Free USB Drive - Microsoft

Get a free USB Drive from Microsoft. Click on the image of the USB drive "Valuable Information - Get Yours".

You'll need a hotmal, or MSN account as they will send you a confirmation email. It's worth it though, free is free (probably a 32 meg flashdrive)

As posted by "bakerboy" here are the answers to the questions -

Q1. How many ways are there to obtain a full Microsoft® Windows® Desktop license?
Answer:: 2

Q2: Volume License Agreements cover Windows Desktop operating system upgrades only.
Answer: True

Q3: OEM operating system licenses are non-transferable.
Answer: True

Q4: The most cost-effective way to acquire an initial, full underlying Windows Desktop license is preinstalled.
Answer: True

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Engagement Party

ENG55
Originally uploaded by badblueboy.

Burin threw me an Engagement Party on Saturday. We had a great time, and it was great to see everyone. Although the actual wedding will be in Thailand, when we return, we intend on having a little party here in the States, probably in Westchester.

I'll have the link up as well and email this to people. You can click on the Photo as well to be taken to the Flickr site, where I've uploaded all the photos! To everyone that came, thank you so much. For those that were unable to attend, I know you're with us at heart!

I can't believe it! Don Knots has passed away at 81 years old. Here's the link from CNN I remember Knots from Three's Company (with John Ritter, who's also passed away) and even long ago, when he was a guest cartoon dude on Scoobly-Doo commercials. Man I can't believe how old this is making me feel.

Party Hardy!

Pat went out and partied with some friends. Sally went out and managed to drag Pat back home, but he didnt' quite make it. It was a valiant try, but after ringing my doorbell, he passed out on the welcome mat (well he would have if I had a welcome mat). Guess he's out of pratice, boy is watching drunk people fun!

Check Engine

I just got my car back, paid about $1200 in repairs, and today after running around, doing errands, the stupid "check engine" light is on again. This is the most annoying and aggravating part of owning a car. I cringe everytime that evil yellow mini-engine lights up. Now I have to bring it back, demand that they fix it and start all over again!

Milk does a body good?

So I read somewhere that Milk is good for losing weight. So for the past few days I've been drinking lots and lots of milk. I think I've actually gotten fatter. Next time I'll try regular milk instead of chocolate milk. That might work better.

I made it to the post office today. So they want 30 extra dollars to do your form with you. I decided to do it myself instead. Then I went down the street to take my passport photo, which did a great job of making me look like a thug. After paying $10 for 2 teeny pictures I realized that I could have taken the pictures myself, printed them on photo paper then cut out my head with a pair of scissors and that would have only cost me about 50 cents. Damn rip off photo shop.

I got my car back. It drives really well, which is funny cause I didn't realize it was driving shitty. Jeep does a great job of fixing your car quickly and you can pretty much drop off your car whenever you please. I used to make reservations, but they used to make me wait. Now I just go when I feel like it and they take it! That's right! Take it!

This isn't my week...

Even though I'm on vacation this week, it's not looking to be a fun break. I've had to bring my car in for the stupid "check engine" light. Now they are telling me that it's going to cost me $1200.00 in repairs. The upside is that I've only got 3 more payments on that thing, then I'll be saving $400 a month. So if there aren't any more repairs for a while, maybe I can actually save some money.

Secondly my damn wisdom teeth are coming in. Actually, they've been coming in for a while, but I've been procrastinating getting them yanked (seems like a real blast). I can't hold off any more since they are starting to push their way through and it's starting to hurt, making that difficult to eat. You know that me and not eating don't go together too well. It took all day yesterday to call around and try to find an oral surgeon that accepts my insurance. The one that was referred to me is "out of network" which would mean I'd have to pay out of pocket ($2500) then wait for them to reimburse me (and we know how speedy that would have been!)

All this while I'm trying to prepare for my engagement party. Thank goodness BT is helping me with the party, without him, this wouldn't have happened.

Pics from the Blizzard

The last post was supposed to have pics, but they didn't upload. Anyway one's from the confort of my 4x4 jeep and the other is a picture of the Patrol Car. The chains worked really well, but you really can't go all that fast.

Blizzard of 2006

Lots of snow! Good thing we had chains on our crown vic! On my Jeep, 4x4 works awesome. While everyone was digging their cars out, all it took was a little scraping on the windshield and I was good to go! If you are digging snow, be careful, that's a great way to give yourself a heart attack.

A romantic restaurant for Valentine's day!

If you've procrstinated and don't yet have a restaurant to take your sweetie for Valentine's day, do not fret! There's still hope! It may be hard to see, but the flyer above is an add for a romantic dinner at White Castles! You heard right. This is from the White Castles located in the South Bronx! You can take your boo, or your baby momma or maybe both of em, for a night of fine dining! Hurry though, even here reservations are required! Bon Appettite!

Lord of War

I was excited to see this movie, but I was a little disappointed. There were plenty of action scenes and although they try to make a big deal about the firearms, they don't really talk about them that much. The lead actress is smoking hot and thats about it. I've seen better from Cage. I give this a 3 out of 5 stars. Definately worth a Netflix view, but not a full theatre ticket.

Meanwhile I've been watching the Shield on DVD, and I forgot how great that show is. I've gone through seasons 1-3 and am about to start season 4. I'm getting sad, cause season 5 isn't out on DVD yet, so I'll have to find another series to sink my teeth into. I'm thinking about either 24, or Lost. Maybe I'll do both.

See SuperBowl Ads.

This guy went through all the trouble of converting the ads into Quicktime movies so you can see them on your home computer. I think he meant for them to be viewed on the video Ipod, but they work just fine on your PC. I used the .mov files and they worked ok for me. My favorite is the Sprint/Nextel commercial with the "crime deterrent" feature. Very funny.

Cut and paste this link- http://www.devlib.org/blog/2006/01/30/2006-super-bowl-commercials/

or just clink HERE. Note: Looks like he's getting a lot of traffic on his website now, since Google searches put him at the front of the list. You may not get on, just try again latter on. Enjoy.

Don't support drug dealers. Boycott Vitamin water.

50 cent the Rapper and "former" drug dealer that proudly brags about the times he was shot while being a gang member, dealing drugs has invested a large amount of money, and is basically part owner in Glaceau, the company that manufacturs Vitamin Water. It's too bad, cause I used to drink this on a regular basis, and it tastes better than Gatorade. No more though, I'm not giving another penny to this thug. You can read the article Use HERE

Just this weekend in Brooklyn during a rap video shoot by Busta Rhymes a shootout killing a security guard took place. Among the guests, Missy Elliot and 50 cent. I'm tired of people glamorizing these idiots. They make a living out of sensationalizing drugs, violence and the all around shitty life. Don't give them another dime.

My Oven

So I finally got a working oven after complaining and calling for only 4 months. It's worse then pulling teeth with these people. Now that they finally replaced the oven the old one (pictured) is still sitting in the hallway. These people suck.

McDonalds Response

This is what McDonalds responded with. Although, it's a horseshit answer, at least they did respond. KFC never sent me a reply when I sent them a complaining email (no I don't write everyone, just the ones that piss me off).

Hello John:

Thank you for contacting McDonald's and sharing your comments with us. We greatly appreciate this opportunity to address your concerns.

You may be interested to know that approximately 85 percent of our restaurants are locally owned and operated. As independent business people, decisions to participate in promotions are made by the owners of each restaurant. In addition, our advertising always states "at participating restaurants only." It is also important to mention that sometimes advertising spills over into a market that is not participating in the promotion. Regardless, please accept our sincere apology for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Please be assured, we would never want any of our promotions to disappoint our customers. Because you are a valued customer, your comments are important to us and have been shared with our Restaurant Operations staff for their on-going review.

Again, thank you for contacting McDonald's. We look forward to serving you again soon under the Golden Arches.

Tim
McDonald's USA Customer Satisfaction Department

ref#:3367028

Email to McDonalds

This is an email I sent to McDonalds the other night, after feeling ripped off. The punctuation and grammer is off, because of the email program they use, it strips it down I guess.

I have always associated McDonalds with fond memories, as well as great tasting food. Since I was young, my father and I would often visit McDonalds whenever you ran any of your specials, such
as the McRibb. Our favorite however would be your Chicken McNugget deals. My family has owned a restaurant since I was just a little boy, and even with near limitless access to our own food, we would
run out and buy sacks of McNuggets during your specials.

I was very happy to see your new commercial for the 6 piece chicken McNuggets move to the dollar menu! What a fantastic bargain. So I walked down the street a couple of blocks to the McDonalds (listed above), and imagine
my shock and dismay when I found out they don't honor that deal there!!!!

