TILT: (Tue) New laptop

It's smaller, lighter, newer. You have to reset all the little stuff. Install a few extras. Hope it'll all work. Still getting used to the smaller keyboard, but so far I like it being lighter. I may get a lighter bag and carry less stuff. Hopefully the battery will be better. We'll see.

TILT: (Mon) Talking ads = not enough talk

Another thing -- the talk itself is an advertisement. They discuss games, but mostly the games that are on their own network. ESPN of course. Then GEICO makes an ad that allows the host to talk about the upcoming games. On ESPN. Double advert. Not a separate ad, but during what should be the talk. 5 minutes of talk, with 5 of ads.

TILT: (Mon) Radio ads

Aren't they annoying? I think there may be more than on TV. 5 minutes worth, interspersed with just some oft repeated news. When you actually want to listen to the talk, you get too much ad plus too much not new news. Even their talk sometimes is just ads -- all about what ESPN is covering later.

TILT: (Sun) Ok, that wasn't too good

Well, I tried. I thought that the autoposting would work. Didn't look good. My bad. Oh well, can't win em all.

At least I can just watch soccer and football and enjoy the lingo. Adds for boots, soccer cleats, that is.

TILT: (Sat) How to post to blog from Clipmarks.com

clipped from clipmarks.com What blogging services are supported for Clip-to-Blog™? Clip-to-Blog currently supports Blogger, WordPress, TypePad, LiveJournal, Movable Type and Vox. We also provide an embed code so you can easily paste clips into other blogs, including MySpace. To change the style of clips that you post to your blog, click the "Style Options" link in the Clip-to-Blog™ window (see image on right). Can I change the style of clips I post to my blog? From there you can customize the color of the border and source link. You can also remove the clipmarks logo that appears below the clip. You'll also find some more advanced features, including the ability to disable inline styles if you want the style to default to your blog style.

TILT: (Fri) Have you made a "gasoline investment"?

I just heard a radio add talking about "preserving" your "gasoline investment" by purchasing a locking gas cap! Wow. Granted, gas is expensive, but it ain't no investment. It's more like food -- a necessity and also rapidly used up. So, you can't keep it around for a while and see if it gets more valuable -- it's not like gold or stocks. Odd way of trying to sell a locking gas cap. I don't even think there are significant reports of gas stealing, but I'm too lazy to look it up. I think this goes in that category of "might happen, but pretty unlikely" so why go out and buy a locking gas cap?

Example: Berry Picking with Kids notes this:

"if you’re looking to make good on your gasoline investment and spend more time, some farms offer additional activities" (my bolding)

TILT: (Thu) That GOLD medal: Priceless ... or perhaps worthless or worth relatively little?

Gold Medal Is Priceless, But Metal Is Worth $215
Posted Aug 20, 08 8:49 PM CDT in Business, Sports

"(Newser) – Michael Phelps’ eight Olympic golds may be priceless, but they're not worth that much to a commodities trader, MarketWatch notes. This year's gold medals are made mostly of silver and coated with less than a quarter-ounce of gold, putting their value around $215. But people are, of course, willing to shell out much more for a piece of Olympic history.
A silver medal from the 2000 Games is listed on eBay with a starting price of $7,999.99. And in 2004, a Polish swimmer raked in more than $80,000 for charity when she auctioned off her gold medal. China's paying plenty for the medals, too: with record-high metals prices, it cost millions to make all 6,000 of them."

Source MarketWatch
Olympic medals more valuable than the metal
DUH!

"The International Olympic Committee requires the gold medal to contain a minimum of six grams of gold. Huang Ping, vice president of Shanghai-based China Banknote Printing and Minting Corp., the producer of the medals, said in an interview with China Business News that the amount of gold in each medal was strictly controlled at 6.0 to 6.1 grams.
Despite an effort to reduce costs, record-high metals prices have meant that producing 6,000 gold, silver and bronze metals for the 2008 Olympics and the Paralympics is costing China millions of dollars."

TILT: (Wed) Best Trophy Presentation

Is NOT at the Olympics. At least, not for teams. It's either the Stanley Cup (hockey) or the World Cup (soccer) and related events. The team all gets their medals or whatever, hand shakes with the big wigs, etc. Then, the trophy is given to the team captain, and he turns around and hoists it into the air and the crowd goes wild.

In all the rest, the trophy is given to the adults (manager, owner), not the kids (players). I like it when the KIDS get the trophy first. This really makes the crowd all cheer their loudest when the trophy is lifted.

TILT: (Tue) Amazing weather

I live in DC. In August, it's hot. And humid. It's hot and humid.

So, what's with this weather? It's so cool, I had to put on socks and long pants. What? In August? We've got the house all open and the air is great. Not hot. Not humid.

I just sat outside for a while, and the wind was wandering around. Trees beautiful. Happy happy.

And, guess what: now I have a cold. See -- that weather was NOT right, somehow.

TILT: (Mon) Now we're cookin!

We got a new stove top recently. It has 5 burners and puts out serious BTUs. One burner is so large it handles our largest pan. She had 3 pans working at the same time -- no loss of power. Wow. This is COOKING! Hot. Indeed, very hot! So hot, we actually have to be careful with some pans that aren't supposed to get TOO hot. It's sleek. It's got a power fan thing that raises up out of the table. Totally cool! No, hot. Er, cool. No. Yeah. Cool. They had to cut our marble top to put it in. Still looks good in the space. Nice investment. Good food coming, I think.

