Category: Fun Web Sites

Do you inspect your pet’s poop?

Our dog, Milo, has sensitive insides. At the earliest stages of his life it was a challenge to find food that worked for him without giving him intestinal issues that ranged from vomiting, to regurgitation, to diarrhea, to generally being sick, not eating, ending up underweight, and with icky poop. We finally found a vet, Dr. Karen Becker, who is both awesome and also seemed to know what was going on. After starting him on a simple diet of turkey and canned pumpkin, we finally got Milo’s digestive system on a decent track. She explained the benefits of a raw food diet, which when you think about it makes perfect sense, they are dogs after all, and where, in nature, would they find processed kibble to eat? No, they are generally tearing an animal to shreds and eating raw meat, remember? The other thing she told us was that the ultimate goal was for Milo to have “bronze-able poop.” Yup, we were instructed to inspect his poop regularly, and as his digestive system would get in line, his poop would become the kind you could bronze and put on a plaque on the wall proudly telling your friends, “Look at my dog’s poop!”

So, with instructions in hand, I began years of inspecting Milo’s poop. I would pick it up (No, not with my hands), and regularly check it for firmness, and yes, looking for anything wiggling in it signifying a really bad problem. Sometimes there are long hairs in it which causes it to dangle from his butt when he poops, and every now and then he gets in the habit of eating his dog litter so low and behold, there is some litter in it. Happily he hasn’t eaten anything like money or jewelry where I’ve had to actually break apart the poop, but I’m happy to say that, for the most part, Milo’s poop is “bronze-able!”

It was the other day, while doing my daily inspection, that I wondered if other people are out there doing the same, and so I plight: “Do you inspect your pet’s poop?”

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Have you ever used a metal detector?

Somewhere in the recesses of my mind I remember playing with a metal detector when I was a kid, or maybe it was when I worked at Radio Shack. In any case there is some buried memory in my head of holding the contraption in my hand and waving the detector portion of the device across the ground, listening for changes in some annoying tone that would signal I struck it rich, or more likely found some scrap piece of metal or if I was lucky, a penny.

It was the other day while my wife and I were walking in a local park that we saw a father and a son using some metal detectors, and I vaguely remembered my history of metal detecting. My wife asked me why they would be there in the park, especially by the “beach” volleyball courts, and I had to remind her that there are people jumping up and down on a volleyball court, and they sometimes have precious metals, or at least a few coins in their pockets, and sometimes those items fall out of their pockets and get lost in the sand. She said “Oh, yea.”, and I also reminded her of my other run-in with a metal detector enthusiast who bragged of his finding a wedding ring once in the same park.

I was curious as I started this plight about the proliferation of detectorists (A term I found referring to those who are metal detector enthusiasts) so I did what anyone would do – I Googled “metal detector club.” Low and behold Google listed over 15,000 hits, and a quick look at the “Midstate Metal Detector Club“, a group based out of Wisconsin, and “World Wide Assocations of Treasure Seekers” (WWATS) websites, and I quickly learned that the detectorists take themselves very seriously, and that it seems the world of metal detecting considers itself on the endangered list thanks to a myriad of government regulations and not enough representation on the part of the detectorists.

It’s been a long time since I’ve listened to the whining of the speaker and watched the needle of the metal detector to see if I found a buried treasure, and I don’t see myself doing it again anytime soon, but after seeing the father and son I couldn’t help but plight: Have you ever used a metal detector?

That’s it for this plight! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Have You Ever Been to a Funeral With a Theme?

The other day my wife and I are watching “The Soup.” It’s a great way to catch up on all of the crazies/eccentric/odd/Kardashianness on TV, and Joel McHale starts doing a blurb about a special show on TLC called “Best Funeral Ever,” following the goings on at the Golden Gate Funeral Home where it seems they like to make a funeral, well, special and memorable. The episode they spotlighted was a funeral for Willie McCoy known to most people as the dude who sang the “Baby Back Ribs” song for Chili’s. For his funeral the theme was barbecue of course, complete with ribs for the guests and a barbecue sauce fountain for dipping.  The trailer for the special shows training for the employees of the funeral home, as well as some of the other funerals they’ve recently had, complete with a boxing ring and a dancing theme.

