Very exciting things, and not just the Superbowl ads! Yesterday night, I had a section conference meeting at CMU (which is going very well), and afterwards I walked down Forbes to Pitt’s campus to hear Frank Warren speak. Warren is the creator of PostSecret, and the talk was really, really good. He talked about his view of secrets, how they harm us and how they can help us, how he started the project, how he goes about selecting secrets for the website each week and other various details and fun facts of the project and process.

One of the more interesting things I found was that Warren’s secret is actually in the first book. I’m not going to tell you which one is his (since the secrets remain anonymous), but if you want to borrow the book, just ask. The facility was nice, although the lady from Pitt who introduced Warren was a horrible public speaker. The walk was very cold, and I almost lost a glove when I got to the William Pitt Union (they originally wouldn’t let the general public in until right before Warren began, but they let me in early, but when I went in, I left a glove at the bench I was sitting on. When I got inside, I noticed that I had lost my glove, and went out to retrieve it.).

Ok, Superbowl ads, some comments: Loved the "Rock, paper, scissors" Budweiser ad, and a few of their others, but that was my favorite. I really liked all of the careerbuilder.com commercials (work/jungle), and probably the biggest surprise was the lack of Pepsi ads (besides naming rights for the half-time show). It is common for one product in a sector to pay for exclusive advertising rights, I just didn’t expect it to be Coke (over Pepsi). And speaking of the half-time show, I really did enjoy ‘His Purple Majesty’s’ show, although I was hoping for ‘Little Red Corvette.’

Questions for everyone: I’m trying new anti-virus programs and firewalls, and I was wondering if anyone had opinions (I’ve talked to a few of you, but chime in anyway!). In terms of anti-virus software, I’m trying both Avast and AVG. Avast found a virus that AVG didn’t, so I guess that’s good. I’ve looked all over the web, and can’t really find a conclusive answer as to if one protects better than the other. I still have Norton, but only because it has other tools, like Ghost and Rollback, but the updates ran out (hence my need for the new, free anti-virus programs).

In terms of Firewalls, I’m currently using Zone Alarm, and am really happy with it. I wanted something better than the Windows Firewall, so I started with R-Firewall, which was a disaster. I then moved to Comodo, another disaster, although a smaller disaster (although, I do think it was responsible for constantly kicking our entire network off the internet). Again, just wondering if people had thoughts, programs to try?
 

Wow, all kinds of stuff to talk about! I made a list, but we’ll see if I remember the stuff I didn’t add to the list (not likely):

I headed up to SVC on Tuesday to meet with various people to discuss some projects. Afterwards we hung out in the Carey Center and had a good time playing pool. Later that night we went out to Buffs, and I saw my friend Kelly (I worked with her at summer camp) and we caught up. Hopefully we’ll be able to get together again soon.

The weekend before was OA Winterfest at Heritage, which was a good time. I got to do some Brotherhood Counseling (which involved the llama – I used it to help teach the Delaware words…and somehow it worked!) and had a wonderful time. I helped as much as I could with the Ceremonies Committee (since I’m not the official adviser, even though I do a lot to help them out) and had hot chocolate with the Tecumsa adults, so everything was in order and right with the world. I didn’t have a chance to catch OA Jeopardy, but I did suggest that if they hadn’t, they should change the final Jeopardy question. For years, it has been to name, in order, all the Lodge chiefs, including the transition chiefs. However, at this point, there are members of the lodge who weren’t alive when the merger happened….(that made me feel real old).

At the Enda Casino I ran a go fish/blackjack table and had a blast. A ‘band’ was brought in, but they were way to loud for the space (couldn’t hear each other at the table) and also didn’t know the guitar part to ‘Free Bird.’ Sadly, that fact didn’t stop them from playing it twice (they would stop once they got to the huge guitar solo that everyone knows).

In book news, I added a bunch more book review and more are coming, I promise. I also picked up ‘Crossroads of Twilight’ for two bucks and picked up the new Zahn novel (‘Outbound Flight’), so I’m very excited to read those!

I finally got to see ‘March of the Penguins’ which was awesome. Not as scary as I had heard, but still not the best for small children. In other movie news, I had a ‘Saw’ dream, which scared the crap out of me (now I think it’s cool, but still disturbing). Jigsaw locked me in my downstairs bathroom, but would let me out to perform various tasks, kind of like in Saw II. Why I didn’t get run away when he let me out, I’m not sure…but it was a dream, so that makes it ok….or at least, as ok as a dream like that can be!

