This has got to be one of the funniest comics I've ever seen... Windows ME totally sucked!

http://xkcd.com/323/

I got back into running - finally - 9 months after the Los Angeles Marathon.  I have good reason though for it taking so long.  I've been in transition of moving to New York.  It's a big change.  Further, it's freakin' cold here!  How the heck are you supposed to run outsite when it's below freezing?!  Well, I've been doing it, and it's actually REALLY great!  I think the cold air keeps your body cool which makes your entire system run more efficiently, ultimately enabling you to go further distances, and at faster speeds.  Really awesome...

I completed my first "big"run yesterday of 7.1 miles.  I basically did the entire perimeter of Central Park, and then some.  My time was 64 minutes, including waiting for stop lights and getting stuck behind pedestrians who aren't aware that when three people side by side, they take up the entire sidewalk - not bad speed - and I wasn't pushing hard.  I half-way rolled my ankle at the end because I made the mistake of running down Lexington Avenue on an early Saturday evening when EVERYBODY apparently goes shoppping at Bloomingdales - ugh, humans... it should be alright though.  All the people gave me road rage... you know, like when you are driving in traffic, and you just want to go faster.  So I ended up sprinting down Lex, REALLY FAST, it was rad to run fast and dodge all the humans.  Kind of like a video game.

Central Park has an amazing maze of trails and roads that runners can use.  It's great because you can take a different path every time, and the scenery is gorgeous.  Further, the paths are packed dirt which is definitely ideal for training.  And as always in New York, the runners are wearing gear that is the height of fashion.  Gotta love it.

New York Marathon, here I come!

To all you vegans out there, I've got to admit... I pity you...  When you have to eat things with names like "tofurkey meatloaf"... sad times.  Let's get real here.  I'm not the healthiest eater, but I think that we could all agree that there is a balance between vegan and carnivore that is the optimal diet for homo sapiens.  I don't know exactly where exactly that fulcrum lies, but I know that the optimal diet would definitely include protein from meats (a.k.a animal flesh), and I can't deny that I LOVE meat, so I think this works out in my favor.  As "they" say, "everything in moderation, including moderation".  Later - I'm off to the steak house.

So I landed in New York a few months ago on a visit to work with Google.  My now in-law put me up in his vacant apartment which really was vacant in that it was devoid of the common luxuries such as eating utensils.  I was hungry, as I get after flights since I don't care much for airplane food, even though the food on Virgin America is definitely a step up from other air lines... So I cruised around the corner and found Pax Food which seemed like a pretty wholesome place.  I got me a salad, and headed back to the apartment. 

To make this short - I sat down to eat, Pax forgot to give me utensils, so I mixed the salad and dressing with my hands and ate it with my hands much like I imagine our great ancestors, the barbarians in caves, would have done (I wonder what kind salad dressing they used?).  I felt surprisingly liberated from the confinements of modern societal etiquette, and suprisingly in-touch with our great ancestors.

Moral of the story - step out, try something new.  It seems to lead to getting more in touch with yourself.  Word.

So later, I got in touch with the guys who owns trysomethingnew.com - I though it would be a great idea to setup a site that created a community of people who were looking to try new things, who could share ideas, etc.  Then I got busy with all the other crazy ideas I have swimming in my head.  Stay tuned for their releases.

I've done my research, and it's Fancy Feast.

Get this - you know how in commercials for cat food, the food is always in a really nice crystal bowl of some sort?  Well, I've been told by a not-so-credible source, but credible nonetheless that the reason for this is because the number one purchaser of cat food is poor old people because it's the most cost effective way to eat.  I have no idea if that is true, but sad if it is.  We should really pay more attention to caring for the elderly.  After all, we are all going to be old some day, and I hope that I get good care then.  Dismal.

I don't remember exactly how I came across this term... I think I was looking at wedding stuff or something - don't ask me why.  Anyways, it's a strange word, and even used in context, it's hard to figure out what the heck the word means.  So here it is:  A gobo is a screen or mat covered with a dark material for shielding a camera lens from excess light or glare.

... and the link: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/gobo

I recently found the most informative literature on caffeine that I have ever read.  I was "Googling" to try and figure out how many miligrams of caffeine are in a cup of coffee to compare it against energy drinks, and look what I found!... all sorts of surprising information on caffeine that concludes that in fact, caffeine is a drug.  Below are some exerps, but you should definitely read the whole article - for your own information:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~4david/caffeine.html

"Caffeine is the world's most popular drug"
think about it...

