life and pictures
I am still not completely healthy. I got sick on the 2nd, start showing symptoms on the 4th, and I'm not 100% yet. I'd say I'm at 95%, but I would still love to not feel any effects at all. People always use that annoying phrase about "something going around" that is usually full of shit, but this time I can honestly say that it is. Just about everyone at my office has had this plague, but naturally I was one of the worst. I almost always seem to be. To quote one of my employees "when Mike gets sick, he really gets sick". So much for my increased immune system from Kaelyn bringing things home from daycare.
Eddie and Denise seem to have found a new addiction in Facebook, and have Lori and I trying it out with them. I can honestly say it's far better than myspace, but I'm still not 100% sure it's the answer. I have also played with orkut, but at this point Facebook seems to be the most appealing to the eyes. Feel free to hit me up on Facebook or myspace if you can find me.
We had a good weekend out here in Maricopa, with Lori's parents visiting, me finally getting to take Kaelyn out on the bike seat Lori got me for Christmas (even if for all of 10 minutes), shopping, homework going well, Dan/Marcella bringing Dan's sister by, and us catching up on the first couple episodes of the final season of the Wire. I guess the biggest excitement is that it has been raining all day today.
On the weather front, we had some impressive fog in Maricopa on Friday morning. I've only seen fog that bad in the bay area and Michigan, never in the Phoenix area before. It seemed to clear up around Riggs, but it was funny to watch the natives drive rush hour in some moderate fog.
And on the homework front, my illness postponed the start of my latest class, so I'm just wrapping up week one now. I am taking Marketing, and so far it seems far easier than the two finance classes I just took.
So that's life, and here are the pictures...
I added a bunch of pictures of my old car here (check out my attempts at professional looking background/angles/posing for selling it!);
http://www.disturbed.org/gallery/v/mikes_pictures/Other/for_sale/sold/explorer_sport/
Added a bunch of Kaelyn in here;
http://www.disturbed.org/gallery/v/mikes_pictures/people/baby/second_year/
One new one of Sera;
http://www.disturbed.org/gallery/v/mikes_pictures/pets/sera/
A handful of new ones of Lori's baby shower;
http://www.disturbed.org/gallery/v/mikes_pictures/events/baby_shower/
A new album from an evening at Alyssa/Will's house;
http://www.disturbed.org/gallery/v/mikes_pictures/events/avery_play/
personal finance
Lori suggested I give a shout out to the website we use to track our finances;
http://www.clearcheckbook.com
Lori and I wanted to combine our tracking, but wanted a way for her to be able to do it from work sometimes. This left us looking for the equivalent of a "quicken on-line". There are a few sites similar to ClearCheckbook, but this is by far the best I have used. They are also actively enhancing the site (they just implemented a suggestion I had made a couple months ago).
I will admit that after using Quicken and GNUCash over the years, that it is not a completely like replacement for them. It needs sub-categories and some better reporting to get there, but I have no doubt they'll accomplish it eventually.
This site doesn't seem to get much press when compared to Mint (http://www.mint.com) and the new Quicken Online (http://www.quickenonline.com), but it has a huge benefit over them. Those two sites require you to enter the username and password to all of your other financial institutions. I know too much about computer security to trust my entire life's finances to a site like that. ClearCheckbook is manual entry system, or it can also take an import of the right format file if your financial institution supports it.
Anyways, there is my shout-out. I'm also adding them as a link to the side when I remember how to edit those here in a minute.
laptop weight loss
This is hilarious..
To quote the creator;
"Has Apple considered the implications of its glorification of thin models in the MacBook Air television advertisements? Has it once considered the feelings of my "big boned" HP, and how she's felt living in a society where you're only as attractive as you are THIN? And what about the young processors that are at an impressionable age. Do they need this pressure? I think not."
From TUAW
presidential election
Ahhh, politics. One of the more frustrating things in life. However, it's a reality, and this year is election year. I do think Bill Maher put it well when he said; “If I hear the word change one more time from the presidential candidates the only thing I’m going to change is the channel.” I just watched that episode of his show this evening and it motivated me to poke around on the Internet.
