Scott Fillmer » tv

MacBook Pro Video to an LCD HD VIZIO TV Monitor

Tumble — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 00:31:26 +0000

First time I have ever hooked up my MacBook Pro to a LCD, this is probably the coolest thing ever to have two monitors working at the same time, and it makes a really cool backlit photo frame. This photo I took of the Wisteria in bloom made a great background.

You are more than welcome to grab the high-res version here and use it for your background if you like, you can find that on my Flickr photostream.

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Best Super Bowl XLIII Commercial Was… Open Happiness

Scott Fillmer — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 02:37:15 +0000

So today was the 2009 Super Bowl and as always the commercials seem to get a lot of attention. Overall I was not all that impressed with any one particular commercial this year, and some I was pretty disappointed with some, mainly for their strong sexual content. Some were rehashed from last year, some are getting old like the Budweiser Clydesdales, the G.E. windmill, and the baby commercial for E-trade (which I hated all year long and now they are adding to the misery for 2009).

Maybe it is because I am getting older or something but I just don’t care for watching a commercial with my extended family where a Doritos eater blows off the cloths of someone on the street or GoDaddy shows Danica Patrick taking a shower at the whim of some domain name morons (which was only part of the extended commercial, most of which was not shown on TV).

Production wise, both of those commercials (especially the Doritos commercial) was good and the Doritos “Crash the Super Bowl” commercial was hilarious but save the sex for Jay Leno’s hour. Some others good commercials of note would be Bridgestone, the Hyundai Genesis with the screaming board members from BMW and the Japanese car makers, a Pepsi MAX commercial and some of the job search commercials from Career Builder with the screaming lady in the car.

Open Happiness with Coca-Cola

My second favorite would be the Pedigree Adoption Commercial. It was funny, and was actually trying to do something unique with their time slot, but my favorite commercial has to go to a company and not a single commercial Coca-Cola.

Coca-Cola has done a fantastic job with making commercials that are just happy. The end of the commercials say it all, “Open Happiness”. Coke has a long running line of great commercials that just want to make you hold hands with the world and drink coke. They don’t tend to sell sex, try to gross you out, or fight for the most racy commercial on TV, they sell liquid happiness in a bottle, and it’s not beer.

One of my favorite of the Coke commercials was the Coke Zero commercial spoof on the 1980 Super Bowl commercial with Mean Joe Green (YouTube Video), probably one of the all time greatest commercials for the Super Bowl. Even during the 1979-1980 football season when this commercial came out (yes, it was not newly made just for the Super Bowl) Coke was still selling happiness.

Something has to be said about a company that can still produce that image in 2009 when we are completely inundated with junk on local TV I wouldn’t want to watch with anyone other than possibly my wife, so here it is. Coca Cola wins top spot in my book for the best overall commercial spots for the Super Bowl 2009.

YouTube Video Below of Coca Cola – Open Happiness

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What Would You Do With an $86,400 Gift?

Scott's Misc — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 17:52:51 +0000

What if you were told you would be given $86,400 at the start of each day. Wow, great huh. You can spend that amount each day, but at the end of the day, what ever you haven’t spent you loose.

You can’t keep any to spend it the next day, you can’t save it, you can’t invest it for later use, you can only spend it today. You get 24 hours to spend $86,400. The good news is, for now, at the start of each day you will be given another $86,400 and then it starts all over again, but, no matter what you do, that is all you get.

Are you thinking about all those things you would buy or places you might go, but, opppps, you actually don’t have time to use the entire amount, or do you? Well it doesn’t really matter because one way or the other it is either going to be spent, or time will spend it for you.

So, where would you spend it?

86,400. That is how many seconds we are given each day. We don’t get any more, and at the end of the day, anything we haven’t used we loose. The next day we get another 86,400 seconds to use at our discretion, but that’s it. You can’t invest it (at least here on earth), you can’t save it, and for now, we get a new 86,400 seconds tomorrow to use. So…….. where do you spend it?

I haven’t had a lot of time to blog here lately for various reasons but it got me started thinking about what steals our time. My wife always says we have time for what we make time for, and I think that is basically true. We prioritize throughout the day even if we don’t realize we are doing it, and it controls what we get accomplished or what gets left for “tomorrow”.

I have several projects going on at the same time, including developing my first true CMS site for a niche market, and that is what is taking a lot of my free time as of late, but I think there are several things that steal our time throughout the day. Some are our own doing, some we can’t control, some we can. I made a quick list of what steals my time as of this writing, in regards to this blog. Steals your time probably isn’t the best way to describe it. A better way it where do we spend our 86,400 seconds we are given each day?

Other Blogs

I do write on other blogs and trying to keep up with each one doesn’t always work. The one that gets the most attention is the one that has the highest priority at the time.

Work or Projects

Yes, I guess we all do have to work at something. This may be a necessity but it does take up a majority of our time (as it should) and it usually takes priority over non-revenue generating projects

Family (and Friends)

This is another good thing, but also one that keeps me from blogging on this blog. Over the Thanksgiving holiday I had planned to have a quiet week and get a good weeks worth of articles written for this blog. What did I do, I spent most of it working outside on our property with my dad. Worth far more to me than getting the articles done I had in mind. I also ate a little turkey and watched a lot of football.

Not Being Well Organized

This is something we can control but being well organized will keep things running smoothly. I started keeping a log book of things I needed to get done or have done. It sits on my desk right by my computer and I jot things down on it all day. When I travel, I have a miniature version I take with me. It does help me stay a little organized.

Email

This is a big one for most of us. I have read 100 blog posts on how you should not check your email every 5 minutes, and it is probably true, but I just can’t do it. I usually spend a good majority of my time each day in email or having something to do with email.

Your Feed Reader

This is probably one of the areas you could spend a ton of time looking at, and writing this blog, I hope you do, but I try to read my feeds at night after the day’s work is complete. This doesn’t always work, but there are so many great articles to read that it can take a huge amount of time.

Watching TV or Other Entertainment

We all watch TV or do some form of entertainment. I am a big sports fan and I can always find a game to watch. Even if there isn’t a game on, ESPN Classics is probably re-playing some great rivalry game from 1982. I don’t usually spend to much time on these items, but they can take up time that you don’t spend doing more productive things (unless you can figure out a way to do both at the same time).

Internet Social Sites, Groups, News, General Surfing

Don’t think I even need to elaborate here. Just try to do the most productive things each day in the order of priority. If you make your living on the social networks, great, if not, look at these areas when you are finished with your work each day.

Where Do You Spend Your 86,400 Seconds Each Day?

So, those are just a few. What areas use up time each day for you? I think each of us can probably look at some areas where we could probably spend our time more wisely, I know I can. Leave a comment below and let me know what those are for you?