Ryan's Blog

Ok, so I've been a bit, um, slacktacious in my blogging efforts. I like to think it's because people started teasing me for being a blog addict. Well there ya go. Eat that. I went a whole month without blogging anything!

But now I have to catch up, and I plan on doing so by talking about a cool technology combo from the folks over at Microsoft. RSS is a cool technology that's been floating around for awhile that lets you get "feeds" of data from websites. You may have seen little RSS or XML buttons on websites. Well, that's what they're for - click them, plaster the link into your favorite RSS aggregator (reader) and you'll get updates whenever anything new happens. Now, your MyMSN page can act as an aggregator - here's a pre-announcement...

Torres Talking: 1.5 million Spaces! My MSN supports RSS!
But even COOLER than that is the fact that the new beta MSN search supports RSS feeds (http://blogs.msdn.com/msnsearch/archive/2005/01/11/351064.aspx). So what does that mean for you, eager reader? It means you can create a search (like "Thai restaurants Seattle", or "your name", or "fun things to do to your little brother with duct tape") and any time there's a new search result, it'll get fed to your aggregator. Pretty neat-o.

See, wasn't that worth coming out of hiding for? No? Well, then maybe the song of the day will be...

Song of the day: The View - Modest Mouse

There was a blog that I promised a few folks I'd write today, but a sad event has caused me to push that off for another day. My basset hound, Snoozer, had to be put to sleep this morning, so I don't really feel like writing about anything else. She was a fantastic pup... I'm really gonna miss that girl.

R.I.P Snoozer 1990-2004

We've all seen the commercials. Remember those cute little frogs that we thought were chirping the name of a certain beer company? Turns out they were just big fans of that great (I suppose that's open to argument) 80's show, Who's The Boss?.

I know this for a fact because, as I was watching the show late last night, I discovered much to my horror that I was not watching Futurama. I also discovered that the producer of the show carried the rather unfortunate moniker of Bud Wiser.

Can you imagine what it must have been like for him growing up? Think of the college frat parties...

Frat boy 1: "Hey did someone pick up Budweiser?"

Frat boy 2: "Yeah, he's in the other room with Cindy."

I could see that causing much confusion for a demographic already known for an inate ability to not have a clue. Then there's the whole issue of how exactly he got the name, because you know that the beverage has been out way longer than our friend the producer has. Can you imagine how the other family members responded?! I picture the conversation going something like this:

Grandma Wiser: "Awwww, he's so cute! What did you name him?"

Mrs. Wiser: "Bud."

Grandma Wiser: "Bud. Bud Wiser? But isn't that a..."

Mrs. Wiser: "Yeah, it was his father's idea."

Of course, there are also certain advantages to the name. I can already think of at least 3 great pick-up lines, but I'll leave those to the imagination since I marked this blog as family friendly. And if he's been working out and wants to show it off, he can always do so by asking "Anyone want a six pack of Bud Wiser?" giving him the perfect opportunity to display those washboard abs. And if nothing else, it earned him a spot on a blog, although he already has his name plastered on the opening credits of a hit TV show, so I suppose this won't be considered his 15 minutes of fame.

But regardless of what you call him, without the guy, we wouldn't have had Who's the Boss? So Mr. Wiser (oooh, also very cool!), wherever you are, I salute you!

Song of the day: New Slang - The Shins

This is totally unrelated to pretty much anything, but I'm slowly learning that that's the point of blogs. Anyway, two of my fish (Jack Dempsy Cichlids if you're curious) laid eggs two weeks ago (yes, technically only one laid the eggs...) and they hatched last weekend. I looked in the tank today and noticed that the little goobers were out and swimming around. So now, for your visual enjoyment, see the attached picture of the new guys!

Cigars for everyone!

Song of the day: Eden - Hooverphonic

Well, I never thought I'd see the day, but I have a blog of my own. As my buddy fnjord put it, "I like new technology, but I don't like blogs. Thus I am torn." So hey, let's give this thing a shot and see what comes of it. If nothing else, I have a new place to put my song of the week... and it gives me a place to rant on about all those strangely amusing things that I notice during the course of a week.

So without further ado, here's a story: I was grocery shopping two days ago, and I ran into a coupon for $0.25 off any purchase of seafood. That's cool, except that it was a mail-in rebate. Last time I checked, stamps cost more than $0.25 (although I couldn't tell you HOW much more than $0.25 they cost since the price seems to change daily.) Anyway, that means that the rebate would actually cause me to LOSE money. Now, I'm not a marketing major, but I still fail to see how that promotion helps ANYONE. Maybe someone out there can enlighten me on this.

Anywho, that's it for the first post. I'm officially a blogger. Try not to hold it against me.

Song of the day: Somewhere a Clock is Ticking - Snow Patrol