HD CDs

So as I understand it, it's easier to invent & process audio than video.
This is why we had radio and *then* television. Why we had Compact Discs before we had Digital Video Discs.
Again, from my understanding, a DVD is a fancy CD burnt with a more finely tuned laser. Supposedly, if you burn a CD with a DVD burner, it'll be slightly better.

So I ask you: Where are the HD CDs? Or the Blu-CDs?
We have HDTV & HDradio. So apparently I want my media in high-definition.
Why is noone making high-def CDs to go with my HDradio?

Because the CD is dieing, that's why. With everyone buying .mp3s, there is less of a need to re-invent the wheel. If I like a song, I tag it with iTunes tagging on my HDradio, and my iPod tells iTunes to buy it-for $1.
People will gladly spend a dollar.
Who wants to buy a CD for 1 song? I've done it WAY too many times myself.
So you buy the songs you want-stick them on your iPod and take them with you-no bulky CD case.
And if you want, you can burn your own CD.

Yes, my friend, the CD is going to fade away-oh it'll be a while-less high-tech folks are still buying them, but don't expect them to last much longer.

FREE* Kittehs

So around July of 2004 my wife of 3mo & I were checking the mail at our apartment complex. It was one of those group mail centers where everyone has a little box & a little key.
Anyway, up on the wall was a sign offering free kittens & an apartment number.
My wife wanted to go and look.
At this time in my life, I didn't realize that "look" has the meaning of "get, obtain, take home".
So we went to 'look' at the kittens.
My wife instantly fell in love with a little female tortise shell. We were informed that she was litter-box trained and even got a cat box w/ scoop, food/water dish and litter and food.
The whole walk back to our unit, she kept telling the cat that she loved her. Women aparently love very easily...
So now we have a cat, do you know what happens when you have a cat? You pay $300 to your apartment complex.
We then had to pay a Vet another good $300 to shoot her (I wish I could...) so that she was "legal" for the complex.
Oh, and apparently we got the broken one, so we had to get her fixed.
And of course all the cat food and litter...

Wife just estimated we spent a good $1000 on the "free" cat in the 1st year.
It's now been 4 years.

So back when my wife was trying to convince ne that she needed a cat, she did what the stereotypical TV kid does, and promised to take care of it, feed it, and clean up after it.

If only I followed the comparison out at the time, I'd've realized that the father-guy ends up doing a good part of that...

So it turns out that pregnant/nursing women can't clean a litter-box. It'll kill them or something.
I was not informed of this back when we got the cat.
My wife has been pregnant/nursing since February 14, 2006. It's now September 14, 2008.
That is a *LONG* time for one man to be cleaning up after someone else's cat.
(yes, she has helped a few times)

I'll spare you the stories about being attacked in my sleep, and simply say that the cat and I have learned to toleraye each other-to a degree.

What brings this up?
Last night, while I was making a drop, an LPN offered me a FREE* kitteh.
Needless to say, I turned it down. Firmly, absolutely, and twice.

No more.

------
FWIW, tI'qa' is 1/4 bobcat & has fangs and claws...

