Nerdy Comics

The holidays have caused me to be negligent in my blogging duties. To all my loyal readers and those just passing through, I apologize. I am going to try to remedy this situation as part of my 2007 New Year Resolutions. I resolve to blog more and procrastinate on blogging less.

While I enjoy the last couple days of 2006 and hence blogging laziness, I would like to suggest a great site, XKCD, that a few of you may have noticed on my "Interesting Stuff..." column. They have some of the most wonderfully nerdy comics I have ever seen, and they definitely deserve some recognition. I have posted a few of their comics and then feel free to check them out!

Great Scott!

When I was younger I used to think that the Back to the Future trilogy was the definition of perfection in cinematography. Robert Zemeckis was the greatest director in history and Spielberg was only significant due his role as Executive Producer of the film. Michael J. Fox was not only the best Canadian actor ever, but rather he was the greatest actor, period. I was never saw the original movie in the theater (I was only 5 after all), but I can still remember seeing Part II at the old Hillsdale theater (next to Bay Meadows, most recently home to Organized Living before its departure) with my dad.

I was really into this series of movies: I would draw pictures of hovercrafts in my spare time, my favorite CDs were the Back to the Future soundtracks (mostly musical scores by Alan Silvestri), I did a school report on John DeLorean, I would write trivia books and fictional stories relating to the characters from the movies... so when I say I was into Back to the Future, I mean it.

I don't know why, but recently the internet has erupted in Back to the Future fever... perhaps it has something to do with Bravo recently showing the prolific trilogy, or maybe it has to do with Michael J. Fox's recent involvement in the mid-term elections. Whatever the reason, I have come to realize that my hovercraft drawings and trivia books were not even the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Back to the Future mania.

For starters check out this recently posted and extremely detailed Wikipedia entry on all the timelines from the trilogy. Then, there is this extremely realistic Back to the Future DeLorean replica that went on sale at ebay last month (the bidding got up to $51k, but the reserve was not met). Of course there is this petition for Nike to make the shoes Marty McFly wore in Part II. And, apparently I am not the only one that enjoys writing Back to the Future trivia -- the blog of my favorite magazine, mental_floss, just posted their own version of trivia relating to Marty and Doc. My drawings of hovercrafts couldn't compete in the internet age, they would be the laughing stock of the Back to the Future fan club. However, when I think about the joy and entertainment that the movies brought me (and considering the crap that Hollywood is currently producing ::cough::Man of the Year::cough::) maybe, in its own special way, Back to the Future really was cinematographic perfection.

Never buy software again OR how to make your computer work like new

So, you are going to get a new computer for Christmas - or maybe you would like to make your old computer work like new - either way, I have some tips to make your computer fly. The best part is you can get most of the software you will need for free (legally).

Step One: Reformat your hard drive and install a clean copy of Windows XP
Even if your computer is brand new, it is a good idea to wipe your hard drive if you want to allow your computer to be all that it can be... Starting from scratch is important because older computers can build up lots of junk files and newer computers are shipped with a lot of junk files. Here is a pretty good set of instructions on how to reformat an hard drive using the Windows XP CD-ROM.

Step Two: Update Windows
Using the Windows Update program in your Start menu, update all of your software and hardware to their current versions. This is very important as quite a few vulnerabilities have been discovered, and fixed, in Windows XP - but since you just installed a clean copy, you need to get everything current.

All programs suggested below are free for personal use, they may require registration.

Step Three: Install necessary utilities

• Anti Virus - avast! 4 Home Edition
  Yes, that is correct, there is a free, self-updating, anti virus program... I have used avast! for ages and have been virus free ever since.
• Anti Adware/Anti Spyware - Spybot Search & Destroy, Ad-Aware SE Personal, Windows Defender
  I highly recommend downloading and installing all three of these programs to be properly protected from the crap that is out there.
• Housekeeping - CCleaner, DirMS-S, NTRegOpt
  Programs to clean up temp files, to defragment your hard drive, and to optimize your computers registry respectively. Run these (along with Spybot and Ad-Aware) every 3-4 months and your computer will be finely tuned and keep running as such.
  

