Interstate Ramblings

Did a little bit of...

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 23:41:00 +0000

shopping this weekend at two stores new to me. Ikea and Jungle Jim's

I didn't know what to expect when walking into Ikea, only that I wanted to get the same wine racks that Leaker has. Found new ideas for closet organization and kitchen redesign. The kitchen will probably come first, as it would be the most impressive update for the house.

Jungle Jim's is the craziest grocery store I've ever seen. I realized I need to expand my cooking repertoire to include Curry and Pasta, as their selection of Indian and Italian ingredients. (I'm saying this while eating my GFS Frozen Mexican Pizza.) Anywho, wound up buying some Cooper's Pale Ale, not Cooper's Lager, and 5 bottles of wine. Penfold's from Oz, and other random bottles that I found had amusing labels (Mad Housewife and Funky Lama.)
Click the pic to see a large image of the wine rack and my liquor 'cabinet'. Thanks to Duker for the idea of mounting the wine racks as if they were holding up the empties shelf.

So I got the...

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 23:53:00 +0000

NXE update from MS a day early, as I had signed up for the Preview Program After spending about an hour with it, here's what I've got.

Likes (in increasing order or likeness):

Guide access via the Guide Button, is a nice way of having the old way in the new style, and I'll probably use it most often, as it's just quicker.
Streamed video from my MacBook and it automagically resizes to full screen (didn't before)
Netflix streaming works well. Actually, I'm pretty impressed. Quality is equal to or better than the DivX/XviD files I download, while FF and Chapter Skipping takes ~10 seconds to buffer. Definitely going to be exploiting all the Netflix capabilities.
I was able to make an avatar that, scarily, looks a lot like me.
Party Chat, FINALLY!!!! The ability to have more than 2 people in a VOIP session.
The interface is really snappy, moves right along, and the bumper page navigation helps in long lists.

Dislikes (in decreasing order or annoyance):

Menu items don't wrap, so browsing leaves me with a sense of everything being on the left side of the screen. Just feels unbalanced.
Interface sounds are annoying, but then again, I rarely have system sounds enabled for anything
Avatar clothing saves are listed as game saves under Avatar Editor, not quite intuitive, but I don't think I could suggest a better alternative
Had to re-install media update to play DivX files; meh, hardly a gripe.

So far I only have one suggestion:

Higher-res downloadable gamer pic.

I want to be able to download something a bit better than the 64x64 pixel headshot graphic. I already changed my Facebook and myspace pictures to the small graphic, but one at 128x128 would be great to have. Maybe in the next update? or sooner? I think I know someone who knows someone.

Just added a new feature...

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:45:00 +0000

to allendukes.com Subscription links in the right hand menu!!! Sign up now to receive an e-mail when I post, via the @ symbol; or via your favorite RSS reader, via the rss icon. w00t!

Working under the moniker of...

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 23:21:00 +0000

Jimmy's Brother was the intro Arch gave us when we performed last week at the Canal Street Tavern. Our set included 7 songs, all covers, that we have been working on over the last few months.

Set list:

Halo of Gravel - Our Ani DiFranco cover with a Halo Theme intro.
Tattoo - By Jordan Sparks
Fell In Love With A - Originally by The White Stripes but our version is based on that by Joss Stone
Tornado - Our Mashup of "Your House" by Alanis Morissette combined with "Collide" by Howie Day
Come On Get Higher - New song by Matt Nathanson
Umbrella - Originally by Rihanna but we prefer the Marié Digby version.
Madly - Nice closer by Tristan Prettyman where we throw in a bit of outro and shout out to the audience.

The gig went great, albeit we went on a little later than we had originally anticipated. (Our fault, as we were unaware as to how to sign up in advance.) The people at CST were excellent, and worked to get us on the playbill. We'll definitely sign up in advance next time and throw out the details. Thanks to all who came out to support, and all others who keep encouraging our rock star dreams. Hit the Jimmy's Brother image link to catch the vids. (Thanks to Speechless, our videographer.)

"Ain't it funny how things work out like that"

"But again, how do you know...

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 01:01:00 +0000

...they're all female? Does someone go into the park and, uh... lift up the dinosaurs' skirts?" - Ian Malcolm. A line written by Michael Crichton for the Book/Movie Jurassic Park. I've read most of his books, see all the movies, and find it unfortunate that he has since passed RIP

So I Was Flipping Through...

