Aug
31
Dolphin with prosthetic tail
Filed Under News | Leave a Comment
Here’s a great story about a dolphin in Clearwater getting a prosthetic tail. The dolphin lost it’s tail as a result of becoming tangled in a crab trap near Cape Canaveral.
The effort spent outfitting the dolphin with the device is paying off for humans, also. The product advancements made will help human amputees with some of the more uncomfortable elements of wearing prosthetics as well, so this is a good story in the end.
“Good on ya!” to all involved.
Aug
31
The best time of year
Filed Under Interesting | 2 Comments
My favorite time of year in Florida is rapidly approaching - Fall!
Lots of reasons, really: The weather begins to cool down (I swear, it does!), the kids are back in school, there’s some event or activity of festival every weekend, and most importantly - football!
Go Gators! Go Jags!
My wife and kids like this time of year best, also. For all the same reasons, plus it means they get to pull out the Fall Decorations and go hog wild.
Cornucopias, pumpkins, heck, one year we even had a bale of hay in the yard.
Note to self: No hay.
Aug
31
That’s right, your favorite Florida Sun Dog feature is back - Only in FLA!! Heeeeeere we go:
Stupid is as stupid does, right?
Not only was this babysitter stupid enough to smoke weed, not only was she stupid enough to smoke weed with a 5-yr old, she POSTED THE PHOTOS ON MYSPACE!
A 15-year-old Yulee girl has landed herself in legal trouble and likely ended her babysitting career with photos she allegedly posted on the Internet of her smoking marijuana with a child.The girl was arrested last week after police received an anonymous tip that she had pictures on her MySpace web page showing her smoking marijuana with a child approximately four or five years old.
Yet another reason to hate MySpace with the heat of a thousand suns.
What? MySpace isn’t the issue?
Oh. Yeah. You might be right.
Aug
30
So, if all goes well, about 24 hrs from now I’ll be $300 million dollars richer, thanks to the good folks that play the Georgia Lottery!
You know what time it will be then, don’t you?
Time for a Harley! Stacey won’t let me get one right now despite my “objective” arguments about how much money we’ll save on gas. She’s afraid I’ll get hurt. There aren’t too many things I’m sure about in this world, but one that I am sure about is that if I ever win the lottery, she’ll encourage me to do all the risky activities I can. You do the math.
(Man, once again, I’m going to pay for that comment…)
I’m sure there’s a lot of maintenance that goes into owning a bike. Owning a motorcycle means never having to come up with a handwritten Christmas list, that’s for sure - the Harley Davidson Parts catalog is huge!
I don’t know what it is, but I the last two places I’ve lived seem to be on the regular Sunday route for the bikers. I suppose living off scenic roads between good-sized cities and great little restaurants plays a part! I’ve also seen a lot of large franchise stores and small mom-n-pops open along these routes to sell Harley Parts to the bikers, and these places seem to thrive thanks to the community that exists around Harleys. I suppose that’s another reason I find a motorcycle attractive - meeting a bunch of interesting people.
So, what type of Harley Accessories should I plan to buy to go with my fantasy ride? I assume the black t-shirt and boots won’t count. What else? Helmet, Chrome everything, maybe some medallions?
Aug
29
Moving to Florida?
Filed Under Interesting | Leave a Comment
There are plenty of guides to moving available, but they are either buried deep inside a very large website, or they are just some reworked junk thrown together to make a little Adsense cash.
Relocation.com is neither. The guides are at the heart of this website, readily available, and gloriously free of Adsense. By browsing the extensive site you can find information on Real Estate, Mortgage, Moving, Apartment Hunting, Insurance, Careers, and Home Improvement. You can also reach those large database-driven sites from within Relocation.com - it is designed to be a portal for all of the relocation needs one might have.
The company also runs some closely-related sites as well. Carmovers.com is similarly designed to be a portal for your auto shipping needs, something many of us need when making moves in multi-car families, or across long distances, especially during corporate moves. Another site they run is Internationalmovers.com, where you can get quotes from licensed international movers. For me, this would definitely be the place to start the planning process for an international move, because honestly, I am clueless about what it would take.
I also expect to need these services shortly, as I have purchased the winning ticket in the $320M Georgia lottery this Friday night. Oh, they haven’t drawn it yet, but I know. It’s a feeling. Then it’s goodbye Florida, hello Belize!
