TAGGED

GET OFF MY LAWN, YOU DAMN KIDS!

I was tagged by Torn Shorts and quite honestly, I love these damn things!

1. Four jobs I have held in my life:
Morning show producer, amusement park ride operator, TV assignments editor, media relations for a non-profit

2. Four movies I could watch over and over:
Office Space, Kill Bill 1&2, Tomorrow Never Dies, The Getaway

3. Four places I have lived:
El Paso. IM boring, sue me!

4. Four TV shows I love to watch:
Mythbusters, Ghost Hunters, The Venture Brothers, Countdown with Keith Olbermann

5. Four places I've been on vacation:
Las Vegas, San Antonio, Chicago, Corpus Christi

6. Four of my favorite websites:
fark.com, wilwheaton.net, thinkgeek.com, Metafilter.com

7. Four of my favorite foods:
Frisco/ Roscoe Burgers, Pizza, Lasagna, mom's tacos

8. Four friends I will tag:
Evelyn, Joe & Ivette, cause no one else will do it.

9. Right now I would rather be:
taking a long vacation!

It feels like... BURNING...

You know, I would sit on my bed, laptop on the comforter and think to myself "What keeps this black rectangular hodgepodge of plastic and electronics cool enough not to catch fire while resting on a surface that doesn't conduct heat all that well?". Well, apparently Dell is suffering from some battery malfunctions. By malfunction, I mean short circuit. By short circuit I mean they fucking catch fire!


Dude, you're toasting your Dell!

The upper photograph was at an electronics conference. The fucking Dell asploded on the Goddamned table! Look at the fireball, it looks like it was powered by fucking Chernobyl!

Thankfully, my Dell Inspiron 1000 was built using the last parts and pieces from a model line that was eliminated and replaced by the Inspiron 1100 and such forth. The design of the Dell laptop has a strange way of expelling heat from the case and cooling the processor. It draws air from the bottom of the laptop and expels it from the rear of the chassis. It overheats when you sit the laptop on anything other than a slightly raised surface for airflow, and placing it on the bed, carpet or lap is downright suicidal.



My friend John had clued me in to a great product made by Antec. Its a laptop cooling pad. It runs off of the USB port and does a remarkable job at cooling off the laptop and making it perform much better. When using the laptop on your lap, it keeps sensitive parts safe from heat (really, really bad).

Thankfully, my laptop was made around the time where my model was discontinued. My laptop battery is safe from the voluntary recall on certain Dell models. If you have a Dell that you need to have serviced, here's the link to the Dell Battery Return Program.

Fun & funny random crap

American Cities That Best Fit You::

65% Chicago

60% Los Angeles

60% New York City

55% Boston

50% Philadelphia

Which American Cities Best Fit You?

You Christmas Stocking Will Be Filled with Money

You've either been really really good this year... Or Santa is trying to pay you off!

What Will Be In Your Christmas Stocking?

Your Deadly Sins

Sloth: 80%

Gluttony: 40%

Wrath: 40%

Envy: 20%

Greed: 20%

Lust: 20%

Pride: 0%

Chance You'll Go to Hell: 31%

You will die with your hand down your underwear, watching Star Trek.

How Sinful Are You?

Your Rising Sign is Aries

You're full of energy - and people look to you to get the party started. Confident and honest, you'll be the one to say what everyone is thinking. You are easily bored, and you always find unique ways to do things. You don't just dream it, you do it. And that's why you're so successful. Too intense for some, often times people are intimidated by you. But you're usually smart enough to charm them anyway!

What's Your Rising Sign?

You Are Jean Grey

Although your fate is often unknown, you always seem to survive (even after death). Your mind is your greatest weapon, literally! Powers: telepathy and telekinesis, the ability to project thoughts into the mind of others, communication with animals

Which of the X-Men Are You?

You Are an Iced Coffee

At your best, you are: hyper, modern, and athletic At your worst, you are: cheap and angsty You drink coffee when: you're out with friends Your caffeine addiction level: medium

What Kind of Coffee Are You?

Your Famous Last Words Will Be:

"I can pass this guy."

What Will Your Famous Last Words Be?

You Are The Hanging Man

You represent the seeking of enlightenment and spiritual clarity. You tend to confuse others, but your oddities seem deeply satisfying. Self sacrifice is easy for you, especially if it makes you a better person in the end. You are the type of person who is very in touch with your soul and inner spirit. Your fortune: Right now is a good time for reflection and meditation. You should stop resisting the problems in your life, and let yourself be vulnerable to them. You may need to sacrifice something important to you to move ahead in your life. Accept your destiny with courage, and learn to let go of what you think you need.

What Tarot Card Are You?

You Should Drive a Ford Shelby Mustang Cobra

You have an extreme need for speed, even when you're not in a hurry. And while your flying by, you don't want to look like every other car on the road!

What 2007 Car Should You Drive?

Maroon 5 Shares Your Taste in Music

See their whole playlist here (iTunes required)

Which Musician (or Group) Shares Your Taste in Music?

30,000 MILES

I had just pulled into the garage at home when I saw that my car just turned 30,000 miles. I haven't seen a car odometer that low since I bought the Cavalier with 31,257 miles on it.

I talk to myself in the car

I do it often enough that I rarely think about it. I was sitting in the parking lot of Sonitrol this morning waiting for my paycheck when I started to talk to myself. Nothing to call the men in white coats and large novelty butterfly nets over, but I do notice I carry small conversations.

Often I talk to my car. Penny is a fickle little car. She has her moments where she's purring like a well tuned machine, then there are days when she feels like she's giving back a little too much attitude.

Today my conversation to myself involved music. Like many other drivers, I sing along to good music. I was blasting Fleetwood Mac as loud as my Neon could mustre. It had been a really long time since I sat down and listened to some good Fleetwood Mac songs and today coming home that's all I kept thinking about. The last time I really did that was when I was heading out to Corpus Christi in the Mustang. I took along with me some 9 hours worth of FM and by the end of that road trip I had my fix.

So today was one of those days where I said "IM just gonna listen to this one song [Gypsy] and that'll be it".

Then The Chain played.

You can't interrupt a good song.

Then Dreams.

Then Silver Springs.

Pretty soon my playlist started to shape into just hitting play on all Fleetwood Mac songs on the iPod. I sat at a stop light and happened to notice there were a few people staring at me as I sung. I stared straight at them and sung louder. I tried to turn the radio even louder and found I was maxxing out the volume on the Neon. It wasn't loud enough. I was in the moment, in the zone with some truly awesome music. I listened to Stevie Nicks belt out Rhiannon, then started thinking about her concert performances back in the 1970s when she was performing like a mad woman possessed by the passion for her lyrics and oblivious to the world beyond the melody. I could hear that version in my head screaming out the lyrics and captivating the audience in what would have been a spectacle of sequins and lace trailing from her black satiny blouse as she hung onto that microphone and painted the concert hall in her soul.

Then the light turned green.

I talk to myself in the car. It helps keep me sane.