| ||||||||||||||||||||||
| | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Winter Weather |
| I know my buddy, Chad talked about the lack of snow in Phoenix for the holidays over on Pongibisms. In California if there is any adverse weather it makes headlines and usually leads all newscasts. Sort of funny to see. Some bozo with a winter coat on, up in the mountains and the snow is falling, or a newscaster out at the airport to see how rain is effecting air travel? Now correct me if I am wrong, rain is not a hurricane. It is not a snow storm, not extremely high desert heat temperatures, like Chad has year around in Phoenix. No, it is some precipitation falling to earth, yeah sure, sometimes it comes down in buckets or for an extended period of time. But my god! Is it a slow news day or what? Cable news outlets are not as bad, but you can still point the finger at them as well. So it was rainy the past 3 days here in NoCal. Of course this was my parents time to come out and visit and the weather goes to crap. Guess that is Murphy's Law in action for you. My mother was pointing out the fact that is "was cold." Let me rephrase that statement ma, "it's chilly for Northern California." For the rest of the country who does not live in "America's Finest City" (that's San Diego for all you geographically challenged) it was about 40 degrees, rainy (with scattered thunderstorms) and windy. In all honesty it was the worst weather I had seen all year, but that not does compare to other weather I have been subject to. Oh, and I must give props to the San Diego Chargers for manhandling the UNDEFEATED Indianapolis Colts, 26-17. I did not think the game would be televised here in NoCal, and damned if I was locked in to provide commentary for some online games, and was being given periodical updates online (Thanks Greg). I am still flying high from that victory, but it's still a tough remaining schedule. Lastly, I need to send Chad (aka Blankz) best birthday wishes as he turned 32 years old. Happy Birthday buddy! You should see the stripper sometime this week. |
| W6ONV on Monday 19 December 2005 - 11:28:36 | Read/Post Comment: 3 |
| Does Anyone Really Care? |
| Like most all government agencies, I don't think very highly of the FCC. But I even think less of that jackass, Howard Stern. He is finally "bidding farewell to free radio." Well, it's about god damned time! I have never been a Stern fan. And to you wise asses out there, I do "get" the show and understand the filth and crap he promotes. This is now one more reason I will not buy satellite radio from Sirius Satellite Radio because they now have and support Stern. You can too, all for $12.95 just to hear him drop more filth and "F-bombs" on the air without being dogged by the FCC. Hey, its your $12.95, you spend it wisely, but this...hahah...this is NOT good radio. So now that this self imposed, "Godfather of Garbage" is gone, just how many even worse imitators are going to be added to the dial to the already bad ones? Hmm? This move to Sirius is supposed to strengthen their subscriber base and increase revenue. Sorry, but one man alone cannot save a company that continues to loose money. Hopefully Sirius goes under and Stern is stuck like a man without a country, as hopefully more broadcasting companies would follow suite, like Clear Channel Communications who dumped this trash from six stations because of content. Unfortunately, this day and age, money is the bottom line, so you know there would be some weasel out there who would pick this guy up. Too bad... |
| W6ONV on Friday 16 December 2005 - 12:44:56 | Read/Post Comment: 5 |
| War Rock |
| As I posted in Gaming Gone Bad last week, I have really been turned off by the current run of retail games available. Maybe that just goes to provide companie are churning our crap as retail sales for November fell 9% or $1.3 billion. That decline attributed to consumers waiting and saving for Xbox 360 (source: Reuters). Honestly, I don't buy it, you can spin statistics any which way you want, but this article not about about sagging sales or poor video games on the market this holiday season. Would you believe I am actually going to give props to a game I was turned onto yesterday by Gerhard (aka Wolfseye) who manages the gaming web site, Act of War. The game looks and feels a bit like Digitial Illusions CE latest offering, Battlefield 2. Now, I am not a big BF2 fan, I think the game is "just another" war based genre game that adds to an already over saturated market. Their previous work on Battlefield 1942, and its predecessor, Codename: Eagle were by far better products and more original.     Gerhard tells me to grab a "free" game (registration required) called WarRock. which just so happens to have strong similarities to BF2. Seeing that it is free and will play on Windows 2000, I downloaded, installed and gave it a test drive. First impressions had be giving it the nod of approval. The game is currently being developed by DREAMexecution, a Seoul, Korea based company. The game is run off their proprietary game engine called the Jindo Engine. For more information check out, WarRock or DREAMexecution. |
