somuchtosay.net News Blog

I made it!

The final day of NaBloPoMo. Good stuff. Today, I'm meeting Maura for lunch. She's the one who got me into NaBloPoMo in the first place, if I remember correctly.

Last night, I played Wii Sports for the first time. I was pretty good at bowling and boxing, okay at golf and tennis, and not very good at baseball. I'm now a bit sore as a result of all of my game playing. Oy,

fooood...

I wound up getting dinner at a Panda Express tonight. I don't think I've ever been to one that's outside of some sort of food court. I got a Panda Bowl, which is one entree plus one side, plus two veggie spring rolls. I got Chow Mein as my side, and Eggplant Tofu as my entree. Not a huge eggplant fan, but it was good. It was hot -- both from a temperature standpoint, and a spice standpoint. Spring rolls were good. Then there was the fortune cookie. For some reason, it tasted sweeter than your average fortune cookie. Sounds strange, I know, but that's how it tasted. Maybe it had something to do with the intense spicyness of the dinner. Either way, it was good,

FedEx...

I was recently tracking a package that was shipped from Shanghai to Florida (it was something ordered from a major computer manufacturer). It was interesting to see the various stops it made -- first in Anchorage, then in Indianapolis, then Memphis. From there, it flew here, where it will be put on a truck for delivery. After figuring out the flight path, I headed over to FlightAware, in an attempt to figure out the exact flights it took (yes, I'm a bit of a dork). I was semi-successful, but I was able to discover roughly how many MD-11s FedEx runs between Shanghai and Anchorage, and then onto the Lower 48 (mainly Memphis and Indy). I never really knew that FedEx ran a hub in Indy -- most things I've received/shipped have gone via Memphis if they were air shipments. I wound up Googling "fedex hubs" and came across this article about the operations at their hubs. It's interesting to see how they have it down to such a precise process. No wonder they get things everywhere on time. And not just on time, but not a day earlier than promised. I've seen things arrive at the local sort center the day before they're scheduled to be delivered, and they sit there for a day. It's a smart business practice -- if customers realize that a slower, technically longer service can actually deliver more quickly than promised, they won't spend the money for the faster service.

this is cool...

Some time ago, there was an xkcd comic about turning your apartment into a ball pit. Yes, a ball pit. Think back to the days of Chuck E Cheese's. Some time later, some actually created a ball pit, inspired by the comic. Recently, the creators of the xkcd webcomic created their own ball pit. (You'd think they would have beaten the others to it, but alas, that wasn't the case.) Tonight, I read about these ball pits on Taylor's site. Now, I'm wishing I had a place to make my own small ball pit. Because it would be cool.

wow... just wow.

Heroes keeps getting crazier. It's going to be hard after next week's season finale, waiting an unknown amount of time until we see more episodes. A lot of people compare the show to Lost, in the sense that both shows have built "mythologies," and lead to a lot of viewer-created theories. In a sense, Heroes is "better" than Lost, because you can generally assume that up is up... which isn't always the case in Lost. (Are they *definitely* on an island?) Of course, the good vs. evil lines seem to be a lot more blurred in Heroes than in Lost. But Lost just seems "tighter" in some aspects. Details are much more intricate -- I mean, think about the hatches. Yes, Heroes created the Company, but I don't know if they compare. Lost had its "Lost Experience" (which I never really got into... I came along too late), and Heroes has the online graphic novels. It seems that Lost does a lot more explaining through its alternate channels than Heroes does. Hmm. They're both great shows. Thankfully, once Heroes is over, we'll only have two months or so until Lost starts (we think). Of course, that will be a shortened season as well, it seems... argh.

sunday NFL roundup...

Good game by the Jaguars this afternoon. Despite the fact that we didn't do much in the red zone at first, we went on to soundly beat the Bills. I just noticed that NFL.com has a handful of video clips, so here are some of my favorites from the day:

• Fred Taylor's touchdown run. Nice way to start the game.
• Roscoe Parrish's end around, for a touchdown. I wasn't happy to see the Bills score on us, but it least it was a former Miami player who is also on one of my fantasy teams.
• Devin Hester's punt return for a TD. Again, it's a 'Cane thing. I like how he jumped over the punter.
• Hester again, this time on a kickoff. Sauerbrun thought he could tackle Hester. Naaaah.

