Car in the parking lot of a relatively decent mall. I will have more pics of this car to post, and boy is it worth it!!

Earlier I was pining about the lack of decent Christmas faux-trees at a reasonable price. Luckily I was out and about yesterday evening (as BJ can attest), and at our local Hobby Lobby I found a nice tree at 33% off!

So, here's our tree. Granted, the day-time picture doesn't capture the glory and grandeur of a fully decorated plastic tree, but it will have to suffice for the next, oh 8 hours or so.

In case you're wondering, it's 9 feet tall (!!), so no I didn't put the star exactly on the top because I couldn't reach it (perhaps I'll get some scaffolding next year). We're pretty happy with it and for the price you can't beat it. Of course Hobby Lobby will probably have it for about 75% off in a few weeks, but this is what we call poor planning - something of which we aren't usually guilty (not).

This advanced tip makes it possible to run Firefox from removable media, such as a USB memory stick. This will allow you to run Firefox with your personal settings from any computer, even those that don't have Firefox installed. It has only been tested on Windows XP/2000. The basic instructions are as follows:

1. Copy the Firefox application folder and your profile folder to the removable medium. In this example we will use R:\Firefox for the application folder and R:\FFProfile as the profile folder, assuming the drive letter for the removable media is R:.

2. Create a simple batch file called R:\Firefox.bat with the following line:

start \Firefox\firefox.exe -profile \FFProfile

3. Optionally, disable the disk cache to reduce the amounts of file writes to the removable storage by entering about:config in the address field of Firefox and set browser.cache.disk.enable to false.

The reason why a batch file is needed instead of a simple shortcut is that a shortcut uses absolute paths, and since the actual drive letter for the removable media may change depending on which computer it is plugged into, the relative path used in the batch file is guaranteed to work anywhere.

I'm in love with Google Reader. One web based app. No toting around apps or files on a thumb drive. Access anywhere. Slick interface. Ahhhh!

Now all they need to do is link people's reader lists together via tags a la del.icio.us, and then you've got yourself a killer app.

I have four tickets to the Dec 31 show at Variety Playhouse here in Atlanta. I can't go, so I need to unload the tickets. $39 each. Come & get 'em.

Why is it so hard to find a decent artificial Christmas tree? I want a prelit tree, with cool needles (not the plastic strip kind) and it needs to look at least half-real. I'm not into killing trees for two weeks of pleasure.

I'm sure you've all heard Robert Tilton, the farting preacher, aka Pastor Gas. Well, I just figured I'd grab a few of these movies and make them available. I've found 2 through 5, but I'm missing number 1... help me out if you can find it!

• Farting Preacher 2


• Farting Preacher 3


• Farting Preacher 4


• Farting Preacher 5

I have to say, I think 2 and 4 are pretty good. What is also interesting is that you can see he's making some coin through this, because the quality of his coiffure has increased, as has the quality of his sets and video overlays. Oh, and he's also starting "speaking in tongues" round about video 4...

Yet another Chihuahua riding in the rear deck. What's up with these dogs and their owners?

Yeah I know, it's all so l33t, but I'd been planning a new PC build for some time. I've been using the same rig for about 6 years, and I though I'd graduate to something with a least a bit of chic. My old rig (which went through several reincarnations) was based in a 2½' tall case, which sported room for two power supplies, 6 5¼" drive bays, 2 external 3½" bays and 4 internal 3½" bays. Needless to say it was quite a beast. And it was on casters. :)

At any rate, I did my a trip to Microcenter to pick up some pieces parts, and what you see here is the fruit of an afternoon's labor. Interestingly, the motherboard I picked happens to have quite a few UV-reactive parts built onto the board as well as covering some of the cables. I need to see about getting a black light put into the case to see what that does. ;) And no, I didn't intent to go all colorized, but the case I picked had a window and included some fans that were lit, so I added the tri-color cold cathode tubes for effect (it was only $4, so what the hell, eh?)

Also a first for me is having a RAID system. Two 100GB 7200RPM SATA drives running mirrored at the moment, plus a GFX card based on the nVidia GeForce 6800 chipset, *and* the mobo is a DFI Lanparty nF4, which also sports nVidia chipsets. I'm actually quite impressed with the quality of the Lanparty and nVidia components. I'm used to barely-there manuals with little to offer for software control, but this combination is built for the enthusiast: all sorts of BIOS tweak parameters, decent software bundle, and it looks cool too.

Now off to find a nitrogen chiller unit... just kidding. Maybe.

We're playing tonight up at Padriac's from about 9pm to 1ish. See you there!!

The Pimpotel lobby in the morning. Strangely empty...

You know you're in a quality hotel when it has an "intimacy kit" in the minibar.

MAKE magazine just rawks! As you might've read, I donated my latest copy of MAKE 04 to some local Miamians. So, I emailed MAKE to see if I could get a replacement:

Dear Mr. Little,

Thank you for your message, we are sending you a free replacement copy of Make: Volume #4. Please allow one week for delivery.

Make Subscriber Services

My original message:

Dear Make,

I am absolutely enamored with your magazine. I've been a
subscriber since the first day Make's conception was announced to the public. I'm writing to inform you that I recently suffered a devstating loss after receiving Make 04. I had to make a trip down to Miami, and during my trip
my backpack was stolen from the trunk of my car. Among the casualties were a laptop, iPod (hacked, natch), GPS, charging units, Bluetooth receivers and *gasp* my fresh, unread copy of Make 04. I sorely miss it, and haven't been
able to replace it. Could you possibly help a hacker out?

