The Old Gift Shop is online

The Old Gift Shop isn't actually that old -- they've been around for ten years -- but the stuff they sell has lots of appeal for history buffs and people with an interest in learning about the past. They sell Old World Gifts and Collectibles which include things like Crystal Palace miniatures, museum quality tall ship models, nautical steins, and old west figurines. In other words, wquality pieces which you might like to put on your mantle or in a display case or use as gifts for the history buff in your family. The store is unique and they offer great prices and a wide range of great products. If you like ships and navigation, check out their sextants. They've also got sundials, ships lanterns and all kinds of boats.

USC finally loses

USC made it close too many times this year and their luck finally ran out today against Oregon State. They did make a great comeback, but couldn't convert on the two point conversion and that was it. Since I'm a Cal fan, USC's loss puts Cal in position for their first Pac 10 football title since 1959 or maybe it was 1958. Anyway, a long time ago. Cal will still need to play USC, but I think they are a better team and can handle them.

Free Printer Ink Cartridges

The ink is often the most expensive part of many inkjet printers. I have a couple of photo printers where the cost of two sets of manufacturer's ink costs more than the printer did. Printcountry.com sells lots of ink cartridges and to get some of your business, they are giving away black ink for free and ink cartridge packs for below cost. There is a shipping charge in both cases. Check out their Free Printer Ink Cartridge Samples. They have a huge selection from many manufacturers and you can get the free ink and try them out.

What happened to blogger

I thought Blogger.com was working fine, but I seem to be missing a post. Where did it go? I don't like it when my stuff disappears like that.

The post showed up but I'm still getting errors when I "republish" my blog. That is one thing about Blogger.com that I still do not understand. I publish my new item, but I need to republish my whole blog for it to actually be published. Why is that necessary? Maybe it will go away in the next version of Blogger. Imagine how many times a day that has to be done by the millions of bloggers on Blogger.com.

Online Safe Deposit Box

I haven't been inside a bank or my credit union's office in more than five years. I have no idea if they even offer a safe deposit box or if they have any available, but even if they did, their offices are so far away, I wouldn't use the service. I could open a local account with another lender, but that seems to serve no good purpose. An Online Safe Deposit Box is a different way to solve this problem. Keepyousafe.com offers a free safe deposit box for a year. It's a digital lock box which you control. You can access your documents from anyplace and they will survive a natural disaster like a flood, hurricane or other catastrophic event. They use 256 bit encryption to keep your stuff away from hackers, so it's very secure.

Blogger.com back working again

Blogger.com was not working right earlier today, but it seems to be back to normal now. I don't know if this is related to the Blogger Beta or not, but it seemed to be a pretty widespread problem. I don't know which is more troubling -- when a site over which you have no control goes down or when your own site does and you have to fix it. I think I prefer the latter case.

Flat Screen TV

We purchased a flat screen TV at Costco yesterday. I'm not sure I did enough research before buying, but I think it will be fine. It's a little confusing between DLP, Plasma and LCD and then the resolutions and black levels. The set comes with almost no cables, so you have to spend more money on an HDMI cable, but I'm not paying $150 for one. I'll buy mine online for $15. Maybe we can set it up today and see how it looks.

Liven up your site with some sound from RAZZ

Many websites would benefit from a little more media. Just text all the time gets a little old and it's pretty easy to add images to your site, but audio is another story. RAZZ makes it easy to add sound with the RAZZ Mixer. It lets you record and add sounds quickly and easily to your site.

Perfect for MySpace or your weblog or any site where sound makes sense. Greet your friends or leave a message for someone with your own voice. Liven up your site with music or scary sounds for Halloween. The RAZZ mixer is easy to use and the results can be easily copied and pasted to your blog or website. Try the RAZZ Mixer Yourself

Here's a sample sound made with RAZZ:

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Make your own Razz!

