After maybe about a year of being somewhat annoyed but largely content with Yahoo! as my calendar provider, I've switched over to the hip new 30 Boxes.
Yahoo was good to me overall but there were two big reasons that I just couldn't handle it anymore:
1.Adding simple events is tedious.
2.The default is to notify me by email about every event I add. You can easily change this, but you will need to change it everytime you add an event.
30 Boxes on the other hand excells at ease of adding events. I can type something like "Dinner w/Joe on Friday at 7PM" and magically it adds it in the right place immediately - no page refreshes, it's just done. When things get a little more complicated or I don't know exactly what to type - I can always choose to add it in a way very similar to what I had with Yahoo!, but for the simple events: much simpler.
Another big advantage is that it can pull feeds into it. For example, it's pulling in my feed from Upcoming. Upcoming is a very "Web 2.0" site that allows people to post events by area. I, for example, am subscribed to the "Madison Metro" so I get notified of anything going on in the Madison area (here's my stuff). When I indicate on that site that I want to "attend" or "watch" something - it automagically appears on my calendar. Very handy. It also puts pictures on my calendar that I upload to Flickr (the day that they're uploaded) and other stuff like that.
I'm changing the link over on the right side (under "what else are we up to") so check it out - although, for some reason what you'll see is just a list of my events, which is odd. What I see when I actually use it is a much more traditional (and better looking) calendar, like you'd expect. Anyway, they're new: maybe they're working on it.
2.23.2006
2.22.2006
Serious Night at the Halberg House
I guess tonight is serious night over here. Monica won't let me get away with anything and I'm getting busted at every turn. It all started when she got home about 5 seconds after me and I got in trouble for not getting the mail yet. Then I got in trouble for trying to cook the taco meat without first defrosting it thoroughly enough. After that I got busted for typing (nonsense) into this blog entry to the rhythm of the Olympics music because "other people want to use the laptop too". Then she discovered that we had received a cardboard tube with a couple of posters from Art.com, the posters have now been removed and the tube has been dubbed the "husband whacker"... it's a hard life.
I didn't get a chance to blog about last weekend yet. We went up to St.Germain with the Foxes and Burgs and had a great weekend. It was -40 (yes, NEGATIVE 40) with the wind chill so there was a lot of staying inside, but the games etc kept things entertaining. The guys did brave the cold and got some snowmobiling in which was a great time. As always the food and company were great.
Other than that, we're looking forward to a full weekend in Milwaukee coming up. I have a conference all weekend. We're going to have a birthday dinner for Thomas (Fritsch) and we're going to head over to the Dan and Anne's wedding reception! Should be a great weekend.
I didn't get a chance to blog about last weekend yet. We went up to St.Germain with the Foxes and Burgs and had a great weekend. It was -40 (yes, NEGATIVE 40) with the wind chill so there was a lot of staying inside, but the games etc kept things entertaining. The guys did brave the cold and got some snowmobiling in which was a great time. As always the food and company were great.
Other than that, we're looking forward to a full weekend in Milwaukee coming up. I have a conference all weekend. We're going to have a birthday dinner for Thomas (Fritsch) and we're going to head over to the Dan and Anne's wedding reception! Should be a great weekend.
2.16.2006
Google Video
For the last week or two, I've been procrastinating on getting CDs to JNo and Burt with the video from our Mt.Bohemia trip. Well, the other day my laziness paid off when using something called the "internet" (recommended to me by Tom Geer) I discovered Google Video.
The process is slightly drawn out - it took about a day between uploading them and having them "approved", but that's just fine.
The end result is that you can now go out and download or stream video from the trip! Actually, their streaming was excellent when I just tried it. Just make sure to reduce the size of the window a bit since these were filmed with the digital camera so the resolution isn't the hottest ever.
Anyway, without further ado, I give you video of Burt, Jno, and I (and then Burt and I again). Enjoy!
The process is slightly drawn out - it took about a day between uploading them and having them "approved", but that's just fine.
The end result is that you can now go out and download or stream video from the trip! Actually, their streaming was excellent when I just tried it. Just make sure to reduce the size of the window a bit since these were filmed with the digital camera so the resolution isn't the hottest ever.
