Thinking about snagging an LG Dare.
Anyone able to give me a reason not to?
Archive for category geek
Just happened across the story about the $175 burger that will undoubtedly be passed along to you shortly via e-mail by someone amused or amazed or outraged by such things and noticed that one of the toppings on the burger is foie gras.
Immediately, the little light went on in my head – I know what that is!
Just two days ago Tyler passed along a story about 8 forbidden delicacies on his blog and foie gras was one of them.
I learned somthing and was able to turn around use it in a matter of days. God bless the internet – even my evolution is more efficient now.
Amusement park fans rejoice! A whole new season of fun awaits visitors this summer, and Charmland USA is blazing a new trail of excitement with the addition of 450 majestic California Sycamore trees. Perfect for taking shelter beneath on a blazing hot sunny day, the trees are the perfect complement to the park’s wide assortment of foliage, breathtaking streams, natural soil midways and historic rides.
I’m having a weird connection issue.
Yesterday I noticed my little blog here was down for a few hours in the morning/early afternoon. I contacted the hosting provider and confirmed there was a small issue that would be fixed shortly. No biggie, I forgot about it.
Then I tried to access this site again (lordgonchar.com) and it was still not working for me. Contacted the host again and was assured that all was well and it certainly had to be on my end. I did everything I know how to do and still had no resolution. So I called a friend using a different ISP than me and had them check – my blog was working just fine.
Now I was jacked. I did a million and one things that I’d rather not list here and have the issue narrowed down to the following facts:
1. I cannot access my blog (lordgonchar.com) through my router.
2. If I go straight from the cable modem to the PC (by passing the router) I can access it.
3. If I go through the router and use an online proxy server (any number of those ‘surf anonymously’ sites) it works just fine.
What the hell is that about!?
It appears that for whatever reason I can’t get to my blog through the router and I can’t seem to find an answer to the issue anywhere.
UPDATE – So it gets even weirder. After I posted the above entry, the site hung on me and when I tried to reconnect, it wouldn’t let me – even using the cable modem straight to the PC. On a whim, I released my IP, rebooted the cable modem and scored a new IP.
It let me back on!
It’s acting almost as if the site (or WordPress) is banning my IP after I login to my account on the blog. I’ll be anxious to see what happens after I post this little update.
I just bought 4 plane tickets leaving DAY and arriving at MCO on October 18.
I guess I just committed to finally taking a Disney trip after procrastinating for three years.
We first thought about doing a full-tilt, two-week Orlando trip in 2005. The kids were 7 and 4. Seemed like good ages. But that was the summer Jamie decided to try to take her career in a slightly different direction – doing so involved quite a salary cut at the time. No Orlando.
In 2006 we wanted to go again, but by the time late spring rolled around, we were moving to Dayton. No Orlando.
We said we’d do it again in 2007. We really thought we would, but couldn’t bite the bullet financially. Two weeks of doing it up Gonch-style at the Orlando theme parks can get costly and we had shit to pay down. We briefly considered breaking the trip into two smaller trips – one week at Disney and one everywhere else, but still kind of never committed and more time passed.
Here we are in early 2008 and with Jeff having just taken another trip to Orlando and actually doing the Disney thing (and telling me about it), I started to get the itch again. I’d spent some time this past week looking at pricing and stuff.
Then oddly enough, Jamie comes home one evening telling me about a guest at the hotel who was telling her about taking his kids to Disney recently and them being totally unamused. Turns out they’re a few years older than our kids and are entirely at the ‘too cool for this’ age. Something just clicked. The window of opportunity was closing. We needed to get the kids down there and do the corny family Disney vacation before it was too late.
We spent an evening or two looking a little more seriously at the trip, still kind of wondering how much we really wanted to drop on a week at Disney World. The I get an email from AirTran going off about great fares through November if you book soon, so I took a look. (we tend to fly AirTran anyway and it’s probably one of the better choice out of Dayton)
They had the nonstop to Orlando available at $99 each way. I took it as a sign. (they had 1 stop flights at $79, but who wants to stop?)
This evening we figured ‘fuck it’ and bought the plane tickets.
Now I have as many as 8 months to fret over the details of a week at Disney and finding the value that works for us. So if anyone can tip me off to some good resources, I’d appreciate it.
So we’ve committed to the third week of October (the 18th to the 25th) at Disney World. I figure that we’ll do the other half of the trip (everything else in Orlando) most likely in 2009 or 2010.
I still want to get back to California and do more parks than Magic Mountain and Knott’s…
…and there’s still Texas…
sigh.
