Expect a Weekly Links update by the end of the week!

Goodbye 2009 it was a great year!

For those of you that didn’t see the pictures I posted 2 weeks ago, we put up our Christmas lights, we also got our tree decorated (pictures will be posted at the end of the month).  The past couple weeks we have been taking care of our Christmas shopping and also prepping the house for the first of what will be many Christmas parties our house will be the host of.  This Sunday is my dad’s side of the family’s Christmas party, we should have about 20-30 relatives in attendance.  And then on Christmas day we will have a party for my mom’s side of the family, which will be a bit smaller but will also include Kelly’s family (actually both parties will include Kelly’s family) and any friends that want to come over.  Work is winding down for the year as goals have been met and projects have been completed, I’m happy to say I still have a job that I enjoy although this year was a lot different from the previous two years due to the lack of new hires our department had to train.  Kelly’s business is doing well, although we did have a decrease in business compared to 2008, but we are in good standing.  All the animals are happy and healthy and we are all looking forward to the new year.  I’m proud of myself for keeping up with my Weekly Cool Links project, even though it’s not quite as ‘weekly’ as it claims to be, I hope someone out there finds some entertainment in me sharing what I find interesting.  Lastly my Eat in OC project has been doing great, I typically have around 5000 visits a month and I’ve made some major inroads with gaining new readers.  I’ve been linked to on a number of local websites, and high-profile local blogs, and in addition my articles are routinely linked to in the Orange County Register’s Community Blogs section which is only 5 links deep from their front page, how many others can say something like that?  I’ll probably post one more time before the year ends, but for now let’s move on to the rather large links section!

Food
Lifehacker had a great article on maximizing Thanksgiving leftovers that will also prove useful with Christmas leftovers.  While over at Slashfood they had 4 fast recipes for making great Tomato sauces.

Tiger Woods’ Women, er I mean Chicks
Some of these links may not be safe for work, or family friendly.  But this is my blog so if you don’t want to see possibly scantily clad women don’t look at the links in this section.  If you are related to me and offended, oh well, I’m sure you have something else you can be proud of me for, get over it… ;)
Twitter is a wonderful tool for communication and for people to share pictures with, some pictures are more interesting than others as you can see from this collection of Hot Chicks that use Twitter for the powers of good.  I do not approve or disapprove of their use of Twitter…  Maybe Twitter chicks aren’t your thing?  How about Chicks dressed in various NFL Team Jerseys?  What’s that?  You like farm girls?  How about German farm girls that model to help German agriculture?  Here you go.  Personally I like my girls a little different from the norm.  Lastly there is the Internet’s Girlfriend…  Funny how I’ve been on the internet for 15 years yet hadn’t heard of her till recently.  One suggestion for her site, more pictures like this and less like the one on the top of her website…

Sports
It got so bad at Notre Dame this year that after they fired Charlie Weis they went straight to the big man in the sky and offered him the head coaching job.  The Onion reports that Jesus Christ himself turned down a 3 year multimillion dollar offer to coach the Fightin’ Irish.  Maybe he was just holding out for the right job?  Such as this Head Coaching position with the Lingerie Football League!

Cool
Virgin Galactic has launched their official site for the space travel, complete with Spaceship Two pictures and information on the roll out.  Never would have thought space travel (even of this kind) would be available to the general public in my lifetime.  Lifehacker had a number of cool informative posts the past couple weeks, including Fixing Your Relatives Computer, Guide to Avoiding Online Scams, and the Most Popular Top 10s’ of 2009.

Funny
I read three comics online; Order of the Stick, Dilbert, and xkcd.  I’m particularly fond on one of the Dilbert comics from this week, because it’s how I feel at my job sometimes.
Another one from this week that really hits the mark is this one regarding the use of FAX machines.  As for xkcd I have to give some love to ‘Daylight Saving Time‘.  Looking for a last-minute gift for a friend or loved one?  How about, How to Date a White Woman or the Gangsta Rap Coloring Book?  All these and more really do exist!  If you are single and looking for a Russian Mail Order bride one of the companies involved has started to compare them to celebrities!  Now you too can date a girl that sort of looks like Jessica Beil!  Just make sure you ask them these 10 questions from Deadspin before you ask her to marry you, it will save you a lot of heartache.  And lastly, now that you got your celebrity look a like wife, it might be a good time to reflect upon those stupid things you did when you were young and might regret someday…

Videos
My website is currently sponsored by Bitch Slap The Movie!, in theaters: January 8th, 2010!

