Robbed In Wheaton

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Feb 152012
 

Last night I went out after work to get groceries at the Giant supermarket in Wheaton, MD. I also had to fill up my car with gas too. I had just over a quarter tank and I don’t like to have the tank so low when it’s so cold. But I get a bonus card discount on gas depending on how much I spent at Giant, so I intentionally went food shopping first.

While I was shopping at Giant, I did notice a guy looking at me and acting weird. I didn’t think much of it at the time but he quite abruptly walked towards the front of the store after he saw me go to the next to last aisle.

Now the man acting odd inside the store could have been a coincidence, but when I got outside I found my gas tank cover pried open. I started up the engine and the tank – which I knew was 1/4 full when I went into the store – was now below E.

Somebody had watched me enter the supermarket with bags in hand, and then syphoned the gasoline out of my car while I was shopping! (The strange guy inside may have been a lookout.)

They only got about 2 or 3 gallons of gas, so less than $10 worth. Perhaps they thought my tank would be more full since I have North Carolina plates, because otherwise why would you bother with a tiny Scion that only has an 8 1/2 gallon tank?

Anyway, even below E, I was able to drive around the corner and fill up the tank. Because it was empty, it was the most I’ve ever spent to fill up this car.

Socialize Me

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Feb 112012
 

I’ve been social networking for years. The professional networking site LinkedIn since 2007, Facebook since 2008, and  Twitter in 2009. That’s largely how it remained until recently when I got my new wi-fi mini tablet (which I still need to write about). Since getting the portable Android device, I’ve added a few more social networks.

I’m now on FourSquare, the locational social network that allows you to check-in online to places you’re at in the real world. It’s fun but I’d use it a heck of a lot more if I weren’t completely dependent on free wi-fi hotspots. Patty thinks it’s creepy for people to follow where I am, but I decide where and when to check in – it’s not like it’s tracking me all the time. My favorite check-ins so far have been at Bank of America Stadium. It’s cool to be part of a “Super Swarm” on game days, and it’s also cool to check in to the press box due to its exclusivity.

And I’m on GetGlue now too, which is similar to FourSquare but instead of checking-in to places you’re at in the real world you check in to media – like what you’re watching on TV or what books you’re reading. It’s fun to see what shows your friends are watching at the same time. It’s also cool to see real-time trending stats, sort of like instant Nielsen ratings. Or to know that when you’re watching an obscure old DVD that’s not popular anymore, that there are at least a few other people somewhere out there that happen to be watching the same movie as you at that same moment.

And finally – having nothing to do with my Android device – I’m on Google+ now too. I was one of the earliest people with a Google account – a private beta tester – but I had to wait until just recently to be able to get on Google’s new social service because they didn’t roll it out to their Google Apps customers until recently. Most people think it’s like Facebook, only not nearly as good. They are wrong. Google+ isn’t trying to compete with Facebook as a destination. Google+ is a social layer to Google’s existing products. Perfect example: I was searching Google for something and one of the results just happened to be a site that a friend of mine had +1′d. His photo showed up next to that search result as a recommendation, and possibly boosted its ranking in the search results.

I must admit that all these social networks make blogging more difficult. The blog is good for longer posts and subjects of broader appeal, but shorter posts to friends and family are easier to fire off on a social network.

Rat Trap

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Feb 052012
 

I’m on the bus back from Charlotte now but this weekend I got to meet the latest member of the family. While I’ve been away, Maegan got a pet white rat, which she named Pixel.

So now we have both a rat and a rat terrier (bred to hunt and kill rats). This sounds horribly cruel to both animals, and could have been, but Boomer doesn’t seem to care about the rat. Perhaps because we already trained him not to go after Maegan’s other pet rodent, a hamster named Peaches.

Along with Darah’s fish, Atlas, the house has become a zoo.

One Wrong Makes A Right

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Feb 012012
 

This morning I was a jerk and a hero at the same time.

There was one open seat on the Metro this morning. A guy was sitting on the left side of the train, writing on a notepad on his right knee with his right elbow sticking way out, literally halfway into the next seat. (No wonder this was the last available seat.) When I started to sit down he wouldn’t move his elbow out of the way. I squeezed into the seat anyway and he still wouldn’t move. I assertively said “excuse me” and the jerk just tilted his head up slightly and glared straight at me. He still wouldn’t budge. Not fully in a seat yet, I jammed in there and the battle to not be pushed out of my own seat escalated.

