Owner: franzone.com - thoughts of a web geek URL:http://www.franzone.com Join Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2007 20:56:48 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: I'm a work from home web geek, a father of three, a husband, a world of warcraft nerd, a martial arts practitioner, a musician and many other things. Product reviews, technical articles, April Fools posts, live stories, oh... and we have comics! Site statistics:Click here
No Gas On May 15th… What!? 2007-04-27 17:54:09 I received an email today with the subject line, “No Gas On May 15th”. Hmmm, I though perhaps it was another tribute to the shooting / massacre at Virginia Tech (see OneDayBlogSilence.com). Ok, I thought that was a silly idea too, but I’ll bite. Oh no, it was even better. It was about forcing the [...]
Kids Say The Darndest Things 2007-04-27 05:13:06 “Oh, and guess what your son said at school today?”
That can’t be good. This has been an odd week at the Franzone house. Our children attend a private Christian academy here in Pensacola, FL and my wife on very rare occasion will substitute teach. I say very rare because we have a baby at home [...]
Is Sprinting The Answer? 2007-04-27 03:55:18 In my previous runner’s log entry I talked about stopping short on my distance training. I was quite upset with this and went back to the drawing board a.k.a the internet. I found quite a few training programs for marathons and half marathons, which I am definitely NOT up to yet. The one thing I [...]
Product Review: Nike + iPod Sport Kit 2007-04-25 06:43:40 So I saved the best for last. You can now plainly see why I made some of my previous choices in the product lineup. Some of them… no pretty much all of them were selected to match this particular item: the Nike + iPod
Sport Kit. Of course the headphones will really go with [...]
Stop Short 2007-04-23 20:56:29 Any Seinfeld fans out there? Well, I loved the show… actually I still love the show. Do you remember the show (Season 6 Episode 21 - The Fusilli Jerry) where George’s parents separate and Kramer is driving Estelle home from having her eye surgery and performs the “stop short” maneuver after hitting a pothole? I [...]
Read more:Short
Gone Fishin’ 2007-04-23 06:51:13 5:00 AM Saturday morning the alarm clock goes off. My hand starts instinctively slapping at buttons, “Make it stop! Make it stop!” Just as I start to drift back into the depths of some remote dreamworld I am once again disturbed, only this time my brain is wondering, “What is that noise!?… Oh yeah. Geez. [...]
Read more:Gone Fishin
Product Review: Sennheiser PMX70 Sport Headphones 2007-04-20 05:39:01 So you decided to get yourself a new iPod… or at least a new MP3 player, right? Now you are running much better and taking your tunes with you thanks to your sports armband of choice. Wait. You’re not still using those factory earbuds that come with the player are you? No, no, no, no. [...]
Read more:Sennheiser
, Headphones
Move Over, Please 2007-04-19 05:02:56 “There wasn’t even anyone in front of him!” she fumed as we passed the black dually pickup truck. There was one guy driving the truck which was loaded with a bunch of various boards, ladders, buckets and other things that would indicate that this may be a working man. Yet this was not the first [...]
Read more:Please
When You Feel Like Giving Up… It’s Time To Train 2007-04-17 06:56:36 I’m rounding the corner and I can see it. It’s the two mile marker up ahead. It’s also the point at which I start the second lap in my run. Everything about today, however does not feel good. I do NOT want to keep running. Every fiber in my being wants to give up. I [...]
Read more:Giving
, Train
Product Review: Nike + Sport Armband 2007-04-15 04:51:43 In my last product review I talked about my latest running accessory, the iPod nano. I have to tell you it has been an absolute pleasure and motivator. “But Jonathan,” you ask, “don’t you look silly carrying an iPod nano in your hand running down the road?” Of course not! That’s because my iPod nano [...]
Your Good Deeds Are A Used Tampon 2007-04-30 09:52:59 That’s an odd quote to hear from the pulpit of your church on a Sunday morning. Kind of graphic, but it gets the point across. I decided to look it up a bit myself. The passage being referred to is in Isaiah 64:6, “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses [...]
Product Review: Shoe Pouch 2007-04-30 08:37:39 So you decided to take the plunge and get yourself a Nike + iPod Sport Kit as presented in my last product review. If you remember I also discovered a problem during that review. What if you do not own a pair of Nike+ shoes? I personally have never found a pair of Nike shoes [...]
Read more:Shoe
, Pouch
What’s New Pussycat? 2007-05-02 07:07:22 What do you mean there’s no new content!? Whaaaaaaaaaaaa! Ok, well sorry but I’m working on some actual coding tonight so I didn’t have a lot of time for content. Instead I just posted a funny picture of a cat and some lyrics from one of my new favorite web sites. Enjoy!
Image compliments [...]
