- Neil deGrasse Tyson
]]>A little trickier than I first expected but quite fun to do. There could have been better settings in this video, now I know.
]]>I called HSBC immediately. I explained my shocked disbelief and insisted this must be a mistake to the customer service representative on the phone. She gave no explanation as to why this action had been taken, then went directly into her required up-sell to get me to buy overdraft protection. I hung up on her.
I did some research on "the google" to find answers as to why I was being treated so badly. Turns out, HSBC was dumping a lot of US credit accounts like gangbusters in 2009. In an effort to lighten their insurance on credit risks with customers, they were significantly lowering a lot of those credit accounts they had to insure against, and they were going after a lot of inactive users, as well as zero balance users off whom they weren't making money. Suddenly it made more sense. This was HSBC's answer to weathering the financial crisis. I was lucky - many customers were reporting that HSBC had significantly lowered their available credit limit to a much lower amount than they currently owed, thereby causing them high over-limit credit charges each month.
]]> This pissed me off enough to move all of my business (checking and saving accounts) to another bank, and I stopped using their credit card. It forced me to start shopping around for a better deal on using credit cards and I'm a lot better off for it. However, in my haste, I forgot to close that fledgling credit card at HSBC. It had a zero balance and I never used it so it became a ghost. Every once in a while I would come across it when doing finances and just decided I would get to it late; it was low priority.Mostly, I just wanted to make another statement: to rage against the machine when I would get around to call. "You can close my account with your crappy bank, I don't use it anymore anyway. I broke up with you and I see another bank now. Your bank and its treatment of its customers really sucks, that's why!" I imagined the call center would forward my recording to someone high up at HSBC and a large man at a table in Hong Kong, while eating caviar, would listen to it. His monocle would fall out and he would scream into the air "Nooo", while I remained on the phone, listening in with smug satisfaction that they would now realize the mistake they had made.
Yesterday, I was doing my finances again and came across the account and decided it was time to make that call. I wrote the number down and on Monday I was going to spoil someone's caviar dinner overseas. Today, I got a letter from HSBC. My account was closed due to inactivity.
Bastards.
]]>Just Terrible.
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Whitney
New Girl
The Big Bang Theory
Almost every reality TV show.
Have Not Seen Yet, May try in near future.
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Person of Interest
Boardwalk Empire
Entourage
Chuck
Shows that are gone and I've never watched but feel I should have.
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West Wing
30 Rock
Back in 1990, I was starting my second year of University in the design program. I was taking a class on publishing and for half the semester we were in a print shop learning about the printing process, which seems archaic now, but the other half of the semester I was introduced to the Apple Macintosh Computer. We learned the desktop, the basic navigation, the command keys and the first two programs we learned in the class were Digital Darkroom and Adobe Photoshop. I instantly fell in love with the computer and what I was going to be able to do with it.
]]> A few years later, in 1993, I needed an Apple Computer for advanced classes in design. Struggling to get by, newly married and living off a diet of Ramen Noodles, I loaded up my American Express card to buy an Apple Performa computer. I could now do all of my work without having to schedule time at the computer lab at the University. Soon after that I purchased a modem, even though I had no idea what I needed it for.When I started my design company in 1997, Steve Jobs was again taking the reigns of a struggling Apple Computer company. Within a short time, things went nuts with Apple. The iMac, the iPod, the Intel processor in every Mac; things were different. The nerd club I had belonged to was now going mainstream and it was exciting.
In 1998, I bought some stock in Apple and I was an evangelist to all my friends and family about all things Mac. I got my mom an iMac, I talked my sister into going Mac and helped set my dad up on an iMac. When I moved to Sydney, Australia, I was only afforded the luxury to do so because Apple had just come out with cameras on their computers and it allowed me to still have a relationship with my son, even on the other side of the planet. Today my son has his own iMac on his desk and he's proficient at using it, whereas my generation had to go to college to learn to use one. His computer has affected much of what I do and how I do it from design to photography to communication with those I care about.
Steve Jobs' ideas had changed not only the world of technology, media, and communication, it changed the path and course of my life. It allowed me to have the tools I needed at the time they were needed. Other companies were trying to keep up, and even with an example to follow, weren't even coming close to the same success in design and functionality.
You can mourn that he passed away last night at a relatively young age of 56, but the man lived a life the way he wanted. He made a difference in the world and he left at the top of his game, not to just fade away to obscurity. He made a difference by thinking different. The rest of us should be so lucky.
"Why join the navy if you can be a pirate?" - Steve Jobs
]]>The website has evolved over the years and so have my abilities in design, code, and photography. Evolution of the site saw a blog come about like everyone else, in the beginning I talked about everything that was cool, important, then it turned into a place to talk about everything that annoyed me, then it turned into a lesson on how to keep some opinons to yourself and not be so judgmental.
As my photography grew, it became a place to showcase some of my work. In that time, flickr.com came on the scene and I slowly left this site behind and used the flickr site to network more and showcase to a new audience.
]]> I finally have come back to focus on my personal site as a place to showcase and sell some of my photography as well as communicate and experiment again with code and design. To those who still follow me here, thanks for staying around and to new people who might follow here, glad to have you around and I hope you like the updates and photos to come.- Beau
]]>Things are good.
