Happy National Train Day

This is Julian's Brow Line Trolley...

Congratulations Charles & Kim

My friend Charles from Austin just got married on Tuesday in Las Vegas. For the next few days, if you want, you can view their wedding online. Please let me know if you want information on how to do that.

Street Legal ATV

Street Legal ATV, originally uploaded by eschulz.

This guy lives four or five blocks away and has converted his Honda ATV to be street legal. He installed racks, a trunk, lights, etc. I've seen him riding it a couple of times. Great way to go grocery shopping.

MS SXY1

MS SXY1, originally uploaded by eschulz.

Oxymoron of the day - A feminist who wants to be judged by her appearance.

Garfunkel and Oates!

Medley from Riki Lindhome on Vimeo.

Auburn Men's Golf Coach Mike Griffin Leaving Coaching

Coach recruited Will and I've been around him several times over the past year. Coach, you will be missed. Good luck on your new job!

Auburn Men's Golf Coach Mike Griffin Leaving Coaching - AUBURN OFFICIAL ATHLETIC SITE: "Mike Griffin, who has served as the Auburn men's golf coach for the previous 25 seasons is stepping down from his coaching responsibilities and will remain with the program as the director of golf. A four-time Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year, Griffin led the program to an SEC title in 2002 and eight SEC runner-up finishes, 16 NCAA Championship appearances and 19 NCAA Regional appearances.

'I have been here a long time and after looking at things through experienced eyes, I decided this is what was best for me and my family and for Auburn golf and the young people here,' Griffin said. 'When I was brought here, my purpose was to get a golf course, practice facility and team home built, and those have been completed.

'We've been very competitive, winning several tournament and individual titles, including SEC and Regional team and individual titles, and an NCAA individual title. The only thing we've not accomplished was winning a team title, however, what makes it better was having the opportunity to host an NCAA Championship.'"

Movies and TV to Watch Instantly on Netflix

Here's a site that makes it easy to find great free content on Netflix (free if you're a member): instantwatcher.com - Movies and TV to Watch Instantly on Netflix.

The New World of Coca-Cola

We're here with friends.

It's raining

Tha Astros are losing 7-2. We're gonna wait a little while and see if play resumes.

Go Braves

Astros vs Braves

Tonight, we're going to see the Atlanta Braves play the Astros. GO BRAVES!

Amazing Bicycle Trials video

Inspired Bicycles - Danny MacAskill April 2009

Hunter Hawkins Named OVC Freshman of the Year

Double Congrats to extended family member, Hunter Hawkins!

JSU's Hunter Hawkins Named OVC Freshman of the Year

Jacksonville State’s Hunter Hawkins was named OVC Freshman of the Year while Gonzalo Berlin was named to the All-OVC second team and Garrett Burgess earned All-Newcomer honors at the annual awards banquet on Monday evening following the first day of play at the 2009 OVC Championship.

The OVC Player and Coach of the Year awards will be announced Wednesday afternoon following the final round of play at the championship, which is being held at being held at the The Shoals on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Muscle Shoals, Ala.

Hawkins became the second Jacksonville State player to earn the Freshman of the Year award in the five years the honor has been bestowed (joining 2006 winner Daniel Willett). Hawkins played in 10 tournaments in 2008-09, averaging 74.72 strokes per round. His best finish of the season was a second place (out of 75 golfers) effort at the Mission Inn Collegiate Classic. He carded a three-round score of 210 (-6). Hawkins was also named to the All-OVC second-team and All-OVC Newcomer Teams.

JSU's Hunter Hawkins Leads at OVC Men's Golf Championship

Freshman Hunter Hawkins shot the only score under-par to hold a one shot lead after Monday’s opening round of the 2009 Ohio Valley Conference Men’s Golf Championship, played at the par-72, 7,188 yard Fighting Joe Golf Course on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail.

