Looking for a change

We currently have our cell phones with Cingular (family plan...natch). Our home phone, television and Internet is through COX communications. I'm getting kind of tired of COX.

They block ports on the Internet so I can't hook up with my SQL server from outside, and I can't run a web page from my home (well, I can, if I put it on a different port - but that just doesn't work for me).

In addition, they have bandwidth limits. One can only have so many bytes incoming and so many bytes outgoing per month. Yet they give do not give one a way to check their usage and make adjustments if necessary.

I'm seriously thinking of switching to ATT for all of our television and communication needs. According to their website, we can get DSL at 3Mbsfor less that what I'm paying COX for (supposedly) 3.5Mbs (but I rarely, according to DSLReports.com) get more than 2Mbs).

My only concern is local High-Def channels. I don't think we will get those with the satellite and might have to fork over some $$$ for a High-Def antennae - and maybe a receiver? I'm not 100% certain on how all of that would work. I spent a good hour over the last weekend poking around ATT website, but couldn't for the life of me find a phone number to call so I could get some answers.


Technorati Tags: Television, Internet, Cell Phone Service, COX Communications, ATT, Phone Service

How Smart Are You

Tonight on Fox at 20:30 is a new Jeff Foxworthy show titled "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?" - it looks to be an entertaining show. We have it setup in the DVR to record the show. We can't watch it live because it conflicts with "The Unit" on CBS. And we all know we cannot not watch "The Unit" - which is the best hour long U.S. Army commercial in the history of television!





Technorati Tags: Jeff Foxworthy, Television

T-Town hockey is back!

CJOnline - Topeka gets hockey — again

"I have no expectation," Lorang said. "If I'm losing $100,000, I'll be happy. If I have at least some of the bills being paid, I'll be the happiest person."

It looks like Topeka will once again be in the hockey business. But this time, it looks like we might actually get a team that stays. I don't know if Mary Magalene Lorang is serious with that statement, but it brings hope that someone who doesn't care much about the finances wants the team to be here.



Plus, she says she will move to Topeka with the team, which means no more long-distance owners, and someone who will be part of the community.



I think this might actually work out!







Technorati Tags: Topeka, Sports, Hockey

The low-down on your fav soaps

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You know, when I was in college, I was addicted to Days of Our Lives. Heck, my roommate, girfriend and I all scheduled our classes around that show. This was back when Stephano was still king of the baddies and his kid Count Tony was a close second.

Things have changed quite a bit since then. Now people can get the latest on their fav soaps just about anywhere. There is a new site, about 6 months old (I guess, in reality, that is kind of old in Internet age), called soaps.com.

Soaps.com is a fairly easy site to navigate. Clicking the "List of Shows" button takes you to a page that has the soaps categorized by network (ABC Soap Operas, CBS Soap Operas, NBC Soap Operas). In addition, the soaps are all listed along the left of the page, so a simple click on the title of your fav soap takes you to it's details.

One thing this site has (which, I must admit, I spent some time perusing) is a "where are they now" section for Days of Our Lives. It is interesting to see where the actors are now and what they are doing (and if there are any plans for them to appear on the show again).

Most people want to do good.

Growing up, who didn't sometimes imagine what they could do with some sort of super powers? Each of us would imagine saving the world, or doing good. I didn't know anyone who, if granted some sort of great power, would dream of doing evil.

The NBC show Heroes examines what people do and how they react when they discover they have special powers. Of course, the writers are, I imagine, fairly typical folks who as kids also dreamt of being heroes with super powers. Deep inside, I truly and honestly believe that man is a decent creature who wants to do good. That he does not set out to do evil. It happens, but I believe it is usually the unintended consequences of man doing what they believe to be a good deed.

Sure, there are those that are simply evil. There are those that are - for wont of a better word - flawed. That have no desire to do good, or just don't really care if what they do is good or bad.

What got me thinking about this is the TV show Heroes. In it there is one guy aptly named 'Hiro'. He is Japaneses and a comic book sci/fi fanatic. When he discovers he has powers, there is no question in his mind. He can't sit by and ignore he has the powers. He can't pretend he doesn't have them. He is compelled to seek out a mission and use his powers for the benefit of the world.

Then there is Sylar. Sylar is the big baddie. He goes around finding other people with special abilities, killing them and eating their brains. By eating their brains, he absorbs their powers. The show gives me the impression that Sylar doesn't care if his actions are good or bad. Doesn't care what other people think of them. He wants the power, and he will do anything to achieve it.

In between these two polar opposites are the rest of the special ones. In this week's episode, three of them got together in an attempt to find out what the mysterious Mr. Bennet has done to them. Two of them got together, and recruited a third, who is an ex LAPD officer whose power is the ability to read minds. They tell him "we can be heroes." Which seems to be a common theme. Most of the folks with powers in this show it seems genuinely want to be heroes. So far there are only two that don't seem to actually want to go the hero route.

Anyway, it is a show worth watching - for many reasons.

