Lunch with Jimmy, Dinner with Jimmy

We had lunch with Jimmy at Chili's by Dadeland Mall. I had a couple of Piña Coladas. Well, since they're 2-for-1, they were actually a couple of couples. We came back to our place and I was unexplainably sleepy.

We had dinner with Jimmy at Cici's Pizza. It was my first time there and I thought that the garlic rolls and the pizza were incredibly delicious. Jimmy got a pizza for his boyfriend, Jorge, who was sick at home. We took it to Jorge, then came to our place where we watched a couple of episodes of The Office.

"Vantage Point" and "Jumper"; Jack Johnson makes the Rolling Stone magazine cover

We saw two good movies at Sunset Place today. The first was "Vantage Point", starring Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox (pictured at right), Forest Whitaker, Sigourney Weaver, William Hurt, Edgar Ramirez, and Zoë Saldana. The film is set in Salamanca, Spain, where President of the United States Ashton (William Hurt) is holding an anti-terrorism summit. Over a twenty three minute period, an assassination attempt on the President unfolds. The film loops through this twenty three minute period over and over, each time from the perspective of a different participant, adding a new piece to the larger puzzle with each loop. I was pleasantly surprised by this movie and found it very enjoyable and engrossing.

The second movie was saw today was "Jumper," starring Hayden Christensen, Samuel L. Jackson, Jamie Bell, Diane Lane, and Max Thieriot. I was not disappointed in the movie, but definitely not as impressed as I was by "Vantage Point." It is a movie about a genetic anomaly which allows a young man to teleport himself anywhere. He discovers this gift has existed for centuries and finds himself in a war that has been raging for thousands of years between "Jumpers" and those who have sworn to kill them, which the film calls Paladins. Adding to the young man's dilemma, his own mother is a Paladin.

In unrelated but nevertheless important news, one of my favorite artists, Jack Johnson, is on the cover of the current issue of Rolling Stone magazine for the first time ever. I was thrilled greatly when I learned this. I have included a picture of the cover in question out of the kindness of my heart. You can sample some of Jack Johnson's wonderful work at his website, http://www.jackjohnsonmusic.com/. Trust me, you will thank me.

Never going back to La Carreta off Douglas and 8th Street, or any Carreta, for that matter!

Yesterday, Alex and I went to eat at La Carreta and got truly shitty service. Our meals arrived like fifteen minutes apart. We asked for a second portion of bread+butter which never arrived. Our waters ran out and were left that way. We even went and got the manager and complained that our fries were cold (I did not eat my fries immediately because I was stuck waiting for my Cuban Sandwich, since I wanted to eat the two together). Then the manager had the audacity to say, "Do you want me to warm these up for you?" Not "I'll bring you new ones at no cost." The waitress had the balls to stay that "I've helping five tables" or something to that effect. Then later on she walked by and commented, "In the end, we [the waitresses] end up paying for everything." I then walked up to the manager and told him she was walking by and bitching instead of being apologetic. Anyway, we got the bill and we were charged for every damn thing. We are not going back to this place ever, and we are spreading the word about this service to everyone we know.

Oh, by the way, on our previous visit to this restaurant, we saw them pouring water which customers hadn't finished back into the pitcher (i.e. to serve to future customers). So if you ever go here, bear in mind you may be drinking "recycled" water.

New R.E.M. album due out in a few weeks

For those of you who follow or care about R.E.M., they have a new album, named Accelerate, scheduled for release on April 1, 2008 in North America, a day earlier in Europe and the rest of the world (though dates will differ in some countries). I have been faithful to this band but I admit they are not really my favorite band. I am currently listening for the first time to "Around The Sun," an album released in 2004, and I have yet to be impressed. Anyhow, I thought I'd share the information. The cover art for this album can be seen on the right. Let's hope this album is strong, they kind of need it to stay in the game.

An artist I have recently discovered who has made a strong impression on me is Jack Johnson (you may sample his music at his official website. He is a true poet and a talent unlike many you can hear nowadays. I have gone as far as to write him a note on MySpace and ask him to add Miami to his tour. This is one artist whose music I can listen to over and over and not get tired of it. Do stop by his website and lend an ear. I can guarantee you will not regret it.

Karaoke Night Fantastic

Last night, as we have been doing every Wednesday night for approximately ten weeks now, we attended Karaoke night. It was absolutely superb. It was one of the most fun sessions yet. KJ Paul is doing an excellent job (it was his third time hosting at Café Con Leche). The night culminated in many folks not only singing but also dancing. Sadly, visibility of the lunar eclipse was extremely poor, and we gave up on watching it early on in the evening.

I would like to take this opportunity to recommend Jack Johnson's latest album, pictured at right, and in fact, all his albums. His songs do a fantastic job of blending elements from different musical genres. He has one of the most fascinating artists I have learned of in a long time.

Leopard 10.5.2!

Leopard 10.5.2 is out and about (I learned about it on macosx.com), and of course, I have installed it already. Immediately following this update, there was a "Leopard Graphics Update" waiting to be installed as well. I'm not sure what that does quite yet. I sure hope they update iTunes soon, maybe its constant freeze-ups are really getting on my last nerve.

Christmas in February in Orlando / Trip to Best Buy

We came back from Orlando today. We went yesterday for Richard and Randy's Christmas party in February. It was spectacular. There was Christmas tress and decorations all over the place. We definitely had a great time. The weather was much cooler in Orlando than here in Miami.

