Google Reader vs. Digg...

I've become a pretty heavy user of Google Reader the last few weeks. It's a great tool for people that spend a lot of time on the web and a reading from either an enormous amount of sites or incredibly varied sites. Prior to using Reader, I would visit a dozen or so sites daily, with Digg being the site I used for tagging stories for recall later on. I can honestly say that I have cut my total news reading & browsing time in almost half. Why not more you ask? Well, I've been exploring new things to read a result of living in Google Reader.

As I've been writing more consistently the last few weeks to this site, you may have noticed that I was posting my shared reader stories and my recent Diggs in the right-hand column. As of this morning, I've taken down the Diggs and I'm going to try an experiment this week. I'm going to try using Digg through Google reader. Why? Well, while Digg exposes some great reads, it really is controlled by a select group of 'Diggers', whose submissions always seem to make the front page. I had started to Dabble in the 'Upcoming Stories' section, but there's just too much crap there. What I've now noticed by visiting Google Reader first, is that I've now read most of the news making the front page, before even going to Digg.

Does this mean I'm going to stop visiting Digg? No. The entertainment from the comment system is too good to walk away from right now. One thing that Reader lacks right now is a social aspect, but knowing of Google, it may already be in the works.

I'll report back later on how my experiment goes, but in the meantime, I highly recommend Reader.

How to create a hit sitcom...

I was watching 'The Big Bang Theory' tonight and for the first time, started reading the 'vanity card' that rolls at the end of each episode. In this case it was for Chuck Lorre, who apparently rolls a different one for each episode of his shows. Tonight was number 184. it was the first line that caught my attention though:

Don't fall for a woman who has had sex with one of your rock n'roll heroes.

Anyway, so I start reading through the different vanity cards on the site and then stumble upon this, which is nothing but funny. I won't even try to summarize or pick my favorite funny part of it, as the whole thing's funny. Enjoy!

HOW TO CREATE A HIT SITCOM:
A simple, step-by-step guide to prime time success.

Photos of our children and sharing...

People have asked why I took down my Picasaweb Album. The answer is simple; I just didn't feel comfortable posting pictures for all the world to see. Working in administration for a school district has caused me to hear stories that, as my girls get older, I don't want to hear and I sure as hell don't want to live through. Up until two months ago, I had a very public presence on the internet and because of some family problems, it has taught me to re-think my position on sharing, both with 'family' and strangers. Besides scaling back on how much information I share publicly, the main thing I have done is removed pictures from sites where I have no control over their use. This includes personal sites and sites where others have posted pictures of my children.

Although Google provides a great free service with Picasa(and I use most of them personally & professionally), they don't provide a great access control scheme for locking uninvited people out. However, Flickr does provide different levels of security for albums or streams, and that is where I decided to move to.

The only issue that I have so far is batch uploading. With Picasa, nothing could be easier; tag the photos you want to upload and click one button. Flickr wasn't that great when I first tried them out a few years back, but they have gotten a bit better. As a matter of fact, someone has written a batch uploader that works with Picasa. When Google gets their act together and catches up with Flickr in terms of security, I'll happily jump back. I prefer having the main online services come from one provider.

New York Mets Premium or Poor Gotay?

I was happy to listen to the Mets conference call tonight, regarding the signing of Luis Castillo. Like others have mentioned, the length of the contract causes you to scratch your had though. If you scour the rumor sites like I do, the word on the street was that Castillo was entertaining offers of two years and out of the blue, he signs with the Mets, for four years!

Listening to Boomer & Carton on the way into work this morning, they brought up an interesting point. They were rattling off players that the Mets have signed over the last few years and for all intents and purposes, how they overpaid for them when compared to the market conditions at the time. If I can find the examples he gave, in the interest of posting factually correct information, I'll edit this post and add them later. In my opinion, what they were saying made a lot of sense and it definitely made you wonder.

How is it that the Mets can be in the largest market in baseball, be one of the teams with the highest payroll and still not have the aura about them, where players want to be here. I think that they took significant strides towards getting there by establishing some credibility; bringing in players like Pedro, Beltran, Delgado and Glavine. However, it obviously wasn't enough to attract players without throwing them an extra year on their contract here or there. I know we're not the [insert Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox or the Cardinals], but I'd imagine the chance to play for the Mets, in New York, would be a big enough draw on its own. We've been a competitive team for the last few years and up until 'the collapse', we were doing a great job under Willie.

Anyway, prior to Castillo coming back, a part of me was pulling for Ruben Gotay to get the nod at second base. I'd love to see what the kid could do if given a full-time opportunity. With the signing of Castillo though, we probably won't be the market to see him get his shot.

Yorvit Torrealba?

Why was this ever a possibility?

I'm not quite sure what Omar was thinking with this one and I'm glad that it fell through. Let's hope it's a dead issue now. Paul LoDuca hits better and throws runners out more consistently than Torrealba. So what if he opens his mouth a little bit? God forbid someone speaks up a little bit or has an opinion.

Was he wrong to chastise his teammates for not speaking to reporters? In my opinion, this depends. If the first time he complained about it was in front of the press, he was wrong. If he did it privately first with his teammates then no, he wasn't wrong. Can you really fault him if this is the case? The press does tend to go to him and David Wright all the time. I'm not going to get into what has been discussed to death on the internet, but if the shoe fits.

Come on Omar, let's get Paulie back in uniform. Now that he's your third choice, it's probably going to be a bit more difficult, especially since you've probably insulted him now. What other catchers are out there? There's nothing wrong with a platoon of LoDuca and Castro. Our problem has not been catching, defense or offense. It's been pitching! Are you paying attention Omar?

Go give Rivera the fourth year that the Steinbrenners allegedly said no to tonight. That should solidify the pen rather quickly. It's not like you spent the dough on Posada or A-Rod...

Busy week....

Just dropping a quick note here to let everyone know that 'The Crack' has been updated. I had a lot going on this week with work, school and family and was light on the posts since last weekend.

See you there...