Nick Switzer

So after looking at puppies (unfortunately I’ve decided to hold off on this), I couldn’t find a bull mastiff that looked like Maggie or Daisy.  Finally, after talking with my mother, I found out they were both crossbreeds.  Their mother was a purebred bull mastiff (60% mastiff, 40% bulldog) and their father was a purebred mastiff.  Thus after looking on the internet for this awesome mixture (as you can see by the pictures on my site here, or on my flickr) I found out that they are called Doubull Mastiff’s (80% English Mastiff, 20% English Bulldog).

I was reading that someone said crossbreeding is bad, but I am not going to chalk up their life spans to them being crossbred, but simply something that their mother or father passed along, which could have happened to a purebred.  Anyhow, I enjoyed the look of my doubull mastiffs because while they were bigger than the average bull mastiff (they weighed around 130-140), they weren’t so big that they looked fat or anything as some people have described purebred mastiffs to be.

So after updating my wordpress, I realized again I have forgot to update in a long time.  Anyhow, here’s a quick update on the fogless (fog free) mirror for the bathroom.  A friend tweet’d me a link to ShowerTek.  I purchased a mirror for about $20 and have been extremely happy shaving in the shower since.  One thing to remember is that when the water runs through the mirror, make sure it’s not shooting out of your shower/bathtub.  Hope this helps!

So it’s been a very long time that I have updated anyone on here.  But here’s a little run through.

I’ve since moved from my previous location to living by myself downtown in an apartment.  While there are disadvantages, I am liking most of the advantages that comes with it.  I also am looking forward to being downtown for events, easily walkable places to visit/eat, and the overall atmosphere.

Professionally, work is going as expected, and my endeavours at JustTheWeb and Zeruck are beyond expectations.  Justin and I are very please with the business we are attracting and are very hopeful for the future.  TU is going well, although they are hurting from the economic situation also, but everyone is keeping their job, so far.

Not sure what else to write about at the moment, my mind is going blank.  Just want to say congradulations to Scott for doing an awesome job on his tests for Arabic.  Also very pleased that he’ll only be 7 hours away in Texas soon.

Besides that, I hope all is well and wish everyone well.  I look forward to doing new things this year and catching up with old friends.  So feel free to drop me a line whenever!  Oh and I almost forgot.  I will try and post more frequently and keep you all updated.

Oh and for those curious to know why I put that monkey on, I am not sure.  I like monkeys, and that was the first one that came up when I searched for monkeys.  Plus, he looks cool!  He’s like fonzie, but as a monkey.

So the new year has come and the past few weeks has allowed me to think about things that are happening in my life and those that are to come.  I was glad to see Mr. Harvey off from the Army Marines (haha I had to say it Scott) and will be even happier once he’s in driving distance.  I am sad to have my girlfriend going back to KC for a bit.  And I am glad that Justin and I are doing well in business together, and that Casey and I have figured some things out.

As for my job, I look forward to the possibilities that may be awaiting, but am trying to be both optimistic and realistic.  Just The Web is doing really well, and Zeruck is handling it’s own.  Very soon we should have both very stable and a great system in place.

Overall,  I am just trying to not be as anxious and anal about things and be more optimistic about people.  I hope this year goes well for everyone, including myself.  Happy New Year everyone!

Today I had to put Maggie Mae down.  Those of you that had met her knew how much I cared for her, and how nice and loving of a dog she was to everyone.  I am not going to go into detail, but she had a tumor and removing it would maybe give her 2-6 months more to live, and that quality of life would be subpar.

I sit here and try to think of all the good times I had with her and her sister Daisy Mae.  It is hard to imagine life without being able to come home to her wagging tail.  I am not sure what else I can state about how GREAT of a dog she was.  I will miss her terribly and just want her to know I love her.

Maggie and Daisy

Well tonight I was trying to watch a movie in which my selections were limited.  So blockbuster was the solution to the problem, or so I thought.  Here’s the problem I have:

STOP ASKING ME FOR A CREDIT CARD!

I have never lost or not returned a movie, and I do not rent video games from you all.  And seeing as how there are “no late fees” supposedly, I should not be asked for a credit card every time I come to check out a movie!  But this being the third time in 5 months or so, they are batting 100%.  When asked, “Do you have a credit card to put on file,” I answered no, and that I would like to be excluded from being asked every time I come.  The response was, “Well do you rent games?”  I informed them no, and asked if they can mark that down for me.  The cashier then gave me a very energetic and enthusiastic (sarcasm) “I can see what I can do” and then informed me when my movie needs to be returned.

Not only am I displeased with the fact that the movie rental prices have gone up, but the fact that I get questioned on why I do not have a credit card on file everytime is extremely annoying.  And please don’t tell me that’s to cover their loses.  They get the movies at a very cheap rate, and I would assume that 2 rentals covers that cost.  So if you work at Blockbuster, here’s a tip:  Ask the question if you must ask, and then remove that flag off of the person’s account so they aren’t asked next time.  We would appreciate it.