I also came across a Youtube video of ACC ref Ron Cherry giving a rather unusual explanation of a holding penalty in this weekend's Maryland-NC State game. If you're confused, it's a reference to a similar call during a Bills-Jets game in 1986. Good stuff.

as expected...

Miami lost to Boston College today. The Hail Flutie clip was shown at least 5 times, I think. We finish at 5-7, worse than we did my freshman year (5-6). I don't think there's ever been a 5-7 season, because they've only been playing 12 games a season in the last few years. Nevertheless, I'm sure there was a time when we lost 7 games in a season, but it had to have been at least 28 years ago. Because when we went 5-6 my freshman year, it was the worst season since 1979.

Now, we just have to hope something changes in the offseason.

Black Friday consumerism...

I didn't have any grand ideas to spend any money today. For one, I had to work, which makes it rather difficult to shop. Second, nothing jumped out at me as a "must have." I looked at the Circuit City and Best Buy ads online yesterday, and didn't see anything I really wanted. I want to buy a large, internal hard drive, to put into an old computer. But just about every hard drive that was on sale today was an external drive. Nevertheless, I wound up going to Best Buy on my way home from work tonight. I wanted to look at an HDTV (that's another story). I started thinking about memory cards for my phone, because I ran out of room while trying to take a picture last night (I transferred all of my photos from my old phone). I found a 1 GB microSD card for around $20. Not a bad deal. Then I saw a 2 GB card on sale for $19.99. Much better deal! I decided to see if there were better deals elsewhere, and it turned out that Staples had the same thing for $17.98. So I headed over to Staples, saved a few bucks over Best Buy, and now I can take a lot more photos!

turkey day...

I worked, because the news stops for pretty much nothing. Food from Cracker Barrel was brought in, and it was decent. I had lunch around 11:30, pies around 2, and left work after my show at 6:45. Then, I went to a friend's place, and had leftover green bean casserole, mac and cheese casserole, sweet potatoes, and mashed potatoes. That was excellent. Tomorrow, back to work.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

board game flashback

Back in the day (and by that, I mean high school), I played Risk with a number of my friends. The quality of my gameplay varied -- there were times when I spread myself just a bit too thin. I can't remember the last time I played -- it's been a while. Anyway, I was recently invited to add a Facebook app that's very similar to Risk. I added it, and played a game. Didn't last too long. I was mainly in Europe, with a few other countries. After 2 rounds or so, I was reduced to Europe. After another few rounds, I was gone. Ah well. Practice makes perfect...

good news..

Yesterday, I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to watch the Jaguars on December 2nd, when I'm in Atlanta. So I went on jaguars.com, and posted a message on the message boards. I asked if anyone knew of a way to look up bars that have Sunday Ticket, or knew of a place to watch Jaguars games in Atlanta. Within minutes, someone posted a link to the site for the group of Jaguars fans up there, and wouldn't you know it, they have a restaurant where they gather. So it looks like I'm set. Now I'm just hoping it's a good game!

tv stuff...

An assortment of things that I'll make a post out of:

• I'm hoping I can watch the Jaguars vs. Colts game on Dec. 2nd while I'm in Atlanta. Based on the other games on CBS that day, we'll probably be the "A" game. The problem is that CBS is the singleheader network, and the Falcons play at 1 PM on Fox. I have a feeling that CBS will then try to put their game in the other time slot in the Atlanta area. But we'll see what happens. There's always a sports bar.
• Heroes tonight. WOW. I'm rather disappointed that we only have 2 more episodes, courtesy of the strike.
• How I Met Your Mother was pretty funny. I have a feeling this will be strike-shortened as well, sad as well.

I think that's about it for now.

movies...

I've now seen "Before Sunrise". Only about 10 years late on that one. I remember people talking about it when I was a sophomore in high school, right around the time it came out. I liked the movie. It's really easy to get into, since it's really just a long conversation. Now, I just need to see "Before Sunset". Only about three years behind the times there.

shadows of 1997...

