Sun Is Blue

• I don't know if anyone remembers a link I posted a while ago about an iPhone game called Rolando, but it was released today. I haven't played it yet, but the initial reviews are extremely positive.
• Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management accidently sent out 50 acceptance letters to students that they actually rejected. They are reimbursing those students the $235 application fee after informing them that they are actually rejected. Ouch. Would it really hurt Northwestern that much to just keep those 50 students? Instead they are hugely burning those 50 kids.
• Aaron Rose, Serena's noobenstein boyfriend on Gossip Girl is leaving the show.
• Here's a trailer for the movie I Love You, Man. Cast includes: Paul Rudd, Jason Segal, Rashida Jones, Andy Samberg, and the Dad from Juno. Looks pretty hilar.
• Rolando Review
• SimCity Review
• Kristen Wiig Interview by one of my favorite bloggers. The interview actually isn't that great...and doesn't really give any good info, but I know Lizzie is a huge fan so I figured I'd post it.
• Sweet fat-face tattoo, Tyson.
  

Another slow day of post-worthy news. Mark comes in today for the holidays. He'll be here tonight through December 27th I believe. Super pumped about that. Devon will also be here from the 20th - 24th.

• I realize hardly any of you use Twitter, but for those of you that do, here's a cool idea called StatTweets. It's basically like "following" a sports team on Twitter. You get stat updates, schedule updates, game lines, etc. I'm now following the Bulls, NU Basketball, UNC Basketball, and the Bears.
• Jessica Alba, Jack Black, and Cloris Leachman will all be guest-starring on The Office soon.
• Someone from The Price Is Right bid on their Showcase Showdown and guessed exactly right...but I gotta say, Drew Caray's reaction is really disappointing...no excitement whatsoever...lame.
• SimCity is now available on the iPhone / iPod Touch.
• Drew Peterson is engaged...again...how much money do you think people would pay not to be his wife? I would have never guessed there was someone out there that was willing to do it for free -- talk about a death wish.
• Child named Adolf Hitler denied birthday cake. Ridiculous article. Plenty of unintentional comedy. (credit: Lizzie)
  

No updates yet for today. Check out the stuff below if you haven't yet.

• Besides being a good team, the Blackhawks are also pretty sweet dudes.
• Lost will NOT be interrupted this year.
• Here is a link to a leaked Wolverine trailer.
• Wikipedia just came out with it's own iPhone application called Wikipedia Mobile (iTunes link). I was hoping it was going to be free, but it's still at a very reasonable price of $2.99. The amount of bar arguments that I've had settled because of Wikipedia makes this an easy purchase.
• I forgot to mention that Apple has released in-ear headphones that are compatible with the iPhone / iPod Touch. Supposedly they are really good. Zurek, can you leave a comment here and let me know what you've heard about them? Also, I've heard conflicting reports about whether or not they work with the Phone feature of the iPhone (answering / ending calls with the clicker thing). What's the deal?
• New York magazine came out with its Reasons to Love New York 2008 issue and their number one reason was, "Because Obama Is One of Us, Despite All That Business About Chicago." Get over yourself, New York. (source: Chicagoist)
  

Big Bears win last night -- even though the chances of them making the playoffs are still pretty slim. There will be a lot of Cardinals fans in Chicago this weekend. On to some links for the weekend:

• It's too bad the rumors of a Gossip Girls spin-off (which actually sounded cool) ended up being not true
• A new sci-fi comedy written by the super cool dudes of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia looks like it may get picked up by Fox.
• Spin came out with its Best Albums of 2008 list.
• Chris Weitz (Golden Compass director) has been tabbed as the new director for New Moon.

More to come throughout the day and the weekend...hopefully.

Sorry guys. I've gone over my blogs and I didn't find anything all that noteworthy. I'll keep checking throughout the day to see if something comes up. The Bears play tonight. Pretty pumped. So don't expect much tonight either (I'm sure you've given up expecting anything but still).

