Maisis.NET

My Mazda RX-8 Goes Crash and then Smash

2007-06-18T14:33:00.000-05:00

Argh!!!!

I know, it is enough to make you want to cry or make me cry at the very least. I was on my way to work Monday morning June 11th, 2007 and was not more than 2 miles from the entrance to my neighborhood on HWY 1431 going west when this idiot in a tan 2001 single cab F-150 Ford pickup truck plowed into the back right side of my car at what seemed like 60mph but was probably less while I was at a near stop, maybe still going 5 to 10mph.

Traffic had been forced to slow down as a Cedar Park police officer had a semi-truck pulled over on the right/north side of the highway. This little scene with the police and the semi was all playing out within less than a quarter mile ahead of my accident site. I do not remember having any advanced warning of what was to come. I heard no sound of screeching tires behind me or anything. The first indication I had that something was wrong came from a loud crunch, a head rattling jolt and the sight of my trusty red traveling coffee cup bursting from the grasp of my right hand. So, this idiot hit me in the back right bumper and the force of that impact seemed to accelerated me into the trailer hitch of a waiting SUV that was eager to greet and then eat the front end of my little red sports car. SIGH.... Let the sobbing begin!!

It's odd, I was in a car accident back in high school too, again this one was also not my fault. This accident reminded me of that weird sensation you get where everything seems to be happening in slow motion during the collision. I saw my coffee cup leave my right hand and my right hand grab the steering wheel almost instantly. At the same time my foot jammed down on the break immediately and I pulled the steering wheel right just to keep my car out of the left lane which according to the police report, I actually managed to accomplish. However the distance between my car and the SUV in front of me closed too quickly to prevent the second impact that resulted in the front end of my car being folded up like sardine can. While all this was happening I also remember seeing little rain droplets of coffee slowly flying into the air as the coffee cup must have hit the dash board or window causing the brown nectar of morning life to be ejected in randomly flying spurts from the open drinking slide set atop the travel cups lid. The only thing I don't remember is what happened to the piece of gum I had in my mouth at the time.

Both Lauren(6yr) and Michael(4yr), my two oldest of three children were also in the car with me as I was taking them to school at the time. The irreplaceables (my children) are fine they were just scared and shaken up a bit. Cars can be replaced, my kids cannot! After I got my kids out of the car my daughter later told my wife that I called the guy in the truck a "bitch" and cursed at him a few times. This is all very possible I don't remember that part. I just remember being worried about my kids and then so mad at this retard who had put my kids in danger that if he had come anywhere near me I am positive I would have literally dismembered him with my bare hands. He tried to apologize to me in the end when the officer was finishing up his report but I was still so mad it took every ounce of strength I had to not lay the guy out cold on the side of the road. So instead I simply refused to look or speak to him and ultimately I just walked off.

Oh well it's over now and like I said the car can be fix and or replaced. SIGH.... it's still annoying though.

I have held off on this post until I got a copy of the police report which I was finally able to access today and it seems that they cited the guy in the F-150 for "failure to control vehicle's speed." Yay! This should mean that he is not only an idiot but officially at fault for the accident. It should also mean I am not going to be out $500 for a repair deductible and his insurance will be reimbursing mine for the damage to the car. Again, YAY!!! :)

Bush should be tried as a war criminal says former Reagan official

2007-06-18T14:16:00.001-05:00

"Paul Craig Roberts said that the US government is in the hands of dangerous psychopaths who are a disgrace to the human race and who should be arrested as war criminals and turned over the the Hague..."

I think the most telling part of this linked story is at the bottom where 5418 votes had been cast when I arrived at the site for a poll that read "Should BushCheney be..." and the stats at that time were as follows:
Impeached - 10% said yes with 565 votes
Stand trial on charges for War Crimes - 8% said yes with 422 votes
Stand trial on charges for Treason - 2% said yes with 86 votes
Impeached, Stand trial for War Crimes and Treason - 77% said yes with 4168 votes
None of the above - 3% with 138 votes
Not sure - 1% with 39 votes

Out of those 5418 votes cast only 4% of people that was 177 votes did not want the President to be held accountable for any potentially illegal actions while 96% of those polled basically want to deep fat fry the President and his gang of psychopaths. So this begs a serious question with this sort of polling and many like it starting to appear around the web these days. Are we standing on a precipice in this country of open revolt against our leaders?

Even the Democrats are not stopping these maniacs and in my opinion that is because they are either too scared to act for fear of reprisal or they have simply become complacent fools. This is the point in every novel throughout history with a similar political situation where a legislature burden by an up and coming dictator is forced to say, "We cannot push too hard or he will simply make us irrelevant." Remember Bush just recently passed an executive order that allows him the power to maintain the government in a time of crisis.

In my opinion there is a mad man at the helm of the ship and I see some serious rapids ahead.

read more | digg story

Which is more of a Cop Magnet; Red Sports Car or Doughnuts?

2006-05-11T13:48:00.000-05:00

So I got my first written warning from a DPS officer while in my RX-8 today. And of all things it was for lack of a front license plate. Or that was the excuse the officer used after he pulled me over. I have a hard time believing this motivation since when I passed him 1 mile before he was just getting back into his car after having pulled over a young lady in a '06 RED Mustang GT. My current thoughts are that he just likes red sports cars. I have had my car for a little over four weeks now and I love it but it has also gotten me pulled over twice, the first time I received a “verbal warning” for what is known as “exhibition of acceleration” from the San Marcos police department. For those not as enlightened this is the legal description for tearing away from stop signs and/or traffic lights at a quick rate of acceleration although not technically speeding. :) Now this license plate issue was the second instance!

Now I have not had a ticket in 8 years and I am even going on 5 years since the last time I was pulled over by an officer. But this is twice in the first month of owning my new "red bulls-eye" that I have been pulled over. I am starting to think that the cops just want a closer look at my car. :)

The Great Pre-Easter Hike

2006-04-27T21:42:00.000-05:00

Here are a few pics from our camping trip to Buescher State Park out near Smithville, TX with Kim's family over Easter weekend. These are the pics from our 3 to 4 mile family hike we went on. As you can see in one of them Michael was nice enough to let me carry him almost two miles back to camp while he took a nap. He's such a considerate boy to take his naps on time. :)

Along this hike I happened to see a nice sized gray bunny rabbit with it ears pointed straight up which Kim quickly dubbed "Bob the Bunny" which then in turn caused Lauren to insist that it actually must have been "Peter Cotton Tail." This then started a good spirited weekend long feud between Lauren and Michael on the legitimate name of the Easter bunny. (sigh) Michael still thinks the Easter bunny’s real name is Bob and he won’t be convinced otherwise. Thanks Honey!

Move over David Beckham, Soccer has a new Star!

2006-04-27T15:58:00.000-05:00

Here's a couple of pics of Michael's Soccer game last week. I wish I could take some more pics but I am usually trying to coach, ref and snap pictures with my phone when I can remember. :)

Michael is second from the left, he and his team mates are lining up for kick off.

While everyone else is standing around that would be Michael in the red shirt streaking down the field to chase the ball.

Enjoy... I'll post some more from this weekends game if I get a chance.

Hello.... Mr. Wankel

2006-04-27T12:38:00.000-05:00

Okay so Duce got me thinking that I really need to get more up here so that people know what's going on in my life. So my first pic and second blog entry for the day comes to you courtesy of my first ever sports car. It's a 2006 "Velocity Red" Mazda RX-8 that is pretty much fully loaded with exclusion of the GPS Navigation system which I thought looked super cheesy.

This car boasts a 232HP rotary engine or Wankel engine (named for it's inventor) which means this car has no pistons like a traditional engine. This thing is fast and will do 0 to 60 in 6 seconds flat I know because I've done it :) and I was only in second gear when I hit 60 in this six speed behemoth. Max speed supposedly tops out at about 154mph but I have only taken mine as high as 93mph.

Yeah, I like it!!!!!

This Duce's for You!!!!

2006-04-27T11:02:00.000-05:00

No, I am not talking about poker although I realize the title makes it sound like I just laid down pocket 2's with two already turned up in a Texas Hold'em hand. But no!!!

