A Very Metal Birthday

Hey there. My B day has come and gone. I want to say that I'm 27 now. I really don't want to do the math since I'm extremely tired from this weekend's activities. Let's get a run down, starting from Friday.

Friday

My wife had a get together planned at the house for my B day. It was mostly my cousin's that showed up with a few of their friends. There was way more food and drinks that we could consume and after once everyone was feeling a little buzzed, my bro suggested we all play rockband. I think the boy is hooked on singing. He had us laughing since he demonstrated the moon walk while singing Beat It. lol My wife was filming and I haven't gotten the chance to see the vid but if it's as hilarious as I remember, it's going on Youtube. lol My bro also seemed genuinely disappointed when it was time to go. He didn't want to cough up the mic. My mother and many of my cousins were going to take part in Revlon's Walk for Women, a walk to help fight women's cancer, so they called it a night pretty early. Our last guests went home a little after midnight which bring me to...

Saturday
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! My wife got me METALLICA TICKETS!!! That's right. A little after midnight, she reaches into her purse and pulls out 2 tickets to go see Metallica in Anaheim. HELL YES! Does my babe rock or what! We busted our asses off trying to get them off of KROQ when they were giving them away. You needed to be caller 20 to be a winner and the best I got to was caller 18. Concert is going to be in December... I want to see Metallica NOW! lol Once I calmed down, we went to bed. We then had breakfast the next morning at IHOP. We also had to handle some home loan business. We were able to get our home loan remodified (Thank you President Obama!) and got our mortgage reduced and a way better interest rate than when we first got the loan. So after breakfast, we went to the bank, got the certified check that we needed and then dropped off all the paperwork at FedEx. We then drove home to relax a few before heading out my cousin's baby's Baptism. They had horses for the kids to ride, which was pretty cool, but the story of the night actually came from their neighbor's house. When we first walked in, we noticed that the neighbor's where hanging out by the fence. We figured they were hanging out there to catch a glimpse of the horses and what not. Well, it turns out that the neighbors where there because their baby was trapped in the car. THEIR BABY WAS TRAPPED IN THE CAR! No one realized the severity of the situation until a AAA truck pulled in their drive way to open the door. And this was about an hour or so after we arrived! God knows how long the baby was in there. It upset me some that they left the baby in there for so long. If it was my child, I would not leave him/her in there for anything close to an hour. I would have busted a window or something. We hear in the news all the time how a parent would leave their kid in the car only to come back to a dead child because of the heat or suffocation. They were lucky that this happened during the evening so heat wasn't a factor but still...

Sunday

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY! I surprised my wife with a set of flowers and her Mother's Day gift. She's been wanting a set of Doc Marten Boots so I got her a pair. 20 eye Docs with a zipper on the side since I know that lacing up could be a pain. We then went to have breakfast at Mimi's Cafe. I made reservations well in advance since I know it would suck to wait for a table. We showed up and waited no more than 10 mins before being seated. We were there first. My brother was to take my mother and grandma and we were expecting my mother in law as well. My wife got a little upset since her mother was running a little late. My mother was running late too so I told her not to let it get to her. We all sat down, had our breakfast, cracked some jokes and went on with our day. We went to my Aunt's house since she asked the night before for everyone to show up at her place to watch the Laker game (Damn Losers!). We were one of the first to get there and after awhile, the swarm of people that is my family started coming in. The kids ended up jumping in the pool. My wife and I felt a little uncomfortable with them in there since they're not the best of swimmers. One of my Aunt's piled on the floating devices on our little and once they all had their floating tubes, they were having some fun. We didn't feel at ease until I jumped in with them. I had too. Was the only way I really feel comfortable since the pool did not have a shallow end. So yeah, after killing hours in a pool and eating afterwards. We took off, tired as hell.

MONDAY

At work, tired as hell. Had to roll off the bed cause I didn't want to get up. I think the whole family is tired from this weekend. None of the kids seemed to be awake this morning. lol They all seemed sluggish and hesitant to get up and that includes us. So, that was my weekend. How was yours?

Shopping For Mega Brands Toys

Hey there friends. Toys are a staple to every person's childhood. I'm sure that we fondly remember which toys were our favorites and now, as a parent, I try to provide some of those memories by getting my kids some pretty awesome toys. For example, as a child, I played with Voltron toys. You know, the metal toys that hardly had any plastic and would not be deemed safe by today's standards. lol There's not much in form of Voltron now but we do have MEGA Brands Neo Shifters. My boy loves anything that you can build and these are perfect for him. He already owns quite a few but because the pieces can be combined with other Neo Shifters, his imagination takes over and he'll create his own monster. He doesn't have a blue one so this one would go great with his collection.

Then we have all sorts of great products by MEGA Brands Rose Art to bring out the inner artist. My daughter's godmother is an aspiring artist and when it comes to birthday gift's, my daughter usually receives art stuff from her god mother. She already has colored pencils, chalks, some small canvases, and pastels, but she doesn't have an easel. This would be perfect for her since it will house all of her art supplies.

Not to forget our little one. She loves blocks. Her first set of blocks were MEGA Brands Mega Bloks, which she still builds with today. She already owns the Wild West Dora set and a Cinderella set to expand her building blocks. She's been in Sleeping Beauty mode so I think this set would make her happy.


Nostalgia is hitting me now. lol I think I'll need to go get myself some toys as well. =oD We're getting older, friends, but doesn't mean we can't stay young at heart! Later!

What if...

