Miami

Well...it's been a while, partly because of work, partly because of baseball, and more recently because of vacation to:

MIAMI

That's right, the land of Vice squads, tatoos, all-time Will Smith videos, and of course, South Beach. The Lovely Mary and I shot down for five days and stayed in the Bal Harbor Sheraton, a full-fledged resort right on the beach complete with hot tubs, waterfalls, spas, and my personal favorite: a lagoon-type pool. Sadly, this place is slated to be torn down in February in favor of a more luxurious (and thusly profitable) alternative: a St. Regis. That's probably why we got the deal we got, so I'm not complaining.

A good time was had by all, and as is usually the case with vacations, it was over before we wanted it to be, so we decided that from now on we would institute a 6-day minimum for trips. The food was great, the sights were memorable, and the goal of relaxing and getting away from it all was achieved. Some highlights:

The hotel was amazing and definitely the most resort-ish place I've visited. The number one thing I loved was the pool and we spent a good amount of time by it and in it. The first day there weren't many people there, making for lots of room and a relaxing day for everyone, as opposed to the last day we went out there (a Saturday), where it was tough to fins a spot and people were annoyed (and even more annoying). At one point we went in for a dip and I watched another family (father, daughter, son, dad's new girlfriend) go over to our spot and steal our umbrella pin (for the record, we decided to limit our response to 10 or 12 minutes of dirty looks, in the name of vacation). Come to think of it, someone stole our "Do Not Disturb" sign, too. Damn tourists...

Across from the hotel were the Bal Harbour Shops, and I get the feeling that it was no coincidence we were booked to stay next to a mall that featured such stores as Prada, Armani, Fendi, Gucci, Pucci, Louis Vuitton, Saks, and Tiffany. The place was definitely worth a look, and had lots of scupltures, Koi, fountains and waterfalls, and lots and lots of hanging flora, giving it a Babylon-ish appeal. Unfortunately, all we could really afford to buy there was food!


Every restaurant we went to was excellent. We enjoyed delicious Italian food at a place called Speggio, ate burgers and chicken next to a fish tank at Flanigan's, and dined in a fine bistro in the middle of the Bal Harbour Shops, to name a few. The fact that I even enjoyed a side of broccoli is testament to just how tasty this food was. Mmmm....broccoli....

As we have a propensity for watching almost any kind of reality show, we found a new one called Cash Cab (on the Discovery Channel somehow) and I'm not ashamed to admit we watched it every day we were there. Why can't I be the guy who jumps into a cab and suddenly find myself on a mobile trivia game show?

The South Beach scene lived up to expectations. The sand was fine, the water clear and tepid, and though there were a considerable number of college types there, it was still very enjoyable. It was without question the biggest beach I'd ever been on, and not surprisingly the most beachgoers I'd ever seen too. The lifeguards wore red swimsuits and were constantly shouting angrily at swimmers and jetskiers, making it seem like we were in a bad episode of Baywatch (did I just admit to watching that?). We even had a nice walk on the beach, stopping occasionally to let our bare feet disappear in the sand. Ah, can it get any more romantic? Well, probably, but it was still nice.


While down near South Beach we also windowshopped and walked along the famous Lincoln Road pedestrian mall, stopping to enjoy a bite to eat under a fan blowing mist on us, which was particularly nice due to the humidity. We strolled down Ocean Drive too, even visiting the modelling agency featured in MTV's "8th and Ocean" (it wasn't hard to remember the address...).

On our last full day there, poolside at the resort was entirely too crowded, so we rented a 2-person cabana on the beach and spent the day there lounging, reading, napping, and taking dips in the Atalntic. Swimming in the ocean is something I haven't done in years, and I was soon reintroduced to that old familiar salt-water taste in my mouth. There was a reef not too far out and the waves were strong and really breaking. While emerging from the water the first time I went in, I unintentionally provided comic relief for anyone who could see as I was knocked over a couple of times by the tide, naturally trying to play it off like I intended to be suddenly sitting on my ass...

All in all, you don't need me (or Will Smith) to tell you that Miami is kickass.....but I will anyway. We had a phenomenal time, and Miami is on our list of places to get back to someday, without a doubt.

Can't Wie All Get Along?

Michelle Wie is trying to become the first ever woman to qualify for the U.S. Open this week, and though I am not a fan of golf at all, I enjoy how up-in-arms the golf people who call up WEEI are about the whole thing. Imagine that, first a black golfer and now possibly a woman...what's this world coming to???

