TimsBlog

I’ve dedicated time and effort to rid myself of time constrains and ads when it comes to how I watch TV programming. I wanted to view it when I wanted to watch it and without ads 30% of my viewing time. It wasn’t hard really. A little Google searching and a bit of refining my process was all it took. I wake up check my RSS feeds and within three clicks I have something coming down the pipe to watch. I could wait four hours from the original air time or years after it has been canceled. One show at a time or multiple seasons in one download. It was never about money or stealing it was about choice and freedom.

I’m starting to see the irony in all this. I found out tonight that Rome on HBO just started its second season over 2 weeks ago. That kills me since I should have seen it on the torrent sites and didn’t. I need a better method.

I have no idea when a good show premieres or a new season starts. Fall is not the only time shows start up and summer is not the only time reruns run ramped anymore. Without the bombardment of clips promoting the channels shows I have no idea when shows are airing. I have a rough idea from my feeds and monitoring the torrent sites. I am finding less and less time to watch all the torrent sites. I now need to find a end all site that is dedicated to TV. A site that will shower me with the weeks shows completely by channel. I’ve been to the old favorite’s tvguide.com and the likes. It’s just not set up for this new form of distribution or my contrived form of watching.  I’m sure it’s out there. I just need to look.

When I read the headline that come over my new feeds that Shawn Hornbeck family was going to be on Oprah it made me feel uneasy. My phone rang and I immediately told them what I just read and said I’m not sure how to feel about this. I was thinking payday for the family. It starts with Oprah and then your shopping for a movie deal.

You can use the “awareness” argument all you want, but that doesn’t address the bigger issue. Children have no rights in this country. I’m not going to debate if this is right or wrong. We protect children passionately in this county and should. Then turn around and let parents go on Oprah without even letting the child decide if he wants to be exposed to the world. If Shawn wanted to be on Oprah or not its still true that he couldn’t stop his parents from going on and talking about his life. Alot of civil rights do not kick in till your 18.

I was listening to the Howard Stern show today and they were talking about his same subject. This is the only reason I am even sharing my opinion. It sort of validates my feelings. I intentionally stay away from opinionated news. I like to get straight news from news feeds. I’m not into the social and ethical debates anymore. My feelings on social and ethical issues are reflected in a quote from a movie I watched just last night. “I used to want to change the world. Now I just want to leave the room with some my dignity left”

I got a phone call this afternoon from the visa service that sent off for my Visa to Brazil. They said that I ran into a problem. I was told to write a detailed letter with my itinerary while in Brazil. I only put about 2 lines down in the application and I guess it really didn’t justify my 88 day stay. I wrote this out and had it faxed to them. I think they should be satisfied. I swear if you want to learn to write better blogging on a regular basis helps alot.

Timothy Scott Smith

Being a fellow American I have always wanted to travel to South America. I choose Brazil for its many natural offerings. I felt that Brazil would make the best choice of all the South American countries to visits. I have been told that Brazil has great cities and beautiful countryside. My goal is to expand my knowledge of culture and landscape.

My itinerary for my travel to Brazil includes the following. I want to start off by spending 2 weeks in Sao Paulo. While in Sao Paulo I want to plan and book a trip on the Amazon. I would like to spend a few weeks on the river. I would like to find a guide in Cuiaba to explore the vast Pantanal for another few weeks. I would also like to see Iguazu Falls

From there I would also like to visit Salvador. The rich history of the town has fascinated me. I would want to stay here for a minimum of one week maybe two weeks.

I would like to finish my trip with 2 weeks in Rio de Janeiro. Since I will be flying in and out of Sao Paulo I just couldn’t leave Brazil without experiencing Rio de Janeiro. Whatever time I have left I would spend again in Sao Paulo preparing for my trip home.

I have made no reservations with any resort, hotel, or guides for my trips outside of Sao Paulo. My reasons for this are simply because I want to have a free schedule while in Brazil.  I have gone to great lengths to clear my work schedule to allow for 3 months of vacation. I would like to be able to relax and not rush from one destination to another. If I find myself enjoying one of the many stops in Brazil I would like the option to stay in that place longer. This would also apply to the opposite. If I feel I have enjoyed myself enough in one location I want to be free to move on to the next travel location.

Man I would have been scared to death if I was 5 and seen this in person. 200 Strom Troopers marching in this years Rose Parade.

Heres my favorite behind the scenes pic

You can check the whole set out over here at flickr

As part of my new business opportunity I will be provided with a 15 inch Macbook Pro. Will I become a mac snob? Maybe, time will tell. Heres the full specs on them at apple.com

I wanted a 12 inch one since they are smaller and lighter. I was told that 12 inches is really hard to edit video with in final cut. Its new to me. I’ve have not done much video editing, but would imagine you would want two monitors and one of them being 12 inchs would suck. Especially when the other ones twice that size. I know after using my 24 inch LCD desktop monitor I could never run photoshop on anything smaller and be happy about it. Matter of fact I bet there would be alot of cussing.

One of the other nice things is i can now leave my desktop Pc at home when I leave. One less heavy huge thing to pack and/or break.

They are slick, just too expensive.

I hate being reminded about taxes this early. I’ve been getting emails from H&R about taxes for a month or so. I just broke down and found the torrent for the tax program. At least this year I’m not going to have to download 3 versions before I get the right one. I started with the basic one and after getting halfway done it told me hey you might want the deluxe version. Then again same thing half way done and it says hey you might want the home and business version. Good thing I didn’ have to buy all those versions.

