It's Official: I'm In Love with Google

It is likely I blog about Google 7/10 times I sit down to write a blog entry.  Today is no different.

I check or use these services from Google daily:
iGoogle (Similar to MyYahoo)
Blogger (v. Wordpress)
Analytics (Scaled down version of what Adobe paid 1.8 BN dollars for Omniture)
Maps (discovered the 'MyMaps' feature yesterday; better than MSFT & Yahoo! counterparts)
Gmail (and chat client; hotmail sucks, Yahoo slightly better than MSFT)
Sites (Transferring our MyFamily.com information to a better free service)
Picasa (Public and private webhosting, likely not as powerful as Flicker, I don't store many pictures online)
YouTube ('nuff said)
Finance (Yahoo Finance is still better than Google, but Google has some compelling technology in their tools)
Reader (RSS Feed)
Connect (now I don't have to log in to my facebook with my old UVU account from 1999).  Connect must be building an LDAP service in the cloud.)
Google Search: Hands down better than Bing, Yahoo!
Chrome (Much faster than IE 8, more streamlined than Firefox 3.0, however sites native to IE should have a plug-in, please fix this Google...)
Google Earth (How cool is this?  Have you noticed that in some cities Google has the outline/description of where physical buildings are?  i.e. Costco in American Fork, UT?)
Gotta love Google Suggest

I'm slowly adopting:
Google Docs (Very cool collaboration; I can create docs are send a link to people v. clogging up emails with the back and forth edits: target Nextpage/Open Office)
Google Calendar (Easy to share calendar's makes public/private.  Could use some more features still)
Google Translate (Babel fish rival; don't know if that still exists?)
1-800-GOOG-411 (free information and connect v. a per connection fee)
Google Shopping (Have to give credit to Steve for telling me about Amazon.com's 'Wishlist' program; I said "Google has to be doing this as well/already")
Alerts (For when corporate communication just isn't fast enough...; type in a term and have emails sent to you with the activity of the day.  I'm thinking this would be better than paying $5.00 a week for gossip magazines)
Desktop Tool Search (I'm not convinced their client is superior to Microsoft's but perhaps they've remedied this since I stopped using it)

I would like invitations to use/am curious how these will revolutionize different industries:
Google Voice (VOIP, already has AT&T filing lawsuits/claiming the regulations aren't fair)
Google Wave (this technology could put companies like WebEx out of business with a few more features)
Google Health (basically you can create your own EMR; heaven knows where I put all my immunization records from all the willing medical services that have inoculated me over the years.)
Android (Compelling technology has me considering buying a phone based upon the Android OS.  When will Google enter the OS competition)
Google Books (an initiative to catalog the world's books.  Kindle and other eReaders could end up leveraging the work put in by Google if they don't already)

Taking Chance: Honor Veterans this Wednesday!

Last night I watched one of the best shows I have seen in a long time.  I had heard about Taking Chance in some media outlet, but I don't have HBO so I wasn't able to watch it when it aired in February.  Apparently the movie was released to DVD in May, but I had since forgotten about the show until I was perusing Target's movies for sale.  For as much controversy as HBO has been in, they do deserve credit for making this project.

I don't want to ruin the emotion of the movie, but if my recommendations have meaning to anyone, please go watch this movie.  It's about a high-ranking Marine who volunteers to escort a deceased Marine to his hometown in Wyoming.

I am not familiar with the other civil servants (fire, police, etc.) traditions, but I would imagine those who have loved ones on police/fire teams would find this deeply moving.

Remember Veterans Day is Wednesday so thank a hero in the service of this great nation.

Thanks to: Nick Davis, Rudy Davis, Bobby Walsh, Sabrena & Skeet Schmella, Mike Cannon, Michael Cannon, Mike Saenz, Spencer Kerr, Chad Everett, Justin Taylor, Kevin Jensen and the millions of men and women who serve and protect our country and communities everyday!

Google Analytics - Potpourri of Nothing

Thanks to Jason Skowronek I have replaced my tracking tool for my blog with Google Analytics. Yet another way Google is taking over the world...

In unrelated news, the Red Sox are out of the 2009 MLB playoffs, Avocent has been acquired by Emerson Electric, and I'm in the middle of the Q3 Financial Audit. Lots of things going on this week; I need to become more productive. So many things to do, so much time to waste not getting to them.