Aug
28
Fair warning
Filed Under Administration | Leave a Comment
I’m over my trepidation regarding migrating my blogs to Wordpress and a new host. Since I went with Bluehost several weeks ago, I’ve mucked around trying to screw stuff up and haven’t. So I’m feeling better about my problems with GoDaddy being GoDaddy’s fault and not mine.
Effin’ GoDaddy.
This blog is hosted on Blogger. Nothing against Blogger - the price is right and the UI is easy to learn and use - but I need the tools and features in WP in a bad way. So, I’m going to take a deep breath sometime this week and mobilate this blog over to Wordpress. I don’t know when - could be as soon as tonight - but sometime when I can sit down and have a couple hours of uninterrupted time.
But here’s the thing - I have no idea if my RSS feeds are going to break in the process. So, be looking for it. I’ll probably give a final “Here goes nothing” post, then we’ll just have to see on the other side, right?
Oh, and if anyone has a recommendation for a super-cool WP theme for this puppy, let me know.
Aug
27
I am McLovin!
Filed Under Movies | 3 Comments
Stacey and I went to see Superbad this past weekend.
Too funny!
Mark my words - the catch-phrase for 2007 is “I am McLovin!”
Think American Pie without the good-looking guys, or Shannon Elizabeth naked. Think uncomfortable references to MySpace pedophiles*, dude-dude platonic love declarations, and that party you went to right before high school graduation.
You know the one.
But, the best scenes, hands down, are McLovin and the cops. Pure comedy gold.
*It is taking all the strength I have not to link that phrase to my brother’s MySpace page, especially since he just got a pedophile-serial-killer buzzcut. Scary.
Aug
27
Are you ready for some Football!?!?!?!
Filed Under Interesting, Jacksonville | 1 Comment
Back when she was a single woman, my wife packaged herself to trap attract single men. In her case, she brought season tickets to the Jaguars to the relationship.
(I’m going to paaaaayyyyyy for that sentence…..)
As a veteran of something like eight million** live NFL games, I can tell you there’s no better way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Or, even better, a Monday night. In Jacksonville, Municipal Stadium is located on the north bank of the St. Johns River, so when we go to games we make an even bigger event out of it. Sunday brunch at a riverfront restaurant is our form of tailgating, followed by a river taxi ride up to the municipal docks near the stadium.
Then we get to watch our Jaguars whoop the tar out of the visiting team, like the Super Bowl Champion Indianapolis Colts who got the snot beat out of them, 44-17 in Week 14, giving up a Pop Warner-like 375 rushing yards.
But, I digress.
Alas, we gave up our season tickets several years ago while living in Tampa (who had a good team until Jon Gruden and Bruce Allen screwed it up). Back in Jax, I miss those tickets. I want to go to a game BADLY. The December games are the best; usually, there’s no heat, no humidity, no rain. Perhaps I’ll get Stacey some tickets for her birthday. Tickets of America, where their company motto is “We’re never sold out”, has a ton of tickets available starting as low as $40.
Oh yeah, I’m ready!
**I might be exaggerating a little.
Aug
26
Filed Under St. Augustine | Leave a Comment
My sister-in-law and her husband are back from their latest excursion in their RV, which they are now putting up for sale. It is lightly used and I can attest to the fact that it is in wonderful condition. But, they have a little one entering school and business interests competing for their time. When they first bought it they told me they were only going to keep it for a couple years, keep it in great condition, and sell it when the little guy started school. So, if you’re looking for a lightly-used in RV in great condition, give them a call.
These are the same folks selling one million-dollar home in St. Augustine to move to another million-dollar home in St. Augustine, so if you need a million-dollar home in St. Augustine, well, you should have an abundance of links to click-through… 
St. Augustine Million Dollar Home
Aug
24
I don’t do very well building technorati authority, but then, so what? It’s just another metric ripe for manipulation, and no advertiser has ever given a crap about it.
PageRank? Yeah, I can do a decent job with it. Ethically.
Ashwin’s PR is predicted to be a 4. I’ll use PR as a point of comparison because that’s what everyone seems to care most about - certainly, the people looking to spend a few dollars on bloggers care, anyway.
Predictors are entertaining, you can’t bank on them, but let’s take a look at what writing consistently (with Stacey doing great work over at Parent Traps!), participating in my niche communities, giving and getting link-love, teaching myself a ton about SEO and SEM, and working my effin’ ass off for months MAY result in:
Ashwin: (n) Lazy, crooked, douchebag, as in “That Ashwin is a lazy, crooked douchebag.”