Duce (AKA) Mother Duce (AKA) Brian Dusablon just called me a slacker via IM for not posting to the blog in a while and for not having a photo blog up to show off the family. So lets face it, yeah he's right I'm being a slacker! And although the photo blog takes more time to setup than the few free minutes I have right now I figured that at the very least I could make a post.

I promise, to try and make a post every week or couple of weeks going forward. (crosses fingers) I will also try and setup a photo blog to update you on how the family looks.

CYA's!

Is that a 100GB DVR in your Pocket or are you just Happy to see Me

2005-12-13T11:05:00.000-06:00

Get ready to step aside Tivo you are about to become a clunky old Dinosaur! Will the pocket DVR device become a Tivo killer or a Tivo Companion.

Evidently a popular supplier of usb memory keys Archos, has come out with several new models of pocket sized DVR's ranging from a 499.99 30GB unit up to a $799.00 100GB unit. Each unit comes standard with a widescreen formatted LCD display for in unit playback as well as TV output capable. The whole concept of this appears to me as if it would be the future of DVR's. Record your shows while you are out and then watch them when you get home or pop it in your pocket and watch them anywhere and on any TV. In all honesty these maybe less of a Tivo killer and may become more of a Tivo companion.

Compared to today's standard Tivo these are a little pricey but if you are interested here is the full features list on the 100GB unit.

Has anyone out there actually purchased or used one of these pocket DVR devices? I am looking to get some good technical and user feedback from an owner or user.

He's back!!!! The Man of Steel Flies again in '06

2005-12-12T06:25:00.000-06:00

He's faster than a speeding bullet and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Oh yeah and he is back in the summer of 2006. Oh yeah, the “man of steel” is back for the 2006 summer bash which is Superman Returns. If you click on my link it will take you to the teaser trailer which looks great. Evidently the director Bryan Singer has decided to forget that all of the other Superman movies but the first two Richard Donner films ever existed and this new one picks up right where "Superman 2" left off. Yay, no Richard Pryor or Search for peace!!!

The teaser trailer gave me goose bumps and made me feel like a kid again. Damn, it really made me remember how cool it was to watch Christopher Reeves sport the Blue and Red when I was a kid. It gives me serious shivers of excitement as this series has been on a seriously lousy 15 year hiatus and even longer if you only account for the first two films which were the only ones with any decent writing.

Cast:
Superman - Brandon Routh
Lex Luther - Kevin Spacey
Lois Lane - Kate Bosworth

Hook'n a Trojan and Spit in his Heisman Stealing Eye

2005-12-09T14:37:00.000-06:00

So I am loving the idea of the USC vs. UT matchup in the Rose Bowl this year. Loving it, loving it, loving it!!! I really want the Longhorns to win this one and even more so after the disappointment of the Heisman Trophy. I am not going to candy coat it here, Vince Young got seriously screwed in my opinion.

Yeah So I am a little agitated and still not seeing the whole Reggie Bush win of the Heisman Trophy over Vince Young as legitimate. If you look at the stats vs. total amount of time played I think Vince excels far beyond Reggie Bush. The Longhorns have dominated in a lot of blow out games this year which has resulted in Vince Young not playing full four quarters. If you doubt the numbers though bounce over to ESPN.com and check on the stats for each player. Now I am not saying that Reggie Bush is not a great running back because he is. Anyone who racks up 1700+yds in a single season with an added 300+yds of receptions is definitely great. But lets look at Vince young with granted only 800+yds rushing but coupled with 2400+yds in passing. I mean we are talking one person (Reggie Bush) that has resulted in just over total 2000+yds for his team this season as opposed to another (Vince Young) who has earned over 3200+yds for his team. I mean look at the numbers. Granted that Bush has put on several Saturdays worth of four quarter rushing clinics this season that people will look on in amazement for a while. But if you look at the stats I think it shows Vince to be the better player especialy considering he almost never got to play 4 full quarters.

Maisis.NET: It’s Hee’errrr! AND IT’S ALL MINE! BACK, BACK I SAY!!

2005-12-09T14:14:00.000-06:00

So I finally got it. The name was on reserve for almost three years but Maisis.NET finally became available and I snatched it up within 3hrs of it being deregistered from the original owner.

