Since my shoutbox was hijacked some some pathetic loser, I figured I may as well take it down for a while. If my page is going to be slimed with ads then I may as well put something up that might do me some good. And hopefully the Google ads will be less salacious.

Once I find a way to control the lowest common denominator (this means you, shoutbox loser) then I'll put the shoutbox back up.

I tried the "Mudds" web page from home and it worked quite a bit better. The only real difference is that from home I was using Firefox instead of IE. True to real life, the "virtual cache" contains junk, only this is "virtual junk". One of the items is a free download of a game that requires software that many claim is spyware (I am in this group). Great site :)

While browsing the Drudge Report a few minutes ago I noticed something strange. Instead of having the usual ads (low mortgage rates, free screensavers, etc.) they had a Yahoo!-style ad promoting "The Mudds". When a new movie comes out, Yahoo! typically plasters every ad space on every page with ads promoting that movie. Drudge had both ad spaces promoting "The Mudds", so it was basically the same thing.

Out of curiosity (since it was out of character for the Drudge Report), I went to www.wearethemudds.com. The page is part of an ad campaign by Jeep. There were many distressing things about the page. First, you can view a lame video with the promise that there are more videos to follow! They promise that at the end of the video you can explore a "Virtual Geocache". It went downhill very quickly from there. I thought that they must have been pretty close to the bottom to begin with, but this was not the case.

I watched the video and at the end it indicated that I should click on the screen to go to the virtual geocache. I clicked and nothing happened. I click again and nothing happened. I clicked again and nothing happened. Sensing a pattern, I closed IE and tried again. Nothing. I disabled my pop-up blocker (the one that comes with XPSP2) and tried again. This time it started spawning window after window after window and I couldn't stop it. At least thirty windows opened within seconds before I finally killed IE. I restarted IE and tried again. This time it got stuck in an endless loop where three windows were constantly opening and closing very rapidly.

I turned the pop-up blocker back on and I finally arrived back on the "Mudds" webpage, but this time the background was a Google satellite view where I could zoom in and out. Unfortunately, I'm not sure what I was supposed to be looking for. Nothing was marked and I could only zoom a little more than halfway in before Google informed me that images weren't available.

Not that geocaching is associated with the highest quality that society has to offer, but the geocaching community should be ashamed of this lame attempt at advertising. Jeep really pooped on itself with this page.

For no particular reason other than to get a free Jeep, I tried "entering to win". The entry form page was larger than the window and they had the size of the window locked. There was also no way to scroll. After entering my information I was never able to submit it because the submit button was off the screen.

Jeep obviously did a good job of getting me to go to their page, but if Jeep's QA on their vehicles is as good as QA on their webpage, then I guess I'll never own a Jeep.

I received an e-mail notification today that my bandwidth usage was high for the month. Since I have the bandwidth threshold set pretty high to begin with, this surprised me a little. I am used to getting messages regarding my disk space usage, but not bandwidth. This was clearly caused by the podcasts, so I looked at the statistics to check out the details. I know that having a podcast can eat up quite a bit of bandwidth and disk space, but just how much could it eat up?

It appears that my first podcast has been downloaded 58 times and the second podcast has been downloaded 26 times. I know that some people may download it multiple times and some people may download it automatically via podcast readers (e.g. RSS Radio, etc.). Still, this number seems very high. Are there crawlers that go out and grab podcasts? If so, where are these podcasts ending up? I have not published my podcast in any directories, so the mystery remains.

All things considered, a lot of people seem to be grabbing the podcasts. Who are these people and why are they listening to my podcast? It's not interesting. It's not entertaining. I know that Richard listens to my podcast to be nice. I don't think Mike is downloading the podcasts since he was there, LIVE!, when they were recorded.

It's strange to me.

If my plan had worked I would be sitting on a plane headed for Boise right now. It didn't work, though. The trip was canceled because they postponed the training that I was going to help with. Perhaps another day...

I am becoming increasingly disheartened over my inability to find an Idaho Spud. Here is the updated list:

• Smith's
  
• Chevron
  
• Shell
  
• 7-11
  
• Raley's
  
• Winco
  
• Rite-Aid
  
• Walgreen's
  
• Rainbow Market (x2)
  
• Exxon
  
• Corner Minit Mart
  
• Albertson's
  
• Safeway
  
• AMPM

Are Idaho Spuds such an incredibly bizarre candy? I spoke with the people at Port of Subs briefly about this. They had never heard of Idaho Spuds. I know that "Spuds" aren't as popular as, say, any other candy bar, but I thought people would at least know what they are.

