Photo Album Updated!
The photo album has been updated!
The following photo albums have been added:
Nikki's Getting Spayed Today...
Well I just dropped Nikki off at the Vets a little over an hour ago in order to have her spayed. We've opted to pay the extra money again to have the surgery performed by laser. I like the fact that it cauterizes the wound at the same time it makes the cut.
I always hate dropping the dogs off for any kind of procedure like this, but I know that getting the dog spayed before her first period provides for many health benefits. I just hate that my "baby" is going to be filling bad. One of the hardest things for her is probably going to be the fact that she can't really play w/her sister for the next week or so.
Speaking of which, I left Maddie at the house when I took Nikki to the kennel. When I got back, Maddie spent the first 5 minutes sniffing me and looking at me like: "Where's my sister at? What did you do with her?!?" I'll be curious to see how Maddie reacts to Nikki when she comes back w/the cone collar on. Maddie hated wearing that.
SpoofStick: Protect Yourself From Obscured URLs...
I was watching a re-run of The Screen Savers today and they had a guest on who showed off a browser toolbar addon called SpoofStick.
The idea behind this toolbar is that it will resolve the actual website you're on and display the name of the server. Some of you may be thinking: "Why is this useful? When I go to a site I know what site I'm on." Or do you?
One of the most commonly used techniques by hackers attempting to gather person information about users (such as your credit card number or PayPal account,) is to send an e-mail address that looks official which provides a link to "update your personal information." These messages often look legit and the websites they take you too often look they way you'd expect them to—however, they're not actually the official website; it's a copy of the site on a hacker controlled server.
Got Gmail?
I wasn't going to post this, but since I haven't posted in a few days I figured I better post something. :)
Thanks to my buddy Cam, I now too have a "GMail" account. The account don't carry as much "geek weight" anymore, as it appears that Google is getting ready to go public, 'cause they're handing out the invitations in huge quantities now. Regardless, I'm part of the geek chic.
I have to say though, after playing around with my account for a few days, I'm not sure what all the buzz is about—besides the full 1GB of storage. I'm not overly impressed w/the user interface (UI.) It does a few things well, but seems klunky and too basic. I love Google's simple layout for their search engine, but that doesn't seem to translate well to their e-mail interface. I feel like there's just a bunch of links thrown about the page. I know this isn't the case, but it just doesn't feel like an application. I'm sure there are people who will favor this approach, but I'm not one of them. I just don't feel the various options have enough presentation seperation to make it clear where your options are. Google's GMail service is still in beta, so we may see some changes—although I don't expect any major changes. I will say this, the pages do load fast.
Camping & Golfing...
Well, at I stated last week, Jenn & I went camping this weekend with the dogs. The weather wasn't exactly cooperative, but it could have been much, much worse. We had pretty heavy rain storms in the area over the weekend. Fortunately, we didn't really get any rain at the camp site, but it was extremely wet and we never really got any sunshine.
The dogs seemed to enjoy themselves. The first 24 hours or so, they were very protective of any activity going on around our camp site, but then they adjusted to things and didn't seem to get bothered by people coming by our site. We didn't do much, other than relax around the fire. We did go hiking on Saturday, but we spent most of the day hanging out w/Justin & Megan (the couple we went camping with—who also brought they're dog Zoey camping.)
Also on the personal front, I got a chance to play golf w/my Grandpa and Father last Wednesday. We played at Windy Knoll in Springfield, OH. It was my first time playing the course. The course definitely needs some work, but I liked the layout of the course. If i could have controlled my Tee shots, I would have been able to shave about 10 strokes off my game (I lost about a dozen golf balls off the tee.) Of course I hadn't played, or even swung a golf club, in almost a year, so what can I expect.
Finish Far Cry Campaign...
Well I finished the single player campaign of Far Cry yesterday. Overall the single player is excellent, although I was slightly disappointed by the ending (of course, I think the endings of most games are disappointing—I can't really think of any that lived up to my hopeful expectations.) The AI and graphics are simply amazing. For those of you expecting boss-type battles, you'd be disappointed—as there aren't really any boss-type battles. The game is still very challenging and is definitely worth playing. I may go back and try it in "realistic" mode just to see how bad I get my butt kicked! :)
I'm now looking forward to playing multiplayer mode online. I'm trying to convince some of my friends to buy the game so I can play online w/them. I've at least convinced a couple of them to go an download the demo.
Going Camping This Weekend...