I asked the distinterested gentleman behind the counter why they didnt have the 6 piece nuggets on the menu (they had a 4 piece for $1), and his explaination was simply 6 piece is $1.65 thats it. No not
every store honors every special no Im sorry sir, but we arent running that promotion at this store only its $1.65

I was very, very disappointed in your lies. Im upset at your employees lack of concern about being caught in a lie, and Im frankly pissed off at being lied too.

Im going to Wendys as they have 5 piece nuggets on their dollar menu. Although I like McDonalds better, as they taste better and for the nostalgia alone, but at least Wendys doesnt lie to me. I was so
upset that my first response was to chronicle this on my blog and then link it to as many other blogs as I can. I decided to write to you instead, and hopefully you can shed some light as to why McDonalds
thinks its a good practice to lie to customers, and practice false advertising.

Your fine print where all stores may not honor all promos isnt going to fly either - I watched your commercial in my apt then walked down the street to your McDonalds....

I would appreciate a response.
Thank You
John

McDonalds lied to me!

I admit I don't eat at McDonalds nearly as much as I used to as a kid. Every now and then however, especially when they are running some sort of promo, I'll find my self greedily munching on Micky Dee's. I love their shoestring fries and I love their Chicken McNuggets. In fact I actually liked the old version with it's dark, grissly meat better then the boring white meat ones they have now. My favorite promo was the $2.99 20 piece nuggets special! That's a bargain!

Well, as you may or may not know, McDonalds has been running commercials where the 6 piece chicken mcnugget is now on the dollar menu! Yippeee! Well, ok, not so yippee, as unbeknownest to me, the special doesn't apply here in Manhattan. Even though they air the commerical pretty frequently in Manhattan (on Time Warner), they have the nuggets on the dollar menu, but it's for a paltry 4 pieces.

I schleped my way down the 2 blocks to my nearest McDonalds "restaurant" (so funny that they call em restaurants. So, where's my waiter?" and excitedly ordered the 6 piece nuggets. The guy behind the counter, who obviously couldn't be bothered replied "it's 1.63 for six". What?? No dollar menu? "it's $1.63" was the only answer I'd get. I angrily paid him, my mood now ruined. I rushed home and set them an email chronicling my experiance with them and requesting a response. That Monday night. As of today (Thursday) I haven't heard a peep from them. This is a company that prides itself on public relations. Well they are doing a very poor job of it... It's back to Wendy's for me.

Mayor Ray Naggin is a dumbass

How in the world did this guy get voted to mayor? He is one huge jackass. His comments about New Orleans being returned to a "chocolate city" and that god is mad at Bush for his foreign policy? Are you shitting me? Oprah Winfrey had this asshole on her show. I hope she burns in flames too, cause of this dick. This about what he said, if it were in any other context ie, a white guy (Bloomberg) saying we should bring Brooklyn back to it's "vanillaness" people would be rioting in the streets. Naggin is a "pass the buck" leader and he's just about done.

That perp that shot at cops after being kicked out by the bouncers at a night club had his willie and a finger shot off. Great shooting guys! There really is Karma!

My apartment sucks. Still no oven.

Underworld Evolution

79m
Originally uploaded by badblueboy.

Don't you hate it when a movie comes out that just rocks, and you know the sequel is going to suck? I was hoping against all hope that this wasn't the case here. No luck. I really enjoyed the first movie a lot and I thought the way it left off, the sequel had great potential to be good too.

The second movie starts off right where the first one ends. I don't remember them being in an eastern block nation though, and the story is very convoluted and makes no sense at all. They shift the focus from Michael Corvine (Corvinus) to Selene, the death dealer. Everyone wears blue contacts and there's now a flying bat vampire, who is also supposedly a hybrid like Michael Corvine, but not like Corvine, cause he's an original and "there's never been anything like you" which we hear over and over again.

I remember watching the sequel to the Matrix where all of a sudden Morpheus can take out agents by himself (even though they are upgrades), and they don't really explain why. Or why Neo has to actually fight them, when in the first one he obliterates them at will. You get that in this movie as well, where Selene can take out multiple werewolves pretty much barehanded now.

Although Kate Beckinsale is an uberhottie, and they throw in a gratuitous half naked scene, her hotness is not enough to keep this movie afloat. Do not pay for this movie. Netflix it or wait for it on cable.

US high court refuses to review RIM ruling

Uh-ohhh. Looks like if you have one of those blackberry (crackberry) devices, it could soon be nothing more then a heavy paperweight. If they lose this patent ruling, the 'push' email function of the blackberries will no longer function, making these devices useless. The Palm Treo however will continue to work as usual.

The palm just released a new model too the Treo 700. It's pretty much the same form factor, but with windows mobile 5 as the operating system. Thanks but no thanks, I'll wait until the next Palm version is released.

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Lobster night 1/09/06

Lobster night 1/09/06
Originally uploaded by badblueboy.

Judging from how many times you see me at Mo's Carribean, you'd start to think I live at this place. It's not true! I've only been there a few times, but every time, it's a lot of fun.

This time we got a good crew from work, eight of us all together. I have a lot of good pics, and Jimmy even has a really funny video, none of which I'm going to post here, I think if you want the pics, you're better off me sending them to you via email.

The Heather, our hostess took great care of us, as did Lindsey our waitress. We did many shots and raised many a glass that night. Some highlights -
(I'm making this family friendly, I don't want any divorces on my head).

*Luke ate 5 lobsters! Each one is 1 and 1/4 lbs.
*Somehow our total tab was still under $500 (not counting the bar tab Seth picked up).
*We made lots of friends, including neighboring tables.
*Danny invented a new sport called "tree rolling"
*Danny's sustained the first ever injury of anyone participating in "tree rolling"
*Eugene's face is immune to lots of slapping when he's drink
*The 19th precinct takes disorderly group calls seriously, take my word on that.
*When you eat lots of lobster, you have stinky fingers all night.
*We are definately doing this again.

Amazon Rocks

Amazon.com really does rock. I love them, and I've never had a bad experiance with em. I ordered a new adapter for my iBook on Sunday, and they tried to deliver it yesterday (3 business days!). I didn't actually get it until today, cause I wasn't here to sign for it, but I'm not complaining since I chose the 5-10 day (free) delivery. So I paid nothing for delivery and no tax and it arrived a few days later, not too shabby. I ordered a flashlight holder from SUREFIRE flashlights on Saturday, and although, they've sent me a confirmation email about my order, I still haven't received it yet. Boooo!

My super/maintence guy really, really sucks. After writing the mean letter, he finally showed to look at the over...just like the last 3 guys did. Again, he's "going to need approval from management" and will call me tomorrow. That was on Monday. It's now Friday. Mean letter did absolutely nothing. Oh wait, I did get a key to the trash area. Yippee, I'm so happy.

Having one of them weeks.

So far, this week has started off really crappy. I've been working overtime for nearly every weekend I've had off for the past 6 weeks, with the lucky exception of Christmas weekend off. Because of the transit strike, that actually put me at the OT cap. Although, the money is great, and it comes at a perfect time, I know I'm feeling pretty fried, and I desperately need some downtime. Luckily a boss stepped in for me and I managed to get out of the overtime detail for this past week. It works out perfectly as this is my last Saturday off for quite some time, and Lek and I were able to use that time productively for our wedding planning. This is turning out to be such a headache, I can't believe how much planning goes into this. Invites for the wedding, here and abroad, the hotel, the band, the placecards, wedding favors, airline tickets, passports, ceremonies, traditions, DOWERY!!! Holyshit, I gotta take a breath here!

Well at least that night, we had a little "family night" at the apt and it was a real blast. The game "Scene It" was a big bust, nobody really enjoyed it. Maybe my buddy Scotty from Westchester would have liked it, he's a huge movie, and TV buff. We moved on to Pictionary and that was great! The more you drink, the funnier the drawings look, woooo-hooo!

Now, my Apple iBooks power cable is starting to fray, which really sucks, cause I've been using my computer alot lately. I had to order another one from Amazon, and it's gonna take about a week to get here (of course I took the free, long wait, shipping. It's free.) I wrote a mean letter to my landlord about not having an oven for 3 months. Now I'm no Martha Stewart, but I'm tired of making my pizza bagels in the toaster. I can only do 1 bagel at a time there. I also don't have a key to the trash area, forcing me to leave my trash piled up outside the locked door. I have to really rip and shred all my documents real good so the hobos don't go shifting around in there. I guess my letter finally worked (I sent it wrapped in the the rent check), cause the super called me today and he's coming over at 5pm to finally fix it. I don't understand how calling for 3 months doesn't work, but one mean letter always seem to do the trick. Maybe it's cause it's in writting and is now on record? I don't know, I'm looking forward to making a big batch of pizza bagels. PS. Right now, since my laptop has no juice, I'm at the library typing this up and this really goofy guy next to me, is giggling and snorting as he's reading his email. I can't get a good look at what he's reading, but it's getting really annoying.