We continued the Christmas in February theme when we made a trip to Best Buy today, where we bought a cover for my newly purchased iPhone. We also bought some albums, namely, Rehab's "Southern Discomfort," KT Tunstall's "Drastic Fantastic," R.E.M.'s "Around The Sun," and Robbie Williams' "Rudebox." We also bought a new subwoofer for our iMac and a Toshiba HD-A30 HD DVD Player. We got "Devil May Cry 4" for Xbox 360, The Simpsons Movie DVD, and the EyeToy for the PlayStation 3.

iPhone

I got my own iPhone today, the 16GB model!

Moby's Upcoming Album

If you are a Moby fan, like I am, then I would like to share with you the news that his new album, "Last Night," will be released on 1 April 2008 in the USA. I have admit that of all the albums I have heard by Moby, I've liked about 80%-90% of all the songs on them. To the right you can see the cover art of this upcoming album, which I just saw myself for the first time minutes ago. Do yourself a favor and sample of Moby's masterpieces, although chances are you've already hard some of them in the many movies they have been featured. By the way, a bit of trivia: Moby's parents nicknamed him Moby soon after birth, partly after the novel Moby-Dick, which was written by Herman Melville, his great-great-great-great uncle.

Bowling with the Sears® Gang

On the night of January 25^th, 2008, Alex and I joined his fellow coworkers (and one ex-coworker) for bowling* at Bird Bowl. We ran into our good friend, who until recently was the Karaoke Jockey at Café Con Leche, Amada. It was her last night in Miami; she would be leaving to New York the following morning. We bowled several frames and downed several drinks, except for Alex, who was still quite sick. I bowled one strike in a span of several hours, and Alex bowled a few of them, plus a couple of spares. Much fun was had.

*Bowling is a sport in which players attempt to score points by rolling a bowling ball along a flat surface in order to knock down objects called pins. There are many forms of bowling, with the earliest dating back to ancient Egypt; it is now known that the Egyptians had invented bowling. Origins can also be traced to ancient Finland and Yemen, and much later in 300 A.D. in Germany. In the US the best known form of bowling is probably the North American game of ten-pin bowling. This form, in both amateur and professional versions, is played around the world, making it one of the largest participation activities.

Betcha didn't know that!

Karaoke Event Brief

We attended Karaoke last night, but Alex was very sick so he could not enjoy himself thoroughly. Nonetheless, he managed to get in three songs, and I sang a few of my own. We wish Amada good luck in New York!

Recently, Rina left the Sears family (Alex's job). She will be very missed there.

Vacation!

I am off from work until next Wednesday; Alex isn't so lucky, but he does have a four-day weekend.

Unfortunately, he is very sick today.

Nonetheless, we are going to head over to Karaoke in a little while. Tonight is the last night Amada Anderson will host Karaoke at Café Con Leche, and tomorrow will be her last Karaoke event in Miami. She is moving to New York. She will be missed!

Headache ruined most of today

I had a bad headache most of the day which meant I lay in bed for hours--and I hate it when that happens. I ended up getting a lot of sleep, which I suppose is a good thing. This headache began sometime in the middle of the night last night.

Last night, we had Wendy's, and although my original plan was for a salad, I had a cheeseburger, with fries and chicken nuggets, and regular Coke. For dessert, I had about half of a dark chocolate bar which my mom had given Alex earlier in the day.

Alex and I will be headed to watch the movie Cloverfield in a little bit. Two of his co-workers will be joining us.

I am still working on getting the Karaoke pictures from this past Wednesday up. It was a rather slow night at the club, and it was very, very empty there towards the end. I heard about talks about closing down early, but I'm glad that they did not. I have some songs in mind for the upcoming Karaoke event on Wednesday night already, including "Bridge Over Troubled Water" by Simon and Garfunkel.

Off from work

I'm off from work today, and it is a wonderful feeling to know I can spend time doing anything I like!

Amazing New Stuff From Apple

Yesterday, Apple introduced the world’s thinnest notebook: MacBook Air. It measures 0.16 inches at its thinnest point while its maximum height of 0.76 inches is less than the thinnest point on competing notebooks. The repertoire of fantastic features includes a 1.6 GHz or 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 4MB L2 cache, 2GB of memory, an 80GB 1.8-inch hard drive [or you may select a 64GB solid state drive, meaning instant boot-up], and the latest 802.11n Wi-Fi technology and Bluetooth 2.1. Starting at just $1,799, MacBook Air begins shipping in two weeks.

Apple also introduced the Time Capsule, which is a wireless hard drive available in 500GB or 1TB capacities. It is also a full-featured 802.11n Wi-Fi base station.

There are other product introductions as well. Go to http://www.apple.com/hotnews/ for a summary of these and other introductions.

MacWorld SF 2008 Keynote!

As of right now, 5 hours, 33 minutes remain until the MacWorld SF 2008 Keynote

Full Expo coverage at MacRumors.com/mwsf

Get Ready for Cloverfield

You will not survive this one. There are rumors that special events are planned in theaters all across the continental United States to make this a unique movie experience. For example, you may be abducted during your movie-watching experience by one of the following: a huge, formerly two-headed scary monster (see picture, right) still in a rage over the untimely amputation of its second head (which seemingly kept the remaining head in check) by scientists wishing to do research on it, Czechoslovakian tennis champ Martina Navratilova sans recent showers and the use of deodorant, or the confused and quite possibly senile leader of the Free World, George Bush. If I have to be abducted by one of the above, I would do everything in my power to avoid the latter option.

