For those of you who didn't know yet...

We are totally going to have a baby in July...

There it is out there...we don't know what we are having yet but we will find out probably in February or something...

It pretty much totally freaks me out but is exciting at the same time for a whole host of reasons. I would like to throw out there that if it is a boy I am pulling for a middle name of Danger. Erin pretty much hates that idea but maybe if everyone in the world leaves comments that it is awesome she could relent and our kid could have the coolest middle name ever.

Anyway, there will be more updates as things progress and I am sure that I will start posting all kinds of pictures and media. I think that part of my problem with regularly posting is that I have no consistent schedule. Maybe having a kid with needs like going to bed at a certain time will change that and I will post regularly. Time will tell I guess...

ScribeFire

Here is something that I think will help me stay more up to date with my blogging, which has fallen by the wayside as of late. I recently added the ScribeFire add-on for Firefox and so far it is pretty cool.
Yes I know, all of you that I helped convert to Apples are thinking that there is no way Dan is really forsaking Safari, but you should know that this is Firefox on my Windows XP partition on my MacBook Pro, so have no fear, it is just while I am at work.
Anyhoo...yeah so there is so much stuff going on here. Erin's parents are showing up tonight and I still have some cleaning to do. Christmas Eve services are tomorrow and I am running media for that from 11:45am until all five services wrap up around 8 or so, then I am directing the actual weekend service as well so busy week.
There are other things going on as well. I never got around to mentioning our trip back east seeing friends and being in NYC on black friday. Maybe later.

The Top Ten Reasons Why Kanye West Is a Douche

Below are two parts of a ten part list on why Kanye West is a Douch. I laughed out loud several times and that is kind of rare. Yes I know that my friend Mark will probably respond with something about how each of those points is not true...but the guy said "blinding douchebaggery" that is awesome.

2. His new album, due out on November 24th, is a departure from his usual style, as he sings more than he raps. That is all good and well, because he is a talented musician, but then he had to go and douche it up by saying that this change in style is an attempt to challenge the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Paul McCartney, who he describes as "those artists in black and white photos", because taking a crap on music legends serves to make Kanye's genius obvious to all and sundry.

3. In a recent interview, Kanye said, and I am not kidding: "I realize that my place and position in history is that I will go down as the voice of this generation, of this decade, I will be the loudest voice. It's me settling into that position of just really accepting that it's one thing to say you want to do it and it's another thing to really end up being like Michael Jordan."

Read the full list here from mamapop.com

So talented...and a nerd

Ok so I do not like to be that guy who just puts random videos on his blog that he had nothing to do with making. However, I ran across this video while I was browsing The Awesomer. This guy does John Williams movie themes acapella with himself doing four part harmonies with lyrics all about Star Wars. Absolutely amazing! Yeah it is about 4 minutes long but worth the watch.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk5_OSsawz4&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&fs=1]

Quorum

So this past weekend was really full. And I had an exhausting week of work before that. I am tired. But, I will say that I am really excited about what is happening at our church high school ministry.

As part of a brainstorming session on how we could involve students more effectively, I put forth the idea of a student council type of group where there would be one representative from each small group that would meet with us adult leaders and talk about direction, we could get feedback, make sure they are getting plugged in and overall get a better more accurate feel of what the students are thinking about different aspects of the ministry. Now I will say that the boys I disciple were none to keen on being part of something called Student Council because it is so stereotypical and sound snooty. So I pulled 'Quorum' out of my but and it seems like that is what we are going with. Yes, I know that the overachievers out there learned that it means the number needed to complete a transaction, but if you read the second definition then it says "a particularly chosen group" which I think is appropriate and besides, Q is such a versitile letter when it comes to designing things.

Anyway, yesterday we had our first combined meeting. It went so well. It is so refreshing to work with a group where everyone has a desire to be involved at that next level and just want to know where to pitch in. We had them take a home made survey about our high school service, and it was very informative. Robert was able to take some time to pitch to them the entire process of going through high school ministry from a more macro level and it was really cool to see them get excited about how what they were doing was going go be an integral part of the future of the ministry.

Now I am back to regular life. I would show you what I am working on but it is all social security numbers, account numbers and account balances, kind of the stuff that your company gets shut down for showing.

