The Grande Scheme Of Things

Medifast 1 playlist by David

2010-01-26T09:52:00.000-05:00

I had an epiphany

2008-10-05T21:20:00.002-04:00

So lately, I've been a bit off. I wouldn't say I've been depressed but I've been out of sorts. I've felt like I had symptoms but no cure. Actually, come to think of it, I did go thru a phase a month ago where I was ill and I only feel as though I've mostly recovered from it.

But take last night for example. I was exhausted and planned not only to sleep well through the night but well into today as well as this morning was the first morning I didn't have any pressing issues. So what happened? I woke up around 1, couldn't get back to sleep until 3:30ish and then woke up around 7:30ish this morning. Again, I don't feel like what I've been going thru is a depression per say but I've felt like I was trapped in a prison and I didn't know why and I couldn't see the walls to try and mount some sort of escape.

Thankfully whenever I go thru this sort of situation, I tend to arrive at a point where I suddenly see clearly what the problem is where it suddenly seems obvious and I don't know why I didn't see the problem all along. Today, I came to a realization. What I believe to be true is that for a while now I've been searching for rest and relaxion where there was no rest and relaxation to be had. Like last night, I've been trying to sleep but I haven't been tired. I think I have a lot of work in me but my nature has been to avoid that work.

What does that mean exactly? I'm not sure. But, if I had to guess, I think I've been lacking in small victories that are achieved from being a doer as opposed to the bit of emptiness that comes from being quiet and complacent. I think I'm ready to do some achieving.

Well, Almost...

2008-08-17T20:30:00.003-04:00

So I thought I was going to write some extravagant blog entry on my life goings but it turned out to be too much for me to handle. You'd think I'd learn by now that I never finish a blog entry that I can't post immediately but that was not the case. I worked on something for an hour or two, then put it aside, and now it's past tense and I just don't feel like finishing it anymore. So I thought I'd put in another radio blogging thing and see where it goes from there.

As I mentioned before, I've continued to update the radio station over the last few weeks. What's changed is that I'm no longer helping the station out from the listening side. Up until a month ago, I had a couple computers periodically helping out the station with it's listening hours, but now I'm just letting the world decide the fate of The Year Of The 200. Although I'm no longer helping the station out, the YOT200 still averages at least 1 new preset a day so while the station's listening hours are slowly dropping, the station is still going strong. We'll see if, at the end of the year, the station manages to stay within the top 50. Here's this past week's numbers:

Top 5 U.S. Listeners

5. Texas
4. Florida
3. Georgia
2. Pennsylvania
1. North Carolina

Top 5 Listeners Outside The U.S.

5. Japan
4. Canada
3. Sweden
2. Mexico
1. Germany

And This Week's Top 25 Songs:

25. Bullet With Butterfly Wings - The Smashing Pumpkins
24. You Could Be Mind - Guns N Roses
23. For A Pessimist, I'm Pretty Optimistic - Paramore
22. Church On Sunday - Green Day
21. Bounce - Bon Jovi
20. Until The End - Breaking Benjamin
19. This Is It, This Is It - As Cities Burn
18. Someone That You're With - Nickelback
17. Realign - Godsmack
16. Burn This City - Cartel
15. Rob Zombie - Dragula
14. Digging The Grave - Faith No More
13. Fake It - Seether
12. Famous Last Words - My Chemical Romance
11. Down With The Sickness - Disturbed
10. Let God Arise - Chris Tomlin
09. Given Up - Linkin Park
08. Crazy Bitch - Buckcherry
07. Welcome To The Jungle - Guns N Roses
06. Faint - Linkin Park
05. Broken Glass - Buckcherry
04. Doomsday Clock - The Smashing Pumpkins
03. Bleed It Out - Linkin Park
02. Night Drive - The All-American Rejects
01. Dirty Little Thing - Velvet Revolver

I'm Back

2008-08-07T08:35:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone. It's been a while, but I've been busy. In July, I spent just about every day working on the tour de France. Last week, Kristine and I went on a cruise to Bermuda with a large portion of her family. Aside from last week, I have continued to update the radio station with new playlists and I was thrilled to come back and see that all of you continued to listen. I have tomorrow off and I've got a few thoughts to get off my chest so by the end of tomorrow, you should have a hefty blog entry to read.

Talk to you soon.
Dave

YOT200 Happy 4th Of July

2008-07-04T22:05:00.003-04:00

Hey Everyone. I don't know about everyone else but it was a bit of a longish day and now I'm winding down. Got some Xbox360 poker on the tv and after that I'm off to bed. For the rest of the month, I'm pretty much working every day on the Tour de France. Before I crash though, I thought I'd post this weeks top lists. By the way, huge thanx as always for listening. This week, The Year Of The 200 passed the 1100 mark for listening hours. Here are your lists:

Top 5 U.S. Listeners

5. Indiana
4. New York
3. Florida
2. Pennsylvania
1. North Carolina

Top 5 Listeners Outside The U.S.

5. Australia
4. Latvia (Welcome Latvia)
3. Jamaica
2. United Kingdom
1. Canada

And This Week's Top 25 Songs:

25. Teenagers - My Chemical Romance
24. Let God Arise - Chris Tomlin
23. Dammit - Blink 182
22. Cheer Up, Boys - Foo Fighters
21. Complicated - Bon Jovi
20. Down With The Sickness - Disturbed
19. Man Overboard - Blink 182
18. Night Drive - All American Rejects
17. Crazy Bitch - Buck Cherry
16. Faint - Linkin Park
15. Dearly Beloved - Bad Religeon
14. I Am The Bullgod - Kid Rock
13. March Of The Dogs - Sum 41
12. Fake It - Seether
11. Realign - Godsmack
10. Lithium - Nirvana
09. Doomsday Clock - Smashing Pumpkins
08. How Far We've Come - Matchbox Twenty
07. Insignificant - Counting Crows
06. Bounce - Bon Jovi
05. Almost Easy - Avenged Sevenfold
04. Dirty Little Thing - Velvet Revolver
03. Guerrilla Radio - Rage Against The Machine
02. See The World - The Kooks
01. Welcome To The Jungle - Guns N Roses

Just a reminder, The YOT200 Top 100 airs every week starting on Friday at midnight EST and repeating throughout the weekend. Keep on listening.

YOT200 Top 25 June 27

2008-06-27T13:32:00.002-04:00

It's been another fine week for The Year Of The 200. I thank all of you who keep listening. Here's this week's numbers:

Top 5 U.S. Listeners

5. California
4. Maryland
3. Indiana
2. New York
1. North Carolina

Let me just say somehow I've made a special connection with North Carolina because their numbers are phenomenal and it's going to take a lot to knock them off the #1 spot.

Top 5 Listeners Outside The U.S.

5. Spain
4. Italy
3. Jamaica
2. United Kingdom
1. Canada

And this weeks Top 25 tunes:

25. Famous Last Words - My Chemical Romance
24. Man Overboard - Blink 182
23. Rape Me - Nirvana
22. Doomsday Clock - Smashing Pumpkins
21. Sumthin' For Nothin' - Motley Crue
20. Down With The Sickness - Disturbed
19. Crazy Bitch - Buckcherry
18. Someone That You're With - Nickelback
17. Feeling This - Blink 182
16. Guerrilla Radio - Rage Against The Machine
15. I Am The Bullgod - Kid Rock
14. Almost Easy - Avenged Sevenfold
13. Bounce - Bon Jovi
12. Digging The Grave - Faith No More
11. Night Drive - The All-American Rejects
10. Complicated - Bon Jovi
09. Faint - Linkin Park
08. Riff Raff - AC/DC
07. Insignificant - Counting Crows
06. Let God Arise - Chris Tomlin
05. How Far We've Come - Matchbox Twenty
04. See The World - The Kooks
03. Welcome To The Jungle - Guns N Roses
02. Fake It - Seether
01. Dirty Little Thing - Velvet Revolver

Just a reminder, The YOT200 Top 100 airs every week starting on Friday at midnight EST and repeating throughout the weekend. Keep on listening.

Dave

YOT200 Top 25 June 20

2008-06-20T12:58:00.002-04:00

I'm very excited about the radio station these days. There are new listeners tuning into The Year Of The 200 every day and they're listening for longer periods of time. As long as you keep listening, I'm thrilled to continue to update the station on a regular basis. Here are this weeks #'s:

U.S. Listeners

5. Minnesota
4. Maryland
3. California
2. New York
1. North Carolina

Listeners Outside The U.S.

5. Netherlands
4. Spain
3. Italy
2. Jamaica
1. Canada

And this weeks Top 25 tunes are as follows:

25. See The World - The Kooks
24. Given Up - Linkin Park
23. Walla Walla - The Offspring
22. Crazy Bitch - Buckcherry
21. Dearly Beloved - Bad Religeon
20. Digging The Grave - Faith No More
19. Down With The Sickness - Disturbed
18. Boom - P.O.D.
17. Faint - Linkin Park
16. Night Drive - The All-American Rejects
15. Complicated - Bon Jovi
14. Let God Arise - Chris Tomlin
13. Guerrilla Radio - Rage Against The Machine
12. Sumthin' For Nuthin' - Motley Crue
11. Bounce - Bon Jovi
10. Rape Me - Nirvana
09. Insignificant - Counting Crows
08. Famous Last Words - My Chemical Romance
07. Almost Easy - Avenged Sevenfold
06. Riff Raff - AC/DC
05. Someone That You're With - Nickelback
04. Feeling This - Blink 182
03. Welcome To The Jungle - Guns N Roses
02. Dirty Little Thing - Velvet Revolver

And For The 4th Week In A Row...

01. Fake It - Seether

There ya have it folks. Thanx for tuning in. The Year Of The 200 Top 100 begins every Friday night at midnight eastern standard time and repeats throughout the weekend. Until next time.

Dave

YOT200 Top 25 June 6, 2008

2008-06-06T16:45:00.004-04:00

Today was a banner day for the Year Of The 200 station. The station achieved 1003 listening hours in the last 30 days. This is the first time my station has broken the 1000 hour mark, giving me a fourth blue man. For that, I give huge thanx to all of you listening out there. For those of you wondering whose listening the most, here a a couple of top 5's:

In The U.S.

5. Virginia
4. Georgia
3. California
2. North Carolina
1. New York

Outside the U.S.

5. Spain
4. Brazil
3. United Kingdom
2. Australia
1. Canada

And now for this week's Top 25:

25. Novocaine - Bon Jovi
24. Crazy Bitch - Buckcherry
23. Testify - Rage Against The Machine
22. Burn This City - Cartel
21. Walla Walla - The Offspring
20. Fenway - Mike Falzone
19. Almost Easy - Avenged Sevenfold
18. Welcome To The Jungle - Guns N Roses
17. Enemy - Drowning Pool
16. Riff Raff - AC/DC
15. Feeling This - Blink 182
14. Cheer Up, Boys - Foo Fighters
13. Live And Let Die - Guns N Roses
12. Broken Glass - Buck Cherry
11. No Sign Of Life - OK Go
10. Famous Last Words - My Chemical Romance
09. Dirty Little Thing - Velvet Revolver
08. Wicked Garden - Stone Temple Pilots
07. Bleed It Out - Linkin Park
06. Given Up - Linkin Park
05. Let God Arise - Chris Tomlin
04. Boom - P.O.D.
03. Someone That You're With - Nickelback
02. Rape Me - Nirvana

And for the 2nd Week In A Row...

01. Fake It - Seether

The Year of The 200 Top 100 begins every Friday night at midnight eastern standard time (I just realized a number of my listeners aren't exactly from around here) and repeats throughout the weekend. Thanx again for listening.

Dave

New York City Crane Collapse

2008-05-31T12:20:00.002-04:00

My best friend Tim stayed at the court yard on the day of the crane falling in NYC and shot this video later that day.

YOT200 Top 25 May 30, 2008

2008-05-30T11:12:00.003-04:00

I'll probably have a more elaborate post later for this, but in case everything went wrong, I wanted to post this weeks Top 25. Remember the Year Of The 200 Top 100 starts airing every Friday at Midnight and repeats throughout the weekend.

25. Novocaine - Bon Jovi
24. No Brakes - The Offspring
23. Home (acoustic) - Daughtry
22. Almost Easy - Avenged Sevenfold
21. Fenway - Mike Falzone
20. Burn This City - Cartel
19. Cuz I Can - Pink
18. Riff Raff - AC/DC
17. Night Drive - The All-American Rejects
16. Welcome To The Jungle - Guns N Roses
15. Dirty Little Thing - Velvet Revolver
14. Famous Last Words - My Chemical Romance
13. Cheer Up, Boys - Foo Fighters
12. Enemy - Drowning Pool
11. Live And Let Die - Guns N Roses
10. Broken Glass - Buckcherry
09. No Sign Of Life - Ok Go
08. Let God Arise - Chris Tomlin
07. Bleed It Out - Linkin Park
06. Someone That You're With - Nickelback
05. Given Up - Linkin Park
04. Boom - P.O.D.
03. Wicked Garden - Stone Temple Pilots
02. Rape Me - Nirvana

And The Number 1 Song for the first time atop the YOT200 Chart...

01. Fake It - Seether

Talk 2 ya l8r.
Dave

My Daredevil Cat

2008-05-29T11:07:00.002-04:00

Since I have an easy to use camera now, I'm always filming trying to find something to put on the Tube. In the midst of filming around the house, our cat Jasmine embraced the daredevil that she is and climbed the tree in the front yard.

So, I must tell you about this Canon HF10 camcorder. AWESOME!!! It's light and convenient and there's no tape and immensely easy to use with iMovie.

Here's the other thing. The quality in insane. After I shot our crazy cat, I went inside to hook the camera up to the tv. At first, there was a hurdle as the HDMI out of the camera is actually an HDMI mini plug. Luckily, the HF10 comes with component cables (the red, green, and blue analog cables) so I used those for what I thought was a temporary situation.

I can not stress to you enough how stunning the image was. I went analog out of the HF10 into our 65" Sharp Aquos and the picture was amazing. Kristine, who never says much about tv quality without prompting, immediately commented on how good the image looked. The Canon HF10 camcorder is an amazing piece of work.

P.S. While, I love the YouTube, I decided to use iMovie to post the second part on my .mac account. You can go here for the slightly improved image quality.

New Camera

2008-05-26T17:52:00.002-04:00

On Friday, I decided I needed to get myself a new camcorder that was more portable than my HDV camcorder. I went up to Best Buy in Orange and picked up the Canon HF10, a flash camera(no tape) that records in Hi Def (1080i). Here are some random clips from when I went into work Sunday morning as well as our cats on Memorial Day.

P.S. Those of you reading this on the Live365 page can just skip over this post as it has no radio added value whatsoever. The top 25 returns next weekend.

Sooooo Tired

2008-05-24T00:14:00.001-04:00

Long day because of flat tire. Maybe I'll tell you bout it sometime. I just put this weeks Top 100 in the rotation. I'll list the Top 25 later onish. Nighty night.

Me And The Cup

2008-05-20T14:46:00.003-04:00

While I've never been know to fancy hockey the way, say a Canadian would, I must admit, I was a little star struck to be standing in the presence of the Stanley Cup yesterday, when it paid a visit to our hockey studio here at Versus. That cup has seen more than I can imagine and now I'm part of it's history.

How Fond I Am Of My Tunes

2008-05-16T10:42:00.006-04:00

Yesterday, I decided to burn some cds of this weeks YOT200 Top 50 because Mike Falzone, a friend and coworker of mine made it to number 47 with his song Fenway. Now, I'll be honest about Mike's tunes. It's possible that when you hear his music on my station, you might not think he's the best artist for the station's format. Still, his music grew on me after a couple of listens and what's that point of having a radio station if you can't promote your friends every now and then.

So I burned the cds of the Top 50 and got in the car for my hour commute and I was just blown away. I've really put together a station that reflects music that I love to listen to. I tend to be more of a shuffle person rather than a mix tape person when it comes to listening to tunes in the car but I was more than thrilled to be listening to a list of music that's the core foundation of the radio station that I've created.

In other station news... I often get requests from up n coming bands to give their music consideration for the Live365 station. I tend to ignore these requests for a number of reasons. I've had artists not get back to me. There's something out there called Submit.com which requires me to sign up for something and that's just a pain in the ass. Probably, the biggest reason is the music isn't that great. I've got artists like Rage Against The Machine, Nirvana, Guns N Roses, Linkin Park, Smashing Pumpins, etc... I mean, if you're not awesome (or a friend of mine), you shouldn't be trying to get my attention.

That said, I didn't have any real emails to look at a few nights ago and so, on a whim, I clicked on one of my band submission emails. To my surprise, I really liked their songs. The name of the band is Swampdawamp and you can read all about them on their myspace page. Because Bryce Winter, a marketing manager at Miles High Productions was amazingly quick at getting back to me, you will be hearing the music of Swampdawamp in the upcoming weeks on the Year Of The 200.

The YOT200 Top 100 begins airing tonight at midnight and plays throughout the weekend. Here's this week's Top 25:

25. Rape Me - Nirvana
24. How Far We've Come - Matchbox Twenty
23. Cheer Up, Boys - Foo Fighters
22. I'll Keep Your Memory Vague - Finger Eleven
21. Welcome To The Jungle - Guns N Roses
20. Walla Walla - The Offspring
19. Given Up - Linkin Park
18. Got The Live - Korn
17. Night Drive - The All American Rejects
16. Novocaine - Bon Jovi
15. Faint - Linkin Park
14. Live And Let Die - Guns N Roses
13. Home (Acoustic) - Daughtry
12. Fake It - Seether
11. Cuz I Can - Pink
10. Let God Arise - Chris Tomlin
09. Drowning Pool - Enemy
08. Boom - P.O.D.
07. Bleed It Out - Linkin Park
06. No Sign Of Life - Ok Go
05. Doomsday Clock - Smashing Pumpkins
04. Broken Glass - Buckcherry
03. Testify - Rage Against The Machine
02. Last - Nine Inch Nails
01. Wicked Garden - Stone Temple Pilots

Follow My Every Move

2008-05-15T09:14:00.004-04:00

I have finally embraced the Twitter. It's a quick way for me to get the needless thoughts out of my head and onto the page. It's really easy to use on the iPhone and over the last couple of days, I've grown very fond of the service. Sign up at twitter.com today and you can keep track of what's on my mind.

This Weeks YOT200 Top 25

2008-05-08T15:17:00.004-04:00

I must say, I'm really starting to get excited about my little internet radio station that could. I confess that I was beginning to wonder if all the effort I put into programming the station was worth it. I sometimes think that, with all the possibilities one has while choosing an outlet to listen to music,...well...I mean does anyone really care about listening to free internet radio? You've got your iPod and satellite radio can be streamed on the internet and plus there's regular old radio. There's just so much out there. I often think Live365 is the remnant of a time when the internet was this vast uncharted world that was going to make life better instead of the business as usual internet that we have today. Regardless, I'm staring to see greater interest in the station and it gives me pleasure to put something together that people want to listen to, sometimes 8 hours at a time. God bless ya.

That said, this week the station is currently at 859 listening hours and judging by the constant listenership, I'm very hopefull that I'll surpass 900 hours next week. The huge excitement for me this week happened Monday when I actually made it to the bottom of page 4 on the list of alternative stations. I'm back to the top of page 5 at the moment but Man, that was cool. Thanx again and keep on listening. Here's this week's Top 25 that you can hear all weekend along with the rest of the Top 100 tunes of The Year Of The 200.

25. Got The Life - Korn
24. Given Up - Linkin Park
23. Locomotive - Guns N Roses
22. Novocaine - Bon Jovi
21. Boom - P.O.D.
20. Luckie St. - Cartel
19. Pain - Three Days Grace
18. I'll Keep Your Memory Vague - Finger Eleven
17. Enemy - Drowning Pool
16. Cuz I Can - Pink
15. Bleed It Out - Linkin Park
14. Testify - Rage Against The Machine
13. No Sign Of Life - OK Go
12. Until The End - Breaking Benjamin
11. How Long - Hinder
10. Night Drive - The All American Rejects
09. Home (Acoustic) - Daughtry
08. Faint - Linkin Park
07. Guerrilla Radio - Rage Against The Machine
06. Broken Glass - Buckcherry
05. Animals - Nickelback
04. How Far We've Com - Matchbox Twenty
03. Wicked Garden - Stone Temple Pilots
02. Doomsday Clock - Smashing Pumpkins

And for the third week in a row, the number one song for the week is...

01. Last by Nine Inch Nails

The top 100 starts airing Friday night at midnight and repeats the entire weekend. Have a great week.

Dave

YOT200 This Weeks Top 25

2008-05-01T20:06:00.005-04:00

Hello Everyone.

