Site Updates

Well I have been working hard trying to get the site up to code to migrate the site over to the new code that runs the site. I have had to update 417 files and get some new features installed. I had to do a rewrite of the Skype Button you see on the side but there was some cool new features that I found out how to do thanks to the lovely developers over on the Skype Forums.

Yesterday I updated the site from 2.0.5 to 2.0.7 for security reasons and some Spam got in so I had to redo all the Spam rules and get that up to code so hopefully the site should be a bit more spam free. We went from an average of 1,200 spam comments a day down to about 400 spam comments a day. Google was having issues processing my Sitemap and analyzing my site and I got that up and working again with running a beta version of that software. I am still having trouble getting Yahoo to ping. But it breaks down 95% of my searches come from google and the rest are from everyone else.

So as I prepare for the migration from 2.0.7 to 2.1 well you might see some odd errors appear on the screen. If for some reason I miss them please e-mail me tristan@tristanpipo.com or AIM TJThePhantom.

Hack the Planet. Hug and Owl. I am reminded of a cartoon where the character was saying how evil he was by flipping off a box of kittens. For some reason that seemed funny to me at this moment of posting.

EDIT: We are updated to v2.1 and it’s a little different so kinks are being worked out. But anyways we shall hope all is well. 😉

The Haunting of the iPod

Well it appears that something is going crazy recently. Only happens when I am at work. But I think my iPod might have some sort of ghost or something is going crazy.

So I will be sitting here exploring the work related issues and then I will hear some noise coming from behind me. I charge my phone and iPod while I am sitting at work just so I have the juice to keep musically and phone satisfied. I gotta have my music and all that fun stuff. I did get a new ringtone for my phone that I hijacked from Gizmodo the ringtone for the new iPhone.

/file/iPhone%20Ringtone.mp3

So anyways I look over and see that my iPod decided to play Weird Al – White and Nerdy from his Straight out of Lynnwood which is a town here in WA state. I haven’t really researched into why he named the album that. But not much of a town Lynnwood I have never heard anyone say.

Dude: “Tristan, Dude, Yo, Sup Man. We gotta go to lynnwood to find some chicks.”
Tristan: “Chicks, Interesting. I would like to find some. But lynnwood?”
D: “Yeah, Dude, Yo. That is where all the hottie mchotties hang out man. You gotta pimp out that shit”
T: “Hmmm Pimping eh? I got my purple hat right here. Let’s roll out”
D: “Word Up.”
T: “Man that is a tight ass awesome cool shit of neat awesome nice”

Well maybe that did happen. (No it really didn’t happen. If you think it did. Well I don’t normally talk like a Yo-Sup Dude Talk)

So anyways. My iPod just started playing Weird Al. So I look over hit pause and then go back to the menu on the iPod. Silence for another 45 mins or so and then the master of tunes Mr. Frank Sinatra starts playing behind me with “I’ve got the World on a String”. Now odd that my iPod would choose to play those two songs. Very different. One is a parody of a Rap song that I am not famaliar with. The other is by one of my favorites Mr. Frank Sinatra.

I do ponder that I am White and Nerdy but do I have the world on a string? Is it sitting on a Rainbow?

So after that I paused it again and sent a few IM’s to people to see what they thought. But as with most IM conversations about technology when I ask a question they are short lived and people just humor me till I shutup about anything tech. Most are like “I thought you were the tech guy” I had this issue happen with my old 4th Generation 20GB Black and White iPod. It would randomly start to play Green Day – I fought the Law which resulted in it having 418 plays and most other songs having 15-20 plays on my top 25. I solved that by doing a factory restore. It takes a long ass time to load 26GB of Music over USB to an iPod. But anyways my iPod is being haunted or it’s a software bug. I tend to think it’s the latter but interesting to ponder why those two songs.

Hmmm Monday… Weekend just happened. Should I talk about the weekend. What happened so interesting over the weekend. I did have a few things. But we shall save that for another time.

I must finish this blog because the Black Knight from Monty Python’s Holy Grail said he would bite my legs off if I didn’t wrap this up soon. Cheers Everyone! Digging the feedback.

P.S. Here is an image I found amusing.

White Cat Chases a Deer. Own3d!

Edit: Well doing some research on Weird Al he was born in Lynnwood, CA not Washington. Anyways no edits were made to the post. Just this added line. =)

Final Thought Of the Week – January 19th 2007

Well it’s friday and you know what that means! Well doesn’t mean anything really. It’s Friday tomorrow is Saturday means I can sleep in. Well I am not going to be able to sleep in because me and Jason are going to go get pancakes at 9am. But anyways as I do everyday on my walk to work I think a lot. Sometimes this is a blessing other times I wonder what is up with my brain that causes it to come up with the things that it does.

