The Ramblings of a New Englander in Floriduh

Windows 7 is mine!!

2009-08-11T14:14:00.002-04:00

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…

2009-08-11T11:06:00.001-04:00

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....

2009-07-29T10:56:00.002-04:00

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.

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).
The sucker has to be paid for in some form or fashion so as not to raise the national debt
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.

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
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.
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

2009-07-29T10:29:00.002-04:00

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

2009-07-23T10:39:00.003-04:00

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!

2009-07-22T15:35:00.003-04:00

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

2009-07-21T18:40:00.001-04:00

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!

2009-07-20T13:02:00.002-04:00

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

2009-07-16T21:55:00.003-04:00

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

2009-07-11T12:33:00.002-04:00

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

2009-07-11T11:45:00.002-04:00

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!

2009-07-09T09:42:00.003-04:00

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

2009-07-07T10:02:00.003-04:00

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

Florida Supercon

2009-06-08T21:46:00.004-04:00

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

2009-06-08T21:28:00.003-04:00

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

2009-06-07T12:31:00.003-04:00

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

2009-06-06T22:13:00.004-04:00

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

2009-06-03T10:13:00.002-04:00

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

2009-06-02T11:49:00.003-04:00

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!

2009-06-02T10:09:00.002-04:00

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

2009-05-24T22:19:00.002-04:00

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

2009-05-24T22:09:00.002-04:00

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?

2009-05-20T20:45:00.002-04:00

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

2009-05-20T20:33:00.002-04:00

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!

2009-05-19T22:22:00.002-04:00

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

2009-05-19T22:17:00.001-04:00

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!

2009-05-16T13:16:00.003-04:00

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

2009-05-04T21:21:00.002-04:00

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

2009-05-04T21:17:00.003-04:00

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!

2009-05-01T12:43:00.000-04:00

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

2009-04-24T10:55:00.002-04:00

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

2009-04-10T15:20:00.002-04:00

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

2009-04-10T15:10:00.002-04:00

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?

2009-04-10T15:03:00.002-04:00

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

2009-04-05T00:55:00.003-04:00

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

2009-03-31T23:02:00.003-04:00

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?

2009-03-31T22:45:00.002-04:00

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

2009-03-31T22:31:00.002-04:00

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

2009-03-23T21:31:00.001-04:00

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

2009-03-18T19:49:00.002-04:00

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?

2009-03-13T15:38:00.002-04:00

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

2009-03-13T11:49:00.002-04:00

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

2009-03-13T11:37:00.002-04:00

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

2009-03-08T11:24:00.002-04:00

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!!

2009-03-08T11:18:00.003-04:00

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?

2009-03-04T22:14:00.002-05:00

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

2009-03-04T21:58:00.002-05:00

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!

2009-02-20T19:57:00.002-05:00

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!

2009-02-16T13:47:00.001-05:00

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!

2009-02-12T21:55:00.003-05:00

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

2009-02-12T21:39:00.003-05:00

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!

2009-02-10T23:04:00.001-05:00

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

2009-02-09T23:31:00.003-05:00

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

2009-02-08T11:22:00.003-05:00

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

2009-02-08T10:55:00.003-05:00

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!

2009-02-06T16:03:00.002-05:00

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

2009-02-02T21:11:00.002-05:00

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

2009-02-01T19:04:00.002-05:00

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

2009-01-30T13:50:00.002-05:00

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

2009-01-30T08:52:00.002-05:00

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

2009-01-19T20:29:00.003-05:00

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!

2009-01-19T20:28:00.000-05:00

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!

2009-01-17T22:01:00.003-05:00

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

2009-01-17T20:20:00.003-05:00

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

2009-01-14T22:52:00.002-05:00

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 :)

Still waiting for the Treo Pro

2009-01-12T22:30:00.002-05:00

The new Treo Pre has been announced at CES and it was said that its going for Sprint. Well good for them but I have learned that the CDMA version of the Treo Pro is also going to Sprint as well before Verizon. I mean WTF man! I like Verizon, the network, and the decent customer service but come on throw a dude a bone!

Whoop de do, Verizon has the Storm..... that phone totally stinks! I was trying it out at the store and I couldn't get into it no matter how much I tried to like it. There were just too many little things that were wrong with it. It's good for email but thats about it. I need my phone for PIM and web, email is pretty secondary and even then the email program on BB isn't the best. I will take Chattermail over BB any day.

I still don't see any updates on the VZW test site, it just constantly says that the 700WX is available while supplies last. If the network and customer service didn't rate so poorly on AT&T, I would seriously considering switching. I could make good use of the roll over minutes and the ability to buy GSM phones. OK enough ranting for one day, time to continue watching WWE!

Blasting through my old books

2009-01-11T22:18:00.001-05:00

I have been blasting through my books fairly quickly over the past two years but for some reason I always seem to go back to my old Battletech or Robotech books. More Battletech though because my Robotech books can't take a pounding (they are already bound together with scotch tape).

I am reading a book that is like 3 books in 1 becase its so long and the story is interesting and everything but I don't think I can bring myself to read it again. First its too long, and second I would be compelled to only read certain chapters so that the story kinda flows.

I should start reading the Complete Tales of Uncle Remus that I bought for myself. I don't think my parents ever gave me a book like that so I might as well do some childhood catch up in my 30's so I'm prepared for when I have kids someday. Well its time to hit the hay, maybe I'll be compelled to blog tomorrow.

