robowerks

Pinterest for men?

2012-01-14T09:41:00.016-06:00

What's the point here or Pinterest behind this latest form of social networking and is it for men? I'm a social network geek and find it's just a part of life these days, people want or feel they need to stay connected with others. That being said, I had wondered what all of those little boxes I saw scrolling across my wife's monitor really meant.

Her Pinterest had peeked my interest enough and I decided I would give it a closer look. There was something very familiar at the start, but I wasn't quite sure.

My first look into Pinterest came from the Pinspiration App I downloaded on my Windows Phone 7 device. I quickly found out I could see all kinds of stuff, but I would need to actually get invited in, if I wanted to contribute with the masses.

Surprisingly, it didn't take as long as it does to get into some of Google programs and if you happen to know someone that uses Pinterest, then I'm sure you can get invited by them even faster if you like.

Once you've been invited, its pretty simple to select from a few things you find interesting to follow and they'll even give you some suggestions of people using Pinterest to follow and help hook you up with those in your existing social networks like Facebook and Twitter even.

Now its time for you to start pining up some things on your social cork board, so your followers may see what interests you. These interest boards allow you to group things into categories of interest from your real life and place them into a virtual space to share with others.

How you might ask? From web sites to start with and the handy Pin It button they suggest you add to your Favorites Bar. When you visit something on the web that speaks to you enough and want to keep track of it, simply Pin It and place it in one of your Pinterest Boards. It will launch the small window and hopefully find the image on the page you would like to share. You might even find a number of sites have integrated a Pinterest button within their site for you as well.

Smart phone apps is another way and this allows you to create from your very own images taken while your out and about. Its always nice to use your own photos, while out and about for sharing your interests with others.

Is it for men? Well, I can clearly say the demographics appear to be heavily slanted towards a female user base. It does seem to really speak to a person that wants to organize certain aspects of their life on a visual basis. It is very popular with Brides for example and allows them to carry an extreme amount of visual aids, right at their finger tips or add to these wedding planning Pinterests for example.

If you scroll through the Everything section on Pinterest to start with, you'll find an enormous amount of fashion pinned, along with food & drink or home decor stuff for example. Pretty much things that interest women for the most part... nice things to look at for sure, but most of it will not speak to a guy really. I would say you would be hard pressed to find around 5 percent of the pins on the front page appeal to a man.

So what's the point then? Well in a lot of ways its just a visual book marking or collection of favorites of sites and things you like and a means to share these things with others. Twitter is for posting small bits of things your interested in text or sharing perhaps a quick photo, but not a means to organize them. Facebook is similar but it does a lot more than Twitter does. So Pinterest is like a virtual scrapbook & clippings of things you like, but on more of a social level.

Some guys use it, but it's a small number of us I'd say and I'm almost willing to bet, a large number of men sign up and simply lurk and never pin things really. This brings me back to my thought at the start, I'd seen this somewhere before and it was from a site called ImgSpark that lets you create Mood Boards, only two of them and it limits you to only a gig of space.

Sometime back in 2009 is when ImgSpark.Com was created and I had joined their site back around May of 2010. This was only a couple months after the launch of Pinterest. It's only recently now that I've discovered Pinterest.

I think Pinterest clearly does things that ImgSpark is not capable of and it has a much larger user base. Is it for men though? Well, its not like they keep us from using it. It's just really up to the man in the end and if he has any real Pinterest in sharing I suppose.

Family Dinner time

2012-01-07T13:26:00.004-06:00

Our family dinner time is headed for real change here in 2012, as we look to try something different for a change. For starters, we are going to try and not eat out and instead prepare our meals at home together as a family more.

In doing this we are going to prepare only one meal that the whole family will eat and enjoy together. We will also plan these meals out in advance for the next two weeks and stick with it. That means no more sitting around and asking, "What do we want to have for dinner tonight?" and it also means we will not make something different for just the kids and us to eat.

When I was younger and it came time for dinner, I was called to the table and we ate what ever was made for the night. There was no pre-planning as far as I knew it and I found out what we were eating as soon as I sat down with the family. Surprise, you get what you get and you don't throw any fits in the end.

Truth is I never had any problems with this really and I wasn't too picky of an eater growing up. So getting my kids to understand that they have to try new things and eat better will be an experience perhaps, but I think we'll do fine and they seem to be receptive so far to this new idea.

To start things off we've themed our dinners and set something different for each day of the week. We've went ahead and decided to keep the same day themes for both of the weeks to help make it simple too.

The girls seem to like the idea of themed meals and are planning to locate music that ties in with each nights dinner theme. I think it should be a lot of fun for all of us. Good food, cool music, and great family time for the evening.

The creation of Sunday Specials should be very interesting and we've decided to select places from around the World. We dropped Six countries into a hat to start with and South African & Brazilian have been selected as our first two Sunday Specials themed dinners. I think these might be the hardest ones to come up with out of the six, but we'll rise up to the challenge.

Hopefully this will also help us get organized a bit where meals come in to play and help us save some money with the buying of our food in advance by eating at home. This should also bring us together more and I think we'll enjoy our meals as a family and perhaps learn about some new places and foods as well.

Lobbyist for the day down in Austin

2011-03-30T17:33:00.008-05:00

Tomorrow is shaping up to be a rather busy day for me, as I'll be spending it down in Austin as a Lobbyist and helping to represent other fellow Horse enthusiasts from all over the state of Texas. The American Paint Horse Association is sending a little over 25 of its Staff members down to join other Horse groups from across the state for Horsemen Day at the Capitol, its purpose is to show support in numbers for HB 2111/HJR 111 & SB 1118/SRJ 33 on the steps of the Capitol.

Hopefully together we can help push things along tomorrow and get these items added to a future vote here in Texas. The amendments purpose would then allow slot machines at 13 existing licensed racetracks and three federally-recognized Indian reservations and its efforts would keep gambling money that many Texans spend in neighboring states here in Texas instead.

While visiting with my State Representative and Senator tomorrow, I also hope to express my concerns about the proposed Education cuts being made and that they reconsider looking into other options, including the Rainy Day Fund that was setup for times such as this.

I know the efforts of Win For Texas and Save Texas Schools are good causes and something Texas really needs at this time. Let the people have a say and vote on these topics and I encourage all Texans to looking to this efforts and contact your Representative and Senator to let your voice be heard.

The work behind closed doors

2011-02-17T19:02:00.011-06:00

Looks like I might be getting an actual office of my own at last. Granted, its a bit of a small office of sorts, but an office just the same. Over the many years of working in IT, I've been in a Cube environment all of this time, but this might change really soon.

The past 11 years have been the same as always, but lately a progression towards real walls of sorts has been in the making. The current IT department has pretty much been a big open room, from the time I first joined them. So open at first, it was like an island of connected desks with only a few very minor walls to divide us up.

This changed though with a few higher walls and that created some Cubes for a few of us. I found myself facing one of those huge cube walls, but with a bit of an open environment to my back. So half of our department needed walls it seemed, to help us cut down on some of these distractions it seems.

Well, the distractions haven't gone away and in a lot of cases, we now have many more distractions and so the answer to cut down on these distractions is to build real walls and install doors. We are looking at creating six offices; measuring 10 x 7 or 7 x 10, depending on how you look at things.

I'm trying to picture how this is going to be when its done, we'll have a walkway down the middle of a decent size room, that is pretty much cube areas now, and so later on it will look like a long hallway, that has six private offices for us.

I'm looking forward to this really, the thought of a private office to work in is awesome sounding. I think a cozy little 10 x 7 room with my own door that I can shut is just what I really need. I just hope its cost effective and the right decision to make in the end.

Some of the past cube areas I've had were not to bad, some were quite roomy really and fairly private. I'm not sure if we have larger cube walls or even normal walls, to help make our areas more private cube areas, I think that could even cut down on some of the current distractions.

So looking towards full walls and a real door is what might be coming my way instead. I do feel I can get a bit more done, when I tend to be more on my own at times though. Don't get me wrong here, I love team work and I work well with others I think. I just feel at times it can be much better and I can be more creative with less distractions in our area.

The past couple of weeks I found myself snowed in and thanks to our VPN, I was able to find a quite place at home and get a bunch of work stuff done from home. Back at work, you have people coming and going all the time, add in the water cooler talk, plus hearing every ones daily phone conversations, and much more with seven of us in semi open work environment. Its no wonder that I find myself spending most of my time with headphones on and trying to tune as much out as I can.

Well not for much longer, if the plans for walls and doors go through. I'll find myself strolling into work and making my way into my own private IT Cell, I mean small private office and I'll simply shut my door to get things done. I can continue to Skype the others in IT like always and hopefully find some inner peace at last, from suddenly working in a distraction free zone at last.

Or... I can pray for many more Snow days here in Texas or other reasons to keep me working from home instead at times.

Do You Wanna Touch?

2011-02-12T21:26:00.007-06:00

I started watching the film The Runaways (2010), starring Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett, who was one of the founding members of the all-girl rock group, The Runnaways, and this suddenly brought back memories of the first Live concert I had attended as a teenager.

My wife had started up the movie via Netflix tonight and I wasn't sure what I was about to watch here at the start and was really surprised to see how much Kristen Stewart looked like Joan Jett and then I realized what this movie was really going to be about.

So a little later on into the film you see Joan Jett at rock club and can hear a version of "Do You Wanna Touch" by Gary Glitter being played, which happens to be one of my favorite songs that was covered later by Joan Jett during her solo career. I decided to search and see if I could find the original video here on the web, you have to just love the Internet for stuff like this.

I really like the Joan Jett & The Black Hearts version and I can remember very well when this version of the video actually hit Mtv... yes, way back in the day when they actually played music videos and when it was a cool station to watch. But I also remember attending her concert at Six Flags Over Texas and I believe the Live footage of the concert fans was in fact filmed out in that parking lot concert area. Some where in that crowd of fans just might be me waving my arms in the air.

I've seen her live only one other time since then and I'm much older now, but I think she still Rocks! I enjoyed the movie and learning more about the Runaways as well.

I did it! I'm a Super Model Now

2010-12-24T09:06:00.005-06:00

Well I broke into my weight goal range of 206 to 212 lbs and right on schedule I might add at that. It's been really hard to diet this time of year, but I hung in there and stuck to it the best I could. I think I was about 96% strict and followed the rules of the diet program.

The hardest thing for me on this diet had to be giving up all the sweets and I mean all of them. Not a single piece of Candy, Cookie, Cake, or whatever treat you could imagine this time of year. I'm talking zero tolerance here now. But its all worth it in the end and this diet program really worked. Amazing to eat just what they said I should and not even work out at all. The pounds just fell off during the 12 weeks I was on this and my clothes are falling off as well.

So I dodged all of the Halloween Candies and I managed to avoid all the Thanksgiving Pies. Last week was really hard to resist the Chocolate Cake. I could smell the sugar as I sat close by, but I kept myself from pouncing and taking a bite of that forbidden desert. But I remained strong and reached my 12 week goal.

That brings us to Christmas Eve and that means a tradition is coming for me that I will not break. I always watch "It's a Wonderful Life" and pour myself a nice glass of Egg Nog to enjoy. So to celebrate my reaching my goal of a new lesser me in the weight area. I'll have a tiny glass of Egg Nog tonight and I'll still enjoy my movie. I've got a lot to be thankful for this year in the end and I think I can allow myself this little bit in the cheating area now.

My New Years resolution for 2011 is to remain skinny, stay healthy and be the best super model I can be. Thanks family for all the support and praise you've given me.

I'm melting away

2010-12-15T11:12:00.005-06:00

I'm closing in now on the last couple weeks of my diet and I only have around 8 to 10lbs left to drop. To think that this diet would actually work as well as it has and with out working out at all was a big surprise to me.

I'm now looking forward to the next phase that they call re-feeding and seeing how I'm able to reintroduce the foods that I like back into my diet. I'm also looking forward to starting somewhat of a workout program to help maintain my weight.

I feel so much better now and I'm lighter than I would have ever imagined too, all of this thanks to Dr. Cohen's 1st Personal Diet. But its far from over, I can't let things go back to the way it was before and I need to make sure that I maintain and build up my strength once I reach my ending weight goal.

Odd thing is I really didn't think that I looked that big to begin with, but I'm sure enjoying the way I look now and hearing everyone make comments as well about me. It's funny how people treat you differently after loosing some weight. I mean, I'm still the same person pretty much, just a bit less space being used now.

NaNoWriMo 2010

2010-11-20T16:07:00.003-06:00

I'm at it again, one of those crazy writers during the month of November that promise to crank out 50,000 words in a months time. I'm a few words off my goal and doing my best to catch back up.

I actually feel pretty good about my chances and I think this will make my 3rd time to complete this quest. Last year was a bit of a tough year for me and I fell short of my goal. I'm having to much fun this year to miss my goal.

I think my resoultion for 2011 will be to work on the edits (rewrites) of my first two stories and look at finishing up last years attempted novel. I'd like to see about getting this into a small printed form to look at down the road, perhaps a self publish on deman type of thing.

I still have to decide if between now and the end if I want to wrap up this series in book four or attempt to keep these characters going for another book. I'm thinking this might actually go to one more book.

THE RANGERS WIN THE PENNANT!!!

2010-10-23T08:45:00.002-05:00

Last night I watched a bit of history take place, as my local favorite team finally made it. They won the ALCS and are now headed to the World Series to represent the American League. THE RANGERS WIN THE PENNANT!

"Win the Pennant," is a phrase you hear from time to time from Radio and TV Announcers this time a year and is a phrase I thought I'd never hear tied to the Texas Rangers. Until last last night happened that is and its so great that it is true.

This ball club showed something very early on this season and it was destined to make it to Playoffs I think. Something told me around the first few games of the Playoffs, they were destined to do much more as well. Now I'm getting the feeling that they are destined to Win the World Series as well.

