GetndCarVC

While driving around today, I realized that most Americans are surrounded by some form of advertising everyday. Whether it be actual audio and video commercials or the name-brand clothing your friend wear, we unconciously absorb it. And that's the power of advertisement. Companies spend billions each year to get their product out on the open market. And marketing companies are so sly about it that you hardly notice it. We are actually at a point where we at some point enjoy watching it. We can laugh at the funny ones and criticize the bad ones.

Places I enjoyed going to avoid advertising are quiet nature like places. In big towns, the only places to go are large quiet parks where you can hear the birds chirp and animals run around. Or the great national parks of the United States.

(Slim Thug)
You need to stop playing round with all them clowns and the wangstas
Good girls gotta get down with them gangstas
Go head girl put some back and some neck up on it
While I stand up in the background and check up on it

[Chorus]
Ohh Boy you looking like you like what you see
Won't you come over check up on it, I'm gone let you work up on it
Ladies let em check up on it, watch it while he check up on it
Dip it, pop it, twork it, stop it, check on me tonight

If you got flaunt it, boy I know you want it
While I turn around you watch me check up on it
Oohhh you watchin me shake it, I see it in ya face
Ya can't take it, it's blazin, you rock me it amaze me
You can look at it, as long as you don't grab it
If you don't go braggin, I'ma let you have it
You think that I'm teasin, but I ain't got no reason
I'm sure that I can please ya, but first I gotta read you

[Chorus]
Ohh Boy you looking like you like what you see
Won't you come over check up on it, I'm gone let you work up on it
Ladies let em check up on it, watch it while he check up on it
Dip it, pop it, twork it, stop it, check on me tonight (x2)

I can tell you wanna taste it, but I'm gone make you chase it
You got to be patient, I like my men patient
More patience, you take my get you in more places
You can't be abrasive, has to know to pace it
If I let you get up on it, you gotta make a promise
That you gone put it on me, like no ones put it on me
Don't bore me, just show me, all men talk but don't please
I can be a tease, but I really wanna please you

[Chorus]
Ohh Boy you looking like you like what you see
Won't you come over check up on it, I'm gone let you work up on it
Ladies let em check up on it, watch it while he check up on it
Dip it, pop it, twork it, stop it, check on me tonight (x2)

(Slim Thug)
I'm checking on you boo, do what chu do
And while dance I'ma glance at this beautiful view
I'm keep my hands in my pants, I need to glue em w/ glue
I'm in a trance all eyes on you and your crew
Me and my mans don't dance, but to feel ya'll bump and grind
If won't hurt if you gone try one time
They all hot, but let me see this ones mine
Its slim thug and DC outta H town

[Chorus]
Ohh Boy you looking like you like what you see
Won't you come over check up on it, I'm gone let you work up on it
Ladies let em check up on it, watch it while he check up on it
Dip it, pop it, twork it, stop it, check on me tonight (x4)

Have you ever hosted a group game and feel that your friends did not enjoy it? There was no real reason for to play your game because of a lack of rewards at the end. Well instead of ending the game with rewards, try ending them with "punishments". Now I by no means intend the punishments to be physically painful, but they should rather be more embarrassing. This way, your friends will play to avoid doing something they wish they could otherwise avoid. Below, I've listed a few "punishment" ideas for you to use.

1. Losers must write their name with their butts! Each losing team must use their behinds and write their names in the air for all to see. If you plan on using this one, don't forget to bring a video recording device! It will make for great memories!
   
2. Losers remove both socks off the winner's feet using their teeth! For example, the top three losers have to take off the socks of the winners using only their teeth! For this to work, tell your friends to wear socks, but don't tell them why! Also keep in mind that teeth occasionally rip socks.
3. Losing team has a cup of any drink (except water) such as iced tea. The losing must put the drink in their mouth with swallowing, and then spits the drink back into the cup. Everyone on the losing team must do this process. The catch is that the last person drinks it! (Beware: This is kind of disgusting, so use with only your best friends).

