Author: JB

Has anyone had the oportunity to play the new game system that Microsoft has deployed?

I was in Target during lunch the other day and got a chance to play a couple of the demo games while i was walking around. The games that they have demo’d have amazing graphics. I am in love… till i saw the price tag. The system price is $400. WOW… Where does it all end? How does a company like MS expect Joe Public to expend that kind of money. After seeing the news reports from Black Friday it appears that there are enough people who want it that there is a long waiting list for it. Insane.

On a funny note, I heard that there are issues with the new 360 when it was placed online for gaming that it got hit with all kinds of Virus’s. HEH…

A little late, But the 11th was Veterans day. I am a Army Veteran. I proudly served on active duty for 5 years active and another 3 inactive. I was lucky that i never was sent into an active combat arena. The closest I ever came was being deployed down to Panama where i worked some counter-narcotics missions.

I currently have, whom I consider to be, one of my best friends deployed to Iraq. He is a Sergeant First Class who works as a Master Explosive Ordanance Disposal Tech. His job is to investigate and diffuse bombs (bombs, mines, unexploded stuff) This is his 3rd depoloyment to Iraq. Not a day goes by that i don’t pray for his safe return home.

I can only hope that the insanity of this war is brought to a rapid halt. “We are not a nation building military, we are a war fighting military” G.W. Bush. These were words that the Commander in Chief spoke during his first campaign in 1999 (?). Since 9/11 he has been hell bent on rebuilding the country of a foreign land instead of improving and protecting our own. Don’t get me wrong, I think that Sadam needed to be taken care of, but that is what black ops units are for.

I would like to stand up and thank all those who have served and who are serving. I will forever support the soldier.

I have heard a few quotes today that have stuck with me….

“In war, there are no unwounded soldiers.” ~José Narosky

“This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.” ~Elmer Davis

My .02

JB

“As we say in the wetlands, ‘Ribbit-ribbit-kneedeep-ribbit,’ which means ‘May success and a smile always be yours … even when you’re knee-deep in the sticky muck of life.’

What an ending to a great game !!! 20 – 17 Redskins over Seattle. What a great day – Awesome weather, Great Redskin football, sound of kids playing in the other room – Can life get any better than this….

IRVING, Texas (AP) – Joe Gibbs has won three Super Bowls and two NASCAR championships. Yet of all the thrills he has experienced, he puts what happened Monday night near the top of the list.

It was a very late night for me last night…..But well worth it to watch our Washington Redskins beat the Dallas Cowboys 14 – 13. 🙂

“Making this victory even sweeter for the Redskins was spoiling what had been a festive night for Cowboys fans. The 65,207 fans – the team’s largest crowd in 10 years – were lured out partly by Washington, but mostly to watch Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin join the team’s Ring of Honor.

While fans seemed mildly irritated by Parcells’ conservative game plan, and weren’t too happy about an early missed field goal and a missed chance for another kick just before halftime, nobody was too concerned.

Then Brunell got going.

On fourth-and-2 from the Washington 46, Brunell hit James Thrash for 20 yards. On fourth-and-15 from the Dallas 39, he threw a spiral that Moss ran under in the end zone.”

Hail To The Redskins…

Jon

About a week ago I picked up an XM radio. A pretty cool device. The one downside that i see is that there are still commercials. Not as many as there are on normal FM radio, but commercials still the same. One of the commercials that caught my attention was for a service called EJamming. Seems like a neat concept. It states that all you do is “Just plug any MIDI-enabled instrument into your computer, fire up the eJamming™ Station and you’re connected to your friends, making music together over the internet in real time – no matter if they live a thousand miles away.”

Has any one else heard of this service?

While talking with one of my coworkers, we happened across a cool new mapping program through google. You have to download a free program, but then you can type in addresses and view satelite imagery of so many things… You should check it out.

Cheers,

Jon

Here is a link to the few pictures i was able to take while over in Germany. I hope you all enjoy them. I will write back a follow up to the trip. Over all the trip was fairly uneventful. I worked alot. I averaged about 11 hour days. It wasn’t till the last day that i was able to get enought time to go and snap some photos.

JB

I left my cozy home on Saturday (3/14) afternoon for yet another business trip. This one was a little different since I am traveling overseas to Germany. I got to Dulles International Airport about 3 in the afternoon. Said the tough good byes to the wife and kids and went in to meet up with my coworker whom i would be traveling with and check in the bag. My plans were to travel from Dulles to London Heathrow and then on to Stuttgart Germany. I checked my bags in just fine. My friend went to go check his in and an announcement came up stating that the plane was placed on a maintenance hold (broken plane). The agent reccomended that we re-route our flights since the one we originally were on did not appear to be able to take off on time. GREAT ! The re-route was through Zurich, Switzerland and left earlier than the original flights and would get us to the final destination earlier. So we booked the flights and went on to go through security. Security was uneventful. We sat down in the concourse since we had about an hour wait and grabbed some snack food from TGI Fridays. We were walking back to our gate when the first delay was announced. Our 5:05 departure was now set at 7:30. There was a chain of thunderstorms that rolled through the area apparently which were worse in the higher altitudes than it was on the ground. The plane that was slotted to take us to Zurich was stuck in Philidelphia due to the same weather.

okay… So we went down the concourse and had a seat in a little eatery place and had a beer and Cheesburger. Shortly after we began to eat the next announcement came out the the plane was going to be delayed till 8:30pm. sigh… We are bouncing back and forth to the customer service desk asking if there is something more that can be done, but unfortunatly there was nothing more to do other than wait. Right about 8:15 the new update hits and the delay is announced just as that. “Delayed”. There is no update of time given, and when we asked all they could tell us is when we know we’ll tell you. How frustrating this is.

During the 9 O’Clock hour there was a surge of planes able to land which enabled alot of the delayed flights to prepare to take off (including ours). The sudden insurgence of planes created a backup with getting the planes fueled and prepared. We boarded the plane about 10pm and finally took off about 11pm.

With the delay in taking off, this meant that we were too late in getting into Zurich and had to have a 4 hour layover. The flight from Zurich to Stuttgart was great. It was about a 30 minute flight. A quick on and off. We got to Stuttgart and by the time we got to the bagage claim, our bags were circling the belt and we were off.

Nothing too interesting to report for today. We got to the hotel about 7:30 / 8pm this evening and pretty much crashed. I am getting ready to try and fall asleep since it is 11:30 local time and 5:30 EST.

I will upload pictures and events from the trip as my 2 weeks here progress.

Cheers!

JB

Here is an interesting link on Dining Etiquette.

I scored 7 out of 11. What do you score ?