Hmmm Kelli has been dethrowned

Kelli used to send twice as many text messages as I. No longer.



I really like T-Mobiles new account website. I think my text messaging is higher due to my Twitter account (the little notes in the upper left corner of this page) and well....I'm a happenin' dude. It's good to see the "Whenever" minutes are almost split evenly. Of course most of Kelli's minutes are calls made while sitting in the living room...next to a real phone. Eh.

Really Burger King?

Hmmm yeah...this ad for Burger King leaves little to the imagination. A woman's mouth open. A 7 inch product (with a lot of mayo?) and the big words "It'll Blow our Mind Away". Really Burger King?

The text below says, "Fill your desire for something long, juicy and flame grilled with the NEW BK SUPER SEVEN INCHER.

Enough of that.

I got my business cards in:





I ordered the cards from printsmadeeasy.com. I paid $7 for 100 glossy double-sided cards. My DBA has been filed. Next it getting the price structure and website set up. I have my own deadline of August 15th. Should be plenty of time.

For the cell phone solution I am going to buy a T-Mobile prepaid kit...which is really just a sim card. I can pop the sim card into any T-Mobile (or unlocked) phone. We have three T-Mobile phones here too choose from.

This weekend is a 3 day weekend for me. Not sure if we are going to head out somewhere. Wouldn't mind hitting San Diego or Boston....maybe a little Washington, D.C. action.

Floors installed...marriage intact

We installed the flooring. Being so different came in handy. Kelli and I are very different. I make decisions quickly...not hastily....just quickly. Kelli is the opposite. She is more methodical. This tends to cause friction. During the installation our very different ways of thinking came in handy.

[singlepic id=598 w=320 h=240 float=center]

[singlepic id=599 w=320 h=240 float=center]

It took us a good 30 minutes to lay the first piece. After that it went kinda smooth. The hardest parts were the end pieces. The instructions simply said to score and snap the pieces. Sounds easy. Well making straight scores was not easy.

We finally finished. Total install time was 4 hours. We rented a 100 pound roller from Home Depot to smooth out the planks.

[singlepic id=600 w=320 h=240 float=center]

[singlepic id=601 w=320 h=240 float=center]

[singlepic id=602 w=320 h=240 float=center]

[singlepic id=603 w=320 h=240 float=center]

[singlepic id=604 w=320 h=240 float=center]

[singlepic id=605 w=320 h=240 float=center]

When we returned the roller we saw this display ad for a device designed to making cutting planks easy. Grrrrrr. This device would have cut our install time in 1/2 or more! Next time!

We still have to reinstall the baseboards and do something with the doorway where the flooring stops and the carpet starts.

The end result is very nice and we are very happy with the color, texture and appearance. Total cost for the 11X12 room was $470.

Starting my own business

For years now I have been fixing computers for family, friends and friends of friends. I charge little to nothing. Many times I am asked if I have a card. I never did. That's going to change.

I decided to attempt to start my own business. Nothing big. I have secured a domain name, business phone number and will be dropping off the DBA paperwork at the Tarrant County Clerks office tomorrow morning. I was going to use Legalzoom.com for the DBA stuff, but they wanted $99 for something I can do for $35.

For the website I wanted to use the word Geek. Lots of Geek domain names were already taken. After about 30 minutes I figured MidCitiesGeek.com. The area we live in is known as the "mid cities". I don't plan on venturing out beyond the Hurst, Euless and Bedford.

In order to have a separate phone number I thought long and hard about the most economical way to do this. I didn't want a long term investment (like a new cell contract). I researched prepaid phones. I found one I like from T-Mobile. Then I thought "what if I want to change phones?". This lead me to a virtual phone. I decided on Skype. With Skype I have a local phone number for $6 a month (cheaper if I buy more than 3 months at a time) and can get unlimited service for $3 a month. So $9 a month for phone service. Done.

I spent hours looking over the legal paperwork involved. Legalzoom was ready to charge me $200. Ninety-nine dollars was for the DBA submission ($20 for me to file), $80 for a Employer Tax Identification Number (something I don't need), and $20 for "other legal paperwork".

All I have to do is submit the DBA paperwork to Tarrant County and then advertise in the classified section for four weeks that I am starting a business. Total cost for that is under $20.

What are my hopes for the business? Incredibly low. If I make $100 a month that would be peachy.

The spark that kicked this off was what a pilot friend of mine was going through this week. His laptop was having software issues. I helped him a little and showed him the way to repair. He couldn't get it going. The Geek Squad at Best Buy wanted $150 just too look at the computer. Crazy! I had him up and running with just a 20 minute in person consultation in the crew room at the airport. People pay way too much for computer repair and advice.

