Vodcasts?

If you look deeply into Apple's iTunes you will find that there are video casts available. And to this you say "... ah... so!?". Well this is great news. Why? Well, let's say, I found a funny "vodcast" that I wanted to watch, that played a few times a week or so. I could subscribe to it and it can download to my... ah, future iPod Video? A iPod Video, it's coming folks. Apple is laying down the foundation for it. You will soon be able to buy music videos and what not. Apple has met with Disney to see if they can sell some Disney media on iTunes. Maybe I can get a Sports Center update downloaded to my iPod Video every morning for my daily bus/train rides to work. Of course this rumor. But... as you can see with the videos on iTunes already... it's only a matter of time.

(Click on the title link above to read more about videocasts of podcasts - link from MacDailyNews)

Macho Man vs. Hulk Hogan

Who knew there was such animosity between the two? More importantly, who knew Macho Man Randy Savage rapped? Anyways, Macho Man has laid down a challenge to Hollywood Hulk Hogan, he wants him to "Be A Man" (title of his CD). I guess he is challenging him to a wrestling match. Who wants to see two 50 year olds wrestle? Not me, but if you buy it on PPV, let me know, I might stop by to see two of my wrestlers when growing up. To listen to The Macho Man's spit some of his lyrics, click on the title link. (BEWARE: the song starts playing right away, so, turn your volume down a bit)

World'd Uggliest Dog

(Thanks to Dr. O for the link)

"Sam" has won the "World's Ugliest Dog" Contest for three consectutive years now (2003, 2004, and 2005). Truthfully, I dont know if there is an actual competition, but, if there were, this dog would win. I'm not trying to be mean here folks, but...

Click here to take a look
(Warning, this dog is UGLY!)

Underground T-Shirt Dilemma

I recently posted about a site (Progressive Depot - "Shop online at the merchants you see here
& site profits go toward progressive causes"). Well the person who runs that site (I think), Adam, posted a comment on my site thanking me for linking to his site.

So I checked out his profile and it turns out he has a blog as well (Now That's Progress). His most recent post ("My London Underground T-Shirt" - 7/22/05) is quite the dilemma.

Here is what he has to say: "... My wife & I have a good friend who lives in London. We visited about two years ago & I was quite taken with the simple yet well-designed logo of the London Underground, aka the subway, aka the Tube. So I bought a T-shirt on my way out of the country that is simply a big Underground logo... But is it bad taste for me to wear it right now? I've been holding off, thinking people might get the impression I was making fun of the terrorist attacks. But maybe it could also be seen as a sign of support for London and their determination to keep riding?..."

Anna and I talked about this and we thought that maybe he should hold off on wearing the t-shirt for a while, as not to stir up an ill-emotion from anyone who would take offense to the shirt.

What do "you's" think?

Apple Mac OS X 10.4 - Tiger

This is a bit old (as you can see by the date it was posted on Mac Daily News), but I thought everyone should see what MY computer world looks like... no pop-ups, no viruses, no crashes... just dashboard, expose, fast user switching, spotlight, safari (w/ built-in RSS), automator, iChat AV... and more:

Apple posts QuickTime movies of Mac OS X Tiger features in action - (Wednesday, April 13, 2005 - 11:00 AM EST)

Apple has posted Quicktime movies that show Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger's new features. We showed these to a Windows XP guy whose last experience with a Mac was Mac OS 8. He didn't make it past the "Dashboard" demo. We're still trying to revive him! For your convenience, we've grouped together all of the movies available from Apple here with the direct links to the various Tiger-related demo movies: Automator • Dashboard • Exposé • Fast User Switching • iChat AV 3 • .Mac Sync • Mail 2 • Parental Controls • QuickTime 7 with H.264 • Safari RSS • Spotlight • VoiceOver

Lucy Got Neutered

Lucy finally got neutered 2 days ago. She is doing better today, than the day of surgery. She was completely out of it. We would walk by and she wouldn't even lift her head. We would mover legs front paws around and she wouldn't move them from that position. She didn't want to do anything. Well in honor of Lucy "Big Day"... I am going to post this joke that Anna sent along. Hope you like it.

Cinderella is now 95 years old. After a fulfilling life with the now dead prince, she happily sits upon her rocking chair, watching the world go by from her front porch, with a cat named Bob for companionship.

