December 09, 2006

And the great swami says:

It's already happened: Weather types are already predicting and super-sized hurricane season for next year. Since when have they ever nailed down a good prediction? More importantly, who cares what the prediction is.... when you see a hurricane pop up on radar and it's coming close to your house.... RUN FOREST RUN! If it's not coming (or doesn't form), who the heck cares.

It's amazing that we have such little comprehension of mother nature. I think we should do away with the titles of weather forecasting, and meteorologist and just call them what they are: Radar watchers. Any dang fool can see a cold front coming. Any dang fool can see a line of showers, or a big storm coming. But much more than that....it's all a guess.

December 07, 2006

Dear Phone Company

I don't want your stinkin' phonebooks so PLEASE STOP SENDING THEM!

I haven't owned a home phone for 8 years.... I rarely ever use my cellphone for anything except family calls, and if I ever wanted to call a business or resident I'd use the internet. Yet every year I get 8 new phonebooks delivered to my doorstep that I'm never going to use. I usually have to make a special trip to the dumpster because that many phonebooks fills up a garbage can in one shot. We've got a national "Do Not Call" list.... can't we make a "Do Not Solicit" list. Anytime I get unsolicited ads (or phonebooks), I consider it a form of vandalism. If you stop and thing about it... they are throwing something that I would never pick up myself (ie: trash) and forcing me to take responsibility for it's disposal. I don't want that kind of responsibility. If I find a flyer on my windshield wiper and throw it on the ground, am I littering?.... I think not. I would merely be removing the vandalism from my vehicle.

NO MORE PHONEBOOKS! GOT IT!!!!!..... GOOD!

December 02, 2006

GO GATORS



TWO BITS, FOUR BITS

SIX BITS, A DOLLAR.....

ALL FOR THE GATORS.... STAND UP AND HOLLA!!!!!!!!

December 01, 2006

Libraries Rock

There's nothing quite like a good library..... I just wish I had a good one. After boycotting the Osceola County Public libraries for a good 7 years I decided to give them another try. To their credit the place looks much more like a Borders or Barns/Nobles. The staff is much friendlier and willing to help.... a HUGE change from years ago. My disappointment is in their actual collection... they have very few CDs, DVDs, Audio books, and BOOKS! I went their hoping to score an audiobook version of one of the Sunshine State Young Readers books. My first couple searches turned up only 1 print copy at the MAIN BRANCH! Are you kidding me?... ONE stinkin' copy? I guess an audiobook version is WAY out of the question then.

Don't get me wrong, I still love a good library. It's one of the only institutions in this world set up to serve the public for FREE!! In fact, as a school media specialist/librarian I love to provide these same services to my school. A library without materials, however, is not worth going to very often.

I WIN!

December 1st... and no snow in NYC this year (even though it snowed in Buffalo NY the weekend I was there in October).

November 29, 2006

Do you know this address?

PO Box 540040
EL PASO, TX 88554-0040


If you don't know it... you better get started on those mail-in-rebates soon.

Wii for ME!!!

I had the opportunity to play with a Nintendo Wii Tuesday. It was so.... Nintendo (I love it).

November 15, 2006

Black Friday Deals

Here they are.... Shoppers start your engines!!!!

http://dealspl.us/Black-Friday/


Time to update the family gift giving wiki

November 12, 2006

Yep.... I need my own

I can't wait to have a washer/dryer of my very own. This morning I woke up extra early so I could wash my work clothes (typical weekend ritual). Not many people wash clothes early in the morning so I usually have the place to myself. Today I noticed that the laundromat door deadbolt had been engaged and left open, but went about my business in solitude.

During the wash cycle I went around the building to the gym to take a walk on the tredmill. Nothing really heavy, just a light stretch/warmup for a day of running at work. When I came back to the laundry room, there was a man and woman on the bench. The woman was sleeping in fetal position with her head resting on his lap while he read the morning paper. I also noticed that they weren't doing laundry..... so they had to be homeless.'


I finished my wash cycle and moved my stuff to the dryer, then left. I thought about them stealing my clothes but seeing as it was just my work uniform I figured they wouldn't want them. When I returned 30 minutes later, they were both standing next to my dryer looking very guilty. My dryer was 'OFF' too (It's supposed to go for 60 mins). Apparently they had put their clothes in with my clothes to dry them off. I took my clothes, felt them to make sure they were dry (which they were since I only put 3 articles of clothing in). The woman then turns to me and asks "Sir, may we have the rest of your minutes to dry our clothes?" HOLY FREAKIN' CRAP!! You may as well..... you were tampering with my clothes anyway (GRRRRR)


Yup, I can't wait to have my own washer/dryer.

November 10, 2006

Pretty Pretty


This site has some interesting photography. What's more is that the photographer talks about how the piece was composed. I thought it was pretty amazing.