NYC Monopolies

One thing I've hated about moving to the city is the choice of 2 things, #1 the cable company and #2 the phone company.

Time Warner is pretty much the only option I have as far as Cable TV goes. I see now why some people venture into satellite tv, if only to not give Time Warner any more money. In Westchester, I had Cablevision and they were great. I could buy "basic" cable and watch tv anywhere in my house where I had a tv. Here, you need a digital decoder box, so basically I can only watch tv in my living room. In my bedroom I can either spend another $5 a month for another box, or I can watch the prime time channels (2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11) TBS and the Food Network, that's it (why I also get TBS and Food Channel? I have no idea). So everynight, the Iron Chef's serenade me to sleep. The internet sucks, as they keep changing the IP address forcing me to constantly reset my router. This is because they want me to buy their router and wi-fi service, rather then setup my own. I have my own digital video recorder on my laptop (basically a Tivo), only it doesn't work here, as I have to manual change the channel on the decoder box. Again, because TWC would rather you subscribe to their DVR service. Fuck you Time Warner.

Verizon is a nickle and diming, blood sucking, corporate vampire. They will do anything to woo over a new customer, but once you're on their service that's it, they are sucking you for what your worth. "but they have great customer service" is what most people will say. What that means is that they are really polite and smile alot as they fuck you in the ass. Hand over the vaseline please. Some examples you may not even realize - If you have a phone or a device that supports bluetooth (wireless technology in newer devices), you're supposed to be able to take pictures on your phone then use the bluetooth to transfer them to your computer. Verizon has 'crippled' the bluetooth on all their phones, making you use their service to transfer pics (charging 25cents a pic). Music is the same way, think about it, itunes charges you $1 per song. Now they have these new phones that support music, but Verizon charges you $2.50 a song! Also, I pay for the internet on my cellphone, so I should be able to use my cellphone as a modem and access the internet with my laptop hooked up to my cellphone, but again no can do with verizon. Maybe I'll switch to T-mobile (once my 2 year contract finally expires), after all Katherine Zeta-Jones is much easier on the eyes then that "can you hear me now" dude.

Christmas Eve Dinner

Christmas Dinner
Originally uploaded by badblueboy.

It was great to have everyone together again for the holidays. With all of our schedules so hectic, it seems harder and harder for all of us to get together. This year, I had both Christmas Eve and Christmas off. Here we are on Christmas Eve at my second family's house. We're at the Kiddie's table. Chris and Andy came in from Utah and Lorraine made it down from Boston, and in fact this picture is courtesy of Lorraine! Food was delicious and company was great, this is what the holidays are all about!

Happy New Years!

I forgot how much fun it is to get drunk in your own house! You can just pass out anywhere you want when you feel like it, and it's a lot cheaper! I hope everyone had a fun and safe New Years celebration! Any good New Years resolutions out there? Mine is, I promise to not be as mean to those scumbag, shithead, one-way mo-fo's I deal with at work!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! I always smirk when I hear the lousy liberals scoff at Christmas and say, "that's not politically correct". Hey, Christmas as far as I'm concerned is a cultural observance, not a religious one. Although I know that many Christians do celebrate the religious aspects of it as well, that doesn't mean those of us that are not Christian don't appreciate the Christmas holiday and the season in general. Growing up in a culture where Christmas was as American as, well apple pie, everyone is exposed to it. Just like I'm sure on St.Patricks day, not everyone who is drinking and celebrating is Irish! Anyway. Merry Christmas and if it's a "Bah Humbug" from you then Happy Holidays!

Lot's of toys and gadgets out there this year! I was thinking if I could buy any gadget I wanted and it was just a luxury item, nothing I needed like a car or funiture, just grown up toys I'd want the following from Santa this year.

1. An in dash DVD player for my car. I know I don't spend enough time in it to watch a full movie anyway, but hey it's really cool.
2. PSP, so I can play video games on the road.
3. The Treo 650. It's the next phone up from my model. Mine is getting a little long in the tooth, but the word is there is a crop of new models coming out.
4. Apple's 12 inch Powerbook. Again, it's better to wait, Apple has a new line up coming out.
5. Harley Davidson Motorcycle. Ok, I know it's a little extreme, but think about all the savings I'd make it commuting!

Maybe I'll celebrate Hanukah too this year, they get presents for like 12 days!

No more strike!

Whew, no more strike. No more 12 hour tours, wacky commutes and press conferences by Toussaint! Hello again Christmas. I am very disappointed with the strike. I had much more respect for the TWU at the onset of the strike, they showed moxy in fighting for what they felt was fair, but apparently not enough
to go to jail for it. The way the union folded makes the entire strike
worthless. Good job guys.

Any way I have my days off again, just in time to, yippee, sleep off this cold I somehow picked up - probably from lack of sleep. I'll take a brief nap, lots of medicine then try to finish (start?) my xmas shopping. I only have 15 more people to buy for!

Strike2005

Strike2005
Originally uploaded by badblueboy.

I just finished another 12 hour tour. It's actually 13 hours, if you consider the time it takes to get in, change and get your assignments. I can tell that too many more days of this and we're going to be very ragged.

I don't want to take a political stance on this, because I think these actions may pave the way for future negotiations between the city and other labor unions, including my own, so this strike is closely watched for many reasons.

The hours are monotonous and grinding and we're all a little down considering this strike is pretty much squashing any hope of spending the holidays with our families. I don't get the oppurtunity very often to spend holidays with my friends and family, and was looking forward to it this year. I was scheduled to have Christmas eve and Christmas off this year, and very excited about it too, but now, that looks like it probably won't happen. I'll spend it working 12 hours shifts at work. At this point I'm spending more time with my co-workers then with anyone else I know, including my live in girlfriend! Another lesson, don't procrastinate - I did, and now, I won't have the time to complete my Christmas shopping! You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch!

2005 Transit Strike

So the threat of a strike seems to be worse then the actually strike itself. It's like wincing at the thought of pulling off a band-aid, rather then actually feeling pain at swiftly yanking it off. Last night, everyone was so paranoid about the strike that most people closed shop early, and made their way homes hopefully before the last train shut down. I actually drove 2 of Lek's friends into Queens for fear they'd be stranded in Manhattan.

At 3:00 am or there abouts, the TWU finally came out with their decision to strike. Wow, at least this guy showed some balls. My thoughts on this? Well 3% is just covering basic cost of living increase. Lets face it, your dollar just doesn't carry as far anymore, so this small percentage just makes you hold even while the price of everything else increases. If the MTA had offered 3% raises across the board with no "give backs" then it would be fair, in that it's only a cost of living adjustment, not a raise. If you want more then that, then it is fair for the MTA to ask for something in return or as they call it "productivity gains". Two things to keep in mind. One,once you give something back, it's gone forever, you won't be able to bargain for that again. Two the MTA has been very shady in their book-keeping and in their fiscal management of late, so it's very difficult to believe that they don't have enough funds. The holiday discount, though conveniant for me, is very foolish for them considering they had this contract coming up!

So I woke up this morning to....silence. It's actually a lot quieter. Most of the street vendors must have taken the day off rather then find a quartet to travel into the city with, and deliveries aren't allowed during rush hour. I'm off to start my 12 hour shifts, so the next few days are going to be rough, and I still have a lot of X-mas shopping to do. That's what I get for procrastinating! Well happy commuting all!

Injustice for our lawmen

This is an article written by Michael Daly in the New York Daily News. Great article, and I normally don't like the News, but this is right on.

As we bury a second murdered cop in eight days, let's hope that the most promising young people wishing to follow in the hallowed footsteps of Police Officer Dillon Stewart and Police Officer Daniel Enchautegui are not deterred by the discovery that the starting salary on the NYPD is $14,530 less than that of a city gardener.
This startling fact is set forth on the official Web site of the Department of Citywide Administrative Services. The long list of upcoming hiring exams for city jobs begins:

Gardener

Police Officer

A click on "Gardener" produces a job description that includes, "The starting minimum salary is $39,630 per annum."

A click on "Police Officer" also produces a job description, this including, "The current minimum starting salary is $25,100 per annum."

The site adds that after six months the starting cop salary rises to $32,700, still $6,930 less than that of a gardener. The word for this is "outrageous."

A return to the official job description for Gardener states that the applicant need have only two years' practical experience or a certificate from a horticulture or botanical program. The section headed "special working conditions" states:

"Some of the physical activities performed by Gardeners and environmental conditions experienced are: Standing, bending, kneeling and stooping for extended periods of time; climbing around and over various types of terrain; ... and working outdoors in all kinds of weather."

