The Mighty Ed

No Wallet

2008-07-07T09:30:00.001-07:00

I forgot my wallet today. Usually I'm fretting about what I'm going to do for lunch. Usually I have to forage in my "pantry" drawer for an old energy bar or something. Today I don't have to worry about lunch as I brought enough lunch to last me for the rest of the week.

For some odd reason not having a wallet on me is a very liberating feeling today. I know I won't be tempted by the hotdog cart at the train station today.

Working from the Pleasanton Office

2008-04-11T10:39:00.001-07:00

So I decided to try working from the Pleasanton office today. My badge worked as I expected and I saw the receptionist who had just arrived and not yet opened the lobby. She pointed me to where the hoteling cubes were. I might have to pick another one of the EMC buildings next time. This location has a few things that prevented me from functioning well here.

It's close to I-680 and I mean really close. Literally a stone's throw. When large trucks go by the building shakes. The main thing is that the building I think may be flimsy. Even fat guys like me make the floor shake. I switched to my ninja-style "walking on rice-paper" mode to lessen the vibration for others.

The hoteling cubes are intermixed amongst the sales guys. Big Sales guys (see item #1) with big booming voices. Big voices that are great when giving presentations, speaking on speaker phones and conference calls, but poor for things like Study Hall, Libraries and cubicle neighbors. Luckily I just got some noise-cancelling ear buds. It doesn't drown them out like aircraft noise but it does cut down their volume a bit.

The other main reason this doesn't work for me is the lack of a monitor and docking station. I've grown accustomed to my two monitor set up for my laptop and two-monitor for my development desktop. Kicking off tasks on different machines, using multiple monitors, restarting one while continuing to work on the others works well for me. This gives me that "working from the airport" feeling which doesn't work well for me. I guess I like my creature comforts too much.

Good weather in store for Rome

2007-11-06T09:53:00.001-08:00

After booking the trip to Rome I did a little research and found that they statistically get the most rainfall in November. Looks like I've lucked out and I'll have excellent weather while there -including sunny weather when I go to Florence.

2007-08-11T13:56:00.000-07:00

Lord knows I love movies and Netflix has allowed me to watch more movies than ever in my life. Even though Blockbuster is a dollar cheaper per month, I've grown used to Netflix.

One feature that I appreciate but never seems to be accurate is the recommendations based on my ratings. This gave me a slight chuckle. I'm not a wrestling fan, but somehow Netflix drew the conclusion that because I like the Three Stooges "Spook Louder" that I would love "WWE: New Year's Revolution" as well.

It's Back! More from the best of "IMs with coworkers"

2007-07-16T09:40:00.001-07:00

[09:21] Andy: I'm convinced that all sales people are former fraternity/sorority people, who got through school by schmoozing everyone around them
[09:21] themightyed: Interesting theory. You may be right
[09:22] Andy: they have shitty people skills, but they know how to convince someone to buy a piece of shit

Kwik-E-Mart

2007-07-05T15:26:00.001-07:00

I've gone a few times to the Kwik-E-Mart to get some of the new Simpsons gear. So far I've gotten KrustyOs cereal, Buzz Cola, Squishee cups, pink donuts and the magnet straws. I'm still lacking the Radioactiveman Comic book. I'm lucky that it's close by work so I don't have to travel far, though I heard the regular 7-Elevens were going to start carrying this gear too.

Anyway, with help from my lovely assistant MJ, I made sure to take some pictures while I was there. I may or may not post them dpeending on my level of lethargy.

Herb Alpert - Rise

2007-06-27T11:25:00.001-07:00

Ugh, the AMC theater by where I work runs ads on their PA system outside. They keep playing Herb Alpert - Rise because he's re-releasing the anniversary edition of this song. I've been hearing it from my window for over a month now!!!

They did it

2007-06-27T06:17:00.001-07:00

Oh man, Jello just came out with ready-made sugar free Mint-Chocolate pudding. The combination of mint and chocolate has always been a favorite of mine ever since I was a small kid begging my parents to buy me some Ande's Mints when they'd have them for sale next to the cash registers at various restaurants. Also Mint & Chip is my favorite ice cream. Now this is some kick-ass puddin'

Spain pictures

2007-06-25T08:42:00.001-07:00

Interestingly enough, I'm ranked #132 on Webshots as far as views for pictures of Spain.
http://www.webshots.com/members/topalbums/travel/spain_top.html

Time to clean things up

2007-06-21T13:00:00.001-07:00

over 7700 messages in my inbox, 800 of which are unread. I think it's time to clean the inbox.

UFC 71

2007-05-15T15:44:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine will be visiting with his in-laws when UFC 71 airs.
He's already planning and plotting how he's gonna try to watch the fight.
The current plan is to go "run an errand" and find a sports bar where it will be airing.
We've found a list of places close to where he'll be.

Check fraud??

2007-05-08T23:27:00.001-07:00

I was a little shocked when I logged on to my account this evening and the balance was wayyyyyy lower than I expected it to be. My first thought was that someone cleaned out my checking account.
Well someone did -sort of. Uncle Sam finally cashed my check for my Federal taxes and his mongoloid nephew the State of California did as well this week.

Greetings from Stall #2

2007-04-30T15:29:00.001-07:00

So my boss was in the restroom today in the mid-morning and couldn't help but overhear one of the guys on a conference call from inside one of the stalls. When my boss was finished he decided not to flush because the guy was talking and he didn't want to embarrass the guy, not knowing whether he was on an internal call, sales call or what.

2007-04-11T08:21:00.000-07:00

On my most recent trip to NY I lost my Sirius S50. Not quite sure where, it could have been on the plane, airport or in my hotel room. Calling the Lost & Found for those locations didn't help. After a few weeks I was resigned to the fact that it was gone. I needed to sh*t or get off the pot. Cancel the subscription or get a new unit. I ordered another S50 but the order had trouble when they ran out. So they offered me a double discount on the new Stiletto 100. It ended up being way cheaper than the S50 would have cost me and included either a home or car dock.

So I've been using it for a couple of weeks now and I must say it is way better than my S50. The ability to pick up sat signals without being docked works out great on my walk to and from the ACE shuttle. I do have to wear their headphones with the built-in sat antenna but it's not as obtrusive as that one Al Franken used to have on SNL.