The Treo Pre!

2009-01-09T15:52:00.002-05:00

Well here it is in all its glory, the brand new Treo Pre. Impressive isn't it? That keyboard is a slide out keyboard so most of the time you're going to be using just the touch screen. Palm announced this little gem just yesterday at CES and I gotta say that I'm excited. There are tons of articles and stuff on it on TreoCentral, Engadget, and Gizmodo so I won't go into the drool worthy details like the brand new OS and junk like that. They did mention that the phone won't be backwards compatible with all the Palm OS 5 apps which is kind of a bummer but I know someone is going to make an emulator for them. The only things I really use the phone for are calling people, all my contacts, my calendar, ListPro, and Butler for my alarms. Other than that, most of the other software kinda goes to waste (well maybe not the backup software that runs nightly). Anyway.....

I do harbor some disappointment though, this device is going to be coming out for Sprint first exclusively for at least a few months which means those folks on Verizon are just shit out of luck once again when it comes to a new Palm phone. I'm due for a new phone but I'm just holding on right now to my 700P hoping that this thing will come out for Verizon as soon as the exclusitivity contract runs out.

I must say that the videos of this thing are stunning and will kick any phones ass. Now my own personal opinion is that Palm should license out the OS and let the device makers just have at it like MS and Symbian do. Thats where the money is these days, making software that people want and that they'll like. The iPhone is a great example because the hardware isn't all that fantastic, it was the OS that blew people away and made people just run and go to AT&T just to get their grubby little mits on one.

I might settle for the Treo Pro if it comes out to Verizon. I'm not all that keen on changing my phone yet until its something that I truely want. Whats the use in spending $300+ on something that you only kinda want because your contract was due?

FL Panthers Game

2009-01-09T10:28:00.003-05:00

Last night I was in for a real treat, my wife was able to get tickets to the Florida Panthers game for 7:30PM. I happened to get in at 7:00PM last night and madde it home by 7:30 which is when the game started. I managed to get into the house and change into something more comfortable clothing and dashed off to the game.

I don't think I've driven that fast in a long time in my Altima. I was hitting around 85mph but there were people passing me like I was just standing still which is crazy. What was surprising to me is that parking was free at the Bank Atlantic Center where the Panthers play. I was expecting to pay at least $6.00 like I used to at other venues (granted that was in NYC). We spent way too much on food there but we were both quite hungry and they always inflate prices at stadiums so it wasn't like it was a surprise or anything.

We didn't arrive too late, we arrived just when the first period ended so we were able to find our seats and watch the last 2 periods of hockey. The seats were fairly close to the glass but we were only really able to see maybe 2/3 of the rink because the penalty box was in the way and obscured our view. It was kind of cool to watch people getting hit into the glass though, it was up close and personal. I'm sure we would have been able to see a lot more of the game if we were higher up but I'm not going to arge with free tickets. Unfortunately the Carolina Hurricanes (aka the Hartford Whalers) lost to the Panthers in this contest. I was quite pleased that I remembered enough about hockey strategy to know that because the game was so close entering the 3rd period (3-2) that the Hurricanes would pull their goalie to get another body on the ice. Unfortunately this would cost them a goal by some awesome shot by the Panthes to make it 4-2. Over all a very fun night and a good way to come home during the new year.

A lack of Comedy Central at the Marriott Atlanta NW

2009-01-07T22:34:00.002-05:00

I'm sitting here in my hotel room at the Marriott Atlanta NW and its time for South Park (even though they are re-runs right now) but for some odd reason this hotel doesn't have it. How crappy! I have all these other channels that I don't think anyone would really care about (really, the NASA channel??)

At least with Comedy Central I could get a good laugh or something in the evening. I can't even watch most of Comedy Central online yet but at least I have South Park Studios to entertain myself. I'm not big into conflict so I'm not going to say anything to Marriott but I think they have Comedy Central at the Hilton, maybe I should start staying there or something. At least I'll be able to get some laughs in.

I guess the saving grace is that at the very least there's Cartoon Network so I can watch Family Guy.

Gotta post real fast

2009-01-06T21:45:00.001-05:00

I gotta make this a quick post because I didn't realize last night that the number of posts I had on my blog was the same as the sign of the beast! If you don't know what that is, I recommend going to a book store and buying a Bible and flip to the Book of Revelations. K thats it. I'm un-motivated to write anything more, maybe I'll be inspired tomorrow!

A new Treo on the horizon?

2009-01-05T22:11:00.003-05:00

It would appear that Palm is going to be coming out with a new phone and a new OS at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) which starts this week.

I personally hope that the new OS is bad ass and that the phone comes out on Verizon. I'm in dire need of a new phone and I've already hit my New Every Two limit so I can get a new phone right now. I went off and tried out a couple of phones at the store but I still can't bring myself to part with my 700P (unless the Treo Pro somehow showed up).

The unveiling will take place this Thursday (the day I'm heading back home from the ATL) and supposedly this will either revive Palm or it will totally decimate the company and then I'll really have to start shopping around for a new type of phone that is missing all the features that I love about my Treo. Well here's hoping that things will go well, go Treo!

