Another Cool Mapping Site
I just found another really swell mapping site. This site is using a Flash interface connected with Google and MSN's maps. The experience is a lot smoother then that of Google or MSN earth alone. You can slide in out seemlessly and drag the map in all directions with your cursor. I think the satellite imagery is a lot clearer as well.
Check it out. I think it is the best mapping program I have seen.
New Videos
I have just posted several new videos in the video gallery. Guess who they star? This is sort of experimental and there a few bugs I am still working out - so be patient. The videos are optimized right now for broadband connections. Sorry to those of you with dial-up. I will work on getting a dial-up section as well. For now it is my way of trying to push everyone forward to better technology. The world is so much better with broadband... Anyway, enjoy.
The iPod Cometh
It is finally here. I would have posted sooner, but I was too busy uploading my entire music
library... now what do I do with the other 54 gb?
Needless to say it is a beautiful piece of equipment. My expectations were pretty high and I am glad to say that they have been exceeded. I don't know what I like better, listening to it or looking at it.
The good people at Sitepoint were supposed to send me a 40 gb iPod Photo but unfortunetely they don't
sell the 40 gb version anymore so they upgraded me to the 60 gb version. Very Cool!
The sound is great and it couldn't be easier to use. One of the best things is that I can use it in my car and its a pretty cool thing to have any song available without having to switch CD's in and out. I also like the fact that it displays the artwork for the album of each song. Not a big deal but one of the little nuances that make it hip.
The only thing that I have been disapointed with is iTunes. The program feels very clunky and is not user friendly in my opinion. Maybe I am just used to Windows Media, but I prefer it at this point. I like the layout of WMP better. All of your choices of album, artist, genre, etc are in expandable menus along the side as opposed to iTunes at the top. iTunes is also a lot slower and uses more memory.
The music store is pretty cool and the podcast subscribing is off the charts.
So, all in all I am happy and I am really looking forward to a long relationship with my iPod.
That Thing She Does
It's every father's job to tell everyone how cute and adorable his daughter is and I am no different. As I think back to before she was born and we thought she was he I could have never imagined having a girl. Now I can't imagine what life would be like if she had been a boy. (does that make any sense?)
Nevertheless, in the car tonight she was making a screeching noise. The noise was one that if a little louder could be quite annoying, or if it had kept on, but each time after the warble left her voice she would tell herself "no no" be quiet for a couple seconds, and repeat.
It was one of those time where you smile to yourself and force yourself not to look back. Thank goodness for rear view mirrors.
I hope to post some new video soon of our dancing queen. She's got a routine that gives Napolean Dynamite a run for his money.
You might have noticed that the sidebar on the right is getting a little fuller. I joined google's adsense program. More for the novalty I guess, but maybe I'll make a little money. It is a free program that pays me everytime someone clicks a sponsored link. So if you would like to help feed a hungry mouth...or put little Mia through college, go ahead and click. That's it just click.
I have even come up with a fun game for the ads. Google places ads relevant to the content on the site. So the challenge is to figure out what newsletter entry was the refference for that particualr ad. All right, it's not Frogger but it can still be fun.
And now for the thought of the day........"Laugh and the world laughs with you. Cry and the world laughs harder."
You've been great. I'm out.
Some New Photos
Mia and Regan at the LongsI just finished uploading almost 4gb of photos from the past year and beyond to flickr. There are 4 new sets that were not on the old site.
The new photos include: Caleb's Graduation, Abi's Graduation, Our 4th of July trip to Indiana, and our Summer Vacation to Winter Park.
You can view the photos by going here.
Enjoy!
Something New
The last couple of days have been marked by things that are new. Awhile ago Mickie's bathroom mirror fell off of the wall. Fell off? Yup. And in the
process a big piece was broken off of the corner. This gave her the inspiration to redo the bathroom. She wanted to paint add a new light fixture, some other accessories and of course a new mirror.
The other new thing and really big deal at our house is Mia's swing set. On one of the trips to Menards we found a small swing set with a slide that was discontinued...and you will never see a happier girl.One last item. I placed a subscription field on the right side. If you would like to be emailed whenever the newsletter is updated and don't want to bother with RSS (although RSS is very cool...) enter your email and click subscribe.Blingo!
One more before I go to bed... I discovered a new cool thing tonight called Blingo!
So What is Blingo? Blingo is a new twist on the search engine. Blingo combines the greatness of Google (it uses Google for it's search results) and the excitement of Bingo or a raffle, but here is the catch...it's free!
All you have to do is search like you normally do on Google and if your search is chosen you can win a prize. I researched this for awhile and from a lot of different testimonials it is completely legit. It is not one of those things where you have to complete a survey or they promise a free $50 gift card to Applebees but a fun legit site where you can win cool stuff.