TILT: (Sun) Yawn

Some Sundays I just can't wake up. Stayed up too late? Didn't want to get up? Usually I'm an early riser, heading down for that wonderful first cup of coffee. I do love that first cup. Of course, I kinda like the second one as well. I can drink coffee all morning and just read the paper. Even waking up late, I read the paper -- and then I look up and it's like 1pm. What happened to the time? Well, I do like that level of relaxing. Just paper, coffee -- hanging in the living room in the sun coming thru the windows. Just relaxing. Yawn.

TILT: (Sat) Life outside work

I think I have to learn how to stop working. Weekend comes and I'm worried about work. I get to the work week, then have trouble getting psyched for work? Hmm. Must be summer. Vicious cycle. Gotta get on the ball. Actually, I've just starting working out with a ball, sort of. I look at it while exercising. I have one. Yes, I use all that exercise equipment that I've bought over the years. All of it. Including the ball. Yes, I'm having a ball.

TILT: (Fri) Accumulation

I sit in my office, which has junk all over it. I can't write with all this mess!

So, time to send back those shoes I ordered that I didn't like, and break down the boxes and toss the other junk. Just basically clean up. How did I let it get to this point? Just junk. Junky room means junky thought. I think.

Wonder if I'll every get rid of the even more ridiculous piles of junk in my closet. Probably not. I don't write there.

Perhaps I won't notice if I keep the doors closed?

TILT: (Thu) Writing, writing, writing

Ain't it great to be a knowledge worker? Sit in front of a computer screen and keyboard and type all day. Think sometimes, but type more. According to Wikipedia, knowledge is:

Knowledge is defined (Oxford English Dictionary) variously as (i) expertise, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject, (ii) what is known in a particular field or in total; facts and information or (iii) awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation.

Skills? Typing.
Facts? I sit in front of my computer all day working.
Awareness? This blog. Exacerbated by writers block.

Lovely.

TILT: (Wed) Ever watch too much TV?

I have. I have done this. I have had it done to me -- like in Clockwork Orange! No, not really.

Sometimes I just start watching tube in the dungeon (aka the basement, where I have the HD 50 inch installed), and then fall asleep, then wake, then sleep, then wake. You get the pic. I'll wake up at 3am -- am I still watching TV or not?

Hard to tell, I'll admit. From behind my eyelids, perhaps.

It's quite the disjointing experience. Sometimes I think -- I'll just watch this next show -- then, I wake up again and think I've watched. But, I've slept. Or, I'll say -- time to get up and head to a real bed (my couch frankly is NOT that comfy). But, I don't -- I fall asleep again on the couch thinking about doing it.

To sleep, perchance to dream? No, to sleep, and pretend to watch TV.

I think I'm busted. Broken. Stuck in a rut, anyway.

It's a bad habit. Gotta stop. Gotta turn OFF the damn TV!

But, that HD is SO COMPELLING. And now the Olympics are coming. Well, at least I'll get some sleep!

TILT: (Tue) Too many commercials on AM Radio

Yes, I'm still complaining.

So, they talk for a while. Then, there's a new report every 20 minutes. Both a local DC and a national one. Then there are the commercials. Two kinds: the actual ones and the stealthy ones that are embedded in the talking heads part. When Mike and Mike spend time talking about some sponsored section of their show, I get green. Not with envy, but with disgust. How much of this do we need? At some point, it'll ALL be commercials, with no actual content.

Then again, in a way -- it already IS! Think about it. Sports is entertainment. So all sports talk is in a sense advertising these entertainments. Like TNT showing over and over again it's OWN shows in commercials. So, all sportstalk is advertisement. This is very obvious when you notice that their news is skewed completely to what they themselves plan to cover. ESPN Radio will say "hey there's this good baseball game tonite" without noting that on TV it's on some non ESPN/Disney channel. They selectively define what is the news of what sports are available. Apparently the only ones that matter are they ones they carry on air.

Well, that's not very even handed or "fair and balanced" -- is it? Shouldn't it be?

TILT: (Mon) I'm still annoyed at the reduced AM radio in DC

Every day I go to my radio, and test the 2 buttons that USED to be the 2 AM sports talk radio stations I listened to. I could get the FOX one (SportsTalk 980) or the ESPN/Zebra/Redskins one (730 something). Now, just one: the Zebra ate the Fox and we have ESPN 980. And the result is that both buttons have the same radio content. Actually, weirdly, they are approximately 3 seconds off from each other.

Teams have been juggled. The results are ok, but if you're tired of one talking head, you can't easily just get another. There is no other sports talk in DC now. Loss of choice is NOT great. The fact that 2 stations are doing the same content is ... odd and ... bizarre and ... well just odd and bizarre. Why 2?

This week has been radio Favre -- and when I get tired of one talking head's points (which of course they do repeat, over and over ... and over again), I can't find another.

At least they canned the John Riggins show. I never liked him. Seemed just not too smart, not really paying attention half the time. Odd stuff. Sometimes funny, I'll grant. But, not consistently good. Steve Czeban is consistent, consistently good, but now only available in the late afternoon, which is not often when I'm listening -- since I don't commute, actually. I even bet we'll hear from JR again when football season gets started again.

All this is due to Danny, the Redskin owner. He bought all the radio stations. I guess he wants to control all Redskin and by indirection sports things. I'm feeling pretty controlled now, that's true. Thanks Danny!

TILT: (Sun) Bad Crowes

I've just been to one of the worst concerts ever: the Black Crowes. Can't believe it, really. I like a bunch of their songs. Too bad they didn't play but one of them. The sound was bad too. Guess I'm just amazed they wouldn't play any of their most popular songs. None. Well one. That's it. Too much money spent to get NO favorite songs.

TILT: (Sat) It's a bank .... No, it's a coffee shop

ING Direct -- a bizarre hybrid concept. Good Pete's coffee. Dunno about the bank part, but it sure is a different way to do business.