Archives: March 2008

Flock Issues

Ok, so I know I just started using this new browser that promised many things with its Blogging abilities. One of the main features that they talk about is being able to grab images form the web into a “clipboard” and then blog them. This is a great idea except the blogging system built into Flock just links to the URL of the image. That’s all well and good for Flickr images but NOT for other images I may find through Google Image search. Are you kidding me?? I thought being a bandwidth pirate died with the 90s, I guess I was wrong!

Needless to say, I will not be using this “feature” of the blogging editor in Flock. This may even keep me from using Flock on a regular basis. We’ll see how the weeks progress. The cool thing is that you can drag images there that you may want to use for later. Then you can just download and upload the old fashioned way. I guess it’s better than nothing?

Bandwidth Pirate

Spring Training – Milwaukee Brewers

This post is a bit late but whatever.

Two weekends ago, [Mike] and I went to the Milwaukee Brewers game at Maryvale Baseball Park.  The day was actually  kind of hot and the game wasn’t very well attended.  We were surrounded by people from Wisconsin who were all uber excited about watching their team and being able to wear shorts in December.  I remember checking the weather forecast for Milwaukee during the game and I believe the temperature was something like 23 degrees.  Yikes!  We were at about 81degrees by the 3rd inning.

Anyway, here are a few pictures from that day.  Enjoy!


(The Chorizo Sausage Won!)

Tax Season – 2007

Ugh, doing taxes suck… even more for me this year.

My taxes are easy. I did them in under 2 hours using TaxCut. Not difficult at all. The big pain is going to be doing my dad’s final tax return. What?! How do you do that anyway? How do you make sure you have all the information you need? How do you make sure you don’t leave something out? I am kind of worried about doing it but everyone I’ve talked to about it says it’s pretty simple. Who knows. I will give it a try and if it becomes too complicated, I’ll just pay someone to do it for me. We’ll see what happens. Wish me luck!!

Firefox Portable

I totally love Firefox portable version. I can now use Firefox while at work without having to install it on the PC. No more shitty IE for me. It’s small enough to fit on a flash drive and it offers up nice security if you need to use a public computer for internet browsing. You can have it save your passwords and then auto log in to your accounts without ever having to type in your secret information successfully getting around any sort of key logger that may be present on the public computer you are using. Anyway, if you’re interested in trying it out for yourself, click here.

Bingo Night!

Last Friday, Jenie, [Mike] and myself went to Bingo.  I know what you’re thinking already… Bingo on a Friday night?  Was there really nothing better to do?  It was all Jenie’s idea.

Now, I really entered the night thinking that this was going to be a boring evening but I was totally wrong.  It was more fun than I expected it to be even though none of us won any of the games.  Here’s how it all went down…

We arrived just before 7pm and the session was about to begin.  There were tons of items listed on various boards telling you what games were played on what nights and how much each one cost.  One of the guys behind the counter must have seen our confused looks as he motioned us over to the counter.  He proceeded to SPEED through everything that we would need to buy and how and when each game was played.  I was able to catch 50% of what he was saying and we just basically shook our heads and agreed to buy the books that he suggested.  We sat down at a table that was empty except for one lady who, we were told later, was a “pro” and we were lucky to be sitting next to her.  The night proceeded with the calling of each game in the book.  They really speed through the games at these places.  It was a hell of a lot faster than I thought it was going to be.  Amazing that the old folks can keep up with the caller and all the various patterns you have to keep your eyes open to recognize for Bingo.  Maybe this is a way they keep their minds young? 

Anyway, the night went by pretty quickly even though we were there for almost 4 hours.  It was a good way to spend $20, in my opinion.  Maybe we’ll do it again someday.  I think our next Bingo adventure will consist of drag queens… if the place still does it.


This is a test… a Flock test.

I’ve downloaded a new browser (WHAT!?) called Flock and it comes with a built in blog editor. Supposedly it’s the “social browser” and it kind of lives up to that title. You can log in to all your social networks and view all the feeds belonging to your friends. It’s actually kind of cool. Right now, I’m looking at my “favorites” Flickr feed and YouTube feed.

If I click on my “people” sidebar, I can see the updates of all my friends in Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, and YouTube. Kind of nifty. Also, there is a “favorite feeds” sidebar which shows RSS feeds I’ve subscribed to (no GReader integration, so I won’t be using that feature) and then there’s the “mail” sidebar where I can read my Gmail if I so desire.

Will I use this for long? Who knows. We’ll see how much it annoys me or helps me with my blogging. One thing that I’m already annoyed about is the fact that I can’t assign a category to this post from the blog editor. WTF! Anyone else use Flock?

UPDATE: I’m dumb… I get to choose a category when I upload to the blog… Sweet!

Some Car Things

First, this weekend I had a flat. It could have ruined the day, but thanks to AAA, all was well. Unfortunately, Discount Tire does not have a replacement in stock and so one will need to be ordered. I’ll be driving on the donut until Wednesday! Yikes!

registrationSecond, I got an email from the MVD reminding me that my registration expires on 4/15. Good times. At least it’s not too much for one year of Registration (see image). Interesting that I got an email though. I don’t recall ever setting that feature up. It’s a nice reminder and I’m glad they give me all the information up front without making me sign in to Service Arizona. Time to setup a reminder in Google Calendar so I don’t forget to pay it.

Roman Holiday

Roman Holiday

This film was part of Turner Classic Movies’ 31 Days of Oscar this year. I have never seen Roman Holiday before but it’s one of those films that comes up in conversation every once in a while. I wasn’t really sure what I was going to think about this film and, to be honest, I thought it was going to be boring. Wow, I was wrong. This film was so good. It’s more funny than you would expect and I enjoyed the chemistry between the two lead actors. The film moves along and the story is engaging. Of course, the fact that it was filmed in Rome helped me to enjoy it more. I would suggest that you rent this film if you haven’t seen it yet and, if you have seen it, post your thoughts in the comments.