Free Comic Book Day!

WooHoo! Not only is Saturday May 5th Cinco de Mayo, but it is also Free Comic Book Day!

Check out the recipes for a Tijuana Margarita and Fabulous Fiesta Guacamole for Cinco de Mayo.

Bu then visit your participating local comic book shop to get free comics. Find a store via zipcode search and get more details here.

I'm a 15 year old girl

Everybody has heard about, or been trained to expect, that the person on the other end of that chat or IM is lying egregiously about their age, social status, weight, height, hair and maybe even gender.

All guys are buff fighter jet pilots and all women are supermodels.

Two funny reminders of this. This photo of who is on the other end of a chat will scare some sense into your teenage daughters.

And there is a company called Nerdy Shirts that offers this classic (on the left). (Check out some more of their funky shirts.)

Golly, fellas, I’m hitting 4.000!

Remember when Tribe rookie Gomer Hodge opened the season going 4 for 4 and exclaimed, "Golly, fellas, I’m hitting 4.000!"

Sadly, Gomer is suffering from ALS and can't speak and is in the final stages of the disease. Fans should send a letter or card to
Gomer Hodge
Autumn Care of Saluda
P.O. Box 488
Saluda, NC 28773

Read Terry Pluto's article about Gomer Hodge

Gomer's 83 at bats are a good example of a Villanova prof's recent study. Using a once-controversial statistical method called Bayesian analysis, a Villanova University professor has determined that a lower batting average can indicate better hitting ability than a higher batting average.

Read more at GreatLakesGeek.com

Bob Feller and Billie Jean King

I still am not convinced that most videos (with a business focus at least) are not a waste of bandwidth and a waste of eyeballs. If you just display a headshot of a speaker, that doesn’t bring value. And if I have to dedicate my eyeballs to a video (rather than multitasking by listening while walking the dog or driving) I am less likely to consume that content.

I shot some video on my camera at the ribbon cutting of Heritage Park at Jacobs Field last week. Bob Feller cut the ribbon and the whole clip is about 14 seconds. So I posted that on YouTube and embedded it in a few of my websites. That I think is valuable - or at least fun.

I also shot about 40 minutes of Billie Jean King at the Wolstein Center last week. I did not post that anywhere because, while the content was interesting, the images were basically Billie and her Q&A partner Christine Brennan from USA Today sitting there and speaking. I may pull the audio out and post it but I don’t see the value in the video - do you?

Bill Gates Live

One of the good things about being a Microsoft MVP is the annual MVP Summit in Seattle. On Tuesday March 13, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates gave the keynote address to about 1700 MVPs from about 90 countries.

I can't relate items from the speech because I am under non-disclosure but did post a few general interest items here.

Including a snippet on our old friend Microsoft Bob. ;-)

CompUSA Update

I stopped in at the Chagrin CompUSA today. The good news is most items are 10% off. The bad news is they are NOT honoring the sales prices that were published in the Sunday flyer.

I expect the 10% to grow to 15, 20% and more soon. They are even selling store furnishings and fixtures.

Of course, 10% off CompUSA prices is still much higher than what you can find on-line in most cases.

Cleveland Cooks

Debbi Snook wrote a nice piece on the Cleveland Cooks cookbook in today's PD in the Taste section.

Besides all the great recipes representing Cleveland's ethnic diversity, Snook mentions some of the many local celebrities who have recipes in the book.

Check out her article

or get more details on the cookbook, including purchase options.

Y2K Vu all over again

There's a lot of buzz about the imminent early Daylight Saving Time.

Most of our devices pre-date the recent law adding the 4 extra weeks (3 before, 1 after) to DST.

That will affect some PCs and other devices.

Learn what you can/should do at GreatLakesGeek.com

The Name Game

OK, this is frivolous but it's fun.

Check out the new Name Game either here or here and see what you new name would be as a:

Gangsta, Drag Queen, Soap Opera Star, Goth, Detective and so on.

Just call me Danizzle.;-)

Or Joseph Montford or ...

Beat up by a Woman?

That used to be a school-yard taunt. “A girl could beat you up!”

After meeting professional boxer Vonda Ward at the Greater Cleveland Sports Awards banquet last night, I humbly submit to the fact. She could beat me up!

The 6’6” Ms Ward was one of many amateur and professional athletes at the event.

Check out photos

Also, check out the brief podcast with Good Morning Anchor and event MC Robin Roberts who told me about the state of women’s athletics and why we shouldn’t compare the NBA and the WNBA.

Rock and Roll Memories

I’m of that age where I used to practically live at the old Agora (on 24th and Payne) on weekends and for concerts. I saw some amazing local and national bands there including The Cars, Todd Rundgren, Meatloaf, Ian Hunter, Southside Johnny, Bruce Springsteen and plenty more.
So close to home, so intimate, so cool. I miss it. (I know, the new Agora is just down the street on Euclid but it’s not the same (or I’m not.))

