Full line of defense and random to-do list

It’s Saturday morning and I’m happy to say that my laptop is all fully loaded and running with a full line of defense. Nothing makes me happy than a well-protected computer, which means that I have my Firefox surrounded with noscripts, nophishing, pop-up blocker, cookie blocker extensions that ensures that everything is blocked while I’m surfing the net. Aside from that, I also have Kasperky anti-virus, Adaware, Spybot and Spybot resident to protect the ‘desktop’ part of my computer. Geeky talk aside LOL, let’s get into something more meaningful.

For the first time in several months, I started doing my budget spreadsheet once again so I can keep track of all my expenses. I felt that my spending habits has gone out of control last month which left me wondering what happened with all my money. I’m a smart spender and pretty good at how I deal with my finance but being in control in seeing where each dollar goes is another. At the same time, I also scheduled my bills online to be paid automatically by next week so I don’t need to stress about that for the meantime. As for today, I’m going to get gas first since my tank is almost empty (it’s no surprise since I spend 2 hours driving to work everyday-back and forth) even with my Honda. Anyways, I’m going to get groceries then come home and unload then pick up my golf club (driver only) then head out and pick up gloves and tees.

On another note, my friend called me late last night asking me if I wanted to go and watch Transformers next week Friday. I’m thinking to myself, the movie comes out Tuesday and I want to watch that movie on July 4th (Wednesday) since I don’t have to work that day! I mean, I hate paying $9.50 just to watch a movie but if it’s something that I really like, I’ll do it. Speaking of movies, it reminded me of this young adult (within his late teens) reading a thick book in the hallway. As I kinda looked at the cover of the book (he has 2 and 1 is placed on the table), it was Harry Potter. Who the heck would waste their valuable time reading something so lame and fictitious? Even the movie…come on, that movie sucks. Well if people are happy with it, then I guess be it.

Let’s see, tonight if my friend calls me, I’ll probably be in the golf club playing um, golf LOL. If not then I’ll probably just be at home watching ‘Pursut of Happiness’ with Will Smith. I’ve been longing to watch that movie in a long time and it seems like the storyline is interesting and something that would adhere to my taste. I like those movies that are inspirational in nature but with new twist, and not the same old cheesy ending. We will see, but I have to keep going as this day is starting to unfold…and it will be late by the time I get off this laptop LOL.

Finally it’s Friday…once again!

I’ve been longing for this day to come and yes it’s Friday again lol. I have finally recovered my laptop and installed all the applications that I needed (bare minimum, with just the essentials such as Photoshop, Visual Studio 2005, Office suite, etc.). I also backed up my hard drive to my secondary partition just in case a stupid virus comes along or something irrecoverable comes along it’s way. So everything is set now as far as my PC needs, and yes, I’m back in the game just in time for the weekends. And before you even start on reading further, I need to forewarn you that I took an energy pill this morning and my mind right now is going about 100 mph LOL. I’m going to try to make it short but that seems to be an impossible thing right now.

Speaking of weekends, I’m about to pick up my first golf driver tomorrow where I found on line at Craigslist locally. Her price of $40 for a ‘Callaway Biggest Bertha Titanium Head, 11 degree, men’s shaft’ – (firm price) seems to be cheap especially for a beginner such as myself, but then again…what the heck do I know about golf clubs to begin with? LOL Talk to me about what’s the best processor out there for your money OR how do you partition a hard drive, then I can give you multiple suggestions…but not on this crap. haha. My friend Rich is ’suppose’ to get one for himself (notice the single quote-supposedly) but then he might just flake on me, but oh well. I still want to do it.

Argh there’s so much things on my mind that I wish that my mind would just write my blog for me instantaneously as soon as it thinks of something wonderful to say! Whenever I jump on this thing and starts writing, I can’t think much but just BS. I was heading to the restroom earlier and so many things starts coming into my mind on what I can write here for my blog. I’ve been gone to the restroom for a good amount this morning since I’ve been drinking a lot of water, I mean a lot!

