Here are some links to tide you over until I get bored with trying to make a new site layout.

• Pandora is a great service based on the Music Genome Project.? The software takes a song or a band you like, breaks it down to the essential elements that makes that song or band what they are then finds other stuff you may like.? You can create up to 100 stations, each with their own unique characteristics.? Very cool.
• If you’re in the mood for a surprisingly good movie, check out Donnie Darko. My friends Roger and Nikki wanted to show me the opening scene and I ended up finishing the flick.? Well worth the watch.
• The Beautiful South is a UK Supergroup featuring the kind of catchy pop-tunes you don’t mind getting stuck in your head for days at I time.? Even better is it fits nicely into the ‘music that can be ignored’ catagory. They have quite a few songs on the site if you want to sample them.? Otherwise I recommend their greatest hits album.

Thats it for now kids.? I made a lot of progress on the new layout this evening so we may be back to some decent posts by the end of the week.

I’ve been working on my .css skills this week and that’s been taking up quite a bit of what would normally be blogging time.? If you check back often you may get a sneak peek at what the new site is going to look like – Skeeter hasn’t set up my sub-domain yet.

This is from the article on aves (birds) on wikipedia.

In other words, in bird species in which male incubation is common, females tend to select mates on the basis of parental behaviors rather than physical appearance.

If only this were true for people. Not so much the male incubation part – though I can get behind the idea a father’s role is quite important between doing the deed and da’ birthin’ of the baby.

I’ve decided to start a new feature for Sundays, The Sunday Sampler. Each Sunday I’ll post one entry with a few links, mabye a short original post or possibly a photo or two. Here we go….

Brandon’s got a problem – he’s got three great ladies – its not at all surprising all three are crazy. A favorite quote:

“She’s a little manic.”

“You mean more than regular chics?”

Letters is a flash game that has it all – a simple interface, simple rules, and a totally addictive concept. An it teaches typing skills too.

Pirates be all the grandest, greatest of the Seven Seas – Arr.

That’s it folks. We’ll see you in the work week.

I don’t know when it happened but WordPress has started hosting blogs. A few friends have set up blogs here and here.

StillSpinning hit both 1,000 total hits and 100 uniquie hits this week.? I know this cause I have a counter – not because any of you slackers ever comments.

Slackers.

DaimlerChrysler released information on the 2007 Chrysler Sebring today.? Here’s a run down on some of the surprising features.

• A 20 gigabyte hard disc drive that includes Music Juke Box for organizing music and pictures to the hard drive
• Universal Serial Bus (USB) provides both MP3 connectivity and downloading of WMA, MP3 and JPEG files onto the hard drive
• GraceNotes database installed on the hard disk drive, which provides song identification, including title, composer, artist and title
• Playlist creation capability to provide easy access to files
• Voice memo recording, which allows a message up to three-minutes long to be recorded using the microphone integrated into the rearview mirror
• Radio screen, which can display movies when Sebring is stopped
• Heated/cooled front cupholder for keeping cool beverages cool and hot beverages hot. Cupholder can heat beverage to 140 degrees F or cool to nearly freezing at 35 degrees F
• MP3 play capability
• Available fold-flat front passenger seat
• Cabin air-filtration system

So it has a nicer television, a bigger hard drive, and better stereo system than my in home equals.? It also has what amounts to a hotplate and a fridge as well as a flat folding front seat which can serve as a table.

With gas prices what they are, I thinking of getting one so the car itself can be the destination.

Mythical Lady Friend: So where are we going tonight? (as I open the back seat door for her.)

Me: I thought we’d have some dinner and catch a movie.

MLF: Sounds great.? What movie? (As I shut the rear passenger side door and climb into the front seat to grab a few DVDs from the convient center storage bin and hand them to her.)
Me:? (I pour her a bottle of wine from the icy cool cup holder before I start heating some water to cook up some raman noodles for dinner and climb into the back.) So what’d you decide on?? We need to start watching the movie soon, I’ve only got about two hours of battery life left.

Today there were two events that would cause one to question my manhood. They occured within about one minute of each other.

1. My friend Alan was quite shocked that not only had I seen Strictly Ballroom, but could quote it with accents and all (both Spanish and Australian!) and poked him in not only the chest, but the forehead as well.

2. Just a few seconds later Alan was talking about how pop songs can be changed slightly to fit various styles of dancing. He couldn’t remember that horrible song from that horrible movie Titanic. Sadly, my desire to show off my wealth of knowledge won out over my need to recover some of my hetrosexuality.

So I feel I should add something here just so the ladies don’t think I’m ’safe’. Then again, maybe they’ll be attracted by the thought of my being off limits. Plus, if the girls think I’m gay they won’t think twice about changing in front of me. Maybe I can even wrangle an invite to a slumber party / pillow fight / mixing alcohol with truth-or-dare party.

One of my team members had the following call today:

Agent: Thank you for calling *****, my name is *****. May I help you?

Caller: I’m running with scissors.

A: Um…do you have a reference number?

C: I’m running with scissors. Its dangerous. You can’t stop me.

A: Um…do you have an ID number?

C: I’m running with scissors. Do you want to run with me?

A: Thank you for calling *****, have a good day.

On a side note: Did you know its now okay to say something like “I’m going to have to use a scissor on it.” They’re no longer a ‘pair of scissors’ which makes me want to know what happened to the other half.

We have a system that is supposed to identify employees who are high risk for attriting, or leaving the job for those who don’t know corporate speak.? It’s basically a spreadsheet with poorly identified fields for you to add your team members and your boss is supposed to have an intervention to help correct the problems.

I have been accused for weeks of not being compliant with this process.? The thing is I make stuff up every week so I will appear compliant.? Today I found out why.? Yesterday, June 19th, I added two agents to the high risk tracker.? I did so on the tab labled June 19th.? The next tab was labled June 26th – weekly tabs for our Monday through Friday business; perfectly logical.? This is where my crutial error occurred.? It seems that I should have placed them on the tab marked for next week as we want to be able to plan ahead.

What?