November 09, 2006

I'm the Deaffest brotha on the block

I took the "Tone Deaf" test..... It's 36 little jingles that are played twice. You have to decide if they are the same or different.


I don't know how scientific it is, but it was fun (scored an 88.8)

October 29, 2006

German Engineering strikes again

The last two days have been absolutely beautiful to run in. As a valet at Disney's Swan and Dolphin hotel, I've been waiting ALL SUMMER for this kind of weather (It's tough to run when it's 98 degrees and drive back in a car that's 150 with the windows up).


Anyway, today I ran out to the back of our parking lot to retrieve a hot little BMW convertable (as soon as I saw it, I remembered parking it yesturday because I couldn't seem to find "Reverse" on the stick shift). Anyways, I jump in a pray that I can get it in reverse (or I'll look silly using my foot with the car in neutral). I turn the key and rrrrrrr rrrrrrr rrrrrrr; dead battery.... YUCK.


I run back and let the shift manager know about the problem.... hoping he'll send someone to jumpstart the car..... he sent me. So I run back out to the boonies with the car charger and "attempt" to figure out BMW engineering (I can drive cars just great.....but don't ask me to look under the hood). It took me a good 5 minutes to find the hood release (I looked everywhere I could think of). Then another 3 minutes to figure out the hood latch. TA DA! I'm in.... now where in world is that battery? After looking high and low, I found a cable that had a red casing on it (looked like a terminal to me), so I put the positive clamp on it and the negative clamp on the edge of the car..... NOTHING. I unclamped everything I touched the two clamps together..... BIG SPARKS, it's hot! After another 4 minutes of floundering the calvary arrived; two other valets and the shift manager. They schooled me very quickly that in these cars the engine is under the hood, but the battery is under the trunk boards (duh). So a quick jump later the car roars to life and the calvary charges back to the ramp....... leaving me to use my foot to get it in reverse.


Thankfully, the guest was very understanding.

October 26, 2006

Running off at the keyboard.....

- I'm getting a BEST BUY (not to be confused with Buy Best) less than a mile from my house (the LOOP). It'll be opening May 2007.

- My computer died.....so I got a new one

- Halloween doesn't feel like Halloween this year. Instead it's just October with NO holiday

- Had a great time in NYC with Ninja!

- We were first place this week at Trivia Night (thanks to brightstar as my "phone-a-friend")

- I've been staying after school on Mondays and Tuesdays to excercise with some teachers. They are working me to death, but it's finally starting to get easier.

- It's only a matter of time before I have a downstairs neighbor.... they finally put a real lock on the door.

September 25, 2006

Why am I still paying for cable?

Cancel the cable...... YouTube offers hours of entertainment for free. Let's see what's on tonight's listings:


Science Programing: Build your own flame thrower


Educational Programing in a hurry: World Politics lesson in 30 seconds


Nature Programing: Frogcicles


Technology Programing: Boom


So many channels... so little time.

September 12, 2006

Just typin.....

- I can't believe that eDonkey is gone for good. I used that little server to get all kinds of music, software, and such. Now I'm back to square one in my search for a Peer-to-peer provider..... Think I'll try Morpheus w/ bittorrent.

- I can't wait to strip the DRM off of my itunes purchases. Hopefully the software will be ready in a week or so that will make it easy to do.

- Speaking of Apple, I'm interested to see what their little iTV box can do..... gotta figure out how I can use it in a educational setting.

- I found out today that one of my friends at work is leaving to take a job with the district.... A real big bummer.

- I think Sept 11th shouldn't be about the people that died. It's rehashing the horrors all over again each year. Imagine the children who can't ever get over this tragedy because every year it comes back. They need to be able to move on with their lives..... I DO however, believe that the USA should not forget that we live in a world where people mean us harm. My point is 9/11 shouldn't be about what happened to who, but about how it impacted America on the world stage.

- I can't wait to pack up my bookfair tomorrow :-)

September 06, 2006

Peterson's Principal

No, that's not a typo in my title.... Let me explain:

The Peterson Principle (as I learned it back in undergrad) states that people tend to get promoted to positions they are least likely to succeed at. A skilled laborer may have mastered his craft to perfection, however if he is promoted to a management position his skills are will no longer match his job title and he will flounder.

I bring this up because the Assistant Principal at our school is driving me crazy. And I know I'm not the only one with this problem..... AP's in general seem to be hit-or-miss with their management skills. In my case, he runs the school as the dictator of a small country (my school). He has stated that his role is to give "directives" and that it's our job to follow them. Well, yes and no. True he is the man in charge... but we're all on a team that need to work together. By taking a dictator position, he is pushing people away who are trying their darnest to work with him (did I mention his excellent business sense doesn't translate to educational sense). Because of this, I'm seriously looking at alternative places to work (I let our district supervisor know that I'd be interested in looking at the new schools for next year). I know I need to stay "in field" to keep my National Board Certification.... but is something great comes along, I want to keep my option open to jump ship.

