eric135

Jury Duty, George Takei, Twitter and a watercolor Rooster...

• I hadn't painted anything in a few days (that didn't look like something only my mother would hang on her refrigerator at home). But I was listening to CNBC, a Senate hearing on the need for Senate oversight on corporate spending of TARP money. This image of a rooster came to mind. Yeah I know. Big one, eh? Yeah I thought so too. I've got a serious problem with scale, if those trees are, say, oaks. Puts that cock at about 100 feet (sorry I could not resist).
• I gotta go to Jury Duty. Again. I barely make it past my 18-month hiatus and then another letter comes in the mail. I have been to jury duty at least 4-5 times since we moved here. It's ridiculous considering how many folks I know just never ever get summoned. So over the next few weeks, I'll try to think of some really offensive statements to make in front of the judge so I won't have to go for a trial.
• I've been Twittering more lately (follow me @Eric135). It is fun, now that I'm following folks, and some folks are following me. I'm not sure, but one of the Twits (don't scoff, that's what we're called) is apparently none other than Mr. Sulu himself, @GeorgeTakei!! I got the link to the latest Star Trek Movie trailer. God bless the internets.
• Back to work for 2 nights...

Facebook and Twitter

A general poutpourri of updates:

• I finally succumbed and joined Facebook. I had resisted up until now, because I hardly write on this blog anymore, and I don't like my real name associated with an internet presence and Facebook requires your real name.
• I don't have very many friends on Facebook. It's my own fault because I don't utilize the networking functions, where you identify groups (such as schools, employers) and instead am relying solely on person-to-person connections to make Friends. So I "befriended" my family, and so far I've reconnected with friends from my teenage years (what a hoot that has been) and some cousins (who were babies the last I saw them, or even were not yet born when I last visited the Philippines). I also hooked up with my best friend from high school, but whom I have not seen since 1982 or so.
• I find that I am getting to be a lot more inhibited with what I say on Facebook, as opposed to my thoroughly opinionated and passionate writings on my blog.
• I have not yet decided if I will network Facebook through my present employer. Right now, I doubt it.
• I did set my Twitter updates to also update my Facebook status... although really I can't figure out what kind of use I will get from this function.
• I recently ran across this article on Wired about the privacy ramifications of an online presence. The article is about the hazards of the new GPS capabilities of the iPhone and Google phone, but I am always stewing about the amount of personal info one can glean from blogs and social sites.
• So now I've got Twitter updates going to Facebook, and Twitter and Facebook updates going to my phone. This seems too much. I mean, how much use can these phone updates be? I mean, what daily use can these beeps and auto updates be to me?
• Oh shit, my phone just reminded me to pay my damn rent...

LadyKitty, flickrWebimager

Another shot of the Alpha Female, LadyKitty.

 

I've been looking for a cheap (read: free) screen grab tool. I've been using flickrWebimager for a few days. The program allows you to capture screen shots of your computer screen. Supposedly, once the image is captured, you can click on a button and it automatically uploads the image to your flickr account. When I try to do this I keep getting an "Authentication Error" and it doesn't upload. But, the next best thing is that it will allow you to save the image as a bmp, jpg or png file on your hard drive, and then I can upload it the old-fashioned way. The other really weird glitch is that when you click to Save, the Open File dialog box opens, but if you give the image a name and attach either ".bmp", ".jpg" or ".png" to the end, it will save the file. But it serves my needs. And did I mention, it's free?

Galapagos Island vs. Wall Street, Prostates, The Code, A Silly Judge, I Ain't Got No TV These Days, Cloaking Technology (thank you Star Trek)

I was watching an episode on The Science Channel called Galapagos - Beyond Darwin, describing new explorations of the Galapagos archipelago. On this trip, they bring a variety of marine scientists, a new submersible that specializes in "sucking up" the delicate lifeforms (rather than pulling them up in nets), and the use of SCUBA for shallow water. It was a fascinating trip to a land where life evolved in unique ways (as many islands do), but these islands were too far away for land animals to get to, so instead of Bison or Cows, the Galapagos have huge turtles that do the herbivorous grazing. Reptiles and birds filled niches usually reserved for mammals. Fascinating.... so beautiful.... so natural....

