It's my online alias. Just google "120inna55" and you'll see where I've been. A long time ago, when I ventured into the online realm, I needed a moniker.
At the time, I was enthralled with my really fast car. I was a wannabe rebel, so my wife encouraged me to use an
alias that would reflect my new-found brashness. 120inna55 is supposed to represent a traffic violation---120 mph in
a 55 mph zone. "120 in a 55" is the speeding ticket I never got and probably never will. Honestly, the name never
really reflected my true self, but I suppose that's the beauty of having an online persona. In reality, I do, for the
most part, follow the rules.
What's this website about?
The first page---the one you're on right now---is my blog. Keep in mind while reading my blog,
most pictures are thumbnails that can be clicked for a larger version of the picture (you will not be redirected from this
site). For most blog entries, there is a link at the end that will take you to my online discussion forum. To restrict spammers, I do require that you register on the forum before being allowed to post your comments.
The rest of the site will inevitably change with time because it simply reflects my interests.
Where can I learn more about 120inna55 and his personal life?
Because the ego prevails, we all assume other people are actually interested in our personal lives.
The fact is, I'm not that interesting. But if you must know more, go to Hilton-House.net. There you can find a slightly more realistic view of my true self along with pictures of my home and pets.
Gypsy has turned out to be a great dog. Her training has been a little difficult because she's so different
from any other dog we've had. She still has the destructive puppy-ness quality, but she's trying so hard to
be good. She is probably the most obedient of the pack, now. She comes to me when I call her, and
then she even heels---and I didn't even intentionally teach her that. On my morning walks, if I call her once, she
comes to me and sits, making direct eye contact. Then, as I continue walking, she walks very close to me and behind
me. If I don't have my hands in my pockets, my hand will occasionally inadvertantly brush her nose, due to her being
so close. She does this regardless of what the rest of the pack is doing. She understands the signal to carry
on (un-heel?) is for me to kneel down and pet on her while talking to her in a playful tone. While it still requires
a voice command, she even restrains herself from chasing the school bus or newspaper guy, overcoming the pack mentality despite
Bonnie and Mercy charging off barking their fool heads off. I've all but given up on breaking Bonnie and Mercy from
this annoying activity.
Today, the warm sun knocked Gypsy down. I just wanted to post these pics to show
what a beautiful dog she's turned out to be. So, to the soul-less jerk who dumped her, have a look at what you gave
up...
We had such a wonderful Thanksgiving. Per our tradition, my wife and I went to her step-father and mother's home around 10:30 a.m. There, we snacked and watched football while her father-in-law
fried the turkey and her mother slaved in the kitchen. My wife made the dressing which was delicious as usual.
The turkey, dressing, roasted vegetables, salad, and homemade rolls were all perfect as was the company. Then we followed it up with her mom's italian cream cake and
coffee---and more football! I just love her mother and father-in-law!
Then around 5:30 p.m., we schlepped (always
wanted to use that word) over to my parents home for an evening meal with my parents, brother, sister, sister-in-law, newphews, niece, and my nephew's girlfriend. My mother slaved
over a huge traditional meal of turkey, dressing, oyster dressing, "green rice", creamed potatoes, giblet gravy,
and fruit salad. My sister made chicken-n-dumplin's, which apparently my wife prefers over mine.
Afterwards, we had our traditional white elephant Christmas ornament gift exchange, which is always fun and results
in a new ornament for each family's tree.
We are so blessed to have a family that still lives in close enough
proximity to have these get-togethers. What's even more of a blessing is that we all love each other dearly and
genuinely care for each other. I'm reminded of this every time I hear a self-help guru or psychiatrist on talk shows
give pointers on how to avoid hurt feelings and blow-ups at holiday reunions. This always seems absurd to me, but it
is apparent that there are families whose gatherings are not as peaceful and enjoyable as mine. Mom, Dad, Monty, Mona,
Tina, Mackey, Clayton, and Molly. I love you all, and I am so proud to call you my family. I am truly thankful.
