Godot Aria Mubie M4150 (128MB) - MP3 players - CNET Reviews

You just have to look at this thing and then read the review about where the USB cable is located..

Godot Aria Mubie M4150 (128MB) - MP3 players - CNET Reviews

What I've been up to?

Few quickie things I've been doing of late before hitting the hay:

1. Afterwork bike rides to feed the ducks at Creekside with Jean and John
   
2. Reading tons of graphic novels thanks to the folks at the CML
3. Watching TONS of Boomerang from Cartoon Network now that TW has picked up the feed. I'll post more about this channle later..
   
4. Pimping RSS and open source CMS to anyone who'll listen
5. Got the new to us freezer set up in our basement
6. Cleaned the basement
7. Started back on the path towards having a healther view of God
8. Getting into the Firefox browser
9. Got rid of the hot tub (thanks Levi)
10. Trying to find a replacement for my John Kerry sign since mine got boosted 36 hours after I put it up.

As for 8, I'm going to try and get downtown to see John Edwards speak after the debate. I hope Jean and John can come and I really want to find a sign that reads "Christians for Kerry" If not that then I want this license plate holder ASAP

Danger Girl with Batman

Coool is all I've got to say...
Comics Continuum

Bike rides and ducks

The last two nights Jean, John and myself have headed out either before or after dinner to ride our bikes (except for John who rides in the bike trailer) either to Woodside Green park or to Creekside and feed the ducks. I love how the ducks will flap their wings while sking with their feet across the water when you start to feed them.

The air is just warm enough not to be hot but not too cold when you're going fast down a hill. Woodside Green is the future of the two parks both in distance but also in the challenge given that the ride back is mostly uphill. Creekside is closer but the new trail from the Gahanna Municipal Golf Course is mostly wooded so it gets darker faster. Yet the ducks are so used to people that they'll walk up and take the bread from your hand. Speaking of bread, I need to pick some duck pellets to give the ducks something better to eat.

Sky Captain and other weekend notes

Headed down to the Gahanna Flea Market this afternoon. Its kind of a community garage sale with food vendors with a few craft / home shopping parties reps and local folks running for office thrown in. I talk with David Goodman who is running for county commissioner plus Deb Price of City Council and Marlene Eader from the School Board.

Jay and I took in Sky Captain at the Arena Grand. Loved it. I was however bumbed about a few things.
1. They moved it into the smaller theater to make room for the Columbus Out Awards
2. For the first 25 minutes and for all of the previews, the projection was off.

I did run into Rich from the CompuServe Forum team and talked a little bit after the flick. I also got a cool Sky Captain comic which featured some of the production sketches. I bought one on eBay for $2.99 (with shipping) with a media kit DVD just in case I didn't get my movie passes.

Once we got out, a few of the folks there for the Out awards were there...including a 6 ft 4 drag queen in heals. I had never seen anyone that tall in heals before.

Anyhow, go see this flick. And when you do, don't check the brain at the door and grab some popcorn. Get in the wayback machine, set it for a Saturday in 1933. This way you can enjoy the plup without your modern bias.

I think Mavin Hagler is Smiling now

I'm a boxing guy. Bernard " The Executioner" Hopkins is my Man. He fought Oscar "Golden Boy" Del La Hoya to unify the middleweight titles.

I was so afrade I'd jinix X that I didn't blog this. I was afrade that he'd get robed of the title by judges just like Marvin did again Ray Leonard.

But now I can say that Philly's son put the Golden Boy down in the ninth. KO. Over. Enjoy trying to win the Latin Grammy Oscar unless you want to blame that cut on your hand for the loss.

Tips for running an Alpha study

Talk with a gentleman from the Grace Church in Delaware about their experances with Alpha. Here are some of the tips he gave me.

1. The church needs to understand and commit to the fact that Alpha is about bringing people into a relationship with Christ and not building church attenace.

2. If a church doesn't have enough staff or resources, find another church who is interested in or already doing Alpha and see if you can't team up.

3. Don't skimp. They tried dropping the meal and the found that people really missed that time to both eat and get to know the others in the group better.

