Morning Joe Re-Tweeted Me!

Probably not that big a deal, but made me feel good. I commented about the President's comments to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and how many service men I talk to believe in the mission. Someone at @Morning_Joe liked my comment enough to re-tweet it.
Excuse me while I deflate my pathetic ego.

30 Cats in 30 Days - Gif One

From ECKSCLAMATIONS

Rocket Cam One

Why is Butch not the CEO of a Fortune 500?

Butch has got to be the king of die hard summer campers.  Timothy Noah, according to  his article "You Are How You Camped", would classify Butch (and myself I suppose) as someone who Really, really, really enjoys camp.  He titles such campers as Camp Cultists and writes that they are likely to grow up to be CEOs of major corporations.  What happened to Butch (and I)?

Timothy defines 5 groups of campers in his article and I kinda see where he is coming from.  I thought it would be interesting to take a poll and see if anyone would divulge what kind of camper they were and verify Timothy's predictions.

I can't promise the polls will work.  First principle for my blog - it is an experiment and poll widget is new.

What kind of camper are you?

What are you like today?

Droid wins - IMHO

From "MASHABLE" after being spotted on "I Love Charts".

I, as you may know, own the Droid (not Droid X) and think it is superior to the I-phones.  Sorry Heather and the rest of you apple fans.  My screen is bigger, battery is replaceable, I have more memory (and can change mini-sd chips), and open market apps (most of which are free).  You get video chat and a bigger price tag.  Oh - and only one type of phone will use your OS.  Android OS works on lots of phones.

As far as the Droid X is concerned, if I decide to give up my Droid for a Droid X, I could transfer just about everything to the new phone.  Can you change to a different phone with Apple?  For now, I'll stick with my Droid.  It lacks a bit in the camera department (takes good video, but photos are often blurry.  Does not take good pictures of moving targets) but makes up for that with a super GPS package that is FREE!   

Nerd, Geek, or Dork

I took the test and here are my results --



Your result for The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test...

Pure Geek

48 % Nerd, 57% Geek, 26% Dork

For The Record:

A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.

A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.

A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.

You scored better than half in Geek, earning you the title of: Pure Geek.

It's not that you're a school junkie, like the nerd, and you don't really stand out in a crowd, like the dork, you just have some interests that aren't quite mainstream. Perhaps it's anime, perhaps it's computers, perhaps it's bottlecaps, perhaps it's all of those and more. Your interests take you to events and gatherings that are filled with people you find unusual and beyond-the-pale, but you don't quite consider yourself "of that crowd." Instead, you consider yourself to be fairly normal.

Which, you are. Congratulations!

Thanks Again! -- THE NERD? GEEK? OR DORK? TEST

Take The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test at OkCupid

Sam would be proud

I remember when Wal-Mart first came to PA.  I remember the ad campaign.  Wal-Mart promised "Made in the U.S.A.".  That stopped shortly after Sam Walton went to the great Super Center in the sky.

FlowingData has a map that shows the growth of Wal-Mart and Sam's Club over the best 40-some years. Very cool to watch (in a War Games kinda way). Interesting if you pan around the map or zoom out. There are several Wal-Marts in Puerto Rico. Hawaii seems to dig Sam's Clubs.

Check it out at -- http://projects.flowingdata.com/walmart/

R2Egg2

I bought a Motorola Droid the day after Christmas this past year.  It was part gift for myself and part gift from others.  I have fallen in love with it.  I have become one of those people I used to make fun of.  I always have it with me, am always reading texts and emails, and struggle to put it down when dining out with friends.  It is like an addiction.  A social networking addiction?  Maybe.

I started a Twitter Account because of my droid (R2Egg2 - yes, I named it).  Egg2 has opened up other social networking applications to me.  I just started "foursquare" and I "Yelp*".  I get my daily doses of Facebook directly to Egg2.  My Google (Gmail) mail, calendar, task list, and documents sync together, so I am never without access.  My favorite podcasts (Slate political Gabfest, Radio Free Burrito, and NPR All Songs Considered) load directly to the Droid.  Egg2 plays my music, holds my pictures, and shoots video (streaming live to http://qik.com/kurteeck or the bottom of this blog).  I've even used it as metal detector at work (Tricorder App!).  It is the coolest toy ever (for now).

