I’m so glad Christmas is over. It’s always like this every year for me. I’m not big on people buying things for me, never have been. I have always tended to be self-reliend and self-dependant. Never really asked my parents for anything like most kids usually did growing up. Whenever I wanted new clothes, new sneakers or the newest video game system I got a job and worked until I achieved what I wanted. Wow, went in off in a tangent there for a second. I like buying gifts for the ones I love its fun and I always try to get something unique and special to that person. I don’t do gift cards and gift baskets type bullshit. It has no feelings or emotions behind it.

For example, this year for my brothers I got my brother Tom an end all be all of work out logs for which he will use when he goes to the gym. He was always writing his workouts and goals in little notebooks, now he can be more organized and keep better track of his progress. To me that is something he could use more then a shirt or a gift card. For my brother Glenn, me and him constantly fight about him wearing my clothes and such. What did I do? Went out and bought him a couple packs of boxers and socks. He never tells my mother he needs them so he uses mine, that present should end it. I also, cleared out all of my extra clothing and gave him the option to take what ever his heart desires. That is another thing I take pride in and like to do from time to time. I go though all my drawers and my closets and if I haven’t worn that article of clothing within a years time I donate it to charity. Someone I know should do this and she wouldn’t need 5 dressers for her room ::cough::Melanie::cough::. For my last brother he has been catching up on all the seasons of LOST and was missing season 4. Since he will be having a baby really soon and his time will be consumed by the little bundle of joy and he will probably need something to do while watching, changing, burping, feeding and all sorts of baby related things to keep him occupied outside of baby care.

See that is the plus side of Christmas. As for the downside, all the money you spend really starts to catch up to you. Depending on how many people you wish to buy presents for and all the events leading up to Christmas. I was so lucky to have 2 Weddings the week before Christmas (not being sarcastic .. sort of). It was a lot on my plate and it kinda sucked the fun out of Christmas a little. Regardless, it is all behind me now which means I can look forward to New Years Eve/Day for a good time and some relaxation while starting 2009.

As much as this sounds like a cry baby emo rant from me, I sit back and reflect on this year. For most of my life the cons beat out the pros each year at the end. This year I have to say I think I actually had more pros then cons. Just of the top of my head I can name 4 things that have made this year amazing.

1. My brother having a baby
2. Fixing things with Melanie
3. Winning DirtyDalerz softball championship
4. Actually making strides to fix things in my life instead of moping

Now that this year is almost behind us, I just hope to whom ever stops by here and actually reads this has had and even better year then myself. I been trying to keep the attitude “It could be worse” in my head when things happen that take a bad turn. I can’t believe i’m actually writing in a postive manner, I guess it just shows there are ups and downs. Let’s just all hope we have more up’s then down’s.

If you ever need to talk or have someone listen and give you a fresh persepective/advice I’m always open to emails and will always be there to respond bcinelli@gmail.com

There is a new Wordpress Update to version 2.7 which is a pretty big update in the world of Wordpress. Wordpress is what I use to run this site. It basically is the backbone of this site, I create the layout and Wordpress helps me with all the content. Just wanted to explain that before diving into this topic.

I hated the old layout of Wordpress 2.6 where everything was a couple clicks away and just looked so bubbly and gross. They finally took a page out of the new Google Reader book and made things box(y) and gives you so many options on your screen to change in a great layout. Now without scrolling down the page I can select categories and add tags without the hassle. I am really excited for this upgrade.

Also want to say if your not using the Automatic Upgrade feature in Wordpress to upgrade to the newest builds you don’t know what you missing. With EASE I can now backup, update, and BAM! the upgrade is done in few simple clicks. If you have been around Wordpress for a while you can definitely appreciate this feature. Takes so much time out of upgrading. The old process you used to have to backup everything manually via FTP. Now its all done for you. On top of that it goes out downloads the newest Wordpress build and installs in the background. Saves me time and effort. Have to say Wordpress is the best blog/info content system out there. Here’s a screenshot of how it looks:

Now onto Twitter. Twitter is kinda like the “Brian is .. ” feature in Facebook where you put what your doing such. Example: “Brian is .. working all day, then going to the gym and is super tired”. Then people can just see what you had written as if to keep tabs on what your up to which they are able to comment on and such. I really can’t get into updateing things like that. I mean hard enough I try to keep this thing updated as much as I can but twitter is just another thing I cannot fit into my day. Anyone feel the same way? I dunno. Maybe I’m just lazy in that aspect. lol.

Keep your eyes peel’d for more updates about projects I’m doing.

Yes, that is true. I’m going to be the god father of my brothers baby boy. I’m guessing it would be meant to be. Since he will be not only joining my family but he will be BC the second. I would like to think of it as “BCII - Electric Boogaloo”. It’s very exciting seeing Kristin get bigger and bigger as the baby comes along farther (that was no knock at Kristin she is getting bigger only because Johns monster baby is in her).

There is not a time when I see her where I don’t run to go touch her stomach and talk to Brayden. I am a little harsh on the poor soul. Telling him to “come out already” or “i wanna play” all the time. He still has 57 days of free meals and heat from Kristin until he is expected out her belly and playing with me. Until then I’ll give him a break and just think of all the fun things were gonna do together!

Now it feels as if I’m having a kid. Because I’m now going to be permanently apart of this kids life in more ways then him having my last name and being my brothers baby, i’ll be his godfather. It’s big responsibility, and I know I can get the job done and be there for him every step of the way as Uncle BC.

I’ll keep you all posted with whats going on with little Brayden. But, don’t expect some pictures until Jan. 20th (damn it feels like so far away). Until then, here is a picture I drew of Brayden.

Let me start off by saying, it takes a lot for a book to grab my attention. I had major problems growing up reading. The problem was, if I’m not interested in the books message or theme my mind tends to just give up and I eventually stop reading the book entirely. I wound up going to reading class until I was in the 8th grade. Not only did I sharpen my reading skills but I also learned that you don’t HAVE TO (unless school makes you) read a book that you don’t want to. You cannot FORCE yourself to be into a book, no matter the topic. I blew through 100+ pages the first day I got this book it was so great. I read over I believe two chapters because I wanted to solidify them into my head because they were so well written and had a great message.

I will not ruin the book for everyone but for me to tell you to go out and spend the $12 on a hard cover book because you’ll probably wind up reading it in one night because it is so good that says a lot. The best thing about it is that it leaves you wanting more but makes you realize that everyday is a struggle for this person and the minute you stop reading this book you want to google Brandon Novak to see if he is back on drugs. (at this point he is not)

The book starts off with him in a Garage basically coming off a night of heavy drug use. He himself is an homeless addict. A star at the top of his game who through it all away on drugs. Next you see this star who is so at rocks bottom that it is sickening to read on but you must. Lets just put it this way right before he enters rehab he winds up having to prostitute himself for fix .. by having another grown married man suck his d!ck. What happens after that .. is just heartbreaking.

Please Read this book it really has a good message that even the best can fall. If you do read it and want to say a couple words about it on my site I will more then happily oblige.

( email - bcinelli@gmail.com )

I been busy lately sorry. Between Gears of War 2 and the new book I’m reading Dreamseller my attention has been elsewhere. On top of that I have a beer pong tournament that I have to push promotion for coming up on the 22nd of November so that should only delay more posts but who knows what my insomniac nights bring. For now enjoy this book.

I haven’t written much about myself lately, as I look back at past posts. I have kind of kept myself out of my postings and just talked about material things and such. Well that ends today, I feel as if I owe it to myself to talk more about myself in my own blog other then to talk about shit I purchase or computer tech issues. Those topics will still be talked about but expect more talk about myself. That is what people find interesting and actually come back to read. So here it goes.

My birthday has just passed last friday. I celebrated it Saturday night because Saturday morning I had a softball tournament out east and didn’t want to be hung over for it. That is how I get when it comes to sports and competitions. I want to be at my best. If I falter I only have myself to blame and not the dozen and a half beers I drank the night before. Friday night, I went out to dinner with my family (mom, dad, brothers, Melissa and Melanie) for my birthday at New York, New York Restaurant. It’s pretty much my favorite restaurant right now to eat at. For one, its a local place and I rather give my money to them then a Chili’s or Fridays. Secondly, the Italian food is great. I had a crazy urge for lemon chicken and spaghetti with garlic and oil. NYNY always gives you a ton of food and never leaves you hungry. We all had a ton of fun eating and enjoying each others conversation. Afterward, we went back to the house to do the whole birthday cake thing. That was my 24th birthDAY.

