SoundSpeed - Info

5 minute management lesson

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 08:41:08 -0800

LESSON 1:

A man is getting into the shower just as his wife is finishing up her shower, when the doorbell rings.

The wife quickly wraps herself in a towel and runs downstairs.

When she opens the door, there stands Bob, the next-door neighbour.

Before she says a word, Bob says, 'I'll give you $800 to drop that towel.'

After thinking for a moment, the woman drops her towel and stands naked in front of Bob, after a few seconds, Bob hands her $800 and leaves.

The woman wraps back up in the towel and goes back upstairs.

When she gets to the bathroom, her husband asks, 'Who was that?'

'It was Bob the next door neighbour,' she replies.

'Great,' the husband says, 'did he say anything about the $800 he owes me?'

Moral of the story:

If you share critical information pertaining to credit and risk with your shareholders in time, you may be in a position to prevent avoidable exposure.

LESSON 2:

A priest offered a Nun a lift.

She got in and crossed her legs, forcing her gown to reveal a leg.

The priest nearly had an accident.

After controlling the car, he stealthily slid his hand up her leg.

The nun said, 'Father, remember Psalm 129?'

The priest removed his hand. But, changing gears, he let his hand slide up her leg again. The nun once again said, 'Father, remember Psalm 129?'

The priest apologized 'Sorry sister but the flesh is weak.'

Arriving at the convent, the nun sighed heavily and went on her way.

On his arrival at the church, the priest rushed to look up Psalm 129. It said, 'Go forth and seek, further up, you will find glory.'

Moral of the story:

If you are not well informed in your job, you might miss a great opportunity.

LESSON 3:

A sales rep, an administration clerk, and the manager are walking to lunch when they find an antique oil lamp.

They rub it and a Genie comes out.

The Genie says, 'I'll give each of you just one wish.'

'Me first! Me first!' says the admin clerk. 'I want to be in the Bahamas, driving a speedboat, without a care in the world.'

Puff! She's gone.

'Me next! Me next!' says the sales rep. 'I want to be in Hawaii , relaxing on the beach with my personal masseuse, an endless supply of Pina Coladas and the love of my life.'

Puff! He's gone.

'OK, you're up,' the Genie says to the manager.

The manager says, 'I want those two back in the office after lunch.'

Moral of the story:

Always let your boss have the first say.

LESSON 4

An eagle was sitting on a tree resting, doing nothing.

A small rabbit saw the eagle and asked him, 'Can I also sit like you and do nothing?' The eagle answered: 'Sure, why not.'

So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the eagle and rested. All of a sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit and ate it.

Moral of the story:

To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very, very high up.

LESSON 5:

A turkey was chatting with a bull.

'I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree' sighed the turkey, 'but I haven't got the energy.'

'Well, why don't you nibble on some of my droppings?' replied the bull. 'They're packed with nutrients.'

The turkey pecked at a lump of dung, and found it actually gave him enough strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree.

The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch.

Finally after a fourth night, the turkey was proudly perched at the top of the tree.

He was promptly spotted by a farmer, who shot him out of the tree.

Moral of the story:

Bull Sh*t might get you to the top, but it won't keep you there..

LESSON 6:

A little bird was flying south for the winter. It was so cold the bird froze and fell to the ground into a large field.

While he was lying there, a cow came by and dropped some dung on him.

As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung, he began to realize how warm he was. The dung was actually thawing him out!

He lay there all warm and happy, and soon began to sing for joy. A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate.

Following the sound, the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung, and promptly dug him out and ate him.

Morals of the story:

(1) Not everyone who sh*ts on you is your enemy.

(2) Not everyone who gets you out of sh*t is your friend.

(3) And when you're in deep sh*t, it's best to keep your mouth shut!

THUS ENDS THE FIVE MINUTE MANAGEMENT COURSE

Email etiquette

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 18:27:22 -0800

So I found this great posting on a website (http://www.emailreplies.com/) that I happened to stumble upon about the unofficial rules of email etiquette. Now if I forget to do any of these somebody please yell at me.

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1. Be concise and to the point.

Do not make an e-mail longer than it needs to be. Remember that reading an e-mail is harder than reading printed communications and a long e-mail can be very discouraging to read.

2. Answer all questions, and pre-empt further questions.

An email reply must answer all questions, and pre-empt further questions – If you do not answer all the questions in the original email, you will receive further e-mails regarding the unanswered questions, which will not only waste your time and your customer’s time but also cause considerable frustration. Moreover, if you are able to pre-empt relevant questions, your customer will be grateful and impressed with your efficient and thoughtful customer service. Imagine for instance that a customer sends you an email asking which credit cards you accept. Instead of just listing the credit card types, you can guess that their next question will be about how they can order, so you also include some order information and a URL to your order page. Customers will definitely appreciate this.

