Happy 25th!!!

Happy Birthday Katie! This could be a very exciting year!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I hope this year is as good if not better than the last!

See ya.

Interesting

Last night we went over to a friend's house for for a Christmas party. While we were there I got to talking with my friend Erika and she told me that she still, from time to time, reads this blog. This got me to thinking that maybe I should resume making posts here and try to come up with some sort of strategy for having two blogs. I'm not sure what the hell I'm going to do but I'm sure something will come to me.

To anybody out there that has been reading/checking this blog, I thank you. It means a lot to me that you think highly enough of what I am writing here to check back every so often.

See ya.

Trying Something New

For awhile now, I have been considering trying out something new. I decided recently that I wanted to start looking into a new blogging service, not for a permanent switch, at least not yet, but just to learn something new. I have heard a lot about PHP so I figured I would try out WordPress...and damn, there is an awful lot to learn.

Check out the look of the new blog here. If I decide to make the switch I will list the new feed here so you can change your subscription an not loose track of me.

See ya.

Help Posting Daily del.icio.us Links

HELP, HELP, HELP! Is there anybody out there who has figured out how to make a thingy from del.icio.us work in blogger. I followed some directions that I found thru a google search but so far I have been unsuccessful in getting the thingy to work. I want to be able to have del.icio.us send a post to my blogger account each night that contains all of my newest links. Help! Leave a comment with suggestions or send me an email. Thanks

See ya.

The iPod Has Landed!

34 Podcasts...
109 Shows...
2619 Songs... and,
5 New Albums....I'm going to be very busy for a while. So much content, so little time!

Check out the Frappr! map that I set up.
Click here to add yourself to my map of readers!

See ya.

Congratulations Patti & Jeff

Congratulations to Patti & Jeff who were engaged on November 20, 2005. Also congratulations to Patti, who was just hired to a great job. We are very happy for you!

iPod Disconnected...again... UPDATE

As I am sure that you all guessed, HP pretty much refused to do anything for me except exchange my iPod again. I called, and called, and finally I spoke to a thrid level manager in the iPod department and he repeatedly told me that all he could do was send me a replacement. What he did do was give me his personal telephone number, directly to his desk, to call if I have any more problems. With this number I can bypass tech support and go straight to the top. Hopefully there will be no more problems.

I recieved the shipping box from HP today and sent the iPod back via FedEx. I can't wait 'till my new one gets here!!!

You'll see some new things on the sidebar. I'm testing out del.icio.us. So far it's pretty cool. I heard about it a while ago. It wasn't untill this week that I found it might be beneficial to have access to all of my bookmarks while away from my home computer. I also have added an auto subscribe button for Newsgator.

iPod Disconnected...again...

Guess what? I've somehow managed to break another iPod. Can you believe it? I can't. For all of my new readers (damn, that sarcasm never gets old), I have had many problems with my iPod from HP. You can read these: iPod down, iPod down, the iPod lives on, iPod down, iPod down...again, and more iPod troubles & my lack of faith in HP support, to catch up my iPod ordeals. Let me explain my new situation:

On Thursday I was so excited because the new PodcasterNews Network was unveiled. As soon as I knew that it was up and running I immediately went to the site, joined, and subscribed to almost every feed available. I did this so I could test out all of the feeds and then unsubscribe from the ones that I didn't like. Anyway, I entered my custom RSS feed into iPodder (which I hear is now going to be called Juice). I then plugged my iPod into the USB 2.0 cable to charge it and let it update over night when iPodder fetched all of my feeds. I went to bed excited that I was going to have lots new content to listen to the next day while at work. Little did I know that I would wake up and be pissed off that my iPod was no longer working. When I woke up the next day, I went into the computer room to have iPodder do one more run before I left for work, and all I could hear in the room was the sound of my iPod clicking away. I was furious. I was furious (1) because I would not have enough time before work to trouble shoot the problem, and (2) because my damn iPod was broken yet again! What a let down!

When I got home on Friday, after work, the first thing I did was to try and fix it. I tried all of the troublshooting tricks that HP support had me do last time I called them. I tried to restart it...no luck. I tried to run the updater...no luck. I tried to update it with iTunes...no luck. None of this worked because each time I plugged it into my computer it bogged down my computer so bad that it just froze up. So I just gave up.

Today I called HP to see about getting another unit shipped to me. I spoke to a service rep named Matt who I informed about all of the above. He then had me try to run the updater utility, which we both understood would not work, and then he said that they would have to ship me another unit. Strangely enough, their policy has changed since the last time I had this problem. Last time I had to pay to ship the unit to HP. I FedEx'ed it which cost me about $6. This time however, they will send me a shipping box at no cost, along with all of the proper labels and what not. Once I receive the box I am to call FedEx to come pick it up. The whole process should take about 7 days, Matt said. I agreed that this was acceptable and hung up the phone. After I hung up the phone I started to ruminate about what had just happened. It occurred to me that I have 10-20 friends that all have iPods, none of which have had problems like I have experienced. I called HP back and spoke to Steve. I again explained my situation to Steve and then told him that I felt like I was entitled to an upgrade due to the fact that I have had so many problems with the last 2 units. I asked him if he could upgrade me to an iPod Photo or offer me a refund. Steve told me (you won't believe this) that HP would only consider compensation after 3 service calls. This means that they would only consider an upgrade before having to send me a fourth unit. Can you believe this? I was completely baffled by this. I asked if there was anyway that he could bend the rules in order to save a customer. He apologized and said that he couldn't do anything for me at this point. I then asked if I could speak to a manger. Steve then transferred me to Randal whom I am sure was just the guy that sits next to him in the office and has no more authority at HP then Steve did. Steve told me that he couldn't help me either and that I would have to speak to his supervisor who conveniently had already gone home for the night. I thanked Randal for his help, got his extension, and you can be dam sure that I will be calling his supervisor tomorrow morning.

