I’m sorry. I won’t be able to respond to your email today. I don’t want to wake the baby.

25 Favorite Websites

I saw an article on http://www.time.com/ recently that listed their top 25 websites.  Surprisingly, we shared a lot of our favorites.  Since I haven’t spent the time to figure out how to do a sidebar on this site listing my favorite sites, I’m going to list my top 25, plus a few other sites I check out when in the mood.  These aren’t in order by preference, just in the order they occurred to me.

1. Amazon – I buy a LOT from Amazon.  Books, my mock-pod, some paddling gear.  It’s worth it to at least compare prices at Amazon before you buy someplace else.  Plus, if you spend $25, you get free shipping.
2. E-Bay – Before I buy from Amazon, I usually check Ebay to see if I can find it cheaper.  I bought a series of 6 books a few months ago for $18!
3. Sharper Iron – this is a new site to me, but I’ve spent a lot of time digging around in it.  Great articles and good discussions.
4. Lifehacker – the best way to describe this site is “how to do everything better.”
5. Google & Family – besides being the best search engine, they have a slew of other products.  My favorites – gmail, picasa & google notebook.  I think Google might have plans for world domination.
6. JSOnline – I rarely buy a newspaper, but I get all my local news here.
7. Fox News – Best site for national news.  You can also sign up for a breaking news email alert.
8. Blogs – Since I usually eat my lunch at my desk in order to save time, I spend about 15 minutes checking out everyone’s blogs
9. REI – the BEST place to buy outdoor gear if you know you’re going to use it a lot.  It’s a co-op where anybody can shop, but if you’re a member (I think it’s a one-time $25 fee), you get special discounts plus an annual dividend check for 10% of your purchases.  The best thing about the membership is the LIFETIME warranty on anything you buy.  I can buy a Nalgene water bottle for $8 at Gander Mountain, but if I spend $11 on it at REI and it cracks 10 years down the road, they’ll replace it for free or refund the money.  A friend of mine returned a pair of hiking boots he used for quite a while because one of them started to squeak and they gave him his money back with no questions asked.
10. Paddling.net – talk to other paddlers, find out where they’ve been and what gear they’re loving.
11. On Milwaukee – see what’s going on in the city, find restaurant reviews, but the best thing by far is Steve Czaban’s sports column
12. Faith Baptist Bible College – I didn’t go to school here, unless it counts if you go in utero.  You can download some chapel messages here, and they’re REALLY good.
13. ZabaSearch – the crème de la crème of phonebook sites.  It’s almost creepy because they include unlisted numbers.
14. YouTube – if you haven’t heard of this site, you’ve been living under a rock.  If you ever need a good belly laugh, enter “trunk monkey” in the search box and watch every one.
15. Craigslist – Another site to get good deals.  You have to watch pretty diligently because the best deals go fast.  If you want to sell something, this is the site to use, too, since it’s FREE.
16. Instructables – directions to do just about anything from building a bookshelf, to building a bomb to making flashing led jewelry or a duct tape wallet.
17. Netflix – Due to an incomplete wiring project (hint hint) I don’t have cable upstairs, and I can only pick up one network channel on my antenna, and renting movies gets too expensive, so I went with this option.  It’s $17 a month and you can have up to 3 movies at a time for as long as you’d like.  By the way, I just saw End of the Spear – really, really good.
18. Wikipedia – online encyclopedia where anybody can contribute.  It’s not always 100% accurate, but it’s still very informative.
19. Intellicast – I’m a weather nerd.
20. Petfinder – I have two cats and a bird, and I won’t let myself get a dog until I buy a house, but I still torture myself by looking at all the Newfoundlands up for adoption.
21. FoodNetwork – great recipes, instructional videos and I don’t have to sit down with a pen and paper to watch a cooking show J
22. MSN – world news, political news, money news, entertainment news, and sometimes some fun articles.
23. USGS – this is not a website I’d expect other people to adopt as their favorite, but I go there a few times a week.  This lists all the river gauges in Wisconsin, so we can see which rivers are moving and which don’t even have enough water to navigate.
24. ChristianBook – formerly Christian Book Distributors, this is a great resource for finding Christian books.
25. GarageBand – cool site for finding independent musicians and rating songs you like or don’t like.  I used to date the bass player in this band – ask me sometime what he did when he met my parents (it’s funny).

