Windows 7 is mine!!

I'm currently writing from my freshly installed Windows 7 PC. My original desktop PC was a Windows Vista Home Premium computer but since I saw that Windows 7 came out I decided to pick it up and install it. Now normally I wouldn't do an upgrade but it said on the MS site that doing an upgrade wouldn't be such a big deal as with other versions of Windows. I would normally wipe out my computer totally and start from scratch but thats just a major pain in my ass.

The upgrade process took quite a while, mostly it was me waiting for Windows to load onto my computer since its all automated so that wasn't such a big deal. I have to say that it looks better than Vista does but there is enough of Vista in this bad boy that it's not too different. The little tweaks here and there are very nice and I can say that I'm enjoying the experience so far. I haven't had a chance to dig in and find all the little knick knacks that make this puppy hum but so far I'm impressed enough that I'm glad I did the upgrade.

Just so I can help out those that still need assistance with older versions of Windows, I'm keeping around my virtual machines of Windows XP Professional and Windows Vista Ultimate. I'm also going to use them more as test beds for software before I start mucking around with Win 7 since its hard enough for me to create an image. I think I'm going to have to create a totally new Windows XP instance though since the one I'm using is being kind of flaky.

Well I'm going to see what else this puppy can do and what its not compatible with so that I can start removing programs I can't use any longer.

Windows Live Writer Take uhhh…

I”m trying out Windows Live Writer yet again.  I know that I’ve tried this in the past but I just couldn’t get used to it.  Blogger has always been just fine for most of my needs but lately I’ve been trying to find ways to compose my stuff offline so to speak.  Blogger doesn’t like it when I copy and paste word documents to blogger, it takes in all these weird XML tags and it just totally screws everything up which isn’t cool at all.

I’m still trying to get used to Live Writer, its not behaving the way I thought it would but thats ok for right now since I’m just trying it out. What I did was install a portable version on my USB memory stick so that I can take it wherever I want without having to truly install the program natively on my computer.

What I don’t get is why I can’t make paragraphs as easily as before but that’s a minor thing that I’ll have figured out.  It’s not nearly as annoying as writing my blog posts in word and then trying to put them on blogger by using a copy paste deal which takes along all the XML tags.  I can also try emailing it in but its hard to do on my phone, I’ve done it before but the paragraphs never come out right so I just don’t do it as often as I used to.

There are supposed to be some really cool features with this program so I’m going to test them out.  I want to install some of the plugin’s like the Twitter one so that it will post to my account.  I don’t know if it will work with my portable version of the app but you never know.  I just got back from vacation so I have to blog about that later but until then, I got work to do!

I can't help not talking about it....

I've tried to not talk about politics at all in my blog for the most part but the thing about taxes and funding the health care system is just bugging the crap out of me. So here is my current understanding of what the "plan" is.

1. Everyone is going to get health insurance, whether its by private companies or the government (I'm guessing there has to be criteria to be eligible like being a citizen or having a work permit etc. but if its everyone and their mother then we're in deep doo doo).
   
2. The sucker has to be paid for in some form or fashion so as not to raise the national debt
3. Historically, the price of health care rises faster than tax income so you know the tax man is coming whether I want to see him or not.
   

So far I've heard about Congress kicking around some ideas like raising taxes for only the most wealthy people (so they make the lion's share of the cash but why should they be forced to spread their wealth that they earned on services that they probably will never use because they can afford it out of pocket?), taxing employee provided health care to provide less expensive plans to employees (yeah and that makes them offer plans with shitty coverage with more out of pocket expenses for me), or finding other fun ways to tax me and the goods that I want to buy.

I personally hope this sucker stalls in Congress, no matter which way you slice it, health care reform is going to be expensive and there won't be a way to pay for it unless you totally tax the hell out of people. I've also read that 47% of people don't even pay taxes or something crazy like that. Can you imagine the amount of tax revenue that we're missing? It's almost staggering! There are a lot of tax breaks built into the system for people to reduce their tax liability and while reducing taxes is fine and dandy, it might be a better idea to lower the over all tax rate and just get rid of any exceptions. I personally benefit greatly from deducting my mortgage interest from my taxes but if they reduce my over all tax rate and eliminate that benefit I don't think I'd mind as much.

So what can really help our good ole government with generating revenue? Well I only have the canned responses that people have been saying for a long time and it will be easier said than done to implement but hey, might as well say it again.

1. Simplify the tax code! There are too many rules and what not to figure out to see if you can slip through something past the IRS, we've made it a multi billion dollar business to provide software and professionals to input data into complex tax returns that no one understands. Make it nice and easy for the average person to do on their own and file. What more do you really need than name, SS, wages, and taxes paid? If you didn't have to do the complex calculations to find what your liability or refund will be you can better predict what you can spend as a government
2. Budget Transparency! Not really all that difficult. There are parts of the budget that can't be seen by the general public (R&D for the military, intelligence services, etc.) that need to be hidden from our foes near and far but other stuff like infrastructure projects, salaries, expected personnel, services sectors should all be able to be picked apart by the general public.
3. Slimmer government! I like that the government provides services and what not but I sometimes it provides too much. Protecting us from our enemies, building our infrastructure, and providing oversight over the various sectors of the economy are all good areas that government should continue. I don't need the "man" telling what I should and shouldn't do. I just need reasonable protection from big business trying to screw me but this country is built on freedom so let me have my freedom to screw up.

OK I think thats enough for now, I could go on and on but I'm getting tired of typing this post. Time to make myself some lunch!

IE Only Websites annoy me

I've been on the internet for quite a while and I've used almost every browser at least once. I can do it more so now that I have virtual machines that I don't really care if I mess up. It still amazes me how many web sites are still geared towards using an IE engine rather than something else. I primarily use Firefox for most of my web surfing activity because of all the plugin's that I install to make it a better experience and all that (hear that MS? You gotta support plugin's that people want!) but there are still some sites that I enjoy that still require IE.

An example is Last.fm. I found this gem while using my iPod Touch. I've blogged about the service before and for the most part I think its pretty decent except that you need to be running IE or an IE engine in Firefox in order to use it. BOOO!! I don't really have anything against IE, my wife actually prefers it to Firefox so I always have it available just in case but it would be really helpful if all websites were compatible with at least Firefox without me switching to a different engine. Oh well, there's nothing I can really do about it except complain. At least I can get to the content which is what really matters most.

The Godfather - Coppla Restoration

My sister in law got me the Godfather set for my birthday. I have a terrible version of all 3 Godfather movies on DVD so this is a welcome addition to my collection. Most people I know have seen the movies but some of my friends haven't and I still can't fathom why. It's such a good story! Well maybe number 3 could have been better but thats ok, the first two movies are fantastic enough.

The cool thing is that movie 2 is only one DVD instead of 2 so it will be easier to watch the entire way through. There aren't many more movies that I need to add to my present collection that are must have's. This one might be one of the crown jewels next to the Lord of the Rings box sets that I have. I can't wait to watch these movies in all their remastered glory :)

Happy Birthday to Me!

It's July 22 which means that today is my birthday. I'm the big 31 so I have finally finished the first year of my 30's and started the second one. I don't feel any different and I think that it will be a good year personally. My wife is going to cook me an awesome meal for dinner tonight since I asked. Normally I would have asked to go out but I don't have any place in particular that I want to go. I also got Punch Out for the Wii, the Wii Motion attachment (for Wii Sports Resort which I will be purchasing on Sunday) and I also got a batting jersey with 42 on the back that I can wear at Yankee games :) For those of you that don't know, Mariano Rivera actually got up to bat this year and I watched him get his first RBI ever. So thats the significance of getting the batting jersey with Mariano's number on it.

I've tried out Punch Out today and I must say that its a lot of fun. It's almost like I remember it but since I never had a Nintendo I didn't play the game very much so I don't know a lot of the patterns of the fighters. I'll get better with practice and the game is also two player so I can play with Claire.

The rest of my day should be quiet. My two furry companions for the day are sleeping as I write this but thats ok, I'm used to them napping while I work. Only 364 more days until I'm the big 32, or as I like to say it, 29+3.

Flexmail is so slow

I received an email today telling me that there was a new version of Flexmail available. I had tried Flexmail before when I had my Treo 700WX almost two years ago. The program is very powerful an it has a lot of the options that I liked in Chattermail for my Treo 700P but as I was testing it today I noticed that it was really slow.

