Various Rants and Such

12/07/02 - December 7, 1941......a date which will live in infamy. Pearl Harbor Day is here and I'm again finally updating my page. Although updating with a new rant isn't much of an update, for me it is. It's still 2 weeks away from officially being Winter and we have already had 2 snow storms, the first was a dud, drop a few inches then melted. The one down now was much nicer, snowed all day, dropped about 4-6 inches or so, and is still here :-) I'm so happy. For the holiday season I decided to work 2 jobs......for the money of course. So, I'm still working my normal job but now I'm also helping out at Zales where Jess works, ringing up sales and keeping an eye on the floor. Basic grunt work which is fine with me. I've worked a couple 12 or more hour days so far but holding up OK. The news is pretty steady, inspectors are in Iraq searching for weapons we are convinced are there. It's so stupid, even if we don't find them, we are going to say they are there and attack them anyway. It's just a waste of time and money, just nuke them and take their oil for god sake. Actually, just round up Saddam and his government, nuke them, save the rest of the country, then take their oil......thats more humanitarian. Racing is all over for the year, Tony Stewart is the Nascar Champion for 2002. He may not have had the best record but he was the most consistent and thats what counts in Nascar. Guess thats all for now.

11/02/02 - Boy, I need to update this more often. But I do have a good excuse, I bought a newer computer than the one I had been using for years and the modem wouldn't connect properly with my ISP, so I finally bought another modem, different brand, and things seem fine. Wedding plans are moving along, we decided on the church to get married at but the time of the marriage was so far apart from the time we had reserved the reception hall from, people started complaining to us, mainly parents. So, now we need to decide what to do, we are looking into other reception places and one comes highly recommended by two of Jess' co-workers since they had their reception there. I had to help a friend of mine move today, just a week after her and her boyfriend just moved into a new condo he bought. They were living in his old condo, but it was a bit smaller, so he bought this new one. Course he waited until he was settled and told her he didn't want to be with her. I'm gonna stay out of it cause it's none of my business and I know what type of person he is just because he reminds me so much of an ex-friend of mine. Their relationship troubles have no effect on my friendship with either one, unless things are said that I don't like, then it's a problem. So, I helped her move and get her somewhat settled so she can work things out in her life. Insert your own comments here. Our house is getting better organized, were finally getting pictures on the walls and things put away where we want them. It's alot of fun and I'm loving this being on my own. Answer to no one but myself and Jess and thats a wonderful thing. I know alot of people love being single and thats fine, but it's not for me, I love being with Jess. Work has been picking up with the holiday looming so thats good, looks like this year will end up on an up note, work wise. Guess thats it, later all.

10/04/02 - Tomorrow Jess and I will be renting a truck so we can empty out storage and move over some big things I have, like my entertainment center, old bed frame, etc. It will be nice to have the stuff here finally. Then I can work on the rest of my small stuff, fun fun fun. Sunday is the Nascar race at Talladega which, if ya follow this, is my favorite race! I can't wait. I have begun some early design work on my friends web site, she is starting a business and asked me to get her site going. I admit I'm a bit nervous but still confident I can get the job done right, like she wants it. Now it's time for my rant on Lindows....I've talked about it before. Originally when it began, it was going to be a program that would allow people to use Windows type programs in a non-Microsoft operating system. It is based on Linux, which is far superior to Windows but not for the average everyday home user. That is where Lindows comes in, but now they have stepped back a little and basically said they are going to make this a easier Linux program to use than those currently out. I have used Red Hat Linux 7.2 for a little while on and off and I was very impressed, although a bit overwhelmed. I have signed up for the Insiders Program with Lindows so I can try it before it's available to the public, a beta version basically. Although I have yet to receive it, I just ordered it, I am impressed with various feedback by users in the chat forums and also by various reviews. Now, everyone will look for different features in a program and if it doesn't have what THEY need, then it must be a bad program. I don't subscribe to this, but I respect other peoples opinions. I just bought a newer computer from a friend of mine, it's still old, but newer than what I have now. So, I'm giving my machine to Jess and I'm gonna give her old one to my parents to use. It's a slow process since I have to make sure everything works right and is moved before it's deleted. Alright, I guess thats it for me for now.

