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it was full of throwback goodness.

Random thought...

What do you think the people at food network do for lunch?

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Changes

Well, things have been a little hectic the past month. First off, I have a new job! Well, sort of. It's a promotion to another center. I will be working at the brand new, state-of-the-art Center of the Future in KC starting Jan 25th. Because of that, I had to get a replacement trained for my current center and on top of that, I had my annuals due for all three of the production areas as well as making sure everyone else got their annuals done, ran my weekly reports and helped enter historical data for other centers. So needless to say, it's been hectic. Did I also mention I tested for my third degree black belt? Three one-hour tests and one two-hour test later, I walk (well, more like crawled out) with my black belt. I also got a brand new phone! Very happy. I've been playing with it for the past month and just a couple of minutes ago, posted my first mobile post! It'll be really nice for geocaching...later...not now...now too cold...

Guess what I just got in the mail today?

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Thanks, Nicole!!! :)

Why you should move to Olathe

Guess what we just got on Wednesday? No, not the three-headed koala I've always wanted. Not absolute power. I'll just go ahead and tell you. It's our free, blue, 65-gallon recycling cart! What makes it even better is that instead of charging us extra, which most metropolitan areas would've done, they made the recylcing service part of the regular trash pick-up service. No extra charge. You go, Olathe!

Whedon offers to buy Terminator franchise!

That's right! Joss (of Firefly fame) has offered to take the Terminator franchise off of its owners hands for a pretty hefty sum. I got this off the of the /film website (www.slashfilm.com). You can read more about it here. Oh, the possibilities are endless...

Say goodbye to Saturday mail?

Here's an article that I just read on CNN about the possibility of the post office doing away with the Saturday mail. Unthinkable, you say? Well, not really. In this age of email and with the decline of mail usage, I say it is not only thinkable but also likely. Check out the aritcle here.

Mario Bros. meets Inglorious Basterds

Exactly like the title sounds. Here's a trailor of "Inglorious Basterds" if it had been filmed in the Mushroom Kingdom. Enjoy! I got it off of a site called slashfilm. If you haven't heard about it before, you should check them out. They have updates everyday and their site covers upcoming movies. You can check them out here.

Andrea and I started something called geocaching today. Basically, it's a high-tech scavenger hunt. You go to a site ( http://www.geocaching.com) and find a list of coordinates for "caches" which can contain anything from CDs to pennies or nothing at all. You then enter the coordinates into a GPS device and locate the cache. In any case, there's a piece of paper for you to leave your name and the date you found the cache on. Very fun.


We found it in the trunk of a tree and the log was a little wet so we put it in a ziplock bag to help protect it in the future.

What's in a name?

Tony's the kind of guy that everyone seems to like. He's agreeable, laid back, and just enjoys hanging out. He's comfortable eating out with others or alone by himself. He's quiet, contemplative, and has eyes that gleam with a mischief that makes you wonder what lurks behind that serene countenance. Who is this Tony, you may ask. He seems like a swell guy, maybe someone you'd like to know. Well, you're in luck. If you're reading this, you probably already know Tony. Tony is my alter ego. Now let me explain. I frequent a lot of restaraunts during lunch that requires the person taking the order to ask the name of the customer. These places range from McDonald's to, as in today's case, Panera's. Due to my soft-spoken nature and the uniqueness of my name, when the person who calls out the customer's name (usually not the same person that took the order) calls my order out, it comes out as either Juan or, in those rare instances when I actually take the time to spell out my name, Tone. So rather than going through all that trouble, I tell them my name is Tony. It's easy for the restaraunt employees to spell and I have yet to have anybody butcher it so it's really a win-win situation for all involved. What's funny is that I usually pay with my debit card which has my name spelled correctly on it. No one has yet to catch that little inconsistency. This is usually the point where that mischievous gleam in Tony's eyes are most prominent. There's just something exhilirating about getting away with a little white lie. So the next time you visit a restaraunt that inquires whether they can get a name for that order, give them one. No one ever said it had to be yours ;)

Home again, home again...

We made it back to the states safely without too much trouble. All the flights came in on time. Currently working on posting all the pics on my flickr account. They should be up soon.

