In memoriam

Saturday, December the third

After over a year together, it was finally time to say goodbye.




View larger on youtube.

PostCrossing 2

Friday, November the Eighteenth

 I have received many more postcards since the last post and have sent many more as well. I am really enjoying this project. There are two store in Harrisonburg that sell local postcards for only 25 cents each so I have taken full advantage of that and stocked up on plenty. I also finally went and got a sheet of 98 cent stamps.

Turning my own photographs into postcards has also been a fun activity. Here are a few of the postcards that I have made with the original photo.

Photo from Destin, Florida

This postcard from holland is from an art teacher named Joke who has no kids but does have two cats.

Kahealani from Hawaii sent this card. She was born and raised on the big island. She said most hawaiians vacation to "The ninth island... Vegas"

Sirpa from finland ended her note with: "I don't speak English. Sory" She did tell me that she works in a cafe and likes to work with her hands. the weather there is getting less sunny "Day's here is gray but still is degrees of +7 c.

Daiva from Lithuania told me he doesn't like writing and would not write me a novel but he does like to read.

Anita from Alexandria Virginia just took a trip to Puerto Rico where she picked up this postcard and sent it to me when she got back. She had a great time while hiking in the rainforest and swimming in the caribbean.

Sherwin convinced me that I need to visit the Philippines. Puerto Galera has crystal clear seas surrounded by lush mountains. Numerous pocket pristine beaches make this spot a top travel destination. 

Postcrossing

Monday, November seventh, 2011

I found this neat project online called Postcrossing where you can send and receive postcards from all over the world. It has been pretty entertaining so far. The closest postcard I have sent is to North Carolina and the farthest I have sent is Guangdong China. I have also sent cards out to Russia, Ukraine, Finland, Netherlands and many other places. After you send one and the person receives it your name starts to appear on peoples lists and they start to send you postcards. So far I have received four:

This first one I got was from a girl who's grandfather used to bring her to the westpoint campus when she was younger.

This card is from romania and the sender took the picture himself of a monastery built in 1532 

This card from Buffalo NY is from a lady who has passed through Virginia several times on the way to Myrtle beach.

Lin, from Taiwan, sent me this card. Lin is a high school teacher and thinks some of her students are cute but does not think they study very hard.

It costs 98 cents to send a postcard internationally and I went out today and bought a sheet of twenty 98 cent stamps. Yesterday I bought more postcards because I was running out. I also found a way to make my own postcards and print them from the Costco Photo Center.

Warrior Dash

Saturday, the fifteenth of October 

I had my first race in October. Some buddies and I participated in the Warrior Dash. It was a cool mud run and I had a really good time. unfortunately something got screwed up with the liquor license because they were unable to serve beer. We had a hotel room for two nights with the intention of drinking after the race but because there was nothing stopping us from driving home we did just that. Everyone that raced the Virginia Warrior Dash gets to register for free for another event since they fucked up the alcohol permits.

starting at 0900 roughly 400 people started every half hour for the 5k obstacle mud run. Two friends of mine had the same wave as I did and Flanders and I ran it together. I was able to take my waterproof camera with me so I could snap some shots while I ran. We had other friends in other waves so we stayed until the end. Tom got 2nd place overall and first for our age group and because the first place overall person did not stick around Tom got the prize!

There was also a beard competition and I, of course, was in it. Only three people including myself were called up to the stage and the crowd only consisted of -50 people. The winner was based on crowd response and I got 2nd. I told Ce that this will motivate me to continue growing my beard until the next event. She was not happy with that decision.

Netflix -> Qwikster FTL

Monday the Nineteenth of September

9.19.2011


An email was sent out this morning to Netflix users and this post was published on the Netflix Blog yesterday. The CEO apologized for not communicating the price change in separating the streaming from DVD rentals efficiently. When the news about the split first happened there was outrage from the Netflix community and they felt like they were getting pissed on. With the new change that just came out it feels like we are not only getting pissed on but getting slapped in the face by a red, envelope-shaped dick.

I started using Netflix getting one DVD out at a time with unlimited online instant streaming. I enjoyed having both of these options available to me and what I liked about the service Netflix provided is probably what everyone else liked too. With the streaming I could watch what I wanted, when I wanted, be in the middle of numerous movies and always be able to resume right where I left off when I decided I wanted to finish the movie. The only drawback to instant streaming was I needed to watch it through a supported internet device. This isn't a problem at my house, my TV has a blu-ray player that is connected and I can watch all the streaming videos Netflix has to offer. What Netflix does have to offer via Instant Streaming is limited though. There are many great movies on there but all of them and more are offered using the direct mail DVD option Netflix also offers.

The DVD option is great because the selection is large, they ship fast, and there is no hurry to send it back. If I want to watch a movie with someone the DVD option is great because I can take it with me to watch it with others. With the DVD option I can not stop in the middle of a movie, watch a different movie, and then finish the original DVD at a later date without sending and receiving the DVD's back and forth and continuously updating my DVD queue.