Step Four: Figure out what kind of programs you use on a regular basis
Not everyone uses a database program or needs a animation suite, so if you don't need it for regular use, don't install it. Most people typically use a small number of programs on a regular basis. Take a looks at the list of programs I recommend below:

• Audio Player - iTunes
  There are many other very high quality audio players out there, but for sheer use of use and features I am using iTunes right now. Plus stay tuned for a 'how-to' post focused on organizing your music collection for tips on adding album artwork, renaming your files, sorting your music, and creating custome playlists using iTunes. (Note, if you need to move files from your iPod to your computer, I recommend using EphPod)
• BitTorrent Client - µTorrent
  If you know what BitTorrent is, you need this client program.
  
• CD/DVD Burner - CDBurnerXP Pro
  Nero is great, but they charge for it... this program will take care of 99% of your CD and DVD burning needs at no cost.
  
• Chat - www.meebo.com,
  I can not say enough about meebo. This is a great web application that allows you to sign onto the instant messaging sides of AOL, MSN, Yahoo, Google, ICQ and Jabber. Because it is web based you don't need to download any programs and you can log on from anywhere. Create a user name with meebo and you don't even need to remember your screen name and password for each of your accounts. Words can not describe how well this site works, unless you are using Internet Explorer, I have heard its performance is a bit more stellar with Firefox. Chat runner up: Gaim (if you need to download a program onto your computer to feel like you are really chatting)
  
• Compression Tools - ZipGenius
  If you have never needed a program to zip and unzip files, don't worry about this one... but if you need create an archive or get into a .rar file every once and awhile, this is the program for you.
  
• Earth Viewer - Google Earth
  If you have yet to see Google Earth in action stop reading this now and download it -- you will be amazed at what you can see.
  
• Email - www.gmail.com, Thunderbird
  Gmail is wonderful -- even if you use another web based mail service such as those provided by Yahoo! or Microsoft, you have Google to thank for the improvements they have been forced to make over the past couple years. If you need to have a local mail client on your computer, Thunderbird is a great alternative to Outlook.
  
• Image Editing - Paint.NET
  If you need something better than what Microsoft gives you with your copy of Windows to edit images, but you are not quite ready for Photoshop, Paint.NET is the way to go.
  
• Image Viewer - Picasa
  If you have a digital camera, Picasa is here to save you from the crappy software they gave you with your camera. Uninstall the program that came with your camera and use this instead.
  
• Office Suite - OpenOffice.org
  Ready for the best kept secret on the internet? Here it is: Chances are, you don't need Microsoft Office. OpenOffice.org can open, create, and edit Microsoft Office files in an environment very similar to the Microsoft products. Check it out, I almost guarantee it will fit your needs... I repeat you can open, create, and edit Microsoft Office files.
  
• PDF Utilities - Acrobat Reader, PrimoPDF
  Acrobat Reader is pretty much a necessary evil. They did just come out with their new version (8), so click the link above and go get it... much more useful, however, is PrimoPDF. This program adds a virtual printer to your list of printers. When you select the PrimoPDF printer instead of you HP LaserJetMate XL VI24, the program simply creates a PDF file that you can then email, save, or print. It is a great way to save trees and create PDFs (which, among other things, can have great security features).
  
• Phone - Skype
  If you have yet to try Skype it is worth checking out. Everyone has a different opinion of internet phone, but you should at least know how the rest of the world is communicating (Skype is very popular in Europe and Asia).
  
• Video Player and Codecs - K-Lite Codec Pack
  If you have ever downloaded a video file that would not play on your computer it is because you did not have the proper codec. Once you download the above "pack" you will be able to watch the newest video of Bob Sagget telling you about his tryst with Kimmy Gibbler.
  

Step Five: Only install programs that you actually need and use
Many computer programs do nothing more than slow your computer down, so only install the programs you use. If you notice you are not using an installed program, uninstall it using the Add/Remove Programs control panel.

(revision 2, updated 12/13/2006)

Randomness

Well, I haven't blogged in a while... and I am not really sure what I am going to write about... but sometimes randomness with excessive ellipses is a good thing...

I spent most of last week in Northern California with family and friends... there are pictures from some of the Thanksgiving festivities over at trevordanthony.com. Activities in NorCal included attending my sister's volleyball playoff games, breaking and fixing computers at my mom's place of work, going out to dinner and brunch, drinking at multiple Peninsula bars, playing board games with family and friends, eating lots of turkey, picking out a Christmas tree, going to coffee mutliple times in a day...

