The Villagers are moving to wordpress...

The Villagers are moving to a self-hosted Wordpress blog.

If you subscribe to our RSS Feed, you may need to change our address in your feed reader. Our feed should be:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/VillagerWithWheel

We've always had this feed, but it wasn't well advertised on our Blogger based blog.

We are also changing to a Disqus based comment system.

Our new comment/thread feeds (this will be on the new site as well):

• All Comments RSS Feed


• New Comments RSS Feed


• New Threads RSS Feed

So, our blog may be down for a few hours as everything migrates to our new host.

All the old content will be on the new site, but if you want to look at the old format and remember our roots, our Blogger site should remain unchanged at:
http://villagerwithwheel.blogspot.com

If you've just stumbled across this site via Blogger, our blog is located at:
http://villagerwithwheel.com

Feel free to let us know what you think of the new site (when it goes live) in the comments...

ELIPTICALS and UNDERARMOR

A few things have been on my mind recently regarding the gym. The first involves the place of an elliptical machine in a males workout.

I do use the machine from time to time and recently learned from my friends down in Hampton Roads (Newport News is only a segment of Hampton roads. They are not the same thing) that using this machine will eventually lead me to purchase a pink iPOD and begin doing Pilates.

I disagree. One basic concept of working out is that it is good to mix things up. Sure the eliptigay is not the same as running but it is a great alternative. You may be able to get an even greater workout from this machine than running if you find it as hard as i do to focus and not get bored running on treadmill.

The last thought I had involved the place of the Baltimore, Maryland based Under Armour in the gym. These form-fitting, moisture-wicking performance shirts are worn by well....in order not to create controversy...a lot of interesting individuals. Elroy and I had a discussion about this before in which we created groups that most gym-going, under armour wearing person could be placed. I believe there were 2 groups that I don't want to mention. At the end of the day i'm not going to wear under armour for three main reasons: I'm not jacked; If I was jacked I'd probably still not wear this because i'd feel like a girl wearing an extra short skirt trying to get attention; Finally, I'll always prefer wearing random t-shirts like the blue one I got at ElectronicVagrant's wedding.

THIS FITNESS COLUMN IS SPONSORED BY:



ACOM ENDORSED: "This gave me that extra push i've always been looking for" - ACOM, 2008

"Who would win in a fight?"

Growing up I was a game machine. I came up with "50 different games to play in a kitchen" before 3rd grade. I created everything from games with paper plates, "Frippins" and games you played while naked, "Beep-Beeps."



In the last few years there has been an explosion in popularity for MMA. It's often said that MMA spawned from discussions about who would win between experts of the various martial arts specialties. Thus, I feel that the world is ready for an expansion of MMA to involve animals. This is a game I played in my head for years as a child. Academia claims to have solved the age old question of lion versus tiger, so we need to move on. The world needs to know how 4 polar bears would fare against a great white shark and 2 lions.

I know, this would be totally inhumane and bring civilization back about 2000 years to the days of ancient Rome, but couldn't we find a way to answer the many questions that I have from my childhood virtually without the mass slaughter of people and animals?

Oh, and the hippo would definitely destroy a team of bullfighters but if the bullfighters had a cougar on their side? Let the debate begin.

RICK ROLLED

By now many of us have been 'served' or 'pwn3d' but have you been 'rick rolled' yet? This most recent prank, which has been around for about year, has hit the mainstream hard in the past six months.

The prank involves the 1987 hit song "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley. The song reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and its music video is the basis for being 'rick rolled'.

The perpetrator provides a relative link for an ongoing thread, article or conversation. The user clicks on the link with great anticipation only to be dissapointed (or if you are like me, insanely pumped up and you begin singing along) as he sees a 1980s music video instead of the relavent topic.

NCAA Tournament Live Streaming Boss Button...

You may have read about the "Boss Button" for the live streaming of the NCAA tournament.

If you work on spreadsheets all day (perhaps pertaining to Beef Jersey and Pork Rinds), then it might actually be useful.

I will give them credit. This is what happens to your window when you hit the boss button:

A few humorous links....

Because I don't really feel creative at the moment, I will highlight the creativity of others:

1. stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com - Up to 90 things that white people like - zach would appreciate this one


2. Dickipedia - Electronic Vagrant's new Wikipedia alternative featuring people like this


3. On Sunday while flying to Cincinnati (I connected through O'Hare), I wore my new favorite traveling T-shirt:

I left O'Hare and had to go back through security. In neither place did I get any comments from TSA. Although, the dude in Chicago just seemed angry in general. Raise your hand if you are surprised....