3. Use proper spelling, grammar & punctuation.

This is not only important because improper spelling, grammar and punctuation give a bad impression of your company, it is also important for conveying the message properly. E-mails with no full stops or commas are difficult to read and can sometimes even change the meaning of the text. And, if your program has a spell checking option, why not use it?

4. Make it personal.

Not only should the e-mail be personally addressed, it should also include personal i.e. customized content. For this reason auto replies are usually not very effective. However, templates can be used effectively in this way, see next tip.

5. Use templates for frequently used responses.

Some questions you get over and over again, such as directions to your office or how to subscribe to your newsletter. Save these texts as response templates and paste these into your message when you need them. You can save your templates in a Word document, or use pre-formatted emails. Even better is a tool such as ReplyMate for Outlook (allows you to use 10 templates for free).

6. Answer swiftly.

Customers send an e-mail because they wish to receive a quick response. If they did not want a quick response they would send a letter or a fax. Therefore, each e-mail should be replied to within at least 24 hours, and preferably within the same working day. If the email is complicated, just send an email back saying that you have received it and that you will get back to them. This will put the customer's mind at rest and usually customers will then be very patient!

7. Do not attach unnecessary files.

By sending large attachments you can annoy customers and even bring down their e-mail system. Wherever possible try to compress attachments and only send attachments when they are productive. Moreover, you need to have a good virus scanner in place since your customers will not be very happy if you send them documents full of viruses!

8. Use proper structure & layout.

Since reading from a screen is more difficult than reading from paper, the structure and lay out is very important for e-mail messages. Use short paragraphs and blank lines between each paragraph. When making points, number them or mark each point as separate to keep the overview.

9. Do not overuse the high priority option.

We all know the story of the boy who cried wolf. If you overuse the high priority option, it will lose its function when you really need it. Moreover, even if a mail has high priority, your message will come across as slightly aggressive if you flag it as 'high priority'.

10. Do not write in CAPITALS.

IF YOU WRITE IN CAPITALS IT SEEMS AS IF YOU ARE SHOUTING. This can be highly annoying and might trigger an unwanted response in the form of a flame mail. Therefore, try not to send any email text in capitals.

11. Don't leave out the message thread.

When you reply to an email, you must include the original mail in your reply, in other words click 'Reply', instead of 'New Mail'. Some people say that you must remove the previous message since this has already been sent and is therefore unnecessary. However, I could not agree less. If you receive many emails you obviously cannot remember each individual email. This means that a 'threadless email' will not provide enough information and you will have to spend a frustratingly long time to find out the context of the email in order to deal with it. Leaving the thread might take a fraction longer in download time, but it will save the recipient much more time and frustration in looking for the related emails in their inbox!

12. Add disclaimers to your emails.

It is important to add disclaimers to your internal and external mails, since this can help protect your company from liability. Consider the following scenario: an employee accidentally forwards a virus to a customer by email. The customer decides to sue your company for damages. If you add a disclaimer at the bottom of every external mail, saying that the recipient must check each email for viruses and that it cannot be held liable for any transmitted viruses, this will surely be of help to you in court (read more about email disclaimers). Another example: an employee sues the company for allowing a racist email to circulate the office. If your company has an email policy in place and adds an email disclaimer to every mail that states that employees are expressly required not to make defamatory statements, you have a good case of proving that the company did everything it could to prevent offensive emails.

13. Read the email before you send it.

A lot of people don't bother to read an email before they send it out, as can be seen from the many spelling and grammar mistakes contained in emails. Apart from this, reading your email through the eyes of the recipient will help you send a more effective message and avoid misunderstandings and inappropriate comments.

14. Do not overuse Reply to All.

Only use Reply to All if you really need your message to be seen by each person who received the original message.

15. Mailings > use the Bcc: field or do a mail merge.

When sending an email mailing, some people place all the email addresses in the To: field. There are two drawbacks to this practice: (1) the recipient knows that you have sent the same message to a large number of recipients, and (2) you are publicizing someone else's email address without their permission. One way to get round this is to place all addresses in the Bcc: field. However, the recipient will only see the address from the To: field in their email, so if this was empty, the To: field will be blank and this might look like spamming. You could include the mailing list email address in the To: field, or even better, if you have Microsoft Outlook and Word you can do a mail merge and create one message for each recipient. A mail merge also allows you to use fields in the message so that you can for instance address each recipient personally. For more information on how to do a Word mail merge, consult the Help in Word.