"Caffeine-caused tremor can reduce hand steadiness."
ya think?!

"The lowest known dose fatal to an adult has been 3,200 mg - administered intravenously by accident."
um... caffeine can kill you???? yes.

I'm in New York on a one month stay to get familiar with the work environment at Google, and to see if I can find a permanent place to live.  Here's a summary of what's up so far...

Google is great... everything you have ever heard is true!  Massage chairs, free gourmet meals, lots of toys to play with, and the hippest work space you can imagine.  I am really happy that I have this opportunity, even though I know it won't last forever.  The next six months of my life will be a unique and wonderful experience that will take me somewhere new.  After all, it's not about the destination, it's all about the journey.  Here's to adventure!

So far I have been pretty wrapped up in work, and getting familiar with the city, but I was finally able to really hit the town last night, and upon doing so, remembered why I LOVE this city so much, and why Los Angeles is not the place for me.  I made more friends in one night in New York than I have made in years in Los Angeles, and most of these new friends were made before I even got into the club - Top of the Roof, which is a sick, 40th floor, roof top, penthouse club... AMAZING!  I'm not usually into the really posh clubs, but when the views are epic, the DJ is rockin', and the girls are georgous, it's hard to not have a good time.  New York definitely has more attractive women in it than Los Angeles, contrary to common belief.  The bartenders are more nice here.  They actually come up to YOU and ask YOU what you want to drink without having to fight just to get the bartender's attention.  One bartender lady even bought me a drink!  That has never happened to me in Los Angeles!

There weather has been really nice which is great because I am staying in a place that doesn't have air conditioning.

Possibly the best part of New York, namely Manhatten, is that you can walk out your door, and turn a corner to find a whole world of everything you need from restaurants to pharmacies to bars to yoga clubs - then walk around the next corner and discover something new... it's so fun!

So, here are  just a couple pictures that I have... for some reason, I haven't been very good about taking pictures on this trip.  I will try to take more.

Taggs (StyleTaggs.com) Trend Portal for Fashion, Electronics and More

I have been working on a fantastic new concept for an online trend portal. It aggregates retail product trends on a global scale, while doubling as a self-expression platform. I just launched an alpha version of the portal, and welcome everyone's feedback. I am currently working on Facebook and MySpace integration as well as many other portal functionality improvements. Check it out at www.styletaggs.com.

About StyleTaggs.com

Taggs is a unique portal that allows anyone on the Internet to identify products that they like, and share them with friends. It also allows users to create wish lists to share with family and friends. Members of Taggs have the opportunity to stay on the cutting edge of technology, fashion and all other areas of retail.

Ok, it's been months since I have written a blog because I have been so insanely busy.  However, this is so absurd that I had to write about it.

Former engineers of Google decided to start their own search engine called "cuil".  I took at look at cuil.com to give it a test drive, and here is what I think:

1. What does "cuil" mean?
2. Most people have dislexic tendencies, they are never going to remember how to spell "cuil". (Caitlyn Carradine was the one who pointed this out)
3. When you query the search engine, it takes at least 60 - 120 seconds to see any results... you're lucky if you get any results at all
4. I searched for "grant powell", a query that returns 13 MILLION RESULTS on Google!  cuil claims that their search engine has more than 3 times as many searchable pages than Google, yet when you search for "grant powell" it returns 0, thats right ZERO results.
5. You can't search for images... useless
6. I think CUIL stands for COMPLETELY USELESS INTERNET LOCATION

For years I have researched and tried to resolve the continuing occurrence of JRUN errors on my ColdFusion MX 6.1 Web application servers.  I found several band aid solutions, and many suggestions that were just not the cause of the problem.  Alas!  I have figured out why this happens and how to prevent it.

If you are experiencing JRUN Error Connection Closed, there is one simple thing that you need to do: For every Microsoft Access data source that you setup, under "Advanced Settings", you need to check the box that is labeled "Limit Connections", and you need to restrict connections to 1.  This is because the ODBC driver for Microsoft Access was not designed to handle multiple connections in a live environment since Microsoft Access was never really designed for higher level applications.  The driver simply crashes when a second connection is opened.  So, your settings should look like this:

In case this doesn't fix your problem, here are some links to other possible causes of JRUN Errors.

