2 of these 3 have to cover.
This week's picks:
I happened upon this article today, and since I sometimes throw out bad investment advice, why stop now?
The "20 Worst Venture Capital Investments of All Time" are covered, and there are some catastrophically bad ideas that people smarter than I threw millions of dollars at. I did a quick sampling, and some of these websites don't even exist anymore. Makes me think that Elroy really should start http://www.iamatwitterexpertandiwillhelpyouwithallyourtwitterneeds.com. I'm sure he could get some sucker to fork over $20 million for that...
Tags:
elroy,
twitter,
Venture Capital
Movember the 22nd
Three weeks without a decent shave have left me on the wrong side of sleazy. And so, befitting of a man that looks as if he belongs at a greyhound track, I offer up the following gambling propositions. Perhaps some of them can be addressed by Zach's locks of the week.
Odds of successfully making a new female acquaintance this month - 10:1
Odds of the moustache adversely affecting my year-end review (scheduled for next Wednesday) - 2:1
Over-under on the number of drinks my grandfather will have at Thanksgiving before feeling free to tell me I look like an asshole - 6
Over-under on the number of times I hear the phrase, "That looks disgusting" between now and the end of the month - 12
All praise be to Gamblore.
-Mike
Perhaps you wanted to put your face on an elf and send it to the relatives you won't be seeing over the Thanksgiving/Christmas holidays?
Great, I've got just the website for you.
ElfYourself.com
Brought to you by your friends at OfficeMax, you can create "cute" little elves that dance.
You can even add voice (which I didn't do) and send a special message.
Check out the villagers dance: The Villagers as Elves
If you make one, send us yours...we can laugh at you.
(image courtesy of the elfyourself.com site)
Tags:
Christmas,
dancing,
elfyourself.com,
elves,
holidays,
jingle noises,
officemax,
Thanksgiving
Just so all of you readers are educated a bit more on Twitter....
Maybe you want to join Twitter, but don't want me to be your only friend?
Go to twitterposter.com and see the most followed people on Twitter. The bigger the picture, the more popular they are. I started following a few of the larger pictures and a majority of them provide value to my Snitter feed. (iJustine, who is incredibly popular, is completely worthless, but that is a post for a different time)
Also, if you want to bring Twitter to your local area, you can start a blog at twitterusergroup.com.
Thanks to their convenient Wordpress templates, you can use a blog to create meet ups and local events for your area.
Mine is at elroy.twitterusergroup.com. I haven't added anything yet and frankly am not sure what I am going to do with it.
But, it is there....
So, hopefully that will help all of you ease your way in Twitter.
Tags:
iJustine,
snitter,
twitter,
twitterposter,
twitterusergroup
The Yahoo! Pipes del.icio.us links builder that I use doesn't seem to want to work for me. So, instead, I will highlight a few things I found interesting this week.
[Facebook] Your Privacy Is An Illusion: Bank intern busted by Facebook
Why not to use Facebook all the time at work
[HowTo] How to take a shower
An amusing video comparison
[Music] Top seven reasons why Soulja Boy is worse than global warming and twice as annoying
I hate Soulja Boy
Also, I've switched to my own del.icio.us account. I imported all of the previously bookmarked pages from the villagerwithwheel account:
elroy's delicious
Tags:
del.icio.us,
links
Movember the 16th
Having passed the halfway point in my 30 day adventure, I feel prepared to offer some insight into the world of the mustachio'd man. I can't claim to be sporting the 'stache unironically, so perhaps my understanding of the lifestyle that comes with the moustache is in some way tainted. However, I believe I can supply a rough primer for those considering taking the plunge, be it for charitable or aesthetic [sic] reasons.
The first thing you need to know is that if you’re to grow a lip sweater of your own, you need to have thick skin underneath it. The high quality of one-liners I hear on a daily basis forces me to one of two conclusions: either I have extremely clever friends and coworkers; or it is just exceedingly easy to make fun of a moustache.
The other thing you need to understand is that a moustache is like a magnifying glass. They make awkward people seem more awkward, eccentric people more eccentric, drunk people more drunk. It's like a megaphone for your worldview/BAC. This applies to all styles (the Trucker, the Abracadabra...even the Business Man.) There are no subtle moustaches.
Lastly, I should tell you that moustaches are simply not appealing to women. It pretty much offends all five senses (don’t ask how this is possible.) So my initial aspirations for a stylish ‘stache are long gone, and you shouldn’t hold on to false hope either. There are no good looking moustaches. There are only degrees of bad.
So, my bald-lipped friends, you’ve been warned.
