As some of you may or may not have known, I was shopping for a new phone. I really wanted an iPhone because of its pure sexiness and the app store but my fingers didn’t really like the touch screen plus I couldn’t check my work email with it since we use Lotus Notes. This left me to decide between the Blackberry Bold and Storm. I was already a AT&T customer so I chose the Bold without even looking at the Storm since Engadget gave it such good reviews.

To be honest with you, I was not happy with my Blackberry the first couple days I had it. It seemed like I had more steps than I had to go through to do something similar like a text message. I then realized that I could move downloaded application like TwitterBerry to my homepage along with the ability to move everything around so I could have my top 6 tasks on my main page. This made a world of difference since it now gave me the app screen that I wanted in the iPhone.

So far, I have only downloaded TwitterBerry and MiniOpera. I have a 1 month trial of Telenav so I will probably download the Google Maps app once the trial is done. Let me know if I am missing an other cool apps.

Things I Am Unsure Of

• I am not sure if I like MiniOpera or the default Blackberry browser. I like MiniOpera’s speed but I prefer the web page entry method and google search in the default browser. I am piggy backing on Wifi or a 3G network most of the time so speed is not that big of a deal.
• I still need to figure out how to manage my contact list. My work address book got merged with my sim card phone address book so now I can not tell which contact is a phone number, email address or both. I would think BlackBerry Desktop Manager would do this but I haven’t found a way yet.
• How to change my calendar to default to a month view instead of a day view. I have gone through all the options and there looks to be no way that it will default to that view.

Things I Love

• The instant access of email; not sure how I lived without it
• How it automatically shows my history in a text from a person
• The ability to view the internet whenever I need it
• Instant access to my Twitter page
• Navigation

Things That Need Some Work

• The Blackberry Desktop Manager is junk. I tried to get it to scan all my music and movies (around 150 GB) but it causes my virtual memory to go so low and eventually lock up my PC. I have played around with it multiple times and got about 30 GB of music and all my photos recognized but I have a long way to go. I have given up for now.
• As mentioned before, the Desktop Manager

On one side note, I used a friends Storm the night before and was quite impressed. I was able to type a text message on the touch screen without any problems. The extra wide viewing for web surfing was quite nice too.

I have not been very fond that I could not watch CBS in HD through Charter but the latest news is just ridiculous. STLtoday is reporting that Charter is going to lose the standard definition feed after December 31st. This is horrible. There are several shows that I record with my DVR for CBS so this now means that I have to go and watch the shows online since I normally miss when they are on.

I would switch to a dish (Direct TV or Dish Network) but we can not get HD through our building’s satellite dish. My unit is not wired for two lines so I would never be able to record two shows at a time with a dish so I will never go for it. My only hope is that U-Verse come to my area some day.

I am not sure if this is a Charter or CBS problem but I can only presume that Direct TV, Dish, and AT&T are all paying for CBS so someone needs to settle their problems and get the issue resolved. I would pay extra if that is the problem.

UPDATE : I was watching one of the football games for 15 minutes on CBS in HD through Charter before I realized I actually was. Sounds like they settled their issues and brought back CBS in HD.

Bars and Nightlife

I went to F15teen on Friday night for a friend’s 30th birthday party. The place was packed at 10 when we got there but I am positive it was all people for the bday party. The place gradually thinned out by 1 so went to Lucas Park which was also only about half full. I am not sure how “15″ has all of a sudden dropped off the social map. We tried to go a couple weekends ago and they did not have the upstairs even open. I don’t expect that place to stay in business much longer. Maybe Lure is stealing all their business.

We decided to go to Pepper Lounge on Saturday. We were debating between going to Rich’s party and downtown. Downtown won based on the fact that I despise house parties. It was a great crowd. It reminded me of the past when that place was the place to go. Mike and I decided we will go there for NYE based on the good time we had. We did walk in El Borracho before we went to Pepper. It had a good crowd but it was opening night.

Movies

I watched two movies on Sunday. The first being The Big Lebowski. It may be hard to believe, especially since all my friends love it, but I had never seen this movie. I thought I had a great chance to watch it since it was on the HD Movie channel. I did find the movie pretty funny but not sure why it has such a cult following.

I watched Batman Begins later Sunday afternoon. I had never seen this one either and thought it was necessary since Dark Knight is #1 in my Netflix cue. I also have amazingly not seen this one either. I really enjoyed Batman Begins. I thought it was a great movie. I cant believe I waited 3 years to see this movie. I can’t wait to see Dark Knight.

