Jim Siena's Blog

Jim's Eating Challenge: Day 10

2009-04-15T21:02:00.003-04:00

Final Day! Here at last! I'm so sick of this competition.

I knew Amanda had something extra sick in store for me for this challenge. For this challenge she picked something devious and one of my least favorite foods. In fact I turned this down twice before at various points of the challenge. Mayo. Ewww! So freaking gross.

The mixture and smell of the 2 combined was making me sick. After one bite I had to ask for a reprieve. I opted to go with cottage cheese and gushers (its like a juice filled fruit rollup). That was at least bearable.

Sorry I had to cop out at the end there. But I just couldn't do the mayo.

A piece of gusher is stuck to my mouth

Amanda and Jim celebrate the last bowl.

Amanda gives great presents! A $50 gamestop gift card!

I may never eat cottage cheese again, but I may consider Amanda's next challenge. We'll see. ;-)

Jim's Eating Challenge: Day 9

2009-04-15T20:57:00.003-04:00

Eating challenge Day 9. I might never eat either of these 2 foods again after this competition. Cottage cheese atop a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. OMG, such a bad combo.

On a good note the challenge is almost done!

Jim's Eating Challenge: Day 8

2009-04-15T20:55:00.002-04:00

So here was Day 8 - nothing too exciting. Just a little garlic and cottage cheese.

Jim's Eating Challenge: Day 7

2009-04-07T21:02:00.006-04:00

Day 7 - Eating challenge. I don't know how much more of this I can take. I'm pretty sick of cottage cheese. Today's challenge was not a bad one. It was oatmeal and cottage cheese. More specifically apple cinnamon oatmeal. It added some sweetness to the mad creation.

Here's some pics.

Nmmm, nmmm, nmmm!

Oatmeal and cottage cheese. Isn't that special?

Jim's Eating Challenge: Day 6

2009-04-07T20:56:00.002-04:00

Day 6 - Perhaps the worst food challenge ever invented by man or woman. It was just pure evil, down right diabolical. It was obviously carefully thought out to bring maximum pain and embarrassment. Here's the scoop: cottage cheese and beer. Alone each item is good. Combined it was another watery disgusting mess. Luckily Melissa deleted all evidence that I ever did this, when taking today's pictures, so there is no hard proof. Except both Amanda and Melissa were witnesses to the deed. All I can remember is there shaking heads, laughing...then I passed out. Jk, I finished it all! (But it was still gross).

Stop Time Warner Cable!

2009-04-04T12:02:00.004-04:00

In the fall Time Warner cable is planning on rolling out a tiered internet plan - similar to cellphones. Where you pay by the Gigabyte that you download, with the basic plans starting at just 5GB for $29.99 to a 40 GB at $54.90 a month. This really sucks! Let me explain why.

- Right now Roadrunner is unlimited, no restrictions. Its fast and wonderful and you don't have to worry about anything. In the future people will constantly be worried about going over their GB allotment. Most people have no idea how much they download in a given month, so they would probably opt to go with the higher plans - just out of fear of going over that GB mark. Do you really want to live in a state of fear, similar to cellphones?

- Roadrunner in Rochester has no competition. That is the only reason why they can do this. Syracuse and Buffalo have alternatives like the speedy verizon FIOS. Since Rochester people are stuck with this as the only major broadband, they thing why not make us a test market.

- With the explosion of video and social networking sites on the web, downloading 5GB will not take a long time. Not to mention normal emails, online games, blog postings, website building or just downloading anything will quickly fill up your 5GB.

We really don't need this now. TWC claims its something they should have done a long time ago. Well too bad, nobody wants this. They are really just greedy. It will cost them no more or less to implement a tiered system versus having an unlimited. It all goes through the same cable lines.

You really can't be apathetic about this. Let TWC know that you are upset with this and because of this - you will be removing your service with them. Here's some tips on who to contact and what to do. http://stoptwc.info/

Don't let the man stick it to you!

Jim's Eating Challenge: Day 5

2009-04-04T06:32:00.004-04:00

Day 5 - Soy sauce and cottage cheese. The very thought of it now makes my stomach curd and churn. Get it...that was a cottage cheese reference. Needless to say, not very good. It was way too salty and the brown color didn't help much.

Jim's Eating Challenge: Day 4

2009-04-03T06:36:00.003-04:00

Day 4 - Popcorn and cottage cheese. Mmmm! This was a good one. Can't really go wrong with any crunchy grain type foods and a white bubbly curdy substance.

I heard that Day 5 is supposed to be pretty good. I hope so.

Jim's Eating Challenge: Day 3

2009-04-01T18:05:00.007-04:00

Day3 - Cottage cheese and orange juice. Worst combo so far. Liquids and solids don't mix well.
Blah!

Jim's Eating Challenge: Day 2

2009-04-01T17:48:00.005-04:00

Day 2 of my eating challenge. I'll start of with an observation. White and green are 2 colors that are rarely mixed together in the food world. Well I gotta say - there is probably a good reason they are not. This after eating cottage cheese and relish. Not a bad combo, but not a great one either.

Jim's Eating Challenge: Day 1

2009-03-30T20:36:00.007-04:00

So I was recently challenged to go on a 10 day eating Odyssey. My friend Amanda made a challenge to me to try to eat a serving of cottage cheese for 10 days straight - with one catch. She gets to choose what else gets mixed into the cottage cheese. Since I like cottage cheese this was a challenge I was surely up for.

So here we go!

Day 1 - Cottage Cheese and Raisin Bran cereal.

Mmmmm! Cottage cheese and raisin bran.
Sweet, salty 100% bran flakes and 100% delicious.

Up close and personal.

