Project 365 – 6/365
Woke up this morning on a Scout Camping trip. Wesley and I made out way over to the lake where he went fishing for the first time. He learned to use the spin caster reel in about 10 minutes and earned himself the fishing pole. we didn;t catch anything but you wouldn’t know that by the smile on his face.
June 5, 2010
Motivation for New Year’s Resolutions
This time of year many of us will make resolutions to improve ourselves. If you are anything like me you’ll probably have a few resolutions to work out more and get in better shape. So I’ve compiled these videos to inspire you for the year ahead and help you achieve your resolutions.
First let’s start with a classic motivational speech. Caution this has very strong language.
Let’s get to work.
You might feel like you are too old for your I offer up this montage!
No you don’t have to belong to some big fancy gym. you can you what you have around you.
Ever feel like you want to give up? Like skipping a day is ok well here’s 40 Inspirational Speeches in Two Minutes.
Now sound off like you’ve got a pair!
SIR Yes SIR …..and Happy New Year!
Best Wine Under $6
When the screened porch was finished my parents came over with two bottles of wine as deck warming presents.
One of those bottles has become my favorite wine of the summer season.
2007 Beringer Muscato
I’m not a huge sweet wine fan. I think Muscadine wines are vile and while zinfindel has very little flavor. But I am in love with this Muscato, we’ve had four bottles since that first one we were given. It has a great fresh flavor with a bit of sweetness. Great for hanging out on the deck with friends after dinner.
And here is the best part of all you can buy it at Walmart for less than $6. It must be catching on because when I picked up two bottles this afternoon there there only three left. Almost every other wine was packed on the shelf with a big hole where this wine is. You should get this wine if you can. You’ll love it.
Kofacts Rating: 
Jack Bauer Should Have Died!
I just finished watching in the last episode of season 7 of 24 and I feel like I’ve been robbed. I am a huge Jack Bauer fan, and I’ve religiously followed 24 from season 2 until this debacle they call a season.
This was the most convoluted, disconnected, and by far the worst season of 24 ever.
Here are my 24 Season 7 Awards:
Worst FBI Agent in the History of Bureau and Worst Jack Babe to Date
Annie Wersching playing Renee Walker – Lauren and I joked through the entire second half of the season “and here comes the worst FBI agent in history!” Blowing it again for Jack and Co.
Worst FBI Agent On Television
Day 7 Jumped the Shark When …
Tony Alameda invites Jack to the reflecting pool to tell him that another attack is going to happen. Except these will be completely unrelated to the events in the first act of the story except both bad guys are from the same African country. OOOOOOO! Watch out for those Sengalans.
Worst Sub Plot …
Chloe O’Brien pitted against the annoying Janeane Garofalo playing the more annoying Janis Gold in a I can top you side by side technology forensic ironchef competition. Where secret ingredient is “Fake Techno Babble Bullshit”! BTW if you are a real fan you know NO ONE can touch Chloe.
Person We Most Wanted to See Die and Were Denied …
Annie Wersching playing Renee Walker – Congratulations on your second award of the night, although technically your first award was “a double” … which is exactly what we needed to believe that someone as brainless as her character could even get through Quantico.
Person We Hated to See Die …
James Morrison as Bill Buchanan his death was completely unnecessary.
I Almost Shot My TV When …
Tony admits to Jack that he had to fake being bad, while he was being good, as he was faking being bad. All to avenge his dead wife. Really, that why you took us on this fly-ridden dung heap of a season. BANG!
The “A Drama Club Student from Brentsville District Could Have Acted Better Than Award” …
Cherry Jones playing President Allison Taylor. Awful … makes we want to puke.
Yeah they tried to pass her off as the President
AWFUL, AWFUL, AWFUL.
If the writers truely loved the character of Jack Bauer they would have let him die instead of potentially having his good name dragged through another pile of crap like this season.
It would have been the honorable thing to do.
Free Software – No Really
I was reading one of my daily idea generators from a social media blog called Mashable, and between some of the great stories it includes I found an advertisement for something called BizSpark.
I’m not sure why, but I clicked through to see what it was and found an absolutely fantastic new service from Microsoft . . . of all people.
Part of a larger Start Up Support program from Microsoft, BizSpark, provides FREE software development software to startups and businesses that earn less than $1 Million a year.
