Salt and Pepper

Another good day here in Krakow,Poland. Woke up at 8 am to catch a bus to Wieliczka Salt Mine while it snowed. Arrived at the Salt Mine about 30 minutes later and purchased a ticket for the tour. The tour at 9 on the dot and took us down 380 steps under ground. The walls, floor and even some stairs were made out of salt. The first thing we saw was a statue of Copernicus made out of salt. We then proceeded to go deeper into the earth via the Skala Chamber, which is a spiraling chamber. From there we went to St.Kinga's Chapel, which is an underground Chapel that is huge. Statue and paintings on the wall are carved from Salt. There are Statues depicting "THE" Jesus (or at least that is what the tour guide called him. Thee was also a huge statue of John Paul II. From there we went even deeper to the Drodowize Chamber, a chamber that was constructed by carpenters in the salt mine that has a huge dance floor where dances and festivals were held. We then headed to the Stanislaw Staszic Chamber. From there we walk even further underground to make our way to the elevator shaft to take us back up to ground level. The actual elevator was not much taller than me and 6 feet in length and 3 feet wide.

I have some photos at My Photos . I have not had a chance to edit any of the photos or give an descriptions. I will try to do that on Wednesday.

Don Corleone

Still cold here in Krakow and no new snowfall. Here are some picture from yesterday and today. The first one I thought was interesting and you will see why. The restaurant was the Corleone Ristorante and had this statue outside. I plan on going to the salt mine tomorrow or Thursday.

Here is a cigarette vendor. There are tons of these scattered throughout the city where people can buy cigarettes.

Restrooms are not labeled male or female instead they are labeled with a Circle for Women and a Triangle for Men.

More photos can be found at My Photos. Check back regularly for updates.

Auschwitz

I woke up this morning not really knowing what to expect when I went Auschwitz. I tried to take pictures so that you might be able to experience at least a small part of what I experienced. I also toured Birkenau, which is where jews were railed in and then divided by men or women. I will have those photos posted later.

Photos for Auzchwitz can be found at My Photos

I plan on going to the Salt Mines later this week and will post daily if possible.

I know the nano is small but,

I know the ipod Nano is small, but come on. Do airlines really have to cut cost that much that they have to make the forks and spoons even smaller? They are not even bigger than my index finger.

LP to CD Recorder

For those that have a ton of records like my dads that will probably never be on cd. You can do that with a special recorder system. LP to CD Recorder

I am here.

It was a bad choice to choose an aisle seat on such a long flight. From what I could see from other passengers those with window seats got the most sleep. I might have slept 1-2 hours max from Atlanta, GA to London.

I arrived in London at 6:30 am and had to walk about 2 miles through a maze of corridors to get to the main terminal where I had to wait 3 hours for my flight to leave. The London Terminal is like a mall compared to other airports.

My flight from London to Krakow was not full so I was able to take a power nap. Once I arrived to Krakow I got my self a Taxi and headed to the hotel. I think my taxi driver was Collin McRae (Rally Car Driver), or at least he thought he was by the way he was weaving in and out of traffic.

I am heading to the front desk to see about taking a tour of Auschwitz tomorrow.

Perfect for Tony Roy

While sitting on the plane on my way to Krakow and looking at the latest issue of Skymall I notived something that would be perfect for Tony Roy. This is so him. Go to Mui Fina. It seems like the perfect dress shirt for him.

Poland Bound

Well, I am Poland bound. I am on my way to Krakow, Poland to help with the go live for 1st wave of customer service replacements. Be sure to keep an eye open for updates. Here are some things I plan on doing when there.

Sunday November 27th, I plan on going to Auschwitz. I was told if I were to go to Poland, it is something you need to go to.

December 3rd, 4th and 5th, I plan on going to Warsaw and visit with the Peruvian ambassador (pops old school chum).

Everything in between will be spent working nights and touring the city during the day. Lots of pics to be posted along with any stories.

If you have any suggestions on what I should see while in Krakow, please comment.

Nano Otterbox Case

The ipod Nano Otterbox is finally available. I have place my order and it should be here when I return from Krakow, Poland. I look forward to the Otterbox as it is waterproof and crush proof. It seems to be the best case out there for the Nano that I could find. I will be sure to post what it is like and how it works when it arrives. I took it off my Christmas wish list as I have found that with apple stuff, if you don't jump on it when it comes out it will be on backorder for a while.

Time to fry the Bird

It is that time of year to start getting prepared to fry that bird or in this case bird. This year I am not only frying a Turkey, but am also frying a Duck. I figured that I usually only use the fryer once a year and I need to take full advantage of it. I will be posting the recipe I will be using and photos of the process.

Dang wires

My wireless router just died and I actually had to be restricted to the computer desk. I called tech support and it sounded like they were in India. They made me do a handful of canned steps. You could tell they were reading it word for word. After finding out that the router died, I went an got myself a new one. Below is a snapshot I my replacement router from Linksys. It is supposed to be faster than what I had and also have a wider range. So instead of sitting by my pool I can now sit by my neighbors pool if I wanted to that is.

Google Analytics

Sean Hudson posted on this a few days ago and I figured I would give it a shot. I am talking about Google Analytics Site Tracker. It is very cool. This was once a pay service, but Google bought them and now it is free. It is so much better than other site trackers and has many, many more options.

