Top 3 searches from themelvinator blog of 2008

Well, here we are, at the eve of 2009.  I figure I would share the top search terms for 2008, (terms used from search engines to find this blog).  Let’s start with number 1:

1. Ruben Simeo (with more than 230 hits) :: I did a post of Ruben Simeo earlier this year.  If you don’t know already, Ruben is a truly gifted trumpet player, with a tone and extraordinary proficiency beyond his years.  Also did I mention he is like 16 years old!?  He has played in various trumpet competitions and orchestras all over the globe.  I see him as an awesome performer to watch in the future. Here is a recent clip of him playing in Japan, with a version of “The Flight of the Bumblebee“: 
2. Battlestar Galactica (with more than 70 hits) :: I am a huge fan of the SCIFI channel’s version of “Battlestar Galactica”.  In case you have never seen, I would encourage anybody to check it out.  A lot of people I have talked to think that the show is a “geeky”, or “nerdy” show… and maybe it is, but it is so much more.  With a great story and some complex characters, it is FTW (For The Win, if my parents are reading this)!  This all-star cast includes Edward James Olmos (“Stand and Deliver”, “American Me”) and Mary McDonnell (“Independence Day”, “Dances  with Wolves”), and some fairly new talent of the likes of Jamie Bamber, Tricia Helfer and Katee Sackoff.  I would only advise that if you are first starting out, start with the first season DVD, and watch the 4 part Mini-series first, which is in the first season DVD pack, then go from there. This season is half-way though it’s 4th and final season, closing out a wonderful saga.  Here is a clip (Warning: could be a spoiler for newbies, so don’t watch if you want to “go in fresh”, or watch, if you dare: 
3. Studying playlist (with over 20 hits) :: This post is something I wrote as a lark, the reason being that I wanted to share some of the music I listened to.  The list is all comprised of classical music.  I would listen to this if I wanted to do some “hardcore” reading and studying.  The majority of hits occurred during the month of May and recently in mid-December, which is evidence that people are desperately looking for playlists to optimize the studying for finals.

These were the top searches on themelvinator blog.  I am looking forward for next years top searches, and a bit curious.

I guess this will wrap it up for this years posts.  Hopefully, I will post more content in 2009 (and they will be interesting… I promise).  I wish everyone a Happy New Year!

Until next time…

The “After, after, after Christmas party”

I hope everyone had a great Christmas.  The Nez brothers and I went to Sedona on Christmas Eve.  The funny thing is that we don’t actually have relatives in Sedona, nor family.  It was sort of a spur of the moment thing, stemming from when the family met on Thanksgiving.  Normally, we meet either at home (Leupp, AZ) or at my aunt’s house (Prescott Valley, AZ) for Christmas.  Overall, the holidays was great; spending some time with relatives, EATING LOTS OF FOOD, and catching up.

Christmas morning in Sedona

What I got for Christmas was a gourmet tea brewer, some tea (from Adagio Teas) and a scarf.  I enjoy iced tea and some hot teas, but all the teas I have drank have been bagged.  For me, tea:

1. Tastes good, but some teas are definitely an acquired taste.
2. Good for you, health-wise.
3. May give you an air of sophistication.

I look forward in enjoying many cups of hot tea in the future.

As for the scarf… it is awesome!  The design sort of looks like it was clipped off a robe of some sort and it is made of wool, but it is quite stylish and keeps me warm.

We took a day trip to Flagstaff the day after Christmas, mainly to see some snow and perhaps do a little shopping.  And snow it is we saw.  For the most part, the roads were good, but we did encounter a few cars that slipped off the freeway, including one truck that was flipped over.  We arrived to Flagstaff unscathed.

We did a little shopping at the Flagstaff Mall.  It only took 5 minutes to walk from one end to the other (the mall is that small).  The one thing I do love about the mall is the kiosk that sells roasted almonds, called Old World Style Almonds.  Roasted almonds has always been synonymous with Christmas in the Nez family and we had to order a few bags.

We had lunch at La Fonda’s Mexican Restaurant.  Always wonderful; I don’t think I had ever had a bad meal here.

After lunch, we headed back down to Sedona to drop off my father and headed back down to Tucson.

Christmas time is always great, especially seeing relatives and friends that you normally don’t see on a day-to-day basis.  I hope your Christmas was as awesome as mine.  Anyway, happy holidays and have a great new year!

Until next time…

I am accident prone

If you see me on the roads (or parking lots), please do yourself a favor, and a.) turn the other way, or b.) just wait in your vehicle until I pass by.

I have been in three incidents in the past month.  The first, October 5th, was a fender-bender, but fortunately it was not my fault.  The guy behind me wasn’t watching the road while at a red light and rammed into me from behind.  I was on the receiving end.

The next incident was a few nights ago, when I bumped into the gate opener.  I knocked out my left tail light in the process and didn’t find out until I got pulled over by the Oro Valley cops.  I was given the whole cordial treatment that all cops do and was sent on my way, without a ticket.

The most recent incident was about an hour ago at St. Mary’s hospital parking lot, when I abruptly bumped into a parked car, while driver was still in.  Nobody was hurt, at least we were in the hospital parking lot with the Emergency Room just 100 yards away.

I hopefully will be off the roads for a little while, so incident number 4 may not even happen. Please, please drive safely, and I will also heed my own advise.

Until next time…

Hospital update

My update:

- After a few days out of the hospital, the days has been pushing by. I have to visit a doctor on the west side of Tucson daily (St. Mary’s Hospital, if you must know) to change my bandages.

- I’m about 90 percent moved from my apartment to the house with roommates, across the street with my brother Tim.

- Going back to work tomorrow (Wednesday).

- Have a ton of hospital bills in the mail, and have to sort them out.

- At least I have enough T.V. commercials in the brain that I don’t have to watch T.V. much anymore!

Until next time…

“What started out as a boil on my butt…”

As many of you may already know, I was hospitalized for a few weeks (a.k.a. missing work, no email, no Facebook/Twitter). Here is what happened.

It started out on Friday (10/3), as a boil on my left butt cheek. I immediately thought of it as a boil and treated it as a boil (i.e. cleaned and changed bandages a few times a day, and applied heat to it, in an attempt to drain all the pus out of it). This process was very painful, and hurt to sit and walk for long periods of time.

After a week of trying to treat it myself, on Friday (10/10), I admitted myself to Northwest Medical Center because it wasn’t looking great and it was too painful. It was tough to drive there myself and wait in the emergency room. The ER nurse and doctor both looked at the wound and decided I needed surgery, so I would had to wait overnight for surgery in the hospital. I was then changed into hospital garb, slapped an IV on me and told to rest in a room with a TV, while watching game 1 of  the NL playoffs. I was then moved to 3rd floor into my own room with a TV and stayed the night, expecting to be out the day after. Surgery was scheduled for Saturday afternoon, (10/11). I was put under and the surgeon did his magic and recovered Saturday evening.

After a few days, I thought I would be out fairly quick, perhaps sometime during the week. During the process, I needed to sign up for insurance (work insurance wouldn’t kick in until sometime in November and previous insurance had expired). So the wait began. The hospital moved me twice during the week, into two different rooms. During the week, it was found that I am allergic to one of the oral/IV antibiotics I had been administered, and because of this being my first stay in a hospital, I didn’t know that. So with the allergic reaction I had developed a skin rash all over my body, and as a result, developed high fevers (at a period of 6-8 hours at at time) and generally bedridden.

One solace: the TV. I couldn’t believe the amount of television I could watch during the week. Before, I was never a TV watcher, because I did not have cable. I watched a lot of CNN, commercials, all the NL playoff games with the exception of game 7, etc.)

Finally, around (10/20), the insurance was approved and plans were made of the discharge out of the hospital. Tuesday the 21st, was a rest day, patching me up for discharge. On Wednesday the 22nd, I was discharge out of the hospital, on my little brother’s birthday (Happy birthday, Steve!) and under doctor’s orders for me not to go to work for a week and meet with a nurse once a day on the other side of town at St. Mary’s hospital to change my dressing on my wound.

I would like to thank all the 50+ doctors/nurses/nurse techs/the blood techs that drew blood from me at 4:20am every morning at Northwest Medical Center. I am very thankful for their service to me, the patient and the wound. Over the few weeks that we known each other, I felt I really got to know some of them. I suppose in the future, I would see one of them at a grocery store and they would ask me the question, “How’s my butt?”… maybe.

Special thanks for my brothers (Steve and Tim) for visiting me in hospital, Eric and Tony, my new roommates, Sonny and John, and special thanks to Sam, for driving my car back to my home, while wearing the medical gloves he took from my hospital room.

