Monthly Archives: February 2006

Luck

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For the past few weeks, I have had a “Win with me on Blingo” banner on my right-hand sidebar. For some God-forsaken reason, it refuses to be a link, even though the stinking code is right.

So if you went to click it, you might have been thinking, “What the heck, man? I wanted to Win with Shane on Blingo and I was brutally rebuffed. That’s a bunch of crap!”

Fear not. Not only have I decided to remove the offending banner, but I am going to devote a post entirely to my travails on Blingo.com.

So what is Blingo?

Basically, it’s Google with prizes. Using ad-words-style advertising, Blingo randomly generates a winner of some random prize (Sony PSP, ipod nano, iTunes gift cards, etc.) every so often on their site.

AND…

IF YOU GET YOUR FRIENDS TO SIGN UP AND THEY WIN SOMETHING, YOU WIN SOMETHING TOO. SO SIGN UP!!!

Anyway…I haven’t really won anything yet. There’s no skill involved, but it is not scam. I’ve heard of people on the internet that have won. So it must be credible. Seriously.

And for those of you who subscribe to my RSS feed, I apologize for all the renaming…I just figured I would re-name the first two pages of my site. Don’t know if I’ll go back further than that, but if I do, I apologize in advance.

Title

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So I’ve been considering making a minor change to my site, one that would make the headings bigger and force them to only be one word (very similar to the way Greg does titles at Airbag). Now, this would require me going back and changing every single one of my posts (which I’m OK with…there’s only about 190 of them).

I don’t know…I just thought it was a stylish way to title your posts. It’s not very Google-appreciative (but neither is the popularity of my site…according to Technorati, only about 5 people link here), but I just wanted to mix it up a little.

So what do you think? It’s either that or make all the titles full complete sentences.

Aside: Something that might be fun about the one-word title is that I could take submissions of words that would be titles from people who read my site and I could try to turn them into posts. It might be fun.

UPDATE: OK, I think I’m going to do this at least from here on out. My only problem is book reviews…I guess I’ll have to figure that one out.

My Favorite Muppets

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Waldorf & Statler

 

I remember watching The Muppet Show when I was growing up. I loved it. I loved all of the movies, I loved the cartoon.

However, one of the things that I never understood as a kid were Waldorf and Statler, the grumpy old men who sat in the balcony and harrassed everyone (particularly Fozzie). I have realized in my adult life that they are truly the most hilarious of all of the Muppets. I think that they are the Muppets that Jim Henson created for adults who had to watch The Muppet Show with their kids.

Now, Waldorf and Statler are reviewing movies for movies.com. I think that this is possibly one of the greatest ideas that anyone has ever come up with in the history of the internet. OK. Maybe that’s over-stating it a bit, but I love it.

There’s just something about those crotchety, old men that makes me laugh.

An Ode to Cheeseburgers

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A blogger named Chubby Hubby has written a post extolling the virtues of the cheeseburger.

If I were told that I had one last meal before I died and then I was given the choice between a super chic 15 course degustation meal cooked by Thomas Keller, Tetsuya Wakuda, Ferran Adria and Joel Robuchon and a perfect cheeseburger, the choice would be easy. I’d pick the burger without a moment’s hesitation.

I couldn’t agree more.

In my mind, nothing equals a good cheeseburger. If I had to eat one thing every day for the rest of my life, it would be cheeseburgers. I can’t say that I could choose a specific one to eat, but for general munching, nothing equals a burger with some cheese grilled and placed lovingly between two pieces of bread with a selection of accessories (my favorites: bacon, fresh tomato, a little lettuce, mayo…and sometimes sauteed mushrooms).

The perfect burger is not cooked more than medium. Anything more is doing a disservice to the burger. (I’ve heard all that about making sure stuff is cooked and it is still cooked at medium…you just have to make sure the temp inside the burger is above a certain temp that kills all bacteria.)

As far as chuck vs. sirloin vs. lean…you need something around 80/20. Seasoning is nothing more than hickory smoked salt, garlic salt, and seasoned pepper.

As far as the bun goes, keep it simple. You can grill it if you want, but I also like the idea that Chubby Hubby presents, which is buttering the buns and putting them in a pan so they cook like the outside of a grilled cheese sandwich.

As far as food goes…that’s about as good as it gets.

Soon.

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Chipotle By Our House

This is, quite possibly, the greatest day in the history of southern Olathe. It will only be eclipsed by the day that this location opens.

DO YOU UNDERSTAND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS? This Chipotle is being built less than 5 minutes from our house!

