I am a big OCD Where's George freak

Thanks a lot Catherine Fletcher...

Got me hooked on Where's George back when we both used to work at Stargate. You put dollar bill serial numbers into their website, and wait for someone else to find the money, enter the same serial number in, and you can track the condition and distance travelled of your money.

It combines my freakish love of statistics with my other freakish love of geography in a perfect storm of freakishness.

Here are some other strange obsessive-compulsive things that I do:
1. Walk on the icy/snowy parts of sidewalks to "break up the snow and facilitate melting".
2. Count the number of steps it takes to walk between buildings on campus, thinking that someday I'll make a map of campus and find the shortest distance between buildings that way.
3. Organize other people's pop cans in the office refrigerator based on brand and characteristic. (Caffeine? Diet? Non-carbonated?)
4. Order my own pop cans (and 2-liters at home) in a variable alternating sequence in order to maximize the variety, taking into account age of the beverage and quantity.
5. Send back postage paid envelopes from credit card/insurance/etc... offers without the actual application inside.
6. Fill out online surveys that pay me between .10 and $5 per survey, and then constantly link to them on my blog in order to coerce other people to take them as well and get a $1.50 referral credit.

If you happen to run across my quiet little site, feel free to post the weird things you do. It will make you feel better, and it will make me feel not so freakish. (I'm quite secure and all, but it still feels good to hear when other people share your weird behavior.)

No-Name Calling Week

I missed lunch again, so let me type off a late and quick post...

There are conservative groups in America that are actually against a recent school initiative called "No-Name-Calling Week". Organizers of this anti-name calling manifesto are apparently hopelessly co-opted by the gay agenda. Clearly, having a grownup tell a child that it is not okay to call someone a "faggot" is sending them irrevocably onto the course of becoming gay.

Sorry for the biting sarcasm. It sounds more like promoting manners to me. While many kids might not even listen, promoting manners must be at least as effective as promoting abstinence, if given as much time/money/energy... (Then, just like with sex, when kids go ahead and do it anyway, we need to give them the knowledge to learn how to deal with the situation as adults.)

Now a conservative group being "anti-manners"? That doesn't sound like much of a stretch these days.

Going off on the obvious tangent... maybe some of these anti-family conservative folks should be spending more time actually WITH their kids rather than doing dumb things like chasing Sponge Bob Squarepants around accusing him being a homosexual. (Sponges, or any beings with square pants for that manner probably do not put much thought into reproduction..... Wait.... sponges DO reproduce in an asexual manner. Good grief - this sinning has been going on for millions upon millions of years, with these insolent sponges proverbial thumbing their nonexistant noses at God herself. Call in the radical right!)

Snow place like Erie

They said it would only be 4-8 inches on Saturday originally... Here is a shot of how things ended up by Sunday morning. (Click to see larger image.)



After shoveling a few times on Saturday, we began to really notice Loki's affinity for licking our boots clean, so we figured we'd get him some fresh snow so he could eat it like a proper kitty.

Worked through lunch

I had to work through lunch so I'm taking a quick break to post an update. I've been busy lately and you may notice some updates sprinkled throughout the site. (If you care - I know my high volume site is just on the tip of everyone's tongues these days... Cough cough.)

1. The big change: Our wedding site is now redirecting to a page on this site. Easier to maintain and a better design choice I think.
2. Related to that - I signed up with Flickr to host galleries. It's not like I don't have enough space for all the images with Dreamhost, my generous hosting provider. It's the gallery management system Flickr provides and ability to cross reference images with tags that drew me to them. It's on a trial basis, but have a look see if you're interested, and signup is free if you want them to host your images too. The wedding links now redirect to Flickr as well.
3. Links and recipes are slightly updated. Recipes will be my next big project I think. The old recipe page was the last tie I had to the old webpage design, which I liked, but it wasn't really blog-friendly.
4. There is a special web event on my page tomorrow. My blog will be down for the duration, but rest assured, it will be back by Friday! Feel free to come check my site out tomorrow!

