Overdue Update



I know I am over due for an update so here it goes…

I recently started dating Amber, we have been dating for over a month now and I must say she is one of the best things to happen to me.  She is exactly like me and we just go well together.  She is really  is the best.  It’s hard to describe how I feel about her, I am currently on a business trip to Colorado and really all I want is to go home so I can be with her.

So my birthday was on the 10th of June I turned 28, this is the first birthday since moving to Texas and it was the best!  Amber surprised me with a weekend get away to a bed and breakfast here in San Antonio.  It was an amazing place, the bed was oh so nice!  I actual wanted to steal the pillows but Amber would not let me.  We then went out to dinner and met up with some friends for drinks.  It was a relaxing weekend that I really needed.  Also we went to her parents house to have dinner which was also very very good!  Her dad is pretty good at working that grill.

Other than that it has been mostly work and a lot of play now.  Richard, DeAnn, Amber and myself have made it a habit of going to the pool on Sundays to grill out and relax.  I know this is hard to believe but I am starting to get a tan.

I’ll have some pictures up just as soon as Amber downloads them and sends them to me, since she is the keeper of all photos.

I’ll try my best to keep this blog updated more often.

30,000 Feet



I just had to do this, I mean how often in ones life does this happen.  Okay okay I know my kids will probably have this feature like my parents generation had the “smoking section”.  Alaska Air supplys a wifi connection in flight with broadband speeds.

Currently I am on my way to Fairbanks, Alaska to do a server install and then Thursday I fly down to Anchorage to install another server.  Right now I am leaving Chicago to go to Anchorage and then from Anchorage I will catch a flight to Fairbanks.  This flight right now is 6 hours 3 minutes long.

I just had to make this post, this is just way to cool.  Thinking about hooking up skype and see if I can make some phone calls!  No cell phones allowed but they never said a thing about VoIP!  Well here comes the inflight meal and my rum and coke!  Time to get this party started.

My co-worker sitting next to me is playing World of Warcraft right now.

Talk to you all when I land.

Airports



So here I am once again sitting in an airport waiting for my next flight to come in so that it can bring me to my next destination, my next adventure.  I always get this great feeling which I really can not explain when I sit in an airport.  I also get a feeling of anxiety not because I am afraid of flying, which I do fear a little.  It’s the fear of missing my flight.  This is a buinsess that orcastrates mass movement of people in an crazy organized way.  Which if one thinks about it, this is no easy feat.

I offten like to just sit back and watch people as they walk by and look at their expresions and wonder where they are coming from and what adventure they have been on.  I met one lady who cheated on her husband for the first time on a buiness trip.  met another gentleman who was off to a funeral of a family friend.  Then you see the people with tan lines so you know they were just on vacation at some luxory spot soaking up some rays.  it’s just intreasting to see all the people and the social interaction.  You can also tell the novice travelors apart from the pros.  I would like to consider myself a pro, as I pack only what can fit in my backpack and the rest is in my luggage.  When I go through the security check points, I have shoes, belt and all devices unplugged and in my backpack to make my transistion from unsecure to secure even quicker.

But I must admit for the first time ever I missed a flight, not that it was my fault but bad weather caused our flight to be diverted to Alabama so I had to spend hours to catch another flight.  It was just pure craziness.

None the less I enjoy traveling it gives you a chance to sit down and talk with a perfect stranger about nothing special just random conversation.  It gives you the chance to be resourceful as you try to find a way to get comfortable and sleep in awkward positions that just should not be attempted.

The one thing you see a lot of is technology, ipods, apple computers, dells, cell phones, air cards andjust so much more.  I think every person should travel at some point in their life.  It is just an expierance that will leave you breathless.  To savor those memories I like to buy shot glasses at every air port I visit.  When I see them on my mantle the memories just come flooding back and it gives me a chance to relive them.

Another day of my life another adventure another chance for oppurtunity.  The winds of change are blowing and I just can not wait to see where they will take me.