Next week they'll start their quest to make History once again and they only need 4 more wins to reach that mark. History is about to happen once again for the Rangers and I love it!

Dual Fandom
OK, its not a secret that I've been a Yankee Fan over the years and its something of a nostalgia for me and this very historical team. Just the same I've always supported and pulled for my local team to do well. Over the years I've liked a few teams from the locals to outside my area in professional sports. Drives my friends and families crazy at times.

This latest Championship series happened to pit my local Texas Rangers against the New York Yankees. This was the one time I wanted the Yankees to lose now. In regular matches I had more of a its OK with WHO ever wins, but not this time around. I actually think I might have hated the Yankees more if they'd beaten the Rangers. I'm really glad it worked out this way amd the Rangers beat the Yankees last night.

I'm sure this is not the last time the Yankees will make it to the ALCS and I'm sure they'll go on to play in other World Series games and even win it. But this is the one year I'm happy to say and respectfully that I don't support the Yankees. There is always next year for them right? Then again the Texas Rangers look very strong and might need to make history just repeat itself.

Not a bad start at all

2010-10-08T17:55:00.005-05:00

So after a full week of sticking to the diet I've managed to drop 11 pounds so far. I'd have to think that is pretty impressive to say the least. I even feel a bit better than before and being lighter must add to that.

Now I'm not suppose to be weighing myself every day and I'm stopping now and sticking to the original plan. That means I'll weigh at the 4, 8, and 12 week marks. I'm expecting to notice things over the next few weeks in my looks at least.

I found it funny that my 8th week weigh in lands right on Thanksgiving Day, what a way to really keep me on the path I'd have to say. This will be one of the hardest days of the whole program I think. I so love Turkey and Dressing and eating at my in-laws, but hopefully I'll be tons lighter and will feel tons better, giving myself something to truly be thankful for.

The Last Temptation and then another...

2010-10-03T17:39:00.006-05:00

Well I managed to make it through the Seafood Boil celebration today at my in-laws. In fact I made it through the whole day of temptations. What was really hard was walking in and seeing the Cake Balls that my sister in-law made to start with.

Then I spied the Cupcakes over in another location of the kitchen. Finally my mother in-law asked about an ingredient for a recipe that was up on her laptop. No, it just had to be Neiman Marcus Cake that she was making.

Now, its not like I sit down with every meal and have a desert. I'm not always eating stuff like this and its not like they always have this type of stuff, but during this time of year is when it ramps up a bit and I know this will not be the last temptation.

Oh well, in a year from now I'll have my shot at trying something small and sweet once again. I've just got to keep at this diet, stick to the program and burn this fat away. The grape fruit I had with some splenda made up just a tad, but it was not the same.

This week we have an employee luncheon at work and all kinds of Sporting Event type foods will be prepared. In fact I get to help with the cooking of some of the stuff. But I will not be eating any of the food and stick to my meal plan alone. I think I might be safe until Halloween time at least.

Welcome to Hell week

2010-10-02T19:51:00.010-05:00

Ok, its not that bad really. It is a challenge though and like most stuff can be looked at as an addiction. Eating all kinds of crap can put you in the same boat as an addict. So to suddenly jump ship and swim towards a more healthy life style can be a real challenge.

Once you break the habits and start new habits its really easy. I've been here and done some stuff like this before to tell you the truth. Cutting sodas out all together can be done and after you make it through the first week, it gets easier for the following weeks.

For me its most of the other stuff I'm cutting out that seems to be harder right now. For example a simple glass of milk. Ok I love to chase it with a cookie at times or the other way around. But a simple bowl of cereal and milk is not allowed right now. Same goes for a warm bowl of Oatmeal in the morning. After a week though I'll be fine and not even miss it.

See right now my body is telling me it wants more food, but I'm training it to eat healthier and less. So its starting to burn off some of the fat and that is when you feel that little sign from below that it wants more.

Trouble is that sign then says, I'd like to have a cookie or something sweet. You just have to break that chain of thinking and after a week of eating the other stuff and building the habit of health eating, it will start to get better and you'll not even miss the other stuff.

I only hope at the end of the program I can reintroduce a few things and in a smart way of course and don't find that I don't care for a glass of milk. But we are not anywhere near that stage here and have a lot more to go. I mean its only day two and we still need to reach at least day seven I'd say.

I'm confident that I can make it happen though and I'll make it through this week and keep heading towards the twelfth week.

New diet begins now

2010-10-01T08:00:00.011-05:00

Well I'm back at it again... the weight has come back over time and now its time to get rid of those extra pounds. Those EXTRA, EXTRA Pounds to be clear here. The last time I dropped the 60 lbs was over a 12 week or so period and it simply involved me dropping the sodas, eating a lot less, and moving my ass more.

This time around I'm looking at a new diet plan by Dr Cohen's called 1st Personal Diet. So what's so different about this diet? Do you have to eat all meat or count calories? Nope! I just have to eat regular food and the same stuff you buy at the local stores. No crazy pre-packaged meals or funny shake drinks to be on this diet at all.

This diet is built off my personal blood work though. I went to a lab and gave some blood and based on those results, they tell me what kinds of foods and how much of each to eat per meal. The next step is to then work on eating only these certain types of foods for the three meals per each day and I can also have some crackers (7 @ 5.85 g) and fruits (3) between meals as snacks.

The kicker... oh yes, every diet plan has a kicker now. You have to weigh out a certain portion of your food before cooking or prepping it. We are talking about raw item weights here and that makes up your meal totals. Who knows what the calories are, that's not important here. Its only eating these certain amounts of Meals 1, 2, and 3 for each day.

Now each persons personal diet is suppose to be different, its based on their blood work and all the stuff that shows up inside it. So what I'm suppose to eat and what amounts will not work for YOU. I mean sure it might help you drop the weight and I'm willing to bet it surely will, but you might need to eat different types of foods and certainly different amounts to do this the right way.

Heck, anyone can play their own version of Survivor Island and only eat rice for each meal and drop a lot of weight (no rice for me). In other words, its not about starving yourself and dropping the weight fast with this plan. It's about dropping the weight safely and by eating only certain foods and amounts and then later you'll switch into a re-feeding phase to help introduce other foods back and keep the weight off (See you in 12 weeks).

Well what about exercise? You pretty much don't have to do that really, in fact you should do what you did before you went on the diet an keep that up. So that means I can sit around quite a bit I suppose. The problem is if you go on this diet and start to work out, your going to burn off stuff on both sides here, from eating and working out and this can mess things up quick. If you work out normally, then keep doing just as you are doing and follow the plan.

During the plan, which is all online as far as support goes, you'll track your progress every 4 weeks and they'll monitor and perhaps adjust things. So if I start this and begin a heavy session of working out as well, I'll more and likely burn off to much, to fast, and not have enough Food to keep me going. So I plan to just make the food and eat the food for now.

Am I pumped and excited about this new diet plan? Yes and No. I'll do it and make it work, but the truth is I couldn't have picked a worse time of the year to start this Damn Diet. Oh, but it never would be a perfect time, wrong. For me, this is the time of the year I like the most, its the Fall and its a time that the family gets together even more and over the holidays we eat some pretty good stuff as well (not healty really). So I've picked the Fall & Holidays it seems to do this... simply a brilliant idea I have to say.

So I'll get to make my simple Meals 1, 2, and 3 for each day that total in at about 240 g (.50 lbs of food) for each meal. Remember its only certain types of food, so I can't weight out the Turkey & Dressing and then chase it with a slice of Pecan Pie. No, I can only cook and prep the right amounts foods and based on my personal diet plan for selected items. For some reason, I'm just not looking forward to Thanks Giving at all this year.

You know how it feels to bring a lunch to work and a co-worker pulls out a slice of Pizza that smells oh so good and you only have a sandwich to eat? That's what it will be like for me these Holidays, they might as well be eating Pizza.

What's up for this weekend? The Family is gathering to celebrate my brother-in-laws Birthday and will be having a seafood boil. I'm not sure what I'm eating just yet, but I know what it will weigh to start with.

Gunner: Hurricane Horse

2010-09-14T07:00:00.005-05:00

Judy Andrekson has just released her latest book in the True Horse Stories series, titled Gunner: Hurricane Horse; the heart gripping true story of devotion and love shared between a remarkable partnership, of a horse and not just a rider, but between true friends.

This is also a story that captures the real emotions and hardships, brought about from one of the biggest natural disasters to strike the United States- in the form of Hurricane Katrina. This story also shows the remarkable connection, that people rarely glimpse, between a horse and rider.

After finishing this book, I have to say I've really enjoyed learning even more about PBJ Decks Smokin Gun or as he's also known by the name of Gunner and all the things that Heather Lott-Goodwin and he has gone through in their times together. Its a story filled with many ups and downs for sure, but one that also binds this pair together like none other.

Over the past years that I've enjoyed working for the American Paint Horse Association, I've had the opportunity to enjoy a passion of mine for photography and been able to capture what I feel to be some of these incredible and heart filled moments between a horse and rider.

Its on these rare occasions like this that I've watched a rider and horse together and felt as if something was a bit more between a pair at times. So I can honestly say that I've appreciated this true life story being told here and learning much more about Gunner and Heather.

I'm also happy to have seen this pair in person, before they entered the show ring at our American Paint Horse World Championship Show and it was then that I was able to help capture some of their moments as described between them.

I'm also very honored that Judy selected one of my photos for the cover of Gunner: Hurricane Horse and she was able to also draw some inspiration from the other images from that show as well for the book.

Most of all, I'd really like to thank Heather and Gunner for opening up and sharing themselves with the rest of us and I truly hope that their connection remains to be as strong as ever together.

It is the iPhone!

2010-08-10T09:00:00.005-05:00

So... it is the iPhone and pretty much everybody has one these days. I'm not here to sing its praises or put it on a pedestal as the greatest device ever made and just the same, I'm not here to slam it and point out any of its faults.

What I will say is that I'm not an iPhone user and if that makes you feel its time to stop reading here and move on, then I thank you for stopping on by. I will share that I'm a Windows Mobile user and that I'm looking forward to their upcoming release of the new Windows Phone 7 for those of you that are curious and have decided to stick around a bit more.

Ok, back to the iPhone now. I've seen a few of these up close and played around with them a bit at times. So I've had some very minor hands on time with the device at least. I'm not going to give any reviews, having so little hands on time... it wouldn't be fair at all. I can say I think its a very slick device and perhaps easily the best Smart Phone out on the market to date. I haven't really messed with the Androids yet either.

What I wanted to find out though, was what people using the iPhone thought of it and I decided to ask a few of my friends and co-workers, that are iPhone users, what they enjoyed the most about their iPhones and limit their responses to only Top 5. Keep in mind there is no right or wrong answers here and its a matter of opinion of those being polled.

I was pleasantly surprised with the results and how people picked just about the same things about their iPhones. I decided to post the top 10 over all features. As you can see we did have some features they came in and tied. I did cut off some after we reached 10. Sorry the feature, "It Is the iPhone" did not make the official top 10.

Email -6
GPS -5
Calendars -4
Web Browser -3
Ease of Use -3
Instant Messaging -3
All the Apps -3
Size of Screen -2
Camera / HD Video -2
Music / Movies -2

I figure, if you asked every iPhone user to make a list of their top 5 things, that they loved about their iPhones, we would more and likely see a lot of the same results. I think this means that Apple has built a pretty solid device here and it has huge appeal for a lot of the same features. It does what it does, all in one device and its a phone.

Do other devices do the same things? Sure a lot of them will do the same and just as good or perhaps falling a bit short. While others might do a few things even better or in the future have a chance to do things better. What this all boils down to in the very end is does the device do what You want it to do and works well for You?

If the device has the features you love and enjoy and works well, then I'd say its done its job and speaks to You in the end. If it doesn't, then you simply need to look for something else that meets your specifications and works well for you.

Could I be happy with the iPhone? I'm sure its possible and a lot of the things people selected would appeal to me as well. The main reason I don't own an iPhone was the price to start with and that it was only available on AT&T; I'm locked in with Verizon and just don't see leaving them anytime soon myself.

Can I find something out there that I'll enjoy and love in a Smart Phone? Yeah I think its possible and I think that could be this fall for me. Will it over take the iPhone? I think that will be a huge undertaking for sure, but I think it will gain market share and will be very different than a lot of the phones currently out on the market to date. In the end, this new WP7 device speaks to Me and its why I'm looking forward to it.

Awesome day to learn new things

2010-03-13T19:12:00.003-06:00

It was a wonderful day off for me today and I spent it at the Fly Fish Texas, only the biggest event for Fly Fishermen in the state and the perfect place to learn about a cool new sport if you ask me.

For me, its been well over 25 years since I've done the normal bait style fishing and I've never Fly Fished a day in my life. So when I found out about the free seminars on the subject, I jumped at the chance to head down to Athens, Texas and see what I could learn.

For starters its not a cheap hobby or sport at all, but at the same time you don't have to go way overboard to get in on this. What I do recommend it checking with local clubs and learning a bit about it before you run out and buy a bunch of equipment though.

After the day was done, I pretty much learned what I should look for in gear to get started. I learned how to create/tie my very own fly for casting and received some instructions on the basics of Fly Casting.

Its a totally different way of fishing and looks to be a lot of fun if you ask me. This is something I think I could really enjoy and perhaps the whole family might enjoy learning as well. At least for me I had a great time and it was something I could learn to do fairly well I think.

Who needs Tivo?

2010-03-01T21:09:00.006-06:00

Thanks to a really good friend of mine, letting me borrow his ATI TV Wonder 600 USB digital tuner/capture device, I'm able to really make use of my Windows Media Center features now. Simply put... WOW!