It has the ability to stream music from Sirius over a wi-fi connection which I'm actually using right now while I'm waiting for some work to be done on my car. It also supports Napster-To-Go which I'm considering subscribing to.

Lazy Town

2007-03-31T20:33:00.001-07:00

I saw some creepy-looking kids show the other morning called Lazy Town. It has this weird villain who has a jaw like Jay Leno. The hero is a gymnast or something. Maybe he rescues people using Gymkata.

The Lounge

2007-03-31T20:04:00.001-07:00

Life is good. While sitting in the lounge waiting for my flight, the Canadian female water polo team all came in and sat by me. The free drinks aren't too bad either. :)

Coming home

2007-03-31T02:58:00.001-07:00

It's time to pack everything and come home. I wish I could stay longer but I have things to do and people to see. Usually when I visit places I think about some of the things I wanted to do but didn't because of lack of time and/or knowledge. I usually don't consider repeated visits to the same country because there are so many other places I want to see. In the case of Australia, it's different. I would definitely go back if given the opportunity again. The people, food, atmosphere, environment are all awesome. It took me about only two days to get acclimated to the hotter weather.

I wouldn't say I'm dreading going back, but I believe I could live here which is very profound as I'm very pro-California and nothing tops my home state as far as offering a diverse amount of things to do. Australia comes very close.

I do think this trip has changed me in a few ways. I definitely want to get in touch with nature and more outdoor activities. More biking and less stationary bike. Certainly less time on the Internet will do me good too. On that note, I will get going and enjoy my last night in Port Douglas.

Multiple hazzards averted today

2007-03-27T04:43:00.001-07:00

Multiple hazzards averted today which if I hadn't could have made it a miserable day.

Hazzard #1
I didn't activate the alarm and woke up with 5 minutes to spare to run and catch my bus to King's Canyon. I'll thank God for giving me a rather disturbing nightmare to wake me up and check the time. Guess I'm losing weight in this trip as I found out I can run pretty fast again. Hazzard #1 avoided.

Hazzard #2
Probably because of the hurrying I did this morning, I forgot two important items when I left today. On the way to King's Canyon I picked up my camera to take some shots of the country-side and had a feeling of dred wash across me as my camera informed me that there was no memory stick in the camera. Crikey (I'm picking up the local lingo) I didn't put the memory stick back in the camera after copying yesterday's pictures on it. Feelings of anger and despair set in with the realization that I would not be able to take pictures today on what will be my longest walk in the outback. While looking through my backpack I found the new memory stick (same capacity as my older one) which came back to my possesion after my other Sony camera died. Hazzard #2 avoided.

Hazzard #3
I forgot the fly net I bought to put around my head. I did find some salve made out of rosemary and sandlewood. It didn't keep the flies away, but it kept them from staying if they landed. I guess they really hate standing on the stuff. Hazzard #3 partially voided.

Hazzard #4
After getting back I took out the memory stick with the intention of copying the files to the laptop asap. Well I was fumbling through papers, took a shower and when I came out I couldn't find my memory stick. I looked all over and just could not find it. Maybe it fell out of my shirt pocket while getting ready for the shower, fell in the drain at the center of the floor, fell in the toilet, fell in the garbage. Who knew. Man was I bummed after all I went through in the morning forgetting the other memory stick. My dinner was miserable thinking about that lost memorystick. Maybe it did get flushed down the toilet. After dinner I looked again. I tore up everything -well almost everything. I had been thumbing though the hotel list of services that comes in this vinyl folder and it apparently had fallen in there. Hazzard #4 avoided.

Whew!. I'm double and triple checking my packing tonight and tomorrow morning to avoid any other incidents.

King's Canyon

2007-03-26T23:03:00.001-07:00

Just got back from King's Canyon. Don't know when I'll have the pics up but they should be good.

Vacation Day 1

2007-03-22T01:44:00.001-07:00

According to the pedometer I bought this morning I walked 18.25 km and burned about 1500 calories today. I guess that's a good start. Even though I wasn't planning on doing much today other than switch hotels, I decided to make a go of it and took in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Wooloomooloo Bay, Farm Cove, Sydney Cove, Sydney Tower and of course got my picture taken with the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House. I took a few pictures -no where near the number taken by someone I know but a fair amount for me. Whew. Hopefully the blisters won't be too bad tomorrow.

Welcome back Mr. Chan

2007-03-17T16:24:00.001-07:00

I checked in awfully early but the hotel managed to find me a room rather quickly. I think it may have been earmarked for someone else because the note at the mini-bar says "Welcome back Mr. Chan"

New China Delight

2007-03-12T13:50:00.001-07:00

I found this place in Mountain View which seems to satisfy the craving for hot foods that I usually get from Little Sichuan. I had the boiled lamb which got me working up a pretty good sweat. I must go back there to try their other dishes.

New China Delight
www.newchinadelight.com
360 Castro St
Mountain View, CA 94041
(650) 961-6635

Drambuie

2007-02-23T03:42:00.000-08:00

From the hardcore drinker files: I've come to the conclusion that I HATE Drambuie.
Sent via BlackBerry from Cingular Wireless

Amazon buying spree

2007-02-06T11:27:00.000-08:00

I don't know if it's depression, a change in diet or a subconscious drive, but I've been buying lots of crap from Amazon.com in the last month or so. I'm even buying food items from them.

In addition to being lazy, i'm also a cheap bastard so Amazon's competitive prices coupled with free delivery (misers like me enjoy free shipping) make some of these deals hard to resist. I also think that since I've modified my profile to include items I own and purchased through other vendors has allowed them to make Gold Box offers that appeal to my buying habits.

February

2007-02-01T09:26:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe February is here. I'm so far behind on lots of things. I just finally got caught up on my expense report which was a lot harder when I couldn't read the Hebrew receipts. I needed to make sure I submitted appropriate expenses such as travel and meal costs and not the souvenirs and excessive bar tabs.

2007-01-22T03:01:00.000-08:00

I'm glad the weekend is over. That's right, you heard me. With all of the flight delays and now a flat tire to repair/replace this wasn't very fun.
Hopefully it's going to be a good week at work. I actually miss my regular routine of going into the office and seeing familiar faces.

2007-01-01T13:31:00.000-08:00

Ugh, while waiting for my haircut the only magazines they had for me to read were Cosmopolitan, Teen People, Oprah and a Vietnamese magazine. Fortunately my phone had enough juice for me to play Blackjack.