Each of these three "punishment" ideas should be used depending on how well you know your friends. For example, ideas 2 and 3 probably should only be using with close friends! Idea 1 would be ideal for any group.

Forgiving others is a task that is without doubt one of the most difficult things in life. When a friend (or ex-friend for that matter) hurts you in a way that breaks up a friendship, it is easiest to completely cut that person off from your life and just start a new friendship. But now take a step back from all that madness. Think about all those good times you've spent playing and laughing while your friendship was growing. Can all that just be thrown away over one mistake? After all, your friends are hopefully all humans which means they have all make mistakes at one time or another. Depending on any individual and their current state of mind, the severity of that mistake may vary depending on many factors. Ask them about those factors! Find out the part you didn't know about the situation. I've recently been asking people, "What's life without a fight"? Make rebuilding friendships your fight. Just talk and embrace the power of forgiveness so that hopefully you can laugh with your friend once more.

Not a particularily wild fan of Harry Potter myself (never read any of the books and only successfully watched the first Harry Potter film), I ended up going to watch the first showing with my girlfriend at the Irvine Spectrum. And because it was the first showing, people of all ages were yelling and cheering all throughout the movie. It did seem as if more humor was thrown into the movie, which based the movie less on magical enchantments. But don't fret, whenever magic was used, it was exceptional. Included is a whole new cast of characters does not seem to revolve around the original three main characters, rather it revolves around Harry Potter himself. Me myself not being a Harry Potter fanatic, I was unable to get into the movie, but it's easy to see that the crowd loved it!

Genre: Action/Adventure, Kids/Family and Science Fiction/Fantasy
Running Time: 2 hrs. 30 min.
Release Date: November 18th, 2005 (wide)
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sequences of fantasy violence and frightening images.

For more movie reviews, check out:

• RottenTomatoes
• The Internet Movie Database
• Official Harry Potter Website
  

I have so many people come into my shop saying something like

“I can’t even sew on a button”.

How sad it is that a whole generation has lost out on learning how to do just the basic skills of sewing.

Sewing buttons on to clothes doesn’t have to be difficult. In fact it will take you just a few minutes with my quick and easy technique.

Follow these steps and you will have your buttons on in no time at all.

1. Pull the thread from the reel and pull out to arms length

2. Now pull out another arms length of cotton. This means you now have a very long piece of cotton

3. Fold the cotton into two making sure that the ends are even

4. You now have a fold one end and two joins the other end

5. Thread the two joins into the eye of the needle. Lick the ends if necessary to moisten

6. You will now have four threads in the needle

7. Knot the end of the four threads. To make a knot I just roll the end of the cotton around my index finger and pull or roll the thread through the hole in the cotton. If you have threads past the knot, trim these off

8. Push the needle through the fabric going from the right side to the wrong side in the position that the button is going to be. This means when you sew the button on the knot will be underneath the button

10. Bring the needle back from the wrong side to the right side that the button will be on.

11. Put the button on to the needle and push the button down on to the fabric, covering the knot

12. Now put the needle through the opposite hole on the button and back through to the opposite side of the fabric

13. If you want to come back through one more time you can or you can knot off by putting the thread through itself and pulling the thread. Do this twice and cut the thread

Ok, so there you have it. A button has been sewn on to your garment and it will have taken you no time at all. Welllll. Maybe the first time took you a little longer than me, but hey, eventually you will become quicker at sewing on buttons.

Always keep your cottons, needles and pins in the same place. When you need to sew on a button quickly, its good to know where the items are, so you don’t waste a heap of time searching for the needle and thread.

Description of the System:

The Virtual Case File (VCF) fiasco began in September 2000 when Congress approved $379.8 million over three years to develop a software project called Trilogy. Science Application International Corp (SAIC) based out of San Diego was awarded the Trilogy contract by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The Trilogy project was broken down into three parts: The Information Presentation Component, the Transportation Network, and the User Applications Component.

The Information Presentation Component merely upgraded electronic hardware within the agency including upgrading to Dell Pentium PC’s, scanners, printers, and servers.

The Transportation Network would provide a secure local area and a wide area network that allows agents in offices or in the field to communicate securely with each other.

The biggest part of Trilogy was the User Applications Component, which later became known as the Virtual Case file. The Virtual Case File itself included the Automated Case Support System, IntelPlus, Criminal Law Enforcement Application, Integrated Intelligence Information Application, and Telephone Application.

The entire VCF system was intended to integrate data and eventually replace older investigation systems such as the Automated Case Support System. The Trilogy system would have allowed agents to obtain information on known offenders quicker while out in the field.

History:

In September 2000, the VCF project began with the goals of improving the flow of information between offices around the world and field agents. The project was to be finished and operational in 2003.

High turnover rate of agents was also a major problem. While SAIC was working on the project, there were four CIO changes along with fourteen manager changes. This made establishing a stable requirements document for VCF a challenge.

In September of 2001 when terrorists struck the World Trade Center in New York, the FBI then made a major change. Focus of the Trilogy project was shifted to include terrorist profiles and activities. Because of this shift, the date for completion of VCF was delayed to 2004.

Today, the project has not been scraped, but the FBI is learning from their prior mistakes. Instead of having the entire system coded, commercially created software systems are being examined for use in the VCF.

Size of System:

The Virtual Case File cost the FBI and the United States government an estimated $170 million with over 200 full time employees. The project ran over budget by $120 million and was delayed for 21 months.

Causes of Failure:

A major cause of failure to the VCF project was the high turnover rate of IT managers. This made communication between IT managers working for the FBI and contracted software engineers difficult, for different IT managers have different perspectives and methods for implementation.

Another problem that branched off of high turnover rate of IT managers is the lack of an overall architecture of the VCF project. Had a detailed description of the system been made available, new IT managers may have been able to read what previous managers had opted for. This would have also helped ease communication problems between IT managers and software engineers.

A cause of failure that is very difficult for such large organizations to control is how employees adapt new processes. Though it is easier for new employees to use newer processes, more senior employees are more accustomed to using the older processes. Therefore, it was very difficult for employees of the FBI to actually use what portions of the VCF was available.

Lessons Learned:

Although the Virtual Case File is a complete failure, many lessons were learned. The most critical problem came not with the actual programming, but rather with communication between the FBI and the contractors. With so many changes in management, there were many misinterpretations between managers. The most important position that should have a zero turnover rate is the director taking charge of the entire project. The VCF should have always been striving towards the same goal from the start to the end, and this would have been easily regulated by a single director through the duration of the project. Overall, the main problem is that the FBI had an inexperienced IT group.

Another minor lesson learned with regards to system of such magnitude is to only deploy when the project is complete and has undergone through integration testing.

It was also made apparent in reports that the VCF was not allowed enough time to be fully tested. For that reason, due to the number of bugs present that were never addressed in the code, not only was the VCF scraped, but the code was rendered useless.

Wedding Crashers starring Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn is a must watch comedy. The duo make an exceptional pair with their witty remarks and the subtle treasures of laughter. With an exceptionally unique storyline, two males attempt to hook up with the ladies by crashing weddings. This movie is non-stop laughter that is for the 18 due to nudity in only the first five minutes of the movie. Other major appearances is Christopher Walken and a more minor role of by Will Farrell. And though I won't reveal their roles in the movie, you'll have to check out the movie with a bunch of your friends.

During the month of November 2005, Grokster.com was official shut down by the United States Supreme court. Grokster was the home of a Peer-to-Peer program that was deemed illegal. Effective immediately, Grokster took down their emails. Here is a message of their final site:

The United States Supreme Court unanimously confirmed
that using this service to trade copyrighted material is illegal.
Copying copyrighted motion picture and music files
using unauthorized peer-to-peer services is illegal and is
prosecuted by copyright owners.

There are legal services for downloading music and movies.
This service is not one of them.

Grokster hopes to have a safe and legal service available soon.

The interesting part is that Grokster is the last part of the message. They are attempting to create a legal Peer-to-Peer program. The website is already up and located at Grokster3g.com. In my opinion, this will become another form of illegal download since there is no legal way to control P2P downloading applications.

