Mute ads

For designers of cheesy web ads: SHUT UP!

For webmasters who place loud ads on their sites: STOP IT!

I'm really tired (in case you couldn't tell) of ads on sites that have noise. Whatever noise it is, if you think it's a good idea to put it in the ad, let me tell you, it's not. Whenever I visit a site and the ads around it start talking to me, I make a note to never, ever visit the site again.

Don't. Do. It. Ever. Again.

Cave man heritage

Remember that nice warm fire I talked about earlier. Well, turns out it was not so much warm as sputtering.

You see, we prepared for the ice storm by making sure we (and the dogs, oh yeah, and the kids too) had plenty of food. The one thing we forgot was that magical combination of (what I'm sure are fake) wood chips and chemicals known as a starter log. We used our final starter log last night and, being the man I am, I was forced to get a fire going from scratch. That's right, just me, a small pile of wet logs and about 175 newspapers. Oh yeah, and matches. Lots of matches.

I wanted lighter fluid too, but Becca wouldn't let me.

After wrestling with the monster for about thirty minutes, I walked away, hands black with newsprint and burned in several places. Clothes smelling of burnt paper. And a nice warm fire going.

Truly wireless?

Is it too much to ask for Apple to offer wireless headphones for the iPod? I spent part of the weekend catching up on some audiobooks and podcasts. I spent the other half of the weekend trying to untangle the headphone wires. These things are a nightmare to keep from wrapping around your throat in a threatening manner.

Cut the wires Apple.

However, this is the first significant amount of time I've spent with my iPod shuffle since buying it back in November, and I'm really impressed. Normally it is playing in my car, but this is the first time I've had it on me using the headphones. It's fantastic, and I can't imagine lugging around a full-sized iPod as I was listening around the house.

23 Degrees

It's currently 23 degrees outside in Stephenville and everything is frozen solid. Except for the nice warm fire in our fireplace, however.

Digital enhancement

One thing that really irritates me about movies is when they digitally enhance a photo or video. Usually these are low-resolution shots, but they are magically able to zoom in on a certain section (usually someone's face) and blow it up to full screen size, all the while making it clearer and clearer.

As someone who works with photos for a living, I can tell you this doesn't happen. When you zoom in on something, it looks worse and worse, not better and better. They did it on 24 tonight which reminded me how much I hate it.

Beyond that, though, 24 looks to have kicked off another great season.

EOF in the news

Erath on Fire was featured on the front page of last Friday's Stephenville Empire Tribune. They were shots from the recent fire north of Huckabay. It was a big one. You can see more photos at the EoF site.

24

It's been a while since I've had time to post here, but I'll try to get cranking on it again soon. The end of '05 and the first few weeks of this year have been incredibly busy.

But the new year officially kicks of tonight. In about 35 minutes actually. Jack Bauer makes his return tonight at 7 on Fox.

Strange Soviet architecture

It's interesting things like this that almost make me want to get on a plane and travel. Almost.

Via Coudal

Erath on fire blog

I have temporarily set up a blog for the Erath on Fire project. I'll be following the Erath County Volunteer Fire & Rescue around for about a year and shooting everything they do. I'm doing it for a future publication of some kind, I'm just not sure what right now.

Until we get the official website up, the blog will be located here.

Typical

Great post on from Seth Godin.

How many times you have seen something like this that made you wonder about the future of human kind? The sad thing is, things like this happen every day in business. The hard part is instilling enough pride in your employees that they take an extra minute to move the log.

Of course, this is exactly the kind of behavior that makes "The Office" so much fun to watch.

Addition

In addition to the list below, I would like to add a hot cup of Starbucks coffee. White chocolate mocha with extra white chocolate. Now it's the perfect day.

Three ingredients for a perfect day

Today we have the three things we need for a perfect day.

1. Snow on the ground
2. A fire in the fireplace by the Christmas tree
3. My wife's Coke Roast making the house smell great

The view from near the top

37 Signals brings us this great post on their blog about the advantages of being third in your market. As it turns out, the people in third place are usually making more money because they are not spending as much to stay in first or second. Very interesting.

37 Signals makes the phenomenal online programs Basecamp and Backpack, both of which I use here at Image to stay organized. In fact, I'll be writing a review of both programs for the January issue of The Business Journal.

Bond is back!

If you haven't seen Casino Royale yet, please do so. It is a wonderful reintroducing to the James Bond character. It does a fantastic job of finally showing us what drives him and why he is who he is. This necessitates an incredibly dark ending, however it is worth it to restart the character for a new generation.

As a huge Bond fan, I loved it. It's definitely darker than past installments, but I like the direction they are taking it. It wanted to see another Bond film as soon as the credits rolled, which hasn't been the case with the past three entries in the series.

Daniel Craig makes possibly the best Bond since Connery. Connery will always be the perfect Bond, but Craig does a great job of giving us a Bond who doesn't have all the answers. He makes mistakes. He suffers for those mistakes. He also seems dangerous. Timothy Dalton was the last actor to play Bond that actually seemed like he could do all the things he was doing. It's good to have that edge back.

I even enjoyed the much maligned theme song by Chris Cornell (at least enough to give iTunes .99 for it).

Pre-Christmas gift ... to me

Alright, I know it's probably wrong to buy something for yourself just a month before Christmas, but I couldn't resist. To go along with my new exercise regimen (by that, I mean actually excercising for once), I bought a new iPod shuffle. I owned an original iPod shuffle, but sold it after I found out I didn't use it that much. Instead I always opted to use my full-sized iPod to carry all of my music. Well, that didn't stop my from convincing myself I needed a new one today.

So far I'm incredibly impressed with the compact new design. It even comes with a tiny little dock to sync with iTunes. If someone on your Christmas list wants an iPod, I'd recommend the shuffle has a half-way affordable model.

Hampton 100% Guarantee

This weekend we stayed a night at a Hampton Inn in Fort Worth. I was incredibly impressed with their 100% Guarantee. If you aren't 100% satisfied, you don't pay for the room. Now, being in advertising, I understand that this is mainly a marketing gimmick to make people feel good. Generally speaking they would charge your credit card when you arrived, and then if you weren't satisfied, probably hassle you about a refund and make it as difficult as possible to get.

Hampton was different, however. They did not charge our card until we checked out and they made absolutely sure we were happy. I left feeling like they really did care about my satisfaction and the 100% Guarantee was, in fact, not just a marketing gimmick. Because of that I will probably seek them out whenever we travel from now on.

Consider me 100% satisfied.

Shaken, not stirred

I love it when a new James Bond movie is coming out. I can never get enough of the theme song, and it plays continually in ads and trailers. It's truly the most wonderful time of year.

Lego the largest tire manufacturer

As a kid, I was fascinated with Legos. My brother and I built everything imaginable with our tub o' Legos. Now that I have three boys, they've inherited the love of building with those multi-colored bricks.

Now comes the history of Legos..

To me one of the most interesting parts was the following quote:
"Over time the wheel would become one of the most ubiquitous of all Lego elements. In fact, by the late 1990's Lego was producing more than 300 million tires a year, making them the largest tire manufacturer in the world."

Via Coudal.com

Frozen drinks with a rake handle chaser

Great product demonstration. Who wouldn't want one of these?



Via American Copywriter

Holiday pounds

Most people complain that holiday weight-gain happens with all the Thanksgiving and Christmas family gatherings. After last night, I would argue that packing on the holiday pounds starts with the replenishment of the candy drawer on Halloween. I say this as I pound down my second mini-box of Dots today.

Everyone enjoy the post-Halloween binge.