Aunt Elaine Visits

Aunt Elaine Visits

Aunt Elaine is visiting from Florida for a little bit. Last weekend we had a cookout at mom & dad's. Ken was able to make it as well. Shelly, on the other hand, was actually out of town with her sister. They went to see Fallingwater (Frank Lloyd Wright's old place) in PA.

It's always great to see Aunt Elaine when she visits!

It Was A Good Fight, But I Lost

The hard drive got the best of me. Of the 3 that died over the past few weeks, mine was the worst by far. It died right before my eyes. I was able to grab a little bit from it before it started clicking. At least I was able to access the FAT (File Allocation Table) and see what data I was actually going to lose before it completely denied me access to it.

I used several disk tools and brought it back to life a couple times, but the fight is finally over. Nothing on there was all that valuable to me. Most of it I should be able to get again over time.

If there was data on there that I really needed, I would have been hosed. Just another reason for me to encourage you to backup your important data.

Another Hard Drive Failure!

Yet another hard drive failure. This one is mine though. It's my 300 GB Seagate drive that mainly stores miscellaneous multimedia files. Stuff I really don't backup because it's not critical and the files can be somewhat large. That being said there are files on there that I really would like to get back. More to save me time re-retrieving the data than anything.

So, as I type this, I am trying the old freezer trick in which you place the bad hard drive in the freezer. Personally I have never tried this method but some people have had good results with it, so what the heck. I'm not overly confident that it will work but I'll let you know.

More to come on my freezing results...

Free 411

Ever have a need to call information to get a phone number? Generally I'll have a need when I am away from computer and need to call someone on my cell. Information over the cell phone is crazy expensive and I refuse to pay for it. Free is good though.

There are two services that offer Free Information.

1) FREE 411 can be reached by calling (800) FREE-411 or (800) 373-3411. It's advantage is that it's completely automated and is very "clean".

2) 411 SAVE can be reached by calling (800) 411-SAVE or (800) 411-7283. This is not quite as nice in one regard because you end up talking to an operator who then sends you an automated response. However, 411 SAVE offers a very cool feature that FREE 411 does not. The feature is actually not even mentioned anymore but does still work. If you press "2" after it gives you the number, it will text the info to your cell phone. Personally, I think this is a wicked cool feature because I rarely have a pen and my short term memory is horrible.

How are these services free? Well, you end up having to listen to a short little ad. A small price to pay for a free service. I suggest you add it to your address book as 411 to use whenever you have a need.

Try them both out. If you don't care about the text back feature, I suggest FREE 411. It's definitely worth checking out.

Like Father Like Sons

Like Father Like Sons

The most viewed picture I have on Flickr is the one of me and the fire hydrant. I figured why not pass the tradition of bad taste on to the kids. :)

This was taken over at Picadilly Castle the other day when it was quite hot. No one was at the park due to the heat. Most moms and dads wanted to be in the AC I'm sure. I took the kids for an hour or so and lathered them with sunscreen. We brought lots of water and they had a great time.

Busy Bee

So this last week has been extremely busy for me. Kentcom, our local 911 center, underwent a furniture upgrade. While it might sound like an easy process to tackle, it really was much more difficult. Their dispatch positions have all different types of equipment in them, so you have like 5 or so different entities trying to get their equipment in and get them running at nearly the same time. Our role was to remove and install the consoles for the radio system, as well as the device that sets of the pages for the fire stations.

Of course since this is 911 you can't take everything down. The whole thing is staged to strip and install in phases. For the most part things went well. The furniture people left a little to be desired, but in the end all the positions were up by Friday as planned.

Personally I was impressed by how well we all worked together. Everybody was willing to pitch in and get the job done, even if it was something you were not expected to do. The hours were long and everyone was tired. I pulled in 17 hours of OT so my paycheck should look a little better come payday. I know one of the Verizon guys was close to a 100 hour work week. They had it much worse than us, that's for sure.

For the most part we're done. The remaining work is just tying up loose ends. In the end the project was quite rewarding and I had fun doing the job. Hopefully they will like the new furniture that they bought.