I've heard an old saying that states: If you love your job, you'll never work a day in your life. I've always said I'd stay until it wasn't fun anymore..... So far this year, I've worked my tail off and it's not very fun.

August 25, 2006

Go Rednecks!!!


I was a little skeptical about watching a video called "Redneck Rocket Launcher", but I'm actually very impressed! Can't wait 'til the 4th of July!!!

August 22, 2006

Words of Wisdom


I love it when I see or hear something that makes complete sense. I recently came across a blog that sounds off about the differences between college and the working world. After reading it, I felt like shaking the author's hand and saying "Amen brother"! Take a moment and enjoy.

August 08, 2006

A Rose By Any Other Name.....

So I'm entering kids into our computer systems at school so they can take AR quizzes and check out books. It seems like more and more kids are coming to school with hyphenated last names. I think it's just plain silly. Pick a name and stick with it.....

In a related story, I watched a news feature last night on a couple that is selling the naming rights to their unborn child on eBay. The starting bid is something like $14,000. I'm all for free enterprise, but think it should be illegal for those kinds of parents to have kids. Names are a huge part of a persons identity, it's a part of someone's life.... NOT FOR SALE! These parents obvisouly don't care about that. I feel sorry for little baby "goldenpalace.com" who's not going to see a dime of that money.

August 01, 2006

Let's get ready to RUMBLE!!!

Goodbye quiet July, Hello August! Not 5 hours into the month and we've already got a tropical storm pointed at South Florida! Welcome to hurricane season..



July 27, 2006

Yummy Yummy

OK OK, I'm sold before I've even seen the product. Intel's new Core 2 Duo chips came out today and I can't wait to get my hands on one. For the past year, I've been keeping up with how great these new chips are..... and today's the day they finally came out.

Could be a very good Black Friday this year (Wink Wink).

July 19, 2006

Let Freedom Ring


So much controversy over the new design for Freedom Tower in New York City (the building that replaces the twin towers). On one side is a creative designer who was brought in to design a masterpiece. On the other side is a builder and develper who look at the new building in terms of being practical & secure. I'm all for the builder.... 1st off, I think the designer is crazy. He keeps talking about making the building evoke an image of the Statue of Liberty by making the metal twist and having it's spire shoot into the sky on one side. To me, his design doesn't remotely evoke the Statue of Liberty..... just a freakin' lopsided building. The Statues sits out in the harbor.... it's green.... it's a statue. Buildings, on the other hand, are buildings..... they can be charming or interesting in their own right, but NO skyscraper in the work is ever going to look like a person.... exspecially not buy sticking a lopsided tower on the side (I can't believe this guy gets paid to be an idiot). Beauty, simplicity, and function are all relivant characteristics of building design. This particular project has some symbolism for our nation as well, but lets not get carried away. I think the new freedom tower design is great. Let's build the thing and shut up about a stupid tribute to the Statue of Liberty.... after all, how many Lady Liberties does NYC need?

July 06, 2006

Survey


I need your opinons..... I set up a google personalized homepage (kinda like my.yahoo), but I've got too many news sources to look at. SO WHICH ARE THE BEST?

- Reuters: Top News
- MSNBC.com: Top Headlines
- CNET News.com
- ABC News

- USA Today
- New York Times

- FoxNews.com
- CNN: Top Headlines



I'm probably keep 2 or 3 so GO AHEAD AND VOTE

Brilliant Idea


Too bad barcodes are going to be replaced by RFID tags soon.

July 03, 2006

The Dark Ages

Welcome to the dark ages.

It's been a tough week. For the past 10 days I've not had any internet or cable at my condo. My only fix was to use my laptop in my old apartment for a few minutes each day. So many times I've wanted to look up a product on the internet, or find a google map of an address. On the up side..... I have read 3 books.


Saints be praised, today I finally got connected again! Ahhhhhhhh, feels GREAT!!!

Finally....

What is it? You'll never guess so let me tell you. It's a floating bed. That's right, for 1.5 million dollars this bed floats on magnets. I can't imagine it would be a very good sleeping device, but it's probably just a matter of time before we see one on MTV Cribs.

Now, what's really exciting about this is that it looks like a hoverboard. Yup, that's right.... the hoverboard from "Back to the Future". Since that movie came out kids have been drooling to get their hands on one... only to be told that the technology doesn't exist. Well excuse me, but if we can sleep a couple people on a floating bed, what's to stop the hoverboard from being on storeshelves next Christmas?

June 29, 2006

News Flash

- Goodbye World!!
I just read on the local news website that there is a "potential hazardous astroid" headed to pass earth this weekend (Actually 12:10am July 3rd). It's over 1/2 mile wide and expected to get as close as our moon... That's just a little too close for me.

