This past Saturday was the Houston Art Car Parade. This was my first year seeing it live, and I must admit it was quite interesting. Over 200,000 people were expected to be there to view over 200 cars. I think my favorite entry had to be the car with the bass and lobsters singing in unison. 275 pictures can be seen in my photo gallery here.
This past weekend, thanks to a awesome friend (she knows who she is), I was hooked up with all access passes to the 2007 Champ Car Races in Houston. Normally, watching racing live isn’t my thing. How many times can you watch a bunch of car pass in front of you for 10 seconds or less over an hour and a half? This was different. This was all access. Not knowing just how far I could go with it, I was determined to find out. As it turns out, I was able to get pretty far–whether or not I was supposed to is/was a different story. Anyhow, I spent the majority of the race sandwiched between Team Australia and Forsythe Racing in the actual pit area–not behind a crowd barricade. Because of my position, I was able to get some really nice pictures of both Austrilia and Forsythe pitting at various times in the race as well as some random pit lane shots. (If you check out the gallery, you’ll see a couple continuous-mode pictures shots taken in real-time over a pit.).
At the end of the race when Sebastien Bourdais crossed the finish line (first) his team began to rush began to cross over the pit track and rush the race track. Shortly after that, the news media crossed over and went onto the track.. Shortly after that, (can you guess what’s next?) yours truly crossed over and was standing on the finish line next to Sebastien Bourdais,  Graham Rahal, and Robert Doornbos–1st, 2nd, and 3rd respectively. To end out a great day, we headed over to the winners circle for the trophy presentations and snap a few last shots.  Pictures from the race can be viewed here.
Last weekend, my co-worker of over 3 years finally takes the plunge and gets married. Both of their families are originally from Nigeria so they’ve decided to have two wedding ceremonies: A traditional Nigerian ceremony, and a church service ceremony. The traditional Nigerian ceremony would be my first. Upon arrival, I was a bit worried about fitting in with the crowd given that I was not very familiar with the customs, and I was forewarned that this would not be like a wedding I’d ever been to before. Fortunately, upon arrival, people took notice and were pleased that we were trying to fit in and began to explain some of the process and what was about to go on. [ I should note that I was given proper Nigerian wedding attire by my co-worker. This provided a somewhat silent introduction to some of the people there that we were trying to fit in, but didn’t exactly know what to do.]
The overall experience, be it new, was interesting. The first hour and a half of the ceremony appeared to be more about the families of the bride and groom getting to ‘officially’ know each other and to accept the other’s son/daughter into their families. During this time, the bride and groom were not present. The groom shows up first with his friends in tow ready to prove his worthiness to marry his bride to the bride’s family. The bride’s family then puts the groom and his friends through a series of tests (dancing usually) and questions to see how serious he is about marrying their daughter. Once the tests are complete and acceptance is given, it’s now the bride’s turn to do the same for the groom’s family. Once acceptance is given on both sides, the bride and groom sit together for various readings and ceremonies, prior to them being joined. This is a bit of a consensed version of what took place. The actual ceremony took a little over 5 hours to complete. Pictures from the wedding can be viewed in my gallery here.
It’s not news the Level 3 has recently taken over Broadwing Communications, but what is news (to me) is the lack of customer service during the merger and lack of formal transition for the existing Broadwing customer base. My service contracts with Level 3/Broadwing will be expiring this upcoming June and suprisingly, I hadn’t heard from a represenative from Level 3 asking to come out and meet with me to to discuss renewal and what the new company can do for me, etc. Having a few mintues, I decided to call up the main Broadwing number, which I later found out was routed to the Level 3 Customer Center, to find out who my new represenative would be so that I could tell them about my needs and to see what they new, larger company could offer me. To my surpise I was informed by the woman on the other end that my account would be handled by ‘Customer Care’. I asked her to confirm that I no longer had a dedicated Account Represenative and I was told, “No, Now you have an Account Team. Any of us can help you.” (Side note: I should have asked how big my team was)  At this point in the conversation I started to smell something–only to later found out my hunch was correct–BS. I told the represenative I wanted to discuss my service renewal options and find out what services (VoIP Term/Orig) were available. After waiting for 5 mintues for her to find my accounts, I was told that she’d have someone call me back with the information I had requested. Additionally, if I needed to call back and speak with someone be sure to referenced Account # (xxx, yyy, etc.. ) [I know what you’re thinking–this sure beats having a single number to call up and speak with someone who knows you and your company by name and doesn’t treat you like a number–me too]
To say the least, I haven’t had any ‘real’ business dealings with Level 3 as of yet, but so far, I’m unimpressed. My original business and account represenative was with Focal Communications. Focal was purchased by Broadwing, and my level of service was the same with my prices actually dropping a few times during my renewals. Now Level 3 is here, my account represenative is MIA (rumor has it he, as well as most of the Houston reps jumped ship–for reasons not known to me yet) and I feel like I’m dealing with the company I left (SBC) back in 2000 because of sort of 1 in a million treatment (not to mention poor customer serivce and pricing). It’s still early in this business relationship, so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and we’ll see how this plays out. Needless to say, Level 3 will have some work to do to keep my business.