I saw one of the three assholes (and that was censored for this blog) who decided that since I wasn’t Catholic I shouldn’t be involved with my old scout troop at Roundtable this week (blatant discrimination, as well as against principles of the Boy Scouts and the Catholic Church, see Ex Corda Ecclesiae). He didn’t recognize me, and asked who I was. I calmly replied, and his smug smile quickly faded as he realized I knew he was the one pulling all the strings in the background. He didn’t speak to me the rest of the night (as he paraded around trying to find something to do, whining to anyone who would listen) and I just bored holes into him, and he squirmed each time he saw me. I now have a new purpose, to make him feel as uncomfortable as possible! Apparently I’m good at holding grudges…and I think I’m begining to accept that, and use it to my advantage.

The author of PostSecret, Frank Warren is going to be at Pitt on Monday, if I can ever find out where the WPU Auditorium is, I think I’m going to go. I already have a meeting at CMU that night, so it won’t be a problem. If I end up going, I’m also going to take my books, maybe he’ll autograph them!

In URU news, it launches on February 15 with a new age! The DRC site was redesigned and given a corporate makeover by Cate (see title of this entry), and things are just generally exciting! And of course, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be released July 21!

I think that’s it for now, more work to do (coding and writing), look for more book reviews soon and I’ll catch everyone in a bit!
 

It’s been a long time since my last entry, sorry about that. Things have been incredibly busy, but now of course, when I sit down to write about them, I can’t remember what all has happened. So I’ll do my best to remember what I can.

I had an interview with Clear Channel Communication in Greentree last week, and it went well. It’s for an advertising sales job, a bit different than anything I’ve done before, but we’ll see if it works out or not (I have yet to hear back from them, but they said to expect to hear from them this week).

This weekend was OA Winterfest, and Matt, Ray and myself. We all had a great time. There was a fair amount of snow, less than in some years past, but more than others (a few times, there wasn’t any snow at all). Some of the snow (mostly that which was on the roads) melted by Saturday evening, but that night we got another snow fall, reaccumulating the snow for Sunday. At the Enda Casino I ran a blackjack/go fish table which was a big hit, and afterwards I found myself counting money (which is a huge job) for the auction.

The food was amazing of course, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Lodge elections only took about an hour. There is a really good of officers in place for next year, and hopefully things will run smoothly for them.

A few things have begun to go wonky on the site, but I’m in the process of fixing them. I thought I had a beverage review system working, but that didn’t work, so that is going to be delayed for the time being. Tomorrow I’m going up to SVC to meet with some people for some pieces and then hopefully I’ll get to visit with some people I haven’t seen in a long time!
 

Back again! Well, I finally got the book review section up and running on my site, so be sure to check it out and add some of your books, or reviews to any of the books you’ve read.

The first brand new Age was released in URU Live, and of course, there was much celebration, and even a mix up in the books by the DRC (I wonder if those responsible will be sacked…if so, maybe we’ll get to see llamas! <- that was a Monty Python joke by the way). But finally, at the end of the day, Eder Delin was released. We’ve seen pictures of it before, the Liaisons released them I believe, after they had a meeting there, but we’ve never had a chance to visit it. It’s very beautiful, and a bit crazy. It features a group puzzle, which I was able to help solve four times (the first three times I either crashed to the desktop or found myself stuck, unable to get the reward for finishing the puzzle).

A screenshot of Eder Delin

I now have "lucky bamboo" in my room. Granted, I did some research and found out that it is actually a cousin of corn, but I like it. His (tentative) name is Edgar.

Edgar the bamboo

Ok, I think that’s it for now, catch everyone later!
 

Ok, finally back after a long absence, sorry about that.  I’ve been fighting with Joomla (my website content management system) ever since the upgrade.  For whatever reason, it wouldn’t let me embed HTML code.  I finally found a solution and so below is a fun little game from the wonderful people of "You Don’t Know Jack."  As I find other entertaining episodes, I’ll post them as well.

I still haven’t heard back from the developer of the review component I’m going to be using for the book reviews, so I think I’m going to press forward, and if I hear back, I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it, so look for more book reviews soon.

