It seems like all everyone is talking about these days is the economy. Wall Street & Main Street, bailout and rescue plan, Fannie and Freddie, Paulson, Pulosi, stocks, banks, credit… It’s a good thing there’s something about this whole mess on the news 24 hours a day, and all over the papers and internet; otherwise nobody would know exactly what’s going on…

Oh. Wait.

Anyways, my take on the issue is this: FYnancial, FEHNancial. Pick one…and I realize that while both may be acceptable (I was surprised to see FEHNancial was the more appropriate pronunciation), some people will use both…sometimes in the same sentence.

Consistency, people.

Oh, and don’t borrow money if you can’t pay it back. That’s what got everyone into this mess.

That’s all I got.

In a twist of cruel ironic timing, a handful of my electronic luxuries are closing in on the finish line of the race to be replaced. The imaginary unwritten rules that exist in the town hall basement of my brain (protected by an understandably upset cougar, of course) clearly state “a device must fail to the point of complete lack of operation or at least to the point where I derive little to no enjoyment out of it from sheer frustration at it’s refusal to operate properly”.

My iPod, my TV, my camera, and my phone are all showing signs that they are checking out of this world. The phone and the camera are the most surprising, because they really aren’t that old. The camera is actually the newest device to become a contender. There’s above average wear and tear on the body (I usually have my camera with me when I go places), the lens is perpetually dirty and the wheel that selects the camera mode seems to be off, at times cycling through without any turn of the wheel. Also the battery life is nothing like it used to be. Most of these problems have a simple remedy: clean the lens, get a new battery, so it only seems like just the beginning of the end for this.

A new battery may also just be what my phone needs to keep it alive for a while. I keep it in my pocket while I work, so it gets it’s fair share of dust. Some of the pieces of the phone are missing, and it’s been dropped over and over, making it’s movements a bit less smooth than it was before.

My TV just started giving me problems. Turning it on, I’m greeted with 10-15 minutes of grainy picture, chock full of horizontal distorted lines. It’s the same for all video settings, so I’m pretty sure it IS the TV itself and not my connection or anything. After a while, the lines go away and everything is clear. Occasionally they will come back after 5 minutes of clear picture, but this time only for a brief amount of time, and then it stays clear for as long as the TV stays on. Another issue that plagues the television is it’s owner. I’ve been keeping my eyes open for deals on an LCD TV and anticipate that come Black Friday, I’ll find a deal I can’t overlook.

My iPod is the epitome of perseverance. That thing has been on it’s last leg for longer than most last legs last. It’s a Click Wheel Ipod (the ones that came out before the color screen ones). When I first got it, the back was shiny and mirrorlike. Now, it resembles a brushed metal finish. It’s been dropped, kicked, dropkicked, and it has the scars to prove it. I can feel the hard drive moving as it continues to work despite its old (digital) age, and there seems to be something loose inside of it; every once in a while I can hear something tumbling around. I’ve had a few scares with it turning off unexpectedly, but all in all it still works; though it doesn’t hold a charge like it used to.

So who takes the prize? It really is anybody’s game as each problem can easily escalate into massive failure without additional warning. Will any devices make it through this decade? Am I that cheap not to upgrade some things? Maybe. And while the iPod seems to be one that should go first, I’m pretty sure it’ll outlast the TV, and quite possibly the others as well.

One thing is sure: as much as you like to think you really don’t care at all about my latest adventures in what’s going on with my various electronic devices, you really do. Otherwise you wouldn’t have read this too long of a post all the way to the end. Good for you!

Unlike the last few years, this hurricane season has been steadily active for our area (that being the SouthEastern US). The lull in meteorological activity seemed to expose a dark, desperate desire that pretty much all weather reporters strangely have in common…they like bad weather. Maybe they don’t like it, but they like talking about it. They like telling everyone to look out, bundle up, and (if they should be so lucky) hunker down or batten down the hatches.

