Then check out MyBrute.com. I found the link on Facebook. I don’t usually play the “games” they have there but this one seemed interesting. You pick a name and a character and go at it. You don’t control your character during the fight – it is all automated but as you progress you build up skills.
Check it out. You can take me on here…
if you feel lucky…
Well, do ya… Punk?!
I took the oportunity of the free day off work to hit the mall and return my POS T-Mobile Shadow and cancel my account. After two calls to customer service and two to the guy who sold me the phone I figured there was no way I would get a signal at my house. I tested t-mobile’s rang one last time last night by watching the bars on the Shadow as I drove home. On the main road I got a strong signal. When I turned into my subdivision it went down to two bars. This time, a little more than half way back to my street I got ‘No Service’ displayed. Instead of turning down my street I decided to head towards the back of my subdivision to see if the signal loss was just around my street. At the very back of my subdividion I still had no signal.
When I returned the phone the sales guy informed me of the $50 restocking fee. He had obviously been in this situation before and was ready for whatever I was going to say. I told him I was never told of a restocking fee and he, without missing a beat, told me exactly where I could find the single sentence at the bottom of the page that mentioned the fee. A $50 restocking fee is outragous. What if I had gotten one of the 99 cent phones? Still $50? Bastards! I argued that the fee should be waived because I was only cancelling their service because I could not recieve their service.
They failed to provide me the service I agreed to pay for… I should charge them an annoyance fee!
Anyway, I made sure the sales guy had T-mobile note that I was cancelling because of lack of signal at my home. I hope this will help me get the $50 restocking fee waived. I’m sure I will need to make one or more calls to t-mobile before this if finished.
Tropical Storm Fey is heading this way. Hey, I just rhymed. So, we have been keeping an eye on the storm all weekend. Early yesterday I was thinking I should at least put up the shutters on the big front window. Dad said he didn’t think we’d need it and I rarely turn down a chance to not do something. By this morning the track had changed yet again so now we are putting up the shutters. But I can’t do it until after work now. And it may be rainning after work now. Oh well, that’s live in the sunshine state. I enjoy a good storm (as long as no one is hurt). There is something about nature kicking up a fuss that I find exhilarating.
I have been looking for a used 2G iPhone for some time now. My plan was to unlock it so I can sign up w/ T-Mobile and talk for free with my children. Yesterday I found one locally on Craigslist.org. I contacted the guy around 8am yesteday and we agreed to meet at the apple store at 1pm. I was excited about jailbreaking and unlocking the phone to use on t-mobile’s network. I picked up the iPhone and then headed to the mall to sign up with T-Mobile. I had already talked to one of the guys at a kiosk (who is a friend of Lauren’s)about my plan. I get there, buy a T-mobile Shadow phone and get my plan.
I get the phone home and try it out. I can’t get a signal! I walk around my house searching for a signal… nothing. I step outside to the street and still nothing. My first troubleshooting step is to pull the battery for a few minutes and then replace it. Still nothing. I had checked the t-mobile website long before to verify I had service in my area. This shouldn’t be happening. Maybe my phone is bad. I called tech support and told them my problem. I had to speak with two different ‘techs’ before I was told to return the phone for a replacement. Crap.
As a last ditch effort I hop in my truck and drive two miles to the grocery store. In the parking lot I fire up my phone and what do you know… I get a signal. I nice signal, too. I’m glad the phone works but a little ticked it won’t work in my house. I swap the SIM card to the iPhone and fire it up. After a few seconds of searching I get a signal indicator that says T-Mobile and three bars. I’m excited to see my jailbreak and unlock worked but now I’m getting even more pissed I didn’t get this signal at home.
