New Dimension to Watching Golden State Warriors Games

For better or worse, I've been a long time Golden State Warriors fan. The team has been a soap opera the past several years and although I know that with the ownership in place the warriors are bound to mess up even more, I still choose to follow them. For the most part they are still an exciting team to watch. They play fast, they can run the other team off the court, when their shooting is on, they simply can't be stopped. But then there are the lulls during the game when turnovers, missed rebounds and careless fouls creep in. When the players turn to the ref after every play because they're convinced they didn't get a call and the the frustration sets in. The players are confused and it's ugly to watch. It's at those times when I notice the little things. Things like:

- The growing tattoo mural on Monta Ellis.

a clip is a clip

My rip-off thought of the day: bag clips vs. binder clips 
In my current state of budget consciousness, I've become annoyed with products that I feel have no true added value to consumers. Let's look at the blatant rip-off that is the bag clip.

The problem: Keeping snack food bags shut to retain some freshness.

Potential Solutions:
1. Tape: Some packages have those strips of tape that they urge you to use to keep packages closed. It's pretty handy but again, the stickiness may fade if you get the snack food grease on the bag or on the tape. And tape isn't as reusable, so it loses some value.

2. A rubberband: It'll close the bag but also crush the contents inside. On the bright side, you'll get more pieces of the snack.

3. A clip: It will keep the bag closed and it's reusable! So a clip is the winner. Nothing wrong with that other than the fact that all a person needs is a clip!

The bag clip or the chip bag clip is just a clip that is marketed as something to keep your chip bags or snack food bags closed. Some companies may slap on some rubber on the clip to make it more comfortable. But think about it, if you are using it to keep your greasy chip bag closed, it's likely you'll get grease all over that
rubber, so what's so great about that? If you don't have arthritis or some other ailment affecting your hand strength, then do you really need a rubbery clip that will take all of two seconds to take off and
put on the bag?

Remembering Cory Aquino

Corazon "Cory" Aquino passed away on August 1. With her passing there have been several articles that have nicely provided her biography and captured her impact on the Philippines and the world. I won't recall her life story here as those articles fulfill the task. Instead, I offer my memory of Cory Aquino, the Philippines first female president.

As a Filipino-American, born and raised in California, who didn't make my first trip to the Philippines until I was 18 years old, my memories of Cory Aquino were from afar. But I can clearly recollect writing a report on Mrs. Aquino in elementary school as someone I admired. During this past US election season, there was a lot of talk about the possibility of Hillary Clinton becoming the first female US President or Sarah Palin as the first female US Vice President. Twenty-three years ago, Cory Aquino proved it was possible for a woman to successfully be in power.

Unassuming and devote, Cory Aquino was like one of your aunts, except she became President. She was a homemaker thrust into the spotlight after the assassination of her husband. She brought down a dictator, committed to service for her country and brought democracy back to the Philippines. She embodied the strength of sincerity. Today when we think about politicians we look for their hidden agendas. Cory Aquino's agenda was genuine - to improve the Philippines for its citizens.

Time For an Update

Hello virtual world. I haven't posted anything new since May. Shame on me. Time for a quick rewind on what I've failed to write about....

- The passing of Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, Ed McMahon and Billy Mays: an angel, a king, a sidekick and a pitchman. I'll remember Fawcett's hair, Jackson's music and moves, McMahon with Carson and hosting 'Star Search' and Billy Mays when I was up late or up way too early.

- Jon and Kate Plus 8 to the nth power of the paparazzi: My former feel good show to watch with the cute kids and the playful banter from the parents has become a trainwreck with the divorce and overexposure. I wonder what would have happened if they didn't have the TV show?

- Swine Flu aka H1N1 cases pop-up globally. From closing down schools early on to business as normal when my workplace got a case over a month later, I'm definitely getting a flu shot this year.

- Obama, Gates, Crowley and the 'Beer Summit' that really didn't need to happen.

- Sonia Sotomayor confirmed as the first Hispanic Justice

These are nuggets that come to mind but I'm sure there have been a ton of other things that I'm missing. Overall, 2009 has rolled by pretty quickly!

Wait...Is that Juliet as Trinity?

