Ride in Style

This is how you should ride to a Hawkeye football victory in style. Click on the picture to go to a gallery with more pictures.



For those interested, this is a 1949 Chevrolet 3600 3/4 ton. It was originally my great-grandfather E.B. Null's truck (Huck to most people, hence the lettering on the tailgate), and my dad recently had it restored. It's a driver, not a showpiece, so it has made it to 2 games for tailgating already this year.

It's pretty cool rolling down the road in a vehicle built in the 40's with absolutely nothing automatic in it. A/C, heater, wipers, power windows, locks, seat belts, radio...yeah we don't need any of those.

Stuff I Didn't Know

Learning is good for you. Yes, it really is, and I try to learn new things as often as possible. Often they tend to be just stupid, simple things that I didn't previously know or understand. The Internet is often my tool of choice to tackle these issues, and that was the case tonight.

Item #1 - What does being an at-will state really mean?
It turns out that my state, like many others, is an at-will employment state. I always pretty much understood that to mean that at any point in time myself or my employer could tell the other to hit the road, with paychecks ceasing. I was not sure however how this all played into severance and potential litigation after a termination. I now know the answer:
http://research.lawyers.com/Iowa/Employment-Law-in-Iowa.html

Item #2 - How do you really distinguish between a muffin and a cupcake?
This question came up during dinner, as we were discussing some tasty insomnia cupcakes I ate at work. I still don't think I really have a satisfactory answer after searching a bit though. I'll go with Shannon's definition of cupcakes having frosting, and muffins not. Here was another guy's take on it (and I like his statement of having a "Seinfeld moment"):
http://calderonline.blogspot.com/2006/10/seinfeld-moment-muffins-vs-cupcakes.html

Apple - You Fail It

I've been sitting on this post for a while, but I needed to get something back out there after taking a little break.

I've talked before (although I can't easily seem to search for where) about how much I want a nicely integrated system update service. All applications could tie into it to update themselves. Very similar to how I think backup should work. Let the system control it all, but each application can register with it, since who better than the app to decide what to backup or update.

Ryan has also said several times how ridiculous it is that due to the lack of this, every app feels the need to bundle their own updater. Apple it turns out is no exception. When iTunes 7 rolled around, Apple created something called Apple Software Update, and included it with iTunes. I groaned, but I thought, "Hey, Apple stuff is generally simple and just works." So, I installed it.

Then, after fixing a ton of bugs in iTunes 7, they released an update. I thought, "awesome, I'll have it automatically thanks to that update package, right?" Wrong. Not even when I tried to use it to check for an updated manually. Check the screen shot. The software updater doesn't have a clue, but iTunes itself prompted me to do the update.




Yep, that was the end of Apple Software Update. Promptly uninstalled.

I hope the next operating system that convinces me it is worthy of being installed finds a way to integrate these services that I want.

Extreme Stupidity

(Click here to skip the background, and go straight to the stupidity)

First, some background. I am not particularly fond of cell phones. I hate when the ring, pretty much always. I hate when people talk on them very loudly, about worthless and mundane topics. I think they are the single biggest contributor to ADD in existence currently. What I really dislike personally though is paying for them.

I had a cell phone for about 4 years in college. I remember being excited to move from my analog to a digital phone. I liked them occasionally. However, I really didn't like paying lots of money, so that people could get a hold of me immediately, rather than waiting until I was near another phone. Sometimes it's actually nice to just disappear for a bit. So, even though I never moved beyond a $25 per month plan, I eventually dropped the phone about 3 years ago, and haven't regretted it since.

People are often amazed that I am able to survive without one. Apparently, generations previous to us were just lucky that they didn't die on a daily basis without a mobile telephone.

Now, to the point. Our friends at one of the plethora of cellular service providers have decided they need to help people out, give back to the community. They have a new deal for those less-fortunate, who somehow can't manage to pay their bills, but absolutely have to have a cell phone (and a satellite, and new sneakers, and...sorry, getting off-topic).