Karaoke Night Was Outstanding

Karaoke Night at Club Café Con Leche was more than just a blast; it was three blasts in rapid succession! Alex once again opened up the night with a stunning rendition of "Cryin'" by Aerosmith. I followed this with a touching version of "Imagine" by John Lennon. Amada, the Karaoke Jockey, stunned the crowd with a remix of "You Oughtta Know" by Alanis Morissette. Alex gave "9 to 5" by Dolly Parton another shot; let's hope he keeps his 9 to 5 job. Alex and I performed "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" by the Beatles as a duet. Alex followed with "It Must Have Been Love" by Roxette. I performed "One" by U2, one of my favorite groups. Alex performed "If" by Janet Jackson. I performed "Devórame Otra Vez" by Eddie Santiago, followed by "Semi-Charmed Life" by Third-Eye Blind. Alex performed "Zombie" by The Cranberries. As I am pretty much a walking zombie myself at this point (it is 4:04AM in the morning), I must cut this blog entry short for now. I may add hyperlinks to the songs and artists tomorrow. In theory, I am supposed to wake up around 6AM to go to work. In practice, this may not happen.

Enough About Work

I will stop writing about work in my blog unless something unique happens; 98% of my days at work are nondescript. Anyhow, Alex and I just went for a nice jog/walk in the golf course in the Gables. I had a very decent workout, myself.

I just learned on Mac Rumors that Apple has upped the ante on their Mac Pro models. As BTO options, they feature up to two 3.0GHz or 3.2GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors, up to 32GB of RAM, and up to 4TB of internal storage, and 1600MHz, 64-bit dual independent frontside buses.

"The new Mac Pro is the fastest Mac we've ever made," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "With 3.2 GHz 8-core Xeon processing, a 1600 MHz front side bus and 800 MHz memory, the new Mac Pro uses the fastest Intel Xeon architecture on the market."

I did a little experiment. I configured myself a dream Mac on apple.com. My dream system has two 3.2GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors, 32GB of RAM, a Mac Pro RAID Card, 4TB of internal hard drive storage, an NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 1.5GB (Stereo 3D, two dual-link DVI), one 16x SuperDrive, an AirPort Extreme card (Wi-Fi), an Apple wireless Mighty Mouse and an Apple Wireless Keyboard (English) + Mac OS X, with no display (I already have enough displays at home). The grand total came out to $19,299.00. My birthday is coming up in July, in case you're interested.

Work Satisfactory

Work was satisfactory and I had the opportunity to leave at my scheduled time since Alex was sick and therefore available to pick me up immediately after my shift was over.

We passed by my mom's house to help her out with her e-mail; she can no longer do e-mail the same way because she ditched bellsouth.net because they suck. She is now with Comcast, who sucks a little less than bellsouth.net.

Then we went to Best Buy where we toyed with the idea of buying a new subwoofer for our computer's sound system. We decided not to do this yet as we're going to try a subwoofer we have at home which has not been used for some time. At one point Alex had to disassemble it to get our chinchillas out of it.

We did buy a new game for our Xbox 360, a game called "Scene It? Lights, Camera, Action." We tried it and so far it is a lot more fun than the DVD version of the game.

Karaoke Night Continues

We went to Karaoke night at Café Con Leche on Wednesday night as has become tradition. Alex did the first song of the night, "Personal Jesus" by Depeche Mode while I prayed to Him that Alex's singing would end soon. Immediately after this performance, Alex performed a second song, "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" from the musical film Mary Poppins. I must admit, the sound of it was something quite atrocious. Immediately after this, I performed "She Will Be Loved" by Maroon 5; whether my performance was loved is the subject of controversy. I then performed "Come Sail Away" by Styx--I think everyone wanted to go sail away until my song was over. Later on, Alex performed "I Try" by Macy Gray. He does, indeed. A subsequent song of Alex's was "Kiss The Rain" by Billie Myers. Other songs Alex performed included "Shoop" by Salt-N-Pepa. Alex and I also performed, together, "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" by They Might Be Giants. If you are interested in learning more about previous names of the city of Istanbul, not only English names but also names in other languages, then visit this link. One at a time, please. We don't want to overload the site.

Last night, we went back to Café Con Leche with Marisol, who is returning to Ohio today to continue her studies in the field of Pharmacy, a word which comes from the Greek φάρμακον, meaning drug. I know you needed to know that. Last night, it was 80s night there at the bar. We enjoyed a few drinks and 80s music. Marisol and I actually made it to the dance floor for a few brief minutes, but Alex simply didn't wanna put on his boogie shoes. After that, we went to Denny's where I experienced a moment of enlightenment, forgot all about my diet with reckless abandon and ate everything in sight--my main course consisted of the somewhat messy but never disappointing Nachos, but I helped Alex and Marisol with their food. I had an Oreo milkshake for dessert, further additing calories to my meal and shock to my system. Alex advised me to have an Alka-Seltzer before hitting the sack, a wise piece of advice which I gladly took. I am happy to report that I am in one piece this fine morning.

We are planning on returning to Café Con Leche this coming Wednesday, January 9th, at 9:30PM for some more Karaoke with talented Karaoke Jockey Amada. Do make an effort to attend, as the Jovian planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) are going to be neatly lined up and, therefore, your success on this night and your subsequent entry into the music business is guaranteed.