You can get all of this software for free:
Team Suite (VSTS) with MSDN® Premium subscription
- Microsoft Windows Server® (all editions up to and including Enterprise)
- Microsoft SQL Server® (all editions)
- Microsoft Office SharePoint® Portal Server
- Microsoft System Center
- Microsoft BizTalk® Server
- Microsoft Dynamics® CRM (coming soon)
In addition to the core program offering, BizSpark startups will be eligible for other Microsoft offerings, such as:
- Microsoft Azure™ Services Platform
This new program gives startup businesses access to the software they need to build their business. Talk about a Business Stimulus Plan!
It it amazing what you can find on the web. Perhaps not as alluring as a photo of Amanda Peet, but is she giving away software?
Sure she's cute, but can she program?
No she is not! 
Disney’s Photopass a Do Over
The Kovacs clan took a trip to Walt Disney World in January whil the boys were tracked out of school. Before we left we received an offer to pre-purchase a Disney Photopass for $100 before we left. Not really understanding the Photopass system we disregarded the offer providing only slightly more consideration than a Shamwow commercial.
Boy was that a mistake. If I had one thing to do over about our trip I would have planned our meals and park visits a little more closely, but if I had two things to do over I would have pre-purchased that Photopass CD.
First here is how it works, when you get to the park on the first day you will see Disney photographers stationed at key spots throughout the park. Have one of them take your picture and they will give you, for free, a photopass card. Something like this
Sample Photopass Cards
This card contains a 16 character code on the back, which you should take a picture of or write down. (In case you lose the card).
With your card in hand you can roam the park and have your photos captured all over the park, with characters or shows and events. Each time you hand your card to the photographer and they will tag each photo they take with your card’s ID. Then when get home you can visit http://www.disneyphotopass.com enter your card number and all of the photos are available for purchase or download. A download costs $14.95 per picture, but remember that offer we turned down for the $99. That right we could have had ALL of the photos they took for $99 on a CD that they would mail to the house.
In our case we did not catch on to the photopass until too late in our visit. But a visit to the Jedi Training Academy in Disney’s Hollywood Studios resulted in 47 photos of the boys including these:
Padawan Aiden
Padawan Wesley
Wesley Fights Vader
These are much better photos than when I was able to get while I was video tapping the event from a different angle. So when I sat down to order these, they were going to cost me $44 just for these three pictures . . . . so I spent $125 for all of them (on the CD) . . . lesson learned. Next time we will pre-order the photopass CD and use the Bejesus out of the card in the park.
With a fixed price of $99 you can use the heck out of the card and get CD full of memories shot by a professional photographer. If you are planning a trip to Disney do not pass on this valuable offer.
Best Commercials of 2009 Superbowl
Here are what I think were the best commercials of the 2009 Superbowl.
Career Builder – “May Be Time to Get A New Job” Commercial
Doritos – “Crystal Ball” Commercial
Pepsi Max – “I’m Good” Commercial
The only funny Bud commercial came from Bud Light – “Bud Light for Office Meetings”
And a Sentimental Favorite – “G.I. Joe – The Rise of Cobra”
The Chinese Strike A Blow Against Christmas
So my huge project to coming to a close at work and I’m finally ready to celebrate Christmas. So I decided we are really going to go grizwald this year with the lights.
Nothing is better in a recession than a completely gratuitous Christmas lghts display.
So today Wes and I pull out everylight we used last year, both inside and out and drag them all outside. Last year was the first year I very neatly rolled them up on extenstion cord hangers I wouldn’t have to spend half the morning untangling them. Aren’t I smart. Wes and I carefully laid every string on the ground and moved on to testing.
We had 20 strings of lights . . .and two worked! I could not beleive the number of lights that didn’t work so I changed my extension cord thinking something was wrong with the testing rig . . . Nope. The damn Chinese made holiday lights, which I purchase last year, had a 90% failure rate. Un flippin believable.
Wes was, of course, disappointed that we couldn’t decorate any more than one tree.
Wes and the Broken Lights
But like Clark Grizwald I won’t give up. I may kick the crap out of a plastic Santa but I won’t giveup!
Boys . . . . let’s go . . . .we’re going to Walmart!