So here is my thought of the week.

Have you ever took a minute to think about sayings?  If we look at sayings like “Watching the grass grow” we tend to think that is boring. But it can’t be as boring as other things. I was pondering what could be more boring then watching the grass grow and I came up with the following alternatives. Well I can only recall one of the things I thought of. “Watching Wood be Wood” wood doesn’t do anything but be wood. Grass actually grows up and around and changes colors. You have to stain wood to get it to change colors. Wood is only doing something interesting when it’s being karate chopped or termites are destroying it. Which is actually a pretty cool use for wood.

But that is a thought if you think you are really bored. Think about watching wood be wood. Then your life will get a better outlook. But if you don’t try to picture this. You are walking down the street and 3 helicopters come flying over your head and out come flying all these Ninja’s killing everything in sight. Then they hand you some swords and say destroy something and you start chopping up walls and fences and blades of grass. Then it’s like you are cutting the grass just to get bored again to watch it grow. It’s a crazy cycle of watching grass grow then ninja’s asking you to chop it.

Okay this entire post has lost any attempt at comedy and making sense. Happy Weekend Everyone! If you are interested in joining the crew going to Gameworks on Saturday hit up the e-mail or cell phone. Downtown Seattle. Hug an Owl this weekend.

Blog Post #787 – Hot Naked Women

Man I wish I wish that this post had something related to that in it. But sadly it does not. So last night I was taking some time out to watch TV. TBS had some Everybody Loves Raymond. Which seems like it would appeal to a certain market of people. But not really to me but it was some background noise and then I saw a commercial for M&M’s where you could go to a website to design yourself as an M&M. It reminded me a bit of the Mii Plaza on the Nintendo Wii that I have where you can design yourself in system and then play as your character in Wii Sports and other games coming out. I do kick some ass at Wii Sports Tennis.

So I went to go design myself as an M&M not a great deal of options but I did the best that I could and got the following results.

Tristan Pipo in the M&M Action

I really don’t like the fact that there are no pants that you can wear. But oh well. I am sporting the iPod earbuds walking down an alley. Got the trigger finger going in the right hand. But if you would like to design yourself as a candy coated shell around chocolate satisfaction.

http://www.becomeanmm.com/

Sorry for about not having any Hot Naked Women here for you. But I am sure you can google yourself one if you desire.

Shopping Tale of Errors – The Barnes and Nobel Experience

Well the holiday season is now over. So I would like to tell you a story of a holiday shopping experience I had this year which well caused me a bit of grief. But it is a funny story that people that have heard it seem to like laughing at the situation I had to deal with. So lets get this started.

There are some people that you just don’t know what to get them. So you feel bad for getting them crap but then something hits you. Or in my case it came through on my earbuds. I like to consider myself on the cutting edge of things. Like podcasting when I first of this idea I went and checked out what was out there and I found one podcast that led to another podcast discovery and now I listen to a few of them. But I was walking to work and I was listening to the Pacific Coast Hellway. A guy records his show while driving to work (most of the time) in his car in California. He is a writer and he is a Japanese Jew who has a lot to say. Usually with a lot of laughs. But anyways they had an interview with Chip Rowe the guy who writes the Dear Playboy Adviser Column in the famous Playboy Magazine.

Now I haven’t really took the time to read a playboy but I do recall at the young age of six I did aquire one and then bookmarked all the “good” pages and decided to show all the kids in the neighborhood which worked out to a stereotypical child being curious and I don’t recall anything else. But I have never really picked up the magazine since then to actually see if it had any content worth my while. But hearing this interview with this guy I was intrigued to go pick up his book. But as with the generation I am apart of this idea was forgotten because well I need to write things down or send an e-mail to myself because sometimes something like that I just space.

But one particular article that he was quoting had me laughing while walking to work. Which always seems to come at awkward times and prompts people to look at me funny. I always think the people think I am some sort of nut case or one of those short bus special people. I tried to imagine just now what some jogger in the morning thinks if they are jogging past and hear me chuckle for no reason. Maybe they freak out that I might be laughing at them. Or they might think hmm probably some wack job homeless person in clean clothes with an iPod and a Cell Phone. Well I guess he is not homeless. He seems rather geeky. Maybe he is anti social and only has himself as a friend and the people “upstairs” had a good joke in his head while sipping brandy and talking about something random like where the number zero came from and how it would be funny if someone actually set out to write a calculator that could divide by zero.

