Report: PS3 to sell for $399, cost $494 to make

GameSpot (article)

Given that Sony's PS3 will face stiff competition from Microsoft's Xbox 360, the chances that Sony will release its console at its production cost is slim. Under the assumption that the Xbox 360 is expected to sell at around $299, Merrill Lynch Japan predicts that Sony will sell each PS3 at the price of 44,800 yen ($410) in Japan and $399 in America. That would mean Sony would suffer a loss of more than 130 billion yen ($1.18 billion) during the first year of the PS3's release.

I am glad that Sony is gonna take a hit to get the PS3 out there. And I am real glad that it will be under $400. As has been said before:

I was hoping to see it go for $399, but if they do put a 4 in the hundreds place I think it will turn many buyers to Xbox 360 even if it is not as good. (I would guess by the time the PS3 launches the Xbox 360 will have a price of $299.)

What a smart person that was for saying that all the way back on May 25th. Oh wait, that was me. ^_^
I usually don't brag, but I really did call that one.

IE vs FireFox

This one is for all of you that are in the FireFox cult.

When you see this what do you think?




What about this?


Both make me mad, but at least a web page not displaying properly in FireFox is understandable, FireFox has not been around as long as IE, so support could still be on it’s way. What is worse is that the same people that complain to no end about a site that does not support FireFox, purposely makes sites that do not work in IE. This is retardness at its prime.
Instead of making the internet accessible to everyone, this new FireFox cult, under the flag of "All browsers should work on every webpage", purposely makes part of the internet inaccessible unless you have their program. To me that sounds like insanity.
Personally I use FireFox unless I have to use IE, I think that FireFox does what it does well, but it still has it's down sides (for one it really eats memory). All I am saying is that every web designer should work to make the internet available to all, instead of making their web pages one browser only. Is that too much to ask?

The no FireFox support site here.
No IE support site here.

Popular Six Flags ride shut down

San Francisco Chronicle (article)

A popular ride at Six Flags Marine World in Vallejo remains closed today as park officials and state regulators try to determine why it left a 7-old-girl feeling nauseated and numb.

Investigators with Cal OSHA spent Monday testing and inspecting the park's Hammerhead Shark ride, which swings like a pendulum before sending riders on a 360-degree whirl, after shutting it down first thing Sunday morning.

I doubt it was the ride, my money is on dehydration. But if you want to make some money, it looks like there might be high demand for the park 'Pillowland' pretty soon.

Anti-productivity

I just spent the last two hours entering in the wrong data... *grumble grumble* ... so no more working on that for tonight.

Today went fine, basically I woke up, went to BW3, did ok at trivia. Came home, painted some and then worked on my project, which turned out to be a bad idea... oh well, i am kinda tired I might just goto bed.

On Saturday Newgen came up. We played some Game Cube a little bit, then some disc golf (I got a 64, which is very good. Thank you wind), then we went to Carlos OKellys (the food was OK, nothing special). After fooding everyone (Newgen, Aaron, Chris and Jenette) came over and we played a game of Warhammer. Newgen and Chris played the good side, and Aaron, Jenette and I played the bad. It looked like we were gonna crush the good side, but in the end of the battle Chris and Newgen were able to use their units very wisely and they killed almost everybody on the bad side. It was a fun game, even if I only had my general left standing.
Ok I really need to head on over to the Stat office to do some stuff there.

On Sunday we (Me, Nicole, Jenette and Chris) went to Salina to drop Michelle off (my mom came up from Garden to get her) and to drop Nicole off at a language camp where she is a Japanese Counselor. While at Salina we walked around their mall for a bit. One of the stores has been converted to an aquarium which was pretty neat. I took this picture a big fish for you. Hope you like it!

Illegal recipe sharing - Peer2Peer Recipe Journal

Using the copyright law: (link)

Mere listings of ingredients as in recipes, formulas, compounds or prescriptions are not subject to copyright protection. However, where a recipe or formula is accompanied by substantial literary expression in the form of an explanation or directions, or when there is a combination of recipes, as in a cookbook, there may be a basis for copyright protection.

And combined with: (link)

The justices ruled against P2P companies Grokster and Streamcast because they believed that the companies intended for their users to infringe copyright with their service. The key line from the decision: “One who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement . . . is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties.” But the judges don’t specify what those steps might be. In other words, if it can be shown that a company “took any affirmative steps” to aid copyright infringement, it can be held liable.

I give you the new illegal product:

Peer2Peer Recipe Journal

Its description:

What better way to enjoy food than with friends? To use this journal you should buy two, one for you and one for your friend. Then when you find a recipe that you like, either from a variation of a current favorite, or a recipe from a new cookbook, write down the ingredients and the procedure, including any tricks that are important. After a couple of weeks exchange the journals and try the new recipes that your friend found. I am sure that you will find many new favorite recipes this way. Enjoy!

The original recipes are copyrighted, and the description encourages you to write them down if you like them and then give them to your friend, so this product is now illegal according to the new Supreme Court ruling from today.

My music review of the baby ABJ bands and Ludo.

(The Famed at The Granada)


Anything But Joey recently splint into two bands, Stuck on Broadway and The Famed. On Friday I went to the SOB/The Famed/Ludo show at the Granada. Since it was the first time that I saw any of these bands live, I will divulge what I thought about them.

The first band to play (besides Crowned King, I missed them) was Stuck on Broadway. They played pretty good, and they are sticking with the powerpop sound of Anything But Joey. They were fine, but a little bit lean on the amount of songs. This is understandable as I have heard that they were short a band member for awhile. I think that once they get rolling they will get pretty good, but at the moment I see some problems with them. First is that they are boring to watch. I know that I am at a show to watch them play music, but it is called a “show” for a reason. Secondly, they played a couple ABJ songs, which I think is the wrong thing to do. For one ABJ played the songs better and for two I think that SOB needs to separate themselves from ABJ. It was nice to hear the ABJ songs live again, but it just made me miss ABJ. All in all though I think Stuck on Broadway has got potential musically, I think that they just need to work on their showmanship some.

The next band to play was The Famed. Now everything that Stuck on Broadway did wrong The Famed did right. First is that they were fun to watch. They were very active on stage, and to some extent they moved around to show you what parts of the song to listen to. So when the guitar was the lead in the song the player was stepping up to be the lead visually. It helped me understand the songs much quicker since I had not heard many of them before the show. Also their strong presence, along with a different style of music, separated them from ABJ, I never felt like I was missing ABJ while watching them play, even though the lead singer is the same. I think that this will help establish them much quicker in the music scene.

Ok, now the things that I didn’t like about The Famed. First, although their intro was a good change from the norm, it was a bit long, and I swear that it is a ripped song from a movie, and not from an actual performance (I might just be crazy). Secondly, I do not dig their new look. I see why they went so radically different (again to distance themselves from ABJ), and in the end I think it will work for them, but seriously, the first thing that came to mind when I saw them all dressed in black was “poser”. Lastly, I think that they do not have as much potential with their music. What they have right now is good, but I think that SOB will be able to outshine them musically in a couple of years. But, as of right now, The Famed came out on top musically.

