I couldn’t keep fish sticks alive

Posted on June 8, 2009 by Joel
The Gorton's Fisherman and I go way back

The Gorton's Fisherman and I go way back

Seriously, even if the Gorton’s Fisherman was living with me, we couldn’t keep the aquarium fish alive. I might have better luck if I threw a bunch of fish sticks into the aquarium at this stage.  Thank goodness I opted to cut my proverbial teeth on freshwater fish.  When they die, it only costs me about $5 a fish.  Imagine if I had tried to manage a saltwater aquarium?  Those marine fish can cost over $50 each!

So what happened, you are wondering?   I’ve been periodically replacing one or more every other month.  A few months ago, I used to have 9 fish, but two died.  To replace them, I bought two Sunburst Platys.  That weekend, 5 of the fish died.  In the Star Wars game Knights of the Old Republic II,  there are two female Twi’lek assassins called the Twin Suns.  I’ve now nicknamed these two Sunburst Platys the “Twin Suns” as I’m certain they assassinated the majority of the fish in my happy little aquarium.

I’ve been meaning to clean the tank and replace the filter recently, but I’ve missed the past two weekly water changes I normally do.  I’ve been bad about doing the water changes since March.  This morning, the two Plecos I purchased back on August 12th (huh, ironic Aug 12 blog post title in hindsight) were dead as…. fish sticks.  Argh.  How am I going to explain to Josh that Nemo and Dory died?

After dinner, I cleaned the tank out as best I could, and they look happier.  I have to do it again this weekend.  After I clean it, I intend to hit Petco or Petsmart, and buy some additional fish for my lonely aquarium, and some new live plants.  Add some spackle, and I should be all done.

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Goodbye Comcast, hello Verizon

Posted on June 8, 2009 by Joel

It’s the end of an era.  After nearly 9 years (since I moved out from my parents place), I’m finally switching (more like abandoning) Comcast for my cable and broadband needs.  It was a momentous occasion, because not only was I moving away from living with my parents, but I was also……. going to get broadband internet.  If you know me, you know that broadband was a dream to behold and wrap around myself like a comfy blanket.  🙂  I despised the dial-up internet we had at my parents’ house, so I was ready for the fat pipe.  I’ve had the same comcast email addresses since 2000.

So why am I switching?  In a nutshell?  Verizon’s FiOS service.  FiOS is fiber optic, which is pretty cool.  After over two years of telling us through mailings and signs hung on our doorknobs, it was turning into something akin to vaporware. I even read in our community newspaper about the frustrations the community association was experiencing from dealing with Verizon.  Sounded like FiOS was never going to happen. 

Oddly enough, and seemingly overnight in March, a Verizon salesman knocked on our door, and asked us about signing up. When?  Now. Now? It was all deployed?  So he said. Well, I didn’t chomp at the bit, since we don’t have an HDTV.  What’s the benefit of HD channels when you don’t have the tv to watch them.

Relax, we didn’t get an HDTV (though I keep trying to wear my wife’s logical resolve down.)  Verizon is doing a pretty neat bundle — FiOS TV (with a number of HD channels), phone (local and long distance), and broadband (10 Mbps downstream, 2 Mbps upstream.)  Total cost before taxes and fees?  $94, which I have been told by the CFO (my wife) will save us $50 a month.

$50 a month? My wife makes a lot of sense. Even better, looks like we’ll be getting back all of our familiar NYC regional channels that Comcast had gradually taken away from us over the course of a year.  Bite me, Comcast. I put in the installation request today, so I’m looking forward to trying out Verizon’s fiber optic network in a few weeks.

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April and May 2009 photos posted

Posted on June 7, 2009 by Joel

Extra extra! Get yer red hot April and May 2009 photos! Check it out here!

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Terminator Salvation (2009)

Posted on June 7, 2009 by Joel

Saturday night, I drove out to the Garden State Plaza mall to meet up with my friend Doug, and see Terminator Salvation. As you undoubtedly know, this is the latest sequel in the Terminator franchise, and the first not starring Ah-nuld.  I’ve been looking forward to this movie for months, but some of the negative reviews had scared me off for a while.  Also, I had no free time to see a movie!

We caught the 10:35 showing, as did many other people on a busy Saturday night at the mall.  I wasn’t sure why all the traffic surrounding the mall at 10pm, until I saw the carnival set up on the outlying parking lots, sponsored by D.A.R.E.  I lost a lot of time slowly moving through stopped-traffic, trying to get to the AMC movie theater parking garage.  I finally just pulled into another garage, and just ran through the mall to get to the theater.

So, now my review.  You know, I thought it was a good movie.  Usually, I’m tougher on movies than others, but I thought this one was pretty good.  Look, it’s not the greatest drama ever told, but for a Terminator movie, it was pretty entertaining on a summer Saturday night.  Great action, great special effects, a decent story, and scary Terminators trying to kill the characters.  What’s not to enjoy?  Both Christian Bale and Sam Worthington were good as their characters. I thought there was some corny parts near the end, and one piece at the every end that I seriously question the science of, but I’ll let it go.

Good movie.  If you haven’t seen it yet, and you like the Terminator franchise, go see it on the big screen.

Terminator Salvation (2009)

Terminator Salvation (2009)

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We are back in NJ

Posted on May 31, 2009 by Joel

Uhhhh, not the biggest update.