2006-12-27T11:53:00.000-08:00

Due to hardware issues and scheduling conflicts, principal photography on TheMightyEd vs Andy Lauder has been pushed back for a week. Check back soon for more updates on the 2007 season of TheMightyEd vs the World.

On slate for the upcoming season:
TheMightyEd vs Andy (basketball)
TheMightyEd vs Dave (darts)
TheMightyEd vs University Chicken (9-1-1 Hot Wing Challenge)
TheMightyEd vs Vic (boxing)
TheMightyEd vs Dad (pool)

Posting

2006-11-12T20:54:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted to this blog in quite a while it seems. I'm testing out blogger's e-mail feature which might make it easiser for me to post. Whether laziness takes over and I fall behind on posting is anyone's guess.

2006-07-26T10:09:00.000-07:00

http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,71459-0.html?tw=rss.index

2006-07-09T15:00:00.000-07:00

Ice Cream Maker
I finally bought something I'd been casually wanting for several years -an ice cream maker. But not one of those were you have to add ice, nor is it one of those with the metal cylinder you have to freeze ahead of time. This one has its own compressor so it is its own freezer. It only needs to "warm up" for about 5 minutes before adding the mixture. It can make ice cream in about 30-50 min.

So not only do you not have to plan ahead and freeze a cylinder (some people just try to keep it in the freezer) but you can make a 2nd or 3rd batch after letting it rest for about 5 min between batch something you can't do unless you had several cylinders on standby or bought a lot of ice for the ice-filled ones.

I'm pretty pleased with it so far after a couple of uses.

2006-07-09T14:32:00.000-07:00

Fourth of July
It just kind of sneaked up on me this year. I hadn't made any plans and my boss even said he could let me have the 3rd off as a floating holiday if I wanted to make it a four-day weekend, but I just didn't plan anything. I figured I'll save my floating holiday for Yom Kippur or some other holiday close to my next trip.

I decided to stick around Stockton since I only had one day off. I can always count on Dave to set up camp along Center St. in the evening for the fireworks here in Stockton. We all usually congregate around there. So it was good to see everyone. As time goes on with careers and where life takes us, it's getting harder to get everyone together.

It was hot so I didn't go downtown for the Waterfest stuff or parade they had in the morning, but I did get to see the parade of teenage Mexican girls pushing baby strollers, sometimes with a couple toddlers in tow. Nothing against teenage moms but man I wonder what the ratio is for teenage moms to non-moms now. It's looking like 1:1 now.

2006-06-22T08:08:00.000-07:00

Pretty damn hot

I was looking forward to the weekend, that is until I saw the forecast. Another excuse to put off the yard work. Maybe it's time for a road trip somewhere along the coast towards the North.

2006-06-09T18:56:00.000-07:00

Just when I thought I couldn't get any uglier the people from corporate came by to take my picture for the new badge. Ugh

2006-05-18T21:46:00.000-07:00

Argh. I forgot to vash me hands after eating some smoked salmon. Now my keyboard and mouse reek. Well, not really reek. Smoked salmon is a better smell than say.. shit but still. Guess I need to clean this up this weekend.

2006-05-10T08:01:00.000-07:00

I noticed while driving around my building that there was a strong enough terrestrial signal in the area that I wasn't losing signal when waiting for red lights under an overpass. So I brought my home docking station to work to see if I could get a signal in the building and it turns out I can!
Even though streaming was fine, I'd lose it when restarting, or when I disconnect from the network. Plus the bandwidth here isn't really great and it wouldn't be right taking up what little bandwidth we have just to keep me entertained so I limited my listening to the mornings.

2006-05-08T14:37:00.000-07:00

Cooking with Fire
After coming back from a trip to Harbor Freight tools (I came back empty handed but full of ideas) I had to pull over at the Mexican meat market on the corner of West Lane and Harding Way. There was a guy out there BBQing marinated chicken using real wood. Even though I had some chicken marinating at home, I could not resist and had to pull over. I bought two chickens just on the smell alone. The taste was great too. Surprisingly they were only $4 each which is a way better deal than those rotisserie chickens at the supermarkets. I may have to move the smoker project up on my list for this Summer or I can just keep hitting this place every weekend.

2006-05-01T19:54:00.000-07:00

Warming up to Mission Impossible III
I'm starting to warm up to Mission Impossible III. I was going to avoid it and wait for it on video because MI2 kinda sucked but a couple of things have caused me to rethink my position.
The new Superman Returns trailer will be shown before the movie starts. I'm really interested in seeing this though I'm sure it will be online shortly afterwards I still like the power and feel of a good theater audio system for big epic trailers like that.
J.J. Abrams directed helped rewrite this. I heard a good interview with him on Howard Stern this morning. Abrams has a good track record with Alias (before it stared sucking) and Lost.

2006-04-26T06:54:00.000-07:00

Sirius Report: 4 Months Later
I have a car dock in both Nissans now so that I don't have move the antenna and everything over each time I switch vehicles. However, recently I had to send in part of the docking station that was in the Z for a replacement. It was a minor soldering issue but I'll tell you -it has changed my driving habits. I have been exclusively driving the new Sentra because I can't stand listening to terrestrial radio any more. They only have like one or two decent stations in each market (as opposed to my 15 favorite music stations on Sirius) and when I do listen it's either old stuff from last year (I feel so cutting edge now) or the same songs over and over in heavy rotation (smells like payola) which can drive me to hate a good song.

I've been listening exclusively to Sirius since the end of December. I've turned on terrestrial radio in my car only twice since I got it. At work I will tune to Carolla for a bit while the coffee's brewing but my music these days comes from streams from Last FM, Pandora and Sirius (they stream their music channels too) and not just because they're commercial fre, but the variety is amazing.
W
hile I don't listen to Howard Stern all the time (a popular misconception) I must admit it was the catalyst that got me to buy it. The music though is totally worth it just for the amount of new music I get to hear. Artists and tracks that just don't make it on regular radio can get play on here. There's no ad revenue and marketing scum (sorry marketing friends) dictating which songs to play.

Ratings. While some try to ask Sirius about their ratings and most popular channels, they insist they don't keep track of those (not officially anyway) stats. They only want you to be a subscriber. They don't care which channel you like as long as you're a subscriber. It's just like TV channels not caring whether you're watching their broadcast in English or in Spanish using the SAP channel they just care that you're there.

