My car is perfect once again

Today I had to take my car to Kauffman Tire in order to finally get some new tires. I bought my car back in 2002 and I never got new tires for it. After dropping it off this morning I received a call mid morning and I was told that I needed new brakes!! Well thats just a ton more money down the drain but I must say that they did an excellent job with my car. Luckily I only needed 4 pads, 4 tires, and 4 cut rotors. On top of all that, I got even better tires than I requested. Originally they said they had Toyo tires that they recommended on the phone in stock but during my call this morning with them about my brakes, I was informed that the tires I asked for are actually not in stock and instead they gave me even better tires but at the same price. How freakin cool is that? I have the awesome warranty with it but its pretty useless unless they open a store in South Florida.

Now when I brake, my car doesn't shake which will definately make my wife happy. I used to make her really car sick because of all the shaking that went on when I hit the brakes. The car rides pretty well too on the new tires although I really can't tell the difference. I just know that I can go faster on these tires than my old ones but who goes 120 mph on the highway in Florida anyway unless you're trying to outrun a state trooper? Tomorrow I'll see if all the money fixing my car was worth it during my rush hour drive to work :)

It's a Google kinda world.......

I was just pondering how much stuff I use now that is Google related. I've used all types of products in my time with IT and in college and I have to say that I have seen my own personal shift towards Google and it surprised me quite a bit on how much I rely on the products of this company.

Lets take email as a prime example. Before GMail came out, I was tied into using my ISP's email service or the venerable Hotmail of which I have been a proud member since 1996. I still use Hotmail from time to time but its mostly for junk or promotions. Once I heard about GMail and its 2 gigs of storage I thought it was freaking awesome and I signed up via one of those invitations you needed to get. The best part was that it had free POP access so I could ditch my ISP's email, I used an email address from my old school and had them reroute everything to GMail, I in turn forwarded all that mail to another GMail account that I created so I can get it on my phone. I have yet a 3rd out there just holding files since some genius came up with the idea of GDrive so I could use it as an internet hard drive. Nowadays I rely on GMail for all my personal correspondence with anyone except for tech support which I still use Hotmail for. If Hotmail still had free POP, I would probably be using them right now but alas they don't so GMail it is.

Another fine Google product that I've started to use is the new Google Calendar. I like how I am able to have multiple calendars to sort my life out. I personally use Outlook at home because it syncs with my Treo and I also have a Plaxo account that synch with Outlook so I'm never without my calendar or contacts. But the collaboration abilities with Google Calendar are awesome. I can see my calendar in pretty colors, add more calendars as I need them, and add calendars of family and friends. Now my only problem with the calendar as it stands is that I can't access it from my Treo, nor can I export the calendar into a format that my Treo will accept. I'm hoping that this will be solved then I might just totally move to Google Calendar. As it is, I'm just testing it and messing around but it seems very useful so far.

Maps is a big part of my life since I always seem to find myself in unfamiliar places when driving around Florida. I've remedied that recently with my TomTom GPS Navigator software and Bluetooth GPS receiver but before all that I relied on internet maps. The grand daddy of them all in my view has always been Mapquest. For as long as I can remember I've always used map quest, that is until Google Earth and Google Maps came around. Not only were the maps better than Mapquest, I could view aerial photo's of where I was going and the directional lines would show up perfectly. There have been lots of custom maps around the net but I haven't used any of them. My wife still relies on them since my GPS is connected to my phone but until I see MS Live maps and Yahoo's Maps Beta best Google, I think I'll be sticking with Google Maps for now.

I subscribe to a lot of Google services but the last ones I'll talk about are the new spreadsheet and word processing apps. I've recently tested these out with some simple documents and I can heartily say that these apps are pretty decent. I haven't tried more complex stuff like calculations or advanced formatting but for simple stuff its still pretty good. The only downside is that you have to be connected but the up side is that it can import documents and you can collaborate with people in real time. That to me is pretty awesome and sure as hell beats emailing docs all around town. There are free apps like OpenOffice.org but those are local to your PC so you can't collaborate or share. Man you gotta love all these new web appliances.

So what does this all mean? Well really right now, the only thing that matters to me is my venerable email and as long as GMail is the king and I can get it via POP I won't be switching anytime soon. As for the other services, they're definitely nice to have in a pinch and pretty fun to play with. And to show how much Google invades my life, my blog where I write all my rantings and ravings is on Blogger which of course is owned by Google :) Now if I could only get my hands on Blogger Beta...........

Yankees sweep the Red Sox in 5!

According to most news sources, the Red Sox haven't been swept in 5 games for almost 50 years!  Now thats quite an achievment if you ask me.  I like the fact that they're calling this the Boston Masacre 2 in the NY Times online.  Now the Yankee's have a pretty good lead in the AL East and the only way the Red Sox are going to be in the playoffs is if

1. The Yankee's royally fuck up in the next few weeks leading into October
2. The Sox all of sudden have a huge surge and win the AL Wild Card Race
3. Insert favorite act of God here...........

Needless to say I have confidence that the Yankees are making the playoffs this year and October is definately going to be a sweeeeeet month!

Woohoo Google Calendar for me!

My wife and I are Gmail users and recently we both signed up for Google Calender.  I've actually had it since the beta started a while ago but I never really used it because no one else was using it.  I use Outlook at home and my Treo of course is with me but I also use Plaxo which syncs all my Outlook calendar stuff and my contacts to the web so I'm never without them no matter where I am.

I actually saw why people like it so much when I went to a conference in Orlando FL.  At the conference there were a bunch of meetings going on with different companies that were giving people information on how to upgrade their software.  When I went to see if there were any openings, I saw that they were all using Google Calendar to manage all the appointments.  I thought that this was a really cool way to use technology and share information with your friends, especially those that don't use MySpacve or Evite a lot.  I'll probably end up roping a lot of my in-laws and other family into using Google Calendar so they know when I'm around and when I'm not.  Now I'm just waiting for a way to sync it with my current Outlook crap so I don't have to do double entries into both my Treo and my Google Calendar.  Come on Google hurry up, I'm dying over here!

Windows Live Writer Beta

I'm trying out the new Windows Live Writer beta which is made for publishing blog posts on numerous different types of blog sites.  It's mainly optimized for MSN Spaces (I have an account there that I don't use) but it said that you can use it for Blogger so I might as well try it out.

There are a lot of enhancements going on in the blogsphere in terms of tools.  I was almost ready to jump ship to MSN spaces but then I heard that Blogger was finally updating their tool set after a really long time.  The thing that I liked about Blogger was its simplicity to post things but the ability to customize was a real pain the ass.  I had to figure out how where to insert snippets of code in an CSS form in order to get different elements to appear or stick it in something like MS FrontPage and edit that way.

With the new version of Blogger its supposed to be way easier but its currently in beta and it hasn't been released to all that many people.  Since I have to wait I figure why not see what MS has to offer in terms of a blogging tool so here I am writing a post in Windows Live Writer.  I have to say that the interface is very simple and the tools that you can access are straight forward and uncluttered.  The only bad thing is that you have to install it but I guess that's also a good thing so I can write my posts off line.  I could also write it up on my phone but it takes way longer and my thumbs get tired after a while.  It's time to publish this so its time to cross my fingers and see if this works!!!

They're more than meets the eye!!

Early this morning while I was driving into work I spied a van with the image to the left on the trunk. The symbol was freaking HUGE! I pointed it out to my wife who I car pool to work with and said, "Look its a Decepticon!!"

I then attempted to whip out my camera phone to take a picture of it so I could post it but alas I was unable to get a picture of it because I moved ahead of him, but thats alright because that has to be one of the funniest things I've seen in a very long time.

And for those of you that don't know what a Decepticon is, you totally need to watch Transformers, and I don't mean the new crap, I'm talking about the stuff that came out in the 1980's, now thats classic TV right there that one and all should watch in their life times.

My cat is smart!

Last night I put my older cat Thumper in his cage so he wouldn't wake me up bright and early this morning. As an added precaution I put something in front of his cage so he couldn't get out. I just put Nala's little round sleeping cat furniture in front of it but I thought it would be sturdy enough given that its made of wood and decently heavy.

Well lo and behold, I hear a faint meowing at my bedroom door! Thumper managed to get out of the cage by sliding the lock release over (its just a simple lock, I don't put a REAL lock on it since I don't want to accidentally lock him inside) and then pushing the door open and also moving the cat furniture. This marks the 3rd time that I've seen him escape from the cat cage which is pretty cool if you think about it. Now if I could only teach him not to meow at my bedroom door in the morning, that would be the ultimate!

