Matt Kemp Kills Baseballs!

Hey!  It’s Dan of the Garion clan.  How about that Matt Kemp?  He’s been killing the ball.  So my wife Kelly said my blog has been boring since all I post nowadays are links…  Is that true?  Are my links boring, would you rather hear me talk about the Next Great Dancing Crew?  I mean I know I can be funny when I don’t try at all, but can I be entertaining, especially in a world where people watch crap like Pregnant in Heels, Glamour Bells, and Playdates (yes these are all really TV shows, on REAL TV).  WHO THE HELL WATCHES THIS STUFF.  I mean it’s one thing to make fun of it, which is why I religiously watch The Soup (well and that Joel McHale is awesome), but really who watches this type of shit? This will be the only blog that someone says the word shit and then starts talking about Easter.

It’s Easter this Sunday, and I for one welcome our Zombie Jesus overlords.  I’m happy I can get back to swigging soda and chowing down on chocolate now that Kelly no longer has the obligation to give up something she likes for Lent.  Other than that there really isn’t much going on.  The onions in the back yard are just about ready to get cured, we got a citrus tree that seems to be doing well, I fixed the grout in the master bathroom and Kelly is just about done with painting the shelf that our awesome neighbor made for us in the spare bedroom.  Next up we are getting the HUGE birds of paradise plants in the front yard removed and we might be getting sprinklers installed in the front yard as well.

Lastly for those that really know us, be on the lookout for information about our 3rd Annual Fourth of July Party!  Now it’s time for! DUN DUN DUN!

These are the cool things I found around the web for April 20th through April 22nd:

• The Geek Zodiak [PIC] Geek Zodiak – Geeks are Sexy Technology News -
• Owners, union discuss playoff expansion options – ESPN – NO NO NO! Please no, do not expand the MLB playoffs! Don’t dilute the playoffs to shit.
• Bristol riot over new Tesco store leaves eight police officers injured | UK news | guardian.co.uk – Peaceful… huh? What idiots.
  
  For those that don’t know Tesco is a like a grocery story… Way to get worked up about something completely unimportant Brits.

• AT&T: Filing Admits Network Wasn’t Ready For The iPhone – HAHA!
• petewarden/iPhoneTracker @ GitHub – Little did you know, Apple has been tracking you all along. This can’t be, Apple is not at all evil…
• SEX! « OkCupid – More research from OkCupid, this time about SEX!

Fight On!

We will always have the USC Trojan song girls to cheer us up.  Terrible loss by the Trojans this weekend, but honestly I didn’t think this team was as good as some of the last couple teams we’ve had.  The defense was very suspect this week.  Here is to bouncing back.  Looking forward to UCLA in a couple weeks, maybe we can continue their winless Pac-10 streak…

Now, on to the links!

TV Stuff
If you have ever wanted to know more about the themes that make TV writing then I highly suggest to take a couple hours to browse and read around TV Tropes.  It’s especially a great read for anyone that’s ever wanted to learn the tricks of the trade for writing anything from Comics to TV.

Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, what’s the difference?

Music Stuff
Looking for music like the music you like?  Check out Musicovery, a music discovery service.  Doing a search for Jimmy Eat World on there actually links me to a number of other bands I’ve also enjoyed throughout the years.  Pretty impressive.

Here is a funny music video

Chicks Man
If you are interested in attractive philologists, check out Hot for Words.  She’s not really my type, but hey I know there are a lot of you out there that like big boobed blondes.

Check out these chicks melting ice.

Food Stuff
Lifehacker had an article this week on 10 Simple Freeze Tricks to Save You Time and Money.  Info and links about what can be frozen (Broccoli yes, Onions No) to how to make your freeze more efficient.  It’s a good starting place for many people.

Windows 7 Stuff (Tech Stuff)
So yesterday Windows 7 was released.  I’ve already been using it for 3 weeks and think it’s pretty great, especially the 64bit version because nothing beats using 8 gigs of RAM on a computer (except 16 gigs).  A number of websites had guides for Windows 7, but Lifehacker’s Complete Guide to Windows 7 is the most comprehensive, plus it links to lots of other great starting points to learn more.  If you are looking for a more historical look at Windows, you have to check out Maximum PC’s 50 Best (and Worst) Moment’s in Windows History.