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 01:14:00 +0000

the election coverage tonight. Just sort of seeing what's going on (I'm going to switch over to Boston Legal here in a second.) I started in the high 760s because I thought we had CNN in HD and I wanted to check out CNN's Holographic displays. Alas, we don't get CNN in HD, so I figured I would flip up through the other HD news channels to see who had the nicest stat presentation. Dan Rather on HDNet (762) seems to be relaxed and pleasant to listen to. FOX (745) doesn't have all HD interview feeds, nor all HD commercials. ABC (722) seems to be worse than FOX as their local coverage doesn't have an HD feed, and it's all in 4:3 format. CBS (707) seems to have mostly HD coverage with SD commercials.

The shocker came when I was flipping through the program guide and came across a new channel. 702 is apparently now the local WDTN HD station. That's right, the local Dayton NBC affiliate now has an HD Channel. Regular readers may remember posts such as Holy Frak, It Seems To Have, What to do when TW bites? , Well It's Slightly..., and Looks like I'll have to turn to.... where I complain about every major broadcaster having an HD feed except NBC. I'll now get Chuck, Heroes, My Name Is Earl, The Office, ER (till the end of this season. Mark Greene is coming back? WHAT?!??!), SNL (meh), Tonight Show With Jay Leno, Late Night With Conan O'Brien, and Last Call With Carson Daly all in HD.

It's about freaking time.

In addition, according to the Wikipedia SuperBowl XLIII will air on NBC, and there may be some LRC and other random gambling games played again. Now I'm just keeping my fingers crossed I get Sci-Fi for BSG and the CW for Supernatural and I'll be in HD pixel heaven.

It seems to have. . .

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 23:10:00 +0000

returned with little to no fanfare. What's that you ask? What has returned? Why it's WDTN, back on Time Warner. So what does this mean? Well, I can now watch NBC shows via my DVR. Now the conundrum lies in the fact that even though they reached an agreement, it's still not HD. Aye, the terrible First World Problems with which we have to deal.

Humoring My Musical Obsession At...

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 02:37:00 +0000

the Mall At Fairfield Commons in 'Dayton' err, I mean Beavercreek. So the story is this...Leaker sends me an e-mail at work at 3:58. BlackBerry buzzes, and the subject 'Free Concert' immediately grabs my attention. Try to load the link on the double-B and it's EDGE connection is a slow load, so it's off to the office machine for a looky-lou. (A Looky-lou comes from the same nomenclature as a Squirty-Squirt, for those who were, and those who were not, curious.)

Dang it, office machine ScreenSaver locked the computer; insert SmartCard; type PIN; open Outlook; Load Linky-link. Scrolling down the page I see Tristan Prettyman, Marié Digby, and Matt Nathanson on the bill. Decision made: Leave work early, have Leaker's friend get us tickets, and drive home to pick up my camera.

I saw Marié Digby on Carson Daly back in August of '07 when she performed Umbrella an acoustic cover of a song by Rihanna and I loved it. Marié's version of the song was amazingly better than the original. (A comment I made vocal during her performance this evening, of which she was modestly appreciative.) When I caught her for the autograph, I congratulated her again on her version, and the fact that I had seen her on Carson's show. She mentioned that was one of her most nervous moments ever, but as is evident in the performance, she did a great job. Post Carson, I looker her up, and listened to some more or her music. When P and C came down to help paint the bedroom, I pulled out the acoustic late in the evening and we had a game of "see if Allen can play this along with this song before it's over." Throughout the course of that game, I made mention of the aforementioned MD version, and played along with the YouTube version that Carson had seen. More recently, at P and C's wedding, I mentioned it to MMcP and he impulse bought it on his iPhone via iTunes.

Michael had seen Matt perform at a Wittfest and recommended I check out Matt's work. I enjoyed it at the time, and realize I need to revisit it. He performed some solid vocals over his acoustic 6 and 12 strings that he must have had forever, as they show the wear marks akin to his playing style. Come On Get Higher is the song he's most recently released, and, to keep it PG, he stated that it was a song about 'ice cream' and how everyone loves 'ice cream.' He appeared to be the most jovial of the performers this evening, and I'd image that comes from his wealth of experience. I mentioned that Michael was arranging Come On Get Higher for the Wittmen Crew and if they ever record it, a copy should be sent along, as Matt was really interested in how it sounded. True artist, embracing derivative works. Love it.

