Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas.  I hope that you have a happy holiday season!  I know that I have not been writing very much.  Since September I have turned 20(Nov) and have been doing a lot of studying.  My New Year's resolution is really to make a commitment to working harder and writing more here.

Neglect and the job hunt

I'm sorry.  Frankly to those of you who check this on a regular basis, I have been failing you for a few months now.  I have been very infrequent with m postings on here.  I enjoy writing, but I have been pretty busy with the apartment and school.  I'm looking for a job right now, so that's taking up time as well.  The problem is that I need a job that doesn't involve food service and is preferably in an office environment.  I'm not looking for a job that pays under $10 per hour, and it's not going to be something demeaning like standing outside of a business jumping up and down to get peoples' attention.  I have been enjoying fall.  Check out my post about my trip to Cook's Dairy Farm, Ashton's Orchard, and Middleton's Berry Farm.

My trip to the country part two

This is a continuation of the story that I started yesterday.  I decided to break it up because it was so long.

Well we drove into Middleton's and I noticed a couple that looked about retirement age.  They advised me that there were no pre-picked berries and that I would have to pick the raspberries myself.  Obviously I was not going to do this in the rain so I decided to buy some pie pumpkins and some green peppers.  The green peppers that I picked out were 3 for a dollar and the pie pumpkins that I picked out were 1 dollar each.  I actually cut up one of the pumpkins today.  It was delicious.

After Middleton's, we headed back to Cook's Farm Dairy to pick up a half gallon of ice cream to take home with us.  Both my parents and I ended up buying a half gallon of Pumpkin Crunch.  That ice cream was the fluffiest ice cream that I have ever tasted.  Well after that we were going to head home, but I suggested that we drive around for a bit, just to enjoy the drive.

We passed a road that I recognized the name of, and I remarked upon that, and my dad said that he also remembered that name.  We turned down the road and realized that some friends of ours live on that road.  We had a brief debate in the car whether to drive up their driveway and ring the doorbell and ultimately decided to do so.  I got out of the car and rang their doorbell and sure enough the wife was home.  She invited us in, and we asked to make sure that we were not being a nuisance by just dropping in unannounced(we live so far away from them that it's rare that we see them).  She said that she was just reading a book and that we should come in.  So we came in and chatted for a good hour.  Her husband and son came home at that point and we explained that we were in the neighborhood.

We learned from the son that some mutual friends of ours were also going to be briefly stopping by, so someone went out for pizza and we had an impromptu pizza party at their house.  Our mutual friends eventually had to leave, and we stayed around to chat.  We had a great time until it became time to head home.  By that time it was after 9, so it really was a full day out in the country.  Since I don't get out of my apartment that often, I really cherish little trips that those.

I'll keep you posted on my activities.

My Trip to the country

So I have been bugging my parents for a while now to take me to Cook's Dairy Farm in Ortonville, MI.  Since I don't drive as I'm sure you know, I rely on family and friends to take me places.  It's annoying but as the French say "C'est la vie!".  I asked my mom if I we could go to both Cook's and an apple orchard that I had found, and naturally she said pick one or the other, so I picked Cook's.  The reason is that there is an apple orchard just one mile from Cook's, so we were able to go to both.  The apple orchard that I originally picked to go to was something like 20 miles away.  I'm pretty happy that I was able to find this one.

So after we went to Cook's we stopped by the apple orchard which was a lot of fun.  Unfortunately, it started to rain while we were inside the apple orchard(Ashton's).  When it was time to go, we scurried to the car and began to leave.  I remember having heard about a berry farm nearby so I inquired about one.  I was told that it was called Middleton's and it was just a few miles away.

I got directions, and we headed off.  We drove for a few miles, and then we weren't sure where to go because the directions that the lady in Ashton's weren't totally clear.  Since my dad's Buick Lucerne is equipped with OnStar, we hit the blue OnStar button and I told the advisor that we were looking for a berry farm in the area.  He asked if I had the name of it.  I told him that I couldn't remember the name.  He told us that we were literally right next to it.

Stay tuned for part two of this story tomorrow.

