Brad's Blog

Paperless

2010-12-06T16:30:00.003-06:00

In the electronic age we live in I find myself moving more and more to a paperless world. Currently the only thing that I use paper for is taking notes during meetings at work, books, and the occasional "post it." I wonder... is it really easier going paperless? It is really "green" to be paperless? For me a nice hybrid of paper and paperless has worked well but more and more my "post it's" on on my Blackberry which leaves notes at work.

The question got my attention because in researching an online institution recently I learned that the online institution was 100% paperless. This is weird to me because even the university of phoenix online requires that you purchase printed books and has them shipped to you. (This could be a little out of date since it has been several years since I actually attended classes there.) At the end of the day.. very few companies or even people are truly 100% paperless and this is actually the first that I have ever seen it.

Since stumbling upon this I have asked myself.. should I dedicate myself to being 100% paperless? I wonder what your thoughts are.

Droid Blogging

2010-05-02T14:27:00.001-05:00

This is my first post from my Android phone. Mobile Blogging is so much better than from the pc simply because you can do it from anywhere. The app I am using is called Blogaway which can be downloaded for free from the Andriod market. It is the only blogging tool that allows attaching pictures and Video so far. As an example I have attached a photo that I took about 5 mins ago from the park I am sitting in. Enjoy!

Location : 101-199 Chestnut Ave, Westmont, IL 60559,

New Sidewalk

2009-07-19T13:20:00.000-05:00

All the grass is finally grown in around the new side walk. Here is the finished product!!!

WoooooHoooooo!!

Land Scaping Done!!

2009-06-30T20:09:00.000-05:00

Got the Land Scaping done on the west side of the house!!! Check it out!!

Almost Done!

2009-06-22T14:27:00.000-05:00

I have been working on this front yard for the better part of 2 months and I am happy to say it is nearly done!! WOOOOHOOOO!! After 3 HOT days (Today being the Hottest) we have finished the deck and front side land scaping.. Even got a porch swing hung up!! YAY!! All the is left now is to finish the dirt filling around the new side walk, land scape the sides of the house, landscape around the trees, and plant grass! Ok that is still kind of a lot but I feel good about what we have so far! See pictures and leave comments! Have a great day!

Project New Deck is Complete!

2009-06-20T16:05:00.000-05:00

After appx a month the new deck front is built and painted!! I think this looks fabulous!!! Leave comments and let me know what you think!

Deck is almost finished!

2009-06-16T20:36:00.000-05:00

As of today the steps and extra rail have been installed! All I have to do now is paint and project new sidewalk and new deck are complete! Next all I gotta to is land scape the side of my house and some other small spots in the yard and we are complete for the year! WOOO HOO!!

Facebook Cleanup

2009-06-10T20:58:00.002-05:00

Alot of you may have recently realized that deleted over 200 friends from my facebook profile. The reason for this is very simple. I either litterally NEVER talk to you or I work with you. I have chosen to remove those that I work with just simply because "you never know" what might get posted or whatever so its better this way. Feel free to email me with any questions or concerns. bhighberger@gmail.com

Workin Out

2009-05-21T22:54:00.002-05:00

So I recently started working on out a daily basis. This is probably gonna go down as one of the best decisions I have made in my entire life!! I have more energy... I am more alert... losing this ugly gut that has been just creeping in over the years... and best of all I hope I am setting a good example for others to follow. You others know who you are!! At any rate... if you do not work out, go on walks, or just do something active each day, I highly reccomend that you find a way to start doing this. It makes a huge difference in the quality of your life. Ok.. that's it for now... Peace.. Out!

Banned

2009-04-19T11:20:00.001-05:00

So CCP has BANNED my Eve-Online account for the below reason.

User sentaur is banned pending investigation
Last login: 2009.04.14 03:19
Number of visits: 1210
Reason: Account security compromised - please contact
support@eve-online.com

Yeah so needless to say I am pretty much done with this game since they have not answered my request for resolution in over a weeks time. Is sooooooo sad.