Err well maybe a jogger doesn’t think that at all. Dividing by Zero. That is hilarious.

But anyways enough about that. Lets get back track to tell you the story. So I was trying to figure out what to get a family member for the XMAS holiday. I got this person one gift but figured well eh probably should get him something else as a just in case. So I was thinking and pondering something that he would like. Then I had my iPod in the car listening the the Pacific Coast Hellway the Jesus Interview Part 1 and I got to thinking Hey that Dear Playboy Advisor book. So I went out to the book store that is well known by Barnes and Nobel.

Speaking of that I went on this date last August. Well I will discuss that evening at a later time. But I really liked this girl and told her I was into books. But at that time it was books like CCNA and TCP/IP Guide and nothing really that serves a purpose of pleasure. Well I enjoy reading those type of books but they don’t make you appear witty to a woman who reads for pleasure. So part of the date was going to Barnes and Nobel and I bought “When Will Jesus Bring the Porkchops – By George Carlin” nothing really witty in that book except for some good jokes to tell at a cocktail party. But I also picked up the Barnes and Nobel card to impress her so I could save some coin. Which actually was a good thing because well I read way to much now for pleasure and buy way to many books. So thanks to the lovely woman that I had one great date with from Ballard.

So on the quest for this Dear Playboy Advisor I walk into the store and then I begin to ponder where could I acquire this book. So I got to the Self Help Section no luck, Sexuality Section No Luck. I do find it funny they keep that section right next to the door. You always see couples standing over there looking at sex position books and pointing at pictures and either having huge looks of interest on their face or disgust. I tend to think you only live once might as well try everything you can once. But anyways. I go to non fiction and can’t find it anywhere.

The dreaded thought of having to ask a clerk for help dawns on me. So I go to seek out something I do know. A computer terminal the only accessible one I see is in the Music and DVD section. So I walk over there and look at the screen and it had a bit of a foreign interface but eh easy to navigate so I click on books and in store and start to type.

Some young girl probably some holiday help maybe 16 years of age comes up and taps her foot in that typical way girls do “Ummm, Excuse me, Customers are not allowed to touch the computer, OK, Can I help you find something?” so being the nice customer I try to be I say I am looking for a book. She says “Ummm, Ok, Yeah what book are you looking for?” then I have to say the words I didn’t want to say wishing I had ordered this online when I had the time to get it shipped in time for the holiday. But I try to whisper “Dear Playboy Advisor by Chip Rowe” to which this ever growing embarrassing situation this young woman looks at me and then asks for clarification. “Ummm, Ok so you are looking for Dear Playboy Bunnies?” Now not having read playboy I still am aware of what a playboy bunny is and I can just picture this girls inner monologue. Here is a guy who is so pathetic he wants to read letters and responses to and from playboy bunnies just to get some sick twisted fix off. So I had to say “No Dear Playboy Advisor it’s a comedy book” She tells me “Umm, Ok” so she clicks around on the computer a bit and says “It’s in Sexuality not comedy” so I say Okay Thank you and begin to walk away. She comes up and grabs my arm and says “Umm, Ok I need to show you were the book is. It’s part of my job” so I say that’s okay I can find it. She says “Umm, Ok well I don’t think you are allowed I am supposed to offer complete customer satisfaction” now I say ” I am satisfied” she says “Umm, Ok I don’t think so” so she walks me over to the sexuality section. Now being 23 and being in the sexuality section with a 16 year old holiday help girl. I feel like people think I am a total pedophile with this young girl. I can’t locate this book and either can she. I finally move some big book and find it sitting behind that one book. I say “Thank you Kindly” and walk up to check out. I grab some gift cards as well to finish up the last of my shopping.

So I go stand in this long checkout line. My brain then begins to scout to see who has what to purchase and try to figure out the average check out time and relation to how many customers in line to get the approx time I should expect to be waiting. Most people never go to that extreme but my mind gets bored so I do math. lol I feel like geek and nerd sirens are being alerted for making that statement public. I scout the cashiers and see mostly females. One cute girl and she was that cute where she is somewhat conservative in dress doesn’t have a wild look to her. Glasses and just like your all around beautiful smart looking woman. I really didn’t want to get in her line and have her see me buying this book. My turn came up and I get the cute girl I didn’t want to buy this embarrassing book in front of. But I just grin and try to make good of the situation.

