Mini-Schnauzer!

Our apartment newsletter has recently been featuring a resident's pet each month.  For November it was a miniature schnauzer!  I haven't met the dog or the owner but I hope to soon.  His name is Dexter and they posted a few pictures:

economic status

The Daily Show :)



The Recession and the rap industry


Slim Thug - Like a Boss music video
 

NASCAR Banking 500

Kyle and I attended the NASCAR Banking 500 race at the Lowe's Motor Speedway last Saturday, 10/17/2009.  It was actually pretty awesome!  I'm not really a big fan of NASCAR becuase it seems kind of boring--everyone has basically the same car and they drive around an oval 500 times...

As a main sponsor Sprint has a big luxury suite at the racetrack and since I just moved to Charlotte Sprint invited myself and a guest!  From a work standpoint being in Charlotte has been great, I've gotten to meet all the people that I've been working with for the last couple years.  Since I'm local now they can invite me to neat events like this!

We got there early, around 3:00pm, and were able to take a tour of the pit/garage/staging area.  This was pretty interesting and we got to see the cars up close and take some pictures.  The race lasted from about 7:30pm - 11:30pm.  It was actually kind of "boring" or uneventful for NASCAR standards--there were no major wrecks, just about a dozen caution periods because of drivers spinning out or losing a piece of their car, etc.  There were some lead changes and "points of excitement" but I'm not a very good judge of that...Jimmie Johnson ended up winning by a lot and nobody wanted him to win becuase he wins all the time?  whatever...

Hanno got me interested in F1 racing and said that hopefully there will be a USA race next season!

BlackBerry Bold 9700

The new flagship BlackBerry was recently made official by RIM.

Pretty excited for it...looks to have the keyboard of the 9630 Tour, optical trackpad of the 8520 Curve, size of the 8900 Curve, weight is in between the 8900 and 9630, processor of the Bold 9000, and two version of 3G/UMTS support (AT&T & T-Mobile/CBW).  win!

Colorware

If you didn't know I'm kind of a big fan of COLORWARE. mostly because it's completely excessive, unnecessary, and unbelievably awesome. and, it's somewhat ridiculous price point leaves it out of reach to common sense. none-the-less, it's freakin' sweet!  if you've got some time to kill check out their gallery of corporate branding:  http://www.colorwarepc.com/imagegalleries.aspx?galFilter=5

Here's a few examples:

Simpsons Xbox 360:


Caterpillar iPod Classic:


Misc Custom iPods:


Custom thinkpad laptop:


I could go all day...  my "blaze" 8900 is the best BB I've ever had.  I think the 9700 is going to be my next "daily driver" and that "Zest" color looks pretty tempting...

news stories

These are hilarious story segments from the daily show and the colbert report.


iFeud





Eating the Distance, the Brad Sciullo Story.  Part 1


Eating the Distance, the Brad Sciullo Story.  Part 2

google is fun

Google frequently entertains me with their products and logos; their android operating system is no different with the little icon robot guy.

Here's the logo:

So, then they put a giant fancy foam statue on the lawn of their office--awesome.

You might be familiar with Google's confectionary codenames for its Google Android OS: version 1.5 (Cupcake), 1.6 (Donut), 2.0 (Eclair) and version x.x (Flan). What you probably didn't know is that Google honors each release by dropping a steaming hot foam facsimile onto its front lawn. Historically, the arrival of the giant Donut at the GooglePlex was followed by the 1.6 developer release of Android just a few days later. Don't get too excited though, last we heard Eclair wouldn't arrive until Q2 of 2010 for consumers.

and here are the subsequent additions they've done to keep him up to date:

:)

BBM 5.0

So I'm pretty excited about the mass release of BlackBerry messenger 5.0!  I really enjoy BBM with people I know who have a BlackBerry.  One of the cool new things is that each person has a barcode that can be scanned to add each other as contacts.  

Here is my barcode:



Here's the user manual from RIM:  BlackBerry Messenger 5.0 User Guide 

So, I've been upgrading other people's devices and messaging people instructions.  The easiest way to install it is through BlackBerry Appworld.  If you have appworld you may need to update it to the most recent version.  If you don't have it then go to www.blackberry.com/appworld on your handheld and you can download it.  once you have the most recent version of appworld BBM will be the 1st or 2nd top free download.

This, along with the new Rammstein CD is my excitement as of late.

 Liebe ist für alle da (love is for everyone)

Official release:  10/20/2009.  get excited.

