We can’t wait to move into the new place, so it is killing us to sit here all packed up with nowhere to go.  And, trust me, setting up and cancelling the 5 billion things that need to be done with a move is not fun either.  Ashley and I ended up going to a movie grill tonight to zone out for a couple hours and to not think about it.  So far, so good with our new neighbors though, they all have seemed very friendly (the ones on both sides we have met so far).  And, Bridget is definitely read to tear up the trails.  But, its sad leaving this place, too.  I really liked this house, but I think we will like the new neighborhood with lakes and trails.

Doesn’t add up to as much, as it would have, in say, Seattle But, we had a really good realtor up there that sold it very fast (4 days maybe) and handled all the hassles for us. The one tough thing with this listing is that we have to get our dog out of the house before anyone shows it.  I’m not sure how people avoid this normally?  So, that might become a big inconvenience for me.

Hopefully, all goes very well, and its only a short inconvenience, but I know we have to be ready for the long haul.

With the RCO tool says Ward, “we were able to offer PSG a new metric that hadn’t been considered before: what we called ‘coverage.’ Coverage accounts for the importance of products that generate revenue on their own, as well as those that enable the sales of other products.”

Figuring coverage into the equation allowed one division of PSG to establish that roughly 20% of its products, if optimally selected, could completely fulfill 80-85% of all customer orders. As a result, the group was able to significantly decrease the time it took to serve their customers, as well as make order fulfillment times reliably consistent.

PSG now runs the RCO tool as a part of its regular planning cycle, says PSG special project manager Holger Mishal. “We call it the Recommended Offering Program,” he says, “It’s really helped us create predictable and therefore very competitive order cycle times.”

RCO is also integrated into a second program at PSG, called the Global Product Offering Program, which offers HP’s global customers a set of products that they can buy in every country in which they do business.

“We’ve used the tool to analyze all orders from enterprise customers worldwide,” says Mishal. “It allows us to accurately determine which 20 to 30 percent of the features and configurations we offer satisfy 80 percent of the orders.”

The result, he says, is a global product set much better attuned to customer needs. Before RCO was applied to the process, Mishal notes, “only around 20% of customers used the process. Now, the adoption rate stands at 83%.”

Three articles have been published on it which explain it in more detail:

H.P. Labs Pulls Out the Measuring Stick - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com (NY Times)

http://www.hpl.hp.com/news/2009/apr-jun/RCO_tool.html (HP Labs)

http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2009/090428d.html (HP Press Release)

Award acceptance video:

So far, it looks like this might be the best rated: http://orcawhalewatch.com/whale_watching_tour.html

Its $75 for a 3-3.5 hr trip.

Seems like a great way for kids to engage their creativity, as well as adults.  A family member could setup a trail of GPS points to commemorate a certain event in their family and you could retrace the route or anyone else could later, as well.  Even road trip-wise, someone taking a road trip could mark points, as they went and leave a pretty cool way for someone to follow their trip to the detail.  They could then share that on sites like Tripadvisor.com, etc.

http://h30430.www3.hp.com/index.jsp?auto_band=x&rf=sv&fr_story=d2a8e282b700a97a913c763aa26645d7520f8c10

http://www.createascape.org.uk/home.html

Anyways, Ash wanted me to get her the song Wake Up on some music device and the only one I can find is the creative Zen nano, but I can’t find the album Funeral in my music collection.  I even have the cd somewhere, but must not have copied it over back then.  I’ll have to find it and while I’m at it back up our whole physical media collection to digital.  That will be a short task, I’m sure:) In the midst of all this, I did stumble across a cool YouTube video of David Bowie & Arcade Fire back in 2005 (Bowie and others were fans), so enjoy:

- http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx?country=us :

The Snowball Calculator - "Snowballing is all about paying your debts in the correct order. Generally speaking you should attempt to pay off the debts with the highest interest rate first. Some people, such as Dave Ramsey suggest you pay the card with the smallest balance first, that’s fine, and can help you feel you’re getting rid of the debt quicker, but it’s not the most efficient way. This calculator allows you to enter up to 20 different debts with their associated APRs, and the total amount you want to spend per month servicing your debts, and it’ll work out the order in which you should pay them together with the monthly payments. For more information on snowballing follow the Motley Fool link to the right of this page. If you’re considering a consolidation loan, think carefully about it. It’s almost always cheaper to snowball your debts, and often people who consolidate their debts end up in more debt because they haven’t addressed the main issue: They spend too much."