So I had a 1 in 88 Shot

Wednesday Jean calls me up at work and tells me that she had won a key that could start a car...on Saturday..the day we were going to Cincinatti for her conference on Manic Depressive teens. So we were debating if I should skip the trip and go with John, have Patty stand in or just not go.

We opted to have John stay with Patty and Jay while I head up to try and win the car. So I head up to the Delaware County Fair on its opening day for the contest. Oldies 107 was the station with Jim Hunter, Sue Hagar and Cary Pall MC'ing and they were giving away a 1979 Corvette StingRay. They listed the value at around $15,000.

To be frank, I didn't really want to win it. Had I won, this post would point you to my eBay listing for the sled. Others got really into it with a few decked out in Chevy gear. While waiting for a chance to turn my key, I heard one lady mention that she was so nervous that she was getting sick to her stomach.

I also ran into the Longos from the Gahanna Mom's Club and hung out with them for a bit as we walked around the fairgrounds waiting for the contest to start. One of the

While other's hand's shook from nerves and others kept twisting the key around (they had a tall wood box with a keyhole at the top, winning key set off an alarm but a losing key could spin the keyhole). My turn came, I asked Sue Hagar how her arm was (it was in a sling) and gave it my shot.

Rocky's Italian Ice

I love Italian Water Ice. Rita's is the only place you can get it in Columbus but if you're in Delaware, check out Rocky's. It's a smooth and tasty as Rita's and since they use a Water Ice machine rather than a ice cream machine like Rita's, it doesn't melt as fast.

My dream is to be able to open a water ice place in Gahanna work all summer in the cool of the ice and then head south for the winter.

A visual history of spam (and virus) email

So what does a graph of Spam looks like since 1997? Well here's a link to the chart of one man's inbox.
A visual history of spam (and virus) email

Best Forum Sig of the Year

From TeamXbox's forums
HaloNYCchampion
trade center gone 3200 people dead and 120 billion to blow up a pile of sand. Don't Vote for Idiot's

Speaking of Fatih

Columbus is lucky to have two public radio stations. WCBE FM and WOSU AM. WOSU picked up a show called Speaking of Faith which deals with issues effecting faith. It's interfaith for the most part and gives a balanced view of the faiths without taking a side. Their website is http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/ and offers links where you can listen to the past shows. Learn more about the ideas presented plus find resources relating to faith.

Libraries and RSS: It's out there

University of Louisville Who are feeding their recent acquisitions for their different libraries via RSS

Minneapolis Public Library Who are using RSS to note updates to their website as well their event calendar.

It's gaining speed folks.

Netflix picks up RSS

If you're a Netflix subscriber I've been a member since 10/2000, today is your day because the good folks who killed the movie rental late fee are now pumping out RSS feeds for:

• Shipping Status
  
• New Releases
  
• NetFlix top 100 rentals
• Genre top 25's

Now if only my library would do something like this...

Sky Captain Passes. Can you hook a geek up?

Missed the pass drop for Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow for Columbus Ohio. Any kind soul willing to help me out here. Please?

CNN.com - Disney animator Frank Thomas dies - Sep 9, 2004

If you're a fan of the classic Disney style, then you know the work of Frank Thomas. A member of Disney's Nine Old Men many in my generation who didn't work in animation were first introduced to him and his best friend and fellow old Man Ollie Johnston in the film, Frank and Ollie. Pick it up this weekend to see this master in action.
CNN.com - Disney animator Frank Thomas dies - Sep 9, 2004

What Kerry needs to say

Take this exchange blogged by Downbrigade News:

More interesting, we hope, than the insipid display of ham-handedness we just saw on the nightly news. John Kerry, asked to comment on today's milestone in Iraq - a political softball to his wheelhouse, just begging to be swatted over the wall - answered, in his gaunt, sonorous and sepulchral tomes, "Over 1000 of America's sons and daughters have now given their lives to the war on terror."

NO, NO, NO, John. That is the Bush lie. They have given their lives to an obscure, oil-drenched Texas family feud, to a personal vendetta that has nothing to do with the real security of the United States and in fact is making us less secure by breeding a million widows and orphans who blame us for their misfortunes and will spend the rest of their lives trying to get back at us.

