Velcro kicks....

Foot fashion can be a risk sometimes, but this is certainly not one of those instances with these kicks. The last Velcro-equipped sneaks I had were some Roos (Kangaroos to the uninitiated) as a kid that I could swear made me run faster.

Although these Asics have not too much in common with running, you won't be given a citation from the Fashion Police should you sport them.....I still would have to see them in person before a purchase since I am really selective about shoes...

The next chapter has begun....

So far, so good. Plenty-o-pics have been snapped, but I need TIME to properly display and decide which ones to upload. I'm working on the birth announcement pics with L and should decide within the next week or two which pics to use.

Ask me how much REAL sleep I have had since the beginning of this week and I will guarantee you that anyone reading this blog has slept more at work than I have actually slept being away from work...It's fine though. The progeny has been eating very well and filling diapers like a champion (if anyone even knows of a champion who could/would fill diapers). Most say she resembles her papi, but we all know how offspring change from week to week. Those temporary tats on my forearm were pretty accurate to my own thin/ski-like locomotion apparatuses. They also dropped her footprints on the newspaper for that day. Quick thinking by the nurse for some souvenirs right after the birth. I know, I know...they do it for everyone, but I have to inject some of that self-absorbed mentality that new parents boast about thinking their experiences and child are the most unique situation known to man...LOL!

In all seriousness, I have seen many child birth deliveries, but seeing my own was more amazing than words can attempt to describe. The wave of emotions is probably the most intense aspect of the entire process......and that is coming from someone who is not actually delivering the baby because if that were the case, I am sure I'd be able to say that there were physical components of the delivery process never before experienced. L did excellent though. She did not scream one time. Not that I expected it, but I have heard the screams of women delivering children and a joke that is not...Her labor time was 5hrs. Not bad at all according to the doc. She has gotten MUCH less sleep than myself, but I suppose that is the mama genes kicking into full gear. Each day, my nerves are becoming slightly more adjusted to this new addition and I am really amazed each time I sneak a peak at this niñita. She is quite the chuleria en pote if I must say so myself....

If you need a hero...

The Hoff is all you require.

As if this grand thespian needs an intro. He is the magnificent actor of the 80's starring in one of the greatest shows of all time--KR and slam dunking that role like a frikkin champion.

Then, in the 90's, Baywatch grips the emotions of the dozens of us who shared in the adventures of Mitch Buchannon (yes, The Hoff) and the swimsuit-clad honeys.

To not mention this ambassador in the context of European pop music culture would be a mistake of epic proportions.

Give credit where credit is due and Don't Hassel the Hoff.

Oh.........the French.

That's a pretty scary piece of.......Nessie, aka The Loch Ness Monster or something.......

Two faced.......

For some reason, this rare (1 in 80 million) lobster pic reminds me of one of the famous Batman villains....Also, the guy holding that lobster seems to have regenerated like 19 fingers on his one hand... :p

New Look

Just because...Any thoughts? Yay/Nay?

Too many questions....Waaaay too many questions!!

I needed to stop by the bank today to take care of some bidness and today's episode goes a little something like this.

Me: Walk in and ask teller a question and get told that I must speak with a "relationship banker" because they are the only ones who can help me. Ok. Fine. I have a seat where I am told to sit and wait....for 2-3min after signing in.

Relationship Banker (RB): Walks over to the clipboard and says "Hello" to me and proceeds to look around the bank and then back at me and says, "Are you Joe?"

Me: No, but I am Josue' Diaz; I was the ONLY person sitting there at this time.

RB: Joe?

Me: No, Josue'.

RB: Uh, ok. Let's go over to my desk.

Me: Disgusted look on my face and having a sense my simple request is going to turn into a mess.

RB: Asked me 2 basic questions related to my request.

Me: Answers them without an issue.

RB: What do you do?

Me: bla bla bla

RB: How long have you been doing bla bla bla?

Me: bla bla bla

RB: What do you do? Yes, it was the SAME question AGAIN!!!

Me: bla bla bla (same response)

RB: How long have you been married? Yes. She asked me that question. The hag was old enough to be my mother, so it was not a setup to find my status or anything like that. I would never be into dating my mother's age bracket anyway, but that's a post for another day...

Me: Am I the topic of the book you are writing today? Honestly, I asked her that question because I had had enough of the silly questions just to pass the time.

RB: My computer is slow today and I am just making conversation because of this.

