Mind Trap #2

John and Bob played chess. They played a total of seven games. Each won the same number of games, and there were not any draws or stalemates. How could this have happened?

Hell On Earth?

I'm really wondering if this Significant Fest show we are doing this Friday and Saturday is going to be hell on Earth. Why you might ask. It is a two day skating/music festival held within a huge, non-air conditioned warehouse. There will be tons of kids and 20 somethings skateboarding and possibly roller blading inside this park. At the same time we will be running sound for 15 or so bands a day! I have not heard anything about any support staff being available either. I know Corey and I will be there running the show, but I have no idea who will be in charge of the bands and getting them ready to get up on the stage and perform. So, I'm excited but a little uncertain about this event. Hopefully everything will rock and gel together smoothly. I know with Corey and I running the show it will be the best it can be.

Birthday News

So I'm 24 now. Another year gone by. I can't wait until next year when my insurance drops. That will be nice. Didn't do anything fancy for my birthday. We went over to our friends Eric and Jenna's house for a nice steak dinner and some wine. We always have a good time sitting out on the deck and just chit chatting and getting drunk off of wine. Most likely, I am, and if Nichole wants, going over to the parent's house to visit and see them for a bit. Nichole is going to take me out someday for my birthday as well. That's about it. Can't wait to get some money from my parents, my aunt and then I have a good chuck to start up this high interest savings account. I might feel like I am actually getting ahead somewhere. Now all I have to do is eliminate my credit card debt.

Monday Madness

Today's freebies are brought to you by the letter B. B is for birthday because it is my birthday people. Let me hear a "woot woot".

Rent One, Get One at Hollywood Video

Post It Flags and Notes

Stride Gum

For Stride Gum, in the bottom left corner click where it says to create a band and enter for the prizes. Once you create a band and register it, they will send you some free gum.

The Show

Last night was the Spinlight Letter CD Release Party with The Ataris. It was a great show. Although the theater had some pretty crappy air conditioning and the owner wouldn't turn it on until the doors opened. Loading in and setting up the gear really sucked. I think it was hotter inside than it was outside. Next time we do a show there, we will be creating a contracting stipulating air conditioning is to be on the whole time we are present. There were not too many people there and there were a lot of kids. That would be because the Spinlight Letter is a bunch of kids. The Ataris also played a great set. It was pretty cool meeting them and running sound for them. All in all, it was a great show. Up next is Significant Fest, next weekend.

Tomato - Toe-Mah-Toe

I came across this cool study in my technology board. They were doing a study on phones and what people call certain types of phones like cell phones, home cordless phones, satellite phones, etc. The had a link to this cool study about whether people call it soda, pop, coke or some other name. Check out this cool graphic that was created from this study.

Spinlight Letter / The Ataris Show Tomorrow

The Spinlight Letter CD Release show is tomorrow night at The Royalty Theater in downtown Clearwater. I can't wait to get in there and tear it up.  It will be an all day event for us, the crew. Load in is at 12pm, sound check at 2pm, some downtime and the show is at 6:30pm. It is going to be really cool to meet The Ataris and run sound for an international band of their caliber. How cool and impressive is that going to be on my resume. Should be a blast tomorrow. Can't wait.

Freebies

Seems like I have been slackin on the freebies. I can't find any anywhere right now. To get your fill, head on over the Cheryl's blog and get your freebie on.

Coupons

I have never cut coupons for grocery shopping except for when I was a kid I would do it for my mom. The other day Nichole and I went grocery shopping. This time we decided to be frugal and clip some coupons. It really does help. We ended up saving about $15 off our grocery bill. Pretty cool. I can put that $15 to other good use. We cut most of our coupons from the newspaper and a few from the Internet. You can find a lot of useful coupons on the Internet. It's like free money. Now all we need is a coupon book to organize them in.

Old Ybor City

Last night when Nichole and I were in Ybor, it was like a ghost town. It is summer so all the kids have gone home from college, but jeez. Only three bars were open, maybe. There was hardly anyone on the street. I remember being there on Tuesdays and it was just like the weekend. They have the new rule of no beer on the street and they also leave the road open every night, even Saturday nights. The beer thing I can understand, but to leave the road open is ridicules on the weekends. There is no need to drive down 7th ave. There is hardly any parking, not that anyone would be doing street parking on a weekend anyway. That's what the garages are for. It seems that with all the "cleaning up" they are trying to do in Ybor, it has pretty much killed it's nightlife. I was unaware that The Masquerade (a concert hall) closed and that club Hedo and The Amphitheater also closed. The Amphitheater used to be my place to go on Saturday nights a couple of years ago. Nichole and I used to frequent Amphitheater weekly. It was always a blast. Although, the last time we went, it was lacking something. Now I know why. There are still a few of the good clubs left like Prana and The Castle, but everything else is either closed or has turned into a coffee shop. The new party spots are Hyde Park and all the clubs not on a strip. It just saddens me that Ybor isn't the party place it used to be.

Gameworks

Nichole and I went to Gameworks in Centro Ybor last night. We had a good time. It's fun to play games and drink. Lol. Even though we had a good time I was turned off by it. The bar reeked of stale beer when you would go up to order. A lot of the games are old and have been there since it open. The place was also in general just dirty. But we still had a good time.

Birthday

My birthday is coming up really soon. June 25th. No big celebration or anything special planned. Just having a nice dinner with Nichole and the usual gifts of cards and money. My Aunt Cheryl is giving me a really cool gift. We are going to open up an ING Direct savings account for me. It carries with it a nice interest rate. Therefore I can dump money into it every paycheck and just watch it grow. Save up for a rainy day you know. Nothing like having your money make you money.

Windows Live Writer

I am posting this blog using Windows Live Writer. Blogger had a blog about this in the dashboard and I figured I might try it out. It is from Microsoft and is still in BETA. It does have some cool features like, as I type this it is showing me exactly what it will look like in my blog. I also like that this is a separate program, so you do not have to open a browser and surf over to Blogger and then log in. You just open up the program and start typing. It will then publish your post for you. Pretty cool.

Significant Fest

The last weekend in June is Significant Fest. Friday the 29th and Saturday the 30th at 688 Skate Park on Ulmerton. Skating, food and music all day, for two days! Tons of local bands will be performing throughout the event. Full Wave Sound will be running the sound for this event.

Spinlight Letter and The Ataris Show

Saturday the 23rd is the The Ataris with The Spinlight Letter show at The Royalty Theater in downtown Clearwater. Full Wave Sound will be running the sound for the event.

Sweepstakes, Prizes, Giveaways, etc...

Just within the past few months I have been blogging, signing up for free products, doing surveys and winning entries into sweepstakes and grabbing raffle tickets. I still haven't won a thing. Well, I guess you can't include the free stuff, because it isn't within the guidelines of "winning". We have received a lot of free stuff too. But, I have probably entered at least 35 sweepstakes and entered some of them more than 50 times. One survey company I participate, NPD in allows you to enter points into sweepstakes. I have 75 points in an Alaskan cruise sweepstakes right now and another 100 points divided up between some other prizes. Will I win? We will see. I have not won anything yet. At least I can always count on Pinecone to send me $5, on average, once a week for doing their surveys. Thank you Pinecone Research.

Browsers

You know, the things you use to view web pages? The most popular web browser is Internet Explorer followed by Mozilla's Firefox. Others might be using AOL or MSN as their browser. I am a Mac fan. My XP laptop even looks and acts like a Mac. So when Apple released Safari for Windows, I ran right over there and downloaded it. Safari is Apple's browser. It is said to be the fastest browser available yet one of the simplest. I believe it is. Since downloading it, I have used it daily and only use IE when downloading Microsoft Updates since they can only download with IE. Pages load a lot faster and pictures pop up instantly. There is no loading of individual elements separately. It is still in Beta, so there are a few glitches but very few that I have found. I have only found 2 pages that do not load and Apple gives you the ability to report a bug so they can take care of the problem. Damn, I sound like this should be a sponsored post and I should be getting paid.

Paypal Sucks

We all know how there are tons of spam and phishing emails sent out daily. All of mine go into the junk mail and then deleted. The other day I noticed I had $200 missing from my bank. After some research I find out that Paypal paid some Shyper Communications on my behalf. What is this crap! I made sure both parties were aware of this and demanded to get my money back. Paypal was able to reverse the charges, but had to put a hold on my account. Come to find out, they haven't even received the money from my bank account yet even though it has posted to my bank. The lady then tells me that as soon as they receive the money from my bank, it will be available for me to dump it back to my account. Absolutely ridiculous. She then tells me about how secure Paypal is and I called her out on it and claimed BS. I do not open up any of the spam emails that claim to be from Paypal, so don't tell me I did something wrong. If it wasn't for Ebay I would never deal with this crappy company ever again. This is the third time this has happened to me and I know some others that have had problems too. I don't know what their problem is. I do all kinds of online monetary transactions and Paypal is the only one that has issues. If they were so secure, they would find a way to stop all the phishing and spam emails that claim to be them or at least differentiate themselves from the fake emails. 

Back

So, we are back from Cocoa. Okay, I have been back but have been too busy to get back on here. It was nice to have the family together there for Grandma. My grandma has paincreatic cancer. You can check up on it by going over to Cheryl's blog. So, we are pushing through it and only the future can tell us what comes next. I wish I had much more free time to be with my family now, but that is not going to happen.

Technology

I have a MDA from Tmobile which is a pocket pc with a cell phone built in. I subscribe to the unlimited internet access plan that they have. With this plan, I can surf the web, browse full web pages, check my email, have my email automatically download, get directions, instant message and even "Google Earth" all on my MDA! As long as I have a cellular signal, which I always do, I can access any part of the internet whenever and wherever I want. My MDA also has the ability to connect to any wireless network just like a laptop and with the same speed you get on a laptop. It also has the ability to create and edit Word and Excel documents. I use almost all of the features on a week to week basis if not everyday. While I am out of town this weekend (I will not be taking my laptop) I will be using my MDA to check my email, keep up with the news, get directions and phone numbers, and maybe even post some posts.

Out Of Town

I will be going out of town on Thursday and Friday to be with my family and my Grandmother who is having surgery. I have not been with my family, all together, for quite a while. Unfortunately the reasoning for us getting together is not a positive one, per se, it will be nice to have the group of us together, under one roof, sharing time together.

Today's Freebies

Free 10 Minute Calling Card

Free Beano Sample

Source of Life

Hilton Is Back In Jail

So Paris Hilton is back in jail serving out the rest of her term. Good I say. I was reading a CNN article on it today. Apparently she was crying and sobbing and calling for mommy. It makes me laugh. The so called badass, cool, I know everything princess she used to be is obviously a front and now the world knows it. Not that we didn't know it before. But, now she made it obvious by acting that way. I would hope that because she is now incarcerated and humiliated herself people would no longer put her up on that pedestal she has been held upon for so long. But, unfortunately this will probably only hold her on a higher tier.

Tax Free

Hurricane season just started for us down here in Florida. Florida is running their annual Tax Free holiday for hurricane supplies. This includes batteries, flashlights, car chargers or home chargers for your cell phone, any kind of hurricane supply. So, nab them up while you can. If you need any car chargers, home chargers or batteries for your cell phone, come and see me at Cellairis in Countryside Mall. Mention my blog and I'll get you a good deal.

Frugal Living

My aunt has been learning to live frugally for a while now. Frugal, not cheap. After talking to her, reading her blog, reading blogs she has links to, I have decided to adopt this method of frugal living. No one has money to just throw away, and if you do, throw it MY way. I came across this blog that she had a link to that list quick and easy ways to cut cost. Most of them we all already know, but we are either too lazy or don't care enough to implement them. So check out this blog on the site called The Simple Dollar.

Free Stuff

It's been harder and harder to find free stuff lately. I remember a couple months ago, I couldn't keep up with all the free stuff my aunt and I were finding. Now, I'm lucky if I find one a week. Keep checking my aunt's blog and mine for the free stuff and to keep up with what's going on.

