blog.benvankat.com

It flies!

2009-07-14T16:39:00.002-05:00

They picked up the POD on Monday afternoon. And I got a video of it levitating.

There's a growing set of moving in pictures at Flickr. [LINK]

Today, I spent some time cleaning up the yard and managed to punch myself in the face while I was starting the trimmer. Now there's a bump. One note about yard work: When we went out to buy a bunch of stuff for outside (trash can, clippers, hose, etc.) we left Lowe's empty handed. (I think I could have punched a hole in the side of their cheap trash cans.) Then I stopped at the Ace Hardware down the street and left with a huge car load of stuff. Score one for the little (local!) guys.

Got tired of dealing with a balky router (it worked with the ethernet cord but wouldn't send out a wireless signal), so I stopped at the Apple Store and picked up an Airport Express. It didn't work either. I'm taking suggestions for what to do next. (Somehow, I'm sure it's still Cox's fault.)

New house. New job. Let's party.

2009-07-10T01:01:00.003-05:00

After a big check and 59 signatures, we were officially homeowners on March 31. And even that was more than a month after it was a "done deal." Seems like a lifetime ago. It's been a pretty long and pretty ridiculous couple months, but we're happy to let the record show that July, 8, 2009 was the day we officially got our own set of keys to the new place.

4535 Shirley Street.

People ask if we're tired/scared of moving now, and after doing it four times in three years, I don't want to ever do it again, but there's something about unpacking boxes in your own living room that makes all the upheaval seem trivial.

The move coincides with another, almost-equally-exciting announcement: A new job at the World-Herald. One with daytime hours. Weekdays, too. I'm going to be officially known as the Public Square Editor, a title everyone but me seems to hate, and work on special projects for Omaha.com. This takes me out of the sports department, which I'm sorta, no REALLY bummed about, and this is sure to put a pretty good dent in the amount of time I can spend on the golf course, but Stephanie and I like the idea that we might get to hang out now for more than an hour a day. Friday night out to dinner? What's that?

It also reopens the door to "social activities with friends during waking hours," a ritual I've missed out on for the past five years. That, in combination with a house that we're dying to show off to people, makes one thing pretty clear:

It's time to reconnect. Let's drink a beer on our porch some night. Keep your phones on, people. I might be calling.

Just as soon as I finish mowing the yard.

A striking parallel

2009-07-06T02:25:00.002-05:00

Today was the day.

I thought Andy Roddick had finally done it. (And, from reading about the match, it seems he was closer than I had even realized at first ... 6-1 in the tiebreak? Sheesh). I thought he had finally fulfilled that "promise" we had always seen in him. He was going to beat Roger Federer in the Wimbledon final.

It was going to be the talk of the sports world. A watershed moment. The breakthrough Americans had been waiting for.

And then we all got ahead of ourselves. It was just the second set. And he was playing the world's best.

Just like we did with soccer two weeks ago. On the cusp of a real breakthrough, we forgot that sports are heartbreaking. And breathtaking. And cruel. And beautiful.

So, we wait another year for that "one big win." It has to come sometime, right?

News junkie

2009-06-28T04:02:00.002-05:00

If you ever find yourself awake at 4 a.m. and in need of an mp3 of the theme song for NPR's "All Things Considered" so you can make your significant other a cell phone ringtone, then do I have the website for you!

[WFMU's Best of the Blog -- ATC Theme Overload]

New watch

2009-06-28T02:12:00.002-05:00

It goes against my tried-and-true "Don't buy things you love twice, because the second time around is always a disappointment" policy, but my early birthday present to myself arrived in the mail today.

I had the same watch a couple years ago, but broke it in a fit of temporary Nebraska basketball rage. This one combines my unhealthy obsession with digital camo with my constant urge to overspend our credit card budget.

First test of its timing ability? Figure out how long it takes to download this Michael Jackson greatest hits album.

Shor-tayy!

2009-06-21T03:04:00.002-05:00

I'm obviously a little late to this party, but these guys that do Auto-Tune the News are pretty awesome.

As Joe Biden says from space, God bless America.

Woo, pig sooey.

2009-06-15T03:24:00.002-05:00

Story from Saturday at the CWS ...

We walked into the stadium and immediately noticed the giant contingent of Arkansas fans. And of course they're all standing, waving their arms doing that damn hog call.

"Woooooooooo. Pig sooey!"

Had a good laugh remembering how uncomfortable Dana Altman looked at the press conference when he was introduced as the Razorbacks' basketball coach back in 2007.

Later on, Mom and Dad are killing some time between games, having a beer at the house-formerly-known-as-the-Stander-residence (Ron's gone now). Guess who walks up the street? It's Dana!