After a few stops I looked up and noticed a LARGE older woman standing in the aisle. I immediately stood up and offered the woman my seat. Giving my seat up for an elderly woman was the right thing to do anyway, but it was so damn satisfying to look back and see the guy who was sitting next to me, now squeezed up tight against the glass, shoulders collapsed inward, no longer able to write anything anymore. A good deed and revenge, all rolled-up into one sweet action. It was a win-win.

Surprise!

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Jan 242012
 

It was almost the biggest surprise ever.

Late yesterday I got word at work that there was a strong desire to send me out the following day on what would have been my first business trip ever. The reason would have been to assist with a time-sensitive video shoot in another state, to ensure that everything went smoothly.

That state was North Carolina. The specific location was Mooresville, in the Charlotte metro area!

It looked probable, but the final decision wouldn’t be made until we discussed it in a group meeting early the next morning. So I went to work with luggage packed, ready to leave in the afternoon.

Since nothing would be definate until just hours before leaving for the airport, I didn’t mention anything to Patty or the kids. First, I didn’t want to get their hopes up incase plans feel through. But also, how awesome would it have been to knock on the front door and surprise Patty and the kids, totally unexpectedly?! (I would’ve had to leave at 5:30am to make it to my shoot, but a short visit is better than no visit.)

Needless to say, I didn’t end up going to Charlotte on business today. If I had, I would’ve been knocking on the front door and saying “Surprise!” right at this very moment. And I also would’ve been posting some totally awesome video too, shortly thereafter.
:-(

Neighborhood Insecurity

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Dec 032011
 

Yesterday I was walking back from the Metro after work. It’s a mile walk. Just because I was curious, I took out my new Android mini-tablet (more on that in a future post) and ran one of several wi-fi scanning programs I have. These aren’t hacking apps. They’re just standard apps that scan for available wi-fi networks, such as local hot-spots you’d find in a Starbucks or elsewhere. As I walked I just watched the screen, which refreshed every five seconds.

Throughout my mile-long walk through the neighborhood, I was never in a spot with less than four wi-fi signals. That’s a lot of wi-fi spilling into the streets. My first thoughts were about how many people used personal information in the name of their network, including people’s names. Just walking by I could tell that Mary and Anthony were the names of a couple of my neighbors.

Most of the wi-fi throughout the neighborhood was secured networks that you would need a password to get on to. But what surprised me was at least 10 different wi-fi signals were totally open, unprotected from anybody like me stealing their bandwidth. One person (Anthony, mentioned above) had two very strong network signals. One that was secure named “Anthony-secure” and another totally unprotected signal named “Anthony-guests”. What the heck is the point of having a secure wi-fi signal if you have another insecure signal on the same network? That’s like having a lock on your back door but having the front door wide open.

Metro Test

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Dec 022011
 

This is just a quick test to see if my WordPress for Android app really works offline as it claims to. (Obviously needing internet access later to actually upload.)

 Posted by at 9:34 pm

Karma Calling

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Nov 212011
 

On Sunday I left right on time to drive to the Metro station and then take the train into the city to watch a certain professional football team play. (Not naming teams.) After locking up my car and walking down to the Metro entrance, a stranger stopped me and asked me if I had jumper cables in my car. I always have jumper cables in my car. I didn’t want to be late for my game and lose a seat, having to stand for the entire three hour game, but of course I helped her out. We walked back up to the parking lot, I drove my car over to her’s, popped the hood, and connected the jumper cables. It took a few tries but she finally got her car started. I put everything away and re-parked my car.

It didn’t take too long but it took long enough that I knew I was now going to miss kickoff, and most likely lose a choice seat too. I thought to myself that karma owes me for helping that woman and I had the urge to tweet a comment about it. While walking back down to the Metro entrance I pulled out my cell phone specifically to tweet about karma and pressed the button to unlock it. Instead of my standard unlock screen or any other display that would show when using one of the phone’s various functions, I was extremely surprised to see an unobstructed full screen photo of the universe displayed on my phone, without any buttons, icons, or text that I would normally see on my phone display. I had never seen this image on my phone before!  This image may have been hidden in my  phone as a factory setting but that still wouldn’t explain how it magically showed up just then, for no reason. Was this karma trying to tell me something?

When I finally got to the ‘local establishment’ that was showing the game, I did indeed miss kickoff. But somehow there was still a seat left for me! A good one. Karma?

Jane’s Voice Mails

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Nov 202011
 

On Friday I kept getting voice mails from an old lady named Jane in North Carolina. Messages ranged from not knowing the location of the restaurant we were supposedly meeting at later, to this very strange one…

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