hoping | Croncast - Life is Show Prep

Season 20 Ep 24: Cousin Kris, Painters Cap, Nothing Is Level

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:28:11 -0500

Croncast - 2008-06-16.mp3
Show: #499
Length: 22:52
Size: 15.7mb
Format: mp3

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It is all about the Interwaves
The photo montage of the father's day trip are up
Look in the blog for the story
Soften up the crow's feet
Geez, that bag, what is she 33?
I don't know if Rock of Love is comparative to competitive improv dinner theater
The afternoon jamboree
Much like licking a toilet
"Cousin Kris!"
The first Casey's we stop at
Hey, I know you
No, I didn't know her name instantly
Hoping for it fire into my brain
Turns out to be cousin X
She's of the normal branch
But the odds of that
Not that great
Running into someone buying smokes
I just don't want to get there
I know, Betsy, you were driving 45 in a 75
Never thought we would make it
Creeping ever closer that sucking vortex where you grew up
It is an area of decay
Dilapidated nothingness
If you were a pizza deliver guy you would deliver to houses with siding
The rest are wrapped in Tyvek
It looks like depression
We tried the town route
Elliot is asking why it is abandoned
Yelling why doesn't it look like home
Two taglines
"For Rent"
"Rent to Own"
You wouldn't let me take the best photo
It was the award winning shot
It was beautiful
The transient neighbor
In a wife beater, smoking a cigarrete, talking on his phone in a NASCAR painters cap
And . . . And . . . his white wolf dog on the steps
Nothing is level there
I fell down 77 times
Growing oriental poppies
Couldn't believe it
Save me from this
And you walked away
Everyone walked away to leave me there
The scary compound
The old ass car wasn't as bad
Always had the perspective that there was someplace else I needed to be

Tags: white wolf chevrolet graveyard interwaves abandoned small town

lying in bed staring at the fan

Sat, 31 May 2008 08:00:41 -0500

thinking about how busy we've been and how it is affecting the show in a negative way. hoping that we can get it together this week and get to the five hundreth and talk about what is next.

Tags: together hoping week hundreth talk

good morning bay area

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:42:55 -0500

hoping sunshine makes the westin staff giddy with joy and excellent customer. because when it was cloudy you folks were not so nice.

Tags: excellent joy customer cloudy folks

making progress - alan levy and bob charish

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 13:41:44 -0500

So I have been in Jersey for a couple hours and we are making headway.

Hoping to get some free time to meet with some peeps at night. We'll see.

Tags: making hoping headway free meet

Your Apple TV is up to date - via twitter

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 20:53:04 -0600

I got an itchy trigger finger on Apple remote. Yes, I read it will be 2 more weeks. Hoping sooner.

Tags: apple tv vudu

Google Reader shared feeds getting tweaked

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 19:00:32 -0600

This afternoon I noticed something funny happening with Google Reader shared feeds. It seems that feeds are now mixing namespaces for the main content of the posts.

Previously all content was delivered via the 'summary' namespace but when I did a check after getting some null data fields I took a look at the shared feed and sure enough there was a new namespace, 'content' for the main content. Makes sense. But it is a pain if you are expecting everything to be returned as 'summary'.

My guess is that they are saving time and money by not rewriting the original source feed main content namspace. However, it creates an XML namespace soup that is harder to navigate.

When stuff like this happens it makes me nervous, especially when I am building something on the back of it.

The last time this happened Twitter turned off pagination for getting recent tweets for your friends. Killing a really cool project that I spent more time than I care to recount. I'm hoping that Google will not do the same. Fingers crossed.

Tags: Google shared feeds namespace XML soup shared RSS

Big buck basket, Longaberger

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 12:48:04 -0600

This is the tag from the Longaberger basket that Betsy picked up yesterday.

She paid nowhere near this price for the basket and is hoping that this one turns out to be a great score.

I still can't believe people collect baskets but these Longaberger ones people seem to love.

Will keep you updated.

