ANGRY PASSION

What I wouldn't give for a spin in the Aventador! Damn near brings a tear to my eye.

The New 2012 Lamborghini Aventador - Top Gear... by videosonlytube

LIGHT 'EM UP.

"Hi. My name is |d®| and I'm a recovering electronics junkie."

It's true. Put me in an electronics store with a credit card in my pocket, and I was guaranteed to leave with something. It never got too bad, to the point of getting in debt over it, but I bought a lot of unnecessary sh*t. I'd look at something and be like: Cool. I need one of these.

Which means that a few weeks ago, when I had to move, I was aghast at the electronics junk I've accumulated over the years. I had boxes stacked in the closet full of stuff, believe you me. I'm old enough to be practical so I decided to part with some of my toys, the ones I hadn't used in over a year. Let's just say I threw away three-quarters of everything and I still have a big 'ol plastic container full of Lord-knows-what.

Which brings me to the point of this tale: I've always wanted an iPad since its inception. I mean, who doesn't? They're freakin' amazing. I'd sometimes go to Micro Center, my favorite store, and play with them there, but I soon stopped doing so for a pretty good reason - messing with an iPad would make me want it more. More to the point, there was no f-in way I was gonna pay at least $500 for something I didn't need. I mean, you can do way more with a good ol' laptop, and I had that already. Plus, protective case or not, it was probably only a matter of time before I or someone else dropped and broke it, like I did my dearly departed Kindle.

Which is why I was über-excited when Amazon announced they were busting out their own tablet, the Kindle Fire, and for a (comparatively) measly $199 too. I was sold before I even saw it. Shoot, I even pre-ordered that mofo, and for 3 reasons:

1. I could read Amazon's (or B&N's, or anyone's) books with it

2. Anything else it could do would be a bonus

3. Did I mention it cost less than half the price of an iPad?

A few weeks later it came over, and I love it. It's not as good an e-reader as the original kindle, but I can hold it in one hand; the iPad is a two-handed affair. It's merely OK at surfing the web, and it can be sluggish at times. (Amazon's working on changing that, at the time of this writing)

The best thing about it is that Amazon didn't lock it. In a few minutes you can install almost any old app from Android Market, which I did that first night. And did I mention it cost $199?

Problem is, Jeff Bezos, Amazon's founder, is a smarter man than me. This Kindle is lighting my wallet up, burning my money. No wonder they call it the Fire. For real. Amazon content is right there at your fingertips, and after you read that book or watch that movie it suggests other title for you. Right there. It's freakin' brilliant - for Amazon.

My name is |d®| and I'm an official electronics junkie.

THE DISADVANTAGES OF BEING A GEEK - CORPORATE EDITION

When I first started working here, our network, or workgroup rather, was laughable. I could see the initial signs of order but everything was in chaos.

Cat-5 cables crisscrossed the building. Inter-departmental networking was non-existent. Sh*t, computers in the same department weren't even connected. To put things in perspective, someone would set up something in Photoshop, save it to a Zip drive and walk over to the computer connected to the printers, plug the drive in and start printing. The humanity! All it would've required was access to a share drive and boom, there you have it.

To make matters even worse, we had dial-up internet. But that was OK, coz they were still laying fiber-optic cables back then, and options were zero as far as broadband was concerned. Only one computer was connected to the web, for emailing purposes. Thing is, everyone else had email addresses too, but only one computer to access them from. And everyone seemed OK with it.

I wasn't having it. From a workflow perspective, it was ridiculous. I'm not even an IT guy, but I couldn't work like that knowing things could be a lot better.

I talked boss-man into purchasing a 10/100 switch with 10 ports, up from a 10MB/s hub. The company was small back then - with less than 10 workstations - and switches were expensive, so we got that one. Otherwise, I would've gone for something with a lot more ports. That made quick work of the networking problem.

Next up was email. Everyone was connected, and everyone had Outlook Express at the very least. There was the small matter of the slow-ass dial-up, but it would have to do. A [relatively] quick internet search brought up a couple dozen internet proxy programs. I tested a bunch of them, settled on one, and that was that.

Over time we acquired more and more computers, but no one seemed to know what to do to get them to talk. Broadband came and only one computer was taking advantage of it. A few more switches and a router and the problems were solved.

Why do I even do this sh*t? I don't get an extra dime for doing all this, which distracts me from my usual workload, but it seems I haven't learned my lesson.

Like, the other day, it occurred to me that everyone & their mama here has a smartphone or tablet, and that the reception in here is next to nil, and that I had a wireless router sitting at home doing nothing. I brought the router over, hooked it up to the network, did all the necessary security stuff, then went and told boss-man about it. First thing out his mouth was: What's it for?

*Sigh.*

TRANSFORMERS

Alright, I give up. The blogging juices just don't flow anymore. Blame it on social media or whatever, but the motivation's really low these days.

But then I lay down one night, got up the next day, and realized that I'm still a geek, always been. So, why not talk about geek stuff? It is my blog, after all.

Keep it right here for the new and improved, I hope, content.

SPRING FLURRIES

Whew! Been busy for a while there. And that right there, ladies and gentlemen, is the understatement of the year.

Since social media is all the rage, and since pics speak louder, here they go:

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I'm not really into classics, but this here did something to me.

Ahh! Homemade burgers!



Lil' cuz graduating a few weeks ago. In the timeless words of my [other] illustrious cousin, "Watu wame-grow!"



I only hope Kenya isn't someone's name here.



Oh fate, why dost thou torment me so? What are the chances that the exact same WRX I want is parked right outside my window? Curses!



Alcohol - the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems.
Cinco de Mayo - same thing. People were all bleary-eyed at work the following day.



Laptops are such a pain in the ass to dissect. Why do I keep doing it?



Apparently, this still happens. There goes my 5-hour-long torrent.



Was in Michigan for another graduation. My only regret is that I had to drive through Ohio, the boringest stretch of highway I've ever seen, with roads so straight you'd swear the earth's flat.



Yeah. Stuff in Michigan is weird.



Of course, Michigan also means Motor City, which also means you get to see cool stuff like this - partly assembled vehicles. Never mind the ever-lengthening crack on the windshield.



How the hell did he make my steak & shrimp in 3 minutes flat?



Couch? Floor? Table? Bar? Standing up? She can fall asleep anywhere, anytime.

BLACK BOO... I MEAN, BEAUTY

Lord help me in these apocalyptic times - I loves the booty.

Hear me out:
Maybe it's my 'tanned' disposition. Or maybe it's something much less tangible and much more spiritual, but I'll say it again - I loves the booty, especially of the chocolate kind.

Shawty says I love the chocolate because I'm caramel, coz she likes the caramel and she's chocolate. She might have something there.

Nevertheless, the bubble is where it's at, for me at least. YouTube Timothy Bloom's 'Til The End Of Time' if you dare.

SNAKE OIL

Rarely is schoolwork interesting, for me anyway. The other day I was forced to help someone with their business composition assignment, aptly dubbed 'Ewconomics,' and I found myself rather enjoying it.

The premise of this assignment was to try and make something really terrible sound really good, like a used car salesman would. Or an army recruiter. Or the HR people who duped me when I got my first job - you see what I mean.


For instance, the example the instructor gave for #6 went something about the fish really biting right off the beach. See what she did there? Quite clever.

I'm not gonna post my answers since I don't wanna embarrass myself before y'all intellectual types, but feel free to help a brother out with some of these if you'd like. Didi? CB? KK? G? Where y'all at?