Fondly,
Mike
PS. Just a reminder…me and my moustache are raising money to fight prostate cancer. Go here to donate: DONATE TO MOVEMBER
Tags:
Baraka,
lip sweater,
moustache,
Movember,
Peewee Berry Ruckus
A couple years ago I'd heard about the Flying Spaghetti Monster when the debate was raging in Kansas about evolution vs. intelligent design but I had no idea that it was still going.
This whole thing started back in the day when a physics student from Oregon sent a letter to the Kansas School Board demanding equal time to advocate his view that the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or FSM, had created the universe. I won't go into the whole timeline, go to Wikipedia if you want to read the details. Anyway, the idea that followers of FSM, called Pastafarians, dress like pirates really pumps me up. Perusing my best online friend I also found out that there is an international "talk like a pirate day," and it is pretty much FSM's Christmas. Also the fact that you can argue that dressing like a pirate is an expression of religious freedom is a very liberating idea.
If you already have your own religion or you're not won over by FSM or their pious pillaging pirates, then you should check out similar fake religions including:
Frisbeetarianism (Which obviously sucks)
Sentient Puddle
Scientology (Tom Cruise will now haunt me for years)
and my second favorite, Invisible Pink Unicorn
Disclaimer: Please don't flood me with hate mail or try to proseletyze, I only find this funny. I'm not really trying to convert you.
When former New York Jets running back Curtis Martin retired in July, he stated he wanted to transition to the front office. More specifically, he wants to own a team in the NFL.
I think that is a great goal. Some athletes become TV analysts, some open businesses, and frankly I don't know what else former athletes do, but I'm sure most have to work.
Why have I all of the sudden become such a big fan of Curtis Martin's goal? Because he is thought of as one of the toughest athletes to play in New York? Because is the league's fourth-leading career rusher?
Actually, no, it is because of this quote from an ESPN article:
"I want to become a new image of what a professional athlete is," Martin said. "I think presently in sports, you have the whole bravado, bling-bling, and it seems that that's the image that most of us look up to, and I don't know who set that image. I want to be a different image. I want to be an image that's positive for you long-term. ... That's one of my true motivations, is to be a different goal to reach versus just having a million homes and a million cars and all the jewelry in the world."
Who DID set the image of bling-bling and a million possessions? I don't know, but I might blame hip-hop artists like Soulja Boy (Tell'em).
But, regardless, I think it is great that Curtis Martin is taking a different approach from the typical secular world views that are propagated in the sports world.
I will cheer for whatever team Martin becomes an owner of, especially if the Bears keeping starting Rex Grossman....
So the other day in Israel, one of the biggest league games of the Israeli basketball season occurred. With two minutes to go in the Hapoel Jerusalem versus Hapoel Holon game, a steward had his hand blown off as he tried to remove a firecracker thrown onto the court. There are so many not very funny jokes about explosions and the Middle East that I'll skip over trying to be humorous.
In my previous years, I may have thrown things at referees in third world countries, but we'll skip over that. I certainly never threw explosive things at anyone.
To make all you sports fans feel that much safer that we're in America, I'll recap the greatest (and by greatest I mean worst) things thrown at sporting events.
Ron Artest:
And because I can't find the Giants snowball fight of 1995 or Tom Gamboa being attacked by the two inbred White Sox fans, I give you Randy Johnson:
Tags:
hapoel,
losing fingers,
Randy Johnson,
Ron Artest
Who are these people... I don't know any of these songs... Wait, what wasI can't wait.
that!? OMFG they have Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld! OMMFG, how will the singing along work?! This will produce the BEST YouTube videos ever! Yes!
YES!!!
Tags:
Big Ern,
cripple fight,
rock band,
south park,
video games
I saw this the other day on mental_floss magazine and this morning again as a link on the Freakonomics Blog....so, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to talk about the recently released Japanese Exploding Piggy Bank.
The point of this piggy bank is that it will "explode" when the owner hasn't saved in a while.
So, it scatters coins all over the place when you haven't fed it money in a few days? I realize this is designed as a toy, but I think it is sending the wrong message.
The Japanese thought about the exploding aspect:
"'Users must pick up and collect the scattered coins and reflect on their laziness,' the Japanese company said."
If it were me, I would take that exploded money, reflex on my laziness about putting it back in the piggy bank and instead spend it. What is easier, putting lots of coins one at a time through a small slot or taking them all and buying something cool?
But, then you have to deal with the embarrassment of paying for something with lots of coins. Or you could go to the bank first. But, then we get back to our original question of which is easier...picking up the coins and going to a bank to get money OR putting the coins back in the piggy bank?