I'm so sick of this. Just when the nonsensical expression, "at the end of the day", seems to have reached
market saturation, another idiotic phrase is spewing from the mouths of the talking heads. "Yeah, no..."
or "No, yeah..." I must've heard this utterance twenty times in so many minutes during my Saturday morning viewing
of the national news. These are interviews, debates, and extemporaneous conversations of alleged educated people.
I'm theorizing that the first word, "yeah" is acknowledging the question, while the "no" is the actual
answer. However, the purposes and the words can be inverted. I'm probably giving them too much credit.
These are more likely to be modern versions of the filler words, "uh" and "um" that their college speach
instructor scolded them for using. These are phrases that simply buy them time to think of the politically correct answer
to the question. Whatever the reason, stop it! You sound like a junior high kid who would be virtually mute if
it weren't for their crutch-word, "like".
Two years ago, I posted a video on my blog regarding "Batter Blaster". I initially thought it was a joke, but after a little research, I realized it was the real thing. Frankly,
it hasn't crossed my mind since I posted it.
Yesterday, I came across the one and only "Batter Blaster"
and figured I'd splurge on the $2 and give it a try. My wife is the real pancakes fan, so I thought I'd surprise
her this morning. Long story short, this stuff is utter crap! Absolutely disgusting. You can literally taste
the chemical propellent in the can. No amount of butter and syrup can make this stuff palatable. The dogs loved
it. It should be noted, however, that they consider four-day old possum carcass to be a delicacy.
My wife spent the day with her dad. They start getting "the fever" this time of year---specifically, "Bow Season Fever". They like to tweak their bows, even though they've apparently got them working perfectly.
While my tone may seem condescending, I'm really glad she has such a hobby that she can share with her dad, brother,
and brother-in-law. I actually take the opportunity to endulge in bachelor-type things. I watched a couple lowbrow
classics, "Swingers" and "Mallrats". Then I topped the day off by sitting on the front porch listening to "Big Bad Voodoo Daddy", smoking a new mystery cigar courtesy of "The Black Band Project" which turned out to be a Camacho Conneticut accompanied by real absinthe. A wonderful combination. Then, after about 8 hours, I started missing my wife. Right about that time,
she came home. Pretty good day.
Writer, director, producer, John Hughes died of an apparent heart attack today while taking his morning walk. This
is devastating to me. Being a child of the 80's, I have to say that I've been impacted by works
of this great man in a not-so-small way. I'm not alone in this sentiment. This man was an icon in the truest
sence. His movies---to this day---continue to evoke emotions within me, and the themes that he portrayed
on film maintain their relevance today. He had an inate ability to channel the essence of the American teenager condition
both from the male and female perspectives. More importantly, he did all this with humor while maintaining sensitivity
to the subjects. Just off the top of my head, in my own video library, I find The Breakfast Club, Planes Trains
and Automobiles, Uncle Buck, Sixteen Candles, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. There are many, many more. Mr.
Hughes, you will be missed.
It's been well over a year since I've seen meteorologist, Rebecca Miller. My wife and I immediately noticed her
abscence from KXAS in March 2008. We searched online for information regarding her absence and eventually discovered she was fired by KXAS. (If
you want to know the details of her exit, it's easy to find with a quick internet search. I won't go into that here, since
it's well covered elsewhere.) Regardless of the reason, it was a dumb move on KXAS's part. Becky's forcasts were
honest, and she never hyped the weather. Texas weather is volitile enough as it is. Unfortunately, some meteorologists
seem to project the worst instead of the likelihood. If every front that comes through is a "tragedy", the viewers begin to
quit listening, and then they're unprepared when a "real" threatening storm comes through. Becky would talk to the viewers
as if we were actually intelligent. She'd tell us when a real threat was coming, but just as importantly, she would
tell us when things weren't so dangerous. A very refreshing trait that Becky has is her comfort in her own skills allowing
her to be honest when she's just not sure, while so many other meteorologists don't even acknowledge when they've gotten it
wrong.
