ttrentham

The Infamous Dog Story

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Aug 212008
 

So this is what it takes to bring me out of my blogging doldrums?

For those that aren’t familiar, Michael Gonzales had a choking poodle and decided to drive 100 mph to get the poodle help. He could’ve picked a closer vet? He could’ve learned the poodle Heimlich? In the video, he’s clearly panicking and emotional. He shouldn’t have been speeding. He shouldn’t even have been driving. I saw the interview with him after the fact. He’s annoying and self-righteous. I’m a dog owner. I’m sorry for his loss, but let’s get some fscking perspective here, please.

Newsflash, there are cops who don’t have the best people skills. Unfortunately, the job attracts a few like that. It also turns some people into that. The chief admitted it wasn’t handled well. The guy’s been reprimanded. Let it go. Please.

I’m tired of the news media rehashing it. I’m tired of hearing about it. Aren’t there more important things to worry about? Like, oh, I don’t know a war? The economy? Health care and education in the shitter? A worthless governor? I feel bad even giving it more attention. And now the dipshit cop is getting death threats? Death threats? That sort of thing makes me want to feed the animal activists to a pack of cranky pit bulls.

 Posted by on August 21, 2008 at 11:06 pm

Something about a picture and words

 Entertainment  1 Response »
Aug 212008
 

You can skip listening to the new Metallica stuff. This picture pretty much says how it sounds. They can claim to have taken Rick Rubin’s advice and tried to get back to the mindset they had in the mid-eighties, but I don’t think shopping at Armani in flip flops is going to do it.

First iPhone Post

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Aug 032008
 

The first official post from the phone. We’ll see how this goes. Expect typos. The kids start summer camp tomorrow. I’ve got a gig tomorrow night at Hole in the Wall. I’m loving having a decent sized iPod to use in the car. (My first, how sad is that? Checked out We Jam Econo, the Minutemen documentary, last night. Good stuff.

iPhoning it in

 Blog, Family, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Jul 252008
 

I suppose having a template that only shows recent posts on the home page is one way of making sure you blog on a semi-regular basis. I’ve found that Twitter, Flickr and Delicious are commanding more of my attention these days than the blog. Well, and work and family…

The summer rolls on. It’s been a hot one so far without much relief from 90 and 100 degree heat. The electric bill is reflecting that. We hosted a last minute July 4th party at our place. Parties are always a good way to force you to clean up the joint.

We checked out WALL-E and Iron Man in the theater so far this summer. We rented/cabled/on-demanded Batman Begins, Apocalypto, Enchanted,  Hellboy and Mr. & Mrs. Smith. We went to the IMAX theater at Bob Bullock on Saturday. Austin Books & Comics and the museum were having bat-related activites, including the “bat lady” who had several live bats to show the kids. The lines for the movie were long.

I scored an iPhone a week ago. I had to wait 3 hours in line to get it. I’m liking it so far. The Bat Lady shot that I linked is actually my first uploaded iPhone shot. I’ve made a few iPhone related tweaks to this blog including setting the default viewport and adding a home screen image based on the favicon. I downloaded and installed the WordPress app for iPhone, but haven’t tried it out yet.

Salmonella Outbreak: Might as well tell me I can't eat

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Jul 212008
 

We’ve all, no doubt, heard about the salmonella outbreak by now. Reports first blamed tomatoes, then jalapenos and cilantro. The tomato ban was lifted last week. A new report today says that salmonella has been found in a Mexican jalapeno at a plant in Texas. Here’s the FDA page on the outbreak.

This is killing me. Figure it out already. That latest report is so contradictory and vague, I don’t know what to think. If I can’t have tomatoes, jalapenos or cilantro, you might as well tell me that I’m not allowed to have food.

 Posted by on July 21, 2008 at 3:58 pm

iPhone Lines – One Week Later

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Jul 192008
 

This will probably only interest a small minority, but that’s what blogging’s all about right?

I’ve been planning on getting the 3G iPhone for pretty much the past year, but I wasn’t enthusiastic enough to wait in line last Friday to get one. Last year, when the first generation was released, a co-worker waited a little less than a week to go get one at the Apple store at The Domain and walked right in and out with one. I was hoping that I’d be able to do the same.

No such luck.

I’ve been watching the iPhone availability page over the past week and both Barton Creek and The Domain have shown no stock. I finally decided to call The Domain store this morning at 10am. Turns out, they are, in fact, getting phones on most days, it’s just that people are lining up as soon as they’re open and they’re selling out of each day’s stock by the end of the day. So, if you really want one anytime soon, it appears you’re going to have to do pretty much the same thing that you had to do on the first day.

