Macworld is Almost Here

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Macworld Conference & Expo is next week and Mike and I will be there on Thursday!

We have all been inundated with rumors of the iPhone and an early release of Leopard; iTV seems to be a no-brainer, as does a re-vamped iLife / iWork.

Here are my predictions (ok, some of them are merely hopes) for Tuesday's keynote presentation:

1. There will be no iPhone (although Jobs will make jokes about it). 2. Leopard will be released earlier than originally announced. 3. iWeb will be completely re-vamped to integrate one-touch publishing for hosting services other than dot-mac. It will also finally give us a simple file management system and easy editing of css attributes. 4. iTV will be the grandest announcement at the event as it will contain many more features than we were led to believe. 5. Mac Spreadsheet will be lame. 6. The 100 GB iPod will be finally come out, the next version will be WiFi and Bluetooth. 7. dot-Mac will be upgraded with increased storage space and iCalendar sharing improvements. 8. A mammoth 42 inch iMac is released.

Maybe, just maybe, there will be some other updates as well:

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newtonmessagepad a new Newton?

There you go. Enjoy Macworld!

Should Auld Acquaintance be Forgot...

and never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and auld lang syne? Happy New Year! We all rang in the new year at F&F's (although not as much confetti as the last couple of years). As we always do when we celebrate at F&F's, we did a shrimp-boil (with crab, too). And by "we" I mean a lot of people except for me ate the shrimp and crab; I picked around it to the saugages, potatoes and pearl onions. Santa brought Fred a new drum set so I brought the guitar and bass and everyone took turns rockin' out.

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Pictures are up, check 'em out.

"... and they did neither."

"The Broncos needed to win or tie today to get to the playoffs... and they did neither!" - TV announcer said at the end of the Denver / SF game! From NFL.com 12/27 nfl kc playoff hopes 122706

The Kansas City Chiefs needed a lot to happen to get to the playoffs. First, they must beat Jacksonville and then hope Pittsburgh could pull out an upset against Ocho-Cinco and the Bengals (Cincinnati went in as 6 point favorites)... and then the Niners have to upset the Broncos (10.5 underdogs).

Well, the Chiefs beat the Jaguars... check! The Steelers beat the Bengals... check! And the Niners pulled off the win, with less than 2 minutes left in overtime... checkmate!

Mike Shanahan said he's glad KC won so his team would have to win in order to make it to the post season. Thanks for the confidence coach!

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Merry Christmas

Christmas has come and gone once again. We had a great time hosting Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinner. The question is, at the end of the day, into how many pictures did Ken jump? Joe taught us, once again, that he is really the only one that can kick field goals with any consistency. Everyone was very happy to see Mimi. It was also great to have Kelly and Dennis with us both days (Happy Birthday Kelly). Once again, Jack made his famous fried rice and brought the prime rib for Christmas dinner.

Check out pics here.

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Music Choice Goof

We listen to a lot of music and typically we have our TV set to Music Choice. We usually listen to the 80's, New Country or Arena Rock channels (I listen to the Bluegrass channel but only when there's no one else in the room). The best thing about MusicChoice is all of the factoids about the bands. So, anyway, today, as we were getting our house ready for our Christmas Eve party we had it on the Arena Rock station. Dio's "Holy Diver" came on followed by "Domino" by Kiss; it was shaping up to be a rockin' afternoon! As I walked by the TV singing "Restless and Wild" by Accept I noticed the band picture changed... and instead of showing Udo and the boys, it flashed a different quartet. Given my eclectic taste in music I immediately recognized this as a huge mix up. The picture they put up was one of The Oak Ridge Boys... giddy up a-oomp pappa oomp pappa mow-mow! 12-24-06_1330

Times, They are a Changin'

When we were young, growing up in north Stockton meant a lot of time at Tower Records, Hammer Skate and Naughty Nicks. I bought my last album (Animalize by KISS) and my first cassette tape (Not of this Earth by Joe Satriani) at Tower Records... we spent many a Friday and Saturday nights at Hammer Skate and there's no telling how much money we wasted playing 9-ball and snooker at Naughty Nicks... and now they are no more. Hammer Skate announced its closure earlier this year and now sits vacant waiting for (I assume) it's demolition before it becomes a new Walgreens (no word on if the Walgreens that sits one mile down Hammer Lane will close in favor of this location or if Walgreens is employing the Stabucks, put-one-on-every-corner, method). No three words strike up old memories quite like "all-night skate"... more than two decades later and that subject still comes up every now and then. I guess our kids will not know how much fun a skating rink can be... ok, maybe this is a good thing.

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Across the street from it's current location, Naughty Nick's was originally Tiptons, which sat in a little shop. When we were young we would go in and try to hustle the younger kids in to playing pool for their arcade money. When they opened up Nick's across the street it quickly became the place to be on Friday and Saturday nights. We all learned to play 9-ball and snooker and learned how to really talk smack. Naughty Nick's will close it's doors soon in favor of The Cameo Club. Again, out with the old and in the with the new. The draw (no pun intended) of poker and the popularity of hold-em was so great that Stockton could not justify a billiard place that size. Everyone knew they made more money on parties than renting out pool tables but even that business seems to have slowed down lately.

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I guess iPods, iTunes and Napster finally won... not to mention the $19 they were charging for a CD! Even though it's sad to see Tower go, I must admit that I haven't bought anything there since 11/18/03 when I made our first iTunes purchase - "Remember When" by Alan Jackson.

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So, times are sure changing. Is there anyway to say that without sounding (or feeling) old? But with our kids getting older by the day I wonder where it will be that they will hang out on weekends. Hell, even Golfland is gone!