I can’t believe that today is the last Friday of June. Where DOES the time go? It certainly FEELS like summer here in sunny Florida. Highs in the 90’s during the day, with lows in the 70’s at night. I like to say that when it gets like this - you go from house to car to inside. There’s no dilly dallying outside. You’ll burst into soggy flames. I was reading this article the other day about our AC use here in Florida. 95% of the homes here have AC, which is higher than anywhere else in the country. I wish I could find that magazine now. I’ve been thinking about it, I don’t want to give my AC while here in Florida - but I may give it up when we move back to Missouri. We’ve got central air and its always cool as a cucumber in here. It’s ridiculous that I feel guilty about it I guess. I am grateful for the AC, like i said, burst into soggy flames. We didn’t have central air growing up. In fact, most times, we had one window unit for the whole house, so it never really got cool. In the last house I lived in with my parents my room was on the 3rd floor, an attic bedroom, with 2 windows and no ac. It was Hot Hot Hot in the summer. But, at least my carbon footprint was smaller than it is now. But, man, was it hot hot hot. The bursting into flames there, way drier. Not as soggy, but just as damn hot. Still, I feel like maybe I’ve used up all my AC credits already, that living in FLA for nearly 6 years with central air on all day every day means that for the rest of my life in Missouri I need to go without it. I should invest in some fan companies, me thinks

Thanks for readin’ my entry blog entry about the weather, basically And I’m Luka by the way.

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Well, tonight was the end of Studio 60. I’ve been a fan of the show since it aired last fall and its really only gotten better. Too bad the time slot it was in and the fact that they took it off air for two months crippled it beyond repair.

The show, by “West Wing” creator Arron Sorkin was miles above the rest and reminded me of the way TWW was written. It was sharp, fun to listen to and fun to watch as well, and tonights episode was by far one of the best for example this exchange between Danny Tripp and Matt Albey:

Danny: Matt, I’m going to say something and I don’t want you to take it the wrong way.
Matt: Ok
Danny: I love you man
Matt: Ok.
Danny: Did you take it the wrong way?
Matt: Probably
Danny: how did you take it?
Matt: That you’re gay and you want to get with me

Now, that may not be completely correct, but its close enough… and the way they ended with Danny turning out the single light and walking off stage and Matt facing the count down clock… brilliant… though it leaves it open to another episode….

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Being that I tend to have free time during the day, I get to visit a lot of interesting websites, though most are just, um, annoying. I came across one today on the PC World 100 Blogs We Love article that has me smiling from ear to ear and wanting to pass it on to you. i can has cheezburger is a collection of cat (and other small furry animal) photos with leet captions on them that make you smile.

I think my favorite is the Donut Worry one or the lvl 30 Cat.

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With the advent of digital photography, the market has had to create new ways to share and display these digital wonders. The easiest way is a digital picture frame. DigitalFramez.com is an online retailer specializing in only digital frames in a 7, 9 or 10 inch size, all with varying amounts of memory.

First impressions of the web site are that this company knows what they’re selling and they know what people want. The four most popular items are front and center (below the ad that tells you about the free sd card that comes with every order) and there are links to other items on both sides of the page.. The site is laid out nice and cleanly and is very easy to navigate. On the left side of the site, they have links to the different size frames as well as links to information about them and their products (which is a nice feature).

Clicking on the links to the various sizes brings up a page for each size that has the different options available, and while it looks like they’re all the same “frame” with a different border, it is nice to see them laid out like that. The product page has a good description of the item as well as the cost. The only thing lacking is an area for customer reviews of the product, though I bet you could google the item and find that.

The site has a live help button that was green when i visited, I did not try it, but its nice to see that there is an option for help if you need it. The company is located (it looks like the UK) outside of the US, so shipping is a little pricy and the number of countries they ship to is mostly limited to Europe and the North America, but they do have a good selection of items. I’d be willing to order from them.