The last band to play was Ludo. Now I have listened to some of their music before and I was not that impressed by it. But since Amber liked them (I think that she has a good ear for music), I decided to try to put aside my preconceived notions from before and listen without bias. It turns out that they are very good live. I could see that they knew what they were doing on stage, especially compared to the new bands that played before them, and their music was very polished. I did enjoy their music, but what really shined with them was their new stuff. They played a couple of new songs that really rocked, and to me, showed that they are starting to really mature as a band musically. And, I have to say it, the song about the zombies rocked. Anyways, Ludo was a good band to end the night on as they really combined a good show with good music.

Overall Ludo was the best band at the show, but the other two bands look like they will be potentially as good or better. If the new songs that they played are an indication of where they are heading they may become one of my favorite bands.

To me it is obvious that The Famed will be successful. They know how to put on a good show, but I just feel that they really need another very good song to hold them out for the long run (it is possible that a re-work on a current song is all that is needed), but to me it sounded like their music was a bit shallow. I think that Stuck on Broadway has the most potential. Drew writes very good songs, but at the moment I think that they are missing a band member to lead the show. Either Drew needs to step up, or they need to add someone else, because there needs to be more “show” in their show. I think that if they can make it through a couple years of playing it small, they will work out a formula that will work live and be a very good band.

* pant, pant, pant*
Review over.

Roenick goes off on critical NHL fans

FOXSports.com (article)

"I will say personally, to everybody who calls us spoiled, you guys are just jealous. We're trying to get this thing back on the ice and make it better for the fans. If you don't realize that, then don't come. We don't want you in the rink, we don't want you in the stadium, we don't want you to watch hockey.''

"If we would have signed that deal in February, in terms of what we're getting now, we would have looked like heroes,'' Roenick said. "Right now we look like a bunch of idiots. The deal in February beats the (expletive) out of the deal we're gonna sign in July.''

"It's unfortunate we had to go through a whole year to realize the s--- that was going on,'' Roenick said. "We've hurt our league, we've hurt the reputation of our league and the integrity of our league by sticking up for something that might not have been the right thing to do.''

Seriously, if it is possible, the league should fine Roenick right now. It is unacceptable that he would say such things about the league, just as they are gonna start getting ready for next season. The League needs to follow through, right now (especially while the players union is very weak) and stop players from bad mouthing it. The NFL is strong because the players union is weak, the NHL needs to crush the union and fining Roenick is a step in that direction

Grand Illusions

Grand Illusions (site)

On a lighter note, just to be sure I keep up with my pace of randomness, this site has alot of illusion toys and tricks. There are alot of videos as well as a good explanation with all of them. I'm not one for sites like this normally, but this one is actually pretty good. If you need 20 or so minutes of entertainment check it out (especially the videos).

Dread

Dread Gun (video)

I don't know why, but usually stuff like this entertains me, but today it seems scary. It might just be because today I am particularly pissed at the government. But really I think it is scary. Anyways Dread is a new type of gun that is super kill-y. Check out the video (especially at the end) and you will see why it is so deadly.

Boffins create zombie dogs

NEWS.com.au (article)

To reaffirm that my blog has no direction what-so-ever, I will follow up a cool web site, which followed some posts about friends, which followed a personal post with this:

US scientists have succeeded in reviving the dogs after three hours of clinical death, paving the way for trials on humans within years.
Pittsburgh's Safar Centre for Resuscitation Research has developed a technique in which subject's veins are drained of blood and filled with an ice-cold salt solution.
The animals are considered scientifically dead, as they stop breathing and have no heartbeat or brain activity.
But three hours later, their blood is replaced and the zombie dogs are brought back to life with an electric shock.

How cool is that?

I may not have a real direction with my blog, but I do find the coolest stuff to post this way. :D

Music from TV Commercials

songtitle.info (site)

Here you go...

The pic for that last post is bad so here it is again.

And here is the text:

Swirly Elephant Pal

Swirly Elephant sits on your desk. He thinks you work too slow but he likes you anyway. He is your new best friend. Drop your old best friend and obey Swirly Elephant's commands. Your new best friend is approximately 2 1/2" tall. And fat. But its genetic.

Price: 7.00

www.moralclay.com (site)

Well Moral Turpitude got some crazy idea that she should sell her clay things that she has been making for her blog. But you know what, she is actually good at it, and the prices are pretty good. In any case you, yes you, should go check out her site and get a desk buddy or two, if they strike your fancy.

Julia went to Chicago a couple of days ago, and while there she took a picture of the Cloud Gate (gasp!). Actually it should be ok now to do so, but back in February it was not ok to take �professional looking� pictures of the Bean do to its copyright. I thought it was neat that she took a picture of it. (My original posts about the Bean are here and here).

Supreme Court Rules Against P2P Companies!

Slyck News (article)

The United States Supreme Court, in a unanimous ruling, disagreed with two lower court rulings. Today’s opinion agrees with the MPAA and RIAA contention that P2P developers are responsible for the infringing activities of its users. The decision is a serious setback for commercial file-sharing companies, who were hoping a favorable Supreme Court decision would give the necessary leverage to negotiate a distribution agreement with the RIAA and MPAA.

crapfaces

Yesterday we rocked it on downtown at Lawrence. When we first got into town we stopped by Pochi for a bit of the Tea Bubbles. I got a kiwi smoothie, which was surprisingly good. After Pochi we went down to Free State, where we met Aaron and Newgen, and had dinner. The live jazz music was a little bit too loud though (we sat right net to them), so not much useful talking got done, oh well.

Just got back from the show in Lawrence

The show was good, I'll post more tomorrow after I get back from Salina.

After burritos and tacos we played a round of disc golf on campus. During which Michelle was able to master the force and make it able to throw the disc for her (pictured above). After golf we got some ice cream at Cold Stone then Michelle and Jenette got a sandwich at Jimmy Johns. Then it basically was to bed for us.

Today is gonna be spent up at Lawrence. There is a concert of The Famed, Stuck on Broadway, and Ludo at The Granada, so we will be going to that. We will probably grab something to eat beforehand, but after the show we will probably just come back here because Nicole has to be at Salina by 9 on Saturday. Ick.

Yesterday Michelle came in from KC, she was there because of the Warped tour. When she got into town we played Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 for a bit (a fun game) and then we (Me, Cole, Jenette, and Chris) headed off to Chipotle.

A night or two ago we bought a California Pizza Kitchen pizza from Walsmart. It cost five bucks, so we thought that we would give it a shot. It cooked up nicely and actually tasted pretty good. But it was too small and we were still hungry after eating it. So it makes a good snack for two people, but not that good of a meal for two. It was the best frozen pizza I have had though, so that was a plus.

Sorry, nothing profound/controversial/funny for this post, just a picture and some text.

