Will it rain?

Ever been stuck in a situation where you want to predict the weather for an outdoor event? All day it has been hot and sunny. However, weather.com keeps predicting a 50% chance of Scattered T-Storms and Scattered Strong Storms. I figure if I have a lot of outdoor event plans then and only then will it rain for 40 days and 40 nights. Until that happens it will be scorching *HOT* all summer. Sorry nothing really interesting to blog about. Paris is out of jail and Johnny Cash's song I walk the line is playing in the background. Until next time....

My Life is like a Seinfeld Episode...

My job search is not going so well. I thought I should blog about it. My previous employer does not give references which makes it ten times harder in finding a position. One of my previous managers agreed to give a reference via his cellphone even though it was against the policy of the company. However, the persons voicemail is usually full and is ignoring a lot of calls. It kind of reminds me of the Vandelay Industries Seinfeld episode. This is the episode where George Costanza falsely claimed to be close to obtaining a job at Vandelay Industries. However, Vandelay Industries does not really exist.

I do not have time for this nonsense. This is one of the reasons finding a job is difficult for me. It sounds terrible how my previous employer has a policy against giving references.

The Free Fon Router Headache

At first I was very excited when FON announced a *FREE* Fon router. (I think this offer is expired now though.)

The offer was for people who lived near a Starbucks or competing cafe or public venue. Since I live near a bench where people hangout and also a bar I decided hey might as well try and snag up one. Sure enough Fon sent me a router. However, that is when the fun just began. I tried contacting Fon several times via email asking for tracking information since i never received my router. Each time I sent an email asking for help with a tacking number I would be sent instructions on how to plug in my router. It was very frustrating for me to go nowhere with locating the package. Finally three or four months later Fon finally responds to an email with tracking information. The status of the package was showing the package as "delivered". However, the persons name who accepted the package was nobody I knew. I even asked the super if he knew the person and he had not a clue. I called FedEx and they setup an investigation. I figured I would not hear back from them. A few days later on a Saturday I was awoken to someone ringing my doorbell. Since it was to early I ignored the ringing doorbell. I went outside and saw a note on the front-door with the FedEx drivers cellphone number instructing me to call him. I called the driver and found out that he (the normally scheduled driver) was on vacation or something the day the package was delivered. Usually FedEx would leave the package with the superintendents office. The person taking his place deiced to leave the package with just anybody. I found it interesting the normally scheduled driver found the package. However, it was delivered to a storefront down the street. They decided to open it and attempt to use my router not even looking to see who the router was addressed to. Correct me if I am wrong but I believe it is a federal offense to steal someone else's mail. I was given two choices: A) Accept the package as is opened or B) To complain further because it was FEdEx's fault and seek a new router. Since I received the router for free I did not want to escalate the matter. I also want to continue to have a good relationship with FedEx. The driver amazed me with actually finding the router three or four months later after the fact. However, I did learn that the package was missing the installation disk. (Which is downloadable online.) The other problem I have is it does not work to well with Apple. I have not been able to get it to work. Tech support has been nonexistent. The email support just recommends all the information I was able to find online. There is no number to call them for help.
Any windows users want a free router?

The iPhone & Parents pick names that are Googleable

I am a bit behind in finding interesting things to write about. Actually I was recently told to not look for stuff to write about and it will eventually overtime come to me. This next article I found while listening to This Week in Tech aka TWiT. I usually do not listen to that particular podcast but wanted to find out what all the fuss was about that caused Apple to release a press release on the iPhone. Some of the news on websites reported that John C Dvorak criticized Apple for coming out with an iPhone with poor battery life and a highly scratch-able touch screen. After listening to half the Podcast I came to the conclusion that John C Dvorak was hypothesizing in his usual cynical self. In no way was he trying to bash Apple like most of the media tried to push the story. In fact, John C Dvorak stated the he "loves Apple" and is looking forward to the release of the iPhone and the future success of the company. He also later went on and thought the stock still had tremendous growth prior to the split. I forget the exact figure but I believe he thinks the stock could reach something in the ballpark of $160-180 before a split. Please keep in mind Apple's stock has already split since the release of the iPod about four or five years ago.

Okay enough rambling... While listening to TWiT I learned that parents are picking names for their children that are unique enough to find in a google search. The logic is that potential employers can find a resume and/or accomplishments by Googling a name. However, you may want to hide your myspace/facebook page that shows excessive drinking party photos.

