Lisa Etheridge became an interest sensation in a matter of minutes ViA Twitter and Twit.TV. Leo Laporte

http://twitter.com/LisaTickledPink 

About time my neighborhood moved into the 21st century...

At&T U-verse

FYI I was barely getting 2.0Mb/s DOWNLOD and .75Mb/s UPLOAD before the upgrade. Lets see how  it does in the rain as my old service pretty much died whenever it rained..

#2 as the most miserable city, but good to see that we are moving down that rank and at least mentions what Stockton is doing about it. Here's a pretty good video from Forbes about Stockton and what step Stocktonians are taking to improve the city. Everything from better marketing, promoting a diversified economic base and  advertising our economic enterprise zone, it sounds like people are truely looking into Stockton's future.

Hum.... the day I hated, loved and hated is coming this Sunday.

I wonder what will be in store for me this year. Looking back at 7 years of them, I wonder about the choices I made in life and how I got where I am today.... But as the day come closer and closer, I think about the times when it put a smile on my face... with the hopes of cookies, candy and jelly beans. It also reminds me of one year where I was scrambling around looking for the perfect gift while stuck at a conference and how I could call on my favorite place in the Lincoln center in a pinch..  (Which I learned will NOT be selling chocolate-cover strawberries this year :-(  )

Anyways,  its almost here,  Happy V-day.

Being a big GIS fan and such, a discussion about the boundary of Eastern US and western US as we defined here at work, I went looking around for a Zip code boundary utility and came across this site...

http://maps.huge.info/

I especially found their  google Map layout utility pretty  cool http://maps.huge.info/zip.htm

and something I can use for next year when figuring out what city a county is in http://maps.huge.info/county.htm

Also be sure to check out his blog.. I never they still issue new ZIP codes http://maps.huge.info/blog/

 One other random site I ran across is http://www.city-data.com/

I was curious what the google real-time blog search thing found and was happy  to see that google found me in 8 minutes ;-)

Is that their or there:-)

Reminds me of how I got a call yelling at me for updating the homepage without "notice" but no one noticed the 50 other times I updated the homepage without notice.. Spell something wrong and everyone notices :-D 

I wonder what those were.  Interesting plan to make the interchange one lane at time and two lanes at other times. Something called the Smart Stud System.

http://laist.com/2009/10/30/lane_lights.php

http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist07/Publications/Inside7/story.php?id=330

The LA times article explains why they could not have a permanent 2 lanes interchange (page 2) http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jul/31/local/me-smart-freeway31

http://i.imgur.com/5C8Qn.jpg

Since 2005, Jib Jab has been putting together these wonderful year-in-review videos. Check out all the previous years on www.jibjab.com...

As we are going through our own web design project here at Pacific, so I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw this ....

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell

Talk about hitting the nail on the head. I would say which one made me giggle, but then I am sure I would get a call from my boss or something :-)

Verdana...the font everyone likes to hate. I really have no idea why so many peopel hate the font. Is simple, alllot like Helvetica and is very useful for website content. Not complex, renders well on small or larger  devices, but I guess anything used too much is automatically hated. Personally I like the font, but can understand it it getting a little overplay and is a easy solution in a pinch...  I still use it on my website, but now with 24" 1080P monitors flying everywhre, font smotthing technology, maybe its time for a new font to be king.

Anyways, ran across this interesting article about how IKEA, those awesome swedish furniture people, switch to using verdana in their marketing campaing and print material..

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1919127,00.html

I've always been fascinated with information display ( hence why I am a web-guy) so running across this site a few months ago is almost as addictive as bejeweled.

http://www.visualeconomics.com/


I know there is one other site I ran across but it doesn't come to mind.

and yes I've read Tufte's books... Any other suggestions?
 

Glad the city council is on the side of the officer.. Yes there is common courtesy, but hey if you don't have your license, you don't have it and avoiding a DUI check will almost certianly get you pulled over..

from: http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=8471349

Cpl. Joshua Rowell told KSL News he was just doing his job. He said he acted professionally when he wrote the driver a ticket and was shocked when he was suddenly asked to hand over his badge.

Rowell is a new member of the five-man Stockton police force. So, last Tuesday he didn't think twice about pulling over a driver in a small white car for avoiding a DUI stop.

Related:

Some already calling for revote in small town
When Mayor Dan Rydalch suspended an officer who gave his son a ticket, it set of lot of Stockton residents off. Some town council members say he needs to retire.

"He didn't have a driver's license, so I issued him a citation for that," Rowell explained.

He didn't think twice, that is, until he handed the ticket to the court clerk.

"She looked at it and said, ‘Hey, you know you just gave the mayor's son a ticket?' And I said, ‘Oh, crap,'" Rowell said.

He said he had never met the driver, 29-year-old Jared Rydalch, before. He said Rydalch told him he was out looking for his dog, and asked him to tell the other officers to not pull him over again.

"I told him, ‘No. If I see you driving around again, I'm going to pull you over again,'" Rowell said.

Rowell said he knew there was trouble when, about 20 minutes later, he found the chief of police in the mayor's truck in a heated discussion. Then he said the mayor, Dan Rydalch, rolled down the window and demanded he get in his truck. When he refused, Rydalch abruptly fired him on the spot.

"He told me, ‘All right, I want your badge in the morning,'" Rowell said. "I tried to defend myself and say, ‘First of all, look, he was breaking the law. Second of all, I didn't know he was your son.'"

Shortly after the incident, Rowell was told he was suspended without pay, indefinitely.

"The mayor, I think, was wrong," said Stockton City Council member David Durtschi.

According to Durtschi, not only was Mayor Rydalch out of line, the council stands behind Cpl. Rowell. In fact, the town is so upset about the mayor's actions, many of the citizens are trying to change their write-in ballots for the upcoming election.

"I think the mayor did make a mistake," one Stockton resident told KSL News.

Another said, "I was very shocked, very shocked, because I thought it was a little extreme."

As for Rowell, he just wants the job he loves back.

"There's no more respectable position than a police officer, in my mind," Rowell said.

We tried repeatedly to get in touch with the mayor.

Another Stockton city council member, Kendall Thomas, told KSL News the mayor is conducting the investigation into any wrongdoing in the incident and has not consulted any of the council members. A special council meeting is scheduled for Thursday night to discuss the incident.

E-mail: jstagg@ksl.com