Going back to the ATL

2009-01-05T21:57:00.002-05:00

It's a New Year (2009) to be exact and traveling for me has started anew! This means I have started to travel yet again to the ATL. For the un-educated, the ATL is Atlanta (it's also the airport code just as an FYI). Today is my first day back at work and it was a busy one. I didn't get a decent car (no iPod jack or FM radio!) and my day was full of meetings and scheduling even more meetings on top of that.

Still, it is good to be working again although I wouldn't mind a few more weeks off to be at home with my wife and cats. There are a few people that I know in the area from work and hopefully sometime this month we can meet up and eat at one of the ATL hot spots around here.

Here's to the new year and traveling to the ATL until at least the end of May! If I have a good outing I'll be sure to write about it.

Lisa Lampanelli

2009-01-05T21:43:00.002-05:00

This blog post is late but I don't care, I was lazy this holiday season. For Christmas this year, rather than giving me a physical gift, my wife decided to give me the gift of laughter by getting us tickets to see Lisa Lampanelli the day after Christmas at Foxwoods Resort and Casino.

If you don't know who she is you better look her up because she is just awesome! She is known as the Queen of Mean, an Italian insult comic who has appeared on numerous comedy central roasts and even her own TV special.

I had an excellent time at the show and she didn't pull any punches when it came to insulting just about everyone under the sun. I was especially pleased that she did a joke just about Filipino's (I can't repeat it here of course and I only half remember it anyway).

Of course no night is complete without dinner which we went to first. We went to an Italian place (to go with the whole theme of seeing an Italian comic) and I think we lost $20 gambling at the slot machines. No matter, I had a lot of fun playing although I couldn't find the Gambling for Dummies machine. I did see one for the Soprano's but I had the most fun playing a machine that featured animated pigs.

Needless to say we got home really late that night since it's a 2 hour drive to Foxwoods and we didn't finish gambling until around midnight. I plan on seeing her again if I can find out where she's performing. Atlanta maybe??

Nike+ Quirks

2009-01-04T13:47:00.003-05:00

My wife and I have Nike+ because we run. Thats not really true, my wife runs and I try to un-successfully but we both have the tech for our iPods. She has a Nano and I have a Touch and for the longest time I couldn't get the results to sync to Nike.com.

Well after a few months of having this stuff, I decided to change my default web browser from Firefox back to Internet Explorer and believe it or not this actually solved my problem. Now I can see all my data from the few runs that I've done as well as the ones that my wife has done.

This is one of those little quirks about software that bugs me but it still tells me that the web is still owned by Internet Explorer no matter how much penetration Firefox has received in the past few years. There are still too many sites geared towards IE to ever give it up fully and even IE Tab doesn't do the best job of simulating IE. If IE only had the extension support that Firefox had, I'm sure it would regain any lost market share.

I'm thinking of getting a pair of Nike's for my next pair of shoes so I can just shove the
sensor in there and forget about it. It hasn't run out of juice yet and I'm hoping that my wife will use it during her half marathon in a few weeks so we can see how long it takes her to finish.

Making more blog posts in 2009

2009-01-02T14:28:00.002-05:00

I was just reviewing the number of blog posts that I posted in 2008 and I was surprised to see that I had beaten my 2007 count by a whopping 2 posts! I used to blog a lot more in the early days when I started this blog but its been tailing off as the years have gone by.

My new goal is to get back into triple digits in terms of number of posts. I was well into the 200's when I started but now I'm just under 100 posts a year. I intend to change that trend and start posting more. I know that I can do it and I plan to add more pics and stuff. I have that awesome digital camera that my wife gave me last year so I intend to use it along with my blog to better chronicle whats going on in my wanderings across the country.

Although I don't know what I'm going to blog about for the next few months since I'm only going to be heading off to the Atlanta airport and to my client site. Maybe I'll see what interesting things I can do while I'm there. I know that I'm going to meet up with some friends in the new year so I'll probably blog about that but we'll see.

Anyway, here's to blogging in 2009!

I still can't decide what phone to get

2009-01-01T23:08:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow is January 2nd and I will be eligible for my new every two upgrade with Verizon to get a new phone. I'm still running my Treo 700P and I'm still happy with it but I want something new and improved.

I don't have all that many choices because Verizon is CDMA and not GSM so I just can't take a chip and put it into a new phone. My only requirement is that the new phone has to run Windows Mobile. I still like my Palm OS but the Centro is a downgrade from the 700P and Nova won't be out for quite a while. Blackberry is also out because I secretly pull down my work email and they won't let me pull it down with a BB. I also am not the biggest fan of the OS although the new Storm looks pretty cool.

That only leaves me with a few choices. There is the HTC Touch but Verizon managed to mess it up on the keyboard and the asthetics (it litterally looks like a black brick). The Samsung Omnia all touch screen phone is also out but the keyboard totally sucks when I tried it in the store although the rest of the features are pretty awesome but they crappy keyboard is a deal breaker for me. That leaves with the Samsung Saga and the Treo 700WX. Both phones are pretty similar except for the fact that the treo is 3 years old now but it has all the features I crave in a phone and the form factor still kicks ass. The Saga is newer but its way too long and the D pad acts more like a mouse rather than a 5 way key pad.

I might go to Verizon tomorrow or call them up and see if there is a new Treo on the horizon. That's what I really want but I also don't want to have to switch to AT&T or something in order to get a decent phone (the Treo Pro is unlocked and available now) considering all my family has Verizon currently.

I guess I'll continue to sleep on it and make my decision in the next few days.