Cornhole: Not Just an Anus....

Have you ever heard of a game called Cornhole?

Today, when I remarked I was unfamiliar with the game, an intern looked at me like I was an idiot. That was my low moment for the day.

Then, it was explained to me that Cornhole is a game played in bars and during tailgates with two boards and bean bags. The previous link is to the "#1 Supplier of Cornhole Bags and Boards"...that just sounds funny.

I was also told it was a somewhat local/regional game mostly played in the Cincinnati and surrounding regions of Ohio and Kentucky. (This is where I have been working for the last several months.)

Apparently, people bring their own "cornhole bags" to bars to use during the game. One of my coworkers has a Bengals bag. Another has an the Ohio State bag.
I wonder if I would get roughed up if I walked into a Cincinnati bar with a Chicago Bears cornhole bag.

So, as the saying goes, you learn something new ever day.

And here I thought cornhole just referred to a person's anus...

Lotus Notes Spell Check is Anti-Semitic...

Total credit for this discovery goes to SnowDog....

Apparently, IBM's Lotus Notes e-mail software is anti-semitic.

If you type the word(s) "non-phase" in an e-mail and spell check it, here is the suggestion:

Is there any context where someone typing "non-phase" might actually mean "non-Jews"?

Your Jesus fish should be revoked.....Part II

So now that we've covered how much I hate it when people cut in line, I'll get to the subject at hand.


I commute each day into work, and it takes slightly longer than half an hour each way. That being said, I see lots of different people driving around town. Granted I do commute to work each day in Oregon, where the best drivers in the country reside. Still, idiots are everywhere.

So when I see the lady from White Van Shuttle going about 65 in a 30 zone weaving in and out of traffic, I wonder if she's really doing her company a service. (this happened yesterday) I know that if I ever need to get to my hotel incredibly fast and haven't gone on a roller-coaster recently, they'd be my best bet.

The real question I have is about the people who have bumper stickers, emblems, or other stuff on their cars. If you see someone with an Obama 08 sticker on their car and they cut you off, do you vote for Hillary? Or what about the people with the Jesus fish? They're doing stupid stuff all the time on the road, but I notice it probably because they're the most common of all car decorations. Isn't that unfair to the rest of the flock, if not Jesus himself? Shouldn't there be some roving Jesus fish wardens who can taketh away from the idiot who always drives up to the front of the on-ramp and swerves in front of the 55 of us who have been waiting to get on I-205?

I expect that type of behavior from the guy with the "Lost your cat? Try checking under my tires" sticker (or the Wal-Mart driver), but not from the van filled with Code Pink protesters.

I fear the day when the cereal and cookies truck with the wikipedia bumper sticker cuts me off. I'll starve to death both intellectually and physically.

A case for blogging (tumblr)...

Bijan Sabet makes a great argument for blogging.

In a post on his tumblr blog, he points out that any e-mail with a subject like "check this out" shouldn't be sent.

Instead, whatever the person is going to send should be entered into some sort of social web platform. Ok, all the web techies would probably correct my language, but my point is still the same.

Bijan suggests using a tumblr blog to aggregate links, photos, music, video, quotes, etc. People with tumblr accounts can subscribe to each other's tumblogs and go nuts with the sharing. Integrate a Disqus comment system into your tumblog and your group of friends that would normally e-mail each other stuff will transcend into an online community.

I also suggest a tumblr blog as an excellent communication medium, but if that's too intense for you, you can try out something a little simpler:
Del.icio.us - social bookmarking
Ma.gnolia - social bookmarking with a bit more emphasis on the social part
Twitter - I couldn't resist...

This way, your friends can follow your links through RSS feeds or a social feed aggregator like Friendfeed.

If you do decide to join one of the above or any other site, feel free to add me as a friend. My info is on the right side of this blog.

Believe it or not, this sort of thing can save you time, although you are more likely to waste spend more time due to the increase in information. It will just make you a more knowledgeable, web savvier person....