However, this may be just a continuation of what is currently happening. One by one, major downloading sites are being shut down. The hundred dollar question for the future is if new P2P programs will sprout from where olds ones were buried. Will illegal downloading continue?

If you're into Paid to Read Email programs, this is an absolute hit. The webmaster has been persistently working on perfecting the functionality of Spare-Dollars.com. Currently, they offer no minimum payout. They don't charge any fees for requesting money. The catch is only one payout per month per member and you must be active one day per month. Just to test, I made about $1.11 cents after my first month and requested payout via PayPal. Sure enough, my PayPal account was credited for $1.11 cents.

Some things that Spare-Dollars.com does differently is they never send emails out to any third party email addresses. Instead, all email are kept directly on site. To check your email, you must log into the site. Their referral structure is small, being only one level at 14% with no downline requirements to be paid.

Spare-Dollars.com sends out on average eight emails a day, about 90% being .25 cent links and the last 10% being .50 cent links. I have yet to see a one or two cent paid email. They offer payout via PayPal, AlertPay, MoneyBookers, E-Gold, StormPay, and Gift Cards. All emails are individual, meaning they only contain one paid link.

As usual for most programs, you must be fluent in English and must about at least 13 years old to join.

Vegetables are difficult enough to eat on a daily basis. But asparagus can be worst for some people due to it's potent after-effects. Asparagus contains a sulfur-containing amino acid compound called mercaptan, which is also found in onions, garlic, and rotten eggs. When your digestive system breaks down asparagus, a uniquly horrendous smell released upon excretion. Luckily for some, not everyone has the particular enzyme capable of breaking down mercaptan.

Still, there are scientists who believe that asparagus pee is not caused by a lack of enzymes, but a different cause. Studies have been done where non-asparagus pee is recognized as asparagus pee by some. In other words, people believe that instead of genetic reasons, only some people are capable of smelling the asparagus pee.

People can take everything away from you
But they can never take away your truth
But the question is,
Can you handle mine?

They say I'm crazy
I really don't care
That's my prerogative
They say I'm nasty
But I don't give a damn
Getting boys is how I live

Some ask me questions
Why am I so real?
But they don't understand me
I really don't know the deal
About my sister
Trying hard to make it right
Not long ago before I won this fight

Everybody's talkin' all this stuff about me
Why don't they just let me live? (tell me why)
I don't need permission
Make my own descisions (oh)
That's my prerogative

That's my prerogative

(It's my prerogative)

Its the way that I wanna live
(It's my prerogative)

They can't tell me what to do...

Don't get me wrong
I'm really not souped
Ego trips is not my thing
All these strange relationships
It really gets me down
I see nothing wrong
Spreading myself around

Everybody's talkin' all this stuff about me
Why don't they just let me live? (tell me why)
I don't need permission
Make my own descisions (oh)
That's my prerogative

That's my prerogative

Everybody's talkin' all this stuff about me
Why don't they just let me live? (tell me why)
I don't need permission
Make my own descisions (oh)
That's my prerogative

That's my prerogative

Its the way that I wanna live

(It's my prerogative)

They can't tell me what to do,

Why can't I live my life?
Without all of the things that people say?

Ohh,

Everybody's talkin' all this stuff about me
Why don't they just let me live? (tell me why)
I don't need permission
Make my own descisions (oh)
That's my prerogative

(They Say I'm crazy) Everybody's talkin' all this stuff about me
Why don't they just let me live? (tell me why)
(They say I'm nasty)I don't need permission
Make my own descisions (oh)
(ahhh)That's my prerogative

(That's my prerogative)

Five Crown's Story:
"A beautiful replica of one of England's oldest country inns, Five Crowns is a place of candlelight and cozy fireplaces... where good cheer and warm hospitality invite you to leave your cares at the door. Since 195, our award winning food, exceptional service, and unique setting have made us one of Southern California's most sought-after locations for weddings and private parties. We take pride in making each of your visits to Five Crowns a special occasion."