I also tried out he Today plugin an it took up a lot of screen space so it didn't leave ne with a great feeling. I ended up uninstalling it and just used the default Pocket Outlook again. It does most of what I need and I can always search my mail using te web browser anyway.

Next up I'm going to try another program called Evernote that a friend of mine suggested and see how that works out. Playing with software is a lot of fun but I just wish I had test machines to do some of tis stuff.

The return of Winamp!

I've been messing around with my music collection lately on iTunes and I've been looking for ways to get the playlists on my Treo. My Treo is dumb in that it syncs with Windows Media Player, now who the heck uses that in this day and age to sync and manage a music library? There are some 3rd party applications like Pocket Tunes that can sync my Treo and my iTunes library but its $35 for the program. I knew there was a better way to do it, and most importantly a free way!

And here comes Winamp roaring back into my life. Winamp is one of those programs that I always install on my computer since way back in the late 1990's. I used to use Winamp extensively when I was in college but ever since I got an iPod I've been forced to use iTunes more and more. Don't get me wrong, iTunes is pretty good but Winamp's plugin's are awesome and now with the latest version you can import all your playlists and libraries into Winamp. The cool part about that? Winamp playlists can be imported into Windows Media player so I can sync it with my Treo! How awesome!

So Winamp for the time being is back in my life again as I use it for playing music, and importing my playlists. I still use it to test music files that I've downloaded to make sure they're not corrupt or anything like that. I hope they keep development going on this product down at AOL. I think I liked it better when it was an independent company :)

Finally got the iPhone 3GS.... for my wife

Well here it is in all its glory! The iPhone 3GS in white. I didn't get this phone, my wife did and she's playing a game on it right now as I'm typing up this blog post. She's had the phone for maybe a week now and she seems to like it OK for right now. For me the jury is still out on whether or not its worth switching over from my WinMo Treo Pro. I've been able to do some cool things with the iPhone for my wife already, I was able to hook her up with GMail, Google Contacts, and Google Calendar so she doesn't have to sync with the computer as much. She bought herself a case and was able to put on a screen protector so it won't get scratched up.

When I go and visit my father I'm sure I'll have to play around with the iPhone even more since he just got one as well. I think he got the 32GB one but I don't know what color. I'll end up setting that thing up as well so that it syncs with all his stuff online and with Outlook but that shouldn't be too big of a problem. The limitations that the iPhone has are still a concern of mine since I still use my phone more for business than for pleasure. I'm still contemplating whether or not I should pay the $10.00 for the upgrade to my iPod Touch. I'm hoping that they come out with more features that will be useful for iPod Touch owners and maybe make the next update for free!

Now all I have to do is wait for someone to cook up Windows Mobile 6.5 for my phone and I'm hoping that Palm will make another Treo once Windows Mobile 7 finally arrives in 2010.

Blogging v. Mico Blogging

I have both Blogger and Twitter and I've been using both concurrently for a couple of months. Of course I've been blogging for years now so I'm used to the medium and I only just started micro blogging with Twitter a couple of months ago so I don't have as much experience with it yet. I've seen some differences already beyond the obvious of course but both have their good and bad qualities.

First up is micro blogging! I've only been doing it for a little bit but it seems that there are tons of people on Twitter that are micro blogging what they're doing at any given moment. I've been using it myself to update Facebook so I kill two birds with one stone on that account. The community for Twitter seems very active with people looking at other peoples feeds or following topics. The limitations of 160 characters forces one to be brief yet to the point. I like it because its short and sweet and for the fact that I can just use text messaging to do it.

Second up is regular old school blogging! I've been doing the blogging thing for a number of years but no one reads it anymore. I still use it to give my opinion on things that I find interesting or that needs to be expanded on that can't be conveyed using Twitter. A lot of my interests focus on technology so that's why there are so many posts about iPhone, my Treo's and other things of that nature. I like doing regular blogging because I get to practice my writing skills out of the work place. I write a fair amount for work but thats all for my job and sometimes it just doesn't interest me as much as writing about what I feel like writing. It keeps me in good practice and lets me see if my writing style has progressed over the years. I'm also trying to reach my goal of 100 blog posts for 2009. The one thing about regular blogging is that there is that I don't get a lot of feedback or opinions like I can with micro blogging. I mean Blogger is open but it takes a lot of time to read an entire post let alone multiple posts.

I can't decide which one I like more but I'll probably end up continuing to use both since they have their unique uses. It's time to finish up some chores at the house and then some relaxation before heading out for the night. :)

Still waiting for the iPhone

I'm still sitting here waiting for my wife's iPhone to show up. I ordered the phone on July 8 and I still don't have it here in my hand! BOO! I got an email from AT&T saying that the phone was back ordered which truly sucks since I can drive out to Ft. Lauderdale and just pick one up from the Apple Store right now. Well maybe driving all the way out there might be a bit extreme but come on!

I was doing some more research into the iPhone and what the OS 3.0 brought to the table. One of the things that I'm quite pleased to see is that they now sync Notes to Outlook which was one of the biggest things that I needed. The reason for me to get an iPhone keeps on getting more and more compelling as I do more research but I'm still not convinced. Two things still stand in the way, number 1 is syncing of Tasks. I still use them to manage my life so thats still quite important and I need it to sync to Outlook. I still like using a computer to update my phone since I can still type faster on a computer than on a mobile device. Number 2 is that I'm still waiting for ListPro. I've created quite a number of lists and this program is a must. The developer is still doing its thing but there hasn't been a release date for the software yet and they might only be working on a reader and not even an editable version. For a road warrior like me, being able to carry and edit your lists around is quite important so I hope that they do this bit.

I've been tracking the order for the iPhone daily, actually multiple times a day trying to see if they changed the status or not. This is my wife's birthday gift and I would like for it to get to her in time. Another reason is that I need it to be all setup and ready to go for our Hawaii trip. My father is going to get one and I need to be successful with her set up so I can set up my father's properly. My iPod Touch is working just fine so I don't anticipate any snags.

I guess I'll just keep on watching the order status on the web, I don't want to call AT&T and yell at the customer service reps since they are pretty powerless in assisting me in this. Hurry AT&T and ship the phone!

iPhones for Everyone!

It has been a really long time since I've done any blogging but the past month has been very busy. The latest development that I thought was very blog worthy was that a good chunk of my family is getting iPhones. A while back I switched to AT&T because I wanted to get a Treo Pro and the only way to get it was to go GSM and AT&T is the best out there for that so I switched. I decided for my wife's birthday that we would break her current contract with Verizon and bring her into the AT&T fold by getting her an iPhone which I ordered this past week. It's a real pretty white one that has 32GB of memory so she won't be hurting for space and she can keep a lot of video and music on it too.

My father's birthday is also coming up pretty soon so I gave him a choice between two different gifts, a new underwater digital camera or something else I can't remember right now but I did see it at Best Buy. After a couple of weeks of giving him his choices he said, why don't you just buy me an iPhone? Well this was a switch! After months and months of pestering him about it, my father is going to do it and get an iPhone. He only wants the 16GB one so it won't be as expensive for me to get him one. So thats iPhone number 2 for my family.

Now the funny one! My sister in law is also on Verizon but her contract is up in July (on my wifes birthday actually which is kind of interesting) and she is joining in on the family share plan since she really uses texting a lot and not a lot of voice. She has a BlackBerry Pearl and didn't want to pay for the data plan anymore so things would be cheaper. She was on vacation this past week and she went out with some friends and one of them had an iPhone, after playing with an iPhone for a day she calls me up and tells me that she wants one! Man what a switch! LOL She went one better and even went all the way to the Apple Store in Ft. Lauderdale to pick one up and changed her phone number to a Connecticut number so she could be on the family plan with me and my wife.

It looks like I'm the only hold out not getting an iPhone. I still have the opportunity to get one if I want it by renewing my contract right now but I can't bring myself to do it. I've been mulling it over in my mind a lot and I can't see a good reason to get one because of all the functionality I'll lose by switching over, not to mention I hate the way it syncs to my Outlook stuff. Well there you have it, my iPhone family minus me!

