Donnie Kluck's Blog

July 4th 2009 in da U.P

Well since I had a long weekend off of work and well since Sera has never been to the U.P. (Upper Peninsula) before yet alone knew it existed I figured that it would be a great time to get back to Houghton since graduation 2001 and to show Sera the beautiful landscape up there. Plus it did not hurt that Chris offered his place to crash at as well.
It turned out be a wonderful great trip since I got to see Chris, Katie and Sophia, Barb and Louie were up visiting so we got to be with them as well. And Tim Amerman was up camping with some friends in Copper Harbor so that was an added bonus.

The pictures are arranged in the order that the trip went.
1) 14 hour road trip up that I had to do with my co-pilot, or lack of one 2) Campus tour of MTU
3) Wads changes Front desk area, Old Suites Room and Old Freshman Room
4) Keweenaw Tour - McLain State Park, Eagle River, Eagle Harbor, Brockway Mountain Drive/Scenic Lookout, Copper Harbor and Jay's Cabin Compound/Tower 5) Thumb War Battle 6) Zip line Fun at Jay's compound 7) Sophia Pictures 8) Sunset and Fireworks in Copper Harbor viewed from Jay's tower 9) Pictures of my Audi in da U.P.

Go look at the pictures here at my pictures website: http://blackops.smugmug.com/gallery/8814680_K4NJC#P-1-25

EuroPlate??

Well this is what I did an the reason why I decided to try out a EuroPlate on the front end of my car was to cover the flipping 8 holes that the previous owner has in my front bumper from when they mounted the front license plate holder and state plate.

There are the 4 holes for the plate holder and then when the last owner or dealer decided to secure the state plate to the license plate holder they decided it would be smart and wise to use too long of screws. So they screwed through the license plate holder and the ends/tips screwed into the bumper partly.

So I have 4 complete holes from when they secured the license plate holder to bumper and the 4 tiny holes/dimples from the other screws. I was like you got to be kidding me.

So that is my reasoning why putting it on, I have also considered some bumper plugs (www.bumperplugs.com) but not sure I want to go that route right now. Since I would have to drill out the holes a little bit to put the plugs. I may consider it though.

Well this is what it looks like and well figured I would see what you thought. I do like the bumper naked though just not with those holes on it.

Diego is the name for my late pup, Diego von Tommy Ranch. I miss my pup. I also got another plate that says Blackops, which many of you know is another one of my many nicknames.

You can see the full size pictures here at my pictures website

http://blackops.smugmug.com/gallery/8471446_qa86J/#557003629_zBEai

Donnie

FW: Plasti-Dipping Rear Bumper Trim

Well I decided to black out the rear chrome bumper trim over the last couple days.

I do have to say that I think it looks a lot better now blacked out instead of having the chrome piece which seemed out of place. Since it was the only piece of chrome on the car other than the outer trim on the front grill.

Nothing like a good ole cheap way of doing it with a $5 can of Plasti-Dip from Lowes and some time in a non ventilated apartment...wonder what was worse this or my smores inside the apartment.

The nice thing about it is if you don't like it you can cut into it with a knife and peel it all off and be back to stock chrome in a matter of minutes. I had to do it once since stupid pollen and dandelions debris kept blowing onto it when it was outside on the balcony..thus why I moved inside.

More pictures here http://blackops.smugmug.com/gallery/8422122_dFoYi#553218685_XPyJa

Later

Part Deux – How ones goes about making smores without a campfire!

Ok what could be a better way to celebrate the Wings winning game #2……that’s right Smores Celebration!

So based on my AAR feedback I came to the following conclusions

1 ) I am a Nut

2) I am funny

3) Typical Donnie

4) Plastic not a good choice for a skewer, Metal chopstick would have been a better route

5) I was not violating any Theater Policy by having an open flame in my Apartment and not in a CHU.

6) I could wait till the next Memorial Camping Weekend to show Sera how to really cook a smore….nope way to long of a wait.

7) Could broil it in the oven, but where is the fun in that and how could I get my webcam to take pictures.

8.) I am a funny nut but people still love me.

