The Blog Formerly Found On Vox

Media Sales Guys Get No Respect.

..especially if they work for Clear Channel.

 

Real Men of Radio: Mr Sales Guy

Bud Light Parody

And you thought I was dangerous on the road before

Autos to Be Outfitted With Web Access - from USA Today.

Personal computers are set to start showing up in vehicles, allowing consumers to check e-mail, avoid traffic jams or make restaurant reservations via the Web. The service is expected to be popular among younger drivers. In-car Web access will be "as common as cellphones."

 

Maybe I should wait to buy a new GPS.

 

 

The past two weekends in food.

Last weekend I made pop-overs. They actually popped over, were beautiful and delicious.

This weekend, I had a craving for tabouli and Annabelle had one for chocolate chip cookies. We made both. We got two persimmons in our box of produce from Copay this week. I don't know what to do with them. Any suggestions?

Who says you're not a touchy-feely person?

Free Hugs Campaign. (music by sick puppies)

I am sure many of you have seen this already, but I think we should all see it again and everyone should see it at least once.

And on the day in autumn that we gain an hour by turning our clocks back, I feel like hugging someone.

I am grateful my parents were smokers

Thank You for Smoking

 

It's the reason I have never smoked a cigarette.

I just saw this ad on TV; it's disturbing and makes an impact.  And it reminds me of the movie "Thanks For Not Smoking", which was great.

Singing Cowboy

 

 

Tasty brunch rich in vitamins and minerals

Annabelle suggested I add some of the many greens (spinah, bok choy, chard) we have in the house t0 the perogis this morning. Excellent suggestion.

Perogies, Onions & Greens

Friday mornings can be so good

Went to the chiropractor today again and things are getting better. So far so good.

Rudy was at work today. So darn cute. Breakfasts on Friday mornings. So conveniently yummy.

Rudy was bored with the staff meeting today

One of things great about Fridays at work - breakfast

Happy Halloween -- shake your bones!

I forget I'd put this in my Vox library meaning to post it as a Halloween treat. My brother-in-law sent this to a bunch of us last week... I have got to get my family using Vox more. This kind of stuff is what Vox is made for!

(note: the best parts are from about midway through to the end. watch carefully and try not to smile - it's not possible).

Shake it! Break it down one time! Yow!

Meeting a Vox neighbor or two - but where's Laurel?

So for a while I've had this half baked idea about meeting non-Six Apart Voxers in person. You know, share a glass of limoncello in the backyard, extend the conversations from our posts and comments at some SF wine bar, swap favorite QotD's, chit chat and well...just meet...for real.

Tonight I was lucky enough to meet two folks in my neighborhood. Mark and Karen (sadly, I forget to get a picture with Karen, but she looked as lovely as I expected she would ). But as you can see below, we did have to ask ourselves the question "Where's Laurel"?!

Being good Vox neighbors, we of course knew she was on another business trip, but did want to make sure she knew she was missed. 

We (Patty, Mark & Nancy) ask "Where's Laurel?"

Mingling at the Vox launch party

So close and yet so far.

I'm on my way. Be there soon I hope.

Block after block of this stuff

The traffic is bad

 

A couple of fun Vox-y things to note

Vox debuts

Here's an easy way to show people what Vox is - the Vox tour.

And a great launch give-away (assuming you're not a Six Apart employee or family member of a Six Apart employee) where you could win a trip around the world by making a post or inviting new people to Vox

On the eve of the Vox launch

"I blog therefore I am"

I blog, therefore I am
Steve Johnson - Chicago Tribune

"As seminal as instant messaging was and e-mail was, we believed very strongly that blogging was going to take its place as the third big communication tool," says Andrew Anker, Vox product manager for Six Apart, a company founded by early blogging star Mena Trott.

It's a freak-ing huge (and very good) ad

 

Big Ad

So much for show and tell, so little time

I have about three half started and another three or four photos for posts that I've been meaning to make, but haven't the time or the energy to do it. 

My blog is backing up. What kind of a plumber do you call for that? 

He was injured, injured bad

I was looking for this other Blue Shield television ad that I've seen a couple of times now and think is great, but I found this one instead.

Too cute.

It almost makes me want to have another kid, Well, almost, but not actually.

 

Blue Cross Blue Sheild

 

 

 

I'm so lost. Without Tom I am nowhere.

