Brewers are scheduled to open the season at Wrigley against the scuzzball Cubs today at 1:30. However, there are some pretty strong storms headed this way and I have a feeling it's going to get washed out.
On the hockey front, we won again Friday night 9-5 to win the regular season. I had 2 more goals, ending up with 23 goals and 14 assists in 18 games. We start the playoffs this Friday.
On Saturday we went out looking for a 2nd club chair for the pub room and somehow ended up buying a new sofa sectional for the living room. I'm never sure how these things happen but I always wanted more seating for the living room and we found a really good deal on one that we both liked. It will be delivered Wednesday.
And of course, as I was looking at the current configuration of the living room I realized it really would give us more space if I flipped where the tv was. Sounds simple, right? Yeah... sure.
I ended up having to run 2 new coax lines (50'), splice a new phone line, rewire my surround speakers and put in a new outlet box on the wall. And of course, since I finished the basement, I had to pull ceiling tiles out and work around the insulation in the ceiling. Hardest part was getting the cable lines run through the ceiling about 25'. Ended up being able to push them about half way and then had to pull another ceiling tile so I could reach up and feed them the rest of the way.
Then I drilled holes in the ceiling up into the wall cavity where the other cable outlet was and feeding the new lines up there. I used a remodel box to put a new outlet in the wall near the original one. Once I got it all set I had to move the giant table with the tv on it over to the other side of the room. I ended up putting pieces of cardboard under the legs and sliding it across the floor so I wouldn't scratch the flooring. I was shocked when I fired everything back up and it all worked on the first try! That only took about 6 hours to do...
It looks pretty good but I still have several things to finish. The wall behind the tv had a big picture on it which now has to go somewhere else. Also, that wall is really dirty and needs repainting. I also need to lower a painting that was above the tv, it's too high now.
I'll take some pictures once the new sectional is here. We're giving our current sofa and big chair to my brother (he gets most of my old stuff).
Monday, March 31, 2008
Friday, March 28, 2008
Yeah, my bracket sucks too
Well, I'm tied for 55th place out of 128 in the ncaa pool I'm in. Needless to say I'm toast. I guess that simplifies my life as I can just focus all my rooting energy on the Badgers instead (6:10pm CDT tonight). I'll also be rooting for Michigan State over Memphis. Would be great to get 2 Big 10 schools in the final 4 to prove all those nay-sayers wrong.
Badger hockey team also managed to snag themselves one of the 16 ncaa tourney spots and will be playing Saturday at 5:30 (locally on channel 14, MyMadison). If they win they'll play Sunday at 6.
That's all I got for now, but I'll leave you with this joke that almost made diet coke shoot out of my nose yesterday.
Badger hockey team also managed to snag themselves one of the 16 ncaa tourney spots and will be playing Saturday at 5:30 (locally on channel 14, MyMadison). If they win they'll play Sunday at 6.
That's all I got for now, but I'll leave you with this joke that almost made diet coke shoot out of my nose yesterday.
Monday, March 24, 2008
100 inches? That's what she said...
Yep, we finally passed the 100" mark in snow fall this year yesterday. We needed 0.3" and got about an inch I guess. That coupled with the 7" from Friday put us over the top. Remember, the all time record was about 76.5" so this is likely to stand for ever or at least until next winter.
40's this week so hopefully it will all melt soon.
And on to the Sweet 16 for the Badgers as they completely dominated Fullerton on Thursday and Kansas State on Saturday. I hope they just keep on kicking ass to prove the freakin' idiot national media and all those bloggers who last saw the Badgers play in 2000 under Dick Bennett wrong.
This is not Bennett's team and while yes, they do play incredible defense leading to holding teams to the lowest average point total in the nation, they also have a well balanced offense and have scored in the 70's both games.
How come when UCLA scores in the 50's it's because they played a tough game but the Badgers score 72 and it's still boring? Honestly, it's a total joke. And for as much bashing as the big 10 has taken this year, how does a 5-2 record for the tourney look now? Only team that lost in the first round was an Indiana team that gave up when their coach got shit canned. I really hope Michigan State keeps winning and the Badgers meet them again in the final 4.
Oh, and for those of you who think Stephen Curry and Davidson will be able to hang with Bucky, I have 2 words for you... Michael Flowers. Have Curry ask Drew Neitzel and Eric Gordon how they liked trying to get shots off with Flowers up in their grill or how Kansas State did shooting 3 pointers (uh, can you say 0fer?).
Wow, that went on a little longer than I meant. I'm not really that angry, just frustrated at the lack of respect for one of the premier college hoops programs in the country.
On the hockey front, we won 10-3 in possibly the most boring game of the season. We had to shut it down half way through the 2nd period as it became apparent we were on our way to 20 goals. I don't think I even broke a sweat. I had one goal and just stopped shooting in the 2nd period.
We have 1 regular season game left and have a 2 point lead over the 2nd place team, plus we hold the tie breaker with them as we're 2-0-2 against them this year so we have first place sewn up. All that means is we get first choice of goalies for the playoffs.
40's this week so hopefully it will all melt soon.
And on to the Sweet 16 for the Badgers as they completely dominated Fullerton on Thursday and Kansas State on Saturday. I hope they just keep on kicking ass to prove the freakin' idiot national media and all those bloggers who last saw the Badgers play in 2000 under Dick Bennett wrong.
This is not Bennett's team and while yes, they do play incredible defense leading to holding teams to the lowest average point total in the nation, they also have a well balanced offense and have scored in the 70's both games.