God I love it! I have already redirected http://maisis.net to my blog over at http://maisis00.blogspot.com and officially changed the name from “The Maisis Outlet” to the simple and elegant Maisis.NET. Ooh, it has been a long time coming and to be honest with you until I go the e-mail last night I had almost forgotten that I had even reserved it. I normally would not do something like that beacuse it almost seems futile in most cases but I really wanted this domain name. So when I got the e-mail last night I instantly bounce over to GoDaddy.com paid my $8.95 to register it and then I redirected it to my blog.

Hydrogen: Not Just For Exploding Zeppelins Anymore

2005-10-25T07:51:00.000-05:00

I have been saying it for years. Out of all the new fuel alternatives popping up Hydrogen is the best choice. Why do you say, because Hydrogen can be produce from water the one substance on this planet of which we have an abundance. Also because we’re not in any fear of running out of water on this planet within next few million years. Oh yeah and did I mention the fact that Hydrogen powered vehicles create zero emissions.

I have been telling my wife for the last few years that I thought one of the biggest pushes in automobile technology in the next 10 years would come from the Hydrogen powered car. Well according to this article and this one an Israeli company called Engineuity has made my dream a reality with a car that can produce its own Hydrogen internally using coils of Magnesium and Aluminum. So now the biggest technical hurdle for adopting Hydrogen as an automobile fuel source has just been overcome. For those of you wondering the biggest strike against Hydrogen to date has been its public appearance as a highly volatile substance so there have been concerns with regards to transporting and storing this potential fuel source. Now this is not a problem considering the car uses water accompanied by Magnesium and Aluminum coils which create the required Hydrogen internal to the vehicle. My guess is that the oil companies are going to be up in arms in a few years if this technology hits the U.S. in full commercial production.

God I love Science! Thank you Mr. T-Rex but I think we have exploited your liquefied remains quite long enough. Woohoo we may even put a few oil executives out of business while simultaneously getting to retain our remaining ozone layer. Now that’s what I call killing two dinosaurs with one Hydrogen powered car!

Maisiscast

2005-10-23T02:59:00.000-05:00

So my first podcast is online and ready to go. Techincally it is my second since my first was a 3 minute short that I created with my new iTalk. If you listen to both you will be able to hear the vast difference in audio quality. My guess is I will probably only be using the iTalk for onsite interviews.

This first podcast is a collection of the three most frequently asked questions I get from people when they find out that my proffession requires me to work with computers and communications equipment as an Information Technology Manager. I hope you will tune in and enjoy this first of what I hope will be many future podcasts.

http://maisis00.audioblog.com/rss/maisiscast.xml

Sprint PCS: Nurturing Customer Dissatisfaction

2005-10-18T11:27:00.000-05:00

So just in case my personnel hatred and condemnation of Sprint was not enough for anyone or my previous rants in your presence about how crappy they were did not turn your stomach. Well here is one more reason for me to hate Sprint and possibly another chance for you to hurl.

Now, I will admit it I am an avid Sprint hater and I do everything I can to convince as many people as possible to leave their network and go to any other carrier. Preferably I would suggest a carrier that has a GSM network such as Cingular, Verizon or T-Mobile. Personally, I use Cingular and with the merger Cingular and AT&T Wireless I do believe this now makes them the biggest ant hill out there in terms of serviceable wireless coverage area.

So, I have been harping on Larry for several years now telling him he should leave Sprint PCS for a better wireless carrier like one of the ones above. Normally when I preach and preach on something to someone while repeatedly being ignored I would most likely be an ass when something bad happens and just say you know what you got what you asked for. However, when that something comes from Sprint, it costs you $400 and you’re family I tend to be a little more sympathetic to something like Larry's plight. Now, don’t get me wrong I still laughed my ass off at Larry’s blog post. I hate Sprint but I love irony.

Sprint has been behind the times, for a while refusing to upgrade their networks and when they did finally do a 360 on the upgrade decision they moved forward too slowly. Although, I will say that there are some decent reviews coming out with regards to their new EVDO stuff.

So, now that Larry, Karla and Ashlei are all finally off Sprint that just leaves my sister-in-law and her husband. Let the harassment, begin!!!

