Scott Adcox

Doing More With Less Since 1972

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Hey…I Know That Dude!

March 29, 2011 / / 2 Comments

Local boy does (not so) good…allegedly. And worse, he’s a Robertson County Commissioner.

There are now as many as 40 people who say they are owed millions, and a criminal investigation is under way. Robertson County Commissioner Shannon Polen already faces three civil suits.

I went to high school with Shannon, and it would be fair to say we were friends on some level. I mean, we didn’t hang out at each other’s houses or anything, but we were teammates on a couple of 2-8 football teams and laughed at a lot of the same stuff in classes we had together. Lot’s of laughing in those classes–not much learning.

I would run into him every now and then in college too. I remember bumping into him and another guy we both knew at a basketball game once. We ended up sitting a couple of rows behind Andy Kelly, whom he was heckling just loud enough to not be heard.

I’m sure the Vols lost that night, but I can’t blame that on Shannon with a clear conscious.  While I remember him having a biting sense of humor and being a master heckler, the ability to affect the outcome of sporting events doesn’t stand out in my mind as one of his strengths (see the 2-8 football teams) .

But seriously, how do you heckle Andy Kelly when Wade Houston is in the same room?

Time and malt beverages have ravaged a fair percentage of my memories, but there are a few interesting facts I can tell you about Mr. Polen. Digest them at your leisure and make of them what you will…

  1. He once went as Brian Bosworth for Halloween.
  2. When our Algebra II teacher* had us research a great mathematician, the subject of his research was…our Algebra II teacher.
  3. When busting someone’s chops, he often liked to incorporate a song. He used Steve Miller’s “The Joker” on one friend, but for other people he made up songs. One involved a rat’s nest on a guy’s head, while another was simply a refrain of the words, “Do Wrong”.
  4. He was my weight lifting partner for a year, and I didn’t get much stronger. I’m not saying he was robbing me of my strength, but I can’t say for sure that he wasn’t either.

In all sincerity, this doesn’t smell like a simple misunderstanding, and I hope the people who have lost their savings and faith in elected officials are at least able to get their money back.

UPDATE: Michael Silence has a point.

Sometimes you just have to wonder if stupidity shouldn’t be a felony.

*NOTE: I like to play fast and loose with the word “teacher”

I Spy With My Little Eye Recycled

March 28, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Here’s a quick and easy twist on a game your kids already play that can help them work on their phonemic awareness. You are probably all too familiar with I Spy With My Little Eye, where your child guesses which object you see based on the color you tell them. For example, you may say, “I spy with my little eye something…yellow.” And your child will guess all the yellow things she sees until she chooses the banana you were spying.

Try it this way the next time you’re playing–“I spy with my little eye something that begins with the ‘b’ sound.” Now, instead of colors, your child with look for objects that begin with a sound. Recognizing the sound and matching it up with an object is a phonemic awareness exercise. Don’t be afraid to explore other sounds like the ‘sh’ and ‘ch’ sounds.

You can even make it a phonics game by saying, “I spy with my little eye something that begins with the letter ‘B’.” This will require your child to match up the letter with the sound it makes.

Google’s Moats, “The Wire” Reviewed, and Hagar Abduction Link Dump

March 27, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Android as Google’s Moat – I like this take on Android as a defensive product for Google. I also like what that implies for us as consumers–costs keep decreasing while functionality keeps increasing. Can you believe someone wanted to charge for a web browser at one time? Now there are several free browsers, and they are still trying to out-do each other in features and speed!

The Quintessentially Victorian Vision of Ogden’s “The Wire” – Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

Are We Better Off Today? – Definitely. I think the problem is that we have a skewed idea of "comfortable". If I have food in my belly and shoes (hopefully some $1 Old Navy flip-flops) on my feet and I'm not bleeding, chances are I'd say I'm comfortable.

6 Common E-Mail Marketing Mistakes Small Businesses Make – Read the bold points as a checklist before you hit send.

Integration Of Google Voice and Sprint – A daddy of an announcement. Now…do I have to pick one number or the other to have seamless integration? I like having both.