The quality is way better than what I had expected from what looks like a jump drive with a Cable Antenna growing out of it. The Media Center had no problems picking up the device and located all of the channels I really wanted too. It didn't find every channel in my area available, but I'm only needing Fox, CBS, NBC, and ABC really.

I set it up to record tonights showing of 24 and will be checking that out via the Media Center Extender and my Xbox 360 later tonight. Something else I was impressed with was the ability to not only see my recordings, I could actually watch a live broadcast feed through the extender and all at perfect quality.

So it looks like I can totally pass up on purchasing a Tivo box and paying for their fees. In order to record more than one broadcast, I simply need to purchase a second USB card if I feel the need for that. We could also just watch one show of the shows live and let the other be recorded.

So I'm doing ok with cutting off access to Cable and Satelite service so far and only missiong a small portion of programming. Not a bad way to save some money if you ask me.

Netflix For The Win!

2010-02-28T12:04:00.003-06:00

A week without Uverse is almost complete and all is doing fine. I don't want to use the word addiction here, but I have to say that which was very familiar is hard to break away from. I've already thought about searching for a couple things for starters or using the multiview sports channels, only to remember that none of that is available anymore.

Recording shows, only to watch them later is another feature I some what miss, but I've done alright watching them on the web for now. So I don't get to see them on the big TV, but its not like I have to totally be with out a show I like and I do alright on the small PC screen. Later we might see about getting Tivo for the Over The Air broadcasts and I'm sure we'll enjoy those features again.

What's been great is Netflix and having it hooked up with Xbox Live and now available through the Blu-ray player we just purchased. We are finding a number of shows for the whole family to enjoy. We are on the one DVD out at time plan and watch as much as we want On Demand. I'm finding shows I've either missed or new shows to watch now.

We can watch these shows on the Big TV or via the computer if we like. I've even loaded up some kid shows for the TV to stream and watched a 2nd feed of something I'd prefer myself via the home computer, headphones work great for this by the way.

So its not all that bad, just takes some getting use to in the end and we should save some money or at least free up funds to be used in a few other areas. In the end I'm only missing a minor number of shows perhaps and its really not worth the cost in my mind right now.

Catch you later Uverse

2010-02-22T18:26:00.002-06:00

Ok, in all fairness I'm still using a portion of their services. As it stands now I'm on Internet Only terms with a very acceptable 6mb down. Its what I've been use to and I'm saying goodbye to their TV services.

I've had enough and tried to deal with their problems. In the end they could not provide a 5.1 digital audio feed for any of their HD programs and I've paid way to much to deal with the constant drops in Audio.

I so loved the Home DVR and having access to two HD streams and two regular for DVR recordings, but at the end of the day and listening to drops in signals from Live or DVR recordings, enough is enough.

I'd have a better experience with my over the air feeds in this case. I'm also using Netflix and have found a number of programs available to watch via Xbox Live or on my PC. Down the road I might decide to pick something up and more and likely I'll be heading back to DirecTV, but for now I think its best to just cut it out all together.

What a past week here

2010-02-20T08:52:00.010-06:00

Wow its been sometime for me to write on my blog. I was looking back at the numbers and last year appeared to be my lowest number of writings for my personal blog. On the other side of things I did turn out some stuff on my personal game blog and wrote quite a bit for RejectedGamer.Com as well.

I'll have to see what I can do to pick up and write a bit more here on my personal blog and get my numbers back up. So what's new with me? Staying busy as ever, which is a good thing I think. We just came off one of the biggest Snow Storms I've ever seen here in Texas, about a foot of snow when all was said and done I think. The last time it snowed anywhere close to this... well I wasn't even born then.

The weather did manage to knock out our power for about 3 full days and it had us staying away from the home with other family. At least it didn't really Ice here, that's what we normally get here in Texas. A nice thick sheet of ice and the people around here can't drive on this stuff. Shoot, people can't even drive here when it rains sometimes.

Well I just saw the latest weather report and it looks like we might have more snow coming again. This last batch has finally melted all away and we might get more snow now. I'm just not sure I want another foot of snow, but I'll take it over the ice any day.

What is Google Wave?

2009-12-04T11:58:00.002-06:00

Its new from Google and a bit different for sure. Sure this is more an likely not meant for everyone to use an try. Its not going to replace e-mails at all. But for a planning tool, this could be worth a try and come in handy if a whole team is using it.

27

2009-11-04T23:04:00.002-06:00

2009 World Series Champions

Ready, set, write now...

2009-11-01T10:06:00.002-06:00

That's right, its that time of year and NaNoWriMo is in effect once again. The time is now for all of those aspiring writers and creators out there, with feelings and ideas inside of their heads to tell a story. Get busy and let it all go, release that creative spirit and let it take course.

During the month of November you need to write every day and let what happen come out on paper. Its not about quality as much as quantity and getting a rough draft of a story out. We are shooting for 50,000 words over the next 30 days, that is only 1667 words each day now.

Think of it as about 30 chapters of an epic tale even. You just need to write daily and let something happen. At the end its going to be rough, did I mention it would be rough? Yes it will be rough and the following month you can go back an read and edit if you like.

The following month is for edits, don't edit as you go or you'll bog down an never reach your goal. Get your characters and settings created and let them explore and reveal the story.

Think about it as when you played as a kid and the worlds you created an situations that came up. Believe it or not you were more or less a story teller at that time even and you had a beginning, middle and end to your playtime... well depending on what you played I suppose.

In the end you can do this and its pretty cool to see what can happen after 30 days time. You'll have a rough draft of a story idea for sure and something to go back and write over again.

This is my 3rd year at this in a row and failure is not an option for me. Best of luck to all the others out there who have a story idea and dare to let it come out now.

Art imitates life... you hearing me?

2009-10-30T20:48:00.006-05:00

So I saw this movie trailer last night for an upcoming movie called Pirate Radio and I can't wait to see it now. I think the movie has a lot going for it, well in my opinion at least. It's a British film and I like a lot of those movies for one. It also has a number of actors I've grown to like as well. That comes from watching a lot of British Films of course.

Anyway, after watching it, I thought it appeared to have been based on real life events. In fact its sets in the sixties and turns out to be loosely based on a ship that broadcast under the name Radio Caroline.

Reading up on this movie led me to the web site for Radio Caroline and I began to really learn some of the facts that the movie was based on. What is really cool is that this very old Broadcast Channel is still on the air today and playing some really good tunes.

In this day where things tend to be mainly All Talk and our Media moves at a very fast pace, its refreshing to find a station that reminds me of the older days of spinning just music in most cases and then hearing a DJ come on an talk a little bit about whats being played.

It just happens to be a plus for me to hear some British accents from the DJ. I grew up on the format of most of these old Classic rock songs. I think I've found a new Internet Live Stream to listen to from time to time at least and I'm looking forward to the movie and learning more about the real life events surrounding Radio Caroline.

Here's a trailer for the upcoming movie Pirate Radio.

The Narrative

2009-10-10T18:47:00.002-05:00

Perhaps one of the oldest forms of communication and entertainment of all time is the Narrative. The art of story telling can be traced as far back as the Cave drawings in some cases. The recording of these thoughts & ideas can tell both a story and provide a history for us to learn or be entertained by.

Fact is the Narrative can be seen in works of writing, speech, poetry, prose, pictures, song, motion pictures, theatre, dance, and even video games. All of these forms have a common thread and end result, the telling of a story and hopefully something that can be moving and entertaining in the end.

Why do I write all of this, well its that time again for many of us that lover taking part in this form of Communication for starters. NaNoWriMo is a few weeks away and people all over will strive to create a new story for the first time or perhaps once again in my case then.

Some of us might actually enjoy the end results and experiencing the finished Narrative, but on the other hand some of us like to provide the Narrative and tell a story on the other hand.

OK, I'm in no way looking to quit my day job, yet at the same time I not only have a passion for experiencing all forms of Narratives, I'm actually feeling like creating some, at least for myself in the end.

This will actually be my third NaNoWriMo in a row and I can say that I've safely created and completed the first two. NaNoWriMo is the creation of a 50,000 word Novel, a rough draft of a Narrative in the end. Someday I'd like to perhaps go back and rework them all and polish them up and perhaps even have them printed in a very limited run or one copy each even.

In the end I can feel good about the process and feel I have a better appreciation of the art form and what it takes to create a work. Wish me luck and I do the same to all those that take up the challenge in creating a Narrative as well.

I know how the support guy feels

2009-07-15T15:33:00.002-05:00

This one is a hoot for sure. If you've ever had to do any Tech Support for someone, then you more and likely understand what is going on here.

Uverse with HDMI and TOSlink for the Win

2009-07-04T08:52:00.004-05:00

A recent update from Uverse has done more than just making things look pretty, we now can hear everything as it should be. A little over a week ago I noticed the Aspect ratio on my TV was off and when I went to investigate or reset things, I noticed the menus had been updated.

I thought to myself, they had to have done more than give us a different feel for the guide areas. I've been busy with a horse show and haven't had much time to watch anything by the time I make it home. But this last week of the show I've made it home earlier and last night I was able to test out some things.

I made sure my Aspect Ratio was correct and enabled the Dolby Audio under the preferences for Uverse. My set is connected with HDMI and I have a TOSlink running to my faithful Sony Receiver for my audio needs.

Last night I watched Underworld: Evolution in HD off the FXHD channel and the audio was solid and never dropped. Its only taken them almost a year to fix the audio problems we use to have. I think we will enjoy a lot more shows with this problem behind us now.

The big claim from Uverse is to give the best digital entertainment experience and for me audio is a big part. Most of the techs seemed to think HDMI was not the way to go an it also sounded like a number of users did not use TOSlink for Dolby 5.1 sound as well.

Finally a fix has come down and things are like they are suppose to be. In addition to the audio fix, the update also added features to set recordings from any set top box as well as delete recordings from those boxes; another plus in my eyes and I no longer have to run back to the living room and remember which shows I watched to delete them.

If you've been on the fence about Uverse or heard about some of their issues, you might take another look and find the service is finally as good as its suppose to have been.

I've been Tagged Now

2009-05-06T15:30:00.004-05:00

I'm still enjoying my new Windows Mobile Phone and checking out different apps that are available. Over the past few months I've noticed this funny looking tags being used as Avatars or Icons for people's twitter accounts, like the one on the left here.

I created the Tag with Microsoft's Tag program and they allow you to create your own Tags for either a URL, Free Text, vCard, or a Dialer and as long as your phone can run the Tag Reader software, you can then access the information being provided by the tag.

I'm amazed that they can come up with enough combinations and placements of the color dots, as well as allow you to add an image in the back ground or even trick out that tag to not even look like the dots all together. Pretty slick process if you ask me and I think I'll have fun creating some additional tags as well as looking for them while I'm out and about now.

What's that in your PockeTwit there?

2009-04-17T13:19:00.003-05:00

Is that twitter or you just happy to see me? I think its my favorite app so far to date. Ok, I really haven't downloaded to many Apps, but I have to say that PockeTwit is very slick and works well with my XV6900 Touch phone.

If you haven't heard about Twitter, well I'm really not sure where you've been lately. Fact is Social Marketing is growing by leaps and bounds and Twitter is one of the popular ones by far. Known as micro blogging to most of us, Twitter allows you to post messages of 140 characters about things your doing or thinking about.

The main screen loads nicely with the avatar images of the people your following and has their message off to the right hand side. You can slide out various menu options from the left and right hand sides of the screen. I think the menus work really well with the touch features of the phone.

I've already had to rethink my phone usage and found out with a major shock, that my charges for Data were out the roof. Seems a lot of text messages and updates to an from Twitter can really add up.

So I know have a text plan for the phone that should work out better and I've added a nice package for Internet Data usage as well. By far this is a lot cheaper than what was happening and I didn't really like it when Customer Service said, "You would have had an outrageous bill at the end of the month."

In closing, the one thing my phone doesn't have is Wi-fi, but other than that feature, I'm really pleased with the features and performance of my new PDA phone.

Finally a phone I think I'll love

2009-04-07T08:00:00.000-05:00

It's no iPhone, but in a lot of cases people say its the closest thing to it, with out the high price tag. The XV6900 comes from makers HTC in the form of their HTC Touch phone. I think I'll call it... myPhone!

This phone has been available from Verizon for about a year now and they've recently slashed their price on this PDA model. More and likely making way for some newer models that have more features, but at those higher prices.

It's the high prices that have kept me from a PDA phone for so many years now. I can look back at all the previous PDA style phones that I wanted and some are very much beasts and perhaps I can be thankful that I stuck to my guns an refused to pay those high prices.

So why now and why this phone particular phone an not an iPhone? Well the features and price say a lot for me. For one thing, this is a Windows Mobile phone, a hand held mini PC really. I can actually learn a bit more with Visual Studio 2008 pro and make some Mobile Applications to run on my hand held mini PC.

The PDA Phone comes with Windows Mobile 6.1, mini versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, the Adobe PDF reader, the ability to sync up with Outlook and take my schedules with me, and Internet Explorer for web access. These are a lot of features and programs I use on a regular basis with my PC. With the latest 6.1 update comes the expaned memory, allowing a 16gig MiniSD Card to be used for storage.

The price for this phone is currently set at $69.99 (while supplies last) from Verizon and my upgraded price for agreeing to another 2yrs, lands my new phone for only $19.99, a "No-brainer" as I like to say. The other plus is I don't have to pay for full blown Internet really. I can pay per kb used and so if I don't use the Internet a lot, I'll save at that point.

Most of the times I've looked at other PDA phones, the only deals were for the new customers and they forced you to pay about $40 a month for Internet. So I was looking at about $300 or more for the phone and a hefty Internet charge. Not the case this time around though.

I do give much praise to the iPhone and if money was not an issue, I could more an likely see something myself using something like the iPhone. But I think I can still have as much of a Cool & Wow factor from the XV6900 PDA Phone and well under the price tag.

