Pinterest for men?

What's the point here or Pinterest behind this latest form of social networking and is it for men? I'm a social network geek and find it's just a part of life these days, people want or feel they need to stay connected with others. That being said, I had wondered what all of those little boxes I saw scrolling across my wife's monitor really meant.

Her Pinterest had peeked my interest enough and I decided I would give it a closer look. There was something very familiar at the start, but I wasn't quite sure.

My first look into Pinterest came from the Pinspiration App I downloaded on my Windows Phone 7 device. I quickly found out I could see all kinds of stuff, but I would need to actually get invited in, if I wanted to contribute with the masses.

Surprisingly, it didn't take as long as it does to get into some of Google programs and if you happen to know someone that uses Pinterest, then I'm sure you can get invited by them even faster if you like.

Once you've been invited, its pretty simple to select from a few things you find interesting to follow and they'll even give you some suggestions of people using Pinterest to follow and help hook you up with those in your existing social networks like Facebook and Twitter even.

Now its time for you to start pining up some things on your social cork board, so your followers may see what interests you. These interest boards allow you to group things into categories of interest from your real life and place them into a virtual space to share with others.

How you might ask? From web sites to start with and the handy Pin It button they suggest you add to your Favorites Bar. When you visit something on the web that speaks to you enough and want to keep track of it, simply Pin It and place it in one of your Pinterest Boards. It will launch the small window and hopefully find the image on the page you would like to share. You might even find a number of sites have integrated a Pinterest button within their site for you as well.

Smart phone apps is another way and this allows you to create from your very own images taken while your out and about. Its always nice to use your own photos, while out and about for sharing your interests with others.

Is it for men? Well, I can clearly say the demographics appear to be heavily slanted towards a female user base. It does seem to really speak to a person that wants to organize certain aspects of their life on a visual basis. It is very popular with Brides for example and allows them to carry an extreme amount of visual aids, right at their finger tips or add to these wedding planning Pinterests for example.

If you scroll through the Everything section on Pinterest to start with, you'll find an enormous amount of fashion pinned, along with food & drink or home decor stuff for example. Pretty much things that interest women for the most part... nice things to look at for sure, but most of it will not speak to a guy really. I would say you would be hard pressed to find around 5 percent of the pins on the front page appeal to a man.

So what's the point then? Well in a lot of ways its just a visual book marking or collection of favorites of sites and things you like and a means to share these things with others. Twitter is for posting small bits of things your interested in text or sharing perhaps a quick photo, but not a means to organize them. Facebook is similar but it does a lot more than Twitter does. So Pinterest is like a virtual scrapbook & clippings of things you like, but on more of a social level.

Some guys use it, but it's a small number of us I'd say and I'm almost willing to bet, a large number of men sign up and simply lurk and never pin things really. This brings me back to my thought at the start, I'd seen this somewhere before and it was from a site called ImgSpark that lets you create Mood Boards, only two of them and it limits you to only a gig of space.

Sometime back in 2009 is when ImgSpark.Com was created and I had joined their site back around May of 2010. This was only a couple months after the launch of Pinterest. It's only recently now that I've discovered Pinterest.

I think Pinterest clearly does things that ImgSpark is not capable of and it has a much larger user base. Is it for men though? Well, its not like they keep us from using it. It's just really up to the man in the end and if he has any real Pinterest in sharing I suppose.

Family Dinner time

Our family dinner time is headed for real change here in 2012, as we look to try something different for a change. For starters, we are going to try and not eat out and instead prepare our meals at home together as a family more.

In doing this we are going to prepare only one meal that the whole family will eat and enjoy together. We will also plan these meals out in advance for the next two weeks and stick with it. That means no more sitting around and asking, "What do we want to have for dinner tonight?" and it also means we will not make something different for just the kids and us to eat.

When I was younger and it came time for dinner, I was called to the table and we ate what ever was made for the night. There was no pre-planning as far as I knew it and I found out what we were eating as soon as I sat down with the family. Surprise, you get what you get and you don't throw any fits in the end.