Another week. Another Top 25 list. This was another banner week as the radio station hit a landmark 830 listening hours. A special thanks goes out to the great state of New York who joins California and Nevada for the top three states giving a listen to The Year Of The 200. Also, thanx again to the UK, Canada, and Saudi Arabia. As always the Top 100 starts Friday night at midnight and plays throughout the weekend. Here's this week's Top 25:

25. Bleed It Out - Linkin Park
24. Boom - P.O.D.
23. Forest - System Of A Down
22. Testify - Rage Against The Machine
21. Welcome To The Jungle - Guns N Roses
20. Home (Acoustic) - Daughtry
19. Given Up - Linkin Park
18. Rollin' - Limp Bizkit
17. Cuz I Can - Pink
16. Wicked Garden - Stone Temple Pilots
15. I'll Keep Your Memory Vague - Finger Eleven
14. Night Drive - The All American Rejects
13. Enemy - Drowning Pool
12. No Sign Of Life - OK Go
11. Broken Glass - Buckcherry
10. Pain - Three Days Grace
09. Until The End - Breaking Benjamin
08. Faint - Linkin Park
07. How Long - Hinder
06. Luckie St. - Cartel
05. Guerrilla Radio - Rage Against The Machine
04. How Far We've Come - Matchbox Twenty
03. Animals - Nickelback
02. Doomsday Clock - Smashing Pumpkins
01. Last - Nine Inch Nails

YOT200 This Weeks Top 25

2008-04-25T11:41:00.004-04:00

It's been another great week on my journey to achieve 800 listening hours on the Live 365 station. This weekend brings us another top notch Top 100 starting at Midnight tonight. Mucho thanx to my avid listeners in California, Nevada, and Utah. Also thanx to those of you outside of the states in the United Kingdom, Canada and Saudi Arabia (a first for the Year Of The 200 station).

Here's this week's top 25:

25. Church On Sunday - Green Day
24. Wicked Garden - Stone Temple Pilots
23. On The Move - Mudvayne
22. Bullet With Butterfly Wings - Smashing Pumpkins
21. Cuz I Can - Pink
20. Mono - Courtney Love
19. Forest - System Of A Down
18. I'll Keep Your Memory Vague - Finger Eleven
17. Rollin' - Limp Bizkit
16. Welcome To The Jungle - Guns N Roses
15. Given Up - Linkin Park
14. Dirty Little Thing - Velvet Revolver
13. No Sign Of Life - OK Go
12. Night Drive - The All-American Rejects
11. Enemy - Drowning Pool
10. Pain - Three Days Grace
09. Faint - Linkin Park
08. Guerrilla Radio - Rage Against The Machine
07. How Long - Hinder
06. Until The End - Breaking Benjamin
05. Luckie St. - Cartel
04. How Far We've Come - Matchbox Twenty
03. Doomsday Clock - Smashing Pumpkins
02. Animals - Nickelback
01. Last - Nine Inch Nails

YOT200 Top 25 April 18, 2008

2008-04-18T11:00:00.003-04:00

Hey Everyone,

This week, the station bounced around the 700 hour mark. As always, I appreciate your listenership. I've decided that the weekend Top 50 will now be the Top 100. The top tunes start Friday night at Midnight and play throughout the entire weekend. Here's this weeks Top 25.

25. Cuz I Can - Pink
24. Over You - Daughtry
23. I'll Keep Your Memory Vague - Finger Eleven
22. Church On Sunday - Green Day
21. Bullet With Butterfly Wings - The Smashing Pumpkins
20. Night Drive - The All American Rejects
19. Mono - Courtney Love
18. Forest - System Of A Down
17. Welcome To The Jungle - Guns N' Roses
16. Given Up - Linkin Park
15. No Sign Of Life - OK Go
14. Enemy - Drowning Pool
13. Rollin' - Limp Bizkit
12. On The Move - Mudvayne
11. Dirty Little Thing - Velvet Revolver
10. Until The End - Breaking Benjamin
09. Pain - Three Days Grace
08. Faint - Linkin Park
07. How Long - Hinder
06. Luckie St. - Cartel
05. Guerrilla Radio - Rage Against The Machine
04. Doomsday Clock - Smashing Pumpkins
03. Last - Nine Inch Nails
02. How Far We've Come - Matchbox Twenty
01. Animals - Nickelback

Year Of The 200 Radio

2008-04-10T16:31:00.006-04:00

I'm very excited about the growth of my Live365 station. As of today, I've achieved 694 listening hours over the last 30 days. Every weekend, I run the Top 50 for the week. Here's this weeks top 25.
25. Mono - Courtney Love
24. Murdertrain a Comin' - Dethklok
23. Cuz I Can - Pink
22. Boom - P.O.D.
21. Given Up - Linkin Park
20. Church On Sunday - Green Day
19. How Long - Hinder
18. Welcome To The Jungle - Guns N Roses
17. Luckie St. - Cartel
16. Faint - Linkin Park
15. Until The End - Breaking Benjamin
14. Bullet With Butterfly Wings - Smashing Pumpkins
13. Crazy Bitch - Buckcherry
12. Forest - System Of A Down
11. Pain - Three Days Grace
10. Rollin' - Limp Bizkit
09. Last - Nine Inch Nails
08. No Sign Of Life - Ok Go
07. Guerrilla Radio - Rage Against The Machine
06. Enemy - Drowning Pool
05. Dirty Little Thing - Velvet Revolver
04. Doomsday Clock - Smashing Pumpkins
03. On The Move - Mudvayne
02. How Far We've Come - Matchbox Twenty
01. Animals - Nickelback
So there's a sampling of the variety of music you can hear on my internet radio station. You can hear the full list this weekend.

Uber Long Time No Chat

2008-04-04T15:15:00.003-04:00

To Those Of You Who Still Check This Out,

How's it goin? It's been forever, I know. I've been by some why I don't blog anymore and the reason is simply that I'm married now. Before, when I was single, I had time where I was alone and when I had a thought and no one to talk to about it, I'd throw it up on a blog. Now that I'm married, I'm always with someone at least 90% of my day (the other 10% is spent driving to and from work) and so now when I have a thought, I just tell the person I'm with. Not to mention the fact that blogging seems a little passe these days. There's got to be millions of blogs out there and I don't read any of them. These days, outside of "official" news sources, I tend not to read anything much longer than a text message.

I was also asked if I was going to kill the blog but I can't see doing that. For what it's worth, the random thoughts I've jotted down on these pages serve as a time capsule of a piece of my life. I'm fascinated knowing that as long as there's a cyberspace, part of my life will be preserved for people to look at. My time may pass but my words will live on.

So I have some time today as my computer is doing most of my work so I thought I'd try and catch you up on some of my going ons.

First, let's start with the weight loss thing. I'm still into it. While not every day, I sill go to the gym. I've also started running again and I've played tennis twice in the last week. I'm much more fit than when I started trying to lose weight in September but weight wise...Well, I need to make some diet changes as I don't seem to be losing anything. Truth be told, I'm not fretting about the weight loss thing because I feel health wise, I am significantly improved. Still, we're going on a cruise in July and I expect to do some diet cramming in June and July so that I don't look too inappropriate in a bathing suit.

Internet Radio. I have totally revamped my live365 station. Whereas once, I thought I'd create a radio station that was an organic realization of my gym workouts, playing the exact songs in the exact order that I listened to at the gym,... well, it turned out that idea was very appealing to listen too. People just don't want to hear Hannah Montana next to Eric Clapton next to Linkin Park. Instead now, I've taken the best hard rock, heavy metal, and alternative tunes of my workouts and created 3 hour mixes. Those mixes are rotated daily and each week, I compile the top 50 songs of the week and loop them on the weekend. Whereas the first incarnation of the station was more of an experiment, the new version which has been up and running for the last couple of months is something I enjoy listening to immensely.

Without talking about the new station, I've managed to acquire 637 listening hours. Big props to California, New York, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Texas, Georgia, and Colorado. Also, huge international thanx to the UK, Canada, Chile, Mexico, Brazil, and Switzerland. I'd love to make it to 1000 hours as so please, tune in and keep listening.

What else? I'm still enjoying work very much. I'm still working for Versus and for the last couple of months, my primary focus has been working on Chuck Noris's World Combat League. In addition to the WCL, I periodically come in on weekends to work on cycling as well as track and field. Aside from the commute, I'm very happy to work here at Versus and will continue doing so as long as they are here.

Kristine and I absolutely love our house. It seems that with each week, there's a new adventure. I wasn't home last night but I believe our patio furniture was delivered. Hopefully, the rain will pass and we'll have some time to sit outside and grill our Omaha Steaks this weekend. By the way, Omaha Steaks WOW! We haven't even had the steaks yet and we love this company. Their twice baked potatoes are a godsend.

Gots to get back to work. I hope all is well with you and hopefully I'll talk 2 u again sometime in the future. Until then...

Dave

You Absolutely Must Check This Out

2008-01-29T22:24:00.000-05:00

Watch this video. It has a couple of funny moments and I enjoy it very much.

Took The Day Off

2007-11-30T14:00:00.000-05:00

Last week, when my boss asked me what my schedule looked like for this week, I decided to take today off. Every so often I just need to take a day to allow myself to accomplish nothing. I have a good job but I've seen people in my profession go crazy. Since I already view myself as an off the beaten path kind of guy, I find days like this one allow me to regroup and gain some perspective so that I don't lose sight of all that comes from that beaten path. So far my day has gone well and I'm enjoying my free time very much.

That's a pretty fantastic feeling when you consider that part of my day was spent at the Connecticut Department Of Motor Vehicles. I fret to even bring this up but....I mind as well. Now, if you were to take a look at my last entry, you can see that I was in a bit of a bumbling way. In one day, I lost an iPhone and came to the realization it was necessary to replace all of my tires. If only there was a way to somehow jump into that blog entry. If somehow I could just climb into those words on my laptop screen and appear on the chair facing myself in the coffee shop area of the Stamford Borders. If only I had the ability to somehow tell myself as I was writing that entry that after I finished blogging, my destiny was to walk across the street to the People's Bank ATM, take out some money, go and grab my car from Town Fair Tire and somewhere in the time frame, I was going to lose my wallet.

I know right? When did I turn into such an F-ing idiot? I'm kind of past it now though. That night though....WOO HOO!, was I in a not so fantastic place. When I called Kristine to tell her what had happened and that I was on my way home, I decided to cancel the dinner/movie night we were going to have with our neighbor's the Lynch's. 2 seconds later, I called her back and told her I was reversing my cancellation, which I'm glad I did. An evening with our friends, their children, the pizzas, Shrek The Third, and a large rum and coke turned out to be exactly the kind of recreation time I needed to feel better about myself.

So today, I went down to Norwalk DMV with my birth certificate and Passport (Thank You Kristine) and 30 bucks and spent about 20 minutes or so getting a duplicate license. It turned out to be worthwhile as I needed to change my address on the license and I didn't know you could do this at dmv, but for the first time in years, I am now a registered voter.

Now I'm sitting in the Fairfield Public Library. I sometimes like hanging around in public libraries as I like being surrounded by all the books, the aura that comes from the people and their search for knowledge, and especially the silence. That said, there are exception to those rules. If you should be at the Norwalk Public Library after school hours, you run the risk of catching some rowdy high school kids. It seems as though a number of them are unaware of the whole silence in the library thing.

I'm also at the library because I'm sooooo into audiobooks right now. I figured I would get back into them when we moved to Fairfield because of the hour and a half I was adding to my daily commute but it took about 3 months to get back on the audiobook bandwagon. Now I'm just gangbusters about literacy.

Since the end of October, I had listened to 6 audiobooks. They are World Without End by Ken Follet, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, The Choice by Nicholas Sparks, The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold, Born Standing Up by Steve Martin, and Playing For Pizza by John Grisham. I'm not going to review the books but I can tell you that World Without End, Splendid Suns and Almost Moon are really great books that are well written and interesting to listen to. If you're going on a trip that will have you on the road for 48 hours, then grab World Without End. It's an easy joke but I'll take it. That book is soooo long it should have been called Book Without End.

The Choice was my first snag. A lot of the book, especially the beginning has a lot of description and not very much dialogue. This person's thinking this and that person's thinking that. Every English/Writing teacher I've ever had has told me and the class to write dialog in place of telling the reader what the characters are thinking and feeling. Usually, one or two students will argue that they are not good at writing dialog and they don't feel dialog is as necessary as the teacher makes it out to be. To all those teacher, I suggest they use The Choice as an example to make their point. Much of The Choice annoyed me to the point that I sped up the narrator.

Many people don't know this but if you purchase an audiobook using either iTunes or Audible.com and you play the book on an iPod, the iPod has a setting that allows you to play the book at Normal, Slower, or Faster. You might think that speeding up the book would make the narrator sound as if he had just inhaled helium, but the audiobook sound pretty much the same, only with the words coming at your around twice the speed.

I didn't mean to review The Choice but I guess that's what I've done so I'll finish it off. I found the first half of The Choice to be often annoying and yet, it held my interest. Part of what held my interest was that the author, Nicholas Sparks, has written several other best selling books and when I had purchased The Choice, it had already been on The New York Times bestseller list for eight weeks. If this guy's a successful writer and I may want to be a writer someday, then I felt it was important to pay attention in spite of the fact that I was unable to understand why The Choice was the success that it was.

Then Came The TWIST!!! That's right folks, there's a twist. I mean there is I suppose unless you've read about the twist in someone else's review. Then you won't be surprised. But BAM!!!...You're reading along. You think there's a choice to be made and the whole thing seems predictable and your just like, "C'mon! Make the choice already. We get it. We know." And then BAM!!! Oh. I guess I had absolutely no idea what this book was about. And then the book becomes somewhat relevant to all our lives in that one of the characters has to make a choice that any of us in a long term relationship might have to make. I uhhh...I guess The Choice is a good book. Still though, I think it could've used a little more dialog.

The Steve Martin book was very enjoyable. I'm a big fan of stand up comedians and I've always been bummed that I missed out on seeing Steve perform. I was thrilled to take the journey with him from childhood to his early days of stand up to his great successes and then to his standup burnout. Thank you very much Mr. Martin for putting it all out there. I enjoyed your book very much.

It's a little after 3 now and I should be on my way. Thanx for reading.
Dave

What A Day

2007-11-21T16:14:00.000-05:00

Setting: Borders Book Store in Stamford. Drinking a Oreo Cookie Javakula, listening to yesterday’s Opie and Anthony show on my new iPhone. Across the street at Town Fair Tire is my year old Audi S4 waiting in line to have all four tires replaced. It’s almost 4 o’clock the day before Thanksgiving and I’ve got about 2 hours to kill.

Yesterday, I lost my iPhone. As a sign of how far I’ve progressed in life, I’m now capable of randomly losing toys that cost upwards of $600. My, how far I’ve come.

What’s weird is how I know someone else now enjoys the company of my old iPhone. It was around lunch time yesterday that I realized I didn’t know where my phone was. I assumed I might have left it in my car. Every time I called the iPhone throughout the day, my calls went straight to voicemail. Since my car was parked in the basement of the parking garage, I was hopeful the phone was there as I know I can’t get reception when I park my car in the basement. Still, when I did a thorough search of the car, I was unable to find the iPhone.

So I get home and walk across the street to the Lynch’s to get my wife’s phone. Karen was having some sort of jewelry party and my wife was in attendance. I planned on getting her phone and calling my phone in the hopes of hearing it ring in the car. When I told Kristine that I hadn’t seen the phone since before lunch she said, “But you responded to my text about the paint brushes”.

Sure enough, according to Kristine’s iPhone, she sent me a text a little after 5pm asking if I needed her to pick me up some paint brushes. Just after 6pm, she received a text from my iPhone saying “no”. I spent the next half hour trying to call and text my iPhone in the hopes of getting it back. My calls continued to go straight to voicemail and my text’s went unanswered. Unable to reach my phone’s new owner, I called AT&T and thru their automated system, I deactivated the iPhone.

Before I made the call, I did a little research and found out some things about what happens when an AT&T phone is reported lost or stolen. First, while the phone aspect of the iPhone stops working, every other aspect including the web browsing and the iPod functions will continue to work. For those of you who don’t know, when you buy an iPhone, nothing about it works until you set up a phone account with AT&T. That means unless you pony up for a two contract with AT&T, the iPhone serves no purpose. However, since I’ve already activated my phone, whoever has it will have full use of the iPhone sans the phone. THAT IS,...

...unless he or she signs up an AT&T account. If I understand correctly, the person who has my phone has the option of using the phone if he or she wants to sign up for a 2 year contract. Although AT&T will be well aware where my lost/sort of stolen (I guess technically, it’s not a stolen phone but there’s a person out there who has my $600 phone who knows who I am and knows I want it back.) phone is the moment the iPhone gets activated for phone service, AT&T won’t do anything about it. AT&T won’t tell me my phone has appeared on the grid, nor will they notify the authorities. Oh well.

I just had a thought. Let’s say I’m a trusting idiotic sort who parks his car in a parking lot, leaves the car unlocked and the keys in the ignition. Now, I’ve done a stupid thing but unless I’m mistaken, if someone gets into my car and drives away with it, then they’ve stolen my car. Just thinking out loud.

So here’s the thing. I probably would be more bent out of shape about the iPhone if it weren’t for the fact that on my way home from the Stamford Apple Store, having purchased my new iPhone, my driver’s side front tire went flat on the Merrit Parkway.

If you’ve never been on the Merrit, the Parkway is a very woodsy 2 lane highway with no street lights and not a lot of shoulder room. It’s been years since I’ve changed a flat tire and today’s vehicles are slightly more complicated than the piss yellow ’85 Chevette I drove in high school. The tires of today have things like keys and things that need to be pealed off. I cannot stress this enough. Thank God I befriended Tim Lynch my senior year of high school and Thank God we now live across the street from each other.

I called the Lynch’s home to let my wife know I’d be running a little later that I thought. I also called the Lynch’s home because I had Kristine’s iPhone which I almost hadn’t taken with me but decided to just in case of an emergency. Phew! Well, I got Karen and Karen told Tim and 15 minutes later, Tim showed up with flashlights and a great attitude.

Tim is a wealth of information when it comes to cars and he explained to me that it’s a good idea to have at least a little tread on your tires when driving on roads. A little tread is a little more that what I had on my tires and thus, the front driver’s tire had simply given up after I had hit a small bump in the left lane on the Merrit Parkway.

One of the more interesting aspects of the ordeal was the presence of a state police officer who parked in the right lane to protect us from oncoming cars as we replaced the tire. When I think of the trouble Tim and I used to get into as younger people...well, generally we were keeping an eye out for the cops because seeing police officers would mean there was a problem.

However it seems that when an officer of the law sees two thirtysomething guys, one driving an Audi and the other driving a Prius, fixing a tire on the side of the Merrit Parkway at 10:30 at night...Well, then a police officer is your best friend. Before he showed up, I thought I might not make it home. There’s no streetlights on the Merrit and the cars were coming very close even though we were 2 cars with our lights on and our hazard lights blinking. It’s one of the few times in my life I’ve felt the reassuring security I’ve heard a police officer can provide. The officer never left his car and when we were done, I gave the policeman a thankful saluting wave. Over his PA, he said, “No problem gentlemen,” and pulled away after Tim and I had safely driven off the shoulder and onto the highway.

So that was my yesterday. I should wander back to check on my car. My super thanx go out to my buddy Tim as well as the Connecticut police officers who patrol our roads and keep us safe. You are all very awesome.

Also congratulations to the winner of the Find Dave’s Dropped iPhone and Keep It Contest. I will be able to go on without it and well...I guess if it’s something you need to make your life a little better, then I guess I’ve done some good in your life. Instead of harboring bitterness, I’m going to chalk this up to some Karma Credit and hope that it brings you all the joy that it bought me.

Until next time.
Dave

Doin Alright In The Year Of The 200

2007-09-16T18:01:00.000-04:00

So I'm still working out every day. I don't imagine that will go away as long as there's traffic on the Merrit. Still, I've hit a bit of a snag. On average, I'm supposed to lost a pound and a half a week to hit 200 pounds on September 1, 2008. In my first week, I dropped 2.6 pounds down to 272.4 lbs but retained my 31% body fat from the week before. This week?... I gained .2 pounds, putting me at 272.6 lbs. HOWEVER..., I now have 28% body fat.

Now, I realize I've made progress, but this new math might throw off my grande picture of hitting 200 lbs.

Here's a couple of pictures I thought I'd show you. The first is from a week before I started exercising. The Bud Light was all that was available.The 2nd and third photos are from Karen's 40th birthday party on Friday night. I'm not sure who the girl is on the left but Karen is on the right. In the bottom picture, I'm talking with Tim's father.
So that's what's going on with that. In other news, Kristine and I are doing the football survival pool thing. To check on our status, you can go here. Kristine is under Czarnomski because I wasn't thinking when I signed her up for the pool.

Thank God It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia has returned to FX. Check your local listings. Also, we're very happy with the season finale of Rescue Me. I want to say that we're looking forward to Season 3 of How I Met Your Mother, but we're still on Season 2 so I'll have to DVR it when the new season starts until we catch up.