IMDB Top 250 (as of 22 September 2009) - 83/250

Top 250 Spreadsheet
Thanks to my brother (Kraig) for enlightening on how to import from the web in Excel. Seems like I should have known how to do that before. As a result, I can once again officially track the movies I have seen on IMDB's top 250 list. So far I've seen 83/250. I am a little liberal in that if I have seen the movie, but don't remember much about it, I don't mark it as having seen it (i.e. Shawshank, Schindler's List).

Feel free to download the file from the link above and if you feel so inclined, track the movies you've seen.

11 May 2009: 74/250

Sweet Home Alabama!

Short post, hopefully I'll come back and add more. I drove from Lehi, UT to Huntsville, AL last week to begin work at Avocent's corporate office. In honor, I listened to Kid Rock's cover of Sweet Home Alabama (All Summer Long) and hopefully will pick up a little drawl/accent so I don't stick out so much...

Baseball Stadiums Visted & Teams Seen

From June 2007

New goal: See Every Major League Team's Home Stadium (New or Old)

In Chronological Order:

July 22, 23, 24th 1993: (Rockies W 7-6, Rockies L 11-13, Rockies W 9-8)
Colorado Rockies v St. Louis Cardinals (Mile High Stadium, Denver, CO)
- Notable Events: Saw Ozzie Smith play; Saw Andres Galarraga play; got Roberto Mejia's autograph (exactly, who is that guy?!?). Saw 3 games, was part of the major league record for attendance in a season; Galarraga hit HR, Mejia hit home run; Galarraga won batting title in 1993 with .370 BA

August 21, 2002: (Braves W 6-3)
San Diego Padres v. Atlanta Braves (Qualcomm Stadium aka Jack Murphy Stadium, San Diego, CA)
- Notable Events: Saw the Atlanta Braves play; Saw Gary Sheffield hit 2 HR's; John Smoltz Pitch in Relief; Chipper Jones, Andruw Jones, Rafael Furcal played

May 1, 2007: (Red Sox L 4-5)
Boston Red Sox v Oakland Athletics (Fenway Park, Boston, MA)
- Notable Events: Curt Schilling started; Saw Mike Piazza, Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, Jonathan Papelbon and AL Rookie of the Year Dustin Pedroia. Red Sox lost in 10 innings.

August 19, 2007: (Yankees W 9-3)
New York Yankees v Detroit Tigers (Yankee Stadium, New York, NY)
- Notable Events: Saw Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Joba Chamberlain, 2nd to last year of Yankee Stadium.

September 5, 2008: (Braves W 10-5)
Atlanta Braves v Washington Nationals (Turner Field, Atlanta, GA)
-Notable Events: Saw Chipper Jones in his batting title year, Rookie of the Year Candidate Jair Jurrjens winning pitcher

May 30, 2009: (Diamondbacks W 3-2)
Arizona Diamondbacks v Atlanta Braves (Chase Field, Phoenix, AZ)
-Notable Events: 11 inning walk-off single by Eric Byrnes. Chipper Jones pinch-hit (more like pinch-strike out...). Part of Mark Reynolds 40+ HR season

September 15, 2009: (Cardinals L 1-2)
St. Louis Cardinals v Florida Marlins (Busch Stadium, St. Louis, MO)
-Notable Events: Saw Albert Pujols go 2 for 3 with a SF; 2nd in Batting Avg to Hanley Ramirez. Dan Uggla hit a 2-run home run. Cy Young candidate Adam Wainwright led the NL with 18 wins, but lost in his bid for 19.

My Favorite Albums (In Progress)

A.F.I - Sing the Sorrow

Cake - Comfort Eagle

U2 - The Joshua Tree

U2 - Achtung Baby

The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus

Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory

Staind - Break the Cycle

Metallica - S&M
Metallica - Black Album

Pearl Jam - Ten (Re-issue)
Pearl Jam - Vs.

Goo Goo Dolls - Dizzy Up the Girl

Lifehouse - No Name Face

Ozzy Osbourne - The Ozzman Cometh

Rise Against - Appeal to Reason

Fedora 10

My latest nerd adventure was to reformat my computer's hard drive and install Linux (Fedora 10). Its a completely different way of running/maintaining a computer than Windows; I can't say I understand what I'm doing, but I've managed to connect to my wireless network and install most of the plug-ins to make my computer work. Now if I can only get the files from my torrent's to play in the audio program...