Now we have these guys telling us how to make a compelling Academy Award winning movie trailer, in the format of, well, a compelling Academy Award winning movie trailer.

Catch phrase! Clever.

In the past couple of weeks, Tim and I have been trying out various third party GPS systems for the Jeep. And by various, I mean two. They both seemed adequate at getting us places, but the Garmin is the clear winner.

The Tom Tom had a kludgy interface. I am constantly surprised when any tech company still has interface issues. It seems really simple to me: minimize the number of times a person sitting in the car has to tap the screen to make it go and let the computer do everything it can with no help from the user.

Oddly, the Tom Tom would make you type everything and then it would start directing you with the voice, but the screen wouldn't start updating until you clicked on "DONE". I have no idea why that extra click was in there. Add to that, the "BACK" button inexplicably kept changing sides, so you couldn't just click on it four times in quick succession. You actually had to focus on it and watch where it would appear next in order to back out of the nested menu structure.

Here's a note to Tom Tom: either pay Apple to build a simple interface for you, or at least read the iPhone Human Interface Guidelines and follow them.

The next one we tried, and the one we kept, is the Garmin Nüvi. Not only did they get the whole "BACK" button position right, they used an icon so you don't have to read AND they made it so if you hold it down it skips all the way to the top no matter how deep in the menu system you are. Good move!

Then I found the Yeti voice in the picture above and there was no turning back. This is the only GPS I've ever had that makes me smile when its giving directions. "Oot ort ort OOOT Squeeee!" apparently means keep driving in the direction you're going or something.

And, Yes, Rob, it does Squee.

So it wins. We're so keeping the Garmin. It gets us where we want to go and it makes me giggle.

(Read more about the Yeti voice on Garmin's website)

Today I ran across the pictured statistic. The miles quoted are how many miles that people in those states have run so far in 2010. It's a lot of miles until you start looking at populations.

Some guy in Texas was bragging about being second. Interesting. Second, only behind California. I went to look at the aggregated stats, and I see Oregon is number 3! Go Oregon!

Of course, some simple math will show the *real* bragging rights:

According to Wikipedia, the state of Oregon has 3,825,657 people in it. Divide that into the miles run in 2010 (23,192) and you get 6.06 miles per thousand people in Oregon.

I wonder what Texas and California get. Oh, let's go find out…

Texas has 24,782,302 people running 65,533 miles comes out to 2.64 miles per thousand people in Texas. The people in Oregon are running on average 2.29 times as much as the fatties in Texas.

California is even worse with 36,961,664 people running only 49,225 miles. That comes out to 1.33 miles per thousand people. Oregon is 4.55 times better than California. Ouch.

So I guess it kind of explains why Oregon feels so more "in shape" than either California or Texas, assuming of course that running miles equates being in shape. Until now I had always assumed it was just because we like our great outdoors, mountain climbing, snowboarding, skiing, camping, and hiking more than all the other states.

Maybe I am getting into the whole Nike competitive thing a little bit…

Happy new year
Happy new year
May we all have a vision now and then
Of a world where every neighbour is a friend
Happy new year
Happy new year
May we all have our hopes, our will to try
If we don't we might as well lay down and die
You and I

A bajillion years ago in high school, I think I made people listen to this song incessantly right around this time of year.

Just to back that statement up, here's one Melanie posted on Facebook today:

Melanie Clark *Sings "Happy new year, happy new year, may we all.." As with EVERY New Years day, Abba haunts me until I cover my ears and start shouting "It's a small world after all.." CURSE YOU PAUL ADAMS, AND THE MITSUBISHI COLT YOU DROVE IN ON!!

At first glance, I smiled and giggled a little bit inside. Was I really that obnoxious back then? (when I see my nephew John in action I realize that I probably was…)

But on further reflection (are we supposed to be all reflecty today?), I started thinking more about the paths my life has taken since way back then.

Here's another lyric from the song, the one that has actually stuck with me all these years:

It's the end of a decade
In another ten years time
Who can say what we'll find
What lies waiting down the line
In the end of eighty-nine

Besides horribly dating the song in 1979 (ABBA was so 1970's after all), it also gave me pause to reflect at the end of '89, just like the song said.

So here's the rundown.