Tags: longaberger basket collect believe score

TechCrunch40 Day 2

Tue, 18 Sep 2007 10:04:36 -0500

Back on the train heading for the event.

Hoping for some sizzle today . . . no big 'wow' pitches yesterday.

My favorite part of the day was lunch with Chris Brogan and Schlomo Rabinowitz. Thanks to both of them for the great conversation and not kicking my ads for ordering the lamb burger, the only burger on the menu, but an instance where a giant beer can should have fallen from the sky and crushed me.

Tags: techcrunch40 lamb burger Chris Brogan Schlomo Rabinowitz thirtsy bear

Betsy and her husband Kris Aug 17, 2007

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 08:45:47 -0500

Croncast - 2007-08-17.mp3
Show: #398
Length: 29:56
Size: 20.5mb
Format: mp3

Betsy and her husband Kris Aug 17, 2007

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I'm losing my voice again
Thanks to your children
Serves you right!
Mr. "In a minute"
Hitting refresh is not a job
Doing who is queries all day
The fact that you know what a who is query is . . . time for love love
The pitter patter of Gigi upstairs
Don't spray that in your eye
Maggie locked me in the basement
Every woman in this house locks me in the basement
Once she realizes I am on one side and she is on the other she freaks out
Daddy, daddy dadddy
I begin to stress because I hear the crying
It activates that parental thing in me
There is one way out other than crawling out
A big man in a small window
Yeah, it is like fat women and little dogs
I begin yelling for the other one to come and unlock the door
The dogs start barking
I'm screaming at the top of my lungs
I start yelling up the vents hoping Elliot would hear me
Why didn't you just stick one man titty at a time out the window and ease out
You need to get out of the house Mr. B
I really wish we could spend time together at things like the Great American Yard Sale
You could be my wing man Mr. B
Anyways, I got you
Who wants to play with plushies with you
Betsy does improv class night two
It will make me a better listener, Kris
It has brought insight into your life
I have learned what it is like to be a man
Someone will redirect you in the moment and you can move on
I just think you've got a brain like golden retriever
I don't have to be a tree at home
We should have a family game night with improv games
Oh, wait I have an idea . . . how about family HTML programming night right before dessert
The new dude walks in to class and he is a programmer
I thought you were a coder
I can smell it on your breath
What does it smell like?
Your mother's basement
It was super fun
I had a near death experience Mr. B
How does that happen when all you do is go and get coffee and hit up Goodwill
I put down the mocha latta
I'm parked next to a big shiny Lexus
Maggie freaks and I open my car door into the car
Then I see that the car is occupied
Fuck you and your fucking small car
The woman gets out of her car very slowly
I don't know what you are supposed to do in that situation
It's a Volvo, it's bullet proof, don't touch me
It gets worse
I did what any self respecting mommy would do
I lick my shirt and rub the mark off her car
She makes eye contact and says, "Stop licking my car"
My ass was grass
Get your lips off my Lexus
I had successfully removed the scratch with my magic eraser finger
I hit your car but I successfully slimed off the mark
The dust of Elk Mountain
I would get arrested for that
I know what I am going to do
I ran
I ran away from her
I picked up Maggie and ran
If she hits my car, well, it is insured
I wasn't going to wait until she popped out my eye teeth
Betsy will minimize anyone else's shit
Just because you don't care about your car doesn't mean other people don't
The Dust of Montrose
Was my greatest vacation ever
Your not helping me out Mr. B
The Great American Yard Sale has moved to a mall parking lot
Westfield shopping center won't know what hit
Welcome to camp Junk Ass
One legged box races
There are some one legged people that can gallop
I need you to help me out
I'll get there at four in the morning and it will give me a 10 minute head start
They stole my Jaguar off my hood
What it the whole point of owning the Jaguar is the stupid little shiny thing
Yeah, now it is next to some kids tee ball trophy
Dealership says none in stock
Ornament $211, labor $78 and with tax it will be about $330
Didn't you have any markings on it?
Thanks to Bernadette for this review and write up!