Truth is I never had any problems with this really and I wasn't too picky of an eater growing up. So getting my kids to understand that they have to try new things and eat better will be an experience perhaps, but I think we'll do fine and they seem to be receptive so far to this new idea.

To start things off we've themed our dinners and set something different for each day of the week. We've went ahead and decided to keep the same day themes for both of the weeks to help make it simple too.

The girls seem to like the idea of themed meals and are planning to locate music that ties in with each nights dinner theme. I think it should be a lot of fun for all of us. Good food, cool music, and great family time for the evening.

The creation of Sunday Specials should be very interesting and we've decided to select places from around the World. We dropped Six countries into a hat to start with and South African & Brazilian have been selected as our first two Sunday Specials themed dinners. I think these might be the hardest ones to come up with out of the six, but we'll rise up to the challenge.

Hopefully this will also help us get organized a bit where meals come in to play and help us save some money with the buying of our food in advance by eating at home. This should also bring us together more and I think we'll enjoy our meals as a family and perhaps learn about some new places and foods as well.

Lobbyist for the day down in Austin

Tomorrow is shaping up to be a rather busy day for me, as I'll be spending it down in Austin as a Lobbyist and helping to represent other fellow Horse enthusiasts from all over the state of Texas. The American Paint Horse Association is sending a little over 25 of its Staff members down to join other Horse groups from across the state for Horsemen Day at the Capitol, its purpose is to show support in numbers for HB 2111/HJR 111 & SB 1118/SRJ 33 on the steps of the Capitol.


Hopefully together we can help push things along tomorrow and get these items added to a future vote here in Texas. The amendments purpose would then allow slot machines at 13 existing licensed racetracks and three federally-recognized Indian reservations and its efforts would keep gambling money that many Texans spend in neighboring states here in Texas instead.

While visiting with my State Representative and Senator tomorrow, I also hope to express my concerns about the proposed Education cuts being made and that they reconsider looking into other options, including the Rainy Day Fund that was setup for times such as this.

I know the efforts of Win For Texas and Save Texas Schools are good causes and something Texas really needs at this time. Let the people have a say and vote on these topics and I encourage all Texans to looking to this efforts and contact your Representative and Senator to let your voice be heard.

The work behind closed doors

Looks like I might be getting an actual office of my own at last. Granted, its a bit of a small office of sorts, but an office just the same. Over the many years of working in IT, I've been in a Cube environment all of this time, but this might change really soon.

The past 11 years have been the same as always, but lately a progression towards real walls of sorts has been in the making. The current IT department has pretty much been a big open room, from the time I first joined them. So open at first, it was like an island of connected desks with only a few very minor walls to divide us up.

This changed though with a few higher walls and that created some Cubes for a few of us. I found myself facing one of those huge cube walls, but with a bit of an open environment to my back. So half of our department needed walls it seemed, to help us cut down on some of these distractions it seems.

Well, the distractions haven't gone away and in a lot of cases, we now have many more distractions and so the answer to cut down on these distractions is to build real walls and install doors. We are looking at creating six offices; measuring 10 x 7 or 7 x 10, depending on how you look at things.

I'm trying to picture how this is going to be when its done, we'll have a walkway down the middle of a decent size room, that is pretty much cube areas now, and so later on it will look like a long hallway, that has six private offices for us.

I'm looking forward to this really, the thought of a private office to work in is awesome sounding. I think a cozy little 10 x 7 room with my own door that I can shut is just what I really need. I just hope its cost effective and the right decision to make in the end.

Some of the past cube areas I've had were not to bad, some were quite roomy really and fairly private. I'm not sure if we have larger cube walls or even normal walls, to help make our areas more private cube areas, I think that could even cut down on some of the current distractions.