Prophet of Decline

Citizen of the World (article)

Just a reminder that it is a good thing that America is not like the EU:

Oriana Fallaci faces jail. In her mid-70s, stricken with a cancer that, for the moment, permits only the consumption of liquids--so yes, we drank champagne in the course of a three-hour interview--one of the most renowned journalists of the modern era has been indicted by a judge in her native Italy under provisions of the Italian Penal Code which proscribe the "vilipendio," or "vilification," of "any religion admitted by the state."
In her case, the religion deemed vilified is Islam, and the vilification was perpetrated, apparently, in a book she wrote last year--and which has sold many more than a million copies all over Europe--called "The Force of Reason." Its astringent thesis is that the Old Continent is on the verge of becoming a dominion of Islam, and that the people of the West have surrendered themselves fecklessly to the "sons of Allah." So in a nutshell, Oriana Fallaci faces up to two years' imprisonment for her beliefs--which is one reason why she has chosen to stay put in New York. Let us give thanks for the First Amendment.

For all the crap that we always have going on here, it is always good to have something remind you that we live in the best country in the world. Sorry for all youpl* that aren't living in the rockin' US of A.

*youpl = you plural, I have decided that I will be using that instead of "yous" from now on, although it is really hard to remember to say it.

New BCS football poll almost ready

WildcatDaily.com (article)

They are at it again:

College football commissioners all but declared victory Tuesday in their quest to create a new poll that can preserve the Bowl Championship Series.
They've found a big-name polling company, Harris, to run it, and they've found plenty of former college football insiders and current reporters and broadcasters willing to vote in it.
The AP announced in December that its poll could no longer be used in the BCS formula, and ESPN announced this month that it was withdrawing its sponsorship from the coaches' poll.
There will be no preseason poll. The first poll will be a few weeks into the season, and there will be weekly polls after that. Individual voters' ballots won't be made public except for their final pre-bowl poll. It has yet to be determined if there will be a post-bowl poll.

It is obvious that most people do not like the current college football post-season system. This new formula is an improvement, but it is still heading in the wrong direction. I think that the polling system is flawed, and in the end it will be abandoned in favor of the playoff system, it is just a matter of how much time it will take until it happens...
Hopefully it will be sooner rather than later.

House approves flag-burning amendment

CNN.com (article)

The House on Wednesday approved a constitutional amendment that would give Congress the power to ban desecration of the American flag, a measure that for the first time stands a chance of passing the Senate as well.

That’s too bad, as much as I don't like people disrespecting America I think that we should have the right to do whatever we want with the American flag.

10 changes to NHL system

SLAM! Sports (article)

A little NHL stuff before I grab some sleep.

In a few weeks, the new NHL will be upon us and it will be a profoundly different animal from the one we have all grown to despise.
Forget about goalie pads and red lines. Those are cosmetics. Here are 10 ways the league will be different.

The most interesting being:

3. The mother of all free-agency seasons is coming. With buyouts and teams walking away from qualifying, perhaps as much of 40% of the league's personnel will be changing addresses. Agents have been figuring out who is on the block for the past year. Expect an initially tepid flow of players changing teams to give way to a flood of movement. We are talking about the closest thing to a rotisserie draft ever held in pro sports.

What team is going to get dismantled? Colorado.
poo.
Oh well, tis better to have an average Avs team than no NHL at all.

Point, ninjas

KTRE-TV - Lufkin/Nacogdoches, TX - Police Investigate Bizarre Vandalism (article)

When Joe Johnson woke up Sunday morning, the eagle proudly perched atop his mailbox was spray painted bright orange and the word NINJA was stenciled in underneath it.

In the eternal rivalry of pirates veruses ninjas (that can only be equaled in intensity by the rivalry of vampires veruses werewolves), ninjas strike up another point.

Old ballgame has newfangled twist

Kansas City Star (article)

The first two innings of the July 16th game between the Kansas City T-Bones and the Schaumburg Flyers will be played virtually.
Equipped with Microsoft Xbox game controllers instead of baseball gloves and bats, two video gamers will climb into recliner chairs around home plate at CommunityAmerica Ballpark and slug it out on the park’s 16- by 24-foot video screen.
Their scores from playing two innings of MVP Baseball 2005 on an Xbox will stand when the T-Bones and Flyers take the field to finish the last seven innings of the game.

Is the beginning of the end for professional sports or the beginning for professional sports video gamers?

The wage gap, give me a break

John Stossel (article)

I am a firm believer that by-in-large discrimination does not take place anymore. (At least by the average person in America.) So when there are studies that say it does, I have to think twice about them, unfortunately I don't normally have the time (or desire) as to find out where the study goes wrong. Luckily this John Stossel has found out why there is a 'gender gap' in paychecks, and his answer makes sense.

Suppose two people have equal potential, but one takes on more demanding, consuming, lucrative jobs while the other places a higher priority on family. The one who makes work the focus will be more productive for an employer than the one who puts his or her home life first. The latter will get more of the pleasures of family. So he (and it tends to be "he") will make more money, even though she would be equally productive and equally rewarded if she made the same choices.

NBA, players reach a deal

Detroit Free Press (article)

ah crap...

The league and players association avoided a lockout and image problems by agreeing in principle to a six-year deal on Tuesday. Players and the league's board of governors still must approve the agreement in a vote, and both sides hope it will be signed by July 22.

Usually I am all for corporations sponsoring things which benefit the public. But this may be a little bit too much. This company makes machines that clean beaches and then prints ads in the sand of whoever is paying for the clean-up. It is a good service, and it is something that is needed, but I just don�t like the logo being printed time after time after time...

The point is to clean the beach for �free�, but really isn�t just looking at logo for miles just as much of an eyesore as a bunch of trash? What do you think?

Hey, Klingons have feelings, too!

Beauty Dish (blargticle)

So she told me what he did. And as she told me, I started to laugh. I didn't laugh a little, either, but I belly-laughed and grabbed my stomach. My son stood with his class this morning, put small right hand over heart, faced the American flag, and recited his own personal pledge of allegiance:

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United Federation of Planets, and to the galaxy for which it stands, one universe, under everybody, with liberty and justice for all species.

"Mrs. Jaworski. This isn't humorous. The Pledge is an extremely important and patriotic moment each morning in the classroom. I am ashamed of your son's behavior, and I hope you are, too."

(click the link to read the full post)
It's funny and sad at the same time. It's funny because you know the kid has spent probably hours thinking up his new pledge, and was just waiting for the right time to say it. But it is really sad that some people take the pledge of allegiance that seriously. Lighten up, these are only kids, and really it doesn't matter anyways.

Sad thing is, as teachers are expected more and more to be the parents of their students we will see more stupid school suspensions. And while we are on the subject, I think kids physically fighting is ok as long as they are both actually fighting (not just one kid just bullying another kid). Kids are kids, let them grow up, and let's not turn our country into a big wussfest.

Halfbakery

Halfbakery (site)

Every day I find at least one cool new site. And let me tell you this one is cool. The chaps down at Attack of the Show pulled some nifty ideas from this site for today’s show, so I decided to check it out. Halfbakery is a site where people post ideas, some good (cream cheese circles for bagels) some not so good (who needs an overpass when you can build a ramp?). But in general they are all fun to read. A neat website.

