To Pimp my Ride or Not

Its the daily driver if I'm not on two-wheels these days. The kiddos are getting bigger and more of them have brought about the shift in vehicles. Now the older of the rides is in need of some tender love and care or an extreme make over. What should I do for the 2001 Hyundai Elantra?

I don't think putting larger tires and a lift kit is the way to go on this one. I'm not looking to make a Hot Wheels Funny car now, so I'll just have to remain low to the ground. But if I plan to keep this car going I think I should look at some repairs and clean her up some. The nice thing is she runs pretty good for a car of her age and she's paid for too.

So it might be time to take a look at those windows and tint them perhaps. On the outside a paint job could at least make her look a tad better. I can't think of a car that I've owned having paint issues like this one. So I need to paint or buy that magic rub, you know the stuff that takes those old cars and creates new paint on them... you know the commercials I'm talking about.

Other than that I just need to adjust my hours and get out on the bike more. I can say this, I like filling up the tank on the bike for $15 as opposed to getting nothing for that in a car. Well I don't want to spend an arm and a leg, perhaps just an elbow or a foot. She's got her quirks like the last ride, but at least the AC is working for now. Oh I hope I didn't jinx something now.

Lights, Camera, and Horses

Next week is my last full week at the APHA office as we are gearing up for the 2008 APHA World Championship Horse Show in Fort Worth. I'm proud to say that for the 2nd time in a row now, that I'm able to help out with the over all promotion for the show. See at the show I'm responsible for streaming the events on the internet for the most part and in addition to those duties, I also update the web with stories and post championship photos online. This is all during the course of our very long 15 day show each year.

But the promotion aspect I'm speaking of is in addition to my regular duties. See I love to take photos and during the course of the show I can be seen running around with my digital camera and snapping away at things that catch my eye. For the past few shows I've submitted these images for a wrap up slide show and those are set to music and played on the final nights of the Youth Show & Open Show. These images are also submitted for our Around The World daily news letter at the show and additional materials that are published after the show is over.

Last year I was happy to see that the 2007 Promo Poster featured a majority of images taken by myself. It's not something that I had expected and its nice to see my work published and used to help promote the breed. At our last World Show Meeting they passed this years Promo Poster around and I noticed some very familiar images and it turns out that I nailed this years Poster and I'm very proud to have provided all of this years images.

The World Show is the one part of my job I like the most. Getting out and seeing some of the people year after year and being close to the horses is something I really enjoy. Its one thing to deal with them digitally through out the year, but it brings it all home to be up close from time to time. I must like it to stick around for my 8th straight show and working the 15 hour days at times for a little over 2 weeks straight. If you happen to be in the area and like horses, then stop on by and see some of the best looking Paint Horse to gather in one location at the same time.

Volvo passes its first checkup

Well the car is back after its first checkup. Still under warranty, we took her in to have some things looked at and they even found a couple things on their own while she was there. The strange thing about this and something I'm not really use to, is it didn't cost us a dime.

That's right, the fixed all the little things we pointed out and then some and it was all covered. We didn't even have to pay for labor or to have them look at it to begin with. Service like that is just something I've missed or haven't really had with other cars we've owned.

We are working on an extended warranty next and seeing what it takes to keep some if not all of this service for the car. My wife is very happy to have her car back again. I know the girls will enjoy this car during the summer for sure. It's also nice to know that we have a place we can take the car for great customer service now as well. Warranty or No Warranty!

Putting most of my eggs in one basket

Just got a new PC for the house this past week and man is it nice to have something fast and new to play with again. I use to build all my PCs and its been well over 7 years now. I think I got my use out of the last ones that I've built. I'll have to decide what I'd like to do was those machines later. Plus its hard to beat the price on a pre built or custom built machine these days.

So what's with all of these eggs then. Well its no secret that I'm a fan & MS guy and that I use a lot of their products. Well I'm looking to start using more and more of their products it seems now. I've become a big fan of the Windows Live stuff recently and I think I'll be using the Live Mail product and online their Calendar features for one thing.

I'm looking at learning more with VS2008 and .Net programming, its nice when you score a free version of this too. I'm also looking at the Microsoft Expression Studio line of products. Wild being such a long supporter of Macromedia Dreamweaver.

Microsoft Live OneCare is the next product that has my attention now. I hate Norton that comes with PCs and most of the others I've enjoyed over the years have all raised their prices too. I came across OneCare and the price is about the same, but they allow me to cover at least another two machines for the price.

So I find myself looking at more and more at other MS products now. Well... you win some and you loose some I guess. I'm thinking about dumping MS Office actually and would need to really think about upgrading to a newer version. I'm looking at using OpenOffice more these days, I'm still a big fan of all the free stuff and some of it can be really good if you ask me. OpenOffice does all the things that Office does pretty much.

So thanks for all the good Eggs MS and I'll keep my eyes on more of your products, but I'll also look at a few others from time to time though. You have a majority of the basket and the others are just to keep you on your toes so to speak.

Phoenix Lander to touch down on Mars this evening

The Phoenix's robotic arm digs a trench in the arctic plains. (Artist conception)
Phoenix Mission, University of Arizona

Live coverage of the Phoenix Lander will take place this evening around 6pm CST and the expected landing is around close to 8pm. The lander is visiting a location no other probe has explored and unlike the Rover on Mars, this one will remain stationary and collect data from its landing location. I've already set my Tivo and will see what happens along with my daughter this evening.

Robert Muraine Pops

Its that time of year again and So You Think You Can Dance is back, for all the fans of the hit dance show. Here's the thing with the show, I've always thought with this title it should be nothing but the crazy people that think they can really dance. Not the case though, they really get some talent on the stage year after year.

Some of the stuff I enjoy the most come from the B-Boys and Poppers and I'm amazed at some of the moves performed each year. I've only seen the first show for this season and some real talent took the stage in full force. But they really saved the best for last with this one. Check out the segment on Robert Muraine and be prepared to see nothing like you've ever seen before.



Amazing and sick... but in a good way is all I can say. What remains to be seen is how these dancers will do with the other styles of dance and that being said, is why they call it, So You Think You Can Dance. On a side note, me watching this show drives my buddy Bob completely Nutz!

Solid line = WALL!

Keeping saying this over and over to yourself now. Solid line = WALL! This has bugged me for the longest time and I've thought about writing on this for sometime too. Yesterdays "fender bender" has ticked me off enough to finally let loose here today.

If you've read earlier in my blog, we just got a new car and it was officially a week old yesterday. So I needed to get the plates and a part and took it with me to work in order to do these things for my wife during lunch. In short, someone not following the rules, caused a car next to me to move over into my lane, forcing me to move over as well. Only problem is I ran out of room and didn't want to hit the on coming parked traffic. Lets just say that two cars can't take up the same amount of space for very long.

Yes the guy not following the rules pretty much caused the wreck and as you might guess, his vehicle is perfectly fine. The freaked out lady only reacted like a majority of people would have done and well we rubbed paint with our nice new car.

See the picture above, its not the same set up, but all I'm caring about is the solid lines. DON'T cross them. STOP IT, NOW! Both of the vehicles in the above picture are examples of cars I see on a daily basis and they cross over the lines. Any lane could have bumper to bumper traffic and I see people cross those lines to merge. Your not suppose to do that. STOP IT!

Yesterday the guy turning right off the Hwy was suppose to enter his own lane of travel marked by solid lines. Nope he didn't do that and moved right in towards the car next to us as we began to cross the intersection. What do you think you would do if you saw a truck about to T-Bone you?

The officer yesterday had this to say, "17 years on the force, this is the 2nd time someone has actually stopped that was the cause of a wreck and didn't actually hit one of the cars." Not only did the guy do that, he actually called the Police, only thing is he thought he hadn't done anything wrong.

It all could have been so much worse and to look at it, you might not even tell it was really in a wreck. Still really sucks and now we have to deal with all the crap of getting things fixed to look better and make sure the insurance doesn't try to raise our rates. All because someone crossed a line or failed to stay on the right side of a line. Be safe out there people and think. Oh one more thing, use those blinkers while your at it too.

To infinity, and beyond!

Or as far as my PC will take us

Microsoft Research has been working on this little project for sometime now and its finally gone live. The WorldWide Telescope (WWT) is a Web 2.0 visualization software environment that enables your computer to function as a virtual telescope—bringing together imagery from the best ground and space-based telescopes in the world for a seamless exploration of the universe.

Best of all its totally free to enjoy, learn, and explore. This is going to be a great resource tool for my oldest and I think I'll even have a blast learning about space more too. All you have to do is visit the site and download the free software. Then your off to explore space on your own or take the guided tours of others.

Visit the site and watch the clips or better yet, download the software and see for yourself first hand. If you don't like it, you can always uninstall it, but if you have kids in school, I think you'll find this to be a great resource tool and a fun way to learn more.

