2008 in review

Well, 2008 is over and what a year it was. One many people would probably like to forget. Here are the damages, courtesy of Marketwatch.

2008: The year in markets
U.S. indexes
Dow Jones Industrial Average…… -35%
S&P 500………………………………… -39%
Nasdaq…………………………………… -42%
Dow Jones Financials………………… -55%
Amex Oil Index………………………… -38%

International indexes
Germany DAX……………………… -40%
FTSE 100……………………………… -31%
Japan Nikkei 225…………………… -42%
China Shanghai Composite……… -65%
Mexico IPC…………………………… -24%
Brazil Bovespa………………………… -41%

Currencies/commodities
Gold……………………………………… 4%
Crude………………………………… -64%
Dollar index…………………………… 5%

Summer winds down and Youtube

Well summer has come to an end but man what beautiful beach weather. Got a place in Fire Island again, amazing sunshine, no rain, can't ask for better. This past labor day was our last weekend (how sad I know) but we had another great time with good friends.

On a random note, I spent an obnoxious amount of time on youtube the other day. You ever watch one video, then click a related one next to it, and so on? Then it just snowballs from there? Its like, "Hey you liked that video, did ya? People who liked that video also checked out these 37 over here on the right hand side!" I never laughed so hard though. It all started with SNL skit "D!ck in a box" (NSFW - language). Hilarious. "Darth Vader calls the Emperor" is another good one, put out by Adult Swim.

But since this is Boba Fett's head, I have to mention two of the best I have seen on the topic of the intergalactic bounty hunter. Both are a bit old but still very good.

"Fett's Vett" - good song, amazing rhymes - love it. Should be the theme song to this site.
"Pimp my ship up" - a bit dated with references to Napoleon Dynamite and the old itunes commercials, but still very funny.

Happy New Year!

Hope you had a good holiday, and happy New Year! All is good here. Spent the holidays with family and had some friends come into the city to visit us and see the tree at Rockefeller Center. Warm weather brought more crowds than usual, and I was bummed we didn’t get a white christmas though :(

In other news, at my company christmas party I won a 42" Samsung flat LCD tv! Woot! Best 40 bucks I've ever spent. It was a raffle for charity. Watching A Christmas Story this year, I couldn't help but think I, too, had won a "major award."

Fra-gee-leh. It must be Italian.

5 Years

Never forget...


coworker of mine took this
5 WTC

We were on 7 and 8.

More movies...

You might think all I do is go to the movies. Actually I don't go much at all, but the ones I do see I like to talk about :)

Pirates of the Caribb 2 was just ok. I mean it was good by normal standards, but biggest box office opening ever? Feh, it doesn't deserve that title. Lame ending that just sets up number 3 didn’t help boost my opinion either. Revenge of the Sith was better, though granted I am a bit biased there (as you know!), but I thought Spiderman 2 was better too. Johnny Depp does play the role to perfection though, and is entertaining to watch. The "twitchy mannerisms" he's come up with fit perfectly with the character, and he's got em down pat.

That's all for now...

PS Fire Island is AWESOME!

A year already?

Well its been almost a year since my last update, and I have sorely neglected my duties here! What have I been up to? Well lets see.

Nov 05
The aforementioned cruise was great. Trunk bay in St John is amazing. My jaw still drops when I look at the picture which is now my desktop wallpaper. St Maarten was great too, but Tortola was meh, not as nice a beach. We went snorkeling on St Maarten and I got stung by a sea urchin. It hurt. A lot. Still a great trip. I've been snorkeling about 30 times so it was bound to happen eventually I guess. Got me right on the back of my leg as I floated backwards adjusting my mask. Here's a little factoid for ya: the emergency treatment for a sea urchin sting is vinegar. Blech. I smelled like a salad. Many thanks to the good people at "Rhino Riders" that came prepared! "Rhinos" were the name of their boats.

Dec 05
Christmas holiday was very nice. Spent it at my brother's new house, congrats bro! Welcome back to the Northeast! Its not as sunny or warm as San Diego, but we don't have earthquakes, wildfires or mudslides either! Was sick for most of the holiday though, couldn't shake a nasty cold.

Mar 06
Last visit to said brother in San Diego as they prepare final arrangements to move back. Also spent a few days in Vegas. Good times.

Summer 06
Me and the Mrs. got a share on Fire Island (about 60 min from NYC). Cant wait for the beach! First weekend is in about 2 weeks!

got Episode III ?

So... saw Episode III last weekend. Wow. Lucas has redeamed himself. It wastes no time pulling you in, and the story comes together. Lets just say Lucas answered MY biggest question anyway. I dont want to post any spoilers I'm sure you can find those on other sites if you want them. So I'll just make some general comments.

Much darker, fittingly so of course, than the earlier films. Deserving of its PG13 rating too, some parts were a little brutal. Lets just say the armor covers up a lot of ugly stuff. But you probably already knew that. You'll see how it happened.

Grievous is AWESOME. Loved that guy, wish he had gotten HALF the air time as that moronic CGI char from Phantom Menace (you know who).

The droids are back of course. I still dont get how R2 has rocket boosters in an earlier time period. But at least you find out what the deal was with the droids and Tatooine. Watch the beginning of a New Hope after you see it. You'll get what I mean.

Bottom line its better than anything else out there playing. Go see it even if you are not a big fan. I'm gonna see it again (something I didnt do with I and II).

Vacation Plans

DC was fun and the weather was beautiful. We also must have hit the cherry blossoms just right because they were in full bloom. We also saw the new WWII memorial. Impressive and moving. Its frankly shocking it took 60 years before one was built.

In other news, we booked a cruise to the Caribbean, for November - can't wait. The ship leaves right out of NY. Just hop in a cab and we're there! Sipping Mai Tai's as we sail under the Verazzano :) We went to Bermuda last summer, same deal left out of NY. Can't beat it. No flying, no airport hassle, no added expense. Just an 8 dollar cab fare and you're on vacation!

Long Weekend

So what's new... heading to DC for a long weekend tomorrow. Going to see my Brother in law and his wife in their new place :)

In other news, my pc has suffered its first hardware failure since its construction 2+ years ago. Sadly my psu (power supply unit) fried when its fan failed causing it to overheat (man was it hot!) I can't be too upset though considering the psu was basically free (came with the case which was reasonablely priced to begin with). So while I await the arrival of an Antec True Power 430W, I must post from the laptop :) Bye for now.

Links!

I've added a few links to the right for anti-virus and spyware programs. These are not ads, these are apps I use myself and recommend!

The first one is a free online virus scan provided by Trendmicro, a not so well known company, but IMO they are better than the so called brand names. On my pc when Crapafee found a virus, but couldn't clean it, Trendmicro was able to save the day! Its a free online scan, you don't have to install anything, it will just load its latest patterns and run from your web browser. The next two are free anti-spyware downloads that you do have to install. Pretty easy to do, and they work pretty well together. Whatever Adaware misses, Spybot usually catches. You should run them about once a week or two.

What is spyware? They are not viruses, first of all, so most anti-virus programs won't catch them. They are basically unwanted little nasties like data miners and ad trackers that track where you go online, usually for marketing purposes. In addition to being unwanted, they can slow your computer down and subject you to even MORE pop up ads (and who wants any of that?!) Its my little personal crusade against these things, because in addition to the privacy issues, the detrimental effect on your pc can really add up. Over time the sheer number of them can pile up and slow your pc to a crawl.

Welcome!

Welcome to Boba Fett's Head! Not much to say for now, this will be my personal blog space for various things like news, family, friends, and hobbies. More to come later.