December 31, 2001
Purdue almost pulls it off
I came home early for the Sun Bowl, more out of loyalty than any real expectation of an entertaining game. However, they stayed close and had a chance to win in the final minute. This is a very young offense and I'm very excited about next year!
Go Boilers!
Permalink | Comments (2)December 30, 2001
Damn birds
As I type this, my yard has been invaded by a flock of black birds. I think they are starlings and I would guess they number at least 300. If I had a bird phobia I would probably be curled in the fetal position about now... I let the dogs out back hoping they would scare the birds into a neighbors yard. The birds don't seem to be particularly worried about my dogs, although they did move to my roof, where I am sure they are depositing copious quantities of bird crap as retaliation for my releasing the hounds into the yard.
Permalink | Comments (2)December 27, 2001
I'm in BBQ heaven...
I got a case of Gates BBQ sauce for Christmas. My wife is the best :)
Permalink | Comments (1)Lord of the Rings
Yes, it is the movie of the year, and possibily one of the greatest movies, ever. I would have bet I was only 60 minutes into the movie as it ended (its a little over 3 hours). Go see it. I don't care if you hate fantasy movies, this is a great movie, period.
Permalink | Comments (1)Christmas CD Reviews
Yeah, its a little late but since I bought these for Michelle, I just got a chance to listen to them!
The Beach Boys Christmas Album is a classic. I remember playing this record over and over as a kid when my parents pulled it for the Christmas season. Rarely has a band taken classic Christmas songs and adapted them to their style as well as the Beach Boy's do here.
Deana Carter's Father Christmas is the complete opposite. Deana, accompanied by only an acoustic guitar, strips a set of Christmas classics down to the bare essential emotion that makes Christmas special. This is so good I could enjoy this album anytime of the year. 20 years from now, they will call this a classic.
Permalink | Comments (0)A very un-PC Christmas
Christmas at our house this year would make the heads of the PC police explode. Featured at left are Billy Yank and Johnny Reb, the ultimate in politically incorrect GI Joe's. Now if I just convince my son that the Civil War wasn't just about slavery and the South had some very good reasons to leave the Union...
Also found under our tree this year, lots of little blue and grey army men of the Civil War variety, several GI Joe's, a Soldier of War, and a bunch of Barbie stuff for my daughter.
Permalink | Comments (6)December 23, 2001
VHEA blog is live
The Virginia Home Education Association blog is live. Please post here if you see anything that needs correcting.
Permalink | Comments (0)December 22, 2001
The Olympic Flame
The Olympic Flame passed about 4 blocks from my house Friday morning. I had higher hopes for the phot op - blame it on a combination of sub freezing weather and I had no hat or gloves, and I was on a conference call at the time I took the picture...
Red Sox sold - Fenway Park to be renevated!
In what definately qualifies as an early Christmas present for me, the new owners of the Red Sox are on the record as favoring a renevation of Fenway Park vs moving the Sox to a new stadium.
In other news, they recently got rid of Carl "the clubhouse cancer" Everret, and they signed Johnny Damon to a contract. Lets hope Johnny doesn't pull a Jose Offerman and forget how to run once he gets to Boston.
Anybody want to start a deathwatch on Dan Duquette??? There will be much rejoicing in my house when that idiot is no longer GM of the Red Sox.
Permalink | Comments (0)December 19, 2001
Nothing like aiming high
The new, much hearaled, and IMO, utterly worthless, federal education bill aims to have all children reading by third grade. My kids were reading at 4 years old, and I was reading at 5 at the latest. In fact, I remember everybody reading by 5 or 6 years old when I was that age....
Permalink | Comments (7)Amazing analysis of Trade Towers Attack
USA today has done an analysis of the deaths in the 9-11 attack. They compare who died and who lived, where they were in the building, etc. This is required reading...
Permalink | Comments (0)December 18, 2001
What are they smoking in Texas?