So, that’s it.  What are some of your favorites?

Very Exciting!

Keep an eye on Cherie’s blog for a very exciting announcement coming soon…

John Mayer

I’m really not into concerts. Really. Until this year, I’ve only paid for tickets to 2 concerts, other than the free Summerfest shows. I’m into singer-songwriter stuff that you see for free at coffee shops or Jazz in the Park downtown. I’m not into blaring speakers, music you can’t understand, screaming girls or 10,000 people jumping on metal benches for 2 hours (Love Monkeys, 1999). I had a friend who is VERY into concerts; actually, he’s just very into music. He has very good taste in music, except for a strange affinity for the Supersuckers (their lead singer is Eddie Spaghetti – don’t ask). This is the guy who told me to see Coldplay at the Eagle’s Club – a small venue in Milwaukee. His exact words were, “It will change your life.” I didn’t go and I’ve survived just fine. He introduced me to John Mayer way back when. The lyrics, the music, the voice – it all got to me. It isn’t unlike some great authors, who put words to thoughts or feelings we’ve had. Some of his songs perfectly describe situations I’ve been in (My Stupid Mouth), moments in relationships (Slow Dancing in a Burning Room / Comfortable), or just transitional times in my life (Why, Georgia).

In February, I went to my first John Mayer concert with my friend Nicole, and if you remember my previous blog entry about it, I was completely surprised. It was nothing like I expected it to be. So, we gave it another shot and bought tickets to see him at the Marcus Amphitheater at Summerfest. Thanks to her membership in his fan club, we got great tickets again – 8^th row, center stage.  Unfortunately, Nicole was cast in Footloose recently and couldn’t get out of rehearsal on the 3^rd. I checked with a few friends that would be willing to pay $65 for a ticket, but it was too close to the date and everyone had plans already. I ended up taking my brother with me, who is even less into concerts than I am. However, he’s very into good guitar playing, and John Mayer is on track to be a legend of our generation. There were a few points in the show where I caught Lafe looking at him in awe of some of his fretwork. He especially liked it when they had an unrehearsed jam session for several minutes.

If you’re interested, here is a very accurate review of the show. Brett Dinnen was different – I know he wasn’t bad, but his voice is odd enough that I’m not sure if I could listen to much of it. Ben Folds was good. All his music does sound alike, but he is a great entertainer and an amazing piano player – I don’t know if I’ve ever seen fingers move that fast before. He entertained the crowd for a while with his synthesizer by flirting around the “brown note.” If you don’t know what the brown note is, click here. At one point, he became a mad choir director (see video). And during one song, Weird Al walked across the stage with a tambourine, and then reappeared at the end. John was just…John. Good, clean, creative, entertaining, inspiring to people who wish they could play music better…As long as Nicole keeps up her Local 83 membership, I’ll keep getting the good seats for these shows.

Pictures of Summerfest and the $17 million waste of money can be found here.

Summerfest

It’s been a few years since I’ve gone to Summerfest.  I know some people who think it’s the showcase of human depravity, and at some times, and for some people it is.  There’s a lot more there than beer, skimpy clothes and eardrum bursting music, though.  They used to have a midway like the one at state fair, but they had to take that away because it attracted a younger, violent crowd.  I think they closed a few stages that drew the same crowd.  It’s kind of like Zoo a la Carte, too.  All the best restaurants in town open up shop on the lakefront, so you can sample a little bit of everything and walk it all off.  They have fun games, contests, military recruiting stations, autograph sessions for artists and athletes and some really good music (and some really bad).  Summerfest has experimented the last few summers with different performers, and I think it’s working.  A friend of mine called this year “Starbucks Summerfest” because there wasn’t anybody really crazy coming.  Almost everybody is mellow this summer, which suits me perfectly fine.

