Friday Recipe - Magazines, Chocolate and Peets Coffee

For those of us lucky enough to have this Friday off, and hopefully with a little free time to relax and enjoy. How about some magazines, chocolate and a good cup of coffee? These look pretty to me...you can click on them if you want to subscribe.



Maybe a little

Chocolate

and a cup of

Peets French Roast

Wishing You a Good Friday.


Here's that Peet's Coffee I Promised

ps...My wife is the World's B (est) Teacher, it's her mug but she let's me use it sometimes.

Night In Seattle

Some pictures I took last Night In Seattle

Oh To Shop!

Lot's of nice window displays for window shopping in downtown Seattle this time of year. I'll post some pictures when I get my USB cable. In the mean time I made up this page of ads for looking at, maybe to do a little spring shopping or to get something for Valentine's Day.

This is the best.....Very cool - Red Tennies















15% OFF Your Entire Order at eBags


Take someone to lunch and SAVE 50%

Sandals in extensive size and color selections at Maryland Square.com

Nine West Sale










Shop for the perfect Valentine's Day gifts from Garden Botanika.










ArtGazebo, Save up to 50% off frame shop prices every day on quality framed art. Plus Free Shipping. Satisfaction Guaranteed.

It's a Nice Night in Seattle

It was a nice day too.

Very springlike weather today. Our flowering plum trees are already starting to leaf out at home. I'm blogging from the Red Lion on Fifth Avenue tonight. Nice place to stay, central location and easy/quick/free wireless internet.

We got to see Madeline Peyroux at Dimitriou's Jazz Alley.

It's a great venue. We got to sit in the balcony about 20 feet from the stage and had a good view of the piano player and Madeline. Very cool.

We picked up the CD "Careless Love" and got our pics taken with Ms. Peyroux. This was her final of four shows in Seattle. Two last night and two tonight. She seemed a little tired after the show, but put on a wonderful performance nonetheless.

The last time I was at Dimitriou's Jazz Alley, Lionel Hampton was there. I feel really lucky to have had a chance to see him.

Here's a few albums/cd's I've enjoyed at one time or another over the years...if you've never listened to Les McCann and Eddie Harris play "Compared to What" you are missing a fine fine song. I was introduced to it by a wild man who lived by me in a dorm in the Grand Teton's. He would come home from work and crank that song up loud. Nobody minded though because it sounds goooood and we were young lads who liked loud music.





Hope you are having a great week.

Happy New Year of the Rooster

Happy New Year!

Today is the first day of a brand new lunar year.

Wishing you peace, good health, prosperity, and happiness. Wherever you are in life may you have hope and trust that things will get better.

Magic Scarves, 1997 Led Zeppelin Tour T-Shirts and Sweat Pants

I got some interesting results when I queried Amazon for "Website Design Useability Navigation".

Apparently Website Design has something to do with magic scarves, 1997 Led Zeppelin tour t-shirts and sweat pants. I like it! Even I can handle that ;-)

I wanted this at the top of my blog today because it seems so serendipitiously funny.

Maybe funny and true. What makes anything great? People. Especially eccentric people, odd people, unique people...all people.

Let's go out there and have some fun today...remember to smile, do your best and put on your magic scarf.

Jakob Nielson - Why Web Ads Don't Work

In this article Jakob Nielsen asks the question -

Will Plain-Text Ads Continue to Rule?

"In general, advertising doesn't work on the Web, a fact that has been clear to usability researchers since 1997. Users ignore ads because they are contrary to the Web's basic imperative, which is to let users go where they want and get their information needs instantly gratified."

In his article Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design mistake number seven is -

"Anything That Looks Like an Advertisement"

"Selective attention is very powerful, and Web users have learned to stop paying attention to any ads that get in the way of their goal-driven navigation. (The main exception being text-only search-engine ads.)

Unfortunately, users also ignore legitimate design elements that look like prevalent forms of advertising. After all, when you ignore something, you don't study it in detail to find out what it is.

Therefore, it is best to avoid any designs that look like advertisements. The exact implications of this guideline will vary with new forms of ads; currently follow these rules:

- banner blindness means that users never fixate their eyes on anything that looks like a banner ad due to shape or position on the page

- animation avoidance makes users ignore areas with blinking or flashing text or other aggressive animations

- pop-up purges mean that users close pop-up windoids before they have even fully rendered; sometimes with great viciousness (a sort of getting-back-at-GeoCities triumph)."

Oddly enough I found this information while looking for some tips on how to best use Google content based ads. Google content ads are those rectangular shaped text ads you see so many places nowadays, including on CafeJack's sidebar. They are cool in that Google places ads based on the content of the page.