Dad doesn't miss a beat.

"Hey there, Dana. I'm surprised you weren't here for the first game today to see the Razorbacks."

He's joking of course, but he said Altman just froze. I'm sure he was half confused ("Who IS this guy?") and half horrified ("Arkansas ... huh? ... HEY!")

"I'm just kidding, Coach. We're glad you decided to come back to Omaha."

I just wish they would have offered Altman a beer. A couple Bud Lights and who knows, maybe he would have done the hog call again.

CWS, Day 1

2009-06-13T03:06:00.005-05:00

In honor of the start of another College World Series, let's all take some time to remember Omaha's favorite parking lot pastime:

Beat the meat!

[old Omaha.com -- Beat the meat video]

0-for-career

2009-06-04T14:55:00.003-05:00

A woman at work is always giving me a hard time because I play golf all the time but have never gotten a hole in one. She writes a weekly story about an Omahan with an interesting ace story, and she's always asking, "Did you get one yet?"

Yesterday was my chance for a pretty sweet story and I failed. Since my Sunday Publinks match was canceled, I got a raincheck at Benson Park, which I used yesterday. I thought I was going to get to play by myself (always preferable to the inevitable five-hour round when playing with others).

Instead I got paired with actor John Beasley and his wife.

Alas, no hole in one. There's only one par 3 on the front nine and I stopped it about 20 feet right of the flag. I think I just got a little too excited about listing an Omaha celebrity as a witness on my scorecard.

Victory!

2009-06-01T03:00:00.002-05:00

After taking a pretty bad beating in last year's Publinks first round (Omaha's match play golf tournament), I had to try and redeem myelf. So I signed up again, hoping to avoid another 8 and 7 disaster.

Publinks is kinda crazy to begin with ... The pairings are printed in the paper, and it's the responsibility of the players to call each other, arrange a tee time and report their score before the deadline.

After scheduling and rescheduling twice already this week, (first he was busy, then I was busy, then he had to work) Sunday was our last possible chance to get the round in before the deadline.

I got to the course a little early, determined not to lose because of bad putting. "Hi, I'm here for my Publinks match. So, when the other guy shows up, tell him I'm out on the green."

Tee time comes and goes, opponent hasn't shown up. They called me back into the clubhouse and said he called to say he was going to be late. Fine. No big deal.

When the guy finally shows up, he forfeits. Something about not having enough time or not having enough money to play all 18 holes. So instead he's going to just go out and play 9 with his daughter. Huh?!

Anyway, I have advanced to round 2. Next opponent? A World-Herald co-worker. Now it's about bragging rights.

Mini cows, familiar photo credit

2009-05-25T01:47:00.004-05:00

One of Chris' photos made it onto the front page of the LA Times today. How cool is my brother? (Click the page for a larger version.)

And there's a photo gallery too! [LINK]

All work and no play make this a pretty dull blog. The next couple weeks should bring a return to semi-regular posting. Plus, we'll be doing interesting stuff, like moving twice, so there should be some good stories to tell.

Life update

2009-05-15T01:07:00.004-05:00

Here's the latest, in a handy set of frequently asked questions:

1. Have you moved into your house yet?

No. Remember, we're not doing that until July. We're waiting for Tiffany and Donnie's house to finish being built. So if you know any builders from Bellevue, see if you can get them to help out to speed up the process.

2. Where are you going to live once your current lease expires?

Craigslist to the rescue. Found a UNO student who lost his roommates and needed to move out early. (Also found a cheap massage, but that's another story.) So we're taking over his place until the end of July. New address (as of June 1) is going to be Pacific Gardens Apartments, 78th and Pacific. Stephanie has always wanted to live in District 66. Now she'll get a taste.

(Sidebar for today's adventures in real estate: I had to drop off the completed rental agreement at the leasing office so they could confirm that I'm not a hobo. I drove up the place about 1:05, only to find the door locked. "Out to lunch, back at 1:15." OK fine, that's only 10 minutes, I'll wait. As I sat back down in the car, a woman with a key came running down the sidewalk, gave me a little "Hey, sorry I'm late" wave and went inside. She had obviously seen me, paper-in-hand, walking away from the door. So, I sat there a minute, letting her get settled. A couple seconds later the woman, an employee of the complex, came back to the door, fumbled with the sign and ran back up the hill. I walked up to the door ... "Out to lunch, back at 1:30." ... I could have choked her. Who does that?)

