Monthly Archives: September 2009

Bertolli Frozen Dinners

Posted on by

bertolliSo tonight, Meesh and I tried out something new. I’ve seen the commercials time and time again, where the italian chef is upset because his restaurant is empty because of the Bertolli frozen dinners. So tonight, we tried out the Chicken Parmigiana with Penne.

At first, I admit I was very skeptical, because the chicken were round discs about 3 inches and didn’t Really look very appetizing. The sauce were like cubes of ice, and finally the penne actually looked like penne, and I thought they were the only things that looked “right”. Once the frozen dinner was done baking, (45 minutes) and I took out the dish and took the foil off to put the cheese on it. I have to admit it looked a little bit more appetizing but the chicken looked so small in the shallow dish.

I have to admit I was not expecting anything great or awesome and I was right. I don’t think Bertolli would ever prevent me from going to an authentic restaurant, but I have to admit it was Really good. The penne was a bit overdone, but I don’t think you can expect much from that. I have to admit, I would buy a frozen dinner from Bertolli again.

Are you a gamer?

Posted on by

valve_headAre you a gamer? Do you spend countless hours playing Call of Duty or perhaps you’re into games like Titan Quest. Perhaps you’re Really into MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games). Would you like to have conversations with your peers? Find out who else is out there? Then you need to head over v2k : The Forums. I’m reviving my old forums for when we used to play Counter Strike. Although there are no stats there (yet) for any of the games we currently play, (this includes Titan Quest, COD, Left 4 Dead, and so on) there will be plenty of smack talk and fun. Come on over, you might just like it.

A friendly writing competition

Posted on by

notebook and penSo cybr and I decided to put together a small friendly writing competition. There are no big prizes or anything, and honestly there are no prizes. At the most there are simply bragging rights. Anyways, we’re opening it up to anyone who would like to participate. Basically we’re looking for writers to write a short story, anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 words, within a months time. Specifically, next month (October). It’s kinda like nanowrimo, except not as much is involved.

So if you’re interested in joining in our competition, please let me know! Leave a comment, send me an email, send me a message or whatever. Don’t hesitate though, the competition begins on October 1st, and ends on October 31st. I definitely look forward to hearing from you guys!

If you’ve got any questions then please feel free to post them in the comments.

Posted in Uncategorized

Old videos

Posted on by

So an old video sent by a friend prompted me to start looking through some of my old videos. And while I was perusing through my videos, I found this one where my friend Mark decided to take my other friend Steve up into his plane for his birthday. We flew from central Jersey up to New York City and took a small trip up the Hudson. Very fun. Good times.

Posted in Uncategorized

Dealing with “normal” life

Posted on by

Dealing with post transplant has been surprisingly easy for me. This is not to say it’s been easy on Meesh. Unfortunately, she’s had to deal with more than she should mainly because I either cannot or should not do it. She lifts all the heavy things, she cleans the litter box, she does all the food shopping, and well you get the idea. She does it all. And I’m so thankful to have been blessed with such an awesome support group. My parents and my sister have been tremendous help too.

Working has definitely been different for me. Before, I was lucky if I could work a half of a day without getting exhausted. Now I’m actually able to work a 9 hour day without even thinking about it. Having this transplant has been the miracle of my life, and I have everyone to thank for it, especially my sister.

Dealing with my diabetes has been a chore however. The medicine I’m taking makes it tough. I suppose I might just throw caution to the wind and just take my medicine and leave it at that but how disrespectful is that? Not only to me but to my sister? So I am working as hard as possible to keep healthy and keep my sugars in check. If that means sticking myself about 10 times a day so be it. It’s a small sacrifice to stay alive.

A word of caution to those diabetics that aren’t taking care of themselves: it’s Really not as bad as you think. If I could do it all over again I would have bit the bullet and did all my glucose checks and taken my insulin.

Things I wish iPhone could do

Posted on by

Ok, now that AT&T has finally updated iPhones to handle MMS, here’s a short list of things I wish the iPhone had. Just some small feature requests I’d like to see in the iPhone.

  1. Custom ringtones for text messaging and email. Honestly, most phones do this. We should be able to have custom ringtones for this.
  2. Ability to send songs/ringtones through MMS. Currently as far as I know, you can only send sound via MMS from the voice memos application.
  3. Ability to browse/listen to ringtones. Seriously. We should be able to do this. Right now, in order to hear a ringtone, we have to be in iTunes, or change the default ringer. This is no fun.
  4. Actually this ties into number 1. But the ability to assign a ringtone to a multitude of ringing options. Like for instance, calls with caller ID or calls without caller ID.

I think those are the most pressing features I’d like to have implemented only because I just think they should always be part of any phone. I’ve heard it said that perhaps Apple is too elite. Well, if that’s the case, then this mac user will definitely become a Windows user because Apple is letting me down. A lot.

Posted in Uncategorized

I've been thinking…

Posted on by

I know, it’s dangerous isn’t it? Anyhow I’ve been thinking of revitalizing The Darkness Within. I Really need to revisit that site and get some of my fiction up. I Really have a lot of great ideas and I’ve thought of so many stories. It just drives me crazy how I have so many stories in my head and I just haven’t gotten around to telling them. However, someday, I will get back to it and hopefully I actually do write something good.