Cardinals win, Jeff Weaver stars

It just goes to show that you really never know in sports. I would not have picked either the Tigers or the Cardinals to get past the first round of the playoffs. They both stunk at the end of the season and then somehow got hot in the playoffs when they had all their players back. I think the Tigers suffered from the long layoff. The Cardinals just kept going. I'm glad to see David Eckstein get some credit. The Angels should never have let him go. It serves them right. He's a tough guy who never quits and always hustles. A great role model. And Jeff Weaver made an amazing turnaround to pitch well in the playoffs. Also let go by the Angels. So was Jim Edmonds several years ago. It was fun to watch.

Esperanza fire update

The winds have shifted here in Temecula and the smoke from the fire is much less noticeable and the air is cleaner. This morning we could not even see the mountains to the south, but now they are clearly visible and the air in that direction is clean. However, if you look northeast, the air is still very dirty and visibility is very limited.

According to the news report I heard, the actual fire has gotten much worse and there is more smoke in that area. I can't imagine how bad it must be considering that the air is so bad here that there were almost no people outside until early this afternoon. All local football games have been cancelled for tonight because of the bad air. The Temecula Valley HS game may be played tomorrow or Monday depending on the air quality. The bad air has stretched all the way to Orange County due to the high winds.

PE.com has up to date coverage of the fire and many photos and videos.

Get some healthy stuff for free

You can find all kinds of free stuff online, but it's not always stuff you want or can use, and it's not always particularly good for you. As a member of HealthyFreeStuff.com you can get Free Product Samples from a variety of companies with an emphasis on things that are actually good for you. They try to set you up with free samples from America's top brands -- companies like Dove, Nature Made, Pfizer, Oral-B, Kleenex and more. It's all free once you become a member, which is also free. Just send along your email address.

Vitamins, minerals and over the counter drugs are one category you can get free stuff from as long as you are over 18. Other categories of free products include Women's Health and Pregnancy, Diet and Weight Management, and Natural and Alternative Health Supplements. The companies involved want you to try their products and they are willing to supply you with them for free so you'll see what they've got and if you like them, you'll become a paying customer. As the saying goes, "there's no such thing as a free lunch," but there are free samples and they can help you try out various products before you buy them.

Coach goes from pain in the neck to rat in the salad

I once had a live grasshopper in my salad in Jamaica, but Dallas Cowboys coach Todd Haley and his wife and babysitter bought a salad with a dead rat in it at McDonald's in June and are now suing over it. This is the same guy who Terrell Owens said he wouldn't speak to after a shouting match during a game. He's having a rough year, but what is he doing eating at McDonald's anyway? When my salad had the grasshopper, the head chef came out and apologized and said that sometimes things like that happen and made sure I wasn't really upset about it. I guess McDonald's could have had the teenager who presses the buttons to cook the fries apologize for the salad rat, but they didn't. It's always the poor customer service after the problem that gets the company in trouble.

Take your vitamins, please

Nutritional supplements can be an essential part of your everday routine. I take several vitamins and minerals every day and have done that for years. Not everyone's diet is perfect and many of us live with polluted air and not enough exercise. Supplements can help. N101 Nutrition is an online source for supplements and natural beauty products from top brands like Avalon Organics, Nature's Way and Twinlab. You'll get a discount price and a great selection. They carry everything from protein power to pet products. Keep your body strong and your pet smelling good! N101 places a high priority on customer service, so you'll get treated well throughout your shopping experience with them and if you sign up for their Rewards Program, you'll earn points on everything you buy which you can use for free stuff and discounts.

Fire gets much worse, bad air all around

The fire near Palm Springs really got bad during the day. As I drove to work the smoke was very thick most of the way there as the winds had blown so much of it towards Temecula and through the Hemet area. This evening on the way home, things were very dark and the smoke got worse and worse as I got closer to Temecula. Soccer practice was cancelled and even with all the windows in the car rolled up and the air conditioner set to recycle air and not take in any from outside, the smell was strong.

It's unimaginable that someone would go out and set a fire like this. Four firefighters have died already and 10,000 acres have burned. It will not surprise me if the air is even worse tomorrow and children have to stay inside at school all day. It's not healthy to be outside.

Fantasy Football all year long isn't a fantasy

Fantasy Football may not be as popular as NASCAR, but it's close. Millions of people play it and some even make money doing it. Fantasy Football all year long has a slightly different twist. They've got computer simulations, so you can play your own games year round. Sounds perfect for the video game generation as well as anyone who feels deprived when it's not football season. Check it out.