Worked out on 1/1/2008; Had Weird Dreams That Night

I am pleased to announce that Alex and I went jogging/walking on the Rickenbacker Causeway bridge yesterday. I wanted to ensure we exercised on both 12/31 and 1/1 as a sign of continuity of our workouts into the new year. We had a great workout and are poised to continue this into 2008.

Last night, I had a couple of weird dreams which I remembered vividly when I woke up this morning. Most notable amongst them is one dream where I was using the restroom and I heard a loud blast outside. When I stepped outside, my mom informed me sadly that the bomb had gone off when this delivery guy turned on his car and he was dead. The manner in which she told me was as if this bomb was expected and it was just a matter of when. She stated that he did not even scream. I saw him, dead, on the ground, next to his car. I remember looking several feet away and seeing my camera and wanting to take pictures, but I did not. I said I was going to call 911 and my mom told me not to, not to cover up the incident but more in the sense of "Do not get involved." People from the neighborhood noticed what had happened and they were running up to see the aftermath.

In another dream, I took my friend Natalia to a club. When it was our turn to get in, something happened behind the counter which delayed our entrance. We finally got in and I offered Natalia a drink; she declined. I offered again and she asked me for a coffee.

In yet another dream, Alex and I noticed that a bag of some food had been broken into overnight, seemingly by a mouse or similar creature.

Happy 2008!

If you're reading this, Happy 2008! If you're not a regular reader of my blog, then may you rot in the deepest depths of the most hellish parts of Hell! You are the slimy embodiment of evil, filth, and, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, you qualify for definitions 3^a and 3^b of an abomination. You're not nice.

I would like to announce the birth of and seek help for our new child, who is the Antichrist. Please see her adorable picture above. We are being told by the Catholic church that she must be sacrificed. However, we seek to rid her of all evil and let her live a normal, happy life. If you can help, please contact us immediately.

By the way, have you tried Facebook yet? It is a neater, less advertisement-riddled version of MySpace--and you are not automatically befriended by Tom when you join. Check out my Facebook profile and see if you like the way it is set up and may be interested in having a Facebook profile of your own.

Lastly, we both jogged and walked yesterday, the last day of 2007. We plan to jog and walk today as well to start the new year off right!

Good Workout, Hanging Out With Marisol

We had a good jog/walk at the golf course in Coral Gables this morning. We got back and cleaned up the house a bit. Alex worked on his blog. Later on, Marisol came by and we watched two movies here at home, "The Devil Wears Prada" and "300."

Little Sleep; Trip to Target

We both had a somewhat rough day at work due to little sleep after Karaoke night last night. When we got home from work, Alex took a nap while I worked on our website. When Alex woke up, we went to Target and Alex got LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga and Drake's Fortune: Uncharted, both for the PS3. On the way home, we got dinner at McDonald's and ate watching recorded episodes of Jeopardy.

Another Successful Karaoke Night

Last night was our fifth session at Karaoke night at Café Con Leche. We slaughtered, er, rendered beautifully various songs and introduced a new victim to Karaoke night, our longtime friend Marisol. Marisol refused to sing, but I'm sure we can keep on trying to convince her to sing one song next time.

Alex opened up the night with his rendition of "Total Eclipse of the Heart" by Bonnie Tyler. My first song was "An Innocent Man" by Billy Joel. Other songs Alex performed included "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen, "I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That" by Meatloaf, "Whatta Man" by Salt-N-Pepa with En Vogue, and "Un-Break My Heart" by Toni Braxton. Other songs I performed included "Movin' Out" by Billy Joel, "Creep" by Radiohead, "The Air That I Breathe" by Simply Red, "Lady" by Styx, and "Stars" by Simply Red.

Missing Florida Woman Found!

I am pleased to inform that a Florida woman missing for almost two years is alive and well. "Marisol" resurfaced and last night we had the distinct honor of being the first ones to spend some time with her. Marisol explained that she had to go into hiding because the mob was after her due to her involvement with an intergalactic money laundering/.mp3 downloading/DVD pirating operation that had not been sanctioned by the other members of her mob. I am pleased to announce that we had a delightful time eating dinner at La Carreta until Alex discovered a waitress dumping what appeared to be a glass of water which had been partially drunk back into the pitcher used to fill other customers' glasses. After this gruesome discovery, we made a quick getaway and headed towards Miami Beach to walk around. We ran into two guys carrying snakes and I had the unique opportunity of having a snake wrapped around me. We then enjoyed some drinks outside Score. We have informed Marisol about our newly discovered Karaoke venue and she stated she would be joining us this coming Wednesday.

Carb-free period must end

Today, Alex gave me one of the most beautiful gifts he has ever given me. We will have a star named "Alra" as of December 25th, 2007. This star is located near the constellation Cetus, the fourth largest constellation in the sky.

I have officially introduced carbs back into my diet, but not exactly by choice. I am now drinking Gatorated® before, during, and after jogging in an effort to avoid heart pain that I've been experiencing sometimes during jogging lately.

Yesterday, while researching the source of the heart pain, I ended up at a doctor's office in the building next to where I work, on the advice of a nurse who works at the ER at my hospital. It was brought to my attention by the ultrasound technician that I am suffering from a heart murmur. He also said that the doctor usually tells his cardiac patients to drink Gatorate®. Although I won't find out the official results of my ultrasound until January 2nd, 2008, I decided to begin on Gatorade® immediately. Today, when I jogged and had this drink, I did not experience heart pain. It is too soon to tell if this was just a coincidence or the Gatorate® actually worked. Future tests should yield more definitive results.

