Krunk4Ever!

So over dinner, Xyon and I were chatting as usual, and the topic of waiting came up. One of the things I hated as a kid, was when my parents would line up at the checkout line, decide they forgot something, and ask us (the kids) to man the shopping cart while they go pick up the items they forgot. As an engineer, I would agree this would be most efficient, but as a kid, I was scared shitless, always wondering if they’ll be back before it reaches my turned at the checkout line.

You know how you get that feeling where 1 minute feels like an hour. Yeah, I get that feeling when I at the checkout line and the person who’s paying isn’t. When asked what I should do if I’m next in line and you guys aren’t back yet, they say to just let the person behind me go ahead. And if they always came back in time, I’d probably have more confidence in them, but there’s been times I’d have to let 3 or 4 people behind me go ahead.

Being shy when I was younger (not that I’m that much more unreserved nowadays), it was an extremely horrible experience and I hated it every time. It’s also not like they’re in a hurry to come back. They seem to take their sweet old time deciding which one to get, which is a better deal, etc, meanwhile, poor little old me is here standing here shaking.

If they ask me to do that now and aren’t back by the time it’s my turn, I’d probably just pay and checkout on my own.

I’ve been using Bloglines for the past year or so as my rss aggregator, but recently it’s been a lot flakier than usual. So when it stopped updating feeds this past Wednesday and their forums were down again, I decided to scope out some different readers. I found the following list somewhere:

• AOL
• Google
• Live
• Netvibes
• NewsGator
• Yahoo!

I heard some good things about NewsGator in the Bloglines forums some time back when Bloglines first started having problems. They mentioned it was quite easy to switch and that I can just export my feeds from Bloglines as an OPML file and import them into NewsGator. I gave that a shot and it worked fine. So the past few days, I’ve been playing with NewsGator and there are quite a few things I miss from Bloglines.

My biggest pet peeve of NewsGator is that it’s extremely slow and unresponsive. It takes like 5-10 seconds to load a folder, while it was extremely fast and snappy in Bloglines. Another feature that Bloglines has are keyboard shortcuts. After a few days of using NewsGator, I have to say I’m not a satisfied customer.

The one thing good about NewsGator is that it updates the feeds a lot more frequently than Bloglines. Things may take up to half a day to show up on Bloglines, but new posts generally show up within the hour on Newsgator.

They also have a client version, but I would rather not have to install an RSS aggregator client on all the machines I use.

I know a few friends who use Google Reader. Maybe I’ll give that a try. What do you guys suggest?

Got this video off Digg: Don’t Vote (5 Friends Uncensored)

It features a bunch of Hollywood stars telling you not to vote if you don’t care about any of the issues (some reverse psychology thing). They ended up telling you to vote, but there were some funny parts in between.

They even teamed up with Google and provided a nice helpful site: 2008 US Voter Info

Registration closes as early as Oct. 4th.

I mean even Xbox/Microsoft is teaming up with Rock the Vote to convince people to vote, especially the younger generation which is nonchalant about voting and don’t really believe their vote has much power if any at all. I mean, the whole election process could be rigged, right?

But the matter of fact is, if you’re too lazy to even register to vote, coming up with any reasons is just a way of justifying to yourself why you’re not voting this November.

I guess this is why the street I live on is named Cougar Mountain Way:

Could it be? Yet another post? I was planning to go into work today, but I’m still too tired from yesterday’s paintball games. It was my first ever paintball game, and thanks to Dan for setting that up. Overall, I came out not too badly damaged. But the first shot that hit me, hit me hard, leaving a bruised spot on my chest. I also got a few bug bites. On the other hand, it was extremely fun! I’ll probably talk more about it in a separate thread once Dan posts his photos up.

Anyway, onto the topic of this post.

For the past month or so, my right wrist had been hurting. It wasn’t searing pain, but it did hurt when I was using the computer for extended periods of time, which is basically what I do all day and all night. So I finally went in to get it looked at. I was diagnosed with “tendonitis,” which isn’t really as bad as it sounds. It just really means my tendons in my wrist area are inflamed. I was given a splint for my wrist and some exercises to do.

I also replaced my mouse both at work and at home with the Microsoft Natural Wireless Laser Mouse 6000, which is slanted at an angle more natural for your hands and wrist. Overall, the mouse is nice. As Caleb puts it, it feels like holding a baseball. I still don’t like the wireless aspect of it as I can still feel the jitteriness from time to time. Also I hate the fact it uses the new tilt wheel, making middle click extremely hard to use (the same problem that plagued the Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 6000). Honestly, I never really have any use for scrolling left/right. Maybe I should just use the forward mouse click to be my new middle click. That wouldn’t be too bad.

I’ve got to say I’m impressed this time. In just 3 short weeks, I’m now completely off my splint and am typing w/o anymore pain. For some time, I was very afraid I had started to develop carpal tunnel syndrome.