Is the above proper use and/or spelling?
I’ve seen people type “lightening bolt” on forums and always thought they were flat-out morons spelling it wrong. If you ask me, it should be “lightning bolt” – shouldn’t it?
I’m only second guessing myself because of the Gatorade commercial that ran during the Super Bowl tonight:
It might be hard to see, but at 19 seconds in (11 seconds remaining) there is some fine print at the bottom of the screen that reads:
“Gatorade, lightening bolt and G2 are trademarks of …”
So is “lightening bolt” proper use or ar we really living in a world of such lowered expectations that high profile national advertising features typos?
As much as I would have liked to get a new camera this year, I’m not going to. I’ve had the XT since 2005 and this spring will make 3 years – the longest I’ve used a single camera since I bought my first Pentax SLR back in late-2000.
The truth is, there’s lots of little things I want/need to upgrade, but have better thing to do with the money. I want/need a new camera. I’d like to upgrade the video camera to an HD model. My computer is becoming woefully underpowered with each passing day and it’s time to build a new one. Hell, I even want to upgrade the audio half of the ‘home theatre’ – we’ve had this receiver and speakers since May of 1996 – how fucked up is that? It’s not even 5.1 – it’s old school basic first gen dolby surround.
Anyway, I decided to try to hold off on all of those things (and more) in lieu of some responsibility – mainly paying down some debt we’ve been riding on various things.
But then Canon drops a little advertisement into my inbox. The Rebel XSi drops in April – right around my birthday. Granted, it’s far from top of the line stuff. In fact it’s pretty much bottom of the line shit. But the old XT has worked just fine and in the three years since I got it – it’s paid for itself time and time again. Why drop more cash on tools I don’t necessarily need? Why buy the $50 hammer when the $8 hammer will drive the nail in?
I passed on the XTi as it offered only marginal upgrade over the XT – not enough added or cheap enough to make me bite. But now another generation later and the XSi offers enough over the XT to pique my interest. I clicked on the email from Canon and start reading through the info on their site.
Amazon has it listed for $799 (body only) or $899 with the 18-55mm kit lens (which is now apparently an IS lens). Shit, that’s chump change for this thing. It looks to be a hell of a camera for that price.
Hmmmm….that’s a pretty tempting cheap upgrade. One that I could score just in time for the summer.
I just noticed the the MSN maps have Bird’s Eye View available for the Beavercreek area.
That was a colossal time waster for me this afternoon.
Still surprised that it’s available as Beavercreek seems too small to waste the resources on.
Pretty cool stuff (originally brough to my attention by Nasai):
“You essentially get your head-mounted sensor bar in a nice, sporty safety-goggle form factor.” – Fucking awesome hilarious!
Ever have something totally weird pop into your head?
Today “A Winner Is You” popped into mine. I couldn’t remember what it was from. I thought for a second then realized I live in the internet age – a time when seemingly infinite information is at my fingertips.
A quick Google search refreshed my memory – it’s the victory message in the old Pro Wrestling game from the NES. One of those great video game “Lost In Translation” moments.
Man, I spent so much time playing that game.
The little town I grew up in was divided in half by a creek (or ‘crick’ as we called it) that ran down the middle. On our side of town I was the resident video game tool – I had the systems, played the game, kicked ass…that sort of thing. The other side of town had a kid filling the same role.
When Pro Wrestling came out, somehow word spread and by summer the challenge was on. He stopped by and with my undersized-by-any-standard bedroom full of kids from the neighborhood, the competition began. Best of three. I used Kin Korn Karn and my opponent used King Slender. If you know anything about the game, you know I had the inferior character. I should’ve used Starman. I was good with Starman too, but I knew how to be cheap with Karn’s chop.
I lost 2-1…in my own house! Ugh.
Remind me to tell the story of completing Super Mario Bros. with one life and no warping sometime.
This past spring I was at the park with the kids and they were off playing leaving me to sit on a bench and pray for death. In my boredom I snagged a copy of Yahtzee on my phone. I kinda forgot about it for a while, mostly playing when stuck in a similar timekilling situation.
During the summer I found myself flipping the phone open and getting a quick game in here and there.
Then I found myself doing it more…and more…and more. I might just go blind if I keep playing with it at this rate.
I’ve developed a full-blown Yahtzee addition.
My high score list looks like this:
508
465
417
411
410
The worst part is I got all of those scores early on…back when I was just killing time. Now that it’s an obsession, I can’t even come close. I refuse to give it a break until I get a new score on that ‘Top 5′ list.
