I was attempting to feed Jacinta earlier this morning when all of the sudden, some random bug dive-bombed me! I reached over to see what it was and it stung my side and finger before flying off to the other side of the room! Jerk, cause that hurt like hell! I attempted to crush it with my shoe but he flew behind the mini-blinds and when I returned with bug spray, it was nowhere to be found.

That is, until I went in the bathroom a few minutes ago and noticed him on the mirror. Revenge is mine!

Now the question remains, what kind of bug / wasp is this? I originally though it was a mud dauber, but the body is different from what I have seen on Google. A friend suggested it might be a tiphia wasp but I am not really sure. Any ideas?

As I mentioned, the stings hurt pretty bad and swelled up nicely but that has since went down. I have a mild headache now but that is most likely due to the fact I haven’t ate lunch yet heh

Another month, another UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) Pay Per View event. Instead of going to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch this event like we usually do, we decided to just invite everyone over to my new place and order the fight. We ended up with nine people total, and charged $10 per person to cover food, drinks and the price of the PPV.

By sheer coincidence, I ended up with three full size couches the day of the event - talk about good timing! Keith’s boss was selling two nice couches (not thrilled about the color but they are in great shape and very comfortable) so we picked those up earlier in the day. After that, it was time to hit the store and get snacks and such for the evening.

Yeah… so we went a bit overboard at the store and doubled our original food / drink budget. I think the problem was, we were in the mindset of shopping for a LAN party, which is typically 24 hours or more, and not a 3 hour UFC event. Oh well lol…

At least the food was a big hit - and props to Josh for making some killer Rotel!

Don’t think Jacinta liked people food too much.

Kinda weird, half of the room was hot and the other half was freezing cold!

Still eating! She def. got her money’s worth hah!

Somehow I ended up braiding Astrid’s hair… although I didn’t do a good job.

Overall, a pretty successful night. I think most everyone enjoyed this more than going to Buffalo Wild Wings. The atmosphere was much more laid back and comfortable and you could actually talk to everyone, not just those sitting beside you. I’m game to give it another try but not buy near as much food lol.

As for the event itself, I was satisfied. Brock Lesnar completely dominated his fight, only his 3rd ever MMA bout. Georges St. Pierre retained his title by pretty much battering Jon Fitch for five rounds. Good fight, good night!

I’ve been trying to record some clips of Jacinta playing, but it seems she knows the camera is rolling and is less active when I am shooting. Hopefully I will be able to get some better video soon (and some lamps of some sort, its super dark in my living room), but for now, enjoy…

As some of you know, today was my birthday. I didn’t really do a whole lot out of the ordinary for most of the day. I started the day off by spending a few hours doing some random website work, then Keith and Airica came by to hang out for a few hours. After they left, Astrid and her cousin Dinorah decided to stop by to check out the new pad. Around that time, I got a call from Molly so I invited her over as well. Then, Sarah was in the neighborhood and came by too.

We spent some time playing with Jacinta who was a big hit.

For someone that claims to be allergic to cats, Astrid didn’t shy away from playing either!

I’m usually not one to make a big deal out of my birthday, but Molly wanted to take Stephanie and I out for dinner (Steph’s birthday is Friday). We eventually decided on Logan’s Roadhouse. On the way there, I got a call from Josh so I invited him as well. I originally thought it was just going to be the three of us (Steph, Molly and I), so I didn’t invite the whole gang - my bad.

You can’t go to a steakhouse without ordering a nice steak, which is exactly what I did. This 12 oz. Rib Eye was delicious, as was the mac n cheese!

Don’t you just hate those embarrassing birthday dinners where everyone comes out and sings to you? I know I sure do.

All of us, sans Josh who was taking the picture.

After dinner, Josh, Astrid, Dinorah and I went to Baskin Robbins (with Jacinta lol) for dessert then back to my place to hang out a bit longer.

Overall, a nice birthday spent with some great friends. Thanks to everyone for everything, and to Molly for picking up my tab at Logan’s

I went and picked up a new baby kitten today at a local veterinarian. I had been searching online at PetFinder.com but it seemed everything I found online required an $80-100 adoption fee and loads of paperwork. I decided to call the old vet we used to use and sure enough, their adoptions were free!

When we first entered the vet, they had a cage beside the door and Jacinta was the first one to notice us and started climbing the cage trying to get our attention… and as you can see, it worked! After filling out a few papers, we were done - how easy! She has had her first round of shots and I will be returning on the 15th for her spaying surgery, again, free of charge. The only money I will have to spend is like $8 for a booster shot.

On the way home, Keith remembered that one of his coworkers was giving away a litter box, litter, food, a scratching post and a few toys - score! We stopped by and picked up those items before making it back home.

So far, everything is going great. She was a little timid at first but seems to be adapting to the move rather quickly. She is fast asleep in my lap as I type this

It has been a busy five days or so, but things are finally starting to settle after the move. Everything pretty much went as scheduled come move day. The big surprise was that it only took two hours to get everything out of the old place and cleaned up; nice!