I got back from my first unit visit as a Commissioner today.  It was a cub scout pack, which was hectic (lots of small children, many with those crazy wheel shoes), but really well put together.  Most of the leaders were very nice and I really enjoyed talking with them all.

I’m going to cut this short for now, more to come later, but here is the promised game (even with a scouting twist!)

Let's do a comparison shall we.  I love her music, I would just like to point out the stark contrast of wardrobe (including David Bowie's mint green suit in the second video) of Annie Lenox:

Performing "Into the West" at the Oscars
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QZVeTrd3wI

At a tribute concert performing "Under Pressure"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUQcGX7Jd80

And for the record, in the second video, that's not a mask, it's makeup.  I can't question her abilities and brilliance as a singer, and I love both songs, just interesting to see the stark contrast.

Jan and Sean stopped by, and so did Cat and Brad, we all had dinner and then proceeded to play a few rounds of "Happily Ever After."  The craziest round included Muffin, Prince of Denmark and Deborah the "Man Witch" along with Todd the female blue jay who was once a golden turtle.  Fun times.

I tried out a new sushi recipe, for sweet California rolls.  It was okay, but I want to modify it.  I liked the tuna in it, but there was too much sauce and it made it a weird texture.  Other than that though, I was happy, the rice cooker worked extremely well for the rice (got a bit dirty when steaming the vegetables though, but it was easy enough to clean since I soaked it).

Work continues, I got a preliminary response back from the developer of the review module I'm using here at the site, so hopefully I'll hear back soon about the problem.  In the meantime, I'd like to experiment and see if I can set up review categories for other things.

I happened to be flipping through the channels and paused on Fox.  They were running that fundamentalist Christian "news program" hosted by a husband and wife.  It's all propaganda anyway, trying to force the fundamentalist Christian view on anyone watching, but I had to laugh, the woman (who holds a "PhD," although this made me question whether or not the granting institution didn't end in "dot com") was reading a news headline about a cache of nuclear weapons from Germany being moved in Russia.  Except, she pronounced 'cache' with a long a at the end, like the woman's formal wear store, instead of a silent e.

Let's see, quite a bit of stuff to comment on:

If your computer tries to download Windows Media Player 11, run away!  Say no, run into the streets screaming, do whatever you have to.  I "upgraded" (and we're going to use that term very loosely), and the first thing I noticed was the wonderful shade of brown/green it had turned.  It did have a decent enough interface though, and I did like it, it was enough of a change to be noticeable, but they were good changes, not just changes for the sake of change.  However, it didn't import any of my music.  Odd, you'd think it would do that since it was just an upgraded version, so I ran the import wizard, set it to search through "My Music" (where, ironically, most of my music is), and it found all the songs, but only imported about 100 of them.  I then made the frightening discovery that it didn't import any of my playlists.  Now, I don't remember what all is on my playlists, because they are set up for me to just choose one based on my mood…and they have the songs I want saved in them.  So at this point I promptly ran the uninstall, which rolled me back to version 10.

I was watching "It Takes a Thief" where two reformed thieves rob a house, then show the homeowners how they can be more secure and give their house a security makeover.  And the thief stole the couple's dog.  I laughed a lot.

FX premiered the show dirt the other day.  The other original series FX has done have been huge successes, and since this one was advertised since September, I figured I should check it out.  It was quite entertaining, and the photographer Don is such a great character to follow (he has a form of schizophrenia which is treatable with medication, but he doesn't always take his meds).

There was a facebook sponsored group from Chase, and when you joined you got one "karma point" and with it, you could purchase a jimi wallet.  They are slim wallets that are made from recycled Kevlar (bulletproof material), and it holds a whole bunch of stuff (six cards, and up to three folded bills), but forces you to keep your wallet slim lined and free of clutter.  I did add the keyring to it so I could still have my medal of Saint Benedict attached though.

My trip out to the airport was crazy.  I almost got creamed quite a few times, and combine that with the people who would just stop in the middle of the road to read the signs, it was a crazy time.  Still somewhat enjoyable, but long.  Later that day I went to pick up Cat from the train station in Greensburg.  I got there early, and the train was a little late, but no biggie, I had a book to read.  And who should come along, but Dr. Riddle, one of my soc professors.  We talked for a while, and as it turns out, she was there to pick up Dr. Leiner, my philosophy professor, and his wife from the same train.  We talked about all kinds of things and ended up talking with a couple and their young son (the son, Collin, wanted to show the conductor his haircut).  As we were waiting on the platform, a lady appears on the other side, looks around and then crosses the tracks.  Thankfully, Collin wasn't around at the moment (they went back inside for a few minutes, because he was cold).  The lady approached Dr. Riddle and I and asked if the train was late.  We said it was, and then Dr. Riddle proceeded to tell her about the dangers of crossing train tracks.  Which you would think, that people would have enough common sense to do, but apparently not.  The lady looked at us wide eyed, thanked us, and then turned around and crossed the tracks again, just to go down the stairs.  There was a set of stairs no more than ten feet away from us on our side of the tracks…

I finally found both my slippers!  They were missing for a while, but now I have them!  I'll have to take a picture to post, give me some time to figure out how to work the Kodak easyshare software and I'll get one (and maybe one of my jimi wallet to better describe it).

I think that's it for now.  Liz is back in the states and we're all going out to welcome her back tonight!

Well, in exciting news, there is this feature on Facebook called Shares (that's not the exciting part), I was looking through my friend's shares, and a while back, my neighbor Pat posted that You Don't Know Jack is back!  They used to offer a free weekly program with a bunch of longer games, now they offer a daily DisorDat.  When I come across funny ones I'll try to post them here.  And although this one wasn't one of their funnier ones (they strive for their motto, "Where high culture meets pop culture"), I really liked it (it's also a way to test to see how the games embed at my site):http://www.youdontknowjack.com/node/63#

Also, in the process of embedding this, I leanred a new trick with the new version [Sunfire] of Joomla, there is an "embed media" tool, which I will be making use of, instead of editing HTML every post…exciting!  However, I leanred that for whatever reason, I can't get it to embed…I'll try to fix that later. 

Not too much else going on.  Lots of work on various projects keeping me very busy.  I'm playing chauffeur tomorrow for family and friends and then Thursday for myself.  Still working on the book review section of the site, hopefully I'll be able to get the kinks worked out of that soon, I have lots of books to review!

That's it for now I think, short update, but I will catch everyone later, I hope your New Year's was enjoyable and safe!  Happy 2007!

Ah, URU continues as always, the above quote came from Laxman, a tribute/warning of sorts to Riven.

Anyway, lots of stuff going on.  I spent all day working on the website.  A new version of Joomla (Sunfire) was released, so I got to do my first live update.  The directions didn't work, so I did it my own way.  Which is fine, it just makes me nervous for when v. 1.5 is released (this was just a security update).  I also did some other work around the site, and then suddenly, I was getting 403 (forbidden) errors from every singe page.  I still don't know what set it off, but I contacted tech support and they rolled it back a day (although mysteriously some of my updates were still there).  I fixed the rest and decided to call it a night (besides this entry).  The basic framework is there for my book reviews, but there is still an error with how the scores are calculated I'm trying to work out with the developer, so we'll see.

Let's see, Christmas was good, had a good time with family and friends, watched lots of movies, had good food (still eating said food in the form of sandwiches) and all kinds of fun stuff.  I got a rice cooker, which means sushi!

Lots of work with the wedding invitations, and my hands cramp up a lot, but they look pretty good if I do say so myself, so work continues on them.

This was posted on a friend's blog, and I agree with her, this is going to be very, very bad for me and my bank account…but I'm excited, and hope to see one around here soon!

The Washington Post has released it's Idiot of the Year Awards, and this year the winner is Laura Mallory of Georgia.  Ms. Mallory is the woman who has been suing the Georgia public schools to remove the Harry Potter books from the libraries.  Hey, even if some people don't like the story or whatnot, if it gets people to read, then it's a good thing (just like the Da Vinci Code).  And more importantly, they really don't encourage "black magic" "devil worship" or any of the other things claimed by Ms. Mallory, just like the Da Vinci Code isn't really trying to take down the modern Church.

I (and a few others) have been talking about how wonderful llamas are for a long time, and now, we have even more scientific proof: Llamas, now with anti-terrorism capabilities!

I think that's it for now, have a great one everybody, and I'll catch up with you again soon!