Purely on a whim, I checked the Zoo's website on lunch Friday. I saw that Saturday was enrichment day. My mind decided, I printed the bus schedules and asked my boss if I could borrow one of the company's cameras. He said, as he always does, yes.

That evening, I downloaded a schedule of various enrichment activities, got my self a copy of a map and planned out the event. I even packed the night before. This geek was ready, bottled water, PDA, HP camera, digital audio recorder, VISA card, 4 dollars for bus fare, and 260 Meg of Flash memory... I was actually excited.

The next morning I woke early and finished with a few other items to be added to the list. I left the house at 8:30 to catch the 9:08 bus. Catching that bus would allow me to transfer and be at the Zoo when it opened. I could catch the polar bears devouring a papier-mache walrus!

About a half mile to the bus stop, my allergies kicked in and, only then, did I realize I forgot to hit my sinuses with their inhaler. I tried to convince my self other wise but I need to double back. Now my leisurely pace of one mile over 30 minutes had about 12 minutes remaining to catch the bus. I can not run, my back and knee won't take the concrete stress but off I went.

I have observed that parents have long been known to have the ability to tune their hearing. Unlike the frogs, I think it has more to do with post-eardrum processing. Regardless, I think we should study this matter further.

Remember the first time you asked Dad for the car? I know my father didn't hear me. There was silence, no acknowledgment... nothing.

I thought he had completely lost his hearing, seizing opportunity, I took the car. Apparently he did hear it start up. Unfortunately, convinced he was deaf and being a dumb sixteen year old with a one day old license, I didn't hear his screams over the burning rubber and revving engine. His hearing was perfectly normal in regards to me turn back into the driveway. Then, as I closed the car door, MY hearing was nearly ruptured by the verbal assault that ensued as if from one of the beast in the Book of Revelation.

I would like to think that the embarrassment alone would deter them in the future.

• Topping the list is an important reminder from the DogReader over at Lockergnome. It seems that about half the surfers out there are at risk because of security flaws in thier browsers
• Alex over at the same super blog notes that the ValueSoft package of Ubuntu Linux is, more or less, a simply paying for something that is free
• This falls under "you gotta be kidding me" category. Some drunk decided to join a team of firemen!
• Over at Furl Dog I discovered that these missile photos may have well been poorly doctored. This however, was noticed only after> many major newspapers published the photos.
• Over at AdRant, they point out why translation is still best left to humans and not software.

I am not sure that the brothers will fare that well in a cartoon. If you take a few moments to read over the information on this duo at Wikipedia, you find that they go to great lengths to assure that the show has a "live" feel. Click and Clack have gotten this style down to an art. That is what makes the show entertaining.

I have not yet managed to watch an episode but it seems my fears are shared by at least one critic over at The Boston Globe. I do not know if this is going to get running well enough to even leave the garage. I agree with the Adfreak article that PBS may not be the right niche for it. I disagree that another network may be the market. I hope I am wrong but I fear we will look back on this one as another idea that should have just stayed an idea.

Just in case you have not heard, Firefox 3 will be released today. Mozilla is asking everyone to set a world record for the most software downloads in a single day. Today is also my kid sister's birthday so they picked a good day to release it.

You have likely noticed that over the past two years, my posting frequency has been about as consistent as the Cleveland weather. The combination of poor health and having too many pots on the stove so to speak have taken a toll. I had hoped that my chronic sinus condition would just go away. It is not.

I had hoped that once I had my sinuses under control I could begin posting more material again. The reality is that my sinuses are going nowhere and the best I am going to quoting my doctor "manageble". Reality is not just so simple though.

My inner child has been trying to ignore the fact that, at 44, I should slow down. At present I publish at up to 9 different locations. That is too much. I am going to cut back. How much and where is yet to be determined. The only thing I have deffinitely decided on is that I will be doing more live streaming and podcasting since that is what everyone seems to enjoy the most. Check out and bookmark my LumpCast Site.

Now both of my feline roommates are very well behaved and docile animals. This however matters little when the animal does not understand that the "treatment" going to benefit him. His only though it "God gave me claws, you are not putting that stuff on my eye!"..

I have found that the only method I can deal with the furry spastic fearful ball of fur is to toss the poor little bugger into a military laundry bag. The draw string allows just enough cloth to bunch up around his neck so that he can't get those claws into me and ruin another set of pants but not tight tnough to choke him or bind his neck. He is actually adapting well to this new 5 time per day ritual. He hasn't hissed and growled since Saturday now.

Most of what these young folks do is stream. They live for it. They script and code around being able to do it. About half of them are under 18 years old.

They operate at a G rated level and, most of them, are mature and well behaved for their ages. Personally, I think it is a shame that this is happening. The ability to stream with what is, in my humble opinion, the best streaming service out there empowered them to experiment with code, web design and, based on what I saw, was a very positive thing.

Personally, it impacts me none. Unless they up the age limit to something over 45, I am safe. I feel however that there should be some viable solution to this. I agree Ustream should have the right to set their own terms of service but cant we find some type of compromise on this one? I personally feel that parental control should be left to parents. Most IRC networks that I am aware of have a 14 year old policy, why is streaming video so different than chat?

Jason has created a petition for those who feel this is not right. He is basically asking Ustream.tv to lower the broadcast limit to 14 years of age. If you feel this is reasonable would you please head over there and sign it.

Feel free to leave your thoughts via a comment

I am not going to mention each and every shot I have taken of this project but this one gives a good over view of the size of the town. (I reckon it takes up about 30 square feet at present.) This photo of the modeler standing amidst his project also puts it into perspective.

I first became aware of this project when I went to visit this Easter. I have been fortunate enough to spend some time on the weekends out at my folks of the late. I thought it might be interesting to share some of the photos that my father, mother and I have taken of this model town. I also though it would be a good opportunity to experiment with my mother's camera.

I took most of these photos with a Kodak EasyShare C360 that my siblings and I bought my mother. Ironically, I use it more than her. This does, however, give her geek son some experience with the device that he uses to better show mom how to use it.

Thanks to Johnnie Moore for bringing my attention to this video. I agree Mr. Moore, Facebook is fun but it can get excessive. The video is great! Disclaimer!!! If you can not get this one out of you head afterwards, I am not to blame.

I admit I found it a riot. Confirming the link to post it in delicious and part of the category TidBits. I watched the entire thing again. Then I went down the slope of You Tube's "Related Videos" and wasted some time. It was fun. Here are a few more YouTube Videos about Facebook. Also a more serious warning..

• Not Safe for Work and children!! A good two and a half minutes about Taking Facebook Poking to a new Level
• Bob Dylan's Facebook Song
• From College Humor; Facebook Off, a spoof on the movie Face Off
• Facebook - too much information is satirical monologue
• Here is another Facebook Parody
• Again not safe for work but The Official Cambridge Facebook Song is funny and high quality
• One last link; Facebook News Network

Two days ago, I was rading my feeds with Google Reader. Check out the summary for this head line. This hiccup was gone by the time I came returned from work. It effected not all the feed but only a few. The headlines and summaries are scrambled up. I had no luck figuring out where the summarries actually belonged. The headlines go to the relevant post. Is anyone else having this problem? Does anyone have any explanations?

I thought it might have been a little glitch or such. I tried refresh and restarting the browser but nada. The issue remained for the same feeds. I have been using Google Reader for a good while now and have never noticed this before. Other than both summaries having a spelling error or typo, I see nothing in common between them. Has it been doing this to a few feeds right along and I have never noticed?