CT Christmas Trip

2008-12-31T12:41:00.002-05:00

This past Christmas my wife and I decided to head up to CT. I'm not going to chronicle everything because it wasn't all that exciting. What was exciting was trying to actually get TO Connecticut. We flew out on Dec 19th and it just so happens that there was a huge winter storm front going through the NY area. I had signed up for email alerts to make sure we don't go to the airport too early in case our flight was delayed. Since the plane going to NY was coming from NY, it was delayed because the FAA decided to slow down traffic in the NY Metro area.

We were originally slated to leave at around 6PM which would have gotten us to NY at around 10PM or 11PM. The snow storm decided to push our departure time all the way back to 1:20AM which is totally crazy. Most airlines would have canceled but not JetBlue!

We decided to go to the airport a little early just in case and waited around for a bit for our flight to come in from NY so we could leave. There was one other flight that was going to Syracuse and they kept on getting pushed back as well. There were these "Valley" girls that kept on pestering the gate agent because what he was saying wasn't what the call center people were saying. They brought out a manager that decided it would be best to give people some stuff to eat which I thought was a nice touch since it really doesn't cost them much.

Now here's the interesting part. The flight crew coming from NY Metro was slated to fly the Syracuse plane which had been sitting at the gate since 7PM, but since JetBlue isn't as big as Delta they don't just have stand by flight crews in the area that can fly the plane so they have to wait for crews to come in from other flights. The flight that we took touched down and the crew filed out and they boarded a new crew for NY Metro. Now the crew from NY Metro that was supposed to go to Syracuse just gathered up their stuff and walked out of the airport. This incited a mini riot because now Syracuse wasn't going to fly at all. I can understand why the Syracuse flight wasn't going out, there are FAA rules that say if a crew has been working 10 hours its time for them to go home for the safety of the passengers because they might be too tired by that point.

JetBlue boarded the NY Metro flight pretty quickly and I think a lot of people canceled their reservations so we practically had the whole plane to ourselves which was nice. The rest of the trip I may blog about but I doubt it, the creative juices aren't flowing that well right now.

TomTom 720 for me!

2008-12-31T12:36:00.002-05:00

I am now a proud owner of a TomTom 720 GPS system for my car. I lost my Bluetooth GPS receiver for my Palm Treo a few weeks ago so I've been without GPS for a little bit. I decided that instead of getting another GPS receiver, it might be better just to get the whole unit this time around. I went with TomTom because I know how it works already since I have TomTom 5 software. This particular GPS has TomTom 8 which isn't a huge difference from TomTom 5 but it does have updated maps which is totally awesome.

The only thing that I have a gripe with is the battery life. But I guess its something that I can forgive because it's supposed to be hooked into a charger while using it in a car. I can also get online map updates when I hook it up to my computer which is awesome for corrections and such.

I'll be testing this out over the next few weeks to see how it works. There were a ton of features on my old TomTom 5 that I never used because it might mess up my phone but now I should be alright with the new TomTom 720 since its a totally enclosed unit. Gotta love it!

Thumper's New Trick

2008-12-01T23:13:00.002-05:00

My older cat Thumper has a new trick. Actually its an old trick that he forgot about but has recently remembered. About 2-3 years ago Thumper figured out how I was opening doors by twisting the door knob. I have a picture of him trying this because my wife took a picture of him trying. Well the door handles in the townhouse are not knobs and recently he figured out that if he pushes it down and then pushes on the door, it magically opens!

I know he's opening the office door downstairs because I close the door at night and so does my wife and the next morning its open with both of my cats sleeping in there. The office is their favorite room I suspect because I'm always in there when I'm at home and it has a nice window to look out of when I open the blinds. I've had to put tape on the door handles for now to prevent Thumper from trying to open the doors. Cats don't like sticky things on their paws and so far so good. I might need to find another solution if this doesn't work but its the cheapest solution I know of besides buying another scat mat which I use for another door in the house.

I wish I could catch him in the act, it would make a good YouTube video.

Date Night

2008-11-30T14:13:00.005-05:00

Every now and then my wife and I go on a date night. It's just a way for us to get out of the house and enjoy some of the things that are around the area. Last night we decided to have a date night and go to dinner and a comedy show that was playing in Miami.

We decided on some Japanese food for the evening and stayed local by going to a place called Ra. I'm pretty sure I've blogged about this place before so I won't bore people with the details of the place. It was a nice dinner that wasn't too expensive and it helped that we also got the California rolls for free. I like having the new mall near the house, it gives us some nice dining options without being too far away and because we went early we didn't even have to wait for a table. SWEET!

To top the night off, we decided to see one of our favorite comedians Gabriel Iglesias. Check out the cheesy picture that we took with my wife's phone.

The great thing about his act is that he keeps on changing it up so what you see on TV, you won't hear the same thing when you see him live on stage. This is the second time that we have seen him live. The first time was a couple of years ago at the Hard Rock near Ft. Lauderdale and this time we went to see him at the Miami Improv. Carlos Mencia is going to be in town this coming week but he's here on Wednesday and I'm going to be in Atlanta for work so I won't get to see him. Too bad that would have been awesome!

Well thats all that happened on date night, can't wait to do it again.

Black Friday Maddness

2008-11-30T13:48:00.002-05:00

This past Friday I partook in the lovely ritual that is Black Friday. This year was a bit different beacuse instead of going super early in the morning, sales started at midnight at the Sawgrass Outlet mall near my sister in laws house. My wife convinced her family to go in order to avoid having to wake up super early on Friday. I was all about that because I really didn't want to wake up early on Friday anyway.

