No, this isn’t about drinking, but I knew you would think that.
I have this pillow case…and decided to use it on a certain someone. I had to find someone who wouldn’t care if I shoved their body in it. I found that someone in Simon. Yes, he is a good cat and was a good sport this New Year’s Eve. I took a picture of him after I got half his body in the pillow case.
You see? Simon is half in the bag.
Today is New Year’s Eve. Laura and I just ran up to Emmanuels Market Place in Stone Ridge, NY. We decided to some more Sushi would be good to celebrate the new year. Laura also wanted to get a bottle of vodka and I wanted to get some sparkling grape juice. I like that stuff.
We went into the liquor store first to get the vodka. Then, we went into the grocery store and grabbed the Sushi first. We got a few things here and there and I went to find the grape juice. I couldn’t find it, but I did come across the area where I picked up that Samuel Adams Double Bock over the summer. I said to myself, “Mmmm, that beer would be better than the stupid grape juice,” so I started looking for it. For some reason, I couldn’t find it. Perhaps it’s seasonal or something. I did come across a different type of beer though.
This one came in a 4-pack, so I know there is something special about it. It is called Schneider Weisse Aventinus and they claim it to be Germany’s original wheat-doppelbock, ale. I am quite interested in tasting this good looking beer. I loved the descriptions, especially where it said, “Dark-ruby, almost black-colored and streaked with fine top-fermenting yeast…” That’s what I’m talkin’ bout. They also say that it settles to the bottom. I can see a layer of stuff on the bottom of the bottle. Ooohhh, I just love that. I also love un-filtered beer, but this will have to do.
I will let you know how it goes after tonight.
Huge Asteroid Headed for Earth–Too Close for Comfort
It is headed our way, and it’s a big one, but the chances of hitting Earth are 1-in-3030, and it won’t be in the neighborhood until 2048. Naturally, a rock of that size would do significant damage to the planet. The asteroid is 130 meters across–that’s about 142 yards or 1-1/2 football fields, if you’re American.
Continent-sized floating garbage patch threatens food chain
In one of the few places on Earth where people can rarely be found, the human race has well and truly made its mark. In the middle of the Pacific Ocean lies a floating garbage patch twice the size of Britain. A place where the water is filled with six times as much plastic as plankton, a plastic-plankton soup that is entering the food chain.
Planet Earth 2007: Top 10 Science Revelations
From the damning climate report by the IPCC to projections of an impending peak in global oil production, 2007 was full of startling findings and prognostications about the blue marble we call home.
Advertising firm JWT predicts that one of the top trends of 2008 will see blue replacing green as the color of environmentalism, social conscience, and all-round niceness.
How to Recycle Your Christmas Tree
If you had a real Christmas tree this year how are you planning to get rid of it? Here is a short guide on how to properly dispose of your Christmas tree.
As I mentioned in my previous post, it snowed last night. At about 10PM, I started hearing the sleet hitting the windows. I hate sleet, because it is so difficult to clean up in the morning. It turns into a sheet of semi-ice that’s a pain in the butt to get off the cars.
Anyway, I woke up to a nice layer of fluffy snow. Since it was kind of warm last night, a lot of it stuck to the trees. That always makes for a pretty view. I went out to clean off the cars and everything came off pretty easily. The snow was all melting around me. By the time I got to the mailbox, it was all turning to slush. That’s the kind of snow I don’t mind.
Laura and I went out for Sushi at the Panda House in Danbury, CT tonight. This Chinese/Japanese restaurant is, by far, our favorite Sushi place. We have been to quite a few Sushi restaurants, so we know what’s good and what is being charged too much for. Usually, we are getting ripped off…especially that place up on Rt.9 in Poughkeepsie. I am not going to name names, but if you have been there, you know they have some skinny Sushi. Nobody likes skinny Sushi.
Actually, we don’t get the Sushi, we get the Maki-zushi (roll).
Today is cause for celebration, so we wanted to go out to Dave & Busters down in the Palisades Center Mall in West Nyack. They were calling for snow (which it is doing right now), so we had to call everyone to tell them to stay home. That was a drag. Then, we got an idea. Since we could go get Sushi much earlier than we were going to go to Dave & Busters, we may miss the snow. That was a good idea. As we were sitting in Panda House, enjoying our Sushi with two friends, it started to snow. It snowed all through dinner. I wasn’t all that nervous, because it looked like it was melting as it hit the ground. We were more than an hour from home, so it did concern me a bit.
We finished up dinner and left. We made it home in good time without event, except for that car going 30MPH on Interstate 84. We had a nice dinner too.
YEE HAWW
In my WordPress dashboard, I just noticed that there is a security and bugfix release for WordPress. The new version is 2.3.2. I like to announce these releases in my posts because some of my friends and family uses WordPress and they might not notice the blurb in their dashboard.
Mad peace to all of you.
Well, I did it. I took the plunge. I ordered my video camera.
