I’ve got 4 run-of-the-mill motion activated flood lights in my yard & even on the lowest settings, they still go off when a leaf blows past them. It’s really horrible in the winter because they are pretty much on & off all night long.

But then I found this little beauty:
Motion Activated Solar Flood Light
And I have to admit, I just ordered 3 more. This thing is GREAT!

The purpose of a motion activated flood light is to give you some temporary light (otherwise, you’d just turn the light on when you needed it) This light completely charged in 2 days & it’s perfect. 30-60 seconds of light & it’s all free

The only downside is that now I need to call my electrician buddy & have him put the 4 old lights on a switch - but that’s a downside I can deal with!

Here’s some more sites to use to waste away your day

Cultural Learnings Association of Production
Ms Dewey
Antiquarian Angler
Ninja, Pirate or Gladiator?
How to Win at Rock-Paper-Scissors
The Tailor Of A Cat
The Pillow Fight League

Now remember, all the Stupid & Silly Sites are still here on BlinkerFluid.com (even the really old horribly designed version). Yes, the site has undergone a dramatic change, but nothing has been removed (but a lot has been added) So when you tell me that the site sucks & it’s not interesting I say to you to bookmark this page and you won’t have to look at my mindless ramblings about HDTV or Hockey or Recycling or whatever else rattles thru my head.

Also remember that most of the sites are submitted by surfers just like you. So go thru your bookmarks & send me some links to sites that are just a complete waste of space.

Thank you & have a nice weekend!

I was just looking at NBC’s NHL Playoffs schedule and something struck me as odd…there’s no games scheduled for May 12th or 13. I though that was very strange, since the Conference Finals will be starting that weekend.

Now what major event could make NBC forget that they have the national NHL TV contract once again? Oh yeah! The ever popular Par 3 Water Hole.

Think about this for a second: all of the 9 games that NBC was generous enough to broadcast for us during the NHL regular season had a 12:30 PM starting time. This horrendous time was not something the NHL wanted - NBC wanted it so that they could show 3-4 hours of golf after. So why not schedule Game 1 or 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Saturday at 12:30? It’ll be on the East coast (Buffalo or New Jersey will be the home team), it’ll be over by 3 or so & then NBC can let everyone watch professional golfers hit balls into the water until 7 PM.

OR - and here’s a really whacky idea: How about a 7 or 8 PM game? Seems to work really well for Canada.

Of course I’ll be sending a version of this post to NBC & the NHL & anyone else I can find an email address for & I encourage you to do the same.

That’s what the flyer in my last electric bill said. And I’m a moron for holding out so long

I’m one of those guys that like to see the bill come in the mail. I like to have it on hand in a folder for reference if I need it.

But it dawned on me that my life is pretty much spent in front of this silly computer screen, so I might as well get as many bills emailed to me & displayed online as possible.

So far, I’ve changed my electric, phone & gas bills to electronic. For some strange reason, the water company doesn’t offer this yet (even though I can view & pay my bill online)

So save a tree - go paper free with as many bills as you can

The 2nd round of the 2007 NHL Playoffs kicks off tonight & I’m not sure if I’m upset or happy with the schedule.

On Sunday, NBC said that Game 2 of the Sabres/Rangers series was going to be on Saturday or Sunday, which I thought was great because it’d be a home game for the Sabres & Buffalo can always use a little bit of National exposure. But then they decided that the 1st 2 Sabres games would be on Versus, with Game 3 on Sunday at MSG in NY. The Saturday game on NBC is in Detroit.

Now, even though the NBC website says that the games for May 5th & 6th are “To Be Determined”, you can see on the Yahoo NHL page that Saturday the 5th is again in Detroit & Sunday the 6th is again in New York.

In order for the NHL to do this, they had to adjust their normal “on-off-on” scheduling for both of these series. The only good thing is that they did it without causing either series of play back-to-back games.

So while I wish that the NHL & NBC would come to buffalo, I’m happy that I’ll get to watch the away games on NBC in High Def

I ordered a bunch of products from Seventh Generation last week & I have to admit, I’m impressed. Here’s what I bought so far:

Toilet Paper - Made from 100% recycled paper with a minimum 80% post-consumer content
2-ply paper comes in large 500 count rolls
Bleached with environmentally safe sodium hydrosulfite and/or hydrogen peroxide
Septic-system safe

Paper Towels - Made with 100% Recycled Paper
Hypo-Allergenic
Whitened without Chlorine Bleach
Biodegradable

Trash Bags - Made from 100% recycled plastic with a minimum 30% post-consumer content.
Produced with 25% less energy and 90% less water than virgin plastic bags.

So far, I had no problems with these products. The Bride was a little hesitant about using the toilet paper, but I switched out an old roll with one of the new ones & she hasn’t complained yet. I’ll tell her once the roll is gone

I ordered a new set of solar lights last week & they came in yesterday. They are nice. Not perfect, but very close.

It’s the Grip On Tools Grip 6 pc Solar Light Set and here’s what I like about them:

1 - They’re metal - I can’t tell you how many times I’ve broken those cheap plastic ones when I was trying to put them into the ground
2 - LED Lights - they have a nice white glow to them, instead of the crappy yellowish glow that normal bulbs put off
3 - The Packaging - EVERYTHING they use for packaging is recyclable (cardboard & plastic bags that are clearly marked with the recycle logo/info)

I unpacked them & put them them in the window yesterday & today they’re almost fully charged. The light is not that bright, but it’s bright compared to every other small solar light I’ve ever seen.

