(September 1, 2009) I haven't done anything here for quite awhile, I haven't done much of anything on the internet at all for quite awhile. Frankly, I just haven't had the energy. My wife and I are house-hunting. It's something that I've put off time and again over the years. I have a tendency to get comfortable and I don't want things to change. Well, after almost 19 years in the same place, I guess I finally got the bug in me to move. We've looked closely at three homes so far, the first we didn't even make an offer on, it had too many problems that would have cost too much to repair. The second home was in really great shape, but we never came to terms with the seller. Which was just as well, Lisa and I have fallen in love with the present house we're looking at. We've made an offer and are now in the horrible "dead-zone" called waiting! This house is bank-owned and there's no telling how long it could take before we may hear anything. I made what I feel was a very good offer, so we're really really hoping that we'll get good news soon. The sooner the better, my stomach lining is getting eaten away from acid indigestion. Hopefully I'll be able to report soon that we'll be moving into our dream home and when things settle down, I'll go back to being more active on the internet. *************************************************************************************************************** (April 10, 2009) Well, the transition to digital television from analog has been pushed back until June 12th for awhile now. Here in Fort Wayne, IN...I've noticed that since we've been mostly switched to digital that we've been experiencing a lot more hiccups and outages than we ever had before. I can't positively say that it's because of the switch-over to digital, but most of the time these "outages" are preceded and/or followed by a lot of pixelation of the TV screen, which is a sure sign of digital signal loss. While the digital signal is certainly superior in many ways, the old analog signals were not so prone to drop-out, and the signal traveled much further. I think in many ways this whole transition to digital television has been nothing more than a ploy to sell new TV sets, and to "encourage" people to move to sattelite and cable services. After all, before the whole digital thing came up, it was estimated that every household in the U.S. had an average of 3 television sets in it. I'm sure that meant that the sales of new television sets were no doubt flagging. After all, why buy a new set without a real need. Answer; create a need by making all those TV sets out there obsolete, (so to speak). ******************************************************************************************************************** (March 20, 2009) Wow! Did I forget I had a website or something?! I haven't done anything here for awhile, don't know why other than being lazy and falling prey to the winter blahs! As way of a cheap update (LOL) I've been using my M-51 Engineers Field Bag for about a month or so, and I can say that it was a great buy. I've been using it to carry my netbook, two video cameras and assorted other items back and forth with me to work. It's comfortable to carry and keeps my items quite secure. Some of my friends have joked with me that I'm carrying a "murse", (a "man's - purse"). Let them if they want. It's a great way to carry what you need in a comfortable, secure way. If it's good enough for the U.S. Army, it's good enough for me. ********************************************************************************************************************* (Feb 17, 2009) Today, President Obama signed the stimulus package into law...I feel soooo stimulated! ********************************************************************************************************************* (Feb 10, 2009) Last night, President Barak Obama gave what I consider, his first real prime-time speech to the American public as President. Unfortunately, although I voted for him, I was underwhelmed by it. Was it just me, or did he seem like he was just stumping the same 10 or 12 sentences over and over. For the last five or six years, I had gotten sick of hearing former President Bush constantly harping on the "terrorist threat" that was right around the corner. It's been less than a month, and I'm already sick and tired of constantly hearing about the "economic crisis" that our nation faces. What happened to the "hope" that we kept hearing about all through the long, long, long campaign that led up to November 4, 2008? I'm not feeling that hope the way I wanted to for so long...and it's not because of the "economic crisis" either...it's because President Obama and his administration seem to have put that promise of hope on a shelf for now, and have simply traded in "terrorist threat" for "economic crisis". :-( NOT! ******************************************************************************************************************** (Feb 08, 2009) The Shamwow! The Aquaglobe...the amazing Hercules Hook! Yes, we've all seen the advertisements for these gizmos that seem too good to be true for $19.95 or less, and usually we wonder to ourselves, "could it really be that great?" "Should I get one of those for around the house?" Well, I