Funny Stuff
Check out Life’s pictorial on 30 Dumb Inventions, how about those screaming tomatoes, and to think people follow that crackpots “religion”.  I only read Maxim magazine for the articles, that’s why I’m sharing the 10 People in Every Office article they recently posted.  Lastly check out Stuff White People Life and Photobomb for some more funnies.

Oh no the Pixar lamp killed the letter I!

First off with the start of the NCAA College Football Season I have to kick off my links with this awesome video.

USC opens their quest for the Division 1 championship on Saturday at 12:30 PM (pacific).  Talking about college football anyone that loves college football should really check out my friend Brian’s website, In the Bleachers, the #1 College Football blog and podcast in the world!

Food

Tactical Bacon, there for you when you need it!

I already know how to cook a whole chicken, but I’ve never cooked a whole one in a slow cooker, it’s a great way to get it done with minimal effort.  I’d also suggest checking out the main $5 dinner site, she does a great job sharing the wealth on the ways she’s able to make good cheap family diners.  Bacon is the coolest thing on the internet since sliced bread, and now you can make sure you are able to enjoy the salty smokey goodness of bacon during the next natural disaster with Tactical Bacon!  (thanks to my friend Dippy for the link).  And while you are eating your bacon, why don’t you learn how to cook up a bunch of hard boiled eggs in the oven… Wait are those oven cooked eggs?!

Interesting
According to Carnegie Mellon‘s Death Risk Rankings, the chances of a age 30-39, white, male, from California dying in the next year is 1,537 out of 1,000,000 (wait I fit that description!).  In addition here at the top 5 and the number out of 1,000,000.

Cause of Death – MicroMort
Total – 1,537
Accidents – 408
Circulatory system diseases – 187
Suicide – 173
Cancers – 143
Infectious and parasitic diseases – 141
Homicide – 101

Geeky Stuff

Time Travel!

I love this travel time-line that someone put together based on popular TV shows and movies (I’ve included to the left for those too lazy to visit the site.)  If you’ve ever wanted to check if your favorite user name is available at 130 websites all at one time, then namechk is the site to go.  Warning it could be used for both good and evil!  Good in the fact that you can find 130 websites to register your user name at, bad for the fact that you can find 130 websites to register someone elses user name at so they can’t!

Funny Stuff
Kelly and I are thinking about having a child…  Actually no we aren’t but what better way to bullshit your way out of work and responsibilities than the Office Kid, complete with pictures and drawings!  If having a fake kid isn’t your idea of funny then check out the People of Walmart a place to see pictures of those interesting individuals that shop the crappiest store on earth.

Tech Stuff
Just an FYI for those that keep sending me MMS messages to my iPhone, Sept. 25th is the big day that I will actually be able to see them from my phone!  About damn time AT&T!

And lastly I leave with you a couple more videos.

Pretty cool Old Spice commercial (I really enjoy their advertising and commercials)

College Humors modern take on West Side Story with Web Site Story!   I highly recommend checking it out!  You got to go to their site I can’t embed it.

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

First on the home front, Kelly and I have been working lots on the house, especially on the yard this past week.  We over seeding all the grass and are in the process of putting some topper soil over it all to help the new see grow.  In addition to that our tomatoes plants have really took off and we already have a bunch of tomatoes growing, soon enough we’ll be able to have our first taste of our first home grown tomatoes!

Back to the links.  USC Football linebackers made the cover of this weeks Sports Illustrated! Looking forward to the NFL Draft this weekend and seeing where the former Trojans all go.

Macs never get viruses…. Right.  That’s why they are becoming zombie computers and doing DoS attacks due to a trojan that is infecting Macs.  Glad to see a programmer taking the time to show Macs aren’t perfectly safe either.  My webhost (Dreamhost) is offering TWO FREE YEARS of webhosting to the first 1000 Geocities customers that make the switch to a real webhost.  That’s a savings of $200 bucks!  And if you aren’t a Geocities customer you can still get great service and sign up for them from this link here (although it’s not free).

