SuperSatellite ||

Finally back and settled in after returning from training in Miami. Now just very busy trying to catch up, and put some of the things that I learned to use. I did manage to grab some photos around the area on CocoWalk where I was, so feel free to browse the Flickr set. I also started playing around with geotagging the photos. I have no idea how useful that will be in the future, but what the heck? I wish that I’d had more time to get out and about, but I did hit two excellent sushi places, instantly reminding me that what I pass off as sushi here is nothing but a sick and twisted joke by comparison.

First, how come no one told me that some Chinese company was making new MGs? I saw one at the condo where I was put up at. It wasn’t anything fancy as far as sport convertibles go, but it was still pretty neat in its own way. Now I want to drive one and see what they feel like.

Nearby was CocoWalk, which is where the dotMarketing headquarters are and where I spent a lot of my time. It was Cinco de Mayo the night I arrived, so it was a pretty popular site, with the shops and restaurants (though I made the mistake of passing up Hooters.  I’m not sure what I was thinking to make that mistake). However, I did take a couple hours the night I got there and saw Iron Man. Let me just say, I was absolutely not disappointed. Go see it.

On the travel side, I think I will make the effort to never fly US Airways again. Worst planes and service I’ve ever dealt with. Tiny pretzels, mean spirited, inattentive stewardesses, terribly seats, and small planes. And to top it off, I appear to be getting increasingly worse anxiety while driving long distances by myself. My nerves light up high enough on the drive to KC and back that it very nearly makes me sick. I’m not sure what to do about this yet, but it is very unsettling. Obviously drugs would probably impair my ability to drive, and if I had someone drive me, it would cost a fortune. I think I’m going to try to start flying out of Tulsa, which is a tiny bit closer, or even Joplin, assuming I can find well timed hoppers.

As for dotCMS, I feel much better equipped than I have in the past after opening my skull and letting their lead developer pour knowledge into it for a full day. I anticipate having no problems setting up my development environment soon, and upgrades from here on out should be much, much easier. I also understand better how the parts come together, and what they do when the break. I also agreed to devote some time to helping with their community site doing some writing or theme crafting. That will be a fun side project I think.

I know some people have had questions about setting up dotCMS to run in an Eclipse development environment. If you were like me, you might have been having problems because you were reading the wrong setup documentation. Turns out there is a new one that was misfiled that is much better and up to date. Also, if you are running a dotCMS site on MSSQL, don’t run ant buildsql when you update. It breaks things, because it’s meant for the Oracle and Postgres camps. You’ll want to use ant buildmXsql.  Learn from my mistakes, heh.

It has been a busy week for me, and I apologize that I haven’t found time to get any thoughts added to the ol’ blog recently.  I did accomplish a lot this week, however.  And I’ll also be gone a chunk of next week, so you can safely predict it’ll be a few days until a new post after this one (unless I get ambitious and inspired tomorrow.  Don’t bet on it).  Luckily, there’s always Twitter!

I started and completed the little task of adding a set of stairs to the side of my porch finally, so that we don’t have to jump up and down it (yes, we have front steps, but we never go that way).  Basically did a task each day (I was going to say a “step each day,” but I think the double meaning would have been too confusing.  For me, not you).  I used my grandparents’ front steps as inspiration, though theirs are done in a half moon shape.  I didn’t want to dig up that much brick to do that.  Click the image to see photos through the process.  All the brick came from around the house.  I think I’ll eventually use some to make a path down to the sidewalk.  I also think I’ll start all the porch railing this month as well, which should finish the porch out nicely.

The bad part is how very much it hurt.  There’s no good reason for that.  When I moved to Pittsburg, I helped dad do construction all over the place, and even found myself doing whole sidewalks of brick without a complaint from my back.  It never mattered.  Finishing that top step all at once today just broke me down though.  I had been subscribing to the “work through the pain, you’re just out of shape” mantra lately.  After this, I’m starting to kind of question that.  It’s not even that what I did was so hard.  Dig up a few brick, wash them, and mix a few buckets of concrete and mortar.  I think more it was the frequent up and down.  A good hot shower seems to have loosened things up, but I still feel like I was in a car wreck.

