Mr Marvelous goes to the planetarium

This past Thursday I accompanied Stephanie's 2nd grade class to the planetarium at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. I babysat chaperoned four students around the museum as they attempted to wreak havoc on everything in sight.

In the shot above, my group of kids were hanging out with Stephanie's group. They figured they could cause more mischief in larger numbers.


(one of the students tried to say my name and came up with Mr Marvelous. Who am I to argue?)

World Series tickets? Nope...just wasted paper

Well the Tribe has done it. Wasted a 3-1 lead in the American League Championship Series. After their complete collapse in games 5 & 6, they pretty much rolled over and died after about 6 innings last night in game 7.

It sucks that they lost, but it sucks even more that Stephanie and I had managed to get tickets to the World Series if Cleveland had made it. Stephanie had signed up for the ticket lottery and was selected. I sat at work this past Wednesday frantically trying to get whatever tickets were left by the time Ticketmaster opened up sales to the public (who had gotten a code from the Indians...or who had bought one of these codes on eBay for $175+).

Games 1 & 2 were completely sold out, but I was able to get tickets to a potential game 6 of the series. Nose bleed seats...but World Series tickets nonetheless.

Could we have sold these tickets and made even more profit than the Hannah Montana tickets?

Unfortunately, now that it's going to be a Rockies v. Red Socks World Series, these Indians tickets aren't worth the paper they're printed on. Maybe next year.

Go Tribe.

About time, Verizon

For those of you who have been heeding my advice and avoiding the Moto Q in favor of a better smartphone on Verizon, looks like VZW is finally going to be releasing some of these long-awaited devices.

And for those of you who jumped ship because you couldn't resist the Jesus Phone, just remember to practice safe phoning.

Navigon Who?

I was just reading latest Fast Company and came across an ad for a new (?) consumer GPS company called Navigon. The ad caught my attention because it showed what they refer to as Reality View instead of the typical 2D or 3D depiction of the map that we're used to from Garmin and Tom Tom.

The Reality View attempts to show you the upcoming road right down to lane lines and guard rails (not to mention cheesy background skylines).

This seems like a really cool concept, but the more I thought about it, it seems like it'd be pretty distracting. For example, in the image above, you are supposed to exit the road to the right. Well the arrow where you're supposed to be going is all the way to the edge of the screen and not something that I would be able to notice at a glance. Is that more easily read and interpreted than a standard 2D or 3D map?

Some of the other features of this GPS really do seem useful, like the included Zagat Guide reviews and free traffic information. Seems like pretty nice features for a $400 GPS.

If you're interested in seeing a demo of this product, check it out here. Watch the demo and then someone please tell me what the heck is up with the "Please Insert SD Card!" screen at the very end.

PMB / Josh Kelley @ HOB

Stephanie and I went to see Pat McGee Band and Josh Kelley last night at the House of Blues. The concert was held in the Cambridge room at the HOB, not the main stage. The Cambridge room is a tiny little venue that probably only holds 300 or so. Stephanie and I got a prime spot in front of the stage for the whole show!



Josh Kelley opened the night and turned out to be the better of the two performances. Pat McGee Band, one of my all-time favorites, doesn't seem to have the same energy that they used to (although this may be in large part due to the recent loss of their drummer, Chris). Josh Kelley, on the other hand, is a great performer and really seemed to have fun with the audience. The keyboardist, Dave Yaden, was having even more fun than Josh - he was either high on something...or just insane.



When Josh Kelley's set was over, a lot of the crowd left. I was surprised that more people weren't there to see PMB...or at least stick around to see if PMB was any good. We kept our front row spot in front of the keyboard stand, now occupied by Jonathan Williams, as PMB began their set.



Near the end of the show, the members of Josh Kelley's band came out and did some jamming with PMB. Dave Yaden sat down with Jonathan at the keys and started playing in his psychedelic style...Jonathan didn't seem to know what to make of him.



Josh Kelley seems to enjoy playing other people's instruments. During his set, he switched spots with his drummer during one song. At the end of the PMB set, Josh was standing at the side of the stage and playing on one of Chardy's bongos. (Note Jonathan laying on the floor of the stage watching)

Overall it was a very fun concert and I'll definitely have to check out more of Josh Kelley's music.

Most pointless software ever....after AOL, of course

I was just checking on my Hannah Montana auction and noticed a post about eBay's new "public Beta" of their eBay Desktop software.

First of all, the concept of a Public Beta is somewhat ridiculous anyway...when did a Beta test become a public event? The whole idea of a Beta release of software is to have a small-ish group of testers evaluate the software BEFORE opening the final release to the public.

But the real reason that I wanted to comment on this new eBay Desktop is that eBay is a WEBSITE! A website that now wants users to download special software to view the same information that you can get already...on their website!

While most companies are trying to move desktop applications ONTO websites, eBay is apparently going in the opposite direction. Can anyone give me any reason at all that a desktop version of eBay would provide any value????

Apparently eBay is subscribing to the AOL school of thought...which apparently is something like "Let's give our users a bloated piece of software that allows them access to the exact same information that they can get already using their web browser." (and yes...the software is indeed bloated: a 15 MB download AND it requires the installation of Adobe AIR as part of the installation)

OK...that's enough ranting for now. Go download the eBay Desktop application so that you can bid up my Hannah Montana tickets even higher!

Turkey X-ing

While driving down Chagrin River Road in Gates Mills this weekend, we had an interesting encounter with the local fauna.

Crossing the road was a flock of wild turkeys! Wild turkeys are native to Ohio but not to the Cleveland area.

The turkeys (probably 8 or 9 of them) moved pretty quickly across the road and into the trees on the opposite side. I was just quick enough to snap a picture with my phone before the last of the birds disappeared from view.

Hannah Who?

After reading about Billy Ray Cirus' daughter who performs as Hannah Montana and her national tour that is selling out arenas in minutes, I was able to snag a couple tickets to her upcoming performance in Cleveland.

So now I'm hoping that these tickets are as hot as the media makes them out to be!

If you know a parent that would like to take their teenage daughter out to a concert, please send them to my eBay listing...because I sure don't want to get stuck with these tickets.