• http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_19301

I am so tired of people who have chosen to have nothing better to do than complain and spend their life pursuing new things to complain about.  There are many better things that my neighbor could be doing than complaining to me about where I park my car.  It's public street, and I will park there for as long as is legal.

How about spending your time on something useful.  Make a difference in the world.  There are people out there who need help, go help them, don't bother me.  Don't waste my time, because that prevents me from being able to help other people.  GET A LIFE!

Sack Your Bags
Whole Foods to stop giving out plastic grocery bags by Earth Day

Whole Foods will stop handing out plastic grocery bags by Earth Day, April 22, this year. The mega-retailer of natural foods announced yesterday that it will instead encourage customers to bring their own reusable bags; the lazy and forgetful will have their goodies bundled into 100 percent recycled paper bags. "More and more cities and countries are beginning to place serious restrictions on single-use plastic shopping bags since they don't break down in our landfills, can harm nature by clogging waterways and endangering wildlife, and litter our roadsides," said Whole Foods' A.C. Gallo. "Together with our shoppers, our gift to the planet this Earth Day will be reducing our environmental impact." The grocer estimates that the plastic-bag ban at all its 270 stores in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. will eliminate the use of about 100 million plastic sacks between Earth Day and the end of 2008. All together, Americans throw away about 100 billion plastic bags each year (yes, that's billion with a B).

Hot Rod is a cheap thrill of a comedy.  It's basically recycles a large load of humor and jokes from other movies, and mixes them together with no correlation or relevance.  Now, it was funny, but it wasn't anything I hadn't seen before.  The move felt as if the producer had a big meeting with all the writers where they sat down and said, "Okay, everybody throw out a funny idea, and we will compile them all together in no specific order, and call it a movie."

Have you ever noticed that via a not-so-slow process, women's clothing has taken over 90% of the real estate in clothing stores?  I have.  It seems as if there once existed a clothing store that was a co-op in that perhaps a couple could be out shopping together, and stop in at a popular clothing store and each shop for their respective gender's clothing.  Well, not anymore...

As it turns out, women account for some 75% of clothing purchases.  In other words, women buy more clothing than men.  So to respond to this demand, clothing stores have started purchasing less men's clothing, and more women's clothing.  And thus, they start filling the mens section with women's clothing in a hostile take over.  To the point that it's not worth shopping as a man anymore unless you are going to a men's only store such as the Men's Wearhouse.  It's ridiculous!  How the hell am I supposed to find clothing?

I generally don't shop for clothing, ever, so it's a rare occurence that I will visit a brand name clothing store.  But when I do, I expect to find at least one item that I like, and leave happy.  I recently stopped by Urban Outfitter in Irvine, CA because I was in the area consulting for a client.  I walked in, looked around, and gradually noticed that there wer NO MEN'S CLOTHING.  I walked out of the store, looked at the sign again to make sure I was in the currect store, walked back in and ask one of the people who work there, "do you sell any clothing for guys?"  The lady responded, "Yes, over there in the corner."  She pointed to some distant far away location.  I trekked through the jungle of women and their clothing - I almost didn't make it!  Until at last I discovered the sacred land of men's clothing... a mere 10' x 10' corner of disappointing selection.

It was a sad day.  I left, and vowed never to return. 

Now I shop online.

Today is my birthday, and what a great day it is!  I have never had so many people call, email or facebook me ever!  It's so amazing to realize that you have so many loving friends and family.

I am 26.  I own a small website development company.  I live in Agoura Hills California.  I am currently training to run a marathon.  I own two houses in Colorado and a condo in Malibu.  I like to ride horses, climb walls, and play guitar... and this is what I look like.

I LOVE lentils, especially green De Puy Lentils.  I eat them at least 2-3 times per week.  I've put together a pretty simple yet tasty recipe for cooking them...

In my opinion, lentils are best when eaten with rice.  My recipe calls for the following:

• 1/4 cup of organic green de puy lentils
• 1/4 cup of organic mixed wild rice
• 1/8 tablespoon of ground cayene pepper
• 1/8 tablespoon of salt
• 1/4 tablespoon of garlic salt
• 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil

Basically, boil some water, throw in all of the ingredients above, and keep it at a steady boil until all the water has boiled away.  If the lentils and rice are too hard for your taste, then simply add more water and boil for longer.  This dish is great by itself, in a burrito, or in a bowl with some chicken... love it.

