A post a week?

Wow, so its been a few weeks since my last update. I can't believe how hard it is to write something every week. I never thought it would be, reading other blogs, it just seemed so easy. I guess its hard unless you don't want to keep anything private.

Anyway, I do have a pretty good reason for the lack of posts. One of those weeks I spent on a cruise ship in the Western Caribbean. Departed from NuOlens, made a stop in Cosumel and Costa Maya Mexico, and also in Belize City Belize. Overall it was a great experience. I think everyone must try it once. Luckily the weather was nice everyday except one afternoon it rained. And one other day it was real windy, as the ship was heading straight into the wind, traveling at 19 knots into a 14 Knott wind, it wasn't the best day to lay in the sun on the upper deck. Don't ask me what a Knott is though. We traveled over 1800 nautical miles, not sure what that means either.

The food was pretty good, the service was amazing. It seemed like everyone working on the ship was very friendly, always smiling, making you feel welcome. They did a very good job being sincere. I don't think I could handle being on a ship and keeping in good spirits as they did. Most of the people we talked to were married and away from their spouses for 6-8 months. That is something that I definitely know I couldn't handle. Our dinner table was a 6 top, so were were with 2 other couples. Once couple was from Missouri, the other from New York. Both were very friendly, the first night was a little awkward, but by the second night we were all having good conversation.

I couldn't believe the size of the ship. Inside there was a Theater, Casino, 2 level dining room, Cafe, Pool Deck, Piano Bar, Nite Club, Champagne Bar, Library, Card and Game room, Spa, Heath Club and Lounge area. On top of that, enough rooms for over 2100 guest and 750 employees. And this isn't even the largest line of ships! This is almost as many people in one cruise ship that populated the entire town I grew up in (3600). Amazing. Until you open the door to your stateroom. Then you open the door to the bathroom. Amazing. You really don't spend much time in your room, good thing.

The entertainment was pretty good overall. The Royal Caribbean Singers and Dancers did a good job doing the broadway shows. The Comedian was OK, the first night he stuttered a few times, we saw him on a later "adult" show and he seemed more relaxed, maybe because he didn't have to edit himself. The magician was OK, there is only so much magic you can see, and after the guy gave away all the secrets on TV, its kinda hard to believe any of it. The juggler was really good, a nerdy guy that tried to be funny, but the amazing thing was that he was juggling on a cruise ship and believe me, you can feel the movement pretty much the whole time. We missed out on John Davidson, the host of Hollywood Squares. I think his show was geared toward the older crowd anyway, but we didn't really care to see him.

And now for the most important part - the bars! The piano bar was my favorite. The piano man was better than average, he knew a lot of songs, but the 3 nights we saw him, I heard a lot of repeats. I think he was really playing the crowd, doing all the popular songs. He did play "In Your Eyes" a Peter Gabriel song that I don't really like, but when he played it, he did it well. A friend of our's plays the song on the acoustic guitar and I really like it. He didn't play The Clash for me, but Green Day, not really the same, but good enough. The bartender was a guy from India. We sat at the bar, ordered a couple margarita's and just talked for a little while. He was really nice, the bar was slow, so he just talked to us for a while. Pretty soon he's pouring us shots and we are getting liquored up. This was before dinner, so we really didn't want too much. Basically everytime we want to chill out and drink, we went to the piano bar. He only charged us for one or two drinks, but we would be drinking premium calls all night, we even taught him the "Irish Car Bomb", my personal favorite. Needless to say, he treated us very well. We really didn't go to any of the other bars the rest of the trip, unless there was entertainment going on. We went to 80's night in the Nite Club, but that only lasted an hour. Also Disco night, but we didn't stay long for that. Basically it was the Piano bar, until 2AM. yeah.

Well, that about sums it up. There is actually a lot more to the trip, but I'm sure if you made it this far, you have had enough. And if you read this, you probably know me, so I'll have told you this entire story already.

END IF

WAJ

Pumkin carving went pretty well last night, what do you think? I still don't know what I'm going to "be" for the Halloween party (if we go).

Google Desktop Search

I use google for nearly every web search I do for work and fun. Recently I noticed a new link: http://desktop.google.com

I decided to check it out, and I have used it a few times. It lets you search your entire hard drive for specific files: email, web sites, pictures, music, MS office files. It keeps a history of your web surfing so you can pull up the exact website you saw earlier, even if it has been updated. I actually was able to pull up my previous fantasy football post that I accidentally deleted, so if you missed it last week, its back! I just hope google keeps everything they do FREE or at least paid by TEXT advertising. Its really amazing their gmail program and now this searching application can be available without all the popup advertising you see on other search engines.