• Check out this news article from the Miami Herald. Creepy. (credit: Lizzie)
• There's been a lot of news lately about our Governor Rod Blagojevich. Here's a nice wrap-up of what's been going on.
• And if that's not enough info for you, here's a web of influence chart to make things even easier.

So I just typed out a long explanation for I have been terrible at updating this site. I accidently deleted the tab in my browser, though. Awesome. Great start to coming back. So instead of typing it all out again, here are the reasons why:

1. Work
2. Buying my condo
3. Volleyball
4. Vacation

However, this is the real reason I have been so lazy. I understand most people that read this site aren't nerdy enough to enjoy playing an online card game similar to MtG (Magic The Gathering), but for those of you that are super nerds, you should definitnely check out the link I just posted. If you have any questions or want any help, let me know because I'd be more than happy to get as many people as I can playing the game. Anyway, on to some links:

• Here's a pretty hilarious clip of Blagojevich from the Daily Show in 2006.
• Another hilarious Daily Show clip: President Gallant & President Goofus
  
• I thought this article about the ability for dogs to feel envy was interesting.
  
• I'm sure most people know this by now, but Derrick Rose sliced his arm up on a knife while cutting an apple (basically). In addition, I ran across this article of embarrassing Chicago sports injuries.
• More evidence that should be the "Jordan vs. Kobe" debate to rest.
• Gmail finally added a To-Do list. Read the article to learn how to activate it.
  

• The Cubs traded for Kevin Gregg. If Kerry Wood ends up leaving, I'll be pretty sad.
• The Bulls signed Lindsey Hunter.
  

Evidence:

• "The Office"
• "Training"
• "Photo Shoot"

(credit: truehoop)

• 
  (credit: Lizzie)
• I know baseball season is over, and I know the Cubs choked harder than I thought possible, but my boy Geovany Soto won the NL Rookie of the Year award today.
  
• This surprised me: Circuit City filed for bankruptcy.
  
• I read Mark Cuban's blog from time to time. I think he has a lot of good advice, but I also think some of what he says is stupid. Anyway, I thought he made a good point in this blog post about Obama's team of economic advisors. I specifically liked this quote: "PE Obama needs to have the counsel of those who will take the real risk inherent in creating companies and jobs. Those who put their money and lives on the line with their business." I think he makes a good point that people who are 100% financially dependent on the success / failure of their company should have a voice with the group of people that are going to try to figure out how to get us out of this mess. Obama talked a lot about the small businesses during his campaign. Well, I agree with Cuban that these small business owners should be heard when it comes to getting out of this economic crisis. (Note: I'm not saying he should ask Cuban to be in this group)
  
• Here's a link to an article about the best wild animal photos of 2008. Make sure you check out all seven photos by clicking on the thumbnails to the left of the main photo on that first page. I think my favorite is the whale photo. (credit: Total Spite)

UPDATE: Jason wrote a nice post on his website about Obama and the election.

Other than the constant honking and screaming that we could hear from our apartment, last night was pretty awesome. The whole night had a kind of holiday/pumped-up atmosphere. The el's were pretty much full with people heading down to Grant Park -- all super excited -- even before Obama was announced as the winner. Once it was "official", the honking and shouting started. It was pretty cool to see how happy and excited everyone was. One thing that Lizzie and I noticed (and was also talked about after his speech) was how when Obama was mentioned at McCain's speech there were boo's, but when McCain was mentioned at Obama's speech there were some cheers and no boo's (at least that you could hear on TV). Obviously we can't know if that same thing would have happened if Obama lost and McCain won, but we both thought it was interesting and telling. I thought Obama's acceptance speech was pretty awesome overall. Here are two quick links about the night:

• Cool pictures from Grant Park
• An article about Obama and the Olympics.

What were your thoughts?

I know, I know. I suck at updating. I have a good excuse, though. This week has been super crazy with going through the process of purchasing a condo. The bad news is that I didn't have much free time at all. The good news is that the process was successful and we were able to come to terms with our first-choice unit. Our closing date is November 20th. So we should be moving in about 3 weeks. Luckily for our friends who live in Chicago, we are planning on hiring moving people instead of asking everyone to help us out. Anyway, just thought I'd share the news. Here's a link to the location.