I recently caught a few minutes of The Matrix and saw Trinity do some super slow-mo kick butt moves. After watching for a couple of minutes I kept trying to figure out who the actress, Carrie-Anne Moss, reminded me of. I got my answer after watching Lost since Juliet, played by Elizabeth Mitchell, has similar facial features and that slightly sour scowl (just picture her with dark hair). I Googled both of the actresses together and it looks like I'm not alone in the observation. Imagine Trinity in a Dharma suit!

Top 5 Things to Look At on a Car Ride to/from San Diego

We took a little road trip last weekend from the Bay Area to San Diego. After enduring a 9 hour trip to San Diego on Friday (boo to you - LA traffic!) and a much smoother 7 hour trip back on Sunday, here are my top 5* interesting things to see during the car ride:

*Note the Caution: people crossing the border sign (pictured) didn't make my top 5 but it's one of those signs I saw on a previous trip down to San Diego that made me do a double-take. I wonder who designed it.

5. Cows: This is more of a smell situation than something to see. Does anyone else wonder why the cows near Kern County are so close to the freeway? It's not quite the happy cows you see in the commercials.

4. How every city has the same stores at the blah blah Crossing, yada yada Landing or woohoo Center you can conveniently access off the freeway: It must be their mission to have a Lowes or Home Depot, Bed Bath and Beyond, Petco, Toys R Us, Applebees, etc in every city. Forget big business efficiencies and bring back the quaint downtown shops. Or dress these up a little differently in every city. That should be a contest! While I'm on the subject of stores and restaurants, we stopped for lunch at a Subway in Buttonwillow off I-5. About a block away is a Taste of India restaurant. Now I don't know much about Buttonwillow and the traffic along that stretch of road but something way down deep made me wonder how successful a sit-down Indian restaurant would be in an area of fast food restaurants in the middle of nowhere (apologies to the lovely folks in Buttonwillow but it is a lot of nothing all around you). Just call it a feeling. The Subway, on the other hand, had their sandwich assembly line in full effect with a long stream of customers.

3. Crops: There's something mesmerizing when you speed past rows and rows of trees and plants all in perfect alignment. It's even more interesting when you see one person working the fields. Yes, these are the types of things that interest me after staring at a computer screen everyday.

2. Graffiti and Barbed Wire Around Highway Signs: After going to Europe last year, I've developed a fascination with graffiti and the determination someone has to have to want to tag something. It's impressive to see where graffiti pops up. I swear for some of these places, people had to be dangled by rope to reach it. The fact that cities or the state feel the need to put barbed wire around the poles of the freeway signs says a lot. I usually look out for the areas that do the best job of painting over the graffiti with the careful matching of colors to the overpass and blending of the paint. In one area there's a mural with runners on the side wall of the freeway. What a mistake that was! In the future I imagine the process to be much cleaner that instead of people actually painting along the roads, they'd have a graffiti hologram that the city would need to descramble instead of paint over. 

1. Other cars & their drivers. There's nothing quite like the sight of a big rig truck passing another big rig truck on a huge hill next to other big rig trucks. There's also the inevitable slow driver in the fast lane holding up 10 cars behind him and the I will get there in my fastest time possible driver that weaves through traffic. There's also the people that don't have a sense of speed and distance and try to past up cars but underestimate their speed and gets stuck behind a truck only to try again in 5 minutes and get stuck behind another truck. These are the things you miss out on when you fly.

Rock Band/Guitar Hero/Karaoke Revolution - You're messing with my head

On Saturday I played a few songs on Rock Band with the family in San Diego. It's been awhile since I've played Guitar Hero and Karaoke Revolution. On Saturday, I played the guitar, sang a song (a tip to those that have no range - perform the rap songs, you just have to say the words) and hit the drums. After doing none of those things particularly well but having fun trying, I came away with the vision of colored blocks to press like a guitar fingering and lyrics scrolling on top of the screen to sing on pitch. I didn't bother to imagine drum solos - my left hand, right hand and foot refused to cooperate. 

On the drive home I dozed off a few times and had visions of rocking the guitar on a few Corrs and Beatles songs. Fast forward a few days...I watched a recording of No Doubt performing "Hella Good", "Hey Baby" and "Just a Girl" on the Ellen show (Gwen smacked it down) and I started to picture how it would look to play the guitar pieces...short green, yellow, yellow, long red. I then watched a recording of Oprah where Charice sang her new single 'A Note to God' (Written by Diane Warren and first performed by JoJo on an album in 2006) and pictured Karaoke Revolution with the really long, high notes that I'd probably strain my voice to attempt. 