So how do they afford to give away free stuff with no catch? Just like Google and a lot of other sites they have paid advertisers links on the side.
Here is another cool thing, if you get your friends to sign up, when they win you win!
So sign up today and start searching with Blingo. Here is the link which will also refer you as my friend. Let me know if you have any questions.
Movie Review - The Aviator
Well, just got finished with the Acadamy Award nominated film The Aviator. It wasn't a bad movie but it's one of those where about 2 hours into it you get up to look at the back of the dvd to see how much longer this thing is going to be... As it turned out we still had 50 minutes to go. Waaaay to long in my opinion. It was an interesting biopic about someone I really didn't know anything about. I have heard the name Howard Hughes, been told about the Spruce Goose, and of course know of TWA and Katherine Hepburn, but now I know the whole story behind them... I guess in my opinion the only redeeming quality of the movie is that is based on a true story. I am a sucker for true stories. Tell me it's based on fact and I will probably want to see it.
Leonardo DeCaprio did a very good job, so good in fact that I wanted to throw my pizza at the tv during his irritating insane spasms. I think they could have cut about all of those in half or completely out and the movie would be under 2 hours and a lot better.
But for all the irritating stuff I still found myself wondering how it will all turn out and I guess if I am still interested by the end I can't complain too much. In fact Mickie (who does not like to stay up late for movies) had to see how it turned out. I won't spoil the ending because there is nothing to spoil. It just ends, which was a little weird. I guess I expected him to commit suicide or something.
After doing some searching on Google - I learned the real truth behind Howard Hughes. The movie portrays him as a pioneer and a hero when it appears he was much much less. There is a good biography on this site.
So, if you are interested in learing a bit about American history and have a spare 3 hours on your hands you might want to see it - otherwise go watch some paint dry.
The Coveted iPod
Earlier this year I entered a t-shirt design contest on Sitepoint.com. The winning design would win a 40 gb iPod Photo. So I entered. I entered about 20 different designs pretty early in the competition and had to sit back and wait as entry after entry came in. I would check the post fairly often to see how the competition was stacking up. Every once in a while an entry would come that would worry me a little.
In early July the contest was closed and the members of the forum were asked to nominate entries for voting. I had four designs nominated. (the most of anyone) Now all of the members 
would vote for their favorite design. The voting started off slowly for my designs but I was consistantly in the top 5. Near the last day of voting one of my designs picked up steam and chugged into second place. And that was how the voting ended.
A few days later administrators on the forum posted an announcement that the 1st place vote getter had cheated and was losing nearly half of his votes - which vaulted me into first place.
I hadn't won yet. The top five designs were sent to the Sitepoint administrators for the final desicion. At this point I really didn't know what would happen but I felt I had as good a shot as the other four.
We were in Winter Park on vacation when I checked my email and found out that my design had been declared the winner! Oh the joy, oh the joy! ipod! ipod! ipod! Whooohooo!
Okay, after I collected myself I informed my family of my accomplishment. They all said cool, good job and then went back to whatever they were doing. Hey! Shouldn't there be a parade or something? Come on - I just won an iPod!!
It took awhile for me to realize that not everyone considers this a world changing event but for those of you out there with iPods let me feel the love.
A New Era
So this is the first entry in the new blog...better make it good.
Greetings to you all! It's been awhile since we last talked. Hope everyone is doing great. The Byers household is slowly getting back to normal. We have had a crazy July. It started off with a trip to Indianapolis to visit our friends the Longs over the 4th. There was some good golf and a crazy wait at the Texas Roadhouse (another story for another time.)
I then broke my 26 year streak of not attending a funeral by going to 2 in 3 days. Mickie's aunt passed away so it was off to Missouri and then we went to Wisconsin for my grandpa's funeral.
We had a few days at home but then headed to Winter
Park, CO for vacation. It was a lot of fun. I'm glad we were in the mountains with the 90 degree heat instead of in the city with the 105 degree heat! Look for a video of Mia's first Alpine Slide ride soon.
So now we are back to normal - whatever that means.
Mia is growing up faster and faster. She decided today that she needed to kiss Mickie and me (multiple times) and no, I am not complaining. She is really into the game of peek a boo as well. She will hide behind a wall, couch, or whatever and stick her head out and say "peek." It really doesn't get any cuter than that.
One last thing, if you subscribed via RSS to our previous newsletter, you will need to change your feed address. I was cleaning out my server and accidently deleted my entire newsletter...which contributed to the swiftness of this new design and format. Sorry for the inconvenience.
So, hope you enjoy the new site. Make sure to leave your comments below!
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