July 26th, 2006 by 
gowest
Last September I bought a Treo 650 PDA/Smartphone and was very happy with it. Over time one thing bothered me though. I was paying for unlimited data transfer on Verizon Wireless network, but was limited by the Treo’s slow speeds (hardware limitation). Usually when I come home from work I let Logan play with my 2 cell phones. Yes, I do have 2 cell phones. 1) A personal phone for me and my own business and 2) one (Blackberry) from my dragging full-time job as a Windows System Administrator. Logan loves cell phones a lot. We even gave him an old one we were no longer using and he loves to answer all those “incoming calls”.
Anyway - a drooling baby mouth sucking and chewing on a cell phone is probably not the best treatment for a Treo 650 cell phone. I wonder when they finally make baby-proof cell phones for adults? Don’t they know that stressed parents enjoy moments of silence while baby is quietly playing with the toys provided?! ;) duh ….
The phone itself is still working, but the microphone quit working. So, I can make one-way phone calls - meaning you can talk to me, but no matter how much I yell at you, you cannot hear me. Fun, isn’t it? Well, I decided to bite the bullet and get me a new cell phone in the middle of my contract. I knew that I had to pay retail price and would not get any discounts, but getting a new high-speed Internet enabled phone was very tempting. So, after some quick research in the morning I decided to get a brand new Motorola Q (Moto Q) from Verizon Wireless.
During lunch I went to the closest store and did spend about $500 in phone and accessories. Crazy. I am just glad that my business is going good lately and that I am able to afford these kind of expenses when needed. So, here is my new toy 
The Moto Q - a really cool phone for me.
Posted in Work, Life | 
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July 24th, 2006 by gowest
As an IT professional I am subscribed to a ton of free magazines. Infoworld. Information Week, eWeek, Network Computing, Redmond Magazine, SQL Server Magazine, and many more. I barely find the time to read them all and pick the ones that interest me most. Info World is one of the better magazines I receive and I really enjoy reading it. Well, this week’s issue I will definitely not read. No, no - it’s not that I am mad at them or so. I’d love to read it. It’s just …. well, there is not much to read in the issue I received. Look for yourself.
Apparently my magazine became damaged while in the hands of the United States Postal Service. Damaged might be the wrong word. The entire content was ripped out and only the cover was left when they were done. But the followed procedures and delivered whatever was left: a magazine cover without the magazine inside.
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July 22nd, 2006 by gowest
We’re getting more and more telemarketing calls lately. Someone must have gotten a hold of our phone number and sold it to the next best low-life business that places these numbers into telemarketing businesses. For a while I got mad as I had phone calls at night. Since I worked in a call center for Quark, Inc. I just hate being on the phone in general. It’s annoying. I do not know how it started, but we got a call and I answered. A telemarketing call. The caller asked for me and my business name. I said he got the wrong number and that the former owner filed for bankruptcy. No more questions asked. The caller hung up.
How do you recognize a telemarketing call? You pick up the phone and for a few seconds there is silence and then you hear someone picking up.
The next time I decided to go a little further and “I had just died.” and if I should take a message. The caller apologized and then hung up. So, it is turning into fun a little bit and I hope it helps to get us removed from the lists here and there.
Who are the worst telemarketers? DAV - Disabled American Veterans. I just hate that organization. They called and I asked to be removed from their list. “We cannot do that.”. I said: “Sure, you can.”. “No, we can’t. We are a charity and are not bound to the normal solicitation laws.” My jaw must have been falling down like a dead elephant thrown from the Empire State Building. Do those callers understand that I will never ever donate something to them with that kind of attitude? I mean - what do they expect?! That I honor their annoying persistence with a bigger check? Lately when DAV calls it is fully automated. It’s a machine calling and there is no option to talk to a live person and to get removed. If anyone knows how to get rid of these low-lifes - please let me know.
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July 21st, 2006 by gowest
Logan has been a very stressful baby. This is taking a heavy toll on Simone and we decided that we need help. There is too much at stake. We have not had any free minute where Logan is not fussy or cranky and a normal life with a baby is not possible. Every day we get praying that this will be a good day and not another day from hell. We’re losing almost daily. 5 out of 6 days the day turns into a living nightmare. Simone’s mom offered to come and as much as I hate having someone living with us for 6 weeks, I gave in.
Our house is not that big and you can hear everything. With everything I mean everything. You have no more privacy. It just turns into pure stress. But I think that this kind of stress is easier to handle and that the help we would get is worth it. Hopefully that prayer reaches its destination. So, we called the S.W.A.T. team (Simone’s mom). She got lucky - they put her into business class on the plane. Not bad for a trans-Atlantic flight, huh. So, hopefully everything else will develop as good as this now.
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