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Wright AttitudeWhen your attitude is Wright, everything will be all Wright. |
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March 02 LOL Bird Part 2February 25 LOLBirds? Why not!?My favorite aunt (note: I only have one) sent me a few pics of her budgie and asked that I turn them into LOLBirds. Ha ha. Supposedly the whole LOL cat thing started from a pic of an owl that was captioned - known as the O RLY? owl. So - really we are just returning to the roots of the whole LOLcat thing.
February 06 Yelp!I signed up for Yelp! today. I've heard of this service before. It is super popular in Silicon Valley.
Ever wanted to write a review about that horrible/great experience you had at a restaraunt/movie theatre/laundromat/hair salon? This is what this service is all about. It's cool cuz you can look up reviews written by people on almost anything.
Check it out:
February 02 GreenDimes Works!!Awhile ago I signed up for GreenDimes which is a service that helps reduce the amount of junk mail you get. I even paid money for this service. At the time I think it was $15.
Well - it worked!! We have literally a handful of mail per week now and very little junk mail at all. Hallelujah! That deserves an LOLCat:
Now - pretend you care about the environment OR get yourself all angry about all the junk mail that people send you and go sign their petition to stop junk mail.
January 24 Free Money!Well - looks like the government is going to give us back some of our hard earned money!
So - let's see - Couples filing jointly - that's me/wife - $1,200
Kid #1 - $300
Kid #2 - $300
Kid #3 - $300
$2,100 back from the government - priceless.
At least those kids are worth something!
Here's to hoping the guys/gals on the hill can get this "economic stimulus package" approved! Glad we live here - at least one reasonI really struggle to find reasons why I live in this sun-forsaken land of the North during the winter months, but at least here is one (in addition to my awesome job at Microsoft):
The King County home prices are still going up (by 7.1% in the last year) while the rest of the nation has been seeing declines in home values - on average losing 1.8%. Ouch! It's the first time tha home prices have fallen since the Great Depression (that's the early 1930s for all you history buffs).
We'll be staying here and waiting for the sun for now!! It will eventually come back here; we don't need to go chasing it around.
January 22 Hillary Clinton's ResumeHere's a gem my mom forwarded to me. I don't know how much of all this is truth and how much is spin but I imagine all of it has some degree of truth and most of it is probably dead on. I looked up some of this stuff and it seems pretty legit, but definately take it with a grain of salt. But even then, Yikes! We do not want her and her liar of a husband in the White House again. ------------------------------ We need to think about the logic of those who would consider, even for a moment, bringing anyone associated with the Clintons back into the White House-----especially Hillary.
Here is a reminder of what that record includes:
LOLDogsJust when I thought there would never be anything funny on the Internet again, I came across LOLDogs. They are LOLCats (see previous post) but without the obnoxious cats! :) A few favorites... January 21 A woman, a black man, and a Mormon were front runners in a presidential campaign...It sounds like the beginning of a less than tasteful joke with a punchline that you know is going to make you grown, but it's not a joke. This presidential campaign is shaping up to be historic no matter how you look at it, well unless McCain wins and that would be anti-climactic or Giulianni wins and that would be typical (another slimeball in the White House). I love keeping track of the allocation of the delegates on the CNN Election Tracker site: http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/ It is so crazy analyzing all these numbers and tracking the candidates progress. With all the different victories had by the different candidates, it's anyone's guess who is going to win this thing. It's like watching sports. Really. Thrilling. The only thing I am ticked off about is that Super Tuesday is going to ruin the whole thing. It's going to be all exciting up until then and just like Christmas morning they are going to tally up all the votes and know for sure who is going to win and the next few months leading up to the national conventions will be boring in comparison. They should spread out the primaries more to keep things interesting for longer. Well - its no secret that I can't stand the Clintons. Heaven help us if Hillary gets elected. Obama is interesting. His charisma is electric. Reminds me of the old school politicians like JFK that people just adored. If I had to choose between Giulliani and Obama I must just go crazy and