09/23/02 - Well, our first Mortgage payment is looming on the horizon. I just signed up for automatic withdrawals from my checking account for the payments so I can be assured it will be on time. Now I just have to make sure the money is there :-) thats the fun part. I went to the Nascar race in NH last weekend, and it was GREAT! We got up there with the weather channel reporting that it was going to rain on the day of the race, that would mean we wouldn't be able to see anything. We got to the track and started wandering around the booths, I kept looking skyward and it looked like it would be OK, the sun even poked through a couple times. We get to our seats eventually, well, bleachers, and watched some of the pre-race stuff. The drivers went around in the backs of pickup to wave to the fans, I got to cheer my favorites and boo Jeff Gordon although it was hard since he was in the same truck as Bill Elliott, I cheered Bill then booed Jeff, it was great. Then came the invocation, Star Spangled Banner and military fly over. Right after the Star Spangled Banner, the rain started. I wasn't too happy, but the day was early. It didn't last long and they dried the track off and fired up the engines........what a beautiful sound. You can't fully appreciate the racing until you go and see it, it's glorious, baseball has NOTHING on Nascar and never will!!!! They raced for about 20 laps then the rains came back, this time harder! I was pissed at this point, I didn't want to just see this little bit then have to leave. Now, mind you, this whole trip was a present for my Dad since he had never seen a Nascar race either, but I love it too. After almost 2 hours, the rain was gone and the track was dry. The announcer said "Now for the second most famous words in Motorsport, Gentleman, please return to your vehicles!" I was so happy. This time they got alot of racing, over half way which makes the race official! By lap 200 (of 300) the rain was back, it was getting dark and they called the race officially over, Ryan Newman claimed his first victory and we had seen our first race! Then we got to sit in the parking lot for over 2 hours, motionless! We didn't move an inch, once we did move we got out with no problem. We parked far up the road, near the track and they emptied the lots starting at the bottom first, what a pain, but now we know for next time. News........who cares, it's always the same, Palestinians blow up some people and then find themselves under attack........the Oscars, who really cares, they get paid FAR too much money for what they do!!!! Thats enough out of me for tonight fans, I bid you all.......a good night.

09/11/02 - One year since the terrorist attacks on NY and the Pentagon along with the attempt that failed and crashed in PA. It was marked by many memorial services. But, on a brighter note, we found Jess' car early this morning! Our friend Sarah spotted in off an exit ramp on Sunday night and called Jess to tell her. The car was in decent shape considering it had been gone for almost 4 days! The stereo was gone, of course, and some tool that were in the trunk, but otherwise nothing else was missing. The passenger side door handle and lock were destroyed along with the ignition itself, but it can be repaired I'm sure. There is a large dent in the passenger side rear door, looks like it hit something and the hubcap is gone on that wheel as well. It would have started but it was run out of gas, it's a miracle, frankly, that it ran out in Bridgeport and not somewhere else, like NYC or something, guess luck was on our side for that one. Otherwise, stuff is just going by, the trip to Baltimore was uneventful, meaning nothing bad happened to either us or my car, which we had to take in the absence of her's. I'm going to NH this weekend with my Dad, brother and sister for the Nascar race, it was a present for my Dad and were all gonna go, I'm very very very excited. We also got 2 kittens yesterday, were gonna pick them up tomorrow, one is all black, the other is almost the same but with light colored stripes.....their both males. Guess thats it for now.

09/06/02 - Sometimes it seems like I am not supposed to stay happy for any period of time! Jess' car was stolen last night from in front of our condo......just gone, not a trace. Apparently, Neon's are highly sought after, which is news to me! They tried a little to open my passenger door, damaging the lock in the process so now I can't unlock the door from the outside. We drove around and looked for her car, but it was no where to be found. The police filed a report over the phone and I'm hoping they find it, at least in my mind it will be closure even though Jess wants to not see it again if it's been damaged cause it's her first car and she will be sad to see it like that for the last time. I can understand that, but these bastards stole her car!!!! We are leaving tonight for Baltimore, MD for some family stuff so the timing sucks, but at least with her being close to work, it won't be as bad. She is already looking for another car so we shall see what happens. People suck!!!!!

08/31/02 - Well, here it is, Saturday night, I'm sittin on the floor in our computer room on our brand new carpet! It was installed on Friday and I couldn't be happier with the job that was done, the installers are truly amazing. We got a burber type of carpet with shades of white, light brown, and some gray......it looks so nice. Now we can start to really move in, my bro helped this morning bringing over their old bed so we didn't have to buy one. It's a queen size and will be put to good use. Jess should be returning from work soon, but while she was away today, I was a busy boy around the house. I brought over some stuff from the other house and then spent the rest of the day assembling some furniture we bought...Jess' computer desk, a bakers shelf, etc. It was a very productive day and since I have a 3 day weekend, tomorrow and Monday should be more of the same. I havn't paid any attention to the news as of late so don't ask.