I took some tests/quizzes/surveys on issues that then told me which candidate I aligned with. I wouldn't vote on this solely, but I did find it interesting. I tallied and averaged my results below;
| Obama | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | = | 1.75 |
| Clinton | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | = | 2.00 |
| Kucinich | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | = | 2.25 |
| Edwards | 2 | 3 | 3 | 5 | = | 3.25 |
| Giuliani | 9 | 5 | 5 | 1 | = | 5.00 |
| Romney | 8 | 6 | 9 | 5 | = | 7.00 |
| McCain | 7 | 7 | 7 | 9 | = | 7.50 |
| Huckabee | 6 | 9 | 7 | 10 | = | 8.00 |
| Paul | 5 | 10 | 10 | 7 | = | 8.00 |
| Thompson | 10 | 8 | 6 | 8 | = | 8.50 |
I was a bit shocked with how far to the left I leaned. I actually disagree with quite a few democrat views, but I guess align more consistently across the board. Too bad there isn't a couple more major parties to pick from.. of course, that would be work for voters. That might prove to be complicated =).
Here are a list of the surveys;
http://www.selectsmart.com/president/2008.html
http://www.gotoquiz.com/candidates/2008-quiz.html
http://www.dehp.net/candidate/
http://www.wqad.com/Global/link.asp?L=259460
This doesn't necessarily mean I'll vote for Obama, but it was just interesting to share.
marathon and mac world
The PF Chang's Marathon was (is!) today in Phoenix. It starts in Tempe and does a nice tour of the valley. One of my peers at work, Bill McGuire ran the full marathon, I hope he feels ok. I just looked it up and he finished in 4:52:40. Go Bill!
My dad got some pictures/video of the race over at this blog as they came through my parents' neighborhood;
http://ratinthekitchen.blogspot.com/2008/01/rock-and-roll-marathon-2008.html
http://ratinthekitchen.blogspot.com/2008/01/more-marathon.html
and of course, Tuesday is Mac World. We're expecting on-line video rentals at the very least, not sure what else. Maybe an Apple TV update to support it? Who else is excited?
chris' christmas lights
and
They look awesome. I'll get a picture of our house up soon.. although it's not as impressive as those.
Chris said he used a controller he got at Costco, for those who are interested.
top 50 college football teams of all time
This is completely arbitrary, but it takes the major bowl appearances of all time and tallies them for rankings.
Tie breaker is number of wins in the appearances.
#1) USC
#2) Oklahoma
#3) Nebraska
#4) Alabama
#5) Ohio State
#6) Michigan
#7) Florida State
#8 tie) LSU
#8 tie) Miami
#10) Penn State
#11) Tennessee
#12) Washington
#13 tie) Notre Dame
#13 tie) UCLA
#15) Georgia
#16 tie) Florida
#16 tie) Stanford
#18) Pittsburgh
#19) Georgia Tech
#20) Texas
#21) Mississippi
#22) Arizona State
#23 tie) Arkansas
#23 tie) Colorado
#25) California
#26) Auburn
#27 tie) Missouri
#27 tie) Syracuse
#29 tie) Illinois
#29 tie) Wisconsin
#31) Iowa
#32) Virginia Tech
#33) Michigan State
#34 tie) Duke
#34 tie) Oregon
#34 tie) West Virginia
#37 tie) Clemson
#37 tie) Oregon State
#39 tie) Maryland
#39 tie) Washington State
#41) Santa Clara
#42 tie) Navy
#42 tie) Texas Christian
#44 tie) Kansas
#44 tie) Texas A&M
#44 tie) Tulane
#44 tie) Tulsa
#48 tie) Louisville
#48 tie) Oklahoma State
#50 tie) Arizona
#50 tie) Baylor
#50 tie) Boston College
#50 tie) Kansas State
#50 tie) Kentucky
#50 tie) Mare Island
#50 tie) Minnesota
#50 tie) Mississippi State
#50 tie) Northwestern
#50 tie) Purdue
#50 tie) Rice