Madly is a song I have on the list for Jimmy's Brother to cover, and I was trying to stay true to the album version. However, Tristan did a killer finger-picked version with just her, her acoustic, and Chris on the Congas. Little slower tempo, all fingers, no pick groove that I think I'll have to try out. Basically, it's this version she did while visiting the Mix 107.7 studio. Tristan was the one I was most interested in seeing. Since Marie isn't totally acoustically guitar focused, and Matt has been around releasing albums for a good while, they didn't make the #1 must see on the bill. Hello...X has a majority of full band arrangements on it, so I was interested in how she would pull off the acoustic versions. All the songs she did sounded superb played finger-style. (Although, she must have some fantastic callouses.) Talking to her after the performance, and mentioning our cover of Madly, she commented that the version she played took her forever to learn comfortably. I'll see what I can attempt, and maybe the Jimmy's Brother version will be some hybrid.

All in all, this was the best $10 I've ever spent on a concert ticket. 5th row seats and a chance to meet these artists to share in their enthusiasm about their craft is one of the best things for a music lover such as myself. The amount of time they spend on the road, doing random gigs in front of a Charlotte Russe below a Yankee Candle can't be any easy task, so given a chance to tell them their appreciated should always be taken.

P.S. Click through the image links to see the whole collection I posted on Flickr.

UPDATE: We made the Dayton Daily News webisite:

Well, it's slightly...

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 19:40:00 +0000

better than before, but still lacking. Time Warner will be adding 13 new HD channels in November and December. TLC and the Science Channel may be cool, but Discovery HD means Dirty Jobs, Mythbusters, and Deadliest Catch in HD, which means that the only shows I watch that I won't get in HD will be the ones on NBC. Which, hey remember, I don't get anyway. According to the article on Engadget HD, there's still 6 channels they're claiming to have unannounced, so there still could be hope for NBC in HD, but I'm not holding my breath.

Looks like I'll have to turn to....

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 14:52:00 +0000

Bittorrent for my NBC shows from now on. Those being Heroes, Chuck, My Name Is Earl, The Office, and ER; as well as Leno, Consey, and Carson. (Not to mention the occasional America's Got Talent and Last Comic Standing. Did I mention I watch too much TV?)

Apparently WDTN, the local NBC affiliate, has yet to reach a broadcast agreement with Time Warner and in the middle of Leno's interview with Boo Weekley the video faded to black, with Jay and Boo still talking, and then I was watching the outro montage of The Legend of Bagger Vance. Jay and Boo's conversation then stopped, and I was presented with the Spanish overdubbed commentary of TLOBV. I find it overly amusing that an interview with a PGA professional was trumped by a movie about golf, there's no way something like that was planned. Now, I have HBO Family as part of my regular cable package. (Yes, I said 'package' shout out to Bolia and Best)

Upon viewing said HBO Family channel this morning, I'm presented with a lovely Lower Third ticker that reads "WDTN will not allow Time Warner Cable to broadcast its programming. Time Warner Cable is hopeful this situation is temporary and WDTN will reverse its decision and return its channel back to you. In the interim, as a courtesy to you, we are providing you with HBO Family on a preview basis. To order HBO, call [xxx-yyy-zzzz]" (I'm not listing the number because I don't want to advert for TWC or HBO.) I'd much rather advert for ShowTime due to them carrying Weeds, Californication, and Dexter The first two as suggested by Leaker and DC, and the last by Shark and CF. Maybe I should op for getting ShowTime, I would then get Big Brother After Dark as well. Nah, I'll just use the power of the interwebs to acquire those. Time to bust out that old HDTV antenna I used to have and watch those NBC programs in real-time. Yuck, I need UVerse

Would you like...

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 00:08:00 +0000

a generic Fruit Chew?

Sorry, a bit of an inside joke developed by Funkie, Leaker, Speechless, Goff, and myself (Dukie), but it has nothing to do with my actual following post. This statement is simply in response to a comment posted by someone named 'Anonymous' in response to it being roughly 2 months since my last post. So here we go...