So looking towards full walls and a real door is what might be coming my way instead. I do feel I can get a bit more done, when I tend to be more on my own at times though. Don't get me wrong here, I love team work and I work well with others I think. I just feel at times it can be much better and I can be more creative with less distractions in our area.

The past couple of weeks I found myself snowed in and thanks to our VPN, I was able to find a quite place at home and get a bunch of work stuff done from home. Back at work, you have people coming and going all the time, add in the water cooler talk, plus hearing every ones daily phone conversations, and much more with seven of us in semi open work environment. Its no wonder that I find myself spending most of my time with headphones on and trying to tune as much out as I can.

Well not for much longer, if the plans for walls and doors go through. I'll find myself strolling into work and making my way into my own private IT Cell, I mean small private office and I'll simply shut my door to get things done. I can continue to Skype the others in IT like always and hopefully find some inner peace at last, from suddenly working in a distraction free zone at last.

Or... I can pray for many more Snow days here in Texas or other reasons to keep me working from home instead at times.

Do You Wanna Touch?

I started watching the film The Runaways (2010), starring Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett, who was one of the founding members of the all-girl rock group, The Runnaways, and this suddenly brought back memories of the first Live concert I had attended as a teenager.

My wife had started up the movie via Netflix tonight and I wasn't sure what I was about to watch here at the start and was really surprised to see how much Kristen Stewart looked like Joan Jett and then I realized what this movie was really going to be about.

So a little later on into the film you see Joan Jett at rock club and can hear a version of "Do You Wanna Touch" by Gary Glitter being played, which happens to be one of my favorite songs that was covered later by Joan Jett during her solo career. I decided to search and see if I could find the original video here on the web, you have to just love the Internet for stuff like this.



I really like the Joan Jett & The Black Hearts version and I can remember very well when this version of the video actually hit Mtv... yes, way back in the day when they actually played music videos and when it was a cool station to watch. But I also remember attending her concert at Six Flags Over Texas and I believe the Live footage of the concert fans was in fact filmed out in that parking lot concert area. Some where in that crowd of fans just might be me waving my arms in the air.



I've seen her live only one other time since then and I'm much older now, but I think she still Rocks! I enjoyed the movie and learning more about the Runaways as well.

I did it! I'm a Super Model Now

Well I broke into my weight goal range of 206 to 212 lbs and right on schedule I might add at that. It's been really hard to diet this time of year, but I hung in there and stuck to it the best I could. I think I was about 96% strict and followed the rules of the diet program.

The hardest thing for me on this diet had to be giving up all the sweets and I mean all of them. Not a single piece of Candy, Cookie, Cake, or whatever treat you could imagine this time of year. I'm talking zero tolerance here now. But its all worth it in the end and this diet program really worked. Amazing to eat just what they said I should and not even work out at all. The pounds just fell off during the 12 weeks I was on this and my clothes are falling off as well.

So I dodged all of the Halloween Candies and I managed to avoid all the Thanksgiving Pies. Last week was really hard to resist the Chocolate Cake. I could smell the sugar as I sat close by, but I kept myself from pouncing and taking a bite of that forbidden desert. But I remained strong and reached my 12 week goal.

That brings us to Christmas Eve and that means a tradition is coming for me that I will not break. I always watch "It's a Wonderful Life" and pour myself a nice glass of Egg Nog to enjoy. So to celebrate my reaching my goal of a new lesser me in the weight area. I'll have a tiny glass of Egg Nog tonight and I'll still enjoy my movie. I've got a lot to be thankful for this year in the end and I think I can allow myself this little bit in the cheating area now.


My New Years resolution for 2011 is to remain skinny, stay healthy and be the best super model I can be. Thanks family for all the support and praise you've given me.

I'm melting away

I'm closing in now on the last couple weeks of my diet and I only have around 8 to 10lbs left to drop. To think that this diet would actually work as well as it has and with out working out at all was a big surprise to me.