What are You Thankful for?
Aiden (Age 6) - Food, My Mom and Dad, My Little Baby Brother, and my Large Little Brother, Phones, Computers and the Internet, Trees, and Cars
Wesley (Age 5) – Water, the Earth, Houses, our School, our Mom’s Hugs, Books and Reading, Coats, and our Teachers.
Benjamin (Age 2) (I changed the question to “What do you love?”) – To Eat, Cars, Elmo, and Momma.
And if you couldn’t tell this is what I’m most thankful for:
My Boys
A Wonderful Wife and Mother - Happy 11th Anniversary Sweetie!
My Family and Friends
Happy Thanksgiving!
The Election Part IV – A New Hope – Guest Speaker
This Pre-Election Series Includes:
Part 1 – Acknowledge the Sins of the Press
Part 2 – Obama Tax Plan
Part 3 – Poll Dancing
Because I’m half frozen from taking my kids Trick or Treating, I invited a guest lecturer in for Part Four of our pre election series taking another look at Obama and McCain. This is a facinating video presented by Jedi Master Alfonzo Rachel!
In addition to his latest speech , I present this truely inspiring beatdown of Barack Obama . . .
Well done Master Jedi!
P.S. – Thanks Again Anne for the Great Link! I really should make you a guest contributor to Kofacts!
Don’t Miss The Obama Show Kids!
Remember Kids You Have To Watch With Your Halloween Masks On . . . And Remember The Big Giveaway at 8!
When I heard he was going to be broadcasting on almost all the networks, this was the first thing that popped into my head!
Remember Halloween III?
Darth Wesley
So Wesley tried his Halloween costume on and started to get into character. We rolled video tape and we ended up with this great video:
We’ll add this to Wesley’s Movie Collection. You might have prviously seen this video: Col. Wessup
Happy Halloween!
Paris Hilton Responds to McCain Ad
Paris responds to McCain’s Celebrity Ad and has a plan of her own.
“Loves It”
JibJab Time for Some Campaignin’
Do you remember JibJab? They are back with a new video for the 2008 election, “Time for Some Campaignin”
You may remember one from the 2004 Election called “This Land”
Which was followed quickly by my favorite “Good To Be DC”:
Great Driving Songs
It’s been a while since I dropped your into the Kovacs jukebox to see what’s on the hot list so I thought I’d show you one of my favorite songs right now.
This is a song that you have to listen to while driving with the windows down and the volume turned all the way up. One great driving song. It’s Airbourne – “Running Wild”
In fact I should put together a CD will all the best driving songs . . . what would you recommend? Leave a comment with your vote for what should be on the CD.
Aiden Rides a Two Wheeler!
So today I took Aiden’s training wheels off of the new bike and we went up to the school determined to learn how to ride a two wheeler. Aiden was clearly a little concerned but he jumped at the chance anyway.
We started off having him peddle with me running next two him lightly holding the seat and whispering encouragements to him. Then I let go. Luckily we had brought wes with us so he distracted him a little as they sped down the path. After about 25 yards Aiden looked back and noticed I was gone. He slowed down and stopped.
After turning around we did it again this time after I let go he never stopped even after discovering that I wasn’t holding on anymore.
We are really very proud of him. He loved riding his bike today
I shot some video of him riding as well:
This is very similar to a shot taken of me after I learned to ride in my cousins driveway:
Wes was a big help all day as he played the hare for Aiden to keep up with. Great Job Wes. wesley added that he will learn to ride a two wheeler in September, when his birthday comes around . . . I think he’s looking for a new bike!
Political Beginnings . . . The Wisdom of Children
So last weekend I had all three boys for a few hours and decided that I would go food shopping. I know you think I’m crazy but the boys are pretty good when Dad’s the one holding the leash.
So I after I’ve loaded the groceries and Aiden and Wesley have buckled themselves into their booster seats. I close up the car and dutifully return the cart to the cart corral. I pick up the baby and head back to the van. Just as I am opening the door I hear the tail end of Aiden(6) giving Wesley(4) a lecture on why we fly the flag on Memorial Day. I hear Aiden wrap up by saying ” and that’s why we fly the flag on Memorial Day.” Intrigued I ask Aiden what he was telling Wes about Memorial Day. What follows is the actual conversation that occurred.