I've confused myself.
Clearly, the right way to go is to use the already released Japanese pee powered batteries (previously posted by zach) in your battery powered piggy bank. You will save money by dropping coins in the piggy bank slot and save even more money by recharging the piggy bank batteries with your own "little potty".
The battery producer, NoPoPo, and the piggy bank maker, TOMY Co Ltd, should really do a joint marketing campaign....
P.S. If you don't want to get mugged taking your piggy bank to the real bank, make sure to wear one of these vending machine costumes (previously mentioned by electronic vagrant).
The stock market rallied around 1% this morning thanks to Wal-Mart's surprisingly strong third-quarter results. Shares rose 5.5% in early morning trading after earnings topped estimates and the company raised their projected sales for the coming year.
There is even better news to cheer about: Wal-Mart has given a sneak peek of its Black Friday deals. The store will offer xbox 360 game consoles along with 5 games for around $280. Also, they will be selling 50-inch Phillips plasma televisions for $1397.
Apparently, the man famous for those catchy tunes, "U Can't Touch This" and "Too Legit To Quit" (hey hey!!) was a member of TechCrunch's TechCrunch40.
TechCrunch40 is an annual conference where the 40 of the hottest new startups show off their products. They get to do it for free and a prize is given to the best company. Mint (previously mentioned on this blog) won the $50,000 prize this year.
So, MC Hammer (could you call me by my rapping name?) was on the panel of experts. When the panelists were announced, TechCrunch was accused of including Hammer only because he was black.
Then, it was revealed that TechCrunch's founder, Michael Arrington, was an investor in a company that MC Hammer is co-founding, DanceJam.
Right now you're saying, "Hold the phone, MC Hammer has a web startup company?"...yes, in fact he does.
DanceJam:
"DanceJam is a social media destination where users hang out and watch people dance, learn how to dance, or show off their moves online."
Read more HERE.
But, the point is, Mr. MC Hammer was supposedly a knowledgeable panelist and provided value throughout the conference. I didn't know the great Hammer was such a nerd.
Perhaps I'll have to put "Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em" back on my ipod (yes, it is in my music collection)...
As a side note, does anyone else find it amusing that after all these years, Amazon still claims you are saving 99 cents on that CD I just linked to? I would bet you could find a copy of that CD selling for less than $10.99.
Tags:
DanceJam,
MC Hammer,
Michael Arrington,
TechCrunch,
TechCrunch40,
web 2.0
Google Trends has recently alerted me to a relatively new form of dance:
Krumping
What is Krumping? It all depends on who you ask....
Wikipedia:
"Krumping is a relatively new form of dance within the "urban" and street dance movements, and is characterized by free, expressive and highly energetic moves. The form is attributed as having originated in the community of South Los Angeles."
UrbanDictionary.com:
"A positive outlet for anger, a way of spiritual dancing and praise,a popular and fast growing style of hip-hop dance. It originated in the African-American community of South Central Los Angeles, California. It is free, expressive, and highly energetic, and is the newest form of the "Urban" Black dance movement."
A few facts about Krumping:
Getting "Buck" is the latest form of Krumping. It is more difficult than other styles. There are about a dozen different ways to grade Krumping. Groups of Krump dancers are called "fams" or "families".
Here's some Krump slang for you (thanks to Wikipedia):
Tags:
dancing,
Google Trends,
Krumping,
Los Angeles,
urban,
urbandictionary,
wikipedia
Movember the Ninth
As previously mentioned, I will be growing a Mo (translation - moustache) for the month of November in support of the Prostate Cancer Foundation. I’ve agreed to document my progress for the benefit of those that lack the mental fortitude (or Y chromosomes) to join me on my journey.
So here we are. The calendar is clear. There will be no client meetings, no blind dates. My bathroom mirror is adorned with photos of the great moustaches of my youth: Zorro, Lando Calrissian, the Swedish Chef, and of course, Keith Hernandez.
These are the men who will guide me through the tough times, give me strength and inspiration. I will need their help, because deep down, I harbor the hope that, against the odds – the long, looooong odds – I can make the ‘stache look good.
But this is only the beginning. My Mo is a work in progress - a blank canvas of possibilities and adolescent dreams. So over the next few weeks, check back in for some pictures, random thoughts, and a rough count of the number people who mutter “Nice ‘stache, D-Bag” under their breath as they pass me on the street or in the subway.
Love,
Mike
P.S. If you’d like to donate, please click here. For those who can make it rain, please do.
