Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Monday, January 30, 2006

SSIK & KISS

In August of 2000, BigMac and I went to see KISS at The Frank Erwin Center. It was the fourth time I'd seen them and it was the fourth time BigMac had seen them. The show was awesome and afterward, we went to Stubb's BBQ to see SSIK. SSIK is the loudest, most obnoxious KISS cover band I've ever seen. They play obscure early KISS tunes and they are fantastic. We keep hoping that we get another chance to see them.

By the way, it was 32 years ago today that KISS played their first gig at the Coventry in Queens, NY.

Fortune Cookie

Saturday, I met some friends at China Wall. My fortune cookie said "You will be selected for a promotion because of your accomplishments".

It's about time.

Sunday, January 29, 2006

Our little church

For the next month, St George's Episcopal Church will be the featured parish website on the Episcopal Church website. This is the national church, so it's a real honor (there are 7500 Episcopal Churches in the US). Our website was designed by Bazzirk, Inc.

Saturday, January 28, 2006

Four Wheel Drive Camper Van

Four Wheel Drive Camper Van
I took this a couple of weeks ago at Springhill Restaurant in Pflugerville. I think it may be a Sportsmobile conversion.

Luby's is hiring...

Luby's is hiring...
I went to Luby's yesterday for lunch and noticed that they are looking for a part-time office asstainst with flexible hours. I wasn't looking for a job, but the flexible hours do sound nice. I've never seen an asstainst position before that wasn't full-time. If you're interested, please check with the Luby's at 13817 U.S. Highway 183 North in Austin.

Texas State Capital

Texas Capital
I shot this picture from my truck, while waiting for the signal to change. I took it with my Treo 600.

Friday, January 27, 2006

Deal - 19" Dell LCD

This is the deal I've been waiting for. $261.75 for the monitor with free shipping. This monitor normally sells for $349 and shipping is $19, so this was an easy way to save $100. At the Dell Outlet, this same monitor sells for $319. I should recieve it in about a week.
Product Highlights
  • Sharp and brilliant images of text and graphics with a maximum resolution up to 1280x1024 pixels
  • 8 ms response time improves image quality in high motion applications reducing ghosting, jagged edges enabling crisp, clear images
  • Contrast ratio of 500:1 delivers high color accuracy and color uniformity
  • Built-in power and cable management feature helps to keep desk clutter-free
  • Viewing angle can be tilted 4° forward and 21° backwards for viewing comfort
  • Includes a 3-Year Warranty
  • Dell-branded monitors undergo exhaustive testing for performance, reliability, durability and compatibility with Dell™ systems
  • Supported by Dell™ Technical Support when used with a Dell™ system

Monday, January 23, 2006

The Subdudes new album is here.,,

The subdudes will release their sixth studio CD on Jan. 24, 2006! The album, 'Behind the Levee' will be the second release for the 'dudes on the Back Porch label.
More importantly, they will be at The Glenn at the Backyard on March 3, 2006. It's been a few years since I've seen them (and Amy's never seen them). If you're interested in seeing a great live band, call us and we'll try to get a group together.

FreeNAS: The Free NAS Server

FreeNAS is a free NAS (Network-Attached Storage) server, supporting: CIFS (samba), FTP, NFS protocols, Software RAID (0,1,5) with a Full WEB configuration interface. FreeNAS takes less than 16MB once installed on Compact Flash, hard drive or USB key.
This looks like NASLITE which I discussed a long time ago and ran for about a year. This one's free (obviously) and offers many more options. It looks like it's worth checking out.

Sunday, January 22, 2006

Thanks for the upgrade, Kirk !

For Christmas, my brother-in-law and his family gave me $25 to use to upgrade my Flickr account to the Pro level. This should give me some options I haven't had before, and should be good for the blog.

Now you can listen to My Station

The does the fun ever start ? Radio Show ! is available for your listening pleasure. You can check out a a description of the station. Here are the last twenty songs I heard:
  • Fleetwood Mac: Landslide
  • Wilco: Forget The Flowers
  • Soundgarden: Outshined
  • Van Halen: Right Now
  • Pink Floyd: Mother
  • Lucinda Williams: Drunken Angel
  • Dave Matthews Band: Ants Marching
  • Stevie Ray Vaughan: Honey Bee
  • Red Hot Chili Peppers: My Friends
  • Molly Hatchet: Fall Of The Peacemakers
  • Dionne Farris: I Know
  • Cinderella: Somebody Save Me
  • Matchbox Twenty: 3 AM
  • Dido: Here With Me
  • Beastie Boys: An Open Letter To NYC (Instrumental)
  • Ian Moore: Lie
  • Little Feat: Fat Man In The Bathtub
  • Grand Funk Railroad: The Loco-Motion
  • Adam Sandler: The Buffoon And The Valedictorian
  • Pantera: ________ Hostile

Saturday, January 21, 2006

The Top Ten College Pranks of All Time

The Top Ten College Pranks of All Time:
The staff at the Museum of Hoaxes studied hundreds, if not thousands, of examples of the genre of the college prank to find the ten most worthy of immortal fame. The pranks were judged according to three criteria: creativity, fame, and shock value.