I drove home Sunday evening (travel time 8 hours, 15 minutes, not bad considering traffic and rain). Upon my return on Monday I fulfilled my civic duty and served jury duty. I had to stick around all day and was almost put on a jury (twice)... but I escaped by the skin of my teeth and the judge said to me, "Mr. Anthony, I am not sure if you are relieved or disappointed, but either way you are dismissed." And with that, it was over.

I am currently getting ready for the big holiday party this weekend... should be fun... if you are a friend of mine and you are in San Diego, you are invited - so drop me a line if your evite got lost in the mail :-).

Not for profit

The United States has a long history of philanthropy, when you make a fortune, you give it away. Take a look at people like Andrew Carnegie donating money for thousands of public libraries to be founded; or Bill Gates and Warren Buffet and the Gates Foundation's focus on world health and development. If you can think of a wealthy individual, you can often come up with a charity they support. There have, however, always been more charitable, not for profit, organizations than there have been former robber barons to help them. Well now you don't have to be Henry Ford to help a good cause or two, and once again it is the Internet that is changing everything.

A fairly new website, GoodSearch, was founded to give regular people an effortless and easy way to contribute to a charity of their choosing. Basically, the site gives 1 cent to the charity for every search the user/supporter performs (or approximately half the site's revenue). They also use the Yahoo! search engine to perform the search, so the results you get are the same as they would be with the major search providers. Last year the search industry alone made more than $6 billion, so there is some money out there to be shared.

I am currently supporting Our Lady of Mount Carmel, for those of you that do not know, this is the school that my mom has been the Principal of for a number of years. They are planning to use the funds raised by GoodSearch to support technology enhancements throughout the parish as well as family involvement activities. So if you need a charity to get started with, Mount Carmel would certainly appreciate your searches. Unlike other charities that might put additional revenue into their general fund, I think it is a good thing that Mount Carmel has a plan to dedicate any funds raised to new and necessary projects.

To get started:

1. Go to www.goodsearch.com
2. Look for the box labeled "Who do you GoodSearch for?"
3. Type "Mount Carmel" or another meaningful charity
4. Select the last Mount Carmel on the list "Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish and School (Rdwood City) [sic]
5. Begin searching
6. After you have set up your charity, I would suggest clicking this link to add a GoodSearch search bar to your web browser

Disclosure: I am not paid or compensated in any way to write this blog. The topics I write about are of my own choosing. When I do endorse products or services it is because it is something that I use and/or think is a good idea. I do not solicit or accept advertising.
Affiliations: I am a user of GoodSearch, my mother is the Principal and my brother and sister attended of Our Lady of Mount Carmel School. I am employed by E.I. DuPont Nemours and Company and the opinions expressed here are my own and are not those of my employer. This blog is not sponsored by or endorsed by my employer.

What's a polymath?... keep reading, you can become one!

I have an iPod, I listen to a few different podcasts... but it is rare that I find one as clever as the Princeton Review's Vocab Minute. They are short and to the point, and I think they provide some entertaining refreshers on vocab, even if you aren't 17 and about to take the SAT.

Since not everyone listens to podcasts and not everyone even knows how to do such a thing, you can just click on the audio player below to listen to a couple of my favorites thus far... If you would like more info on podcasts, leave a comment and I will either drop you a email or write another blog entry about it.

I actually learned the word polymath from this one... and I plan on using it!

Polly Find out how Polly does it all.

And for you pirate and parrot lovers, check this out...

The Mare Song With a yo ho ho to all the maritimers out there.

Compliments on the embedded audio players above gladly accepted in the comments section below.

Starbucks has wreaths up, so it must be that time...

To my loyal readers, let me begin by apologizing for falling off the radar recently... in the future, I promise to blog with increased regularity. Despite my lack of recent inspiration, I have seen a number of interesting gift ideas for Christmas (or other winter holidays).

NOTE: If you frequently check my shared links on the left hand column of this blog, some of these items will be repeats of what you have already seen, but this format provides you with my commentary.

Possible Christmas presents:

• If the outside of your fridge has a ferrous material and you are not very good at magnetic poetry this cool toy might be worth checking out, for kids and adults alike. Reminds me of the San Jose Tech Museum or something...
• If you (or a special female) are environmentally conscious and do not like to using plastic or paper bags this could come in handy. For those times when you forget your Trader Joes's canvas carrier, just whip off that bra (it is not that scandalous, every girl knows how to do it without taking off their shirt, they must teach it in like 5th grade or something) and turn it into a handy sack. It's your bag, baby!
  
