Happy New Year!

At the Park

Laura and I decided to get enjoy our morning ritual of coffee and breakfast tacos at the 9th street park off Lamar. We got our food and drinks at Emerald City Press and brought the pups to enjoy our last morning of the year.

Game Night

I had a blast at Finnegan's last night playing SF4 & DJ Hero and hanging out with a bunch of friends!

Weather Change = Me getting sick

Everytime we have dramatic changes in the weather I always catch a cold. It started out as a sore throat and then last night evolved into a full-fledged, stuffy nose-headache sinus cold. It really sucks because I wanted to go to our company Employee Christmas party downtown. Oh well, c'est la vie. It is more important that I don't get sick right now because we're super busy at work and I need to be there. It did give me an opportunity to sit back and get some much needed rest though. And I put in some hours in COD, hehe.

Xmas Party 09

We had a great time at the OFFICIAL County Line/Cannoli Joe's Christmas Party. Lots of great food, drink and friends. Laura and I had fun catching up with Tiff and Crystal.




We then went to an after party that Laura's friends were having and danced until we were worn out and ready to go to sleep. I didn't get any pics of this party, because we were too busy getting down on the dance floor.

Holi-daze

First, I have to apologize for not updating the blog...been busy with work and distracted with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.Also trying to work out when I have the time. Later today going to go Christmas shopping, wish me luck, I'm going to the mall. I already gto some things picked out but the majority of stuff I'll probably order online (cheaper and more convenient).
So, we were open on Thanksgiving and it was insanely busy at the restaurant, but that is great for business. It was fun, everything went really smooth and we served over 1000 happy guests. I know we're doing it again for Thanksgiving next year, so that's cool. We are also thinking of ways to make New Years Eve popular as well, but the clocks ticking on that.
I started a blog on WordPress, and I like the interface so keep an eye out for updates that might suggest migration to that site O.o
I've really been enjoying COD: MW2. Great friggin game! I am not looking forward to having to return it to my friend who loaned it to me, hehe. I'll get my own copy soon enough though, so no worries. Any one who wants to play online with me on Playstation Network my PSN id is: q254
How shocking, I know. Alright I'll be back later after I come back from the mall, maybe something exciting will happen and I can blog about it.

New iPhone

Woohoo, I finally made it the Apple store to look at iPods for my gf and while I was there I asked them to take a look at my iPhone that has been messed up for a few months now. It was acting like I had the headphones in all the time and so I could only use speaker phone. The guy started looking at it, blew the headphone jack out with some compressed air, stuck some tool in there and nothing. So, he asked me if I had everything backed up and I did so he just started the process of transferring my account info to a new phone. I just sat there and watched without saying a word and before you know it he gave an invoice to sign that had $0 charge and then gave me a new white 16GB iPhone 3G with my sim card in it and said thank you. FREAKING AWESOME!!! I can't believe I waited so long to do that.

Rooster Tattoo is Finished!!

Finally got all the color done. Billy also touched up the Koi on my left arm. I love it. This girl does wonders with a needle and ink! Going back in 2 weeks so she can get some good pics for her portfolio.

Super Easy Jailbreak and Unlock iPhone

This isn't new information, but it is a very simple method of jailbreaking and unlocking your iPhone. Click here for original article.

How to Jailbreak And Unlock Your iPhone With Blackra1n And BlackSn0w on Windows


We had recently written about the release of Geohot's iPhone jailbreaking tool Blackra1n.

Here is a short tutorial that you might find useful in using these tools to jailbreak and unlock your iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS on your Windows PC.


Some important points to note before we start:

Hacking your iPhone could void its warranty. So please proceed with caution and at your own risk.
Make sure that you have iPhone OS 3.1.2 installed on your iPhone.
The jailbreak requires 05.11.07 baseband.
If you have a new iPhone 3GS (updated Bootrom), BlackRa1n only supports a tethered jailbreak. This means that once jailbroken you should not let your battery die. If it does die you will need to reconnect it to the computer and use BlackRa1n to boot it.
Please take a backup of your iPhone, refer to this post for more details.
After you have successfully jailbroken your iPhone, please checkout our article on tips to keep your iPhone secure.

Instructions to Jailbreak:

Step 1: Visit Blackra1n website and choose the Blackra1n software for Windows by clicking on the Windows logo

Step 2: Download blackra1n.exe (opens download link)

Step 3: Connect your iPhone or iPod to the computer and run the downloaded blackra1n executable file

Step 4: You will now be shown a button that reads 'Make it ra1n'. Click on the button to the jailbreak process



Step 5: Notice the following events on your iPhone:

The iPhone is placed in recovery mode
The recovery mode is replaced by a picture of Geohot on your iPhone or iPod
Your device will reboot
Step 6: You are shown a pop-up. You may press OK

Jailbreaking is complete. You can now see the blackra1n icon on your springboard. If you want to proceed to unlock your iPhone, follow these steps below.