Anyway, without further ado, I give you video of Burt, Jno, and I (and then Burt and I again). Enjoy!
2.15.2006
NASCAR
Can anyone stop Tony Stewart?
Will Dale Jr return to competition?
Will Jim cancel his Sports Weekly subscription?
The answers to these questions and more are brought to mind by the cover of this weeks Sports Weekly.
Alright, so maybe I didn't put up enough of a fight a couple of years ago when Baseball Weekly changed it's name to Sports Weekly and started publishing football along side baseball. What could it hurt, I thought? I buy the thing for the baseball news but I can't complain about getting football along with it!
Perhaps I should have seen the slippery slope that I was undertaking. This week when the mail was recovered, there it was: an almost all-Nascar front page staring back at me.
Sigh. Well... we'll see how this goes. I may be looking for recommendations on other magazines here shortly though.
Will Dale Jr return to competition?
Will Jim cancel his Sports Weekly subscription?
The answers to these questions and more are brought to mind by the cover of this weeks Sports Weekly.
Alright, so maybe I didn't put up enough of a fight a couple of years ago when Baseball Weekly changed it's name to Sports Weekly and started publishing football along side baseball. What could it hurt, I thought? I buy the thing for the baseball news but I can't complain about getting football along with it!
Perhaps I should have seen the slippery slope that I was undertaking. This week when the mail was recovered, there it was: an almost all-Nascar front page staring back at me.
Sigh. Well... we'll see how this goes. I may be looking for recommendations on other magazines here shortly though.
2.14.2006
Last Hand
Being someone that has been caught up in the "poker craze", I've seen quite a bit of poker on TV. This new(er) show completely takes the cake though: GSNs "High Stakes Poker".
This show features the games best players facing off at a single (non-tournament) table, using their own bankrolls. The ridiculous amounts of money start off with blinds in the low thousands and hands progress from there. A typical small pot will end up in the neighborhood of $10,000-$20,000. Most in the $20K-$40K range. And then a few HUGE hands that get into the hundreds of thousands. This is completely ridiculous when you really stop and think about the amount of money these guys are gambling with.
Last nights episode (as with all of them) did not disapoint. The best hand of the night was actually the last hand of the night. All the players (10) had agreed that they would play 2 more hands and call it a night. On the 2nd to last hand, 6 people limped in and nobody bet the whole way through - with these players, that means: they aren't trying. Even if these guys have nothing they sense weakness and try to buy the pot, so clearly everyone was just ready to go home.
On the last hand though, Barry Greinstein was looking down at AA under. He raised the pot ($1700) to $2500. Everyone folded around, as you'd expect for people that want to go home, until it got to Sammy Farha. Farha was looking at KK under. So, basically this is a show down of the two best hands in poker.
Farha thought a minute and re-raised it to $12,500 (a $10K raise).
Greinstein took a look at him and again re-raises back to $62,500 (a $50K raise).
Now Farha had some thinking to do. He knew that Greinstein had a great hand. And he knew that the money situation was quickly getting out of hand on the last hand of the night. He had already committed $12,500. He asked how much Greinstein had left... Greinstein told him that he had $190K before the hand started. Farha thinks and thinks. The rest of the players, who had stood up and headed for the door, started to comeback and sit back down to watch this play out.
Eventually, Farha goes all-in over the top. Greinstein immediately calls making a total pot of $361,800 - these are not chips in a tournament, this is real money out of their bank accounts.
So, going into the flop we have AA vs KK. Greinstein should win this hand about 82% of the time and there is very little (though some) chance of splitting the pot.
Farha asks if he wants to "run it twice" and Greinstein politely declines. "Run it twice" would mean that you actually play out the hand two times. If you each win one: you split the money and go home. If someone wins both times: that person takes all the money.
The flop comes 6c Kh 8h.
Farha has caught his K and the tables are turned. Farha is now an 88% favorite to win. Again Farha offers to "run it twice". I think this must just be him actually feeling guilty about this? but Greinstein still declines.
The turn and river come: 7s 3d and that's it.
A $361,800 draw out.
This show features the games best players facing off at a single (non-tournament) table, using their own bankrolls. The ridiculous amounts of money start off with blinds in the low thousands and hands progress from there. A typical small pot will end up in the neighborhood of $10,000-$20,000. Most in the $20K-$40K range. And then a few HUGE hands that get into the hundreds of thousands. This is completely ridiculous when you really stop and think about the amount of money these guys are gambling with.