In the last week the Texas Rangers have traded for Carl Everett and John Rocker, two of the biggest head cases in professional sports.
Permalink | Comments (1)December 17, 2001
Neighborcam Goes Live
It took several hours of work and two holes drilled through the walls, but neigborcam is funtional. Neighborcam is an infrared, motion sensitive video camera monitoring the front of my house. It is connected to an infrared controller that triggers the VCR anytime it detects motion. Michelle feels much safer now, and I can claim boku geek points for installing my own security system. Now I need to get the PCI card for it so I can monitor my house over the Internet.
It is surprisingly addictive. I find myself flipping to the camera feed instead of watching commercials...
Permalink | Comments (0)December 16, 2001
Book Review: Straight From the Gut, Jack Welch
The best business book I've read this year. This is required reading for anybody who has managerial aspirations...which does not explain why I read it. After reading the book, I'm ready to submit my application to Geneal Electric as it sounds like a great place to work. It will be interesting to see if they can keep it up sans Jack Welch.
Permalink | Comments (0)December 15, 2001
CD Review: Myshkin- blue gold
Village Records threw this into my order for free. They are apparently cleaning the shelves of the crap they can't sell. This CD can be described in two words, Zydego Bluegrass. If for some strange reason this appeals to you the CD is yours. Send your address, shipping is on me.
PS - I don't mean to sound unappreciative. Village records was very clear that they were throwing in stuff they couldn't sell. Somebody probably got lucky and discovered a great artist. That somebody was not me.
Permalink | Comments (0)Music Review: The Yayhoos- Fear Not The Obvious
Down and dirty, sloppy and raunchy, blues based rock and roll done right. The lead singer is the former frontman for The Georgia Satellites.You can buy it at Village Records
Permalink | Comments (1)December 14, 2001
First LOTR Review
Russ found the first review of Lord of The Rings. It sounds like it doesn't suck. I am so relieved.
I'm not working Christmas week. One of those afternoons will definately be spent in a movie theatre.
Permalink | Comments (0)December 13, 2001
FBI is writing Viri
Great, now I have to worry about the FBI planting a keystroke logging trojan on my PC
Permalink | Comments (0)December 12, 2001
Military Planning Takeover of US
Apparently, the US Military is embedding secret codes into otherwise ordinary street signs in preperation of a takeover. I read it on the Internet, so it must be true, right??
Permalink | Comments (4)Think Small, Act Big
Yet another link re-blogged from Davezilla. Shel is leading the charge for all of us to empty our change jars and clean under the couch cushions. The resulting pile of coins should be donated to the small charity of your choice, preferably one that has been somewhat forgotten since 9/11.
I have two sandwhich bags full of coins that have been sitting in a drawer for months. I'll report back how much is there, and who I'm donating to. Suggestions are welcome.
Permalink | Comments (1)December 11, 2001
Chippy the Church Chimp
When I clicked the Chippy link at Davezilla I was expecting it to be a joke, and probably somewhat blasphemous too. I was wrong. It is funny, but it looked to be serious.
I'm expecting a good comment from Mark on this one :)
Permalink | Comments (4)December 09, 2001
New VHEA President
The Virginia Home Education Association elected a new president today, and that person would be me!
First order of business, get a homeschool blog going at the VHEA web site!
Permalink | Comments (2)Back to School
I haven't read this book, but it sounds kind of interesting. Author and College Professor Elinor Burkett went back to high school for a year and wrote about her experiences in Another Planet, A Year in the Life of an American High School. What really strikes me in this interview from The Atlantic is that she really seems to "get it." It's her generation, the Baby Boomers, that have completely screwed up our education system. I don't think I've ever heard a respnsible adult from that generation admit that.
Permalink | Comments (0)December 08, 2001
An Alternative to Outlook
With yet another new virus trashing Outlook users everywhere, it seems an opportune time to plug my favourite email client.