I hate to say it, but these people are bringing shame to themselves and the entire Gem State.

I'm sitting here at work trying to enjoy some yogurt as a snack since I skipped breakfast this morning (spare me the lectures!). I haven't been able to figure out why it's so incredibly difficult to find nice, creamy, delicious yogurt. Why do yogurt makers think that I want big chunks of soggy, decomposed fruit in my yogurt? I must be alone on this one, otherwise it wouldn't be so hard to find good yogurt. Peaches are about the only exception. Peaches do not appear to be affected by sitting for months in a pool of cultures; however, bananas and berries are severely affected.

Dannon does make one product called Light 'n Fit Creamy. It's hard to find, though, and the name is not very manly. Why could they call it "Thick 'n Meaty Creamy" or "Chunks Must Die! Yogurt" or something like that?

Speaking of hard-to-find delicious foods, here's the updated Idaho Spud list:

• Smith's
  
• Chevron
  
• Shell
  
• 7-11
  
• Raley's
  
• Winco
  
• Rite-Aid
  
• Walgreen's

I may take a break today and go Spud Hunting...

Literally. Emilie went to the cannery tonight to stock up on food storage stuff. I was stacking the boxes on a shelf in the garage when I felt the edge of one of the boxes slide down the back of my pinky. I immediately grabbed my finger, afraid to look at the damage. When I did look I could see blood, but it wasn't gushing. After coming in the house I took a closer look. It seemed minor at first, but then I pulled gently on the skin to see if there was separation. My finger opened from the tip, down the side of the nail and all the way the the knuckle. OUCH!

Speaking of idiots, the Reno Planning Commission made a bonehead decision this morning. They had the hearing last night regarding Station Casinos' plan to build a massive hotel/casino on the Mt. Rose/395 intersection. According to the newspaper, there were 75 people at the meeting to oppose the plan; however, they decided to approve the plan anyway. It gives me such a warm fuzzy to know that the city council (always eager to serve the public) is so willing to listen. Most of all, I'm just excited that we're going to get to live right next door to a casino!!! I'm not mad. I'm not outraged. Both those words are too mild to explain what I really feel.

May the city council suffer a million cardboard cuts in uncomfortable places.

The only thing that makes this day bearable is that I scored some Pink Floyd pajama pants at Kohl's. They look just like these ones. Sorry, I am not accepting offers at this time - they are not for sale.

Today was Saturday Nevadurday #3. This gave me a good excuse to podcast. With my lame cold this last week I haven't felt like doing it, but now here it is!

Some of the exciting things that you will hear about during this podcast include the greatest joke ever told (today, by me and/or Mike), eating Awful-Awful's at The Nugget, Emilie's baby shower and the Nevada Flag Cam. As promised, the following picture is a supplement to the podcast. Since Emilie argued about the validity of the space, I have placed red arrows that point to the lines. This should eliminate all doubt.

Not mentioned in the podcast: who really invented the Awful-Awful? Both The Nugget downtown and John Ascuaga's Nugget in Sparks have an Awful-Awful on their menu. (They also both use "Last Chance Joe" as their mascot, but that's another topic for another day.) I noticed that the "Reno Nugget" claims to have had the Awful-Awful on their menu for 35 years. John Ascuaga's Nugget shows on one of their menus that the Awful-Awful has been "Served at the Nugget for almost five decades!" So who can truly claim the Awful-Awful? This question begs more research. The funny thing is that they aren't even the same burger. So why the same name?

This is the updated Idaho Spud list:

• Smith's
  
• Chevron
  
• Shell
  
• 7-11
  
• Raley's
  
• Winco

When Emilie said that they had Idaho Spuds at Winco it was apparently an empty promise. She assured me that they used to have Idaho Spuds but that they weren't there anymore. My broken heart is healing, but my taste buds remain lonely.

Speaking of Idaho Spuds, did you know that Brian Crane of Pickles fame is an Idaho spud? This whole ordeal reminded me of something I had in a box of treasures.

I ditched work today. I woke up Friday morning with a sore throat. I was just getting ready to call in sick when I received a distress call and had to rush in to work. Friday was crazy and I never got a chance to go home sick. I even ended up spending a good portion of Saturday there finishing up things that I didn't complete on Friday. I called in today but it didn't seem to help much. I'm feeling a little worse now than I have all weekend.

This stupid cold has impacted my podcast, my recreational activities and my quality of life. I wish it would go away!

