March 30, 2006

Two significant topics

I'm finally going to get around to writing about the two topics that need to be written about that I mentioned here.

1) Had Brendan's 3rd Birthday party. Was a Smashing Success, baby!
and
2) Found out sex of next little H family member on Thursday.

Haha, just kidding. Jen wants to go grab a bite. Maybe I'll do it when I get back...

March 26, 2006

Dodgeit

This is going to be a useful service!!!

http://dodgeit.com

You make up any @dodgeit.com email address you want and you can check it either via their website or RSS. It's good for those places that make you give them an email address, but you don't want to give them your real one. I have a hotmail account that I use for just that kind of thing, but this is a cool alternative. It doesn't seem to be very fast, but you get what you pay for. :)

[Update: Sent two test messages 30 minutes ago and they still haven't arrived. This thing may just suck...]

Free iTunes

I'm not sure how long this will last, since subscribers to the iTunes newsletter get this info, but it might be useful.

http://freeitunessongs.blogspot.com/

Sometimes I miss a week and want to go back, so maybe I can go here to do that if the free songs last longer than 1 week. That's what I'm not certain of...

Sony LocationFree TV

It's pretty rare that I even open a spam email these days, but one just caught my eye. I'd never hear of the Sony LocationFree TV system before. I know better than to think that I'm going to get one free like the spam said, but I did want to learn more. I found info on it at Sony's site.

It's an interesting looking system, but I bet it costs a lot. It looks like $1200ish at CDW...

March 23, 2006

5ives

Merlin Mann. Merlin. Mann. He's an unusual and intensely interesting guy. I've been reading his 5ives site lately, and I really got a laugh out of this one. Particularly #1. Heehee.

March 21, 2006

Test Picture

This is a test. I have this photo in my Flickr account and it is marked private. I wanted to see if, despite that fact, I could post it here and have it show up. So...

Ted's Cool

http://www.spideysenses.com/

March 19, 2006

Gotta Love Advertisitng

Well, sometimes you do. This is one of those times. Click to zoom.



Happy Nerds are Useful Nerds!

Burj Al Arab Hotel in Dubai

Check this chit out!

The Burj Al Arab Hotel in Dubai.

Link1 Link2 Link3


ZOOM!
(local copy)

I checked the rates and to stay there the night of my birthday would cost me $1,430. That doesn't even take into consideration the cost of getting there. Maybe when I'm rich. :)

What strikes me as unusual about this is the fact that they build so many things on "reclaimed" land in Dubai. It must be extraordinarily stable there - as in no earthquakes, tidal waves, etc. Or else they are planning to make history with one of the biggest hotel disasters of all time when the big ones hits 'em. Hehe.

I've written about them before too. They're amazing!

Horsey's Helper

This is a follow-up to our previous thread...

Ohhhhhmmmmm! Horsey shouldn't have any back problems now that he has Monk Zhou to help him. What a nice monk!



When the monks aren't in Texas, they're here.

Requested Radio

I just learned you can make requests on XRM's website. Niiiiiccce!!!!



And it was fast to come up, too. About 5 minutes.

Oops! I did it again!

Sunday Morning Session

I have a lot to write about, but I really don't feel like writing, unfortunately.

I'd rather play with this Virtual Lite*Brite

1) Had Brendan's 3rd Birthday party yesterday. Was a Smashing Success, baby!
2) Found out sex of next little H family member on Thursday.
3) Parents and Brother just departed for home.
4) Too bad Brendan's sleeping on the floor next to our bed. :(

I think I'll have cereal and XRM.

http://www.gifszone.com/ looks useful for...something.

March 14, 2006

Amazing Police Videos

These are some Amazing Police Videos...but not like the ones you see in primetime.

http://cbs4.com/topstories/local_story_033170755.html

There are two rather lengthy videos that show the state of law enforcement in southern Florida. Makes me glad I don't live there.

(via http://www.mrbrown.com/)

Happy Pi Day!

Happy Pi Day!



3.14159!

