12 October, 2009

It's Been Awhile...

Like 2 months awhile.

So the job goes well, I work with lots and lots of kids these days. I feel like a dad some days. Scary right!

I found something the other day that made me just about faint. A little list of facts that you all should find interesting.

1. Kids who were born after 9/11 are turning 8 this year.
2. Pokemon came to the US almost 10 years ago.
3. Kids who were born after Toy Story came out are turning 14 this year.
4. Kids who were born after Aladdin came out will turn 18 next year.

That list scares me to death. I'm starting to realize that my idea of old when I was a kid, is not old at all. It's kind of scary how fast time moves.

20 August, 2009

Shenanigans

I'm calling shenanigans on two companies today. Sears and Aramark.

Sears deserves it because my parents tried to buy a new stove through them recently and they were quoted one price on a Friday night and then when the went back a few days later to get the new sale price, they had jacked the price so high that even with the 10% sale going on, it was still more expensive than three days earlier. And my parents had already gotten 10% off that night thanks to an employee discount from my sister. Then they jerked my dad around on the phone and ducked the whole thing. So needless to say, they are guilty of shenanigans.

Now, you may have never heard of Aramark, but they are in charge of concessions at the Indianapolis Indians. A fine example of minor league baseball. On the 11th of this month I was enjoying a game at the stadium and I purchased a hamburger and fries from a booth run by Aramark. I enjoyed the burger before the game and by the 9th inning I had lost it and everything else in my stomach to the toilet. After trying to get home, my GF and I had to stop in Lebanon of all places to visit an ER so I could be rehydrated. They also gave me a dose of anti-nausea medication and told me I most likely had food poisoning and that if my symptoms passed within 24 hours it was definitely food poisoning. Needless to say, my symptoms passed by 9 PM the next night so I had my answer. The Indians were contacted to find out if they would pay, and they passed it to Aramark. Aramark is ducking the situation and the guy in charge of concessions, obviously such a brilliant medical mind, believes it wasn't food poisoning because he believes that food poisoning takes 6-8 hours to set in and 3 days to pass. Well luckily for me I had a doctor in a hospital take care of me, and not this guy. Aramark is guilty of shenanigans in my opinion as they really should man up and show some good customer service. Or at least something better.

Now that the rant is over I want a gavel and a big stamp that says GUILTY maybe GUILTY OF SHENANIGANS.

On a more positive note, the GF and I have decided to take a trip this January to New York to meet a friend of hers, stay a couple days, and see the comedian Eddie Izzard live at Madison Square Gardens. Exciting business, especially since our tickets got here.

13 August, 2009

I have decided...

Food Poisoning Sucks.

That is all.

21 April, 2009

News

Wow its been a while since I've posted. So some news for you all.

First up if you scroll down you'll see where I talked a while back about a new system coming up to challenge the current market with something innovative. Turns out I'm a bit prophetic when it comes to video games because there's a new system coming out this winter with a whole new way of doing video games. It's called OnLive and the idea could revolutionize gaming. The full article care of Game Informer is here: http://www.gameinformer.com/News/Story/200903/N09.0324.1136.49546.htm. For those who don't want to read basically it will work on your PC, Mac, or, TV with a small box and it streams games to you over broadband. This means no hard drives as they will keep all the games on large servers that you merely access to play for a monthly fee. I think the idea is solid but it remains to be seen how it plays out. The people behind this have some major developers in their corner already but the streaming could fail depending on your connection. I'm definitely gonna keep my eye on this one.

Secondly, Assassin's Creed II is on the front cover of Game Informer this month and it looks fantastic. For those of you interested the game is going to take place in Italy around the Renaissance and will have a few new elements. The first is that you only carry the hidden blade and throwing knives. One plus is two hidden blades instead of one means dual assassinations. This also means you can use your enemies weapons if you need to. Also new is the ability to swim which I am looking forward to since you will be in Venice. And of course the game will be as historically true as possible and provide extremely realistic views of Italy. It comes out this winter and is one that is already on my wish list.

Finally a point to ponder. There was a trial in Sweden that finished up recently resulting in several men being sent to prison for a year and fined a very large sum of money. The reason was copyright infringement as the men ran a site called The Pirate Bay where they claimed to be pirates and allowed users to search through torrents of copyrighted material. The issue with this is the technicalities that they hide behind and the fact that they do have a point. What they're doing isn't technically illegal. Here's why. Basically torrenting is sharing data between two people by a link between the computers over the internet so that one can download information on the others drive. Relax it can only be done if you actually allow it to be done using a torrent program with the right options set up. Now the act of torrenting is not illegal. The reason is because in theory it could be used as a way for family members to share pictures or videos easily and without having to leave your computer. The issue is when you torrent copyrighted material. Now these men were not providing the torrents in question. The site they ran was merely a search engine to find torrents so that people could download whatever they wanted. So to sum up they are providing a free service for people to search through data that may or may not be copyrighted. It's a sticky subject. The reason they got dinged was because they would not remove or block illegal torrents from the search results. Now the real issue at hand. Google is a search engine. You can find anything on Google. You can even find illegal copyrighted torrents through Google. Don't believe me? Try searching for Shrek Torrent. You'll find links to sites that provide downloads of the torrents in question so that you can obtain an illegal copy of Shrek. There are some difference between the two parties mentioned but technically they are doing the same thing as Google doesn't filter it's search results. The point to ponder is this: In this new world where the internet is always growing and always expanding can we really afford to apply the same old laws to the internet that we do in real life. Perspectives need to be shifted to fully understand the internet. These men are shifting a bit too far perhaps but they are doing a better job than the courts. The point is the internet is too big and too wild and free to try and rope it in with the laws we have and it's time we realize that the way we do business has to change because the internet isn't going anywhere and it changes so quickly that you never know what's coming next so something's gotta give.

04 February, 2009

Coldplay

So I just thought to share this here with everyone who's interested because I know not everyone is into coldplay like I am. But here's the rundown. Coldplay released a song called Lost? which was an acoustic version of a song by the same name. They then held a contest to see who could create the best music video for the song. The following video did not win, it was second, but it's my favorite of the about 4 that I've seen.



I love this particular video because it rings so true with what I think the real message of the song is and it also fits with theme that Coldplay has stuck with for the overall album. It also has amazing cinematography and some of the angles in the video are on par with a professional music video. Overall I'd say the guy who made this did an amazing job creating a great video for an already moving song. If you didn't catch how powerful the lyrics are, I suggest you listen again because I think we can all take away from this video the simple fact that we all have a story to tell, and whether it's grand or not, we all just want someone to listen to it.

01 January, 2009

Hey!

Well I finally caved and bought an XBox 360. Keith of course was happy. So far it's a great system and I'm really starting to enjoy all the possibilities it offers. The library of available titles is ginormous, the online play is the best of the three systems, and they offer quite a few ways to enhance your experience and even help your hard ware and discs last longer. All in all I think Microsoft has got their system put together really well. I think if Nintendo started caring more about the American market and less about the Japenese and British markets that they could be more of a contender, but Sony is slowly falling apart. So maybe it's about time to see the rise of another new comer. Microsoft shook things up when it released the original X Box, maybe it's about time for some other unexpected company to release something truly spectacular.

Well enough of that. On a different note, I did notice that now I have a white laptop, white X Box, white Wii, and a white Car. Apparantly I like white shiny things with lots of nice gizmos and dohickeys.

15 December, 2008

New Car

Well thanks to my uncle Chuck I found my new car! I ended up getting a 2001 Chrysler PT Cruiser. It's a great car with a lot of great features and I personally love it.