Enjoy

EDIT: I have recently read some interesting things about google desktop- it records all website views. Even Secure HTTPS pages, so if you have it installed on a work/public PC, careful what sites you visit, it could retain some things you don't want it to. Just a warning
/EDIT

Fantasy Football

So here it is, my view on Fantasy Football/Sports: This turned out to be longer than I wanted it to be, so if you don't care about Fantasy Sports, you may want to skip this.
It all started back in 1997, Spring semester in college. The Internet was available at the PC Lab that was quickly becoming my new home. Being a baseball fan my whole life, I stumbled across a Fantasy baseball website, I believe it was on Yahoo!, although my memory from those years before alcohol are very dim (Freshmen Year). I joined a public league and ranked players for an autodraft. I didn't do very well that year, considering the summer I didn't have any internet access. I think your lineup was updated weekly and of course I had mostly Cubs on my team (There were other teams?)Fast forward to now, Middle of Fantasy Football 2004 season, my team 4-2. I check the site a few times a day, checking to see who made a change, check the player updates to see if there is any question about any of my players able to start this weekend. Looking to see if another manager is stacked in a position or is hurting where I am deep, maybe able to make a decent trade... Although I am a little weary of trades. 90% of my trades end up being terrible for me.Seriously, fantasy sports have become a full time job.
I used to only watch the Bears, never really knowing who the backup Quarterback or RunningBack was, even the #2 or 3 Wide Receiver. Now I know, or at lease am aware of most NFL teams #1 and 2 Running Back and Wide Receiver. Sundays used to be sit around and watch half of the Bears game, until it was unBEARable to watch anymore, or you had some other plans. Now I want to watch any football game that is one, knowing that one of my players is playing, or the manager I'm playing against has a player playing. No longer do I care if the Bears win, knowing my defense is playing against them and I need my running back to run all over them. I could care less if the Monday night game has 2 of the best teams in the league playing or the 2 worst teams, if my matchup is dependent on 1 player playing, I try watching the entire game! Ever notice now on Sundays, instead of just showing scores from other games, they also show who made the recent touchdown, leading rusher/passer/receiver for the game, etc. I think it is a conspiracy by the NFL and TV to get people to watch more football. Yeah, create your own fantasy football league, get all your friends to join, its free! I'll tell you what, they've got me hooked like a fish, and I'm not even trying to get loose.

If you made it this far, that is my stance on Fantasy Sports, it mostly about football, although it just depends on what season it is... 6 months until Fantasy Baseball 2005.... People say that football is much easier, as the players have only 1 game a week and its a shorter season. It doesn't matter, I still check the waive wire everyday, check the injury status every day, check the matchups every day... you get the picture. Well, I'll keep you posted throughout the season I'm sure. I think about this stuff way too much.

Waj - Manager The East Punk All Stars

Here is Tator Tot. He is not my kitten, but he's adorable (all kittens are, right?)!

Friday

I love Fridays. Most tech support people will agree, everyone is in Friday mode and noone calls the IT department unless there are serious problems. So I get to catch up on Fantasy Football, blogs, and other non-work related internet favorites. I wonder why I pay $50 for broadband at home... Oh yeah, waking up at 11:45 checking the football wire to see if anyone is hurt so I can make that last minute substitution. Fantasy football, that is a post in itself... maybe more tomorrow, as it is my Saturday to work. Till then.... Happy Friday All.

Meet Estrella.

Manic Monday - Not Really

Well here is my first official post. I thought it would be really easy to post up something new everyday, and then I tried one day. I found it a lot harder to actually write something that people would read one day, not that anybody would really read this. So here goes.

Mondays are my worst day of the week, my schedule puts me to work from 11-8. I thought this would be really cool because it would extend my weekend a few more hours. What I have found out, by the time I get home from my hour drive, I can't really do anything on Monday nights. I miss out on time with my wife, and I miss out on half of Monday Night Football. It does give me a chance to wake up and take care of things I normally couldn't (Oil Changes, Dentist visits, etc) but that really doesn't happen enough to make a difference.

Today has been a really slow day. I imaged a PC, which took all of an hour, took a few hotline calls, but nothing really exciting. So here I am, at work, bored, blogging. I decided to check the old Fantasy Baseball leagues to see if anyone decided to post in the aftermath of the season being over and to post about the playoffs. Nothing, although I remembered I haven't paid up on my money league, $50, which I finished dead last, not even close to the second to last place team. Although I did win the Consolation Bracket. Big Moral Victory there. So now I get to pay up on a very bad season. Mental note: Draft younger, less injury prone players.

Alright, so that raps up this session. Not as tough as I thought.... Now I just need to tell people about this thing...

New Blog

Welcome to my new blog. I set this up on Google because I don't feel like hosting my own just yet. I just wanted to join the club and let other people learn a little more about me. I find it interesting to learn what other Bloggers have to say, and learn interesting facts about them in the process. I'm not really the most outgoing person when it comes to talking, so here is my chance to speak. Enjoy.