Some of you may wonder just where I have dissappeared to. Never fear…I have not dissappeared. I have merely been pre-occupied mainly with something I did not expect myself to be pre-occupied with…and that would be yelp.com

I think it all started when I wrote about Torchy’s Tacos. It has gone downhill since then.

For those of you that don’t know, yelp.com is a user-driven review site/social network that allows one the opportunity to voice opinions about places…doctors, stores, restaurants…to other people. The whole ‘wisdom of the masses’ mentality for the Web shines full force here, and I’ve been enjoying writing reviews of restaurants I’ve been going to. I figure that I do my fair share of eating in restaurants; I consider myself fortunate to be able to do that. I know some people have to really make the time and effort to go out to eat. Therefore, I thought I might knock out two birds with one stone and do some reviews so I can:

1) Write a little more because I sure like writing and…

2) Pass on my experiences to those who might be looking for a well-deserved night out so they can hopefully avoid the swill

God, I’m so noble.

Besides yelp-ing…I’ve been playing GTA IV…probably one of the greatest games in the history of video gaming. I say that with full confidence and absolutely NO sarcasm whatsoever. There is something pretty amazing about this one that few games manage to capture. Violence, insanity, sexual innuendo and general bad stuff aside, I can pretty much promise you there hasn’t been a more fully realized non-contrived video game character than Nico Bellick. He’s a complicated person. And he’s further complicated by what you choose to put into him and put him through. The stats say I’m approximatley 11% of the way through the game, and I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface. I’m excited to see where it takes me.

And then a friend of mine at work got me started back on WoW. That’s all I’ll say about that. As a matter of fact, that’s what I’m going to go do now…

In the meantime, if you want to see what I’ve been writing on yelp, go here. You’ll hopefully get a chuckle or two…

For several years, I have avoided the Blackberry phenomenon. It’s a little weird because I have been known to enjoy the gadgets. But really, when it comes down to it, I’ve never liked the thought of being ‘connected’ and accessible 100% of the time. I’ve also always thought that a phone should just be left to being a phone. I don’t need anything super-fancy. It just has to be kind of cool looking and usable.

Then I started my new job where they pay for me to have a Blackberry…

At first, I wasn’t so OK with that because of the reasons stated above. Not only that, but I started thinking about ‘those people’ in meetings where they have their BB in one hand and they are half paying attention and how annoying that can be. I don’t ever want to be one of those people.

Now that I’ve had it for a several weeks, I’m actually figuring out that it’s a pretty useful tool, and if you use it right (like anything else) it can be something that increases your productivity and communications quite a bit.

I’ve noticed is that it actually suits my communication style a little better as well. I don’t like the phone very much at all. I make it a rule for myself to make phonecalls as little as possible, and when I am on the phone, I tend to want to cut to the chase pretty quickly.

When you’re on the phone, you’re on the spot to come up with something to say right then and there. When you’re e-mailing or BB Messaging or texting, you have some time to think about what you’re going to say and how you’re going to say it. It forces you to be concise as well, and that’s something I’ve had to work on for a while. I’ve been known to send out some monster e-mails…

The only thing that I’m even mildly annoyed with is the fact that, when someone e-mails me or communicates with my via BB, I feel the need to be responsive. I’m a firm believer in the idea of unplugging and unwinding so your brain has a chance to recover from the rigors of a work-week. I guess I don’t have to be responsive 100% of the time. Nobody is holding a gun to my head saying that I will be executed if I’m not super-fast on the draw. I suppose that if you are 100% responsive, you are setting yourself up for some small amount of failure in that you are creating the expectation, the appearance, that it’s just fine to ask you to do things anytime, anyplace, anywhere. That’s not fair to yourself, and to some degree, it’s not fair to the other person because you get it in your head that if you are going to be available, then they should be available too when they might not necessarily want to be.

In a world where things are becoming increasingly more and more ‘on-demand’ we need to be cognizant of the effect this has on our relationships with others. We need to be understanding that people are people are people, and that just because they have the tools to be reachable 24/7, that doesn’t mean we should abuse it or take advantage of it. Afterall, the world isn’t going to end if that Sujnday e-mail isn’t sent until Monday. Or maybe it’s that you can choose to send out the e-mail, but don’t unfairly expect a response if until a reasonable hour.

So for now, I’ll view it as a nice tool that my company has bestowed upon me and hope that everyone is just as thoughtful as I will try to be when it comes to a reasonable amount of communication.

Today, friends, was a breakthrough in culinary happiness

We’re not just talking, like, “That was some fine cuisine” good. No…no…that’s just way to little. We’re talking, “Oh my dear sweet god…there has never been, and there never will be, similar foodstuffs that could come anywhere close to the goodness of what I just put into my belly.”

That is what I experienced today at Torchy’s Tacos…pure culinary genius. Little (but big for tacos) bundles of pure heaven served within shining sheaths of aluminum foil.