My laptop burned me

I was working with my work laptop on Friday and it started to overheat by a lot. Now the USB ports aren't working on the PC so I had to swap it out this morning. I don't have any marks but it still burned when I put it on my lap and the plastic is a little warped because of the extreme heat. Hopefully it my new PC won't burn me.

So much for flying with carry on's

Right now the news is crawling with reports of how a terrorist plot was just thwarted in London. Apparently a bunch of people that hate the good ole USA wanted to destroy some trans-Atlantic flights going to the US but they were caught but it is still causing massive amounts of chaos at airports in the UK and in the US. As I was driving into work, all the radio stations were mentioning it on their shows and how that at a bare minimum you had to be at the airport 2 hours early because of the elevated security status.

Now the part thats really going to hurt is for people like me that don't like to check luggage when they travel. Most of my travels don't span more than a week and even then most of my most recent travels have only spanned 3 days or so. If I'm only going somewhere for 3 days, do I really need to check in luggage when a carry on is sufficient? Well according to most news I'm reading right now, you can barely bring anything with you on board the plane now (probably short term but if I was a regular business flyer I'd be pissed). A lot of the things that I normally take with me on a trip are electronic in nature, things like my iPod, my wife's PSP when she lets me take it for playing games, my Treo, and of course my laptop PC. I'm not very comfortable checking any of these things onto a plane because I know what happens when I give up my baggage to others. Normally it gets all banged up and thrown about in the cargo hold and the chance of one of these things being broken just sky rockets! I paid hundreds of dollars for this stuff which is used to keep me entertained on airplanes because the magazine thats on board really stinks and you can only shop on the Sky Mall for so long without going nuts.

As I'm checking my schedule right now I don't think I'm going to be flying any time soon except for October for my mom's birthday which is a small 3 hour hike to NY. Maybe at that time I won't be taking my laptop but I sure am taking a lot of my other electronic gizmo's and hells no am I checking that stuff in because NY bag handlers are some of the worst I've seen yet. I used to have broken baggage that proves this but the airline replaced it since it was so damaged it couldn't be used anymore. Now if gas were cheaper, I'd just start driving everywhere instead of flying, seems to be much safer and have a lot less hassles............ So to all your travelers out there good luck at the airports!

Cleaning up Flickr

Today I decided to clean up some of the stuff that I use on the web. I have used a lot of different photo sites in the past and I even started using some new ones. But the one that matters the most these days are the pics that come up on Flickr. Granted I post a few pics here and there on MySpace but the bulk of my online pics were up on Flickr but I've since cleaned that up :)

I used to have all sorts of weird stuff like pics I took on some of my trips, my wedding, my sister in laws wedding etc.... Now there are only cats and my latest trip up there which is nice. I have that little Flickr thing on the side of my blog and for the longest time it kept rotating some boring pics that I had uploaded I dunno how long ago. Now it has some much better pics that I took in Las Vegas when I was there in May. I also have an extensive collection of pictures of my cats but thats because I was bored enough to actually load them up.

Maybe I'll take another trip somewhere and will add more pics, in the mean time I'll get more pics from home, I know I have more somewhere that I can post.

Getting even more connected with my Treo

I've had my Treo for a while now (maybe a year, maybe more but I can't remember) and during this time I've found more and more stuff to add to it. I already have games, GPS maps, word/excel editors, and phone directories, I mean what else could I possibly want on this thing?? Well of course I want instant messenger on it, but since I'm a little stingy, I want free instant messenger :)

Recently I was able to find something that works pretty well called Toccer. It only works with AOL Instant Messenger but its great for what I want to do which is chat with people on the go. It's been espeically handy while I've been away this summer at conferences. During my last conference in Orlando it was very handy keeping in touch with my wife during the day since I didn't really have time to make phone calls but being able to use IM was great. So even if I'm away but in the US somewhere, at least I know I can still talk to my people or email them. :)

IT WORKS!!

After months of not working it seems that blogger mobile is up and running again. This is very good news because now I can blog and post pics from my phone..... Woohooo!!!!

Three ways to blog on Blogger

Just to give Blogger another chance I decided to look in their help files to see if there are better ways to post using my phone.

Recently I've been using U*Blog but I can't post pics with it which is what I would like to do on occasion. There is also emailing it in using a specific email address but then pics won't appear either. So that now leaves me with option 3 which is blogger mobile. This also requires me to email stuff in but it supports pictures however in recent months it hasn't been working well so I stopped using it. I guess now is as good a time as any to see if they have it working again. I'll attach some random pic to this post just to see if it works. Hopefully it does since I like blogging when on the go........

What's up with Blogger?

What's up with Blogger?

I have been a blogger user for quite a long time. My friend Alison got me started on this thing and at first it seemed pretty cool. At the time I could do all sorts of good things like adjust the template, send emails to my blog so they would get published and even send in pics from my phone and presto they would appear.

It seems that the service hasn't been upgraded in a little bit and things that used to work don't anymore. Right now is a pretty good example. I'm actually using my cell phone (the trusty Treo 650) to write this blog. However, instead of sending an email I'm using an app called U*Blog because my emails are now ignored by Blogger. That's just not right in my view. That was one of its most useful features because I take a lot of pics with my phone and like to blog about it but since I can't there has been a lack of posts in the last few months.

I do have other blogging accounts I just never used them since I've invested a lot of time in this one. One place that I might transfer my blog to is MSN since they did a huge upgrade and is way easier to customize. I don't like MySpace blogs simply because its just text really. I guess I'll wait a little while longer and see if I want to put in the effort of moving to a new blog or just suffer with what I have.......

It's funnier than I remember

Today I got my DVD's from Amazon. I recently ordered Pinky and the Brain and Animaniacs. I loved these cartoons as a kid and they're even funnier now that I'm older. I've only watched maybe the first DVD but the episodes that they put on it are hysterical. I'll probably end up watching this during the week. I can't wait to get volume 2 of Animaniacs. The only thing thats missing now is Histeria which was really short lived but one of the funniest cartoons I've seen. In my opinion, Warner Brothers needs to refocus on great cartoons because the cartoons they made in the past are freakin great and their movies are just ehh...... they're alright but the cartoons are way better. Bring on Tiny Toons!!!

Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain on DVD!

Finally after years and years of waiting these two great cartoons are being released on DVD. I used to love watching these cartoons after I came home from school. Who can't laugh at a pair of mice trying to take over the world in one night or having three crazy kids run around causing havoc everywhere they go? I already ordered it on Amazon and its being shipped to my office so I'll have something funny to watch during my lunch break....... AWESOME!!

Hooray its my birthday!

Hooray its my birthday!

Today I continue my journey into my late 20's by turning an astonishing 28 years old today. So far I've gotten some really good gifts. I have FIFA 2006 for my Xbox 360 (Brazil will win the cup this time), 2 shirts for work, a gift card, and best of all concert tickets to see Santana at the Ford Amphithearter in Tampa.

In only 2 more years I'll actually be 30. Ouch!! I guess I better enjoy my 20's as much as I can before I become a decade older :)

Cool a full rainbow!

Cool a full rainbow!

I was driving this afteenoon on my way home from work I saw a full rainbow in the sky. Normally I just see just a piece of a rainbow but this time I saw the full arch which was pretty cool. I would have tried to take a picture of it but I was driving and that's a bit dangerous. maybe next time I'll try and take a picture when I'm at a stop light or something.

A test post with U*Blog!

A test post with U*Blog!

I'm trying out yet another program for my treo. I am trying as much as possible to use my treo instead of my PC for things that I would normally boot up my PC for like blogging and instant messaging.

I can already get my personal mail, surf most websites except those with flash or java, use AOL to message people in real time, edit documents, and ummm that's about all I do on my phone besides calling people. Since I've installed so much junk on my phone over the past month, I think I'm going to need a new memory card soon to hold everything. So if anyone wants to get me a b-day gift this year, get me a 2GB SD memory card so I can dump yet more crap onto my phone :)

Oh yeah, gotta love Virtual PC

I recently installed Microsoft's Virtual PC 2004 on my home PC. I like to tinker with new programs and stuff but I have been cautious not to muck up my home PC too much because reloading it all the time takes a lot of time and effort. Since Microsoft just made this for free, I decided to try it out at home and at work. At work I successfully installed SUSE Linux 10 and it seems to be working pretty well so far. I don't have a lot of time to actually use it but from what I've seen so far its a good OS.

