Slugger

Slugger
Originally uploaded by Jason Hasselkus.

Saturday was Jaden's last day of T-Ball for the season, and we sure did have a great time. Every single kid on the team got better, and I bet all of them will tell you what a great time they had. The parents were great and being able to stand right by your son while he learns the game of baseball was priceless. Jaden liked playing first base, but I think he liked playing outfield most of all. He didn't want to play any position where there wasn't a lot of action, and in the outfield he got to cover a lot of ground with his speed.
Next year we will be playing coach pitch, which should be even more fun that T-Ball. But this year was amazing, and it sure was great as a dad to get to enjoy baseball with my son.

Field of Dreams

Field of Dreams
Originally uploaded by Jason Hasselkus.

On Sunday, Yvonne and I took to the kids (Jaden and Avery) to their first Major League Baseball game. Of course I was partial to the both teams, the Angels and Tigers. We went expecting a good game, especially since the pitchers were on my fantasy team.
Well as it turns out the game was nothing to write home about, especially if your a Tiger fan. This game was over in the first two innings, which yielded 8 runs. This was ok with both Jaden and Avery, because the only thing they could think about were foam fingers and cotton candy.
As parents we didn't care, we loaded them up with all the fun things because we won't be coming back until both kids can sit still for more than 5 minutes.

Uncle Jason and Sterling

Uncle Jason and Sterling
Originally uploaded by Jason Hasselkus.

I couldn't remember if I shared this photo, but our newest member of the Family, Sterling Philip Hasselkus made it into the world. He was perfect in just about every way and although now 3 + months old it amazing how fast he's growing. He really looks like his dad, but even more like his cousin Jaden. I can't wait to see how he grows up and becomes a little man of himself.

It looks like the Hasselkus name is left up to Jaden and Sterling. Ryan and I did our part, now it's their turn. Lets just wait, oh about 20 years or more.

Life has been crazy

By looking at the blog, it appears that almost two full months have past since I put up a post. While this is certainly true, it doesn't mean that we haven't been doing anything. I promise that by the end of the day I will have posted pictures of just a few of things we have been doing over the last two months.
Summer is here and that means the kids are busy with all kinds of events. Jaden has started T-Ball and Avery is her brothers biggest fan. We have gone to see Nemo at Disneyland and few times and a lot of lazy afternoons in the local parks. So I can promise you, life has been full the last few months.

Guitar Hero II

Above this post you will notice a new widget that allows me to pull from YouTube a collection of video's defined by the keywords I find interesting. So about you'll notice that I have a section titled "Guitar Hero II Video's". Yup that's it, click on one of those babies and see what happens. I think there is something to be said about man who plays video games with a little plastic guitar.
For those of you who aren't in the "know", I was recently gifted with Guitar Hero II for the Xbox 360. And I must say, it's probably the most addicting game I have ever owned. One really does get the feeling that they are live on stage with the band. Last night I even found myself head banging to the tunes while playing my little plastic guitar. Yup, I'm not a full on Air Guitar junkie, and I wouldn't want it to be any other way. I've made it past "Easy" with five starts on all songs and even a perfect score while playing "Woman" by Wolfmother. But don't be fooled, this game isn't easy, and shouldn't be played by those who don't want to Rock the Righteous Riff.
I'm late for a jam session, follow me hear as I make my journey from schlepping my own gear to having a road crew.

Avery turns 3 at Disney Land

Happy times at Disney Land
Originally uploaded by Jason Hasselkus.

For Avery's Birthday we went to Disney Land and California Adventure. We started the day off at California Adventure and enjoyed lunch at Ariel's Grotto. Avery was in heaven because she got to meet all of her favorite Princesses. Nothing was more exciting than finally getting to meet Cinderella and getting a hug from her.
Jaden of course enjoyed his time at both parks as you can see in this picture. This was taken towards the end of the day when we had all had about enough fun for one day. Not Avery though, she went to be wearing that wonderful smile. The weather was perfect and we all really enjoyed ourselves at the Happiest Place on Earth.

Teenage Mutant Cal Poly Student

Wow, I totally forgot to post this way back in March! Well here it is anyway. After watching the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles again this weekend I remembered the picture.

