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November 30, 2006

The SnowSinus Blues

Here I am, sitting at home, avoiding the snow and trying to fight off my fourth sinus infection in a year’s time. When I get sick, and am left to do nothing but sleep and stare out my window, I tend to think more about my morality mortality. With that said, here are the top five reasons that I know I’m getting older:

1. NPR Rules
Remember when listening to NPR and watching AETN was like smashing your balls in a doorway? I do, it wasn’t that long ago. But now that I have a huge distaste for radio dj personalities, and the lack of a truly good radio station on the public air, NPR has made my life so much better. If you’re not listening to NPR, you should. You’ll feel smarter after 1 minute.

2. My Immune System Sucks
I’m supposed to go see another specialist tomorrow, this time about my blood. While I’m still certain that I’m fine, that’s obviously not the case with my sinuses. I’ve got what’s called a deviated septum, and that apparently isn’t helping fight off multiple sinus infections. I may have to get a humidifier for my loft. Or rip my nose off.

3. Sappiness is Up
Old people cry, young people don’t (yeah, that’s a bad stereotype). But since I’m getting older, I’ve been able to effectively put myself in other people’s shoes. TV shows are the worst and it doesn’t seem to matter what show it is. If there’s a sad situation, chances are I’m curling some lip.

4. Gift Wishes
I love getting gifts. Who doesn’t? Growing up, though, I HATED getting clothes as a gift. Give me a toy, some video game, hell, even a book. But clothes? Blech. Well, now that I have to pay for everything in my life, getting my own clothes has taken a serious back seat. Now, I enjoy getting clothes as gifts. I’ll even accept bath towels, kitchen stuff and more grown-up things. That’s a serious sign of getting older.

5. Blank Faces
When I’m in a group of my “peers,” and I’m asking questions like, “you guys remember Ollie North,” and then crickets chirp, that’s no good. Why do I hang out with young people!

I’m sure there’s more to this list, so please, assist your elderly friend.

Posted by Seth at 06:26 PM | Comments (12)

November 28, 2006

Spam Bets

Seeing as I've been somewhat pre-occupied with spams lately, I'm going to conduct an experiment. It's one that you can all join in on, too. What's the experiment, you ask?

How long will it take a spammer to find an email address on my web site and send spam to it?

I'm not sure what factors contribute to this... Site ranking in Technorati? How often I publish new posts? Regularity of spiders crawling the site? I don't know how long, but I'm betting in less than 48 hours, I'll have my first spam.

Put your bet in the comments and the closest person without going over (a la The Price is Right), will win a fabulous DVD from my collection.

Oh, here's the email address:
spammed@sethgunderson.com

Posted by Seth at 11:21 AM | Comments (7)

November 27, 2006

Holiday BMN: Deck the Halls

If there’s one thing that you can truly enjoy about holidays with your family, it’s that when you do a family activity, you’re at the will of said family. If the majority wants to go see Christmas lights, you go see Christmas lights. If they want to go play Old Maid until 2:00 a.m., you go play Old Maid. And sadly, if they want to see a horrible holiday-themed movie, well... you suck it up and see it, too. The good part of the story (and trust me, there aren’t too many more good parts below) is that I got in for free. Moochers can’t be choosers.

Yes, as was already stated, the family chose to be more festive this year and treated the gang to a matinee viewing of “Deck the Halls,” starring Danny DeVito and Matthew Broderick. I could easily sum this up as a horrible “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” wanna-be, but I think Rotten Tomatoes sums it up best by saying it’s a 9% (at the time of this writing).

My aunt and I couldn’t figure out why this movie was made. It definitely isn’t an instant classic, not remotely close. There was nothing new in the story-line department. The acting in it was even worse than anticipated. Then realizing the serious lack of holiday-themed movies this season, it all made sense – let’s make a crappy movie quick buck.

How exactly do you make a lame Christmas movie? Use any, or all, of the following:

Stretch the realities of how far money stretches
Have a family lease a nice house in a quaint little neighborhood. Make the father-figure a salesman (who can sell anything) at a car dealership that has 12 other salesmen in a small town. Make the wife a stay at home mother who does nothing. Give them teenage twins (who are, well, hot – case in point #1, case in point #2). Then, have the father become obsessed with something absurd and spend thousands of dollars on Christmas lights, electricity, power generators, decorations, etc... all the while supporting his family.

