Links
Photo Album
Administration
Journal
Travel
E-Mail Me!
My Stuff
I recently upgraded to a
Blackberry 8700g.
Email, cellphone, web
access, and PDA all-in-one.
I love Canon digicams.
I had an S330, then an S230,
now an SD400. They're solidly
made, they take great pictures,
and they're ultra-portable.
I've gone back to the dark
side. I once again have an iPod.
This time it's a 60gb iPod Photo.
The Dell Latitude D620
is my current work laptop.
It's a cleanly designed
Centrino Duo machine with
amazing battery
life and a nice screen.
My home laptop is a
15" Apple MacBook Pro
dual-booting both Mac OS X
and Windows XP. Hooray for
Boot Camp!
I recently upgraded to a 20"
Dell 2001fp LCD. It has great
image quality, and convenient
USB ports on the side.
My current PC is
a P4 system based on an Intel
D915GAG motherboard in an Antec
Sonata II case. 200gb Seagate
SATA hard drive, nVidia GeForce
6600GT video card, SB Live 5.1,
and NEC DVD-RW drive.
Just like with digicams,
I like Canon inkjet printers. My
i860 is quiet, fast, and produces
first-class color prints.
Not much to say here.
If you're an aviation enthusiast
and you have a fast PC,
go buy FS2004 now.
If you get hooked on
flight sims like I did, you'll want
a good flight controller. The
CH Products Flight Sim Yoke USB
is probably the best all-around
flight controller out there.
It ain't cheap, though....
My Current Reading List
Eastward to Tartary:
Travels in the Balkans,
the Middle East, and
the Caucasus
by Robert D. Kaplan
Falling Off the Map
by Pico Iyer
Great Bridge: The Epic
Story of the Building of
the Brooklyn Bridge
by David McCullough
The Polish Way: A Thousand
Year History of the Poles and
Their Culture
by Adam Zamoyski
Best of Europe 2006
by Rick Steves
2008
October (2 entries)August (1 entry)
June (1 entry)
May (2 entries)
February (2 entries)
2007
July (1 entry)June (7 entries)
April (5 entries)
February (4 entries)
January (11 entries)
2006
December (5 entries)November (3 entries)
October (10 entries)
September (6 entries)
August (4 entries)
July (7 entries)
June (5 entries)
May (7 entries)
April (15 entries)
March (9 entries)
February (7 entries)
January (15 entries)
2005
December (4 entries)November (6 entries)
October (15 entries)
September (4 entries)
August (9 entries)
July (18 entries)
June (10 entries)
May (12 entries)
April (19 entries)
March (18 entries)
February (10 entries)
January (20 entries)
2004
December (9 entries)November (21 entries)
October (9 entries)
September (15 entries)
August (7 entries)
July (7 entries)
June (8 entries)
May (10 entries)
April (5 entries)
March (12 entries)
February (18 entries)
January (9 entries)
| 02/27/2005 18:37 |
| Okay, everybody, it's time for something to come to an end: ribbon decals. You know what I'm tallking about. Those phony ribbon stickers that say "Support Our Troops" or "Support Firefighters" or "Support Autism Awareness" (no kidding) and so on. They were novel for about 10 minutes, but we're way beyond that time now. Take a moment to give your ribbon decal a fond last glance, then take it off your SUV and throw it away. While you're at it, let's get rid of the rubber bracelets, too, okay? The yellow LiveStrong bands were a great idea, and raised a ton of funds for the Lance Armstrong Foundation, but the original idea has been perverted over time. There are yellow, pink, camoflage green, white, and a million other colors of bracelets to "support" various causes. I have a soft spot for the original yellow ones, so let's set up a test whereby you can earn the right to keep wearing them. You must be able to correctly pronounce the following: 1) Alpe d'Huez 2) Col du Tourmalet 3) Luz Ardiden So, to sum up, no more ribbon decals, and no more rubber bracelets. I don't think I'm being unreasonable. In fact, there's one decal that might be appropriate: how about Calvin peeing on a ribbon decal?
