The Dark Knight Curse?

Hey there friends. It occurred to me this morning, while listening to the Morgan Freeman update (good thing he's doing well. Great actor, by the way), that The Dark Knight movie might be cursed. Think about it for a second... First, it's the untimely death of Heath Ledger, then it's the arrest and emotional distress of Christian Bale, and now... it's the serious car accident of Morgan Freeman. It's weird, no? And I'm not sure if you've heard this saying, but things usually happen in threes. Just kinda odd, if you ask me. Later.

VistaPrint Magnetic Car Signs

Hey there friends. Starting a new business or have an existing business but you don't have that exposure that you need? Or maybe you have a stable business but you can never have too much exposure so you want to get the word out more. Well, check it out friends, over at Vistaprint.com, you can find all sorts of materials that can be used for your home office or work office, but the item that I found to be quite interesting is the magnetic car signs.

"But why are they so great?", you ask. I'm sure that many of us have seen vehicles on the road promoting their services. They either have the logo of the company or a name and phone number painted on the vehicle, or they have that sticker that you place on the rear window. Don't get me wrong, it's good advertisement, but they cannot be easily removed. With the car magnet, you can adhere it to your vehicle during work hours and simply remove it when it's not the best time. You can upload your own image or create your own design using one of the many templates that are readily available on the site. The magnets are pretty affordable as it is, but because you are all great frineds of mine, I'll hook you up with a 25% discount. Use the promo code CarDoor25 during check out and you're set. Go to Vistaprint.com today and get yourself a styling car door magnet.

Shipping Charges Suck!

Hey there friends. Our little one has decided that she's not so little so she needs a "big girl bed" instead of her toddler bed. Since she tosses and turns while sleeping, we figured that it wouldn't be a bad idea to get it for her, so we spent some time this weekend looking for a bed for her. My wife is the home decorations manager (god knows I have no sense of fashion or decor. lol) so she was looking for something that would already match what the girls have in the room. Well, the kids used to share a room so we got bunk beds back in the day. Our son has one and our middle child has the other, we figured we can give our little one the other bunk bed since it'll already match the one the girls' room. This meant that instead of getting our little one a bed, we'll be getting one for our son. So as we're browsing, online of course, we come across a few that we like and will match his room decor. The problem? $100 for home delivery!!!! I was like, WHAT!?!?! I'd rather go and drag it home... Sears.com states that it's not available for "$1.99 shipping" since it's an "oversized" item and it weighs over 150 lbs. Target.com just flat out denied me the option to pick it up. We were forced to pay the $90 or so for ground shipping... We didn't get the bed, since we're mulling it over. If I had a truck, I'd be over at Sears and be like, "Load it up, fellas", and be on my way home, WITH NO SHIPPING CHARGES! Oh man... I need a truck.

July Blogs of the Month

Hey there friends. We have 3 new blogs in the line up this month. Two blogs are not up because I'm having some difficulty saving their image and have requested it from the blog owners. Once I get those, they'll be up right away. Feel free to check out my 5 top droppers of the month under "Blogs of the Month". For those of you that don't know, my top 5 droppers will get a month long link and image on my site. Last time I gave away 100 credits to the winners, but to be honest, 100 is really not much so I think I'm going to settle at 200 this month. Depending on how many credits I have next time around, that number may increase. Thanks for all of you that drop by and check out my blog. Maybe next time, we'll see your site on my page. Later!

EaRtHqUaKe!!!

Hey there friends. Some where around 11:45 am, us in Southern California had ourselves an Earthquake. From what I hear from the news, it was a 5.8 magnitude quake. We haven't had one in awhile and I've been telling my wife that we're due for one and I guess today was it. We work in the second floor of the company building so you could really feel the building shake. I was just about to enter my office when it started so I stood there in the doorway and I see my babe running towards me. I grab her and we stay there holding each other and shortly after one of our coworkers runs towards us and we stood there, holding each other. Later on, my wife tells me that the coworker was laughing at herself because she just saw us holding each other so she joined in to feel safe. lol

Anywho, we started to evacuate the building, but I stayed behind, since another coworker was still in the bathroom. I since my boss was gone, I made sure that everyone got out safely. Once she stepped out, she noticed that everyone was gone and she was like, "What happened?" I told her that there was an earthquake and then joked if she got stuck? That's probably why you didn't feel it. Leave it up to me to joke around during the time of a natural disaster. She laughed and then we walked outside.

Eveyone was on their phone attempting to call family members, including my wife. All phone lines were dead. Even the cell phones. Scary thought. No way for us to reach our loved ones to assure that they're OK. My wife is trembling. She's scared shitless of earthquakes and well, disasters in general. She blames me for it. lol All I watch is the History channel and they have shows on there that are all apocolytic or showing how disasters happened. I love that stuff. So I run upstairs, to see if the phones there work. I get a dial tone, but can't dial out. Damn... so back outside I go and before long, it's lunch time.

We drive over to my Mother in Law's and out kids are fine. The girls are visibly shaken up. Our middle child won't let go of my wife when we arrive. We eat our lunch and watch the news, all the while, we make some calls to assure every one is cool. Turns out the epicenter was in Chino Hills and it was felt as far south as San Diego and far east as Las Vegas. There is a "5% chance of a stronger earthquake winthin the next 5 days."

They let us go early from work so that they can inspect the buildings, to make sure that they're safe. We grabbed the kids and headed home. No damage and nothing on the floor. We were worried that our Tarantula, Vixin, may be on the loose. Since it was a strong jolt, we thought that it may have been strong enough to knock over her habitat. Good thing it didn't cause I don't want to think what may have happened between our cat and spider.

We live in California, I'm used to earthquakes, so I'm not too rattled by it. We let our kids know what to do in case of another one, since we've been feeling aftershocks most of the afternoon. We're pretty confident that they know what to do next time.

Hopefully, this doesn't mean that the "big one" is coming... Until then, later.

Computer Knowledge is a Must

Hey there friends. In this day and age, everything is done electronically. Payments, banking, games, work, stock trading... you name it, and there is a website out there to get it done. Because of this, we rely heavily on computers that not only work, but work efficiently. But what if it doesn't work? What if the computer decides to act funny and you can't get anything done? Who do you call? Not ghostbusters, that's for sure, but if you're at work, it's most likely the IT (Information Technology) people. In today's business world, those guys are the people that make the world run. So you can only imagine the amount of money those guys make a year. That's why I'm thinking of getting myself certified. This is an absolute win win situation. Because I am in my initial phase of being my own boss in computer repair, it would be great to have a certificate to show my customers that I know what I am doing and after browsing around, I have decided that a Cisco certification is what I need.

Not only do they offer hundreds of classes, but they also offer web based training, virtual classrooms, and remote labs and simulation, on top of the traditional classrooms. This is perfect for those of us with hectic schedules or for those of us who just prefer to do online training. VPN, IP communications, Networking, or computer repair are just a few of the Cisco training courses that are provided.

I'm looking forward to this. It would be great to be a certified computer technician. This is exactly what I need to jump start my busniess. Good thing I haven't printed cards yet. Once I get this done, I can add a line on there that says "Certified by Cisco".