So it's been a pretty hectic past week or so. On top of work, triathlon training, and volleyball, Lizzie and I decided we were going to start the process of purchasing a condo. We assumed it would take several months before we even got close to actually making a move. We were pretty wrong. In about a week we've gone from having no clue about anything to being pretty close to making an offer on a place. So I've literally had appointments / meetings with people, contstant phone calls, and tons of paper work to do every night. For anyone that cares, I wanted to give that update. On to the links for today:

• Have you heard about the woman (a McCain campaign volunteer) who filed a report that a black, Obama-supporter robbed, beat, and maimed her? Well apparently she made it up. Crazy.
• Netflix has begun testing video streaming for Macs. Finnnnnnnnnnnnaly.
• I don't know if anyone will care about this post, but a company called Codeweavers will be offering their software for free tomorrow. The reason is kind of interesting. If you've heard of Codeweavers or Crossover, you should check it out.
• Google Earth is now available for your iPhone / iTouch. The reviews I've read have been really good.
• iPhone software 2.2 will feature Google Map's Street View.
• Screaming fast Mozilla browser Minefield gives a glimpse of Firefox's future.
• Enjoy Tower Defense games? Fieldrunnings is a great tower defense game for your iPhone / iTouch.

So between work, triathlon training, volleyball, fantasy football, and Duels I admittedly have been pretty lazy with my updates. But I'm back now and hopefully will have daily updates again. For updates on my volleyball and fantasy football teams, check the box in the right nav labled "League Status". As for my triathlon training, it started out really well and then I injured my foot dominating in flag football. So I took all of last week off. But I'm back on it now. Today will be my first run since I injured my foot so we'll see how that goes. Anyway, here are some links:

• Here's a preview of The Hills spin-off called The City featuring Whitney.
  
• Jason and Lukas have a new site called Total Spite. I have a link to it in my "Links" box on the right as well.
  
• Here's an interesting report about which shows are most engaging to Republicans and Democrats. I thought it was kind of funny that Repub's prefer Rock of Love while Dem's prefer I Love New York.
  
• Allison Hannigan is pregnant.
  
• Here's a quick list about big actors and the huge roles they turned down.
• Redeye is running an online voting tournament to determine the "Best Video Game Ever". Go vote. Update: After voting here are some comments: Mario gets 3 titles in the tourney and Zelda only gets 1? Weak. GoldenEye vs. Halo in the first round? How is Pokemon losing to Tomb Raider? I guess little kids and super cool nerds like me, Jason, and Eric don't vote as much as the pervs who voted for Tomb Raider. What games do you think should have been in the tournament that weren't?
  

I added a Links section all the way at the bottom of my right nav. If you have any sites you'd like to see added to that section, just post a comment below. Thanks.

Foley is in town. And the sky is falling. Here are some updates:

• "The Most Interesting Part Of The Presidential Debate" (credit: Lizzie)
• Amy Poehler's and Seth Meyer's take on AIG's post-bailout retreat (credit: Lizzie)
• Jason also posted a funny SNL skit about the VP Debate.
• Also, I'm going to post it again. The nerds that read my site really need to check out Duels. It's really addicting.
  

I added two minor site updates. They are:

• I fixed the spacing issues that were occurring in some browsers for the top navigation tabs. I was getting really mixed results depending on the operating system and the browser type. I've tested the fix on all the variations I have available to me and it looks good. If anyone is still having problems (Jason and Corey I believe you were seeing the most blatant issues before) please let me know.
• I added a new box to the right nav. It's currently the last box and it's titled "League Status". It's basically just a spot to keep track of the various leagues I'm in. That mainly means my Fantasy Football leagues. I'm also in an indoor co-ed 4's vball league with Bill, Lizzie, and a friend of ours named Betsy. I'll keep track of our progress in this box as well.
  