vote Democrat for once. No surprise I'm a Republican. Should I vote for Romney because he is Mormon like me - OK, makes sense, but there has got to be more to it than that. It would be cool to see someone from our church in such a prominent position - not so much because he could somehow leverage his position of authority to align things with our beliefs, but because he could do a lot to communicate what the church is really all about and dispel a lot f myths. But on the other hand, if his presidency doesn't go well and there are some moral snafus (like another Monica) that could reflect badly on the church. Seems worth the risk though. You have to believe the guy has some character - he has been a Bishop and a Stake President before and he did save the SLC Olympics. I gotta admire and like some of the crazy ideas that Ron Paul has. That kind of radical thinking could be really good for our government to shake things up a bit. As you gathered from above, I'm not a Giuliani fan - seems like a sleazball to me and his values don't line up with mine at all well. So - would I vote for Huckabee - maybe. Seems like a decent fellow. Would I vote for McCain - well, maybe. Seems like a safe bet and in general I'm cool with the status quo. And then there is Romney. Lines up with my values on the issues the best and it sure would be exciting to see a Mormon in the White House. Go Romney!! Let's keep it interesting people. Politics is so drab without some characters. <punch line> .... and the Mormon won the election and became President of the United States of America! My bro is a missionary nowLance went into the Missionary Training Center to be, well, you guessed it trained to be a missionary for the church. For all of you gentiles out there, in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (aka LDS or Mormon church), young men about 19 years old are asked to spend two years out preaching the gospel. Young women have the option of going at 21, but it is not expected like it is for the young men. This always involves leaving your home, oftentimes going abroad and learning a foreign language. You live with a "companion" (another missionary of the same gender as you) - and by "live" here I mean you go everywhere with this person except to the bathroom together. The idea with traveling in twos is to keep each other out of trouble. Missionaries live extraordinarily strict lives so they are completely focused on the work of teaching the gospel - no TV, no radio, no music, no movies, get up at 6:30 and go to bed at 10:30 every day, read the scriptures and study language for 1.5 -3 hours/day, etc. Missionaries where suits, ties, and little black name tags to identify themselves. I went to Moscow, Russia on my mission from 1996-1998. What a life changing experience. It was so great at that time in my life to spend two years thinking about other people besides myself and really build some character by doing hard things like learning Russian, being rejected, working harder than I ever had in my life, communicating with people, being a leader, etc. Every young man could use an experience like this be it Peace Corp or whatever. The people I met there and the exposure I got to another part of the world and culture was amazing. It was certainly worth setting aside my personal ambitions for a couple of years. I'm proud of my bro for making the right choice to go on a mission. He is going to do great. He is going to be speaking Spanish in the Tallahassee, FL mission. Good luck bro! I just have to reuse this picture since it is soooo appropriate:
November 12 The wayback machineWell - here is the secret to my good looks - genetics. That's great grandpa Robert Lee "Bob" Wright on the left. Then grandpa Derrel "Dick" Gard Wright. Then Dick with his three sons - Gene (my dad), Darrel, and Mike (L--> R). I also now know where I got my propensity for taking really bad photos. Fortunately it is not possible to inherit 70s fashion... Aren't old pics great! These are priceless. Thanks for sharing Beth. These gems and more are all uploaded to this gallery. I'm also uploading these to my skydrive if anybody else wants to download them. November 11 Remember the Wooden High Chair Days?Aunt Beth sent me this cool photo of Lance back in the day when they had wooden high chairs. Remember those days? This picture was taken when we were at a restaurant in Boise - I think when we were there for a family reunion. Back in those days we still had family reunions. Nowadays we have family happen-to-be-in-roughly-the-same-place-so-why-not-get-together-for-an-afternoons. Anyway - the cool thing about this picture is that it shows two of my cousins kids (Trevor and Jasen). Trevor just left on a mission this week. Lance leaves in January and Jasen is leaving in February. If only Grandma Wright could see us all now. November 06 My BrotherThis is a picture of my brother, Lance.