So a followup on Apple's iPod press conference.  They have made huge changes to the iPod lineup.  The iPod nano is now a miniature version of the iPod Touch without the apps.  The iPod touch has new internal hardware based off of the Apple A4 architecture that is powering the iPhone and the iPad.  The iPod shuffle is now smaller and has a nicer form factor.  The only iPod that was unchanged is the iPod classic which remains at 160 gigs.  I wish that they would drop the iPod classic and instead upgrade the memory on the iPod Touch to 128 gigs as the top of the line, 64 gigs as the medium offering and 32 gigs as the minimum offering.  They could eve upgrade the iPod Touch to 256 gigs.  That's the highest amount of memory that can be put on a USB flash drive at the this time.  Of course in the future, this will increase, but honestly, if I were Apple, I would really want to be pushing more memory into that thing.  Right now Apple is trying to keep the price as low as possible while making the device as fast as possible, but I really think that it despirately needs a memory upgrade.
There is also a new Apple TV.  Of course this one doesn't have a hard drive.  In my book, having a device that does nothing but stream off the internet really isn't worth buying.  I want to be able to download the content onto my device and keep it forever instead of having to have working internet to view the content even though I purchased it.  Anyway, I'm going to wrap this one up.  Talk to you later.

Apple Press Conference

There is going to be an Apple press conference in a few days.  It will be on September 1st.  Apple schedules their September press conferences to talk about the new iPods.  January is generally other devices  iPhone and iPad were released in January.

Book Buy Back

So I'm kind of peeved.  MCC's book buyback program and BookMark's buyback program are really ripping students off.  I bought a used textbook for a business intro class for $100.  For those of you that read me frequently, I love business and this class is really very unnecessary.  I know the material covered by this class inside and out.  Anyway, I tried to sell the book back to the school, but I learned that they will not be buying the book back because they have moved on to the next edition.  I then went to the independent book store across the street from the school called BookMark.  They also would not buy the book back.  I guess that I'm going to have to sell it online.

World's Most Expensive Hotel

I just wanted you guys to see the world's most expensive hotel.  It's in Singapore.

Design Changes

Just wanted to write a quick post about some design changes.  Because of the new layout system, I can very easily change the background image of the blog.  Unfortunately I cannot, at this time, choose my own background image.  I will be changing the background image frequently, so stay tuned.  To stay informed, you can bookmark this blog.  It's pretty easy.  On a Mac use the combination of "Command + D".  On a PC use "CTRL + D".  Stay tuned!

Summer Classes

So, I'm starting my first summer class in half an hour.  It's Advertising.  Wish me luck.  My summer schedule is:

Advertising and Promotion Management
8AM to 12PM
Monday through Thursday

Business Enterprise
6 PM to 10PM
Tuesday and Thursday

This should turn out to be an interesting summer.  I'll keep readers informed.

New design

Blogger has officially done away with the old templates.  They have a new, highly customizable template designer.  I chose picture window, because with it I can choose from hundreds of beautiful pictures like the one that is up as I write this.  As I write this post, I have a picture of a cliff on the blog.  It looks like the English countryside, not that I've ever been there.

Sybaritic

So I just learned this word and I love it!  This is the note from the Apple Dictionary

sybaritic |ˌsibəˈritik|adjectivefond of sensuous luxury or pleasure; self-indulgent : their opulent and sybaritic lifestyle. See note at sensuous .

Kwame's MDOC OTIS Page

For Kwame's Michigan Department of Corrections page, click on the link above.  I'll bet Carolyn Cheeks isn't too happy about that.  I read in the Freep that he is being transferred.  This page will reflect the transfer.  The prison he was relocated to has towers that shoot potential escapees.  Wonder how long Kwame will be alive assuming he tries to escape.

Kwame-dizzle is finally in jail

Kwame Kilpatick is in prison.  FINALLY.  I'm pretty happy about it.  Justice has been served.  The hip-hop mayor can now join other hip-hop personalities such as 50 Cent and Akon in the not so exclusive been-to-jail club.  He said: "I asks you judge to be free.  I want to go home y'all."  I say: Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.  I'm sure Carolyn Cheeks is upset, and I'm sure Bernie is upset, but I think I speak for the vast majority of Detroiters when I say FINALLY.  Let's move on from this drama.  Lock him up with the rest of the offenders, and let's move on.