Teenage Mutant Cal Poly Student
Originally uploaded by Jason Hasselkus.

Being that my son (Jaden) is a huge Ninja Turtle fan and I'm a Cal Poly alumni, as well as Yvonne, I thought this picture would be appropriate for a post about March Madness. Yes it's my favorite time of year, and that means it's time for March Madness, the NCAA Mens Basketball tournament. 65 teams go into it, and only one can be the winner.
This year, just like in Football, Ohio State is the top ranked team. Lets just hope that what happens in basketball isn't the same as what happened in football. Wouldn't it be ironic if Florida and Ohio State met in Atlanta for the finals? Well it could happen because Florida is in the Midwest and Ohio St. is in the South. Wouldn't that make for huge TV ratings? Well we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Boa Neckless

Boa Neckless
Originally uploaded by Jason Hasselkus.

So here's the story behind this one. Yvonne and I take the kids to a birthday party, where the birthday boy James is in love with animals. So for the second year in a row the Lizard Wizard comes with all of his creatures and lets the kids touch them and learn about them.
So I've been sick for what seems like a month or two and have lost my voice do to the sickness. The Wizard has this very large Boa and as a joke I said, "Yvonne why don't you and I get a picture with that". Well Yvonne said "Yeah I will if you will", so at that point the game was on. She wasn't going to give in any more than I was, so we ended up with this picture. The snake I think was 10ft long, so not terribly huge, but large enough. It was fun, and maybe next year we'll get the kids to get in the picture with us.

Rock and Roll Jaden

Rock and Roll Jaden
Originally uploaded by Jason Hasselkus.

My main man Jaden hates getting his haircut about as much as I like doing laundry. We would both rather do other things with our time. So this time I tried to make it fun for him while he sat on Mom's lap. Well mom (Yvonne) didn't think the Mohawk was to cool, so we only got two pictures of it.
I was able to talk Jaden into giving me the devil horns with his fingers, and now he walks around giving them to everyone. Rock On my young man! He's an awesome kid and the full haircut ended up looking pretty good.

Swinging Monkey Boy

Swinging Monkey Boy
Originally uploaded by Jason Hasselkus.

Sometimes you just have to wonder what's going on in this kids mind when he makes faces like this. I mean he seriously looks like a monkey, and if you could hear it, he sounded like a monkey too. Regardless of the funny faces he and his sister make, I sure love these kids and they sure do keep their mother and I active.

Material Possessions with Love Shirt

Material Possessions
Originally uploaded by Jason Hasselkus.

Today I will equate Material Possessions with love. I think that pretty much says it all. Living in Southern California, specifically Orange County, it makes sense to have a shirt like this. Some people are going to come into your life and use you for everything you can give them. So this is my shirt for all the material people out there.

$18.99 - Mens Small - (White on Black) $18.99 - Mens Med. - (White on Black)

Robin and Flash

Robin and Flash
Originally uploaded by Jason Hasselkus.

I took this picture of Jaden (my son) and Connor (his best bud) at their Halloween party. I also had time this weekend to get out my Mac and started to play around with Comic Life, the program that comes with the preloaded software.
I always kinda thought I could just get along with Photoshop and Illustrator, but this little baby has some really fun things that you can use to enhance your photos.
Now I must find a few of my little Cinderella (Avery) and make a comic looking picture for her. Watch out flickr, here I come with a whole new hobby.

View the coast on bikes

Bikes on the Pier
Originally uploaded by Jason Hasselkus.

One of my favorite things to do is go to the beach. We are lucky enough in Southern California to have beach access just about anywhere and any time we want. Here is a picture I took while on the pier waiting for a table at Ruby's. Ruby's is fortunate to have two locations at the end of piers. Balboa has one and so doe Huntington Beach. The food is no better on the pier than it is on mainland, but it sure is a lot more fun and scenic. Notice how the birds somehow missed the bikes, but really beat up that trash can.
One thing we learned while visiting the ocean, is that you should never look up for too long as you never know what's going to be flying over your head. We are thankful that Lindsay wasn't was with us on this trip or we would have sure gotten dumped on by a bird. There are more pictures of California over at flickr.

