Midspot

Friday night I went out to Lake Tschida with the camper. The main reason I went out was to see how the new Duramax pulls.

Oh yeah. I bought a Chevy Duramax 2500HD Crew Cab right after the 4th of July when Chevy had 0% interest for 6 years. I really wasn’t going to trade until next year, but I figured a deal like that was too good to pass up.

Anyway, it pulls like crazy. I can’t believe the power. I was fighting a head wind on the way out there and could still pull it as fast as I wanted. I even averaged between 10 and 12 MPG which is far away from the 18-19 it gets empty on the highway, but still not bad.

I hadn’t been out to Lake Tschida for about 5-6 years and was surprised at how big the lake was. The water was warm, not surprising with all the over 100 degree weather we have been getting the last week or two. We ended up having a great time dispite the fact that I had to come back to town early Saturday morning due to the amount of side work and other obligations I have going.

Matthew Stibbe has an interesting write up on how to get up earlier:

Alarms. I set my beside alarm for 0600 – and this is the clever psychology – I also set my telephone to ring at 0605 but I put the phone on the other side of the room so that I have to get out of bed to stop it ringing. In the UK, you dial *55*0605# to do this. What happens is this: either I wake up and cancel the alarm or I get up and answer the call to stop it ringing. First, we’re strongly programmed to answer the phone*. Second, I’m very strongly programmed not to wake my wife up! A ringing phone will do this so I have powerful motivators at work: guilt and fear. This technique works every time but I had previously reserved it for early morning trips to the airport and things like that.

To view the rest go here 

Pretty good advice. Subscribed.

Tara Hunt lists the Top 10 things Pinko Marketers [regret having] to repeat to some clients:

1. Viral? You may want to take something for that.
2. You want to target teenage girls on MySpace? Have you ever been a teenage girl on MySpace?
3. What do you mean you want to design a social tagging application that my mother could use? My mother socially tags?
   
4. Of course you should be concerned about appealing to the mainstream…they care so much about what you are doing.
5. No, I can’t promise we’ll get you 100,000 users by your VC meeting next week
6. You want to own all of the data/be the next Google/set the standards/etc., too? What a coincidence!
   
7. Yes, that IS considered SPAM.
8. How about before we start talking about what you ‘could’ be we talk about where you need to be today.
9. Naw…you are right….Mac users don’t matter…
10. Yes, you should definitely be targeting the MySpace market – they haven’t had enough attention yet.

Link here

I think this holds true to most clients… It’s amazing some of the things I have been asked over the years.

Our local paper had an interesting article today:

Corey Botner, who lives southwest of Bismarck, said he was feeding his pet wallaroo, which is in the kangaroo family, Tuesday night. His new St. Bernard puppy, still a tiny white and brown ball of fur, frightened “Joe,” and the wallaroo pushed through a gate and hopped away.

Bismarck Tribune Article here

Turns out this guy is one of our pilots for the company. Hopefully he finds his wallaroo and returns it to safety. Not everyday you hear about a kangaroo on the loose, especially in North Dakota.

Whether Microsoft virtualization technology is an important component of your existing infrastructure or you’re just a Virtual PC enthusiast, you can now download Virtual PC 2004 Service Pack 1 absolutely free. Microsoft is also offering the free download of Virtual PC 2007, with support for Windows Vista in 2007.

seen on Trump Blog:

If you are thinking of starting your own business, your success strongly depends on choosing a field of business you will love. Without a strong passion for your work, your efforts will suffer and so will your new business. Holidays, 9 – 5 workdays and weekends off are for the employed, not for the entrepreneur, so be ready for the initial and continuing work required to make your new business a success.

True, True…

Kyle MacDonald started out with a red paper clip and bartered his way up to a house via the internet.

Technorati Tags: Blog, Blogger, Blogging, Paperclip, House, Kyle, Oneredpaperclip

I was delighted to learn that American politicians are trying to make it illegal to burn the American flag. That can only mean that my dedicated public servants have finally solved the problems of crime, drugs, war, poverty, terrorism, healthcare, immigration, and the mystery of why our children are such idiots compared to Norwegians. Evidently those issues are now under control. I was starting to worry that Congress was wasting my tax dollars doing stupid shit.

Read the rest here

Who else can make something we all think about, come out in writing sounding so funny.

I’m not sure who to feel sorry for here…

Potty trained kitty

I’m sitting on the couch, checking my email, and it just occurred to me that in about 12 hours I will be back at work. The last week has just flown by and the weekend seemed like there wasn’t one. Yesterday we went to Dickinson for a softball tournament and today just did laundry and homework all day. What a waste.