A few more tips:

  • Be prepared to wait. I was there for 3 hours today. One of the employees estimated a 1 hour 45 minute wait when I arrived. Yeah. They did seem to be good about making sure that there were enough phones for those in line.
  • The holdup appears to be people switching from another carrier. One man was being helped for a full hour and three others were there for a half an hour. I’m an existing AT&T customer. It took them 10 minutes to check me out.
  • Over the three hours I was there, there were between 2 and 5 Apple employees actively setting people up with phones. It really should be 5 all the time. I realize they need breaks, but Apple needs to staff up.
  • They could probably streamline some of the process. The employee has to ask you which model you want and then shuffle back to the back room to get the phone and come back. They’re using up a few minutes with each customer to do this. It’s probably to avoid theft, but this adds up.
  • My guess is that you might have a faster experience at an AT&T store but I hear that their stock is much lower. That’s all purely anecdotal, so please correct me in the comments if you’ve had a different experience.

How do I like the phone so far? It’s pretty fscking amazing. I giggled like a little girl the first time I controlled my iTunes library on my PC from the phone. I sense an Airport Express purchase in the near future. The App Store is like crack. I downloaded several apps, including Shazam, which can identify a song you’re listening to on the radio and then link you to purchase it in iTunes. Unbelieveable.

 Posted by on July 19, 2008 at 9:46 am

30 Days and Badass Cinema

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Jun 292008
 

BadassMorgan Spurlock’s show on FX, 30 Days, started its new season at the beginning of June. I’ve been recording them on my DVR and finally watched the first two during a lazy Father’s Day on the couch. The first episode features Spurlock returning to West Virginia, his home state, to spend 30 days as a coal miner. If you’re not familiar with the show, the idea is that someone with a particular point of view spends 30 days living a an opposing point of view to see how the other side lives. Spurlock typically subjects himself to the treatment at least one or two episodes each season and uses others to fill out the rest of the shows. Former NFL Cornerback, Ray Crockett, is featured in last week’s episode.

During the episode, there are a couple of shots of Spurlock clearly sporting an Alamo Drafthouse Badass Cinema t-shirt. Hooray for plugging everyone’s favorite Austin theater chain. You can pick up your very own Badass Cinema shirt at the Alamo Drafthouse store, but the version with Pam Grier that Spurlock wears in the show in apparently out-of-print. I tried finding a photo of it on Alamo’s Flickr page, but didn’t have any luck. As always though, somebody on Flickr has my back.

Photo via Gudrun on Flickr

 Posted by on June 29, 2008 at 11:11 pm

San Antonio Redux

 Travel  No Responses »
Jun 042008
 

The band played San Antonio this past Saturday night, so I took the whole family with me for a short vacation. We drove down Saturday morning and had lunch at Mad Hatter’s. The kids got the Kids Tea and The Wife and I got the High Tea, just as we did on our first visit.

After lunch, we headed over to the Witte Museum in Brackenridge Park near the San Antonio Zoo. The Witte is a small natural history and science museum. They have some dinosaur exhibits, a mummy exhibit, some exhibits on Texas wildlife, the HEB Science Treehouse, and some pioneer cabins. The HEB Science Treehouse is very hands-on, much like a children’s museum. We spent roughly two hours there checking everything out. I recommend stopping there if you’ve got school-aged kids. There’s a Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit starting there later this month.

The next stop was the hotel, Hyatt Place, a budget line in the Hyatt hotel chain. It’s a 3-star hotel according to Hotwire, so the accommodations are fairly nice. They’re going for a boutique hotel look. They’ve got nice new 42-inch HD TVs in each room. In general, we were happy with the place, although the pool was closed for construction and there was a nasty wet spot one corner of the room. The gig was at Jiggers, a nearby dive bar. I passed the time before we went on watching MMAs prime time debut on CBS. An old college roommate who recently relocated to SA came to check out the show.

The next morning, we got up and checked out Taco Taco, a taco place that’s gotten kudos from Bon Appetit, Texas Monthly, Food Network and Details. It’s almost literally across the street from Olmo’s Pharmacy, a place we checked out on another trip to San Antonio back in 2004. The breakfast tacos were pretty damn good. The place was packed. We had to wait about 10 minutes to get a table. I had two chilaquiles and one chorizo and egg taco. I’d recommend both. The tortillas were very fresh, something that you find in a lot of places in Austin, but where San Antonio is unmatched.

On the way back to Austin from San Antonio, we stopped at the Snake Farm in New Braunfels. The Boy has decided that he wants to be a herpetologist, so he was in snake heaven. They’ve got quite a large collection of snakes and reptiles and have a small sized petting zoo and other exotic animals out back. The place was featured in an episode of Dirty Jobs this year.

Flickr Set

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