Friday Drag

Hey there. Today has been one of those days... One of those days that just seem to drag on and on and on...

The day started with the computer acting stupid. It's always acted stupid and extremely slow. This morning, it refused to load up my Email and my applications for work were extremely slow. Slow to the point where I wanted to smash the damn thing. And to top it off, I was getting some "Sorry" message from Google each time I tried to display a Blogspot site. What the hell? I was getting frustrated since I wasn't able to log on and do some tweaking to my site. That's when I knew it was going to be one of those days. I tried to work around these short comings but the machine just got slower and slower and finally, my stupid Email froze. CRAP! I hate when it freezes. Outlook takes FOREVER to bring up my archived Emails and I'm literally sitting there for almost half an hour, staring at the stupid bar that claims that it will only take 4 more mins. I said hell with this. I started looking into fixing the damn thing. I cleaned out the registry, did a check disc and defrag, ran some virus scans, and deleted all kinds of crap. Hopefully, this will get it working. I let all that run while I was off to lunch.

When I got back, I see that it still wasn't done. Frustration was beginning to set in big time. Luckily, all the scans seemed to finish at the same time so once I restarted the machine, I was ready to go. Mind you, I didn't get the damn thing working to good capacity to close to 2 PM... Ugh! I spent most of my day "fixing" the computer at work. You can't rely on these IT guys. They swear they're gods and you'll be lucky if one responds to you within 2 weeks. I'm fortunate that I at least know what I'm doing when it comes to things like this.

So now... It's close to 3:30 PM with only an hour and half to go before I'm off of work and the damn day just seems to continue to drag on. After work, we need to stop by a store to pick up some stuff for our boy. Since he's off to camp tomorrow, he needs to make sure he has all he needs to for the week long trip. Then when we get home, we're going to help him pack. So it doesn't look like this day will be flying by anytime soon.

It's alright though. It's Friday and that means the weekend is upon us. It's almost as if I'm a kid, watching the clock tick by so that once school's out, I can enjoy the weekend. Something tells me, this is going to be a good weekend. Until then, later.

Laying Cement

Hey there. Dead tired. Layed cement all day. Im just lying in bed for the rest of the day. I took the day off today from work so that I could stay home and work. I've been meaning to get it done since forever. I just never got around to it. Well, it finally happened. I killed a good 6 or so hours out in my back yard taking care of business. Next project coming up is putting up my shed. That should be up in a week or so. Here are some pics of what went down at my back yard. Yup, I mixed the cement using a plant pot and a shovel. You can't say I'm not resourceful. lol Later.

A Day Full of Aches and Pains

Hey there. I'm feeling pretty damn tired. I got up pretty early to lay some cement. I finally decided to get up off my ass and do it. I had started it awhile back and didnt complete the slab. I think that was a mistake since I found it difficult to continue where I left off without making it very noticeable. I spent a good 4 hours of lugging around 90 lbs bag of cement and mixing them by hand. Now that's hard labor! Soon after, my wife and I did some laundry. A lot of laundry. As we were folding clothes, my mother and grandma stopped by. We chatted it up for awhile before I decided to take a break. I played some Guitar Hero since I was challenged by some Guitar Hero Community members. I also have competitions to take part in but the guitar kinda gave way half through warming up with my son. It's not too bad but while you play, it won't hit some of the notes and if I'm in a competition, I need the guitar to work 100% or I won't stand a chance.

Right now, I'm enjoying some watermelon as I wait for dinner. There's still some laundry to do so I should get back to that. Later!

Our Baby's First Gift

Hey there. My wife and I have been doing some baby shopping recently. We've picked out some pretty cool clothes here and there. But today, we received our first gift for the baby. Check it out!
How bad ass are these? We love them. We can't wait to put these on our little one! Many thanks! Later.

Notice to Employees in Regards to Cash Crunch Management

Hey there. Just a little office humor. Enjoy!

Dear Employees,

Due to the current financial situation caused by the slowdown of economy, Management has decided to implement a scheme to put workers of 40 years of age and above on early retirement. This scheme will be known as RAPE (Retire-Aged People Early). Persons selected to be RAPEd can apply to management to be eligible for the SHAFT scheme (Special Help After Forced Termination). Persons who have been RAPED and SHAFTed will be reviewed under the SCREW program (Scheme Covering Retired Early Workers). A person may be RAPED once, SHAFTED twice and SCREWed as many times as Management deems appropriate. Persons who have been RAPEd can only get AIDS (Additional Income for Dependants & Spouses) or HERPES (Half Earnings for Retired Personnel Early Severance). Obviously persons who have gone through AIDS or HERPES will not be SHAFTED or SCREWED any further by Management. Persons who are not RAPEd and are staying on will receive as much SHIT (Special High Intensity Training) as possible.