As for Saturday, woke up about 6:45 got all dressed picked up john with tom and headed out east to Shirley to play softball in an Autism tournament. I can honestly say this is one of the best tournaments/leagues I have seen competition wise. All these teams are no joke. We lost two of our first games and were eliminated. Could we of won? Yeah, but our bats weren’t there at all. Still you play this great competition and you will only get better. Quickly went home and took a nap for the rest of the day since I was crazy tired.

Saturday night was the night planned on celebrating my birthday. I kind of felt like I was one of those people who celebrates there birthday all week/weekend. Well, I kind of didn’t do much Friday so Saturday was the real celebration. Me and all my friends went to Wasabi (hibachi place in Farmingdale) to celebrate with food and Saki Bombs. I seriously have the best times there. I love great food, friends and booze. There aren’t much better things in life that make me happy then that equation.

After Wasabi we all headed over to the Nutty Irishman for drinks of course and lots of dancing. Yeah, I like to get really full on food and saki, then get even more boozed up and dance. I’m not no fucking Chris Brown out there but I hold my own enough for people to not single me out for looking like a tool, or at least I think so. I had a ton of fun with everyone who came. Click on the picture below for the gallery.

I also have to say I got some great presents from my girlfriend. I got an authentic Lawrence Taylor Jersey (my favorite Giant of all time) and tickets to the Giants Vs. Ravens game November 16th. Seeing as the Giants only have two more seasons left in the Meadowlands (current one and next year) before it’s torn down, I really want to take advantage of every game I can get my hands on to go to. Its a scheduled 1 p.m. game but it’s one of those games where they can move the game to either 4 or 8 depending on how it will do ratings wise for the NFL. I have always been a fan of that new scheduling idea the NFL has used over the last two seasons with putting premiere games in the better time slots. Anyways I’m very thankful Melanie did this for me.

I don’t want to make one long drawn out post, so I’m gonna let this one soak in for a day or so. Also, check out the right hand side of the page where the menu is because I have changed a couple things up and updated links. Don’t forget to visit my friends.

EDIT: SORRY LISA .. i’m 24 not 25 .. THANKS FOR THE CORRECTION ass!

Well I decided using the old 4image and ‘gallery’ to use as a image gallery viewer was just not what I wanted anymore. Also, using flickr.com even though it’s been amazing to me to host my images, that $25 a year just isn’t worth it when I’m paying for hosting space I don’t utilize to its full potential. This all lead me on a journey for a flickr’est photo gallery that was easy to customize as well as easy to navigate all while looking beautiful.

This lead me to Surmunity.com my hosting sites community forum. I was offered plenty of solutions but one I truly liked was Zen Photo. It is a web photo gallery that isn’t very big ‘footprint’ wise and is very quick while using. It fit my simple needs and was fully customizable via css and php.

To get started all you have to do is download the files from the site which is wrapped up in a neat package for you. Upload to your server, Create the MySQL Database/Account for it to use, Then Visit the Setup page and your done. Just start uploading your pictures either via the web upload interface or FTP the albums in yourself. FTP is the obvious speedier way to do so.

Getting all that setup took me no longer then 20 minutes. The ONLY and I repeat ONLY issue I had was adding a frill I wanted. The frill was when you click on the image if fires up a javascript that darkens out the rest of the page and calls up the image you want then lets you navigate to the next image or go back to the previous image.

The problem I was having is I was trying to use Slimbox which uses mootools javascript framework. Zen Photo already uses the jQuery javascript framework. I did not know this. For days I was beating myself up trying to get the damn thing to work when jQuery and Mootools were taking DUMPS on eachother and not working.

I enlisted the a friend of mine of a website I will not mention but lets just say he is pretty ‘gangster’, lol. So, said friend helped me realize what I just described and helped me implement a javascript like Slimbox that is bulit off the javascript being utilized by ZenPhoto already. The script was simply enough ‘jQuery lightBox plugin’. He found it at the LightBox for jQuery Plugin website that someone had created. As quick as the file was downloaded was as quick as it was implemented. Just a few code changes and presto the script worked.

