Archive for November, 2007
Thursday, November 22nd, 2007
The tile guy came over at 8AM this morning to finish up the tiling. All he had to do was the grout.
I must’ve gotten up about eight times last night for various reasons. I do this all the time when I am expecting someone to come over early in the morning. I heard a bump at about 6:30AM and I hopped out of bed. It wasn’t him, but I just stayed awake.
He did a really nice job. We both put the toilet back in (of which I bought the correct bolts). Then, after he left, I put the vanity back in and hooked up the plumbing.
All I have to do now is to hang the door moulding and installed the threshhold moulding on the floor in the doorway. It should look nice. After that, THE KITCHEN!!!
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Posted in Home Improvement | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 21st, 2007
Well, that was pretty quick. The tile guy came at about 9AM and left around 11:30AM.
I am pretty happy that there were no hiccups. When he first showed up, I went outside to greet him. I told him that I was going to be the best little helper he ever had. Then, I came inside and did some work. He hardly even saw me. Whoops.
So, here are some photos…
This is the empty bathroom. I made a little mess while taking the toilet off this morning. Also, the wood in the corner was a little wet from the shower, but still strong. He stomped on it just to make sure.
He put a layer of thin set down and then put a cement-type board on top of that.
This is all the cement board down.
This is the cement board fastened to the floor.
Ok, here we go with the tile.
…and it’s done. Well, tomorrow morning he is coming back to do the tile grout. I ordered a brown grout to match the tile. From the pictures above, it doesn’t look like the tile matches the walls much, but they do match the bathroom. The wall tiles have more of a shine to them, but it’s ok. The floor tiles match the upper portion of the walls.
People have told me how easy it is to tile and that I could do it myself. After watching him install this tile, I am going to have him do the kitchen as well. I don’t feel like it’s worth it for me to buy the tools and find the time to learn how to tile, especially when it’s a once in a blue moon kind of thing. I am happy he did it.
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Tuesday, November 20th, 2007
Laura and I went up to New Paltz this past sunday for another show. This time, the show was called, “Antigone.” Now, you may think it’s strange that I wrote it that way, but I have actually never heard of this.
Here is a short description…
“One of the great tragedies of the ancient Greek theatre, “Antigone” is the story of a young girl with the will to rise up alone against the forces of government, culture, and family to live and die for her beliefs.”
It was a good show. I think the students, as usual, did a great job. I did have a little problem this time. We didn’t sit in the front row, like we did last time, so there was no place for me to stretch my legs. I kept having to move around the whole time, because I have trouble sitting still. I think this stems from my childhood, when I was a bad boy.
Oh well. I think we are going to wait until the Spring semester to go up for the next show.
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Posted in Education, Entertainment | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 20th, 2007
I continue to play with the video portion of my camera. I took a few more videos of the cats and dog, but I didn’t think any were worthy of the blog. I did get 18 views of the fat Simon cat one so far on YouTube.
I was going for a drive the other morning and I decided to take out the camera. I thought it would be neat to get a video of me crossing the Newburgh/Beacon Bridge. I am not sure why I did this…perhaps someone will think it’s cool. Either way, placing videos on YouTube is a great way to promote your website.
Here she is…
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Posted in Travels | 1 Comment »
Monday, November 19th, 2007
Blogger takes Honda’s $10m hydrogen fuel cell FCX Clarity for a test drive
What would you do if Honda handed you the keys to a $10 million car that emits only water vapor? Everything legal, that’s what. Read AutoblogGreen’s first in-depth review of a car some lucky people will be able to lease next summer. When will the rest of us get to drive a hydrogen car?
Broadband speeds days numbered?
Enjoy your speedy broadband Web access while you can. The Web will start to slow down as early as 2010, as use of interactive and video-intensive services overwhelms local cable, phone and wireless Internet providers
Think Recycling Computers Is A Good Thing? Think Again
Most people think they’re helping the earth when they recycle their old computers, televisions and cell phones. But chances are they’re contributing to a global trade in electronic trash that endangers workers and pollutes the environment overseas
Is AMD Doomed?
Can a $622M dollar cash infusion plus reasonably profitable GPUs give AMD enough breathing room to prove its gamble on true quad core was a good one? The jury is still out, but the portents are not very encouraging. The tech world really needs a scrappy, nimble CPU company like AMD, just like it needs a scrappy, cool computer company like Apple.
Why Car Salesmen Think its Okay to Screw you, And what you can do about it!
This is a good article on common arguments a car salesman may throw at you during the buying process. Very informative, kind of funny, but SO true!
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Posted in Current Events, Internet, Websites | 1 Comment »
Saturday, November 17th, 2007
Google offers API for Outlook migration to Gmail
Google took a giant step on Friday to make it easier for companies to migrate any e-mail system over to Google Apps Gmail by offering an E-mail Migration API targeted at corporate developers and e-mail administrators.
Become an Internet Legend in Your Free Time: Tips from Internet Celebrities
“The Internet moves very fast,” says Gary “Numa Numa” Brolsma. “Your video has to be funny, or get to the point, very quickly. People are clicking all the time. If you don’t hook people in the first 15 seconds, they’ll move on.”
Top 30 websites that still are using tables as layout structure
You won´t believed how many they are. Some of then are your daily web routine. Stop hunting those IE CSS tricks and bring back your Frontpage 98 my friend designer, we are still in web 0.8889
How Top Bloggers Really Promote their Websites
Simple question: “If you had 2-hours a day to devote to no-cost, off-blog (even off-line) marketing for your blog, what would you do?” I posed this very question to a collection of some of the world’s top bloggers and social network marketers…and here’s what they revealed.
15 Unreasonably Useful Websites
A list of 15 websites that are either useful or entertaining.