Your Jesus fish should be revoked....Part I

Let me start by saying that one of my biggest pet peeves is people who
cut in line. (Wal-Mart is not a pet peeve, it goes much deeper)


One of my favorite stories is the time when I was in an airport in a somewhat out of the way Chinese city. After paying the various random airport taxes and wading through the regulations, it came time for me to go through security. When I arrived in China I quickly realized that lines were a microcosm of "who in this general vicinity is the most important/powerful." As the only white person within a 5 mile radius, I unexpectedly won every contest. So, as I walked up to the security checkpoint and got in the back of the "line" I fouled up the hierarchy of the whole gate area. You see, the "line" in front of me looked more like a big mass of people. The businessmen in nice suits were up front, on the edges, cutting in front of everyone. The older people were in the middle, close to the front, using all the dirty tricks they'd learned from decades of Chinese "line" formation. In the back of the line were the young kids and the families who were obviously less well off.

My arrival didn't pose a problem until the first businessman/old person tried to push up and cut in to try to take their normal place in the Chinese "line". One by one, they hurried toward the front, only to see me standing at the back of the line. They couldn't pass the skinny white guy because it would break some unwritten rule, so they all began fighting for position directly behind me. I absolutely loved it. I couldn't help giving the cheesy businessmen/party bosses a quick look of "what the hell do you think you're doing" every time they tried to walk by me. So, for the next
fifteen minutes I relished the fact that I had changed the organizational paradigm of a Chinese airport.

Tomorrow I will explain what this has to do with the title of the post, although you can probably figure it out. Now I have to go get in bed before the "you have to sleep on the couch rule" is invoked.

McCain/Clinton ????

Oh, what a clever joke someone has come up with:

http://mccainclinton.us/

Seriously?

Start buying up other domain names now:
mccainobama.us
ronpaulrudygiuliani.com
obamaclinton.us

Barack Obama gets cocky on Twitter...

Do you think the Barack Obama on Twitter is really the presidential candidate?

This is what he just said to his (at this moment) 14,648 followers:

BarackObama: In Columbus,MS & wondering how somebody who's in second place is offering the vice presidency to the person who's in first place. Vote Tues!

I guess it really doesn't matter if its going to less than 15,000 people. I follow him and it is doubtful I will vote for him....

Simple Twitter Explanation (Video)

I promise to stop promoting Twitter on this blog for at least a week if you watch this simple 2 minute video:



Link to the original article:
Common Craft

A letter from Wal-Mart Shared Services...

Back during college, I worked at a Sam's Club, in Addison, IL, for two Summers and a Christmas break.

Apparently, one pay period I worked very few hours and forgot to cash my check.

Last week, I received this in the mail:



Way to go on a timely follow up..."update our accounting records periodically"

Seeing as how they sent it to my parents and I opened it last weekend, I would have to wait and call the state to get my $11.28. I think I'll pass.


I'm sorry, electronic vagrant. I probably really bummed you down...

The Series Finale of The Wire

I wonder if HBO has statistics on how many people watch their shows via On Demand.

I realize not every cable TV provider offers On Demand. I believe DishTV just got it recently. I'm not sure about DirectTV.

But, if you have been following The Wire (Zach says it is the best show on television), you know this week will be the final episode. As sad as that is, last night's episode helped hype the closure that the final episode will hopefully bring.

As most folks with On Demand services may know, the weekly episodes usually come out on Monday, even though the show actually airs on Sunday. So, folks like Zach who bleed for Omar Little probably watch it every Monday night when they get home from work.

Meanwhile, suckers like ACOM and I wait until it comes on Sunday night (practically the last possible time to watch it for the week).

I wonder what percentage of people actually watch it on Sunday night?
I'd like to see that percentage both including and excluding people without On Demand services.

While ACOM may watch it tonight, I will probably wait until Sunday night.

I will look forward to it until then....

UPDATE: ACOM informed me that Zach informed him that you will NOT be able to On Demand the series finale. That's a long wait for those of you that watched it last Monday...

Haunting Stuff

If you have 10 minutes to read (and cry quietly at your desk), I cannot recommend reading this enough.

Get Your B!@%# A$$ Back in the Kitchen, and Make Me Some Pie!

Gotta love those fundamentalists.

A private school in Kansas has barred female officials from refereeing boys sporting events on the premise that females cannot have authority over males.

Unless the school has an all-male faculty, how long will it be until one of the students goes straight Cartman on his English teacher?

Has Kansas finally supplanted Florida as the national leader is off-beat news?