Hrm... I feel like I should be getting paid by some sort of anti-Sprint lobbyist group.... Nah, I'll do this crap for free!!!!

Blog Spamming Run Amok

2005-10-15T23:27:00.000-05:00

Yes, I know it may annoy some in the future but I cannot help it. I am no longer allowing anonymous posting here at "The Maisis Outlet." The Blog spammers are ruining it for everyone. I cannot stand that crap. I actually first heard about the problem for the first time last week when listening to a podcast of TWiT or "This Week in Tech" with Leo Laporte and a group of the old Screen Savers gang from the former TechTV. This of course was before the dark times, before G4 and the take over that brought us G4-TechTV. The take over that destroyed any hope of refuge for those in search of true quality geek television. Anyway, I digress! So, I had only heard of this blog spam problem for the first time last week and now I am fighting the problem here as well. I mean I am not really for sure what my starting a Podcast has to do with someone selling viagra but... . So as you can see I had to remove anonymous posting in order to make the problem go away.

Blog Spammin g is evidently become a major issue and is requiring blog administrators to cut out the anonymous posting capabilities all over the net. Make sure you do some reading and protect your blog. The last thing you need is to have someone blog spamming lude comments to your blog that get you black flag by one of those companies that provide customer content filtering on the web. You know, those companies that block customer access to site deemed by them to contain indecent material.

Podcasting: Maisis Be Thy Name!!!!!!

2005-10-14T18:54:00.000-05:00

Well, I have gone and done it. I have reserved me a spot over at AudioBlog to store my future Podcasts and I ordered my iTalk for the iPod so that I can record spots for my new Podcast during my 1hr each way drive to and from work.

Currently I am planning to use Audacity to do my audio editing. While my use of this software may draw serious laughs from some like Larry ;) the Grand Wizard of audio mixing. I who do not weild any great skills of cunning or magic in this area find it much easier to rely on software that is easy to use.

What's the format going to be you may be asking? Well, the idea is... what? Did you actually think I was going to give it up that easy? I am keeping the show concept under wraps for now until I am well into the post production process of episode 1. I will let you know though that it will be eclectic and it will contain many categories... hrm... sneaky ones aren't you?! I'm not telling! ;)

Stay tuned here for more details... I am sure I'll let a few things slip between now and the first episode's release.

My Response to an Article on ITMangersJournal.com

2005-06-22T20:48:00.000-05:00

RE: ITMJ First Person: Climbing the corporate ladder -- but to where?

Thoughts on Becoming an IT Executive

Before I went off to start my own company I happen to have been in the same situation as the author finds himself in at the moment. The majority of what I have found though points to the fact that companies do not want to hire an executive in their late twenties and with good reason. There are exceptions to this of course and it’s not as if this is a rule because there are many IT executive in the country whom are currently in their late twenties but most of the time you will find this the exception and not the general trend.

With that said you need to know that most of those executive that are there now were you at one time. They were the elite in their late twenties in their own area of expertise whatever that might have been, not necessarily IT. I reference sports as an analogy, there are a lot of really talented high school athletes in this country but with few exceptions not many make the jump from high school to the professional arena. Most of these elite high school athletes go on to become collegiate athletes where this next level either weeds out the weary or the unqualified before moving to the next level of professional athletics.

Now coming back away from the sports analogy I would say that the most fruitful option would be to enjoy your middle management experience while working over the next five to ten years and expand your education such as obtaining your BBA and/or MBA in Information Systems Management. From what I have seen of the recruiting for IT executives is that companies want an individual with an average of ten to fifteen years IT management experience and they mostly say "prefer an MBA." This is stemming from the fact that the people who have come before us in this field as executive mostly only ran IT from business perspective relying on technical managers to compose and draft the companies technology development and maintenance. Let me now qualify my remarks as this is not always the case so please do not be offended if you are an executive or know one to which this does not apply.