Pick on the nerd
Every story needs the good guy and the bad guy. In the case of holidays, make the good guy a nerdy dude, maybe an eye doctor. Whatever the occupation, he needs to be very straight-laced and anal to a T. We’re talking themed days on the advent calendar, leader of the Christmas festival in town, organizer of the caroling club, etc. Get the idea? Okay, good... now, as soon as the film begins, have the antagonist do mean things to him! Things that could potentially bring about lawsuits are good. Things that could kill someone, even better.

Break out into song
When everything is bad and it seems like the movie can’t get any worse... don’t let it. Instead, enlist a genuine Broadway player in your cast and have them “randomly” start a song. For a more dramatic effect, have whoever is standing around join in. Chills people. Instant chills.

MTV will report on anything
Remember the absurd thing I was talking about earlier, well, create a tie-in with MTV and make it appear that they’re on your beck and call to report the news. Even if it’s Christmas day, they’ll be there in a flash, that’s their guarantee.

Gotta have a good moral
If you thought the Grinch’s moral was good, watch out. Like Suess knew what he was talking about. I’ll give you the best moral ever – traditions are only good if they’re accidental. Yeah, I know... genius! What’s that? You like all of the holiday treats your grandma makes? Lame. C’mon people, be random!


I almost wished that it was two years ago and we were seeing “Christmas with the Kranks,” and then I remembered how I tried to hold my breath trying to kill myself. It didn’t work, sadly.

Posted by Seth at 08:46 PM | Comments (1)

November 21, 2006

T to the Hanksgiving

Tummyaches
Hurt
Amazingly
Now,
Knowing
Soupy
Gravy,
Including
Veal,
Is
Not
Gallbladder-friendly.

What’s the best Thanksgiving-related story, acronym, etc. that you can come with?

Posted by Seth at 04:37 PM | Comments (0)

November 20, 2006

Spam Solution?

Hmmm. What to do, whaaaaat to do... Say, hypothetically, that I really needed to send out a spam email with the words “valium, viagra, cialis and xanax” in it. The problem is, I couldn’t actually put those words in it since it would probably get flagged by spam filters. What could I do?

Images? Nah, that’s over-used.

Misspelled words? Meh, I’d run the risk of someone not knowing what I’m trying to say.

Oooooh! I’ve got it! How about a cheap version of ASCII art!?!

This is an image of an actual spam message that I received today, sent courtesy of Wanadoo Nederland BV with the IP address of 83.118.41.10. Thanks guys. And if you ever want to look up who’s sending you spam, check out IP-address.com.

Posted by Seth at 01:22 PM | Comments (1)

November 12, 2006

AT&T Billboards Reek of the Internets

A while back I wrote about AT&T’s new billboards and how ridiculous I think they are. I saw these billboards as a cheap effort for AT&T to cash in on buzzwords and the public not knowing any better. I even had a little bit of fun and made my own versions of the billboards, to illustrate that AT&T really does deliver all kinds of stuff via the internet.

As if AT&T’s effort wasn’t enough with those billboards, they’ve gone and created another set in the same vein, but this time a little bit different.

The full text reads:

Fastest Internet in Kansas City for the price.
Starting as low as $14.99 a month.
Fine Print: Comparison of major broadband providers. Details: 1-866-416-6471 or visit att.com/offerdetails.

Here’s a breakdown of what this billboard means...

There’s more than one internet in Kansas City, and subsequently, the world.
You read it first on the billboard – we can now say "internets" and not sound ignorant. AT&T has confirmed that when someone tells you they found something in particular on the internets, it’s not wrong, it just means they have access to several of the internets at their house.

AT&T’s internet is the fastest in Kansas City... for the price.
Not only has AT&T built their own internet for their customers, but they’ve also figured out some type of pricing matrix that compares how much different internets cost. In this case, you can get a copy of AT&T’s internet for $14.99 a month.

Paying more gets you bigger and faster internets from AT&T.
It says that it starts as low as $14.99 a month, but imagine paying double that... the internet you get would probably be double!


Ah yes, there’s nothing like a company trying to fool the public and encourage incorrect grammar. Thanks AT&T, you’re a beacon of light.

Posted by Seth at 04:26 PM | Comments (1)

November 11, 2006

Any iTunes Power Users Out There?

Last night I was explaining to Bruno and Ashlee that during high school I became a recluse to music. My stereo was stolen out of my car, and for several years after that I never replaced it. I quickly became accustomed to driving around town without music and that soon translated into driving long distances (four hour drives) sans music, as well. Since I didn’t have music going in my car, I then moved into having no music playing in my apartment(s). I was living life in silence – which I still sometimes do.