And I am one of the few who really saw Bruce Springsteen twice on the same night. We saw him at the Coliseum and heard that Southside Johnny would be at the Agora. After the last song at the Coliseum we hauled a** and drove to the Agora and got there about 2 minutes before Southside introduced his “surprise” special guest. Wow – what a night.

I was also fortunate to be working with the electricians for most of the World Series of Rock concerts so I got to hang out backstage with the likes of the Rolling Stones, Bob Seger, Aerosmith, Rod Stewart and the Faces, J Geils, and so many more. By luck I took the best close-up of Peter Frampton in history. Better than the album cover.

I have a million stories from the World Series of Rock and the Agora days (not to mention the Euclid Tavern, The Flipside, Peabodys, etc) and got called by Carlo Wolff several months ago to share some for his book. The timing was terrible for me and after about a dozen calls and e-mails, Carlo gave up.

But he did produce the book, Cleveland Rock and Roll memories. Maybe I’ll have to write my own sometime.

Book review

Pics from the launch party

Neosa Webcast

I will be doing the Neosa webcast Wednesday (Jan 17) at 11AM with Jim Cookinham.

We'll be talking about/showing some new items from CES and MacWorld. Also taking a look at Microsoft Windows Vista and the new version of Office.

You can register at anty time or view the webcast Wednesday here.

Viva Las Vegas

I made the annual trek out to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. While I miss Comdex and the strict IT focus of that show, I have to admit that CES has some fun stuff.

I used my new Olympus digital voice recorder to do a bunch of podcasts from the show floor. They have a lot of crowd noise but I think it adds to the audio.

I've started posting them on the Great Lakes Geek site here

While there it was Elvis Presley's birthday so there were flowers and signs by his statue in front of the Las Vegas Hilton.

The Mysterious Tin Fu Club Meets Again

The Mysterious Tin Fu Club Meets Again.

The Tin Fu Club had a Holiday Gathering on Thursday, December 14th and a very diverse group met.

Check out some pictures of the 45 or so Tin Fu Clubbers

Bill Gates for President

Dilbert creator Scott Adams has jumped on the bandwagon to elect Bill Gates as president of the USA in 2008 citing his business success and charitable efforts.

(Hey, we've had worse)

What do you think? Ross Perot was a businessman as was Jimmy Carter, so it's not unheard of (though Steve Forbes never got more than a few percentage points)

Visit the Gates for President site and then vote in the Great Lakes Geek survey.

The Office

I am a big fan of The Office. I was even given a Dwight K. Schrute bobblehead which sits atop one of my PCs.

Read Dwight’s blog

But it’s that other Office that can get confusing.

You won't be able to upgrade your Microsoft Office 2000 in January so you will miss out on the less expensive upgrade price.

Read about some strategies you might want to try to get the lastest office and spend the least.

Get your own Dwight Schrute Bobble Head

Very short stories from Wired Magazine

Last month’s Wired magazine (which I just got around to) has an outstanding section called Very Short Stories. It’s based on Hemingway’s six word story which Papa called his best work. Here it is:

For sale: baby shoes, never worn.


Brilliant! So Wired got 33 writers to come up with 6 word science fiction stories and some are just incredible.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Computer – Did we bring batteries? Computer?
By Eileen Gunn

Epitaph: Foolish humans, never escaped Earth.
By Vernor Vinge

Lie detector eyeglasses perfected: Civilization collapses
By Richard Powers

The baby’s blood type? Human, mostly.
By Orson Scott Card

Check it out:

OSU-Michigan or Six Sigma?

Former GE CEO Jack Welch spoke at Tri-C Corporate College this AM about quality and innovation. Throughout the day there will be classes on lean manufacturing, Six Sigma and other processes.

Welch began his presentation with an announcement of a special Six Sigma presentation to be held the next day (Saturday) at 3:30 PM that will go for about 3 hours (during the Ohio State-Michigan game). Moderator Les Vinney, CEO of Steris, countered that “Hopefully by halftime we’ll be able to attend.”

Welch said he didn’t know who would win the big game. “I went to Illinois – we can’t beat anyone.”

Ohio State Buckeyes vs Michigan Wolverines

Here's a bunch of jokes trashing Michigan for this Saturday's big game. Feel free to replace Michigan with Pittsburgh Steelers in time for Sundays game. ;-)

Go Bucks and Go Browns!

Hidden Treasures

I also checked out the preview of the Hidden Treasures of the Diocese of Cleveland at Josaphat's Art Hall on 33rd. Not a lot of items there but it is such a cool place and the items were interesting. Check it out while you can - it's free.
More information.