When I took my Dad to a SF Giants game earlier in the month we listened to Jazz the whole way there and while driving around looking for a place to eat. Not only was it Jazz, it was his favorite kind of Jazz, not of that easy listen new age or space music crap -we're talking about real Jazz like Charlie Parker and John Coltrane.
So all in all, this was probably the best investment I've ever made.

2006-04-26T06:35:00.000-07:00

Chicken Wings
I actually enjoy chicken wings. Yes, the fat content is high and I don't eat them as much as I used to, but it is still one of the staples you can almost always count on be to be on a restaurant menu when you're trying to do low-carb. I've had some good wings and some not-so-good wings but I think I may have encountered the worst tasting wings ever. Taste of course is always subjective and somebody out there must have thought these were good enough to put on the menu at The Firehouse in Sunnyvale.
What's wrong with the wings? I'm not 100% sure but I think it might be some of the extra seasonings besides the pepper sauce which might include clove.
I have eaten at The Firehouse a couple of times and they have a great roasted chicken and their chicken caesar salad was great too. They also have a pretty good bar, but I'm just gonna stay away from the wings.

2006-04-25T13:58:00.000-07:00

It's the battle of the bands.
MiniKiss vs Tiny Kiss

2006-04-11T06:59:00.000-07:00

Oh no, not Devo 2.0!
De-Evolution continues
Say it isn't so. This is what's become of the Devo songs I loved back in the 80s? Devo 2.0? Those Disney people must be stopped!!

http://disney.go.com/disneyrecords/Song-Albums/devo20/

2006-04-07T14:52:00.000-07:00

The Wild Wild West
Now that I have an office instead of a cubicle, it will be most difficult for people to sneak up and scare me. You'd think that I'd have great peace of mind. But, I've found another quirk that has moved in. We all sometimes get songs stuck in our head. Well, truth be told it happens A LOT to me. Now my boss has been playing TV show theme music and has been editing and trying out versions of the theme from the old TV show "Wild Wild West" and every time I hear it now, it gets stuck in my head in the worst way.

2006-04-05T13:36:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I wish I were crazy. OK, maybe not really crazy, but having a reputation of being crazy. Crazy people get cut a lot more slack. You could flip out, talk about alien abduction etc. People will sometimes indulge you too which makes great guerrilla theater. If you're coherent and you put a lot of imagination into it you could even be labeled an eccentric. A far more sophisticated loon.

If people say something that sets you off, you'll even escape the blame. Other people might chastise your victim because they didn't research what to say and what not to say. Kinda like offending someones religion. Who knew prior to the mass demonstrations that depiction the prophet Mohammad was a crime? Because you call it religion we all have to buy into it. Why do we have to learn about your religion to not offend you? Anyway, I'm straying off topic.

I'm going to declare, something that will be off limits, once I figure out something unique enough.

Then again, I'm really lazy and indifferent so keeping up the crazy facade could be a lot of work. Eh, forget it.

2006-04-05T13:25:00.000-07:00

I've been finding myself using Free 411 a lot lately as my routes and cities have changed. My friend Aubrey turned me on to this. It is a free alternative to dialing 411.

Lately, I've noticed that their automatic connection has been "down" but it could be they've turned it off since I'm sure that connection was costing them a few pennies per connect. I'm just guessing though.

When I used it the other day I actually got a live operator. She couldn't connect me either, but it did throw me off talking to a real person.

2006-03-19T16:08:00.000-08:00

Now that I'll be in San Jose, I'm going to have to find new lunch spots. I'm really going to miss Blue Fin Party Sushi(the one in Tracy doesn't come close) and Ming's for Dim Sum. But I'll look at it this way, I'll get a chance to try a lot of south bay restaurants and have lunch/dinner with some south bay friends that I don't get to see very often.
So far I've found one good restaurant I really like though it's a bit pricey for everyday eating. Seafood by-the-bucket. The small bucket of cioppino was enough for me and it was damn tasty. I was pretty buzzed and it was great. Finished it off with an after-dinner cappuccino, I was ready to go.

2006-03-19T15:39:00.000-08:00

Slow Cooker
So I finally broke down and bought a crock pot this weekend. I ended up getting a 4.5qt model finguring that a 6qt is too big and I could shoot for 4qt recipes and still have some room in case I want to throw in a little something extra.

Have I used it yet? No. I need to get through the leftover meatloaf and turkey I still have. Plus, this will give me some time for Amazon to deliver my slow-cooker recipe book I ordered. I do think I will try Jambalaya or something like that as my first dish. A co-worker had a recipe for Chile Verde which I'd probably like. I enjoy making chile verde, I just need to see if my favorite recipe will work well in the slow cooker or if I need to tweak it a bit.

2006-03-13T14:46:00.000-08:00

Fighting Sexual Abuse
Here's a good way some have found to fight sexual abuse.
All-female battalions focus on crimes against women

2006-03-07T17:54:00.000-08:00

Last night's nightmare
So, as most of you know, the large majority of my dreams are bad ones. Yes, yes, the faces of those I've wronged haunt me. But last nights was I think influenced by a recent episode of My Name is Earl where they were stuck in a water tower. In last night's dream I was stuck in a giant silo filled with Funyuns. In the dream I figured there was going to be enough to eat, but drinking and... well... relieving myself would probably ruin my food supply.

2006-02-26T14:22:00.000-08:00

Costco Week in Review
Yes, it's been a quiet news day so in the interest of throwing the few of you who read my blog a bone, I present the Mighty Ed's Costco week in review. Things I've purchased, things I've seen and just things in general about my favorite store. Costco.
I bought some frozen chipotle wings at Costco this week. Now I'm not buying into the whole everything has to have chipotle peppers craze. Truth be told, these wings are pretty damn tasty. They don't necessarily have an overwhelming chipotle flavor but they are tasty. Next time I go, I need to pick up some more big bottles of Chaka's Mmm Sauce.

2006-02-20T17:25:00.000-08:00

The Incredible Shrinking Chicken
Now I can't quite confirm this and no I haven't done any size comparisons (chronic laziness or indifference strikes again) but it seems like the chickens at El Pollo Loco have gotten smaller and smaller every time I go there.