My business will mostly focus on simple (to me) computer repairs/upgrades, network design (wireless/wired), and consultation services (mostly for small businesses).

Over the next week I am going to order business cards, letterhead and design the website. I will also look at basic legal disclaimers used in the industry to cover my rear. On the same note I am going to look at bonding services. I think the total start up cost will be just under $200.

This could either turn out really nicely...or be a waste of $200. Eh....

Moving Kelli into my world and vice versa

Years ago I swore I would never visit Oregon, live with dogs, drive of foreign car, have kids or own a Mac. All are no longer true (well the kid thing is in the works) Kelli has changed me. She had nothing to do with owning a Mac....still don't know how that started.

A year ago Kelli was getting by with a basic cell phone, a decent computer, paper books and an aging XM satellite receiver in her Prius. She was an average American. As of right now Kelli has a smart phone, Macbook, a Kindle and is test driving a Zune MP3 player.

I have a "spare" 8GB Zune. No need to discuss where it came from (Amazon.com) or when it arrived (two weeks ago) or why I have two (?????). I have two. My main one is 80GB. I love it. I have been throwing stuff on there for over a year. Problem is I will put the player in "random" and get a lot of songs I don't care for. This morning I erased everything and started fresh. The Zune software is uber easy to use so I will have it reloaded with stuff I actually listen to quickly.

The XM receiver in Kelli's Prius is about 4 years old. It's not working so well nowadays. I have been telling her for months to get a Zune. With my Zune Pass ($14.95 a month) I can have up to 3 Zunes filled with as many songs as I want for the regular monthly fee. With the Zune software I can download full albums with one click. I can also download "channels". A channel is simply a play list of a specific genre of music that is updated weekly. I setup the Zune Kelli is testing to update wirelessly. All she has to do is hit "update" on the Zune while she is home (won't work outside the house) and it will contact the main computer running the Zune software, go online and update the channels stored on the player.

In addition to all the music I can download, I also get 10 free songs each month. These 10 free songs are mine forever. I can burn them to a CD (don't know why I would) or put them into a video (I can see this happening). If I ever cancel Zune service I keep these songs for life.

If Apple ever switched to a Zune Pass model I might switch to an Ipod. For now...it's Zune.

Kelli has had one day with the Zune and really enjoyed it. I filled it with all kinds of music I would never listen to. She was happy.

Over the last 7 years we have both changed each other....I think her alterations on me are bigger. No phone, Zune, or computer of mine has ever stained the carpet. Oh and I don't find pieces of electronics in the lint screen in the dryer. But I digress.

Still don't have Blueray?

Blue-ray movies are amazing IF they are played on a system that is set up correctly. In order to truly enjoy a blue-ray movie the movie must be shown on a HDTV attached via HDMI to a Blue-ray player and hopefully surround sound.

Until recently Blue-ray players were prohibitvely expensive. This is much like DVD players used to be. I still remember my first DVD player. I bought it during Christmas 1997. I was driving back to Nacogdoches from Houston. Compusa had DVD players on sale for 1/2 price..."just $220". I stopped by a Compusa in North Houston as soon as they opened. Sold out quick. Bummer. I then hit the road for Nacogdoches. On the way I stopped by a Compusa in Lufkin, Texas. Apparently East Texas had no interest in DVD players as there was a stack of them sitting there. I snagged one. Nice.

With Blue-ray I wated until the prices came down and we had a TV worthy of Blue-ray. I did my research and bought a Samsung BD-P2500. Why this player? Well it's a profile 2.0 player meaning in addition to being able to play blue-ray movies, it can go online for more content AND it can stream Netflix movies over the net straight to the TV. I bought it last Christmas. The best price was $380. I paid $270 by using a coupon from Amazon.com.

Now there are Blue-ray players for UNDER $100. I predicted the major drop and price last year (read it here). The player is from Magnavox and available at Wal-Mart (only in-store not online). As long as you have a HDTV and an HDMI cable (with a compatible TV) you are good to go.

Speaking of HDMI cables, don't overpay. I bought mine from monoprice.com for under $9 a piece. Monster Cables sells HDMI cables for $80+. Not worth it. HDMI is digital. Digital is 1's and 0's. Digital transmissions are not affected by radio magnetic interference. I bought some HDMI cables for my in law's TV a few weeks ago. I used it to connect up their cable box. My father in law couldn't tell a picture difference, but he saw right away how much faster the channels changed. The reason? HDMI cables can carry more data faster.