Looking forward to Day 2 Amanda!

cold

2009-02-09T08:50:00.002-05:00

So I'm officially sick. Sick with a cold, and sick of being sick. It started last Thursday, with an itchy throat. Friday was worse with coughing and more itchy throat and headaches. Saturday I started to feel better, just a few coughs all day and most of the cold had just moved to my nose. Sunday my nose was running like a faucet nonstop. Today, its still running like a faucet and the headaches are back.

Its definitely not the worst cold ever, but no cold is a fun cold. Looking forward to tomorrow and Wednesday when the weather is supposed to be in the 50's or even 60's. Maybe my cold will be gone by then!

Peace!

dang virus!

2009-01-10T09:38:00.004-05:00

So I have a pretty nasty worm on my computer called Win32.Zafi.B , which pretty much leaves my computer shit out of luck. Windows classifies this as a trojan horse that steals passwords and/or takes screenshots to send them off to some location. Other research I've done said

"Zafi.B is a moderately destructive worm that may cause antivirus and security products to stop working. It also may overwrite executables of installed security products. Zafi also disables RegEdit, MsConfig, and the Task Manager and may also launch a DoS attack against several Hungarian web sites."

I've seen that my variant of the worm, prevents Firefox or IE from opening at all. When you try to click on turn on Firewall or try to open MSConfig, the computer restarts itself. I can't even get into Safe Mode to try to get ride of this piece of crap, because they've disabled input of the F8 key. What the code tries to do is open its own browser, and take me to a website Bit Defender, something or other, which I've read is not good. They are basically trying to scare you into buying this malware remover to remove this worm/virus, which it may or may not even do.

I'm really pissed at whoever created this. People who write viruses, spam and malware, have way too much time on their hands. This morning I will have to spend the next several hours reformating my computer and then reinstalling all programs, thanks to these douchebags. Freakin great!

No more poon!!!

2009-01-07T18:50:00.002-05:00

Oh no! I just found out that a favorite Thai/Chinese restaurant "The House of Poon"had a serious fire. The fire started on the second floor possibly due to electricity. Very sad! I loved the Lar Nar and Thai Basil dishes, very fresh, hot and delicious!

I hope they can rebuild and re-open soon!

House of Poon Fire

Twin babies laughing at each other

2009-01-04T13:48:00.002-05:00

I thought this was pretty funny - so I decided to post it.

Hot Chicks with Douchebags

2009-01-02T21:43:00.003-05:00

One of the funniest blogs I've ever read! As the name implies, its a blog with chicks hanging out with douchebag guys.

Here's a quick excerpt from one titled "The Angry 'Bag"

Ever notice that certain look on a douchebag's face? That glare of angry, tough menace but hiding behind it a slightly wild-eyed look of fear. The realization that his girlfriend is just way too hot to be in his douchey presence and he's going to have to do everything in his power to prevent her from realizing it. That's this 'bag.

And really, can you blame him?

He's guarding this sexy hot tamale like he just discovered the Hope diamond in the trunk of his El Dorado. And in a way, he has.

This poor, poor 'bag. Sweat stains and bizarre balding patterns won't change the fact that no matter what he does, no matter how much he glares, that lovely chicka he's guarding so ferociously will someday become aware of his 'bagginess and take off. So in a way I kinda feel bad for the douchebag. Then again, not really. Megods she's a peach.

Here's some other good one's I've stumbled across so far. Note: they are all pretty freakin hilarious!

Pinky McBag Part 2

Great Googley Moogley

Bra!

Millenium Bag

12 Steps to Buying an Affordable Home

2009-01-01T20:28:00.004-05:00

So I just finished reading this book called "How to Buy a Home When You Can't Afford It" by Robert Irwin. They had a lot of good tips on how to get into a home. One of the most helpful sections was just knowing the steps to buying a home.

Here's the 12 Steps they list to buying an affordable home.

1. Get Pre-Approved
2. Get an Agent.
3. Find the Property
4. Make an offer - negotiate.
5. Open Escrow.
6. Put your deposit in escrow.
7. Get your financing.
8. Inspect the property.
9. Do a final walk through.
10. Deposit money into escrow.
11. Sign the papers.
12. Get the key.

I'd recommend the book as a good reference - even though some it may not be relevant due to recent changes in real estate market including Fannie May and Freddie Mac.

happy new year 2009!!

2009-01-01T14:21:00.002-05:00

Happy New Year 2009 everyone!

Ah, 2008 not a very exciting year for me personally but that's ok. Even though the year is done and over, the impact of this year will be felt for many years to come. We have historically elected our nation's first black president, Barack Obama. With that there is a lot of hope for change in the future. We have entered into a pretty severe economic recession that will probably take a while to get over. We are still at war in both Iraq and Afghanistan, for who knows how long. The Bills and the Yankees both had bad seasons. We've had super high gas spikes around $4.25 a gallon, down to about $1.60 a gallon by the end of the year. Who would have thought we'd see prices this low again!

On a more personal level - I'm really looking forward to 2009. In 2009 I'm getting married to Melissa. I'm also looking to buy a first home. A lot of big life changes for me and that's exciting.

What are you looking forward to most in 2009?

How to save money for a house

2008-12-29T11:06:00.004-05:00

So, some of you probably know that me and my fiance are trying to save money to purchase our first home. Our time frame for this is around June - September 2009. Our lease is up at our apartment in August of 2009, and we'd like to be out before then. My personal goal is to be able to have enough for a small down payment say like 5% and have enough to cover closing costs.

I've heard from friends and books that you should try to have 20% available for a down payment. This is not realistic at all for me. We have a wedding and a honeymoon coming up in May that will wipe away almost all the money we've saved for the last year and a half. Luckily we'll get some of it back in gifts from the reception - but I'm not counting on it being huge.

I found some tips on how to save money to buy a home. If you have any suggestions or ways to save money for buying a first home, please let me know.