One sunny afternoon out of nowhere, appeared the fairy godmother. Cinderella said, "Fairy Godmother, what are you doing here after all these years"? The fairy godmother replied, "Cinderella, you have lived an exemplary life since I last saw you. Is there anything for which your heart still yearns?" Cinderella was taken aback, overjoyed, and after some thoughtful consideration, she uttered her first wish: "The prince was wonderful, but not much of an investor. I'm living hand to mouth on my disability checks, and I wish I were wealthy beyond comprehension. Instantly her rocking chair turned into solid gold.

Cinderella said, "Ooh, thank you, Fairy Godmother".

The fairy godmother replied "it is the least that I can do. What do you want for your second wish?"

Cinderella looked down at her frail body, and said, "I wish I were young and full of the beauty and youth I once had."

At once, her wish became reality, and her beautiful young visage returned. Cinderella felt stirrings inside of her that had been dormant for years.

And then the fairy godmother spoke once more: "You have one more wish; what shall it be?"

Cinderella looks over to the frightened cat in the corner and says, "I wish for you to transform Bob, my old cat, into a kind and handsome young man."

Magically, Bob suddenly underwent so fundamental a change in his biological make-up that, when he stood before her, he was a man so beautiful the likes of him neither she nor the world had ever seen.

The fairy godmother said, "Congratulations, Cinderella, enjoy your new life. With a blazing shock of bright blue electricity, the fairy godmother was gone as suddenly as she appeared. For a few eerie moments, Bob and Cinderella looked into each other's eyes. Cinderella sat, breathless, gazing at the most beautiful, stunningly perfect man she had ever seen.

Then Bob walked over to Cinderella, who sat transfixed in her rocking chair, & held her close in his young muscular arms. He leaned in close, blowing her golden hair with his warm breath as he whispered..........

"Bet you're sorry you neutered me."

Moon Zoom! [Update]

Thanks to Greg for the link. You can now take a trip to the moon... brings a whole new light to the Honeymooners phrase: "... to the moon Alice, to the moon...".

Welcome to Google Moon
In honor of the first manned Moon landing, which took place on July 20, 1969,
we've added some NASA imagery to the Google Maps interface to help you
pay your own visit to our celestial neighbor. Happy lunar surfing.
More about Google Moon.

[Update] As Greg pointed out in his previous e-mail... he told me to "zoom in"... but when I did, the picture was yellow with a bunch of holes/craters on it... turns out (he had to point this out, so sad)... it was swiss cheese!

Broom Joke

Thanks to Maggie for the joke.

Two brooms were hanging in the closet and after a while they got to know
each other so well, they decided to get married.

One broom was, of course, the bride broom, the other the groom broom.

The bride broom looked very beautiful in her white dress. The groom broom
was handsome and suave in his tuxedo. The wedding was lovely.

After the wedding, at the wedding dinner, the bride-broom leaned over and
said to the groom-broom, "I think I am going to have a little whisk
broom!!!"

"IMPOSSIBLE !!" said the groom broom.

"WE HAVEN'T EVEN SWEPT TOGETHER!"

Where's Lucy?

So I got to the O's house around 6PM yesterday. No one was home. It was kind of strange, but hey... whatever. Well when I got to the door I could see Rosie was in her kennel. She was barking like crazy (which only meant that no one was home). So I went in to the O's house and left Rosie in her Kennel, then checked Lucy in her kennel... uh... went back to Rosie's kennel... OK, I see Rosie, but where is Lucy? Is Lucy in Rosie's kennel? Nope. I called out for Mrs. O and Dr. O... nothing. I saw both their cars were still there, Mrs. O's purse, opened bottle of juice. Maybe they took Lucy for a walk, and not Rosie? Nah. I even went upstairs, downstairs in case they didn't hear me. Nothing. So, what do I do? I let Rosie out of her kennel and I sat on the sofa and watched TV. Then my mind started wandering. Great, something bad has happened to the O's and I am going to sit here and watch a few hours of TV before anyone knows what happened.

So then I see Mrs. and Dr. O walking past the front and into their side yard (phew, no need to call the cops). Mrs. O had the blankest, most distressed look on her face, and she was crying. Dr. O looked a bit bewildered and a bit nervous. They were looking for something... and then it hit me... Lucy ran away! Yes folks, Mrs. O let her out for a walk and Lucy decided it was better to duck under a fence and take off.

Apparently the O's had been searching for an hour before I got there. I caught up with Dr. O and he said he tried to reach my cellphone but I didn't answer (I left my cellphone in the car thinking I was just going to pick up Lucy and be back in the car in a few minutes). He then told me he called Anna and let her know what happened. My response? "... Oh! You called Anna!?...". You see, Anna had gone to dinner with a mutual friend of ours, Andrea. Apparently they were about to order when Anna got the call and started balling. Well they rushed back to help us form a 5-person search-and-rescue team (along with the countless others we asked to keep an eye out).