WHAT? MICROSOFT IS MAKING A BID TO TAKE OVER YAHOO? Time to crank up the quote streamer.

• And now that they have trans-vaginal surgery down, you can get your prostate removed through your mouth. YAY!
• In another case of Them, not You, I dutifully cut-and-pasted "the code" into my PDA, before I realized I had no idea what to do with this inexplicable string of hex code. It does make a pretty little tune though. My favorite quote so far: One Digg member, Grant Robertson, said the incident reminded him of a quote from "NewsRadio," the 1990s TV show: "You can't take something off the Internet. That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool" (via latimes.com).
• The ridiculous story of Judge Ron Pearson (Administrative Law Judge, Washington DC) and his suit against a mom-and-pop dry cleaning business over a pair of pants. The suit includes $15000 so he can rent a car on weekends to use another dry cleaner. Here's a letter asking that he lose his job.
• Another one of our favorite shows, Gilmore Girls, will be ending this month. A show that had to grow on me at first, I didn't like the quick-paced dialogue that actually is a hallmark for the show. The CW network is also killing off Veronica Mars. I guess I'll be reading more.
• Scientists predict that invisibility will be possible for objects of any shape and size within the next decade.

HANS

We were out running errands today, and when we bought groceries, we picked up a can of Monster Energy drink. It's produced by Hansen's Group (tick=HANS). It announced earnings this morning and it added 17% to its share price today.

It's the first stock I have owned that has ever quintupled in price. In fact, I've only had two other stocks even double while I owned them (TALX and DNA), none have tripled or quadrupled except for HANS.

Today, they also announced a partnership with Anheuser Busch (BUD). They will be distributing Monster (and other Hansen's drinks), adding some exposure to their product.

It will surely take a bit of a dip tomorrow as folks decide to take some money off the table, but it should continue upward and some are talking share price of $210!! And there are whispers of a 2-1 and possibly a 4-1 split in the near future.

It's making my palms sweat.

Eagles and Airplanes

A cool Live Eagle Netcam site. I am pretty sure it's real, but I have checked it throughout the day and the eagle is never NOT there. I checked it this morning and thought the eagle was dead -- but it was just sleeping with its head on the ground (I sort of thought all birds sleep with its head tucked under the wing). But it was alive. Oddly captivating (or maybe he just reminds me of Buckbeak from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban).

A trailer for a movie about Flight 93, bravely re-taken after being hijacked on 9/11. The trailer has been yanked from theaters in NY, even though the producers of the film cleared the movie with the families of the passengers and crew.

No More Palm.net

As of August 31 2004, I won't be able to use my faithful Palm VII as a wireless device. Turns out that palm.net, which provides wireless access from my Palm for email access and web clipping, will be shutting down forever. I guess there just aren't very many of us who continue to use older Palm devices, and there's definitely a push for us to give up the ka-ching for one of the newer models, who use the updated servers.

I may still upgrade to a Palm Tungsten, or some other wireless Palm. It's just the bother of making the switch. I'm sure the experience would be similar, and there would definitely be an advantage with the increased memory capacity. They're probably a lot faster accessing the web than my Palm VII. But I'm a creature of habit. I hate changing the way I do things.

Luckily, I'm able to transfer all of my palm.net info over to usa.net, who offers web email services at a discounted price for previous Palm users. So at lease I'll be able to get email even when I'm not at home (although I'll have to get to a desktop with internet access.) Also, until August 31, email sent to my previous palm.net address will get forwarded automatically.

I've been putting off getting a laptop for years, mostly because of the functionality of my Palm. Now I have to figure out if I want to but a Tungsten ($400 or so), or spend four times the money for a good laptop (that would be too big for me to use effectively on the go).

Decisions decisions.