Lawrence Kutner is dead

Last night, I was watching an episode of House called "Simple Explanation". During the episode, Lawrence Kutner, (a member of House's team) was found dead of an apparent suicide. It really wasn't consistent with his character, so I did some checking to see if I could find out more information. Wikipedia to the rescue!

"Kutner is found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his apartment by Thirteen and Foreman in 'Simple Explanation'. Kutner left no reason for his suicide, causing Dr. House to suspect foul play. The show's producers have confirmed that his death was indeed a suicide. Actor Kal Penn, who portrayed Kutner, had accepted a job at the White House as 'a liaison connecting the Obama administration with arts and entertainment groups, as well as with the Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities.'"

Austin City Limits Festival 2009 Lineup

ACL 2009 Lineup
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.italic.gif
* Pearl Jam
* Dave Matthews Band
* Beastie Boys
* Kings of Leon
* Ben Harper and Relentless7
* Thievery Corporation
* John Legend
* The Dead Weather
* The Levon Helm Band
* Ghostland Observatory
* Sonic Youth
* Mos Def
* Toadies
* Flogging Molly
* The B-52s
* Lily Allen
* Citizen Cope
* Arctic Monkeys
* The Decemberists
* Coheed and Cambria
* Andrew Bird
* Girl Talk
* STS9 (Sound Tribe Sector 9)
* Phoenix
* Bassnectar
* Bon Iver
* !!!
* Avett Brothers
* The Airborne Toxic Event
* Medeski, Martin & Wood
* Clutch
* Michael Franti & Spearhead
* Grizzly Bear
* Heartless Bastards
* Passion Pit
* White Lies
* Dan Auerbach
* The Walkmen
* The Scabs
* Reckless Kelly
* DeVotchka
* Blitzen Trapper
* The Virgins
* Here We Go Magic
* Eek-A-Mouse
* K'Naan
* Asleep at the Wheel
* Dr. Dog
* The Raveonettes
* The Knux
* Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears
* State Radio
* Los Amigos Invisibles
* The Felice Brothers
* Federico Aubele
* Raul Malo
* Daniel Johnston
* Poi Dog Pondering
* Brett Dennen
* Rodriguez
* Henry Butler
* Preservation Hall
* Sam Roberts Band
* The Greencards
* Sara Watkins
* Walter "Wolfman" Washington
* David Garza
* John Vanderslice
* Zac Brown Band
* Todd Snider
* School of Seven Bells
* The Dodos
* Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3
* Alberta Cross
* Deer Tick
* Bell X1
* Alela Diane
* The Wood Brothers
* The Parlor Mob
* Rebirth Brass Band
* Marva Wright
* Terri Hendrix
* L.A.X.
* Lisa Hannigan
* The Low Anthem
* Sons of Bill
* Suckers
* Sarah Jaffe
* Cotton Jones
* The Henry Clay People
* Papa Mali
* Jypsi
* Vince Mira
* Jonathan Tyler & The Northern Lights
* Mimicking Birds
* Jeffrey Steele
* Jonell Mosser
* Leatherbag
* Keith Gattis
* Damien Horne
* Sarah Siskind
* The Dexateens
* Nelo
* Danny Brooks
* Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
* The Soul Stirrers
* The Durdens
* Palm School Elementary
* The Gospel Silvertones
* Diaconos
* Quinn Sullivan
* Ralph's World
* Q Brothers
* Milkshake
* Telephone Company
* Loose Cannons
* Lunch Money

The Spoetzl Brewery is 100 years old.

Some of you know may not know what the Spoetzl Brewery. Well, it's the home of Shiner Beer, located in Shiner, TX. From their website, a description of 1909.

Recently immigrated Germans and Czechs who have settled in the new town of Shiner bring many of their traditions and tastes with them to the New World. Still yearning for their classic Bavarian brews, they form the Shiner Brewing Association. In a makeshift brewery, the beginning of Shiner Beer makes its debut as Shiner Premium.

2009 SEC Championship Pictures

100_1821, originally uploaded by eschulz.