3. What are you going to do with all your stuff?

POD. Just rented it today. So, we'll put everything in boxes, load it into the container and some trucker will take it away until we need it again. They're dropping off the empty POD on the 26th of May (hope it fits in the driveway!), so come over and help me lift the TV stand.

4. How's work?

Busier than you can imagine. We're getting ready to change computer systems next week, and people need training. So, they've got me and a couple others playing teacher to get everyone else ready to go. I've had enough of font problems and paragraph styles to last a lifetime. Plus, the new Omaha.com is progressing pretty fast, too, and I've been helping out behind the scenes. So you can get excited for that.

5. Done anything fun lately?

Bought an iMac. Went to Natalie's graduation party in Lincoln. Played 36 holes at Quarry Oaks during a week of vacation. Fired up the grill for the first time. Neglected mowing the yard. Stopped eating ramen and Totino's frozen pizzas. Started eating more yogurt. Downloaded a bootleg copy of P90X. Now, I just need a pull-up bar.

6. What are the cats doing?

Right now, they're sleeping. In 10 minutes, they'll be doing cartwheels down the steps and digging for strawberries in the garbage disposal.

Scam watch

2009-04-29T13:34:00.003-05:00

I got a text message from VISA yesterday as I was standing on the putting green at Spring Lake:

Your VISA account is closed due to unusual activity,call us at 1-(866)420-7630

Hmm, that's strange. I wonder if our mortgage payment is considered "unusual activity" since it's the first one we've made one ... So, I called the number. The message repeated the line about unusual activity and asked me to confirm my identity by typing in my account number.

Hmm, this is weird, I thought. Why wouldn't the bank just CALL me and ask about this? And to CLOSE the account for suspicious activity? That seems a bit drastic.

So, I hung up. I just wasn't comfortable confirming any information without an explanation first, especially at a phone number I didn't recognize.

I called US Bank. After navigating through the automated system and ENTERING MY ACCOUNT NUMBER AND PIN NUMBER, I finally got a person on the phone.

"Hey I just got a text that said my VISA account was closed because of suspicious activity. It just seems a little shady, so I'm calling you guys to see if it was legit."

"Ok, sir. Hang on a minute."

She was gone a couple minutes and returned to tell me that I was nearly the victim of a phishing scam. It was a bogus text message and if I had entered my account number, I'd probably be dealing with REAL fraud today.

"It's just so beautiful"

2009-04-23T12:18:00.003-05:00

The Cavs are the best team in basketball AND they have the most fun. It's pretty hard to imagine Kobe and the boys pulling this off:

Casting call

2009-04-22T22:49:00.003-05:00

They say George Clooney is going to be in Omaha next week filming a movie. And they need a stunt double (Or extras ... I don't remember which.) So, along with a full-body photo, my measurements, clothing style and car type, here's the email I just sent to the casting director:

Joni --

Saw in the paper that you're looking for extras from Omaha for "Up in the Air." Here's my photo and some information in case there's room in the background for a skinny white guy.

Ben VanKat

Let's just hope this is legit. Otherwise they probably have enough information to steal my identity.

Overdue roundup

2009-04-17T00:25:00.000-05:00

Haven't been hitting the Google Reader list as hard lately, but here's some interesting stuff from the last couple weeks:

A shirt I must own. Soon.

Slate says YouTube is struggling under the weight of gigantic losses (an analyst estimates the site lost more than $400 million last year), comparing its situation to that of newspapers -- the advertising is just not covering enough of the cost to store all those stupid home videos.

" ... YouTube's problems point to a larger difficulty for many Web startups: "User-generated content" is proving to be a financial albatross. Yet even though they've changed the way we live, sites that collect and share content produced by all of us haven't done the one thing many tech evangelists said they'd do -— make a ton of money. Or, in many cases, any money. ... There's a simple reason for this: Advertisers don't like paying very much to support homemade photos and videos.

For all the frenzy surrounding citizen-produced media, the content that seems to do best online is the same stuff that did well offline -— content produced by professionals. Slate writer Jack Shafer recently listed the many services that people are willing to pay for online. They include music from iTunes, game videos from MLB.TV, reviews from Consumer Reports, and articles from the Wall Street Journal -— and nothing made on some dude's cell phone. ..."

What's incredible about this is that RIGHT NOW plenty newspapers are readying plans to reinvent themselves using YouTube's model, BANKING on user-generated content to attract eyeballs to offset the declining advertising. Scary to think that it could make things worse.

[Slate - The high costs of running YouTube]

Speaking of newspapers, someone took my daily front page mashup and made it look all professional.

