Where Have You Gone Joe DiMaggio...

Ok, so I am not Joltin' Joe, but I have been a way for a while, so let's play catch up.

First, I was in Orlando to see my girlfriend play in the USTA 9.0 Mixed Doubles Championships - Photos or Slide Show for your viewing pleasure. The tournament was held in Maitland, FL, just a hop skip and jump from Disney. And her team, the Metroliners, won the entire tournament! They even made the NY POST!! And, where do Champions go? But of course Disney World! So we spent 2 days running through Hollywood Studios, Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom and Epcot. So some highlights (and low lights):

• I was humiliated in Epcot when I got pulled out of the crowd to be Sir Galahad during a street performance in the UK Pavilion.
• Drinking your way through Epcot can be loads of fun, maybe too much fun. As my friend said, Epcot is way more magical of a place when you get older!
• Animal Kingdom - A photographers delight, I got many great pictures, check out my album for all of them.
• Magic Kingdom - Eh, was nice to go, but more for the little ones
• Hollywood Studios - Steer clear of the Drew Carey movie thing, worst 10 minutes of my life.

So after our whirlwind tour through Disney, it was time to hop on a plane and head on out to Vegas Baby! We spent 5 nights in Vegas, staying at the Planet Hollywood Casino and then Red Rock Casino and Resort. I did my fair share of gambling and had little success, but my protege (i.e. girlfriend) cleaned it up in poker and chopped a 3 way pot at a daily PH tournament. My girlfriend and I both have family in Vegas, so we spent plenty of time hanging out with them in conjunction with the gambling, eating and drinking. We also took in the Beatles LOVE show. Great music, but the strange circus antics were not for me, but the sound system was AMAZING! Nothing like hearing the Beatles classics pumping through a state of the art sound system.

Well, I am back for now, just a few weeks until my Grand Caymans adventure, so stay tuned!

Current Ramblings

So yet again I apologize for the delay in postings, so let me cover a few quick points:

- Leaving tomorrow for 9 night trip to Orlando and then Vegas, woo hoo. Wish me luck!

- The IU basketball season has started, I've yet to see a game, but I'll probably catch some of next week's tournament games while in Vegas. The record looks good, but it is still too early to tell as they have not played any competition.

- I finally got my netbook, got the Asus 901 with their pre-installed Linux OS. Linux is not that easy to use off the bat, at least the Asus version. However, it comes loaded with all the software you'll probably need, so no worries or hassles needed to install programs. Using it for tasks is easy, trying to install programs or get into the guts of Linux, forget it!

Random Thoughts for a Sunday night

1) Can Brett Favre throw any more INT's in a game? The Chiefs dropped 2 more possible INT's, they were lucky to pull out this win.

2) The BeerFest in NYC is a week away, so someone is going to have some fun next Saturday! Who else is in?

3) I've been asked to contribute to a new website; I guess someone has been reading my blog and they like what I have to say. Stay tuned for more details, once the site is up and functional I'll let you all know.

4) Asus 901 Linux model, that will be my netbook of choice - do not talk to me about them anymore, I do not want to keep second guessing myself!

5) It is odd, it is October and the Yanks aren't playing, but I have a feeling this is something I will be getting used to for the next few years. I cannot see any quick fixes for the Yanks. Speaking of baseball, I hope the World Series goes to 7 games this year, both teams are evenly matched and very entertaining to watch.

6) Isiah Thomas - could this story take a stranger twist? He is a Hoosier so I have to support him somewhat, even though he destroyed my Knicks.

Technology mumble jumble

A) why do they make it so hard to change the EV setting on an DSLR? Seemed like my e-520 had 2 ways to do it. I took about 130 pictures this weekend, tweaking the EV settings depending on the situations at hand. When I transfer the photos into Lightroom, they were all taken at EV 0 --- figures. Just my luck.

B) I still want a Netbook, but now it looks like Asus will have larger SSD drives, touch screens and dual core Atom processors next year. I have 2 different 1 week vacations coming up. Do I buy now or wait for next year? Usually your tech products are always outdated 2 hours after purchase, but these 3 changes are not so small and superficial, they will make a huge difference on the performance of the device. At least for '08 models I have it narrowed down to the Asus 901 or the Dell Mini.

C) I still hate CSS, and that will never change folks!

Netbooks

Why must making a purchase be so darn confusing. I want to buy a new netbook. I want a large SSD HD and a 6 Cell Battery.

I really like the keyboard and overall form of the Dell, and I can use some credit card reward points for half the cost of the Dell. But of course, it tops out with a 16GB SSD drive and it only has a 4 cell battery, no options to upgrade to 6 cell.

I hear the Asus 6 cell batteries are nice, they can get over 6 hours of playback. Asus has an 8.9'' and 10'' models, with various configurations of hard drives, RAM, OS's, etc.

Anyone have any experience with Asus models, or the Dell's for that matter?

I think I scratched HP off the list due to the lack of an Atom processor. The Acer Aspire and MSI Wind lack a larger battery, except in their very high end models which are hard to come by.

And then once I pick the hardware, I got to decide Linux vs WinXP? Do I really want a 10 year old, unsupported OS? Do I really want to learn ANOTHER OS in Linux??

Please help me!!!

On a side note, a hearty congrats to Kirk and Abby on the arrival of Everett Patrick Winters.

My ex-BFF - CSS Code

Ok let's be honest, CSS and I were NEVER BFF!!!!

I just wanted to say, that I do not get along with CSS coding! 10 years ago I was a whiz with HTML. Then I decided to stop programming, but recently I got the itch to get back into it. I have been trying to code my site, but I tell ya, it is not easy. Without the good folks at the www.dgrin.com forum, I'd be totally lost. I was working for a few hours tonight on getting rid of floating buttons, nothing major. However, I could not tweak it just right. So I posted to the www.dgrin.com forum, hopefully I'll have some good reading in the morning with a better layout by the afternoon!

Anyone have any comments or suggestions on my site?

Brett-y and the Jets

Ok I give Chris Berman credit for that nickname. I've heard many nicknames for Favre since he went to the Jets, but I think this is my favorite one, for now.

I must say, I have been a Jets fan all of my life, and this is maybe the 2nd or 3rd time that was I was excited coming into a season. That excitement usually goes away by Week 5 or so. Well, not only did the Jets sign a ton of free agents in the off-season to help the OL and Defense, but then they got Favre for a conditional pick. All of the sudden, they had a solid Offense and a revamped Defense.

It is all slowly coming together - Favre threw for 2 TDs and their Jones have over 100 yards on the ground. I have not seen Jets stats like that for years! And then the news that Brady is out for the year? Wow, could the Jets now be favored in the AFC East? Is this the year? Am I getting too excited? Well, after the Pats they have the Chargers - these two weeks should be telling.

Now, one can only hope my fantasy football team picks up the slack a bit, an 0-2 start is never fun.

3rd Time is a Charm

Hey All,
Thanks for hanging in there with me. I am now on my 3rd website host and 3rd blog host in about 2 months, but you know what they say, 3rd time is a charm! I think I found the winning combination. Smugmug and Blogger have been great and I think I am done (for now).

Please feel free to drop me comments on the new look and feel to the site.

Thanks!