At the end of '89 I was working as the manager of an 8 screen movie theatre in Arlington TX. I remember being upset on New Years Eve because there were no less than 5 accidents between my work and my home at 2AM when I got off work. I had spent the last decade trying to balance going to college and maintaining a demanding 60 an hour a week job. I finally gave up on college. And soon after this decade was over, I gave up on the demanding job.

At the end of '99, I was living in San Francisco, working for myself, running my own company. In the decade since '89 I had worked in three of the crazy startups in Silicon Valley, I had worked at NASA, and I had survived cancer. I had made several trips to Europe and the UK (my first trip to Loch Ness to look for Nessie!) I had camped in the dessert looking for UFOs with Gary. I went to the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras with Jim (That's in Australia). Who would've expected all that back when they released this song?

At the end of '09, I am living in Portland. I am married to the man (and his ginormous extended family) that I love. In the past decade I have been the youth director at the largest Methodist church in Oregon, I have re-connected with many of my friends from the old days, I have remained cancer free. I've been to Antarctica, South America, Alaska, back to Europe, and all over the USA.

And more good news: this song no longer applies. I don't have to play this game this decade, only because "nineteen" doesn't rhyme with "who can say what we'll find"…

But, if it did apply, looking ahead I plan to have many happy years with Tim, travel a lot, maybe get a dog. It's the simple things. Maybe I will check back in in the end of twenty-nine.

While we were there a song came on that reminded me of that one by Ewan McGregor and Renee Zellweger from that movie a few years back. You remember the one, it was done in the 1960s Rock Hudson/Dorris Day style and was really a lot of fun.

So I thought, I like this tune. I launched up Shazam on my iPhone to find out what it was but it failed me. Like Target, the dollar store is made of kryptonite and lead that blocks AT&T's 3G network. So I was left with the catchy Christmas-ish tune in my head and no idea what it was.

Enter iTunes today. Yes, I'm admitting right here on my blog in front of everyone that I've been listening to my meager Christmas music collection most of the day.

It turns out I already had the song I heard yesterday. It came in on the Trojan Horse called "iTunes Holiday Sampler" that I downloaded for free a couple of weeks ago. The mystery is solved!

The tune is "Baby, It's Cold Outside" by Lady Antebellum. Who'd've ever guessed that?

As a side note, I think it's funny that had I found it on Shazam yesterday, I would have had to pay $1.29 for it even though I was at the "Everything's a Dollar" store. iTunes wouldn't have warned me I already had it since it would have been coming from a different album than the free sampler I downloaded before.

The short answer is 1, but the more complex answer is 2. Unless you count the genius who broke it in the first place (that would be me).

I gotta say I love my ginormous iMac. It's the first desktop computer I've ever had that has and SD Card slot built right in.

A couple of weeks ago, when Tim and I were working on the Unger Family Calendars for 2010, he handed me some photos on the SD Card from his MacBook and I reached up and blindly shoved it into the slot on the side of my monster iMac.

And just like when you slam your locked car door just as you realize you've left the keys inside, I knew I had shoved the card in the wrong slot. Because I didn't actually look, I had shoved it into the DVD drive slot. Dang. That was my first Genius move.

So I've been iMacing without a DVD drive for a couple of weeks. I scheduled a Genius appointment at the Apple store last week, but I never could actually make it into Portland at the appropriate time. So I rescheduled and rescheduled and rescheduled. Wheeee!

My second Genius move was rescheduling the appointment for today. During lunchtime. I knew I'd be downtown anyway, so what the heck, I'll just stop by the mall and drop it off and they'll take it in the back for a couple of hours and then I'll bring it home.

Ooops that. Today is the next to the last shopping day before Christmas. Every parking space within a 3 block radius was taken. I had to lug the 27 inch iMac down stairs, into elevators, across streets, and through the whole habitrail system that is Pioneer Place.

That was the tough part. The easy part was when the guys who get paid to be geniuses spent longer documenting the problem than actually fixing it. It took the tall guy in the kilt holding the iMac and the short guy in the glasses with a piece of packing tape about 2 minutes to extract the SD Card.

YAY! I was their second SD Card extraction today, so they seem to be getting quite good at it. I didn't have to leave the iMac behind, I only had to lug it into the store and back out again.

So the real answer is 3. 3 geniuses, 'cause I had to break it in the first place.

It's no secret, but a lot of people never really pay attention to these features so let me explain.

