Happy Holidays

 

From all of us to all of you,

Happy Holidays!

Androidify Me!

It seems like ages ago that I did the Oona Kickstarter. I haven't actually received my Oona yet but the updates from them indicate that they are actually shipping them now so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Today another interesting Kickstarter project showed up in my GReader.

Yep, I'm totally going to buy some of these. Everybody in my family now sports and Android phone, we have two Rooted and Androided (why, yes, that is a word ;P) Nooks, and an ASUS Transformer tablet.

I'm pretty sure we've all played with the Androidify Me app.  If you haven't you totally need to download that app and play around.  It is on par with that Southpark character creation site that we all are guilty of using, repeatedly, over and over and over again. *raises hand* *hangs head*

I only wish they had a support level that fit more into what I wanted to get but I'm sure they'll be delighted to have whatever we give.  Let's hope this one doesn't take more than six months to deliver!

So head on over to Kickstarter and make a donation already.

Browser Battle

 

Back in the dark ages, it took me a while to switch to Firefox but once I did I loved it.  LOVED IT!

All those addons.  The tabbed browsing.  So much goodness.

Then came Chrome.  I tried to like Chrome.  I’m an admitted Google fanboi but I still couldn’t do without some of the features of Firefox I had grown to love.

The pivotal feature became Delicious Bookmarks.  I loved having the exact same bookmarks on every machine. Delicious allowed me that luxury.  I know what you are thinking, “But Firefox and Chrome both offer syncing.” Yes, they do NOW but they didn’t then.  None of the Delicious addons for Chrome worked the same way that they in Firefox.

As soon as Chrome offered bookmark syncing I switched.  It was painful – so many things I had relied on in Firefox just weren’t there in Chrome but I learned to live without or found another source for those features.

It wasn’t long after that that Yahoo announced they were selling Delicious and were no longer supporting it.  That was a huge let down for a lot of my friends that used it daily.  By then I was already using Chrome Bookmarks so it didn’t really impact me.

Yesterday Google released the updated GReader.  It sure is purdy.  But.  But, it doesn’t do anything for the horrible lag I get in Chrome when I go through my Greader.  I follow many feeds and read a large number of items daily.  I use the expanded format which, granted, uses more resources, BUT (yes, BIG BUT) even my totally pimped out laptop struggles with the rate at which I go through the items in my reader so I’m inclined to believe that it isn’t a hardware issue at all.

For many reasons I keep Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome on all my machines.  I did figure out a pretty easy way to get my bookmarks from Chrome into Firefox (I don’t even bother to do that with Internet Explorer because my usage is limited to extreme cases) so that made the hassle of switching from one to the other a little easier.

With all the latest improvements to Firefox I just had to give it another try.  I notice NONE of the lag going through my GReader that I get when I do it in Chrome.  None.  That’s a big plus.  Huge. Ginormous.

I think I will be using Firefox for a while – at least a week – and see if I still want to go back to Chrome.  All my previous attempts to go back to Firefox have been short lived.  Funny how you get used to something and don’t want to change. Damn old people .

It looks like Firefox’s concentration on speed and memory management have finally paid off for them.  I just wonder if all those people switching to Chrome should have waited for the latest version of Firefox before doing so.  I gotta tell ya, Firefox 7.0.1 is speedy.

Old Geeks

OK, who’s calling me an Old Geek???

My kids, that’s who. Bastards.

Sugar Rush

I am at the beginning of what will surely be an epic sugar rush today.

It all started when I received a text from a neighbor asking if I wanted to go to Tanners Orchard with her this morning.  Well, DUH! Of course I do. I needed some more apples, pies, caramel corn nuggets, and donuts like I need another hole in my head.