Little did I know how crazy it was going to be. We had to take I-75 just to get to the mall and man was it busy! I even decided to skip the normal exit because it was so crowded for a different one off of the toll road. Once there it was a mad house just to get parking. I haven't seen the parking lot this busy in a long time, probably not since last Christmas and certainly not at night. We decided to park near the outdoor shops just in case we could go there but that wasn't such a hot idea. There was a HUGE line just to get to the Coach store so we all decided it was best not to go there. We headed inside and proceeded to shop around, holy cow there were people everywhere looking for bargains. It didn't look like there was an economic crisis to me.

I would say that the deals were pretty decent but I didn't find anything there that I wanted to buy personally. My wife and her sisters ended up buying a ton of stuff and I think they got a good amount of their shopping done. I think we finally left there at 3AM or something like that I was too tired to even really notice.

Not only did I go to the mall that night, I even went out on Black Friday itself to get more stuff! I know I'm crazy but I did get at least 5 hours worth of sleep. There was some crazy woman that I over heard talking to the cashier that said she was up since midnight and was still going strong buying stuff. To me thats just plain crazy. I was quickly running out of steam by the afternoon but we didn't buy that much more stuff. Now its all a matter of wrapping everything up and playing Santa to each other. If I need more Christmas gifts, I'm just buying that stuff online and having it delivered. It should make my life much easier.

Christmas is coming

2008-11-25T08:57:00.002-05:00

The holidays are upon us once again and Black Friday is approaching pretty quick. I'm actually at home this week because its Thanksgiving this week and no one wants to fly out for only 2 days just to go back home. So here I am writing my blog and doing some work at the same time.

The only thing that's really hard about Christmas is that I never know what I want. I have one goal from my wife this year, letting her know what I want and what I need this year. Now this really shouldn't be all that hard because every body has a little list somewhere of what they want and what they need. My problem with that currently is that I have everything I want (within reason, I certainly can't ask for a $40,000 car for Christmas unless we won the lottery or something in the next few days) and everything that I need for home and for work so this is a bit challenging.

I have been looking around on Amazon for stuff that I want and need but so far I'm coming up blank. I don't have a lot of time but I need to find something that I want. Black Friday is coming up quick so thats when all the good sales are going to be too. I'm going to be getting up at the crack of dawn, I probably won't be buying anything for myself but eh, my wife enjoys the experience.

Overage Charges

2008-11-25T08:48:00.003-05:00

If there is one thing that really stinks its going over my minutes on my cell phone. I think this is the second time in only 3 years that I've ever done it but it still surprised me when I got the bill on my phone (the emails get sent to me and its all auto payed). I think the last time this happened was when I had my wedding in Tampa and I had to keep calling people to see where they were. This month I don't know where all the minutes went but I suspect its from calling my mom and my aunt during October since I was in CT this past month. I was also working from home and people call me on my cell rather than my office or home phone.

I should consider getting more minutes but seeing how this is only the second time this has really happened I probably won't end up doing it. Family plans are out of the question, I need a new phone every two years and so does my wife. I'm just waiting for the day that I can expense this stuff in with my company. Maybe they'll let me do the data plan too and I'll get work email on my personal phone. We'll see! For now I'll gladly pay the money because I really have no choice. Haha

Airport Security Principle

2008-11-17T06:30:00.001-05:00

I recently went to Atlanta for business and it was cool to see a frequent and a leisure security line. In Ft. Lauderdale there is no such thing which at times is frustrating because frequent flyers know about the Airport Security Principle: Get out of the way!!

All too often I see people trying to put on their crap at the end of the conveyor belt or load their stuff into their bags. These people seem to forget that more crap is coming their way and they're holding up the process for everyone else.

The frequent traveler understands this principle and promptly moves out of the way and puts their stuff on at the nice benches the TSA provides. Holiday travelers are the worst because there are so damn many of them and they are trying to bring too much through. I'm not looking forward to flying in the coming weeks, you can bet that the airport is going to be jam packed even though the ecomony is in the crapper.

Beware the wrath of the TWEEN!

2008-10-31T10:00:00.001-04:00

High School Musical 3!
Originally uploaded by l980's_chick

Before I went to Disney this past weekend, I took my wife to see the movie High School Musical 3. She's a fan of the movies so I thought I would take her to the midnight showing. I didn't expect to see so many little tweens running all over the place. Don't these kids have parents? Didn't they have school the next day? Geez!

Anyway, the movie was going just fine until maybe the last 1/3 of the movie when all of a sudden the video flipped and the audio got all messed up. There was a near riot by the little tweens in the theater! So funny! Then some of the little punks started singing the songs *truly annoying really* and we had to wait around 30 minutes to fix the film. They finally fixed it and we were able to watch it just fine and on top of that we got free movie passes too. I will remember this night as being absolutely hysterical. Remember, never get in the way of a tween and their Disney movie....

Happy Halloween

2008-10-31T08:17:00.002-04:00

Today is Halloween and I'm actually home for it. I won't be really be home per se, I'm going to my sister-in-laws place. I am going to dress up sort of. I am going to be going full out with my Yankee gear. This will make it so that I don't have to hand out candy to the neighborhood kids.