16. Take care with abbreviations and emoticons.

In business emails, try not to use abbreviations such as BTW (by the way) and LOL (laugh out loud). The recipient might not be aware of the meanings of the abbreviations and in business emails these are generally not appropriate. The same goes for emoticons, such as the smiley :-). If you are not sure whether your recipient knows what it means, it is better not to use it.

17. Be careful with formatting.

Remember that when you use formatting in your emails, the sender might not be able to view formatting, or might see different fonts than you had intended. When using colors, use a color that is easy to read on the background.

18. Take care with rich text and HTML messages.

Be aware that when you send an email in rich text or HTML format, the sender might only be able to receive plain text emails. If this is the case, the recipient will receive your message as a .txt attachment. Most email clients however, including Microsoft Outlook, are able to receive HTML and rich text messages.

19. Do not forward chain letters.

Do not forward chain letters. We can safely say that all of them are hoaxes. Just delete the letters as soon as you receive them.

20. Do not request delivery and read receipts.

This will almost always annoy your recipient before he or she has even read your message. Besides, it usually does not work anyway since the recipient could have blocked that function, or his/her software might not support it, so what is the use of using it? If you want to know whether an email was received it is better to ask the recipient to let you know if it was received.

21. Do not ask to recall a message.

Biggest chances are that your message has already been delivered and read. A recall request would look very silly in that case wouldn't it? It is better just to send an email to say that you have made a mistake. This will look much more honest than trying to recall a message.

22. Do not copy a message or attachment without permission.

Do not copy a message or attachment belonging to another user without permission of the originator. If you do not ask permission first, you might be infringing on copyright laws.

23. Do not use email to discuss confidential information.

Sending an email is like sending a postcard. If you don't want your email to be displayed on a bulletin board, don't send it. Moreover, never make any libelous, sexist or racially discriminating comments in emails, even if they are meant to be a joke.

24. Use a meaningful subject.

Try to use a subject that is meaningful to the recipient as well as yourself. For instance, when you send an email to a company requesting information about a product, it is better to mention the actual name of the product, e.g. 'Product A information' than to just say 'product information' or the company's name in the subject.

25. Use active instead of passive.

Try to use the active voice of a verb wherever possible. For instance, 'We will process your order today', sounds better than 'Your order will be processed today'. The first sounds more personal, whereas the latter, especially when used frequently, sounds unnecessarily formal.

26. Avoid using URGENT and IMPORTANT.

Even more so than the high-priority option, you must at all times try to avoid these types of words in an email or subject line. Only use this if it is a really, really urgent or important message.

27. Avoid long sentences.

Try to keep your sentences to a maximum of 15-20 words. Email is meant to be a quick medium and requires a different kind of writing than letters. Also take care not to send emails that are too long. If a person receives an email that looks like a dissertation, chances are that they will not even attempt to read it!

28. Don't send or forward emails containing libelous, defamatory, offensive, racist or obscene remarks.

By sending or even just forwarding one libelous, or offensive remark in an email, you and your company can face court cases resulting in multi-million dollar penalties.

29. Don't forward virus hoaxes and chain letters.

If you receive an email message warning you of a new unstoppable virus that will immediately delete everything from your computer, this is most probably a hoax. By forwarding hoaxes you use valuable bandwidth and sometimes virus hoaxes contain viruses themselves, by attaching a so-called file that will stop the dangerous virus. The same goes for chain letters that promise incredible riches or ask your help for a charitable cause. Even if the content seems to be bona fide, the senders are usually not. Since it is impossible to find out whether a chain letter is real or not, the best place for it is the recycle bin.

30. Keep your language gender neutral.

In this day and age, avoid using sexist language such as: 'The user should add a signature by configuring his email program'. Apart from using he/she, you can also use the neutral gender: ''The user should add a signature by configuring the email program'.

31. Don't reply to spam.

By replying to spam or by unsubscribing, you are confirming that your email address is 'live'. Confirming this will only generate even more spam. Therefore, just hit the delete button or use email software to remove spam automatically.

32. Use cc: field sparingly.

Try not to use the cc: field unless the recipient in the cc: field knows why they are receiving a copy of the message. Using the cc: field can be confusing since the recipients might not know who is supposed to act on the message. Also, when responding to a cc: message, should you include the other recipient in the cc: field as well? This will depend on the situation. In general, do not include the person in the cc: field unless you have a particular reason for wanting this person to see your response. Again, make sure that this person will know why they are receiving a copy.

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I put this out there because I know I sometimes need a friendly little digital reminder of these rules.

Email forward: "The Law is THE LAW"

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 07:59:18 -0800

So if the US government determines that it is against the law for the words “under God” to be on our money, then, so be it.

And if that same government decides that the “Ten Commandments” are not to be used in or on a government installation, then, so be it.