Okay, it's been a week since someone snatched Major Tom on the mean streets of San Francisco. And the worst part has not been driving down the road and up to my daughter's school with a beige fleece blanket flopping outside the passenger door, looking for all the world like we were not only not wealthy enough to drive a "luxury" SUV, but we're not smart enough to park someplace secure and not resourceful enough to get a blown out window repaired.  

The worst part was not trying to find a glass replacment company that would actually do what their ads claimed and be "mobile" enough or "speedy" enough to come to my house to replace the window. The worst part is not seeing still more bits of broken glass on the floor mats and between the seats now that the new window's in place and the floor's been vacuumed no less than three times.

No, the worst part is knowing how utterly dependent I have become on a GPS system.

TomTom Go Buh Bye

MapQuest, Yahoo and Google maps all suck. Even when you send the directions to your phone, you still have to go online and get them in the first place. That's not nearly quick or convenient enough after two years of having an on-board navigator. You can't veer off course and easily figure out how to get back on to the freeway home. You can't, on the fly, press a few buttons and find a post office or say a...ummm...a gas station...with a bathroom...when you're sick and really really need one. Ok, too much information.

I can apparently can live quite successfully without a life mate and partner, but I desparately need to replace Tom.

After a little research, I've narrowed my choices down as follows:

• Replace my old TomTom Go with the newer model -- there's something to be said for familiarity.
• Try out the competition, the highly rated Garmin Nuvi 360 -- looks pretty sweet
• Or try a TomTom that goes on my phone/pda -- this one's the least expense route, but I wonder if I'd be happy with it?

One troubling thing I found when doing some research on GPS choices this weekend was this.

NOTICE TO DRIVERS IN CALIFORNIA AND MINNESOTA: State law prohibits drivers in California and Minnesota from using suction mounts on their windshields while operating motor vehicles. Other Garmin dashboard or friction mounting options should be used. Garmin does not take any responsibility for any fines, penalties, or damages that may be incurred as a result of disregarding this notice. (See California Vehicle Code Section 26708(a); Minnesota Statutes 2005, Section 169.71)

What?!? I'm been driving for two years with Tommy illegally on my windshield?

So anyway, can anyone make any recommendations -- quickly?

I'm going to have to get something soon. I don't like being so lost.

______________________

UPDATE: I've been trying to find this song for this post and finally now -- success!

Enjoy.

Emmylou Haris singing a song that is both heart-breakingly beautiful and hauntingly sad and yet makes you want to sing along.

 

Lost Unto This World

Emmylou Harris

 

"Real" Beauty?

Dove does it again, makes us think about how we define female beauty and makes me want to buy their products over the others. I've watched this 3 times in a row. Fascinating. Sixty seconds from real to "beautiful".

Courtesy of Jendra and also available at the Campaign for Real Beauty website.

Sadly, this little time lapse also makes me want to get a pro to have at the photos that were taken last week for the 6A website. My tired eyes, dark circles, flat hair and 44-year-old skin could use some of this digital magic.

dove evolution

Earthquake in Hawaii. Everyone OK?

Hawaii

The 6.6 earth quake in Hawaii this afternoon was centered just about where I used to live on the Big Island.

When I was lived there in 1982-83, the Kailua volcano was very active and we experienced one smallish early morning quake (4.3 I believe) that made the hanging plants sway and knocked over a bedside glass.

This one knocked out power as far away as Honolulu. It was 8 hours ago and they are saying there is no tsunami danger. Thank goodness.

Here are a couple of Vox-ers who were there or have family there.

http://legothenego.vox.com/library/post/hawaii-earthquake.html/
http://deandersendesigns.vox.com/library/post/earthquake.html/
http://gregg.vox.com/library/post/65-earthquake-in-hawaii.html/

Spreadshirt gets a gift box of swag from Six Apart

....cut and pasted from the Spreadshirt.com blog. They were in the offices today and told us about this post.

And btw, we weren't reading their blog, we just like to thank our advertisers! If YOU want to advertise on Vox or LiveJournal and get some swag yourself, email us.

Good things come in FedEx boxes

I think our friends at Six Apart must be reading this blog. Last week I wrote about how much I love free t-shirts.

The FedEx man arrived last week for a package for Lynsie. Usually the FedEx man brings papers, but this time it was a box of goodies from our friends at Six Apart.