Cheating Patriots Demand Roger Goodell Reverse Super Bowl Loss

This blows my mind, and serves as yet another reminder as to how the once lovable losers from Boston have become the new Yankees. While more than 20,000 "fans" have signed the petition, my unscientific review leads me to believe that for every Pats believer who signs there are 5 fans ready to mock their misery.

I leave you with Mr. Charisma himself, Bill Belichick.

Twitter traffic updates via commuterfeed.com...

In an effort to try to show Twitter as useful, behold commuterfeed.com.

Commuterfeed.com is a website devoted to collecting updates about commutes from around the country. The site sets up some common guidelines for the Twitter community to use when alerting others of commuting congestion. Most importantly, find your region and use the correct format (e.g. @commuter (SPACE) citycode (SPACE) incident). Check the site for more detailed instructions.

It sounds like a great idea, for those of us sitting in front of our computers and checking our commutes before leaving.

I just wonder how I would use this to receive updates to my phone. Being a Palm OS user for the time being, I don't think I have many good Twitter client options. I know TwitterBerry is out there for you BlackBerry users (I've never used it).

Turning on updates to my phone from commuter would yield tweets from every area of the country.

Commuterfeed.com has an RSS feed for each region. But, then I see the only option as converting the RSS feed to e-mail. I've already discussed how not real time that would be.

Perhaps I am too greedy to want to see real-time traffic updates from the Twitter community about only my metro area, on my cell phone (I won't look at my phone while driving).

The website is still useful.

I guess the alternatives are that old fashioned thing called the radio or staring at traffic cameras online (in my opinion, not very helpful).

Can any Twitter users help me filter real-time messages to my phone? What am I missing?

Getting your eyes dilated anytime soon?

I recently heard a story about an intriguing side effect of eye dilation.

Apparently, when getting their eyes dilated at the the optometrist or ophthalmologist, some people will pass out. This may be a common side effect. This may not be all that embarrassing.

But, the protagonist in this story passed out AND peed himself. Yes, he passed out in an optometrist chair and went to the bathroom in his pants (at least it was only little potty).

The story teller actually asked his optometrist about this phenomenon at his next visit (bold move). The optometrist confirmed that passing out and urinating happens infrequently, but does occur.

Moral of the story?

Empty your bladder before going to your next eye exam. If you do happen to pass out, the worst case scenario is a few drops of pee come out. Hopefully, it isn't all that noticeable....

New Year's Resolutions: 1 Month Later

Here's how I'm doing so far, in descending order of success:

Contribute $20 each month to a worthy, off-beat charity (See, moustache, Baraka). On track. See below.

• January: Hire Heros USA - Not-for-profit providing career placement assistance to wounded vets.
  

Get Master's Degree. Doing fine. Three classes into my final course. On track to finish in May.

Pay off all credit cards and truck. Doing very well. Thanks to tax returns, bonuses (and Grandma), 80% of my credit card debt is payed off (despite buying a beautiful 52" Samsung LCD). I should ice this one by the end of March.

Lose 30 pounds. Going OK. Down 7.5 lbs after a shockingly bad January 1 weigh in.

Live on a 60-10-10-10-10 budget. Not there yet. Right now I'm around 75-0-3-16-6. Once I get rid of credit card and truck payments and refinance the condo I should be home. I'm thinking April or so.

Get new, awesome, job. Not going so well. I got a nice raise, making my current job somewhat more awesome. Plenty of work to do here.

Break into the top 10 Google results for "Zach Fletcher", "Zachary Fletcher", or "Big Ern". No luck yet. I was on the front page for "Big Ern" during football season, but have fallen off.

Write the computer code for the project I've been mulling for the last few years. Have done zilch. This may be replaced with another project I'm working on with my fellow villagers.

Create (and use) at least 2 of Digg, Technorati, etc.
Done zilch. Need to get off my ass. This one should be easy.

Become more active. Be able to complete 1 full week (7 days in a row) of CrossFit workouts. Again, very little done. Will (re-)join a gym in February. I may even go to it and work out.

Crush Elroy, ACom, and Electronic Vagrant in Villager page views. Not going well at all. Elroy's Don & Mike post is an unstoppable juggernaut. I refuse to link to it. Need to get on the ball here.

Remodel bathrooms. Haven't done anything yet. Once the fiscal projects are done, I can get into this.