Management has always prided itself on the amount of SHIT it gives employees. Should you feel that you do not receive enough SHIT, please bring to the attention of your Supervisor. They have been trained to give you all the SHIT you can handle.

Sincerely,
Management

Is Metallman Breaking Down?

Hey there. I feel like crap today. Actually, I've been feeling like crap for about a week. I've had this headache that come and goes. It's odd because I've never really been one to experience headaches but recently they've come on.

I'm also experiencing some aches and pains on my body that I don't ever remember feeling before. Stupid body seems to pop and crack every time I turn or bend. lol My knees have always "popped". That's a cool little trick to show people. I do a squat and POP! Crazy. But recently, I've felt and hear this "tearing" sound in my left elbow when I extend it all the way. I wonder if maybe it's a tendon in my elbow or something. Doesn't hurt, but feels weird. I've been reluctant to start with my weight exercises because of it. The popping never stopped me from doing leg work outs but my elbow feels a little different.

I'm also having some lower back pains. Mainly in the kidney area. Stupid kidneys... Not filtering the crap out of my system fast enough or something... Maybe... I think. I drink my fair share of water at work, but I also offset that water intake with my coffee intake. Just as an insight, my coffee mug is almost twice the size of my water mug. lol

Then there's my breathing. Shallow at times. Metallman has done no cardio in since like forever. The last time I actually did some running so happened to be the last time I went to go play basketball about 2 weeks ago. I was short of breath and so not in basketball shape. I did manage to grind out 2 hours worth of basketball but I was definitely winded and stood around for a min or two to catch my breath here and there. I swear, I struggle to get up the stairs at work sometimes.

Old age? Nah, I doubt it. Like I said before, I don't plan on dying. If it happens, hey, what are you going to do? But to expect it? It's like expecting for an accident to smash your new car or that killer quake happening to split your house in two. Maybe my metabolism is finally slowing down. I've always had high metabolism and maybe, just maybe, it's slowed down enough where it's beginning to affect my body. Stupid metabolism. Stupid body. If only there was some kind of miracle drink that can cure all.

Now before I get Emails and comments saying that "Noni" works, let me set you straight. IT DOESN'T. lol I used to laugh at the infomercials and chuckled at this miracle drink. Basically, it cured everything under the sun but death. lol I don't see it around anymore so maybe people caught on to their BS and quit buying it. But if you're still a paying customer, I'd love to hear from you and it's "miraculous" healing powers.

Now for the rest of us, I'm going to look for other "cure all" stuffs out on the web and see what I find. I'm pretty sure the stuff will be interesting. Later.

A Busted Laptop Cord

Hey there. Saturday night, I discovered that the AC adapter for the laptop has finally given up. We've noticed that it had bite marks (I'm looking at you, JACK!) and it has been faulty these past couple of weeks. You had to bend and twist the cord in weird ways to get it to work. Well, all the bending and twisting couldn't fix it anymore. What a bummer too. I tend to do my "online work" after dark. I'll get through the dropping and adgitize browsing during that time so that I can spend the day doing what I want and not be bogged down to doing that kinda work through the day. I know that it used to get on my wife's nerves that when I would do it during the day. It would be Saturday morning and there I am, in front of the comp, doing work. I might as well get it out of the way and once my wife hits the sack, I'll log on and get some work done.

I checked out Ebay this morning to see if I can find a replacement and I'm glad that I was able to find one for $2. I bought it and it's going to ship from CA so I should be getting it fairly quickly. Until then, I'll probably go back to doing work on the desktop. Which is not bad, but I've gotten spoiled by the laptop. I can lie in bed, next to wife, watch TV, and get work done all at once. Ugh... Later.

Do Not Eat At Dominos Pizza!!!

Hey there. You know, there has been some negative publicity on Dominos Pizza. Mostly, because of those two dumb asses that defiled food in ways that I care not see. But you figure, it's an isolated incident and it's probably not going to happen again since those employees were fired. WRONG!!! A coworker ordered herself some Dominos stuffs and what do you know... They fed her neglected food that was moldy. MOLDY!!! You know that can make you extremely sick! Them bastards. I say, that unless they shape up, we not buy from them any longer. If moldy dough is hanging out in California, what makes me believe that it's not moldy over in New York? Or Georgia? Or Washington? Hell with that! I want to feel comfortable when I eat out and right now, Dominos does not make me comfortable...