2006-02-11T11:53:00.000-08:00

More travel
I still love to travel, however, when I come back it's a pain in the ass falling behind on my other tasks. Traveling to colder climates is still different. I still don't spend enough time in cold climates to justify have big coats. My gloves are pretty good and my suede jacket is keeping warm enough. Dockers however are not great cold weather pants. :)
Hopefully I'll be in better shape as I no longer have my cold. Thanks T, I blame you for that!! ;)

2006-02-10T11:10:00.000-08:00

http://primewonderfultime.ytmnd.com/

2006-02-05T14:02:00.000-08:00

Another annoying kid character in a movie
In the tradition of Little Godfather and Rumble in the Bronx I saw another action romp with an annoying kid character in it. Chronic laziness prevents me from listing all of these cinematic transgressions, but suffice it to say, it seems to be something Hollywood, Hong Kong and perhaps even Bollywood can't seem to stop using.
OK, my expectations were properly set for The Legend of Zorro. I was in the right frame of mind for a light action romp that I could watch while doing laundry and packing. The kid in it is really annoying. They should make special edition DVDs of these movies that allow you to remove the annoying kid parts. I'm not saying remove it. If you have an annoying kid or like annoying kids in movies I'm leaving the option open to you. It's not like I'm gonna burn down an embassy for leaving him in there.
I would have liked this movie a whole heck of a lot better without the annoying kid. Still, it served its purpose and well Catherine Zeta Jones is certainly easy on the eyes.

2006-02-04T18:10:00.000-08:00

Another installment of the Best of IMs with friends.
[18:04] Kenny: A lot of companies had that problem back then.
[18:04] Ed: Clarent's were downright criminal
[18:05] Ed: I would have lost a lot of money if I weren't so lazy and didn't get around to buying stock through ESPP
[18:06] Kenny: That is also true.
[18:07] Kenny: It isn't that your lazy. It's that you just don't care. ;-)
[18:10] Ed: You're right. I'm indifferent
[18:10] Ed: good call

2006-01-31T07:31:00.000-08:00

Today's blog entry is a re-run of sorts. I believe I've sent this link to some of you in the past, but I think it's time for it to enjoy a wider audience. Taxidermy is not a hobby of mine but I do appreciate the work being done at Custom Creature Taxidermy Arts.
My favorites:
Squirrel Liquor Decanter
Deluxe Franken-Squirrel

2006-01-27T13:47:00.000-08:00

Burning Man Teeter Totter
If you look closely in this video you can see the giant teeter totter my friend Matt built for Burning Man. It's at 1 min 25 sec into the video.
Video

2006-01-23T06:55:00.000-08:00

Umm, isn't this what Dr. Otto Octavius was building in Spider-Man 2?
We all know what a great safety record the Chinese Goverment has what with the elementary school they blew up because it was also a fireworks factory and all the other diasters there. If they were smart they would build this over in Iran since they're all about clean environmentally friendly nuclear power.
Article: Tokamak fusion device

2006-01-19T10:16:00.000-08:00

CISSP
I finally got around to submitting the paperwork for my CISSP certification on Dec 20. It had been over a year since I took and the test but chronic laziness has prevented me from filling in all the paperwork and faxing it in. Now the certification is here and well, I trying to figure out what to have for lunch.

2006-01-19T07:27:00.000-08:00

Another installment of the Best of IMs with friends.
Today's chat was with a co-worker who just bought a MIG welder.

Dave G: I built my first project with my new MIG welder and cutting torch last night... Big Fun!
Ed: What did you make?
Dave G: I built a simple press to remove and install new u-joints in my old Dodge's driveline.
Ed: Now that's a productive use. I can't say that when I buy tools or gadgets they ever realize their full potential.
Dave G: The reason that I bought the darn things was to build a cradle for my Tartan and a trailer for my Westerly.
Dave G: That little Lincoln MIG welds like a dream. Any dummy can weld with that thing. I'm proof of that.
Ed:You need to get one of those $5000 Govt grants to make some art project.
Ed: You could be a big deal in the art world with your welded creations
Dave G: Sure... Maybe I could take old computer chassies and create western art with them.
Ed: It wouldn't be western art without a preserved scorpion or some turquoise
Dave G: Sweet... Now you're talkin'

2006-01-18T10:02:00.000-08:00

Yuck
Coffee, depending on the type and roast I like hot, warm, room temp or iced, but generally I like it warm. Some coffee just tastes awful at different temperatures.
Tea, on the other hand, I like at all temps. I do enjoy room temperature and cold tea so I drink it with no problem. Except for this morning. I think I just drank yesterday's tea :(

2006-01-17T20:37:00.000-08:00

Jiu-Jitsu
Damn, I need to find a girlfriend who knows Jiu-Jitsu.

2006-01-17T07:56:00.000-08:00

I like my friends and I love joking around, but...
I don't know if I'd spend large amounts of money to play practical jokes on them. It's so much cheaper just to annoy and insult them over IM.
http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4136,100433,00.html

2006-01-16T21:00:00.000-08:00

Pat O'Brien
I had no idea until Stern started playing the Pat O'Brien voice mail how bad it was. The song parodies of that voice mail were awesome too. Email me if you want a link to where they are. :)

2006-01-16T11:18:00.000-08:00

I just saved a bunch of money on pest control by switching to cash under the table! Yes!

2006-01-08T14:51:00.000-08:00

Sirius S50
Today I used the Sirius S50 while working in the backyard. I was able to listen to my current playlist which is a mix of my own song files ans well as songs saved from Sirius. It sounded pretty good and kept my mind off quitting. Hopefully it will work well at the gym. The battery seemed to hold up very well and was still around 95% when I ran out of gas.

