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I have couple of counters throughout the site. I look at them everyday, but not obsessing (yet). I use the Cluster Maps and Google Analytics. Here are some of my visitation statistics from around the world. United States (US) 464 United Kingdom (GB) 30 Canada (CA) 4 China (CN) 3 Russian Federation (RU) 2 South Africa (ZA) 1 Lithuania (LT) 1 Finland (FI) 1 Ukraine (UA) 1 Bulgaria (BG) 1 Israel (IL) 1 Australia (AU) 1 India (IN) 1 Romania (RO) 1 And here are some stats for the US based readers. 1. Illinois 165 - I read myself a lot 2. New York 19 - Relatives and parents surfing when at work 3. New Jersey 10 - Hi Mom! Hi Dad! Hi, Blogger! 4. Alaska 3 - Only a couple of bloggers I know come from Alaska (Welcome, Jim) 5. California 2 - I know a couple of people from California and they would be from Orange and San Jose area (is SF San Hose area?) 6. Florida 2 - not sure! but Welcome anyways!...

As I was going to sleep yesterday I noticed a set of footprints in the snow on the front yard. Being under the influence of Nathan's short blurp, the first thought that came to my head was: "That's one f'n huge rabbit!" ( I know it was the NICOR guy getting a read of the meter). If I remember to take a picture I'll share.

Nothing really happened. If you can't say something interesting why say it. The global business class is over with yesterday's presentation. I think our group did very well. We were proposing to build a water park and resort somewhere in Russia, and I think we've managed to bullshit our way through successfully. The exercise was, of course, feasibility study more than anything, but I think we've did a good job convincing everyone present that it was feasible. Couple of interesting points. We ran simulated numbers, based on US data (hard to find Russian data) : 1. It takes anywhere from $35 to $75 million (USD) to build a water park (indoor/outdoor) and a hotel. 2. Construction takes approximately 3 years. 3. You can expect profitability by year 4, if everything goes to plan. One of the other teams proposed a venture of producing condoms locally in Brazil (the biggest importer of condoms in the world). Everything was fine, until somebody started to talk about "units...

Thanks to my Awesome Wife we went for a little food expirimentation tonight. We thought we were going to a Korean BBQ place, but luckily went to Shabu-Shabu place. I have never eaten at one of those before. First, the name is awesome. Shaaa-buuuu. Sweet. Second, the idea is simple but awesome in execution. You are given a pot with boiling broth. The varieties are chicken, sea weed (i have questions about that), and being that a lot of Asian folk here is Korean, kimchi broth (very spicy, to be avoided). After you have the pot you are given very thinly sliced beef (seems to be the favorite meat), veggies, and sometimes noodles (I had pot stickers), which you pick up with chop-sticks and dip in the broth for a duration of 15 seconds. Very filling, and very deliciouss, you are given three different sauses to go with the food. It is also very healthy. Good experience overall, and I think we will return there at some point. Shabu as a style of cooking said to be originated with the Mongols. ...

Well, the Razzies are out and here are this year's nominees Worst Picture Bratz * Daddy Day Camp I Know Who Killed Me I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry Norbit Worst Actor Nicholas Cage — Ghost Rider, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, and Next Jim Carrey — The Number 23 Cuba Gooding, Jr. — Daddy Day Camp and Norbit Eddie Murphy (as Norbit) — Norbit * Adam Sandler — I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry Worst Actress * Jessica Alba — Awake, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, and Good Luck Chuck Logan Browning, Janel Parrish, Nathalia Ramos, and Skyler Shaye — Bratz Elisha Cuthbert — Captivity Diane Keaton — Because I Said So Lindsay Lohan (as Aubrey) — I Know Who Killed Me Lindsay Lohan (as Dakota) — I Know Who Killed Me Worst Supporting Actor * Orlando Bloom — Pirates of the Carob-bean: At Wit’s End — aka Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End Kevin James — I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry Eddie Murphy (as Mr. Wong) — Norbit Rob Schneider — I Now Pronounce You C...

Sorry for toilet humor, but this is hilarious.

