AnnMendoza.com

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• May 2006
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• Doggie Orthodontics
• The Final Challenge
• Kitty Reality House?
• Google’s Da Vinci Quest
• Doctor Who in America
• Who says it doesn’t get cold in So Cal?
• A comet hits austrailia! On film!
• Feds want Google search records
• Blockbuster had Opportunity to buy Netflix
• Pet Cam
• 10 MPH Movie Trailer
• Doctor Who
• NBC returning TV shows to regular times
• Gilroy Garlic Festival
• iTunes Phone

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This past Christmas my brother got the sweetest Whippet puppy named Slim. Little did he know that once Slim got a few months older, he'd be a Whippet with an overbite. I still think he's the cutest Whippet in town, he's just special . It turns out that because of his overbite, his bottom incisors were digging into his upper gums. To correct the problem a vet recommended that he get doggie braces. This would help the teeth to grow outwards a bit and not dig into his gums. The fortunate thing is that he only had to wear them a few months and when I saw him 2 days after it was done, he was bouncing around like a normal puppy. Well it turns out that because Slim had this procedure done he got some local TV time on our local CBS news (watch the video here)

Well the day finally came around where I got the puzzles for the final challenge. Too make a long story short, there's no way that I came remotely close at winning the grand prize. I knew I wasn't gonna as soon as I got to the first puzzle. It was the symbol challange but on a full sudoku layout (9×9 grid). It took me probably 20 minutes to get through that puzzle. Then it was on to the the restoration puzzle (swapping out sploches of paint until only one sploch was left), which I got through fairly quickly (less than 10 minutes). Then it was my demise.. the curator's puzzle (hanging pictures on hooks when there are more hooks than pictures). Try as I may, and boy did I try and try and try… I had a hard time completing it. And in the weeee hours of the morning I gave up to try again in the morning. So I went to bed (see I knew I wasn't going to win), thinking with a fresher perspective I'd be able to do it. So once I woke up, I continued on my quest. I was bound and determined to finish it…. just to say I finished. And finally…. I finished the curators challenge! Now on to the 4th (and I think the most evil), it was the chess challange (get to checkmate in 3 moves). Since I'm chess-impaired, I did it the best way I know how. Process of elimination… I tried every conceivable combo until I got through it (and it didn't take me THAT long). Now on to the final puzzle, it was a 24-piece jigsaw puzzle with the picture being a video clip. It was fairly easy and only took me a few minutes to finish. And then I was DONE! FINISHED! I completed the final phase! I may have only won the cryptex… but I am a proud winner of the cryptex.

Just when you thought there couldn't be anymore reality TV shows out there. Welll there is one more! Ever wonder what the cats do when there's no one else at home? We're about to find out. The cats will be residing in a posh residence on Manhatten Avenue in NY. We will be able to peer into their daily lives through the webcam on http://www.meowmixhouse.com.

The Cat Adoption Team is sponsoring a cat for the house and is allowing the public to vote for the lucky resident. Go and vote at: http://www.catadoptionteam.org/ I voted for Rockafeller because I'm partial to orange tabbies.

Just over 3 weeks ago in order to promote the upcoming movie Google and Sony Pictures launched the Da Vinci Code quest. The quest, over the course of 24 days, consisted of logic puzzles. As a fan of logic puzzles, I was eager to play and looked forward to each day's puzzle. Some of puzzles I found easy (especially with using Google's search for the answers) and there were some that were a bit more challenging. The game consisted of 2 phases. Phase I is open to anyone that has a Google ID. Then there's Phase II (due to start in a few days) thats only open to first 10,000 that finish Phase I. The 10,000 finalists do get a prize with the winner of Phase II getting the Grand Prize (http://flash.sonypictures.com/movies/davincicodequest/us/prizing/).

Phase I was completed on May 10th and of course, the finalists wouldn't be notified until May 15th. On May 10th, I anxiously awaited for the last puzzle to be activated so I could complete it. I kept refreshing screen and t my HORROR, I was getting a server busy page. THEN… the server thought I was a BOT! Oh MY! What to do.. I tried it with FF then IE… I finally got IE to work. I frantically watched the video to get the answers and completed the puzzle and registration as fast as possible.

Then I waited.. and waited (for a week!).. and let me tell you.. I don't wait well . The rules said I should be notified on May 15th if I was a finalist. So all day long today, I kept periodically checking my email… and there was no email by the time I left the office at 6pm. I swore I finished the game within minutes…. but was that enough to be a finalist. Then when I got home today.. and saw a little white box! I tore open the box.. and what did I find…..

Then my email reaffirmed what the cryptex in the snail mail had indicated.

Least to say, I was quite happy and danced around with glee when I got my prize. This is what I really wanted when I started playing the game. Wish me luck in the finals!

I was excited to find out that Doctor Who was coming to America. My friend got me hooked on this show and now when I watch I sometimes have to hide behind the couch. Now I don't miss an episode. I can't wait for the DVDs to be released!

