August 25, 2007

Top Ten Hints Your Engagement is Doomed

rmiles7721August 25, 2007Parenting/Family

Since I have several sponsors and I do the paid posting thing I get around to different businesses sites and check out their blogs as well as the sites themselves. More often than not they are pretty cut and dried if not boooring. Not that I don’t find a wealth of information, it’s just that some days I have a hard time keeping my head from hitting the desk and having drool start forming. I am one of the unfortunate ones that used to occasionally have that happen to in school, normally in science or math class.

Anyway, I was over at JR Dunn Jewelers earlier (this is the part where I plug them). JR Dunn is a premier Jewelry showroom with two stores in South Florida. Their reputation for integrity and fine diamonds precedes them and as a family owned business instead of being one of the huge conglomerations you know you are going to get personal service whether you are shopping for a new engagement ring or looking for a diamonds for your 20th anniversary (OK, end the plug).

Here’s the good part. While I was there I stopped by J.R.Dunn’s Jewelry Blog and found the post referred to in MY title, Top Ten Hints Your Engagement is Doomed, which derives from real life examples if things that they have actually heard in their stores. My favorite is #5, “You asked out the sales lady who was helping you with your engagement ring purchase“. Man, I can relate to that. Running restaurants, I have seen on more than one occasion, a lady get up to use the restroom and just as soon as she is gone the gentleman starts to hit on his waitress. It’s hilarious but kind of sad all at the same time. I always feel sorry for his companion and I am sure that they feel the same way. Why on the world would you go shopping for an engagement ring and then hit on the salesperson? Save your money dude because you are going to need it for the divorce later.

Are more guys like that? I can’t say I don’t look but I certainly don’t ask other women out. That’s just not right, not to mention the fact that my wife would probably kill me if I did and she found out. Over the last 41 years I have come to value my life for some strange reason.

I also like #3 in the list as well, almost as much as #5. #3 is “You offered to pay for breast augmentation instead of a ring.” Now THAT I can understand…

MT-Visitor Stats

rmiles7721August 25, 2007Site News

I have just recently started to use a plugin called Visitor Stats for Movabletype 4.0. The javascript sits right in the header of the site and loads before anything else and seems to be doing a pretty good job of tracking everything here. It matches AWStats almost perfectly and has been giving me a pretty good idea of who is coming and when. The problem is that right now it isn’t compatible with dynamic publishing so the last blog that I will move over to the new installation of MT will be this one.

There is supposed to be a version coming out that will be compatible, hopefully soon. At that point I will move the site. I may go ahead next week and prepare everything for the move though so that when I do switch it will be that much easier. I am looking forward to having this site speed up even if it’s just the tiniest bit.


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Melbourne

rmiles7721August 25, 2007Travel

One other place that I want to go at some point is Australia. Some of the flora and fauna there is so different than what I am used to as to be almost alien to me, which is part of the attraction I suppose. It’s also a very beautiful place, although parts of Australia can be pretty unforgiving. Most likely I would stick to the cities for the most part anyway and visit Melbourne and Sydney and perhaps Brisbane.

Since Melbourne experienced a huge Gold Rush shortly after it was settled it grew very quickly and the wealth in the area allowed for beautiful architecture which still remains such as the Royal Exhibition Building…

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Hotels in Melbourne are pretty reasonable so once you get past the airfare it’s pretty easy to have a wonderful time on a budget. There are all kinds of museums and guided tours of the city and it’s surroundings that are easily accessible. Being a sort of a history buff I would love to go check out the Old Melbourne Gaol, which is one of the oldest buildings in Melbourne.

If you go east along the coast about 720 miles you can get to Sydney. It seems like a bit of a drive but along the way there are beaches and national parks as well as beautiful lakes and wildlife, not to mention great food. There are several popular resort towns along the route including Merimbula, Batemans Bay and Lakes Entrance. Hotels in Sydney are also easy to find and book but it’s better if you do it ahead of time.

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Everyone is familiar with the Sydney Opera House in Sydney Harbour. Photo by Matthew Field.

A little farther north in Queensland is Brisbane. Any visit to Australia isn’t complete without checking out the sites around Brisbane such as the Windmill, which is the oldest surviving structure in Brisbane.

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The Windmill was built by convicts in 1828. It was built for the grinding of grain and as a punishment for the convicts that manually operated the grinding mill. It was also the place where the first TV signals in the southern hemisphere were transmitted from in 1934. The broadcast from the Windmill until World War II.

Brisbane has generally been considered a smaller city than Sydney and Melbourne and thus hotels in Brisbane are generally a bit cheaper and easier to reserve although the population gap between the cities has been closing in recent years.

Gossip Girl

rmiles7721August 25, 2007Entertainment

The CW’s Gossip Girl is a new television teen drama set to air on September 19th created by Josh Schwartz, the mind behind The O.C. and Stephanie Savage. It’s based upon the series of bestselling books by the same name by author Cecily von Ziegesar .

The premise behind Gossip Girl is a group of upper class young students who live on the Upper East Side in New York City. It is a little bit past the reading age for my oldest daughter but we have looked through he books on the shelves and it’s something she is interested in reading once I actually let her purchase them.

Basically the show is narrated by an unseen character, the ‘Gossip Girl’ who runs a blog about her fellow Upper East Siders which tends to stir the post and keep the rivalries constantly going.

There is also a MySpace Fan Page where you can get updates and leave messages for the Gossip Girl as well. Don’t forget to tune in or record the Gossip Girl on September 19th on the CW.


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