oh well......

What a horrible display of bowling last night. I wish I could say I did my part and bowled over my average all three games, but I was bad, just like the rest of my team. We were demolished, crushed, butter was spread on us and we were toasted, blown away, taught a lesson, taken out back and beaten with 2x4 wood planks. You get the picture. It was bad. We lost all three games and total by quite a large amount. It almost felt like a slow motion punch, or even better a slap, in the face you see on the HD Kung-Fu channel on TV.

That's all I'm going to say about it. Unfortunately it was the last night, so I get to spend the summer with this bitter taste in my mouth. At least we did make $51 apiece for the rest of the season. Plus I won 2 out of three poker games, so I walked out with about $60 I didn't walk in with.

Anyway, take a look in the side column. I added a widget that if you want to receive an email when this blog is updated, then sign up already! There is also a link for the RSS Feed to the site. I can't get it to work here, but my friend in ATL (Atlanta) said it worked for him. Somebody please sign up, because there is also a meter over there that shows how many subscriptions there are! If you have no idea what an RSS feed is. Check Wikipedia's article. You need an RSS News Reader for any of them to work. I use one called KlipFolio it is a free service (many are) and works pretty good.

What RSS Feeds do I currently have running?

• Weather
• North Carolina Men's BBall News
• Daily Tarheel
• ESPN.com - Men's BBall News
• Tarheel Fan
• GoodTutorials.com
• World Time Monitor
• The Simple Dollar
• Derek Hess Blog
• Stock Tracker
• KC Chiefs News
• Pocket PC Freeware site

I also added a link to my friend Alex's site, along with an RSS feed from his blog. Check it out, and forgive him for being a jayhawk fan, we can't all have good taste.

Real quick, a review on my new headphones. I haven't had time to watch "In the Valley of Elah" yet though.

Motorola s9 Bluetooth Headset
Price $50-$130 (ya, shop around)

After shopping around for some new wireless headphones I decided on these. A couple guys in the office have them, and I admit I laugh at them walking around all day with them on, but I stand corrected. You won't catch me wearing them 8 hours a day, but that isn't why I bought them either. I already have a nice set of wireless Sennheiser headphones, very comfy, that I wear while at work. So the purpose of these was for taking my newly started walks around campus (exercise, it's 1.5 miles 1 lap!) also for when I walk the dogs at home. So far the headphones work pretty well, After some difficulty pairing them with the Bluetooth transmitter (keep reading). I was able to walk almost from my kitchen at home to my bedroom before getting static feedback. They were great while I grilled out on the deck. Leaving the mp3 player on the kitchen counter. Weird thing is in the morning, while walking into my building from the garage, they cut in and out. Yet when I leave at the end of the day, I had a solid connection. This headset can also pair with a Bluetooth enable mobile phone. The music supposedly pauses for an incoming call, then resumes when you hang up. Personally, I have a Jawbone headset, which isn't going anywhere. (Leave a comment if you want a review of the Jawbone I've had for a few months now). There are controls on the headset, which are supposed to let you pause, track forward/back, and adjust the volume, which I haven't gotten to work yet. So far I am happy with them, if you notice the giant price range above, do some work and shop around. I bought mine brand new off eBay for $49 plus shipping. Brand-new in the box, and that included a free car charge for the set. Here at the campus store, they are $130 I think.


So how am I getting the sound from my mp3 player (iPod or Sansa) to the headset?

Homer Bluetooth Audio Dongle
$49 at Micro Center

hehehehe, (insert Beavis voice) 'dongle' hehehehe. After originally walking into Micro Center looking for the iPod bluetooth adapter, I was told they stopped carrying them. Nobody was buying them, and audio was the suXor through Bluetooth. I wasn't discouraged, and found this adapter in the headset section. The box said it was for non BT phones, Mp3 players, home stereos, etc, etc. Priced at $49 I snagged it.
The pairing took a few tries, if you have no idea what that means, when you sync a device through bluetooth, it is called 'pairing' when you create a secure connection between the two devices. That is why you don't hear the person next you while they and you are on bluetooth earpieces on the phone. The only reason I ran into problems, is the instructions for some reason tell you how to pair it with a specific headset. Of course that was not the s9 motorola's. Anyway, after they found each other, the sound took another second or two, and I was smiling. I can't completely blame the sound breaking in and out on the headset, I am pretty sure the 'dongle' is half the problem when that is happening.

Ok, that's enough for today.
Tomorrow I'll try and share some awesome news about my trip back to Sicily!

ciao.