The past few years, really since I moved up to Kansas City, I’ve had a giant re-interest in music. I’m sure I’ve said it before, I’m not a music snob, nor do I know much about artists and their histories... I get most of my music by word of mouth from close friends (that’s the best way, isn’t it?). I’m also not a music freak. I don’t need music playing all the time for me to be sane. It was that reason that had made me succumb to the fact that I’d probably never own an iPod (if I didn’t have one by now, why would I ever get one?). Luckily, the agency I work for gifted us with iPods last holiday season... so I was off the hook, I finally had my iPod.

Ever since the creation of Napster and peer-to-peer sharing, I’ve been amassing a collection of music again. Then with the invent of iTunes, creating a library has been a semi-second hobby to me (along with many others).

But I recently realized that while I’m a user of iTunes, I don’t really use it to it’s fullest capacity. It made me wonder who actually DOES use iTunes in a power user sort of way? And what exactly would constitute an iTunes power user? Let’s delve some.

Side Bar: Library
Okay, so everybody probably uses this feature. If you own any music, it should be here. But the interesting question is, do you let iTunes keep your music folder organized (advanced preference)? I used to be very against this, but now I just let iTunes do what it wants to do. I’ve purchased music and tv shows from the iTunes Store, but not movies or games. I’ve downloaded podcasts to listen to, but not audiobooks and I’ve rarely used the radio function.

Side Bar: Store
I like the iTunes Store, but I’m not sure I use it to it’s fullest potential. Sure I purchase stuff there, but I don’t look at the Just For You section. I never visit the Music Videos section. I don’t care what songs are listed as the Top Songs. And I never go to the store to watch Movie Trailers. I recently made a purchase of an album that hasn’t been released yet (which will automatically download when it’s available). I also have over 190 items in my Purchased folder – for whatever reason, I’ve chose to not clear that out.

Side Bar: Devices
I’ll occasionally listen to CDs with iTunes, but even more sparsely, I’ll attach my iPod to make sure it’s all synced up. I couldn’t even tell you the last time it was brought up to speed. I bet there’s a new software update that I’m missing and several songs, too.

Side Bar: Shared
I use this extensively at work, otherwise I think I’d go crazy listening to my music all of the time. At home, I haven’t been able to use this once. Either no one shares their music at home (or turns on iTunes for that matter), or we’re all on separate networks that won’t allow that. I don’t know.

Side Bar: Playlists
This is an area that I know I rarely use. I think I’ve made a total of seven playlists, six for CDs that I made (which are still present in my playlist) and one for a road trip. I use Party Shuffle quite often, but all of the preset lists from Apple were trashed many moons ago. I’ve seen some people that have playlists for every artist. I thought about doing that once and spent several hours making the folders... but then I got bored and thought I could just use the search option to listen to a specific artist if I wanted to. Plus, for some reason, I didn’t want all those playlists on my iPod.

Preferences: General
Nothing too out of the ordinary here.

Preferences: Podcasts
I’m currently set up to keep all of my podcasts regardless of playback, which is stupid, I know. If I listen to a podcast, I should delete it because it’s online somewhere and I could get it again if I really wanted to.

Preferences: Playback
I don’t Crossfade Playback, I like hearing my songs begin and end. I do Sound Enhance, though I’m not really sure what that does. At work I Sound Check, but at home, for whatever reason, I don’t. I’m suspect if it really works. Smart Shuffle is set to "random."

Preferences: Sharing
I look for shared libraries, and I share my entire library (no password required, but good luck with those purchased songs – more on that later).

Preferences: Store
Buy using a shopping cart is the preference here, I’ve heard too many horror stories of those one-click shoppers and buying too much crap.

Preferences: Advanced
Like I mentioned earlier, I allow iTunes to keep my library sorted. I don’t use the Mini Player or do I ever use the Visualizer. I import my songs with the AAC encoder on High Quality (I don’t know what the best way is, suggestions?).

Preferences: Parental
Who cares?

Library Columns:
I wish I had a cinema display, because I’d really love to see all of the damn columns you can have displayed in iTunes... do we really need 29? No, I suppose not, that’s why you get to choose which ones you see (the ones I have displayed are starred *):

  1. Album *
  2. Album Artist
  3. Artist *
  4. Beats Per Minute
  5. Bit Rate
  6. Category
  7. Comment
  8. Composer
  9. Date Added
  10. Date Modified
  11. Description
  12. Disc Number
  13. Episode ID
  14. Equalizer
  15. Genre *
  16. Grouping
  17. Kind
  18. Last Played *
  19. Last Skipped
  20. My Rating
  21. Play Count *
  22. Sample Rate
  23. Season
  24. Show
  25. Size
  26. Skip Count
  27. Time *
  28. Track Number
  29. Year

Talking about columns brings me to another point. Who uses the rating system? I’m a guy and we LOVE rating things (see Netflix, YouTube, Digg, etc.), but I don’t use this feature at all. Who does and why?