Über-enjoyable night at Karaoke

It is 2:19AM in the wee hours of Thursday morning and we got home a little while ago from Karaoke at Café Con Leche. It was an extremely enjoyable night and both Alex and I performed many songs. Alex performed "Ironic" by Alanis Morissette, "Carry On Wayward Son" by Kansas, "A Whole New World" from the Aladdin soundtrack, and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." He performed as a backup singer for various songs. I performed "Everybody's Changing" by Keane, "Angel" by John Secada, "Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd, "Babylon" by David Gray, and "The Way" by Fastball--I got a feeling the crowd really enjoyed my rendition of the latter. There were some really good singers and some not-so-good singers, as always. We stayed until the place closed and Juan, the bartender, performed "Closing Time" by Semisonic as the final song of the night as is tradition. We shall be there again in one week's time.

Weights started

This past Sunday, the 16th, I began doing weights at home with our newly purchased weight set. Alex started yesterday. Of course, we will continue our jogging/walking to maintain and continue our weight loss.

I Am Legend; Perfect Stranger

We went to a morning showing of "I Am Legend" at Sunset Place. I thought the movie's concept was unique, but the movie was a little bit slow-placed. It depicted the somewhat realistic scenario of a cure for cancer gone wrong and ending up wiping out almost everyone on the planet. Visually, the movie was beautiful. The abandoned, overgrown-with-grass streets of New York City were definitely a sight to behold.====>

<====Later, at home, watched Perfect Stranger with Hale Berry and Bruce Willis. A fantastic movie indeed. It kept you guessing all the way to the end. Great ending!

Weird Dream

I had a dream last night that I was watching some kind of singing performance live. I believe someone else was singing first, but this is the part I remember well: a fat black guy steps out on stage and starts doing what is colloquially known as booty dancing. It isn't very long at all before his pants split wide open and his butt is completely exposed. He apologizes, the music stops, and he starts to run backstage (towards the kitchen, from what I can remember).

Where are my pills!?!?!??

Karaoke Night Superb

Well, last night we went to our Karaoke night at Café Con Leche in Coral Gables as we have been doing lately on Wednesday nights, and it was absolutely fantastic. Some of Alex's co-workers and one of my co-workers joined us. I went up to the mic several times, as did Alex. Some of the songs I performed included "Angie" by The Rolling Stones and "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin. Some of the songs Alex performed included "Summer of 69" by Bryan Adams, "You Oughtta Know" by Alanis Morissette, "Under The Sea" with others there, and a Proclaimers song with Rina. I only wish they closed later instead of at 2AM. The bartender was extremely appreciative of the fact that we helped clean up the place a bit at the end of the night. We definitely plan to go back next week. Here is a link to some pictures so you can get an idea of what it's like. Please feel free to e-mail us if you'd like to join us sometime in the future for a night of guaranteed fun at one of these Karaoke events.

Plenty of work on website; Jog/Walk; Trip to the Apple Store

I did a great amount of work on our website today. A good portion of that was setting up the navigation bar.

When Alex came home from work, we went for a jog/walk around the golf course in Coral Gables. Alex was reluctant, but I convinced him. After this, we went to Sears and picked up our weight bench. Muscles, here we come!

A bit later, we went to The Apple Store to consider options for replacing Alex's lost iPod. He ended up getting an early Christmas present--the 16GB iPod Touch. He is very happy with it. He was going for the 8GB model, but I told him, "You only live once," and he easily accepted going for the 16GB model.

Relaxing Day Off

I had a relaxing day off--I did my usual jogging/walking (without Alex as he was recovering from last night), then I came home and took a nice afternoon nap. We then visited Alex's mom, followed by a short trip to Best Buy, where Alex bought a cover for his iPhone. After that, we proceeded to get dinner. Alex was disappointed that Chicken Kitchen was already closed, so he settled for an omelette from Sergio's. I had a salad from McDonald's. We began watching the Video Game Awards while eating. However, Alex got sleepy and we turned the show off. I then went and worked on our website.

Working on Forum; Karaoke Night at Home

I spent the better part of yesterday setting up our forum, which is now open for business. Check it out at http://alraland.alra111.com. Several boards have been set up for discussing various topics.

Later in the day, we had Tony and Luis over for some Karaoke on the PlayStation 3 with SingStar, which we just now found out has been released as a PS3 game (the one we were using was the PS2 version on our PS3). It appears the PS3 has some great songs on it and we may just go and buy it today!

Last night was great practice for later in the week on Wednesday night when we go to Karaoke Night at Café Con Leche.

ADDENDUM: After a bit of further research, I realized I read the WIkipedia article wrong. SingStar for the PlayStation 3 has not been released in the United States yet. Apparently, it has in the Netherlands, Australasia and Europe. This is so wrong. The richest country in the world does not get SingStar for the PS3 first.

alra111.com

As of December 6, 2007 at approximately 11:05PM EST, we own alra111.com! You can now access our website at http://www.alra111.com. This is very much a work-in-progress and I am learning all this stuff as I go.

Work was crazy tonight. The person who would have been doing most of the drug deliveries called in sick. It was busy, but it made time go by fairly quickly. No workout today, except for going up and down stairs at work and running delivering drugs. I'm off on Saturday and Sunday, so it's all good.

Karaoke Night!

We did our usual jog/walk in the beginning of the day (yesterday, December 5th, not the posting date you see above), before work, as opposed to after work. I really enjoyed jogging up and down Rickenbacker Causeway so early in the morning.

An excellent night at Karaoke followed work! We were there until closing time (2:00AM), when they actually played the song Closing Time. I think I'm starting to lose my fear of singing in front of a crowd--at least when the words to the particular song I'm singing are being highlighted on a screen and I can refer to them whenever I need to. The songs I sang included Walk On by U2 and American Pie by Don McLean. I was slightly disappointed when a duet I was supposed to do with Alex failed to show his words--so it ended up being a solo.

Work Nice, Workout Cancelled

Work was pretty sweet today. Nothing eventful to report on that front. My scrub pants were finally delivered (the company had messed up and provided scrub shirts the color of which didn't exactly match the pants--they took forever to get the right pants delivered). The name of the company is Capstone Group and one of the services the provide is "Apparel & Embroidery - brand your company with hats, shirts, shorts, tees, flip flops etc." At least in this regard, they sucked. I plan never to order scrubs from them again. At least my company, Jackson Memorial Hospital, provides a uniform allowance, so it wasn't my own money that was spent on this company. I have provided their logo on the right so that if you ever see it and have to decide whether or not to do business with them, I strongly recommend you avoid them.


After work, we were all geared up to go work out. We were going to go back and forth across the Rickenbacker Causeway. After paying the toll to get on the Causeway and trying to park, Alex missed the turn into the parking lot and we ended up turning back, therefore wasting the $1.50 on the toll. We then decided we were going to park near the Causeway in a parking lot on Brickell Street (see picture on right--of course, it doesn't look dangerous at all during the day), but considering how dark it was, Alex feared we could get mugged or killed. At one point I said, "Let's go for it." Ultimately, however, we decided against this and simply came back home.

Last, but not least, I have created my own little group on MySpace for all the fans of Mac OS X Leopard (all twelve of you out there). Here is the link. Don't all rush at once; I'm rush there are bandwidth limitations. If you don't already know, Mac OS X Leopard is the latest version of Apple's operating system for their Macintosh computers. In other words, it's like what Vista is for Windows, except without all the bugs and the urge to downgrade back to Windows XP when you find out how bad Vista is. Incidentally, here is the link to my MySpace site.

Orlando Trip--Day 4 (Final Day)

I woke up feeling fairly energetic and ready to do stuff. I got Alex out of bed and we efficiently got everything packed at checked out of the hotel at 9:33AM.

The trip was smooth and we did not stop once.

We got to Miami, and shortly after passing Exit 10B on I-95 south, we experienced the requisite delay--a sure sign that we are back in this piece of crap city. Luckily, this delay did not last very long and we made it home in a respectable amount of time.

We arrived at home at 1:23PM.

Click here to see all the pictures from our trip.

A little later, Alex dropped me off near Rickenbacker Causeway for my jog/walk. I had a good workout. Alex picked me up, then we passed by my mom's house for a bit, then went to Sears to order our--wait for it--weight bench! It should be in stock by December 11th.

Orlando Trip--Day 3

We started off our day at Universal Studios. The first show we attended was Shrek 4-D. In Alex's own words, "We might as well get it out of the way." As in the past, I found those pigs with the German accents in the introduction to the show incredibly annoying.

After this, we went on the Mummy ride three times in a row. This ride is not that bad at all. Granted, it is not as thrilling as riding the Hulk in Islands of Adventure, but it serves its purpose and it the most exciting actual ride in this park.

After this, we went to the Jaws attraction. It's always good for a laugh due to the different actors' varying degrees of acting skills. This one guy was decent.

We went on the Men in Black ride. It is a competitive ride where you have to shoot targets and you get points based on your performance. I lost the first time around. I had lost the battle, but not the war. I insisted on going on the ride again, determined to kick Alex's butt. But once again, Alex kicked my butt. Now I had lost the war. On a positive note for me, an old lady in the same vehicle as ours kicked Alex's ass. The picture to the right shows the scores of the people in our
vehicle. If there is no picture there yet, there will be one, soon. We have to scan it and upload it. Patience is a virtue.

Afterwards, we went to the E.T. Adventure ride. I decided I wouldn't give E.T. the easy version of my name ("Ralph"). The reason you give your name to the attendant is basically E.T. mentions your name at the end of the ride when he thanks you for your troubles. I gave my full name, "Rafael." We went through the cute little ride through E.T. land and helped E.T. get to his home planet. This ride would be me more exciting if the outcome weren't always the same. Perhaps, say, one out of every eight times you go through the ride, he turns on you. He starts calling you names, attacking you and everyone in the vehicle, and drawing blood and biting off entire limbs, not just fingers. Or at least perhaps he can utter an obscenity or a racial slur. Alas, he did a decent job of pronouncing my name and the ride ended without incident.

Then we went to see the animal show, "Animal Actors on Location!" This is a super cute show with cats, dogs, monkeys, and other animals doing all sorts of cute tricks.