Rugby in Balboa

Rugby in Balboa
Originally uploaded by Jason Hasselkus.

So what did I do this weekend? Well we took the kids to Balboa to ride thier bikes and basically get out of the house. My back needed a rest so I thought it might be better to go to the beach than be the human jungle gym at home.
While there, we ate at Ruby's on the pier and watched a bunch of men play Rugby. I don't exactly know how this game is played or even one single rule of it, but it was pretty interesting to watch. No I don't think I'll be playing Rugby any time soon, but I might come back to watch.

Blogger and Safari Don't match

I learned something interesting last night. And that's that Blogger and Safari don't really work so well together. You know that nice little tool bar at the top of the post window that lets you bold, link, check spelling, etc. Well it's not there in Safari, which was also a problem for Wordpress not to many versions ago.
There has to be a fix, I just haven't found it yet. But I'm still not giving up my Safari experience, I love the way it displays pages and makes my Internet browsing experience all the more better.

My Plane Ride with Tyler

For more than two years now, I've had the luxury of working from home and not having to travel as I did before. Before my current gig, I traveled anywhere from 30 to 48 weeks of the year. The only time I was off the road, was either for vacation, which I was seldom allowed to take, or for the birth of a child. Now when I travel, it's either for pleasure or a conference of some sort. The kind of traveling that doesn't seem to wear you out as much.
My most recent trip was to Seattle to get organized with my customer on what this years initiatives are. It's always good to see faces that often times you only get to associate email addresses and phone conversations with. Since I had plenty of notice for this trip, I had book my reservations in advance and was able to get bulk head seating. I always like bulk head seats, and the isle seat in bulk head, so I can "almost" sit in first class.
Boarding the plane early, I was able to get my reading material ready and get my briefcase put away in ample time for the mad rush of fellow passengers. As I lay back in my seat to close my eyes, I feel a whack at my ankle, like someone taking a stick and nailing me with it. As I open my eyes I notice that it was indeed a stick, a blind person's walking stick. To my surprise, my new friend for the next two hours has boarded the plane and is ready to take his seat right next to me.
After getting situated, Tyler leans over and introduces himself to me, saying that his name is Tyler and that I shouldn't get freaked out if he goes into a seizure. It's normal and will pass in 20 to 30 seconds. I thought to myself, great, please don't have a seizure on me. After sitting there for a while, I notice Tyler taking a book out and reading braille. Now I've always been fascinated with braille and how they read this way. I then asked him how he did it and he told me that he can read in 7 different languages. Here I can barely read in one and he can read in 7 and by the looks of things, at a much faster pace. I proceed to chat with Tyler and then he lays on me the biggest mystery of the day. Not only is Tyler blind and can read braille at an amazing clip, but he's also teaches sign language.
Yes that's right, a blind person that teaches sign language. This naturally left me puzzled for some time, as I couldn't really wrap my head around how a blind person might be able to SEE someone else signing. At about this time I'm sure he could sense my astonishment and told me that he knows how to sign and read it from others, but can't necessarily see what the other person is doing. This then made sense to me, but to see a blind person sign, is like telling a deaf person a secret.
All in all it was great to meet Tyler and learn something on a plane, rather than sitting there and being bored. This flight was anything but boring, and I wish Tyler the best in teaching reading and signing.

And the Grammy Goes To?

Well as we all know, tonight was the Grammy awards and it couldn't have been more disappointing. The Dixie Chicks, as much as I hate to write anything about them won for Album of the year. It's not that their music is terrible, but it's the fact that they were so unsupportive of our President. We can't all agree with the decisions that the Leader of the Free World makes, but we elected him, and we have to believe in that process. Oh well, all wasn't lost at the Grammy's, The Red Hot Chili Peppers had a great performance and seeing Sting back on the stage with the other two Police was awesome. So next year we can only hope that the Dixie chicks aren't on the airwaves and we can enjoy the music awards again.