Pocomail is, quite simply, the best email client I have found. The 3 MB download delivers an email package that is amazingly customizable, very stable, fast, standards compliant, and safe because it does not support Javascript, DHTML, or anything else that should not be in an email. Several of the features that I find particularly cool are:
- Ability to selectively download images in HTML email negates the tracking ability of web bugs.
- All email is stored as plain text in standards compliant email folders.
- Built in spam filtering, which is customizable too.
- Contains a proprietary scripting language that allows you to extend the capabilities of the program.
- Good support - my questions have been answered quickly, often by the author of the software.
This is shareware at its best. You can download the fully functional application and try it free for 30 days. The cost to register is only $25. It can be set up to look pretty much like Outlook, helping to ease the conversion pain. It does not support a direct import of Outlook mail, however, there are several scripts out there that will convert Outlook mail to text, which can be directly imported into Pocomail.
December 06, 2001
Overheard on my front porch this week
( My wife overheard this conversation on Monday)
The UPS guy and the mailman both arrived at the door at the same time...
UPS: What's the deal with that lady down the street that wants her packages left in the sealed containers outside?
Mailman: She is worried about Anthrax. Has she actually answered the door for you?
UPS: No
Mailman: She wears rubber gloves and a surgical mask
UPS: Your kidding, right?
Mailman: no, I'm not.
This is only funny if her husband doesn't work for the CIA, NSA or some other 3 letter government agency that would give her access to non-public info. In that case, this is downright scary!
Permalink | Comments (0)December 03, 2001
Corporate Linking Policy?
It seems somebody at KPMG doesn't understand the whole idea of the World Wide Web. They have sent a complaint leter to some guy who liked totheir page without their express written permission. The window by my cube at work faces the KPMG building - I wonder if I need their permission to look? Anyway, KMPG KMPG KMPG KMPG KMPG KMPG
Maybe I can get a complaint letter too.
(via Jason Kottke )
Permalink | Comments (1)So this is "IT"
The word is finally out on "It" or "Ginger" or whatever they end up calling it. Pretty cool. Maybe not earth shattering, but pretty cool.
Permalink | Comments (0)December 01, 2001
The Wendy's From Hell
On our way to the Christmas parade, we stopped in at Wendy's for a quick dinner with the kids. There was one person in front of me in line, 5 minutes later, there was one person in front of me in line. A complaint to the manager at least got somebody to take our order. Then I saw what the hold up was. The woman making burgers apparently did not read English so the order taker guy had to stand over her and repeat what each burger was 4 or 5 times. (She still got Michelle's wrong...) The entire time we were there a 4 or 5 year old hispanic kid was running amok in the dining run, bothering diners, climbing on tables, etc. This won't surprise you...his mother is the burger maker that can't read English. Apparently this poor kid had to hang out in the Wendy's dining room while his mom worked. Wendy's Burgers and Daycare... Nah, that doesn't work. In daycare, the kids are usually supervised!
Permalink | Comments (3)It's beginning to feel a lot like...July 4?
We went out to cut down a Christmas tree today. I worked up a sweat dragging it back down the hill, and the tree farm was serving cold apple cider instead of the customary hot cider. It was 70 and sunny today - I can't get into Christmas in this weather.
I walked the Leesburg Christmas Parade with the Cub Scouts. Amazingly, this is the first time I have ever been in a parade!
Permalink | Comments (0)The Justice League is back!
We discused this a few weeks ago at LadyDusk but I finally got a chance to see an episode last night. I enjoyed it and the kids enjoyed it too. For the kids, its you standard good versus evil battle, with good always winning in the end. For the adults, the producers have layered in some humor that the kids won't get, but you will! Thankfully, there is no sign of The Wonder Twins...
Permalink | Comments (0)Movable Type Rocks!
My Friday night: Implement Movable Type and do minor update of site. Exciting huh? Movable Type is sweet though. It installed flawlessly and imported all my Greymatter content too.
Permalink | Comments (3)