2007: A Year in Review

On New Year's Eve I like to take a moment to look back on the year that is soon coming to an end. This year Stephanie and I welcome new children into our extended families:

• Jacob Pawlowski - our nephew, joined the family in January
• Maya Grace Clay - a cousin born to Paige Lemons and Jordan Clay in August
• Molly Jewel Biggs - a cousin born to Duane and Beth Biggs in October

Our new[er] Acura TL, which we joyously acquired this year, was able to stretch it's legs on the road with travels to Asheville, North Carolina, to see the Biltmore Estate, multiple trips to Cincinnati to visit family and participate in the year's Heartwalk, and to Fort Walton Beach, Florida. In Florida we attended the wedding of Stephanie's brother Greg to his new wife, Laura. Her daughter Lauren also joins our ever-growing family.

This fall Stephanie began a new job with HCA as a Primary Therapist and I was appointed Director of Information Technology at Vanderbilt University Law School.

Overall, our entire family was blessed this year with good health and wellness. Steph and I celebrated a wonderful 3.5 years of my being cancer free!

I'm looking forward to a wonderful 2008, which as of now, we know will bring the marriage of my brother to his fiance, Sarah Miller, as well as more family additions as Andy & Stephanie Biggs grow their family one more time. Thank you all for being a part of our lives this year, whether we see you daily, weekly, ocassionally, or just via this blog.

Jason Bradley KIA

Jason Bradley KIA

My brother being the genius he is decided to give me a nerf LongShot (read: sniper rifle) for Christmas. The gun splits into two weapons. Epic battles were fought between Michael and I on Christmas Eve night... some were won, others were lost (shown here). Yes, I "died" while changing the clip.

Story of Stuff

Today a relative shared a video with me that I agree to be a great message about the importance of voting and taking action in our own lives. You'll need 10 minutes or so to watch, but it's well worth the time.

James Andrew Hutzel

This weekend's trip to Cincinnati for an early Thanksgiving gathering turned tragic. Stephanie's grandfather, Mr. James A. Hutzel, passed away Saturday morning due to declining health. He was 87. We obviously didn't live close to Steph's grandparents, but I did have the pleasure of meeting them and spending time with them nearly a dozen times. Grandpa Hutzel was a man with a good sense of humor, loved his family dearly, and will truly be missed.

3.5 Years

The news is in. Cancer Free for 3.5 years. Amen.

Leopard + Parallels + Vista = Awesome

This week we received our new 24" iMac at work that we will use to test various services across multiple platforms and browsers. It arrived with the Leopard DVD in the box -- which was promptly installed. Leopard is nice. CoverFlow is handy and the new dock is awesome. We installed Parallels 3.0 on the iMac (and the Leopard update for Parallels) and promptly began installing Vista Ultimate into a virtual machine. Once Vista was installed and running we turned on Coherence Mode in Parallels and WOW -- incredibly nice. Peep the screenshot below. You'll see an IE window from Vista, a Finder window from Leopard (showing CoverFlow view of fonts), and the OS X and Start menus along the top. The best of both worlds? I think so.

GOOG411 - it's free, use it

I get the frequent occasional call from a friend or family member which starts with "are you near a computer" and generally, quickly followed by "I need you to look up a number for me." It's almost always for a business/company listing. While I'm generally one to help out where I can, I also feel it can be discourteous at times.

That said, allow me to repeat share with you a very important number:

1-800-GOOG411

(1-800-466-4411)

I beg you. I implore you. Put this number in your mobile phone's speed dial. Put this number by the phones in your house. This number will find any non-residential listing that you want, using only your voice, and will not cost you a dime. You will not hear any advertisements.

Embrace Google, for it is good. See how it works.

Veramyst - clears the allergies, makes you blind, maybe

On Wednesday night I'm watching NBC and a commercial is forced upon me for Veramyst. Now, suffering from the occasional allergy, I pay attention. If you get the chance to see this commercial, watch it, you'll enjoy it. It will help with allergies (maybe). It (may) cause a fungal infection in your nose. Interestingly enough, it (may) also cause glaucoma and cataracts! And, as if that wasn't enough, about midway through the commercial is some fine print at the bottom of the screen which reads "It is not completely known how Veramyst works." Yeah.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

October is breast cancer awareness month. Find out what you can do to help at www.cancer.org today.