"You can see a picture of the gun on our website"

I was a bit disturbed with the local news radio station. They wanted to lure visitors to their website to show a picture of a gun that was part of a crime scene. News radio has hit another low. Sorry I won't be display the gun on the blog. You all have an idea of what a gun looks like and it will not add anything to the story by posting it.


...or does it?

Mogulus

About a week or two ago I learned about a service called Mogulus. It is a website where you can watch or create a internet based television station. You can create either a live, recorded or a combination of the two for visitors to watch. Television producers can even fill in videos from youtube. It sounds like a really cool idea. I am not receiving any money by mentioning the service. I may even start my own channel for kicks.

Below is a clip taken from the Mogulus website mogulus.com

Silly String Saves lives in Iraq

According to Wave 3 TV Louisville, K.Y. Silly String is saving the lives of soldiers in Iraq.

"When you spray the Silly String, it drapes over the trip wires that are connected to bombs so they know where the bombs are," says Kelli Hostettler.

http://www.wave3.com/Global/story.asp?S=6660824&nav=0RZF

Support your troops! Send them Silly String. (I never thought I would say that last line.)

Aim Bots

Is it just me or are Aim Bots being added to my AIM BUddy List? The other day the bots called Prof Gilzot, sharethisdotcom, spleak, and WSJ were added to my AIM Buddy List. At first I thought someone was hacking into my account and adding random screen names. Previously, AIM added Shopping Buddy and Moviefone to my Buddy List. Soon I will have more bots than actual friends on my Buddy List. This has got to be another poor implementation of adding new features. What is your take?

UNIVERSITY DIPLOMAS

Below is a junk e-mail I received the other day. I wonder how many people actually went through with this e-mail and bought one of those prestigious non-accredited diplomas? I am scared to call them fearing they would somehow charge me 20 bucks or so just to connect to them. Who wants a prestigious non-accredited diploma? Anyone?

-----------------------(Actual email below)-----------------------

UNIVERSITY DIPLOMAS

Obtain a prosperous future, money-earning power and the
prestige that comes with having the career position you've
always dreamed of. Diplomas from prestigious non-accredited
universities based on your present knowledge and life experience.

If you qualify, no tests, classes, books or examinations will be required.

Bachelors', Masters', MBA's, Doctorate & Ph.D. degrees available in your field.

CONFIDENTIALITY ASSURED

CALL NOW TO RECEIVE YOUR DIPLOMA WITHIN 2 WEEKS

1-206-338-2427

Call 24HRS, 7 days a week, including Sundays and holidays

This is a courtesy call

Ever receive a call and the first line of the caller is "Hello, this is a courtesy call.” I really dislike courtesy calls! I figure 9 out of 10 times courtesy calls are not productive to my time. In the rare instance that the courtesy call is of any importance, I need to hang up and call back the company at the published phone number to verify if the call was legitimate in the first place. This is a very tedious process. So the next time I hear: "This is a courtesy call” I will likely lose it. Who is with me on this?

Jury Duty Cont'd...

UPDATE: District Attorney is a typo. Replace District Attorney with court appointed lawyer. Thank you.

I failed to mention what the charges were against the defendant. Basically he was charged with possession of narcotics (cocaine) in the third degree. The defendant supposedly tried to sell cocaine to an undercover cop.

The second round of Voir Dire was more of the same. Other quotes taken not from verbatim include "I was convicted of a crime twelve years ago... They will try and use that against me!" and "I am also being tried for copyright infringement." Each of those quotes drove the judge nuts. The judge barked back informing the potential jurors that we are not suppose to know about the conviction twelve years ago because this is not the time to discuss such details and we cannot base the credibility of the prosecution and/or defense solely on this factor. The judge also informed us that there is no copyright infringement in this case nor ever being any copyright laws being broken and to ignore that statement made by the defendant. In both situations the judge went back to chewing on his pen viciously.