| W6ONV on Thursday 15 December 2005 - 11:00:03 | Read/Post Comment: 7 |
| Don't Fly! |
| Over the past few months, there have been a few incidents reported by the alphabet and cable news networks. Notice for a moment, that when things go bad with the airlines, these stories come in bunches. For example, Chicago-Midway Airport last week an airplane skidded off the runway into a street killing one 6-year old boy. Dateline Nigeria a plane crashes just short of the runway killing 103 people. Just last week in Miami, Florida, the Federal Air Marshall's shot and killed a passenger who claimed to have a bomb. (COMMENT: You stupid idiot!). Sure, these and other stories dot our lives each and every day, but it is the price we pay for air travel, which is still one of the safest ways to get from point to point, quickly and economically. What you really want to take Greyhound? You ever seen a bus crash? Not a pretty sight, then neither is an air crash, both of which rarely yield any survivors. I only bring this topic up because my good friend, Chad is traveling again and his anxiety is running high. His only comment to me over on his site, Pongibism" is "STFU Oswald!" Said with such conviction, can't you feel the love, the friendship? Hahah. Seriously though, I can feel his pain, although I cannot relate to it. As you may or may not know, I just happen to work for the airlines the past 10 years and let me say it has been rather turbulent recently. Personally, I don't fly because A) I hate the TSA and their bullshit passenger screening procedures just to get into a terminal. B) I fly standby. This means, if there are open seats and my seniority is high enough, I just might get on that airplane. It also means I could end up spending 10 hours TRYING to get on a plane and never make it. C) I don't like the airlines any longer. This is a story in itself, and I am sure I can single out my airline just because of the bad experinces I have had both on a plane and off and just at work in general. So I have stopped supporting them all. D) Is there really anywhere I need to go that I can't get to by car? Okay, so all of Europe and Hawaii. Let's see with a newborn, I don't think we will be going on vacation anytime soon, so both those destinations are out of the question. For any other travel plans, I will drive. E) My wife hates airplanes. Yup, she is petrified to get into that "death tube" for extended periods, or even a quick 45 minute hop down the coast. Add the fact we have a newborn, as stated in 'D' and it all equates to no flying. So for all you traveling this Christmas Season, enjoy the inclement weather, the delays, the TSA and their ever so probing security checks, the long lines, the rude customer services agents and remember I will be sitting at home, by the fire enjoying this holiday season. |
| W6ONV on Wednesday 14 December 2005 - 14:27:20 | Read/Post Comment: 6 |
| Meet the Parents |
| No, I am not talking of the Ben Stiller movie, where he needs to gain approval from a tight assed Robert DeNiro. This Friday will be the first day that Zachary meets his grandparents. Actually, my parents who are taking a roadtrip and driving 8 hours from San Diego to visit for about 5 days. They should arrive at the house about 4:00pm, just in time for dinner. It has been almost a daily exchange between my parents and I, e-mailing the latest pictures of Zachary (my wife calls him the cutest baby ever, more on that shortly) and talking to them on the phone. But this will give them a chance to play their new role as grandparents. I know they have been looking forward to of their children giving them the opportunity. Well, that time is now. Zachary also went for his 2 week check up yesterday at the doctors and got a clean bill of health. Remember he was almost 5 weeks early, guess he wanted to enjoy Christmas this year. He has slowly gained back some of his weight he lost when he left the hospital and his jaundice has improve immensely. He seems to be on track to being a healthy infant, which is good because it will take some of the worry away from my wife. Now, going back to the "cutest baby" comment. I cannot tell you how many times we heard this in the hospital from the nursing staff to the doctors and anyone who came in contact with Zachary. I told my wife that, "everyone says that about every baby!' Honestly, I was calling him Hellboy in the hospital because when he cried, he turned all read and made an awful screeching noise I'm guessing should have been crying. But some of the nurses did tell us, they don't make cute comments to all the new parents, because honestly some of the newborns are pretty fugly. Hey, who am I to judge, right? Zachary also got a new 'Baby Papasan' chair this past weekend, so he has been lounging around in it when hanging out with me while playing XBox or sitting in front of the computer.     |
| W6ONV on Wednesday 14 December 2005 - 12:14:11 | Read/Post Comment: 5 |
| News Categories | ||||||||||||||||
|
|