March 12, 2006

D. Duck, esq.

Good advice from one of my favorite philosophers.

A dangerous post

From my friend Fred...an old guy whose more henpecked than anyone I know, so this is his only method of rebellion! Ha!

I think this has been around once already; but it's good for another laugh.

At last a guy has taken the time to write this all down. Finally, the guys' side of the story. (I must admit, it's pretty good.)


We always hear "the rules" from the female side. Now here are the rules from the male side. These are our rules! Please note... these are all numbered "1" ON PURPOSE!

1. Men ARE not mind readers.

1. Learn to work the toilet seat. You're a big girl. If it's up, put it down. We need it up, you need it down. You don't hear us complaining about you leaving it down.

1. Sunday sports. It's like the full moon or the changing of the tides. Let it be.

1. Shopping is NOT a sport. And no, we are never going to think of it that way.

1. Crying is blackmail.

1. Ask for what you want.
Let us be clear on this one:
Subtle hints do not work!
Strong hints do not work!
Obvious hints do not work!
Just say it!

1. Yes and No are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question.

1. Come to us with a problem only if you want help solving it. That's what we do. Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.

1. A headache that lasts for 17 months is a problem. See a doctor.

1. Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument. In fact, all comments become null and void after 7 days.

1. If you won't dress like the Victoria's Secret girls, don't expect us to act like soap opera guys.

1. If you think you're fat, you probably are. Don't ask us.

1. If something we said can be interpreted two ways and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one.

1. You can either ask us to do something or tell us how you want it done, not both. If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself.

1. Whenever possible, please say whatever you have to say during commercials...

1. Christopher Columbus did NOT need directions and neither do we.

1. ALL men see in only 16 colors, like Windows 3.1 default settings. Peach, for example, is a fruit, not a color. Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no idea what mauve is, and we don't really care.

1. If it itches, it will be scratched. We do that.

1. If we ask what is wrong and you say "nothing," we will act like nothing's wrong. We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle.

1. If you ask a question you don't want an answer to, expect an answer you don't want to hear.

1. When we have to go somewhere, absolutely anything you wear is fine...Really.

1. Don't ask us what we're thinking about unless you are prepared to discuss such topics as baseball, the shotgun formation, or golf.

1. You have enough clothes.

1. You have too many shoes.

1. I am in shape. Round IS a shape!

1. Thank you for reading this.

Yes, I know, I have to sleep on the couch tonight; But did you know men really don't mind that? It's like camping. ("Bullshit!" -Darrell)

Pass this to as many men as you can - to give them a laugh. Pass this to as many women as you can - to give them a bigger laugh!

Under London

This is something interesting to read:

http://london-underground.blogspot.com/

I think that the Transport for London people are fighting a losing battle. Long live the Internet!!!

Shutdown -a -m \\BlackBerry

I understand that the patent dispute over the BlackBerry was settled. Good thing! Here's something funny about that situation. Click to zoom.



There's a reason they're called CrackBerrys. Hehe.

Texas Limo

Ever seen a Texas Limo? I think not!

Comment Spam Returns

Whopee, the worthless comment spammers are back. I'm getting a lot of comments pointing to things like allaboutashley.renemovies.com and many, many others. I thought I'd check to see who owns that and put their names up here for others who have been hit by them, but they have obscured their info in WHOIS. Here it is, for what it's worth. I wonder if they have enough bandwidth to stand up to a DoS attack. I don't have the means to do that to them, but if they put their trashy comments on the wrong nerd's blog, I wouldn't be surprised to see it happen.

Registrant Contact:
WhoisGuard
WhoisGuard Protected (1ab189094efc4b8ba4924a531e827db3.protect@whoisguard.com)
+1.6613102107
Fax: +1.6613102107
8939 S. Sepulveda Blvd
Westchester, CA 90045 US

Name Servers:
ns1.bluegravity.com
ns2.bluegravity.com

Creation date: 07 Mar 2006 17:06:13
Expiration date: 07 Mar 2007 17:06:13

Unrelated

Unrelated to anyhting, I was just checking out http://wickedlasers.com/videos.php

They are what they claim to be, says I.