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Top 50 Inventions in the past half-century

Popular Mechanics: Top 50 inventions
In the past half-century, scientific and technological advances have transformed our world. PM convened a panel of 25 experts to identify innovations that have made the biggest impact, from the hospital to outer space to the kitchen. Here, then, are the breakthroughs of our time.

Commemorative National Championship Coca-Cola Cans

Commemorative National Championship Coca-Cola Cans
We bought these at Wal-Mart in Round Rock on Tuesday.

Open-Air Sports Cars

There seems to be a trend to create high-performance sports cars that leave you in the wind. These are created by small companies. A couple are trikes and one is an actual four wheeler. The performance is phenomenal because they are so light.


I can't find any evidence that any of them are currently sold in the US, although the T-Rex does have a dealer network here.

Free VMware Player & ReactOS

Free VMWare Player and ReactOS v0.2.9 Machine
A couple of days ago, I downloaded VMware Player. I have installed some Virtual Machines, including Linux and ReactOS 0.2.9. This is the way to try out ReactOS. There's no need to burn a CD, then reboot the PC. Just launch the Player, then choose the VMX file (or just double-click on the VMX file) amd you've booted to that OS in a virtual machine on your PC. The machine is only able to access those devices that you want it to.

Run virtual machines created by VMware Workstation, GSX Server or ESX Server. VMware Player also supports Microsoft virtual machines and Symantec LiveState Recovery disk formats.Easily and safely evaluate pre-built application environments, beta software, or other software that is distributed in virtual machines, without any installation or configuration hassles. Share a virtual machine with a colleague or friend."

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Best blonde joke ever!

I normally don't like these, but this one is clearly the best of the genre.

Friday, January 13, 2006

Friday the 13th

If you're superstitious, you might want to stay home today.

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Salad on the wrong day

I am currently working from noon to 9pm, so I generally eat lunch and dinner a little early. Yesterday, I got to Baja Fresh at 11:01 and was the 8th person in line. I thought it was odd that there were so many people eating there so early. Two people in front of me asked for burritos and the cashier had to ask which of the five burritos they wanted. I wondered why they hadn't gone over the menu while they had been standing in line, but I chalked it up to people being inconsiderate and was going to blog about how inconsiderate people can be.

I ordered a salad and went to get a drink and then sat down. I surfed the Internet on my Treo for a couple of minutes and they called my name. I noticed when I went to get my food that the dining room was filling up, but I really didn't think much about it. I continued to look at my phone while eating. I finished up about 11:20 and looked up and the restaurant was full. I got up and cleared my table off to let someone else sit down and headed outside. There was a line out the door with 30 people standing outside. I was wondering why there were so many people there.

As I was pulling out of the parking lot, I looked over the door and there was a big sign that said "Free Burrito Day - January 11, 2006"

Monday, January 09, 2006

Rose Bowl paraphernalia

Rose Bowl Shirts and Had
This weekend (like every other Austinite) we went and bought National Championship shirts (and a hat) at Academy.

The big question: Is Vince going to be a Texan now?

Post Number 500

Five Hundred
It's taken 602 days to reach 500 posts and 5000 users. Those are two important milestones. Thanks for your help.

In related news, I have now changed the counter to reflect page hits (rather than unique users) as it's a more realistic number.

Broke the template again

I somehow messed up the blogger template and now I think it's ugly. The advantage to this layout is that it shows more of the content (now that there's less content). This weekend, I bought a book about Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and hope to do a redesign in the next couple of weeks. This will actually be the first redesign. Until now, I've been stuck with using preconfigured Blogger templates. That is too limiting.

I'm not a very good designer, but my homepage looks the way I want it to. It looks that way, because it's been refined over the past ten years. It reflects the vision I want reflected. That has never been the case with my blog. Soon, I hope to change that.

Big Movie Weekend

We went to see three movies this weekened:

Thursday, January 05, 2006

PortableApps.com

PortableApps.com | Your Digital Life, Anywhere™: "A portable app is a computer program that you can carry around with you on a portable device and use on any Windows computer. When your USB thumbdrive, portable hard drive, iPod or other portable device is plugged in, you have access to your software and personal data just as you would on your own PC. And when you unplug, none of your personal data is left behind."

Trojans get surprised...

Longhorn Bus Stop
The University of Texas Longhorns shocked the Trojans and beat 'em at their (virtual) home field and became the National Champions. Here's a couple of quotes from USC that show the difference between being gracious and not.

Pete Carroll: "It's been wonderful doing what we've been doing, it's too bad it had to end. We just couldn't get it done."
Matt Leinert: "I still think we're a better football team, they just made the plays in the end."

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Williams Tower - Houston TX

Williams Tower - Houston, TX
This is a shot of the Williams Tower (formerly Transco Tower). I took this on New Year's day from a neighborhood across the 610 Loop from the Tower. Once again, the night snapshot mode of my SD450 gives me a nice photo, where my A10 would have given me a black (or mostly black) image.