Archive for the ‘Observations’ Category

Las Vegas Casino Cruise

Monday, March 9th, 2009

First off a big congrats goes out to the UCF womens basketball team on thier CUSA championship and thier ticket to the big dance.  Good luck.

So now having been on all three casino cruises that are or have been at port Canaveral, they all suck.  Well, sterling wasn’t too bad but they are all quite boring unless you have a lot of money to burn and like gambling.  I don’t have either.  It was an incredibly rough night Saturday when we went.  I took Dramamine and I was a little sick.  Overall the boat is kind of cruddy, really small.  The one thing about sterling when it was there is that the actual boat was rather clean (compared to the others).  This was dirty and very small.  On top of that all the slot machines were very close together.

Me and Freddy sat up in the sports book all night and watched BBall, Soccer (Futbal) and boxing.  Sippin’ on G&T and playing “I’m On A Boat” on my phone for 3 hours.  It was fun, but only cause I was quite drunk.

Would not do it again, and I really can’t recommend it to anyone else.  You will most likely have a better time just going to a bar, especially if you are almost in Cocoa Beach and you can find a bar that loverlooks the ocean.

SMS @Replies Only

Friday, February 13th, 2009

S. Joy Studios has a great post on how to recive just @replies over SMS. It can be summarized into 4 easy steps:

  1. Sign up for an account @ notify.me
  2. set up your phone
  3. search for your name (“@USER”) at search.twitter.com
  4. add the feed from the search to notify.me

Voila! simple as that.  You can have Jabber IMs and emails too. Something I have been looking for a tool to do for a long time.

My Woots

Monday, February 9th, 2009

All this talk about shirt.woot everyday made me wonder how many other woots I had so here is my (current) list of www.woot’s.  18 Woots, 24 items since November 2005.

item date qty
USB Bloomin Breezy Fan 11/20/08 3 blog discuss
Screaming Monkey with Woot Cape 10/23/08 1 blog discuss
Seagate Barracuda 500GB SATA/300 7200RPM Hard Drive 9/20/08 3 blog discuss
Soyo Freestyler Bluetooth Stereo Headset with Transmitter 9/1/08 1 blog discuss
Kingston 8GB USB 2.0 Data Traveler 100 8/11/08 1 blog discuss
Random Crap 4/9/08 3 blog discuss
Seagate 500GB SATA/300 7200RPM 8MB Hard Drive 12/7/07 1 blog discuss
Netgear 108Mbps Wireless USB 2.0 Adapter 10/25/07 1 blog discuss
Jabra BT-350 Bluetooth Headset – 2-Pack 10/16/07 1 blog discuss
Toshiba SD-5000 Upconverting DVD Player with HDMI Out 10/7/07 1 blog discuss
Logitech QuickCam Express USB Web Camera 10/5/07 1 blog discuss
Logitech Cordless Action Controller for PlayStation2 – 2 Pack 11/16/06 1 blog discuss
Logitech Bluetooth Headphones for iPod 10/6/06 1 blog discuss
Jensen 300 Watt 2 Outlet Power Inverter 9/25/06 1 blog discuss
Mediocre 4×15 Binoculars – 2 Pack 8/15/06 1 blog discuss
Logitech Bluetooth Headphone for MP3 6/19/06 1 blog discuss
Western Digital Caviar 250GB Hard Drive 5/17/06 1 blog discuss
Linksys WiFi Notebook Adapter 3 Pack 11/30/05 1 blog discuss

Windows 7

Wednesday, January 14th, 2009

Okay so I finally got Windows 7 to install in virtualBox, turns out you need to select windows other, which does not allow 64-bit OSs.  Additionally i needed to have VT-x turned off to get the install to work.  Here are some prelim screenshots.  I will post more comments as I use it more but my first impression: the look is like the new KDE and Vista had an ugly bloated lovechild.  The default install of the x86 version of the OS takes up over 10Gb on a new vDrive nothing installed yet.  I love how the touted this as a trimmed down OS…. okay well here are the screenshots.

Startup Default DesktopStart MenuMy Computer

Any sugestions on what I should try? leave it in the comments, I’m going to try and use this a bit more and I will update here with my comments.