The Rich Jerk

So I'm looking around the Internet the other day and I come across this link to a guys site that I just couldn't believe. So I start reading his story and can't believe how arrogant he is. I mean he's really really arrogant. Now I've been around the Internet for a while now and I've seen my fair share of "Get Rich Quick" websites. This one however was just to good to believe. You can Click Here to see it.
So being the cynic that I am, I kept on reading, and read a little more. Then did a little searching and investigative searching, only to find out that it's real. Yeah, that's right, someone did actually get pretty wealthy off of a system that was created in advertising on the Internet. It's called Affiliate Advertising and it works. I know it works because I've been doing it now for a few weeks and I can't believe I'm actually making money off of it.
But here's the catch!
This isn't for everyone. And as much as his ebook tries to make it seem simple, it really does take some work. I spend about 2 hours a day on it, and that's it. Trust me I was scared at first. Saying to myself, "is this insane", "can I actually make money this way". The checks didn't start coming in by the truck loads, and they still don't, but there is enough there to suppliment a nice income. I've heard stories of people making huge amounts of income, but for me that hasn't happened, but it does work, there is no doubt about that.
If your serious about making a little part time money at home, then you should Click Here! If you don't you have nothing to loose, but if you do, you might have a lot to gain.

Need a Lost Refresher?

So you watch the TV show Lost, but you really want to catchup on all the episodes before tonight's new one? Well your in luck, because the fine people at ABC allow you to watch every episode from their website with virtually no commercials. As long as you have a high speed connection your in good shape to see the entire third season, plus a bonus of what's to come in the second half of the season. So head on over to ABC and start watching.

Pond Patrol

For those of us who never really grew out of the GI Joe stage of our life, check out the online series that uses plastic dolls as the actors. I'm not kidding, not only is this site strange, it's unique and well done. As I don't actually read the stuff, I did flip through to see the bizarre content. For a good laugh check out The Pond Patrol.

McDonald's Beats Starbucks

When one thinks of coffee, they usually think of Starbucks or Seattle's Best. Especially if your in the pacific northwest where coffee stores outnumber the people. Consumer reports did a test test with some of the leading brands of consumer coffee and announced McDonald's the winner. That's right, the McCoffee beat the over roasted taste of Starbucks.
Now I must admit, that I can't recall ever having a coffee from McDonalds, but I've had my fair share of coffee from Starbucks. I'll also be the first to admit that I don't think Starbucks has the best tasting coffee, but I would be willing to bet that it's better than most. So Consumer Reports tested; McDonalds, Burger King, Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks. Notice that Seattle's Best and Tully's were left off the list. When I travel, especially since most of my travel takes me to Chicago, I almost certainly have a Dunkin' Donuts coffee. Hey, we don't have this in California and I need my fix from childhood. Anyway, my choice would be Dunkin' Donuts, and I don't do anything to it, straight black for me.
Putting the taste of coffee on the side, why didn't Consumer Reports test the atmosphere of each of these locations. Now I don't know about you, but going into a Starbucks is an experience everyone must have. Just hope that the line is long, and listen really carefully. Sometimes when people order it sounds as if they are ordering a meal instead of a coffee. The best order I ever heard had about ten options and then they asked it to be done at 102 degrees. I nearly lost my head when I heard that, but I digress. The other three certainly don't have the atmosphere that Starbucks does, but I guess it doesn't matter.
So when your out and about looking for a little pick me up, Consumer Reports says go for McD's, everyone else says go for Starbucks. You can't miss them, they are both on just about every corner in America.

The Most Stolen Cars

According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, the most reported stolen vehicles in 2005 are as follows.

1. 1991 Honda Accord
2. 1995 Honda Civic
3. 1989 Toyota Camry
4. 1994 Dodge Caravan
5. 1994 Nissan Sentra
6. 1997 Ford F150 Series
7. 1990 Acura Integra
8. 1986 Toyota Pickup
9. 1993 Saturn SL
10. 2004 Dodge Ram Pickup

So lets review this list a little bit. Now I can see the first two, but starting at number 3, an 89' Camry? What the heck are these thieves thinking? And for the life of me I can't think of a reason to steal a 10 year old Caravan.
Does the car being on this list mean that it's an extremely popular car? Or does it mean that these are the easiest cars in the world to get into? I'm a betting man and I'll put my money on #2. If I'm going to waste my time and energy on stealing something I'm going to go after something I would at least want to be seen in. I've had an Accord and trust me, it's not a chick magnet, nor is the Caravan on the Sentra.