Make it or Break it,
C.A. Little
Atlanta, GA

Actually I really can't say that.  I've been using my Treo 650 for email and messaging for some time now.  But, truthfully my employers bestowed upon me a Crackberry two days ago.  Ihave to say I kinda like it. 

I'm not entirely enamored with the operating system and UI: the click wheel is annoying when you're used to tapping.  It might be improved if you could hit 'e' for email and 'c' for compose instead of scrolling through a dozen or so icons.

And then there's the foldering.  I maintain my email in folders - doing so on Crack (berry) isn't the easiest thing to do, and setting up email filters is practically nonexistant.  Perhaps after some fiddlin' about with it I'll come up with something, but for now I'm on Crack. 

PS I wrote this on Crack.

You may have noticed my previous post, Writing Letters to Corporate Goobs, Part 1 in which I wrote a letter to a corporate goob at Ferrara Pan candy company. Well, here's the response:

Dear Mrs. Bailey,
We have asked several people at our company if Gummy Bears can cause Diarrhea and the answer to your question is no. There is no ingredient in our Gummy Bears that would cause Diarrhea or symptoms. One reason could be that you are eating too many and it is upsetting your stomach. The green gummies are lime flavored and the yellow are lemon. I would think that the pizza and the Popcorn and the Gummies together may cause gas. I hope this helps. Please let us
know if you have any other questions.

Sincerely,

Ferrara Pan Candy Co.

This is just priceless. More to come!

This is the first in my new series of Writing Letters to Corporate Goobs, where I'll be writing letters to Corporate Goobs. Basically, you can write letters to corporate goobs, and they'll occasionally write back, and it's occasionally funny!

My first letter is to the Ferrara Pan Candy Company, manufacturer of Black Forest Gummy Bears and other candies.

Here's the letter

Dear Sir or Madam,
I just wanted to let you know that I have enjoyed eating Black ForestGummy Bears in the 5lb. bag. My husband and I purchase these from the local BJ's wholesale club and we are in love with these Gummies! My husband is a bit strange about it though, he will not eat the yellow and green gummies. Is there something different in the flavorings of these? I cannot tell a difference and I would love to know what the difference is between the yellow and green gummies and the rest of the bag.

Incidentally, I think you should know that, while we eat these gummies all the time, there are occasionally issues we encounter and I'm wondering if it's the gummies that are causing them. Let's just put this delicately and say that there are "digestion" issues that my husband has sometimes, and I usually notice these problems after we watch movies at home. We always do movies on Friday night and have pizza, popcorn and a bag of gummies. I am usually fine, but have occasional gas. My husband on the other hand tends to get diarrhoea (am I spelling that right?). Is this something to do with eating too many gummies, or is my husband just sensitive? I'd hate to have to tell him "no" on gummies! Please help!

Thank you,
Mrs. Bailey

Red shag carpet in the lobby of our hotel:

The Catalina Hotel - Redefining Europimp Style

It's rather disconcerting to enter your hotel room aftermidnight, and the red light is on. Consider: the remainder of the room is all white. Oh, the books on the mantel rail? "America" and "Tashante's American Pinups". Truly swank, in the greasiest sense of the word. I forgot to mention there is actually a playa pimp on the cover of "America". Wow.

For those of you who watch, Trading Spouses is a show where two families exchange a parental unit for a week, get filmed, and get $50,000. During that week, the exchanged units have to learn about their host families - enough to figure out how to disburse the $50,000 that each familiy will win. Yep, the twist is that the families expect to get the money in a lump sum, but in reality the funds are allocated by the exchanged unit.

I've seen a few of the shows - enough to know that the producers will inevitably pair up two entirely different households in order to create, uh, tension. For example - a high-powered NYC attorney switches places with a farmer from Georgia.

So, can you imagine the hijinks when the exchanged units return to their respective homes to reveal to their families the $50,000 twist. So, imagine the hilarity when a "bible-thumper" switches places with what I assume is a household that practices Wicca. Yep, it could be pretty damn funny. And it is. Here is the video of Thumper's return to her home and family. Enjoy.

New photo album added. Strange stuff.

The view never changes if you're not leading the pack. Look closely into the rear window of that car.

My new 60gb iPod video. No U2, try ABB instead.

Last night was a rockin' good time at Vito Goldergs, although it would appear that we changed our band name. Not so - Hard Livin' we remain!

Hard Livin Band playing tonight starting at 8pm (ish, as usual)! We'll be doing the Easy Livin' duo for this evening's performance. Map if you need it! See you there...

Last night we stopped by Best Buy after work here in Miami. Not one mile from the office. We spent less than 30 minutes in the store. Came back out, and somebody had screwdrivered the trunk and stole my backpack. Now the list of what was in it... laptop, iPod, two cell phones, batteries, power cables & adapters, medicine, a travel voucher for $400, flash drive, my latest copy of MAKE magazine and... 3 cards I'd received from Stephanie over the years. Ugh.

Morning sunrise in miami as seen from my hotel room.

Well, for one reason or another, we won't be playing with the full band for a while. The Tuesday Night gigs are Marlow's are done for a while, and we did a last hurrah at Padriac's on Friday.

After that, it's back to the Easy Livin' duo of Derrick and myself for the time being, until we book some full-band gigs. We need a band manager who's not afraid to do things the hard way - book gigs, collect and distribute money, strongarm bar managers, and do it all for next to nothing - or just nothing at all.

:)

Huh. Herring, okay, it's a fish. But Herring Party Snacks? Woo hoo! Break out the matzoh balls and gefilte fish, it's a par-tay!

I've posted some photos from our trip to Athens! Head on over to the photo gallery if'n you wanna check 'em out.

These are awesome! Good ideas for next year...

Hey, we're back from Greece!