Why I Oughta...

One of the by-products of traveling for work is that you end up alone in a smallish hotel room with nothing to do but surf the web and watch television. If that wasn't bad enough, for me, it's been summer-time television - which means a lot of reruns, reality shows, and filler. Last night I ended up watching part of Last Comic Standing, which is a show that is trying to find the "best" comic in America. (as a side note, they must be looking for the best amateur, right? But...what really is an "amateur comedian"?) Anyway, I think I might have found my new favorite comedian: Lavell Crawford. He made me laugh out loud repeatedly. This morning, one of the first things I did was look up some of his other material on YouTube. It's priceless. I have no idea if he survived last night's show, but if his act was the only consideration, they should hand him the prize right now.

My old stomping grounds, Memorial Stadium in Champaign is getting a major facelift. They're adding new permanent stands to the North Endzone, and updating both the West and East Halls. The addition of a new press box and an assortment of luxury suites will bring the Illini in line with the majority of the schools in the Big Ten stadium-wise. They have trained a webcamera on the Northside construction. I've been checking out the feed everyday. I think if I put this image up here, it'll show what's doing for you live on this blog. If you see little men working, hit refresh and they should have moved! Pretty nifty. (picture taken down) While all the talk recently has been on how tough a place to play our basketball areana, the "House of Paign" or Assembly Hall is, I think Memorial Stadium, when rockin' is a very formidable home. It has classic lines with the columns, and once the horseshoe portion is done (phase 2?) and there is a more direct link wit

There's plenty going on down in Champaign and it's not all football related. First, Yahoo announced that they're expanding to bring an office to campus , then Valleywag reported that the U of I will partner with the Library of Congress to preserve Second Life as a museum artifact. All of it makes sense. It's a great engineering school who's churning out great talent. We need to do everything we can to keep those bright minds here in the state.

I can't stop listening to this song. It's the Strokes from "Top of the Pops". Equation Boy/Man took me to see The Strokes a year or so back at the Aragon Ballroom. I bet they played this one.

Someone, somewhere once wrote/said that The Band played Mavin Gaye's "Don't Do it" like it was their own. There are a few songs that a group or artist plays so well and so convincingly that it somehow/someway becomes "their" song. This is one example. Although some will squabble with this, for me, below is just about the most perfect piece of rock and roll ever created.

I kinda-sorta made the Sun-Times today via Richard Roeper's column . In it, he takes on the Amy Jacobson story and points to some headlines in the blogosphere: I loved all the talk about whether or not it was "newsworthy" for WBBM-Channel 2 to show that videotape of Amy Jacobson, formerly of WMAQ-Channel 5, hanging at Craig Stebic's house. Let's see. A well-known and well-respected reporter who has been covering a high-profile case involving a missing woman and her estranged husband is seen on her day off at the couple's home while the husband is there. She seems comfortable and relaxed as she works the cell phone and watches the kids. Uh, yeah. That's news. That's why the Sun-Times and Tribune had major media columns about the issue on Tuesday. That's why it was Topic No. 1 on the local talk radio dial. That's why it was a story on news stations across the country. Among the headlines from blog-land: "Pool Party!" "The Worst C

Some of the folks who are reading this blog may be startled to find out that I was once an exercise fiend. Yup. I was in a daily routine that included plenty of exercise and a healthy consumption of food. Somewhere in the midst of training for my 3rd marathon, I had a severe flameup of some back issues and that's where I fell off the wagon. Aside from the occassional jog and a 5K here or there, I've followed the doctors order's pretty strictly. When I asked him what I should be doing, he said, "Stop running". So I did. And guess what? My fitness level dropped like a stone. The "el-bees" piled on. I lost my focus. There's plenty of attention on how brides need to/want to/should attempt to get into shape for their weddings, but there isn't a general guide for grooms. We want to look our best, don't we? I think that, knowing Natalie, we'll have those pictures up in our house for a long, long time, so it's in my best interest

The tragic story of the disappearance/killing of Plainfield resident Lisa Stebic took a bizarre twist yesterday. Her husband, who by all accounts is the chief suspect, apparently had some company in the form on NBC5 Reporter Amy Jacobson. That's her on the right with one of my other favorites from NBC 5, Anna Devlantes. ( I sound like Steve Dahl with my " top 5 newsbabes ", don't I ? ) Apparently, "the Jake", as we like to call her, dropped by the Stebic's house in her bikini for a pool party with the accused husband, and brought along her kids. Amy Jacobson, a reporter for WMAQ-Channel 5, is in hot water with her bosses for going swimming on her day off with the estranged husband of a missing Plainfield woman. Dressed in a two-piece swimsuit, Jacobson brought her two young sons, ages 3 and 2, with her Friday when she swam in the backyard pool of Craig Stebic. Lisa Stebic vanished from the southwest suburban home April 30. She and her husband, parent

Natalie and I celebrated the 4th of July up in Coloma Michigan on Paw Paw Lake. It's an (almost) annual tradition that includes a sunset boat ride that leads to 360-degree fireworks. Pretty sweet. Yesterday, on our way to Meijer to pick up some supplies (meat, beer, etc), we saw a new Steve and Barry's store had opened in Benton Harbor. Natalie immediately noted that we NEED to stop there because the new Sarah Jessica Parker line of clothes is only sold there. I told her that we used to have a Steve and Barry's on campus in Champaign and they were the store that sold "Buy one Illini t-shirt, get 2 free". Times had changed, she said. They've apparently expanded their offerings immensly. Their strategy seems to be one of filling up the space of older midsize boxes in commercial areas. Think of the space that JCPenny's would occupy. Or Sears. We pulled in and boy, was I surprised. I'm definitely no clothes horse, as anyone who works with me

As a few others have pointed out, FeedBurner became FreeBurner a few days ago. I'll claim it's because we're patriotic and we're celebrating our country's independence, but it's mostly because we have the ginormous resources of Google behind us that allowed to give up our MyBrand and TotalStats features for free . This is the first of more things to happen as a result of the acquisition. MyBrand is especially important to publishers who want to ensure that they maintain total control of their domain, brand, and name. Freeing it up is the first step. The next step is implementation. It's not simple, but we're here to help. Here's some tips on executing it.