At home I installed an old copy of Windows 2000 that I own. I could have installed WinXP but its kind of bloated and Win2000 is a pretty good test bed for the programs that I try. Mainly stuff like Trend Micro Internet Security (I'm in the Power User group) and various other programs for doing stuff like cropping pictures, photo albums, anti spyware, etc..... I totally forgot how barebones a Windows 2000 install can be. It only had Internet Explorer and the OS and that was it. I'll have to work on installing other programs like OpenOffice.org to read and write office files, Adobe Acrobat Reader, and maybe a few audio and video codexes so I can test out movies that I make. I gotta say I'm liking this a lot and if I can put it on a networked hard drive, I can just make up virtual machines and use those and never have to install anything on another PC again. This is getting to be pretty sweet!!

Going to Orlando!

This coming weekend I'm heading to Orlando for the MRO World Conference. Most people probably have never heard of MRO unless you're in the IT field. My company currently uses them and I'm going to find out whats new and improved since we bought their software in like 1999. HA! So I'm taking a road trip and I'm staying at the Disney Dolphin which I know is a super sweet resort. I went there last year for my birthday (just for dinner though) and it had some really tasty food. I'm hoping the rooms there are equally good.

The only bad part is that I'm going to be away for most of the day for my wife's birthday. The conference ends at 3pm but then she has a dinner with her team at work so I won't be able to take her out. However I do get to take her out on Friday which is better because we don't have to worry about getting up early for work the next day.

A great day for sports!!

Today is going to be an excellent day. I just finished watching Wimbledon where Roger Federer just finished winning his 4th straight title. I was gunning for Nadal to win but it was still a great match.

There's also going to be a Yankee game going on today at 1pm and they're playing Tampa Bay so that means its going to be on TV for me to watch. Last night they trounced the Devil Ray's so that was a good thing.

And of course at 2pm today is the World Cup Final!! Italy vs. France!! WOOOOO!!!!!!!

4th of July fun

Yesterday of course was the 4th of July and that meant lots of fireworks all across the ole USA. This year my wife and I decided to stay in Tampa instead of going to South Florida. We stayed in Tampa last year too but that was more because my father was visiting us and he wanted to see some fireworks which is why he came at that time.

Yesterday was a good day though, it started off kind of slow but started to pick up as the World Cup kicked off one of their semi final matches with Italy winning 2-0 in double over time. Of course my italian friend Lucy had to call me and gloat that Italy made it to the World Cup finals. Next up was a home made lunch from my wife. She decided to cook us some burgers and chips and they were absolutely awesome. She made them really thick too and added my two fav's on a burger........ cheese and bacon! MMMMMM

We followed that up by heading over to Safety Harbor which is small town really close to where we live since we live close to the Tampa city limits. We arrived pretty early for the fireworks because my wife said that I would have trouble finding parking if we went later. Turns out she was right because it was definately challenging finding parking in Safety Harbor. There were little lots here and there charging $5.00. I certainly wasn't having any of that. After a little roaming around, we found some good parking on the street for free. By the time we parked and found a spot it would be another 2.5 hours until the start of the fireworks. To pass the time we listened to the band that was playing, they had reggae and more traditional american music playing, and of course we had to get some funnel cake and soda. What was really cool was that they had an Outback tent set up selling appetizers. If we had only known we wouldn't have eaten lunch so late since we weren't expecting good food at the fireworks area. The display that night was pretty good. They had all these patriotic marching band songs playing in the back ground and I actually knew most of them which surprised me. After the fireworks were all finished up, we began the long walk back to the car and had to find an alternate way home. The town is really small and has only two main roads. Luckily one of them lead to this major roadway in Pinellas so getting home wasn't so bad. Ahh gotta love 4 day weekends, hope I have another one of those sometime soon.

Return of the Rabbit!

It has returned!! After many years of being absent, well not really absent just renamed as the Golf, the VW Rabbit is back! It's probably strange that I'm writing about a car that I've never driven before since the last one was sold around 1979 but my father owned one and when I was younger he used to let me shift the gears since he had a manual transmission.

I can still remember how featureless the car was. It has no A/C, power nothing, not even the steering, but it was relatively peppy for a tiny car so my dad got some good speed out of it. Alas we had to sell it because it just didn't cut it for his 80 mile round trip commute so we gave it away for about 500 bucks. Maybe he'll buy a new one now that they've come back. I know that if I had some extra money lying around I would buy one just to have some fun around town.

Germany Wins!!

I just finished watching the Germany v Argentina match and it was pretty damn good. I'll admit that I like watching soccer a bit more now. Compared to other sports its nice that soccer doesn't really stop the game that much for stuff like time outs and what have you. Today's game ended in a shoot out with Germany making 4 goals to Argentina's 2.

Next up is the match with Italy v Ukraine. That one should be interesting but I'm more interested in the other matches. I'm anxios to see how Brazil does.

Oh glorious Friday!!

Ahhh today is pretty awesome so far. Today I woke up slightly later than I normally do (thats because of the cat or else I would have woken up even later) and set about to TELECOMMUTE for the day. This is one of the best things ever invented on the planet for office workers. Not only do I get to stay home, but I can do all my regular work as if I was in the office but just without the distractions of my co-workers. I have the added benefit of being able to actually make use of my home computer today which I don't do nearly enough.

Today I'm going to be testing out my GPS stuff that I just got yesterday for my phone. It looks really promising even though the maps are a bit on the dated side for Florida. If this was for the north east I'm sure I wouldn't have a problem since no one is building roads up that way anymore. I also have to actually hit up my bank and make a deposit. I haven't done something like that in a long time since all my stuff is done electronically most of the time.

I'm also going to spend some time with my older cat Thumper since I've been away quite a bit during the month of June. He's the affectionate one although my wife differs in that opinion and calls him annoying. I can see her point of view though since he loves waking us up at 6 every single day. He normally starts keeping quiet when I pet him or somehting in the morning. I'll let him run around and play with the laser pen I have since he enjoys doing that.

The rest of the weekend should be pretty good too. I have a 4 day weekend! Thank you 4th of July!! 4th of July means tons of 4th of July sales and of course that means tons of shopping. AWESOME! I'm heading to the Prime Outlets at Ellenton in order to pick up some clothing for work since I'm getting kind of tired of the polo's and I figure I might as well get some button down shirts since I'm low on those. I'm also going to get an exercise bike and I'll probably sell the trusty Nordic Track because my back really hurts after I use it. Hopefully I can put the bike downstairs since the Nordic Track disturbed the neighbors and currently sits upstairs on the loft along with my computer. Time to get to work!! :)

World Cup vs. Olympics

I will be the first to admit that I am not an avid watcher of sports. So far the only things I'll really watch is stuff like the super bowl, NY Yankee baseball, and tennis if its one of the four major tournaments unless I'm going to see it live, oh and X-Games because that shit is just super cool to see. Just this past year I think the Olympics were on for the winter, I can't remember since I had just about zero interest in watching it and neither did a lot of other people. However now that the World Cup is on, people are leaving work and taking really long breaks to watch it. I've seen people with streaming video on their PC's with highlights of the games.

I find this kind of interesting that there is so much more interest in the World Cup than there is for the Olympics. They both have a lot of similarities in my view. They both occur only once every 4 years in a different location around the globe, there are national teams from all over the world competing, but the major difference is that the World Cup is just soccer (or football to all you international people) wheras the Olympics encompasses a lot of sports. World Cup coverage in the US has been pretty good so far with tons of matches being showcased on ESPN and ABC even though the US team is pretty lousy when it comes to soccer on the international stage. Maybe thats part of the appeal, the US isn't a major player in the sport and it gives the rest of the planet a chance to cheer for someone else or see someone else take the crown.........

They do say that soccer is the worlds sport. I know that people all over the world except for the US go crazy for this sport which is probably why attendance is so high at the World Cup compared to the Olympics. Germany has so many stadiums in its country dedicated to soccer that it must be giving the whole country a huge economic boost wheras the Olympics are really centered on just one small location in a country. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the World Cup even though I have to Tivo it. The only World Cup final that I remember is the one in 1998 and that final was kind of dull by ending in a shoot out. I hope that FIFA has changed things around a bit so that the final has to be played out all the way till there is a clear winner, sudden death over time baby!!!!!!!!!

Thursday shall be glorious!

Why is Thursday going to be so super sweet?? Well for one thing, I'm getting the GPS software and Bluetooth attena for my Treo at the office via FedEx, secondly, two of the movies that I rented from Blockbuster are coming as well so its not going to be another boring evening of watching bad re-runs on TV, and three I'm getting some extra moolah in the bank for some work I did last week. Ahhhhh what a wonderful day, can't wait till tomorrow comes around. Now if I could only find a way to get out of work early, say when I receive my package with my GPS stuff, that would make it the ultimate day as far as work days go.

