Summer's Shenanigans

My mom just sent me these pictures of what looks to be a conceptual laptop-type computer.

Unfortunately I have no info on what this actually is and if it is in production for the masses. Although the concept seems cool, I'm more excited about the iPhone...:D

Labels: Geeky Stuff, Technology

Did you know that last year over 100,000 horses in the USA were killed for human consumption! Americans do not eat horses, but for some reason we kill them and ship the meat to Europe and Asia. I don't necessarily agree with the slaughter of any animals, but I had no idea that so many horses were killed and that horse meat was such a big export. Gross.

If you're interested in helping to stop the slaughter of horses, you can do so here:

http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=lobby_home

There are many ways to help stop animal cruelty, so check out The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals if you'd like to help out in any way (or even just learn a thing or two!).

Labels: Animals, Charities

My business just went through a MAJOR software crash and I have been working 16 hours a day for the last few days. I've had to learn TONS of new info between setting up my new intel iMac, learning how to use the dual core, Parallels, Windows XP, Quickbooks Enterprises, CSV files and tons of other things. I honestly think my brain is overflowing basic info. Like how to turn on my 10-key function on my keyboard. I had to Google it...

Labels: Geeky Stuff, Health

Okay, so I got a new intel iMac because my business outgrew Quickbooks Pro and their Enterprise version is Windows based. I just couldn't bring myself to buy an IBM, so I went for the iMac that can run both Windows and OSX. The more I work with Windows, the more I realize that Windows is the retarded step brother of Macintosh! AND, I fucking hate windows!!!!!!!

I figured that I better install my printer so I install it on the Mac side and lalalala...insert CD....lalalalala...oh, it's installed and working. Gee, that was easy. Next, let's install the printer on Windows....lalalalal...click, click....lalalal....huh?.....lalalala....hmmm ...why isn't this working..WTF is that thing?!

"Use the following port: LTP1: (Recommended Printer Port)

Note: Most computers use the LTP1 port to communicate with a local printer. The connector for this port should look something like this:"

Are you kidding my little Windows retard? I havn't seen a port like that since I was 8. Have you ever heard of a U-S-B? U-S-B stands for "Universal Serial Bus" and that is what grown ups use in their little computer boxes nowadays.

God I hate Windows.

Labels: Geeky Stuff, Technology

I have been messing around with my new intel iMac and it pretty freaking awesome. I installed Parallels, so I can run Windows and Mac OSX at the same time and it seems pretty seamless. I needed to move a file from my Mac desktop to the Windows desktop and unfortunately I couldn't just drag and drop (what can I say except the simplicity of Macintosh has me spoiled!). So, this is the easiest way I found to be able to move a file from the Macintosh desktop to the Windows desktop:

Under the Apple Menu, select System Preferences, then select Sharing.

Turn on Windows Sharing and it will give you an IP address for access to your Mac.

Go to your Windows desktop, launch Internet Explorer (or any browser) and type in the IP address that you were given (bookmark it for easy access in the future).

You should now be able to transfer files from your Mac desktop to you Windows desktop. TA-DAH!

Yes, I know this is an extremely nerdy post...:D

Labels: Geeky Stuff, Technology

After my discovery of pandas in Atlanta, my mom emailed me these ridiculously cute pictures of the 16 baby pandas that are currently at The Sichuan Wolong Panda Protection and Breed Center in China.

Talk about cute overload! Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. I want 16 panda cubs please :)!

Labels: Animals

Stefan and I were wandering around the gift shop in the Atlanta, Georgia airport during an extended layover, when I spotted this magnet:

Why do I look so confused you ask? Atlanta isn't exactly known for their panda bears. Probably because there are no pandas in Atlanta...

They must have gotten a REALLY good deal on these magnets.

Labels: Animals, Funny, Traveling, Weird

I just got the following email from someone that I do not know:

"hi how are u? are u married? do u like to have sex. iwhat is your phone number. what is your name please write back from shimon"

Isn't that romantic? I just want to rip my clothes off and throw myself at Shimon!

Labels: Funny, Weird

I have some more interesting facts today! Did you know that...

More people are killed by hippopotamuses then by lions, elephant and water buffalo combined.

Maine is four times larger then Isreal.

The average person has about 10,000 taste buds.

A cow can float for 20 miles in a flood.

Worldwide, wine grapes are grown on 20 million acres of land.

The peanut is a legume, a member of the pea family, not a nut.

Chinese is the most common language in the world, spoken by over 1 billion people.

California vineyards export wine to 164 different countries.

The human body requires less then a thimble full of vitamins and minerals daily.

Vatican employees pay no income tax.

In 1896, tickets for the Olympics cost roughly 16 cents.

An ostrich's eye is bigger then it's brain.

The weight of a blue whales tongue is greater then that of an adult elephant.

I know what you're thinking..."Wow, Summer, you are the smartest person ever. Where did you learn all of these interesting facts?". Well, the knowledge I contain can not be acquired at your fancy colleges...One of my favorite snacks are Laughing Cow Gourmet Cheese Bites and each peice has 2 interesting facts on the inside of the wrapper ;).