What was great about having these two options available to me was that if there was a movie I wanted to watch I could search for it on the Netflix website and add it to my instant queue to watch whenever I felt like sitting down in front of my TV or if it was not available on instant, I could add it to my DVD queue and have it available when it arrived at my house. This was great for specific movies that I wanted to see or just for browsing the extensive list of movies Netflix has to offer.

I was with Netflix through a few changes in price, usually going up a dollar every so often. I even stuck around after the decided that they would no longer offer a package that included both streaming and DVD rentals which nearly doubled what I was already paying. Now they are taking away the ability to search the streaming videos and the DVD rentals jointly. Netflix will now be strictly streaming and the DVD rental part will be a separate company called Qwikster. Both the websites for Qwikster and Netflix will look very similar to how Netflix.com looks now except that neither will be integrated with the other. There will be two different websites with two different queues with two different charges.

If I am browsing, looking for a movie I might like to eventually watch I guess I should start with Qwikster because they have the larger selection, once I found one I should hop on over to Netflix to see if it is available for instant viewing, because if it is, I am not going to waste the few days it would take to mail on something that I can watch when I want to instantly when I can get a non-streaming movie mailed to me instead. If the movie is not on Netflix I will have to go back over to Qwikster and add it to my queue. If that movie was on Netflix though I would then go back to Qwikster and start that process again!

That red envelope you are presenting me no longer appeals to me Netflix. The frustration to pick out a movie is not worth my time. Without the integration of streaming and DVD rentals I will have to say goodbye.

8.22.2011

Monday, August the twenty-second

I decided that I would go back to school and today was day #1. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I have classes in the evening. Ce was admitted into the hospital today after an ambulance came and took her to the ER. I did not want to leave her but knew she would be ok with her mom dad and sister there to continue to look after her.

Biology meets two times a week and this being the first meeting was basically a role call and syllabus read. The class has about 40-50 students for lecture and half go to lab one day and the other half another day, although the first week devoid of lab.

The Professor seems to be pretty young and hip. She likes to hike and her job used to be nothing but hiking and documenting plants. When I got into the classroom she had a Thievery Corporation song playing on youtube. Although she just got married she said we could still call her Ms. Getman instead of Mrs. Anderson, she then went on to say she was just in Vegas not to long ago and had a miserable time... Turns out she just got married... in Vegas.

There is a mexican girl in the class and teacher asked if she could call her Chiquita. There is also a girl that is still in high school that is taking the class and she said that she wants to move to Japan when she grows up.

The class was uneventful, each student had to say where they were from and something about themselves so I tried to keep myself distracted from what was happening outside of class by keeping track of the things I thought were amusing.

I am going back to the hospital tomorrow to see Ce and statistics starts tomorrow as well.

My beard is getting bigger.

Chesterfield 217

Saturday the 14th in the morning my work asked me if I could work at a location near Richmond, VA for a week and they would put me in a hotel and give me money for food. I was a little hesitant until I heard the magic wordss "Lots of overtime." Costco has relocated one of its stores and the new store has already opened but the old store still has a lot of unsold merchandise in it. It needs to be counted, recorded, packed up, and sent out to other stores. Myself and three other people from Harrisonburg Costco drove down Sunday night.

The drive went smoothly, we stopped at a scenic overlook.

We got to the hotel around 20:00 and each had separate rooms. Every room came with it's own coffee maker and the lobby had 4 coffee pots but that did not stop Rhonda from bringing her own Keurig.

Rhonda with her personal Coffee machine and
spring water

 Swag, Dave and I went out and got some grub before heading to bed but it was already 9pm on a Sunday night so many of the restaurants were closed, except for chains like Applebee's.

06:00 is when we had to report to work; the hotel pretty much shared a parking lot with Costco. At a quater til, down in the lobby, we were able to meet the other Costco travelers. Two other stores had sent employees making the total 13 people plus the handful of employees who were still working at the old store.

Swag excited to be done with day #1

11 hours later we were sweaty, tired, and hungry. 

After dinner at the outback we went for a swim at the hotel pool.

Dave lounging at the bottom of the pool

Underwater splash

Air bubbles

The next few days stayed relatively the same. Worked at 06:00, either went out to lunch or had lunch brought to us around 12:30 and were off around 17:00 each day. We never strayed to far for dinner, we were always so beat after work. We ate at mostly chains, Outback, Ruby Tuesdays, O'Charlies, Bonefish. Bonefish had some amazing food though. Our per diem rate for dinner was fifty dollars not including alcohol and Bonefish is where I got closest to hitting that limit. My entree was about 30 bucks and I also got a calamari appetizer.

One baby squid

Sea Bass

The last two nights we decided to do something relaxing so we went to the driving range and putt-putt.

The last day we had almost the entire store emptied of merchandise. 

All done except for HABA

Here are more pictures from this trip.

Richmond 217