08/27/02 - This is the first report from our new condo. I'm currently sitting in the dining room with the computer on the kitchen table. We can't put anything anywhere else yet cause the carpet, which was supposed to be done today, won't be installed until Friday. Once it is in, we can start bringing over all our stuff and set things up like we want. We have been sleeping on sleeping bags in the living room for the past couple days cause we wanted to get used to the new place. We have also been ripping down the wall paper in the dining room and kitchen. It's a bit of a mess, but it is better to get it off now than to do it with all our stuff here and trying to eat and such. The neighbor above us, when they are walking around, make a bit of noise on our ceiling, but I guess thats to be expected in a condo. It's more noticeable in the living room since the room is larger and the ceiling has more unsupported area, but it's not bad in the other rooms, the bedroom is the one that matters. I'm sure once we get more stuff in here and get used to it, the noise will no longer even phase us. It really doesn't bother us now, but we still notice it. We have both been a bit stressed out, guess we havn't stopped being stressed out, but it goes in levels. The stress is a bit less now that we have the place, but we still have alot to do, plus Jess just started school so she has to concentrate on that. As such, I have been keeping my mind on the condo stuff, bills, moving, etc. Which is good since I need something to keep me busy while she's doing her school work. Work has been kinda slow lately, but with our Christmas season approaching fast, things are bound to pick up. We have been getting some larger orders so if that's a sign of things to come, it's gonna be a good year. My friend is setting up her own small business from her home and I'm gonna get to design her website. She's a friend from years back and we've kept in touch, it's amazing who you end up keeping in touch with over the years. The news is the news, I have nothing to report other than we need to bomb Iraq into oblivion and take all their oil in the name of freedom!!!

08/10/02 - Great news.....Jess and I now officially own a CONDO!!!!!!! We finally closed on it Friday evening and we're all done. It took less than a month for the whole process, which for a FHA loan, according to the real estate man, is never heard of, so thats a good sign for us! We're so excited! Plus, Jess' parents are up from VA for the weekend so we got to show them the place so they know where their daughter will be living. PLUS, Jess' car is fixed and back home, so it's actually 3 pieces of great news! I have no clue whats going on in the news so don't ask. It's about time I had some great news to report!

08/03/02 - Well, I was going to write a nice rant about getting Jessika's car back from the shop OK, but that's not to be. They called earlier and said it was ready, they replaced the battery cables and the car started fine! We were happy it was so easy, but after we got it home, the trouble continued. The car was slow to start and there was a white smoke/haze coming from the tail pipe. Smelling of burnt antifreeze it seems the head gasket will need to be replaced! I was looking at it, the plugs and stuff, and it looked fine, so I started it up. It was hesitant at first but eventually kicked over and idled. Then it made this REALLY loud noise, like a belt squealing or something so I just shut it off. Looks like were gonna be going back to the shop soon.

08/01/02 - Well, it's been a busy week! Monday was crazy, lots of running around and stuff. Our Mortgage was approved for the condo we are in the process of buying so that was great and this morning we reserved a place for our wedding reception! The date will be August 2, 2003......mark your calendar! I think Jess and I are now a little less stressed out about this condo, it seems more and more likely that we will be in it soon.......losing some places a couple months ago kinda made us "gun-shy". Well, we didn't really lose them, but it sure felt like it a couple times. The condo is about 10 minutes from my parents house, which is nice, and my brother just moved back to CT today so we are all closer but still quite independent! Jess' car is in the shop with some problems, they havn't looked at it yet, but I fear it is probably the head gasket.....same thing I had some time ago. Apparently Neons had this problem, luckily I can bring her to work but some days I have to drop her off like 6 hours before she has to be there, but what can ya do.......gotta make sacrifices.