[Rayogram - NEWScan]

There's apparently a reality show called The Principal's Office. Follow around some public high school principals, and film their interactions with misbehaving students. (It's on a reality-show channel called truTV -- does anyone get this?) This clip of the show is definitely one of the comedy highlights of my year so far. Kinda makes me feel bad for the people that have to put up with this stuff. Also kinda makes me want to be a teacher. Seriously, this is awesome.

I'm not usually one for time-wasting Flash games, but this one's kinda clever: It's hailing outside and you have to use the wind to make the hailstones big enough to destroy buildings.

[Effing Hail]

Finally, commercial interruption!

2009-04-13T02:43:00.004-05:00

Sweet, sweet finish to the Masters yesterday. And now that the tournament is over, we can all focus on helping Phil Mickelson's ExxonMobil charity for curious kids and making a smarter traffic lights with the IBMers. I love the Masters, but are the commercials really that expensive that only the world's largest companies can afford to advertise?

One trend that no one talked about while Phil was whipping Tiger around the course on Sunday was the consistency with which Woods was getting outdriven off the tee. By a mile. He says the knee feels good, and his swing is a lot quieter now that he's back from surgery, but is the loss of distance -- he averaged right at 280 for the week -- a product of not being fully comfortable with the new swing or a consequence of maturity? (Or is Butch Harmon really making Phil into a beast?)

Fifteen was a perfect example. Tiger hits a nice little drive, center cut, out there about 295. Mickelson FLIES it 30 yards past him. Granted, it doesn't matter that much to Woods whether he hits a six iron or a seven into the green because he's going to putt for eagle either way. The distance, though, was always part of the Tiger Psychological Beatdown. You KNEW he was going to hit it straight AND far. And then he did it. And made the eagle putt.

Is a smoother swing, meant to reduce stress on the knee, going to keep Tiger from dominating like he used to?

PGA sidenote to close: Why the hell can't I watch somewhere on the internet a shot-by-shot recap of all of these guys' rounds? This is the 2000s, people. There are 25 cameras on the course and you showed every shot every golfer hit on Sunday. So splice it together and send it to me already!

Cat walk, cancelled

2009-04-09T01:48:00.002-05:00

Today was supposed to be a banner day. We went to PetsMart and bought leashes and little harnesses (because they're too squirmy for just a regular collar, right?). It was sunny and 60 and the cats were going for a walk.

They had been sitting in the open windows for weeks, silently stalking every squirrel and leftover leaf that moved. So, we figured the progression from watching the outdoors to PARTICIPATING in the outdoors wasn't that big of a stretch.

Ridiculous? Yes. Cats on walks. Ha. It was a silly idea. But Steph and I were pretty sure we could pull it off, because they just seemed so excited by the fresh air.

So wrong.

Hazel, the only one to even make it outside, bucked like a tiny, angry bronco and escaped from the leash and harness after about 10 seconds. Then, free from her nylon straight jacket, rather than enjoying the freedom, she ran under the corner of the house. I couldn't even grab Beulah to FORCE her out the door.

Mission failed. We might as well have thrown them in the tub and tried a bath.

Phew, at least THAT'S over

2009-04-07T03:36:00.002-05:00

How bad was my tournament predicting this year?

I was in two pools. The one I run had 17 entrants. I finished 17th. The other one -- an in-by-association pool run by a guy from Portland -- had 173 entries. And I finished 170th.

Awful. Thank goodness it's Masters week and baseball time.

Some people, however, did have productive bracket picking seasons and have won themselves some cash. Sean's North Carolina pick nets him the big prize and family bragging rights over Stephanie, who was rooting hard for Michigan State. (She even pre-spent her championship winnings on shoes. D'oh!) Runner-up Brian N. probably missed out on a payday because he was mad at Arizona for getting in over his Bluejays. Here's the final standings:

1. Sean, 650 points
2. Brian N., 635
3. Nick, 615
4. Stephanie, 570
5. Matt S., 545
6. Christi, 520
7. Tyler, 505
8. Tim P., 500
9. Quentin, 495
10. Brian H. 420
11. Tim B., 370
12. Matt B., 365
13. Kevin, 360
14. John, 330
15. Sara, 310
16. Dirk, 290
17. Ben, 280

Congrats to Sean. Don't spend it all on Taco Bell.

[436 Bracket Challenge]

Quote of the week

2009-04-05T00:47:00.003-05:00

Stephanie: "Watching a couple episodes of "Real Housewives of New York City" made me realize I could do really horrible things and still get in to heaven. Those people are ridiculous."

Quick pool update

2009-03-30T13:47:00.002-05:00

Here's the final scenarios for the weekend games. Three games left, five possible winners:

Tim P. wins if Villanova beats UConn.
Tyler wins if Villanova beats Michigan State.