My journey to musical glory is limited to a couple of piano lessons when I was really young and playing the clarinet in my middle school concerts. So the closest I'm going to get to being a rock legend is by rocking out to Aerosmith songs on Guitar Hero and singing Pop songs on Karaoke Revolution. At least it's a step-up from air guitar and singing into my hairbrush. 

Top 5 - Once you have it, you can never go back

My top 5 - things that once you have it, it's hard to live without it...

5. Car stereo controls on the steering wheel: Nothing beats changing stations with a flick of your finger without taking your hand off the wheel. Ahh, convenience. 

4. Digital Cameras: Back in my freshman year of high school I took introduction to photography. We used regular cameras, learned how to add some cool effects in the dark room and develop film. It was a good experience but the dark room was too chemically for my liking and if you messed up on developing the picture, you wasted a whole sheet of photo paper. Give me a digital camera, a computer with photo editing software and a printer any day.

3. Caller ID: It increases the likelihood that I'll answer the phone when you call by 90%.

2. Cell phone alarm clocks: It's saved me on those mornings when there was a power outtage or when I forgot to change the time for daylight savings. It's also really handy when travelling when you never know what kind of alarm clock you'll get or when the hotel wake-up call is 5 minutes late. 

1. GPS & Google Maps Street View: These two go hand in hand. The GPS can get me wherever I need to go and street view maps will show me what I should expect to see when I get there. It reduces stress and frustration when you don't know where you are and saves you gas when you don't have to drive in circles to figure out where you are. 

Riding the Wayback Machine to 1999

I've been in a nostalgic mood lately as it's been 10 years since I graduated high school. So I thought I'd take a digital walk down memory lane courtesy of the Wayback Machine and look at some of the old websites I frequently visited in 1999.

Let's get started (click on the links below to see the versions of those websites in 1999):

AOL: We had a dial-up AOL connection (I can hear that dial tone and funky noise in my head now) and of course used AOL instant messenger - a lot!  

Yahoo: I loved Yahoo back then and had a Yahoo email account as my main email address and also used Yahoo messenger frequently in the early 2000s. Back then I thought, hey that would be a cool place to work for after college. I applied when I finished college in 2003 and got the auto-response that I wasn't a match for any of their positions. Oh well, it worked out for me in the end and now I use that old email address for junk mail. But I'll admit for awhile Yahoo was my homepage.

Asian Avenue: A large social networking site in the form of a chat room for Asians. I went here enough back then that I was compelled to request an AsianAvenue key chain. I saw this the other day in a box of random things in my dresser drawer. [note to self: time to start getting rid of stuff]

KMEL: I used to check out KMEL, Wild 107.7 and other bay area radio station websites to see their playlists and figure out what CD singles I wanted to buy.  

Santa Clara County Library: Yes, I actually used the internet for academic purposes too, somewhat, well not really. To save money I borrowed CDs, VHS tapes, DVDs and magazines from the Milpitas library and a book on occasion. 

If I've got you thinking about 1999, here's a review of the year: http://www.infoplease.com/spot/99yir1.html

Ten years later, I've traded in the dial-up for high-speed internet, have iGoogle as my homepage, use gmail for email, use iTunes to figure out what music I want to buy and buy it, can get most magazine content online and have traded in AOL instant messenger, Yahoo messenger and AsianAvenue for Google chat and Facebook and watch videos, TV shows and movies online. It's been a good 10 years. 

What's in a Name?

I'm watching game 3 of the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Lakers series. I can't help but notice that the Utah uniforms have the "Jazz" across the front in boxy font. Their old logo used to have the J that looked like a music note. The Lakers also just have their name across the front, no particular logo. That made me wonder, what's in a NBA team name? Here's a little background on these two teams:

Utah Jazz: When I think Utah, jazz music doesn't come to mind. Jazz is synonomous with New Orleans. So this team name makes more sense knowing that the franchise started in New Orleans in 1974 and the name stuck when the team moved westward to Utah in 1979.  It's too bad they never changed their name when they first moved because now New Orleans has the Hornets. But then again that team used to be the Charlotte Hornets. Oh well.

Los Angeles Lakers: What is a Laker? According to Merriam Webster a Laker is "one associated with a lake." Simple enough and no, LA isn't hiding all its lakes with smog. The Lakers, like the Jazz, got its name in a previous location, when it actually made sense. Before moving to LA, the Lakers were in Minneapolis, Minnesota and were named after the state's nickname, "Land of 10,000 Lakes." They should have a huge dancing puddle for a mascot. 