Based on those findings I was hungry again and looking for something. I had to find some better contraption to use for a holding device.

1) Finding the correct hardware – First though the ends of the scissors and was like no I need to use those later on, a metal pen casing, my good ole multipurpose letterman but then I found the saving grace. A metal paperclip on my desk, BINGO that was the golden child.

2) Preparing the Main Course – This time I was determined to get more than 2 smores out of this and thought I would set a plate of 4 at least.

3) Construction of the Hardware Is Critical – man this was looking better already with it being metal.

4) Man Two and Once – You know what I could do two at once here, and you know what I am going to do just that.

5) Fire up the godly fire – Starting to burn the marshmallows I can already taste them….my mouth is watering already.

6) Burn baby Burn – Got to burn them, well one thing is they seem to turn a lot more on a wire metal paperclip. Made it hard to burn it all completely.

7) Metal vs Plastic – By gosh it stood up and did not metal into my food this time. GOLDEN and Money in the Bank!

Hmmm Hmmm Good – enjoying the Wings victory and also enjoying the smores

And many thought that it was done after the first try. Well think again you don’t know the persistent Donnie.

I totally rule and well shacka laaka!

How ones goes about making smores without a campfire!

Ok so I had a craving the other day when I was out grocery shopping and the other day on Memorial Weekend. I wanted smores, and low and behold I caved when I saw the smores setup at the end of the aisle way in the groceries. Well luckily I did not go over my $40 spending limit so I was able to get the items 1) Hersey Chocolate Bars, 2) Bag of marshmallows and 3) Graham crackers.

However I had to go about figuring out how I was going to make them since 1) I don’t have a microwave, 2) I have an electric stove and range and 3) I was not going to use diesel gas like one of my buddies suggested.

So I got a lighter….oh we are so close now I can taste it.

Next was actually going through the steps to my wonderful smore blissful made heaven

1 ) Preparation is key – had to put that fork in there and setup my webcam so I could take pictures.

2) Burning Marshmallows to a charred crisp – the only true way to cook a marshmallow.

3) Devouring your prize…..hmmmmm, hmmmmm, good and repeating

4) Didn’t think that through completely…..note don’t use a plastic fork.

Yeah well I probably should not have used a plastic fork at all, that is part of my AAR for next time.

Either way my 2 smores was good and I decided to stop since I was filling my apartment full of smoke.

But man they were good and learned some good pointers for next time.

Yup I know what you are thinking….typical Donnie….but that is why you all so love me so much :oP

Follow Me On Twitter

Man oh man I just recently got a twitter account and it is pretty cool and I like it.
A lot easier than blogging since I only have 141 characters to utilize and I love being able to follow my friends, some news feeds and tech blogs and some famous people i.e. Lance Armstrong.

It is cool and well why not come and follow me

Come Follow Me On Twitter

The top 10 things we hate about the BlackBerry

The top 10 things we hate about the Blackberry (curtsy of David Letterman and The Boy Genius)

The top 10 things we hate about the BlackBerry

We gave you our iPhone list, and while this probably has many more minor annoyances than actual feature omissions, we still thought it would be fun to put a list of our gripes together. Some of these might be device-specific, but you'll get a general feel for the direction we're going and why these things piss us off to no end.

1. The ridiculous limit on file sizes when downloading from the browser. Look, if I want to download a friggin' video file, let me.

2. Attachments are pretty bad and it has to do with RIM's ever-so-sneaky compression. We've heard that when data is sent over their network, it literally can take a 100kb file and compress it to around 7kb. (A carrier's dream). Just let us get the entire file without having to constantly wait for it to render when we zoom it, etc.

3. Specifically speaking for the Bold, the "R" shortcut key no longer takes you to the Alarm. This pains me.

4. Actually, about shortcuts… for a product that excels on making your life easier and offering up a ton of user-customization, there is no reason we shouldn't be able to program our own shortcut keys. If I want the letter "B" to take me to the Memo Pad, then let me do it damn it. I'm tired of being stuck at the mercy of RIM's shortcut key assignment. They make no sense and they are hardly integrated in 3rd party applications.