Tags:
Baraka,
d-bag,
Movember,
Peewee Berry Ruckus,
stache
Apparently, some guy in NYC experience love at first site, but she got away. So, he created a website dedicated to finding her, along with a full sketch, description of activities and the time when he fell in love, so to speak....
www.nygirlofmydreams.com
Then, apparently, he found her! Good for him, but he says he won't be updating the world of the progress of the relationship. I'm excited for him, but then again, bad decision. Just think how he could take his 10 seconds of fame and expand it into success.
1) People could hire him to make little sketches for an online dating service.
2) He could lobby MTV or VH1 to make a reality show about their relationship (if they did a second season of "I Love NY", they should take this guy and his mystery girl).
3) He could start a social network based on colored stick figure drawings, adopt Google's OpenSocial platform, Twitter integration, Todoist, streaming TV, and go nuts! How could that combination not be a success?
I know I would join....
I like Trader Joe's. The food is cheap, it is easy too cook, it seems like it's good for me, and you can buy cheap beer and wine. That all adds up to a successful business model targeted at semi-poor young professionals. For about a year, TJs supplemented my diet of cereal and donuts.
So I swing by there this weekend to pick up some of my favorites, and I get the devastating news:
Trader Joe's potstickers have been discontinued....
If you never had them, it was probably because I would eat half a bag a night for weeks on end. I bought the last bag at the store on 39th in SE Portland and cried my way home. I will have to try out this Wei Chuan brand and let everyone know my thoughts. In the meantime, the cereal and donut industries are crying out in joy.
Tags:
cereal,
donuts,
gyoza,
Trader Joe's
Utterz is a Twitter-like site where you can leave voice messages, video, pictures, or texts.
Scobleizer described it as TwitterGram, but with a better interface. TwitterGram allows you to phone in your "tweets".
Basically, you can leave your voice/video/pics/txts to Utterz or instead to your website/blog. So, it can be a good mobile blogging tool, since it encompasses most aspects of your surroundings away from a computer. If you have a nice multimedia phone/smartphone, that would help.
I'll probably join, but only to use their services to post to the blog. There are widgets for most major blog sites (like Blogger) to automatically post things you send to Utterz right to your blog.
It just seems like a place to leave group voicemails. Let me know if you use it and find it to be helpful....
Here's a link from mashable.com about utterz: LINK
Tags:
mobile blogging,
twitter,
utterz,
voicemail
From my twitter feed (writersstrike):
The Office has shut down - entire cast agreed not to cross the picket line
http://tinyurl.com/35ajg4 Video: http://urltea.com/20x7
This is depressing! I can't live without Micheal Scott and Dwight Shrute as the Regional Manager and Assistant To the Regional Manager.
My DVR will be crying on Thursday (or whenever this starts affecting new episodes).
Tags:
Dwight Shrute,
the office,
twitter,
writers strike
I know that I preach the gospel of RSS feeds, Twitter, Snitter and the like, but what I really want is an instant RSS to e-mail agent/website.
Current options:
sendmerss.com
r-mail.org
feedblitz.com
rssfwd.com
feedburner.com
There are certain feeds that I would prefer to read via e-mail. Having a Treo and gmail IMAP accounts, it would be great to have instantaneous information for certain things. For instance, my future wife's Twitter feed. Having her updates e-mailed to me would be great. I don't want text messages or IM's.
Also, Facebook status updates. I don't ever sign on, but I subscribe to the RSS feed for my friends' status updates.
Knowing these things in real time seems important to me.
The above websites are lacking in one main area: speed.
R-mail.org is the only one that will deliver multiple e-mails a day. The rest are just a digest format for the last 24 hours. But, once again, r-mail is slow. I was receiving the individual r-mail feed e-mails hours after I would see them in Google Reader.
On a side note, I think Google Reader is also slow, because I see updates in Snitter way before the feed hits Google Reader. Perhaps it is a feedburner problem.
Maybe I could use a combination of Outlook 2007, which reads RSS feeds, and an auto forward rule? I haven't looked into that yet. Or maybe Thunderbird?
This goes in line with the concept of gmail being the center of your universe as written about by Steve Rubel: HERE
Anyway, being part of the "MTV generation" that is engrossed in social networking, real-time information is important. Look at the blogging community. Everyone wants to be the first to break a story whether it is about Britney Spears, the latest Apple product, or whatever else is hot at the time. Although, it may not be "breaking news" for anyone but me to see the latest status update for a friend, it may be important enough that I want to respond in a relevant time period.
So, if anyone has any ideas, please let me know.
