Yes my website has undergone another drastic change.  It's only been about a month since I discovered website colors.  But I've gone back to the plain old black and white.  It's just better.  I like simple things.  Sorry to all you people who wanted some variation on my site.  You'll have to go somewhere else. 

Another part of the big change is my gradual move away from divs and back into tables.  Divs seem to be unnecessarily complicated and they are in no way cross-browser compatible.  So most of my time was spent on making sure my formatting looked the same in IE as it looked in Firefox (I didn't even think about Safari or whatever those Mac-heads use.  Sorry, but I'm completely out of that loop).  And the whole reason I was using divs was because it's the "cool" thing to do, according to the HTML/CSS community.  Well screw them.  I'm back into tables. 

And the most significant change is the advent of using WordPress as a content management system (CMS).  I thought about it for a while and finally decided to go for it.  I know that WordPress is capable.  I was just kind of unsure of how it would work and how much of a change it would be.  But I think it'll work just fine.  It basically consists of using "Pages" which "live outside of the normal blog chronology".  So that's my task for the near future. #technology

Holy stupid annoying Windows popup notification balloons!  You know those little things that popup in your system tray (lower right hand corner of your screen) that say things like "A network cable is unplugged" or "Wireless Network Connection is not connected.  Wireless network unavailable."  One solution is to get the TweakUI PowerToy and uncheck "Enable balloon tips" under "Taskbar and Start Menu".  Yes Microsoft actually made something that could do some damage control on its own stuff.  But an even better solution is to go to "Network Connections" (in Windows Explorer or other similar means) and right click on the connection and select "Disable".  This way, your computer won't try to find that connection unless you tell it to.  This discovery made my day, my week, and perhaps my life. #technology

I love seeing those people (usually men) with big huge guts.  They stand around with this look on their face that says, "Yeah I have a huge gut.  I worked hard to get it and I work even harder to keep it.  Only the finest scrapple and spam for me.  None of those pansy light beers for me.  Only the darkest, the kind you can chew."  Hey it's better than if they tried to suck it in. #psychology

I live in the "New York Metropolitan area".  Actually, I live about 45 miles from NYC.  That sounds close.  It's not really.  But what sports teams are on my local TV stations?  The Mets, Yankees, Jets, Giants, etc.  I think it's weird that "the people who control what's on TV" only show the local teams.  What if I don't like the Giants (which I don't)?  Why should I pay more money for NFL Sunday Gameday just to watch the game I want?  (Note:  I think on-demand stuff will soon take over all media and we'll only see/hear what we choose.  Or maybe that's just my fantasy.)  And the other weird thing is that a lot of people in these metropolitan areas like the local team.  It's like our choices in sports teams are decided by our geographical location.  I guess it goes along with the whole "Root, root, root for the home team" but it's still sorta weird.  Think about your favorite sports team.  Even though a lot of us don't live where we grew up (not that there's anything wrong with that if you do), it turns out that our favorite teams are the local teams from where we grew up.  For me, I like who my dad liked.  And it's still that way.  Another funny thing about this is that we hate certain teams and even whole entire cities based on sporting events which may have happened years and years ago.  I won't even mention the Red Socks/Yankees rivalry, except to say that a vendor in Boston was selling a shirt that said, "I hate Jeeter.  I hate Rodriguez.  I hate..." and it had the name of every single Yankees player.  It's a sensitive issue.  I think of the city of Dallas, home to the Dallas Cowboys.  I hate the Cowboys and always will, simply because they used to be good in the 90s and they always beat my favorite team.  I feel the same way about the Atlanta Braves.  Weird. #sports

Isn't it weird that cars are ridiculously expensive?  In 1991, my dad was looking around for a new car that was less than $10,000.  He found one, but it only had 3 wheels and was powered by a lawnmower engine.  Actually, it was a stripped down Toyota Corolla.  Not a bad car, but it seemed like it was slightly overpriced.  And you'd have to kill a person to get a car for less than $10,000 these days.  And the part that I don't get is why these prices aren't going down.  I mean, the whole idea of mass production and outsourcing and manufacturing things overseas is to make things cheaper.  And I understand that cars are a lot more sophisticated than they used to be, but shouldn't this technology be cheaper for the same reason?  But then I figured it out:  watch TV for 2 seconds.  The first thing you'll see is a car commercial.  Hmm.  Keep watching TV.  Then look at the newspaper.  And read some magazines.  And go to a concert or a pro sporting event.  What do you see?  Car commercials.  Sponsorship.  Advertising.  Try to watch a half-hour TV show that doesn't have a car commercial.  Go to a movie and see if there isn't a truck commercial.  Open a magazine and see if the first page isn't an article for the newest Ford or Chevy.  This is why my car is so stupidly expensive.  It's not expensive to pay some foreigner to design and build my car.  It's just a computer with some wheels and a device that makes its internal combustion engine extremely inefficient (conspiracy theory).  What makes it expensive is the billions of dollars spent on advertising the SUVs made by the same company that makes my car.  Hooray for SUVs!  (Actually they advertise my car just as much, but I have to blame-shift somewhere.) #entertainment