Tivo plus Yahoo is just simply awesome

I've had Yahoo for quite a while but for the past few months I've been using Yahoo TV listings to set up recordings on my Tivo. I have to say that its super sweet. Right now the world cup is on and its always during the day so I can never watch it. Since I'm lazy and don't like using the Tivo to look up shows, I've been using Yahoo TV instead and just scheduling it from whatever PC I'm using. I have to say I love this feature. I've also experimented with some of the other features like traffic reports and weather but thats less useful to me right now.

I have just finished scheduling the Germany v Argentina game thats set for Friday. That game is going to be totally bad ass! Can't wait to see it when I get home on Friday night.

World Cup 2006

Lately like the rest of the planet, I've been watching World Cup Soccer. Its been really interesting to watch all the different national teams play each other and also hear the fans in the background chanting as well. It's too bad that USA soccer got bumped from the tournament but when I see these other countries play soccer, its just obvious they are so much better than USA soccer. Right now the teams that I'm most interested in is Brazil (of course), England, and Germany.

Right now I'm watching the Brazil/Ghana game and I just saw one of the really awesome forwards for Brazil basically dribble the ball into the goal past the Ghana goalie for a world record breaking 15 goals in the world cup. And Brazil scored within the starting five minutes of play! Now thats what I call some awesome soccer! I can't wait to see who's in the finals, I'm figuring I'm taking the day off to see that game. Hopefully it won't end in a shoot out like one of the other world cups that I saw in the past. It needs to be more exciting than that.

Yeah baby, I'm getting GPS!

This past weekend I decided to get a GPS bundle for my Treo. Most people probably would get one just as a standalone but those suckers are so expensive! The one I wanted was around $600 and I think thats a little too much. Instead I opted to get a TomTom GPS bundle with a Bluetooth receiver. The one I bought was a little over $200 which isn't bad and I got a car cradle for it too so I can mount it on my dash board so I can see where the maps on the screen. Although the screen is a bit small, I think this will be awesome for when I go to different cities that I'm not familiar with. The GPS unit is small enough to carry in my pocket and lasts for about 10 hours powered on. It should be here by Thursday :)

Now that's what I call a party!

I just got back from the best corporate party I have ever attended. I am currently in Miami attending a software conference conducted by HP. I've been here since Monday night and so far I've had a blast.

The first party was on Tuesday at Bongo's in Miami. There was tons of food there plus awesome Cuban music. There was the added benefit that the entire place was basically reserved for conference attendee's. I had about two plates of food and enjoyed the music for the night.

That party paled greatly in comparrison to the one that was tonight. HP and its partners had reserved a huge swath of beach right on Miami Beach and also in the middle of Ocean Avenue. Again, lots of Cuban food present to feed the 3000 or so people there. There was an open bar, well at least 6-10 open bars. There was an air brush tattoo artist, at least 2 regular bands, a cuban band and dance team, and after that a DJ. Oh it doesn't stop there! There are pillow lounge chairs everywhere, free Coldstone Ice Cream made on the premisis, and to top it off, a Cuban cigar roller on hand maiing free cigars for everyone. I also saw the largest skillets I have ever seen cooking food for the masses.

The party lasted to at least 10:30 but it could have been longer since it was going well after I left on a bus back to my hotel. I kept it light on the drinks but definately had ice cream and a good helping of food. I would have stayed longer but there are more things to attend tomorrow. I haven't been to that many conferences but this was by far the best. I'll remember this one for a long time to come. :)

Trip to Stamford, Part 1!

Well here I am in Stamford CT once again. Instead of being here to have fun I'm actually here doing my old job. There's a conference going on and they needed some help so what better way to get to Stamford than to volunteer to work there? I arrived yesterday after taking a really early flight (7:25) and then I went over to Budget to get my rental car. What car did I receive? A lovely sea green Ford Focus! I'm not the biggest fan of Ford or the Focus in particular but I will say this, that little thing has a bit of spunk to it. Compared to the PT Cruiser that I drove in Vegas, this thing has a bit more muscle to it. Granted I haven't driven it for very long but I have pushed it pretty hard on the highways basically because I know where I'm going and I have no fear of cops since I know all their hang outs on I-95 and the Merrit Parkway.

Now to top it all off, on top of getting the Ford Focus as a rental car, I am staying at a Howard Johnson's in Darien CT. Why so far? Because its graduation time in Stamford and every hotel is booked up solid. Most of the hotels approved for use by my company are like Hilton's and Marriots but since they're all filled, I had to dig way down and stay at a lovely HOJO! Everything in the room is like vintage 70's except for maybe the TV. The drapes, the furniture, especially the bathroom all looks like it was built in the 70's. I think its kind of amusing really. If I had my digital camera I would have taken a picture of it. I won't have to deal with it for too long since I am going to be leaving Stamford on Saturday anyway. Until my next post.......

Looks like Alberto is gonna get an upgrade

Since I live in lovely Floriduh, I've been watching the progress of good ole Alberto. Seems like he just hit 70mph for sustained winds. Add another 5 and he becomes a category 1 hurricane. By all projections its not going to come to Tampa unless it takes a major turn to the right, then it'll head straight into the bay but the likeliness of that happening is small right now. I'm just hoping they'll let us all telecommute tomorrow :)

Welcome to Tampa Tropical Storm Alberto

It's only 12 days into Hurricane Season here in the dirty south and what better way to kick things off than with a named Tropical Storm called Alberto. This thing started way down south but of course its going to hit Florida in some way. So far there has been a good amount of rain (if I'm lucky there will be enough of it so I don't have to go to work tomorrow and can telecommute), there will supposedly be high winds and there's even a tornado watch in a few of the counties next to mine. Wild stuff right?

I don't expect to see that much damage this time around. But just in case it gets bigger, Claire and I already went grocery shopping so we have plenty of supplies to last us through. I even went so far as to get two extra bags of cat food for my evil ones as well as a little bit of extra litter. I guess I'll see what happens in the next few hours, in the mean time I have to create a packing check list so I don't forget anything for my trip to Stamford later this week.

Logan's Roadhouse and Cars

This past Friday my wife and I went out to the movies and saw the Disney/Pixar movie Cars. It was pretty long for an animated movie but the content was great and the animation was freakin sweet! If you're into the Pixar films, go ahead and watch this one. There is a funny short at the begining of the movie like most Pixar films thats very well done too. K thats it for the movie, I'm not going to give away any of the story.

After the movie, we went to a close by restaurant called Logan's Roadhouse. It got a really good review on CitySearch so we figured why not give it a try. It's mostly a steak and rib place so of course we ordered a steak (me) and ribs (my wife). The food there was pretty good I have to say, it certainly lived up to its CitySearch reviews and the service was really good too. Quite attentive but not overly so like some of the more expensive places that we've been to. But the best part about this place? Unlimited peanuts! Yeah thats right, unlimited freakin peanuts and you know whats even better? You can be as messy as you want and toss the shells on the floor. This place was kind of like the English Long Bar in Singapore where you can eat all the peanuts that you want and toss the shells wherever. I didn't have too much because I had to save some room for dinner but still it was really fun over all. I'll have to find a branch in South Florida online one of these days when I'm good and bored and have nothing better to do with my time.

Yankees are in first place :)

Over the past few nights, my wife and I have been watching the Yankees/Red Sox games that have been on TV and so far the Yankee's have not disappointed us with 2 wins under their belt. We saw most of the first game which was a lovely 13-5 blow out and some of the second game although we really only saw results on MLB GameDay since they weren't televising it here in Tampa.

Tonight is another story though, tonights game will be on ESPN and we'll probably end up watching it since there is nothing else to watch this evening. Re-runs are so boring so what better way to stir things up than with an exciting Yankee game! I hope they win tonight so they can increase their lead in the AL East. Not bad for a team that has 3 starters out on injuries.

Is the day of reckoning upon us??

Well today happens to be 6/6/06......... but what most people fail to realize is that it is 6/6/2006 so we've already been through this exercise before in human history and so far the Earth hasn't blown up or the hand of God hasn't come down to smite the wicked among us from the planet leaving only the good behind. Although there should be some good parties in the places that are named "Hell" haha

Gas up $0.20

This weekend was pretty nice, gas was around $2.60 (who thought I would ever think that is a reasonable price for gas??). This morning I was driving in to work and noticed that gas went up to around $2.79!!! How insane is that? It's only Tuesday! I hope it doesn't go up much more or I'm petitioning for myself to work from home exclusively because my salary can't take this kind of hit anymore.

