Blog Archives
What Time Means to Radio Hosts
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You know how it is when listening to terrestrial radio (you still do listen to it, don't you?) - you get in your car, you hear 15 to 20 minutes of annoying commercials, mindless chit-chat, a song you absolutely loathe, and then FINALLY a song you love...30 seconds before you arrive at your destination.
Something similar applies to talk radio shows and hosts. They promise a good segment, a special guest, a juicy topic, an important announcement, an answer to a trivia question that's been bugging the heck out of you, or whatever it may be. They they force you to wait. They string you along, blabbing and droning on and on about something that is about as interesting as a piece of dress shirt cardboard. They unknowingly tease you along while the seconds tick away before you pull in your work parking lot or your driveway...
Review - Scoville Food Institute's Garlic Cayenne, Habanero and Orange Habanero Pepper Sauces
Straight from the Scoville Food Institute company come a trio of blazing beauties which promise to spice up a wide variety of dishes and meals. I'm reviewing the Garlic Cayenne, Habanero, and Orange Habanero sauces.
A Bullet Getting Split by a Razor
This was taken using high speed photography with a 1/10000th second flash exposure. Click the image to view it larger.
Review - Peppadew Mango Salsa with Peppadew Fruit
Made with the Peppadew pepper, a bright red, cherry-tomato-sized, sweet n' spicy fruit originating from South Africa, Peppadew Mango Salsa sounds like it would be a peculiar and promising condiment and topping "on paper", but in my opinion it's mildly disappointing after putting it through its paces in the kitchen.
The World's Largest Model Train Railway
This is amazing. Located in Hamburg, Germany, this model train railroad contains numerous towns, cities, and countryside vistas:
Does CO2 Cause Climate Change? Al Gore and 7 Climate Scientists Debate
Okay, this is technically not a debate, but excerpts from Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" documentary and the scientific rebuttal "The Great Global Warming Swindle". I doubt if Gore will ever do a real face-to-face debate on the subject because he knows he would be eaten alive by those pesky little things called "facts".
Review - Quierras Mas Mexican Relish
!Quierras Mas! Mexican Relish is a blend of chunky vegetables that promise to spice up most ethnic dishes in a way few other toppings or condiments have done before. Does it meet the approval of my taste buds? Is it worthy of a regular pace in my pantry or fridge? Read on to find out...
Reminiscings About Monday Night Metal on KSHE
One of the most influential (and fondest) forces in my "musical upbringing" was the Monday Night Metal show on KSHE 95 in St. Louis. It debuted in 1985 and came on Monday nights (and later Tuesday nights - more on that in a bit) at 10:00 PM, giving us hard-rock-loving devotees a 2-hour-long dose of ass-kicking heavy rock. Since by that time I was a teenager, so I was usually able to listen to most (if not all) of the program week after week.
The AOR-formatted KSHE in the mid-'80s rarely played anything that was truly heavy. Sure, we would get to hear some Led Zeppelin, ZZ Top or Van Halen, but even a Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, or Scorpions song was heard few and far between the usual lighter fare of Sugarloaf, The Moody Blues and Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Heavy metal music was becoming big in the U.S. in '83 and '84, so I assume KSHE developed this radio show to cater to the throngs of new metalheads demanding more airplay of their favorite leather and spandex-clad groups...
Max Koch as Tony Soprano - The Best Impersonation Ever? (NSFW)
Have you ever watched a comedian who is so good at impersonating a celebrity that when you close your eyes, it doesn't sound like someone doing an impression - it actually sounds like the famous person themselves? I've seen a few, such as Rich Little doing Johnny Carson, but comedian Max Koch is downright uncanny. He completely NAILS James Gandolfini's character from The Sopranos. Not only does Koch copy Tony Soprano's voice and phrasing PERFECTLY, and has the dark hair and weight of Gandolfini, but he can duplicate Tony's mannerisms and even his breathing flawlessly. It's absolutely mind-blowing because after watching for a minute or two, you forget you're watching an impressionist and you believe you're watching an episode of The Sopranos.
Even more amazing is that Max Koch does other characters almost as good - Christopher Moltisanti, Silvio Dante, and Uncle Junior are hilariously similar to the real deal.
Please keep in mind that the following videos contain as many f-bombs as an average 53-minute episode of The Sopranos, so this is definitely NSFW (Not Safe For Work) or suitable for younger ears.
I like them all, but here's my favorite:
Max Koch channels TONY SOPRANO, Part VII (NSFW)
Featuring Uncle Junior and Bobby Baccala
Watch more...
Portable Vegetable Garden For Greenies on the Move
Don't have much space in your yard for a vegetable garden? Require something that will actually allow you to move it around from place to place? The Eden Project might be the thing you're looking for. Designed by David Berry, it is a triangular, heavy-duty plastic container with wheels that will allow you to move your peppers, tomatoes, herbs, or whatever else you grow to different locations indoors or outdoors.
Link: http://www.yankodesign.com/2009/03/17/portable-gardens-can-replace-walking-your-dog/
Hot Sauce Cold War Video on The Daily Show
A few years back, Steve Carell did a piece for The Daily Show featuring Dead Heat and Da Bomb hot sauces. Here is Hot Sauce, Cold War:
A big thanks to Hot Sauce Daily for digging this up.
Follow Me on Twitter
If you have a Twitter account, feel free to follow me. I usually tweet about updates to my blog, the latest hot sauces and foods I've tried, and whatever is on my mind at the time. I promise I don't spam...too much.;-) My username is scottroberts.
Also as a reminder, you can subscribe to my RSS feed if you wish to stay up-to-date on my website postings.
5 Ways to Get Usability Testing on the Cheap
One of the the most gregarious errors any web developer can make is not testing his or her website for usability. If your site visitors can't properly navigate and find how to accomplish tasks, how can you expect them to keep coming back?
SitePoint has posted a nifty little article outlining five great ways to get usability testing for free or for low cost: http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2008/11/25/5-ways-to-get-usability-testing-on-the-cheap/. In addition to trying out some of these avenues, don't neglect researching usability websites yourself, such as Jakob Nielsen's useit.com, to get a better understanding of the basic practices of web usability, web design, and user interfaces.
Graphical User Interfaces of the Future
I absolutely love to see people's visions of technology and GUIs of the future, which have included everything from the fifteen year-old "You Will" TV spots from AT&T to Minority Report. It's quasi-science fiction/science fact like this is what inspires today's designers and engineers to create tomorrow's interfaces.
The following are two cool shorts which include nifty "gee-whiz" elements of manipulating computers and the artificial universes inside of them.
World Builder
A man builds a virtual world using holographic tools for the woman he loves:
Microsoft Office Labs Vision 2019 - A Glimpse Ahead
Microsoft envisions fluid and ever-changeable user interfaces we might have ten years from now.
Review - Trappey's Red Devil Cayenne Pepper Sauce
Red Devil is manufactured by Louisiana-based company Trappey's Fine Foods, Inc., who has been producing tabasco chile-based consumables since 1898. I decided to give their signature hot sauce a try, and was pleased to discover a fine condiment worthy of mention alongside of heat kings Tabasco Sauce and Frank's Red Hot.