So, the Miami Hurricanes are now 5-6. That's the same record they finished with in 1997, my freshman year at UM. That year, we lost 47-0 to FSU at Doak Campbell Stadium. This year, we lost 48-0 to UVa, in the last game ever at the Orange Bowl. At least we beat FSU this year, but I don't know what that really means. This year, we still have one game to go. Against Boston College -- still one of the top teams in the country. I'd say there's a pretty good chance we finish 5-7. Not exactly what many fans hoped for. Well, there's always next year.

mmm... fooooood.

My girlfriend and I went to dinner tonight at a restaurant I'd been to a few times. We decided to get an appetizer, and we were choosing between some vegetable spring rolls, and a beefsteak tomato and fresh mozzarella combination. We opted for the latter, and it was a VERY good choice. It was pretty much the same as this dish, but it also had pesto spread among some of the layers. AND an onion confit in between some of the layers. Really good stuff. I mean, really good. We talked about going back and just getting one for each of us, so we'd have plenty of room for dessert (creme brulee, most likely). For another time...

so, I'm a bit of a dork..

A while ago, I discovered FlightAware. It's a site that does some very comprehensive flight tracking -- and not just of commercial flights. Punch in an airline and flight number, and you see a whole ton of data. You see a map of the flight's route, estimated/actual arrival/departure times, equipment type, cruising altitude, and speed. You can see how the flight progressed, as far as altitude and speed. You can see the history of the flight for the past few months (actually, back to June 2005). But that's not all! You can check flights between two cities. You can check arrivals & departures (and upcoming arrivals & departures) at a given airport. Every now and then, I'll pull up the page for a big airport (like JFK) and listen to one of the internet streams of the air traffic control. The site gives you a bit of a visual to go with the audio. In the case of JFK, there's usually a nice handful of JetBlue and other flights that are severely delayed. Once in a while, the site has come in handy for info at work, too. Good stuff.

e-waste...

I normally listen to NPR on my way into work, and sometimes on my way home as well. One of the programs that I usually catch is Marketplace -- a look at the business world, economics, and all kinds of things. (It's more interesting than it sounds.) Recently, they've been doing reports in a series called Consumed, looking at whether the current "consumer economy" is sustainable. Tonight's report on the processing of e-waste was almost a little scary. Basically, a lot of stuff gets shipped off to China. Processors there strip out the metals, either by just hacking the parts off, or dissolving them in chemicals. Sometimes, the "chemical stew" (as they put it) just gets dumped into the soil. That mixture sometimes includes lead. The solid metals are sold to wholesalers. Sometimes those metals get used for jewelry -- cheap stuff that's sent back to the US and sold in dollar stores and the like. And sometimes those items include lead -- which shouldn't be shocking, given the recent recalls. Yikes.

I've at least tried to be responsible with my e-waste. When I had a computer power supply go bad a few years ago, I took it (along with an old printer) to the "hazardous materials" facility run by the city, which accepts e-waste. So now I just hope they've been responsible...

good snacks...

I was checking out Maura's latest entry, which references this category of posts on notmartha.org. Basically, her "up to" posts mention what she's reading, eating, wanting, needing, etc. I scrolled through a few posts, and came across one that mentioned Sahale Snacks. I'd forgotten about those! I used to buy them at Target a lot. I think I stopped because they aren't exactly cheap ($5 or so for a 5 ounce bag). But they're very good. I see they've now redesigned their packaging. I may pick some up the next time I'm at the store.

more than 1/3 there...

I decided to turn to the Randomizer once again, to see what people are writing about during NaBloPoMo. I came across this post which mentioned Freerice.com. I had actually seen the site a week or two ago, after finding a link on the taper boards. After reading that part of the post, I skimmed around to see what the blog was about, and noticed a reference to beer and a brewery. Somehow, that reminded me of a time about a year and a half ago when I had a chance to taste He'Brew, the Chosen Beer. Yes, sounds kinda corny, but I remember the beer being pretty decent. Amusing tidbit: it's brewed in Saratoga Springs, NY, and if you've seen my Live Music page, you know that town's significance to me. Anyway, hearing the founder's story was interesting, and there was free beer, which was a big hit with many people in the crowd.

a 13' stand is really tall...

