These guys:  are some sort of Hallmark creation called Hoops and Yoyo.

Haven't a clue what they are, or what their purpose is, but I find them rather addicting.

Props to Karen for introducing me via their cries for coffee in this e-card:

Perhaps I'm a glutton for punishment, but I think I have a new playlist for long trips in the car:

1. Ring Of Fire - Social Distortion
2. Ring Of Fire - Dwight Yoakam
3. Ring Of Fire - Wall Of Voodoo
4. Ring Of Fire - Frank Zappa
5. Ring Of Fire - Eric Burdon & The Animals
6. Ring Of Fire - The Regulars
7. Ring Of Fire - Olivia Newton-John
8. Ring Of Fire (Demo Version) - Grace Jones
9. Ring Of Fire - Johnny Cash

Unfortunatly there are additional gems that Rhapsody doesn't have the rights to yet, so perhaps I'll wait until they get a few of these:

1. Tom Jones
2. Duane Eddy
3. Ray Charles

Dari suggested Leonard Nimoy, but he seems to have only covered I Walk the Line.

1. Create a video for fun:
2. Turn it into a full length movie.
3. Collect underpants
4. Profit!

I have a feeling this is one of those blog entries that confuses my mum to no end...

...the residents of Rockville.

Residents of the City of Rockville receive many services provided by the City. These services include City of Rockville Police protection, City water, City trash and refuse collections and City street maintenance. The City is governed by its Mayor and Council, whose members are elected only by City residents registered to vote in City elections.

[ Information for Residents ]

Highlights for me include:

• Croydon Creek Nature Center
• Farmers' Market
• Master Street Tree Plan
• Rockville Parks, Facilities and Schools
• Recycling
• Town Center (just around the corner from us)

Since 1985 Super Dickmann's has been the biggest among the chocolate foam kisses.

Who doesn't know the slogan "Man, they are Dickmann"? Under this motto Super Dickmann's from Storck quickly became Germany's most popular chocolate foam kiss.

[ Storck - Part of Your World - Super Dickmann's ]

Not the oddest candy around, though:

• Oddly Named Candy on Candy Addict
• Stupid Candy on Stupid.com (note: site will cause seizures)

And if Japanese candy is still your thing, head over to the Japan Candy Blog, or just Candy Blog in general for all sorts of candy goodness.

And let us not forget the Candy Cam, which is how I got on this digression in the first place.

Grossberg brings up a good question:

So now that the old Pentium II box is my third-string computer, what should I do with it?

[ What To Do With Old Computers? : Joe Grossberg ]

In the DC area you can have Turtle Wings do the dirty work for you, and rest assured that you aren't polluting the environment.

Over 40 million electronic pieces become obsolete every year. These pieces are filled with materials that are hazardous to the environment such as lead, cadmium, lead oxide, barium and mercury.

We Pick Up and Recycle Electronics

• Pickup and removal of all unwanted electronic equipment
• Security cleansing and identity theft protection
• Certified data destruction
• Certification of recycling and good citizenship
• Excess inventory programs

• computers
• monitors
• printers / copiers
• mainframes / hubs

• cell phones / telecom
• fax machines / plotters
• stereos / microwaves
• battery back-up units, etc.

The site says that there is a nominal charge, but what price can we put on the Earth?

Damn, the Japanese are lucky! For the Nintendo DS Lite's Touch Generation line, they have something called the Cooking Navigator. Not a video game, but an instructional program. A chef inside barks instructions at you so that you can cook by hearing

[ Nintendo DS Lite could make you an Iron Chef - Slashfood ]

Seems like a great idea, but I wonder how tunable it is to experience, skill level, etc. Does it only do a set number of recipes? What about food aversions, allergies, and the like? Is it WiFi enabled?

Personally I don't think so. Master Pages are very similar to the system I had devised in ASP.NET 1.1, but with the added benefit of integrating nicely into VisualStudio and ASP.NET. I find them very easy to understand and straight-forward. However it is nice to have a good page that explains them.

A professional web site will have a standardized look across all pages. For example, one popular layout type places a navigation menu on the left side of the page, a copyright on the bottom, and content in the middle. It can be difficult to maintain a standard look if you must always put the common pieces in place with every web form you build. In ASP.NET 2.0, master pages will make the job easier.

[ Master Pages In ASP.NET 2.0 ]

Master pages are seriously flexible too. The only bug I've found so far is that not all HREF or SRC attributes of controls that are "runat=server" will allow you to use ~ to home them, so far I've found that the <link> tag requires you to leave off the ~/ to do the same thing. Rather odd, but it is what it is.