I've been looking at new TVs for a few months, and Circuit City ran a deal on a 52 inch Samsung 750 Series on sale with 3 years no interest financing. I applied for financing online, and was denied (WTF Mate?) I think I may have incorrectly answered a history question by stating I never lived in Dayton. This is true, however, I think the algorithm sucked and interpreted a Beavercreek or Fairborn ZipCode to actually be in Dayton. Anyway, I was probably distracted by something shiny, and then 30 minutes later my phone rings and it's CC's credit department asking if I was still interested in the line of credit I applied for. I said sure, and they proceeded to hook me up with an additional discount making the TV cheaper than if I were to buy it on Amazon. Good Deal. The old Sony 32" CRT was moved to my bedroom upstairs by Michael and I. I'm never moving that Tv again, until I either sell it, or move, it's fraking heavy. Click the Pic for the Flickr Link with amusing quips about my AV setup. Note the one about the Xbox 360, very amusing.

ARP and I are going to attempt another Jimmy's Brother performance second week of October. (Details as soon as she gets back from HFES.) I decided I needed a new acoustic, with a pickup, so I went to Guitar Center last weekend and told Aaron, the salesman, to just let me play for a few hours, and I'd walk out with a new guitar, and he'd get his commission. As I was playing my way through their stock, I was amused at the number of people who came in, played 3 guitars in five minutes, then walked out. Apparently, I was the only person present who was actually dedicated enough to try one, try another, retry the first, try a third, and so on until I found one that I liked. Watching the window shoppers was amusing, especially the guys whose girlfriends who were totally not interested in being in the store yet still good-natured enough to humor their bf's rock star dreams. As I played, I was occasionally asked where I learned to play, what I thought about this guitar versus that one, and how often I practiced. I think GC should just hire me to come in on the weekends and act like a undercover salesman. Nah, my fingers would bleed from playing for 8 hours a day, then I wouldn't be able to program come Monday morning. Callouses would definitely get a work out though. Anyway, I settled on an black Ovation with a nice inlay around the sound hole. It also has a built in pickup, 3 EQ sliders, and an integrated tuner (very handy.) GC had 3 of this model in stock, but the string height on the other two were uncomfortably too high. The one I came home with felt good from the start, and I got a nice hard shell case to keep her in as well.

Alrighty, that's all for me now. Stay tuned for updates about the UK trip, as well as my report about my wind storm experiences.

The post about...

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 22:02:00 +0000

my trip to Australia for work. The schedule was as follows:

	San Francisco - 1 Day (Unplanned)
	Due to Cancelled flights we didn't make it out of the country, and 'had' to spend a day in 94108. Walked a lot (common theme) to tire us out before the 14 flight. Seals, Alcatraz, Wind Surfers, Bubba Gump's, Kennedy's Pub & Curry House, Flowers, and Ferrel Parrots.

	40 minutes in Sydney
	Hopped on the City Rail from Sydney to Newcastle.

	NewCastle - 3 Days
	Visit to RAAF Base Williamtown for Pitch Black Commandant Morisset's Bogey Hole Silverchair's Local Pub

	Adelaide - 5 Days
	Random Birds DSTO South Australian Museum Port Adelaide Power Aussie rules football match. Personally, I cheer for Freemantle for obvious reasons. "Cooper's Lager?!?! I'd rather have Budweiser" & attempting to dial international phone numbers. Barossa Valley Wine Tasting Maggie Beer's Farm Shop Meat Pie Floater Failure Leading to "THIS IS PANCAKE HOUSE!!!" National Centre For Wine UniSA

	Melbourne - 3 Days
	Bogan Bingo DSTO Cake Shops Home Of Vegemite Eureka Tower Where 3 Aussies and 3 Staties Survived The Edge Music at the Espy Deakin University

	Sydney - Less than 24 hours
	The Rocks 8 of 12 plus 1 Sydney Harbour Bridge & The Pill Sydney Opera House Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney - Watch your head. Weekend Markets Didgeridoos and Abbos.

Long trip, but a great trip. Met lots of amazing people, amazing cities, beautiful scenery, and I would love the chance to go back. Enjoy the pictures, some require more explanations, and some I simply think speak for themselves.

View Larger Map

Well, it's not quite...

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:42:00 +0000

Bogan Bingo but it is a musical performance none-the-less.

No, there will be no Bogan Clothing worn and certainly no mullets.

However, if you are in the Dayton area the evening of July 3rd, visit the Trolley Stop in the Oregon District for the Public Debut of Jimmy's Brother (an acoustic duo made up of two scientists, how sweet is that!)

Post Reference Links:
Bogan Photos from Bogan.com.au

Bogan on wikipedia

I don't get to experience...