Jenn and I are going to go camping this weekend with the dogs. A good buddy of mine, Justin, sent an e-mail out inviting us to join them down in Hocking Hills this weekend for at Caveman Retreats. Jenn loves camping, so she's pretty excited about it.
Since we didn't really have any camping gear, we've had to go out and buy the supplies we needed. Last night we hit Gander Mountain and picked up some miscellaneous gear—a tent, sleeping bags, inflatable air bed, latern, etc. I picked up a 5 gallon water cool and a 7 qt ice cooler (both supposedly keep ice for 5 days in 90 degree weather) and a small portable charcoal grill today at Walmart. Needless to say, I'd have spent a lot less money to just rent a cabin for the weekend. Of course, now I own the stuff we need to go camping with, so it'll be much cheaper next time.
It should be a pretty good time. I'm not sure how many people are going this weekend. I just hope the dogs don't cause us too many problems. It'll be interesting to see how they do in the tent with us. :) (Oh yeah, I got a big 8 person tent, so there should be plenty of room for the two of us and the dogs.)
Gas $2.33 Per Gallon...
I had to fill up my 4runner this morning. I like to keep premium in the tanks, and "premium" sure is the right word for that gas, 'cause that's what it costs. I paid $2.33 a gallon for gas today. That's just ridiculous. I need to get into the Oil business.
Lunch w/Dad...
My dad was in town for some blood work today, so we hooked up for lunch. We decided to meet at El Vaquero's—which is one of the best spots in Columbus to get good authentic Mexican food. The foods always good there, and they make the salsa and chips fresh. Anyway, it's one of my dad's and my favorite spots to eat, so it was a pretty easy decision to eat there (plus, neither of us have eaten there in a while.)
After lunch, dad stopped over to see the dogs. I think he was a little upset he didn't get to spend more time with them on Mother's Day—as he was stuck working the store most of the day. The dogs smothered him when he sat down on the couch—both of them licking his face vigorously. Nikki was a bit to enthusatic and manage to nip his ear enough to draw blood. She doesn't bite hard but if you pull away when she's biting, her teeth are razor sharp.
Anyway, I was glad he stopped by for the visit.
Damn Dirty Dogs!!!
The dogs decided to play in the mud today. Maddie used to be a Yellow Lab, looks like she wanted to see what it was like to be a Chocolate Lab. :)
I ended up just pulling the hose in from the garage and stuck it out the window to clean them off a bit before bringing them inside. That technique worked suprisingly well.
A Note From The Past...
I was searching through Google's Groups looking for threads containing my name (I get curious to see how my name is used from time to time.) Anyway, I came across an old thread of mine from when I worked for MidWest Micro (a now "extinct" computer mailing ordering company.)
That seems like a lifetime ago, it's funny when you find stuff you wrote that you have very little recollection of—actually, I remembered this thread after reading it, I just had forgotten I used to comb the newsgroups looking for people having problems with our products.
Monster House & American Chopper
Two shows that I've really begun to enjoy watching are Monster House and American Chopper—both of which run on Discovery Channel on Monday nights.
Discovery Channel has several shows that carry the "Monster" title. These shows concentrate on doing something extreme that aren't normally seen every day. On "Monster House" they take a normal house and turn it in to something extreme. I've seen theme turn a couple's house into a Vegas-style casino/hotel, a house into a retro sci-fi house (complete w/crashed flying saucer,) and Medival house, a Icelandic/Nordic Viking house and many, many other interesting things. Each show features a new set of "builders". These are 5 local contractors who will have fie days to complete the transformation into a "monster" house. They're just normal everyday contractors. I'm not sure how you apply to be a contractor, 'cause they've had some really bad ones in the past. The bottom line is it's pretty fascinating what these folks will do with a house in just 5 days. Make sure to check out their best of gallery for pictures of some of the transformations.
On American Chopper, the show follows the Teutul family of Orange County Choppers (of Orange County, New York,) I think part of the reason I really enjoy the show is it reminds me at times of working for my family when I was younger. It's also pretty amazing how these guys fabricate these bikes. My favorites bikes were probably the NY Firefighters bike, Jet bike and the Snap-on Tool bike. Make sure to check out the photo gallery for pictures of all the bikes they've built on the show.
A Few More Blog Changes...
I made a few additional changes to the blog site today. I added some more pictures to the Maddie & Nikki Trackers and I changed the layout a bit (I moved the "Dan's now listening to..." from the left-hand navigation bar to the top header.)