Rose Condon gets a website at http://www.fencetherose.com/.

The organizers gave me a nod for encouraging them to do this. Gosh, thanks.

Here is a new website - www.fencetherose.com . It should be up and running very soon. You can go here to see the latest for 2006. See you all next year!

Thanks to Nicholas Roussos for the little shove. We’ve needed to do this for a long time.

Engadget has a real cool article about Hacking Google Maps.

So, what would I like to see utilize Google Maps? AskFRED.net! AskFred could intergrate (or hack if you will) with Google Maps showing a map of the US and thumbtacsk for each tournament. Click on the thumbtack and get a link for directions, a link to register, and some basic tournament info.

Here’s a mock up that I made:

It could go even further by having different colored thumbtacks for different types of tournament (one weapon, all weapon, etc.) Maybe the letter on the thumbtack could show the classification.

Update: I made a sample/test map. It wasn’t as easy as it looks, but still doable.

Stacey Kite, one of my wife’s favorite artsits finally has a website. Now, I just need to surprise her on a holiday with a gift of one of these pieces, although none of Cindy’s favorite dragon pieces are displayed on the site yet.

I give the site a “so-so” hand shake. It’s not that impressive, doesn’t have its own domain name, and could use more artwork on display. Then again, Cindy has been looking for this artist on the web for so long, I’m just glad to see anything up at all (something is always better than nothing). Plus, you can order prints. I would love to see some originals for sale too. After looking at Stacey’s work again, I’m impressed too; I can see why Cindy likes it so much.

I saw the first episode of The Contender tonight. Wow, I was surprised and impressed. The commercials had made it look all sappy and emotional, as if it was the next in a series of Day of Our Lives specials, but when it got down to it, this was one fun and different show.

Here are some of the things I liked that I thought were different from most reality TV shows:

1. Real, diverse talent - from a boxer ranked 3rd in the world to promising amatuers
2. not setup to cause drama - Unlike Survivor where they costantly are reminded of their missing families, this show actually paid to bring the contestants’ families out to be with them during the show
3. elimination is as fair as it could be - They have a team contest each episode. The winning team gets to choose someone from their team to fight someone from the loosing team. The looser of the fight goes home.

Okay, so this episode (expect a weekly recap), they divided the group up into teams based on where they came from. The teams were called East and West. The team competition was an uphill race that ended at the Hollywood sign. Each team had to collect and carry three logs with them. The second log was tied down, and the third was locked. The combination to the lock was displayed on signs along the course. Team West made a surprising come back when Team East couldn’t remember the combination to their lock.

Team East got to decide who fights who. At first, they had decided to choose the two least experienced fighters from each team, but out of nowhere Alonzo, a virtual unknown volenteers to fight Peter, 21-0 ranked 3rd in the world. Everyone including Sly Stallone is surprised. They go through the motions, press conference, night before preps, pre-fight chatter, and the fight gets on the way. Alonzo surprises Peter and takes the first round. Peter comes back in round two and almost knocks down Alonzo. Round three goes to Alonzo, and round four is a dead heat. Round five (the final round) is in Alonzo’s favor. It’s a surprising victory, but Alonzo out fought his opponent.Next time, there’s a guest appearance from George Foreman.

I have to say Mark Burnell has another winning show on his hands.

Oh, come on! Leave it to George W. to nominate Michael Bolton as ambasador to the UN.

Here’s a quote from Condi Rice’s announcement:

President Bush thinks Mr. Bolton is the right man at the right time for this job. It’d be un-American to question this decision during our war in Iraq.

President Bush told journalist during a press conference:

Lara’s a big fan of Mr. Bolton. I just think if we could get, if he would just break out in song during one of those long, boring meetings, man, that would be powerful. Who wouldn’t want to jump up for our side then.

I’ve decided, since I will soon be living a life of luxury with free stuff and more, I should start my life of luxury with a full body massage.

So, I got one Sunday. The massage was free, of course. It was my first such, and I have to say it was impressive. So, Pentax, if you’re reading this, I haven’t gotten my camera yet. For those of you following my Pentax Free Camera Campaign, I havn’t heard back from them yet, but I plan to follow up if I don’t hear anything soon.

Some aspiring fans of the original made a complete 3D remake of Wing Commander: Privateer. via Slashdot /.

Screenshots

This site is getting bombarded; so it may not come up at first. I might have to download it and give it a try.

This is possibly the most bizarre game I have seen yet. Check out this video of Feel the Magic: XY / XX.