How come when UCLA scores in the 50's it's because they played a tough game but the Badgers score 72 and it's still boring? Honestly, it's a total joke. And for as much bashing as the big 10 has taken this year, how does a 5-2 record for the tourney look now? Only team that lost in the first round was an Indiana team that gave up when their coach got shit canned. I really hope Michigan State keeps winning and the Badgers meet them again in the final 4.
Oh, and for those of you who think Stephen Curry and Davidson will be able to hang with Bucky, I have 2 words for you... Michael Flowers. Have Curry ask Drew Neitzel and Eric Gordon how they liked trying to get shots off with Flowers up in their grill or how Kansas State did shooting 3 pointers (uh, can you say 0fer?).
Wow, that went on a little longer than I meant. I'm not really that angry, just frustrated at the lack of respect for one of the premier college hoops programs in the country.
On the hockey front, we won 10-3 in possibly the most boring game of the season. We had to shut it down half way through the 2nd period as it became apparent we were on our way to 20 goals. I don't think I even broke a sweat. I had one goal and just stopped shooting in the 2nd period.
We have 1 regular season game left and have a 2 point lead over the 2nd place team, plus we hold the tie breaker with them as we're 2-0-2 against them this year so we have first place sewn up. All that means is we get first choice of goalies for the playoffs.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Yay, Spring! Wait, WTF?
First off, sorry for the lack of posts! It's actually been 9 days. I don't think I've ever gone that long without at least 1 post before. As I explained in my last post, I'm quite happy in my work which means I'm actually working more and blogging less. I know, I sound like a broken record and you probably all hate me by now. All I can say to that is "don't be a hater."
Anyway, what's new? Great question. First off, yesterday was the first official day of Spring and it was glorious. Upper 40's, brilliant sunshine, a perfect spring day. I let the dogs out in the backyard for over an hour and I sat in my office with the window open!
Ok, that was fun while it lasted. Guess what... yeah, for those that aren't around Wisconsin, that's right, huge fucking snow storm, that's what. They're predicting 6-8" in most areas with some approaching 10-12" (that's what she said).
What a nightmare. Just when you thought it was safe to go outside, wham, a land shark chomps down on your head and it's all over. *knock knock knock* "Unicef, ma'am."
Did I just date myself there? For those of you who don't know what the hell I just said, go rent the first couple seasons of Saturday Night Live.
Ok, so we've established that it's snowing (couple inches by now and it's not quite 10am yet) and that I'm not exactly excited about it. Let's move on...
Bowling. Ok, we're on fire now. 2 straight weeks of 7-0 and we might be back in the hunt, though I haven't seen the standings for a couple weeks so who knows. I'm not sure what happened but I'm starting to bowl better again. Guess I got through the February blah's and got my second wind. After a 680 and 644 the last week I had a 694 Wednesday (236, 232, 226). Should have had a 700. Needed 2 strikes in the 10th and after getting the first buried a 10 pin on the 2nd which cost me the 700 and also a house hanger which also means I got hung. Bummer....
Hockey. We're still in first place and continuing to roll towards the playoffs. We have 2 more regular season games. I'm not sure what's come over me but I keep scoring goals and I don't know why. Some of it is right place at the right time. Some of it is getting great passes from teammates and finding the spot. Whatever it is I now have 20 goals in 16 games and 18 in the last 10 after scoring only 2 in our first 6.
Golf. Yeah, I went to the driving range one time so far. Pat and I are playing in the Kohler cup on April 19th and 20th this year. Mike can't make it this year. I sure hope the snow has melted by then. Things were looking pretty good right up until this morning... :(
I hope you've all been reading Grinder's blog on the movie Public Enemies which is filming in nearby Columbus, WI. He was on site all week long for filming.
That's it for now, lots of work to do.
Oh crap, NCAA tourney, totally spaced that one. Badgers won, I went 13-3 the first day. Missed Kansas State (Wisconsin's next opponent), Texas A&M, and UNLV>
Later, gotta run!
Anyway, what's new? Great question. First off, yesterday was the first official day of Spring and it was glorious. Upper 40's, brilliant sunshine, a perfect spring day. I let the dogs out in the backyard for over an hour and I sat in my office with the window open!
Ok, that was fun while it lasted. Guess what... yeah, for those that aren't around Wisconsin, that's right, huge fucking snow storm, that's what. They're predicting 6-8" in most areas with some approaching 10-12" (that's what she said).
What a nightmare. Just when you thought it was safe to go outside, wham, a land shark chomps down on your head and it's all over. *knock knock knock* "Unicef, ma'am."
Did I just date myself there? For those of you who don't know what the hell I just said, go rent the first couple seasons of Saturday Night Live.
Ok, so we've established that it's snowing (couple inches by now and it's not quite 10am yet) and that I'm not exactly excited about it. Let's move on...
Bowling. Ok, we're on fire now. 2 straight weeks of 7-0 and we might be back in the hunt, though I haven't seen the standings for a couple weeks so who knows. I'm not sure what happened but I'm starting to bowl better again. Guess I got through the February blah's and got my second wind. After a 680 and 644 the last week I had a 694 Wednesday (236, 232, 226). Should have had a 700. Needed 2 strikes in the 10th and after getting the first buried a 10 pin on the 2nd which cost me the 700 and also a house hanger which also means I got hung. Bummer....
