So, it's been a good, oh, 4 months since this site has seen ANY activity.  Oops.  It will be interesting to see if anyone still subscribes to this poor excuse for a blog.

My wife and I left for 2 weeks in Italy in early May and you haven't heard from me since.  I had grandiose visions of posts such as "Top 10 Coolest/Lamest things about Italy" and some live trip-blogging.  After just a few hours in Vernazza, I decided I was having too much fun to waste time surfing the web while in Italy.  And I haven't posted since.

There's another reason for the lack of posting; I've been too incompetent (and lazy) to figure out why I haven't even been able to log into my own blog site since July.  You see, I re-imaged this machine, and in hoping to secure the server, I ran IIS Lockdown, which inadvertently ran URLScan, effectively blocking any scripting from running on my server.  Oops.  No wonder I couldn't do much of anything.  I finally got around to a little investigation and everything is running fine now.

A lot of life change in the past few months - hope to blog a little more often in the near future with more details!

Hasbro is coming out with a new Monopoly game, The Here & Now Edition.  They are taking votes once a day to determine what order the 22 American cities that will be included will appear on the board.  Being a Chicago resident, I will be voting early and often to make sure the Windy City is represented in the Boardwalk spot with Wrigley Field.  C'mon, let's beat those New Yoaka's. 

Another "what type are you quiz."  This time, it was for a file extension.  As a computer geek, I couldn't pass it up.  However, The results don't seem to jive all that well if you ask me...

Which File Extension are You?

I'm sure you've all received one of these e-mails...you know, the subject mentions something about having the volume turned way up so you can listen to a song or whatever.  Well, this kid won't soon forget the day he was duped.  This video is absolutely hilarious...the kid actually attacks the monitor ala the deer attacking hunter footage shown on Fox TV's "world's most dangerous video" special a few years back.

According to this intelligence test, anyway.  Granted, it took some time, but I finally made genius status by scoring a 19/33 on these word puzzles.  Kind of a fun distraction.

of the FATTEST cities in America, for 2006!  Woohoo!  I knew we could do it.  After placing 5th fattest for the past two years, we finally did it!  When it comes to the Second City, we are Second to NONE in our ability to eat.  After all, we have the best food in the world, do we not?

Don't you just love the advent of number portability?  It makes it so much more convenient to hop from one mobile phone provider to another!  Combine that with Amazon's great mobile phone offers and a one-year contract, and you've got the makings for some pretty slick deals.

Case in point...every year for the past 4 years, I've received a brand new mobile phone absolutely free.  In fact, I've often even been "paid" to pickup this brand new phone.  You see, the mobile phone market is so competitive that the players in the market are willing to heavily subsidize phone costs in exchange for a one year (or more) contract.  If you are willing to switch providers each year, you are basically guaranteed a free (often quite nice) phone every year, and you can still keep the same phone number.

I've just gone through my annual mobile phone procurement, and made out quite well, if I must say myself.  Last year, I got an amazing deal through Amazon, and was able to pickup an Audiovox SMT-5600 for free after rebate when signing up for a year contract with AT&T Wireless (now Cingular.)  Now, this phone absolutely ROCKS.  It's a Windows Mobile 2003 smart phone, which means, it basically does everything my old Pocket PC did, including Outlook synchronization, mp3/wma playback, MSN Messenger, etc.  Granted, I don't have a data plan, but still, this is a great phone, all in a compact form factor and a large screen.

Of course, when it came to Cingular's GSM network capabilities, I wasn't too impressed.  Service was decent, but from my condo was often pitiful.  I longed for the days of my prior T-Mobile service.  No worries...my contract with Cingular would be up soon enough.  It ended today :-)

Needless to say, I planned on keeping my 5600 phone, but there was one problem.  It was locked for use with AT&T/Cingular service only.  Never to fear...the "internets" are here!  A simple Google search lead me to this rockin' site.  It worked BEAUTIFULLY!  In a matter of minutes, I had unlocked my phone for free!  Another site allowed me to get rid of all the nasty AT&T branding, setting me up for a seamless transfer over to T-Mobile. 

The last step was finding the best deal on a new T-Mobile phone.  Again, I went to Amazon and found this excellent offer, which will PAY ME $50 (after rebates) to pickup a Motorola RAZR V3 phone with a year contract.  I saw that these phones were going for over $200 on EBay, so I knew this was the offer to grab.  Got the phone today, popped my new T-Mobile SIM into the Audiovox, and I'm back with T-Mobile superior network.  Filled out the rebate cards, mailed them, and put my RAZR up for auction on Ebay.  In the end, I figure I'll make around $250 or more just for switching carriers.  Rock on!!

[UPDATE:]

The phone went for $186 and $12 shipping.  Not bad, eh?

NIV...with the ribbon bookmark.  HAHA.  Check out this video clip.

Annoyed by your neighbors that have those unsightly satellite dishes on their homes?  I especially find those large condo buildings with balconies humorous...you have to laugh when you see every other balcony with a dish, complete with wires hanging all over the place.  My favorite, however, was a suburban home I once saw with a 50 foot pole sticking out of its backyard, with the dish placed on top.

