ktownlowdown.com

Bagging the dog poo - a useful tip

SVD — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:36:09 +0000

Sure. It’s not the most delightful subject in the world, but someone has to get it out….bad choice of words.

Dog poo. It’s everywhere…in your yard, in your favorite park, on your favorite beach, and maybe in your closet.

What are you supposed to do with it? Etiquette says that you are supposed to take this poo…a “green product”…and pick it up with a plastic bag and dispose of it in a proper trash recipticle. Now this never made much sense to me…take something that is probably the most biodegradable substance know to man, wrap in a a non-biodegradable substance and throw it away…where it takes up space in a landfill. That doesn’t sound that “green” to me, but until the environmentalists start the “Stop the Poo in the Landfill” campaign, I guess I’ll just do what is right.

This brings me to the “Tip for Dog Poo”. If you’re like me and you are tasked with the wonderful job of taking the dog (in this case a 100 pound chocolate lab) out for his morning and evening crap-fest, then you are faced with the unfortunate job of disposing of the poo. So twice a day the choice is plastic or…plastic. The plastic I am talking about here is one of the greatest inventions of my lifetime…the plastic grocery bag.

In our home, I usually have one of two choices for the poo containment vessel…the Kroger bag or the Target bag. Now I have no scientific data to back this up, but given the above choices…always go with the Target bag. The plastic is thicker and the bag itself is better reinforced at the bottom (especially the corners)…and the most important factor is the lack of small holes in the bag. And by the photo to the right…the California Target bags actually suggest you use them for dipsoing of the doo poo….see #2.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am in no way knocking the Kroger bag, but let’s face it, you don’t want to risk a blow out from the thin plastic construction or find there is a hole in the bag when it’s too late. Always go with the Target bag. Another advantage of the Target bag is the quite identifiable logo. If you’re going to carry a bag of poo through the neighborhood, you want to look stylish.

So there go. My Tip for disposing of the dog poo…always go with the Target bag. Kroger bags work good in an emergency, but why risk it?

PS…If I had my choice I would use a Zip -Lock freezer bag…but given the though economic times, I just can’t afford it.

PSS…By the way…the Kroger bag is quite useful for dispoing of the mountain of poo filled diapers that KTOWN produces every year. But tips for handling that crap-topia is another matter all together.

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Twitter - get on board

SVD — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 18:34:13 +0000

TWITTER. You’ve heard of it. If you haven’t, where have you been? And why aren’t you using it? It’s free, it’s easy and it’s becoming a new tool for research for many products and companies you’re probably familiar with.

So what is it? From Wikipedia…

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service, that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length. Updates are displayed on the user’s profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. The sender can restrict delivery to those in his or her circle of friends (delivery to everyone being the default). Users can receive updates via the Twitter website, SMS, RSS, email or through an application such as Tweetie, TwitterFon, Twitterrific, Feedalizr or Facebook. For SMS, four gateway numbers are currently available: short codes for the United States, Canada, and India, as well as a United Kingdom-based number for international use. Several third parties offer posting and receiving updates via email. Twitter had by one measure over 3 million accounts[1] and by another, well over 5 million visitors in September 2008 which was a fivefold increase in a month.

In case that doesn’t make sense…Answer the question…What are you doing?

Why?…well…the simple answer is to stay connected. To whom or to what is up to you.

Here’s an example of how the KTOWN crew is using TWITTER…

When I write a post here, I use the Twitter Updater plugin to post it to my Twitter account…which in turns updates my Facebook page. That’s a very easy way to let everyone know that I have posted soemthing profound…or idiotic.

I have linked my Remember the Milk (RTM) account with my Twitter account to send me reminders of things on my To Do List. I can also post from my Twitter account to RTM. This is very handy.

Ok…so it sounds good useful but is it practical? Sure. As my “Followers” grow with the people I am “Following”, I have access to people much more in-touch and smarter than me. For example, I needed some help finding an open source (free) Project Management software to help run my consulting firm. I asked the question “Anyone know of a good open source Project Management software that is like MS Project?”…and within minuets I had several replies….by the way I use Workbench now. (Thanks LRKNIGHT).

Here are some fellow TWITS that are much smarter than me…

@gavinbaker

@sadcox…his blog

@alexlavidge…his passion

@jtfloyd…his website

@cparizman

@caustin580

And now Twitter is even being used by companies for research. From TwiTip:

“With millions of Twitterers who mostly are making their tweets public, we are actually building a database of information. Remember that once tweet, those tweets will be archived, probably in multiple places. FriendFeed is an example that immediately comes to my mind.

That could only mean one thing. Twitterers are writing history in real time. As more data become available, and as more people tweet in the future, anyone will be able to fetch historical data from any point of time about any topic.

For instance, forever the 2008 US President election is going to be recorded in Twitter. In the future people would be able to dig into the Twitter accounts of both Barack Obama and John McCain to see the schedules, summaries, opinions, etc. about the campaigns and debates.