NBC Pilots: Journeyman, Chuck, and Bionic Woman

Thanks to the miracle that is Tivo, and to the partnership with Amazon's Unbox service, NBC is offering broadband-connected Tivo users the ability to download the commercial-free pilots for NBC's fall shows gratis.

I snagged Journeyman, Chuck, and Bionic Woman.

Let's start with "Chuck". The general idea is that Chuck receives an email from his former college roommate shortly before said roommate is killed. The email contains "all of the government's secrets subliminally embedded" into images. (Don't get me started on how the email transmitted millions of images in about a second.) Chuck is a nerd and works for the TV equivalent of Geek Squad. He's assigned a hot attractive CIA agent to protect him against those that would harm him. The show also features Sarah Lancaster ("What About Brian?") as Chuck's sister. This show is over-the-top -- the action shots, the plot, all of it. It's only hope is that the ladies in the show keep enough guys interested to prevent early cancellation.

"Bionic Woman" is interesting and dark. Yes, the story loosely follows the original. Her name is Jamie Sommers. As many of you will recall -- you take one attractive, young, and seriously injured woman and implant fifty million dollars of nano-hardware and you get one Bionic Woman. She sees incredibly far away, can hear anything she wants, has super strength and a lot of people want to kill her (because she wasn't their first choice of a candidate for the uber-secret program). I expect this show will last at least one season. It's well shot, has good special effects and kept my attention.

Finally, "Journeyman" is a modern day "Quantum Leap" sans Al and with a lot more leaping. Dan randomly is put into the past, some of which is quite familiar to him. He comes back to present day randomly but each time he's in the past he learns a little more of what he's there for. His present day family thinks he is crazy, but can he prove otherwise? The pilot was very well made... I loved it and hope to see this show excel.

So, if you have Tivo and don't want to wait -- start clicking!

Remembering Babi

She was my grandmother. She was one of my best friends. She was a wonderful Christian woman who respected everyone and earned the respect of all who met her. She was "Babi".

As her two grandchildren, she taught Michael and I a great many things. She showed everyone how to be a better person and we would all do well to remember, refine and exemplify those lessons in our own lives.

It was two years ago today that Babi passed away. She has been missed by all. This world is a lesser place without her in it. She is with God and the angels, and even Heaven itself is enriched by her being there.

We miss you, Babi.

Google controls the weather

I love Google. I admit it and am not ashamed of it. However, today it got my hopes up and crushed them. Apparently Google cannot make it snow in 95 degree weather.

Bad-ass Bourne

First came Identity, then Supremacy, and now Ultimatum. One of the greatest action movie series ever created.

Steph and I joined Michael and Sarah this weekend to see the third installment in the Bourne series. It did not disappoint.

Let's get something straight. Bourne is NOT a Bond. Bourne doesn't have neat gadgetry, a sports car, a tuxedo, nor the want to charm anyone. Instead, he has a book, a newspaper, bare hands, and street clothes. I won't spoil anything for those of you that have yet to enjoy the latest in the series. You will [hopefully] notice that the end of Supremacy was actually well into Ultimatum. We learn just how Jason Bourne/David Webb came to be and why he is seriously, undoubtedly, pissed off. (The whole promised-one-thing, doing-another trick.)

Matt Damon is an action hero (ahem, the chase in Morocco). He doesn't need Ben Affleck getting in his way. Julia Stiles is back -- at first as eye candy, but you realize she's wrapped into the plot more than ever before. And, if there's not a fourth movie, a lot of people will always be asking questions.

See this movie, my friends -- only after you've seen Identity and Supremacy, of course. It rocks.

RedBox and the Golden Arches

After seeing RedBox on Engadget and in my local McDonalds as well as the McDonalds near my work I just had to give it a try.

One dollar ($1) per night with no late fees. You just pay $1 for each night you have it past 7:00pm. If you visit RedBox.com you can get your first night free. Some McDonalds have these inside and some are in the drive-thru. And, you can return the movie to any RedBox location. You can rent online to reserve your movie for pickup at the vending location of your choice.