- I'm going through major media withdrawl. My internet and cable TV is scheduled to be hooked up Monday afternoon. Until then, I savor my time at my old apartment cause I can still get online with my laptop.

- High Definition..... it's the way of the future! (It's also the way of the past)

June 18, 2006

Happy Father's Day

Happy Dad's Day!!!

On this joyous day of days, I offer another nomination for "Stupid Invention of the Week".

What father wouldn't want a high capacity jump drive to take files back and forth between the office? It's every father's dream. Now I know what your thinking.... Jump drives are so boring looking these days.... You wish they were a little more fun to play with, right?

Well your prayers have been answered. Introducing the Jump Drive Teddy Bear!! By day it's a cute cuddley bear, but with a twist of the head, he transforms into a high tech storage device for the 21st century. You'll be the talk of the office for sure with this thing in your computer.



June 16, 2006

What will they think of next?


Brilliant... I love it. Somebody put LED lights inside their water faucet then hooked them up to a thermometer. The result: Your water is red when it's hot, blue when it's cold, and white when it's room temp.




Not so brilliant..... but WAY COOL! Somebody modified a toy robot by giving it a flame thrower. It's good to know that we still have some creative ingenuity in this country.

June 13, 2006

Correction..... I love SOCCER

Please disregard my previous blog. I have grown to LOVE Soccer in the past 12 hours.

WOW, SHE"S HOT!!!!!

June 12, 2006

Sports: Who really cares?


So the World Cup is being played in Germany this year and the nobody in the US really cares. Ask the average person on the street about the US team or the top World Cup seeds and your bound to get blank looks. So what is the bigger tragedy: Not doing well at the world cup?.... or not caring about the sport in the first place? The problem is that OTHER people care and want you to care too (Soccer is by FAR the world's most popular sport).

I'm flipping through the channels tonight and came across the "Rocks, Paper, Scissors WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP"! Yes folks, this was on national Television. The contestants were real, the fans were real, the cash was real ($50,000 prize)..... but WHO REALLY CARES! It's not a sport in "my book". In fact, neither is baseball, swimming, NASCAR, darts, or any other sport I could care less about. So who am I to say that "Rocks, Paper, Scissors" isn't a sport....... after all, it's a sport to somebody.

June 07, 2006

Glad they aren't mine

So I'm on my way to Beverly Hills for a little R&R and my car starts to shimmy all over the place on the Turnpike. I pull into a rest area and check my tires (I had been having trouble with one losing air recently). Turns out my tire had bubbles all over it and was getting ready to blow. I turned around and went back to Toyota to see if they had time to gimme 4 new tires. "NO PROBLEM"! It would be about an 90 minutes.


I went to a little mexican restaurant to pass the time: REAL mexican restaurants
have waitresses that don't speak English, have menus written only in Spanish, and have Coke/Pepsi served in really old school glass bottles.... it was quite an experience

Anyways, back at Toyota... waiting on my car.... I walk in and there are 7 or 8 kids running all over the place screaming at each other as they pretent to blast each other away with their finger guns. For about 10 mintues they went CRAZY: Crawling under my legs, under furniture, climbing on chairs and jumping off, screaming at the top of their lungs, giggling all the while. Finally one of the employees came over and chewed them out... got them all set up with a movie and walked away. They were quiet all of 60 seconds and then started right back with each other. 20 minutes later, one of the Toyota employees got the idea that these kids just needed some cookies to keep them quiet. Instantly the room was quiet and the kids were angels. She put the remainder of the cookies at the coffee table in front of me (in case I wanted one) and walked away. Well, about 2 minutes later, the kids spotted the cookies and started taking 3 or 4 each..... it was a mess. Finally, one of the little kids (maybe about 5 yrs old) quit beating aroudn the bush and took the entire platter of cookies to his corner.... so much for that snack!

For they entire time I was there, these kids were some of the worst I've ever seen. I can't believe Toyota would allow them to go crazy like that..... Sure I know their mom/dad are probably in a big deal, but so are many other customers that I bet got fed up and walked out. Even though I work in an elementary school, I couldn't wait to get my car back and get as far away as I could.

June 06, 2006

Baby Gas Hood

Here's my nomination for "crazy product of the month". Are your children protected?

June 03, 2006

National Boards are DONE!!!!

The tests are over.... my National Boards are FINALLY DONE!!! Yahoooo!


The good news is that out of the 6 tests that I took, I think I:

- ROCKED THE HOUSE on 4 of them

- DID OK on 1

- BOMBED the last test.

Hopefully, my good sections will give me enough points to push me over the edge and achieve my boards. If not, I'm going to have to study another year and retake the last part again. We'll find out at the end of NOVEMBER!!!

