RubberDuckMuseum.com

Wow, so let me go ahead and review a number of things in order of appearance as I visited Brian’s on Friday:

• Brian - excellent friend, met me right at the door and just is a super host.
• Gryphon - Brian’s dog, a good little puppy who also met me at the door. Prolly needs his own twitter feed.
• Lisa - Brian’s excellent wife, way cool and solid nacho cheese provider.
• The big LG wide screen and surround sound combo - Wow! The true home theater in a reasonable footprint.
• Planet Earth HD DVD by the BBC - Brian went to show me what high definition looked like, and we ended up watching the whole episode. Simply Amazing.
• Guitar Hero/GH II/GH Encore - Fun, but definitely more fun in multiplayer than in single mode. Nintendo Wii - It’s just plain fun. Thought of how fun it would be watching my kids play it.
• Brian’s cadre - Brian has a great circle of friends who are always good natured. God bless ‘em. Otherwise, It’s a new duck that’s amuck over in the sidebar. I need to update my Donations and Ducks Over Time pages so watch for that to happen shortly.

Another crowdsource task to the rescue! I was listening to Steve and Leo talk about reCAPTCHA on Security Now and thought I’d lend a hand in making OCR software better while having the side benefit of protecting the comments from spambots. Check it out by listening to the show and leaving me a comment after! The plugin I installed gives two words to enter (one a computer can read, one a computer cannot) to prove that a human is on the other side of the screen before you can get to the comment area of the site. Also, check out the CAPTCHA website for more info.

In the “webpage to follow” department, I was reading Federal Computer Week and found out about the Federal Elections Committee web site which shows campaign donations by state for the upcoming election ‘08, and it was a total eye opener! It’s just interesting to me as to how money pans out in politics, no matter the party affiliation.

We’ve had a sort of tech revival here at home as my children have picked up the “Cold War Game Boy” to play games like Pokemon (Blue) and Tetris. And then Carol the coworker gave me a GB color for them to fight over! I love it! Now if I could just get my hands on an Atari 2600 or an Apple IIc+, I’d be in the 80s forever! Good times, indeed.

Oof, here it is the end of the workday and I almost forgot to post duck! Yes, another devil duck this week, which reminds me how Jesus spent more time talking about Hell in the the new testament than Heaven. The warnings are there written out, it might be time to take a look at them. The best part, though, is that it’s true that all a sinner like me has to do is to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, ask for His forgiveness, and to come into my heart like I did on October 11, 2001. That’s it!! How amazing! Let Him in. He’s been waiting.

I love this town! I had an absolutely great time over two days seeing White Sands National Monument and the New Mexico Space Museum. The one thing I did not make was the IMAX theater there (rats). Please go there and eat at the Brown Bag Deli and the local Applebees was also a tasty meal with great service. If you end up at the Denny’s, however, ask if you can eat the menu, as it will actually taste better than any food you may order. Also, for the money, the Super 8 wasn’t bad. It may be one of the last surviving places without a Starbucks so city dwellers should be ready for a shock to the system.

Well, it sounds as if internet radio was dealt a glancing head blow as there was an agreement that went down Friday with Sound Exchange (?) that allows internet radio to come up with royalties over a period of time. That’s like walking into a loan that you didn’t know you even had and now will be paying it along with interest for the rest of your life (like war reparations or my college loan).

My usual Thursday post will be delayed to Friday as I will be going out of town for some downtime Wednesday/Thursday. A quick trip to Alamogordo and White Sands is all thanks to a bonus from workapalooza. I’m thinking about hitting the IMAX at the space museum out there.

I checked back on my goals today, and am hitting 67% of them. And while I’m funded through May of 2009, I’m not too worried. I’m just happy to have a chance to say my piece.

Okay, two quick points. I know I’ve posted 4 times this week, but sometimes, there’s too much.

First off: Yesterday in congress the opening prayer was performed by a believer of the Hindu religion. Hinduism, while a religion that is to be freely practiced by the citizens of this country if they so desire (as is their right), is inhernetly and undeniably polytheistic. The prayer given in congress, however, does not in any way reflect the value system upon which this country is based on; that was created by the pilgrims and strangers that travelled to this wearisome land to live free or die trying; and does not take into consideration the vast majority of the constituency thereof. I want an apology from congress for allowing this grievous act to occur. If someone out there agrees, they should contact their representatives. Until it says ‘In Gods We Trust’ on the legal tender, I am not okay with this.

Second: Internet radio is in trouble and the law that will put most providers out of business goes into effect 07.16.07. Please do not let internet radio go quietly into the night. Savenetradio.org is leading the battle and is asking for calls to the House of Representatives and Senate to stop this madness. Please, please, please help. I know I don’t currently listen to things like this, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think it has its place in the web.

Wow, what a month. First, came the break-in to my car and having to change accounts and all, due to losing a check. And then, the water heater at the house broke. On the upside, I never really noticed how ‘hot’ hot water can be! And then I think of life around the world where hot, running, water is a luxury. Thank you, Lord, for all Your blessings, and please bless and comfort those who need You most!!! I want to give a long overdue plug to People’s Plumbing of Albuquerque, NM. They were able to come out the next day and gave us an incredible price. If you are in the area, please bless Rudy with some business. He’s a square deal guy.

And I wanted to throw this photo up on Flickr, but I didn’t want it to mix in with the ducks. So here’s a cool tractor that I saw at the 4th of July parade we went to (previously mentioned in Monday’s post). It was loud and cool! And if you can see it, check out the new favicon on top of a duck on a pedestal! I finally figured out how to code it in.

Wow! So I just got done listening to TWiL #8 and there is this incredible new rate a lawyer site. Please go to avvo.com and check it out, because I don’t know about you, but I sure don’t know diddly about picking good lawyers. And if it’s not up in your state yet, sign up for the email updates. The guy who runs it (formerly of Expedia) was just incredibly well spoken and had the right idea in coming up with this.

And Brian gave me props yesterday! I wouldn’t be doing this without him, so I totally dig his much love and respect.

Annd, I’m full of a root beer float. Not bad for a Tuesday night.