Eve Online

2009-02-23T17:38:00.003-06:00

Well.. holding true to my core I have decided to get back into a game. The one I have chosen is the tried and true Eve-Online. I chose this game for many different reasons. First, it's sci-fi which is a must in order to hold my interest for more than an hour. Second, I can play it casually and still feel like I am accomplishing something, as opposed to world of warcraft or any of the other ever-quest spawns out there. Third, it truly is a game where you can do whatever you want, whenever you want, however you want. There is nothing forcing you in any one given direction in this game. It truly is what you decide to make of it. 4th, It has the best sound track of any game in existence. So if you are into gaming you should check this one out. If you are not... then you should still check this one out cause it is that good!

Eve Website

Eve Trailers

Play All Eve Trailers on YouTube

Safari vs. Chrome

2009-02-07T14:29:00.003-06:00

Ok.... officially... these 2 are my favorite browsers over I.E. and Firefox. But what makes them so great.. well, essentially they all do the exact same stuff and offer pretty much the exact same features. as far as why Safari and Chrome make it to the top for me, that has 2 reasons. First.. they both have built in spell check so I spell things correctly.. second.. they both have the most simple user interface. Stuff works like I would like it to without having to modify or add on anything. It is right out of the box great!! Now... you cant have 2 favorites so which one is going to get the number one spot. Well after using them both for a couple weeks side by side I think that Apple Safari actually takes the cake over Google Chrome. Why? Well, Chrome still has some growing to do. Safari works on both the P.C. and the Mac were as Chrome only works on the PC so far. Safari supports RSS Feeds and Chrome does not. Also, overall, Safari just has a much more simple and easy to look at interface. So while I absolutely LOVE Chrome!! Safari is going to win for now!! So... if you want to know how I would rank them I have put it all below. Thanks for reading my blog!! Please leave comment!

Browsers by Rank: 1 Awesome 4 Sucks

Websites as Applications

2009-02-01T09:44:00.004-06:00

Everyone knows that I have been absolutely RAVING over how awesome google chrome is. Well with the recent fixes which allow for full fuctionality with hotmail and yahoo mail the browser has just gotten better and better. I recently stumbled across a new feature in chrome that I think is just awesome!!! The feature is called "Create Application Shortcuts". If you click on the little page looking icon directly to the right of the address bar you will find the option. Essentially what it does is creates a shortcut on your desktop or where ever you want linking you back to that specific website. You may ask, "why is that so cool?" You may also say, "Big deal! I can do that in I.E., Firefox, or safari too! What makes Chrome so special?" Well..... I am about to tell you. The difference with chrome is that it will actually load that site into an application window using the icon of that site. It is completely seperate from the browser and truly gives it that desktop application look and feel. This is especially GREAT for webware applications like Google Docs, Pandora Radio, Twitter, Facebook, and so on. I absolutely cannot do this feature justice by describing it in this article. I encourage you to download and install a copy of chrome so you can give it a try for yourself! Happy surfing!

Google Chrome Download Link

Google Chrome Developer Video

Music

2009-01-26T13:48:00.003-06:00

As everyone already knows... Music is a big part of my life. Music gets me through each day with all the good times and the bad. It is my source for motivation, energy, and inspiration. I love all different kinds of music and I am a fan of any one or any thing that promotes music to others. With that being said I have made a few recent discoveries that I wan to share with everyone.

Pandora:

Pandora is a music service that will build a custome radio station for you based off of one song. I am not kidding you that I put in one song that I thought was awesome and I have been listening to this station ever since. Pandora is no joke! This is probably the best internet radio service I have ever seen! It does have one downfall which is that I cannot listen to it on my Blackberry. You should most definately check this out if you dont already know about it!

Slacker:

Slacker works almost exactly like Pandora except it is not quite as good. It is still worth your time to give it a shot. The reason why I like slacker so much is that they offer an application for Blackberry. The website works great but I will focus this article on the Blackberry app since that is my primary use for this service. The app streams the radio station to your phone and does not even skip a beat. I was very impressed with the streaming feature and I am on 1x. I cannot wait to try this on EVDO! Another great feature is the fact that you can cache your station to your memory card allowing you to download all the music directly to your phone and listen to it that way. WOW!! It works wonderfully! The music that is cached automatically updates based on how you rate the songs every time you plug your phone into your computer. This is just an amazing service! Best of all..... ITS FREE!! Who needs an iPod!