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At the corner of one of the streets near our neighborhood, there’s a notice about an upcoming hearing regarding a cell tower being put up on private land. Most of the people in the area are against it as it would be 155 feet tall and quite an eye sore (as if you walk around looking up all the time…. you wouldn’t notice it most of the time) and they’re mostly against it… I personally don’t know how I feel.

On the one hand, there would be a 155 foot tower just down the road from my house. I probably couldn’t see it from my back deck (thanks to the pine trees) and I wouldn’t see it most of the time I was driving on Mack Dobbs. That, combined with the fact that even though its a tower for T-mobile, it would help my cell reception make me want to say “who gives a flip” and let them build a tower. I mean after all, if the property owner wants a cell tower in their backyard, who am I to stop them?

But this whole mess got me to thinking about just how much rights do we have over what our neighbors do with their own property? HOA’s (as much as I hate them) do help to keep things looking somewhat decent (have you compared two neighborhoods side by side, one with an HOA and one with out? The one with out is much worse…) but really, where does the right to tell our neighbors what they can and cannot do with their property end? For example, our HOA does not allow any outside antenna’s or towers (which makes it hard for Amateur Radio…), but you can do almost anything in your backyard as long as it cannot be seen from the street. Does my neighbor have the right to tell me I can’t build a tower or put up a tree house on my own property?

I’d like to think not, but here, we are, trying to stop someone from benefiting from a cell phone tower (most property owners are subsidized by the tower operator) on their own property, simply because we do not like the way it will look. Imagine if you were asked to tear down your house for the same reason…

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The wife and I are heading out to New Mexico for a weekend in August for the Philmont Rangers 50th Anniversary Reunion. When I worked there in ‘97 it was the 40th anniversary, so this one is kind of cool as it will be ten years since I worked there and the farthest west Amy has been (to this point it was Louisiana…). We decided to make a longer trip out of it (air line tickets were cheaper if we went Monday through Thursday) so we’re flying in to Denver on Thursday and driving to Taos, NM that night the only issue is we need to find somewhere to stay. Luckily there is an awesome tool online for making Hotel Reservations.

HotelReservations.com is an online booking site that offer discounts on hotel stays, resorts and other off beat places to stay. The site is nice, the search box for your stay is right there in the middle of the first page making it easy to search for a room. They also offer searches for resorts, vacation rentals, cars and vacation packages as well which is a nice feature, the only thing they seem to not cater to is air fare, but with the bevy of other sites out there that do that, do we really need another one?

The pricing on Hotel Reservations seems to be consistent with the other sites out there and with the special online ads of most of the major hotels, one of the nice things is that they do seem to have some of the off beat places to stay (which if you’re looking for a unique experience, it something nice). On the whole, the site is simple and straight forward to use and offers a good alternative to some of the other methods for booking a hotel stay.

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We are working on a book about Ubuntu Linux that aims at Windows users who want to migrate to Linux or are considering it. The book is a step-by-step migration guide, but also want to provide a wide overview of what Linux has to offer for office applications, multimedia (audio, video, graphics and webdesign) and communications

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I run another site that is fairly profitable (it pays for itself through advertising…) and I’m always looking for ways to enhance my financial status. I’ve considered running ads on this site, however, I feel that since its a personal blog, google ads would look out of place and besides, no one really wants to see them mixed in with my deluded ramblings and photos of the kids (I did upload over 500 photos from our cruise though…), that is until I came across Smorty.

Smorty is a program where you sign up and can write about various advertisers on your blog. You get to choose the advertisers you write about/review and you get paid for blogging. While it looks like the average payout is about $6.00 (us) per post for an advertiser, its a fairly decent way to bring in a little extra cash for something you were going to do anyways. Isn’t it? Not only that but the new posts about different subjects might just bring in new traffic that otherwise would not have visited your site.

The application process was fairly easy, fill out a form and wait for them to approve your site. Once approved you log in, and start selecting the advertisers you want to write about. Most have a time limit for when you have to post about them once you’ve selected them and you are required to submit the post for approval once its written (otherwise you won’t get paid…) but they make it fairly simple through the web interface which is clean and easy to use.