So I start combing the area, along with Dr. and Mrs. O... we went in a few directions, crossing paths every now and then. Dr. O and I were convinced Lucy wasn't too far away. It was really humid outside, and if you know Lucy, you know that she is not one to go for walks when she is tired, she instead decides its better to just flop down and make you pull her. She is also pretty good at not crossing streets, not chasing cars, and really good with people. These are all things I though would help. What I learned, you can't read a dogs mind.

Lucy had crossed two (small) streets and was "booking it" down a two others. She wasn't tired or scared. I had drove around calling her name around the neighborhood. I also went into the very large cemetery near the O's house wondering if she got under that fence. I circled the whole perimeter of the cemetery before I went in. I then drove into the cementer and began calling her name. What was going through my mind? Great, someone is going to see me driving around yelling for "Lucy" and think "... hey buddy, give it up, she is gone, no one here is coming back...". I then called the house's answering machine to check if anyone had called. There were two messages. Both of the messages sounded alike... "...beep,bop....bop, bop, bop...beep, beep-beep..." Yeah, that was me trying to get into our answering machine a few minutes ago.

During my 2nd time in the cemetery I got a call from Anna... it kind of went like this "... Curtis... sniff-sniff, moan-moan, Lucy... snif-sniff...moan-moan... Mount Auburn Street... sniff-sniff, moan-moan... " oh yeah, and there wasn't much breathing.

Turns out, Lucy was hauling doggie-butt down Coolidge Ave along the side of the cemetery. When she got to the end of the street (where the street meets the busy Mount Auburn Street)... and this is where Anna closed her eyes and had her hands over her face... Lucy quickly took a left and stayed on the sidewalk, still hauling doggie-butt. Dr. O jumped out of his car (leaving it in an intersection) trying to catch up with Lucy, she was too fast, he now refers to her as "the white rocket!". Andrea also took off running after Lucy at one point, in her pointy high-heel shoes... she's an athlete I tell ya. Anna, Andrea, and Dr. O were yelling at Lucy to "stop" and "wait", but she didn't want any part of that. So, Dr. O got back in his car and cornered her, but she went around the car. Andrea and Anna were in hot pursuit following Dr. O. A jogger, coming towards the commotion, noticed Lucy and held on to her.

When we got home there were a couple of jokes and loose ends were tied up. Each of us had a slightly different angle of the event, so it was funny to hear what went on. From Dr. O running after a dog, leaving his car in the middle of the street... to Mrs. O's conversation with the cemetery grounds keeper "... please start burying a hole for me, if I don't find this dog my daughter is going to kill me..."... to Andrea thinking she was going to have a relaxing, enjoyable, and calm dinner with Anna (we eventually took her to a nice dinner)... to Anna in hysterics... to me thinking "somethings happened to the O's, so I better sit here and watch TV", yelling "Lucy" (in the cemetery), wondering what I was going to tell my Uncle Charlie in Michigan who gave us the dog (Uh, Uncle Charlie, we lost that first dog you send us, mind sending another one?), and finally thinking... if this dog cuts into my sleep time, she is going to be grounded!... we had a very "interesting" evening!

My finally theory of why Lucy escaped... She is being "fixed" tomorrow. I think she had a little conversation with Rosie,and Rosie said "Listen to me kid, you don't want to go through this... run, just get out of here... and if they call your name... keep running!"

So how long was Lucy "gone" for? I figure about 2 1/2 hours... and we all feel about 5 years older thanks to her.

Watch What You Eat

Thanks to Jana (my registered dietitian friend) for sending this important information along.

For those of you who watch what you eat, here's the final word on nutrition and health. It's a relief to know the truth after all conflicting medical studies.

1. The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

3. The Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

4. The Italians drink excessive amounts of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

5. The Germans drink a lot of beers and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

CONCLUSION: Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you.

COACH Bill Belichick

Wow, this guy is really a coach. It was recently disclosed that he is getting a separation from his wife. And what was his official comment to the media?

"This is not a new development," Belichick said.

"Significant Others" Joke

Thanks to my sister Stef for the joke:

A couple had been debating buying a vehicle for weeks. He wanted a truck. She wanted a fast little sports-like car so she could zip through traffic around town. He would probably have settled on any beat up old truck, but everything she seemed to like was way out of their price range. "Look!" she said. "I want something that goes from 0 to 200 in just a few seconds. Nothing else will do. My birthday is coming up so surprise me!" He did just that. For her birthday, he bought her a brand new bathroom scale Nobody has seen or heard from him since.