Tags:
e-mail,
facebook,
feeds,
outlook,
RSS,
snitter,
technology,
Thunderbird,
twitter
....thankfully, all the Villagers have girlfriends/brides-to-be/wives.
But, if not, check out 5min.
5min is a site dedicated to giving people tips and instructions on different topics.
They have a plethora of categories like Business, Fashion, Fitness, Tech, Life Tips, and many others. And 5min isn't just about learning, but also spreading your own tips and knowledge. All you need to do it make a short video and upload it to teach others about a topic of your choice.
Here's an example I could NOT pass up sharing. It is about 3 1/2 minutes long, but I highly recommend watching it:
Tags:
5min,
howto,
life tips,
Productivity,
user created content,
videos
Good bowling technique:
A great way to celebrate after a good roll:
Walter Sobchak: OVER THE LINE!
Smokey: Huh?
Walter Sobchak: I'm sorry, Smokey. You were over the line, that's a foul.
Smokey: Bullsh!t. Mark it 8, Dude.
Walter Sobchak: Uh, excuse me. Mark it zero. Next frame.
Smokey: Bullsh!t, Walter. Mark it 8, Dude.
Walter Sobchak: Smokey, this is not 'Nam. This is bowling. There are rules.
Tags:
bowling,
celebration,
roll,
technique,
YouTube
We recently changed our comment system.
All our comments are now hosted by Intense Debate.
To easily track new comments on the blog, you can subscribe to the comment RSS feed at:
Villager With Wheel Blog Comments
There is also a link the the right side of the blog.
So far, I like that ID (Intense Debate) integrates the comments area into the blog post page. I never liked the blogger pop up to add a comment. Also, this makes it much easier to track comments and actually follow a conversation.
It also allows you to track comments by individual ID users. So, if you wanted to see comments made by zach, you could subscribe to his ID user comments feed.
Just a warning, this service is still in beta. There are bugs.
I still can't log in with my OpenID, although it is supported by ID. Our Villager With Wheel account wasn't receiving the activation e-mail so I couldn't log in.
But, ID has been extremely helpful and responsive to my questions and problems. Our account was manually activated and the install process went relatively smoothly. Thanks to Josh from ID for all the help.
Tags:
comment system,
feeds,
intense debate,
myopenid,
openid
As zach pointed out, South Park's new episode "Guitar Queer-o" crosses the line. Guitar Hero fans are planning a live musical performance in protest of the new episode (real instruments will not be used).
Some South Park songs that have already been made into G.H. songs:
"Chocolate Salty ####"
America, #### YEAH!!!
Tags:
guitar hero,
protest,
south park
...for pointed mockery of all-time favorite video game. I just hope they don't ruin Guitar Hero for me the same way they ruined Family Guy.
Tags:
Big Ern,
elroy,
guitar hero,
south park
Personally, I don't like it and try to avoid doing it. Although, I am guilty of messing with my ipod while driving, also a bad habit.
I like that All-State commercial with the guy about to call All-State while driving....
But, that's not the point. This is from a blog that does nifty graphs, charts, Venn Diagrams, etc... indexed.blogspot.com:
Tags:
cell phones,
charts,
driving,
graphs,
indexed.blogspot.com,
venn diagrams
...statistically speaking.
According to an article about how Democrats are pinning their hopes on sushi, sushi eaters are more attractive.
They don't show a graph in the article, but I'm assuming they are comparing the amount of sushi restaurants in a city and the attractiveness of the people who live there.
Here's the list of the top 25 cities by human attractiveness: LINK
(only Philly is worse than D.C.)
The original article, which I found on the Freakonomics blog, actually talks about how the ratio of steak to sushi places can be correlated to the blueness or redness of a city.
ACOM tends to be conservative, but he loves sushi. So, clearly it doesn't always work.
The article also highlights a few other fun facts:
Weekly Links
For more, go to: http://del.icio.us/villagerwithwheel
This list was created using Delicious Links Builder
Tags:
links
Now that you've used Todoist to get all your pending tasks done (or at least catalogued) and Mint to sort out your fiscal world, it's time to sit back and relax.
Unfortunately, Comcast is evil and you're not eligible for Verizon FIOS. What's a girl to do?
I plan on sitting down tonight with Miro (formerly the Democracy Player) to see what is has to offer. It appears to provide everything an upstanding intellectual (well, intellectual property thief) could want in a video player:
I hope to post a review tomorrow.
Help me out here, while traveling through the metropolis known as Cincinnati, I came across one of Elroy's favorite joints (have you had the Cobb Salad yet?).