• NASCAR, who doesn't love it??? Well, now you can "get your heart racing" with this excellent gift for the romantic race rouser, or perhaps the rousing romantic racer... I don't know.
  
  
• For the friend who has everything, get them nothing. Empty box gag gifts from the king of fake printed news, The Onion, include such classics as, a Salt of the Month Club membership, a make your own umbrella kit, and a USB toaster. The USB toaster may be fake, but the USB cup warmer is real.
  
• If your friend has purchased a iPod Video for her car, an iPod nano for the office, and a iPod shuffle for working out, and she still can't get enough of Sexy Back, check out Tooth Tunes, the MP3 playing toothbrush that plays music through your bones... look ma, no speakers!
  
• For the special geek in your life, check out these nerdy gifts...
  
  
  
• If death and dudes are your thing, check out the Men of Mortuaries 2007 Calendar.
  
• My father insists they are printing newspapers in a smaller font nowadays... if this kind of denial is found in your home as well, perhaps you should pick up a super-sized television remote.
  

If you have found some interesting gifts for the holiday season let me, and everyone else, know about them by posting links below in the comments section.

Mailbox surprise

I just recently changed my DMV record to reflect my San Diego address. This may or may not have been due to the fact that I was issued a citation for not having the correct address on my license somewhat recently. (Talk about a victim-less crime...) Anyway, good thing I made the change, otherwise I might not have received the jury summons that I got in the mail today.

The one thing most people would consider worse than an unexpected bill is the dreaded jury summons. I actually would not mind doing my "civic-duty;" being on a jury is actually pretty intriguing to me.

I am concerned about something, however. On the back of the summons it reads:

The right of a trial by jury is the privilege of every peson in the United States. This right is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and the California Constitution, which provides, "the right of trial by jury shall be secured to all, and remain inviolate."

It goes on to say that in order to make the system work that people need to be willing to serve on juries. But the Superior Court of San Diego seems to be misinformed, or maybe they just printed their summons forms before President Bush signed into law legislation allowing the Executive Branch to decide if you get a jury trial or not.

This makes me wonder if there is such a thing as a conscientious objector status (or something equivalent) for jury duty.

The reason that the Superior Court system gives for fulfilling your civic duty is because each one of us is guaranteed a jury trial. However, I am now asking myself, should I fulfill my end of the covenant, serving on jury, when our government is no longer willing to fulfill their part of the deal?

Gas math

Some people have noticed that I always seem to be running low on gas. They also mock me because I have run out of gas on a few occasions, although I still maintain that this most recent time in Montana was not my fault... I was an innocent passenger in the out-of-gas-vehicle.

But it has become clear that people want to know why I insist on running my fuel tank to empty. In fact, when my digital read out says "0 Miles to Empty" I will often let the car go for another 10-15 miles. There is a simple and thoughtful answer to this question and it can be answered with something I call, "gas math."

I have noticed that most people feel the proper time to fill up their gas tank is when it is around one quarter full. This means every fifth stop for gas will be a complete waste of time. It is true, you had four quarter tanks which you neglected - they would have kept you running for many miles. Well, if a driver like me fills up their tank 5 times a month, that would mean around 7 minutes wasted a month or about an hour and a half over the course of a year.

Now, I do recognize that the downside to this equation is that you increase your chances of running out of gas. I have been driving with this philosophy for 10 years and I have run out of gas 2 times, heck, I will even throw in this most recent time (that was not my fault), 3 times. Total time wasted due to inoperable vehicle: 160 minutes. Time saved by not going to gas station when tank is a quarter full: 840 minutes. Net time saved: 11 hours and 20 minutes.

We made it

After 28 hours of almost continuos driving, we have arrived in Seattle. I probably have a few more stories regarding the journey, but now it is time for me to sleep.

(This has been quite the weekend for time changes, we drove from Central time, to Mountain time, to Pacific time, and now I just had to change my clock for daylight savings time... I will probably be a bit confused when I wake up tomorrow.)

Fun in Montana

Montana events:
-We had lunch at Costco - free samples are very filling for weary travelers
-We saw a truck carrying a deer or two back from a day of hunting (maybe they finally got Bambi?)
-We ran out of gas
-We crossed the continental divide
-We lost 5th gear for a while... but it came back
-We visited two of Montana's estimated three Starbucks.