Shopping

Mike and I went out and did some shopping on Saturday. I took Mike since he seems like he does this every weekend. I was basically looking for accessories for my place along with a bench. We went to Home Decorators first. I have been eyeing that place for a while since I can get a 50% discount. I did like this place. They had some pretty large artwork that I will probably go back for. I did see a bunch of other stuff too. We then went to Weekends Only after that. I was surprised to see that they had some cool metal art which I had to get. We also went to Home Depot. I got a couple small projects that I am looking to do this winter break. They are running blue lights on top of my kitchen cabinets, installing a tiled backsplash in my kitchen, and installing a stainless steel kick panel on my center island. I couldn’t find the stainless steel nor could I find any tiles that I liked. I will continue to look.

What a disastrously fun weekend that was had in KC for the Big 12 Championship game in KC for the MU vs Oklahoma game.  Poor planning and some misfortune caused the disastrous part but overall it was a great trip.

The weekend started with a large group of us bar hopping on Wash Ave. We went from Rue 13 to Lucas Park to Lure. The first two were totally dead but Lure had a pretty good crowd. I suspect the small crowds were due to the utter cold. Some of us concluded the night by going to our favorite pizza place. As you may or may not have heard, I left the place “screaming” and went home. In all reality, I had some heartburn so I didn’t want to wait for everyone else to finish.

Ted, Mike, and I woke up bright early after less than 3 hours of sleep to meet my cousin at the Amtrak station downtown for the ride to KC. None of us had any clue what to expect. Surprisingly the train was pretty cool. I wish I wouldn’t have been so tired but it was fun seeing the country side plus being able to walk around wherever you wanted. If only Mike and Ted did not think it was so funny to wake me up every time I started to fall asleep.

We arrived at the historic Independence train station to find out that KC cab company that I called previously lied to me when they told me there would be cabs at this station. This station was in the middle of no where so I am not sure why they told me that. Anyways, we called a cab that arrived fashionably over an hour late after he got lost. We killed time by making friends with an old timer that was working there. We were told to go to the Sheraton because they had a good bar that was close to the stadium. We wanted to get some food plus we wanted to watch the Florida game while we waited for the rest of the group to get to the stadium to start the tailgating. They had a Mexican buffet so it was good.

Tailgating was pretty fun. It was very cold but I was wearing 5 layers of cloths so I was pretty well prepared. I did have a great time hanging out with Smith and Rengel. It is not often that they are out on their own like that.

We finally decided to go to the game even though everyone, included the Tigers team, knew they did not stand a chance. The first quarter was competitive but we fell apart in the 2nd. The combination of our dismal pass rush and Daniel’s inability to make good decisions put us in a deficit real quick. We decided at half time to find the mysterious shuttles to take us downtown.

We got downtown around 10PM. We went to the new Power and Light district. I has heard numerous recommendations on this area. I was not disappointed. The same builder of this area is supposed to be the one building Ball Park Village. I would be totally grateful if BP Village was half as cool as P&L district. I liked the area so much that it would be worth going back to KC in the summer just for it. We started out at McFadden’s. I am assuming it is the same chain that I went to in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It was packed since the game was still on. It was okay but not my style. We then went to Lucky Strike. I would have never thought that a bowling alley would be a place to go to but I was proved wrong. It was a part bowling alley and part ultra lounge. I think Flamingo Bowl and Pin Up Bowl need to look at Lucky Strike’s model. We then concluded with the bar that I really wanted to go to, Angels Rock Bar. Rue 13 would be the bar that would be most similar to this because of its layout and video DJ but that is it. The thing that made this bar different was the amount of hot girls in it plus the fact that they played all Rock music. I would do anything for a bar like this in St Louis. I think it would be a great model for anyone looking to open a bar on Wash Ave. This bar along with RockIt in Chicago seem to be very popular.

We had some time to kill, approximately 4.5 hours so we decided the best bet would be to go to the Casino. We picked Harrah’s. It was packed full of sports fans. I watched Mike play roulette for a couple hours. We did run into an interesting guy probably about 25 at the roulette table. He kept placing even bets on only black and red. I kept telling him that there was no possible way for him to win and he would lose everything if it hit a zero. He kept saying that he liked paying for kids education. I think he was way to drunk. He kept saying he was going to drop another grand which he definitely had in his wallet. He at least dropped a couple hundred while we were there briefly.

After eating breakfast at the casino we decided to head to the train station. Unfortunately, it was not open yet when we arrived. Luckily a side door was open and we were able to go into this large Union Station when all the lights were off. A guard immediately came down and said they were closed but we could wait in this area until they opened. We finally got into the waiting area where we slept for a while.