With Blue-ray players finally under $100, hopefully Blue-ray movie prices will fall. I still buy a HD-DVD movie from Fry's every now and then for $5-$10. My most recent purchase as A Clockwork Orange. Very interesting movie.

Konecto, Netbooks and Tax

So Kelli and I woke up this morning ready to buy vinyl "wood look" flooring. After a trip to Home Depot we were set. Then we stopped by a flooring store (CarpetOne) to compare brands. Glad we did. The manager gave us a ton of information. We were just about settled on a laminate floor that had one of the thickest top protective layer of any laminate wood. He took his time and we were just about set. On the way out I asked about a product Kelli and I looked at last year from Karn Dean. He then told us the advantages of it, and the disadvantages. Near the Karn Dean products were other laminate "like" products. We mentioned the product we were looking at Home Depot (the TrafficMaster Allure) and he showed us a similar product from Konecto. The Konecto product was slightly more expensive than the Allure product, but it felt to be much higher quality. The Konecto product had more texture and looked better. The installation is just as easy. We decided on the Konecto Heritage which is a medium red oak color. Total cost was $2.99 a sq foot including tax. That's about $0.25 more a squarefoot than the Allure product (after tax) and $1 a square foot less than "real" laminate flooring from Wilsonart.

The product is coming from north Dallas so we should be able to pick it up from CarpetOne next week. Total install time should be under 5 hours. If we like the product then we will likely install the product throughout the house.

So I picked up overtime yesterday (I feel guilty about it, but that's a whole different topic) and flew to Pittsburgh and back. Overtime at my job isn't time and a half. Instead it's time and twenty percent. Yeah...nice eh? The good thing is any time I fly on a day off it's overtime. I could literally never fly on my work days (which are currently reserve days) and still get overtime. The overtime yesterday was 5 hours 25 minutes at a pay rate of $33.38 an hour + 20% or $220.30. Not a horrible amount for sitting in plane. Of course the captain I flew with would have been paid $646.80 for the same trip....but eh.

With the money I am pondering buying a netbook. Why? Well I spent a lot of time sitting around the airport. I also travel alot. I love my Macbook Pro. I wish Apple made a netbook (rumor is they might). Netbooks offer enough power for what I do at the airport and on the road. Most of the time I surf the net, blog, watch Netflix movies, and play REALLY basic non-3D games (atc-sim.com being the most played). If Kelli had lasted till now with her old laptop, she would be just fine with an upper end netbook (upper end being the $350-$400 range).

Netbooks don't have optical (CD/DVD drives), can't do high-end 3D graphics, and have much smaller screens than laptops. On the plus side they are light (most under 3 pounds), have fantastic battery life (models I am looking at have real world 7-9 hour batteries) and are 1/4 the price of my Macbook Pro.

One concern I have is the small size and my HUGE hands. My hands are so huge I can palm a basketball (meaning hold a basketball in one hand with my palm facing down!). I have read a ton of reviews (me research things....crazy eh?) and found models from HP, Asus and Toshiba offer the best keyboards.

I stopped by Fry's and Best Buy today to try out the keyboards. They all felt great with Asus and Toshiba being the best. The Toshiba model sports a 10 inch screen WITH a full size keyboard. The Asus keyboard is 92% full size.

That being said I get nice discounts on an array of products through my employer. I priced several netbooks from Dell, HP and Toshiba using my discount. With the discount (at most 8%) the prices are all below Amazon.com prices. After damn tax they all rise above or are the same. Booo tax!

I might wait on buying a Netbook as new models with Windows 7 might be out in October. Of course October is 3 months away and I am Mr. Impatient. Eh.

The Captain I flew with yesterday was a hoot. He has been with the airline for 20 years. Most guys I fly with that have been here that long are burned out. Not this guy. When we arrived in Pittsburgh we both headed up to the terminal for food. One couple, who was waiting to board, told the Captain they would be flying to Texas to look at houses as they were moving to Frisco (a suburb of Dallas). They then asked if there would be chips and guacamole served on board as we were flying to Texas. While I was in line at Au Bon Pain, he briskly walked past toward the main food court. In Pittsburgh the ONLY food near the AA gate is Au Bon Pain. The rest of the food is literally 200 yards away.

I was in the cockpit setting up the return flight long before he came back. When he arrived he said he had to make a special delivery in the cabin. I assumed he brought the rear flight attendant some food. Negative. He went to the main food court soley to get chips and gaucamole for the couple moving to Frisco. Awesome.