You’ve probably seen the new ads Microsoft has put out, starting with the ones Jerry Seinfield were in. If you haven’t seen them, you’re not missing out on much, but if you’re curious, you can watch them here: Gates and Seinfeld: The future is delicious.

When it was first announced that Microsoft was having a $300 million ad campaign involving Jerry Seinfield, someone on /. posted this:

Elaine (with Apple-ish grin): I just bought a Macbook
Jerry (non-chalantly sipping his coffee in front of his Dell): So? I’ve got Vista.
Elaine (frowning): But this is a Mac, Jerry.
Jerry: But it’s not Vista.
Elaine: No, it’s not Vista. It’s a Mac.
Jerry: It’s very shiny. What’d that thing cost you?
Elaine (defensive): What does that matter?
Jerry: One thousand?
Elaine: Jerry…
Jerry: Two thousand?
Elaine: Stop…
Jerry: Three th–
Elaine: $2755.
Jerry: Inclu–
Elaine: Including tax.
Jerry: 1250
Elaine: 1250 what?
Jerry: Vista.
Elaine: But it’s not a Mac!
Jerry: It checks email.
Elaine: So does my Mac.
Jerry: Surfs the web.
Elaine: So does my Mac.
Jerry: Makes movies.
Elaine: So does…it does? I thought Windows didn’t make movies.
Jerry (shrugs and sips): Vista.
(Door explodes open!)
Kramer: Jerry! The Dell store down the street is selling computers with Vista for $1500!
Jerry: 1250
Kramer (walking over to Jerry’s laptop): Oooh, is that…
Jerry: Vista.
Kramer: Niiiice.

I actually thought that was quite creative and fit the Seinfield theme well.

When I saw the first commercial (the one with the shoe and churro), everyone down the hall at Microsoft was basically yelling “WTF”. I had to scratch my head and wonder, what the heck was this commercial about. Is it trying to sell shoes? or churros? Personally I wasn’t blinded by Bill Gates wiggling his butt, but I can understand if you were. Everyone at work was just wondering what the heck was this commercial about? We figured if anything, this was suppose to be viral and would get people talking about it. I guess they applying the philosophy that any publicity is good publicity.

Anyway, the 2nd commercial came out and at least this one I found it to be mildly amusing, but still nothing related to Microsoft or Windows. At least it wasn’t as WTF as the first one. All along the marketing team has called this “phase one” and it was meant to be an ice breaker to get people talking about Microsoft.

Then the new I’m a PC ads started showing up and I have to say that it was actually done quite well. I have to admit, I got a similar feeling watching that as when I saw Where the Hell is Matt? (the guy who does a funny dance around the world).

One thing I didn’t quite get was when Deepak Chopra says, “I’m a PC and a human being. Not a human doing, not a human thinking, a human being.” What does that even mean? I guess that’s why he’s the philosopher and I’m not.

Many people are claiming that Microsoft screwed up again and canceled the Jerry Seinfield ads because of the poor reception, but I think New York Times did a good article on it: Echoing the Campaign of a Rival, Microsoft Aims to Redefine ‘I’m a PC’ . If the Seinfield ads were indeed cut short, I personally feel that it was most likely done because it exceeded expectations on getting the number of people talking. As noted earlier, this was always phase 1 (an ice breaker) and if we can reach the target # of audience with 2 commercials, why make 5 (number I just pulled out of my ***)?

While reading Digg, someone pointed me to this comment made on the Penny Arcade forums:

Are you serious? A big part of the ad was a stab at Jobs, his controlling nature within Apple, and his famous “reality distortion field”. The old lady who’d been there for 12 years (the same number of years since Jobs returned to Apple) ran the whole show. She was doing the laundry, she was doing the yard work, she was fixing the car. She kept up the facade of a rather dated looking home full of people who were caught up in appearances (the neighbor’s car) and the pretension of useless things like Greek coins, wine mustard and leather giraffes. When the old lady croaks, the place will fall apart. They had shitty pong to play (Macs suck at gaming) while Bill Gates had the most incredible game ever for the kid.

The first ad was a rip on the Apple Store - the fact you buy your computers from a place in the mall and they don’t even fit you properly. Regular people pointlessly idolize them (the family staring through the window) and you don’t get much for your money “Why pay more?”

Keep in mind the entire purpose of these ads is that they’re a direct response to Apple’s “Mac vs. PC” campaign, it’s hardly a stretch to point out the statements being made about Apple vs. MSFT in them.

I never thought about them that way, but it’s an interesting way to look at the Seinfield ads.

So it’s been over a week since I’ve seen this movie and and if you haven’t seen this movie yet, you should! If I know you and you haven’t seen this movie yet, do remind me to smack you a few times the next time we meet.