Email Account Issues

My Yahoo email account was compromised last week.  (May 11th)  I found out a few hours after it happened.  It sent an email with a link to a Russian website.  Please do not click the link.  I'm not sure what it goes to.  I contacted the FTC, and they told me that what happened constituted identity theft.  They said that anytime someone or something sends an email using your email account without your knowledge or consent, it's considered identity theft which is a felony.  They told me to put a fraud alert on my credit report, and to contact Yahoo! and file a police report.  I contacted Yahoo! and they told me that it was a virus going around on their system.  When I asked the Yahoo! Customer Service Representative whether he thought that I should file a police report, he was totally silent.  I have to imagine Yahoo! wouldn't want their reps saying either one or the other.
So the ordeal was trying to say the least.  Evidence of the bug's transgressions were slight.  Actually the bug attacked my email again two days later.  I was pretty upset the second time.  I forwarded the bad email to Yahoo! customer service.  They sent me the same form email back the second time.  It's a bug on their system, blah, blah, blah.

http://wrightsyveko.chat.ru

My how to presentation

So for speech class, I have to make a presentation on how to do something.  I chose making a blog using Blogger.  I just finished it.  It's interesting.  The PowerPoint is a skeleton of the presentation.  I was going to put the PowerPoint on here, but I'm not quite sure how to do that.

Glee

Hey guys.  I've been watching a Glee marathon.  I decided to watch Glee after hearing about it.  Apparently it's very popular.  Ony three out of the total 13 episodes aired so far dave had under six million viewers.  I can see why it blew the ratings out of the water.  This show is extremely innovative.  It's like watching a musical every week.  I watched all thirteen episodes at once.  That took about nine and a half hours from start to finish.  It was pretty crazy.

Speech Class Hell

Why is it that when this one kid comes up to do a presentation, I have to listen to rap music?  It makes my ears bleed every time I have to hear it.  I really want to leave the room, but unfortunately I'll get yelled at.  Blah Blah Blah....  I think that I'm going to go for a jog later today.  This presentation bores me a lot, but luckily it hasn't put me to sleep yet.  :)

New Template.

Because of some major issues with my old layout, I have changed the template.  This new template may have some issues at first, but I am hoping to iron them out.

My 4 am german pancake binge

So about 20 minutes ago started to really crave the Pancake House Big Apple.  I decided to make one of my own.  The problem is that I had no apples.  I decided to put in pears instead.  Then I realized that I had no milk, so instead of milk and sugar, I used water and sweetened condensed.  I waited while it baked, petrified that it would come out to be a total disaster.

You can find the recipe by clicking here.

Ten short minutes later, my pan looked like this.  I guess my four am pancake binge is officially over.

Love and Other Disasters

I'm watching Love and Other Disasters.  I'm three minutes and fifty four seconds in, and I'm already sick of the fact that Britney Murphy is switching between an American accent and a phony British accent.  It's like she can't decide between the two.  I like Britney Murphy, but I'm sorry, some actors/actresses should not be cast in movies if they can't convince the audience of their nationality.  One minute she's American and the next minute, she's British?  Give me a break!

Hyundai Recalls

Hyundai is recalling the Sonata because of faulty door latches.  I've said it once and I'll say it again, we need to inspect EVERY car that comes into the United States from other countries.  Like South Korea for example.  GM, Ford and Chrysler should be exempted from this.  Drop a comment.

Honda Recalls

Honda is now recalling 400 thousand Honda Accords for defective front door latches and hundreds of thousands of other cars including a model that a friend of mine has because the airbags spontaneously explode releasing potentially deadly metal shards.

Funny cigarette holder

When you start using this cigarette holder, you KNOW you have a problem.

My Thoughts on the Toyota Recall.