Heroes TV Show on NBC: NBC Official Site

Latest & Greatest cell phones for FREE!

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I am somewhat of a techophile. I love having the latest greatest of any technology. Unfortunately, new technology is expensive enough, and there are enough other expenses with the 5/8, and the kids, what with Judo classes, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts etc. etc. etc. that I don't always (okay, almost never) get to have the latest and greatest tech.

For instance, one thing I am usually several years behind in is cell phone tech. Cell phones have become outrageously full of cool and neat features (some of them even allow you to place phone calls!). I have had cell phones on and off since about the late 80's. You know, those big bulky bag phones you plugged into your cigarette lighter in the car and it cost you something like $50/month and $.30 a minute? With roaming fees in the umpteens? Yeah, those were the ones I'm talking about.

When we moved to Topeka in '99 and I started working in Kansas City (about 70 miles away) I knew I would have to find a phone that 1) I could afford and b) that would work everywhere (since I was going to travel a little with the new job). So I settled on Sprint PCS phone. It was big, it was clunky, but it did the job. After a couple of years with Sprint, I changed to Cingular. With Cingular I got two Nokia phones for about $20 each (one for the wife). Cingular at the time, worked in many more places than Sprint did. With absolutely no roaming charges. With Sprint I still had roaming charges to pay in some areas, and simply couldn't use the phone in other areas.

There has been almost no place I couldn't use my Cingular phone. Since I signed up with Cingular, I have received several upgraded phones for free! Not the latest and greatest mind you, but I finally have a phone that plays MP3 ringtones, takes pictures and has Bluetooth. But I'd love to have one that can hold more music, in essence, has an MP3 player built into it. Something like Sony Ericsson w300i - now that is a phone I could sink my teeth into (so to speak, I don't really eat phones).

After looking at the WireFly site, I wish I didn't already have Cingular as my carrier though. I don't know how these guys do it, but they have the phones with all the latest and greatest technologies for FREE! No, really, they are free! No payment for the phone. Oh, sure, there is a two year contract with Cingular, but hey, from WireFly you can get a RAZR FREE. With Cingular, the RAZR would cost you about $100, and you'd still need the two year contract. If you're simply not crazy about the flip phones, they also have the ultra smooth, ultra classy Samsung D807 which slides up to reveal the number pad. How cool is that?

This post brought to you by:
Free Cingular Wireless Phones and Other Cingular Cell Phone Deals from Wirefly

"I've Never Felt More Alive"

I took my 14 year old to the Department of Motor Vehicles today to get his driving learner's permit. He had to take a test and get his picture taken. He received a paper receipt with his photo on it. Kansas these days will not give you a license or ID card on the spot. Instead they mail to the address they print on the card. I suppose this is to ensure that one actually has access to address given.

After he received his permit, I took down to Forbes Field to practice some driving. Other than NASCAR, Need for Speed and other driving sims on the computer and game consoles, he has never before been behind the wheel of a real automobile. He was excited, but confided in me that he was a bit nervous. I couldn't allow it to show, but I was a bit apprehensive as well.

We took the Insight. Which, for those not in the know is a gasoline/electric hybrid that I purchased about five years ago to save money on fuel for my daily 70 mile one-way commute to work. The car is very small...tiny really, and it is manual transmission. I wondered if first learning to drive on manual transmission vehicle would be too much for him to digest, but figured that people did exactly that for the many years between the mass production of cars, and the invention of the automatic transmission. Plus, if he does any damage, at least it is to my car and not to the wife's minivan.

Forbes Field used to be the Forbes Air Force base. It is huge and with almost regular like streets. Now it is a smallis commercial airport and the home of the 109th Air Refeuling Wing of the Kansas Air National Guard. What is great about this area for learning to drive is there is very little traffic, and there are real streets with real street signs. So he could drive at 10 miles per hour, and not impede the flow of traffic for regular folks. Practically no one else was there.

He started out slow and choppy as one would expect. Getting started moving the first time proved to be the most challenging. So much to remember; put the clucth in when stopping or you'll kill the engine, apply some gas - but not too much - when starting from a stop, let the clucth out slowly, apply the brakes evenly and smoothly, but also press the cluth when slowing down or you'll kill the engine.

After about 10 minutes off engine killing jarring popping starts, we finally got going. Drive about 100 feet and hit a stop sign. He had to stop three times before he actually made it to the sign. After about 15 minutes of driving around he was really starting to get the hang of it. His take offs were much smoother. He still has some problems with mashing the brake down after he is almost stopped, causing us to jolt forward and the seatbelts to lock.

At one point, he got up to 17 miles per hour and was grinning from ear to ear and stated, with all the excitement one could imagine, "I've never felt more alive in my life!"