2006-01-08T14:04:00.000-08:00

Satellite Radio - Day 12
I've found that my experience with satellite radio has been very good. Yes there's a price to pay (about $13/mo) but free radio isn't giving me what I want. I'm down to two stations in the valley (106.5 & 100.5) that I can stand and two stations in the bay area. Most of the time they are repeating the same songs and spending too much time with commercials, weather and banter.
Just make sure you research the hardware you're buying. I don't want to hear you telling me how much it sucks because the unit you bought only works in the car, or only works at home or isn't loud enough, or doesn't sound good. Save your sob stories for an Amazon Review.
Here's what I don't miss about terrestrial radio:
Commercials - Yes, I'm well aware this isn't public radio and the communists didn't win the cold war. They are needed to fund the station. I'm willing to live with that, but I would like a break from the same commercial played too often. Invest some of those dollars in a little bit of production. Change it up a bit.
Weather - How many times do I need to hear the weather on my drive in to work? Rain, snow (not likely) sun, it doesn't matter, I'm still going to work today. Is anybody going to change their plans based on the weather? Around here, not likely. Cloudy or sunny you're still probably going to Tahoe, the beach or work. And you probably already know what the weather is like right now (you can look out the window) and have a pretty good idea about what the weather will be like tomorrow.
Traffic? Many think this is great info because I think we want to be "in the know" just like getting a good stock tip. Carolla was questioning the traffic report the other day and I must say it got me thinking. How many times has the traffic report saved me? I must admit probably only twice in the last 6 years. By the time they get the report on the air, the accident has already been cleaned up, it's in an area I can't avoid or I'm already stuck in it. Telling me every 10 min doesn't do any good. Now news about major road closures are useful, but they are usually big enough news to make it in with the "regular" news and doesn't need to be part of the traffic report.

2005-12-26T17:34:00.000-08:00

I almost ralphed at the gym
I had light breakfast this morning in anticipation of going to the gym. Things went pretty well at the gym until the last couple of minutes on the bike. Some old lady with a big beehive hairdo got on the bike next to mine (it was the only available one) and then the fan blew a whiff of something I can only describe as lavender mixed with bad minestrone soup. Yuck! I gagged, coughed and nearly ralphed while on the bike. It made it up my throat but I suppressed it. It was either perfume or hairspray or something. I finished the last two minutes but gosh that was awful.

2005-12-24T14:18:00.000-08:00

Song Facts
Ever wonder about the deeper meaning to a song's lyrics? I came across Song Facts today and found some informative entries there. Nice time killing website.

2005-12-24T09:30:00.000-08:00

My Christmas will be a little late this year.
My Sirius S50 is in the hands of UPS. They tried to deliver yesterday but we have a four-day weekend so nobody was there to receive it. It's a blessing in disguise. Things have a tendency to "disappear" from the mail room. Yes, they grow legs and walk away. It's quite remarkable. I'd like to think that maybe these buildings were built on an ancient burial ground a la Poltergeist or Pet Sematary, but truth be told we're on top of an old landfill. If anyone is buried there it's probably a mob informant or something.

2005-12-22T15:00:00.000-08:00

The flag is up. Time for drinks.

2005-12-20T07:15:00.000-08:00

Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off
I'm not really into country music but I heard this song while scanning through stations this morning. My neighbor had told me about this song a while back but this is the first time I heard it. It's ok, but I dig the title and the premise.
Joe Nichols - Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off
Off to BevMo to stock up on Holiday tequila.

2005-12-15T18:26:00.000-08:00

The Best of... IMs with friends
Yes, it's another installment of the best IMs with friends. IMing me is a great way to distract me and kill my productivity.
This is with my friend Lynne on the possibility of her visiting CA sometime in the future.

Ed: I just hope we understand each other when we talk :-o
Lynne: :))
Ed: :))
Lynne: i am sure we cant

2005-12-11T15:56:00.000-08:00

More Shrimp
Nobody loves shrimp more than my Dad. The best way I know to get him a decent shrimp meal with a lot of variety is of course to take him out for Dim Sum. I debated whether to go locally or hit Tri-Valley. I went ahead with the sure bet and chose Tri-Valley. I've heard mixed reviews lately about the state of Dim Sum in Stockton. I'll have to do more research to see what's going on.

2005-12-11T08:14:00.000-08:00

Catching up on my TV viewing
Seems like my trip and recent sinus infection both broke my TV viewing and regular gym visits. This weekend, I'm taking steps to get both going again. My schedule's gonna slip a bit on challenging the MJ to race up to Coit Tower. I'm starting my training and I'm guess it will be sometime in Q1 2006.

Now for catching up on my TV viewing, the Sage box had the last 6 episodes of Too Late with Adam Carolla. Now for a while it seemed like we were maybe gonna get too much of Mr. Carolla, I really wasn't impressed by the first few episodes, but I was enjoying these last 6. One that I want to steal from him is a segment he had called "Can Ray Break It?" it's similar to Letterman's "Will It Float?" but far far more entertaining. They show an item and you have to guess if his friend Ray (dressed in an old style circus strongman outfit) can break it. Erik, we may have to film you breaking some things. None of my things.. well, nothing attached to me.

I'm also all caught up on The Adam Carolla Project. Yes, he's back trying to renovate and sell a house for a profit. Think "This Old House" with much more laziness, lots of mistakes and lots of dysfunctional people.

Lost was a rerun and it appears the next few are as well. We do have to film some training videos at work in an attempt to save money on all the training-related traveling we're doing. I want to make a Dr. Marvin Candle style training video. "You must restart the service every 108 minutes!"

2005-12-04T15:59:00.000-08:00

The Trip
The airport experience wasn't as bad as I'd feared. Actually the airport was rather empty. I guess nobody plans on going home right after Thanksgiving. You need time to recover and well "most people" have a four-day weekend. Sunday was probably busier I suppose.
When I got there had to work straight away. Didn't get time to see anything, yes that includes the red-light district and the coffee shops so quit asking me. And quit asking why I didn't go. I only slept, ate and worked. Didn't have time to do much of anything else.
The hotel I where I stayed in the Hague was awesome. The Hotel Des Indes (when I heard they switched our hotels I thought he said "Days Inn" not "Des Indes" so I was pleasantly surprised. The Hotel Des Indes is a Meridien hotel and is the most opulent hotel I've ever set foot in. Quite an opulent price too.

2005-11-25T08:43:00.000-08:00

Holiday travel
The smart traveller knows that the best time to travel is on off-peak days. Avoid the holidays as much as possible. Well so far, I've always been able to avoid the mad travel days except today. I'm traveling the day after Thanksgiving and while it won't be as bad as travelling on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, I'm sure it won't be a pleasant experience.

2005-11-16T11:19:00.000-08:00

Back to work.
I'm feeling much better after going through my normal fast recovery routine which has gotten me ready in the past for exams, interviews, etc.

2005-11-15T10:28:00.000-08:00

Sick today :(
I think it's a sinus infection. I'm heavily medicated right now to take care of the symptoms and hopefully I'll be back in the game tomorrow. I'm thankful that I always recover quickly from injuries and ailments. I wish I were a little more indestructible though. If I were invincible and could get an unlimited number of pardons I'd fight crime. Or become a super villain. I haven't quite decided which better suits me.