Plus, now that I have posted this, you can click through the links and hit me up from the net or SMS me at 570-486-4443.

Later.

WWdN: In Exile

Another summer has come and I look at my poor blog and realize how neglected it has become.  Fear not!  I am revitalized.  I have found my muse.  And it is not a feminine sprightly muse.  It is the youngest officer of Starfleet, "The Gordo" from "Stand By Me", the kid from that movie "Toy Soldiers" -- what was his real name?

I didn't think about him as having grown up.  I didn't know that he had (re)created himself as one of the most popular bloggers of the past decade (Forbes.com awarded him "Best Celebrity Weblog" in 2003 and in 2009 ranked him as the 14th most influential celebrity blogger.  He's been nominated for lifetime achievement awards in blogging and has been compared to blog powerhouses like Fark and Slashdot.); and then turned his blogging into authorship.  I'm not even sure how I stumbled onto his web site - WWdN: In Exile.
I just know that I did stumble upon it around Easter and have been letting his musings and anecdotes fill the few empty places I have left in my brain.  I even bought one of his books --

I finished it the same day it arrived.  The "He" is Wil Wheaton.  And he is much more than the characters he played years ago.  He is the geeks geek.  He writes about all the cool things my friends and I did when we were his age - Star Wars, Star Trek, Car Wars, Dungeons and Dragons, Pac-man and Dig-Dug.  And it is readable.  And enjoyable.  And - very human.

The motivating part - I did write a 50,000 word novel in November as a participant in National Novel Writing Month.  I have learned to shed my inner editor and put my thoughts into type.  I just haven't had the spirit to write (nor the time, thanks to conditions at work).  My "muse" was gone.  Wil Wheaton has shown me that it is also ok to shed the cloak of self-doubt.  They are voices in his head that he (and his wife) have learned to ignore.  I'll write.  I'll post.  If people like what I have to say, great.  If not, I will be none the worse for the effort.

I will ignore the voices of self doubt.  It is time for round three (if your counting) for the Egg Bros primary web presence.  I hope some readers come along for the ride.

Kindle

I pondered the decision to buy an e-book for several months. I am a closet bibliophile and wasn't (and am still not) comfortable with the idea of not experiencing the printed word printed. There is something about the feel and smell of a good book. And I like the practice of sharing or giving away my books.

As I get older, I am recognizing the need to shed some of my material wealth, my stuff. I even did spring cleaning twice this year, just to get rid of clothes and other junk that has accumulated in my closets and other spaces. Compound this desire to not accumulate any more clutter with the rising costs of books, and you can understand why I committed what I thought was a sacrilege. I bought a Kindle. The Kindle 2, to be more precise.



And I love it! It is as thin as a pencil, fits in my book bag, can hold more books than I could haul in a car, let alone a backpack, and (thanks to e-ink technology) holds a battery charge for almost a week. E-books are generally cheaper than the book store price. And the Kindle uses cellular network to download books to my Kindle. Anywhere I can get a cell signal (in the United States), I can order and download a book. Immediate satisfaction.

I did make some concessions. I decided to justify the initial expense by banning myself from Borders and not buying any real books for four months. (I was spending around $150 a month at Borders. By not spending that money, I have made up the expense of the Kindle) I have also had to accept that I won't be able to share my books with others. E-books cannot be shared (legally) with other Kindles.

Another benefit of the Kindle is the subscription services to periodicals. I would never spend the money to subscribe to a National Newspaper like the Washington Post or the New York Times. It would be to expensive and the paper waste would rub against the few "green" nerves in my body. Kindle allows me to get the Washington Post at a very reasonable price without the waste or annoying advertising inserts. Currently, you can try a trial 2 week subscription of any of the periodicals offered on Kindle.

Biggest disappointment - within weeks of me getting my Kindle 2, Amazon came out with the Kindle DX (a 9.7" screen vs a 6" screen). It is more expensive and has some new features. I would have liked the new features. I'm not sure I mind having a smaller screen. My Kindle 2 'feels' like a paperback because of it's size. I think the bigger Kindle DX would remind me of a text book. And, although the cost difference was not prohibitive, I probably would have opted to save a few dollars and stay with a model I can chuck into my book bag.