My brother LOVES "Copperhead Road" by Steve Earle, and it shows in the video. Check out what a hard core country rocker my lil' bro is!

I actually ran 20.5 miles because we got lost and ended up taking a 0.5 mile detour :)

Yet another milestone in my life and in my marathon training.  Coming back from a 6 week break from a tendon related foot injury.  The longest I have ever ran was 14 miles, and that was before my injury.  The longest I have ran since my injury was only 12.25 miles.  I made over an 8 mile jump!  It's truly an amazing feeling to be able to accomplish this!  It's so wonderful to have so much support from my team and especially my coach.  After the run he gave me a big hug and said, "Great job, it's really amazing that you able to do that after being injured and out of training for so long..."  I got all emotional, seriously, and I am not a crier... at all... ever... in fact never.  Anyways, you get the point.  What a great feeling!  The 26.2 mile marathon is gonna be a peice of cake.

Now I get to go to a business meeting.  Oh damn.  This should be interesting.

In case you were wondering, here is what I look like after 20.5 miles of running.  Yes, that is all salt from sweat on my shirt.  I had to shoot packets of salt like tequila shots in order to avoid hyponatremia, and I must have drank an entire gallon of water all by myself to avoid dehydration.  Hyponatremia is when the sodium level in the plasma/blood of your body runs too low.  Beginning symptoms such as nausea and headache can occur.  As it worsens, confusion and "diminished relexes" will be the symptoms.  Ultimately it can lead to death.  So as marathon runners, we have to be careful by including lots of salt in our diet.  

This girl clearly has been dancing for a long time in order to be able to pull something lie this off without getting kicked off state.
http://www.impulstanz.com/gallery/videos/qtf138/

Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) only use 25 percent of the electricity a wasteful standard incandescent light bulb uses. Some even last a minimum of 7 years. Using less wattage they produce the same glow and amount of light normal bulbs do, but will save you tons of money.

According to the American Lighting Association, lights account for 25 percent of a homeowner's electric bill. "There are a lot of other energy guzzlers in the house besides lighting," says Monty Gilbertson, CLC, manager and buyer for Lighting Design by Wettsteins in Lacrosse, Wis. "But everyone thinks of lighting first because that is what you see."

Here are some other useful energy saving tips.  When combined, you could see a serious decrease in your energy bill:

1. Computers- Turn off at night
2. Dishwasher - Stop Using
3. Unplug and unused electronics or power adapters such as your cell phone.

So... I am still uncertain as to what exactly happened with my Biodiesel Website and why it got blacklisted by Google.  All I know is that it was on the first page of the search results when you searched for "biodiesel stations" for a long time, then BAM, it just disappeared.  A month later, it's back!  This is great news, looks like I've got to get to work writing some content for the site.

www.biodieselstations.org

"Just because your tattoo  has Chinese characters in it doesn't make you Spiritual. It's right above  the crack of your ass. And it translates to 'beef with broccoli.' The last  time you did anything spiritual, you were praying to God you weren't  pregnant. You're not spiritual. You're just high.

If you ever hope to be a credible adult and want a job that pays better than  Minimum wage, then for God's sake don't pierce or tattoo every available  piece of flesh. If so, then plan your future around saying, 'Do you want  fries with that?'"

-Unknown

"There's no such thing as  flavored water. There's a whole aisle of this crap at the supermarket,  water, but, without that watery taste. Sorry, but flavored water is called a  soft drink. You want flavored water? Pour some scotch over ice and let it  melt. That's your flavored water."

-Unknown

I've become a pretty big fan of Scotch these days.  My friend Michael Williams turned me onto it with a gentle introduction via McCallen 18 Single Malt Scotch Whiskey... ooh la la.

Christmas Music Makes Me Sick

The American Express Plum Card has been great to use so far.  I am really happy with it.  In a couple weeks, I spent almost $6,000 on the card with no declines and no hassles.  I requested that my statement end on the 15th of the month instead of the 30th (which is another great perk of having the card, they let you choose your statement date.), and so now I can either pay off my balance and enjoy a cash back credit of over $100, or I can pay 10% of the balance and wait 60 days to pay off the rest.  It's really usefull!  Not to mention, I get all sorts of attention when I use it... people are like, "Wow, I've never seen this before."