just found a great site at Popular Mechanics that can help answer that question for you, and some of the answers are surprising! Follow the link below to check out truly independent reviews of these amazing products and others. Each week they post a new review of another "As seen of TV" product. As Seen On TV at Popular Mechanics, a great DIY website btw. ******************************************************************************************************************** (Feb 05, 2009) I knew they were making a movie version of the classic Saturday morning kids show, "Land of the Lost", but I had no idea that I'd be looking forward to seeing it! I just saw the trailer, and frankly it looks awsomely funny! It stars Will Ferrell as the father of the family that gets stranded in the Land of the Lost. I have no idea what the plot of the movie is actually like, but from what I've seen they're not making the mistake of a lot of remakes lately in which they try and take the subject too seriously. I'll definitely put up a review of the movie here after seeing it, I have a feeling I'll be seeing it on it's first day. Coming to a theater near you this summer, June 5th. Here's a LINK to the trailer (click "go full screen" in the upper right corner to really enjoy it) ******************************************************************************************************************** (Feb 04, 2009)UPDATE Looks like there will be a delay in the switch-over to digital TV signals only after all. The house today passed a measure delaying the switch until June 12th. I seriously doubt this will help make the transition any smoother, but at the very least all the big shows will be showing repeats by then, so maybe there will be a few less angry people! ******************************************************************************************************************** (Feb 04, 2009) Hey! You know those shows they have on TV where they're looking for evidence of giant snakes, 40 and 50 feet long? They've always got "experts" on those shows talking about how it's impossible for snakes that large to exist because they'd be so large their bodies couldn't support their own weight, and a hundred other reasons. Well, researchers in Northeastern Colombia have discovered the fossilized remains of a giant snake, 42 feet long that weighed in at about a ton! The snake lived in that area 58 million years ago. Sure, that was a long time ago, but it proves that they can exist, and therefore may exist today, we just need to find them. So take that all you so-called experts! :P LINK to the story ******************************************************************************************************************** (Feb 03, 2009) An article on CNN today tells of a first-time procedure in which a healthy kidney was removed from a donor's body through her "vagina". Yes, that's right, her vagina. Doctors said that removing a donated kidney that way is, "less invasive" than the traditional method in which a 5 to 6 inch incision is made in the abdominal wall to remove the kidney. I don't have a vagina, but I imagine that I'd find having someone pull my kidney out through it would be quite invasive! LINK to the story at CNN. ******************************************************************************************************************** (Feb 02, 2009) It's Groundhog's day, and yes, he did see his shadow. So we can expect another 6 weeks of winter weather...frankly, I was expecting that anyway based on how winter has gone so far. I've never put much into the urban legend of a groundhog seeing his shadow and predicting more winter weather, but then again, I don't know everything! ******************************************************************************************************************** (Jan 29, 2009) My review of the 4gb Sansa Fuze is now up. ******************************************************************************************************************** (Jan 29, 2009) Sounds like the U.S. Postal service wants to take some extra time off. The Post-Master General says that in 2008 they had a 2.9 billion dollar shortfall, and expect a possible 6 billion dollar shortfall this year. In response, they want to stop delivering mail 6 days a week, and go to 5 days a week. This doesn't necessarily mean no mail delivery on Saturday's, they say that Tuesday is actually a "lighter" mail day. I guess snow, sleet or rain won't stay these couriers from their appointed rounds...but a budget crisis just might! ******************************************************************************************************************** (Jan 28, 2009) I just heard on the news that the proposed delay in the transition to digital TV signals has been defeated in the House of Representatives. So I guess that barring the possibility of a second attempt, we'll be switching to all digital over the air signals starting February 17th. I personally don't think putting it off would do any good anyway. I don't think there will be a total meltdown, but I'm expecting there will be a LOT of ticked off people. I don't expect the transition to go all that well. After all, this is a government project, you know! |
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