5. When you get a pop-up menu, there are no boundaries to where you can scroll. Let's use one of the Application Permissions screens. Why am I allowed to scroll above "Yes" and below "No"? There are only two options yet it seems as if you could scroll to China before selecting one of them.

6. Horrible APIs that developers can't access. If RIM opened these up, we'd have a much better set of applications on there than we do now. I'm not sure anyone can say 3rd party apps are one of BlackBerry's strengths.

6 and a 1/2. One of the reasons the OS is so bad at times is because of the nature of the device — security. We know this is why over 50,000 of them are deployed across the U.S. Government for instance, but look, RIM either needs to deploy a consumer brand or find a way to make this work. Security is great and all, but stick to what you know. You're either the businessman's savior or the tween's IM machine. It's incredibly difficult to be both. Don't try and conquer the music industry or take on Apple's App Store. It won't work and you're diverting precious resources away from other serious projects.

7. Build quality has been declining. That's not to say there aren't some BlackBerrys that will last forever, but from personal experience, every device since the Bold has suffered countless production issues and problems. (Anyone get the screen freak out on their Bolds? I bet you have.) I'd be interested in seeing the average lifespan of a BlackBerry now compared to two years ago. I think it would be shocking.

8. When sending an email with a local file attachment, show me the status! I want to watch it go from 1%-100%! It comforts me.

9. Desktop Manager shouldn't take forever to update the operating system. I think it's fair to say RIM has the longest OS update time in the biz.

10. Stop with the "More" crap. Let me get the entire email message when I want it. Also let HTML emails load external images automatically. Yes, yes, we know. It's for security. But you know what, if I want to venture out on a limb and *gasp* download external .jpgs automatically, let me!

#11 for iPhone from my buddy Jeremy

And one a buddy sent to me and I am sure all you iPhone users out there can contest to this and appreciate.....

11. You can't get multimedia text messages! More a part of AT&T but since they're the only ones with the iPhone I don't know if the iPhone can do it!! They send u a site online to download your message... Bs!!!

The top 10 things we hate about the iPhone

Funny....Letterman's Top 10.
Yes Bold coming next.....

The top 10 things we hate about the iPhone (curtsy of David Letterman and The Boy Genius)

Look, we love our iPhones as much as the person, but at this late point in the game, there are some things that are just inexcusable. Here’s our top 10 things we hate about the iPhone, and we’ll post up our top 10 things we hate about the Bold later on. Feel free to chime in with your own! Also note that we’re talking about the iPhone in its default state, not a jailbreaked unit. Here’s our list in no particular order:

1. You can’t use custom sounds for email notifications, SMS, etc.

2. Copy and paste. Sorry, but it’s ridiculous at this point.

3. When forwarding an email with an attachment, the iPhone sends it out locally. That means if you have a 1MB attachment, you have to send 1MB worth of data when forwarding. This doesn’t happen on Windows Mobile or the BlackBerry — it’s sent from the server. Not cool.

4. No unified inbox. At this point, there’s no reason you should have to go through the rigmarole of switching through tabs and endless menus to get to another email inbox. Cut this down, give us color-coded emails that correspond with that particular account — something!

5. Video recording. Again, it’s technically possible, but we don’t have it.

6. The touch screen capture button in the Camera application is horrid. Let’s use one of the volume keys or something to take a picture. It’s not a good setup.

7. You can’t forward text messages. Something that is a no-brainer just isn’t here.

8. There isn’t a way to delete individual calls from the recent call list. Not that we need to hide anything from our girlfriends or anything…

9. No file structure that is user-accessible. That means you can’t save any attachment that isn’t a photo, you can’t download files from websites, etc. Additionally, each application can only access its own file structure so you can forget about doing anything sexy.

10. The push-background notification service is still nowhere to be found.

Now this is a funny conversation I am hearing at lunch.

Now this is a funny conversation I am hearing at lunch. As I was the presidential parade. The presidential limo can stop a tank shell and land mines. Look at windshield flat can stop everything Up to just short of a F18 stinger missile. Man talk about not having a clue at all.

I just wanted to fall out of my chair in laughter.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry