danny: December 2004 Archives

Blogging is kind of crazy. When you first start out everything you do and see seems blog worthy. I've been blogging for a while now so the novelty has kind of lost it's luster. I seems odd, but when life is a bit boring and a little slow I can think of a whole lot to write about. When life is moving 100mph and new and crazy things are happening every minute, I find I've got nothing interesting to say. So, today I'm gonna try a 0 to 100mph summary of the most recent events.

Christmas was great. We spent 4 days at home with the family. The gifts were nice but spending some quality time, and a bit of drunken time with my favorite in-laws is a good Christmas to me. We even coaxed my mom-inlaw(Radie), and Diane into having a traditional Jewish Christmas with my parents at the House of Ing. Nothing like like some spicy Hunan Chicken on a cold white Christmas day.

The Pistons are finally starting to come alive a bit. The bench is still missing and the Pistons aren't shooting well, but effort is there. Antonio McDyess is beginning to look comfortable, so if Joe D. can find a good backup point guard and maybe even a small forward to help while Delfino is out, we should be back in the hunt before the all-star break.

The new year is around the corner and I look forward to spending the "Eve" with my good friends Brannon and Zandra. In 2005, B & Z will be leaving the great land of traffic and deep dish pizza for greener and much less expensive pastures in the great state of Missouri. I hear you can put Ketchup on your hotdog there. Needless to say, Brooke and I will miss them both terribly.

Ok, so early early this morning, I was dreaming away in my nice cozy bed with thoughts of smart pre-sales questions dancing through my head when all of a sudden I was startled awake by what could have only been the sound of a frantic cat launching off the bed and using my eye ball as leverage. It felt like I was shot in my eye so I screamed and when Brooke turned on the light there was blood gushing from everywhere. I made it to the bathroom mirror and went cold immediately, I'm not good with blood. It took a good 10 minutes to wipe away all the mess and assess the damage. The cat gashed me across my eyebrow and punctured my eye lid. I was lucky, both cuts were deep but not deep enough for stitches. So now I look like I just fought Apollo Creed. Add this to my dislocated shoulder and it's the second significant injury that my crazy cat has caused. He's damn lucky he's cute and has grandparents that would damage me further if I.....nevermind.

That's all there is until this weekend when another year beings. Happy New Year!

This one is for all those Costco nuts, especially my parents. Click here

In a story found on Forbes.com today, Apple and Motorola have admitted they are working on a joint-venture phone to support a mobile version of iTunes.

"We've said we have something coming on this in the first half of 2005 and we're definitely on schedule for that. Hopefully you'll be able to see more about it soon," says Eddy Cue, vice president in charge of applications at Apple."

It's a darn good thing I haven't bough a new cell phone in a while. An Apple cell phone would definitely make it into my favorite gadget list. I don't even need to see to know. New cell phones always cause a buzz for some reason. Can you imagine how may Apple would sell. They could be as hot as iPods if they have some cool colorful phones for the kids, and some slick aluminum devices for us bigger kids. Oh boy, it's gonna be an exciting Apple year!!

Most of the people who read this blog live in Michigan and don't have do deal with the crazy toll roads. If you do, you have to check this product out. http://www.phantomplate.com/ Apparently, this makes it impossible for the toll cameras to photo your license plate. Of course I would never advocate not paying a toll because I have an iPass but every now and then the darn iPass doesn't register. This nifty little spray can help avoid unnecessary tickets and angry calls to customer service. So, I consider this a stress relief device.

Check this out http://podfolio.desclides.net/

I'm testing a brad new weblog posting application from Ranchero Software called MarsEdit. This program has a great interface. Like their site says, it's almost like writing an e-mail. It's got a spell checker and an HTML tag menu. Unfortunately it costs $25 bucks or this would be a winner. Does anyone have any other suggestions for blog posting tools? MT's web interface is ok but it has no spell checker and I'm tired of writing HTML tags by hand.

Here it is again. The holidays are here. It seems we all celebrate this time for different reasons. When I was young it was all about Christmas break but presents were a close second. It was an exciting time of year and it was time that seemly stood still. In Michigan the snow always fell, and my Dad always had the fireplace going. The nights were cold.... although it's always cold in my parents house but for the sake of sentimentality I'll pretend that cold nights were unique to holiday time. Anyway, there was always a nice secure and cozy feeling in the house. At the time I was too young to realize it, but I had a lot to be thankful for. I mean I had a Nintendo Entertainment System, Radio Controlled Cars, a Tony Hawk skateboard, every He-man action figure you could imagine and too many computers to count. Yep, I was spoiled, and I'm damn proud of that.

I'm no longer a kid but I have a Sony Playstation and a few other toys but the rest of the fun stuff has been replaced by a job, a wife, some crazy cats, and a whole lot of bills. All of which are fun at times, especially my wife ;) but things are different. Time is different. Life moves so much faster. Without school there are no real time markers. No month long breaks. It's hard to break the daily routine and relive that magical feeling from childhood. It's hard to get excited because this time of year comes fast and it goes even faster. This year I wanna slow down time. Tonight I lit my Menorah and I even said a prayer. Tomorrow, I'm getting a Christmas tree and watching Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. I wish there was snow on the ground, I might even go sledding on Sunday. When I get home for the holidays this year I wanna relive that frozen time with my family. I want to eat Chinese food on an endless Christmas day. This year I want to start being a kid again.

Quote of the night:

"I'll give you a piece of my meat......"
   Zandra Estis

At the core of my personality are some very extreme loyalties that lead to some very strong opinions. Don't worry, this has nothing to do with politics or anything else that will disrupt the world order. The last thing I want to do is strike a debate that would cause people to actually read and comment on this weblog. What I'm talking about are lists. We all have them. The most talked about list is the one you make with your spouse about the 10 people you can "interact" with if you should ever have the opportunity. That's just one of the many lists I have that I live my life by. I'd like to add a new section to my blog detailing these lists, the good the bad and the ugly. Every now and then I can't think of a thing to write, but I have a lot of top tens and worst tens. So, whenever life gets boring I'm posting a new list. Today, I'll start with my favorite TV shows since I'm watching two of my very prized shows now. "Jack and Bobby," and "Smallville."

Alias

Scrubs

Jack and Bobby

Smallville

American Dreams

CSI

Extreme Home Makeover

Enterprise

Malcolm in the Middle

That 70s Show

American Idol (Unless it stinks this year like last year)