30 to 12 in 6 darts flat.

Life can suck sometimes. Actually, pretty often. Speaking of which, a good friend of mine got some not so great news last week. It also right before his birthday, too. I finally coerced him into coming over for a birthday dinner, and some cake. We even got him a little gift. I searched high and low for something that would peak his interest.

Nuthin', I couldn't find anything. Finally, after shopping for groceries at Wal Mart one night, I happened upon a wall of Nerf guns. Although a bit young for our tastes, I thought "What the heck..." So I bought him two. After dinner we cleaned up the dishes, put the cake away, and gave him his gift. He looked at Sara and I with the "What the....." look. We joked a little bit, and the proceeded to open the packages. Ten seconds later, we were 12 years old, without a care in the world. the house was our battlefield. Jumping over couches, ducking for cover, even throwing pillows as decoys. It was just like we were on summer break so many years ago. I'm sure the guns will eventually be given away, broken, or end up back in Japan with him. But that 2 and a half hours was what we both needed. Nobody lost, nobody won. Nobody even tried to keep count. The only thing I lost was my breath. I'm still a bit sore a few days later. I think I'm gonna need another dose of that.

The more I think about it, the closer I get to heading to Wal Mart for the Sniper Rifle version.

Vices

As most people know, I have a few too many irons in the fire. As a step to help reduce some stress, I am cutting back on my many, many hobbies. I started the other day with Optrata, Wordpress, a couple of neighborhood blogs, and so forth. I am currently taking inventory of other things to cut back on. My side project (again, one of many) Goufy Shumi is on the chopping block as well. I have slowed my use of Flickr, drastically, and next would be my proper hobbies. I don't have much time for photography anymore, Gunpla has become a pipe dream. Right now, my only hobby is listening to Last.fm and playing my DS. Something's gonna give, and I'm afraid it's gonna be me. Lately, I been going to bed at 9:30 as well as sleeping in every second that I can. Life just hasn't been fun. In an effort to maximize what time I do get away from work, I have to trim things out. Who knows, this blog may be next.

Separated at birth? Ford Verve/Chevy WTCC & Beat

Ford took the wraps off an "exciting" design study called the Verve. Although it's a nice looking car, I think I've seen it elsewhere. Perhaps last year as a Chevy?

Listed left to right: Ford Verve - Mid 2007 / Chevy WTCC - 2006 / Chevy Beat Early 2007

New Logo

You might be wondering about my new logo. Well, when you are called something long enough, one starts to believe it's true...

Flocked, again.

*8/3/07 Edit - Some people have asked me what Flock is. Flock is considered a "Social Network Browser." Basically, it is an alternative to Internet Explorer or Firefox. It just happens to have a bunch of cool bells and whistles.

Flock 0.9 was released the other day. Although a bit slow, I like the improvements. The new look is gorgeous. Integration between social networks has been tidied up a bit. And getting to the features of Flock has been made easier. A new feature that's pretty nifty is the "My World" page which incorporates your favorite bookmarks, RSS feeds, and Media Favorites (such as Flickr, YouTube, Photobucket, etc.). The ability to blog an article or picture directly from Flock still remains, as well as using del.icio.us to manage your bookmarks. Magnolia is available, too, but I haven't gotten a chance to mess around with it. Overall the new Flock is much improved, and I highly recommend it, as I rarely have a desktop to call my own. This way I don't have to actually go to any web pages to publish, watch, look, or pull up. Everything is integrated into one slick browser. Flock is still in Beta, so other than the speed deficiency, there are a few bugs still being worked out, but is very stable in XP and OS X.

In a minute...

"In a minute..." That's a phrase I'm used to hearing now. Sara's busy making dinner, or selling some stuff on eBay. I'll use it because I'm working on one of my blogs, doing some model photography, mowing, or working on some models. I never gave it much thought. But, like everything else, R3 has put a new spin on it. Lately, when we request his presence at the dinner table, want to show him something cool, or we need to discipline him, we hear "In a minute!" I'm rather self critical by nature, so I started thinking about it. I'm not upset that he uses this term to buy some time to finish up what he's working on. In fact, I really don't mind that he uses the phrase at all. What does bother me, is how many times did he have to hear us saying that to him for him to add it to his vocabulary? How many times did he want to share an idea? How many times did he just want to enjoy our company while he played? And our response was "In a minute.."

More than 12 years without Antivirus

After over twelve years of computing, I finally installed an anti-virus/anti-intrusion/keep-me-safe/anti-spyware/anti-hacker software program today. I only put it on my computer at work, too. (My Mac goes on in this cruel, cruel world, uprotected and naked to all those nasty bugs out there.) I tend to not care for those things. They take up unnecessary computing power, typically cause erratic behavior, and generally just stink. One reason I have gone so long, is that I have a Mac at home. 'Nuff said. I do believe Macs can get a virus, etc. I'm not naive, it's just not very common. But I think if you just use some common sense, computing can be very safe, without the need for additional software. At work though, I have to count on the lowest common denominator. I'm not always the one commanding my computer. Since I share my little compy, I felt it was time to go ahead and lock 'er down. I have had enough of cleaning everyone elses Winboxes of that foul junk for awhile. By the way, anti-virus is only as smart as it's user.....hint, hint.

Tip: If your computer asks you to buy software to rid itself of viruses, don't. Plain and simple. We had a fellow pay $40 to some mysterious anti-spyware company that showed up in a pop up ad and installed a mess of a programs onto his computer. That included what? Spyware! Viruses! And Bloatware! Oh my! After formating the stupid thing, it seemed to run fine.

The regulars around here seem to know what's going on. But the short timers invariably get to screwing around with a computer and put some junk on it that completely destroys the OS. Just because "The computer told me too..."

Second, if you like fancy screen savers, games, and weather trackers... Wait, I'm not even going to go there, either. Just don't. All I'm saying is use common sense. Get to know you're operating system. You know what real error messages look like. If you are surfing the web, and something pops up and tells you you just haaave to put a program on (and the window has home, back, and forward buttons), go to download.com, or cnet.com, and see what others say. Or run your updater from Windows or OSX and use that. I am not some sort of guru when it comes to computers, but for me to go my ENTIRE computing life, and not get ONE virus, I must be doing something right. I just installed a name brand Antivirus on three computers at work, as a precaution. Mine was the only one that didn't have a single virus on it. Just be smart, do your research. Try to go to trusted sites. Use programs like McAfee, Norton, Panda, etc. If you don't know what to do, ask someone that does. No, not your neighbors kid. Call a computer repair shop, or find a real personal reference. I may sound like I am venting, I am. I just hate spending time, and having to spend money working on computers, when the whole problem was caused by ignorance. It's not that difficult, but fixing it can be.