Fire in area

We have a huge amount of smoke in the air. It looks like it's a couple of miles away, but the fire is actually more like 50 miles away, near Cabazon. There are very high winds today also, so that's bad for the fire and also probably the reason why the smoke is all the way over here in Temecula. It doesn't smell, but it looks bad.

Down with Down

Buying Down doesn't mean moving from a house to a small condominium, it's all about How To Buy Down Bedding . Down is known for being soft and comfortable and warm, but it can be confusing when you start shopping for down products. Down is a renewable resource as long as there are enough ducks and geese around, and a down comforter can help you save money on your heating bill. The site will help you choose the right down bedding, understand quality standards, and they even have an FAQ with info about allergies, sizes and cleaning and drying your down.

Dell/AMD laptop under $500

The Dell/AMD laptop, at 15.4 inches and less than $500, which I guess means $499 before any discounts that Dell is known for, would be a good deal. Unless of course, it has a small hard drive, 256 MB of RAM and integrated graphics. It's coming out next month, so it will be interesting to see what they can do. I'm not sure I'm in the market for one of these, but it might drive prices down on other models.

Worst job interview

Job interviewing techniques can be helpful when you prepare for a job interview, and if you are good at organizing yourself in the office, that can be a helpful skill to mention during the interview. Now that so much work is done online, working on the Internet can also be good to know. I thought I did a good job preparing for my interview, but I wasn't ready for the way things went. I had 30 minutes to write a response to a question using a PC, then I was taken to another room where there were a group of people sitting around a table. They said their names, then read the questions from a piece of paper. Ten questions in all. At the end, I asked if I could ask a couple of questions, but they said no, you don't get to ask any questions. I left the interview not knowing anything more about working at that place than I read on their website. It wasn't a good format for me to learn about the place.

Saturn's hybrid Vue not so green

Dan Neil in the LA Times says that the new Saturn VUE takes a low budget approach to the hybrid vehicle that isn't very satisfying. He says the car feels cheap and the gas mileage improvements are pretty minimal compared to other manufacturers like Toyota.

The salient advantage of the Vue hybrid system, says Saturn, is its low cost — under $2,000 (the vehicle MSRP is $22,995). This is key to calculating the endlessly chewed-over hybrid premium equation, which is the additional cost of the system weighed against the potential fuel cost savings. According to Saturn, the Vue's two-grand system rewards drivers with a 20% improvement in fuel economy. (Not to be pedantic, but by my calculations, the 2.2-liter Vue has a combined EPA of 24.5 mpg, so the improvement is numerically 17%, not 20%.)

I looked at the Vue about 3 years ago, but ended up buying a Honda CRV which was bigger, got better mileage and cost less.

Moving to Atlanta?

Moving to Atlanta? Lots of people have and many more are probably thinking about it. Good home prices, nice weather, the Atlanta Hawks! Okay, maybe the Hawks are not a reason to move to Atlanta and we won't even mention that goofy circular freeway system, but Atlanta is a nice place to live. I have relatives there and have been there a number of times. Atlanta Georgia Real Estate can help you find a place or sell a place in Atlanta and you know that a good real estate agent can really save you some time and money. They know the area and can give you guidance you won't get on your own. Their site is easy to use and packed with useful information about the Atlanta real estate market. Check it out and search for the home you need.

Workout at your computer

I get up at 5:30 every day to do some exercise because I spend most of my day sitting at a computer. Not exactly a healthy thing, but many other people do it too. It's nice to get out for a walk or to just take the stairs. I do that whenever I can, but WikiHow has some tips for exercising at your computer which might be a good alternative. Avoid the stiff necks and wrists and shoulders by taking breaks and doing some of the exercises they suggest. Your body will thank you.

Kiki James

Although it sounds like the name of that woman who sang a song with Elton John a few years ago, Kiki James is actually a luxury gift provider. They specialize in leather and deliver anywhere. If you are shopping for me, I'd like one of the Tuscan Wrap Photo Albums. Very classy. They've also got a number of very nice journals. You can see the prices in British pounds, US dollars and Euros, so if you are confused by converting, they make it easy.

