Infertility Podcast & Blog

Well another November day, another family birthday. This time it’s my grandmother’s turn yesterday. It’s a shame that she is in Pittsburgh and we are here in New York but we talked for about 30 minutes (and talked to my grandfather as well) and felt good that I gave a call. They are getting on in years (who isn’t?) and my grandmother has just gone through some surgeries on her spine and now she is thinking about getting her knees replaced. I think that is a good idea since I have wittnessed how my grandfather’s life changed after he got his knees replaced and the same goes for my step father as well.
Speaking of birthday stuff, tomorrow night, Malky and I are finally going to go out and celebrate our birthdays. We’ll be staying local in Brooklyn at a place that we haven’t tried before. I’m hoping that it’s good.

Tags: Family by aaron
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At the risk of tooting my own horn, I would like to announce that there is a new podcast in town done by yours truly. It’s a Pirate podcast! No, I don’t talk like a pirate for 20 minutes; it’s about the Pittsburgh Pirates. A team that has had 13 loosing seasons in a row, a team that has a rich tradition that is being tarnished by shoddy management and ownership. I have to say that this 2006 season looks promising with a good young pitching staff and at least two big bats in the line up. We may be able to get to .500 this season (baby steps, baby steps).

In any event, having grown up in Pittsburgh I have always rooted to the Bucs in good times and bad and there wasn’t anyone out there doing a podcast like this so I decided to fill the void.

In the first episode I talk about Jason Bay’s new contract, the new additions (and subtractions) on the 40 man roster and the formation of a coaching staff. I hope you enjoy.

Tags: Pirates by aaron
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Well, it took me long enough but I finally was able to take some of the movies from this past year and throw them into iMovie and then pass that over to iDVD and make a DVD of several things that we have on our video camera. I have to say that it was really good to get off my lazy behind and get this done. For any family members that are reading, I hope to shortly upload some of the videos for you to download.

Tags: Family by aaron
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It seems that the security levels are being raised everywhere. Witness the following email that was posted on National Review’s blog The Corner:

The British are feeling the pinch in relation to recent bombings and have raised their security level from “Miffed” to “Peeved.” Soon though, security levels may be raised yet again to “Irritated” or even “A Bit Cross.” Londoners have not been “A Bit Cross” since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies all but ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorised from “Tiresome” to a “Bloody Nuisance.” The last time the British issued a “Bloody Nuisance” warning level was during the great fire of 1666.

Also, the French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from “Run” to “Hide”. The only two higher levels in France are “Surrender” and “Collaborate.” The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France’s white flag factory, effectively paralysing the country’s military capability.

It’s not only the English and French that are on a heightened level of alert. Italy has increased the alert level from “shout loudly and excitedly” to “elaborate military posturing”. Two more levels remain, “ineffective combat operations” and “change sides”.

The Germans also increased their alert state from “disdainful arrogance” to “dress in uniform and sing marching songs”. They also have two higher levels: “invade a neighbour” and “lose”.

Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual and the only threat they worry about is NATO pulling out of Brussels.

Tags: Humor by aaron
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Last week I had an on site meeting with and I ran into a dilemma that I never ran into before. I was told that they didn’t have a projector and can I bring one. Therein lies the rub since I didn’t have a projector. The first thing that I had to do was determine if we really needed to bring a projector. I emailed my contact and asked him how many people would be attending the meeting. We figured that if there were less than 6 we could borrow a monitor and have half see my screen and the other half watch the borrowed monitor. Since we are talking about my luck, my contact replied to me that there will be about 8 people attending.

Now that we have determined that we did indeed need to get a projector, the next question is what kind of projector to buy? After doing some research I decided on the NEC HT510. The reasons that I went with this one was because:

1. It was relatively light at 6.6 lbs
2. Support of the 1024 x 768 screen resolution
3. A carrying case was included
4. there was a $200 rebate

With that decided, I placed the order on Thursday evening with UPS 2 day shipping so I would get the projector the day before the meeting and more importantly have time to test the projector out. Friday night I get an email with the tracking information and keeping with my type A obsessive personality I started tracking the package right away. It didn’t leave the CDW warehouse until Monday which means that I wouldn’t get the projector until Wednesday, the day of the meeting. The big question is, will it arrive on time?