Toyota has killed eight Americans.  I am so disgusted.  I hope that no one ever buys another Toyota because of this incident.  The biggest thing that pissed me off was the fact that Toyota initially denied the fact that this is clearly their fault and refused to take appropriate action to resolve this matter until they were forced to by the US Government.  I can't believe that it got so bad that the US Government had to step in and FORCE Toyota to be accountable.  The fact that Toyota would rather kill their customers than ruin their reputation sickens me beyond belief.  I hope that Congress puts them through the ringer!

Nobama

I don't usually get political, but I'm getting pretty ticked off at Obama.  I found some funny Obama pics on the net, and thought that I'd share them with you guys.

Screwed up layout

So the layout of this blog is totally screwed up.  There should be a grey column that goes down the entire length of the blog so that it creates contrast.  It is not doing that right now, but I AM working on it.  I'm exploring my options including but not limited to changing the layout of the blog.  I really don't want to do that because I really like the blue layout.  I know that this is probably really boring that I'm actually bothering you, the reader, with my ramblings about  the blog's look and feel.  I have tried to turn my blog into a functional homepage for myself over the years, and frankly, I'm still working on it.  I'll continue to work on it.  Later guys.  Read the archives!

Crazy events during Phil-2200

Hey guys.  Well the weirdest thing happened today.  First there was a guy that was asking a bunch of questions about the material.  Apparently it was too much because when we went to a ten minute break, a woman came up to him and just started bitching him out.  It was really crazy.  She just came up to him and started chattering about how he was asking too many questions and how no one else could get a word in edgewise because he was asking too many questions.  The reality as I see it was that he was the only person that was calling the teacher on the fact that my teacher doesn’t seem to know ANYTHING about what he’s trying to ‘teach’ us.  He spent half an hour arguing a point and then just changes his mind immediately when he reads the book and finds out that the author disagrees with his point of view.  Then after explaining why he was wrong, he changes his mind and says that he was right after all and that the book was wrong.  It’s getting so silly.  I became so uncomfortable with her chattering away at this poor guy that I just walked out of the room.  Before I did, everyone went silent because everyone was listening to what this woman was saying.   A friend of mine that was in the class was out getting something from the vending machine.  Before she walked into the room, I pulled her aside and explained to her what was going on and why I was uncomfortable with what was going on.  She decided that she agreed with what the woman was saying and so she wanted to go in the room and bitch him out with her.  I was like do what you want to do, but I’m not involved in this and I’m not going to get involved in this.  I have a feeling that when the class ends, she’s going to bitch him out again, and my friend said that she’ll be right there next to the woman.  :(  This is totally awkward, and there is no way that I’m going to get involved.  I’m typing this in between typing up my notes.  It’s pretty crazy.

Amazon Associates

Hey guys.  I wanted to talk a little about a new feature on my site.  It's called Amazon Associates.  I have an Amazon.com box on the top right hand of my site.  If you search for a product you want and then go and buy it at Amazon, I get four percent of the purchase price.  It helps me to pay for certain features that could be added to the site to make it more functional for users like yourself, assuming that anyone actually reads this!  You can also just click on the Amazon logo below the search bar to go straight to Amazon.com  So the next time you think to go to Amazon, go through Billhonlinejournal.  Thanks!  And when you get to Amazon from your computer, go ahead and bookmark the affiliate site.  It will do exactly the same thing as Amazon.com because it is still amazon.com, but it just allows me to make a small commission.

The other cool thing about Amazon.com's affiliate feature is that I can add products to the site and link them back to Amazon for people to purchase.  Just like this Motorama book that I'd love to have, but can't afford until I make enough money from the affiliate network to purchase it.

First Busy Week

Hey guys.  Well this is really the first busy week for me of this year, nay, this decade.  Classes are starting for winter semester.  I've got accounting, math, speech and intro to logic.  I have math and accounting back to back on Mondays and Wednesdays and then Intro to Logic on Fridays.  Starting in February I will add a third class on Mondays, Intro to speech.  Wish me luck.

First Post of the New Year

Well happy new year to everyone! I hope everyone had a great holiday.  It was my first Christmas and New Year in the apartment.  I was apart from my family, which was pretty strange.  I suppose I had a good time.  I'll be going back to school on Friday, but more on that later.