Our New Home

For those of you who don't know, we (my wife, daughter, and myself-oh, and my wife's cat) moved to Indianapolis from Plano, TX (just outside of Dallas-home of Dr Pepper, Frito Lay, and EDS).
We spent about a month or so in my sister-in-law's basement until we moved into wife's parent's house.
Why?
Well, while we were still in Texas, I applied for a posotion with Sallie Mae-I even flew up for an interview.
Everything was going along well until we were here in Indy and the job wasn't.
And the other job in Kentucky didn't pan out either.
So we were "homeless" and unemployed.
I've gone through a good number of jobs over the past year, slowly earning more money. But not enough to afford rent...
Around November-Decemeber of last year, we applied for an apartment only to be turned down.
Since then we have paid off several credit cards and various other debtors.
It obviously worked, because on August 1st, we moved into a townhouse (I won't post the new address here-but drop me a line and I'll get it to you).
So after spending the past year+ with my in-laws, it feels good to be "free" and "independant".
It also feels really good to get our things out of storage and have them again (Oh, my books, my books!).
Anyway, like I said, it's a townhouse (townhome?). On the bottom floor we have the kitchen, dining room, and living room. Also the washer/dryer and a 1/2 bath. And the back sliding door goes to a fenced-in patio beyond which is a lake with ducks (Ireland <3's ducks).
On the 2nd floor, there are 2 bedrooms and 2 baths and a linen closet.
(So we've cut our household in half and trippled the number of toilets.)
At the moment, Ireland has her own room, but this will be changing next month when she becomes a big sister.
We're mostly moved in now, but we still have lots of things in storage.
It feels good to have room to stretch out, just the other day I was able to sit down at a desk and work on a translation project-it felt *so* good to be able to do that again.
And just this morning, I set up the PC.
I called Comcast to get a quote on internet, and it's $63/mo! Ha! Like that'll happen.
So for the time being, my ISP is Sprint through my Palm Centro with the occasional trip to the library.

While we would love to have even more space, it feels wonderful to have a place even this size.

And if you don't mind boxes, come over for a visit-we even have a pool.

Networking Socially

The other day, I was talking to my good friend Tym, and Twitter and other services came up.
That conversation prompted this post.

Back in the day, I signed up for MySpace. At the time, I was very impressed. It allowed me to reconnect with friends I'd lost contact with-very impressive indeed.
But the "profile pages" are a little too customizable, and more often than not, they become loaded full of high-content images and videos.
Later, I signed up for Facebook.
I'll admit that the only reason I signed up for fb was to "steal" pictures from her albums.
Later, I discovered different people on fb than were on ms. So for a while, I used both.
Eventually, I added text messages to my Sprint account, and added fb mobile to my life.
When we moved to Indiana, we didn't have much internet access at first, and when we did, it was usually dial-up.
Ms pages on dial-up don't work. But fb does.
Between the fb mobile, and the dial-up accesability, ms usage almost died.
With an unlimited texting plan, I can receive ALL of my friends status updates to my phone, update my status, send/recieve wall posts & messages.
I'm also notified about friend requests and mobile photo uploads (which I can see through my data plan).
Ms has since given me the ability to be *notified* when someone sends messages and such, but I must then go on-line to see what it was.
I really enjoyed being able to update my fb status whenever and whereever I wanted, especially when I started my courier job, and was all over the state.
During this time, I discovered Twitter.
While *I* was able to send/recive status updates, and know what my friends were up to, my friends weren't. In my opinion, I had some pretty clever updates that almost no one saw.
And why would they have any reason to hunt down my previous updates?
If only there was some way to post updates, and have my friends be able to see all of them.
Behold Twitter.
The intire service is about 140 character updates in answer to the question, "What are you doing?".
There's no fancy distractions, just updates.
And you can get them any way you want: via the web, through SMS (TXT) on your phone, IM, mobile web, or any number of 3rd party apps.
Finally a way for my friends and I to stay in better contact.
But no one has accepted my invitation to join :(
But I found a way to forward my tweets to my fb status to share with whoever is on-line, and people do see them, at times.
As mentioned, I became a courier. I travelled all over this small state.
I wanted a way to share my travels, let people know where I am.
Enter brightkite.
With bk, I can "check-in" almost anywhere I want.
All of my bk friends are notified when I check-in, post notes, and post photos.
When I check-in somewhere, I can use the mobile site to see previous posts by others.
If I check-in at a resteraunt and see a post about bad service, I might think twice about about going in.
Problem? No one accepted my invivtes to this one either.
However, I have it set-up to forward to twitter, which of course forwards to facebook.
I'm not aware of anyone (besides my wife) getting my fb updates on their phone.
I have made several tweeps (twitter peeps), but I only *know* my wife and her brother and sister.
I have hopes that I'll find a way to send/recive updates with my friends-but I don't think they're update kind of people.
Bit I still enjoy posting them nonetheless, to be read by whoever might be out there.

Want to follow?

twitter.com/roneyii

How's My Tweeting?