I'm not that into Halloween anymore, I used to have some fun at the office with it but I don't really go to the office all that often since I am trying to enjoy working from home. It gives me time to enjoy my home since I'm away from it for so much of the time.

To my friends and family that are enjoying dressing up, Happy Halloween!

Halloween Horror Nights Orlando!

2008-10-29T14:05:00.004-04:00

In addition to doing the 13K race at Disney, my wife and I decided to go to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios. This was a pretty scary night to say the least but I think it ranks up there with Howl-O-Scream that Busch Gardens does in Tampa. We hit up a few of the haunted houses and were thoroughly scared and of course we had to go through the various scare zones in order to get from place to place.

There were a few rides open too and one of the rides that really stands out is the new Simpson's Ride. This ride took the place of Back to the Future (I doubt the current generation even remembers the movie). This was a 4D ride and it was done very well. I liked that as you waited in line you could watch old episodes of the Simpson's. Just for the hell of it we also did the Men in Black Ride and some other cheesy ride that escapes me right now.

The Bill and Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure show was awesome. It was really funny and had cameo's of all the presidential candidates and a lot of popular music that they play on stations like Z100 (for you NY'ers you'll know what that is). I think that show made my night and made the whole trip worth it for Halloween Horror Nights. I probably won't go again, Disney is just way more fun over all!

Oh and one last note, my wife and I were walking through one of the scare zones and this girl was probably walking with her boyfriend. One of the "scary" people walked right up to her and growled in her face, she damn near wet herself when he did that! LOL She basically threw her boyfriends hand away which she had been holding and made a bee line in the opposite direction. That was hysterical, I wish I was able to catch that on video.

Tower of Terror 13K

2008-10-29T14:00:00.000-04:00

This past weekend I ran the Tower of Terror 13K race in Orlando FL. Roughly thats a bit over 8 miles in total distance. The route wasn't so bad, being FL it was basically a flat race the entire way. The experience was pretty good. I did only 8 miles once before and I ended hurting my leg for 2 weeks. My doctor said I shouldn't run the race but it seemed a shame not to after paying for the entrance fee and they said I could also walk the race too which wasn't bad.

I ended up walking about 4 miles and running 4 miles. I couldn't run the whole race because I'm just not that fit. My wife on the other hand smoked me because she was able to run the whole thing. My time was 1:56 which isn't bad but it isn't great either. It's around a 14 minute mile which isn't all that bad. I might do the race again next year but we'll see. I also never ever thought a banana could taste so good. They gave us a snack at the finish line and my wife was waiting there for me to cross.

Oh and the best part! There was an after partywards where they opened up some of Hollywood Studios for the participants. I rode on the Aerosmith ride (I actually had my glasses on too so I could see what the heck is going on in the ride) and of course I went on the Tower of Terror. There was a new Pixar section to the park and a new Toy Story ride. That ride was totally awesome. It was very interactive and had you shooting all sorts of stuff like if you were at a carnival with a small gun. I wanted to go on the ride again but they were closing the park.

I also picked up some good swag while at the race. I got the commemorative pin, a finishers medal, a short sleeve shirt, and a long sleeve shirt. Not a bad haul if I do say so myself. There are tons of other running events at Disney throughout the year but I think I'm going to switch back to the eliptical until my legs get better. My feet could also use a rest.

The ever falling gas price

2008-10-22T15:43:00.002-04:00

I've been home for the past few weeks and I haven't had to drive much but I always pass this particular Shell station that has the cheapest gas in the area. I know this because I check gas prices online to look for the lowest one in a 3 mile radius of my home. This Shell station has been dropping its gas price almost every day for the past few days. It was around $2.80 on Monday and just today its around $2.69. Thats a pretty big deal in my book.

There was a time when I would have considered $2.69 as expensive but no longer which is a bit sad. I do enjoy looking at the news and seeing that oil has dropped to around $70.00 a barrel for oil. There are all these oil exporting countries that depend on high oil prices but that don't like America that depend on the world buying oil at a high price. Take that!! Muahahaha! I'm hoping that prices continue to fall so that people will be able to buy gas and afford heating oil. There are large disparities depending on where you live but as long as prices continue to fall it will be good for all.

CT in the fall

2008-10-22T15:02:00.001-04:00

Cheesed out HDR of apartment view
Originally uploaded by mcbill

I personally didn't take this picture but its a great picture of CT in the fall. I think I know why I like being up in Stamford so much, its all the unique things that are up that way to the city streets, all the different types of houses, and all the trees and hills that are in the area.

Maybe thats the thing that I don't like about Floriduh. It's all so cookie cutter and dull. Everywhere you go there are cookie cutter houses and strip malls. There are some unique places I must admit but they are few and far between. It doesn't really leave an impression in my mind except to tell my inner compass where to go when I need something.

Even though I haven't been to CT in a little while, I still know where everything is and how to get there. There are still places up there that I will also go to and remember when I take a trip (Stewies being one of these places) and who knows, maybe I'll call that area home again (they're going to have to lower income and property taxes to make it even somewhat affordable to people like me).

Granted I doubt I would retire there, my old bones wouldn't be able to take doing all that yard work but maybe a small vacation home for when I want to go and visit where I grew up. The area is changing, no doubt about that (I think the Trump tower was a bad idea btw) but at least there are some un-touched areas that make it feel like New England.