Hope your week is great. Talk 2 u l8r.
Dave

Still Going

2007-09-13T10:22:00.001-04:00

I find that I easily forget things (like my phone at home) and most of the time, I seem to feel like I'm a little off. However, I'm feeling strong and I feel really good about how everything is going with this whole fitness deal. I'm looking very forward to my third weigh in this weekend. I only need a pound and a half...oh shoot....I just realized that I'm going to be partying pretty hard Friday night. Alright, so this weekend's weigh in won't be the shining moment of the Year Of The 200 but here's hoping I can make my pound and a half quota. Here's today's mix:

The Year Of The 200 Mix 9

Tell It Like It Is - Ludacris - Release Therapy
Fences - Paramore - Riot!
Trap Door - Ozzy Osbourne - Black Rain
Promiscuous - Nelly Furtado - Loose
Pretty Handsome Awkward - The Used - Transformers Soundtrack
Mr. Brownstone - Guns N Roses - Appetite For Destruction
Within Destruction - As I Lay Dying - An Ocean Between Us
Live And Let Die - Guns N Roses - Greatest Hits
Mother Mother - Tracy Bonham - The Burdens Of Being Upright

A Desire To Write More

2007-09-12T12:28:00.000-04:00

When you wake up at 5:30am to work out 5 days a weeks, time seems to disappear. I would love to go into more detail about how the Year of the 200 is going. I would love to go into more detail about how I lost 2.6 pounds in the first week of the Year Of The 200. I would love to speak forever on the emotional roller coaster that was the $200 price drop in the iPhone. I just don't have time.

I do however have a couple of minutes while my client gets his lunch to give you an update on my workout mixes sans the last 2 because of issues I'm having with the new 160gig iPod classic. Here they are:

Year Of The 200 Mix 4

What Time Is It - High School Musical Cast - High School Musical 2
Friends Don't Let Friends Dial Drunk - Plain White T's - Every Second Counts
You Really Got Me - Van Halen - The Best Of Both Worlds
Devils & Dust - Bruce Springstein - Devils & Dust
Desire - U2 - U218 Singles
It's All Good - DMX - The Definition Of X: Pick Of The Litter
Oh Timbaland - Timbaland - Shock Value
Follow You Home - Nickelback - All The Right Reasons
My Generation - Limp Bizkit - Chocolate Starfish And The Hotdog Flavored Water

Year Of The 200 Mix 5

What Time Is It - High School Musical Cast - High School Musical 2
Mr. Policeman - Brad Paisley - 5th Gear
Far Away - Paul van Dyk - In Between
We Got It Going On - Bon Jovi - Lost Highway
I Can Do Better - Avril Lavigne - The Best Damn Thing
If You're Going Through Hell - Rodney Atkins - If You're Going Through Hell
Crazy Bitch - Buckcherry - 15
Stupid Girls - Pink - I'm Not Dead

Year Of The 200 Mix 6

What Time Is It - High School Musical Cast - High School Musical 2
Make Me Over - Lifehouse - Who We Are
Pretty Handsome Awkward - The Used - Transformers
Streamline - System Of A Down - Steal This Album!
This Is Who We Are - As I Lay Dying - An Ocean Between Us
Party Like A Rockstar - Shop Boyz - Rockstar Mentality
Soil, Soil - Tegan And Sara
Basket Case - Green Day - Dookie
Without A Trace - Soul Asylum - Grave Dancers Union

FYI: In a couple of weeks, I plan to relaunch my Live365 station with the mixes so you can live vicariously thru me at the gym while you listen to what I listen to.

Sooooo Tired

2007-09-05T21:35:00.001-04:00

It's only 9:30 and I'm exhausted. I've been exhausted for the last hour and a half. Tomorrow, I do it all over again. Here's today's mix:

What Time Is It? - High School Musical Cast - High School Musical 2
High School Never Ends - Bowling For Soup - The Great Burrito Extortion Case
Cut Me, Mick - Yellowcard - Paper Walls
Our Time Now - Plain White T's - Every Second Counts
This Is Why I'm Hot - Mims - Music Is My Saviour
Take It Away - The Used - In Love And Death
Church On Sunday - Green Day - Warning
Me Love - Sean Kingston - Sean Kingston
Who I Am - Ashley Tisdale - Headstrong

Nighty Night

The Conception Of The Year Of The 200

2007-09-04T09:14:00.000-04:00

A year from now when I look back on The Year Of The 200, I'm certain the first great decision I made regarding this venture was to wait. It was almost August 1st when I was listening to the Howard Stern show on Sirius satellite radio when Howard was talking about people who just sort of hang around not doing anything and he described this sort of behavior as "biding your time until you die". Now I don't believe my level of slackerness meets with that criteria, but hearing those words motived me to really take control of what I was doing and to get rid of my extra weight.

The idea of taking a year to get rid of my 80 some odd pounds to get down to 200 came to me pretty quickly. About an hour later though, it occurred to me to not jump in to some fitness or diet plan right away. Frequently, I jump into things and then fail to see those things all the way thru because I haven't thought things thru. That's why I decided to take a month before I started The Year of 200 on September 1st.

Here's today's workout mix:

What Time Is It - High School Musical Cast - Hight School Musical 2
Hey There Delilah - Plain White T's - Every Second Counts
Happy Valentine's Day - Outkast - Speakerboxxx
Five Becomes Four - Yellowcard - Paper Walls
Rock Star - Prima J - Bratz
Without A Trace - Soul Asylum - Grave Dancers Union
Walla Walla - The Offspring - Americana
Fighting - Yellowcard - Paper Walls

Working Out On Labor Day

2007-09-03T15:28:00.000-04:00

Woke up at 6:30 this morning on my own without an alarm and went to the gym. I imagine after spending all of last week waking up at 5:30am, my internal clock is wondering what on earth is going on. LA Fitness wasn't as busy today as it would have been on a normal Monday but Fitness did have a respectable amount of die hards for a holiday.

Yesterday was supposed to be a rest day but my friend Adam called me up for a couple of sets of tennis. I was thinking about making today a rest day but I have a dentist appointment Friday morning so I'll take that day off from the gym.

My current routine is to do 30 minutes of cardio, 20 or so minutes of abs, and then work out 1 muscle group. Last Wednesday was legs. Thursday was back. Friday was shoulders. Today I worked out my triceps. Tomorrow I do biceps.

The rest of today has been some work and some relaxation. After breakfast at one of our local Fairfield diners, Kristine and I took a ride down route 1 to get a better feel for downtown Fairfield. I went into Borders for a couple of books on picking out dogs and then we came home and figured out how to water our lawn. No matter how hard I tighten my hoses, they're still a little leaky at their joints. Don't get that at all. Please help.

The Lynch family went to the beach, so Kristine and I got the chance to adopt their dog Rosie for the day. She's been very well behaved and we enjoy her company very much. She's lying down in our kitchen on the hard wood floor and I'm watching U.S. Open Tennis in HD.

Here's today's workout mix:

What Time Is It - High School Musical Cast - High School Musical 2
If We Were A Movie - Hannah Montana - Hanna Montana
How Long - Hinder - Extreme Behavior
Amor De Madre - Aventura - K.O.B.
Youth Of The Nation - P.O.D. - Satelite
For A Pessimist, I'm Pretty Optimistic - Paramore - Riot!
Wanted Dead Or Alive (Gangsta Party) - 2Pac - Nu Mixx Klazzics Vol. 2
This Is Family - Fabolous - From Nothin' To Somethin'

The Year Of The 200 Has Begun

2007-09-02T20:56:00.000-04:00

As of Saturday, September 1, 2007, the Year Of The 200 has begun. There's plenty more information to come but the short of it is that I'm going to spend the next year dropping 75 lbs. so that on 09-01-08, I will way 200 lbs. It's very exciting and I can't wait to tell you all about it but if I try to tell you now, then I'll never finish my thoughts and then I won't publish this entry.

To start you off, here are 3 200 mixes to get you thru 30 minutes of cardio activity each.

Pre 200 Mix 1

What Time Is It - High School Musical Cast - High School Musical 2
Young Lust - Aerosmith - Pump
Dragula - Rob Zombie - Hellbilly Deluxe
You Could Be Mine - Guns N Roses - Greatest Hits
We Got The Party - Hannah Montana - Hannah Montana 2/Meet Miley Cyrus
Hot - Avril Lavigne - The Best Damn Thing
Friday Night - Lily Allen - Alright, Still
Run It! - Chris Brown ft. Juelz Santana - Chris Brown

Pre 200 Mix 2

What Time Is It - High School Musical Cast - High School Musical 2
This Is It, This Is It - As Cities Burn - Come Now Sleep
Betrayal - Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds - Live At Radio City
For A Pessimist, I'm Pretty Optimistic - Paramore - Riot!
Vanity And Greed - Silverstein - Arrivals & Departures
Rotten To The Core - Hellyeah - Hellyeah
Don't Drink The Water - Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds

Pre 200 Mix 3

What Time Is It - High School Musical Cast - High School Musical 2
Like This N Like That - Chingo Bling - They Can't Deport Us All
Are You The Rabbit? - Marilyn Manson - Eat Me, Drink Me
Mary's Song (Oh My My My) - Taylor Swift - Taylor Swift
Flattery - Aly & AJ - Insomniac
Every Breath You Take - The Police - The Police
Heart Shaped Glasses - Marilyn Manson - Eat Me, Drink Me
Seventeen - Winger - Monsters Of Rock Platinum Edition

By the way, Tim, his brother Matt and I caught the 7:40 of Balls Of Fury last night. The movie is pretty crappy but has some really funny moments. My favorite scenes were the deciphering of the Chinese riddle on the invitation paddle as well as Christopher Walken going nuts over some of his replicas.

Moving Day

2007-08-17T11:20:00.001-04:00

Greetings Friends,

I'm sitting on the floor of my prior residence here in Stamford, watching 3 moving men periodically walk by carrying our possessions. I'm tired. I had a psychology teacher once tell me the body requires only 4 hours of sleep. Two for physical and two for mental. This past week, I spent testing that theory give or take a half hour. One interesting thing I learned about myself is that regardless of the time or how much rest I've had, I'm never tired when I'm painting. Paint fumes apparently turn off my sleep gene.

The cleaning guys are close to being done. They've cleared out the basement and the attic. Most of the downstairs is on the truck. They're working on the upstairs now and then they have the washer and dryer and the tv.

Then we'll drive up to Fairfield. Unfortunately, their truck can't take the Merrit so they'll have to jump on i95 and take the local roads to our house. After a little lunch, they'll unpack. There's some slight trickery with switching out the washer and dryer across the street from the new house as well as grabbing a desk from Tim and Karen's garage but on the whole, the move should be fairly easy going.

The real trick is trying to manage my new house adrenaline with my exhaustion. Right now, I want to pass out, but I can't. Later when I'm at the new house, I run the risk of being so excited that I can't sleep. So right now, I'm trying to channel the future adrenaline so that I can pass out when the moving people leave up this afternoon.

What else can I say? Love the house. I spent a good amount of time up there this week and I really enjoy being there. I really enjoy being across the street from Tim and Karen a lot. I think I've gone over how we got the house but the reason we're moving in is because Tim and Karen called us up on Mother's Day when they found out their neighbors were selling the house across the street. There is just a natural good feeling that comes from knowing that Tim and Karen and their 3 kids live just across the street. Knowing that now, I wish we could have done this years ago.

The commute from Fairfield to Stamford has not been as bad as I thought it would. I am told this is in part due to it being summer and that, come fall, it will get worse. Still, I am finding that I enjoy showing up to work, having finished my breakfast and coffee, getting my fill of Howard Stern and Opie & Anthony and arriving at work, ready to go. OH! DEAR SIRIUS SATELITE CORPORATE, If you could take a moment from your merge to install terrestrial repeaters along the Merrit Parkway in Connecticut, God Bless Ya. That would be really really helpful.

Speaking of Sirius as well as music, have you heard of the Sonos Digital Music System? This thing is soooooooo overpriced and God would I love one. But alas, I'm a homeowner now and extravagant purchases are now sort of a thing of the past. I'll tell you what I am getting though. A Mosquito Magnet. We've got a ton of bugs and they have got to go. Thank goodness for the Mosquito Magnet.

Check ya l8r.
Dave

And Now For Something Else

2007-07-29T11:24:00.000-04:00

What does a guy, whose free time should be limited with all the time he's spending at work and all the time he should be spending preparing for his move into his first house, do with that free time? He joins yet another ultra cool for the moment social networking website. That's right. Yours Truly is now part of the Facebook revolution. Judging from all the hits I got letting Facebook go thru my email, it would seem I'm the last to join this ever growing movement. Still, I have joined and I'm very excited to be a part of this wonderful web thingy. Feel free to search me, Dave Novak, out and add me to your friends list.

See you yet again on the web.
Dave

Well Hello There

2007-06-26T18:20:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone. How's it goin? It seems like a lot of people come up to me and say, "Dave, how come you don't blog anymore?" The answer is...well, I just have a lot of stuff to do. Quick update on life: It's going very well. Quick update on the house: I'm fairly certain our closing date is August 8th. Woo Hoo!

So I'm here today to talk about two things. The first is that I find joy in videotaping the softball games for the company I work for, Versus. It allows me to put my HDV camcorder to good use and as a result, I'm a little more proficient with iMovie and iDVD now. I bring this up because there's a guy Steve who plays on the team whose really been itching to hit the ball out of the park and well...I'll let the video speak for itself. What's super exciting for me about this video is that it's my first YouTube upload to have over a hundred views and that's just from one day. Here ya go.

The other thing I wanna talk about is Nick Nolte, Kris Kristofferson, and Gary Busey. After I watched Steve's HR, YouTube put up a couple of other vids I might be interested in and this next vid was one of them. This is one of the funniest things I've ever seen ever.

It was a pleasure to speak to you as always. See you soon.
Dave

We're Looking To Buy A House

2007-05-21T12:41:00.000-04:00

My best friend Tim and his wife Karen called us up on Mother's Day and said, "YOU HAVE TO GET UP HERE NOW!!! The people across the street are selling their house and you need to buy it! So we did and we looked at it and I believe we are pretty close in the process of owning this house. I say pretty close as I am very clueless to this home buying stuff.

This morning, we had our inspection and of course I brought my video camera so as quick as I can compress the files, you will see them here.

The Nor'easter and The Norwalk River

2007-04-17T10:00:00.000-04:00

Yesterday morning, I had to visit a doctor's office in Norwalk, CT to have my remaining stitches removed from my carpal tunnel syndrome (oh yeah, by the way, I had carpal tunnel surgery two Mondays ago). The office is next to the Norwalk River, a typically relaxed waterway that many locals, I'm certain, are unaware of it's existence. Well, thanx to the bad weather, it was entertaining to watch the river from my car while I waited to go in for my appointment. You can go here to see the pictures I snapped before the rain go to heavy to be outside.

Wedding Thank U's and the Apple TV

2007-04-15T22:44:00.000-04:00

How's it goin out there my good friends? It's the end of the weekend and I'm chillin on the couch watching Huff while the nor'easter continues to hammer down outside. I figured I'd take a break from writing my wedding thank you's but now I'm thinking I'm giving up on them for the night. I don't have much further to go but whether I do them tonight or tomorrow won't make much of a difference. While I've never been font of writing the thank you note, I must say there's a part of me that has enjoyed reconnecting with the joy I had and the gratitude I have for those present at my marriage ceremony and celebration. Still, the idea that after tomorrow I'll never have to write another thank you because I'm swearing off all gifts that require thank you notes...boy, I'm looking forward to that. The exception would be for any guests who are using that 1 year to get the married couple their gift rule. There are a few and they've got 20 days. We'll see how that works out.

So I'm watching Huff, a fantastic show that I was sad to find out Showtime cancelled after 2 seasons, on my...Apple TV. That's right, I bought one of those. Those of you who have heard me talk about the Apple TV in the last couple of months are probably very surprised. I have made several attempts at writing a blog entry entitled, "Please God, Don't Buy An Apple TV" but failed as the entry would have taken me forever to write. I could go into detail as to why I wanted to write such an entry, but why bother? I own one and it's really freakin cool.

The reason I own one is because I can't be trusted to be alone in the Apple store. I was there today because I work with a guy who bought a 15" Powerbook a couple years ago and he decided to break something off in the headphone jack and as a result there's no sound coming out of the speakers. Unfortunately, my coworker is incapable of bringing in his laptop even though he spent the money on Applecare which is essentially Apple's version of the extended warranty and I never buy extended warranties.

So I had him give me his laptop and I brought it to the Genius Bar and while I was there, I went and played with the demo units Apple had set up for the Apple TV. I tried leaving the store twice. Once, I almost made it to the Stamford Mall elevator. It was just sooooo beautiful. Now, it is a pain in the ass that all of my files are in divx format and I'm not about to open up the Apple TV to hack into the hardrive. As a result, I do have to convert my files if I want to watch them but I can let the computer do that while I'm sleeping. I think it's worth it because the user interface on the Apple TV is just so great.

Alright, my show's almost over and I'm ready to crash. Good talking 2 u as always and I'll chat w/u soon.

The Boob Heard Round The World

2007-04-12T07:15:00.000-04:00

It's hard to believe that's it's been over 3 years since the world saw Janet Jackson's breast on the Super Bowl half time show and all hell broke loose at the FCC. In hindsight, maybe the world overreacted just a little. Truth be told, I don't have anything more to say about this. I'm just cleaning out my computer and while I didn't think I needed this picture on my computer anymore, I just couldn't bring myself to throw it away. Thus, I'm putting it here.

Love & Marriage

2007-04-11T07:18:00.000-04:00

Since Kristine and I are less than 2 months away from our one month anniversary, we've decided this weekend to buckle down and get out all of the remaining thank you notes that are long overdue. To get myself in the mood, I started converting our wedding video for youtube. Since you can post clips that are 10 minutes or less, it will take me a while to get the whole thing up. Here's the first installment.

CORRECTION: My best friend Tim called me to tell me that I meant our one year anniversary and when I told that to my wife, she asked me if I realized we're less than 3 weeks from our one year anniversary. Ooops.

How I Spent My Easter

2007-04-09T08:03:00.000-04:00

So I'm starting to come around to these free online posting things like flickr and youtube (and I guess, of course, blogger). The great thing about these sites is that you can just throw stuff up on them without much worry about how good the content is. Don't get me wrong. I'm not going out of my way to make shitty content but if I was making a dvd of my Easter goings ons, I would feel compelled to make sure things look right and that the material flowed in an entertaining matter. Whereas with youtube, I can just throw up my clips and people can watch them or not or fast forward thru them or whatever they want to do.

Here are the clips I shot yesterday at Kristine's Sister's house for Easter.

Easter B & B

2007-04-06T17:35:00.000-04:00

Kristine and I are at a bed and breakfast called The Woolverton Inn in Stockton, New Jersey. We're spending the next 2 nights here and then we're going to her sister Kathy's place for Easter Sunday. We got here around 2:30 and Kristine went down for a nap so I went out and snapped some photos of the exterior and the sheep. We're having a great time so far, enjoying our peaceful, relaxing weekend. Soon, we'll be going into town for dinner.

One funny note. This is the second B & B we've stayed at in the last 2 months where our room has been just outside the range of the wireless network. I guess that's a good thing, considering we're supposed to be "getting away from it all".

I've posted the photos I've taken so far on my flickr page.

Apparently, Alanis Morissette Has Lost Her Mind

2007-04-04T05:21:00.000-04:00

The God Awful Shepherd

2007-03-27T18:14:00.000-04:00

Last night, Kristine and I tried to watch The Good Shepherd, directed by Robert Deniro and starring Matt Damon. What seemed like a film with plenty of potential turned into a couple of hours of my time that I can't get back. The film is painful and I strongly suggest you skip over this title at your local video store.

When we were watching Shepherd last night, it felt like the film had lasted forever but possibly as if it were coming to an end. When I went to check on how much time was left and Kriste saw that there was well over a half an hour to go, I swear to you her exact words were, "NO FUCKING WAY!"

Since we didn't finish the film, I talked to a friend at work today who had gotten in a little trouble over the movie (more on that in a minute). Since he had seen the film, I asked him how it was all wrapped up at then end. The funny thing is that their is a main recurring plot line that has to do with a mysterious photo and a recording that sort of holds the film together and I almost forgot to ask him about it. That's how exhausting the movie was.

As for my friend, he had seen the movie a month or so ago because he had downloaded the film "illegally" using bit torrent. Knowing only my friend's ip address, Universal Studios had the nerve to send a letter to his cable company who in turn sent my friend a warning letter, telling him he had better cut it out with the bit torrenting. The fact that Universal chose The Good Shepherd to make an example of my friend is ridiculous. They should thank their lucky stars someone took the time to waste valuable bandwith on such a lost cause of a movie.

I've Discovered YouTube

2007-03-27T07:55:00.000-04:00

This past Sunday, Kristine and I joined some friends and did some tailgating at the Greenwich St. Patrick's Day Parade. We had a blast and after the parade was over, we joined Elysa and Brian over at Chris and Tanya's for some more drinking and eating and Karaoke. Now if I did this right, you'll be able to watch Kristine and I doing a round of Karaoke below this type and you can check out the rest of my clips here.