I can’t say I’ve been to many, if any, exciting funerals. Sure my Mom nearly had her pants hit the floor at my Dad’s funeral when she leaned over the casket to give him one last kiss, but for the most part I’ve been only to funeral considered normal I suppose. Not that I wouldn’t like some good ribs at a funeral, but I wonder, and so I plight: Have you ever been to a funeral with a theme?

That’s it for this plight! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Do You Know How to Fold a Fitted Sheet?

We bought some new bed sheets the other day. I found them on clearance, which was nice, so my wife did the first thing you should do and threw them in the wash. Being the good husband I try to be, I handled getting them in the dryer, and then, once dry, decided I would get them folded for her, and it is here that I remembered that in my many years of bed sheets, when it comes to that fitted sheet, I’m clueless.

Sure, folding of the pillow cases went smoothly, it wasn’t too bad folding the flat sheet even if it was King size, but then, there it was, the fitted, bottom sheet, with the elastic creating this kind of oval that for the life of me I could never figure out how to work, what with the elastic constantly ruining my quest for square corners. I did my best, kind of faked it a lot, and then posted a quick Tweet and Facebook post about how I’m never going to be able to fold a fitted sheet, and one of my smart-allek friends pointed me to a Martha Stewart link about folding a fitted sheet. I’ve seen this link before, even tried her supposed procedure, but low and behold the sheet always comes across like a misshapen mess.

The thing is that usually my wife and I fold the sheets together, and she will guide me through the folding of the fitted part, but today I was solo, and reminded of my way to fold a fitted sheet that instead of Martha’s seven steps, my way has three. Step One is to open the drawer where the bed sheets go. Step Two is to just shove the entire sheet in the drawer. Step three is to close the drawer. Sure, Martha’s way, if you can master it, leaves you with a lovely, folded sheet with nice creases, but my way will give you a piece of abstract art on the bed the first time you make your bed!  I know Martha Stewart can do it, I know my wife is pretty good at it, but I plight: Do you know how to fold a fitted sheet?

That’s it for this plight! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Have You Ever Been to “Second Life?”

The other day I noticed an advertisement on my website for the site “Second Life.” Sure, the question might be “Why did I even notice a banner ad on a website?”, but I did. The thing is that it brought back memories of when I had a presence on Second Life. Okay, first, what is Second Life? I guess the easiest way to explain it is that it is a virtual world where you create a character that “lives” in this world. You can meet people, sell things, buy property, and just kind of “live” in your own little world. The thing is that it’s graphical, meaning your character looks like a person and your house can look like a house and you can gather in the local bar and “talk” to people. Back a few years I was DudeOnTheRight Mannonen, or something like that in the “world.” I owned a pretty big parcel of land that I was looking to transform into a virtual “Entertainment Ave!,” complete with a Movie Theater where you could sit and watch episodes of “Stu and The Dude Reviewing the Movies for You!.” It was kind of cool, but a lot of work to add as a sister location for Entertainment Ave!, and for the most part I didn’t have the time to maintain it.

Eventually I sold my land and closed my account, but the banner ad did make me remember nights of sitting in front of my computer, safe from the scariness of the real world, building a “life” that was different. Neat, but time consuming, and always making me wonder why I just didn’t go out to a bar and meet some real people.

The ad did trigger some memories, and so I plight: Have you ever been to “Second Life?”

That’s it for this plight! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Will You be Buying Bad Piggies?

Bad Piggies is released today. Sure, some of you are probably saying “What in the heck is ‘Bad Piggies?'” If you are a fan of Angry Birds, you know those pigs in the game? Guess what, they now have their own game. Yup, the Rovio people, the makers of the Angry Pigs series, look like they have finally run out of fun things for the birds to do and are now focusing on the pigs. I guess the pigs aren’t angry, so they really couldn’t call the game “Angry Pigs,” but here comes another puzzle games, this one seeming to focus on “contraption building,” at least so says one review, and it will take most everything in my being not to buy it and then waste too many hours helping the pigs do whatever they do.

