Mark's blog
Sporadic posts on a wide variety of topics.
Child air traffic controller at JFK Airport?: FAA investigation
Take Your Child to Work Day gone too far? There are reports this morning that a child was allowed to stand in as an air traffic controller for a JetBlue flight and another flight to Mexico at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. [includeme...
Jeff Garlin’s weight loss, new book
This week, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart had a lineup of a few of our favorite comedians. Monday night started out with Ricky Gervais, which was pretty crazy. Tuesday's guest was Jeff Garlin from HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Wednesday it was Tracy Morgan. All...
How to start a business, for freelance graphic designers
With more people turning to freelance jobs — freelance writing jobs, freelance design jobs, freelance work of all kinds — in the aftermath of the economic crisis, it's helpful to have some solid advice on the topic of how to start a business. How do you write a...
Vegetarian restaurant in Milwaukee burbs: Café Manna
My friend Susan and I spent the day together, we had errands to run in Milwaukee, so I thought today we would check out Café Manna is. Back in December of 2008 I read an article at JS Online, and bookmarked it for future reference. Café Manna is a vegetarian...
Dick Cheney: A record of recklessness
I have mostly ignored Dick Cheney and his torrent of wrongheaded criticism over the last year. Something is obviously broken in the man — namely, any sense of humility that would prompt a rational person to shut his mouth. Reportedly, Cheney criticized the Obama...
Make-ahead pressure cooker beans, baked sweet poatoes
One of the best things that has helped me to keep focused on maintaining a healthier lifestyle is planning. On Sundays, like today, I like prepare a few things ahead of time for the week to come. For example, I used my amazing pressure cooker this morning to make...
David Murdock: Dole Food billionaire on wealth and health
Above is the island of Lanai in Hawaii, seen from Maui. Billionaire David H. Murdock owns 98 percent of it. He also owns Dole Food Company, real estate development company Castle & Cooke, and hundreds of thousands of acres of land in 94 countries around the world....
Alton Brown diet plan: Weight loss through ‘Good Eats’
Here's something we watched while my blog was getting redesigned. It's the Alton Brown diet plan — the January 4 episode of Good Eats, titled "Live and Let Diet." We had noticed, going back to a recent season of Alton Brown's Feasting on Asphalt, that the guy had...
Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred workout DVD
For the past year I have been pretty good about working out daily, and recently pushed it to 6 days a week. I have various DVDs that I use down in the basement. I used to walk 4 to 5 miles outside, but when the weather changes to ice and cold I find it hard to feel...
Website redesign, domain change
Testing, 1, 2, 3. Is this thing on? We've just gone through a domain change. And a website redesign. Between designing other people's websites to help them make more money, and working on this site to make it more effective, I feel like I've been living underground...
Mark Bittman’s gumbo recipe for Super Bowl Sunday
I will be making gumbo for our Super Bowl festivities today. We almost always watch the Super Bowl and usually like to base our menu around a theme. Of course, this year New Orleans plays a big part. That's all good for us, because New Orleans is one of our favorite...
Weight loss website: SparkPeople.com
Most everyone who knows me knows that I have been a Weight Watchers member for the past 7 years. One of the 8 healthy guidelines of Weight Watchers is to keep track of everything that you put into your mouth. Studies have shown that people who have lost weight and...
Start a blog? Here I go!
I have been meaning to start a blog for some time, so here I go. My hope in keeping this blog is to help motivate and inspire others. I will be writing about various topics from time to time, but will focus especially on health and fitness. [includeme...
SilverStripe CMS: WordPress alternative
‘Prayer for Obama’: Psalms 109:8
To appreciate how boneheaded this mistake is, you first have to actually read Psalm 109 and be able to understand it. Ready? Great. Here are the first eleven verses: God whom I praise, do not be silent! Wicked and deceiving words are being said about me, false...
Firefox spell check: Help for Wisconsin’s poor spellers
Perhaps there is poor spelling everywhere, and I'm just more conscious of it in my fellow Wisconsinites. Whatever the reason, it sometimes seems like you can't read a single comment at the Journal Times or the Racine Post or JT...