He said that he told Wes “We fly the flag on Memorial Day to remember the soldiers who have died.” Wow, I think what an amazing kid and I tell him that’s right. But then he goes on . . . “Daddy why do soldiers die?”
I told Aiden that “our country has soldiers to protect us from people who might want to hurt us, and that it is a very dangerous job. So dangerous that soldiers can die while fighting to protect us and the country. ”
He continued ” Daddy I don’t think we should have any soldiers if that means they will die”.
I asked him, “what would happen if we didn’t have soldiers to protect us, what would happen if an army from somewhere else wanted to hurt us? Without our soldiers there would be no one to protect us and even more people might die.”
Aiden thought quietly for a minute then said, “Daddy we should talk to the Law-ers”.
“Law-ers???” I asked,
“Yes Daddy the people who make laws. We should go talk to the Law-ers”, he said.
“Why?”
“Daddy we should go talk to them to make sure our soldiers have the best guns and tanks . . . . so they will be safe.”
“That’s right buddy we should . . . . .and buddy . . . “
“Yeah Daddy”
“Welcome to the Republican Party”, I said.
Spring Cleaning Your MySpace Page . . The Contest!
Please for the love of God update your Myspace page. It’s spring, update your lay out, your status update, your profile song, your pictures . . .anything.
Do you still have those photos of you at the Halloween Party on your myspace page? It’s time to update them. Your friends care about you, all except for Tom, they want to know what you are doing.
Let’s have a contest. Post a reply showing your original MySpace page and your updated one. Let’s see who can create the most improved MySpace page. Then send this blog to your friends and challenge them!
Kris
Message From Col Wessup
So I’ve had this idea for a while. To recreate famous scences from famous movies but do it with kid actors. So today I actually took a swing at having my son Wes recreate that famous speech by Jack Nicholson, as Col. Jessup, in A Few Good Men!
Here is the text from the original scene:
“Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who’s gonna do it? You? You, Lieutenant Weinberg? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago, and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know — that Santiago’s death, while tragic, probably saved lives; and my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives.”
Here’s Wes be sure to stay through the end I’ve included some other famous movie quotes and bloopers:
It was alot of fun and Wes loved seeing himself on the computer . . Because someone is bound to ask I created the video using Ulead Video Studio and shot the raw footage on a Sony Digital Handycam(DCR-SR40).
Kris
Custom Poker Chips . . What a Great Idea!
I’m shopping for a new poker table and was making the rounds through the online shopping sites when I ran across this unique offerring.
Pokerstarsdirect.com offers custom poker chips. You provide the image and they will add it to casino quality clay chips.
Talk about an awesome gift for that poker playing friend. After I get my new table I may have to ante up for some of these.
http://www.pokerstarsdirect.com/custom-chip-information.html
Have You Videotaped Your Legos Today
One of the greatest things about the internet is it’s abiliy to showcase new and creative things people are doing. Maybe the’ve always done them but have never had a place to post it and share it with the world.
The boys have gotten very into Legos since Christmas so I’ve been enjoying my second tour of this brick built universe. First as a avid builder myself as a child and now as a parent. But as much as I played with Lego’s I never did this:
So Grease isn’t your thing . . . . how about Monty Python:
Maybe a remake of a famous music video:
You can search YouTube for Lego Motion and see hundreds of Lego Motion Videos. A warning . . most are very bad, but some like these are very well done.
Enjoy.
-Kris
Part II: YouTube.com and the Presidential Election
YouTube.com and The Presidential Election Part II
So you will recall our plan to review the number of “channel” views for the major presidential candidates on YouTube.com. Each of the campaigns has a dedicated channel on YouTube where all of their election videos are uploaded and made available to the public. In Part I we established our baseline and now a week later we can see who is gaining momentum from the online video perspecitive.