Hey there. My wife and I were watching TV the other day and my wife brought up the idea of "what if...". She was telling me how she does that often in her head. She'll wonder about the decisions she made and how exactly they have affected her life. It's a fair thought. I'm sure many of us have wondered how our lives would have been have we not got married, gone to college, or took that other job instead of the one you have now. I told her that I don't think like that. I don't see any good in thinking about "what if". She asked me if I thought it was normal that she seems to think that way a lot. I told her that I think it is. If it wasn't normal, we wouldn't see that idea in TV, movies, and books. I think that our minds are naturally curious and a thought like that is bound to get in your head from time to time. But as for me, I don't think I'm the normal one.

I have not had a thought of "what if" since I was a kid. My dad passed away when I was 9 and I remember the day that changed my life forever. My pops loved soccer and played in an adult league. That day, he went to his game and asked me to go. I refused. I decided to stay home that day. He ended up going to the game and afterwards, hung out at his friend's place for a few brews, which was the norm. What took place soon after was not. From what I was told, an argument broke out between a friend and his wife. I am not sure if the friend struck his wife or what, but my pops intervened and when his friend stuck him to free himself, my pops struck back, but struck the wife by accident. Before we know it, my pops is in jail and that was his last taste of freedom. While in the L.A. County Jail, I'm pretty sure he was murdered. Cops said it was suicide, but from seeing graphic pics of his body (which I should not have at such a young age), the bruising and cuts did not fit in to a suicide attempt.

I drove myself crazy during that point in my life, wondering, "what if I went with him that day?" Would we have gone home earlier? Would the argument between husband and wife even occur if I was there? It's a terrible way to think. What if, what if, what if... To be 9 and have this burden on you, it's just not healthy. It was a daily struggle to not think "what if". Once I came to grips that no matter how much wondering and playing different scenarios in my head and my pops wasn't coming back, I refused to allow myself think like that. I do not wonder or think in the form of "what if" anymore. No point in it. I've dealt with those demons and I don't need to step into that realm again. What's done is done and what happened is in the past and unless someone has that DeLorean from Back to the Future, there really isn't anything you can do about it.

All that has occurred in my life, the decisions made and not made, the good times and the bad, have made me the Metallman that I am today. There really isn't anything that can be done to change that. Later!

Dropped By Project Wonderful

Hey there. I received an Email about an hour or so ago from Project Wonderful stating that I am in violation of their terms of service (TOS). I've been a member of the Project Wonderful family for about a year and have never come across any issues. Nothing has changed (content wise, at least) from since I submitted this blog for their approval. I must say that I was fairly pleased with the service. I met some cool people there and now, it's all gone. Their apparent reason is that I accept sponsored posts and now that violates their TOS. It's extremely upsetting that the terms were changed without notice. Maybe they've always been that way and I merely fell through the cracks. Nevertheless, I am no longer part of the Project Wonderful family and I'm disappointed that I'm no longer there. Quite frankly, I probably make more on one sponsored post than I do in a month using their service. That's not a knock on Project Wonderful, it's just that I did not really think out the layout to provide the best real estate for advertising. Thus, minimizing my earning potential. I'll rethink that idea some other time and maybe sell spots on here on a private basis. Even though it was a small portion of my "online income", it still was online income and it sucks to see it go.

I will say that their Customer Service is excellent. I received the decline notice about an hour or so ago, and I've been sending Emails to them asking for specific and answers as to why I was dropped and actually got them. So different from the mega-giant Google that will drop your ass like a hot potato and not give you the light of day as to why. Project Wonderful is even going to cash out my account even though I'm not at the $10 minimum. So even though I will no longer be with the service, they are still treating me rather well. I'd say that pretty damn efficient. Well, let me put some thought into this advertising business and see where it goes. Suggestions are more than welcomed. Later.

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.

Please Welcome Shadow the Rabbit

Hey there. I week or so ago, Southern California was under a killer heat wave. Temperatures reached into the high 90s and topped 100 degrees in some areas. Well, that heat took our rabbit with it. We've had "Fluffly" for close to a year and we were not really educated in rabbit care during high temperatures. We left Fluffly outside and I covered his cage with some brush and grass to create a roof and when we got home that evening, he was no longer hopping. I did a quick makeshift burial for him and the kids were crying. The youngest one was still wondering why we didn't take Fluffly to the hospital, since there was no blood. lol She didn't understand. My wife and I were devastated and upset. We wondered if we should get another rabbit. We read up on how to take care of it during high heat and we found out that it's a tough job. You need to make sure it's cool. Rabbits do not handle heat very well.

Well, after some consideration, we decided to get another rabbit. We picked it up on Friday and we must say, we're a little surprised by it. First, it's a black rabbit, so Shadow is a perfect name for it. I was naming it "Grass Guzzler" and "Pellet Chomper" to see if any of those names would please the kids. lol They laughed them off, of course, and then my wife suggested Shadow and everyone was in agreement.

Shadow is getting used to it's new home. Jack, our cat, seems to be afraid of him so there's no in house animal fighting. lol Another thing that's tripping us out is that Shadow seems to be potty trained. Weird, no? We keep him in the bathroom during the night and he used the dog mat that I left out for him and it did it's business on the mat. We were like, "whoa..." I've never seen a rabbit do that. They're known for crapping all over the place and we're fortunate and Shadow is not like that. So far, he's only done his business in the bathroom. If Shadow keeps it up, he may be a in house bunny. So far so good. I just need to make it more of a home for Shadow instead of just taping the water bottle to the wall. lol You gotta give me points for creativity. lol Until then, later!