It may not be so obvious in some areas, but here in SW Florida, the news people can hardly contain themselves when a hurricane or tropical storm is within 1000 miles from us. The closer and closer it gets, the more they increase their intensity. They make graphics with name of the threatening system, they join forces with sister networks and do team coverage (the NBC people with the ABC people?! WHOA). But if it happens to move away from our area or the threat disappears, they almost seem disappointed. They try to keep the threat alive with desperate scenarios.

“The hurricane has been downgraded to a Tropical Depression and is going to completely miss our area, but we’re not out of the woods yet. It could turn completely around against all other driving forces and come back over us, or a South American weather mage could transport it directly over our town…so stay tuned as we keep an ever watchful eye on this deadly tropical system.”

That kind of sensationalism wasn’t too far from the truth during the last few relatively quiet hurricane seasons. Any time someone farted faster than 10 mph they named it and gave it 5 day tracking chart with special graphics and all. They jumped all over anything they could their radar on. It could’ve been a mass of clouds heading due north up the Atlantic, with no chance of ever even sending so much as a wave toward us, and our local weather would fill us in on “what’s happening in the Atlantic“.

It was like the hurricanes went on strike. But through careful, diplomatic negociations, hurricane season has hurricanes again. But active or not, one thing has been pretty consistant throughout my entire time I’ve lived in this town (over 20 years)— we have yet to actually be *hit* with a hurricane. Sure, we had some close calls. The closest, in my experience, was Charlie in 2004. It was slated to make direct landfall right on us, but then, at the last minute, turned up and hit a town north of us. Charlie was a smaller hurricane, so even we didn’t get that much damage from it. The power was out for a few days, and there was a lot of trees down and shingles off of roofs, but barely any flooding, if any.

It seems, and of this point I’m very thankful for, that this town is in an ideal area of Florida where it can be near the coast, yet still be difficult for a hurricane to zero in on us. That’s not to say getting hit by an organized weather system isn’t possible, and I won’t, by any means let my guard down…but 20 plus years of secretly frustrated meteorologists is a good thing to me.

Yes…it’s time to discuss Google’s attempt to jump into the browser war.

‘Sorry about that to all the Mac or Linux users. It’s just too bad.’ (BOOYA!) I’ve just got to say the ‘Dynamic Tabs’ are crazyawesomecool! Have as many as you want, easily change the order of them by drag/drop, pull a tab away and it automatically opens up as a new window, or drag a window to the Tab bar and it becomes a tab.

Next favorite thing is the Crash Control. Ever had something really frustrating going on and just to make it worse, one dumb tab decides to freeze up and bring the whole browser down. Lame… But with Crash Control, each tab is independent and can be controled by Chrome’s Built-In Task Manager. You can also check the memory use of each tab at anytime so you know when to end the dumb tab. Love the much simpler downloads.

I’m sorry to be disloyal to Firefox but I totally HATE that stupid download box. ‘Yes…I downloaded something…please just get in my way and tell me all my business!!!’ Chrome shows the process at the bottom of the browser. You can just click for more option or drag to the desktop. It puts any Javascript that decides to freak out basically into a box.

The Incognito Mode gave me a nice laugh. Everyone knows that the searching for surprises like gifts is a bunch of baloney. It would be really useful to someone stuck in a cubicle that wants to ’stick it to the man!’ But Incognito Mode has it’s limits.”Yes, be wary of the people standing behind you, secret agents, and other tin-foil hat wearing paranoids. Google’s got your back on this one.”

The last nice thing I have to say about Chrome is, of course, the Omnibox. Simple and easy. Don’t have to add an extra toolbar for quick searching.  (AND HAD TO ADD AS A SIDE NOTE AFTER WRITING ALL THIS–UPLOADING TO LIKE IMAGESHACK.US IS INSTANTANEOUS!!!)