A load of phonepics

At Jen's Dr appointment, Brendan and I sat outside while she had blood drawn.


We were on floor 5, and I thought that this 5 above the elevator looked cool.


We followed each other around the black floor tiles for a while before Bren decided to take a break.


After, we went to Las Palapas. Good taco salads, but every time they get a new paint job, it gets more hideous.


We also shopped at Big Lots. I didn't buy any of the BM Beans*, but I sure thought it was a funny name...


Later we went to HEB and since Bren slept thru dinner, he got something there. Brendan's just like his mother: Loves Sausage!


*In case you didn't know, BM stands for Bowel Movement, among other things. :p

Brendan Slides

The other day (March 3rd) we were at McDonald's and we finally got Brendan to go down the play area slide. It was a lot of fun.





BioWillie

A while back, when we were driving home from my folks, I stopped at Knox Super Stop (I-35 Exit 364A at Hillsboro, TX). I had seen a sign that said they carried BioWillie, which is a Diesel Fuel made of corn. It's only sold in 4 states right now, but I was so interested that I had to stop. Check it out...





You push a button on the pump, and you can listen to "On the Road Again" while you fuel! (just kidding, unfortunately.)

Window Washing

A while back, I was washing the windows in Jen's car. Brendan was "helping" me and climbed up in the back "shelf" as the Mythbusters guys call it.







The funny thing about this is that I remember doing this when I was a kid too...but I did it while mom was driving! I can't believe that I lived to 10 years of age even...

Best Funny Pics

Occasionally, I click on one of the links shown as a "Just Updated" blog on Blogger's front page. Most of the time, they're junk, but this time I hit a good one.

http://bestfunnypics.blogspot.com/

It's just what it says. They're not too many of them, but they are good. I particularly liked this one:

Shopping with Dobie

Yesterday we went shopping with Dobie and bough Brendan some birthday presents since his B'day is coming up on the 20th. We got him the Word Whammer Fridge Phonics Set at a discount store (for 16.99 instead of the normal 24.99) and a tent at another discount store. The tent at least initially will go in the big room. Maybe after he's in school, some friend can camp out in the back yard with him. It's big enough (it says) for two adults, but on the package it says "Ideal for Children!" - to me that means, 1 skinny adult, or two kids. Either way, it will be fun for him we hope. Also, at the place we got the tent, I saw these. I don't know what the hell they're good for, but they sure are a good deal!!!



We've sent out invites to the little party and gotten many of the preparations done. Jen enticed people by saying that she wasn't telling the sex of the next baby until Bren's birthday party. We're finding out the sex on Thursday afternoon, so that's getting exciting. We had a few things for him already, but we're not sure he's ready for them so we're just going to save them.

Last night we watched the first episode of Modern Marvels from the season 1 DVD set, so that was cool. It was about Apollo 13. We've been watching Medium lately, and a few Good Eats too.

Wardriving

On the way to Chinese food, we took my PDA and wireless card with us in the car. We were scanning for networks as we drove out of the neighborhood, as we neared the restaurant, and as we returned home. We must have seen 20 networks listed! Several were 2Wire plus a 3 digit number, one was just linksys, one was netgear, etc, etc. It was cool. I couldn't believe that there were so many networks in our 'hood. There were even several near the Chinese place. We didn't try to get into any of them, of course, we just noted that they were there.

Chinese Food

Today for dinner we went to South Garden Chinese Restaurant. We love it. It's the best mid-price sitdown Chinese you can get. It's a bargain at lunch particularly, but we missed going for lunch, oh well. I enjoyed my favorite Pork with Garlic sauce, no celery. Jen has Sweet n Sour Shrimp with veggies in brown sauce. Brendan has Chicken nuggets and Smiley French fries which he didn't really eat, but that's OK. I put one in Jen's extra red sauce just for fun. It looked pretty cool there, but it doesn't really in the picture. Oh well.



