Christmas is only 4,806,540 seconds away!

And.... as of press time, there were only 80,107 minutes until Christmas (via christmas.com)

So, you should almost have your shopping done, right? HA! Well, this post is for all you folks who have no idea what to get people this year.

Uncle Mark publishes an annual Gift Giving Guide for the idea-less out there. As you may know, I pride myself on knowing about all of the coolest gadgets and tech toys out there and I was pleasantly suprised that Uncle Kraker, I mean Uncle Mark had a LOT of cool things I had never heard of.

A good example is:

"HP Laserjet 1012: I use and recommend this simple, inexpensive, all-around great laser printer.
It’s Mac- and Windows-compatible, black-and-white only, and about $100. Done."

Sounds a little like my writing. He must be good.

How to: Have Jesus Join You For Breakfast

You've seen Jesus' face on the Shroud of Turin, but weren't satisfied... you want the Man with you at the breakfast table.

This site will walk you through all of the steps necessary to have the son of God appear on your Rye.

Free 4-1-1

This phone number is really free. Don't know about you but I HATE paying like $1.75 for every darn call to 4-1-1 from my cell phone.

Why is it more expensive to call 4-1-1 from your car then it is from your house? I guess it has to do with the "gotcha" factor.

Anyway, this is a great idea - and I tested it out. You call the number it asks you a few questions, and while it pulls up your listing - it reads an ad to you for Mr Ticket or something. After about 10 seconds, it either connects you to your requested number or gives you the number audibly.

I say pretty cool - I have already programmed it into my phone!

Real Sign: Uhhhh Humm

Yeah! You might drink your spill... well slobber your lips. You mean what I know.

Damn Cool Illusion

You have to check out this site.

It's pretty dern cool what our eyes tell our minds when we look at this in different ways.

Check it out.


* Digression: I started using http://del.icio.us/
about 2 months ago to manage my bookmarks across browsers. I use the laptop mostly but I'm in the home office, the office, and the daycare enough to want to get to my bookmarks no matter where I am.

I took note of http://del.icio.us/popular/ this week. Basically, links that are added often and recently appear in this category. You could say it's like a group of people who sit around and talk about the cool sites on the internet and give out the URL's.... except no one is actually talking.

So adorable!

Meet Becky, Anastasia, & Asha.

Patrick, Raymond, Andrew. The three luckiest dudes on Earth. 

Surprise!

Oh, wait - it's just Andrew and Asha. But, oh, hi guys it's nice to see you too. 

SHARK!

I have a Radio Shack as a new customer, and I was telling the two ladies that work there about Paige and they INSISTED I buy this for her. It's an electronic shark that is rechargable and it swims just like a little baby shark - very realistic! 

Mommy, read ME a story too!

 

Kaitlyn Excer-saucering!

 

Paige all dressed up

This was on the day of little Ray's baptism.... 

World Sunlight Map

I was just wondering where dusk was on the other side of the world.

Thank god for the World Sunlight Map.

Beck saw this on the way home from Ray's party!

I freekin love technology!

I have posted about my satellite fetish before, but this is more then a crush - I'm in love!

My $200 Mapopolis GPS program did me good for almost a year, but looking back - it was like digging a foundation for a house with a spoon.

The Magellan Roadmate 760 is my partner in the car... if there's one thing I hate - it's being lost. On an average day, I travel about 100 miles and visit 4 people. No matter where I am, I just enter the address and he gives me turn by turn directions with a high-quality screen to see the roads and the turns.

The Magellan's default voice is a female's, which I thought would be kind of soothing - but I had a hard time trusting her directions. Maybe it's just me - but the male voice is very calm, kind of like a co-pilot. So far, he hasn't done me wrong.

The price? Don't ask. But it's a gadget I will have for quite some time - if a year is a long time.

Tracking cell phones for real-time traffic data

MSNBC is reporting that the "show me state" Missouri, will all show us how to combine cell phones with traffic data.

Lets say you are on your cell phone talking to your wife travelling at 65 MPH, then WHOOOA little doggie - traffic crawls to a turtle's pace on the interstate.

Well, your cell phone transmits it's signal while you are connected, and the towers know exactly how fast you are travelling. This data is compiled with all of the other skipjacks that are on their cell phones and sent to the DOT, automoatically updates road signs, web sites, and more.

I love technology! Now, when will they get rid of all tolls and just charge my credit card automatically?

Story here

Happy Halloween

I have posted about TopLeftPixel before, and loved this spider to celebrate the holiday.

From topleftpixel: maman is a giant $3.2M bronze spider made by louise bourgeois at the National Gallery in Ottawa. if you want to see the scale of it, this photo might help.

Doesn't it seem like Halloween is quickly becoming like Christmas? Our neighbors have orange lights on their trees and we have been invited to not one, but two Halloween parties this year!

Ray, Pat. Pat, Ray

I love this shot!

It reminds me of a great story about Boom and me.

I was working the Reading, PA territory at the time and Ray also happened to be in Berks County as well for work during that month.

So, I called his cell and we chatted a bit about whatever and I asked him: "What's your 20?"

Now, a small history lesson about me - I was a police & 9-1-1 dispatcher for about 5 years, but I digress.

Since Ray and I have been friends, he has had to decipher my code talk - and I'm not just talking about "What's your 20" either - there's plenty more for those who know me. They range from skip jack, to smacked ass, to slabobin, ferschmeckled, and many more.

