Gear Review: North Face VaporWick Shirts - Ruckus Crew Neck Mens T

Dicks Sporting Goods is having their winter clearance and I was able to pick up two North Face vaporwich T's at clearance prices of $15 for a short-sleeve and $20 for a long-sleeve.

I've always been trained since my early years in the boyscouts to wear poly undergarments but I never did because it usually cost more than basic cotton stuff and my parents didn't get the message.

The North-Face VaporWick shirts are made from 100% Polyester, woven specially designed to wick moisture away from the body. The material is also UPF 30 UV resistant.

The shirts are soft, and fit well. They are somewhat athletically fitted, but realistically you can tailor the fit to however you want based on sizing. For example, I got the Tshirt in Large, and it fits the same as my many other T's, and I got a medium sized Full-sleeve and it fits slim, like many "under-armor" shirts you see in the commercials. The Fabric stretches well and is quite soft so its easy to wear underneath layers. The biggest benefit I think I'll see is when I sleep in a tent this season and will hopefully wake up and not be damp from my own sweat. The colors are good, the collors and details are comfortable and neither shirt has "tags" on it, on the inside collar. Like most brands these days, Northface has realized that tagless shirts are cheaper to make and mor comfortable to wear. Great for everyone. I recommend hurrying to your closest Dicks Sporting Goods Store and browsing their clearance racks for great deals like these shirts. They won't last long and are quite a bargain right now.

I'm back! No, I didn't really go anywhere.

So I want to blog again. Who cares if no one reads my posts yet? I'll just have to create more valuable content.

Some of the most-read posts/ things I've ever done were product reviews. I've had a concept in my mind for a great "product reviews" website for a while.. but since I don't have the resources to pull it off, I'll just start small. Expect to see me writing product reviews very often going forward, including more website and movie reviews as well as a variety of other things reflecting my hobbies.

HULU: Streaming television shows straight to your desktop. Television Network Supported too! Its Great!

Those who know me well, know that I love video on demand; especially when its free!  That's why I'm so excited about my new discovery (which I'm sure someone else discovered a long time ago).  Check out Hulu.com!

Hulu has tons of free video content featuring a lot of television programming from the 90's through today.  Some of my favorite shows are on there from both NBC and FOX, and other television networks such as FuelTV, BRAVO, G4, FX, SciFi, IGN, and many others.  HULU features 10 to 15 second adverts before each program, and sometimes breaks shows up with a 2nd advert in the middle, but its pretty unobtrusive since its only one commercial at a time, not an entire set.  Check out the link below for a list of the programs they currently offer (most feature entire seasons worth of shows).

I'm in the middle of Season 2 of NEWSRADIO right now.  The video quality is acceptable, even when full-screened on my 22" display.  Sound quality is very good as well, and the flash based video player is virtually error free, though slower computers might have slightly lower frame rates.  I also encounter almost no buffering/ stuttering of video once programs start, (using cable/broadband access).

Check the site out.  I bet you'll find at least one program you'd like to watch.  Here's hoping that Hulu can stay on-line, and that the current level of advertising generates enough revenue to support the bandwidth/ programming costs.  In my estimation, there's probably not enough money per advert to make it profitable yet...and as a user, I'd rather they don't start playing longer commercials or sets of commercials before each show (fingers crossed).

hulu COMPLETE SHOW LISTING.

Selling on eBay: Still a big pain in the butt?

  I've sold quite some product on EBay over the last few years,  -- but honestly --as a somewhat regular user, in the back of my mind the only "impression" I have of the site is that its been an overall bad experience. 

Its not because the experience of communicating with customers, shipping product, or paying the high fee's has worn me out (as you would expect).  The problem is that the site's user-experience/ GUI for selling an individual product on eBay has been so muddled.  The last time I used EBay, I swear it felt like I had to fill in a million fields about the product I wanted to sell, write my own description for the product (even though there were 50 other auctions available for the same product), and navigate through 5 pages before I had my item posted. It literally took me 2 days to post my last auction.

I realize I may be totally exaggerating the details (# of fields/ pages), but that's genuinely the impression I have of eBay after selling over 100 items on the site over the last several years.  Its really kind of sad that I'm paying for such a poor (and time consuming) experience... I want something better! (I'm thinking I'll try CraigsList first.  Its free so it can't hurt.)