I'm now looking forward to the next phase that they call re-feeding and seeing how I'm able to reintroduce the foods that I like back into my diet. I'm also looking forward to starting somewhat of a workout program to help maintain my weight.

I feel so much better now and I'm lighter than I would have ever imagined too, all of this thanks to Dr. Cohen's 1st Personal Diet. But its far from over, I can't let things go back to the way it was before and I need to make sure that I maintain and build up my strength once I reach my ending weight goal.

Odd thing is I really didn't think that I looked that big to begin with, but I'm sure enjoying the way I look now and hearing everyone make comments as well about me. It's funny how people treat you differently after loosing some weight. I mean, I'm still the same person pretty much, just a bit less space being used now.

NaNoWriMo 2010

I'm at it again, one of those crazy writers during the month of November that promise to crank out 50,000 words in a months time. I'm a few words off my goal and doing my best to catch back up.

I actually feel pretty good about my chances and I think this will make my 3rd time to complete this quest. Last year was a bit of a tough year for me and I fell short of my goal. I'm having to much fun this year to miss my goal.

I think my resoultion for 2011 will be to work on the edits (rewrites) of my first two stories and look at finishing up last years attempted novel. I'd like to see about getting this into a small printed form to look at down the road, perhaps a self publish on deman type of thing.

I still have to decide if between now and the end if I want to wrap up this series in book four or attempt to keep these characters going for another book. I'm thinking this might actually go to one more book.

THE RANGERS WIN THE PENNANT!!!

Last night I watched a bit of history take place, as my local favorite team finally made it. They won the ALCS and are now headed to the World Series to represent the American League. THE RANGERS WIN THE PENNANT!

"Win the Pennant," is a phrase you hear from time to time from Radio and TV Announcers this time a year and is a phrase I thought I'd never hear tied to the Texas Rangers. Until last last night happened that is and its so great that it is true.

This ball club showed something very early on this season and it was destined to make it to Playoffs I think. Something told me around the first few games of the Playoffs, they were destined to do much more as well. Now I'm getting the feeling that they are destined to Win the World Series as well.

Next week they'll start their quest to make History once again and they only need 4 more wins to reach that mark. History is about to happen once again for the Rangers and I love it!

Dual Fandom
OK, its not a secret that I've been a Yankee Fan over the years and its something of a nostalgia for me and this very historical team. Just the same I've always supported and pulled for my local team to do well. Over the years I've liked a few teams from the locals to outside my area in professional sports. Drives my friends and families crazy at times.

This latest Championship series happened to pit my local Texas Rangers against the New York Yankees. This was the one time I wanted the Yankees to lose now. In regular matches I had more of a its OK with WHO ever wins, but not this time around. I actually think I might have hated the Yankees more if they'd beaten the Rangers. I'm really glad it worked out this way amd the Rangers beat the Yankees last night.

I'm sure this is not the last time the Yankees will make it to the ALCS and I'm sure they'll go on to play in other World Series games and even win it. But this is the one year I'm happy to say and respectfully that I don't support the Yankees. There is always next year for them right? Then again the Texas Rangers look very strong and might need to make history just repeat itself.

Not a bad start at all

So after a full week of sticking to the diet I've managed to drop 11 pounds so far. I'd have to think that is pretty impressive to say the least. I even feel a bit better than before and being lighter must add to that.

Now I'm not suppose to be weighing myself every day and I'm stopping now and sticking to the original plan. That means I'll weigh at the 4, 8, and 12 week marks. I'm expecting to notice things over the next few weeks in my looks at least.

I found it funny that my 8th week weigh in lands right on Thanksgiving Day, what a way to really keep me on the path I'd have to say. This will be one of the hardest days of the whole program I think. I so love Turkey and Dressing and eating at my in-laws, but hopefully I'll be tons lighter and will feel tons better, giving myself something to truly be thankful for.

The Last Temptation and then another...

Well I managed to make it through the Seafood Boil celebration today at my in-laws. In fact I made it through the whole day of temptations. What was really hard was walking in and seeing the Cake Balls that my sister in-law made to start with.