-------------------------------------------

So what's the point? Most visual ad components on the web are ignored. That's really not news. I've used the web since it's inception in one way or another and I could probably count the number of times I clicked on ads on one hand (maybe two). At least it seems that way.

If I'm reading a page it's very unlikely I will see an ad that makes me want to stop what I'm doing and jump to some other page.

I think I'll use visual ad components to add some style and color to a page for now and keep my day job.

Here's a link to Jakob Nielsen's Biography.

--------------------------------------------

Here's a book with a forward by Jakob Nielson.



You can also Google for +website +design +useability +readability +navigation and find some interesting reading.

I got some interesting results when I queried Amazon for "Website Design Useability Navigation".

Apparently Website Design has something to do with magic scarves, 1997 Led Zeppelin tour t-shirts and sweat pants. I like it! Even I can handle that ;-)


Good luck and have a great Tuesday.

Think Geek - Classic Computer Calendar

It's not too late to pick up the Classic Computer Calendar or other cool stuff at




The classic computer calendar features such notable computing classics as:

Commodore Pet 2001
Atari 400
Sinclair ZX81
Texas Instruments TI-99/4A
IBM PC 5150
Commodore 64
Apple IIe
Enterprise 128
Sony Hit Bit 75
Apple Macintosh
Atari 1040 STf
Commodore Amiga 500

Find out What's New and what's on Clearance at ThinkGeek!

Time For Some Spring Clothes

Yes! It's nice to think about some new clothes as the weather starts to warm up and the days get longer. Maybe some new shoes or a new spring jacket would be just the ticket.

We had a tradition in Montana of buying "shells" around the time of the high school basketball tournaments. It's probably more accurate to say I had a tradition of buying a new shell to wear at that time. We called light jackets, "shells". Nice, light, colorful ones really made you feel like spring was in the air.

Speaking of feeling like spring is in the air; a chinook could make you literally feel like spring was in the air. A chinook is a warm wind from the North that can cause drastic rises in temperature in a short period. Here's a spot where you can Learn About Chinook Winds.

-------------------------------------------

I have a confession -

I like clothes.

I like shoes.

Maybe I'll spend the money I won on the Super Bowl on some new tennies or something. Way to cover the point spread Philly. People in Boston are lucky lucky lucky. World series and now the super bowl. Cool.

My favorite commercial was the guy on the cell phone in the little store. He's talking to someone on his cell phone while standing at the counter. He says to the person on the phone "you're getting robbed." The clerk/owner thinks he's talking to him so he maces him, hits him with a bat and then the owner's wife runs out and tazers the guy. Yes! I wouldn't mind seeing something like that (not so drastic, being a nonviolent person mind you) happen to someone talking on a cell phone in public. I liked all the commercials with the chimpanzees too.

The pre-game show with former presidents Clinton and Bush was good. Nice to see those guys working together to help the tsunami victims. Bill Clinton actually called the game when he said the oddsmakers had it wrong; seven points was too big a spread.

I wish I could watch the piece about the Declaration of Independence again. It was wonderful. They had various people read parts of that document with great images and a tribute to all the people who have sacrificed to keep our country free.

So in honor of Spring, winning, and our capitalistic free society lets all spend some money!

ESPRIT Sale Favorites




Shop 200+ Brands at Shoes.com.




Sandals in extensive size and color selections at Maryland Square.com





Sheplers Western Wear - Biggest Sale of the Year Going On Now!

Fairvue Central >> Bloggies >> Fifth Annual Weblog Awards

Bloggies award ceremony will be held Monday March 14th in Austin Texas.

Here's more about the conference from South by Southwest (SXSW) out of Austin Texas. The conference runs from March 11th to the 15th with lots of cool panels and exhibitions.

I'll probably just participate as an online viewer, but I would definitely like to go to Austin some time. I bet it's a really nice place from what I've read and seen.

If you live in the Pacific Northwest and are thinking about traveling to Austin Frontier Airlines has fares from $193.00 from Seattle to Austin.

Maybe go to Jim Hightower's Chat and Chew cafe or you might run into Jerry Jeff Walker playing somewhere...sit out on the lawn and watch Austin City Limits. You never know.



---------------------------------------

I've seen Jerry Jeff Walker perform live a couple of times. Once at the Arbor Day Festival in Missoula Montana with Heart and Jimmy Buffett. That was one heck of a party. It was a sunny day, on a hillside with trucks full of kegs of Rainier beer. It was fun!

The other time was at the Gallatin Gateway Inn just outside of Bozeman in the Four Corners area. Jerry Jeff was playing and Hunter S. Thomspson was speaking (sort of speaking anyway; he was mumbling some words). He's a much better writer than a speaker.