Metal Crow Productions

Hey there. A guy can dream, no? Well, in this case, it's the dream of two guys. My compa (Crow) and I have finally decided jump on our ideas and make them into reality. Introducing, Metal Crow Productions. The logo on the left is something that he came up with. Not too bad, right? The logo may still change even though I think it looks pretty bad ass as it is.

Anyways, though our ideas have been brewing since forever, we have absolutely nothing to show for it... yet. This will serve as a great portal for us to display some creativity from just about any means that we see fit. We've talked about filming a short movie, we've talked of creating a web show, we've even discussed the possibilities of creating a web comic. We've even gone as far as to discuss a whole story, from beginning to end over the course of an hour long instant message, but we've never got around to putting any of it in paper. Many people have lost ideas into obscurity because they either had no means of expressing them or they were seen simply as ideas and not something that can be actuality. No more excuses for us! I'm excited, I'm ready, and I'm curious as to how far we can get this to fly.

We have nothing but an extremely brief introduction on the site. I wanted to get it set up so that when ideas come a flutter, there's a place where we can store them. So, remember the name, Metal Crow Productions, so that one day, you too can be like, "Hey! I know that guy!" lol Later!

A Bead in the Nose

Hey there. My goodness... Our little one had a bead up her nose. A BEAD!!! How did it get there? I'm still not sure. All I know is that she is strapped in her car seat and before you know it, our kids tell grandma that our little shoved a bead up her nose. Grandma freaked. But that's because she's gone through this before where her child (my brother in law) ended up in the ER. Thankfully, I'm a skilled makeshift surgeon. lol

I'm sitting at my desk when I get the call from my Mother in Law, she's in a panic and told her to calm down some. After a few breaths she explained that our little one shoved a bead in her nose and that she's worried because she doesn't see it in there and that she's going to have to take her to the ER. I asked her to check out the little one. First off, to assure that she can breathe fine and secondly, is she in pain. If she can breathe fine and there's no pain, and you can't see it, my guess would be that the bead went through her nose and into her mouth. She either spit it out or she swallowed it. She still seemed a little edgy so I spoke with our little one. I got her to stop crying and she explained to me that she put a bead in her nose. I spoke to grandma and I asked her to see if she can see the bead, if she can't the little one may have swallowed it, if she can see it, we may have to take her to the ER. I asked her to calm down, check again and then to call me back.

My son called me back. lol He was with grandma and he told me that they are going to stop by our work place to see if I can see it. I told them OK and to call me when they get here (no more than 8 mins away). Of course, at about the 7 min mark or so, I'm called into a meeting. My boss heard the conversation I had with my mother in law earlier so he asked if everything was OK and told him what happened. He told me that if I needed to go, I can go, but considering that we were late this morning, I didn't really want to leave unless I had to. So I walk into the meeting and luckily, it's real quick, as in 2 minutes and we're done quick. I walk over to my wife's desk and she's gone. I briskly walked toward the exit and started looking for the white car my mother in law drives. It's by the post office and my wife is there checking out the situation. I walk over and take a peek and yup, there it is... A pink bead waaaaaaay up in her nose. First thought, tweezers are too thick to go in there and pull out. My wife suggested that maybe we can use something small like a paperclip. I'm thinking, I can see it... A paperclip might just do the trick and we won't have to go to the ER.

DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME, or on the SIDEWALK for that matter. I was extremely confident that the bead was in the perfect position to allow me to pull it out. I do not recommend doing it yourself. My wife sterilized a paperclip and I reclined our daughter in her car seat. The light was awful and since it was a pinkish bead, it was damn near impossible to see, since it blended with the lining of her nose. My wife calmed our little down with talks of Chuck E Cheese and I showed her that the paperclip will not hurt, that it will tickle, and I inserted it in my nose so that she didn't freak out. At first, I didn't think we would be able to do it since her reaction to the paperclip caused her to sneeze or twitch her nose a little due to the tickling sensation. After a few failed attempts, I moved her to the front seat since it had better lighting and again, we reclined her. When I peeked in her nose, I saw that the bead shifted positions from being waaaaay up there, to being kinda up there. My wife had the brilliant idea of having our little close her eyes while I worked. After a few more attempts, I got it out. WHEW!!!!! Crises averted.

She seemed glad that it was out and had a huge smile across her face. The first thing my wife said was, "That's going in her baby box." lol We keep some of the kid's mementos and what not so here it is... The bead and the paperclip that made it happen.