We then attended the Universal Horror Make-Up Show which was absolutely hilarious from beginning to end. The point of this show was to give you an introduction to Hollywood special effects but the two guys hosting the show infused it with so much comedy that it was like attending a comedy show. The grand finale consisted of a segment designed to trick the audience into believing that this huge animatronic werewolf was being controlled by a volunteer from the audience wearing a special suit which supposedly transmitted her exact movements to the werewolf and made it mimic her. Lo and behold, the "animatronic" werewolf suddenly goes out of control and attacks the audience member. She is rescued from certain death by one of the guys hosting the show, but the werewolf goes on to maul the other host and make a bloody mess out of him. All in all, a very enjoyable show and one I wouldn't mind seeing again, preferably with the same two guys hosting it--the chemistry between them was great.

After this show, we went to see Terminator 2 3-D. This is an action-packed show which combines scenes from the actual movie, scenes filmed by the real actors specifically for this show, and live action. A humorous introduction to the new technologies being developed by Cyberdyne Corporation precedes the big show, which is still funny even after seeing it many times.

After Terminator, we went to see the Jimmy Neutron show. I can't say that this is one of my favorites. You basically sit in an auditorium that bounces around as you watch a cartoon.

We headed back to our hotel room, changed, and headed to find a park to do some jogging/walking. The first park we ended up at wanted to charge $4 just to go inside. Yeah, right. We asked Tabitha (our trusty Garmin GPS) for the location of the nearest park. Bingo! Free park. I had a decent jog up and down a street near the park as opposed to within the actual park.

For dinner, we went to Pirate's Dinner Adventure on 6400 Carrier Drive. The pre-show entertainment was not bad at all. There was a Nativity scene which had a live goat and sheep. There were appetizers being served, which included pork or veggies. Alex partook in the pork offering--several times. I had one serving of pork. There was the obligatory gift shop. Then there was a mini-show which included some magic acts like loading a lady (supposedly a random volunteer from the audience) into a cannon which was supposedly fired and she ended up being teleported into a round fishtank swimming around with a snake. Then, a curtain was pulled over the fishtank and we never found out what happened with her. Perhaps the snake had a tasty feast. We'll never know. We were eventually led into the main dining area. Unfortunately, I'm not really into pirate stories, so it was hard for me to stay focused on the story being told--especially considering I was starving and there was food (eventually) to be eaten. Some excellent acrobatics by the actors piqued my interest, as well as some rather handsome waiters, including our own. There was this elf in the story because it is a holiday storyline. This elf never failed to be annoying and unfortunately did not meet his demise throughout the duration of the rather lengthy story. As far as the meal itself, the portions were not exceptionally large but not tiny either. The food was good (I had turkey and pork with mushroom dressing [all 2 milliliters of it] on the side), and the dessert, according to Alex (he had both mine and his due to my current avoidance of carbs), was also good. Alex and I would summarize the entire experience as money well spent.

Orlando Trip--Day 2

The phone rang (our wake-up call), the alarm went off, and eventually I got out of bed. I remembered Alex had told me sometime in the middle of the night about having an upset stomach. Figuring he probably hadn't slept that well, I decided we could skip our morning workout since he probably hadn't slept well. I went back to bed to rest a little more.

A little while later, we got up. Alex picked up sausage and eggs for me from the complimentary hotel breakfast, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

We went over to Universal's Islands of Adventure. We got on the Hulk and that was quite an exhilarating experience since I hadn't been on a roller coaster in some time.

We had been on every major ride--in some cases twice--by the time our friends Randy and Richard (that's them to the right of this paragraph) met up with us, around 10'ish. With them, we went on Poseidon's Fury, Spiderman, Pterodactyl, and more than one of Dr. Seuss' rides.

After the park, Alex mentioned he was ready for lunch/dinner and expressed a desire in going to Golden Corral. Initially, I was overcome with apprehension for what is someone on a low-carb diet to do in a place like Golden Corral, where I would have to come face-to-face with dozens, if not hundreds, of carbohydrate-laden temptation? I reluctantly decided to grant Alex his wish and we went to Golden Corral. Luckily, I managed to stick to my low-carb diet and found plenty of low-carb options that were satisfying.

First Day of Orlando Trip

Right after we left the house heading to Orlando, traffic on US1 northbound was already a bitch at 2:04PM. It is imperative to leave this town ASAP. I kept dozing off as Alex drove us to Orlando. We made it to the hotel and were quite pleased with the room.

We went to Chili's, where I had my first huge serving of carbs in weeks, in the form of the Skillet Queso. The rest of my meal was fairly low-carb. Alex had the Triple Dipper (an appetizer) as his main meal.

Leaving to Orlando; The Cranberries

We are leaving to Orlando in about two hours or so. Once we get there we are supposed to go jogging/walking. Hopefully this will happen.

If you like The Cranberries, and I don't mean the fruit, you may know their song, Zombie. You will love my remake of the video for this song, immediately below. Mind you, after about two minutes, the screen will go completely blank and the audio will stop. This means it's over. You can hit the stop button or go do something else. I will hopefully fix this minor issue in a future re-post of the video.

Work Decent, Left a Bit on the Early Side

Work was decent "yesterday" (it is after midnight now); I tied up loose ends with Kronos (the software which allows me to verify that people's punches at the time clocks actually went through, thereby ensuring they will receive an accurate paycheck). This was in preparation for next Monday, which is the last day of Kronos edits, and I will not be at work until Tuesday.

I wasn't feeling well most of the day due to a headache, and a bit later, nausea which may have been caused by the medication I took for the headache. My co-worker Leticia gave me a ride home. I was soon in bed, and soon after that, asleep, until Alex got home and succeeded in at least partially waking me up. Excessive fatigue, however, prevented us from going to work out and I went back to sleep.

