Motorola V635

Ok. I know a few blogs ago, I said that I was getting the Motorola v710 phone on Verizon Wireless. Well for some reason Verizon wanted a large deposit for new service. So instead I went to Cingular Wireless and settled for a free Motorola V220. The phone is decent, but it lacks a few features that I would like to have such as Bluetooth and EDGE. There's a new phone coming out by 2nd quarter of 2005 that should fit the bill. It's the new Motorola V635. It has all the features that I am looking for, plus it contains a transflash card slot that can be accessed with a USB cable. That means I could transfer photos or mp3's directly through a cable rather than downloading or using a special program. I'm looking forward to getting my hands on it.

Breakdown of 2004 Presidential Election by County

This is pretty interesting. Almost every major metropolitan area is Democratic (blue), while every other place is Republican (red). It kind of gives you a hint of what would happen if the election was based on the vote of the population instead of the electoral college.

Electoral Vote Predictor 2004

Check this link out. This site has a pretty interesting map of the US and displays the electoral votes per state based on a number of polls. As of October 29th, it displays that Kerry will win the election because he has a slim hold on the major swing states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida. But it is a very slim margin.

Current Electoral Vote Predictor 2004

New Mouse

I just found a good deal on a new mouse. It's a Microsoft Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer w/Tilt Wheel USB & PS/2. I just hope it doesn't interfere with the other wireless crap I have in my house (Gyration wireless mouse/keyboard, WiFi). It shouldn't be a problem since they operate on different bands though. We'll see. ;-)

Who Needs a TiVo?

And I put all that hard work into building my own from scratch. :-(

Slyck News - Who Needs a TiVo?

New Photos

I just got a chance to post up some new photos from a tight college football game that I went to a few weekends ago. The game was Ohio State versus Northwestern.








I am also using a new photo slideshow app out. The new app is call Picasaand has a little bit of a cleaner look than the windows powertoy app. Plus the old app was giving me some problems with different browsers. Maybe one day I'll get around to transferring all of the photos over to Picasa.

Later.

It's been a long time..........

It's almost been a whole month since my last blog entry. I guess I've been busy. I've got to say that the last two months have been kind of crazy. If I wasn't out of town, I've been busy around here. It's been a while since I got the chance to have a laid back weekend where I could just watch football. It's been cool though.

Actually this weekend one of my childhood friends is coming to Chicago to visit. We are planning on going to the Chicago Football Classic in Soldier Field this Saturday, October 9. It should be cool. I think one of his cousins is a player on TSU.

Speaking of football, last Saturday I got the chance to see one of the greatest upsets in college football this year. One of my friends has a cousin that is a football graduate assistant on Ohio State. So he hooked us up with good seats to see OSU play Northwestern. At the time OSU was ranked 6th or 7th in the country, but was upset by NU who was like 1-3 at that point. It was a great game that went into overtime with a final score of 33-27 NU. I took some awesome photos that I will post up some time soon. One of my fav photos was of the NU kids rushing the field after the upset. They were going crazy. It's too bad the celebration was soured by a death and questionable police force.

I've also been busy with my flag football team. We are 0-3 right now, but we have a good enough team to turn it around. We just have too many people that try to be all-stars instead of doing thier jobs and fufilling assignments. This weekend will be a perfect time to make a move since I think we are playing the first place team.

I know it looks like all I do is around football, but I do other things too. I actually got a chance to see two good movies this past weekend. I saw Woman Thou Art Loosed and Shark Tale. Both movies are very different, but both are good. I would recommend both.

That's all I got for now. I'll try to post some more pics soon. Later.

Motorola V710

Well I think I finally found a phone that I will fit the bill. I think I have decided to get the Motorola V710. I won't probably get it right away because of the price for over $200. And the Motorola discount really isn't hooking me up yet, so I will probably wait till around Christmas time. This phone has everything I need, such as bluetooth, clamshell form factor, and access to Verizon's 3G network. Plus it also gives some extra goodies such as a digital camera, IM, and removable transflash memory. The only catch is that I'll have to switch to Verizon Wireless from Sprint PCS who I have been a customer of since maybe 1998. This might require me to leave a deposit since I have some so-so credit.