Buying this book is almost like the process of buying condoms. It’s like awkward as hell to buy and I am glad they have self check outs now but you know what you are scanning appears on that clerks screen. But I always feel like they pay less attention to purchases and I don’t have to look someone in the face. Usually I just try to order those online.

So I check out and pay my tab and all that fun stuff. All this time my buddy Jason had joined me on my shopping quest and he was laughing about this total experience of what I had to deal with. All and all good times.

I read the book a bit and probably one of the ones that had me laughing.

“Dear Playboy Advisor, One of my favorite ways to get turned on are cover my entire body except for my genetials in bug spray and drag a lazy boy into the woods and just sit there and let the bugs go to work. Is this normal?”

The response “Do you see any other chairs in the woods?”

I found that disturbing and funny at the same time. But anyways smile that shopping experience is over. We shall see what brilliant times happen in the new year.

Week In Review – January 8th – 12th Part 3

Don’t you love when you get to talk about Friday? It’s like the greatest part of the week. It’s like you have 8hrs of work and then you are free to do whatever you want. You could build a bridge out of Popsicle sticks when you get off work and then see how much weight it will hold. Well not that anyone with a life would do that. But man the bragging rights would be incredible. But I must say Friday at work is awesome. We have this thing called Beer Friday. We got voted 3rd in Best Unusual Perk And Here is a quote from the article. “** ******* lets its tech workers relax once a week with “free beer and food every Friday.”

So it is a really nice way to end your week at work. I usually get a little happy after that time on my walk to the ferry and send out a text message to everyone in my phone book. But most find that annoying and at times I get back a “Who is This?” which then prompts a phone call and people are greeted with my voicemail. “Hello you have reached the cell phone of Tristan Pipo. Sorry I was not available to take your phone call I do apologize. But if you would leave your name and number I will be sure to get back to you as soon as possible. If you would like to send me an e-mail my address is tristan@tristanpipo.com. Thank you for calling and have a great day” Which the e-mail address has actually worked out to a benefit. People will call and then not leave a voicemail but then send an e-mail. But I gave up on the text to everyone wishing a great weekend. Most never responded and those that did well never anything witty. Just a “Thanks” But anyways Friday. It was nice evening a bit chilly prompted some cool cloud effects.

Friday Sunset in Seattle

Ugh the crappy quality of a camera phone I should really get a digital camera. I should really come up with a scheme to do picture uploading from my phone to blog. I might actually want to put photos up then. Though I must say always find interesting that people post their lives on flickr. I been chatting with this one girl in Czech Republic who always has some interesting photos.

So anyways enough of the bullshit lets get down to Friday. So I walk down to the ferry nothing out of the ordinary. I must say I enjoy the winter for the fact there are less homeless people around. I have found the best way to avoid them is have the iPod Earbuds jammed in your ear they usually don’t say much to you then. Though I have had one grab my coat before. Now you have to have some serious balls to grab a guy who is 6’4” and could easily squash that maybe 5’5” bum. He quickly realized his mistake and stepped back. I have had one call me an asshole for ignoring him. Then there is that black uber religous bum who gives me crap for never talking to him.  Also there is that one that says she is trying to get Gas money and sits out on the street with her dog. This stupid woman keeps this dog around just for sympathy. Give the dog up to someone who will actually take care of it.

So anyways enough about Bum’s. I get on the ferry and do my normal sit on my bench corner. Now the commuter ferries everyone has their own spot. They sit in that same spot everyday. If someone sits in your spot you need to sit in somebody else’s spot and it throws off the entire ferry universe. But I always grab my little window spot. Then an older woman sits at the other end of the bench and we usually kick our feet up and I sleep most of the time. I have sat next to this woman nearly everyday for the past 8 months I have been doing this commute. Yet I know nothing about her. Other then I sit next to her almost everyday. If she is not sitting there I never find myself wondering. “Hey where is ummm, where is ummmm yeah I have no idea” I have never thought that until now.

I must say getting on the ferry is never a big deal. Getting off the ferry well that is a different story. Everyone wants to be off first. So the best way to achieve this method is to go stand outside in the cold for about 5 mins before the boat gets to the dock. But there are a few things that will slow you down. The biggest offenders are as follows.

  1. The Wheeled Luggage People
    • These people take up two lengths worth of people. They walk extra slow because they are to lazy to pick up the bag. They are usually on cell phones as well. The people that do this the most are old people, fat people and yuppies. I have a laptop bag I throw over my shoulder and just walk. They get in the way of long stride and I have no idea why these people think they need to be first off the boat.