Montana is a very long state and it takes a while to get across it. So the little diversions listed above were appreciated. As for the gas situation, I may have encouraged steching our tank of gas, but I was NOT driving when we came to a puttering stop. I will not, however, learn my lesson as it almost took us a whole 5 minutes to borrow some gas, fill the tank, and return our borrowed gas to Jeff, the kind Montana-ian.

Well, we are about to head into the pan-handle of Idaho... I will try to keep you posted on potato sightings and the such.

We are in Montana!

I keep trying to get Erin to stop... There have been so many sights and attractions that she just keeps cruising by...

We just drove past a building with a T-Rex coming out of the side of it, A T-REX!!! And, she didn't even wake me up for 'Home on the Range' North Dakota, no, really, that is the city's name...

OK, well it is almost my turn to drive again, gotta start mentally preparing.

Protecting Americans from hair gel on their toothbrushes

At first I was a little concerned that the Federal government was getting a little too overbearing with their wire tapping and detention centers. But now I admit, I was wrong. They clearly know what they are doing...

When flying the FAA now requires carried on liquids to be in a one quart Ziplock bag. This may seem a little odd in the land of the free... But how many pieces of clothing have been ruined by an exploding toothpaste tube? How many toiletry bags are forever scented by a lotion bottle that was compressed a bit too much?

Clearly Americans can not be trusted to pack their own gels and liquids as they wish, and thus let me be the first to say I will happily give up a bit of my liberty for protection from shampoo covered jeans...

Now if only the Federal government would start helping me pick my favorite television stations so I know what shows I should and should not watch.

Still waiting at the airport... Maybe Erin forgot about me.

Greetings from Minnesota

I have just arrived in Minneapolis after almost missing a few flights… it seems that US Airways was having some trouble with their computer system. When I arrived at San Diego International there was a huge line to check-in, the line kept getting longer because the US Airways computer system was down. I guess this occurred due to a power failure somewhere… anyway, they kept assuring us over the PA that we did not need to worry about missing our flight because they could not "take-off" planes without the computers… I think this was supposed to serve as reassurance. But it seemed to just raise the tension levels in the terminal. Anyway, making it through security was a hassle as always… but it could have been worse. They could have told me that I had 4.5oz of a particular liquid or that my Ziplock bag was a quart and a half – both of these would have been major issues as they would have been 50% above the legal limit for carry-on luggage. In addition I have a power inverter with me, which, to the untrained eye might not look like something that is supposed to be on a plane. So, yeah, security could have been an issue, but it was not… in fact, my biggest problem was that my plane was about to leave and security was at Gate 97 (or something) and my gate happened to be number 23… I did the only thing I could do – run. And thank goodness I did, the Gate Agents were closing up just as I arrived… they knew nothing about the computer outage.

After a brief stop in Phoenix and a faulty seat cushion (not mine, someone else's, but it was enough to delay the flight for 20 minutes as it was repaired/replaced), I have arrived at MSP. Erin, my travelling partner is running a bit late so I thought it was a good opportunity to provide this quick update…

If you find yourself wondering why I am the land of "You-betcha" read down a couple days in the blog… look for the entry with the map and a line heading from Minneapolis to Seattle… that should give you a good overview.

I will try to write more as our journey progresses.

Uh oh, they are closing Starbucks… gotta run!

-9:00 Central Time

A situation that is degrading to chaos

Entropy

Seriously... what a great word. I do not think that great words get the recognition they deserve...
From Wiktionary (the third definition is probably the most useful and the one referenced in the title of this post):

(thermodynamics, countable)

• strictly thermodynamic entropy. A measure of the amount of energyphysical system which cannot be used to do mechanical work. in a
• A measure of the disorder present in a system (now becoming obsolete in chemistry [1]).
• The capacity factor for thermal energy that is hidden with respect to temperature [2].
• The dispersal of energy; how much energy is spread out in a process, or how widely spread out it becomes, at a specific temperature. [3]

(statistics, information theory, countable) A measure of the amount of information and noise present in a signal.

(uncountable) The tendency of a system that is left to itself to descend into chaos.

Junípero Serra High School Online

I am probably one of a few alumni whose high school is more famous than their college. I suppose fame is relative, but whatever your measure - whether it is famous alumni (partial list at Wikipedia) or mentions by John Madden during sports broadcasts - Junípero Serra High School has quite a name for itself.

