I'm filtering out the Bacn

Most of us have a problem with bacn in our email inbox. Spam is easy to deal with. It's always unsolicited emails that we never want. Most email systems (like Gmail) have a great spam filter so that you never have to see it. What about all of those emails that you technically signed up for but you don't always have time to sort through. If you're popular on Facebook or MySpace I'm sure that you get tons of these emails daily. If you signed up for regular newsletters (my favorite is the Snopes update ) they tend to show up at the most inconvenient times. Basically, bacn is email that you want to get around to reading . . . eventually. The term 'bacn' was first coined at PodCamp Pittsburgh 2 last August according to the Wikipedia article. I set up filters on Gmail that allows it to recognize bacn by using the "from" address on the email. I told Gmail to skip the inbox and send it right to the Bacn label. That way it's there for me to read later when I have some free time. Check out the image below to see what I'm talking about. Ah, the sweet sight of an empty inbox . . .

-derekmartin81

Playing With Viddler (and Liking it)

I've seen several video blogging sites in the past year or so. The most recent one that I've been trying out is Viddler. I first heard about it on one of Leo Laporte's Twit netcasts (I forget which one). The big difference with this site is that it allows people to comment directly on the time line of the video. Sometimes it can get annoying because it's like watching Pop-Up Video on VH1. I guess it works out o.k. if the star of the video doesn't use the bottom 10th of the frame for anything important. I have included a video below of our cat Stoli. I normally don't mind being the subject of the video but I'm just real tired looking right now. Go to viddler.com, sign up, leave comments on the video. It'll be fun. [viddler id=bc7b1a9a&h=370&w=437]

I love IKEA and I don't care what pop culture says

Before this past Sunday I have never been to an IKEA. Neither has my wife. We have both seen their website at www.ikea.com. Since we are buying a house and will need lots of stuff to fix it up, we are looking for a mixture of style and low cost. This is what attracted us to IKEA. I don't know about everyone else but there are two things that I have always heard about IKEA from pop culture: 1. You have to put everything together by yourself, which means 2. It's all a bunch of laminated particle board stuff that doesn't hold up well I'm glad that I stopped believing that. We had nothing else to do on Sunday so we took a drive down there. The closest IKEA is in Baltimore (about 1.5 hours away). I have found that you don't just shop for products, you experience the products. We walked around for a few hours and didn't buy anything. We were just pricing out some stuff. We did stop for Swedish Meatballs at the well-placed restaurant in the middle of the store. What we found is that a lot of the stuff is made of laminates and veneers . . . good quality laminates and veneers. We were mainly looking at kitchen cabinets and even the cheap ones would be great if you're on a tight budget. We picked out a style that is somewhere between the cheap basic ones and the high-priced fancy ones. We will be completely gutting the kitchen of our new house and installing all new cabinets, counter tops and appliances. IKEA is definitely the way to go since we are working with a budget. Curious about our house? That's a separate blog located at fixingupourhouse.wordpress.com. -derekmartin81

The best way to spend Valentine's Day

I bet most people hate trying to plan a night out on Valentine's Day. It seems to be the one night each year when every guy in town wants to take his wife (or girlfriend) out for a nice dinner. Think about the other holidays that involve togetherness. Thanksgiving and Christmas are handled at a family member's home for most people. Birthdays don't cause crowded restaurants (with 1 hour waits) because they are throughout the whole year. Valentine's Day can be dined at home if the husband wants to cook. Most husbands, myself included, aren't good enough chefs to deal with that. Guys should never ask their wives to cook on this day. This all leads to endless streams of couples crowding the waiting areas of every restaurant in town. In our area you can't throw a rock without it ricocheting off several major chain restaurants (Applebee's, Ruby Tuesday, Olive Garden, Red Robin, etc.). The bad thing is that none of these places take reservations in advance. My wife and I tried that deal for several years in the past but came up with a better solution this year. I picked up a movie of her choice (Notting Hill) at Blockbuster and then utilized Applebee's "Carside To Go". This allowed me to arrive home at a normal dinnertime with food and a romantic comedy in hand. I highly recommend this to any couple that is just too sick of waiting in line every year for a Valentine's dinner. NOTICE TO GUYS: If it's your first Valentine's with a girl, you better make reservations to a fancy (expensive) restaurant that allows you to call a week in advance. Anything short of that will make you look like a lazy cheapskate.

A new site to watch us fix up our first house

I just started a new site this evening.  It allows people follow us while we fix up our first house.  Settlement is planned for 2 weeks from now but we figured nows the best time to get rolling on the page.  It can be found at http://fixingupourhouse.wordpress.com.

EXTREME Christian Vehicle makes "Impact" in Pennsylvania

Stopping into Rutters to hit up the ATM, I noticed this beauty parked outside:

Well, maybe the lord was looking the other way because he left it there long enough for me to run home and grab the digital camera. Now, to be honest, I only live a minute away. When it comes to church vans, I'm used to seeing the blue van with the white writing on the side. This must be the new thing. Someone figured that if they created this monstrosity they would attract a new type of youth to the church. At any minute I was expecting the "Extreme!" gang from 'Harold and Kumar go to White Castle' to jump in and speed away. They didn't leave any detail untouched. From the alloy rims to the blacked-out grill to the rallye-style lighting to the fire extinguisher inside the windshield. I bet it's got a pep boys muffler too.