Google has a great new mobile version of their product search online now!  Specifically for iPhones and Andriod phones.  Looking forward to utilizing it while I’m out and about shopping.

My favorite computer magazine, Maximum PC just released an online article where they built a $500 Kick-ASS PC that can run Cyris at 40 FPS, pretty good bang for your buck!

Don’t forget about the big gay storm and the need for the super-umbrella!

Last couple things.  I was reintroduced to a card game that I used to love to play in high school called Tien len and just wanted to share it with everyone, it’s great for 3-4 players and simple to learn.  If you read through the rules I suggest to play with the alternate rule that you don’t have to match suits on pairs and straights because that just makes it a pain in the ass.  Just remember hearts are always the high suit!

And lastly, SAVE CHUCK!  Chuck has been one of my favorite shows to watch the past 2 years and it would be a disappointment for NBC to take such and good show off the air and continue to air crap like The Apprentice.  Come on NBC!  Go here and see what us fans can do to try and help Save Chuck!  I hate Subway and I might even end up eating it on the night of the season finale just to do my part to help the show.

Image via Wikipedia

Actually this isn’t the begining, but it is the begining of us really house hunting.  For the past 6 months we have been using Redfin and Trulia to search for homes that we might be interested in.  The problem we ran into with Redfin is that the concept is great and their search is top notch, but they won’t work with short sales.  Now hold on before you tell me short sales suck, I already know this.  I’m just interested in trying for the homes we like, and if that involves the possibility of a short sale I want to be able to make sure I’m using a Realtor that wants to work with us to find our home.  This is what brings us to our possible new Realtor, Dan Slater from Orange Realty.  He seems like a really nice guy so that’s a start.  He mentioned he is a board member on the city of Orange Chamber of Commerce and he knows one of the marketing guys at my work.  Next I’ll have to see if my barber knows him (Dick seems to know everyone).  Here are our housing qualifications.

We are looking for homes under the $400k range and we don’t want to deal with PMI
We love Orange and would love to live in the Plaza area but we know we can’t afford that, so we are looking in a couple various Neighborhoods in Orange and also Garden Grove.
3 Bedroom 1+/2 Bath
1000+ Sq/Ft house on 7000+ Sq/Ft lot
Prefer to have a back yard without a pool
2 car garage is a must

He’s going to take us out looking at homes on Sunday, so that should be fun.  I will keep you all posted on how things go and I’ll try to take some pictures of the homes we go look at.

Oh and for you political fans, no this is now Dan Slater from Colorado. ;)

In addition to that I was able to get Apple to replace my iPhone due to various issues I was having with it crashing, hopefully this will resolve those issues, so far so good!  Kelly has to take a trip up to San Francisco so she will be gone Thursday night till Friday night, I’ll miss her.

Other then that most everything else is good.  We went to Oak Glen two weekends ago with all my family (parents, sister, brother in law and kids) and picked apples.  We brought them home and Kelly cooked an apple pie, while I BBQ’d for everyone.  It was nice all hanging out, I’m hoping we can start doing that more often on my side of the family.  I did something to my left shoulder on Sunday morning and it’s been very painful when I extend it forward and do other various movements with it, so I’ve had to pull up lame on softball for awhile.  If it still feels the same next week I’ll set up a doctors appointment to get it looked at; but as it is right now, I can’t swing a softball bat.

Work is good, very busy lately, but busy is a good thing, especially in this economy!  My cousin Tim is getting married this weekend, I’m really happy for him!  Next weekend we are going to see The Who!

3 Miles!

I’m drinking my first soda in 40 days, since Kelly gave up soda for lent I didn’t drink any either.  Probably won’t drink as much now, just when I get the carbonated craving.  We are going to do some spring cleaning in the apartment today and then later head over to Kelly’s moms for Easter dinner.  Should be a nice relaxing day for the most part.