Found this article on Personalized Google.  Bic is awesome.  My favorite pen by far is the Bic Clic Stic, medium.  However, my employer buys stuff from Skilcraft, and their fine point clicker has become the new love of my life.  Sorry, Bic. 

Funny side note:  the founder of the company, Baron Marcel Bich, named the company BIC.  I think that was a good choice. #products

I can't believe how much I love Quizno's.  Their sammiches are unbelievable.  My favorite without hesitation is the Spicy Monterey Club, which consists of "Smoked turkey, ham, mozzarella, pickles, lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, Four Pepper Chili Sauce".  It sounds gross, but somehow all those ingredients work together to make a truly memorable experience.  The bad part is that it has cheese, and that usually doesn't go through my stomach too well, but it's occasionally worth it.  One time, I tried the Black Angus cheesesteak because it was on a picture menu and I always order things off picture menus.  What a letdown!  I could hardly force myself to finish it.  Yet another experience that taught me to never try new things.  But then last night, I got the Chicken Milano, which is "Chicken, italian cheeses, tomato, spring mix, sun-dried tomato pesto, tuscan basil mayo," once again because it was on a picture menu.  And wow, my faith in trying new things was strengthened.  Plus, the Indian lady that made it (Indians own at least 2 of these chains around me -- conspiracy?  maybe.) asked me if I wanted my cookie toasted.  I said, "Toasted?"  She said, "Toasted."  So she toasted my cookie, and let me tell you:  this was amazing.  Toasting a sandwich is such a simple idea.  Toasting a cookie is just as simple.  Oh so good. #food

I've been thinking a little bit, and I received some advice from a little friend that I should try to not complain about everything.  She said, "Don't you have anything nice to say?"  She was right.  I complain a lot.  But I try to keep most of it on my website so people don't have to hear it in person.  But the line between my website life and my real life is becoming blurred.  Heh.  What a dork.  So I've decided to make an effort to write about some things I enjoy.  I actually had this idea about a month ago, but I couldn't decide whether I wanted to go through with it or not.  But I think it's a good idea, so I'm doing it. #psychology

I need to say something about this band Jet.  They're awesome.  This CD is so unlike anything I've heard in a while.  Although half the songs are slow, emotional ballads (not a fan), the rest of the CD is hard-hitting and full of energy.  But you wouldn't get that impression if you read some online reviews.  Some say, "Most of the lyrics are so banal..." and mention something about "...the artists they rip off..."  Things like this make it sound like these guys are no-talent [fill in the blank].  Sure, many of their songs sound like classic rock songs.  I can hear influences from the Rolling Stones, AC/DC, the Kinks, and others.  But I use the word "influences" intentionally:  these guys didn't just copy stuff they heard.  They made new songs based on their listening interests.  That's how it works.  You can't become a songwriter without studying songwriting.  So instead of saying these guys just mimicked things they heard on the radio, maybe we can give them credit and say that at least they chose respectable influences, instead of "sampling" a piece of rock history (ahem Puff Daddy, Come with Me) and claiming it as their own new song. 

In closing, I must pay tribute to the nation of Australia.  I can remember two great things coming out of this country in recent years:  one being 1995's critically acclaimed Silverchair and the second being Jet.  Rock on. #entertainment

I just ordered a laptop from Dell last Thursday.  I just got it yesterday.  That's what's awesome about Dell.  I customized it and selected options that I wanted, they built it in Malaysia, and sent it to me in less than a week for pretty much free.  But, of course, I have a complaint:  Dell loaded the computer with all kinds of junk like AOL, NetZero, EarthLink, Word Perfect, MusicMatch Jukebox, and a bunch of other stupid little picture viewers and media players.  I spent several hours getting all that nonsense off of there.  Dell could do everyone a favor by sending out computers that are pretty much stripped down, although I like the fact that it came with essentials like Acrobat Reader, Quicktime, Real Player, etc.  But all those other nonsense programs are designed to get you hooked into using them because they offer a free trial period.  Even stuff like Norton AntiVirus gives you a 90-day trial period.  But at the end of the 90 days, it warns of impending doom and destruction because your computer is now open to "malicious attackers" and the like. #technology