I called my rep over at CDW to find out what the heck happened. He had no clue why it didn’t leave on Friday and would look into into what happened. I told him that it really didn’t matter since CDW lost the company as a client because of this. Especially since I wanted it to go 2 day so I would get the projector on time. (I should interject that because of bad intel, I also complained bitterly to UPS only to find out that I was completely in the wrong.) My CDW rep called me back and told me that they couldn’t get the package to me before Wednesday and if I didn’t get the projector in time I could refuse the package and they would refund the entire purchase. And the kicker was that he was able to get the shipping totally refunded.

Wednesday came and I was a bundle on nerves. Finally I could not wait any longer and I had to go to the meeting without, it seemed, with the projector. I walked down the stairs of the office and started walking ti the car and who should my eyes see but Brown Santa (aka the UPS guy)! I ran over to him to see if he had my package and he did. So I had my projector and while I am in the car, I am there opening the box and getting everything that I need (power cord etc.) into the carrying case.

I wound up getting the sale and the funny thing is that I got an email from my contact this afternoon asking me what projector it was since they now needed to get one.

Things have a funny way of working out.

Tags: Work by aaron
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A deal was reached earlier this week between US and the EU (and the rest of the world) about who would control the Top level domains and the DNS for the internet. The deal allows for the US to retain control and a new body will be created to provide international oversight, which will, of course, will have no binding authority.

I have been able to obtain the minutes of key meeting where this deal was made.

The Minutes Of The Meeting
World: We want to control the internet.
USA: No.
World: Come on!
USA: No.
World: Will you at least think about it?
USA: No.
World: If you don’t we will be forced to make our own DNS systems.
USA: OK.
World: But that will break the internet.
USA: OK
World: But that would be bad.
USA: Then leave it alone.
World: OK. But we’re making a committee.
USA: That’s cute.

Tags: Humor by aaron
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DSL service is back in the Benedict household! I have to say that Verizon was on the ball with their DSL service. Not only did I get service a few days early, it was also pretty simple to get my router working with their PPPoE service. The only thing that I would say is that it’s really designed to be hooked up to one computer since you have to create your username and password when going through the CD based install. The install its self is extremely idiot proof even walking you through installing the filters on your phone lines. Of course the first thing that welcomed me after turning on my trusty Powerbook were several updates to various apps and the OS, totaling 43 MB. It was a joy to download them all.

Tags: Family, Technology by Administrator
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The week back from vacation is always fun and this week was no different. Lots of follow up calls to make and more meetings to be had. Rivky was on vacation as well but she has really taken a liking to school and as soon as she is in the class room, I can leave. This gets me to the office a lot quicker and makes me happy.

I have been trying to get the pictures up using a iPhoto plugin called photon but it seems that I am having a problem with wordpress’ xmlrpc.php file or the way my server was installed. I am not sure which one is the issue but I can’t upload things from client software (e.g. blog posts), I have to log into the site and use the web interface. I guess that I’ll use the gallery for the pictures. If you think you know a solution, please leave a comment.

Tags: Family by Administrator
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there was some downtime, but we are now up again.

Tags: General by aaron
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It looks like the wait for Intel based Mac laptops will be worth it. According to a report from AppleInsider.com, the new iBooks and Powerbooks will be coming out in the middle of 2006 with some new features for both laptop lines.

The iBooks will be doing away with the 12″ iBooks in favor of a 13″ widescreen which should be about the same size except a little wider and not as tall. A wide screen if one of the reasons that I love my 15″ Powerbook (Titanium model) so much. It makes doing things side by side so much easier than a regular square screen. In fact this issue was mentioned in a recent BusinessWeek article, which focused on how widescreen laptops can be and are giving more benefits to office workers as well as consumers. This is something that I have been waiting for. I have wanted to go lighter and have better battery life and was thinking about getting a current model iBook to replace my existing PowerBook. But with these new iBooks coming out shortly, I think that I may wait to make the purchase. And if I can get the new iBook to dual boot into WindowsXP… well the possibilities are mind boggling.

Over on the PowerBook side, things are just as interesting. The first thing is that the new PowerBooks are supposed to be the first Macs out that will be using the Intel chips. Additionally, it seems that Apple will take a page out of the iMac playbook and integrate an iSight into the PowerBook. Not only that but the PBs will be somewhere between 20% and 25% thinner! Finally, on a sad note, my first PowerBook, the 12″ will no longer be sold.

These will be indeed be interesting days for Apple and Mac fans.

Tags: Apple by aaron
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