Below is just an example of what you can do with it. To set up your own free account go to Google Analytics. It shows you where your visitors are coming from geographically. You can even narrow it down by city or service provider.

Is there a Sexual Offender in your neighborhood?

Is there a Sexual Offender in your neighborhood? Well, there is in my neighborhood. There is actually one across the street from my house. The only way I found out is because another neighbor stuck a print out on my door. This would explain why a good percentage of houses with children are for sale in my neighborhood. The print out was actually from Family Watchdog. I would post the details, but I don't want to get into any trouble legally.

If you know where I live, you can figure it out for yourself. Check to see if there is a Sexual Offender in your neighborhood. There are actually 155 in the Memphis Area.

Go to Family Watchdog

Unfortunately, there is not much that can be done about it per the website below:

Should I confront someone on your list? Can I make them move?
No. Harassing anyone on the offender registry is a misdemeanors and can be punished by both a fine and jail time. The purpose of this service is to allow you to identify sexual predators that you may come in contact with, not as a tool to hunt them down and run them out.

ipod Bicycle Mounts

Just got off the phone with Tony Roy and as you can guess by the title, he is looking for an ipod bicycle mount.

Tony mentioned that he retro fitted a Niterider bicycle mount and glued it to a special ipod case. He also mentioned that Niterider needs to make ipod bicycle mounts.

Maybe more companies will start to making ipod bicycle mounts. Below are some links to ipod bicycle mounts that some companies have already tried to make.

Bicycle Mount Links
Marware Bike Holder
Marware Mobility Pack
Pedestal
Ram ipod
Risse Racing
m2racer

Published, not quite

Lately, I have been helping my pops with some Powerpoint Presentations. Each presentaion has had over 140 slides, which were mostly images that needed to be edited. Most of the information from these presentaions will go in his next book. I have edited images and made flow charts that will be used in his next book.

His previous book can be found under the title: Clinical Evaluation and Diagnostic Tests for Neuromuscular Disorders. I helped a little with this book by improving some images.

MEM International Airport

As if the Memphis International Airport wasn't bad enough already. They are doing so much construction on the entrance and exit that traffic is backed up. And if you are dropping or picking anyone up and have to loop drive around because the people you are picking up are not there yet. Get ready for a longer drive. You now have to drive all the way to Winchester and re-enter the airport.

Hopefully, this will be completed prior to the holiday travel season.

Command Donald Trump

Command Donald Trump to do what you want him to do. Of course, you will have to hear him advertise numerous products from Pepsi to Lays Potato Chips.

Command Trump to do your bidding

Ask him to:
pick his nose
do some karate

Southwest in Memphis?

Is the rumor true? Will Southwest Airlines now have a hub here in Memphis? Can anyone verify if this is true or not?

If it is true, it should make traveling to Colorado and Utah alot more cost effective and we can finally have more direct flights.

Let me know by responding under the comments section.

My Wish List

My family has already started asking me what I want for Christmas. If you look to the left, you will find a list labeled "What I want for Xmas". I will be adding things daily. Some of the items are truly "Wish List" type items. I am sure you can guess which items those are based on the prices.

Passwords and Security

I just received an RSA Security Token for a work laptop and it made me
remember that E*trade is now offering them to access your account.

E*trade is offering a Token for accounts that have lots of activity,
which mine does not. I am guessing that this will be a feature more banks
and credit card companies will resort to to offer better security to their
customers. One problem I see is what if everyone goes to this, you
could have one keychain with lots of RSA Security Tokens. Will there be a
way to consolidate them and only have to have one RSA Security Token?

That reminds me of a cool item I saw that saves all your passwords and encrypts them for you. No more worrying about forgetting a password. It is called the Mandylion Password Manager. Hopefully there will be a more cost effective one in the near future.

Something Perry wishes he could grow.

A few months ago Zack Perry attemted to grow a moustache. I think he gave up after the stuble didn't produce.

It's not a doll, it an action figure!!!

I saw this at engadget.com this morning and I thought it was pretty cool. You used to be able to get your picture taken at the fair, now you will be able to get your own action figure at the fair.
Instead of a photo booth there will be a 3D scanner. It will scan you and then pop out a small action figure. Of course it won't be available till 2009 per the article.

More cool things can be found at engadget.com

Free Tree

With all that is going on with the Ozone layer and the nasty weather we have, we need to plant more trees.

As I mentioned in a post from August . Their are plenty of things that need to be done.

First off, you can go to Arbor Day and get 10 trees for $10. You can even give friends and family members membership to, hopefully, encourage them to plant trees.

Second, the community needs to get involved to start planting trees where possible. Just in my neighborhood there are probably 15 houses that could use 2-3 trees.

Third, businesses need to plant more trees, not just bushes. Wal-mart, Kroger, Walgreens, any shopping center and any other business needs to start planting trees.

It seems there are more trees being cut down than planted. Don't believe me go to a new neighborhood and you will not see one single full size tree. It seems that it is almost easier to cut all the trees down than to build around them.

So if you read this go to the Arbor Day Website and sign up for a membership and get 10 trees.

Timbuk2 Laptop Bag

Timbuk2 makes some great bags. I actually have 2 of their messenger bags and just recently purchased their Timbuk2 Laptop Bag. It is actually pretty strong and has the same great construction of the Messenger Bags. It would be nice if they actually made a case for glasses.