So last night I’m watching Letterman and it’s ‘Stupid Human Tricks’ time.
Dave announces the first guy and as soon as I heard the name I knew that I knew the dude. Turns out I was right.
Before I get into the story check this out – he kicks himself in the head 30 times in 30 seconds.
So here’s the deal. Back in the mid 90′s I was a pro wrestler. Well, on the western PA indy circuit at least. I did it for a year or so and ended up fucking up my knee pretty badly. At that point I decided that walking was more important than wrestling.
The dude in the Letterman clip is the guy that ‘got me in’ so to speak. At the time a good friend of ours was working for George Romero (of Night of the Living dead fame) and we spent more than a little time at Romero’s home. (ohh, wait…let me pick that name up :) )
Turns out Romero had a neice (or some relation like that) that was dating a guy who was a wrestler. We ended up meeting him a few times and even went to a WWF show with him. We got to talking, I expressed an interest and thanks to my ridiculous behavior, stunning good looks and silly haircut at the time – he asked if I’d like to give it a try.
That wrestler guy is the guy in the Letterman video. He probably taught me more than anyone as far as how to work a match. Really nice guy.
Just a weird little story for you.
I’m sure some of the more tech minded and on top of things wouldn’t find that fact to be much, but I was kinda weirded by it.
The HHR came with a year of OnStar. We really didn’t care, but tonight out of boredom we started looking through the OnStar book that came with the car and decided to mess around and activate it.
Turns out the HHR has a phone number. Who knew? That officially makes four numbers you can call to get ahold of me – both house numbers, my cell and the car. (I suppose you could technically call Jamie’s cell too – but that’s not really a direct line to me)
What kind of fucked up world do we live in when I need 4 different phone numbers?
The other kinda cool thing is we can add the car as a line to our Verizon Family plan. That’s a neat little perk that’s a bit cheaper than buying OnStar’s minutes.
Plus, I have to admit that hitting the button on the steering wheel and just talking into thin air to someone else is pretty neat. (I’m so lame)
Unfortunately, I don’t get to keep any of it. :(
So we hit the Weird Al show at Kings Island tonight. Really, really fun.
The band is tight. These guys have been doing this for so long and have every little detail so pre-planned and synced that I’d bet they could do the whole two hours in their sleep. In fact, my only complain (and this applies to most shows today, not just Al) is that with so much prerecorded stuff being incorporated (video, music, vocals, whatever) that a bit of the human element is lost as the show requires machine-like precision (admittedly, a skill in itself) to keep everything rolling along. Maybe I’m just getting old, but I still like live shows to be a little messy and spontaneous. Whatever.
The show ran two hours (almost to the minute) and with a history like Al’s there’s just not enough time to cover everything. They touched on a good portion of the most familiar stuff, but even then you got little medley-style, rapid-fire one verse/one chorus renditions. It worked though because it kept the pace up for the most part.
All the outfits/props were there (the fat suit, the segway, the bad-ass ‘all about the pentiums’ outfit/look, Darth Vader and the Stormtroopers – even a spongebob shirt and tutu combo. Big cheer when the “Atlantic Records Sucks” shirt appeared during “You’re Pitiful”) and video clips filled the space between constume changes.
We had great seats – except for the 3 fat, smelly girls in front of us. I hate to be mean because they were like 10 or 12, but they reeked. And to make me feel REALLY old, when the AL TV interview with Michael Stipe came on, one of the girls leaned back and asked me who “that guy” was. I just replied – REM’s singer. Sigh.
I have to remember to start taking a camera to these shows. Totally didn’t take one to the Blue Man show back in March and didn’t even think of it tonight either. (Apparently, I only go to the geekiest of shows anymore) Here’s the obligatory shit quality cell phone shot:
That was pretty much it. Great show and I’m glad we decided to go. Kings Island was stupid packed, so I’m glad we just showed up for the concert. Still took forever to get out as the show ended just as the park was closing.
Good stuff.
Silly little tech things amuse me.
I just read an article about the Eyebox2. I think it’s a neat thing.
Basically it’s an eye sensor. It works by sending out infrared light and detecting the flash of red-eye when someone is looking at it. The idea (at this point at least) is to attach it to advertisments to gauge viewership. The website mentions using it for statistical purposes, but I’ve also seen it mentioned as a possibility for billboards. Rather than a flat fee for a static ad, roadside billboards (and any public advertising, really) could essentially become the real world equivalent of online advertising where the advertiser only pays based on the number of views the ad gets.
