Thursday, July 31, 2008

July Blogs of the Month

Hey there friends. We have 3 new blogs in the line up this month. Two blogs are not up because I'm having some difficulty saving their image and have requested it from the blog owners. Once I get those, they'll be up right away. Feel free to check out my 5 top droppers of the month under "Blogs of the Month". For those of you that don't know, my top 5 droppers will get a month long link and image on my site. Last time I gave away 100 credits to the winners, but to be honest, 100 is really not much so I think I'm going to settle at 200 this month. Depending on how many credits I have next time around, that number may increase. Thanks for all of you that drop by and check out my blog. Maybe next time, we'll see your site on my page. Later!

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

EaRtHqUaKe!!!


Hey there friends. Some where around 11:45 am, us in Southern California had ourselves an Earthquake. From what I hear from the news, it was a 5.8 magnitude quake. We haven't had one in awhile and I've been telling my wife that we're due for one and I guess today was it. We work in the second floor of the company building so you could really feel the building shake. I was just about to enter my office when it started so I stood there in the doorway and I see my babe running towards me. I grab her and we stay there holding each other and shortly after one of our coworkers runs towards us and we stood there, holding each other. Later on, my wife tells me that the coworker was laughing at herself because she just saw us holding each other so she joined in to feel safe. lol

Anywho, we started to evacuate the building, but I stayed behind, since another coworker was still in the bathroom. I since my boss was gone, I made sure that everyone got out safely. Once she stepped out, she noticed that everyone was gone and she was like, "What happened?" I told her that there was an earthquake and then joked if she got stuck? That's probably why you didn't feel it. Leave it up to me to joke around during the time of a natural disaster. She laughed and then we walked outside.

Eveyone was on their phone attempting to call family members, including my wife. All phone lines were dead. Even the cell phones. Scary thought. No way for us to reach our loved ones to assure that they're OK. My wife is trembling. She's scared shitless of earthquakes and well, disasters in general. She blames me for it. lol All I watch is the History channel and they have shows on there that are all apocolytic or showing how disasters happened. I love that stuff. So I run upstairs, to see if the phones there work. I get a dial tone, but can't dial out. Damn... so back outside I go and before long, it's lunch time.

We drive over to my Mother in Law's and out kids are fine. The girls are visibly shaken up. Our middle child won't let go of my wife when we arrive. We eat our lunch and watch the news, all the while, we make some calls to assure every one is cool. Turns out the epicenter was in Chino Hills and it was felt as far south as San Diego and far east as Las Vegas. There is a "5% chance of a stronger earthquake winthin the next 5 days."

They let us go early from work so that they can inspect the buildings, to make sure that they're safe. We grabbed the kids and headed home. No damage and nothing on the floor. We were worried that our Tarantula, Vixin, may be on the loose. Since it was a strong jolt, we thought that it may have been strong enough to knock over her habitat. Good thing it didn't cause I don't want to think what may have happened between our cat and spider.

We live in California, I'm used to earthquakes, so I'm not too rattled by it. We let our kids know what to do in case of another one, since we've been feeling aftershocks most of the afternoon. We're pretty confident that they know what to do next time.

Hopefully, this doesn't mean that the "big one" is coming... Until then, later.

Computer Knowledge is a Must

Hey there friends. In this day and age, everything is done electronically. Payments, banking, games, work, stock trading... you name it, and there is a website out there to get it done. Because of this, we rely heavily on computers that not only work, but work efficiently. But what if it doesn't work? What if the computer decides to act funny and you can't get anything done? Who do you call? Not ghostbusters, that's for sure, but if you're at work, it's most likely the IT (Information Technology) people. In today's business world, those guys are the people that make the world run. So you can only imagine the amount of money those guys make a year. That's why I'm thinking of getting myself certified. This is an absolute win win situation. Because I am in my initial phase of being my own boss in computer repair, it would be great to have a certificate to show my customers that I know what I am doing and after browsing around, I have decided that a Cisco certification is what I need.

Not only do they offer hundreds of classes, but they also offer web based training, virtual classrooms, and remote labs and simulation, on top of the traditional classrooms. This is perfect for those of us with hectic schedules or for those of us who just prefer to do online training. VPN, IP communications, Networking, or computer repair are just a few of the Cisco training courses that are provided.

I'm looking forward to this. It would be great to be a certified computer technician. This is exactly what I need to jump start my busniess. Good thing I haven't printed cards yet. Once I get this done, I can add a line on there that says "Certified by Cisco".

Sponsored by Cisco

Monday, July 28, 2008

The Return of the Killer Trees

Hey there friends. I live in Southern California and I regularly listen to a small radio station by the name of KROQ. I've been listening to that station since forever and after this weekend, I was brought back to a moment where Kevin and Bean could not stop talking about killer trees. I remember several years back, they were obsessed by the "killer trees" and "killer monkeys". There were many accidents around that time where people were smashed by trees or smashed into trees and them, being the dumb asses that they are, said that the trees were out to get us. Well... I'm beginning to think that Hollywood may have gone out and stole their concept.