I guess I just happened to be in the right place at the right time and at least this was not a phone that was sold out like many of the others in the past. So I'll finally have that PDA phone combo I've dreamed about... ok, I haven't dreamed about it, but I've thought long an hard over the past years about it.

Doing the Dew Diet style

2009-04-02T20:27:00.004-05:00

First I want to state that I've started working with a web site called BzzAgent.Com and I've signed on with them to take surveys and talk about some products that they come in contact with.

Its a pretty cool thing and we get to simpy speak about the product and tell what we feel about it. So we can say if we love it or hate it pretty much. When we share our views, we also like to have those we expose give their honest feedback as well.

The first campaign I'm working with is Diet Mountain Dew. I have to say I'm rather surprised at the taste of Diet Mountain Dew and I've been sharring this with some of friends recently. Some of them like it and some don't, but for me I didn't find a really strong after taste, like I thought would come with diet drinks.

As far as a pick me up drink, I think it had the right amount and I skipped having coffee this morning and went with the Diet Dew only. I've had some energy drinks in the past that had more of an after taste than Diet Mountain Dew.

I'm not a normal drinker of Mountain Dew and the only other flavor I've really tried was Game Fuel and that was tied to the Halo 3 campaign. I prefer the taste of Diet Mountain Dew over Game Fuel. Well if you've never tried it, then I suggest you giving it a try and enjoy the fact it has no calories and is low in sodium too.

If you like visit ChatThreads.Com and use the id: 101-683-462882 as well to give your feed back on Diet Mountain Dew. Also check out BzzAgent.Com if your intrested in joining and getting in to all the Bzz as well.

What a sweet ride

2009-03-31T09:00:00.002-05:00

The 2009 BMW K1300 S is the latest on two wheels from BMW Motorcycles and looks like a very nice ride. Take a look at my next dream machine through the following video clip someone put together. I think I need to see about test riding one of these babies soon, but until then... I'll just have to dream.

Visiting Don's Barber Shop

2009-03-29T00:06:00.002-05:00

I was due for a haircut and in a very big way. So I decided I would visit the place my father use to go over the past years. Located in south Arlington, Texas is a very small Barber Shop, built in the late 60's and still running today.

I wanted to visit the small white building near my parents home and remember some of the good times I had with Dad. The thing about a place like Don's is its filled with a lot of old memories and the many years of people coming and going. His business is slowing down a bit and he's seen loyal customers pass away or move out of the area.

I stepped into the shop and the older gentleman was just about done with his haircut and only one more ahead of me. It turned out that the other man was the son of the man getting the haircut and his mother sat in the shop with them. That's what I call some loyal patrons.

It's quite a different experience to visit an old Barber Shop such as this. Now days things are very busy and you have various chains all over to get a haircut. But at a place like Don's, you get to sit a while and hear some old stories, perhaps a joke or two, and even learn a bit about the old days.

Its not fancy at all and I'm sure my Dad felt quite at home visiting with Don and he was very pleased with not only the style of haircut but the price too. I myself hope Don continues to do well and I might even pop in to his place from time to time for other haircuts.

The end of one's Journey

2009-03-23T12:00:00.005-05:00

A different path has now been set before me and I will see you all again very soon, when our paths meet up again, my friends. It was Thursday evening, June 19th that I visited my father for one last time, only I didn't know it would be the last time. His journey has now come to an end, being so very tired... yet at last with peace and a little more clearer I think now.

He still had his wit, joking and smiling as he liked to normally do, but I feel he knew all to well that he wasn't feeling very well. He asked about everyone and always seemed to know what was going on in our lives. We talked for a while and I asked him to try and get better and to let me know if he would like me to visit again soon. He simply smiled an said, "Very much so... I always want to see my boys."

I didn't say goodbye when I left him, only I'll see you later Dad and I was happy with our visit. I had no clue that the path had changed before me and I myself was on a different journey now. The journey is in no way mine alone and in fact my whole family is taking the same journey, only slightly different paths for each of us, but with the same destination ahead.

My Dad didn't take the easy routes in his life, but he would still remind all of us which routes would be better to take. I don't have to worry about any of the troubles he had along his journey anymore, he's gone on to a better place, has no more pain, and he can finally rest in peace now.

This journey was not one I was prepared for really, but I knew it was one I would have to take someday soon. I just never expected it to be so very soon. Just like that visit last night, I'm not looking at this as a goodbye now, rather I'll see you later and its time for him to rest until then. I'll miss seeing you Dad and I'll focus on our fond memories and the times we had together until then.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; think about Him in all your ways, and He will guide you on the right paths. - Proverbs 3: 5-6

From Russia With Love... Baby!

2009-03-15T20:45:00.002-05:00

From Russia With Love brings us another film with Sean Connery as James Bond and co-stars Daniela Bianchi (Tatiana) in the role of Bond Girl #2. Well they don't call her that and she plays the spy hired to lure Bond in to Spectres trap.

The thing I noticed off the bat was how much it looks like the movie Austin Powers took from this movie. I kept wondering if Mike Myers would walk out on the set and say, "are you Randy Baby?"

One thing for sure is they didn't forget that Bond likes the ladies. The film had a couple rather dark scenes and other than the silly Assassins Training camp part, I enjoyed most of this movie.

The next movie on my list will be the third film in the series and for Sean Connery with Goldfinger. I have a feeling I'm going to find more similarities here with Austin Powers Goldmember.

James and the Bond Girls

2009-03-14T15:55:00.002-05:00

Ursula Andress, aka Honey Ryder in the first ever James Bond film Dr. No, would become the first of many Bond Girls. Something that would tend to be a returning theme at the end of all of the films for 007 Agent, James Bond and the leading actress in his arms.

Encore VOD now has 17 Bond films available to watch and I've decided to start off with Dr. No, being the first in the long series of films. Its fun to go back and watch these old films and see how far things have now come.

With very simple effects and the acting being a bit silly in some parts, its still entertaining to watch these. When Bond arrives on the island and is captured by Dr. No, I just had to laugh at some of the costumes and set designs they built for this film. In the end it would be James getting the girl, after he finished getting his man and saving the world of course.

I think it will be fun to watch the rest of these and see how far Sean Connery actually helps in bringing the character of James Bond to life on the screen. For me I've always found Sean Connery's portryal of the character to be my favorite of all the James Bond films.

Perhaps that is why other actors have wanted to play the role of James Bond and have their shot at saving the world and getting the girl. I'm sure the same can be said for the leading ladies and a chance at becoming the next Bond Girl.

We're on top of things

2009-03-08T10:47:00.003-05:00

Growing up as a kid and sharring a room with my brother, it was bunk beds that we had as kids. I think its a given that the oldest gets the top bunk. For one if they fall out, perhaps they'll take it better than the younger.

The goal is to not fall out of these things and actually get some sleep. The real goal for us is to get the younger child to start sleeping in her own bed for us.

Perhaps sharring a room with big sister might help us with this. I'm sure its going to be a challenge and hopefully my oldest will adjust and get the sleep she needs. For one, she is going to school and she'll be hating things if shes tired.

In addition to this change, we are taking Guest room and turning it in the a Play room, perhaps that will mean all toys will stay in that room and not scattered around the house. Yes, things always look good down on paper, but we can dream and have a plan at least.

The time is now, reclaim the house and certain rooms for ourselves. Draw the boundries and lines and at least provide them with reasons they'll feel and enjoy their new surroundings as well. Hopefully they'll be fine sharring a room for awhile. At least long enough to get the little one sleeping on her own.

That girl is really Fly

2009-02-15T13:07:00.004-06:00

The SI super model Bar Refaeli, is not only flying high on the latest cover of Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit Issue, she's also now wrapped on the outsides of some Southwest Airline planes that are flying now.

Southwest Airlines has wrapped some of their planes in the past, so its nothing new here in that area, but to see a large than life Swimsuit Model clad in only her Bikini, flying high through the air is new.

Mixed feelings are coming from people on the new wrap for these planes. Some find it offensive and others are OK with the look. The one thing I haven't heard is comments in regards to other planes flying to close. I'd be worried more about some pilot getting distracted by a giant Bar Refaeli soaring through the air at 50,000 feet.

Yes I jest and I think our pilots are better than that and Air traffic control does a better job at keeping planes apart. I actually think the plane is fine and not offensive. I think there are other things to worry about in this world than something on the outside of the plane. Then again, that's just me.

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

2009-02-06T13:35:00.003-06:00

So I just started reading Twilight by Stephenie Meyer this week and its not like anything I've ever read before. With the stories lead character, Isabella Swan or Bella as she prefers to be called and told through her eyes, I've found myself at the start of a suspensful romance that deals with Vampires it seems.

I don't have a hang up with young leading female characters at all, its just I've never found myself reading a romance of sorts before. The story an hype for this saga is suppose to be along that of the next Harry Potter and is all the rage now. The movie just released at the end of last year and I decided I'd like to give the book a crack befor watching the film. Something a few of my friends know about is my preference to read the book an then see the film, followed by complaints of they cut what out of the book an how dare they do that.

Now I've got a real challenge ahead, to stick with this book til the end and finding myself inside the head of Isabella or Bella as she progresses through this story. I have to say in the short bit of reading I've done so far, its very true that men and women are different on so many levels.

With just the smallest parts of this book, its made me think and look at things that female characters do compared to those of a male character. I've just scratched the begining of this tale and I wonder what all is in store.

I have seen a trailer for the film and look I forward to reading a bit more of the action parts for sure. The romance stuff I'm not sure about though at all. Regardless, I'm determined to finish the book now and learn more about all of these characters.

Lets play Fetch now...

2009-01-21T18:49:00.003-06:00

Well I heard about this story and didn't think much about it at the time. Mistakes are made and it just happened to be Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper's turn while working at NASA. See a tool bag worth $100,000 accidentally got away from her. Opps! Well her co-spacewalk partner Stephen Bowen at least takes some of the blame here, he was the one who packed the tool bags before leaving on the EVA. Just watch the clip to see how slow you can loose $100,000.

Now what caused me to think more about this was hearing that an Amateur Astronomer, Kevin Fetter of Brockville, Ontario has used his basic knowledge and skills to pin point and now track the tool bag as it moves around Earth. You can see the quick fly by in this clip with the bag streaking from the top right to bottom left.

So what I don't understand is why these things cost so much, but why don't the take that shuttle and rescue the thing. Seems we would have the ability to fire off the engines a bit, get in front of the bag, rotate a bit and open those big bay doors and let it float back inside. Or can we afford to just drop $100,000 like that? Sure seems like it would be a nice little exercise on recovering something from space.

Benediction at Obama's Inauguration

2009-01-20T18:25:00.002-06:00

I think that Rev. Joseph Lowery's benediction was the perfect closing to the events for Obama's Inauguration. I watched a lot of the events through out the day while at work and sadly missed this portion of the event.

Thankfully my wife saw it and told me about it, I found this clip on the web to share with you all. It's not every day you see History in the making and today was one of those days. I'm glad I was able to see parts of it at least.

The Last Templar

2009-01-18T12:30:00.002-06:00

NBC has a new mini series coming in a week and I'm looking forward to this one. Its actually from a book that I've thought about reading and well I don't think I'll have time to get the book read, but I can at least record the show an try an save it for later perhaps.

Here is a video preview of the upcoming mini series, in case anyone else is interested in this. I think I might see if my library has the book an pick it up. Might need to do some power reading.

Video Recaps | Full Episodes | Webisodes

Christmas Carols for all

2008-12-24T07:00:00.005-06:00

Alright, today its a triple shot of Christmas Cheer for you all. I thought I'd fine a few fun songs about Christmas time and show them here today. The first one up comes from the Cheeky Girls, Have a Cheeky Christmas. I stumbled over this one while searching for a few songs and just had to share it. This duo is twin sisters Monica and Gabriela Irimia, from Cluj-Napoca in Transylvania, Romania, and they are currently based out of Britain.

One of my all time faves is the original from the Waitresses, but I had a bit of trouble finding one from them to share here and went with this clip from the Spice Girls. Here is Christmas Medley for you Live.

The last song comes from the movie Love Actually, if you remember this little tune from the movie. This one was a real treat to watch and reminded me of some of the old music videos I grew up watching. Here is Christmas is all Around.

Well I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and at the very least a nice break for a few days. I'll see you all over the weekend now.

Look on the Bright Side

2008-12-23T07:00:00.001-06:00

I think I've been stressed out a bit, its to be expected with the possible layoffs at work. Some of my co-workers have told me to just remain positive and not to worry, what happens will happen and roll with the punches so to speak. I know the support of my family is there as well and I'm doing the best I can to take everything to heart from their messages.

Here is another little clip from The Meaning of Life and the Monty Python players. With all the things going on these days, I think we just need a little chuckle from time to time. So even if it pushes things to the limits a bit here, I have to say that the simple words of this song could be very appropriate with all that has been going on recently. So if your feeling a bit down, then look to the Bright Side and give a whistle!

I'm going to try and come up with a few more clips to help express my thoughts of lately, so check back later this week.

Where's George when we need him?

2008-12-22T10:00:00.002-06:00

I have to say this is my all time favorite Christmas film and one that I have to watch on Christmas Eve. Its a classic and as long as I can remember it would play that night and tomorrow we would free all of the presents from under the Tree.

I think it means more to me this year than any year to watch this film. I can't think of a time in my life that I've seen things as bad as they are. I remember the gas shortage on the news, but I've never seen so many people being laid off or heard of bail outs like we are seeing now.

I have my job for now, but the questions of how long I'll have it remain to be told. I've never planned on leaving it and I might not have a choice. What I can say is I'm thankful to have it and want to keep it. Tough times are ahead for us though and in the end, I know I have the support of family and friends.

