this is the personal blog of brandon quintana.
NBA Season Started
October 29th, 2008
Since I’m a Warriors fan our season officially starts today, but the NBA season started yesterday. I was able to watch most of the Cavs/Celtics and Blazers/Lakers games. I’ve been watching TV a lot lately and have been considering getting a second DVR since I can only record 2 HD programs at once with my current Dish Network setup. With the NBA season starting it’s conflicting with shows and I’ll set a Warriors game priority over some stupid network show that I record just because I can. It got me thinking though if one person needs more than one DVR then I’m probably spending too much time in front of the television and should probably be doing something else.
As far as alternatives, most network TV shows allow for streaming days after it airs so I can always watch the show online at some point. It’s always a better experience watching it on a large screen TV in HD, but I guess it’s better than nothing. Also last night, I was recording two shows during part of the Blazers/Lakers game so I checked the website for updates. I followed a link on TNT which showed live streaming of the game in 4 camera angles: two player cameras and two sky cameras. It appears that TNT will be doing this for one of their two televised games on any given day. I thought this was a pretty cool feature and the first I’ve seen that was offered for free. I think in the past their have been paid services, but not really interested in that especially since I can usually catch the game at home and I don’t need to pay to watch two teams I don’t really like. It would be cool to see more networks do sporting events like that or even offer streaming games after the game is over. I don’t know all the technicalities of it all so I’m not sure how feasible it really is.
As far as the Warriors go, it’s kind of like the 49ers. I hope they do well, but it seems like they might disappoint. I’ll be recording part of the game tonight since I have puppy training, so I’ll get a glimpse of the season ahead. Sure it’s only the first game of the season and without Monta Ellis, but I think it will show what to expect. Like I said I hope this will be a good season, but who knows.
Puppy Training
October 27th, 2008
As I’ve told some, I’ve started taking the dogs to puppy training at Petsmart. It’s probably a little later than I originally planned, but the dogs in the class seem to be around the same age anyway. It’s been two weeks worth of training so far and my dogs are slow learners, but they’re picking things up the more we practice.
For the most part, they can sit, stay, and lay down on command. Not every time, but most of the time. They’re much better now than when we first started. I switched them over to liver treats and I think they like them better than their old treats so it gives them an incentive to listen.
It’s tough with two dogs and one person especially since both dogs want my attention. I’ve found that it’s easier to train one at a time and as they both learn it individually I can transition them into listening together. I’m going to try to bring a crate to puppy training this week and see if that method can help during class time.
I think so far so good. The three of us just need to practice more and I think they’ll do just fine.
Cooking More
September 29th, 2008
I started cooking more the past couple of months and I have a few reasons for doing it. The biggest reason is I live in the middle of nowhere. The closest store or restaurant is a 10-15 minute drive so I’ve been stocking up on groceries and trying to eat more meals here at home. The second reason is I think it’s healthier. I’m able to control my diet easier. For the most part I try not to eat pork and beef. I’ve been doing this for quite a while now, but like I’ve said in earlier posts I’m not always that strict on diet. I’ve heard some people cook because they enjoy it. I’m not one of those people. I don’t mind it, but I don’t really get any enjoyment out of it. I used to cook back in college with my friends Ann and Michaela, and I enjoyed it, but I think it was more the aspect of hanging out with friends as opposed to the cooking part.
One thing that has allowed me to cook more is that I don’t work as many hours. Over the last couple of years I’ve been putting in about 12-15 hours a day more or less and there really wasn’t much time for other things. It was much easier to pick something up and keep working to get things done. I was wasting time preparing meals when I could be being productive and earning money. I think things in my life have changed. My lifestyle is a lot slower. I find myself playing with my pets and watching TV instead of going out all the time. I’m also working less hours. I reached certain goals I was looking for when I started the company and I think I’m at a point where I need more balance.
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Good Weekend
August 11th, 2008
I had a pretty good weekend. It was pretty productive. I think I could have gotten a lot more work related tasks completed, but I find there’s just not enough time to do everything. I figure if I can get the majority of what I want done on the weekend, it’s starts me off on the right foot for a productive week. Lazy weekends always start off lazy weeks for me. I’m not sure what that is, but it seems like it’s been pretty true over the last few weeks.
I think also there’s been some changes in my life and I’m just now fully getting back into routine. I felt like I lost some of the dedication to my responsibilities, but maybe I just took on a lot of responsibilities in a short period of time. I’m getting used to the adjustment now and hopefully I can continue to be as productive as I once was.
