809 Area Code

Communications Dominican Republic
international: country code - 1-809; 1 coaxial submarine cable; satellite earth station

As far as I know I do not know anybody in the Dominican Republic, but apparently someone there tried to call me last night. I was at bigg's, so I didn't answer the phone. I looked down at my phone when it first rang and was quite surprised to see that I thought it said "Dominican Republic." At first I couldn't believe this, so when I had a free minute I called Chris and asked him to look up the area code 809. He asked my why after he'd run a search and I was curious. "Because someone called me from there," I responded hesitantly.

Then he proceeded to briefly explain the "809 Area Code scam" which he found when entering that area code into Google. See, one of the reasons I had been worried was that my dad called in the middle of several of these 809 calls and left a message, but I thought that this other caller might have left a message as well (until you check it my voicemail doesn't identify how many messages have been left). Thankfully there was only a message from my father.

However, the 809 caller called back several times. I'm not sure exactly what they wanted, but I cannot think that it was anything good. Not that many people have my cell phone number, and I don't know anyone who would call me from the Dominican Republic. Though, if it was part of an attempted scam I'm curious as to why they didn't leave a message and try to get me to call back. Regardless though I'm not going to call the number back--perhaps that is all they wanted, curiosity about a strange number. *shrugs*

~Matt
--
"A room without books is as a body without a soul." -Cicero

Snow?

Today the temperature is supposed to hit 70ºF!  However, by Friday we might see some early morning snow flurries.  I'm so glad I'm done with carts for the week at bigg's!  :-)

~Matt

--
"A room without books is as a body without a soul." -Cicero

Bread

I finally bought bread this week.  Well, I didn't have time to shop, so my sister did my shopping for me and I asked her to pick up two loaves of bread.  I've been pulling bread from bigg's anniversary sale almost two months ago out of my freezer ever since I moved into my apartment.  However, recently I've begun to get tired of having to slice the small loaves and fix three or four mini sandwiches to equal two normal sandwiches.

Therefore since I only have one bag of five mini-loaves in my freezer and about half a bag thawed I reasoned it was time to start buying bread.  I will keep using the bigg's bread, but just for toast or when I want a slice of bread with my dinner.

On the lines of food I think I need to come up with a menu list.  Every week I draw up a menu of the meals I'm going to cook and then I buy whatever food/supplies I need to make those meals (beyond what I already have in my kitchen).  I enjoy this, it is cheap, and provides filling meals.  One problem though is that I usually make the list at the last minute and I cannot always think of good meals that I haven't just done in the previous week.  I think that I need to start keeping track of the menu meals I produce so that I can consult this database when making each week's menu/shopping list.

~Matt

--
"A room without books is as a body without a soul." -Cicero

What is junk food?

Strangely enough I've never really thought about this. I guess I just assumed that candy and high-sugar, high-fat foods were "junk foods" that should be enjoyed in moderation. This can be hard though as they are often the best tasting foods around, ;-).

Yesterday I read a BBC article however that got me to thinking about this simple phrase: junk food.

You can't open a newspaper or switch on the box without hearing about the latest initiative to wean young people in particular off "junk food" and on to healthier foodstuffs.

Last week, the Office for Communications (Ofcom) unveiled plans to ban ads for junk food during TV programmes aimed at kids.

That followed hot on the heels of the government's clampdown in September on the sale of chocolate, crisps, the fizzy stuff (cola, lemonade, etc) and "low-quality meat" in schools across the nation.

This sounds good so far, right? I don't agree with the bans because parents should be able to exercise control of their kid's diets and spending. But this isn't the point as the UK is more of a nanny state though in some areas the US is worryingly fast to catch up.

But what exactly is junk food? It's widely believed that the phrase was coined by Michael Jacobson, director of the American Center for Science in the Public Interest, in 1972.

For most people, the phrase conjures up images of hamburgers, pizzas, chips and sweets.

For the Food Standards Agency - from which both the government and Ofcom got their definition of junk food - it is any food high in fat, salt or sugar.

So why are some fatty foods defined as "junk", but others are not? Government ministers and celebrity chefs look down their noses at French fries (which in McDonald's contain about 5g of fat), and at the same time think nothing of tucking into a dish like duck a l'orange (which can contain 15 to 20g of fat in a single serving).

And why are some food outlets, such as McDonald's or Domino's Pizza, labelled as "junk", while others that serve similar dishes, like posh burger bars or Pizza Express, are seen as being acceptable and trendy, and possibly even healthy?

Would you have thought about this? I think I shared the same preconception that McDonald's and other fast food was somehow different from what you find in other restaurants. This, however, may not always be the case! Read the rest of the article as it is quite fascinating. There are differences with fast food, but perhaps not always the ones that you think.

~Matt

'Tis the Season

Yes, I'm still here, but I was a bit busy this weekend, including filling in for someone yesterday in Titanic. I also couldn't get on-line at all on Saturday due to problems with my brother-in-law's internet connection, hence no posts from that day. I'll be around.

Oh, I bought and decorated a Christmas tree (3 foot artificial from Wal-Mart) yesterday. I have a couple pictures but am not sure when I'll be able to post them, hopefully soon though!

