Blog Moved ... For Now

I have signed up for the new Blogger Beta. So...for now, all new posts will be to the new beta blog located at:

http://benhinc.blogspot.com/

Eventually I will be able to merge the two blogs (so Blogger tells me). I hope so...I want to keep my post streak going.

Abbie's Latest

I've posted pictures of Abbie's latest crazy toy in my Picasa Web Albums gallery. It's called the "Kitten Mitten" and it's pretty crazy looking. At first she was afraid of it but no longer. She really seems to like it, and best of all it really freaks out my mom. The best $10 I ever spent (on Abbie!).

Click here to see the pictures or click here to see my entire Picasa Web Albums gallery.

Widgetize me, baby!

Using Opera 9? No? Well you should be. It's only the best browser in the world. And now it's even better because it has Widgets. Widgets are nifty little things that live on your desktop, independent of the browser but still connected to it. See Google Gadgets or Yahoo Widgets if you still don't know what I'm talking about.

So anyway, if you are one of the lucky, intelligent ones that uses Opera 9, you can now "widgetize" my blog. Just click the button below and you'll see what I mean.

I've also added a smaller "Opera Widgetize" button to my sidebar for when this post gets buried (although that does take a while, doesn't it).

Also of note: you can "widgetize" any feed you want. Just go to widgets.opera.com/widgetize and mess around a bit. You're likely to leave slightly impressed, as I did. Only drawback: the only kind of widget you can "generate" right now is a feed reader widget. I expect more types to be added soon - the possibilities are endless!

Gcal on Gpages

Oh yeah, gotta love Google. My life, in calendar form, is now available on my Google Pages homepage (located at http://ben.hinc.googlepages.com/). Just scroll down to the bottom and you see it in the main part of the page.

There's nothing too personal on there so I'm not worried about stalkers or anything. Check it out and see when I'm available, maybe we can get together.

A very Cheap Trick

Tonight (or rather last night) I went to see a free Cheap Trick show at the Festival of the Lakes in Hammond, IN. To be honest, I was a bit skeptical going in but left pleasantly surprised. I had a lot of fun and actually knew more of their songs than I thought I did. In fact, "I Want You To Want Me" has been a song I've wanted to karaoke for a long time. Fun for free is always a good thing and now I can say that I've seen Cheap Trick. For free. Most awesome.

I have cleaning to do. My parents are coming in tomorrow (or later today...?) so last minute scrubbing and sweeping is in order. Accompanying my cleaning is the most awesome Internet 80's station ever: Club 977. Visit http://www.club977.com to listen yourself. I guarantee that if you like 80's tunes you won't be disappointed. Joan Jett is rocking out now and who knows what they'll dig up next.

(As a side note, this is my first post from my panel-mounted blog poster on Ubuntu Linux. Most cool. Hopefully it will work.)

Yeah, Toto just came on!!! Gotta love the 80's channel.

The Hoff

Only the funniest video I have seen in a long time that doesn't have "Juggernaut" in the name. Just watch it.

Blogged with Flock

Flock

This is my first post from Flock. It's a Mozilla Firefox variant that is supposed to make it easy to utilize the new "Web 2.0" services that are out there. Unfortunately the Web 2.0 services that Flock supports are not necessarility the ones I utilize. For some reason Flock seems to be anti-Google which means that instead of Google Web Search it supports Yahoo and instead of Picasa Web Albums it supports Flickr and Photobucket. To me these are serious drawbacks. The only Google service it does support is Blogger, which is probably more due to market share than anything else.

I was a little surprised that when I installed Flock that it didn't automatically recognize all the Firefox plugins I had installed, especially since Flock is basically Firefox with new features added. So, I had to manually copy the plugins from the Firefox folder to the Flock folder.

I'm still playing with Flock features so there isn't much to say about them yet. Maybe soon...

Blogged with Flock

Trying To Be #1

Watch these videos. Both of them. Go to MySpace or Google Video and watch them again. Tell your friends. I'm going to be #1 ... or at least in the Top 100. Thanks for your help and support.




