virtual NES online

Posted on by Scott / 3 Comments

http://vnes.thatsanderskid.com/

This is pretty cool – I’ve never liked downloading roms and whatnot to play all of these old games, so somebody threw together a java applet that let’s you play right in a web browser. It took a while for me to get used to Z and A being the B and A buttons, but a great deal of time was still wasted all the same!

I highly doubt it’s legal and it’ll be interesting to see how long it stays up, but pretty fun if you want to re-live some of those old-school gaming days without having to blow on the cartridges until you’re blue in the face… 🙂

Armadillo!!!

Posted on by Scott / 1 Comment

I saw my very first native armadillo a few minutes ago while I was out on an impromptu walk around the neighborhood as a last-ditch attempt at getting some exercise today. I’ve always wanted to see one of these little guys close-up because for some reason unbeknownst to me, I’m just fascinated with them. Maybe too much time playing with those little pillbugs when I was a kid … who knows?

While walking by some taller grass and shrubs, I heard a rustling that I initially just assumed was an alligator about to pop out and eat me, but thankfully, it was not. Instead I see an armored, little tail poke out of the grass ever so slightly. I hung out there for a good ten minutes, watching him poke in and out of the grass, doing whatever it is that armadillos do, and I don’t think he even noticed me until I tried to crouch down to take a better picture. Of course, then I don’t even have to explain that he got scared, freaked out and ran back into the bushes, which nearly toppled me over because I’m a big wuss, and that was the end of our little adventure together.

Mind you, I don’t necessarily know if I’d want the things rummaging around in my garbage, but as long as they’re on somebody else’s lawn, they’re cool with me. 🙂

Happy Birthday, Google!!!

Posted on by Scott / 0 Comment

Ok, so I was going to put together one of those nice, big summary posts this evening, but it’s too late and I’ve still got other stuff to do, so instead here’s a little something that I found interesting…

http://www.google.com/holidaylogos.html

Today is Google’s 8th birthday and of course, the logo is decorated for the festivities accordingly (it currently has a cupcake with birthday candles taking the place of one of the O’s, FYI if you check at a later date and can’t find anything different…). I’ve always found it entertaining to see the various logos that show up on Google’s homepage for one event or another – everything from the traditional holidays like Christmas, Valentine’s Day, etc… to more obscure things like the Winter Games, Bastille Day in France, and even the winning of the X-Prize by SpaceShipOne (the first private-venture spacecraft to leave Earth’s atmosphere). Some very creative and colorful designs over the years – hope you enjoy perusing them as much as I did!

Item #3: Boo to all you restaurants who post partial nutritional guides on your websites, if that…

Posted on by Scott / 1 Comment

Last week it was Quizno’s, this time – the Olive Garden. :<

Last night we went out to the Olive Garden because Sara loves the place and, well you know the rest. Tonight I’m trying to fill out my calorie listings for over the weekend and of all the places that are falling short, the Olive Garden is right up at the top of my list! Go figure – the likes of Arby’s and even Ben & Jerry’s have listings online (Arby’s is actually pretty cool!), but the Olive Garden only lists crap from their “Garden Fare” selection, as if they don’t dare post the contents of their normal dishes.

I’m not expecting for the stats to be great and all – not with other fast food on the list – but at least be honest with me about what I’m eating. You’re very lucky that Sara loves the place because otherwise this would be reason enough for me to take you off the list! There’s a reason people like me hate you … it’s because you suck…

Item #2: Since when do executives fire OTHER executives???

Posted on by Scott / 1 Comment

Trump tells Carolyn: ‘You’re fired!’
http://money.cnn.com/2006/08/31/news/newsmakers/trump_kepcher/index.htm

Apparently Donald Trump fired Carolyn Kepcher, his blonde cohort of many years after allegedly being frustrated about her “lack of focus.” This article claims that Ivanka Trump will take her place in the boardroom, and also hints that his son might eventually replace George. Now as much as I liked the show, the idea of the entire Trump family leading the show kind of takes away from it all for me … I guess we’ll just have to see how it goes. I’m sorry, but you just see way too much family-based promotion in the corporate world and I really hope that taking this direction on the screen as well doesn’t lead to the show’s eventual demise.

I think I’m going to have to find something else to watch on Thursdays… 🙁

Item #1: TURN DOWN THE AC!!!

Posted on by Scott / 1 Comment

We live in freaking Florida … just because it’s 90 degrees outside doesn’t mean that it has to be 10 degrees inside! Why does every store / shop / restaurant / place-that-we-have-to-be-for-more-than-five-minutes insist on keeping the thermostat set so damn low?! Good grief…

irritated with Quiznos…

Posted on by Scott / 2 Comments

So today I decided to pick-up lunch / dinner at Quiznos because a) I haven’t eaten there pretty much since we moved from downtown, and b) I ended up working a later shift that I knew wouldn’t allow me time to go get food, so I wanted to have something already there. Sure, I could’ve made something and taken it with me if I’d actually be running on time, but regardless…

I’m mad at Quiznos because they don’t really make their nutritional information available anywhere. Go on their website and you’ll find the numbers for exactly two of their sandwiches – of course, the bland and boring ones that nobody eats. Today I had a Cabo Chicken sub because they’re delicious, but I have absolutely no idea just how many calories it cost me. 🙁 I finally did some fuzzy math after comparing what various numbers on forums that I could find and put the whole thing down as 1280 calories, which sounds like a lot until you consider that it’s pretty much all I ate all day … and with that many calories, it’s no wonder that I wasn’t really all that hungry, either! Of course, ultimately I can only assume that I made my goal today, but needless to say I probably won’t be eating there again in the immediate future – Subway’s sandwiches aren’t quite as good, but at least that’s a company that is willing to tell us what we’re eating.

But anyways, I’ve actually been doing really good with the calorie counting thing for my first week. One day I went over by about 13 calories, but nothing to be concerned about. I can’t wait for Sunday so I can see if all of this torture did any good! I know in the upcoming weeks I’ll have to shift my focus to address the other aspects of the scale – namely sodium, to help control my blood pressure – but right now just limiting myself to less than 2000 calories a day is enough of an accomplishment for me! I’ve only had a couple of minor cravings here and there, and did document them to make sure I still stayed within the guidelines, so I’m pretty proud of myself right now. Next week I do need to do a little better job at exercising along with it, but that’s a post for another day…