Camping In The Back

Camping In The Back

Yesterday the kids and I took the next step and camped out back. We started in the house a month or so ago. Next will be a real visit into the wilderness.

Earlier in the evening we hit a local restaurant with some friends of ours (Jorel & Samantha). Afterwards they came over and visited for awhile. By the time they left it was dark and the kids were primed for the tent.

We read a story, they played games on the DS for a little bit, and then we hit the hay. It was fun and the kids did great.

Sleeping on the ground is always rough. I slept kinda crappy, but the experience and bonding with the boys was fun. The kids themselves didn't seem to mind the ground at all and slept hard all night.

We woke up to a crisp, cool, damp morning and ate cereal outside. We're all looking forward to taking a real camping trip soon. Shelly, I think, will probably wuss out and stay home. We'll have to see how that works out.

Check out many new pictures from the camping trip and past few weeks over @ Flickr.

Two Kids & Some Tunes

Here is a short little video snippet of the kids jamming out to some SR71. It kinda reminds me when I was younger. Yeah, the lighting sucks a little, but what the hell. I posted it on YouTube anyway.

This was shot with our Cannon digital camera.

Forever Young

Can you imagine never aging? Check out THIS news piece about a girl that is 12 years old but has not aged since she was 9 months old. This story also was made available to me from Digg.

A Good Laugh

I came across this clip via Digg. Basically it involves a screw up by a host of one of those home shopping channels. Check out THIS LINK for a laugh.

If there are any other Diggers out there, let me know. I'd like to add you as a friend and see what you're diggin'.

Backup Your Data!

Within the past week or so I have had to fix two computers whose hard drives had crashed. Fortunately, I was able to recover almost all the needed data on both. But it was extremely difficult (one was worse than the other) and neither had backups.

If your hard drive crashed right now would you have a backup of your essential data?

Def Leppard @ The Borgata

Encore: Love Bites & Sugar

So Saturday I saw Def Leppard at the Borgata in Atlantic City. Honestly I was surprisingly not really all that motivated to see them. Tickets were $100 and I had to drive a good 2 1/2 to 3 hours to see them (traffic & all).

Anyway, I get to AC and there I met up with a couple of old friends from Jersey. Dee, a long time friend I met on the computer via Def Leppard. She also brought her friend Allan, who also has become a friend to me. These 2 characters also met up with our family when we saw Def Leppard and Bryan Adams @ Rikpen's Stadium in Maryland.

So everything is cool and we have some time to kill before the show. Dee and Allan gambled a little and lost some good cash. I did end up throwing $10 into a slot machine, but that was it. These casinos are in business to make money, and I know that. We then got a bite to eat. Allan bought so the meal was even better than normal. Thanks again Allan!

After dinner Allan hit the machines for a few more minutes and then we decided we better get in line because it was growing and we had general admission tickets. Eventually they let us in the facility where the Journey & Def Leppard were going to play. Initially we were in about 5th row from the stage.

Some guy with a guitar and harmonica opened the show. Nothing fancy, but it was better than just standing there doing nothing. Journey then hit the stage. I was never a huge Journey fan, but I have always liked what I heard on the radio. These guys did a fantastic job. They all looked real health too (well, aside from the bass player anyway). Steve Perry, of course, is no longer in the band. But his replacement filled his boots great and you didn't even miss him.

Def Leppard took the stage next. We had squeezed our way up to 3rd row by the time the show started. I was a little worried because their recent appearances on TV had been somewhat rough. But the fears quickly disappeared. The band hit it hard and sounded great! I guess The Borgata doesn't care about cameras because they were all over the place. All we had were are phones. Mine came out real crappy. Dee's phone did a better job. Check out some of the photos over @ Flickr. All my hesitations about going to the show were quickly erased. The band played a fantastic show!

In the end, I was really glad I went. It was a long day. By the time I got home it was 2:30ish in the morning. But it was DEFinitely worth it. :)

Def Leppard Live!

Def Leppard to play soon. Currently I'm in 3rd row. More to come.

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