Last weekend, we went to St Simon island in Georgia to see the 2009 SEC Golf Championship. We had an awesome time and I carried my Kodak camera, Amy carried our Canon A470 and John carried my Canon SD-450. All three of my cameras were used and we took quite a few pics.

Springtime in Alabama

My strawberry breakfast

My strawberry breakfast, originally uploaded by eschulz.

Jazz Night in Oakhurst

We're here for a jazz and wine party in Oakhurst

Woody, is that you?

Woody, is that you?
Originally uploaded by eschulz

I've been trying to capture some woodpecker footage for a while. They were all over the golf course in Tallahassee when we were there a couple of months ago. Then, for the last couple of days, you could hear them on St Simon Island. Amy was able to locate this one and signaled me and I was able to shoot this footage.

Psychology of School Shooters

Psychology of Virginia Tech, Columbine Killers Still Baffles Experts - ABC News: This was an excellent article which answered some questions for me. I didn't really didn't understand the difference between psychotic and psychopathic.

McCurdy ready for SEC Tournament

This weekend, Will is representing Auburn at theSEC Championship. It's a nice article in his hometown paper.

Lights out - Decatur

We were gonna grab some dinner tonight and all of downtown Decatur was without power. It seems like this happened just a week or two ago.

Italy Trip - Hotels

In about a month, we're headed to Italy with Sara and John. I plan to post a number of notes, so that I will have an easy place to find the information. Here are the hotels we are staying in:

Night 1 - Sheraton Golf (Rome)
Night 2 & 3 - Regina Cristina (Isle of Capri)
Night 4 - Grand Hotel or Giotto (Assisi)
Nights 5 & 6 - NH Laguna Palace (Venice)
Nights 7 & 8 - Tettuccio or Minerva Palace (Montecatini)
Nights 9 & 10 - Borromini or Aran Mantegna (Rome)

Happy Easter ...

The Epiphany Choir is rehearsing and they sound awesome.

AT&T Predictions video from 1993

AT&T got some of these right, and some are a tad off the mark...

Khatak Dancers

Khatik Dancers, originally uploaded by eschulz.

Saturday night, we went to see a Khatak dance recital. One of Amy's coworkers participated. It was very interesting and one reason to choose to do this particular dance (besides the important cultural one) is physical fitness.

Decatur Library

Decatur Library, originally uploaded by eschulz.

Saturday, Amy and I went to the Decatur Library and got library cards. It's a nice place. We were parked for lunch and only got 90 minutes of free parking, so we didn't have much time to look around. I think I'll go back sometime this week.

No more VW Rabbit (again)

VW Newsroom: VOLKSWAGEN ANNOUNCES RETURN OF GOLF NAMEPLATE FOR U.S. MARKET

"Volkswagen of America, Inc. welcomes back the Golf nameplate with the arrival of the sixth generation Golf.
“The Golf is an iconic nameplate for the Volkswagen Brand and it is known throughout the world,” said Mark Barnes, COO, Volkswagen of America, Inc. “The Golf is Volkswagen’s best selling global nameplate with more than 26 million units sold in over 120 countries.”
“Making the change back to Golf is an important step in realigning with our global heritage” Barnes added.
The new Golf had its world unveil at the 2008 Paris Motor Show. The sixth generation Golf has been significantly redesigned and demonstrates Volkswagen’s product strategy to refine the brand in all model lines. The Golf will have its U.S. debut at the 2009 New York International Auto Show. The Golf will go on sale in the fall of 2009"

Arc Angels Fly Again

Arc Angels Fly Again:
It's a great day for Austin music fans. One of the best bands from Austin is reuniting (and more importantly) recording a new album!

Arc Angels, the Austin, Texas-based all-star group formed in the wake of Stevie Ray Vaughn's death, are ready to take full flight again.

After playing together periodically during the past seven years, the band plans to release a DVD this year, tour extensively -- including two appearances during this month's South By Southwest music festival and a May run with Eric Clapton in England -- and start work in its first album in 17 years.