More interesting facts, here.

I took my new (new to me, but used) BMW X5 to my mechanic for a check up a couple of weeks ago. I'm totally anal about car maintenance and it was driving me crazy that I didn't know when the last tune up was, so I told them to check it out, change the oil and tune it up if it needed it. It turns out that it definately needed a tune up, oil change, cooling system flush and brake fluid flush. $714.59. Cha-ching! But, the following ailments also plague my pretty lil car:

* Fan belts cracked ($145)

* Power steering reservoir & hose leaking ($327)

* Both outer CV boots torn ($570)

* Transmission cooler leaking ($354)

Nothing needed to be done immediately, so I told them that I would bring it back after the 2007 new year (which was a few days away) since it's a tax write off and I'm pretty sure that I have enough write offs in 2006, since that is when I bought the car. Hey it's a company vehicle ;). Vicious Enterprises rolls in style...

Last weekend my super awesome boyfriend went to get the beemer detailed while I was sleeping in. Right as he got to the detail place, the driver side back window fell into the door (the power window apparently fell off the track). He had to pull it out and tape it (hahahah) so the car could get washed. Sweet. Three days later, the car wouldn't start. Shit, it wouldn't even turn over. So I had it towed back to my mechanic:

The cool part is that when the tow truck driver was wenching my X5 onto his flat bed, the tow truck did a wheelie (both front wheels off the ground!) because the X5 is so heavy. He looked worried, but it made it to the shop without a scratch. LUCKLY, the car only had a VERY dead battery. VERY dead as in, it couldn't even be jumped. Although it still cost $225 for a new battery...

Labels: Cars

Okay, this is really, really, really funny. This skit is from Saturday Night Live and features Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg:

I normally try not to steal posts from other blogs, but this one is so funny that I had to steal it from Julien. :D

Labels: Funny, Videos

As I mentioned before, I hate going to the doctor. It's not that hospitals/doctor/blood/etc. frighten me, it just always seems like a waste of my time to go to see a doctor. This might seem like a preposterous statement to many people, but I don't take drugs. Weather they are over the counter, prescription or street, I just have no interest in putting drugs in my body. And, going to the doctor almost always results in a prescription being written, which is a waste of my time because I will not get it filled.

I went to Urgent Care 6 days ago because I was really starting to get worried. I have been sick for over a month now, which is extremely odd for me. I don't think I have ever been sick for more then 48 hours before, plus everyone has me worried about the effect on my health from getting tasered three times by a rouge cop, which happened a couple days before I started feeling sick. I had pneumonia (which I did not see a doctor for) and I began to have a sharp pain in my side, which I assumed was plurisy. When I went to Urgent Care, I told the doctor that I thought I had plurisy so within the 10 minutes I spent in Urgent Care, I walked out with 5 prescriptions and a shot of steroids in the ass, to treat the symptoms of what I was experiencing. Within 2 days, the sharp pain had moved from the side of my rib cage to directly under my left boob, spanning to my sternum. Also, the pain had changed from a really sharp stabbing to a dull, but intense deep bruising feeling. Since the pain was moving and changing (but not in a good way), I was getting worried and decided that I better go back to Urgent Care.

You know what happened? I met the best doctor I have ever seen.

I told him exactly what was happening: I had pneumonia a week ago, I feel totally fine, cough is getting way better (almost completely gone), phlem looks good (white and cloudy), but I have a really intense, deeply bruised feeling right under my left boob, which I would liken to getting in a car accident and bashing my chest against the steering wheel. It's painful to get out of bed, pushing with my left arm hurts that area (under-boob to sternum) and awkward movements/bending of the body, was extremely uncomfortable. From all of the propoganda that people were telling me, I was sure that the pneumonia was settling in the bottom of my left lung and I was going to die.

Most doctors treat symptoms, which is my biggest pet peeve because I just want to know what is wrong with me. It's all too easy to be the doctor that says, "You feel pain? Here's a prescription for a pain killer. You feel sick? Here's a prescription for an antibiotic. You feel sad? Here's a prescription for an antidepressant. " (See I could be a doctor!)

Luckly, I was being seen by a doctor that actually likes what he does and was interested in the odd feeling that I felt. We sat there and talked about exactly what I was feeling and why it was odd and inconsistent with pluerisy. It turns out that I do not have pleurisy and I don't need the 5 prescriptions and the shot of steroids that the other doctor gave me. The violent cough that I had from the pneumonia actually pulled/strained the muscle that is between my 4th and 5th rib, which just takes some heat packs and time to heal. Yay!

This is great news, but it still hurts like a mo' fo'...

Labels: Health

Maybe I'm always the last to know about these things, but did you know that Macintosh just came out with a cell phone?