The official job description for Police Officer states that an applicant must have either 60 college credits with at least a 2.0 average or a high school diploma and two years of active duty in the military. A section headed "what the job involves" states:

"Some of the physical activities performed by Police Officers and environmental conditions experienced are: working outdoors in all kinds of weather; walking and/or standing in an assigned area during a tour; driving or sitting in a patrol car during a tour while remaining alert; running after a fleeing suspect; climbing up stairs; carrying an injured adult with assistance; gripping persons to prevent escape; restraining a suspect by use of handcuffs; ... engaging in hand to hand struggles to subdue a suspect resisting arrest."

Among the activities not mentioned is being suddenly fired upon, as Stewart was when he and his partner tried to pull over a man who ran a red light. Stewart was shot in the heart, but still gave chase despite this most mortal of wounds.

At the time of his death, Stewart had been a cop for five years, which means his base pay was $41,952, or just $2,322 more than the starting pay for a gardener. He supplemented his income by moonlighting, every minute of which was a minute away from his wife and two daughters. Those minutes were precious enough before a bullet made the loss of them a loss beyond measure.

The man charged with Stewart's murder was formally arraigned in Brooklyn Supreme Court yesterday. Allan Cameron sat impassive in a brown jailissue jumpsuit as dozens of police officers sat in silent witness.

Other cops were at the Schuyler Hill Funeral Home in the Bronx, attending Enchautegui's wake. The job description for Police Officer fails to say that a cop might be roused in the night by the sound of breaking glass and step outside to investigate only to be suddenly fired upon. Enchautegui was also shot in the heart. He also kept on beyond human limits, wounding both suspects.

Enchautegui died before he had a chance to have a family of his own. He had been a cop for three years, which means his base pay was $38,541, or $1,089 less than the starting salary for a gardener.

Both Enchautegui and Stewart were too dedicated and courageous to have joined the NYPD for the salary. Money was the last thing that came to mind in the hushed, floral-scented funeral parlor, where Enchautegui's parents and sister sat grieving by his open coffin.

Then you watched cops step away from the second comrade to be murdered in less than a fortnight and head into the city to risk the same fate. Too many of them also are forced to work second jobs once they have families, and then the money translates to precious minutes away from those who need them most.

Originally published on December 14, 2005

NYPD Officer laid to rest.

NYPDEnchautegui
Originally uploaded by badblueboy.

I normally try to keep anything related to work, off my blog, as I feel my blog is a place to talk about my personal life and not my professional life. Unfortunately, these past 2 weeks, if anything at all, has shown me that my work is part of my personal life and it is part of who I am.

I didn't have the honor of knowing Officer Dillion Stewart, who was killed while chasing a piece of shit through the streets of Brooklyn. His loss was a severe blow to all of us. I did however have the good fortune to have worked with Officer Enchautegui as I work in the same area. I wouldn't be surprised at all if I called for back-up and he and his partner were the responding Officers to show up. He was just a generally good guy, that I only wish I'd had the chance to know better.

Both these Officers were killed in the early morning, putting to truth the adage, "these men patrol the streets at night, so that good citizens may sleep peacefully in their beds". Officer Danny Enchautegui was laying comfortably in his own bed that night, when he heard the sound of crashing glass, and rose to investigate. He bravely confronted 2 men he suspected of committing a violent crime and commanded "Police, don't move!" twice, when he was fired upon. Officer Enchautegui fired all 8 rounds in his off duty, striking one perp 6 times, the other 2 times. That's a 100% hit rate, showing us the determination he had, even after being fatally wounded.

The picture above (NYtimes)shows Officer's lined up at Officer Enchautegui's Funeral. A sight we've seen too many times in too short a span. My prayers, and hopefully yours go out to the families of both these fine Officers. I choose to spend all my compassion on them, and save none for those that committed these crimes. May they rot in hell.

Officer Needs Assistance

I'm posting this for a friend of mine. This would truly be an amazing Christmas gift, if we could find this Officer a donor.

Officer Jim Colon, an 11-year veteran of the Englewood Cliffs
Police Department, a husband and father of a 6 month old baby boy
has been diagnosed with Fanconi Anemia, which has progressed into Leukemia
Jim is in DESPERATE need of a bone marrow donor for a life-saving transplant.

There Will Be A Blood and Bone Marrow Drive For Jim
Date: December 18, 2005
Time: 9AM to 1PM
Location: Roy W. Brown Middle School
130 South Washington Avenue
Bergenfield, NJ

Please, Jim and His Family Really Need Your Help!
Anyone who cannot donate blood or marrow and still want to help, can do so by making a donation to the "JIMMY COLON FUND" PO Box 384 Edgewater, NJ 07020
If There Are Any Questions, Please Call The Englewood Cliffs Police At 201-569-8300

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS POLICE
10 Kahn Terrace
Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632
www.officerjimfund.org

First X-Men 3 Photos Revealed!

USA Today has your first look at photos from 20th Century Fox's X-Men 3, coming to theaters on May 26, 2006.

Yippee! Another X-Men movie! They have some shots of The Beast and Angel. The first 2 were really good, lets hope they continue the trend!

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The Super-Dooper Phone List

Cheat Sheet:
Print this out as it will save you from waiting to talk to a human being.

Here are the secret numbers and tips to bypass IVR phone menus to get to a human:
-
Finance phone steps to find a human:
-
American Express 800-528-4800 0
-
ATT Universal 800-950-5114 ##
-
Bank of America 800-900-9000 1 loan; 2 account; 3 investing; 4 info; or 00 to human
-
Bank One 877-226-5663 0 thru the options to get a live person
-
Capital One Visa 800-867-0904 ignore prompts and invalid entry warnings; press #0 five times
-
Charles Schwab 800-435-9050 3 then 0
-
Chase 800-CHASE24 5 pause 14*0
-
CitiBank 800-374-9700 1 online support; 2 billpay; 3 non-online; 4 credit card; or 0 to human
-
Discover 800-347-2683 *****
-
E-Trade 800-387-2331 ####
-
Fidelity 800-544-6666 ignore prompt for social security number, just enter ###
-
MasterCard 800-MC-ASSIST 000 on each menu
-
MBNA 800-421-2110 00 when menu starts
-
Paypal 650 864-8000 cf http://paypalsucks.com/PayPalPhoneNumbers.shtml
-
Sovereign Bank 800-SOV-BANK 1 english; 1 personal; 3 then social#;
passcode, #; then 0 (1-3x)
-
Sun Trust Banks 404-588-7815 Yes
-
US Bank 800-US BANKS 000(0)
-
Visa 800-847-2911 000 (ignore prompts saying that itxml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" / 's an invalid entry)
-
Wachovia 800-922-1800 accounts personal banking
-
Washington Mutual 800-756-8000 At any time after the announcement(s) start 'O'.
-
Wells Fargo 800-869-3557 0,0,0
-
Western Union 800-325-6000 0
-
Government phone steps to find a human :
-
INS 800-375-5283 After selecting English, (with a 2 second delay between) 2 6 2 4
-
Social Security 520-364-1241 At prompt 0
-
Veterans Affairs 800-827-1000 1,0
-
Insurance phone steps to find a human :
-
Aetna 800-537-9384 "2, then say ""operator"" (check this)"
-
Aetna 800-680-3566 * then 0 anytime
-
www.aflac.com/">'t know it"" then ""technician"""
-
Verizon Wireless 800-922-0204 #00 or enter phone # then 0 then 4
-
-
Travel phone steps to find a human:
-
American Airlines 800-433-7300 "00, then say ""agent"""
-
Amtrak 800-872-7245 "0 or say ""agent"""
-
Continental 800-523-3273 "Three
-Delta 800-221-1212 0 then say ""operator"""
-
Delta 800-221-1212 "say ""agent"" four times - every time it asks for a response from you"
-
JetBlue 800 JET-BLUE 1 flight status; 2 reservations; 3 vacation packages
-
Kayak.com 203 899-3120 0
-
Northwest 800-225-2525 Star, 0, after initial greeting
-
Southwest 800-435-9792 Calls answered by operator; during busy times you might have to hold
-
United 800-864-8331 Do nothing, wait for human.
-
US Airways 800-428-4322 4, wait, 1
-
Walt Disney World 407-824-4521 Direct line to Magic Kingdom Guest Relations
-
Tv/satellite phone steps to find a human:
-
Comcast 800-266-2278 Customer service, but an IVR wants your number first. -
Direct TV 800-347-3288 0 repeatedly
-
Dish Network 800-333-3474 0 during menu
-
Sirius (888) 537-SIRIUS 0
-
TiVo 877-367-8486 "Say ""Live Agent"""
-
Xm Radio 800-998-7900 Direct to human!

