RemSter - My Random Thoughts - remster0.blogspot.com

Super bowl ads, check these out

2012-01-28T15:18:00.000-08:00

See some of advertising for Super Bowl XLVl.

The game is Sunday February 5, 2012 at 7:00 pm EST on NBC featuring the New York Giants vs New England Patriots.

Using Gimp to crop a photo

2012-01-26T08:06:00.000-08:00

Gimp (GNU image manipulation program) is an awsome program to make changes to photos or images. You can get a copy of it at http://www.gimp.org/ along with documentation and tutorials on how to use it.

To crop a photo is simple. Just select the crop tool from the toolbox as seen here:

Then box in the area of the image you want to keep as shown here and click on it.

Your cropped photo will look like this:

Thats pretty simple and I like simple. Gimp does a lot more as you will see. If you want to you can make a donation and they will love you as much as you will love this program.

Turtle line-up

2012-01-23T10:25:00.000-08:00

Here's a picture I took in the local parks. I call it "Turtle Line-up". Click on the photo and you can see the whole picture. Sometimes these photos make pretty nice backgrounds and that is easy to do in microsoft windows. Just right-click the windows background you have now, choose personalize then desktop background. Now browse to the picture photo somewhere on your hard drive. Your version of windows may be slightly different, but thats how mine works.

I have spent some time lately living in hotels.

2012-01-20T11:10:00.000-08:00

One thing for sure, all hotels are not the same. It's nice if your company pays for it. I was not in that situation. I had to foot the bill, so I was staying in low end hotels. I was also staying long-term. Some hotels are set up for long term stays. They might have a weekly rate which helps too. I also was on a tight budget so I ate many of my meals in my room. That's ok, I do a lot of my own cooking. Some if it is simple things. For that reason, I liked hotels with a fridge, a microwave and some cooking stuff. For some people a coffee maker or a toaster in their room is important. Now if a company was paying for my meals, I would not need this. Even when vacation, some people still like to cook their own meals. Eating out every night can be expensive, especially for those with families. A laundry room is nice when you are going to be somewhere for an extended period of time.

Its a good idea to drive around the building before checking in. I care where the exits, what options there are for parking, what buildings or businesses are next to it and how secure the parking lot looks. I like to have more than one way out.
Based on the layout of the building and how it looks, what might be next to it, I might request a room in a specific location within the building. Maybe not next to the parking lot. Maybe next to the parking lot so I can watch my car. Maybe I like the second floor, maybe the first. Maybe on the opposite side of the highway where it is less noisy.

Ok, after I get my key, what do I do? I go to my car and get my bags right? Wrong, I go right to the room and take a look at it. I look for the ice machine, the elevator and look out the window. Maybe I see something I don't like. Some people like to be near the ice machine and elevator some may not (too noisy). There might be mold, a spot on the floor or on the ceiling I don't like. I might go back to the front desk and ask for a different room before put my bag(s) in the room and unpack. Maybe I give the my keys back and go to the hotel across the street.

It might save you some money to book your room online. Sometimes I do, sometime not. Try Hotels.com, ChoiceHotels.com, Orbitz.com or go directly to the hotels website.