Grow Girl Indoor/Outdoor Plant Care

Grow Girl Indoor/Outdoor Plant Care
This is the business of a friend of ours, Marni.  If you live in the Atlanta area and you need plant care, give her a call!

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Best Facebook status yet...

Our friend Kerri is a lawyer and here's her status:

Kerri Smith just got the hiccups at work, excuse me your honor

Deleted TV Shows

Tonight, I deleted Season Passes for the following shows from our Tivo:

• The Knights of Prosperity
• Thank God You're Here
• Planet Earth
• At the Movies With Ebert & Roeper
• Bionic Woman
• My Own Worst Enemy
• Crusoe

I think all of these have been canceled, so there there wasn't any reason to keep them.

Nuts, Candy, Gifts and Fun

Today, Amy and I went to Greene's Fine Foods in Decatur. What a great place to shop for gifts and sweets. I went there to get some pecans for my mother's birthday.

Stupid email

I'm sure that all of you are on a mail list that a friend or family member has to share 'funny' emails. I received this from one of those people today:

At five minutes and six seconds after 4 AM on the 8th of July this year, the time and date will be 04:05:06 07/08/09. This will never happen again

I didn't respond, because I don't like to promote these emails, so I'm responding here:

Actually, that exact point in time will happen again every thousand years. And if you mean the sequential nature of the point in time, that will happen each of the next five years (05:06:07 08/09/10, 06:07:08 09/10/11, 07:08:09 10/11/12, 08:09:10 11/12/13 and 09:10:11 12/13/14)

My laptop

It's a Dell Inspiron 6400 which I bought a couple of years ago. About a year ago, I started putting stickers on it. So, I thought I'd post a picture of it.

Suzi French Connection

Tonight, we went to a fundraiser at Amsterdam Cafe and saw our favorite 70's cover band, Suzi French Connection.

Today's fortune...

It's late in the month and I still have doubts...

Beginning build of new PC

Beginning build of new PC, originally uploaded by eschulz.

This morning, I'm taking advantage of one of my five consecutive days off to build a new PC. If you want the complete parts list, you can see it here.

Seattle Skyline HDR

Seattle Skyline HDR, originally uploaded by macinna.

This is an awesome picture taken by Al Macinnis. (Actually, since it's an HDR picture, it's one he captured and then enhanced). It makes me want to see Seattle even more than I already did.

Checking out Facebook...

I've been saying that I wouldn't sign up for MySpace or Facebook forever. I finally relented and signed up for Facebook. I already have a couple of friends on the network, so I'll see how it goes...

New PC

After being prompted by this article in Computer Shopper, I decided to upgrade my Dell Dimension 2400. I bought it in December of 2003, so that’s really old by PC standards. I decided to purchase most of the products they recommended, as I’ve been out of the BYO (Build Your Own) market for a few years.

I’m really just replacing my desktop with this PC, but I will use the existing drives and other accessories from the Dimension. So, here are the parts that I purchase (all ordered via Newegg.com)

Case: Cooler Master Elite RC-330
Power Supply: Thermal Master TM-350-PMSR
Motherboard: Asus M2N68AM
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200
RAM: A-DATA 2GB DDR2 SDRAM

They also added a hard drive and a memory card reader, which I didn’t need. I do need to add a number of IDE devices to the PC and this motherboard only has one IDE controller, so that’s two devices and I have two optical drives to add to the system. I also need to add 3-4 IDE hard drives, so I ordered the SYBA SD-ATA133I PCI IDE Ultra Controller Card, which adds two more IDE channels. My boot drive will be an 80GB 2.5” SATA drive that came in my Inspiron 6400 laptop when I bought it in December of 2006.

I will be using MythBuntu as the operating system (at least initially). Not a bad deal for $200.

A joke?

A friend of mine sent this to me the other day...