Sharper Image Chimp Head

Sharper Image Chimp Head
Originally uploaded by badblueboy.

This is the creepist toy I've ever seen. It's a life-like, moving programable chimp bust. It looks scarily real and will make hooting, and whooping and other monkey noises at you. It even follows your hand and other motions with it's head.

Why would anyone want a realistic monkey head on their desk? And who would pay $150 for it? I would if I had a lot of disposable income and I had lots of brats I'd enjoy scaring the shit out of!

If for some reason, you do want this go to Sharper Image or click the link here.

Sharper Image

Need a discount on an iPod? Just create your own barcode!

This 19 year old kid came up with a new scheme on the old swap the price tag trick. The old way was to simply peel off a price tag from a less expensive item, then stick it on the pricier one you want.

Now we've progressed o printing out our own barcodes and buying the products for whatever price we want! Kid had a great idea, but is definately not a career crook, he's too greedy to make it work right!

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Mr.Miyagi

Mr.Miyagi
Originally uploaded by badblueboy.

Although, I feel that I've been very lucky these past few months, I had one less thing to be thankful for this year. Pat Morita, the actor that played the wise martial arts master, Mr. Miyagi from he "Karate Kid" movies has passed away. He was 73 years old. I can't say I'm not a little sad by this news. The Karate Kid movies, especially the first one, had a great impact on me and I'm sure anyone who was growing up in the 80's and had a love for the martial arts. The Karate Kid came out in 1984 and was a surprise hit for that summer. The 80's were such a great time!

Moving along, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, I know I did. I ate a ton and gained back all the weight I'd just lost. It's well worth it though!

I actually went out on "Black Friday" too to see what all the hype was about. I remember this day being a mess in the burbs and the main reason for that is the parking. The lots are always full and you're frustrated before you even get to the store. I decided to shop in Manhattan and it was a breeze. My catch prize was a 20 inch Polaroid flat screen TV for $299! That's more then half off what they normally go for and it's perfect to replace the old 27 inch tube tv that had just got ka-blooey in my room. One last note the guy that sells Christmas trees by my house has set up shop again, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It's like the return of an old friend!

Xbox 360s Crashing Like Mad?

There appear to be increasing reports of Xbox 360s crashing even with games running on default settings. Could this be an early sign of serious defects or a problem between the gamepad and chair?

So this is apparently the toy to have this holiday season. Maybe they rolled it out too soon? In related news, people actually stood outside BestBuy stores for hours hoping to get one of these babies.

A kid waited on line (some city in the midwest I think) and got allowed in after midnight to purchase an XBox 360. At approximately 12:08 am, on his way out the store he gets beat up and robbed of his brand new XBox. So this poor kid is out an XBox and $450.00. That really sucks. Another store got robbed at gunpoint and the gunman made off with two of these under his arms.

I don't even think it's not impressive. I'll probably wait and see what the PS3 will bring.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Eats lots of turkey and bundle up. It's finally getting cold!

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SUPERMAN RETURNS

It's finally here! Superman Returns! The trailer is already out, and it looks pretty cool. I don't know how they intend to top the original Christopher Reeve one, that one is a classic. It seems there is a new trend to remake existing movies with newer more advanced technology. At least in Batman Begins, it covers the time period before Bruce Wayne became Batman. The original Superman movies already did that. Anyway enjoy!

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Top Ten Movie Robots

Funny article about 10 best movie robots of all time.

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Holiday Sales

Black Friday's still a week away, but you don't have to wait until then to see all the goodies that await you. These websites have done all the work for you, and allow you to peek into the future to see what these stores are going to offer. Some sites you can check out. BF2005.com, Gottadeal.com, and BlackFridayAds.com. Note that there's a disclaimer on all these sites that state the ads may or may not be true, but mostly they are accurate prices from people who sneak out information! Yay for snitches.

Another great deal, MTA is giving everyone a break during the holiday season since there's apparently one huge surplus. I know the monthly pass where you get a total of 41 days for $79 is going to be a great bargain for us. Just keep in mind though that you have to use cash and purchase from a window, not a machine. Bundle up out there, it's back to being November like, with 40 degree weather!

Turkey Day almost here!

We're almost at Thanksgiving and thus the holiday season, and somehow I don't have that "it's being to look a lot like Christmas" feel. Mainly cause it's still 70 degrees out there and people are walking around in t-shirts and sandels instead of Jackets and earmuffs. Radio City Music Hall and the orchestra have entered a contract dispute so if you decide to go to the show, you'll be hearing canned music, not live. If you look around though, I'm sure you'll be able to take advantage of this and find a good discount, I've seen some clubs and groups giving a buy one get one free on tickets. Not a bad gift idea.

I recently returned 2 movies from Netflix, Bewitched and The Interpreter. I guess was in a Nicole Kidman mood. Bewitched was an ok movie, and if you really, really loved the series, then maybe you'll like this movie. I didn't like the series, but I was familiar with it, so I barely didn't hate Bewitched the movie. Will Farrell and Nicole Kidman, have definately both done better. Nicole Kidman wasn't even hot in this movie, so there was no benefit whatsoever. The Interpreter was a little better (mainly cause Nicole's hot again in this movie), the story is slow and there is a lot of dialoge. Not as much action as they'd have you believe (2 gun scenes and a bus explosion). If you live in NY, you'll like seeing NY first and second avenues, the UN and various other locales.

Here's a contribution from our friend Geoff. This is how we're going to be catching perps that run away from us now!


Watch how we apprehend crooks! Click HERE

Free Wifi!

Right now, I'm at the Gotham Coffee house, and I've been relaxing here for hours. Why? Because they have great coffee? Great snacks? Great people? Well, yes on all that, but that's not why I'm here. It's for the free Wifi! In an ever evolving face of city life, coffee shops that offer free wifi have become wildly popular. As I write this there are at least 5 other people browsing the web and surfing by me at any given time. This is the main reason, I'm here rather then at Starbucks (who charge for wifi). This is a great idea, now we need bookstores and other venues that offer this.

It's getting dark by 5pm. It's still taking me a little while to get used to this. I like the feeling of nostalgia it gives me, I dislike having to rush out the door to get even a little bit of sunlight, so you don't feel like you've missed the day. I had to get out early anyway since the laundry downstairs have been so shitty lately. I know, I know, if I did my own laundry, it'd be cheaper and I don't have to worry about it getting to me on time, but I gotta tell you, the conveniance is well worth it. I walk down the stairs (all five flights) drop it off and the next moring it appears on my doorstep. It's like Christmas every week! Lately, though, there's been a new owner and they've been really bad. I drop off my clothes early now and they ask me if I want it for later. I reply yes, today if possible, and please have it delivered. They smile and say sure no problem, have a nice day. The only problem is the clothes never make it back that day, or the next even, and on the third day (today) I have to run down before they close to demand my clothes back! That is very NOT conveniant. So now I'd like to bring my laundry elsewhere as this is the third time in a row they've done this. Only problem is, I don't want to drag my bag of laundry anywhere that's too far. Shit, I hate being so lazy.

Forrest Grossman

Forrest Grossman
Originally uploaded by badblueboy.

Wow! How's this for a Halloween costume! Too funny!

Election Day!

You know, it's a pretty good feeling, this voting business. They do make it real easy too, I'm registered right down the block, so there is no reason not to vote. Schools out and even alternate side parking rules are suspened, what a great day. There sure are a lot of names in that voting booth that I've never seen before. I guess that's why being in a party is so important, cause people will just pick a column and vote all the way down. I used to be a Democrat, but not anymore, but I'm sure as hell not giving my vote blindly all the down Republican either. It'd be nice to know what these other politicians stand for, they are just faceless names most of the time. The other times you see their faces all over the city, but don't know what they stand for, so they are voiceless faces... Anyway, go vote.

Halloween

halloween
Originally uploaded by badblueboy.

Hope everyone had a great halloween! I was stuck working, so no costume party for me this year. Send me in some pics and I'll add them to my blog. This year seems like a lot of pranks got out of hand.

In the Bronx, a minivan got egged by a bunch of kids, and the owner of the van took exception to that, stopped the van and gave chase to a couple of the kids. They then turned around and shot the guy. The guy later died at Lincoln Hospital. This is all over the news, don't know if it made it up to Westchester. Can you believe it? A guy got killed over an egging incident.

Then somewhere in Long Island a kid gets egged in the face so hard that he may lose sight in his right eye. That really sucks. The way things are going, people are going to over-react and not know what to do, so they will outlaw eggs!