Why is this better than NetFlix? Simple -- little to no waste. Steph and I were on the $17.99 plan at NetFlix which was unlimited rentals with 3-at-a-time. Most months we watched 3-4 movies. That was $20 (with tax) for 4 rentals, or $5 each. So, we changed to $9.99 which was 1-at-a-time unlimited and we watched 3 movies in 2 months. That was $20 for 3 movies or just shy of $7 per rental. We were giving our earned cash away for nothing.

We have a Series 3 Tivo and can download through the Amazon Unbox service. This has the pros of never being out of stock and you can have the movie of your choice in 15-30 minutes download time. You also get 30 days to start watching it and once you start you get 24 hours to finish it. There's no driving and no return necessary. What it is not is DVD quality video and is only stereo sound (not Dolby 5.1 or DTS). And at $2.99 a pop it's only marginally better than NetFlix.

What I find with RedBox is that the 3-4 movies we watch cost us $3-4 in total, not each. If we don't have time to watch we don't pay anything. We have to pick up the discs and take them back but it's not like we aren't out and about daily (and often several times a day).

So, here's to you, Golden Arches, for partnering with one of my new favorites -- RedBox.

Google Labs, GrandCentral, OhDontForget, and Mozy

Friends, as a part of my job I research and explore new technologies and seek ways to put them to good use. Some fall into my "why in the world" category, some into my "that's cool" genre, and a select few I choose as "must have". Today, I share a few of the best finds with you and you may have heard of these before, but never reviewed with my intense wit and charm (see what I mean?).

Google Labs' GOOG411 and Reader
Call me biased but there's one company that doesn't often make a mistake with their product. If it needs "fixing" they do it and quickly. I wasn't impressed by the first version of Google Reader but in it's latest iteration I have found it incredible. I can subscribe to as many RSS feeds as I want and Google Reader will feed them to me however I want -- chronologically, random, alphabetical -- and know what I've read and what I haven't. I can see, at a glance, all the feed topics and after viewing those that catch my eye I can click "Mark All Read" and move on. Why use this over Outlook or IE's built in reader -- simple. I can use Google Reader on my laptop at home, desktop at work, my Motorola Q and the content is the same and always up-to-date.

Labs recently debuted GOOG-411, a voice-response system that is free to use to find business listings. You simply dial 1-800-GOOG-411 from any phone, tell it the city and state, and what you are looking for. GOOG411 presents you with the top listings and you can simply pick by number or ask for "more". Want GOOG411 to connet you, just stay on the line of say "Connect". You can also ask for "directions" or have it sent to you phone with "text message". An incredible alternative to cell providers charging you $1.49 per call to their own 411 service.

GrandCentral.com
Originally a start-up GrandCentral is now owned by Google. GrandCentral provides you with a single phone number that you provide to everyone instead of giving them your home, cell, and office numbers. They call one number and all of your phones ring, or only certain phones -- it's all up to you. Every call is logged and can be screened, sent to voicemail, recorded (which notifies the caller of the recording) and you can see it all online, mobile, anytime. You classify your frequent callers into Family, Friends, Work or Other and can choose which of those groups call which phones. And possibly my favorite part is that you only have one voicemail to check. GrandCentral is currently by invitation only and if you ask nicely I may help you out (cash bribes accepted).

OhDontForget.com
Simple service but very handy. You "add" your number to the service and then you can schedule text messages to your or your spouses phone at any time using a very simple interface. Very handy for quick reminders.

Mozy.com
Love this one. Most people have data they want to backup, but to where and how? You could have an external hard drive with one of those free softwares that copies data to that drive on a schedule. Great. Now you have it in two places hooked to the same computer that can be struck by the same lightning. We need to one-up this. Network Attached Storage (NAS) technology is essentially a hard drive on a stick. You hook the drive to your home network and your computer can backup data to this drive and you may not lose them both at the same time -- or will you? What if you were one of those affected by the April 7th tornado or Katrina and lost your house and along with it all of your precious digital data? Tax records, family photos, important documents all good in an instant.

For a while there have been services available such as Carbonite and XDrive that will backup your data over the Internet to a private storage facility. Enter Mozy. Carbonite has issues -- you need a client program to access/restore your data, you must transfer the entire file when changes are made, and multiple versions are not kept. XDrive, from AOL, also has the lack of delta transfer technology, but also cannot backup open/locked files. Mozy is incredibly easy to setup and 2GB of space is yours free. Have a lot of photos and other data? Need 50GB? No problem. XDrive will give you that for $120 a year. Mozy will do it for half that. Need 100, 200, or 500GB? XDrive will laugh at you. Mozy will answer the call and for not a penny more.

Bruce is back

Having seen the first three Die Hard movies (numerous times) it is essentially impossible to ignore the latest movie -- "Live Free or Die Hard". I won't spoil anything for anyone, you can read the plot online if you want, but the movie is undoubtedly 'Die Hard' in nature. Things explode, a couple of bullets are distributed, cars are wrecked, and the body of a man endures impacts, blows, and injury beyond imagination. Sure, there are a couple that-would-never-happen scenes but overall it is one great action movie. Yes, fellas, take your wife. Steph liked it, too!

Joost takes me back

The university I work for recently partnered with Joost, a provider of Internet-based TV. Being a connoisseur of new technologies, gadgets, and steak, I wanted to give Joost a shot. Streamed video, no glitches, no synch problems, and a couple dozens channels to choose from left a great impression. However, it was when I saw the featured channel of the month -- the original Transformers cartoon -- that a twinkle came to my eye and I was reunited with, as Scott Brown wrote for Wired and so eloquently put it, the Almighty Rig. Watching Prime whip Megatron's ass again took me back to a time (circa 1985-87) when Michael and I had the plastic-embodied versions of Prime, his Autobot buddies, and Decepticon foes (and let me tell you -- they suffered battle damage and lots of it). Thank you, Joost!

Seadragon + Photosynth = Uber Cool

I recently shared the following video with a colleague and we both agree it ROCKS. The video, from TED in March 2007, demonstrates Seadragon technology. Seadragon centers around a concept that you only need to render on screen at the screen's resolution. In doing so you can view photos at hundreds of megapixels and continuously zoom in to an almost infinite level. Imagine this -- being able to open your newspaper and the period at the end of a sentence contains the complete text of a book you want to read and the first letter on the first page of that book can be zoomed to reveal hidden secrets about the story. Yeah. You'll then see Photosynth which contains Seadragon technology. Photosynth lets you view a 3D environment from almost any angle, made from 2D images -- such as all public images from Flickr tagged with "Times Square". Very, very cool. Enjoy...

Likes me some steak!

20 oz. Porterhouse. Yum.

Where have you been?

Courtesy of a recent online find, Visited States...

POTC: At World's End

Sorry for the blogging hiatus -- work's been extremely busy lately. Steph and I saw Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End today at the new NCG theater in Gallatin. The new theater's DLP setup and digital sound made Keira Pirates look outstanding on the big screen.

Not the best in the trilogy I don't think, but still quite good. The spoilerless plot summary is that Elizabeth (Keira Knightley -- yeah), William and Barbosa want to rescue Jack from "Davy's Locker" (death) but all of them for a different reason (Barbosa owes a debt, William wants to rescue his father, and Elizabeth... well, watch it). Standing in their way, of course, is Lord Bennett & the East Indies Trading Co. Johnny's as great as ever, and "Jack" The Monkey is at his best yet, but more of this installment centers around Elizabeth [and why shouldn't it] and William. So, what did you think of this one?

Car Care Questions Answered

Now that spring has come and most of the pollen is gone it's easier to keep a car clean. I've been asked several times lately what I use to clean the Acura TL with -- and what I use to attempt to keep it clean. So, I thought what better forum to answer those questions but on my blog.

Q: Do you hand wash your car?
A: I'd love to, and when I can, I do. However, I typically visit my local Super SpeedWash and get their Wheel Deal. Though automated, it does an exceptional job washing the car and shining the tires. However, once I drive around the vacuums, I always hand-dry the car with diaper cloth and take it home for the fine details.

Q: What products do you use?
A: I use a multitude of products. Specifically:

• Wash - Mr. Clean AutoDry car wash with a chenille wash mitt
• Wax - Meguiar's NXT Generation Liquid Wax
• Glass - Stoner InvisibleGlass (safe on tint, no streaks)
• Leather - Method Leather Wipes (environmentally safe, biodegradable)
• Tires - Meguiar's Hot Shine
• Exterior Touch-up - Meguiar's NXT Speed Detailer spray
• Interior Vinyl/Rubber/Plastic - Meguiar's Gold Class Protectant (non-shiny/non-greasy)
• Clothes - micro-fiber for all interior work and glass; diaper cloth for exterior detailing; NO TOWELS

Q: Micro-fiber cloth instead of towels?
A: You bet. Towels leave lint. Towels are wasteful. A good micro-fiber cloth cleans incredibly well without any solvent/solution most of the time. I personally use VROOM micro-fiber automotive cloths from Target, but most any will do.