~Matt

I'm back

Yes, I am back, but Chris was back hours ago.  He chickened out because he wasn't first and because he wasn't feeling well.  Then Ryan and his friends hung out with more friends around the corner of the building so I sat by myself most of the night.  I read for a couple hours, but then I was dozing and the parking lot lights turned off at midnight.

Ryan was camping out last weekend for a Wii and found out that the lights have been on a timer for a couple months after corporate ordered it.  I guess they couldn't override it for one night.  Anyway, I was in a sleeping bag at this point because my feet were so cold in my boots.  Once out of my boots in the bottom of the bag they became quite toasty.  I stretched out with my legs on another chair and eventually lay atop three different foldable chairs to form a serviceable "bed."  I think I slept for a couple hours, then at three the lights came on as the first employees arrived.  Many people at that point started taking care of things even though we had an hour until tickets (to reserve your copy of an item until noon) were handed out starting at 04:00 and two hours until the store opened at 05:00.

I kept the sleeping bag until it was nearer to four.  It wasn't a bad night overall, and I did get a couple things.  I bought a 2gig SD memory card for the PDA I think I'm going to get as well as two stacks of 100 DVD-Rs for only $5.00 a stack!  (normal list price of $70.00!)  Oh, and I bought a universal remote so that I can control the volume on the TV I'm borrowing from Chris to have hooked up to my DVD player.  It has been quite annoying to have to walk up to the TV to adjust the volume as the movie goes up and down in volume.

That's all for now.  I'm not yet sure if I'm going to sleep any more or perhaps take a nap later today or go to bed early.  I'm at my sister's and haven't bothered to go home yet.  What is the point?  We entered the store right at 5:00 and were one of the first ones to the registers (we walked through a long queue area but didn't have to wait at all).  Chris is playing Zelda on Ryan's Wii right now and I'm just browsing the internet...

Good morning!

~Matt

--
"A room without books is as a body without a soul." -Cicero

Yes, we're going soon

to Best Buy. This is the third year in a row, but today is warm and tonight promises to be warmer than last year. I will definitely have pictures, and hopefully will be buying several things. I think I like the idea of a stack of 100 DVD-Rs for $4.99, and a 2-gig SD card for $30 will go well with the Windows PDA I want to buy.

More later...

~Matt

Thanksgiving forecast

Today is my last day at my day job this week. This does mean a bit lower paycheck, but I'm not complaining too much as I'll enjoy the time off. Friday (besides sleeping after staying up all night at Best Buy) will be my first completely work-free day in far too long. Thursday though I do have to work at bigg's since I've already committed to Titanic for Sunday the 24th of December--at least the shift only goes until 18:00. However, I assume I'll miss Thanksgiving dinner at my sister's place (unless she wants to wait for Friday to hold it? *hint* *hint*) as I'll probably head directly to Best Buy from bigg's.

I wish I were flying out to California this weekend though, it would be a good time to enjoy more time out there. Yet I have to keep up the now three year (if nothing goes wrong tomorrow) tradition of Best Buy line camping and I'm also helping to supervise Titanic this Saturday as the supervisor has to fill in elsewhere (like me she has multiple jobs and multiple positions at the Museum Center). I'll just try to wring what enjoyment I can out of the holiday, ;-).

~Matt

--
"A room without books is as a body without a soul." -Cicero

Cincinnati Skyline

Photobucket - someone wanted you to check out this image

pdrm2555.jpg This picture of the Cincinnati skyline was taken at the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal. This glass here is on the upper level of the History Museum at the old taxi (or bus?) ramp exit. ~Matt If you are having problems viewing this email, copy and paste the following into your browser: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v382/Black_Wolff/Blogging/?action=view&current=pdrm2555.jpg

Addendum: Well this didn't work as well as I thought. I didn't like the fact that I couldn't include text with a picture upload, so I thought this could get around that. Apparently it won't work that way. Oh well...

~Matt

Interlocking - Memory in Bricks

PortableApps.com

Check this website out if you move from computer to computer. These programs are an excellent way to keep your information private and to save all your settings as you move. You can install these programs (I would really recommend this suite to hold the programs you use). I use Firefox and OpenOffice.org especially. The first is my favourite browser (with all of my favourites and links kept intact from computer to computer) and the second is an open-source office suite. It may not always be as usable as MS Office but sometimes is better and is fully compatible with multiple formats and best of all is completely free. You can run these programs from a USB flash drive, a portable hard drive, a device like an iPod, or even from CD (of course you would lose any editing capabilities with the latter option). Check the site out, it is a fun place.

~Matt

Photobucket

This is a test post from Photobucket.com

Say it ain't so

Apparently New Line Cinema has been involved in a dispute with Peter Jackson and has told "him that the company 'would no longer be requiring [his] services on The Hobbit and the prequel'." I'm not sure what the prequel is unless they mean a film adaptation of the Silmarillion (an interesting venture...)

New Line Cinema, with whom he has been in dispute about income from the first Rings film, was not using him, [Peter Jackson] said.

Jackson had refused to discuss a Hobbit film until the case was settled but New Line said it now wanted to move on as it had "limited time" to make the film.

You can read the entire BBC article here.

Sure, I had a few problems with some decisions Jackson made in the adaptations of LotR, but overall they were fantastic. I hope the management responsible for this decision at New Line realizes what they are doing and doesn't screw up production...

~Matt :(

--
"A room without books is as a body without a soul." -Cicero