07/20/02 - It's looking alot better that Jess and I have bought a condo! We did the inspection today and it was fine, Mom went to look at the place and she likes it, so it's looking good. We filled out a ton of forms the other day filing for a FHA loan, and thats been submitted. Barring some unforseen problem, were gonna be in this place by next month! In other news, Dad is almost done with his radiation treatments, he has 8 more to go, then we'll see how effective it has been! I just finished a hard week at work, the shipping/receiving manager was on vacation so I had to take over his duties and also do my own! It was a bit crazy since we did have someone we had hired to work shipping, but he basically walked away from the job.....too long to explain here. Needless to say, I'm glad this week is over. Jess and I are going to do some Outlet Shopping tomorrow, should be interesting. That's it for now all.

07/06/02 - Well, my birthday and the 4th have come and gone for another year! Had to work on my birthday (the 2nd) but I did end up getting 2 cakes in the process! The 4th was HOT outside but I didn't want to spend it inside so Jess and I decided to go swimming! She didn't want to go out but we compromised on swimming and had a great time. Now, I can't swim so I use a life vest, which makes me feel like a dork, but when Jess is with me I really don't care all that much. We swam for about 2 1/2 hours and got burned! My face and shoulders got it and her whole back and face are nice and red. When people ask her she says she is auditioning for the part of a lobster in a play :-) I recently discovered the coolest program, it's called Trillian and it's made by Cerulean Studios. It's free and allows you to talk to all your buddies that use AIM, Yahoo IM, MSN, IRC and ICQ all in one program so you don't have to have 5 open, just open this one! It's awesome, they have different skins you can get for it to make it look different. I got it and there is no looking back. Jess and I had to switch real estate companies since we weren't getting any satisfaction out of the company we were with. Our feeling is that just because we weren't going to be buying some monster $350,000 house they didn't want to bother with us. That's fine, down the road when we do want to buy one, they can kiss my ass! It was a nice shot in the arm we really needed since my parents are ready for us to leave, I can't blame them I guess, just puts more pressure on us. I guess thats all the goings on for now. I keep thinking I should redesign this site and my Car Site but I'm lazy and it's too much work. I do it all day at work and I'm going to be making a site for my friend soon. Oh well, just deal with it.

06/19/02 - Well, it's Wednesday night, I'm sitting here, on the computer, and my wonderful fiance Jessika is right by my side.....finally! After almost 3 years, were together at last, never to be apart again damnit! Life is good, the move was interesting, but not a disaster, so it was good. News has been the same lately, Palestinians blowing up Israelis, the US cracking down on Terrorists, stock market is up and down up and down more than Jenna Jamison in a new flick, etc etc etc. My Brother, his wife Andrea and my niece Anna will be moving back to CT this year since Andrea got a job at a nearby hospital. It's pretty cool since they will be closer and stuff but it frustrates me since I feel like he'll be stealing some of my spot light from when I move out on my own for the first time! Well, maybe we can get out before they get here or we'll just have to have a bigger wedding than they did damnit! Oh well, life's just not fair I suppose........my bro complains about "Middle Child Syndrome", whatever that means, well what about Last Child Syndrome!

05/27/02 - Memorial Day has come, time to reflect on all those who have given their lives in defense of this country we love so dearly. HBO had a short special last night on the events of 9/11 in NYC, it was very fascinating. This Thursday, the 30th, I will be flying down to VA to bring Jess back to CT with me for good. Life just doesn't get much better than this :-) I watched racing all day yesterday, first the Indy 500 which was won, again, by Helio Castroneves. There hasn't been a repeat winner in consecutive years since 70-71. Then I watched about 5 minutes of the F1 race in Monaco before growing bored with it. Then, the longest race on the NASCAR schedule, the Coca Cola 600! Jimmie Johnson led most of the race but a late Pit Stop mistake put him in the middle of the field, which left Mark Martin to win. He wouldn't be denied, he drove that car through packs of other cars so close it was mind boggling! Now that's what racing is all about! F1 could learn a thing or 3.

05/11/02 - Well, yesterday was the 13th anniversary of my Grandfathers death, May 10, 1989. I still miss him and always will. On a much happier note, I bought plane tickets to fly down to VA to pick up Jess and we will then drive back! After almost 3 years we will FINALLY be together and not 600 miles apart! I'm so excited that I can hardly express it fully here, but anyone who has been apart from a loved one for any period of time knows what I mean. We're going to have to stay with my parents until we can buy a condo but since Jess is already set with a job up here, that shouldn't be long. Then we can start our life together. My car has been in the shop for the past week and I'm going to be picking it up this morning. Since my parents were away on a cruise this past week, it was a great time to leave it since I could use their cars to get around. The problem was the Low Oil Pressure light comming on, they found that the head gasket needed to be replaced. Now, anyone who knows about cars and stuff knows this is a big job. But, they did what they needed to and even though I'll be watching it like a hawk for the next couple weeks or so, I'm confident it will be fine again! I suppose thats it for now, have a great day!