Bed and Breakfast - Franklin, PA

A friend of mine opened a bed and breakfast this summer.

Hager's Peach Basket - 1501 Liberty St. Franklin, PA 16323

I haven't been yet, but I'm sure that she'll make you feel right at home. She's a great lady.

Updates

TiVo is great with watching football! I just start watching the game 30 minutes in to it, fast forward through commercials and the halftime show, and I'm basically caught up by the beginning of the fourth quarter.

The Steelers game was awesome! I have no comment above and beyond what's being said in the media. I do think that the Steelers have a better chance of beating the Pats than most national media is giving them credit for.

Also - more pictures for the Tim Hortons Erie PA construction page.

Why did I not do this sooner?????

My wife finally convinced me to buy TiVo over the weekend. I've talked about it since it came out, but never felt like the price point was worth it. A combination of rebates, new features, and additional considerations, finally pushed us over the edge and we splurged and bought an 80-hr Series2 DVR. Why oh why have I waited this long?

It's a breeze to set up. (Not for me, but that's only because I have a PS2, GameCube, N64, Sega Dreamcast, VCR, turntable, and DVD player all trying to talk to a TV and stereo at once. It is a royal pain to connect anything without disabling or mangling something else.)

Once it's connected to the TiVo network.... (had to string a long phone cord over to it until it did it's thing, over the course of about 20-30 minutes) it knows what channels you have, what is on those channels today, and for the better part of two weeks into the future. I plugged in a USB wireless card into the back. It found my network and blam... no more phone cord necessary.

For those of you unfamiliar with TiVo, now I can:

Set it to record only the first-run episodes of the Daily Show and all episodes of Mythbusters, but only if they don't conflict with first run episodes of Lost, American Dreams, Everwood, Gilmore Girls or Iron Chef America. Record ALL episodes of Lost, no matter what else is on.

(The next time I turn TiVo on, it tells me it's recorded two episodes of the Daily Show, American Dreams, two episodes of Good Eats, and some crazy wacked out anime something or other that Tiff put on there.)

Pause the Vikings vs. Packers game to take out the garbage and clean up dinner, then fast-forward through commercials and the chintzy half-time show to catch up with the game before the end of the third quarter.

Play music from my nearly 4000 song mp3 library saved on my computer upstairs through the TV and stereo over the wireless network. (Works like a charm, even at only "32% marginal signal rate...")

And soon - (not yet available, but promised), download video from the TiVo to my computer and save it for later on my HD, or possibly even archive or burn to DVD...........

Things I've found already about how the TiVo has changed my habits:

1. I don't watch commercial any more unless they really catch my eye as I'm fast-forwarding.
2. I pause sports on purpose, so that I can get things done in good 5-10 minute chunks, and then I fast-forward to catch up.
3. I DON'T flip channels. The default setup is to constantly record what you're watching, but if you're in catch up mode, flipping channels loses your place and you immediately fast forward to real-time. Kind of locks you into a show, which is good for me. I often find myself flipping just to flip. No more.

I won't say that TiVo has changed my life, because I was already starting to wean myself off of the idiot box, but oh wow, does it make it a lot easier to watch the things you really want to watch, and not be distracted by Family Feud on PAX, and all those trashy 25 most.... whatevers on VH1.

Want TiVo to change your life? Check out www.tivo.com and if you do decide to get one, put my email address (in this case... tivo AT jason ramsey DOT net) as a referral. If I get four referrals, I can get Tiff an iPod, which is a really sweet deal.

Blown Out Of Proportion

NFL Playoffs. Vikings - Packers. FOX Sports. Sunday afternoon.

The words out of announcer Joe Buck's untalented mouth: "Now, that is disgusting. We're sorry those images had to go out over television."

What images come to mind? Sexual? Racist? Darva Conger marrying a C-List comic for $1 million dollars? What is America seeing on its television screens that would prompt such a remark?

Randy Moss, Viking wide receiver is pantomiming (key point here - pantomime is pretend) the action of mooning the crowd after celebrating a pretty brilliant touchdown reception in hostile Lambeau field. (Lambeau, home of the Packers, is well-known for not being a good place to play unless you're wearing Packer green and yellow...)