Tip 1 - Tips to save money to buy a home

Tip 2 - Save money for your first home

Tip 3 - 30 easy ways to save money

happy shortest day of the year

2008-12-22T17:59:00.003-05:00

This is a interesting article over the history of various traditions all around the shortest day of the year, Dec 21st, the winter solstice. I don't know how much of what they say is true - but it was definitely interesting.

FYI - in case you were wondering we get just short of 9 hours of daylight (8 hrs and 59 mins) total in Rochester, NY. If you want to know how much sunlight you have - you can download my Yahoo "Sunrise Calculator Enhanced" widget here.

make your own ringtones

2008-12-15T17:51:00.004-05:00

So my brother called me the other day to let me know that he had figured out how to put ringtones that he created onto his phone. I couldn't believe it til I tried it myself. It was so easy a caveman could do it! All I had to do was download this program called Audacity which lets you modify and create mp3's. I then shortened a couple of mp3's to be under 30 seconds. I then changed the file extension to .mid and sent them to my phone through email. A few secs later I had a music file on my phone and my phone lets me save as a ringtone! My phone rocks and so does creating my own ringtones.

sansa continued

2008-12-11T06:28:00.002-05:00

Gotta say SANSA is great! Or at least their customer service is top notch. Every time I call they are professional and very helpful. Last night, they walked me through how to reformat my mp3 player. After I did this, everything is working! Yay! I usually don't like most customer service, but more companies should strive to have good customer service like Sansa.

sansa clip

2008-12-10T13:08:00.006-05:00

I've gotta say I was pretty happy with the Sansa Clip. It's a very small portable mp3 player - similar to the iPod nano. With 2GB of memory it held a lot of songs.

The key word in that last paragraph was was. The current Clip I have is actually my second. The first one developed a problem where one day it would not turn on at all unless it was plugged into the PC. It also had a bad battery life lasting a short time before needing a recharge. So I called customer service and to my surprise they sent me a new one.

The new one has lasted for almost a year and the battery life was excellent. It could go days without a recharge. One day last week my Clip screen froze after playing a Lynard Skynard song. After that my Clip has never been the same. In fact I can't play any songs or access them on my computer. I'm going to try a firmware update. If that doesn't work I'm done. I'm fed up with a crappy little device from Sansa. Devices should just work. They shouldn't have this many problems. Sansa will be hearing from me again - but my next purchase may be an iPod. Grrrr.

TJ

2008-12-08T08:02:00.004-05:00

So, yesterday TJ told me he was a little sad that he was sparsely mentioned in my blog so far. The only post being about our trip to Camden NJ. So, he decided when he got to Joe's house he would double over in pain and not watch the game. He even took the drama one step further when his temperature read between 93-95 degrees farenheit. His symptoms included nausea, feverish hot/cold, back and stomach pain. We figured it was pretty serious - so we drove out to the the Parkridge hospital in Greece coming all the way from Marion.

We spent the next 3 hours there while they ran a serious of tests on him. Turns out he had or has a kidney stone. Ouch!

So that's why I'm writing a post dedicated to my friend TJ. But seriously TJ, there are easier and less painful ways to make it to my blog next time. ;-) Hope you feel better!

Widget - version 4.2

2008-12-07T09:22:00.005-05:00

So I finally just updated my widget to include some new features and new styling. Its not up on Yahoo yet, they take a long time to update.

The new features include:
- The ability to increment and decrement days right from the main screen.
- The overall style is smaller and cleaner looking.
- Buttons are redesigned and have words instead of pictures only.

Ex1 - Version 4.2 - Default view

Ex2 - Search for location (Latitude/Longitude) - Enter either Zip or City, State

Ex3 - Default calendar view with current date selected.

Ex4- Colorized and customized

Ex5 - Checking the preference "Hide Lat/Long" will instead show
the current latitude/longitude if a zip or city isn't available.

Ex6- Once a city is selected using Change Location, then the city shows up in front.

So I finally just updated my widget to include some new features and new styling.

The new features include:
- The ability to increment and decrement days right from the main screen.
- The overall style is smaller and cleaner looking.
- Buttons are redesigned and have words instead of pictures only.

wake up call - part 2

2008-12-05T05:59:00.005-05:00

"There you are! Jim, I want to talk to you about my situation."

Well, I couldn't sleep well last night. So I decided to get up a 4am and watch a little mindless MTV's 'Next'. I was again surprised to hear a noise coming from the kitchen. I went to check it out and wham, I remembered we had set a Havahart trap the night before!

There he was our little mouse friend, securely locked away in a metal cage. He wasn't going to fool me again! Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on me. Wasn't going to happen.

The trap is set so that you place food in the center to entice little mice onto it. Then when they step on the middle it trips a lever and the doors on both ends fall down together and then lock in place. Pretty clever design.

"Trapped like a rat!"

I gotta say though, this mouse is smart one. He managed to get an apple slice, a piece of macaroni and a pumpkin seed out of the trap before it final fell on him.

After a little time I got my coat on and placed the cage on top of some newspaper. I brought him to the apartment backyard and wandered a good hundred yards away. I then opened the trap and he scampered away into a pile of leaves.

I'm not even sure this was the same mouse that visciuously attacked me 2 days ago - this one seemed smaller. I can only hope this was a rogue mouse and we won't be seeing anymore of him. Unforunately, I think he may have friends hanging out somewhere. Stay tuned.

getting fit

2008-12-04T12:25:00.006-05:00

I've been exercising now on a regular basis, 4-5 times a week for almost 2 years now. I've noticed a gradual improvement in my overall weight loss (down about 20lbs from my college days). I've noticed an increase in strength and endurance. I've never really set goals other than that day at the gym deciding what I want to do. To get a little more serious I want to lay out a roadmap and a plan as a part of getting fit. So here goes.

From the MBA classes I took I learned that goals should be SMART - Specific Measureable Attainable Realistic Timely.

My primary motivation for excise is:

Maintaining a healthy body weight. Increasing strength and endurance. Ulitmately 6 months from now I'd like to be in the lower to mid 150 range. Only 10 more to go!

I plan to begin excercising on:

Today.

The people who will help me accomplish my goals include:

Melissa, friends and family.

I will keep track of activities and progress by:

Recording them in a notebook.

The steps that I need to take in order to get started are:

Continue morning exercise. Add 2 evening session per week or 1 evening session and one saturday run. Make healthy eating choices, staying away from high fat foods or simple sugars.

Barriers that will keep me from acheiving my goals include:
Excess beer/food consumption.....umhhh, Frank aka 'my bad influence'! Holiday parties.

Strategies to overcome barriers include:

Instead of drinking beer or sugary drinks, have water, tea or coffee. Instead of eating cheese after work for a snack, make a salad. Eat more meals, but in smaller portions to stay full longer.

wake up call

2008-12-03T17:35:00.005-05:00

Our newest roomate: "Jerry" or "Coal"

SO, this morning was very interesting to say the least.

It began pretty ordinary, with me waking up at the butt crack of dawn. I sat down to watch a little TV and then heard a noise. The noise was a rustling sound, like a plastic bag being crumpled up.

I traced the noise to the kitchen. Then I traced it to coming from under the sink. I open the cabinet under sink, and looked in the garbage and sure enough there was the source of the disturbance - a mouse!

I woke my roommate Kristina, cause I wasn't sure if she had put the mouse there the night before as part of a science experiment or whatever. She was shocked to find a mouse in her garbage pal.

"aww how cute. can we keep him, jim, please."

We decided the best course of action would be to release the mouse outside in the backyard. Before we did this, Kristina thought she would give it a little food before sending it on its own, back to the wild. She cut up an apple slice and a piece of macaroni. The mouse loved it! I had to say it was a pretty cute mouse with big black eyes and soft looking fur. It did look good enough to be a pet, but I told Kristina its probably not a good idea because it could have rabies or could bite you or get loose.

While we were examining the little mouse presents he left for us in the cabinet, is when all hell broke loose. The mouse we thought was contained in a fairly steep and tall garbage had managed to climb up and jump out!

This sent me and Kristina screaming. And we followed it to the coat closet. We rummaged to get all the shoes and other junk out of the way so we could try to catch it again. We almost corralled it back into the garbage pal. It scurried around our little attempt to catch us. Ran back to the kitchen, under the refrigerator. It then ran under the stove.

We never found it after that. Kristina is working on securing a humane trap for capturing, not killing.

Nothing like being tricked by a humble looking mouse first thing in the morning. I feel dumb knowing we got played by a lowly mouse. What a wake up call!

bad year for sports

2008-12-03T12:32:00.005-05:00

In general I got to say that its been a bad year for the sports teams I am fans of. The Yankees this season played sloppy and were never able to get a win streak going. In general players seemed to play for themselves and not as a team. It was a disappointing final season at the old Yankee stadium as they failed to make the playoffs.

The other team I'm sad to say I'm a fan of is the lowly Buffalo Bills. They currently stand at a disappointing 6-6 record, with some tough divisional opponents ahead (Dolphins, Jets and the Patriots). They will be lucky to be 7-9 again this year. It's sad because they started off so great. They got off to a rousing 4-0 start. Lost one to the Cardinals. Won a big one at home against the Chargers. Then lost 4 in a row, including a heartbreaking (and seasonbreaking IMHO) Monday night game against the Browns. They missed quite a few opportunities to put it away, but the biggest was the Lindell's missed FG that would have one the game in the final few seconds. They then crushed the Kansas City Chiefs 54-31,To improve to 6-5. They just lost to the 49ers last week 10-3. Two short field goals missed again and sloppy play contributed to the home loss. Can't even score more than 3 points after scoring 54 points the week before? Makes senses only if you are a Bills fan.

I don't know why I'm a Bills fan. I know they are local, and sometimes exciting, but the simple point is they consistently disappoint year after year after year. What's point of being a fan if they are not even be contenders for making a playoff appearance. Grrrrr!

Favorite Calzone Recipe

2008-12-02T07:35:00.003-05:00

This is a link to my favorite calzone recipe.
I hope we get a chance to make it for dinner tonight.

Look how good it looks!

Why I love StumbleUpon

2008-11-29T12:36:00.006-05:00

I've stumbled on this tool recently called "StumbleUpon". I know its not a new tool, but its new to me. I think it's great. When you set it up you set up your preferences for what topics your interested in like computers, internet, web design, humor, pictures, whatever.... Then you click the "Stumble!" button on your toolbar. Then it whisks you away to various sites that are based on your preferences. I think it takes you to sites that have been reviewed by users first. I've stumbled on a number of interesting sites that I would have not found otherwise.

You can check out my stumbleupon favorites here.
My StumbleUpon Favorites

Trip to DC

2008-11-29T12:06:00.005-05:00

Last weekend Melissa, Frank, Bunny and I took a little trip to Washington DC. We left Rochester around 6PM friday night and drove almost non-stop until we got there around 2:30am. We were all exhauated and excited to be there. We stayed at a Kathrik's place in Fairfax just 10 miles outside of DC. Karthik was the square-bee that took over my and Melissa's place after we left the Square in 06.

Sat morning we got up and ready for the day. We started the day off with some breakfast at this nice Indian cuisine buffet. It was good food. Then we took the metro into DC. We did a lot of walking with the little bit of daylight we had left (end of November the sun sets around 4:30 or 5). We saw some great sights including the Capitol building, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the WWII Memorial and various other buildings. Our plan was to walk around while there was still daylight, then when it got dark we wanted to tour the National Aquarium. This plan was foiled the Aquarium closed at 5. By then the sun was down and we were tired of walking. We made plans to head up to Georgetown. So we hopped in the nearest taxi and had the driver take us there.

We got out of the cab. Melissa slammed her door on my leg as I was stepping out. It hurt, but I was ok. We walked around to various shops and restaurants on the main Georgetown strip. We finally settled on a sports bar and ordered up some drinks and appetizers. We never ended up getting dinner that night. Drinks were flowing like water as my cousin Frank continues to be a bad influence on me. Turns out Karthik was a bad influence too (why do I hang out with such bad people :-) as he encouraged the drunk-fest. We all had a good merry night.

I don't remember how we got back to Karthik's, but we made it back safe and sound. The next morning we got up and headed out to Great Falls Park. Its a natural place where two rivers converge over a rocky falls, that produced wonderful waterfalls. It was great. After that we started packing up and made plan's to see Mary in Bethesda, MD. We met at a Starbucks in town and chatted for a while. After a quick trip to the Toy Kingdom, we headed back home to Rochester. Other than a trip to a local restaurant on the way home, the ride back was pretty uneventful. We got back to Rochester around 1am Monday monring. Phew! Home sweet home.

Great jam packed weekend getaway!

Who we are

2008-08-06T22:58:00.002-04:00

Who are we? Its a simple question but so loaded. At any given time we can be anyone or anything. We can be on top of the world, or in the deepest rut. We can be rich or poor. We can be physically well, or mentally ill. There can be nothing wrong with us at all, except our own perception of how our place in the world...which may screw people up more than anything else. Its our wonderful ability to think, ration and reason that separates us. However its probably the same consciousness that raises others up, while dragging others down. Some people perceive failure in their own lives, but its not obvious to others why that person feels that way.

I've been called many different things in my life. Some things not so positive - let's just call these learning opportunities, cause it gives me a chance to reflect on how others view me. Others have been more than positive, which is very humbling. To name a few, I've been called a 'good man', 'someone to look up' to and even 'perfect'. While I consider myself nowhere near perfect its interesting to see how friends and those around you think of you. I have faults and failures in my life that - some of which I could take back but the only thing I can do now is reflect on them and let them serve as a reminder of how I want to shape my life.

Recently, one of my best friends explained to me that he's always seen me as a role model. As a role model I wish there was so much more I could do to help him and his situation. His current situation revolves around his past and his perception of the past. We are shaped by the past, but each person has the ability to shape the future. At some point he'll need to realize that if he really wants to change - he's got to start it, and not be stuck in a head loop thinking of the past. Too many good people get lost in their own head. Our time here is short, and we have to make the time worthwhile. I was glad to hear that he's been going back to church. I feel that this is a great way to ground yourself in leading a good life and being a good man, as this is what being a Christian is about - following in and believing in the words of God. I try to be a positive role model and to be a good man - even though I feel that I stray from the path of righteousness too often.

How can I change myself... Points I need to work on or remind myself of.
- I wish I could more actively help friends - especially when they need the help (whether its spiritually or finding good qualities which I believe are inherent in everyone).
- I know I'm selfish at times, I need to learn its not always about me.
- There is always someone out there that is far worse than you or me. Your not struggling for air or hoping you can get some food to keep you alive, are you? If you are, God bless you.
- Help out in the community.
- Leave the world a little bit better than you were brought into.

American Heartwalk 2008

2008-04-01T17:15:00.002-04:00

I'm doing the American Heartwalk 2008 in sunny Rochester NY this Saturday April 5th. I'm doing this in memory of my grandma who passed away last year of a heart attack. If you'd like to check out my page above, they made it easy to make a small donation to the American Heart Association. If you can't help now, that cool too. Thanks for your support!

Check out my Widget!

2008-03-04T06:58:00.005-05:00

So yeah, i've been working really hard on this widget and finally got it to a point where it was ready to submit to Yahoo. This is version 4 - even though the picture on the website is lame and is still showing version 1. Version 4 - includes the ability to search for a location (in the US) by ZIP or City, State. It also includes the calendar of sunrise/sunsets for your location. This is what the latest version looks like.

You can use this little badge to download the widget.

New HDTV!

2007-02-24T05:43:00.000-05:00

Here's some pictures of my new tv, as well as my whole home theater setup.

Well I finally did it, I got that TV that I've been looking at for months! It took a trip to Circuit City where I didn't even plan on buying it, and a very good price matching discount from the salesrep to hook me on the deal. They price matched the Samsung 4051-D HDTV from Buy.com, bringing the total price just about where I would have paid online from buy.com. The rep even made another deal with me...he said I could get $150 off of any surround sound system, if I signed up for digitial cable. I held off on this for a few days, but then later returned to buy a surround system from Sony for $180. So I got a nice set of Sony 5.1 Surround Sound 800W speakers for $30! I hooked these up an noticed that the left rear speaker had static noise coming through. I returned this speaker to CC and the new one worked perfectly. I later called the Time Warner to have them install digital cable and the HD channels. I really didn't need to do this to make the deal work, but its something I wanted to do anyway. A few days later they installed the digital cable/hd channels. I have to say, I love the HD channels (the true HD channels). I've noticed quite a bit of non-primetime programming is still standard or digital cable brought into the HD range. These pictures are really a disgrace to HD stations and shouldn't be allowed at all. However, stations like Discovery HD and WXXI HD make it totally worth it. These stations often show nature in its finest HD detail, the pictures look beautiful! I can't wait to watch YES HD this coming April!

Best Gaming Video Cards for the Money (Jan 07)

2007-02-07T06:09:00.000-05:00

Well I was just reading up on TomsHardware that the video card that I selected for my PC was actually a pretty good choice. They recommended that if you're going to upgrade you at least get a card that is three tiers or higher from your current card. I went from a Radeon 9500 Pro to a 9600XT which is no jump in tier at all. I'm okay with this cause I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a dead horse (AGP). So the three tier jump happened with my new system where I purchased a X800GTO. It is three tiers ahead of my current 9600XT. I do things right every once in a while. :-P

My New Video Card

2007-02-04T06:54:00.000-05:00

I recently updated my dying Radeon 9500 Pro AGP 8x video card, with this upgrade Radeon 9600XT. I am trying to stretch my current system out for another year or two before I totally scrape it for an updated motherboard that accepts PCI-E and maybe a Core2Duo. But that's another story.

After 3 days this card has been running great.
Here's the specs...
Sapphire Radeon9600XT
AGP 4x/8x
Core 500Mhz
256 MB DDRII RAM
Memory 580-650 Mhz
Shader Units 4
Memory Bandwith 10.4 GB/sec

3DMarks 3733 -
My old card had 3659 when it was stable, I got up to 4252 with overclocking but I think this may have accelerated my video cards death. I have no plans to overclock my new card.

Skiing at Bristol

2007-01-28T13:08:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I went skiing with Ramon at Bristol. The weather was pretty good, except at the top of the mountain where it was very cloudy/foggy/snowy/sleaty. Either way, the snow was still pretty loose and it wasn't too crowded. I ended up doing most of the Medium difficulty trails and the all the Easy trails.
The trails I did were...
- Milky Way
- Nova
- Shooting star
- Sunset
- Infinity
- Southern Cross
- Eclipse
- NorthStar
- Lower Meteor

Sunrise and Sunset

2007-01-27T07:36:00.000-05:00

I like to keep track of when the sun is going to rise and set. I like to know how many hours of sun (or lack of it since I do live in Rochester ;-P) we are expected. We gain 2-3 minutes of sunlight every day from Dec 21 to Jun 21. Here's some links to sites that list this info for our area.

Site 1
Site 2
Site 3

Adirondacks High Peaks

2007-01-27T06:59:00.000-05:00

This is a site I stumbled on when searching for hikes in the Adirondacks. This guy and his friends are totally devoted to hiking the High Peaks in the Adirondacks. They go it seems every month, even the winter months. The pictures and descriptions of the trails are amazing. I really appreciate this site. It also makes me want to go back there very soon!

Top 5 Selfish Electronic Wants Right Now

2007-01-25T21:12:00.000-05:00

Things that I would buy if I had the money, and didn't owe quite a lot on student loans. Maybe I can splurge a little after tax refunds (if there is any)...
1. Parts to build a brand new computer. Core 2 Duo, 1 GB of DDR2-6200RAM, Nvidia 7950.
2. If not the above, at least a working AGP Video Card for my aging Pentium IV system, that has a slowly dying video card on hardware that is not supported. Maybe the NVidia 7600.
3. Samsung 20.1" LCD Monitor.
4. Samsung 40" LCD HDTV 4051-D.
5. Hauppauge WinTV-PVR250MCE PCI Interface Video, on sale at
NewEgg

HDTV Buyers Guide

2007-01-25T16:51:00.000-05:00

I really love the folks at TomsHardware. No matter what I'm looking for or whatever I'm interested in they always seem to have an article right then and there to help me out. Take for instance my new obsession lately has been gawking over a 40" LCD HDTV from Samsung model 4051-D (or 4041-D). I know I want this so badly, and its current price of around $1300, its not a bad deal for what your getting. Anyway this article basically reviews all different types of tvs and discuss what you should know before buying one. I found it to be very useful, so I thought that I'd share it.

My job

2006-08-11T08:42:00.000-04:00

I'm realizing today that I am really lucky to have such a great job. My job at Xerox is a financial analyst. Right now I am building tools to automate tedious tasks. It's fun because I get to use skills from my BS in Computer Science that I haven't used in a while. Eventually I'll get to use some analytic skills from the MBA degree. Plus, my boss and co-workers are very cool, and allow you ample time to work on things and are just all around good people. Plus, I get to work from home from time to time...like today. ;-)

What an awesome weekend!

2006-07-31T08:22:00.000-04:00

Alright, so this weekend I set out to visit my friend Bob who lives in Albany. The plan was that Friday I would get up there, we would just drink and chill that night. The next day we planned to go to the Yankees game in NYC. The drive to Albany was fine, no problems at all. So I start unpacking my stuff for the weekend. About an hour after getting to Bob's, I realize I made a huge mistake! I called up my girlfriend in Rochester and said "Honey, I made a big mistake...". She thought I was going to say that I cheated on her or something, but no, this was just slightly less worse than that. I said "Baby, I forgot the tickets at home!" You wouldn't believe that I have the best girlfriend in the world if not more than 30 minutes after telling her this, she was on her way to drive the tickets directly to me. Albany to Rochester is a good 3 1/2 hour drive mind you, so this is nothing to sneeze at, plus she started driving at around 9PM at night. Sweetie, if I haven't said it enough I LOVE YOU....you were definitely a life saver this weekend!!!!!

So, Melissa and her friend spent the night at my friend Bob's house. Early the next morning they took of to visit Melissa's brother in CT. Bob and I spent the morning playing video games. Then we drove to Yankee Stadium, got lost in the Bronx (which was a little scary), but eventually found a parking spot.

SO then the game started. The Yanks started off great...Jeter's first at bat home run, next up...Giambi..home run! Back to back homers to kick of the first inning. That's about it though for highlights from the Yankees, after that they totally sucked. Johnson's pitching was awful...he gave up at least seven runs in the first seven innings. It only went downhill after that...the final score was 19-6. One of the worst games I've ever seen, let alone attended. Oh well - it was still fun going, it was something I've always wanted to do.

The next day, I meet Melissa on the NYS Thruway and we drove back together. It was a crazy but yet fun weekend....I wouldn't have it any other way.

melissa's b-day

2006-05-03T17:55:00.000-04:00

This was the weekend of Melissa, as we celebrated her 24th birthday. We went to Letchworth on Saturday with about 20 other people. Fun was had by all. People went for hikes on the nature trail, people went off the nature trail and walked on the edge of the waterfall, and others scaled down the cliff of the opposite side of the park for a unique view. We had some hots and burgers, and drinks. The weather couldn't have been nicer too. I should put up some pictures soon...come back for those.

$$ Gas Prices $$

2006-04-19T13:22:00.000-04:00

So, I've been thinking about gas prices lately and how much they have gone up. One of the things I've noticed is that the bands of variation in price fluctuations increases as the price is higher. For example last week, a gallon of gas at the local Delta Sonic cost $2.72, today a week later that price is up to $2.89. More than a $.15 hike in a week. Besides the price of gas continually going up, I think we will continually see major jumps like this. Oil prices depends on a number of things including supply, the world's demand for oil, and fear. That's right, fear is a signicant reason for the jump in price per barrel. Fear over terrorism, over lack availability contribute. Last I heard it was something like it adds $10-20 to the true price of a barrel of oil.

I'm also sure that the technology exists somewhere to make cars much more fuel efficient, getting much better mpg. However due to current political agendas and various lobbyist concerns (big business), people will never see this new technology. Its not until years and years after a known issue becomes a large problem, when the government may begin to seek change (such as what happened with the global warming issue). Scientists have known we are destroying the environment with fossil fuels and other hydrocarbon pollutents, but the true extent of the damage never really gets out to the public due to lobbyists agendas (comming from tobbacco, oil companies, car companies, etc...) All of which do not want things to change immediately because it may impact their business now.

I'm not really sure where i was going with this, just sucks that gas prices have to be so high. And I'm not really complaining that much cause my Saturn gets great gas mileage (about every 300 miles per refill), I feel bad for other people who dont have as fuel efficient vehicles. My next car will likely be a hybrid.

Plant Progress - Day 21

2006-04-16T08:40:00.000-04:00

I didn't forget about the plant (in case you were wondering). It has been doing very well, and 12 days after my last update I present you with...Plant Progress Day 21!

whistling

2006-04-13T16:06:00.000-04:00

I have been trying for a while to learn how to whistle using finger, you know the kind that makes a really loud noise. Well after many attempts, I figured it just wasnt happening. SO being the dork that I am, I looked it up online. Here's what came up in Google. I did manage to get a few whistles out of it...so i guess you can say today was a success!

new jersey

2006-04-12T22:22:00.000-04:00

My roommates and I decided that we would take a little trip this past weekend. We went to see a few bands by the names Deathcab for Cutie, and Franz Ferdinand. I'm not big into either of these bands, though I have heard a few of their songs, which are for the most part good and enjoyable. I mostly decided to go on the trip for a chance to get out of Rochester for a while. The concert was in NJ. Getting to NJ was quite an adventure of its own. There was a freak snow storm, followed by hail in the middle of PA. This led to many accidents and turned-over vehicles, and general slowdowns. Once we pasted Philly, Camden was just a hop across some river (Delaware maybe?), then we had hours to kill before the start of the concert. This is what we did...

We parked near the Tweeter center, and across from our garage was this Aquarium. So we decided to check it out, at first we thought it would be expensive, which according to the main gate it was! It was like $16 per person, plus it said it closed at 5 (the current time was about 4). So we were like no way would we pay that much. So we went to the back and people seemed to be exiting a building. So we checked it out. This exit turned out to be the exit for the Aquarium, and other people were going in as some were going out. So we went in too. Man we're we suprised.

The first exhibit in the aquarium is the Hippo exhibit. Hippos are ginormous! They are also suprisingly very graceful underwater, which was a very cool feature of this place, to be able to see them swimingly underwater. We then checked out other things such as octupus, seahorseas, and jellyfish. But the coolest part was a walk through shark exhibit, where you walk through a tunnel, and sharks are literally swimming all around you! It was pretty amazing.

After that, we were really hungry, so we decided to get some eats. Frank saw a couple of girls and yelled "Hey, do you know where we can eat?" They said they were looking for a place too. So we tagged along, introduced ourselves, and made some friends. We searched for quite a while, because little did we know Camden is really really rundown. We walked down whole city blocks that were completly deserted and boarded up. We found one restaurant at the end of a series of deserted buildings. We went in and ordered some food. The food turned out to be not so bad, it was a small old fashioned Italian joint.

We then went to the concert, and continued to hang out with our new friends. We didn't go to our assigned seats, but it didn't matter. It was all fun. The ride home was pretty exhausting. We left NJ at around 11:30 and got to NY around 4 am. Around Syracuse I noticed TJ driving more erratic than he had the last few hours, he started breaking for no reason. When asked about this later he claims he saw "Arms growing out of the truck ahead of him" and "Shadows that I thought were people". So I drove the rest of the way home after that, we got back to Rochester around 5:45 am.

All in all, an awesome trip! I will put up some pictures as soon as I get them from TJ. Oh! And I was talking to someone later about the trip, and they informed me that they were from NJ and that they avoid Camden whenever possible. When asked why he said because it is America's Most Dangerous city. Camden Who knew we were risking our lives walking through Camden?

Plant Progress - Day 9

2006-04-02T21:02:00.000-04:00

Plant progress - Day 9.

Today was fun, we went to a party for my grandma at my aunt's house. We played frisbee and hung out outside. We had a nice dinner, got to see family and it was a lot of fun.