  2. People with Strollers
    • Strollers I have yet to see anyone on the ferry with a jogging stroller that can actually move at a decent speed on the boat. They are always someone who has this Wal-Mart Junk-Co stroller that can hardly move. They are never trying to catch a bus or a cab. They are usually waiting for their Wife or Husband to come pick them up. Well they have a huge parking lane and you don’t need to be slowing down the entire bus crowd.

  3. The Slow Walkers
    • I walk everywhere pretty much during the day. I drive my car about 1.5 miles a day. Usually to the park and ride everyday. I have gotten the walking thing down. But these slow walkers want to get off the boat and they just walk slow because of a slight incline or whatever. I suggest you just get over to the side get in the slow lane and get out of our way. I need to get to my bus really early otherwise I end up standing or sitting next to someone I really don’t like so much and would much rather just grab my seat early.

But eh little complaints from slow people in my way. So I get on the bus and everything is always lite on Friday. I always catch the 4:40 out on Friday instead of the normal 5:30 boat. And since I was on the 4:40 boat it meant I got to rid the older replacement boat. I grabbed a bench that had a table and lobbed in the ear buds and busted out the book I am reading. The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. I must say I spend a great part of my day isolated and solo. Interesting to ponder that now. So get on the bus and life is grand. The bus is always an interesting experience. The ferry everyone has there spot. The bus it’s just chaos grab what seat you can. So we are driving across the island.

I am never sure what do exactly do on a bus. I can’t read on the bus because well the lighting setup is either way to bright or way to dark. There is no middle ground. So I either play the Nintendo DS Lite or Listen to my iPod. That day was a DS Lite Day. So playing some Yoshi’s Island DS. I must say World 5 is being a bitch. That forced movement lava level is just insane. So I hear this ambulance racing past the bus and just thought eh whatever. So we make all the normal stops with no issue and we get about an 1/8th of a mile from the Agate Pass Bridge. The only way off Bainbridge Island.

Agate Pass Bridge from Google Earth

Picture from Google Earth. Right on the other side of the bridge is the park and ride I park at every morning. But getting there would not be such an easy task. Traffic is stopped. I figured the ambulance dealing with an accident or something. 35 mins passes. The bus gets a little full with irate people wondering what is going on. So one ambitious person decides to get off the bus to go investigate. Another 35 mins passes and he comes back breathing all heavy. He says “There is someone on the bridge threatening to jump off. They are not letting anyone cross the bridge” So we have been parked for over an hour now because some dumb ass is on the bridge threatening to jump?

According to the News Report I found a few days later. The bridge is 75ft above the water and they get a few jumpers a year and the fall is hardly ever fatal. So we continue to wait. So out of the cabin fever I am starting to collect I send out a text message letting people know of the situation developing at the bridge. Which prompted a “Who is this” and “That is terrible” in response. The who is this I responded “Such a sad day indeed to be removed from somebodies address book and forgotten” the other was a more detailed explanation and catching up. The response I got from the sad day was “That is a very rude message”.

I have yet to figure out that one. I was trying to wrap my brain around it. I was deleted made a comment about that being a sad thing then I get to being called Rude. Hmmm. My ex girlfriend once called me a pompous asshole after we had broken up and I had to send her an e-mail asking if she had a file on one of the computers I left out there.

So when you are stuck in one spot with nowhere to go you try to find things to keep your mind busy. So some ideas I had were trying to divide large numbers in my head. What is 249 divided by 36,487 I was working on it and got the answer of 146 and got lazy to figure out the remainder. But that is a process I do a lot when I am performing an action to generate longer stamina if necessary. But perhaps that is to much detail. Here is the word Virgin to distract you.

But that killed a few minutes so I tried calling some people to see if they had any information of what was going. Nobody did it was all news to them when I called. So I felt a bit like an inside reporter. Have you seen Die Hard 2 when that jerk is on the plane and figures out what is going on with everyone staying up in the air. Then he calls his news station with the story of the century. The only difference was that I was on a bus and I didn’t have some hot woman to punch me in the face.

So I began to ponder what was going on behind me being so focused on what was ahead of me. There were 2 ferries worth of cars in line. Getting to be about that time for a 3rd ferry. But that was a quick thought. So I busted out my iPod to watch some Heroes. I love that show if I haven’t mentioned it already. So I watched 43 mins and the bus had moved up about 3 car lengths from people that couldn’t handle waiting and turned around.