Flipping through the channels recently, I landed on KDAF-TV Channel 33. Much to my surprise, there's Rebecca Miller! After a quick search, we found that she's been there full-time
since January. That'll teach me to stay in a rut and only watch one channel for news. My wife and I adore Becky
so much, we may actually sacrifice HD news just to get the informative forecasts from her. I'm torn, though, because
I do like KXAS's Brendan Higgins, Deborah Ferguson, and Tammy Dombeck, but I'm willing to give KDAF's personalities a chance. Now, I need to go find the emails of their the engineers to find out their plans to go HD.
Welcome back, Becky! Sorry it took so long to find you.
It's a rare occasion that technology actually leaves me speechless. The problem with being a technophile is that
your obsession results in constant exposure to the technology you love. This inherently desensitizes you to the advancements
in technology. You come to expect it. You learn to anticipate the natural progression, and you often find yourself unimpressed when it doesn't
progress as quickly as you would like. For instance, if you used a PalmPilot in 1996, you probably weren't surprised by the advancements
of the iPhone. Sure, the iPhone spanks the capabilities of the PalmPilot, but a PalmPilot user could easily envision
the future iPhone. The technology of the touch screen and motion sensor was cool, no doubt---but not jaw-dropping.
At this year's E3 (Electronics Entertainment Expo), Microsoft unveiled an add-on device for their XBox 360. This
is a project that's currently being fine-tuned and is projected to be available to consumers by 2011 at the latest.
The project, codenamed Natal, reveals a technology that, in my opinion, makes a great leap in interactive technology as opposed to an incremental step. Since this is not a tech blog, I won't attempt to re-hash
what the professional tech bloggers out there have already posted, so check out what the folks at Gizmodo have to say about Project Natal for more details.
Honestly, this is something that is both exciting and a little scary. Can you conceive the natural progression---the
logical, incremental outcome of this technology?
Check out the following videos for the crash-course. The first video is a demo. The second video is an interview
with Peter Molyneux, one of the designers of Natal. These are both must-see videos. My jaw has dropped.
If you have outside dogs, you know they love to wallow out holes in inconvenient places seeking a cooler place to sleep.
Gypsy has made a nice little hole next to a tree close to our front porch steps. I decided this would be a good place
to dump grass clippings from from the lawn, thinking
it would eventually fill the hole.
Gypsy had a different idea. She decided the clippings make a nice nest. So, now, I feel inclined to keep
up the "nest".
Have you ever seen a YouTube video that you wish you could save to your computer, or burn to a disc, to be played later when an internet connection is
perhaps not available? Maybe you want to be able to show it to a friend who doesn't have the bandwidth to watch the
video. The demand for such software has been around ever since the inception of YouTube itself. As a result, there
is a plethora of software available on the 'net touting these capabilities. Some of them are junk, and some of them are
good. I've had a couple different programs that adequately accomplish the task. Not too long ago, YouTube began
allowing uploads of higher quality and even high-definition videos. Of course the other video sites followed suit. Unfortunately, my old software does not support capturing the
higher quality videos. Therefore, this weekend I set out to find a program that could. My search
led me to this little jewel, ClipFinder HD by Ashampoo. No doubt, ClipFinder HD makes short work of downloading an HD YouTube video in a various assortment of file types.
So, in my case, problem solved.
Was I surprised to see what this program can do! Without having to navigate to the various sites, Clipfinder HD searches fifteen different popular video sites: YouTube, vimeo, Spike, veoh, Dailymotion, Google, LiveVideo, blip, Yahoo, metacafe, MySpace, sevenload, MyVideo, videu, and clipfish. (interestingly clipfish is not available here in the USA). In other words, ClipFinder HD is an independant portal.
Even more amazingly is that it performs these searches simultaneously. A broadband connection is a must,
but even then, it is recommended that you leave the default setting of having it stop at the top 100 relevant videos for each
site. Otherwise it would just keep going. (I'm of the opinion that if you can't find a relevant video in the first
100, then you should consider refining your search parameters.)
