Valentine's Day Chocolate

Hey there.  Valentine's Day is coming!  It's that time of year where love birds show their appreciation to one another.  Whether it be with an extravagant night out on the town or a sincere, heart felt gift of chocolate candies.  You can never go wrong with chocolate.

I don't think I've ever met a woman who doesn't appreciate a nice heart shaped box full of chocolates.  It's no wonder that retailers everywhere stock up on them just to appeal to the ladies.  There's just something about the heart shaped box that lights a woman's face.  And from experience, See's Candy seems to be the one that brings the brightest smiles. 

A friend once told me that chocolate is divine.  If that is true, then check out the selection of See's candies and experience first hand that their divinity is the best.  Chocolates are no longer a surprise gift on Valentine's Day, but where you get them, that makes all the difference.  Later!

The Root of All Problems

You simply cannot argue with this proof...  lol

Going to Work... With My Dad?

Hey there.  Do you believe in ghosts?  I believe that there definitely is something after life... not so sure of ghosts, though.  Maybe better referred to as energies?  You know, people have always been infatuated with things that go bump in the night and other "scary" occurrences that go on during a normal day.  If that wasn't the case, we wouldn't see films like Paranormal Activity being made.  I, myself, have experienced many things at home that I simply cannot explain.  I'm beginning to wonder if maybe those somethings are beginning to happen at work.

This morning, I walk into my office and I turn on my computer.  Nothing odd about that.  I go and grab my coffee and sit down, ready to tackle today's work load.  That's when it hit me...  why do I smell cigarettes?  I don't smoke, my window is closed, and no one has been in my office.  Why the smell of smoke and cigarettes?  Hmmm...  I walk around and sniff to see if maybe I can get to the bottom of it.  Nothing.  A coworker then walks by so I ask if she can step into my office.  I ask if she can smell it.  (insert inappropriate fart joke here)  lol  She says smell what and I tell her cigarettes.  She doesn't so she calls me crazy and walks away.  Hmmm... maybe I am crazy, but then again... I think I know what it is.

I wouldn't doubt it if it's my dad.

Yup, my pops probably followed me to work today.  Why followed?  Well, because I wouldn't doubt it if all the weird stuff that goes on at home is him as well.  Footsteps in the hallways, cabinets opening on their own, my dog being let inside the house when the doors were locked, corona bottles opening by themselves, cans and jars rocking back and forth... the list goes on and on.  Today... I can add, noticed my dad at work.

My dad had 2 distinct scents to him.  He loved to splash on Brut cologne (yup, old school) and he smoked... a lot.  You know how some people say that you can tell the presence of an "energy" by smelling a scent that they were most associated with.  I would say the two I mentioned definitely would fit my father.  Also, I recently mentioned to my kids that we would go see grandpa this weekend so maybe the smell was his way of reminding me that I better go see him.

It's been almost 20 years now since my pops passed and it intrigues me that most of the "activity" centers around the kids.  Their toys go off on their own, their swing sets swing on their own, bouncers are bouncing without batteries.  Recently, the baby has taken a liking to my dad's drawing on the wall. 

He'll start to point, laugh, and stare at it from time to time.  My oldest, when he was younger, would say that "a ghost" would tell him where things were and to stay away from fire.  And then not too long ago, my youngest daughter started mentioning that she's been talking to "little grandpa" and has shown a stronger interest in seeing him more at the cemetery.  So I guess today turned out to be, "tag along with my son to work to remind him to go see me at the cemetery" day.  lol  No worries, dad.  I'll be there.  And we wont forget the beer.  Later!

Do You Rate Local Busniesses?

Hey there.  Do you guys rate businesses in your area?  I mean, by going to some website online and providing some kind of ranking to show your displeasure or satisfaction to a service or business that you recently visited?  I ask because not too long ago, I started seeing these suckers on drive thru windows:

Now this is interesting.  Usually great burger joints are passed on through word of mouth but now I'm seeing that more and more are being looked at online.  My problem with Yelp.com is that it's mainly a rating system and is new to the "search for" world so I wonder if Local.com is the way to go.  I did a quick local search find that it's more of a hybrid of several rating and search systems.  Find a business and rate it, all in one location.