I'm glad our little one is a trooper and didn't panic herself. Looks like we're on our way to Chuck E Cheese tonight. Later!

UPDATE: 5.27.09

We went to Chuck E Cheese last night, as promised, and our little one took this pic of herself for us. lol What a thoughtful child to kill a coin for a pic for us. Then the icing on the cake was when we got home. I sat on the couch and she comes up to me and says, "Daddy, thank you for taking the thing out of my nose." Awwwwwww.

Is Ethical Hacking Right for You?

Hey there friends. Our economy is beginning to look stronger and some job fields are on the rise. One such field is online security. Think about it for a second. When times are tough, crime goes up. People that feel that they have nothing to lose will go to great lengths to get what they want, and that includes resorting to crime. Online security is just as important as mall security and that's where you come in.

Big name companies are paying big bucks for those that are willing to hack into their infrastructure and report the weaknesses so that they can better secure their consumers. Ethical Hacking is a form of Internet security. As an ethical hacker, you may use all the malicious tools that a criminal hacker uses to compromise a web site's network infrastructure. It works similar to a crash test for cars. You want to be assured for safety, right? So you smash a few cars, take notice of the areas that are not performing well, and you make adjustments. This is no different. IT Security plays a vital role in assuring that personal information will be safe, the same way a car manufacturer will conduct crash tests to assure that our bodies will be safe.

So where can you get certified? EC-Council offers courses that you can take online at the comfort of your home. We all dream of being able to work at home and being a Certified Ethical Hacker gives us that luxury. What if you're not ready to dive into the online technicalities of a hacker? EC-Council offers other courses that will build your knowledge of IT Security. Other courses offered include:

• Security Fundamentals
• Computer Forensics
• Disaster Recovery
• Secure Programming
• Penetration Testing

If you're looking for a position that is in demand, you owe yourself at least a look at the courses provided. Job positions are never guaranteed but you'll never know if you land the job if you do not apply yourself to the task at hand. Knowing that technology is always evolving, being a Certified Ethical Hacker will never go out of season. Now that, my friends, is job security at it's best. Later.

A Long Break Needed

Hey there. We had ourselves a nice, long 4 day weekend. We took Thursday and Friday off from work so that we can have at least 2 full days with the kids during their Spring Break vacation. Even though, it was supposed to be a time of relaxing, we spent a lot of time running around. lol

On Thursday, we deposited checks into the bank (this is a big deal for us since we RARELY go to the bank. We don't carry around much cash and any cash that is drawn is usually in the form of "cash back" at local retailers), our boy needed a hair cut (which lasted almost an hour!), and then we had our doc appointment to check up on our soon to be little one. The kids were pretty excited, since Dr. Hill played the baby's heart beat out loud so we can all hear. Strong, healthy baby, as she said. We ended the evening with a family dinner at Norm's.

On Friday, I took a trip to the county registrar. Oh man, was that a nightmare. We needed our little one's birth certificate and because I'd figure it would be a in and out trip, we didn't give ourselves much "wiggle" room for time. After spending what felt like an eternity, we zoomed to my mother in law's place, where my wife was anxiously waiting for me, and with out hesitation, my mother in law jumped out of the car, and my wife jumped in and off we went to Lip Service. A friend of ours works there and she was able to score us some bad ass deals on clothes. No BS, we managed to score 5 shirts for my wife and this bad ass jacket for me and our total was like $25. Now that is a bargain! From there, we grabbed something to eat and off to the mall for some maternity clothes and shoes, since my wife needed some. We managed to score on the clothes but was only able to find one pair of shoes that were her taste. While at home, my wife scheduled a Rock Band night for a weekend coming up. She threw in a twist though. Everyone invited is to be dressed up as a "rocker". lmao You know I'll be posting pics of that!

Saturday was more of a work day, I guess. I spent a good chunk of the morning doing house work, which included yard work (I hate weeds!) and washing the car. Other than that, this was our day to rest. We took the afternoon off and just relaxed some. That night our little one said something that we weren't expecting for another 15 or so years... She marched out of her room, came directly to me and said, "Daddy, I want a dragon on my arm just like you." We laughed. It was so sudden and unexpected. So I did what any sane parent would do, I grabbed a pen and drew one for her. lmao Check it out. She looks sooooo happy. lol


This little one. I know we are going to have our hands full.