Home Bistro



I just have to tell you all about this new thing I am doing.  As many of you might know when you go shopping for food it is nearly impossiable to find food that is packaged for just one person.  So if your single you have to buy things that were ment to feed the Bradybunch.  Which is horriable because your paying more for food that will spoil before you can eat it all or you end up throwing away a lot more food.  So now your taking money and just throwing it down the trash.

You can try eating out which is cheaper, but lets face it.  You can not eat a healthy meal at McDonalds.  So I had to find an alternative.  I did my research and found this company called Home Bistro which sells pre-made food that is actual good for you and the big thing is the food is actually really good!  I spend on average $9.95 per meal which will arrive at my door frozen.  All I have to do is put the bags in a pot of boiling water for 20 minutes and serve.  There are a few things that you have to cook in the oven but they only take 30 minutes.

So now I order 6 meals a week for $60.00 and some change, plus the shipping cost which is actual pretty good.  If I were to go to the store and buy all the ingrediants to try and make some of these meals I would spend at least $20.00.  Plus, unlike microwave dinners that are loaded with sodium these really are healty.  So check them out

Here is what I had for dinner tonight:

Salmon Fillet with Roasted Red Pepper Coulis

1 Carbohydrate Servings
Exchange:
3 Protein
3 Fat
2 Grain
5 Vegetable
2 Fruit
380 Calories

Zumbox Review



I found this website that actual has a great idea, so great that I signed up.

It is called Zumbox; their concept is simple you receive’s your mail electronically instead of killing trees and paying high postage.  Plus it is faster, light-speed faster!  They use the same system as the postal service, every person uses their physical address to state where they live.  So you have your own digital mail box just like you have your own mail box at home.

Now when you first sign up they send you a letter in the mail (snail mail) which has you PIN so this identifies you and lets them verify that you live where you say you live.  You then enter that PIN and finish the sign up process.  Now you just sit back and wait to get mail. Business in your area can use this to send you advertisements for a cheaper cost, and they monitor how much mail is sent out so people can’t use it for SPAM.  I think it’s a great idea that I hope takes off.  I wish the USPS would do something like this or buy out the company.  Sad part is, it would take away from jobs, but would open up so many new jobs.

I recommend you all go and check it out.

New Rifle



My dad bought me a new rifle for my upcoming birthday which I thought was pretty cool.  It is a Stag Arms left handed model 2TL.  It is the same as an AR-15 or M4 except everything has been reversed so that the shells are ejected to the left.  This prevents me from getting hit by the hot shells.  Currently they are the only company I know of that sells a black gun like this. It is currently on back order but I should get it in April or May.

Here is a picture of the rifle (taken from their website)

I also bought an EoTech site, this particular model is night vision ready if I ever decided to buy a night vision add-on.

So now I just have to get the following items and the weapon will be complete

• 3X or higher magnifier which will mount in front of the sight so that I can get some magnification
• Vertical Grip with drop down bi-pod
• Mag-Pul magazines (probably 4)
• Entry Light (don’t know if I will go with pressurized button or not)
• Sound Suppressor (silencer; and yes they are legal just have to pay the ATF taxes on them but they are not that expensive)
• Tactical MOLLIE vest with inserts for body armor
• Single point sling with quick detach

GeeK



Geek – Slang for a person who enjoys computers or activities that seem more intellectual and less mainstream.

Here lately I have been struggling with this title.  This is a term that in high school was used to try to hurt my feelings to make me feel bad about what I do.  Happy to say it never did, it just caused me to get into a lot of fights, and no I did not get beat up as a kid I knew how to handle my own.

But it’s funny in my younger days I had my own my own website using free sites like homestead or yahoo.  I bought my domain name six years ago and from there is where I took off.  I created my own blog using flash and a text file.  So let me put this in perspective, I was blogging prior to there being a Wordpress.  Now I am not saying I developed the idea or the word what I am saying is I was doing something that many of my peers just did not understand.  There were millions just like me.  Prior to Flickr I was creating my own photo gallary’s on my website where people could see what I was doing in my daily life.