Read more:Pussycat
You Need Coolin’, Baby, I’m Not Foolin’ 2007-05-01 13:00:04 Pop quiz: do you know the song title? the artist? can you sing the rest of the lyrics? I know some of you Zep Heads out there do. But many of you may not. Don’t you hate that? I know I do. What’s that? Oh, you want to know the rest of the lyrics? Thought [...]
Crazy Family Photos 2007-05-04 08:38:31 Just so you know… it’s not just me. My entire family is crazy. Here is the proof.
Click on the collage to view the entire wacky album
We were getting the kids ready for bed Thursday night and got to playing around and being goofy. Ragan started making funny faces and showing everyone so I told her [...]
Read more:Crazy
, Family
Cow Patti 2007-05-06 07:47:12 Oh yeah… you know I had to! I dug this up on the internet… good ole Google. Apparently this guy, Jim Stafford is a musician / comedian that was along the same lines as Ray Stevens. He’s over in Branson, Missouri along with all the other dinosaur acts. Oops… did I say that out loud.
** [...]
Top 5 Tantalizing Blog Title Techniques 2007-05-10 07:04:07 Sometimes all you have is a title. In a blog directory, an RSS feed aggregator or a community blogging project such as the one I’m writing this post for. If you want to be able to lock on to your readers and use your Jedi mind powers to force them to click your blog post [...]
Read more:Title
In Loving Memory : Sydney Franks 2007-05-09 12:00:08 Sydney Franks
was in my son’s Pre-K class this year. They had an unusually small class so all of the kids were very close. She had a heart transplant at a very early age, but nothing got her down. She had a smile that lit up the room and a laugh that warmed your heart. [...]
Read more:Loving
, Memory
, Sydney
SmartCOP? I Think Not! 2007-05-08 12:00:20 Or so says Wilson County Sheriff’s Office and the Wilson Police Department (North Carolina) in an article published on Thursday, April 19, 2007 by the WilsonTimes.
[Sheriff Wayne] Gay said his deputies have had nothing but problems with the system and a hard time getting anyone to correct them.
“They have not delivered anything in over three [...]
Is Pensacola Real Estate Moving Towards A Seller's Market? 2007-05-12 12:00:25 I’m not much of a real estate expert, but when I spotted this diamond in the rough I thought, “Surely this marks a trend in the the market.” I mean if there are expectations of selling this prime property then I have several bridges and some swamp lands that you may be interested in.
Seriously though, [...]
Read more:Estate
, Moving
, Seller
, Market
ProBlogger Top 5 Writing Project - Final Day 2007-05-11 21:42:53 I’m fairly new to the blogging world; I started seriously investing in it this year. It has become a new passion for me. One of my new favorite sites is called ProBlogger by a guy named Darren Rowse (an Aussie). Heran a competition/project this week called the Top 5 Group Writing Project
. I decided to [...]
Read more:Final
Google PR : Getting Under The Hood 2007-05-11 07:24:48 We all know about the infamous Google
PR (Page Rank), right? It’s a scale of 1 - 10 that is basically a score of how popular Google thinks your site is. I’m a programmer so I started thinking, how do they determine this? I know it’s based a lot on back-links and good content, but [...]
5 Reasons I Love BlogCatalog 2007-05-14 07:05:42 A few weeks ago I got a message from Monawea over at the iwebis website. She mentioned a big community buzz event she was organizing for one of the social blogging networks called BlogCatalog. I’ve been really pleased with the community so I said sure. The details of the event can be found in her article titled Social Networking - BlogCatalog Buzz Experiment - Join In! So here are the 5 reasons that I love BlogCatalog:
1. Meet Other Great People To Interact With
There are two different concepts that you will find and enjoy after joining the BlogCatalog site. There are neighborhoods and friends. Friends is a concept that links you up with people or bloggers that you resonate with. These show up in your profile under a My Friends list. You can click on the pictures of your friends to go straight to their profiles. Then for each of your blogs you have a neighborhood. People can join your neighborhood if they find they have things in common with your blog or they just like it. Under Read more:Reasons
Would You Like Vista Without The Headaches? Cancel Or Allow? 2007-05-18 08:23:48 If you are anything like me then you wait a minimum… a MINIMUM… of six months before installing a Microsoft operating system on any computer that you personally own and operate. I personally shoot for one year. The problem is I really like the looks of Windows Vista
much more than the oh so goofy default Windows XP look and feel. If that also sounds like you then read on because I have good news.
A while back I ran across an online tutorial that detailed how to skin your Windows XP desktop to look just like Vista. That sounded like my cup of tea so I gave it a whirl. I ran into a few hiccups during the process, so I decided that I would repackage the tutorial along with some of my observations and edits. The original tutorial is called Make XP look like Windows Vista / Longhorn for free! on tech-recipes.com. That site, by the way, has a lot of other pretty cool tutorials too. I may do a full blown site review in the future. Well, without further ado, here’s watcha g Read more:Cancel
, Allow
Bloggers, Make Money Online! 2007-05-21 22:11:21
My friend The Big Brit just pointed me at a new lottery type competition that could land you some cash prizes and free traffic for your site! Kumiko has a new domain and she’s giving you a chance to make money online too with her new Cash Quest Competition!!