Sunday was Easter Sunday. We went to my wife's Aunt's house for an egg hunt, but before that, we had our own hunt at home. We didn't just hand the kids their baskets, they had to earn them. The night before, my wife and I sat and came up with clues to guide the kids to their baskets. They had the camcorder with them so we got it all in their perspective. Over at egg hunt, my wife's cousins filled some of the eggs with confetti or baby powder so many people got smashed in the head with them. There was a HUGE mess on the floor and because of it and because of it, people slipped as they walked. I tripped out most of the afternoon on my brother in law. He's about 13 and just sat in a chair camping out, surveying the area to assure that he would not be ambushed. It seemed as if he was playing a real life game of Rainbow 6 or something. lol Man, that was hilarious.

I also caught this one movie called Old Boy. I want to get into detail with that one so I'll do separate post, but I do want to say is that this movie is BAD ASS! Later!

A Baby Shredder?!?

Hey there. I work in an office. There's all kinds of standard office machines here: copy machine, fax machine, "pdf" machine, etc. We also have a shredder, which I don't really use but it's nice to know that we have it. Well, yesterday, I took a good hard look at our shredder. Looks pretty high tech and it has this glowing blue light on it... and it's shiny. lol Men are usually attracted to shiny things and this was no different.

So while looking at the machine, I see the warning symbol and I assumed that the symbols below are the things to avoid putting in the shredder. Let's see, there's the standard stuff there, like hair. Gotta make sure your hair isn't caught in the machine. There's the hand. You don't want to have you hand sliced off. There's the tie. Don't want it to get caught and then you get choked to death. There's also a spray symbol. I'm assuming that the liquid would screw with the electronic components. Then there's the baby. Wait... WHAT?!?!! A BABY? Are you serious?


Zoom in on the symbols, if you can't see it very well. I'm having a hard time believing that the manufacturer of this machine was compelled to advise the consumer to NOT place a baby in the shredder. Did this happen somewhere that I was not aware of? The slot is not big enough for a baby so why even think of putting a symbol for something that is not physically possible? C'mon now. Are we that stupid that we need to be reminded that a baby does not go in the shredder? Then again, if a woman is calling 911 because a McDonalds ran out of chicken nuggets, I guess we do. Later!

Out of Order

Hey there. It looks like the boss broke the crapper. lol Gotta love that sign. That's definitely his hand writing and I dare not open it... He must be sh*tting bricks, literally. lol Later.

Back at Work and a Broken Box

Hey there. So I'm back at work... Vacation is finally over and that sucks. My wife and I so did not want to come in to work today. Especially since it's Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the kids have the day off and we're here, at work. As soon as we walked in the office, a coworker tells me to call the boss before I get started on working. Damn, can't I get settled in first? You know, a cup of joe before I get hounded? So I sit at my desk and call the boss to see what's up. Looks like he's not going to be in this week so I'm boss for the week and he left several instructions for me. Which includes a meeting, of course... Ugh... I'm not even up to speed yet and I need to represent him in a meeting. Hopefully, I'll be able to get out of it. So I then turn on the computer and open my Email. Bracing for the worse... Yup, just as I expected. A shitload of Emails. So many Emails, that I had to wait approx. 45 mins for the computer to put them all in my inbox! Close to 800 Emails. Ugh. I sooooo don't want to be here right now.

Anyways, this weekend was quite eventful. I had (notice the had) a good size projection big screen. You know, those old ones that are bulky as hell? I got it from my uncle when we moved into our home. I needed something better than a 23 incher to display in the living room. The color of the big screen was always off. Blue and green were essentially the same hue and it finally got to me. I decided to open up the bad boy to see what was the problem. As many projection screens go, the blue color gun was busted. It didn't display a projection while the the red and green ones were working fine. I found where you can adjust the color and was hoping that maybe it just needed fine tuning and as I was adjusting the color, the screen turned to a red color and after a few seconds of that, it turned black. Crap. I think the TV just died on me. I was not able to get the screen to come back on and after reading up on it online, I discovered that I was not alone and many people described what just happened to me. How the blue color always goes first and before you know it, poof, you're tv is just a huge box sitting in your living room. I ended up calling a few repair people to see how much it would cost to repair it. Prices ranged anywhere from $300 to $500. Damn, screw that. I went online to look for another TV to buy. So where do I go? Craigslist.com.

I browsed around there and people were selling their busted TVs. All saying the same thing. Blue color is off. I finally found one that is slightly smaller than our original TV but it works perfectly. All for $100! Can't go wrong with that. So I Email the guy and he hooks it up and on Sunday, I take my cuz's truck over there to pick it up. The dude was cool and even helped me load the sucker in the truck. So I take it home and it's "small" compared to our old TV but you can't complain in getting a 50 inch or so TV for $100. And the best part? YOU CAN TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GREEN AND BLUE!!! YES!