Exodus

Yes,for those of you wondering, we made it to Vietnam alright. We spent the fist two days in Ho Chi Ming city visiting my mom's family. On night number two (I number nights now because I have no idea what day it actually is), we visited my grandma on my mom's side's grave and had dinner (not at my granma on my mom's side's grave). The dinner was good. Kind of an all-you-can-eat buffet style held out in the open. Then we spent night three out in the country. Highlights from that night include me climbing a coconut tree (harder to do than you think, especially after it's just rained), "driving" a moped (I drove it around the parking lot), and getting bitten by what I can only assume was, and hoping was, a bunch of mosquitos. Highlights from night four including heading out to the ocean to a riverwalk sort of place. The moped ride there was thirty minutes so that was fun. After that, we had dinner at a seafood restaurant. Really reasonable prices for how much we ate and drank. I think it wound up being about eight US dollars per person. Then we went to a karaoke bar (mostly because my cousins wanted to). No, I didn't sing. Today we're in the city and so, I have spent about twenty-four hours flying only to sit in front of a computer screen and type all of this out :) I think we're going to do a little shopping today and hang out a little bit. Plans for tomorrow? The BEACH!!! I'll try to post pics when I get back on the 16th.

How to make a dangling guinea pig toy

You have to love the English language. I saw the above title of an article on my Google home page and had to investigate. I mean really, did the author mean a toy made for guinea pigs that dangle or a toy made from guinea pigs that dangle. One little word that changes the entire meaning of the title. In case you're wondering, the author meant the former and, alas, not the latter. If you want, you can find the entire story here.

What's your favorite type of party?

Well, mine happens to be a tea party, so Let's Tea Party! well, my favorite type of party isn't really a tea party but that was my witty segway (sp?) into a new band I just heard of today. I listen to a podcast called the Naked Scientists where they go over science info. One of the podcasts featured Geek Pop which is basically Woodstock but on a virtual stage instead of a physical one and with "geek" music instead of rock. One of the bands featured is "Let's Tea Party". They've got some pretty good songs on there. If you've got some time, stop by Geek Pop. The site is a little wonky but just go there and click on the play button for the highlights and you'll be able to hear Let's Tea Party (they're the first band featured). You can also listen to some more of them at their myspace page.

CJ7

Got a spare hour and a half? You couldn't spend that time any better than by watching CJ7. Synopsis? Boy goes to prep school. Dad is poor and works his butt off at a construction site to pay for things boy wants. Boy wants robotic toy dog classmates have. Dad can't afford it. Dad goes to dump to look for toy. Picks up alien-dog. Hilarity ensues. The kid does an excellent job as an actor. Steven Chow (of Kung Fu Hustle fame) is rather mute in the role of the father. He doesn't excel but then again, the story isn't about the father. Check the movie out if you can get your hands on it. You can thank me later. Just a word of warning - it is subtitled and I wouldn't suggest watching it any other way.

Letter to rude lady who cut in front of me at Five Guys Burgers and Fries

Nothing pisses me off more than inconsiderate people. NOTHING! So here's the story:

I took today off and decided that a cheeseburger sounded good for lunch. I had to stop by Target and pick up some stuff for dinner anyways and Five Guys Burgers and Fries was close by. I walked in and waited in line like everybody else. Just before I got to the front of the line, another register opened up. Just at that moment, a lady walked in the door and walked right in front of the register that opened up. By this time I was already moving into the new register line so the person behind me moved up to the line I was previously in so I was pretty much stuck in the new line. Anyways, the lady beat me to the new line. She pulls a piece of paper out that had seven or eight orders on it (apparently, it was for her office lunch) but might as well have been Santa's list of naughty and nice children for all I cared. She gives the order to the waitress, pays for her order with a credit card and then has the nerve to ask for change for a ten dollar bill! Anyways, by the time I got to the front of the line I was already pissed but to top it all off, the waitress, who should have told the lady to go to the end of the line, had the gall to ask me if I'd like a large order of fries with my order! urgh! So, anyways, rude lady that cut in front of me, if by any chance you're reading my blog, this is what I should have said to you:

Excuse me. The line starts back there behind all those fine people you've so inconsiderately cut in front of. Now waddle back to the end of the line and wait for your turn like everybody else. Now fuck off and have a nice day.