The Prize:
$100 Cash Paid via PayPal!
A full review of your site! (value: $40)
A one month link in her Super Sites section! (value: $40)
A two week 468×60 banner ad at the top of her site! (value: $50)
Not too shabby. Go check it out for yourself!
Read more:Money
Code On The Road? Work Portability Review 2007-05-21 12:00:07 I’m a work from home software engineer and occasionally I have need to go on-site to work directly with a client. This of course isn’t anything new. However, I do not use a laptop exclusively for my computing needs. I have a desktop computer which I use on a regular basis and then a not so powerful laptop that I carry when traveling. This is a list of the tools that I use to help me remain productive on the road with a minimum of headaches.
Taking Your Stuff
SanDisk 4 GB Cruzer Micro with U3 - Of course we all know about these handy little devices by now don’t we? Thumb drives! They are small, convenient and at this current day they are oh so very cheap. I bought this model which you can’t really beat for under $50 out of pocket. This is 4 gigabytes of storage that you can fit in your pocket. It comes with a lanyard that you can throw around your neck if you prefer and then the drive has a quick release mechanism to detach just the drive. That way you don’
Coed Baby Showers… Who Said We Wanted To Come!? 2007-05-20 12:00:18 I have three children and we had three coed baby showers. I have friends with children. Yep. Coed baby showers. Guess what. We didn’t want to be there! We? It’s the men I’m referring to. I did some research on the topic and all of the guides and so called etiquette says pretty much the same thing. All written by women I’m sure (yeah, go ahead. Bring on the comments!)
Baby showers that have both men and women attending are growing popularity. Many expectant fathers, male friends, uncles, brothers and soon-to-be grandfathers welcome the chance to be invited to a baby shower. And why shouldn’t they be?
WHAT!? Are you serious? That’s a bunch of woman talk. I’m sorry to offend any of the ladies out there, but I’m a man and I have to represent my fellow man here. In fact this topic came up whilst having lunch with three of my male cohorts this past week and we all agreed… no, we don’t want to be invited to the stinking baby shower!
Fi Read more:Showers
Is It The End Of Google? 2007-05-19 20:57:23 I was just working on some of my weekend blogging tasks and I decided to take a peek at my Google
AdSense earnings for the month. So I navigated to the correct login screen and entered my login information then clicked the Enter button. What? That’s not the AdSense earnings report screen! That’s… no… it can’t be. Noooooooo! Stella! It’s an error page. Say it ain’t so! The sky is falling! The sky is falling! Google is going down… Google is going down!
I hit the back button and refreshed the page. I tried my login again and it worked as expected. Ok, false alarm. It was just an error screen. I guess I caught them with their pants down… hee hee. Oh don’t you worry, I got a screenshot.
Album Review: Red - End Of Silence 2007-05-19 12:00:29
Yes, I’m a little late on this one but I just discovered them so I thought I’d share. Red is a rock band consisting of Randy Armstrong (Bass) (twin brother to Anthony), Anthony Armstrong (Guitar) (twin brother to Randy), Jasen Rauch (Guitar), Hayden Lamb (Drums) (has a twin brother) and Michael Barnes (Vocals). Umm… what’s with the twin thing? Moving on. They released their debut album, End of Silence in June 2006, almost a year ago. I’m still not sure why we still call them albums. Aren’t they CDs these days? Anyway the album was nominated at the 49th annual Grammy Awards.
Michael Barnes has a great voice and he has some good backup from the band at times. There is also some good old screamo (yes that’s a real musical genre) mixed in at times and plenty of head-bangin, foot thumpin, heart racing good beats. But don’t let that scare you off; the music is very complex and there are a number of songs that are not so in your face. There ar Read more:Album
, Album Review
Happy Birthday Avery! One Year Old 2007-05-24 05:00:48 It is so hard to believe that my baby girl is one year old today. Life flies by so fast. I can remember when I was a little boy and it seemed like Christmas would never come. It took forever to get here. Birthday
s were the same way. My parents and grandparents would always tell me to slow down. The older you get the faster life goes they’d say. Yeah right! They’re just making that stuff up to scare me. Guess they were right after all.
A year ago I was visiting the doctor because I’d had a headache for about a week. Of course I would soon find out the true meaning of the word migraine and have since learned to hate the word. A week after that we were back at the doctor for a routine doctor visit/checkup for Aubrey. She was having contractions pretty close together so they sent us over to the hospital to see what was up. The doctor there took one look at her and said, “Nope, you’re not going home today.” A couple of hours later we were introduced to Read more:Happy
, Avery
, Happy Birthday
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