Back to the story - so Boom says "I'm on 222 right by 61." I say "that's funny, I'm on 222 right by 61."

Now, I'm fired up - I thought that I felt a disturbance in the force - I scream "I'm heading south - where are you?!?!?!?" He screams back, now laughing like a Hyena, "I'm heading north!"

So, I start to flash my headlights like I am sosing the mother ship. And I hear Ray dying - "BUDDY! I see you!"

Now, the time from when I asked him where he was to this exact moment in time was no more then 8 seconds.

I look ahead and there he is - going 65 MPH northbound yelling. "BUDDDYYYYYY!" Looking right at me!

Needless to say, I am doing my classic Patrick look back at him.

A great moment like that deserves a chronicle on the blog.

Oh, and Happy 30th Birthday Boom!

Is this for REAL? I will be RICH!

From: Mr. STEVE MANZINI
Reply-To: stevemanzin@netscape.net
To: patrick@xxxxxx.com
Date: Oct 8, 2005 7:36 AM
Subject: partnership

Dear Friend,
Investment Assistance

I humbly approach you with a view that we may be able to enter into a mutual business transaction that could be of immense benefit to both parties.

As led by my instinct, I decided to contact you through email after, Searching for Contacts via the internet, as it is the only means I can contact anybody since I am cutting off ties with Sierra Leone for now.

I apologize if this is not acceptable to you. Foremost; I should begin by introducing myself.
I am Mr. STEVE MANZINI the son of late Mr. GEORGE MANZINI, a precious stone merchant in Sierra Leone, who died on the 6th of May 2003 After the death of my father, the Government of Sierra Leone arrested my mum and my kid brother on the allegation that my father was a front man to the late dictators of Sierra Leone.

All my father's assets were confiscated, by the present government and during this injustice; my brother and my mum were maltreated and tortured. From this trauma, my mum fell sick and died.
After the whole incident, I went through my Father’s document and I found out that he lodged $12 800,000.00 (Twelve Million Eight Hundred Thousand Dollars) kept in custody for us in a security company stashed in trunk boxes and deposited as personal belongings before he died, out side my country and he intended investing it before his untimely death.

Sir, my intention now is to invest in your country, in any profitable business you deem fit.

I will be grateful if we could come into joint business partnership. Because of my family
background I shy away from publicity. Precisely, I prefer staying away from well know public figures in any country.

Hence I won't want my name mentioned to any one, as I still want to stay away from the scrutiny of my country government. Mentioning this mail to anyone may put me in a big mess and cause me to lose the money.

As soon as I receive your consent I will immediately forward the contact and all other information of where and how to collect this money.

For your assistance, I have two options for you. Firstly you can choose to have 20% of the money for your assistance, and helping me open an account for the money to be deposited here, or you can go into partnership with me for the proper profitable investment of the money in your country.

Please note that I can be reached on email (stevemanzin@netscape.net ) Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Thanks and God bless.

Mr. STEVE MANZINI.

NOTE: PLS BE INFORMED THAT THERE WILL NOT BE ANY EXPENSES OUT OF YOUR
POCKET, EVERY EXPENSES DUE TO RETREVING OF THE CONSIGNMENT SHOULD BE MADE OUT OF THE CONSIGNMENT.

Analyze This

Ray and I joked a few days ago how much we talk on the phone... so, since I had nothing to do this morning except buy something from an infomercial, I did some analysis.

Of the 2,000 plus minutes I used on my cell phone last month, 45% of them were with only four numbers.

At least I talk to Beck more then Boom!

Palm Island, Dubai

Have you heard of Palm Island? I saw a program on the National Geographic Channel

I often wonder what else is happening in the world that I should know about. This is definitely one of them!

Basically, some Arabian prince has decided to create a man-made island that looks like a perfect palm leaf, build amazing multi-million dollar homes, hotels, and more.


Here is the copy from National Geographic:

"An enormous project is underway in the Arabian Gulf that will literally change the face of the coastline. It's so vast it can be seen from space. The world's largest artificial islands are being constructed and fashioned in the shape of a massive palm tree. An ambitious engineering feat, it's part of an even bigger plan to transform Dubai into one of the world's premiere tourist destinations. MegaStructures tells the story of the race to build this new engineering feat."

This address gives a nice history of how the construction has progressed.


Here is a HUGE resolution image of the island.

Does anyone believe these?

So, it's 5:20AM and Kaitlyn is cooing away in her crib... Becky gets up and gives her the pacifier.

It's 5:26AM... I get up and give her the pacifier.

It's 5:41AM... I decide someone is hungry.

Have you ever watched TV from midnight to 6:00AM? It's "Paid Programming" on every freekin' channel. Here's the thing, I still got sucked in to watching one. It was the "Revolutionary Flash Light" that works when you shake it. At the end of the commercial, here comes a screen like this one:



May I please draw your attention to the little box below Carol's head. It's a little clock counting backwards. WHO BELIEVES THIS CLOCK MEANS ANYTHING? Are there people out there sprinting to the phones because there is only 1:40 left to order? Do they think they MUST CALL NOW before the amazing offer expires?

Can you readers be honest with me? Have you ever purchased something that you saw on an infomercial? Be honest and post a comment below!