After slipping in the store to stock up on soda for the ‘hurricane’ I headed home. Before pulling out of the parking lot I swapped the SIM back to my Shadow and checked the signal again. Nice and strong. I headed home watching the signal meter as I went. From the parking lot with three bars I hit the main road and got full strength. As I neared my subdivision it dropped to three bars. Turning into the subdivision I bounce from three to two bars… not a good sign. By the time I got to my street it was bouncing between one and two bars. In my driveway was one bar. I went in the house and still had one tiny bar hanging on. I swapped the SIM back to the iPhone and was able to get my one bar. At this point I figured I was stuck with one bar at home. As long as I got a signal I would accept it. I put the iPhone in its cradle and downloaded some free apps to play with. After this sync I was unable to get a signal on the phone. I again swapped the SIM to the Shadow and, again, no signal. I never got a signal again until I brought the phones here to work. I in the office the signal bounces from full to two bars for no apparent reason. I think I have to give up on t-mobile and just go with AT&T.
Today is Lauren’s first day of college. I’m sure she is very busy but I will call her tonight to see how it went.
It’s true…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super-Rabbit
I read about it in TechRepublics’s Geek Trivia.
Google Maps has a street view of my neighborhood. While that is pretty neat in itself, the pictures were taken while half of the street had our Christmas lighted arches up.
View Larger Map
I wish I had seen the van drive through. I could see that I was home at the time because my car is in the driveway in the pictures. Not that I would have done anything, it just would have been cool to see the vehicle. I saw pictures somewhere on the internet were a guy followed the Google van for a few blocks and can be seen in several pictures jumping with his hands and legs forming an ‘X’ in the air.
I got an email last week saying I was invited to participate in beta testing for Tabula Rasa, which is the latest massively multiplayer online game. It is the same idea as World of Warcraft or City of Heroes; which I have played before. I signed up and loaded the games client on my computer last night. It was a little over an hour of downloading the client before I was able to get my hands dirty.
I only played a short time last night just to see if I really wanted to do it or not. The first thing you do is set up your character. As with the other MMORPG’s you can have many different characters but, I will only create one for now. All characters are humans and I didn’t see any way to select a female character (not that I wanted to). I will talk about it more as I get into playing the game. From what I have seen so far the graphics and visuals are very good.
A couple of days ago I got a $1 bill as change for my lunch at the Court House that had a www.wheresgeorge.com stamp on it. Actually, it had the stamp on both sides, plus a different stamp from another website: www.TrackMyCash.com. This is at least the second time I have come across a ”Where’s George” bill. I logged in to my account and added the bill. You can see the progress of this specific bill here. The bill originated in New Kensington, PA but the person who entered the bill before me was also in Naples. It is fun to see the path of currency as it is passed along in the normal course of business.
Last weekend the boys’ mother painted their bedroom. While furniture and stuff was moved out of the way their cat knocked a birdcage off a dresser and on to their computer, spilling the birds water into the case. Now the computer is dead.
I tried a little troubleshooting with Scott over the phone but could not get it back up. I will bring a power supply with me when I go at the end of the month to see if that is all that’s blown. I have a feeling it is the board but, you don’t know until you try.
Finally, some one has taken the time to codify an ‘official’ set of rules for Shotgun. The days of “You can’t do that!” or “That’s not fair!” are over. No more arbitrating disputes… just refer them to the official rules!
It’s a fun little site that has the theory, history and rules of shotgun. They also sell a pocket reference guide to keep in your glove box or give as a gift. At $5.95 with free shipping it’s not a bag gag gift for your teen or his friends. I considered getting one for my car. We’ve had shotgun arguments that last way past what I would consider an understandable amount of time. Plus, who ever felt they were wronged or cheated at the last shotgun call will invariably be extra diligent in his next shotgun attempt.
When the boys were little it was a non-issue, they both sat in the back seat. From baby carriers to child car seats to the little booster seats, all they knew was the back seat. It wasn’t long after they were both old enough to ‘ride bareback’ that I heard “Can I sit up there with you?” from the back seat. It was Aaron and he was eager to graduate to the front seat.