The New Microsoft Ads

As an Apple fan boy it is my duty to make sure that i keep tabs on everything that Microsoft and Apple do in their advertising. I absolutely hated the ads recently that had Seinfeld and Bill Gates being retarted in a shoe store. The new ads are somewhat better although if they are meant to counter Apple ads then I think that they missed their mark.

Sure you can argue success for the campaign simply because so many people are talking about it but here is my round up.

The Apple ads are successful because they are specific and point out flaws or stereotypes (for those of you still part of the dark side) with the competing product and then point out how the Apple product does it better. Easy to understand and has a purpose, ie our product is better than theirs.

The Microsoft ads really are just saying, all kinds of people use our Windows product, certainly a billion people cannot be wrong. Really? That is the best offense that you can muster up? Choose ours because lots of other people do? I think that is lame.

This is the ad that I think MS should have run. It might be a little more accurate...

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuZkQvQGIS8]

quote of the day

So eventually i will get around to writing a real post again, but I have to say that the quote of the day has been found:

"If you were not so busy running around like a hysterical chicken, you would not be a democrat"

Random political comment thread FTW!

How To: Clean Black Algae on the Cheap

It is unusual for me to do a how to on my blog. I do not know how to do much that is useful (defined here as handymanesque) other than make up descriptors like handymanesque. I have talked here about my house before. I think I may even have given a video tour of it way back. Maybe not. Maybe I will do that later this week. None of that is the point. The point here is that we have a pool and we have a neighbor with a giant tree that sheds like some kind of four letter word. It does not matter what time of year, there is always something that is coming off of that tree in an unearthly volume. I did some checking and it would seem that the source of black algae could be anything including using the same suit that has been in the ocean. Personally I will stick to blaming my neighbors tree. It is an object on which I can fixate and burn down with laser beams from my eyes. Anywho... 

My problem is two fold. First, no one wants to swim in a pool that has black spots on the side of it. Second, there is the description that I just pulled from WikiAnswers which is as follows.

Black Algae grows in small spots generally up to about 40mm in size. It grows on pool surfaces and is very difficult to remove as it forms in layers when extra chlorine is added to kill it only the top layer is effected and the rest stays as good as new. Black algae can be found in bathrooms between tiles and silicone seals, aquariums on the glass, and in the ocean. Black algae is the toughest algae to get rid of and is very resistant to chlorine.

There is also this encouraging quote from poolcenter.com on the algae page:

Perhaps the most aggravating strain of algae, it has been compared to herpes; "once you've got it, it's there for life." This is not entirely accurate, but the difficulty in eradication is due to the strong roots and protective layers over top of the black algae plant. Black algae will appear as dark black or blue/green spots, usually the size of a pencil eraser tip. Their roots extend into the plaster or tile grout, and unless the roots are destroyed completely, a new head will grow back in the same place. The heads also contain protective layers to keep cell destroying chemicals from entering the organism. Like yellow algae, black strains can bloom even in the presence of normal sanitizing levels and proper filtration. I was once told that this form of algae commonly enters a pool inside the swimsuit of a person who's recently been to the ocean.

Awesome, my pool has herpes. Now what. You would say surely other people have this problem and there is probably a professional solution that is quick and easy. Well it is out there theoretically. I tried the chemical route with this stuff over the winter. There is a specific concoction that you can get at the pool store for about $30 for 20oz. Two bottles of that stuff last fall following the directions to the letter (they failed to mention that whole bit about the roots and protective layers though) which produced a little bit of fading of the black spots but did not eliminate them. Finally, they even started to multiply again this spring when the water started to show signs of getting warmer.
So I have tried lots of things and for the most part my big purge of cleaning the pool in the spring worked. But leave it to the monsoon season to wreck your backyard with multiple storm days in a row and make your pool a bacteria and mold breeding ground while you cannot clean it.
I will post the happy ending for this saga later on, just know that I think I can beat some black algae.

Final Cut Studio 2

So I have not posted here in a while. Actually not anywhere. I have been busy. Ok not really, but I did get some video work and due to the fact that I am working on my intel based MacBook Pro my previous versions of all of my video editing software did not work anymore.

Tonight I went to the Apple store which is 2 miles from my house. Not to be picky but the one that is 10 miles away is bigger and the staff is a little more knowledgable but who am I to complain? There are lots of you out there that do not have a little slice of retail heaven near you.