Damn, just remembered that I'm at work. Gotta knocked down most of these Emails. Later.

Forced Vacation

Hey there friends. We are on "forced vacation". We won't be back at work until Jan. 19th. We usually tend to take our vacation when the kids are on vacation so that we can spend time with the kids and do activities with them. Well, this time, that's not going to be the case. Work pretty much told my wife and I that we have to much vacation time and we need to take it now. That's great! A much need break from work. But wait, also bad... The kids will be back in school soon so we won't be able to sleep in since we will need to get up at 6 ish to get them ready for school. We also didn't plan anything since the vacation was just sprung on us. I'm so not used to the time off. We accumulate about a month vacation over the course of the year but because we're needed at work, we only take a week or two a year and anything left over, we cash in on. Well, at least this way I can get to some much needed yard work done. Which brings me to yesterday morning...

I was out, cleaning up my lawn when I get an Email from The Admin at New Dilemma, wishing me a good holiday and asking if the Mexican Mafia got to me, since I disappeared after posting the Accordion Hero game. I laughed. I wrote back, from my phone, saying that I used to do most of my posts at work (I'm a very productive employee, as you can see) and since I'm not there, I need to get used to doing them at home. I also mentioned that this one mariachi band has been circling my house, giving me ominous stares so maybe it's a good idea that I stay on the down low for a bit. lol

It's about 9:30 AM now. I'm still in bed, looking out my window. I'm going to have me some breakfast in a minute and then go back outside and get a little more work done. Since I'll be home for a little over 3 weeks, I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to get to some projects that I've had lined up since forever. No more excuses now. It's showtime. Later!

BCBG Pay Cut

Hey there. Hard times continue to strike. We've just been told that our salaries are going to be slashed 6%... I'm thankful that it's not a 100% pay cut... but I may have to start looking for a second job to pay the mortgage...

Layoffs at BCBG Max Azria

Hey there friends. Over 200 corporate employees were let go on Friday... I'm hoping that I won't have to look for a new job soon...

An Ode to Coffee

Hey there. Like millions of other people across the globe, I tend to start my day with a cup of joe. Been drinking the stuff since I was little. I know caffeine is not good for you at a young age, but eh, grandma used to give me coffee (usually black) while eating pan dulce (sweet bread). Now that's I'm in the work force, coffee is basically the forgotten food group. lol So here's to you, coffee. Enjoy!



Oh warm, sweet nectar of gods
Day in, day out
You quench my thirst
While dispelling the Sandman's dust
You heighten my senses
And liven my body
To start a day with you
Is to be destined for greatness
You are never dull
You never taste the same
With many colors to suit everyone
You never argue
And always go down smooth
Oh warm, sweet coffee
In a world full of turmoil
I can always count on your aroma
To quiet demons and bring angels
Bringing peace to millions
One cup at a time.

Windows Vista

Hey there. I'm sure that we've all experienced computer problems before. Whether they happen at work or at home, you just can't seem to avoid them. Just the other day, my boss, my wife and I spent almost two hours revising and evaluating our company's policy and procedures when it happened. Microsoft word stopped responding! We waiting a few minutes hoping that it will respond and all will be good but it wasn't meant to be. All of our hard word work gone. Even though we saved our document, "in case something happened", our changes were nowhere to be found. What a frustrating moment that was. Our IT guys were useless and my boss, not being very computer savvy, was ready to toss the machine out the window.

While at home, my wife and I discussed the incident at work. We knew that we had to go back and tackle that task again. While working on our personal laptop, I realized that we have not had any issues whatsoever with Windows Vista. The computers at work run on Windows XP. Compared to Vista, they seem to be slow and less responsive to multi tasking. I always have spreadsheets, word docs, and online applications going on all at once at work and it's freustrating when one application won't respond. While working at home, under Windows Vista, I have yet to have that issue.

I suggested to the boss that it would be a step forward to upgrade to Windows Vista. Since it's more productive and efficient than XP, it will save the company time and money. Not to mention that it also comes with a Windows Backup and Restore Center! I've made the pitch to him, hitting home the points of free customer support and assistance. He seemed to like the idea and will pitch it to his boss. I've grown weary of having to wait for applications to respond. Hopefully, we'll be running Vista Small Business or Vista Ultimate real soon. Later.