--------------------------------------

There's a thread of writing from Hunter S. Thompson, Ken Kesey, Alan Ginsburg, and Jack Kerouac that's interesting to read. Maybe essential reading to understand something about American culture, certainly in the 50's and 60's. Not only is it interesting, but it gives you an idea of where some of the old codgers like me are coming from. These books by Tom Wolfe and Jack Kerouac might not be a bad place to start -




--------------------------------------

Betsy just reminded me of that concert with Jerry Jeff and Hunter Thompson at the Gallatin Gateway Inn. She was pregnant at the time with Rachel. This was just around the time they started the "designated driver" programs in Montana, so it was a pretty new concept. That night if you were the "designated driver" you got a special wristband and all the free soft drinks you wanted.

Betsy, in a slip of the tongue, accidently told them at the door that she was the "designated drinker". The doorman asked her, "don't you mean you're the designated driver?"

"Oh yes yes of course, that's it driver." :-)

Arbor Day - Planting Trees

Arbor Day is the last Sunday in April but the day may very depending on the best tree planting times. You can check out The National Arbor Day Foundation for your exact date.

If you want to read a great Children's Book about trees I highly recommend Shel Silverstein's "The Giving Tree".

It might make you cry...but it's a wonderful story about giving. My wife had a copy for her pre-school, that I got to read. I think I'll go look for it, I think we have a copy around here somewhere.




Giving a TreeGivers Gift Tree would be another way to remember someone special.

Thich Nhat Hanh - Peace

"At the foot of the Bodhi tree,
beautifully seated, peaceful, and smiling,
the living source of understanding and compassion,
to the Buddha I go for refuge.

The path of mindful living,
leading to healing, joy, and enlightenment,
the way of peace,
to the Dharma I go for refuge.

The loving and supportive community of practice,
realizing harmony, awareness, and liberation,
to the Sangha I go for refuge.

I am aware that the Three Gems are within my heart.
I vow to realize them.
I vow to practice mindful breathing and smiling,
looking deeply into things.
I vow to understand living beings and their suffering,
to cultivate compassion and loving kindness,
and to practice joy and equanimity.

I vow to offer joy to one person in the morning
and to help relieve the grief of one person in the afternoon.
I vow to live simply and sanely,
content with just a few possessions,
and to keep my body healthy.
I vow to let go of all worry and anxiety in order to be light and free.

I am aware that I owe so much to may parents, teachers, friends, and all beings.
I vow to be worthy of their trust,
to practice wholeheartedly,
so that understanding and compassion will flower,
and I can help living beings
be free from their suffering.

May the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha support my efforts."

Thich Nhat Hanh

This prayer can be found at Interlude Retreat Prayers For All.


Check out Thich Nhat Hanh's book Peace Is Every Step at Amazon.

--------------------------------

On further reflection I wonder if I should have titled this post - Can you have it both ways?

I'm afraid I'm mixing messages; with Thich Nhat Hanh's message of a simple life combined with a ton of ads on this page.

I suppose it's a matter of balance. I like to look at nice things and have some nice things, but not be overly attached to material possessions.

I appreciate Thich Nhat Hanh's writing and try to learn what I can from it, but I am who I am.

It's interesting to think about holding things in tension to achieve balance. A tension between consumerism/affluenza and giving up all your worldly possessions and taking up an alms bowl maybe isn't such a bad thing.

Preshrunk - You Know, For T-Shirts

I think Preshrunk has a definite appeal for the young or young at heart.

Preshrunk has some smart writing, like this comment about a T Shirt from Are You Generic? with the logo "Resist Much Obey Little" -

"This tee over at Are You Generic appeals to the dissatisfied teenage punk inside me. I'm not really sure how using my credit card to purchase this shirt will "stick it to the man", but I guess it's worth a shot."

Who Are You?

Michael Schrage hits the nail on the head with this Technology Review article - The Password Is Fayleyure

It's a good article if you have ever wondered why banks can use a 4 digit non-changing pin numbers for ATM's, but we have to think up 8 digit (minimum) alphanumeric codes for so many internet or intranet based applications. On top of that we have system admin folks who insist the password be changed on some schedule, not be reused and not written down...or otherwise stored.

Guaranteeing what?

That you'll forget a lot of passwords, incur downtime and waste peoples time and system resources to access accounts, without making your system secure.

Maybe we will have a fingerprint detector on every keyboard, that reads your fingerprint, does an ID check and communicates the results to the system you want access. The system would have to be smart enough to detect a fake print from a real live hand. Guardware markets such a device. It would take a taskforce of industry and government people to devise standards for such a system.

------------------------------------

You can listen to a little snip of the song "Who Are You?" from the Who album of the same name, or the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation [SOUNDTRACK] over at the Amazon store.

Butterflies Will Be Coming Soon

I'm looking forward to the butterflies Spring Migration.

