2008 August « Robert's Blog

Archive for August, 2008

Aug

Olympics are over

Categories: General

August 24, 2008 11:30 PM

Just finished watching the Olympics closing ceremony. Wow, the Chinese really did a great job. I remember going there 2 years ago and seeing all the work they were doing on the roads and around Beijing to prepare for the games. They really outdid themselves. I enjoyed seeing how the closing ceremony was more modern, a transition from the opening ceremony. Also, the use of humans in all the shows, whether as dancers or even the visual effects was very creative and awesome to see.

I enjoyed the last 2 1/2 weeks. Watching all the sports and seeing this type of good will competition brings out my “world peace and harmony” compassionate self. It was memorable to watch Michael Phelps, Nastia Liukin, and Shawn Johnson perform. It was also great to see Kenya win their first gold medal in the Marathon, which meant that the medal ceremony was during the closing ceremony for the world to see.

China is a beautiful country. When I went there 2 years ago, I was able to visit Beijing and Chengdu, pre-Olympics. I wonder if I can still feed 18 people with alcohol for $80 USD. I’m sure that staying and eating in Beijing is a lot more expensive post-Olympics.

Well, it’ll be another 4 years until the next Olympics, which will be in London. Hopefully, the family and I will be able to attend.

~rb

Aug

Another week, another dollar

By rnbarrios 1 Comment

Categories: General

August 22, 2008 6:56 PM

Another work week is done, and I’m off for a week. It’ll be a good break so I can spend some time with the kids.

I’m still backing stuff up on Mozy as I have time. Mozy is working pretty well. It resumes where the last set ended, so I don’t have to start any backups from scratch.

I’m also looking forward to the fall lineup of TV shows. Heroes, Prison Break, and The Sarah Conor Chronicles will all be starting up in September.

~rb

Aug

Mozy Backup Service

By rnbarrios Leave a Comment

Categories: General and Tech

August 16, 2008 10:56 AM

I’ve been looking for a service to backup all my pictures and videos. Well, I found one, Mozy. Mozy (www.mozy.com) is a company by EMC. EMC is a well known enterprise storage provider. They specialize in Storage Area Networks. So a service like Mozy is down their alley. For $4.95 a month, they’ll allow you to have unlimited storage backup!!! Wow, this is great! I’ve compared backup services with Amazon S3, Apple’s me.com, and a couple of others. They all come out to about $25 per 100 Gigabytes of space. Also, both Amazon and Apple have bandwidth transfer fees or caps.

Well with Mozy, there is no charge for space nor is there a transfer charge. Especially since I have over 200 Gigabytes of pictures, videos, and other data I don’t want to lose, I’m not looking forward to $50 a month in charges.

So, I signed up for Mozy today. Now, the hard part is the 12 days Mozy says will take for me to transfer all my files over the Internet… Hmm, I wonder where I can find a faster speed network.

~rb

Aug

Can’t think of a title

By rnbarrios Leave a Comment

Categories: General

August 14, 2008 9:36 PM

Kids went in for their 1 month wellness check. They both got the Hepatitis B vaccinations today. I felt bad about them crying when they got poked by the needle ☹

I watched the Harry Potter trailer. Geez, the Half Blood Prince trailer is really dark. It looks more like a horror/thriller type of trailer. The book is pretty dark anyway so I guess the trailer is appropriate.

I’ve missed all the movies this year, Dark Knight, Ironman, and whatever else came out. I guess Annie and I will be missing more over the next couple of years. Our DVD player will get a lot of use.

~rb

Aug

Had a good weekend

By rnbarrios Leave a Comment

Categories: General

August 10, 2008 9:37 PM

This weekend was nice and relaxing. We took the new mini-van into the dealership for some treatments we bought it. We also picked up some new floormats and wireless headsets that the dealer owed us. Annie’s mom went home after spending almost a month with us.

Chloe and Sebastian turned 1 month old today! We had spaghetti as it’s the closest thing to noodles that I can make. Mmm. I love my spaghetti.

We took pictures of the kids and video’d their bath today. They are the kind where the kids will be embarrassed that we taped it in the first place.

Well, it’s back to work tomorrow.

~rb

Aug

New Lenses and the weekend

By rnbarrios Leave a Comment

Categories: General and Tech

August 6, 2008 9:57 PM

I know it’s only Wednesday night, but I’m looking forward to the weekend. I got a couple of new lenses for my camera today, a 50mm f/1.8 lens and an Image Stabilized 18mm-55mm F/3.5-5.6 lens. We plan on turning the house into a photo studio and just shooting pictures of the kids who will be 1 month old. It’ll be a good time, and I get to play with my new toys.

After this weekend, Annie’s mom will be leaving for home, so it’ll just be Annie and me with the 2 kids. Well, gotta catch some sleep now.

~rb

Aug

Been a while

By rnbarrios Leave a Comment

Categories: General

August 3, 2008 11:47 AM

Hmm, where to start. Well, I guess with new toys. I’m getting back into photography. I used to use an EOS SLR for different things, so with some changes in life, I went ahead and bit the bullet and bought a digital SLR, so I can reuse the couple of lenses. Well, this new camera is awesome, since I also bought an external flash for it. My pictures are coming out crisp, without the flash bleaching that happens. I’ve been bouncing flashes off ceiling, walls, and using a diffuser when outdoors. Big difference in image quality!

Also, we just bought a mini-van. It’s a Red Pearl Toyota Sienna… Haha, it brings back memories from High School, when I used to drive a Read Pearl Toyota Previa. It’s a really resilient vehicle, even though it’s a mini-van.

Mom’s back visiting this weekend, but will be going home on Tuesday. I’ve got to get working on doing video edits and making DVDs

~rb