Even getting up early is a chore for me. I’ve been doing it for such a long time, I’m not really sure why it’s so difficult now. I guess I’m getting older and I’m getting tired faster. I also think my laziness has a lot to do with it. If I feel like I’m not as lazy, I know I’m more productive, but more than that when I’m in a lazy state I don’t even have the energy to get stuff done.
Well we’ll see what happens this week. So far so good, but it’s only Monday.
First Blog Post From WordPress For iPhone
July 22nd, 2008
Well the WordPress app showed up in the iTunes store this morning so I figured I would give it a try. It has basic functionality for blogging including posts, photos, categories, and tags.
I’m writing this post from my 3G iPhone and of course it is taking a long time to write since I have to use the mobile phone keyboard.
One other thing to note is that it does not yet currently support custom fields so I won’t be able to update all my blogs at this time since I do use those fields across multiple sites.
I like that it does do local saving in the case where you are in a place where you can’t get online. It also has a preview function which is nice.
For quick posts, I think they did a good job in creating this mobile app and I think it’s good enough to use when on the go and away from the computer.
For those WordPress users with iPhones it is worth trying out since it is a free app you really have nothing to lose.
New Dog Bed
July 16th, 2008
I got the dogs a new bed this past weekend and I thought I would upload some updated photos of them as well. They seem to be getting a long pretty well with the cats and are pretty used to their new home now. They are quite a bit bigger than when I first got them, but that is expected.
The potty training still needs some work, but they are getting better. I will be enrolling them in puppy training soon so that will be pretty interesting for both me and the dogs.
Other than that I don’t really have any more really interested news. They should be getting their last set of shots in the near future and then I can take them out more often. They are doing a pretty good job getting along with people and other animals when they do come in contact.
I’m sure I’ll have more news in the future, but that’s all for now. I should be getting back to work anyway.
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Getting Tired Of Twitter
July 9th, 2008
I don’t think I can wait for Twitter to become more reliable. I think it’s a great service, but it’s time to look at alternatives. I wanted to try testing other things because Twitter was really starting to slow my sites down. I guess anytime it has to lookup data on another site, it will cause a slowdown, but when a site is down it makes it pretty frustrating to even use the site.
I had already signed up for Ping.fm which is a good service for posted to a whole bunch of other services. So I figured I would look for a wordpress plugin that would send the posts to Ping.fm and then off to my other services. This is sort of a test post to make sure that all works.
I’ve also been using Pownce which I am using right now to show status updates and the what am I doing section of this blog.
I’m going to see how it goes for a while then see if it’s worth deploying to my other sites.
Website Hosting Change
June 28th, 2008
I recently switched my sites to Media Temple and I think for the most part it’s been a pretty successful experience. All four of my main sites (brandonquintana.com, brandonquintanaconsulting.com, lightenment.com, and webdevtwopointzero.com) have all been transfered and after some tweaking and fine tuning I think they are running pretty well.
Media Temple offers a great hosting package which allows you to host up to 100 sites on one account. My sites are relatively small so I think the allocated bandwidth of 1TB a month will be more than enough for me. On top of the typical PHP/MySQL setup, other nice features include SFTP connectivity and the ability to run Subversion. Their hosting control panel is laid out well and easy to use. Tech support issues are resolved in a timely manner. As of right now, I’m a happy customer.
If you are looking for a hosting provider, Media Temple is worth a shot and if you are interested in having me host your site, I would be more than happy to work some arrangements with you.
World’s Largest Cruise Ship
June 23rd, 2008
There was a post on Digg this morning from Mail Online linking to details about the world’s largest cruise ship being built. Every cruise I’ve been on has been pretty enjoyable and I always look forward to going on my next. It’s like a city on water, and this latest cruise ship is no different.
In the picture to the left you can see that there is a built in rock climbing wall on the ship. If you click through you can see some other cool things like a very modern bar setup between decks, an interior shopping mall, and an open amphitheatre.
All this stuff seems pretty cool. The article says it will be traveling the Caribbean which is one of the places I’ve traveled to a couple of times and enjoy it very much. I wouldn’t mind taking a trip on this boat, but who knows what the cost is going to look like. It doesn’t look like it will be ready until late 2009 so I guess I have a little time to save some money.
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About Me
Brandon Quintana has been actively involved in web development for the past 12 years. Proficient web programming languages include XHTML/CSS, PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript.
Flickr
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Shared Rombauer Vineyards - Napa.
