads in the RSS files from each of them, does a SQL-like union of the results, sorts it, limits the rows returned and spits out the results.

O, the possiblities.

No tags for this post.

The New Beta My Yahoo Page — lots of bling, more frustration

yahoofpb.jpg

I was holding out hope that the Yahoo Beta Bookmarks would integrate more nicely into My Yahoo start page. It really didn’t. Now I’m having to change My Yahoo start page all around again. The Beta My Yahoo page is here now. Not good, IMO. A couple of observations:

  1. You can’t change the proportions of the columns. In the 3 column layout the normal wide and narrow module sizes just don’t fit visually (e.g. the Weather module). I switched to a two column layout, but now there’s lots of wasted space that doesn’t change with the browser window.
  2. The Beta Bookmarks are buried below a bunch of crap “services” links under a new drop-down called My QuickLinks. Even if I collapse them down, they don’t survive a page refresh. Totally not useful to me at all. I’ve got a workaround with the Beta Bookmarks feed that Tom Chi from Yahoo gave me, but it looks terrible in the three column layout because of point #1. I moved it to the top of the right column for now.
  3. The theme changer is nice. Fewer choices, but it works nicely with third-party branding AT&T. Can’t enter my own colors anymore. Oh well.
  4. Some of Yahoo’s own modules look terrible in the beta — like Yahoo! News: Top Stories. Especially in the headline, summary and image model with only one story showing. The image is cut off at the bottom.

I hope it will get better. I’ve sent my feedback into the abyss.

No tags for this post.

Pioneers advance to 2nd round

pioneerslogo1.jpg

My MidAmerica Nazarene University Pioneers advanced to the second round last night by beating Trinity 69-59 in the National NAIA Division II tournament. My favorite quote from the article:

MidAmerica went into halftime ahead 36-28 and the only reason it was that close was because the Pioneers looked bored.

C’mon guys…. Gotta stick it to ‘em.

No tags for this post.

12 o’clock flasher

This is the same guy that did the sysadmin song awhile back.

No tags for this post.

Create a custom RSS feed from Google News

I was wanting to keep up to date on my Pioneers and their run in the 2007 National NAIA Tournament. I couldn’t find a RSS feed for NAIA Division II Men’s Basketball. I had to have a feed.

So here’s the trick:

Browse to news.google.com

Type your search. I used this search: NAIA “Division (2|II)” “Men’s” basketball “Mid?America”

google1.jpg

Scroll down the bottom of the page. The last two links are actually RSS feeds. Click on the “Add a custom section to your Google Home Page”

google2.jpg

I chose Google Reader, because that’s where I read everthing. You can copy and paste this feed into whatever reader you want.

google3.jpg

Now you have a custom news feed.

Slick, huh?

No tags for this post.

Spriglet #1: Strategic cereal divots prevent milk overspray

I’m busting out a new category. Spriglets. That’s right.

What is a spriglet you ask?

Well, Solomon has his book Proverbs. I have Spriglets — nuggets of wisdom from yours truly.

Spriglet #1: Strategic cereal divots prevent milk overspray. Simply use your finger and make a divot in the middle of your cereal. Aim for the divot when pouring your milk. Voila! No mess.
Bad:

cereal1.jpg

Good:

cereal2.jpg

No tags for this post.

Wal-Mart’s new marketing strategy

As a closet economist, this article certainly piqued interest. Looks like Wal-Mart is ratcheting up it’s efforts to compete with Target and other more trendy stores — stores that aren’t only about price, but brand recognition.

Sounds good, but I have a feeling that Wal-Mart is going to have a hard time wooing and maintaining supplier relationships with some of the brand names.   I think Wal-Mart will find it hard to sell certain products. They can’t bully everyone who doesn’t want to be associated with “low prices, always” a.k.a. “cheap and disposable.” Don’t forget about Snapper. Wal-Mart can’t strong-arm everyone.

It’d be really interesting to see their strategy on the supply-side.

No tags for this post.

Electricity generated from water, wires and cans.

From what I’ve read, this cool experiment is called Kelvin’s Thunderstorm.

Here’s more info.

No tags for this post.

Eagle-eye Ruth

Did you know that Dr. Ruth Westheimer was a sniper? Me either.

No tags for this post.