Now, late at night, after midnight as I stated above, I finally figured out how to import all our old photos from our Mac Mini into our iMac. They are importing as I type, and I am a happy as a result.

Karaoke Event Brief

We went to the Karaoke event tonight after all, but stayed there less than an hour. We did not perform any songs. After one or two drinks, I did not feel very well and we decided to call it a night. I think I should have had a bite to eat before drinking.

Another great video by Rafagon

Here is another great video for your viewing pleasure, "Losing My Religion." Not extremely recent. Enjoy!

Work Was Uneventful; Feeling Sick; Went to Workout

Work was fairly uneventful. But this is not necessarily a bad thing. I felt a small degree of discomfort in my throat throughout the day, and my voice is not 100%--signs that I am getting sick. But it appears as if my body is fighting it, because my ailment has remained at a very mild level for the past three or four days. Nonetheless, Alex still took me to the golf course in Coral Gables for a pretty decent jog/walk.

At this moment it would appear that my cold will not prevent our trip to Orlando scheduled for this coming Friday.

Today I'd like to share something different--a video--not very recent--of my rendition of "Angels" by Robbie Williams. Opinions are welcome. Enjoy!

Workout Successful

Alex got home from work, and, sure enough, we made it to the golf course for a few laps. I had an excellent workout. My iPod is acting weird, though--some menu options are gone! For example, I can only listen to songs by shuffling the playlist. I cannot look at the playlist and pick a particular song. No biggie, though.

After the workout, we went to Best Buy, where we spent some time browsing through movies. We had Close Encounters of the Third Kind on Blu-ray in our hands for a few minutes while we debated on whether to get it. We finally decided not to get it. Alex got himself an Xbox 360 game--Mass Effect. I searched desperately for something to buy but failed to decide on anything I wanted. I am disappointed that Best Buy is still refusing to carry Western Digital's 2TB hard drive.

Before going home, we went into Walgreens so that Alex could find a remedy for his sinus headaches. He managed to find something--Sudafed Headache and Sinus Pressure Relief. Let's see if it does anything--it's merely a combination of acetaminophen (Tylenol) and phenylephrine. For me, plain old Tylenol does nothing for headaches. And as far as using phenylephrine as a decongestant, the Wikipedia article I linked to above discusses its questionable effectiveness.

Work Was Pretty Much Great

Although there was a lot of work today and the Pharmacy Buyer and I spent many hours unpacking and putting up a humongous order, work was entertaining and it was not a bad day. My friend Natalia dropped me off at home, and now I'm waiting for Alex. I am feeling fairly energetic and ready to go work out.

I left the iMac since last night working on a project--making a movie file out of our "Devil Wears Prada" DVD. I came home to see a message about the program crashing on the screen. I tried to play the file that was created (an .mp4) but I get a window saying that the file is not a movie file. So I must continue my search for a way to make a DVD into a file that could be imported into and played from iTunes.

Work Was Okay; I'm Getting Sick

I worked today from 7AM - 3:30PM. It was okay. It dragged a little bit. Luckily, a runner was scheduled so I didn't have to make all the drug deliveries myself. I had two Pepsi Maxes during work to keep me going, as well as some coffee. I need to learn to rely a little less on caffeine.

After work, Alex and I were supposed to go jogging/walking. I changed into my jogging clothes but we decided to sit on the couch and get lazy. We both sort of dozed off and the workout was skipped.

I've had a slight itchiness in my throat today, which leads me to believe I'm getting sick. Alex is in the middle of a cold himself, so I probably got this from him.

Today was my second day taking Milled Flaxseed. According to Wikipedia,

Flax seed contain high levels of lignans and Omega-3 fatty acids. Lignans may benefit the heart, possess anti-cancer properties and studies performed on mice found reduced growth in specific types of tumours. Initial studies suggest that flaxseed taken in the diet may benefit individuals with certain types of breast cancer, and also patients with prostate cancer. Flax may also lessen the severity of diabetes by stabilizing blood-sugar levels.

Scheduled to Work

I was originally scheduled to work today, but I generously () gave the day to my co-worker Leticia. I have spent much of the day working on this blog, importing CDs into iTunes, and napping.

Black Friday

We got up at about 5AM and headed for Circuit City, in search of a 1-Terabyte Western Digital external hard drive. When we got there, the line was reminiscent of one of those lines to get into a Haunted House at Halloween Horror Nights. It was an easy decision to head to our next stop. We decided to try the Circuit City near Dadeland Mall, which was equally packed. We then headed to CompUSA where we found absolutely nothing worthwhile. We then went to Old Navy where I got some pants, shirts and a baseball cap. We decided to try Best Buy and got a couple of things there, including Stuntman Ignition for the Xbox 360, and some movies like A Few Good Men, Knocked Up, and King Kong. Seeing as that I liked my previously acquired David Bowie album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust the Spiders From Mars so much, I went ahead and got his album Hunky Dory. We also got a CD rack and a garment steamer.

Not wanting to give up on Circuit City so easily, we headed back there in search of the 1-Terabyte hard drive. When I got my hands on the box, I was disappointed to learn that it only had a USB interface and not a FireWire interface. We decided not to get it. We headed home and I went on my requisite jog.

Alex went to work, but I had the day off. Lucky me!