2005-11-13T15:53:00.000-08:00

Ugh, some weekends I don't really have much to do, like this weekend. My schedule was pretty much free. Did I do anything productive? Not really. I cleaned up a few areas of the house but I didn't make it to the backyard like I hoped.
I scrubbed my collection of books. Tossed some of the outdated books and packed away the books I probably won't need anytime in the near future as well as books I used when I worked in telecom. If I need my good ISDN and SS7 books at least I can still go dig them out.
When it came to going through the cookbooks that was hard. I bought each one for some reason. Rather than sorting I started reading them. This wasn't getting me anywhere. I had to just start packing cook books that I'm not likely to need soon. At least I got a refresher about what's in my library.
Went and looked at a couple of cars today. Nothing really moved me. At least I don't urgently need another car. The Sentra works but is unpredictable the Z is adjusting to it's role as my everyday car.
Decided to add a LJ account to go with the Myspace account I don't use and caught up on some movie and TV watching.
Movies:
Ong Bak: The Thai Warrior
Cop Land
Pit Fighter
Of course while watching movies I keep thinking about my stupid untitled independent movie project.

TV Shows:
Lost
My Name is Earl
UFC Unleashed
Invasion
Smallville
Alias
Alias just isn't doing it for me this season I'm sorry to say. I used to like it so much. Smallville is limping along though I'm still watching just for the cross media references etc.

So much for my dull weekend. This coming weekend is overbooked so I'm hoping I can manage to not miss as much stuff as I think I will.

2005-10-28T13:35:00.000-07:00

Punishing your friends.
So I'm going to punish my friend Dave with some really bad cheap beer. Why? What better way to punish a connoisseur of the brewing craft than make him drink some bad beer. I kinda got this idea from the Bad Candy website. I'm bringing over a couple of bad brews to Dave. I'll be partaking as well. I think Dave would balk at having to drink this stuff by himself. He'll drink this swill and hopefully live to blog about it.
Also on the subject of punishing friends, I had a disturbing conversation with another friend about what kind of things he'd do and make us do if he won the lottery. Very disturbing. I hope I'm the lottery winner in the group. I'm too lazy to go out of my way to make all of you do bizarre things. Though, I'd still probably like to watch Erik break stuff with his hands, legs and head.

2005-10-22T08:55:00.000-07:00

Daniel Craig is going to be the new James Bond in Casino Royale

I've been repeatedly axed my opinion of having Daniel Craig play Bond. Well, I just watched Layer Cake (which I hgihly recommend) this week and I think he's going to be great for the job. He can throw a punch and take a punch both believably. Those concerns about him being blonde should have no bearing. As much as I liked Roger Moore, I don't think he threw believable punches. Though I liked it when he kicked Locke's Mercedes off the cliff in For Your Eyes Only.
As for which James Bond movie is my favorite. I'll stick by my answer. The "next" one of course.

2005-10-16T17:38:00.000-07:00

The Mighty Ed vs You! season has officially begun.
First up: The Mighty Ed vs Ed "Cookie" Jarvis & Richard "The Locust" LeFevre
The Challenge: Verizon VoiceWing Battle - San Francisco Qualifier
This event was an official IFOCE competitive eating contest. Even Vern Glen was covering the event. He has a recurring piece he does called "Mr. Involvement" which is one of the inspirations for these series of challenges that I am undertaking.
The results:
Me: 1.94 lbs of chicken meat
Ed "Cookie" Jarvis 4.91 lbs
Richard "The Locust" LeFevre 4.92 lbs

Since their score was within the margin of error, they had a one minute overtime which pretty much resulted in another tie (0.91 vs 0.92) so they had a double overtime. Ultimately, Richard "The Locust" LeFevre won the $1500 prize.

The Analysis. The chicken wings (these were all drummettes by the way) were skinless and weren't covered in sauce. They were baked with a dry rub. This made swallowing more difficult. The Tyson "Chile Lime Wings" and Foster Farms "Wings of Fire" I had been practicing with were a lot greeeeeeeasier. :) I choked twice when trying to swallow harder.
Big thanks to MJ and Matt who showed up to cheer me on. I could actually hear Matt above all the noise. Though it didn't get the chicken down any easier. :)

2005-10-02T13:48:00.000-07:00

I had two things I noticed today at Costco.

I purchased the Executive Membership for two reasons. The 2% Rebate and the ability to get into the store an hour early and avoid the lines.

I still get and love the 2% rebate. It more than evens out the cost of having the Executve Memebership.

The benefit of getting there an hour earlier has diminished quite a bit in Stockton. Seems like everyone and their cousin has the Executive Membership now and it's packed in the 10am hour.

This morning I was running late and didn't leave the house until 10:50. I figured well, OK, I'm gonna have to deal with the general public while I'm there. When I walked though the doors it was 10:55 and there were long lines at the registers. Undaunted, I proceeded to get my items and when I got to the registers, it was surprisingly cleared out. Hmmm.. I got into a line with two ahead of me and the other lines were no more than four deep. If it weren't for "cigarette guy" (see second part of post below) I would have been out of there fast.

My theory is that too many other executive members want to avoid the crowds and all go at 10am. Non-executive members space out their trips for the rest of the day. If I were a non-executive I'd go in the late afternoon.

This brings me to another thing I noticed today:
Invariably some bitchy person is in line ahead of me with some "issue" that holds up the entire line.
Usually it's something like
"What do you mean my membership is expired?"
"What do you mean I can't use my cousin's card?"
"This coupon only expired four days ago, what do you mean it's no good"
"Ummm, my husband went ran back to get cheese, he should be back here soon"
"Can you check the price on that I could have sworn it was $4.89 not $4.99"
"Wait a minute how much was that? Hmmm... I thought it was less. Maybe there was one next to it that cost less."

Today I noticed on a very slow moving line, another guy with a wireless price gun was going down the line and ringing up people in line so that all they'd have to do when they got to the cashier was swipe the membership card and pay. Brilliant!! That was amazing. It wasn't happening in my short line though I probably could have benefited if the guy knew I had a problem customer two ahead of me who had "some problem" with his cigarette purchase. I love this improvement at Costco. I'll be writing a very supportive letter today. You know if my lazy ass is going to get up and write about something, it's gotta be profound.