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 23:45:00 +0000

June 14th. My flight from LAX to SYD on Friday, June 13th leaves at 10:26 PM, and arrives in Sydney Australia at 6:10 AM on June 15th. This time travel puts me closer to my b-day, (The same day Louis Reard, a French Designer, unveiled the Bikini and the debut of Jimmy's Brother Can't talk too much about the trip here, but I'll have pictures when I get back, maybe post some while down under. Definitely going to bring back some Vegemite and try some 'roo And . . . I need to pack. -Out

I'm my #1...

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Wed, 28 May 2008 23:20:00 +0000

Google search result!!!
Hit the link if you don't believe me. For some time it never returned my blog as the first result. I think some college basketball player used to get the top result. Now you also get links to publications, my facebook, and some guitar tab I posted a long time ago. Apparently, I'm also an old man who was a 2006 Hall of Fame Honoree. Who knew! :-D

~Nerd Out~

Occasionally, every bedroom needs...

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Wed, 14 May 2008 03:32:00 +0000

a new coat of paint. Or, like 8 after all is said and done. :-D I had some peeps over a couple of weekends back to help paint my bedroom. P and C, as well as AR and C, and I finally finished what the crazy 5 of us had started. It started when Slickdeals posted an item about Home Depot having a paint rebate deal. So I thought, well, I'll go buy some paint. I decided on Toffee Crunch walls, Mystic Purple trim, and Classic Toupe doors. (I know, the purple is sooo surprising.) Anyway, Michael and I started painting in the early afternoon, then AR and C showed up after their dance lessons, but they didn't show off any of their new krump moves Apparently they won't be trying out for SYTYCD P and C then showed up and we all had a good time mocking my musical selection and hanging out while literally watching paint dry.
We got the walls done and over the course of the next few weeks, I continued painting the trim and doors. It took forever. The trim alone required 3 coats. But, it looks excellent and I've posted my pics on my flikr account. I did some side by sides with pics I took when I first bought the condo. Here's the magazine style teaser link:

I'm About To Break...

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Sat, 03 May 2008 15:21:00 +0000

someone's database. I bought My cat SQL cat food at my local PetSmart and it apparently qualified for an $8 Science Diet OnLine coupon. As some of you know, my little buddy was dropped off with his two brothers in a cardboard box at the Humane Shelter. The workers there then did not have a specific date for his birth, and said I could make up one. Realizing that the worker would have to enter this date into some database, in my coy way, I coy way I told her February 29, 2006 a date that doesn't actually exist. Apparently the developer of the database application didn't check the date entered for validity, and the date took. I was amused. Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago, I bought the aforementioned cat food with qualifying coupon, and the online rebate form is asking for my cat's DOB as well as my cat's name.
Now my cat's name is also amusing in that SQL is an acronym for Structured Query Language which is used to manipulate data in computer databases. However, it is also a keyword in Microsoft's ODBC function calls. Microsoft state that you should "Consider avoiding the use of these words as identifiers" due to their possible use as keywords in future versions of SQL Server. So my entries as observed in the picture, may cause a database somewhere to blow up. That means that I broke someone else's code today and I'm happy that it wasn't mine, as mine seems to break, in some form or another, and most often during demos. :-D

You Caught Me With A Sausage In My Mouth...

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 00:50:00 +0000

was a quote from Bo, the MC, at this year's Natchez Powwow It was a nice dance on a warm and sunny Saturday and Sunday. Normal powwow antics ensued. However, there were some slightly extraneous events to note on Saturday:

Late night run to Shoney's is not possible because you discover 11:55 is too late to enter the restaurant, but not too late to go to Taco Bell. (Shoney's hours go until 11:30)
If you're Mexican and you try to order food at Taco Bell in Spanish, the African American cashier just looks at you funny.
If I offer you a soft taco that I didn't eat, and you reply that you were really in the mood for a burrito, I'll promptly re-roll the food item and offer it to you again, since all Mexican food is really the same.
I still think Slot Machines are dumb. I don't understand the enjoyment of pressing a button and watching numbers roll by, only to find out I didn't win anything. Would someone please explain the enjoyment of trying to beat a RNG?
So, instead of thinking I was gambling, I prefer to think I drank a $10 Bud light, and the ratio of my drinking was in direct correlation to the rate at which the credits of the aforementioned slot machine dwindled.
BlackJack is an interesting game to watch. I'm probably too cheap to play at $10 a hand, but I can watch other people play while I attempt to apply the MIT BlackJack Team's methodology of counting cards. With the 3 decks in play, I was able to determine the dealer would bust on the last hand before the re-shuffle, only to realize the re-shuffle changes the count. :-/

Sunday concluded with CrawFish done Mississippi style at the Borum house. This was a southern plantation style home on 14 acres that had some unique history about it. As I'm not a history buff, I forget all the history. Ask Val, she's good with that history stuff. I did try the crawfish, and I realize that I do not like most seafood. Especially seafood that requires you to eat it with your fingers. I much more prefer to eat meat that came from an animal with hoofs, and use utensils.