Lynsie has been working with the good folks from Six Apart, and they decided to send over some treats for us, and it wasn’t even halloween yet. Thank you Six Apart! I know that Josh loves the Vox t-shirt and I have been wearing the Live Journal t-shirt. The fun of getting new t-shirts never gets old.

 

deauthorizing a computer from iTunes

I'm wondering if anyone out there in Voxland can help me with this. I'm tired of trying to figure it out on my own and getting nowwhere.

I'm not exactly sure how I did this, but apparently, I have five computers authorized to access my iTunes music. So when I try to play a song I bought on iTunes on the Windows XP laptop I use for work, I get the message that I can't play it because I already have 5 computers "authorized".

Huh?

First off, I was able to buy the song using my iTunes account on this computer, but I can't listen to it? That's pretty uncool. It would have been nice to get the "you're over your limit" kind of warning before I bought the song.

But anyway, the question is this: how can I find out what computers I've authorized? I don't own 5 computers with iTunes, so it's mystery to me how this happened anyway. As best as I can tell, it's must be old computers that are still being counted because right now the only computers I know of that I've played iTunes music on are my desktop iMac at home and the iBook I bought about 6 months ago for Annabelle. Perhaps the old 12" iBook we replaced was authorized too. But how can I know? And more importantly, how can I clean up my account so that I can hear this song on this machine?

The Wire - deleted from Tivo "Now Playing"

I am so far behind watching the things recorded on TiVo. I'm never going to be able to watch it all, so tonight I started some selective deleting. Here's what's in the upstairs box.
 

• Bay Area Backroads (21)
• Bill Moyers on Faith & Reason (with Pema Chodron)
• CNET (9)
• Colbert (10 -- probably only 8 of them new. For some reason Tivo records all the repeats on Mondays)
• Corporation, The
• Daily Show (10 - same story as Colbert)
• Dinner for Five
• Family Guy (5)
• Maria Full of Grace
• Men In Trees (3)
• Night of the Living Dead
• Real Time with Bill Mahr (3)
• Saturday Night Live (2)
• Sin City
• Sling Blade
• South Park (3)
• Spanglish
• Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory (original for AB)
• The Wire (5 - watched almost two and deleted the rest tonight)

And because I've seen the Studio 360 pilot, two episodes of Brothers & Sisters (which I thought was pretty good) and I love the promos that Tina Fey wrote herself for 30 Rock, I went and added Season Passes for them as well!

But those additions were made after deleting all of the episodes of this season's "The Wire". I watched 1.5 episodes tonight and just decided that I don't want spend any more time ingesting images and stories that make me whince. I don't want to watch anymore of the tragic underbelly of life in Baltimore. The political storyline held some of my attention, but as good as this show is (or was), I can't take the violence and the soul-crushing depiction of poverty and class anymore.

I think of the cabbie from Tunisia who took me to the LAX on Monday and who told me stories of learning English by watching sitcoms. His favorite was Third Rock From The Sun and he giggled and grinned so much telling me about episode after episode that my face hurt from smiling.

Even though I told him that I didn't think I'd seen Third Rock more than a snipped here or there once or twice, he'd finish retelling one plot while laughing and looking back in the rear view and then without missing a breathe launch into "oh oh oh, did you see the one where they had the picnic because, you know, American's do the picnic and eat on the ground and these guys, cuz they were aliens and he was a big know-it-all, smashed potato chips into the ground? Oh oh oh, that one was toooo funny!" And then he added, "I only love the comedy; life's too short to not make laugh at it." I agree. So the rest of "The Wire" was deleted.

The Family Room Tivo box is generally more light-hearted:

• America's Next Top Model (2)
• Bowling for Columbine (for AB to see)
• Little People Big World (2)
• My Name Is Earl
• The Office (10)
• Paper Clips
• Project Runway
• Stevie
• Ugly Betty
• Vanished Twins

 

Delicious lunch and a mystery parked "car"

The sublime and the ridiculous in Palo Alto this afternoon.

 

Zao Lunch - yummy!

Amazing. Watching the life forces dance.

The Inner Life Of A Cell

comes by way of browsing Vox and finding KT's post with this on it.

In the lobby

Doing a Vox demo of mobile blogging...from my camera phone.

Lots of big happy luminous faces

Sunday prayers in Detroit

Religious alternatives to traditional football rituals exist at the Detroit airport.

....yes, I am traveling again.

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