The Real War on Terror is tracking down Osama, rooting out the entrenched hate-mongers in our "allies", Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, stopping the massacres in Africa, finding the Anthrax killer, and getting real about protecting our borders, airports and container ports.

This is the message. Is it too late for the messenger to figure it out?

Tuesday stuff

Quick notes before heading to bed:

- Converted my IRA's into an annuity. Hope this will help Jean and I for long term savings plus give us some insurance coverage from the amount we pay in.

- Sent my Father-in-Law my rant about the article he sent me on a rally that Dr. James Dobson had the other day. Nothing ticks me off more than people trying to wrap faith into politics. I mean history is ripe with examples of the mess the infusion of the two makes.

- Got my first comment post (thanks to Slap Happy).

Technolust

Laptop. I looked at an HP today at Best Buy as well as Tony's Dell at work.

My wants?

1. 17 in wide screen
2. P4 since this will be a desktop replacement
3. Something I can code with since I'm in the Computer Science department (don't ask me why)
   
4. Ability to edit video from my Digital mimi DV camcorder and burn it to dual layer DVD.
5. Plus I want to be able to run something Half Life 2 with a good frame rate
6. Have it run less than $3k

Go Betty Go

Don't ask me why but I've always had a weekness for SoCal ska/punk women with red hair. Mo Powell (pix) from the band that was Save Ferris and now Betty Cisneros (pix) from Go Betty Go.

Entertainment Weekly TV Fall preview and the lost of the 18- 35 year old male

I got my new Entertainment Weekly which had their fall tv preview. Now last year all the advertisers bemoaned the fact that the infamous 18-34 male viewership block was gone.

Well after looking at this year's line up allow me to give a quick heads up to anyone looking to reach myself and others like me.. Advertise on calbe or in videogames because there is NOTHING coming out this fall that will draw my eyes towards the networks. Plus it never fails, I fall for a network show like Wonderfalls and it gets popped like a week later. Meanwhile we get rehash crap like CSI: New York. I mean its got an interesting post Sept 11 step for some of the characters plus Melina Kanakaredes is a babe but its a CSI show. When will this stop, when they run out of major cities?

On the geek side, zip. Geeks will be either playing the duces, Half Life 2 or Halo 2. They might put down the controller long enough to catch Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars on SciFi (Oct), Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow at the cinema then there's BattleStar Galatica the series to open 2005.

Another piece of bad news is that ESPN now has an online broadband onDemand sevice that their demo'ing free this weekend. Games, clips and more just a click away.

What I love is that when crap is thrown on the air, men 18-35 get blamed by the networks since "its what they want" but this year, no such excuse will work.. Now when does the WonderFalls DVD come out?

Labor Day

Well I spent my labor day a laboring. I keep thinking I should join my fellow geeks as we march to show the strength of geek labor downtown...that was if there was such a thing as a geek labor union.

Instead I was up and taking apart my patio door (more on this later) and with the rest of the afternoon spent working on the back bedroom which will be John's 'big boy' room once he out grows his crib. Lots of moving things around and going up and down the stairs.

Later we went over to my Uncle's for a cookout. Jean marinaded some beef, tiger shrimp and chicken for kabobs. Dinner was caped off by a 'discussion' between my Uncle and myself on the Swift Boat mess as well as other issues. For example, he loved Zel Miller's speech before the GOP, I wanted to throw Zell out of the party for that performance.

It was interesting that afterward, I mentioned to Jean that while I did better for defending my position, I felt frustrated that I wasn't able to better frame my arguments to help him understand my point. Jean noted that it isn't up for me to make sure if he gets it or not.

Labor Day weekend

Few quick words on the Labor Day weekend so far...
1. I've spent the last two days taking out to very over grown bushes as well as the tree stump they had been planed to hide next to my mailbox. One day just to cut off all the branches and get them bundled while today was spent pulling out the roots (this was the fun part). The good news is that John took a nap while Mama and I took to the work. Thanks to the good folks at Black and Decker who's Navigator electric hand saw made this go a lot faster as well as Mark from across the court for his help. Next up, replace the mailbox (next weekend) and get John's big room somewhat ready for painting (Monday)

2. While I could have gotten a better deal online, Jean and I opted to keep our coin in Gahanna and picked up two Bell Ukon FS helmets which marks the first time I have ever owned a bicycle helmet. Erin from Bicycle One (where we're working towards becoming regulers) noted how 'none of us look good in a helmet' when I said I felt like a dork. We road up with John in the buggy to the playground and I was surprised at how much air flow the helmet has. Even Jean was impressed.