Some other memorable quotes and antics:

Cheerleader Beer: Jeff
Ring the bell, that was funny: Chris
Visit the Houmas House. It's down this street a ways, you turn at this grocery store, go a little further. (Great Directions from a southerner): Lance
Warfighter Interface Division? That's impressive: My Generation of Hugebecks
How to eat a frog: Mark
"Beignet, This is Frybread!!!" (Mark) "I know, add some meat, cheese, lettuce, and tomato and you have a Navajo Taco" (Me)

Stay tuned for more updates, and be sure to check out the pictures on flikr. Off to watch Big Brother now. :-)

Rum tasting at...

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 01:19:00 +0000

11 in the morning on a Friday is an excellent way to start a weekend. My parents and I spent a couple days in New Orleans and Natchez last weekend. We made up our agenda the night we landed in GulfPort/Biloxi. Not a normal Dukes thing to do, arriving without a true plan, but it turned out excellent. Rum tasting was the first event, and it took place at the Old New Orleans Rum Distillery This is the only rum distillery on CONUS and it "was conceived by a band of artists and musicians better known for consumption than fabrication." How can you argue with a statement like that? The palette cleanser was their spiced rum in iced tea. Not having inherited my Dad's affliction for the cold crazy concoction, when a spiced rum is added, it definitely peeks my interest. They currently distill 4 types of rum, Crystal, Amber, Cajun Spice, and a 10 Year Special Edition. The special edition is a result of Katrina and lost paperwork. After the storm, some barrels were discovered and through a process of elimination it was determined they were fairly well aged, and have now developed a strong, unique flavor on the level of a bourbon. I was a fan of the Cajun Spiced brew and brought a bottle home. (We returned a few days later, as Mom wanted a bottle as well. Clearly, I wasn't sharing) :-D They had a cool Tiki bar for the tasting, and, if your a fan, you'll realize that the shirt I was wearing was appropriate:

Backing up a bit; we flew skybus out of c-bus. I left work a bit later than I had wanted, so I had to rush to the airport. It's a good thing I know how to get through security thanks to TSA Bob I was out of the car and through check-in and security in roughly 20 minutes. Plenty of time to spare. However, upon landing in Gulf Port, I realized the top portion of my checked luggage had come unzipped, and my custom fit sunglasses were missing. Picked up the rental car, and my parents convinced me to check with the skybus counter and see if my sunglasses had been recovered. Low and behold, they had them, so I'm not 100% like my father. (He's lost like 3 pairs of sunglasses while on vacation) Evidently that was the last skybus flight I'll take. They have decided to discontinue service:

We strolled around the French Quarter for the rest of Friday. Stopping in the art shops, Hoodoo shops, and assorted souvenir sellers. Be sure to ask my dad how he got glitter on his face. It's a great story.

The evening came to a close after an amazing group of musicians in Preservation Hall The combined age of these gentlemen had to be a least a millennium. It was interesting though, we waited outside of the venue for over an hour, just to cram ourselves into a tiny space to watch these guys perform. You would think that would cause the spectators to respect the wishes of the performers. They politely asked for no flash photography during the performance, but some people missed that and there were some flashes, and some of the "red eye reduction lamps" during their first two songs. During the second song, the trumpet player started clapping during the saxophone solo. ::RANT WARNING:: I don't know who thought this was a good idea, but a large number of the audience started clapping as well. In my opinion, never clap during a musical performance, unless it's truly obvious that the performers want you to. For example, if the performer says, "Everybody, clap your hands" feel free to do so. All the same, if you're going to clap to a song, be sure to know what the @#$% you're doing. During this second song, an audience member attempted to clap along, and really only got about every third beat to line up. I don't know how in the world someone could rhythm that terrible, especially when said audience member is only 15 feet from the musician clapping. This guy was more than just a beat off, and he couldn't even watch the trumpet player for the timing. The drummer finally pointed a stick at the guy, and started shaking his head. The guy promptly stopped, and I busted out laughing. This dude in the audience just got pwned by a New Orleans drummer. Excellent.

