Slingbox…sweet!

So, one of the many purchases I have made for my 1 year journey in China, is a Slingbox. I’ve heard about these things for a while now, but have never seen one in action, until now.

I wouldn’t say I watch a ton of TV, but would like the comfort of “American TV” while I’m in China over the next year. I’ll mostly use it to watch sports…hockey, football, etc…. I’ve just finished installing it and the software on my ThinkPad. Works awesome! It actually wasn’t very difficult to setup.

The performance is fantastic, but of course it would be from the same household as the Slingbox is in. How will it be 7000 miles away? I guess I’ll find out very soon, about 3 days to be exact. I really hope the speed and picture are somewhat good quality from there. I’m also hoping I can easily hook up my ThinkPad to the TV at my apartment via S video and audio cables…should work just fine. To add to the slowness of the sling, I’ll be using a wireless router in my apartment. Please work.

Priority Club is STILL pissing me off

A couple days ago I wrote about my recent Priority Club experience. Well, still not much progress.

I did go to their website yesterday, with the goal of finding a feedback form or survey of some sort. All I could find was a website survey, so I used it to complain about their customer support.

What did I get back? This…

“Thank you for contacting us. In order to better assist you with your inquiry, I have forwarded your e-mail to our Priority Club service center. Please allow additional time for a response. They can be reached directly at:

PriorityClub@ichotelsgroup.com

For immediate assistance, please contact the Priority Club Service Center at:
http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/6c/1/en/c/2/content/dec/6c/1/en/cs/center.html

If you need further assistance, please feel free to contact us.

Best regards,

Anne “
The Priority Club service center is who I initially contacted, it’s now been seven days since my first contact. I have not heard back from them in two days.

So…it will now be one email a day to them until I get a satisfactory resolution.

Budweiser, Tsingtao, Labbat Blue, Carolina Pale Ale

Tomorrow morning, I start my two week journey around the world, kind of.

First, I’m heading to St. Louis (Budweiser). A couple friends of mine live there & some other friends from Buffalo are meeting there too. We’re going to party it up this weekend, one last weekend all together before I head off to China for a year.

Should be a great time. I’m sure I’ll have some pictures to share. I’ve also warned all of them not to even attempt waking me up via a horn, banging pots & pans or any other loud objects or devices. They have done this to me a few times, once with a beer in hand (was sleeping). I wake up looking like I’m having a heart attack. Funny yes, but it’s scary! I think there is some video of this somewhere…

Next, on to Beijing (Tsingtao). Only a week there this trip. Hope to get five very productive days in the office, then back on a plane Saturday. I’m sure I’ll have a few Tsingtaos while there.

From there, it’s on to Buffalo (Labbat Blue – OK, Blue is actually from Canada, but it’s very popular in Buffalo & I like it. I could have said Genny Cream Ale (which is actually brewed in PA.)).

Spending a few days with my family and playing in the KPL Golf Tournament. It’s going to be a great time. I need to write up the story of the KPL tournament…it’s a memorial tournament, for a great guy from Buffalo who died at age 32.

Finally, back to Raleigh (Carolina Pale Ale) … though, only for about ten days, then it’s off to Beijing for a year!

Will I be sick of flying and airports and delays and lost luggage by the end of this ~15,500 mile trip? I bet YES

Why I’m reading this…

I’ve always been interested in writing, but have never really seriously pursued it. Though, as I embark on a journey to China, for at least a 1 year stay, I am finding myself wanting to write more & more. I now feel regret for not having captured my past, so I’m going to make sure I capture my present & future going forward (just haven’t figure out the best way to do that yet … blog – not everything … paper & pen – not everything … computer – most everything … how to put them all together – I’ll figure it out later).

Anyway, I picked up Anderson Cooper’s “Dispatches from the Edge”. His mother, a Vanderbilt, his father, died young & his brother, committed suicide. He has also covered many stories for CNN over the years. So, I think he will have a lot to talk about.

What am I hoping to get out of this book? I’m not sure I really care much about his life, though I am sure some parts will be interesting to me…I’m really looking to see how he captured his life, his stories, his “great moments.” That’s what I’m hoping to get out of this.

I won’t execute the same way, I’m sure…I hope to come across other books that will help me better understand how to capture (not yet knowing if Cooper’s book will do anything for me, we’ll see).

Running tracks, follow up

A couple months ago, I blogged about running tracks, wondering if there are playlists out there put together for the purpose of getting someone moving…whether it be running, working out, or other. I have my own playlists that I use, but I skip around a lot. 