Instructions to Unlock your iPhone:

Step 1 Make sure you are connected to the Internet and click on the blackra1n icon.



Step 2 Select sn0w and tap on Install to start the unlock process.

Step 3 Once the installation is complete, you are shown a confirmation screen. Tap on 'Close'

Step 4 Unlocking is complete. You can confirm this from the Blacksn0w icon on the springboard.

Step 5 You may uninstall blackra1n now. Tap on the blackra1n icon on the springboard and press uninstall.

That's it folks. Your jailbreaking and unlocking is complete. We have all along been fans of Geohot and if you are impressed with his software, take a moment to make a donation by visiting his website.

As always, please tell us how it goes.

New Stereo

I was going to take lots of pictures and do a whole walkthrough on me installing my new car stereo, but once I got started it I was done before I knew it. The car burglars were considerate enough to leave plenty of length on the wiring so it was super easy to install the new one.

When I got the car back from the body shop they didn't put in a piece of the center console so that's why there is a gaping hole above the stereo. The stereo will actually go in that location once the other piece is installed where the stereo is now.



I got the Sony MEX-BT3700U model. I don't know what the MEX stands for but BT means Bluetooth, because it has built-in Bluetooth functionality (I'll get to that in a sec). Pretty sweet! It plays radio, of course, and CD's as well as data CD's with mp3, wma, and aac formats. It also has front-end line in jack that can connect anything that has a headphone jack out, so basically any mp3 player or laptop even. The real reason I bought this model though is because it has USB outlet on the faceplate as well. I had this on the stereo that was stolen, and I used it as my primary way of listening to music. I would just load my 8 GB jump drive and play whatever music I wanted, except it wouldn't play wma. Now, it does and more. I can also connect my iPhone (or iPod, if I had one) and it will recognize the iPhone and allow me to control the iPhone through the car stereo controls, as well as give me a scrolling display of what album, artist, track I am listening to. Pretty neat, huh?
So, now for the best part, Bluetooth functionality! There is a simple pairing process that lets my iPhone and stereo talk to each other and it is only required to be paired once. After that it automatically finds it each time I get in the car. This functionality allows me to stream music from my iPhone to the car stereo wirelessly. I control the iPhone just like I would normally from the device itself and it offers me several options of how to output the sound; either the speaker on the phone, the headphone jack or over Bluetooth to the stereo, which it labels XPLOD. It works fairly well, but there are some issues when I'm driving. The Bluetooth radio field might be getting interference so it will occasionally drop. The other neat thing about Bluetooth is that no matter what input source I'm listening to it will automatically mute the music and allow me to take a phone call through the stereo handsfree (almost, anyway). The ringer and caller's voice comes out of my speakers in the car, I just have to slide the answer button on my iPhone to answer the call. I can hear the caller perfectly clear and I simply speak normally. I don't know where the mic is for the stereo but I think it is in the faceplate. I haven't had any problems with people hearing me as of yet.

Here is a little clip of me trying to explain the functions, with some difficulty and an impromptu demo of the Bluetooth phone functionality:

Fun Fun Fun Fest '09

Laura and I had a great time on Sunday! It felt really good to be able to spend time with her and not worry about work for a whole day. We got to see some really cool bands that I wasn't aware of as well as some classic shit from Danzig and the GZA!


Lots of rain, but it didn't keep anyone from having a good time!

Thursday Adventures

I finally got to may appointment with Billy Thursday morning. I rode my bike over there and was able to grab some breakfast tacos at Joe's Coffee and Bakery on E. 7th St. Great breakfast tacos! They make their own tortillas so the tacos are bigger and fluffy, for only $1.59 each.



Now I have to check and see if they have good coffee. Either way, I'm going back with Laura, she'll like it I think.
So, I got back to the shop and we had our tacos, Billy's husband Sean brought us coffee from Progress. That was really cool of him, I wish I had had another taco for him, but I only got enough for me, Billy, and Megan. Next time.
We were going to try and get the whole tattoo colored but due to time constraints we could only get the rooster itself done, minus the tail feathers. We set up an appointment for 2 Mondays from now. Billy and I were also talking about touching up the Koi on my other arm, and I told her that I also wanted to add some color to it. I'm excited about that!