I say, “so be it,” because I would like to be a law abiding US citizen.

I say, “so be it,” because I would like to think that smarter people than I are in positions to make good decisions.

I would like to think that those people have the American public’s best interests at heart. BUT, YOU KNOW WHAT ELSE I’D LIKE?

Since we can’t pray to God, can’t Trust in God and cannot post His Commandments in Government buildings, I don’t believe the Government and its employees should participate in the Easter and Christmas celebrations which honor the God that our government is eliminating from many facets of American life.

I’d like my mail delivered on Christmas, Good Friday, Thanksgiving & Easter. After all, it’s just another day.

I’d like the US Supreme Court to be in session on Christmas, Good Friday, Thanksgiving & Easter as well as Sundays. After all, it’s just another day.

I’d like the Senate and the House of Representatives to not have to worry about getting home for the “Christmas Break.” After all it’s just another day.

I’m thinking that a lot of my tax payer dollars could be saved, if all government offices & services would work on Christmas, Good Friday & Easter. It shouldn’t cost any overtime since those would be just like any other day of the week to a government that is trying to be “politically correct.” In fact….

I think that our government should work on Sundays (initially set aside for worshiping God…) because, after all, our government says that it should be just another day…

What do you all think????

2007 Screenwriting Expo going on now

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 17:07:13 -0800

As we speak the 2007 Screenwriting Expo is going on. I think the title speaks for itself as to what will be there, but aside from the obvious (Producers, screenwriters etc.) there is also several major vendors including Final Draft. In addition to these, one of my best clients Julie Gray of the RougeWave blog and her business The Script Whisperer and its other members will be there the entire week. You can go and check-out all of the wonderful folks out there but also see some of my handiwork including two LCD presentation displays, one is playing several movies (some that Julie actually worked on) and the other is displaying a UBUNTU Linux installation running OpenOffice.org's presentation software.

Enjoy all!

Mozilla's Firefox updated for Leopard

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 14:24:28 -0800

While Mozilla admits that it isn't perfect (yet) Firefox has been updated for use with Leopard and is publicly available as I'm typing these.

Click here to download Mozilla Firefox.

Sorry about the hiatus...

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 11:01:23 -0800

I've spent the last 9 months transitioning from being a Mac Genius, to starting my own freelance computer consulting, training and audio production and post-production business. Its been a crazy time filled with a lot of interesting observations. Some of which I can share, others of which I can't, but now that MovableType has been upgraded and SoundSpeed is getting a new look, I look forward to doing more posting. Write now, I think this is more for me, but over the upcoming 6 months to a year, my hope is that people actually start checking out my blog for information about Apple computers and audio equipment.

Leopard recommendations

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 10:45:47 -0800

Since most of my clients are based on Apple hardware, most of you are probably well aware that next week (Friday, October 26 at 6:00PM) Apple is releasing Mac OS X v. 10.5, which has been code-named "Leopard." Leopard is a full release version of the Macintosh Operating System and therefore is not a free upgrade. It currently has the following pricing:

- Single User License: $129
- 5 License Family Pack: $199
- Single User License (Edu): $116

Apple's educational pricing for software is NOT available in the retail stores. It is only available at your respective educational institutions or via Apple's online educational stores. While the educational pricing is higher than it was on this version of the Operating System, there are great deals on other Apple and third party products if you are an educational customer. To find out if you qualify as an educational customer you can consult Apple's Educational store gateway at:
http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/routingpage.html

COMPATIBILITY OF LEOPARD WITH LEGACY HARDWARE:
Well, this is a sore subject. Finally, Apple has determined that my faithful Blue and White G3 Server is no longer good enough to run the most recent version of the operating system. Oh well, Tiger is running just fine on it, and it will stay that way. For the past decade or so (since Steve's return to the company) Apple has basically had 5 different machines in its hardware lineup:

Desktop:
- Power Macintosh (now Mac Pro)
- iMac
- Mac Mini

Portable:
- Powerbook (now MacBook Pro)
- iBook (now MacBook)

The official system requirements are available on Apple's website:
http://www.apple.com/macosx/techspecs/

The basic idea is that you need at least an 867MHz or faster G4 (eliminating all of the Power Mac G3's, and iMac G3's, the first two revisions of the Power Mac G4 and even some of the Quicksilver Power Mac G4's as well as all of the iBook G3's, the first implementation of the iBook G4 (800MHz), the Powerbook G3's and all of the Titanium Powerbook G4's except the last 867MHz model). You also need at least 512MB of RAM. I really would advise against installing Leopard on anything that has less than 768MB of RAM for basic office purposes (email, web surfing, word processing) and less than 1GB of RAM for basic production purposes. And of course, you will also need a DVD capable optical drive to do the installation.

