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Friday, March 31

Ask > Google?

Prompted by Walt, I gave Ask.com another look this afternoon and was somewhat impressed with the quality & presentation of search results.



It's too bad they had to fire Jeeves - I hope he & family are doing well...

posted by Brad at 3/31/2006 05:09:00 PM | permalink | 0 comments

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Movies in a Bubble

Anyone interested in checking out Omnifest at the Science Museum of Minnesota? Runs for another coupla weeks...

posted by Brad at 3/31/2006 12:56:00 PM | permalink | 1 comments

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Thursday, March 30

Relative Story Value

I often LOL at my America (The Calendar), and today's was no exception...

News Calculus: Determining Newsworthiness

renegade moose in yard < septuplets! < renegade truck on fire < conjoined babies < new disease outbreak (Africa < rest of the world) < war! < disgruntled man with gun < baby briefly imperiled by celebrity

posted by Brad at 3/30/2006 07:17:00 PM | permalink | 0 comments

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The Raw Truth

I'm currently enjoying a 30 day free trial to the Wall Street Journal Online, which saved me $1.50 in the airport last weekend when I saw a headline about how "fresh" your sushi really is. Instead of blatantly violating copyright by pasting the entire article text below, I'll share a few tips...

NEVER ON SUNDAY: Most restaurants do not receive fresh fish on the weekend, so it is certain to be less fresh than on other days. In some places, Monday is even worse.
NEATNESS COUNTS: Look in the sushi case at the bar. If pieces aren't wrapped and are touching one another or the sides of the case, says Sushi Sasabune chef Nobi Kusuhara, "they aren't really taking care of the fish very well."
EXPECT VARIETY: Offerings that change according to the season usually mean the chef takes pride in his selections.
GOOD LOOKS: Fresh fish will look shiny. Tuna should not be dark or too red. "When the color is red, almost as if it's been painted, ask if it has been smoked," says Mr. Kusuhara. If so, "it won't taste good and could be spoiled inside."
FOLLOW THE CROWDS: Unpopular restaurants may not have enough turnover to have fresh fish.
SAY NO TO SPICY SUSHI ROLLS: The spices are often intended to disguise inferior fish.



Too bad we broke rules #1 and 6 last weekend.

posted by Brad at 3/30/2006 04:56:00 PM | permalink | 1 comments

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Wednesday, March 29

Whoops

...it appears that I haven't posted in awhile. There are many reasons for this, not the least of which is the new router Dmitry installed on Monday - the Tablet won't stay connected for more than 2 minutes.

I just logged on to HP Instant Support Active Chat, let's see if T.S.Vijay Raghava R can help me figure this bad boy out.

posted by Brad at 3/29/2006 07:53:00 PM | permalink | 0 comments

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Tuesday, March 21

Stupid Sports

Don't know why I decided to turn on the Gophers NIT game, but their 8-2 early lead has been swallowed by a 17-3 Cincinatti run - time to turn it off and find another distraction...

In Packer news, it looks like we lost Vinatieri to the Colts - anyone know a good unemployed placekicker?

posted by Brad at 3/21/2006 08:30:00 PM | permalink | 0 comments

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Sunday, March 19

Just Madness

Texas A&M over Syracuse? I picked that.
UW-Milwaukee over Oklahoma? Picked that, too.
Wichita St. over Tennessee? Think I didn't pick that?
Georgetown over The Ohio State? That's right, I picked it.
Bradley over Kansas? You better believe I picked that...

The problem with correctly making all these bold predictions is that they are spread out over 4 different brackets, which translates to me doing pretty bad across the board. At this point, my best chance is to root for Texas all the way - although CBS SportsLine is spotty right now so I can't be 100% sure.

posted by Brad at 3/19/2006 11:09:00 PM | permalink | 3 comments

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Friday, March 17

Basketball Sucks

I always suspected that I was no good at basketball, which was confirmed after today's 2nd round loss (to a girl!) in our floor's Nerf HORSE tournament. What really bothers me is that I was actually nervous during both games - shaky hands make not a good basketballer.

Mom, do you have the picture of me holding a trophy in front of the 7th grade Sacred Heart basketball team after we won a tournament at St. Rita's? I think I scored about 4 points in that game, which obviously made me the team MVP since it was my career high...

posted by Brad at 3/17/2006 12:41:00 PM | permalink | 0 comments

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Tuesday, March 14

Nickel + Dime = $15

I'm sure this isn't breaking news, but I was intrigued by NWA's announcement of Coach Choice - pay $15 for an exit or aisle seat within 24 hours of departure.



I hope it works, they need all the cash they can get their hands on...

posted by Brad at 3/14/2006 12:00:00 PM | permalink | 2 comments

2 Comments:

  • If I paid an extra $25, would that ensure that my luggage would show up with me to my travel destination? How about if I paid an extra $50 to help upgrade planes for a place to stash the whining, crying children. Oh well, at least puke bags are still free. Blllaaahhhh. Yum, chunky.

    Vogts

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3/15/2006 11:09 AM 

  • you need a face diaper more than a puke bag...

    By Blogger Brad, at 3/15/2006 11:47 AM 

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Monday, March 13

700th Post

One of the first things that popped into my head upon starting to read The Wisdom of Crowds was the National Bracket that ESPN does every year to determine the "consensus" of who is gonna win the big dance. I'm sure it doesn't qualify as a stastically significant example, but I always figured the crowd would do a decent job of separating the "men from the boys", as it were.

Turns out I'm wrong.

Comparing the 2005 National Bracket with the actual results, the crowd did pretty good in the first round - choosing 25 of the 32 games correctly. Accuracy then dropped to 50% for rounds 2, 3 and 4, but Illinios and UNC did end up facing off in the championship game as predicted. Illinois was the slight favorite, but the crowd let me down yet again...