Five Crowns, part of the Lawry's Restaurant family, is located in Corona del Mar right off of East Coast Highway. The environment inside Five Crowns is truly spectacular starting with the second you enter the restaurant. Waiters and waitresses clothed in English outfits present the menu by role-playing some of England’s finest servers. Five Crowns has the perfect atmosphere for any special occasion.

The specialty entrée at Five Crowns is a juicy and tender slice of prime rib bone in with creamed spinach Yorkshire pudding, and mashed potatoes. The slices vary from 10 ounce to 16 ounce cuts and vary in prices starting at $31 to $36. This may seem expensive, but this may honestly be one of the best cuts of beef you'll ever eat. Their mashed potatoes define mashed, leaving no chunks of potatoes behind. The creamed spinach is flavorful, but not overpowering. And though this restaurant is a bit on the pricy side, it would be a mistake not to dine at Five Crowns.

Address:
3801 East Coast Highway
Corona del Mar, CA 92625

Phone: (949) 760-0331

Website: Five Crowns

Vista Del Campo, known to many University of California Irvine students simply as VDC, began accepting housing applications for the 2006-2007 school year a few nights ago (November 1, 2005). Because available housing is offered to new applicants on a first come first serve basis, there were literally hundreds of people lined outside the leasing office the night before on Halloween. Tents were pitches, couches were brought out, and sleeping bags were rolled out. Students sat in line on Halloween night to highten their opportunity of finding a spot at VDC. November 1st was clearly VDC's version of "Black Friday" for the retail industry.

The good news for college housing seekers is that most of those applicants had goals of living at the original VDC. Currently, Vista Del Campo Norte is being constructed and should be completed by Fall 2006. Although VDC Norte should be just as nice, the living space is less and it comes at a higher price. And though finding a spot at VDC Norte will be competetive, it will not be as competitive as the original VDC. At least not this year.

Whether you have two monitors for your desktop, or an external monitor connected to your laptop, the primitive dual monitor support software included with Microsoft Windows is useless. What you need is a third party software program to provide dual monitor features not included with Windows.

Ultramon is a great feature-loaded program. It has many features such as hotkeys for controlling virtually all features of the dual monitor. The most useful hotkey is one to turn on and off the secondary monitor. Different desktop features such as screensavers, backgrounds, and screen resolution can be separately assigned to each monitor.

The most useful feature is the “Smart Taskbar”. By default, windows will automatically display all open programs onto the taskbar on the primary monitor. Ultramon has the option of utilizing a Smart Taskbar that places one taskbar on both monitors. Each taskbar only contains programs located on that particular monitor. This may not seem like anything impressive, but it does make monitor organization effortless by eliminating the confusion of which monitor programs will open up in.

If you have never heard of Ultramon, visit http://www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon/ for more information. Additionally, a fully functional version of Ultramon can be downloaded and tested for free. If you like it, I encourage buying the program to support the programmers for possible future programs. If you've used Ultramon before, I'd like to hear your experience.

People from different background have different takes on funerals. Being a Chinese family with family from Taiwan, I assume the funeral was based around Buddhism. The night before the funeral, the immediate family could only eat vegetarian for dinner. Every light at the deceased home must remain on starting at the strike of midnight till the end of the funeral the next day (this means sleeping in bring lights). Leaving the lights on is an invitation for the spirit of the deceased. Additionally, the mirrors at the deceased home must remain covered until the body is buried. With mirrors covered, returning spirit won’t be scared away from the house.

The morning of the funeral, the immediate family dresses predominately in black, and nobody is allowed to "get ready". This means no brushing your teeth, no fixing your hair, no shaving, etc. This is an indication of mourning for the dead.

Later, there is a program at the funeral home where first the immediate family pays their final respects to the deceased before friends are given a chance for their last farewells. The immediate family also pays respect to visiting friends by bowing. There are monks at both the funeral home and the cemetery. Much of the program at the funeral home and cemetery may vary from funeral home to funeral home.