St. Patty Shirts I Printed

I printed these around the beginning of March 2008...

Cool New Tool

Introducing Snap Shots from Snap.com

I just installed a nice little tool on this site called Snap Shots that enhances links with visual previews of the destination site, interactive excerpts of Wikipedia articles, MySpace profiles, IMDb profiles and Amazon products, display inline videos, RSS, MP3s, photos, stock charts and more.

Sometimes Snap Shots bring you the information you need, without your having to leave the site, while other times it lets you "look ahead," before deciding if you want to follow a link or not.

Should you decide this is not for you, just click the Options icon in the upper right corner of the Snap Shot and opt-out.

Sustainable Food Lab Presentation (Award Winner)

This is a cool slide show presentation about sustainable food possibilities by chrislandry. Watch and get active!

Save Internet Radio!

Heads up! It's time to take action. I got this today and I'm motivated. Please give it a read...



Internet music may soon fall silent.

An obscure regulatory agency recently buckled under pressure from giant music labels and passed a rule that could force most independent and noncommercial Internet radio stations, such as NPR, off the Web. The ruling will go into effect on May 15 unless we urge Congress to Rescue Internet Radio:

Rescue Internet Radio: Take Action Now

After intense lobbying from the recording industry the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) ignored a massive public outcry and ruled to dramatically increase the rates webcasters must pay every time they stream a song. These draconian rules will shut down noncommercial and independent Internet radio outlets, leaving the Web with the same cookie-cutter music formats that have destroyed commercial radio.

Independent musicians, webcasters, media reformers and Internet radio listeners have joined forces with members of Congress to reverse this bad decision. Late last week, Reps. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) and Donald Manzullo (R-Ill.) introduced the bipartisan Internet Radio Equality Act (H.R. 2060), which would reverse the CRB decision in favor of a system that supports artists without putting webcasters out of business.

Rescue Internet Radio: Support the Internet Radio Equality Act

The Copyright Royalty Board passed these bad rules despite protest letters from tens of thousands of concerned music listeners. They refused our call for a public hearing and rushed through their decision at the urging of music industry lobbyists from the Recording Industry Association of America.

Musicians must be compensated for their work. But the new regulations would silence many outlets that play independent artists and musical genres you can't find on the radio dial. And nonprofit NPR, Pacifica and community radio stations would be forced to take down most of their online musical programming.

Inslee and Manzullo's legislation would allow artists and musicians to thrive alongside a new generation of Internet radio webcasters. Help pass the Internet Radio Equality Act by telling all your friends to take action now:

Tell Your Friends to Help Rescue Internet Radio

Industry-wide consolidation has destroyed musical diversity on broadcast radio. We must not let this happen to the Internet.

Onward,

Frannie Wellings
Associate Policy Director
Free Press
www.freepress.net

P.S. To learn more about this campaign visit www.freepress.net/netradio

Authors@Google: Neil Gaiman

The writer of the graphic novel Stardust (soon to be released as a major motion picture!), Neil Gaiman.

Authors@Google present: Brad Meltzer

Google folks talk to JLA writer, novelist and my Myspace friend Brad Meltzer.

Women@Google: Hillary Clinton

Hilary talks to the gang at Google. Lots of good stuff.

Vegan Lunch Box: Vegan Lunch Box Playlist

Vegan Lunch Box: Vegan Lunch Box Playlist

This is so cool! Sometimes one either forgets or doesn't know about the functionality of the applications they use on the internet or computer. This is the case for me on iTunes. Go check it out.

By the way, these are good songs!

24th

What a Christmas present!!!

Dating Site for Eclectic Interests

I have ideas for a dating site. It probably is being done currently, but because I'm "in relationship" for the foreseeable future, looking for sites like this has fallen off the radar for me.

There are dating sites for:
- straight and gay
- black, white, brown and all colors
- interracial
- religion
- divorced
- animal lovers

You get the idea. Most sites seem to cater to lifestyles. I'd like to see a dating site that focused on specific things. Some possible themes:

Love Boat - boating enthusiasts who want to find love

Film Lovers - find the love of your life based on similar tastes in movies

TV Love Guide - find that special person that loves the same shows you do

Menu Matches - for those who want to meet someone who eats the same foods that they do

I'm sure there are even more eclectic ideas. Please share your thoughts.

The Return of the Balboa!

I am sooooo stoked to see the upcoming Rocky film. I thought I was over it; but when I hear the familiar trumpets start, I'm in!

Do I Look Like These People?

I read Beautiful Soul's myspace blog and she had tried this online face recognition program. Her results were better than mine.

If you want to try it, know that you have to sign up (free) before you see your results. But then again, maybe you won't want to after you see my results. I mean, do I look like a blonde starlet to anyone?




Go to http://www.myheritage.com/ to try it yourself. I'd be interested in seeing it in the comments if you're brave enough...

Video the Vote 2006!

Learn more about Video the Vote 2006 here. Help to make sure everyone knows what going on.

Eat To Live

I, like many other Americans, am overweight. Based on the Body Mass Index scale, for a guy who's 6'1", I should weigh about 175 - 180 lbs. I'm at 225 lbs. I was ten pounds heavier but I've been trying some new things. Like not eating pizza every night (although I still think it is the perfect food). And I picked up a book.