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Tags: Black Lexus Great American Yard Sale improv class Dust of Montrose Jaguar hood ornament

Server up, server down

Sun, 05 Aug 2007 15:01:32 -0500

Thanks to everyone who sent me heads up messages today about the site being down.

I was hoping to be able say something cool like we were under attack from a rival podcaster or something. But as fate would have it, the outage was caused by me.

Non-coders can stop here, nerds feel free to read on.

Evidently PHP and Apache have a coronary if you run a str_replace and search first for multiple spaces in a string and try to fill them with 18 different words word each time. And string in question had over 800 spaces in it.

So 18 * 18 * 800 = freakout. In this case causes the server to use up all of it's memory and block all incoming requests, everything. Guess it would have helped to search for the words first and replace them with spaces. Duh, Kris!

It's all better now.

Tags: croncast outage php str_replace preg_replace rival podcaster non-coder

Betsy and her husband Kris Jan 24, 2007

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 06:40:33 -0600

Croncast - 2007-01-24.mp3

Show: #331
Length: 30:20
Size: 20.8mb
Format: mp3

Betsy and her husband Kris January 24, 2007

Today's show is brought to you by James Hously
Intro done partially without any effects at beginning and the rest . . . history
Betsy mimics the bird man intro to the detriment of our audience
You look like a bird, Mr. B
Yeah maybe a flightless bird
Bears, you look like a Red Breasted Booby-Knocker
That would be the name of the bird that I get to name
You would name them all that
Who's got the PhD in Birdology . . . ornithology
Oh back when it was rocks for jocks
The same depth of sag, that's why they got along
You're being really sensitive tonight
I hit 30 and have found some good friends
People in 40's, 50's say when you are in your 20's you don't know shit
What are you thinking Betsy?
Chill out Bears
We we're oh so dumb, what did we know?
Why did we get married . . . especially at 20 and 21
I don't remember . . . but love and all that
That is back when you were wearing the teal cummerbund
With the fuschia shirt
You could have fried an egg on that shirt on a hot day
I used to walk home from that job at 4 am
Did you turn down every fourth prostitute or every third?
I did get followed home one night
By who a manitute?
He was hoping for Ballpark and ended up with a cocktail weenie
We hit 30 and things started to change
Kris, you proved us all wrong
That is back when I was making pizza's at the gas station
That guy did me a solid . . . he set me up with my first computer job
He asked me what was up with wife being pregnant
Worked for them for five years
The reason that Kris doesn't get along with IT departments
He opened the door for me
The tow of Slowsky part two
Living in Milwaukee and the car is going to get towed
But sir it has "Just Married" written in soap on it . . . "So"
Read your medication guidelines for side effects
I'll share most of it

Tags: manitute Red Breasted Booby-Knocker ornithology PhD Slowsky part two casino cage Volvo of Lisle

