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Tuesday, August 11th, 2009
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Well, it happened. My puke clock is now reset to May 10, 2009. Check my Sept 21, 2003 entry for a blast to the past. :)
On Sunday night, May 10, I started feeling a bit fatigued and pretty wiped out. I'd played a hard hockey game earlier in the day, so I figured it was due to some dehydration due to the game. I ate dinner normally (chili and nachos), drank a bunch of water, and went to bed around 11:30pm. Well, at 1:33am I woke up and felt super nauseous. I hurried to the bathroom and thought, "OMG I'm going to throw up!" I hovered over the toilet for a few minutes, started to feel better, then hurried back to bed.
Woke up again at 1:42. Same drill as before--I hurried to the bathroom and hovered over the toilet. But this time, it arrived. In full force. Wow that chili tasted really good going down, but not coming back up! Several hurls later, it began to subside. I washed out my mouth, drank some water, and went back to bed.
But then, about 2 hours later, it happened. Again. And again. Argh! Relentless puking continued without remorse.
Finally, around 5am, I felt somewhat better. Exhausted and tired, I went back to sleep.
I initially thought it was food poisoning from a Big Town Hero sub that I ate during lunch on Saturday, but now I believe it was due to a stomach virus, because when my parents came to visit, they arrived Tuesday evening, and my mom caught what I had 2 days later. Sorry, Mom!
Venus pointed out that this was the first time I'd ever puked since she's known me! And that would be true. D-aaamn!
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Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.
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Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009
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On my crusade to rid myself of the high costs of cable TV, here's the progress from my initial post on March 19:
1) got the Xbox360 to play media from a media server
2) opened an XBLA Live Gold account to allow me to use Netflix streaming
3) opened a Netflix $8.99/month account to allow for instant queueing of movies (this is pretty slick in itself so far!)
4) bought an ooma VoIP phone, so dumped my Comcast phone service, reducing my monthly bill by ~$26 or so.
STILL TO DO:
5) need to get TVersity media server software installed on my desktop PC to allow me to aggregate all my video, music, pictures in one location for playback on the 360
6) need to get a digital tuner/antenna and PVR (personal video recorder) software on the desktop PC so I can record over-the-air TV shows, allowing for playback on the 360
7) have to figure out how to get this set-up to play media on the TV in the bedroom
8) then I can finally cancel cable TV and reduce my now internet-only service from Comcast down to ~$50/month. Net savings will be around $1000/year.
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Tuesday, April 21st, 2009
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This video, about the New World Order, has quite a few interesting theories. Talks about Obama being a front man for the NWO cartel.
If you don't want to watch the whole thing (it's about 1:51m long), jump to 1:22 and start from there. That's where the summary begins.
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Thursday, March 19th, 2009
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One of the projects I'm working on is trying to get off cable. I can't stand the whole domination by the cable companies and their high priced monopoly, so I'm looking to try and minimize their impact on me as much as possible. I really just need the internet "pipe" from them as my gateway to the outside world.
Does anyone do the whole media center thing at home? I need some advice on setting the whole thing up. The project scope is:
Goal: To get off cable TV and cable provided phone in order to maximize cost savings, without limiting my regular tv shows
Plan: Establish a Media PC to hold and serve the source videos (tv shows, some movies). Have my Xbox 360, connected to my family room TV, pull from the Media PC whenever I want to watch anything.
Unknowns: Several, actually.
- What's the best way to get the TV shows I normally watch (such as BSG, Lost, Top Chef, Survivor)? Do I grab them from a site like Hulu.com or from a network's homepage?
- Is there a way to automate the above process?
- Can I stream an HD signal over my wireless g network to my 360?
- How can I watch these shows on another TV in the same household? Like the one in my bedroom?
- Should I upgrade XP to Vista in order to better utilize Windows Media Center, or will TVersity work just fine?
- Should I bother with hooking up an HD antenna to either: 1) watch live HD TV, or 2) hook it up to the PC to capture live HD TV broadcasts, which I can then watch later
What else am I missing?
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
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Wednesday, November 12th, 2008
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Tomb Raider Underworld has gone gold and will ship on November 18. The team at Crystal Dynamics dedicated the game to my good buddy Grimalkin (Kyle), who was the lead level designer on the project. It was quite ironic that I joined the project after Kyle passed away and helped shepherd the game to release.