Did you hear the news?! The Nug was updated and now has a working forum! I upgraded the software for the site and the forum and it appears to be working okay. I think I've fixed most of the big problems, but I expect to find more little bugs here and there...

Raley's denied me also. Thus far my list looks like this:

• Smith's
  
• Chevron
  
• Shell
  
• 7-11
  
• Raley's
  
• ?????

If you have any ideas on where I can acquire a delicious Idaho Spud or two please let me know!

As part of this important quest, I am temporarily allowing e-mail in my super-secret personal mailbox. Please send tips and suggestions that may help me in my quest to spuds at bradcarpenter.com. Thank you in advance for the important part you will soon play in helping me to achieve sugary, potatoey satisfaction!

As I typed a comment in the shoutbox I suddenly had a flashback to when I was in Canada. On multiple occasions I witnessed people eating raw potatoes. They would usually peel the potato, but then just eat it like an apple - sometimes with a little salt. I tried this once. Once. Actually, I only took one bite. One bite. Please feel free to try it for yourself, though.

It was exciting to see that Richard recently got into bodybuilding.

I was thrilled to see that a picture I submitted appeared on a popular web page recently!

Although not perfected, I've made quite a bit of progress with the feeds. You can now subscribe to the podcast only feed, the Atom feed or the RSS feed. I'll hopefully spend some time before the weekend to work out the bugs...

In much sadder news, I was unable to find an Idaho Spud candy bar. I checked 7-11, Chevron, Shell and Smith's. I'm not even sure where to check next. My spirit is breaking and my tummy is grumbling. Rest assured that when (if) I do find one I'll purchase two!! There's a sadder side to this story. The Idaho Candy Company notes on their web page that "...the 'Idaho Spud' [is] one of the top hundred selling candy bars in the Northwest." I didn't even know that there were a hundred different kinds of candy bars. Saddest of all, if we included candy bars from all over the country or world, the Idaho Spud would rank even lower. So what? I like 'em!

In my never-ending quest to be just like Richard, I am introducing the BradCarpenter.com podcast!

My first podcast is a joint effort between Mike and I. It's a sloppy mess, but it leaves lots of room for improvement! It is 20 minutes and 36 seconds long and is around 9.5MB.

The focus is primarily on Mike's FFNV (Fight for Nevada) efforts. After conference we made a night trek to the Prospector and to Nevada Historical Marker #218 - Geiger Station (Magnolia House). Be sure that Mike will post our pictures on the FFNV blog.

To conclude the evening we had a soda tasting of the Halloween flavors that Jones Soda has made available at Target. The flavors tested were Candy Corn and Caramel Apple. To get an idea about the flavor, do the following:

• Close your eyes
• Tilt your head back slightly
• Let your thoughts flow from your mind
• Imagine the worst that you think the soda might taste

Once you've done that, you will have imagined the soda tasting just a little better than it actually does.

My to do list includes adding podcast links on the sidebar for subscription and search functions. In the meantime, podcasts will appear as part of the RSS feed (http://bradcarpenter.com/blog/index.rdf). This may change. More to come...

Anyway, here is the podcast.

My face is like a prison and my skin is breaking out! I don't know if it's because of the gradual climate change or perhaps that I'm entering second puberty. I didn't think anything of it when I was offered free pizza the first time this week, but I should have caught on the second time.

I was enamored today with a link that Richard sent me this morning. The page is one of those lame pages where they crawl the web for a topic and then post the results on a single page and label the compilation a "resource". I was glad that Richard sent me the link to this page because it presents a hilarious situation. The page provides "resources" for "approaching a widow". Although presumably intended to give information on how to hook-up with widows, this link appears about halfway down the list. Although many of the results don't quite fit, this result in particular makes the "approaching a widow" concept a little funnier.

I've been working on painting the baby's room this week. I'm a little more than half done and will hopefully finish tomorrow (today, technically, since it's almost 1:00 am). With three sessions of conference tomorrow, a company picnic and hopefully a bike ride, I'm not sure how quick I'll be to finish. Pictures will be forthcoming upon completion of the project.

We went to Claim Jumper tonight for dinner. We haven't been there for a while. My food was good. Emilie said her's was okay. It was definitely better than some of the other times we've gone. I had tri-tip and asparagus. Emilie had a sandwich. We stopped and got a Frosty on the way home. Yum.

After arriving home I set up a wireless USB print server that I ordered last week and received today. I haven't successfully completed the setup, but hopefully I can get it to work tomorrow. Space issues and lack of USB ports necessitated this device.

It's late. That's enough for now.