Bored...

Well, I did a lot of personal errands today all with the idea that I was going to pick up a back pack and head out to some foreign country.  Now, I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do.  If I can make it back before the store closes tonight (which I doubt b/c I'm headed to the gym) then we'll see what tomorrow has in store for me.  Oh yeah, that's another story too, going to the gym?  I mean, you guys know me well enough that it's only every once in a blue moon that I head out.  I should have gone home and gone surfing or something.  Hopefully when the fam moves back to San Diego, it'll make commuting that much easier. 

Oh yeah, I also go to take the hardtop off Kristi today and ride around town.  It was fun!  trelijah: "Day Off"

Nuff said...for now

Flight of the Conchords - Two Free Songs / 1400 Wake-Up to Shaved Head =(

Two of the funniest songs from New Zealand's underground indie/rock band, Flight of the Conchords, are being made available for FREE. Made famous by their HBO show, get it today while you can off of CNET's Free Music MP3 Downloads website. There are actually two songs available: Ladies of the World and Business Time. Both are hilarious tunes to listen to while just relaxing and hanging out. Oh yeah, I also went to bed early last night and with little interruption didn't get out of bed till 1400. I have no idea what I was on (water and some awesome Indian food) but I passed out! I'm finally up and about, but now I'm all behind on my chores and errands. Maybe it's because of my new haircut and my subconscious thought that by getting more sleep that it would grow faster? I don't know, but just maybe huh? Of course I barely had time to write this up, so, just follow up on the top with updates from Twitter or to the side link to trelijah for instant pictorial gratification. Here is an awesome music video too to accompany the Ladies of the World MP3.

Direct Link for Flight of the Conchords

Self Importance and the Pollution of I (part 1)

I had the beauty and privilege to witness the definition of "ego" during the last few months whether it was through me and my own thoughts and actions or through others.  These observations all stemming from examples of negativity and positivity both creating a better understanding of how it is to create a life of simplicity and minimalism. 

There are just too many examples to choose from but in general there are three things that I would recommend in order to achieve a lighter heart.  1) Everyday, make sure when you get angry at someone, ask yourself if it is even logical, unselfish, and why.  It definitely adds a tremendous amount of perspective to one's argument and being upset.  I've always suggested that stepping back and looking at the scenario from some else's viewpoint is the best thing to do.  If you look stupid, then change it up...become a better person.  2) Make sure the words that you speak, actions you show and try to accomplish not necessarily just benefit you but the others around you too.  There are many reasons why we do things but at the same time, we can kill two birds in one stone.  I'm all about making others happy and still believe that making other happy first create the realm in which your personal happiness and joy can be achieved.  And lastly, 3) Stay positive.  Just on physical aspects alone, it's harder to frown and stresses more muscles to be angry than to just smile.  When you do, as my dad always told me, "Son, don't just smile with your teeth, but use your eyes too."  It's works and even spreads like wild fire.  =)  Even chemically, your body enjoys the happy side of things.  You lower your blood pressure, ease the overall stress you induce on yourself and create a happier aura.  Surround yourself with it!

I really don't like to get into examples because pointing things out just means that you have 20/20 hindsight.  Besides making people bicker more isn't what I want to accomplish.  So, this ends part 1. 

Remember, make sure you take a step back, look at yourself and observe your actions through someone else (the act of being selfless) and make sure that you don't look like...oh forget it already...as ASS you fool!  There I just said it!  Grow up and get with the program of life.  We are here to all benefit from each other and learn, so forgive, don't forget and just have fun!!!  Try surfing or something outdoorsy, but for geez sake, leave the house already and be fun!  I know that your definitely might not be the same as mine, but interacting with the outside world instead of always being engrossed in your own makes you a more diverse individual.  We make the world and grow together.  Not just you.  AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

p.s. the Pollution of I is borrowed from the full title, "Against the Pollution of the I (Paperback) by Jacques Lusseyran.  Read it as it is truly "eye opening."

trelijah link and April Schedule

Two new things to the site:  1) I have received my final schedule for April and just posted the results accordingly.  (http://www.elijahnicolas.com/wp/img/08Apr.jpg) and 2) Even though I have been updating my mobile blog, I never posted a direct link to it when I migrated from Blogger to WordPress.  Why?  I left it out because I was trying to just integrate the uploading of pictures here on the main page and gave up.  So, instead of having one page, I'm forced to have two again, one with pictures from my Treo 755p which can get updated readily and one that has the rest of the story.  I'm sitting at Barnes and Nobles in Mira Mesa studying on some Federal Aviation Regulations and reading the Aeronautical Information Manual like a good pilot should do everyone now and then when I ran into a high school friend whom I haven't seen since.  Who would have thought?  =)  But she gave me a book entitled: The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn.  Summarizing it in one sentence, it describes the secret of joyful giving.  (that's what the cover says anyways)  I just started reading it and will tell you how it goes in the next few logs. 