On the Xbox 360, PC, and PS3 versions of the game, Kyle's face is in the game as a portrait on one of the walls inside the cabin of Lara Croft's yacht. A nice tribute to immortalize him on probably the biggest project he's ever worked on... it's very sad he wasn't around to see the finished product, but I'm sure he would have been proud of it.
December will mark 1 year.
With everything going on in my life, I still miss the guy. He was like a younger brother to me.
TRU comes out Nov. 18 on the 360, PS3, DS, and Wii. PS2 and PC versions will ship later (likely before Christmas). The game is quite frankly amazing. It could be one of the best looking games on the 360, and certainly is on the Wii. Kyle definitely left his game design mark.
Peace.
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Comments: Read 5 or Add Your Own.
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Thursday, October 30th, 2008
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Friday, October 24th, 2008
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This is a link to an audio interview with Phil Berg, the Democrat former attorney general of Pennsylvania who filed a lawsuit to get Obama to produce his documents of his original place of birth, which Obama has refused to do.
http://michaelsavage.wnd.com/?pageId=2256
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Comments: Read 3 or Add Your Own.
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Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008
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I cannot believe, that out of ~300 million people in this country, we're left with these 3 losers as our potential presidential candidates.
THERE HAVE GOT TO BE BETTER CHOICES!
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Comments: Read 1 or Add Your Own.
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We took our dogs, Waffle and Jasper, to a beach in Florence, OR a few weeks ago during an outing to that sleepy town. The two pugs are Uma and Olive, who belong to my sister and her fiance.
Here's a video of them playing. Enjoy!
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Saturday, January 19th, 2008
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It's that time again, when we are inundated with ads about the candidates for president. Now I like a good ad every now and then, but not 92837907859475 of them each hour!! Thank God for TIVO! Though I still have to sit through them when listening to the radio. :(
I've been doing a lot of my own research on Ron Paul, a Republican candidate for president. The more I discover about him, the better I like him!
He's very much for small, limited government. He's for lower taxes and the elimination of the IRS. He's for reduction of the nanny state and entitlements. Among many other Libertarian ideals.
Though I don't agree with him on Iraq or foreign policy, I understand that no candidate is perfect.
Therefore, I am throwing my support behind Ron Paul!
Do yourself a favor and discover Ron Paul... There is hope for America! Then tell 10 friends! Join the Revolution!!
http://www.ronpaul2008.com/
Brief Overview of Congressman Paul’s Record:
He has never voted to raise taxes.
He has never voted for an unbalanced budget.
He has never voted for a federal restriction on gun ownership.
He has never voted to raise congressional pay.
He has never taken a government-paid junket.
He has never voted to increase the power of the executive branch.
He voted against the Patriot Act.
He voted against regulating the Internet.
He voted against the Iraq war.
He does not participate in the lucrative congressional pension program.
He returns a portion of his annual congressional office budget to the U.S. treasury every year.
Congressman Paul introduces numerous pieces of substantive legislation each year, probably more than any single member of Congress.
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Sunday, January 13th, 2008
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Tuesday, January 8th, 2008
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I recently finished reading an excellent dog lover's book by Mark R. Levin entitled Rescuing Sprite. Anyone who has ever owned and lost a dog should read this book. It's an easy read at 200 pages.
This book is very touching and I'm sure you'll find yourself with moist eyes at more than one point during your read. Mark articulates everything so well and paints the emotional picture so perfectly.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about the joy and anguish of owning dogs.
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Thursday, January 3rd, 2008
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One of my favorite videos is watching Waffle do what his breed is supposed to do--herd. A few years ago I took him to a remote location north of Sacramento where he tried his ability at herding. When he first saw those sheep, he went berserk, as if a lightbulb went off in his head and he knew his calling.
(The woman in the middle in red is the trainer.)
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Monday, December 31st, 2007
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So it's been an extremely long time since my last entry. Bad me.
I've started to compile all my fun videos into some semblance of order and will post the worthy ones to YouTube.