Justices to rule on fate of file swapping

CNET News.com (article)

Perhaps as soon as this week, the U.S. Supreme Court will rule on the future of file swapping, in one of the most closely watched legal battles of the year.

It looks like we will get a ruling soon in the Groskter vs MGM case soon. Read more about it here and here.

Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town

Cory Doctorow (site / book)

It's only natural that Alan, the broadminded hero of Doctorow's fresh, unconventional SF novel, is willing to help everybody he meets. After all, he's the product of a mixed marriage (his father is a mountain and his mother is a washing machine), so he knows how much being an outcast can hurt. Alan tries desperately to behave like a human being--or at least like his idealized version of one. He joins a cyber-anarchist's plot to spread a free wireless Internet through Toronto at the same time he agrees to protect his youngest brothers (members of a set of Russian nesting dolls) from their dead brother who's now resurrected and bent on revenge.

Not too long ago, Chris and Jenette talked about this book, or at least mentioned it. Cory is the guy who does boingboing, as well writing another book, Eastern Standard Tribe, which I mentioned in that past as a book I want to read. All of his books look good, and guess what; if you want them you can get them for free. Kick butt.

We seem to be eating about once a day. Yesterday we ate at Chipotle, and today we ate at Planet Sub. If you need to go on a diet, the �sleep at the wrong times� diet works well. It works because your body has no idea when it should eat, so it never gets hungry. Foolproof I say.

A cool pic from eating at Chipotle yesterday.

Album Directory

cdzinc.com (site)

This site streams music, a lot of music. It is all organized by band, and then the CDs that they made. It is a very good site, check it out if you like the music, the sweet sweet music.

Will Wright's Spore

The 2005 Game Developers Conference (video)

Around the middle of the page has a link to the speech that Will Wright gave on developing Spore. The video is an hour long, and it gives a full demo of the game. Really this man is a genius. No, really.
If you have an hour you should watch the video, it is better than watching TV, trust me.

Your ISP as Net watchdog

CNET News.com (article)

The U.S. Department of Justice is quietly shopping around the explosive idea of requiring Internet service providers to retain records of their customers' online activities.

Yeah, thats not a good idea.

After playing a couple rounds of the game we decided to check out Andys new place before heading back up to Manhappiness. Since Andy got his promotion he was able to afford to move into a new duplex-development. (Ironically owned by Newgens parents company.) In short, Andys new house rocks. Not that it is anything too special, but anything compared to my living hole is fantastic. He has a backyard, two bedrooms, and get this, a kitchen (crazy, I know). Maybe next time I visit Garden I�ll stay at his house, so his spare bedroom gets some use.

After staying at Andy�s long after we should have left we finally made the trek back up here. We got here around 5am on Sunday morning and quickly went to sleep upon arriving. Today we played Warhammer down at P&C and then ate lunch at Chipotle. Unfortunately after lunch we came back home and fell asleep, only to wake up at 10pm... which means our almost normal sleep cycle is now totally messed up again, oh well, thats summer. ^_^


PBSE: +500

After the wedding we all went over to my moms for my Grandmas 86th birthday party. (I thought it was her 85th, so no wild party stories after this one, sorry.) We ate chicken, and potato salad. We had a good time. Summary complete.

After the party a couple of us played the game Why did the Chicken... that I had just bought at Hastings. It turned out to be a much harder game that I thought, but it still was very funny, and everyone enjoyed playing it. If you like board games, check that one out.

The reason we went to el churcho was because it was Joanna and Brendans wedding. The service was very nice, and the reception had many, many sweet things to eat. We saw a lot of people that we haven�t seen for years, so it was nice talking to them. I think more people showed up than they expected because as everyone was filing in for the reception some guys had to set up a couple more tables. Unfortunately, they threw the �rice� (wheat) late in the party and only about a quarter of the people remained, so the picture looks liked no one came, but trust me Hatcher Hall was full (which doesn�t mean anything to you unless you have been to el churcho). Ah well, it was a good time.

After getting a couple more hours of sleep, Nicole, Michelle, my mom and I went out to Target, for something... I forget what. Anywho the progress on Target is moving along nicely, and I think the updates are looking good. Somehow Pickle is working on the Target, but I am kinda foggy on how (did he do the plans? If you know drop me a line... *cough, cough* Julia). After Target went when back to my mom�s, watched my new Futurama DVDs and slept.

On Saturday we woke up around one and ate lunch with the normal GC crew +Jenette and Chris (they drove up Friday night). After lunch we headed off to the church, or el churcho, as they call it.

After breakfast Nicole and I decided to see if we could find Andy in his new office. (Andy recently became the *head* of the GIS department for Garden City and Finney County.) We found his office in the basement of the Garden City civic building. He was surprised to see us; he knew that we were coming up, but he didn�t know when, or that we were going to stop by. His office is very nice, he has a full desk, a conference table, another full desk for an intern, and a plasma TV (!). We ended up sitting around his office for about two hours (some of the time was spent looking around the place while he was talking on the phone). Since it looked like he needed to get *some* work done in the morning, we decided to meet for lunch at Lone Star.

Nicole and I grabbed a quick hour nap and then met Andy for lunch, which turned out really good (they always have the best steaks), and with a coupon he had lunch turned out cheaper than breakfast. After lunch Nicole and I went to Hastings (read more here), then back to my mom�s to catch up on sleep.

PBSE: +100

My weekend, in pseudo-random pictures (actually they are just the pictures that turned out well):

Early Friday morning (about 2am) Nicole and I left to go down to Garden. We got to town just in time to meet my mom and Michelle for breakfast at Kadee�s, before they had to go to work and dance team practice (you can guess which one did what). We actually got there before it opened, so we waited around outside with a couple other people. The owners of Kadee�s was confused by having so many people waiting for them to open, and asked if anything special was going on. Of course something special was going on, I was visiting Garden. :)

PBSE: +100 points

CNET's Digital Home DIY

CNET.com (site)

The internet becomes more useful every day. Today I found CNET's DIY page that tells you everything you need to know about digital stuff, from buying a HDTV to setting up a wireless network. It even includes a 'convince me' section for each project, just incase you didn't know why you needed to get the ultimate gaming setup. :)

Chris Lomont's Superballs Page

Chris Lomont's Superballs Page (site / video)

It started with:

One day Gene and Chris discovered 2000 superballs costs only $100 on Ebay. What to do?

It ended with an office prank, a very funny office prank. Be sure to watch the video of it.

Need brains...err... need food.

Ah, back from gaming. Nicole did pretty good (she completely wiped out her opponent) and I am loading the pictures from this weekend. I have got to get some food now though, so the weekend updates will be later.

Back

We are back, but we have to go play down at Patch and Crowsnest right now, so later today I will post pictures from the trip. Check back later for pictures and more.

Garden ahoy!