THE LEOPARD INSTALLATION OPTIONS:
Thankfully you don't need to call me to do the upgrade as Apple has provided three different ways to install the OS. The method you choose depends on how "clean" of an installation you want to do (and how much work you want to have to do after the installation). Those three different ways are outlined below for your own information.

Upgrade; "Dirtiest" but easiest:
Upgrading is the default choice when making the change from at least 10.4 (no official stance yet on 10.2 or 10.3). This option replaces your current versions of files wherever they are necessary and upgrades any applications that were previously installed (that still reside in your Applications folder) with those that are installed with the OS. This is the only option for those that are running close to the capacity of their hard drives as it installs all necessary files in place and shouldn't affect installed applications.

Archive and Install; "Cleaner" but moderate amount of work after installation:
If you are having any kind of intermittent software problems, but don't want to have to re-setup your user account or if for some reason the upgrade option isn't available, this is the option for you. This option moves your current root level "System" and "Library" files to a folder called "Previous Systems" and installs fresh clean Leopard-friendly versions of those folders.

PLEASE NOTE: If you are running any kind of applications that rely on data in those folders (including, but not limited to applications by Adobe including Photoshop, as well as Apps like Final Cut Pro) or are running peripherals that required driver installation (Wacom tablets, All-in-one Printers), those installations will have to be redone as those types of applications and software rely on data within those two folders to function.

Erase and Install; "Cleanest" but usually requires a great deal of work after installation:
This type of installation while easy to complete, can be difficult to work with as the user would have to restore data from a previously backed up user account, or use Apple's included Migration Assistant to move your settings back over if the internal drive was cloned, prior to the installation. While this is the cleanest type of install as it removes all of the original data from the hard drive and installs all new copies of applications and the operating system, any and all personal data and purchased applications will have to be reinstalled from backups, web based downloadable installers or original installation disks.

PLEASE NOTE: As always, when doing a major operating system change, I recommend that you backup the contents of your computer prior to making that change just in case something should go horribly wrong. There are an infinite number of ways to "clone" your internal hard drive. The following are the two that I recommend for clients:

Built-in, Mac OS X's Disk Utility:
See http://www.macinstruct.com/node/147 for a tutorial on using the Built-in Restore feature of Mac OS X's Disk Utility application.

Free add-on Application:
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html

Words of Caution:
Since we live in Los Angeles and a great many of us rely on our computers day-in and day-out to manage our daily personal lives as well as our professional lives, I need to caution anyone doing any kind of media production work on their computers to hold off installation of Leopard (if you can). I'm sure application developers like Avid, Digidesign and Propellerhead work very hard to maintain compatibility with the latest and greatest operating systems on the market. This is especially true of Apple's third-party software developers. Case in point is the recent release of Microsoft's new operating system Windows Vista. Vista was released almost 1 year ago and we are finally starting to see professional class applications being released that are compatible with Vista. I don't want to compare Apple's software pipeline with that of Microsoft's as they are very different. Typically it takes 2-3 months for the major Applications to become qualified for the new version after a major update to the Mac OS. Just to give you an idea, Digidesign is officially stating the following with regard to ProTools compatibility with Windows Vista (even after 1 year in production):

While Digidesign originally anticipated bringing the entire Pro Tools® product line to Microsoft’s new Windows Vista operating system during the summer of 2007, delays in software development have occurred. We now expect to release Vista-compatible versions of Pro Tools LE® and Pro Tools M-Powered™ in winter 2007/2008.

Because Pro Tools software will not function with Windows Vista at this time, please wait to upgrade your operating system if you’re using Pro Tools on Windows. Stay tuned – all the power of Pro Tools paired with the benefits of Windows Vista is coming soon.

http://digidesign.com/index.cfm?langid=100&navid=48&itemid=24626

My hope is that this doesn't happen with Leopard since there are many great features I would love to see all of my clients in production take advantage of, I just felt that I should warn everyone about the possibility of delays in application deployment.

In addition, I share Digidesign's recommendation that if individuals want to test drive a brand new version of an operating system (like Leopard) in their production environment, that they dual-boot their computer instead of simply upgrading immediately. To dual-boot the user should clone their current drive (using the methods discussed above) to a practical backup solution, and repartition their current internal drive into two separate partitions.

NOTE: The act of repartitioning a drive will eliminate all data that is stored on that hard drive. Make sure that you do backup the drive completely before attempting to repartition the drive.

The user can then use one partition for their production environment and the other as a temporary test environment for the new operating system. In addition, if you are using a desktop tower workstation, then (if space allows for it) the user can install a second hard drive into the tower and install Leopard onto that new internal drive and test drive it completely separate from your production environment.