–> My comments: I like this a lot, gets you to sort of figure out how much you are committing to loans right now (including credit cards) and how much you would save if you focused money on each of your debts and how you see your money made available to you again, as you are paying off your debt.  It also helps you see the big picture about how long it will take you to pay everything off.  For example, I’ve got 3 main debts right now: car, Home Loan, and Student Loan.  Now, they are all at the same % (6), so I pay the normal monthly for the first two and then I’ve decided to spend a given extra amount on the Student Loan that automatically gets paid, so I can pay it off by September or so. If the car paid off sooner, I’d probably pay extra on it instead, b/c its just nice to be able to pay off a debt.  But, it wouldn’t matter if for example, the car rate was higher, b/c i’d focus on the car payment first.  Now, when your house is your highest rate, I think it does become tricky.  I mean, its still better interest-wise to pay it off first, but you have to weigh that with the fact that you may not have access to that house money until you sell your house.  So, to me, it sometimes still makes sense to pay the other loans off first, if you don’t think you are selling your house anytime soon, b/c if you pay the smaller loans off, then you have that monthly payment back to focus on something else.  All this, also shows you how much interest you are paying, which I like to see, b/c if you can pay off the loans, then that interest money every month that you pay, can go straight to savings or paying off another debt.  The way I see it, paying off a debt at 6%, is the same as getting a 6% savings return on your money, which ain’t bad (because thats what you are paying someone else, so why not …not pay that and save that 6%, it starts accumulating quickly!)

- Finance tracking-wise: there are sites like mint.com, which can help, but I like the basic Excel tracking where I list out every bill I have in my Expenses section row by row, then either include your savings amt in there or put it in its own section below that, then put an income section below that.  And, have a final Total = Income - Expenses - (Savings).  Or, if you just have the Income - Expenses, it tells you how much you could save.  I also like to list the amount I would have to save for something (goals) and figure out how many months it will take me by looking at my savings amount. 

-  Recommendation-wise: I think its a good idea to avoid using a credit card, if anyone can help it.  With me, I thought about changing to just using my checking account, but I get points through my credit card that are good.  If I were starting out with my Finances though, I’d only get a credit card as an every once in the while use.  For building credit, by having the card, but only using it when you need to, and anytime you use it, you know for sure you will have the money at the end of the month.  C.C. interest is just too expensive to pay.  Main thing is, if you can figure out finances, when you are young, it becomes second nature and natural to you when you are old. 

- A site about Automating your money, which is interesting, although I don’t really use all these concepts, I do use some though and it is nice to visualize where your money goes:

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/03/26/the-psychology-of-automation-building-a-bulletproof-personal-finance-system/

From http://blogs.chron.com/fanblogtexans/2009/04/scouting_the_running_backs_par.html:

Gartrell Johnson 5-10 220 pound Colorado State.

Johnson is the classic one cut back that fits the Denver system mold. He has exceptional cuting ability and can make adjustements in the hole. He has the body lean to get though arm tackles and the balence to absorb hits and gain extra yardage. He wont clock fast, but on the field plays fast.

Ran in the 4.7 range at the combine and that didnt help dispell the notion he was slow.

Looking forward to the draft.

Also, the Astros disappointed with a loss to start of the season, with Roy O. giving up two lead off homers in back to back innings, but they came back with a 10th inning win over the Cubbies.  Hopefully, tonight they can even win the series.  That’d be a nice way to start the season.  With the walk-off hit from the new guy we traded for, Keppinger, there might be some hope to this season.

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2009/04/dayintech_0407

President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s signature repealed the Volstead Act, legalizing 3.2 percent beer. It also paved the way for the December ratification of the 21st Amendment, which repealed the 18th Amendment and deep-sixed Prohibition altogether.

So, I celebrate FDR today.

Also, went to a game night, hosted by Russ and Ashley Beth, that was a lot of fun.  Enjoyed some St. Arnold’s Spring Bocks, along with Catch Phrase that surprisingly entertained all 12 of us about all night.  So, that was the weekend pretty much, and back at work today.

So, I’m sitting at work today and I remember I brought some pistachios.  I saw them in the store and had to buy them previously, so I’ve been eating them like mad.  I instant message a co-worker to let them know the important activity I was busy with…eating pistachios…and he lets me know he had seen a recall in the last few days.  So, I wandered over to google and found out that I would live, my brand was safe.  Can I stop worrying about what I eat for once?  Seems like their are recalls all the time now. 

After the Pistachio incident was over, I read that Eric is covering a pizza joint in some local blog, and he got me thinking about my recent venture into my DIY list mentioned previously.  I made my first homemade pizza…although it wasn’t very homemade, but it was fairly good.  It consisted of Pillsbury dough, Pizza Sauce, Mozzarella, Tomatoes, Basil, Red Onions and Black Olives.  Fairly simple, but good to start small.  So, my next pizza will change to the following (and by the way, I’m not making my own dough): Fresh dough from HEB (50 cents), create my own pizza sauce, a little pesto, Tomatoes, Basil, Mozzarella, Red Onions, Black Olives, and Grilled Chicken. Not really sure what’s going into the special sauce, but that might end up being a secret.

http://www.29-95.com/music

I’m still tweaking with this site and hopefully adding some content (pics and such), as well.  I might be able to post a 8 minute video clipping of our wedding….I created a patchwork of about 15 30 second clips from someone’s camera.  Looks the file size is too large, so I’ll have to figure out how to trim it down.  I use the Windows Movie Maker for Vista, which is free.  Was very easy to use compared to my nightmares with Roxio Easy Creator 2009.

• Connect Indoor Antenna to test HD signal: thought I would definitely need an outdoor multidirectional antenna to get the HD content, but I thought I would try the indoor variety for its simplicity first.
• Organize Garage: It was organized before we moved from Seattle and it can be organized once again in Houston.  Just have to put the shelves back up and put up some more Peg board and hooks.
• Build a Garden Bed: http://realestate.msn.com/listarticle.aspx?cp-documentid=18630998
• Start making Homemade Pizzas: I enjoy the local Pizza’s from Maui Bros (from the original Star Pizza owner I believe), but they can get pricey, so we might try to make our own..could be fun. http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/making-your-own-pizza-dough.html
• Print out photbooks: MyPublisher.com, Blurb.com (I think I like this best, but haven’t used yet), Lulu.com, and looks like a few more at http://mashable.com/2009/03/01/publish-book/.
• Brew beer: a hobby I need to get back into, but I need to buy all the setup again as I lost most if it before the move to Seattle.  I would love it if a Brew Your Own Beer Pub would open up in Houston, similar to the one I found in Seattle, http://www.whereubrew.com/.  But, it would just be good to be back brewing…save me some money too, since I have that taste for the non-Bud/Miller/Coors/Water/etc.
• VHS to DVD transfer: I bought a Roxio Creator 2009/Easy VHS to DVD adapter (usb to r/w/y), but it has been anything, but easy to use.  They helped me update my video driver, which ended up fixing a DVD burning problem.  But, the interface is horrible and slow.  There has to be better options out there.  I’m going to try a different program, like the free Infrarecorder.org, and see how that works.  It would be great to get all of my family’s old VHS recordings onto digital to share around and actually watch.  Its pretty funny seeing yourself when your 10

They’ve only lost like 5 games since T-mac ended his season and Artest really stepped into that role of leadership on the team.  He takes it in crunch time (good or bad) and enforces his personality on the team. You already had Scola leading the league in double doubles after all-star break and emerging as the 3rd guy we though Artest was at the beginning of the year.  Artest has emerged as the #2 guy, but it seems he is leading this group and surprisingly making them gel.  The 1-2 combo of Brooks/Lowry is what we never knew we needed.  And, Landry although out for a while, should be back for the playoffs and gave a little extra playing time to everyone.  Lowry really seems to be emerging as the best distributor and really starting to feel comforable. With him, Brooks, and Wafer, we are loaded with guards who can attack the rim.

The questions that remain are:

1. Will they find a fool proof plan to get Yao the ball in the 4th qtr when teams pullout all the tricks?
2. Will Artest stop letting his emotion force him into the lane late in the game trying to draw a foul that they aren’t going to call?
3. Will they be able to hit the three consistently? (Battier seems to be waking from his coma in time for the playoffs).

Like I said, I don’t think they can beat the Jazz because I think they would need to take a game in Utah and I’m not sure thats possible.  But, if they get lucky and don’t have to play them, then anything is possible with this team.  They have a great mix of players and personalities and they play very well as a team.  They can still be streaky, but their D saves them because they can put the clamps down when they aren’t scoring and keep themselves in the ball game.  I think Landry will be a big part of the championship run, so here’s to hoping he comes back strong (did i mention, he got shot in the leg in a possible carjacking attempt?).  And, here’s to hoping that luck comes back to our side, along with a certain cookie monster wagging his finger in the Finals.

I think they’ll end up trading down and taking the linebacker or corner.  They seem to value quality of draft pick/position of draft pick over top quality of player (i.e. bargain hunters).  Sometimes that results in a big hit, sometimes you just get a lot of good, but not great players with it.

It will be an interesting draft, however.  I see the the picks in this order…LB (1), RB (2), CB (3), LB (4), S (4), DT (5), WR (6), S (7).  Maybe they are able to trade down first round for a trade up in the 2nd and 4th rounds.  I think that would benefit their overall draft strategy.  While the team seems poised for a solid run at the playoffs, if a certain QB stays healthy, they still need depth on defense and if they take more than 2 offensive positions in the draft I would be shocked.  One surprise out of mine is the RB situation where I really didn’t think they would draft one til 4th round.  But, from different things I’ve read they have that as a high priority, so I bumped it up to a 2nd rounder. It also sounds like they’d like to find another slaton, but a few inches taller.

Overall, I think they are positioned to be a playoff team for the next few years if they can have a solid draft this year that produces a few players that can contribute some right away.  I do think if they bust the 1st selection or pick someone that will take a while to develop, that it could spell trouble for the season, just from their lack of depth standpoint.

Update: Petey Faggins is no longer a Houston Texan and even better, he is now  a Titan.  From the H. Chronicle, “Meanwhile, former Texans cornerback DeMarcus Faggins agreed to a two-year deal with Tennessee on Wednesday.”  One of the lone remaining franchise starters, I think that is a sign of a good year ahead.

Here are some links to what I’ve been reviewing:

http://www.boxee.tv/ - Platform to view Hulu, etc.

http://www.neurostechnology.com/ - Option that meets alot of needs.

http://www.antennaweb.org/ - What type of Antenna you need, for me a multi directional small antenna.

http://tech.msn.com/howto/articlepcw.aspx?cp-documentid=11933698 - Pretty good guide to building a PC Media Center, at least a starting point

First off, the Astros, possibly assembling the oldest rotation in baseball.  Collective ages: 32, 37,38,35, 30.  That’s right folks, noone under 30 is making this roster (just used year of birth, not month).  That would be a fearsome 5 of Roy, Hampy, Moehler, Ortiz and last but always least… Wandy (3 seasons in a row of 9 wins…i’ll give him points for consistency and he did have a 3.54 era last year).

While the starting pitching is far from considered dangerous, except to themselves, they are all pitching fairly well.  IF they don’t succumb to multiple injuries, I think they may not be that bad.  I think they all can keep the club in the game, which is what the ’stros need.  You still got Roy O at the top, so you can hate the rotation too much.  The bullpen, surprise, surprise is the exact same as last year.  I’ve never seen that before, so I’m hoping that helps knowing your roles going into the season.  They didn’t have very much competition to keep their jobs though, so not sure what that means, but they were a decent bullpen last year, so here’s to hoping.

Overall, maybe its that optimistic spring training vibe or something fooling me, but they are better than I thought they would be.  Maybe thats also because I was hoping Hampy and Ortiz would succeed because I do like the veteran presence on the staff, with that faint hope of resurrecting days long ago.  All in all, you have one of the best at the top of your rotation and one of the best at the bottom of your bullpen and a lot of good but not great arms in between.  The call ups look to be Jose Capellan (29), Chad Paronto, Bud Norris, Felipe Paulino, Sergio Perez.  Oh, you are still waiting for me to name Backe?  Well I guess I could have listed him there, but he’s on the DL, postponing any Astros’ decision on him.  So, they’ll see how he is pitching when he gets back and make a decision.

On the hitting front, I like the team.  With Pudge Rodriguez as your catcher (yes, that’s right, Drayton needed something to make a Splash and put people in those seats), you have the best hitting catcher on the Astros since Craig Biggio.  He was hitting pretty well at World Baseball play, so not that I’m expecting mvp potential, but I’ll take him as my #2 hitter over Bourne.  I’m hoping for .275+, 12-14 hr.  And, yes, I was pretty disappointed not being able to call Cam to share the news. The backup catcher spot goes to Quintero.

Nothing else is really changed.  Although the platoon of Blum/Boone maybe Blum/Chris Johnson, as Boone had heart surgery and is out.  We may have a backup infielder named either Jason Smith (likely) or Edwin Maysonet, nothing exciting there.  Still have that Jason Michaels guy that I don’t know why we signed.  I could see Bogusevic coming up and platooning with Bourne, until he takes the job.  So, the lineup is Matsui, Pudge, Berkman, Lee, Tejada, Pence, Blum, Bourne, P.  Not too bad, seems fairly well balanced with speed and 130-140 HR potential.

As for prospects, looks like Brian Bogusevic could get called up for Bourne, unless Bourne decides he wants to keep his job.  And, Chris Johson may make the team at 3rd base or be a call up.  At catcher, the Astros are finally having prospects show up.  Lou Santangelo looks promising (yes the drug failing guy), I think Towles is not going to make it (but he’s there in AAA), Jason Castro is their future.  Lou could get a late callup. We even were able to keep the brewers rule 5 guy Lou Palmisano and stash him in the minors (AAA).   The Brew crew didn’t want him back.  So, I’m happy we have a stocked cupboard of catchers.

I don’t really have a prediction for the season, but I’m hoping they approach 90 wins.  The Cubs look like they’ll be in first and the rest of the division is a question mark.

For example, I could maybe cut my channel subscription back and the cable HD / DVR once I have good quality HD signals for free. I’d lose out on ESPN / Fox Sports Southwest (Rockets/Astros) HD though, so that would be a big drawback.   But, if I felt like I could live with SD only, then I could do the switch and then think about my DVR options.  Not sure, I wish I knew more about all this.  For example, do I have to run an entire new cable from the amplifier to each of the three cable outlets, if I want to have cable and antenna?  Probably.  So, maybe I’d have to go cold turkey on cutting cable entirely, with this plan.   Which means…maybe I need to think through exactly what I want in my system long run and plan for it better.  Hmm, I know from construction problems the benefits of a good plan at the start.

So, then I’ll need to go with the Antenna, sometype of DVR, and I’d really like to be able to stream internet to my TV, to watch Hulu.com and others.  It seems systems like Boxee are having problems getting content from Hulu anymore though, so I would think the best thing to do would be to invest in something (pc or other) that can plug into my hdtv and do the following:

1. Function as a web browser to view/listen: Hulu.com, KEXP.org (UW radio), and the cable station websites (TNT/etc.).
2. Stream Netflix movies (so I can get an 8.99 netflix acct with free streamed movies).
3. It’d be nice for it to be able to connect to my external hard drive, to be able to play music and display photos.
4. At the end of the day, I like the idea of not having to worry about my laptop, if I really want to look something up while watching tv.  Totally unneccessary and probably wouldn’t use it as much as I think, but it would be a plus.

.

So, I don’t think something like Boxee would suit me.  I don’t have XBOX 360 or other to use either and  don’t want to buy one exclusively for this.  Obviously, the choice would be a lot easier if I were a gamer. If the WII had the functionality, I might by it instead, but it doesn’t and its a worse choice for this than xbox.  The question is whether I should possibly just wait another year til perhaps the whole situation becomes more clear and easier to decipher.  There may be new products that do these things well and are more plug and play than messing with a computer.  And, honestly, to get the right computer for this is even a pretty expensive task still (knowing that its mainly just to watch tv on).  I’ll comment more as I research it more.