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I've tried to condition myself over the past few days to only talk when necessary. I've noticed, oddly, that if I'm not careful that attitude seems to pervade my instant messaging as well. I've caught myself a few times trying to be very short or use abbreviations when I normally wouldn't, as if typing less is the same as speaking less. 🙂

My laryngitis is worse today. More coughing, a hoarser voice, and a bigger tickling feeling in the back of my throat. I've gargled with warm salt water several times today, and taken the prednisone. Here's to hoping I can speak by about Friday.

We're accepting a second wave of beta testers for Iris, the RSS reader follow-up to PulpFiction. If you're interested, IM me or email me (see contact me sidebar).

Yawn.

Well, here you go!

Today, I went to my family doctor to see whether I had strep throat or something else. Turns out the doctor just believes I have laryngitis, which is fine. Gargle with salt, take some steroids, the usual.

I've had a light cough when I wake up or lay down in bed for the past month. I thought it had gone away two weeks ago, but it came roaring back this past week as I was out of town, got little sleep, and had a lot of physical stresses (lots of heat, bad eating schedule, lots of exercise).

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81 songs with three complete albums: $18.30.

Update: Why the hell didn't iTunes maintain my ratings and play counts for the new versions? I now have 81 unrated, unplayed songs that - in my opinion - shouldn't be unrated or unplayed.

I won't be saying much out loud for the next few days as, while driving home last night from Columbus and The Memorial, my voice went out. I had a cough that would not go away three weeks ago that had just subsided, but the stress of this past week seems to have allowed it to come back from the brink. Perhaps it's strep throat, perhaps it's something else, but I've got yellow phlegm (when I can get it out), no voice, and a persistent cough due to a tickle in the back of my throat. Will see a doctor later - I've held out long enough. 😛

Adam Scott, again, falters in the final round at The Memorial. That makes two years running, boy.

Alan and I didn't get a chance to watch much. They started early and showed it on TV on tape delay.

Adam Scott shot an amazing 62 in the second round of this year's Memorial. Alan and I were there, and witnessed a bit of it, though we were mostly following other players around. We followed Tiger through the first and second holes, grabbed shots of him on the fifth, and then peeled back to get shots of him at the ninth.

We followed Adam from the media room and got shots of him playing the 18th as well as in the interview room.

Later we went to a golf course and played a little - it's too hot here to be lugging camera equipment around. The 2,500 shots I've taken should be good for awhile, though I'm sure I'll get more on Saturday or Sunday.

Played Mystic Rock today. Shot 39 on the front nine with a double bogey at the ninth after a tap-in birdie at the previous hole. I was a bit distracted on the back nine and gave up keeping track of the score after I crunched a drive at the 11th only to lose the ball. It could have gone 400 yards (down a big hill, mind you, and with some cart path help) into the water hazard in front of the 12th green. Someone could have picked it up. I don't know. It vanished, and we looked everywhere for it.

The course remains in great shape, and most of the afternoon I spent working with Alan to straighten out his duck hook. It's a combination of two things: he closes the clubface quickly through impact and comes at the ball from well inside. He takes the club away well inside and gets way across the line (the opposite of laid off) on the backswing.

The fix for Alan has been simple: open the stance a little, push the club away (it feels very outside to Alan, but it's pretty much on line) with his left shoulder, and stop the backswing when his shoulder touches his chin. He also needs to move the grip into his fingers and out of the palm of his hands, then trust that he'll probably hit a little baby fade.

I spent two days in Columbus and am now back in Erie overnight. I picked up The Sand Trap staff member Alan Olson. Tomorrow we'll leave early (again) to play Nemacolin Woodlands (Mystic Rock course, previous site of the 84 Lumber Classic) and then we'll make our way to Columbus, OH to cover The Memorial again. We'll miss first-round action, but it should be worthwhile to play Nemacolin again.

Got up early today (4am) and was on the road by about 4:30. Destination: Dublin, OH, site of this year's Memorial Tournament, hosted by Jack Nicklaus. Dublin is a small suburb in the northwest corner of Columbus, OH, and is a hoot to attend.

Hopefully we can avoid the weather (heat, humidity, and thunderstorms) that plague this event, but the odds of that lie somewhere between slim and none. It won't happen.

I still have only the 13" PowerBook (from January, 2003!) so I won't be posting updates during the week. I will next week, though - and I'll be sure to take a bunch.

Came off without a hitch. I got in some golf at Whispering Woods. I vacuumed the house. We had a cookout. We burned some of the wood that's been piling up. And now we're relaxing inside. A very, very good day.

To me and my wife. We were going to weed this weekend, but it's rained or been yucky since about 11am yesterday. Perhaps we'll be weeding on Memorial Day.

Laurie McGuinness spoofs the Mac/PC ads. I'm always up for a good parody, but these are rather bad. Most of the ads seemingly exist just to poke fun at stereotypes.

In "Money," Mac is paid a dollar for graphic design work. In reality, graphic designers make a good bit of money and, last I heard, Mac users make more money on average than PC users. "Music" must be a Zune thing, but last I heard, even most Zune songs can't be shared and those that can have the "three" limit. And Apple has very different iPod ads, anyway…

The last two are the worst. In "Work," Mac is late for a meeting because he stayed up late doing a website for his cat and is stoned. In "Girl," PC goes on a skiing trip with a girl while Mac mixes music in his basement. When Apple did the "girl" thing, it was about interconnectivity - about how the girl (the digital camera, IIRC) hooked right up, after Mac and PC had created a network. It had a point other than… well heck, I'm not even sure what the point of "Girl" is supposed to be.

Virtually anyone with half a brain should be able to shoot two people standing on a white background. That's not hard. But Laurie is a copywriter, and pushing these ads out there as proof of his skills seems more detrimental than beneficial to me.