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    Sunday, December 24, 2006

    I'm Famous!

    No, not really. But I did get a cool shout-out.

    Dan Shanoff, current blogger and formerly a writer for ESPN.com, used to write a Sports Night Before Christmas each year for ESPN.com's Daily Quickie. This year, he wrote one for Deadspin, the place online where you are most likely to find me these days. (Here's the wiki entry for Deadspin, for those unfamiliar with the site.) You can find the complete poem here, and see that there, in verse 14, he gives a shout-out to the commenters of Deadspin, and references a few by name. The first referenced? Well, read it and see

    On Dweeze! On Lt. Winslow! On Kid Canada! On Denis Lemieux!

    On Metschick, on Pam (NJ), on Jen P (Alas, room for too few!)

    Pretty cool, huh?

    Friday, December 22, 2006

    Best Christmas Song Ever

    The scene in Meet Me In St. Louis where this is first used is heartbreaking. It is a sad, sad song, but still, in no small way, optimistic. Kinda where I am right now.

    Wednesday, December 20, 2006

    Fun With You Tube

    Let’s open with a little thing from Saturday Night Live (Note: Not family friendly, but incredibly catchy)



    A little London Calling, from the Joe Strummer tribute at the 2003 Grammys (look at that line-up: Bruce Sprinsteen, Elvis Costello, Miami Steve, and Dave Grohl!)



    James Taylor and the Dixie Chicks singing Sweet Baby James



    Fatboy Slim’s Weapons of Choice



    Because you can’t go wrong with Christopher Walken dancing, Pennies from Heaven



    And because it never gets old, The Evolution of Dance


    Tuesday, December 19, 2006

    Library Thing and Other Free Stuff

    Ladies and Gentlemen, Library Thing. This is a great little site for book lovers. On it, you can track and catalog your personal library. You can open a free account, with up to 200 entries, or a pay account, with unlimited entries. The site is linked to both Amazon and the Library of Congress, so you can search by book name, author name, or other fields. Once you find a book you own, you click on it, placing it in your personal catalog. You can use the site to set up your own library catalog for record keeping purposes, or use other functions to search for books to read in the future based on the contents of your library. Try it out – it’s somewhat addicting. (Link via Written World.)

    While we’re on the subject of free things online, Kung Fu Monkey had an item awhile back linking to a post at The Simple Dollar listing 30 essential pieces of free and open source software for Windows. You can find the piece here. I don’t have an Office Suite on my home computer, so I have been using AbiWord for Word Processing and Open Office’s Spreadsheet as an Excel substitute. Both work very nicely. I also downloaded Gimpshop, a Photo Shop substitute, but haven’t played with it much.

    Notes From The News

    Just a couple of tidbits from today's Press Citizen:

    Man escapes police by crawling out of squad car window

    While under arrest Monday night, Kenneth Charles Cannon, 47, of Coralville, performed a disappearing act by squeezing through the rear window of a squad car.

    When pulled over, police said Cannon was wearing a wig to hide his identity. He also “reeked” of alcohol and refused to take blood-alcohol tests at the scene, police said. Cannon was searched, handcuffed and placed in the rear of a patrol car. However, Cannon somehow rolled the rear window down, crawl through it and stumble from the car, police said. Officers found him trying to hide behind a small tree and he was taken back into custody.


    Guess you could say he was a loose Cannon.

    Hundreds of people waited over night for new Buffalo Wild Wings to open so they could get free chicken wings for a year

    Their friend, Mike Hanson, 19, of North Liberty showed up several hours later to take a spot for someone else who had to leave the line for work.

    All three said they would definitely brave the cold again, but not just for the free Buffalo wings, Hanson said.

    "To tell our kids 20 years from now that we were here the day it opened," Hanson said.


    Okay, Mike, maybe you were being ironic and it didn't come through in the article. But if you are, please not that your kids? Are not going to give a fuck that you waited in line all night just to get free chicken wings for a year.

    Monday, December 11, 2006

    In re Swiper


    How incompetent are you as a thief if all it takes to stop you is someone saying “Swiper no swiping” to your face three times? Does that really work, and, if it does, would standing in front of the White House saying “W no desecrating the Constitution” over and over work? Further, do you suppose his parents named him Swiper, as they were members of a large family of thieves and high hopes for their son? Or is Swiper a nickname, given to him ironically the way people call big guys “Tiny”?

    The Pace Of Blogging

    Here's the thing. It may seem like I haven't been doing a lot of blogging this fall. And I haven't at least here. But I've done most of the Survivor and Amazing Race summaries this fall over at our summary sites - the last five Survivor's in a row and five of the last six Amazing Race's. In other words, one or (usually) two 2,500 - 5,000 word posts a week, every week, for three months. But we're down to just one more Survivor I need to summarize, the episode this week, so my bogging mechanism can return to Corn'O'Copia.

    Friday, December 01, 2006

    Sign On

    Mediacom (in case my previous post didn't show where I was coming down on the issue) came out today and hooked up cable Internet. And Sinclair caved in and will allow Mediacom to continue airing KGAN (our local CBS affiliate) til January 5, 2007 so negotiations can continue. I have a theory why, based on something I was told at the Mediacom office in Iowa City yesterday (I was there setting things up for the Internet - did I mention I have access to broadband at home again? And it was cheap - $9.95 a month). I asked for an antenna kit, as they were giving them to their customers to be able to get KGAN. The clerk told me I didn't need one, because they had been able to find away around the restrictions that were prohibiting them from simply swapping KGAN with the CBS affiliate in the Quad Cities. I'm sure that was a come to Jesus moment for the folks at Sinclair. If Mediacom can do that, it pretty much makes KGAN irelevant. More as the situation develops.