Hockey. We're still in first place and continuing to roll towards the playoffs. We have 2 more regular season games. I'm not sure what's come over me but I keep scoring goals and I don't know why. Some of it is right place at the right time. Some of it is getting great passes from teammates and finding the spot. Whatever it is I now have 20 goals in 16 games and 18 in the last 10 after scoring only 2 in our first 6.
Golf. Yeah, I went to the driving range one time so far. Pat and I are playing in the Kohler cup on April 19th and 20th this year. Mike can't make it this year. I sure hope the snow has melted by then. Things were looking pretty good right up until this morning... :(
I hope you've all been reading Grinder's blog on the movie Public Enemies which is filming in nearby Columbus, WI. He was on site all week long for filming.
That's it for now, lots of work to do.
Oh crap, NCAA tourney, totally spaced that one. Badgers won, I went 13-3 the first day. Missed Kansas State (Wisconsin's next opponent), Texas A&M, and UNLV>
Later, gotta run!
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
A busy programmer is a happy programmer
For programmers, there's nothing worse than not having much to do. We tend to start surfing the web, reading other blogs, going over your fantasy baseball draft strategy, etc. We can't stay focused on the minor trivial tasks we do have so we tend to drift away not doing much of anything.
On the other hand, when we have a ton to do we are at our best. Cranking out code in long stretches, forgetting to eat, drink, pee, etc. We don't talk to our loved ones, we don't talk to our friends and of course, we forget about our blog.
I've definitely fallen into the latter category. As the only Java developer at Comic Wonder I certainly have my hands full, but instead of complaining, I relish the challenge. I have more work than I can possibly do but I never have to be worried about being bored. I have freedom to code in my own style, I don't have to worry about reviewing someone else's work, I can deploy on my schedule, I can make database changes as I see fit, when I see fit.
So, this blog has suffered obviously. My work days are now running from about 7:30am to 6:00pm with a very short break to get some lunch to take back to my desk. And I love every minute of it.
And what's new at Comic Wonder you ask?
For starters, we're gearing up to be able to provide radio stations around the country with their own joke of the day player to put on their site, which will link in to custom station sites within Comic Wonder where they can hold their own contests, etc. Sort of a community within a community. Much of my work over the last 3 weeks has been focused on getting that part up and running.
In addition to that, we're also talking to a fairly famous company (run by a man in pajamas) about providing joke content on their website, customized to fit their theme. This gives me an excuse to peruse a web site I would normally not visit (at least during work hours). :)
Another thing I put into test yesterday was a preference setting for users that wish to filter out our spicier jokes. You will be able to set your account to only show mild, mild and medium or mild, medium and spicy jokes. That will go into production Sunday night.
And today I'll be working on what we call Joke Limbo. It's a place to look for text jokes to save from limbo, since we believe a joke isn't a joke until it's told. This should help in those times when you really want to tell a joke but can't come up with a good one. This should also go in Sunday night (assuming I finish it today or tomorrow).
Our traffic has picked up nicely. One of our jokes got put out on stumble upon (another digg like site) and we got a lot of traffic from that and it's been progressing from there. All our performance problems seem to be a thing of the past now. We've added more hardware and memory and this weekend we'll also be putting in a second web server with a load balancer, coupled with the use of a separate file server.
Speaking of performance issues, I'd like to think Retro and Dale for their suggestions (almost simultaneously) to implement memcached on the site to handle caching of frequently run queries. I believe that's helped out our performance issues greatly. When I took over you could say things were less than efficient. Kind of like an 8 cylinder car running on 3 cylinders. We're humming along smoothly now.
And now, you're joke of the day...
On the other hand, when we have a ton to do we are at our best. Cranking out code in long stretches, forgetting to eat, drink, pee, etc. We don't talk to our loved ones, we don't talk to our friends and of course, we forget about our blog.
I've definitely fallen into the latter category. As the only Java developer at Comic Wonder I certainly have my hands full, but instead of complaining, I relish the challenge. I have more work than I can possibly do but I never have to be worried about being bored. I have freedom to code in my own style, I don't have to worry about reviewing someone else's work, I can deploy on my schedule, I can make database changes as I see fit, when I see fit.
So, this blog has suffered obviously. My work days are now running from about 7:30am to 6:00pm with a very short break to get some lunch to take back to my desk. And I love every minute of it.
And what's new at Comic Wonder you ask?
For starters, we're gearing up to be able to provide radio stations around the country with their own joke of the day player to put on their site, which will link in to custom station sites within Comic Wonder where they can hold their own contests, etc. Sort of a community within a community. Much of my work over the last 3 weeks has been focused on getting that part up and running.
In addition to that, we're also talking to a fairly famous company (run by a man in pajamas) about providing joke content on their website, customized to fit their theme. This gives me an excuse to peruse a web site I would normally not visit (at least during work hours). :)
Another thing I put into test yesterday was a preference setting for users that wish to filter out our spicier jokes. You will be able to set your account to only show mild, mild and medium or mild, medium and spicy jokes. That will go into production Sunday night.
And today I'll be working on what we call Joke Limbo. It's a place to look for text jokes to save from limbo, since we believe a joke isn't a joke until it's told. This should help in those times when you really want to tell a joke but can't come up with a good one. This should also go in Sunday night (assuming I finish it today or tomorrow).
Our traffic has picked up nicely. One of our jokes got put out on stumble upon (another digg like site) and we got a lot of traffic from that and it's been progressing from there. All our performance problems seem to be a thing of the past now. We've added more hardware and memory and this weekend we'll also be putting in a second web server with a load balancer, coupled with the use of a separate file server.