]]>This bike was more expensive than I was originally looking for but I was sold on the up sale for good reasons. It came with much better components that I will rely on more and get more benefit from. It's a carbon frame with a carbon crank as well. The SRAM gear shift system really sold me as well.
I purchased the bike from a local bike dealer in downtown Oklahoma City, Schlegel Bikes. They treated me well and happy to refere them to anyone looking around for a good bike.
]]> I'm on a mission to get in better shape and I want to make a few changes. Along with dietary changes and workout routine, I need to get off and change how I take medications. For my asthma, I take 2 pills most mornings called Brochaids. This pill is epinephrin which is pure adrenaline. On top of that I take a hit off an Advair disk at least once a day and have ever since I got a lung infection a few years ago and had to be rushed to the hospital when I couldn't breathe. The Advair helped but once the infection was gone, I have continued to take the disk. A few times I have tried to get off of it, but it's hard. It becomes hard to breath as freely as I would like to. I am convinced this is because my body has just become used to it and now depends on it. Before the infection, I was fine without it.With that in mind, over the last week, I have given up taking the bronchaids which bulk me up and make me sweat a lot as well as the Advair disk that I just don't care to keep taking. I don't have asthma attacks but I find a bit of a restraint on my normal breathing by doing this, and then I get on a bike.
I've started slowly on the bike so that my body can adjust better, but I am replacing fake adrenaline with natural adrenaline. After the ride or the jog, I feel good, normal breathing and I dont have to take a drug to feel that way.
Hopefully the results stay positive. I still need another week or so to feel the full effects of all the drugs to be out of my system and then the real test begins.
]]>This is why visual design appeals more to my ego. People can more easily see what you did there.
]]>Usually when I lay off diet coke, I will drink a lot of tea. Ice'd tea full of yummy caffeine and artificial sweetener. My choice has always been sweet n low because it dissolves the best. 3 packs per glass.
So this time, since I am in Australia, I have had to resort to other sweeteners to do the job since Sweet n Low isn't sold over here, Splenda was the next choice. Trying to be good, I've resolved myself to two packets of Splenda, rather than three, even though it's not as sweet as Sweet n low.
]]> So why am I giving up diet coke? Why would I stop drinking it? Too much Caffeine? No. I'm fine with my drug of choice. All those bad bad chemical sweeteners? No, I never minded the sweetener, the best science can't prove if it's bad for you or not, despite the beliefs and opinions. Three Doctors last week in a room together couldn't tell me flat out "Don't use it, it's bad". So what is it then? The Acid and the Sodium.Sodium: While my levels are fine in every physical, sodium, especially in the quantities I have drank it, can do some weird things. Sodium is basically salt and salt makes you retain water. When i go on a diet coke rampage, I will balloon up a lot, which is why I have always been able to gain / lose about 20 lbs easily. The paradox is, the more you drink, the thirstier you become. The acid in the diet coke can cause great heartburn when you drink it too much and we all know that's not a pleasant feeling, especially on a daily basis.
After laying off diet coke for two weeks, I was drinking tea (remember now, with Splenda (200 x sweeter than sugar equiv) instead of Sweet n low (300 x sweeter than equiv of Sugar) and I had reduced from three packets down to two. this means each glass was now 400 x sweet instead of 900x times sweet.
You would be amazed, at how overly sweet the taste of diet coke is when you not only lay off it for a time, but also lay off the saccharine sugar substitute (same as in diet coke) as well.
This actually may be the end of my addiction to diet coke in it's consistent ongoing state.
]]>Today we decided to go to the beach and enjoy the sunshine and the large kite sails. A beautiful day spent with Shayla, starting off the new year in a really awesome way with someone special.
]]>Going to be here for the next three months, it's great to be back in the future!
]]>The weirdest thing about being in Australia though is that it's not weird to be in Australia. I have traveled so much and my home base is now non existent really, so traveling feels a little less removed from reality and more of the permanent status quo.
]]> I don't want to always be a world traveler, always moving on to that next place. The last few months however, I have really needed it. It's helped get my head and my heart back in the right place. To remember what is important, to leave behind what isn't and to see the world in a way that makes sense again. I am thankful to have the opportunity to do so. I am also thankful for the friends and family who are there when you need them and the people that include, rather than exclude. Life is too short, ya know?So, that being said, looks like Sydney is in the cards for early next week and I will be happy to see the place I called home for a time again. It's been over six and a half years since I have been there. It will be good to go back for a quick visit. I plan on seeing a lot and taking a lot of new photos.
]]>After leaving New York in November, I have been in a bit of a funk. Back in Oklahoma and deciding to find a less stressful place to be, mentally. I needed something to turn things around. I wasn't going to go out for New Year's Eve but my friend Susan insisted I get out and I am glad she did.
]]> New Year's Eve was exactly what I needed. I had a fantastic time getting out in Dallas, Texas, in the middle streets blocked off in front of the American Airlines Center, I was having an awesome time and with great people and feeling really positive for the first time in a long time. I even got to be on Television for a few seconds which you wouldn't think is a big deal but it was enough to get me recognized by several strange people today.Welcome 2010. I've been waiting for you, I think we're going to get along just fine.
]]>I woke up a little after midnight and started putting things away, charging batteries and organizing my stuff for the week. I should be trying to force myself to sleep some more, otherwise it will hurt tonight, but I am wide awake and its now 6:40 am. I think I may shower, grab my camera and go see what Paris looks like at sunrise in a few hours.
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