Acquire at least 1 useful skill. Think carpentry or .NET design. Done nada. The year is young.

Past posts:
January

2008 Resolutions - EV Style (I'm only 35 days late)

In response to Zach's resolutions, I thought I'd go over my list of things to do and areas in need of improvement. I had an eventful 2007, it was definitely a year I'll never forget, but 2008 should be no less eventful. I think it will be easiest to categorize these by priority:

The Locks:
Run a marathon with my wife.
Possibly this one, but if we could somehow find a cheap one overseas this fall, I'd be sold. Also, we're going to run a half marathon beforehand. We did this one a few years ago and had a blast.

Do some major home improvement. Leaky roof, you're on notice....

Decide what I want to do career-wise. Preferably I'll get a certification of some sort that can help me move onward and upward. I'm also looking at MBA programs, but if any of our blog readers know of any six figure cereal-eating jobs, I'm your man.

Take a honeymoon. I'm thinking this place would be cool:



The Maybes

Move out of our house, preferably to somewhere fun. Really, anywhere where the average age is <64 will be okay with us.

Move out of the country. I'm betting on this place, and if it works out, you guys can come too.

Play rugby for another year. We'll see what the doctor says about my wrist this week, but I might become a full-time touch player.

Actively campaign for a presidential candidate. If a certain lady we'll call "Millary Hinton" wins the nomination, I just might volunteer for a guy named "Vaughn McLane".

The Longshots:

Win the lottery. I have my ticket, and island above would be my first (and only) purchase.

Cut down on donuts and cookies in favor of healthier items.

Bet way more money on the Giants the next time some idiot in Vegas gives me 12 free points!! You would have to be an idiot to think that the Patriots were actually going to cover that spread. When I was in Vegas last week I put 5 on the Giants, and I will rue the day because I didn't multiply that by 50.

(This only goes in longshots because the Pats will never be as overrated as they were for the playoffs, betting purposes only)

Good luck to me!

Microsoft and Yahoo Comparison

If you haven't heard, Microsoft offered to acquire Yahoo! this morning.

Centernetworks did a good simple comparison of the products/services offered by both.

Here's the comparison table: LINK.

Using a Slingbox Pro to save money on cable...

There are plenty of ways to watch TV online, either through internet sites or downloadable players. Zach highlighted Miro a few months ago. Notable downloadable players:

• Miro
• Joost
• TVU Player
• SopCast

Here are some links to sites that you can directly watch TV through your browser:
13 places to watch TV online for free
13 more links
Since it is a bit newer than the links above, OpenHulu.com has content from a couple of the major networks (ABC and FOX, I think) and is worth checking out.

All that being said, what are the major problems? Most of the above fall into one or more of the following:

• Lack of mainstream content
• Lack of high definition
• Lack of bandwidth
• Unplanned outages

I propose a solution to the above problems which will also enable you to save money on cable/satellite. This solution will only work for you if:

• You are willing to sacrifice real HD television for fake HD streaming online
  
• You are looking for sports that are out of your current market in the comfort of your home and don't want to pay for a special package
  
• You are a nerd

Go buy a SlingBox Pro with the HD Connect (optional). Install said products at your parents house (children of divorced parents are at an advantage here). Tell them they aren't allowed to use it.

Then, buy a video card with a HD output (HDMI would be key) for the nicest computer you own and hook it up to your HDTV. (Optional - Build a media center PC or buy a Mac Mini)
Don't have an HDTV? Stop reading now and just give up.

A few things that may pose problems:

• Your parents don't have cable/satellite or HD cable/satellite
• Your parents have a slow internet connection
• Your parents are unwilling to let you do this
• Your parents already have a slingbox (doubtful)
• You are a technological idiot

It doesn't have to be your parents. My parents happen to live in the sports market I am interested in (Chicago).

The ideal internet connection for this set up (on both ends) would be FIOS or AT&T UVerse or at least a connection with 2 Mbps upload.

My parents have poopy DSL with only a 384 kbps upload connection. So, this may be a struggle, but I still intend to do it.

One last note...yes, this does cost money upfront ($300 approx). Unlike those nifty lifehacker posts, this one requires some coin. But, dropping your cable/satellite subscription will make up for it in the long run.
Also, your internet bill may go up if you don't have cable (bundled services discount). Unless you switch to a non-cable company for internet, you can't avoid this.