Random fact I just learned: Stephen Lynch starred in the lead role in The Wedding Singer on Broadway.

I shall be out of town again this week.  I’m headed back to Miami Mon-Wed for some developer boot camp with the folks who created dotCMS (partly in preparation for our user training on campus at the end of this week).  Sadly, I won’t be there long enough to enjoy the Miami scenery, but hey, hooray for company condos.  Also, I get to eat at that good sushi place near CocoWalk, who’s name I now can’t remember.  And why aren’t there any nonstop flights to MIA from MCI?  Joplin also needs to run more shuttles to MCI through the day, that’d be a much more convenient drive.  I really hate the drive to MCI by myself whenever I have to fly somewhere.  Anyway, I’ll try to follow up after the training by sharing some of what I learn (or at least what I understand, heh).

I finally sucked it up and upgraded to a Flickr Pro account.  Having done so, I readily admit I should have done it sooner, and it is well worth the $25 a year, and I’ve only had it about four days.  I have already uploaded what I am pretty sure is my whole photo collection, got them sorted and tagged and everything.  Sorry Picasa.  Not sure what pushed me over the edge, other than scrounging up twenty-five bucks and having enough curiosity to make it worth blowing.  The interface is simple but flexible enough that it really seems like it will serve me well.

My neighbor caught me outside today while I was working.  Apparently he works at Pitt Plastic.  For whatever random reason, he hooked me up with a few rolls of trash bags.  Not complaining, it was just a little out of nowhere (when was the last time your neighbor went out of his way to supply you with trash bags?).  However, now I don’t need to buy more trash bags until I’m 38.

You know, I thought that something sounded a little strange when Michaele called me last night and told me that she got a call that we had won a free vacation to the Bahamas. She didn’t have a lot of info, but I figured since they’d called her at work, she might not have had time to talk too long. But what info she could tell me, just sounded a little odd. I should always go with my first instinct.

Like why, if we won, did we have to make a trip to Joplin to pick up the information? Just mail it to us. And she said that if we couldn’t make it this weekend, they’d be back through in three months. What’s that you say? Why do they make rounds? I told Michaele to call them back this morning and ask a few more questions, what she found out seems to have confirmed what I thought.

The reason that we had to go to Joplin was because that was where the presentation was that we had to go to. But we shouldn’t worry, there would be other couples there too. Sounding scammy? It should. Nothing like this comes free, and there isn’t a company on the planet that’s going to be giving away bucket loads of free trips every few months. According to the lady on the phone, we just had to go, listen to a small presentation, have a snack made for us, and answer a quick survey. In reality, it’s a sales pitch for worthless, $2500 cookware. But don’t take my word for it, read this forum thread. But don’t take their word for it, go look at the info at the Consumer Affairs site. This is just another version of the time share sale.

Here’s things as I have dug them up so far. Gateway Brides claims to be the parent company. I asked them straightforward who owns them, and was told no one. This from the lady that I called and talked to (and I might have embellished a little bit and said my profession involved law during the course of conversation). Not true. Actually, they appear to be a shell front of some kind for Royal Prestige (though I can’t confirm that they actually own Gateway Brides, but their sure as hell affiliated). The reason I say that is because they appear to be so far removed from the operation that the agent couldn’t answer any questions, deferring to “we just notify the people that they were selected. The presenters can answer your concerns.” Tax value of the trip? No clue. The names of the presenters? Unknown. Will they have a license on file for the drawing? Maybe. Is there any information online she could refer me to? No (a lie).

