All things Bakst. OK, most. Some. Whatever.

- Ended up at a VFW at midnight. Not the plan at ALL, but ended up being really fun.
- 750 entries to stiffs.com. Happy with that.
- Looking forward to a great 2009

Short post: WaMu is absolutely, positively, the worst POSSIBLE bank ever even IMAGINED my man. I am ASTOUNDED that one financial institution can get SO many things SO wrong, SO much of the time. NEVER, EVER bank with these idiots.

For those who know me, I don’t mind a little drink now and then. So this article was especially interesting, considering I have personally experienced ALL of those symptoms, and more than once in the past month.

So I think I’ll lay off for a while. Of course there’s New Years Eve, so it will have to be after that. And then my birthday, so after that. Then Vegas end of January - so February. After Valentine’s day. Although that is getting pretty close to St.Pats. Which is only a couple of weeks before The Masters - and we always have a party for that. So May. Damn. Cinco De Mayo. June is Father’s Day and the US Open. 4th of July. August. We’ll shoot for August.

That’s right kids - 12 months of sick fun for the whole family for just $15 - or 3 entries for $30!

Get over to stiffs.com right now and sign up. It’s super fun!

Yes.  It’s here.  I’ve heard nothing but good things, and was about done with the outages and poor customer service at Time Warner cable.  So I did it - and this is no small deal.  I have digital TV, DVR, phone ANd Internet ALL through Time Warner.  But I did it anyway.

First step after signing up was to get the actual fiber pulled from the pole to the house, done by a different team than the Verizon installer.  That took a week to schedule, but installed no problem once they were out.  Then came the install.  I got an 8-10am install window last Thursday, and was told to play 4-6 hours for installation, and an extra two if I was getting TV AND Internet.  No way would it take that long, I thought.  Actually, it did.  The guy showed up at 8am and left at 3pm.  7 hours.  Oh - but worth it.

So now I have 4 TVs with boxes, 3 of hem with HD and DVR.  I have Internet phone, with my old number ported over, and Internet that is just about exactly FOUR TIMES FASTER than it was before.  I actually tested before and after the install.  Time Warner:  5750 Kbps down, 485 up.  Verizon:  19518 down, 4488 up.  Crazy.

Best part of all?  $50 a month LESS than Time Warner.  So yeah.  Recommended.

Very interesting article on how Google sorts data - the punchline being that they sorted 1 petabyte (which is 1000 terabytes, or 1 million gigabytes - don’t even try to comprehend it - it’s not possible) in 6 hours and two minutes.  Trust me when I tell you - that is absolutely amazing.  Sorting is really the heart of what Google does, and to be able to do it that fast in astounding.  And on only 4000 computers!

The other interesting part of this story is how they actually STORED that much sorted data.  Easy!  Just put it on 48,000 hard drives.  I’m not kidding.  Read the article.

The end of the world?  Why?  Because my MOM has a BLOG now.  It just seems impossible that she is just off writing on the Interwebs, but it’s true.  And guess what?  She’s AWERSOME at it.  Don’t take my word for it.  Go look. Bookmark.  Tell your friends.  Send her money.

Oh mercy.  Is this child talented or what?  Her middle school put on Seussical for their class play this year - and it was just unreal.  Everyone did a great job, but I must say - Sydney is just unreal.  Her singing, her acting - it all just WORKS.

Video?  Why yes, in fact there is some.

Been a while since I posted - thanks to a problem with Wordpress, which the Wordpress GOD himself, David Gagne, fixed for me.

Speaking of David, he switched to Mac a while ago.  He’s been swearing to me that he can do everything he can on a PC, and it just works better.  My PC can only be described as BAD.  It’s big, slow, and the battery life is just absolutely horrible.  Today i finally took the plunge.

I went to the Apple store in Northridge and got a a shiny new MacBook.  Not a Pro, because I couldn’t figure out a reason to spend another $500 for better video, when I’m not a big gamer - unless you count poker.  I got a monitor adapter (to connect to my 24″ Dell), and a keyboard.  I also picked up a cool Oakley backpack to replace my hunk of trash attache.

The setup at home could not have been easier.  Updates installed quickly and easily, and got all of the apps I needed in about an hour.  There is a small learning curve with the keyboard and interface, but I’m completely productive on it right now.  And I am prepared to say this:  I can no longer imagine why anyone would want a PC running Windows.

With a 3 day tournament coming up in a few weeks, figured it was time to get my golf game in order.  Went over to see Ben at Porter Valley (no link for Ben, because he doesn’t have a website - yet) to see what he thought.

After a bunch of irons on the range, some chipping and putting, he said “Why aren’t you a 3 handicap?”  I told him I didn’t know - could he please tell me?  His point was that I hit the ball solidly enough to BE a 3 handicap, but that I just apparently didn’t take it to the course.  Oddly enough this filled me with confidence.

So I went out today with my buddy Jack (which was just more fun than I can even explain), and shot a 78 - the first time I broke 80 on my home course.  8 pars and one double on the back nine, which has always been my problem nine.

The power of positive thinking.  I’ll be sure and pass this along to Sydney.