"Red" rocker Sammy Hagar says abducted by aliens – Still trying to "Out-Dave" DRL. You sir, are no David Lee Roth

NYT’s DIgital Pricing Plan Discriminates By Device – Alternate Headline: Requiem to an Ass Biter.

New Maurice Sendak Book This Fall!

March 25, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Good news from the WSJ! The author of “Where the Wild Things Are” is publishing a new book, “Bumble-Ardy“, soon!

This sounds like a pretty funny book, all about about a kid (pig) who celebrates his birthday for the first time when he turns 9.  Admittedly, there are some pretty high expectations already set, but it sounds like “Bumble-Ardy” won’t disappoint! Amazon is already taking (discounted) pre-orders, and the September release date means it will be a perfect Christmas gift for 2011. We’re getting some shopping done early for A Book On Every Bed 2011!

 

 

 

Chrome 11 Speech to Text

March 23, 2011 / / 0 Comments

I was just checking out the speech to text feature in Chrome’s v11 beta, and I have to say, it’s pretty good. Even if you sound like you have a mouth full of marbles like I do, it does a decent job…at least a good enough job that you could speak long documents and go back to edit by hand later. I bought some software not too long ago to do this, and it was a lot more expensive than the “free” Google is charging.

Added bonus, this is part of HTML5…Google doesn’t own it, they are just taking advantage of it.

If you like this kind of stuff, it’s worth checking out. I am a little curious why Google hasn’t thrown a little microphone up onto their main search page so we can use it there. Seems like an obvious way to get people to use it immediately.

If You Don’t Want To Keep The Job

March 21, 2011 / / 0 Comments

It’s a simple four step process:

Step 1: Do some stuff that makes your opponents really mad.

Step 2: Put your junk in that box.

Step 3: Do things that make many of the people who defended you in Step 1 really mad.

Step 4: Figure out a way to piss off the people who will blindly support you no matter what.

That last step is pretty tough to accomplish, but he has a year and a half to find a way to do it. Remember, we elected this guy because of his unbelievable intellectual prowess, so he’ll surely be able to stratergize a plan of action.

Don’t give up Hope.

I’m reading– March 10th through March 16th

March 16, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Digital Will – I could do a whole series of posts on this. Maybe I should. Maybe I will (no pun intended).

Just try to cut off Netflix’s content supply – Can’t wait until the cable companies are skipped entirely and we can buy directly from the producers and/or networks. Win-win-win-lose. The “lose” is for the cable companies. The market will find a way.

Jon Bon Jovi says Steve Jobs for Killed Music – I say Jon Bon Jovi has done more harm to music than Steve Jobs ever could.

Top 20 Obnoxious People At The Gym – I’m #5, @svandyke is #8, and we are both “The Guy Who Sits on the Sofa and Drinks Coffee For 2 Hours and Leaves Without Even Working Out”.

iPad 2 for Distributed Teams – Interesting. Can you RDP with an iPad?

Twitter Drops The Ecosystem Hammer – Then, uh, Twitter…how’s about giving me a UI that’s even half as good as TweetDeck? Are those crickets or birds chirping?

iPad 2 could lead to glut of rival tablets – Oversupplied means under-priced. I’ll wait it out.

Man Trains For Marathon While Eating McDonald’s-Only Diet – HT @DustyOverby I did the same thing with Little Debbie snack cakes and Petro’s chili.

Stricter Limits on Debit Cards Coming? – No worries…they’ll be happy to issue you a credit card to cover larger purchases. Of course, the interest rate on that card will be about 10-20 times the amount of interest they are paying you on the MONEY YOU ALREADY HAVE BUT CAN’T SPEND BECAUSE THEY SET SUCH LOW LIMITS. Better not be late with that payment. Big banks suck.

I’m reading– February 27th through March 10th

March 10, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Mandatory DNA sampling threatens constitutional liberties – Check out my boy BCM in the Washington Examiner.

Spotlight-Chasing Candidates of 2012 – Some of these things are not like the others. Mr. Will focuses on two of the three spotlight-chasers. Thankfully, he doesn't even give the third a passing mention.

Make a Local Backup Of Your Gmail Account – Was just telling someone how awesome the cloud is…and how you need to have every bit of it backed up locally.