Did I mention I have no patience for rude people?

We'll take a cup of kindness...

In the spirit of the new year, here are the lyrics to Auld Lang Syne to save you the trouble of searching for it yourself. If you're looking for the good rendition of the song and you can find it, I highly suggest the Straight No Chaser version of the song on their "Holiday Spirits" CD.

Should Auld acquaintance be forgot
And never brought to mind?
Should Auld acquaintance be forgot
And days of Auld Lang Syne

For Auld Lang Syne, my dear
For Auld Lang Syne
We'll take a cup of kindness yet
For Auld Lang Syne

And here's a hand, my trusty friend
And gives a hand of thine
We'll take a cup of kindness yet
For Auld Lang Syne

For Auld Lang Syne, my dear
For Auld Lang Syne
We'll take a cup of kindness yet
For Auld Lang Syne

For Auld Lang Syne, my dear
For Auld Lang Syne
We'll take a cup of kindness yet
For Auld Lang Syne

For Auld Lang Syne, my dear
For Auld Lang Syne
We'll take a cup of kindness yet
For Auld Lang Syne

We'll take a cup of kindness yet
For Auld Lang Syne

Happy New Year's everone!

I hate itunes!

Now anyone can make a blatant statement. For a statement to have impact, it must have details that back it up. Case in point, I just downloaded a song off of itunes. I then transferred it to the folder that all my music is so that it would sync with my zune. I then checked my zune only to find that it wasn't there. I then checked the file properties only to find out that it was protected which means my zune can't play it. Now I didn't get my major in business in college but one would postulate that the more people that have access to a product, the more revenue there would be to possibly generate. Why would you do something stupid like encode your media so that it would only play on your media player? Some would argue that it is so that apple would sell more ipods but then why would a consumer purchase a media player whose content won't play on anything else besides said media player. Especially since there are other open sourced media players out there (refer to my post on Zune made previously). Anyways, it's a good thing the song I downloaded was free or else I would have been pissed. Unfortunately, this has become way too common an occurance for me though. A couple of months ago, I bought an audiobook off of itunes and then transferred it to my zune. Again, it didn't play. I didn't worry about it too much then because it was, after all, my fault for not checking to see if the file type was compatible with my zune. Fast forward to about a month ago. Microsoft announced that the Zune would support audiobooks from audible.com which was where I purchased my audiobook from (indirectly through the itunes page) so I thought all my problems were solved. All I had to do was download the media organizer and then transfer it to the Zune. Once again, because I had purchased it through the itunes store, it was protected and won't play on my zune so if I want it to play on my Zune and just about any other media player in the world, I have to redownload the audio book. Well, that was a longer rant than I intended it to be. How was your Christmas?

Ipod Killer

I've had my Zune for almost a year now and I think I can honestly give it a decent review. Unlike most reviews though, instead of starting off with the pros, I am going to start off with the cons, mostly because there are so few.
Cons:
-I will start off with my biggest con first. The selection in the Zune Marketplace (the software used to purchase music, videos, etc.) is relatively scant compared to itune at least as far as videos go. They still have a nice selection of video podcasts and music videos but their selection of tv shows and movies is not the greatest.
-TV shows purchased through Microsoft's Zune Marketplace will not, at least as of yet, play through the xbox. This is easily enough remedied if you want to see the videos on your zune player through your tv by a docking station and some component video cables.
-TV shows, movies, audiobooks purchased through itunes will not play on your zune. Mp3s, assuming they are DRM-free, will play just fine. This is because most of itune's media has DRM.
-Digital copies that come with some of the newer DVDs do not, at least currently, transfer to the Zune. They play fine on the Windows Media Player. This is really a big disappointment for me because I recently bought the Digital Copy version of The Dark Knight specifically for the purpose of watching it on my Zune on my business trips.
-Microsoft points do not translate easily into dollars. 99 Microsoft points do not translate into $0.99. Most tracks cost 79 Microsoft points which is approximately $0.99. Because it does not translate easily into dollars, it is VERY easy to spend more money than you think you are.
Hopefully most of these cons will be addressed in the next software upgrade.

