Alex's Lunch!

From today's title, it might be easy to guess what I am starting with.

I was non-stop busy last night it seemed. Since I was an idiot and forgot my gym clothes, I canceled with trainer, and actually stayed a few minutes after quitting time. I used my 'Mastercook' program, and created a shopping list to try and cook up a few recipes last night. I was like a madman at the grocery store. I was all over the place, I definitely need to work on using that shopping list part of the program, and how items are listed. I would walk past something on the list in the same aisle as something else, and then realize it two rows over. I bought some stuff I have never bought at the grocery store in my life too, so I had to locate them. So once all that was done
I drove home, let the doggies out, and started unpacking. I double checked my list and realized I had forgotten fresh Basil!!! I did for some reason buy two kinds of parsley. (argh)

So I have a bunch of recipes I want to test, and had bought ingredients to make 5 different ones last night. Since it was already pushing 6 o'clock, and I wanted to watch a DvD, I decided I would hold off on one for maybe tonight or this weekend. I went ahead and dove right in.

First I made the Lemon-Basil Red Potatoes (I had to use dry basil, which I was happy to see I had). As that got to a stage it just needed to cook, I started on the Spicy Not Baked Beans. Finally I whipped out the food processor and made the Aioli for the Rolled Chicken Sandwiches with Arugula and Aioli.



After finishing all that, I sat down to try it. I liked the sandwich wraps, and the potatoes were good, but maybe for me needed a touch more seasoning. I need to practice my lemon zesting skills, I realized last night they suck right now. The bean salad was good, maybe I couldn't get over the fact I was willingly eating cucumbers, which I still think I don't like. I even used the seedless kind.

I watched a little TV, and couldn't decide if I wanted to start the DvD, start playing GTA IV, or mess around on the computer. I finally figured I would go ahead and make desert. Before I could do that, I had to clean the disaster area all that cooking had left in the kitchen. I fired up the grill, turned my iPod player back on, and rolled up the proverbial sleeves. For Christmas last year I got this sweet iPod speaker dock, I keep in the kitchen, and it has been used on a regular basis.

So the desert looked way simple, I fired up the grill, and started getting the ingredients ready.
Grilled Chocolate Chip Banana Cookies.


Click that to get a bigger view, and it's worth it. These turned out silly, ridiculous good.

When I uploaded these to my PC to use on the blog, I found a couple older pics of previous plates.

Here is a little Stir-Fry.

















And this was a mini-frittata dish I made in muffin pans.













I am out of the office tomorrow, so no post until probably Monday. This weekend I am going to see a stand-up comic, Greg Giraldo (sp?) so I will post about that afterwards. Tomorrow, I am paying the car tags in the morning, then playing some golf!!

I'm pretty busy, so that's all you get today.

ciao!


sorry, I forgot to share this cool video sneak peek of Microsoft's WIndows 7 touch interface.

Video: Multi-Touch in Windows 7

ok, now I'm done.

ciao!

Animals!!

I added a few new things to the Right --->

• List of Books I am attempting to read.
• I used to read a book a week at least, last few years, I can't seem to find the time to sit and read, but I want to make a better effort to read more.
• List of shows I am watching on TV.
• Or at least shows I will make an attempt to watch this summer
• A click able picture right towards the top, see below, and click!
• I added some things to my blogger 'complete' profile.
• Links to Cruelty-Free Shopping and Charities
  
• Hopefully today I will add.
• List of upcoming movies I am excited for, which will either direct you to a trailer, or their website
• Recipes I am planning on making soon
• Songs/Artists I can't stop listening to right now.
• And any other type of list I can think of.

Ok, let's start today with that very important picture below the 'who am i?' widget on the right.
I have been visiting this website for a few years, on and off I admit, but after 3 people have now sent it to me in the last couple weeks, I figure I'll add something here and maybe get them some more clicks. All you have to do is go to their website, and click the purple button, that says CLICK HERE TO GIVE. It is that simple. The advertisers who support this website will donate something like .6 of a bowl of food to animal shelters for every click. Take a look now by clicking the button, then come back and finish reading, don't worry, we will wait for you. If you are wondering if this is a real thing, Kel-Koo found this on snopes, which says it is.

I'll save my soon rant on animal rights for another day, one thing when I do write about that, is the fact this weekend they premiered the 'Green Network' a new channel all about how to help the environment with the (duh) Green movement. Well I find it ironic that I saw a ton of commercials with the idiots from SC Johnson. This clown had the cajones to lie to the camera about how great his company is. FYI, Johnson & Johnson continue to perform animal testing, shouldn't how we treat animals be part of the green movement?

Speaking of TV, here is a sad list of the shows cancelled, and not returning next year. Careful, that website is pain with pop-ups and crap, but I don't feel like searching around for a better one.

I was watching Attack of the Show last night,* side note Olivia Munn is h.a.w.t. , and since it was DVD-uesday, they mentioned Rambo being released. Yes I am tempted to buy this, and even on Blue-Ray! Anyway, this whole post is getting a new label category for this story. I guess the movie makes the Burmese government look pretty bad. Well Chris Gore who does the reviews (I don't think he is comfortable on camera) mentioned this shocking story about the Rambo movie. Apparently, if you are caught in Burma with a copy of the DvD, you will arrested and sent to jail immediately. And If you are caught selling it? Death sentence! Yes, the Burmese government has announced they will execute anyone selling the movie. hence the new label 'WTF!!' (if you don't know what that means ask)

Quickly I will answer the questions Kel-Koo left yesterday in a comment.
1. The slideshow is 90% pictures of the second trip to Italy. The pictures of Castelmare del Golfo, and on board the Catamaran were from the first trip. (I'd have to double check, but I'm pretty sure, that's it)
2. Good news about the glasses. The rubber nose guards I got from Sunglass Hut, actually fit better than the original one did, so I replaced both. I have to pimp the guys at Sunglass Hut, I have had two or three great customer service stories with that company.
3. iTune volunteer? Are you referring to Mojo? So far I have two friends willing to try it. We just all need to coordinate and install it! If you want to join the list of who wants to try it, let me know.
4. I guess this is out of the order you asked, but...Yes, I am happy to get rid of all that trash.
5. MediaMonkey....so far I am digging it. I used their meta data tag tools to add art, album info and other stuff to a single song, then sent it over to Alex to see if it kept the tag info I added and was successful. I am now trying to formulate a plan, so I don't duplicate my work. I was thinking of OMG, removing everything off the iPod, then tagging everything in my library at home, and as they are updated, put them back on the iPod. Lots of work, and I do mean lots.
6. Indy 4 was good. I think I would have changed a couple scenes, but overall it was an Indiana Jones movie. I heard the actress who plays Marien, had quit acting, and opened a beauty shop in some small town. They had to convince her to return!

ok, that's enough for today. I need to start adding the new stuff to the layout here, and get a new mug of coffee.

ciao!