Then I spied the Cupcakes over in another location of the kitchen. Finally my mother in-law asked about an ingredient for a recipe that was up on her laptop. No, it just had to be Neiman Marcus Cake that she was making.

Now, its not like I sit down with every meal and have a desert. I'm not always eating stuff like this and its not like they always have this type of stuff, but during this time of year is when it ramps up a bit and I know this will not be the last temptation.

Oh well, in a year from now I'll have my shot at trying something small and sweet once again. I've just got to keep at this diet, stick to the program and burn this fat away. The grape fruit I had with some splenda made up just a tad, but it was not the same.

This week we have an employee luncheon at work and all kinds of Sporting Event type foods will be prepared. In fact I get to help with the cooking of some of the stuff. But I will not be eating any of the food and stick to my meal plan alone. I think I might be safe until Halloween time at least.

Welcome to Hell week

Ok, its not that bad really. It is a challenge though and like most stuff can be looked at as an addiction. Eating all kinds of crap can put you in the same boat as an addict. So to suddenly jump ship and swim towards a more healthy life style can be a real challenge.

Once you break the habits and start new habits its really easy. I've been here and done some stuff like this before to tell you the truth. Cutting sodas out all together can be done and after you make it through the first week, it gets easier for the following weeks.

For me its most of the other stuff I'm cutting out that seems to be harder right now. For example a simple glass of milk. Ok I love to chase it with a cookie at times or the other way around. But a simple bowl of cereal and milk is not allowed right now. Same goes for a warm bowl of Oatmeal in the morning. After a week though I'll be fine and not even miss it.

See right now my body is telling me it wants more food, but I'm training it to eat healthier and less. So its starting to burn off some of the fat and that is when you feel that little sign from below that it wants more.

Trouble is that sign then says, I'd like to have a cookie or something sweet. You just have to break that chain of thinking and after a week of eating the other stuff and building the habit of health eating, it will start to get better and you'll not even miss the other stuff.

I only hope at the end of the program I can reintroduce a few things and in a smart way of course and don't find that I don't care for a glass of milk. But we are not anywhere near that stage here and have a lot more to go. I mean its only day two and we still need to reach at least day seven I'd say.

I'm confident that I can make it happen though and I'll make it through this week and keep heading towards the twelfth week.

New diet begins now

Well I'm back at it again... the weight has come back over time and now its time to get rid of those extra pounds. Those EXTRA, EXTRA Pounds to be clear here. The last time I dropped the 60 lbs was over a 12 week or so period and it simply involved me dropping the sodas, eating a lot less, and moving my ass more.

This time around I'm looking at a new diet plan by Dr Cohen's called 1st Personal Diet. So what's so different about this diet? Do you have to eat all meat or count calories? Nope! I just have to eat regular food and the same stuff you buy at the local stores. No crazy pre-packaged meals or funny shake drinks to be on this diet at all.

This diet is built off my personal blood work though. I went to a lab and gave some blood and based on those results, they tell me what kinds of foods and how much of each to eat per meal. The next step is to then work on eating only these certain types of foods for the three meals per each day and I can also have some crackers (7 @ 5.85 g) and fruits (3) between meals as snacks.

The kicker... oh yes, every diet plan has a kicker now. You have to weigh out a certain portion of your food before cooking or prepping it. We are talking about raw item weights here and that makes up your meal totals. Who knows what the calories are, that's not important here. Its only eating these certain amounts of Meals 1, 2, and 3 for each day.

Now each persons personal diet is suppose to be different, its based on their blood work and all the stuff that shows up inside it. So what I'm suppose to eat and what amounts will not work for YOU. I mean sure it might help you drop the weight and I'm willing to bet it surely will, but you might need to eat different types of foods and certainly different amounts to do this the right way.