So there you go, a little history for you. Neither a lake nor jazz seems menacing enough for a sports team name but they were fitting for the locale at the time and now it's been so long that you just don't question it. Tonight the Jazz won and the series is now LA 2, Utah 1. But I'm ultimately predicting the lake water will drown out the jazz in this series.  

Getting that Spartan Spirit

On March 28th, we took a stroll through the SJSU campus for lunch. Besides being a great place to relax while eating our La Vic burritos, we also wanted to see what was new on campus.

One thing that definitely wasn't there six years ago when I was a student is the statue commemorating the black civil rights protest of Tommie Smith and John Carlos during the 1968 Summer Olympics. The statue is impressive and incredibly larger than I imagined. It's a long overdue acknowledgment of their civil act, as they say, better late than never. Along with that, there is the new Cesar Chavez Arch of Dignity, Equality and Justice, which is pretty much in the center of the campus, right outside the Music Building.

With these additions along with the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. library and the new dorms, SJSU is looking better than ever. It's always good to go back to places and see it in a much better condition than you left it.

It's ironic that that after our little field trip down college memory lane and thinking how much better the campus seems to be, we went back to our car in the parking garage and found it much worse than we left it a couple of hours earlier...battered and bruised in the back. It was at that moment when the memory of being a student there and having my car broken into and my car stereo stolen while parked in the parking garage down the block came raging to mind. I guess not everything is better than I remembered it to be.

Earth Day

On this earth day, I thought about ‘green’ things as I drove alone into work this morning. Yes, I realize I should have put more effort into either carpooling, taking public transportation/the Google shuttle or even biking to work. Ok, the last one is a stretch. It’s hot and I’m at least 6 miles from work. But my effort to be green today will just have to consist of green thoughts.

Some ‘green’ things I love:

- Driving down the heavily tree lined Shoreline Blvd. The stretch of Shoreline between Charleston Road leading up to Shoreline Park can be particularly peaceful and I’m on Shoreline until the very last turn right before you get to the park. The surrounding of trees is pretty calming before starting another day at work.

- After a few days of rain, the ‘greenbelt’ or the belt of hills that you can see behind Milpitas as you come in from 237 is lovely. Of course this is after seeing it dry, brown and dingy for most of the year. Take a look at the link above and now imagine that the hills are green. See...lovely.

- Getting a few cents off our grocery bill every time we use the reusable cloth Safeway bags.

- Anything that is energy efficient

- Clothes made out of recycled materials. They also look so earthy! Too bad they can be pricey.

- Composting. It reduces waste in landfills and is a great fertilizer for plants.

- Paying bills online. Less paper, no need to write a check and less postage. Although now they want to reduce mail delivery days. I guess with every 'pro' there's a 'con.'

- Hybrids. Less gas consumption and lower carbon footprint is, as Martha Stewart says, "it's a good thing."

- Solar panels. They harness the power of the sun and they can make pretty good carports when you park underneath structures that have them on top.

- Public transportation in urban/metropolitan areas. The routes are frequent and extensive. Too bad they smell.

Maybe for the next earth day I'll consider some public transportation options. Or better yet, work from home! In the meantime, think green and check out today’s Google doodle: http://www.google.com/logos/earthday09.gif

Is it a song or a sales pitch?

It’s time companies stop using pop songs to conjure a connection with consumers in their commercials and bring back the good ole jingle. Or use lesser known songs. For example, using the Etta James classic “At Last” in an Oreck vacuum commercial is just plain wrong! The marketers for Oreck probably weren’t thinking about the couples out there that danced to this song as their first dance at their wedding. That wasn’t our first dance, but I’ve been to at least 2 weddings where it was used. Heck, the song was used by the Obamas as their first dance at all the balls they attended after the inauguration. If I danced to that song in my wedding the next time I hear it I want to think about that moment and not have an image of a vacuum in my head. I wouldn’t want to buy the vacuum that ruined my memory of that song.

