It's Been A While

Well it has been about 8 months since I posted. I'm sure my blog will never forgive me for the neglect but I am going to make an attempt at reconciliation.



Lets see. Since the first of the year I have started my EMT classes, taken a trip to Korea, turned 31(my aching bones), finished my EMT classes, and am getting ready to start my Fire Standards.



Whew! Been a busy year so far.



(not an actual picture of me)



I started my classes in January. Last week I passed my Skills Tests and Final Exam. Now on to the State/National Exam. Just have to take one test in FL. Instead of taking a State and National, they have made them the same. Class was interesting and learned alot. Now we will soon see if it was enough to pass the National.



Spent the middle part of March in Seoul, Korea. Went for a family medical emergency and spent the first 8 or 9 days at the hospital. Things are a little different than hospitals are here. They are physically the same but the operations are different. The hospital we were at was huge. It was the biggest and best the country had.



The last couple of days we were there we got to get out and see the city. It was amazing. I would love to go back under different circumstances. Everywhere we went the people were the nicest I ever met. Even thought they didn't understand what we were saying half the time they always tried to help. Every street we went down was like a party. The streets were full of people, vendors, and food. Never thought food off the street would be so good. The city was alive with alot of energy.



Of course as soon as we land in Atlanta we ran into the rudest bunch of people I had seen in weeks. They worked at the airport. People wonder why parts of the world don't like Americans. We were coming in through the international wing and all I could think was how the first thing the people coming into our country were going to see was these assholes at the International wing of Hartsfield international airport.



Oh well. My Fire Standards start on the 29th. Then onto the next job. I have a couple of job ideas but will keep that for another time.



Talk to you soon blog.

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Just To Get It Off My Chest

Something that has bothering me lately is what to do with myself. Career wise.  I can't decide what I want to do and how to go about doing it.

--I always thought I would eventually get a career in Law Enforcement. I went through the Academy and received my State of Florida Law Enforcement Standards, and have applied numerous times to various agencies. But as time goes by, it increasingly becomes more difficult.
Maybe some other public service position. Maybe an EMT or Paramedic. I always wanted to do something where I could help other people. I guess it could be called a Hero Complex. I never thought I had a Hero Complex but reading the definition on Wikipedia it says:

"The Hero Complex is an inherent desire for the need to help others. It is a compellation to help make their world right....

Those who suffer from it tend to feel like they do not understand
what is wrong with them, or feel that the current life they live is
insufficient. For most, the need will ebb and flow.

Many believe that they could do more, ....  They also often ask
the question 'Is this really enough?' or something similar. Those with
this condition make excellent leaders, and often give good advice. They
are very loyal and dependable, and when given a challenge will almost
always find a way to complete it; if they see it as a fun challenge.
(Will often become hostile about 'drudgery work' -- i.e. cleaning
toilets unless it is presented as something challenging.)"

We all know that Wikipedia is not the most reliable source, but this really hits home. I feel this way all the time. Like what I'm doing is not enough and that what I'm doing doesn't make a difference in the grand scheme of things. I want to make a positive impact and do something important. Every job I have ever had, I felt that if I didn't show up the next day then it wouldn't really matter. But if a police officer, fire fighter, or paramedic doesn't show up then it could be a life and death difference.

I do internet sales and some amatuer web design now. I also do computer repair in my spare time. None of this matters. The world will not end and noone will live a better life because of something I am doing now.


--I have also thought about a career in technology. But what area of
technology? How about communications? But where do you get started with
communications? Web design? Product review? IT? Networking? etc....
But I don't feel that any of these will fix the problem, feeling that I am making a difference.

Everyone tells me that I don't want to be a cop or an emt because they don't make any money. I just tell them that it is not something you do for money. I'm doing a job just for money now and I'm not happy doing it.  I think people should work to strive to make themselves and their community better, not to make money.

--It's not about Quantity, It's about Quality.

Mark Cuban needs help.

Mark Cuban has a post on his blog where he is asking for help with movie marketing. He is offering a job to whoever can come up with an excellent, new idea for getting people out of the house to see a movie. So far all the comments on his blog are about the same thing. Make better movies and offer free stuff. One of the things he wants is an idea that will not cost millions. Surely someone out there has a good idea that Mark can help put into practice. Check it out.

Blog Maverick - www.blogmaverick.com _

It's been a while.

It's been a while since I wrote anything in my blog. I can't think of anything to write about.
It's not that nothing has been going on. There is always something going on. I just try to think of something to write about and nothing seems blog worthy. Maybe that is the problem, I'm thinking too much about it.

I am behind on listening to my regular podcasts. I usually listen to TWiT, Geek News Central, and Cranky Geeks. There are a few more that I listen to occasionally but those are the 3 I listen to on a regular basis. I am listening to TWiT from 7/16. Only a week behind so it is only one episode for TWiT. I am 3 eps behind on Geek News Central. 2 episodes a week is alot to keep up with for me. I usually listen in my Jeep on the way to work. But there have been vehicle problems and I haven't been driving. I had to put a rear end in my Jeep only to find out after doing all the work that Reverse is gone in my Transmission. It's a long story.....

But anyways... I still read Wil Wheaton's blog but lately it has been alot of poker stuff so I haven't been that into it. I have been reading Chris Pirillo's also and it is pretty good. He rants and raves about whatever pops into his head. Leo has a good blog also. He updates almost daily. In Leo's blog, he talks about a TechTV reunion. I would love to see it. I used to keep at least one TV in the house on TechTV all the time. I would definately watch. I don't think there is a geek or techie that would not watch.

