Don't Back Down

The 25th annual Mint Hill Madness festival was held this weekend, and it was quite an improvement over years past. Held at Mint Hill Park on Fairview, the event has seen dramatic growth recently - as has just about every event in the area. It's hard to imagine that these things can just keep growing and growing like they are, but the Madness actually has room to grow, which is nice.

This area offers a few things that alternatives, such as the recent Festival in the Park, do not. Notably, since the park is just off 485, access is a breeze. Even on Saturday morning right after the parade, which is arguably the busiest time at the event and the traffic the heaviest, it wasn't bad. Contrast this to Saturday afternoon near Freedom Park for the Festival in the Park - not the heaviest time, but it was definitely not a good time, traffic-wise.

Furthermore, the level of traffic overall just isn't as heavy. Perhaps people just don't come to the event, and quite frankly, that's okay by me because it translates to a more enjoyable experience.

Read "25th Annual Mint Hill Madness" »

Though Microsoft would probably wish that things were different, these days we come across the ubiquitous PDF almost constantly. The wonderful thing about the PDF is that just about anyone can read it, which isn't always the case with documents created in a word processor. While a lot of people have Microsoft Word, not everyone does, and not everyone that does has the same version.

Creating PDF files can get expensive if you choose to do so with products from Adobe, howver, which means that getting documents that everyone can read isn't alway cheap. Fortunately, there is a solution. Using one piece of software, you can easily create PDF files from any application, and using another application, you can even edit them as well - without a huge investment!

Read "Easily Create and Even Edit PDF Files" »

Darren at ProBlogger has rounded up at least $54,000 worth of prizes - and perhaps as much as $60,000 - and is planning on handing them out to celebrate the week.

All you have to do win is keep an eye on what's happening, and perhaps do a little commenting either on his site or your own (or perhaps both) to let him know that you are watching. Most of the prize giveaways are set up so that if you win one, you can't win another - but there are a few that you can win regardless of what else you've won. In other words, choose your battles wisely - but regardless, you may want to check it out to see what is there!

Read "ProBlogger Birthday Bash" »

The Carolina Panthers have now played four games in the 2007 season. Their record stands at a perfectly mediocre two wins and two losses. In the division, they are in second place. While no one harbored expectations that they would win the Super Bowl, or perhaps even make the playoffs, it was generally expected that they would do better.

Within the division, Tampa Bay, predicted by most to be horrible, is in first place, with three wins and one loss. Atlanta has won just a single game and lost three. Not surprising, since they lost Michael Vick after he pleaded guilty to dog fighting charges. New Orleans has yet to win, but have only lost three - they have already had their bye week (what is up with teams getting a bye in the first four weeks?). What does this all mean for the Panthers chances this year?

Read "Carolina Panthers: 2007 First Quarter Review" »

Many of you may know that a few years ago, when I married my wife, I not only became a husband, but I became a father at the same time, because my wife had two children from a prior marriage. For a long time I had told myself that I wasn't planning to date anyone who had been married because I didn't want to deal with the issues that may arise. I also didn't want to be with someone who had children for the same reasons. Naturally, the universe saw to it that I had both.

As I am adopted myself, I don't think that it matters at all that I am not the biological father of the children, and I am certainly glad that I had a chance to know them when they were younger (meaning before we were married), as that has made the transition all the easier. In fact, our youngest I have known since he was born, and our oldest I have known since he was perhaps one. It is as if they are my own. I'm sure it would be that way regardless, but it is just that much easier.

Read "The Joy of a Child" »

Over the last few years, the term beta has been somewhat misused. It used to be that when you used beta software, you expected to encounter problems. But when Google started throwing around the term for its offerings, people came to expect that beta software wasn't so bad. Still need an example? Despite Gmail arguably being the leader in web-based email systems, it's had that tag for more than two years.

There are plenty of examples, but hopefully you get the point I'm trying to make - that beta just doesn't mean what it used to. So there really shouldn't be a surprise that people install beta software. It used to be that only a certain crowd would install beta software, but these days, just about everyone will do so, thinking that they can expect to get what they have come to expect. That's not always the case, as sometimes you can get nasty surprises.

Read "How to Fix a Common MT4 Feed Formatting Error" »

Despite a few lackluster performances over the last few weeks, it looks like the high school football powers have finally found their stride, at least for one week. We'll have to wait for another week to see if it's for real or if it's really a fluke that all of the big three are really starting to fire on all cylinders.

In last night's games, the Butler Bulldogs, the Independence Patriots and the West Charlotte Lions all won fairly easily, making things continue to be crowded at the top of the high school football charts. While Charlotte Latin is still in the mix - and in fact is still undefeated - they didn't fare as well, with their offense having some trouble getting on track, winning only 28-7.

Read "High School Football Powers Hit Stride" »

Today the United States - and to be fair, a number of other countries - celebrate Columbus Day. Unlike many other holidays named after a person, this one doesn't celebrate his birth (for the most part because no one knows exactly when he was born) but when he first landed in the Americas. Interestingly, even that is perhaps a bit of a misnomer, because according to what slim facts there are, land was only sighted on October 12, 1492, and the land in question was an island in The Bahamas. We don't even know which island it was!

While The Bahamas are in North America, it's not like he set foot on the US mainland in 1492, and certainly not on that particular day. So why do we celebrate today? Why do we celebrate today at all? Actually, it's not really today, since here we do things on the closest day to weekend, and, well, that would be Friday, and for some bizarre reason, we do it on the second Monday in October. I don't know why. Let's just talk about Columbus instead, okay?

Read "Curiously Celebrating Christopher Columbus" »

During the game against the Atlanta Falcons two weeks ago - yes, the one where they barely squeaked by with a win - Jake Delhomme came out of the game grasping his elbow in what appeared to be a serious amount of pain. What was perhaps the strangest thing about the injury is that no one appeared to touch him.

We found out over the next few days that Jake's elbow was strained or sprained or otherwise damaged, but that it should heal up with some minor rehab - nothing major, and though surgery was mentioned, that's just because surgery is usually mentioned in these things as a possibility. Worst case is that it would happen after the season. He'd be back. As it turns out, Jake won't be back this season, and it's currently looking like he may not be back in time for next season. In fact, he might not be back at all.

Read "Carolina Panthers Lose Jake Delhomme for Season" »

To be fair, in this day and age, just about anyone anywhere can become famous. All you need is a webcam - and to be able to visit YouTube with some regularity. After that, you'll be famous in no time flat.

But there are still a huge number of syndicated radio programs out there, in every shape and size. Many are simple talk radio formats, but just about every sort of music has a show as well. Here in Charlotte, the most popular show is apparently Steve Harvey. I can't say that it's either good or bad. Before anyone gets upset, I'm not saying either way - I can't say that I've heard it. That's just the way it is. But Steve, to my knowledge, isn't based in Charlotte. There are, however, at least five other shows that are based in Charlotte that are syndicated across the country. I don't know if that's a lot, but it seems impressive.

Read "Is Charlotte a Hotbed of Radio Syndication?" »

It's not uncommon to find people screaming at the top of their lungs that credit cards are bad. Of course, if you use just about anything incorrectly it can be bad. Frankly, I don't have anything against credit cards - I think that they are great, provided you know how to use them. We have a handful of credit cards that we pay off each month, so in effect, we are using other people's money for the course of the month. And yes, I fully understand that we could get into a bind if we needed to pay some other bills first, and couldn't pay those cards off. But that's why we try and have money available to pay the bills. It's all about using your head.

That said, if you can't do that, then maybe they aren't for you at all, and that's okay as well. But what I don't get are the people who talk about credit cards being the worst thing to hit the planet since, well, evil, but they don't talk about things like ATM cards. I mean really. ATM cards - in fact, let's lump all debit cards or check cards or whatever you want to call them into the same bunch - can be just as bad, if not worse. Sure, there is the advantage that you can't spend more money than you have, but you can sure spend it just as quickly.

Read "Is All Plastic Bad, or Only Certain Kinds?" »

When Six Apart released the latest version of Movable Type, the software underwent a massive rewrite. The interface changed considerably from what it had been, and by most accounts it is a good change. There are, however, a few things that just don't work quite right.

One of the things that is perhaps most frustrating is the editing box. There is little that can be done with this for now, especially if you want to maintain the WYSIWYG editor. Similarly, the syntax highlighting function of the template editor causes problems too, especially on lesser-used editors like Opera and Safari. So we have to focus elsewhere, perhaps on the menus.

Though the drop-down menus are certainly cool, they tend to get stuck open, and that is terribly annoying. There is almost nothing worse than trying to work, only to find yourself sitting there looking at a menu that appears to be looking back.

Read "Making Your Movable Type Menus Snappy Again" »