I am not a fan of either the Packers or Vikings, as they regularly torment my favorite perennial doormats to the east. I think the Vikings are chokers and have a history in both the Dennis Green and Mike Tice eras of some really boneheaded coaching. The Packers, on the other hand, have one of the most overrated QB's in the history of the game, that I'm so sick of hearing about I won't even mention him. So, I'm watching this game Sunday afternoon with bemused interest, hoping that both teams self-destruct enough in the playoffs so that Lions have a better shot next year, when Randy Moss comes out of an injured nowhere and a sleeping Packer defense to score a perfect touchdown. Very impressive.

Then in response to a jeering crowd, he pretends to moon the crowd from the end zone, and I laugh, out loud. It's funny. It's entertaining. It hurt no one.

Then Joe Buck opens his untalented mouth. Personally what I find sickening is that a person who draws his pay check from NEWS Corp and Rupert Murdoch can refer to anything as sickening. Now, the buzz is that the NFL is considering a fine. If Randy Moss weren't so overpaid as it is, I'd care. Instead, I just figured I'd mention the words "Joe Buck" and "untalented" as often together as possible, just because the man is the worst announcer in football (even topping Myron Cope of Western PA fame...) Just to recap - Joe Buck = untalented.

Here is a commentary in the Detroit News that has about the same opinion, only better written.

Tim Hortons in Erie (Construction Updates)

Hooray for

I've posted Tim Hortons construction links here. Tim Hortons is coming to Erie PA and I'll try to keep my website up to date with all the newsworthy "Timbits"....

If anyone knows where the third Tim Hortons is supposed to be in Erie, let me know and I'll include that information henceforth!

Random stuff today

1. The archives on the right sidebar work now. I am a dope for taking this long to notice they were broken. Now you can read all of my bizzare ranting I posted after the election all over again,

2. those of you who visit my site at least... Speaking of which, every once in a while I look up IP addresses (when I'm really really bored at lunch) to see who visits my site. (Thank you arin.net and JJY at Stargate who taught me this trick...) Yesterday, among others, I had a visitor from Johnson & Johnson, so let me give a shout out to the Pharmaceutical/Health Care industry. Thanks for stopping!

3. Also, I may try to get construction pictures posted of the Tim Hortons in Erie this weekend. The weather is supposed to be nice. I'd like my website to be known as the hub of information regarding Tim Hortons arrival in Erie PA.

Tucker Carlson Owned

CBC has the story here.

I won't be your monkey either, bowtie guy from Crossfire. Jon Stewart rules! (Note - while this clip of Jon Stewart savaging the poor fool is amazing, hilarious, and you should definitely watch it, other movies on the same page may also contain inappropriate content for work or children.)

Gotta get back to work, just wanted to actually post some breaking "news" for once.

Bull in a china shop

George Bush is going to cut social security and cut the amount people have to put in. (Full disclosure - right now they're just "floating" the idea. But this is a campaign promise of Bush 2.0, so keep your eyes peeled for more on this!)

This means that there is a good chance that you are going to get less money from the federal government when you retire. (And if you think you can make it up in the stock market with your own savings plan, there's some prime real estate I'd like to sell you, or maybe a timber company... Need some wood?)

While I cry for myself and America, it at least shows that Bush is putting some thought into his legacy. His policies are sure to affect America like a bad case of herpes for years to come.

Countdown to Timbits

Just a post to update the latest on Tim Hortons in Erie PA. The location on the west side (26th Street) is still just a foundation the last time I looked. A co-worker told me that the Peach Street location has rough walls up. Normally I don't mind the snows of winter, but if the lack of snow lately speeds the arrival of good Canadian coffee and donuts, then stay away snow!!!

If anyone's heard where the third proposed location in Erie will be (I'm hoping against hope for the West Erie Plaza), let me know!

Die Krispy Kreme, Die... You may make your own donuts, but your coffee tastes awful.