We spent the weekend unpacking, shopping, unpacking, more shopping, etc. I ended up scooping up a new TV and also got the hookup on a FREE couch. I still have a lot of stuff in storage that we are going to try and get taken care of later this week. Below are some pics of the new place. But first, a few things to keep in mind:

A) I’m a guy, so I go for practicality over an HGTV-style fancy layout.
B) As a guy, I would rather buy cool things over fancy furniture, etc.
C) The walls are very plain, again everything else is in storage as of now.

Again, free couch with a slipcover over it. It’s comfy so thats all that matters. I can see the TV from my computer desk, so that’s a plus. Also, that table in the far corner works great for photographing review items.

Workstation area…

Kitchen with bar area, all low which is a plus. The dining room on the right is kinda small and there’s some stuff there that I am waiting for Adam to pick up.

Nice size bathroom (tub is on the right behind the door)…

Bedroom… pretty plain. There is a TV in front of the bed against the wall.

The closet is HUGE!

So far, everything is working out very well. I finally have fast internet and real cable, woohoo! Not having roommates means I can control the A/C how I want and even lounge around in my boxers if I want. There are only a few things that are less than favorable so far. The first is the water pressure in the shower, which is incredibly low. Also, I need to adjust the hot water temp. as it is really low. At the hottest faucet setting, it is only just “warm” to me. And finally, I will need to get a land-line phone or change my cell number, as the access gate to the complex has to dial my number to let guests in and my number isn’t local.

A huge thanks goes out to Keith and Airica for helping with the move and also Matt for the free couch and Josh for helping out as well. Couldn’t have done it without you guys!

It always seems like time slows down when you are anticipating something big. For me, that is happening right now, as I will be moving in only five days!

I have been “stuck” here in Oxford for the past 15 months in a lease that I kinda screwed myself into. I could have gotten out of it, with a penalty fee, but I would have had to sub-lease the apartment and that would just be asking for trouble. It seems like its been an eternity, but my lease is finally up at the end of the month and I will be moving to my new place this Thursday.

The new place is just outside of Memphis, TN which means I will be close to all of my friends again. I am currently an hour away from everyone, which as you can imagine, isn’t much fun. I will be getting my own place (no more roommates, woohoo!) which is MUCH nicer than my current apartment. Also gone will be the ridiculously slow proprietary internet and slacking cable. Oh, and the new place allows pets, something you aren’t suppose to have here… yet many do anyway. I want to adopt a baby kitten

The only thing I will miss here is going to the home football games. But I’m sure I’ll still make it back for a game or two this season, and catch the rest on TV or the radio. Oh, and I hope I get better cell phone reception at the new place. 0-1 bars in my room here = fail.

I spent most of today packing things up. The good thing is that most of my stuff is still in storage, so I don’t have much here to move at all.

Anyway, my next update will be pics of the new place, so until then…

As TMZ first reported, the just-defeated UFC champ was busted this afternoon for alleged felony hit and run. Now we have the details — and they’re insane! Rampage was on the 55 Freeway in the O.C., hit two cars and got off the freeway. The chase was on.

Eventually, his car came to a stop and he was taken into custody at gunpoint. Cops took him to the Orange County Jail, but they determined he was “medically unfit” to be booked. Cops won’t say if he was high.

Courtesy TMZ

I spent the better half of today moving my main system into a new HTPC case for a review on OCIA.net. I really am not fond of case reviews, especially using my main work system, because something ALWAYS goes wrong. Today was no exception.

I finally finished the transfer and photo shoot, booted up the system, which worked for a few minutes… then the trouble began. The system froze at the Windows loading screen. I shut down, then tried to start up again… FAIL. The system would power on for a split second, then power off. I tried just about everything I could think of:

Removed motherboard from case
Removed add-in cards
Put power supply on PSU tester, all volts were fine
Cleared CMOS
Reseated memory
Reseated ATX and all other power cables
Checked GPU, CPU, Northbridge for excessive heat

Funny thing, if I pressed power then reset , it would sometimes boot but only for about 5 min then randomly shuts off.

I was completely out of options, but something that one of my writers (Rutledge) said got me thinking. He said it sounded like a heat issue… but I had already checked the obvious sources. Then it hit me.

During the move, I had taken the cover off the power supply to blow out the dust inside. Perhaps something happened to the PSU fan while I was doing this…

Sure enough, the fan wasn’t spinning… and this is why. When I replaced the cover, a wire had become tangled in one of the fan blades and I didn’t notice it.

I fixed the wire and everything is working perfectly now. Now that I have wasted several hours… I should probably shower and get some sleep.

One really cool app I have found so far is midomi. It is similar to Verizon’s V-Cast in that it can “record” audio or you singing or even humming a song, and it will search for the artist and name based on that recording. Below is a quick video of it in action.

The program is pretty neat, but far from perfect. I have been getting a lot of “server busy, try back later” messages and also have come across songs that are not recognized. But, not bad for a free app!