Last nights episode (as with all of them) did not disapoint. The best hand of the night was actually the last hand of the night. All the players (10) had agreed that they would play 2 more hands and call it a night. On the 2nd to last hand, 6 people limped in and nobody bet the whole way through - with these players, that means: they aren't trying. Even if these guys have nothing they sense weakness and try to buy the pot, so clearly everyone was just ready to go home.
On the last hand though, Barry Greinstein was looking down at AA under. He raised the pot ($1700) to $2500. Everyone folded around, as you'd expect for people that want to go home, until it got to Sammy Farha. Farha was looking at KK under. So, basically this is a show down of the two best hands in poker.
Farha thought a minute and re-raised it to $12,500 (a $10K raise).
Greinstein took a look at him and again re-raises back to $62,500 (a $50K raise).
Now Farha had some thinking to do. He knew that Greinstein had a great hand. And he knew that the money situation was quickly getting out of hand on the last hand of the night. He had already committed $12,500. He asked how much Greinstein had left... Greinstein told him that he had $190K before the hand started. Farha thinks and thinks. The rest of the players, who had stood up and headed for the door, started to comeback and sit back down to watch this play out.
Eventually, Farha goes all-in over the top. Greinstein immediately calls making a total pot of $361,800 - these are not chips in a tournament, this is real money out of their bank accounts.
So, going into the flop we have AA vs KK. Greinstein should win this hand about 82% of the time and there is very little (though some) chance of splitting the pot.
Farha asks if he wants to "run it twice" and Greinstein politely declines. "Run it twice" would mean that you actually play out the hand two times. If you each win one: you split the money and go home. If someone wins both times: that person takes all the money.
The flop comes 6c Kh 8h.
Farha has caught his K and the tables are turned. Farha is now an 88% favorite to win. Again Farha offers to "run it twice". I think this must just be him actually feeling guilty about this? but Greinstein still declines.
The turn and river come: 7s 3d and that's it.
A $361,800 draw out.
2.07.2006
The Superbowl
Let's get the actual sports part out of the way: it was a pretty good game. Glad to see the Steelers win, although I can't claim to have been all that excited either way.
Alright, now that the formalities have been covered. Let's get down to the real story. The commercials, of course.
Here are my favorites:
#1 was Sprint's crime deterrent.
The hidden fridge of Bud Light was a great one.
You can't miss with MacGyver.
FedEx having the caveman attempting to make a delivery was great.
The Sierra Mist airport security was clever.
There were several more that I liked, but those were my favorites. If I don't have your favorite check out one of these sites.
Alright, now that the formalities have been covered. Let's get down to the real story. The commercials, of course.
Here are my favorites:
#1 was Sprint's crime deterrent.
The hidden fridge of Bud Light was a great one.
You can't miss with MacGyver.
FedEx having the caveman attempting to make a delivery was great.
The Sierra Mist airport security was clever.
There were several more that I liked, but those were my favorites. If I don't have your favorite check out one of these sites.
Jesse Cook
Mike, Dad, and I headed down to Edgerton on Saturday night to see Jesse Cook play at the Edgerton Performing Arts Center (EPAC).
The show was very good. The style (as he mentioned during) was a successful attempt to fuse the gaps between Rumba and Indian. For the most part you can imagine (as Mike suggested) it as the soundtrack to a movie like 'Once Upon a Time In Mexico' or 'Desperado'. There are some great samples on his site, just go surf around and it'll start playing whether you like it or not! just make sure your sound is on.
Unbelievably quick and accurate with the guitar. This was an unbelievable show - and the EPAC was a great venue for it.
The show was very good. The style (as he mentioned during) was a successful attempt to fuse the gaps between Rumba and Indian. For the most part you can imagine (as Mike suggested) it as the soundtrack to a movie like 'Once Upon a Time In Mexico' or 'Desperado'. There are some great samples on his site, just go surf around and it'll start playing whether you like it or not! just make sure your sound is on.
Unbelievably quick and accurate with the guitar. This was an unbelievable show - and the EPAC was a great venue for it.
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