So after having my Treo 755p randomly reboot (really annoying when I am on a call), I decided I would hard reset the thing.  After having backed up my contact to both my Outlook as well as my Palm Desktop, I gave it a go.  First thing that I had a problem with was that my USB cable was not working well.  It either didn’t recognize it at all, or if it did, it said, “The connection between your handheld computer and the desktop could not be established.”  So after mucking with it awhile, (trying the solutions of: using a different usb cable; and continually plug and unplug until it works) Ifinally had to my roommate’s cable which does not have the power connection part and seemed to fit better.

Soon realizing I forgot to backup my high scores on my favorite game Text Twist, I realized I would have to redo my ringtones, as well as my System Preferences, Roaming Preferences, and my QuickDial links.  I use the Palm Desktop to do a Quick Install of my MiniTones application (great for adding and trimming mp3s to useable ringtones) and Text Twist.  I then reassigned ringtones to a few Contacts, and my voicemail, known/unknown caller, text messaging, calendar, and alarm.  Changed my Roaming Preferneces to allow since my office is in a basement, and AT&T has coverage but not Sprint (imagine that) and to never warn me about making roaming calls since I added it to my plan for $5.

Changed my System Preferences for my Color Theme and then moved on to changing my Speed Dial by selecting the “Label” using the lookup to select my contact, and then it autopopulated the Number and I just picked what Quick Key I wanted.

So I have everything I had before, with the exception of the Twitter email that Justin set up so I can twit pictures from my phone by quickly sending them to that email.  But overall, it was an easy process, once I determined that my USB cable was borked.

This is a serious question.  I am one of those people that likes to shave while they’re showering.  I have purchased fog-less mirrors from a variety of places, Wal-Mart, Target, and even Sharper Image.  What is the result?  NONE OF THEM WORK!  I can’t get any of them to not fog up, and I’ve even tried the shaving cream on the mirror thing, to no avail.

I am not sure what can be done, or if this is a hopeless search, but if anyone knows of a way that I can shave in the shower without having the clean the mirror off and shave a spot, and repeat until I am cleanly shaved, please let me know.

Also, please keep recommendations to only those items that you have first hand knowledge.

I quickly have to rant about these terrible ads that Olive Garden has been spamming all over my television programs.  First off, why do they need to try and be funny?  Why not just say, “All you can eat pasta is here/back” and then show some people ordering and eating the pasta?  Show some of the combinations, explain what someone can order, explain the promotion.

Why do they need to have some guy saying, “I did the math on this never ending pasta combination, and there’s 42 different possibilities!” And then the lame comeback by his friend, “While you’re doing the math, I’m doing the marinara.” Or whatever the hell they say.  What the hell Olive Garden?  How is that funny or needed?  Then you finish up the awesome commercial with, “Wow math has never tasted so good” <input canned laughter>.   I seriously would have told whoever that was at my table that their talking privileges have been revoked.

This is what you do, Olive Garden V.P. of Marketing: STOP THE CURRENT COMMERCIALS AND FIRE WHOEVER MADE THOSE DECISIONS.  Return to informing your customers about your food, with close-ups of pasta.  That is what is going to get people to come there.  Did you do any focus group testing on this advertising?  How much money did you waste by throwing these horrible commercials into TV land?

Better yet, let me give you the phone number of my girlfriend who is great at Marketing, and she’ll quickly inform you all how retarded your ads have been.  Finally, let’s just focus on what works for food/restuarant companies, showing what kind of food you have and the promotions on those items, and ignore the fact that everyone else does funny ads, because it doesn’t work for you.

Today was a co-worker of mine’s birthday.  Broc turned 29 today, and to be a true friend, I gave him a few gifts.  Now not all of these gifts were mine, but most were and he seemed to really estatic about them.  Anyway, here is the picture that he took of his gifts at work.

To many of you this may seem odd, but Broc is a very strange person and loves getting anything!  Now the first thing that we can see on the left is a nice Sudoku puzzle.  Well this is actually the last gift I gave Broc.  I had an extremely hard time finishing this puzzle, and informed him he could cut out around the puzzle (removing the message I wrote him) and claim it for himself, enhacing his coolness by 10 fold (this was an estimation based on his coolness of that day).  Next we see a stapler that the lovely department assistant gave him.  While he seemed to enjoy this, he was saddened a bit to think he might not have any staples!  Here was my first gift: staples!  After he thanked me, he made a sly comment about my yard stick, which seconds later, was his 2nd gift.  Now, most of you may think “What the…” to the gift, but Broc simply loves sticks.

I am not sure who gave him the card, but that doesn’t compare to the last item we see, the broom.  Broc loves to keep clean, so I thought to myself, “What does a person who has already received so much, need?”  Well the perfect gift was the marvelous broom.

So to sum it up, Broc was so estatic that he sent me this picture of all his work gifts.  I hope everyone had as exciting of a day as Broc did.  And in conclusion: Happy Birthday Broc.