Speaking of my credit, I had an interesting phone call from a loan officer from American General the other day. Even though I have paid all of my debt off over a year ago, I am still having problems with obtaining more credit since I never paid off my past debt when I was in school. I have had many points taken away from my credit score because of late payments that occurred over 5 years ago. So I recapitalize some advice that I should try to obtain a personal loan from a local bank to help establish some credit. Maybe take out a small loan of $1000.00 and set that money aside in a savings account and make the small monthly installments over maybe a two year's time. The loan officer approved me for the loan, but said they might want to hold my car title for collateral. This kind of freaked me out a little. I asked if I could offer up cash as collateral instead, but they insisted on the car title. I never really got a loan before, but it seems kind of overboard to give a car title for just a loan for a G, even though my car might only be worth a little more than that. I want to get my credit in line so that I can purchase a house or new car in the future, but I'm not sure if it's worth it.

All well. I guess that's just part of living in the real world I guess. Remember I've only been a part of it for a little over two years now. ;-)

New Pics

Well I finally found the time to post a few new pics to the site. All of them are from weddings that I have been to in the past couple of weeks.

Enjoy!!!

Hero: The Movie

Well today I'm joining some friends to watch the new movie 'Hero' starring Jet Li. It's a kung-fu flick that has been out in China and a few other countries for a while now, but it was just brought to the US by Quentin Taurrentino. I've been waiting for this one for a while

If you are someone who enjoyed 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' then you will love this one. It looks pretty tight. I'm so excited about this movie, I might just cop the bootleg after I watch it in the theatre. ;-)

Here are some screenshots from the movie.

Another road trip, Another wedding

Well I'm off to St. Louis later this afternoon. I have a co-worker that is getting married this weekend down there. Actually he met his future wife the same summer that all three of us intern at Motorola back in the year 2000. So it's kind of cool to see something grow from a summer fling to marriage.

There will be 5 of us carpooling down there later this afternoon. I went ahead a rented a mini-van for us all to fit and be comfortable for the 4 and a half hour road trip. I think Avis will set us up in something like a Chevrolet Venture. We should have plenty of room and hopefully we'll get a DVD player and TV, but I seriously doubt it. That would be pimped out though. ;-)







I'll be staying with some of my kinfolk while I am down there in St. Louis. It will also be good to see my Aunt, Uncle, and cousins that I haven't seen since like May.

Well I'll be sure to post up some photos from the trip. Actually I still need to post some pictures of another wedding that I attended last weekend as well. Man, what's up with all these folks getting married like this. I have another wedding to attend in the Spring and like three more planned for next summer. I guess no one enjoys the single life like I do anymore.

Later.

Louisville

Well I finally got a chance to upload some of the photos from the Louisville trip. Alot more went on in Louisville than what shows in the pictures because we weren't allowed to take photos at the Tyson boxing match or the after parties. But by now you already know that Tyson got his butt kicked, so there isn't any point to seeing any pictures of that anyways. ;-)

Just to sum it all up we went to the fight, checked out some afterparties till like 4 am, met Evander Holyfield at the Waffle House, toured Louisville, checked out the Louiville Slugger Museum, took a tour of Churchill Downs, and hung out with the locals on the last night.

Mike Tyson fight this weekend

Man, I've really been slacking on my blog entries. Just been busy I guess. Working crazy hours, involved in afterwork athletic teams (softball, volleyball), and I also picked up a new PS2 game, NCAA College Football.

I'm looking forward to heading down to Louisville, KY this weekend. It should be cool. We got the big Tyson fight on Friday night. Hopefully he can start to make a small comeback and get his life back together. I'll be cheering for him. Actually I just found out that Leila Ali is going to be the undercard for the fight. That should be cool too. I also want to pick up an original Lousville Slugger, the official baseball bat of the Major Leagues.

I'll be sure to take lots of photos and post them up on the site.

Hot new Motorola phone

Well I've been looking around for a new phone to replace my old P270 on
the Sprint PCS network for a while now. One reason is that I am
not too satisfied with the service and also they refuse to sell
Motorola phones for multiple reasons. So I was forced to use a
rigged up P270 without any roaming capabilities and those charges have
been rediculous when I travel. So in order to stay brand loyal
I've decided to switch phones and also services. I know I'm going
to miss the PCS-to-PCS unlimited minutes, but I'll feel better when my
wallet is fatter.