In the Halloween spirit, I watched a horror movie the other night (night after Halloween, since I had to work a 12 hour shift that night). The movie was "The House of Wax" with Paris Hilton and a bunch of other unknowns. That movie was so bad. I give it a 1/2 pumpkin out of 4 pumpkins. There was no t or a in it at all, Paris does a little strip tease, then ends it abruptly. The other hottie girl is just as prudish the entire movie. You see a little bit of Paris's head bobbing up and down in the car as they are driving and that's about it. The story makes no sense and it's about as scary as it's plausible. If you are having a slow netflix week, then maybe you can add it to your list.

Other movie news, Batman Begins, Star Wars Episode III, and Office Space are all out on DVD now. I'd like to buy all of em. I say Star Wars on sale at Best Buy for $14.99! No that's a bargain!

Did you turn back your clock?

In general, you can't turn back time, except for once a year, you're allowed to turn back the clock and get your one hour back. This is great for most of us, as it means an extra hour of sleep, and if you work nights you benefit from one extra hour of pay (unless you get ripped off). It's actually kind of silly that we even have this, but I guess tradition is tough to break. A lot of countries around the world don't even have daylight savings time. I think it originated because in older days (like when your parents walked to school barefoot in the snow uphill - both ways), it would be very dark in the winter months on the way to school. In the interest of making it safer for kids, you turn back the clock one hour and now you'll have sunlight on the way to school and on the way back. Now we have streetlights and it seems like a very small minority of students actually walk to school (as can be seen by the rising obesity levels).

Technology sure is great, now a days, there isn't very much that you have to set yourself. My computer, cell phone and cable box all update to the correct time automatically (my vcr still flashes 12:00). I basically have my wristwatch and my car's stereo to change and thats it. So you know I'm going to be an hour ahead until we turn the clocks forward again. Last night I went to Westchester and to celebrate daylight savings time (or is it standard time?), my brother, Lek and I went to the dinner and had a late meal. I indulged myself by ordering a plate of Disco Fries (Mozzarella cheese fries and gravy). With a name like that, you can't go wrong. It's also known as heart attack on a plate! Yum!

Strange Smells in NYC

I was driving Lek home from work last night with her friend and I notice an unusual, though not unpleasant smell wafting through the windows. I raise my nose and take a couple of sniffs. There's no doubt about it, I detect the distinct odor of maple syrup. It seems to be everywhere, all the way from the west side to the east side, and people are saying as far south as downtown Manhattan, all the way up to Harlem.. Lek's friend notices me sniffing, and tells me that she's just put on some hand lotion. What kind of hand lotion smells like maple syrup?

I wake up today, and now NY1 has an article on this very same phenomen. The entire city is smelling maple syrup, although some say it smells more like flavored coffee and others say it smells like roasted nuts (doesn't arsenic smell like toasted almonds?). Anyway, I hope it's not a terroist using some new chemical, cause that would really suck, since I've been smelling it for about 24 hours now.

See NY1 news's article HERE

Cold

Cold
Originally uploaded by badblueboy.

No, I didn't just come back from a snowboarding trip. I'm actually just hanging out in my living room, surfing the web. The reason I have my artic gear on is cause there's no friggan heat on in my apartment. This is getting insane, and I'm pretty sure it's illegal!

I know I've been blogging a lot lately and that's cause I've had the last 3 days off. When it's a regular work week, I don't make my entries as much, but I'm going to try to be more active, rather then wait only until the weeked. The good part of not having heat? I can keep my icecream cake out of the fridge and it's still cold!

Pics from the Past

Pics from the Past
Originally uploaded by badblueboy.

Jeff, one of my best friends ever, who I've known since I was about 10 years old sent me this picture of a collage he made when we were in college. Every single person there was a good friend of ours and this is what we looked like when we were 18 years old (and we didn't even need steroids!).

It's great to see how young we looked (and thin in my case). Everyone says that highschool is probably the best times of your life, but for me, no doubt about it, it was Albany. I wish I kept in contact with everyone as well as Jeff has, but as far as I can tell, it seems like everyone is doing well.

Hurricane Correction.

Apparently I'm mistaken. Pat, in his infinite wisdom has provided the correct information. I stand corrected
"Just a small correction on the hurricane naming convention. Twenty-one names are reserved each year (the letters q, u, x, y and z are not used) and are recycled every six years, minus those retired, such as Hugo and Andrew and, you can bet, Katrina). When a name is retired, the WMO chooses a new name to replace it."

One other topic. We have no heat. We haven't had heat yet this year and it's greating friggan cold out there. I may have to lodge a 311 complaint against my landlord. They don't seem to be shy when it comes to raising my rent every year, but one I want to complain about something, they are conveniantly not availible. Also my oven isn't working. I have to use my toaster oven, which sucks since I don't pay for gas, but I do pay for electricity.

Cock sauce

Cock sauce
Originally uploaded by badblueboy.

Went to the Asian Grocery store today. Thought you'd like this, I did. Feeling bland? Want a little spice in your life? Have some Cock Sauce, it has wonderful flavors for your mouth! Yay!

Congratulations!

Congratulations!
Originally uploaded by badblueboy.

The surprises never end! After seeing everyone (including friends from home), and getting to eat delicious lobster, there was yet more treats in store. Pat, Sally and Angelica had this cake made up for Lek and I to celebrate our new engagement, and the extended family picked up the tab for dinner (I told you, lots of treats!) I was even joking that I was going to grab a fork and dig into the cake at the next table, since it looked so good, not knowing that my full sized cake put their little stingy slice to shame! Take that stupid puny cake!

The cake was a yummy delicious carvel Icecream cake with the little crunchies inside. I love Carvel icecream cake, it's my favorite only after Strawberry shortcake! Do you think it would be bad if I had my wedding cake made from a Carvels? Pretty bad huh?

The Old Gang

DSC01455
Originally uploaded by badblueboy.

Serendipity, that's the only explaination. Completely random, while waiting for the rest of our party to show up for Lobster Fest, I notice a table of about 8 people sitting in the corner and I think that I may recognize one of them. Then I realize that I recognize nearly the entire table! Talk about a small world! In a city with about 8 million residents I run into people from the old neighborhood. Artie, Luke, Kenny, John and Scott happened to be sitting at the table next to mine! These people have been long time regulars at my fathers bar and good friends of mine for nearly half my life. We quipped about good old Monday Night football, where these guys would come to my dads bar like clockwork, every single week, for Pitchers and Wings. 10 cent wings, now why doesn't anyone do that anymore. A sidenote, the very friendly and cozy Cellar in Larchmont puts out a great spread every Monday night gratis (free). They get the food from the top notch and very pricey Willet House Steakhouse in Portchester NY, and it consists of delicious Prime Rib, crisp and fresh Ceasar salad, fried onions, mashed potatoes and other great trimmings. That's right free. Why don't I go there more often? Cause by the time I get of work usually, it's way too late.

Anyway, it was quite a pleasant surprise to see all these guys again, and although we went from a large party, to family night, it was extended to a large get together after all!

Family Night Lobster Fest!

DSC01454
Originally uploaded by badblueboy.

There were supposed to be a lot more people here, but they all bailed, leaving this in effect family night. I really love this lobster special. The first batch though, wasn't as fresh and it was apparent because the meat was shruken and a little mushy. Shellfish, when it is cooked fresh (ie, still alive when you put it in the pot) must be firm and full when cooked. If it seems smallish and not so tough, or a little mushy, it was probably already dead before they put it in the pot. I made a comment to our waitress, and the second round was terrific! Nice firm and juicy. Lek made her own sauce and brought that to the dinner. I told her that I thought she might want to make more as her flavorful garlic/hot pepper Thai sauce is pretty tasty. She said it's too spicey for anyone else to have. It didn't last past the first round of lobsters! Note, remember 2 things if you ever wish to partake in the Lobster night, first, you have to make reservations. It's a very popular special, and it fills up fast. Second, you have to pay in cash, no credit cards, so hit the ATM first.

iPod nano cards at東急東横線渋谷駅ホーム

iPod nano cards at東急東横線渋谷駅ホーム
Originally uploaded by purprin.

This photo is taken from Flikr user "purprin" (click on photo to see other pics), who has taken these pictures on the Tokyo subway. It's a really savvy bit of marketing, where they have an entire wall of black nano ipod cutouts and an entire wall of white nano ipod cutouts. The cutouts are designed to be taken off the wall and taken home. They have a URL (link) on the back that you can go to to download free ipod wallpaper. Apparently it's a great ad campaign, cause people are taking these off the wall faster then the workers can put them back up.

Wilma, the latest in a long string of tropical storm/hurricane to menance the US and the coastal regions. There have been so many tropical storms lately that they will for the first time have to turn to the greek alphabet to name upcoming storms. In case you didn't know, each storm is named in alphabetical order, so the first storm of the year will start with "A" such as hurricane Angie, next will be "B" and so on, so we've already had over 26 storms! We might actually get a taste of Wilma, she's intent on coming up the coast.