2005-10-02T12:09:00.000-07:00

I really hate being too slow and lazy to act on most of my brilliant ideas. I was all set to do a review of several energy drinks. I've been sampling and writing mini reivews about many often nasty drinks. Then when I get on to blog about today's Costco experience I see this review of energy drinks on Slate.

2005-09-26T18:13:00.000-07:00

Yay, Lynne is better!
Lynne is feeling much better now and the assortment of teas and candy I sent can probably be enjoyed that much more. :)

2005-09-25T17:29:00.000-07:00

La Sentra gets a wash.
Three girls in wet t-shirts gave the Sentra a really good wash this weekend. It was in dire need of a wash and I was too lazy to do it last weekend when I washed the Z. Thanks to Happy, An and Brenda it is now very very clean. :)

2005-09-24T09:21:00.000-07:00

My Mighty Ed vs You initiative is gaining support. I'm going to have to create a web page to keep track of the challenges and results. This will also be the place to download stills and video footage of the competition.
Now to make a web page. I haven't made a "real" web page in quite a while. Sure, I make functional pages at work all the time but they are anything but aesthetically pleasing. Man, I don't even have a decent editor on this machine besides TextPad. Oh well, time to look for some freeware editors. I've never cared much for the big heavy generators like Frontpage because I end up spending lots of time editing the page afterwards in Notepad just to fix the minor annoyances and assumptions made by these programs.

2005-09-21T20:19:00.000-07:00

Get well soon Lynne!
I hope you recover very soon from your illness. My thoughts are with you.

2005-09-19T11:05:00.000-07:00

Talk Like a Pirate Day!
http://www.talklikeapirate.com/piratehome.html

2005-09-19T09:08:00.000-07:00

The Mighty Ed vs .... you.
Inspired by a dream I had the other day, throw in a little Gladiator and remembering an old show called Kevin Seal: Sporting fool, I, the Mighty Ed, am challenging my friends to a contest - a contest of your choosing. Yeah, I'm probably going to lose every contest but I think it would be a great way to get out and try new things with people.

So far I have the following challenges queued up:
MJ and ML racing me up to Coit Tower from Battery Street.
Vic racing me on a 5k run
Matt wants to race on downhill skiing (...pending review)

Bring it on!!

2005-09-17T11:24:00.000-07:00

More of the best of IMs with friends:
Episode IV
The ongoing saga of trying to get Mike to fix me up with his super cute sister-in-law continues ...

Ed: Maybe if we turn her into an alcoholic this will lower her standards enough.
Mike: You're a sad little man.

2005-09-16T14:24:00.000-07:00

Ice Cream!
Our company came through on their promise to provide an ice cream social for the site that donated the highest number of back-to-school backpack packages and we won with a 33% donation ratio per worker. Yay!

2005-09-10T16:14:00.000-07:00

La Sentra is back!
Yup, she's back and ready to go. Minor problems like the rotor and a clogged catalytic converter sidelined her for a bit but she's back now. Probably gonna clean the injectors next. A good car colonic should keep her in shape.

2005-09-04T18:03:00.000-07:00

Modern Drunkard Magazine
For Whom the Booze Tolls
I don't know if this is a true story or not, but you gotta admire this guy's guts. I remember while in Segovia, there was a tavern where their main claim to fame was that Ernest Hemmingway ate a whole small pig there by himself.

2005-09-04T13:05:00.000-07:00

Too much good stuff
As some of you know I built a Sage box last December. Basically if you know what a TiVo is, then you get the idea what this thing does. The result has been largely positive. I've been able to get off the VCR and it saved me from having to buy a TiVo. However, there is a problem brewing that I hadn't counted on. I used to lament how I could never record all the programs I've had a casual interest in seeing or record the programs that people recommend that I watch.
Now, with the Sage box, I can record everything and I mean everything I've ever wanted. This leads to an unforeseen problem of having enough time in the day to watch all of this stuff.
As a result of watching all of this stuff, my workouts, cooking and cleaning tasks have all gone undone. I barely scramble enough time to wash tomorrow's clothes during the week. Right now I wanted to set the Sage box to record All Star Kitchen Makeover where the Food Network people come in and redo your kitchen. Rather than type All-Star, I typed "kitchen" and the results were overwhelming. I did add the All-Star Kitchen makeover episodes but I also saw the word "gadget" as in "Kitchen Gadgets" on HSN and "Kitchen Gadgets of the Future" on the Food Network and a bunch of others shows. Of course I need a futuristic kitchen for those Kitchen Gadgets of the Future so I'm recording "Kitchens of the Future" as well. Well I added more too, including one where they're building an Outdoor Kitchen on the DIY Network. Whew, lots to record and lots to watch.

2005-09-04T10:45:00.000-07:00

Bundaberg Rum!
Had a small rum tasting. Bundaberg Rum. My Aussie friend Pete says he can't find this stuff anywhere here. He searched all sorts of places including BevMo. Bundaberg would be the brand that's used for everyday drinking in Australia. If you order and Rum & Coke there, it will probably be made with Bundaberg. The mascot is a polar bear named Bundy. In the commercials he shows up to help guys drink Bundaberg and meet girls.
It's pretty good. Smooth and sweet. A good change up from the other rums we have.

2005-09-03T11:44:00.000-07:00

198 thousand miles and now the Sentra is sick. I'm thinking it's the fuel pump. It would periodically lose power for about 30 seconds at a time. Even putting the car in neutral, I wasn't able to rev the engine. It just stayed at idle. Then all of a sudden it would be responsive again. The dealership is under new ownership so they are no longer open on Saturdays. Looks like I'll be switching to the other car for this Labor Day weekend.

2005-08-26T09:09:00.000-07:00

Found out about this test from one of Aubrey's Blog friends.
The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test

Joe Normal
34 % Nerd, 13% Geek, 39% Dork

2005-08-23T14:42:00.000-07:00

More of the best of IMs with friends:
Episode III
The ongoing saga of trying to get Mike to fix me up with his super cute sister-in-law continues as I try to get him to invite me and her over his house for dinner...
...
Ed: You're a cruel man
Mike: EVIL is my given name
Mike: I'll have her serve you wearing a string bikini top, but i'll bind your hands and blindfold you
Ed: CRUEL!
Ed: I'd develop Superman-style heat vision to burn though the blindfold
Mike: i believe you would