Speaking of performance issues, I'd like to think Retro and Dale for their suggestions (almost simultaneously) to implement memcached on the site to handle caching of frequently run queries. I believe that's helped out our performance issues greatly. When I took over you could say things were less than efficient. Kind of like an 8 cylinder car running on 3 cylinders. We're humming along smoothly now.
And now, you're joke of the day...
Thursday, March 06, 2008
Friday, February 29, 2008
Badgers nearly flawless
The Badger hoopsters put on an exhibition of ball control last night in stomping the Michigan State Spartans 57-42. Unbelievably, they turned the ball over only 1 time for the entire game, setting a team record in the process. Amazingly enough MSU only turned it over 6 times making for a very clean game. The difference was Michael Flowers suffocating defense on Drew Neitzel and Joe Krabenhoft on Raymar Morgan. Those guys could do little and Neitzel basically stopped shooting after he was 1-10. They moved to 14-2 in the big 10 and 24-4 overall. Only 2 games left and a half game lead over Indiana and Purdue who each have 3 games left. Who'd of thought they would have a chance to win the conference when the season started after losing Alando Tucker and Chris Rock. ;)
Hey, another bowling team member has joined the joke tellers at ComicWonder. Soup has told a bunch of jokes, specializing in his ridiculously funny puns that he loves so much. Here's a good example...
Also, he turned me on to a new site which is pretty cool. It's called BeFunky. It's how I made my new avatar. Check it out, good fun.
Hey, another bowling team member has joined the joke tellers at ComicWonder. Soup has told a bunch of jokes, specializing in his ridiculously funny puns that he loves so much. Here's a good example...
Also, he turned me on to a new site which is pretty cool. It's called BeFunky. It's how I made my new avatar. Check it out, good fun.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Monday's suck
I have that grumpy Monday mood today. Can't explain it, just feel blah. Maybe it's the freakin' ice and crap outside. I'm like 2 minutes from moving to Florida or something. Even asked a realtor friend how much our house is worth.
Yesterday was so nice out, actually above freezing which felt like 60. Unfortunately all the snow/ice melt ended up forming a lake in the road in front of my house. Being the good neighbor I went out and carved a channel to the storm drain and watched as it lowered by a good 2/3rds. Unfortunately overnight it froze over and once again a big lake formed today. So, tonight I go out and redig the channel and use my shovel to force the water to it.
I'm doing this for my neighbors, right? You'd think that they would appreciate it and go slowly by as I'm standing on the side of the road with a shovel, right? Well, most of them did but 4 or 5 cars blew by at 30mph spraying me with a tidal wave of water! What the fuck people!?!?!?! I wanted to pitch my shovel through their back window as they drove by oblivious to me standing there soaked.
Ah people, they're so awesome. I'm definitely better off working at home where I don't have to put up with the general idiotic population on a daily basis.
Ok, enough venting for one day. On a brighter note, the Grinder has become my first friend to actually go to ComicWonder.com and tell a joke. He told 2 actually! Now, take that as a challenge readers. Go get funny!
Here's his first joke:
Yesterday was so nice out, actually above freezing which felt like 60. Unfortunately all the snow/ice melt ended up forming a lake in the road in front of my house. Being the good neighbor I went out and carved a channel to the storm drain and watched as it lowered by a good 2/3rds. Unfortunately overnight it froze over and once again a big lake formed today. So, tonight I go out and redig the channel and use my shovel to force the water to it.
I'm doing this for my neighbors, right? You'd think that they would appreciate it and go slowly by as I'm standing on the side of the road with a shovel, right? Well, most of them did but 4 or 5 cars blew by at 30mph spraying me with a tidal wave of water! What the fuck people!?!?!?! I wanted to pitch my shovel through their back window as they drove by oblivious to me standing there soaked.
Ah people, they're so awesome. I'm definitely better off working at home where I don't have to put up with the general idiotic population on a daily basis.
Ok, enough venting for one day. On a brighter note, the Grinder has become my first friend to actually go to ComicWonder.com and tell a joke. He told 2 actually! Now, take that as a challenge readers. Go get funny!
Here's his first joke:
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Busy busy busy
Sorry, haven't had much time for anything these days. Thought I would at least write something during my 3 minute lunch break.
So, ice... ice is bad, unless you're playing hockey that is.
Ice on the road... that's really bad. I've never seen the roads so completely covered with ice like this in my life. Main highways are good but anything else you might be better off just putting on the skates and leaving the car behind.
Since Cdubya is not from around here (California) she really didn't want to drive on ice (neither did I) so I've been driving her to work all week.
Yesterday morning I decided I should stick to the main roads and avoid the normal county highways I usually take. I head down Cottage Grove road to get on 51 North. Well, it's pretty freakin' icy as you would expect. We near the 51 entrance and I'm in the right lane, slowly easing up to a light that had turned red a few seconds ago. There's one car in front of me and he kind of skidded to a stop. So, being smart, I ease slowly up and stop behind him... reach for my coffee and BAM!
Stupid bitch behind me slammed right into me with her Trail Blazer. What the fuck you stupid whore, can you not see what is going on in front of you? Man, I was pissed. I jumped out of the car and damn near fell on my ass. After regaining my composure I went to check on the damage. Luckily her front bumper went under mine and just left me with a few scratches on the Murano. Her bumper was cracked and broken. I quickly got her insurance info since it was 3 below zero.
