Thursday, August 28, 2008

beep beep richie

at 3am this morning, i was rudely woken up by a loud beep, similar to a pager that hasn't been looked at type beep. it's loud, obnoxious and won't shut up until you look at it. i didn't think too much of it and started to fall back asleep semi-wondering what was it as it pulled me from a dead sleep.

but just as i was slipping back into that wonderful dark embrace of sleep, BEEP BEEP.

at which point any hope of falling asleep flew right out my open window. i knew it was not a pager i had (not on call until tomorrow), and i knew it wasn't my cellphone, because it isn't anywhere near as obnoxious about missed calls (my KRZR did beep like that, but it's off). it couldn't be a laptop as that was powered off, and the beep was the wrong pitch. the only thing i could think of was maybe the smoke detector in the hallway was the culprit. in my last apartment, i had the battery die on the smoke detector before and it's a similar beep, so i grabbed a flashlight (which i didn't really need) and wandered into the living room. i opened my front door and waited on the couch for it to beep again. after ten minutes of looking back and forth between the smoke detector and the clock on my cable box, i figured it wasn't the culprit.

i did notice one odd thing tho - stinky (neighbor) who ALWAYS has her tv on when at home (day and night), usually at obnoxious volume levels, actually had the volume down on her tv. i could see a slight glow around the door so i saw that it was on, but i thought it was odd that she didn't have the volume up. after a few minutes, i heard the channel change and was pleased that the volume was actually at a reasonable level until it went to commercial where it was then back to the usual obnoxious levels. a few seconds later, the volume dropped so i was left wondering if she falls asleep on the remote and her rolling about then pushes the buttons until she wakes up. there is this morbid curiosity, but at the same time, it's an unpleasant thought to observe her in her natural environment. it's bad enuff that i'll come home and be assaulted with a new smell.

afterwards, crawled back into bed, twittered and then attempted to fall asleep. after a few minutes, i closed my window and turned the fan on my A/C to create some white noise, but that didn't help much so it was probably close to 4am when i finally fell back asleep. so when my alarm went off at 602am, i managed to sleep thru it until just after 7am, which is something i would prefer not to do.

fortunately, there was no traffic on the road so even leaving a little before 8am, i was at work in plenty of time.

so for the 4th night in a row, i've had a crappy nights sleep and i'm getting starting to get cranky.



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Wednesday, August 20, 2008

happy 60th berfday robert.



thanks for all the music and here's to more.












includingaZeppelintourpleasethankyou.


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Tuesday, August 19, 2008

that was nice

i stopped by a verizon in-store kiosk on the way home today and asked carmine about a promo that verizon was running for people who bought the LG Dare. buy the phone, get a free (as in beer) 8gb microSD card for your phone. i wasn't aware of it until i signed up for my employee discount (22% off my bill! AND it applies to anything i buy for my phone too!). i shot our sales rep an email but in no real surprise, he never replied.

so, i talked to carmine and he knew exactly what i was talking about. he looked a few things up but wasn't sure when the promotion started. and he wasn't sure if it was something that would have to be mailed to me or he could give to me. so i patiently waited while he looked things up, talked with a co-worker who wasn't sure, and then he emailed someone who would know. but they were on vacation until the 25th. so he mailed the person covering, and i continued to wait. i was able to find info about the promo, but nothing with a date, so after he assisted 2 other customers, he made an executive decsion - he gave me an 8gb card.

WOO!

so, i now have an 8gb card to put into my phone and i can replace the 2gb i'm currently using that belongs to my mp3 player. so the day ended on a pretty good note after starting out in a pretty rough fashion. i'm still tired as hell, but pleased how the day ended.

thank you carmine of the verizon in-store kiosk :-)


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Sunday, August 17, 2008

we're home. long flight, but not checking any luggage meant 80 minutes after we touched down, i was crawling into bed.

yay sleep.

short story - we had a really good time, saw a lot, tried a lot, ate a lot, walked a lot, but the best parts far and above was having good times with friends.



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Tuesday, August 05, 2008

HAPPY DAY!

WE'RE SEEING THE RESIDENTS!

WE'RE SEEING THE RESIDENTS!

WE'RE SEEING THE RESIDENTS!


we boughts our tickets!
we boughts our tickets!