I, on the other hand, was not ready for that just yet. I felt they were safer back there. I am always worried about being in a car accident – especially with the nutty drivers we have in SW FL. Any time I imagine being in an accident I picture another car or Semi ramming me head on or in the driver’s side door (I always seem to imagine the most gruesome of outcomes for myself). So, I associate the front seats has danger zones. I always felt a little more at ease with my precious cargo in the back seats. It may be unfounded but, it helps me get through the day.
“Sure, when you are a little older.” I said, happy to have bought myself a little more time to get used to the idea.
“Then can I?” Scott asked, never one to let something get by him. He has quickly processed my statement and found himself a hole. He is, in fact, older. Fortunately, we were already under way. He was, actually, old enough to sit up front.
“How about you sit up here on the way home?” I offered.
“Okay!” he replied with a very satisfied tone. Aaron was disapointed and he made sure it was understood by all. I explained to both of them my feelings about the front seat and their safety. They seemed to reluctantly accept it.
By Aaron’s next birthday the front seat was fair game for either of them and so began “shotgun” which we use to this day.
I love to take picutes - especially of the boys. I wish I had more, wish I had taken more when they were younger. One problem with taking pictures is what do you do with them? I have hundereds of megabites of digital photos sitting on my hard drive that I want to share with family and friends. One solution I use is Flickr.com, which is simple and free. Well, free up to a point. You are limited on the amount you can upload a month as well as the number of sets you can sort your images into. Not to mention the piece of mind knowing your precious images are safe from a hard drive crash or hurricane damage. Well, I decided to pay the $24.95 annual fee last year to get unlimited uploads, storage and sets. At the time it seemed like money well spent. And for that year it was. Then it was time to renew my annual membership. They caught me in the wrong mood I guess and I decided not to renew. This meant that all my previously uploaded images (500+) would not be available for viewing. I was reassured that my pictures were not lost and once I renewed they would all be available to me once again (like a hostage released for ransome?). I decided that since I was already paying for web space with my new web host I would skip the premium services and host the pictures myself.
There are several different ways to create online photo albums for free. Currently, I use flickr.com (free version now), Picasa (by google, which gives you free space on their web servers plus a very cool photo organizer app that is one of the best free apps of its kind around), and Adobe Photoshop’s web album creator. A neat and free slide show creator from Microsoft is Photo Story which is a downloadable app that lets you import your pictures, add transistions and effects like zoom in or out and music.
From photojojo.com I heard of a cool website called Animoto.com that will take your pictures and turn them in to a “photo music video” that will blow any slideshow or PowerPoint presentation away. The deal is you sign up (for free) and you can upload pictures and either use their sound tracks or upload your own. They then process your images and music into a video you can share with family and friends. Check out my first try.
It’s super simple and in just a few clicks you get a professional looking video. They randomly add transitions and effects for you. You just click and wait. With the free account you get a 30 second video. If you are willing to pay you can get longer videos using many more pictures.
The site seems to make it’s money from the premium service and ads on the web site. One nice thing about the ads is that they are unobtrusive on the site. They refer to them as “distractions” that you can view while your video is being processed. My 30 second, 15 picture video took under a minute to process and I was emailed the link once it was done (or you can stay on the site and watch it there once completed).
For now you can not download your photo videos but, I looks like that feature will be added in the furture. For now I am happy throwing in pictures and seeing what cool video creation awaits me at the other side. It’s a very cool site, I hope you check it out.
I have noticed that my new roomba isn’t as quiet as I thought it was going to be. In fact, it seems louder than my Discovery. At least on the hard wood flooring. On the carpet there is no doubt that the 535 is quieter than the Discovery though. I have been reading postings on the Roomba Review forums where others are having the same issue with their 535. The problem seems to be the brushes being to loose and banging around. Shawn, who bought the same roomba, told me he heard of people getting 560′s as replacements for their 535′s. That would be a sweet deal! I would be happy though,if my current roomba were quieter on the bamboo flooring. I’m going to contact iRobot’s CS and see what they offer. It will probably be replacement brushes, which would be great, but a 560 upgrade would be a nice compensation for my ‘troubles’.