So it's been a while since I last posted. Mainly that is because 1) Mark was in town from Wednesday - Sunday, 2) My laptop died, and 3) I've been busy at work. Sorry about that, but here are a couple links I've come across throughout the week that I definitely felt I should share:

• If you like comptuer games, and especially if you like comptuer games like Diablo 2, then you should definitely check out Duels. It's an online game that reminds me a lot of Diablo 2. The main, and most obvious difference, is you aren't actually moving around to find stuff / fight people. If anyone actually creates a character, let me know so we can become Allies (nerds).
• If you like any combination of betting, gambling, sports, trading, stocks, and the internet then this post over at TechCrunch should definitely interest you. It's about a company called One Season that combines all of the things I mentioned above. Lukas, if you read this site then you should definitely check it out.

That's all for now. Although those are some pretty solid links for the nerds that read my site. Me, Bill, Liz, and a friend of ours named Betsy have our first 4v4 co-ed vball game tonight. I'm kind of nerv but super excited.

Oh also, I started my first week of Triathlon training yesterday. I'm already super sore. Wish me luck.

Well, Mark gets in town today, so I don't know how much time I'll have to post updates from now until Sunday. So don't expect too much.

This video is from Jason's website, but it's so awesome I had to embed it here as well. Sorry for stealing it Jason...

Enjoy.

• "A Harvard sleep researcher finds that if you sleep on new ideas and information, you're 33% more likely to make connections between distantly related points."
• Lil Wayne may write a song about the Cubs. Wihle I think the attention is cool, I don't like how he starts of by saying "I like the Rays but"...it's a little late to jump on the bandwagon...but whatever. At least Eddie Vedder is a real Cubs fan. (credit: Corey)
• The Cubs announced their 25-man roster for the first series. I'm glad to see Jason Marquis finally made the post-season team, but I'm upset that Bob Howry made it. He is awful. Also, no Hoffpauir...that sucks. I understand why Pie made the team, though.
  
• Netflix has paired up with Starz to give its customers access to all of the Starz movies on its streaming video video. Nice...maybe they'll decide to allow Mac users to use this feature soon...

• This is kind of funny.
• Sorry to keep posting Palin links, but this mock-up of a Sarah Palin Facebook profile is also pretty funny.
• For Jason...burn.
• Facebook v2 is out for the iPhone. Here's a post about it.
• If you're looking for a native IM app for your iPhone, here's an option: BeeJiveIM. It's a little pricey, but from the reviews I've read it looks to be the best out there. One of the best things about this application, is that you can receive IMs even when the application is closed. For me, this is the biggest gripe I have with the AIM app. So I'm definitely looking into this one.
  

• "CNN Laughs It Up Over Sarah Palin Interview"
• "Chicago dive bar scores hit with nude Sarah Palin portrait"
• Here's a solid round-up of the main location-based social-networking apps for the iPhone.
• And here's a post by Jason -- on his site -- that sums up his thoughts on the debate from last week.
  

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer got some much-needed attention from the Academy when it won the online vote for most memorable dramatic TV moment. Friends won the comedy category. Never underestimate the power of Sunnydale fans."

Heyo. What a sweet show.

• Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder lets his passion for the Cubs shine through in this tribute song to the Chicago Cubs. (credit: Corey)
  
• Netflix is holding a Movie Watching World Championship. We should enter Bill.
• Here's an interview with Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist star, Michael Cera.
• HBO renewed True Blood after two episodes. Solid.
• MTV's TRL is going off the air...that's crazy.
  
• For a limited time only, Earthscape (a Google Earth iPhone app), is free. Get it while you can.
• Jerry Seinfeld has been dumped already for the Microsoft commercials...that was quick. Although I've also read that they only planned on using him for a couple test-commercials...I find that hard to believe.
• Hype Machine is a website Corey showed me that tracks music blog discussions for new music. I haven't checked it out completely yet, but it sounds sweet.
  