But, taking all that into consideration, you are using the existing cable and internet setup at your parents/relatives/friends place that wouldn't normally own a slingbox. I see this as a great solution without using an (illegal) Azureus and RSS feed setup.

Nice Drum Solo, Mr. Furher

Listening to Don & Mike last night I heard the lovely folks from Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church will protest at Heath Ledger’s funeral (guess why). Bile rising, I wondered: “Is there anything I could agree with him on? Other than the value of a good comb over and (possibly) simple arithmatic?

The next, (hopefully) more interesting question: If you could sit down and have a conversation with some of history’s great monsters, are there topics on which you could reach a meeting of the minds? Did Stalin like baseball? Could Pol Pot extemporize on economics? Given the opportunity, would Hitler throw down on Guitar Hero [Insert “99 Red Balloons” or “This rock will last 1,000 years!” joke here).

The best Wikipedia reference posted in the comments by Friday, February 1 will receive $3 from me via Paypal. Entries along the lines of “we both like expensive cars” or “I wish I had a harem” will be read with interest, but probably not rewarded. References to obscure, especially nasty fellows will receive extra points in my (entirely arbitrary) rating system.

Alternate post title: "God is the Toughest Movie Critic of All"

The Villagers Love Video Games.....

This one pretty much sums it up for all of us here at VWW:


Thanks to indexed.

Mike and Mike Roast Webcast?

Since today is my usual work from home day (although breaking my future wife's nose canceled my business travel this week), I have had ESPN on for most of the day.

I can only take First Take and Outside the Lines for so long, because they tend to repeat themselves. But, watching the Best of Mike and Mike is usually a good bet (2 PM EPSN2HD).

Today, they broadcasted live from Atlantic City in preparation for being roasted tonight. Here's the announcement: LINK

What I want to know is, how do I watch it? Will it be on TV? HBO? Radio (seems appropriate for the format of their show)? Web cast?

Then, clicking on a link, I came to this page:
http://www.kodigital.com/espnroast08/

It has a box for a video that is currently blank. When I googled "Mike and Mike Roast Webcast" and other such similar queries, I came up with nothing.

Is this the page to watch it live over the web?

Here is the timeline for tonight. The roasting starts at 10:30PM EST.

I don't care if some people expect lame jokes.

I just want to know if I've stumbled on a secret webcast to the event...

UPDATE: Here is a link for a short recap of the event -
Small White Ball: Mike and Mike Roast Recap (or why Dana Jacobson slept in until 3 pm on Saturday)

Human Nature and Staring Contests on Foreign Soil...

Last week, my family (present and future) went to the Dominican Republic for vacation and relaxation.

Last Thursday, the whole clan went out in Sea Kayaks to brave the choppy ocean. After my parents were thrown off their kayak by a big wave, I should have gotten a clue. But, while going over the crest of another big wave, I happened to hit my future wife in the face with my paddle. Obviously, it was an accident. Needless to say, I broke her nose. Because of a protein deficiency in her blood, a few extra steps were taken to ensure she didn't continue to bleed (like during our flight home). So, she ended up walking around the resort with gauze up her nostrils for the last 3 days of the vacation. Not so fun for her.

Here's where the staring comes into play....

While walking around with a broken nose, gauze up her nose and a bandage over her stitches, I was surprised at the number of people who would just blatantly stare. I'm talking about turn the head as you walk by type of staring, not just a glance or two. Maybe it was because the clientèle were more European and Latin American and less North American.

So, because I got sick of people staring, I started staring back. I figured this would deter them from continuing their rude tractor beam eyes.

I was wrong.

My staring was very obvious and most of the time, people didn't even notice me looking. Sometimes, they would notice me and then stare right back at me. Only occasionally would someone realize they been caught slippin' and look away in shame.

It was just a broken nose and some bandages. I'm sure everyone has seen a broken nose before. I saw ACOM's nose broken on the rugby field (watched it happen 4 feet in front of me) and it was quite messed up. Reconstructive surgery style breakage...


As a side note, while engaged in a game of volleyball with my future brother in law, someone from the land of Canadia happened to sit down next to me. I had just rotated out (we had 8 people on each team). He wanted to join, even though we were only a few points from the end of the game. After explaining to him that I did not approve of him just jumping right in the game, he said, "You must be from the US." I acknowledged that fact and inquired as to why he asked.