You’re probably wondering what my plans are for this weekend since I named the title of this blog as it is, I still have no clue as a matter of fact LOL. The thing that’s for sure right now is I’m going to watch the movie ‘Transformers’ on the day that it comes out haha. I’ve been waiting for that movie to come out since forever. While I was talking to my mom last weekend, she mentioned that the Transformers movie is something that I needed to watch. She was like, “do you remember when I used to buy you those Transformers (toys)?”. In my mind, I can only remember the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures and buckets of Lego that she bought me LOL…I don’t recall any Transformers?? Oh well. This weekend, I’ll probably go and get groceries, then shop at Old Navy since I heard on the radio that they’re having a 50% summer sale LOL. What a good way to waste money isn’t it? And oh yea, I also have to mow the front lawn since it’s starting to look bad . That’s all for now.

Vista trouble

I came home around 11 p.m. last night and like I always do, I would boot my laptop up and to my surprise, Microsoft Vista wouldn’t let me log in unless I type in a correct serial code. Since I installed my operating system last month, I keep getting that pop up notice to activate Vista but I just kept cancelling it out. It was fine for a while since I only hibernate my laptop when I’m not using it such as when I go to work. This time it’s different because I fully shut down my laptop and upon logging in within my account, it locks up the loading process and only limits you to your browser. The reason for this is to let you activate and purchase a copy of Vista through the Microsoft website.

Well I do have the genuine software that came with my laptop but it also included an “anytime upgrade”, which I mistakenly installed. I have another disc for recovery but I insisted on using that disc since I know from experience that it will also install extra applications that I don’t need. I found out yesterday that buying a laptop leaves you with no option but to use their recovery disc if you want to install a fresh operating system including all the junk that comes when you first purchased the laptop.

Since the Vista locked me up last night (with no way to backup the files), I was forced to format my hard drive and re-install the operating system provided by Toshiba. When I get home, I’ll have to re-install all the applications, load the drivers, etc. that I use and create and backup for that installation into my secondary partition on the same hard drive. After that, life should be peaceful once again since Vista won’t be bugging me anymore with activation requirements. Arghh I hate Vista since it is so strict but then I can’t complain for it’s awesome interface.

Solution: Embed Imeem music player on Myspace

I guess this wouldn’t be considered a random thought but rather something technological. I was messing with Myspace tonight and thought of using an external player and have found Imeem to be a nice solution since it has plenty of songs. The only problem was embedding the player on the page, which shows up as a white space. A lot of people speculate that Myspace itself banned the use of external player or rather disabled the <embed> and <object> tags from being used to force users to use the proprietary music player that it has. I can’t blame them from doing that and it is probably meant to enforce either security or just make Myspace a universal website, containing all media that anybody would ever need.

As persistent as I am, I know that there has to be loop-hole somewhere since I’ve seen a website who successfully embedded Imeem playlist into their profile. I thought to myself, if they can do it then why can’t it? It only took 1 profile to convince me that something impossible such as this one can be made possible simply by doing a little code investigation. For curiosity’s sake, I did a few research and even looked at the source code. Their solution is to embed the player through a <div> tag but that’s not the correct solution coming from the code-behind since the HTML still has to be interpreted. To make a long story short LOL, here’s the code along with my very own playlist just to prove my point. I made it work but I’m not planning on using it since its background is white (mine is black) and it simply just doesn’t match my Myspace background . I just posted this as a reference for myself and/or others in the future just in case they want to embed Imeem on their page.

Since Myspace banned Imeem’s URL, I have to bypass this by passing in a URL that uses a re-direction. I used snipr.com’s re-direction service in this case but there’s plenty of alternatives out there if you look around. This is a way around that filter since the URL created through snipr points to the Imeem’s flash playlist player. I then just have to play around with the setting for embedding flash application as such as below’s.

You can download the text file below, then copy and replace the URL to reflect your own playlist player. I have to place the code in the notepad since WordPress doesn’t interpret and post the code properly on posts.
Imeem to Myspace Embed

06.25.07 Soon to-be new recreation

I just finished eating my 4th meal of the day with one last one coming up before I go to bed. I was browsing the Internet and shoving food in my mouth at the same time when I suddenly just bit the fork really hard. The ‘crack’ was so loud, I thought I chipped my front upper tooth completely and permanently! I checked it out and fortunately, my teeth is still complete LOL with itty bitty little chip.