Date Night

This past Friday night was Date Night for my wife and I. What's that you might ask? Well a night out for the adults or at least a few hours out together. We took advantage of the fact that my oldest was at a sleepover with the girl scouts for starters. Then my wife had heard about an hourly day care facility and we dropped off the baby as a test.

Instant alone time and Date Night! Well at least it was a couple hours for just the adults in the family. No screaming and crying and a chance to relax and just be together. It was great, really a nice evening for just us to be together.

Now don't get me wrong here, I'm not saying I don't like kids. I'm far from that and adore my kids, but it helps to have at least a night ever so often for just us. Fact is lately on family dinners out, the baby has been a holy terror.

Actually my buddy Nate had told me about it and gave me the idea of Date Night. My sister-in-law has had similar issues with their baby for dinners and I've brought up the idea of trading out some baby sitter favors to help facilitate Date Nights.

Not matter how we do it, I'm going to try and see that we do a little more of these from time to time. Plus its good for the kids too and a chance to see family or meet other kids at the day care center. Sounds like a win win if you ask me.

Out with the Old and in with the New

The new ride is here at last and its something my wife has wanted for a very long time. Ok, its a used one, but it still looks almost brand new if you ask me. A little sad to see the old ride go, but it almost had 190,000 miles on it, the AC was out and numerous other quirks.

Enough about that now. The family will enjoy the 2005 XC90 for some time now. It has AC, the windows all work and a number of other cool features. Here's to another 150,000 more miles with the new ride. Well I can hope it will hold up as well as the last car we had. Wow, we had that one for right about 10 years even.

May Movies are here

What a month for movies. It's been a long time for me to have a line of movies that I want to see like this and for them all to hit in the same month. Wow! Finding the money and time to go see these on the big screen will be a challenge for sure.

Last week we had the launch of Speed Racer and as I mentioned in an earlier blog, I'm a huge Speed Racer fan and from all the clips and behind the sceen features for this title, I'm sold already on seeing this film and think I'll be pleased with how its presented.

Back to Narnia with Prince Caspian this week. I've loved these stories and they have done a good job with presenting the first movie and hopefully they will continue on the same level with the rest of the Narnia series. I think it helps that most of these stories are short and they don't have to really cut a lot of things out.

Indy is back again and lands in May next week. Harrison Ford is back to thrill Indiana Jones fans with Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and this is a must see on the big screen as well. These adventure films have been a lot of fun and I've enjoyed them all, nothing beats the first one in my book so far, but this one might surprise me and put up a good fight.

Sex In The City on the big screen. It's been a little over 7 years for Edith and I and our first exposure to Sex In The City. We've power watched through season after season on DVDs and loved every episode pretty much. It will be nice to see how they present a movie and what story unfolds. Sex In The City hits the very end of May and rounds out a very full month of movies.

Go Speed, Go!

My all time fave is now hitting the big screen at last. As a kid growing up, I'd race home from school just to watch the Speed Racer cartoon and loved it. I liked all kinds of shows, but this is the one I really loved the most growing up. So from the past to the present, we'll look and see how Speed has changed over the years. Let's kick things off with the original show intro and theme song. Star Your Engines!



Years later, that theme would be cut up and mixed into a pretty cool dance mix. It was a must by for me to say the least, being a die hard fan of the show and loving high energy Techno tunes. Plus the crowds like hearing it played at the parties too. Moving on, the show was renewed so to speak. I've never really seen the new show, but the little bit of the graphics look OK from what I can tell. Not sure about the story lines on this one and I'll have to keep my eyes open if these show up on TV sometime now. Lets take a look at the new graphics and updated theme intro as we close in on the final turn.



I don't remember what movie I was at when I first saw this trailer, but I almost jumped up when I heard that all so familiar opening theme. Then to see the filming and treatment unfold had me looking forward to this release date. I'm a huge Speed Racer fan and this is a must see flick for me for sure. You never know what someone will do to shows like this, but I feel pretty good and expect it to be great. Enjoy the trailer if you haven't seen this one already.



I hope you liked seeing a little more about Speed, for those that don't know the history at least. Look around the TV shows, I'm guessing you'll see some of these old cartoons still out there if you look hard enough.

Just not the same with out you

Well it's been about a week or more with out the Tivo remote. Not a clue as to where it has gone. Lucky thing the new remote for the TV is full of codes and one worked right off the bat.

Now we don't have the fancy Thumbs Up/Down buttons and we don't seem to have access to the guide from the remote, at least I'm not finding that out so far. We can push on the box itself and get there though.

But what we've really missed is the Rewind and Fast Forward functions. It's been a pain to watch a recorded show and sit through the commercials. Not any more... control has been restored, a little off from before, but still closer to normal than with out.

At some point I'd love to get a super remote that does it all, one click and turn stereo on to what I want, set the Satellite to what I need, pop some pop corn and bring me a beer. Ok, the last two I'll do for myself the old fashion way. But a guy can dream still, right?

Before I get the one remote to rule them all and in entertainment bind them. I need to see about moving the Dish on up to HD standards and ditch the over air access or at least some of that. I'm thinking around the summer time might be a good time to do that. But until then, we need to hold on to this remote and not let it out of our site.

Back in the Saddle again

Today was a good day to ride! That's right, ride and so I did. I took the bike out, something I hadn't done in awhile actually and put a nice 50 miles or so on her. Actually rode with a coworker and a friend to help raise some money for St. Jude research too.

This was the 2nd year to do this and we decided to change things up a bit and make a little more of a ride and not head straight on the highways to the meet up. It was suggested that we should ride around Lake Worth. Sounded like a really cool idea and I'm glad we went with it.

The ride was great, nice cruise around the lake, perfect weather, and nothing to really worry about at all. The highlight around the lake for me was seeing the Castle. That's right a Castle in Texas sits on the Southern part of Lake Worth. The Castle of Heron Bay as its called now, sits quietly overlooking the lake.

It's in sad shape these days, but its still interesting to see and I decided to look up more information on the web. Lots of history in this structure to say the least. I'd like to go back and actually stop and look at it some more.

In the end it was a great day to ride and for a good cause. Hopefully next year we can increase the number of riders and earn a lot more money for St. Jude. Between now and then though, I hope to ride a whole lot more.

Spring Cleaning Storms

Hard hitting, Spring Cleaning storms have struck the home recently. With a whirl wind of activity we have finally started throwing out junk and looking to sell some stuff in a garage sale.

Here's the kicker, the stuff was not expected to return no matter what. That's right, we had items that we are hoping would have brought us a little bit of money and help us clear up some room around the home.

Things don't always work as they are intended to though. Sadly the Garage Sale was a bust pretty much and didn't net any real profits at all. But things did clear up a bit just the same.

Now some of these items have returned to the garage, in effort to still sale them somewhere. But its not all bad, the Garage looks a lot better then it has and shows signs of improvement. Spring Cleaning is in full effect or infecting the house with luck as well. A need to reduce the clutter and get rid of things that are not really needed should continue to spread around the house.

By the time you read this, you might notice a couple minor changes here as well. For one the simple URL is now available for those of you visiting. Still in the same familiar place, just thought I'd clean up a little on the net and make it easier for those wanting to visit. I hope to make a lot more use of this as well. I also need to look back at my Podcasting, I'm sorry those have come to a screeching halt and I think it's time to mash that pedal and get those in gear again.

Wish me luck now and think about cleaning up a little in your life too, you might find a little less clutter could give you a whole new perspective on things. It helped me, I can see the floor now and that's a nice foundation to build upon.

Where does the time go

Time flys by when your having fun or no matter what in fact. So to say I haven't been busy would be an under statement. Last weekend we had a little family camping action going on. This weekend we'll be a father/daughter camping event.

I've been working on setting up a fundraiser for my wife to raise money. I'm looking to tap some friends in the gaming community to donate to this effort. It's a big effort of mine to take on, but I'm going to give it my best. Cool thing is I've lined up a pretty cool gift to offer as a raffle to those that donate. I think I can get a nice package together for this effort.

This past week the garage went through some changes and looks like we are getting a lot of junk thrown out and hopefully sold at the Garage Sale this weekend. I sure hope it all goes and makes us a little bit of money at the least. All of that money is slated to help with donations for my wife's walking event. Did I mention the fundraiser thingy I'm working on?

I've got a little one on the side that I'm working on I'll at least make a personal donation myself and be riding in the St Jude ride again this year. I'm part of the motorcycle friends that will be helping out. Would be cool to do on a horse sometime, but I'll stick to two wheels for now.

My movie script is way behind and its going to be interesting to pull this one out. Lucky for me the next weekend looks open so far and I'm going to need to try and do some serious writing over the next days and make an amazing comeback. I've been dealing with a few other things that take up time, but not needing any mention here.

Who's a Hero Now?

An awesome launch event from Microsoft for IT Developers was held today in Dallas and I was fortunate enough to attend this event. The Heroes Happen {here} event helped launch Visual Studio 2008, Windows Server 2008, and SQL Server 2008.