Trying out Twikini for my Treo

I'm trying out this new Twitter client for Windows Mobile on my Treo Pro phone since its a little challenging seeing all the tweets on Pocket IE. I installed it last night and so far its been pretty good. I like that I can go ahead and change some of the settings (that TWEET sound it made last night scared the crap out of me and my wife and I had to check the house to make sure there were no intruders because we didn't know where the sound came from so I turned it off) and that I can see people that sent tweets directly to me. I'm going to try this out for a little while longer and see how I like it. I threw up some images just for the hell of it. I'll say this, its pretty comparable to the twitter app that I'm using for my iPod Touch. Link is below if anyone wants to give it a go!

http://www.trinketsoftware.com/Twikini

More posts are coming....

I've been pretty silent over the past month but thats more due to my being quite busy of the last month with wrapping up things in Atlanta and preparing for my vacation. I finally finished up my long term project in Atlanta so I won't be going there any time soon unless my new client work takes me there. Thats quite unlikely though and my new gig isn't half bad with me spending a good amount of time at home since I'm whats called a Virtual Team with people spread out all over the place.

I went on a cruise right after I was done with work to Key West and Cozumel Mexico. Blog entries about the cruise will be later though since I have some pics that I want to include with those posts. All in all it's been a very good month. The next two months should be quite busy with me working from home but there also might be some travel involved just to keep things interesting.

Anyway, I gotta keep this post short. Look out for me on Twitter (@jvwong) which updates my Facebook status too. I've decided micro blogging doesn't count towards my total blog entry total so I have a ways to go until I reach 100 entries for 2009.

Florida Supercon

I attended Florida Supercon which is an anime, comic book, blah blah blah geek show all rolled into one this year. It was held at the DoubleTree Miami Mart near the Miami Airport. My wife and I decided to see what it was all about since we're anime fans and unfortunately it was super lame.

The first part of the lameness started by paying $5.00 for parking. I already paid for tickets, the least the place could do was include the parking fee in the ticket price. The next part of the lameness came from the venue. The DoubleTree Miami Mart is not the best place to hold any convention. It looks run down and dirty and it just didn't seem right to hold a convention there. Most of the break out sessions weren't all that good either and the anime they were showing was only ok, nothing earth shattering and most of the anime didn't have ROBOTS!! I mean WTF??

There were a few bright spots. Some of the merchandise they were selling was pretty cool and they were selling robots! haha! There were lots of posters and artists and there were speakers that were pretty decent. The one that I went to was the one with Bruce Campbell who happens to be Sam on Burn Notice. He was really funny and answered a good amount of questions about his career and stuff about the show Burn Notice. There were also some pretty cool costumes too. There was one dude dressed as a Bob-omb and the costume was HUGE. I don't know how he was able to fit the thing in a car. There were the usual school girls and even wizards from Harry Potter but I didn't think they kinda belonged. Oh well. That was my first and last supercon. I'll stick to rock concerts for my entertainment. Watch for the blog post about my concert experience in West Palm this past week! Booyah!

iPhone 3GS

Today was a good day for Apple in the news. For the un-educated today was the start of Apple's World Wide Developer Conference or WWDC for all the tech geeks out there. The new specs for the iPhone came out today and I'll have to admit they do look sweet. It almost makes me want to get one.... but I'm sticking with my Treo Pro. I do like the fact that it has 32GB of storage space now which should leave lots of space for music and movies for Claire (I'm getting her an iPhone once her contract is up with Verizon).

There are tons of little improvements here and there like a compass, the ability to make videos and edit them right on the phone, and all apps can now be in landscape mode. I might be a little envious of Claire once she gets the phone but I'm happy with my choice and I also have my iPod Touch. What I don't agree with is the $10.00 they're going to charge me to upgrade my firmware. Thats just crap! Why should I have to pay for something for my iPod when everyone else with iPhones gets it for free? It's the same thing really except it doesn't have a phone component. I'll give my impressions on it once I get my hands on Claire's :) haha

Problems with Google Maps

I don't know what the deal is but there's something wrong with Google Maps on my Treo Pro. I was using it in Miami Beach yesterday to make sure I could find the Hotel Victor where my friend Ken was staying. I was able to put in the address just fine and everything but when I went to zoom in it just wouldn't render. That was very annoying because I needed to know how close I was to the hotel and how close I was to Mango's Tropical Cafe which is where we were going to eat dinner.

Google Maps never did render correctly yesterday so I had to switch to my backup which was Live Search (I expect MS to change this to BING or something in the near future now that they have their new search engine out). Live Search has its own quirks because it requires more clicks to get things done but it does the same functions as Google Maps. I did also have my GPS with me but thats a hassle to set up if I don't do it ahead of time. I hope that this was just a glitch with Google Maps since I use it for a lot of stuff when I'm trying to find places while I'm on the road. If that fails, I'll just switch between Google Maps and Live Search although I would like to only have to rely on one app to do everything I need. Now if they only made a free flight tracker in Live Search, I would be all set and ready to go for my travel needs.

Mango's Tropical Cafe

Tonight I went with my wife Claire to Mango's Tropical Cafe and with my friend Ken and his girlfriend Vera who are vacationing in Miami for the week. I've never been to this place before but its one of those "must see places in South Beach" so what better time to go than with my friend Ken who happens to be visiting.

The food wasn't bad and we were able to get in and get a table right away. They had a bar that the staff would dance on and they also had some bands playing as well. Most of the time it was a reggae band but they also had some other music playing while they were on break. I had a pretty good time going there and I wouldn't mind going again one day for the fun atmosphere and live music. Now if it only wasn't so far and difficult to park :P

Interweb Radio

Internet Radio seems to be exploding all of a sudden with some hot new services like Pandora and Last.FM being the new golden children. I've been on the internet for a while and I've been listening to internet radio on and off for about a dozen years or so but the latest apps that are on the web are totally mind blowing. I remember having to download Winamp just to listen to Shoutcast which streams radio stations that people create using the playlist feature to anyone who wanted to listen.

Pandora and Last.FM are super cool in that you can pick artists, genres, or songs and then have the website determine what you should listen to. This is pretty neato and so far I've been listening to Pandora but I've just discovered Last.FM which adds even more features and even has a plethora of music videos to watch too. I'm glad to see this stuff evolve and I hopefully it will lead me to add to my current collection of music that I have on my computer.

Hail to the interweb and all the goodness it brings to our lives!

My Treo Story

Just for fun I decided to take a picture of all the Treo's that I've had in my life so far. This chronicles about 5 years of my life living with a smartphone. Before that I was like everyone else and used a regular flip phone (I used to have an LG flip phone and a Motorola StarTAC).

The first and second phones (starting on the left) are my old school Palm OS based Treo's when I was with Verizon. Both of them ran the same version of the operating system, the only major difference was the hardware upgrade. Verizon served me well for 4.5 years and so did Palm OS but I always had problems with syncing my data and dealing with duplicate entries which was an annoyance. I also wasn't able to get my work email or updated calendar of my meetings so it was only used for personal stuff for the most part.

Enter the future, I left Verizon after over 10 years with them and went to AT&T and my Treo Pro (the black device on the right). This one is a Windows Mobile based device and so far I have no major complaints. There are things that my Palm OS Treo did better but for the most part its not too bad of a transition. I'm anticipating that I'll stay on the Treo Pro for at least the next two years until they mature Palm's new webOS thats coming out on the Pre. By that time I'll know if there is wide acceptance of the operating system or if I still need to go the Windows Mobile route. I'm hoping that Palm survives since in my opinion they make some great phones.

No Doubt and Paramore!

Wednesday evening I'm heading off to the No Doubt/Paramore concert with Claire up in West Palm Beach. Claire has seen No Doubt in concert before and she said they were awesome so we just had to go. Paramore is one of our new favorite bands so it was a double treat that they are the opening band for No Doubt.

I personally don't think I've been to a concert since I went to UMass and that was many years ago now. I don't even remember who played at that concert but at least it was free since I was still kinda sorta a student. I'm hoping that its not going to rain tomorrow night or else I'm going to have purchase some ponchos so we don't get totally soaked since its an outdoor concert arena.

WOOO!! And this weekend is Florida Supercon too, ahh what a sweet week.

To Tweet or not to Tweet

I've been reading everywhere on the net and in RSS feeds that I've been following how great tweeting is and of course the place to do it is on Twitter. Twitter is all about micro blogging but its like updating your status on Facebook but its available to everyone. I'm still deciding if I should sign up for it. I don't know anyone else thats on it, but then again I haven't looked for any of my friends on it anyway.

I currently have a problem just blogging regularly, I don't know how I'd do with keeping up with Twitter. I'm quite short of my goal of 100 posts by the end of the year. I think I'm at around 60 posts but none of them have been that substantive.