I'll be down in Garden for my Grandma’s 85th Birthday party. Since this is the big 8-5 there will be kegs, strippers, and lots of streaking. I'll post pics when i get them.

ja

Site Ranking in Google; The Secrets Out

Buzzle.com (article)

Google have recently filed United States Patent Application 20050071741 on March 31, 2005. In which many of the search giants secret ranking criteria is revealed and it makes very interesting reading. You have got to read this if you're serious about ranking well in Google. The days of Spaming Google are drawing to a close. With this patent they reveal just how hard they're coming down on Spam sites.

Google takes many steps to filter out spam site, while spam sites try as hard as possible to get Google to fall for them. It is interesting to see what matters in Google ranking where they are trying to lower spam site rankings while raising valid websites’. For example:

Because the majority of Spam websites only register a domain name for one year. A domain registered for a longer period implies that the owner is more likely to be legitimate and serious about their web site.
This is just one of the unusual factors now considered by Google when indexing and ranking a website. Factors you could never even have guessed at in some cases.

also

Sites can be ranked seasonally. A ski site may rank higher in the winter than in the summer. Google can monitor and rank pages by recording CTR changes by season.

There are many factors that go into Google search rankings, that is why they are so good at what they do.

Attack of the Blog

G4 - Attack of the Show (blog)

Attack of the Show has launched a blog that has links to stuff that didn’t make it onto the show. This link should be useful in finding cool new stuff. So be sure to bookmark my blog, so you always have the link to their blog... ^_^

Dell Says He’d Sell Apple’s Mac OS

FORTUNE (article)

Dell (the company) has for several years fearlessly—and lucratively—sold servers loaded with Linux, the operating system Microsoft reviles and dreads. And as the industry's top dog it wields more bargaining power with Microsoft than other PC-makers. So I emailed Michael Dell, now the company's chairman, and asked if he'd be interested in the Mac OS, assuming that Apple CEO Steve Jobs ever decides to license it to PC companies. (For now, Jobs says he won't.)
"If Apple decides to open the Mac OS to others, we would be happy to offer it to our customers," Dell wrote in an email. It's the first time any PC industry executive has openly shown enthusiasm for selling machines with Apple's software. Though that's all Dell would say for the record, I suspect his interest is not unknown to Jobs. So, as I said in this column last week (and in an article in the new issue of FORTUNE), the ball is in Jobs' court.

Apple has a lot of momentum going for them right now; I think that it would be a very good move to license their OS to other computer manufactures. I would think that they would gain a much larger customer base if it was possible to buy a Dell Mac (or Compaq or whatever...).
It's an interesting prospect.

PSP Swaploit (PSP Launcher) Homebrew on 1.50!

PSP Hacks (article)

The PSP gets one step closer to me buying it. Now let’s get a real browser, a good text editing app., a hard drive, and a good keyboard, and I will think about getting one.

Living Dolls

cbc.ca (article)

I just got done watching an HBO documentary about beauty pageants for girls (ages 0-7 and above). The show was called "Living Dolls: The Making of a Child Beauty Queen" and it did a wonderful job of showing how absurd the practice is of dressing up 6 year olds to look like 26 year old sex objects. The camera work was great and there are many shots where you have to smile about the insanity that the parents have in doing that to their children. The best shot comes at the end when Swan, the focus of the documentary, finally wins the grand championship and is holding up money as a prize (as posed by the people there). Swan and all those girls have learnt at a very early age that sex equals money. Sick.
The documentary never speaks out against the pageant, but instead uses the parents own words and actions to show how wrong this is. It is really a great show and if you happen to be flipping through HBO and happen to catch it, watch it for a second, it is amazing.

Cold air funnels differ from tornadoes

gctelegram.com (article)

John Washington was going about his job June 3 at the Garden City Recreation Commission, when he saw something odd in the sky.
"I was actually on the phone when I saw it," he said. "I thought, ?I need to get a picture.'"
It was a confusing moment for many people who also saw the strange tornado-shaped funnel west of Garden City that day.
"Everyone started to panic," Washington said. "I kept thinking it couldn't be a tornado because it was sunny out."
He was right.

It's not that special of an article, but I know John Washington (Step-dad of a friend from high school), so it was worth mentioning. I mean it is free for me to post anything, so anything it is that I will post... take that English language!

Bed by 7? We will see.

Today turned out to be a pretty good day. BW3 went well, Lance won the mini-six, and i won the Showdown. Afterwards we all (Me, Cole, Jenette, Chris, Aaron, and Lance) enjoyed a rousing game of Super Tennis. After a stop at slushieville we came back to my place and played a game of Warhammer. Chris and I played the good side (with Lizardmen and High Elves), while Nicole, Aaron and Jenette were evil (Vampire Counts, Dark Elves and Goblins). The battle was bloody and in the end the game turned out as a draw. The MVPs go to Jenettes Fanatics (who sliced up my units pretty well), and Chris Lizardman champion (who was able to hold of charges by zombies, ghouls, and dark elf spearmen). A fun time was had by all. Now I am going to do some cleaning and then it's off to bed for me.

I am a Japanese School Teacher

Outpost Nine (site/blog)

Some time ago I found this page, and today I refund it. It is a blog of an American guy teaching through the JETs program in Japan. He is very funny an updates about once a week. If you really want to know what Japanese kids are like you should read some of his posts, it is surprising. Koncho for one....

Anyways here is a short story that I thought was funny from his blog, but really if you need a good laugh go check the site out.

I was at the gym with a female Japanese friend. We were watching the news on TV when suddenly she turns to me and asks "So, you're American, right? How many guns do you have?"
Notice the word usage here. Not "if" I have guns, no! "How many" guns do I have. Because surely, as a red-blooded American, I own guns. Yee-haw, when I'm not drinkin' my root beer and eating myself damn to death, I sure love me to shoot some stuff! *thumbs up*
Clearly, I needed to set her straight. I pointed my first finger at her in the classic "Now let me tell you something..." pose, but before words could escape my mouth, she innocently said "Oh, only one gun?"
Somewhere in the world, I imagine Charlton Heston is quite pleased with himself.

SaveSURGE.org - Vault (blargticle)

Coke is testing, in select locations, a new soda called Vault. And Coke has said before that they are testing the old Surge formula. So what do the experts say about Vault being Surge just repackaged? Maybe.

The problem is that it has been so long that anyone has tasted a *fresh* Surge that they can not be sure that Vault is Surge until Cake says it is so. But at the moment it really looks like Vault is Surge.
Yay!

Last night we were getting very hungry, so we (Nicole, Chris, Jenette, and I) went over to Pizza Hut to restock our freezer of pizza. It was funny to see the reaction of the waitress when we all ordered our own pizza, as well as a family order of cheesesticks (which was our actual meal). If you need quick lunches leftover Pizza Hut pizza is the awesome, and a large stuffed crust pizza is $10 and makes four lunches. $2.50 a lunch, that's a good deal.

Yesterday (Sunday) I woke up and ran out to BW3 to catch the beginning of the AFL championship game. We got there about a little bit before the kick off. (Somehow we missed Lance though) Unfortunately during the second quarter the people down there switched the TV that we were watching to baseball (puke), so we left and watched the game at home (we at least got audio that way). Jenette came over a little after the start of the second half. The game was pretty good, and Colorado won the Championship with a last second field goal. Huzzah!