The Mac Mini in the bedroom was playing the music over the speakers in the bedroom, and simultaneously over the speakers in the living room over the WiFi network via the AppleTV in said living room.

I like to play it that way, so I don't have to turn the music up to hear it all over the house. It works very well.

But this morning I decided I wanted to watch the latest smosh video podcast while I was eating breakfast and I really didn't want to have to go back into the bedroom to pause the music. Since I didn't have my iPhone (which also has a nifty remote control that works over WiFi) to pause the Mac Mini, I did what any consumer would do: I aimed my infrared remote at the Apple TV and pressed pause.

I expected the music to stop streaming, but I didn't expect iTunes in the other room to actually pause. I thought it'd keep playing in there until I got around to going in there and pausing it.

So I was amazed that Apple had the forethought to make the master iTunes Mac Mini in the other room pause when I pressed pause for the AppleTV that was acting as a speaker wire for the extension.

Sweet. This is just another one of those little details that Apple pays attention to that no one ever understands until they start using it.

Way to go Apple, it is a very cool system you've built for me in my house.

A man in Texas (where else?) has a chupacabra carcass. And he just happens to be a taxidermist, so he knows it ain't no coyote. He's going to preserve it and hoping to sell it to a local museum because he's sure there's one out there who will want it. So is the news of the chupacabra the big item here? or is it that there's a museum that's considered local to Blanco, Texas?

"There are all sorts of strange animals that are roaming the woods here in south Texas…then there are those animals that you just don't know what they are…"

• Texas Man Says He Has Mythical Chupacabra

hehe, I thought that last sentence said "...ADHD…" which may have been entirely appropriate, since I've already moved on.

Go see it in the AppStore for yourself (opens iTunes).

So say goodbye to good gas mileage. Say hello to Tim's Jeep. I've started calling it "our Jeep." I don't think he minds.

Today I did my first commute out to Troutdale from The John Ross and it wasn't horrible. It's actually kind of fun.

I suppose that'll wear off at some point. In the meantime, I've re-applied all the right tunes to my iPod Nano for the upcoming Jeep rides.

BTW, if you are interested in buying a used Prius that's in pretty good shape, leave me a comment and I'll be in touch.

So the question remains. Is that Nessie, a giant octopus, a frowny face, or just a boat? Hmmmmm.

I guess it takes all kinds.

Read the whole story over at the MailOnline website.

Alas, the iPhone wouldn't do that one thing. And that one thing wasn't even Flash related.

So I logged into Apple's support site and found the page where I could submit a complaint. And you know I love to complain.

A couple of hours later, I actually received this back from Apple Support:

I see that you ran into some trouble while trying to … on your cell phone.

Like what?

After years of correcting people who dared to use the generic "laptop" to refer my MacBook (and PowerBook before it), and after years of correcting people who used generic terms like "PC" for my Macintosh(es), I was appalled by someone at Apple actually just referring to my hand-held computer as a generic cell phone.

Anyone with an iPhone knows it's not just a cell phone. Anyone except the support team at iTunes.

The files do show, though, that not all the sightings and reports were without foundation. Bright lights seen across Devon and Cornwall, South Wales and Shropshire in the early hours of 31 March 1993 by 70 police and military witnesses were documented in more than 30 sightings reported to the MoD over a six-hour period. The reports said it was very big, shaped like a catamaran and was completely silent. The MoD's UFO desk, known as section (AS)2a, asked the RAF to replay its radar tapes but nothing unusual was detected.

While they do maintain that there's no such thing as alien life or UFOs, they do pose some interesting stats. Like how more UFOs are sighted when The Xfiles are on TV…

So is the MoD on to something, or are they just shilling for Hollywood's District 9?

Rules: Don't take too long to think about it. List 15 books you've read that will always stick with you. They should be the first 15 you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. Tag friends, including me, because I'm interested in seeing what books my friends choose. (To do this, go to your Notes tab on your Profile page, paste rules in a new Note, cast your 15 picks, and tag people in the Note, upper right-hand side.)

1. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, – the only great HP novel, JK Rowling
2. The Delicate Dependency, Michael Talbot, super cool vampire novel from the 80s
3. Green Eggs & Ham, Dr. Suess
4. Geography Club, Brent Hartinger
5. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe, Douglas Adams
6. 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, Charles C. Mann
7. Illusions, Richard Bach
8. Chronicles of Vladimir Tod, Heather Brewer
9. Chronicles of Amber, Roger Zelazny
10. Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis
11. The Great Brain series, John D. Fitzgerald and Mercer Mayer
12. The Henry Reed series, Keith Robertson and Robert McCloskey
13. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh, Robert C. O'Brien
14. The Trumpet of the Swan, E. B. White
15. A Separate Peace, John Knowles (as referenced by Lisa Simpson!)