Emailing my blogs isn't working!!

I'm pretty sure I've blogged about this before but sending emails to my blog to be published still isn't working. I would say that I blog a good deal on my PC but I do occasionally like to blog using my phone. My Treo lets me send out email and such and the reason that I chose to use Blogger was because I was able to send emails to blogger and they would be published. I've tried to use the email feature a few times from the email addresses I have set up and they still don't work right :(

I'm going on two trips in the next few days and I'm probably not going to be blogging via PC but via email. Since this isn't working, there probably won't be many blog entries in the next two weeks unless they finally fix it. I was going to add pictures too since I was going to bring a camera or use my phone. GAH! Blogger needs to get this damn thing working already! It's been months!

I am the Cat Whisperer

I have finally taught Nala to sit. She's not trained to the high degree of Thumper. I trained him over the course of a couple of months and he was the only cat at the time. He's clicker trained to come to me and to sit. He'll even jump off of counterd when Claire or I tell him. We're still working on him getting to shut up but we can live with it for now.

Nala will now sit when I shake the treat can which is a good thing. She sometimes comes to me or Claire when called, but its funny that she listens to Claire more than me since I'm the one that likes cats and all. Maybe Claire should also be known as the Cat Whisperer................ even though she would be a reluctant one.

Corporate Sales are Awesome

This weekend, I was able to go to a corporate sale at Macy's. All these huge corporations in the Tampa area got a 20% off coupon on any clothing in the store. I was able to get myself some pretty sweet deals on some work clothes since I am always in need of more. Since my wife belongs to the same company, she got 20% off her clothes as well. The only bad part was that I didn't win any of the door prizes that they were giving away. Oh well, maybe next year I'll get something. Needless to say we spent a lot but I think we also saved quite a bit. I'll be sporting some new threads come Monday morning :)

A truely sweet sale

Tomorrow my wife and I are going to a corporate sale event sponsored by our company. We get 20% off stuff thats like over $100 bucks or something like that. There are supposed to be door prizes and such too so maybe I'll win some money or a shopping spree. I need to get more work clothes anyway, I'm starting to run low, especially in the pants department and this is as good a time as any to stock up on my wardrobe. And since I'm going with my wife, I'm sure to get something semi trendy since my taste is pretty bad but hers is pretty good so I should at least come up with something decent if we compromise.

There's nothing to blog about.....

I'm sitting her in my office cube thinking about what to blog about and nothing comes to mind. I never blog about work since thats just dangerous and dumb since companies are looking at blogs to see what employees might be saying. There's nothing interesting going on this weekend except a special sale for employees at my company at Macy's where I probably won't buy anything, although I am getting Apollo 13 on DVD from Blockbuster pretty soon.

Hmm........... Only thing thats worth mentioning is that I'm going to Miami Beach for a conference to evaluate HP software to use. That should be quite enjoyable since I'll be staying right on Miami Beach. I'll be sure to send pics if I'm not encased in a conference room all day long.

For anyone seeing X-3

My wife's co-worker just told me that my wife and I missed out on the ending to X-3 because we didn't stay for the credits. So if you're going to see X-3 in the thearter, stay until the credits are done because there is one more scene. Son of a bitch I can't believe I missed it!

X-3 and The Da Vinci Code

Recently I saw both X-3 and the Da Vinci Code. I thought both movies were pretty good. In the case of the Da Vinci code, I don't see why so many professional reviewers didn't like the movie. I thought that it was pretty faithful to the book. Granted it was missing some things and maybe some suspense but over all it was pretty good. I would definately recommend going off and seeing the movie and if you haven't read the book, you should probably go back and read it to see what was missing. I personally have the illustrated version of the book and I thought it was pretty cool to see all the places and art work that the book talks about.

The movie X-3 was very good in my opinion. I thought that it was going to be a lot longer than it was but it runed out to be the right length. They introduced some new characters and some old ones................ well I should just let people see the movie because I certainly don't want to ruin it for anyone. Needless to say, people have to see this movie, it was freakin awesome! I'll be getting this one on DVD for sure to round out my collection since I have the first two already.

Its getting hot in FL

Right now its Memorial Day weekend and where am I spending the majority of my time? Why in my apartment of course! The reason? It's getting way too hot and humid to go outside for long periods of time without getting totally baked. I was in Las Vegas recently and it was pretty hot there but thats a different kind of heat. In Las Vegas it was a "dry" kind of heat. Here there is plenty of humidity to make things feel even worse than it really is. I think I should get one of those personal coolers from Sharper Image so that I can stand being outside for longer than 5 minutes.

Google Calendar needs Hotsync Support

I admit that I use a whole host of apps but if there's one thing that I wish I could have its HotSync support for Google Calendar. Right now I use MS Outlook and Hotsync it to my Treo 650, what would be really cool is if I could see my calendar online at Google. The concept of Google Calendar is really cool and I like the color coding aspect as well. Right now my calendar is synced up with Plaxo but that only works with Outlook. I'm currently looking for an Outlook replacement but I'm not having any luck. I'm hoping that one day, Mozilla will integrate a calendar into Thunerdbird so I can ditch Outlook all together but I tihnk thats a few years away. :( I guess I'll just struggle on with my MS stuff until something viable comes around.

The 700p is out!

Palm and Verizon has come out with the new Treo 700p which is an upgrade to my current Treo 650. I've been reading up on it for a little while and the only thing that I can say that I really want from it is the added memory and the EVDO highspeed data network. I use my phone for the internet a lot when I'm away from home to read up on stuff, look up stuff, or just to play Dope Wars or Black Jack if I'm bored.

There is supposedly a new update for the 650 coming out that I'm waiting for thats supposed to add tons of enhacements but right now its rumor which kind of stinks. I'm sure there will be another Palm device that I'm going to get that will have a better OS and all that jazz. I'm debating whether or not Palm or Windows Mobile is the way to go, but I have at least another year so I have time to decide.

Got my Sony Laptop working

A really long time ago it seems, I suggested to my father to buy a Sony Laptop PC. At the time it seemed pretty swift. It came pre-loaded with Win98 and had a 450 Mhz P3 processor. My father has since upgraded to a Desktop PC (I also have a Dell he bought two years ago thats so much better than the Sony but the screen is busted so I can't really use that one). I have since upgraded the Sony with a host of mis matched parts that I have lying around. I upgraded the hard drive to a 20 gig (not very big these days but its better than 6 gig), boosted the RAM to 320 which isn't bad, and I also went ahead and loaded Win XP SP2. It's not the best laptop in the world but I'm keeping this PC around just in case something bad happens to my Dell desktop upstairs. I have backups for it on a portable drive so in case theres a hurricane, I can get up and go with my data ;)

I think next year I'm going to invest in a new laptop once Windows Vista comes out if I have the money for it. I have my work laptop but that doesn't count as truely being mine. I want something thats portable with tons of hard drive space so that just in case I gotta go somewhere in a rush, I have everything I need to keep my life going. Anyone have some money I can have to get my new laptop??

The perfect evening........

Tonight I get to go see X-Men 3 and have KFC, what could be more perfect than that???

Wii!!!!

The title of the post is Wii, and it refers to Nintendo's new gaming console. I've read a lot about it recently in the news. It doesn't sound as powerful as my Xbox 360 but man the games look freakin cool! And the price! Forget about it, so cheap I might pick one up!

Ahh the fountains at Bellagio, pretty isn't it?

 

Las Vegas at Night

I took these two pictures from the top of the Eiffel Tower in Las Vegas. I thought it was pretty cool to see the city all lit up like that.
 

The Valley of Fire!

One of the things that my wife and I did while we were in Las Vegas was to go ATV riding in the Valley of Fire. As the name imply's, this place was steaming hot when we got there. We rode ATV's for about 2 hours in the middle of the desert. We went up and down sand dunes, went over really rocky terrain, and nearly got heat stroke because it had to be at least 100 degrees outside. The bottom picture is of us at one of the stops so we had someone take our picture. The top picture is me with the helmet and goggles on. I also had to wear my sunglasses since they are prescription and without them I wouldn't be able to avoid the very expensive turtles that inhabit the area. It was quite an awesome experience but my ass hates me for doing it :)


 

It's my Anniversary YAY!!!

This past Sunday was my first year wedding anniversary. Pretty bad ass eh? I'm spending it in Las Vegas with my wife and we're at the Luxor (the one that looks like a huge pyramid).

