Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

LJ...where arte though...

matte — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 07:54:28 GMT

So it has come to my attention that I do not spend any time over here on LJ anymore.

True story!

Many reasons, but primarily cause LJ, in my view, has become ultra-craptastic. Just not like the good ol' days. :(
(Created on 2000-05-03 00:40:35 (#2534))

If you want to keep up with me you can find me on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/matt.ebert
You can also track me on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/bestgeekfriend

Not closing this account, just not hanging out over here...peace out!

-Matte

Chit-Chat with Matt…featuring Mongo

matte — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:38:12 GMT

Where our hero chats up Mongo and inquires into his hobby of nightclub bouncing….Road House style!

Originally published at MattEbert.com. Please leave any comments there.

Where Matt rambles with his lil’ bro

matte — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 10:59:23 GMT

Where our protaganist takes some time to kick back and chat it up with his little brother Bobby.

Originally published at MattEbert.com. Please leave any comments there.

Where Matt gets baptized!

matte — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 06:19:37 GMT

On 2/21/2010 I took another step forward in my life’s journey and was baptized at EastlakeCC in Bothell, WA.

Originally published at MattEbert.com. Please leave any comments there.

Matt rambles while waiting for the wash to finish

matte — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 08:14:33 GMT

Our protaganist takes 10 minutes to demonstrate his inate ability to ramble about NOTHING. He mentions his shrink, Caprica, Matte, the Hallmark holiday known as Valentines Day, and how his has a million ideas in his head and is unable to execute a single one.

Send the boy a topic to ramble about!

Originally published at MattEbert.com. Please leave any comments there.

Monday Morning Commute Flow

matte — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 04:52:44 GMT

Where our hero flows about his weekend, random dreams of The Great White North, and his inate ability to babble for almost 15 mins.

Originally published at MattEbert.com. Please leave any comments there.

Friday Morning Commute

matte — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:33:01 GMT

Our hero quizzes Trevor on their commute into work regarding life and his true feelings about Bobby.

Originally published at MattEbert.com. Please leave any comments there.

Ode to Nick Bumgardner

matte — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 06:43:44 GMT

Where our protaganist is called to the carpet by Nick Bumgardner on a promise he made.

Originally published at MattEbert.com. Please leave any comments there.

Monday Morning Commute

matte — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 19:08:05 GMT

Where our protaganist and his driver commute the Monday morning path to work.

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!!!

Originally published at MattEbert.com. Please leave any comments there.

Would you watch a reality show about Matt?

matte — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 08:06:43 GMT

Matt is a late 30’s single dad who tries to maintain a normal life. However, his life always seems to stumble into trials and tribulations that most times end up with a rolling of the eyes.
Humor, laughter, tears, and the more than occasional expletive.

Would you watch?

Feel free to ask questions! All will be answered honestly to the best of Matt’s ability.

http://bit.ly/4×2ZTu

Originally published at MattEbert.com. Please leave any comments there.

Does Elmo have super powers?

matte — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:15:45 GMT

Question:

So, in the film “The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland” *warning, spoiler alert* at the end Elmo takes a blanket that is about 3′x3′ and throws it up in the air far enough that it floats all the way from Grouchland to Sesame Street.

How does Elmo do this?
(I will not even go into the fact that not only does he launch it from Grouchland, but he catches it on Sesame Street)
Just for comparison, I am easily 4x Elmo’s size and I can only get a blanket of that size to go no more than 10′ into the air.

Does Elmo have some sort of magical powers? If so, where is this disclosed?

Originally published at MattEbert.com. Please leave any comments there.

Friday Night Greeting to family and friends

matte — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 03:19:19 GMT

Our here and his trust sidekick give Friday night shout outs to family and friends!

Originally published at MattEbert.com. Please leave any comments there.

New Years Resolutions?

matte — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 06:03:21 GMT

The one where the protagonist admits defeat in his New Years resolution….5 days in

Originally published at MattEbert.com. Please leave any comments there.

Best Buy’s ‘Optimization’ Is Officially a Huge, Evil Scam

matte — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 19:47:42 GMT

Best Buy’s computer optimization service costs $40 and promises to double the speed of your computer. They push it hard, so hard that you’re often forced to get it against your wishes. The trouble? It makes computers slower.

If you’ve ever bought a computer from Best Buy, you’ve doubtlessly been pitched an optimization. And you may have even been forced to buy a model already “optimized” against your wishes, as they have a practice of opening up a sizable percentage of laptops, performing the service, then sealing them back up. Want to buy this advertised laptop? Oops, only pre-optimized models are left! That’ll be $40 over the advertised price, please.

That would be a slimy enough practice if the service was actually beneficial, but a new Consumerist investigation shows that the “service” is actually damaging, slowing down new computers by an average of 32%.

What exactly are they doing to these computers to warrant a $40, then?