If you are entertained by watching drunk people, Summerfest is usually the place for you.  If you’re like me and you’re annoyed by drunk people, you don’t want to go.  This year, I saw probably only 3 or 4 people that were clearly drunk, which is a huge improvement from past years.  And, in years past I usually make a point of reporting people who are smoking pot (it’s kind of fun for me to watch them being taken away as they try to figure out who in this crowd of 5,000 people saw them smoking a joint).  This year, I didn’t see anyone like that, I just saw one person that was popping some pills that probably weren’t legal, but I didn’t do anything.  So if this is the effect of Starbucks Summerfest, bring on the coffee! 

I didn’t spend too much extra time there this year.  I only went the night of the concert and I got to the park about 2 hours before the show started.  We walked through the new Lakeshore State Park (formerly Summerfest Island), which was pretty, but not once you know the story.  Here’s the Cliff Notes version: $17,000,000.  17 acres.  No trees.  Short grass prairie with cement trail.  Boat camping only.  Boat slips for 30’ and under yachts only.  500 square feet of wetlands preservation land.  200 foot sand beach for those who choose to swim in the nasty water.  Oh, and in January, this park will probably be covered in 2 feet of ice.  I think that pretty much covers it.  I love the government.

Great Lakes + My Kayak = Not a Good Idea

My brother and his friend are planning a kayaking trip in the Apostle Islands next month, so last week they finally decided to try out their kayaks in Lake Michigan.  Up to this point, all the paddling we’ve done is inland waters – medium size lakes that only get choppy in a brisk wind, lazy rivers and the Milwaukee River, which is the fastest river in Southeastern Wisconsin at a 6″ per 100′ drop, I believe.  Our friend has done kayaking in the Smokies when he worked at NOC, but that still isn’t very good prep for 20 miles in a Great Lake.  Last Monday, they decided to take the boats out in Port Washington and invited me to come along.  We should clarify at this point that my boat is a recreational kayak – not a touring kayak.  I do not have a rudder; I do not have a spray skirt (yet); nor do I have a skeg or any other equipment that will stop the wind from turning me sideways against a wave (this is a bad thing).  My boat is 11′ – theirs are 17′.  My boat is 27″ wide – theirs are 21″.  These boats are very clearly designed for differenct functions, but my confidence as a paddler thought my skill could overcome the design (I’m sure there’s a sermon illustration there).

My understanding was that we were just going to play in the harbor, and not go past the lighthouse.  Since there’s a breakwall, I felt pretty confident about my ability to keep up with them.  The harbor in Port Washington has 3 breakwalls – the main one on the outside with the lighthouse, a second one as you make the turn into the marina, and a third wall as you make the turn to the boat launch.  We put in, and made it out past the first wall with no problems, other than being a little intimidated in my 50 pound boat as huge yachts were passing 20 feet away from me.  As we moved towards the second wall, I could see some swells in the water that our friend was playing on.  I moved out towards him, and realized that I was having a tough time turning my boat to go into the waves.  When the wind pushes your boat parallel to the waves, it’s called weathercocking, and it makes it very probably that you’re going to dump your boat.  I managed to turn into the waves and coast on a few of them.  These waves were very different from inland water waves.  I’ve been in inland lakes with 15″ waves and had a blast paddling through them, until a few of them got in the cockpit and things got a little hairy for a while.  The waves in Lake Michigan weren’t as high – at that point, they were probably 10″ max, but they were longer – you stayed on top of them several seconds longer.  I’ve never been seasick, but I was getting a little nauseous from it.  After I got my bearings inside the second wall, my brother urged me to go to past the 2nd wall to the lighthouse.  I made it to the end of the 2nd wall and realized that the main breakwall, really wasn’t working as well as I thought it would at stopping the waves.  The wind picked up a bit, and I was tracking all over the place and my hips were doing a little salsa dance in the seat to keep my boat sunny side up.  That was the end of the adventure for me.  I turned around and went back to the car.  Actually, I didn’t turn the boat around, so much as I just controlled the spin the wind put me in as much as possible. 

While the guys were still out there, I walked out to the lighthouse and got some pictures and some video of them, but I should warn you that the video may make you a little seasick.