I was pleasantly surprised when I logged in, the site itself was easily to get around and loaded quickly (two huge pluses). The other nice thing about the smorty program is that they pay out via paypal on a weekly basis. I have yet to receive a payout (I just joined) and I am waiting to see if there is a minimum payout amount. If there isn’t then this could be a very cool thing. If there is… well, I may be posting more….

Either way its a good way to blog for money.

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Every Thursday I go out to lunch with one of my brothers, my sister and my father. We try to try some where new every week (though we do have our favorites…) and as we hit a new place, I’ll try and write about it here. I have a couple stored up that I need to write about, but today, I want to talk about Di Gusto.

One of my favorite styles of food is Italian, I could eat it every day and never get tired of it, and lately, we’ve been blessed with some good Italian restaurants in our area. Ipp’s over by the mall, Rosaria’s by Walmart and now Di Gusto (which is right across the street from Walmart and Rosarias). I tend to stick to the same thing (Meatball sub or Baked Ziti) whenever we go out for Italian. Partly because I know it will be a safe bet almost everywhere and partly because I really like those two items… Today I went with the meatball sub and a garden salad.

The restaurant’s atmosphere was fairly standard for an Italian restaurant these days, the faux painting on the walls, low lighting, fake brick showing through the paint, ivy hanging from random places around the shop and what sounded like Tony Bennett or Sinatra coming from the speakers. While its a nice touch, I doubt that its truly authentic, however, it did not get in the way of the food or the service.

The service was prompt and I never had to ask for more tea (which is a plus is my glass stays full). The bread and salads came quickly and were cleared before lunch came. It might be different while they’re busy (I doubt lunch is a busy time for them) but the service during lunch was good. The sub itself was decent, I’d go back again. The sauce was a little on the sweet side, needed a little more oregano (I think…) but the meatballs were excellent and the bread was fresh and good. The nice thing is that the sauce wasn’t too watery, it was just the right consistency (nothing ruins a sandwich like sauce thats too runny).

We didn’t try desert, maybe next time, but I would go back again to Di Gusto, the food for the money was good and the service was better than most. I’d give them probably three & a half sandwiches out of five. (I need to make little logos….)

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Ok, so I’ve finally decided that I am going to be updating this damned thing more often. I promise to try to update at least twice a week…. whether or not I have anything important to say. That being said…

In my last post I mentioned that Amy and I had been on a cruise…. it was our first. This was with a group and it was a lot of fun. One of our friends sings in a Barbershop Quartet and they had a Fun Afloat Cruise where you could go and hang out with the quartet, attend some private concerts and enjoy the Caribbean. We thought it’d be a fun way to experience a cruise and we weren’t wrong. It Rocked!

If you’ve never been on a cruise, you have to go at least once. The food, the accommodations, the ports of call…. all were fabulous. As soon as I can sit down and shrink the 600+ photos to a smaller size and get them uploaded…. I will.

Also, I wanted to share two links with you:

Amy and I went on a cruise last week and I have to say, it was a great way to travel, but thats not what I’m writing about today… While in Coco Beach, Fl. we stayed at a Marriott Courtyard hotel and I was impressed with the “business center” at the hotel for one reason.

Two of the computers available (the only two by the way…) were running linspire. I was quite impressed that a hotel would put these in the loby as the primary computers for its guests. I think thats very cool. If you’re going to Coco Beach, or you need a hotel newar Port Canaveral, make sure to stay at the Coco Beach Marriott Courtyard. THEY KICK ASS!!

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Linuxtracker.org is pleased to announce the availability of gparted-clonezilla-1.9.iso on the linuxtracker bittorrent network. For faster downloads, more accurate statistics and to see all of the available torrents, please visit http://linuxtracker.org. GParted-Clonezilla LiveCD This is a multi-boot livecd booting off GRUB.

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Linuxtracker.org is pleased to announce the availability of Zenwalk Linux 4.6 on the linuxtracker bittorrent network. For faster downloads, more accurate statistics and to see all of the available torrents, please visit http://linuxtracker.org. Jean-Philippe Guillemin has announced the release of Zenwalk Linux 4.6

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