One prerequisite of my new phone is that it had to be on a network with
a reasonable data plan. Another is that it had to have bluetooth
(I'm addicted to that feature now). I think that I have
finally found my match. The new Motorola A630 meets
all of these demands plus some. It has a QWERTY keyboard, digital
camera, speakerphone, and email capabilities. It's supposed to be
due out on the Cingular (home town San Antonio based company) network
next month, but I won't be holding my breath. I'll expect to pick
up this phone up around Christmas time 2004. :-)

SMS messaging

Believe it or not, after having a Sprint PCS phone for nearly 6 years I just figured out how to send SMS messages to it. The whole time I was convinced that my account @sprintpcs.com was the correct address, but that is just a webmail account setup. I was sure that the webmail account and SMS/text messaging were connected and that it was simply broken. It turns out that I was wrong and the correct address is @messaging.sprintpcs.com. The funny thing is that I found this out while on Southwest Airlines website while setting up flight status notifications. They have the address of all major providers on this site. And I couldn't find this same info on the Sprint PCS website anywhere. Go figure!!!

Well nothing much for me, just putting the finishing touches on my travel plans to Kentucky to see the Mike Tyson fight at the end of the month. It should be tight. I'll be sure to bring back plenty of photos and post them on the site.

Later.

Carnival in Rio de Janeiro

Man, well my boy Jemerson put me onto the idea of going down to Brazil in early February. Sounds cool. I've really been feenin' to go on a real vacation, since I have been working I really haven't been on one. So I'm looking forward to it. I'm just now starting to get my feelers out and try to find out more about the trip. I actually have found about 3 people that I work with that have already made the trip. They put me onto a website to help me out:

Rio de Janeiro website

This site has everything from brazilian history, hotel packages, photos, and nightlife guides. I'm excited already.

A Tribute to my Cousin Once Removed

Well I know for sure that it is my mother's 1st cousin, so I think that means cousin once removed to me. Anyways I took time off of work on Friday to attend the funeral of my mom's cousin. This is a person that unfortunately I did not have the pleasure of spending alot of time with while I was growing up, but I feel that I saw a snapshot of her life at her funeral this past weekend.

The funeral had to be one of the nicest that I had ever been too. Just the amount of people that were there to give love and support to the surviving family members was unbelievable. Everyone had positive things to say and some had tributes that lasted almost an hour. My mom's cousin was a person that was very active in her community because a number of organizations gathered to pay tribute. In addition to the organizations and swarms of family, there was also a number of people that she worked with in attendence.

I learned that my mom's cousin's employer was the Illinois Department of Human Rights which is located in the Illinois state capital Springfield. So my cousin basically commuted from the southside of Chicago and basically lived in a hotel for much of the week.

In addition to her active career and community involvement, my cousin still seemed to always find time for family and friends. There were numbers of people that stood up and recalled stories of them having a good time with cousin Tonne.

I am glad that I had a chance to attend the funeral because I learned a great number of details about her life. Unfortunately I didn't learn these things until her passing, but I think this will inspire me to make a better effert to get to know my mother's side of the family a little better than I have in the past. Getting to know my father's side has never been a problem since we get together at least a couple times a year to celebrate graduations and holidays. But I need to make a conscious effort to get to know the other side. I really don't have an excuse for not doing it especially since there is a great number of them that live in Chicago. Hopefully the next time I get a chance to know a family member on my mother's side it won't be from another funeral.

Lakers Lose

Well it's always a good day when you see the Lakers lose the chance at winning another championship. This article shows how over the entire NBA Finals history the Lakers have appeared in almost half of them (48%). That percentage is more than any franchise in any US professional sport, including the Yankees World Series appearences (only 40%).

After all, I am born and raised in San Antonio and a huge Spurs fan. They've been our natural born rival for many years. Even back in the George Gervin era, so I was born to hate the Lakers.

But I think something that satisfies me even more is to know that Joe Dumars, the Detroit Pistons GM, has become the first black GM to win an NBA championship. It's pretty hard to believe with the high percentage of blacks involved with the league, but it's true. But I guess this is still America though.

And just last year Robert Johnson became the first black owner of an NBA franchise, the new Charlotte Bobcats. I guess he was so proud of himself that he named the team after himself ("Bob").