I also saw a recent Hallmark commercial that uses John Mayer’s “Say” as its theme. The song is actually fitting for this purpose but it irks me that pop songs are used more and more in commercials these days. You can’t just enjoy an artist and his/her music anymore because everyone is now associated with a brand. Wrigley had Chris Brown, Neyo and Julianne Hough redo the jingles for Double Mint gum, Big Red and Juicy Fruit respectively. Chris Brown used the famous “double your pleasure, double your fun” tag line in his song “Forever.”  The first time I heard the song and the lyric I had to check with the people around me that they heard the same thing. The song was ok but having the line in there bothered me…why would he want to sample a jingle? I didn’t find out until later that it was the new jingle disguised in a full song.

Maybe artists don’t mind as much because they get paid when their songs are used. For those artists that have one hit song, it may be a much needed check. But music is one of those things that are associated with memories. When I hear the song “OPP” by Naughty by Nature, I remember being a 5^th grader, walking home from school and being past by this older Caucasian kid on his bike screaming “Are you down with OPP!?”  This image comes to mind as a reminder of how easily people are influenced and how big a part music plays in our lives. 

Marketers, please stop having these songs do double duty. If that's not possible, at the very least stop using classic songs to sell your goods.

What's that?

I'm really interested in what interests others. So every so often I'll look at things like Google Trends and Twist that tracks what's going on in Twitter. Looking at the top 20 list on Google Trends for Friday, 3/27, a couple of the searched terms made sense immediately, at least to me.

- At #13 was 'tom izzo', the coach of college basketball team Michigan State that beat the Kansas Jayhawks and eliminated them from the NCAA tournament on Friday. Besides, anyone that has two Zs in his name must be interesting.

- At #12 was 'william rast', Justin Timberlake's clothing line that he promoted on the Oprah show on Friday. The peak search time for the term was 1pm PDT on Google, likely when the show is shown around the country, and peaked around 2pm on Twitter. Being on Oprah jumps the awareness of anything probably by a ton. But that's a whole other issue on its own.

Some of the terms that caught my eye:

- At #9, the 'breville citrus press' which reached its peak at 8am Pacific. New York, NY did the bulk of the searching which probably means that at 5am Eastern a fair number of New Yorkers were watching some sort of infomercial and thinking, I want some orange juice.

- At #16 was 'kron 4' the SF Bay Area local news channel that streamed video of the memorial service of the Oakland Police officers involved in the tragic shooting.

- At #1 was 'Josh Blue' the The Last Comic Standing winner that also had a comedy special air on Friday night on Comedy Central. I'm guessing he must have been funny, I wouldn't want to search for someone that bombed.

- At #14 was 'job listing.' A reminder of the economic reality around the country.

Absence:Love :: Wind:Fire

This weekend I watched the season finale of "The City" on tivo. And yes, I do watch "The City" since I'm a fan of "The Hills" and liked Whitney enough to watch her show. I find both shows to be worthy of tivoing since it gives me something to put on in the background while I do stuff around the house. I should say though, that if I'm near the remote during certain parts, like the conversations between Allie and Adam, I forward through it since they tend to go something like this...

Allie: I'm tired of hearing how you're always around girls. Why do you put yourself in these situations.
Adam: I don't know, you know me, I wouldn't do anything. I love you honey...blah, blah.

Anyways, during the finale there was a nice scene between Whitney and Diane Von Furstenberg where DVF gives Whitney some words of wisdom as Whitney thinks about her breakup with Jay. This is from memory so it may not be exact, but you'll get the point:

Diane Von Furstenberg: My mother told me that absence is like wind. If it's a small fire, the wind will blow it out. If it's a large fire the wind will make it spread and grow.

She then goes on to say that it's important to love yourself first since you'll always be with yourself.

I liked that analogy enough to remember it and to Google its origin. There are two similar quotes from two French authors that hit on this point. One is from Roger de Bussy-Rabutin who said "Absense is to love as wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small and kindles the great." The other is by Francois de La Rochefoucauld who said "Absence diminishes small loves and increases great ones, as the wind blows out the candle and blows up the bonfire."

However you say it, it's true.

March Madness - What's with the really long shorts?

I love basketball - I enjoy watching it and playing it. I mainly follow the Golden State Warriors and the NBA. But every March I let myself get caught up in the NCAA madness. I caught a few games and in each one I saw, one thing bothered me...why are the shorts so long? Granted basketball shorts seem to have gotten longer by a half an inch every year but it seems college shorts are incredibly long and longer than NBA shorts.

