Archive for March, 2007

Naked People on Google Earth

Here are some fun links for your Friday crawl through the day. They are all work safe as far as I can tell.

Who’s Watching Over You, Google?

Combine Google Maps and Wikipedia…What You Get

Top 10 Naked People On Google Earth

And if that left you wondering what else you could do with Google Earth, try Google Earth Hacks.

Popularity: 5% [?]

And The Winner Is…

*drumroll*

…CAREERRAMBLINGS.COM! Congrats to all of the participants in the 2007 Bloggers Tournament. Make sure you stop by CareerRamblings and say hello. Here are a few of my favorite reads from the blog:

• Need Help With Your Job Application?
  Jane walks you through the Why and How of a job application.
• Game Day: What To Take On An Interview
  Aside from the “Game Day” draw, Jane reels you in with a list of things that are essential to have with you on the big day. You’d be surprised what you might leave behind.
• The Art of Negotiating, part I
  I’m a huge Stephen Covey fan (not sure why really). I once arm wrestled him at one of his shows. No lie. Sometimes it pays to be the largest person in the room. Regardless, Jane does a great job of getting you fired up about negotiation and follows it up with part 2.

Once again, thanks to everyone that participated (including propstm.net for giving hope to #8 seed blogs everywhere)…for being good sports about being included. It’ll be back next year. In the meantime, get those NCAA Tourney brackets in! It’s almost game time!

Popularity: 3% [?]

My First Crack At Advertising Derrich.com

As regular readers of Derrich.com know, I love videos. Well, as I’ve received excess traffic from new readers as a result of the 2007 Bloggers Tournament, I’ve made it a point to visit each new MyBlogLog Community Member that visits my blog. One of those blogs is brohans.com.

Brohans.com is a video blog. I appreciate what Henry Banthrob and Matt Rungus are doing. Not only do they hand-select videos for brohans.com, but they also feature original videos and a section dedicated to Saturday Night Live videos. Huge SNL fan…even through waves of crappy casts. Anyway, going to brohans beats sifting through countless junky videos on GooTube.

Brohans.com has a section in the top right corner of its blog with $4 per month advertising. I thought “Why not?” and now I’ve got my little soccer hooligan toddler icon pasted in the header. So, we’ll see how this goes. Video sites tend to get alot of traffic. Hopefully I earn my $4 back…or else.

Be sure to pay the guys at brohans.com a visit.

Popularity: 1% [?]

2007 Bloggers Tournament Final

The (dare I say) 1st Annual Bloggers Tournament has turned out to be a great success so far. I’m sure we’ll do it again next year…with more blogs. What I thought would turn out to be another Bloggers Face-Off between John Chow and Matt Coddington as featured on Daily Blog Tips has turned out to be a tournament of upsets. Imagine the odds-makers in Vegas right now who put 1,871,000:1 odds that propstm.net would appear in the Final game of the 2007 Bloggers Tournament.

Game 5 pitted #8 seed propstm.net against #4 NetBusinessBlog.com. Neither earned bonus points, but they did make early campaign runs on Day 1. propstm.net upset NBB, 12-8.

Game 6 featured the evil one himself, John Chow (#3) against the seemingly innocent #7 seed, CareerRambings.com. Both earned 5 bonus votes by linking to the Day 2 post, but John’s downfall may have come when he urged his readers to vote for Jane. And we thought he was evil…well, he’s still pretty evil. CareerRamblings.com edged JohnChow.com by 4 votes, 18-14. Nice.

So here’s where we stand

propstm.net vs. CareerRamblings.com

Popularity: 3% [?]

Why The San Antonio Spurs Are Unstoppable Going Into The NBA Playoffs…

The San Antonio Spurs are on a roll, playing some of the best basketball of the season. Finally. Well, Manu Ginobili is arguably the reason for the recent Spurs’ success. His audacious, yet athletic, form of basketball supplies a new level of energy to the rest of the team. Coach Gregg Popovich once said that “I don’t coach him. I just hope and pray for him because I have no idea what he’s gonna do”. Well, I think he knows by now.

