I like taking a trip every now and then to Barnes and Noble to pick up the most recent Practical Web Design magazine. I then find myself browsing through all of the other techie books that I should really read. I get about 3 or 4 in my hand then add up the prices on those bad boys. It’s usually always over 100 dollars. I mean 100 dollars is a small price to pay to help better your computer hacking skills.. but it’s still 100 dollars. What I have been doing lately is checking out the books I want real quick then once I get home just jump on Amazon. I can find ALL the books I want for half price easily.

Last night I had magazines/books that would have totaled about 130 bucks. I was about 2 minutes from just getting them because I’m extremely impatient like that. Instead I put them back and hopped on Amazon when I got home. Got everything for 50 bucks. The other awesome thing about Amazon, is their shipping. For some reason even if you just get the standard shipping rate, you’ll have your order in about 2 days. It’s pretty sweet buying something on Saturday and it showing up on your doorstep on Monday.. without having to fork over 30 bucks for overnight delivery. Amazon is definitely the way to go.

There are a couple of songs in my iTunes that when come on, just instantly motivate me and get me all jazzed up. Some are from the baseball days, when I’d listen to Death Metal to get myself geared up. I got me thinking of what other types of songs people listen to to get themselves pumped up and excited. For getting ready for a baseball game or beating the snot out of 12 year olds in Call of Duty 4 I listen to either/or:

Three Days Grace - “Animal I have Become”
Slipknot - “Wait and Bleed”
Emarosa - “Utah”
A Day to Remember - “Speak of the Devil”
Tears Don’t Fall - “Bullet for My Valentine”

Slipknot would probably be the best for getting me insanely worked up. I used to listen to that song before every game I pitched in college. I would make sure to be the last one off the bus while I waited back and pulled a mini Dwight Shrute by rocking out to that song. Really any song that has heavy guitar riffs, loud drums, and good intense screaming will get the blood flowing. Later I’ll follow up with a list of songs that calms me down and makes me more productive.

Wow more Xbox hell. This time it’s with my Xbox Live membership and how Xbox has apparently taken me to collections over a Monthly recurring fee of 25 bucks. I had my debit card associated with the account lost/stolen back in May and because I hardly used Xbox Live much anyways, I didn’t even think about changing the billing information once I got my new card.

Fast forward to now, and I go to try and re-instate my account.. they say I owe an outstanding balance of 25 bucks. I’m like sure no problem.. they give me the run around for a good 2 hours. People in India having me call “Billing Accounts” which gets me routed to MSN Broadband support.. then back to Xbox Support to be told again to call “Billing Accounts” at the same number they gave me the first time.. wait for a good 20 minutes before someone picks up AGAIN, to find out it’s MSN Broadband Support ONCE AGAIN! They tell me they can’t help me but would be able to transfer me BACK to XBOX LIVE SUPPORT! I go back to Xbox live.. tell the guy what hell I have been through assures me he can fix the problem then pulls up my info, sees I’ve been all over the place and then says “Yeah looks like your account has been written off..” You’ll need to call.. THE SAME NUMBER! Wow shocker. Says the telephone system must be mixed up and THEN tells me that even if I do pay it, I won’t be able to recover my account back into good standing. What kind of BS is that? Over 25 bucks!? Because I lost my card and didn’t know and you sent one email that I found 8 months after.. without any warning of this being the end all be all of it.. Thanks a lot Xbox Live India Support for your worthless help and Xbox Live for re-affirming your horrible customer service.

Well as any Twins fan would know, as soon as a player reaches all-star status, the team tries to dump them before they actually have to pay them what they are really worth. Once again, they dump a player like Johan Santana and get no established big leaguer in the trade. They had chances to get other players that have already stepped foot on a big league field but they were greedy and thought they could get more. As it turns out, both the Red Sox and Yankees stopped talking with the tools that are the Twins and let the Mets get a steal on Johan. The Twins got 4 minor leagues in return, none that project out to be anything near a Santana.

I’m happy for Santana though. He finally will be on a team that will do something if they are in a race and need another player. The Twins, when they are in need of a player go and grab the best play from the St. Paul Saints or some other washed up big leaguer.. or else trade for more minor leaguers. I’m also happy for Terry Ryan who left the circus that is the Minnesota Twins. I can only imagine what it’s like working for the cheapest billionaire in the game, Carl Pollad. That guy pulls in so much money but for some reason doesn’t want to put anything back into the team and bring another World Series to Minnesota.

Leeks, I think it’s time I start cheering for the D-Rays.. I mean Rays.

So the idiots that are Florida residents passed on Tuesday an amendment that will save the average home owner about $240 on their property taxes and allow them to bring their save the homes cap with them when they move. Talk about unfair systems. If I buy a house right now, I will see not of these benefits. I could end up paying 10,000 in property taxes and my neighbor with the same house could only be paying 2,000 What a world of haves and have nots. This is the biggest load of crap I have ever seen. How out of touch is our government. More correctly, how selfish and out of touch are Florida residents that they think this is a fix. Why not vote the amendment down and make your government actually do something. Oh wait, then you wouldn’t save $240 dollars. My question is, why am I being punished for 1) not buying a home when I was 5, 2) why are people punishing the schools and other social programs for $240 and 3) why do old people get to vote. Seriously, the elderly is this state are so out of touch. They do not have kids so they argue they should not have to pay high property taxes, well you did not put anything into social security when were young compared to what i am putting in, so why am I footing the bill for a system that will no longer exist when I need it. Call me an ageist, but that is a common theme in Florida with the retires. So bravo Florida you really are ahead of the times. I will go rent my apartment now.