We exchanged gifts and went over to the Pharoh's Pheast buffet at the hotel. We had to load up on food sice we would be spending a good part of the day on ATV's. I booked an excursion called The Valley of Fire ATV tour. The name itself should have given me a clue that it would be really hot there but I underestimated exactly how hot.

The bus ride took about an hour or so and the Valley of Fire is in a Federal preservation area. There are these turtles there that are endangered and for every one that you pick up, startle, or accidentally kill, the feds get you for $25K. When the turtles get startled they release the water in their bladder and this being the Valley of Fire, they can't replace it easily so manyof them die due to dehydration. After getting that little pe talk from the guide we were issued ATV's.

The ATV's were easy enough to operate but the terrain we went on was pretty rough and we were going decently fast most of the time. I have some good pictures that I took while in the Valley of Fire. I was last in line which wasn't so bad. I did get a mouth full of dirt and sand even though I was wearing a helmet qand goggles.

One of the best stops was the mining cave. We stayed in there for a good amount of time because people were getting over heated on the tour. It was basically around 100 degrees outside, your getting your ass kicked by the terrain since its bumpy, your trying to make sure you don't flip your ATV or crash into a rock wall, and there's normally a huge dust cloud you have to drive through. Despite all that, it was really fun. I don't think I would go ATV riding in the desert again, but maybe I'll go in a forest or something.

After coming back to the hotel, my wife and I had to get ready for our dinner at TAO which was located at the Venetian. The food there was great and so was the atmosphere. We shared some awesome shrimp with XO sauce and fried rice. We did a little walking at the Venetian and it was quite impressive. They had exquisite paintings on the ceiling, gondola rides indoors, a huge selection of shops and places to eat, and even an indoor town square where you can watch some free shows.

That night we also walked down part of the Las Vegas Strip. Treasure Island was too crowded to see their free show, so we went to the Mirage to see the Volcano erupt. Since it was a bit hot, we cut through Caesars Palace (which is HUGE) and into the Bellagio. We missed the water show but we'll see that another night.

It's Tuesday morning and I'm still sore from the ATV ride but I'm also sore from thr Grand Canyon trip but that's for another blog post........ need breakfast!!

Worst airport ever!

I have traveled around a lot and I've been to plenty of airports but I have to say that the one in Atlanta is the worst so far.

Right now I just started my vacation with my wife and we're off the Las Vegas. Our flight to Las Vegas involves two stops, one of which is Atlanta. First thing that happens is that we hear that the gate has changed. Not a big deal right? Just check the monitors for the new gate. Slight problem here was that there were no monitors to check at the terminal and we both distinctly heard that our new gate was at another terminal. Atlanta has some LONG terminals and its serviced by a train. There was a bank of monitors that said the only flight for our airline was on the terminal we were headed to.

BIG MISTAKE!! When we got to the gate, it was nearly empty so we had our tickets scanned by the agent. The agent looks at his computer and says that our flight was at the gate that we had just come from in our original terminal!!

He informs us that we have 10 minutes to run over and catch our flight. So my wife and I are practically speed walking through one terminal, caught the train, and speed walked to the very end of our original terminal to catch our flight.

I swear, if I have to take any more flights, I am going to avoid Atlanta like the plague. The airport is just too big, too crowded, and too old techwise. If I can avoid going to Atlanta ever again I will even if it costs me more to fly.

My silly cat

My younger cat Nala did something pretty silly this afternoon. I have a loft in my apartment where I have my computer. I was up there today and my two cats normally follow me up there. There is a rail and a perch where my cats sometimes jump on. Well today, Nala decided to try her luck with the rail and lost her balance. I didn't witness the actual fall. All I know is that one minute I know she is upstairs with me, the next minute I hear a small cry from my cat and a thud. When I looked up she was gone and I saw her run into another room. She seems fine though after dropping about 15 feet or so. Hopefully she learned not to try walking on that rail again.

LOL this is too funny!

This simply has to be one of the best titles for a book I've ever seen

 

Google Sidebar doesn't work anymore

I installed the WinXP SP2 patch on my work PC and all of a sudden my Google Sidebar doesn't work. Thats crap! I use this every day at work for the little scratch pad and for the RSS news feeds that I've set up. Now that it doesn't work, I dunno what I'm going to do now since I've gotten so used to it. I've tried everything I can think of short of reloading my work PC but that in itself is quite a pain. MAN!!!

Trip to the Zoo

My wife and I went to the zoo today since we had nothing really to do. I took the camera and got some pretty funny pics, enjoy! LOL

MI5

My wife got me addicted to watching this British show called MI5. It interests me because its all about spy stuff and people trying to blow up the UK. They're kind of like the NSA and FBI all rolled into one. I'll admit at times its hard to understand them with their thick British accents but whats really cool about the show is that it actually lasts a full hour kinda like the Soprano's. Thats pretty rare in my book since most other shows I watch are basically 45 minutes because of all the commercials that are just thrown in. I'm getting more DVD's in the coming days so at least I'll have something to watch since TV these days is sucking badly!

Is it Friday yet?

The week is dragging badly! Where is Friday???

I'm done getting my summer tan

Today I went to the pool with my wife and she decided to lay out and get a tan and I decided to go swimming in the pool. My skin being the way it is, after about 2-3 hours I have my summer tan all done. Unlike most people, I can tan pretty quickly so theres no need for me to lay out for hours on end. Just a couple of hours and I'm done. If I swim in the sun any longer I'm going to be really really dark and thats what I'm trying to avoid. Good thing I work indoors so I can't get any darker than I already am :)

Easter Dinner was AWESOME!

Tonight Claire made an awesome dinner. Steak, with mashed potato's and corn. I am now soo stuffed that I'm just lying here on the couch writing up this blog entry because I can't move. Thank you for the wonderful dinner Claire!! :)

FEMA: Louisiana Homes Must Be Raised Off Ground

OK now, if you live in Louisiana and you gotta raise your house up 3 feet off the ground I gotta say F that man. Not only do you now have to have a house on stilts, just in case, but now you have to walk up stairs just to get to your house. I'm sure there are stairs for most places but still, I think putting your house on stilts will make it somewhat unstable. What if someone wanted to totally destroy your house? It wouldn't take a lot, just knock out two supports and boom, your house comes crashing down. If they make something like that mandatory, I would move to another state because there's no way I'm putting my house on stilts.

CNN.com - Woman dies a day after Disney World ride - Apr 13, 2006

CNN.com - Woman dies a day after Disney World ride - Apr 13, 2006

I have personally ridden Mission Space at Epcot just once and hell yeah it made me sick as a dog. There are plenty of warning signs everywhere that this is a high velocity ride and if you're in any sort of poor health you shouldn't ride it. It basically takes a NASA centrifuge, adds some nice monitors and other little things and spins you around at around 2G's of force. For the average person thats pretty intense stuff. After riding it once, I know for a fact that I will never ride it again because I don't like having that sick I wanna throw up feeling. But if you're up to it, this ride is perfectly safe and does give you a pretty good thrill!

Taro the Dragon Boy is Great!

I just rented the above movie a few days ago. I first saw this movie WAY back in the early 1980's on Betamax I think. I actually borrowed this from my library in my home town. This definately brought me back. LOL! I can't believe I watched the whole movie again. My wife fell asleep while watching it so she didn't see the whole thing but thats alright, I enjoyed watching it. Maybe I'll let my kids watch it when I have some and when they are old enough. Here's the link for movie on Blockbuster. LINK!!

Man Gets $218 Trillion Phone Bill - Yahoo! News

Man Gets $218 Trillion Phone Bill - Yahoo! News

Now thats just freakin sick right there. If I were in the accounting department, I would look at this more closely. How can a residential phone line accumulate that many charges in a few months? It would litteraly take DECADES unless he was trying to connect to the internet via a US ISP from his home in Malaysia through dial up and never turned it off. LOL still quite funny though.

To be thwarted by soft serve ice cream!

This mornings commute was absolutely wretched. You would think that Fridays would be a good day to drive to the office. Not today! I read the local news online and found out that they had to close down the Veterans Expressway, a highway I pass by on my way to work, because a truck with 7000 pounds of soft serve ice cream crashed and flipped onto its side. This forced people to take the route I normally take to work which totally clogged everything up. I ended up getting here at 9 instead of 8:30 like I normally do. At least there isn't much to clean up, the ice cream can just melt away..............

Everyone took their retard pill this morning

Driving to work was TERRIBLE! Seems like no one could drive this morning at all. There was a crash between a car and a bus on the other side of the road and it was my side of the road that was going slower.......... how does that make sense???? There are also some people that don't understand the meaning of rush hour. It means move your ass I've gotta get to work so stop driving the speed limit already!