We finally got on the train around 7:30 to only find out, after sitting on the train for 2 more hours, that the bad boy was not operable. The master plan was to ride a bus. They of course said it was going to be 15 minutes but it was way over an hour. We were afraid that it was going to stop at all the train stops plus be a crappy bus so we were not looking forward to it. Surprisingly, we got a brand new bus that was headed only for St Louis. The bus trip was a great time. I got some good laughs with Mike and Ted on the bus. One of my favorite classic conversations with Mike was had about McDonalds double cheeseburger after we made a pit stop. He purposedly got a double hamburger because he likes to give this image that he does not like cheese. 

The rest of my pictures can be found on my Flickr page.

So on the recommendation of Mike Hoff, I decided to go out and buy a slow cooker. There was Black Friday deal on it for only $20 so I had to pull the string. I am eating more unhealthy than ever right now so I figured why not. It would be a great way for me to cook pulled pork, beef stew, and chili; all favorites of mine.

I scoured the internet for different pulled pork recipes. I did the same for beef stew recipes … I am making it next. I found all kinds of different recipes so I decided to combine some to make my own. This is what I did.

Ingredients:

1. 4.5 pounds of Pork shoulder roast
2. 1 sliced onion
3. Tiger hot sauce
4. Sweet Bay Ray’s Original BBQ sauce
5. 3/4 cup of water
6. Honey

I started out by putting a layer of sliced onions at the bottom of the greased slow cooker. I then put in the massive piece of pork. I put the rest of the onions on top of the roast. I combined 1.5 cups of BBQ sauce with 3/4 cups of water, 2 tablespoons of hot sauce, and 2 tablespoons of honey. I stirred the mixture together and poured on top of the roast. I set to the cooker to low on a 10 hour timer and left for work.

I was struggling with a couple things in the process. For one, I didn’t really feel that comfortable leaving it on while I was at work since it was the first time I was using it so I am glad my house did not burn down. My other issue was if it was going to cook correctly without burning. This is why I added the BBQ sauce and water. I contemplated adding more water to hopefully distribute the heat. Some people said they didn’t add any sauce or water while others filled the pot 2/3rds of the way so I compromised. I figured it wouldn’t cook at all if I did no sauce. I asked around at work afterward and I was told that you don’t need to add any fluid because the piece of meat will release water as it cooks.

But back to the cooking portion. Upon getting home, I took the roast out of the slow cooker to break it up. It was a big piece and falling apart so it was hard to get it out. I added more sauce to the slow cooker plus some more onions. I broke up pork with a fork then put it back in the cooker for 30 minutes. I unfortunately did not get any pictures after I broke it up but it broke apart great.

The end product tasted pretty good. I might cook it a little different next time. I have found in past barbecuing experiences that Sweet Baby Ray’s is not good BBQ sauce for slow baking. I think it has too many sugars in it so it comes out loosing a lot of its good taste. I would probably try cooking it without BBQ sauce or maybe try a different sauce. I tried some more a couple hours later and it was amazing. I think the BBQ sauce and some time to solidify and made it even better.

I cooked beef stew that following night. It was awesome. I woke up to a house smelling great. Nothing like eating stew for breakfast. It was just like my dad makes which is a plus.

• Still feeling pretty good about my good deed I did yesterday. I was walking up to the deli counter at Schnuck’s (Union and Natural Bridge … not a good part of the town but close to my work). An elderly man was pushing his cart away when I noticed several hundred dollar bills on the ground. It has to be at least $700. I picked it up and caught up to him and gave it back. He had no clue. There were also bills laying in his cart. Knowing the area, I think I really did that guy a favor.
• A little nervous about my pork roast (making pulled pork) cooking at home right now. Results to come in a later post.
• Had a very productive condo meeting last night. I am thinking about running for a condo position. One of the biggest topics was instituting a yearly assessment ($100 to $200) to do improvements on the facility instead of raising condo fees. I am on board since the first floor renovations were well worth the money. Possibly changes discussed were (1) upgrades in the satellite wiring and dish to get HD (2) adding a key fob system to the doors instead of keys (3) relocating the gym to the basement common room and making the current space of the gym a rec room. I am definitely down with items 1 and 2. I would also like the ability to buzz people in the front door but the majority of the current residents like the added security that our current setup has.
• Wish I was much further in my papers for Power and Politics.
• I got the Product Manager job. They really made me nervous about it but they gave me the final offer today. More news to come later.
• I did not make the fantasy football playoffs. I faced opponents in my last two weeks that both put up huge numbers (some of the highest so far) so I guess it wasn’t meant to be.