Well today Serra unveiled their new website... and let me tell you, it is very well done. Check it out if you get a chance and if you are a fellow alumnus I think your registration number for the online community is in the mail.

www.serrahs.com

10/25 UPDATE: In honor of the new site I revised the Serra Wikipedia page to give the internet a better sense of the school and its alumni... check it out.

Lake Monster Culture

Back in 2003-04 my friend from college, Buck Defore, won a Watson Fellowship and went on a journey around the world to study lake monsters. More accurately he was studying the nuances of the society's that are based around the these mythical beings...

He recently found and re-posted his website dedicated to his journey... it is an amazing trek and an amazing piece of web design... so whether you are into lake monsters or into awesome looking sites, it is worth checking out:

http://bcdef.org/lmc/

Gross generalizations

I have met some great and intelligent people since I have lived in San Diego... but one place I have never met a girl that I would want to spend more than 5 minutes with is at a San Diego bar.

You see, when I first came down here I quickly realized that no one is actually from San Diego... so when you go into a bar and see a girl you can always go up to her and ask, "where are you from?" to start a conversation. The first few times I heard the answer to this question I was impressed... the girl would tell me, how she packed up all her stuff and moved to San Diego without a friend or a job. Wow, I would think, how independent!

But then I realized that the story was always the same and it went something like this:
"I was sitting in my room changing clothes and I looked over at myself in the mirror and I realized, I have a rockin' hot body. And then I asked myself, why am I letting this rockin' hot body go to waste under layers of clothing in [insert Midwestern state name here]?" Around this time the hair flips and the distraction has already led me to believe that maybe I am not dealing with the sharpest pencil, but she would continue... "So I realized that I needed to live somewhere near the ocean, and LA is to overwhelming, so I decided to move to San Diego."

Don't get me wrong, I am all for hot girls moving to the place I live... but the problem is that their motivations are not the most well thought out and that kinda defines the rest of their lives as well.

Now what about the people that grow up in San Diego... a few of them have to be intelligent, right? As a matter of fact, there are quite a few intellectuals that grew up down here. I went to college with a handful of them in Washington. So I decided to use the University of Puget Sound's online directory to see where, in the San Diego area, they moved back to... yeah... they did not move back. My friends that were originally from the San Diego area have scattered all over the country but have avoided the bottom left corner.

Perhaps I am just going to the wrong bars?

An embarrassing truth

I turned 27 the other day. Yeah, it doesn't feel much different than 26, but I have to admit something, I have yet to go to the gym since my birthday. This has nothing to do with being lazy or being too busy... it has to do with the elliptical machine. You see, when I get on that thing it asks me, how much do you weigh? what course do you want to do? and HOW OLD ARE YOU?

I suppose I have not been ready to admit my new, older, age to the elliptical machine, or any other piece of gym equipment for that matter. I am not sure what my problem is... but I need to get over it quick... less my body look older than 27.

10/21 UPDATE: I made it to the gym today, typed the numbers two and seven into the elliptical machine... it still worked, I was still able to do my normal routine, I think everything will be just fine.

300,000,000

Sometime tomorrow morning a milestone will occur - the population of the United States will reach three hundred million. This is calculated using the US Census Bureau's PopClock which estimates the current population using the following data: a birth every 7 seconds, a death every 13 seconds, and a immigrant (net) every 31 seconds.

Thoughts on 300,000,000:
The United States is the 172nd most dense country in the world (out of 230) with approximately 50 people per square mile. That works out to 12 acres for every man, woman, and child - yep, even the undocumented ones. I am not making any claims about the environmental impacts or social consequences of population growth. However, when China (a slightly smaller land mass than the US) has 1.3 billion people, I hardly think the gentleman driving on I-8 today with "The United States is full" pasted on the rear window of his pickup was an authority on the matter.

Demographers say that the three hundred millionth person in the United States will most likely be a baby born to Caucasian parents in the suburban South or Latino parents in the suburban West. The baby will likely live to around 85 or 90 and has a slightly better chance of being a male. One thing is for sure, however, the three hundred millionth person in the United States will be born on a great day.

Handling Celebrities

I was at the Pacific BeachFest yesterday with Tiff (back from Berlin) and we stopped by the T-Mobile booth to get a free water bottle, err, to talk to the representative about cellular phone plans. We chatted for a while about the new Sidekick 3 and once we had showed minimal interest, we got our water bottle and a folder filled with information on the Sidekick.