I finally heard from the body shop where my car is at. They called the restaurant looking for me early this morning and Laura called me and let me know. I woke up late so when I called back the guy I need to talk to was at lunch. Hopefully everything is back in tip-top shape and there aren't going to be any hidden fees or problems with my insurance not wanting to pay for something. I'm always very suspicious when having to deal with car shops and insurance companies. Either way I won't be able to pick it up until tomorrow at the earliest. I'll post pics when I get it back so I can feedback from other people if it looks like they did a good job. Until then....

WTF

I had to post this slideshow from Huffington Post. It gives examples of several different idiotic, but real products. Some I have seen but this list compiles the best of the best for your enjoyment.
I'm seriously considering buying the "Back Up" and maybe some "Aspray"... not really.

Oops

There was a miscommunication between Billy and myself, so I rode all the way over to Bijou only to reschedule our appointment for Thursday morning. Well, at least it was good excuse to get out and ride for an hour and a half on this beautiful day. I feel good, Laura's on her way and we're going to cook here. Maybe I'll work on Beth's laptop if I have time tonight. Should be a straightforward install of XP or 2000. I'll take pic's of my progress. Speaking of which, it's good we rescheduled the tattoo appt because I forgot my camera at the house. I did get some funny pic's with my iPhone while I was riding around though.

My bike in front of the shop


Me, sitting on the curb across the street from the shop, because I showed up a half hour early



On my way back home, leaving downtown via S Congress bridge

COD: Modern Warfare 2

This looks awesome!

Nice day

Trying out a new template for the blog. Not sure if I like it yet, but it'll do for now. I still want to do some actual coding as well, just to change some of the backgrounds or something. We'll see when I get around to it. In the meantime, don't hesitate to leave me some feedback.
Had a blast this past weekend for Halloween, except I didn't take my own camera so I didn't get any real good pics of me and Laura. Here's a few...



Great weather today. The animals are enjoying it, the neighbor's chicken even decided to bust out of the coop.

Rowena was having a good time too.

Going to head to the tattoo shop in a bit for coloring and shading. I'll take pics and post later.

UPDATE: Car Break-In, DJ Hero, Rooster Tattoo

So I talked to car insurance people, gonna have to pay $500 for deductible, but they'll cover the rest. I'm taking that shit to the dealership, get the best and baddest replacement parts for the window, console, arm rest etc... Oh yeah, I got in the car to go buy plastic sheeting yesterday and found out that, due to the wiring being ripped out of the dashboard, my turn signal lights aren't working either. So there is more damage than I originally thought. I thought i would still be able to drive, but that just sends a message to cops "Please pull me over!", also my inspection tag is out so that's no good. The last thing I need right now is to get a ticket. Ahhhh, life is complicated sometimes. I just hope all that stuff gets fixed properly and in an expedient fashion. They also told me that they might be able to cover the stereo because it was "permanently affixed" to the car. My renter's insurance people told me that they couldn't cover it because it was less than my deductible.

On the lighter side of things, I've been checking out the reviews of DJ Hero and I decided I want to get it as soon as I have some money. It looks super fun and the soundtrack seems pretty good as well. It'll probably be around Christmas when I get to play it myself, but I have patience.

I set up my appointment for next week to get shading and color on my rooster tat. 4:00 on Tuesday. That's hard to wait for, the outline is healing up real nice. It didn't even bleed that much. I've been keeping it lotioned up so it doesn't itch too bad either.

In regards to he blog itself, I've been doing some reading online about HTML and CSS so expect to see some changes pretty soon. These templates are all pretty boring, needs more cowbell. I guess it just depends on how much free time I have over the next few weeks. I don't plan on going out anytime soon. I might not even do anything for Halloween because of a lack of funds. I can't buy a costume or spend money on makeup, so maybe I will have more free time. A friend at work also gave me an old laptop to fix up. Really old, originally had Windows ME, so, yeah. I'll slap Win2000 and it and get it going quick though.

New Tattoo - Rooster Outline

I decided I wasn't going to stay depressed all day and I went ahead and made it to my tattoo appointment. I felt that if I had done that, somehow the burglars would still have some kind of power over me. I made all the phone calls I needed to and did everything I could to remedy the situation, so why not go get a tattoo I have been looking forward to getting?

I really love the way it came out, Billy Baca Baldwin over at Bijou Studio, above Liberty Bar on E 6th is amazing. She has a great style that seems natural for me. She's from the valley and she's got mad flavor. If anyone needs some good work done, go check her out. The shop is owned by Megan Emery, who's also well-known and highly recommended around town.