The Average Joe http://joemccurdy.com Random Thoughts and Opinions of Joe McCurdy Tue, 27 Nov 2007 21:19:49 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.3 en Presidential Election Candidate Quizzes http://joemccurdy.com/2007/11/27/presidential-election-candidate-quizzes/ http://joemccurdy.com/2007/11/27/presidential-election-candidate-quizzes/#comments Tue, 27 Nov 2007 21:19:49 +0000 Joe McCurdy http://joemccurdy.com/2007/11/27/presidential-election-candidate-quizzes/ If you’re not sure who you want to support yet in the ‘08 Presidential Race here are some handy “quizzes” that help match up your political views with the Presidential candidates. Some of the quizzes are better than others, but after taking a few you should be able to hone in your top candidates. Then with a little more research you should have no problem figuring out who is your candidate of choice!

So here they are in no particular order:

Minnesota Public Radio’s Select a Candidate Quiz
WQAD’s Select a Candidate Quiz (This is based on MPR’s quiz but it is a little different)
USA Today’s Candidate Match Game
VAJoe.com Candidate Calculator
ABC’s Match-O-Matic
PigeonTech’s Candidate Quiz
SelectSmart’s Presidential Candidate Selector
PoliTalk’s Candi-date

If you find any more good quizzes be sure to let me know and I’ll update the list!

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Cool social bookmarking tool http://joemccurdy.com/2007/09/25/cool-social-bookmarking-tool/ http://joemccurdy.com/2007/09/25/cool-social-bookmarking-tool/#comments Wed, 26 Sep 2007 00:53:32 +0000 Joe McCurdy http://joemccurdy.com/2007/09/25/cool-social-bookmarking-tool/ The other day I came across a new service (well to me anyways) called StumbleUpon. StumbleUpon is a browser plugin/toolbar that allows users to discover and rate websites. When signing up with StumbleUpon a new user is able to pick and choose from site categories that might interest them. Then when a user hits the “Stumble!” button StumbleUpon chooses a new page based on the previous pages rated, ratings by your friends, and by the ratings of users with similar interests.

As a general rule I hate toolbars, but StumbleUpon is pretty cool. It’s like channel surfing but without a whole lot of crap. It doesn’t take long before it seems like StumbleUpon knows you pretty well. Well I highly recommend that you check StumbleUpon out and give it a shot. If you do start Stumbling make sure you check out my StumbleUpon page.

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Ultimate Fighter Thoughts http://joemccurdy.com/2007/09/20/ultimate-fighter-thoughts/ http://joemccurdy.com/2007/09/20/ultimate-fighter-thoughts/#comments Fri, 21 Sep 2007 01:21:11 +0000 Joe McCurdy http://joemccurdy.com/2007/09/20/ultimate-fighter-thoughts/ Lately I’ve been watching more and more Mixed Martial Arts fights and related shows. The action, excitement, and varying styles are all very compelling. MMA has definitely already replaced boxing as my favorite “fighting sport” and it’s working its way up the list of traditional sports too. I’m not to the point of ordering PPVs yet but I try to catch all the free stuff I can.

Last night I caught the first episode of Ultimate Fighter 6. I’ve only caught bits and pieces of previous seasons but last week I got hooked watching a marathon of Season 5. So needless to say I’ve programmed my MythTv Box to record every episode of this new season.

For those who’ve never seen Ultimate Fighter the show is a competition for upcoming fighters competing to get a UFC contract. The sixteen fighters are split into two teams who are captained/coached by two established UFC stars. This season’s coaches are Matt Serra(Season 4 winner and current UFC Welterweight Champion) and Matt Hughes (a former World Welterweight Champion) who have an upcoming PPV fight.

So far I’ve liked what I’ve seen from the first episode. Hughes and Serra seem to genuinely dislike each other. But as of the first episode it’s been hard to decide which team I’ll root for because both the coaches seem a little douchie. Of course a lot of that could be prefight hype, who knows.

I do know that I have a new favorite fighter though, Mac Danzig. He is a no nonsense, bad ass, well rounded VEGAN fighter. Unfortunately you don’t see a lot of vegetarian or vegan world class athletes, so it’s cool to see one who is such a bad ass! Hopefully he’ll end up being the next Ultimate Fighter.

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New Web Hosting http://joemccurdy.com/2007/09/07/new-web-hosting/ http://joemccurdy.com/2007/09/07/new-web-hosting/#comments Fri, 07 Sep 2007 22:29:24 +0000 Joe McCurdy http://www.joemccurdy.com/?p=15 I’ve changed my web host to a new provider. One of the reasons I’ve switched is because my new hosting company, DreamHost is green! Carbon neutral, to be exact!