I wonder if I can call tweets as part of my blogging posts? They are mirco blog posts after all but its hard to convey a lot in only 160 characters (about the limit of a text message). I'll ponder signing up for Twitter tomorrow, maybe I'll sign up and see how the thing works. I've heard that there are all sorts or protocols to conform to but thats enforced only by other people ont he service and not really by admins. I guess we'll see in the next few days if I have some time to mess with it.

Rained out Memorial Day

My Memorial Day weekend has been pretty crappy so far. It's been raining almost the entire time. There were a few specks of sunlight but it never lasted enough to actually get me out of my home. On top of all this, my wife has had to work the entire weekend on and off so that contributed to us being trapped indoors.

It's not all bad, I get to spend time with my wife in the office and my cats come in and out and visit me. My wife shoo's them away when I'm not in the office but they're good at following me wherever I end up.

Tomorrow will hopefully not be so event filled. But I do intend to eat badly by munching on chips, drinking soda, and scarfing hot dogs :)

Where's the toothpaste?

I'm out in Omaha at my client and I'm staying at a brand new Courtyard Marriott. I normally don't buy toothpaste because the hotels normally have some readily available at the front desk for guests that forget to bring some basic toiletries. I decided to go to the front desk at the Marriott where I'm staying and asked for some toothpaste. To my utter dismay the man at the front says that they don't provide that anymore but I'm free to buy a tube for about $2.00. RIP OFF!

I'm staying at a full service Marriott in Omaha next week and I'm hoping that they have some free toothpaste. I'm eagerly awaiting going back to Atlanta for my client so that I can go back to my bad ass Hilton. At least there I know they give me free toothpaste.

On another note, my time in Atlanta will be coming to an end in June. That means it will be time to look for another project to get on so I'll be flying off to another exciting city in the lower 48 hopefully in July.

Anniversary at Ft. Lauderdale Beach

I celebrated my 4th year of marriage with my wife Claire last week and we decided to spend it at Ft. Lauderdale Beach. This was another anniversary where we really didn't go away but it was still pretty fun. The day itself started out a little on the gloomy side and it actually rained for quite a bit of the morning but by the time the afternoon hit, there was nothing but blue skies and sunshine.

The ocean was surprisingly warm that day and it wasn't too bad even though there were rip tide warning signs everywhere. Needless to say we didn't venture too far out so we wouldn't be sucked out to sea. Most of the day was spent just being lazy and enjoying the sun Florida is famous for. I still think that the sand in Hawaii is much nicer but I might be biased on that part.

Since we spent the entire day in Ft. Lauderdale, it only seemed fitting to eat at there as well. Claire knew of a great place called Cafe Martorano, an Italian place run by this jacked up Italian from Philly. The reputation of this place was pretty good and we went early to make sure that we were able to get a table. It was kind of funny to be there, all the waiters had a Brooklyn accent so it felt like we were in NY. To top it all off, the place played mob movies on the huge plasma screens all over the restaurant. I was pleased that they were showing the Godfather III while we had dinner. We even saw the founder himself in the kitchen cooking which was pretty awesome. Just to make sure everything was all set, we even went ahead and ordered dessert which is not normal for us anymore since we always stuff ourselves silly on just the appetizers and entre. I tried to encourage Claire to get the $70.00 lobster but she refused, oh well I tried!

All in all, another fabulous anniversary with my wife :)

The Koi drive!

My memory has come back to me, this past week was my 4th year wedding anniversary. Since Claire and I are doing the traditional gift, we stuck to appliances and fruit/flowers. Claire got me something that I have been unwilling to spend money on, my 500 gigabyte passport drive so I can take my entire music and photo collection with me on the road. Not only did she get me the drive (thanks Claire!) she also put a sweeeeeeeeet skin on it. I put the picture on this post which shows two koi fish in a yin/yang symbol.

This makes my drive look totally bad ass. I've only had it for a little while and I haven't put the data on it yet but I will. I'm also experimenting with some drive encryption software so I can hide my files from prying eyes unless they have the password.

I'll post more about my anniversary later, its kinda late and my brain isn't working so hot.

I forgot what I was going to blog about

There has been a lot going on in the last few weeks but for the life of me I can't remember what it is that happened. It must be because I'm getting old.... crap!

I have my Treo Pro!

After doing my speculations and weighing the different costs, I finally did it and bought myself a Treo Pro and joined up with AT&T to do it. I was able to get it for $249.99 at Best Buy and signed up for a 2 year contract with unlimited data and text messaging.

I'm pretty happy with the phone so far. There are still some things that I love about my Palm but I think it was time to leave that OS behind and go forward with Windows Mobile. I debated on and off for a while on whether or not to wait for the new iPhone but in the end I still love using the Treo. I have most of the accessories that I need for the phone, but there are still some odds and ends that I have to buy. n the software side, I need to get some programs to mimick some of the things that I did on my Treo 700P but I'm waiting for my memory card from Amazon to arrive.

All in all, this is an excellent phone and will become even better as I get more familiar with it. Now if AT&T's service were only a shade better, but eh its something that I can live with.

Verizon Contract is up

Today is indeed a magical day. It's the day that my Verizon Wireless contract comes to an end. I'm unsure if I should go ahead and pull the trigger and get my Treo Pro and switch to AT&T or wait it out a bit and see what new phones AT&T might come out with. I tried the Treo at a Sprint store (they happen to have one and they offer an everything plan too) and I really liked it.

I can't decide which stinks and I don't want to only have 5000 night and weekend minutes (I know I'll never use them but there's still something to be said about unlimited nights and weekends). The roll over minutes will be useful though although they only last for a calendar year or something like that.

Verizon finally came out with a new HTC device but its totally touch screen and thats not something that I want. I still like the plans (well they are comparable to Verizon right now except for the night and weekend minutes but we'll see).

Decisions decisions....

Hilton Marietta

I think for the remainder of my stay in Marietta GA, I'm going to be staying at the Hilton. I've been staying at the Marriott here but that was because everyone else I knew was staying here. My team has gone off to The W hotel but thats with Starwood Hotels and I don't have any status with them. Since I still have Diamond status with Hilton, I'm going to try and rebuild my points with Hilton. If I can do it, I'm going to try and keep my status with Hilton as well. To me, my Hilton status is much better than my Marriott. I can get mega bonuses with Marriott but the hotels just aren't as nice.

Here at the Hilton Marietta, it FEELS like I'm in Georgia. It doesn't feel that way at the Marriott. The Hilton is really nice with its old Georgia charm, lots of paintings of the old Georgia Military College are all over the place, there's even a canon in the lobby! How freaking cool is that? Alas, I'm not going to be here long. I think I'm going to stay here a total of four weeks. I have two weeks in Omaha coming up as well as a week of working at home.

Here's hoping that my next project will let me stay at a Hilton property so I can maintain my status for 2010.

Happy Birthday Nala!

Today is May 1 which means its Nala's 5th Birthday. I didn't get her anything from Petsmart as a gift since I doubt she knows its her birthday but I'm giving her plenty of extra petting and treats today to help her celebrate :)

Food commercials annoy me

I've been watching the tube this week and I've come to realize that I hate food commercials. They've become more annoying as time has passed. My two most hated commercials are Subway and Burger King. I don't eat Subway because I don't think its worth the money to get a sandwich from them but I do eat Burger King on occasion.

I hope they stop with the crappy food commercials, they're not making me want to buy their food in any way.

OK the Benedryl I'm taking is starting to take effect and make me drowsy. Hopefully I can stay awake long enough to make lunch and my two meetings this afternoon.

Work Computer Update

OK I mentioned in one of my last blog posts that my work computer was acting up. That was quite the understatement! This past week the damn thing just refused to work. I thought it was Firefox or even Xobni but to no avail, the computer seemed to be mocking me by being ON but eating up 100% of my CPU. Totally not cool!

As part of my ordeal, I had to go to the Atlanta office 3 different times this past week. The first was on Monday and they just tried to give it a tune up. I went back to the office and the thing was running like a slug again. I went to the office again on Tuesday afternoon and requested a re-image and I had to leave it over night. I went back again on Wednesday to pick it up and things seemed fine but it was not to be.

After installing some tools that I knew of things started to look a little better and for Thursday and Friday it seems to be working like a champ! Very very strange. Just so you know I was upgrading from XP to Vista and I found it strange that Vista would treat me like this after running so well on my home computer.