Probably the one thing that I don’t do, but should, is that when I buy music from the iTunes Store, I don’t burn a CD and re-import the music. As of right now, I can only listen to my purchased music on my computer(s) and my iPod. If that doesn’t say that I’m NOT a power user, I don’t know what does.

Who’s a power user out there?

Posted by Seth at 09:31 AM | Comments (4)

November 08, 2006

A Gondola in Kansas City!?!

Voters in Kansas City have bewildered me. For as long as I’ve lived in Kansas City, a man named Clay Chastain has been fighting to get light rail transit built. It’s been in front of voters many times, each time baring the same result... it gets shot down. Kansas City could really use light rail to tie the town together, it’s #20 on the largest land area cities in America, but I guess us Mid-Westerners just love our cars too much.

Supposedly, this year was the last year that a light rail initiative was going to be on the ballot. Here’s how it was worded:

In order to provide for the people of Kansas City a pioneering urban rail passenger system, constituting the foundation of a future regional transit system, offering not only increased energy-efficiency, comfort, mobility, transportation savings, and convenience, but also a greener, cleaner, safer environment, a stronger economy, and a means to help America reduce its dependence on imported oil; shall the City of Kansas City, Missouri extend the current three-eighths (3/8) cent transportation sales tax, due to expire on March 31, 2009, for 25 years, beginning April 1, 2009 and ending March 31, 2034, with said tax to be used solely to fund the construction, operation, maintenance, and beautification of the following transportation improvements under the auspices of the Kansas City, Missouri City Council:

1. Implement Kansas City’s new Heartland Light Rail System consisting of a north/south light rail spine beginning at the Kansas City Zoo in Swope Park and ending at Kansas City International Airport including, but not limited to, stops at UMKC, Nelson Art Gallery, Plaza, Westport, Union Station, Performing Arts Center, Convention Center, Power & Light District, Sprint Center, City Market area, North Kansas City, North Oak Trafficway, and Zona Rosa; with the route following 63rd Street, Troost Avenue, 50th Street, Rockhill Road, Emanuel Cleaver Boulevard, Mill Creek Park, Broadway Boulevard, along the high ridge in Penn Valley Park to the junction of Kessler Road and Pershing Road, the west side of Union Station’s Carriage House, Broadway Boulevard, 13th Street, Oak Street, Heart of America Bridge, Burlington Avenue, N. Oak Trafficway, Englewood Road, Waukomis Drive, the interurban right-of-way, Barry Road, Amity Avenue, and concluding at a transit hub, park & ride lot, and shuttle station near Madrid Avenue at KCI; also including new ground level power supply technology (no overhead wires), and park & ride lots;

2. Implement a green fleet of sixty electric shuttles to provide connecting transit service to all light rail stops making possible the expansion of the light rail system’s service area to nearby job centers, neighborhoods, and other primary destinations not directly served by the rail line;

3. Implement an aerial gondola tram system providing passenger service between Union Station, Liberty Memorial, and Penn Valley Park; remove all thru vehicular roads, including Broadway, in the park and re-route traffic around the park; replace roads with landscaped transportation corridors for new bicycle & walking pathways, the gondola, and a wooden light rail truss bridge; with the funds also to be used to retire bond indebtedness related to the projects, and to help secure additional federal, state, and regional transportation funds?

As you can see, sections one and two are good... but then it all goes to hell in section three when the idea of a gondola from Union Station to Liberty Memorial is introduced... WHAT!?! A GONDOLA!?! WHY!?!

Well, surely the public, who has constantly voted down light rail in years past, would do so again with this idiotic idea in place. Right?

Wrong. The plan passed with a startling 53-47% vote.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for light rail and what it could do for the city (check out Smart Moves to see more plan details), but this plan wasn’t the right one. So what can we look forward to? This, I suppose:

Looks like Scoot has the same idea as me. Copycat.

