Save Money By Switching!

It is hard to watch television, surf the net or listen to the radio without seeing or hearing about car insurance rates. "If you switch to BLAH BLAH insurance you could save up to $400 a year!" Well after thinking about this I realized that EVERY car insurance ad claims this to be true. Allstate, Geico, Progressive, Etc. Etc. What company is the one that has the highest rates that everyone else is saving by switching to a different company? I am sure that if you are needing SR22 (DUI) insurance and switch to a company that specializes in helping those who choose to get caught drinking and driving have insurance you could save some money. "If you fall into a certain niche of driving coverage and need insurance call me, you could save money!" This should be the slogan, it's more accurate. I guess the alternative would be "Hey, we could save you money but it's probably a waste of time. Oh yeah, you will need to give us a down payment as well." I wouldn't call them, maybe they should stick to the saving money stuff.

Big Brother Is Watching

I recently read the the FBI has started one of the world largest biometric databases for United States citizens. In the early reports of this story they listed the project at having at least one billion (or $1,000,000,000) dollars for this initiative. The effects are already starting to trickle down the system at the local level. As with any country wide policy and security change it has drawn some criticism.

To demonstrate how these things start I only need to point to one company, Disney. I am not saying that the Disney Corporation is part of some conspiracy but they were one of the first amusement park companies to incorporate a finger print scanning system into the regular park entry turn style. Now other parks and amusement type places have placed similar systems into use such as Busch Gardens. When my girlfriend and I decided to spend the day at Busch Gardens in Tampa Bay I was asked to put my finger (voluntarily) into a scanner. I refused. They still let me in but I felt like there was something majorly wrong with this situation. What were these companies doing with all of this information that they were collecting? Every year over 119 million visitors cross through the gates of North American amusement parks. The official stance of companies like Disney Corp. in regards to the data that is being collected is that it is purged from the system after 48 hours and nothing comes from it. Knowing the habits of most medium to large size companies I have a hard time believing this as well. Companies like this have an extremely hard time deleting customer information and data that can be used for advertising purposes.

Today I read in John Dvorak's blog that Green Bay Wisconsin police are now taking finger prints when they pull people over. The persons fingerprint will be on the actual citation that is given. The reason that the local Wisconsin police give for the sudden change is for mistaken identity cases. They are protecting you from a citation that you may be charged with when your buddy (that looks exactly like you) is driving YOUR car and is caught speeding. So, with all of this in mind I go back to my original point of the trickle down effect. I am not a conspiracy theorist but this seems like a bit more than a coincidence. The point of doing this the way that they have chosen to do it is so that you are conditioned to be comfortable with the thought of walking into the mall and putting your finger into a scanner for your "protection." Don't be surprised to see your local government is adopting the same policies.

Christmas Reading For Kids!

Here is something that you just don't see enough of, pop up books with splatter! I found this picture on the BOING BOING blog and thought that I would share. If you are shopping for your nieces and nephews this Christmas season and don't know what to get them, grab a book and some safety glasses! Too bad that this is not real, I would send everyone in my family something that they would remember Uncle Sean by. Of course I would include a card that had a warning label "May cause one to poop themselves, change of clothes not included."

Internet scams during the holidays

Unfortunately this is one of the most profitable times of the year for online shopping scams and bogus websites. I have done all of my shopping for the holidays online for the first time this year and feel lucky that I come away scrape free. After reading the report released by Google and their decision to not index known internet scam sites I realized that this is a growing problem. The link for the article is below.



Here are some tips on how to find legitimate websites and also how to spot online shopping scams.

1. Is the website reputable?

Do your research into the website and see what people have to say about it. It can be as easy as typing the name of the website into google and looking for feedback.

2. If the price is too good to be true, it probably is.

I almost bought an electronic item from what looked like a reputable site but it didn't feel right. I went through the "Contact Us" section of the wesbite and typed the telephone number into google and five different companies came up as an exact match. I called the number listed and it seemed like they were never open. Afterwards I found a website that listed the one that I was considering as a scam site with REALLY poor reviews.

3. Read, read, read reviews

You may be able to scam a few people but once you get around the block a few times people will start to realize this is happening and report it. I know if someone scammed me I would blast them on my blog.

