Archive for November, 2008
Why I Hate Speed Cameras
Nov 29th
Here’s the main reason why I hate the speed cameras we now have on the freeways here in Arizona. The speed limit on this part of the freeway is 65 MPH. The cameras won’t take your picture until you surpass the 75 MPH mark. Because of these cameras, the max speed that anyone is driving on the freeway is below the posted speed limit (and this is when there is NO TRAFFIC). I cannot begin to tell you how much this annoys me. Ugh! Thanks Arizona!!
Wordle – Week Ending 11/28
Nov 28th
Here’s the Wrodle world cloud for this week of my blog’s RSS feed. Since my RSS feed puts a link for delicious on each entry, the word cloud thinks I use it a lot on my blog. I may post other weeks to see how the cloud changes. I haven’t decided yet.
Rainbow
Nov 27th
Yesterday, Phoenix got a winter rain storm. As the sun was setting in the west, a rainbow showed up. Here are a few photos of the rainbow. As you can see, it was a full rainbow.
From my drive home.
From my living room window overlooking the pool.
Fuel Frog – Update
Nov 27th
I use Fuel Frog to track my fuel consumption. Not too bad considering my lead foot.
Since we’re on the subject of gasoline, I can’t remember the time that I spent just over $20 to fill my take. Wow.
Twinkle Issues
Nov 26th
Here is an image of the error I have been getting from Twinkle a lot in the past few weeks. It is very annoying. Looks like I’ll have to search for a new Twitter program for the iPhone.
Work Benefits – Updated For The Worse
Nov 19th
I work for a company that has locations all around the country with quite a few in the state of California. When same-sex marriage was legalized in California, the question of how benefits would be provided to those same-sex spouses must have come up in company meetings. Below are two photos. One shows what our benefits package said for 2008 and the second shows what our benefits package says for 2009. These are the “rules of eligibility.”
After consulting with a few people about this change, we are all wondering if people’s benefits are going to be taken away by this change. Does anyone know? Let’s say that I lived in CA and got married. Under the 2008 rules of eligibility, I have a qualifiying event to add my spouse to my benefits. Under the 2009 rules of eligibility, my marriage is no longer recognized by my company’s benefits package. Does that mean my spouse would be dropped from my 2009 coverage? Most likely. How shitty is that!?
Bond, James Bond
Nov 18th
Look what arrived from Amazon.com today!! On Friday, Amazon.com was selling this beauty for $89.99 (compare that to today’s price of $202.99). Pair that with my $50 gift card and you’re looking at the entire Bond collection (42 discs!) for only $39.99. Can’t really beat that deal!
Song Covers
Nov 18th
I’m sure you’ve all heard “If I Were a Boy” by Beyonce on the radio (if you haven’t it’s embeded below). I can’t recall where I learned that this was a cover of another song but that made me curious. After some extensive searching, I have found the original artist. I thought the original would have been from a few years ago, but aparently it’s very recent. The original was done by BC Jean and you can find her on MySpace. Why would an artist like this give the rights to their song to a major music star? Going forward, if she ever performs this song, people will think she’s covering Beyonce. Hmmm. Maybe she did it for the $$?
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Movie Trailer – Star Trek
Nov 17th
When I went to see Quantum of Solace this past weekend, I was greeted by the trailer below. I can’t wait!!
[quicktime width="520" height="221"]http://www.danielalmaraz.com/video/startrek.mov[/quicktime]
(if you can’t see the control bar, press the space bar to start the trailer)
Miss Coco Peru @ Charlie’s
Nov 14th
Last night a few friends and I went to see Miss Coco Peru at Charlie’s. It was a special performance to celebrate the 500th edition of Echo Magazine. The show began at 9:30 and the plan was to be there no later than 8:30 but, of course, that didn’t happen. We arrive at about 9:15 to a full parking lot and had to find parking on the street. Not a big deal but kind of a pain considering the street that runs by Charlie’s is a dead end. Anyway, we get inside and it’s wall to wall gays. Sylvia turns to me and says “There’s no way we’re going to make it close to the stage with all these people here.” I grabbed her hand and we forced our way through the crowd until we were as close as we could possibly get. I think Sylvia got the short end of the stick because she was stuck wedged up against a drunk drag queen (good times!). Aynsley and her work friend Brandon arrived late (surprise, surprise) and ended up having to watch from the bar on a TV. The drinks were cheap, the show was great and I think everyone had a good time. Catch a clip of Miss Coco Peru below.