May 25, 2006

Confession

I have a little confession to make: I am a terrorist

Evil doers, terrorists, threats to national security.... these are the buzzwords being thrown around to justify spying on the American public. The problem is that there are no checks or balances to this process and can/is grossly misused by those in power. What is a terrorist anyway? Of course the first thing you think of is a middle Eastern dude with a gun or the Sept 11th highjackers, however in most countries you are a terrorist if you disagree with the current government (again, I'm guilty). Now the government wants to spy on the media so they can find out who their anonymous sources are.... this is just CRAZY!!! Sure, reporters constantly deal with information that could affect the integrity of our nation, but a FREE nation needs to have these liberties without fear of pursecution. Per capital, our elected officials are some of the most unethical, lying, cheating, stealing people on the planet.... yet this administration feels that they should be givin a greenlight to spy with absolute authority because they know bests....... BULL %@#$.

I feel the Bush aministration has not only bent the rules and values of our Constitution.... He's darn near written his own. In my opinion, he is a threat to our National Security and needs to be labels a Terror suspect (see, if I were Bush... who could stop me for my opinion?.... NOBODY)

BTW, I've joined the ACLU fight to speak out against this crap. If your interested... visit their website and sign their petition: ACLU.org

May 04, 2006

Hapland 3

Alright ya'll, Hapland 2 took me the better part of an hour to complete..... Hapland 1 was a little less. This new version of Hapland took me over 5 days (probably around 1.5 hours a day) to complete!!!! Now I can go to sleep at night without wondering what would happen if I just _______ or if I change the order of ________ and ________ (Yes, it really did keep my brain spinning for days).

Anyways, It's over now and I'm feelin' like I'm on top of the world (completing the hard puzzles gives a great sense of satisfaction). Give it a try if you're up to the challange.

May 02, 2006

Handicapped? Then Press the Button!

The title of this blog serves two stories:

1. At my request, my school district has finally installed a handicap button for my library door. Sure, we have one on the back door but nobody uses that door and it stays locked all day. Now the wheelchair students at my school can rejoice in the new button I have given them. On the other hand..... EVERYBODY pushes the button. Nobody wants to actually push or pull the door open anymore because they know about the new "easy button"; a quick tap and the door opens..... for a whole 10 seconds before closing). So, I've been giving the "Don't press the button unless your handicapped" lecture all month.

2. Blogger has added a similar "easy button" to their comment page. You want to see it? Simply leave me a comment and direct your eyes to the right when it asked you to type in the confirmation letters. This is a new wheelchair logo, and being the curious cat that I am (ok, so I'm just as bad as the kids at my school), I pressed it. Go on now.... give it a try! We'll see if the Blogger people give us the "Don't press the button unless your handicapped" lecture!!!!!!!

April 28, 2006

Can't afford to live

Over the past few days, I've taken several steps to look for affordable housing for next year..... and I'm getting REALLY frustrated.

It started earlier in the week when my apartment complex informed me that my rent was going to climb another $150 next year (this after the $110 increase from last year). I thought, "they much be out of their minds..... I'm outta here"! Then I started looking around and found that EVERYBODY is out of their minds!

I've gone to the internet and used several real estate calculators to see what kind of morgage I could afford...... basically, NONE!! I went to my credit union to see if they had any first time buyer programs or excellent rates they could point me to....... NOTHING!

So for right now, things are looking really CRAPPY for the future. If I stay a renter, I may start looking for a roommate. In the meantime, I hear that modular homes (formally known as "mobile homes") could be a nice change.... I'll look into that some more.

April 26, 2006

Reinventing the Wheel



I just don't get it. There are a number of companies (mostly in Eastern countries) that are racing to invent to next big thing in walking. Whether they are exoskeletons or some kind of assist device, these biped inventions just look silly when you concider that we already have a segway technology. Really people, what are we going for here..... a horseride experience? I think I better give the parking lot guys at Epcot a heads up that their Segway experience could change soon.

April 09, 2006

What's that in the Sky?



After a record 40-some days without rain.... last night the sky opened up and said "hello"! From about 1am - 4am there was a steady stream of BEAUTIFUL lightning and thunder.... mixed with moments of heavy rainfall (I stayed up ALL night on my balcony working on my laptop....it was fun). As the sun came up the rain vanished leaving only wet roads.

Then 10 day forecast has sunshine sunshine sunshine as far as we can see..... Who knows when the next rain will come.

April 04, 2006

Whoa!

Wednesday is a ONCE in a Hundred Years event..... Hope you don't miss it:
At two minutes and 3 seconds after 1pm the time will read:
01:02:03 04/05/06

April 03, 2006

GO GATORS



TWO BITS,
FOUR BITS,
SIX BITS,
A DOLLAR,
... ALL FOR THE GATORS
STAND UP AND HOLLA!!!!!