Does this mean if you don't eat with your hands it is $5.99 extra? Are these items on redneck Christmas lists? I can see it now "Honey, what I really want is a Knife and Fork from Bob Evans this year!" I would expect to see this in Kentucky, but Cincinnati? Come on!
Now, notice there is a missing period, boys don't get scared, I mean the punctuation mark! Is it $5.99 or $599? Either way, I hear you can get a good fork downtown for $5.
And what, no spoon for that amount of money? Anyone who has registered for a wedding knows you can get a whole place setting for around $3o bucks and you aren't paying for it, someone else is.
So my advice is, the next time you're at Bob Evans eating a Cobb Salad, ask them if you can save $5.99 by eating with your hands.
And remember that $5.99 is like $6.01 Canadian these days...
Tags:
Bob Evans,
canadians,
Christmas,
cincinnati,
Cobb Salad,
fork,
knife,
rednecks
Earlier this week, Maxim released its list of the the world's top five unsexiest women. At number five was Britney Spears. Singer Amy Winehouse, Grey's Anatomy's Sandra Oh and Madonna round out the two,three and four positions.
Finally the winner of this dubious award goes to Sarah Jessica Parker.
Personally, I could careless who is or is not in this very subjective list. I was surprised by the couple names that I actually recognized but even more surprised that people would come up with such a list. I guess that is a potential price that comes with fame.
I'm not sure how I feel about adult humans dressing up in full regalia for Halloween.
I will admit I'm not a huge fan of Halloween. I never was a big candy eater, so I generally gave almost everything from trick or treating to my two younger sisters.
But, is it sad that grown people wear costumes on October 31st? I guess if they have kids, perhaps they are trying to encourage their children? (Which is another issue in itself)
I'm all about being a kid at heart, but putting on a big pumpkin costume or full snow white outfit as a middle aged individual? 
Or is it worse to not dress up but instead to wear a shirt with "Halloween" and glitter on it? Or something similar...perhaps a ghost or a goblin or "Boo!"...
Personally, its not for me.
Although I really like this guy's costume....
Tags:
adults,
costumes,
Halloween,
Napoleon Dynamite
Since I know all of your are using Twitter after I previously spoke of its usefulness, I want to make sure you are all using Snitter.
Snitter is a great windows client for Twitter built on Adobe's AIR. AIR is an effort to bring internet applications to the desktop.
Snitter gives you all the features of the twitter website, but gives you a much better interface. It does direct messages, replies, favoriting, creating tinyurl's, a transparency feature, and much more.
My favorite part of Snitter is the Growl-like pop ups when new tweets arrive. As I saw one tweet earlier today state, Snitter really does improve your speed reading when it pops up 5 messages at a time.
As a side note, Twitterrific is a great client for you Mac OS X users. If I used OS X on a daily basis, I'd be all over Twitterrific.
Tags:
adobe air,
snitter,
twitter,
twitterific
In a few days, October will turn into Movember.
Yes, I said Movember.
What is Movember?
"Movember (the month formally known as November) is a charity event held during November each year.
At the start of Movember guys register with a clean shaven face. The Movember participants known as Mo Bros then have the remainder of the month to grow and groom their Mo (Australian slang for moustache) and along the way raise as much money and awareness about male health issues as possible."
In this case, all money donated goes directly to prostate cancer.
Baraka, our recently highlighted biggest fan, is participating in Movember. His take on it:
"I’ve been presented with the opportunity to do something good for the world and look like a total douche bag at the same time."
So, if you want to support Baraka in his pursuit to look terrible, please go to the following link and donate some money:
Sponsor Baraka
If he allows it, I will post pictures of his growth throughout the month.
Feel free to leave suggestions for the type of "Mo" that Baraka should grow in the comments...
My Twitter feed alerted me to a post by mashable.com about 100+ ways to organize your life.
I'd encourage you to check it out if you like to manage lots of your life via the web.
I will highlight several from the article:
Tags:
mashable.com,
organization,
Productivity,
Web Apps
On a personal note, this weekend I was proud to cheer on my future wife in her endeavor to run the Marine Corps Marathon.
There were quite a few people running. It is the fourth largest marathon in the US and the seventh largest in the world. Here's a link to the results: 2007 Results
Also, I am happy to report that she met my personal goal for her (although it wasn't her goal), to beat Oprah's time.
Oprah ran the marathon in 4 hours, 29 minutes and 20 seconds. Meredith beat Oprah by a little under 3 minutes. Take that, richest woman in the world.
If Meredith runs it again, my goal for her will be to beat P. Diddy's time. He ran the New York City marathon in 4 hours, 14 minutes and 54 seconds.
Here's a link about the Oprah/P. Diddy marathon rivalry: LINK
Needless to say, I am extremely proud, impressed, and in awe of my bride to be's achievement. I don't think I could ever run that far at one time.
Tags:
marine corps marathon,
meredith,
oprah,
p. diddy
Here are some links from the past week.
For more links from our delicious account:
VillagerWithWheel
Please read this one...
Idiot.
Even censoring Lotus Notes! Good thing I don't have Comcast.
I did a blog post about GodTube a while back.
This list was created using Delicious Links Builder
Tags:
del.icio.us,
links
So even though they try to play it off like they're a cool beer company, the makers of Sam Adams are actually a bunch of pricks. There is a member of the Portland City Council, a semi-decent guy, named Sam Adams. He happens to be running for mayor of Portland. So what happens when a couple of his backers start setting up websites to support his campaign like samadamsformayor.com and mayorsamadams.com? The Boston Brewing Company, maker of Samuel Adams beer starts throwing lawyers at the problem, threatening to sue the real Sam Adams for trademark infringement and other bogus charges. Willamette Week has a copy of the actual cease and desist letter they sent.
The spokesman for The Boston "Soon Falling Into The Sixth Level of Hell Alongside Wal-Mart" Brewing Company actually said she is "willing to discuss Adams' use of his name on his Web sites."
To which the real Sam Adams responded, "They say they've been using this trademark since 1984, I've been using it since 1963."
I will be boycotting all Sam Adams products for the near future. I hope you will all join me.
PS: Bill Belichick is a cheater, the Red Sox are new Yankees, and the Celtics still suck.
UPDATE: An informed reader in Portland was kind enough to leave us a link of a more robust account of this controversy. Thanks, Rusty: LINK
Tags:
Boston,
Boycott,
Portland Mayor,
Sam Adams
This post is made on behalf of all elevator users who may not realize there is certain etiquette that must be strictly followed when riding an elevator and to elevator aficionados who have been riding so long that they think the rules no longer apply to them.
The Ten Commandments of Elevator Manners
:
1. Thou shalt not fart. (often ignored by one member of this blog :()
2. Thou shalt not attempt to board elevator before previous passengers have disembarked. The universe does not revolve around you.
3. Thou shalt not press a button for wrong floor without acting appropriately ashamed as elevator stops and doors open then shut without anyone leaving.
4. Thou shall take the stairs if traveling between one or two floors, barring personal injury, lest incur the wrath of those traveling to the 32nd floor whose trips are delayed due to your laziness. (Justifying taking the elevator one floor because "they don't know if I'm sick--I could have some horrible disease, for all they know" is a supreme form of laziness, and using this logic risks incurring said horrible disease in the interest of serving you right. Certainly, some otherwise healthy-looking people have problems preventing them from using stairs, but surely not everyone in the building is afflicted with such illnesses.)
5. Thou shall hold the door for others running to catch the carriage. A plague on those who watch idly by as they slide shut in someone’s face.
6. However, thou shalt not hold the door indefinitely and delay travel for other passengers. In a busy building, one could potentially hold the door for several minutes waiting for the carriage to fill. Unless someone is clearly attempting to catch that particular elevator, adopt the adage “thy snoozes, thy loses.”
7. Thou shall wait for empty carriage if thou is sick. If that proves impossible, thou shall refrain from coughing/sneezing/etc. for duration of ride, even if this means thou’s face turns bright red and thou feels like dying.
8. Thou shall give others their personal space in an uncrowded elevator.
9. Thou shalt not call out their floor to the person standing nearest the buttons as if that person is the lift operator. If there is space to do so, thou shalt press button thyself.
10. Thou shalt not carry on personal conversations, be they person-to-person or via cellular phone. Thine elevator is not thine phone booth.
...so, I want my very own foot toilet flusher.
Thanks to an e-mail alerting me of this device sent to me by my future wife, I can now tell you that if you have a Sam's Club membership, you can buy one online for $28 (not including shipping).
Or, if you hate Wal-Mart like our friendly villager EV does, you can order one from somewhere like Health Mega Mall.
Either way, you won't have to touch the handle while flushing ever again.
Yes, I know it is your own home. Yes, I know I bookmarked a page in del.icio.us about how people need to eat more excrement. But, I still hate germs and I don't know where that toilet handle has been...it could have been kissing girls on the mouf!