04/27/02 - Well, after breaking and reinstalling Linux again, I'm finally getting the hang of it. It totally rocks. Jessika will be moving up here for good in about a month and I'm getting excited, finally we will be together after nearly 3 years apart. I'm going to fly down there, we will pack up her essentials into her car and then drive back. It will be an adventure. My car will be going into the shop in another week so they can do some needed work. My low oil pressure light has been on about a month now and even though I have plenty of oil, it comes on, so they will need to fix that along with some other normal stuff, like flushing the radiator. Guess thats it for now, time to go enjoy the day.

04/06/02 - I DID IT! I finally got Linux 7.2 installed and running. I figured out the best way to do it, and it went as follows:

1) Partitioned drive so I have a 2GB part just for Linux
2) Installed Linux 6.2 and setup accounts
3) Booted up and logged in to make sure it worked
4) Rebooted and checked that Windows still worked.....it did
5) Started Linux 7.2 install and selected to Upgrade
6) Updated file system and installed packages
7) Made all important boot disk and rebooted
8) Made sure Windows still worked
9) Rebooted and started Linux
10) Logged in no problem.....all is right with the world

I was so happy went it booted up, I was even able to get online and started to download updates but stopped since it takes time. My connection is so slow, I really can't wait until I get something faster when I move out, like Cable or DSL. As I am sure you have noticed, I have a new banner on my Main Page for CT Ultra Radio. My friend told me about and I love it. I never have listed to Internet radio before but this was cool, and the people are great, especially in the Chat Room. I could go on, but just check it out for yourself.

03/31/02 - Easter Sunday and what a weekend for news! The Queen Mother of England, Queen Elizabeth II's Mother, died yesterday and age 101! She had been battling a chest cold since Christmas and was in frail health, she will be missed by millions around the world. There have been 5 suicide bombings in Israel in the past 5 days, 2 today as of this writing......but then again, violence in Israel and the Palestinian "state" is nothing new so I don't see the need to repeat my opinion on the whole situation. My family is up in NH at my brothers place this weekend for Easter, I was gonna go but decided I needed a weekend to myself to recoup. Jess and I have been getting very stressed out over trying to find a place to live when she moves up here. She more than I since she has a full work schedule to contend with as well as school and the homework that goes along with it. Needless to say, there are not enough hours in the day to get it all done, like right now she is working on her homework online while I'm chatting with her over AIM. I'm also downloading RPM files for Linux 7.2, which with a slow connection, can take a long time. So, I'm downloading them over FTP, listening to Weird Al, chatting with Jess and writing this. Now if I can only get all this setup in Linux, I won't need NT anymore.......in time....HAHAHAHA, DIE MICROSOFT!

03/28/02 - Just a short update, it seems I was backwards about the Linux desktops. GNOME is the more advanced and complicated desktop and KDE is alot more similar to the Windows setup that most MS users are used to. I have since wiped out the Linux install and redid it with the KDE Desktop. I also decided that since I'm using my computer, which is more powerful than the computer I intended to use for Linux, I'm going to get the latest and greatest version, 7.2. We shall see how the newer version is once I get it. The condo search is progressing, it's alot more difficult than people seem to make it appear, at least for me it has been. All good things to those who wait.

03/21/02 - Well, I never succeeded in getting the older computers CD-Rom to work, I even bought a used Sound Blaster 16 card to use as an interface, but I think it was junk. Oh well, get what ya paid for. So, I bit the nail and installed Linux on my computer, risking all my data in the process.......but it worked fine. See, I have a 6GB hard drive and right now it's partitioned into 4 drives of different sizes and all with different uses. I had recently resized one to use part of it for games, I wiped this one out to install Red Hat Linux 6.2. After fighting with the install a while since I was new to the whole thing and was experimenting, I got it installed. Since I installed Linux on a DOS partition, I had to create a Boot Disk so that none of the Master Boot Record is disturbed. This in turn saved the information I was hoping not to lose, I was sooooooo happy. Problem is with the Boot Disk and using a DOS partition, it takes so long to boot up. Anyway, I have been poking at it for a couple days now and it is growing on me, I have a book coming to help me better understand the working of it, but I'm starting to understand little bits at a time. It's how I learned DOS and Windows when I first played with them.....poked, broke, erased and fixed. This will be an ongoing process of course, now I just need to decide what to do with the old system. I may set it up so that when I leave my parents can use it for Internet and E-Mail.....we shall see. I'm also going to try and start using more links in my rants to places I reference, we'll see how long it lasts. Also, Yahoo has decided to stop allowing free customers access to POP forwarding, so I can't check Yahoo e-mail from my Pegasus program anymore.........stupid people......why isn't free free anymore!