Onto tonight event:  A friend of mine and his girlfriend is coming to meet up with me, so in order to expand my table of 2, I asked a gentleman if I may borrow his chair and he straight-up said no.  At first I thought that he was kidding but then he went ahead and said "F88K off!"  I was a little dumbfounded and shocked by his response but then a kinder younger man immediately offered his.  He too was shocked as I found out later when he approached me and asked if what he heard was the same thing.  He's still sitting just one table to my left diagonal with a face as red as a tomato and an empty chair across from him.  He also denied another female asking if they can use the empty chair, but he left out the obscenity.  I hope that the guy has a good rest of night and that his troubles don't get him into any situation.  I'm just shocked at the response you know?  He's also reading a hooters magazine and some other guys magazines perusing through the pictures.  

Here he is!  It's the guy in the blue jacket.  Do you know him?

Interesting Tidbits

Surfing around the web today, I came across a couple of interesting sites. 

Health: Avoid These 9 Worst Food in America by Lifehacker

It's always just interesting to read about the various foods that are out on the market.  One of my friends recommended that I check out the Men's Health's website that is dedicated to what to eat and what not to eat conveniently called, "Eat This, Not That!"  It has quite a few interesting comparisons.  One that I was a little shocked by was the listing of 15 Secret Restaurant Swaps where they compared the McDonald's Big Mac to the Burger King Whopped with Cheese.  Guess what?  You're better off eating at McDonald's.  (I'm not sure if that's with or without the secret sauce but if you are trying to lose some weight, I'm sure that you are better off without it.)  Oh yeah, Chick-fil-A was the only A+ on their list of fast food chains being that they don't have any one sandwich cross the 500 calorie mark.  That's of course if you don't add on the awesome tasting special honey BBQ sauce on top of your Chargrilled Chicken Club with bacon included...my personal favorite!

Another neat thing that I found after getting annoyed by not being able to read the Wall Street Articles in their entirety was a Firefox add-on that enables you to spoof a website such as digg.com.  Directions and more details can be found at the link provided below.  Now, I'm able to peruse the WSJ without having to pay!!!   I just cut and pasted the directions here.  You could just also skip it and go directly the the link below for the full article. 

Remember that the Journal is set up to disarm its pay gate if it thinks you're coming from Google News or Digg. In order to get free access, then, you've got to convince the Journal that you've clicked on a link on one of those sites. How to do that?

The technical name for this is "referer spoofing" (with the misspelling). Spoofing is an easy thing to pull off in Firefox -- all you've got to do is download this add-on, refspoof.

Now follow these steps:

• Go to WSJ.com.
• In the refspoof toolbar's "spoof:" field, type "digg.com."
• Also in the refspoof toolbar, click the R icon, and select "static referrer."
• That's it. Click around the site; the WSJ thinks each click is coming from Digg. The WSJ is now yours for free!

Here's the link that I promised if you want to read the whole article. 

The Wall Street Journal's Web site is already (secretly) free by Machinist at Salon.com

Leave a comment below on what are some of your interesting sites for the day!

St. Patti's Day 10K!!!

Well, I'm sitting here sore as heck still, barely able to walk after once again forgoing any form of training prior to running this past weekend's 10K around Fiesta Island in San Diego.  It was even better this time around as I got to run it with my girlfriend and of course, she did a better job in preparing and it paid off...she beat me by 1.5 minutes and also beat my previous 10K first try by 8 seconds!!!

Here is a picture of Adelle and I before the race at 7:00AM just hanging out with our times.  I really suck but of course I just really haven't felt like running more than I need to especially after I touchdown in some random city and am forced to run on a treadmill.

NY, NY

 Back up here again com mi amiga Adelle with the agenda of touring the Columbia University School of Nursing.   We opted to take the M60 Bus Line for La Guardia which was only $2 followed by the subway to 42nd and Times.  We only spent $8.00 total on transportation from the airport compared to $55 the last time we came here.  It's just awesome once you get some confidence to roll around the public bus system. 

With a modestly priced hotel room, for NYC standards won on Priceline.com and tactics from BiddingForTravel.com, we had a great one night stay that the Millennium Broadway Hotel.   It was prime location for the Time Square night life being located on 145 West 44th Street.   We even got upgraded to a superior room on the 50th floor which was pretty nice.  It had a flat screen and everything but of course, we only were there to sleep.  Just like all the other hotels that I've been staying at really without the luxury tag; same bed, shower, bathroom kits but of course I had Adelle with me. 