The Key Note given by Jon Roskill was excellent and was themed around Dynamic IT and outlined goals that all IT departments should shoot for. Best of all the latest products from Microsoft showed how easy it could be for IT departments to reach those goals. Most IT departments spend 80% on keeping things going and 20% on creating new solutions. The Dynamic methods goal is to switch those percentages around with each other and with this selection of tools, you can reach those types of goals.

Various tracks were available to showcase the latest tools and various guests were on hand to talk about how these tools are helping them in their daily workloads. The Vendor expo had a variety of sponsors on hand to showcase some of their products and the event wrapped up with a number of free goodies for all to take home and start using.

Free SWAG

• Windows Vista Ultimate
• Visual Studio 2008 Standard
• Windows Server 2008 (1yr)
• SQL Server 2008
• Windows Mobile Dev Kit
• Microsoft Forefront (trial)
• Microsoft System Center (trial)
• and more goodies

Events like this not only inspire you, but they also put a lot of the tools in your hands to start working with. If you get a chance to attend one of the events I recommend you jump all over it and fast. You can look at some of the information online and most of these products have basic versions or demos available for download as well.

It's an HD thing

Amazing about sums it all up and interesting at the same time. Sometimes you just have to stare and take it all in and I'm talking the tiny details that come from a really nice HD picture. Only thing is not all shows are broadcasting in HD and that means you see a lot of shows in SD (Standard Definition).

Now if you don't take those shows and try to stretch them out, its not so bad. I do notice things in the area of text from SD broadcasts, they just look bad in that area. Also just because a channel is in HD, doesn't mean that they are broadcasting programs in HD all the time. In fact I've even seen some HD stuff, like the Today Show for example and their cuts to stories appear as SD. In most cases that format switches auto for you and then switches back to HD, but you still notice a difference in the quality of the picture.

HDMI is pretty much the defacto connection and we are talking about 1 cable to rule them all so to speak, sending both HD video and Audio in a single neat cable. Only thing is I'm not setup with HDMI all around, so I'll have the best picture I can to my TV via HDMI and then send my all my audio out to my stereo via digital audio. We are still going to have a great experience all around, just a few more cables.

So when you start looking at upgrades to the world of HD, keep in mind HDMI and how many connections between all your devices. Over time you'll also see more and more Channels switch over from SD to HD content. DirecTV is pretty much leading the market with the number of channels available in HD, but you could still see some stuff in SD.

Gaming in HD or at 1080p is the best and I'm enjoying this a lot on the LCD tv and my Elite Xbox 360 handles it great. Games are pretty much designed for this format and you can't go wrong with this combination. PC connections are also a nice feature in some of these HD TV sets too.

Last is the area of HD DVD or I should say Blu-Ray. I'm in no hurry, I know Blu-Ray has one, but until these drives drop way down in price, the media drops and pretty much we see SD DVD leave the market, which I don't see happening, I'll be fine with normal DVD and in fact a lot of DVD players upscale to 1080i or 1080p and look great.

Lets make a movie

That's right, its time for Script Frenzy once again, having moved up to April form June. Same as last year with only 30 days to write a movie script from scratch. I had a great time last year doing this and have decided to make a sequel to my blockbuster from last year.

No it wasn't produced or anything like that, but come on now, that is what all writers want to do, make part two of their great project. So its time for me to dust things off and wake up my characters from last year and see what adventures they can get into this time.

Last year was fun and tough at the same time, I'm hoping that I'll have it easier in April and looking forward to the break afterwards leading up to NaNoWriMo. Today is the start and if you ever thought about writing a screenplay, then why not take the plunge and join in on the fun. Take a look at Script Frenzy and just write daily.

Will You Give Your Support?

Dear Family and Friends,

This year, Edith will be participating in a very special event called the Breast Cancer 3-Day walk.

She will walk a total of 60 miles over the course of three days with thousands of other women and men. The net proceeds will support breast cancer research, education, screening and treatment through Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the National Philanthropic Trust Breast Cancer Fund.

She has agreed to raise at least $2,200 in donations and has set a personal goal of $3,000. So she needs your help. Would you please consider making a donation? Keep in mind how far she will be walking - and how hard she will need to train. You can donate online at http://www.edithowens.com/3daywalk/ or call 800.996.3DAY to donate over the phone.

According to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, more than 200,000 American women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year, and nearly 40,000 will die from the disease. That's why she is walking so far. To do something bold about breast cancer. I hope that you'll share this incredible adventure with her by supporting her in her fundraising efforts.

Thank you in advance for your generosity!

Sincerely,

Robert Owens

P.S. Ask your employer if they will double your donation through a matching gift program.