I hope the commute home is better than it was this morning because I just can't take it anymore!

I finally got the sample!

It's taken me two weeks but I finally have a sample from my cat Nala that I can take to the vet. Now normally the vet would be able to take the little stool sample from a cat but not my cat. OOHHH NO!! She's a fiesty little one so the vet told me to get one for them. She shares a litter box with Thumper so its hard to see who's crap is who's. Yesterday I caught her in the litter box and I got the little container ready. It didn't help that she effectively buried it at the bottom of the litter box but I have my sample and can take it to the vet :)

My DVD Writer died :(

My DVD Writer for my PC just died the other night as I was trying to burn something. What a bummer! Now I have to spend money to get another one. Just in case there was a fix I emailed tech support at IO Magic and explained what was wrong. The thing doesn't even read the discs anymore, Windows recognizes that there is a drive but it won't read the media. I even cracked the thing open to see if there were any problems with the parts inside but it all looks OK to me (obviously I didn't put that in my email to IO Magic). I have a Best Buy card coming in the mail so I'll end up using all the money I have on it for my new burner, now my dilemma is whether or not to get an external one or an internal one.....................

Internet News is starting to change......

I've been on the internet for a LONG time it seems. I first jumped on in college using a 19.2 TAU modem and I used Netscape 3.0 as my web browser on my 486 PC that ran Windows 95. The first websites that I started reading was of course CNN and the New York Times.

Lets fast forward to 2006 shall we? Right now its April and after almost 10 years, CNN and the New York Times have finally changed the look of their websites. I think its been a long time in coming but I'm liking the new layout. It just kind of astounds me that it took them 10 years to actually update their sites. I'm sure there have been little changes here and there but the over all look really hasn't changed. Now I'm going to have to get used to the new look of these two sites so I can find my news. :)

Day Light Savings Time

I just remembered this morning that everything springs forward an hour. I can't t tell you how much that screws up my internal clock. Now I'm going to be going to bed an hour earlier and waking up an hour earlier too. I hope I don't end up getting to work late tomorrow because I can't get up. Why do we do this anyway????

Expedition Everest is AWESOME!

Today was the last day in 2006 that Claire and I could go to Disney. Our annual passes run out this week so we decided to hit up 2 parks, Animal Kingdom and MGM. We've been to Magic Kingdom and Epcot so much that we felt we should go to the other two.

First we went to MGM to ride on the Aerosmith Ride (someone gave us their fast passes so we went right to the head of the line without waiting) and that was totally bad ass. Then we decided to go to Tower of Terror which is a trip all on its own. The wait wasn't even too bad either. Up and down up and down WEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!

Animal Kingdom was next (we were only going on the thrill rides today) and the only thrill ride there is Expedition Everest. This ride is soooo COOL! The wait was like 70 minutes but that wasn't that bad. They built a whole new area for Expedition Everst in the Asia section of Animcal Kingdom and its so new that it doesn't even show up on any of the maps. The ride itself is really tall and you can see it almost as clearly as you can see the Tree of Life in the middle of the park. They had this whole thing about the Yeti that guards Mt. Everest while you're walking in the line which was cool and I have some pics of it too. The ride itself was sweet, it raises you up pretty high, some of the ride is within the artificial mountain and part of the ride even goes backwards! There's a HUGE Yeti at the end of the ride but since I don't wear my glasses on roll coasters I didn't get a good look at him. There aren't any loops or things of that sort on this coaster but thats ok. The presentation is awesome and this is one coaster I could ride over and over again because its so fun. Anyway, enjoy the pictures!

Wednesday nights are kick ass

There are only 2 reasons why I would say Wednesday nights are kick ass.

Number 1: South Park

Number 2: Mind of Mencia

These two shows alone make Wednesday night TV worth while. I wasn't a big fan of Drawn Together so I'm glad they were moved over so Mind of Mencia could be put in after South Park. Now I have a whole hour of good TV on Wednesdays :)

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Haircuts make my head cold

I'm sure this might be something that apply's mostly to guys but whenever I get a haircut my head feels cooler. I go about 4-6 weeks between haricuts so my hair is decently long by the time I actually get it cut. After I do get it cut it feels a bit drafty for a while and it takes some getting used to. On the upside, my hats don't feel so tight anymore when I wear them :)

At home once again

I'm here at home telecommuting. I must say that I like doing this every once in a while. Not only do I get to spend some time at home with my cats who I don't see all that often except at night, but I get to eat some decent food other than soup for lunch. The downside is that the network isn't as fast as it is at work and I'm missing my 18" LCD display too since that helps me do my job so much faster than just using my regular laptop monitor. I can't complain since I'm doing work and enjoying the company of my cats on a Friday :)

Chef is dead!! Or is he???

Last nights South Park was AWESOME! For those of you that missed it stop reading right now! Anyway, I missed last seasons finale so I didn't know that Chef left to become part of the Super Adventure Club. In this episode he comes back and since Isaac Hayes didn't do any of the voice overs, they spliced together his dialogue from all the episodes done in the past. This was kick ass because it added to the effect that he was brain washed. The ending though is the best part. Not only do they somewhat "kill" Chef, they use bits of Star Wars Episode III and bring him back so he looks like a Chef version of Darth Vader! LOL!! Can't wait to see what the rest of this season holds :)

The NY FBI can't afford email?!?!?!

I found this article in CNN rather disturbing. I don't get how a Federal law enforcement organization can't afford email! Email is one of the best tools on the planet for information sharing. I understand that it takes money to set up servers, pay for software, back everything up to tape, and have people monitor the system so it doesn't go down but this is just silly. Google gives you 2 gigs of free email, I'm sure they'd be willing to cut the government a contract or something to host their email in a secure facility if the feds would stop sueing them!

Now this is really cool!

I just read this article in the NY Times about how people here in the US are starting to use their cell phones as credit cards. I've heard about this kind of thing before but right now its really only hot in Japan and parts of Europe. However the prospect of just putting my phone up to a plate on a Coke machine and getting a soda really appeals to me. I'm one of those people that really don't carry cash around anymore because its just easier to charge everything. Having my credit card embedded into my phone would totally kick ass and since I have a Treo I'm sure there will be some software that will let me see everything I've charged and I'll be able to send all that stuff to my PC so I can make sure that what iI've charged on my phone syncs up with the bank. I say BRING IT! If they include it in the next Treo I buy (which will be in a couple years since I just got this one), I'll definately scrap a few credit cards and just use my phone for everything! :)

I'm a Trend Micro PUG!

I'm sure people are scratching their heads about the title. Who is Trend Micro and what the heck is a PUG? First off, Trend Micro is an antivirus software company. Anyone who uses MSN Hotmail uses Trend Micro virus protection. It's pretty well known and I've been a loyal user since I was in college. About a year ago I came across a post on betanews.com for beta testers for PC-Cillin 2005. I was already using PC-Cillin 2004 so I figured why not give it a try. The benefit of completing the test was that I was given a license for 2005 and later invited to complete the 2006 PC-Cillin beta test which is when I got yet another license. Right now I'm testing their new software (I forget its name right now) and its currently installed on my home PC. There are a few things that I can't finish on the test because my current PC-Cillin install is interfering with it but thats ok. Since I've tested 3 products they decded to invite me to be part of the Power User Group or PUG of testers. This will net me antivirus updates 12 hours earlier than everyone else, I get to test all their new products and get free software upgrades! How freakin sweet is that????

Comedy shows rule!

I saw Gabriel Iglesias last night at the Ft. Lauderdale Improv and it was kick ass. He was soo funny. I'll definately go and see him again if I have the chance. Depending on the money situation, I might come back down and see Lisa Lampinelli (I have no idea if I'm spelling her name right). Even though there is a two drink minimum, it was well worth the cost of seeing this show. One of the best parts about it? It's at the Seminole Hard Rock which is a bad ass place to go to gamble, eat, and do all types of other stuff :)

Boo to my apartment complex

Yesterday I received a notice from the property managers that all the apartments in my complex are going to be converted into condo's by next year but they're begining the process already. Right now they're not accepting new renters, the management people have actually moved the office to an apartment to make way for the new management company, and I should be receiving some sort of packet in the mail in a few days. Since I've stayed around for so long, I have the option to buy my place but I'm thinking that the price is going to be hideous since I have the largest apartment type that they offer. I also have the option to extend my lease for an additional 9 months for when I receive my letter so by my calculations I'll have to figure something out before December. GRRRRR............................... Somehow I don't agree with this at all. What if I want to stay in my apartment but not buy it? It gives me mobility and freedom but now I have a ticking clock which gives me little choice in the matter in what to do, move or buy hmmm........... I guess we'll see what happens in the coming months.