Heck, anyone can play their own version of Survivor Island and only eat rice for each meal and drop a lot of weight (no rice for me). In other words, its not about starving yourself and dropping the weight fast with this plan. It's about dropping the weight safely and by eating only certain foods and amounts and then later you'll switch into a re-feeding phase to help introduce other foods back and keep the weight off (See you in 12 weeks).

Well what about exercise? You pretty much don't have to do that really, in fact you should do what you did before you went on the diet an keep that up. So that means I can sit around quite a bit I suppose. The problem is if you go on this diet and start to work out, your going to burn off stuff on both sides here, from eating and working out and this can mess things up quick. If you work out normally, then keep doing just as you are doing and follow the plan.

During the plan, which is all online as far as support goes, you'll track your progress every 4 weeks and they'll monitor and perhaps adjust things. So if I start this and begin a heavy session of working out as well, I'll more and likely burn off to much, to fast, and not have enough Food to keep me going. So I plan to just make the food and eat the food for now.

Am I pumped and excited about this new diet plan? Yes and No. I'll do it and make it work, but the truth is I couldn't have picked a worse time of the year to start this Damn Diet. Oh, but it never would be a perfect time, wrong. For me, this is the time of the year I like the most, its the Fall and its a time that the family gets together even more and over the holidays we eat some pretty good stuff as well (not healty really). So I've picked the Fall & Holidays it seems to do this... simply a brilliant idea I have to say.

So I'll get to make my simple Meals 1, 2, and 3 for each day that total in at about 240 g (.50 lbs of food) for each meal. Remember its only certain types of food, so I can't weight out the Turkey & Dressing and then chase it with a slice of Pecan Pie. No, I can only cook and prep the right amounts foods and based on my personal diet plan for selected items. For some reason, I'm just not looking forward to Thanks Giving at all this year.

You know how it feels to bring a lunch to work and a co-worker pulls out a slice of Pizza that smells oh so good and you only have a sandwich to eat? That's what it will be like for me these Holidays, they might as well be eating Pizza.

What's up for this weekend? The Family is gathering to celebrate my brother-in-laws Birthday and will be having a seafood boil. I'm not sure what I'm eating just yet, but I know what it will weigh to start with.

Gunner: Hurricane Horse

Judy Andrekson has just released her latest book in the True Horse Stories series, titled Gunner: Hurricane Horse; the heart gripping true story of devotion and love shared between a remarkable partnership, of a horse and not just a rider, but between true friends.

This is also a story that captures the real emotions and hardships, brought about from one of the biggest natural disasters to strike the United States- in the form of Hurricane Katrina. This story also shows the remarkable connection, that people rarely glimpse, between a horse and rider.

After finishing this book, I have to say I've really enjoyed learning even more about PBJ Decks Smokin Gun or as he's also known by the name of Gunner and all the things that Heather Lott-Goodwin and he has gone through in their times together. Its a story filled with many ups and downs for sure, but one that also binds this pair together like none other.

Over the past years that I've enjoyed working for the American Paint Horse Association, I've had the opportunity to enjoy a passion of mine for photography and been able to capture what I feel to be some of these incredible and heart filled moments between a horse and rider.

Its on these rare occasions like this that I've watched a rider and horse together and felt as if something was a bit more between a pair at times. So I can honestly say that I've appreciated this true life story being told here and learning much more about Gunner and Heather.

I'm also happy to have seen this pair in person, before they entered the show ring at our American Paint Horse World Championship Show and it was then that I was able to help capture some of their moments as described between them.

I'm also very honored that Judy selected one of my photos for the cover of Gunner: Hurricane Horse and she was able to also draw some inspiration from the other images from that show as well for the book.

Most of all, I'd really like to thank Heather and Gunner for opening up and sharing themselves with the rest of us and I truly hope that their connection remains to be as strong as ever together.

It is the iPhone!

So... it is the iPhone and pretty much everybody has one these days. I'm not here to sing its praises or put it on a pedestal as the greatest device ever made and just the same, I'm not here to slam it and point out any of its faults.