Playlist.com:

Both of the services mentioned above are absolutely outstanding but sometimes I want to pick what song I want to listen to rather than the random experience provided by internet radio. Playlist.com provides this service and does it well. In addition to streaming the songs that you choose you can embed your playlist into any website. This is especially handy if you want to add music to your favorite social networking page. You just cant beat playlist.com!!

All of these services are free and all of them work based on ad support. None of them are annoying with the ads so it is really not a deciding factor for use of the service.

I hope that you give them a try and find as much for them as I have!

Teeth

2009-01-14T21:54:00.003-06:00

DUDE!!! I got 4 fillings done yesterday and about a thousand shots of novacaine or whatever its called these days!! My jaw is SORE!! YEOWTCH!! Make sure you take care of your teeth because if you dont this is the type of stuff you have to deal with! Although.. for the record... with the exception of all the Mt. Dew I drink, I actually do take really good care of my teeth! Anyway... I just wanted to share that with the world!

Twitter

2009-01-11T13:48:00.003-06:00

Ok so I have had a Twitter account for almost a year now but only over the past week have I really began to use it. I am finding it very useful for keeping people up to date on where I am.. what I am doing... articles that I think are interesting.. sharing links.. and so on. So in short.. TWITTER is probably the greatest IDEA since sliced bread. If you have not tried it yet you should set up a free account and give it a try. If you do... please make sure to follow me and I will do the same for you. The bigger your network becomes.. the more useful of a tool it is. Below I have posted a video that explains it a bit further.. a link to the site.. and a link to my profile. Enjoy! -Brad

Twitter Video

Twitter Site

My Twitter Page

12/9/2008

2008-12-09T18:53:00.001-06:00

Only in Iowa does it rain then freeze to ice.. then snow on top of the ice.. then rain on top of the snow to make more ice in less than 24 hrs total!! WOW!! I love Iowa weather!! My wife is out driving my son to his doctor appointment right now.. I hope that they are ok and make it home safely. Mean while its just me and my daughter at home holdin down the fort. All she wants to do is watch baby einstein movies. : ) Its ok tho... gives us something to do together.

I have decided to put a little blurb about my day in here every day going forward as long as I have time. Hopefully atleast a couple people will read and post questions!! Anyway that is it for today. Check back tomorrow for more stuff!

My Space

2008-10-29T16:15:00.001-05:00

Ok so since I have used myspace about 2 time in the last year I decided to delete it. Ill pretty much be going with facebook going forward.

Blogspot

2008-10-29T14:19:00.001-05:00

Ok.. I have officially decided to post my blog to blogspot from now on. Reason being is I can put a gadget to post to it right on my google home page. WOOHOO!! -Brad

Thinking about going back to blogspot

2008-08-03T10:26:00.001-05:00

Thinking about coming back to blogspot to post blog updates... will keep you posted.

Blog has Moved

2007-11-24T11:26:00.001-06:00

Hey Everyone,

I have moved my blog over to the Windows Live Spaces server. I will no longer be updating here. You can visit the new blog at http://bhighb.spaces.live.com/. Thanks!!

Brad

My Venture Into HTML, PHP, and MySQL

2007-11-04T20:47:00.000-06:00

Hey Yall,

In order to prove my talent to some people that I need to prove it to I have developed a website for the corporation that I am currently running in eve-online. I will eventually turn this domain into a personal home page and move the eve site but right now Im just messing around with some stuff to see what I can come up with. Check it out and let me know what you think.

http://bhighb.net

EVE - Online

2007-09-16T19:48:00.000-05:00

http://eve-online.com

I am not playing this game again. I will be for atleast the next 3 months. We will see what comes of it. Probably just get really good at something else and then quit again for 3 months. Kind of looking forward to it tho. For those of you who are still playing I have joined up with Matt and his bro in their corporation. We are in Minmitar space running missions for Republic Security Services. I have all the agents close by to Alg if anyone wants them just let me know. Ok that's it for now. Maybe I will get some screens up later.

Peace Out

Back To Work

2007-09-04T19:04:00.000-05:00

I had 4 days off in a row but today I am back to work. going forward I will only be posting when I have something worth reading to post about. Peace - B

Labor Day

2007-09-03T14:31:00.001-05:00

Didnt do a thing all day. This is the way it was meant to be!!