2005 September

What Time Is It?

The last time I wore a watch in my life was when I was 10 years old. I had gotten the watch from a McDonald’s Happy Meal, and I’m pretty sure it was a Transformer watch (the awesome cartoon show of my childhood.) I hadn’t needed a watch through my life, but sometimes during the course of my adulthood, I’ve come to rely on time to function daily in life.

Well, finally I’ve gotten my first real watch. My dad bought it for me as a present, and it’s a real beauty. Minimalistic, elegant, and very slick; the Fossil Red Eagle, which animates on the LED backface. Now I’m wondering how I have gone through the past few years without a watch on my wrist.

Won Another Prize From Blingo

You may remember that I had won a movie ticket from Blingo, which promptly got here within 3 weeks. Today I’ve won my second prize, a $25 Visa Gift Card. While it’s not as nice as an iPod Nano or Sony’s Playstation Portable that they’re also giving away, I’ll certainly take it.

How does Blingo give away prizes for free? Here’s how it works:

Blingo operates based on advertising, and by offering incentives, they increase the traffic to their site. More traffic means more money, which makes Blingo happy. Random prizes, and the fact that Blingo is powered by Google makes users happy. Google is happy because they get a cut of the profit.

Netvibes - Personalized Start Page

You may remember I had posted about Protopage, and really liked it. Well now I’ve found a new, better service that I have replaced it with, called Netvibes.

Netvibes allows you to import feeds from other sites with a really slick built-in feed reader, add new ones in a pre-built list, show weather in your city/town, unread email from Gmail, post in sticky notes, and search in Google, Yahoo, and more. The nice thing about it are upcoming features that makes the service even better. It features a nice, clean design, and it’s really easy to figure out and use.

Some reviews of Netvibes can be found at DigitalTechLife and SolutionWatch.

New Dog - Buddy

There has been a dog hanging around our yard, it seems, and tonight he was by our carport barking at the raccoons that like to congregate in there for dinner (we set out dog food for them.)

When we approached this dog, he was real friendly, and as we soon found out very hungry and thirsty. After much deliberation, I let him in, gave him a much needed bath/shampoo. I wasn’t able to get him completely clean, some of his fur is matted with burrs and twigs that he wouldn’t let me easily get out. He’s much cleaner though. He’s now staying in the house as I type this, lying on an old computer chair that is perfect for him.

We’ll check the local vets and shelters to see if there are anyone looking for him that match his descriptions. Maybe someone is looking for him, although out here rednecks love to move out and leave their pets outside to fend for themselves. I can’t stand that. But you never know, maybe a little girl lost her favorite pet.

I named him Buddy, because I kept calling him that while giving him a bath and trying to calm him down. “It’s okay, little buddy, just getting you all cleaned up.” I would say to him. If we don’t find an owner looking for him, I may just have a new pet.

Update: Took him to the vet and just got back. Turns out he’s a showroom dog; a Yorkshire Terrier, male and unneutered. Got an anti-flea ointment and will give him a bath again. I’ll be calling the Humane Society here in town and let them know I’ve found a dog and see if anyone is looking for him. Who knew he’d be an expensive dog, although I don’t care much about that, I love the friendly personality he has.

Last.fm - Radio Station Nirvana

You may remember I had posted about Pandora, an impressive service that introduces new music to you, and accurately hits your tastes. Well someone had mentioned to me about Last.fm which is similar, except a bit more featured-packed, and it recommends music to you differently.

You see, Pandora scientifically finds what music you like based on the artist you tell it you like. It analyzes the rhythm, tempo, flow, and more of the music, and gives you artists with similar stylings. With Last.fm, it does it based on what others who has similar tastes to you, have deemed good. It gives you popularity results, and while it’s not as accurate as Pandora’s method, it’s still fantastic.

The thing about Last.fm that I really like is how it ties into your favorite media player (in my case, iTunes) and updates your own profile page with all the music you play, giving you charts on artists you like, albums, and other neat stats. There are a lot of other features that makes the service well worth checking out, especially since it is free.

If you’d like, check out my profile page.

Tunes Now Back Up, Better Than Ever

As promised, the tunes are now back online. With over 2,400 songs to enjoy, you’re bound to never get bored at work or home. They are even perfect for parties. If you’d like download access to all the songs, I’m giving them out to anyone that donates, which helps towards the bandwidth and allows me to keep them up each month for everyone to enjoy.

Helping Victims of Hurricane Katrina

An email was sent to me tonight by someone who I don’t know, it was possibly spam, but of a positive kind. It asked me to donate to the American Red Cross to help out those who were affected by Hurricane Katrina. The good thing about the email (spam?) was that it made me wonder if my host lets me use the donations sent to me by the people to help out with the bandwidth on this site, and allow me to donate it to the American Red Cross.

When I checked, I was pleased to see they provided an easy way for me to donate to the American Red Cross using the donations I’ve received, and not only that, but they will match the amount I donate, thus doubling the donation. Since this month not as much bandwidth was consumed as expected, I didn’t have to dip into the donations to pay for extra bandwidth. Therefore, I’ve donated $500 to the American Red Cross.

A big thanks go to my host, Dreamhost, for providing the opportunity to do so, for making it easy, and for matching it. I believe all of you who have donated, will be pleased by this action, as well, as you have helped out.

Please, if you can, donate to the American Red Cross.