The only ones I would like to keep up with that I don't are the video ones. I got into digg when it first came out but quickly tired of it. There is just too much to keep up with and you always feel like you are missing something. I like dl.tv with Patrick and Robert but can't watch video in the car in my free time. I recently bought a PSP so I guess I could put them on that. Or I could put them on the TiVo and watch them on the TV. That sounds like alot of work though. I guess since I am not driving to work I could be watching them on the ride. Nah!! I will just have to figure out something else.

Access Anywhere

I have noticed more and more lately that companies are coming up with even more ways for users to access their information from anywhere. From the U3 flash drives to online file storage it is becoming easier to have everything you need at any PC. I am a bit leary about the online storeage, but love my u3 flash drive.

I recently got my 1Gb flash drive with U3. I love it. I still carry a regular 1Gb around just incase I need more space. With the U3 I have, of course, installed Firefox. This means I can have my favorites with me at any PC. That is a big deal to me because I find things at work that I would like to look at again later at home(or vice versa) and now I can. Plus my extensions are also installed. Like Performancing, which I am using to write my blog entries. I also carry U3 Antivirus, Hijack-This, and DVD Shrink on my U3. There is also a program called Migo but I haven't used it. I have all this installed and still have over 860mb free. That is alot of free space and there are alot of programs you can put on it. There is a site called Portable Freeware that has a lot of games and apps for the U3 drive. They also have instruction on how to install them.

Now, for online storage. It seems everyone is trying to get in on this game. You have sites like Flickr and YouTube that will basically store your pics and video and you can choose whether to share them with everyone or not. But they are limited to video and pictures.  If you do a Google search for "online file storage" it only brings up about 121 million results. You should be able to find some storage with all those.

Two that I have been hearing alot about lately are Geek Squad's Online Data Backup and, the yet to be seen, Google GDrive.

The Geek Squad Online Data Backup offers several levels of backup. If you click on the Geek Squad logo it will take you to their page with information about their Online Data Backup. From there you can click on the Free 30-Day Trial and see what plans they offer. They have 3, 5, and 10Gb plans for $4.99, $9.99, and $19.99 respectively. That doesn't seem like a bad deal if you have that much information you need access to.

The next one everyone seems to be talking about is the, yet to be released, Google GDrive. There is a blog post about the long awaited GDrive here by Garret Rogers of ZDNet. So far not many details about this one are known, but if it like anything else Google has done, it will turn to Gold and make them a few more million. This is all a big part of Google's Plan for World Domination. Oh well, someone is going to do it eventually.

The only thing I don't understand about these online storage services is, wouldn't it be better to get an external drive and carry it with you. I have a 20Gb Firefly. This thing is tiny. It is about the size of a deck of cards but only about half as thick. The benefit to this is that I can retrieve what is on it without having an internet connection. Which is kind of important if you use one of the online storage services. What if you cannot get online? Maybe you are on the road and you need a file that is in your online storage. That is where you will wish you had that external drive. What if the server goes down? What if the security of the server is compromised? There are a bunch of reasons not to use online storage. But that would be the best way to transfer files to someone else across the country. That may be the next big thing in P2P File Sharing. Who knows?

"Click" was Great

We went to see the movie Click last night. It is the new one with Adam
Sandler, where he gets a remote control that will control the universe. I am a Sandler fan and he was great in this role. It also stars Kate Beckinsale and Christopher Walken. Walken is always funny. Henry Winkler plays Sandlers dad and Sean Astin is also in it.

The movie is way funny but turned out to be more than just a comedy. It was well done and the story was great. This is a good one for everyone to see. I will definately be getting this one on DVD.

Click here to see when and where it is playing in your area.

Disney IS the Happiest Place on Earth!!

Been in the Orlando area since Thursday. Saw some family and, of course, went to Disney.  We got there at 8:30 in the morning. We were in for a long day. We saw some of Epcot then went to the Magic Kingdom and saw a few things there. There is no way you could see everything in a week, much less a day.

Everywhere we went I saw something I couldn't believe.....Everyone was happy. All the employees I saw were polite and courteous. Even in the 95 degree heat.  Everyone talked and asked how we were doing. And they all did it with a smile. Disney really is the "Happiest Place on Earth".

We walked around the park for 13 hours. It was not as bad as I thought it would be. We drank plenty of water and stayed hydrated. It was a blast and we plan on going back soon.

All of the trip was not that good though.

A word about AVIS!!

We rented a car at the Panama City airport from AVIS. About half way to Orlando the car started making a funny noise when we started it. Then the "Passenger Airbag Off" light started going on and off. There is a sensor in the seat that detects weight. This is designed to sense if a full grown person is in the seat, or a car seat with a baby in it. My wife was in the seat and the airbag kept turning itself off.

So Saturday morning we called the nearest AVIS, which was 40 min. away in Kissimmee, and explained what was going on. They told us we could trade the car in but we would have to come to them. So away we went to trade the car in. Never minding the fact that we could have been in an accident on the way and needed the airbags.

So we get to Kissimmee and it turns out they don't have any cars for us. We are driving a full size and all they have is 4 compacts. We were told they only had the 4 and that they were all reserved. The lady at the counter politely told us we would have to go to the airport to trade it in. The airport was about an hour away. To get to the airport we had to go through 3 toll booths. That cost us about $5. No big deal but frustrating as hell.

So we get an upgraded to a small SUV and have to go back through the tolls and find our way back to Clermont, where we were staying. 

So at this point my wife is pissed, I am pissed and we still are not back. It cost about $10 in tolls and half a day of our vacation to exchange this car. And even though we did get an upgraded car, it had not been cleaned and the tank was not full. I returned ours with almost a full tank. Plus they should have come and picked up the car and brought us another.

I don't think we will be using Avis again.