Video Memories


So I'm in the process of converting all of our family DVDs to computer files (DivX). It's been a hoot watching some of the old footage! Hopefully in a couple weeks I can share my files wit everybody.

March 29, 2006

Next Job


So I'm finally done with Naitonal Boards....time for a little fun! Tonight I went to VANS with my friend to let loose and burn off some energy. There are all sorts of people on the catwalk with video and digital cameras... taking picutres all over the place, but sometimes I feel as if someone is watching me. Tonight someone WAS!!

As I finished my session and was taking off my skates, a dude and his wife came to talk to me. He works with Disney to provide them with skating talent for their park and events. Apparently he wants me to skate for a Thursday night promotion for the new Destination Everest ride at Animal Kingdom. I'd be in full "mountaineer" costume for 4 hours... just skating around, interacting with the guests (30 mins at a time).


The only thing that has me put off is that the guy didn't have a business card. I'm not giving him any personal information (other than my phone number) until he can give me something that has a company name on it with contact information. If it all checks out it sounds fun... we'll see what happens.

March 28, 2006

Group Mentality

16 strangers were arranged into 4 groups for an expieriment. Each group then entered Manhattan using one of several means (1 group came by boat, 1 by train, 1 by cab, ect). Their goal was to find a way to meet up with each other in the city.

Now, you may say, that could take forever! Experts in group mentality, however, gave them very good odds.

The expieriment started at 9am and by noon they had all found each other. Think about it; there are only a handful of really big "get lost points" in Manhattan: Times Square, Empire State Building, Grand Central Station. I believe two of the groups met in Times Sqaure, and the other two met at the Empire State Building. It's also interesting because as the participants got into the project, they started to really use their resources; shy people were approaching everybody for information, they made signs and tried to stand out so that others could find them....... it worked like a charm.

I went online looking for the specifics of this project and came across websites for "Flash Mobs" in Manhattan. For those that don't know, this is a bunch of people who agree to converge on a specific spot at a specific time (for example; Nick's Shoe store @ 4:40pm). Timing is everything because all of the sudden there are hundreds of people mobbing the location at once.....it's really weird.

So what does this say about people: Well, for starters; goals are extreamly powerful. Having goals and working toward them makes us use our resources at a remarkable level of efficiency. Then there is the social aspect; people will do things that are completely out of their individual comfort zone if it fits with a group social acceptance.

March 27, 2006

Goodbye Box !!!



It's over... It's all done and gone! My National Board Entries are on their way to New Jersey to be scored. This box of paper has been on my brain now since September 2005. With it done, I feel a huge weight lifted from my shoulders.... I can SMILE again!!!

Today was my first day back to school after being on Spring Break. Normally, this would be a bummer, but today it feels awesome!! I can finally start tackling all the work that has piled up at school. Yes, my "to do" list is a mile long, but I can acutally WORK on it....YAHOO!!!


My next step is to take the other 6 computerized tests this summer. Then it's a waiting game until my results come one Thanksgiving which is fine with me...... all that matters is that I'm DONE WITH MY BOX AND IT'S FINALLY GONE!!!!
YAHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

February 19, 2006

Disney Spin

Wow, I got to hand it to Disney. They are the masters of marketing. Yes, they opened a new roller coaster this month and it was the talk of the town for a day or two. Although nobody disputes the attention to detail that went into making this ride, it hasn't taken anybody's breath away.

Nevertheless, it was funny to see they they had a billboard in Times Square last week that had REAL people climbing all over it. Maybe after National Boards I'll head over and check it out.... who knows.... maybe I'll actually work back at Slash Mountain for a couple weekends.

Sportmanship


Olypmic Observations: - I don't know why Bode Miller even came to the Olympics.... he keeps saying his heart's not in these games and that he doesn't care. He's hugely sponsored yet poo poo's the games... why did we let this guy represent our country?

- Hockey is awesome; Ice dancing is aweful

- I hope Shauni Davis chokes on his gold medal. He and his wicked witch "sports mom" have snubbed every aspect of sportsmanship and teamwork.... it's all about Shauni, shauni, shauni. Maybe he and Bode came make their own country called EgoSlavia.

- Curling could be interesting to watch IF they could find a way to make it faster. TV cuts to commercial after every shot (very hard to keep from falling asleep). I propose a 20 second timer between shots... keep the game going.

- Speaking of curling..... is it really practical to have women and men teams complete separately? sure some sports need the sexes separated, but Curling? Which leads me to another point; are they really athletes? Computer hacking is a skill, but it's not an olympic sport either. The IOC needs to do a better job at finding ATHLETIC sports to put in the Olympics (I like the Snowboard Cross Races that were added this year)

Bad Casting



Lara Croft... always concidered super hot, is coming out in another movie. Angelina Jolie looked the part in the first Tomb Raider movie. The new Laura, however, is a HUGE miss. Instead of being hot, she looks like a modern day Olive Oil with guns.