While I was putting away the frozen pie (birthday treat for Zooks97 who turns *gasp* 14 next Friday) I spotted the cookie dough I meant to bake Wednesday night.  Those perky little high school cheerleaders are totally complicit in my sugar coma.  I wish they would stop selling those premade cookie dough nuggets.  At least when I’m done eating all these triple chocolate chunk cookies I won’t have to see them staring at me from the fridge anymore – nope, they’ll be bouncing right behind me everywhere I walk.

If you are ever in central Illinois stop by Tanners Orchard. You won’t be disappointed.

Novelty

So, yeah, I've been a lazy bum this entire summer.

It is hard to break out of that habit of being a bum.  I'm still struggling with it even with the kids in school freeing up a lot of my time.  Well, that's sort of a fallacy since they weren't that much more time consuming over the summer than they are now since they spent much of their time in front of their computers.

So where does 'novelty' come into play???

I have passed a few articles in my reader touting the 'new' Blogger.  New Blogger.  Two words you don't often see together.  Heck, I even saw pictures of the 'New Blogger'.  So the novelty of trying this brought me over here.

It is definitely starker than what I am accustomed to, but I have been using Windows Live Writer for a while now so any improvements to Blogger would have been a big change to me. I was never a fan of the Blogger posting template.  But, this does seem to be an improvement.

It probably isn't enough to get my blogging on a regular basis again.  Heck, Windows Live Writer is a WYSIWYG editor and that didn't inspire me to ramble so why would this?

So much has been going on in the Poker World, my real life, and just the world in general but I'm just blase' about it all.  Every now and then I run a few lines through my head thinking they would be a great seed for a blog post but then it flits right out of my (now blonde) head never to be heard from again.  I blame my hair dresser.

Game of Thrones

I love pretty much anything and everything that HBO creates.  Those people have really figured out how to make shows that grip you and make you yearn for more.

I spotted this little beauty on Unrealitymag.com.

I started reading the Game of Thrones books before the show started.  I’m about 90% of the way through the first four books.  I just found out the author has released another book.  A mere 1000 pages.  Sigh.  I think I’m going to have to indulge in some free smutty, chicky litty, sci-fi, mystery, did I mention free drivel from Amazon before I plunk down more $$ for a 1000 page tome from George R.R. Martin.

If you have a Kindle, or a Kindle App, you owe it to yourself to check out this feed for daily updates on the free books available from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/rss/top-free/digital-text/154606011/ref=zg_tf_154606011_rsslink

Where’s My Money, Professor!?!

I’m not a huge fan of Tony G but this video is downright hilarious.

The Micros vs The Nosebleeds

These videos are friggin hilarious.

I’m not sure which I laughed at more but given recent events the Nosebleeds might have the edge.

 

Some Mac Chat

It has been ages since I’ve posted a Mac chat.  He’s changed jobs and we don’t chat nearly as much as we once did.  There are days when I could sure use some Mac to cheer me up.

Today we had a little chat.  Here’s a snippet:

Zooks64: you have too many (kids) for me to remember
Zooks64: how do you keep them all straight?
Mac: We make them wear name tags
Zooks64: tattoos
Zooks64: forehead
Zooks64: think about it
Mac: Did
Mac: Apparently there are 'laws'
Zooks64: pffft

So there’s 30 seconds you’ll never get back.

YW

Staying’ Alive

I dare you to try to forget you saw this.  I dare you.

I expect you to Push Hard and Fast you ever seen me having a heart attack.  Just sayin.

PowerSchool

The local school district started using an online grading program a few years ago.  Too bad it sucked.  Last year they upgraded to PowerSchool.  Which rocks my world.

At least once a week I login to check on my boys’ grades.  It’s amazing how much leverage you have as a parent when you have up to the minute grade information.  My boys are familiar with the insta-ban on TV and computer resulting from poor grades.

We gave the boys the password so they could check their grades themselves.  What a huge motivator that was.  This system even lets us sign up for daily or weekly email updates. 

I’ve seen my boys dig themselves quite the hole at the beginning of a grading period only to salvage an A by the time the final grade is posted.  I can even tell if an assignment was turned in late or not at all.  Let’s just say there are no surprises come the end of the semester.  What a relief.