After enrolling Maria we all went out to So Long for dinner. As always it rocked. The people in the picture are, Nicole, Irene (Nicoles mom), Nick (going to the GCCC next year, then hopefully he will come up here), Maria, Jenette, and Chris. After dinner you know what Nicole�s mom did? She paid for everyones dinner. I�m beginning to think that her heading up the new office in Wichita is a very good thing. (Not that it was a bad thing in the first place, but I am seeing some of the benefits now.)

Nicoles mom, Maria, and Marias boyfriend, Nick, came up here on Saturday to enroll for K-State. We had a good time when they were up here, but they didnt even stay a whole day, which was disappointing. Maria is gonna try her had at Journalism (instead of Engineering) so we will see how that goes. I got Maria football tickets (GA), and Nicole and I both have them, so if you are going to school here next semester be sure to order your football tickets! Another good thing about Nicoles mom coming up is that I got my birthday present from her. She gave me a 32� HDTV (^_^). Which is a slight upgrade from my old 19� TV that lost its power and channel up button (Nicole is distructive). We were gonna split the cost of the TV, but Nicoles mom ended up just giving it all to us. It is probably the best birthday gift, ever.

Ummm... so what room is this again?


Geez, I wonder what made it so that the plate above the door was not enough...

^_^

We had some extra time to play around on the K-State campus when Maria was enrolling.

Mental Note: incase of nuclear disaster, head to the fallout shelter in Kedzie. They have a soda machine down there.

I got this noodle bowl at the Super Target in Lawrence. In the bowl there were two seasoning pouches, one dry and one oily. After heating the noodles up in the microwave you add both seasoning pouches and enjoy. So was it good?
Well, I do have to say that it was not very good for me (60% of my sodium for the day), which means that, yes, it was very good. I think the trick to making good noodles is to include a packet of oily stuff, because there must be something in there that tastes good (or is it just mind control serum?). Either way, I will be looking for ramen that has liquid flavoring pouches from now on.

Mission #6 done.

After ten days of thinking up new flavors combinations I finally finished Mission #6. The last five days I got:
Apple Slush (OK)
Strawberry Slush (Good)
Coconut Pinalpple Slush (Very Bad)
Strawberry Dr.Pepper (Not that good)
Grape Slush (Better than I thought it would be)

The first five days are here.

Dead dot coms

Album (site)

This site has many farewell screen shots of dot coms that died. It is interesting to see what they have to say as their last official words on the internet.

More productive my butt.

Aha! I have regained my superpower of the internet. The storms that we have been going through the area every six or so hours for the last 3 or 4 days has been wrecking havoc on my internet connection, and I have not been able to connect to the internet for more than a day (hence the no new posts here). Well I called HomeStar down at telecom, and as soon as he started to talk my internet connection started to work again, and he said he didn't do anything... HomeStar is cool.
Anyways my summer day sans internet sucked, watching TV meant flipping through channels (instead of checking TitanTV to see if anything good was on), checking out the weather meant watching NBC for their small weather map (instead of going to intellicast.com which I have our radar bookmarked), and trying to make plans involved talking on the phone (instead of Y! messenger). So a lot of my time yesterday was spent doing things the 'old fashioned' way, and it sucked.

People say "think how much more productive people would be without TV, phones and internet.
I say: "yeah right"

San Antonio rejects MLS

Kansas City Star (article)

For the last few months, San Antonio’s Alamodome had been regarded as a possible future home for the Wizards, who were put up for sale by owner Lamar Hunt in December.
But San Antonio mayor-elect Phil Hardberger told reporters in his first news conference Wednesday that he was not interested in Major League Soccer coming to his city.
When asked what he would tell the league, Hardberger said, “Goodbye. That’s what I would tell MLS.”

Well the deal to bring a MLS team to San Antonio fell apart. I guess that is good for KC since it looked like the Wizards were going to be the team to move down there, but all is not good still for KC they will still probably lose the team.

Two Videos

One Cute

One Scary

Both fun, although I have doubts in believing that the second one is completely real, and if it is, it probably should be illegal.

Optware to Release 30 GB Holographic Card for Less than $1 at the End of 2006 by Tech-On! (article)

Optware Corp., a developer of holographic data storage systems, is planning to release a Holographic Versatile Card (HVC) media product around the end of 2006. The card capacity is expected to be 30 GB. The company aims to price the product around �100. Optware also intends to set the price of a reader device lower than �200,000 and a reader/writer device lower than �1 million. The launch of these HVC-related products is planned to coincide with the standardization of the technology, expected in December, 2006, by Ecma International, an organization promoting standardization of information and communication technologies. The company also revealed photos of mockups. Dimensions of the card are almost the same as those of a credit card, while the drive system is designed to be the size of a surface-mounted hard disc drive system.

CD sized storage= Lame.
Credit card sized sotroage= Awesome.

...acutally 30 gig for $1= awesome.

Wind farms pose low risk to birds

BBC NEWS (article)

Migrating birds are unlikely to be seriously affected by offshore wind farms, according to a study.

That’s one less hurdle until we can get this alternative energy source up and running. Now all the hippies have against them are that they are an "eyesore". I wish the hippies would support clean energy instead of being brainwashed by big oil.

NHL, NHLPA agree on salary cap

thehockeynews.com (article)

The National Hockey League and NHL Players' Association have reportedly agreed to a salary-cap system, giving hope that the league's lengthy lockout could be nearing an end.

It looks like there will be NHL hockey next year. How about we just start playing a season now to make up from missing last year.

MLL will expand to Denver

Major League Lacrosse (site)

During the MLL game tonight on ESPN2 the founder (owner?) of the league said that Denver will get a team for next year as well as LA, and two more cities out west. Apparently this is very recent news as no one on the internet has anything about Denver getting a team. I am glad that the MLL is expanding out west, because as it is now I don't really care that much for just having New England teams. When there is something official announced I’ll post it.

More: I am gonna guess that the other two cities are Salt Lake, Las Vegas, or Portland. Leave your guesses in the comments. I'll buy you a soda if you guess both cities right. :)

Well the storm blew on through. It rained very very hard (enough to make a stream out of our sidewalk). Since the computer was down I spent some of the time trying to take pictures of lightning from the bathroom. This was the best picture I got, soon afterwards I removed the screen, but none of the pictures turned out as good as this one... oh well.

Zappage ahoy!

Intellicast (site)

Well I was going to post some, but it sounds like there is some wicked lightning coming this way, so i think el computer is gonna hafta get unplugged.

Last night we went over to Aarons to play with the EyeToy some. I always forget how fun it is to play with it. AntiGrav worked better this time, since we all knew how to do tricks... well in theory we knew how to do them. Also the normal EyeToy Play was fun to play with as well. After playing with that for awhile everyone left (Jenette, Chris and Nicole) and Aaron and I watch rugby. The NRL is a very entertaining form of rugby where they have downs, and is immensely fun to watch. After the game I came home and played on the computer for a bit.
Such is summer.