*MOVIE SPOILERS FOR THE RUINS and THE HAPPENING*


A few weeks back when my compadre STRONGLY recommended that we watch The Happening. He didn't give anything away and he claimed that Shyamalan redeemed himself with this one. After the disaster that was Lady in the Water, I figured that maybe he righted his wrongs and it was worth a look, especially after he made a bad ass film like the Sixth Sense, I knew he had it in him to make a great film.

Well, it wasn't happening. My babe and I went to check it out and I was semi-disappointed while she was extremely disappointed. lol She straight out said, "That's it!" after the movie. The whole movie attempts to build suspense but fails to do so and when it "climaxes", it doesn't really feel like it cause, well... it's the fuckin' trees and plants that are causing the people to kill themselves. The movie pretty much tries to scare us stupid into believing that the plant life will kill us off unless we start taking care of Mother Earth. Point 1 for the killer trees.


This weekend, we rented out The Ruins. I'm not sure where we say the previews for this but it looked suspenseful and when it came out of DVD, we decided to check it out. The movie lags, big time. Felt like we were forced to watch the first 30 mins or so waiting for something to happen. Americans having a good time in a foreign land (*cough cough Touristas, Hostel, cough cough) and then some bad shit happen to them. In this case, it's the ruins of some city in the shape of pyramids. After the climb the pyramids, the locals will not let them leave, they surround the perimeter of the ruins and will kill anyone who tries to leave it.

Again, the movie lagged it. My wife tuned out about 40 mins into the movie and she started playing some "Pop-it" game on her phone. lol I continued to watch. lol At this moment she made this comment, "Damn, babe, you sure know how to pick em. First it was The Happening, and now this. This movie better not have some stupid ending like some killer trees or plants." Well, guess what... The movie had killer plants. LMAO I didn't tell her that since she was too busy playing the game, but I couldn't believe it and I started tuning out of the movie too and started playing Pop-it on my phone. This movie was a complete disappointment. I think I caught a glimpse of the ending and again, not satisfying. Nowhere near what I hoped for. Point 2, killer trees.

What triggered all of this? Some show my wife was watching on E!, her favorite channel by the way. I walked by and heard something along the lines of "...Ever since her husband, Sonny Bono, passed away..." I'm assuming it was Behind the Music: Cher, or that show True Hollywood Story. Somehow, I brought up the fact that he passed away due to a skiing accident. He swerved and smashed into a tree. That thought brought me think of the movies we saw, and ultimately, to Kevin and Bean.

It's funny how we associate things or make connections with things. I get that all the time. It's pretty common for someone to say to me, "Where did that come from?" lol Who would've thought that Cher would be bring me back to the days of Kevin and Bean where funny man, Jimmy Kimmel was doing sports. lol I still sing his intro song sometimes, "KROQ Sports with Jimmyyyyyy". lol Later!

Friday, July 25, 2008

Full Page Ads? Not Anymore!

Hey there. I received an Email last night from my friend James over at New Dilemma, and he basically told me that full page ads suck. lol Gotta love that straight forwardness. I was thinking of getting rid of them cause quite frankly, I was getting tired of them myself. On top of making my blog take forever to load, and then be redirected, I felt that they took away from my site and kinda made it second fiddle. Well, I got rid of them. Well, at least I hope I did. I went ahead and made the changes on my Adbrite account and we shouldn't see anymore full page ads. I've made more than a few bucks with Adrite and I don't think that removing the full page ads would hurt my earning potential. If by chance, they continue pop up, let me know and I'll see what's up. Feel free to hit me up, friends. That's why I got my Email on here. Many thanks James! Later.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

The Unknown Solidier

The wind howls as it moves across the sky. The luminescence of the moon makes an appearance between the clouds, making the sakura twinkle and dance as they fall, rivaling the beauty of the stars. A serpent slithers its way across a branch, searching for dinner. It's scales grinds across the bark, as it approaches a sparrow. Suddenly, the moon disappears, the howling stops, and the grinding halts. Deafening silence.

In darkness, shadows fly without their makers, speeding across the land. Off in the distance, a small cube, no more than 100 sq feet, cries out to them. They dart in the cube's directing, paying to mind to the trees and they go through the wall and hover in the middle. They gather around a body, sprawled across the floor. No warmth, no breath, no life. In unison, the shadows breathe out. Their breath, reaching the reaching the lungs of the body, causes no change. A second breath cries out and chills the body to ice. Then there was movement. The shadows dissipate, accomplishing their task.

First, a twitch. Then, a shiver. Slowly, air begins to flow across the lungs. Oxygen. The river of life begins to flow. It's current, starting at a crawl, begins to pick up speed. The cells, in a frantic, begin their daunting task to revive and maintain. The temperature begins to rise. The body that was ice cold is now gaining color. A tremble here and a tremble there, it slowly gathers it's strength. A hand plants on the ground as it begins to pick itself up. A lifeless body no more. Now standing naked and gathering composure, it lifts it's arms. Staring at it's hands, full of cuts and bruises, similar to those found throughout the body, it stares and asks itself...

"Who am I?"