Once the individual vendors qualify your various production applications (and plug-ins) then you can feel secure in moving to the new OS once you have access to those applications. For some developers (like Adobe) you may find that a free software update brings full compatibility, for others (classically Digidesign) you may find you need to purchase a whole new version or a dot upgrade to bring compatibility to your environment.

If you are simply using your Mac for daily office work (as many of us do on our laptops) I'm sure you will see very few speed bumps on your way to Leopard.

I will be waiting in line at the Glendale Galleria on October 26th to pickup my copies of Leopard for my Powerbook G4 (1.5GHz) and my CoreDuo Mac Mini media center (1.66Ghz). Once I get these two machines up and running on Leopard I will be sending out another email with my impressions of the new OS. If you have any questions in the meantime I, of course, will be available to answer them. If any of you would like assistance backing up your current machines and installing the new OS we can definitely discuss that as well.

Information Links for Leopard:

Apple's official Leopard Site:

Apple's official technical specifications:

Information about Apple's Up-to-date program.
This is for people that have bought a Macintosh since October 1st. They can purchase Leopard at a dramatic discount:

Unofficial (but thorough) Leopard hidden features list.
This is a list of little known features that are apparently part of Leopard:

Google search for Native-Instruments' Leopard Support:

Google search for Digidesign's Leopard Support:

Cubase and Nuendo Leopard support statement:

Google search for AVID's Leopard support:

The Top 20 Songs of the 1980s

Tue, 28 Nov 2006 01:17:53 -0800

This is the list of top 20 Songs from the 1980s according to VH1.

20. Rick Springfield, Jesse's Girl
19. Cyndi Lauper, Time After Time
18. Dexy's Midnight Runners, Come on Eileen
17. Whitesnake, Here I Go Again
16. INXS, Need You Tonight
15. Van Halen, Jump
14. The Bangles, Walk Like an Egyptian
13. U2, With or Without You
12. Whitney Houston, How Will I Know
11. Journey, Don't Stop Believin'
10. AC/DC, You Shook Me All Night Long
9. Run DMC/Aerosmith, Walk this Way
8. Madonna, Like a Virgin
7. Guns & Roses, Sweet Child O' Mine
6. Hall & Oates, I Can't Go for That
5. Prince, When Doves Cry
4. Michael Jackson, Billie Jean
3. Duran Duran, Hungry Like the Wolf
2. Def Leppard, Pour Some Sugar on Me
1. Bon Jovi, Livin' on a Prayer

Top 10 facts about Jack Bauer

Sat, 11 Nov 2006 19:20:18 -0800

1. After much debate, President Truman decided to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima rather than the alternative of sending Jack Bauer. His reasoning? It was more "humane".

2. Jack Bauer recently had the idea to sell his urine as a canned beverage. We know this beverage as Red Bull.

3. Superman has Jack Bauer pajamas.

4. Killing Jack Bauer doesn't make him dead. It just makes him angry.

5. Jack Bauer's poker face is so good he once won a game of poker with monopoly money, an eight card from uno, a joker, a visa card, a tissue, and an iPod nano.

6. Jack Bauer's favorite color is severe terror alert red. His second favorite color is violet, but only because it sounds like violent.

7. On Jack Bauer’s Tax Returns, he has to claim the entire world as his dependants

8. Jack Bauer sued NBC for use of the name "Law and Order". Jack claims that those are the names of his left and right hand.

9. Jack Bauer doesn't miss. If he didn't hit you it's because he was shooting at another terrorist twelve miles away. 

10. Taco Bell used to close at midnight, until Jack Bauer decided he wanted to have burritos at 2 am.

1.6 billion Chinese are angry with Jack Bauer. Sounds like a fair fight.

Not all heroes are people

Sun, 08 Oct 2006 19:09:29 -0800

The new kids hit: dusting...It hits back

Tue, 05 Sep 2006 18:16:38 -0800

I received this in an email message today and its something that I've heard joked about a number of times, but apparently this is something that is for real and is definitely not a joke:

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If you haven't heard about this already please read it, if you already know, then pass it along to someone who may not know about it. 'Dusting'

First, I'm going to tell you a little about me and my family. My name is Jeff. I am a Police Officer for a city which is known nationwide for it's crime rate. We have a lot of gangs and drugs. At one point we were # 2 in the nation in homicides per capita. I also have a police K-9 named Thor. He was certified in drugs and general duty. He retired at 3 years old because he was shot in the line of duty. He lives with us now and I still train with him because he likes it. I always liked the fact that there was no way to bring drugs into my house. Thor wouldn't allow it.