I could go on and on about the beautiful, intuitive interface. It allows you to rest your mouse over each thumbnail
for a preview of each video, then just click any video of interest and it brings it to the forefront for you to play it and
save it if you like. All this is done without leaving the hundreds of videos in the background at your disposal. The
best thing about this product is that it is completely free. You can register it to remove the ads, but registering
is free as well. It only means providing a working email address. I can't begin to describe it any better than this
YouTube video showcasing ClipFinder HD's capabilities. Check it out:
Gypsy has settled in, and apparently considers this her home. She runs and plays with the other dogs, and she barks
at "intruders" as if she's protecting her home. Her wound is healing nicely and she's slowly filling out.
Yesterday, during my morning walk, a strange dog ran up to me and huddled-up against me. She acted like she was elated to see a human. She was polite, but not fearful. I
did what any responsible pet owner should do, and that was to ignore her. See, if a dog belonging to someone else comes
onto your property, you should be aggressive about trying to scare the dog away so they won't feel invited to stay.
In the same token, if you're off your property, you should ignore curious dogs, so they won't be inclined to befriend you
and follow you home. This is what I would want someone else to do should they encounter my dog under the same situation.
It encourages the dog to stay on their own property and protect it as their own.
Well, my attempts at ignoring the dog didn't work. She ultimately followed me home. My wife and I didn't
recognize her. A dead-end road in the country is not an unusual place for scumbags to dump their unwanted dogs,
but for the 12 years we've lived here, we've never had this problem. She didn't appear to be a dumped dog, though.
She had a collar. She was a little on the thin side, but not malnourished. I assumed her build was more related
to her adolescent "gangliness". She wasn't afraid of people. She was well adjusted to the etiquette of meet and greet with our
other dogs. She even had some relatively fresh sutures on her neck. Whoever this dog belonged to, must have cared
enough for her to get her medical attention.
So we invited her into our home as refuge until we found her owner. We thought surely whoever lost her was missing
her. Who wouldn't miss this sweet, well-mannered dog. We made fliers and posted them around locally. We
knocked on doors. We called area veterinarians' offices. No one claimed her. None of the vets' offices knew
her.
So, as a last ditch effort, my wife took her to our vet to see if she, by any chance, had an I.D. chip inserted.
No chip. However, Dr. Terry noted that the suture job wasn't professional. It was crudely done with--get this---nylon
thread. The idiot that did this had even burned the ends of the thread to keep it from unravelling. The 'sutures'
were removed because the vet knew something was amiss. It turns out the wound was abscessed.
Some jerk sewed up this dog instead of taking it to a vet. I understand times are tough, but when you get to the point
that you can't afford to care for your animals, you no longer have a right to them. You certainly don't crudely sew
them up. I still don't know if she was dumped or just lost. Either way, her previous owner had better not speak
up, now. She's mine. I've now paid for her proper medical care. After her wound heals, we'll get her shots
done, then we'll have her spayed. She is now a part of our family, and Gypsy fits right in.
Thank you to Dr. Terry and the staff at Morton Small Animal Clinic for providing such wonderful care of our new family member. As usual, your compassion for both the animal and the owner confirms
our choice as the only veterinarian's clinic to which we will entrust our pets' lives. Click here to discuss this in the forums.
Writer, director, producer, John Hughes died of an apparent heart attack today while taking his morning walk. This
is devastating to me. Being a child of the 80's, I have to say that I've been impacted by works
of this great man in a not-so-small way. I'm not alone in this sentiment. This man was an icon in the truest
sence. His movies---to this day---continue to evoke emotions within me, and the themes that he portrayed
on film maintain their relevance today. He had an inate ability to channel the essence of the American teenager condition
both from the male and female perspectives. More importantly, he did all this with humor while maintaining sensitivity
to the subjects. Just off the top of my head, in my own video library, I find The Breakfast Club, Planes Trains
and Automobiles, Uncle Buck, Sixteen Candles, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. There are many, many more. Mr.
Hughes, you will be missed.