Betsy and her husband Kris Jan 22, 2007

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 07:13:49 -0600

Croncast - 2007-01-22.mp3

Show: #330
Length: 33:22
Size: 22.9mb
Format: mp3

Betsy and her husband Kris January 22, 2007

Today's show is brought to you by Henry Busby
Kris thought he would be cool and Betsy shoots him down immediately
Yes, it wasn't that cool
Leaving comments at Croncast, please do
Wii comments on the Wii friend code post
"I love my Wii," Betsy
You're trying to steal my thunder
I'm gonna pick up this dusty Wii and go pro
Betsy plays tennis for 2 hours and makes it
Something fabulous should happen when you make it pro right?
Betsy makes tennis pro
Tiny little start!
Shave 10 pounds off my Wii
Betsy's Mii is too lifelike
Kris did a great job making her Wii
I didn't do anything to it that would make it out of the ordinary
No clue as to what you're husband would change about you
"It looks just like me"
Wii tournament is next weekend
Betsy is going to auction off all my old electronic equipment on eBay
The Zune . . . I have to have it for a corporate client
Nobody is going to use it, but the lucky winner of my auction will
You are the worst with money Mr. B
Brown is not cool
I can't believe you bought a brown one
Can you imagine wearing this brown brick on your hip at the club working out?
It's a step away from the normal colors
Has design sensibilities
The broken iMac
Betsy starts the swearing fit
Nick T is real . . . his mom left us a message, right on!
Slowsky's spirit is back and haunting Betsy's new car
Betsy can't hold it together with car guys
The dealer says they can't get up in for a week . . . right
The haunting continues
Is that normal to happen with a car that has 3700 miles on it?
Did you spill something in it, mam?
Betsy escalates with the car guy immediately
Kris steps in to slow it down
So Volvo of Lisle supposedly fixed the car
If you want us to wash your car it will take another 20 minutes
The sign said it would be clean when I got it back
And the dealer wouldn't give me a loaner car
Betsy goes out with a friend Saturday night
Tries to start the car that she picked up 7 hours before
The car won't come out of park again
It is now abandoned at her friends condo complex
THE CAR IS BRAND NEW!
Her friend tells her it is a lemon
Volvo roadside assistance will be called Monday morning
Do you know the effort it is going to take?
You're telling me that I need to start the Slowsky saga all over again
Hoping that this is a symptom of a greater problem
Well, Zues peed on someone again . . . she was pregnant
She's going to fall and give birth in a puddle of dog urine
And Betsy bolted

Tags: Henry Busby Volvo of Lisle Volvo V70 Volvo Lemon Brown Zune

Why a Skype phone? follow up

Sun, 21 Jan 2007 10:01:31 -0600

I re-read my post from yesterday about the Skype phone and realized that I completely missed the most important element, why I was looking for one.

Last Monday marked the work at home chapter in my life and thusly landed me in the Smith man pit (basement) where my cell reception is spotty if non-existent. It wouldn't be fair for me to pick on the carrier, Verizon, as every service we've had has been worse in the rest of our house. We're just in a mobile bottomless pit.

Since I am always sitting in from of my computer the best solution was to get a SkypeOut number and get my people to contact me with that number. So I spent my week hearing the ring, scrambling for a headset, muting my music and hoping that I could pick it up in time for it not to forward the call to my cell. And after five days of doing this, it hit me . . . get a Skype phone.

Tags: SkypeOut Verizon wireless Skype phone sph101 smith man pit

TECH cocktail number two tonight

Thu, 12 Oct 2006 10:53:13 -0500

High functioning Chicago (and now Midwestern) nerds unite! I'll be heading to the second TECH cocktail tonight to celebrate my fabulous nerd lifestyle and rock some puffy cuffs.

The first TECH cocktail had a great vibe as it was the first time in a long time that the tech community in Chicago had come together to socialize and find out what others are up to.

I guess you call that networking, right?

I'm just hoping that this one isn't over-hyped and full of Web 2.0 blathering . . .wish us well.

Tags: TECHcocktail2 TECH cocktailChicago Naperville nerds

Vacation: Act #1 Naperville to Omaha

Mon, 12 Jun 2006 05:59:32 -0500

Croncast - 2006-06-12.mp3

Show: #235
Length: 37:05
Size: 25.4 mb
Format: mp3

Betsy and her husband Kris June 12, 2006

Thus begins our sharing of a vacation that ended 5 days early. We are not quite sure that our big summer vacaction driving to Denver in Slowsky was really a vacation. But we are sure that we will never drive anywhere on vacation again.

What we can say about our trip is that with the help of many lucid memories and five days to regain our footing on solid ground that we would like to bring your our trip in three separate podcasts. There is too much to share in a single 30 to 40 minute podcast that deserves great attention to detail.

What do you call a thousand mile trip in you wife's savings account? If you're us, show prep.