Yesterday I was at my local Walmart buying a large bag of Purina dog chow for our loyal pet Bear the Wonder Dog, and was in the checkout line when a woman behind me asked if I had a dog.

What did she think I had, an elephant? So since I'm retired and have little to do, on impulse I told her that no, I didn't have a dog, I was starting the Purina Diet again. I added that I probably shouldn't, because I ended up in the hospital last time, but that I'd lost 50 pounds before I awakened in an intensive care ward with tubes coming out of most of my orifices and IVs in both arms.

I told her that it was essentially a perfect diet and that the way that it works is to load your pants pockets with Purina nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry. The food is nutritionally complete so it works well and I was going to try it again. (I have to mention here that practically everyone in line was now enthralled with my story.)

Horrified, she asked if I ended up in intensive care because the dog food poisoned me. I told her no, I stepped off a curb to sniff an Irish Setter's butt and a car hit us both. I thought the guy behind her was going to have a heart attack he was laughing so hard.

Walmart won't let me shop there anymore.

Better watch what you ask retired people. They have all the time in the
world to think of crazy things to say. F

Welcome Gail to the Blogosphere

Please check out my friend Gail's blog, "Sagna". The URL is http://gail-sagna.blogspot.com/. If you look closely, you may find a wedding picture or two...

Virtualization and AMD

AMD has some resources on their website (Virtualization and AMD) regarding virtualization. You can even download a copy of “Virtualization for Dummies” (PDF, 1.58MB).

Take a Tip. Share a Tip - Google Tip Jar

Google is trying to help you save money in this economy. Check out their Tip Jar. Here's what they say about it.

After months of hearing about economic difficulties, a few of us were wondering how Google could help. We realized there were a lot of tips that could help people save money scattered across the web. Why not use Google Moderator to collect and rank them all according to community feedback? And so Tip Jar was born: a list of money-saving tips for users to vote on, and even add to. We hope you like it, and find the tips useful.

Maybe Dilbert has a Samsung Omnia

Make your own waffle!

This was our third breakfast at Comfort Suites, but the first time I tried the waffle station. Two minutes to an (almost ) perfect waffle.

Panorama of the 8th hole

Taken at Golden Eagle Country Club. Day 2.

Barnacle Bill's

Tonight, Amy, Susan, Terry and I went to Barnacle Bill's in Tallahassee. The food was awesome. This was my plate, the Steamed Seafood platter.

Teeing off on 5 - Day one

Will is even after 4.

From snow to glow...

This morning we're in Tallahassee, Florida to attend 2009 Seminole Intercollegiate Men's Golf Tournament. It's being hosted by Florida State (obviously) and will be hosted at Golden Eagle Country Club, Tallahassee, Fla.

The following teams are playing: Alabama Birmingham, Arkansas, Auburn, Boston College, College of Charleston, Florida State, Maryland, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, Virginia, Western Carolina. It's being hosted by Florida State (obviously) and will be hosted at Golden Eagle Country Club, Tallahassee, Fla.

Will tees off today at 8:30. Live scoring by Golfstat can be followed on golfstatresults.com.

Two days later...

It rained on Sunday. I drove 30 miles on Monday. I took this picture on Tuesday morning. All of the ice fell off within a minute or two. Living in Texas never prepared me for this.

Snow Day

Snow Day, originally uploaded by eschulz.

Today, it's been snowing in Decatur for 6 hours or so and it's been a treat. We haven't left the house once.

Rethinking the lifetime ban….

Circuit City is kaput. Fry’s is 30 minutes away. Microcenter is 30 minutes away (although it’s only 10 minutes from work). The other night I was trying to get a video off of my camcorder and it wouldn’t play. All indications were that I needed a head cleaner. A Mini-DV head cleaner…

I was also in a time crunch and Best Buy is 10 minutes from the house, so I went there. I found exactly what I needed at a fair price. Someone asked if they could help me. The checkout was painless.