I expect Lara to have a pretty face.... not this one
I expect Lara to have a toned body.... this one is gonna need to do some serious crunchies
I expect Lara to look sexy.... this one looks like she belongs on Jerry Springer.
I expect Lara to be proportional..... this one could put some rings around her neck and fit in with an African tribe.

I'd like to call a recount on the casting.... they got it all wrong this time.

February 07, 2006

Smile.....It's important


So I'm home sick, again, and I'm watching a TV show about the science of human attraction. They follow beauty through cultures and time.... but one thing transends cultures and time; the SMILE! It's the easiest and most significant change that you can make to your appearance.
Usually, as I walk the halls at school, I get a significant number of "hellos" and high fives from students and teachers. This morning, however, I was ignored. Although I felt OK at that time, I wasn't smiling, and people simply walked by.
I can't wait to get better and smile when I go back to work.

January 28, 2006

PA-LEASE!!!!


For several months, we've had problems with our newspaper delivery at school. We're supposed to get 5 daily, however, most days we get 1 or 2.... or none at all. I've called and called.... this only makes our delivery guy upset because he gets docked everytime I call. Apparently we have somebody stealing our papers or a dog is fetching them before we pick them up.

So Thursday, my assistant pulls her jeep up to the gate to get the papers when a little black car pulls in ahead of her. A big man gets out of his car, gives my assistant a look, and takes 2 or 3 of the papers. He then proceeds around to drop off his child at extended day. We note the child and the license plate number and inform the principal. His suggestion; write a tackful letter and send it home with the child.


So I write a letter which recounts the events which have been witnessed, but doesn't place blame. I just want this parent to consider our position. I show it to the principal, and he says it's perfect.
Now, our resource officer has heard of our situation and is ready to call this guy and confront him. He ran the license plates and all, however, the principal wouldn't let him go after this guy.

Friday, as expected, I get a call from our offender who basically admits to taking a paper or two every week, but thinks we're going too far to accuse him of stealing papers. I explain to him that stealing papers is EXACTLY what he's been doing, whether he knows it or not, and that we'd like him to leave our papers alone. He gets angrier and angrier and finally hangs up on me.
The thing is.... he's probably not the only one doing this.

So next week, I'm going to go in super early each day and see if I can catch others in the act.... perhaps on camera. Who knows.... by the end of the week, I may have a whole bunch of parents yelling at me.

January 22, 2006

HDDVD vs. BluRay PART 2


In another twist...... According to TG Daily, Toshiba and Samsung (the two big developers of HDDVD) have entered into a joint veture to manufacture.....what else?????? BLUERAY RECORDERS!!!!

WOW boys, what a backup plan. If you can't get people to adopt your technology, at least you'll get in on the action by making your competitors products.

This web is getting mighty tangled

January 21, 2006

HDDVD vs. BlueRay


So there is a monumental battle taking shape that brings back memories of BetaMax vs. VHS. Today's companies are trying to the be ones to bring High Definition DVD's to your living room and computer. Since there is no standard yet, and no clear winner.... this has frustrating repercussions on Discount Resellers and consumers. What do you buy? Who's disks can you play. Both sides currently have big motion picture houses and computer companies behind them.... Both have amazing new products.... Neither is anywhere compatible with the other.

SO, this week..... when it finally looked like HDDVD was down for the count, two BIG companies came to its rescue: Microsoft and Intel. Talk about timing.... this new breath for HDDVD is no doubt going to prolong the war and be a nightmare for consumers. It also gives Microsoft an interesting edge.... They can stall the market for both formats until they develop software that does the same thing over Broadband. Think about it, Apple's iTunes is now selling TV and music at unbelievable rates over the Internet. In a couple years, you will no doubt be able to score just about ANY media you can imagine over a network or Internet Connection.

All we need now is SUPER storage. Actually, I could use a good Teribyte box right now. I have a camcoder that films straight to HD....no tape. It's really cool, but I can see my Hard drive filling up fast.

What's up?


Ramblin' at the computer:

- So I hear on the news that a dude in NYC rode the subway for over 6 hours before anybody realized he was dead. In the movie Collateral, Tom Cruise uses a similar incident (yes this has happened before) to justify the killing of his victims as he is driven around Chicago for murder. In both cases, they make it sound like a "Shame on Society" story...... how could we be so out of touch with our fellow man to not even notice that he's dead? I see it a little differently though: It's impolite to disturb people when they are sleeping or drunk.... these things happen on the subway all the time. You can't blame people for not realizing the subtle difference between sleep and death.

- I think the planets were out of alignment this week..... if so we should send some rockets up to knock'em back in place. Translation, the students were just jumpy this week...... I'm going to have to lay down the law come Monday.