3 day weekends...

Three day weekends...I think should last at four days minimum. I do admit, after a couple days off, I get very bored sitting around doing nothing. It's weird because I could travel, and sit somewhere else and be fine. I remember my first (and only) trip to Key West, Florida. A 'friend' not a close one at all, in fact I can't really stand the guy anymore, was getting married there. They paid for the whole wedding party to fly down. My good buddy Andy J. was one of the groomsmen. His wife was planning on flying down too, but at the last minute had to cancel. Originally I wasn't going, and Andy wasn't going to go at all, but they called me up, and said if I paid for half the ticket she was going to use, they'd pay for the other. His wife knew if I tagged along he would still go, so I agreed. Part of the wedding party deal was their hotel room too, so it was a really cheap weekend trip. Of course the wedding went south once we got there and I got to experience my first real hurricane. For the record, I have now been in a tornado, in a house hit my lightning, an earthquake, and a hurricane. Most of the bad weather was further north, but we had high winds, and stuff flying through the air where we were too. The problem was, Miami airport was closed afterwards. Key West has a small airplane airport on the island, but the closest major one was Miami. Since it was like a 4 hour drive there, we were stuck. We ended up having to stay 3 extra days.

Well I sort of rambled off, but talking about just sitting around, being stuck in Key West, in bad weather, wasn't that bad. Here at home, after a few days I get bored.

So....this weekend, I did laundry, ironed, cleaned the house, did some cooking, watched a few movies, watched a ton of Food Network, took the dogs for a walk, and went and saw the new Indiana Jones movie.

All that Food network, and the only recipe I wrote down, was for "Sauteed Bananas over
Ice Cream with Oatmeal-Rum Cookies". Whenever I get around to making it, I'll try and take some pictures.

One good thing is I checked how much flights to Sicily were running. I picked a random date in September, for a two week trip, and found flights for $700 before taxes etc. So I shot off an email to my friend who I'll be staying with, and asked him if sometime in those months would work, and if it wouldn't be too late to go sailing. I'm still waiting for a response, but it usually takes a couple days or a week for him to answer. I have learned with everyone I talk to back in Sicily, to not expect a quick reply.

Kelly S is gonna yell at me for not reviewing Indiana Jones, but I'm just not in a review mood this morning, sorry. I will share a trailer for a movie that isn't coming out until December! It was slated to release much earlier, but they pushed it out, and this trailer is the first to be released. Unfortunately it is in Spanish! Don;t worry, there is about 3 lines total in the whole thing. The movie is adapted from a short story about a man who is born and appears to be an old man. By that what I mean is he is wrinkly, gray hair, and can hardly walk. As he 'ages' for some reason his body is growing in reverse. And by that I mean he gets younger on the outside. This is harder to explain than I thought it would be. With the cast slated for this, I have high hopes. Cate Blanchett, Brad Pitt, and Julia Ormond. David Fincher directs the movie, so it is a reunion with Pitt, who he also directed in 'Fight Club' and 'Se7en'. Julia Ormond you might remember was in 'Legends of the Fall', and very hawt in the remake of 'Sabrina

The movie is called.
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"




Maybe...one of my espanol speaking buddies could translate and post a comment?

Well, with the extra day off, I've got a bunch of stuff to do, so that's all you get today. I am thinking of trying some applications out that will let people browse my music library and listen, so watch for something at a later date. If I could get a volunteer to test a cool iTunes app, I can talk outside of here about it.

anyway...

ciao!

Funny Video Friday..

Why not, I doubt anyone is even at work today.

First off, a couple updates.

Kelly S...

I put out the remaining trash stuff yesterday, stuff being the boards I had cut down. I am happy to report it was a complete success, and when I arrived home, had two empty trash cans!

Glasses.
So I'm already peeved I have to drive all over town after work, and guess what. As I walked up to the door of my eye doctor, I noticed they close at 3pm on Thursday and Friday. I was not happy. I will either go by at lunch today, or leave early.

Speaking of customer service. If you have never seen any of the Chad Vader clips then you are missing out. Here is one about customer service.



I watched another one from the makers of Chad Vader, which was a simple update/interview, and they dropped a bomb. They claim they are in talks to bring Chad Vader to televison!

If you liked that, here is Chad being interviewed by Obama girl



Here is (supposedly) the official music video, of one of Coldplay's new songs, from their upcoming cd release. One of the commenters mentions this was filmed in Catania, Sicily. While I like the song, I'm not sold on the video. Reminded me of a Depeche Mode video.



I'm all over the board today, here is one of the most amazing futbol goals EVER.
After I saw this shot, I decided I wanted to buy a Beckham jersey, and to think he was 17 yrs old when he hit this. I knew who Beckham was before he came to the states, but I was never a giant fan, until I saw how real he is in interviews, and how much of a team player he is. The guy is a stud, hands down.




Well, how about some more amazing futbol shots? (soccer)
A couple ones that stand out, are more center line shots, the one where the free kicker shoots under the jumping defensive wall, and the curve on the shot parallel to the goal post....wow.