We ventured around the city quite a bit first heading off to the reservation that I had made at the Rock Center Cafe coupled with the Skate-A-Date Promotion.  Basically for $75, a couple is entitled to two skate rentals and a two course meal.  We even met a nice filipina who waited on us and offered her assistance to Adelle in trying to find a place.  We had a good time ice skating as it was only my second time on ice and just enjoyed the ambiance.  I fell once being really aggressive and trying to skate as fast as I can.  It was a bad fall either, but I fell.  Good times here in NYC when the weather is cooperating.  Here are some pix from the night.  

 

Oh yeah, the meal at the Rock Center Cafe on a scale of 1-10 are as follows:  Appetizer - 6 [Humus and Pita with Lamb was just too salty and didn't taste that great really.  It wasn't like you could keep eating it.  Not recommend / I had the soup and it was pretty good, but not anything that I don't think I couldn't make.  That's saying a lot]  Main Course - 8 [Here is where the restaurant revitalized itself.  The Sirloin that Adelle had was great along with some steak fries.  I had a Salmon and that was just alright really.]  Bottled Water - 10 [AWESOME]  The service was great though which made up for a lot.  But, the fact that the whole package including skating which was a retailed at $18.00 per person -->  $36 for the both of us, the whole "experience" was just worth while. 

Now back to Atlanta this evening for some exciting times!

The 3 Days Prior to the Bimmer Dying...

I really got to enjoy driving the machine all over Atlanta with one of my good friends from San Diego, Greg.  I finished a trip on Wednesday and I picked him at the airport once I landed from finishing up a four day.  At first, we were planning to head out to either Cancun, Belize, or somewhere random, but after deciding that it would be much more economical to just hang out in Atlanta, we did just that. 

The following morning, we woke up rather late, but planned to just roam around Atlanta.  Had some breakfast, hung out till lunch and just discussed our alternative Atlanta vacation.  Nothing really too much besides go out and hit the local bars, eat at different Atlanta restaurants, hit up the sights and that's about it.  We ate at Five Guys which proved to have some great tasting hamburgers and fries seasoned with Cajun spices.  Definitely a little more on the expensive side of things but if you consider that their patties are almost a 1/4 pound each and that the regular hamburger has two of these, its not that bad.  We roamed around a little more until it was time to watch the Atlanta Thrashers play against the New York Islanders (NHL). The game was pretty exciting as both teams scored a lot of points (8 total + one in overtime) and then hit up Buckhead.  To make that long story even shorter, we went to one bar where I was going to meet up with a friend but he wasn't there, so after a while we went to Moondogs where we met some random Filipinos who ended up having ties to some of our friends from high school!  Small world, but it was cool to see some friends with connections as it always proves that it really is a small world.  That was Thursday. 

Friday included us waking up late again, hitting up Shane's Ribshack and then hiking up Stone Mountain.  That was the highlight there really as we just burnt the time at Barnes and Nobles and driving around even more.  Saturday was a chill day trying to eat at the The Flying Biscuit Cafe.  We had to go to 2 of them finally reaching the second and still having to wait about 20 minutes in line.  Still good times though. 

We played a little bit of some Pixel Junk Monsters on PS3 and called it night.  Oh yeah, I also forgot to mention that I leveled up a female Blood Elf Paladin to level 3 almost reaching to 4 on World of Warcraft and that's when I threw in the towel. 

Now I'm on a 4 day trip just wondering what the heck I'm going to do with my car and everything else in the next few days.  Oh the joys. 

There Goes the Bimmer

i was driving around Atlanta today on my way to downtown when I felt the need to turn on the air conditioner for the first time in 2 months.  Everything was going all good (so I thought) until my "CHECK" light came on, I looked up and low and behold, it said "COOLANT." 

I watched the temperature gauge start to increase a little bit so I instantly shut down the A/C, stopped the fan, turned off the radio and just tried to do what I could.  I was driving on backroads for a little bit but I reached my destination and hung out for an hour or two.  When I got out of the car though, my car was leaking coolant explosively.  It was just all over the parking spot. 

To make a long story short, I then again headed off to work, but stopped as a gas station along the way, bought some 50/50 mix (2 bottles just in case), poured one of the bottles in the reservoir, took off and a little while later, my temp gauge spiked to red, then passed red. 

I couldn't wait any longer, and just continued to drive to work so that I wouldn't be late.  By the time I got to the parking lot, I had been running with the temp needle past the red (I mean like at the 3:00 position) an the car started making funny noises like clicking by the time I reached the employee lot.  Now, its just sitting there as I'm away for 4 days, and I plan on having it towed somewhere --> maybe the stealership because I don't know of any good mechs in the ATL area.  (Any help there anyone?) 

