Benzoid

Happy 4th of July!

by Benzoid on July 4, 2008 , 11:37

I’m having a nice relaxed day around the house today. Catching up on some computer related projects. I have 2 dead computers from the same friend here. One is a nearly new 17″ HP laptop with Vista and the other is an Old P4 Dell desktop with Memory problems (like most of us have when we are old).

The Vista Machine is now re-loading using the factory restore option. They didn’t have anything important on it to save so no biggie.. Don’t know what I’m going to do with the dell machine, but I will figure it out :) Or I wont :(

Otherwise, the Blue Angels are flying around my house. They are putting on a show Saturday and Sunday over West Grand Traverse bay (Lake Michigan) and I live near the airport they are flying out of this week. I plan on going to watch them on Sunday…

I’m doing my Radio Show from 2pm – 4pm on Saturday (listen live on the interwebs at www.wnmc.org) and I also plan on getting a Benzoid Report podcast done and out this weekend.

We are going to a Baseball Game tonight (the 4th). The Traverse City Beach Bums are playing and then they will have the fireworks afterwords. Should be a good time. I love baseball park hot dogs!

It seems that wordpress is back to normal here. Now to see if I can put some of the tweaks I learned at Podcamp Ohio into practice. Wish me luck!

Hope your day goes as well as mine is going.

-Mike

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Back to Normal?

by Benzoid on July 2, 2008 , 10:44

Well, after doing some backflips and handstands on the server, I was able to restore BenzoidReport.com’s wordpress install back to “normal”..

Let me know if something that is supposed to work, doesn’t..

I’m just glad it looks normal..

Time for bed for me.

Everyone have a good day and I will podcast soon!

-Mike

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WordPress Upgrade

by Benzoid on June 30, 2008 , 07:31

I’ll have the site back in good shape soon.. :(

I just spend the last 2 hours upgrading wordpress on 5 sites. 4 of them went without problem. #5 (This one) was a problem. So, 1.5 hours of messing with the database in phpMYadmin was what it took for me to be able to log back into BenzoidReport.com

I suppose if you are seeing this, it worked..

Now to go work on redesigning strangetoday.com

Have a good day!

-Mike

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Podcamp Ohio

by Benzoid on June 24, 2008 , 00:45

I'm going to PodCamp Ohio, June 28, 2008

Follow me on Twitter. I will have it handy on my BlackBerry the whole weekend.
Track me in my car as I travel Friday, Saturday and Sunday at this address:
http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?n7lmj-9

I’ll see you there!

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Friends with High hats

by Benzoid on June 20, 2008 , 06:19

Do you like my friends?

So, how do you like my friends?

-Mike

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GOOD Memory!

by Benzoid on June 16, 2008 , 16:46

In 1986, Peter Davies was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from Northwestern University .

On a hike through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed distressed, so Peter approached it very carefully.

He got down on one knee and inspected the elephant’s foot and found a large piece of wood deeply embedded in it. As carefully and as gently as he could, Peter worked the wood out with his hunting knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot. The elephant turned to face the man, and with a rather curious look on its face, stared at him for several tense moments. Peter stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled. Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned, and walked away. Peter never forgot that elephant or the events of that day.

Twenty years later, Peter was walking through the Chicago Zoo with his teenaged son. As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to near where Peter and his son Cameron were standing. The l arge bull elephant stared at Peter, lifted its front foot off the ground, then put it down. The elephant did that several times then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring at the man.

Remembering the encounter in 1986, Peter couldn’t help wondering if this was the same elephant. Peter summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and stared back in wonder. The elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of Peter legs and slammed his stupid ass against the railing, killing him instantly.

Probably wasn’t the same elephant

Oh well… This is for all of my friends who send me those heart-warming stories.

-Mike

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Pixelbiker.com

by Benzoid on June 8, 2008 , 09:01

My friend Tom Wiles (aka Trucker Tom) is planning on doing a cross country motorcycle trip. Because he will likely have to take a month off of work (unpaid) to do it, he needs your help. He has started a Paidbypixels type thing going on over at www.Pixelbiker.com . He’s going to promote the heck out of the site so there should be some good advertising to be had over there.

Give it a try and wish Tom good luck and fair winds when he does take off on the bike trip… I’m jealous.. I would love to take off too, but he will be podcasting so we can live that dream with him..

-Mike

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Win a Kick-butt laptop!

by Benzoid on May 29, 2008 , 23:35

Hey, I don’t normally do this, but here is a link to a contest being run by Todd over at GeekNewsCentral.com – Go over and check out his blog/podcast and the contest to win an HP 20″ dragon laptop (well, folding desktop monster is more like it) ..

That is over at www.geeknewscentral.com

-Mike

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Benzoid Report 88

by Benzoid on May 29, 2008 , 12:50

Play

This podcast recorded in Audacity in Ubuntu 8.04LTS Linux! First time in a long time!!!

A REAL Benzoid Report. I play a couple of songs from the Kingpin Brass band ( From Garageband )

I also play a song from Curtis Norris called “S.O.S.”

I talk about a free audio book website at: http://librivox.org/ and how listening to the Benjamin Franklin’s auto biography makes me think of the simple life.

Enjoy the recording!

-Mike

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RULES OF RURAL MICHIGAN

by Benzoid on May 1, 2008 , 20:23

LISTEN UP CITY SLICKERS!!!!
THE RULES OF RURAL MICHIGAN ARE AS FOLLOWS:

1. PULL YOUR DROOPY PANTS UP. YOU LOOK LIKE AN IDIOT.

2. TURN YOUR CAP RIGHT, YOUR HEAD ISN’T CROOKED.

3. LET’S GET THIS STRAIGHT; IT’S CALLED A ‘DIRT ROAD.” I DRIVE A PICKUP TRUCK BECAUSE I WANT TO. NO MATTER HOW SLOW YOU DRIVE, YOU’RE GOING TO GET DUST ON YOUR LEXUS. DRIVE IT OR GET OUT OF
THE WAY.

4. THEY ARE CATTLE. THEY’RE LIVE STEAKS. THAT’S WHY THEY SMELL FUNNY TO YOU. BUT THEY SMELL LIKE MONEY TO US. GET OVER IT. DON’T LIKE IT? I-94 GOES EAST AND WEST, US-131 GOES NORTH AND SOUTH. PICK ONE.

5. SO YOU HAVE A $60,000 CAR. WE’RE IMPRESSED. WE HAVE $150,000 CORN PICKERS AND HAY BALERS THAT ARE DRIVEN ONLY 3 WEEKS A YEAR.

6. EVERY PERSON IN RURAL MICHIGAN WAVES. WE THINK OF IT AS BEING FRIENDLY. TRY TO UNDERSTAND THE CONCEPT.

7. IF THAT CELL PHONE RINGS WHILE AN 8-POINT BUCK AND 3 DOES ARE COMING IN, WE WILL SHOOT IT OUT OF YOUR HAND. YOU BETTER HOPE YOU DON’T HAVE IT UP TO YOUR EAR AT THE TIME.

8. YEAH, WE EAT TATERS & GRAVY, BEANS & CORNBREAD. WE FRY OUR FISH AFTER ‘CATCHIN’ ‘EM’. YOU REALLY WANT SUSHI & CAVIAR? IT’S
AVAILABLE AT THE CORNER BAIT SHOP.

9. THE ‘OPENER’ REFERS TO THE FIRST DAY OF DEER SEASON. IT’S A RELIGIOUS HOLIDAY HELD ON THE 15TH OF NOVEMBER.

10. WE OPEN DOORS FOR WOMEN. THAT IS APPLIED TO ALL WOMEN, REGARDLESS OF AGE.

11. NO, THERE’S NO ‘VEGETARIAN SPECIAL’ ON THE MENU. ORDER STEAK. OR YOU CAN ORDER THE CHEF’S SALAD AND PICK OFF THE 2 POUNDS OF HAM & TURKEY.

12. WHEN WE FILL OUT A TABLE, THERE ARE THREE MAIN DISHES: MEATS (INCLUDES FISH), VEGETABLES, AND BREADS. WE USE FOUR SPICES: SALT, PEPPER, HOT SAUCE AND KETCHUP. OH, YEAH… WE DON’T CARE
WHAT YOU FOLKS IN CINCINNATI CALL THAT STUFF YOU EAT… IT AIN’T REAL CHILI!!!!

13. YOU BRING ‘COKE’ INTO M Y HOUSE, IT BETTER BE BROWN, WET AND SERVED OVER ICE.

14. YOU BRING ‘MARY JANE’ INTO MY HOUSE, SHE BETTER BE CUTE, KNOW HOW TO SHOOT, DRIVE A TRUCK, AND HAVE LONG HAIR.

15. COLLEGE AND HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL IS AS IMPORTANT HERE AS THE LAKERS AND THE KNICKS, AND A DANG SITE MORE FUN TO WATCH.

16. YEAH, WE HAVE GOLF COURSES. BUT DON’T HIT THE WATER HAZARDS—IT SPOOKS THE FISH.

17. COLLEGES? WE HAVE THEM ALL OVER. WE HAVE STATE UNIVERSITIES, COMMUNITY COLLEGES, AND VO-TECHS. THEY COME OUTTA THERE WITH AN EDUCATION PLUS A LOVE FOR GOD AND COUNTRY, AND THEY STILL WAVE AT EVERYBODY WHEN THEY COME FOR THE HOLIDAYS.

18. WE HAVE A WHOLE TON OF FOLKS IN THE ARMY, NAVY, AIR FORCE, AND MARINES. SO DON’T MESS WITH US. IF YOU DO, YOU WILL GET WHIPPED BY THE BEST.

19. TURN DOWN THAT BLASTED CAR STEREO! THAT THUMPITY-THUMP CRAP AIN’T MUSIC, ANYWAY. WE DON’T WANT TO HEAR IT ANYMORE THAN WE
WANT TO SEE YOUR BOXERS. REFER BACK TO #1.

20. 4 INCHES ISN’T A BLIZZARD – IT’S A FLURRY. DRIVE LIKE YOU GOT SOME SENSE IN IT, AND DON’T TAKE ALL OUR BREAD, MILK, AND TOILET PAPER FROM THE GROCERY STORES. THIS AIN’T ALASKA, WORST CASE YOU MAY HAVE TO LIVE A WHOLE DAY WITHOUT CROISSANTS. THE PICKUPS WITH SNOW BLADES WILL HAVE YOU OUT THE NEXT DAY.

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