Fast forward 15 minutes and I'm driving down Main street in Sun Prairie. Asswipe in front of me is in a Mustang pretending that the roads are just fine and dandy. He attempts to take off from the stop light and just spins for a bit before swerving and starting out like his ass was on fire. He speeds up on one car in the right lane and quickly swerves to the left lane and continues his mission of destruction. I watch muttering how stupid people can be and as I catch up at the next light I notice that his bumper is under the rear bumper of the Expedition in front of me. What a total knob. I laughed at him as I slowly went by. Still in a hurry buddy? Jackass...
Rest of my day went great amazingly. I need to take it in for an estimate before I get hit again.
And if the snow and ice wasn't enough, we're going for 2 more records today. The record coldest high temp on this day is +4. We should be close. The record low for tonight is -14. We should also be close to that. Gotta love Wisconsin!
So, ice... ice is bad, unless you're playing hockey that is.
Ice on the road... that's really bad. I've never seen the roads so completely covered with ice like this in my life. Main highways are good but anything else you might be better off just putting on the skates and leaving the car behind.
Since Cdubya is not from around here (California) she really didn't want to drive on ice (neither did I) so I've been driving her to work all week.
Yesterday morning I decided I should stick to the main roads and avoid the normal county highways I usually take. I head down Cottage Grove road to get on 51 North. Well, it's pretty freakin' icy as you would expect. We near the 51 entrance and I'm in the right lane, slowly easing up to a light that had turned red a few seconds ago. There's one car in front of me and he kind of skidded to a stop. So, being smart, I ease slowly up and stop behind him... reach for my coffee and BAM!
Stupid bitch behind me slammed right into me with her Trail Blazer. What the fuck you stupid whore, can you not see what is going on in front of you? Man, I was pissed. I jumped out of the car and damn near fell on my ass. After regaining my composure I went to check on the damage. Luckily her front bumper went under mine and just left me with a few scratches on the Murano. Her bumper was cracked and broken. I quickly got her insurance info since it was 3 below zero.
Fast forward 15 minutes and I'm driving down Main street in Sun Prairie. Asswipe in front of me is in a Mustang pretending that the roads are just fine and dandy. He attempts to take off from the stop light and just spins for a bit before swerving and starting out like his ass was on fire. He speeds up on one car in the right lane and quickly swerves to the left lane and continues his mission of destruction. I watch muttering how stupid people can be and as I catch up at the next light I notice that his bumper is under the rear bumper of the Expedition in front of me. What a total knob. I laughed at him as I slowly went by. Still in a hurry buddy? Jackass...
Rest of my day went great amazingly. I need to take it in for an estimate before I get hit again.
And if the snow and ice wasn't enough, we're going for 2 more records today. The record coldest high temp on this day is +4. We should be close. The record low for tonight is -14. We should also be close to that. Gotta love Wisconsin!
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Working from home makes one sick?
Ok, somehow I got sick over the weekend and I have no idea how. I'm working at home, the only people I've seen are my wife and my family (last Tuesday they were over). None of them are or have been sick, so what gives?
I hope it goes away soon, I have to go to Milwaukee for a meeting on Friday.
On the ComicWonder effort, there's a Mashable article about the funding we've raised. Check it here.
We successfully survived our time on Bob and Tom last Tuesday. Chris Cashman and Mark Metcalf were on for about 2 hours and plugged the site many times. We held up just fine, no performance issues as we had a pretty big spike in traffic.
Our new goal is to be ready for 100 radio stations to have custom group operations in place by April 1st. It's a pretty aggressive time frame but I think we can pull it off.
I hope it goes away soon, I have to go to Milwaukee for a meeting on Friday.
On the ComicWonder effort, there's a Mashable article about the funding we've raised. Check it here.
We successfully survived our time on Bob and Tom last Tuesday. Chris Cashman and Mark Metcalf were on for about 2 hours and plugged the site many times. We held up just fine, no performance issues as we had a pretty big spike in traffic.
Our new goal is to be ready for 100 radio stations to have custom group operations in place by April 1st. It's a pretty aggressive time frame but I think we can pull it off.
Thursday, February 07, 2008
I Loathe Snow
I've had enough. Just stop already.
We got 13.3" more snow yesterday. What a joke. We're now within 2.5" of our all time record for one winter and 42 more days till spring. We have over 76" so far and now they're saying it's possible we could hit 100". Nice... I need to move to Arizona or something.
Yesterday was a big day for ComicWonder.com. The Comic Wonder of the Year, Chris Cashman, and Mark Metcalf (Neidermeyer) were on the Bob and Tom show yesterday morning. It was great, they were on for 2 hours and did a lot to pump up the site. We had quite a bit of traffic and lots of new members and jokes.
I ended up putting in some database caching and performance improvements Tuesday night and we ran flawlessly.
We're working now towards getting some additional hardware and some load balancing then we'll be adding some group stuff for radio stations to have their own joke sections. Should be fun building that.
Back to the snow.. did I mention I hate it? 500 cars stranded on the interstate yesterday and they were still telling everyone to stay off I-90 between Madison and Janesville as there were still 100 cars left to remove. Glad I wasn't on the highway yesterday, it was bad enough just getting around town.
Bowling, of course was canceled. They even shut down the UW, which is unheard of. Somehow the Badger basketball team managed to make it to Iowa where they struggled but ended up beating Iowa to run their record to 19-3 (9-1 in the Big 10). That was the first game I was able to watch on the Big 10 network in HD. Pretty cool.