So we are sitting waiting for this moron to either jump off the bridge, get shot down or get talked down. I called the Russian and suggest he go diving under the bridge and take out this fine product of society with his spear gun. I was really hoping that Darwin could also take this genius out of active production. I really hope a genius like this doesn’t have kids.

So I have been sitting here on the bus for 2+hrs now. Wanting to go home. Finally I see cars start to move. We finally get going. So we drive across the bridge and stop. There are cop cars everywhere and then an ambulance that has 8 police officers standing around it not moving their eyes or saying a word.

So I get in my car and drive off. I flip open my laptop when I get home searching the news sites. Nothing not a word of this issue. A few days later I find this.

Agate Bridge-Jump Suspect Snarls Highway 305 Traffic 

So that was the highlights of my week. I did go see Children of Men with Jon on Friday Night. That was an interesting film I recommend checking it out. Catch a Matinee though.

I hope everyone is doing well. More to come as life happens stay tuned and reading. =)

Week In Review – January 8th – 12th Part 2

Well I finished off part 1 with the Ferry Dying on Tuesday. The “breakup” or the decided to be friends situation as well. Dave left his idiocy which he left my e-mail as his. So I updated that comment wrote a rule that when he comes to post it auto fills in his information to the correct info after he posted to alter his attempts to hide his identity.

So Wednesday was your run of the mill average day. But me and a coworker went to go grab some lunch. Now normally I either walk up Queen Anne Hill to Taco Del Mar, Subway, Safeway or for Thai Food. Well I guess I should explain Queen Anne Hill. It’s an interest area of Seattle that people call trendy and they have all kinds of little restaurants and places to chow. In the summer it’s great to go sit in a Thai place and enjoy the site of beautiful women walking down the street or whatever your fancy is. But anyways my coworker was like lets go grab some Pho.

Now I have heard of Pho and seen it at various Teriyaki places. Now all the places I have been in the US I have never seen so many Teriyaki places as I have seen here in Seattle. They are getting to be as big as coffee shops. The place that got me into it was Chungs Teriyaki. You get White Rice, Some Stir Fry Vegetables, 2 Chicken Breasts Sliced Up and then they cover all the chicken and rice in this Teriyaki Sauce that well you would step over your own mother just to expose your taste buds to. If you are a Teriyaki Virgin come out to Seattle give me an e-mail and would be more then happy to chat you up and enjoy this amazing food. But the point of that was they had Pho at some of these places and the part that turned me away from ever trying Pho was Tripe which if you don’t know is Cow’s Stomach. You can check it out at your local market. It’s white and bizarre looking and well the few times I have tried it. It wasn’t really to my fancy.

So we grab another coworker pile into a car and drive to a part of Queen Anne that isn’t really in walking distance. We go into this Pho place and I sit down and being a virgin to the whole Pho experience I have no idea what to order. (You ever notice how virgin is just a fun word to say? I don’t think I would want to have a virgin ever again. But you know what Virgins are great and happy to say that title anytime. Like something like I should go to Virgin Records to by a record by some Virgin Pop Star and then think about the time I lost my virginity to a virgin and then realize that I am some sort of sicko for buying a record of a Virgin Pop Star who is probably targeting other virgins. Okay that went in the totally wrong direction then I intended it go. But hey if you are still reading hoping for some good content. Well if you have read my blog before you know whats probably coming or not coming.) So they say just order Steak you can’t go wrong with Steak. So I say I will have Steak Pho please. I have always hated going into some bizarre restaurant that has it’s own ordering scheme and not knowing how to order so I prefer to go with someone who knows what the hell they are doing in hopes of learning what the proper way to order is. Like the Thai Restaurant I love you order by number. So I usually order a 53 and Rice. But if I am getting dinner to share. I get a 7, 50, 53, 34, 79-Chicken and Spicy Level 5 by default. But most Thai Food Virgins prefer a 1 or a 0. Bah.

So the soup comes out and they give you a spoon and chop sticks. Now having a Filipino dad I learned at a very young age the art of chop stickery (word?) So eating wet noodles with chop sticks appears to be a rather difficult challenge but you manage. The trick is getting a slighter bigger serving then you intend to fit in your mouth and by the time it gets there you have dropped it back in the bowl to make it manageable. But then to the Pho you add some Basil leaves and spicy sauces. I love spicy food so that was always a bonus. If your not sweating when your eating your Asian Food well then it’s not done right. Or your typical and like bland things.