Anyway, so FCS2. There was a lot of confusion amongst the employees as to which upgrade package I could use. The first guy said I could get the cheaper upgrade and then call apple care and tell them that I have all of the software that makes up the suite. The downside of that would be that if for some reason apple care could not help me out, I would be out $500 and still have to buy software because of the open software policy.

It all worked out in the end so now I am posting while this behemoth is installing. 52GB later I will have some of the best visual tools available and can make whatever I want. The downside is that 52GB takes a long time to install hence the random post for no purpose other than to pass time. More later.

My hope

is to not have my future children write an obituary about me that runs like this:

Dolores Aguilar
1929 - Aug. 7, 2008

Dolores Aguilar, born in 1929 in New Mexico, left us on August 7, 2008. She will be met in the afterlife by her husband, Raymond, her son, Paul Jr., and daughter, Ruby.

She is survived by her daughters Marietta, Mitzi, Stella, Beatrice, Virginia and Ramona, and son Billy; grandchildren, Donnelle, Joe, Mitzie, Maria, Mario, Marty, Tynette, Tania, Leta, Alexandria, Tommy, Billy, Mathew, Raymond, Kenny, Javier, Lisa, Ashlie and Michael; great-grandchildren, Brendan, Joseph, Karissa, Jacob, Delaney, Shawn, Cienna, Bailey, Christian, Andre Jr., Andrea, Keith, Saeed, Nujaymah, Salma, Merissa, Emily, Jayci, Isabella, Samantha and Emily. I apologize if I missed anyone.

Dolores had no hobbies, made no contribution to society and rarely shared a kind word or deed in her life. I speak for the majority of her family when I say her presence will not be missed by many, very few tears will be shed and there will be no lamenting over her passing.

Her family will remember Dolores and amongst ourselves we will remember her in our own way, which were mostly sad and troubling times throughout the years. We may have some fond memories of her and perhaps we will think of those times too. But I truly believe at the end of the day ALL of us will really only miss what we never had, a good and kind mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. I hope she is finally at peace with herself. As for the rest of us left behind, I hope this is the beginning of a time of healing and learning to be a family again.

There will be no service, no prayers and no closure for the family she spent a lifetime tearing apart. We cannot come together in the end to see to it that her grandchildren and great-grandchildren can say their goodbyes. So I say here for all of us, GOOD BYE, MOM.

I just hope that that family will truly be able to find a way to come together and I hope that you will stop giggling at how horrible a person Dolores must have been...

Brilliant Conspiracy Theory

I was reading through some links on Reddit.com (I know you can't read Reddit and Digg, but it is the first and last time I promise), and I came across this video that is closing in on one of the stupidest things that I have heard in a long time. The original link is here, but I have reposted it below for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsyYgSZVaqU&fmt=18]

Favorite quote "This cannot be natural."

Freebie

So those of you (probably both of you who read this) who knew me in college may or may not remember the TV that I bought with Raj and Harvey my Senior year. It was a good deal on a 32" standard CRT at $300 and I bought them out at the end of the year when we all parted ways. Since that time I have moved that TV so many times that it is really ridiculous. Finally this past six months the set really started to lose it. The picture would randomly go to fuzz any time you changed the channel or switched the input (from cable to DVD for example).
Again those of you who know me even a little bit, know that I am a bit of a technophile. I am constantly reading about the latest in AV tech, computers and the like. I have a general handle on the right mix of brand, tech and price that I can afford. Unfortunately, with finances the way that they are, there are so many other things that we need to spend $2,000 on that are not a HDTV.
So for at least six months I have been keeping my eyes and ears open for any kind of deal that I could get on a big screen to fill the 60" wide gap in our built in entertainment center. Needless to say, I jumped at the chance for a 56" TV for our living room especially at the very reasonable price of absolutely free.
I will say a couple of things about it. First, it is not HD. Second it is a rear projection so it is really about 30" deep. Third, Master Chief is about 2'6" tall when I am fragging n00bs in Halo 3. So for right now I am pretty much in TV heaven. I replaced a crappy old TV that was too small for the space we have, the new TV works amazingly and although it lacks the features of a TV that I could have spend a ton of money on, I can sit back on my couch to play games and watch TV instead of four feet away and that is a moment that even Master Card could not bring to me.