Upon comparing the optimized changes, the first noticeable change was a cleaner desktop. Most of the removed shortcuts were for trials, promotions and software added by the manufacture. The programs themselves were still installed and available for later access. Updates had been downloaded on all three models, but differences in the factory default setup can affect how the system is optimized. On one laptop, for example, because Windows Defender was deactivated by default, its definitions had not been updated.

Some optimization changes seemed intended to make the laptop easier to use, such as adding the status bar to the file explorer, or displaying the file menu bar in Internet Explorer. Including a link to the Downloads folder in the Start menu, for example, can save you a few clicks. Security settings were adjusted to allow for automatic Windows updates, and in Internet Explorer, privacy settings were eased up to allow websites you visit to save info you provide on your PC.

Yes, Best Buy is charging $40 to delete shortcuts from your desktop. They don’t delete the actual bloatware, just the shortcuts that let you know what bloatware is there. And they download updates for you. Good lord.

Oh, and did I mention that after one of the optimizations, the Geek Squad forgot to put the power cable back in the box? Oops!

Why is Best Buy being so crazy aggressive about rip-off services like optimization? Well, it’s no secret that they make almost all of their money off of accessories like HDMI cables, extended warranties and services like this. Most of the products they sell have razor-thin margins, meaning they’ll make three times as much profit selling you a Monster Cable than an LED LCD TV. And services like optimizations? Almost pure profit.

But that doesn’t make such anti-consumer behavior acceptable. Pre-optimizing new laptops is a downright scummy behavior, and completely contradicts their claims that it’s a mere choice and not something customers are forced into. If Best Buy is going to continue to push these expensive services, they need to make sure that it’s always a choice for customers. They also need to make clear that it, you know, actually does something useful.

[Consumerist]

Originally published at MattEbert.com. Please leave any comments there.

Backup! Backup! BACKUP!!!

matte — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 07:29:25 GMT

The one where our hero throws himself upon his sword and admits that he does not necessarily practice what he preaches. Backup your files people!

Originally published at MattEbert.com. Please leave any comments there.

A message for Tutu and Pappy

matte — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 23:20:11 GMT

Where our hero and his sidekick wake up not feeling so well and have to cancel a trip to see Tutu and Pappy. The least the duo could do was send them a video note.

Originally published at MattEbert.com. Please leave any comments there.

Day 1: So it begins

matte — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 08:22:34 GMT

So it begins. Our hero announces his 2010 New Years Resolution to post a video blog to MattEbert.com every day for 1 year. Can he do it? Only time will see!

Mentions:
Arrogant Bastard Ale – Stone Brewing Co.

Note: Yes, the audio needs some tweaking. The popping KILLS me!

Originally published at MattEbert.com. Please leave any comments there.

I present to you...

matte — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 13:38:40 GMT

So who says great things do not come early?

That is right, a whole week early.

At 6:00am PST on 9/2/07 Matthew Allen Ebert II made his first appearance to the world. He came to us at a healthy 8lbs 2oz and 19 inches long. He is perfectly healthy, with 10 fingers and 10 toes. Not only does he look just like his pops, he already has more hair than him. ;)

We were originally going to name him Pacen Matthew Ebert, however when we first laid our eyes on him Gina remarked that he looks more like a Matthew than a Pacen. I could not agree more, and am over the moon that he will share my name.

Mattie spent his first day resting with Mom and Dad, and then got to spend a good part of the evening getting to know his PopPop and Tutu. They could not be happier!

I will be setting up a picture album online soon (after a little more rest!) that I will share with everyone, but until then below are a couple of pics to give you a glimpse at how wonderful he is. :)

Just moments old walking out of the delivery room

The perfect little boy!

Happy family!

That is the look of exhaustion on papa's face.

Countdown

matte — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 12:41:05 GMT

Looking at the calendar on the wall it looks as if it is time to give my LJ friends a peek into what is going on in my little world. I will break it down with bullet points.

Matt v2.0 is coming along great. It was a little touch and go for awhile, and there were a few scares, but the docs are saying things are looking good.
Only 50 days left until the big day. Mom is delivering by c-section. Time and place is booked...as long as he does not come early.
We decided upon a name. Pacen Matthew Ebert. He will go by Pace for short. (I swear if one of you breaks out with a salsa comment I will shiv you!) Using my name in the middle was her idea that I had never really thought about before.
He plays games with me already. I push on her belly with my hands and he pushes back. That is my favorite thing in the world to do right now.
I am officially more in love with him than anything in the world, and I have not even met him yet!
I want to start reading books to him while he is in the womb. Anyone have any suggestions?
After 5 years working in a company of 3 individuals I have decided to move on and return to a company with over 75,000 individuals.
"Simplify" - This is my new mantra. Everything in my life I have started to simplify in preparation for my little man. No chaos for this boy. My packrat tendencies have gone the way of garage sales, craigslist, and eBay. I highly suggest it if you can!
I am still going to marry Kelly Clarkson.

Did I miss anything?