Speaking of HD. I got a new dish installed on Saturday and bought the new Directv HD DVR so I could get their full compliment of some 75 HD channels.
Unfortunately I couldn't get a signal on one of the satellites. I called and complained and nothing. Finally during the snow storm another installer came yesterday. Turns out that the multiswitch (takes 4 incoming satellite lines and runs them to 8 output lines) couldn't handle the frequency that the new satellite comes in on. He replaced the multiswitch and everything is great. They should let people know that, I could have replaced it myself.
That's all for now, gotta catch up on work after spending a couple hours clearing the snow.
We got 13.3" more snow yesterday. What a joke. We're now within 2.5" of our all time record for one winter and 42 more days till spring. We have over 76" so far and now they're saying it's possible we could hit 100". Nice... I need to move to Arizona or something.
Yesterday was a big day for ComicWonder.com. The Comic Wonder of the Year, Chris Cashman, and Mark Metcalf (Neidermeyer) were on the Bob and Tom show yesterday morning. It was great, they were on for 2 hours and did a lot to pump up the site. We had quite a bit of traffic and lots of new members and jokes.
I ended up putting in some database caching and performance improvements Tuesday night and we ran flawlessly.
We're working now towards getting some additional hardware and some load balancing then we'll be adding some group stuff for radio stations to have their own joke sections. Should be fun building that.
Back to the snow.. did I mention I hate it? 500 cars stranded on the interstate yesterday and they were still telling everyone to stay off I-90 between Madison and Janesville as there were still 100 cars left to remove. Glad I wasn't on the highway yesterday, it was bad enough just getting around town.
Bowling, of course was canceled. They even shut down the UW, which is unheard of. Somehow the Badger basketball team managed to make it to Iowa where they struggled but ended up beating Iowa to run their record to 19-3 (9-1 in the Big 10). That was the first game I was able to watch on the Big 10 network in HD. Pretty cool.
Speaking of HD. I got a new dish installed on Saturday and bought the new Directv HD DVR so I could get their full compliment of some 75 HD channels.
Unfortunately I couldn't get a signal on one of the satellites. I called and complained and nothing. Finally during the snow storm another installer came yesterday. Turns out that the multiswitch (takes 4 incoming satellite lines and runs them to 8 output lines) couldn't handle the frequency that the new satellite comes in on. He replaced the multiswitch and everything is great. They should let people know that, I could have replaced it myself.
That's all for now, gotta catch up on work after spending a couple hours clearing the snow.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Plugging away
We went 5-2 again last night in bowling for the 2nd week in a row. We're right about in the middle of the standings. If we can just keep plugging away, going 5-2 each week I think there's enough time for us to move up, assuming no one starts running away with it.
I did ok, finally got back over 600 again with a 621 (212, 207, 202). Last game should have been much better but somehow I missed a spare in the 9th that I make 99% of the time and then had a big split in the 10th frame.
I also got away with 2 near "Bonehead blunders". First one, I was about to bowl on the wrong lane when the other team yelled out "WAIT!" Phew... then in the 9th frame I left the 2-8 (sleeper). Well, the 8 pin had slid a bit to the right so it wasn't right behind the 2 pin. But, I pick this up all the time. It's not a hard spare. I threw it right where I wanted and saw it hooking right in and turned my back and walked back to the table. I discarded a card and was just about to pick up a new card when Bubba yelled out "Blunder!" I stopped and looked up at the score and saw that I had not gotten the spare (not sure how I could have missed it). But, he jumped the gun and I didn't draw a card, so once again, saved by the yell.
Well, I guess my plea for super bowl jokes fell on deaf ears. Maybe it's because you don't understand how Comic Wonder works. Here's a short explanation.
Comic Wonder uses technology like your voice mail does. After you sign up you just go to the Tell a Joke page. At that page, you enter your phone number (using a land line works best for audio quality) and we call you. It's really fast, as soon as you hit the Call me button your phone will ring. You record your joke into the phone just like you were leaving a voice mail for someone. You have the ability to listen to it, record it again, etc. When you're finished you hang up and the page will show you a Next button to upload your joke.
Once you do that we get a wave file sent back to us from the server and we convert it to an mp3 and store it on our servers. Simple as that.
To get you started, here's a super bowl joke I told yesterday.
Have a good Thursday.
I did ok, finally got back over 600 again with a 621 (212, 207, 202). Last game should have been much better but somehow I missed a spare in the 9th that I make 99% of the time and then had a big split in the 10th frame.
I also got away with 2 near "Bonehead blunders". First one, I was about to bowl on the wrong lane when the other team yelled out "WAIT!" Phew... then in the 9th frame I left the 2-8 (sleeper). Well, the 8 pin had slid a bit to the right so it wasn't right behind the 2 pin. But, I pick this up all the time. It's not a hard spare. I threw it right where I wanted and saw it hooking right in and turned my back and walked back to the table. I discarded a card and was just about to pick up a new card when Bubba yelled out "Blunder!" I stopped and looked up at the score and saw that I had not gotten the spare (not sure how I could have missed it). But, he jumped the gun and I didn't draw a card, so once again, saved by the yell.
Well, I guess my plea for super bowl jokes fell on deaf ears. Maybe it's because you don't understand how Comic Wonder works. Here's a short explanation.
Comic Wonder uses technology like your voice mail does. After you sign up you just go to the Tell a Joke page. At that page, you enter your phone number (using a land line works best for audio quality) and we call you. It's really fast, as soon as you hit the Call me button your phone will ring. You record your joke into the phone just like you were leaving a voice mail for someone. You have the ability to listen to it, record it again, etc. When you're finished you hang up and the page will show you a Next button to upload your joke.