This last one is on a very serious and important issue for me. I try to avoid getting on the soapbox about animal rights, but this video was so well done, it almost made me finally apply for a job with them. I am trying to figure out how much I can afford to send this group monthly. Maybe one day I will talk about the negative and positives of PETA, which animal groups I think are doing good, and possibly talk more about it, but for now, watch this last one, and if you can, donate.

Sarah Maclachlan's ASPCA commercial, very powerful.



ok, have a great weekend, stay safe, don't drive under the influence.

ciao!

Customer Service SUCKS

So I posted a few days ago about getting prescription lenses for my Oakley Juliet sunglasses, and how I was a little reserved about letting them ship the glasses off to the lab. Also, note that when I gave them my regular glasses, and the sunglasses last Monday, we had to order a new rubber sock that fits over my glasses (the piece that rests above your ear). They told me 3-4 days on getting the glasses, they weren't sure about the sock, and 7-10 business days on the sunglasses.

Friday I got my glasses back, still no word on the sock. Last night they called me to tell me they had good and bad news. My sunglasses were back, but.......more like BUT, they were missing one of the rubber nose guard pieces. They had called to order it, but were told it was on back order, and no ETA. Remember, I'm still waiting on the sock, going on a week now, and it was supposedly in stock.
So I'm thinking wtf? Pardon my abbreviated language, but I even told the eye Dr, these are $$$ glasses, and I was worried. Sure enough something happened. All they could do was apologize, even though it wasn't the eye doctor office's fault, that's all they can tell me, 'we are sorry'.
I briefly asked if there was something that could be done, can they ask for a ETA, or get something delivered over-night? They actually said I could pick them up and keep them while they wait, it would be uncomfortable to wear maybe. I almost laughed, ya, bare metal, on just one side, would be real cozy.

So I hang up afterwards, and call two different Sunglass Hut stores, and Dicks Sporting Goods.
I get lucky when I call the Sunglass Hut at the mall. He asks me to wait a minute, and checks. When he gets back he tells me they don't have a spare kit, but another set of nose pieces which will work until the ordered ones arrive. I was very grateful and asked how much will they charge? Because if they were going to, I would have called my eye doc right back. He tells me I can have them for free, just come by and pick them up.

So now I have to drive to my eye Dr's office, then turn around and drive back to the mall. Plus, I'm still twiddling my thumbs waiting on Oakley. I am tempted to call their customer service, I mean in the past I have always had good luck with them, who knows how they will handle this, it wasn't their fault either.

Continuing our week of trailers......

LoveGuru
Pregnant or not, I'd still marry Jessica Alba and do exactly as she asked, 24 hrs a day.
I have to admit, Justin Timberlake's movie decisions have been pretty good so far, check out his cameo in the trailer.



Traitor
How about a serious one starring Don Cheadle.
Is it a coincidence his last name in the trailer sounds like "horn", is that spelled like Jason Bourne spells his?



The Happening
M. Night Shyamalan's new thriller, starring Mark Wahlberg. The trailer really grabs me when the conductor turns to answer his question.
"we lost contact"-conductor
"with who?'-Mark
"with everyone"-conductor




Blindness
Mark Rufalo has made some good flicks, this one is another thriller.



The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
Oscar bound.......just joking, but every once in awhile I like watching a action, don't have to think too much movie.



Ok, lastly, some maybe good Tarheel news.
The bad side is Alex Stepheson who was really turning into a good player, announced he will transfer, to be closer to his family, and his father who is having health problems. While we wait for the three testing the draft, Roy Williams snatched up a new recruit, with the now free scholarship.

This is a 9 minute video and take a peek at Justin Watts.
Ht: 6-4 Wt: 185 PPG: 22.0




ok, that's it today.

ciao!

MediaMonkey

Well yesterday I was pretty busy, and before I knew it, it was time to head home. partly because of this new program I'll talk about in a sec

First, let's get a quick laugh in.

The Rocker
Opens August 1
Starring one my favorites, Rainn Wilson from The Office



Next, I made a huge batch of Cinamon Fettuccini Carbonara, and brought it in to work today. I've already got about 4 ppl wanting to meet me at lunch time to try it. That's why I made a large amount, so I can let everyone try. I think my absolute favorite thing about cooking, is when other people can try what I make. I think once I move into a larger home, I will try and have a monthly dinner/movie party. Where anyone who wants to can come over, and as a group pick out one of the 500 some movies I have now. I will prepare a dinner, and we will all watch the movie. We'll see, I would like to do this, but if the turnout wasn't any good, then why go through all the effort.

Well, since I didn't post yesterday, how about another quick movie trailer?

The Pineapple Express



Ok, now to the new program.

MediaMonkey

• Organize music and edit tags in your audio library with a powerful, intuitive interface
• Automatically lookup and tag Album Art and other metadata
• Manage 50,000+ files in your music collection without bogging down
• Play MP3s and other audio formats, and never again worry about varying volume
• Record CDs into OGG, MP3, FLAC and WMA files
• Convert MP3s, M4A, OGG, FLAC and WMA files into other formats
• Create playlists and music mixes quickly and easily to suit any occasion
• Synchronize with iPods / MP3 players effortlessly and convert tracks on-the-fly
• Plus much more...

After all the work I did getting my iPod set back up, I decided I would fix the song tags, album art, etc later on. Well MediaMonkey to the rescue.

I was browsing Lifehacker and found three great articles about cleaning up your music library..

Whip Your Music Library into Shape
1. Level the Volume
2. Album Art
3. Metadata

Each one of these stories talks about how great MediaMonkey is, so that got me to try it, and share.

Ok, lets talk briefly about each.
1. Level the Volume.
The Lifehacker article explains how to 'level the volume' of your songs. Do you have any songs that the volume is quiet, then loud, or loud then quiet, etc. Well take the jump (click the link) above to see how to fix.
2. Album Art
Who doesn't like seeing the artwork for a cd pop up on your computer or on your iPod video screen? This article shows you how to use, you guessed it, MediaMonkey to find those missing album covers for your songs.
3. Metadata
Lastly, what is metadata? Sometimes called a 'tag' as well. You see mp3 format is not only a cool way of compressing an audio file.
Mp3 = a layer 3 of the MPEG format,
MPEG=Moving Picture Experts Group

Well not only can that 'file' contain your song, but you can attach metadata inside the file. Which means if I went into the metadata of a song, and added artwork, album info, comments, release date, song time, etc, etc, the list goes on, but when I saved it all, and sent you the mp3, when you open it on your player of choice (iTunes, MediaMonkey, Windows Media Player) all that info I stored would be available for you to see. So the last article discusses how to easily add all that info to your songs, without having to painfully find it all on your own.

