December 31, 2006
Cat Herding For Dummies
Posted by JB at 2:20 PM | Permalink
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December 29, 2006
links for 2006-12-29
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A little story about the new CoCo Key Water Resort in the Arlington Park Sheraton.
December 28, 2006
Snow Sculpture Competition Moves To Randhurst
The contest has been re-scheduled to the February 9-11 in the hopes of colder weather...
The Third Annual Snow Visions Snow Sculpting Contest has moved from Roosevelt University to Randhurst Mall in Mount Prospect on January 12th - 14th (see note above). It's hoped that moving the contest to a more visible and larger area will attract more spectators (80,000 last year). Hopefully, the weather will cooperate too.
The blog posts of last year's event can be found here and here as well as a Flickr photo gallery of the creations. This event is a true winter jewel for the area and with the added benefit of being free, is there any better way to spend a winter weekend?
Posted by JB at 11:24 AM | Permalink
links for 2006-12-28
December 23, 2006
12 Days Of Christmas by Boymongoose
Keeping in the holiday spirit, I'm sharing this hysterical video rendition of the 12 Days of Christmas done Indian style by Boymongoose. It's the catchiest version I've heard in a long time, if not ever.
[via - BoingBoing]
Posted by JB at 11:37 PM | Permalinklinks for 2006-12-23
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What else can you say but WOW!
December 22, 2006
links for 2006-12-22
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I stopped drinking beer because the wheat would trigger a grass allergy that would give me bad sinus congestion. I'll give this a shot if I come across it, but sorghum is a grass too. Then again I don't miss beer that much.
December 21, 2006
Living With Lala - Where's Lala Been
Received a Lala trade recently with this CD case included. These Red Sox fans from Tallahassee, Florida are doing a Where's George type of game with their Lala case. The problem is, unless they see this post, they won't get the satisfaction of seeing how far their case has traveled. Too bad they didn't number the cases and include an email address or site to log the case in. (I guess that's a free idea for a website.) This case went back to California on a trade I made soon after.
Like this CD case and tracking dollar bills on Where's George, we're fascinated by how far something we've had in our possession has traveled and how far it continues to go after we pass it on. Put me in that camp as well. I've had a Where's George account for years, though the dollars I've logged in and circulated haven't been very fruitful in getting tracked. With Lala, I've been keeping track of the towns I've sent CDs to with virtual push-pins in Google Maps. It's nerdy and pointless, but oddly satisfying.
Seeing Green Bay on this case reminds me to follow up on the Lala envelope that was sent with the special shout out a few weeks ago. The package made it to Green Bay, but sadly the Bears greeting went unanswered.
December 19, 2006
Jonathan Spector - A.H. Native in the Premiership
In my passive trolling for Arlington Heights news, I discovered another Arlington Heights native playing soccer abroad - Jonathon Spector. He popped up on the news as he scored a goal in West Ham United's 1-0 upset win over powerhouse Manchester United.
Spector has been in the FA Premier league since 2004, signing with Manchester United who eventually loaned him to Charlton Athletic. In June he moved West Ham United (I can't figure out if it was a trade or free agent move as I don't fully understand the lingo and how players are moved in the Premiership). He was part of Team USA, but did not play in the World Cup because of a separated shoulder. Spector's soccer career has a lot of highlights (more than I care to list here), so I would recommend checking out his Wikipedia page or his player bio and news headlines on Yanks Abroad.
We recently upgraded to digital cable and now have the Fox Sports Soccer channel. With two Arlington Heights guys in the Premiership (Brian McBride plays for Fulham and maybe more that I haven't found out about yet) there's some additional reasons to check out the games.
Posted by JB at 2:29 PM | PermalinkDecember 17, 2006
Deep Thoughts...With Robert Anton Wilson
From author Robert Anton Wilson's Blog.
[via - BoingBoing]Wavy Gravy once asked a Zen Roshi, "What happens after death?"
The Roshi replied, "I don't know."
Wavy protested, "But you're a Zen Master!"
"Yes," the Roshi admitted, "but I'm not a dead Zen Master."
Posted by JB at 11:07 PM | Permalink
links for 2006-12-17
December 16, 2006
AHML Online
There's a lot of internet goodness going on at the Arlington Heights Memorial Library (AHML) beyond the free Wi-Fi.
The online answer services of the AHML and other Illinois libraries are getting some attention in the press with the demise of Google Answers. Using your chat client or email, you can ask a librarian at the AHML for help in answering your question and best of all, it's free. AHML Virtual Services Librarian, Bill Pardue explains the question answering services of AskAwayIllinois and the AHML in the Hypertext blog at the Chicago Tribune. In fact there is a YouTube video with Mr. Pardue, that walks through the question answering services at the AHML.
This existence of this video brings up another cool thing the library is doing - they're video blogging. The 'Lib VLog' section has the latest happenings at the library and it's updated three times a week. Keeping in mind that I'm a bit biased in favor of blogging; the VLog is a great channel to get the word out about what's going on in a timely fashion (especially when I think about how many times the monthly library newsletter made it to the recycling bin before I read it).
Last but not least is NorthStarNet Arlington Heights, an online directory maintained by the Arlington Heights library, that has links to just about anything Arlington Heights related you could imagine. Plus it has links to upcoming events in town as well as links to the services at the library. Best of all there is a link to this humble site.
Posted by JB at 3:23 PM | Permalinklinks for 2006-12-16
December 15, 2006
Cramer Against The Machine?