On the recommendation from a long-time friend and someone’s opinion I trust, I went to go see That One Guy’s concert last Monday at Rudyard’s British Pub . As painful as it was to be out until 1am on a worknight, it was well worth it. Mike’s (ThatOneguy) talent goes beyond anything that I’ve seen or experienced in a long time. If you’ve never heard of him, in short, he’s a one man band that plays an Electric Pipe Guitar, a boot (yes, a cowboy boot), and an amplified saw, all the while occasionally playing the drums at the same time. I’d describe his music as a fusion of techno, rock, with an occasional jazz beat. The more I lisented to his music and watched him play his instruments (term used loosely), the more I wondered how he was able to come up with such an interesting score for his music. I had listened to some of his music and watched his videos online prior to his performance, but nothing compared to his live performance.
 To anyone who enjoys live music, but sure to check out That One Guy when he comes into your town.
After many years of this domain being parked and used only for email, a real-website is in the works–honestly. I’ve decided its time to put some substantial content here in the near future. Stay tuned….
Well.. a few weeks back was \\\’that time\\\’ for me, and by that I mean the time in which one hits the big 3-0. Supposidly people are supposed to take you more seriously now that you\\\’re not a \\\’young twenty-something\\\’; time will tell. Anyhow, for my 30th, I decided to head back to vegas with some 4 of my close friends and we had a blast. The weather was beautiful–in the low 70s throughout the day. Three of us had never been to vegas, so we spent Friday day crusing (by foot) up and down the strip checking out the hotels and doing the tourist picture thing. Friday evening we went to see KA by Cirque du Soleil. I ready plenty of mixed reviews on the internet, and for the people that didn\\\’t like it, I\\\’d like to know what shows were better. I thought it was pretty amazing. I\\\’m seen a decent amount the Vegas Cirque shows and my current ranks from Best to \\\’worst\\\’ (although none of them are terrible) is: O, Ka, Mystere, Zoomanity. \\n\\nSaturday morning, we rented dune buggies and headed off into the desert for some fun in the dunes and boy was it fun! If I described the experience as fast go-karts in the desert, I think I wouldn\\\’t be giving the experience the necessary credit it deserves. If you\\\’re in vegas and have a free weekend, give it a try. Just know that you\\\’ll be covered in sand when you leave, so wear appropriate clothing. That evening, we went to the Penn & Teller Show at the Rio. The show was what I expected after seeing them on TV and well worth it. I even was selected to participate in the finale of the show and received some souvenirs from it that were pretty awesome.\\n\\n Pictures of the trip can be found here. tricher poker en lignejeu de poker gratuitspoker online argentpoker multijoueur gratuitesregles tournoi pokerjeux poker tour en lignele pokersites de poker onlineregles poker 2play seven card stud onlinejeu de poker internetjouez pokerpoker games networld of series pokerstrategie poker onlinetelecharger partie pokerjouer poker omaha en lignejeu de carte poker gratuitesjouer poker mactélécharger de poker onlineworld champion pokerjouez au poker en lignepoker gratuites hors lignejeu poker freewarelogiciel jeu pokerholdem poker onlinetilt pokertable de poker en lignepoker gratuites bruelregles de jeu poker,regles poker,regles poker hold hemjouer de pokersexy poker onlineprofessional poker tourregles poker holdemjouer poker en ligne gratuitestricher au poker en lignejouer o poker gratuitementpoker gratuites sur internetregles du jeu de pokerjeux poker a telechargerstud poker onlinebonus pokervideo poker a telechargerpoker gratuites cadeaujeu poker portables ,jeu de poker en ligne,jeu pokerwam poker comsalle poker onlineregles du poker texas holdemjeu poker a telechargerpoker en ligne paypal 
It’s not news the Level 3 has recently taken over Broadwing Communications, but what is news (to me) is the lack of customer service during the merger and lack of formal transition for the existing Broadwing customer base. My service contracts with Level 3/Broadwing will be expiring this upcoming June and suprisingly, I hadn’t heard from a represenative from Level 3 asking to come out and meet with me to to discuss renewal and what the new company can do for me, etc. Having a few mintues, I decided to call up the main Broadwing number, which I later found out was routed to the Level 3 Customer Center, to find out who my new represenative would be so that I could tell them about my needs and to see what they new, larger company could offer me. To my surpise I was informed by the woman on the other end that my account would be handled by ‘Customer Care’. I asked her to confirm that I no longer had a dedicated Account Represenative and I was told, “No, Now you have an Account Team. Any of us can help you.” (Side note: I should have asked how big my team was)  At this point in the conversation I started to smell something–only to later found out my hunch was correct–BS. I told the represenative I wanted to discuss my service renewal options and find out what services (VoIP Term/Orig) were available. After waiting for 5 mintues for her to find my accounts, I was told that she’d have someone call me back with the information I had requested. Additionally, if I needed to call back and speak with someone be sure to referenced Account # (xxx, yyy, etc.. ) [I know what you’re thinking–this sure beats having a single number to call up and speak with someone who knows you and your company by name and doesn’t treat you like a number–me too]
On the recommendation from a long-time friend and someone’s opinion I trust, I went to go see 