Get over it people. I hope she not only qualifies, I hope she does well and sticks around for a long time. She's badass and she's only 16 years old, and all of these buttonheads who call up and complain should keep quiet and face the facts.

Wie would kick you're ass in golf.

Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act

Well, it looks like broadband service providers will have to wait until another day to impede our internet experiences. The US House of Representatives passed the Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act, a bill that prevents ISPs from making some sites load faster than others based on who pays them money or who their competitors are.

James Sensenbrenner, a Republican representative (doing the right thing???) hit the nail on the head when he pointed out that this bill is needed because people do not have too many options when it comes to broadband service, creating "an environment ripe for anticompetitive and discriminitory misconduct". As someone with a small web presence, I of course do not want to compete with sites like Amazon or eBay for bandwidth priority, and for all you blogospherites who want to continue reading sites like this, be glad this bill was approved, because there aren't too many other options out there for you.

Net Neutrality

Read this:

Do you buy books online, use Google, or download to an iPod? Everything we do online will be hurt if Congress passes a radical law next week that gives giant corporations more control over what we do and see on the Internet.
Internet providers like AT&T are lobbying Congress hard to gut Network Neutrality--the Internet's First Amendment and the key to Internet freedom. Net Neutrality prevents AT&T from choosing which websites open most easily for you based on which site pays AT&T more. BarnesandNoble.com doesn't have to outbid Amazon for the right to work properly on your computer.

If Net Neutrality is gutted, many sites--including Google, eBay, and iTunes--must either pay protection money to companies like AT&T or risk having their websites process slowly. That why these high-tech pioneers, plus diverse groups ranging from MoveOn to Gun Owners of America, are opposing Congress' effort to gut Internet freedom.

You can do your part today--can you sign this petition telling your member of Congress to preserve Internet freedom? Click here:

http://www.civic.moveon.org/save_the_internet?track_referer=706%7C7021865-z_75Yh6uRiRY6ZJ3z.co9A

I signed this petition, along with 250,000 others so far. This petiton will be delivered to Congress before the House of Representatives votes next week. When you sign, you'll be kept informed of the next steps we can take to keep the heat on Congress.

Snopes.com, which monitors various causes that circulate on the Internet, explained:

Simply put, network neutrality means that no web site's traffic has precedence over any other's...Whether a user searches for recipes using Google, reads an article on snopes.com, or looks at a friend's MySpace profile, all of that data is treated equally and delivered from the originating web site to the user's web browser with the same priority. In recent months, however, some of the telephone and cable companies that control the telecommunications networks over which Internet data flows have floated the idea of creating the electronic equivalent of a paid carpool lane.

If companies like AT&T have their way, Web sites ranging from Google to eBay to iTunes either pay protection money to get into the "fast lane" or risk opening slowly on your computer. We can't let the Internet--this incredible medium which has been such a revolutionary force for democratic participation, economic innovation, and free speech--become captive to large corporations.

Politicians don't think we are paying attention to this issue. Together, we do care about preserving the free and open Internet.

Super Mario Guitar

This came up in a conversation the other day, and I was challenged to produce the clip.

I win.

WOW - Roth is replaced by O&E

What a surprise this morning when I jumped in my car and turned on the radio. Instead of giving David Lee Roth his three minutes before giving up and switching over to sports radio, I heard some familiar voices I thought I'd never hear on terrestrial radio again: those of shock-jocks Opie and Anthony.

I loved the show these guys had years ago. They were the perfect afternoon compliment to Stern in the mornings. WBCN, the local affiliate here in Boston, had the FM talk radio market cornered it seemed. Then O&A crossed a couple of lines, first reporting that Mayor Menino had died (April Fool's joke), then again when one of their contests resulted in a couple having sex in a New York Cathedral. They were immediately ousted by CBS. Two years later, they inked a deal with XM radio, and a year later their old nemesis Howard Stern joined the satellite radio revolution with a contract with Sirius, and Diamond David Lee Roth signed on as Sterns replacement.

Roth...ugh. Nice guy. Terrible show.

Now, about four years since last broadcasting over the airwaves, Opie and Anthony will be back, resigned amazingly by the same company that blacklisted them, CBS. Their show this morning was basically just an announcement, and their real show starts on (appropriately) Wednesday. They'll be splitting time between the CBS studio and XM, with the switch happening around 9am EDT. I'm interested to see how much they've changed in four years, and am also interested to see what an FCC-friendly O&A show is like (if it is friendly at all).