The long, feel good intro
Sending email easy like
When we last left you it was June 2 of 2006 a millenia ago
Things were much simpler then
H.G. Wells Time machine could take us back
Walking hand in hand with your spuse at the beach
I would have liked to have decided not to go on vacation
We should have flown
Short version, we leave, there's trouble and we come home five days early
Here we go
We're going to rcap the whole thing in 3 shows
It is June 2, 2006 in nice and sunny Naperville, IL
Kris is an hour late and damned Skype showed it to Betsy
Moments of our life are really important to you
Betsy pretends that she is me on Skype sometimes
The planets seemed to be aligned for our trip
The eBay pick-up guy got here right on time
Naperville was going to be hardest part with traffic
Driving Slowsky is like launching a boat
An hour and a half later w'ere making 8 miles of progress
The van is too tall for most drive thru awnings
Slowsky went to the dealer and got $1500 of repairs to travel worldwide
This is the point where you start adding up the costs
Gas doesn't count as vehicle maintenance
We finally make it to I-88
Slowsky is topping out at 70 mph with nothing more to give
First omen . . . we ignore it
We're gonna make it to Omaha
It wasn't a shifting issue but I am pushing Slowsky really hard
We get near DeKalb which is 50 miles from home and think about turning it around again
We push on
Betsy says "no" to my lead foot and thinks the 70 mph thing is good Slowsky is sucking gas and needs refill at 180 mile mark, still in Illinois Another omen Kris starts venting that we should have flown at gas station number two
"I drove the Alaskan Highway and need a new car."
All the signs were there
It was our decision to keep moving on
Not true to Betsy's faith
Dinner at The World's Largest Truck Stop on I-80
Maybe it is safe because it's a tourist trap
Nope, it's a 3-D world of a sex offender registry
All just minor inconveniences at this point
Bleeding money out of my eye balls
10 years ago this would have been an adventure but with kids it is a nightmare
In Iowa they drive on the grass
Not a single room vacant
Pulling off on Omaha hoping for an empty hotel room
Scoring a room 20 miles north of downtown
10,000 lesbians converged on Omaha the same day as our vacation, of course

Coming up on Wednesday . . . Vacation: Act #2 Omaha to Denver

Tags: vacation Denver John Elway Dodge Naperville Omaha Slowsky thetrip

Betsy and her husband Kris Apr. 19, 2006

Wed, 19 Apr 2006 06:48:39 -0500

Croncast - 2006-04-19.mp3

Show: #217
Length: 42:19
Size: 29.0 mb
Format: mp3

Betsy and her husband Kris Apr. 19, 2006

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Show Notes

Changing all of Betsy's intro's to "I'm the decider."
Kris now owns imthedecider.com
I own 50 domains
Betsy wants to spend that money on a lawnmower
Geroge Bush said it - the I'm the decider
"I hear the voices"
Combating Bill Maher
Talking to America like children
Presidential speak should be colloquial
He just wants me to open the Igloo and pass him one
Unscripted speeches
She gets shot in the face all the time
Reality show we missed in our list - Deadliest Catch on A&E
The USDA is in charge
Betsy says the water is -60 F - what?
You're hoping deep down inside to see an accident
Kris is a keeper
The crabs arms are torn off - "what just happened? what just happened?"
Flip This House again
Betsy lands the sooners analogy
Betsy's first social worker job
Once your kids poop on you 50 times they look less cute
The car breaks down when Kris was out of town . . . 10 years ago
Betsy starts throwing them back at 7 a.m.
We didn't spend that much time together
Kris was a basket case
No more cheap wagoneers and social work
The chicks are on the prowl - lol
Make it a magic 8 ball kind of thing
How to get on the Daily Show
Betsy and I should do the show live on stage
Reporters said fake it and we cracked them up and they thanked us
The Mrs. Coach story
Strip mall comedy clubs
Live to Hard Drive
Setting it up like a radio live event is not cool
I could do this
Hanging out with Betsy and Elliot
Tell Kris that your 5 year old is crazy too
Consolidated school districts
Thanks to Scott Burnett

Tags: I'm the decider Deadliest Catch colloquial Jeep Wagoneer Consolidated