Ten things only men can do

I was bumping around on the internet and found a great list of the 10 things only men can do. There were the obvious ones like pee standing up and go topless whenever it suits, but one of my favorites is as follows:

No.5 - Play real sports
Be honest; which of these would you prefer to watch: WNBA or NBA? NHL or women’s hockey? NFL or women’s rugby? MLB or softball? We understand that women play plenty of sports and, yes, they are good athletes, but their sports are a snoozefest to watch. An example, in the WNBA a slam dunk stops the presses, while in the NBA, unless it’s a back reverse through three defenders, it’s just another two points.

Personally, I also thought that the number one choice and the honorable mention for number one were hilarious as well, but go and click on the link and read for yourself. The whole list can be found here if you like. Also check out some of the other great lists that askmen.com has compiled.

Quick Update

So where have I been and why haven't I been writing stuff down? I don't know honestly. I have been working alot. I have been doing all kinds of stuff with the high school boys. I have not had much down time since we got back from Jamaica and I feel like now that the school year is starting for Erin again we might stand a chance at getting back into a regular routine.

All that being said, one of the highlights of the last couple weeks was getting to see one of my oldest and dearest friends, Patrick Rice who was out here in Phoenix with his wife Amy. Erin and I had a great time hanging out with them and honestly a request of his is one of the reasons that I have not posted. 

When the Rices were here we did not have time to have them over to our house and so a request was put forth for a video tour of our house. Any of you who may be like us, working from 7-5 and then going out with either a church function or friends from 7-11pm know that it can be difficult to keep a house clean and functional, so that is a reason for the delay. I simply cannot bear the thought of how mad Erin would be if I put a video up on the internet of a messy house. Also, there has been a significant change to our house that I would like to have in the video and the dust from that even is finally settling down so you may be closer to getting that tour than you think Patrick.

In closing I would like to remind you that if you are interested in what I am looking at or doing on the internet you should check out my activity feeds in either of these places:

FriendFeed

Swurl - Timeline

Also of note, I got a haircut. There are pictures on Flickr or on Swurl.

switchAbit

You may or may not have read that last post that briefly mentioned a website called Swurl. If you have not check it out here or simply click on this link and you will get the hang of it. 

Something else that I would like to highlight that makes Swurl even cooler and simplifies my own life is a site called switchAbit. Basically it allows you to enter the login information for Twitter, Tumblr, facebook, Wordpress, Blogger and a bunch of others into different configurations called switches. This is why there were several posts over the last week or so that were just a post title. I posted those from my Twitter client on my dashboard.

I really like the idea of this because I think that it is useful to have a presence in a bunch of different places but I do not like keeping them all up to date. So I now have my switch set to take any posts from twitter or wordpress and put them on Facebook, Blogger or Tumblr. Handy for me, useful for those of you who actually read anything about me.

When combined with Swurl, socializing and keeping track of friends running around in Web 2.0 is way easier. Let me know what you think of Swurl and I just might make that page my new destination for www.danieldezago.com.

new way to post

So I am back from Jamaica and I have not posted about it. Pretty much it is because of a variety of things:

1. I am still tired from the trip since I went right back to work and then have been scheduled for things since then.


2. I suck at posting


3. I have a bunch of pictures and video waiting to be gone through that I would like to incorporate into this post so that it can be something besides just a bunch of text


4. I have been distracted from fully posting here because I found a new way to post to a whole bunch of places and track a whole bunch of places at once.

On that last note, the site to track everything about me is at Swurl.com. I think that this is a sweet tool for those of us who have profiles in a bunch of different places. Head on over there and join. It is entirely free, and you may realize that you are a member of more things that you realize. It is also a way to share different aspects of your life automatically ie your Blockbuster or Netflicks rental que, digg, tumblr etc. can be added and it all forms one giant running stream of what you are all about.

Go on over and check it out and if nothing else check up on me over there since it will be way more detailed about what I am doing that I could ever be.

back from Jamaica

working on work stuff

so im going to edit now for real

maybe i will work on animating the logo to some music first

so now i am twittering via twitterlex in my dashboard

posting to all of my sites at once...hopefully