Now remember I was called a geek, nerd, outcast I was not the popular one because I did something different.  Now I look at it and my peers the same people that tried to ridicule me are on Facebook, Myspace, Flickr… and here is the bad part, whoa what happend there?  See where I am going with this?  Now people are giving themselves the title of <GeeK> when really they know nothing about technology, they just follow the trends.  I guess I just feel like my space, what I love most in life is being invaded by the idiots of the world.

I’ll give an example of all of this: iJustine now I this girl calls herself a geek, but really I can almost gurantee you this girl knows nothing about technology.  She is a beautiful girl that posted a video about her iPhone bill thats it.  She loves her Apple products but probably can’t tell you why their are better or worse than a PC.  She’s amusing and I am sure she is a great person, just being used as an example.

Any thoughts or opinions on this just comment below.

PC vs Mac



I have always complained about Macs so I thought I would share with the world my position about this touchy subject.  I do expect some mighty fine words from my friends.  My main problem with Mac’s isn’t really the companies fault it’s the users.  These are the same users that you will see in Starbucks© drinking their over priced coffee talking about nothing.  They bash Microsoft when they really have no argument or can’t explain why.  They are puppets who do not think for themselves they let the universe control them. So lets break it down.

Apple claims to be more secure than Microsoft, they don’t get viruses and don’t need antivirus.  Well why is it 20,000 Macs just got attacked by a virus in a bad torrent?  If you had AV software you would have seen that thing coming at you.  Why is it that during a security convention Mac OSX was hacked in 10 minutes while Vista was not.  Lets face it Microsoft takes security more seriously and doesn’t lie to their customers.  They know security is an issue so they work to secure it.  They don’t give you a false sense of security.  Over the years Windows has become more and more secure.  Nothing is ever 100% secure.  A lot of security breaches come from third party software or dumb users.  Sorry Mac users your not as secure as they tell you.  Buy some antivirus, get a firewall, stop surffing the web at Starbucks!! My packet sniffer works just as well on you as on a Windows machine!

I had a Mac user once tell me his laptop could out perform any windows box.  Funny thing was my Alienware out performed his Mac.  See when you compare your product to another product with outstanding parts then it is harder to beat them.  You can’t compare top quality parts with a $500.00 machine that has pretty bland performance.  Now lets talk about that, what Mac can you get for $500.00?  The mini?  That thing is outdated and worthless.  I can build or buy a decent windows box with up to date technology.  Sure it won’t be the fastest but it will perform well.  Mac goes from $500.00 to $2,000.00 there is no in the middle with them.  So the people that don’t make a lot of money can’t afford them.  Nice way to introduce people to your product.  They have to apply for a loan to even consider getting it.

Mac users you can’t upgrade parts like I can.  If a new chipset comes out I go out and spend the money and buy it, you well you have to either hope Apple sells it or you have to go buy a new computer with that part.  Sweet I pay $500.00 you pay another $2,000.  What about video cards?  One of my video cards out performs yours, unless you get the one that cost $1,500 but I can just buy two for that price.  I once had a mac user tell me he didn’t require that much in video, well I do I like to play games.  I like to watch videos in HD do you guys even get an HDMI port?  I know I don’t see Blu-Ray on your machines.  I do!!

I had the same mac user tell me he had no issues with drivers, sorry I have no problems with finding hardware, not everything will run on a mac, everything runs on windows…okay except for some video editing software.

Now lets talk gaming I met a mac user that was running bootcamp so he could play a few games. What your $2,000 machine can’t play games without Windows loaded?  Plus he was getting crappy quality.

What do I like about macs?  user interface, I’ll admit you guys have a really nice interface which I emulate on my Windows machine.

OSX is a 64bit OS which is a plus, XP 64bit is a decent OS but still have some kinks to be worked out.  Vista 64bit I hate, others say no problems I had nothing but problems.