I asked my tech guy in Miami to keep my hard drive intact for now, I don't think I'm going to need it now that I have my computer running finally. I just have some other issues to work out that I've discovered recently but as long as the computer isn't eating 100% CPU, I can manage.

Life with contacts

It's been a week or so with contacts and so far it hasn't been too bad. I've been struggling with them in the morning sometimes but its no longer taking me 20 minutes to stick them in my eye. The one thing that is kind of annoying is that now I need contact solution and the travel size bottles don't last long enough. I'm thinking of buying bigger bottles at my client site and then leaving them at the office and just bringing a travel size one just in case I need it.

Things haven't been as clear though, not like when I had my glasses. I called my eye doctor and I have to go in and see her because she might need to make some adjustments to my prescription. Thats not to mean things are bad, they're just a tad blurrier than I'm used to. We'll see what happens on that front.

One of the major pluses is that I get to wear real sunglasses and not prescription ones anymore. I bought some Oakley Flak Jacket sunglasses that Ialways wanted (I think I mentioned this in another post somewhere) and I use them as much as I can. If the sun is out and I have to go outside I put them on. Part of the reason is because I don't have transitions anymore, I don't think they make them for contacts, and because they look cool. HA!

OK I think I've done enough blogging for today. I was going to blog earlier this week but my laptop died and I had to take it in to be repaired. Next week I'm off to Omaha!

Could the iPhone 3G be in my future?

Recently I got a communication from my company that they might be considering opening the flood gates and letting more people be on corporate cell phone plans. This is due to the fact that a majority of the people that work for my company travel and it makes having an office number totally impractical. There are a few caveats that I've noticed so far.

1) It's a voice only plan, so that means I have to pay for text messaging and data on my own
2) I can only choose AT&T and Verizon, thats not a big deal since I was going to use either of them anyway
3) My phone number would be owned by the company instead of me, some cause for concern but not a big one

The kicker is if I want my company to monitor all the calls and websites I'm looking at. I enjoy my privacy but this might be a bit much. There is an early adopter program and I signed up for it to see if they would pick me. One of the phone choices was the iPhone 3G. I already have an iPod Touch but this would make things more interesting since I would have the phone component and a lot of the apps that are on the app store require an internet connection all the time.

Only time will tell if I get one though. If I get it through my company thats fine but if I'm getting a plan on my own, I'm going Windows Mobile all the way.

Issues with Firefox on my work computer

I recently got an upgrade for my work computer and I loaded the usual programs that I use. My computer is running Vista Enterprise and I have Vista Home Premium on my desktop but for some reason my work computer doesn't like Firefox. It was rather strange because I use it at home without any trouble.

What seems to happen is that the program gets hung up on something and then it goes and eats all the memory on the computer. When it does this, my computer won't start normally and it takes half an hour to get going. Thats bull crap right there! I've un-installed it and things seem to be working ok. I'll test it a bit more tomorrow but I have a ticket in to tech support to look at it on Monday in Atlanta. We'll see how things go.

Finally got contacts

According to my wife, I have finally joined the 21st Century by getting contacts. I've been wearing glasses for at least 20 years now and my prescription is pretty high. I decided to try out contacts to see if the technology had improved any. I attempted to wear contacts before but I found them uncomfortable and I didn't see the need to get them.

The thing that is difficult is actually getting them in. I'm not proficient doing it yet like my wife but I'm slowly getting there. I'm using some trial contacts right now as I wait for my real ones to come in so my vision isn't 20/20 just yet. It's a bit blurry but I can still see just fine. To celebrate this progression in my life, I decided to splurge and get some sweet ass Oakley sunglasses. Too bad its not even sunny in Atlanta so I can use them.

I still have to keep my glasses up to date though but I own the Cadillac of lenses. The are the thinnest lenses available for my prescription, it has anti-glare, polarization, transition, and they're scratch proof. I'm carrying them in my bag and I have another back up pair at home just in case that have the same options. I'm using the insurance for the glasses because lenses are just so expensive these days anyway.

I'm going to have to keep practicing with these contacts so that I can get my time down to under a minute. Yeah I know, kinda cheesy that I'm timing how fast I can put them in but it will really help when I'm in a rush. Oh and I'm totally committed too, I bought a years supply of contacts. HA!!

What happened to the sunshine?

This weekend (yeah I know its Tuesday) my wife and my sister-in-law wanted to spend some time out at the pool. Of course I'm game for it and it was a nice sunny day. It had rained the entire week so it wasn't a wise thing to try and go swimming. There were some crazy people that decided to go in but not me.

Unfortunately, the sun didn't last that long, only about an hour and a half. Then it would tease me by poking its head out and then hiding behind some rain clouds. Since it was close to lunch I got us some Burger King. Amazingly my wife had never had a burger from BK before. After she explained it, it all clicked for me that I never have seen her eat a burger from BK.

I got take out and brought it back to the pool, as we ate there seemed to be a freak storm. I was happily enjoying my fries when a huge gust of wind just blew them all over the pool. I couldn't even recover them which totally sucked! At least I still had my burger which didn't blow away but I was missing the fries. Anyway, that was my Sunday....

Goodbye my old computers

It truly is an end of an era for me. Over the past two weeks I decided to recycle as many of my old computers that I could. I'm a bit of a pack rat especially when it comes to technology. I paid or invested hundreds of dollars into my computer equipment over the years and I have a difficult time letting go. In order to get rid of some of the clutter and because it was finally free, I decided to unload some of my computers that I've collected over the years. The final tally was 2 desktops (one of which I built from scratch) 2 laptops that were super old and had a tough time running even Windows 98 and an LCD monitor that burned out.

I was in IT Asset Management for years and one of the things I learned was never to toss out old computer equipment because of all the harmful chemicals and what not that are contained in old computer parts. I never recycled my equipment because I had to pay people to cart it away which really isn't a good way to get people to recycle. Now that Best Buy is offering free recycling, I'm starting to look around to see what else I can unload. They don't take hard drives which is fine with me because I still have data on them but now at least I know I don't have to cart old equipment around with me.

Middle Seat is so uncomfortable

These past two weeks I've had the unfortunate pleasure of sitting in the middle seat on the plane to Atlanta. This was my own fault for booking late. No matter, Delta gives me some bonus miles for this but still, I would have enjoyed napping just a little bit this morning instead of reading my book. My book is good, don't get me wrong but I like to get a little bit more rest so I can work a bit longer during the day on Monday.

I'm going to keep this short since I'm tired this morning. Maybe I'll do an early morning work out or something. *yawn* or not....

Creepy people want my cat

I don't think I've blogged about this yet but my cats are currently up for adoption on Petfinder. I love the little balls of fur but they make my wife upset so since I have to choose, I'm choosing my wife over them. I do get to have a say in who they get adopted by but this economy isn't very friendly to people who need to have their pets adopted. Not to mention my cats are cats, not kittens by any stretch of the imagination. Thumper is 5 and Nala is 4 but she'll be 5 in another few months.

I was looking around at how to get them adopted and the most logical place is Petfinder. I considered Craigslist but the warning from the ASPCA scared the crap out of me so I decided against it. I think Craigslist is fine for inanimate objects but not for animals that need a home.

So anyway, I got an email earlier this week from some Yahoo email address that was forwarded to me from Petfinder. The email was kind of weird, it just asked for more info on my cat (singluar) and so I wrote the person back and asked them which one they were interested in. They couldn't even name the cat (Thumper or Nala) that they wanted, they just said I wanted the cat that you posted. CREEPY!! Needless to say I deleted that email post haste. The ads for my cats are still up but if someone comes off as creepy again, I might have to rethink my strategy. For now I'm going to continue to take as many pictures as I can of them and load them up on my 1TB hard drive.

What happened to Sonic Team?

There was a time a few years ago when I played anything made by Sonic Team. This was when Sega was actually making game consoles and competing with Nintendo head to head. I've watched their downfall occur over the years as Sega went to a strictly software only type of company. I used to love playing Sonic the Hedgehog games on my Genesis and Dreamcast.

I've looked at some of the reviews of the next few Sonic games that have come out and they've been absolutely dreadful. I think all the wind was taken out of Sonic Team when Sega stopped producing consoles. Thats pretty sad but I guess it can't be helped when you're using someone elses development kit instead of your own. However if other companies can do it, I don't think Sonic Team has an excuse.