Talk 2 u soon.
Dave

Voting For Sanjaya

2007-03-21T12:16:00.000-04:00

I've never been one to watch American Idol with any consistency. There have been times in the past when I have tuned into Idol at the beginning of a season to chuckle at some of the awful applicants. Then there are other times where I have caught some of the last few episodes of a season to see who would win the whole thing. I am proud to say that the one year I had any sort of interest in the show as a whole, I was pretty sure Carrie Underwood should've won and she did just that.

If you had told me before yesterday that I would one day be voting for the Idol of my choice, I would have thought you to be silly. No Idol has ever motivated me to figure out how to place a vote, either by calling or by texting. However, thanx to votefortheworst.com and Howard Stern, I am not officially an Idol voter.

A week or so ago, Howard Stern began talking about votefortheworst on his Sirius satellite radio program. Stern is an avid watcher of American Idol but is very unhappy with the show this season so he has decided to get behind the movement that is votefortheworst. The idea is simple. As a group, we vote for the worst singer on Idol and see how many weeks we can keep him or her on for. This week is very important because whoever remains on Idol after tonight gets to be part of the tour that happens when the season is over. This all sounded like a lot of fun to me so I decided to join in.

Currently, the worst contestant on American Idol is an Indian named Sanjaya Malakar. Last night, the first time I've tuned into Idol this season, they even showed Sanjaya saying he didn't think he was the best singer in the contest. After making that comment on a prerecorded segment, Sanjaya performed "You Really Got Me" by The Kinks. When I heard he was going to do that, I cringed a little as I too had attempted that song at a bar on karaoke night. When all was said and done, Sanjaya's performance of "Got Me", while significantly better than mine, was not what you would call Idol worthy.

Now I admit, voting for the sake of screwing with a contest is not something to be proud of. Still, I do have a reason for doing so. The reason is that I hate how American Idol screws up my television viewing habits. When Idol's season starts up, it pushes every other show out of it's way. For one, American Idol is broadcast on the Fox network. This means that if you're a regular viewer of a Fox show like House, plan on taking a few weeks off from that show because Idol will be on in it's place.

Second, if you're a fan of a show on another network show that airs at the same time as a regularly scheduled episode of Idol, then expect your show to move. The problem is that it's been proven time and time again that nothing beats Idol. For that reason, I no longer get to watch Lost when it first airs because ABC moved Lost to 10pm on Wednesday nights to get out of Idol's way.

I also justify my ridiculous anti Idol vote because of the extra little bump Idol will get in the ratings(as if they needed it). Because of my single vote, I am now committed to watching tonight's Idol results show to see if Sanjaya gets to stay another week. Here hoping. Woo-hoo.

One last thing about American Idol. If you're looking to show off the amazing quality of your High Definition television, have your friends over for an episode of Idol. The way Fox lights their colorful sets combined with some really cool camera moves make for the most stunning visuals I've ever seen on my HDTV.

Until Next Time.
Dave

UPDATE: Sanjaya stays!!! WOO-HOO!!!

It's Getting Harder To Watch Galactica

2007-03-20T19:08:00.000-04:00

I went out to Ohio in December and my father lent me the first two seasons of Battlestar Galactica, a show that I didn't think I would get around to watching. I had tried watching Battlestar when it first came back a few years ago, but I couldn't get into it at that time. On a whim, I started watching the first dvd back in February and I immediately became addicted. The first two seasons of Battlestar Galactica were amazing. I quickly become a fan of the writing and the story lines.

Then came the final episode of Season 2. In the old days, I could speak freely of television shows that had aired because there were no such things as DVRs, iTunes and television shows on DVDs and if someone was ever going to watch a show, they had seen it when it had aired. That of course is not that case anymore so I don't feel like I can go into show descriptions as Battlestar is like many shows today that are built on their twists as well as their cliffhangers.

What I can say is that I'm not very fond of the direction Battlestar Galactica has taken in season 3. The story has taken a drastic turn that I had hoped was a little more temporary than it has turned out to be.

Funny thing is that I'm reading now what I just wrote and I don't know why I've told you this. It's been forever since we last talked and here I am reopening this dialog by telling you that there's a show I really love but I'm starting not to like it but I can't tell you why. It's not like there's anything you can do to help me through this trying time. I guess maybe I'm putting this out there so that future Galactica viewers won't be as blindsided as I was when the change comes at the end of Season 2 (and by that I mean the entire season 2 as the dvds are broken up into season 2.0 and season 2.5).

Before I go, I should mention at the end of episode 2 of season 3, the Sci-Fi network showed a preview of the upcoming season and it appears the storyline will be getting back on track. I can't wait.

Missing You

2007-03-01T21:24:00.000-05:00

Greetings all.

Ever have one of those nights where a bunch of coworkers and you go out to a bar to celebrate and it goes longer than you thought and you drink more than you thought and well...everything is just so dandy?...

Yup...It's been one of those nights. I just wanted you to know that I think about this blog often and I miss writing in it very much and that all is well. The lovely and beautiful Misses Kristine Novak and I are driving up to Lake George, NY tomorrow for a belated Valentines Day weekend getaway and I expect we will have a grande ol' time.

Here's wishing all of you well and hopefully, I'll get a chance to talk 2 all of u soon.

Dave

Why I Love FLICKR

2007-01-21T11:01:00.000-05:00

So I've been using a FLICKR account for all of 2 seconds, but already I'm a huge fan. One of the biggest reasons is because of this picture above. It's one of three pictures I took on the morning of July 27, 2001 before I went off to play tennis. Why were Tim, Karen & Nick over my apartment the morning after Karen and I had seen Bon Jovi at Giants Stadium the night before...OH WOW...I just realized Alex is in this picture too! Can you guess where?...what was I saying? Oh yeah. They were probably at my apartment because I had left something in Karen's car and I decided to take pictures. These 3 pictures which have been laying dorment on my computer forever and now can be seen by everyone on my flickr account. I feel like a small part of me has been liberated and I've got tons of these types of photos. WOO-HOO!

It's Been Forever I Know

2007-01-19T08:01:00.000-05:00

Greetings Friends And Family,

It's been a while and I'm sorry I've taken so long to write you. I just haven't had the urge to put my words on the web like I used to. However, I have finally come around to the whole flickr phenomenon. For those of you wishing to check out images of what's going on with me, you can find them here. Hope all is well with everyone and I'll talk to you later.

Revisiting My Radio

2006-11-13T14:26:00.000-05:00

Greetings Friends And Family,

How've you been? It's been quite a while since we've talked. So long in fact, that when my friend Mr. Chair sent me an email the other day, he closed it by saying, "YO. Write something new in your f**king blog why don't you!" He actually spelled out the f-word but I only like using that word here when I feel the need for that extra kind of expression.

So I decided that since I have the day off, I'd come have a cup of coffee here at Starbucks in downtown Stamford and just start typing away. There's so many things I have to talk about but for now, I only have time to talk about the radio station.

I HAVE A RADIO STATION! WOO-HOO!!!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I relaunched my Live365 radio station a month and a half ago. It's probably the radio station that has kept me away from blogging as the gratification from creating the station comes much quicker than wondering if anyone's reading my blog. To show you how disinterested I've been in finding out how my blog is being received, I just this very moment realized that I deleted my blog tracking abilities over a month ago when I screwed up my blog template while trying to update it.

Now I realize that I'm not flexing my creative muscles as much by programming music instead of writing about my world but I do enjoy putting together tunes that people enjoy listening to. Allow me to give you some interesting stats.

I have created an online radio station that in the last days has been listened to for 3 hours in Wisconsin, 5 hours in Illinois and Virginia, 6 hours in Georgia and Texas, 7 hours in Arizona, 10 hours in Oregon12 hours in Florida, 21 hours in New York, 30 hours in Miami and a Whopping 156 hours in California. Not bad for a 33 year old guy living in Stamford, CT.

Now I love my country but even more fascinating to me is that Dave Tunes has been listened to for 3 hours in Vietnam and Singapore, 5 hours in Japan, 6 hours in Australia (one of my earliest supporters, Thank You Australia), 8 hours in Canada and Malaysia as well as 12 hours in Peru. PERU!!! I'm embarrassed to say I'm not even sure where that is.

Those numbers are awesome for my little startup station. Thank you all very much and I hope you continue to listen.

For those of you curious to know how I come by my playlists, it goes something like this. Each week, I update an iTunes playlist I have that consists of the albums of the artists with songs on Billboard's Pop 100 chart. Throughout the week, I listen to these tunes on random on my iPod and snag the tunes I like by giving them a 5 star rating. Every other day or so, I sit at my computer and upload somewhere between 3 to 10 tunes from my 5 star list to my Live365 library. At the same time, I'll pull a few songs out of the library based on whether or not an artist is still on the Pop chart and how I feel about the song. I then create a new random playlist which I then organize a little bit and when I'm done with that, the playlist goes live. In this month and a half time, I have created close to 40 of these playlists and my most current playlist has a running time of almost 10 hours.

Now if I was doing this dj thing for real, I would really be thinking thru the order of these songs and maybe even be programming the songs live which I'm capable of doing on Live365. However, while I do have a huge love a music and would love to do just that, I just don't have the time. So instead I've taken this alternate approach of posting somewhat consistent music that I enjoy on a regular basis with the idea that I'm maintaining a fresh and contemporary music station.

As for how well the station is doing...well, for the moment, I seem to plateaued. Live365 has this system of little blue men to let you know the amount of listening hours as station is getting in a months time. 3 blue men represents a minimum of 100 hours whereas 4 blue men represents a minimum of 1000. A couple weeks ago I was sooooo close to that 1000 mark. I was pretty sure that when that weekend was over, I would have achieved my fourth blue man. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. Since then, I've been fluctuating around the 800/900 mark in spite of the fact that each day, I gain more listeners and more people are setting Dave Tunes as a preset. Where I had once reached the number 70 listing of all pop stations on Live365, today I reside at number 81.

Now, sure I'd love to go to number 1 but that's a long ways away and an unrealistic expectation. Getting to such a number requires plenty of more work with a lot more marketing. Not to mention the fact that I'm not a true mainstream station in that I play a lot of tunes by popular artists that many people are not familiar with. When all is said and done, I've created a station I enjoy and I'm happy there are people out there who enjoy what I've done.

I should also mention that unless something changes, this little experimental foray into radio programming probably only has a 1 year life span with 2 of the months already having passed. Back when I first opened the Live365 account, I clearly was a single guy with a few extra bucks in my back pocket I didn't mind burning. When I started aggressively programming the station again, I looked into exactly what I was spending to give people free music and well...Wow. Now, I do get a very small kickback anytime a premium live365 subscriber is listening to my station but I can't imagine acquiring enough listeners in the next year to subsidize the cost of the station. I will say though that had I ever picked up free songs via file sharing (and I'm not saying I have), I certainly wouldn't feel bad about it after what I've payed for the last couple of years to broadcast those tunes.

So in conclusion, I'm enjoying this internet radio thing and I'm glad all of you enjoy it while it lasts.

Coming To A Video Store Near You

2006-10-02T15:26:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to give everyone a heads up that one of my favorite movies of all times will be showing up at your local video store tomorrow. Thank You For Smoking is very funny as well as cleverly written. When I saw the movie, I knew nothing about it going in and I was amazingly surprised so I'm not going to tell you what the movie is about except to say that it is very good and you should see it.

Dave Tunes Relaunched & The New Car

2006-09-26T07:39:00.000-04:00

I finally got around to updating Dave Tunes, my radio station on Live365. I've totally reformatted the station, getting rid of all the heavy music and instead moving towards a more pop, adult-contemporary format. The station will contain the songs that I like off of the current Billboard Magazine Pop chart as well as other songs by pop artists that haven't been released as singles. I'm always talking about how I would be good at picking singles for radio airplay and now I'm doing just that. I've currently uploaded 40 songs that are in random rotation. More songs are soon to come. Enjoy.

Also, here's a few pics of my brand new Audi S4. Talk to ya l8r.
Dave

9/11/01 Remembered

2006-09-11T10:24:00.000-04:00

In September of 2001, I was living in South Norwalk, CT, working for a company called Stone House Productions. As an unsupervised freelance video editor, my working hours were fairly flexible but on the week of the 11th, this was even more so as two thirds of my bosses, John and Craig were in Washington D.C. shooting video footage for a video series to teach students how the government works. I think I woke up between 11 and 11:30 that morning. The first thing I did was to walk into my living room and watch a few minutes of tv to wake up. Upon turning on the television, I was immediately confused. The night before, I had left the tv on VH1, but in spite of this, the logo bug in the bottom right hand corner of the screen belonged to New York's CBS Channel 2 and on the screen was a world trade center building on fire.

Finding this fascinating, I decided to call up Stone House to let the two remaining people, my 3rd boss Cheryl and their assistent Rob, know that they should turn on a tv as they probably didn't know there was interesting television going on at that moment. Cheryl answered the phone and after we said our hellos, I said to Cheryl, "You're not going to believe this but the world trade center is on fire." Using her concerned voice, Cheryl quietly replied, "Dave. They're gone. They're both gone. They got the world trade center and the pentagon." She told me that she had talked to Craig and John in D.C. and they were both fine and I told her I'd be into work in a little bit.

I went into Stone House but I didn't get much done that day. I just remember calling a lot of people that day to make sure they were ok. No one that I called was anywhere near the world trade center but I felt an important need to connect with people that I knew and loved. This was made somewhat difficult because a lot of cell phone services were down.

I remember being hungry for information. It seemed like the news had little to offer and there was a lot of word of mouth information being passed around. There were a lot of close call stories going around. I heard that a former boss of mine was supposed to have a meeting in the world trade center that morning but it had been cancelled at the last minute. A few months earlier, a friend had been let go from his job where he was consultanting in the wtc on a floor that was hit by one of the planes. Another friend worked at a restaurant near the wtc and would have been at the restaurant when the planes hit but she was running late that morning and avoided the tragedy.

As I write this, I'm listening to the Howard Stern rebroadcast of the show he did that morning to help me remember how I felt that day. As I think about it now, reflecting on that day, I remeber almost feeling innapropriate. I remember feeling like I should be devistated and even though the damage was only a 1 hour train ride away, the devistation felt distant. It was something so awful and yet I didn't feel effected by it. In hindsight, I realize though that it was the complete opposite. I practically shut down. I couldn't work and I couldn't do much of anything. I ended up leaving work and made up my time over the rest of the week.

As one would expect, the following days were not the norm. There was no music. All of the radio stations were taken over by the news as the music stations simulcast their companies news stations. There was no flying. The most that I was effected directly by the attacks that a number of my fellow Ski Bears and myself were set to go sky diving the Saturday after 9/11, but this was cancelled as our plane was not allowed to take off.

A huge thing that changed because of the attacks was our view of the government. I mean, I guess for you conservative Republican types, George W. Bush was always your guy, but for the rest of us, Bush was just a bumbling idiot who stole an election and took a lot of vacations in between doing nothing. While I can't speak for everybody, I remember any animosity I had for the President went out the window on September 11th. We were attacked and he was our leader and he had 1000% percent of my support to do whatever he had to do to make things right. I think the craziest thing I recall was all of Congress, Democrats and Republicans alike, standing side by side on the steps of congress, singing God Bless America.

I'm trying to think how my life is different now than it was on September 10th, 2001. Probably the biggest thing is that all devistations seem to be about terrorism now. There was a time when something really bad happened, it might have been the result of a lone crazy nut. That kind of person seems to be a thing of the past. Also, it seems like every year or so, something happens that makes public transportation just a little more annoying. I know the last couple of times I flew, it was more annoying because you had to stand in lines so all of your baggage could be x-rayed. Now you can't bring anything fluid related on a plane. Let me just offer up a huge Screw You in advance to any terrorist organization that makes it so I can't bring my laptop or iPod onto a plane.

As for George W. Bush...I can't say for sure when it happened but there came a time where us blue states stopped offering up 1000% of our support and instead hoped and prayed he'd lose reelection. In addition to never giving us closure for 9/11 by capturing Bin Laden, there was that little Katrina/New Orleans screw up in addition to the fact that he got our country involved with a war with people who had NOTHING to do with the attacks of September 11, 2001.

The thing that I hate the most about 9/11 is that we now know that the US is not bulletproof. Despite our government's best intentions, our world can be turned upside down at any moment by someone looking to make a statement. While I feel it's very important that my protectors have that knowledge...it's a shame that I have to posess that knowledge as well.

That said, Nicholas Cage and Oliver Stone did a great job on World Trade Center and it's worth checking out. Also, I hope all goes well with you and your loved ones on this day of refliction.

Dave

The Long Weekend In Review

2006-09-05T07:40:00.000-04:00

Greetings Everyone,

Happy Day After Labor Day Weekend. Woo Hoo!

The joy of my long weekend started on Thursday evening when Kristine and I went to pick up my new car. That's right folks. I am now the proud owner of a freakin 2006 Audi S4 Convertible. KICK ASS!!! I've got a V8 with 340 horse power. If you see me on the highway, it's because I'm slowing down.

Friday night, I let Kristine drive us to Rio in Norwalk for some fine Mexican dining. Saturday was a day of tremendous rain. I would love for anyone who doesn't believe in global warming to explain to me why we only get terrential downpours now. Whatever happened to drissle? Having nowhere to go, Kristine and I drank the day away, watching episodes of Arrested Development as well as the movie Kill Bill Vol. 2 (my 4th or 5th viewing. Kristine's first).

Sunday: "Here comes the sun. Do do do doooo...." Having missed tennis on Saturday with Eric, I managed to get in two sets with Adam on Sunday. I also hung out with a bunch of friends in New Milford for an authentic Oktoberfest. I think I'm officially the last person to realize Oktoberfest takes place in September. I guess if you put a "k" in October, you can have the festival anytime you want. By the way, the festival was put on by (I shit you not) the Arion Singing Society. Now I'm no history major, but I gotta think it's a pretty ballsy move for any German's to affiliate themselves with the word Arion.

Then came Monday. Yesterday, we did a bunch of house cleaning and then went to the White Plains movie theatre (because Port Chester and White Plains have the best movie theatres around) to see Marky Mark's football movie, Invincible. It was a really good movie and it makes my recommend list.

Talk 2 u soon.
Dave

Quick Check In: The Weekend In Review

2006-08-28T07:38:00.000-04:00

Started a new project on Friday called Soal Of A Champion for the OLN network (soon to be changed to the Versus channel). It's nice to start new things and although the days will be long, I'm looking forward to working on the show for the next month. My Beautiful Wife Kristine was running errands on Friday night so I went out to Fat Cat with our friend Christine (same name different letters). After pizza, Christine came back to our place and the 3 of us watched Benchwarmers. VERY FUNNY!!! It stopped raining on Saturday for 2 seconds so that I was able to get in a couple of sets of tennis with Eric. Then Kristine and I made a spontaneous visit to Tim and Karen's on Saturday evening. We ate Chinese, drank a lot of white wine and corona, played some chess and had some fine conversation. On Sunday, Kristine and I went to the Post Road Diner for breakfast. Then we went to Barnes and Noble where I purchased the book The Ruins by Scott Smith which looks to be a fine read and then we did some food shopping. When we got home, we watched Inside Man with Denzel Washington which was a cool movie with a less than eventful ending. Kristine made her mother's baked mac and cheese for dinner and we watched Big Brother (c'mon Will. You can totally win this thing.) as well as Arrested Development and then went to bed.

Here's to a great week.
Dave

A Cause For Celebration

2006-07-13T09:17:00.000-04:00

Last night I was very excited to find that my Bon Jovi loving, up and coming writer, best friend's wife and great friend herself, the lovely Mrs. Karen Lynch, will soon have her writing published in an upcoming book. Her short story, "Momma's Girl" is to be included in the soon to be released anthology, "Chicken Soup for the Shopper's Soul". Seeing your hard work on the printed page is very exciting and I feel so awesome for Karen. You can read what Karen has to say about the book on her blog. You can also read about the book on the publisher's site. The book will be available for purchase on November 7th. Congratulations Karen!!! You're The Best!

Big Fan Of The HDV

2006-07-12T09:56:00.000-04:00

I started digitizining Mike & Laura's wedding into iMovie today and thought I might post a frame I exported from my HDV video camera. As a professional video editor, I've always looked down on iMovie as a nice thing for the regular consumer but a little beneath my talents. Since I haven't installed FCP on my MacBook Pro, I decided to make my life easy and just use iMovie. Holy Cow! The capablities of iMovie and iDVD are freakin Amazing. I'm diggin this software now.

Talk 2 U Soon.
Dave

A Great Weekend & The Mike And Laura Wedding

2006-07-10T08:06:00.000-04:00

Hello Everyone,

I'm running a little behind this morning so I must make this quick. The weekend was great. I wish it wasn't over. And Kristine and I had an AWESOME time at Mike and Laura's wedding. Here are close to 300 pictures taken for the Mike & Laura fabulous wedding.

Talk 2 U Soon.
Dave

Wedding Photos: Kristine's Camera

2006-07-06T09:08:00.000-04:00

These are my 2 favorite pictures of Kristine ever.