New Photos

Well I finally posted the photos from my visit to Dallas, TX for my little cousin's high school graduation. It was cool to be back in Texas and to see friends and family. The photos include the ceremony and also the BBQ we had a few days later.

Edit: Just added two new videos as well

Aunt CeCe on Trampoline
My Cousin Vinny Getting his Diploma

New PS2 games

I know some might say I'm a little too old for video games, but I'm still into it. I just bought a new baseball game, All Star Baseball 2005 and am thinking about picking up another one, Transformers.

I may not have the spare time like I did when I was younger, but I still find a way once in a while. I find myself working late and then working out at the gym and not finding my home till about 9 or 10. By that time I just feel like checking my email, watching Sportscenter, and going to sleep. So my gaming time has definitely been slowing down. In fact with the NBA playoffs occuring the past month, I've been coming home or going to a bar and watching a different game every night as well. I definitely need to regain my focus.

Here's a few screen shots of the hot Transformers game I'm thinking of picking up later on tonight.

Back in the Chi

Well I made it back to the Chi in one piece from my long 5-day weekend down in Texas. I got a chance to catch up with some friends and family that I haven't seen since the holiday season. It was fun.

Everyone was in town since one of my little cousins graduated high school and is probably headed to Prarie View A&M. I took some pictures and videos, so look for those real soon. Actually one of the videos is pretty funny and includes one of my Aunt's falling on her face on a trampeline. Classic. :-)

Later.

New Video

I added a few video clips from my Auntie's graduation as well as a clip from a Cubs game I went to. I must be on a roll, that's two updates and three blogs in two days. Really I just have some more free time since my Spurs got bounced out of the NBA playoffs. All well, maybe it was a blessing in disguise. ;-)

New Photos

I just added some photos of my new little niece, my auntie's graduation, and a Cubs game that I went to a couple of weeks ago.

I haven't had the chance to meet my little niece yet, but I'm definitely looking forward to it. I hope the little girl forgives me for this when she gets older. I knew her pops was going to send me some messed up photos, but it's the best that I could do. :-)

New Web Design

Well once again I'll decided to update the design of the site. I just wanted something simple that would load up fast on dial-up modems. So I felt that this was sort, sweet, and to the point. I'll also be adding some additional photos to the site pretty soon. I have some photos and videos of my new god-neice, my aunt's graduation, and also a recent Cubs game that I went to in the freezing cold. I also want to add additional info on my PC Tivo and Zodiac, but also format all of the available video on the site to one format (probably MPEG2). Knowing me, don't hold your breath for these updates. ;-)

Softball Season is in the Air

Well the Major Leagues are under way. Barry Bonds has just become the third greatest homerun hitter of all time. The weather is starting to turn up. We may actually hit the 70's this weekend!!!! So it is only right that the Motorola Softball League get underway. We actually have our first team practice today. Even today is still kind of cold, I am still exited to get back out on the crater-filled diamond. Hopefully this season will turn out better than our previous two (see archives for my previous frustrations ;-)) We brought back the core of our team from two years ago, but we have picked up a couple of free agents as well as lost a few people. Actually our starting pitcher sold us out so she could get a master's degree, so that's a nice piece of the puzzle that's missing, but we'll manage. Thanks Kriste. ;-)

Anyways, as far as the site. I'm really starting to get a real good handle on video editing and I think I have found a nice format for all of my videos on the website. I decided to go with an Xvid codec, which is basically MPEG4. This codec is basically just an open-source version of the commonly-known Divx codec, but it seems to give me better audio/video syncing results. Pretty soon I will be converting all of the video over to this format.

Until later. Holla later.

Long Time No Post

I know that it's been a minute since I posted. I guess I have just been mad busy. Not a whole lot has happened since my last post. I guess that was around Super Bowl time.

Well I found a new project to get involved in. I just got a Tapwave Zodiac. This is a tight new PDA that has a few features on it to play games. I've been eying this product since last November when I dropped and broke my old Palm IIIxe. And since this device runs the Palm OS, I just uploaded all of the data that backed from the old IIIxe. The tightest feature on this device is the gaming features. It has an analog controller, shoulder buttons, and four color buttons as controls. So far I keep all my regular info (numbers, calandar, to-do listss, etc), plus an Nintendo emulator, an MP3 player, and video player. I'm looking to take this device anywhere I go for now on. It's my new best friend. ;-)

Once I finish up with this project I think my next plan of action needs to be with my car. She's starting to die on me. I'm having transmission problems, the breaks are about to go out, and I am leaking a whole lot of oil and cooling fluid. I already know that if I want to stop the leaking it's going to cost me a pretty penny. Last I remember it was around a G. The first priority will definitely be the transmission though. I think I ruined the third gear. I can't imagine how much that is going to cost to repair. I might just have to wait and see how necessary these repairs are. I can stand the fluid leaking, but I can't do nothing if my transmission is slowly dying on me. We'll see.