I was at work today and out of nowhere, the game of golf was brought up while me and my friend Rich were having our normal in-between work conversation. I think it was when I asked him if there is any ‘miniature’ golf here in Sacramento LOL!! He mentioned that there are quite a few, and a few seconds later…I thought to myself, why not just play the real thing?!  I remember when I was 17 years old playing my first game of golf with my cousins in a golf club early in the morning. Although I didn’t know much about swinging the club, I had fun and as I reflected back, it might be a good way to relieve stress from the week. So then I asked Rich again if he would like to join me sometime on a weekend. He confirms that it’s one of his leisure goals and would love to do it with me. As soon as he said that. It was ON.

He grabbed his phone and called his friend who has a golf club and who has experience in it. I at the same time just jumped on craigslist and started looking for used golf clubs on sale LOL…it was hilarious. He then jumped on craigslist on his PC, while I did another search on golf clubs here in Sacramento. Ultimately, we both have to wait until the weekends since we’re not getting paid until Friday (once a month paycheck sucks). I checked out a few golf clubs nearby and one of them requires you to wear collared shirt, khaki pants and no jeans! LMAO…I told my friend that we need to dress up like Tiger Woods if we wanted to play, which we both don’t mind. It’s just a pathetic requirement if you ask me LOL.

On another note, I guess I’ll try goal just for recreation. I’ll probably buy a used driver just to hit the ball as far as possible. I’ll be walking in a golf course with a driver over my shoulder while the rest are sporting their golf bags. I’m not aiming to be the next Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson but I just want to practice my aim when I swing the club, and the drive the ball as far as I can. Golf has been known to be a game for rich folks–but hey, I’m going to teach these rich cats how it’s done .

06.24.07 Another weekend ’bout to end

I just got home from my mom’s house where I tried to hook up my sister’s laptop to the router. Unfortunately, they only have dial-up connection so I decided to just secure their network by adding a security key encryption. I encouraged my mom to instead sign up for a cheap DSL ($14.95) for a decent speed up to 765mbits or somewhere around there. As usual, my mom starts feeding me with food, etc. LOL and even made a strawberry smoothie which was delicious. While I was setting up their wireless network, she also gave me a bag that contains stapler, notepads, pens, sticky notes, letter opener which I thought was cute! So I came home with a bunch of goodies from her and I’ve been home ever since. My issue now is, where am I going to pile them for storage?

I was at the gym earlier today around 3:00 p.m. and worked on my shoulders. I did shoulder presses in the beginning using 90 pounds but I would like to get back to 100’s like I used to by the end of summer. I lowered the weights however when I performed side and front laterals raises just to ensure that I can get higher reps on those (8-12 ideally). I used 35’s and typically, I would be using 45’s to as much as 50’s since these exercises are meant for isolation movements. My goal for my shoulders is to develop my rear delts, which I’ve been working on using barbell pullovers and rear delts movements using cables. I noticed though that I need some improvement on my chest which has been overpowered by my shoulders so it doesn’t look as bad as it appears. I might have to change my chest routine a little bit by doing some dumbbell flyes for warm up just to get it fatigued so when it’s time to do the presses, I’ll be using my shoulders less during the movement.

Anyways, I’m just here watching some videos on ASP.NET as usual and trying to use my time effectively during the weekends to learn new tools and keep up to date with web development technology. I also have changed the layout of this blog to look more fresh since the last one was kind of dull. I also customized the sidebar to pull RSS feed from my favorite sites as well as del.icio.us, which I just started using yesterday to bookmark informative websites.
Well it’s back to work again tomorrow as usual LOL and this sucks. It seems like work schedule just occupies all my time nowadays with not enough time to travel and get out of town or whatever. Blah. In 3 weeks, I’ll get a chance in Santa Cruz Boardwalk but New York is really where I want to go visit. We’ll see.