For the past few days I’ve been taking a training on how to run the 1st and 10 yellow line that you see during football games. When you are watching the game, it seems pretty simple, but when you learn how it works, it is actually quite detailed. I’m not sure exactly how much I can write about the process, but once I get approval I’ll give a full analysis of what goes on behind the scenes. In a nutshell, you basically draw a virtual field on the screen that serves as your computer field, but also accounts for when the camera zooms in or moves around. You then simply choose a yard line for the 1st down line, and the computer will then replace the green of the field for that yard line with the yellow line. You define the colors to replace as daytime games, clouds, stadiums, snow, etc. all give off a different color shade, and the computer literally fills in the yellow line. Hopefully I can write more about it, but that should give you a quick overview of what I’ve been up to during the days this week.

Given that earth day wasn’t too long ago carbon emissions are still on my mind, so the last two days have been somewhat frustrating and a waste of fuel for me. On Monday afternoon I was in desperate need of a haircut, and since the person I normally go to only works Sunday and Monday, I didn’t have a lot of leeway to wait for another day or two since she wouldn’t be there anyway. I probably needed a haircut 3 weeks ago, but seeing as we have been busy the past few weekends, and Mondays haven’t worked out, I was kind of sporting the white man fro. Anyways, I called her up, but the only time she could do was 6:45pm, which is right in the middle of dinner for us, so I said I couldn’t do it, and thus began my search for another haircut place. I left work and went to a barber shop across the street from where we take the dogs to play during the day, but he said it would be at least 40 minutes, so I left. I then went to a place somewhat near my house that I read about on yelp.com, but there were a ton of kids waiting, and let’s just say it didn’t seem to be in the best of neighborhoods, which is why I said somewhat near my house, but not really. I then went to a place right near my house that I went to a long time ago, and she couldn’t fit me in either! Are you kidding, 4 haircut places and I couldn’t get in. I decided to go to the shopping mall where the grocery store is near our house to see if anything was in there, and sure enough I found one. The haircut was only $10, plus $5 if you wanted the shampoo and head massage, and it ended up working out perfectly, but I wasn’t too happy having tried 5 different places before finding a place.
Now, that happened on Monday, and then yesterday I picked up Barbie from work so we could carpool (see how eco-friendly we are ) and we decided to go to dinner. We first went to a place called Austin’s, which was closed, as in “for sale.” Then we went to a French place down the street…too expensive. Then we went to another restaurant which apparently isn’t there anymore either. What is the deal? After work the past two days I’ve been driving around town trying to find places and everything is either too busy, closed, or just no longer in existence. Hopefully today will be a little more friendly for the environment and we won’t spend forever driving around.

photo credit: joelogon

When we bought our house a few years back, the mortgage company was trying hand over fist to get us to get an Adjustable Rate Mortgage, but with the interest rates where they were, we thought it was a much better idea to lock down the 30 year loan then gamble with our house. Sure, we could have gotten more money with less down and a larger ARM, but the possibility of losing my house in the future if the rates went up was not, and still isn’t something that I want to gamble on. Anyways, now that 3 years has passed, this is all coming back as housing prices are dropping, and rates went up (coming back down now though). Basically, people are foreclosing all over the place b/c they can’t afford the new mortgage. Well, my opinion is too bad…deal with it. You took the chance, you lost, and don’t come crying to me that it is someone else’s fault for the predicament you are in. However, now are government, or more specifically the Left side of the government may be trying to save these people. What does this mean? Well, it basically means that the rest of us will have to pay for it somehow, someway. This bill has only gotten through the House, and has yet to go to Congress. It might not matter anyways, as Bush says he will veto it if it gets to him. Either way, people need to stop asking to bailed out for their idiotic decisions. As Glenn Beck, a guy I’ve started to enjoy reading, says in one of his somewhat recent articles…Too Bad.”

As for the overall article on this latest Bill, go here:

The other day, I posted a picture of what my office looked like, so today I thought I would post a followup of what my office looks like at home on warm sunny days. It’s actually a video post, so you’ll get a lot more bang for your buck!

 

 My Home Office [1:04m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I don’t know if there is an official Jimmy Buffett day, but today should be that day for on other reason than I said so. I got in the car this morning, plugged in my iPod, and on came Jimmy Buffett. It was random, and I’ve been basically listening to it all day. I’ve got the Box set (see image) so I’ve got plenty of hours of Jimmy Buffett to keep my happy. I just wish I was in the Keys drinking a fruit cocktail while relaxing on my yacht. Oh wait, I don’t own a yacht…yet

Here are a couple new movies of Kyle at Daycare on May 1st. The first one is of Kyle playing in one of the push cars, and the second one is of him playing on the slide. Enjoy.

 

 Kyle at Daycare [1:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Kyle playing on slide [1:33m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

With Earth day behind us, most of us should be a little bit more knowledgeable with what is “Green” and what isn’t. Here are two articles, albeit both fairly lengthy that answer a couple of questions that you would think you know the answer to already, but are probably wrong.

Paper or Plastic? You’ve all heard it in the grocery store, and I’m betting you think Paper is better. Well, after reading the article you will probably find out you were wrong. The most interesting thing about this article is that it says landfills are so compact, that air is not really able to get to the garbage and thus things that would normally be bio-degradable just don’t degrade. Makes you wonder what will happen to this stuff in another 100 years.

Disposable or Cloth Diaper? For this one, I’m willing to bet you would choose Cloth diaper, but according to the article, if you factor in the number of wash cycles and other things involved with keeping cloth diapers clean, disposable diapers may just be as environmentally friendly.

It’s amazing what science comes up with after someone delves in and does full studies. Who knows what they’ll be saying about global warming in 20 years