This post is mainly for my tweeps (the people that follow me on Twitter), but is also for my facebook friends because both my tweets (the updates I post to Twitter) and this blog are forwarded to Facebook.

I can be followed at:
http://twitter.com/roneyii

According to Twitter, I'm being followed by 62 people.
I have reason to beleave that most of them are not spammers. If that's true, that's the most I've had.
And I would like to know your opinion.
How am I doing?
Do you like what I'm saying?
Why did you start following me?
Why are you *still* following me?

Some of you may have noticed a lack of Brightkite check-ins. Do you care?

Anything you would like to hear more/less about?

And any other comments or suggestions are welcome.
I really want to know what y'all think.

Klingon Kama Sutra

Back on January 25, 2008 (I think), I publicly stated my intentions (via the KLI e-mail discussion group) to translate the Kama Sutra into Klingon.
Also at that time I posted a very rough draft of the first chapter.
The problem was that I was borrowing *multiple* books from the library, and it became increasingly dificult to have ALL of them checked-out simutaniously for any effective amount of time.
Between that and my change in jobs, the project was put on hold.
Until now that is.
On August 1st, we (wife, daughter, and I) moved into our own place. For over a year, we've been living with her family. (Living with one's in-laws also inhibits anything involving the Kama Sutra...)

A week or two ago, I recived an anonymous TXT asking about the status of this project. Being anonymous in nature, I was not able to respond.
I also recently recived my copy of the Tao Te Ching (TTC), in Klingon. And between the TXT and the intro to the TTC, I have new-found motivation to complete the Klingon Kama Sutra (KKS).
While money is tight, I hope to purchase the required texts soon. And between the 'freedom' of having our own place, and my once-again new work schedule, I should be able to make significant progress.

That being said, it's my hope. No, it's my *goal* to see the KKS published.

(If anyone knows who sent the anonymous TXT, let me know)

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This web log is being published via a mobile e-mail, any headers/footers are unintended and not part of the actual log.

The Man Rules

~as forwarded from my Granny~

Finally , the guys' side of the story.

We always hear 'the rules' from the female side.
Now here are the rules from the male side.
These are our rules!

Please note, They are numbered in the order of importance.

1. Men are NOT mind readers.

1. Learn to work the toilet seat.
You're a big girl. If it's up, put it down.
We need it up, you need it down.
You don't hear us complaining about you leaving it down.

1. Sunday sports - It's like the full moon or the changing of the tides.
Let it be.

1. Crying is blackmail.

1. Ask for what you want.
Let us be clear on this one:
Subtle hints do not work!
Strong hints do not work!
Obvious hints do not work!
Just say it!

1. Yes and No are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question.

1. Come to us with a problem only if you want help solving it.
That's what we do.
Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.

1. Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument.
In fact, all comments become Null and void after 7 Days.

1. If you think you're fat, you probably are.
Don't ask us.

1. If something we said can be interpreted two ways, and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one

1. You can either ask us to do something
Or tell us how you want it done.
Not both.
If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself.

1. Whenever possible, please say whatever you have to say during commercials..

1. Christopher Columbus did NOT need directions and neither do we.

1. ALL men see in only 16 colors, like Windows default settings.
Peach, for example, is a fruit, not a color.
Pumpkin is also a fruit.
We have no idea what mauve is.

1. If it itches, it will be scratched.
We do that.

1. If we ask what is wrong and you say 'nothing',
We will act like nothing's wrong.
We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle.

1. If you ask a question you don't want an answer to,
Expect an answer you don't want to hear.

1. When we have to go somewhere, absolutely anything you wear is
fine...
Really.

1. Don't ask us what we're thinking about unless you are prepared to discuss such topics as FOOTBALL or motor sports

1. You can have many clothes.

1. You can have too many shoes.

1. I am in shape. Round IS a shape!

2. Thank you for reading this.
Yes, I know, I have to sleep on the couch tonight;
But did you know men really don't mind that?
It's like camping.
Pass this to as many men as you can - to give them a laugh.
Pass this to as many women as you can - to give them a bigger laugh