I remember when Angry Birds was released and for the longest time I resisted the urge to buy it, finally getting sucked into the game when the space version was released. Then the original Angry Birds was a free app for a week, and again my free time was doomed. Why? Because I’m part OCD, part ADD, part prone to game addiction, part just like playing games, and I can’t just play a game – I have to play it to do the best. I’m that crazy player that just completing the levels isn’t good enough, nope, I have to get “Three Stars” on each level. There were some levels I would pass over, only to come back later and complete the star-ness, but my Angry Birds: Space is filled with only three star perfection, and my Angry Birds was well on its way until I finally had to delete it so that I could get something else done.

It will take a lot for me not to spend the buck to get the game, and for this I plight: Will you be buying Bad Piggies?

That’s it for this plight! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

How to Be a Bad Dad, Congrats South Park Dudes, and The Key to a Great Mojito.

By: The Dude on the Right

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Our “Weekend Wrap-Up!” podcast is back after a week hiatus, and Stu Gotz admits that he is a bad father. Well, he’s not a bad dad all of the time, but the Queen Mary docked in California has a tour, and he took his little ones on it. He also saw some movies, and doesn’t like “Rango” but does like the new “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.” Me, my congratulations go out to a multitude of folks, namely Mark Cuban and the Dallas Mavericks for beating LeBron James and the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals, the boys of South Park for their Broadway play “The Book of Mormon” that won a bunch of Tony Awards, and Rick Bayless who, as luck would have it, posted his recipe for a Watermelon Mojito, and it is delicious (and yes, do yourself a favor and find the D’Aristi rum from Yucatan – it makes it very yummy!) and my new, favorite, summertime drink.

All of that and more, and thanks for listening!

That’s it for this podcast! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

I Don’t Have Too Many Eggs (I think), I Just Lost My Basket!

By: The Dude on the Right

As Stu Gotz couldn’t meet up with me today to do a podcast, rather than do a solo episode I decided to hold off the podcast for a day, especially since I know Stu is dying to find out how my bachelor party weekend went since he couldn’t make the trip to New Jersey.  So, that discussion will hit tomorrow. Instead I decided this might be a great time to do a blog – something I haven’t done for this site in quite some time.

Now I mention “this site,” because as I had some time away over the weekend, and have blogged on some other sites I have recently and neglecting this one, and as I’ve been pondering this for quite a while now, I started to look at all of the things I’ve got going, especially since I started developing iPhone apps, and I suppose getting married, and I guess having four Twitter accounts, and then there is my weight loss blog, and, okay…

So, yup, I’ve got a lot of things going on, and I tried to reflect on them.  I said to myself, “Self, why don’t you prioritize them and knock off a couple to free up some time/space in your mind?” I started to look at some of the projects I’ve got active (on life support in some cases), seeing if I really wanted to axe any of them, and I ended up with the following priority list, rating each thing individually on a scale of 1 to 10 in general importance to me/I love doing it/I miss doing it/I want to do more of it/and general 1 to 10-ness, with 1 being high and 10 being low.

  • My Wedding: Um, it’s a 1, duh.
  • My life with my BFF: 1
  • Other hobbies/things around the house/projects: 1

Yes, seriously, as I looked at my list, and there are a few things missing from the above list, there isn’t one of them that I don’t love doing, don’t get jazzed about when I do get around to working on, and yes, I agree, in actuality all of them should have a “2” next to them and “My life with my BFF” is actually the only “1,” but hey, I think even she understands.

The thing is, as I looked at this list, I pondered the idea of consolidating.  For example, do I really need four Twitter accounts? My contemplation on this is simply would my Twitter followers under whenismile actually care about the tweets that would be appropriate for drewdude, and would my general tweeting in dudeonright really be what those in myweightplan would want to read?  And then there is the fact that, right now, whenismile is a little more private, at least from some friends and family, so I can tweet things there without worrying about what they might say.  In fact, I’ve almost been confused about tweeting sometimes wondering which account to put it under, and if I posted the same tweet under all four accounts, thinking all of my followers would like to read it, and someone followed all four accounts, would they be pissed at getting the same tweet pretty much four times?