Now on to the pros:
-The Zune Marketplace interface ROCKS!!! It it so user-friendly and intuitve. You can sort your music by album, artist, song, date albums are added, etc.
-MixView. Basically, the best way to describe this is to give you an example. Say you're into the Goo Goo Dolls. If you double-click on their profile a collage will show up with artists that inspire them, that they inspire, other listeners who have them as their favorite artists, and other albums they've released. This is great if, you're like me, you enjoy finding new types of music based on stuff you already like.
-Free updates. All updates to the zune software are free of charge.
-Screen size. The screen on the zune is about 3.5" which, I believe is larger than most, if not all, the ipods currently out there.
-$0.99 albums. That's right. You read it right. Not $0.99 tracks. Whole albums for $0.99. Zune has certain artists that it is promoting for the month and they will sell their whole album for 79 Microsoft points which, as stated before, is approximately $0.99.
-Free stuff. Yeah, F-R-E-E. Zune has free songs. Full-length songs. Right now, Zune has a playlist of Christmas songs that you can download for free. Basically, Zune takes one or two songs from the Christmas albums of various R&B artists and puts it into a playlist you can download. They also have a free playlist sampler that you can download just as a thank-you for purchasing a Zune.
-Backwards compatibility. At least so far, Zune has been pretty good at making sure that the software is backwards compatible with all their generation one Zune players.
-Wifi. You can sync your zune to your computer wirelessly. You can also send playlists to people nearby if they also have a Zune. Also, they have an agreement with McDonald's so that if you're in a McDonald's with wifi, you can download music directly through your Zune instead of having to wait to sync with your computer.
-Zune Pass. You can download as much music as you want for $14.99 a month so you can try out different artists and albums. The only downside is that you don't actually get to keep them. If you down renew your pass, you lose all the music you downloaded but didn't purchase. At least that was before the new and improved program. Now, you have the option of keeping up to ten tracks you download each month. They're your's to keep even if you don't renew your Zune Pass.

If you're trying to decide between a Zune and another mp3 player and need some help, feel free to leave a comment. I'm off to enjoy my free music!

Changes

I had the day off so I actually have time to update my blog a little bit so that's exactly what I decided to do. First off, on the right hand side, you'll notice my zune tag which basically shows you what the last albums I listened to were. I believe if you click on an album, it'll link you to the album page where you can listen to 30 second samples. Just underneath that is a list of the podcasts I'm listening to right now on my zune. Below is a brief description of what the podcasts are so you can go ahead and stop reading now if you're not interested in that kind of stuff.

A Way with Words: A radio call in show where the host talks about word origins, regionalisms, etc.

Ask a Ninja: A video podcast comedy that answers email questions the way a ninja would.

Chuck vs. the Podcast: An audio podcast that talks about my current favorite sit-com, NBC's Chuck airing Monday nights at 7:00 PM central.

Get-it-done Guy: An audio podcast that helps you become more efficient.

Howstuffworks: An audio podcast that explains exactly that, how stuff works. Each podcast lasts about one to two minutes.

Inspiration Weekly: An audio podcast that tells inspirational stories each week. Each podcast lasts about five minutes or so.

JobDig: An audio podcast that helps your professional life.

Let's Talk Organizing: An audio podcast that pretty much does what the title states.

TFormers: One of my indulgences. Talks about Transformer news including toys, tv series and the movies.

The Mind of Men: An audio podcast talking about random guy things including politics, what to look for in choosing an digital tv, etc.

The Naked Scientists: An hour-long audio podcast that goes over the latest scientific information. The hosts are from England so you'll probably notice the accent.

The Public Speaker: An audio podcast that gives tips on speaking in front of large groups of people.

The Totally Rad Show: A show Shannon got me hooked on. It's a video podcast that talks about videogames, movies, etc.

Zune Insider, Zune Luv, Zunited: Audio podcasts that talk about the latest Zune news.