Stay tuned...

See ya.

PodcasterNews Network - Sneak Peek Review

The podosphere is about to change. It's about to change in probably the biggest way since the invention of podcasting. How is it going to change you may ask? The answer is the PodcasterNews Network (PCN). The developers at PCN have designed an awesome application that is going to change the way podcasters come together and create their own networks. You think Adam Curry had a great idea…you haven’t seen nothin’ yet!!!

Are you interested in news? Have you found some news podcasts, but they are not giving you the news you want or enough great content? Ever wished that you could tailor an rss feed that’s just for you? Believe it or not, soon you will be able to. I was fortunate to receive an invite to the first sneak peek of the yet to be released PCN website.

PCN is the brain child of Todd Cochrane and his group of developers. Let me give you a brief run down of what this network will provide you the podcast listener…

Todd and his team have invented a new way to experience news in the podosphere. Upon arriving at the site you will be need to give your zip code and email address. That’s all that will be required for you to begin creating your own PodcasterNews Network experience.

The PCN showcases many different areas of news including: business, science, health and sports. Each show will be limited to five minutes or less. You will be able to subscribe to as many shows as you would like. When you subscribe, a list of all the shows you are subscribing to is generated under the section entitled “mycast”. The “mycast” section is like your PCN shopping cart. You load up the shopping cart and when you are done shopping, a custom rss feed is generated for you. This custom rss feed can then be dropped into any aggregator of your choice. When that aggregator checks your feed it will catch all of the shows that you have subscribed to within the PCN network.

I just have to say that I am so excited to see something like this being created. If you have ever listened to Geek New Central you would know that Todd is probably the most honest guy in podcasting. What he and his developers have done here is to give us, the podcast listeners, a place we can go to customize our listening experience. He has assured us that it will not be a promo network and that all of the content will and must be original. This news content will not be news from the major networks. It will be news from the people, for the people, and by the people.

I am so excited about this that I am not sure what else to say. RawVoice and the PodcasterNews Network will be putting out a press release soon. They will be doing the full release of the website on Monday. If you are reading this please be sure to go check out the site on Monday and begin creating your own personal PodcasterNews experience.

See ya.

Don't Let Jesse Jackson Preach At My Funeral!

On my way home today I turned on the radio, like I normally do, to listen to whatever CD happened to be in the CD player. I decided today however, to listen to the radio. I have pretty much given up on FM radio, but I still like NPR and some AM channels. I first turned to AM 1250, which is the AM station for WNEM-TV 5, one of our local CBS affiliates. Upon tuning in I heard someone singing a looooooooooooong drawn out version of "Wind Beneath My Wings". I immediately recalled that today was the day that Rosa Parks’ funeral was being held in Detroit. I listened to this long winded song for a bit and when I had enough, I changed the channel to NPR to check out All Things Considered. When I didn’t find the news story interesting I turned back to AM 1250. I was interested to hear the Rev. Jesse Jackson preaching to the attendees of Rosa Parks’ funeral. I decided to listen to him preach for a little bit. I have always found his type of preaching very interesting. At my church when the priest does his thin there is little to no excitement or passion in his voice. When Baptist minister preach you can feel the excitement and passion in every word they say, and that is what I find intriguing. Anyway, I listened to the Reverend preach and he said some very moving things. He spoke about Rosa Parks in very high regard. He talked about her n relation to Dr. Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders. It was a great sermon…or at least that’s what I thought until he started talking politics. He began by saying that we should put a life size statue of Rosa Parks in the halls of congress. I agreed. He then said we should honor her along with the men we honor each day that were associated with slavery and segregation. Again, I totally agree. Then Jackson started on a tangent of attacks on President Bush, all of which I happened to also agree with. Jackson spoke of how Bush just selected a candidate for the Supreme Court who is anti Rosa Parks thinking. Jackson also spoke of how a couple of years ago Bush went and placed a wreath on M.L.K’s grave ant then the next day began fighting to eliminate affirmative action. Again, I totally agree that Bush is a turd. What I don’t agree with is Jackson’s choice to use the death of Rosa Parks, and her funeral, as a platform to promote his political agenda. A funeral is a time of mourning, or a time to get some closure. For other a funeral is a time of celebration. It’s a time to celebrate that the deceased has left this earth and gone to a better place. I was not aware that for some, a funeral is a place to stand on a soap box and promote a political agenda. I believe in civil rights and I agree with many of the things that the Reverend spoke of, but I found it completely disrespectful, even offensive, that he chose this day and place as his venue to voice his political agenda. I lost a lot of respect for Jesse Jackson today!

Wow! I believe that was my first real rant on this blog. For anyone reading this who might one day attend my funeral: Please, do not let Jesse Jackson preach at my funeral! (or do my eulogy). Instead, encourage everyone to remember me with a smile, and have a drink…on me!

See ya.

Red & Yellow

Autumn is here. We took a trip to the Chipewa Nature Center this weekend to do a project for Katie's biology class. After we finished the project it was time to take some pictures of the fall colors.

Looking Up

Webber w/Bandana

Katie likes Webber to look festive. A dollar store bandana always does the trick!

Fall Colors

Autmn Blanket

Farmland Sky

Teepee?

Pumpkin Farm Landscape

Gourds