So I installed MediaMonkey, and I was off and running yesterday, once you've scanned your files to create a library, there is very nifty sub folder called 'Files to Edit'. This includes duplicates, unknown artists/songs/albums, and a few other things like dead links. You can then start fixing all your info. It's a ton of work, but the completed job is worth it in my opinion.

Ok, well I need to get some stuff done.

Don't forget to leave me a comment!!!

ciao!

Almost Died Saturday!!

Ok, so saturday I head over to my parents to mow. I did set a record time of 5 hrs, probably because I only stopped once for a bathroom break, and skipped lunch. Not to sound bad, but knowing how much sun I get while mowing their yard, I took an old t-shirt and ripped off the sleeves, because I did not want a farmers tan across my upper arms (insert guns joke here).

So here is what a z-track looks like. I am not sure if the model is exact (as in the 722 vs 716 etc model) but this is what one looks like.

Ok, so when I mow as most people do, I split the yard into sections. I was in the front yard, on the side across the creek that runs east-west on their property. It is one of the worst sections because the ground is eroded around the creek, lots of dust, and the incline is pretty serious by the street. Well I have always mowed the area of the incline to a certain spot, then stopped, and cut the grass going up the incline onto the street. No different this time right.

So as I'm giving it some gas and going up, the blades of the mower deck catch the street, so I pull back on the handles, disengage the blades (turn them off) and then push forward to go over the crest onto the street. Well the mower deck still catches, so like an idiot I push down on the pedal that raises the deck, for when you drive over things, and guess what. I pop a wheelie. Not like a yeeehaw driving down the road looking cool wheelie, but the front of the z-track pops up, and I balance there, somehow on the back tires. I probably sat there, leaning forward for at least a whole minute, not sure what to do. I thought about killing the engine, and yelling at my dad in the front yard to come save my life, because if this thing flips over backwards, I'll be underneath it. Thinking twice about that, I tempted fate and tried barely pushing forward and pushing backward on the handles, I could feel it wanting to tip, so I just sat still, after what seemed like 5 minutes, the z-track sat back down, maybe it was the wind, I don't know, but I got onto level ground, shut down, and breathed deeply for a few minutes.

Let's get a laugh after all that.

This was sent by my buddy in Atlanta, thank god the sign is posted, or the accidents it would cause!












Next up is something that might be fun to own. But only if I could do something other than what this is intended for. I picture myself soaking tennis balls in gasoline, or putting it on a chair and letting a buddy sit down on it.
Is it a tennis racket? No sir eee.
Take a look at their product site.
Electric Fly Swatter

Yes, it's a 1500 volt bug zapper!




Now for some good pics. Last night I finally made my Amaretto Float recipe.

This first shot is pretty much all the ingredients you need.

• Amaretto
• Chilled Espresso
• Vanilla Ice Cream
• Cream Soda
• And a glass (duh

Yes, it's a SoCo glass, it came with the bottle of Southern Comfort in my cabinet. How did it turn out? It was gone in about 5 minutes, and I almost made a second!

The rest of the weekend? Well I got pretty burnt Saturday, so the rest of that day, consisted of a nap, coating my arms and feet (worst spots) with lotion. Sunday I made it into town to get some lunch, wash the car, fill up the gas tank, and finally.......the iPod is back!

Luckily I had a revelation, and this time, before I tried installing the audiobook onto it, which caused this mess in the first place. I used a program called 'Anapod CopyGear' once all my (well 98%, I couldnt find a few on the HD) songs were back on it. This backed up my whole iPod to a folder, something like 3700 songs. So I break out the install directions on my audiobook. (iSync Italian, a language learning audiobook) I follow the steps, and it's looking good, this time, I was patient, and walked away and let it do it's work. A little while later and come back, and guess what, the audiobook is there, but all the music is gone!!

Luckily, all I had to do was drag the contents of the backup folder, to put the songs back on. Who knows how long it took for that, I started it and walked away for a few hours.

Let's see what else.....
I added an RSS feed to Kelly's blog in the sidebar------>
A link to my Public 'Netvibes Page' (check it out and leave a message there! ------->

Instead of filling Friday with trailers this week (I know I haven't lately) I think I'll give you one or two a day.

X-Files:I Want to Believe



Oh ya, on my netvibes page you can watch a picture slide show (pretty much all Italy) I created using a site called Slide.com.

Here it is. (you can click the 'view all' link to make a jump and not sit through the puzzle animation, which is kinda cool.)

ok, I typed too much, so until tomorrow,

ciao!

Netvibes, RSS reader

I'm a little behind today, busy morning.

I was reading one of my favorite sites Lifehacker and they did a survey of the most popular RSS feed readers. You can check out their article here. I checked out all of their top 5, and went ahead and set myself up on Netvibes. I dropped my previous reader 'KlipFolio' for this as well.

After signing up (free) you can create your own sort of home page. With plenty of widget choices, and as many RSS feeds as you want. At the same time, I added a public netvibes page. Jump over and take a look.

So far, the biggest plus, is that you open this reader in a browser window, which would let me check my RSS feeds from anywhere.

Trash report...
If you recall, I posted yesterday that I only put out the bundled up branches for the trash man, and was planning on waiting til next week to try the cut down boards again. I was happy to see them all gone when I got home. Last night was the first night, and only, this week that I could go straight home from work. Instead I went by the grocery store, and bought ingredients to make the Amaretto Float, and the Cinnamon-Fettuccine Carbonara dish. Kelly S is missing out by not being in the office today, because I have to walk her direction on campus and brought extra.