- I read an interesting health tip about diet hunger today. It says that you should stay away from eating many different flavors at once. Example, eat mostly apples one day, or mostly pineapple, or chocolate..... whatever it is, try to have a "taste theme". When you do this, your body will register that it's FULL and cut off your hunger pangs. On the other hand, if you eat too many different flavors at once, your body resets the hunger pangs for each new flavor.

January 19, 2006

Bin Laden OR Bin Lyin'


First off, let me just go on the record that I consider myself a patriot and Bin Laden is a thug that needs to be captured or killed. That said, Bin Laden is making a whole lot more sense to me these days than Bush. Let's put it this way, if something happened and it was one person's word against the other, I'd probably have to go with Bin Laden. OK, let me clarify why I bring this up. I just finished reading about today's Bin Laden tape in which he offers a truce with the US. Of course we can't broker deals with terrorists, but what Bin Laden says made sense. He spoke of the american public in a positive light, instead directing his ire at the Bush administration (welcome to the club Osama).

"Based on the substance of the polls, which indicate Americans do not want to fight Muslims on Muslim land, nor do they want Muslims to fight them on their land, we do not mind offering a long-term truce based on just conditions that we will stand by,"

This is not an irrational statement......actually, it's pretty resonable. The problem is that we've committed to this war. Bush's only option is to keep on keepin' on.

"Your President is misinterpreting public opinion polls which show that the vast majority of you support the withdrawal of your forces from Iraq," bin Laden said.

"He (Bush) disagreed with this desire and said the withdrawal of troops will give the wrong message to the enemy and that it is better to fight them on their ground than on our ground."

"Reality shows that the war against the U.S. and its allies is not just restricted to Iraq as he claims, but Iraq has become a gravitational point and a recruiting ground for qualified (mujahideen)," he added.

Once again.....Correct.
Now the timing is REALLY interesting. This "truce" came about a week after the US bombed the heck out of a dinner that the Al Queda elite were supposed to attend. Reports indicate that 4 big wigs were killed, but the big fish got away. Sounds like the noose is tightening there and it won't be long before we have BigLaden's head on a platter. At that time, we should make plans to get our troops out of Iraq and put in some UN peacekeepers..... mission accomplished.... oh glorious glorious day.

Now to the next issue.... Spying on Americans. The Bush adminstration this week has taken Google to court, demanding to know what Americans are searching for on the search Engine. This, of course, violates privacy policies.... AND THE LAW!!! This makes me just sick! We've finally reached George Orwell's vision when Big Brother watches your every move.

BTW.... Hi NSA!!! Nothin' going on here but a little free speech (is that still allowed?)

January 10, 2006

Welcome to Dodge.....


Whoa! In the last 24 hours we've had a police chase shootout through Kissimmee that ended with a Suicide and a 10 hour bank robbery standoff that ended with another shootout on 192 (robbers used his hostages as human shields, but snipers took him out). What will tomorrow bring?.....who knows, but you better be alert around here.

Are you kidding me?

President Bush denounced some Democratic critics of the Iraq war as irresponsible on Tuesday and he wanted an election-year debate that "brings credit to our democracy, not comfort to our adversaries". ARE YOU KIDDING ME? You're the President of the United States and you've made some bad choices..... You're going to have critics. Furthermore, if anybody is giving credit to our adversaries, it's HIM!!! How can he be so out of touch with the truth?

January 08, 2006

Already....


I spoke with Ninja today about the superbowl halftime shows.... and although I tune in, they aren't nearly as entertaining as the Olympic Ceremonies. I can't believe the Olympics are only a month away (Feb 10th). I hope we win....BIG TIME. Good thing we all have TiVO

Home of the Future?


OK, I know there are tons of cool things coming out of CES this week But when the biggest Tech companies pool their resources to build the next generation home they should have included air conditioning.

January 06, 2006

King Tut


King Tut won the lottery BIG TIME!!!! Everything he needed/wanted was provided for him..... and considering that he lived 3000 years ago, he had some really dope *BLING*. I got to see many Egyptian artifacts at the Met in NYC over winter break, and although the craftsman ship was impressive, none could compare with TUT. I was also impressed for the way the Museum told the story of Tut throughout the exhibit. To someone like me, who is only slightly familiar with this story, it was an eye opener to step into the past and get a true sense of history involved. The last time I was this pleased with an exhibit was at the HolyLand Experience in Orlando (again, it was an insight into a story I vaugely knew).

CHRONIC what? CLES of Naria

Wow, my last blog entry was a month ago on the Chronicles of Narnia!!! However, since I saw the SNL short were 2 cast members rap all around NYC about going to see the movie, I have forever jammed in my head that the title sounds better as, the CHONC "what" CLES of Naria.

To see what I mean, try this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch.php?v=IggTu7kV7No