Chicago Auto Show 2004

I finally got the chance to add some new photos to the site. Last Sunday I got the opportunity to go to the Chicago Auto Show. It was pretty cool. I've gotten the opportunity to go to the show for the past three years. I can't say that this was one of the best, but it was still cool. This definitely had to be the year of the trucks for the show. I was really impressed with them. I was a bit disappointed that there was only one Toyota Tundra in the whole show, but I got put onto a new truck. The Nissan Titan. I was really feelin' this truck. The size. The power. This link shows how the Titan compares with some of the truck big boys, including the Tundra and Ford F-150.

You can see how the Titan can hang with the big boys. I'll definitely have to look into this if I can get the power of a F-150 for about $5,000.00 less. We'll see. Maybe one day I could be flossin' this.

Nissan Titan

Super Bowl

I'm still not too sure where I will be bowling at this year. Ever since I have been in Chicago I have always been moving on the day of the Super Bowl. The first one in 2002 is when I moved from Texas to Chicago. In 2003 is when I moved from my apartment to the townhouse where I am at now. I don't even know what to do with myself now that I am not moving this winter. I had better move next winter so that I am not in this situation again. ;-)

Anyways, I will be pulling for the Panters since they knocked off my Cowboys in the Wildcard Game. I hope they pull it out, it should be a defensive, low scoring, grind it out kind of game. I'm looking forward to it. In fact I might just meet some people at a sports bar and watch the game so that I can concentrate on the actual game. I remember back in 2000 when it was the Rams vs. the Titans. That was one of the most exciting Super Bowls in my generation and I bareley remember it because I was at a party with music and people that don't even like football talking too much.

Well I don't have any new additions to the site, but one thing that I do have on my to-do list is to convert all of the video files to mpeg2. I'll be sure to get it eventually.

New Web Design

I got kinda bored with the old design and plus I had some free time at work. ;-)

NFL Playoffs

I gotta say that this year's NFL playoffs are one of the best ever. There has really only been a couple of decisive games out the 16 that have been played so far. One of those non-decisive games being my Cowboys, but all well. They over-achieved anyways. Next year they'll be back again and even better.

New photos

I just added some new photos to the site. I added some photos from my first Bear's game here in Chicago. Man I gotta tell you that it was cold. We had seats in the second to last row on the side of the new Soldier's Field facing Lake Michigan. By the second quarter I could not feel my fingers or my toes. But you know what. I would do it again in a second. The game is so much slower and easier to see than it is on television. I just have to conserve and get ready for that $65 hit. That's a far cry from a $5 ticket at the Alamodome. ;-)

Well it's just been too long since my last blog. I still haven't updated the website with my new photos yet. I've been slacking. Maybe because I woke up today and the temperature outside was -3 degrees. And I'm not talking about Celcius either.

Anyways, at least I completed my TIVO PC the week I got back from Christmas. It's cool. I already have a few recordings that I have. The next step is to purchase a DVD recorder so I can start archiving some movies and Spurs games. I also want to get some of the other modules working as well. There's a music jukebox, video player, web server (program recordings on the web), game emulator (to play old SNES and NES games), weather monitor, news feed, and image viewer. I'll get to it eventually I guess. Just like the photo updates. ;-)

Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well we are finally in a new year. Time to start up those resolutions once again. One of mine is to stay in better shape. I work out once in a while, but I need to become more disciplined and also eat alot better. Time to minimize the trips to Mickey D's and reduce my carbs intake. Another resolution of mine is the leave all of the extra baggage that accumulated from 2003 in the year 2003. The past is the past and there is nothing that we can do about it. It's all in God's hands now. All we can do is just look to the future and try to make that better.

Well I have some new photos from my Christmas vacation that I will be posting, so I'll have to get to that. Later.