He would tell on you. The reason I say this is so you understand that I know about drugs. I have taught in schools about drugs. My wife asks all our kids at least once a week if they used any drugs. Makes them promise they won't. I like building computers occasionally and started building a new one in February 2005. I also was working on some of my older computers.

They were full of dust so on one of my trips to the computer store I bought a 3 pack of DUST OFF. Dust Off is a can of compressed air to blow dust off a computer. A few weeks later when I went to use one of them they were all used. I talked to my kids and my two sons both said they had used them on their computer and messing around with them. I yelled at them for wasting the 10 dollars I paid for them.

On February 28 I went back to the computer store. They didn't have the 3 pack which I had bought on sale so I bought a single jumbo can of Dust Off. I went home and set it down beside my computer.

On March 1st, I left for work at 10 PM. Just before midnight my wife went down and kissed Kyle goodnight. At 5:30 am the next morning Kathy went downstairs to wake Kyle up for school, before she left for work.

He was propped up in bed with his legs crossed and his head leaning over. She called to him a few times to get up. He didn't move. He would sometimes tease her like this and pretend he fell back asleep. He was never easy to get up. She went in and shook his arm. He fell over. He was pale white and had the straw from the Dust Off can coming out of his mouth. He had the new can of Dust Off in his hands. Kyle was dead.

I am a police officer and I had never heard of this. My wife is a nurse and she had never heard of this. We later found out from the coroner, after the autopsy, that only the propellant from the can of Dust off was in his system. No other drugs. Kyle had died between midnight and 1 AM.

I found out that using Dust Off is being done mostly by kids ages 9 through 15. They even have a name for it. It's called dusting. A take off from the Dust Off name. It gives them a slight high for about 10 seconds. It makes them dizzy. A boy who lives down the street from us showed Kyle how to do this about a month before. Kyle showed his best friend. Told him it was cool and it couldn't hurt you. It's just compressed air.

It can't hurt you. His best friend said no.

Kyle was wrong. It's not just compressed air. It also contains a propellant called R2. It's a refrigerant like what is used in your refrigerator. It is a heavy gas. Heavier than air. When you inhale it, it fills your lungs and keeps the good air, with oxygen, out That's why you feel dizzy, buzzed. It decreases the oxygen to your brain, to your heart. Kyle was right. It can't hurt you. IT KILLS YOU.

The horrible part about this is there is no warning. There is no level that kills you. It's not cumulative or an overdose; it can just go randomly, terribly wrong. Roll the dice and if your number comes up you die.

ITS NOT AN OVERDOSE. It's Russian Roulette. You don't die later. Or not feel good and say I've had too much. You usually die as you're breathing it in. If not you die within 2 seconds of finishing "the hit." That's why the straw was still in Kyle's mouth when he died. Why his eyes were still open. The experts want to call this huffing. The kids don't believe its huffing.

As adults we tend to lump many things together. But it doesn't fit here. And that's why its more accepted. There is no chemical reaction, no strong odor. It doesn't follow the huffing signals. Kyle complained a few days before he died of his tongue hurting. It probably did. The propellant causes frostbite. If I had only known. It's easy to say hey, it's my life and I'll do what I want. But it isn't. Others are always affected. This has forever changed our family's life. I have a hole in my heart and soul that can never be fixed.

The pain is so immense I can't describe it. There's nowhere to run from it. I cry all the time and I don't ever cry. I do what I'm supposed to do but I don't really care. My kids are messed up. One won't talk about it. The other will only sleep in our room at night. And my wife, I can't even describe how bad she is taking this. I thought we were safe because of Thor. I thought we were safe because we knew about drugs and talked to our kids about them.

After Kyle died another story came out. A probation Officer went to the school system next to ours to speak with a student. While there he found a student using Dust Off in the bathroom. This student told him about another student who also had some in his locker. This is a rather affluent school system. They will tell you they don't have a drug problem there. They don't even have a dare or plus program there. So rather than tell everyone about this "new" way of getting high they found, they hid it.

The probation officer told the media after Kyle's death and they, the school, then admitted to it. I know that if they would have told the media and I had heard, it wouldn't have been in my house.

We need to get this out of our homes and school computer labs. Using Dust Off isn't new and some "professionals" do know about. It just isn't talked about much, except by the kids. They all seem to know about it.

April 2nd was 1 month since Kyle died. April 5th would have been his 15th birthday. And every weekday I catch myself sitting on the living room couch at 2:30 in the afternoon and waiting to see him get off the bus. I know Kyle is in heaven but I cant help but wonder If I died and went to Hell.

This Officer is asking for everyone who receives this email to forward it to everyone in their address book, even Law Enforcement Officers.

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I'm posting this here so that anyone who happens to read this can pass it along to others. I have heard of people joking about "Dusting" and thought nothing of it. I will be thinking something of it now.