Here's the first, "Waffle and the Stick"
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Thursday, August 10th, 2006
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Those wacky Japanese! The nation that brought us the classic MXC (Most Extreme Elimination Competition) now have a new fun game:
TV Japan Slapped In The Balls
Gotta give Japanese game show producers credit they are single handedly the most sadistic and hilarious people ever. On this game show contestants have to recite a tongue twister under a certain amount of time or they get slapped in the balls. Brilliant!
http://view.break.com/134202
I don't know what the heck they are saying, but it's funny as hell!
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Comments: Read 1 or Add Your Own.
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This is good sh1t:
Gore isn't quite as green as he's led the world to believe
Updated 8/10/2006 10:44 AM ET E-mail | Save | Print | Subscribe to stories like this
By Peter Schweizer
Al Gore has spoken: The world must embrace a "carbon-neutral lifestyle." To do otherwise, he says, will result in a cataclysmic catastrophe. "Humanity is sitting on a ticking time bomb," warns the website for his film, An Inconvenient Truth. "We have just 10 years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tailspin."
Graciously, Gore tells consumers how to change their lives to curb their carbon-gobbling ways: Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs, use a clothesline, drive a hybrid, use renewable energy, dramatically cut back on consumption. Better still, responsible global citizens can follow Gore's example, because, as he readily points out in his speeches, he lives a "carbon-neutral lifestyle." But if Al Gore is the world's role model for ecology, the planet is doomed.
For someone who says the sky is falling, he does very little. He says he recycles and drives a hybrid. And he claims he uses renewable energy credits to offset the pollution he produces when using a private jet to promote his film. (In reality, Paramount Classics, the film's distributor, pays this.)
Public records reveal that as Gore lectures Americans on excessive consumption, he and his wife Tipper live in two properties: a 10,000-square-foot, 20-room, eight-bathroom home in Nashville, and a 4,000-square-foot home in Arlington, Va. (He also has a third home in Carthage, Tenn.) For someone rallying the planet to pursue a path of extreme personal sacrifice, Gore requires little from himself.
Then there is the troubling matter of his energy use. In the Washington, D.C., area, utility companies offer wind energy as an alternative to traditional energy. In Nashville, similar programs exist. Utility customers must simply pay a few extra pennies per kilowatt hour, and they can continue living their carbon-neutral lifestyles knowing that they are supporting wind energy. Plenty of businesses and institutions have signed up. Even the Bush administration is using green energy for some federal office buildings, as are thousands of area residents.
But according to public records, there is no evidence that Gore has signed up to use green energy in either of his large residences. When contacted Wednesday, Gore's office confirmed as much but said the Gores were looking into making the switch at both homes. Talk about inconvenient truths.
Gore is not alone. Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean has said, "Global warming is happening, and it threatens our very existence." The DNC website applauds the fact that Gore has "tried to move people to act." Yet, astoundingly, Gore's persuasive powers have failed to convince his own party: The DNC has not signed up to pay an additional two pennies a kilowatt hour to go green. For that matter, neither has the Republican National Committee.
Maybe our very existence isn't threatened.
Gore has held these apocalyptic views about the environment for some time. So why, then, didn't Gore dump his family's large stock holdings in Occidental (Oxy) Petroleum? As executor of his family's trust, over the years Gore has controlled hundreds of thousands of dollars in Oxy stock. Oxy has been mired in controversy over oil drilling in ecologically sensitive areas.
Living carbon-neutral apparently doesn't mean living oil-stock free. Nor does it necessarily mean giving up a mining royalty either.
Humanity might be "sitting on a ticking time bomb," but Gore's home in Carthage is sitting on a zinc mine. Gore receives $20,000 a year in royalties from Pasminco Zinc, which operates a zinc concession on his property. Tennessee has cited the company for adding large quantities of barium, iron and zinc to the nearby Caney Fork River.
The issue here is not simply Gore's hypocrisy; it's a question of credibility. If he genuinely believes the apocalyptic vision he has put forth and calls for radical changes in the way other people live, why hasn't he made any radical change in his life? Giving up the zinc mine or one of his homes is not asking much, given that he wants the rest of us to radically change our lives.
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Thursday, March 16th, 2006
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And it starts today! This time, for sure, I shall win the office pool I've entered!
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fofferin's journal
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groggy.