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Posted in Blogs, Current Events, Internet, Websites | No Comments »
Saturday, November 17th, 2007
Here comes trouble. I was talking to Craig this morning on the phone about maybe getting a video camera. He told me that his digital camera does a pretty good job of taking video. Ohhh yeah, I forgot mine does too.
Oh, this isn’t going to be good. I took a sample video this morning of Simon, the big, fat orange cat. Here, take a look…
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Posted in Animals | 4 Comments »
Saturday, November 17th, 2007
I have had this post on my “todo” list for some time. I am not really sure how to write it without people getting mad at me. It seems like every time I write about something that threatens people’s ways of life, I hear about it. I can understand that, because I wouldn’t want someone telling me what to do, but perhaps a suggestion…I would listen to.
I guess we are all beginning to realize there is a problem out there. I just read an article on Yahoo!, titled, “UN panel: Climate change accelerating.” That’s not good. I mean, the article was well written, but what it was about isn’t good.
I think I have become an ever increasingly bitter person. It probably has something to do with me thinking an awful lot about stuff. I spend time thinking about consumption, power, working, relationships and life in general. It kills me to go out there in the world and see people who don’t seem to be doing much thinking at all.
One of the things that really gets to me is people buying too much stuff. I write a lot about things I have purchased and it may seem like I purchase a lot. Maybe I do. Let’s just say that half the stuff I write about, I never get. I usually spend a few months tossing it around in my head. I always think and think and think and that’s one annoying thing about me. Also, I usually buy stuff that has a purpose. I buy things I need for either survival or for business. I never buy things because they are on sale. The good thing is that Laura and I recycle more than we through away. There is rarely a full garbage can out at the end of the driveway on pickup day.
I saw this lady on Oprah the other day who had “hoarding disease.” The show was helping her overcome her problem and they were going through all the junk she had in her house. They would ask how she got some of the items and one time, she responded something like, “Oh, well that was on sale. They were almost asking me to buy it.” To me, that’s just crazy. Who buys something they don’t need because it’s on sale? Who does that?
I suffer from thinking about chains of events. Every purchase has polluted in its own way. Every little trinket has either cut down a tree, burned oil for shipping, used too much packaging, created sub-par working conditions…you get the idea. So how does one live a life being angry about their own purchases and even angrier about other people’s purchases? I don’t know. All I know is that every time I mention it, people get mad at me.
I like charities as much as the next guy, but I have begun thinking about them too. I am starting to think that I have some sort of problem. Now, people can’t just ask me to contribute without me thinking about whether the charity abused animals for research, caused the purchase of way too many toys or cut down a rain forest. The only thing I can think of to donate to is PETA because they don’t seem to be filling the world up with junk or polluting.
As you may know, I have been doing some research on the next car I am going to buy. This is especially important because cars create lots of pollution. There is a debate in my head whether to get one with not so good gas mileage or one with really good gas mileage. I know I am not going to drive nearly as much as I used to, so this issue is smaller than it should be. I think about it though and I guess that’s good.
We have been hearing about over-consumption for a long time now. Why is it that people still are shocked to hear someone talk about it? Can I say that I am not for buying kids so many toys without being branded as being against kids? Can I say that I think people should think more about efficiency when donating new houses to the less fortunate without being branded as being against the poor? Can I say that researchers should consider the rights of animals when doing medical research without being branded as being against the ill?
As you can see, there is a fine line to walk when talking about these issues. Unfortunately, if no one talks about them, we are going to be living on a very hot planet, among many many stinky landfills with no more animals. That is not good.
The good thing is that there are a few people out there who think along the same lines as I do. TreeHugger has a good article called, “Birthdays Without Pressure” which links to a related website that deals with the problems with birthday parties.
Read a little of the information on the websites I just linked to and please leave me a comment.
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Posted in Current Events, Environment | No Comments »
Saturday, November 17th, 2007
I run Windows Vista. It’s ok. I am not the kind of guy who goes nuts over operating systems out there. I am sure there are some great features with other ones, but I needed a computer because I have work to do.
I have been pretty happy with Windows Vista, although there are some strange things that never seem to work correctly, like ActiveSync. I am not sure why Microsoft can’t seem to get this right. I am running a Microsoft operating system and running Windows Mobile on my PDA. Why is it that I have to break the relationship every so often, because the phone refuses to sync with the computer? I have no idea.
Recently, I purchased Outlook 2007 and installed it. At about the same time, my computer restarted itself to finish installing the most recent updates. Ever since then, whenever the computer goes into sleep mode, I can’t wake it up by shaking the mouse. I used to be able to do this. Now, I have to give the power button a quick push to wake it up. That’s fine, but what happened?
It just puzzles me that it is always a guessing game with what’s going to happen when I install some software or update existing software made by the same people.
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Posted in Computers | No Comments »
Saturday, November 17th, 2007
I have been going back and forth for some time on this issue…whether or not to go video. I know I take a lot of photos for this blog and that seems to be working out well. I just think that people would enjoy video a whole lot more.
The benefit is that people can see much more through video. They can hear me talk and hear the birds chirp. They can get a real feel for things. Image watching TV as a slide show. Not so much fun. I think video is where it’s at.
I was thinking that I can get a little Sony hard drive video camera and upload the videos to YouTube.com. Depending on the software I get with the camera, I can add my URL in the bottom corner of each video to promote whatever website the video is going to be posted on. Then, I can simply pull the code for the video in from YouTube to my website. Sound good?
Ok, since I really know nothing about video cameras, I am going to have to do a little research. I saw one at Circuit City for decent price. Maybe one of these days I will go grab it. I am sure my family would like to watch these videos, or maybe I am just being a little narcissistic. Nah, I think they will like it.
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Posted in Blogs, Entertainment, Internet, Websites | No Comments »