3. Chuch featured a guest pastor since Steve and some of the guys from the Men's Bible Study are hiking a section of the Appalation Trail this weekend. The message from Gregg talked about how many of the things in our culture try to tell us what will make us happy like you'll be happy when your married, you'll be happer when your divorced, you'll be happier in a bigger house, in a better community, with a pay rase, if you lose 50 lbs, if you have a better computer (these two hit home with me).. etc yet when we do those things, we often feel that empty "OK, now what" feeling. The point, only a relationship with God is going to give you what you're seeking.

This is my boy in action. Jean said that he wouldn't really smile since he was so focused on the testing.
Posted by Hello

John is the Infant Scientist for the week

John has been one of the subjects in a research project at Ohio State dealing with cognitive devlopment. Check out the home page for the project to see John in action.

Template has gone amuck

I stink when it comes to CSS. I just don't have the touch with it. Thus the blog is suffering for it.

While my permalink pages look good, the sidebar on this page has been blown to the bottom. No idea why. I've cleared the edits, switched to a non CSS based template and back again with no luck.

I would change it for good but I like the style and I've got an email into Blogger help to see if they can fix it.

UPDATE
Now it's fixed. Don't know how but it is...

Happy (belated) Birthday to Jean

Given that John had Hand, Foot and Mouth when Jean's birthday came on Aug 16 (Yes, the day Elvis left the planet) we opted to postpone our family dinner (we did however get carryout).

So tonight after work I ran home and picked Mama and the boy up and first ran over to pick up Jean's new Trek at Bicycle One in Gahanna (great folks so give them a try if you're in the market. She was impressed with the fix and even had to have them adjust the seat down, a first for her given this is the first time she's been on a bike with 20 inch wheels. If it wasn't for the step thru frame, I would even be able to get on it.

From there we made a quick stop at Midgard's to see if anything came in my comic pull. While nothing hit, Keith was kind enought to comp me the Batman 12 cent book since I left my change in the car and Keith wasn't up for running a visa for 12 lincolns. If you're a comics person, give Keith and the family some business.

Dinner was with Patty and Jay at Fujiyama Steak House of Japan, which has been doing the tappan / hibachi thing for over 19 years. Food was soild, service excellent, and nothing beats the Onion Volcano in my book. This was John's first time and I wonder if this place with all its Japanesse camp could be for him like the Kahiki was for me.

{ the blog would ask that you take a moment of slience in remeberance of the Kahiki at least the Tiki News had a last luau to send it to the ball with glory. Yet I'm still bitter that it cost me my reservation thanks to the mix up in which I booked for that night just as the manager was closing the deal for booking the whole place for the luau}

{The blog thanks you}

Jean wanted to see how well John liked the show. While he watched he didn't really do much. It was however kids night since just about every table had at least one kid under 5 at the table. One kid's eyes , he couldn't have been over 2, got huge when the onion volcano went off in front of him. We debated on if we should get John a kid's meal. Our plans was if he didn't eat it, we'd have left overs. That was the plan.

Come to find out John didn't eat that much today so he made up for it at dinner. John didn't care for the soup but he ate all of his kiddle salad (with the yummy house dressing, a bottle of which I picked up), ate all the veggies as well as most of the chicken with chopsticks (the disposable kind that we just split half way, Jean and I took turns wedging food between the sticks and then John would pop it in his mouth. Once he started to see us dip in the sauce, he had to do the same and knocked over the little bowl. So we'd wedge, dip and then the boy would take the sticks). He past on the fired rice but downed the sherbert. By the end of the night, John was stuffed. Jay on the other hand didn't care for the veggies so I have his veggies and John's rice for lunch..with yummy dressing for my salad.