Research shows benefits of affirmative action

EducationGuardian.co.uk (article)


Just incase you though racism was over:

After looking at more than 124,000 applicants to elite universities, Thomas J Espenshade and Chang Y Chung concluded that ignoring race in admissions would result in dramatic declines in the number of African-Americans and Hispanics.
Removing consideration of race would have little effect on white students - their acceptance rate would rise by only 0.5 percentage points. Asian students would fill nearly four out of every five places in the admitted class not taken by African-American and Hispanic students.

Tell me why ignoring race would be considered racist by some in this case?

A pound of PETA

Daily Tribune (article)

The protest, in which three people placed themselves in containers resembling supermarket meat trays, was meant to compare eating meat with cannibalism.

So this is where the thought pattern of "we are the same as animals" leads to. It makes no sense, but whatever. We were obviously made to eat meat, and we not really made to drink other animals milk. But for some reason these people think it is wrong to eat meat, while drinking milk is probably bad in their minds, but not as bad as eating the cow.

The WHA is not dead???

The Official Website of The World Hockey Association (article)

Park Hill Capital II, Inc. a US public company soon to be publicly trading on a US exchange, announced today that after several months of confidential negotiations, it will acquire the World Hockey Association and the US Pro Golf Tour to create a complete professional sports marketing and management company to be renamed Major League Sports Corporation.

So a company bought the WHA and a golf tour... why would someone buy the WHA? They are a dead idea, and unless this company is made to fail, I see no reason to buy the WHA... well maybe it only cost like $15, and then I guess it would be worth it just to say you own it.
But it looks like the WHA is still determined to start playing hockey. Even after just forgetting to do their tourney, they still say they will play a season this year with at least six teams. So they missed a tournament, but they still think they can pull off a league... maybe it only cost $10 to buy the WHA.

Western Wireless pulls Aggie cell tower request

The Manhattan Mercury (article)

Amber first broke the news but:

Those proposing an 120-foot tall cellular phone tower in Aggieville plan to pull the item from the agenda for tonight's meeting of the board of zoning appeals.

I first talked about the pole here.
It was not a very good idea, and I am glad to see that it is not going in.

qwantz.com - poster child mario question blocks! (site)

This website tells you

How to Make Your Own Totally Sweet Mario Question Blocks and Put Them Up Around Town Because It's Really Awesome

Need I say more?

A sign in the K-State Student Union.

There have been storms brewing around all day. None of them have hit us yet, since they are moving very slow. But they gave us a really nice sunset tonight.

42 Games (Game)

Insanity, in game form. (Very fun)

I think it is based off of Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy....

T-Mobile Scores Highest With J.D. Powers

Designtechnica (article)

While T-mobile may not have the best nationwide coverage, their customers are happy overall. The award was given because T-mobile answers customer’s calls promptly and resolves customer issues, often during the first call.

In my very slow quest for a mobile phone this is one more reason that my first look will be at T-Mobile. (The other reason is that their two phone plan is about $10 cheaper per month than the rest.) So in about 3 years you might be able to find me actually actively trying to get a mobile phone plan. (Hopefully sooner than that. ^_^)

Today was a pretty good day. The main events were BW3, which I did not do good at, and Super Tennis (pictured above). Lance stopped by to play for a bit, and a good time was had by all.

In BSE news, I am currently on day 5 of 10 for getting Sonic drinks. So far I have had: Limeade Slush (Good), Oceanwater Slush (Very Good), Strawberry Rootbeer (Goodish), Watermelon Sprite (Good), and a Strawberry-Orange Slush (Very Good). It is fun thinking up combinations of drinks that I have not had before.

Websites Invade Your Privacy to Charge You More

EFF (article)

CNN has a report detailing an unsavory practice euphemistically called "price customization." In short, websites examine the web data you automatically shed (cookies, IP address, etc.) so they can charge you a different price for a product or service depending on your "identity" and shopping habits.
The article cites "a retail photography Web site charging different prices for the same digital cameras and related equipment depending on whether shoppers had previously visited popular price-comparison sites" and "one [Amazon] buyer [who] deleted the electronic tags on his computer that identified him as a regular customer and noticed the price of a DVD changed from $26.24 to $22.74."

That is not the way to run your company.

Inside Tornadoes Multimedia @ National Geographic Magazine (video)

This is a series of three short videos that National Geographic made about Tim Samaras trying to get a tornado to run over a box with video cameras in it. (Well the whole show was about that, the clips are just the tornado running over the box.)

If you find tornadoes interesting watch this, it is awesome.

Democracy Lite 6/1/05 (flash)

I just don�t get it with these guys. What do they want? Do they want people free? Because these countries are working on Democracy, but for some reason they are showing that as a bad thing. Sure maybe there are *one or two* bad things going on now, but compared to what was going on before I�m sure it is insignificant.

I really, really don�t get these guys that make this stuff.

Monkey Business (article)

Two unrelated tamarin monkeys sit adjoining each other. Every fifteen seconds, a human research assistant brings a tray loaded with a marshmallow that is just out of reach of one of the monkeys. The only way that monkey can eat the treat is if his partner pulls a red handle that will put the marshmallow within reach.
You want how much for those grapes?
But pulling the handle doesn't bring any reward for the puller: pulling the handle only pays if the monkey who receives the marshmallow reciprocates by pulling in the future. Like many human situations, the monkeys must work together to obtain food and build trust while punishing failures to cooperate.

Another experiment that they discuss is monkeys learning to use (and budget) money. These are interesting studies, although I fail to see the real purpose in them, but none the less it is fun to see if the monkeys can learn the concepts. Also I would like to know if dogs would do something to benefit another dog, and then would except the same to be done for him.

Dave Devries's Monster Engine (site)

Dave Devries takes drawings from children and turns them into very nice paintings. It is neat to see how he translates things that the children draw into 'real' objects, for example the hair that the child drew above is made into flames. For some reason I have been fancying art more and more lately, maybe because I am very tired of all the white walls we have in our apartment. Must... have... color...

Civilization IV for PC at GameSpot

A follow up to my last post.

If you want to see a lot of the new features of the new Civ IV game check out this video from E3 (13 minute interview with game play shown the whole time). It looks like the game will be a good upgrade from Civ III. The release date is November 1st; so mark your calendars.

Civilization Anonymous

civanon.org (site)

I've been attending CivAnon meetings for approximately 18 months now. Partly because I began to get a perverse thrill out of wiping out entire civilizations with atomic intercontinental ballistic weaponry, and partly because they serve cake at the meetings. I like to kill, that's true. But I like cake even more.

^_^

Gbrowser

Albinoblacksheep.com (article)

Is Google making a web browser?

Some people are seeing Google in their logs. It says "Google 0.X" listed among the other browsers, not robots, not search queries, but browsers! 0.X is the version number of beta software - software in production. So if you think these logs are mistakes, recognizing the GoogleBot instead, I don't think so. GoogleBot is at least in version 2.1. Still a chance this can be wrong.