A few weeks ago, I bought a light stand from someone on taperssection.com. (Tapers use light stands to mount their mics many feet up in the air.) I had been seeing a lot of 9' stands on ebay and such. A 9' stand is plenty tall enough for taping at clubs and such, but I wanted a taller stand for DMB concerts and similar situations. When I taped the DMB shows in Florida this year, I was clamped to a 16' stand -- I didn't want one quite that tall. So when this 13' stand popped up, I jumped on the deal. I had it shipped to work, and it arrived this Friday. Due to my trip to south Florida, I didn't have a chance to take the stand out of the box until tonight. Wow. This thing is tall, and it's built like a tank. It's a Calumet stand, and made by Manfrotto, one of the better stand companies. And it's air-cushioned, which is nice. At one point, I was extending it, and nearly put a hole in my ceiling. Oops. Good thing I didn't.

the end of an era.

Tonight (well, early tomorrow morning), the Miami Hurricanes will play their last game ever in the Orange Bowl. The now-rickety steel structure has seen 70 years of Hurricane Football. A lot of mediocre years, then some really good years, a few bad years, some really good years, and now some more mediocre years. Among the bad years: the 1997 season, my freshman year, when the Hurricanes went 5-6 (only three of those five wins were at home: Temple, Arkansas State, and Rutgers). But three years later, you had "The Drive" against FSU, and Wide Right III. What a game. Too bad I missed half of it because I had a kidney stone.

And it hasn't just been UM football that's created memories in that stadium. The Orange Bowl bowl game was played there until the mid-90s, so it's seen plenty of national championship games. Plus decades of Miami Dolphins football, including the perfect 1972 season. Plus five Super Bowls. Plus concerts. And more.

Tonight, plenty of former Hurricane greats will come back, to help say farewell to the OB. I assume we'll take the smoke, the cannon, and everything else with us to Dolphin Stadium. We'll be leaving behind the place that witnessed the NCAA-record 58-game home winning streak. But we will take with us the memories.

freakonomics rules...

I decided to check out the Freakonomics blog tonight, which was spawned from the best-selling book. One of the recent gems: an article detailing an economist's approach to dating. I feel like I've read some of the research before, but it was nonetheless interesting.

Another interesting blog entry: the relationship between TV programs and video that's posted online. Especially timely given how the internet figures into the WGA strike.

That's all for now...

and you thought Ben and Jerry's was expensive...

Serendipity 3 in NYC now sells a $25,000 chocolate dessert. Yes, you read that right. 25 grand for chocolate. Of course, the cocoa comes from around the world, it's topped with expensive truffle shavings, and it includes gold. In the dessert, on the goblet, and on the spoon (which you can take home). The big discussion in our newsroom today was why anyone would want to EAT gold. (I don't have the answer to that one.) But don't expect to just order this on a whim -- it has to be ordered two weeks in advance, so they can get everything in from around the world. (No word on whether there's a credit check when you place the order...)

one week down...

I was playing around the NaBloPoMo randomizer again, and came across a post on deliciousjuice.com. She says that her neighbors already have a Christmas wreath on their door. That reminded me of a press release I saw at work -- a local radio station is already playing Christmas-themed music 24/7. They started this a few days ago -- so it wasn't even a full week into November when this began. Seriously, people. Soon stations will be starting this in October, and then it will just creep earlier and earlier...

Clicking the randomizer link a few more times, I see a post that reminds me of a story that was in the news today: a Chinese-made bead toy that's being recalled in Australia and the U.S.. Why is it being recalled, you ask? No, it's not lead paint, but you're on the right track. A chemical in the beads converts to GHB (gamma hydroxy butyrate) -- also known as the date rape drug. Obviously not something kids should be ingesting!

words, words, words...

(have you heard // A bird in hand is much better than, // Any number free to wander... ok, I'll stop quoting DMB lyrics...)

As I was trying to figure out what to write about tonight, I was checking out some posts with the NaBloPoMo randomizer. I came across a post on Eleven-Pm.org in which the blogger is also talking about NaNoWriMo. Wow. Posting on a blog every day, and finishing a novel, all in the month of November. That's a lot of words. I don't think I could do it. That got me thinking about how much I write every day, in the course of putting together my newscast. I've never really calculated it, although it would be interesting to figure that out. Maybe I will one day... hmm.