Get this video and more at MySpace.com

Compiling

Yes, you read right. I am up late compiling. I never thought that it would be the case, but it is. See, I have a Linux box now and I'm currently engaged in a crash course of all things command line. I never knew how frustrating it could be ... until now. Other than the compiling problems, the system is running fine. It's a bit slow - Pentium II-450 with 384 MB of RAM - but it seems adequate for what I am doing with it, which mostly consists of messing around and listening to my MP3s while doing it. I managed to mount a Windows share all by myself (after a lot of reading and googling) and even set it up to mount the share during boot. That was exciting. I think I might've clapped. Let's see....

...sorry, back now. Had to stop, had to deal with another error. Who knew I needed libgtk2.0-dev installed? Well, I did. Now I do, so maybe there won't be any more errors.

In other news (and known to most already), I received a promotion at work a few weeks back. I am now the branch manager of both the Crete and Manteno locations of Great Lakes Bank. A modest raise went with the increase in responsibility (and aggravation). And, it looks great on a resume.

And ... to make sure I don't forget, the best non-regular season non-broadcast network show is coming back on for its third season on Sunday. Yes, I'm talking about The 4400. If you've never seen it, I highly recommend. I also recommend you rent (or otherwise obtain) the first two seasons. Season 1 is short - it was originally meant to be a miniseries - and season 2 is of normal length. I'll be watching.

A Glimpse of Me

Here's a sampling of what you'll find at my MySpace:



Also... I have a homepage. It's the only one I have, complete with photo albums, resumes, and links to other places that are cool. Check it out.

Ben's Only Home on the Web

No Longer a "Jeremy" Virgin

You read it right. I am no longer a "Jeremy" virgin. On Tuesday night, May 16, 2006, I was honored to be in Row 2 of Section 102 at the United Center for the first of two Pearl Jam shows at the United Center in Chicago. In addition to "Jeremy," PJ played an awesome set that included about half of Ten (1991) and a little sampling of each of the four subsequent albums - Vs. (1993), Vitalogy (1994), No Code (1996), and Yield (1998). They skipped over the next album - 2000's Binaural - and played one track from 2002's Riot Act, the awesome rocker "Save You." It sound fresh and fast and furious and made me wish that they would've brought out a little more from the "dark" era between Yield and Pearl Jam. Speaking of their latest release, PJ of course performed a number of songs from their self-titled disc. They all sounded great, especially the hard-driving "Comatose" and the opening track "Life Wasted." And there were the requisite off-album tracks such as the excellent "State of Love and Trust" and "I Got Id" as well as some covers, including "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" by the Beatles and "Baba O'Riley" by The Who. The only thing I really hoped to hear was my old college favorite "Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In a Small Town" but I can't be too upset as I've been able to sing along to this one at previous concerts.

Overall, a great experience and PJ can be assured that I will be returning again. Now that I'm a member of the Ten Club, I'll be sure not to let my membership lapse so next time I can get some better seats.

I have already ordered the official digital bootleg of the show. It should be available shortly. Perhaps after I have a few listens I might provide more of a play-by-play of the concert. Of course, now that I've typed that, you know I won't do it.

Here is the complete setlist:

Set 1
Release, World Wide Suicide, Life Wasted, Severed Hand, Comatose, Given To Fly, Low Light, Corduroy, I'm Open, I Got Id, Even Flow, Unemployable, Daughter/(W.M.A.), Present Tense, Do The Evolution, Jeremy, Save You, Porch

Encore 1
You've Got To Hide Your Love Away, Better Man, Come Back, State Of Love And Trust, Black, Alive

Encore 2
Go, Blood/(Atomic Dog), Indifference, Baba O'Riley, Yellow Ledbetter

A Face in the Window ...

Or something else? My sister something odd in one of the photos she took at Manteno State Hospital. Head over to the Friends of MSH site to check it out.