Day 7: Kingman, AZ to Burbank, CA

Thu, 03 Aug 2006 17:43:44 -0800

This was the last day. We arrived in sunny, trafficky Los Angeles around 3:30 PM on August 3. On our way we stopped in this little town called Oatman in AZ. Now understand that both Kim and I managed to stay intact bodily through several potential peril locales. But in a parking lot in Oatman, AZ that luck ran out. Unfortunately, I twisted my ankle pretty badly and I successfully hobbled into my new place in Burbank. On the way to LA, we spent a good deal of time on Route 66 again, and let me tell you, Route 66 in between Kingman, AZ and Needles, AZ is the way Route 66 should be. Click here for a video clip of a small section of that route.

Its been a hell of a trip. One that both Kim and I will remember for a very long time.

Day 6: Grand Canyon to Kingman, AZ

Wed, 02 Aug 2006 02:08:48 -0800

Today we had a tremendous time hiking around the Grand Canyon. We woke up and went to breakfast at a small diner on Route 66. I recommend Route 66 in Arizona, not-so-much in Oklahoma or Texas. From breakfast we made our way 1 hour north to the Grand Canyon. The shortest pass they have is for 7 days for $25. Not happy about it, but what are you gonna do?! So we managed to find a parking space and walked several of the major walkways and even one hiking trail which was called the South Kaibab Trail. Here's the interesting thing about the Grand Canyon. It is probably the only place that you hike that you hike downhill first and then uphill second. Interesting experience, we stopped about halfway down the path because we realized we were getting thirsty and tired and that neither of us were in the shape we should be in to continue on our way.

We had dinner at a steakhouse near the park entrance and unfortunately our plans to watch the sunset over the canyon got rained out but we were treated to one of the most beautiful skies as we drove out of the park. We headed back toward Williams, AZ and jumped onto 40 West again toward Kingman, AZ. What's in Kingman, AZ you ask? Not a gosh darn thing. At least not that we've been able to see since its been dark since we arrived. We are contemplating stopping by at a Ghost Town called Oakman, AZ. It apparently get's a lot of traffic from tourists and filmmakers and since we are a little of both we might just swing by and see what all the hubbub is about. The real lure of Kingman, AZ was that it was just an hour and change West of the Grand Canyon and after the day of hiking we had, the hour and a half drive was all Kim and I could muster.

Tomorrow, the home stretch toward our new home in Burbank, CA. See everyone soon.

Day 5: Albuquerque, NM to the Grand Canyon, AZ

Mon, 31 Jul 2006 22:13:59 -0800

We left fairly early on Monday and headed on our way to the Grand Canyon. On that route was the Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert in the East of AZ. Unfortunately my Check Engine light was still on so in Gallup, NM I made the decision to get off the highway for some food and to try to find a Ford dealership. Gurley Ford in Gallup, NM was great. They took my car and reprogrammed it (probably because of the environmental change associated with a cross country trip) and that took care of the check engine light. Life is good again.

Gallup, NM is the mecca for Native American Crafts including dolls, necklaces and other tribal art. I recommend stopping at some of the small shops along Route 66 in Gallup. Might I also say that we missed the ceremonials by a few days. We are going to try to make those another year.

We arrived at the painted desert and the petrified forest and danced around several thunderstorms and were treated to some breathtaking views. I can't imaging something more majestic than the painted desert, but if there is anything that can match it is the Grand Canyon which is our destination tomorrow.

Type to you later.

Day 4: Tulsa, OK to Albuquerque, NM

Sun, 30 Jul 2006 23:50:09 -0800

OK, I'm not sure what is up with Mapquest, but they said this day would take approximately 9 hours. BOY WERE THEY WRONG. We left Tulsa, OK at 10:00 AM and finally arrived in Albuquerque, NM after several hours of bobbing and weaving through mountains and 18-wheelers at about 11:45. That sounds more like 14 hours to me, not 9. And before you say it, no I didn't set the clocks so actually local time it was 10:45.

The highlight of the day was an unexpected stop at the Oklahoma City National Memorial which commemorates the events surrounding the Oklahoma City bombing in April of 1995. We also stopped at the Western Hemisphere's Largest Cross in Texas. Interesting little stop. We had to stop at the Largest something-or-other in Texas, since everything is larger in TX.

By the end of the drive, I was effectively psychotic with the only thing keeping me going is the desire to get to a nice comfy bed. When we finally arrived at the hotel, my Ford Focus check engine light came on. A perfect end to a perfect day hopefully its just the gas cap that wasn't fully tightened yesterday at my last gas stop.

Night everyone, we deserve it tonight.