Archive for August, 2007
Saturday, August 11th, 2007
Yeeeeees, our Sean Conwayâ„¢ Tiverton 2006 Dining Set has arrived.
I came home yesterday to see two big boxes on the front porch. I was wondering how they were going to ship this thing. Well, they put the four chairs in one big box and the table top and other parts in another big flat box.
I took the chairs out and attached the cushions. Then, I had to put together the table. It came with legs and individual tiles to put in their places as the table top. I was a little concerned that the tiles would crack in transit, but they didn’t. They were packed pretty well. Two extra tiles came as well, which is good, because two tiles have chipped corners. It looks like they were that way before the set was packed up. I think the tiles are regular 12″ square tiles, which is cool, because if we ever want to change the look pf the table, we can pick up some tiles from Home Depot or Lowes.
Anyway, here is the table all set up…
It’s pretty nice. I sat at it this morning and had my coffee while reading a magazine.
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Friday, August 10th, 2007
Well, there are many reasons.
There is one thing I really don’t talk about in my life, and that’s being a vegetarian. I still eat seafood, so I guess I’m not really all the way there yet, but I try damn hard. The reason I don’t talk about it is because every time I do, I get in a fight with whoever I am talking to. Why? I have no idea. Here is how it goes…
ME: Yum, this is good.
THEM: What, are you some sort of vegetarian or something?
ME: Yeah, but I don’t talk about it all that much.
THEM: GET OVER IT DUDE!!! It’s freakin nature!!! I LOVE MY STEAK!!!
ME: Um, ok, but I don’t remember asking.
Well, it doesn’t happen exactly that way, but it really does end up that way. I hear snickers all the time. I always wonder why people care so much about something I don’t do. I don’t eat meat. How is that bad for others? It’s like saying I don’t drive fast. “What, are you some sort of freak or something? You old granny!!!” People don’t generally care too much about that, unless they are in back of me on the road, I guess.
I remember once I was in an uninvited discussion about being a vegetarian with someone and they blurted out the nature argument. They told me all about their fangs (you know, their pointy teeth). Yeah, that worked well. I almost picked up a hamburger after that.
I think I have come to the conclusion that people argue with me about it because they somehow think I am going to take their meat away from them. Somehow, I will break in to their houses at night and steal all the meat from their freezers. Then, all the vegetarian policemen out there and I, will come and get them and lock them up in our PETA sponsored prisons. After they are whipped with asparagus, we will stone them with brussel sprouts. We will only release them after they promise to only wear hemp and live in self sustaining neighborhoods.
Let me tell you the reason I made the switch. It all comes down to a few occasions. I remember one time when I was eating a chicken drumstick, I bit in to a vein. I asked what it was, but came to the realization by myself. That struck a nerve. I was a little kid, so I didn’t actually know what a vein was doing in my food. I also remember this one time when I made dinner for Laura. I made chicken, but mistakenly didn’t cook it all the way through. I put the plates on the table. We cut in to the chicken and noticed some raw-ness and a vein. That struck a nerve. The final straw was when I was mowing the lawn one day. I came in to cool off and Laura wanted me to watch a video online. It was called, “Meet Your Meat.” That did it for me. You couldn’t even imagine how many people refuse to watch that video. I don’t know why.
There is this guy I know who likes to start with me from time to time about this whole topic. I think the last time he came over, he told me that I wasn’t getting enough protein. Funny, I have been a vegetarian for years now and I am still here and kicking. Weird. Maybe he is wrong.
So, enough about me. Let’s look at some links that give good reasons why becoming a vegetarian is good…
- Why be vegetarian?
- Animal Rights and Vegetarianism
- 21 Reasons for being Vegetarian
- 49 Reasons Why I Am a Vegetarian
…and here are some general vegetarian websites…
- GoVeg.com: Vegetarian and Vegan Information
- Vegetarianism – Wikipedia
- Vegetarian Times – Great Food, Good Health, Smart Living
- The Vegetarian Resource Group (VRG)
I do have to say that eating differently is more expensive. I can’t just go grab two pounds of ground beef anymore for .99 per pound. I am eating more diverse foods, though, which is good.
As I write this post, I am imagining all the nasty comments I am going to receive. I don’t know why I am thinking that, but that’s the way it goes. Unless there is another vegetarian around me, I feel kind of overpowered.
I am pretty happy with my choice to be this way, but it has caused a little resentment towards society as a whole. I now comment to myself about other people’s actions much more. I think more people are “wrong” now. I am not sure if it’s my fault. I guess it’s like anything. Say your cause is to clean up a certain lake because it’s polluted. As you are sitting in a rowboat on that lake, you are going to think that every car that drives by is polluting the lake. I bet if you never started cleaning up the lake, you wouldn’t care about those cars. That might not be a great comparison, but I am sure you get the idea.
