After a 75-episode run on Jeopardy, trivia genius Ken Jennings has opted to enter the world of blogging in an attempt to continue his 15 minutes of fame. His site "Confessions of a Trivial Mind" covers family issues as well as all things peripheral to Jeopardy and trivia games. As you may remember, the LDS software engineer from Utah completed an unprecedented run on Alex Trebek's quiz show, garnering more than $2 million in winnings.

His run drummed up significant levels of interest in Jeopardy as he won, 10, then 20, and more, consecutive contests. In fact, shortly after Ken's time on stage, I tried out for Jeopardy myself in San Francisco. Though I felt I did well on the quiz, I fell short, and had to leave a loser, while only a small handful were asked to move to the next round. While those of us who missed were told to let everyone know we had only "missed by one", nobody ever gets their scores.

In reality, as you can probably tell from this site, my interests aren't nearly broad enough to support a consistent winning streak  - for once you get outside of A's baseball, Apple Computers, and techno music, I'm pretty much lost.

Listening to ''Dark Heart Dawning'', by BT (Play Count: 4)

Tech leadership is fleeting - it comes and goes very quickly, and allegiance to one brand or another on the Web is hard to keep, especially in the face of innovative competition.

Amazon.com set the commerce world on its ear in the 1990s by becoming the biggest warehouse in the world - virtually - selling books by the droves, and then adding products of every persuasion, from housewares to clothing, electronics, CDs and DVDs. At one point, I was ordering everything from Amazon - including Christmas presents for the entire family. Our office mail was dominated by these cardboard boxes with the familiar Amazon arrow/smile. It wasn't just me who found the Amazon way incredibly convenient.

I took the next step, driving people to my Amazon Wish List for holidays and birthdays, and believe it or not, when I got engaged in 2003, my wife took the traditional route, registering with Bed, Bath and Beyond, while I again drove everyone to Amazon, using a wedding-themed wish list, where on top of standard items like place settings, sheets and towels, I added DVDs, books and music. A guy's got to have fun, right?

But since then, my Amazon use has almost completely dried up. In 2004, I don't think I ordered a single item. In 2005 and 2006, my use has been paltry, and even that was spurred through others giving me gift certificates.

So, what happened? Why the change? For me, the #1 answer is iTunes. iTunes completely eliminated any need for me to ever order CDs from Amazon.com again. I certainly haven't stopped buying music, but iTunes is always my first stop, and Amazon only works for tracks that never made it to the world's best music application. The second answer would be Netflix. With Netflix, we gain access to DVDs quickly and cheaply, with no need to buy. And the third major reason - shopping search engines like Shopzilla and Froogle can find me the world's best bargains on just about everything else, without favoring Amazon.

Don't get me wrong - I'd rather buy online than offline in almost every case. But Amazon's variety and customer support is no longer such a breakthrough that it was a decade ago. And I can't remember the last time I saw a brown Amazon.com box come into the office. That's so 90s.

Listening to ''Aura'', by Serenade (Play Count: 3)

Cross-posted at Athletics Nation

At today's game, we arrived in our usual seats in section 114, row 28, only to find the sun extended only to row 27, and that we were in the shade. It's July! Give us some sun, even if you're not going to give us any offense, A's!

So, my wife and I, both sporting our Athletics Nation t-shirts, made our way to section 212, and tried to get slightly darker than Elmer's Glue. And we found sun! But guess who else we found? That's right, America's favorite non-political elephant, Stomper!

Stomper came by us, waving and high fiving the fans, the pair of us included. Now, if I haven't mentioned it before, it should be noted that my wife has a somewhat unhealthy crush on mascots, and Stomper specifically, so I was somewhat surprised she didn't take off with him and leave.

But before that could happen, Stomper reached across the row, and tap-tapped my shirt on the Athletics Nation script, did a thumbs up sign, hit his own chest repeatedly and nodded, again flashing the thumbs up sign. Stomper lives among us.

But he didn't tell me his log-on. Damn elephant didn't talk.

Listening to ''Live 4 Music (Megara vs. DJ Lee Remix Edit)'', by DJ Shog (Play Count: 4)

You've heard the saying - that golf isn't a sport at all, but instead, a good walk spoiled. Yet, for some reason, it can grow to be an obsession. Family fortunes are spent on the green, chasing a little, dimpled ball in the grass, in a repetitive venture that tries to avoid anything that looks like the beach - sand, water, and the rough.

In the early part of the 20th century, though the game was much the same, the people who dominated the sport were quite different - as chronicled in the latest gift from Netflix, The Greatest Game Ever Played, which covers the very unlikely story of an amateur who victoriously challenged the professionals and much more serious caste system that separated rich from poor and aligned one due to their family line, and not their work ethic.

Though I was looking especially hard for the film's visual effects, I didn't miss the plot. It was pretty good, considering it came from Disney, who hasn't wowed anyone with their formulaic storytelling of late. The young conquering hero, and his hilarious 5th grade caddy, win the game, win the girl, and win the hearts of his challenging parents - all in the space of 2 hours and 1 minute!

I can't play golf well. In fact, I've never beaten my wife at miniature golf. But every morning, evening and weekend we hear golfers on the nearby course daring to break par, or better yet, to play hooky from work, regardless of their score. But maybe some day we'll join them - maybe after the baseball season is done.

Listening to ''Noise'', by M83 (Play Count: 4)