I truly believe that if I all of a sudden died right after eating these tacos, I would have died one of the happiest individuals on the planet. I would have died thinking, “I have experienced Taco Nirvana.”

If heroin is the true drug connoisseur’s “Drug of Choice”, then I would have to say that these tacos are one above that.

If I could direct inject them into a vein, I would happily tap a vein or five and start pumping away.

I hope my point is made.

Torchy’s is located on West 6th street in the parking lot of a restaurant called ‘Woodrow’s’. Note that I said in a parking lot; these glorious little bastards are served from a trailer. A new friend at work told me about it, and I was excited. These are TACOS we’re talking about…and who can’t get excited about tacos in Austin?…especially when you’ve been taco-deprived for most of the years of your life.

But I had no idea that I’d basically be falling in love.

I ordered a breakfast taco with potatoes, egg and cheese and a Green Chili Pork Taco, flour tortilla (instead of corn) hold the cilantro, please. Upon getting back to the office and sitting at my desk, I promptly unwrapped the breakfast taco. I was surprised at the fact that it wasn’t completely soggy and gross as I had just walked about 5 blocks to get back. I also got waylaid for about 10 minutes at CVS because they didn’t have enough cashiers. But that’s a different story…

I noticed they put some green chili salsa and what I think was green chili queso in with the bag. I threw the salsa on but decided to save the queso for the other taco.

Within my first bite, I recall seeing Jesus. In person. Dressed in a nicely cut wool suit. With really pimp looking sunglasses. He was pointing at me saying, “Son, that is the best taco you’ve ever had, right?”

Right.

It was the kind of experience where you feel like every bite is magical, like you want to savour it as if it were going to be the last bite of something you ever take. Everything was in its place and as it should be…a beautiful greasy mix of eggs, potatoes and cheese all glommed together in one of the tastiest (most likely 100% lard based) tortillas ever.

After finishing the first, I quickly moved to the second…the Green Chili Pork Taco. This one was something special because I am a green chili fiend. And even though we live in Texas, green chili just isn’t as prevalent as I thought it would be. But here we had it ready and available in a taco, ready to be consumed with much vigor.

After dumping some of the green chili queso AND the remainder of the green chili salsa, I took a bite. Again, Jesus, standing there in the wool suit, pointing at me with a smile and saying, “Son, I sinned. I lied to you. But that’s OK because I’m Jesus. That first taco was child’s play. This one you’re eating now…THIS one is the best taco you’ve ever had, right?”

Right.

I’m not even going to try and explain how good this thing was because, honestly, I don’t think there are any words to describe it. Let’s just say that my life has changed. I now know that not all tacos are anywhere NEAR created equal.

If you haven’t been and you live in Austin, I need for you to stop what you’re doing right now and go there. NOW. Go there and eat a taco as if your life depended on it.

If you haven’t been and you don’t live in Austin, do yourself a favor and buy a plane ticket to come down and have lunch there.

You will be happy.

Here’s the menu for you. I’ve been told that The Trailer Park, extra trashy (read “take the lettuce off and smother the thing in lots of queso) and the Ranch Hand are unbelievable. If they are better than the two that I had, then I’m note quite sure that my taste buds would be able to take it without my head spontaneously combusting.

Why are you still reading this? Go now.

Guess that makes sense and all, seeing that they are my client and all…specifically the Small to Medium Business unit (SMB).

I came to work on my first day to be greeted by a ridiculously large cardboard box…one that looked like it should be carrying a giant nuclear tower or something like that. It was very ugly and had a huge black Dell logo on the side of it.
This was quite the opposite of of my Macbook Pro purchase.

After plowing through opening the thing, I realized that, buried beneath several other smaller cardboard boxes, was a flatter, more thin cardboard box containing a brand spanking new Dell 630C laptop. After getting it all setup and running, I have to say that I’m pretty impressed with it.

The overall look of it is pretty aesthetically pleasing. Though it’s certainly not anywhere near as sleek and ‘designery’ (I made up another word…awesome) as a Mac, it doesn’t look like a brick of black electronics. It’s black and grey, and the plastic used seems to be of high quality. It’s thin and light, but it doesn’t feel like if you were to drop it, it would shatter or break.

There are two things about the feel of it I noticed right away. First, the hinge on the lid is almost perfect. It adjusts very easily, but it doesn’t make you muscle it to get it to a proper viewing angle. Once you get it in place, it doesn’t move or wobble. And second, the keyboard is fantastic. It feels very solid, tactile & responsive.

Overall operation of it feels fast. I guess it should, seeing that it’s a 2.2 Dual Core Intel chip w/ 4 gigs of RAM. The video card is an nVidia Quadro 135M, which isn’t a slouch when it comes to strictly business-class usage. It operates quietly, the fan kicking on only every once in a while. Otherwise, it runs cool. Using it normally, I can have it sitting on my lap with some shorts on and it doesn’t burn my legs.