Merriman appeals suspension

Shawne Merriman appealed his steriods suspension and will get to play 2 or 3 more games while the appeal is heard. That's good for the Chargers who have lost 3 other defensive players and can't afford to lose too many more games if they are going to do anything in the playoffs. Their edefense is what keeps them in games, and Merriman is a key part of the defense, so if they do end up losing him, I think their Super Bowl chances are diminished without him in the lineup for a month.

Visit the Crystal Palace in minature

Have you ever felt like the world was an intimidating and overwhelming place, full of large buildings and just a little too much to deal with sometimes? Me too! The Crystal Palace Landmarks are a miniature landmark collection which brings the world down to size. You can find small scale replicas of places like the US White House, the Sydney Opera House in Australia, and the Petronas Twin Towers in Malaysia. Those towers are huge in real life, but the model is a little easier to deal with and much more affordable. Crystal Palace Landmarks have Elegant gifts and collectibles that you'll find appealing and which will look great on your shelves or in your cabinets. Just don't mar their appeal by putting them next to a bobble head doll or Aunt Lucy's collection of miniature schnauzers.

Kenny Rogers' hand mud

I don't think I've ever seen mud that made your hand look yellow. I don't buy the Kenny Rogers ball rubbing explanation. I think he had something on there to gain an advantage and I'm surprised that nobody bothered to check it out. You can bet he won't be doing that next game because every camera will be on him.

Let's talk nicely about NASCAR

NASCAR is an extremely popular sport, and not just among the guys who wear baseball caps all the time and drive trucks. It's the greatest spectator sport in the United States and many of the drivers are celebrities like Dale Earnhart, Jr. and Jeff Gordon, although it seems like a lot of people don't like Jeff Gordon so much because he's originally from Northern California, which has a reputation for being pretty liberal and not exactly the place where you find a lot of NASCAR people. Whatever your feelings are about NASCAR, you can express them in the NASCAR Forum on NASCAR Space.

GTD Podcast - Getting things done with your team

Merlin Mann has the latest episode in his conversation with GTD guru David Allen. This one is called Getting things done with your team. I don't have a team, but I'm going to listen to it anyway. You can pick it up at 43folders. 4th in the series and this one is 8 minutes and 46 seconds long.

The hidden power of keyloggers

Computers and the Internet have opened up a whole new world of mischief for children and teenagers. In addition to those online predators lurking in chat rooms, there are many other ways kids can get into trouble online. Meeting unsavory characters in online role playing games, getting bullied via email, or having profanity laced IM sessions with the kid across the street are just some of the ways kids can run afoul of the family rules. Most parents have trouble checking the browser history, so it can be challenging to keep tabs on what your kids are doing online and who they are doing it with. That's where a keylogger comes in. A Keylogger is a program which captures all the keystrokes surreptitiously and saves them to a file. You check back later and look through the file for any suspicious activity. If you find it, you dole out the consequences for your child, empowered by your new found mastery of technology. And your kid thought you were clueless when it came to the family PC! Spector Pro by SpectorSoft is a keylogger that even records MySpace activity, and we all know what goes on there. Keep your child safe online by using a keylogger and stepping in when they step over the line.

Another Parent vs. Coach story

Last week I emailed one of my sons' coaches to ask what he needed to do to get more playing time. He got more playing time but not because of my email. He was working harder. I felt a little funny about doing it but everything was fine. I didn't make any demands. But how about this one:

PHILADELPHIA -- A father pulled a gun on a youth football coach because his son wasn't getting enough playing time, police said.

Wayne Derkotch, 40, was arguing with the coach Sunday during a game of 6- and 7-year-olds when he drew the weapon, police said. No shots were fired.

Find your voice at voices.com

If you've ever done a video or multimedia project with sound, you know how important the audio portion of those projects can be. If your project has narration, it's essential to have someone who speaks clearly and knows how to talk so that others can understand and maintain interest.Voices.com should be your first stop for voice overs. They have professionals ready to narrate your podcast, video game, educational video, jingle -- anything that needs a narrator, they have you covered. When you need a real voice, try Voices.com.

 

Stanford School of Medicine research on Internet addiction

Lots of people are spending too much time on the Internet to the point where it becomes unhealthy. Is it a medical problem? The Stanford University School of Medicine have started studying the issue:

In a first-of-its-kind, telephone-based study, the researchers found that more than one out of eight Americans exhibited at least one possible sign of problematic Internet use. The findings follow results from previous, less rigorous studies that found a significant number of the population could be suffering from some form of Internet addiction.

...

According to preliminary research, the typical affected individual is a single, college-educated, white male in his 30s, who spends approximately 30 hours a week on non-essential computer use. While some may hear this profile and assume that a person’s Internet “addiction” might actually be an extreme fondness for pornography, Aboujaoude stressed that pornography sites are just one part of the problem.

“Not surprisingly, online pornography and, to some degree, online gambling, have received the most attention—but users are as likely to use other sites, including chat rooms, shopping venues and special-interest Web sites,” he said. “Our survey did not track what specific Internet venues were the most frequented by respondents, but other studies, and our clinical experience, indicate that pornography is just one area of excessive Internet use.”

A summary of the study is available online and the full article appears in the October issue of CNS Spectrums: The International Journal of Neuropsychiatric Medicine, which is probably not on your local newstand but might be accessible through a university library.

All Inclusive Holidays with On the Beach

I had never heard of an all inclusive holiday until about four years ago when I was involved in a workshop which was held at at an all inclusive resort. My family came along and had a great time while I worked all day long! They took advantage of the food, the pools, the beach, activities, game rooms -- pretty much everything the place had to offer. They never left the resort. I worked all day. Although the idea of an all-inclusive holiday didn't appeal to me before then, I can see the benefits and understand why many people like the concept. Since then, I've been to at least 5 other all inclusive resorts, always for workshops, and I've tried to find a way to take advantage of some of the many activities and services which are offered.

All Inclusive Holidays are the specialty of On The Beach, a travel agent specializing in all-inclusive holidays in Egypt, Greece, Spain, Turkey and Tenerife starting from the UK. As the term all-inclusive implies, you pay one price for everything and once you get there, you can do as you like, enjoying the food, drink and activities all day and all night. Make sure you use sunblock! On the Beach has everything covered, from getting to the airport, enjoying your holiday and then getting back home safely.

Bad news for Chargers

I figured the Chargers had a shot at making the Super Bowl this year with their great defense and the excellent offensive players on their team. They still have to overcome their coach's tendency to get conservative when they get a lead, but it looked like things were different this year. But today they lost to the Chiefs on a last second field goal, and now Shawne Merriman is suspended for 4 games for using steroids. Not a good combination.

Actually, a four game suspension seems like a mild penalty. Chris Andersen of the New Orleans Hornets, is sitting out for two years for a positive drug test and the drugs he was taking weren't helping his performance.

eJabberd IM server

Do you need to run an instant messaging server which uses the XMPP/Jabber protocol? Check out ejabberd from Process One. Ejabberd is an open source, high-performance, robust Jabber-based instant messaging server developed and supported by Process-one. Using the Ejabberd server, you can build Instant Messaging services for a service providers or set up your own Instant messaging services. The server is probably the most scalable and the most robust Jabber server around but it is still not largely known. The server is written in Erlang, and is distributed under the GNU General Public License version 2. The latest version, 1.1.2, was released on September 27th. Ejabberd is also cross-platform, distributed, fault-tolerant, and based on open standards for real-time communication. It can be suitable for small or large deployments on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows.

Process One can customize your ejbabberd server with extensions or entire applications to fit your specific needs. They also offer consulting services, support and training. They even have an Erlang support team who can help your system administrators manage your ejabberd application.

If you are interested in the current and future development of ejabberd, check out the Road Map which covers plans for ejabberd 2.0. There is also an active online community for ejabberd where you can find out what's going on and ask any questions you have about ejabberd and erlang.

LA Library photo website

The LA Times has an interesting story about photos made available on the LA Public Library website. 70,000 photos are already online and more are put on each week as staffing permits. There are some by Ansel Adams and other photos of celebrities and local sights.