I hope they come through with a good Sonic game soon for Xbox 360 or Wii, I would really like to play a sequel that didn't suck. Maybe they should get back to their roots and just do a side scroller like back in the old days. That would be fantastic!

Atlanta Hawks

This week I had the pleasure of going to a Hawks game with some co-workers. They were taking on the Utah Jazz at the Philips Arena in downtown Atlanta. I'm not a big NBA fan or basketball fan in general. Since we were doing this really cheap we opted for the $10 seats. I never knew $10 seats could be so crappy! The dude at the box office must have been a real prick since he gave us the last row in the whole arena. It was hard to see anything at all, I couldn't even read jersey numbers on the players and it was easier to watch the huge screen above the court.

After the first period we moved down to some better seats but it wasn't that much better. The arena is nice though, its attached to the CNN building and has a full food court and even a hotel. The little shows they do during time outs weren't even that good, I had a way better time at the Miami Heat game I went to at the American Airlines arena. That might also be because I had much better seats but the whole game was also more entertaining and had better little side shows.

I don't know if I'm going to hit up another basketball game, at least I can say that I went. I'm more interested in going to a baseball game, maybe then I can get my peanuts and cracker jacks and watch the Yankee's kick some Atlanta Brave ass.

My blog posts look funny

I was looking at my blog posts in blogger and compared it to how they look in Google Reader and something just doesn't seem right. I think the problem is that blogger doesn't reformat my posts to the dimensions of the screen that I'm using. I use a wide screen laptop for work and I use a really wide screen at home. Blogger seems to be stuck in a square format so its making things not look quite right. A lot of my pictures are cut off on the sides and stuff but that doesn't matter too much, not that many people read my blog anyway and I think few even know it exists in the blogosphere since my postings are kind of random.

I've looked high and low for a solution and it seems the only way to do it would be to code it myself or something. I'm not a coder at all, I've given that part of my life up in IT. I guess its ok, it looks good in Google Reader which is what counts.

Spring Forward

Oye, I forgot that the time changed and I lost a whole hour of my day, what crap! It's almost noon though so its time to find some grub. :)

Carlos Mencia at the Palm Beach Improv!!

This past Saturday night Claire and I went to go see Carlos Mencia at the Palm Beach Improv. Man was that an awesome show! I recommend to anyone to go and see his show live. However, if you easily get offended I wouldn't recommend going to his show. He made fun of everyone and he reminds me kind of like Lisa Lampanelli in terms of what he talks about and who he makes fun of. The delivery of his stuff was excellent and I think I'll go and see him again if he's in the area. There was one part of the act (the last part actually) that was totally over the top. I won't say what it is because it might ruin it for someone LOL!

Anyway, really short blog post today. Not in the mood to sit in front of my computer.

Alltel got the Treo Pro, why not Verizon?

This is old news but Alltel is part of Verizon Wireless and Verizon even took something cool from them and named it Friends and Family that lets you call 5 friends for free no matter what network. It only requires a voice plan of at least $59.99. I'll pass on that personally. What really has me puzzled is why the Treo Pro is out on Alltel and not on Verizon? The Alltel brand should be getting retired soon. That gives me hope that it will come to Verizon. It might even convince me to stay with them but I don't know.

I still love the Treo, even in Windows form but Verizon is really starting to make me mad by not offering decent phones (sorry the Storm doesn't count) and actually releasing them on their regional carrier.

Sprint should be coming out with theirs by March, I would have settled for the Treo 800W but Palm doesn't have the best rep when it comes to product launches. They're always late and it eats into the amount of time a device is available. Well here's to hoping that they'll release it on Verizon fairly soon!

More bailout fun

Well well well its been a long time since I've added a new blog post. There's been plenty to blog about but its just laziness on my part and things at work are busy as always. I always get good ideas on what to blog about during my work day but then I lose all urge to write something by the time I leave work. Not to mention there's always something going on in the evenings so that adds to my laziness when I get in.

OK on to what I wanted to talk about. There are more bailouts on the way and this time they seem to be taking a step in the right direction kinda sorta but they're still leaving out the people that are following all the rules. So what am I talking about exactly? Why mortgage bailouts of course! It's new and improved and should only cost 75 billion dollars. Here's the deal as I understand it. If you're using over 38% of your gross income to pay for your mortgage and you're also in distress in any way you're eligible to have your mortgage redone. The mortgage service company can use any number of methods to reduce your payment with the ultimate goal of getting your payment to around 31% of your gross monthly income.

I did some quick calculations and I don't fall into this category. There are a good many families that are probably like me. We pay our debts and our taxes and yet when it comes time to helping the public we're kinda left out in the cold because we are doing the responsible thing but have little to show for it. I checked my house net worth and its almost outright disgusting how much its dropped in just 3 years. So here I am, paying a mortgage on a house that is totally under water, I can't sell it and I don't qualify to refinance for a lower rate because my wife and I have been doing the right things all along. I don't know if they're using the 80/20 rule on this but it doesn't seem like it. There is at least 80% of the country that seems to be doing alright, unemployment is hovering at 7%, while thats bad its still not terrible but most of the stimulus is going to corporations and the 20% in distress but its not helping the rest of us.

I'll still be watching the markets and the news to see if there is anything that will help me and my wife out. I would love to have a lower payment on my house or even get a chance to sell the thing at a decent price but eh, we'll see how it goes.

Going to see the Miami Heat!

This coming Saturday I will be heading to the American Airlines arena to see the Miami Heat play the 76ers. This will be my first NBA game ever. I was never much of a Knicks fan when I lived in CT and there wasn't anything worth seeing in Tampa. The only reason I'm going is because its free. My wife's job provided some tickets so I figure why not, it should be fun!

I won't be buying any Heat gear or anything like that but I'm hoping that the experience will be similar to the excitement of college basketball.

Texas De Brazil!

This past Saturday was Valentines Day and my wife decided that we should try some place new in Miami Beach.  Of course by the logo you can tell where we went.  This is a brief account of our experience there.

OK so first off we had reservations at 7:45PM for dinner.  I raced down I-75 and I-95 to make it there on time and actually got there with about a minute to spare.  There was a huge line just to get in the door and even if you had a reservation you had to wait to get to the front of the line to talk to the people arranging the seating.  My wife called ahead and we knew that we would have to wait a little bit to get seated but not 45 minutes.  Thats just crazy when you have reservations even if it is a holiday.  We were also given the not so good seats at the edge of the restaurant near the front door so we saw all the people coming and going from the place.

Our server was polite and told us we could help ourselves to the salad bar which is one of the big things about Texas De Brazil.  The salad bar didn't disappoint at all and there was quite a selection.  I was all about the salami's and the cheese but I also had some sushi and the lobster bisque.  Now the whole place is about the meats which is from sausages, to steak, lamb, pork, and chicken.  My wife and I saw these people running around with huge sticks of meat but none of them would come to our table.  We also didn't get the side orders that were supposed to come with the meal so we just kinda sat there for a bit until a waiter came over and asked us if we got our meat course yet.  Of course we said "Nope we don't know how this works because no one explained it to us".

Apparently, the thing I was going to use as a coaster was an indicator for the servers to start bringing the meats around for us to try.  An example is the one in this blog post.  Green means yeah bring it baby I want meat!  Red means Nope I've had enough for now maybe later.  The thing with me and my wife is that ours were set to red which is why the servers were ignoring us for the longest time.  Once we flipped those bad boys over it was on!  We each had the steak and lamb (I'm not a big fan of lamb but I figured why not).  I don't think we had the pork or the chicken but I know that I had the sausage links.  The sides they gave us were fried bananas (yum) and some excellent mashed potatoes.  It has been a really long time since I've eaten that much and I was definitely overly stuffed with food.

We ate so much that we had no more room for dessert.  I wanted to try one but I thought better of it and I don't think it would have been a good to make myself even more full than I already was.  There was some entertainment as well during dinner in the form of loud music and some Brazilian dancers.  We couldn't get a good look at them due to our crappy table location.  Although there were some tables that were set up by the kitchen which seemed even worse than where we were because you would see all the food just floating by you along with all the dirty dishes.

All in all, the night wasn't so bad.  The food was excellent but the service needs some attention.  One area I would recommend for the employees is to always explain what the stupid coaster like thing is for so your customer's don't sit there wondering why they're not getting any food at their table.  Well that was V-Day in a nut shell!

All hail the hotel foam pillow!

This week I made a recent change to my preferences for Marriott, instead of the usual feather pillows I opted for foam pillows. And you know what? A magical thing happened to me, I was able to get a full nights sleep without waking up in the middle of the night. I think my previous problem with getting a good nights rest was because I didn't have support for my head while I was sleeping and I was generally uncomfortable.

I don't think I can choose foam pillows for Hilton but for right now its not like I'm going to be staying there any time in the near future. Ahh here's to a good nights rest while on the road....

Just when I thought I could leave Verizon

About a year ago Verizon bought out a regional cell carrier that was pretty popular here in the dirty South called Alltel. Alltel had this promotion where you could call 5 people for free on any network. It's pretty similar to a plan offered by T-Mobile who does the same thing. I think this type of plan is great because both of my parents don't have Verizon and I end up burning minutes when I have to talk them.

There is a catch to this new Friends and Family plan, you have to be on a $900 minute plan which costs about $60. Thats a whole lot of money for a cell plan, at that price I think I would get rid of my land line.

Anyway, now I have to reconsider my options for my cell phone plan. The Treo Pro might come to Verizon in 2010 but thats a really long time away considering it just became 2009. I'm still leaning towards AT&T just to change things up and to get the phone I want sooner. We'll see what happens come May.

Cell Phone Contracts are sooo long!

I went online today to make sure of the date that my contract ends.  It looks like Verizon is offering new every 2 phones way earlier than 22 months.  My contract doesn't end until May but they said I was eligible in January.  Thats around 20 months which isn't bad, but they still don't have any phones that I want to buy.

Maybe by May there might be a phone that will fit my requirements but I highly doubt it.  I still think I'm going to make the switch even though I'll be paying more money for more minutes and roll over.

What stinks even more is that my wife's plan doesn't end until November which is CRAZY!  Too bad she has to wait until then.  If I'm not in a caring mood maybe I'll wait until November so we can get phones together so there isn't this huge gap between her contract and mine.  Only time will tell!

Finally making the switch

After ten years I think I'm finally going to take the plunge and go with AT&T Wireless. I've been a loyal customer of Verizon before they were even Verizon (I think I have my old phone somewhere at my mom's house). I'm due for a new phone already using the New Every Two program but the phone selection for Verizon over the past few years has been pretty terrible. I haven't used a regular phone for at least 4 years and although I enjoy using the Palm platform its time to change things up a bit.

I've done some price comparisons and I will end up paying a little bit more for twice the minutes. I'm also getting the freedom to get whatever GSM phone I want which is totally sweet. With Verizon I was pretty much trapped with whatever selection Verizon offered me because they were using CDMA. I think I've taken a while to switch simply because of laziness and because before they allowed you to take your phone number with you I was reluctant to switch because I didn't want to change my number. I've said bad things about AT&T in the past but I figure I might as well try them and see for myself. I plan on getting the Treo Pro unlocked GSM phone once my contract is up. I will pay an arm and a leg for the phone but I can use it wherever I want just by switching out the SIM card. I could also get the iPhone if I really wanted to buy I already have an iPod Touch so why bother? Besides I'm still not sold on the whole touch screen keyboard anyway.

My wife is also going to be switching but she has to wait a bit longer to get a new phone but she has picked out the BlackBerry Bold as her next phone. Only time will tell if she'll do it but I think she will because its just so purty. LOL!

Well its getting late so its time to finish up and get to bed for another rousing day of work!

New Asics: GT 2140

This is a picture of the sneakers I ordered from Zappos on Friday. I originally ordered the Asics Gel Kayano 14's but they were too small (which was surprising considering I always order a size 8). The GT 2140 is the upgrade to a shoe I got before that I thought hurt my feet but it was really because it was laced up too tight, the GT 2130.

So I decided to order the 2140's in a size 8.5 to see if they would fit better. I'm still not sure if these are going to be my home sneakers or my travel sneakers. Normally I don't have that many pairs of sneakers but I've gotten a bit tired of always packing and unpacking my sneakers from my suitcase so I can work out at the gym or just go for long walks with my wife.

I'll have to buy some orthotics for these sneakers as well but thats not a big deal really. The cool thing is that I will get the sneakers on Monday, the bad thing is is that I'll already be in Atlanta when they arrive. If I'm up to it I'll add a post after I've tried these bad boys at the gym.

My sanctuary at 35,000 Feet

As you can see in the picture, this is what I take to work each week when I'm going to Atlanta. Pretty spiffy isn't it? Believe it or not, this is one of my sanctuaries these days from the turmoil that surrounds me at work. Another one of those being my car or being at home for the weekend but anyway, thats the not the point of this post.

I've been reading some stuff on my favorite news sites that airlines are starting to bring the joy of wifi onto airplanes. This technology isn't new or anything and a few airlines have been doing it for a bit but the advent of wifi intruding on my commute to work may very well eliminate one of my sanctuaries from work. There is a fear that the ability to connect wireless while at 35,000 feet will make companies expect people to work on the plane. Granted, your typical flight to a client is a bit longer than a drive to the office but they certainly don't expect people to work while driving (some people probably take conference calls or something while on the road and I don't think thats a good idea when you're driving).

I know a good many people that do use the time in the air to accomplish some work but for me this is a place to NOT work or even think of doing work. At most, I pull out my Treo and make notes in it for personal reasons like music I want to get for my iPod, shopping lists, and maybe some To Do items that I have to accomplish. Other than that, I don't even pull out my laptop at the airport unless I know I'm going to be delayed for a good long time and I certainly don't get it out for my flights.

I'm glad for the airlines that need to prop up their revenue streams and what not but I'm hoping that companies will not put an expectation on American workers to start logging in at 35,000 feet, we as a country already work a lot and don't get enough PTO or time with our families... for those of us that use it as a sanctuary let us keep it and not let work intrude in yet another area of our lives.

Parking in Miami - How Funny!

This just happened I'd say 15 minutes ago. I got a call from the Miami Parking authority to talk about a parking space I had put in a request for and they wanted to know if I was still interested in the space. I think I did a pretty good job of not laughing at the person on the other line but inside I was snickering a little bit.

Just to give all of you some background (like anyone reads this), I put in for a parking space with the Miami Parking authority 2 years ago when I was still at another company and working in downtown Miami. I only worked in downtown for 4 or 5 months but in that time I really burned through a lot of money for parking and tolls. If you look in some of my 2006 and early 2007 posts I'm sure I'm ranting and raving about it. When all is said and done, the city of Miami still has the cheapest parking around. I think I was paying somewhere in the ball park of at least $185 at this really nasty garage and I was able to cut it down to $110 when I switched to a garage that was attached to a Courtyard Marriott because someone at my old company decided to leave and they gave me their space.

I don't know what the going rates are now but I'm sure they aren't cheap. I'm kind of glad that I'm not commuting there anymore, I don't think I could take all the stress of driving downtown and then trying to find a parking space with full realization that I'm totally getting fleeced. Anyway, that brought a nice smile to my face today. HA! OK thats it for now, maybe I'll be more motivated to blog next week.

Buying shoes online

I would say that I've been buying shoes online for about a year now, maybe two and I'd say that my results have been mixed. My latest acquisition is another pair of sneakers so that I don't have to always unpack my sneakers on the weekends from my suitcase.

Since I have always wanted to try them, I tried to get myself a pair of Nike+ Triax 12 sneakers. I decided to get them from Foot Action since they had a 20% off coupon online and because Zappos was a little more expensive. The only down side was that I had to pay for shipping but I didn't care because I thought that the sneakers would fit me. Well lo and behold the sneakers didn't fit but I would have had to eat another $6.99 in shipping costs to send it back. I did find a clause that would allow me to return it to the store but the one near me wouldn't take it back. I had to drive all the way to another store in Sunrise in order to return the sneakers. I still lost $6.99 because of the shipping I had to pay to get the shoes in the first place but its a small thing really in the grand scheme of things.

Now I got another pair of Asics but this time I went ahead and ordered them from Zappos. The sneakers I got were a bit on the expensive side but from past experience Zappos has always been better. I got an email today saying that they upgraded my shipping to next day which is awesome! This will be the third time that I've bought shoes from them and every time they have shown outstanding customer service, even when I wanted to return shoes and get a different pair.