In conclusion, everyone should have an American Express Plum Card.

I am listening to 93.1 JACK FM and the "Rock Lobster" song by the B-52's just came on.  I can't help but laugh at the lyrics!  I can't believe them.  Let's see, one line says, "It wasn't a rock, it was a Rock Lobster!"... and the singer is so intense about it.  It's like WO, what's going on here!?

Did you know that this song is in the Rock n' Roll Top 500 Hall of Fame, and it was the band's first single to appear on Billboard's Hot 100.  It has got to be the worst song I have ever heard.  I mean, it's funny to listen to, but what f***ing drugs were these people on!?

"Rock Lobster", Britney Spears, Pop Country, "My Hump My Hump"... MAN! We Americans desperately need to get better taste in music.

I had to drive my brother to the airport today... no, not LAX, allllll the way to Long Beach via the 405 freeway.  Not a big deal.  We figured we would get an early start, so we left at 5:00 AM.  Surprisingly, there was still some traffic!  But we got in the carpool lane and made it from Agour Hills to the Long Beach Airport in an hour.  A couple of goodbye's and my brother and his girlfriend were off.

Naturally, we can assume that there would be more traffic heading back towards downtown Los Angeles as it was getting later.  However, nothing could have prepared me for the horrific traffic I experienced.  We all know that Los Angeles drivers are horrible, and it's no wonder why.  Last time I was at the Department of Motor Vehicles to take my written exam to renew my license, the lady in front of me got 13 questions wrong.  And the lady who was grading the exam said, "Ma'am, this is your third time taking the test without passing... Are you having trouble understanding the questions?"  These are the kind of people behind the wheeel of automobiles, turning them into lethal weapons!!!

No one pays attention to the road, most people change lanes without signaling, and without even looking!!!!  It's as if they think they are the only person on a five lane freeway.  And the kicker... as soon as it starts raining, the world ends.  All logic, reason and awareness just magically disappears.

It was this combination, rush hour traffic and rain, that lead to my drive home from Long Beach Airport to Agoura Hills taking OVER 3 HOURS!!!  That's right, I travelled 55 miles in 3 hours.  That's an average of 18 miles per hour THE ENTIRE WAY HOME.

Fun.  I love Los Angeles.

I have not yet had the chance to play any version of Guitar Hero.  However, my friend Danny just purchased Rock Band for Xbox 360, and brought it to my house for the weekend.  We had a pretty sick setup with our Yamaha / surround sound system (including a Sony 12 inch subwoofer), and a DUDE - The day he brought it over, we literally spent over 8 hours glued to the television with a bottle of tequila.  I mostly played the drums.  I couldn't believe that the game included a full pseudo drum set, and a microphone that you can sing into while the game recognizes your pitch to see if you are singing in key and scores you accordingly.  Amazing!  Video games have really come a long way.

That night, I suffered a hang over and severe wrist pain from playing all day.  I haven't played it since, but I thought it was a very entertaining video game.  Good group fun... maybe even for parties because it has the whole karaoke thing going on...

I just started working on my Biodiesel Fuel Stations website (www.biodieselstations.org) which features a search function to locate gas stations by zip / postal code that pump biodiesel and other alternative fuels.  The next step for me was to start writing relevent and information articles about alternative fuels and what they mean to the world of ecenomy, energy and the environment.  I even lined up a couple contributing editors: Gerard Griesbaum, Caitlyn Carradine and Levi Powell.  After only a couple weeks, the website started coming up on the first page of Google for search terms such as "biodiesel stations".

Things were looking great until Google decided to BLACKLIST our website!  I can't figure out what would have caused that, and apparently there is no way to get yourself un-blacklisted.  One source suggested that you "write" Google to consider removing you from the blacklist, but it sounds pretty hopeless to me.

I have heard before that Google blacklists for duplicate content.  I did "borrow" some content from www.biodiesel.org, but I placed a link with it so that people would know where to go to get good information since mine didn't have any yet.  That's what I get for trying to help, eh?  Now the website is hopeless.  I don't know if Google will ever un-blacklist the domain name.  And without Google on our side, the website will never succeed.

It's really amazing to think about the power that Google has.  They giveth and they taketh away.  By using Google correctly, you can make million!  But one slip up, and BAM!  You're broke.

Caitlyn's new dog apparently loves milk!

Have you ever heard the phrase, "You are so bad at cooking that you burn water"?  Well, believe it or not, I actually burned water.  Sounds impossible, right?

I'm actually a great cook, and this is an isolated incident.  I got distracted.  But still, how did I manage to burn water?  Well, you see, I was steaming vegetables for dinner... carrots and yellow squash, and I got side tracked with power issues I was having.  For some reason, my UPS kept beeping and turning off, and I was worried about my computer equipment.  So as I was fiddling around with electronics, I started to smell burnin.  I was certain that my whole home office was going to explode in flames!  Meanwhile, my pot ran out of water, and the vegetables were really roasting.  And as it turns out, it was the vegetables that I smelled burning, not my computer.  I am still not sure what physically or chemically took place, but by the time I figured out what was going on, the vegetables were completely blackened, and so was the pot, which was completely devoid of any moisture.  So somehow, the pot just... burned... when all the water evaporated away.  I almost threw out the pot, I had to go through three rounds of scrubbing, and it is still not cleaned.

Moral of the story, yes, it is possible to burn water.  So beware!

And I still haven't figured out what is wrong with the electrical wiring in my house.

I have a pretty pussy
Her name is Kitty Powell
She likes to sit and talk with me
But all she says is "meow"

It seems as we get older, it seems we start to believe that the thing that were fun when we were younger, are no longer of any interest.  I am writing this blog to challenge that thought process.  I believe that the simplest games of our youth can be the most entertaining games of our adult lives.

Take twister for example: Simple, not mentally challenging, but as we get older, much more physically challening.  And add a little alchohol to the mix, VOILA!  Fun filled night.  Just look at these pictures from my friends' party at their new apartment in Los Feliz.

Now if you REALLY want to spice it up, here are a couple things to try.

Extreme Twister / Team Based - Try with teams, this ups the strategy involved.  Team members can help each other out while handicapping the opponent by strategic placement of limbs.

Muli-Game / Team Based - Try using multiple trister pads and making use of both of them either for each team individually, cross-team, or cross pad use.

Strip Twister / Singles Only - I will leave this up to your imagination.

In conclusion, I challenge you to try this, and apply these sorts of modifications to games of your youth.  I think you will be pleasantly surprised at the outcome and the endless hours of fun.

Today heralds a huge accomplishment.  I have made an amazing recovery from my foot injury and have passed a huge milestone in my new training.  Today I ran 8.4 miles in 87 minutes (1 hour, 27 minutes) and although tired and soar, my foot has no pain of injury.  It's as if the physical therapy has brought me to a 100% recovery in only a couple weeks.  Amazing!  I am so happy to be running again.  My milestone for next week is 11.9 miles.  I am really looking forward to it.

When I stepped onto my lawn yesterday morning, I noticed it was particularily CRUNCHY!  "Who has crunchy grass?", I said.  I looked down and realized my grass was crunchy because it was FROZEN!  The weather has been SO cold out here in Agoura Hills... it is below freezing at night.  I leave my sliding door in my room open for my cat at night, and since I don't believe in wasting energy on heaters, it basically gets below freezing in my bedroom... and I love it.  I use two down comforters at night to keep warm, and I feel like I am camping.

I challenge anyone to find fault in this guy's arguments.

Has anyone ever noticed that EVERYTHING that Google has developed outside of their search engine lacks in functionality, reliability, and overall usefullness?  I have.  Everything from their Ad Sense to their Groups, even to their maps.  What Google does is find a company that has made something great, they buy it, take credit for it, and then ruin it.

Google Maps gives the wrong directions 9 out of 10 times and I end up being late to my meetings.  I now use Mapquest instead.

Google groups doesn't work.  At all.  You cannot find the group you want, you cannot create groups, if you join a group you can never read any threads, and the whole system is nothing more than a Spam bucket.

Ad Sense - okay, let's all sit down and try to develop the most complicated, difficult to use, mis-informed advertisement system.  That way, everyone who is using it will not realize how much they are being screwed.  You realize that Google will charge a vendor $5.00 for a click, and pay you only $0.50.  Does anyone wonder why they are billionaires??

It seems as though Google is running around like a child in a shopping mall with loads of cash just buying whatever they see that intrigues them, then playing with it until it is broken and then giving it to some one else... the public.  Google needs to focus on what they know how to do instead of spreading themselves thin.

I was stoked to receive my Amex Plum Card in the mail today, and I was also happy that it was not nearly as PINK as I thought it would be.  It is much more plum / eggplant.

I am continually impressed with the level of service and customer service that American Express offers.  If I could operate like one company, it would definitely be them.  And their branding is epic.  They sent this fancy little brochure with my Plum Card - it was so elite in design, style, and brand representation.

Today marks a milestone in my recovery.  Today I ran the furthest distance since injuring my foot.  I ran 4.9 miles!  For the last month, as soon as I hit the 3 mile marker, my foot would start suffering horrible pain and I would have to stop.  I would then be left hobbling around as a gimp for the next four days or so.  It's been very frustrating, and it seemed like things were not getting any better in spite of my several doctors visits and therapy work.

I visited Dr. Jeff Waldberg (www.orthopropt.com) again on Thursday, and since then, things have been really improving.  I ran on Saturday, and although my foot hurt at the end of the run, the pain wasn't quite as bad, and today, I just finished my run which was 1.4 miles longer than I was able to do before, and I feel no pain.  My doctor clearly did something right.  Here are a couple of things that we have been doing.  For all you runners out there, if you have an  injury in your foot, I strongly suggest you employ all these tactics for fast recovery:

• Ultrasound - My physical therapist doctor uses some ultrasound device.  Supposedly it offers "deep" warming and relaxation on the targeted area.  It feels great, kind of like a massage.
• Bone Adjustment - One theory on my foot injury was that a bone was knocked out of place.  So we did an "adjustment" similar to what a chiropractor would do via a whipping motion.
• Walk - Run Ratio - I lowered my walk run ration meaning that I used to run 7 minutes, then walk for 1 minute.  But now I am only running 4 minutes and then walking for 1 minute.
• Stretching - I decided to start stretching mid-run.  I only do one type of stretch that stretches the back part of your calf muscle.  You would be surprised how many other parts of your feet and legs are effected by this muscle pulling if it is not properly stretched and is too tense.  I have been spending at least 15 minutes before each run stretching.
• Pace - You should always keep a steady pace whether you are injured or not.
• Ice - Use ice after every run on as many joint as possible.  Target areas that hurt more, but don't forget about the other areas as well.  If you are hard core enough, you can take an ice bath to cool your entire body and relieve the inflammation everywhere.  Also, use ice on your off days even if you didn't exercise that day; use ice on injured or sore areas.  I use ice every day on my foot.
• Anti-Inflammatories / Pain Killers - I generally shy away from any type of drug.  I can deal with pain so I don't need to take pain killers after a run, but the reality is that if you do, it will drastically help decrease the inflammation of stressed or injured areas, and thus drastically shorten the recovery time.  I have been taking 2 - 4 ibuprofen every other day or so, and will continue until my foot is better.
• Keep Running! - If you are injurred, but you can still run, keep doing so, but within your bodies threshhold.  If you find that when you keep running, the distance you can run gets shorter each time, then don't continue because you are making the injury worse.  But if your distance is increasing, then keep at it.

Here is a link to more great information on foot injuries.
http://www.rice.edu/~jenky/sports/thefeet.html

Since my cat has been sick, I have had to force feed her with a syringe.  This in an instructional video on how to make a kitty burrito to facilitate the force-feeding process. The purpose of the "burriot" is to immobilze the cat, and to prevent the cat from injuring its feeder.  I also clipped my cats talons just incase she got out and freaked out, which she does occasionally.

Sorry it took me so long to get these photos up.  I lost the card reader for my Nikon Coolpix S3 digital camera, so I wasn't able to download the photos.  I just went to Staples today and picked up a Sony multi-card reader that connects through USB and works pretty great. 

Anyways, check out these insane pictures of the most recente fire in Malibu.  The photos were taken from Latigo Shore, Kanan and the Malibu Villas.  Look closely at the people trying to protect their homes with garden hoses... I probably shouldn't laugh, but it was so futile that it was funny.

