Cheers to all my friends and family on Thanksgiving! 

It’s been too long since my last post, in fact over a month-and-a-half. I missed my blog anniversary, left my jloop family, started a new job as Interactive Project Manager for The Designory in Long Beach, where I now work on Infiniti.com projects only. So, I haven’t had a chance to keep up and post anything juicy… The new gig along with the always busy-family life has kept me so busy I feel like I am a step behind as I learn new systems and processes at work. Managing projects seems to be the easy part, learning new overly-complicated systems is the challenge.

Anyway, I got a chance to read some mail tonight and found a good find I wanted to share:

10 Worst Web glitches of 2008 (so far)

http://news.cnet.com/glitches/?tag=nl.e404

enjoy!

It was announced today that flash will now be crawl-able to major search engines thanks to Adobe. About F*ing time. Great news though, especially if you work for an agency who specializes in interactive media. Here at jloop, in the past we have struggled between the rich presentation we can deliver through flash elements and the trade off of near-invisibility in search results. Sounds like very soon we can have the best of both worlds; “flashy-flash” as our clients put it & search crawler-friendly content (even URLs inside of flash movies can be followed by the Google-bots).

Here’s some more to read on this great news:

http://mashable.com/2008/07/01/google-adobe-flash-search/
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/07/01/adobe-helps-google-yahoo-search-flash-files
http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/search/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=208801861

now get back to work flash developers!

Here’s a picture of her riding shotgun. She’s a Basset Hound / English Bulldog mix.

and I have pictures to prove it: Karcher wedding gallery  & my iPhone pictures & a wedding slideshow & some more.
Congratulations Scott and Jen! We are so glad we were a part of your celebration, thank you for including us. We had a wonderful time and feel honored.

Scott and Jen’s Wedding website and wedding blog

I saw this on a  Wahoos restaurant t-shirt and had to share.

duh. They’re two different people. One’s a team player who is the greatest basketball player to ever lace up. The other is a great one-on-one basketball player. I am not sure why people are still trying to compare the two, but that’s the first thing I heard when I turned on the radio this morning.

In case you didn’t know, Dennis hates Kobe Bryant. And I don’t mind being reminded why. So when I hear about how Kobe berates his own teammates (yes ‘his own’, he practically owns them in his mind) it confirms my instinct that he is a selfish player, and selfish person for that matter.

Read how Curt Schilling described his observation of Kobe sitting courtside: http://38pitches.com/2008/06/09/manny-jd-papi-lester-and-the-nba-finals/

It’s not just me after all.

Even my friends and family are a little confused by me rooting for the Lakers not to win the championship this year. Let me set the record straight: I am not a fan of Boston sports teams. In fact, I hate the Red Sox. I am also simply not a fan of Kobe Bryant. It wasn’t always that way. Kobe was actually a large part of the reason I started watching the NBA when he came into the league over 10 years ago.

I was impressed with his flashy game play, work ethic, and his demeanor that appeared he was a humble man. I watched as a fan as he found success: first as he worked his way from the bench to a starting position with the team, to becoming elected as an all-star, all the way to winning 3 championships with the Lakers. I also watched him become a selfish A-hole as he threw anyone around him under-the-bus when things didn’t go his way. And it simply turned me off. Am I the only one who remembers the allegations in Utah a few years ago where he was sure to mention that he “should have just paid people off like Shaq”. Anyone bother reading Phil’s last book describing how much of a baby Kobe is?

Anyway, back to why I am rooting for the Lakers not to win another championship with Kobe. Since I have openly voiced my opinion about Kobe around the JLOOP loft (see my bio under our website at http://jloop.com), it has brought up some interesting conversations since all the other loopers are dedicated Lakers fans. 2 or 3 seasons ago I stated that Kobe was so selfish that he would insist on a team trade in place of being patient for the team to place some talent around him. This turned into an ongoing bet with Greg:

Greg bets - Kobe will win another championship with the Lakers

Dennis bets - Kobe will leave the Lakers before winning another championship

The winner gets to place a bumper sticker of their choice on the losers’ car for one year. (And we both hate bumper stickers btw).

You can imagine the bumper stickers we’ve teased each other about placing on each other’s car. Original George W and rainbow stickers are the top contenders.

If you recall, I was extremely close to winning the bet at the beginning of the season as Kobe cried openly to the media demanding to be traded from the Lakers: http://www.latimes.com/sports/basketball/nba/lakers/la-sp-lakers16jun16,0,5734164 Now, going into game 5 of the NBA championships on Sunday with the Lakers down 3-1, it appears Greg came just as close to winning the bet this season too.

I predict the Lakers will win game 5, Celtics take it back home and win the championship in 6!

 **FOLLOW UP FROM SHAQ: http://www.tmz.com/2008/06/23/shaq-attacks-kobe-you-ruined-my-marriage/

For all you iPhone fans: the rumor is building momentum that Apple is planning to release the second version of the iPhone, being referred to as iPhone 2, at the MacWorld in San Fransisco on June 9th.

Here’s a list of the consistent rumors:

- Lighter weight
- Black + other colors
- Focus on Multimedia with Video recording
- Video Conferencing
- GPS
- 16GB $499
- 32GB $699

read more about the new iPhone 2 rumors

It was very sad and scary to hear about the helicopter crash near Two Harbors on Santa Catalina Island. The crash killed 3 people including the pilot and injured another 3 who are in the hospital. It appears the crash is under investigation, but sounds like it was due to engine failure.

My wife and I flew with this same company, Island Express to Catalina just a few weeks ago for a weekend getaway.  It’s very sad and scary for us since we just completed the flight. For all we know it could have been the same helicopter. Our deepest regrets and condolences to the families of the unfortunate.

We are going camping at the Two Harbors campground later this summer. We will be sure to pay our respect when we get there. Friends and family, rest assured we are taking the boat for our next trip over to the island.

read more from LA Times

What’s the deal? The Wii Fit came out yesterday, or at least in limited supply. I called Best Buy around lunchtime to make sure I had the release date correct to learn they sold out; 50 units in 30 minutes. Had I known Nintendo’s plan was to keep the supply low to keep demand high I would have pre-ordered one. I’ve also read that it’s still hard to get a stand alone Wii console, claiming an artificial shortage by Nintendo.

I stumbled upon this handy Wii Fit tracker that automatically checks merchants on a regular basis to see whether or not they have Wii Fit in stock. Amazing: at 12:41 today Toys R Us was in stock, at 1:01 SOLD OUT.