Since I am trying to get into doing some video for this blog, Laura decided to give me a very generous Circuit City gift card for Christmas. She didn’t know exactly which camera I wanted, so she let me pick it out. Fortunately, I did know which one I wanted, so I picked it out and ordered it yesterday. I received a shipping notification today, so I should get it soon.
Here are the specs:
Hard disk drive camcorder: Capture powerful sound and sharp images direct to a 30GB hard disk drive with the DCR-SR42 Handycam® camcorder.
1/6″ Advanced HAD™ CCD: This 680k pixel (gross) imaging device provides stunning detail and clarity with exceptional video (up to 500 lines of horizontal resolution) and sharp still images.
Carl Zeiss® Vario-Tessar® lens: Carl Zeiss lenses have an advanced optical multi-layer coating for increased contrast. This results in vivid image brilliance, true-to-life color saturation and perfect renditions of subtle tones.
2.5″ touch-panel SwivelScreen™: The high-resolution LCD screen rotates up to 270 degrees for multiple viewing angles that provide sharp, detailed images for monitoring or playback.
Zoom: The 40x optical zoom brings the action close with minimized distortion, while the digital zoom can be increased up to an amazing 2000x before or after shooting.
Digital still memory mode: Capture still images up to 640 x 480 resolution directly onto the internal 30GB hard disk drive or Memory Stick Duo™ Media for easy transfer to PCs for emailing, printing or sharing with other compatible Memory Stick® media compatible devices.
Handycam station: Simply place the camcorder on the supplied Handycam Station cradle to provide quick connections to a TV for viewing or a PC for editing and sharing. Placing the camcorder on this station also charges the battery, so your camcorder is always ready to go.
On-screen zoom and record buttons: The DCR-SR42 features zoom and record buttons on the frame of the LCD screen, which offers more flexibility when holding the camcorder in overhead or low-angle shots.
DVDirect compatibility: The DVDirect system allows you to easily transfer to a stand-alone DVD burner via USB 2.0.
Low-light mode: The Super NightShot Infrared System allows you to capture natural-looking video, even when shooting in low light.
Image stabilization: Super SteadyShot® uses motion sensors to ensure a smooth and steady picture.
Smart Protection: A unique shock absorber protects the hard disk drive from physical damage if the unit is dropped. When the 3G Sensor detects a drop (loss of gravity) the power to the hard disk drive is turned off in order to prevent damage. During this time the DCR-SR42 remains powered on and recording video to the built-in buffer. Once the unit has recovered from the drop the buffer is then recorded to the Hard Disk Drive.
USB 2.0 interface: Connect your Handycam and transfer images to your PC fast, or use it as a convenient storage device for storing and transporting your videos and pictures.
How cool is that? This camera is probably $500 less expensive than the ones just five years ago, but much better. I am going to attempt to take some nice video and edit them to post on YouTube. Then you are going to get some wild tree planting videos come Spring.
I was doing a little research online today on the different tax burdens each state throws at its residents. I always knew New York was up there, but I wanted to know about how the rest of the states in our fine country compared to our overpriced and overtaxed state. Sometimes I wonder what the heck we are paying for up here. I guess that will be an eternal question in my mind.
So, during my research, I came across this great article by CNN Money, titled, “How tax-friendly is your state?” This was pretty good. They merged and averaged all the taxes a person pays in a particular state and put them in a nice list. As I said above, I knew New York was up there, but what really surprised me was who was in the number one slot and who was in the 49th. Two states, side by side. Makes you wonder.
Technology Consumers Got More Choice in ‘07
In 2007 The computing world revolved around Microsoft, your wireless carrier controlled what your cellphone could do, and the record labels locked your legal music downloads with software to limit what you could do with them.
Spicebird a Mozilla-based collaboration Outlook killer
Spicebird is built on Thunderbird and Lightning, the powerful extension that adds calendaring functions to Thunderbird. Additionally it seems to integrate SamePlace, a Firefox extension that provides instant messaging capabilities based on the Jabber protoco
5 Things You’ll Love About Firefox 3
Firefox 3 Beta 2 shows some nifty new tools we can expect in Mozilla’s next browser
The Flexibility of Open Source
One of the things that has been a strong point of Open Source Software (OSS) for years, even if it hasn’t been held at the forefront of the battle, is the flexibility that OSS offers.
36 Startup Tips: From Software Engineering to PR and More!
This is a collection of startup tips covering software engineering, infrastructure, PR, conferences, legal and finance. They describe best practices for an early-stage startup
I took some videos with my digital camera of the Red Lion Inn, in Stockbridge, MA while we were up there over Christmas. The camera did a pretty good job, but ran out of room for any real video.
For what I got, I think it did a nice job. If you will notice, I am not the best narrator or video taker. Oh well.
This was just a little bit of the Inn. The place is huge, but people would probably think I was a nut, walking around taking video. I tried to get it while no one was around.