Cost Of War in Iraq

I have added a counter (on the right) which is counting the cost of war in Iraq. You now what I could do with that money?

Progressive Depot

Thanks to Christine for the link to this great site

Shop online at the merchants you see here
& site profits go toward progressive causes.

Celtics: Rookie Dunk

Danny Ainge said that it was the best dunk he has ever seen. So Doc Rivers says, that's because you played with Larry Bird, I played with Dominique, I've seen some dunks.

What a great dunk by the rookie

Free TiVo... Kind Of

For those of who are deprived by not having at least ONE TiVo in your home.

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Get a FREE* factory-renewed 40-hour TiVo® Series2™ box (valued at $149.99!) with the purchase of a 12 month or product lifetime TiVo service gift subscription and service activation by July 31, 2005. Gift yourself and add another box to your home or give it to someone you love. Perfect timing to buy for Graduation. Summer Weddings. New Parents. Birthdays. Independence Day!

12 months TiVo service, only $155.40!
Product Lifetime service, only $299.00!
Or call 1-866-GET-TiVo (1-866-438-8486)

Buy today and we'll pay for shipping, too — an additional $17 savings! Hurry, this offer is good through July 15, 2005.*

P.S. Don't forget: As an existing subscriber, you pay just $6.95/mo. for TiVo service on your second, third, etc. box in the home with our Multi-Service Discount** — that's nearly half the regular monthly price!

* Terms and conditions apply. You must purchase a 12-month or Product Lifetime gift subscription by 7/15/05 and activate service by 7/31/05 in order to receive a free 40-hour TiVo Series2™ factory renewed box. Customers who do not activate TiVo service by 7/31/05 will be charged $149.99 to the credit card used for purchase of the gift subscription. For full terms and conditions, click here.

** See applicable Multi-Service Discount terms and conditions.

This email was sent to you because you asked to receive updates and promotions from TiVo. You can unsubscribe at any time.

TiVo, the TiVo logo are registered trademarks of TiVo Inc. ©2005 TiVo Inc. 2160 Gold Street Alviso, CA 95002-2160. All rights reserved. Please feel free to review our Privacy Policy..."

Who Me?

Roses are Red. Violets are Blue.
I'm not a Schizophrenic, and neither am I.

Yo... M.Diddy

According to CNN.com's report on an interview Martha Stewart had with Vanity Fair this month, her nickname in prison was: M. Diddy

Teen Killed for iPod in NYC

I'm not sure if any of you have heard this story, but, as per the New York Times:

"... As Errol Rose made preparations on Monday to bury his 15-year-old son, Christopher, who was killed last week in Brooklyn during a fight over an iPod, he received a telephone call from a stranger. The man spoke in tones that the grieving father said had momentarily quieted his anguish.

The stranger, Mr. Rose soon learned, was Steve Jobs, chief executive of Apple Computer, the company that makes the iPod.

"I didn't know who he was," Mr. Rose said yesterday. "He called me on my cellphone, at 4 maybe. Or maybe it was 5." Mr. Rose said he had stopped noticing the passage of time since his son was killed.

The men spoke for a few minutes.

Calling him by his first name, Mr. Jobs asked how Mr. Rose was doing, he said, and conveyed his sympathies. "He told me that he understood my pain," Mr. Rose said. "He told me if there is anything - anything - anything he could do, to not be afraid to call him. It really lightened me a bit."

On Saturday afternoon, Christopher set out with three of his friends in the Farragut section of East Flatbush. They planned to take the subway to the Port Authority Bus Terminal and catch a bus to Pennsylvania, where Christopher attended school, to watch a fireworks display. Soon after they left Christopher's house, as many as a dozen teenagers attacked the four boys, beat them and stole their valuables, which included an iPod, the police have said.

During the fight, one of the teenagers stabbed Christopher twice in his chest, killing him. Darran Samuel, 16, of Brooklyn, is being held without bail on charges of second-degree murder and attempted robbery in connection with the attack.

Prosecutors say the fight started with a demand for the iPod, the popular digital music players that have sold in the millions since Apple introduced them in October 2001.

In recent months, city authorities have noted a rise in subway crime, driven principally by thefts of cellphones and iPods. The most frequent victims, the police said, are teenagers who are robbed after school..."