Gizmodo has an article talking about the new phones and the speed. Here's an excerpt that made me laugh:

Like we said before, the iPhone 3G will still run most of the games for the near future. That 40 million unit potential market of iPhone/iPod Touch devices is too big to just ignore and put out an app just for 3GS phones, so your old phone will still be able to keep up. But developers are like alcoholics. If you put more system resources in front of them, they can't help but use all of it just because they can. Also, they drink a lot.

Read the whole article, and watch a video of side by side iPhone 3G and 3GS showing speed related issues over at Gizmoodo.

Gizmodo: iPhone 3GS Review

I'm sure it had something to do with that movie where they let Pearce Brosnan sing. And knowing that Pearce Brosnan had anything to do with it probably made Coldplay feel even worse.

Oh well. it's just pop history now. From last August.

"You also agree that you will not use these products for any purposes prohibited by United States law, including, without limitation, the development, design, manufacture or production of missiles, or nuclear, chemical or biological weapons"

So, let me get this straight. If I were going to use my music collection to create "missiles, or nuclear, chemical or biological weapons," it would violate my license agreement and Apple could revoke my use of iTunes.

That's harsh.

That makes Apple the first target, doesn't it? If they don't invalidate my license then I can keep making "missiles, or nuclear, chemical or biological weapons" until I can't makes no more.

Since iTunes is the perfect tool for that anyway.

Sheesh, talk about lawyers and broilerplating gone bad…

Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus or is it Giant Octopus vs. Mega Shark? who cares! It's looks to be as good as Snakes on a Plane, and it marks the return of The Renegade, Lorenzo Lamas. Wahooo! Seriously, you don't get a sense of how big Mega Shark or Giant Octopus really are, until Mega Shark bites through the Golden Gate Bridge, or leaps at a 747 in mid air. Just when you thought it was safe to get back on an airplane… mooohaha. I'm so gonna buy this DVD when it comes out two weeks after the movie starts.

cool, and cool. very amazing stuff. And I don't think I can really do this. My bike is 7 years old and only has 4 miles on it.

Lead singer Gary Lightbody fought back with these gems:

Nothing will offend me. It's all been said. And you can't give us more than two middle fingers.

and my personal favorite:

We're like the Village People, only slightly less gay.

Read the whole whole article: Exclusive: Snow Patrol hit back at Manic Street Preachers over 'most boring band in Britain' tag

Thank you to all you who've helped make this birthday stand out. The party Friday night was fabulous, and I've gotten dozens of birthday notices on Facebook today.

The gallery of photos from the birthday party is hosted at my Mobile Me account, you can check them all out there. These are the same pictures that were snapped all night and ended up on the big screen as the party progressed.

Thanks again!

Here's your human interest story for the week. Tip o' the Hat to John Allan for digging this one up.

And B&J's has it at the scoop shops.

So here's my shameless plug: send me iTunes Gift Certificates (via iTunes or Order Gift Cards on the web). It can't be any easier than that.

In the past I've received lots of iTunes gifts. Enough that it looks like I've spent way too much money at Apple's media store. Of course, that's not what happened at all. I got you to send me gifts so it's you that spent way too much on my iTunes habit. and for that I thank you.

Last year we broke all the records with a little over $500 worth of gift certificates. Let's aim for that again

Not to mention his hotness, the lead vampire, or his hotness' dad, the blonde vampire, or the hotness of James, the bad (not vegetarian) vampire, etc etc. It's as if the CW did a (another) vampire show with hotties in it. I could go on, but why? Cleolinda Jones does such a good play-by-play explanation of the whole thing, way better than I'd ever have the time or inclination to do.

[Meanwhile, Shirtless James and the other two Bad Vamps show up and Charlie's weird friend gets dead. Also, James has no shirt. This is important. I mean, just for life in general.]

I was laughing for days. Read the whole thing for yourself.