4. Make sure that you are buying from the website itself and not from a seller through the site.

Sites like EBay are great, I love it but they are well known for the scammers that lurk in the auctions. Read all of the information about the item listed and see if someone is posting it on a site like "Amazon.com" or if the website itself is hosting the item. This can make a huge difference if you need to exchange the item, want a refund or even of the item is under warranty.

5. Be careful how you pay for the items.

Sites like paypal are good but they can be easily recreated or "spoofed" to look like the real thing. I am sure that I am not the only one that hates that "Should I have just given out my credit card number?" feeling. If you don't like the way that they are making you pay for the item or if they are asking for too much information to sell you this item, just walk away. You are likely to find the item that you are looking for from another site.

I hope that this helps anyone who reads this have a safer online shopping experience this holiday season.http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2220415,00.asp?kc=PCRSS03069TX1K0001121

UPS delivery magic!

UPS had recently dropped some packages off at my door and I noticed something funny about this delivery. There was a floating doormat with nothing under it! This must have been the work of the UPS elves. I had to look twice at the place where I usually wipe my feet to realize that they had put my parcels under the mat. Just kidding. I don't know what the UPS driver hoped to accomplish by placing my door mat over any amount of boxes or delivery envelopes awaiting my arrival. If anything I think that this draws more attention to the valuable boxes that lay outside my door for thieves to ponder what the contents are. I guess you get what you pay for though, its a simple equation.

UPS Ground < Thrilling = Free Shipping

Little brother gets the spotlight

I don't know if many have noticed this recent trend but I have. The little "buggy" brother of the IPod has started to take off in holiday sales and most retailers are wishing that they had ordered more for consumers. With the initial release of this product it faced a large challenge in the marketplace in dealing with the IGeneration users. Even people that weren't in love with Apple products were buying the IPod. Everything was going right for the image of the Apple IProducts and they dominated most of the market place until this year. The Gen2 version of the Zune music player has a slimmer look and easier to use interface installed. Not to mention that Microsoft has finally realized the error of their ways with the first generation of this product and is actually making the Zune Gen2 operating system available for their previously "obsolete" players.

I recently sat next to a Microsoft employee on a flight to Chicago that informed me that every person that worked for the mega company actually received a Zune for free since they couldn't even sell them. Now the owners of these music players will be able to upgrade their OS in the player to the new Gen2 version for free. Also people that want to get away from the fruit products now have a better option for purchase. I know I love going into the "fruit" store and listening to all of the fruit bots that work in there tell me how much they love their Macs. Snobs. I welcome the little brother back to the lime light with the better product that Microsoft has put out this year. The Zune Gen2, as well as the first gen, has Wi Fi built in to connect to other Zune's to transfer songs between them wirelessly. Also the player has a built in FM tuner to listen to the radio and we can all appreciate that it still plays Podcasts, video and you can store your photos in it as well. Keep your eye on this one because I think that it is going to surprise a lot of people going into the holidays.

Apple makes me want to IPuke

In this article posted by the Associated Press, Apple once again justifies my dislike for them by putting ignorant restrictions on IPhone purchases.

Having sold 1.4 million units since launching the device at the end of June, Apple is looking to put a bit of a slowdown on iPhone sales, ahead of the upcoming holiday-buying scrum. Beginning late last week, customers no longer can purchase the iPhone with cash or buy more than two per person.

"Customer response to the iPhone has been off the charts, and limiting iPhone sales to two per customer helps us ensure that there are enough iPhones for people who are shopping for themselves or buying a gift," Apple's Natalie Kerris told the Associated Press. "We're requiring a credit or debit card for payment to discourage unauthorized resellers."


Ok, I can understand that Apple wants to have their product purchased through authorized sellers but not accepting cash for the purchases? This is probably the most "snobby" move that Apple has undertaken in recent memory. This is yet another blunder by the fruit loving company. Besides the fact that you can only use AT&T (terrible customer service and signal) as the carrier (unless you unlock the IPhone) and also the IPhone itself contains dangerous materials (http://blog.wired.com/business/2007/10/apple-now-in-le.html)

Also you cannot even have insurance on your precious IPhone through AT&T. You can only get a "service" plan through Apple for a mere $70 extra that "extends" your warranty for an extra year. God forbid that you drop the thing (Sorry Mark) because then you are out the $400 that you paid for this brick, sorry it's not covered according to the cutsomer friendly Apple. Enjoy the IPhone you Apple lovers and bask in its glory. Watch out for the Bromine and Benzine that the phone contains and also enjoy the poor and expensive AT&T service plans that come with this burden. In fact, they deserve eveything that comes along with it!