Next on my list? The Motion Activated Solar Flood Light by Solite (and I think I’ll be buying a lot of products from them)

(NOTE - This page will be updated after each Sabres home game)

I got the idea for this project during last years Sabres Playoff run. For some reason, a lot of over-zealous fans took time out of their day to make their very own Stanley Cup. Some of them are not that bad, but others are, well, I’ll let you see for yourself

Round 1 - Sabres vs Islanders

April 12th 2007 Game 1

This young go-getter took the time to write all the players names onto the cup.

Isn’t that cute!

I agree with the sign….

"We are the Knights who say…Ni!"

April 14th 2007 Game 2

This man made me kiss his Cup after I took the picture.

April 20th 2007 Game 5

I asked the girl in the middle if I could take a picture of her & her Cup & I was told that it was "Our Cup"

Of course, The Sabres did win, so expect more Home Made Stanley Cups from Round 2!

Round 2 - Sabres vs Rangers

April 25th 2007 Game 1
I’m sad to say that I did not see any new Cups at this game, but Game 2 made up for it.

April 27th 2007 Game 2

I’m still trying to figure out what he used for the top of this one.

It’s a little blurry, but I think this one is all plastic & maybe from some sort of "Make Your Own Cup" kit.

Cute, but sad.

I honestly think the workers at the food stand made this one out of things they found in the kitchen.

Decent Cup, but yet another reminder as to why you should always wear a blank t-shirt under a white jersey.

At first, he thought I wanted him to take a picture of me with his Cup.  The he asked why I wanted a picture of him with it - the 1st person to question my motives!

May 4th 2007 Game 3

A cake mixing bowl, some tin foil & a poster.

Round 3 - Sabres vs Senators

May 10th 2007 Game 1


These 2 Home-Made disasters were being used to catch the free t-shirts that SabreTooth was throwing from the stage.

You can tell it’s Round 3 because people are holding the cup over their heads without being asked to do so.

May 12th 2007 Game 2

I had to pull over on the way to the game & snap this one.  Of course, I forgot to bring my camera into the game, so this is the only pic I have from Game 2 (but my fingers are crossed that there will be a Game 5 & a Game 7)

May 19th 2007 Game 5

I’m more concerned with the creep behind them.

She had a mini-cup around her neck - and why do girls put hearts on everything?

I had hoped to bring you pictures from the Stanley Cup Finals, but my Sabres got beaten by Ottawa 4-1

But a friend of mine invited me up for Game 3 in Ottawa!

Stanley Cup Finals - Senators vs Ducks

June 2nd 2007 Game 3

This was on the waiter’s head at East Side Mario’s before the game.

Nothing beats decorating the truck as well.

Not home made, but it is a nice image outside the arena.

The tinfoil under it had the batteries & he sat below me, so we got to see him turn on the x-mas lights.

You can tell by the dent that this was taken after the game.

That’s it until next year!

I know, I know…I’m bashing Time Warner again.

If you have Time Warner, you probably saw their massive football advertising campaign last year. They presented it to us as if they cared about the viewers. Their ads boasted how you’d be able to watch all your home teams games as well as how many of them are in HD:

We know you love football - which is why Time Warner Cable offers tons of NFL games every week on CBS, FOX, NBC or ESPN. In addition, many games can be seen in High Definition, where available.

Seeing these ads on Fox during NFL games was kinda funny since they did not have the HD Fox channel at the time. But that’s another story.

Everyone really knows that these ads were basically anti-NFL Network ads. Time Warner & The NFL Network have yet to come to an agreement as far as carrying the channel, and that’s another story that I’m sure will grab the headlines in a couple months.

Now here’s my beef: Time Warner runs all these commercials about how much they care about their viewers & I say that’s a load of crap. If they cared about the viewers in the Buffalo area (and any other area that has a hockey team) they’d actually go out & get a deal made to carry Versus in HD.

Look here at the NHL Playoffs TV Schedule for the 1st round. Part of me is upset that NBC has decided to not schedule ANY Sabres games - after all, they are the #1 team in the league. So for Buffalo fans, Games 1 & 7 are on MSG (that’s another mess of a story that I don’t want to get into) and games 2 thru 6 are on Versus.

Think about the commercials they could run, boasting that they are the only way to watch Hockey in HD in the Buffalo area. Instead, no matter how much I complain & request the channel, all they do is remind me what (little) HD hockey they have (as if I didn’t know that NBC carried HD games).

Buffalo games pull massive ratings when they are on:

From The Buffalo News - NBC has to be impressed by Buffalo’s TV ratings. The Sabres’ win over Pittsburgh Tuesday to clinch the Eastern Conference title had an incredibly strong 12.2 rating here on Versus even though it was competing for separate hours with “American Idol” (16.9) and “Dancing with the Stars” (11.4).

Now that it’s the playoffs, those numbers will only increase.

I know I complain a lot, but I want to watch the NHL Playoffs in HD & I’m sick of Time Warner pretending that they care about me. It’s time for them to step up & prove it.

Here’s some more Silly Sites

Castle Smasher
Wait Forever
Ugly Dog Contest
Caveman’s Crib
1968 Pennies
World Finger Jousting Federation

As always, please email me your silly sites.