Of course, it could be worse.  Just be glad you don't live next to this guy!  Wonder how much his property value drops with each new dish he adds?  And, exactly how many of those 5000 channels does this guy really watch, anyway?  Hope he's got a bunch of Tivo's (and even more time on his hands!)

In the off chance that anyone is still paying any attention to this blog, you may have noticed its been rather dark lately.  Bear with me...I've recently transitioned from one client to another, and surprisingly, my new client has ACTUAL WORK for me to do!  Yeehaw!  Of course, that means that my blogging time has been almost completely cut out of my schedule, and I find myself catching a few posts here and there and then marking all my subscriptions as read.  So sad :-(

I do hope to find some time to post here as often as possible, so hopefully you will begin to see more activity in the coming weeks.  Funny...I am getting some pretty interesting Google referrals coming through, so that has kept me motivated.  Who the heck is the Australian that has been Googling my name?  And WHY would someone be doing a Google search on "Chicago Tribune Pumpkin Scones"???  Bizarre...

It's been a LONG time since I have taken a math course.  In fact, I haven't thought about math since passing Calculus 1 my freshman year of college (woohoo....so glad I switched from engineering to business!!)  So, when I ran across this site, I thought it would be interesting to see if I can still pass an 8th grade level math test. 

I mean, if you really think about it, how much math does the average person ever need to know beyond the 8th grade basic algebra level?  I can't think of any situation where anything more complex than these problems have been thrown at me (ok...as a software developer there is ocassionally a complex calculation that must be programmed, but usually it is nicely spelled out for you.)  Anyway, I was pleased to see I got a 10/10.  Can you pass 8th grade math?

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct!

The joys of the season changes in Chicago...as much as I hate the long winters come February, I must say that the routine of change that is the 4 seasons is refreshing.  Especially this time of year! 

Early fall has to be my favorite time of the year for several reasons.  You still have plenty of sunny days, and its typically warm enough to venture out without a jacket.  The leaves begin to change and crunch under your feet.  College football is back, and there are plenty of chances to watch the Illini stumble through another arduous season.  Starbucks has its pumpkin scones available (mmmm!) and combined with a warm cup of chai on a crisp morning its hard to beat!

However, I'm reminded this morning that its also about that time of year to lug the extremely heavy (Brian can attest to this) window air conditioning units down to storage.  Yep, it was 52 degrees when I woke up this morning, and no matter how well you try to insulate around the AC units, cold air is sure to seep in.  Of course, past experience shows that unless I leave the units in until mid-late October, the weather surprises and heats up into the 80's with humidity, and then I'm kicking myself for taking the units down so early.  Hmm...looking at the weather forecast for this coming week, I think I'll keep them up a little longer!

Not that I really provide much business for Field's...but, it sounds threatening, anyway :-)

So, it looks like despite the efforts of the petition over at www.KeepItFields.com (I signed it on 8/01), Federated Department Stores has decided to rename all Marshall Field's stores in the US to Macy's, starting in the fall of '06.  This is sure to upset many a Chicagoan, including myself!

As a child, my family had a tradition each Christmas of riding Metra (yeah, I have to admit I grew up in the 'burbs) into the city, huffing over to Marshall Field's (often in sub 20 degree weather) and gazing at their incredibly detailed and beautiful Christmas window display.  While this may not sound like the most enjoyable activity to some, it brings back fond memories.  After checking out the windows, we'd wait (often for HOURS) in line to eat at the Walnut Room on the seventh floor, next to the giant Christmas tree.  We'd end the day riding the train back and devouring the Frango mints we bought at Field's. 

And now, I'm going to have to re-live these memories at a Macy's?!  A store from New York, of all places?  I don't think so.  Way to go Federated, you've lost yourself at least one customer.

I've been a fairly active person for most of my 26 years of life, and have rarely taken the time to stretch out prior to participating in physical activities.  Sure, I'll spend 20 seconds to hit the quads and hams before a 3 mile run (and you'll almost NEVER find me running longer than that), but for the most part, muscle soreness and injury is something I haven't had to deal with. 

That all changed last night!  I signed up to play in a local softball league with a bunch of guys from church.  I never thought to stretch out before the game, because, like I said...it's just not something I've had to deal with before.  However, seems like the time has come where stretching is going to have to be a part of my regiment.  My first time up at bat, I had a nice rip to left center, and I took off at a full sprint.  Immediately I noticed a shooting pain in my upper right quad.  Sure enough, I pulled it, and its been quite uncomfortable ever since.  Granted its nothing I shouldn't recover from soon, but with every step I take it serves as a painful reminder that I'm not getting any younger!

In more positive news, our team is really rocking the competition!  Our first game we won something like 20-7.  Last night, we slaughtered the poor unsuspecting young bucks we faced with a 33-5 win in four innings.  I've been quite happy with my performances, despite not having played in 3 years.  I've been hitting the ball fairly well and my fielding last night at 3rd was decent. 

Looks like I'm gonna have to pick up some of this for the first time!