This is huge.

Cartoonist Search

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For the past several weeks, Scott Adams (the artist of the comic, Dilbert, no relation) has been hosting a sort-of contest looking for a new artist for the comic strip, Unfit. Unfit is an extremely funny comic written by Mike Belkin that doesn’t exactly have huge readership. Adams maintains that the artwork of the comic is holding it back somewhat.

I forwarded this information on to my brother who works with a guy who is an illustrator and also knows another guy who is a terrific artist. The guy my brother works with submitted his artwork and it was selected for the top 15. I was a real big fan of his version of the comic. I thought that it was clean and readable and the characters were very likable.

He didn’t win (if that’s what you want to call it…the selection was actually made by Belkin with input from his newspaper syndicate).

The results were posted today. This artwork isn’t final, but the artwork looks like this:

Justin Thompson's interpretation of Unfit

Justin Thompson's Interpretation of Unfit

To me, it looks an awful lot like the old Blondie characters, with a little bit of Archie thrown in. It was a very popular submission, but for me, I just didn’t think that it was the right choice. I guess I was wrong.

If you’re wondering what I think should have won (and I’m a little biased, I know, but still…it was really good):

Lance's interpretation of Unfit

Lance’s was ranked #3 after the first vote and I really thought he had a decent shot. I liked his comic because it was clean and I thought that it captured the characters well. However, I would have liked to have seen a couple more strips, particularly one with Mike’s wife Stacey, who is probably one of the harder characters to draw in the comic. Her and the chicken. (Can you see why I read this comic?)

Anyway, I think that it was a pretty cool process. What I liked the most about it was how open and honest Scott Adams was about the whole process. I just wanted to say good job to Lance, too. I thought that his comics were successful and they certainly were deserving of recognition.

Valentine’s Day

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Valentine's Day Dinner

Alli and I have a relatively recent tradition of just getting Chipotle and watching a movie at home for Valentine’s Day. This year was certainly no exception. Last year, we watched The Notebook, which was really good. We thought about making that movie a part of the tradition, but instead opted for the new movie I bought Alli this week with my reward points from HarrisPollOnline (if you’re interested in signing up, I’ll send you an invite, just let me know…that way I get more points). I bought her Just Like Heaven, with Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo. It was a bit predictable at times, but I liked it for a romantic comedy of sorts.

It was a good day. I got a great surprise in the morning and Alli and I had a great evening. I know it sounds corny and very boring to a lot of people, but some of my favorite times in the world are those when Alli and I are just sitting around our house with the dog, hanging out and just being together. I think that is what life is all about…those in-between moments…not the daily hustle and bustle. If you can find happiness in those moments, you’re probably going to be OK. I know that I am.

The Prisoner of Azkaban

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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
By J.K. Rowling
Rating: 9 out of 10

Book 3 in the Harry Potter series might be my favorite so far. I really enjoyed The Sorcerer’s Stone. The Chamber of Secrets was pretty good, but out of the three I have read, it was my least favorite.

One of the things that I liked the most about this book was that I thought very assuredly that I knew what was going on…thought that I knew who the bad guy was…but, similarly to the first book, I was off.

Book 3 finds Harry and his friends Ron and Hermoine (pronounce Her-mahn-ee) getting ready for year 3 at Hogwart’s. Many things have changed, but other things have stayed the same. Hermoine is still working hard at school; Ron and Harry are still at odds with their nemesis, Draco Malfoy of Slytherin house. Harry’s exploits on the Quidditch field continue to be exciting (seriously…I would totally watch Quidditch if it were a real sport).

The Prisoner of Azkaban is Sirius Black, an escaped prisoner with a personal interest in Mr. Harry Potter. I won’t go into the interest, but it is BIG. We are also introduced to a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts, Professor Lupin, as well as the Divination teacher, Professor Trelawney. All of the rest of the regular characters return, including Professor Severus Snape, who seems to find newfound loathing for Harry and Ron.

There was a lot of really cool stuff in this book. I don’t know how Rowling continues to come up with new stuff at Hogwart’s, but there are new secrets, new tricks, and new spells that are all fascinating and have brought me further into the world of Harry Potter and his wizard and witch friends. I am going to try and take a break from the Harry Potter series for a while. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is next in the series and it is a Historian-like length at well over 700 pages. I am determined to finish Ogilvy on Advertising, but I don’t know if it is possible. We shall see. After reading this much fiction, it’s tough to jump back into non-fiction, but I’ll give it a shot. I guess you’ll see by the next book that I review.