Once you do that we get a wave file sent back to us from the server and we convert it to an mp3 and store it on our servers. Simple as that.
To get you started, here's a super bowl joke I told yesterday.
Have a good Thursday.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
We need your Super Bowl jokes!
Hey, do you know some Super Bowl jokes and are just itching for a place to tell them where you won't be told to shut up? Have we got the place for you!
Just head over to Comic Wonder and tell them there. Then tell everyone you know to listen to them and tell their own!
And who knows, if your joke is judged to be the best of the week you could even win amazing prizes!
So, what are you waiting for?
Just head over to Comic Wonder and tell them there. Then tell everyone you know to listen to them and tell their own!
And who knows, if your joke is judged to be the best of the week you could even win amazing prizes!
So, what are you waiting for?
Smelly Dog
I took the girls to a new dog groomer yesterday. The new Mounds in Sun Prairie includes a groomer (Shaggy Dogs). Thought I would give them a try, so I made an appointment for 3:00 yesterday.
First thing, 2:45 rolls around and we're in the middle of a sleet storm with 20+mph winds. Drive there isn't too horrible but much worse on the way home 30 minutes later as there's glare ice everywhere. I make it home in about a half hour.
At 6:00 we have to go pick them up. It's a total mess out, with the new snow we received now blowing across the roads. In places unprotected, like country roads next to corn fields, it's a virtual white out. Can't see anything in places and have to crawl forward slowly. Luckily there's hardly anyone on the road so we make it there and back without dying.
And the end result was great. Dogs smell good for once, they're nicely groomed and even got little pink bandanna's, though Delaney is too much of a tom-boy to enjoy it so her's is quickly taken off.
I took a couple pictures of them with my iPhone.
First thing, 2:45 rolls around and we're in the middle of a sleet storm with 20+mph winds. Drive there isn't too horrible but much worse on the way home 30 minutes later as there's glare ice everywhere. I make it home in about a half hour.
At 6:00 we have to go pick them up. It's a total mess out, with the new snow we received now blowing across the roads. In places unprotected, like country roads next to corn fields, it's a virtual white out. Can't see anything in places and have to crawl forward slowly. Luckily there's hardly anyone on the road so we make it there and back without dying.
And the end result was great. Dogs smell good for once, they're nicely groomed and even got little pink bandanna's, though Delaney is too much of a tom-boy to enjoy it so her's is quickly taken off.
I took a couple pictures of them with my iPhone.
Delaney
Guinness
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Enough already
Will someone please tell Roger Clemens to just shut the fuck up already?
First, it was his youtube video proclaiming his innocence, then the 60 minutes interview, now his lawyers have drafted a long document explaining just how he achieved his level of greatness in his mid-40's without the use of performance enhancing drugs.
Yeah, ok, NOW I believe you. Why would a lawyer fudge the truth? That would never happen.
Give it up already Roger. Brian McNamee had no reason to add you to his list if it wasn't true. He risked completely losing his entire plea deal if he was caught lying. What incentive is there for him to lie? And your best buddy, Andy Pettite, has already admitted to using them. Are we to believe you? Not hardly. Dude, you can deny till the cows come home but that's not going to change what anyone believes and it just makes you look like a total fucking asshole. Give it up already.
First, it was his youtube video proclaiming his innocence, then the 60 minutes interview, now his lawyers have drafted a long document explaining just how he achieved his level of greatness in his mid-40's without the use of performance enhancing drugs.
Yeah, ok, NOW I believe you. Why would a lawyer fudge the truth? That would never happen.
Give it up already Roger. Brian McNamee had no reason to add you to his list if it wasn't true. He risked completely losing his entire plea deal if he was caught lying. What incentive is there for him to lie? And your best buddy, Andy Pettite, has already admitted to using them. Are we to believe you? Not hardly. Dude, you can deny till the cows come home but that's not going to change what anyone believes and it just makes you look like a total fucking asshole. Give it up already.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Electro-static discharge
All last week I would walk around the house and just get the living shit zapped out of me every time I touched something. The kicker came Friday night as I was walking into the kitchen. I went to flip on the lights and as my finger came in contact with the light switch a blue arc of fire flew from it into my finger sending me into an expletive laced rant about freakin' winters in Wisconsin.
That did it. Saturday morning we went out to Home Depot and bought an 11 gallon humidifier. Cranked that thing on high for an hour then set it back so it would maintain a constant 40% humidity level in the house. I haven't been shocked since.
Friday night hockey was great again. We won once more, running our record to 8-3-2, and we haven't lost in 5 straight (4-0-1). I scored twice but had at least 9 really good looks including one where I took a feed in front and shot for the far corner only for the goalie to kick it back to me so I tried for the near corner and he flashed an amazing toe save to deny me again. I now have a team leading 13 goals in 12 games with 8 assists (2nd in assists). During our 5 game unbeaten string I have 10 goals, only getting kept off the scoreboard in our 2-2 tie.
Unfortunately this week's game is on Saturday because of a kid's tourney bumping us and I can't make the game because of couples bowling league. After that we have 2 weeks off because of more tournaments. That means my next game is on Feb 22nd.
I'll try to get in some basketball those weekends instead.