I didn't make the float, but as soon as my pasta water was boiling, I couldn't find the fettuccine noodles I had just bought! I used spaghetti, so as soon as it was in the pot, I found the fettuccine package (doh!). It turned out pretty good. I should have taken a picture, sorry.

Tonight, I will go by the bank to order checks, cash out my stimulus check, stop at the vet and get ear medicine for JayJay, , head to the bank by my parents and put it all (maybe all) of it into my Sicily savings account. Then stop at my parents to pick up my fixed glasses. My eye doctors office closes at 3pm today, so I asked my Mom (who was going to be in the vicinity of their office this morning) to pick them up.

Tomorrow I will be mowing their yard for 6 hrs (ugh). Then maybe do some yard work at my house.

Sorry, real short post today, have a good weekend.

ciao!

deeee licious

Start off with a pretty good ad. Sometimes I wish I had gone into a career in advertising.



New Google Maps feature that is pretty cool
Jump over and type in your home address, or a city name, your choice.
Once the map pulls up, click on 'search options' it's right next to where you typed in the address.
Now a new text box opens, with a drop down arrow, click and choose 'Real Estate' and you will get a visual pinpoint for houses for sale surrounding the location you originally searched for. Pretty cool!

Here is what I did as an example, for the town of Bucyrus, KS.

So from the title of today's post, you might think I'm going to discuss a new recipe. I wasn't planning on it, but after this I guess I'll share what I hope to try making this weekend.

The real reason I titled it that way, is to share a new website (new for me) that is pretty cool. It is called del.icio.us and it is pretty much an online database that you save all your favorite places to. Favorite websites, blogs (hint, hint) etc, etc. Well they take it up a notch BAMN!!

sorry,Emeril joke, had to be done. If you install their internet plugins, I am specifically talking about the Firefox one, you get some cool features added. Check out the Firefox plug-in here. After setting up a del.icio.us account and installing the buttons you get two new ones right next to your url browser window. One of them looks like a square checkerboard, the second is a pricetag looking image, which says 'TAG'. The first one, when clicked, opens your del.icio.us account page, displaying all your favorites. The second one lets you tag websites as you are browsing the internet. When you do tag one, you then get a popup which lets you add notes, and well, tags! A tag is a one word descriptor for what the website is. For example, use 'blog' for blogs, or 'tv' for hbo.com, or 'shopping' for amazon.com, and so on. Add as many tags as you can, to take full use of the other del.icio.us features.

When you are viewing your account page (it's all free, forgot to mention) you can view your bookmarks sorted by tags. You can also look at other people's favorites in a different window that used similar tags. What is also cool, is if lets say Kelly signs up, I can share my favorites with her, and when one of us finds a site we think the other might like, notify them of it.

wish me luck on the trash man, I didn't put the cut up boards, but I do have about 10 bundles of branches tied up, and a trash bag that weighs about 30 pounds (mostly sand/leaves from sandbox)

ok, this weekend if I find the time, I want to try making the following...

• Arugula Salad with Fried Gorgonzola
• Cinnamon-Pancetta Carbonara
• Amaretto Chocolate Chip Cookie Sandwiches
• Amaretto Float

ciao!

How to create a Firefox Batch File

well before MS Internet Explorer came out with tabbed browsing, I also had a way to create one of these for it, but since I evolved to using Mozilla's Firefox for my internet I haven't bothered figuring out how to rewrite this. Ok, little background.

A Batch file is a script of sorts written in code on your computer. To put it very simply, it does a bunch of tasks in one 'batch'. It triggers your command prompt (cmd) to open and run whatever the batch file tells it too. So you could do lots of other things other than what I will show you. For example you could have a batch file that opens MS Word, Excel, your Calculator, and Outlook, all in one click.

Mozilla Firefox is a free internet browser, which in my opinion is so much better than the standard Internet Explorer (IE). It has many customizable options, with plugins and themes galore.

So what I am going to show you today, is a batch file that opens multiple Firefox tabs with your favorite sites. Typically every morning once my computer gets all finished logging in, and I have finished shaving (yes it takes that long) I like to check 3-4 websites for new stuff. This batch process lets me do that very easily.

Start off with downloading and installing Firefox if you don't already use it! If you don't want to give Firefox a shot, then skip to the end this how-to ain't for you.

1. Open a notepad file. (please tell me you know how to do this.)
2. On the first line type the following (leave out the quotes), separate your sites by a single space
and omit the http://

"start firefox tarheelfan.wordpress.com/ domenico13.blogspot.com/ kel-koo.blogspot.com/ lifehacker.com/"

Ok, let's break that down. First start then firefox then your website your website etc. I choose my favorite Tar Heel fan site, my blog, my friend Kelly's blog, and lifehacker. Notice there is no http's, this should all be on one line and use a single space between words/sites.

3. Now click File in your notepad window, then Save As...
(Real quick, anyone know what the ... 's indicate?)

4. Click My Computer > C drive > Program Files > Mozilla Firefox
Your C drive should be the main hard drive in your computer whatever letter it is labeled as. This is where you want to save your batch file.

5. name your file something clever, like websites and at the end type in .bat
Click Save
So the end result would look something like this "websites.bat"

6. Now open windows, WINDOWS explorer. Sorry for the caps, but every time I am trying to help someone on their computer and I ask them to open explorer, they click internet explorer. We want Windows explorer.

Browse back to My Computer > C drive > Program Files > Mozilla Firefox
Find your .bat file. Right click it and send to desktop as a shortcut.

test it out, it should work unless I mistyped (or you did) something above.

Well I have a ton to do, so I'm cutting it short today. I have to answer a couple emails, tonight I have the trainer, then want to maybe mow the yard, and just for Kelly, put out the trash then take bets on if the trash man will take everything.

I'm one disc into season 2 of Battlestar Galactica, and I'm embarrassed to admit I think I am hooked. I just wish my favorite Sci-Fi show made a comeback and had lasted as long. (That show being Firefly).