Of course the main reason I switched was because they come highly recommended but being carbon neutral sure doesn’t hurt! Check them out if you are looking for web hosting.

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Ron Paul for President http://joemccurdy.com/2007/08/17/ron-paul-for-president/ http://joemccurdy.com/2007/08/17/ron-paul-for-president/#comments Fri, 17 Aug 2007 17:39:25 +0000 Joe McCurdy http://www.joemccurdy.com/?p=16 I really like what I’ve heard so far from Ron Paul. So much so that even as a life long Democrat I plan on pulling a Republican ticket in the primary, just so I can vote for him. On almost every single issue I am in total agreement with his ideas and proposed policies. I truly believe this is the man our country needs to be in charge at this crucial time in history.

His common sense and unwavering values are something that Washington has sorely lacked for some time. His respect for that thing called the Constitution is also very refreshing. It’s been beat up a lot the last 6 years! So if you don’t know what Dr Paul is all about or you think he’s only a “marginal candidate” with “crazy ideas” please check out his website and take a look at his views on all the issues. Don’t let the media tell you that this guy can’t win. Once you learn more I’m sure you’ll feel the same way I do and will be a Ron Paul supporter!

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The "Greenest Cars" list http://joemccurdy.com/2007/02/07/the-greenest-cars-list/ http://joemccurdy.com/2007/02/07/the-greenest-cars-list/#comments Wed, 07 Feb 2007 17:20:51 +0000 Joe McCurdy http://www.joemccurdy.com/?p=17 Check out the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy’s 10th annual “Greenest Cars” list. Unfortunately of the top 12 “green” cars, not one is from a US manufacturer.

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Electric hotrod http://joemccurdy.com/2006/12/05/electric-hotrod/ http://joemccurdy.com/2006/12/05/electric-hotrod/#comments Tue, 05 Dec 2006 18:22:55 +0000 Joe McCurdy http://www.joemccurdy.com/?p=18 Slate has a nice review of the upcoming Tesla Roadster.

The Tesla Roadster isn’t your average hot rod. It’s all electric! Not only does the Tesla Roadster go from 0 to 60 in 4 seconds but thanks to its lithium-ion battery pack it can also go 250 miles without a charge.

The only visible downsides to this car is that it takes 3 and half hours to charge (pretty fast but limits the car from long trips) and its high sticker price, $100,000. Hopefully the Tesla Roadster is one more nail in the coffin of the old fashioned combustion engine.

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New Video site from NBC http://joemccurdy.com/2006/11/09/new-video-site-from-nbc/ http://joemccurdy.com/2006/11/09/new-video-site-from-nbc/#comments Thu, 09 Nov 2006 22:44:52 +0000 Joe McCurdy http://www.joemccurdy.com/?p=19 NBC Universal’s new online video site DotComedy.com seems to be pretty interesting. It contains a lot of varied comedic content that NBC Univeral owns. So you can find old sitcoms (Leave it to Beaver, The Munsters), stand up, “viral clips”, and clips from current NBC shows. They even have some of their own “digital shows”.

Since they actually own the content and they’re going for a niche market, this site might actually be able to make some money for NBC.

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Bush vs Bush http://joemccurdy.com/2006/09/15/bush-vs-bush/ http://joemccurdy.com/2006/09/15/bush-vs-bush/#comments Fri, 15 Sep 2006 18:30:29 +0000 Joe McCurdy http://joemccurdy.com/2006/09/15/bush-vs-bush/ I love the Daily Show and this clip really made me laugh…

It’s been around for a while but today was the first time I got to see it. Check it out.

You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video

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Vaporize your garbage. Get Energy? http://joemccurdy.com/2006/09/11/vaporize-your-garbage-get-energy/ http://joemccurdy.com/2006/09/11/vaporize-your-garbage-get-energy/#comments Mon, 11 Sep 2006 17:15:17 +0000 Joe McCurdy http://www.joemccurdy.com/?p=21 I just came across this interesting AP article about how an Atlanta based company called Geoplasma is building and paying for a new garbage vaporizing facility in St. Lucie County Florida. The facility is scheduled to be ready in two years and if all goes as planned the facility will use lightning like plasma arcs to vaporize 3,000 tons of garbage a day. Some useful byproducts will also be created in the process; a synthetic gas that will be used to power turbines to create electricity, a slag byproduct will be sold/used for road construction, etc.

It sounds very promising but the plan does have some critics. Some aren’t sure about the company’s “cleaner emissions” claims and others have yet to see proof of the process working on such a large scale. Hopefully this is a viable technology that can be duplicated throughout the world.

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