To read the entire article click on the title above

The Annual Stella Awards (Update)

(Update) Thanks to Alex for the correction
Thanks to Maggie for the list:

Annual Stella Awards
Once again, it's time to review the winners of the Annual Stella Awards. The Stella's are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled coffee on herself & successfully sued McDonalds. That case inspired the Stella Awards for the most frivolous successful lawsuits in the United States.

7th Place

January 2000: Kathleen Robertson of Austin Texas was awarded $780,000.00 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running amok inside a furniture store. The owners of the store were understandably surprised at the verdict, considering the misbehaving tike was Ms. Robertson's son.

6th place

19-year-old Carl Truman of Los Angeles, California, won $74,000 & medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Mr. Truman apparently did not notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal the hubcaps.

5th place

Terrence Dickson of Bristol, Pennsylvania, was leaving a house he had just finished robbing by way of the garage. He was not able to get the garage door to go up since the automatic door opener was malfunctioning. He could not reenter the house because the door connecting the house & garage locked when he pulled it shut. The family were on vacation & Mr. Dickson found himself locked in the garage for 8 days. He subsisted on a case of Pepsi he found & a large bag of dry dog food. He sued the house owners insurance claiming the situation caused him undue mental anguish. The jury agreed to the tune of $500,000.

4th place

Jerry Williams of Little Rock, Arkansas, was awarded $14,500 & medical expenses after being bitten on the buttocks by his next door neighbor's Beagle dog. The Beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. The award was less than sought because the jury felt the dog might have been a little provoked at the time, as Mr. Williams who had climbed over the fence into the yard, was shooting it repeatedly with a pellet gun.

3rd place

A Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, $113,500, after she slipped on a soft drink & broke her coccyx (tailbone). The beverage was on the floor because Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument.

2nd place

Kara Walton of Claymont, Delaware, sued the owner of a night club in a neighboring city when she fell from the bathroom window to the floor & knocked out two of her front teeth. This occurred whilst Ms. Walton was trying to crawl through the window in the ladies room to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge. She was awarded $12,000 & dental expenses.

1st place

This year's winner was Mr. Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Mr. Grazinski purchased a brand new Winnebago Motor Home. On his trip home from an OU football game, having driven onto the freeway, he set the cruise control at 70 mph & calmly left the drivers seat to go into the back & make himself a cup of coffee. Not surprisingly, the Motor Home left the freeway, crashed & then overturned. Mr. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising him, by reading the owner's manual, that he actually could not do this. The jury awarded him $1,750,000 plus a new Winnebago Motor Home. The company actually changed their manuals on the basis of this suit just in case there were any other complete morons buying their recreation vehicles.

Public Health Mongers

Hello all... some of you may know this, and some of you don't... ahem, ahem, l-l-l-let me clear my throat....

Haha... alrighty, I got carried away... I am actually here to tell you about some of the smartest kids/(grad/doc)students I know. They are really dedicated students, and, actually pretty cool. Some are students here, others, students at other major universities. So with out an delay, I hereby announce a fairly new site: Health Mongers. Read below to find out what Health Mongers is all about:

Healthmongers.org is the first concrete offspring of the Defining the Future of Public Health progressive student summit that was held at the Boston University School of Public Health in April of 2005.

As graduate students in public health-related fields, we believe that health is a human right which must be protected. Public health offers a unique and multidisciplinary approach with which we can advance the health of local and global communities. As students of this varied and diverse profession, we hope to learn the necessary conceptual and analytical tools that will enable us to be effective advocates of public health and responsible members of the scientific community.

The goals of healthmongers.org are to:

• contribute critically and constructively to the online discussion of public health and related political issues
• provide news and perspective on different schools of public health with an eye to helping prospective students of public health choose a program that is a good fit for their interests
• share resources to students of public health who are heading out into the workforce by identifying progressive public health employers

Currently, the authors of healthmongers.org are working towards degrees at Boston University, Tufts, the University of Minnesota and Johns Hopkins.

Check it out folks... It's a great site by a bunch of wicked-smart kids who have a great vision and concern for the future of public health.

For All the (Single) Ladies Out There

As I often warn, don't ask, and I won't tell how I found this site (Dan). This site is actually pretty funny, I mean, not that I read it.

There seems to be a few very savvy, smart, sexy, and funny ladies, located in Texas, who care enough to let you single ladies know what's going on. There posts range from funny little stories, to advice for the ladies, to funny links to such pages as "Feed Lindsay". They seem to really know what they are talking about and do it in a humorous way. There were some pretty enjoyable reading on there (once again, not that I read it). My favorite post was titled: Definitions. The girls are obviously very witty and have come up with a few definitions ladies should know (they added more here).