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At the Packers Fan Fest I attended earlier in the month, several vendors had booths in the atrium. One was Sargento, the Official Cheese of Lambeau Field, and they were running a contest at their booth, inviting people to guess the number of cheeseheads in a jar. I decided to put some of my engineering education to practical use and did some quick estimates and came up with 769.

This weekend I received a letter from Sargento letting me know that I was one of ten winners! The actual count was 767, so I was only off by two. A Lambeau Field Cheese gift is on its way as my reward.

On Sunday we went to the Fox Theatre to catch the final day of Disney’s On the Record. On the Record is set in a recording studio where a greatest hits collection is to be recorded. The songs are performed by the four principals—two young up-and-coming singers and two older established performers—accompanied by four backup singers and an on-stage orchestra. At the beginning of the tour, there was another character, a recording engineer, a recorded voice coming from outside of the studio. It didn’t go over well in the early shows and was dropped.

So there isn’t any spoken dialogue and the story line is as thin as it gets, but I think it it works here, keeping the spotlight on the music. Many of the critics disagreed and their weren’t kind to the show, so we weren’t sure what to expect. Once the show started, however, it was clear this was going to be an enjoyable afternoon.

Now I admit I’m predisposed to like anything that includes the name “Disney”, but I thought the show was great. Many of the songs were arranged into medleys (how else could you fit 64 songs into one show?) and it was interesting to see how well some of the songs worked when mixed together. The singers were all great, especially Ashley Brown as Kristen one of the newcomers. For more info about Ashely, see the Disney Insider story

Unfortunately, the show hasn’t done as well as Disney had hoped. It is closing in July after its engagement in Denver. As reported at Playbill.com:

Disney Theatricals President Thomas Schumacher told Daily Variety, ”[On the Record] captured the people who love the Disney catalog, but once we got into a market, (business) didn’t expand from there. We don’t get walk-up business. . . .There is no reason to stop [the tour] today. All of these theatres need nine to 12 months to announce a season.” He also added that there is the possibility that the show may play venues overseas. A cast album has been recorded.

Photos from Day Three of Packers Fan Fest 2005 are now available. I’ve also uploaded new versions of the photos from Day One and Day Two with captions.

I can’t believe that Congress is getting involved with the Terry Schiavo case. Hasn’t this gone on long enough? Nobody seems to care about what she would have wanted. Since there is no living will to communicate her wishes in this kind of situation, people should defer to what her husband said were her beliefs. Even though I do not agree with the efforts by her parents to keep her on life support, I can at least understand why they continue their efforts. But Congress? She’s nothing but a political pawn for them, and it is disgusting how they are inserting themselves into this process.

This case is a perfect example of why everyone should have a living will. If a person wants to be kept alive in the kind of condition Schiavo is in, fine, you have the right to request that. But I know I wouldn’t want to be kept alive in that condition. it only took a few minutes to complete the necessary documents and ensure that copies are on file or are accessible if they are ever needed, God forbid.

I’ve started using FeedBurner to publish my subscription feeds. FeedBurner takes a normal RSS or Atom file from your site and republishes it in a browser-friendly format. Instead of seeing a raw XML file when clicking on the subscribe link, the viewer sees a well-formatted page complete with links for subscribing to the feed using whatever news reader they like.

FeedBurner also has a feature called SmartFeed which provides different versions of the feed dynamically, ensuring that each reader receives the feed in the appropriate format. Now all I need to do is provide a single link for my feeds. No more separate links for each RSS and Atom and RDF version of the feeds.

Lastly, FeedBurner provides statistics on my feeds so I can see how many people subscribe, what readers they are using, etc. If you have your own blog, you should give serious thought to using FeedBurner for your feeds.