It was not until after getting back in the car that we had a chance to review the Sidekick folder, which we quickly realized was not intended for us... this particular folder was for T-Mobile employees with each document being labeled "Not for Customers." Most of the stuff in the folder was pretty basic marketing and sales aids, however there was one section I found pretty humorous:

"Handling Celebrities

• T-Mobile's Sidekick 3 is an iconic communication device among trendsetters in the fashion, music, and movie industries. In order to leverage our product placement efforts with the Sidekick 3, our marketing team will handle all celebrity inquiries.
• If a person identifies themselves as a celebrity and wants a free Sidekick...you should transfer the person to Special Account Care.
• If a person identifies themselves as a celebrity and wants to buy or upgrade to a Sidekick 3 explain that we have a separate process set-up to handle their needs and follow the same process as above."

I think it is funny that if you identify yourself as a celebrity and want to BUY a Sidekick the sales rep is told to not sell you one, but rather send you off to Special Account Care... (Note to my celebrity readers, if you actually want to BUY something, don't tell the sales rep that you are famous, and hope that they don't notice.)

1,676 mi (about 1 day 4 hours)

I am going to be driving from Minneapolis to Seattle in a couple weekends... Google tells me this trip is going to take me 1 day and 4 hours. That really seems like a ridiculous amount of time in a car (or a pickup truck, as the case may be). However this trip is well worth it, just think, I will get to see wonderful cities such as Fargo, Jamestown, Bismarck, Billings, and Butte!

OK, so this is not a sight-seeing trip. I am actually just a warm body to keep my friend Erin company during the long boring stretches (North Dakota) of her journey home from Wisconsin. I am flying into Minneapolis/St. Paul on Friday (Oct 27th) and then out of Seattle early Monday morning in time to make it back for work... hmm, I hope we don't hit too much snow.

Even more exciting than Belgrade, MT is that I am going to try to take this new blogging habit of mine on the road with me and try to make a few posts about the journey while on the road... yeah, I know, I am a nerd.

Did you know?

California's 4th District is currently heavily contested, the candidates:
Incumbent John Doolittle(R) v. Charlie Brown(D).
Yes, that is correct, a guy named do-little is challenged by Charlie Brown for congress. If those two names were proposed for a comic book, the editor would make the author change them because they were too cliche and possibly violated a copyright or two...

Fly Away

Here is a pretty cool site that can do three things to help you get cheaper plane tickets - http://www.farecast.com

1. If you enter a departure city and arrival city along with the dates you want to travel the site will predict when the best time to buy the ticket is...
2. If you enter a departure and arrival city, but your dates are flexible it will tell you when the most affordable time to fly is...
3. If you enter just a departure city you can look at some of the places you can afford to fly to... you can then modify the search based on how much you want to spend or how many days you want to be away.

And if you want to see some of my other favorite sites for finding travel deals you can find a short list of them at http://www.trevordanthony.com in the Sweet Links section or just click here.

The hassles of jury duty may soon be a distant memory...

The newly passed legislation regulating the treatment of terrorism suspects also takes away your right to a trial by jury.

NPR Story: Yoo Defends Detainee Measures as 'Rules of War'

Windows Media Audio

This was an interesting news story I heard this morning while getting ready for work. Listen to it if you get a chance...

The part that is most upsetting to me is that if the government decides (for any reason, including donating to the wrong charity) that you, an American Citizen, are an "enemy combatant" then you no longer have the right to a trial. The government can imprison you for as long as they want, they can take away your freedom, and they can do it without a trial. You get one Habeas Corpus review where you can plea for a jury to hear your case, but if that fails you can be held indefinitely. After that: no trial, no jury, no lawyers, no judge -- just you and a prison cell.

It is even worse for a non-citizen living in the United States or anywhere else - they don't even get the right to a Habeas Corpus review.

Once you are a detained enemy combatant and (in the case of a US citizen) you have lost your Habeas Corpus review, your only chance for a jury trial is if the President of the United States decides you get one. I would assume that the President will only hold trials that the government thinks they can win... so if you have a good case for your freedom, (for example: you are innocent) get used to those prison walls.

This war against terror is billed as one to defend our rights. But, if we have to give up those rights to win this war, what will we have left when we win?