Welp, it's my official birthday today. Thanks to everyone that showed up on Friday. It was exacty what I was hoping for. And thanks to everyone else for the B-Day wishes. Carlos Zambrano gave me an early birthday present by throwing the Cubs first no-hitter since Milt Pappas in 1972. Pretty awesome. So far it's been a pretty low-key day as far as the links. But here are a couple:

• Best Buy has agreed to acquire Napster for $121 million.
• Facebook officially switched over to the new Facebook design today.

So my birthday weekend has started...kind of. Unfortunately the weather probably won't be all that great, so I probably won't get much frisbee golf in. Oh well. I've started growing my playoff beard for the Cubs' playoff run. I know the playoffs haven't started yet...but if I started the beard when they actually did start, by the time the season ended no one would even know I had a beard because mine grows so slow. So I decided I needed to grow a foundation-playoff-beard first. Here are some links:

• iPhone Firmware 2.1 Update has been released.
• TechCrunch50 just wrapped up. For those that don't know what that is, it's basically a huge, multi-day event where start-up internet companies pitch their ideas. The winner gets a ton of money and a ton of publicity. Anyway, one company that caught my attention was Ultimate Football Network. It's in Beta right now, but they plan to have everything up and running by next year. Check out the site for more details.
• How you can tell you pissed off an engineer. Is that a legal check? Anyone know?
  

So the dude that owns Bacci's was charged with arson because he paid a gang member to set one of his buildings on fire in Little Italy so he could collect the insurance money.

So it's a pretty slow day for links...I haven't read anything worth posting yet. But, Bill and I are celebrating our birthdays (his is on the 14th, mine is on the 15th) tomorrow. Anyone that's in town is in invited...I don't know what we're doing yet, but it'll be pretty low-key...dinner then out. If I haven't talked to you already, then let me know if you're interested.

• For the bikers that read my blog (Lizzie and Corey), check out this iBikeConsole.
• Apple announced HD content from the iTunes store yesterday. Today, they are giving away a couple of shows. I'll definitely be scoring the The Office freebie.
• It's rumored that there may be a possible wedding on How I Met Your Mother this season. Which also means we may find out who Ted's actual wife is...odds are good that it's Sarah Chalke.
• The Shield has won this year's "Buffy" award. "The Buffy" goes to each year's most underrated, overlooked show on TV. Past winners include: The Wire, Veronica Mars, Battlestar Gallactica, and Friday Night Lights.
• Gossip Girl's Leighton Meester is going to release an album...what is wrong with people...
  

So today is a big day for Apple fans. iTunes 8 has been "released". Updated versions of the iPod Nano are out...as well as the iPod Classic. The iPod touch has a new software update. All in all a good day.

I just downloaded Spore: Origins for my iPhone. I'm pretty pumped to start messing around with it.

Also, for those with an iPhone or iPod Touch, you should check out this game, called Rolando. It's coming out soon and looks pretty awesome.

Update: I forgot to add that an iPhone Firmware 2.1 update will be out on Friday. It just fixes connectivity issues, bug fixes, etc...but still.

Sorry for the lack of updates over the weekend -- I was in Libertyville playing a lot of frisbee golf and hanging out with the dogs. Here are some updates to start off the week:

• HBO is launching a webseries starring lonelygirl15 and other YouTube "stars".
• Harold Ramis, one of the original writers of Ghostbusters, has confirmed that a 3rd Ghostbusters movie is in the works.
• If you're bored, here's a list of The 25 Funniest Videos On The Web according to Rolling Stone.
• Best Buy has started selling iPhones.
  

I'm heading back to Libertyville this afternoon so I may be a little slow with the updates today and this weekend.

