UtterlyBoring.com

NCAA Pick 'em Time

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 20:47:15 -0800

So here's the deal. Unlike previous years' pick ems, I'm totally unorganized, busy, and a general mess. Personal and professional life are totally chaotic, and the last thing I have is free time for posting stuff on this site (I'd rather spend the free time I have with family -- sue me). So I haven't been able to organize prizes or anything fun like in years past. My apologies.

So this year, bragging rights are on the line. Join up here (password, if it asks, is utterlyboring20). Your brackets need to be filled out by Thursday morning. Scoring remains the same as in years past. Since there are not prizes, the rules regarding prizes don't apply.

I won't be posted scoring updates like I did in the past. See lack of free time warning above.

Good luck! And hopefully sometime this week I'll put out my quarterly-ish link dump.

Every-three-month(ish) Link Dump

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 22:20:57 -0800

OK, so I know I'm totally neglecting things here. My new job at a local outsourced IT company is going well, but keeping me busy. And yes, I did just try to give them some SEO linkage there because they need it. But after dealing with computers and people's issues with their computers all day long, sometimes I just don't feel like turning mine on in the evening. But otherwise, it's going well, the people are cool, and I have health insurance for the first time in 11 years (which would have came in handy nine years ago).

That being said, I'm still collecting a link pile, and have some to share, so enjoy!

Mass Link Dump

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 22:32:52 -0800

Something old, something new, all in one big pile. Enjoy!

Dren Shares His Loser Shirt

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 22:21:31 -0800

The Dren, the dude that lost our last Pick 'Em (third time he's done so -- see here and here) sent me a picture of the special shirt I made for him:

If you can't read the text:

Thanks Dren for playing and sucking so bad!

Stupidly Massive Link Dump

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 21:46:54 -0800

So obviously my life is far too chaotic at the moment to post here much, but that doesn't mean I'm not collecting links to share. To keep everybody occupied for a bit, enjoy;

I Have A New Respect For Katy Perry

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 22:31:51 -0800

She does some amazing death metal work:

I Think We Should Charge The Crazy Nut Job With Murder

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 21:25:17 -0800

At latest count, 99,135 illnesses and 895 deaths have been reported from the CDC since 2007 on vaccine preventable illnesses, as reported on the Jenny McCarthy body count. Quoting the site:

Is Jenny McCarthy directly responsible for every vaccine preventable illness and every vaccine preventable death listed here? No. However, as the unofficial spokesperson for the United States anti-vaccination movement she may be indirectly responsible for at least some of these illnesses and deaths and even one vaccine preventable illness or vaccine preventable death is too many.

Video Dump

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 22:26:43 -0800

Some videos to suck up the time and bandwidth...

Every Parent Will Appreciate This

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 21:36:36 -0800

It's Naptime:

Reading Material

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 21:30:12 -0800

First off, we're selling my wife's old trombone, if anybody's interested.
Your Facebook account has three passwords.
Why Netflix Never Implemented The Algorithm That Won The Netflix $1 Million Challenge.
When Obama endorsed marriage equality...
There's No Time Like Today to Start Changing Things (for MovableType fans).
The worst things for sale.
Politwoops: Deleted tweets from politicians.
Photoshop actions to fix the banding of Photoshop gradients.
If all the earth's water were put into a single sphere...
Famous movie scenes in Lego.
People Who Don’t Know How to Spell “Cologne”, instead spelling in "Colon." Whoops...
OKCupid Enemies.
North Carolina banned gay marriage, but you can still marry your first cousin if you'd like.
What if you removed the top million sites from Google? What would the results look like?
Matt Groening confirms what we all knew: Springfield in The Simpsons is based on Springfield, Oregon.
Depressed copywriter.
GitHub releases Windows version.
Something that should be implemented everywhere: Add Clippy to your website.

Three Grandmas Win The Internet

Sun, 27 May 2012 21:37:29 -0800

Three grandmas talk about the Kardashians and end up watching the Ray-J and Kim Kardashian sex tape.

(Some day I'll catch up and share more of my saved links and such. Probably not until at least after next weekend's concert.)

Anybody Have Some Time I Can Borrow?

Mon, 14 May 2012 22:46:16 -0800

So the new job is going well. I'm still trying to wrap my head around ConnectWise, but I'm getting there. The people there are great, the company's philosophies are good, and things are going smoothly. And I actually get home earlier from work, so I can see my kids more (shorter commutes are nice, though I did have to wait at a train crossing three times in the last week).

Meanwhile, since it's the end of the school year, and there are a bunch of concerts, recitals, and other end of the year activities with the kids, including my own mess of stuff. I have rehearsals and/or concerts tonight through next Tuesday, which means I won't be able to come up for air much after work or on the weekends.

In other words, this blog is going to be neglected for a bit more time. I have a ton of fun reading material and videos to share, but I actually need to sleep now and again.

With that being said, good night.

Don't Text and Walk

Mon, 07 May 2012 22:03:49 -0800

Bad things happen...

Post Last-Day Reading Material

Thu, 03 May 2012 22:26:00 -0800

Since I gave my notice, I've been spending the last few weeks trying to finalize and document a metric ton of projects as well as find replacement(s) for the various work I do. Today was my last day in Sunriver, and it was with a bit of sadness that I left. While I'm looking forward to the new challenges and the people I'll be working with, change is always a bit scary. But change sometimes has to be made, and I'm looking forward to a bit of change in my life. It was a bit weird removing a few e-mail accounts from Thunderbird.

Meanwhile, here's some reading material that I've been sitting on for a while:

67 Books every Geek Should Read To Their Kids.
If your site has a terms of service, making it easy to read like this is a good idea.
This review for this product is absolutely hilarious.
Bath image resizing made easy.
Metafilter now has a "Best Of" blog.
Zingiri Bookings is a nifty looking little online property booking app.
The most common cooking mistakes
Create your own election with the WaPo interactive tool.
I've never played Monopoly this way, but it's actually the right way to do it.
Descriptive Camera: point it at subject and press the shutter button to capture and print a text description of the scene.
Need an essay written? This should help you get a laugh.
Fake S3 -- Save time, money, and develop offline.
Filepicker.io is a better upload dialog for the web.
When you have an employee whose last name is Null, it can screw with programming.
Parting out a UPS to provide battery backup to a critical sub-panel in your house.
Fat Dogs are awesome!
Gmail full? Clear out some big emails.
Goodbye -9999px: A new CSS image replacement technique.
The secret meeting that changes rap music and destroyed a generation.
How computers boot up.
How to access Gmail when its down.
How to hack your own Wi-Fi network.
How we use Trello and Google Docs to make UserVoice better every day.
The new iPad's screen under the microscope.
Keeping Instagram up with over a million new users in twelve hours.
Yelp, You Cost Me $2000 by Suppressing Genuine Reviews, Here’s How You Fix It.

More tomorrow, as I have a bunch of links I've collected.

Time Killer For The Evening

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 23:24:34 -0800

A Super Mario Summary has you play through all the levels of the original Super Mario Bros., but each level is summed up in a single screen. Get all the coins and jump to the top of the flag pole to get three stars for the level. Created in 48 hours for Ludum Dare 23