Now, if you already qualify for low-cost utilities or subsidized phone service, they will give you an extra special package. It has 700 minutes, free incoming everything, blah blah blah. All for the low, low cost of $37 per month. $37 per month!!! That's over 1/3 more than the point where I considered my service too expensive to continue. And this is for those who are struggling with money? Bullshit. This is just one more excuse for the cell companies to line their pockets.

However, lest you think all lost, the Hawks won big today. All is now well with the cosmos again.

Hawks 47, Purdue 17

Food Thoughts

I don't think anyone has ever accused me of making this blog too highbrow or intellectual. I try to make it as thoughtful as possible usually, but that's not the case at all today.

Today we start with food. BBQ is pretty much my favorite, so let's start there. I tried out a new place called BBQ This! in Cedar Rapids on Thursday. Very good stuff. A little more money than your standard fast-food lunch, but well worth it. Large portions of tasty meat, and the two sides that I got were both very well-portioned. The apple crisp as a side is awesome. I was especially impressed that they keep all 4 of their BBQ sauces heated. Classy.

Last night, we ate at Old Chicago, a perennial favorite. Since nobody else was getting pizza, I went with a sandwich instead. They had a new Chipotle Pulled Pork sandwich, so I tried that. Freaking incredible. Maybe the best sandwich I have eaten anywhere. Plus, we had a cool waiter who told me that even though they aren't on the menu, he could make some Jamaican Jerk fries for my side. Those were extremely good too. At first it just added a bit of spice, but after eating a few the jerk flavor was very obvious. I love finding one-off menu items like that.

Finally, from the dislike side, I learned today that I don't just slightly hate Walnuts, I thoroughly hate them. We have some new oatmeal that is raisin, date, and walnut. Upon making it I was nearly sick from the walnut smell. It has continued to piss me off the rest of the day smelling it in the kitchen. I always knew I didn't like them, but I never realized just how nasty I find that smell.

There, your food blog of the day. Eat your heart out Rachel Ray.

Change of Perspective

Without getting too deep, I have been pondering lately how drastically one's perspective on something can change over time. I'll keep it simple with one example.

I used to love building computers. Everything about it. I kept up-to-date on all of the components that were out there, knew their specs by heart, and pretty much knew the best price on anything at any time.

Those days are long past. I no longer give a rip. I want my computer to work, I don't want to touch it, and I pretty much have one that is just "good enough." Until iTunes 7 came out that is, and suddenly I found my machine lacking.

Those who watch this blog saw me love iTunes 7, but also rant about it. However, I never even blogged about my biggest disappointment. After seeing how sweet cover flow looked, I couldn't wait to use it at home. However, I was instead greeted by this message when I enabled cover flow at home: "iTunes is unable to display artwork on this computer." Huh? Why? Talk about a worthless error message.

I immediately hypothesized that my last than fantastic Rage XL graphics card simply wasn't up to the task. A bit of searching on some forums pretty much proved me right. Thus, I was in need of a graphics card. I really didn't care though, and didn't want to spend time researching it. Once again, I really just wanted to be able to click the "good enough" graphics card button on Amazon or something. In the end, I went to eBay, narrowed the list by a few features I actually knew that I wanted, and bought one. Radeon 9250 it turns out, don't really care about the specs, they are good enough, and met the most important criteria, my price point of $30.

Now, I have cover flow goodness. Sweet. Now, lest I forget:

Hawks 24, Worthless Illini 7. Go Hawks.
I'll see all the cool folks under the lights at Kinnick next week.

All is Right With the Cosmos

Normally I tack this onto another post, but this one doesn't need one.

Yesterday was a good day. I got to go to my first Hawkeye home football game. I got to check out the very nicely updated Kinnick Stadium, and vastly appreciated the increased butt room.

Hung out in the parking lots ahead of time, good brews, good folks. I often forget how much energy and craziness college kids have, and it's a good reminder to see it sometimes.

I then watched a great game play out as it should. My "Beat State" shirt was still able to be worn after the game. It's all good.

Hawks 27 Clones 17