The moral of the story is: if you see a boil on your butt, please, please go to the hospital right away and doctors can take care of that for you.

Until next time…

Summer Update: August ‘08

August is such a wonderful month. It’s a month when school starts anew, with fall classes around the corner and the excitement of starting a new semester. It’s also the transition of summer days to the coolness of the fall season (although living in Tucson and other desert cities, the transition takes a little bit longer).

I am starting my new job at Afni next Monday. I am very excited! My main job description is in technical support and sales. There is a schedule flexibility that I didn’t have the luxury in my previous job. Also taking a small pay cut, but I am definitely grateful and excited to be working in concentration in sales. I also heard that the division I would be working for has the research/development division for the whole company. I would definitely like to work in that team, but for now, I have my foot in the door.

I start my fall semester, taking 12-14 units this semester. Focusing most of my classes in business administration, which is sort of a change from the classes I had been taking before (engineering/sciences/computer programming, etc.), so this will be a slight change in subjects.

Most importantly, my birthday is on the 18th. (So, set your calendars).

Until next time…

I now work for “The Man”

Today, I got a new job. I am the newest employee at a company called Afni. I am excited, starting a new chapter (or in this case, a new “blog” post) of my life. Mainly, I am going to focus on sales and provide some technical support, in an ever expanding business. I still will be going to school this fall, with the goal of getting my Business Administration degree.  Just thought I should let everybody know what’s going on in my exciting life.

Until next time…

Download Day: FireFox 3.0 browser

Today is Download Day.  Download Day is characterized as the day that FireFox 3.0 Final is available for download.  FireFox 3 is the much awaited alternative to Microsoft Internet Explorer and part of the infamous “browser” wars.  I downloaded my copy earlier today and I am impressed!  It is fast, efficient and most of all, FREE!  Download Day is an attempt to set a Guinness World record for the most downloads in a 24 hour period.  I suppose attempt is not a description I should use, because there is currently no previous download record that has been set.

If your tired of how slow Internet Explorer is and want a clean, fast Internet browser, I encourage anybody to check out this browser out, just to try.  You might be pleasantly surprised!  You can download it here.  If you are getting a slow download, be patient, it is definitely worth it!

P.S. – I hope I can set a new Guinness World record for using the word “download” in a single blog post…  9 times!

Until next time…

The power of “Twitter”

We are in a new age of information. E-mail is the aging medium, instant messaging is sort of the norm. Twitter has become the new form of communication for the early adopters. Some may think that twitter is just “a bunch of Silicon Valley people talking to each other”, but as of recent events of the earthquake in China, that is not entirely the case. Thanks to tech blogger and technology socialite Robert Scoble, people heard about the quake before major news vendors reported on it. Another example was back in April when a student from the University of California-Berkeley got arrested in Egypt and twittered, “Arrested”, in which set off events for his release.

Mark my words, in the next few years, Twitter will be the next Facebook. It just astounds me of how technology evolves, how information is disseminated and how people form a sort of “external” community.

To end this post, I would like to say that my thoughts and prayers go to the families in China and to the people involved in the relief effort.

Until next time…

RSS Awareness Day

May 1st, rent is due (for most of us) and today is also RSS Awareness Day. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. This is a way that information is “fed” into a presentable way that could be custom tailored by you, the user. Information can consists of news, blog entries and other frequently updated content. One way to explain this is when you watch CNN on television, you have up to date news, stock prices, sports scores and other tidbits of information. Now think of this for the Internet. You can subscribe to blogs that you read, podcasts that you listen to and news reports; all tailored to your own whims. Another example is on Facebook. When you first login, you come to the “notification page”, this page has recent activities of your friends on Facebook. This is an example of a feed.

Perhaps you have seen the little orange button on websites with the white arches, the one on the right side of my blog column? This is the RSS symbol, which you can click on to subscribe (and this is not a plug to subscribe to my blog, REALLY. But you can, if you want). But first, you need a program called an RSS reader, feed reader, or sometimes called an RSS aggregator. I use Newsfox, which is an add-on to my web brower, Firefox, but there are many other programs you can use, too. Then it’s as easy as subscribing through the RSS reader and whenever information is updated, it will appear in your reader. Easy as 1-2-3.

Until next time…