Well, I’m off. Peace out.
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Friday, August 10th, 2007
Netscape’s Digg Clone May Shut Down
AOL is considering killing off the “Digg Clone†social news site that they launched a little over a year ago at Netscape.com, and redirecting traffic to the Netscape portal instead. One source says it’s a done deal. Another says no final decisions have been made.
OOPS: Google Mistakes Own Blog For Spam, Deletes It!
Readers of Google’s Custom Search Blog were handed a bit of a surprise Tuesday when the Web site was temporarily removed from the blogosphere and hijacked by someone unaffiliated with the company. The problem? Google had mistakenly identified its own blog as a spammer’s site and handed it over to another person.
Spock.com hopes to become the Google of people searches
People search site Spock.com went into public beta today after being privately tested for several months and claims to already have over 100 million individuals indexed in its databases. Better head over there and see if there’s any information about you.
The Right Way To Fix Inaccurate Wikipedia Articles
When people see something wrong in Wikipedia they usually consider only 2 solutions: edit the article or sit on their hands. Unfortunately, neither approach typically results in the optimal outcome: a factually accurate profile containing trustworthy information. Here’s the right way to do it from a high ranking Wiki editor.
Eric Schmidt Defines Web 3.0
Google CEO Eric Schmidt was recently at the Seoul Digital Forum and he was asked to define Web 3.0 by an audience member.
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Thursday, August 9th, 2007
Sometimes I write and write. I think I used to write a heck of a lot more than I do now. I mean, when I first started out with this blog, I think I used to write longer posts. Now, I write more, but shorter ones. How do you say that? More, but shorter?
There are many times when I come across information in news stories or other blogs that I flip though. There may be something that catches my eye…something I find kind of funny. It may be because I deal with a bunch of buttheads all day long or something like that. Sometimes my sensitivity meter is off. The story that I may have found amusing isn’t always all that amusing to others. Really though, most of the time they are pretty amusing. I probably have a pretty thick skin for these types of things because I am super exposed to them.
Well folks, we have to be careful. I mean, what we write really is our business, but like any other sort of media, people are reading our business. We can go day in and day out and choose to write what we want and ignore any comment that someone throws our way, but there might come a time when you say to yourself, “Hey, where did all my readers go?” Well, I suppose you may have a whole new breed of reader visiting your blog, but it was those faithful ones back in the beginning who really are the ones who matter most.
I now have over 320 posts written on this blog in under a year. I have only had to remove one post and slightly edit another. Neither of them were that bad, but when I hear even an inkling of dissatisfaction, I correct whatever is bothering someone. If I don’t like the person, I just ignore them. That’s not such a bad track record, right? Even newspapers get it wrong sometimes and they have full time editors. I am just a one man show. I have the strength of one million men, but still, I am just a guy.
This evening, I did a little Google search for “offending people on blogs.” Interestingly, there wasn’t much offered. I did find a nice post called, “3 Ways To Offend Readers and 4 Ways Not To.” There was a super duper link in there called, “Seven Reasons Not To Post To Your Blog.” It made me feel pretty good that there are people out there who have at least thought of the same stuff as I have and have had to deal with it as well.
Let’s face it, writing on blogs is fun. That might be why there are so many new ones popping up every day. Reading blogs is fun too. They really have become an integral part of people’s lives. It might be a good idea to get back to what we started in the first place, and that’s writing for our readers.
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Thursday, August 9th, 2007
Paul keeps on telling me not to use GrubEx to control Japanese Beetles, but to use Milky Spore instead. Apparently, he has been hit by the Japanese Beetle onslaught this year along with the rest of us.
Paul likes the idea of using Milky Spore because it isn’t an insecticide. It is a naturally occurring host specific bacterium (Bacillus popillae-Dutky). It is harmless to anything other than Japanese Beetle Grubs. This is good if you like to walk on your lawn or have pets and kids. It does need to be watered in, just like an insecticide thought.
The way you apply Milky Spore is different than you would apply an insecticide. Instead of spreading it with a lawn spreader, you pile it in small spots in a grid like pattern on your lawn. Over time, the milky spore is eaten by newly laid white grubs and they become infected by the bacterium. It takes a few years for the milky spore to completely kick in, but the stuff lasts for 15-20 years. That’s pretty damn good.
If this GrubEx that I already put down in the beginning of July doesn’t take care of the grub problem, I will put down milky spore next Autumn. That’s when grubs are at their hungriest and they are the most likely to eat the milky spore.
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Thursday, August 9th, 2007
This is just a little update post to my previous “Spreading the Mulch” post.
I was a little worried that a good hard rain was going to cause all of my newly spread mulch to slide down the backyard. Well, I have some good news. There was a heavy rain storm the other night and I woke up to see my mulch in exactly the same spot as I put it. That is good news indeed. I even found an article online that backs up my plan to stop topsoil erosion by using mulch. Pretty cool, huh?