Earlier this year, I bought Kristine her own digital camera. It's one of those Canon Digital Elfs. The camera is small, light and easy to use. It also takes some of the burden off me taking pictures all the time with my bulky but fabulous Canon Rebel XT. Having the camera worked out great for the rehearsal dinner, prewedding photos and the honeymoon. You can check out all of Kristine's wedding related photos here.

Haven't Posted A Mix In A While

2006-07-04T17:41:00.000-04:00

I was on my way out to do some late afternoon running when it started to rain so I came back inside and used the Xtrainer. Here's a half hour of tunes to get your heart pumping.

Black Horse And The Cherry Tree - KT Tunstall
Of Wolf And Man - Metallica
Streamline - System Of A Down
Celebrity Skin - Hole
Move Along - The All-American Rejects
Faint - Linkin Park
Crazy Bitch - Buckcherry
Take It Away - The Used

Groomsman Tim Beeber

2006-07-04T09:00:00.000-04:00

Happy 4th of July. I thought I might put up a few more wedding pics for those of you have been waiting for them. This set comes from the camera of Groomsman extraordinaire Tim Beeber who Kristine and I owe great thanx to for shooting our prewedding video which one day will be posted amongst these pages.

I chose this photo to highlight the set for one key reason but I'll get to that in a sec. Ya know, I've often told people that while our wedding was fantastic, it was a long hard ride to get to the day of the wedding. I've slowed down on telling people that because...well, why do they need to know? If I had half a brain, I'd never mention the hardships of putting together the wedding and let the fairy tailesque event live in the minds of people as a work of perfection.

And that is exactly what I intended to do until I saw this picture of Tim, did a backflip and realized I owed it to future wedding people of the possible danger of forgetfulness that comes with any wedding day.

Tim Beeber is standing in front of his house in front of a beautiful white limo that picked him up at his house as it did my 2 other groomsmen, my father and myself. (My best man needed his vehicle so he drove himself). Kristine and her bridesmades had an identical white limo that drove them around before the wedding. Kristine and I chose these limos because we had seen other bridal party pictures taken with identical limos and we wanted to do the same on our wedding day.

This picture here of Kristine and her mother by the limo is the only other picture to my knowledge that exists of a limo on our wedding day. Now these limos were pricy and because the bride and her party were running behind prior to the wedding, both limos went into overtime. I don't know the final math, but that's a good chunk of change for photos we never took. At least Mr. Beeber had the presence of mind to capture a wealthy moment for himself.

I just put this out there for those of you getting married so that you can be sure to keep track of these kinds of things. Other than that, we had a great freakin wedding and I wouldn't have changed a thing.

Again Happy 4th.
Dave

A MILEstone And An Old Friend

2006-07-03T10:36:00.000-04:00

Today was a big day in the history of my running as it was the first time I ran a mile without stopping to breathe. When it comes to fitness, I just keep getting better. More running news to come as it becomes available.

I'd like to give a shout out to my old friend, Amy Sander, who congratulated me on my marriage in these pages a few posts ago. Amy is one of my few high school friends that I still keep in touch with and if there's a Guns N Roses or Metallica concert in the Tri State area, you might see us there.

Above, she is pictured with what I assume to be two Germen men. Amy is part of a group called Deutsch NYC. I don't think she's in charge of the club but she must be pretty high up as she sends out something like 20 emails a day regarding the club. If you are a German person looking to do German things and you live anywhere around New York, you should definitely check out Amy's German club.

One last thing. Anyone watching the Tour de France on OLN? I've never been into cycling but now that I'm working around it, it's pretty exciting. If you catch any footage of the Tour on the news with type on the bottom of the screen that reads, "Courtesy of OLN", then I probably have something to do with that.

Talk 2 u soon.
Dave

WOO-HOO!!!

2006-07-01T11:41:00.000-04:00

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Happy Dave. Since I posted the pic of Whiny Bitch Dave, I thought it only right to post of photo from my successes as a runner. And today my friends, I am a successful runner.

Kristine and her Mom are upstairs taking a nap so I had a few minutes to throw out a few numbers. (Yes, I'm the one who ran 5 miles this morning and they're upstairs taking the nap. It just goes to prove my theory that Walmart can be freakin exhausting)

Today, I ran 5 miles in 57 minutes and 54 seconds. That translates to 1 mile every 11.58 minutes. For those of you keeping score at home, that time means I'm getting faster as my last official mile time was 12 minutes. YAY!!!

Two weeks ago when I weighed myself post race, I was at 266 lbs with 29% body fat. I'm proud to report that 14 days later, I now weigh 260 lbs with 28% body fat. That's definitely cool because I wasn't on a perfect diet during that time. Poker night called for some heavy drinking and while I wasn't eating much ice cream, I did discover Sorbet and wouldn't ya know, that stuff comes in pints as well. My point is that my diet this last two weeks was reasonable and something I can continue without any problem. That means if I keep up the exercise, don't stray from the diet, and the weight loss is consistent, 20 weeks from now, I'll be at 200 lbs.

WOW, does that sound ambitious. Then again, I've run 2 races in the last 4 weeks. Suddenly the impossible is now seeming more plausable in my world. If my math is correct, that puts 200 lbs on November 5th. That's exciting. Alright, I can't ever remember my weight being south of 245. Let's see....In theory, that will happen on...August 12th. That's pretty amazingly cool. Boy, I wonder if I can do it. I guess we'll find out together.

By the way, let me say thanx to all the people I dedicated miles to this time around. I felt like you were all running with me. Because I beat my expected time, I only had a few minutes of Judy Blue Eyes on the run. After I got home, I took a walk to the post office to return a Netflix and listened to the complete song at that time. I felt like my Mom and I were celebrating the accelerated victory as I listened to the song. Today was a good day.

Thanx for your continued reading. I'll talk 2 u soon.
Dave

The Night B4 Run Numero Two-O

2006-06-30T21:08:00.000-04:00

Good Evening Friendly Readers. It's the Friday night before my second big run. Tomorrow is the 5 miler out of Cranberry School in Norwalk starting at 8am. Right now, I'm sitting on the comfy chair in our living room and Kristine and her Mom are on the couch. On the 60" is Because Of Winn Dixie care of Netflix. Cute flick.

It's been two weeks since my last race and I don't know what to expect for tomorrow. I've been doing some training and exercising but since I'm not supposed to do any training the day prior to a race...

I was the same way the night before the last race. I just want to run the race now and get it over with so I know how I did and learn from my mistakes. I learned some things at the last race. For one, I'm in a running class all my own. I started in the company of a team of 6 last race and ended up by myself. 5 of my team consisted of very fit people who finished a good distance ahead of me. Kristine was with me the longest but not having trained, she told me to go ahead of her a few minutes in. I'm not sure how many outside of the core 3 will be running tomorrow, but Kristine will be spending time with her Mom instead of racing which is fine as she hasn't had the time to exercise in the last week or so.

Running and the other exercising I've done in the last 4 weeks has been both very cool and very trying. Sometimes there have been moments that were rewarding. Other times, I have been in a mental state that I refer to as Whiny Bitch Dave. The picture above is the perfect example of that mindset. I took it of myself for a blog entry I never wrote called, "What Have I Gotten Myself Into". Whiny Bitch Dave is what I become when I'm exhausted from the running and I don't feel like I'm accomplishing anything and I think all is lost. I've learned that when I get this way just to ignore most things that cross my mind and let it pass.

As my abilities improve, I've found the harder times are becoming fewer and the cooler times come more frequent. I made the mistake of running on the Stamford High track at high noon on Wednesday. It's a little too hot right now to be running at that time of day and I won't make that mistake again. After jogging/walking for 2 miles, I called it quits for the day, but I had 2 cool moments before I did.

The first cool moment came when I hit the track, running that first lap. The plan was to run 2 laps and then walk the third. When I started on that first lap, it's the first time since I started running that running felt right. I felt like I knew what I was doing and that I would have no trouble doing the first 2 laps.

The second cool moment came after I finished that 2nd lap and was walking to the stands to get my water and towel to carry with me as I walked the third lap. In the stands was a young woman along with three boys, one of which was maybe 6 years old. As I was grabbing my stuff, I looked up and saw the young boy standing behind my bag, holding his hand out to shake mine for having run the two laps. I shook his hand and said, "Thanks little man." A smart man would have stopped running that day after a mile but the image of the little boy shaking my hand kept me going for the additional mile. That was a very cool moment I will cherish thru all my races.

Speaking of that which we cherish while running a race, one thing that I needed to come up with was a way to keep running while focusing on something other than the thump thump of my feet and the heavy breathing. I picked up this months Runners magazine and in it, a women talked about how when she ran a marathon, she dedicated each mile to someone she cared about and thought about that person during their mile. It sounded like a good idea so when I ran my practice 5 miles on Monday, I created a music mix so that I could dedicate each of my 5 miles to people I cared for. Since I run around a 12 minute mile, I created 12 minute blocks for each person.

Mile #1 goes to my wife, Kristine Novak. I do this because my she is my wife and my wife always comes first.

Mile #2 is dedicated to my Godsister Laura Kelly. Her wedding is next Saturday and in addition to the wonderful memories I have of Laura, I run on behalf of the long and prosperous marriage I wish for her and her future husand, Mike.

I'm dedicating Mile #3 to Karen Lynch. In addition to being awesome, Karen is strong and perservering. Not only do I get to listen to Bon Jovi music while I run her mile, but I will have the strength of knowing that any hardship I'm facing by running will pale in comparison to what Karen has gone up against and successfully kicked it's ass. I expect this to be one of my stronger miles.

Mile #4 goes out to someone I don't believe I've mentioned in these pages. His name was Chris Plaag (rhymes with flag). In my life, there have been 3 guys responsible for taking the confused, intraverted, silent, outcast, low self esteem, sad on the inside kid that I once was and turning me into the complete opposite persona that I am today. The 2 most recent of the 3 are Tim Lynch and Steve Gilbert. Chris became the first of the three at the age of 14 when he shook my hand and introduced himself to me and that's a day I will never forget. It's unfortunate that I will also never forget the day that I just happened to be in Newington on the night of his wake. Chris was only 15 at the time of the car accident that took his life. While I only knew Chris for a short time, his impact on my life is timeless and thus I run this mile for him.

The Final Mile, I run for my Mother, the dearly departed Dale Barber. I'll get into the full music mix I'll be listening to at another time but for those of you playing along at home, at around 8:55 tomorrow morning, if you were to play "Flashdance (What A Feeling)" by Irene Cara, followed by "Suite - Judy Blue Eyes" by Crosby, Still, & Nash, it would be like you were finishing the race with me and mom.

Thanx 4 reading. I'll talk 2 u soon.
Dave

Monday Morning

2006-06-19T10:00:00.000-04:00

Good Morning,

I've got 20 minutes before my train comes to take me to South Norwalk. One of these days, I really need to get my own car. I'm looking forward to my week of working at Stone House Productions. When I last worked at Stone House, I was a bit burnt out at the end of my project with them. However, I've had some time away and have experienced some other things and I'm looking forward to going back today. I should mention that the show I got burnt on was a show on the Food Network called Ham On The Street starring Chef George Duran. The show is only in it's first season but it seems like 1 out of 10 people I run into have seen it and they like it a lot so it appears I helped do some good work in spite of my work exhaustion a few months ago. Stone House is currently working on season 2 of HOTS and the new episodes should air soon. The Food Network airs HOTS several times during the week but the only time I know for sure is 10:30pm on Wednesday nights. Be sure to check it out.

For those of you who have been waiting for me to post more of the wedding proofs, I apologize. It takes a while for me to scan photos and I haven't had the the time. Hopefully, I will get to scan more soon. There are a few wedding related things you can expect in the coming days. I've received a few pictures from people with digital cameras and will post those soon. Also, my good friend, Mr. Tim Beeber had his video camera with him the night of the rehearsal dinner as well as in the limo with me before the wedding. Once I figure out how to convert that for the internet, I will post his video uncut.

By the way, I did get up this morning at 5 and jogged/walked for 3.5 miles, gearing up for the 5 miler in 2 weeks. My mile time was 12:40. This is 5 seconds longer than what I did Saturday, but the distance was slightly longer and it was 2 hours earlier. I tend to jog better later in the day.

Gotta get some Dunkin' b4 the train comes. Talk 2 u all soon.
Dave

3 Miles And Running

2006-06-17T10:20:00.000-04:00

Here I am around 6:30 this morning before Kristine and I went to Norwalk for the first of our long distance runs. If nothing else, this running thing is helping my physique. I'm feeling and looking more fit than I have in a while.

So the run is over and I'm feeling pretty good about the whole thing from the perspective that I'm a newbie and it was my first run. During the 3 miles, there were more patches of walking than I would've liked but it was a good start. In the end, my time was 35:35 which puts my pace under 12min/mile. Kristine finished just behind me

This is probably a mistake but since I know I'm going to keep this exercise thing going and I want some more accountability, I'm going to throw out a couple of numbers. My post run weigh in has me at 266lbs with 29% body fat. That's not bad considering I was over 275 a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully though, those numbers will improve.

In two weeks, Kristine and I will be with the other team members at Cranbury Elementary for a 5 mile race. Here's hoping for some exceptional training over the next 14 days.

Tomorrow's The Big Day

2006-06-16T15:44:00.000-04:00

Hello Everyone,

Chillin on the couch watching the drunk driving episode of South Park. Otherwise, I'm mentally preparing for the run tomorrow. I don't know what to expect from it. Will I be able to run the entire 3 miles? Will I run out of breath? Will I keel over? I won't know until tomorrow.

I almost feel helpless today as I'm called upon to do nothing today as part of my training. It's a rest day. I just want to go out and run the 3 miles now. So what I'm left with is to do mental exercizes and imagine how I will run tomorrow. It's a tad bit frustrating.

Running The Distance

2006-06-14T15:31:00.000-04:00

Coming this Saturday to the Norwalk High School...Dave Novak RUNS!!! Woo-Hoo.!

I have it in my head when I compose a number of these blog entries that the general idea is, "You never thought you'd see a guy like me do this, but look at me now!" The thing is I'm starting to realize that premise is a little silly. I'm a married 33 year old, living in a decent apartment, making a fair wage. There's not a lot goin on with me these days that you wouldn't expect. However...look at me now.

This Saturday Morning, I will be waking up early so I can go to the Norwalk High School and at 8am, I will go jogging for 3 miles. Two weeks later, I'll be jogging 5 miles. Two weeks after that, 7 miles. 3 weeks after that, 9 miles. Why 3? I don't know but THANK GOD! Two weeks after that, I jog 11 freakin miles. And then, if I'm not dead, on Saturday, September 19th, I'll sign up to run for 13 miles or what they call a half marathon. This insanity is part of the Norwalk Lightfoot Summer Series and you can read about it here.

This craziness started a few weeks ago over Memorial Day weekend. My good friend Chris Kory and I were playing tennis on Memorial Day when he sprung the idea that WE needed a goal because HE was out of shape. At the time, I wasn't really looking for a goal but when he had me over to his home later that afternoon, the discussion would continue.

Now that I've had some time to reflect, I realize I am to blame for this excessive fitness rediculousness. I'm fairly certain I've gone off on gyms and personal trainers in this blog so I won't rehash my rant now, but suffice to say I'm of the belief that personal trainers at gyms are part of a business model that takes money out of your wallet without giving you much in return. I mean, if you were really training for something, you wouldn't need a "personal trainer". Boxers train for fights all the time but I have yet to see Mike Tyson using the local lackie at The Fitness Edge.

The second part of this abbreviated rant is that the only way you're going to have success at the gym is if you have something motivating you to excersize. For example, I play tennis on Saturdays. I know if I use our eliptical xtrainer during the week, I'm going to have a better game. That's the kind of goal related success you can have from exersizing.

Now, I was not looking for a goal on Memorial Day. I was beating Chris at tennis so I had that together. I'm a newly married man so it's not like I need to trim down to go to the club and meet women. (and yes, I can hear wives all around the world cringing at the thought of a man not needing to look good because he's married. I'm not saying it's right, ladies. I'm just saying that's the way it is.)

The idea that Chris Kory, a man who I've easily got 80 pounds on, came to me because he need motivation and a goal because HE is "out of shape"...THAT'S JUST CRAZY! Sure, I was beating him at tennis but after the game was over, I went home and took a nap while he ran laps.

Chris(middle) served up some great barbeque later that day when I went over to his condo and a few beers later, we got to talking about this goal thing again. Included in the conversation were Chris's wife Tanya(a personal trainer but not for a gym) and our friend Brian(top), a man who makes a living motivating people to do their jobs better. (I just reread what I wrote there and I don't know what I was thinking. I didn't have a chance.)

I can't tell you too many specifics about what happened during the discussion except to say that Kristine eventually came over, there was some Karaoke involved, and the next morning when I checked my gmail, I found this:

This message is generated as confirmation of your recent registration on Active.com. You have been successfully registered for the following:

Registration: Norwalk Lightfoot Summer Series
Purchase Date: 05/29/06
Category: 5 Race Series (3, 5, 7, 9, 11 Mile Races)
Name: David Novak

I had actually used a credit card to pay someone $33 so that I could run 35 miles. I haven't mentioned this yet for the strangers who read my blog but to know me is to know I don't run. Sure, I can go out for a pass. I can run around the bases. I certainly get a good workout playing tennis. But running for the sake of running has never been my thing...well, until now.

For the last two weeks, I've been "training". At first, I was just trying to jog a consistent lap which I eventually accomplished. It wasn't easy in the beginning. I've found that I'm a less than pleasant person when it comes to mood swings and exhaustion. To my surprise, I've perservered and I'm getting better. Today, I was able to run 2 consistent laps. That's in addion to several other laps I ran with some walking in the middle lest you think I just ran 2 laps and got excited about it.

Originally, I was just doing my own learning but then Tanya got a hold of me and gave me a training program. Initially, the machismo inside of me was skeptical but I opted to go with Tanya's plan, seeing as how I know nothing about fitness and she makes it her career. It's worked well and while I'm a little nervous, I feel pretty good about this Saturday.

Part of the fun will be the comradery(sp?). First there was Chris, Brian and myself. Kristine has decided to join us as well. Tanya's doing a mini triatholon in the near future so she originally wasn't going to join us. She changed her mind though and now she's in. Also, our friend Elyssa who is a nutritionist and a personal trainer will be joining us as well.

Also, while I'm nowhere near skinny, I've dropped around 7 pounds in the last week and a half and I'm enjoying feeling good from the exercise and the better eating. The mood swings are gone now that I'm not overdoing the exercise.

I guess that's it for now. Provided I keep up with this running thing, I'll let you know how I'm progressing in future entries.

Until next time.
Dave

Proofs Pt. 3: The Wedding

2006-06-12T16:57:00.000-04:00

I learned a few years ago when I was president of the Ski Bears that whenever you're planning an event, there comes a point where you can't stress about the planning anymore because the event is happening. No matter if the event called for little or extensive planning and no matter how big or small the stress level was, this point of no return is my favorite moment because even if everything goes wrong, there's nothing I can do about it and so I stop worrying.

For the wedding, the PONR came for me when we left the park and we were heading over to the VIP Club in our limos for the wedding. My groomsman, Tim Beeber,...I think he was talking to his wife on his cell and after he hung up, he said to me that there was an accident on southbound I95 and that there was a lot of traffic and there might be some latecomers to the wedding as a result. I still remember the complacency I felt when I said, "Well, nothing I can do about it now."

The rehearsal dinner that we had the night before the wedding was a dinner without a rehearsal. The number of painstaking conversations I had about what that dinner was supposed to be leading up to it...that could fill up 20 blog entries that I don't want to write and you wouldn't have the patience to read. Suffice to say, it was a nice dinner and the next day, when we got to the wedding, we had very little idea of what we were doing. Thank goodness for the VIP Club and their helpful staff who organized us very well. Afterwards, during the reception, I was asked a couple questions from guests regarding the wedding. For instance, one friend asked why my best man wasn't standing next to me during the wedding. Until he asked, the thought had never occurred to me and I told the guest simply that it just didn't work out that way.

Hopefully, in a few weeks, Kristine and I will have a dvd of our wedding as the whole thing is a blur in my mind with little touches of distinct memories. I remember being struck by hearing our Minister say the words out loud that until that point, I had only seen on paper. I remember having a big smile on my face that wouldn't quit because I was soooo happy to be marrying Kristine. I also remember that my nervousness got the better of me a couple of times while Kristine and I were holding hands for most of the ceremony. Once or twice, I gripped Kristine's hands too tightly, especially around her rings, and one time she quietly yelled, "Ouch!"

Oh, there's one other thing I remember. There's a line either Kristine or I had to say regarding being with each other thru the hardships. Having gone thru what we went thru planning the wedding and the stresses of just about everything having at least a small problem, I let out a quiet funny snort, Kristine started to chuckle, the wedding party began to laugh, and then the audience had themselves a good laugh. The Minister went on with the next line which neither Kristine nor I heard well, which lead me to quietly say, "We're going to need to do that one again," followed by Kristine saying, "DO OVER!" loud enough for everyone to hear which got another laugh.