I am lifting the lifetime ban. I still prefer MicroCenter and Fry’s, but for the first time in years, I had a pleasant experience at a Best Buy…

Mobile Manager for Netflix

Mobile Manager for Netflix is a cool application from Microsoft. It allows you to manage your Netflix queues from a Windows Mobile device. You can even preview the movie directly on your device.

If you like the movies, it's time to celebrate!

Windows Mobile now offers a mobile application for Netflix. The new Netflix application for Windows Mobile phones makes it simple to manage your Netflix experience from a mobile device. You can search the entire Netflix library for your next film, get complete movie details, and even manage your DVD queue. Easily update your queue by moving films up, moving films down, or removing films from your queue.

A feature exclusive to Windows Mobile is the ability to play previews right on your Windows Mobile device. After watching a preview, you can then add the movie to your Instant Queue so you can instantly watch the movie on your Xbox 360.

Managing a Netflix account while mobile has never been easier, thanks to Mobile Manager for Netflix and a Windows Mobile phone.

Scribefire Blog Editor

ScribeFire - Blog Editor 
Usually, when I want to blog about a particular website, I use the Google Toolbar and use the Send to Blogger function.   It's been servicable, but I saw this article that suggested that Scribefire was a great way to blog from Firefox. 

It does have a more robust editor than the Google Toolbar supports.

AMC Best Picture Showcase - Year 3

Today, for the third year in a row, we are going to the AMC Best Picture showcase. Here's how they describe it:

See all five Best Picture nominees for just $30! On the day of the event, with the collectible pass you can come and go as you please.

Five nominated films.
Free large popcorn.
Unlimited refills all day.
Collectible pass.

The following are the movies and times. We plan to get there just after 10:00am and scope out a good spot (since we're there all day, you need to get the right spot).

• Milk 10:30 a.m.
• The Reader 1:05 p.m.
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 3:45 p.m.
• Slumdog Millionaire 7:15 p.m.
• Frost/Nixon 9:45 p.m.

Here are the links to the 2007 & 2008 events.

Boredom squared

A bag of pretzels, two minutes and a camera...

Pozolé

Tonight, we are celebrating Amy's birthday with 11 of our closest friends.

Oakhurst Wine Crawl

We got our advance tickets tonight! Let us know if you're gonna be in the neighborhood!

Oakhurst Neighborhood Association: "February 28th 4PM to 7PM
This year's event will feature wines from around the world while exploring all the businesses in the neighborhood. We will once again have over 20 participating businesses and expect to sell out quickly. Advance tickets are now available in Oakhurst at one of these locations: Steinbecks, Kavarna Coffee, and Universal Joint for $20 The day of the event the remaining glasses will be available for $25 Please bring Photo ID to pick up glasses.

Sherina Clough
Oakhurst Neighborhood Association"

Remember The Milk

I just signed up with a free service for tracking tasks. It looks pretty cool.

Remember The Milk - About: "Managing tasks is generally not a fun way to spend your time. We created Remember The Milk so that you no longer have to write your to-do lists on sticky notes, whiteboards, random scraps of paper, or the back of your hand. Remember The Milk makes managing tasks an enjoyable experience.

We began work on Remember The Milk in August 2004. What started as a simple idea soon became a huge web application with every feature imaginable (there's a reason why this took more than a year to finish!). We launched in October 2005. Remember The Milk now has more than one million registered users."

Atlanta Beer Bars Among Best in Country | Food and More with John Kessler

A couple of these are favorites and the comments below the article mention several other local favorites... Atlanta Beer Bars Among Best in Country | Food and More with John Kessler: "Atlanta Beer Bars Among Best in America"

Welcome to Leon’s Full Service

The guys from Brickstore Pub are opening a new gastropub and they are auctioning off their first pint. Right now, the auction is at $1375. They are giving the proceeds to to the Trackside Tavern/Fifth Earl Employee Fund.

Pub's first beer (now $823) poured for a good cause | ajc.com