A funny thing that happened while we were there was that the waiter came up with what I was almost sure was Tea, and asked me "More Water?" I said "Sure" and watched him proceed to pour tea into my mostly empty water glass. He sat it down and then there was a moment of silence as I looked at it and as he looked at it and realize what he had done. He was so embarrassed, but I just busted out laughing. He literally snatched the glass and ran off to the back. In like 1.2 seconds, he came running back with another glass, and apologizing profusely. It was so funny! He apologized about 4 more times before we were finished eating. It was great. We got our fortune cookies and all three kissed them together before eating them. Bren took his and went over near another table (the place was deserted) and started eating on it. All of a sudden he says "A paper!" I guess he didn't know that those have papers in them. Hehe. So, here were our fortunes.



It was a great meal. Anyone coming to San Antonio should really eat there. I suggest lunch since it's cheaper, but the portion is bigger at dinner. I'm a pretty healthy eater and I couldn't down all I got on my plate. Now that's saying something!

Afterwards, Jen did some shopping in HEB while Bren and I stayed in the car. I freed him from his carseat so that he could climb around in the truck, just for fun. I put his window down in the back seat just enough for him to stand in the seat and have his head out the window with his hands on the top of the glass. He said hello to people as they went by, talked to the hundreds of birds on top of the store, and just generally chattered and made people laugh. It was cute. :]

March 11, 2006

Great Weather

The weather is great, the mourning Doves are back, and Jen has the glint of gardening in her eye. So, now I'm going out to till the garden.

Airbus A380 build compressed into 7 minutes

The Airbus A380 prototype number four recently took off to start the 1000th hour of flight testing. This video compresses the entire build into 7 minutes.

This is soooooooo cool. It could be an entire episode of Modern Marvels.

read more | digg story

March 7, 2006

Funny Stuff

http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/

Olympic Stars

These are the people that I look forward to seeing in the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.

Sasha Cohen - Figure Skater

Lindsey "Lucky" Jacobellis - Snowboarder

Apolo Anton Ohno - Speed Skater

Shaun "The Flying Tomato" White - Snowboarder

Kimmie Meissner - Figure Skater

Chad Hedrick - Speed Skater

I just found a bit of the opening ceremony on GVid.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3442104947326205876

Its better if you press F11 as it starts playing to make the window full screen.

And finally, finally, here's some of the closing ceremony that I've been dying to see!
http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/5135944/detail.html

Here's the scene just a few seconds before the Olympic flames go out for Torino 2006.

Matrix Ping Pong

Check...This...Out...!!! Click to play the video.



I've watched this about 4 times already just because it is so interesting.

There are several sites where you can get similar videos just by searching for "funny" - YouTube, Grouper, and of course Google Video.

March 5, 2006

Top 10 Accidental Discoveries

Smart People + Stupid Actions = Modern Marvels!

read more | digg story

Mister T

Doesn't everyone just love Mr. T? I was just thinking about him because, well, I don't know why, but anyway, I was just thinking about him.

I watched the A-Team all the time when I was a kid and I thought he was one tough dude. He's got an interesting background. I read his profile on IMDB, but the WikiPedia article seems to have more information. I think someone falsified the part about Broadway, though...

Mr T is still the toughest dude that I know of.

March 4, 2006

Video of Multi-Touch Interaction Research

A very impressive video of a touchscreen that is far better that what's commercially available today. Wide use of this would really revolutionize the use of touch computing. This is almost as impressive as the interface in that Tom Cruise movie, Minority Report.

Now, if they could combine this with the fast food ordering story...

read more digg story

Kevin Rose

I think I've said several times before, I've enjoyed the stuff that Kevin and Alex do on Diggnation. Here's Kevin's Typepad: http://krose.typepad.com/kevinrose/

March 1, 2006

Mostly Japan Wallpaper

I've been looking for some new wallpaper for my computer at work, and I've found some good ones here.

http://wallpaper.jpn.org/index-e.html

Not all the photos are crisp and clear enough for me to use as wallpaper, but there are some gems.