|
Candidate |
Party |
Views 12/17/2007 |
Views 12/26/2007 |
# Growth |
% Growth |
| Barrack Obama |
D |
11,454,594 |
11,485,494 |
30,900 |
0.27% |
|
Ron Paul |
R |
6,413,367 |
6,487,426 |
74,059 |
1.15% |
|
Hillary Clinton |
D |
1,132,922 |
1,155,400 |
22,478 |
1.98% |
|
Rudy Guiliani |
R |
781,791 |
792,099 |
10,308 |
1.32% |
|
John Edwards |
D |
721,953 |
731,288 |
9,335 |
1.29% |
| John McCain |
R |
541,783 |
549,497 |
7,624 |
1.41% |
| Mike Huckabee |
R |
344,667 |
372,505 |
27,838 |
8.08% |
During the last 9 days it’s clear that both Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee have been gaining momentum on their video channels. Ron Paul had the largest growth in numbers with 74,000+ new views (40% of traffic across all candidates) . But Mike Huckabee had by far the largest percentage of growth with more than 8% of his total views coming in the last 9 days. Much of his growth can be attributed to his “controversial” Christmas commercial where critics saw a “floating cross” in a bookcase. A video which has not been posted, BY THE CAMPAIGN, on YouTube. So lot’s of people came looking but all they got was a lot of standard campaign video offerrings. Nice Move!
Other observations would include the fact that Hillary has the largest % growth among major Democratic candidates with a robust 1.98% growth in the last 9 days, maybe the “Hillary I Know” campaign is getting the message out. While Obama’s numbers lead Demorcrats . . . but he only showed a meager 0.27% growth rate.
Keep tuned to KoFacts.com and we’ll revist their YouTube.com traffic reports just prior to the Iowa Caucus in 8 days.
kris
Merry Christm . . . .ohh is that a Wii?
So I finally got a chance to play with a Wii . . . and it kicked my butt!
The end of the year can be a very stressful time for those in business. Beyond trying to ensure your customers are having a happy holiday season, it’s also when you are trying, sometimes in vain, to close out your projects which are due that year . . . while you are planning for your projects in the next year. Our business is no different, so we decided to throw a luncheon for our staff to say thank you for an incredible year and to take a bit of breather during this hectic time.
Being an IT organization, the organizers also came up with the great idea of setting up a Nintendo Wii and a LCD Projector so the guests could have a little entertainment while they noshed on holiday treats. This was my first experience with a Wii. In the rare instance when I get a chance to play a computer game, I’ll choose a first person shooter or the latest edition of Madden!
First, four of us played the bowling game together and bowled an entire 10 frame game. I was amazed how sensitive the controllers were and how using a little bit of english you could positively, on negatively, affect that roll of the ball.
We all got very into setting up our shots and using a flick of the wrist to add side to side action on each roll. In short is was absolutely addictive. Just like real bowling we were chearing strikes and spares and challenging each other with beer frames. It was a blast. And interestingly enough I scored near my real bowling average, 115.
Next we switched to boxing. Now I love boxing. I’ve been a boxing fan since I was 12 and I would stay up late to watch Mike Tyson obliterate opponents on HBO Boxing. Every boxing game I’ve played up to the point, sucked! So you might say I was going to be a hardsell on this game. Again I was very pleasantly surprised. The controllers gave a pretty good representation of the bobbing and weaving that I was trying to do. There was some latency in the actually punches but overall it was a great experience.
So I boxed three fights, which I won 2, and the hook was sunk. Now I really want to get a Wii . . . .that was until the next morning. I’m sure it was the vigorous punching but the next morning I could barely move my shooulders, triceps, and lats. I felt like I had done the best arm and shoulder work out in years. I was sore for two days . . . . I mean it sincerely . . . I loved it. Imaging a gaming system that is this much fun and provides you the type of work out you’ve needed. I can’t wait till I can convince Lauren that we need to get one of these.
Merry Christmas and if you got one of these from Santa . . call me!
kris
Next Up . . Another Tech Bubble?
As the reminents of the real estate bubble float back down to earth and well intentioned friends discuss the value or harm of freezing interest rates for those who are over extended.
It’s time to turn our attention to the next bubble . . . .could it be tech’s turn again?
Let’s hope not. I’ve gotta sell my Google stock first.
Kris
Hi, My name is Kris Kovacs and welcome to KoFacts my blog about everyday leadership, management, technology, politics, scouting and other fun stuff. I have a diverse background in financial services and information technology so the topics I cover tend to be applicable to business and IT. Thanks for stopping by. Please subscribe to my blog or bookmark it and visit often.
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