But I must say this soup is awesome. I am not a big soup fan but man Pho is good stuff. So your mission today blogerites is to go try Pho. If you don’t well my feels will not be hurt. But I am sure your tongue will rebel. Become detacched in the middle of the night and whisper in your ear. “Try Pho, Try Pho” or perhaps you might have an experience I had when reading a blog. The Junniper Series a tale of a student who works in a library who lives in Portland and gets featured on Digg for getting a parking ticket in Utah. Man I am jealous of the digg thing. Who wrote a story about this terror cat in her neighborhood that had an issue with her cat. In turn that blog post somehow inspired me to have a dream about mountain lions attacking my car and eating my tires.

I must say that Thursday seemed totally lame. Though I did lose power because of all the cold weather and some genius who doesn’t know how to drive in the snow and ice hit a tree that hit a power line that caused me to lose power. Which prompted me to watch Heroes on my iPod and then Sin City on my Laptop and power came on again.

So Friday… Friday is a blog post in itself. So Part 3 coming at you tomorrow. Friday will be a graphics and some audio post. Ohh on a side note I have an Irishmen who is calling the voicemail leaving his words of wisdom. I must say his stories are just umm WOW. So been coming up with Podcast material and getting the hardware going. Picking out a Mixer is cumbersome work. But with anything technology I need to do my research. I should probably get a digital camera one of these days.

Pho is Good. EAT IT! Go Hug an Owl Today.

Week In Review – January 8th – 12th Part 1

Well I wanted to break this post up since well it has been by far the most interesting eventful week I have had in many months. So let me just start off with a recent issue before I get to the comedy.

Over the past few weeks I have been dating a woman. She is a 26 year old who lives about 30 min away. I must say that this was probably the best experience I have ever had “breaking up” all the stuff I have bitched about. The e-mail “Just want to be friends” or the text messages or the lack of communication at the end the crap that just sets me off. Because these women take the easy route out and lose my respect. This one sent me an IM saying “We need to talk can we talk on the phone tonight” Which is never a good thing so I set my mind in motion for the negative aspect of things. Because well if you are better prepared for it doesn’t hit you so hard. Most people never get that option and I felt very lucky for finally having this setup.

But I ponder the fact that she is older then I am. She also was a single mom so she has had a bit more reality then these 23 year old girls I have been dating who are still trying to find themselves and tend to act immature and just don’t what they want out of life. Like in my podcasts before the mystery of an older woman has been shut. The single mom thing which I am usually very down about and she is a frequent reader of this blog I had the benefit or maybe not a benefit but it’s a good thing looking back now of not ever meeting the child. It was only 2 dates and I had an amazing time. I forgot how pricing dating can be. First Date I dropped $50 for Dinner. $17 for Zoolights and half a tank of gas was like $18. The second date seemed a bit cheaper. $47 for dinner this time. (Thai Food is worth any price), Then various drinks at a few bars. $9, $5, $5 so eh you can always earn more money and I had a great time.

But there is something to an older women they have experience with life. They know who they are. They seem to know what they want. But we parted for a few reasons. The main issue as it seems was the fact that I am an atheist. But I don’t let that get to me. But for some reason it seems to bother most of the people that are on the “right” side of world. Though I used to be really ashamed to admit that because well we tend to be discriminated against. It was a big issue when I was in Indiana people really seemed to flip out about it when they found out when they found out. But in an area where you have more Churches then starbucks and you read editorials in the paper about how Women’s sports are a waste of time. I feel much better calling people a moron and saying what I am about out there. Believe whatever you want just don’t force it upon other people and don’t be ignorant. Please don’t push intelligent design as a science. But I will save that rant for another day.

So in closing on that topic. I dated an older women. They totally have something to offer. It was nice to have a challenge out there mentally and it was great being in the presence of someone that had something to say.

So lets talk about Tuesday since the whole breakup dating thing happend over the past few weeks and came to a close one of the days during the week.

So Tuesday work was a little nuts and I get off work 5 min or so early to walk the 2 miles down to the ferry. I missed the 4:40 ferry by about 3-4 mins. So I was like alright I will just be on the 5:20 no big deal. So I go use the restroom and public restrooms are always a strange experience. When you go to use a seat you see the paper ass gaskets. Which I have never saw the point of. No disease can really live on a toilet seat. Your hands are dirtier then your ass in most cases and Urine is sterile so if some dude pisses on the seat you can usually see and go find another toilet to do your business in.