I was forwarded the email belwo.  I read it, and for a second felt relieved; I felt that my woes were lifted and that I didn't really lose hundreds of thousands of dollars of equity in my current real estate investments.  But then, I thought again... I thought about the REALITY of the CURRENT REAL ESTATE MARKET, and the reality is:  The market has tanked, and it's only going to get worse from here.  Big real estate guru's are releasing propaganda in the form of positive reports of current market trends to try and keep people buying, but it's time we realize the severity of the situation.  It's time we realize that the average American's debt to income ratio is higher than ever.  It's time to realize that tens of thousands of employees are being laid off.  It's time to realize that the over-inflated real estate market has NO SUPPORT and is rapidly falling.  You decide for yourself, but I personally am taking action to prepare for the economic hardship ahead.

Price drops are sobering, but the big picture is still rosy...
By Kenneth R. Harney, Washington Post Writers Group
November 18, 2007

WASHINGTON -- With the daily din of bad news about housing, it's easy to lose sight of some larger economic realities: Despite declining prices in many markets, homeowners still control near-record equity holdings, just under $11 trillion.

In its latest quarterly "flow of funds" statistical report, the Federal Reserve calculated that U.S. homeowners' equity accounts totaled $10.9 trillion by mid-2007. That was the net difference between total mortgage debt ($10.1 trillion) and the total market value of residential real estate (about $21 trillion).

The second-quarter equity number was down about $6 billion from the first quarter of the year but was $48 billion higher than it was at the end of 2006.

In other words, there's no question that equity holdings have declined this year and may well be lower when the Fed issues its next quarterly report in mid-December. But in an $11-trillion marketplace, a $6-billion giveback in a cyclical correction is not a cause for panic.

A similar, localized reality affects dozens of metro markets that saw double-digit appreciation rates during the boom years. Prices are off 4.4% on average among 20 major markets covered by the latest Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home-price index. But if prices more than doubled as they did in 33 metropolitan markets between 2001 and 2006, according to federal estimates, even 10% and higher average price drops in once-booming areas of California and Florida have left long-term owners with most of their paper gains intact.

Earlier this month, in the Fort Myers area of southwest Florida, where average home prices jumped 130% between 2001 and 2006, a taxi driver told me that he bought a house for $234,000 four years ago and turned down an offer for $439,000 in early 2006. Now he figures he can't get more than $379,000 for it -- a $60,000 drop in value in a year and a half. But he figures he's still ahead by $145,000 and has more than $150,000 in equity.

His estimates of gain may be optimistic -- he didn't factor in his costs of ownership, such as mortgage payments, taxes, insurance, improvements and the like. But his basic conclusion is probably correct. Even with the price declines that have racked the area, he's well ahead.

Similar stories are commonplace in many parts of the country, with two large exceptions: People who bought close to the peak of the boom -- and thus weren't in the house long enough to reap advantages from double-digit appreciation -- may now be in negative-equity territory. Add to that homeowners in unemployment-ravaged communities, especially in the industrial Midwest, where foreclosures are pulling entire neighborhoods' house values down and destroying equity built up over years.

Many of these stories affect consumers' perspectives on what's happening in housing. But as sobering as they are, they are not the predominant reality in real estate across the country.

For the vast majority of owners, the giveback has been a modest fraction of the price gains of the previous five years.

Citing Case-Shiller index data, Brian Catalde, president of the National Assn. of Home Builders, says home prices in Los Angeles fell 5.7% in the last 12 months but are up a net 88.9% since 2002.

Phoenix prices were down by 8% in 12 months, according to the Case-Shiller index, but were up by a net 80.2% between 2002 and 2007. And, of course, there are dozens of metropolitan home markets that never were touched by the boom's excesses and have not seen price drops at all.

Examples include Dallas, where homes gained by an average of just 17.8% in value during the boom years of 2001 to 2006, according to the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight's home price index. But from mid-2006 through mid-2007, Dallas house prices gained 5%. Add in swaths of the country from the Pacific Northwest to parts of North Carolina, Tennessee, Utah and Rocky Mountain states where house prices continue to gain moderately, and you begin to see the bigger picture.

Bottom line: The housing price correction cycle continues in many -- not all -- parts of the country. But in the absence of a recession or major capital markets crisis, most homeowners' equity stakes are intact.