Taking It Easy

Summer time is officially here for me. The end of June through July is the 'slowest' time of the year for me in regards to my employment and for blogging... just because I'm not around a cpu as much as I am during the other parts of the year... I am also taking some days off here and there which also cut into my blogging time...

So I'll be posting a bit less over the summertime, but most likely will increase the posting frequency as football season approaches...

Happy Father's Day

Went to the Zoo with the family... the Red River Zoo in Fargo is small, but still a pretty respectable Zoo... They continue to expand, so here's some of pics from the outing...

There are Bison painted up in various ways and placed throughout the community (like 50?)... this is a pretty cool looking one that was outside the Zoo... a Catfish Bison... My daughter turned 9 on Father's day... that's her with said painted Bison...







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More Mentos and Diet Coke

It's getting even more insane! Check out these two guys...

Mentos and Diet Coke

So there are several of these videos out there where people dump a bunch of Mentos into a 2 liter of Diet Coke which then creates a geyser of soda I'm sure you may have seen one and if not, they are like the following:




But of course that was just the beginning... I have yet to try this out, but when I do, I think I will try to replicate the way these guys are doing it:

The Simpsons Movie: Excellent

Next Generation's "Cultured Society"

A live performance of level 1 of Super Mario Brothers... not sure if it is sad or funny?

No World Cup Fever Here

Just like clockwork, every 4 years the biggest sporting event the entire world cares about, except of course for the United States Of America, the World Cup of soccer has begun. And prior to each World Cup, in an effort to get Americans to care, is the hype surrounding America's team. This is the year that they advance deep into the field and become a true contender. And it seems like every World Cup the American team disappoints...with this World Cup likely to be the same. Sure, they have only lost 1 game and have 2 left to play, but out of the 2 past World Cups only 1 team has ever advanced out of pool play after losing their first game...so the likelihood we will see much more of the American squad after their third game is unlikely.

And I'm like most Americans... I really couldn't care less. But what really bothers me is the hype. And of course it's our favorite sports channel that is leading the charge...of course they are also carrying many of the games so they will do their best drum up some interest. But what sickens me is that ESPN prior to game 3 of the Stanley Cup decided to mention that the game may be the least watched program during prime time in the history of sports. I'm sure there wouldn't be any mention of that if ESPN was carrying the Stanley Cup. I'm sure ESPN's newest programming decision to air dominos is paying off immensely already. I happened to be just sitting around when this hit the air. After 15 minutes of domino hype you actually saw people playing dominos...yes, it is about as exciting as watching a chess match...yawn....

Light Posting

I have been working a festival this past week which has prevented me from posting much... after I recoup with a couple days off, I hope to get back to posting...

During the week I was able to see Little Texas and Emerson Drive - two country acts - that solidify my reason for not wanting to see country acts. Both acts played almost equal covers to original material. I also saw Kansas and Styx - neither of which played any covers - both were good and Styx was surprisingly really enjoyable...the weather was less then ideal for Styx which really affected the crowd potential but they still drew fairly well considering.

When Do I Get Spokesperson Money?

People that first meet me sometimes judge me fairly hastily as whining, complaining dick...and sure, I may give off that first impression. Those that get to know me and understand what I am basically talking about will (hopefully) not have that impression. I will often complain and gripe about things, but in reality, the things I complain/bitch about are things that are often times basic life 101 things that most people are willing to tolerate in today's society for no reason other than it apparently is accepted behavior now. But, when something/someone does something that counters today's trends, I am the first on the bandwagon and will taut their services/products to any and all people and here is yet another such instance... Direct TV.

Again, up until a year ago I had cable television. I had cable television from three different providers but they all essentially operated the same. You see, cable television at one time was a greatly sought after service and the cable television industry knew this. They (cable television companies) did not care about customer service or convenience for it's subscribers. No, if you had issues/problems with your cable tv it meant a telephone call where you sat on hold for an hour and then scheduled a service call that would occur sometime within the next year which also required you to be at home. Cable tv's 'installation' - which at one time I paid $60 for - was often times a person dropping off a few recievers, some coaxial cable and the bill...no actual 'installing' ever happening.

So again, here is another instance of what I think is just unbelievable great service... my daughter's DTV receiver was not receiving all the channels we subscribe too...so I look up the service number and right away I am hooked into an automated system...oh great I think, how long is this call going take? I punch in my phone number and the error code we are receiving on the tuner... the automated voice on the end of the line tells me to tune into a channel we should be receiving and in a few moments they would be doing some diagnostic testing...before that very sentence was even completed, BAM, the picture is on the television and everything is working just fine... a total time of about 60 seconds... incredible!

Of course there are the 'weather issues' that I have heard from a couple of other Direct TV users where they would lose reception during storms. In the 1 year that I have had Direct TV we have lost reception twice and probably for a total time of 20 minutes. Now whether or not that is because we haven't had strong enough storms yet or that I haven't been around to notice any other outages, I do not know. But as of this time, I know of people that subscribe to our local cable affiliate and have had more outages and downtime in the past year then I have by a considerable amount... so as of this time, I continue to praise and love the Direct TV!