I didn't say I would blog, but here I am...

Tonight, I attended a lecture at the University of North Florida. It was part of their Distinguished Voices lecture series. Tonight's lecture was by Lee Rainie, the director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project, about life in a connected society. I found out about it through the emails we get at work from the school's PR people, and figured why not -- it looked interesting. Near the start of the lecture, Rainie asked if anyone was live-blogging. Nobody raised their hand. Then he asked if anyone would blog afterward. I think five people raised their hands -- I didn't, even though I was fairly sure I would blog afterward. And here I am.

But anyway, the content. There was one slide showing the ways information flows -- I think he called it the "ecology" of information. There was one describing things in the mid-1970s -- fairly simple. Then there's the one for today -- arrows going all over the place. Very telling about the way things work these days. Another interesting stat was on the use of social networking sites. Something like 93 percent of teens or young adults (I forget which group) having profiles, while only 22 of adults do. A lot of the screenshots were taken from Facebook -- while that may have just been an example, it does seem that Facebook is having a lot of growth these days. There was a good article in Newsweek about two months back, taking a look at the site from several angles. Another interesting stat was that 2/3rds of people with social networking profiles take steps to protect their information -- based on everything that's out there, you'd think it would be lower, that people are putting their information out there willy-nilly. And believe me, there are plenty of people who are doing that. But apparently, it's not as much as you think.

Anyway, it was an hour and a half that was fairly well-spent. Even if I missed How I Met Your Mother, and the first five minutes of Heroes. But I can catch HIMYM another way (there you go, time-shifting, something mentioned during the lecture), and I'll find out what happened during Heroes (the rest of the show was amazing).

day four... sort of stretching here...

The other day, I was talking with our IT guys about various things. One asked me if I had ever seen the "Chad Vader" videos on Youtube. I said I hadn't so he sent me the links to the first 8 episodes or so. The premise is that Chad is Darth's younger brother... you can imagine where it goes from there. So far, I've only watched the first episode, but it was pretty funny. Chad is a day shift manager at a supermarket... it's amusing. So enjoy...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wGR4-SeuJ0

The U on ESPN U

(I'm not going to go into the actual details of today's game. It's just not pleasant.)

For what I think was the third time this season, UM's game was on ESPNU today. Thankfully, the place where we watch our games gets ESPNU now. One thing struck me during the broadcast, compared to other televised football games -- the commercials suck. Normally, you see a lot of car commercials, and other ads targeted at the largely-male football-watching audience. This game was loaded with a lot of two-minute, "infomercial-style" ads. One we saw twice was for Proactiv -- an anti-acne skin care system, pitched by Jennifer Love Hewitt. We also saw one for the DR Wood Splitter (or something like that) twice. Saw a Bose commercial a few times. I can't remember the others, but you get my drift. They aren't doing a very good job of selling ad time for these games. There was one upside to this -- the game moved a little more quickly.

day two -- so far, so good.

My installation of MT4 was relatively painless last night. I think I'm one of the last people I know using it. Many people have switched to another blogging CMS, or they've moved to a hosting service. When I get around to it, maybe I'll look at some alternatives.

Among other things I plan to do around here, once I get around to them:

• Update my Live Music page. It's two years out of date.


• Update my Taping page. I now have a complete rig, and a few more tapes.


• Update the West Wing page, since the series is now over.


• Redesign the site. I have a mockup sitting on my server, but I never really fleshed it out. And I don't think I like that look anymore.

As I said, they're things for when I get around to them. We'll see how well that works.

Tomorrow, UM Homecoming. Once again, I'll be watching from here and not the Orange Bowl, since I can't take off time during sweeps.

Year Two, Day One

Last year, I took part in NaBloPoMo. I did a pretty good job. I was on Maura's site tonight, and was reminded of NBPM, and figured, why not. This isn't much of a first post, because I'm in the middle of upgrading my MT installation. But hopefully subsequent posts will be more substantial.