Category: Geek Things

Usually, SPAM doesn't bother me. I'm a tech geek, so I can filter out SPAM to my heart's content in my many email addresses. I don't have to see most of the SPAM, because my filters are smart and my favorite email addresses aren't used except by real people I know in the real world. For the most part, I'm unaffected.

However, it infuriates me when I receive SPAM text messages on my cellular phone. Not only do I see the spam, but I'm audibly alerted to its presence. To add insult to injury, my calling plan doesn't include text messages, so I'm actually CHARGED to receive this SPAM.

NOT any more! HAHAHAHAAAA!

I just blocked all text messaging (outgoing and incoming) through my cellular service provider. I think I've received half a dozen text messages in the years that I've had my phone. I obviously don't use it, so why pay for SPAM?

Problem solved.

Almost three years ago, I entered an amateur photography contest. There were several categories. I entered this photo in the "Abstract" category:

Photo not preserved: Stained Glass Ceiling

This was taken from a ceiling above a fountain in a shopping area between the Paris casino and Bally's casino in Las Vegas.

Anyway, I won a prize package that included Bose QuietComfort headphones. Retail price: $300.

I know, I can hear you now. "WHAT?? THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS?? They're JUST headphones!!"

But they're not JUST headphones. I've never worn any listening apparatus that comes even close to the experiece of Bose QuietComfort headphones. I use them on airplanes every chance I get. I have been able to listen to symphonic music on jet planes, even when sitting BEHIND wing-mounted engines, and I could still hear the small nuances of the music. I actually FELL ASLEEP while wearing them on a TURBOPROP between Miami and Key West, and if you've ever been on a turboprop aircraft, you KNOW how noisy those things are! If all of that doesn't convince you that Bose QuietComfort headphones are something truly magical, then this will: I was able to sleep through the night while acting as a chaperone in a cabin full of fifth-grade boys. Yes, they're THAT good!

So you can imagine my distress when, during my recent flight between Salt Lake City and Minneapolis St. Paul, I noticed that the headband on my wonderful headphones was CRACKING!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

As I walked from one concourse to another in the Minneapolis St. Paul airport, I noticed a Bose kiosk. I stopped and showed the headphones to the attendant at the Kiosk and he told me that the cracking I was seeing was a known problem in earlier versions of the headhpones and that they had subsequently fixed the problem. He said I should call Bose Customer Service and they would likely replace them.

HOOOOOOOOOORAAAAAAAAAAY!!!

So I did just that. Despite the fact that I had owned the headphones for almost three years and they only had a one year warranty, they gave me an RMA number and instructions to ship them back. It cost me around $15 for shipping, insurance, and packaging materials to ship them.

Today, I received a brand new pair of Bose QuietComfort 2 headphones. I wasn't expecting to receive them for another month or so. They're WONDERFUL. The headband wasn't the only improvement they made. They're quieter and the sound seems better to me. Then again, I could be unintentionally exaggerating because I'm so happy with the customer service I received:

No runaround.
No accusation that I mistreated them.
No questions other than questions that helped them determine what was wrong.
Extremely fast service

I like Bose!

The blog is now entirely in its new location! In case you haven't updated your bookmarks yet, you can reach my new blog at http://misterme.com.

Why Mr. Me?

Well, there's a catchy little tune sung by a group called They Might Be Giants that was stuck in my head while I was blogging and I thought it would be a PERFECT blog name.

The lyrics:

Once a boy named Mister Me bemoaned a great regret.
"I've floundered in the misty sea, but can't abide its mystery.
I wound up sad, you bet."

So onward go and Edward Ho into the bounding main.
Enjoy the show look out below but mind the misty sea
Or end up sad like Mister Me.

Chorus:
He ended up sad.
He ended up sad.
He ended up really, really, really sad.
He ended up sad.
He ended up sad.
He ended up really, really, really sad.

So take the hand of Mister Me and mister, make him glad
To swim the Mister Misty Sea and cease the Mister Mystery
That mister, made him sad.

Chorus 2x

No, I'm not necessarily a sad person, but when I am, this song really fits. In this song, the happy tune belies the underlying unhappy message. I'm the same way. When I'm sad, my happy exterior will sometimes completely mask the sadness I'm feeling.

Fortunately for me, I'm a mostly happy person. The happy exterior isn't hiding anything!

My blog is moving!

I just registered the domain name not an hour ago!

The nice thing is that those of you that have commented will not have to re-register.  I'll be using the exact same database, so nothing will be disappearing.

In a day or two, I'll post the new link!

Really. I AM and I'll prove it to you.

I'm wearing this shirt today:

Photo not preserved: Gravity T-Shirt

That's not enough to convince you?

Well then, let me tell you about the conference I just registered for. It's called CSI NetSec 06. I'm going to conferences entitled "Under the Microscope - Dissecting Bot Code" and "Device Driver Malware" and I'm actually excited about them.

Still not convinced?

Fine. I'm going to change the look and feel of my weblog to look like slashdot.

There. That should convince ANYONE.

Ugh. That's awful. I'm changing it back.

But back to the conference...

It's actually kind of nice that my job values me enough to pay for the conference. It costs $1395 to learn about things like hacking and exploit development and cyber crime investigation. It's only costing $190/night for my room which has a usually overpriced rate of $345/night. But work is paying for that too. The airfare is a couple hundred bucks to Phoenix, Arizona.

What? I didn't mention that the conference is in Phoenix in the summer time and I'm still excited to be going? Now you're convinced that I'm a geek?

I think I'll buy this shirt and wear it at the conference:

Photo not preserved: Sunlight T-Shirt

Wow. How completely narcissistic of me to create a web log for myself, about myself, name it after myself, and host it on a domain bearing my name. It's probably even more narcissistic of me to use a big word like narcissistic in the first sentence of my first entry.

I used to have another blog that turned into an exercise blog last summer. I've decided to keep it and create this blog to post my musings, rantings, rambling and writings. Why? Well, I just might be narcissistic egocentric enough to think that you might enjoy it. I might actually think enough of myself to believe that I have something so earth-shatteringly important to say that it needs to be said on the Internet so that all will read it and will see how incredibly witty and eloquent I am.

Ok, so maybe not.

More than likely, this will become a blog like so many other blogs on the Internet that are read infrequently by friends and family. Most often, blogs are full of inane drivel that doesn't amount to much. Most often, they are ignored by the masses and cherished by the few that know and love the writer. Yet once in a while, they will contain that rare nugget of wisdom or insight that becomes a window to the writer's soul through which the reader will gain a better understanding of the writer's personality, intellect, passion, or belief.

Why start again today? Do I have something profound to say? No.

Last night, a friend suggested that I should start writing in my blog again and it got me thinking. I don't write as much as I used to. Once in a while, I have a burst of creativity that can only come out in writing. It's never enough for a novel, or even a short story, for that matter. I decided to take the suggestion and start blogging again. I'm sure I'll fill this with much inane drivel, but hopefully, through the process of writing something--anything--the rare creative moment will manifest itself and something here will be worth reading.