NHL London Premiere 2007

It's official, the NHL season has started and I was in London U.K. for it. The event was very cool and I am glad that I had the chance to see it. The picture on the left is "The Big Guy" and me on the right. We were fortunate enough to get a pic with the Stanley Cup. The "handlers" of the cup stepped out of the room for a minute and we took advantage of the opportunity. After hearing all of the stories about England I was kind of apprehensive about this trip. First of all the food over there is different than I was expecting. The traditional "English Breakfast" consists of fried eggs, bacon and beans, a piece of back bacon, a blood sausage (pork I guess) and toast or crumpets. To look at it you wouldn't think "Yummy" being from the States. With this coming from a guy that has a pretty strong constitution that is bad. The second thing that I noticed the moment that I stepped off of the flight was the currency exchange. The British Pound is roughly 2-1 compared to the American Dollar. So in doing the math I realized that everything was going to be twice as expensive as the amount shown. This put a dent in the wallet while at the local pub because that is about all that there is do to when you go into work at 9 a.m. and get out around 11 that night.





Dealing with the Brits wasn't a bad experience at all. The local IT guys that helped us were very helpful and managed to get all of my things on my list done. Surprisingly, the two games (ANA @ LAK and LAK@ ANA) were sold out and were received very well. After the first game the scoring crew for ANA and both of us went to a place called Johnny Monaco's Love Burger. After seeing this place I figured that we would need to check it out. In the picture above is some of the "Love Sauce" that was on our table. Regardless of my initial reluctance to eat anything with the title "Love Sauce" it was pretty good. I am guessing after eating it that it consisted of BBQ sauce, ketchup and vinegar. I recommend it if you find yourself in the O2 arena in London. All in all it was a good trip with the occasional cavity search in the airports and two hour cab rides from here to there.






The picture on the left is the actual O2 (Millennium Dome) in London. Regardless of the weird looking things sticking out of the top of the place it was pretty nice. Everything that lights up changes color (colour for my UK friends) using different technology. The inside of the dome was equally as impressive as the outside.




This is the inside of the O2 center which is more like a shopping mall than an arena. There are bars, clubs and restaurants galore and they even have a Starbucks there as well. Everyone asks me if I saw anything like Buckingham Palace or The Tower of London and I say the same thing to everyone about that, no. It was only four stops from our hotel but after working that many hours and dealing with the late nights and walking no less than 15 miles in five days wearing dress shoes and a suit lugging 50 pound cases behind me, I was tired. The flight is long, the hotels are small, the food is dodgy and it can get expensive but the trip was well worth it. If you have a chance to get to London do it at least once in your life. No worries and cheers.

Banned!!!!!!!!!!!!

I recently had the privilege of visiting Canada a few weeks ago and thought that I would share something with you. We were driving from Edmonton to Calgary and we stopped at a few gas stations to get some liquid refreshments along the way. I had noticed that I had never seen a regular or diet Mt. Dew (with caffeine) available for purchase. I asked the clerks about this and they said that they do not sell caffeinated Mt. Dew let alone diet Mt. Dew. God forbid. Apparently the powers that be in Canada saw fit to ban my lovely caffeinated Diet Mt. Dew! The reasons for which Mt. Dew (with caffeine) was banned was because of the amount of caffeine and its classification as a soda. Every gas station from Ottawa to Vancouver has Red Bull, Full Throttle and Rock star but no Mt. Dew? This is yet another reason that the U.S. is better than Canada in regards to beverage consumption and availability. I thought that this was very peculiar and looked it up via the www. If Pepsi Co. would change its classification from a soda to energy drink it would be legal. The Canadian government doesn't want the people purchasing energy drinks that aren't classified as such but rather as soda. I know that the American people are getting fat and dying from diabetes and such but at least we know what we are doing to ourselves! Nonetheless, I will need to smuggle my Diet Mt. Dew into Canada next time that I get stuck up there. Happy travels!