No 13K Tower of Terror Race for Me

2008-10-21T12:59:00.003-04:00

All the way back in April, Claire and I decided that we would do the 13K Tower of Terror race in Orlando FL. This race takes place at night and you run through the Disney Hollywood Studios theme park. About 2 weeks ago to ensure that we would be able to actually run the entire race we decided to at least try and run that distance on Saturday morning. I felt fine actually running that distance although near the end I totally ran out of gas and had to walk it.

The next day I started limping but I thought nothing of it because I thought it was just my legs being tired or something. Monday things didn't improve so I started to get a bit concerned but still shrugged it off and went about my week and my trip to CT thinking that I should be ready by this weekend. I went and saw the sports medicine doctor that's been helping me with my heel pain in my left foot and the diagnosis that he gave me was that I either have tendinitis or I have a pinched nerve and should be running for the next 3 weeks. That's a real bummer since I was looking forward to running the race with Claire and also because the race is non-refundable. My doctor did say that if I'm feeling about 95% better I could still run it but he still advised against it so I don't injure myself further. Total bummer! Now I'm going to have to do stuff like use the bike or something instead of running. I wouldn't mind swimming if there was a lap pool somewhere close by or something so I can get in some exercise.

I guess I'll have to settle for cheering on Claire as she runs the race this weekend. We'll be doing a host of other things and maybe one day I'll be able to keep up with her on distance running. I can still outrun her in sprints though.

Trip to CT

2008-10-21T12:06:00.002-04:00

This past weekend I went up to CT to see my mom for her birthday. It was very nice up in CT during this time of year with all the leaves turning into fall colors with lots of yellows, oranges, and reds. I have numerous pictures of trees from my trip. I was able to rent a car for this trip because I had some free rental coupons from Avis. The rental wasn't totally free but it was close enough. I was able to get a Man Wagon aka The Dodge Magnum. The car wasn't bad but it could have been better if there was a bit more power behind it.

I arrived late Friday night so I didn't do much on Friday. Saturday was the day that I arranged to go to New Jersey to see some of my mom's family. I saw my cousin, his 4 kids, my aunt and uncle and their grand daughter. We ended up eating at Penang which had a branch near Princeton NJ. It was nice to have everyone around for the lunch and the food was excellent as well. Afterwards we spent the rest of the day in NJ with the family. I ended up going home really late and I could hardly stay awake on the trip back. Personally I don't even remember the last 1/3 of the trip home and it was on my favorite highway too.

Sunday was a really late day for me. There's something about my old bedroom that just puts me to sleep. I didn't get up till almost 11am which is highly unusual for me these days. I had planned to go to the mall or something but I got up too late and my mom wanted to go to the 4:15PM Mass too which totally cuts into the day. One of the things that my mom wanted me to try and do is setup the digital boxes so she can get TV past February. The only problem is that the antenna on top of the house is pointed towards the World Trade Center. In order to try and correct this problem my mom had me climb up to the top of the house to see if I can move the antenna. Unfortunately I was unable to move the antenna because there's about 50 years of rust on it and I was afraid that if I moved it, it might just break or something which wouldn't be a good thing at all. I did bring my camera up with me so I was able to take some pictures while I was on the roof of the house. I also ended up going to EMS but I couldn't find a jacket that I liked enough to buy. I also wanted to look at the camel back backpacks that hold water but after today's doctors appointment I don't think I'll be needing it. I also had just enough time to head on over to Stew Leonards, no CT trip is complete without a trip to Stewies! I went there specifically to buy some food to bring home (which is currently sitting in my fridge).

Mass at my old church was pretty uneventful. There are a lot of new people and the priest is also different. I noticed some sublte differences like the stations of the cross being a bit different since they are carvings now intead of paintings, and the chairs up on the alter are different from the ones that I used to sit in when I used to be an alter boy. I kind of miss some of the old stuff since some of the pieces in the church go back to when the old church was still functioning instead of just being the school. Just to indluge myself I decided to have some Garden Catering for dinner. This also saved my mom from having to wash dishes that evening too. Well those were the major highlights of my trip. I should be up there next year for my mom's birthday or for some other reason. We'll see.

Returning to CT

2008-10-15T09:40:00.001-04:00

Stamford Welcomes You
Originally uploaded by Bob the Astorian

This coming weekend I'm going to be returning to my hometown of Stamford CT. Next week it's my mom's birthday but it falls on a Tuesday which is kind of weird so I'm just heading up for the weekend to help her celebrate. I'm going to be heading to New Jersey to see family that still lives in the area (not like there was a lot to begin with) but it should be nice. I won't have time to see my friends this time around but it will be nice to go back to where I grew up. If I'm ever rich enough, I should just buy a vacation place there (most people would consider that weird but I live in a tropical area so some cold would be nice).

I'm going to bring my camera with me and if I'm lucky I'll be able to take some nice photo's while I'm there. I don't have a lot of photo's from Stamford itself even though I've lived there during my formative years. The digital camera is a wonderful thing! If anything I'll get some shots of New Jersey since thats where I'm basically spending my entire Saturday.

Stamford here I come, ready or not!! Booyah!

Xbox360 Update

2008-10-13T11:27:00.002-04:00

Well I just paid to get my damn console repaired. The only good thing that came out of it is that I have another year to see if the thing will die on me because with the $99.00 fee I get an extended warranty.