So i went with the wife to a George Strait concert last night. Yes I went and I understand that certain individuals will now make fun of me. That person should remember he went to a Brooks and Dunn concert and went with a bunch of buddies and not someone he loves. So there. Anyways, obviously i was bit taken back prior to going. I have not listened to country since I was 12 and working in the hay field with my sister. Oh and the occasional pit parties with red necks. My wife loves George Strait and found tickets so we were off. I must say I had a great time.

I am starting to believe in the power of good music. There is so much crap out there today that it should not be considered music. It was nice to sit back and listen to people that 1. can actually sing, 2. can actually write music, 3. do not sing about bitches, money, shooting people or how crunk they are, 4. did not dance more than sing and 5. degrade a whole generation of individuals without them caring.

Seriously can someone tell me the appeal of this music (Rap). And if you say it is something you can dance to you are an idiot. What has happened to this genre of music I will never know. It used to have purpose and meaning and now it is a complete farce. This is coming from someone that listened to this music from 1996-2001, so you cannot say I am a rock biased individual. Anyways there is my two cents. Oh and watch out for red necks on country concerts they are everywhere.

I think with all of the debates going on and the races starting to heat up, the candidates need to start discussing real issues. Issues like clean code, valid XHTML, usability, and coolness. Each candidate has rather up to date websites, in terms of look and standards. All are filled with ads, flashy galleries, sign-up forms every where, videos from YouTube. For me, my vote is going to come down to who has the cleanest XHTML, great use of standards and usability, because a candidate that cares about their site, cares about the people.

Worst Code
Taking a look underneath the hood of each site, you’ll be able to see just how well these sites are groomed. While all of them are up to date with certain 2.0 trends, there are a few that missed the boat. John McCain takes the Worst Code award. Very disorganized and bloated with inline JavaScript. Sorry but I just can’t look a candidate in the eye and believe what they are saying when they have coding practices like this. Coming in a close second is Mitt Romney. Full inline CSS style sheet just isn’t very 2008.

Most Like a Billboard
The winner of this category goes to Hill-Dawg. This site is piled high with ads or announcements that look like ads. I wonder if she has those tied into Google Adwords and just gets paid by herself for serving them, bold strategy. The rest don’t have a huge amount of advertising and actually cram a lot of content in the correct places.. so points to everyone else cept Hill-Dawg on this one.

Best Logo Design
Obama has by far the best logo of the bunch. It’s intuitive and fitting, really presents him the best. Others have various renditions of the flag or else there’s McCain who just has a standard Photoshop shape of a star as his logo. Minus 5 points for McCain again. I think a lot of thought went into creating Obama’s logo and it definitely shows in the end results. Obama 10 everyone else 2, except McCain who’s sitting at negative 10.

Best Color Scheme
This is a tough one to judge because it’s a little hard to waiver from the red, white, and blue.. but I think Obama shows the best use of a great palette. The vibrant blues and reds show off well with glowing accents and other effects throughout the site. A few others use a rather dull and boring palette, but McCain once again scores at the bottom with his use of heavy black tones. Trust me it’s nothing personal against McCain, I just don’t like him.

Overall Design Concepts
Huckabee’s is probably the most bloggish looking site, but with Chuck Norris on his back I don’t really want to go any further on that one. Guiliani I think, has the best integrated video player. Almost every other candidate went the easy route and just embedded some other video source. Best rotating feature pane goes to Obama, surprise surprise. It flows very well with the rest of the site and doesn’t look like every other rotating pane.

Conclusion
Adding up the points, looks like Obama wins with a score of 124 while the next closest, Ron Paul comes in at 34. This rating system is based solely on the time of day and how many cups of coffee I have had at that time. Other notables are Hill-Dawg with 8 points, and John McCain comes in at -17 points. So looks like based on these issues, which every true American should weigh, Obama is the clear favorite in 2008.

Seriously this may be the greatest device ever. Now I am not a big tech guy. I instead choose to be friends with a guy who is a huge tech guy and I just sit back and reep the external benefits from him purchasing the latest and greatest. I have no idea why this guy is friends with me. Seriously what do I bring to the table. I am now lost when my computer will not work. Anyways, I got the iPhone before he did and he was so disturbed by the idea of my having the new toy before him that he went out and bought one. Yes Brett I know that is the only reason you did. No denying it.

The only reason I got one is because I have the greatest boss in the world. Well since getting it, I cannot put the thing down. Everything you want, it can do. I never understood why someone would need it until I got one. I think if i find the right button it might wipe my butt for me. I will keep you updated. Anyways, if you are thinking of buying an iphone do it. Well worth the money.