So up until this year I rarely, if ever, thought about politics. I know...that's horrible. Fortunately for me and many other first time voters, this year happens to be a pretty crazy year for politics. Anyway, I've been trying to keep up-to-date with everything lately so I watched the last day of the Democratic National Convention, and I watched some of last night's Republican National Convention -- including some of Sarah Palin's speech. Everytime I watch her speak on TV I get a huge actress vibe from her. It's like I'm watching a TV show about politics and she's the actress they casted as the VP nominee...does anyone else get that vibe? How about the actual speach -- even that kind of felt like a stand-up comedy routine at parts. I don't really know anything about politics, but I can't imagine the first impressions that I got can be a good thing. Here are some quick Palin-related links:

• Palin as a sportscaster...with horribly awesome hair. I was really hoping for another Boom-Goes-The-Dynamite performance, but she actually does pretty decent.
• Apparently not everything Palin said in her speach last night was accurate. Here's an article that details some of the items she may have stretched the truth on.
• Also, this hilarious The Daily Show clip about people saying one thing about sexism/women before Palin was in the picture, and then saying things completely opposite after Palin was picked as the VP candidate.
• Whatever happened to the separation between church and state? And I don't get it, how do people actually know what God's will is (assuming that there is such a thing)? 
• Another video...this one's a spoof...but it's funny (NSFW...kind of...shit and fuck are said). Link courtesy of Mercado.
  

Thoughts?

Stupid rain. I guess summer is gone. Here are some links:

• Stephenie Meyer, author of the Twilight series (although I'm sure everyone know that by now), has put the 5th book on hold because she is pissed that parts of it got leaked to the Internet. I'm not really sure who to be mad at on this one.
• I'm not sure how many of you have heard about Spore, but the buzz around it is pretty huge. The iPod version came out today, and the iPhone version should come out sometime next week. If you haven't heard about this game, this video should give you a quick introduction. I've played around with the creature creator and I gotta say it's pretty sweet.
• A Buffy the Vampire Slayer Massively Multiplayer Online game has been announced. I'm not sure what to think about this, but if it gets Lizzie to play computer games then I'm all for it.
  

It's kind of a slow morning today, so I only have a couple links to start off with. Anyone else watch the Cubs play last night? Urgh. My two favorite players, Derrek Lee (super un-clutch) and Carlos Zambrano ("didn't feel well"), really didn't look that good last night. I read an article this morning where someone said, "the division is basically wrapped up". Um, what? I wouldn't call a 4.5 game league "wrapped up" with the Brewers playing the way they are (even though they last last night) and the Cubs currently in a 4-game slide. I'm officially nervous, but still optimistic. On to some links:

• Um, this is awesome. It's a video clip of a runner stealing home and completely owning the catcher Devin Hester style.
  
• Here is a 2008 Reality TV Fall Preview along with their premiere dates. I'm most excited about Survivor, obv. And I think I'm going to try to watch Amazing Race for the first time.
• Andy Baldwin, ex-The Bachelor star, is going to officiate the wedding between DeAnna Pappas and Jesse Csincsak. Does anyone get automatically super annoyed by Andy Baldwin?
• I don't know if Bill reads my website, but here's an interview with the guys from The Big Bang Theory.
  

Ok so I'm back from vacation -- and Oregon was sweet. My vacation was packed with frisbee golf, mountain biking, cards, fantasy football drafts, and a lot of food & wine. I'm back now, but I'm not going to go back through my usual blogs to find links because I'd have to check about 1,000 different posts. Instead, I'm moving forward. Hopefully some interesting things will pop up throughout the day. If not, my first "official" post back will probably be tomorrow morning. Plus, I'm backed up a bit with work trying to catch up.

Lastly, I finished the Twilight series. Book 4 was sweet, and by far the best -- at least in my opinion. Stephenie Meyer is in the process of pulling an Orson-Scott-Card by re-writing the first book in the series but from a different perspective (Edward's). Should be interesting.

I also just notice that my little timestamps to the left of the post title are not getting abbreviated the way I thought they would...I'll have to fix that. UPDATE: This is fixed.

Here are some links:

• Here's a quick review of Chrome, Google's "new" browser.
  
• Check out this super sweet RC Cola commercial.
• More interesting advertising techniques for Dexter.
• Summer is leaving. Boo.
• Fancast.com redesigned their site and added some new features.
  

I'll be going on vacation to Eugene, Oregon starting tomorrow. So I'll be gone Wednesday through Monday. Obviously I'll still have my computer, but I probably won't be updating much as far as content. We'll see though.