The Steelers won. The Cards won. I am sad. Do you know why? The reason is that with the Superbowl the sports die for me until next September. I think I'll root for Cards, they are a past Chicago team after all, and I just don't like Big Ben. This does seem like the year for old Quaterbacks. I will go for Warner plus Larry Fitzgerald is an exciting player to watch. I stopped watching hockey almost right after the players strike in '95 or '96, or almost right after the year Rangers won the Stanley Cup. The players got greedy, and I couldn't handle that. The sport lost its luster for me when Wayne, Mess, Mario, Bure, Fedorov have hanged their jerseys or went into oblivion (of course it wasn't abrupt, it spanned couple of seasons). It's just not that interesting anymore. I don't watch basketball anymore. I think it happened the year I moved to Chicago, and couldn't watch Knicks on the regular basis. And then Ewing retired, some kid right out of high-scho...

Thy name shall be Zippy Chickenbrain Thank you Shawn for giving us the new super secret name generator Anyways, today is class number 9 and we have to do a presentation on some of the final aspect of doing business in Russia. Sort of a wrap-up of everything we learned. I have a lot of studying and rehersing to do.

At the Village Of Joy a new list is posted, or it's very old and I have just found it. It's called Crazy iPod Ads. I personally like these two. I think I'll use one of the them as my avatar now.

I've got nothing today. OH, wait. I finally got Wii Fit. It's proudly standing in the corner of the office and awaiting it's time. I can't believe that running around after it, i still haven't opened it. But we've been so busy today I haven't got the strength to play around with a new toy. Have a good future monday.

This is proof that my brain is on the fritz. When the superman changes into his superhero costume, I understand that the suit is below his street clothes. Where the hell is he hiding the cape? Fanny-pack? Tucked into his tighty-whities? As I was driving today it was even colder.

Damn, it's cold. As I started driving to work it was -4F on the car thermometer. As I getting farther north (I drive about 25 miles one-way) it was getting colder and colder. By the time I got to Libertyville it was a crispy -8F. They said on the radio the windchill added like -10F or -15F making it a nice -25F. Fun stuff. Unfortunately I had to put gas in my car. So the operation went like this. I jumped out, fumbling for the wallet. I should have taken it out before I opened the door. Started pumping, and ran like hell inside to get a cup o' Joe. I waited there until I was 100% certain that the pumping has stopped. And ran like hell back to the car. And I am dressed warmly. Remember: "It's not that the Russians don't feel cold, it's that they dress warmly!" ------------------ On a lighter note, I absolutely love playing Wii. All I have now is Wii Sports and Wii Play. I am planning to get Tiger Woods of course. Bowling is fun, although for the life of me ...

Is this realy Morpheus? Came by it by accident. ----------------- Found this on of my friend's blog hese are sentences actually typed by Medical secretaries in NHS Greater Glasgow 1. The patient has no previous history of suicides. 2. Patient has left her white blood cells at another hospital. 3. Patient's medical history has been remarkably insignificant with only a 40 pound weight gain in the past three days. 4. She has no rigors or shaking chills, but her husband states she was very hot in bed last night. 5. Patient has chest pain if she lies on her left side for over a year. 6. On the second day the knee was better and on the third day it disappeared. 7. The patient is tearful and crying constantly. She also appears to be depressed. 8. The patient has been depressed since she began seeing me in 1993. 9. Discharge status:- Alive, but without my permission. 10. Healthy appearing decrepit 69-year old male, mentally alert, but forgetful. 11. Patient had waffles for breakfast an...

The plan was perfect. The grueling eight hours of work yielded great results. Nobody would miss him. He would leave the office half-an-hour early to hit the store. The store's website said that the IT was in and ready to be taken by anyone willing. Everything was great. The storm promised by the weather people was couple of hours away. The ride was smooth and uneventful. When he walked into the store he was almost giggling. And then, then plan went all to hell. There were more people wanting to get IT than he anticipated. IT was gone! Bewildered he stood there for couple of minutes, and then retreated, trying hard not to show his disappointment. He had to quickly adjust his plan. There was another store across the street where he could take IT. He drove up to it, but having been rejected once decided not to hope too much. He always thought that being pleasantly surprised was better than surprisingly disappointed. In the store he found out that IT was gone in less than an hour after...