All in all, the ceremony went well and everyone had great things to say about our wedding. The wedding photos have been added to the same album I've been working on. Just scan down to the bottom for the new photos. (Unless there have been several blog postings since this entry. Then scan down to somewhere in the middle.)

Coming Soon: The reception photos are on the way but I have a blog entry about some running thing I've been doing and that will probably appear in the next day or so.

Thanx 4 Reading
Dave

Proofs Pt. 2: Glen Island Park

2006-06-06T07:26:00.000-04:00

I've added the pictures from Glen Island Park. These pictures were taken a couple of hours prior to the wedding. I forget the timing of everything but the ladies were running a half hour or so late because they were taking the first set of pictures I posted. I had given all of my groomsmen flasks for their gift at the rehearsal dinner the night before and fortunately, they all brought them to the wedding filled with rum. So while we waited, we drank in the park.

I've added the park pictures to the same wedding album so you'll need to scan down about 40 pictures or so.

The Proofs Are In

2006-06-05T09:49:00.000-04:00

Saturday afternoon, Kristine and I drove to Long Island for my nephew Eric's 13th birthday but we made a quick stop on the way in The Bronx at Martone Brothers Photography to pick up the proofs from our wedding. Unlike the previous photos I posted on Snapfish, our professional photos were shot on film. It's going to take me a while to scan all the photos but the process in underway. As of this writing, I have scanned and posted the photos taken of Kristine at the VIP club prior to the wedding and before she and her bridesmades joined me and my groomsmen at Glen Island Park for more prewedding photos. I'm putting all the wedding photos into one album and you can check my progress by clicking here.

Some More Photos...Kind Of

2006-05-29T21:37:00.000-04:00

A few posts ago, I posted a link to a photo page created from photos taken by Kristine's friend Rob. We actually owe thanx to my new niece Justine for creating that site. Last weekend, Kristine and I were at Rob's and he burned us a disc of the photos he had taken. I've gone thru and done some cropping and adjusted some levels and created a new Snapfish album from those photos. Enjoy.

Dave

The Pictures Are In

2006-05-26T20:29:00.000-04:00

Ladies and Gentlement, the wedding reception disposable camera pictures are in. You can check them out here. You aren't required to have a Snapfish account to look at the pictures. Just click on the "view now" button at the top of the page.

I would like to say a huge thank you to my Godsister Laura Kelly, who will herself be getting married in the near future. Towards the end of my wedding, Laura went around to all of the tables and used up any pictures that had not been used up by the table. Many of the pictures you will see on the Snapfish site are credited to Laura. I'm so grateful that I will be sure to bring my assortment of cameras and camcorders to her wedding.

As for the table pictures, I did very little filtering. Some times people didn't use the camera's flash and I removed a chunck of those. However, I left in some of the more "artistic" shots taken at the kids table as well as a few moderately adult shots taken by some intoxicated females of their cleavage.

There are still plenty of pictures to come as Kristine and I haven't met with the photographer yet and I have some honeymoon photos to put up as well.

Until next time.
Dave

Coming Soon

2006-05-26T14:10:00.000-04:00

Sorry for taking a few days off. Kristine and I saw The DaVinci Code on Sunday and I just have so much to say about it, I've been putting it off and I think I'm going to bail on it. Just to quickly summarize what I might have written...
1. Kristine had not read the book and enjoyed the film. She called it a "renter".
2. The changes they made took me out of the film for most of it. I understand a need to condense a book for time, but many of their choices made no sense to me. I'm curious to know if Ron Howard read the book.
3. HEY PARENTS!!! If you have a child under the age of 5 who can't keep quiet and the movie wasn't made by Disney or Dreamworks, LEAVE YOUR F**KING KID AT HOME!
4. Protesters? What's the point? I'm thoroughly convinced the act of protesting movies is a social event for people who have nothing better to do. My other thought is that protesters are hired by film companies as they do nothing more than draw attention to the film and drive up ticket sales. If I do actually blog about the DaVinci code, it will probably be about this.

But I digress...

COMING SOON! At the wedding, we put disposable cameras on all the tables so we could get a large sampling of photos that would have otherwise have been missed. I picked up our Kodak picture discs from CVS yesterday and will most likely have those photos up somewhere before the weekend is up.

Talk 2 u soon.
Dave

A Rainy Sunday Afternoon

2006-05-21T13:53:00.000-04:00

Woke up this morning and Kristine and I took a trip to the doctors. Turns out our honeymoon generated some bronchitus in the both of us. Mine is on the way out while Kristine's seems to be in full swing. We both got antibiotics and went to Orem's Diner in Wilton for breakfast. We're home now. Kristine's taking a nap and I'm sitting in front of the tv watching J.J. Abrams on Howard Stern On Demand. If you're a Howard fan, there's no reason you shouldn't cough up the 10 bucks a month for HSOD. The channel is worth it's weight in gold. After Kristine gets up, we'll catch the 4:00 showing of Da Vinci Code in Port Chester. We haven't been to that theater yet but it looks beautiful. We don't really see movies in the theater anymore so I figured we should go to a nice one for the rare occasion.

I mention the diner because I had a bit of an epifany this morning while eating my eggs benedict. Now I fret to mention any thoughts I have on marriage for two reasons. First, I'm prone to change my mind on anything 2 seconds after I've blogged it. Second, my 2 week anniversary was yesterday and for every thought I have on marriage, there's a million married men out there looking at me thinking, "Dave? You have no idea what your talking about."

[moved upstairs. the sleeping Mrs. Novak has informed me that I need to blog next to her on the bed.]

Anyway, regardless of my marriage inexperience, I'm going to offer up a thought or two.

I feel as though I'm a new person and that in the short time I've been married, my priorities have shifted dramatically. Whereas I was once my own person, I am now part of a team. Does this mean I am "whipped"? I don't think so but I'll leave that up to you (and by the way, if you're answer is "yes Dave you are", you'll probably want to keep that yourself unless you want to hear a whipped guy go off on you). But I digress. I'm not here to hate. I'm here to love.

This morning when Kristine and I were heading home and she thanked me for taking her to the doctor, I said to her, "It's a no brainer. If you're not healthy, I'm not healthy." In the past, if Kristine and I were having an argument, I had a very "the hell with this" kind of attitude. My thinking was that I go out of my way to avoid problems and if she's got a problem, that problem is solely hers and I need to just hang in there until she comes out of her funk.

What I realize now is that prior to marriage, I wasn't fully invested in the relationship. I was an individual spending a lot of time with another individual. We loved each other very much but we were two people who at any time could have their own agendas. To have that same attitude now as a married person is the equivelent of me breaking my foot and saying, "Well, that's the foot's problem. I'm just gonna do my own thing til the foot comes around." I have stated before the law and God that Kristine is my world for the rest of my life. I now have a stake in her well-being as her life is now my life. Whereas once I might have said, "What exactly is your problem?", it is now my position to say, "Here's how we can work through this situation." An ambitious proposition to say the least not to mention probably a little naive. Still, that's the position I'm taking at this time and I feel motivated to do so.

What else have I noticed as a result of marriage? 2 things come to mind. First, I've started wearing my seatbelt. Sometimes I'm on the road for a little bit before I realize it's not on but I'm making an effort to change that. Second, "The Way It Is" by Bruce Hornsbey and the Range (one of the biggest wuss songs by one of the biggest wuss bands) came on the radio yesterday...and I didn't change the channel. 100 commercial free music stations on the Sirius satelite radio and I chose to listen to elevator music. Good Grief!!!

Until next time.
Dave

The Quick Post Wedding Check-In

2006-05-18T18:18:00.000-04:00

HELLO EVERYONE...I'M MARRIED....WOO-HOO!!!

Unfortunately, our flight out of St. Lucia has been delayed almost 4 hours. Had we found out about that before we left the resort, we could have played a little extra pool volleyball. However, since we found out about the delay here at the airport (an hour and a half from the resort), we've been hanging in the somewhat air conditioned cafeteria. If it were not for the free wireless internet, I am certain we'd be going insane.

But we're not insane. Kristine and I are happily married and we have the pictures to show for it. Much thanx to my Ant Sara for her wedding blog entries as well as my Sister-In-Law Kathy's photo site and Kristine's old friend Rob's photo site.

I fear that I have so much to say about the wedding and the honeymoon that I may never get around to blogging about it, so for now, I'll just say this. In spite of some trials and tribulations, the wedding was hands down fantastic. And in spite of a few more trials and tribulations, the honeymoon here in St. Lucia at the Sandals Regency was to die for.

For all of you who graced us with your presence and your generous gifts at our wedding, we are forever grateful. Kristine and I were happy to hear from everyone that they had a great time and we're glad you enjoyed it.

One last thing. The girl in the red dress who was doing cartwheels (while I was busy taking pictures and did not see it) is named Kim and she is awesome. I'm anxious to see if she makes the wedding video.

I'm sure I'll talk to all of you soon. Thanx Again.
Dave

Waitin 4 Dad

2006-05-03T12:09:00.000-04:00

Hello Everyone,

I'm at LaGuardia Airport waiting for my Dad's flight to get in. He was supposed to get in at 12:29, but the website says he's getting in at 12:13 now. That's in 5 minutes so this will be quick.

The wedding is almost here and the insanity of planning said wedding is almost over. Here's a promise that I'm making from here forward. If I get invited to a wedding, I will respond promptly with a yes and then I promise not to complicate things by changing my mind because something came up. Having now gone thru building a wedding seating chart, let me tell you inexperienced wedding goers that telling your coming to the wedding and then letting them know at the last minute that you can't make it really blows. Also, not responding and making the bride and the groom hunt you down really blows.

That said, all appears to be going very well. Running around New York yesterday handing out a lot of cash, I ended the day by having a strong rum & coke and then buying the new laptop I've been going back and forth on buying. What's great is the my new 17" Intel MacBookPro arrives the day I get back from my honeymoon.

Dad should be here any minute so I will say goodbye for now. If I don't talk 2 u b4 the wedding,...I guess I'll talk 2 u after I get back or something.

Check ya l8r.
Dave

Goin 2 Tha Strip Club

2006-04-29T13:45:00.000-04:00

Hello Hello,

Just chillin at the moment. Played a good 2 1/2 hours of tennis this morning of which I was victorious. Now I've got the NFL draft on the tely and I've got a couple of hours before one of my groomsmen comes over to play a little Madden football on the Xbox360. We'll play til around 5:30 when we'll leave to meet some other people and then we head off to the bachelor party.

Over the years, when I talk to people about the strip club, it seems like I'm doing a lot of explaining and the person I'm talking to is doing a lot of learning. Having my official bachelor party has caused me to reflect on my past experiences and I figured since I have all this stuff on my mind that I would share some of it with you, my internet friends.

Now, generally, the rules of the strip club dictate that what happens at the strip club stays at the strip club. That said, I think I can get a lot of this information out without naming names and hopefully, without embarassing myself too much. We'll just have to see if that's the case.

First, let me start off by saying that my local club of choice in Ruby's II in Bridgeport, CT. What's great about Ruby's is that you can get some pretty hot chicks there and you get to see them completely naked. Man...there is just so much to tell. I guess I am a wealth of knowledge. Alright. let's go to the completely naked thing first because that's one of my favorite things to explain.

Different states have different laws regarding strip clubs as far as what kind of things go on inside the club and what kind of access a patron can have to a dancer. As far as alcohol goes in Connecticut, somewhere in our states history, someone decided that if a strip club sells alcohol, then the dancers can only get topless, exposing their breasts. Apparently, Connecticut legislators believe that a man consuming alcohol cannot handle seeing a woman naked from the waste down. It's TOO MUCH. Above the waste? That's fine. Below the waste? A drunk man will just flip out.

Now here's the thing about Ruby's. Ruby's used to sell alchohol. I remember going there for my 21st birthday. We drank beer and we saw topless women. Years later, Ruby's changed ownership. When that happened, the new Ruby's had to apply for their liqour license and the state turned them down. As I understand it, the state was not fond of giving liquor licenses to strip clubs at that time and Ruby's was denied a license. As a result, the new Ruby's opened as a "juice bar" strip club. A juice bar sells any kind of beverage that does not contain alcohol and if you're a strip club with a juice bar, your dancers can get completely naked. But wait...There's More...

Connecticut has a weird loophole law regarding juice bars. Apparently, it is legal in CT to bring your own booze to a club that doesn't sell alcohol. You give the bartender your bottle(s) and then the bartender sells your alcohol back to you. So let's say I bring a bottle of rum to Ruby's. I give them the bottle. They put my name on it. Then I order a rum and coke. I give the lady $2 for my drink and then I get to watch completely naked women as I legally consume alcohol inside a juice bar. Ya know what my favorite thing is though? If I had no alcohol and I just ordered a coke at Ruby's...it would cost me $2.50. That cracks me up every time.

Now tonight, I'm being joined by somewhere around 25 guys for my bachelor party. I must give super props to my groomsman Tim Beeber for getting this whole thing together. He's aweseome. Ya know what I love about Tim? He can be a dick on a level I could never imagine when it comes to getting money. He's very adamant about getting money people owe. He's been collecting money upfront for the bachelor party and I just assumed that if people saw Tim, they gave him the money. I played tennis with my friend Eric this morning and he told me he had to mail Tim the 40 bucks to get into the party.

You see in Beeberland, I would've done it all wrong. I would've said let me have the money when you come to the party and if they didn't show up, I would've just thought that the guy was a dick. Tim on the other hand says"Just give me the freakin money."

My favorite Beeber story about money comes from when a group of us from my ski club used to meet on Wednesday to play pool. A girl we knew showed up for the first time and she didn't bring any money. When she went to leave early, Tim let her know how much she owed for the time she was there and she let Tim know that she didn't bring any cash. Tim let her know that there was an ATM outside the pool place but however he presented this information to her...the girl ended up just using her credit card to pay for everybody up to the point when she left. The girl by the way still hates Tim after all these years but loves the hell out of me. But I digress...the strip club.

Now I know a lot goes on at guy's bachlor parties and it is reffered to as our "last night of freedom," but my fiance can rest assured that nothing innapropriate will come from this evening's extravaganza. Unlike some others, I have no misconceptions about the strip club. I'm not trying to pick up, date or have sex with these women. I am fully aware that if you take the financial aspect out of the equation, the relationship is pretty much over. The girls want my money and I'm more than happy to see them naked. End of transaction.

Some guys just don't get it though. And to be honest, in the past, I have been somewhat naive. The thing is that the less than experienced stip club patron can get confused. There's alcohol involved. The women are naked, dancing and calling you "baby". Now I know I don't speak for everyone, but this is the typical guy's perfect environment. We just want women to be naked. The shit that we go thru just to get you naked. The conversations. The dinners. Ya know what I did the other day? I sorted fucking laundry. Ya know why? Because I want to keep seeing my woman naked and I hear this will help keep that going.

But when your in a strip club, there's a lot of naked women and they're all vying for your attention. You actually get to evaluate, be judgemental and pick the already naked woman who will spend time with you. It's awesome. And if you don't have a foundation based in reality, you can be really stupid. I still remember one of my top 2 stupid strip club moments like it was yesterday.

I was engaged once before and when that relationship ended, I spent more than the average man's time in the strip club. I'm not saying I was there everyday, but I often didn't take my bottle home when I left because I knew I'd be back soon to have some more. There was this one dancer Dakota...gosh, she was cool. I had a few dances with her and we talked some and one day...ughh...I hate this memory. After one of our private dances, I actually asked her if she wanted to do dinner sometime. (Oh the memory of such stupidity hurts so much.) The moment Dakota started to answer my question, I knew I had just entered the land of rediculousness. Now is was summertime and Dakota informed me that because summer was a busy time careerwise, she saved her dinners until the fall and winter time. Man, there is nothing like crossing that line into dumb.

The funny thing is that I ran into Dakota within the last year at Ruby's. She had lost some weight and changed her hair and stage name and I didn't recognize her at first. She remembered me but not me asking her out and she too got a big laugh when I told her what her answer had been about the seasonal dinners. By the way, time is running short and I'm not going to have enough time to get into it but just so you know, the #1 stupidest thing I ever did at a strip club was almost start a racial bar brawl. You can rest assured, I will never make that mistake again.

Now the Dakota story was embarassing, but it did give me some insight and has allowed me to laugh at others. I get a kick out of every time a friend comes up to me at a strip club and lets me know that he's made the acquintance of a dancer. "Dave. I was talking to her at the bar for 15 minutes. I think she really likes me." "Dave. I only paid her for 3 dances and we were back there talking for 45 minutes. Dude? How can you say she doesn't like me?"

For the uneducated, dancers don't really like you. By comparison, they may think you're better than some of the other guys they've had to work with but when you leave the strip club, the friendship is over. DONE! I've seen the guys strippers go for. Typically, they're losers. Not like regular guy kind of losers either. There more like that grungy but good looking with an attitude don't have a job kind of loser. Kind of like Tommy Lee without a job.

Alright. I think I've covered the basics; The drinking. The nudity. Strippers don't like you. I guess I didn't cover the various tiers of strip clubs. There are you higher end clubs. These are topless only. The private dances are done in the open with bouncers watching you. You're not allowed any physical contact with the dancers. You'll get your hottest chicks at these places. The lowest of the low tend to be in the more urban, poorer type neighborhoods where the dancing element is more of a front for prostitution. The women in these environments tend to be older, unnattractive, and at best, English is their second language. In case you're wondering, while I have been dragged into one of two of the latter kind of places, I am not fond of them. And I have certainly NEVER had sex with these women. An unnattractive woman who just spent the last five minutes having sex with one of my more questionable buddies does not appeal to me on a sexual level.

So how will my evening go? I have no idea. I'm looking forward to spending the time with my friends, but I will say that I'm a little bummed that I don't have any family representation to accompany me on the night's endeavor. Due to weekend work schedules and previous engagments, the men from my Godmother's family and the men from Kristine's family won't be able to join me on tonights journey. It's too bad because while I'm very much about the naked women at the strip club, I've found that these events have really cool "guy" moments and I have some of my coolest times hanging out with guys at the strip club.

So that's about it for the strip club. Maybe some other time, I'll tell you some stories about the strip club without naming names but for now, you get the gist of what the strip club is about for me. Hope you all have a good night. I sure will.

Dave

Skype Saves The Day

2006-04-22T16:57:00.000-04:00

I left my phone in Kristine's car last night and she and her Mother took the car to New Jersey for a bridal shower today. When much of your day revolves around making phone calls regarding your wedding and bachelor party, not having a cell phone makes things difficult. I should also mention that we don't have a "land line" phone in our home either. Periodically, I've thought about getting one for the apartment but that all changed last month when I had to help set my Father up with his home phone.

Much like modern dentistry, the land line telephone industry has refused to evolve in spite of all the technological advances in every other field. It's probably been ages since you set up telephone service but if you were to do it today, it eats up at least a half hour of your time if not an hour. The telephone people make you jump thru a lot of hoops for a phone you can't take with you when you leave your house.

The biggest irony of setting up telephone service is that odds are when you're doing it, you're doing so while talking to the person on your cell phone. And while you do it you'll be answering questions for things you forget regular phone service still charges for. Did you know land lines still charge extra for long distance? And before you can say, "Are you freakin kidding me?", they confuse you with the fact that you need to choose a long distance plan as well as a long distance provider. I don't know if phone companies are losing money but if they are, it's because of stupid crap like that.

That's why I say thank god for Skype. Skype is like a VOIP service like Vontage but it's cheaper. It's basically a telephone service that runs through your computer with internet access. For a little over 30 bucks a year, Skype gives me a phone number and voice mail. If I have Skype and you have Skype, we can talk on Skype for free. If I want to call someone who is not using Skype, whether it's a home phone, or a cell phone, no matter where they are in the country, it's 2 cents a minute. Setting up Skype took less than 10 minutes. Needless to say, I'm a big fan of Skype.

Gotta get back to wedding stuff. Talk 2 u l8r.
Dave

Had A Few Minutes To Kill

2006-04-17T17:49:00.000-04:00

Hello Everyone,

I have a little time before Kristine gets home from work so I thought I'd take a little time to catch everyone up on my life.

The wedding will be upon us soon and both Kristine and I are very excited. There are still some things to work out but most everything concerning the wedding has been set in motion and we expect May 6th to be the best day ever.

If ever there was a day that would be a close second, my bachelor party is just around the corner. To be honest, I am just a little nervous at just how insane I'm going to get on that night. I didn't think I still had it in me but this past Saturday, Kristine and I went up to Tolland Connecticut for my Godsister Laura's bridal shower. Kristine stayed for the shower while I accompanied 4 men to a bar in Manchester...I think. Ya know, it's a sad day when I need to be the voice of reason, but I was very surprised at the flack I caught for turning down the fouth group shot when I was the guy who had to drive us all back to the shower.

When we did get back the shower's host's home, I ended up doing 3 shots of Jagger with my Godfather in very quick succession. Kristine drove us home and I spend the better part of the next day trying to remember what happened the day before. I gotta tell ya though. I was a GREAT friggin time. We totally have to do that again.