Twitter/BrightKite/NetVibe

Wednesday, May 28th, 2008

So, I have recently been using BrightKite and Twitter a lot.   I really like them.  In case you don’t know here is a short explanation with both:

  • BrightKite (bkite.com):  This is a location log.  You create an account and then when you go somewhere you “check-in”.  Then  you can see who is checked in near you as well as photos of this location.  Its kind of cool, this service also updates Twitter.  (Its in beta, so you need an invite, let me know if you want one).
  • Twitter (twitter.com): This is a versatile mini-blog utility.  Post are limited to 140 chars.  Updates can be made from iGoogle, Cell, Netvibes, and others. This is a cool think because you jot something small, and you can see what other people are thinking.
  • NetVibes (netvibes.com): This is a cool alternative to iGoogle. I enjoy it.

Common Courtesy

Wednesday, February 27th, 2008

Does common courtesy not even exist anymore?  I was in the union today and I got some lunch from BK.  When I got in line, about 5 tables where available so I didn’t think I would have any problem once I got my food.

After ordering and receiving my foot I turned around to find that no tables where available, while walking around I found that any tables were being taken by one person who wasn’t eating.  Why do you need to be in the food court to work on your laptop.  WTF?  I will admit I have done that before, but never when all tables are full.  If you see someone trying to find a table and you are all alone at a table not eating wouldn’t it be appropriate to give up your table for someone who would use it correctly?

Also, if you only have 4 people at your table, you don’t need two tables.  I saw A group of 4, at two tables (room for 8 ) when they would have fit perfectly fine at a table built for, oh my god, 4 people.  Pay attention and don’t be an ass hole. 

Cooking

Tuesday, September 18th, 2007

I grew up in the kitchen (and my physique is proof). But I helped in the kitchen the whole time I was a kid. I learned from a young age to to simple prep activities, peel garlic quickly, chop onions properly, how to handle knives etc. When I was in middle school I would have dinner ready for my mom and brother when they got home from work/school.

The question is where do people learn these tasks if they don’t learn them from there parents. If Home-Ec is as lame as Drivers Ed was in my H, then they wouldn’t learn there. I would think they could learn them in college (like a CC or something). But like I wouldn’t even know where to look. Do culinary schools provide basic knife skills, and prep classes, cause I would think they would expect you to come in with some working knowledge.

My point is this, and I don’t think I have even expressed it, but I think basic cooking skills are something that you need to learn early if you want it to come naturally, like I don’t think its something that you can learn late in life. Its like learning a language, the earlier you learn, the better you become at the basics, and you need the basics to move onto anything better.

I don’t really know what my point was here…. but I am bored at work, so I figured I would post something.

Oh Yeah!! That’s the other thing, if you don’t know how to cook, try anyway, the best way to learn is by doing. But don’t get mad when people don’t like it cause it does not turn out exactly how you thought. I encourage everyone to try to cook, that’s the only way to learn this skill really, and I will try to eat it, but I’m gonna tell you how it was, so don’t get all pissed off.

If it sucks, I will tell you.

Walking

Tuesday, September 11th, 2007

Most people think this is a simple task that needs no attention, but there are some things I have learned while living in an apartment for the last 4 years.  These are thing that while living in a one story house, I never really thought about, and things that when I moved into an apartment I learned by experience, but if I can help even one person figure them out faster (passably Stompy my neighbor), the world will be better off.

1.  Take off your shoes when you come in, walking in shoes in the apartment makes you walk a little harder (plus it makes the carpet dirty).

2. Don’t throw stuff, even small stuff can make a loud thud when it hits the ground.

3. If its more than just you using the fridge, get a mini fridge for drinks & beverages.

4. Be mindful of your neighbors, I cannot stress how important this last one is.  You are not the only one who lives in the building.  Don’t walk hard, don’t stomp around, don’t be an ass an pier over the edge of the balcony and say “Those are some big hot dogs” then giggle to your stupid ass roommates about it.   You never know when you will need help from the people who live near you, don’t piss them off.

That’s basically it, I’m sure other people have stuff to add, but I have to get back to work.

PS Stompy, if you are reading this: SHUT THE FUCK UP!!