Lot's of good butterfly pictures and links at this USGS page Butterfly Related Websites.

And a description of The Fort Collins Science Center that provides the information.

Most years my wife gets a butterfly house for her students. It's fun to watch the butterflies life cycle...and then to set them free on a warm day.

I love Gabriel Garcia Marquez's description of butterflies. If you have time I highly recommend checking out his writing.



--------------------------------------

I started thinking about butterflies this morning because of the spring like sunny and warm weather we are enjoying and after running across this Story with the wonderful title -

"When Yellow Butterflies Flew in From the Mountains"

--------------------------------------

ps. I heard part of an NPR program on my way to work, the day after I wrote this post. It's called Living in the Shadow of a Million Butterflies.

More on The Lunar New Year - From Monkey

You can learn a lot from himonkey.net. Monkey has a nice story about the lunar new year from his year 2004 - the year of the monkey!.

I didn't know Tiet or Lunar New Year was the second new moon after the winter solstice....now I do thanks to Monkey. As Monkey says -

Gung Ho Fat Choy!

-------------------------------

For those of you living in or visiting the San Francisco area, here's a link with Lunar New Year festivities from the Bay Area Traveler Chinese New Year Events 2005.


By the way, this is the year of the Rooster. The online journal Vietnam Style asks the question What Kind of Rooster Are You?

Do Your Best

I attended a Pac-10 women's gymnastics meet at the University of Washington with my family to watch our niece compete last Friday.

Katie did great. Took first in vault and tied for first in floor.

She has an amazing story to tell.

Katie worked very hard to get to where she is. That part of the story is not atypical of many good athletes. Hard work, starting from a young age, a goal and lots of drive, determination and self discipline.

The amazing part about Katie's story is she is lucky to even be able to walk...let alone jump off a vault, perform on a balance beam and do beautiful floor routines.

Lucky isn't the right word though. Maybe blessed...maybe special...certainly unique and a very strong young woman.

Katie was great at gymnastics from the time she was a small girl. She had a bright future, competed in the Junior Olympics, and was destined to fulfill her dream of becoming a Division 1 athlete (Division 1 schools are the biggest colleges and universities in the US).

Then her life changed.

Her curvature of the spine (scoliosis) reached a point where she would require major surgery. She had worn braces for some time but the condition reached a point where it could only be treated with surgery.

Katie had a major operation that involved implantation of a rod in her spinal column, and removal of bone from her hip to be used to attach the rod to her spinal bones.

For most people that would be a major setback in life. For almost anyone but someone with a strong will and a special character it would certainly be the end of athletic competition.

Not for Katie. She worked very hard (as she always had) recovered from the surgery, went back to competing and last Friday took first in the vault and tied for first in the floor.

A young woman who is an inspiration for us all.

-----------------------------------------

My daughters, as I've mentioned before, are inspirations for me. They work hard at school and in sports. Although this is not as drastic as Katie's story I won't forget the day Becca, Betsy and I were in the orthopedic surgeons office and he told Becca her basketball playing days were over.

Becca, not unlike Katie, had a promising future as a basketball player. She had worked hard and was on track for being at least a top high school performer and if she wanted to be, a college player.

Becca proved that surgeon wrong. She did play basketball again and is doing a great job of it. Both Katie and Becca are in their senior year of school athletics...so that stage of their lives is winding down.

I'm positive they'll do wonderfully well in the next phase of their lives given the character they've shown as young women.

-----------------------------------------------

There were young kids performing during the break at the gymnastics meet and at the last high school basketball game I attended.

The basketball halftime performers were cheerleaders ages 6 to maybe 16 or so. It was quite impressive. They are good at tumbling, dancing, jumping and basically just in good physical condition and having fun. It's nice to see a program like that for kids to be involved in where they are interacting with their peers, adults and learning good skills.

The performance at the gymnastic meet was again young children (boys and girls this time). Maybe 4 or 5 to about 10 years old. Really cute...and impressive. However the thing I can't get out of my mind was a song they played in the background when those little ones performed.

It went something like, "come on...do your best...remember to smile...that's it". It was obviously a song used in their training since it had specific points that the kids were keying on (when to back up or move forward..things like that). It was very repetitious (not in a bad way) and included sounds of a crowd clapping. I wish I could find it so you could listen to it. I can't describe it adequately.

In any event let's remember today to smile, do our best and think of the people who love, and have loved, and who care about us; clapping in the background.

MSN Special - Build a Better Brain

If I only had a brain.

I'd read how to Build a Better Brain.

I feel like the scarecrow tonight.

Maybe tomorrow morning...I'll check out the MSN article and these two really great sites for researchers/learners/curious people -

The Library of Congress - Find it ... Research Centers

ResearchChannel.org ResearchChannel