Prince Rocks the House?

For those of us that were forced to watch the halftime show of the Super Bowl, we were really treated to something special. Prince, who now goes by Prince and not that symbol gave us a good show, even covering tunes by the Foo Fighters. But come on, doesn't everyone like to hear "Lets Go Crazy"? Yeah, such a treat.
However, I do wonder what the heck he was thinking by wearing a head dressing that I don't think I have seen since the Brady bunch days. I vaguely remember an episode where Alice was wearing something like that, but I'm getting old so my memory may not be what it use to be.
One things for sure ... The game was great. Since I really am not a fan of either team, it was great to see a true professional win. Peyton Manning is an awesome quarterback and he proved it today. Congrats to the Colts, they can finally put that label of not being able to win in the playoffs behind them. Plus I have Peyton's rookie card, so I'm banking on that one!

Windows Vista

So I did it. Yup, I went ahead and took the plunge and upgraded my XP machine to the new Windows Vista. So far I would have to say that I like it. I am also a very big fan of Apple, and Microsoft really got close to being more like a mac this time.
I guess it was only a matter of time. First the Mac started using Intel chips and now Microsoft is packaging a lot more with it's OS. So the gap doesn't seem to be as wide anymore. It's still there, it's just not as big as the Grand Canyon.
Here are a few things I think you should think about before you jump to Vista. First, if your hardware is more than a year old, DONT THINK ABOUT IT! Vista takes a ton of resources and most of them are hardware related. For those geeks that have the latest and greatest processor and graphics cards, this version is for you. If your the person that's looking to upgrade your computer then go ahead and buy a preloaded package, that way you know everything is going to work together. Now the other type of person that is absolutely going to LOVE Vista, is the person that watches TV via their computer.
Yes those of you who watch TV via the computer, really need to get your hands on Media Center. Now I'm a huge fan of Tivo, and Microsoft has really come close to bringing the computer into the living room for family entertainment. Not only do you have Tivo like controls, but you have the added ability to watch all kinds of programs coming directly from the Media Center interface. The online stuff like Yahoo Channel is awesome.
So if you got the bucks and you want to enjoy your computer experience that much more I would say Vista is a great option, but make sure you get one of the Premium packages.

How to Flickr with Blogger

Ok so I had the burning desire to put pictures from my flickr account on my new blogger page. So here's how I did it and what you need to do it.

1. You need a flickr account.
2. Sign into your account and navigate to one of the pictures you want to post in your blog.
3. Select the "Blog This" button at the top of the picture (in the toolbar).
4. Follow the instruction on the screen to complete your registration.
5. Pick a style of how you want your posts to look.
6. That's about it

One of the cool things that I found out, is that you can go into you post afterwards and change as much as you want. This makes it nice, because the interface to create your post on flickr is minimal. So I say go ahead and start blogging from flickr to blogger, but blogger isn't your only option. You can post to other popular blogging software as well.

Avery in Diapers

Avery in Diapers
Originally uploaded by Jason Hasselkus.

This is Avery Hasselkus in a diaper hanging out with dad. This pic was taken in October of 2006. As of today, Avery no longer wears diapers. My little girl is growing up really fast. It will just be a matter of time until she's wearing war paint on her face and bring boys back to meet her mother and father. But I plan to enjoy the young years while they last.

The Power of Barter

By now almost everyone has heard of Kyle MacDonald and his quest to trade a red paperclip for a house. Yup, it only took 14 trades but he finally did it. You can read his whole story here. You might also be interested in Bob Meyers' take on what this means to the world of Bartering. For those of you who don't know, Bob is a barter expert, and there is a lot to learn by reading his blog. You may just learn a thing or two about running your own business and getting more out of your business relationships.

This is my very first blogger post

So I made it. Yup I made the leap of creating blogs for clients to now using the worlds easiest blogging client around. The setup was easy and so is just about everything else when it comes to blogger. So like I have promised on my other blogs, I will try to keep this as up to date as I can.