Feel the Magic is a strange game, just look at this description:

Help guide our hero through a series of madcap performances like defending against raging bulls and blowing out giant candles and you may mange to impress the girl.

Feel the Magic: XY / XX is for the Nintendo DS.

I saw Cursed Friday night. I was surprised and would call it Good (4 out of 5), mainly because I had zero expectations.

It had some classic 80’s movie-style moments (almost Lost Boys -esque but not quite as good). I thought Jimmy was a good change back to normal style teen-aged hero’s. You know, the kind where there’s nothing special about them. It wasn’t scary at all, but it was fun. The main thing that kept it from being a Cable Movie was that I had little expectations for it, and it didn’t set it self up too high. It wasn’t about destroying the one ring to save the world; it was just an entertaininig movie that didn’t try to be more than that.

I saw Be Cool last night. I’d call it a Cable Movie (3 out of 5).

From the Uma and Tavolta pair up to Cedric’s russian-killing monologue, so many parts of this movie were a blatant rip-off of Pulp Fiction that just didn’t work that well.

It had its good parts though, the Rock was pretty funny making fun of himself (probably the best part of the movie). It takes a good sense of humor to laugh at yourself like that. Cedric the Entertainer was okay, as was Vince Vaughn. The biggest disappointment was Travolta. His character seemed to only exist to glue together parts of the plot, not a good thing for the main character.

Just to setup my review system here are my levels:

1. Classic - (Pirates of the Caribbean)
2. Good
3. Cable Movie - I’d watch it if it came on cable and I wasn’t doing anything
4. Poor - not that good
5. Disappointment (Return of the King) - a bad movie plus I had expectations for it, as in it should have been good

Okay, blogging has gone to my head. I’ve decided what fun is it to be a blogger if you don’t get free stuff. Now, I bet famous bloggers (like John Battelle) get free stuff all the time, but a small one-time start-up blogger like me, what could I get for free? Well, I thought there was no harm in trying…

I’ve been wanting a digital camera for a while. Actually, I have a HP PhotoSmart 215, but it sucks, and as a result I never use it. Anyway, I want a digital camera, but I don’t want to fork the cash out right now. Why not get one for free?

The one I had been looking at was the Pentax Optio 30 (under $200). It was affordable and seemed to have a good feature set, but why not ask for the top of the line if it’s free right? So, I sent a letter to Pentax asking for the Pentax Optio SV (under $450). We’ll see how this works out, but I think I have at least a 50/50 shot.

Dear Michelle,

I would like to receive a free Pentax Optio SV so that I may write a review on it for my blog, www.nicholasroussos.com.

I am a just another blogger. I am not a famous blogger, nor do I have any traffic statistics or trends to verify the popularity of my blog (my mom and wife seem to enjoy it though). Nothing, really makes me more special than anyone else. However, I do own a Pentax ZX-30 film SLR. So, in a way, I guess you could say that I have a long standing relationship with Pentax.

What’s in it for Pentax? Well, not too much. If you send me a free camera, I will write a lengthy review on it and post it to my blog. Pentax can feel free to use the review in any way they like. So, can anyone else for all I care (in fact, I get flattered when others use my stuff). Since the camera was free, it’s 98.5% guaranteed that it will be a positive review. I’ll take lots of pictures with it too. Many of them will find their way onto my blog.

Mainly, if you think you have a good product, I say stand behind it. If you’re not willing to send me one to review and use, then how can you sell it to anyone?

Thank you for taking the time to read my email,

Nichoals Roussos
*** Address Censored ***
(send the camera to this address)
–
www.nicholasroussos.com

For some reason, I always thought the Internet held a vast potential to get tons of free stuff. It would just be out there for the taking. Well, that hasn’t really panned out. I did get a free iPod, but that was a lot of work. Besides, I practically had to sell my soul to marketers for that one.

I’ll let everyone know how this turns out, but regardless, I’ll probably try again. I hope to hear from Pentax soon and post their comments here.

Suddenly, I want to get another pet. Here’s an interesting news story on how scientist in Siberia are selectively breeding foxes into pets. via Boing Boing

Google has added weather forcasts to its search. Just search for “weatehr city, state”. via Slashdot /.

Here’s the weather for Mobile, AL.

Update: Google’s official blog has an entry on Google Weather. via InsideGoogle. Looks like it was a 20% project. I really like their 20% projects. I wonder how long before that becomes a norm for most corporations.

My unspoken policy towards comments has been to reply to every singal one left. So, now, I want to make that unspoken policy a stated one.

I will try to post a comment in reply to every comment left on this site. So, start leaving tons of comments and keep me plenty busy.