I swear the Philadelphia Channel Six Action News theme song is a brilliant piece of work - see lyrics - up there with the best of American folk. I'm determined to learn the song on the banjo.

From Wikipedia: "The station has used the same theme since 1972, " Move Closer to Your World" by Al Ham. The composition has become as much a part of the Philadelphia consciousness as the Rocky theme and has helped WPVI stay number one in the Delaware Valley for 30 years. The station tried to switch to a fuller, thunderous and authoritative version of the song by the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 1997, but switched back to the old version after five days of viewer complaints."

The good folks at Campain Monitor have just updated their guide to developing and using CSS in emails.  A Guide to CSS Support in Email: 2007 Edition - Campaign Monitor BlogThis is a great guide, in light of MS' decision to get rid of IE as the email renedering engine.

I reckon y'all would like Modern Earl.  This is a simple video to a simple song.

The first stanza of the song is:

"I don't get religion and it sure don't get me. 
Don't know where I'm going when I die. 
Meanwhile I'm going to linger, have fun while I'm here.
With the good Lord my savior, hot coals, and cold beer."

Would that everything was so simple.

I haven't been a huge fan of Jakob Nielsen in the past (given the lack of data that seemed to accompany his suggestions).  However, this is a good article on the top ten usability changes to make to increase constituent loyalty.Here's the summary:"Several usability findings lead directly to higher sales and increased
customer loyalty. These design tactics should be your first priority
when updating your website."Link to article.

I've come across these a few times.  These are - according to O'Reilly's perl book - the virtues of a programmer.  While I don't do much original development anymore, these have broad applications for the corporate setting.  Just replace "programmer" with whatever your title is ... teacher, sales rep, or  dentist.

Laziness

The quality that makes you go to great effort to reduce overall
energy expenditure. It makes you write labor-saving programs
that other people will find useful, and document what you wrote
so you don't have to answer so many questions about it. Hence,
the first great virtue of a programmer.

I just got a swell plugin for FireFox called ScribeFire that lets you post blogs directly from your browser to your XML/RPC enabled content management system.  In my case, it's Drupal.  Here's a link to the download page, if you'd like to try it yourself.  I'm writing from it right now as a matter of fact.  I'e been looking for a tool that would allow me to blog firectly from my web browser instead of from within the CMS.  This just might be it. More, later.

I never really liked scrubs until my wife turned me on to the program last year. It has to be one of the best written shows on TV today. I'm less concerned about the cute romance and more with the comedic dialogue and timing of the actors.

The best character of late is "The Todd," an ambiguously preferenced surgeon who is all about sex (with nurses, old men, whoever's around). I just dug up the following "Todd Video Blog" on YouTube. I have no idea where it came from and I'm CERTAIN the network isn't proud of it, but it's hilarious (also not safe for children or work without headphones).

We've gotten a ton of snow here in the last 24 hours. I flew back from DC yesterday and made it home to Boulder by the skin of my teeth. We were the last plane to land at 11 yesterday. We sat on runway for 2.5 hours and then waited for 4 more at airport. By the grace of God, I managed to hitch a ride to boulder with a mighty nice family who was headed there for their mother's 80th birthday.

Here's a quick shot of the backyard

This is one of the most creative - if not depressing - things I've seen all week. "Remember, Charlie Brown, Christmas is not about Santa or the birth of a Saviour. It's about moving merchandise and false sentiment."

Not safe for your children.

Weekend Edition Sunday recently asked listeners to submit their nominations for the best and worst Christmas songs of all time. Here's my entry:

For me, Christmas songs are intrinsically neutral. They are not good or bad. Each of them that mean anything to me have been assigned meaning through my experience and memories of Christmases past. I remember growing up listening to the songs played on scratchy records by my parents and grandparents in Philadelphia and southern New Jersey. I was too young to be cognizant of the pop holiday songs written in the early 80's. Though, I have a feint recollection of hearing songs like the Waitress's "Christmas Wrapping" and "Last Christmas" by Wham! Instead the songs that made up the pantheon of Christmas greats were those written right early last century. The best include the Chipmunks song (AAAAAALLLLVVVVVIIIIIIIN!!!), "Mele Kalikimaka" by Bing Crosby, and "Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree" by Brenda Lee.