Have more questions? Just ask!

Broadband with more cowbell

Just rebooted the cable modem after Comcast said "SpeedBoost" had been enabled in my area. Tests are not bad at allllllll...

Livestrong Day 2007

This May 16th is Livestrong Day 2007. Wear yellow. Spread the word. Write your representatives in Congress. Demand government support.

• There are more than 10 million individuals in the United States today who are living with cancer.
• Nearly 40 percent of people living with cancer are under the age of 65.
• 64 percent of adults diagnosed with cancer today will be living 5 years from now.
• In 1960, 4 percent of children with cancer survived more than 5 years.
• Nearly 80 percent of children (age 0 through 14) diagnosed with cancer today will be living five years from now.
• The five year survivorship rates for young adults (age 20 through 40) with cancer has remained unchanged for the past 30 years.
• Three out of every four American families will have at least one family member diagnosed with cancer.
• 24 percent of adults with cancer are parents who have a child 18 years or younger.
• One of every four deaths in the United States is from cancer.
• In 2005, 570,280 Americans will die of cancer - more than 1,500 people a day. That's 9/11 every two days.
• The annual cost of cancer in the United States is $189,800,000,000 in direct and indirect costs.
• Government spending on cancer research was lowered for the first time in 30 years.

Prayers for Virginia Tech

Please send up your prayers for the families of those who lost their lives at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007.

Destination Asheville

Stephanie and I spent April 11-13, 2007, in Asheville, North Carolina for a small spring vacation. We were fortunate to visit the Biltmore Estate during their Festival of Flowers with literally thousands of tulips in full bloom. We've placed 232 photos on Flickr for everyone to enjoy. Biltmore does not allow photography (videography, sketching, etc.) inside the house, but we certainly used some memory cards outside. HA! If you ever get the chance, North Carolina is truly gorgeous near the mountains surrounding Asheville and the Biltmore is something beautiful in photos and breath-taking in person.

TL: 3575 pounds and 183 inches of goodness

Yes, though I traded cars, I remain "TLdrvr". :) On Friday, April 6th, Stephanie and I became the proud owners of a 2005 Acura TL. It weighs 3575 pounds and is 183 inches long and in perfect health.

This TL sports a 3.2L SOHC V6 with VTEC good for 270HP, bi-xenon HID, XM, 7.1 DTS surround sound, Bluetooth HandsFreeLink, and LED lighting all around. Check out our pics on Flickr by clicking the image below of our beautiful TL and gorgeous model.

Web 2.0

A term has been tossed around for a while now -- "Web 2.0" -- and many people do not fully grasp what this means. I've been asked several times to explain Web 2.0 and recently came across this video that does an excellent job at demonstrating the mash-up process that has brought us to the living internet.

30th Mercy Heartwalk, Cincinnati, OH

This weekend the Hutzel family walked in the memory of Jameson Hutzel who survived 18 months with a congenital heart defect. This was the 30th annual heartwalk in Cincinnati. You can see from the image below -- we definitely were not there alone. Everyone you see was or still is affected by diseases that need cures. Click the pic for more information (and a closer view of the sea of thousands of supporters).

Planet Earth

About 24 million households in America have an HDTV these days. Unfortunately, only about half actually pay to receive a true HD signal. Most people have had the experience of being mesmerized watching HDTV on a "Full 1080"-capable display. The human eye best perceives HDTV at 1080i/p (read: 1080 horizontal lines within the image) from about three times the height of the display. So, a 46" HDTV "looks best" to the human eye at about nine feet away.

Some media is "filmed" in HD and some HD content is converted from the original cinematic film. The Discovery Channel is premiering "Planet Earth" on March 25th with 11 episodes in total throughout April and May. I had the privlege of watching the first episode back in December when it was shown as a one-time teaser on Discovery HD Theater. In a word: amazing.