Traditional shoe stores somehow don't do it for me anymore. Every time I've gone they never have the shoes that I want or the size that I need. All the shoes that I want to get are all online but never in the store so its hard for me to try them on to see if I like them. Also some of the brands I use like Ecco are not readily available in most shoe stores so I have no choice but to use online stores. Even though it is more expensive, I think Zappos will be me go to store for footware. Next day shipping and free returns if I don't like them can't be beat. OK I'm done blogging for tonight, maybe I'll blog some more tomorrow if I'm feeling the urge.

Bank Benefits

This Saturday the wife and I went to the bank to do some business. While we were there the customer service rep said that we were eligible for an account upgrade through my employer so that we don't have to have a set balance all the time to avoid a monthly fee. To the two of us we thought that was pretty cool, the only thing that was a little funny about getting the account upgrade was because it was because I was still listed at the bank as being with my previous employer.

I don't know how my account hasn't been updated. I've been getting direct payments into our accounts from my new employer for 2 years but I guess my bank is a bit slow on those things. No matter, I'll take the free account upgrade. Thank you former employer!

German Cars are awesome

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of having a VW Passat as a rental car. I have to say that the Germans sure know how to engineer a car for maximum fun. I've ridden in a few other German cars, namely the Audi A4, Audi TT, and BMW 128i. All these cars seem to differ from their American and Japanese counterparts in the "fun" factor. I really can't put my finger on it but they just somehow "feel" better.

I took the Passat I was given through its paces in Atlanta and the overall driving experience was pretty good. Of course it was a rental and was beaten up a bit already but the feel of the turns and the acceleration of the car were awesome. The Audi A4 was very comfortable, you couldn't even tell how fast you were going when you were riding in it because it was just that smooth.

I think that my next car needs to be some form of German automobile. I don't know what kind I'm going to get yet but I just know that I want one. I asked my wife if she wants one but she said no. No matter, I'm a patient man. By the time I'm 40 there is going to probably be a pretty sweet BMW or something that I'll want and being my 40th birthday, you can bet I'm going to get it!

I just saw it on CNN.com: From $80,000 a year to eviction: Hard times in America

It has been a while since I've blogged anything but I've been busy with work as of late and my nights have been busy too........ feasting on all that Atlanta has to offer. Anyway, enough of the excuses.

My wife sent me an article from CNN about the hard times that are hitting America. There is no doubt that these are some tough times and even people I know have been touched by this. However, this article shows some of the dumber things that people have done even though they know the economy just simply sucks.

Example 1: Trading in your job to go get a Masters or some other higher degree with the hopes of advancing your career or getting more money.

This is just dumb at this point unless you're just fresh out of college with nothing to do with your time. The article mentioned a 35 year old comptroller or something to that effect leaving her job (making 80K in Detroit) to get a masters in hopes of landing a better job. Well if you read the writing in all the papers, there are no jobs to be had so just leaving your job in the first place was just an idiotic idea. Her bosses were probably looking at the vacancy and thinking "Hmm... I can now save on my budget to save my own ass since I'm not paying XYZ $80K plus benefits!". If you can swing going to school while remaining employed, this might be the smarter move if you have the money to burn or your company provides the money to you if you get a certain GPA.

Example 2: Leaving your safe and secure job to go into Real Estate

This was another person in the article who decided to leave their job in IT (although not exactly safe, its better than nothing) and go into real estate with the belief that money can be made in this buyers market. Hello dumbass, if people are losing their jobs and wages are basically frozen and housing prices are dropping no one is going to be buying real estate! There are forclosures hitting the entire country at quite an alarming rate to be quite frank and even though these homes are being offered way below value, banks just aren't lending money to people with good to great credit. So the move to real estate just makes no sense at the moment until credit frees up.

OK thats it for right now, I have work to do....

Crazy Travel Day

It just so happens that I am flying out MLK Day. The airport is a bit crazy but having elite status helps quite a bit. Tomorrow is another crazy day being Innaguration Day. I'm sure people are flying today either to get home or heading to DC.

The line to go through security was HUGE this morning and I take a pretty early flight. My hotel is also deserted right now because its MLK Day. This is a good thing for me because I'm liking the solitude.

Too bad I can't stay here going forward but its too far from my client. If Hilton gives me lots of points I dunno, I might have to reconsider but I doubt it. I wanted to keep my Diamond status too for this year.

Circuit City's Demise!

Yesterday I went to Circuit City to see if there were any bargains in the store and I thought that I found a few. I had a Western Digital 500GB had drive ($140), 2 spindles of DVD-R's ($12), and the game Gears of War 2 ($60) in my clutches. Everything was supposed to be 10 percent off and the prices on the tags seemed cheap. I was tempted to get a DVD player for the upstairs TV and maybe even get a 36" LCD TV but my wife was good at curbing my spending. There was even a Sony Laptop that we saw that seemed decent and I was all ready to get it but she vetoed that idea as well.

Now when I got to the checkout line some of the prices weren't syncing up. The hard drive was $180 and the spindles of DVD-R's were $38! That wasn't the price I saw on the tags but the girl at the register didn't want to confirm the price. Needless to say I didn't buy those items but I did pick up Gears of War 2 since that has been on my wishlist for a long time. It doesn't surprise me in the least that Circuit City went the way of the Dodo. Even during a liquidation sale Best Buy's prices were still better overall on almost everything, that is just sad right there.

The extra money that I was going to spend on the TV or laptop will now go towards our Anniversary vacation in May, just a nice weekend getaway to recharge and all that. I have to research it a bit more with my wife but I do know that if I can do it, I'm using my points so its as free as possible.

Circuit City Blowout!

Today while I was out buying stuff at Sports Authority, I happened across Circuit City during their blow out sale due to their impending destruction by liquidators. It almost looked like Black Friday with all the people lined up outside of the store. I think they were letting people in a little at a time so that they wouldn't all rush into the store and trash the place. I went there yesterday thinking that there might be something on sale but there wasn't. I was all ready to at least get a new DVD player for my upstairs TV and if I was lucky, maybe even a plasma or LCD TV for my office. Alas, I don't think its meant to be but thats ok that just means money saved to spend on my insurance payments that are due soon. It's been fun Circuit City, but I guess Amazon and Best Buy will be my electronic stores of choice from now on.

New Jacket and Work Out Gear

Today I went out with my wife to do a little shopping at The Sports Authority. She always gets these coupons for so many dollars off if you spend so much money. She printed up two of them for us so that we could go shopping just in case we needed them. I ended up buying wind pants and a jacket by Adidas which is one of my fav brands for athletic wear. When I go to the gym, I don't wear any one brand like most people (Nike shirts, Adidas pants, and Asics sneakers). I supposed I don't have brand loyalty but the stuff I bought today is meant to keep me warm during the winter when I go to and from the gym. I don't have a problem with the cold when I'm away from home because I use the gym at the hotel. I already had one pair of the Adidas pants I bought today in a different color and they are nice which is why I bought another pair.

I didn't plan on it but I also bought a jacket for Fall/Spring but I'm hoping that I can use it for Winter as well. I bought a North Face jacket called the Apex which is totally awesome. It has the two features that I require, its wind resistant and water proof. I was going to get a regular fleece but using the wisdom of my wife, I decided on the Apex instead. I must say that it looks quite nice, I'll be testing this jacket out next week when I'm in Atlanta. It should be fairly cold and windy so it should be a great test. The best part, its small enough for me to pack into my carry on luggage really easily.

I'll give my review on it at the end of next week, I'm going to use it with my EMS gloves for ultimate warmth. Now the only thing I'll need is something to keep my legs warm since my dress pants in winter doesn't do anything for me.

Facebook Mobile

I have been only a Facebook user for a few months. I look at it regularly and stuff and even downloaded the app for my Palm OS phone so that I can keep up to date and everything but I always seem to go to the mobile site instead of firing up the application I downloaded. It seems that the app for Palm is definitely lacking in functionality and features and the web version is just a little better over all in terms of checking status for my people and looking at my wall.

I also have the iPod Touch and I downloaded the Facebook app for that and its way cooler than the one for Palm. When I'm at home I can use that instead of logging on my laptop and do a ton more stuff. As cool as it is, its not enough for me to get an iPhone and switch to AT&T. I haven't seen the one for Windows Mobile yet but I would like to just to see how good it is.

Now as for MySpace, I barely check that site at all anymore. The mobile site is crap and I don't think anyone uses it anymore anyway. Well thats it for tonight, I'm tired and its time for bed. I'll probably update my Facebook status tomorrow from my phone before work as usual :)