So get back to the waiting area at approx 4:50 and there is nobody around which is very odd. Usually there is some people waiting. I sit down pull out the book I am reading. The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. This man is a genius I must say. I added him on myspace and have had a lot of great chats with people that think like me. But anyways I pop the iPod earbuds into my ears and kinda just veg out. Then over the intercom I heard this lovely message “The 5:30 boat has been canceled. This is due to a maintenance issue. The next sailing is 6:20” At this point all I can think is well “Fuck Me” but there are no beautiful women around and I can’t leave and the thought of having sex with what I can see within eye range was just depressing so I changed that thought to “Oh Shit” since well it was a curse and vented my frustration but nobody could hear it because it was inner monologue. But you are reading it now. So you get a peek into my inner thoughts. You must think I am totally fucked up, Right? Man okay that was a way off tangent.

So I am sitting there reading my book and listening to tunes and I just kinda pass out asleep which is what I usually do at this time. I take a nap when I get on the boat at 5am sleep for 35mins walk the 2 miles to work. Catch a nap in the quite room for another 20 mins at work. Work for 4 hours. Go catch a 30 min nap during half my lunch. Walk 4 blocks to the selection of food places. Come back to work for another few hours. Walk down to the waterfront. If I am feeling lazy I hop on the trolly to the ferry and then get on the ferry and sleep another 35 min.

Man I sleep a lot of little naps. People wonder how I stay sane. After reading that layout of my day I ponder the same thing lol. So I have my laptop bag sitting next to me and then I wake up to some huffing dude saying “Move your bag i want to sit down” I look around and we have 2 boat loads of people and my laptop bag is taking up the only available seat left and I was asleep. Ha!

So get on the boat and I sit next to this dude with a powerbook and he has cingulair edge card in his laptop surfing the next. I bust out my powerbook and we are like mac buddies we start talking about the iPhone and strike up a good conversation. Come to find out 3 lawyers are sitting next to me and I have their business cards and got a side job to go network 2 mac’s and getting them to talk to PC’s simple enough. Go click a check box in System Preferences. But most people seem to fail to read instructions and if they are willing to pay me for simple work I am more then happy to do it. $60hr or seeing some boobs if they are a chick. Which we have discussed before.

So I get off the ferry and get to the bus. It’s standing room only. I have to stand at the front of the bus. So at every stop everyone that is standing gets off the bus lets the people off and get back on. Normally my bus ride is 15 mins that night it was 45 mins. Good times. Why did that boat have to break down?

So I get home cook dinner and get to bed. Next morning I wake up and check to see if we have dual ferries again. We do but they had to shuffle around 3 ferries to get us one ferry. It holds 100 less cars then the ferry we normally have. lol Good times. So the next morning I get on this replacement boat. It’s one from like the 60’s or 70’s. It was crazy because I remember taking that boat as a child. But it seemed a lot smaller now. Probably because I am 6’3” and yeah. So laying down on this new boat my feet hang off the end of the bench by 8 inches or so. So my sleeping all week hasn’t been so good.

I will finish this story in Part 2 which I should be writing tomorrow.

Have a great weekend everyone. *Hugs* to those who deserve one. Happy New Year!

Apple Announced the iPhone

This is one amazing sexy looking device.

The Apple iPhone

Now I love this phone. I love how it works and how Mac like it is. But the prices are $499 and $599 for the 4GB and 8GB in respect. Also the fact that it is on cingular is also a bother. Because looking at the plans for the basic plan with 900 mins it appears to be $60 and $40 for unlimited data. So to get basic use out of the phone is $100 a month plus tax and all that jazz.

Now if this device was coming out on Sprint I would consider the $499 and be happy with the plans that they offer. I look at that phone and think that it’s sexy as hell. It’s thinner then my 30GB Video iPod and has every feature I could want.  Well it doesn’t have games but eh. I have my Nintendo DS Lite with me on the go and I do have Tetris on my T-Mobile phone but I play the DS Lite more then Tetris on the phone.

So right now this device seems like an overpriced luxury. It was $299 I would snatch it up in a heart beat. But the $100 a month is crazy. I pay approx half that currently for mobile phone access. Cingular needs to seriously rethink their data rate structure. If I have a device like this I would use way more then the 10MB connection that I get for the $$$ on unlimited sprint for the same cost.

Maybe I should take Jon out for a steak dinner see if he can get me the hookup on the iPhone come June or at least the plan.

What America Accent Do You Have?

What American accent do you have?

Your Result: The Midland

“You have a Midland accent” is just another way of saying “you don’t have an accent.” You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.

North Central

The West

Boston

The Inland North

The South

Philadelphia

The Northeast

What American accent do you have?
Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Hmmm Good Voice for TV and Radio…….. Thanks Mr. John C. DvorakÂ