Yes, that is a polka dot bow in his hair. I don't know, don't ask. But what I do know is that he is a champ of a little bro. There's 12 years between us. I guess he was some kind of "blessing"/"surprise" for my parents. He's a BYU right now studying some stuff, but mostly goofing off like all Freshmen do when they first move away from home. Pretty soon he is going on his mission to Tallahassee, FL. For the most he is just like me - attitude, sassy, goal-oriented, handsome, smart, good-looking... Woah - some people might think I am trying to compliment myself but I'm not... I'm complimenting my brother. Really. But on the other hand he is completely different than me. I sometimes wonder if he was born in the Wrong family instead of the Wright family. Get it? Har har. Sorry - just another one of those lame play on words things that comes so freely having a last name of 'Wright'. How is he different you ask? Well - he likes singing, playing instruments, drama - refined, artsy stuff like that. He likes people. He likes going to parties. But that is what is so cool about us being bros. He is everything I am not. We're like ying/yang dude. And we have enough stuff in common - computers, tech stuff, playing xbox, etc. to keep it real. I'm super proud of my brother. You see one of the other things about my bro is that he was born with CMT. I wont try to explain it in detail - that's what Wikipedia is for. Suffice it to say that this is a nerve disorder that ultimately has resulted in a lack of muscle development which has led to various surgeries, Scoliosis, braces, etc. that Lance has had to endure over the years. But the thing is that if you were to meet my brother, you would have no idea there was anything wrong. He is so upbeat and positive about things. He has accomplished WAY more than most people that don't have to deal with these kinds of challenges. I always wondered how he would get along in school and all that, but he has this amazing magnetic personality. People love hanging out with him. He is universally liked by kids, peers, and grown ups. He's always been an inspiration to me and I know he has been to others too. If you ever tell him something like that though he doesn't believe it. He thinks he is just being himself, but he doesn't realize what an positive role model he is for other people of all ages around him. Here's to you bro! I love you dude, but we got to talk about that bow in your hair thing. That's just not inspiring to others. :) October 22 Another PC rescuedWell - I rescued another PC from the clutch of adware and viruses this weekend. The offending party will remain nameless but her name is Alicia Farrar. Nothing like public humiliation to stop people from abusing their poor PCs. :) Alicia's computer wasnt anywhere near as bad as Andy and Emily's computer though - thank goodness! Alicia was only missing 5 critical updates (compared to like 77 on emily's computer) and had about 10-15 viruses/adware/trojans on it (compared to 30+ on Emily's). I can tell that at least some of this malware was installed as part of installing some games from the Internet. Don't ask me how I know this. It's complicated. So - here is my requisite preachy unsolicited advice on caring for your computer (some repeated from Emily's lessons learned and my comments there):
Note: Sorry this is a long list but it has to be said.
Don't blame Microsoft for "security" problems anymore. BY FAR the most common way to get infected with malware is by you installing it yourself (usually not knowing that you are doing it of course) not via some hole in Microsoft software. Knowing is half the battle. GI Joe.
October 17 lolcatsI feel it is my responsibility to educate people about lolcats. Thanks to wikipedia I dont actually have to do any work: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Can_Has_Cheezburger
Once you are educated it is time to experience lolcats: http://icanhascheezburger.com/
This is important background research for an upcoming post I am going to work. Please be up to speed on this. :)
This is one of my favorites:
Update: Ah heck - Why not? I have created a top 10 list of LOL cats - see lower left page of my space.
Cool and SHAZAAM! surface computingCool:
- Lance sent this to me.
SHAZAAM!!:
Welcome to the future of HCI (Human Computer Interface). I bet by the time Lance gets back from his mission these surface computers will be all over the place. Hotness.
October 16 Big Birthday Bash eventGoing to pump it up this weekend - Ahh yeah Big Birthday Bash Eat your heart out EviteWell - finally there is some competition for evite. Introducing the Windows Live Events service:
Integration with all the other live stuff makes this much much more powerful than evite - Live calendar integration, live address book integration, live/hotmail integration, spaces integration including firends/social networking, e-cards, etc. Can't stop it. |
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