In my opinion if want to go the executive route for a major company you will need to play the professional executive game and put in the time. I would say that 90% of the time the requirement for the IT executive position will require you to have an MBA or an advance degree of some sort related to the IT or business. If you are looking at working for a publicly traded company on one of the stock exchanges then the requirement of an MBA and fifteen years of experience will almost certainly jump to 99.9% of the time. The stock markets not only weigh a company’s stock price against current and project earnings but also among other things, such as the experience and education of its senior executives and leadership. In most circumstances it still reflects better on investor confidence to see that the company’s executives are highly educated and seasoned professionals. In my experience this just seems to be the natural course at this level of business.

Now I have a feeling that you and I are both certain enough about our own abilities that today you at 26 and I at 27 could handle the role of an IT executive. However, put your self in the position of seasoned investor. Now what opinion would you take of reading that the senior IT executive role of a company to which you have invested your money had just been filled by a man or woman in their late twenties with no advanced experience or education in business? You are also relying on a person that has not spent their life in business and been fully tested by the potential stresses involved in a decade and a half of management responsibility. Believe it or not a lot of people fall out of management every year due to the fact they are just burnt out on the experience. Personally, if I were an investor I can say it would not give me a warm fuzzy feeling about where a company was heading by the placement of an untested person in an executive position regardless of the individuals actual abilities.

In closing, I believe it all goes back to my point that if you want to go the IT executive route you really should know how to play the game. This means that you will need to continue to distinguish yourself above the rest in experience and education. So, if you put in the fifteen years of distinguished “in the trenches work,” you don’t burn out and you get your advance business degree then I think you’re definitely on the path to becoming that executive you want to be.

by: Bill Daugherty
http://www.daugherty-is.com

Nieslen Torpedos Another Program

2005-05-31T09:39:00.000-05:00

So it appears that the powers at be over at CBS have decided to cancel the show "Joan of Arcadia." Personally I am shocked by this announcement as I thought it was a really well written and executed show. The actors and plots were believable and it gave just the right amount of God factor that it didn't tick off too many people on either side of the fence. It was a good show and in my opinion much better than "Touched by an Angel" which should have been a short run TV mini-series and not a long standing staple of weekly television. Ugh, the mere memories of that show make me ill.

Anyway, evidently "Joan of Arcadia" was not getting adequate ratings. ARGH! I swear that I am going to beat this horse until it is decayed and not just dead. The Nielsen Rating system is flawed, inaccurate and at best it is an incompetently lazy way to gather horrible ratings information. Now with that said, Nielsen may have been a decent sampling of data in days gone by but there are definitely better and more accurate ways of gathering ratings information today. In the opinion of this writer the major cable, satellite and DVR (Tivo and such) companies need to get off their collective butts and start assisting their customers by tracking watched programs through their boxes and DVR’s. After the data is collected it should then be released for the purpose of research analysis. The data could also be sold in order to create a new cost center for the cable companies. A little extra cash in the corporate pockets never hurts the earnings numbers now do they? :)

In my opinion we are loosing too much quality television these days in favor of mindless reality clone programming. Certain programming seems to almost hypnotizes the Nielsen participants which skews the results of the nations prefered television programming.

Introducing "The Library of Keys"

2005-05-27T09:49:00.000-05:00

So I guess it is time to make the announcement about my new book project. I am currently working on a new book which targets young readers. The title will be “The Library of Keys” and it centers around two young children; a thirteen year old girl named Clara and her eleven year old brother Michael. After the children's mother dies their father is forced to send them to live with the mother's sister where they soon discover that their family has an ancient secret and they in particular have a destiny. The children learn throughout the course of book that they are the heirs that will be responsible for protecting the “The Library of Keys” and its secrets from the evils of the world above and below.

Character and plot development is coming along great. The characters so far seem to be real with genuine motivations for their actions and personalities. The main characters are all unique and deal with their emotional struggles in very different ways. Also one character is required throughout the series to face their own inner demons which try and tempt them from good to evil. This illustrates two driving morals throughout the series; Doing what is right is not always easy and Absolute power corrupts absolutely. The plot already has several twists and intertwined mysteries. So far this book is set up to be the first in a series and I have been surprisingly impressed with how it is unfolding. I have already written the end of the series so I know exactly how it will all end in the last moment and I think it will be awesome.

First Post

2005-05-07T00:43:00.000-05:00

So this is my first post to this new Blog so I thought I would drop a quick message down and say hello.

CYA's

Maisis