Posted by Seth at 12:13 PM | Comments (2)

November 07, 2006

New Outlook on Life

Today I had yet another appointment with yet another doctor. Sigh. But today was a good one. The check up went well, everything looked good and as it should be. No abnormalities. No blood work. No follow-ups. No specialists. Nothing. I feel like I've been given a new lease on life.

Granted, it was just the eye doctor. But a good check-up is good check-up, nonetheless, right? Right? Soon I'll have a nice half-year supply of contacts and some fancy new glasses. And, if you want to know who world's worst contact putter inner is, look no further.

If you're in the KC area and are searching for a good eye doctor place, then I highly recommend Insight Eyecare – now with an office in downtown Kansas City.

Posted by Seth at 01:48 PM | Comments (2)

November 05, 2006

Five Things I Noticed This Weekend

Thing #1: Borat teach lessons at us
The other night, for Scoot’s birthday, me and the boys (Ken, Aaron and Nik) went to see Borat – two of us for the second time. Not only was the movie still tear-jearking hilarious... and not only is it receiving a 96% fresh rating on RT (out of 125+ reviews)... but I think the bigger greatness of this film (and for people like Dave Chapelle, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert), is that it’s showing our generation (and the younger ones) that sexism, racism and homophobia are still very prevalent in America. Why is that great? Because they’re shown in a way that makes those beliefs look exactly like what they are – ignorant. I feel that my generation is light years beyond thinking in such old ways, which is good, but I think the younger kids will be even more tolerant than we are.

Thing #2: Watching a football game on ESPN is MUCH better than one on CBS
For the second straight weekend, I’ve become more and more upset with my industry and how they’re ruining the flow of sports. But that view is starting to change since I watched the Arkansas-South Carolina game on ESPN last night. Last weekend (and this weekend), I sat down to eat lunch and watch the Chiefs play. Both times, I finished my meal and less than two minutes ran off the clock. Here’s an example of how it happened:

  1. Chiefs punt the ball
  2. --commercial--
  3. Seattle runs a play
  4. Chiefs intercept pass
  5. --commercial--
  6. Chiefs run a play
  7. Two-minute warning
  8. --commercial--
  9. Chiefs score a touchdown
  10. --commercial--
  11. Chiefs kick-off
  12. --commercial--
  13. Play resumes

This game was on CBS, and I now have more reason to dislike that station. ESPN would stay on air after kick-offs and punts... they would do analysis, review plays, speak trivially... that was much better programming in my opinion.

Thing #3: LOST keeps spinning me
Just when I thought I had a good grip on LOST, it spins me around again. Spoiler alert... I always had an idea of a division of ranks amongst the Others, but why on Earth did they kill off Mr. Eko? Damn you!!!

Thing #4: Rearranging my bedroom takes several hours
I didn’t realize that the room was that small in living area. All I wanted to do was move my dresser from one side of the room to the other and move my bed to be against a different wall. To do that, I was required to take my bed apart, put the mattresses in the hallway, move the dresser, re-assemble the bed and flip my mattresses in the hallway (so that I could actually maneuver them into the room again. The result: very nice!

Thing #5: It’s time I sell the refrigerator that’s been in storage
It’s okay to store washers and dryers, but not fridges. If you have a need for a good condition side-by-side fridge, just let me know.

Posted by Seth at 03:25 PM | Comments (2)

November 02, 2006

Two Months to Go

November has started and that means that I officially have 60 days left for my New Year’s resolution. Let’s check in to see how I’m doing...

  1. Sell some items on eBay, the world’s largest online auction.
  2. Visit a financial advisor.
    I suck. I still haven’t done this one, yet.
  3. Establish, and abide by, a monthly budget.
    I haven’t set up a budget, but I’ve been doing much better as of late.
  4. Pay off one of my credit cards.
    Hallelujah! One down, one to go.
  5. Find a cheaper place to live.
  6. Learn how to consolidate line items.
  7. Limit my soda intake to one a month.
    I think I’ve had four sodas all year. Today I’m going to have some Jones Soda Berried Alive.
  8. Boycott shopping at Wal-Mart.
    Wal-Mart can kiss my ass.
  9. Eat smaller portions.
    This is a total flip-flop scenario.
  10. Exercise more, maybe even join a gym.
    Jogging more, doing my push-ups and sit-ups. Next year, it’s gym time.
  11. Remove Google AdSense from my site.
  12. Win an award.
    Bruno, Danica and I recently won a Clarus award for our Sinko de Mayo game.

Just 60 more days to sew up a few loose ends. How is everyone else doing on theirs?

Posted by Seth at 10:52 AM | Comments (2)