After the second round of Voir Dire 20 jurors remained to go through a Voir Dire session. The second round of Voir Dire ended up being a lost cause. They did not choose anyone. Possibly because more than half the pool of the potential jurors in the Voir Dire session stated they could not be impartial. (I personally think the 18 potential jurors just did not want to take on a week or two-court case.)
So the 20 of us remained. Right before they started to call the names for the third round of Voir Dire a district attorney sitting in the first row of benches behind the defendant shouted. "You're honor... I would like to call on an emergency meeting with you. It is important!" The judge immediately ordered all the jurors out for 10 minutes. The 10 minutes became 25 minutes. When we returned the names were called for the third round of Voir Dire. Immediately the judge asked if anyone couldn't be impartial. Three people immediately were excused and the remaining two jurors joined the Voir Dire session. The judge noted the changes that took place in the meeting stating you will notice the defendant has requested assistance from a district attorney who has been in the front row watching the past two days. The defendant is still acting as sole counsel but will now have some assistance from here forward. BIG IMPROVEMENT! The Voir Dire session was a major improvement and the defendant pretty much stuck to a script only a few times going off into opening and closing statements. The judge rarely bit into his pen. After the Voir Dire session I was given another 15 minute break. I learned afterwards that I was to go to lunch and back to the Jury pool because I was not selected for this case. No big deal really. It was a very silly case and I have enough crazy stories to blog about to you all.

Jury Duty can be fun...

Jury Duty is usually thought of as dull and mundane. However, my last experience with the judicial system was rather interesting and often times hilarious. I am not very good with describing things but will do my best in recreating the scene.

During the first round of the Voir Dire the prosecutor asked if the jurors would be fair and impartial in regards to the case. The prosecutor also asked a few other similarly crafted questions. Then it was time for the defense to Voir Dire the first round of potential jurors. The defendant was actually acting as his sole counsel and clearly had no idea how damaging he was to his own case. The defendant used the Voir Dire as if it was his opening and closing statement. He talked about how prosecution will have professionally trained so-called witnesses that will sugarcoat the truth. All throughout the Voir Dire session the judge would interrupt the defendant to lead him on the correct path. Every time it seemed to fail. The judge was very patient with the defendant. When the judge would get angry he would start biting on his blue pen. (I was thinking the pen would break and blue or black ink would fly into the judge’s mouth.) The judge kind of reminded me of Mayor Blooming sitting there biting into his pen whenever he wanted to loose it. Some of the comments the defendant stated (not in exact verbatim) include: “It is better to be in the hands of a rat than the judicial system.” And “How can a drug dealer post bail of $2500? I have been incarcerated since November 8, 2005…." As you can see this was a very interesting case.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Is this a wedding or a funeral?

Over the weekend I briefly spent some time hanging out with a friend. During which we passed by a church and noticed a white stretched limo parked in front of the church. It turns out there was a wedding taking place. However, the limo must have been serving a dual purpose or the church overbooked events. The white stretched limo had a sticker on the back with the word "Funeral" in bold letters. All I can say is for my wedding I better not have a stretched limo with a sticker on it displaying the word Funeral.

Single Occupancy (Restroom)

The other day I noticed three people going into a restroom together. Usually you do not think much of this if it is a group of women going into a restroom together. However, this was a men’s restroom and the group entering the restroom consisted of two girls and a guy. I thought the bathroom is the last place to go for this sort of arrangement. Okay really why else would two girls and a guy share a single occupant only bathroom? One may ask why I am posting this ridiculous post. No I am not one of the participants in this episode. I am just an observer witnessing the scandalous behavior of American society. I wish I had interesting news I could report to you all. I am stuck being force fed the American propaganda and trapped into primarily thinking about pop culture. The occupation in Iraq is hardly reported in mainstream media. Overall society does not want to be bothered with it anymore.

Other useless news that comes to mind is Dr. Jack Kevorkian is out of jail after serving eight years. Lets see how long he stays out before he encourages more deaths from disturbed people.

YouTube Coming to AppleTV... WHY?

YouTube... Everyone loves YouTube right? Now that YouTube is being sued for copyrighted infringement for hosting such content such as the clip seen here:



Maybe you remember the boy featured on CNN a few years ago lip-syncing and dancing in his chair to the song "Miya He" Seen here:



Okay now here is my point: WHY??? Why does Apple want to be able to stream YouTube videos form the computer to television? Does Apple want consumers to watch amateurs making an ass of themselves and/or to pirate movies and television shows? As I see it, Apple and YouTube made this announcement as another ill attempt for publicity. What good does this joint pact serve? Do you really need to stream YouTube Videos to your television? Keep in mind AppleTV is around $299-$399.

Welcome to my blog

After some thought for the past few days I decided to create a blog. This blog is primarily composed of random thoughts and ideas. Welcome to my blog. I hope you enjoy reading about my life anonymously.