Flash - Magnetism (game)

Here is a great game that is kinda like gravity type games, but with magnets. Very addictive. ^_^"

Today was the third week for the Warhammer campaign at Patch and Crows (thus mission 23 from Project: BSE will be completed no matter how it goes from here on). Today Nicole and I played a scenario where we tried to poison a water well. We accomplished our objective quick enough, but when we tried to get off the board we got blasted by magic and we were barely able to pull out a draw in the battle. It was a fun game, and Tomas (sp?) is a fun person to play against.
After playing at Patch and Crows, Nicole and I came home to eat lunch, but our power was out, so we went to Panera. At Panera I tried to get onto the internet there, but to no avail. So after lunch I went over to Chris' to use his spiffy new internet, but there too I could not get on the internet. So my attempts at getting on the wireless internet with my 'new' lappy will stop, it is just too frustrating.
After playing around at Chris' I just came home a played a little bit of the Sims.
It�s been a fun day so far. (In general)

Miracle Finish Puts Crush in ArenaBowl

OurSports Central (article)

Andy McCullough's leaping, 22-yard touchdown grab in double coverage 9:44 into overtime sent the Colorado Crush to ArenaBowl XIX via a 49-43 win over the Chicago Rush and capped one of the wildest, emotional games in Arena Football League history.

I'm glad Colorado made it to the ArenaBowl, it gives me a team to go for in the game. Who is gonna watch the championship game down at BW3 with me? (It's worth BSE points.)

Yesterday we headed south of town to watch the storms roll in. Nicole has a pretty good account of the whole thing. Other than that I really didn�t do too much yesterday, I guess I ended up eating a lot.
The only thing that I know I am going to do today is to go play in the campaign down at Patch and Crow�s. I think I want to start working on something, I�m not sure what, but we will see when I get home around 5 this evening.

This guy is incredible!

Eric Grohe (site)

This guy paints on buildings and makes them go from this:


To this:


Check out the site, there are pictures of more buildings that this guy has done. Very cool.

A BLT and a Route 44 drink (Limeade Slush) from Sonic.

Summer rocks.

Eleven Teams To Compete in 2006 NLL Season

NLL.com (article)

Even though now is the time that the NLL should be making strides in popularity they have announced that they will only be up one more team for next year.

The National Lacrosse League has announced the league will consist of eleven teams for the 2006 season. The eleven-team league will include expansion teams in Edmonton, Alberta and Portland, Oregon. The Anaheim Storm lacrosse club has suspended operations, and will not play during the 2006 season. Applications for expansion teams in the New York and New England markets will remain under consideration as expansion candidates for the 2007 season.

I would think that they would like to stick around at least one more year to see if they can capitalize on the follies of the NHL, so there must be some real fanatical trouble at Anaheim.

I donno, maybe soccer will be the fourth sport...

Pirate Islands Fantasy Football

Pirate Islands Fantasy Football (blog)

I have set up a blog for PIFF, mainly for the draft, but I will try to keep updating it throughout the season as well. I have sent out an email about starting the draft to everybody who is in the league, so if you didn't get it you should give me an email addy that you want me to send it to (or if you would rather me send emails to you at a different addy give me that as well). I am looking forward to this year’s league, and I have my eyes set firmly on the little championship trophy, this year it is mine.

Aggieville business owners oppose cell tower

The Manhattan Mercury (article)

Aggieville property and business owners say they've spent good money building up their properties, and they can't believe that anyone is even considering putting a 120-foot-tall cell phone tower behind Gambino's Pizza. From their standpoint, the bottom line is that the thing is ugly.

I agree with the business owners that putting a cell tower down in Aggieville is a bad idea. And I also agree with them that it would just make the traffic situation worse. I don't really know what a good solution would be (since there are some gaps in cell phone coverage), but a tower in Aggieville is not acceptable.

Capture Videos

BaitCar.com (site)

The Canadian police have set up a website showing the footage of people stealing bait cars. It looks like the program is pretty effective since a lot of the people stealing the cars know what bait cars are. The videos are pretty good, and some of the cops have pretty heavy accents, so they are fun videos to watch.

"People do stupid things" Commercials.

Vonage (site)

Just incase you wanted them, here are all the Vonage commercials. If you haven’t seen them, they are clips of people doing stupid things, funny^max.

Enough already with kid gloves

USATODAY.com (article)

It seems that many adults today regard the children in their care as fragile hothouse flowers who require protection from even the remote possibility of frustration, disappointment or failure. The new solicitude goes far beyond blacklisting red pens. Many schools now discourage or prohibit competitive games such as tag or dodge ball. The rationale: too many hurt feelings. In May 2002, for example, the principal of Franklin Elementary School in Santa Monica, Calif., sent a newsletter to parents informing them that children could no longer play tag during the lunch recess. As she explained, "In this game, there is a 'victim' or 'It,' which creates a self-esteem issue."

and

Anthony Pellegrini, a professor of early childhood education at the University of Minnesota, has done careful studies on playground dynamics. I asked him what he thought of the national movement against games such as tag and dodge ball: "It is ridiculous. Even squirrels play chase."

This is a bit of a follow up to the red pen story that was discussed a bit back. Really, kids need to learn how to cope with failure, be it doing bad on school work, or getting hit in dodgeball. If we never let our kids fail then when they do in real life they will not have developed the proper response to it. It is stupid to not allow children to play competitive games. In Nicole's class when a competitive game was played the kids preformed better than when they were just learning the material for themselves. I think that a kid that is sheltered from competition will be woefully unprepared for life.

I mean I am still disappointed that the little league never kept track of win and losses in Garden when I played. (While playing soccer in Arizona we had a playoff system and even an All-Star game. I was 7 at the time and loved striving for a goal.)

Giuliani to create new hockey league?

ESPN.com (article)

The Toronto Star reported Wednesday that former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and leading Canadian diplomat Maurice Strong may join forces to create a new hockey league if the NHL continues its lockout, which wiped out the entire 2004-05 season.
According to a 71-page business plan reviewed by the newspaper and circulated to prospective Wall Street investors, the new league -- tentatively called the International Hockey Association -- would rely on Giuliani's New York consulting company to help raise as much as $5 billion in seed money.

This got a short mention on ESPN today and is quite interesting. I hope there is some hockey played next year, be it NHL, IHA, or WHA. By the way the WHA is not updating their site, which probably means it is dead.

This is my desktop from May. Just incase you were wondering what I have been looking at for the last month. And I know all you have been wondering that...

The only thing of note that I have done today is play disc golf on campus. No really, that is what we are doing here. Actually we are tiring to get Chris' disc out of the very very spiky bushes that they have on campus. It kinda sucked, but I bet it sucked even more for Chris. ^_^

Project BSE points over the last couple days:
Saw Star Wars Ep. III again: +150
Visited a friend more that 50 miles away: +500
Eat at Runza: +50
Eat at Qdoba: +50
Eat at Free State: +100
BSE point total so far: 3450