It is always hard to go back to work after an extended break. This time is no different. It was even harder for me knowing that I did not finish any of the school work that I needed to. That is going to make the last couple free nights I have this week a living hell. Besides that, it was a great weekend.

I surprisingly got a ton of sleep this week. I slept over 10 hours 3 different times this weekend after going to bed multiple time around 9PM. There are a couple things that really surprised me about doing that. The first is that I had not been able to sleep 10 hours for a very long time; I have a hard time sleeping 8 hours. The second thing is that I was able to go to bed before 10PM which is actually good. I would like to get on a normal sleep schedule.

When I wasn’t sleeping, I was either watching football, eating a turkey dinner, watching Lord of the Rings, play Civ 4, or going out to the bars. I did only go out twice this weekend which also surprised me. We went to Rue 13 on Friday. It was one of the better times I had at Rue all year. The place was packed with good looking girls and they played a lot of good songs that I never heard there before. They did try to trick us with having the New Wave signs up but they were put up by accident.

A good majority of my weekend in which I should have been writing papers consisted of watching all 3 LOTR in HD on TNT. I just love the movies and couldn’t resist. I did try to watch Tropic Thunder but could not make it past 10 minutes. Everyone asked me if I saw Tom Cruise so I guess it was a funny scene. I might give it another try later. The only other TV watching I did was Dexter. The season got super interesting with last nights crazy twist. The last two episodes should be amazing. I also saw the previews to United States of Tara on Showtime. The show looks really good so I can’t wait to see it.

I unfortunately watched Mizzou’s disastrous game on Saturday. Even though Chase has certainly lost his touch (maybe he has been hanging out with Marc Bulger) but I think the problem is the defense. Our poor defense compounds the problem and it was blatantly obvious in the Kansas game. The first problem is that our pass rushers can not finish the play. They can force the QB out of the pocket but never tackle him or knock down the pass. Instead they just chase him around until he is able to get a good pass off. The problem with this is that our DBs can’t cover a guy this long and break off coverage early when the QB scrambles. This leaves multiple receivers wide open for a big play when in fact it should have been a big sack in MUs favor. This happened multiple times and it just sicked me. For Christ sakes, quit jumping around and actually hit the QB when you are in arms reach. I am not too optimistic about the Oklahoma game this weekend in KC but it should be a fun time no matter what. It is also suposed to be 55 degree so that would be awesome if it holds up. Also, I really think Texas got screwed. The Big 12 and the BCS really messed this one up. The crazy thing is that Texas would go to the title game if we beat OK. Its not going to happen but they can dream.

I did get some shopping done this weekend but not much. I was thinking about getting a Christmas tree and thought about it even more when I found out there is a lot a block from my place but I probably won’t just because I don’t think I will have the time in the next two weeks. I think a good 12ft tree would look awesome in my place though. I did end up getting a new camera. I went with the Canon 790. It is an awesome camera but I am not pleased with the fact that it is larger than my 3 year old camera. Isn’t technology supposed to make electronics smaller over time? It only increased 4 megapixels over my other camera.

To round it out, I did see Pepper for the first time in over 6 months. It really made my weekend. I really love that dog. He was so excited to see me. It just made me think how much I would love to have a dog if I was ever home enough to take car of it and play with it.

I probably forgot things so I will post updates if I remember anything big. On another note, Cardinals tickets (Pujols pack) go on sale this week.

Update #1 – It looks like my fantasy football team will not make the playoffs despite their good run lately. It comes down to the fact that my 3rd, 4th, and 5th picks are not on my team anymore and my number 1 pick (Frank Gore) has been horrible lately. I had a great defense (#1 in league) but they could only carry me so far.  My wide receivers and QBs are very unpredictable. They can go from having 30 points to 0 (or even minus points) week to week. Its hard to pick a MVP on my team. Cassel, Owens, Gore, and Chris Johnson all had around the same point total for me but none of them were consistent … they would throw out a huge game followed up by nothing. Because of that, I will give the MVP to to a combined defensive attack of Ware, Willis, Ruud, and Morrison. 3 of those players are in top 6 in our league and Morrison is not far behind. They were always consistent in getting me good points. My fantasy basketball team is not fairing any better. Allen Iverson is a big dissapointment. The verdict is still out there on Greg Oden. My team can really turn around if he has another game like yesterday.