Perhaps we all could use a George Bailey in our lives these days. I hope you'll enjoy this little clip and I have a few more to share over the next few days.

More cutbacks all around

2008-12-21T10:37:00.005-06:00

Well more cuts were needed at work all around, in order to get the budget closer to Zero for the year. That meant a few more people were laid off at work as well as some programs being slashed as well.

Its a totally different working environment now these days. We lost about 10 people and some have gone to a contract position and working off site. It was also decided that our 2008 profit sharing would not be made, as well as 2009. They've also eliminated our 2009 401k matching benefits and last will be no salary raises for 2009.

Everyone wonders what will be next, will the the health insurance go away? Its a given that changes are coming over the next year, but how many more changes are we looking at ahead now? What will these changes do for everyone in 2009?

When my manager gave me an office memo and said, "Here is your salary reduction notice." I simply smiled and said, "I prefer to look at this paper and think, I still have a job now!" The truth is I can do what I can and handle these decisions for now. I'd rather have my job and these cuts than be laid off.

All of this has caused us to look at ways to slash spending on our home front. We've targeted a few areas and will continue to look at ways to save some money at home. I can feel some what safe at work now, but truth is it doesn't matter how loyal I am to my job, they might not be loyal to me anymore.

I might have to start looking at options for other jobs. I'm going to do what I can to help and make things better at work, but I have to keep in mind my family and future comes first and some changes might not be in line with those needs.

One thing is for sure, I don't see any bailout coming our way. It's up to all of us to bail ourselves out. I'm thankful to have my job and sad for all of those that lost theirs out there. Hopefully they'll bounce back soon and to better things.

Cutbacks have begun

2008-12-09T18:01:00.003-06:00

So it was last Friday that everyone at my place of employments was asked to meet and informed that our times ahead did not look good.

So we headed into the weekend knowing that Cutbacks would be coming and it was even mentioned that some cuts could come before the Executive Committee comes into town to meet.

So yesterday Texas Workforce was asked to come out and speak to us and let us know what services were available if we found our self laid off. That brings us to today and my departments lost one team member.

By the time the day was over 7 people were let go from various departments and a lot of them I thought of as friends. Its been tough wondering what might happen and the fact is more could be coming still. Nobody knows what might happen during or after the EC meets.

It reminds me of an article I read over the weekend about being laid off. See in a lot of cases, its not just a job and we spend a lot of time with our co-workers and become close friends and in someways a family. That's what makes this hard to have to say goodbye to someone.

The fact is business is not as good as it was and change is needed to help the situation. Doesn't make it easier to tell someone your being let go. I can only hope the best for all of them and continue to hope that I will still have a job too.

Its just a bad time of year for something like this to happen. Really sucks to think its happening everywhere too. My mother lost her job a couple months back and I've heard of others loosing their jobs and now its hit close to home it seems.

For now I have to take it one day at a time, I know I have plenty to work on and look forward to working on my projects. I just hope to continue doing so.

The Girls Are Back Again!

2008-12-03T19:20:00.000-06:00

Just hold out an empty hand

2008-12-02T21:21:00.003-06:00

Where's my bailout now? Seems to be the trend if your in the USA and you mess up, just ask for your Bailout plan. I really don't get it, how things got so bad and all at once too.

So banks are hurting and they decide to give them money and make the pain go away. What did they do with the money? They put it in their banks like good bankers do.

Then comes the Auto makers and their pains. Throw some money at them and quick, its will solve everything. Don't make them sell those fancy jets they use to fly all over the place. Need to fix it quick though, if they fall then all the businesses that support them will fall next. I say we go back to riding on Horses.

Money can be hard for just about everyone. The price of gas was horible months back and now its back to and I hate to say this, normal again. Crazy when you pay almost $4 a gallon and then can go back to $2 a gallon, rocking good if you ask me. Time to start spending money I'm saving, yeah right!

So now the buzz is people feel the Government needs to give everyone this huge stimulus and allow us to pay off our homes. I say, here's my hand give it to me and I'll do that in a heart beat, after all everyone needs a Bailout right?

Helping others on Thanksgiving

2008-11-27T10:15:00.003-06:00

Helping others on this Thanksgiving means so much to me and I'm truly thankful for everything that I have in life. Edith and I have tried from time to time to help others. Some years we give really big and other we just try to give if we can.

With the Father & Child program at our local YMCA, Freya and I have helped out at Mission Arlington with the sorting of can goods. We missed that this year, but we made it a point to help with the delivery of Turkey Baskets and Hot Meal plates this morning.

To see the families first hand and make sure they have something to eat on Thanksgiving touches my heart. Today volunteers came to assist 20,000 people with meals today in Arlington alone. Sadly that is only the people that know about the program and have asked for help as well.

Trucks, Vans, and all types of SUVs came out to volunteer at making food runs to various locations today. One family waiting to get registered said that they drove in from Lubbock to do this today.

I don't think I'll ever think of Thanksgiving the same way again. I'm so thankful to have my family and I think we might have started a new tradition for Thanksgiving mornings now and will look forward to helping others out for years to come.

There is a flaw in the Matrix

2008-11-17T18:14:00.001-06:00

A co-worker sent this to me and I found it funny and well made. So I give you the problem with the Matrix for your entertainment.

Obama wins

2008-11-05T16:08:00.001-06:00

The best way to describe last nights Election is simply Historical. Something I would hope could happen in my lifetime has finally happened. Barrack Obama was elected as the 44th President of United States and becomes the first African American to become President. Notice the usage of the word first and hopefully not the last. I'd like to think, provided the right man or woman that runs and wins the highest office in our Nation, anything is possible in the United States.

It seems that a lot of firsts have happened in this years election, for one this is my first time to actually vote for a Democrat. I'm glad I voted in the Caucus for Obama and then I voted for him in the Election. I truly like what he's said and what plans to try and do for America. I feel he really has America's interests at heart first and I feel that is a very important thing too.

He does have some real challenges ahead of him now, but I think he can face them and take care of them. He seems to be very smart and know enough, that its time for us to stand together and work at fixing our own problems together.

A Historical moment for sure and perhaps in my lifetime we'll see the right woman become the President of the United States someday.

Publishing my first Novel

2008-10-26T10:02:00.004-05:00

In about six months I'll have my first Novel published. No I haven't been signed by anyone to have it marketed and published on a large scale.

Last year I wrote my first Novel as an exercise to see if I could come up with something and actually like doing this. It was a fun to create a world and story filled with characters. It was also nice to reach my goal in the end and more or less win NaNoWriMo 2007.

The only things you have to do in order to win is start on November 1st and finish by the end of the month. Oh and make sure you wrote 50,000 words too. Its not quality as much as quantity and its on the honor system. So if you want your story to say the same word over an over you can, but its not going to be as satisfying in the end.

What does all this have to do with getting published though, well it was announced that the winners of NaNoWriMo 2007 would have a free proof copy published by Createspace, a partner of Amazon.Com. So after I finish my 2008 NaNoWriMo, I'll move into some rewrites and polish up last years in order to send it off for a very limited printing of 1 copy for now at least.

Young writers

2008-10-19T21:40:00.002-05:00

Well tonight I helped my daughter with her first creative writing assignment. Granted she is 7 and in 2nd grade here, but still was an assignment for her to use her mind and create a character and setting for that character.

It was fun to try and explain to her what is was to write something and work on a project like this. Even though it was very short an simple and perhaps will not have a sequel, it was fun and I can only hope she will continue to enjoy reading and perhaps find that writing is a lot of fun too.

I'm looking ahead at the 2008 NaNoWriMo now and looking forward to writing again myself. It's a lot to try and create a story and characters, but for me its rewarding as well and fun to see something, even in need of rewrites and more polish to it and to know I created that world and story, filled with the lives of characters and let actions take hold and bring them to some final ending or at least for this particular story.

A lot has happened to me in the time that has past since last years NaNoWriMo. Things never get easier and I'll always have something to do, the point is to make time and write daily and let the story come out. Its what I did last time and what I'll attempt to do again. The clock is ticking and my next book is calling me... November 1st will be here before I know it now.

May the Force Be With Them

2008-10-01T18:39:00.004-05:00

This Friday night on the Cartoon Network is the Premiere of the Star Wars Clone Wars and I'm looking forward to this title and seeing what they will do with it. I saw the movie about a month ago and was entertained pretty much. Although I did feel some of the subject matter was a bit strong for some little ones.

Just the same, I liked it enough to plan on DVR'n the show and watching them at home at my leisure. I'm a big Star Wars fan and that is pretty much a given that I'd check it out. For the most part I think its been getting some pretty good reviews and feedback as well. Check out the Cartoon Network this Friday at 9pm est.

Heroes & Villains: the count down begins...

2008-09-12T06:12:00.002-05:00

It's that time of year and this season I'll be watching in HD thanks to Uverse. My only issue will be the poor audio drops from time to time. I'll have to fight through all of that is all. This show has been a favorite of mine for awhile now.

I've really loved the first two seasons and I'm sure this will please me just the same. When I knew the switch to HD was coming for me, this was the first show to pop in my head as a must watch, but I like it so much I'll watch it in Standard definition if I have to.

Your freaking me out!

2008-09-04T19:46:00.006-05:00

The Associated Press reports that Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin has recently told ministry students at her former church that the United States sent troops to fight in the Iraq war on a "task that is from God."

Its statements like this that don't really sit well with me. For someone to firmly state that God is telling us to fight in a War sounds crazy to put it nicely. She also feels that God wants us to have a Natural Gas Line setup in Alaska and that we should pray for that as well.

"Our national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God," she said. "That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that plan is God's plan."

Another area that doesn't sit well was her ties with the Alaskan Independence Party, a group that wants to allow Alaska the right to vote on whether Alaska should have the right to leave the Union and become its own Nation.

It's been said that she use to be a member of the AkIP and the Wasilla Assembly of God, but she has recently recorded messages for the AkIP convention and spoke at her old church, so she still has some of these ties in place.

Then you have the Troopergate issues as its being called and her questionable use of power to have an ex-brother-in-law fired because of a messy divorce to her sister. I'm sorry it just seems like a closer look should take place on her being in the role of VP if you were to ask me.

Maybe I'm over reacting, I mean she's only going to be the VP right? Will she be in a position of that much power to worry? The President will have full control and its not like the VP really does anything, or at least she doesn't know what a VP does.

Still I can't help but think McCain really picked the wrong person to be his second. Now I think he has to stick with the one he's brought to the dance. We'll have to see how things go over the debates and next few weeks. For now, I'm not impressed at all with what is going on in the Republican Camp.

Thumbs up for Support so far

2008-09-01T07:51:00.003-05:00

Well in most cases I have to say the Customer Service and Support has been really great. Top notch so far. I still have my audio problem to deal with, but they've gone ahead and given me a free month of the HD services and upgraded us to the U300 package for free over the next 6 months.

They were suppose to come out over the weekend and look at something and missed the window. I wasn't upset really though, I don't think they would have really fixed anything with that visit. The audio fix only will come from the new Cisco 330 or 430 boxes, to the best of my knowledge at least.

In the meantime, I so love VoD and the extra movies available at this point. We can select from Starz, Encore, Flix, Showtime, and the Movie Channel on demand libraries at this time and watch what ever they have on their regular broadcasts channels. I tell you Video on Demand is pretty cool to see and experience.

It's not super quality, but its not bad at all and it really works well from my experiences so far. So a lot of movies I've missed or thought about watching are showing up. Somethings really old and some fairly new. Was awesome last night when my brother came over and I could set the kids up in the bedroom to watch Underdog, something they haven't seen at home. Just a simple click of the remote and the movie began, just add popcorn and we were able to control the living room for our entertainment needs.

As for the audio issues, I have to remain on top of things and keep after them for the new boxes. I also need to keep checking in on Home DVR or at least I think that is what they call it. We should have the ability to watch recorded programs from the DVR back in the bedroom at some point. All in all, the Uverse service has been pretty good and I'm fairly happy about it all.

Can you hear me now... Uh, No!

2008-08-29T19:52:00.002-05:00

Well my audio issues continue, but I seem to have found a small glimmer of hope or should I say I hear a slight peep of relief instead. I like Engadget and they have reported other Uverse users are having the same issues. They also report that Cisco set-top-boxes appear to be the answer to this problem.

The only thing is this article was back in June and I'm having the problem now. I spoke with a level 2 support and it sounds like testing in various areas is underway with the new boxes. Claims are it fixes the issue, but as to when they will be available in my area, its unknown.

Looks like I'll have to deal with what I got and I'm expecting the Support to call back after they speak with Sales on a possible credit for the current problems. I'm fine with that for now and hope that they'll get the new boxes in this area soon. I told them I would gladly test out the new boxes for them and new services in this area even. Rather nice of me to offer that, right?

A tech is expected to look at another little issue with the bedroom box locking up on us. Hopefully he'll have an easy fix for that. They did a few things outside and it seems to have crept up after that work took place.

I don't want to complain to much, a buddy of mine can't get the service at all and what really sucks is his house is the only house in his neighborhood with that problem, talk about a crazy situation.

U-ready for Fantasy Football

2008-08-26T18:00:00.002-05:00

That's Uverse ready that is. This year I'll get to try out my Fantasy Football mangement via the TV and Uverse service. I came across this feature when I hit the Interactive Button on the remote and found stuff on Weather, Stocks, Traffic, and Sports. It was under the Sports area I noticed Fantasy Football 08.

It ties into my Yahoo Fantasy Football and all I had to do was sign up with my Uverse account. Small issue is I've used the same Yahoo ID for so long and they keep track of stats year after year, I didn't want to loose that. So I found another feature under Yahoo Fantasy for co-manager of a team.

A few clicks and I set up my other login as a co-manager now. I guess I can spend the time and blame any losses this year on my co-manager, right? Hopefully this will make things a little more enjoyable and I'll have to see how well it works or what all I can do via Uverse.