"We don't talk like that in Canada."

Apparently, Canadians aren't direct when they speak and won't tell someone like it is. My response was "The truth is hard sometimes."

Unfortunately, for my bride to be, there will be beauty from pain...

Turntable Hero update....

This Engadget article features a DIYer who created a portable turntable controller for Guitar Hero 3.

I recently posted about how Rock Band has paved the way for Turntable Hero.

This may just fuel the fire for the creation of Turntable/DJ/Hip-Hop Hero. Hopefully, Harmonix is paying attention.

Video of the portable turntable in action:



Although it isn't exactly hip-hop/rap music or the same concept as DJ-ing, Harmonix should hire this guy to help develop Hip-Hop Hero.

I will give the guy his propers for his creativity and ingenuity.

Here's the link to the original blog post: LINK

UPDATE:
Taking the Guitar Hero series in the WRONG direction: Air Guitar Rocker

Flat Tax Retort

It is basically a huge scam. Strangely, it's only virtue (simplicity) makes it even easier to identify as a scam.

Situation 1: You make $25,000 per year. Your effective income tax is about 10%. You lose another 10% to other withholding (state taxes, medicare, Social Security etc). So, you save ~$2,500 per year. Because you are a poor scum bag, effectively all this money is spent buying things.

• Old way: $25k - $2.5k in taxes - $2.5k in other witholding - $5k in rent/mortgage = $15k buying power for the year.
• New way: $25k - $0 in taxes - $2.5k in other witholding - $5k in rent/mortgage = $17.5k buying power. However, everything you buy now costs your 30% more. So your $17.5k only buys $13.4k of pre-flat tax goods.
  

Situation 2: You make $75,000 per year. Your effective income tax is about 20%. You lose another 10% to other witholding. You're a not-so-poor working stiff so maybe you save 10% of your income.

• Old way: $75k - $15k in taxes - $7.5k in other witholding - $15k in rent/mortgage - 7.5k in savings = $30k buying power.
• New way: $75k - $0 in taxes - $7.5k in other witholding - $15k in rent/mortgage - 7.5k in savings = $45k buying power ($34.6k adjusted)
  

Situation 3: You make $225,000 per year. Your effective income tax is about 27%. You lose another 10% to other witholding. You're doing rather well and can put away 20% of your income.

• Old way: $225k - $60k in taxes - $25k in other witholding - $25k in rent/mortgage - $45k in savings = $75k buying power.
• New way: $225k - $0 in taxes - $25k in other witholding - $25k in rent/mortgage - $45k in savings = $130k buying power ($100k adjusted).
  

These are clearly estimated numbers and they may have some fundamental problems. However, the things I've ignored make the flat tax an even dumber idea for low- and middle-class humps. For example, deductions for children, mortage interest, or higher education can greatly reduce income tax on the middle class and virtually eliminate it for the lower class.

I've also ignored the fact that if I'm making $225,000 per year, I'm going to buy my Porsche/racing sloop/walk-in humidor in another country or online. So there are plenty of ways of avoiding the new tax burden.

So, at a glance we see that the poor guy gets rogered (10% less buying power), the middle class guy does OK if he's smart enough to save some money (15% more power), and the rich guy makes out like a bandit (33% more buying power). 'Twas ever thus.

Fortunately for the proponents of this plan, poor people can't do teh maths, so they'll probably jump in with both feet.

What else did I miss?

*Updated to correct typos/errors.

What Does the "Make My Profile Private" Button Do?

Though reluctant to link to anything on Fox News, a high-school stundent co-ed young professional woman small-town mayor drawing ire for risque photos on her MySpace page is too good to resist:

"It's a picture of her [Mayor Carmen Kontur-Gronquist] in bra and panties on a rural protection fire truck in a rural protection fire hall," Woods said. "This isn't the way we want our city to be portrayed."

I'm holding out for the Ruth Bader Ginsburg swimsuit calendar.

Link

Pros and Cons of Huckabee's "Fair Tax"

As Mike Huckabee's campaign gains momentum, people have started look more closely at perhaps his most radical idea: the Fair Tax . This idea was not developed by Huckabee but by a group called Americans for Fair Taxation.