Me: I understand, but I am content to stay on topic with what you are helping me with. The answers to your questions do nothing for the situation I came here for and add no value.

RB: Ok. The weather has been pretty nice lately.

Me: Yes it has....


Seriously, I wanted to smash my own head in with that hag's keyboard because she just really bothered me with all the dumb questions (I did not even mention all of them) and the fact that she brushed off my name and had me going in circles for my own request because she did not know her job. It's situations like that that make me nervous to think a "Relationship Banker" like that hag tries to be has access to thousands and thousands of OTHER people's money........

Lettuce in a Garden

The title of this post reminds me of that Snakes movie that comes out in August...

Ok, I admit that it's a slow news day or I am just not motivated to bare my soul in the blogosphere today.....


This is the last of four heads of lettuce that were in my garden and I suppose I had the feeling of screaming at the lettuce pre-consumption or maybe I felt as though it was attacking me or some form of laser hidden within the core of the lettuce would melt my tongue...Ok, that's all for now...

Thinking Caps Optional?

First Kobayashi, now this guy. This week is getting better and better!!!

53.75 Dogs in 12 Minutes

The Fourth would not be complete without the International Nathan's Hot Dog Eating competition held in Coney Island, Brooklyn. Japan's Takeru Kobayashi beat his competitors and took home the top prize for the 6th time. 25,000 people watched as he devoured nearly 54 dogs in 12 minutes breaking the World record that he set.

This guy is an absolute beast! I have seen a story on him and how he "trains" for these competitive eating contests....

They should test for HGH and the "juice" or "the clear" because dude cannot even be contained.....

Desk Lamp 1.0

Costing a mere $4.99, the Grono Table Lamp works like a darkness eliminating champion...The CFLB (Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb) almost cost as much as the lamp...

Your life is just not that interesting to me.....Really.

Let me set the scene for you mind's eye. Two days ago, there was a slow leak in the passenger rear tire of one of the cars thanks to a shard of metal that mysteriously got lodged betwixt one of the treads. Well, this was noticed before work and I threw on the spare (of course, it was NOT a full sized spare) and knew I had to get the leaking tire patched with the quickness. I headed over to one of my favorite places for all things rims and tires--Discount Tire. There were two people ahead of me when I got there and I felt I was there early enough that I would not be late for work. Anyway, I tell them what my situation is and I walk over to the waiting area and some dude is on his phone talking louder than I felt he should have been, therefore, I decided to just hang around the area in which I could look through the glass and see them working on vehicles. Everyone was working. I should be out of there in no time...Ok, I decided that I wanted to read the newspaper and I walked over to where the toolbox was still on his phone talking for all the store to hear...Sheesh, this loser was talking about details of his life that were just embarrassing and he was not the least bit concerned that anyone would hear. For example, I heard this clown say, "Yeah man, I got busted last weekend on the boat. The cop said it would be 6 points instead of 2 since I was given the ticket for BUI (Boating Under the Influence ) instead of DUI (Driving Under the Influence)." What a friggin loser. He was probably in his late 30's and worked for a sprinkler company. I wonder how many jobs this clown botched up....Anyway, he went on to say within his cell convo, "Are you going to the party over the Fourth of July? I know what's her name's cousin will be there and her friend works for the court and I bet she can help me out with the ticket because I cannot afford anymore points." How could anyone just broadcast some ish like that for the world to hear and not be totally ashamed? The psychology involved with cell phone use can be interesting. I kind of parallel it with people who pick their noses in their cars (sans tinted windows) and they think no one can see them.....

Garden 2006 ed. Check out what 1 month can do....

Click for greater detail. Pic taken on 5.28.06





The moons have aligned and the earth springs forth with copious abundance. These pics were taken exactly one month apart and I believe this is what some may call Progress or in honor of the great brethren of the north, "PRO-GRESS"..... :p




Click for greater detail. Pic taken on 6.28.06










I have had to already harvest three of four red-leaf lettuce heads due to such rapid growth. I am just about to harvest the lone lettuce, but wanted it in the pic. I plan to drop four more lettuce plants into the ground pretty soon. Might as well take advantage of the earth since the harvest has been excellent up to this point. I have dozens of tomatoes in the beginning stages from all six plants. I have also harvested some basil, oregano and parsley with excellent results. Things are progressing nicely.


The zuc plant is getting massive and I predict 3-4 zucs will be shooting out of it in the next two weeks. The eggplants are gaining girth, but those tend to take a bit longer, but not as long as the peppers. The pepper plants look good though. The cucs are also growing nicely. So far, so good.

More updates in another month....

Who should you follow?

It's no secret that I am fan of Apple, but I can assure you that it was not always this way. Well, it was, but it's not like my first computer was an Apple and I did not jump onto the iPod bandwagon when they first hit the market. In fact, my first iPod was/is a Shuffle and that came out just over a year ago. I have a 4.5 year old ibook that is my primary portable and is running strong; I replaced the battery on it last year. I also have a mini that I use as a cool "any-purpose" machine that has a ridiculously small footprint. I should get a medal for swapping out the ram stick in that thing...Let's just say sandpaper and a putty knife did the trick; no case damage occurred either.....Anyway, we have established that I enjoy Apple's products and many people do which gets me to the main situation of this post....So many people (maybe even readers of this blog...hint, hint) make noise about the iPod and how overrated and expensive it is and that people who buy them are just following the crowd with no reasoning and without reservation; sheep, if you will....I find this amusing if you flip the script on them and see if they use a PC as their computer of choice. Is that not the same argument that can be used? Let me answer that. YES, it is! I have 6 year old HP (works fine; replaced the HD 2years ago) and a 3 year old PC that I built; runs Photoshop like a champion. I am not a gamer, therefore, I look for the PC to really handle Office tasks, Photoshop, Web Dev (testing), misc prog use and some other not so processor-intensive tasks. I am in no way a PC-hater, but given the choice, the Mac destroys the PC in terms of user-experience and just overall cool-factor. Oh, I have never had ad/spyware or a virus on either of my macs.

This post is more about the whole digital music scene and the platform or music playing device of choice. I prefer the various versions of the iPod. No question of it’s superiority in terms of UI, durability and plain cool factor.

I’m an open minded person though and I actually have this Creative Zen Xtra that I bought 3 years ago due to a great deal amazon had that it came out to like $120. At the time, getting 30GB in music player was NOT cheap and I wanted to be able to say that I knew what the “other” side of the music player world was like. 30GB is a large amount of storage. The quality of the music is fine assuming the proper encoding occurred in the first place, but the navigation on that thing is junk. The small plastic “wheel” on the side is junk. The software Creative used for that thing is junk. It really did confirm to me that the iPod is king and everyone else is a pretender. I am not someone who buys every new gadget that comes out, therefore, the next time I get a music player will be different than the first time I bought one, but unless I get the same experience as what Apple and the iPod give me, then on the shelf will stay those other products.

Without further ado, I leave you with a link to a site that provides motivation to look for alternatives to the iPod. I think the ad campaign is fairly decent; I don’t agree with it, but there will be a segment out there that likes it and will try to dethrone the iPod. People should keep things in proper perspective as they use their PCs like the rest of the sheep out there.... :p

Let there be light.....

I am in the market for a new desk lamp. This should be a simple purchase, but I am not in search of just function. I require style in this purchase. I like to think of myself as a frugal (ok. who am i kidding? i'm cheap) guy, but certain purchases require me to step up my game and consider paying a bit more for durability, longevity and style. Examples of items I HARDLY ever go cheap on would be dress shoes, cutlery, cookware, sneakers, wallets and boxer briefs. I know...it's somewhat of a random list, but it's true. I've learned my lesson by knowing people who have tried to save cash and end up spending more by not paying more in the first place. Also, I have been guilty of this IN THE PAST, but I don't need to go through it again as a reminder. One and done. Anyway, back to desk lamp. I just want something stylish with a small footprint on one corner of my desk. Since they recently opened an IKEA that is not too far from us, I need to get over there and get this purchase over with. I have dozens of sites saved and have been to several office/department/furniture/etc stores, but it's hard to satisfy my mind's eye sometimes and my price point is one that I don't want to exceed. The IKEA has been jammed since it opened and I know how some people can be quite vicious when it comes to a new store opening up. I can wait, but not for much longer......

Heat Win!!! :(

BS. Man, I wanted this series to go 7games and Dallas to come out on top. I really wanted to see Mark Cuban grab all the face time with his antics. Plus, I felt Dallas was a much deeper team and I like Avery Johnson as the coach.

D. Wade is a warrior though and he earned that title and MVP award. Great, and now "marbles in the mouth" O'Neal will be steppin to the mic somewhere in the M-I-A and asking the crowd, "CAN YOU DIG IT?" He did come through on his promise to bring them a title. His legacy just grew. Good for him.

Well, at least my rage has disolved now that the NBA season is over and my Pistons will have an off-season to retool (with or without Big Ben and Sheed?...Hmmmmm) and I can focus on the World Cup, MLB and NFL. By the way, has anyone seen my Tigers....? Oh my, am I dreaming?

Let's just dress up and act like this is real....

So, we recently went to a party. The party was fine, but before going there was a one-way conversation someone had with someone to tell them that someone at the party should not hear something that "that" someone was told. Got it? Well, then the someone who was told the something not to tell the someone at the party started to consider questions in the mind of the someone who was told that particular something. The funny thing was that the something that was told to the someone was something that the someone at the party thinks to be the contrary, but the someone that was told asked the someone why they would not tell the someone at the party if their relationship was so good and the someone who told it would create certain problems.

I would think bigger problems would be created by keeping the particular something inside and not discussing it, but what do I know? I laugh when people insist on claiming they have such deep and meaningful relationships and then shy from discussing issues as they are. Life may be like a box of chocolates, but sometimes one must eat a chocolate and then talk about how bad it might have tasted....

By the way, the King in the pic for this post is very scary and I put him on the same level as clowns in terms of making me jump out of a window if I were sleeping and that character woke me up or if I woke up one day and 50 Kings were in my room laughing... :p

Interesting Fitness Product of the Day

I am truly unsure of the comfort level of these "shoes", but I can see how they might be a really nice cross-training piece of equipment. Some of you may have seen or actually have the Nike Free shoes and I liked the idea of a shoe like that when I first saw these last year sometime. Apparently there are numerous health benefits to walking/running barefoot. I must admit that I am not particularly a fan of walking/running barefoot unless it is on a beach sans yellow sand from someone's pet. Maybe it's because I did not do so that much as a child or had some sort of fear of stepping on a piece of glass, a nail, a syringe, etc. :p I don't know, but I do know that walking barefoot is a positive trigger to the senses. Running on sand is an absolutely great exercise due to further strengthening of ligaments, tendons and muscles. I'm unsure if I would ever buy these Vibram shoes, but I kind of like how the technology is trying to mimic nature a little bit better.

World Cup 2006

Who's your team?

Do these morons think it's 1985 or something? Honestly......

I happen to be scanning the tv post dinner this evening and ran across the NBC Dateline show entitled "To Catch A Predator". I am sure that you have heard of this. The basic premise is about these losers (dudes) who chat online (usually a myspace situation) and after days or weeks of chatting with what they think is a 12-15 year old girl (or boy) (actually a police decoy in the cyber unit or 19yo girl they utilze for talking on the phone and video chat), they agree to meet for some "partying". The host of this report, Chris Hansen, is absolutely HILARIOUS in how he talks to these sick morons and then produces the transcripts from several sessions of explicit chats. Mr. Hansen actually walks in from another room into the kitchen while some of these guys sit there with some type of brew in their hands (Mike's Hard Lemonade seemed most popular). I love when he asks these idiots if they have heard of Dateline and seen the show on catching people like them... Oh man....I never tire of seeing these mostly predictable people sweat bullets and then either flip out when the cameras come out from being hidden and then the guys run out of the decoy house and get arested. I say mostly predictable because sometimes they get a real loon on there who starts taking his clothes off right when he gets into the decoy house....It's pretty ridiculous. It is truly amazing to me that ANYONE would think that in 2006 you could set up a session of "partying" with an underage person and not get caught.........eventually. The sick thing is that although these idiots claim that "this was my first time doing anything like this", we all know otherwise. It's pretty bad when tonight's show displayed a teacher who was married, a student from a religious college, a paramedic and some other people with certain job titles. I have seen this series in the past with doctors, lawyers, engineers, rabbis, pastors and the list goes on and on.....It just shows kind of shift in societal circumstances thanks to the Internet. If kids (and adults) would be more cautious and flat out emotionless within chat rooms and message boards, many of these types of things would not have opportunites to become criminal activities. I suppose the whole annonymiety vs trust dicotomy of the Internets plays around with some people's sense of reality.....


PS,
I can assure anyone reading this that neither Hall nor Oats were harmed in the formation of this post. :p