Plant Progress - Day 8

2006-04-02T10:45:00.000-04:00

Here it is again, another exciting episode of Plant Progress - Day 8

boxing and sunny fun

2006-03-31T18:34:00.000-05:00

I went to RIT today to work out, but got a little sidetracked. I remembered hearing someone say that RIT had a boxing room, so I decided to ask about it. Indeed they had a boxing room, said the friendly sports equipment room girl. So I thought I'd give it a shot. Boxing is tough! You gotta be at the top of your game to be good at it. Some of the bags I could barely hit, if they were moving. I tired myself out after about 30 mins, and 3 bloody knuckles later. I returned the key to the boxing room, and asked the friendly sports equipment room girl for a basketball instead. That was slightly easier than boxing. It was also beautiful out today and anyone who was inside all day, I feel sorry for them.

Plant Progress - Day 7

2006-03-31T18:32:00.000-05:00

Plant Progress - Day 7

Plant Progress - Day 6

2006-03-30T17:11:00.000-05:00

Another exciting episode of name that plant! Plant Progress - Day 6.

Plant Progress - Day 5

2006-03-29T14:38:00.000-05:00

Plant Progress Day 5, much like the plants outside, the indoor plant is doing well. It is gorgeous outside today, near 60 and sunny all day long. This is great. Don't forget, daylight savings time is April 2nd!

Plant Progress - Day 4

2006-03-28T13:22:00.000-05:00

Plant Progress on Day 4. It's still grwoing nicely. :-)

Plant Progress - Day 3

2006-03-27T08:57:00.000-05:00

Here it is as promised...Plant Progress Day 3! Sprouts are sprouting everywhere! Wooo.

Plant Progress - Day 2

2006-03-26T13:15:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Day 2 of the mysterious plant progress. We are making some progress. There are some new sprouts as you can see. Check back tomorrow, for another exciting picture.

Tony Pepperoni's

2006-03-25T14:19:00.000-05:00

Tried a new pizza joint today and man was it good! Tony Pepperoni's over on West Henrietta Rd. is amazing. The calzone was literally about 15 inches long. The mozzerella and ricotta and pepperoni were so fresh and good. I loved it. I'll definitely be going back there again soon.

Not much else is going on. School's going well, this quarter is not nearly as stressful as last quarter. Tonight Pete and I are going to jam out in my basement. Should be fun.

Plant Progress - Day 1

2006-03-25T14:11:00.000-05:00

So, I got a plant recently (about a week and half ago) and have been taking good care of it. I have been watering it daily and it sits besides my bed, on the windowsill to get plenty of light. I have been waiting patiently and my patience is starting to pay off as little sprouts are starting to show. So here it is...Day 1 of Plant Progress! To keep you guessing the specific kind of plant that I'm growing, you will have to come back every day to see the latest picture. If you feel like taking a guess, feel free to leave a comment. I'm pretty proud of this little guy. Enjoy! :-)

Chunky Monkey

2006-03-20T21:56:00.000-05:00

My portfolio theory class today would have been chalked up as yet another boring lecture by a tenured egotistical professor who thinks more of himself than other people, if not for his sense of humor in it all. Some people may find his jovialness to be quite humorous on its own...while this is true try to picture in your head an almost 300 pound man with a silly mustache doing a little dance in praise of Ben and Jerry's ice cream flavors "Chunnky MOooonkey" mmmmmmm, "New York Super Chunk Fudge". This along with his little dance for the "Don't Worry, Be Happy" made my day.

update

2006-03-19T08:31:00.000-05:00

How am I doing? Right now, I'm feeling a little better than the last few days. I've been getting over a pretty bad cold after going to NYC last weekend. Between all the cough medicine, several boxes of kleenex and bottle of advil - I was generally not feeling so hot.

I have to thank my gf, Melissa for taking great care of me though during that time. She would go out at 10-11 at night to buy more medicine or whatever else i needed. She's really the best.

I'm into my final quarter at RIT. Then its off to the real world to start my job at Xerox in downtown Rochester. Did I mention that before? Probably not. Last week I was offered and accepted a position at Xerox. I'm very excited and relieved to have a job before commencement.

Still, waiting to get my books though. I dont understand how it could possibly take so long for the sellers on half.com to ship them to me, its been a week and half now! I've only received 1 of the 3 that I ordered. I'm going to have to go purchase one of the books from the bookstore, and then hopefully return it within 7 days (if my other book comes).

Last night me and my buddy Pete jammed out in our basement. He brought over all of his equipment, which was almost everything but the kitchen sink. We played on a full drum set, and a Peavey 5150 amp. It was sweet... more to come im sure, maybe when im not so out of it.

sabres game

2006-02-16T07:14:00.000-05:00

This weekend was fun. We went to see the Buffalo Sabres. The trip was part of an RIT hockey trip, which included transportation, a dibella's sub, 100 level seating. It was a lot of fun. The Sabres won 5-3 over the Panthers.

Since then has been kinda a blur. Someone mentioned yesterday that the pace of RIT is kinda like a sprint except that it is 26 miles long sprint. I think this is pretty close. I am feeling a little better than a few days ago, 4 projects down, 4 projects left to complete. I should be done with one more after Saturday. So still trying not to go crazy. 2 more week...here we go.

end of quarter craziness

2006-02-10T11:12:00.000-05:00

I'm trying to survive this quarter, things are looking good but very busy. We are doing a group survey for the Red Wings. We need people to fill out this survey asap. Please if you have a few minutes please fill this out, I'll be your friend! :-) It should only take about 5 mins to complete. We desperately need responses. Thank you so much in advance.
http://clipboard.rit.edu/takeSurvey.cfm?id=342348

my first blog

2006-02-09T07:12:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to post my first blog on my site, Jimsiena.com. I'm really busy right now with school, I have less than 3 weeks left to go and 8 projects left to complete. Hopefully by this weekend that number will be down to 5. I feel like I'm going crazy trying to keep everything together sometimes. The only thing keeping me going is knowing the end of the quarter is almost here. Please pray for me!
~Jim