I have lots of stuff to sell, but eBay doesn't really make it any easier to sell my stuff..they just are the marketplace for it.  I still have to pack everything and bring it with me..the photos..the descriptions..everything!  I know that there are plenty of happy "powersellers" out there who love eBay..but they are not using the handicapped tools that eBay equips the average user with.  Most of them are paying monthly fees to 3rd party service providers who are providing them with powerful, easy to use tools that make selling on eBay more profitable and simpler.

eBay, are you listening?

I don't want to start an eBay business.. I just want to sell my mp3 player and some other miscellaneous items.  Why the hell is it so hard?

In eBay's defense, I haven't used eBay to sell product in over 6 months, and they might have made some recent improvements (crossing my fingers)

I'm off now to eBay, where I'm going to post a couple items for sale.  Hopefully a more pleasing experience than I remember.

Projekt Revolution - August 18 2007 - Linkin Park

I could die a happy man today. I saw Linkin Park live last night at Darien Lake Performing Arts Center (Darien Center, NY). I'm a die-hard Linkin Park fan. Though I don't buy the merchandise, I've got the albums, and their music carried me through college until today. I haven't been a huge fan of concerts before, but I can see now why some people talk for years about their great concert experience. Theres nothing like seeing your favorite band of all time perform, and rocking out with them.

I am a lucky bastard. I got fifth row seats --near center -- for me and 3 friends, and we didn't have to pay a dime (one of the few perks of my job). On top of that, Taking Back Sunday, My Chemical Romance, and Linkin Park all sounded amazing (better than my Dave Matthews Band experience). My Chemical Romance killed the mood for some concert goers though with a very long set, and a lot of yelling at the crowd/ cursing. Linkin Park sounded pretty amazing, damn close to the album recordings..which I didn't think was possible considering their complex sound. The build up to their performance was spot on, and I really felt like I was in the presence of greatness when the curtains pulled back. I didn't think I'd be one to get taken in by the concert experience, but like I said, if you have the chance to see your favorite band of all time perform...take it, and get good seats. You will not regret it. See video above and photos below.

Anywhere.fm featured on TechCrunch.com!

Its official, Anywhere.fm went into Public Beta last week and they've now been featured on TechCrunch.com. TechCrunch's post about the site is here.

I've been using Anywhere.fm since I was invited to the Private Beta test, and I've got to say that the developers are doing a whole lot in very little time. It seems like every time I log in they've changed something or added a new feature.

The site is a marvel. It allows me to upload my music library to their servers (30GB's!), and then access my library from any web browser (broadband necessary). In addition they've already rolled out "Friend Radio", which allows me to listen to my friend's music, as radio-stations. For example, my brother is a user, and he's created a playlist of his favorite rock music. I can actually browse to his profile, and hit play on his playlist, and it starts playing for me. Its a great way to discover new music. One of the newer features that they'll be tweaking heavily is something called "music compatibility". With that, you can tell how much of your library/ musical tastes is matched to another user. That way you know that they've got similar tastes, and might even be able to turn you on to some other music you might like. Soon you'll even be able to message people with similar tastes and talk about your favorite artists!.

I use the site everyday at work, and it works like a charm. Its simple, unbelievably fast at streaming my music, and has a great user interface. Give it a look: Anywhere.fm

Movie Review: Man of the Year

A story about a botched election should be exciting, and powerful, especially when we've seen what it can do to our country before. I saw Man of the Year last week. I'll let the cat out of the bag right now... its not one of Robin Williams best movies. And its not because of him, but because of the director. Written and directed by Barry Levinson (Envy, Analyze That, Wag the Dog).. the story and eventually the film fail to take advantage of the fantastic plot in many ways.

Maybe I wasn't in the right mood during the movie, but I wish the movie had played up more of the drama, as well as Robin William's (Tom Dobbs, Comedian) tone of excitement and refreshing take on politics. In that way, the movie really failed to capitalize on its terrific cast and storyline. Being an obsessive fan of "The West Wing" myself I've seen the best written political drama there is (many many times), and I found myself re-directing the scenes in my head during the second half of the movie. I've never done this before, but it was quickly turning into an amateur film project toward the middle.

Not capitalizing on the drama of being chased, or the unsettling nature of a botched election, or the sad stepping aside of a would be hero, the movie simply felt under-done. Thats why I give the movie a 3 out of 5. See it if you're interested because the plot is good, but don't worry about it if you weren't interested already.

Sorry for the harsh review Barry, but I wanted more from such a brilliant story, especially in these times of highly charged elections.