Is anyone else out there a fan of Urban Fantasy/Fiction? Basically vampire stories that take place in modern day society. Kinda like the Kim Harrison Hollows books or Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden novels.

Posted in Uncategorized

Now that I've had my iPhone for a while…

Posted on by
iPhone

iPhone

I think it’s about time I gave my opinion on this phone. I’d like to talk about AT&T as well. Don’t worry, nothing horrible or anything. But first, let’s talk about the Empire of the phone world. Yes, that’s AT&T. They did choose to have the Death Star as their logo after all. The service isn’t exactly the greatest. I’d almost say they’re pretty comparable to Sprint. If it came down to it, I’d say of all the services I’ve ever used (Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T), Verizon may have the best in service. AT&T in my opinion has too many dropped calls. I don’t know how many times that either Meesh or I have been talking on the phone and we get a dropped call. It’s Really frustrating. And MMS text messaging. The iPhone has supposedly had the capabilities since June when the 3GS came out, yet AT&T still doesn’t have it! I realize they have already stated September 25th as the release date of MMS for the iPhone but Really, why did it take so long? I just want to send picture mail. That’s all!

As for the iPhone, it’s both a bit disappointing to me and awesome. To tell you the truth, I Really don’t know what I did before I got an iPhone. How did I check my mail and manage my schedule? How did I keep track of appointments? I just don’t know how I did it. I guess I could say it’s like having my macbook in my pocket.

As for disappointments, I am sorely disappointed with the sounds. You probably think it’s not a big deal, right? On my old phone, you could set sounds for everything. You could set the sound for calls with caller ID, calls without caller ID (unknown or blocked callers), sounds for text messages, sounds for voice mail, and so on. With the iPhone, the only sounds you can set are for text message, and the ringer, regardless. Oh, and the ringer for anyone on the contact list. Booo0-ring! And on top of that, you cannot use custom ringtones for the text messages! What is up with that Apple? Do you Really think because we bought an iPhone we’re never gonna use text messaging again? Is that why you didn’t release with MMS capabilities?

All in all, I would probably be just as happy with a Palm Pre or an LG env. But I’m still glad I have my iPhone.

Posted in Uncategorized

Big Boss Grill – reviewed

Posted on by

I’m sure you’ve seen the Big Boss Grill. It’s basically the grill with interchangeable grilling plates, including an omelet, panini, griddle, and more. Of course, it does include a donut maker and a waffle iron. Pretty sweet. So, I decided to buy it. I haven’t regretted the decision. It’s so easy, and quick to make a lot of foods, although some of the recipes are a bit too simple in my opinion. They could Really use some help on the recipes.

So far, we’ve managed to make waffles, meatloaf, burgers and plenty more just easily. Clean up is a jiffy with this grill since you only have to clean the grill and it’s not very big. Which I suppose could be the only drawback.

However, today, when I plugged it in, it didn’t work. I think this might be a fluke and not a normal occurrence. I called customer support and they said there’s Really no way of troubleshooting it since the device is pretty simple and it should just work. I mean you plug it in and it goes. What could it possibly be? So they told me since I just bought it, they’ll just ship another one out and I just have to send the one we have back. It was pretty painless. Needless to say I was surprised. It’s probably just easier for them to do that anyways.

All in all, I’d say I’m very satisfied with the Big Boss Grill. I’m just such a junkie for the “as-seen-on-TV” stuff. I do have to say that the plates themselves are pretty light and feel kinda cheap. But it works (well, most of the time LOL) and that’s all that matters.

Kidney Transplant

Posted on by

As most of you already know, I had a kidney transplant on July 29th, 2009. That’s just over a month ago. Since then, I simply cannot believe I had this procedure, since I don’t feel much different now than I did more than a year ago. It’s amazing how much of a difference having a kidney transplant makes.

I just want to send a great thanks for everyone who asked about me and wanted to know how I was doing. It Really helped to be thought of and Really gave me a lot of positive energy. Most of all I want to thank my sister for giving me the kidney. It still seems weird that I’ve got a part of her inside (literally) so it’s almost like we’re more than just brother/sister, it’s like we’re twins or something. LOL

So the other day I managed to get the bill for the surgery and hospital stay. It all came out to about 150,000 bucks. No, I’m not kidding. Luckily, I have great insurance and I probably won’t have to pay more than 600 bucks and the cost of the medication. Thank you Group Health!

But as of right now I’m doing good and I no longer have to do dialysis. Believe me that alone is quite worth it. Aside from that, the only other “side effect”, if you can call it that, is my neuropathy has gotten worse. Actually that’s not entirely true. Because prior to the transplant, the kidney disease would build up toxins in my body, it would actually become numb to a lot of pain. Now that I have a functioning kidney, those toxins are no longer building up and I’m no longer numb. So I actually feel the neuropathy now instead of numbing myself to it. Interesting!

Anyone else out there with transplants? I’d like to hear from you about how you deal with all the medications and anything else. Remember, transplant is a treatment, not a cure!