Tags:
excrement,
foot flusher,
handles,
mouf kissing,
toilets,
Wal-Mart
From today's ESPN Sportsguy Column
Regarding JD Drew's Game 6 Grand Slam:
Sam P. from Stateline, Nev.: I will never be more surprised than I was when J.D. hit that grand slam. If Reese Witherspoon released a porn video with Julia Stiles and the Quaker Oats guy, I would not be more surprised than I was when J.D. Drew got that hit. Maybe Michael Moore will break the marathon record ... and I will be half as surprised as I was when J.D. went deep.Giving a good reason for laughing out loud during a Systems Engineering class isn't the easiest thing in the world.
Tags:
Big Ern,
espn,
forbidden love,
JD Drew,
Julia Stiles,
mlb,
red sox,
Reese Witherspoon
By observing our visitor statistics at statcounter.com, I notice the person with the most pageloads (other than the villagers):
Peewee Berry Ruckus
Who is Peewee Berry Ruckus?
BARAKA!!!
(Thanks for reading our blog.)
Tags:
Baraka,
Peewee Berry Ruckus,
statcounter,
tribute
After the recent revelation that J.K. Rowling always though of Dumbledore as a homosexual, some T-shirts have come out in support of Dumbledore's sexual preference.
Will straight people wear these shirts?
Tags:
Boing Boing,
Dumbledore,
gay,
homosexual,
pride t-shirts
I've been watching SportsCenter after Monday Night Football.
I think Steve Young wanted to punch Stuart Scott in the face. He cannot stop talking about the upcoming New England vs. Indianapolis game.
Tony Dungy was asked about it and responded that they were focusing on next week's game against the Carolina Panthers. But, since Dungy didn't say the words "New England" or "Patriots" when talking about week 9, Stuart Scott proceeded to over analyze and suck.
Does this guy ever provide any value?
I doubt he does his own research. He is handed a sheet of paper with facts and he rattles them off like he knows something.
We really need Ed Hochuli to punch him in the face....
Tags:
ESPN,
Steve Young,
Stuart Scott,
sucking
So this evening I was reading the Early Warning blog on Washington Post when I stumbled upon what may be the world's greatest invention. I went there to read an update on the mysterious Israeli bombing, and I came back with a great way for Zach to blow his money make way more than 1% a week. A man named Brian Sandler has invented "a machine to get rid of hurricanes." Harness this while you can! I'm sure all the big names are itching to throw money at this guy.
Moving along, many of you were crucified in your Nobel Fantasy Leagues when Albert Arnold Gore Jr. won the Peace Prize. We here at VC Central paid much more attention to the recent Ignobel Prizes. Many of the winners show promise, but the brightest star continues to be multiple winner Troy Hurtubise, inventor of the grizzly suit and a light that shines through solid objects. ACOM, I suggest that you sell your MSFT stock and invest in this up and comer!
Finally, I think that Elroy should sell all of his Rex Grossman memorabilia while he can still get a few pennies on the dollar for it and invest in the best thing to hit Honshu since pee batteries. That's right, I'm talking about a pacifist island's response to the taser: the I'm so scared that I will unfurl a vending machine costume and blend in with my surroundings while my attacker is hopelessly outwitted crimefighting apparatus.
Happy Investing!
Best selling author of the Harry Potter book series announced in New York's Carnegie Hall that Dumbledore is gay. While this was not explicitly stated in any of the books, it seems that it was subtly hinted at when Rowling described Dumbledore's deep and troubled past and close relationship with soon-to-be rival, Gellert Grindelwald.
To some this is good news and to others it is irrelevant, frivolous and inappropriate. I could be wrong, but I believe most people probably thought Dumbledore was asexual if they even thought about his sexuality at all.
This news does not change the fact that the Harry Potter book series is great but rather it just seems awfully distasteful for Rowling to comment on his sexuality at all. Whats next? Will she assert that he was the founder of NAMBLA?
Thankfully, other writers have bit their tongue. I'm not quite sure how I would react if I found out that Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi had a relationship. Or even worse, what if R2D2 and C3PO were gay?
Tags:
Dumbledore,
Harry Potter,
nambla,
Rowling,
star wars
Because I travel every week, I feel the need to highlight the latest comments from the CEO of United Airlines.
His new 5-year plan includes the following:
Stupid take-home mid-term...
New England (-17) over MIAMI
Indianapolis (-3) over JACKSONVILLE
Atlanta (+8) vs. NEW ORLEANS
Last week: 1-0-2
This year: 7-7-3
Tags:
atlanta,
colts,
dolphins,
football,
indianapolis,
jacksonville,
laziness,
new orleans,
Patriots