Although library officials say they don't track which photos are being viewed, what people are ordering says a lot about Los Angeles' appetite for its own history.

True-crime images, especially those involving the Black Dahlia murder, Robert F. Kennedy's assassination, the Hillside Strangler case and the Manson family, are "cyclically popular," said Matthew Mattson, photo imaging consultant for the library. "Every year, on the anniversaries, we get a lot of requests."

Other kinds of photos are perennially popular, Mattson said: The Hollywood sign, especially when it was "Hollywoodland." Shots of downtown, notably from the 1930s and '40s. Airplanes. Trains.

The library charges a nominal fee for printing images or distributing digital copies; commercial ventures are also charged a usage fee.

Although Cole encourages people to take the pictures from the website for personal use, she said the L.A. city attorney stands ready to defend the library when bloggers and others take the library's images for their own sites without permission.

But she also understands the intricate push and pull of the Web. Van der Leun, for example, did not draw legal action for placing the Adams photos online. His actions, said Cole, "called attention to our archives. And the conversation is a literate one."

Hmm, I wonder if I can put one of their photos here to point to their site...it's not clear from the article. They charge for almost every use -- even educational use costs $25. Also, although I'm sure the collection has some great stuff, to find things, there is no way to browse. The only point of entry to the collection I could find is the option to search by either keyword or by photographer. Since I don't know too many photographers from that time period, I'm in the dark there, beyond just searching for Ansel Adams.

Here's a photo direct from the site. It's the Tower Records on Sunset Strip, which like all other Tower Records stores, is in the process of closing down (if it's still there). Photo taken 1980 by Roy Hankey.

Take back the Capitol

If you think it's time for a change in government in Washington D.C., specifically the White House, Senate and House of Representatives, you should enjoy Take Back the Capitol! It's a short video with some commentary about current issues and the Republican's control of the White House, Senate and House of Representatives over the past 6 years.

Personally, I've had enough of the Republicans, their scandals, and the Karl Rove style co-opting of political language to paint anything other than the Republican party line as evil.  Although I'm not sure there is a huge difference between Republican politicians and Democrat politicians, I do thing it's time to get some new people and new ideas in there.

Look for the "stay the course" segment, which President Bush is now in the process of disassociating himself from by saying that's not what he really meant. Of course not.

Dropping into sixth, passed by a green woman

I had a pretty secure hold on 5th place all week in the PayPerPost standings, but this afternoon I dropped down to 5th when Stefanie jumped ahead of me. She got $200 for painting herself green and walking around a mall with 3 PayPerPost signs. $200 would be nice, but this is one opportunity I won't be taking. Now, if I could paint my sons green and have them walk around with the signs, I might do that.

Restoring Vail Ranch

Vail Ranch is the historical center of Temecula's history. It was the hub way back when Temecula was known for pig farms and cattle ranches. Vail Ranch once encompassed most of what is now Temecula. The biggest irony is that it now sits on land surrounded by a shopping center and nothing has been done to restore the site or make it accessible since the shopping center was built a few years ago. The Press Enterprise says a group is ready to do that at a cost of $7 million.

Arteco's preservation plan calls for the restored buildings to be used for commercial uses that could include restaurants, coffee shops, an ice cream parlor or retail stores. A two-story building would be constructed on the site. It would be designed to blend in with the existing historical structures, two of which would likely be adapted to meet the operational needs of the eventual commercial tenants.
The Vail Ranch preservation group plans to use part of a previously moved and restored barn for a museum and periodically hold special events at the site. Farnbach said the preservation group has already acquired two stagecoaches, a hay wagon, a vintage tractor, a Model T automobile and other historical items for use and display.
A water tower that once anchored another section of the sprawling ranch will also eventually be moved to the site, he said.
"I think the community is silently waiting," he said.

Google Analytics plugin for WordPress

I came across Joe Tan's WordPress plugin which will help you manage your Google Analytics and Feedburner data. It's easy to install and set up and will give you lots of information. More info than I was getting by going to the Google Analytics page. It's free although donations are accepted and it's very nicely done.