Cheryl on the Web

Tim came home with a PS3 (PlayStation 3) this weekend. It took us a little while to figure out where to put it since it is aesthetically equivalent to a 12 x 5 x 9 inch black box - read, not that easy to hide in what we otherwise would consider our aesthetically pleasing living room. We connected the box via a high-definition cable to the TV and via an optical sound cable to the sound system (and of course remembered to plug it into the power outlet as well). Then, full of anticipation, we turned it on. (more…)

For those of you looking for interesting Internet surf destinations to add to your list (since I’m humble enough to realize I can’t satisfy all your needs), I’ve added 2 sites to my Blog Roll (in the right-hand column), have a look.

This morning at breakfast Tim and I tried to watch the latest Dutch news broadcast online. Pretty much all of the stations in Holland put their news broadcasts online after-the-fact and you can just stream the video, it’s great .. in theory.

Both the sites we tried this morning (RTL and NOS) failed to actually play any video when browsed from my Mac, not in Firefox and also not in Safari. *Learn to do your job* I felt like screaming at the people responsible for putting these sites together - not everyone is using Microsoft Internet Explorer on Windows XP! In fact, about 35% of people are using something else nowadays. It’s not that hard to make a site that at least works in Firefox for the Mac. I even have a special program on my Mac that lets me view Windows Media Player videos and these 2 news sites still don’t work!

Some sites are going to learn the hard way that if they can’t cater to the browsers used by the web browsing population out there, their Windows-centric websites are going to be left in the dust. Have you got a website to add to my list? Post a comment.

For all those looking for American or British food products in Germany, I ran into this web page that links to a number of websites where you can order the supplies you need:
http://www.gfra.de/usfood/shop.htm

In particular, I noticed right away that one of the sites sells canned pumpkin and will ship up to 30kg of products to Germany for just 5 euro: http://www.foodfromhome.de/index.php?section=2&subsection=0&g1=0

President Bush got a pardon for war crimes since 2001 worked into a bill passed by Congress a year ago? Someone tell me this isn’t true…

CNN broadcast recording posted on YouTube

Those who know me will agree, “clubbing” as a social pastime has never been my thing. Yes, it has to do with the smoke; yes, with the people I don’t know running into/over me; yes, with the noise and style of music played. But most of all, it just isn’t as laid back as the house parties that really were my favorite when I was still in the US. And by house parties, I don’t mean the campus fraternity gatherings or anything like that (let’s be clear on that point!); I mean the people who lived in houses and simply invited other people over.
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Just when you thought you’d heard it all: a German politician proposed today that marriage not be forever - just for 7 years. After that, just like renewing your newspaper subscription, you could choose to renew your marriage subscription (each renewal would last 7 years) - or not. The purported reason for this arrangement is that it would reduce the number of divorces. (Talk about playing with statistics; if that wouldn’t be manipulation, then I don’t know what is.) Seems to me this could, in particular, motivate those who have trouble remembering their anniversary to be more faithful going forward; miss your 7th or your 14th anniversary (etc.) and before you know it, you’re a bachelor!

Thank goodness the German citizens aren’t any more enthusiastic about this proposal than I am. Comments made on the news were thinks like “Ridiculous” and “Not realistic”. And naturally, the Catholic church is against the concept as well.

Did I mention that the politician who proposed this is divorced? Twice?