In the last two weeks, I have been crazy busy and…:

• In New York
• On conference calls
• On more conference calls
• Playing Mario Cart
• Not blogging

I will try to post some more and finally post an updated Jappler menus post.

Something cool I saw today: Make your own word clouds. I entered in my feed URL and it spit this out:

We all need them. We all use them. We all realize the power - but with the exception of Ben - we all run into road blocks and frustration when we try and put something together. What are they? Regular Expressions. Take a look at the cool RegEx testing tool where you can easily test your regular expressions.

For the first time in over 10 years - A, E, and I took a week and went on vacation. We usually take weekend trips to see family but have never taken anything longer than a weekend trip (vacation) together…until last week. We flew down to Florida to see some of my family and then off to Walt Disney World where we sent seven days at the for main parks (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney Studios, and the Animal Kingdom). The trip was great except for the fact that I sprained my right big toe on day … [more]

I love the day of big Apple keynotes given by Steve Jobs. While rummaging around for a disk utility last week - I found my copy of the Macworld 1999 keynote where the Blue and White G3s and multi-flavored iMacs were announced. I had a smile - I eventually owned both and thought they were the best thing ever! Anyway - my friend Ken asked me if I still got as excited as I used to - and the answer is definitely yes. I love everything about the keynotes…but I especially enjoy the post keynote reactions … [more]

This is like seeing a shooting star…well I bet this is more rare…

I always wondered at what age do people start doing things around the house on the weekends, clean windows, get concerned about weeds in the yard, and start remodeling projects. For me: age 31. The last few weeks A and I have been busy around the house getting our yard in order, I have been touching up paint, planning landscaping, and cleaning windows. Our hall bathroom is under construction, and I plan to spend the long weekend outside painting and start really landscaping. Wow. I guess gone are the days where I played … [more]

Ever since I got the Wii, I have been watching to see what old games would be released for the Virtual Console and I finally decided to check out to see if Nintendo had a feed for all new game releases. Sure enough, they have a RSS feed and it lists all new game releases. (This way I can stay on top of the RC Pro Am release…whenever that might be). The feed also includes news as well - but at least I can passively get the release dates and some general news instead of searching … [more]

Over the weekend I was showing a friend my Wii and all the games we have and we decided to focus on boxing. My initial response to boxing was that is was kind of lame, but after the computer player got more difficult - each game became more and more of a workout. At the end (10 games or so each) - we were both exhausted and sweating. This is a great way to do some exercise. I now need another “nunchuck controller” so we can … [more]

If you ever need a gift for someone that is hard to buy for, check out Brookstone’s wireless home weather forecaster. This really cool instrument automatically locates itself geographically, then updates itself using radio signals so that you always have the latest weather report (thanks to accuweather.com). I recently bought one of these and it is really cool. It even has a great magnet back so it easy sticks on the refrigerator door.

Chicago is a beautiful city. It has a beautiful lakefront, a beautiful skyline, and a beautiful grid layout.
Check out this awesome night photo that shows the grid system: http://www.flickr.com/photos/myelectricsheep/343703624/sizes/l/

We got some super snow over the last few days and I am loving it! Yesterday we got so much snow it was a two time snowblower day which is always fun. This is by far the most snow I have ever seen here (Chicago) since moving from the Buffalo area and our streets are covered and it is getting difficult to look to the left and right when pulling out of neighborhood streets because of the big snow piles. The snow is so wet and heavy (with a good inch or so of slush under it all) … [more]

Not that I travel a lot and could benefit from a PO Box - but there is a company out there that will take all your mail (forwarded to a PO Box), scan it, and then put it online for you to manage. Sound interesting? Check out Earth Class Mail.

Awhile back, I put something together (sons of suckerfish and sliding doors) and then was recently asked how to get this to work dynamically in WordPress.

The key to getting this to work dynamically is to first choose how you want to organize your site. I have done numerous sites based on categories and a lot also done using pages. Once you figure out what you want your menus to be driven from (page hierarchy or category hierarchy) you can then use some built in WordPress functions to dynamically fill out your menus.

For categories: you will … [more]

I return to blogging a year older and a little more relaxed now that the holidays are done. I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays and are ready for a great year! I am in the midst of catching up with work, and getting everything back in order. I learned that the holiday time is more stressful and needs better planning now that we have 2 birthdays (me and Evan) and Christmas and New Years all within a little over 2 weeks. I figure by next week I will be ready to get back to posting more. … [more]

I am back from a few day vacation in Washington DC with my family. We had a nice time in a great city! My grandparents were with us and I had the pleasure of going to the World War II monument with my grandfather who fought over in Europe during WWII. It was quite touching and a nice way to spend the holidays. A special thanks to my sister and her husband for putting us up and putting up with us. She did a fabulous job at getting meaningful presents and also making us feel … [more]

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. I actually took some time off to relax and not work - which is rare. I look forward to getting back into the swing of things this week!

I have a decent size backyard and after years of raking - I finally figured out how to rake more effectively.

1. Don’t be the first person on the block to start raking. People have a tendency to start raking way too early. If you are the first, other neighbor’s leaves are going to just blow into your yard, and most likely you failed to look up and see a lot more leaves on the trees.
2. Only start raking after there has been a good wind or rain storm. I always wait until after a good wind storm or … [more]
   

I have been enjoying Amanda Congdon via video for a few years now and recently she did an awesome interview about with an owner/builder of an amazing “green” house. If you have any interest in the environment and being more “green”, check out her video!

How many times are you going to use that nasty looking Excel chart to show your data? If you are like me and are tired of seeing ugly charts, diagrams, and maps, check out: amCharts. Hmm, another example where 1. I do not have to use Office to get a chart and 2. it is much nicer! Good work!!