Here is what Mac has to say about the iPhone:

"iPhone combines three products - a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and a breakthrough Internet communications device with desktop-class email, web browsing, maps, and searching - into one small and lightweight handheld device. iPhone also introduces an entirely new user interface based on a large multi-touch display and pioneering new software, letting you control everything with just your fingers. So it ushers in an era of software power and sophistication never before seen in a mobile device, completely redefining what you can do on a mobile phone."

At the bottom of the page it says, "This device has not been authorized as required by the rules of the Federal Communications Commission. This device is not, and may not be, offered for sale or lease, or sold or leased, until authorization is obtained.". So it's obviously not available yet, but I'm sure it's close since it's being featured on the front page of apple.com.

I'm not sure how much the iPhone is going to retail for, but it looks like it's going to be offered by Cingular. I'm a big fan of Apple products, so this may just be the phone that's going to switch me over into the phone/pda realm...Oh, and while I was at Apple.com, my finger slipped and I bought a 20" iMac. Whoops! ;)

Labels: Technology

Ebay has decided to raise fees again, which has become an all too often thing in the last couple of years. The last time eBay raised their fees was less then 6 months ago. Here are the latest eBay fee increases that will go into effect on 1/30/07:

I really think eBay's greed is going to lead to a decrease in their profits. For example, before the last fee hike I was spending $600 - $700 a month on eBay fees. Since the fees just keep increasing, I decided it was time to streamline the eBay stuff, so I eliminated all items that don't sell 80% of the time. Now I pay around $300 a month in eBay fees and if they keep increasing, I will just drop eBay all together. I did the math some time ago and before the last two fee increases, eBay was taking about 25% of my profit for anything sold on eBay. It's just not worth it any more, which is probably why the quality of items is declining on eBay as well. I found this article interesting and it just shows how sneaky/greedy eBay really is.

I'm going to test out sales at RummageMonkey.com and see what happens. I don't expect much since it is a brand new website, but perhaps I can at least help them grow and take over at least a little bit of the eBay monopoly.

Labels: Business

As much as I hate going to the doctor, I have an intolerable stabbing pain in my left lung so I actually went to the hospital today. It turns out that I had pneumonia this last week or so and the really bad cough I have ended up bruising my ribs and now I have pleurisy, too. Pleurisy (or pleuritis) is an inflammation of the membrane that surrounds the lungs and it makes breathing really painful. Everytime I take a breath it feels like someone is stabbing me in the side and it gets worse when I lay down, so I've been sleeping sitting up. I got a shot of steroids (which makes the inflammation go down) at the hospital, so I feel a little bit better, but unfortunately steriods are only a temporary fix. Hopefully my lung won't explode and I'll get better.

I also got a doctors note stating that I should take at least two days off work. I guess the doctor didn't really understand that I'm self employed, therefore I don't have anyone to give the note to, but okay. :D

Labels: Health

Who would have thought that the largest indoor go kart track on the west coast was just a few miles from my house? Stefan and I decided to check it out last night and it was AWESOME! We raced at K1 Speed in Carlsbad, CA and I came in 2nd place (Stefan came in 1st). There were 5 people racing and I would have to say that Stefan and I did pretty damn good for our 1st time! Perhaps we will become professional go kart racers...

Labels: Cars, Fun

Today I was dragging in inventory shipments and I noticed a mystery box. Yes, I am so anal that I know exactly how many shipment are to arrive on each specific day, and this day there was an extra box. I recognized the vendor on the return address label, so I figured it was their 2007 catalogs or something like that. I tore it open and read the accompanying letter:

Dear Valued Customer,

Like a good standing wine, our business improves over time~!

We understand that we may have caused you undue frustration this year in shipping woes.

This holiday, we wish to show you our appreciation for your business and your patience as we continue to grow, by offering you this bottle of wine...

My 1st thought was that it was a nice gesture, since I have indeed suffered some serious bang-my-head-against-the-wall moments due to this company's lack of professionalism. But, my inner Cinical Summer, thought, "Yeah, right. It's probably a bottle of Charles Shaw." Low and behold...

I must be psychic.

So, I spent $100,000 with this company in 2006. Their "customer service" agents are complete bitches 75% of the time (until I dropped the name of the owner of the company once, then they were nice for about a week) and they just sent me a bottle of wine that retails for $1.99. Classic...:)

In other news, Monkey loves the pink fluffy bed she received as her late Christmas present...

Labels: Business, Funny

I really can't believe it's already 2007! The last 6 months of my life have been so busy and filled with drama that it's really just been a blur. I am SO looking forward to leaving 2006 behind and all the positive changes that are going to happen this year. Not that 2006 was a horrible year, but the positives were overshadowed by the negatives, I think. Any how, this coming year, I am going to be:

* Working less

* Surfing more

* Traveling more

* Building my dream home in the tropics

* Bringing home a bunch of new animals (a few pigmy goats, a dog or two, a feral cat and maybe a cow. Seriously...haha)

* More creative

* Joining the World Series of Poker

Okay, maybe I made that last one up, but still...2007 is going to be a very good year :).