Now the bad stuff. No RSS Support with Chrome????? I was just finally remembering to use those! As mentioned early, it’s not available to Mac or Linux users, but Google will probably come out with one pretty soon. It’s still sad that it’s only available to Windows only; Specifically only to Windows XP and Vista. With

Incognito Mode it does not mask your IP Address, so most websites will still be able to record your information. (Also, if you’re not using Incognito Mode, you have complete lack of control of your History. You can’t just go in and delete things)

I really hate the fact that Chrome stores your password in plain visible text. It’s not encrypted which is crazy and bizarre.  There is some debate over the vulnerability of Chrome users who could download a malicious code because Google used an older version of Webkit (also in Apple’s Safari Browser). Also, it could let hackers crash the browser using a malicious link that crashes when clicked. (Ok…maybe the dumb Firefox downloading box isn’t too bad because it checks for that stuff)

I think Chrome has potential and a lot of neat gagets. It is only a Beta and needs some work. Hopefully, Google will buckle down and fix the flaws so that it can be more than a glittery fad.

It would have been really great if Simon could have been born on the day it was launched because I think the Chrome logo looks just like the old school Simon Says game; so he could unofficially be connected to it…unless it becomes a flop..in that case—no connection.

I love food.

So. Much.

And so I have decided to start a new series of articles based on my love of food. This is the first article which includes a review of a restaurant I recently dined at: J.Alexander’s. I hope my review of these heavenly places to “grab” some grub will help you become a lover of food as I am. Yes, I said lover.

J.Alexander’s. The location I went to was on the east coast of Florida in Boca Raton. The occasion was a nice night out with my wife and soon-to-be baby-mamma. We wanted something nice. Something memorable. There were the common places to choose from: Chang’s, Applebees, Pizza Hut Bistro. There were the uncommon places: all of which required valet parking. I am sure you remember THAT post. We wanted something with a history, something that was proven, so that ruled out all the mom and pop places. We wanted something different, so that ruled out the common franchises.

 We settled on J.Alexander’s at the suggestion of a friend and are very glad we decided to try them out.

THE ORDER

My wife ordered a strip steak, which came with a side of fries but she subbed it out for a side of fresh green beans. The steak was incredible. I know because she didn’t have to use A1 sauce on it. You can tell it was fired-seared because it was perfectly juicy. There was a butter garlic sauce that you could garnish on your steak as you ate it. Big plus there. The green beans for probably the best green beans I have ever tastred - they had some kind of garlic seasoning to start, but the real winning aspect of them was that they were so crunchy and full of substance.

I ordered a Roasted Chicken which was lightly crusted on the outside to give it that perfect crisp edge to the skin. I have to say that this review may be a tad bit skewed since I am currently thinking about adding Roasted Chicken to my list of all-time favorite foods. But I can honestly say that J.Alexander’s perfect crisp roasted chicken is now in my top TWO favorited roasted chickens served at a resturaunt. The other is Rum Runners. If I went back, I wouldn’t be able to NOT order it. It was that good. It came with “Smashed Potatoes” but I substituted that for a “loaded” baked potatoe. This sucker was loaded in the fullest sense. It was about 5 inches TALL (not wide) and was amply supplied with cheese, sour cream, butter, bacon, chives, and I’m sure love from the chef him- or herself. The skin was encrusted with sea salt. The entire baked potatoe ceased to exist about 10 minutes later.

My wife and I went for dessert afterward and we are glad we did. The waitress recommended the carrot cake since supposedly J.Alexander’s is famous for it’s carrot cake. Regrettably and at the same time unregrettably, we ordered, and I quote directly from the menu, the “Very Best Chocolate Cake”. Pretty dang good. Came with an honestly generous helping of vanilla icecream, drizzled with chocolate sauce and a couple mint leaves. The cake was enough for both of us, easily. Not too rich, and not just all icing and fluff. Again, I am not sure I would be able to order anything else should I go again, although that carrot cake sure is tempting as I write this.

THE SERVICE

Not a whole lot of bad things to say about the service. Our waiter made some good comments about certain menu items, was never “missing”, and the drink refills were virtually nostop, a HUGE plus in my book. Other than that, it was standard restaraunt service as it should be. He got a well-deserved tip.