From Canada with love

From Canada with love,

I recently had the pleasure of being stopped at the Canadian Customs inspection depot in the Edmonton airport flying in from San Jose. The lady behind the counter was, for the lack of a better term, a bitch. I have been to Canada for my job several times and never had I recieved such a hard time getting into this country. I have done work in Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa and now Edmonton but this was different I guess since the new immigration and border laws went into effect.

I found out that if you are going to Canada for work, you should always say that you are having a meeting or observing something in your field. They don't feel so threatened by this and will let you pass without needing a work permit, invoice or god forbid a visa. The lady behind the counter was in some kind of powertrip according to my project manager Jay. I just let him handle the situation and get her the paperwork that she was requesting for our work up there.

We left the nice sunny and warm weather of San Jose for Edmonton which froze the second night that we were there (in September). I don't even want to imagine how frickin cold that it gets up there if it is freezing there in early September. I am from Indiana so I know somewhat about cold weather and its effects on people. We went to do our work in the Edmonton Arena (Hail Gretzky) via Gretzky Blvd and Gretzky Lane. I think that they may have named a road for Messier but it wasn't near the arena. Jay said that it wasn't that cold and that I am just being a wimp about the weather but I pointed out that if the Canadian's that live here are wearing coats I should be as well. Did I mention that I did not bring ANY winter clothes on this trip? Anyway, I thought that since it is September 2nd it would be somewhat comfortable, brisk weather up there. I guess that I was correct in that assumption but I underestimated the degree of briskness. Jay was nice enough to stop by the Goodwill there so that I could pick through the Canadian junk there and find something to keep myself warm. I love going to the Goodwill stores but this was entirely different than the ones in Jacksonville or Indiana. There were so many hockey sweaters that they had their own section! I thought that was pretty cool but who really wants a "Rays Autoparts" hockey sweater? If I hadn't already purchased a Charlestown Chiefs sweater this year I might have picked one up. I bought a zip up hoodie and we were off to a very fine Thai restuarant named "Haong Long". This was probably the finest Thai food that I have ever had and I must recommend the coconut rice especially.

After this we were off to Calgary (3 hours away) after working until 4 in the afternoon the next day. We finished our work there but it was kind of scary to say the least.

As you can see from the pictures to the right I was working up in the rafters of the arena. That big thing on the right is a center hung scoreboard. This paticular one shoots fire out of itself since they are the Flames. I am not afraid of heights but for some reason I was getting dizzy when I was walking on this catwalk. I needed to have a seat somewhere else for a moment. On the long drive home I realized that I was just suspended about 150 feet above the ice and for some reason that bothered me. Imagine that. I got through the task just fine though, in fact I am kind of proud of myself for not wimping out of this situation. I don't know how many other people would have been doing what I was doing up there (testing equipment) and been fine with it. After this we got back into the car and drove back to edmonton (3 hours) at 9:15. This put us back into our warm beds at 12:15 am but I failed to mention that our departing flights were at 7:05. This meant that we would need to get out of bed at 4 to make our gates. All in all it was a good trip and even more so a learning experience in dealing with the Canadian border patrol upon entering. Take my advice to heart and happy travels.

Denver to Phoenix is a long drive...

During the end of August I was lucky enough to spend some time out in Denver, CO. It lived up to the hype that I had heard about it but something was very surprising to me. Denver is VERY VERY dry, the place has no humidity. That was surprising to me since this place gets a ton of snow and freezing rain. Apparently, after someone explained it to me that made sense. The humidity is in the form of snow or sleet or freezing rain and it doesn't hang around for the rest of us to enjoy. Since I live in Florida I have become use to the fact that if it is hot outside it is going to probably (99% of the time) be VERY humid. I walked out of the airport to meet my coworker and noticed that it was extremely dry. Anyway, from a Yankee such as myself living in the south can be expected I had to ask why. The people waiting for a porter to take their bags looked like they were stranded on a mountainside for a week without food or water standing next to me. I asked them if they had fallen into a crevice or had gotten lost during an excursion up the mountainside. They laughed with their dry cracked lips and said "No, no. It is just very dry up in the mountains out here and they have wind burn." I am pretty adventurous and like to get outdoors but these people looked like the dehydrated walking dead. After finding this out my partner showed up and we did what we were supposed to do for the Avalanche.

The next day I thought that we were going to fly to our next destination (Phoenix). It is only a 55 minute flight that costs around $80. It turns out that we are driving from Denver to Phoenix which is going to take about 12 hours. YEAH! After about 6 hours we were eventually in the desert which was surprisingly nice. I took a few photos of the drive from DEN to PHO.