We stuffed the cars this morning to limits deemed impossible by natural physics, and left around 10:45am.  We made it all the way to Exit 4 on the NJ Turnpike before the kids got too antsy (as well as our stomachs), and we made one pit stop at a rest area for a late 3pm lunch.  We got home around 4:30pm on another bright sunny day.

I have to go to work tomorrow, don’t I? Sigh.

I will have to make some time this week to post all the photos.

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We finally saw the beach

Posted on May 30, 2009 by Joel

After a few days of rainy weather, we finally hit the beach!  The weather cleared up, which has been a nice surprise.

Yesterday, we hit Ocean City, Maryland.  We had intended to take the ferry from Lewes to Cape May, NJ, but the ferry ride itself is 1:20 hours each way, and we didn’t think the kids would enjoy that much time on the boat.  Instead, we all took a drive to the Talbot St. Pier for a boat ride on the Assateague Adventure.  [Side note: it’s so immature how much I like to say Assateague out loud.]

The excursion is about an 1:15 round trip through the harbor to this little island where kids get look around and even collect stuff with supplied nets.  It was ok, overall.  After we returned, the rest of our family group left, leaving us Ipes to adventure in Ocean City on our own.  Since the weather had turned from overcast to gorgeous, we found some great parking, we spent 2 hours on the Ocean City Boardwalk.  Much funnel cake, gyros, and corn dogs was enjoyed by us.  The kids got to play on the beach, and we kept my daughter from eating too much of the sand.

Today, we all (except my in-laws) hit Bethany Beach for two hours to relax in the sun, and play time in the water.  Unfortunately, the water was friggin’ ice cold. So, we just hung out on the beach.

I brought my PlayStation with me on this trip.  I beat my Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune game, and I’ve played other games as well, just for relaxing without guilt.  Pretty fun.

Tomorrow, we head home.  Sigh.

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I like relaxing on vacation

Posted on May 28, 2009 by Joel

I may feel a little guilty, but I like relaxing on vacation.

On Tuesday morning, it took us a much longer to pack for 2 adults and 2 kids for a week away than I thought it would.  We had meant to leave by 10am, but we didn’t leave until sometime after noon. We took two cars: Nums and Josh in our car, and myself driving Lily and my father-in-law in his car.  We made one pit stop for lunch in Delaware at a chez McDonald’s somewhere on Rt 1 past the bridge.  Otherwise, we kept going and going.  Kids don’t like sitting around in a car that long, and may daughter has no threshold for boredom.  Our strategy was drive fast, and don’t look back.

After a lot of driving in the rain, we arrived here at the house in Bethany Beach, Delaware.  The luxury townhome looks just as good as it does in the pictures.  It is clean, spacious, and very comfortable.  So far, I’m loving the TVs in every room, the way comfortable reclining leather couches, the well-stocked kitchen, and no work.

We’ve been to one of the pools in the community twice now, as the beach area itself has been pretty foggy.  Tomorrow, we’re hitting Ocean City, Maryland.

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Memorial Day weekend

Posted on May 25, 2009 by Joel

We had a pretty good Memorial Day weekend, a good start to the weekend. Great sun, great weather.  Couldn’t have asked for more.  We spent most of the weekend prepping for our super family vacation this week. We bought new additional summer clothes, new sneakers, new sandals, and other supplies.

Starting Tuesday, we’re driving down to southern Delaware to vacation with my wife’s side of the family for an entire week. Hitting the beach, the pool, , BBQ’ing, and all-around relaxing.  I’m looking forward to it.

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The Terminal (2004)

Posted on May 24, 2009 by Joel

I think everyone must know about this movie. In The Terminal, Tom Hanks plays Viktor Navorski, who becomes a victim of circumstance, and is trapped at JFK airport for months. Directed by Steven Spielberg, the movie also stars Stanley Tucci and Catherine Zeta-Jones.  The movie came out 5 years ago, but I still remember reading many reviews where critics rated the movie as average or poor. 

I thought the movie was decent.  The character of Viktor was identifiable, but I didn’t enjoy the thought of anyone being stuck at an airport for any long period of time. Stanley Tucci was good, but I didn’t quite understand his motivations to hold Viktor in the airport for so long.  Catherine Zeta-Jones character, a flight attendant with issues related to dating attainable men, was a bit pointless.

The Terminal (2004)

The Terminal (2004)

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Uncharted 2: Among Thieves PlayStation 3 Gameplay – Warzone Footage

Posted on May 19, 2009 by Joel

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is near the top of the list of my favorite games of all time.  It’s certainly the best game I’ve played in a long time.  I’m nearing the end of the game, which is sad.  The good news is that there is lots of replay value in the game, so I plan to replay it again.  The even better news?  The sequel, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is coming to the PS3 later this fall. 

Below is footage of actual gameplay.  It’s about the same as the original game, but the graphics looks slightly more refined.  In just 5 minutes, I saw some neat new moves that look absolutely fun.  Looks awesome.  Check it out, and maybe you’ll understand why I like the game.  You feel like you’re the main character in this engrossing story. I don’t let Josh watch me play much at all, but I do let him see the G-rated jumping and running action.  He’s always asking if we can have “Nate” (Nathan Drake in the game) find some more treasure. 

Try to watch it in Hi-Res.  I love this series.

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