On another note, we are expecting them to swap out the HD box tomorrow. It appears that an issue with digital audio for 5.1 surround and it causes you to loose connection and drops audio when ever it wants. Not enjoyable at all, they have a newer box and think that this might fix the issue. I'll loose a few shows, but at least its just over a week and mainly kid shows.

U-verse installed today at last

2008-08-16T01:03:00.003-05:00

Well we have the new service finally and for the most part its pretty cool. The Internet speed is not to bad and we went with the low end for now. As near as I can tell its working like it should and I didn't seem to have any issues with the Xbox 360 on Xbox Live.

Different for sure is the menu options and choices, will take a little bit of time to get use to all the new options and where things are located. I have to say it seems a high dose of Adult programming is available with the new service and in the area of VOD for sure.

Speaking of Video On Demand, its cool to see all the options and even the free stuff. I always like to get some free stuff when I can. One area is Network TV and so far it looks like CBS was the only option, to bad I'm not a CSI fan, looks like the past 10 or so episodes are available to watch. I did watch an episode of Big Brother 10, not a high quality HD picture, but cool for a stream that just started and never buffered really at all.

Audio is going to be the bad boy in this mess it seems. For what ever reason, it seems a small issue with signal unlock for 5.1 occurs from time to time. I searched around the fourms and this seems to be an on going issue. The only work around seems to be a pause an start of the show from time to time perhaps. I plan to test this more and see what I can get from Customer Service as well.

Other than the audio, its seems to be a pretty cool service so far and I'll know more as I learn all the ins and outs.

Just you and the horse, its bareback riding

2008-07-27T09:00:00.004-05:00

Freya had her 6th lesson yesterday and while we waited for the class to get started, I heard the instructor tell them to Untack some of the horses, that they would be working on balance and riding bareback.

Freya was just checking out all the horses and I made it a point to explain to her what it meant to ride bareback. She wasn't very cool with this whole idea and really didn't want to do it.

The instructors explained that it would be fun and she would be fine. Riding this way allows you to feel how the horse is moving and allows you to work on your riding position and keeping your balance. Last weekend Freya had a habit of leaning back in the saddle and had a much harder time in class.

I wasn't sure what to expect and only hoped she would stay up on the horse. She did better than that, she rode really well the whole time. She was straight up on the horse and kept her hands where they were suppose to be. She was smiling and having a blast. She was riding bareback and doing great.

They started leading them around at first and even had them hold their arms straight out to work on their balance. Then they turned the reins over to them and had them ride around. She reminded me more and more of someone showing horses and I was really proud of her yesterday.

Looks like she's having a blast doing this and wants to continue. Looks like we are going to find a way to give her more lessons. If we keep this up, we'll need to find some second jobs to help support her new hobby and her growing love of horses.

Support continues for my wifes Journey

2008-07-20T20:29:00.006-05:00

My wife is drawing closer and closer to the start of her journey in November. The big challenge has been working at raising money for her to walk. It looks like she'll make that easy and more an likely blow her personal goal out of the water.

Edith's sister and brother have both worked very hard to help her reach her goal as well. This past Friday was a hard day for this effort in raising money. See I brought cup cakes for sale to my work. Meredith makes really great treats and has raised a lot of money for Edith from sales at her work.

What was hard was the walk in to work for me this past Friday. The box said Cup Cakes for a Cure and as I was heading into work, a co-worker was heading out an crying. All I could say was hello to her as we passed. She had already been stopped by another co-worker and I knew something was wrong. I didn't feel I should stop her as well.

Her husband was fighting Cancer himself and not doing well. I later found out she was rushing home to try and be with him, he had taken a turn for the worse. I would later find out he had passed away from his battle with this disease. All I could think about as people stopped to buy a cupcake was me walking past her with the box of Cup Cakes.

I really wish I could have done more in that instance. I could see the pain in her eyes and I hope she could tell I wanted to say more and that I meant more. It just shows me all to well that this can strike anyone at anytime and its a very worthy cause to take on an try and fight.

My wife has always given of herself to others and she is truly a hero on this journey. I wish I could actually take this journey with her, but perhaps this is something best ventured and experienced on your own. I can't wait to here how things went and give her such a huge hug when she reaches her goal.

She's doing something great and a lot of people are behind her, but what she does is for so many many more and hopefully the support of a few will be a tremendous amount of help for all of those fighting to survive.

It takes two to HD

2008-07-12T22:01:00.005-05:00

I've been discussing HD lately with my folks and decided I should perhaps write it down. Maybe that would help explain things a little better. The short is it takes two parts to have HD, that is pretty simple and the fact is you need parts A & B to have HD.

For examples sake, we will make the TV part A and that is an HD TV (LCD or Plasma). This is the first part you'll need for sure. Now just because you have one of these, doesn't mean you will have an HD experience now. Remember that you have to have two parts... a part B to complete the process.

Part B is the HD receiver, Blu-ray player, or Antenna pretty much, the device that takes care of the media going to your TV. Just like before, you can't have an HD experience with one of these and not have an HD TV to view it on. Once again from an earlier article; next year when analog goes away, it doesn't mean you have to go an buy an HD TV, boxes will take care of all that for your old TV.

I really can't think of a better way to explain it. Pretty much I have a HD TV right now and I use an old pair of Rabbit Ears to see local HD (over the air). Next month I'm switching my service and getting an HD receiver to send me many, many more shows that are in HD. Having the box is part B and with out an HD TV its pointless. With both parts A & B or parts H & D, I'll be set so to speak. I really can't wait to see all of the shows in HD, my antenna is working really hard.

Uverse goes all in for the win

2008-07-10T00:18:00.003-05:00

The deed is done, DirecTV will lose us as a loyal customer as of August 16th. The new kid in town is Uverse from AT&T and they will have our eyes, ears, and minds for the time being when we start using their services.

As a last ditch effort DirecTV tried to offer us a price freeze, a free HD/Tivo box for a promise of staying another 24 months with them. To late though and they could not match the $200 cash back offer from AT&T.

The bad thing is the costs went up with DirecTV and we'll still pay the same with Uverse, but the plus side is we get the HD DVR services, the ability to record 4 shows at the same time. No cost to setup and the first month is free.

So the cycle of leaving someone and becoming a new customer starts over again. Maybe some day a company will figure out a way to give us a little cheaper price after staying with them for 3 years. Sure would be nice if they had done something like that instead of raising prices and causing us to look for something else.

I hope the service and features will be great and I think having HD will make it that much better in the long run. I'd rather not have to shop around again and I'll have to look at ways to cut costs in other areas and save money. I'll report back in August on how things are going with the new Entertainment & High Speed services U-verse has to offer.

Vote for me and I'll set you free

2008-07-09T11:01:00.009-05:00

A few months ago I was hanging out in this chat room and talking Politics and about how I really felt that change was needed. It was some pretty good discussions and I guess one thing led to another. Now it turns out that people really liked what I thought, my ideas, and what I had to say. Then I started getting e-mails and private messages about supporting me.

I told them it would take a lot more than a few people in a chat room to make this kind of change. My name would need to get out there for people to see and that takes a lot of money. Then I got a replies back from people saying they had already printed signs and started telling people about me. I'm really not sure how this all took off so fast and now a News Station has caught wind of all this and it looks like I'll be running for President in 2008.

I'm really shocked... the month of November is going to be so very busy with me supporting my wife in her 60 mile 3-day walk, a Fall Show for APHA, and the writing of my second novel too. How can I also run an election campaign at the same time.

Turning 40 and setting a new record

2008-07-08T13:53:00.003-05:00

So this is 40... well its not much different than any of the other birthdays really, but it did bring out the jokes from co-workers. You would have expected this at hitting 50, but I'm only 40 now. I have to say I do see the signs of getting older and will not dwell on any of that though.

Now setting a new record has nothing to do with me turning 40 and I'm not about to keep track of each birthday and claim its a new record. No, the record I'm thinking about now is in my blog posts. Today's post is actually 1 more post than all of last years posts. Its a new record for my writing.

This does not get me into some special club, but its still cool to look back and see that I'm writing a bit more. I know I have quite a bit more to post for 2008. When it comes to writing, I don't set out with an agenda or plan really, I just write what I feel at the time. I never know what the topic will be, but I try make sure to many days don't pass between blogs.

My past few posts were an insight into the APHA World Championship Paint Horse Show and what it takes to put on the show and some of the things I do for and at the show. I don't plan to repeat that next year, but I'm not going to rule out a post or two just the same from next years show.

More blogging, posting, writing or what ever you want to call it is sure to come. I have my game/techie blog to keep up with and I plan to write my 2nd novel this year in November for NaNoWriMo, which will be crazy with all the things going on during that month. So it looks like I have plenty to do and turning 40 is not going to slow me down.

We're out of here...

2008-07-06T06:51:00.004-05:00

That's right, the show is now over and we've packed up and moved back to the Offices. It never fails to feel the same for me. I like the horse show very much, but after so many straight days in a row, the last 3 days I'm reaching a point where I'm ready for it to end.

I've missed my family so very much and I'm ready to spend lots of time with them. I did have some small windows of time with them during the show, but I'm ready to be home at a normal 5pm daily and have my weekends off too.

We still have things to do at the office, lots of things to fix and get online for everyone. So it will be next Saturday before I get a full day/weekend off. Today was only a partial work day with out move out. Monday morning I'll be in bright and early to set my PC back up and start at the list of things that need attention.

Speaking of lists, I need to make me a list of things to do around here. Its been 15 days and I'm sure I can come up with a few things that need my attention and quick. For now, I just want to sit and be with my family and do absolutely nothing. I just want to be right now.

The Final Cut

2008-07-05T07:49:00.004-05:00

Well its the final day here at the show and its been a long process, now it all comes down to the Final Awards Night & Free Style Reining this evening. I've submitted a total of 222 photos from the Open Show for consideration in this years Final Night Video. Tracy puts this together from the images he and I have shot and a few others who submitted images as well. I'll have to wait and see which images make the final cut out of mine now.

During our Youth Show I shot around 2,200 and submitted a total of 123 images from the first weeks batch. So far in the second week, I've shot over 2,800 photos and I think I'll get a few more Cutting shots in today. Now not all of the images are great and useable, but I think you have to shoot a lot to get the good photos. I'm always looking for what I feel is that perfect shot and it’s a great feeling when you see something and feel you have something meaningful.

After the show is over, I'll go through all of my images and weed out those I think are really bad and then I'll provide what is left to Marketing for consideration in other areas of promotion. The past two years I've seen these used in our Promotional World Show Poster and I just found out that the Fort Worth Key Area Visitors Guide Book has used portions of those Posters for the June issues over the past two years. That means a lot of people traveling here have learned about our Show from these guide magazines and seen some of my work. I think that is pretty cool.

Hope you all have enjoyed reading about what I do at the APHA World Championship Paint Horse Show and what happens during the show. The Show is about to be over, but we still have a lot of work afterwards, when we get back to the Office. But for now I'm looking forward to next Saturday and just spending time with my Family, it will be nice to have a well deserved day off at last.

Happy 4th from the Show

2008-07-04T09:04:00.004-05:00

Number 8 for me now here at the World Show, that is 8 Fourth of July's in a row that I've spent here working for APHA and away from my family. I guess in some ways APHA can be like a family though, we spend so many, many hours working together through out the year, you can't help but get a little close to your co-workers.

Just the same, the show must go on and most of the time the classes don't end in time to run out and see Fire Works. We normally have an entertainment act at least, like the Freedom Riders I photographed in 2006. If I'm lucky I can run out as soon as I hear the fireworks go off and see a little of that from the John Justin Arena.

I at least can look up if I'm lucky and think that my family is some place safe and watching Fire Works and I'll be home soon to at least to kiss them good night and catch a little rest before I go back to do it all over again. This year I'll be thinking about my family and my APHA family, those that are here with us and those that are away from us. Be safe now and everyone have a happy Fourth of July.

2008-07-03T19:29:00.002-05:00

My favorite shot for today came while the Amateur Working Hunter Class was waiting for the results and awards to come in. I was down at the in gate and seeing what I could capture. I found this pair passing the time together.

Its really been a long show for everyone and for exhibitors you reach a point where you've done all you can and its no longer in your hands. That is when the waiting begins for most people and in some cases you'll find friends and family or trainers waiting with you. No waiting party with this group though, but I think they looked happy on their own.

Down to the final two days starting tomorrow, Will Rogers is ready for the Cutters and we are done with Watt and the Halter classes. Saturday will be busy and crazy for the final awards night. We close out the show with Freestyle Reining and a packed house.

Working Cow Horse and Cutting Up Next

2008-07-02T14:07:00.003-05:00

Things are progressing well for us here at the show today. We are down to only one Arena once again with all of the Halter classes ending early. Some of those classes only had a single horse, congrats... your a winner! Hopefully some of the smaller classes will start to grow. If you have 10 horses, that gives you a 1 in 10 shot at winning and you'll be a Top 10 Winner too.

Tomorrow we'll pick back up with the Open Working Cow Horse classes and then Friday the Cutters will arrive and start their portion of the show. That means we will bring Will Rogers back online with the Wireless feed to my location. Both of these events are among my favorites to watch. I still have a little more Reining to watch as well over the next few days and its looking like the rest of this week will be fairly easy hours to work.

Slide right into home

2008-07-01T21:29:00.002-05:00

This has got to be one for the record books. I made it home by 6:30pm with plenty of day light. The show wrapped up for the day at a little after 4:00pm a record time for the past 7 shows that I've experienced.

Its really nice, but so very strange to me. World Show has always been these crazy 15 hour plus days. What is only a 10 hour Show day? A breeze if you ask me.

The show actually ended before dinner arrived on the grounds. We had to wait and eat to make sure the food was not wasted. Great dinner by the way and I was fine with waiting.