To answer Kelly's comment question, my one choice at Subway has always been the Spicy Italian. The only thing that's changed in my toppings are the bread choice, and sometimes the sauce (spicy mustard+mayo or chipolte+sweet onion).

More for Kelly, yes those sunglasses were pretty $$$, and believe me, it took me awhile to pull the trigger buying them. I have had good experience with Oakley in the past, even though I can only find a small number of their styles I actually like. I was also looking at the Romeo model/style, but went with mine because of the full frame. I don;t regret buying them, I rarely buy something expensive for myself, and I treat them like they are made out of porcellin, even though they are very tough. As far as the 'active lifestyle' comment. Going outside on my deck, walking the dogs, spending hours watching movies so I can share my thoughts, how much more active do I need to be? What am I training for the Olympics?

Lastly, couple notable Blue-Ray release announcements.

Batman Begins - Widescreen
Release Date: 7/8/2008
---------
Be Kind Rewind - Widescreen Fullscreen
Release Date: 6/17/2008
---------
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - Widescreen
Release Date: 5/13/2008
--------------------------------------------

ciao!

Lines Suck

Apparently there is a transmitter in my car, that when I head for the Subway where I live, it sends out a signal to the surrounding area for all rude idiots to drop what they are doing and immediately get there before me.

Yesterday after work, I went by the eye doctor to order my prescription lenses for my sunglasses, and to send off my regular glasses to be fixed (they want to replace the lenses). I really like my frames so I just had them swap them out, plus the little rubber piece, called a 'sock' that is on the stem of the glasses, you know the piece right above your ear had split open, so my eye doc ordered a new one from Oakley. I also bit the bullet and decided to get prescription lenses for my Juliet's. I choose to go with mirrored/polarized silver lenses to replace my current orange colored ones, which were not polarized and not prescription. My vision isn't bad, glasses help, but I'm ok without them. I will have to be, since it will take 2-4 days on the glasses, and 7-10 on the sunglasses. Ouch, that's awhile to be squinting, so I busted out my old oakley's, which I never liked the style.

So after all that, which took awhile, because they are understaffed right now at the doctors office, so I kept letting people go ahead of me. I then drove home, still needing to get smokes, I had ran out as I walked out of the office, so by now I'm feeling the urge. I call my dentist on the drive, because the crown they put in Friday feels loose, I may be imagining it, but they wanted to check so I get to go by today after work for them to check. Completely forgetting the construction on the highway, I drive up the entrance ramp to find bumper to bumper traffic, with nobody even rolling. So I sit in that for a few miles, and decide I'm just going to get Subway for dinner, since I don't feel like cooking. BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, that's the transmitter starting to broadcast my plans.

Every since Subway started their $5 footlong deal, they've been pretty busy. You might check before ordering but at the one where I live they cut it back from picking any footlong to a handful of sandwiches, one of which is mine, the only selection I've ever had in my life at Subway, shouldn't be hard to guess what I pick. So finally I get to subway, and sure enough there are 2 groups in front of me. The two women ordering, one is in scrubs, holding an infant, and was pretty. Her friend, not so much, and she kept blabbing about her wedding rehearsal dinner, I imagine being held at denny's. Well guess what, they both bust out lists and proceed to order 7, yes 7 sandwiches, plus a kids snack pak. Are you serious? Finally the girl in front of me goes, she proceeds to order 3 of her own. As I am patiently waiting and thinking about cigarettes, someone new walks in and gets in line behind me. It felt more like she climbed onto my shoulders, this frazzled chick was standing so close to me I could smell her, and it wasn't a good smell. She was wearing some sort of sweat pant capri velvet looking pants, which were stained all over the back and down the legs with what I hoped was mud and not baby poo. She has a spaghetti strap top on and flip flops. I don't think her hair had seen shampoo since she gave her kids a bath with a garden hose and some accidentally got on her.

Let me pause here...women, listen up.
This may be different for other guys, but me personally, I dislike the following..
-Flip-Flops
-capri pants or whatever you call them
-tube tops
-spaghetti strap tops
I mean if you want to throw some flip flops on at the beach great, but they aren't going out shoes in my opinion.

Ok so this mess standing .2 inches from me starts pacing around, she then walks in front of me up to the counter, so I'm just waiting for her to try and cut in front of me (which she didn't).

Anyway, it was all frustrating, afterwards I stopped and got my cigarettes, by this time I needed one or the steam was going to blow out my ears like a cartoon. But noooo, we aren't done yet. I buy cigarettes, gas for my mower, and a pop occasionally, all at the same gas station. It is walking distance from my house. There is only 2 friendly women that work there. One with the same name as my mom, and the other I haven't seen forever. I can't even get a smile outta the rest of them. Well there is one new lady who asks every time to see my id. Yes the back of credit card says 'check id' but I am in there 4 times a week or something like that, seriously, I sort of have an unusual name. She is the only one who ever asks. She trumped herself yesterday asking when my birthday was. She has to key it in the register, I am sure she wasn't worried I was too young, but can't she make up a date. On top of that, people keep pulling up and blocking their entrance, so you have to walk around their car to get inside.

By now I needed a stiff drink, a cigarette and a nap. I left work at 3:30 and didn't get home until almost 7, it felt like 10 though.

Well don't forget to check out the new Blog link on the sidebar, taking you to Kelly S's first attempt at blogging. Tomorrow I might try writing about all these cookbooks I downloaded last night. One of them is titled 1,000,000 recipes.

mmmm Sushi...sort of...

Well I had a busy weekend, not as busy as my Mom, but that's good for her. She got to spend Friday with my Sister, Saturday with me, and then Sunday with me and my Dad.