Happy St. Patricks Day!

To all my Irish people out there, I have to say you have one of the most bad ass holidays on the planet. What other holiday promotes drinking and good cheer like St. Patricks day and on top of that, you don't even have to buy people presents like other holidays?!?! AWESOME!!

I fixed my cat bowl!

To the left you see the water bowl that I bought for my cats a while ago. It's a huge dome that holds water and then it spits out water and covers the dome and goes into a little pool at the bottom and recycles itself. My cats love the thing and its great because I only have to fill it once a week.

A few days ago it didn't work like it should. I could hear the motor trying to spin but no water would come out. It had been a while since I cleaned it and no matter what I did, water just wouldn't go through the motor and spit up water. I shook it, used an air can, and all that other good stuff. After looking at it closer, I noticed I could crack it open. After cracking it open I found all this gunk inside it. After cleaning it all out, I put it back together and now it runs like NEW! SAWEET! Now all I need are more filters to prevent the gunk from building up in the motor again. I don't want to keep on taking apart the motor because I have a tendancy to break things when I get adventurous after I discover I can actually disassemble something. At least now my cats are happy :)

AOL is ruining Winamp!

I happen to be a pretty big fan of Winamp (for those of you that don't know, it plays music). I used to use it WAY back in the days before it even had a 1.0 release and the software was still owened by Nullsoft. I've been pretty pleased so far with the software even after AOL bought Nullsoft but the latest changes to Winamp 5.2 are just total CRAP! Granted there are some nice little improvements but the Media Library is getting bad. I was just recently using version 5.13 and the media library was nice and fast and pretty straight forward. I primarily use it to listen to music while I'm doing my work at the office. The 5.2 release just totally ruined the online music aspect. I still use it of course because its still the best but they need to change the interface back. There are too many "clicks" involved now just to get to my 3 favorite radio stations. I also still don't trust it to sync up my iPod properly which is why I'm still using MediaMonkey for that part (iTunes sucks royally in my opinion). OK, thats my rant for now I'll probably have another one later this afternoon. ;)

Funny as hell!

Last night my wife and I decided to watch Carlos Mancia on Comedy Central since he had a special on. I gotta tell you this man is funny! I love how he just insults EVERYONE. I highly recommend seeing him on Comedy Central where he has a regular show. I think his one hour special is also playing later this week. If you're not offended by much or love jokes about others, go here! carlosmencia.com

Healthy pasta tastes gross

Tonight my wife prepared some healthy pasta that we decided to try from the store. Little did we know that healthy pasta meant nasty pasta. When we went shopping we thought that the healthy pasta would taste the same, after all pasta is pasta and it takes a lot of talent to fuck up pasta in our view. I don't know the brand name but they sure as hell fucked up pasta! After a few bites we tossed it out along with the rest of the un-cooked healthy pasta in the trash. It's back to good old fashioned fattening pasta for us I can tell you that much, at least it tastes GOOD!

McDonalds Breakfast Trip

I think it was yesterday that my wife and I went to McDonalds for some breakfast sandwiches. Normally I don't go and get breakfast but she suggested it and my stomach was telling me to get some so we went. Now why would I blog about a simple thing like going to Micky D's?? READ ON!!

In order to get to work I go on this huge road called Hillsborough that is basically 3 lanes wide in both directions and separated by concrete islands that sometimes turn into turn lanes. The McDonald's that is on the way to work happens to be on the left side of the road so that requires either a U-turn or using one of the turn lanes. I opted for the turn lane but mis-judged it and I ended up being too far up the road from McDonalds. After looking down the road and deciding I can risk it, I gunned my car and went up the wrong way on Hillsborough to get to McDonalds. Not only that, I went in through the exit of McDonalds since it was closer than the actual entrance. Needless to say, I don't think I'll be doing something like that again anytime soon. But on the upside, the breakfast sandwich and has brown really hit the spot :)

My Sony DVD player still rules

A long time ago (ok not such a very long time ago) my wife gave me a DVD player when we first started going out. I think it was either an anniversary gift or a Christmas gift. To this day I'm still using it here at home. I also have a 6 disc changer that my father gave me when he moved away and needed to unload some stuff but sometimes it doesn't like to play the DVD's that I have. I just recently switched out the changer with my trusty Sony and it still works great. Maybe one day when it becomes cheap enough I'll either get Blue Ray or HD DVD (when it becomes cheaper since its like $1000 just for a player) but I'm sure that I'll still use my trusty Sony since i doubt this thing will ever break.

Ohh just because I love my Sony DVD player doesn't mean I'm getting a lamo PS3. News from the media is that its delayed till almost 2007. SUCKERS!! 360 is gonna own video gaming for the next three years and the best part is that I already have one :)

I luv me some clementines

This weekend I went to Costco for some shopping with my wife of course and she pointed out that they were selling clementines. I only bought one box this time thinking that I can make it last. Sorry no such luck! I think yesterday alone, I ate almost 20 of them which is more than half the box. At least I know that I'm not going to get sick because I have some major vitamin C in my blood now. :) I should have bought another box!!!!!!!!

They call him "Fluffy"

This month will mark the seven years that I have been dating my wife and we are going to go and see a comedian named Gabriel Iglesias. He can be found here at this LINK. I first saw him on Comedy Central in 2005 and he's damn funny. I actually bought tickets to see him in Ft. Lauderdale so I'm set to do a little traveling this month. I'll give a review of his performance after I see him on March 18. Woohoo!!

Monday's are now truly pathetic

I used to read a lot of Garfield comics when I was younger and there was one part that always seemed funny and it was his absolute hate of Monday's. I can say that I too have joined Garfield in hating Monday's totally. Well lets break it down as to why I hate Monday's now.

First, the work component! It's the beginning of the work week which in itself is just not a good thing most of the time. I just had two lovely days off, why would I want my free time to end? I also have 2 standing meetings every Monday so that cuts into productivity but that's not such a big deal. Most people that work just don't look forward to Monday's because they know there is five days worth or work ahead of them.

Second, the traffic component! Sunday drivers are bad Monday drivers in general. I don't know if its just me but when I know its rush hour to get to and from work, I don't really care what the speed limit is, I just want to either get my ass to work or get my ass home as soon as possible so I'm not burning gas just sitting in traffic doing nothing but cursing at the person in the WAY front who's going less than the speed limit and really isn't in a rush to get anywhere in particular.

Third, the TV component! This is relatively recent but right now there is NADA on the tube that's worth watching on Monday nights. I thought that with cable that would be pretty impossible but there are only so many Law and Order re-runs a person can watch on TNT and USA. I'd watch WWE but my wife doesn't like watching it anymore. Las Vegas (on NBC) was the one show I had to look forward to on Monday nights but they moved it to Friday's which is a horrible time slot because who's in on Friday evenings? (Well I am but that's because I'm cheap and don't like spending money to drink booze that's over priced when I can get it at the store and drink it in the comfort of my own home and not having to worry about driving).

Maybe something will happen that will make Monday's better so I don't hate it so much anymore but it would have to be something pretty major (a new TV show maybe???) that will lessen my apathy for this most horrible of days in the week (unless its my birthday, then Monday is a good day).

A totally weird movie

I just saw the movie Proof starring Anthony Hopkins and Gweneth Paltro(?). It was kind of weird and I got a little lost watching it. It was all about whether or not if this chick was crazy and supposedly she was super duper smart. She constructed this mathematical proof or something that could totally change the world. I understood the movie but it just didn't make any real sense as to why they even made it since it was DULL! I hope the next movie that I get from Blockbuster is better than this one.

Slept like a little baby.....

Last night I went to bed early for no really good reason. By early I mean like 8:30ish early. I was attempting to watch what was recorded on my Tivo at home (TV is generally terrible these days even with cable) and I fell asleep on my couch. I was woken up by my wife at 11ish but after I got up and walked to the bedroom I was out like a light. I must say, getting 10 hours of sleep was really nice :)

My Medal!

Here is a fabulous pic of the medal I got when I finished the race this past weekend, isn't it cool???

The pain is finally gone

It's Wednesday night and I'm finally not in pain after all the running I did this past weekend. I can walk up and down the stairs without feeling large stabs of pain in my legs. Maybe this weekend I'll be able to go to the Strawberry Festival with my wife and get some damn good berries from some local vendors. MMMM Strawberries!