If you watch this at work, turn the volume low. There are some explicit lyrics in the song used as the background music. Be sure to check out the highlight at about 2:55: my favorite Ginobili highlight ever.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Day 2: 2007 Bloggers Tournament

Day 1 of the 2007 Bloggers Tournament included a couple of upsets with the help of some blogger campaigns on their respective blogs (here and here) against the “big boys”: #8 propstm.net took out #1 ShoeMoney.com by 5 votes, and #7 CareerRambings.com upended #2 StevePavlina.com by a whopping 17 votes. Wow. And, we also have a potential rematch of NetBusinessBlog.com versus the root of all evil, John Chow, who happens to be giving away a Nintendo Wii. (John’s contest is sponsored by 1234Pens.com. They make promotional pens.)

While Day 1 voting attracted more comments than I’ve ever had, I’ve used pollburner.com to create some more official polls for Day 2, and they only allow 1 vote per IP address. HOWEVER, I’d still appreciate a comment from you…like “I voted” or “Derrich.com is so frikken awesome” or something. Be sure to vote below for both games for Day 2.

VOTING FOR DAY 2 HAS ENDED. Please go vote for the finalists.

Incentive
If you are one of the bloggers remaining and you simply link to this post in one of your posts today and use anchor text that says “Vote for my blog at Derrich.com”, you will receive 5 extra votes, which I will add on to the final poll results. If you do a review (at least 100 words) of Derrich.com that includes 2 links to your favorite Derrich.com posts, I will award you with 10 extra votes.

Popularity: 3% [?]

2007 NCAA Tournament Destinations — San Antonio

Once again, San Antonio is hosting 3 games in this year’s Men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament in the South Regional bracket. The games will take place in the Alamodome on Thursday, March 22 [Sweet 16] and Saturday, March 24 [Elite 8]. On the evening newscast from our NBC Affiliate, WOAI, sportscaster David Chancellor mentioned that ESPN.com had featured a Men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament Travel Guide for those coming to San Antonio. Like David, I’m a little discouraged by the selections. But you can’t blame ESPN completely. I mean, they could have called David…or myself…for a little advice. Sometimes the internet guides aren’t great for suggestions.

I thought I’d offer my own suggestions based on their categories in case you decide you’d like the opinion of a local socialite. Sorta. Anyway, I kept the choices downtown for sake of proximity to the main event.

Nightlife.
Let’s be a little more specific. Upscale bar: Suede Lounge or V Bar (located in the Valencia Hotel).
Hole In The Wall Bar: Durty Nelly’s, Alibi’s, and Pat O’Brien’s.
Dancing: Polly Esther’s.
Don’t go to St. Mary’s Street…except maybe for Joey’s.

Sports Bar.
Tex’s Sports Bar? Eh…it’s ok. Lots of TVs is a plus, but hotel prices (it’s under the Palacio del Rio next to Durty Nelly’s). But I can’t think of a “sports bar” other than Hooter’s on the Riverwalk.

Restaurant (cheap or otherwise).
Ok…I actually agree with Boudro’s. This is one of my favorite restaurants in San Antonio.
Mexican: Aldaco’s. They have amazing margaritas!
A little nicer: Little Rhein Steak House and Zuni Grill.
Don’t Leave San Antonio without going to: Dick’s Last Resort…unless you have a short temper. The name suggests why.

Attractions & Things To Do.
This is the category Mr. Chancellor with which Mr. Chancellor took issue. Sure the Alamo is here. It’s cool. The Museums? Send the non-sports fans in your family there.

• The Quarry Market. Go shopping, eat and have a few drinks, and catch a movie all in one place…all outdoors.
• Sea World and Six Flags Fiesta Texas. Can’t go wrong with Theme Parks.
• Aztec Theatre and The Buckhorn Museum if you want to stay downtown (not your ordinary museum).
• Enchanted Springs Ranch if you wondered where all the horse-n-buggies went. And you get a nice scenic drive in the process.
• San Antonio Botanical Garden
• Rio San Antonio Cruises for barge rides along the River Walk.
• Canyon Springs, Quarry Golf Club, and Pecan Valley for some solid daily fee golf courses. There aren’t any games on Friday, so….

If you really want to go nuts (as if I haven’t already done that for you), visit the San Antonio Convention and Visitors Bureau website for a nearly complete guide of things to do.

Popularity: 4% [?]

BlogRoll

• Milk Was A Bad Choice
• CrackBerry.com
• Stock Trading 101
• For The Love Of Sports
• Project Spurs
• Busted Coverage
• WallStreetFighter

Sponsors