This is still bull crap. All of my other consoles still work. My Sega Master System (circa 1989) is still WORKING. I should write an email to Microsoft complaining about this.... HUMBUG!

My Xbox360 is busted again!

2008-10-13T11:01:00.002-04:00

OK now I'm getting a little miffed at Microsoft. I own the original Xbox and that bad boy was solid. I had one of the first production units since I bought the thing when it came out in Christmas of 2001 or something like that. It's back in its box because I don't play it much but my Xbox 360 has died 3 times now.

I tried calling Xbox 360 support and they're telling me that I need to shell out $99.00 to fix it. From the term "fix it" I'm guessing that they're going to send me another refurb unit. My original Xbox 360 was just fine until I experienced the 3 red rings of death. It lasted for 3 years chugging along just fine. I am on my second refurb unit and the same DVD drive problems continue to occur. I've had the current Xbox for a little less than 3 months.

I have tried looking online to see if there are Xbox's that are refurbs at stores for cheaper but there aren't any. The cheapest ones are for almost $180 which is too much. I'd much rather pay the $99.00 but I think Microsoft should just give me a new box anyway since this one didn't even last half a year. I'll try calling them again and see if I get another support specialist who will be willing to let this slide and get me into another Xbox without a charge. In the mean time, I gotta do more role searching so I can get my butt off the bench.

The Storm Cometh!!

2008-10-08T13:08:00.003-04:00

Coming soon to Verizon is a new phone to take on the iPhone, namely the BlackBerry Storm. I personally am not the biggest fan of BlackBerry but they might be on to something here. The interface looks pretty awesome and the fact that its totally touch screen also helps. It doesn't have a lot of the innovative stuff that Apple has done for its iPhone but it does have one interesting feature, a flexible touch screen! It basically flexes so that you can "feel" that you've done something. This is quite the contrast to the iPhone. Now the only thing that they need to improve is the overall software and it will be a killer!

I'm still going to get my Treo because I like having physical keys on my phone and my company is moving everyone away from BlackBerry and heading towards iPhones and WM devices. After having an iPod Touch for a little bit I can see the appeal of the iPhone. If they bring that bad boy out for Verizon, it will be totally HUGE! Especially if they make it to work on CDMA and GSM at the same time.

My wife will probably be getting one of these unless there is something new and improved from BB to come out in the next year. I'll be checking this out in the store if I get the chance, just to see how it is.

Down goes the economy!

2008-10-07T13:16:00.003-04:00

Unless you've been hiding in a cave for the last few weeks, you would have noticed that the economy isn't doing so hot these days. Normally you'd expect some ups and downs in the stock market but right now its just going down and I mean down in a massive hurry! Bailouts are everywhere and nothing seems to be able to stem the tide of mounting losses. Everyone has been touched in some way, whether its the fresh out of college employee watching his 401K looking kinda grim or the retiree that just realized his life savings was wiped out because his company went bankrupt or invested in bad debt securities. Well there is one silver lining that I can see, its not just our problem anymore! Muahahaha!

Oh how I've enjoyed watching the Europeans and the Asians start to flounder. Everyone over across the oceans thought it was a US problem, haha jokes on you! It's not our fault that they bought bad US debt securities and now they need some injections from the central banks in order to stay in business :) I'm just waiting for the begging to begin for the US to help bail out some countries economy with a huge package. It's funny that no one ever offers the US help but if something goes wrong its always the question of "why doesn't the US do something to help?". HUMBUG! There are billions of tax payer dollars going to foreign aid and my country is dealing with a trillion dollar deficit. I'd start pulling that money home to start funding infrastructure projects like they had when Roosavelt was president. Nothing like some new rail lines, roads, and an enhanced power grid to make things alright in the ole USA.

Anyway, thats the rant for now. More will be forthcoming in the next few days since I'm stuck at home.

Got me an iPod Touch

2008-09-30T11:05:00.002-04:00

Late last week I was able to get my iPod Touch and sync that baby up with all my music and what not. I can now see the appeal of the iPhone to many people since the Touch is just an iPhone without the phone component. I can use it for most of the applications while I'm here at home connected to my Wifi. There are some gripes and I'll get to those in a second. I just wanted to say that I think it is true that this is the most fun I will ever have with an iPod when compared to my old one or at least until Apple comes out with yet another version thats even cooler.

I downloaded a bunch of apps and most of them work fine. I don't know how useful they will be when I'm on the road since they require a network connection but I did get some games that are really fun. One of the games that I truely like is CannonGame. It's like playing Worms but with a huge artillery cannon. I've been trying out the email and the web browser and both are really cool. I like the web browser more than the email. I'm still trying to get over the no physical keyboard thing. I think I'll still be gunning for my Treo with its regular keyboard.

The video and music capabilities are good. I espeically like it for video since thats what I bought the thing for. It shows my movies in a much larger format so now I can actually read the sub-titles. I haven't had a chance to try out the Nike+ stuff yet but I'm dying to. I just need to get one of the sensors and I'll be all set to try that out. I'm also in the market for a case but they don't have many of those out yet either. One thing I did discover is that it won't play on my current iTrip. Not like I was going to use it for that purpose anyway, my old iPod is now the car iPod in my view. It's mainly there for use in the car because the click wheel is still easier to manage than the touch screen while you drive around town.

I can't wait to take this thing out on the road, it's going to be so freakin sweet! Other than a few small gripes, this new iPod rules!