I'm kind of at a loss for music at the moment. While I'm the first one to brag that I'm an Apple user who doesn't have any crasher, nor do my hard drives ever seem to have problems...I never allowed for the possibility of dropping a hard drive about 3 feet, landing on the hard drive that holds/held my iTunes library. As I am now experienced in the matter, I can tell you that hard drives don't like to be banged around like that regardless of whether you use a PC or a Mac. In the next few days, I should know if I've lost everything or if there's a chance for recovery.

Kristine should be home soon so I'm going to sign off. I hope all of you are well and look forward to talking to you soon.

Dave

Engagement Party

2006-04-17T09:50:00.000-04:00

Greetings Friends,

You'll have to forgive me for not blogging in a bit. I just haven't been feeling the blogging vibe. Also the wedding preparations have been keeping me a little busy.

First off let me quickly acknowledge my friend Karen Lynch who is doing less than well right now. I could write a year long blog entry about Karen but for the moment, let me just say that she has some big challenges ahead of her healthwise so I would ask that you take a moment and send all of your positive thoughts her way. Karen has her own website and you can check out everything that is going on with Karen here.

Having visited with my beautiful fiance Kristine's family over Easter got me thinking about the engagement party we had last June at her sister's home. At the time of the party, I had just purchased a new HDV hi def video camera, so I brought it to the party and did a little shooting. Outside of Kristine and myself, noone has ever seen this footage before and the footage has not been edited. Maybe one day I'll get around to doing that. Until then, I decided to put the footage on the internet for your viewing pleasure.

The video is 37 minutes long and the party doesn't start until 17 minutes in. Prior to that, you get to see me give a tour of the Breden household and watch my future niece and nephews swimming in the pool. You'll also get to watch me play with Rosie. That said, here is a little piece of my pre-marriage home video history. Enjoy.

So About The Wedding

2006-03-10T14:52:00.000-05:00

Hello All,

It is sooooo warm today. It's 71 DEGREES. It's so nice out. I just got back from a walk. I'm so glad I'm not working today.

A couple of you have asked how preperations for the big day are going. My answer is that I believe they are going well...

So ya know... if you could see me writing this blog in real time, you would have just watched 5 minutes pass while nothing about this page changed. I'm still trying to figure out what it is I want to write about these things. I guess all I can do is be honest. Boy, this whole wedding thing seems way over my head. If nothing else, let me just say that if you come to our wedding and you have a great time, the person that you should walk up to at the reception and say thank you to is Kristine. As it stands now, I have supplied some input into what I like and what I'm not really into, but outside of my small insights, she's set everything up and I made sure to have the checkbook handy.

I must say, even the smallest of tasks seem rather daunting to me. Even just inviting people. It's because of the need to invite people that I've learned some weird stuff about myself. For instance, I have very little idea of who my family is. This is made ever more daunting by the fact that Kristine knows all of her family.

Now, I know family members. I've been to enough family picnics over the years to be familiar with my family and when I see family members at these gatherings, I'm always happy to do a few minutes of catching up with everyone. Also, having spent a few summers with my grandparents at their beach cottage as well as a couple of Xmas's with them in Florida, I would see countless family members when they were visiting my grandparents. Somehow though...maybe it's the fact that there weren't many Burghoff's or Dorsey's in my age range, and maybe that I never really developed good social skills until the end of my high school years...But I don't really have a connection or a bond with many of my family members. How weird is that?

And you know what? I'm going to give you the perfect example of this because I've never forgotten this moment. It was the Winter of '92. My Grandfather had recently passed away and my Grandmother was living by herself in Florida. Since I was going to school in Florida at the time, one day I drove to her place which was about an hour away so that we could go out for dinner.

Now the thing about all the time I had spent with my Grandparents in the past was that the house was always busy. There homes were like the family meeting place so I would end up chatting with whoever was most interesting and then move on to the next person when the conversation was over. In all this time spent in their homes, including all the times my Mom and I would just visit, I assumed that I was very close with my grandparents.

And yet, I remember to this very day, sitting in my Grandmother's Florida livingroom with her. And we're sitting there...and after our casual hellos, how are you doings...we ran out of conversation. I remember sitting there thinking, "Oh my god. I'm out of things to say." And as if reading my mind, she said to me something about that I didn't need to feel like I had to force a conversation. And I should also add that just before we ran out of things to say, something must come up about Grampa because she was also sniffling and wiping a few tears from her eyes.

I forget what I said next but the realization that I had was that the woman who sat in front of me was no longer my disciplinarian, nor the person that I had somehow come to expect to carry the conversations and quite frankly whatever else was going on around her. She was a person and a loved one and I was going to have to show up and not sit back lazily. It was like the slate had been wiped clean and although we had so many years of history together, we were new friends.

I think I told her something like I had just been distracted for a moment and that I wasn't trying to force a conversation. I did say though that we should probably get going to dinner and the two of us went to the Olive Garden. And while I can't recall what we talked about, I remember very vividly sitting in that restaurant, feeling like we had escaped a very tense moment and also that I was having one of the best conversations I've ever had with my new friend, Grandma.

Unfortunately, one of the few family members I've bonded, my Grandmother, is no longer around and will not be attending my wedding. Also, all of my family from my Father's side who I do have a sort of natural bond with...well, they all live out in Ohio so they won't be attending the wedding. Thankfully, though I have bonded with my Cool Ant Sara who is somewhat local and she will be attending. Ya know it's funny because the defining moment where I realize that I connected with her was while we were out to dinner. It was a place called Frankie's near Clinton Beach. Maybe I should just meet up with all of my family members and take them out to dinner.

After you consider your family for wedding invites, then you get into friends. Boy, that's a tough one. Because then you have to start rating your friends and decide whose more of friend and how long it's been since you've seen or talked to that friend. This is a problem for me because you're either cool or I don't like you. I have a few friends who I put up on a pedestal and after that, the rest are pretty even on the good people scale. So there's a number of people who I've been great friends with over the years but if we were good friends and haven't talked in a couple of years, that's why you didn't make the cut. Nothing personal I swear.

It's funny because as I sit here, I'm wondering where I was going with those thoughts. Alright. Just to catch me up...Kristine's done most of the wedding planning and inviting people to the wedding has weighed on me some. Also, I love and miss my Grandmother.

As for the actual marriage itself, all that I'm worried about is that I'm missing something now. By that, I mean that I already feel like I'm married. Kristine and I have been together on and off since 2000 and we've been living together since June of last year. We've certainly had to jump over some hurdles and we've made great strides in understanding one another. If there's something about marriage that will change about our relationship that blindsides me and kicks me in the ass... Whatever that is, it will catch me completely off guard and I will be screwed.

Kristine and I have grown to love each other and trust each other and we desire to grow old with each other. This might sound awful, but I see the wedding itself as a great party that will cause us some stress and once we get passed it, we can get on with our marital lives.

On that note, I must say goodbye as Kristine called during the writing of this entry to give me a few wedding related tasks to do for the wedding. Having realized a few things during this writing, I'm anxious to jump on them and help out.

I Hope You All Have A Great Weekend
Dave

Network Security Part 2

2006-03-08T11:18:00.000-05:00

"and if you give me access and I know you can't catch me...well, I might look around."

So yesterday I went to Caffeine for my afternoon cup of coffee. As you enter Caffeine there are a couple of chairs and a couch that give the illusion of a living room like setting and it is from that couch that I wrote the first part of this blog entry. Sitting on the couch with his laptop was the employee guy I often talk to about computers and what not. He looked tired like he hadn't slept all night and since there weren't many customers, I guess he was taking a break.

Before I go on, I should mention that there was a very small detail I left out of the first part of this story. When I was browsing thru the files of Mr. Linksys, I happened upon an image file of Caffeine's store logo. It held my curiousity for about 2 seconds and then I just let it go as a coincidence. After all, Caffeine does not have their own wireless internet. Maybe they hired a local to design the logo. I didn't really think much about it as it was the least interesting of the files I was seeing at the time. However...

Now that this guy and I were talking, I asked him again to make sure Caffeine didn't have their own wireless and he said that I was correct and I said, "Ya know, that's really funny because the guy whose wireless I was using yesterday had the Caffeine logo on his computer." So have you guys got it yet because it was after those words left my mouth and before he answered, "That's funny because I have the logo on my computer," that I got it. OOps.

For those of you not with us yet, the coffee shop guy was also stealing Mr. Linksys's wireless internet while I was blogging and it was in fact Mr. Coffee Shop Guy's files I was snooping around. Thus, I need to ammend some of the statements I made in my last entry.

First, my appologies to Mr. Linksys. You are merely a slightly innept person who allowed me free internet access. Thanx.

Second, if you are the file sharing porn viewing type (Not casting a stone. Not even holding a stone.) and you like to hop on other people's wireless internets, then lock your files up. Actually, you don't have to do much to avoid people getting on your computer. Having created shared folders on protected networks, I can tell you there's quite a bit of work involved. Mr. Coffee Shop Guy had to jump thru a number of hoops to give me that kind of access to his computer. God only knows why.

And by the way, I didn't ask. Needless to say, there was a moment of akwardness when we both realized I'd been snooping around his computer. We had a quick polite conversation with him asking how I got in and me telling him that he'd left the door open and that was about it. Aside from mentioning the logo, I didn't get into specifics about what I had seen and aside from an empty porn folder, there wasn't much for me to see. Hopefully, our employee/customer acquintance casual conversation friendship will remain intact.

Just a quick couple of notes. To Mr. Anonymous: "Waaaaa... I didn't like your story." If you felt like Network Security read like a tech manual, your nuts. Second of all, this isn't a call-in show and I'm not pretending to be an expert. I have enough problems writing what's on my mind, let alone what you'd like to read so let's just stick to what I feel like blogging about.

Also, and I don't think Rob misread it this way but for those of you that don't know, eDonkey is a filesharing program and not a porn site... Actually, it's pretty funny. I just googled eDonkey to make SURE it wasn't a porn site. It is not. Thank God.

Until next time.
Dave

Coming Soon

2006-03-07T12:27:00.000-05:00

Man, I just so wish I could get into it now but my lunch break is almost over. Just to let you know, there will be a follow-up to yesterdays Network Security post. Stay Tuned.

Network Security

2006-03-06T10:44:00.000-05:00

Last week was long. I had a couple of days where I didn't have much sleep and when I was able to catch a few weeks, they were inconsistent. Thank god for the weekend though and now all is well. I've got some time to kill because I don't have to start work for another hour, so I figured I'd just do a little jamming on the blog and see what comes out of me.

First, let's start with my current setting. I'm in Caffeine, a local coffee shop in SoNo. Not only do they have good coffee here, but they also have free internet access. That is not to say, they offer free internet access. However, there are around 10 wireless networks in range to Caffeine and only four of them are locked.

Now, I know this is biting the hand that feeds, but if you've got a wireless internet base station, lock that thing up. You might be thinking that in a perfect world, the worst that would happen is that maybe your neighbors would jump on the internet for free and provided they weren't downloading big files or file sharing, no harm no foul.

Unfortunately, we live in a world with some bad bad people in it. People can use your wireless networks for illegal activity and they can hack into your computers on the network, invading your privacy and screwing things up.

Here's a perfect example. I know nothing about hacking computers. My only chance of seeing anyone's computer files thru my computer is if they have shared folders that allow guest access. This is where I can type in any name for a screen name and no password. If that doesn't work, I can use "guest" as a screen name with no password and that might work. Once you get past those options, I won't be "hacking" into your computer.

The network I'm on right now "linksys"...well that person has an unprotected folder with all their stuff for all the world to see. Oh...and by the way, a easy way to figure out if a person's network is hackable is if their network is named LINKSYS. Anyone who can't take 2 seconds to change the name of their router clearly lacks the skill to protect their computer.

Now, I don't consider myself a bad person but I am nosy and if you give me access and I know you can't catch me...well, I might look around. Mr. Linksys appears to be into graphic design and file sharing. HEY!!! For all you kids out there who don't want to get sued for downloading illegal music and movies, it's best not to label a folder on your hard drive, "eDonkey2000 Downloads", and then put it somewhere where anyone with a laptop and a cup of coffee can see it. (By the way, fret not RIAA. Mr. Linksys appears to be interested in stealing software and not music.)

There's one other reason why you might want to take a minute or two to password protect your wireless network. That reason would be if you have a folder on your computer labeled, "watchusmasturbate.com". When I saw that folder, my first instinct was to stear clear of it. I may be misguided on this, but I tend to associate the word masturbate with males more than females and I didn't want to risk it. However, when I went to copy the name of the folder so as not to mispell anything, I decided to take a peek. The folder is EMPTY. How friggin stupid is Mr. Linksys? I guess he didn't want the smut anymore but he just couldn't part with the folder.

In conclusion, if you have a wireless network, 1-change your network name from the default name that came with the router, 2-put a password on your network, and 3-if you're going to discard your porn, it doesn't matter unless you also delete the EVIDENCE of said porn. (I know, there was the music thing too, but lists work better in threes.

Alright. As always, blogging took longer than I thought, so I'm going to bail now and check in with you later. In theory, I should be posting consistently through the week.

Until next time.
Dave

The Monday Check-In

2006-02-27T20:04:00.000-05:00

The next couple of days are going to be long ones for me but I didn't want to lose blog momentum so I thought I'd check in real quick.

Kristine and I went up to Saratoga Springs this past weekend to get away from it all so here are a couple of pictures from that. The first one...holy cow...this just goes to show how much I love my wife to be. I took 3 pictures on that porch and of course, the one that she is most fond of because of how she looks...well, for cryin out loud look at me. I got the squinty eyes. I got the 20 chins. If Chris Penn didn't just die from being a really heavy guy and I didn't know better, I would wonder what he was doing in a picture with my fiance. I swear to god, I look a lot better than this in real life.

This picture is taken at a sports pub we like to go to for lunch when we're in the area. The weekend was fantastic and I wish I could tell you more about it but I've got some stuff to do.

Talk 2 u l8r.
Dave

Evening In SoNo

2006-02-24T08:25:00.000-05:00

Hello All,

Hope you have a great weekend. Here's a couple of pictures I took last night.

Here's a side view of the brand spankin' new police station in SoNo near the train station.

And here's a look at Washington St. I took both of these around 6 o'clock and it had just rained a little bit.

See you all next week.
Dave

Content and Ownership (or Who Owns The Entertainment I Possess?)

2006-02-23T07:40:00.000-05:00

God I'm so afraid of this blog entry. What I'm about to write goes against my new philosophy of keeping things short so that I can post consistently on a daily basis. However, I'm feeling a blog post coming of Grande Scheme proportions. Here we go.

First, here's what I wanted to tell you that I thought would be quick and easy. It seems like I'm asked on a regular basis by people with video capable iPods how they can get their movies onto their iPods. It's not simple when first time video rippers start out, but once you get the hang of it, it can become second nature.

For someone looking for some cool free content (prior to March 3rd), click here. iTunes is offering the pilot for the new show Conviction for free. What makes this interesting is that the show has not aired yet. Previously, iTunes and a few others have offered "legal" television downloads for a couple of bucks for recently broadcast episodes of tv shows, but to my knowledge, this is the first time a tv episode has been offered prior to broadcast. I believe Conviction will start airing March 3rd and that's when the episode will no longer be free. By the way, I haven't seen the show yet, so you'll need to decide for yourself whether it's good or not. Also, you DO NOT need a video iPod to download the show. In addition to a video capable iPod, you can also watch the file on your computer using either iTunes or Quicktime.

So let me get back to the whole getting video onto your video iPod and why it's a pain in the ass. First, there are format logistics of which I still don't completely understand. I believe I'm correct in saying that your two file formats of choice are either an mpeg-4 file or a movie file compressed with h.264. h.264? I guess all the good video compression names were taken.

Once you have the file format correct, then you have to deal with picture size. 320 x 240 is the way to go for watching a video on your iPod. You can also connect your iPod to your television and watch your videos thru the tv. For that, a higher resolution is better, but I'm not sure how high you can go.

Oh, and let's not forget the sample rate or bit rate. Your video converstion software will likely give you a choice for this. If it's a user friendly software, your options will probably be something like good, better and best. If it makes you type in a number, I understand 400 is acceptable.

Once you get passed file formats and image quality, then you get into the question of "legality". You see, by the time the common man heard of an mp3 file, the illegal infrastructure was already in place. There were plenting of cd ripping softwares available and hundreds of thousands of people were converting their cds to the mp3 file format without any legal presidence. The music industry was caught off guard by the trend and has always been playing catch up. Because video takes up much more computer space than audio does and the fact that movies are 2 hours long vs a 3 minute long song, the film industry had some time to get their act together in the legal sense before people got around to digitally transfering movies to their computers.

So is it legal to rip your cds and not your dvds? I read someone elses blog recently where they were talking about how last year, the riaa went before congress and said that ripping your cd to your iPod was a legal interpretation of fair use. However, the riaa recently went before congress and said that it was not fair use. I wonder what that's about.

Now because the film industry has had the time and been able to watch what's happened to the music industry, the film industry has been very clear to say that you can't copy their movies for any reason whatsoever without giving them more money. On that, I'm paraphrasing. I'm guessing that's the reason you can't put a dvd into your computer and rip the movie using iTunes. Apple would most likely have a large lawsuit on their hands. Plus, it's in Apple's best interest that you don't rip your movies because you are then forced to purchase content from Apple to watch on your iPod.

This is probably a good time to point out that the music industry has failed where the film industry has succeeded immensely when it comes to reversioning their product. Look at the movie veiwing experience. The movie theater is only the beginning. There was vhs and then there was laserdisc and while the latter wasn't very lucrative and limited to the biggest movie lovers, laser set the stage for the dvd. And let's not forget television. You have your pay-per-view, your premium cable stations, network television, and then regular cable which will rerun the film forever. There are plenty of ways to pay for the same movie several times over.

The only big reversioning in the history of music came from the cd. People who wanted to upgrade the sound quality on their previously owned record albums and cassettes, went out and rebought their collections on compact discs. Compact. That's pretty funny now that I think of it. Compared to an 60 gig iPod, the cd doesn't seem so compact now does it. Since the cd, the music industry hasn't had much room to grow. They've tried improving sound quality but unless you are REALLY REALLY into sound, you probably haven't rebought your music in the SACD of DVD Audio format. The only shot music companies have had at making people rebuy their music is thru iTunes and the like getting people that can't figure out how to rip their cds, to rebuy the music in an mp3-like format with limited capabilities on how you can listen to it. Not very appealing.

So, I think I've given you enough history. What I really want to talk about is this so called illegal file sharing and improper interpretation of fair use. What strikes me as odd is that if you purchase a form of entertainment, be it music, film, or tv shows (and by they way, that includes broadcast television as you pay for those shows by sitting thru commercials as well as product placement within the show), ... If you buy any of those things, you are paying for something you do not own. Let me just say that again. You are PAYING for something you DO NOT OWN. You may possess something tangible whether it's a physical tape or disc or something less tangible like a file on your computer's hard drive. But you don't own it. You have purchased a license to use material in a private manner and by the way, that private manner better not stop someone else from purchasing the same exact license.

Forgive me for a moment, but GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE! Where the hell did that logic come from? I'm betting it came from the ease that computers allow us to spread entertainment. Prior to computers, I don't ever remember the music industry telling me that I was paying to borrow music.

Sony has recently caught a lot of flack for this bogus spyware they put on their music cds to stop people from sharing their files. Funny though, because Sony didn't have any problem taking my money when I was younger so that I could make countless tapes of the music I had on cd. Come to think of it, didn't Sony sell blank cds for me to copy my music prior to the mp3 revolution? Now suddenly, their throwing around words like "fair use".

Here's the point that I want to drive home. The entertainment industry would like us to think we are criminals if we somehow manipulate their media to better suit ourselves or to share that media with others. They call these actions illegal. But I ask you, where is this law? Murder is against the law. Robbing a bank is against the law. Speeding is against the law. Get caught for any of those things and there's usually a cop or two involved and more than likely, a judge and a jury consisting of your peers. But copying a movie or a song? Where's the APB on that?

Unless I'm mistaken, file copying and file sharing as acts of an illegal nature are interpretive. There are no hard and fast rules and there's nothing concrete. The entertainment industry wants file sharers and so called pirates to believe they are guilty of illegal activity and they drive the point home by repeating their agenda. There are also lawsuits that have been settled out of court that gives the illusion of presidence. But aside from an entertainment lawyer telling a judge that a file sharer has done wrong, where is THE LAW?

I only ask because unless you're Amish, your kid has downloaded an "illegal" song or movie to his computer. A generation of children is being raised under the impression that they have done something wrong and that they are criminals. I would make the argument that they only feel this way because an entertainment industry with loads of cash (hey wait? where'd that money come from?) has made them believe this to be so. This is not a society mandate. It's the agenda of people with large quantities of cash who would like to have more money. To take their word as law? Now that's criminal.

The Daily Commute

2006-02-22T08:13:00.000-05:00

Catching the morning train in Springdale.

Catching the evening train in historic SoNo.