Well even though my day was short, I still got in some photo ops and had a good time. I tested out the changes on the PDA app for the show. Really nice to click and see who is in the pen and what is going on in the other arena.

Well that is all for today's show events, we are looking at the final turn and home stretch now. Only 4 more days of show left, I have one more warm-up announcers gig to go. Still need to try an grab a few more pics for the final night video, but all in all the final curtain call is about to be made.

Good Night... I mean Good Evening

2008-06-30T21:40:00.003-05:00

What a crazy week for my 8th Paint Horse Show. Year after year the show has always gone to at least 10pm or later, but not this year. Now we are looking at early nights and the sun is still up even in most cases.

Tonight we finally had some Reigning classes take place and they were suppose to be Prelims with finals taking place tomorrow. Two of those classes took went ahead and had finals tonight. So we are already short two classes for tomorrow, as best as I know that is. Now I've seen this happen once in awhile, but not as much as with this show.

Tomorrow was already projected to be an early night and it looks like its getting even earlier as the show progresses. I'm not complaining, its just something so out of place and strange for this time of the year for me. My family is awake when I come home now. Well its only 5 days left in the 2008 show and at least its been a little bit easy for the Open portion.

Photographers Digital Assistant

2008-06-29T23:52:00.004-05:00

So today I had this idea about a PDA app (Photographers Digital Assistant) that would allow me to see what was going on in the various arenas. The easy way to do this would be a small web based app that would work on a cell phone that has web access.

Over the past few years, I've run around the horse show snapping photos for the final night videos we put together. But in addition to this, I've been asked from time to time to take some photos here or there. The only problem is knowing what class is going on and what the order of go they are on for a particular arena. That is where I thought a cool little app could help me out.

Tracy already had some stuff like this going for the video stream and I asked if he could make a scaled down version for a mobile phone. He played with it today and its almost exactly what I was expecting, but I think its more of an issue with my phone and web pages, but it is still a lot closer to what I envisioned. I wasn't able to switch between arenas just yet... phone issue I think again.

But so far a little idea I had looks like it could really work and with the right tools (phone) to access, I can see where this and a few other things could be really handy to the mobile staff photographer out on the show grounds.

Riding tall in the Saddle

2008-06-28T18:04:00.003-05:00

I'm still at the horse show, but today I came in late to work having decided to take Freya for her second session out of six lessons. She had a blast and her eyes lit up when she heard they were going to go ride in the park for today.

The instructors are really pleased with her and think she's a great listener. I couldn't help but notice how well she looked while riding. Year after year I watch exhibitors compete and see how they ride and I can see tiny bits of them in what Freya is learning to do and is such a short time.

I had a rather busy morning... having the digital camera with me, I figured I would snap a few shots. I had no idea I would get a small morning walk in the Park to snap a few more pics.

Well next Saturday marks the third lesson and will be the final day of the APHA World Championship Paint Horse Show. I'll miss taking her to her lesson, but I'll look forward to the following weeks and the rest of her riding lessons.

I'll also look forward to regular hours and being back with the whole family again. It's a lot of work and hard being away for so long. I know the family will be glad I'm back and Edith will enjoy a real break once again.

Early night for once, really

2008-06-27T22:22:00.003-05:00

Wow I'm home and its nice to get here at a decent hour for a change. Tonight it was rumored that we would go until 1am. Thankfully that all changed and we ended early. Not to mention the last class of the evening was Solid-bred Paint Horse Trail and with only two exhibitors.

Could you imagine waiting until 1am for a class of only two. Here's the thing, APHA is working to help grow this area of competition for Solid-bred Paint Horses. In most cases a class has to have at least 6 to make, but all of the Solid-bred Paint Horse classes will take place no matter what it seems.

Kudos to the exhibitors for showing off the talents of their Solid-bred Paint Horses. They might not be loud and proud like most Paints, but they are still Paint horses just the same. I say they have color on the inside.

Well going to relax a bit and drift off to sleep. I'm going in late to the show and taking my daughter to her horseback riding lessons in the morning. Looking forward to seeing her for sure and the rest of the family.

Germany for the Win!

2008-06-26T23:57:00.003-05:00

The Paint World Games were played today at the APHA World Championship Paint Horse Show and as much as I would love to see Team USA take the Gold, I'm really happy with Team Germany winning Gold this year.

I think its a great event for the Youth to take part in and to have seven countries all gathering together, to compete with Paint Horses is just plain awesome. The games were a nice way to bring an end to this years Youth show.

The awards nights took place as well and with a huge hiccup. For what ever reason the final video project was not played and an earlier version, a partial demo played on the big screen. A number of people said they thought it looked cool, if only they had seen the final video Tracy had worked hard on. Well hopefully they'll take a look on the web and see what was missed.

That's all for tonight, going to sleep in some for a change and go in late. Tomorrow is Trail Classes from John Justin and its expected to be a super long night tomorrow.

Excitement on many levels

2008-06-25T16:21:00.004-05:00

Its been a busy day so far for me... running around and snapping photos where I can, trying to get more images for the Youth final night video to select from. I have to say this, just like the horse above, I'm jumping up and down too with the early version of the opening that I've seen so far. The video is going to rock big time if you ask me and I can't wait to see the final cut.

Now not all of the photos have been set and transitioned just yet, but some of them look great and fit right where they are in the song. Each year I submit a nice portion of photos and my buddy Tracy, a co-worker of mine, picks and sets them all to music for the videos. He does an incredible job year after year. Not only does he produce the videos each year, he takes great photos as well for the projects.

Well I need to get back out and shoot some more, its all about being in the right place at the right time. Sitting in front of my screen keeps me from catching those moments in time. So far I've snapped a little over 1,700 shots for the show.

Still going and going

2008-06-24T21:46:00.003-05:00

One of my favorite shots from the day comes from Youth Working Cow Horse, a new class for the AjPHA Youth this year. They start with a Reining pattern first and then release a Cow to work in the Arena afterwards. It's pretty cool to watch and one of the things you see from time to time is someone get close enough to place a hand on the back of the cow, not something I've seen happen a lot to tell you the truth.

Today the show offered you just a little bit of everything. We had Heading, Healing, and Steer Stopping in Will Rogers from Open exhibitors for the most part. Then English events that involved some Jumping in John Justin to name a few things you could have seen today. Finishing out the night is Western Pleasure riding and its going to go long and slow. I'm trying to decide if I'll sleep in or not now, I'm scheduled to arrive at 10am and I think I'm going to follow that.

My girls love horses

2008-06-23T20:08:00.004-05:00

That face says it all if you ask me. Tonight my daughters made it out for the Stick Horse competition and had a blast. One of the best events of the show and the kids light up when they get to run around the arena for a change.

Some of these little ones will actually move on to ride real horses and even show them perhaps. But as for tonight, its clearly their time to shine and show what they are made of. For the past 8 years, I've had the best time watching these kids on stick horses.

I'm sure this event will always be a favortie of mine and I know Miss V & Lil M have many years to perfect their stick horse riding skills. Freya will be learning to ride real horses and hopefully can share some of her stick riding skills with the little ones.

Its showtime all day long

2008-06-22T08:42:00.006-05:00

Good morning and what a difference a little sleep can make for someone. I'm feeling really great right about now. Well day two of the warm up announcing is now in the books and I received a number of compliments from various Judges and Ring Stewards that our working our show. Felt really good to hear all of that for sure.

I've always been OK with a microphone and I do OK winging things... pretty much taking my directions from downstairs and calling out the gaits is easy. But something strange happened and I heard, STOP! come over the radio. So I said STOP!, then some people standing in as Judges said, Whoa! and I thought something might have happened and repeated the same. Of course the directions given were all wrong and I had to get them all started again. Walk your horses please, I know that one by heart.

It's hard to see what is going on right below the announcers booth and I pretty much followed the directions fed to me, I don't think STOP was suppose to go over the radio and hopefully that will be the last mistake in this regards I make (knock on wood).

Speed, baby! Its the events I love and I'm talking about Barrel Racing, Stakes Races, and Pole Bending classes. Some of the fastest riders on Paint Horses will compete today tomorrow. By the looks of the photo I snagged last night, it sure looks like they are having a blast if you ask me. Check out the APHA World Show web site and click on the Live Feed links to see some of the action.

Well this is an early post for today and this will be one of the longest days of the whole show. I'm expected to stay until about 1am and decided to post early. I want to try and post daily from the show and on events at the show this year. I hope you all enjoy my coverage and hang in there with me now. I'll see you all tomorrow, which very well could be the end of today's events.

The long and short of it

2008-06-21T20:43:00.002-05:00

Tonight turned out to be an early night for a change. I'm home now, but the family is out an about right now. Edith is working on her training and the kids are with Grandma & Grandpa. What does all of this have to do with the title. Well its been a long day just the same.

The baby had issues sleeping and pretty much woke me up around 3am (song playing in head...) and I find it hard to get back to sleep. I had to go in early and announce the practice. Now I'm really beat and need a little rest.

So the short is getting out early I'd normally run off and pick the kids up. They are in very good hands and this is a chance for me to get at least an hour of rest if not more in. I'm up early again for another go at the annoucer spot for morning practice. Tomorrow is expected to be a super long day.

Yeah I'm out of here, check you all later, I'm not going to last much longer at all.

I say let them grow up to be cowboys

2008-06-20T20:34:00.002-05:00

Checkin went smooth as near as I can tell. Some tiny glitches in other areas behind the scenes, but no biggie. So the Youth Show kicks off tomorrow with Team Tournament events and I go live with my first stream around 4pm CST.

I hope it all goes over smooth, at least for me that is. Monday evening is the Stick Horse event, one of the coolest things to watch as these young Cowgirls & Cowboys show off their skills with their Paint Stick Horses. My kids should come out and have a blast, its the one event that my kids can actually take part in.

It's a blast to see these kids and their Paints as they show in all the events. Speed events start early and its a little crazy with some of the Open (adults) showing during the start of what is really the Youth show. Its also a little interesting to see some Youth come back in the Open show for the Cutting. It all has to do with setting the arena up for each events in the end. Cows come later in Open is why. Well that's it for today, going to relax a bit for one last time.

This is why we do it!

2008-06-19T19:16:00.003-05:00

Day four of setup is in the books. The horses move in tomorrow and the show kicks off on Saturday. Tomorrow is the fifth day of setup and check in.

We still have a few odds and ins to take care of, but for the most part setup is really over and its time to put on a show now. Take a look at the photo on the left. This was clearly one of my favorite shots of last years show and the reason we do this.

OK, its our job, but we all pretty much enjoy seeing some great horses compete year after year. Reining as shown on the left is a favorite class of mine to watch and photograph. Speed events are favorites too.

Tomorrow I'll spend my time looking into the video stream settings and preparing to go live on Saturday evening. I have some web edits as well oh and I'm offering my services as a warm up announcer on a few days. Means I'll be arriving early to the show and calling out the various gaits.

Well that's all for now and from the setup stand point. Today was a good day, my video edits went well and the problem PC corrected itself more or less. I got to head home early for a change and even worked in a haircut. Should feel cooler during the show now. Hope you all have enjoyed the behind the scenes of show setup now. Please check back for more on the show now.

Look ma, no wires

2008-06-18T21:24:00.007-05:00

Well we tested the wireless feed from Will Rogers to John Justin today for this years show. Worked like a charm with out a glitch. Looked like a good picture and sound came over fine. One of the best pictures we've had wireless too.

I setup my work station and streaming machines at the show. Wouldn't you know it, one of the stream machines is acting up on me. I'm fine for the show and will look at what trouble shooting I can do and see about reformatting perhaps. Streams go live on Sunday.

Testing from all arenas looks to be ready to go as ever. We are at the mercy of the coax that is in place and do what we can. I need to look into fiber video options and see what that all takes. Love new challenges like this.

Well tomorrow I hope to just work on video edits and try and get the AjPHA video completed. I don't want to really work on that for Friday. The event is Friday evening and I would like to be done with this and not stress on trying to complete a video. Wish me luck that it all goes well tomorrow.

3 Screens later on Day 2

2008-06-17T20:08:00.002-05:00

Well it was day two and it came with a whirl wind of activity to say the least. We actually had a small storm blow through really quick. Later in the day I would find out that this storm had blown my Antenna on Justin over. I sure hope it still works.

The first day we hung the screen in John Justin and we were suppose to hang the NCHA screen in Will Rogers. Small problems kept this from happening until today. This was a slightly harder screen to pull up in my mind, but we did and are ready now.

Where does screen three come in. Well this is a little screen we use to monitor events in our command central. Funny thing is its been hanging since last year in the same place. So we didn't have to hang it really. We did mount are special projector holder and get that all set for the show.

So two screen for public and a behind the scenes screen later and we are another day closer to the launch of this years show. Tomorrow I plan to move my PCs out, test the wireless feeds and look at my settings for this years stream. Wish me lucky and no more rain or at least no wind please.

Setup has begun for World Show

2008-06-16T19:23:00.011-05:00

Day 1 is now in the books, as we've moved out and staked our claim to Will Rogers Memorial Center in Fort Worth. The setup for the APHA World Show is an interesting time of the year. We pretty much work over 4 to 5 days on setting up one of the largest equestrian events to take place. It's our big show of the year and we go big ever year.

The first day is setup of the Scoreboard screens and our wireless antennas to name a few things. The Scoreboard is used to display class details and results to name a few of its uses. Our Wireless Antennas are used to transmit a video feed from Will Rogers over to John Justin and in this location I distribute that live feed, along with John Justin, and Watt Arena through out the building and encode it live to stream over the Internet.

It takes a lot to put on this show every year and we spend a lot of time doing it right. This is the start of 26 straight days of work and putting on a huge show for the American Paint Horse. Its a great show and some of the best Paint Horses are on display here in Fort Worth during this time. If you can't make it to the show, then visit the web site and check out the Live Stream.

Father's Day Off

2008-06-15T09:51:00.002-05:00

Happy Father's Day to all the Dad's out there now. It was 39 years ago I gave my Dad his first Father's Day and it was 7 years ago my daughter gave that gift to me. I hope you all have a great day as Dads or celebrating the gift your Dads gave you.

Its my day off today. Woot! Not because I'm a Dad and it doesn't mean I don't have to do things or get to do what ever I want. Just because I'm a Dad, I don't take a pass on things. I did sleep in a little bit, not having to be anywhere early just the same.

Its still my day off and a special Day at that. This is the last free day off I'll have for 26 days. You'll learn more about that later if you don't know already. So I hope to really enjoy today with my family. I'll see them over the 26 days, but my time will be so short because of my job.

I'm looking forward to see more of the family today. We don't have any real plans and that is cool too. Nice to have a day off and just do what ever and be where ever more or less.

Happy Fathers day again and enjoy this day once again. I'm off to do just that and will see you all over the next 26 days now. Oh I smell breakfast going... yep time for me to get out of here for sure.

Support only a click away

2008-06-14T20:20:00.002-05:00

It's the last weekend before the big APHA World Championship Paint Horse Show and I spent part of my time running around helping my father and my In-laws with PC troubles.

I should have looked at installing Log Me In down at the In-laws, but I might hold off until they get a new PC. Now on my Dad's I managed to get it working once again and he can turn it on and off when he has an issue.

The nice thing about a program like Log Me In is that one they have a free version and I can pretty much help him when I get a chance and from home. With a simple few clicks and secure login, I have a connection from point to point and can see his screen and make changes like I was right there.

It comes in handy when a fire breaks out and something needs to be looked at and quick. With the show around the corner, I'm not going to have the time to drive over and look at something. With Log Me In working again, he can grant access and I can make a quick fix and get back to what ever I was doing.

Mind you I'm talking simple things and some stuff might need a first hand look, but at least with access I might be able to poke around and see something an trouble shoot from my end and then prepare to come on site and take care of things in person.

FCC looking to back free wireless broadband

2008-06-12T15:05:00.003-05:00

I came across this story today and wanted to pass it on to who ever pops in here. Prices are growing like crazy for all kinds of goods & services. Apple has recently introduced its new iPhone, due out in July and the thing is sweet, but its the cost for the phone service and the price to get on the net that kills you.

My thought is at some point all phones will be more like the iPhone and PDA devices and the cost to make a call or browse the web will be cheaper. What I hope is just like all phones have a camera, they'll all be more PDA/net friendly and with cost effective services. Charge extra for something new like Video Streaming with voice chat and let those who want to have that pay for that service.

Well perhaps things like this will be closer in the future after all. The FCC wants to auction of a spectrum of network to a company with the goal of providing FREE Internet on a National level and at Broadband speeds. I sure hope they can pull this off and sorry to those companies in place now and charging an arm and a leg, better offer something else to cause us to pay & stay.

Here is a press release from a California Rep who has introduced an Act along the same lines. What a world it would be to have FREE Internet where ever I go on a PDA phone or a Laptop I can take with me.

Eshoo Introduces Free Wireless Broadband Legislation
Washington, DC – Rep. Anna G. Eshoo (D-Palo Alto) and Rep. Christopher Cannon (R- UT) introduced the Wireless Internet Nationwide for Families Act (WIN) which, if enacted, would foster the deployment of a new nation-wide wireless broadband network.

The WIN Act mandates that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) auction certain spectrum that is currently lying fallow. The winner of the auction would be required to build and complete a network within 10 years that must provide coverage to at least 95% of our country. The licensee would also be required to provide service for free to consumers and public safety users. The WIN Act also requires the licensee to deny access to obscene and indecent material on the free service tier.

"The cost of broadband service is a barrier for too many families who want broadband, with more than 100 million Americans without broadband at home," Eshoo said.

"By every measure, the U.S. is losing the international broadband race and our competitiveness as a nation is at stake. The Innovation Agenda made a commitment to spur affordable access to broadband and this bill will go a long way to providing universal broadband access."

"The results of the 700 MHz auction disappointed many of us who hoped that a new entrant would emerge. 70% of the spectrum auctioned went to only two carriers. While the auction required under this legislation is open to anyone, it is my hope that the bold conditions of requiring free, family friendly service will encourage the entry of a new kind of national broadband service provider."

Oh No! Say it Aint So McCain...

2008-06-11T08:51:00.002-05:00

People slip up at times and this one is too funny to leave alone. I heard this heading in this morning and had to do a search for it. Poor McCain... Now I'll have to look into this more, but it sounds like he's cutting him self off and not everyone else. Perhaps a line item Veto would be best for some people in this situation. For me, I like a nice cold one as I grill in the backyard every now an then and hopefully that will never be vetoed.

He's going to the show now

2008-06-10T20:42:00.006-05:00

Wow, he wrapped up the democratic nomination and I couldn't be happier really. Checking things out in Texas and taking part in the Democratic Caucus was a real learning experience to say the least.

So as an Obamacan, I'm happy to see he managed to get the nod from his Party. For me a vote for him was also a No Vote for Hillary. It's not that I don't feel a woman can do the job, not at all the case. I'm just not willing to back Hillary for the job.

In the end it really doesn't matter so much who gets the job. I mean they all claim they'll do something and in some cases they do and in most cases they don't. What I mean is promises are made and broken always.

I've actually voted in the past elections for the independents for the most part and that really doesn't do much. I for one wish they'd change stuff and make every vote count and do away with the electoral college all together. Sorry if your state doesn't have that many people, but the fact is you still get a vote.

It will be interesting to watch over the next few weeks and see what Obama does next. Who will he pick and what stands will he take now. He got my early nod, but he has to still earn my vote in November now. That goes for you as well McCain, that's right its not election time yet and I'm watching you too.

Obama is favored and I like a lot of what I see so far. But in the end it will be interesting to see who wins and who sticks to his words. One of the coolest things is he's not that much older than me and that is something I'm not use to seeing at all. Someone close to my age could be in charge of things! Could be cool or scary!

The Perfect Ride

2008-06-07T14:11:00.005-05:00

It was an event for father's & daughters that I had in mind for over a year now. The YMCA Father Daughter Program (YMCA Indian Princesses) provides Dads & Daughters with various activities and Horseback riding just happens to be one of those events they suggest. So I had this idea to get all of our tribe together for a riding session and that day finally arrived today.

I had contacted Golden Gait to set up this event and we had a total of 12 riders (5 adults and 7 girls). For me it was perfect, this was the best money I could have spent on an activity for my daughter and I. To see her and even a friend of hers riding around solo like that was priceless. To top it all off, I was able to get on a horse and ride too, something I had not done in so many years.

From left to right is Katie who rode on Silver and had never been on a horse before. I rode on Pie and she was great horse to put up with me. Freya had Rosie and they made a perfect pair if you asked me. I think I could have used a slightly bigger horse and be a little smaller myself, but thats a whole other topic in itself.

It's an amazing thing to be on a horse and something I would recommend everyone try at some point. I hope this is the start of many more riding sessions for Freya and I, even the whole family at some point. If I could even swing it, I'd love to own some horses myself some day. Until that day comes, I'll jump at a chance to get back in the saddle again.

No Slumber Here

2008-06-07T10:27:00.002-05:00

So its called a Slumber Party or a Sleep Over, but its far from that. We'll have no slumbering here or sleeping at least until we can not stand it no longer and our heads just drop to the nearest pillow.

It will be a night or morning full of giggles & stories though. Playing games and having all sorts of fun. We'll hide this behind the guise that we will be sleeping. We will at some point sleep, but not anyone else until we say its time to sleep.

I don't think this actually what goes through there heads, but its what happens at a Slumber Party or Sleep over. What it is really is some plain fun for kids. My daughter had a birthday/slumber party last night. They went to the opening night for Kung Fu Panda and then came home for some Dance Dance Revolution 2 and other gaming. They lasted to about 2am and finally dropped like rocks.

Then you have dough nuts and milk and a little more playing before your shipped back home. The real slumber was for the parents back home and comes later for those hosting the party the following night. Yes, we'll slumber good tonight, yes we will.

To Pimp my Ride or Not

2008-06-06T07:53:00.003-05:00

Its the daily driver if I'm not on two-wheels these days. The kiddos are getting bigger and more of them have brought about the shift in vehicles. Now the older of the rides is in need of some tender love and care or an extreme make over. What should I do for the 2001 Hyundai Elantra?

I don't think putting larger tires and a lift kit is the way to go on this one. I'm not looking to make a Hot Wheels Funny car now, so I'll just have to remain low to the ground. But if I plan to keep this car going I think I should look at some repairs and clean her up some. The nice thing is she runs pretty good for a car of her age and she's paid for too.

So it might be time to take a look at those windows and tint them perhaps. On the outside a paint job could at least make her look a tad better. I can't think of a car that I've owned having paint issues like this one. So I need to paint or buy that magic rub, you know the stuff that takes those old cars and creates new paint on them... you know the commercials I'm talking about.

Other than that I just need to adjust my hours and get out on the bike more. I can say this, I like filling up the tank on the bike for $15 as opposed to getting nothing for that in a car. Well I don't want to spend an arm and a leg, perhaps just an elbow or a foot. She's got her quirks like the last ride, but at least the AC is working for now. Oh I hope I didn't jinx something now.

Lights, Camera, and Horses

2008-06-05T10:35:00.003-05:00

Next week is my last full week at the APHA office as we are gearing up for the 2008 APHA World Championship Horse Show in Fort Worth. I'm proud to say that for the 2nd time in a row now, that I'm able to help out with the over all promotion for the show. See at the show I'm responsible for streaming the events on the internet for the most part and in addition to those duties, I also update the web with stories and post championship photos online. This is all during the course of our very long 15 day show each year.

But the promotion aspect I'm speaking of is in addition to my regular duties. See I love to take photos and during the course of the show I can be seen running around with my digital camera and snapping away at things that catch my eye. For the past few shows I've submitted these images for a wrap up slide show and those are set to music and played on the final nights of the Youth Show & Open Show. These images are also submitted for our Around The World daily news letter at the show and additional materials that are published after the show is over.

Last year I was happy to see that the 2007 Promo Poster featured a majority of images taken by myself. It's not something that I had expected and its nice to see my work published and used to help promote the breed. At our last World Show Meeting they passed this years Promo Poster around and I noticed some very familiar images and it turns out that I nailed this years Poster and I'm very proud to have provided all of this years images.

The World Show is the one part of my job I like the most. Getting out and seeing some of the people year after year and being close to the horses is something I really enjoy. Its one thing to deal with them digitally through out the year, but it brings it all home to be up close from time to time. I must like it to stick around for my 8th straight show and working the 15 hour days at times for a little over 2 weeks straight. If you happen to be in the area and like horses, then stop on by and see some of the best looking Paint Horse to gather in one location at the same time.

Volvo passes its first checkup

2008-06-05T08:54:00.002-05:00

Well the car is back after its first checkup. Still under warranty, we took her in to have some things looked at and they even found a couple things on their own while she was there. The strange thing about this and something I'm not really use to, is it didn't cost us a dime.

That's right, the fixed all the little things we pointed out and then some and it was all covered. We didn't even have to pay for labor or to have them look at it to begin with. Service like that is just something I've missed or haven't really had with other cars we've owned.

We are working on an extended warranty next and seeing what it takes to keep some if not all of this service for the car. My wife is very happy to have her car back again. I know the girls will enjoy this car during the summer for sure. It's also nice to know that we have a place we can take the car for great customer service now as well. Warranty or No Warranty!

Putting most of my eggs in one basket

2008-05-31T10:34:00.003-05:00

Just got a new PC for the house this past week and man is it nice to have something fast and new to play with again. I use to build all my PCs and its been well over 7 years now. I think I got my use out of the last ones that I've built. I'll have to decide what I'd like to do was those machines later. Plus its hard to beat the price on a pre built or custom built machine these days.

So what's with all of these eggs then. Well its no secret that I'm a fan & MS guy and that I use a lot of their products. Well I'm looking to start using more and more of their products it seems now. I've become a big fan of the Windows Live stuff recently and I think I'll be using the Live Mail product and online their Calendar features for one thing.

I'm looking at learning more with VS2008 and .Net programming, its nice when you score a free version of this too. I'm also looking at the Microsoft Expression Studio line of products. Wild being such a long supporter of Macromedia Dreamweaver.

Microsoft Live OneCare is the next product that has my attention now. I hate Norton that comes with PCs and most of the others I've enjoyed over the years have all raised their prices too. I came across OneCare and the price is about the same, but they allow me to cover at least another two machines for the price.

So I find myself looking at more and more at other MS products now. Well... you win some and you loose some I guess. I'm thinking about dumping MS Office actually and would need to really think about upgrading to a newer version. I'm looking at using OpenOffice more these days, I'm still a big fan of all the free stuff and some of it can be really good if you ask me. OpenOffice does all the things that Office does pretty much.

So thanks for all the good Eggs MS and I'll keep my eyes on more of your products, but I'll also look at a few others from time to time though. You have a majority of the basket and the others are just to keep you on your toes so to speak.

Phoenix Lander to touch down on Mars this evening

2008-05-25T12:27:00.002-05:00

The Phoenix's robotic arm digs a trench in the arctic plains. (Artist conception)
Phoenix Mission, University of Arizona

Live coverage of the Phoenix Lander will take place this evening around 6pm CST and the expected landing is around close to 8pm. The lander is visiting a location no other probe has explored and unlike the Rover on Mars, this one will remain stationary and collect data from its landing location. I've already set my Tivo and will see what happens along with my daughter this evening.