I have two big "pet" peeves. One of them is anumals talking like humans on TV, with digitally mastered mouth movement and such. The other is peopl e dressing their animals in clothing. I am usually wary of animal protection agenecies. Some of them (read PETA) are more about serving selves than animals. But this totally makes sense to me. Finally The Daily Telegraph The dogs are not dolls to dress for your enjoyment. They are dogs. Stop putting your pooch in Burberry you dumbasses.

On saturday we invited some of our friends to go with us to celebrate my birthday. Yes! I am that vain! I got wonderful gifts, which were Monty Python's Holy Trinity DVD's that included Quest for the Holy Grail, Life Of Brian, and The Meaning Of Life: And The Encyclopedia of Heavy Metal And lastly a birthday card with a beautiful girl on the front and these words of wisdom on the inside: "May your palm tree always stay high and your coconuts never fall to the ground" Al off these gifts satisfied the geek and the headbanger in me on the many intimate levels. On Sunday we went for some sleighing with our good friends, which resulted in both dads flying about a foot into the air and crushing down on the tailbones in the most uncomfortable ways. Good weekend overall. I am thinking of buying a Wii on my birthday moneys.

It's snowing again. I've already cleaned about 6 inches of the driveway accumulated since yesterday, and I got another inch already.

Yo know why I hate coming back to work from vacation? It's the pile of crap that awaits for you to be taken care of. I am working from home today, due to a big snowfall again. And yes, I did say WORKING! I also gt a load of school work to do. Our adopt-a-culture has to more presentations. I think I am doing political implications of doing business in Russia. What the hell does that mean anyway?

I admit that my music tastes were a bit weird by American standards when I was a wee bit lad. However, this clip when I saw it absolutely blew me away. A-ha had also created the Living Daylights theme-song. I may be wrong but it could be my first introduction to Bond. I remember watching it at my friend's house, who was lucky enough to have a VCR in his house. Oh, the envy! Enjoy.

Have I mentioned that i love my wife? I must have. If I haven't done it recently here it is: I LOVE MY WIFE! Here's me resplendid in my new The Bears pajamas, courtesy of my Awesome Wife.

Well, the vacation is over and I am back to work. It sucks, getting back into the routine of things is really tough. I am very happy that I managed to procrastinate the hell out of these two weeks. I will shamelessly admit that I did exactly squat. I am way behind on my emails, I am way behind school work, although I did manage to put in couple of hours for that. I've turned 33 today and my birthdays always make me look philosophically on life. The idea is very simple. I was always the youngest in my family, my brother is four and half older and my cousin (who I always thought of as a second brother with all of us growing up pretty close) is a year older than me. If I am already catching up to my mid thirties, how tough is it for them being ahead. Being the selfish bastard that I am, this thought always brings a "Holy Crap!" first, and then a relieved sigh, that they are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay older than I am :)

This fits me perfectly. I think. Anyhow, I like Tony Stark's character, I like gadgets, I like Iron Man. Thank you Jim

This is for you photographers over there. This is one of the images I took with the new camera, on fully automatic. Less than perfect lighting conditions, afternoon in the play room. On eof the problems with the picture is that the wall behind Mickey is supposed to be green. And I am not talking a greenish shade, to a normal eye the wall paint is substancially greener than perfectly white ceiling. I understand of course that there is a lot I need to learn about making good pictures. Shouldn't that start with a camera though? :) Maybe someone can point me at good resources for amateur photography.

I am still recovering a bit from a night of hard drinking, for whatever reason my back hurts. Yesterday and today can be described in pictures. This is what the tree looked like yesterday: This is what it looks like today: Only couple of friends left to give and recieve. The Awesome Wife has given me this as a present: And finally this is The Little One being overwhelmed with presents: I am about to dive into the juicy book of "how to's " for the new camera. Ha Ha!