If you know anything about the movie, commercial, or TV show business you might find some humor in this.

I love reading Maximum PC and listing to their podcast, I love this video someone put together from Gordon’s rant of the week regarding the Apple Tablet.

And last but not least at all, the Space Shuttle is awesome and this high quality video of the STS-129 launch is worth spending 15 minutes to watch.

STS-129 Ascent Video Highlights from mike interbartolo on Vimeo.

Oh and Merry Christmas!

By the way, GO TROJANS!  That was an awesome 28-7 beating of the Bruins!

Sports
The USC Football 2009 Media Guide is OUT!  And you can go and print out your own copy for freeeeeeeee!  I expect everyone that I know personally to carry their copy with them at all times and to show me it when I ask for it.

Music
I don’t know how current these album covers are from Russia, but wow those are quality with a capital T.  Is that Pete Townshend?

Movies
For those of you closely following my blog you may remember me mentioning RunPee about a month ago.  Well RunPee has created the #1 reason why anyone should get an iPhone, the RunPee application!  Now you can quickly check when is the best time to pee while out at the movies!

TV
Tonight (July 10th) one of my favorite TV Shows returns, with the final 10 episodes of Eureka on the newly renamed SyFy (SciFi Channel).  If you haven’t checked it out, you really need to, the show is quirky and fun.  Or if that is too mellow for you, how about purchasing some of the newest porn from Hustler (link is safe for work)?  TV shows remade into Porn movies!  Such as This Ain’t Star Trek XXX and Not Three’s Company XXX.  I’ve purchased a box set of all volumes… Ok I haven’t really, but it’s still funny.

Fun
The internet was made for fun, but before the internet there were other fun things (many of which still exist) such as Dungeons and Dragons, Satan’s game!  Oh wait, no it’s not Satan’s game, it’s just a freaking board game with imagination, but anyway, did you know that playing Dungeon’s and Dragons actually is a great tool for learning things about business?  I have to agree, just as I agree with those articles that say playing Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games get people ready for real world scenarios.  And let’s continue with the theme of lists of 10 with a top 10 list of things NOT to buy with your credit card.  Credit card companies don’t just deal with numbers, they also write up psychological profiles based upon the purchased you make, and these items bring up the red flags (don’t worry I boought my boxed set via Paypal!).  I see you a top 10 list and raise you to the 15 Creepiest Vintage Ads of All Time (I’ve included my favorite to the right).

Tech
This is usually my favorite section, since I’m a big tech geek.  The biggest tech news of the week has to be Google’s official announcement that they are working on a Google Chrome Operating System, it’s about time they actually just came out an admitted to it, after a couple years of speculation.  For those of you tech support people, the guys at Support Details might help your job be a little easier, with their website attempts to auto detects settings on a customer’s computer.  Some of you might have noticed that I have a Twitter account (and you can follow me and the posts here there!) well I present to you the Twitter 10 Commandements. Yeah I know I do 1 or 2 of those (such as Auto-Tweet).  Oh and last but not least Google Voice now lets users change their phone number that they originally got randomly from Grand Central, you even get to try and make a customer #, I was able to get us a phone number close to our home number.  We are going to start using the Google Voice number when we give out our number to people.

And lastly I present some of the best videos I’ve found on the Internet the past 2 weeks.

Very neat video by a Japanese band that must a been a bitch to produce and direct.

Can you flush a whole roll of toilet paper down a airplane toilet?

What watch he does to get the top button of his shirt snapped, that’s awesome!

Which to you prefer, the A Hole or the B Hole?

We wish you, your family, and friends a happy and safe 4th of July.

For those that don’t remember, this is what our master bathroom used to look like.

But now after 3 1/2 weeks it looks like this!

Check out all the pictures in the slide presentation below.