As I said Friday, I spent the afternoon at the dentist (yuck) and my upper lip was so numb afterwards I didn't do much Friday night, over than keep watching season 1 of Battlestar Galactica. I was pretty tired, and (old man comment coming) went to bed shortly around 9pm! I was falling asleep on the couch so I went to bed and fell asleep there watching TV. Because of that, I was awake around 6am Saturday. By 8am I was in the yard with coat on (it was chilly) and finishing up the brush pile/sandbox project. The brush pile was already 80% done, so I just worked on the sandbox. It had become a collecting spot for branches. I cut them all down to size and stacked them in bundles. I didn't get a chance to tie them up with string before it started raining a little, which signalled quitting time. I went inside, showered, and of course it stopped raining. I didn't want to get all muddy again, since my mom would be over in a few hours, so I finished her present up. I made another charger station box for her, and inside there was a surge protector and all 5 DvD's for the first season of Battlestar Galactica.

She got to my house around 2pm, and we talked for a bit, then hit the road. She wanted to run by the mall to exchange something, and we killed some more time until heading for the sushi train restaurant. The real name is Sakura and while neither of us technically ate the real deal sushi deal, they have plenty of great food, good service, and hawt waitresses, hehe. I bought her dinner, we then ran a couple more errands she wanted to do, and headed home.

Sunday, I was in the yard around 9am tying up those branches and moving them around to my driveway. I'm crossing my fingers about the trash man this week taking them or the cut up boards.

While browsing around some of my favorite sites I found some cool stuff to share today.

Tobu
Freeware information organizer

I might try this out here at work, and use it as a database of information I have to browse for in job-aids all the time.

MyTVRSS
Set your own RSS Tv schedule feed up.
Well if you don't mess with RSS feeds, then this might not be as exciting, but I recommend looking into joining the RSS craze. I think I posted on a different day about RSS feeds.
Here is the feed I set up, with the TV shows they have available on their site. TV Feed
For each show you will see something that looks like as an example this: S01E01. That stands for Season 01, Episode 01 .

ID Telemarketers
Check out this Lifehacker story about how to fight back against telemarketers. I personally don't have caller id at home, because I don't use my home phone for anything besides DSL.

Master Document
Another site I check once in awhile is The Simple Dollar. A really good blog about personal finances, ways to save money, etc etc. In this article, they discuss how everyone should create a 'emergency info' document. Just in case something ever happened, it would allow relatives to know what to do. Sort of like a last will and testament. I plan on following their guide, not sure if they include it, but I would think you should include a list of email addresses for out of town friends. For example if something were to happen to me, how would my buddy in Oklahoma ever find out?

IT Lock down
Last one is a classified document, that shows you how to survive an over anxious, we have the power, IT department at your job. Suggestions include installing certain apps on thumb, or external drives. How to visit those blocked sites, etc. but don't be an idiot. No matter how you do it, I'm sure there is a way for those pocket protectors to find you. If you are spending your day in a poker room online, you probably should be caught.

Thumb Drive Auto-Run
I'm probably setting this up once I finish writing today's post. Along the lines above about using a USB drive, this Lifehacker article discusses how to create an autorun.inf file for certain programs on a thumb drive. A long time fan of Portable Apps I carry around a 2gb usb drive on my key chain. I have a handle of apps downloaded from their site. Well the portable app menu is an exe file, so my plan is auto run that when the drive is plugged in.

Do it Yourself online MTV
Well I plan on looking into this today too. I guess this is called Last.fm + Youtube. I'll be checking it out today, but apparently you enter a favorite artist, and the site creates a video music channel for you? It's worth a look, so I'll report back if I find the time.

OK, that's it for today, have a good Monday, don't forget to watch Barney tonight on How I Met Your Mother.

ciao!

D-MTV!

Half-day today!!

I am leaving at lunch today for a dentist appointment. I'd rather stay and work, not being a fan of taking time off for things like this. Maybe that's why I always have a month of vacation time still left in December every year.

Well I got home last night to discover the trash man took everything, except the boards! Kind of weird, because I had that giant TV box, 3 trash cans, the Miter saw box, and a few other boxes. Yet he leaves these old boards. I admit they were 4-5 feet long each, but come on man! So after letting the dogs go out, I busted out the sawzall, aka a reciprocating saw, and cut each board in half. I'll try again next Thursday I guess. Then I went ahead and mowed the yard, since it was supposed to rain (and did) later Thursday night.

Of course my Dad's plans were cancelled this weekend. He was planning on flying down to Scottsdale to meet with my Uncle Ray and my Uncle Joe. I guess my Uncle Joe owns a piece of land on some mountain near Alberquerque (I'm guessing since he lives there). Well he can't get to the land because of a neighbor owning the land the access road is on. I guess they have been causing problems, so the three of them were planning on making an offer to buy them out. I'm hearing all this second hand, but I'm kind of concerned I guess. I am imagining in my mind some backwoods hillbilly living in a log cabin with his cousin/wife and their 6 children. But anyway, the trip was postponed messing up my plans this weekend. I'm still waiting to decide what to do now for Mother's Day. Honestly, with all the grief my Mom causes me, I think there should be a Son's Day!

Well there weren't any exciting movie trailers to share today, so instead I am playing mtv video dj and sharing a handful of music videos you can waste your time watching. I'll post the info in this order;
Artist
Song
Album


James Blunt
1973
All The Lost Souls





James Blunt
Same Mistake
PS I Love You OST (original soundtrack)





Modest Mouse
Missed the Boat
We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
(This is actually the video that won a contest the band ran. It was fan created, and I completely agree they deserved to win!)





What happens when you truly missed the boat?
Well you fall Into the Ocean!
har-har-har

Blue October
Into The Ocean
Foiled





Fatboy Slim
Weapon of Choice
Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars
(Oldie but a classic because of Walken)





A Perfect Circle
The Outsider (live)
Thirteenth Step
(A Perfect Circle, which was a spinoff of Tool, both still remain in my top 5 favorite bands. This live performance really shows off how weird Maynard, the lead singer, really is)





Godsmack
Voodoo
Godsmack





Rogue Wave
Eyes
Publish My Love
(not the real video, I doubt one exists, this was a project by some art school guy, but it's still a great song, you might recognize it from the movie Just Friends, at the end)





Now for some Ben Lee

Ben Lee
Love Me Like the World is Ending
Ripe





Ben Lee
Into the Dark
Awake is the New Sleep





Ben Lee
Gamble Everything For Love
Awake is the Sleep





Ok Go
Here It Goes Again
Oh No
(one of the coolest video ideas ever)






ok that's it.