I have to say that I didn't even consider it newsworthy until some of the adults associated with my youth group asked me over the weekend what TMI stood for. So I figured now would be a good time to publish a simple guide. It's not comprehensive by any means. It won't always keep you from being pwnd, but it will kick you in the right direction…

Here's the link that'll take you directly to AARP: Power of 50 – What Are They Talking About?
50 Words That Kids Think You Don’t Know

btw, the Urban Dictionary defines pwnd as "An internet chat language variety/version of the word "owned", used in the sence of beating/defeating/outclassing someone. Usually used in games such as Counter-strike or on messageboards when a user posts arguments or insults that can't possibly be counter-argued. "

I think it is only about 500 yards away.

Of course, we decided to walk on the path along the river. After dark.

Turns out, there's not a path any more. They're (go figure) building something, so they've uprooted the entire path along the river between our house and TOSF parking lot.

We didn't know until we were committed to the journey, though, so we kept trudging along. And in case you don't know what it's like next to a river where they're doing sky scraper construction in the rain after dark, let me tell you a bit about it.

I think it would have been easier to track Bigfoot thru the North Cascades in the winter. I only sank up to my shin in mud once, but I definitely learned a bit about how deep puddles can be in several different places.

It was a fun, if a little messy trek. In the end, amazingly enough, we got to TOSF parking lot but were trapped inside a construction fence. How we ended up inside the perimeter is a really good question, but none-the-less, we were on the wrong side of a 6 foot fence at the last possible minute. The fence is not the amazing part, though. The amazing part is that there was a gate, and it wasn't locked.

We opened it up, strode across the threshold and were dining at TOSF in mere minutes. It's an experience I'd recommend to anyone. I recommend the Spaghetti Vesuvius.

I'm glad Pixar exists. Even Pixar movies that don't live up to my Pixar-based expectations (Wall•e anyone?) are way better than most other moves.

I haven't bought any CDs in a while, it's all iTunes now, but I still have the CDs around – and am getting ready to re-rip them at higher bit rates.

But my DVDs are a different story. I've amassed a few over the years. Nothing like 800, but I do have a bunch. The thing is that I've never been able to part with the jewel boxes and booklets. All that's about to change.

Last night, Tim and I picked up four binders that will hold all my DVDs in the space of 1/2 of a shelf in the bookcase where they've been living for years. In the jewel boxes, they take up 5 shelves in the same bookcase. Seems like a no brainer, I wonder why it took me so long to get here.

Of course, I haven't bought any DVDs in a while either, that's also all iTunes. So the storage thing gets more important until I get them all ripped and saved electronically and don't need the DVDs any more at all.

In the mean time, I've gone thru them all and sorted them. The resulting stacks in the photo are telling, I believe.

Here's how it stacks up: Front Row – "Documentaries", Classic Universal Horror Films (Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, etc); Middle Row – Horror Films, Action Flicks, Kids Movies, Music Videos, 60s and 70s Television, Godzilla; Back Row – Comedies, Gay Themed Movies, Dramas, TV Shows, Things made by Matt Groening (note, it's the tallest stack), & Nickelodeon Cartoons.

The folks at 236.com have superimposed video clips from the three presidential debates together. It's really amazing. Hearing McCain and Obama making statements in one debate that sync to the exact timing of the same statements made in another debate is almost scary. It gets even more scary when it syncs to all three debates at once.

It really drives home the concept of "talking points".

[Spoiler Alert] there is lots of fake blood…

You can go carve your own pumkin if you like, but it doesn't work on the iPhone.

Stupid Flash.

Sometime next year, it's supposed to be replaced with a new clock that has two extra digits. I wonder how much that'll cost.

I know I shouldn't be laughing about this, but…

So for those of you out there who haven't made the switch to Mac, yet, each of the noises in this composition are system beeps that you can choose for audio feedback when you have an error or some pre-defined event. At least one of the noises there is what I have set for my "new mail" sound.

More than that, the composition was made and is displaying from a little included-with-the-mac application called Garage Band.

Best of all, if you're not a mac-head (I'm talking to you Gary Lake), you can still enjoy the composition on the "listening to this reminds me of the early days of video games" level.

It is available for download both as a .zip for the Garage Band files and as a .m4a for your iTunes collection and various iDevices.

And remember: every day that you survive gives you another chance to reach safety.

What kind of advice is that?

That's a great big non-statement. Like "Every day is the first day of the rest of your life" or "it's always in the last place you look." duh.