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Sunday, August 03, 2008

random pictures of the moment: impending doom and gloom

M&i went into boston yesterday so i could get a haircut and afterwards headed over from chinatown to quincy market. unfortunately, beard papa is no longer there (replaced by some place that sells mac and cheese, sample was nothing special) and the shoes she was looking for didn't appear to be available, so we had a late lunch/early dinner before heading back to the car. after we started back, it started to rumble a bit (yay thunderstorm) and as we left the quincy market/fanueil hall area, i happened to look up and see these. much to M's frustration, i turned into immediate tourist and pulled my phone out to take pictures, but i couldn't help myself. the 4th shot i took didn't come out as well (camera focused on the nearby sign rather than down the street) so i don't include it, but had i been on my own, i would have taken a whole bunch more. we managed to get 1/3 of the way back before i had to pull the umbrella out, but that didn't stop us from getting somewhat wet anyways. did see a few good flashes nail a tall building a few times. but i had fun all the same.

august 2, 2008 @ 401p











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Tuesday, July 29, 2008

random pictures of the moment: hodge podge

rather than bore you with how i was sick on sunday and monday, i figured i'd just throw up some pictures i have taken in the last 10 days or so.

file under: you don't say



file under: WHAT A BARGIN!



file under: are ya?



file under: sucks to be you. i didn't realize we had boots here. bonus points if you can tell me where in boston i was when i took the picture.





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Thursday, July 17, 2008

i have nothing other than

HOLY SHIT!


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Wednesday, July 16, 2008

WOO HOO!

OCTOBER 12TH! WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!




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Monday, July 14, 2008

random picture of the moment: panorama test

i've been exploring my phone, playing with various features, and one of the camera features is panoramic shots (which my regular camera doesn't have) so this is one of the shots i took. if you look closely, you can see the line between frames, but i'm pleased with out it came out.

711p, july 11, 2008



(click for full image)


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random picture of the moment: i wonder if he would like to come in...






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Saturday, July 12, 2008

random picture of the moment: hello dog






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Thursday, July 10, 2008

ain't technology grand?

like many people these days, i've been interested in picking up a GPS device, but held off because in reality, i don't really need it. it's just technology that intrigues and amuses me, so i've saved my money and not bought one yet.

but the other day, i picked up the new LG Dare and i'm rather pleased with it so far. i continue to play with the various options and i figured out how to do various things like ringtones, wallpaper, etc.

at the time i bought the phone, i changed my plan which gives me all kinds of new things including VZ Navigator which provides GPS funtionality. so this weekend i'm thinking about visiting the parents, so i was curious to see what route it would choose and then compare to google and came up with interesting results.

my normal route (mapped on google):
137 miles
188 minutes


google default route:
137 miles
177 minutes


fairly close to my normal route, a route i've taken a few times, but out of habit, i've used a different one.

so onto the VZ Navigator choices.

vz fastest:
164 miles
195 min (185 min google)


verizon's navigation takes traffic into account which i presume is why there is a time difference. i found it interesting that it takes me nearly 30 miles further using the mass pike rather than the 'slower' road. so for a potential savings of 3 minutes, i can travel 30 miles further.

vz easiest:

i'm not sure it chose the easiest. it basically mirrored their fastest route, but then it went off on some wild tangent i couldn't follow. when i zoomed in on the map, it stopped about 15 miles short of the final destination. so much for easiest.

vz shortest:
132 miles
175 min (187 min google)


it's similar to the google default, but it starts off by going thru some of the back streets around my neighborhood which i thought was odd, but in the end, it is the shortest. i don't think that they get the time right because it starts out more back roadish, and knowing the roads, i know that the google time estimate is better.

so there you go. the best route? i dunno. they each (except for the ironically names easiest route) get me to my destination. fortunately the ride out is one i enjoy, so going the slower roads doesn't bother me.

now to plan my roadtrip music...

if i burn the seattle 75 show, i'd only hear 75% of the show...hmmm....ponder ponder ponder....



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Tuesday, July 08, 2008

random picture of the moment: oops

i was just arriving home getting ready to drop my stuff off and obtain my new phone, and i rounded the corner from my house and saw this:




as i rounded the corner, the lady who lives in the house on the right (you can see her driveway) was waving madly at me to get my attention. which at the time was focused on the tree. she was able to flag a passing cop who called it in.

spoke with the homeowner right after taking the picture and he told me that he was glad it didn't fall on anyone (there are a bunch of kids nearby). i noted that it was a good thing the power/cable/telephone lines were on the other side of the street.

i'm not sure when it was cleared by the town, but they made short work of it, and yesterday, the rest of the tree was removed. a little odd seeing that yard a bit more open now.



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Thursday, July 03, 2008

heeheehee



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