Now I can host all my images on my home site, back them up whenever I want and feel like I’m truly utilizing all of my hosting. Also, makes for better search targets when people are using google image search. I’m guessing after reading all this you want to see the gallery in question. Well here it is:

Also, I upgraded my Hard Drive to a 250GB Hitachi Travelstar. I used to have a 80GB Toshiba hard drive in my Macbook prior and desperately needed a bigger one. All my music, pictures and video were stored on my MYBOOK 500GB USB External Hard Drive. Which stunk because I had to wait till I got home to get things I might need on the road.

I went ahead and upgraded it myself, with the help of Time Machine. Leopard OSX comes with an amazing hard drive backup program called “Time Machine”. TM backs up hourly, daily, weekly and finally monthly. Doesn’t take up much space on my External Hard Drive to do backups which is also a plus. The biggest help was all I had to do when the new Hard Drive arrived was install it, put in my Leopard OSX cd, connect my External with the TM backups on it and within an Hour I had my computer restored to the EXACT same place it was prior with one difference, MORE HARD DRIVE SPACE!

Once all this was done, I shifted all my music and pictures over to my hard drive and decided the video could stay on the second partition ‘Garbage’ *after the Hackers movie* lol. When I was done with all that I reset the partitions on the MY BOOK drive for about 300GB for my TM backups of my new 250GB hard drive and then 200GB for my own personal storage that I don’t need on my laptop which contains videos, application installs and other misc stuff.

Now I can carry around whatever I please, and my computer is running amazingly. I opted for the 5400RPM drive over the 7200RPM drive because of the power drain the higher RPM drive might cause. Since I’m on the train for 2 hours a day I thought this was the right move.

Well got off the train at 7am yesterday at the Chambers Street Station and walked out to see a Buffet lined up in the street. At first I was like “Free Breakfest!” but then quickly looked around to see they were shooting something at a local bar I go to sometimes. They were shooting at the Patriot, a bar located on Chambers street. I have to say they had a nice little spread of food setup. Those actors are pretty pampered I would gather.

As I walked further up I started seeing signs to the set and such and people walking in and out (people on set and assistants. I have no clue what they were shooting there. One of my friends from work is good friends with the people who bar tend there so hopefully I can shine some light on it in a later post.

Tomorrow I’m going to discuss my Laptop Hard Drive Upgrade.

Well, it went the way I wanted it to go. I got the box Friday afternoon after work and instantly tried to put it in. Thing is I didn’t have the small set of Philips head screwdriver needed. Went out to Lowe’s and picked up a complete 8-1 set which stores within itself which was pretty cool for $5.

Opened up the MacBook case which was easy as pie and installed the new ram chips. Took out the two sticks of 512MB RAM sticks and popped in the new 1GB stick and 2GB stick in the spots taken before. Powered on the machine and it recognized it with no problem. I opened up the Activity monitor and OSX was using all 3GB worth of memory. I’m just real happy it all went to plan like it was supposed to.

After the machine starts using the memory and cache’s a few things the machine started moving around a lot quicker. Probably not so noticeable to the average user but I could definitely tell a difference. When browsing, chatting, downloading torrents, and working in photoshop all at the same time running it worked a lot quicker. I recommend throwing in as much as you can to speed up your MacBook if you need it, which is priced rather cheap at macsales.com .

Something else I found out is that I can assign applications to separate ‘Spaces’. Meaning when I want to run Photoshop CS3 I can run it in space 2 and un-cluttering space 1. When I want to go between spaces just a click of the mouse (might mouse top button) or F8 brings me back to space 1 and my other apps that are running. It’s quite efficient if you ask me. I picked up on this little trick through reading a blog at askdavetaylor.com .

On top of all that, nothing much is new. Had a great weekend got back to playing softball on a Sunday morning team. I hit 5-7 I believe with 2 home runs, 1 double and 2 singles (not absolutely positive on the doubles and singles) but reached base all but one time that day. Had a bad case of acid indigestion throughout the game probably because I drank the night before a block party. STill not to bad for a guy who hasn’t played in about 3 weeks.

Oh, here is a picture Charlie took on the train today going in to work of me (not the most flattering its 7am and I’m exhausted) with his LG touch phone from Verizon. You can add little things to the picture to make it funny. Till next time… lata.