I'll reblog this in a month or so once the dust has settled to see if we got any smarter this year.

posted by Brad at 3/13/2006 05:31:00 PM | permalink | 0 comments

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Snow Day?

I wish.

Took me 20 minutes to walk (and then de-snow) the dog this morning, I can only imagine how long 13 miles is gonna take me. If there were ever a day to fold my new Dickies into the work wardrobe, today is it...

posted by Brad at 3/13/2006 07:39:00 AM | permalink | 0 comments

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Sunday, March 12

Wish I Could Dance...

Didn't buy any Lotuses today, but Dmitry did mention a slick Volkswagen Golf GTI ad that I (somewhat surprisingly) remembered to Google when I got home. Honestly, missing sweet ads like this is one thing I really don't like about TiVo - that and how it forces me to watch way too much South Park.

This would probably be even cooler if I was familiar with the original Gene Kelly "singin' in the rain," but still effective since only 2% of the VW Golf target demographic likely has seen the original...

posted by Brad at 3/12/2006 09:22:00 PM | permalink | 1 comments

1 Comments:

  • Great ad. Interestingly enough though, the ones I was telling you about are these
    and to a lesser degree these .
    VW really knows what they're doing in the ad department, no?

    DK

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3/13/2006 7:19 AM 

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Friday, March 10

Post Post Post Post Post

I'm working on a presentation about blogging for work, and feel compelled to contribute to the 1.2 million posts hitting the 'net each day.

Derek is cooking us dinner tonight, to be followed by bowling at Memory Lanes (aww) to celebrate Heather's birthday. Tomorrow night is a downtown St. Paul bar crawl, which is exciting since I've never really gone out there. The Auto Show on Sunday should cap things off nicely, I'll have to resist the temptation to buy an Elise though...

posted by Brad at 3/10/2006 04:46:00 PM | permalink | 0 comments

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Wednesday, March 8

Racine could be the next Hollywood?

The article also informed me that Racine hosts an independent film festival in October, perhaps I will have to make a trip back?

posted by Brad at 3/08/2006 04:41:00 PM | permalink | 3 comments

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Monday, March 6

Green Ankles & Ham

I love it when a complete stranger e-mails to let me know that they've found a use for one of the Creative Commons-licensed photos I've Flickr'd...

Hiya Bradley,

Used one of your photos as the basis for an album sleeve.
Thanks for sharing your stuff under a groovy CC license.

All the best

Paske's ankle is famous!

posted by Brad at 3/06/2006 10:09:00 PM | permalink | 1 comments

1 Comments:

  • Dude, that sock photo made me laugh my ass off. I love the special six-toe people comment. Anyways, Jason's ankle has a little gang green. He might want to get that checked on during a follow-up visit.hotmail.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3/07/2006 4:26 PM 

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Regina!

I don't know why I was so bent on using A9 yesterday, when Google Local and Windows Live Local powered by Virtual Earth* had what I needed.

Noticed this at the bottom of a Microsoft newsletter in my Gmail account, apparently it amused me:



*do you know the meaning of the word "brevity"?

posted by Brad at 3/06/2006 03:32:00 PM | permalink | 3 comments

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Sunday, March 5

Dear A9,

When will you add BlockView images for Minneapolis/St. Paul? I could really use it right now, as I can't recall the name of the salon where Regina works and my hair is getting long...

posted by Brad at 3/05/2006 03:07:00 PM | permalink | 0 comments

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Happy Birthdays!

It's upon us once again, the infamous early March birthday extravaganza. We celebrated Derek's 25th last night with appropriate exercises at Joe Senser's & Old Chicago. At some point during the festivities, he reminded me that I created a hidden page on the AKPsi website that lists the birthdate of every member in the database. I was astonished to see people born in 1975 right next to the current pledges born in 1987 - I sure didn't expect my measly little Access-backed website to last this long...

(I'm not going to link to the page since it's potentially sensitive, but if you're really interested just e-mail me the secret word and I'll send you a link.)

posted by Brad at 3/05/2006 01:25:00 PM | permalink | 1 comments

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Friday, March 3

DMB on Tour

Dave Matthews Band will be on tour in the US from May 30 - September 23, so let me know if you'd like me to request concert tickets for you through the Warehouse fan club.

I have to submit orders by Monday 3/13 at noon, so you've got 10 days...

posted by Brad at 3/03/2006 08:57:00 AM | permalink | 1 comments

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Thursday, March 2

delayed in ATL

there are so damn many people in the airport, i feel like i should run into someone i know. apparently im not as popular as i think...

posted by Brad at 3/02/2006 06:39:00 PM | permalink | 3 comments

3 Comments:

  • Brad - do you really want me to comment on how popular you are???

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3/03/2006 1:52 AM 

  • Yea And I bet one of them got away with a corkscrew on board. And is the 4 inch scissor blade regulation measure or guy eye ball measure because 4 inch regulation sound dangerous but if it just eye balled 4 inches is pretty harmless.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3/03/2006 1:10 PM 

  • Atlanta = Worst. Airport. Ever.

    Not to rub it in, but I've made it through with a corkscrew. I had one in my purse (long story - felt really classy), which they took out and examined, then gave it back.

    By Blogger Alicia, at 3/04/2006 10:49 AM 

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Wednesday, March 1

90 holes down, 18 to go

I finally got online in Myrtle Beach so I should probably say hi.

I watched a painfully small amount of the Olypmics, but heard great things about snowboard cross and was pumped to find several videos at nbcolympics.com. Except how weird is it to watch sports without a commentator? Kinda spooky...

posted by Brad at 3/01/2006 07:22:00 PM | permalink | 0 comments

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