If implemented, this new tax system would nearly eliminate the IRS. The income tax would not exist and neither would those horrible forms we fill out every year. Instead, the tax would be shifted on everyday purchases that we make. Prices would increase 30%. Seems a bit unfair to poor but apparently they receive a government rebate check every month to offset the increase. In other words, they will pay only a fraction of the 30% increase or none at all depending on how little they make.

PROS
1.No more IRS and nasty forms to fill out every year

2.Encourages savings and investment. Two ingredients necessary for economic growth

3.Appears to distribute the tax burden 'fairly' based on what you make and consume

4.Single handily eliminates tax loop holes that lobbyists love and would prevent tax breaks to favored groups

CONS
1."Fair" is a very subjective term and there may be many people that do not find this as a favorable move.

2.Potential to create a HUGE underground black market. Just think, if you are not paying income tax, you would have an incentive to try and find products that aren't taxed with the new 30% increase. This mimics the black market for cigarettes that grew from the heavy taxation of cigarettes. If enough people avoided paying this tax, it could cripple the government.

3.Would everything be taxed? Baby food is an example cited. If you continue not to tax baby food then you open the door to many other products and you would need to move the loss on these products onto other products.

4.Lets say that in general everything appears fair. Poor people get a break and wealthy people get taxed a lot. Seems fair but in reality that is not the case. For example, say you won the lottery or received a huge 10 million dollar bonus. Under current conditions, all 10 million will be taxed. But now with the fair tax, you choose to save 9 million and only spend 1 million. Now your tax rate expressed as a % using 10 million as the denominator is incredibly small. Critics cite that the rich will actually become filthy rich if the Fair Tax is implemented.

I'm sure there are other pros and cons that I am forgetting. Common sense tells me this idea will probably never reach fruition but it is still an interesting idea. One aspect that i find intriguing is how a 30% increase in everyday prices would affect my spending habits. Theoretically, I guess it should have no effect but I think I would have a hard time pay 30% more for a bunch of the crap I buy. My guess is that I would save even more money and pay far less in taxes than the government intended.

2008 Resolutions

Happy 2008 dedicated readers! I hope you both got everything you wanted for Christmas, and are striding into '08 happy, healthy, and inexplicably curious about our mundane doings.


As this blog is mainly about self-improvement, vanity, and the public airing of our private business, my resolutions for the New Year:

• Lose 30 pounds.
  
• Get new, awesome, job.
  
• Break into the top 10 Google results for "Zach Fletcher", "Zachary Fletcher", or "Big Ern"
• Get Master's Degree.
  
• Pay off all credit cards and truck.
• Live on a 60-10-10-10-10 budget.
  
• Write the computer code for the project I've been mulling for the last few years.
  
• Create (and use) at least 2 of Digg, Technorati, etc.
• Become more active. Be able to complete 1 full week (7 days in a row) of CrossFit workouts.
• Contribute $20 each month to a worthy, off-beat charity. (See, moustache, Baraka)
• Crush Elroy, ACom, and Electronic Vagrant in Villager page views.
• Remodel bathrooms.
• Acquire at least 1 useful skill. Think carpentry or .NET design.
  

I will be setting targets/measures of success for each resolution later this week. I will post updates on/about the first of each month. If other, not-so-new resolutions occur to me, I may add them.

Elroy, ACOM, EV, what will you be doing better this year?

*Fixed date to un-bury post.

Fail!

Do you crave entertainment but find yourself too lazy (or too good a person) to track down the "right" version of 2 Girls 1 Cup?

Try typing "fail" into Google Image Search.

Stolen from Neatorama.

Newest Episode of the The Wire Available Now

If you're like me, this is the best news since, well, anything...

Thanks to HBO's curious handling of The Wire, the first episode of Season 5 is available now (and has been all week) on On Demand. I've been saving it all week for my Friday dinner viewing pleasure.

McNulty's drinking again.

Get Sick, Have Insurance, Die Anyways

The next time your hear someone bloviating on the evils of socialized/government/single payer/universal health care, print a copy of this story, wrap it 'round a brick, and throw it at their head.

Doctors at UCLA determined she needed a transplant and sent a letter to CIGNA Healthcare on December 11. The Philadelphia-based health insurance company denied payment for the transplant.

Michael Moore may be frequently obnoxious (and always fat), but with a 65% chance of survival in Paris or London (or Havana), and a 0% chance of survival in California (despite having insurance), where would Mr. Sarkisyan have been better off raising his children?

Greatest health care system in the world, my ass.

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