Then there are the blogs I have.  Yup, would Entertainment Ave!-land actually care that I have a blog about my attempt at losing weight?  When I Smile, which is geared towards things about my “Make Me Smile” app, really doesn’t seem to be the right place for Stu Gotz and our podcasts every now and then.  And I could go on an on.

I guess my pondering really centers about “To consolidate, or not to consolidate – That is the question!”  And if so, what is the best way to go about it?  Sure, I could leave everything under my Webventure Avenue company moniker, but that doesn’t seem to be right.  I’ve had Entertainment Ave! for over 15 years and hate to put that by the wayside.  I suppose Mostly Entertainment could get wrapped into the Entertainment Ave! site, but should it be separate?  Ugh!

I guess I need to let these thoughts bounce around in my head a little more, since, in coming to a final conclusion, if the answer is to “consolidate” then that creates another issue – total site-redesigns of everything I have to get them under one umbrella, or at least in one basket.  And even if I don’t consolidate, maybe I should actually use some of my organization skills/software/thoughts, to put things into little blocks, workable blocks, so that each project is it’s own little world, yet gets some attention every day, with the most, of course, being my BFF.

At least my wedding will be able to be taken off this list in two months – when the “I do”’s have been said, but I’m sure when that egg has been hatched I’m going to just lay another one – I just hope I can get that one to land in the basket I haven’t found yet.

And sure, if you’ve got any answers for the question “To consolidate or not to consolidate!”, I would love to hear them!

That’s it for this one!  I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Holy Crap, I Made an iPhone App!

I so wanted my first post announcing my first iPhone app to be filled with gloriousness, with “Hey, go out and get it!”, with “Let me know what you think!”, with “Sure, I know it’s $.99 and you want it for free, but hey, I do have plans for a limited, free version with ads someday, but really, will an ad above a picture that makes you smile really make you smile?”, and “I have lots of ideas for future versions, but if there are any suggestions you have please throw them my way!”, and all kinds of other fun comments like that, but then I downloaded my app when it was officially approved on Monday.

Low and behold, a little bug that I thought I fixed somehow re-appeared. The thing is that it was a bug that might make you frown and not smile, especially if the first “Make Me Smile” picture you took using the app was priceless, because, well, there was a glitch where the app wouldn’t save the first picture it took. All other pictures would be saved to your library, but not that first one. So instead of a joyous “Holy crap, I made an iPhone app,” all of a sudden I was just saying “Oh, crap.” And made my previous post on the When I Smile site.

But alas, I plugged away at truly eliminating the bug (Please, please, please don’t be there anymore!), and Version 1.1 of “Make Me Smile” is available for download in the app store, and it only has one goal: To be able to, when you need one, make you smile.

Yes, I do have a lot more features in my head planned for the app, and heck, I have other ideas for apps floating in my head, even one for the Entertainment Ave! website, but for now, please feel free to visit the When I Smile site, spend the $.99 for the app, and thanks for your support, suggestions, and smiles!

A Diving Convention and A Health Fair, The Olympics and Imaginary Bitches, Jerry Taft and Weather!

By: The Dude on the Right

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Jerry TaftBoth Stu Gotz and I attended conventions this weekend, and during this episode of our "Weekend Wrap-Up!" podcast you can find out who had the better experience. Actually both of us seemed to have interesting experiences, with Stu at a diving convention where he did a presentation, helped out a dude who had problem with his own presentation, and then was pissed at said dude with the problem. Me, I met Maxine, the lady from the greeting cards, or at least a real-life representation of her, at a health fair that served hot dogs and pizza.

Various "conferences" aside, the weekend brought us some funky weather (I would like to personally thank weather man extraordinaire, Jerry Taft, who, thanks to being a Facebook friend, both ruined my weekend by telling me there would be no snow day for me today, but made me like a weather man who goes above and beyond to let us know the real weather), and a lot of watching of the Winter Olympics. Stu is now a fan of "Imaginary Bitches," I’m looking forward to "Cop Out," and Stu is sick and tired of being sick and might see a doctor to be less sick. All of that, and more! How do we do it!?!

Thanks for listening!

That’s it for this one!  I’m The Dude on the Right!!  L8R!!!