Happy Mom Day to all the Mother's.

ciao!

Scrubs tonight

sneak peak of tonight's "Fairy Tale" episode, directed by Zach Braff



Gonna be a short post today, I'm actually busy here at work this morning.

Last night I watched disc 2 of season 1 for Battlestar Galactica, and it was cool seeing Robert Hatch have a cameo. He was Apollo in the original 1970's series. This time around he plays a terrorist/freedom fighter role.

Tonight if the ground dries up, I need to mow the yard, and get caught up on one of my favorite TV shows which I've been slacking on, LOST. While I have always been drawn to Evangeline Lily, I was watching my daily dose of Malcom in the Middle and realized something. They show old episodes of the show every day on channel 38. Well anyway, one of the girls on the show is all grown up now, and plays the role of Alex on LOST.

Enjoy Tania Raymonde

and

wowza, those two pictures are almost like night out/camping trip, but she looks good in both. I may lean towards the second one though, that hair in the first pic probably took hours to get ready!

have a good Thursday

ciao!

quick edit, i almost forgot this

New Batman Trailer!

First off, I apologize to Kelly S. for messing up the post yesterday. When I added the countdown timer, I apparently slapped the code right on top of the part of my post about Mastercook. Sorry about that!

Speaking of, I am going to start adding a countdown timer to the end of every post, ticking down the opening of Batman:The Dark Knight. I do not guarantee it always working, last night I checked it and it wasn't on, but this morning, it looked like it was working again. I am pretty excited for this summer's movie lineup. With a new Indiana Jones, hopefully an improved Hulk movie, we already enjoyed Iron Man, and of course my buddy Javier's favorite caped crusader Batman.

Oh and here is the new trailer!!


In the new trailer we get a peek at Harvey Dent aka Two-Face, played by Aaron Eckhart, a great actor. While I am worried about Hulk being as good as the hype (Ed Norton makes me have hope it is good), and while I am pretty sure the new Indiana will be good (the return of Marian, his leading lady in the first movie), I will be very, very, very surprised if the new Batman does not keep me on the edge of my seat. It is very sobering that Heath Ledger passed away, I was a fan, and he will be missed.

Last night I went straight home, changed, and hit the yard. I emptied the wheelbarrow I had filled with boards,branches, etc from old brush pile. I just stacked the branches near the sandbox for later bundling, and then took the boards around to the front of the house. Quite a few still had nails, so I hammered them down, and then I will see if the trash man takes them tomorrow. I went inside, watched a little TV, and played some more Ghost Recon 2.

I was lazy and just made some chicken salad last night for sandwiches, with extras for lunch today. I went a little fancy though and cooked up the last of the bacon to put on the sandwich. When I make chicken salad I mix the chicken (duh) with mayo, pickle relish, chopped up jalapenos, chili pepper sauce (or Tabasco), and some seasonings. If I have it, I throw a slice of provolone cheese to finish it off. Bacon was new this time, and if hadn't been on sale at the grocery store I wouldn't have had any. I absolutely am addicted to bacon, I could eat it with every meal, so I try my best not too.

Tonight I have the trainer after work, it looks pretty good outside for some rain, so I'll prolly play some more PS3, maybe write out the bills (ughh) and watch my DvD's hopefully arriving today. (Battlestar Galactica Season 1, disc 2 and 3 should show up today)


ciao!

Mastercook

adding a batman countdown


You see I found this idea on Instructables.com I want to possibly attempt at the next house, which hopefully happens in the next year. Check this story out. I have an old laptop I am going to try this with so I went looking for a cook recipe/cookbook PC application. I came across one called Mastercook Deluxe vers 9. Follow this link to their website. They say they have 8,000 recipes, and I really haven't done much with the program except install it, and add a recipe I was keeping on a notepad file. If the day comes I ever install this in the kitchen, per Instructables how-to, and this blog exists, don't worry, I'll write about it.


Insert funny caption here________. What's worse, is that I took this picture in the town I live in. I haven't checked to see if it has been fixed yet, I know I laughed about it for about a week before I remembered to take a picture of it.







One more funny picture.


I love it. This is one of those de-Motivational Posters, and this one cracks me up.

Real quick, if you didn't read this story or hear about it.....
Touching Them All


I called my buddy in Chicago yesterday, since it was his birthday, and we were talking about Iron Man. Since he had plans to see it that night. There apparently is a rumor that Robert Downey Jr has a cameo in the upcoming Incredible Hulk movie, of course as Iron Man. The rumor also says in the distant future Iron Man 2, that the Hulk will return the favor.

Monday nights are one of my favorite TV nights. How I Met Your Mother, Two and a Half Men, Big Bang Theory, Rules of Engagement, and Dirty Jobs are all watched. On Big Bang Theory, there was some additional eye candy last night. Sheldon's fraternal twin sister makes an appearance. I couldn't find any pics of this hawtie, which is shocking, but here is a quick one of the character Penny, played by Kaley Cuoco. You might recognize her from the old sitcom '8 Simple Rules' formerly '8 Simple Rules to Date my Daughter'. My how she has grown up, and if I can get a copy of above mentioned rules, I can get started marking them off.


Before all my shows came on, I started getting rid of the brush pile in my backyard. This is a very old pile, actually left my the former occupants of the house. The idiot apparently tried to burn it, which is insane since it sits about 2 feet from the shed. I found quite a few things that are not, for lack of a better word, 'melt-able'. Glass bottles, mostly fence boards still with nails, and so on. If it isn't storming when I get home today I'll try breaking it down for the trash. Right now it's all sitting in the wheelbarrow in the yard. I then played some Ghost Recon 2 on the PS3. Here is a trailer for the game.

Tom Clancy's Advanced Warfighter:Ghost Recon 2


I didn't play any Grand Theft Auto IV, because I am on call for work this week, and of course I got called around 8:30 to check something.

ok, that's it for today,

ciao!