Triathlon as a means of birth control – I'm only one case study, but I can't recommend this method. One thing they didn't discuss is what happens to testosterone levels when training is cut back (post "big" race). That may explain a lot in my case.

The changing face of fame – Based on the "stars without makeup" photos I've seen, I credit improvements in makeup and lighting mostly. I have a feeling Natalie Wood and Audrey Hepburn didn't look too shabby in sweats at the grocery store.

See You On Monday

March 8, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Facts:

  1. Labor Day and Memorial Day are the two best holidays. They feel like Sundays, but Chick-fil-A is open.
  2. Waffle fries can hold ketchup in the airy spaces between potato. Regular fries can’t do that.
  3. Chick-fil-A sandwiches don’t come with mayo by default, so you don’t have to worry about them soaking your bread with disgustingness accidentally.


HT @couponkatie

Tennessee Football Training Center Virtual Tour

February 28, 2011 / / 0 Comments

This is pretty cool. My guess is that there aren’t any other departments on campus that could afford to do this. When I say “do this”, I’m not talking about building the Training Center…of course they couldn’t do that.

I mean that I doubt they could afford to produce this video. Maybe the Film Studies Department could do it on the backs of undergrad labor as a special project.

HT Michael Silence

Some Programming Notes

February 25, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Some of you may have noticed the pace of new posts has slowed (even more) over the past couple of months. We’re very happy to tell you that the reason is that Ana is in a family way once again. For those of you who aren’t from the Southeast–she’s pregnant. Unfortunately for Ana, that means 20 weeks of extreme illness, 24 hours a day.

So for the past few months we’ve been in “survival mode” around our house, and that means housekeeping is at a minimum, much less blogging. The homeschool co-op had to go on a hiatus as well. The good news is that she experienced the same thing with the first two pregnancies, and the kids were both born healthy, so we’re hoping that bodes well for this one too. The other good news is that we are almost out of the woods…the nauseas has mostly subsided, and now she’s building her strength back up.

On a less happy note, we learned this past week that our dear friend Coupon Katie has been diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Many of you know Katie and/or follow her blog, so you already know what a great, strong, and inspirational person she is. On top of that, she can tell you how to get a bunch of stuff for free at Walgreens and end up having them give you money. Please keep Katie and Shawn (the Coupon Koala) in your thoughts and prayers as they overcome this obstacle.

I’m reading– February 22nd through February 25th

February 25, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Some WordPress 3.1 Themes That Take Advantage of Post Formats – Lots of good ideas here.

Make Tumblr Out Of WordPress 3.1 – If you recently upgraded to 3.1 and want to take advantage of the post formats, here's a great tutorial.

Moms Know What Ben Bernanke Doesn’t: Inflation Is Here – Not only is it here, it's more aggressive than is being reported. At least that's what trusted moms are telling me.

WordPress 3.1 Codex – Some really cool stuff in this release. I can't wait to see what kinds of cool things theme developers do with the new Post Formats!

Homebuyer Tax Credit Scheme..err…Alternative – Here's an idea: Let's stop propping up the market artificially and just get through this mess.

Breaking Up Boredom for Homeschoolers – Here are four really smart ways to change gears for a day and still keep the education ball rolling. Administration approved!

January 28th through February 17th

February 21, 2011 / / 0 Comments

I haven’t had a chance to read as much lately, but here’s some stuff I’ve really liked. Hope to pick up the content consumption rate again soon!

Telecommuting: Transparency and Fluidity – I expect this to become more and more the norm. I’d also be interested in knowing what the typical turnover rate is for telecommuters. My guess is that it is significantly lower than turnover for traditional office workers. Then again, the current economy may not provide the best sample set.

Why Are You People Defending Apple? – Word. All of your applications, the content they contain, and their means of distribution are belong to us.

Chrissie Wellington on Sports Addiction – I’m more of a binger right now. I used to be a daily addict, and I plan on relapsing once again when it fits my schedule.

Why Fiverr Is Great for Online Entrepreneurs – Some good ideas here for saving money. I’m cheap.

Triathlon Is a Stupid Sport – Charlie is not a fan. I LOL’d at most of this article. Parts were funny because they are so ridiculous. Other parts were funny because they are so true.

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