Conroy gets convicted of negligent homicide. It's a shame. This sends a message to all cops that if you have to pull out your gun to defend your life, be prepared for a maelstorm of legal nightmares, and don't be surpirsed if you actually end up going to jail to save your life. Remember Detective Rafferty who didn't pull out his gun in time? He and his partner are both dead now from a piece of shit garbage who shot them both. Now they adorn the Honor wall for those who've sacrificed their lives for the City of New York. But at least they didn't get sued...

Happy Birthday to me!

Happy Birthday to me!
Originally uploaded by badblueboy.

Happy Birthday to me! Lek surprised me today with a birthday cake! She got me too, I had no idea. She locked both locks so it would take me a while to get in. It's funny, cause I remember thinking "what the fuck, why would you lock both locks if you're already inside!" Hahaha, jokes on me! My birthday is actually tomorrow, not today, but it's close enough! I would love to have tomorrow off, but that's not happening. Days off on weekends are hard to come by these days.

The day didn't start off so well. We were running errands all over the city today, so I didn't know if I was going to make it to work on time, traffic is such a bitch during the day.

At work, I actually locked the keys in the car, what a mess that was. You know, it's actually harder to break into a car then it appears. Unless you have a slim jim, which someone had, then it becomes a real piece of cake. Whew! That was lucky.

I could use another pair of workboots, especially since I now have holes in the bottom of both shoes, and water leaks in everytime it rains. 2 years really isn't that long. They just don't make quality goods anymore.

In the tech world. I would really love to get a new iPod. The Video capabilities is so cool. They have already started to make some TV shows availible like Lost and Desperate Housewives. I really hope they expand their selection. You know, this is really going to take off when they're able to get porn on here easily. In the blog world, people are complaining because certain assholes are writing bots that create thousands of blog entries automatically to make a site or a link more visible. This is causing sites to go down and RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to overload. Imagine a spam overload, but with blogs instead of emails. Anyway, thanks for reading my Blog, I appreciate everyone stopping by!

BK_Dude

BK_Dude
Originally uploaded by badblueboy.

This is the new face of Burger King. Now, Ronald McDonald was bad enough, now we have America waking up in the morning to this really creepy dude. Some of the commercials are just, well Bizarre. There's one where he's hiding behind the shades, another where he's logging with a lumberjack and yet other's where he's on the football field. All I can say is, why can't I sign him up on my Fantasy football league, he seems to be catching more passes then more loser roster! I have to admit, it must be working if it's making me talk about him, then it's good advertising.

Other entertainment news.
Stallone is thinking of making yet anothe Rocky movie! I don't know if he plays Micky in this one or what, but talk about beating a dead horse! The popular video game that made made first person shooters so dominant today, DOOM, is finally getting a movie of its own. The Rock, who hasn't made a real movie since the Scorpian King has the lead role in this movie, hopefully it doesn't suck. Speaking of Movies, there's a film crew down the street from me filming for some movie. I don't know what, and they won't let me near, but it's still exciting.

On TV, "My Name is Earl" is really funny, and it does a great job of explaining the basic concept of Kharma. Wow, TV that's entertaining and has morals? We haven't seen that since Leave it to Beaver years. Catch it on Tuesdays at 9pm. Later this season, Clark Kent meets up with Aquaman in Smallville. It sounds cheesy, cause Aquaman is the cheesiest of superheroes (I mean, he swims and talks to turtles, who cares), but I'd still like to catch this show, besides, Lana is hot. On Ultimate Fighter 2 another disappointing heavy fight as Mike pretty much just gives up and puts on a pathetic performance.

In the Internet and Tech, Jibjab a parody website takes a shot at big business and outsourcing. They had a great spoof last year, during the election with Bush and Kerry. Check it out, click on JibJab above, then BigBoxMart to see the cartoon. Good stuff.

Rain, Rain Go Away!

We've had something like 6 days in a row of straight rain. There's lots of flooding all over the city and it's especially bad in NJ. In the Bronx there are large pockets of water where if you time it just right you can drive through it really fast, effectively drenching pedestrians. We had one guy nearly drown while walking on the sidewalk! A section of the Bronx had a whole wall collapse nearly causing a row of houses to come tumbling down. It's wacky out there I tell you.

A Chinese food delivery man was robbed in the Bronx on Monday, and was shot in the head. He later died today. I am so sick of these heartless bastards who would do something like this. Rob a man of his life, a family of their husband, a mother of his son. He was only trying to eek out an existence here. The worst thing is that immigrants who work in these low income areas are often on the recieving end of multiple types of abuse and discrimination. They rarely report it to the police because of language barriers, and an inherent fear of abuse from authorities. Asians experiance a different kind of discrimination because the extreme difference in appearance and language makes them so alien. They already tend to congregate together and do not often reach out to the community. I was fortunate that I was born here and was able to assimilate as a youth. I get so mad, I again volunteered to dress up like a deliveryman so I could help catch these bums, but they declined saying I was too stocky, not scrawny enough...Shit man, I love to have someone try to rob me.

In other news Apple computers have released another ipod. This one plays video, photos, home movies as well as music. To go along with the new hardware, Apple has also released a new version on itunes, (itunes 6), which now allows you to browse and purchase music videos, and even some tv shows. I like the concept, and they already have shows such as Desperate Houswives and Lost, but not too much else. A device like this would be great for people with a lot of free time, who don't have too much access to TV. Until they get some real movies or maybe sports shows on here, this is going to be very limiting. No one wants to pay $1.99 for shows that they could just set their Tivo's too. Maybe if you were planning to take a flight, this may be good to whittle away some time.

N.O.P.D. gets tough.

1128887851358_police2
Originally uploaded by badblueboy.

Wow, this is definately not good for the city of New Orleans. The cops are probably under a tremendous amount of stress, and it seems like the finger pointing is only relagated to President Bush. People are laying the blame on the Police Officers there as well.

I'm not sure what the exact circumstances are of this arrest, but it appears as if the cops are fighting with a resisting perp and they are trying to restrain him. The video also seems to show a cop punching the perp in the face. Not good. The cuffs aren't on yet, but the perp is clearly outnumbered. The worse part about this whole thing is that the Captian of their dept. is already damning them. They're being arrested (which probably means fired) without a proper investigation. The Captain, and other Brass clearly want to distance themselves from this mess (leave your boys out to dry), as they already have a huge P.R. mess to deal with, with cops that during hurricane Katherine were, AWOL, looting and downright stealing cars...

Pakistan Quake.

09quake_night
Originally uploaded by badblueboy.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the worlds going looney on us. We've had one natural disater after another. From the beggining of this year with the Tsunami of Indonesia/Thailand to New Orleans here in the U.S. and now perhaps the most devastating, this 7.7 earthquake, which has estimates of 20,000 dead.

Do I really think this is a foreshadow of things to come? Armageddon? Global Warming? Alien Apocalyspe? Not really. I think the world and mother nature is constanting reminding us how fucked up she really can be. I think in this new age of globilization, where you can fly anywhere in the world for about $800.00 and instantaneous call anyone worldwide, or look up newspaper articles via the web, we are becoming more aware of what's going on in the world today.

10 years ago a flood in China or a hailstorm in Canada would hardly raise an eyebrow, cause no one would know about it. Now we can access information about anything at anytime so the world seems like a much smaller place.

What about that quake? I'm not too sure that many people are sympathetic. After all, here's another Muslim nation, that's belligerently denounce America as well as other western nations for our "greed" and our world policies. Now that they need help, there's a great outcry for the lack of and slowness in the delivery of aid. Shut the fuck up. No matter how evil America is, our money is still green. Choke on your wars. Go ask India for help, another "neighbor" you've been pissing off for years. Or better yet, ask Muslim extremists to help out, after all, you stuck your neck out for them by hiding their terrorists, and you must have a lot of money, since you can now devote funds into Nuclear research.... Maybe there is a god. Maybe he is just.
PS. Take a good look at this photo. This is an awful lot like what Ground Zero looked like after 9-11. Still don't believe in Kharma?

NYC Subways Targeted?

So the word is the FBI have passed on some pretty reliable information to the NYPD in regards to NYC being the target of another terrorist attack. Security on subways and transit in general has been upgraded and there is a show of force by multiple agencies. Washington has stated that the information has not proven "reliable".