THE ATMOSPHERE

Family style dinner? Sure. A romantic dinner date? Definitely. Jumpin’ night life? Not really. Although there is a bar in the middle of the dining area, I would say this place was way too quiet if you were looking for a “watch the game and drink on a stool” evening. The table we sat at was big enough for 6 people. And it was just the 2 of us. The crowd started to pour in around 5:00 PM. We got there at 4:30. The tables are spaced enough apart that you don’t feel like you might just be part of any number of tables. Good music, subtle but you were aware it was playing.

PRICE POINT

Ahh the big question. I think we got out of there with under a 50-dollar total bill (after tax and tip). For what you are getting, the price is just about right. Add some alchoholic drinks and you could easily tack on another 15-20 bucks. I wouldn’t eat here every night (or even every month at this point), but once in a while is great. I have had way worse meals for more than this costs so that’s saying something.

So if you are ever near one of their considerably few locations throughout the country, I recommend trying these guys out. Tell ‘em Aazh sent ya.

Website: J.Alexander’s

Last week we gathered up as many of our group of friends as we could muster and drove out to the beach to take group pictures. The idea was Mike’s to get everyone together and, to make it more than just a group shot, mimic the style of the promotional cast photos for LOST. The idea was not to have each person specifically be a certain character, more than we tried to copy the variation in styles so we didn’t all look alike.

So here we are in our best “stranded on a semi-deserted island” attire:

There’s more pictures in the gallery, and I’ll be adding more of the group pictures as we get them (there’s some processing involved), as well as some general photos that we took while out there.

Two hours, 44 minutes, 44 seconds. That’s how long it took for Taco vs. Grilled Cheese (our team name) to complete the Urban Dare challenge in Tampa, FL (results listed here).

The Hitchhiker’s Guide quotes the official word on what Urban Dare is, and then adds a curious bit at the end:

Continue reading this post…

Recently, my family and I visited a pretty nice corner of Florida – the southeastern coastal area of Deerfield Beach and Boca Raton. The area was clean, I was off work, and the beach with some crazy-sized waves was literally about 100 yards from my bed. Over the course of the week, it became fairly commonplace to wake up, eat, walk to the beach, get pummeled by waves taller than me for a couple hours, stumble home, eat, sleep, repeat.

The beach area we were near was pretty nice in that it was not completely overwhelmed by people. Even the popular spots were relatively low key, when compared to some of the more suave beaches in Florida. However, that very laid back attitude that was so prevalent on the beaches was equalized by the fact that Boca Raton may in fact be one of the snootiest place I have ever personally been – and I have driven through Connecticut!

The scene was like this:

It’s evening time and everyone is starved. We don’t know where we want to go (as usual), and we don’t have any real idea in which direction we should travel (as usual), so we just start driving to see what shows up.

Oh there’s a nice pizza place. I like the architecture (Boca has some decent snooty architecture). Oh wait it has valet parking. Well I don’t wanna do that. Me neither. That’s so awkward isn’t it? I don’t know. Don’t you have to tip them? I think so. Yeah, let’s just keep driving.

Driving.

Oh hey I could go for sandwich. That place looks like it gets a decent amount of business. Yeah let’s – wait a second… It’s got valet parking too…?

Driving.

Oh, a Taco Bell! Let’s just stop and eat because I’m about to crack. Me too… What is that guy doing standing out in front of it? He’s parking cars.

Boca Raton must have taken way too many snooty pills for its own good. I have never seen so many valet parking only establishments. I am not embellishing the following two stories:

We stopped at one restaurant, even though we knew it was valet parking, just because we wanted to look at the menu. The parking spots that were so securely guarded by the valet man-boy had ominous orange cones on them. There was no way anyone could get a car on those spots unless they first paid a pact with the parking dude. Here is the thing. The spots that the valet guy would be taking our car to were exactly 24 feet from front the door of the place and probably about 6 feet from where we would be “dropping off” our car. The man would get in, collect a tip, put the car in drive and make one 90 degree turn into the spot right next to him. When we would finish our meal, he would walk across the pavement, all 13 step’s worth and start up our car and then maybe back it up about 7 feet so that we could then get in, tip him, and drive off.