The trackpad feels decent. The ‘eraser head’/'mouse nubbin’ is throwaway, but is OK nonetheless. There are 4 USB ports, a 1394 firewire port, an SD slot, 1 PCMCIA slot, DVD-RW/CD-RW, a serial port and a VGA port. The screen is 14.1 inches and looks decent, though just a tiny bit on the dull side. Of course, I’m spoiled by my Macbook Pro; the screen on that thing is pretty much unbeatable in my opinion…

My point isn’t to write an in-depth review or anything like that. Rather, it’s to point out that I think Dell has made some pretty great strides in their product line over the years. I mean, yeah, I’m ’supposed’ to say that, seeing that technically Dell keeps me in a job. But I honestly feel like this is a great improvement over what I used in the past.

I’ve also seen some of the XPS M1330s floating around, and those are pretty nice looking too, though I haven’t used them at all. They have a very sleek look about them…

Anyway, so overall, I’m not disappointed with my nifty new work laptop. Then again, just about anything would be better than the piece of crap Trashiba…whoops…Toshiba…I had previously.

So…if you’re looking at buying a PC, buy a Dell. Not only will you be getting what seems to be a pretty darn good quality machine, you’ll be keeping your ol’ buddy Andrew in a job that much longer, and that’s what we all want, right?

Right.

Finally, after a week, I decided to stop being lazy and actually downgrade back to V2.1 of Wordpress. You’ll notice that my categories are finally back. Amazing. I was starting to get discouraged, but thankfully, it’s now fixed.

Also, if you use Wordpress, I highly recommend the Tiger Administration tool. I gotta’ give it to this guy, he has done a fantastic job of making the wp-admin interface a much, much nicer thing to navigate through. It’s very clean and well designed. I’m impressed.

Let’s see…in other news:

• Finished up Condemned 2: Bloodshot. The game was awesome, although in retrospect, it was a little restrictive in the way you approach how you play. It’s a very linear game, and there are a lot of sequences where you just hit a button and your character  does what he’s supposed to do in a sequence. For example, if you have to climb up something, you don’t actually have to figure out how to do it; rather, you just hit the spot where the sequence is triggered and hit ‘A’, and then he climbs.  However, the experience overall was pretty amazing. It was a great story and is truly one of the creepiest games I think I’ve ever played.
• Picked up Rainbow 6 Vegas 2 and have played through the first mission and a half or so. As with the last one, it’s really great. Not much has changed in the overall mechanic…and really…why should it? The first one was awesome. So far, I’m having fun with it, though I admit that it’s not a shooter for everyone. It’s far more difficult in that you really have to think and use your parters else you get quickly wasted when you go busting through doors. Your character can’t take much damage before he goes down.
•  Evil Andrew tried to open up a new credit card, but he was foiled by the fraud alert I put on my accounts. Stupid bastard. Some guy called me from Capital One and asked if I had tried to open up a credit card anytime recently. The only dissappointing thing is that when I called to update the Las Vegas PD, they didn’t seem to know what was going on (couldn’t find my case) and the guy who would have an idea was, of course, out for the day. That’s my luck though. Oh well; at least this idiot can’t open up any more cards under my name.
• The neighbors continue to get progressively worse…or it’s really just that since I decided to write about it, I’m now even more painfully aware of them. We’re thinking about purchasing scary masks, going down there in the middle of the night and banging on their windows…specifically the kids’ windows. Is that evil…?
• I am addicted to a place called ‘The Pita Pit”. Holy crapola, Batman…it’s so tasty.  Its about 3 blocks up from my new office, and they have some of the most ridiculously good wrap-style food I’ve ever had. I seem to have found a superior combination of flavors in mixing a little bit of wing sauce with tzatziki sauce, the ensuing tastebud effect being a spicy sensation mixed with the mellower cool cucumber taste of the tzatziki. Mmmm…I think I just like using that word…tzatziki…
• I’m gonna’ go see ‘Horton Hears a Who’.  It loos like it’s freakin’ awesome.
• Today I knew I was getting old when I was picking up coffee and the friendly counter girl asked me if I had any weekend plans. I thought for a moment, initially said no, thought more about it, and then decided to say that I had just gotten my “Planet Earth” HD-DVDs (for the bargain basement price of $25.00) and was really looking forward to watching that this weekend. She looked at me as if I had just sprouted a third eye and was getting ready to pour the hot coffee directly into it. I walked away…mildly ashamed…but still oddly excited about watching “Planet Earth”. Screw the Seattle’s Best counter girl. Hmph…
• In the house buying process…or rather…the loan acquiring process. Got a sweet huge packet of junk that we get to fill out so we can get a large sum of cash to fund aforementioned house purchcase. I’m excited about that.
• Deliberating whether or not it’s worth it to purchase an XM Radio subscription. It has been really nice having it since I got my new car, but I don’t know that it’s worth the $13.00 a month for it. There are quite a few awesome channels though…

That’s all I gots. I’m sooooo sweeeepy……..

Friday @ 11:55. Wow. I am  pathetic…