Christi wins if UConn wins.

Sean wins if North Carolina wins.

Stephanie wins if Michigan State wins.

Sweet (dreams) 16

2009-03-28T01:05:00.002-05:00

Eight teams left in a tournament only the selection committee could love. Unless you're toward the top of your bracket pool, there really hasn't been much to get excited about this year.

Here's how it looks in the 436 Bracket Challenge after 56 games:

1. Tim P., 380
2. Quentin, 375
3. Kevin, 360
4. Brian N., 355
5. Matt S., 345
5. Tyler, 345
7. John, 330
7. Sean, 330
7. Stephanie, 330
7. Tim B., 330
11. Matt B., 325
12. Christi, 320
13. Sara, 310
14. Brian H., 300
15. Nick, 295
16. Dirk, 290
17. Ben, 280

Just four brackets picked all four of Friday's winners -- Tim P. (who gets a gold star for picking against his Jayhawks), Brian N. and Stephanie (Creighton fans who got plenty of satisfaction from watching Arizona get destroyed) and Kevin (who will be excited to hear that Nebraska has two basketball recruits over 6-foot-3 in town this weekend).

Saturday's games could be really bad for a lot of folks. NOBODY has Missouri in the Final Four, and only Christi and the Matts picked Villanova. Wins by the underdogs could muddle the standings.

Looking ahead to Sunday, five brackets have Michigan State winning and eight have Louisville. Five for Oklahoma vs. nine for North Carolina.

So, maybe excitement on the pool sheets can make up for the snoozers on the hardwood. We can only hope.

The end is near. The beginning is close, too.

2009-03-25T03:23:00.002-05:00

So, it sounds like we're going to sign the papers and close on the house next week. Now, we just have to find a place to live until we can move in. Ha.

How is it that we picked the strangest possible scenarios for attempting to buy a house? Because we wanted to have good stories to tell? Yeah, remind us of that in July.

Year six at the Madness

2009-03-21T13:50:00.003-05:00

Second time in Kansas City for NCAA tournament games. First time at the Sprint Center. Second time seeing a set of good games. First time since Indianapolis in 2004. Here's the recap.

We had to park about 10 million miles away because I got tired of driving in circles to find parking garages that ended up being reserved for luxury suite ticketholders and restaurant patrons. Seriously, guy, I'm willing to give you $20 for a parking spot, just let us in.

The place we ended up at was some little mom and pop garage up the street from the arena, and it was only $5 so, after waiting for him to make change ("You don't have anything smaller than a 20?" "Uh, no.") we figured we had stuck one to The Man because we skipped out on the overpriced hotel garages. Wrong, but more on that later.

The Sprint Center is a beautiful arena. The raised concourse around the outside is wide and clean, there are plenty of food options, even a QT. (Though the lack of taquitos and fountain pop was a strike against it. And the QUALITY of the food and service was pretty awful.) The inside is Qwest Center Jr., with bonus points for the high definition screens. A great place to watch college basketball.

Games were awesome, too. A close one between a 2-seed and a 15. Two emotional 7-10 games. And the chance to watch the country's best player dominate.

Between games we strolled across the street to the Power and Light District -- the world's largest outdoor frat party. Lots of dressed up women. Lots of guys with Miler Lites and their shirts unbuttoned. After Dad beat us all at bowling, we had our first introduction to the Morgan State band, which was playing in the huge open space:

And once the OU-Morgan State game got out of hand Thursday night, the battle of the bands was really the only way to entertain 10,000 people tired of watching Blake Griffin score at will. Maybe calling it a "battle" gives too much credit to the OU band. While they played their lame fight song over and over, Morgan State mixed it up with pop songs and rap songs, while their cheerleaders ... uh ... gyrated on the floor. I don't think all of their moves were officially sanctioned by the NCAA. Here's their "Lollipop" rendition:

After the games finished (watching four basketball games in one day takes a pretty strong will ... and a bunch of hot dogs) Steph and her dad walked back to the car, only to find the parking lot where we left it LOCKED. Dude who took our money was no where to be found, and no one answered the phone number on the locked iron gate. A little brainstorming session with some bike cops and another stranded couple finally found them a way in and out of the garage -- there were two exits, each a block apart! -- but not before we found what is surely the greatest parking garage wall mural sign of all time ...

There's a set of photos from the trip HERE.

Just a few short days away

2009-03-12T06:23:00.001-05:00

It's nearly time for the latest installment of the 436 Bracket Challenge. Grab your pencils. I'll send out the official info sometime Sunday or Monday. Stay tuned.