I couldn't let the DRY BEAVER CREEK sign go, the guys that I was traveling with took the same picture as well. We drove past NORAD, if you don't know what that is you should watch the movie War games. That is the place the Matthew Broderick hacks into and were you can find the WOPR. If you have to ask, don't worry about it. We eventually get into Phoenix and it is very much as I expected, HOT. We stayed at the Camel back Inn, it was very cool and had a very nice pool and hot tub. One night my coworker and I encountered a very bizarre set of girls from Omaha Nebraska near the pool. They started talking to us which was fine except for the fact that they were 17 and vacationing with their family at this hotel. I can't recall either if the girls names but when they said the next line it caught my attention. "Omaha has a huge gang problem and my friends think that I'm ghetto." Jay and I looked at each other and started to smile after this comment. He looked at her and wanted to know more about this growing scourge in Omaha. She proceeded to tell us of the constant fighting and shootings that are happening at her old school. That is why she goes to a Christian school now but her classmates call her ghetto. So I asked her if she thought that she was ghetto and why they might think this. She wasn't sure why they thought this besides the fact that her school is very ghetto and stuff. After asking around when I got back into Jax I found that there actually is a problem with this type of stuff out there in the middle of nowhere. Who would have thought. Nonetheless it was entertaining to hear this and added some much needed comedy to this trip.

We got into the arena where the Phoenix Coyotes play and this was across the street. The University of Phoenix Stadium, it looked more like an inflatable temporary stadium to us. If I didn't already know what this thing was I would have been really shocked. This stadium is actually one of the most technologically advanced in the country. They dumped something like 10 million on just IT and networking for this place but I would not be lucky enough to get to go inside this one. I was stuck in the jobing.com arena for the day which isn't too shabby either. We were diligent in our efforts and finally got our work done after a very long couple of days. This was my first time in both of these cities and I was pleasantly surprised by both. I recommend that if you have the means you should give them a visit as well.

Nice drive

I recently had a nice long drive from Jacksonville FL to Toronto ON.

The purple line represents the driving route that was taken. This was a five day excursion for work that included stops in Atlanta Georgia, Raleigh North Carolina, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and then onto Toronto Ontario. This was for the NHL arena installs that we do for work. The best part about this trip was flying from Buffalo New York to home. Of all of the cities that we stopped in Toronto was by far the most interesting. The pictures that I put in this posting are from left to right, Toronto's Air Canada Center, Atlanta's Turner Field (Braves) and The Igloo (Mellon Bank Arena) in Pittsburgh. Despite the very long trip and very very long hours of work the trip was uneventful. I did have the privelage of riding with the Michigander from work who did not drive one mile of the trip since he is not 25 or older. This made the trip feel a bit longer but atleast we made it without injury or crash. I don't know if I would be up for another one of these ironman trips any time soon.

Wrigley Field, Chicago / Blackhawks

I was in Chicago this week for the Blackhawks and the United Center. This was pretty cool but I was able to get really good tickets for the Cubs Game!! Thanks Turbo.. Chicago was nothing but a good time with the baseball game to the food. Chicago is one of my favorite towns to visit but it can get expensive. The pictures that I was able to get with my camera were great. I was able to get a pic with Michael Jordan (statue and the United Center) and a some great pics at Wrigley Field.

Minnesota Wild / Minnesota Twins / Bridge Collapse

I was very lucky this past week in my visit to Minneapolis St. Paul. I was in town to install equipment in St. Paul for the Minnesota Wild (NHL). This was the day before the bridge in downtown Minneapolis collapsed killing many. The coworker that I was with told me to take a picture of the city skyline on our way to the Twins game. The picture above was taken on the very bridge that collapsed. Travel has its bad days but if I would have been on that bridge it could have been one of my last. I am very thankful that I am able to type this blog and see my bed after that incident because there are many now that can't. The pictures below were taken also the day before the accident. From left to right, Me at the Minneapolis Airport acting goofy, next was the Twins game and the one on the right is the Minnesota Wild hockey ice being taken down. I had never seen this and found it interesting. They used everything from Zamboni's to four wheel drive trucks with scrapers to get rid of that pesky painted ice.