It sounds pretty dull as I type this, but I find these kinds of innovations and progressions to be interesting. It’s the little, everyday things that show you how far we’ve come.
I told you I couldn’t get this damn song outta my head! I had to do something about it and the only logical answer was to dive head in and listen to it so much that I became immune. What better way to force yourself to repeatedly listen to something than to add your own music under it. (remix?)
Here’s what I wasted the last two hours of my life on:
So should I sync it up to the video and add it as a reply on YouTube or just leave well enough alone and hope it’s finally out of my system?
———————————————————————————————————————
*This is the first music thing I’ve done in quite a while that wasn’t meant to eventually be a tune for some coaster video
I more than a little embarassed to admit we got tickets to see Weird Al at Kings Island. But we did.
Thus completes my descent into complete dorkdom. It’s a dark day here at the bottom of the totem pole.
Everytime I get a new camera the first thing I do (and presumably most people do as well) is get into the menus and set it up to my liking. Among those settings is always some method for file numbering.
I always set mine to continuous. This means the first photo I take is numbered 0001, the second photo is 0002 and so on until 9999. Then it rolls back around to 0000 like an odometer.
Today I officially ‘rolled’ my camera. That means I’ve taken over 10,000 pictures with it. I’ve had the this one a little over two years now (27 months to be slightly more precise) and as of today have taken 10,037 photos. That works out to 371 photos each month since I bought it.
I might have a problem.
Amazing the way digital has changed the way we shoot.
We were getting due for a new TV. Our current one is a 36″ Toshiba that we bought in August of 2001. For it’s time, it was a bad-ass TV. We got more compliments on that thing than I can count. But 6 years later and the TV world is a very different place. I’m no different and the HD bug bit me in the ass too.
I always mulled it over. The HD offerings are still pretty slim, technology will only get better and prices will only go lower. I always kept my eye on reviews, news and info from the HDTV front. I saw my parents TV. As little as a week ago I’d have told you we’d probably hook up with a new HDTV around the holidays and that I’d certaily be getting a Sony SXRD model.
How quickly things change.
I was pissing around looking at TV’s this past Sunday and stumbled across a pretty sweet deal on Best Buy. Sony’s “E” series of TV’s were dropping prices. Admittedly this isn’t the SXRD technology I was after, but the price was enticing. We stopped in to check the TV out on Monday. Looking at it side-by-side with the “A” series, I wasn’t sold.
The next day we got Best Buy Rewards members coupons in the mail. 12% off of TV’s. Supposedly not good on sale prices, but nothing I thought I couldn’t get around. The deal was looking a little better. I started contemplating.
In the store I could see a difference between the “A” series with SXRD and this “E” series TV with LCD procjection…but I’m entirely pompous and anal when it comes to TV picture quality. My wife claimed no difference in her eyes and my daughter actually thought the “E” looked better. So I questioned myself? Sure the “A” series looked better, but did it look $900 better? I wasn’t sure it did.
Then on Wednesday I mentioned the TV to my mom. She was curious and pulled up the Best Buy site. The price she mentioned in passing was $200 lower than the price I saw just a couple of days earlier. I questioned her and she insisted she was looking at the right TV. I pulled up the site real quick and Best Buy did drop it another $200 since I last looked. Now I was really considering it. At this lower price, if I could get them to accept the 12% coupon, it would be a $1200 price difference between this TV and the same size “A” series TV.
We went back over to Best Buy on Wednesday night.
We left as new owners of a 55″ Sony TV.
I did a little research. When the TV first hit the market in March of last year it had a ‘list’ price of $3000. I scored it for right around 1/3rd of that price 15 months later. I’m ok with it. My plan is that it’s a nice way to get our feet wet with the HD thing. In another two years or so when everything starts switching over, we simply score a better quality TV and slip this one into the bedroom.
After less than 24 hours with the TV, my impressions are exactly as anticipated. With HD source material it looks anywhere from “really, really great” to “downright fucking astounding.” The catch is that with Time Warner cable we have something like 11 or 13 HD channels. Not exactly a plethora of choices.
The other 200 channels in SD range in quality from “bearable” to “I cannot even watch this mess of a picture for more than two seconds. Someone please gouge my eyes out. I long for the technical quality of your average YouTube offering.”
All in all I’m pleased. I just hate how a nice HDTV makes you realize how shitty the signal you’ve been watching for years is so horrible.
Without further ado, the before and after:
Can’t wait to get back from vacation and spend some time with it.