Kickstarter

I was watching Tekzilla this morning when I saw a segment on this really cool phone holder.

I had to have one.  I’m thinking I will use it for a car window mount but it looks like it will do so much more than that.  I’m going to wander around the Kickstarter site to see what other cool ideas are out there.

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

The guys at Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal are consistently good for a chuckle but this one really sent me over the edge.

Levity

That Erik Seidel is en fuego.

So nice of the folks at TheMicros to give him some love.

PokerSlut Tour on Hiatus

Until the legal issues between the U.S. government and the major online poker outlets are resolved the PokerSlut Tour will be on hiatus.

I had requested a cash out from Full Tilt late in March when I knew I would be moving the Tour to PokerStars.  In the mean time I turned some FPPs into $90 and today I got notice of a $6 affiliate payment. 

I had debated about ending the Tour after season XX but the PokerStars Home Game made me reconsider.  Now the decision has been made for me.

I went ahead and asked for a cash out from PokerStars.  My request went through without any problems but who knows if it will actually happen.

Because my balance on Full Tilt is less than $100 they requested that I contact their withdrawalsupport@fulltiltpoker.com people.  Can’t wait to hear what they have to say after they finish with the 123908709846 people in front of me in the withdrawal queue.

RIP online poker.  You will be missed.

PokerSlut Tour Stud Results

I’d like to say I’m over my bitterness of that brutal Stud hand…. but, I’m not. 

Here are the results:

Paybacks

This is what I get for bragging about that full house hand in razz.  Paybacks are a bitch.

 

PokerStars Home Game #60648568674: {PokerSlut Tour} Tournament #384151187, $1.00+$0.10 7 Card Stud Limit - Level X (200/400) - 2011/04/10 21:45:30 CT 2011/04/10 22:45:30 ET
Table '384151187 1' 8-max
Seat 2: gadzooks64 (1272 in chips)
Seat 5: PokerGeekMN (5482 in chips)
Seat 7: blindluck91 (1246 in chips)
gadzooks64: posts the ante 40
PokerGeekMN: posts the ante 40
blindluck91: posts the ante 40
3rd STREET
Dealt to gadzooks64

Dealt to PokerGeekMN
Dealt to blindluck91
blindluck91: bets 200
gadzooks64: calls 200
PokerGeekMN: raises 200 to 400
blindluck91: raises 200 to 600
gadzooks64: raises 200 to 800
Betting is capped
PokerGeekMN: calls 400
blindluck91: calls 200
4th STREET
Dealt to gadzooks64

Dealt to PokerGeekMN
Dealt to blindluck91
PokerGeekMN: bets 200
blindluck91: raises 200 to 400
gadzooks64: raises 32 to 432 and is all-in
PokerGeekMN: raises 168 to 600
blindluck91: calls 6 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (168) returned to PokerGeekMN
5th STREET
Dealt to gadzooks64

Dealt to PokerGeekMN
Dealt to blindluck91
6th STREET
Dealt to gadzooks64

Dealt to PokerGeekMN
Dealt to blindluck91
RIVER:
Dealt to gadzooks64

SHOW DOWN :
gadzooks64: shows

PokerGeekMN: shows
(a pair of Sevens)
gadzooks64 collected 52 from side pot
blindluck91: shows

PokerGeekMN said, "wow"
gadzooks64 said, "sigh"
blindluck91 collected 3738 from main pot
PokerGeekMN said, "nhs"
SUMMARY:
Total pot 3790 Main pot 3738. Side pot 52. | Rake 0
Seat 2: gadzooks64 shows
and won (52) with three of a kind, Fives
Seat 5: PokerGeekMN shows
and lost with a pair of Sevens
Seat 7: blindluck91 shows
and won (3738) with a full house, Jacks full of Deuces

Le sigh.