The evening officially ended with us leaving Preservation Hall and walking down Bourbon street, just as things were starting to liven up. No, we didn't stay long, and no, my Mom did not make any of the "Bourbon Street Style" videos. I would like to go back and party with some people who are not my parents, so if you're up for it, I can at least show you around. Let's find some cheap plane tickets!

Small, Medium, and Large. . .

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 17:04:00 +0000

can describe the current Laptop's in my life. A few months ago I bought a MacBook to replace the ailing Tina ThinkPad I've had for 4 years, and now I've also been able to get a MacBook Pro for work. Yes, the new model with 512MB dedicated video memory, and MultiTouch. Glorious. I've been setting up Virtual Machines so that I can still do my Windows development, and I decided on a theme to help name them...Battlestar Galactica Characters. I have Adama, Apollo, Gaeta, Helo, Starbuck, Tigh, Number Six, Roslin, Batlar, Cain, Boomer, and Dualla. All with different software configurations so that I can prevent having to run Visual Studio 6, 2003, 2005, 2008, and the XNA IDEs all on one machine. And I can have access to Office 2003 and Office 2007 simultaneously now.
I've taken the gateway and turned it into a VM that I run on the MBP now. So if I need access to something I used to have on the gateway, I just fire it up on the MBP and away I go. (In other words, I don't like backing up my SQL Server settings, now I just run it in a VM)

Check the pic:

Finally figured out...

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 16:34:00 +0000

what to do with the large wall space in my living room behind my couch. I'd been considering different mirrors to make the space seem larger. I have 3D rendered the living room in solidworks, just do I could get a visual reference for the size of the mirrors I was considering. I know, totally geeky to 3D model your home, but I just can't visualize what some would look like without actual dimensions. So I found some cool mirrors at Bed Bath And Beyond and used 2 20% off coupons they keep sending me in the mail. Check the pictures:

Speaking of BSG....

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 11:20:00 +0000

David Letterman had 10 members of the cast do a Letterman style "Top 10" list. Absolutely amazing and hysterical. If you're a BSG fan, you have to click play on this.

I watch too much . . .

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 01:36:00 +0000

Tv. Time Warner will be updating their DVR soon, and one of the things they mention is saving your settings. Well, I was going through my "Series Manger" list, and this is what I have listed:

24
4400, The
America's Got Talent
American Chopper
American Dad
Battlestar Galactica
Big Brother
Bones
Boston Legal
Celebrity Apprentice, The
Chuck
Connor Chronicles
CSI: Crime Scene Investigators
CSI: Miami
Dirty Jobs
Destination HD
ER
Family Guy
Good Eats
Grey's Anatomy
Heroes
House
How It's Made

Last Call With Carson Daly
Last Comic Standing
Late Night With Conan O'Brian
Lost
Mail Call
My Name Is Earl
Mythbusters
Numbers
Office, The
Prison Break
Private Practice
Real World, The
Rob & Big
Robot Chicken
Scrubs
Simpsons, The
So You Think You Can Dance
Supernatural
Survivor
Tonight Show With Jay Leno
Unit, The
Unwrapped

45 SHOWS!!!! I think I need to cut back, but let me justify. Some of the shows are on hiatus for the season, freaking BSG, and some will be back in the fall, due to the writers strike messing with the schedule. Some are only 30 minutes long, and I do have a DVR, so I really don't watch commercials, but still, that's a lot of Tv. I need a hobby, or at least something to do while watching Tv, so as to be more productive. I know, I'll try blogging more. There, that was easy.

Holy Frak . . .

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 14:36:00 +0000

Well, it appears that someone is a much larger BSG fan than I, but this is ridiculous: Battlestar Galactica Last Supper I do miss my Battlestar Apparently we will be treated by the new season starting April 4th. We were given some teasers and webisodes lately, but that just doesn't do it for me. Not to mention the fact that I don't get Sci-Fi in HD, or NBC for that matter, but that's an entirely different rant.

P.S. Apologies for the length of time between blog posts, but because of this half of the links on this page probably aren't even accessible. ::rolls eyes::

Dance your cares away...

noreply@blogger.com (Allen) — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 02:03:00 +0000

Worries for another day. Dude, Fraggle Rock on itunes makes me want to drink more of Jobs's Kool-aid