Work is going well. We managed to improve the speed of ComicWonder.com dramatically in the last few days. Not sure how it's going to hold up under a heavy load yet. I guess we'll find out soon. The winner of the Comic Wonder of the Year contest, Chris Cashman and Mark Metcalf (Neidermeyer from Animal House and Maestro from Seinfeld) are making the radio talk show circuit now and will be on Bob & Tom a week from Wednesday (Feb 6th).
I guess we'll know if we can handle an increased load that day. That's what she said. There's no time for that!
And here's another joke from Christopher Walken.
Later
That did it. Saturday morning we went out to Home Depot and bought an 11 gallon humidifier. Cranked that thing on high for an hour then set it back so it would maintain a constant 40% humidity level in the house. I haven't been shocked since.
Friday night hockey was great again. We won once more, running our record to 8-3-2, and we haven't lost in 5 straight (4-0-1). I scored twice but had at least 9 really good looks including one where I took a feed in front and shot for the far corner only for the goalie to kick it back to me so I tried for the near corner and he flashed an amazing toe save to deny me again. I now have a team leading 13 goals in 12 games with 8 assists (2nd in assists). During our 5 game unbeaten string I have 10 goals, only getting kept off the scoreboard in our 2-2 tie.
Unfortunately this week's game is on Saturday because of a kid's tourney bumping us and I can't make the game because of couples bowling league. After that we have 2 weeks off because of more tournaments. That means my next game is on Feb 22nd.
I'll try to get in some basketball those weekends instead.
Work is going well. We managed to improve the speed of ComicWonder.com dramatically in the last few days. Not sure how it's going to hold up under a heavy load yet. I guess we'll find out soon. The winner of the Comic Wonder of the Year contest, Chris Cashman and Mark Metcalf (Neidermeyer from Animal House and Maestro from Seinfeld) are making the radio talk show circuit now and will be on Bob & Tom a week from Wednesday (Feb 6th).
I guess we'll know if we can handle an increased load that day. That's what she said. There's no time for that!
And here's another joke from Christopher Walken.
Later
Friday, January 25, 2008
Yay, Friday!
Have you seen the awesome goal that Rick Nash of Columbus scored against Phoenix a little while ago? It's all over youtube. Check this out. Just freakin' amazing.
And here's your Christopher Walken joke of the day.
And here's your Christopher Walken joke of the day.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Everyone should have dogs at work
There's nothing quite like having a dog next to you to pet when you're stuck on a problem. They just look at you like they wish they could help. Everyone should be so lucky to have a buddy like that.
Guinness spends most of the day sprawled out on the couch sleeping but Delaney spends all day upstairs with me, mostly lying under the desk return sleeping but she can tell when I'm stuck and will sit up next to me, just looking at me, hoping for a little head scratch. She's so cool...
Anyway, last night was bowling night again and I continued to struggle. Actually the first and second games I bowled pretty well but couldn't carry anything. The 2nd game everything was right there but I left a 4 pin, 3 10 pins, a 9 pin and then the coupe de grace, a crushed 8 pin in the 10th when I needed to strike out for us to have a chance. All that for a whopping 206 after a 215 first game. 3rd game I really struggled as the oil started breaking down quickly and after a huge split in the 10th I ended up with a 158. Fortunately we still won thanks to Jim's 242. We went 5-2 on the night, just losing that 2nd game. That's 3 straight sub 570 series for me. Not good.
And now, a vampire joke (credit goes to Chad for telling this one at bowling). Yes, the comedian is me...
And if that's not enough, how eerie is this clip from Coming to America? (credit Paul's Poop for finding this nugget).
Guinness spends most of the day sprawled out on the couch sleeping but Delaney spends all day upstairs with me, mostly lying under the desk return sleeping but she can tell when I'm stuck and will sit up next to me, just looking at me, hoping for a little head scratch. She's so cool...
Anyway, last night was bowling night again and I continued to struggle. Actually the first and second games I bowled pretty well but couldn't carry anything. The 2nd game everything was right there but I left a 4 pin, 3 10 pins, a 9 pin and then the coupe de grace, a crushed 8 pin in the 10th when I needed to strike out for us to have a chance. All that for a whopping 206 after a 215 first game. 3rd game I really struggled as the oil started breaking down quickly and after a huge split in the 10th I ended up with a 158. Fortunately we still won thanks to Jim's 242. We went 5-2 on the night, just losing that 2nd game. That's 3 straight sub 570 series for me. Not good.
And now, a vampire joke (credit goes to Chad for telling this one at bowling). Yes, the comedian is me...
And if that's not enough, how eerie is this clip from Coming to America? (credit Paul's Poop for finding this nugget).
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Bowling drop off
After nearly shooting a 300 2 weeks ago (298) and a 727 series I have completely lost it. Last Wednesday I shot 553 never breaking 200 and then Saturday night I couldn't do anything right, starting with a 149 game and shooting 524. I did manage a 213 the last game. I know something I did wrong though. I started messing around switching balls and used 3 different ones Wednesday and 2 on Saturday. I think I need to figure out which ball to use in warm ups and not switch.
To make myself more comfortable working from home I bought a new chair from Staples which was delivered yesterday. Amazingly, I ordered it Friday and it was delivered Monday with free shipping. Go figure. Here's a picture of it... oh so comfy.
And here is today's joke.
To make myself more comfortable working from home I bought a new chair from Staples which was delivered yesterday. Amazingly, I ordered it Friday and it was delivered Monday with free shipping. Go figure. Here's a picture of it... oh so comfy.
And here is today's joke.
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