Check the Amazon site for more details on the Kindle. I looked at several other e-books and settled on Amazons Kindle for many reasons, but I encourage you to do your own research. If your looking for a device for just reading e-books, the Kindle is it.

Fringe Season Final - An Enterprising finish

Without getting into a lot of what the Fringe is about - if you cared you'd watch it - I did want to share that the series took a wild, almost Star Trek Movie like, twist at the conclusion of the season. Not only did the show introduce the possibility of an alternate reality, it also introduce Leonard Nimoy as the long hidden nemisis! I guess your never to old to get into Sci-Fi.

If you have not been watch Fringe, you can catch back episodes on Fox.com.

Star Trek

Yes - I went to see it.
Yes - It was worth a full price ticket. And,
Yes - I will go see it again; which is something I haven't done in many years (see a movie in the theater twice)



The sci-fi plot was as tight as you can get with a universe as big as the Star Trek Universe. Time travel has always been a mainstay of Star Trek. The newest movie uses time travel and alternate versions of reality to lay open a whole new frontier for the reincarnations of the original crew of the starship Enterprise.

The movie had some surprising twists (compounded by some deceptive advertising and well kept secrets) and plenty of action. The new actors seemed to comfortably take on the mantles of their predecessors, assuming some of the quirks of the original cast, while bringing along their own unique foibles. I particularly got a kick out of Scottie's new sailor worthy vocabulary. And I continue to cringe at Kirk's nut smashing leg cross when sitting in the command chair.

I'm sure their are many die hard trekkies out there who have found faults with the movie. Don't look so hard! This entry into the saga is as worthy as the best of the other movies. My question - what's next? A second movie? A TV spin-off? A couple hundred new Star Trek Novels? The universe is wide open once again.

My Facebook was hijacked by pirates (Arr!)

Seriously - my language was switched to "English-Pirate" and it was cool.

You need to try this if you are on Facebook. Log in and go all the way to the bottom of the page. On the left, just to the right of the Facebook (c) is your current language. It probably says your using English. Click on the language and look for "English - Pirates" in the language selection screen. Click it and check out you Facebook page. It will be in pirate-ese. Aarrr!

New Dot Com - eggbrosinc.com

My brother keeps talking about starting a formal branch of our small projects. We have been calling ourselves "Egg Bros Inc". I decided to buy the .com for a year and see what we can do with our own web presence (other than my blog).

Egg Bros Inc

Newest Net Addiction

I like Boggle. I like Scrabble. This "wise old duck" has created an online game, free and plays against real people, that brings the best of both games together. I have been playing every night for about a week. I'm an addict. I'm not as good as some of the long term regulars, but I can hold my own.

The game is called -- ZChurk

Follow the link. I play as kurteeck.

Yep - I'm going to try the NaNoWriMo again. 50,000 words in thirty days.

I only made it to 15,000 words last year. I had kids at home all the time. This year, the kids will be at the program center until 7 four days a week, so I should be able to find more time to write.

If you are interested, you should check out the website. If you decide to write, let me know so we can suffer together.

I hate Apple

I had this great idea to use CNN Student news (I know, it sounds like I've sold out to the enemy. But FOX doesn't provide a student news program) in the morning at Bethesda/PATH. So Sunday night I download the news and try to xfer it to my Zen.

Error. Try again. Error.

Four in the morning and I'm still trying to resolve why my video converter will not work. No luck.

Tonight I finally find a discussion group that addressed this problem. Seems like Apple set up the latest version of Quicktime so that it would crash my Creative Video Converter.

I deleted Quicktime and installed a shareware version. Now everything is working fine. Yippee!

TV Widget

Added a TV Widget to my MySpace.

Get your own widget.

New Section Finished on My MySpace

I've finished adding the music section to my MySpace. I tried to get a sample of bands I like, but not necessarily the most known songs by the artist or band.

Simpsonized?

I fell for the marketing ploy. I sent my picture to the "Simpsonizer" and this is what I look like after I get squashed into two-dimensions.


Not a horrible un-likeness. I think I look better than Jerry.
Well - in two-dimensions anyway.

Have not seen the movie yet, but plan to soon.