I think I am going to order five more yards to finish up the back yard.
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Thursday, August 9th, 2007
Ten Strange Facts About Newton
Read on for more obscure facts about the life of Isaac Newton, one of the the world’s most popular scientists.
Is that a monkey in your ponytail?
Passengers aboard Spirit Airlines Flight 180 from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to New York’s LaGuardia International Airport had an unexpected travel companion Tuesday.
8 Essential Strategies to Saying “Noâ€
That ’s not always an easy skill to acquire. For those who have trouble saying “noâ€, here are a few practical strategies to try out.
How to Grow a Tea Garden
A tea garden is a delightful hobby that can complement your herb garden and will provide you with the joy of fresh tea at a moment’s notice. Creating a tea garden in a container can also make a perfect gift for somebody.
Top 10 Most Expensive Vehicles to Own
The priciest vehicles consume the most money over time, but bargain-priced cars aren’t necessarily a better deal in the long run. The 10 vehicles with the highest overall cost of ownership are top-drawer luxury models, but that doesn’t mean that lower-priced vehicles are necessarily a better value.
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Thursday, August 9th, 2007
Whenever someone wants to name their new band, I am sure there is some creative process that goes on. I always think of the band sitting around in some kitchen in Yonkers with a fluorescent tube light hanging over their heads. They go back and forth until they come up with something they can agree on. Usually, the longer this conversation goes on, the dumber the name gets. I think the best names for things just pop in to people’s heads while driving or rowing a boat or something.
We have all been there. We have all tried to find a name for something. Sometimes you think of something great and run around to tell everyone, but sometimes the name you settle on is a little weird and you avoid telling people what you thought of. Personally, I have always had a problem with thinking of catchy domain names. That’s why I just name them what they are now. If I am setting up a blog, I call it something like “jaysblog.com.” On the internet, the name really doesn’t matter anymore anyway.
I am having a little issue with some of the bands today. Firstly, they are all sounding alike. Secondly, they are coming out so fast that their names are just plain silly. I really like a song by Finger Eleven, but c’mon, what the heck is with that name? It sounds like they tried too hard. Also, Pillow Face is probably the most annoying name I have heard of to date. That was almost topped by a band name I just heard of a few minuted ago…Drowning Pool.
Maybe it’s just me. It usually is. Maybe back in the day, The Police and AC/DC sounded dumb, but we got used to them. Maybe in the future I will think that Pillow Face is a great band and I will tell people proudly that Pillow Face is my favorite group ever.
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Wednesday, August 8th, 2007
2+2=4 – What is wrong with you people?
Eric Michael Johnson is a primatologist and endocrinologist completing a PhD at Duke University, and he blogs at the Primate Diaries. He has two recent posts that are worth reading. First, some provocative humor: “Fundamentalists: believe 2+2 =5 because It Is Written. Somewhere. They have a lot of trouble on their tax returns”
100 Essential Resources for Web Developers
A Web developer’s life is hard enough without having to be constantly on the hunt for good web-dev resources. After using these, you may still have 99 problems, but developing ain’t gonna be one.
Ron Paul: REAL ID won’t stop terrorism, will violate your rights
Terrorism is the excuse given for virtually every new power grab by the federal government, and the national ID is no exception. But federal agencies have tried to create a national ID for years, long before the 9-11 attacks. In fact, a 1996 bill sought to do exactly what the REAL ID Act does: transform state drivers’ licenses into de facto…
Should we ditch the 1 cent coin?
Canada has been told to follow Australia and New Zealand and ditch the one-cent coin.
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Tuesday, August 7th, 2007
I am in the wood pellet mood. I am a planner, like an old farmer or something. Better yet, like a caveman. There have been times when I have wanted hair like a caveman…ok, I’ll stop there.
Anyway, I was doing some searches on wood pellets and came across a great post on a new idea, grass pellets. Check it out.
I really like the way people are always trying to come up with a better way to do something. The pellet stove is a great idea. It keeps the house nice and toasty and really doesn’t cost that much to run. I mean, I just spent about $630 for the whole season of heat. That’s not bad. It certainly is better than the three dollars per gallon of dirty oil fuel that I used to get. Not to mention all the diesel they burn in the truck to get it to my house.
If they can make stoves handle burning more types of pellets, that would be a good thing. I think the main factor with burning a lot of things is the ash content. People now mainly burn wood pellets and corn, but you need a special stove to burn the corn. I only burn wood pellets, so I don’t really know what type of heat the corn gives off.
Keep up the good work and keep thinking. There are quite a few people out there like me who search this kind of stuff all day while at work. HAHA.
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TYSM I read this one and decided to try it out on my ACER (See, its not always HP with the problems)...