Larry Winget – “Shut Up, Stop Whining and Get a Life”
July 11, 2007 | | Books

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I first noticed Larry Winget on ‘Big Spender’ on A&E. There was something greatly satisfying in seeing him confront people who were spending money they didn’t have, telling them the unvarnished truth about their bad habits and, ultimately, teaching them how to manage the money they did have and feel much better about it.
I was impressed enough to buy and read this book. The basic idea is that, “What you think about, talk about, and do something about is what comes about.” I would guess even Larry wants us to add “read about” to the list, too – he has quite a few other books out there for us, which I truthfully feel no compunction to read. This one is enough.


But as for this book, we already know this stuff! There's no Secret, really, and Larry lays it out in his unvarnished, often irritating and sometimes anger-inducing manner. What I personally like about this book is that even though I don’t agree with everything in it, when you’re finished reading it you should be finished reading all the ‘inspirational’ books you’ll need*. It’s time for action. This book might just give you the righteous anger you need to inspire yourself, and you’ll get further faster with that than by reading book after book after book looking for inspiration.


*I am excluding all religious inspiration such as the Bible, the Koran, etc., etc… Although Larry Winget has included some opinions on religion in his book, I skipped that chapter due to my own personal rules about politics and religion…

Blistex medicated lip balm
July 10, 2007 | | Health | OTC Products

Summer is here, and being outdoors is a must for me. Chapped lips are very amateur, unattractive, painful, and simply unwarranted when considering the number and variety of products currently on the market for its prevention. Keeping your lips moist seems like an easy enough task for anyone to achieve, this really should be a year round activity and actually a must in cold winter temperatures too ( I however reside in Houston, and thus a cold winter is simply nonexistent). The first product I picked was the Blistex lip balm (medicated). The taste, texture, and ease of use were all decent.


I left the container in the car while at the beach and when I returned, the wax in the container had melted and leaked out of its container, making a mess in my cup holder (where I had placed it). Poor design and perhaps wax that melts too easy(?) were definite soars in the rating of this product, which makes it absolutely useless for people who live in hot climates (me in the summer), perhaps had I rated this product while on a ski trip, It would have done better, but that wasn't the case, and the product didnt have a warning stating that it should only be used under colder temperatures.

Nintendo Wii
July 9, 2007 | | Computer | Entertainment | Hardware

I happened to hang out with a friend who just purchased a Nintendo Wii and hooked it up for me to take a look at... now how cool is this game console! It's got the sleek action look down but it is very white.. so it will stand out if you've got the standard black entertainment center.. (Im sure there are skins you can purchase to change its look) and I did notice that the games the console came with never really showed off any of its graphical processing power.. so digging up its specifications I did find that it is way behind its competitors (PS3, XBOX) when it comes to its polygon-pushing power.. this means that the games have to be dead on addictive and innovative to have me spend $399 for this device.


Apparently his Wii came with a Wii Sports gme which simply was a choice between Bowling, Boxing, Golf and one other game we didnt bother playing with.. it was a great way to get newbies brought upto speed on how to use their innovative Wiimotes which are the primary controllers. A sensor bar is required to be placed, typically above the television, for it correctly sense your every wii-action. I was very skeptical when the wiimote was safety strapped to my wrist (apparently these things have flown out of peoples hands in the excitement of gameplay) and I started off with the boxing game..


I was breathing hard by the 4th round! This console is actually making my physically interact with it to play! I ended up getting knocked out but thats alright cause we quickly decided to check out the bowling game next... apparently even in Wiiland I still have spin action that foils my game.. how interesting that it was able to actuallly pick up speed and spin.. during the final golf game ,which I ended up liking the most, I actually thoroughly enjoyed standing infront of the television and driving away for a 300 yard stroke! Even though i did terrible with all the games, the interactivity the Wii requires is like no other console out there. I found it particularly amusing how between games there were 'safety' instructions and 'take a rest between gaming sessions'.. can't fault them on trying to keep their users alive.


The console does have internet enablement, comes with the Opera browser and the ability to message wiifriends.. I would not be surprised to see them at some point in the future try and link up all their devices (DS, DSLite, Wii) to allow for interaction between them.. Nintendo have managed to capture addiction and innovation in a box ... it's called the Wii!

OPPO DV-981HD - DVD Player
July 6, 2007 | | Audio / Video | Components

Having recently set up my home entertainment system, Ive had to accumulate a few components that Ive had to wait and use before rating. The OPPO DV-981HD is a DVD player that I would have never found, had I simply visited a retail store, simply because its an online available item only. While the future of higher definition DVD players is being fought to death by blu-ray and HD-DVD, I decided to get something rather cheap (in comparison) while getting the optimal performance, as I patiently wait in the sidelines for one of the two formats to die off, so I could buy the winner.

A 1080p Up-Converting Universal DVD Player is the answer for now, it comes at a fraction of the cost of the previously mentioned giant formats and it even comes with an HDMI cable itself. Having good reviews from net.com simply helped my decision to purchase this DVD player. For the money spent, the quality and look of this DVD player are well worth it.

Edy's Dibs - Bite Sized Ice Cream Snacks
July 5, 2007 | | Ice Cream

edysdibs.jpg
MMMMMmmmm. Oh, mmmmmmm. MMMmmmMMMmmmMMM. Oh, yeah. Mmmmmmm. Ohhhhh, mmmmmmmmmmmmmm. MMMMMmmmmmmm, mmm, mmm, mmm. Uhhhhmmmmmmm. MMMMmmmmmmmmmm. Oh, yeah…..MMMmmmmmmMMMM. Ummmmmmm. MMmmmmm. Ohhh, mmmmmmmmmmMMMMMMmmmmMMMM! MMMMmmmmmm mmm mmm.
If you’re going to cheat, these are the thing!
(For actual words click here and here.)

Happy 4th of July!
July 4, 2007 | | News / Links

Rolling Stone - The Biggest Bang
July 2, 2007 | | Entertainment | Movies | Music

Your HD TV, surround sound can give you the granduer experience that the self-proclaimed 'Greatest Rock Band on Earth' can deliver to you in person... but this 4 disc DVD - Rolling Stones The Biggest Bang' set is pretty close and it gives you the chance to watch them perform across a multitude of countries of their same tour which I always love to watch.


It's just truly amazing to see a sea of people at their concerts.. watching this band is something that goes down on your personal checklist of things to do while they are still around because no other band will be the same. I do think that Mick' voice is amazing.. its infact the opposite of Steven Tylers (Aerosmith).. Steve's got older and raspier.. Mick's sounds like its getting younger! He does his dances and struts around like he's married to a 20 year old.. oh wait.. he is..


Disc 3 they're in Argentina, China (first time visit!) and Disc 4 has interviews of the band.. and this is amazing.. the drummer speaks!!! Charlie Watts actually speaks! Its great to see them interviewed and how they naturally act.. Big fans of the band will not be disappointed! I did like the fact that the concerts were in full-length and not the complete taping because Im very fluent with fast-forwarding past boring segments and I rarely had to for these CDs.. except the few songs that I personally didnt care for... I also did get a chance to get re-educated on some of their songs and hearing how they performed them live. I always tend to prefer how live songs are performed as opposed to the taped album version.. they tend to be more liberal and I like free-flowing on the spur type of 'hey' 'yah' and 'ahhhhhh babyyy' thrown in during the chorus..


This set is only available at BestBuy, so hit your local store or rolling">online.. you wont be disappointed.. its a must-have in your music DVD library and its something that everyone will appreciate knowing that you've got a staple in your collection that everyone would love to own

Licence To Kill
June 29, 2007 | | Movies

"You could have had everything." I wonder if Mr. Davi had some kind of premonition about the shortcomings of future Bond movies. Eighteen years later, I'm still waiting for one that can give me the same sense of complete satisfaction Licence To Kill did. I always found that Bond had one thing lacking in his movies and that was the ability to be taken seriously. If he wasn’t over the top then the villains surely were and it never gelled. True when it came down to business he always got the job done, but there was never a time in any of the movies when I wouldn't have minded it if he would've gotten picked off. This was definitely not the case with Licence To Kill. The story is about vengeance, and Bond is not taking orders. He has his mind set on what he needs to accomplish and this time Her Majesty's Secret Service can come along for the ride. Robert Davi is as cool as they come and was the perfect choice to play the role of the cold villain Franz Sanchez, but the surprise for me in this movie was the appearance of a very young Benicio Del Toro. Right then and there you could see his quality and magnetism, and have no doubts that he would be major star one day. Timothy Dalton's portrayal of Bond at his most rawest is fantastic and completely freshened up the franchise. Unfortunately, the audiences were expecting more of the Roger Moore era of Bond and so the studios returned to the old formula which guaranteed commercial success. However, die-hard fans will appreciate that the franchise was once brave enough to make a movie that took Bond back to his core character. You can clearly see Licence To Kill's influence in the latest offering Casino Royale, but the studios compromising and playing safe again turned what could've been a great movie into another dull disappointment. Bottom line, Licence To Kill is the complete Bond film. It has a great story, great characters, and great action. The cherry on top is the super soundtrack which features the excellent theme by Gladys Knight, and a complete gem by Patti LaBelle to take us into the ending credits. Find it, enjoy it.

General Mills Honey Nut Clusters
June 28, 2007 | | Breakfast | Health

Apparently everyone at WeCalledIt.com believes breakfast is the most important meal of the day, considering that this will be the sixth cereal review and I know there are a few more coming. But the other day I was looking for a break from the normal and I decided to try General Mills Honey Nut Clusters. I figured I like honey, almonds, and walnuts so it has to be good right. Well, kind of. The initial tastes are all there, and if you eat like you are in a competition you will love it. But I consume cereal at a much slower pace since I am usually trying to get ready for work, making lunch, and making sure I'm not leaving the water running anywhere. That gives time for the cereal to get a bit soggy, which I am not a fan of. The wheat and rice flakes seemed to soak in the milk so quick, that if I put my spoon down, I might as well pour the rest out. Now the clusters of almonds and walnuts were still crunchy and tasty, but the flakes were .. ummmm.flakey. I think if the flakes were a bit thicker, this could come close to being in my normal cereal rotation, but until then I'll keep looking. I can't really call this a miss because it is good if you hurry, so I settle for a Fair Deal.

Linksys WRT350N Wireless-N Gigabit Router with Storage Link
June 27, 2007 | Comments (2) | Computer | Hardware

Im trying to convert all internet/network capable devices (computers, laptops, security cameras, printers, etc) be using wireless.. I've managed to do that to all except for two key servers which I require major bandwidth from so I stick to the wired gigabit network connection. I was extremely fond of the WRT350N Wireless-N with Storage Link Gigabit Router from Linksys until a week ago (which is 2 months since I installed it) when all of sudden I noticed my wireless machines were acting slow on the network and then the next day they all together stopped being able to go out on the net period. I verified on my wired servers and I was extremly upset to see them too affected. I immediately jumped to a false conclusio that my ISP provider was messing up (tsk on me) and totally skipped the router.. specially since I could connect to the other computers within my network. Apparently after trouble-shooting it was indeed my router that was at fault.. I went through the admin interface (it has a webserver running on it) and tried to troubleshoot and was unable to get it working.. I could see it getting an IP connection from my ISP.. but I simply couldnt figure out why it wasnt passing traffic back n forth between the outside world and my network.

I rarely do this but I ended up calling the linkSys customer support line.. the auto discovery Easylink Connect software they ask you to download and hope that fixes things didnt do anything except inform me of the issue I already knew -- ' Unable to connect to the Internet ' .. I called the support line again.. and they had me walk-through a really tedious path of making sure my cablemodem was working (sure - i can agree with that step) but then walking me through resetting my MAC address, resetting the router to default settings, turning things off for minutes and then back on.. ultimately they were able to get my router back up and working..

Unfortunately the incident returned the very next day.. exact same issues.. I called Linksys and notified that this was unacceptable.. they've got a replacement on the way.. I really had high hopes for this device.. extended signal transmission -- upto 4 times the distance as wireless G.. if others out there have had better luck.. please let me know.. and when my replacement arrives.. if it survives.. I'll do another follow up review and let you know how it functions when its 100% operational.

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