So is there info, or isn't there? The Mayor seems to think it's better that we are informed about a "possible" threat, and acknowledges that the information is pretty specific to date, place, time etc. If that's the case then why tell us at all. Wouldn't it have been smarter to get the agencies involved prepared and then spring the trap when all the targets present themselves? Now, if there really is a threat, won't they cancel, postpone, or move to another location? That doesn't make much sense at all....Unless this is simply a bluff to keep the terrorists guessing? Maybe we know that 19 terrorists are in NY planning an attack, but we have no idea where, when or how and this ruse is for their benefit. If they think we're coming for them, they won't attack...Yet. Don't know, but if it's true, I hope we catch these bastards and we catch em before anyone gets hurt.

Lobster Fest NYC Style!

lobster-3
Originally uploaded by badblueboy.

That was the title Angelica gave this email, and I think it's absolutely fitting. MO's lobster special every Monday night simply rocks. Each Lobster is $10, what more do you need. Get a pitcher of booze, some delicious crusteceans and a bunch of friends, and you have one heck of a good time. Too bad I don't have every Monday night off, but maybe it's best for my wallet as well as for my waistline!

New Toy

Camera
Originally uploaded by badblueboy.

Yippee, an early birthday present! This is a new toy from my brother, who knows the way to my heart is through gadgets. I used to have another Sony digicam, and at the time it was a real nice one, with 2.1 megapixels, removable memory stick, and even the ability to record video.

This new one is at least twice that advanced, with a smaller design (about the size of a cassette tape), audio and video recording, a smaller memory stick format and a whopping 5.1 megapixel. This is just in time as we're probably heading to Thailand within the next year and it's important to have a bunch of pictures to show our family there. I don't know why they like seeing our pictures, cause I find looking at other peoples pictures extrememly boring, even if they are doing exotic and exciting things like jumping out of airplanes, handling snakes, racing cars, I don't find it interesting, unless it's me doing it!

Another thing I've learned about digital pictures. Treat them like you would any other digital file, save, save, save. My hard drive crashed, causing me to lose my entire photo collection. As my computer doesn't have a disk drive and I don't like burning new cd's every time I take pictures, I've discovered a great solution. My ipod. My iPod has a 20 gig storage, and I don't come anywhere close to that in music, so I use it to back up my photos too! Now, I'll get snapping and add those to my blog as well.

Fall!

Yay! It's finally that time of year. The leaves are falling, it's getting a little cooler, and the pharmacy's are full of Halloween decorations and mini, bite-sized candies. This is and has always been my favorite time of year. I'm hoping to dress up again this year for Halloween, but I'm not sure as what yet.

I know it's been a little while since my last post, sorry for the long delay, it's just that I've been working so much overtime lately that I have such little free time. When I do have some time, I'm glued to the web-site (ESPN not Blogger) or the TV trying to get a leg up on fantasy football.

In other news, Rita the latest hurrican has swept through the gulf coast, this time hitting mostly Texas, and only slightly flooding New Orleans. What have we learned these past few weeks from these hurricanes?
1. Mother Nature is berserk, it is very rare for 2 category 4 storms or higher to hit the mainland in the same year.
2. The Mayor and Governor of Louisiana are complete idiots. One is a perp and the other plain incompetent in all matters concerning governing except one - how to point the finger.
3. The low income class of New Orleans is probably thinking they've just hit the lotto. A big chunk of them are on government assistance anyway, so it's not like they worked long and hard to save up for anything they might have lost, now with the hurricane, they've got a fresh start. Free money, no record (no id, no record) and tons of support around the world for these leeches on society.
4. Bush has no balls. I can't beleive he came out and took the blame for that. He fired Brown, who fucking cares about Brown? Make Nagin and whatever her name is (governor) get fully embarrassed and own up to their negligence!

Ok, enough about Louisiana and Texas, to the people that are hard-working and deserving of our aid, our thoughts are with you. To the crooks that suck the blood and soul out of our society, may you drown in feces filled sewage.

Gadget news. NYC Police Department now has a PODCAST!Click on NYPD Website Ok, I can understand ESPN, 1010wins and such having a podcast, but the Police Department? That's very interesting, now you can hear about street closings on your own personal MP3 player - Yippee! Get the fuck out of here. Spend that money, time and research getting standardized, working radios, or maybe even RIM pagers (warrant checks, important info, etc) now that would be something!

TREO Joins M$FT. The Treo smartphone (same one I have) have stiffed their old operating system, the Palm OS and have switched over to the Windows platform. What does this means? Well right now, very little as the new phone won't be out until sometime next year. Windows has always been more multimedia friendly, a little prettier and sometimes more impressive. It works with Word, Excel and the majority of the office suite right out of the box, and now has integreted "push" email, like the Blackberry's have. You can watch movies and videos using Windows Media Player (WMP) and need not download 3rd party software. That sounds nice, but you are giving up the ease and simplicity of the Palm. Yes it usually has less memory and a slower processer, but that's because the software that runs on Palm needs less to make it work well, it is more efficient. It's easier to use and has a much quicker learning curve. More programs are written for it and above all, it works with Macs as well as Windows machines. The new phone running Windows sure does look pretty, but I think I'll wait until the new Palm version comes out. Which hopefully they make one. You should hope so too, cause remember that even if you don't like Palm, without competition, we all lose. The more companies try to make a similar product the more choice we have, the lower the price and the faster the turnaround for next generation models. Now all I need is to win the lotto to pay for all these new gadgets....

Gas prices!!!

It may be hard to see, but this is what it costs me to fill up my tank these days. Over fifty fucking dollars, someone should be impeached or fired for this horseshit. It's getting out of hand, I'm ready to start riding my vacuum cleaner to work if it'll save me money.

Mamaroneck Playhouse 4

Mamaroneck Playhouse 4
Originally uploaded by badblueboy.

I made a stop by my old neighborhood over the weekend. One of my stops during that time was to the old Mamaroneck Playhouse 4, over on Mamaroneck ave. This place has a lot of memories as it was the place of my first job, that was not family owned. I remember I was only 16 at the time, and I wasn't sure if they'd hire me being so young. I worked there until I graduated highschool and went off to college.

The place has a lot of history of it's own, even before I made it there. Before it was a movie theater, it was a literal playhouse, with stages and dressing rooms and no big silver screen. Once it was converted the rooms in the back went mostly unused and my friends and I used to wander around there, scaring the crap out of each other. It would be a great place for a scray movie. Now the managers at the time were pretty fucked up individuals themselves, but we sure had a lot of fun.

On hot summer days, we'd get a keg and go hang out in the back rooms getting drunk and throwing on boxing gloves then beating the shit out each other. One night a whole bunch of us got drunk and threw on boxing gloves, then a big fat mexican guy and me beat the crap out of each other. At the tender age of 16 I learned 2 things.
1.Mexicans love the sport of boxing only second to their love of soccer.
2.I fight much better when I'm not drunk.

These are 2 lessons that have served me well throughout the rest of my life.

Now that was litereally half a lifetime ago, and what brought me back to the theater was it's bargain prices. A regular movie at night is $7 a ticket! That's like 1990 prices! So 2 tickets here is only a little more expensive then 1 in Manhattan. A matinee, which they define as a showing before 6pm (no one does that anymore, at best, it's the first showing of the day) costs a rock-bottom price of $4.50.

As I walk in, I see the theater has barely changed, other then the staff and some new posters, it's nearly the same as it was 15 years ago. My buddy, who's known me since elementary school chuckles, then reminds me of the time I had to dress up like a cowboy during the "Back to the Future III" promotion. Somehow, my subconcious has blocked that painfull memory from me. I do however remember sneaking in friends to see Batman, Home Alone, Total Recall, among other movies back then.

The movie that we decided to see? "The Transporter 2". What a piece of crap you say? Ok, well, lets call a spade a spade. This movie isn't going to win any Oscars anytime soon, but you know what, if you go into thinking you are ready for some mindless, hookey, really ridiculous action, then you're going to love it. Now let me warn you, there is some pretty fucking really retarded stuff in this movie and a real lack of T&A, unless you count that skanky ematiated stripper/assassin. It seems as if Jakie Chans choreagrapher has lent his expertise here, but one main differance is that Chan and even Jet Li really go out of there way to show you their moves, so you can pratically feel it. In Jason Strathams fight scenes, it's so fast and so chopped up, you really don't see anything. It's reminiscient of Matt Damon's fight scenes in his "Jason Bourne" movies, but not as good. One other complaint, they go through great lengths to display the fighting prowess of the badguy. I mean he has the classic rich guy beats up on the gang of hired henchman who wait patiently in a circle while he preforms martial arts moves on one after the other (also used by bad guys in "The Karate Kid", "Rapid Fire", "The Octagon", "Enter the Dragon" among others). After showing what a badass he is, you can't wait until the final show down, which in this movie was a bit of a disappointment... Anyway, good car scenes (great car), decent fighting and a really lame-o story line. It's still a good time, just keep saying to yourself "it's only a movie, it's only a movie!"