Presidents Day and Some Movies

2006-02-20T20:57:00.000-05:00

Happy Presidents Day!

If I understood Andy Rooney last night on 60 minutes, Presidents Day is no longer limited to Lincoln and Washington. Today is a day to recognize all presidents. If that's the case, I'm going to appreciate Ronald Reagan today. While history shows us he may not have been the best president, I believe he is my favorite. Of all the presidents in my lifetime, I have never believed myself more safe than when he was our leader. A close 2nd goes to President Bill Clinton. It's easy to get caught up in the whole sex scandal thing, but I believe that of all the presidents in our lifetime, he worked the hardest to make this a great nation.

I had some time to myself this weekend as Kristine took a trip to Long Island. I caught a couple of dvds that define the opposite ends of my spectrum as a person and as a 33 yr old. Since there was no chance in hell Kristine was going to watch Doom with me, I felt it best to get that one out of the way. Now I know that I'm old by Hollywood's definition but I'm pretty sure this film sucked. I'd go into more details except that I don't remember any. I remember The Rock was in it and by the way, I like The Rock. Maybe next time though, they'll give him a few supporting actors so he doesn't have to carry the film by himself.

The second film I saw was Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown. I won't go into details on this film because I don't want to take any joy away from you viewing the film. What I will say is that I felt a very strong connection to this film and that Elizabethtown restores my faith that Hollywood is still making great movies.

To drive the point home, I plan on buying Elizabethtown (the dvd was a rental). I may not even watch the film again but to me, owning Elizabethtown is to own a great piece of art. Also, I'll be exercising my "dollar vote" to let hollywood know that they should keep making these kind of movies.

How I Will Miss My Little 'Love Monkey'

2006-02-18T18:31:00.000-05:00

There's so much crap on television that it's sad when we lose a great show. Love Monkey was a really cool show starring that guy from 'Ed' as a music agent. The show revolved around the ins and out of the music industry as well as the friendship of four guys, one of which was Jason Priestly. Love Monkey was both funny and entertaining.

After only 3 episodes, CBS removed Love Monkey from it's schedule, putting the show on "hiatus". Typically, that would mean that CBS is done with the show and that's probably the case. Still, there appears to be some hope. It seems that there are 5 unaired episodes that will end up somewhere. Rumors are that the Love Monkey people are in talks with the WB to bring the show to that network. I suppose in the end, all the episodes will end up on a dvd eventually, but I hope CBS comes to their senses and appreciates Love Monkey for the great show it is and brings the show back to its network. On the off chance that a CBS executive gets lost and ends up on the pages of this blog, allow me to plead to your better sense of judgement. Love Monkey is original, unique, and a wonderful addition to network television. Please bring Love Monkey back.

An Exciting Week For Dave

2006-01-08T18:00:00.000-05:00

I'm very excited about this week.

First, Howard Stern FINALLY debuts Monday morning at 6am on Sirius Radio. What will be his first words? Will the show live up to the hype? I just hooked up the Sirius in the bedroom and 12 hours from now, I'll be all ears.

Tuesday: 12:00pm EST, Steve Jobs will stand before an audience in San Fransisco and give his Macworld Conference Keynote address. PLEASE GOD!!! Let there be a new revamped Mac Mini with DVR capability and Front Row software. That would just make my day.

Even if Steve doesn't come thru with the new Mini, that will be alright because I just really want a mini for my tv and the one they have now will work just fine. Still, the fingers are crossed.

Also, on Tuesday, I've got poker night with the boys. I haven't taken the pot since our first game and I'm looking to clean up.

Wednesday's a great tv night because Lost finally returns with new episodes. ABC says Lost starts at 8 but it looks like the first hour might be another clip show. While that would suck for me, it would be great for all of you who are behind on the full Lost experience.

For those of you who will be up at 10:30 on Wednesday, flip on over to The Food Network. The Show I've been working on for the last 4 or 5 months will be having it's WORLD SERIES PREMIERE. That's right. Ham On The Street airs for the first time EVER at 10:30pm on the Food Network. It's a fun show so give it a look.

Kristine and I are off to see A History Of Violence at the movie theatre so I'll check in with you later.

Much Love
Dave

WOW!

2006-01-01T00:49:00.000-05:00

OK. So uhhh...I know this isn't the best blog entry to start off the year, but it's like 12:49am on Sunday morning. We've been back from our party for a tad bit and uhhh...sure, we're a bit festive. Here's the thing. Kristine's kinda tired and out for the count and I had a few minutes to kill b4 I crash and so uhhh...for no reason whatsoever, I'm looking at what people search for to end up at my blog.

Remember that Train Sex story I told a few entries ago where I briefly mentioned my 60 gig iPod. If you read that story, odds are you did not take away from it that I had a 60 gig iPod. And yet, it is SO KEY in the grande scheme of things. Check this out. On December 24th, 2005...oh my god...on CHRISTMAS EVE, 2005, someone arrived at my blog BECAUSE....they did a Yahoo search for "women over 60 having sex on video"and because of my young people having sex on a train story, my blog was the first thing to come up on that person's sad internet journey. WOW! The internet. What a strange little beast U R. On the off chance that that person returns, let me just tell you now, in case you weren't certain...In this blog, you will absolutely never find anything relevent to women over 60 having sex on video...EVER!!!

Although, I must admit...on the off chance that this blog still exists 27 years from now...well, check back in then and maybe I'll have something for you. In the meantime, all I can offer you is the musings of a youngish man who has no desire to see what your looking for.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Dave

Happy New Years Eve!

2005-12-31T17:55:00.000-05:00

My Beautiful and I are about to go out for the evening and I thought I might jot down a few New Year's resolutions before we go. It's unfortunate when I look back on my past that if I were required to come up with a definition for the New Years Resolution, I could possibly define it as "a promise you make to yourself that you are not required to keep." That said, I'm approaching my 2006 New Years Resolutions with the idea that they are goals rather than lies.

Resolution #1. I hearby resolve to better look out for my well being. This includes health, knowledge, and the ability to adhere to the rules and concerns of our society. That last one might raise an eyebrow or two so let me simplify it by saying that I strive to be a better person.

Resolution #2. I hearby resolve to be the best husband I can be. Technically, this should not begin until May 6th, but I find it so much easier to refer to Kristine as my wife. Because of this, I respect the rules of our monogomist loving relationship as I believe us to be Man and Wife at this very moment. I pledge to continue loving her with all my heart and I will do my best to consider the fact that I may very well NOT be right all of the time. Some of you will find that line to be funny, including my beautiful wife Kristine, who laughs because she knows that SHE is the one who is right all the time.

Resolution #3. I will take actions that will allow me to move forward in life rather than become complacent with where I am now. That's not to say I'm not in a good place. Far from it. All things considered, my life is phenominal. Still, I have a few unrealized dreams that I'd like to achieve before I lose the motivation to achieve them. I have a partner now who stands by my side and makes me stronger. I can't think of a better time to do great things.

Resolution #4. I hereby resolve to connect more with my friends and my family. To those of you who I owe emails to, I appologize. To those of you who have told me we need to get together and we haven't, I appologize. If I do nothing else this year, I hope to organize my addresses and phone numbers so that I may keep in touch with those who I've befriended and those who I love.

That said, I wish all of you a Happy New Year and I wish all of you the best. Here's hoping that all of our New Years Resolutions come true and assist us in becoming that which we strive to be. Oh what the hell. Let me throw one more resolution out there. I hereby resolve to maintain and update my blog on a regular basis, and in doing so, I hope my words continue to entertain you.

Happy New Year Everyone!!!
Dave

The Reawakening

2005-12-28T17:20:00.000-05:00

I feel like I've just woken from a coma. The holidays are over. Woo-Hoo! Now, I love the holiday season and I'm big on being a people person, but there's definitely an intraverted part of me that needs some alone time to regroup. Of course, that's hard to come by now that I'm living with someeone full time but I think that's something I need to adjust to and hopefully, that will come with time.

Apparently the holidays stress me out and I didn't even know it. This past Thursday, we celebrated Xmas at work. There was a big gathering at the bosses house after work, but the big todo was our lunchtime exchange of gifts. I was generous with my gift giving and was pleasantly surprised at the number of gifts I received. What I find interesting is that after the big gift exchange lunch was over, I was exhausted. I was completely drained. It turns out that unbeknownst to me, I was carrying a large weigh on my shoulders and after that lunch...it was next to impossible to work. If allowed to, I would've fallen asleep in my work chair right then and there. And this was in spite of the fact that I had the whole real xmas thing to do that weekend. The brain is a funny thing and it turns out my brain was very busy but it left me out of the loop.

Then came Christmas weekend which was lovely. Kristine and I went down to Long Island for the holiday and spent 3 days at her sister Karen's place. What I find interesting is that I now feel more like a resident rather than a guest when we stay with Karen and her family. Also, I realized that I'm no longer the visiting boyfriend. I blend now. Well, for the most part. I imagine I'm still thought of as a man way too obsessed with owning the most current technology but that aside, I'm one of the family.

Let's see...You'll have to forgive me for a moment as I'm reorienting myself with this blog entry. I know I had a lot to say yesterday when I started this. I'm just trying to remember what that was and in what order I want it to come out. In case I get burnt out trying to finish all my thoughts in this entry, let me just say that last night, Kristine and I watched The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and while I know as a 32 yr old man, I should be embarrassed for saying this, the movie was fantastic. In the words of the great Robert Kelly, it worked on many levels. Back to the Xmas coma.

Kristine and I got home Monday evening. I thought I was going to pass out, but I had to have my friend Chris over so I could sell him my iPod Photo so that he could give it to his wife Tanya for her birthday. Of course, there is no such thing as a Chris Kory visit that doesn't involve Madden Football, especially since he'd never played it on my new Xbox 360. That thing KICKS ASS! Although, let me just say, if anyone from EA Sports (It's in the game) happens to ready this, what's up with the changes? I want my kicking back. I want my old buttons back. I want my Michaels/Madden commentary back. Otherwise, excellent job.

So Chris comes over and we play football and suddenly, I'm alive. Where I was once catatonic, now, I can't fall asleep. I did eventually fall asleep though and spent the next to days in a sort of recovery funk. Then around 3:00 yesterday, I rolled out of bed, jumped in the shower and since then I've felt fully recovered. It should be smooth sailing for a while.

The anonymous Mr. Xchair believe I have a little stress left in me with the New Year's thing, but aside from going somewhere New Year's Day, we are plan free and I don't imagine that will change.

We're out of here in 15 so let me get a few last things out.

Netflix RULES! I'm going to save so much money on all the dvds I don't have to buy anymore.

Speaking of dvds, Kristine and I have been watching season 1 of House. For those of you who have never seen House, it's a great show, but I would suggest skipping the Pilot (aka the first show), as you might get turned off by it. It was shot very dark and it was before they realized that the medicine part of the show plays second fiddle to the quick bitter wittiness of the House character. If you start with the second episode, you should be fine.

Hey, how bout those Sony DRM rootkit cds? Did those guys screw up or what? Ya know, I was looking at a piece of Sony machinery today that wasn't even music related and thought to myself, there's no way in hell I'm buying that.

Bittorrent is a fabulous piece of software. It's like having every movie and television show on demand for free...albeit it's probably illegal and there's a slight chance the RIAA or MPAA might sue you but then again, I haven't been able to find a successful US bittorrent lawsuit. Bittorrent rules.

Cinderalla Man is out on dvd. Finally, you can see the greatness I've been talking about in the privacy of your own home. Rent it and enjoy.

I'm being called to get ready but one more thing. Pump It by the Black Eyed Peas debuted at number 64 this week on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay. About Friggin Time.

Been fun chattin w/u. Check ya l8r.
Dave

Train Sex

2005-12-20T07:26:00.000-05:00

God I love titles like that. Train Sex. I mean...I've got you. I would have to tell the crappiest story ever for you to bail on this story. Come to think of it, I would change the name of this blog to Train Sex in a heartbeat if I thought I had the material to live up to such a blog name. I don't think that's going to happen though.

So, right now it's 7:30am est. I woke up at 5:30 this morning so I could come in and get ahead of my workload. I should be working now but if I don't process these thoughts, they'll just be dancing in my head for the rest of the day.

First, let me say that my heart goes out to my NYC readers whose lives just got a little more chaotic as a result of the MTA strike. I would also like to praise the Metro North union for not jumping on the strike as well. You are wonderful people and I hope you keep those trains running.

So like I said, I woke up early. I got myself cleaned up, made sure my iPod was updated and caught the train. Fortunately, someone was nice enough to post the first season of Scrubs on podtropolis.com so that is what I've been watching on the train for the last day or two. Scrubs, by the way is one of those shows that when you finally sit down and watch it, you wonder why you haven't been watching the show all along. It's very good and based on the five episodes I've watched, I highly recomend you Tivo Scrubs right now.

So I'm watching and I'm enjoying and out of the corner of my eye, I see some abandoned brick buildings out the window and I know I'm almost to South Norwalk. I grab my bag and I get up. Now some people will tell you that it's impossible to walk and watch your video at the same time but I've gotten a pretty good handle on it so I let Scrubs (the really great show I mentioned in the last paragraph) continue to play.

As I get up, I see that there is a young couple probably in their early twenties sitting across the aisle from me. Their sitting side by side but they appear to be in a cuddly sort of way. Upon reflection, I would guess that her legs were draped across his lap. Now, I've got stuff going on in my head. Do I have my bag? Is it zipped up? I don't have to rush to get to the train door, do I? No. There's time. Plus, I'm listening to Scrubs and subconciously balancing myself on a moving train as I walk to the train door.

As I approach the train door, I realize that something wasn't quite right. I call upon my memory and pick apart what I just saw. That's when I realize that one of the girl's legs was exposed and that just past her knee going towards the foot were a pair of bright purplish pink underwear. At that point, I was at the train door, so I stopped, turned around and saw the young couple smiling back at me. I still had the headphones on so I'm not sure but I think the young woman said Hi to me. Wow! They'd been having sex? That's Awesome. I mean that's really friggin cool. Before I could give it much thought, the train stopped and the door opened.

Now this is where the story sucks. As I'm getting off the train with so many thoughts to ponder, a black man of slightly larger build gets off the train with me and he won't fucking shut up. He starts off the conversation by letting me know that the couple had been having sex since around maybe New Rochelle. I never got a lock on this guy because quite frankly, I didn't want to, but here's what I think I learned from him.

For starters, he will talk to anyone who is walking next to him no matter how long the duration of the walk. He has two daughters. He may go to church regularly although I'm guessing he goes sporadicaly and just remembers enough information to annoy people. A girl who is having sex on the train is degrading herself. As for the guy having sex on a train...he didn't mention an opinion on that. A girl can be all giggly and degrade herself by having sex on a train but then in a couple of years she will have kids and feel sorry. Women act all powerful but the truth is they are vulnerable and the way for us guys to be real men is to not degrade them preferably by not having sex with them on a train. If I'm not mistaken, he sited the Adam & Eve story as evidence as to why man has to look after woman. I'm sure there was more he said as we walked together for five minutes, but a lot of his ramblings were blocked out by my thoughts of trying to figure out how to tell him to shut up. I wonder if this guy really thought I gave a damn about what he was saying. I mean, I just realized two people were having sex right next to me and he thinks I want to talk to him. Good lord. Well, he's gone now and thank god for that.

Back to the sex on the train thing. I mean, wow. Practically, right next to me, there were two people having sex. For all the time I devote thinking about sex, here it is going on right next to me and I was oblivious. And these were some good looking people too. This young lady was very attractive. As for the guy, I don't know what an attractive man looks like but I can tell you he wasn't ugly... and really, who cares.

But after I got rid of jabbermouth, I had a chance to wonder about things and here were the thoughts I came up with. I'm glad I didn't know. If I did know, I would have had to figure out whether or not I wanted to watch. Alright, actually no. Hell yeah, I would have wanted to watch. It just would have been tricky to figure out how to watch them without the train sex couple watching me watching them, let alone other spectators watching me watching the couple. See, this whole thing is new to me and I don't know the proper etiquette for voyeurism when it comes to exhibitionists.

Here's another thought. I realized sex on a train is something that would probably never happen to me and at first I felt a little sad. Then I changed my mind when I realized that I probably don't want to have sex on a train. I'd be too self concious wondering if my partner and I were putting on a good show instead of enjoying the moment.

And here's something else. My train got into SoNo at 7am. Who the hell gets up that early in the freezing cold to have sex on a train heading towards New Haven? I mean, I hope they weren't going to work. The woman I work with takes a train from Harlem to come here everyday and she went on a couple of dates with a guy she met on the commute. When it didn't work out, it was a bit awkward for her seeing him on the train everyday to and from work and that was just from a couple of dates. If this train sex couple doesn't work out, imagine the baggage they will carry with them every time they go to work. My guess is that they were just riding the train to have the sex. I don't care how good their sex was, I've just never seen anyone that happy going to work.

In conclusion, my point is this. If you ever see me seeing someone having sex on a train... don't talk to me. I'm just not in a conversation kind of way. Wait. Strike that. If you are a hot chick who sees me seeing a couple having sex on a train and you'd like to talk about it. Well sure, why the hell not? That's the exception to the rule. (Just to be clear though, we're just talking. I LOVE YOU KRISTINE!!!)

Must work. Talk 2 u soon. Happy Holidays.
Dave

Quick Check In

2005-12-15T13:02:00.000-05:00

Ooohhhh...Look At Me. Not quite down for the count. I can't believe the most flack I get for not updating my blog comes from a guy too lazy to create a blogger identity. I know who you are Mr. Anonymous and if your not careful, I'm going to travel out west and put your ass back in that chair. How bout them apples?

But seriously...uhhhh...I'm not really even blogging now. I'm supposed to be working but I realized that if another day went by without me saying hello, there'd be a little more flackage coming my way. So let me just do a few quick sumaries and then I'll try to get a more complete entry up over the weekend.

Life is pretty grande.

Lost is on hiatus and the last episode got on my nerves. Here's a thought. Instead of giving us a bible lesson that really doesn't go anywhere, how bout just saying, "Oh hay! You're not going to believe this but I have a piece of that film too. Wanna see it?"

I still don't have an Xbox 360 but I have connections and I should have one on or after the 20th. Fingers are crossed. Oh yeah and by the way, Fuck You Target. If I shop at your place it's because I'm all out of options. Maybe next time you get some Xbox's in, you don't let 60 people stand in line for 3 1/2 hours before you tell them, "Oh yeah, we've only got 12. So sorry. But by the way, it's not us. Microsoft is trying to create demand." Seriously, there's a reason why that guy is over 30, balding, and a manager at Target. I'm guessing it has to do with lack of intelligence and ambition. Just to be clear though, I'm never shopping at Target again.

Shoot. This is going long. Anything else?

Aside from that last rant, I'm feeling very good about things. I feel for the first time in my life that things are moving forward instead of just dealing with the stagnant day to day rigamorol...Hmmm...I guess that's the first time I put that word on the page. It's probably spelled wrong but you probably get my meaning. I'm very happy with my wife to be and all that we're going through. It's nice to have a partner who is very supportive and I love her to death.

Oh, one last thing. I went with my friend Karen to see Bon Jovi a few weeks back and it was probably my best concert experience ever. Mucho fun. Maybe in a few years, I'll post the photos I took on my cell phone. (yeah right)

That's it. I must work. I will probably do some writing over the weekend however, I wouldn't count on it. Happy Holidays if I don't see you before the new year.

You Guys Are Great!
Dave

Oh Goodness

2005-12-04T19:46:00.000-05:00

It seems that I have been missed in my absence from the blogging world. I'm sorry. I've been occupied with other things. Life is good. Work is good. Engagement life is good. I'm looking forward to the holidays and... so uhhh.... I joined a gym. It turns out it was for the best. Maybe I'll talk about it later. Think of this as a baby step for my return to blogging. I expect I will talk 2 u soon.

Dave

I'm So Very Happy

2005-11-06T22:27:00.000-05:00

I'm so very happy and you'll never guess why. Never in a million years. No really. Go ahead. Give it a shot. Guess why I'm floating on air at this very moment...Ohhhhh...I guess you see the picture. I s'pose that's a dead giveaway. That's ok. I don't care. Ya know why?...CAUSE I AM SOOOOOO HAPPY!!!

Yours truly is the proud owner of the new black iPod. I'd call it a video iPod except that Apple doesn't so I won't either. What I will call it is a Very Friggin Cool Piece Of Machinery. What makes the iPod even cooler is the software, Handbrake (Mac OS only). Handbrake is an DVD ripper that allows me to convert my dvds to video that plays on the iPod. I understand they have similar software for the PC.

Now I know that there's a lot of people out there who don't think they need this new iPod. The biggest hard drive is still 60 gigs and you probably think you don't need an iPod that plays video because the screen is so small. I thought that very same thing until I saw the new iPods at the Apple store last week. After seeing them in person, I knew I would have to have one and now I do. I totally cannot wait to get up tomorrow so I can get on the train and watch the season 6 episodes of The Simpsons that I'm ripping right now. God, I love Apple.

Dave