Bottom line, I should go to the presentation to get my answers. Right, how about no. Though to her credit, she sounded plenty nice, and thoroughly nervous after learning my “profession.” In reality, it appears that the trips are actually real. Even though she didn’t know of a website I could visit, there actually is a Gateway Brides site (or, depending on your locations, duplicate sites like RP Northeast, Inc. which clearly have the exact same origin). A domain that is clearly a direct marketing firm site, but one that also pointed me to V.I.P. Vacations NY. These people are essentially a vacation clearing house that deals cheap vacations to companies that then use them as an incentive. So, in theory, the trips are real. At least they were in 1985, when it looks like the picture above was taken of their president, one Vince Dima. At this point, visions of scenes from Glengarry GlenRoss are dancing in my head. Research on him reveals he’s bought a number of businesses, none of which are really related, like an ISP reseller and an insurance company. Here’s some other info, which seems to indicate that everything is pretty connected to him at the top.

YourNetPlus was originally founded in 1995, and was acquired and incorporated by President and CEO Vince Dima in 2000. Dima’s company, the 21st Century Group, owns a number of other businesses including a $30 million bridal registry business and a national vacation premium business. Taking over YourNetPlus, Dima says, was a way for his company to become involved in the Internet.

Continuing the trail, V.I.P. Vacations NY is connected to the Viva Resorts group. They own a number of resorts in the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas. They aren’t four or five star resorts as was told to us. In fact, the one in the Bahamas scores a poorly represented three stars. As I interpreted it, that particular review was a touch on the side of being a warning to stay away. Roving bees? Unkempt grounds? Exposed wiring? Is this somewhere you’d want to spend a honeymoon. And other info indicates that you might get hit with resort taxes, transportation fees, and surcharges during peak season.

These folks are clever, I’ll give them that. Each dangly appendage of the business seems to maintain an air of plausible deniability about them, and the interconnectedness seems to be set up that if you successfull deal through one part, another one is ready to pick up the loose ends. The presentation at 7:30PM runs about two hours (longer than they say by about double). By the time you’re done, you’re tired and just want to leave and are more susceptible to pressure. They also target engaged couples with the incentive of a “free honeymoon” and use scare tactics to make you afraid that you’ll be killing your future family with your pots and pans. You know what, if my pans will kill my family, at least they’ll die by cast iron deliciousness.

But, what to do? The cynical side of me says to go, and just use my sharp wit and stubbornness to ensure that we leave one free trip heavier, and nothing else. But that same side also says that they clearly know how to deal with people like me, since they have yet to be sued out of existence. I figure they either successfully con stupid people, or they get someone like me chasing my tail trying to beat them for the trip. Regardless, when the dust settles, they’re gone and not out anything for their trouble. I say that, because I can’t actually find a single firm case of someone actually getting the trip. While they might give you the voucher, I suspect they tack on hidden fees (besides paying for your own flight) and try to blackout date you to hell and back until the three year window is up.

So, be informed, and don’t buy in to it for a minute. Know what you’re getting into, and always remember free things seldom are.

Well, I think I know what my next big purchase is going to be. A motorcycle. And I swear it’s not some macho guy thing (c’mon, me, macho? I barely pull off meek and unintimidating). I’ve been playing with the idea for a while actually, and I figure with gas breaching $3.50 a gallon, an 80MPG 250cc bike is sure becoming awfully appealing. And I’m not talking a Harley. They are too big and too expensive. I need a Diet Coke type motorcycle.

Consider, let’s just assume I buy a new bike, rather than used. Drop a grand down, make $90/month payment (realistically a small bike I can pay off in a year). The amount I’m saving in gas would actually be paying for the bike. Compare: V8 Lincoln LS - 17MPG in town against a Yamaha V Star 250 - 80MPG. We’re not talking a minor little difference here. This is about a 5 fold increase in fuel economy. And a bike with a little 250cc engine isn’t going to let me get into any trouble. It’s not racy, it’s light, it’s easy to handle. Good starter bike for a guy who has never ridden a motorcycle before (my two wheels are normally pedal powered). Plus 250’s apparently hold their value well, because of the fuel economy and the fact that there are always new people looking for starter bikes.