I mean, they are like capris on these guys where it goes way past the knee. It's even better when someone wears their socks high so you don't see any leg at all. You might as well be wearing pants. The picture to the right is one example, but it's pretty representative of what uniforms look like these days in the men's college game. We're talking about basketball players - men that are taller than most and here they are with shorts clearly made to be longer than ever. And not only are they long, they're loose and super flowy. At some points I watched to see whether anyone's shorts would fall. It makes the guys look dwarfed in their uniforms. Personally, I would find shorts that go far past my knees to feel annoying while I run.

I wonder if the extra fabric has increased the cost of these shorts. Who decided that this was a really good look?

WD-40 to the Rescue!

This morning, after neglecting to exercise for awhile, I hopped on to my elliptical. Unfortunately, it developed an annoyingly loud squeak. Considering the early hour, I had to cut my workout short. Later in the afternoon, I got some WD-40 and with Melvin's help, we loosened, tightened and oiled some joints on the machine and now it's running quietly and smoothly. I love you WD-40! Now I don't have an excuse to exercise.

I've given in...I'm on Facebook

After being invited by a few friends and acquaintances and having a handful of conversations with people where the phrase "it was on Facebook" was used as the reason for knowing random pieces of info, I've finally decided to take the plunge and join Facebook. After a couple of days of being a member, I'm not sure how I feel about it. So I'll break down my likes/dislikes about Facebook itself and the concept of Facebook:

Likes

• Privacy Controls. In particular, controlling who can see you in the Facebook search.
• Email notifications when there's activity on my wall
• Integration with Yelp and other social media sites
• Seeing what's new with friends all in one place
• Making contact with people I haven't talked to in years! It's good to know that people are doing well.
  

Dislikes

• That middle school/high school feeling that I need to have more friends
• The concept of logging into a computer to get 'human' contact. Gotta love technology!
  
• Reading all the random updates from 'friends' that I didn't really need to know but read because I could.
  

It's only been a couple of days and so far the Facebook experience seems to be worthwhile. I'll check in again in a month.

Inaugurating Change: Barack Obama the 44th US President

This past Tuesday, 1/20/09, Barack Obama became our 44th President and the first African American to reach the highest office. I took the time early in my workday to watch the inauguration online in a conference room with a couple of co-workers.

Even through the computer screen, I could feel the excitement generated from the sea of spectators and the anticipation of the historic moment. Aretha Franklin sounded great despite her large bow hat. It's unfortunate the oath had a bit of a flub. But all in all, it was definitely a moment worth taking time to watch and soak in.

And now we'll just have to wait and see how the rest of the Obama story unfolds...

Dull Ratings for Golden Globes

The Golden Globes according to this past Monday's figures averaged only 14.6 million viewers, the second lowest TV audience since 1995, according to Nielsen Media Research. With an audience of 20 million two years ago and a plain star-free news conference last year, could this be a sign that Hollywood has lost it's broader appeal? Well that may not be true, but it could be a sign of viewers' interest in watching these long award show events. Besides, being on the west coast, I already knew that Kate Winslett won one of her awards early on. It's not really a big deal to watch since any part worth watching could be found online in video.

Car Creeping on a Red Light

So the other day, I noticed something that always boggles my mind. Imagine being stopped at a red light. Along side you another car stops at the red light in their lane. But instead of staying still, the car starts to creep...creep...creep up closer to the intersection. Why? I figure it's either impatience or an attempt to anticipate the green light and be the first to cross the intersection. But have you noticed what usually happens when people start to creep up during the red light? They're usually really slow off the line because they probably weren't ready to press the gas.

Of course there are exceptions, those being the people that are really in a hurry and creep up and then are quick to gas it when the green comes. But by my unofficial count, I'd say 95% of the time, the person is super slow to go when the green light comes. So the lesson...creeping up on a red light will likely make you less ready to go when it's green and more likely to make you look odd and impatient to other drivers.

A New Year & A New Resolution

We're only 9 days into the new year and I've turned to blogging to fill the entertainment hole in my life. Although my regular job has my fingers attached to a keyboard and my eyes glued to screen, I've decided to go online with my thoughts and spend even more time with the computer. Why? My new year's resolution is to write.

I enjoy writing about randomness - any and everything that interests me. But I haven't taken the time to do it in years. I've come to the realization that I need more to do than go to work on the weekdays. So here it is...my new year's resolution in action. This one I'm hoping to keep going beyond 2009.