"Too little, too late"

"Too little too late." That is what my friend kept saying last night as we watched the second half of the Super Bowl 'together' last night. My friend is up in Minot, ND. For those of you who went to public school, that is about two spits away from Canada. Thanks to the excellence of American ingenuity, we have the internet. Yes, I know that some guy from CERN named Tim Berners-Lee created HTML and the first web browser, thus launching what became known as the World Wide Web. But what does the web run on? The Internet. The internet was developed by the United States Armed Forces for their own communication. Back then it was called ARPANET (I don't remember exactly what ARPA stands for, but knowing out government, it is an acronym for something).

Anyway, several years later the military turned their arpanet over to the National Science Foundation. NSF quickly opened it up to universities, and the Internet was born. So yes, I can with all degree of accuracy, I can say emphatically that the Internet we all know and love was created by the good ol' United States of America. But I digress...

My friend and I, we were able to watch the game together from 1700 miles apart due to the miracle of instant messengers. We were able to chat real time while watching the game. Commenting on commercials, on plays and what not.

The game was a little dry the second half I thought (no pun intended). I always enjoyed watching foul weather games more than fair weather games. The rain last night made for some fairly unpredictable incidents. Several fumbles I saw were, I believe, a direct result of the moisture in the air and on the ball. It got off to a good start. I loved the first play when Chicago ran the opening kick off back for a touchdown. 14 seconds into gameplay and 6 points were up on the board. The first half, as I said, was exciting. There were close calls, some fumbles and interceptions. The game was moving along and mostly unpredictable.

The commercials were alright, but I don't think they held up to the smashing commercials of years gone by. I think my two favorite commercials of all time to date are the EDS commercials, the one where the cowboys are herding cats, and the one about the "Running of the Squirrels". My favorite from this year has to be the "Rock, Paper, Scisscors" from Budweiser followed closely by the GM robot nightmare. The next two would be the Blockbuster mouse doesn't work (although, technically, that was a pre-game commercial, not a super bowl commercial) and the Carlos Mencia Bud Light English as a Second Language commercial.

All-in-all, it was a fun game to watch.

Snow (at last!)

We finally received some actual, honest to goodness snow in Topeka this week. It waited until Saturday, which I believe was awfully thoughtful of it. It teased us last week with a load of ice, and gave most of the surrounding area some inches of snow, but had, until now, bypassed Topeka so far this year.

It started about mid-afternoon Saturday. In the morning Little Sister had a basketball game at the community center, we all went there to watch and support her...well,...most of us did. The boys like to go because there are pool tables and ping pong tables at the centers, so they get their pool time in. She did well in her basketball even though she had never really played before, and she had missed last weeks practice.

Back to the snow. It started coming down in what seemed like flurries mostly on Saturday early afternoon. Little tiny flakes that blew and whirled and twirled in the wind rising and floating back down before they finally lighted on the ground. As the afternoon progressed, the snow flakes thickened and got bigger. Little Sister took a bucked outside to catch the snow. She likes to make snow ice cream with a fresh snowfall.

Sunday morning we awoke to about 2 inches of nice, pack snow. The type of snow that sticks together well, and is exeptional for the construction of snowmen...or snowwomen...or snowpersons(whatever). Not only snow people but also forts and snowballs. About mid-morning I ventured out into the snow. I had too. My driveway was full of snow and it needed removing. A lesson one learns while living in Alaska, is that one must keep on top of the snow. One must be diligent in the removal of snow from where it needs removing. Otherwise, the snow will get ahead of you, and you can never catch up.

I have let that lesson slide somehwat since returning to the lower 48. Heck, I didn't even go out and shovel while the snow was still falling, nor even the same day it fell. In Alaska, I would never have let myself not start shoveling while the snow was still falling. It is simply better to shovel the paths 10 times in a day, then to wait and try to shovel 23 inch deep snow all at once.

It was quiet outside. Normally it is fairly quiet on a Sunday, but this day it was more quiet than usual. Everything seems quieter in the snow. Part of it I suppose is much less activity. Kids aren't running and riding their bikes or scooters or skateboards all around the neighborhood. Cars travelling the wide street we live on are few and very far between. But I think mostly it seems almost as if the snow acts as a sound insulator. Like it dampens everything and makes the sounds softer and somewhat more hollow than normal.

One could hear that distinct scratchy-scraping sound that a snow shovel makes as it grinds along concrete. The sounds differ depending on what type of shovel is used. One could easily tell which neighbors had the plastic shovels (a lower, more growly scrape), the aluminim shovels (a higher, more whining scrape) and the heavy duty steel shovels which gave a full ring of a scrape sound. One could also hear the faint cries of glee and laughter which echoed from the children at the park.

They were sledding, and building forts in preperation for a snowball war. One team finished their fort, then went inside someone's house to play Xbox while the other team finished theirs. But then the first team came back out, they discovered that the second team had co-opted parts of the first teams for for their own. They weren't very happy, about it, but made due. The war was a draw.

Afterwards everyone gathered for hot chocolate (instant of course, no one makes actual hot chocolate with milk anymore). All in all it was a nice ending to a sometimes hectic week. And at least we finally received some snow, if only for a few days (supposed to be in the 40's by the end of the week).