Any way, today I came across a post on engadget … an Apple patent, "Apple patents workout music matching" This is something I am very interested in. Basically, your ipod will adjust to various music based on your running pace. Hopefully the technology will actually keep track of your pace, maybe your average pace. As you're running, and you slow down, the ipod would move to a "get moving" song, likely something you tagged to be such a song in iTunes. I guess this could work if you start accelerating beyond your pace, could move to a slower song to get you back to your pace.

Apple & Nike also introduced some technology this week. Only works with "special Nike shoes" … but, basically it keeps track of your workout …calories, distance, time, etc… I'm sure the above mentioned patent will somehow be connected to this. Cool stuff 

Running tracks…

I'm not talking about the tracks you run on, this is about music. I have my ipod with me when ever I run, it is a must. There are songs that get me moving (or keep me moving) and there are songs that slow down the pace, don't motivate me, etc… So, I started thinking as I've been running (I find it the most inopertune time to think sometimes, because I can't write anything down, so I just hope I don't forget it by the time I get home!), are there "running tracks" … songs that get you moving, get you motivated. The key to this would be putting them in some sort of order, as a playlist. This would be similar to the way a composer writes a symphany. The playlists could be available for purchase on itunes, no? I'm not in the mood for googling tonight, but I'm going to look into this one. I also need to do the blogging thing and link some of the stuff in this post.

In my search, I came across a site called figl.com. This is a site dedicated to playlists, a place for people to share their playlists. You can also browse based on genres, moods & occasions. But, nothing helpful here for me.

I didn't spend much time looking on the web, but there seems to be a void in this area, are people interested in this?

Certainty, direction & decisons

The opposite of those three words causes soooo many problems in an organization. CEOs, Sr executives & line executives wonder why they see poor results…take a look at those three words again. When you can’t get clear direction, with some level of certainty & an executive who is willing to make a decision and stick with it (for at least a little while!), NOTHING WORTH ANYTHING GETS ACCOMPLISHED.

This is a problem at all levels in any type of organization…what’s the fix? Is there one?

St. Patrick’s Day is almost here!

St. Patrick’s Day is one of my favorite holidays…it’s always a good time, no matter where you are. I grew up in Buffalo, NY, St. Patrick’s day there is a big deal. Actually, it’s more like St. Patrick’s day week. The pubs are booming, the booze is flowing and friends and family are out together, having a great time. Oh yeah, the corned beef and cabbage too.

I’ve been in the Raleigh area since May of 2000. This will be my first year celebrating St. Patrick’s day here. I’ve heard it’s a good time, but doubt it will compare to Buffalo. Over the past 5 years, I’ve gone home for 3 and elsewhere for two. Last year, I spent it in Seattle, WA … in 2002, it was Savannah, GA (out of control there). Some day I’ll experience Paddy’s day in NYC & Boston.
I’ll post my thoughts on the 2006 Raleigh St. Patrick’s Day celebration…

The affect the mind has…

on running…I started running in early January, it was a slow start. About 1.5 miles, then progressed to 2 and about a month in, up to 3 miles. As I started paying attention to time, on top of distance, I seemed to build in “road blocks” to my running. On the tredmill, I found I was telling myself to stop at 20 minutes or at 2 miles, walk a bit, then start up again. Running on the road, I pick out landmarks and tell myself I should stop then.

I’m trying to find ways out of these mental road blocks. My ipod certainly helps…when my mind starts telling me to stop, but my body can keep going, I just tune in to a song that gets me moving…some Counting Crows, DMB … AC/DC every now & again.

As the running continues, I’ll be looking for ways to keep my mind out of it. I’m sure people have many different ways of doing this, but I’m going to attempt to find my own first. Maybe the good old “you can do it” will help me out.

The FEMA saga

On NBC Nightly News this evening, I hear that FEMA purchased ~26,000 trailers for the hurricane Katrina victims (almost all still not even being used!). Turns out, these trailers cost us taxpayers ~$900 million. Now, for the ignorance of FEMA … they can’t even use ~80% of these trailers in the affected areas because of the land (saturated, still mud, no utilities, etc…). They will likely only use 5,000 of the 26,000. What genius made this purchase decision?

The only good that may come out of this is, FEMA will donate the unused trailers to other government agencies (who knows if they’ll use them or what they’ll do with them). Oh yeah, they said a number of these trailers are already ruined…sunk into the mud holes they’re currently sitting on.

So, pretend the US governement just wasted $726 million of our money…who takes the fall for that one? jack asses

I’m going to follow up on this one to see what happens…more later

Blogging for the first time

I’ve decided to start blogging, about a number of different topics & whatever else comes up. I’m not sure what blogging service or tool to use yet though. So, I’m going to try a few … wordpress (this one), also going to try typepad & blogger.