What I will say is that I'm not an iPhone user and if that makes you feel its time to stop reading here and move on, then I thank you for stopping on by. I will share that I'm a Windows Mobile user and that I'm looking forward to their upcoming release of the new Windows Phone 7 for those of you that are curious and have decided to stick around a bit more.

Ok, back to the iPhone now. I've seen a few of these up close and played around with them a bit at times. So I've had some very minor hands on time with the device at least. I'm not going to give any reviews, having so little hands on time... it wouldn't be fair at all. I can say I think its a very slick device and perhaps easily the best Smart Phone out on the market to date. I haven't really messed with the Androids yet either.

What I wanted to find out though, was what people using the iPhone thought of it and I decided to ask a few of my friends and co-workers, that are iPhone users, what they enjoyed the most about their iPhones and limit their responses to only Top 5. Keep in mind there is no right or wrong answers here and its a matter of opinion of those being polled.

I was pleasantly surprised with the results and how people picked just about the same things about their iPhones. I decided to post the top 10 over all features. As you can see we did have some features they came in and tied. I did cut off some after we reached 10. Sorry the feature, "It Is the iPhone" did not make the official top 10.

Email -6
GPS -5
Calendars -4
Web Browser -3
Ease of Use -3
Instant Messaging -3
All the Apps -3
Size of Screen -2
Camera / HD Video -2
Music / Movies -2

I figure, if you asked every iPhone user to make a list of their top 5 things, that they loved about their iPhones, we would more and likely see a lot of the same results. I think this means that Apple has built a pretty solid device here and it has huge appeal for a lot of the same features. It does what it does, all in one device and its a phone.

Do other devices do the same things? Sure a lot of them will do the same and just as good or perhaps falling a bit short. While others might do a few things even better or in the future have a chance to do things better. What this all boils down to in the very end is does the device do what You want it to do and works well for You?

If the device has the features you love and enjoy and works well, then I'd say its done its job and speaks to You in the end. If it doesn't, then you simply need to look for something else that meets your specifications and works well for you.

Could I be happy with the iPhone? I'm sure its possible and a lot of the things people selected would appeal to me as well. The main reason I don't own an iPhone was the price to start with and that it was only available on AT&T; I'm locked in with Verizon and just don't see leaving them anytime soon myself.

Can I find something out there that I'll enjoy and love in a Smart Phone? Yeah I think its possible and I think that could be this fall for me. Will it over take the iPhone? I think that will be a huge undertaking for sure, but I think it will gain market share and will be very different than a lot of the phones currently out on the market to date. In the end, this new WP7 device speaks to Me and its why I'm looking forward to it.

Awesome day to learn new things

It was a wonderful day off for me today and I spent it at the Fly Fish Texas, only the biggest event for Fly Fishermen in the state and the perfect place to learn about a cool new sport if you ask me.

For me, its been well over 25 years since I've done the normal bait style fishing and I've never Fly Fished a day in my life. So when I found out about the free seminars on the subject, I jumped at the chance to head down to Athens, Texas and see what I could learn.

For starters its not a cheap hobby or sport at all, but at the same time you don't have to go way overboard to get in on this. What I do recommend it checking with local clubs and learning a bit about it before you run out and buy a bunch of equipment though.

After the day was done, I pretty much learned what I should look for in gear to get started. I learned how to create/tie my very own fly for casting and received some instructions on the basics of Fly Casting.

Its a totally different way of fishing and looks to be a lot of fun if you ask me. This is something I think I could really enjoy and perhaps the whole family might enjoy learning as well. At least for me I had a great time and it was something I could learn to do fairly well I think.

Who needs Tivo?

Thanks to a really good friend of mine, letting me borrow his ATI TV Wonder 600 USB digital tuner/capture device, I'm able to really make use of my Windows Media Center features now. Simply put... WOW!

The quality is way better than what I had expected from what looks like a jump drive with a Cable Antenna growing out of it. The Media Center had no problems picking up the device and located all of the channels I really wanted too. It didn't find every channel in my area available, but I'm only needing Fox, CBS, NBC, and ABC really.

I set it up to record tonights showing of 24 and will be checking that out via the Media Center Extender and my Xbox 360 later tonight. Something else I was impressed with was the ability to not only see my recordings, I could actually watch a live broadcast feed through the extender and all at perfect quality.

So it looks like I can totally pass up on purchasing a Tivo box and paying for their fees. In order to record more than one broadcast, I simply need to purchase a second USB card if I feel the need for that. We could also just watch one show of the shows live and let the other be recorded.

So I'm doing ok with cutting off access to Cable and Satelite service so far and only missiong a small portion of programming. Not a bad way to save some money if you ask me.

Netflix For The Win!

A week without Uverse is almost complete and all is doing fine. I don't want to use the word addiction here, but I have to say that which was very familiar is hard to break away from. I've already thought about searching for a couple things for starters or using the multiview sports channels, only to remember that none of that is available anymore.

Recording shows, only to watch them later is another feature I some what miss, but I've done alright watching them on the web for now. So I don't get to see them on the big TV, but its not like I have to totally be with out a show I like and I do alright on the small PC screen. Later we might see about getting Tivo for the Over The Air broadcasts and I'm sure we'll enjoy those features again.

What's been great is Netflix and having it hooked up with Xbox Live and now available through the Blu-ray player we just purchased. We are finding a number of shows for the whole family to enjoy. We are on the one DVD out at time plan and watch as much as we want On Demand. I'm finding shows I've either missed or new shows to watch now.

We can watch these shows on the Big TV or via the computer if we like. I've even loaded up some kid shows for the TV to stream and watched a 2nd feed of something I'd prefer myself via the home computer, headphones work great for this by the way.

So its not all that bad, just takes some getting use to in the end and we should save some money or at least free up funds to be used in a few other areas. In the end I'm only missing a minor number of shows perhaps and its really not worth the cost in my mind right now.

Catch you later Uverse

Ok, in all fairness I'm still using a portion of their services. As it stands now I'm on Internet Only terms with a very acceptable 6mb down. Its what I've been use to and I'm saying goodbye to their TV services.

I've had enough and tried to deal with their problems. In the end they could not provide a 5.1 digital audio feed for any of their HD programs and I've paid way to much to deal with the constant drops in Audio.

I so loved the Home DVR and having access to two HD streams and two regular for DVR recordings, but at the end of the day and listening to drops in signals from Live or DVR recordings, enough is enough.

I'd have a better experience with my over the air feeds in this case. I'm also using Netflix and have found a number of programs available to watch via Xbox Live or on my PC. Down the road I might decide to pick something up and more and likely I'll be heading back to DirecTV, but for now I think its best to just cut it out all together.

What a past week here

Wow its been sometime for me to write on my blog. I was looking back at the numbers and last year appeared to be my lowest number of writings for my personal blog. On the other side of things I did turn out some stuff on my personal game blog and wrote quite a bit for RejectedGamer.Com as well.

I'll have to see what I can do to pick up and write a bit more here on my personal blog and get my numbers back up. So what's new with me? Staying busy as ever, which is a good thing I think. We just came off one of the biggest Snow Storms I've ever seen here in Texas, about a foot of snow when all was said and done I think. The last time it snowed anywhere close to this... well I wasn't even born then.

The weather did manage to knock out our power for about 3 full days and it had us staying away from the home with other family. At least it didn't really Ice here, that's what we normally get here in Texas. A nice thick sheet of ice and the people around here can't drive on this stuff. Shoot, people can't even drive here when it rains sometimes.

Well I just saw the latest weather report and it looks like we might have more snow coming again. This last batch has finally melted all away and we might get more snow now. I'm just not sure I want another foot of snow, but I'll take it over the ice any day.