This is almost EVERYWHERE in Boca Raton. If it is not a chain restaurant, you better believe it is valet. Story number 2:

We went to see a movie. Pulled up and noticed the place – surprise – has valet parking. But this time we had a choice so we naturally chose to NOT use that service. We parked 2 aisles away from the theatre. Just 2. About 100 feet. Not far at all. We could not park any closer, since those spots had, like soldiers of the great roman army, orange cones.

When the movie was over, we walked out of the theatre and were astonished to see so many people at the front door waiting for their cars to be picked up. There was ONE dude there and about 15 car groups waiting. What did we do? We walked across the drop off pavement where the valet guy normally stands, and where now about 300 people stood waiting for their cars, across the first aisle where the cones used to be but now there were about 20 valet-parked cars (the owner’s of which we just passed and laughed at), and then another 10 feet to our car that was not valet-parked. We got in, turned the key in the ignition, and drove off, staring in amazement at the 550 turds who dropped off their cars with the one turd who was currently picking them all up. I would guess that it took us 35 seconds to leave. I would guess it would take them at least another 15-20 minutes.

You step off a cruise ship and into a cab. You pay the full agreed fare, and also a tip.

You rent a hotel room, paying full price according to the hotel chains pricing scheme. You leave a tip.

You eat a meal at a restaurant and at the end of your meal you pay a tip.

You take one stupid photo in front of some weird-looking guy’s donkey! Tip time.

Tips are business. I don’t know the stats as to how much money is made on tips in any given period of time (I’m sure it wouldn’t be to difficult to find out) but I would venture to guess it’s one of those money making methods that stray into the billions of dollars per year side of the tracks. Oh and don’t get me wrong. I can see why they are needed. Restaurant owners are essentially robbing us as we are required to pay their waiters’ and waitresses’ salaries. Housekeeping personnel are also paid pretty much jack and so in addition to paying the hotel for a good night’s sleep (hopefully), we are also employing their cleanup crew.

It wouldn’t be so bad if it were not for the fact that:

1. Not everyone KNOWS how to tip, myself included at times. Here is some help in that field.
2. Tips are so commonplace in some situations that they completely lose their meaning. You tip because you are expected to tip, even if it is for a vague reason.

I daresay that there are probably conservatively thousands of persons in the world whose sole income is from “tips” that are placed outside the “normal” tipping range – taking a photo of a donkey, for instance – and don’t pay a dime in taxes on it.

And this is why tipping loses its meaning.

Case in point

Me: What a delicious meal we have just enjoyed wife of mine!
Her: Yes! Delicious!
All of us: We love this food, yeah! Hurrah!
Me: Oh here comes the bill. Hmmm… everything looks right. I’ll just take out my Discover Card here and – erhh what – ?

“An 18% gratuity has been added to your bill for parties of 8 or more.”

Me: What the crap!?

Now hold on, I know what you are thinking. Aazh is just CHEAP. Well, my good friend, you are right. But the explanation regarding that must be for another time or post. But not when it comes to tipping. I hold a pretty strong 20% when visiting the occasional cafe or bistro. So 18% is saving me money. My question is: Since when did I have no choice of whether I tip or not?

If a tip is supposed to be a reward for good service, did I miss the bulletin that proclaimed that all servers serving tables with 8 or more guests are incredible and deserve an AUTOMATIC 18% of my total bill? In that case, why don’t tables of 8 or more just get the more expensive version of the dinner menu as well and see it for what it is? It is a lack of choice. Oh! You can leave more if you wish… but can you imagine the hassle you would have to go through to remove or reduce an automatic tip if the service you received was abysmal?

This is amazing:

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.