This morning I woke up to a chilly morning. As I was leaving to work I noticed this layer of frost on my car's windshield and back window. My wipers took care of my windshield, but I had to scrape off thse stuff my back window.

thats basically it…

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The Bush administration on Wednesday asked a federal judge to order Google Inc. to turn over a broad range of material from its closely guarded databases…Nicole Wong, an associate general counsel for Google, said the company will fight the government's effort "vigorously."

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In a posting on Hacking Netflix it states:

We had the option to buy Netflix for$50 million and we didn't do it. They were losing money. They came around a few times," he recalls. Instead, in 2000, Blockbuster inked a 20-year exclusive video-on-demand pact with Enron as the energy conglom launched into telecom. Blockbuster canned the pact after nine months. Netflix is now worth $1.4 billion. Blockbuster's market cap is about $850 million.

Its quite interesting to hear about what companies had the opportunity to do in the past. But I think overall it was better for the consumers that Blockbuster didn't buy Netflix. With having more than one retailer in the market to offer online DVD rentals, its made the market more competitive. As a result, the consumer has choices where to go and it gets the companies to drop their monthly subscription prices to lure customers.

Ever wonder what your pets were doing while you were away. I did, so I set up this little petcam (check out the link on the right). My cats are a bit timid, especially when I'm dogsitting for my brother. So you'll never know which pet you to take a peak at.

The movie about 2 guys who crossed America using just a Segway just released their movie trailer.

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I used to remember seeing this show on PBS and never understood the facination. Then one day a friend of mine said that there was going to a new series with the ninth Doctor. So I started to watch it. And I quickly joined the cult of Doctor Who. So it never surprised me when an article had showed up regarding stolen Dalek parts.

Now someone has sent back the plunger with a ransom note. They want to talk to the Doctor.

I've been a TIVO owner now for almost 5 years. I loved the idea of being able to set it record every show for a given a season. I've 'season passed' a great number of shows and quite a few on the NBC network. Some of my favorite shows are on that network. As this blogger states:

After a couple years of NBC tweaking start and end show times to push their advertising dollars (and tweak PVR owners in the process), it seems they're abandoning the practice of starting early and ending late.

NBC has finally realized the problems they caused all DVR owners out there less than conventional ending/starting show times. Usually my TIVO had no problem accomdating the 1-minute deviatoin to the the normally scheduled broadcast time of on the hour or on the half-hour. I only had issues when I wanted to record something else right after, which normally would start on the hour. So I would miss the show because of a scheduling conflict.

I would hope other networks (broadcast and cable) will learn from NBC's switch back to starting shows on the hour/half-hour. Unfortunately, as one of the commenter's stated, Discovery is starting to end their shows 1-minute after the hour. I, too, am starting to miss the last minute of Mythbusters.

busy busy busy… thats what its been like the past few weeks. But I did take a little time off from work to do something fun…..

I just got back from my (now) yearly trip up north to the garlic festival. Last year was my first year going. However, I've been wanting to go for a few years. So when I got an invite from my brother & sister-in-law, I jumped at the chance. It was a win-win situation for me. I get to spend some time with my sister-in-law (& brother), and I get to go to the festival.

Well the festival was one of the highlights of the weekend. I got up to the San Jose area fairly early on Friday morning, so we decided we were going to go shopping (after our Starbucks fix of course). After visiting my brother at his work, we stopped for a yummy lunch at a little mexican restaurant close to my my brother's work. They make some strong margaritas, which were quite good. Then we decided to shop. I picked up a bunch of little goodies for the house and a cute pair of pants and a new top. Had a nice dinner, and just relaxed at the house for the rest of the evening (we were going to have to get up early the next morning for the festival .

We drove down early for the festival, arriving there before the doors (or the ticket booth) even opened. We were practically the first peeps in line. Once we got in, we made a bee line for the food. Among some of the things we munched on are: garlic ice cream, garlic fries, stuffed mushrooms (with garlic, parmesean cheese and parsley), garlic sausage sandwhich, shrimp scampi and a buffalo kabob. Many of the foods we split between us 3 and we were so stuffed when left. Then we shopped for all things garlic (and since I didn't write everything down I may of missed a few purchases). One of my favorite purchases this year, is my garlic bobble head (click here to view). I'm going to try and get one every year (well maybe). One of the yummier things I picked up was the garlic kettle corn. It is very good, so much so I had a couple of orders from a few co-workers. That pretty much sums up my the festival. The rest of the weekend consisted of a little pampering (mani/pedi), a little drinking (some yummy drink recipe from the Mirage in LV) and dinner with my sister-in-law's mom. All in all, it was a busy and fun weekend.

For photos of the weekend, check out Garlic Festival Photos

Ciao!

An iTunes phone?

French newspaper giant Le Figaro has a piece (English Babelfish translation here) saying the iTunes-compatible phone being developed by Apple and Motorola will finally launch tomorrow, with at least one American phone carrier agreeing to support it.

I caught this article while checking my RSS feeds. This looks pretty cool. I'm an iPod owner and have bought some of my songs from iTunes. I would love a phone that I could put some of the music I've bought from iTunes. I like having options for the things I buy. I think having an option of purchasing music, ringtones or other options for your phone promotes competition and variety. Alot of times you won't find that one song you're looking for, but you'll find it at a different site.