Receiver

Instead of a post here I made a page with information about my receiver, check it out here:  http://sites.google.com/site/markevans7/home/yamaha-rx-v663-receiver

Cool Disney Video

A day in the life of the Magic Kingdom park at Disney World--shot using "tilt/shift" photo/video technique.



no, I don't really understand this whole "tilt/shift" becuase it's a super cool illusion and more fun that way...


wikipedia
www.tiltshiftmaker.com

Happy Birthday Mollie!

Sunday, October 4th 2009 was Mollie Evans' 11th birthday, congratulations! She is my favorite miniature schnauzer, I miss her!



Her 11th anniversary with the family will be 12/24/09. she has a facebook (dogbook) page if you want to be friends with her and pet her or give her a treat, toy, etc.

Fan Can!

Anheuser-Busch is really the king of marketing with this (failed) campaign.



it really doesn't even taste like beer or bud light, it tastes like scarlet and gray buckeye passion. When Adam told me the plan was dropped, I asked my sister to see if she could get some. So, thanks to Barb and my parents for helping hook me up. I totally dig these as collectors memorabilia, and to be ultimate fan and beer drinker--never thought i could combine those two, thanks bud light! lol?

Here's a Wall Street Journal Article on the debacle: "Team-Color Bud Cans Leave Colleges Flat"

Threw It On The Ground

New SNL digital short that was on over the weekend, well Saturday's new episode...

"Threw It On The Ground"



Pretty funny. I really enjoy it because it nods at BlackBerry...even if it is throwing it on the ground. The one in the video is a 6710, one of the IT directors in Smart Grid actually still uses a 6750--the Verizon version of the 6700 series

Wedding!

Congratulations Adam and Colleen! Mr & Mrs Adam Bankovich. I think it was June 12th when they got engaged and as time flies here we are, married!

It was a busy weekend, here's a recap. I drove up to Columbus Thursday afternoon/evening; tried timing it so I could pick Mike and Rebekah up at the airport from their 10:30pm flight. Dropped them off at the hotel and then went to my parents house in Hilliard to hang out and spend the night. Friday morning I got my haircut and then around 1:30pm I met Mike and Matt at the hotel and we went to Men's Wearhouse at Tuttle Crossing Mall to try on our tuxes--which fit just dandy!

The rehearsal was at 3:30 so we went to St. Agatha in Upper Arlington. I'd actually never been there and it was really nice. The dinner was then at Oscar's in Olde Dublin--i'd also never been there and it was fantastic. after the dinner we went back to the hotel and since it was just across the parking lot from Dave & Buster's we went there and played games. I hadn't been there in forever and it was awesome.

Saturday is when I woke up feeling terrible. No, not hungover terrible but like sick terrible. I totally felt like I had the flu. To further this thought my co-worker from Indianapolis had been in Charlotte during the week and on friday he was off sick with a fever and went to the doctor. So, me getting sick the day after him seemed all too likely that he caught something on the plane on the way down, I got it from him, add a few days for incubation and boom -- swine flu epidemic of 2009. anyways, we all know I'm not much fun when i'm sick (who is?). not only was i feeling crappy but i didn't know what was wrong and i REALLY didn't want to get other people sick! regardless I wanted to make it through everything and was hoping I would magically start feeling better...divine intervention maybe?

The wedding started at 2:30 and was very nice, pretty much perfect actually. standard classy and classic Catholic ceremony. my favorite part was the boutonnière that we got:



orange flower with little hops in it! awesome. Colleen's Mom is pretty crafty/talented/jack-of-all-trades and made all the flower settings for the wedding--impressive and super cool!

after the wedding we went to the Swim & Racquet club in UA for the reception. we got introduced as we walked in so i wanted to be there for that and then i ate a great dinner that my body seemed to be thankful for. unfortunately i still felt terrible and really thought i should go to the doctor. I texted my Dad and he was able to come pick me up and take me to Urgent Care, so special thanks there. they even had the OSU game on in the waiting room! they did some kind of fancy flu test and said it came back negative for flu/swine flu. So that was good; however, it wasn't clear what was wrong with me, lol. well, the doc didn't know if it was viral or bacterial but treatment is pretty similar--tylenol, water/gatorade, sleep, repeat. i went back to the hotel and did just that. i woke up sunday feeling somewhat improved and likely functional. Took mine and mike's tuxes back to men's wearhouse at the mall and got a sandwich and some bread from Panera. was on the road for Charlotte around 11:30.

also, check out the cool groomsman gift, "hopside down" :)

real web site?

gonna try and upgrade some things so i can make "prettier" posts.

https://sites.google.com/site/markevans7.

not really there yet but i did make one entry to try it out and see how easy/hard it was. https://sites.google.com/site/markevans7/Tressel-Ball. more to come on all that...