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.