I’ll try to give you readers heads up before any spoiler, but if you’ve seen any of the trailers, you practically know the whole story already. Why should you watch the movie then? Though the story is important, the experience and execution was just fantastic.

By the way, I’m serious about reminding me to slap you if you haven’t seen the movie yet.

Continue reading the review…

Xyon and I were talking about mp3 players and I brought up that “Rio” used to make mp3 players and he said he didn’t think “Real” made mp3 players. It later occurred to us that we were talking about different Rios/Reals. When I spelled out Rio (R-I-O), Xyon goes, “Oh, RIO! Nope, never heard of them.”

So I tried enunciating rio and real, but it kept sounding the same to me and Xyon agreed I was repeating the same word over and over again. He tried enunciating the difference to me, but I keep hearing the same word.

Xyon then tries to describe to me the difference. Rio ends in a long o (oh) sound. Real ends with an ul sound, which I couldn’t really hear a difference.

When I got home, I talked it over with RayAlome and still got nowhere. I also realized there was a 3rd word I wouldn’t be able to distinguish without context: reel.

I looked up the pronunciation keys:

• rio: ree-oh
• real: ree-uhl, reel
• reel: reel

Apparently there’s 2 pronunciations for real, one which matches exactly to reel. The only conclusion I could come up with is the rio ends with a higher O sound and real ends in a lower O sound.

So I finally got my new chairmat. For those who missed my rant on my previous chairmat, you can read it here: ES Robbins Chair Mats - Lifetime Warranty?

While digging through my Costco receipts, I finally found my chairmat receipt dated 7/25/2006. I loaded the chairmat into my car and headed off for my biweekly Costco trip.

When I was returning the chairmat, I mentioned how I was ready to purchase a new one a few weeks ago until I noticed how the chairmat was supposedly crack-proof and had lifetime warranty. But after going home and looking up the warranty information, I found out I had to pay $20 for shipping which was moot since I can pay $18+tax at Costco and get a brand new one right then and there. He agreed that it was ridiculous for them to charge $20. He was cool and accepted this 2-year old return.

I ended up picking up one of the nicer chairmats that they carry: Snapmat. It did cost an arm and a leg. Considering that the regular plastic chairmats cost $18, this one cost $70, but I’m expecting this to last a REALLY REALLY LONG TIME.

The previous one always had problems with creating potholes and the wheels would always slide into those making it hard to maneuver in my chair. Let’s just say I’ve been enjoying sliding my chair back and forth for the past few hours.

The funny thing was that this chairmat was unfoldable, making it not fit in my trunk, I had to do some weird configurations in my car to actually get it to go in, with a series of steps of folding down both chairs, sliding the chairmat in, and then flip it into the back seat and the pop the driver seat back up. Unloading it required the same steps in reverse.

Later on, I decided to send the following email to Costco:

Hi,

I would like to bring to your attention of an item that you sell: ES Robbins Chair Mat (122164)

As noted on the sticker, it comes with a Lifetime Warranty, but I think your customers may be fooled by this. The chairmat costs $18 at Costco. In order to get a replacement via ES Robbins, there’s a $20 shipping and handling charge, therefore rendering the warranty useless as I can go to Costco and pick up one quicker and cheaper than getting it through the warranty service.

I know Costco sells quality products and I’m just making sure you weren’t tricked into believing their quality with their lifetime warranty service.

My chairmat had started to crack about 6 months prior and I was able to return my chairmat to Costco even though it has been almost 2 years. I ended up upgrading to one of those wooden chairmats and have been pleasantly surprised on how great they are.

Happy 4th of July everyone!

Going over to TekMan’s place later today for some BBQ, games, and fireworks.

This is just going to be a post with random crap. Haven’t done that in awhile.

Pulled an All Nighter

Anyway, it’s been a very long week for me. I’ve been coming home at 3 or 4am every night. Last night I even pull an all-nighter. Haven’t done one of those in a long time. I can’t believe how hard it is now. I remember doing it all the time in college. Of course people were shocked to find me early at work at 9am in the morning and most of they correctly assumed I haven’t gone home yet. You see, I’m renowned for coming in late. ;p

Anyway, my manager came into my office at 2pm and told me that I look horrible and should go home immediately and if I need to, just work some more after I get some rest. I decided I couldn’t really function well after being awake over 24 hours.

Always Be Careful With Bengay

So parts of my arm have been hurting (not exactly why). So I decided to apply some Bengay which usually helps and by the next morning, the pain is gone. Anyway, after applying Bengay, I went to the restroom to wash my hands so I can resume using my keyboard and mouse without making them oily. The sound of water however made me want to pee. So I then took a piss.

After sitting back down at my computer, I felt a slight burning sensation in my *cough* area. I thought to myself, “that was a pretty dumb thing to do, Toland.” Good thing I had washed my hands beforehand, or else it’d probably be burning up downstairs.