The only satisfying thing about paying taxes for me is being able to write off the tax software that I pirated. ARGH! Then that fades when they charge me to efile. I mean come on I’m making it cheaper and easier for them to process and that costs ME more to do? They get you on both ends. They get a 3rd party to loan you the money if you are getting money back. (rapid refund) Then when you owe them they charge for paying by credit card with a 3rd party processor.

Click Here for the large version. It shows the graffiti better. The roof defiantly had something interesting going on a long time ago.

God knows how many of my pictures are hotlinks and used on the web. I know that I get a fair share of internal flickr email asking permission to use them. There was one user that had photographed a ton of local fire stations in St Louis. I suggested to him that he map them with the flickr map feature. He did map them and it is an amazing use of flickr. Heres the map. I know not many people will appreciate the effort and time put into something like that, but its just amazes me that you can now see local firehouse in your surrounding neighborhood on a map with user shoot photos.

Then there is a guy named Andy Wissman. A Local St Louis Skater I added to my contacts a while ago. He commented on one of my pics saying he skated the spot in one of my pics for 2 hours. I had it mapped on Flickr so anyone interested could find skate the spot. Hes the pic he posted. I only wish he mapped his skate spots. I understand that not every skater wants to unviel his special skate spots. Thats just something that goes back to the beginning of skateboarding. It starts off as juvenile territorial thing but also has a little to do with not ruining the spot as far as making it a bust and getting kicked out. Still I would like to think he enjoyed a skate spot from participating on flickr.

On a side note I’ve been wanting for years to make a site that lists skate spots in town giving a description, a photo, and a map to the location. I rounded up enough scripts to do the site. I really got excited when google maps hit the scene since it would make mapping them easy with google map API. I might at some point do it. It would just take time and effort. Flickr would make it real easy. I could just make a sets by location (north, east, south, west, ect.) Or make a group and let everyone contribute. Which was my goal in the first place. Non profit of course it would be a labor of love.
I guess what I’m getting at here is Flickr is a very adult place. I read all the time that Flickrs core age group is 25 to 35. It really shows. he is a conversation between someone that used my Vans shoe photo on his blog. When I went to the site it was a blog with shoe photos and a referral link to a site that sells shoes. The link has his affiliate code in it so he makes a commission on the sale. Basically the same thing I do but in what they call “mainstream”market (non adult) I was expecting no reply. I was shocked to get an honest response. See folks the internet is not just for porn. Its not filled with lowlife cowards flaming everyone they cross on the internet. Some of us know its the future in social and educational needs. If yo stay away form the myspaces of the internet you might actually grow and learn something.

So I was at Walmart getting my eye examine. Yeah Yeah I know what the fuck am I doing in a walmart after blasting them many times before. They scheduled me in thats way.  I was pissed at my other eye doctor anyways. Ok so I headed to electronics and asked the guy to unlock me a shuffle. I said “I need a shuffle”. He said “Shovels are in garden” I gave him an evil 3 or 4 second stare then replied “I said shuffle, I’m not that retarded” He proceeded to give me the sales pitch on the video ipod and then some cheap piece of shit MP3 player. I told him ” I don’t care what your title is, but right now your on register. You want to ring my shit up”
I had to have something to listen to on the plane. Two problems out of the box. One I had it filled before I reached the E’s. I was just picking some stuff from my music collection, not adding all my shit. Two I can only fit about 130 songs on it instead of 250. The reason is that most of my music is higher fidelity than the 128 bitrate standard of most shit today that you buy at the itunes store. So I had to spend the extra time converting them all down to 128. Mind you on ear buds its not that relevant, but still. I mean I’m no audiophile. I have no 10,000 stereo or even a $1000 on for that matter. I’m just a little picky when it comes to regression. Especially when its progressing in one direction and regressing in another. This is digital shit man. I would expect lower quality from a mix tape not a digital MP3 player. I’ll be doing another thing I said I’d never do. Wear ear buds. They are so bad for your ears. Sound like shit compared to a full headphone also.

Was reading this on http://www.travel.state.gov

on January 1, 2004 the Government of Brazil began fingerprinting/photographing all U.S. citizens arriving in Brazil. In the first six weeks of 2004, two U.S. citizens were fined (an average $15,000 each) for making obscene gestures while being photographed at a Brazilian port of entry.

Mr Rogers wanted us to make personal copy’s of things that are broadcasted. I love PBS.

Read more here

EDITED: The site mentioned has now restricted my account after downloading two movies. Reason was I did not upload enough of the movies back to the community. After all it is called sharing. MY problem is I was uploading it at least 15 hours a day for the last week. After explaining myself to the admin that restricted my account his answer was “Get a faster line asshole” I have the second fastest line in the USA for consumers! Fuck you guys. My ratio on other private trackers are just fine and they appreciate the effort I make to share.
I found one. ITs called BIT-HDTV registrations is required but its free. I just started downloading Gladiator at Video: MPEG2 Video 1920×1080 23.98fps 45000Kbps
Audio: DTS 48000Hz 5ch 754500Kbps Size 21.74 GB!! That a lot of downloading. HD 1080p version of Gladiator might be worth it. I very courious how long it wil take.

Heres the screens of the movie

Screenshot 1

and

Screenshot 2