AntSaint

River Road/Santa Clara Library

Jodie and I love living in the River Road area, and recently became acquainted with its wee library. Located behind the Goodwill store at River Road and Hilliard, the library is a laidback facility with $10 membership (donation), a good selection and Intenet access.

Link: PLACE TO CHECK OUT: The Register-Guard, Eugene, Ore..

"Open three years on June 4, the River Road/Santa Clara Volunteer Library offers access to a growing collection at a mere $10 a year — compared to $80 per household per year for non-city residents at the Eugene library — for the 18,000-plus residents living in the unannexed squares of these neighborhoods. Other neighbors whose homes sit on city land can use the library for $15 a year."

Silver Falls State Park

We've yet to make it to Silver Falls State Park, but every time I glance over it in the atlas, it grabs my attention. And after reading this article in the R-G, I'm thinking we need to bust out the Ural and sidecar it up there for some camping and hiking...

Link: FALLING FOR WATER: The Register-Guard, Eugene, Ore..

"Why Silver Falls State Park, which celebrates its 75th anniversary this year, is not better known in these parts of the Willamette Valley is a bit of a mystery. It could be the fact that it’s somewhat tricky to reach."

Why Search Marketers Can Safely Ignore Cuil

The Search Engine Guide Blog has a great breakdown on why Why Search Marketers Can Safely Ignore Cuil.The new search engine launched earlier in the week, but it doesn't exactly see to be making waves. I agree with the first point here - when you have to explain how to pronounce (and spell) your name, this can be trouble...

"Let's start with the name. It's Cuil (pronounced "cool"). I have to tell you that anytime you start with a name that people have to explain how to pronounce, you're already in trouble. Look, search marketing depends on people being able to remember and spell your name. Any company that breaks that ruil is unlikely to be the search tuil that wins the Google duil"

Now, could we all be wrong? We could. Cuil could be huge. Maybe it's the right mix of David vs. Goliath, heavy-hitting search engine, and enough Web 2.0-ness to gain significant marketshare. But a "Google killer"? Nah. Anything billed as a "- killer" – "iPhone killer" and "iPod killer" are good example – generally indicates the product will lag and never truly catch on.

The Lifehacker Editors' Favorite Software and Hardware

Pondering software? Wondering what to try, or what the pros use? The editors at Lifehacker have put together lists of what they use:

Link: What We Use: The Lifehacker Editors' Favorite Software and Hardware.

We polled our own editors for the computer hardware and applications they swear by and we're breaking it down for you here. This post is categorized into the software each editor uses on a daily, the operating systems we live in, the hardware we rely on, the peripherals we utilize on a regular basis, and webapps we need

Traveling Oregon on One Tank of Gas

The idea: to take an amazing trip... on a tank of gas.

And you know what? Oregon makes that so easy, it's like we're cheating. Jodie and I just had such a trip. We drove down about 50 miles east of Roseburg, on Highway 138, to spend a weekend camping and rafting the North Umpqua River with friends. And it took well under a tank of gas.

Link: One-tank WONDERS: The Register-Guard, Eugene, Ore..

"With gasoline prices for the family car topping well over $4 per gallon and the cost of airline tickets heading up, up and away for the same reason, vacationers everywhere reportedly are curtailing their summer travels this year. Fortunately, we live in an area where there’s plenty to see and much to do on less than a tank of gas, if you just put your mind and your imagination to work"

Grocery Outlet Moving to Old River Road Safeway Site

Some months back, the Safeway on River Road closed its doors. Jodie and I have speculated a while on what would go there — and lo and behold, a few weeks ago, we saw signs of work going on inside. Turns out that the Grocery Outlet store, currently a little farther north on River Road, will be moving into the location. The new space is being redone from top to bottom. We're looking forward to it:

Link: Grocery Outlet plans move to Safeway site: The Register-Guard, Eugene, Ore..

"Grocery Outlet has operated from its current, 13,000-square-foot store at 2750 River Road since the chain entered the Eugene-Springfield market in 1996. The 24,000-square-foot former Safeway store — on the opposite side of Beltline from Grocery Outlet — is more typical in size for the 124-store chain. It is slightly larger than a Springfield Grocery Outlet that’s run by separate owner-operators"

Grilled Pizza

Now we're talking. Want to change things up on the grill? Then grill up some fresh, homemade pizza:

Link: If you can’t stand the heat—grill pizza. | King Arthur Flour - Bakers\’ Banter.

Hotdogs, hamburgers, chops, chicken, steak, fish… pizza? Believe it or not, pizza is one of the easier, quicker supper dishes you can make out on the deck. You literally just slap the dough onto the grill, cook one side, flip it over, add the toppings, and wait about 5 minutes for everything to warm up. And while dinner’s cooking, you’re sitting in a deck chair, cold glass of (fill in the blank) in hand, enjoying whatever faint breezes happen to be stirring in the trees arching overhead

Digital Copyright Slider Tool

Great find on Lifehacker today. This Copyright "slider tool" gives you different dates and parameters for content, and the slider helps you determine the content's copyright status:

Link: PDTool.

Via Copyright: Digital Sliderule Makes Copyright Law Dead Simple

Giving Up the Lottery Fantasy

Do you play the lottery? Why? I don't, and it's based on my two main memories of the lottery...

• Virginia set up a scratch-off system when I was about 9 or 10 years old (I think). My dad bought me a ticket with $1 of my allowance. I won $3, and bought 3 more lottery tickets. I lost. It hit me - this is just a way to get you to throw away money on false hope. Well, I probably didn't think of it exactly that way. But it was pretty close. I haven't bothered with the lottery since.
• A family comic strip called "Hi and Lois". Their oldest plays the lottery and says, "Dad, this is going to change my finances!" "It already has," his dad says. "You're down $1."

And that brings us to this great post: The Art of Nonconformity � Giving Up the Lottery Fantasy.

"I am now anti-lottery for reasons that have nothing to do with moral qualms. My reasons are even more personal: I am thrilled with the life I am building. I do not want the state of Washington, or any other government entity, to give me my ticket to happiness. I want to earn it"

Indeed, why play the lottery? Why bother? You can save minuscule amounts per week, and still come out farther ahead than you ever will by plunking down dollar and after on lottery tickets.

Oh wait. Unless you hit it big.

But here's the short and simple: You won't.

Save your money instead.

Video Poll Results for Email Marketing

Polls like this are good because they remind email marketers what not to do. Want to put a form in your email? Go for it... just don't expect it to work. Same with video. And that really cool javascript thing you got coded up. Don't put that stuff in email, it just doesn't work consistently. Put it on your website, and have the email get people to go there:

Link: EmailKarma.net: Video Poll Results.

"The results are in... with a limited number of respondents I'm not sure how scientific this is, but the results did show a number of very strong trends"