During the last few days of packing, I haven't really been packing at all.  I have been organizing my file cabinet, shredding tons of old documents, and filing some mail that has been building up.  I believe the key to quicker packing is being organized while getting rid of clutter that doesn't need to be packed.  I have a little more to go through and then the next phase is more actual packing.  Stay tuned for more blog posts during my transition to Burbank!

Wow, I really haven't posted to my blog in a long time. I think its about time I start blogging more often again. I now have two blogs, one at Wordpress and one at Blogger. I was originally going to phase out my Wordpress blog and continue at Blogger. However, over the last few months I have decided to maintain both of them. They will pretty much be the same except the one at Blogger may have more content because Wordpress does not allow most 3rd party widgets. I have some readers that still post comments to my blog at Wordpress so there is no sense phasing it out. Hopefully I'll have more readers with two blogs! So what have I been doing since I haven't been posting? Well in the last year I was diagnosed with sleep apnea, I quit my nasty smoking habit, and I have been taking walks and exercising more. Other than these things I have no excuse. So keep watching this blog for more content soon!

I just uploaded my Yahoo! 360 blog posts to Wordpress.  For those that have kept track, Yahoo! 360 is where I was posting before Wordpress.  Now all of my blog posts are in one place.  I guess one good thing about Yahoo! 360 closing is that I finally consolidated my blogs!

Its been a while since I have posted to my blog and I thought it was about time.  Since my last post, I was diagnosed with sleep apnea.  With the help of my new CPAP machine, I am sleeping better and feeling better. However, I have been thinking a lot about my nasty habit of smoking, how it is probably not helping my sleep disorder, and I think its time for me to terminate it for good.  I want to feel even better than better.  Today, I have downgraded to Ultra Light cigarettes and by the end of the week I plan to stop all together.  Its depressing to think about how good I could feel without cigarettes but still be so addicted that it seems impossible to quit.  I hate being dependent on them and I hate the fact that the tobacco companies have me trained well to go and shell out over 5 dollars every day for a new pack of cancer sticks.  Enough is enough. Anyway that's the end of my rant.  I needed to write this to share my frustration and I hope my words can inspire other smokers to quit for good.  Smokers everywhere please join me in quitting this nasty habit. So this is now the part where invite whoever took the time to read this to leave me comments.  Do you have thoughts about smoking or any words of wisdom?

Lately, I have been thinking about which operating system to run after Windows Vista on my PC and laptop.  I have been testing out the Windows 7 Beta 1 on my laptop and I must say that I really like it so far.  There are some bugs to work out still but overall its everything Windows Vista should have been.  However, I have always secretly been a fan of Linux but have never switched from Windows for various reasons.  I’d like to share some pros and cons that I have come up with so far.

Windows 7 Pros

1.) The new taskbar is pretty slick and jump lists are useful.

2.) Its faster than Vista and the beta is very stable.

3.) The new themes and the ability to save your own themes is nice.

4.) Windows Live Essentials integrates very well into Windows 7 and allows me to access my Hotmail, feeds, blog, photos, buddies, and more from the useful programs.

Windows 7 Cons

1.) I really hate the idea of buying another Windows product.  Windows 7 should have been Vista SP2 or they should give a discount to those that already spent their hard earned money on Vista.

Linux Pros

1.) Its free.

2.) Has pretty much everything Windows has and more.

3.) Linux can be just as slick as Windows with Compiz Fusion and other enhancements.

4.) I really like KDE 4.

Linux Cons

1.) Has no support for my iPod Touch or iTunes yet.

2.) There are way too many distributions to choose from.  Choice is always good, but sometimes I wish there was just one or at least a few less to have to evaluate.

3.) I can’t install Windows Live Essentials.

In conclusion, I am not sure what this tells me about which I should choose.  I do know that it would be very difficult to switch to Linux before there’s support for my iPod Touch.

This is now the part where I invite you, my readers, to leave some comments, suggestions, or anything else you have to add to this.

If you have not yet checked out the new Windows Live site, its now time.  Days ago Microsoft updated the site and its now more social than ever.  The new home page tells you what your friends are up to and shows you some headlines from the news.  The new profiles tell your friends what you’ve been up to and you can also add some your favorite things, for example you can add your favorite movies, music artists, and books.  Also, the new Windows Live Photos is a great place to store photos, with 25 Gb of storage.  In addition to all these great things on the web site, Microsoft has updated the Windows Live Essentials, which is a bundle of software that helps you manage your e-mail, photos, videos, your blog, and more.  I must say that the new Windows Live is great, but what I like the most is being able to access my Hotmail from Windows Live Mail, upload photos with the Windows Live Photo Gallery, and being able to post to my blog with the Windows Live Writer.  These tools are very helpful with managing my day to day activities on the internet.  I highly recommend to all my readers to check out the new site at http://home.live.com/!

Well folks, I have taken a huge step towards a healthier life today.  Today is day 1 of my endeavor to quit smoking.  I am using the Nicorette gum 4 mg and let me just say, I have not had a huge urge for a cigarette all day.  Unlike the patch, I am getting the nicotine in a similar fashion as with cigarettes.  Nicorette is definitely making my life easier today.  Anyway, I'll blog more later to update my smoking status.

Well, I want to take this opportunity to blog about Meebo.  I just decided to switch from my instant messengers and I can't say enough good things about Meebo.  For those that don't know Meebo is a website that aggregates all of your instant messenger accounts into one chat interface.  There is no need for four or five instant messenging programs because Meebo allows you to connect via your browser.  There is also a Meebo Firefox extension that automatically signs you in when you start your browser.  If thats not enough, Meebo also has Meebo Me widgets that you can add to your web site and blog that allows your friends to chat with you and see if you are online.  In fact, I added mine to this blog on the left side.  Meebo is definitely a great chat tool that I highly recommend! Be sure to check Meebo out at http://www.meebo.com/ !