2007 Hooding Photos

2007 Vanguard Hooding Ceremony

Vanguard University

Binkx Box - You gotta see this

Techdropping

Well, while eating my new year's resolution salad at my local Del Taco, I noticed a few conversations around me. They were all about Apple Inc. Two guys were discussing the upside and downside of purchasing an ipod when Apple comes out with a new version, another group was discussing the "big brotherness" of Itunes and how it follows you from system to system. Other than feeling like I was at a nerd bar, I was surprised that I was easy dropping on people's conversation. And, while my wife often listens in on several conversations around her (women's ability to multitask well), I am not usually interested in what people are talking about. Ah, but these people were talking "tech!" So that's when it hit me - I am a self confessed "techdropper." Is that a new word? I wonder how long it will take to see it show up on wiki or in a magazine? Then again, it may just float around in cyberspace forever with words like, "rad" or "bogus." Steve Jobs made headlines yesterday by announcing the Iphone. And, although it didn't hear the word come up while techdropping, people were talking Apple - and that's got to be good for them. Tell me some of your cool techdropping stories!

Adventures in REBATEland

This goes back to last year, but it's worth the short history. A friend of mine told me about a way to get a FREE IPOD. I thought, "right" - "free" there has to be a catch. Well it turns out the catch is you have to be extremely dilegent about tracking purchases and cancelling products at the right time. And you have to have a credit card and manage it well. I'll cut to the point. It worked and it cost about $60 worth of "trial" services. Not bad huh? So the next jump went for a free Ibook (1st MAC in our family). It would have gone real smooth except I didn't follow the instructions to the EXACT detail specified. This is where most people mess up. I had to buy $25 worth of pet stuff from an online pet product store. My total was $24.95 without the tax - with tax it was easily over the $25. It didn't go through because the "purchase" was not over $25! Get it. It took me months (because you are on your own) to figure out what happened. I went back online with the pet place ordered a few more bucks worth of pet stuff and BHAM - it went through. You should have seen the celebration when we received our Mac Ibook in November 2005. So you want to know how much I spent. It was about $150 after the pet fiasco. BUT, the major purchase in their required that I switched our Satellite TV off Dish and over to Direct TV - that was a little tough on everyone in the family.

I am currently looking for a way to get a free HDTV Plasma TV. We also received free Razor phones through a broker in Arizona. It cost $450 up front and it took a full 8 MONTHS for the rebate to come back to us - but June 1, 2006 we received the $450 check. And we bought this really nice Samsung Laser Printer Brand new, with rebate it ended up costing $50.

Adventures in blogosphere

Well I have read a couple of books, articles and even a few blogs from friends. I guess it is time for me to enter the "BLOGOSPHERE." The air seems strangely quiet in here. How does this work? Will I sound intellingent enough to secure my thoughts in the open vault of the net? We will find out won't we. Together? No, probably solo at first.