The book, Eat to Live: The Revolutionary Formula for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss by Joel Fuhrman, M.D. has been enjoyable to me for serveral reasons. The first is related to me being a vegetarian. Many of the wieght-loss plans and "ways of eating" assume that one eats meat and plenty of it. Dr. Fuhrman's plan is essentially a vegetarian food plan. Eat as many raw vegetables as you want and stay away from animal products.

This actually leads me to another cool point - you don't have to starve yourself. Believe me, you can get full on celery, broccoli and carrots. What about protein, you ask? Believe it or not, according to Fuhrman, most raw, unprocessed vegetables trump meat for protein-per-calories percentage. For example, one cup of frozen broccoli has more proteins-per-calorie than one Burger King cheeseburger:

1 Cup frozen broccoli - 5.8 g protein - 52 cal - 45% protein

1 BK cheeseburger - 18.0 g protein - 350 cal - 21% protein

Dr. Fuhrman endorses a more efficient way of providing nutrition to the body. It's a 6 week plan; I kinda think the book is really a lot of pages for such an easy method. Certainly, if you have pre-existing medical conditions, this may not be for you. But I'm finding it very easy to pretty much stick to the plan. The book has a lot of explanations in the first five chapters about nutrition and what is and isn't the realities of protein, calories and carbs. The back end of the book contains recipes and an extensive f.a.q.

Let me know if you've read this book or another like this one that focuses on vegetables and beans.

Wilson's Real Pit Barbeque (Fairfield, CT)

Tonight I ate at Wilson’s Real Pit Barbeque and, man-o-man, it was tasty. I’m a vegetarian but I eat chicken once in awhile. The cool thing is that all the sides like collard greens, beans and such are vegetarian! No joke. I don’t know how he gets collards to taste like that without bacon or ham, but he does. "He" is Ed Wilson (hence “Wilson’s”). He’s done the amazing thing of bringing great authentic barbeque to Fairfield County. It’s actually amazing how many BBQ places there are around here. If you’re in the area, you should make the time to stop in and have some good food. The link to the webpage is here.

New Wonders

 

 According to news reports (like this one), there is only one of the ancient Seven Wonders of the World remaining (hint... it's in the picture). Yes friends, the times they are a-changin'. History books will have to be revised, for sure!

 

Anyways... apparently, there was an effort to name a new seven wonders and the list came down to these 21 choices (to be whittled down to seven at some point):

1 Acropolis, Athens, Greece

2 Alhambra, Granada, Spain

3 Angkor Wat temple, Cambodia

4 Chichen Itza Aztec site, Yucatan, Mexico

5 Christ the Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

6 Colosseum, Rome

7 Easter Island Statues, Chile

8 Eiffel Tower, Paris

9 Great Wall, China

10 Hagia Sophia church, Istanbul, Turkey

11 Kyomizu Temple, Kyoto, Japan

12 Kremlin/St.Basil's, Moscow

13 Machu Picchu, Peru

14 Neuschwanstein Castle, Fussen, Germany

15 Petra ancient city, Jordan

16 Pyramids of Giza, Egypt

17 Statue of Liberty, New York

18 Stonehenge, Amesbury, United Kingdom

19 Sydney Opera House, Australia

20 Taj Mahal, Agra, India

21 Timbuktu city, Mali

 

I've got a question. Why does it have to be a location? I mean, why can't it be an idea or scientific breakthrough or whatnot? I happen to wonder about a lot of things.

I humbly submit Planet Doug's 7 Wonders of My World:

1 New Jersey

2 Obscene Salaries for Professional Athletes

3 The Commercialization of Children

4 Rain after I Wash My Car

5 Jellybeans

6 The Internet

7 Why is there still Poverty?

 

Do you have any wonders in your life? Leave a comment. Thanks.

While You Were Sleeping

Thanks to 06solareclipse, we have a time-lapse view of the Northern Lights. It's both beautiful and scary; the way nature works is awesome at times. It's only a minute or so, so I hope you take a peek.

24 Wins!

My favorite show won big at the recent Emmys. 24 is a FOX broadcast network series. Here's Kiefer Sutherland accepting his Best Male Actor in a Series award...



And here's an example of his acting on 24 (one of my MySpace buddies!)...

Nancy Pelosi on David Letterman

From DemShow on YouTube, here is a clip from US Democratic Party Leader Rep, Nancy Pelosi. She should be the first woman president. She speaks a lot of sense here...

Busy Monday Make for Tired Weekend

I can already see that, based on today's activity at work, it's going to be a busy, fast week. The weekend looks to be as involved. I have my fun. But it's bumpy getting through the weeks occasionally.

Sometimes, I really have to force myself to realize how well I have it. There are probably many people who would love to have as many things going on between jobs, starting a business, maintaining a long-distance relationship, keeping up with family, volunteering and such. I just have this thing where I usually want to be doing anything except what I should be doing at any given time. I think it's because of the ADD. I need waking time alone to center myself and it seems harder and harder to come by. I have to give you parents credit. I think I understand how you guys just dream of getting through the day to have at least a little time to yourself.

Yesterday, I found myself with some time and, for the first time in awhile, I watched a movie. It was V for Vendetta. It was really good; it was one of those movies that make you think. I look forward to having that kind of time again.