Opie and Anthony back in Boston makes me say one word:

Things I Like To Do (drink coffee)

So we've all seen one of the new Dunkin Donuts' commercials (if not, here's one below). What I didn't know was that who you hear performing is a blast from the moderate past...They Might Be Giants. Well, "Things I Like To Do" is a different kind of catchy than, say, "Birdhouse in Your Soul", and I thought it warrented at least a couple of weeks as a ringtone...

...now when people call I have this mysterious urge to drink coffee, march around, and start singing "Doing things is what I like to do...." (sing along now).

LifeHacker, Spell with flickr, and Simply Google

This LifeHacker blog is the shit....today they posted about 7 or 8 things I found of interest. Here are a couple:

Spell with flickr - http://metaatem.net/words/
Here you type in some text in the input box (or simply add it onto the URL, like words/whatever) and what you'll get back is that text spelled out in letter pictures found through flickr (as seen above). The page even spits out HTML to include in a page, if that's your thing.

Simply Google - http://www.usabilityviews.com/simply_google.htm
I love things that make my life easier, like the search boxes built into many of today's browsers. Simply Google is an all-in-one links page to many Googly things, and even a few other search engines as well (who uses them these days?).

btw, Thanks to notsomuch for turning me on to LifeHacker, which I now consider an essential feed...

iAlertU - Mac Alarm

This was too cool to let pass by. iAlertU , an app put out by Slapping Turtle, is basically an alarm for your laptop (MacBook Pro only, from what I understand) so that when you step away from your machine anyone who tries to move your computer gets an earful. It makes use of your Apple Remote, your iSight, and the motion sensor technology built into Macs. Will people actually use this, though? It does give another function to the Apple Remote, I suppose...

[LifeHacker]

More Folding...Mattress Covers

I know how much you all loved the post about folding shirts, and how much easier that article made so many of your lives. Well, here's another How-To-Fold-Something post...this time, it's mattress covers!

Try to contain your enthusiasm...I know how long you've struggled with them. Now you don't have to give up and stuff the mattress cover into some shelf.

Impress your friends!!!
Show off to the ladies!!!
Add something new to your list of odd talents!!!

Slinging Some Cyber-mud

In light of an article Boston.com ran today (titled "Online Sites are the New Line of Political Attacks") as well as the fact that today is jaz's b-day, here are 2 of my favorite politically mudslinging sites:

for the righties: STOP Hillary PAC (against Hillary Clinton)
for the lefties: Santorum Exposed (against Rick Santorum)

Happy Birthday James

Happy birthday James... Here's to not waiting till the Eleventh Hour to celebrate...

Awful Reality TV Shows?

Boston.com had a feature yesterday entitled "Awful Reality TV Shows". As I look down the list, I realize I actually LIKE more than half of these shows and watched ALL the episodes of a few of them. Does this mean the shows aren't really that awful, or does it mean I like bad TV? Regardless of the answer, it's safe to say many of these shows I would have never seen had I not gotten DVR technology...now ANYTHING that seems remotely interesting gets recorded. Might DVR be the propellant for the success of shows many people feel are totally a waste of time?

Here's the list:

The Anna Nicole Show (eh, caught a few minutes here or there)

The Simple Life (great show...I own the 1st season on DVD)

Flavor of Love (one of the BEST reality shows of the year...right up there with Survivor)

The Ashlee Simpson Show (I did see a couple episodes which confirmed she's an idiot)

The Swan (Sorry, never saw it)

The Real World (I sorta like this show. Granted, I missed maybe 10 years since the last time I watched...)

Temptation Island (I have to admit I watched the 1st season religiously)

Wife Swap (I LOVE this show...nobody brings the drama better)

Man vs. Beast (missed it....fortunately?)

The Littlest Groom (never saw an episode)

Date My Mom (I saw this a few times. It is what it is...not going ot win any awards)

Mr. Personality (I have no time and never will have time for this show or anything else with host Monica Lewiinski)

01:02:03:04:05:06

How am I not gonna point this out...

Three seconds after 1:02 this morning, the time+date read- 01:02:03, 04/05/06. Some people even will recognize this twice today, once in the AM and again in the PM.

Wow...I haven't had this much fun since about 5 years ago, say around 6:00 early in March.

G.I. Joe vs Transformers

Apparently a few years ago both Marvel and Devil's Due came out with comic series entitled "G.I. Joe and the Transformers" and "G.I. Joe vs Transformers" respectively. As much as I love both of these all-time toy lines, I have reservations about anyone trying to tie them in together, but will read the comics with an open mind (if I happen to see one and have lots of free time!). Maybe they'll come out with a movie....I know, you could have Freddy and Jason vs Cobra Commander and Megatron!