things are finally starting to wind down after the christmas holidays. let's just say a lot of...interesting...things have been going down/around during this year's festivities. some of which i will be posting about in the coming weeks, others will forever remained buried in the family archives...unless of course is was caught on tape and that's a whole 'nother story. the unfortunate thing this year was that the whole family got sick just around the 25th. the girls did get to enjoy the holiday but while wiping their noses or coughing and only one out of the four grandparents was up to coming over on christmas day. hopefully next year everyone will be in good health at this time of the year. well, one of our day-after-christmas routines is to hit the hallmark stores for the after christmas sales...we pick up cards for next year but what we are really after (well, at least me anyways) are the keepsake ornament series we've been collecting. choujyo has been getting the growing up train series and "my fifth christmas" will be her last in that series. jijyo got her first cat series ornament last year and got "my second christmas" this year. we also noticed last year that hallmark had a sisters series so we started getting those in pairs with the thought that each of the girls would always have their own. last year's sisters were two girls sharing an umbrella (looks like while shopping...sheesh)...this year they are two cats.
kind of related to an earlier post about regular phrases commonly used by your favorite podcast host...are there any drinking games associated with your favorite podcasts? (remember...if you aren't of legal age to drink alcohol substitute with an appropriate beverage). i've found two...one for diggnation and another for TWiT. patrick of dl.tv refers to one that appears to be tied to him straightening his notes but i haven't been able to find the details regarding the dl.tv drinking game. if you have info the the dl.tv drinking game or any other podcast related drinking games leave a comment.
diggnation...diggdrinking
TWiT drinking game...found in comments section of this digg post
Take one sip if...
* anyone names the food/beverage that they are enjoying while recording
* Dvorak plugs his blog ("dvorak.org/blog")
* someone co-hosts from a strange location (an airport, under their car, Starbucks, etc.)
* either Robert or Roger mentions his current employment status
* the show takes place in front of a live audience
* Dvorak says that he gets no spam
* Leo uses the phrase "in the can"
Take two sips if...
* they take a question from a listener or the audience
* Leo mentions his book
* any of the hosts gives the specific model of headset/microphone that they are using
* the "box of crap" is mentioned
* someone trashes the user interface of a Google product
Take a big gulp if...
* a female co-hosts
* a well-known tech personality makes an unplanned visit (e.g. Mitnick's visit)
* Leo mentions that he is trying to get Martin to join the show (two gulps if he actually does)
walt mossberg writes a weekly personal technology column for the wall street journal and rolling stone magazine has called him "the most powerful columnist in technology." in the latest mossberg solution post, walt and his assistant katie have posted a review of vox. its not as glowing of a review as the one he gave to the iMac G5 as the "gold standard" of PCs but he does say that "vox does a nice job of jazzing up the world of blogging."
What are you thankful for?
choujyo had a project in preschool where she wrote down what she was thankful for on separate leaves and placed them around a turkey she made using her handprint. here is what she's thankful for...
- my sister
- love
- my mom and dad can do my hair
- clothes
that was such a cool project and a treasure the wife and i will cherish!
having two daughters that are hello kitty fans and also having taken choujyo to sanrio puroland (my vox post) in japan during her first trip to tokyo i couldn't help myself when i came across a news feed about a press release (click on the press box tab) that talked about sanriotown. choujyo and i checked out the site tonight and since they have some flash based games she's hooked. she also likes the fact that she can send out e-cards. she's used to flash games since she's got a neopet that's almost a year old that we look after together. time will tell whether sanriotown keeps the attention of choujyo and perhaps jijyo as she gets older.
quoting from the press release..."Riding on the existing online community services such as forum and free e-mail as well as download services, new social networking features have been launched on Sanriotown, which already has a current user-base of almost 2 million world wide. The two most prominent of the newly introduced features are Kitty Shop and Dream Studio..."
your web browser of choice is firefox isn't it? if it isn't i hope you're at least not still using IE based on the security concerns alone. click here to switch to firefox and you won't regret it. since if you aren't using firefox you won't be able to take advantage of this great extension i found out about while listening to episode #2 of leo and amber's new show net@nite. the customizegoogle site calls it a firefox extension that enhances google search results but it really enhances your total google experience. so far my favorite features are the auto switch to secure (https) for gmail, calendar, and docs and that it will remove the ads from the google properties you use. check it out...its freeware. the customizegoogle site also has a short intro movie if you want to fine out more.
wired news has posted an interesting q&a with six apart/vox's own mena trott. click here for link to the article. its a good read.
Windows, Mac, Linux - What's your preference and why?
Submitted by ramblingsbymark.
i was a long time windows user and back in the day i just didn't understand why anyone would choose to use a mac. a few years back when i got involved in the ipod accessory ecosystem i started using a mac at the office and have been ever since. still haven't switched the home over to OS X yet but our next home computer purchase will definitely be a mac. so, for the time being i guess i am a straddler who's actually considering installing linux onto one of our older computers.
Do you listen to podcasts? Are there any you'd recommend?
Inspired by Alex.
"ok, so here's the deal/thing" (*see below)...i actually listen to several, one of which i've mentioned at least a couple of times here which is inside the net but leo laporte has a great network of "netcasts." one of the other ones from leo's network i listen to regulary is TWiT. another one i enjoy is the macccast. some of the video podcasts i like to watch include diggnation, dl.tv, geekbrief.tv, ask a ninja, and the tiki bar.
* a related question to this QotD and a posting i've been thinking of compiling has to do with "go to" phrases uttered by your favorite podcast host(s). the "ok, here's the deal/thing" can often be heard from alex or kevin on the diggnation feed. any other favorites? add to the comments and i'll try and keep an updated list below...
fav "go to" sayings:
diggnation - ok, here's the deal/thing