A big difference between Twitter and a personal diary is that people are able to interact or witness the interaction live or anytime in the future. Another great thing is, everyone is now able to participate as part of the history and be read by interested people.

If that doesn’t impress you a bit, I don’t know what will…” (author : @hendrylee)

So between the social networking (wave of the future…if not of the present), informational, and research capabilities…tell me again why you aren’t on TWITTER.

And don’t even get me started on using my Blackberry with Twitterberry…let’s just say…the roads are no longer a safe place to be.

CyberMonday - The Best Deals on the Net

SVD — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 03:35:36 +0000

So you’re still bloated from all that turkey, ham, sweet potatoes, and yeast rolls and you completely forgot that you were supposed to head out to your local shopping circus tent and buy all your Christmas gifts. You think, “Well, I’ll just buy most of the stuff I need when I get to work and log-on.”

Welcome to CYBERMONDAY…kind of like Black Friday, but without the fender benders and the stampedes.

And like every quality service provider, KTOWN has complied a list of some of the best places to shop on-line…just make sure you don’t use company time or resources searching for that perfect gift for the in-laws.

CyberMonday.com

And here are links to other sites…try to get some work done today.

HT [Sean Aune: Mashable]

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Thankful for so much

SVD — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 19:39:29 +0000

What a year it has been! And we here at KTOWN are thankful for so much. This year’s Thanksgiving day festivities are already shaping up better than last year’s. But before I head home from the office and probably turn the computer off for a few days (well…maybe just a few hours) I wanted to take time and especially thank our friends.

We are so thinkful for you and what you have done for us…

Our friends have been there to pray for us when The Wife was diagnosed with MS,

Our friends have clothed our children,

Our friends have babysat, dog sat, and house sat,

Our friends provided highlights for The Wife’s hair,

Our friends provided us with laughter,

Our friends ran with us,

Our friends helped us with projects around the SoKno house,

Our friends celebrated birthdays with us,

Our friends blogged about us,

Our friends helped us move,

Our friends helped us get a new stove…see link above,

Our friends hired us, once…twice

Our friends fed us,

And most importantly…

Our friends prayed for us.

It may sound trite, but your prayers are something we covet and we feel so blessed to have. When we sit down at the Thanksgiving table (thankfully not at our house), we will be giving thanks for all of you that we call “FRIENDS.”

May God bless you with all the grace and mercy He has shown through your friendships.

Shrimp on a treadmill

SVD — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:25:48 +0000

As part of my eighth grade science project, I filled coffee mugs with water and varying levels of salt to test the conductivity of salt water. Why this experiment?…you might ask…because it took me five minutes and I had other important things to do like sleep. I received a C and broke two of my dad’s coffee mugs. Pretty successful experiment, if you ask me.

But if had I know I could put a Shrimp on a Treadmill and receive worldwide fame…well hindsight is 20/20.

And somehow this is “serious science”. From MSNBC:

“What those who have been amused by the running shrimp may not know is that they’re actually watching serious science, on issues that could affect us all….[the scientists involved in the experiment] wanted to learn how bacterial infections affected a shrimp’s endurance.”

This spot was featured as one of the stories

“in which the TODAY anchors fanned out across the globe to investigate the strain put by humans on our most precious resource — water.”

Obviously, NBC doesn’t think that “fanning out acroos the globe” puts a strain on the environment. Anything to report THE NEWS.

And yes, water is a precious resource…I guess we’re just lucky it literally falls from the sky.

Sorry dad, I guess I could have saved your coffee mugs and fried up an appitezer when I was done experimenting.

Don’t worry though:

“The shrimp used in the experiments were bred for research and were not taken from the wild.”

As long as they aren’t taking them from the supply that ends up at Red Lobster, than I am ok with it. Oh wait…

Burnett and Scholnick said, ““We plan on building one for lobster…We have one for blue crabs.”

Dang it. Is nothing sacred?

Eight Steps to the Perfect Thanksgiving

SVD — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 19:55:46 +0000

Now that we are in a new house, the KTOWN Crew is excited about starting some holiday traditions. We are planning a tradition for Thansgiving that lasts for years to come.

Here’s our receipe for a great Thanksgiving dinner that is sure to please me and The Wife.

Step 1

Get invited to someone’s house for dinner. (The Wife has mote to do with this step than I do)

Step 2

Bring a 2-liter of favorite cabonated beverage and some ice cream

Step 3

Let someone else do all the cooking.

Step 4

Eat way too much.

Step 5

Put the kids in their jammies about 6pm.

Step 6

Return home and put the kids straight to bed.

Step 7

Stay up late and watch re-runs of Dog The Bounty Hunter and Cops

Step 8

Sleep in. With two small kids…that means about 7:15am.

But for those of you that insist on some other crazy tradition, like cooking your own turkey..then this may help.

And here are some recipes that may help.

Turkey Recipes

here and here and here.

And what to do with the leftovers.