That’s about all I like to be quite honest.

So my windows box can do anything your computer can do, your machine can not do everything mine does.

I do look forward to Windows 7 to be released I think it will be a great improvement over Vista.

So this is just my quick brief jump into this subject, leave some feed back!

My taxes



I am like every other American citizen meaning I work full time and with that I get a pay check.  Prior to me gettig my pay check the government takes a percentage based on how much I make and they put it towards government funded projects.  It’s called paying taxes.  Now I have no problem with this system, I believe we should all put into the system we use.  This system is what supports our Nation and to be quite honest your tax dollars help the government fund the projects or task that my company gets hired to do.

Here is my problem, I can not use my tax dollars to help me with my education so that I can make more money so that I can pay more taxes.  The government investing in me is a rather solid investment.  Instead they tell me, sorry Mr. M***** you make entirely way to much money for us to give you more towards your education, instead we are going to give it to somebody else.  What!? but why, why can’t I get a little support.  Sure I make good money but that means I pay more in taxes and hey guess what I have more bills.  But the bum down the street who barely pays any taxes only to get a nice size return every year even though he didn’t pay that much can qualify for multiple government funded projects to send him to school.  Great so now I am paying for somebody else to go to school and lets face it a lot of people just abuse the system so that they can keep the money for themselves while I keep paying higher taxes and have to pay my own way through school.

But don’t friet I qualify for any student loan I want because I have proven I can pay my bills on time!!!

Go to any University or technical school and the instructors will tell you, the class size will drop as soon as people get the grant money.  They take the money and run to the strip club.

But anyways I am taking another class, still have $20,000 dollars to go till I get my BS in Information Systems Security.

Windows 7



As most people know I am a fan of Microsoft Windows.  I have a few friends that use MAC and there is nothing wrong with that, it does exactly what they need it to do.  For me it fails at gaming so I can not use it.  Plus I have some other problems with MAC’s but I’ll save that for another post.

So Microsoft is now working on Windows 7 and have even released a BETA version to the public, which I think is a great thing so now people can test it out and give their feed back.  Plus when I mean if it crashes they can collect the data on it and fix it before they do a final release.  Now Windows XP was the last OS they released that was awesome.  Vista was said to bring in the next generation and be one of their best.  I was excited I figured wow they actual learned from XP and now improving that.  Well I was wrong, Vista is a good OS but not nearly as good as it should have been.  The 64bit version was buggy and didn’t work for me, the system was just a lot slower at opening up and getting files.  Once I put 4GB of memory in my machine things started picking up, but I have over 5GB of memory and 32bit OS can’t use that.

So Windows 7 is supposed to be the fix to it all, and really I am excited even though Microsoft has let me down in the past (Vista, ME).  I have read many reviews on the new Windows 7 and even saw a few from MAC users saying that they were impressed and might make the switch back.  So this perked my ears up.  So here are some things I would like to see in Windows 7 and they might be in there, to be honest I haven’t checked into much yet.

1. Faster fileing system – NTFS is nice but can we make it a bit more efficent
2. Stronger Security – I am a security NAZI and I want tighter security, I want the OS to be able to fight off attacks and prevent malice software from messing it up
3. Better 64bit support – Really we should not be using 32bit, we need to put that in the past along with FAT16 and FAT32 it is time for us to move forward
4. Cleaner code – now I know Microsoft won’t release their code but we all know that it is rather sloppy and could be cleaned up
5. Better support – Lets make it where drivers are no longer an issue.
6. Cleaner interface – Microsoft could learn a thing or two about an interface from Apple
7. Better support for Network Admins and Sys Admins, give us more control over the users.  I know GPO and Windows Server help out mostly with this

I hope to have VM ware installed soon so that I may try working with the BETA version of Windows 7 so that I can give people my honest opinion, and I will post a Mac vs PC post soon. So Eddie and Ty, be ready!

Cheers

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