First let’s start with personal stuff, I got a fraking ticket last Saturday!  Sad part is I didn’t even do what the officer said I did, oh well.  I’m contemplating fighting it in court, but I don’t even know if it’s worth it.  Our bathroom is almost done.  I know I keep promising pictures, and I keep meaning to post them, but I’m going to wait till it’s completed (which should after I get home from work on Friday).  We have also been working on getting the cabinet doors painted and hung up in the kitchen, we are about 3/4 of the way done after we were able to hang up 5 of the doors last night.  We are trying to get as much as possible done before our big 4th of July House Warming party that we are having next Saturday!  Many pictures will be taken and I’ll make sure I get them on here ASAP.  And lastly I’ve been doing my best to get my ass in shape the last three weeks by going for walks 3-4 times a week.  Last night I broke my current record by taking a 4.11 mile walk averaging 3.5 miles per hour.  I’ve been using a site called Trail Guru along with my iPhone to keep track of my adventures (Kelly has been going with me most the time as well).

Without further ado, I bring my weekly links.

First I’d like to pay tribute to one of my favorite quaterbacks of all time. We really are going to miss you Brent! (from As Seen in WI)

Cool Websites
Moving on, have you ever wanting to make a decision but weren’t sure which way to go?  Then give the site Hunch a try, it will ask some questions about you (the more questions the better it knows you) and then it will attempt to help you have a decision.

Cool Tech
Windows was really in the news this week with the announcement of pricing for Windows 7 ($120-320 depending on what version), to be released on October 22, 2009.  The Home Premium upgrade will be $120 but if you act now you can get it for $50 on preorder, or if you act from now till the 28th you can walk into Micro Center and get a coupon to purchase it for $39.99 once it’s released!  Microsoft also released a beta version of the brand new Microsoft Security Essentials, which is basically a lite version of Anti-Malware / Anti-Virus software, good for those of us that don’t need the extras included in the pay versions of those types of software.  I’m using it on a number of computers already and find that it has a very small footprint, so far I like it and will be recommending it to friends asking for help.  Another thing I recommend to friends when they ask is Firefox.  Firefox is just about to have their next big update with the 3.5 version coming out very soon.  In the meantime I’m suggesting people check out the Lifehacker Firefox Add-on Packs, which will greatly improve your internet experiences.  I haven’t checked this piece of software out personally yet but if you are in need of heat mapping out your wireless network you might want to get ekahau Heatmapper out, it’s supposed to be pretty sweet.  And to wrap up the cool tech from the week, check out this USB Microwave that is in the works!

Cool TV
Those of you that know me, know I really enjoyed the Drew Carey show.  I’ve now started keeping up with him on his new blog, Drew From TV.  He has insights from The Price is Right, soccer, and from just life in general.  I’ve always liked Drew and he would be one of those guys I feel like I could just site down with and talk to for hours.  One of my favorite mini-series of all times was Band of Brothers, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg did an awesome job, and now I’m looking forward to their next World War II mini-series, The Pacific (click link for article and trailer).  This one has a very fond place in my heart since this where my grandfather fought, I can’t wait!

Cool Music
This guy took the time analyzing a bunch of data to figure out what bands have the most passionate fans.  It’s a pretty cool read, especially if you like numbers, and I’m happy to report my favorite band Jimmy Eat World is on his list, along with a couple other bands I enjoy.

Cool Games
I’ve heard a lot of really positive press about this game coming out for the Nintendo DS called Scribblenauts, sounds like a major breakthrough in games.  If PC gaming is more your thing, and you are cheap, then you might want to check out Download Squads list of the 25 best free cross-platform games.  There are some very solid games in the list, and best of all they are FREEEEEEEEE.

Cool Funny Links
Check out these amazing INTERNET SEX PHOTOS! – completely work safe!
Have you ever bought something via the internet (re:Craigslist) and were confused when the description was a little off?  Well check out Item not as described, which does it’s best to archive those items that just don’t really fit their description!

Cool Sports – Video of the Week!
I know it’s more like audio of the week, and I know I’ve posted this in the past, but sometimes you just gotta stay with what entertains you.