Ryan McFarland

New bridge at Sandy Beach Park

Originally uploaded by zieak

On Sunday evening a Boy Scout called me about working on a part of his Eagle Scout project on Monday.  By 11:30 we had the old log bridge cut from the way and cleared from the stream.  By 1:30 he had the beams decked.  Now he’ll finish up by putting in another 75 feet or so of gravel trail.  All the materials for this project were paid for with a Forest Service Resource Advisory Committee grant.  One more bridge will go in at the end of the gravel the scout puts in and then this project will be completed.

Bingo

Originally uploaded by zieak

Cena and I went and played bingo at the Sons of Norway hall tonight. Cena won the first game. Lynsey came and played too. I could have won one of the games but I somehow missed one of the squares. When I say “somehow” I mean “was so dumb i…”

Earlier today i received a text message that simply said…

Your CPNI Address of Record has been changed.¿

The from address was seven digits.

CPNI stands for Customer Proprietary Network Information.  It is the individually recognizable information about your cell phone use including when, how often and how long you call who.  It looks like a FCC rule implemented on the second of April of last year requires that customers be notified of changes to their password, online account, or address of record.

Change to my password?  Change to my online account?  Yes, please inform me if you have to do that for security purposes.  But what exactly is an “address of record” and should i be worried that it is changed?

Your “address of record” is where they send things to you.  So in this case, since Cena and i both received the text i am fairly certain that we only received it because we have signed up for online statements.

I mean that most sincerely and not at all condescending. Really. Sarah is the governor of Alaska and has an extremely high approval rating. Why? She’s ethical. She is sticking to her party’s platform and yet also obeying the law.

A look at Wikipedia informed me that she signed into law state benefits to same sex couples per a state supreme court ruling. Even though she opposes gay marriage. Instead of ranting about rogue judges and trying to shove changes to the Constitution down the publics throat she’s following the law (as currently interpreted by the relevant court) and still able to stick to her ethics.

I’m only bringing this up because I received an email…

Dear Fellow Alaskan,
With just a few days left in the 25th Alaska Legislature, the final
actions taken by lawmakers will have a major impact on Alaska and
Alaskans. HB 111, a critical bill which would lower the Business License
Fee, is currently stalled.
The Alaska economy is blessed by people with an entrepreneurial spirit.
Business leaders provide new ideas and develop innovative products and
services. By investing in their businesses, small firm owners make a
major contribution to our economy.
The original version of HB111 that I proposed would have returned the
business license fee, which was increased to $100 under the former
administration, to $25. The fee increase has caused a hardship for those
who are helping grow our economy, especially people who operate
home-based and part-time businesses.
The House Finance Committee amended the bill to set the fee at $50 and
it sailed through the House because it makes good business sense. HB 111
is currently stalled in the Senate Finance Committee. I urge you to
contact your senator TODAY and let him or her know that HB111 is good
for Alaskans, who should not be penalized for stimulating economic
growth.

Until next time,
Governor Sarah Palin

I sure am one of those entrepreneurs.  With the web stuff, djing, and bike shop stuff i’m kicking in sales tax to the city.  And the Feds enjoy my increased income in taxes also.

It honestly stung a bit when the business license fee went from $50 to $200 for two years under the previous governor (who was also a Republican).

I’m not a member of any political party but she’s one more Conservative that will have my vote next time around.

Photo via Wikimedia but by me!

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10. RealRank: 608 (improved 26)

My site’s page strength took a jump this week.  Once i looked at the reason i had to take a screen capture and show where the error is coming from…

I’m positive that there are not 2.76 million educational websites linking to zieak.com.

Flickr announced that you can now upload videos up to 90 seconds long if you’re a pro member. I thought I’d give some brief impressions comparing the Flickr video service to YouTube. Here’s a video i uploaded to Youtube a while ago…

I like that on myspace you can see a list of the sites that link to your video. Another nice feature is the number of views your video has.

And I just uploaded the video to Flickr. It gives you a progress bar while the video uploads so you know how long you’ll be waiting. After the upload and processing you can then embed the video…

I really like that there isn’t a Flickr ad on the corner of my video like YouTube has. I also love the way the status bar fades in and out depending on the cursor presence.  You also can easily watch the video full screen.

At the end of the Flickr video it provides a link to my profile, option to comment and even a share this icon. Finally, next to the link to my Flickr profile is a text link to Flickr.

I foresee switching all my videos over… now…which one’s default code validates better with my doc type?YouTube has 6 markup errors and Flickr has 4.

April Fool’s Day prank on Mike

Originally uploaded by zieak

A few weeks ago Mike bought an SUV. Seth called it a “chick car” when he saw it. So I bought a few bumper stickers at Trading Union and wiped enough dust off his bumper that they would stick but still come off easily.

When do we get spring?

Originally uploaded by zieak

I woke this morning to a few inches of snow on the ground. It’s still coming down. But there are crocus in bloom!

Palm is running a “best, worst, and funniest pick-up line” contest. According to the official rules you can get multiple entries by logging in often. The grand prize is a trip to Vegas for six people. There are three Caribbean cruises for two. And every day they are giving away a Palm Centro. The contest closes on May 17th.

Tranform Your Home (a Renuzit product) is running a contest that one lucky winner will receive a $20,000 home makeover. I spent a bit of my free time the week in DC watching HGTV and you’re all well aware of the home improvement projects that Cena and I have been taking on. Having twenty thousand dollars to work with would go a long way. It looks like you have to submit a video (under 2 minutes long) or a photo and text (less than 250 words) to the site (Be sure to follow the official rules.) to enter. The contest ends June 8th, 2008.

If i were to win $20,000 for a major remodel i would probably work on the boiler room’s transformation to a bathroom. I can’t find in the official rules what kind of a makeover the house gets. Are we just talking about paint and decorations? Is this s furniture update? Or is this a tear down the walls and reconfigure a room kind of a project? In the rules it says “If Tanya Memme is unavailable for home makeover consultation, no substitution or compensation will be awarded.” Ugh. So you could be the grand prize winner and actually get nothing if she can’t fit it into her schedule? And who is Tanya Memme? There is a second prize of $3,000 and third of $2,000. With just two or three thousand dollars i could make a big impact on my plans for that bathroom.