03/12/02 - Well, Jessika was just up here for a week and it was awesome as usual. This time, we got to spend alot of time with each other instead of always running around and visiting. We did house/condo shopping and we saw some places that were really nice, we hope to get one soon. She will be moving up here in May/June so this is the last time we'll be apart for along time. My brother finally got a new computer...."Dude, you bought a Dell!"..... and as such was not going to be using the old computer that I gave him that he has been using. When I say old, I don't mean something like a Pentium II, I'm talking a 486 100Mhz computer with 24 megs of Ram and not much else! I took back the workhorse and wiped it all out, in the process deleting the CD-Rom drivers, but I'm fixing that. I did all this so that I can finally try Linux out without fear of losing my information on my primary machine. Of course, I wouldn't me losing anything critical, it's all meaningless in the long run anyway. But enough philosophy, I'm getting excited about installing Linux, I decided to get an older version, 6.2, because I wasn't sure 7.2, the newer version, would run on the old machine. In the process of researching Linux and such, I found it comes with essentially 2 desktops that you can install. GNOME, which I am going to use and seems to be the one more geared toward the average and novice user, and KDE which is a more advanced version. i have seen screenshots of both from different websites and they are both so beautiful, they put Windows to shame! I have seen XP and it's new icons and stuff, and GNOME and KDE, even older versions, are so much more impressive, I can't wait to install it and pick through it. Which I literally can since it's Open Source and I can reprogram it and improve it myself, if I had the knowledge. Also, Geocities has decided to not allow FTP access to customers who use the service for free, like me. This is the stupidest thing I have ever heard of, it may make me start looking for somewhere else to reside on the WWW. That's all folks, have a Happy Easter....blah blah blah.

02/18/02 - I don't have too much to rant about, so this may be short. Then again, I have said that before and I've gone on for awhile. We finally sold my Moms' 1972 Dodge Demon which has been in our family since 72, when they bought it. I was working on it for awhile but never was able to get as much done on it as I would have liked, plus I have the Charger now. The buyer already has a 72 Demon and plans to fix ours' up, so it's in good hands. Jess and I are beginning our search for a place to live when I move her up here in June sometime. We're gonna look at condos' in March when she is up for a visit and go from there. I'm kinda scared but excited at the same time, scared just because I'll be out on my own for the first time, but I won't be alone so that's the exciting part. News is the same old stuff, I'm not even gonna go through it. My cousin Mike and his wife had their first child, Rebecca, on Feb. 11, 2002, she was 7 weeks early and is still in the ICU at the hospital but things look good and she should be going home soon. Guess that's it for now.

01/04/02 - Well, it's 2002 and my life is going rather well. I spent New Years in VA with Jess and it was awesome. We had 4 full days together and we spent all the time we had and still wanted more, this is gonna be alot better once she moves up here. I flew down and back, this time using US Air and not United because United no longer goes to Lynchburg apparently. But for me, this was a blessing as US Air was fantastic, no delays, flights on time, no problems at all! When I arrived at Bradley Airport, the line at the counter wasn't bad and I got through that and security in like 30-45 minutes and that was it! I expected alot more, I didn't even have to take off my shoes, just my coat. They were pulling people aside at random who were carrying bags on the plane to inspect them, but since I had none, they didn't take a second look at me. All in all, it was a great experience, I'm kinda getting to be a seasoned traveler of sorts. While reading a magazine on board the plane, I saw an ad for a combination VCR/DVD. Now, that makes alot more sense buying something like that then to buy a DVD player that can't even record stuff. But, since I need money right now to go house/condo shopping, those things will have to wait. The news is........well, the news......I have no clue whats going on, always some story about the Taliban on the run, officials of al Quida(?) being killed.....blah blah blah. Not that I'm saying it's wrong what we are doing, it is so very right, but it gets old when the same thing is said over and over again. Oh well, guess I'm just a picky old man.