Obviously

I promptly delete a lot of useless e-mail from my inbox (we get a lot here, and it could honestly be a full time job wading through it), and generally only give the briefest (no pun intended, as you'll see below) of glances to scan for local relevance in anything with the not-specific-enough subject of "Press Release."

This didn't meet the criteria at all, yet for some reason I find this oddly amusing. So I thought I'd share. I really don't know how anyone expects media to get excited about the launch of such a product, and I guess therein lays the irony that so bemuses me.

If you take up the offer for a free sample, let me know if the product lives up to the hype. Actually, don't.

(What follows is an unedited press release)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Obviously: the World's Most Comfortable Underwear

With its unique design, sleek styling and conscious choice of eco-friendly natural fibres, Obviously's men's underwear range is quickly gaining popularity right across the world. Based in Brisbane, Australia and designed by two brothers, Robert and Daniel Miljkovic, this new range is being touted by its customers as the World's most comfortable underwear.

Images of the new range can be found by clicking the link below:
http://obviously.com.au/images.htm

The underwear has been engineered to eliminate all of the major discomforts currently associated with men's underwear including:

1. Sticking - no more sticking to the inside of your leg
2. Squashing - gone are the days of that "jammed" down the front of your pants' feeling
3. Readjusting - never have to make an embarrassing adjustment in public again
4. Sweating - our absorbent material fibres will keep you cool and dry
5. Chafing - no more rubbing yourself raw every time you go for a run or cycle

The range of underwear is also designed with a seamless back so they don't ride up, have soft-backed elastic waistbands and have heat pressed labels to ensure a maximum level of comfort.

The Modal material used to make the underwear range is bio-based, super soft, ultra light, resistant to shrinking and fading, and more water absorbent that cotton, ensuring the world's most comfortable underwear experience ever!

Obviously currently has stockists in Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan, and is soon to be expanding into Europe, the Middle East and across Asia.

To receive a free sample garment please email daniel@obviously.com.au with your waistband size, preference of briefs or boxer briefs and postal address.

For more information please visit www.obviously.com.au or:

Daniel Miljkovic
daniel@obviously.com.au
www.obviously.com.au

Opening Day deluge

It's pushing toward 9 a.m. and I just returned from the track. I was speaking with some folks about attending the Opening Day breakfast and how it's become a tradition for many.

A soggy tradition, currently. The weather map is showing some heavy rains moving over the area, (as if I didn't know from my slightly squishy shoes), diagonally along the mid-Atlantic states, and the forecast is calling for an 80 percent chance of thunderstorms this afternoon.

Given all the ups and downs with NYRA and the state these last few months, perhaps it's fitting that Opening Day 2008 is a bit stormy. I'm sure there's plenty of good days ahead for hitting it big (or in the case of fellow Saratogian staffer Brendan O'Meara, being driven to Taco Bell for spicy consolation).

Speaking of food, the breakfast looked extremely tasty. For those that don't know, the breakfast buffet is available daily from 7 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. (except Tuesdays, of course) and costs $14.95 plus tax/gratuity. Scroll down near the bottom of the track's dining options guide for all the details. I'm hoping to hit it up myself once or twice this season.

I felt a little foolish lugging the tripod over to the Clubhouse, though, because I quickly realized the tables were so close together it'd be impossible to use. Thanks go out to those folks who let me have a seat at their table to interview them (or in the case of a pair of gracious women, interview another table).

This was my first time at the track during racing season wearing a media pass. Having only been there two or three times during racing season in the past, I was just as disoriented as those times when it came to parking (I was also relatively unfamiliar with Saratoga Springs those earlier visits). I got to park on the track side of Union Avenue this morning, but I missed the area set aside for the press (according to the parking attendant I asked on my way out, it hadn't been put up yet).

Then I couldn't find my car when I went to leave, as the only reference I marked in my head was the tree immediately behind my parking spot. It took me three or four trees to get my bearings.

I also realized that I need to get my driver's side power window fixed. It's very easy to feel foolish when you pull up to someone and have to open your door all the way to address them. Or when you want to go to the drive-thru (generally not my thing, but again see Brendan and Taco Bell)

Anyhow, off to the video editing room to try and get that posted around noon.

Enjoy the 140th Opening Day, or if you can't, enjoy staying dry.

So the verdict is in: I much prefer working with the "new-old" site. It's easier to rotate and update stories and allows for more interaction (user comments and photo galleries are a nice touch). I like being able to see that people are looking and responding to the poll question throughout the day, too.

Hopefully site users are finding the site a little bit easier to use, and are enjoying the return of the archives. I know I am (makes linking related articles easier), and I'll keep people posted as to when stories from the last several months become available.

Everyone enjoy their weekend (at the Saratoga County Fair or otherwise). I'm hitting up the Finger Lakes Wine Festival today to sample and purhcase some of New York's finest. My favorite last year was Hunt Country Vineyard's Hunter's Red. It's a good table wine for every day consumption. Semi-dry, but not overly sweet (my palette has turned to drier wines in the last few years, but this one isn't so sweet as to be impalatable).

Two steps forward, two steps back

Readers of the print edition should see a notice on tomorrow's (Tuesday's) front page. There are some changes coming to the Web site during the Tuesday overnight; changes I hope will be well received.

This Paula Abdul song keeps playing in my head. Essentially it boils down to this: Given the poor technical performance of our new Web site, we're going back to the platform on which our old one was hosted. The appearance will (more or less) remain the same while adding functionality that was lost last December: things like the ability to e-mail stories, make comments, print stories, etc.

Most importantly for many, the archives of old will be available (though it seems many figured out they were still accessible and searchable). The catch is that stories posted to the new site - everything from December to now, in other words - won't be immediately available through the archive. We're working to get those stories off the new servers and onto the "old" ones, and I'm told it could be about a month before that is complete.

Additionally, the speed of the site should dramatically improve. No more having to wait longer than it takes your morning coffee to percolate (am I the only one that still uses one of those?) for the site to load. Hopefully.

Readers who have the site bookmarked in their favorites will need to change the bookmark once the "new old" site goes live.

As always, I can be reached via the web@saratogian.com address.

Incidentally, I realize it's a little dusty here in this blog. Once I feel things with this transition are smooth, I'm hoping to devote more attention to this blog than I have the past two months.