Turkey brining, how to carve a turkey: Alton Brown
The thought of Thanksgiving dinner coming up and people having to figure out how to carve the bird reminds me of two extremely helpful things: The baseline cutting trick, as demonstrated by Alton Brown in the video above from his Food Network show Good Eats. This...
Web analytics tools: Clicky Web Analytics in real time
Back at the dawn of the Web, it was customary to include a little, odometer-style hit counter on your Web pages to record each pageview. Often, just checking the counter might account for the majority of its total. From there, you would generally move on to monitor...
Halloween costumes: Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein
Happy Halloween to you and yours from Frankenstein's monster and the lovely Bride of Frankenstein! Our Halloween costumes feature the classic Universal Studios Boris Karloff Frankenstein Mask, plus the Monster's Bride Wig, scars and makeup. In assembling the Bride of...
Pomplamoose: Music duo going viral via social media
Early yesterday morning, I heard an interesting On The Media special about the future of the music industry. Long story short, it's floundering. Back then, I had never heard of Pomplamoose. Update: Pomplamoose show Beginning January 18, 2011, a live webcast show --Hey...
Halloween songs: Scary music playlist, spooky tunes
If you're looking to add some Halloween songs to your personal music library, here are a few suggestions. You can download these songs via Amazon.com and enjoy it at an upcoming costume party or hayride, use these scary songs as...
Lungs in transplants came from smokers
At first, I thought this was a Monty Python sketch when I heard this story about lung transplants this morning on the BBC's World Update: BBC News: Smokers' lungs given to patients Of course, as it turns out, it's not funny at all. There's a shortage of organ donors,...
‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’ (Woody Allen movie, 2008)
For a long time, I was a huge fan of Woody Allen's movies. Sleeper cracked me up as a young teen. Annie Hall, Manhattan, and Stardust Memories were masterpieces. So were Hannah and Her Sisters and Crimes and Misdemeanors a little later on. Other films, like Broadway...
WGN-TV shuts out The Museum of Classic Chicago Television
For anyone whose childhood included countless hours of Ray Rayner and His Friends, Bozo's Circus, and Frazier Thomas hosting Garfield Goose and Friends and Family Classics, The Museum of Classic Chicago Television (online at www.FuzzyMemories.TV) has been a gift and a...
Staffordshire, England: Metal detector finds gold treasure
(Photo courtesy of The Staffordshire Hoard website.) When the school year started a few weeks ago, I began hearing a strange beeping sound in the late afternoon. After a couple of days, I finally realized it was coming from some guy over at the school. He has been...
Heart-shaped potato: President Barack Obama with David Letterman
Last night, Amy and I watched President Obama on The Late Show with David Letterman, where he was given a heart-shaped potato by audience member Mary Apple of Independence, Missouri, who brought the same potato to Letterman's show two years ago. Today, upon opening a...
Netflix recommendation prize overlooks established star ratings
The New York Times has news this morning of a winner in the famous movie recommendations race: Netflix Awards $1 Million Prize and Starts a New Contest: The company's challenge, begun in October 2006, was both geeky and formidable: come up with a recommendation...
Time Warner Cable online bill payment still questionable
Back in June, I blogged about a significant flaw in Time Warner Cable's PayXpress bill payment system. Three months later, nothing seems to have been fixed. Long story short, if you make a one-time payment from your checking...
Keith Olbermann, Jon Stewart: Out-crazying Glenn Beck
Keith Olbermann's segments on Glenn Beck's Rockefeller Center lunacy the past two nights have been hysterical. Do not miss these: The clip above is from Thursday night's installment of Countdown with Keith Olbermann on MSNBC. In it, Keith analyzes Glenn Beck's...
Social media how-to guide to using LinkedIn
LinkedIn — the online community centered around business connections and networking — has been getting a lot of attention in the business media over the last year or so. How to use LinkedIn once you join it, though, may not be immediately apparent to everyone. If...