I’m really just trying to decide on what I want. Honda and Yamaha have tempting bikes at this size, the Rebel and the V Star 250. And they’re nice looking bikes too. Small, but they don’t look like toy bikes. At least to an amateur like me. Of course, my parents will probably slap me stupid for it, but it’s not like I’m wanting some 1100cc cruiser (yet). It’s either that, or I’m riding to work this summer on the mountain bike I got at the police auction today. I’m leaning towards the V Star, since it appears to have a little bit nicer equipment all around. I’m going to see about checking one out on Monday.

Unfortunately, to get one used you really have to be in the right place at the right time. Surprisingly, Harley’s are easy to come buy in the for sale ads, but they still aren’t cheap. So, we’ll see if I get lucky. I have a way of doing that once in a while (not that way, you perv). Oddly enough, there’s a Kawasaki Vulcan Classic coming up at an auction next month, but unfortunately for me it’s way to big.

Luckily, my dad served as a lesson in how not to ride a motorcycle, when a semi pretty much nearly squashed him on the highway when he was a kid. I’m in it totally for practicality. That, and I’ll look like a total badass stud.

What is it about holidays that seems to bring the stupid out in people?  Explain it to me.  Or is it just that people have no concept of how to drive anymore?  Michaele and I left Friday morning to go be with family over the weekend and look at places for the wedding.  On the way down, we got trapped in behind an oversized semi that slowed us way down.  The problem with that is that Michaele’s little Sentra has no balls.  No balls.  That makes it terribly difficult to pass.  But, to all those drivers that felt it necessary to pass both us and the semi at once, you win a gold star for being brilliant.  That’s me being sarcastic, in case you couldn’t tell.

I seem to recall that passing two vehicles at once is illegal.  Though, now, I can’t find evidence to support that actually.  If it’s not, it should be.  Regardless, that doesn’t make it any less stupid.  Especially when one of the two cars you are passing is an oversized semi, which may or may not have a vehicle in front of it you have no way of seeing.  Eventually, we did get around them, by being patient and finding a proper opportunity.

Coming back was even worse.  I recently convinced Michaele that it is perfectly safe and reasonable to do 5 MPH over the speed limit (she tends to err on the side of caution a bit too much while driving, even for me).  You’d be hard pressed to find a cop anywhere, outside maybe a school zone, that would actually pull you over for that (violations under 10MPH don’t actually count as moving violations anyway).  If the limit is 65, I usually do 69, if it’s 70, I’ll do 74.  I’m comfortable with that, and I’ve never been stopped for speeding because of it.  But, I lost count of the number of people that passed us while we were doing 70.  Technically, it is illegal to speed while passing someone (though blah, blah, blah, we all do it).  But, to do so blatantly, when we are already going over the speed limit…  Again, I defer to my earlier comment re: stupid.  There isn’t anywhere you need to get that you need to get there that fast.  If so, leave earlier.  We got passed by people that continued on down the road doing easily 75 and 80 MPH.  Out of sight within minutes.  And what really set me off, was the number of people that did it.  I’m not sure I’ve ever been passed quite so many times on that stretch of highway.  Keeping in mind that we were already going over the speed limit.

My main reason for ranting about this is one - you make my travel more unsafe, you farking idiots.  Plus, it pisses me the hell off when I go to pass someone, and a person takes it upon themselves to pass me and the person in front of me at that same moment.  You’re just asking to cause an accident.  Two, I seriously worry about where we will be in a generation or two.  I know that in the grand scheme, this is a dumb one to worry about.  But, it is symptomatic of all the other crap we’re dealing with these days.  If you drive like an idiot, how does that reflect to your kids?  What lesson do they learn?  That it’s okay to drive how you want and tell the ones that are trying to be remotely safe to fark off?  Keep riding my ass on the highway, and one day I might just snap and slam on my brakes.  That’d suck for Mr. Idiot Driver Behind Me Who Needs a Crash Course In Traffic Protocols.  And if you need evidence, stop and really watch how kids drive these days.  I never even had a driver’s ed course, and I knew better than these kids do how to act in a car.

And now, for no reason, a video of my parents’ idiot dog attacking light: