Bachelor Rice and Beans

So, I’m not a big fan of kraft mac and cheese as a meal, and ramen, while delicious, doesn’t cut it in the making me feel like I’ve eaten something category. Still, when you are a bachelor working hard and living alone (or with two roommates who certainly aren’t going to cook for you), sometimes you need easy meals to make. Last night, I adapted a few rice and bean recipes to give me something easy and delicious. I’ll try and put It in recipe format.

1 sliced jalapeño pepper, seeds removed
1 large onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, shallot, green onion or whatever else you might have around
1 can black beans (red kidneys would work here too)
1-2 slices raw bacon
Spices (I used cumin, chili powder, adobo and others)
1 tsp white vinegar
Salt to taste
1 and 3/4 cups water
1 cup rice

Cook the bacon over high heat, but don’t burn the grease. Remove from pan to cool. In the bacon grease, cook the onions garlic and jalapenos (careful not to inhale) until the onions are kind of soft and browning a little. Season this mixture with whichever spices you choose. When you are satisfied with how the “veggies” look, open the beans and add with liquid and all. Move these around and get then nice and hot for a few minutes, then add the water and vinegar, and a good dash of salt (around a teaspoon). Bring this all to a boil on medium high and let it cook down for about 5 minutes, or until you notice it start to thicken a bit. Add the rice and the now cooked bacon (cut up) and throw a lid on it.

Cook for 20 minutes on simmer, and voila—stir it up and you have a hearty, easy meal. If you get carried away on the jalapenos and need to cool it down, a dash of creamy salad dressing as a topping is delicious.

Google Maps with My Location

Now it is true that I'm an Apple guy. I have my Mac Pro, my iPod and my iPhone, but there is a tech company that I really love, and that is Google. Two days ago (obviously I've been way too busy to have written this blog already), Google released an updated to their Mobile Maps with version 2.0 and a new beta feature called My Location. Instead of me tell you what it is, just watch this video.




First of all, I love that video, and second of all, I love this new technology, although I haven't been able to use it yet. Currently, the update for the iPhone hasn't happened yet, so I'm waiting for Apple to get on that. However, in the office here I do have a Verizon Motorola Q. I went ahead and downloaded the program to the phone and then pressed '0' to have it tell me My Location. And it tells me, "Your current location is temporarily unavailable." This is the result that I have gotten for two days now. But then I remember that it is still in Beta and doesn't full work. Then again, Gmail was in beta for like two years and that worked great.

Update to Spam Fun

Mr. Wong,
Of course I trust you! I cannot think of any reason I wouldn't want to trust you, especially now that you have shared a copy of your official government ID. Don't worry, it is safe with me.

My information is on the way, I need to go to a local Kinko's and get them to scan it in. Do you have Kinko's where you live? I'm not sure what Hong Kong is like, If it is anything like the restaurant by my house Hong Kong Kitchen, the food must be really good and it must be really nicely decorated. Are there giant fishtanks everywhere?

Anyhow, I will be in touch soon with my own documents. I can't wait until we are sipping drinks together in the future, both wealthy from our business deal!

Sincerely,
Justin

On Nov 30, 2007 7:15 AM, peter wong wrote:

Dear :Justin

Thanks alot for your willingness to partner with me in pulling out my deceased client funds from my bank and also this is to acknowledge the receipt of your sent in informations .I have just forwarded it to my Attorney to begin work on the documentations that will put you as next of kin to my late client.

Be informed that the fact that you are a foreigner give you the priviledge to stand in as my deceased client beneficiary as my deceased client had no relations and all his family died with him during the war and i can not use my relation because its not accepted here in hong gonk.

Also I am very confident that we will be able to establish the trust that is needed to complete this deal and all that I need for the time been is your willingness and commitment so that we can end this in the next one week.

What you need to understand about this transaction is that I will make sure that it passes through all international banking laws, regards to this I will take care of all the expenses and the cost of retaining the service of an Attorney to give the transaction the proper documentation that is required to perfect the finishing.Your only obligation in this transaction will be to set up an offshore account that can accomodate these funds.

Quickly be informed that you will have to set up an Offshore account where the funds will be transferred to and and from this offshore account the money will be transferred your account in your country in bits so that it will not raise eyebrows.The reason why you will have to set up this Offshore Account with THE OFFSHORE BANK IN EUROPE is to by cut all the Government taxes and world monetary regulatory bodies and it won't raise any suspicion.

Having said that be informed that you will need some amount to set up this account with the offshore bank as opening deposit as its been called based on the fact that its an Offshore account, this however will enable the account to accomodate the funds that will be transferred and the money will not bounce back to my bank because if it does that will lead to investigation by the monetary body on why and what makes the money to bounce back and on that ground they will detect what we have done .

I choose to make this plans clear to you so that you know the level of your comittment in this project, you have to trust me even as I have trust in you. On this ground I have attached a copy of my work id for your perusal and trust and I want you to send me yours as well any means of your identification either International passport,Drivers license or your working ID card. I hope you understand why this is important.
More so at this moment I am checking on all my Offshore bank contacts to find out the cheapest that you can afford to deal with and when you have sent me your means of identification I will send you the bank details for you to make inquiry on how you can set-up the Offshore account.

Once again I like to thank you for the informations sent in and dont forget to send me your means of identification.

I am anticipating to reading from you soonest.

Sincerely,
Mr.Peter wong

Spam Fun

Mr Wong,
I am flattered and honored that you have chosen me as the vessel for this admirable venture. I'm a very spiritual man, and I believe strongly that good deeds are repaid tenfold. I had no idea that when I gave the woman money with the salvation army tin and the bell it would come back to me so quickly, and about a million times!

You haven't made a mistake. I think we will be excellent business partners, and despite what some people say, two wrongs don't make a right, but one Mr. Wong does!!

Sincerely,

Justin

On Nov 28, 2007 6:52 PM, Mr. peter wong <rwong@myway.com> wrote:

DEAR FRIEND,

I am Mr.paul leech Executive Director of the Hang Seng
Bank Ltd, taiwan.An Iraqi named Besem Faruak,
a business man made a numbered fixed deposit of
(126,336,8299.38 hk) for 18 calendar months, this is
 valued  to Eigth milion United State Dollars only  in
my branch.

Upon maturity several notice was sent to him, even
during the war,four years ago (2003). Again after the
war another  notification was sent and
still no response came from him. We later  found out
that Besem Faruak, and his family had been killed
during the  war in Gunfire that hit their

home at Mukaradeeb where his personal  oil well was.
After further investigation it was also discovered
that Besem Faruak,
 did not declare any next of kin in his official
papers including the  paper work of his bank deposit.
And he also confided in me the last  time we was

 at my office that no one except me knew of his
deposit in  my bank. So, Eigth  milion United State
Dollars is still lying
 in my bank and no one will ever come forward to
claim it. What bothers me is that according to the
laws of my country

at the expiration five years six months the funds will
revert to the  ownership of the hong kong Government if
nobody
applies to claim the  funds.

My proposal, I am prepared to place you as the next of
kin in a  position to instruct HANG SENG BANK to
release the deposit to you as  the closest
surviving relation. Upon receipt of the deposit, I am
prepared to share the money with you in half. That is:
I will simply  nominate you as the
 next of kin and have them release the deposit to
you. We share the procentange50/50.

I would have gone ahead to ask  the funds be released
to me, but that would have drawn a straight line  in
my involvement in claiming the
deposit.I assure you that I could  have the deposit
released to you within a few days.
 I will simply  inform the bank of the final closing
of the file relating to Besem Faruak, I will then
officially communicate with my
 Bank and instruct  them to release the deposit to
you. With these: all is done.

I am  aware of the consequences of this
proposal.should be interested in executing this with
me;
indicate your interest by sending me the following:

1. YOUR NAME
2. YOUR RESIDENT ADDRESS
3. YOUR OCCUPATION
4. YOUR PHONE NUMBER
5. DATE OF BIRTH
6. COUNTRY OF RESIDENT

Your response with the requested information should be
sent to reach me at my personal email address below:
peterwong_4@yahoo.com.hk

I shall then provide you with more details on this
operation when I hear from you.

Sincerely,
Mr.peter wong

Cool pic

I was on the train and noticed my dapper reflection, so being the
cheeky dude I am, I took a photo.

Actually I thought it was cool bc you can see the reflection, the
scratches in the plexiglas, and the dude's knapsack.

Ok, I'm just really bored.

OUCH!

You know, your back is one of those things that you really don't appreciate until you destroy it. That's what I did this past week. I woke up last Saturday in pain, made it worse by lifting a turkey, and then was healing well until Thursday when roughhousing with cousins did the rest of the job. Now I'm all but crippled.

My morning commute is one of the all-time worst to begin with. But when you are in pain, it makes that look simple. Now I am cringing in my chair trying to hold it together for 8 hours. Do me a favor. Stretch, strengthen your core, and don't do stupid things, because there is little worse than a pain in the muscles you need to do everything.

iPhone on the can

The other day while was on digg.com there was a post about some guy on
his blog finally admitting that he uses his iPhone while on the
toilet. Well duh. I used it on the can the first full day I had it. I
also endorse bringing a laptop as well. Some people think it is gross
and blah blah blah. But it is a way to pass the time like reading the
news paper. Except now there is no paper and I have access to any news
sorce in the world. I could just sit here and write this blog.

Top 10 Features the iPhone Needs

I was thinking about this yesterday and I think I may have a list of things that the iPhone needs. Don't forget, I already have one and I do like it, but it can still do more. This list is no order.

1. iChat - I think everyone can agree with that. Until then, use Meebo in Safari.
2. Ringtones - Buying a song on iTunes that qualifies does not count. I should be able to make any song I want into a ringtone. I used to do it all the time with the old Sony.
3. GPS - Google maps is there already. How hard would it be to create a GPS function. If the hardware isn't inside already, make an attachment and a mounting system.
4. Office Applications - Right now there is no support for either iWork or MS Office. The only thing you can use is Google Docs. But that is through the web, we need something native.
5. File Storage - I have 8 gig phone. Ya, I could use it as an iPod but I'm not going running with it. I don't need to chance breaking it. So I still have regular iPod. Let's open some of that space for transferring files back and forth from work to home and back again.
6. Multi Computer Sync - I'm talking about for music, I mean for e-mail and iCal. I have created a clever work around for myself, but it could be made even easier if the support was there.
7. Third Party Apps - Ya ya ya, there are those web apps. But I hate going and finding them each time, signing up for this website and book marking them. I want to install on my phone an app native. I mean, I can use my web app if I'm on a subway. Then again, on the subway I might want to keep my phone out of site lest I lose it somehow.
8. Zoom on Camera - This is an easy software update. Let us zoom in on the camera!
9. Flash and Java Support - We have Safari, we can browse the web, but I can't watch videos on people's websites? What's the deal with that? Again, easy software update, let's get it done.
10. Uncensored YouTube - It's my phone, let me watch any video I want! Not just the safe videos. If I'm old enough to have a job that lets me pay for this phone, I think I am old enough to decide what videos I want to watch. And if your parent giving this to your kid, well maybe you shouldn't, but perhaps they can create parental controls just like on the computer.

And there is my top 10 list of how to make the iPhone even better. Will Apple listen to this? I doubt it.

E-mail Marketing

Running a small business requires you to get your name out there without missing any chances. I currently use a web service that sends me the names and e-mail addresses of bride's that are getting married. I take this info and send them an e-mail as part of marketing. What I'm trying to find is the best tool for sending this. For the longest time I have just been using Gmail to send out e-mails. However, this isn't very dynamic. For a short time I was using a web based service called Constant Contact. This was actually working really well, and since I was keeping my mailing list under 50 people, I never had to pay. Then they changed their policies and payment is needed. That's when I went back to using Gmail.

With Apple's latest OS, mail.app allows for you to create your own stationary. I figured, this is great! I can make a cool e-mail and send it out from there. Well, I've done that for three weeks and this morning when I checked it at work, I noticed that on the receiving side, it's not coming out right. All of the words and pictures are there, but the link doesn't work. This is maybe the most important thing that I need to work.

Now I am on a quest to find a mass e-mail program. Something that is simple but will let me sent out good looking e-mails. It's not the easiest thing to find, and I can't really test them at work since the STMP is blocked on the network. This means sometime before next weeks mailings, I will have to find something.

MTA not going my way

I'm going to miss my train because this damn subway is taking ages to come. This sucks.

See, the trouble with reverse commuting is that the trains and subways cater to the Manhattan-bound, and the rest of us are quite literally left in the cold.

I'm deciding what to do when my lease is up because this is no fun.

I love the Casino and the Casino Loves me

Two weeks ago I made my return to the Casino. I had taken a couple month break after the several times that we went over the summer. Well, that Saturday that my friend Chris and I went, we had a great time. We played craps for over 8 hours. I was down only $20 at the end of the day, but considering I was down to my last dollar and came all the way back, that is pretty awesome. And Chris was up a couple hundred bucks.

Well, the itch is strong with this one and with Chris. We talked about the Casino yesterday and somehow we ended up there. It's weird how that kind of thing happens, but we somehow ended up at the Casino after work yesterday. We had a great time, but sadly, we did not have the same success that we did the time before. Now it's time to hold up and wait until after Christmas to go again. After all, I guess I should save some money to buy people gifts.

Football

So, I am not much of a sports fan, I enjoy them on a casual basis, and find them to be a good social thing. However, I have to say that I was really pulling for the Giants to win the game last night. I would really like to see a New York team rise to being even halfway decent and offer a counterpoint to the Pats, to mirror the baseball rivalry.

I suppose there is still hope, it is only the third loss of the season, but this was being held up as a sort of a test of whether the Giants were actually a great team this year, or the benefactors of an easy schedule.

Inundated!

So, one thing I am quickly learning about having a new business Is
just how much junk mail is around. Every day I get a pile of offers
that would make a tree shudder.

Hopefully customers find me as quickly as marketers have!

Apple pre show

Sitting here at an apple confrence. Waiting for it to start.

Sitting in traffic

It is going slow enough that I can type this.

Wasting away at work

With the rebirth of this blog, I seem to have spent most of my day working on. Tweaking the design, updating our feeds and the like. I have also been looking for tools to help make this better. One of the original things that people liked about our blog was the podcasts. Well, we have let that slip away, and since Justin and I are no longer in the same place, it seemed as though it would be a very occasional thing when we bring it back. But then we got to thinking. I said to Justin, "I wonder how we could record audio from an iChat conference." and he says "People use Audio Hijack to record different programs."

Well, I quickly went to the web, found this program and downloaded it. I did a test here at work and seems to work great. This means that it's danger time. I have the software, we have the computers, and now when we are both back in the comfort of our own apartments, we will be able to create a podcast just like we did back in the day. That means it's time to stay tuned because we will be broadcasting again very soon.

Note: We were on iTunes at one point. We are still listed there but it doesn't seem to work yet. I am trying to get that back to functional. Until then, you will have to listen to our podcast through the blog.

New Look

Since we have breathed life back into this blog, we have decided to give it a make over. We felt that the old look was, well, old. So we have looked a couple of different layouts and have chosen this one. I hope that everyone likes it.

Jamaica Nice

Still getting used to this cam. This is Jamaica's subway station

Give me Wireless Internet Phone Calls

Even though most of my TV watching these days is on DVR and I am lucky enough to not be bombarded by commercials. However, I do watch one or two, and there is one that has me excited. Currently, T-Mobile is starting to offer T-Mobile hot spot calling. This will give you the ability to use your wireless internet for making phone calls which means you won’t be using your plan minutes. I think this a great idea. Now, I don’t have T-Mobile. I have AT&T, and so does Justin. Here is the thing, When one company starts doing things, others will eventually follow suit or do something to compete with this service. The fact of the matter is that the technology is out there. Since i have the iPhone, I know that it is nothing more than a software update away from being able to make phone calls using my wireless internet.

Phone calls at home is just the beginning. I have wireless at work that I would be able to use, and there are dozens of companies that are wireless hot spots. Malls, Coffee Shops, Cafes, Airports, and soon, some towns in this country will be hot spots. This is a phone revolution that is going to happen, and I hope that it does. Being limited by minutes is not fun, especially when your on a family talk plan.

Listen up AT&T, take a lesson from T-Mobile, and please, add this awesome service. You have the best phone out there, now it's time to start getting the best service.

Verizon?

One other note-- while I'm happy with my iPhone, I will miss Verizon.

Some don't care for this huge company, but they have served me well for nearly 10 years. And unlike some companies that whine like a needy ex when you call to cancel, they were polite and courteous and understanding. So kudos big V, I'll be back someday.

Train blogging

So, this is Justin--I thought i would give this a shot. I'm on my morning commute, bored silly and caffeinating. It's a rainy day in the BK.

One thing Keith and I now share is that we are both business owners. I'll talk more about my venture when I'm up on the old www. (paranoid about cyber-squatters)

Anyway, here's the view from my seat on the J train. Note the ornamental stained glass

AOL Hell on a Lenovo T61

Old photo

So I am really just excited about blogging from my phone and wanted to
do it again. Here is a three old pic of justin I took with an actual
35 mm camera back when we lived in Naugatuck. I think he was making
pulled pork.

Testing mobile blogging

Right now I am on my iPhone and am testing blogging from my phone.
Below I have included a picture of my new office door.

Where have we been?

I have know idea. It's true that we really haven't been here in a while. AAVR has become the child we forgot about. We have become busy with life and that needs to change. People need to stay connected, and this blog / radio show / what ever it is, needs to be here. Right now, Justin and I are talking via iChat on how to create content and keep this dream alive. So stay tunned and tell your friends.