I say that Local.com would be a better place to go to search and rate.  I'm not knocking on Yelp.com.  I think that what they're doing is great.  I'm just saying that Local.com is doing it better.  Do a quick local search yourself and let me know what you think.  Who knows, maybe we'll start seeing more decals across business windows with the below logo.  Later!

Fixed My First PS3 and the Owner Let Me Have It

Hey there.  I've been tinkering with electronics my whole life.  Back in the day, when my Super Nintendo or my Sega Genesis stopped working, I would open them up and see what made them tick.  More often than not, I was able to get it work again.  A loose wire here, re-solder here, dirty circuit board there.  I mean, I was young and would pretty much open up my stuff just for the hell of it.  I guess that's where my love of "fixing" stuff comes from.  Something wrong with your computer?  No prob, let me fix it.  XBOX 360 showing RRoD (Red Ring of Death), let me fix.  Now...  PS3 showing the YLoD (Yellow Light of Death), let me fix that too.  Here's the story.
I fixed 2 XBOX's for a coworker of mine some time ago.  They both were showing the RRoD figured that he would let me take a stab at fixing them.  I managed to get them both to work and handed them back.  Another satisfied customer.  Several months later, he happens to score a free PS3 console.  He's never owned one so he's giddy, the problem is that it doesn't turn on.  He then decides to bring it to me and gives me a rundown of what's wrong, "I turn on the PS3.  It beeps a few times, then turns off".  He asks that I take all the time in the world since it's not urgent and he didn't pay anything so he has the mentality of "If you can fix it, great.  If not, oh well."  I've never really worked on one before so I was eager to crack that baby open and take a look inside.

Right away, I noticed that someone else has messed with it.  Some of the wires look a little off and some screws are missing.  Still, I pressed forward and go the core of the problem.  I noticed that the heatsinks have some white thermal paste on them but it's overflowing from the edges.  I figure that's the problem.  Thermal paste should not be hard and brittle.  This stuff definitely was.  I scraped the crap off and cleaned it up.  I reheated the motherboard to connect any bad soldering and then applied some fresh thermal paste (artic silver 5 all the way!).  I put the sucker back together and voila!  It turned on!  But what's this...  "Cannot start. The correct hard drive was not found"  Hmmm....

I don't remember seeing a hard drive inside the PS3... maybe it's straight out missing.  So I call my bro and ask if his PS3 has a hard drive.  Yup, he says, and that's it's easily accessible from one of the sides.  I take a look and BAM!  There's no drive.  Oh man.  So I can't test it out 100% but at least I got it to turn on.

So as I'm getting ready to take it back to the owner, the owner says to me, "You know what... I'm just gonna get a new one.  Just keep the PS3."  What?!?!?!  Just like that, I'm now the owner of a PS3.  lol  So I end up getting a hard disk for the PS3 along with a controller to give it a good test run.  Everything seems to be working ok.  DVD check, Audio CDs check, PS2 games check, PS3 games....  PS3 games...  Hello....  where's the check on Ps3 games!?!?!?  I have a problem with the blu ray disc drive... Oh man...

So now, that's where I stand.  I have a new PS3 with a busted blu ray drive.  Well...  I'm hoping that it's not busted and it's just a matter of cleaning the lens or updating the blu ray drivers.  I've read across the internet that I need to do a system file restore to assure that every thing is in order.  I haven't tried that yet.  But I'm hoping that it's not dead and the fact that I can still play DVDs, PS2, and Audio discs is a good sign of life! 

I'll try the system recovery when I get home tonight and hope that seals the deal on my new and free PS3.  Pretty damn awesome turn of events if you ask me... and it all started with my curiosity as a child.  Later!

PS:  I can use the PS3 and I have figured that if it comes down to it, I'd have to play downloadable content only.  Nevertheless, if you're a PS3 owner, add me to your list of friends and we'll get our gaming on!  PSN Tag:  M3TLLMNX