Now I do realize that they have every reason to soup up a van in this way. I'm not saying that they shouldn't. I'm not saying that they are doing any wrong unless you consider the spreading of Christian mythology to be wrong. That's another post for another day. I just wonder what it would be like to put decals all over a vehicle like this that say "Impact Atheism". I bet the sheriff in some small town along the bible belt wouldn't see any problem with that. You just may be thrown in county lockup for "hating the lord and savior". www.derekmartin81.com [digg=http://www.digg.com/comedy/EXTREME_Christian_Vehicle_makes_Impact_in_Pennsylvania]

Pownce is another social networking site to try out

Pownce is a social networking site that started launched June 27th of last year. It was initially invite-only but went public this Tuesday, January 22nd. I signed up today so that I may check it out. It has some features that let you link to your profiles on other similar sites. You can post public announcements or private announcements. You can send images and other files to friends. They also have a pro feature ($20/year) that gives you more features. I'm not sure if I will do much with it. The popularity of any of these sites is dependent on your friends. You have to heavily pimp a site like this to your friends in order for it to be effective. I've been active on different sites but I always shut down my profile when it gets too boring or my herd of friends moves on. I've been active on the following sites (in this order): 1. Friendster 2. Xanga 3. LinkedIn 4. MySpace 5. Facebook (haven't closed this one down yet) So ... I guess we'll see how Pownce works out. Click here to check out my profile. Be my friend.   UPDATED 1/29/2009:  Pownce was closed down on December 15, 2008.  I'm currently bouncing around on Twitter and Friendfeed.

Morgan's photo taken at the exact right time

Obviously there is a lot more to say about our dog Morgan than I will type here. I was just going through some pictures and found one that demonstrates just how crazy and energetic she is. Her rear legs are headed one way and her front legs are headed the opposite direction.

Morgan is half Parson [Jack] Russell and half Fox Terrier. You can't tell from this picture but her ears are quite large and her tail is quite curly. She is about 3 1/2 years old in this picture. www.derekmartin81.com [digg=http://www.digg.com/pets_animals/Picture_of_our_dog_taken_at_the_exact_right_time]

How to use a public restroom like a germophobe

Let's face it . . . public restrooms are filthy . . . and you try to stay clean (and disease-free) What follows are in-depth instructions to follow in order to prevent germs in the restroom from coming in contact with your skin. There are many different bathroom visit variations that can exist. This is assuming that you are a guy who needs to perform number one in a restroom that has no automatic amenities (i.e. automatic hand dryer, touch less sink, etc.). If you're a girl you can follow along but be sure to "hover" over that dirty toilet seat. If you need to do number two please wait until you get back home. Some of these steps can be altered or skipped if the fine establishment was nice enough to include any of the aforementioned "automatic" processes. 1. You enter by pushing on the door. BAM! Your hand is already dirty from the other people that touched that door. You didn't see the guy with pink eye walk in 2 minutes ahead of you. 2. You need to wash your hands before spreading the germs to 'other' parts of your body. First, get a bit of paper towel out of the holder. The preferred method is to let it hang there so you don't have to lay it down anywhere. If there are other people at the sinks this may be impossible. 3. Next turn the water on, get lots of soap and scrub your hands thoroughly. Don't turn the water off with your clean hand. That handle is crawling with fecal matter from other people. Grab that bit of paper towel that you have and use it turn off the water. Use that same piece to pull the handle on the paper towel dispenser a few times. This will be your drying piece. 4. Dry off your hands and use it to pull the handle again on the dispenser. This little piece will guard your hand as you open the stall door, close it behind you and latch it. Lay the paper towel on top of handicap rail for use when you are done. Always use the handicap stall as it should be large enough that you don't brush against the walls when moving around. Don't use a urinal. As you pee into it, the splatter of everyone else's pee before you gets all over your legs and 'region'. When you are done with the toilet don't flush. Germs will shoot out of that thing like a geyser (especially if it's one of those jet-powered toilets). 5. Grab the paper towel from the handicap rail and use it to unlatch the door and open it. 6. Walk back over to the sink area and use the paper towel piece to dispense more paper towel. Follow steps 2 and 3 again. When finished use the little piece of paper towel to pull the door open so you can exit the restroom. With a little bit of practice you'll be able to smoothly open the door, prop it with your foot, throw out the paper towel and exit without looking like the maniac that you clearly are. The last step is very important since you can only imagine how dirty that handle is from all of the people that don't wash their hands before opening the door. DISCLAIMER: I am not this crazy about germs in real life. This has become a fun little ritual of mine but it doesn't mean I won't shake someone's hand or grab the handrail on an escalator. I just decided to dream up a list of logical steps for a germophobe to follow. After doing so I realize that I do make several good points. Hmmm. . . makes you think. www.derekmartin81.com

[digg=http://www.digg.com/health/How_to_use_a_public_restroom_like_a_germophobe]

Fear not, I have Carbonite keeping track of my data

I have been listening to a few of the podcasts on the TWIT Network this past year. I can't tell you the number of times I heard Leo Laporte remind everyone to back up their data. He normally recommends Carbonite online backup (because they are a sponsor). I decided that I need to do just that. I did a bit of research and found out that Carbonite is the best bang for the buck when it comes to online backup. $50 per year keeps an automatic backup of your entire hard drive. Some companies charge almost that much (or more) and only give you 20gb of storage. At last check, I have between 60 and 70gb of music, movies, tv shows, documents, etc. backed up securely off-site. The reason for bringing this up is that I used it this week. I got a new hard drive (320gb Western Digital) to add as a secondary drive. I need a way to hold the aforementioned data plus all the new stuff I keep getting. While trying to set it up I ran into some problems and had to format and re-partition my existing drive. The good news is that both drives are up and working and all of my files will be restored over the next few days. So this is straight from a guy that doesn't get paid to endorse anything (although I would like to). I just worry about what would have happened without file backup. www.derekmartin81.com