While letting my iTunes shuffle through my music library this afternoon, I had a theme song epiphany. The guitar riff from the song "Bullet In The Head" from Rage Against The Machine's self titled album
Using the song on the show is probably neither here nor there, but I thought it was ironic to use the socialist rockers' music on a stock investing show. It's a musical message mismatch like Target using Devo's Beautiful World. Then again, Cramer is always making socialist and communist references on Mad Money. Maybe there was a little inside joke there.
Cramer's radio show was retired at the beginning of the month so he could focus on the web and television. Listening to the RealMoney podcast was part of my daily routine, that I still jonesing for.
December 14, 2006
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December 11, 2006
Inga's National Publishing Debut
In addition to being beautiful and smart, Inga can now add nationally published author to her list of acomplishments. Inga wrote a piece in the November 6th issue of National Underwriter titled 'Breaking Down Barriers In Miscellaneous Professional Liabilty' (expensive subscription required to read online, but you can tell by the catchy title that it's a great article.)
Congratulations Inga! xxooxx
Posted by JB at 9:35 PM | PermalinkThe Super Bowl Mumble
Please, please, please let the Chicago Bears Superbowl hype be put in check until they actually get to the NFC Championship game. There's no real chance of that is there.
Case in point - a painful but well-intentioned take-off of 'The Superbowl Shuffle' with the 2006 Bears - 'The Superbowl Mumble' that has already been featured in Chicago Magazine along with lyrics.
[Via - Gapers Block/Merge]
Peter Parker Penis Panic
Comic book shops are putting copies of Spider-Man Reign #1 behind the counter with the adult comics, because of a panel showing a middle-aged Peter Parker's penis. Horror-of-horrors! Superhero comic buyers, being 99% male, are surely traumatized by the sight. If anything, Marvel should yank the issue because it portrays their premiere character as not packing a lot of heat - if you know what I mean; wink-wink.
You can see Peter Parker's package in all of it's shriveled glory here. Maybe the panel before hand has him coming out of a cold shower or a dip in the ocean. You know, shrinkage.
Marvel says that the wrong files were sent out to be printed. Penis-free editions of the comic will be hitting the stores soon for the younger readers. Looking at copies of Reign #1 on Ebay, it looks like this SNAFU has not exactly aroused the collector's market.
[Via - The Beat]
Posted by JB at 4:47 PM | PermalinkDecember 10, 2006
ears&eyes Festival Today
Shame on me for not posting this earlier. My apologies to all...
The ears&eyes music festival is happening today from 3 p.m. to 2 a.m. at Silvie's Lounge (1902 W. Irving Park Rd. Chicago). Musical and visual artists will be playing all day. Tickets available at the door (I'm assuming it's pointless getting them online now).
Visit the ears&eyes festival page for a full listing of all the performers and more information.
Posted by JB at 11:11 AM | Permalink
links for 2006-12-10
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Funniest Christmas themed comic strip of the year so far. Featuring one of my favorite cartoon cats, Scratch Fury.
December 8, 2006
Arlington Park Goes Synthetic
The giant mounds of dirt that stretch along the Euclid Road side of the track property, told passers-by that Arlington Park was doing something with the track surface. I assumed that they were probably putting down a new sub-layer in response to the 20+ catastrophic horse breakdowns last year.
In reality, Arlington Park is doing much more than that as they announced that they are replacing the dirt track with a synthetic racing surface. The new surface will cost around $10 million and will be ready for the 2007 racing season which starts May 4th. Four other tracks in the U.S. use a synthetic surface.
This is probably one of the only ways to dispel the ghosts of the horse breakdowns of last year. Despite the consultants that said the track was fine and additional pre-race exams by vets, the breakdowns kept mounting. The first inevitable breakdown will bring the tracks safety into question again and bring back the P.R. nightmare. Hopefully the new surface will dispel any doubts of the tracks safety.
Posted by JB at 8:09 AM | PermalinkDecember 7, 2006
links for 2006-12-07
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Beautiful photos of war zones and supercomputers. Talk about odd-couples.
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The big news is that there may be water flowing on Mars. Interesting photos that will be sure to cause some debate.
December 6, 2006
links for 2006-12-06
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NASA is having a press conference Wednesday morning, to announce a 'significant find' on Mars. Imaginations are racing all over the world with dreams of lost cities and alien life. Hope it's not just a funny looking rock.
December 5, 2006
Post NaBloPoMo Hangover
NaBloPoMo is over and like many others, I completed the goal of a post a day for 30 days. So what have I learned from this exersize? One thing, a non-professional blogger can post everyday without much of a problem, barring you don't get overrun with the travails of everyday life. My biggest problem was not having anything interesting to share, stand in the way of churning out posts. It's pretty easy to pick those posts here - guilty as charged.
On the plus side, I go through news and blog feeds with a little more purpose now. Searching for blog fodder is haunting me more than it had before the contest. Come to think of it, that could be a bad thing. I don't know how to close this post off and I've got nothing left to say on the subject. Until next time...
Posted by JB at 11:04 PM | Permalinklinks for 2006-12-05
December 3, 2006
links for 2006-12-03
December 2, 2006
Paprikash Review On ABC 7
The affable Steve Dolinsky had a review of Paprikash (602 W. Northwest Hwy. in Arlington Heights) on the ABC7 news yesterday. The video and transcript of the review is available on their website. If the video is still up, I'd suggest giving it a view as the creation of their Beef Wellington is something to behold in all it's artery clogging goodness.
Posted by JB at 10:06 PM | Permalink