So, what damage could I have done driving for 20 miles with the temp gauge pinged at 3:00 and what else should I look for?  These pictures and the engine itself I could not really take a close look because of the time constraint, but to tell you the truth, I'm afraid.  It seems like it's going to cost a pretty penny. 

March Schedule

I just uploaded my schedule for March and if you take a look at it, I'm going to have quite a few days off in a row.  I'm looking at even making it a little bit longer with a few swaps here and there.  I'm still getting some flight hours in too along with a good pay credit.  It isn't that great, but at least I'm not losing out on too much. 

If you are wondering what I'm going to be doing for vacation, I'm actually going to be running a 10K in San Diego on the 15th followed by Spring Break with Adelle to who knows here.  The following week, I'm left to believe that I'll just be wandering around the world maybe in Asia if I'm up to the long flights.  We'll see.  Anyone going to be around?

4 Days of Training Over!

It's been a crazy two weeks of training here at ASA.  While celebrating my first year anniversary at my first official flying job, I knew that it would be time to undergo what every pilot goes through at least once every year for the rest of his career.  It was just the beginning and I have to admit that it wasn't even that bad. 

For many of the those who do not know, all pilots throughout the airline industry undergo what's called Recurrent Ground Training and Proficiency Checks at least once every year with another type of training every 6 months ranging from Line Oriented Flight Training (LOFTs) or Line Checks once you're a captain.  What does this all mean?  Our job is on the line every year as we need to pass all these tests or risk having to go back through training.  We also have to maintain first class medical which entails routine doctor visit every 6 months.  All this with only making $19K my first year.  I'm looking forward to making $30K now baby!!!

Now, I have one day off followed by a two day trip, then I'm off for three days.  I think that might work on my taxes or something.  I also have A LOT of filing to do as all my mail piled up over the last 6 months. 

I'll be posting my March schedule shortly and I'm off for 20 days!!!  I have 17 days straight but of course, one of those weeks is Adelle's spring break so we're going to try to find something to do.  Either hang out around the US or maybe even head out to Europe or South America.  I have no idea yet.  Traveling is just so expensive these days with how much the dollar has fallen.  It's going to be an awesome month of March!!!

Qumana - Free Offline Blog Editor for Mac OSX or Windows

I've been using Windows Live Writer for quite a while now and have been completely satisfied.  I'm able to write when I'm traveling back and forth from San Diego but I wasn't really into bringing along my Powerbook until now.  Of course, that posed one problem. Being only available for Windows, I had to find a Free Offline Blog Editor for Mac and stumbled onto Qumana.  It's quite basic, and offers all the necessities for WYSIWYG editing.  It's GUI is simple and its just as easy as using Windows Live Writer.  The only draw back that I've found annoying is how slow the spell check runs, but so far, with writing 2 simply posts, I haven't had an issue.  Check it out!!!

It also has an "Insert Ad" button which I'm going to play around with.  Seems fun.  There it is down below.  It's cool, but I don't think that I'm going to really use it that much.

Powered by Qumana

edit: renamed qumana.com link to reflect the .htm to .php // thanks Mr. Christian Biggins

Two Weeks

It's been about two weeks since my last post and that's due to the overwhelming amount of studying that I've been having to do for my proficiency check.  Of course that went well as I'm still flying happily on the line.  I also went back to San Diego to hang out with Adelle where we watched Jumper and Definitely, Maybe. 

I liked them both as Jumper was a different kind of theory that I really haven't been exposed and found the concept interesting.  They definitely left it open for a sequel which I may or may not see.  Definitely, Maybe was just an all around feel good movie but it's not something that you can go watch over and over again.  It was a little too predictable but still romantic. 

I'm back in Atlanta for 4 days of 8-hour a day class work that's called Recurrent Ground Training.  Both the PC and RGT happens once a year at most airlines and its my turn!  It's kind of crazy as it all puts it in perspective that we are really celebrating our one year anniversary here in Atlanta. 

There are quite a bit of merger rumors lately and we have no idea how its going to affect anyone, but I just hope that people come out of both sides with smiles and hope.  It's such a negative industry that anything can just trigger a mud slide of emotion and disgruntle-ness.  Oh well...

I haven't been able to write lately either for PhoneNews.com due to the fact that my hotels that I've been staying in are charging for Internet service!  It's an outrage!  I thought that it would be easy to write more articles this year, but its only getting harder as my work times are more sporadic and just with all these qualifying events happening, it doesn't look good.  Let's see what kind of news I can dig up.  There's been a lot for sure like all the unlimited plans that all the main carriers have released!  It's about time a price war starts in the mobile phone industry.