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I’m really not surprised by the content of Bush’s State of the Union speech tonight.  It’s the same rhetoric we’ve been hearing for five years, and I’m not sure it’s any more believable than it has been in previous years.  When incentives are created to encourage people to use renewable energy and to reduce their consumption of fossil fuels, then I’ll believe progress has been made.  Words just don’t do it for me

I do think the mention of Bush and Clinton’s 60th birthdays this year was hilarious.  Watching the State of the Union address is really about finding those few gems of humor!

I wrote the following review about a new phone I’ve been testing, the Treo 700w, for a couple of websites. I posted it here in its entirety for everyone else to see.

I have been running around with the Treo 700w for a couple of weeks now, and I absolutely love it. The Windows Mobile 5.0 platform is significantly more stable than previous WM versions, and the Verizon service has been superb.  Here is the breakdown:

PROs:

• WM 5.0 is a very solid platform
• The device itself is packaged well: the keyboard provides speedy input, the display and lighted keypad are bright and easy to use at night
• The camera produces amazing images, for a phone-based camera
• Signal strength is unparalleled in the DC area with VZW
• Included WM applications function flawlessly, and it took less than two minutes to set up Exchange ActiveSync via EVDO
• EVDO is lightning fast, and is highly available in this area
• Battery life is much better than expected, especially after I altered ActiveSync to update only when I have new e-mail available (otherwise, EVDO stays connected constantly and really drains the battery)
• Paired seamlessly with my Motorola Bluetooth headset

CONs:

• Phone doesn’t ship with a case, but I easily ordered one from Treonauts
• The phone is a little pricey

Bottom Line:

I highly recommend this phone, and as long as the user is smart about installing only well-tested applications and adjusting settings to conserve battery life, they will be very pleased as well. While the price may be a little high, I expect it will come down slightly in the coming months and is well worth it in terms of increased productivity.

Other Tips:

I think someone else stated it best, but essentially this phone is designed for work use, not for multimedia. I have installed only the essential applications and have yet to encounter a lock-up that others have described. In fact, it’s been running solid for the two weeks I’ve had it.

Before I purchased, I did a significant amount of research. The most helpful website that I found was the TreoCentral.com Forums which offered many cool tips and great insight for this phone.

(Cross-posted to PhoneScoop Treo 700w Reviews)

Friday night I went with Erin’s family to see the Capitol Steps perform live at the Ronald Reagan Building downtown.  They are a skit/comedy/musical group that pokes fun at all sides of the political spectrum, and they do it very well!  They featured songs about everything ranging from outgoing Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan to a debate between Kerry and Bush about why the chicken crossed the road.  There was even a song with Bill and Hillary Clinton making fun of the 2008 presidential election.

If you’re interested in going to one of their shows, they offer one every Friday and Saturday night at the Ronald Reagan Building.

When I moved to DC earlier this month, my car insurance rates nearly tripled. Combine that with the fact that I could never find a parking space anytime after 5 PM (meaning I couldn’t go anywhere at night and expect to come back to a place to park my car).  I made the decision to invest in a new Vespa LX 150 scooter.  It fills in the gaps left by Metro, and has so far been extremely easy to park (just tether it to a lamp post or tree, and let it sit on the sidewalk).

The 2 gallon gas tank only cost $4.30 to fill, and is advertised to get gas mileage as high as 75-80 mpg.  It’s very zippy with amazing acceleration and has a very comfortable seat.  The part that will take a little getting used to is how other people react.  I’ve gotten a lot of turned heads, and outside the grocery store today one woman even stopped walking to watch me lock up my Vespa.

I’ll post more pictures of the Vespa during the next couple of weeks to my photo album.

This is fun, and so many of them are true!

You Know You’re an Expat Kid in the Middle East or Have Been When…

1. You can’t answer the question, “Where are you from?” (And when you do, you get into an elaborate conversation that gets everyone confused and/or makes you sound very spoiled.)
2. You flew before you could walk.
3. You have a passport, but no driver’s license.
4. You think California is cold.
5. You watch National Geographic specials and recognize someone.
6. You run into someone you know at every airport.
7. Conversations with friends take place at 6:00 in the morning or 10:00 at night.
8. Your life story uses the phrase “Then we went to…” five times.
9. You can speak with authority about the quality of various international airlines.
10. You feel self conscious around all white people.
11. You get offended when someone turns down an offer for food.
12. You live at school and go home for vacation.
13. You treasure pork and root beer as highly-valued commodities.
14. You have ever had to wait for prayer call to be over to finish shopping.
15. You are fascinated by any wildlife bigger than a gecko.
16. You know the true meaning of “football.” (and in your mind can hear the shout, “GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”)
17. You know that it truly is a small world.
18. You have ever gone to the “hammam” or endured a “shamal.”
19. You get all the jokes in Aladdin.
20. Rain is still one of the most wonderful sounds in the world.
21. You haggle with the checkout clerk for a lower price.
22. Your wardrobe can only handle two seasons: hot and warm.
23. Your school memories include duck-and-cover drills.
24. You are used to being stared at.
25. You think VISA is a document stamped in your passport, and not a plastic card you carry in your wallet.
26. You call a chicken burrito a “shwarma.”
27. Your dorm room/apartment/living room looks a little like a museum with all the “exotic” things you have around.
28. You’ve heard of or tried “hubbly bubbly.”
29. You’ve woken up in the middle of the night to watch the Superbowl on cable.
30. You have sat in a “men’s” or “women’s” section in an airport, hospital, or restaurant.
31. You know the geography of the rest of the world, but you don’t know the geography of your own country. (Isn’t Philadelphia its own state?)
32. Your best friends are from 5 different countries.
33. You’re spoiled. You know it. You’re VERY spoiled.
34. You ask your roommate when the houseboy is scheduled to come clean.
35. You have never spent a summer with your friends from high school because you all go back to your home town/state/country June – August
36. Camping involves duning, getting stuck, and counting how many camels you saw.
37. A sports tournament involves flying to another country in the Middle East.
38. You remember when the first McDonalds in your country had its grand opening.
39. You got days off school for Christian and Muslim holidays.
40. You secretely wished the rulers of other Middle Eastern countries would die so that you got days off school.
41. Not being able to eat in public during the day during the holy month of Ramadan.
42. Traveling to the states required buying candy, CDs, and Abercrombie and Fitch clothing for your friends back overseas.
43. You are used to giving directions according to landmarks, not street names.
44. It’s normal to wake up and have four or more Pakistani men fixing your AC.
45. You didn’t know how to do your own laundry until you left for college.
46. How come the houses in America don’t have servants quarters?
47. You are used to seeing Arabic commercials dubbed in British English about Lux soap, Carnation condensed milk and Dove shampoo.
48. Seeing police drive on the shoulder of the road and cut people is not unusual.
49. You understand that being addressed as “ma’am/sir” by Filipinos is not an insult.
50. You know someone is referring to Pepsi when they say “Bebzi”.
51. Having a walled in, cement house is standard.
52. Ford Explorer sized cars seem small compared to Toyota Land Cruisers and Nissan Patrols.

Shamelessly stolen from somewhere… I can’t remember.

The past few weeks have been extremely busy, here’s a quick recap.  I spent a week in Minneapolis visiting my family for Christmas.  Thankfully the average highs of 25°F and 30°F each day were much more tolerable than last year’s -10°F to -5°F.  It was great to see my dad, who recently returned from a six-month tour in Baghdad, Iraq.  For Christmas I even got a replica of a Ba’ath Party watch featuring Saddam Hussein’s picture.  I imagine that at one time on the streets of Baghdad, having a watch like that to identify one’s self with the Ba’ath party was as valuable as having a Rolex was in the west.

Work has also been busy, and I’ve still managed time to have fun.  The AITP Holiday Party on December 8th was great with a good show of members, and the other various holiday parties were also a blast.  With that, I’d like to wish a (somewhat belated, at this point) Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year to all!

Every time it snows more than an inch here in Washington, DC, we always manage to make the national headlines on CNN and other news channels.  Last night we received two to three inches of snow, and I woke up this morning to find that the Federal Government was delayed two hours, and just about every school in the region was closed.  A few days ago, during our first measurable snow fall of the season, I busted out my camera and created a short video to document the event.  My cat Minnie even wanted to get out and see what all the fuss was about.  It didn’t take long to post my video on Google Videos for free.  Click the image on the right to watch it!

Update: I uploaded the video to Flickr, just watch it embedded below:

For those who don’t know, I’ve spent the past two months taking an LSAT Prep Course all building up to actually taking the LSAT on Saturday, December 3rd.  I feel confident that I did well, even though it definitely took a lot of energy.  So many people talk about which section was experimental, and even try to figure out their scores, but I think I did well enough to not have to worry about doing that stuff!  The scores come in on January 3rd, and shortly thereafter I’ll send my applications out to law schools.  I’ll update more about that soon.

In other news, tomorrow night is the AITP annual Holiday Party.  If you’re in the Washington, DC area and are interested in networking with IT professionals, as well as enjoy some good food and open bar (all for $10), then check out our Evite.  Sorry about the late notice, things have been quite hectic!

On a final note, happy birthday to [redacted]!

Google has made the news quite a bit recently with some of their new product offerings, so I decided to play around with the latest services to pop up.

Google Analytics – This service offers free website statistics collection for webmasters.  The screenshots and testimonials I have read about the service (which Google bought several months ago) was very promising, however it seems that the demand has been so high that their servers are a bit overburdened.  In regular operations, statistics and reports are to update themselves in such a way that the data is never more than six hours old.  However, I’ve had my account for more than 24 hours and there is still no data available.  From newsgroups I’ve read, this seems entirely normal these days and is expected to improve over time.  I trust that they will continue to improve their capacity and deliver an awesome service much like they have with Google Mail and Google Talk.

Google Base – This new classifieds service, somewhat like Craigslist, was leaked a few weeks ago and I had a chance to play with it then.  Yesterday I posted a job listing for a new opening at my company but I haven’t received any responses yet.  Searching for jobs is a bit cluttered because it seems a few large websites have flooded their listings on the site via the bulk upload feature.  Poo on them, but I may try it again in the future to see if it improves.

You may have also noticed that my websites are now sporting Google ads.  I have enough visitors, and some of my websites come up at the top of search listings for common terms, that I figured I could make a little money from it all.  I definitely think it’s a neat way to support some of the costs of maintaining my website and fund some new projects I’d like to roll out.

So the conclusion is that Google’s new stuff carries a lot of hype and has generated a lot of interest, but it seems they have their capacity for supporting all of those initial visitors has been a little light.  First impressions count for a lot, but they are free enough that I’ll probably give them a second shot a few weeks down the road. It will also be interesting to see what Microsoft comes out with in the next few months, I’ll be on the lookout!

I thought I would start this entry with a small rhyme, one of those rhymes you’ve probably heard at least parts of before but couldn’t place it with the whole thing…

What are little boys made of?
Snaps and snails,
And puppy dog tails,
That’s what little boys are made of.

What are little girls made of?
Sugar and spice,
And everything nice,
That’s what little girls are made of.

I’ve been trying to figure out if being made of snaps and snails and puppie dog tails is a good thing or a bad thing.  Puppies are cute, and their tails are fun, right?