Shot in 200+ locations over 5 years in all high-definition. When they say "prepare to see it again as never before" they mean it.

Watch it, and not on any TV -- watch in HD. You'll thank me.

Ah, college humor

On 21st Avenue South near Vanderbilt. :)

Jameson's Joy

Friends and visitors, I will be walking in my nephew Jameson's memory. He was born with a congenital heart defect called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS) and lived 18 joy-filled months. The American Heart Association is hugely responsible for the research that helped Jameson in his fight against heart disease. As most of you know, Jameson lost his fight March 28, 2003, but with your help we can continue the battle. Because of the American Heart Association and research, more and more children with heart disease are being saved every day. Please help me support the wonderful work of the American Heart Association. You can help me reach my goal by making a donation online. Click on the link below and you will be taken to my personal donation page where you can make a secure online credit card donation. The American Heart Association's online fundraising website has a minimum donation amount of $25.00. If you prefer to donate less, you can do so by sending a check directly to me. Your donation will help fight our nation's No. 1 and No. 3 killers—heart disease and stroke. You are making a difference. Thank you for your support.

Follow This Link to visit my personal web page and help me in my efforts to support American Heart Association - Heart Mini-Marathon Cincinnati, OH

Forgiveness

I watched a show recently that made me open my relatively-closed mind a bit. One of the topics was that of forgiveness -- whether it's forgiving someone or something -- for something that has happened to you. For example, in 2003 my way of thinking was 'what did I do to deserve this?' Today, I'm taking a new approach.

Thank you for giving me that
experience.

Cancer wasn't fun. Work can be a drag at times. Bills can be stressful. However, each of these things have added positive experiences to my life. I don't like paying bills, but I am happy and thankful that I am able to pay them. Work and deadlines can be challenging, but these challenges make me stronger. The challenges show me, and teach me, that I am capable of handling each and every one of them. Battling cancer was tough -- and my greatest achievement yet -- but having had that experience showed me things that I either never knew before, or knew but took for granted. I now know that I have countless friends who were there for my family (and for me). I saw and experienced what faith can do.

That, my friends and family, is why I can forgive and be thankful.

Paying the tooth fairy

Friends, your well wishes for a painless procedure and recovery are requested. Today I will visit the finest oral surgeon in the area and have three teeth removed. These little guys are in the back of my mouth and didn't play well with my wisdom teeth and suffered damage. I appreciate your prayers for speedy recovery (and prevention of boredom sitting at the house for a couple days).

Join the army

9-11 happens again every two days. That's right -- one person dies every minute of every day due to cancer.

I'm not asking you to donate your money [though I won't stop you either]. What I do ask is that you watch a two-minute video. If you feel the same as I do, as Lance does, and as many, many others, then join the army. Join an army of people that believe that it's not always about which politician says they will cut taxes or find alternative fuels -- it's about saving lives from a horrible disease.

In 2001, in President Bush's pseudo-State of the Union address, he said that Congressman Joe Moakley was battling cancer and that he could "think of no more appropriate tribute...than to have Congress finish the job of doubling the budget for the National Institutes of Health." This year, funding for cancer research was lowered by the government for the first time in 35 years.

Please, watch the video. Join the army.

http://www.livestrong.org/jointhearmy

Welcome to tomorrow, today

What an amazing world we live in these days. Imagine, if you will, that persons living in 1850 would have laughed at the idea of "automobiles". If you lived in 1900 you were amazed by Edison and Bell bringing their wonderous distributed electricity and telephone into the world. A person living in 1950 would have smacked you if you said you had a "computer" in your house (or your pocket!). In 1990 I was using dialup and only dreamed of faster speeds. Look at us now, and tomorrow.

Cisco has an incredible commercial on the air right now that I will paraphrase for you. The essential message is that of the "human network" -- any content, any device, any network. The commercial shows this to us: books re-write themselves (Wikipedia), drag-and-drop people anywhere they want to go (IM, SMS, mobile web, VoIP), maps are rewritten (Google Earth), and anyone can be famous (YouTube/Google Video). The commercial's underlying message is no doubt intended to say, "we're Cisco and we power the network" but the voice-over is quite powerful --"we're more powerful together than we could ever be apart".

Happy New Year!

Happy new year, everyone! Iwish you all the best for 2007.