|
| 02/25/2005 16:34 |
| Okay, that Overstock.com chick has some explaining to do. I preordered Gran Turismo 4 from them about 2 weeks ago, with the expectation that it would ship as soon as it was released (Feb. 23). It hasn't arrived yet, so I figured I better do some detective work. Check out the following transcript of a customer service chat I just got finished with: Please wait while we find a representative to assist you... You have been connected to Josh L. Josh L: Thank you for visiting Overstock.com Craig! How may I help you? Craig Wyzik: Hi... I have an order that hasn't shipped, and I'm curious to know if there's a way to find out when it will ship. Craig Wyzik: my invoice number is 15153057 Josh L: Sure, let's take a look at that for you. Josh L: Would you mind holding for a minute or two while I access your account? Craig Wyzik: no problemo Josh L: Thanks for holding. This is for the PlayStation 2 - GRAN TURISMO 4, correct? Craig Wyzik: yes, that is correct... it was supposedly released three days ago, but it looks like it hasn't shipped yet Josh L: Sure, let me tell you about what has been happening with that: Josh L: We have had some problems with certain orders that were processed and/or shipped the past week or so and the tracking information is not showing up. This does not mean the item has not shipped yet, just that the tracking has not been posted. We have people that are trying to take care of this issue right now, and I apologize that the information is not available at this moment. Chances are, the item shipped about 2 business days after it was released to be shipped. Craig Wyzik: hmm... how long will it be before complete/accurate tracking info is available? Josh L: We have people working on it now, so hopefully, it a couple of days. Josh L: Is there anything else I can assist you with today? Craig Wyzik: no, not particularly Josh L: By the way, we are having a lovely sale on our memory foam pillows that feel great! Could I send you a link to one of those now? Craig Wyzik: i'd prefer not So, to summarize: "It hasn't shipped, we don't know if it has shipped, we don't know when we will know if it has shipped, would you like to buy some pillows?" Nice. |
| 02/23/2005 22:38 |
| "Solitary train journeys, even short ones, calmed me and gave me ideas." -Paul Theroux, "My Other Life" |
| 02/21/2005 18:50 |
| I'm trying to listen to some albums (or the mp3 equivalent) that I missed out on recently. Metallica's "St. Anger" had a couple songs that I liked initially, but I'm trying the "album" straight through. There are some songs and parts of songs that really rock, and I had been skipping over them... Hmm... music is funny that way. I never really bought that argument that musicians (intentionally or not) put out records with "one or two good songs and the rest is filler." You may not like everything on a particular album, but any real musician probably feels strongly about the stuff they put out. Or, if they're a crappy pop singer/dancer/boy band/whatever, they feel strongly about what their manager tells them to.... |
| 02/21/2005 18:45 |
| I had commented to somebody that the woman in the Overstock.com commercials was so hot, that she was "porn star hot." Come to think of it, I don't even know what that means. Anyway, she is muy attractivo. I find myself strangely compelled to buy things from Overstock.com whenever those commercials are on TV. The woman's name is Sabine Ehrenfeld, by the way. Sabine, just tell me what to buy, and I'll buy it. I'll buy two or three or nine of them, okay? Sabine should be shipping my copy of Gran Turismo 4 tomorrow some time, I hope.
|
| 02/16/2005 18:36 |
| I don't think this picture needs much explanation. In 7 more minutes, it will be dinner time.
|
| 02/13/2005 15:56 |
| I just watched highlights of the 2005 Monte Carlo Rally that I had recorded on ReplayTV. There is no way rally racing could ever become as huge in the US as it is elsewhere, and the reason why not is just one word: lawyers. The cars roar up and down narrow roads, skid around hairpin turns, and shoot through narrow gaps in villages, with people standing all along the route. Drivers come around a blind corner, and find three alcohol-enhanced guys jumping up and down and waving a big flag at them while standing on a rock retaining wall above a drop of several hundred feet. Cars are flipping over, smacking into barriers, and skidding off into the trees continuously, and then rally fans come running to help get the cars back going again. American trial lawyers would have a field day with all the possibilities for injuries and litigation. Anywho, it was very impressive, and I think I'm hooked. Time to fire up Rallisport Challenge for the Xbox....
|
| 02/09/2005 19:23 |
| Kristi got a call today from a woman in Pennsylvania who had seen pictures of Fatty, our larger male cat, on this site (I assume), and she wanted us to know that he had become the mascot at the doctor's office where she worked. The nurses liked the pictures of him, as did the patients. Since you could see his nametag in some of the pictures, and since his nametag has Kristi's cellphone number on it, she did the weird but logical thing and called Kristi to tell her the great news. However creepy this whole experience might have been, I'm working on getting an agent for Fatty--someone who can coordinate his many "opportunities."
|
| 02/05/2005 17:01 |
| All the previews and hype surrounding the upcoming release of Gran Turismo 4 for the Playstation 2 had me drooling. Since GT4 is a Playstation exclusive, just owning an Xbox wasn't going to cut it. I had been debating buying a PS2, and I finally went down to Best Buy with the remainder of my Xmas gift cards, and made the purchase. Then, ever the resourceful one, I took a Playstation 1 console that I got from a coworker down to Gamestop and traded it for Gran Turismo 3 and a couple of other games. Just stuff to tide me over until GT4 comes out later this month. And wow, is the new thinner PS2 ever small! It's like a paperback book. My Xbox is gargantuan in comparison.
|
| 02/05/2005 08:23 |
| "The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness." -- John Kenneth Galbraith |
