August 2007 Posts

Interviewing Elephant Man Tomorrow…

I’ve got a phone interview with dancehall star Elephant Man tomorrow. I realize this is unlikely, but if anyone has anything they’d like me to ask him, feel free to throw it out there. Thanks.

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption for the Wii was just released. I haven’t been able to do much gaming for… well… quite a long time! But, I’m looking forward to messing around with this game. When looking for the best price this morning, I noticed that DeepDiscount.com had it for $43.99 (total – no tax or shipping cost). Seems like a great deal for a brand new game, so I wanted to pass it on.

“I Get Money” Remix to Feature Diddy and Jay-Z

Wow, this is huge. I like the track as is (video below), especially the chorus and the production, but adding Diddy and Jay to it? 50, Diddy and Jay on the same track? Crazy.

(Warning: explicit).

Fantasy Football Draft

I had my first (and perhaps only) fantasy football draft last night. It was for a 10 team league. The positions are QB, WR, WR, WR, RB, RB, TE, WR/RB, K, DEF and then 6 bench positions. Here is the team I came out with:

QB: Vince Young
WR: Chad Johnson
WR: Leveranues Coles
WR: Chris Chambers
RB: Larry Johnson
RB: Willis McGahee
TE: Tony Gonzalez
WR/RB: Deuce McAllister
K: Matt Stover
DEF: Jacksonville Jaguars
Bench: Brandon Jackson
Bench: Priest Holmes
Bench: Eli Manning
Bench: Michael Bennett
Bench: Donte’ Stallworth
Bench: Mike Anderson

Drafting Holmes and Bennett was insurance for my first round (third overall) pick, Larry Johnson. Drafting Anderson was insurance for my second round pick, Willis McGahee. I’m pretty happy with the team. QB is a bit of a concern, though. We’ll see how it goes, like always.

Fantasy Football League

If anyone is interested in fantasy football, I have a league drafting on Saturday. For more, check out this thread at SportsForums.net. You need to have a SportsForums.net account and a Yahoo! account. Both are very easy to sign up for. :)

First Solo Drive

I drove by myself for the first time today. All went well. heh. Drove for about an hour in all. From home to Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart to Staples, Staples to home. Needed to get some printer toner on a very short notice. About an hour of driving in all. About to do solo drive number two shortly, as I need to mail something.

Phil Rizzuto Passes

Yankees legend Phil Rizzuto passed away last night. Not unexpected, but still sad. He’ll be missed.

My Technical Expertise is Astounding

Sometimes, I amaze myself with the complex solutions that I come up with for equally complex problems. Take my laptop’s CD-ROM drive, for example. I decided that I wasn’t going to take that sort of nonsense from any member of my technological unit. So, I smacked a little sense into him. Worked him over, if you will. A quick strike to the CD-ROM drive’s general area and, what do you know, it’s playing a CD. That’s more like it. lol.

Driving Test #2: Success

After failing the written portion of my 1st driving test on Thursday, I went back again today to give it another try.

Having already passed the visual portion, I went right into the written test. As luck would have it, I got the exact same test again. After I read the first 5 questions, I realized that Christmas had come early. They do have an assortment of tests, though, because my brother took the test again and he was given a different one than last time. There was one question in my test that I wasn’t sure if I had last time, but I think I must have, because I had the rest of the questions. So, I got a lucky draw there. But, still, I felt that should mean a perfect score, so I took my time and went through it and I did pick up a perfect score – 25 of 25.

So, I was able to take the road test today. The instructor had me turn the car on so that she could check the signals, brake lights, etc. After we did that, she got in and told me what we would be doing first. I think got out while she was talking (then I realized that that was perhaps a little rude… nice start), even though I didn’t mean to, in order to get my sunglasses out of my pocket. After asking her if they were OK and then getting them out… I forgot to put them on. lol. Anyway, I backed out and took the left as directed. I hit the curb. On my very first turn. Nice.

But, after that, it went pretty smoothly. The speed limit on the roads we drove on was 20. Move into the left turn lane, turn left again, go down a road, turn left again, do a 3 point turn, get in the center of the lane, backup, then accelerate to 15 MPH and stop right away when she tells me (as if a child has run in front of me), take a right at the stop sign, take a right back into the driver’s license office and park and that’s it. It all went pretty smoothly except for what I mentioned. No parallel parking or parking of any kind until the end. Whew! :) I nailed the parking in the driver’s license office, though. She was a laid back instructor and I asked her a question or two while I drove to clarify what I was supposed to do here or there.

During the test, she asked me if I had driven in this car very much and I said I hadn’t, basically a few hours. As she got out of the car, she asked me if I had ever had a permit before. I told her I hadn’t and explained that I hadn’t really been too interested in driving before. I run a small business out of my home, etc. So, she asked about my business and we talked about it on the walk back into the office. She didn’t tell me if I had passed or not until we got inside and I sat down. Once there, she told me that she felt I was on the gas a bit (I presume this means I don’t have a great feel for the gas pedal… which will come with time), but that she thinks I’ll do better as I practice more. So, I passed and she sent me over to get my picture taken. Awesome! :) It’s good for 8 years, as well.

Now, I just need to log more time behind the wheel to get a better feel for driving, because I still feel very inexperienced and a bit hyper behind the wheel. Hyper isn’t the right word, but… it’s like, I am deathly focused. I’ll relax as I get more experience. I’ve been added to my parents insurance (I had to be added when I took the first test) and that’s going to cost me $502.14 for 6 months (ouch), just to be added onto their plan. When I get my own car, I’ll get my own insurance. No idea what kind of car I’m going to get, though…

Thanks to Brandon, James and Brandon for the encouragement.

My Laptop CD-ROM Drive…

My laptop. It doesn’t do anything, really. I use a laptop for maybe 2 months of the year. And, during those 2 months, it’s not used like I would generally use my regular PC (i.e. all day). For the rest of the time, it sits on my chest and drawers, doing nothing. It doesn’t get kicked around, it doesn’t get moved around (much) … it just sits there for long periods of time.

So, when I needed to take it with me for a day trip a few weeks back, I booted it up and I had 3 things I wanted to do. Install Windows updates, install the new version of Windows Live OneCare that I bought (and uninstall the old one) and transfer my essential files over. Windows updates were easy enough. I go and uninstall the old version of OneCare. And then I pop in my CD to install the new version of OneCare and… you gotta be kidding me. It’s not working. So, not only does my laptop live a life of folly, but… it has the audacity to allow the CD-ROM to break on me during it’s period of dormancy. Argh. And I had already uninstalled OneCare. So, I had to go and install AVG. Which is OK, but I pay for OneCare, I want to use OneCare.

So, unless it works again miraculously… I’ve got a laptop with a dead CD-ROM drive. The laptop is nearing 3 years of age, but… like I said, it doesn’t get used much. Still, I imagine I’ll be upgrading. I’ll just deal with this for right now. I move data through a USB drive, anyway.