This weeks freebie is: Biz Laundry Detergent

Customer Service

Whoever said, "The customer is always right" needs to have a good chat with the Cracker Barrel people. I have been going to Cracker Barrel for years and never had a problem. I have even worked for them at one point. We went there last night to have a nice dinner, in part to the gift card my aunt had given me. We get seated and start looking at the menu and not even a minute later our waitress comes up and says, "You know what you want to order?". No even a "hello" or "how are you doing". It was just pretty rude. So we said no and we ordered our drinks. Next, when we do order, Nichole asks to have bacon instead on grits, which has never been a problem before. The waitress says, "oh, that can't be done. Grits are practically complimentary." Again, more rudeness. She didn't even offer the bacon and say tat would be extra or anything, just that it couldn't be done. Now, when I worked for Cracker Barrel the customer was always right. If the meal came with two eggs but the guest wanted three, then the guest got three. What topped it all off was when the food came out. Nichole's chicken fried chicken had no gravy on it and the waitress told us to use the gravy that was there for our biscuits! So, I called over a manager and told him all this. Of course, he was a bumbling fool that could barely speak English. We ended up getting our gravy and bacon and eatting our meal. I was going to leave no tip, but I ended up leaving $2. Oh and just a heads up, the candy that Cole usually buys which used to be 10 cents is now 15 cents.

Disney

Nichole and I went to Disney yesterday. Always a good time. Yesterday happened to be the last day we can go for the summer due to block out dates. We still had not riden the new ride at Animal Kingdom, Expedition Everest. So, we finally got to ride it. After a 60 minute wait (ridicules) we got on the ride. It was really good. It has some different things in it that you can not find anywhere else which made it a unique experience. We think it was worth the wait. If you get over to that park, definately wait in line to ride it. We made a nice, leisure day of it and mulled around. We even got home at a decent hour and closed off the night with a nice swim at the pool/hot tub and a nice movie in bed.

More Like a Swimming Pool

So we have this ice rink in our mall. My kiosk is upstairs from it, but we have a balcony view of it (makes the day a little more interesting on a slow day). When I came into work I noticed the ice was wet and thought the Zamboni must have just ran. Um, no. It's still wet! Apparently the compressor that chills the ice froze up and needs to be replaced. It's not some little compressor the size of the one in your car either. More like the size of your car! Looks like there will be no skating for the next couple of days. The interesting thing will be to see if it leaks. Last time this happened, the lower level flooded throughout the mall! Another exciting day in the mall. Looks like it's just falling apart around here.

Issues

So work has been a big pain in the rear lately. Our database got screwed up and slowly all of the computers in our company have been shutting down. The computers still work as a computer, but we can not load our point of sale program because it will not connect. Therefore, we have been entering our sales into an Excel speadsheet I created and hand writing receipts for customers. Since our cash drawer will not open without the program (there is no switch and we have no key) we are using a tackle box for our cash. Lol. Unfortuanetly, it looks like it might be a while until we have a fix. At least all the other stores are dealing with this issue as well and it is not just my store.

3 Day Walk

My Aunts are big 3 Day Walkers. For those of you not in the know, go here and find out all about it. They will be at the Brooker Creek Publix accepting donations from 10am till 2pm. If you are in the area, pop by, say "hello" and show your support. If you don't live here or will not be able to make it, you can show your support by going here.

Contest!

Cool Contest Alert! Check out my Aunt Colleen's blog at GeekySpeaky for her cool contest. This month she is giving away two prizes, a 1GB Flash Drive and a Futurama DVD. Now, I don't know how geeky you are, but I call myself a geek, and I'm proud of it. I'm sitting here at work right now, on my laptop, with a desktop next to me and I'm working on both at the same time! The 1GB Flashdrive is a really cool prize. I bought a 256MB a while back, and it's packed solid with files. I need an expansion. Working in a recording, as I do, I have to transfer large files from computer to computer and having a large drive is a blessing. But, the Futurama DVD... Come on, it's Futurama. I never was into the show too much until I met Nichole, and now we watch it whenever it is on. It's funny, enjoyable and the best part is it doesn't take any brain power to understand it and enjoy it. As a booby prize, it's the best booby prize there is. So, be sure to head over to her GeekySpeaky blog and see how you can enter. Think about it, someone has to win.

Pirates Tidbit

For those of you who have not seen Pirates: At Worlds End yet, be sure to stay for the full length of the credits. Apparantly there is a bonus scene after all the credits have finsh rolling. This scene is supposed to answer some questions you might have. Unfortunately, I did not know this at the time we went to see the film. So, be sure to stay a while and catch the bonus scene. Savvy Poppit?