bamatone.net

Original URL: http://bamatone.livejournal.com/287099.html

This has seriously made my night. Man, I love Google.

So one of my (very few) complaints about Gmail over the years is how the "from" field looks to others when they get my email. My email address is chr_at_bamatone.net. My gmail address is zomg@gmail.com. Of course, it's not really "zomg," but the point is I don't want my Gmail address public. (It's bad enough people have to know it to Gchat with me.)

Anyway, I have Gmail set to send email with chr_at_bamatone.net as the reply-to address. It's also in the "from" field. But this is how Outlook displays it: "From Charlie Reinehr (zomg@gmail.com) On Behalf Of chr_at_bamatone.net." Even though I have my own custom domain email address, it's screaming to the world my Gmail address.

Balls.

But Google finally found a way around it! Now I can go into my Gmail account settings and set a custom SMTP server. Now when I send email through Gmail (which is really being routed through bamatone.net), Outlook properly displays "From Charlie Reinehr (chr_at_bamatone.net)" and I do a happy dance.

Original URL: http://bamatone.livejournal.com/286646.html

This is not Rock Band... It's Guitar Hero. Not my thing. But Rush is! And Freddie just melted my face off with "XYZ." This is too awesome not to post. Favorite parts include playing the guitar behind his back... and the very end, which I will not give away.

And if this song piques your interest, please do yourself a favor and check out more of Rush's catalogue. It'll melt your face off!

Original URL: http://bamatone.livejournal.com/285989.html

How many of you consider my 2004 Dodge Durango a "clunker?" According to the federal government, it is. Technically speaking, the Durango actually qualifies for the "Cash for Clunkers" program, officially called "Car Allowance Rebate System." (CARS. How clever is that.)

From the cars.gov FAQ: "[CARS] is a new program from the government that will help you pay for a new, more fuel efficient car or truck from a participating dealer when you trade in a less fuel efficient car or truck." The program offers up to a $4,500 credit depending on the gas mileage of the new car purchased.

As stupid as this program is, I was actually a little excited about possibly trading in the Durango for something that got better gas mileage, and getting a credit on top of that. I want a vehicle with better mileage, but the Durango is entirely paid off, so it doesn't make any financial sense to get something else right now. Any money saved on fuel would be lost on monthly car payments. The $4,500 credit would certainly have gone a long way.

But the whole thing turned academic anyway when I read all the restrictions (as usual). I believe that my Durango meets all of the requirements except for one: "The car is titled in your name and has been for the last year." The title has only been in my name since February. It was previously owned by and titled to the leasing company.

Shucks.

Original URL: http://bamatone.livejournal.com/285436.html

I've been avoiding writing the wrap up since I got back. Not sure why. The posts I intend to be epic always turn out to be fairly short, and vice versa. Anyway, on Thursday, June 25, Grant, Candice, and I trekked down from T-Town to Stockton.

About 30 minutes into the trip, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson died.

Finally got to see Doug's Tiki Bar! Spent a semi-uncomfortable few hours sleeping on Samantha's living room floor, then got up at 3am so we could all begin the hour long trip to the Mobile airport.

Long story short, we made it to Belize. Even shorter story, we made it down to Placencia. This was the first real taste of the country. Actually, scratch that. The first real taste was the flight from Belize City to Placencia. You can see in my pictures how it looks from the air. The cab ride from the Placencia airport to our hotel was our first close up taste of the country. And so far, so good.

Our hotel room was very nicely located next to the beach itself, and a place called De'Tatch. There are a few things that really made the trip as excellent as it was, and one was De'Tatch. It's a little hut that serves drinks and food almost anytime you need it. The drink of choice in Belize is Belikin beer. Personally, I prefer the stout variety. Guiness Foreign Extra Stout is also very good and has a higher (7.9%) alcohol by volume. And of course they love their rum.

The first few days were spent lounging on the beach, drinking Belikins and Rum Punches, and eating lobster. Oh, right. Lobsterfest. Nom nom. I had lobster tail, lobster fritters, lobster dumplings (from an Asian lady from Maryland), and lobster on a stick. The coconut white rice there is fantastic, too.

And speaking of coconuts, you can see from the picture above that coconut trees are everywhere in Belize. You can literally just pull one down and crack it open if you wish. (Which was done.)

On Suday, Billy Mays died.

So by Monday, Lobsterfest was over and we were ready to do some adventuring. Tuesday morning we set off to see the Mayan ruins and some sort of awesome cave. We swam all up in that cave, and the water was amazingly cold and awesome. We even had these little miners' headlights to see. Oh, and the current was so strong at the mouth of the cave that standing straight up with the water up to my waist, I could not hold my ground. That was definitely one of the absolute high points of the trip for me.

Of course, there were bugs. Lots of 'em. They bit. And it was hot as Hades. And most of the roads were not paved. But all the good outweighed stuff like that. Just bring your sunscreen and bug spray if you plan on making this trip.

On Thursday, we took a boat out with Kagey. This dude was bad ass. Seriously. He could dive 60 feet with only his flippers, mask, and spear. No scuba gear. He'd go down, grab us a lobster, come back up and throw it in the boat. He once came back with four lobsters in a single dive. This was when he wasn't busy spearing barracudas and mackerels. Once we had about 12 lobsters, he drove us over to an island where he cleaned and cooked them. And we ate like kings. Also a high point in the trip.

I mentioned before that De'Tatch was one of the things that really made the trip excellent. ("It really tied the room together, did it not.") Another was the people we met. So many awesome people. Candice and I met Jason and Heidi our very first night in Belize on our way back to the hotel. (Side story: Because everything starts with the sun in Belize (i.e. really fucking early), everything also closes early. We drank so much during the day that each night it felt like 2 or 3am when it was really more like 9pm!) After that, Heather, Amanda, Jackie, Steve, and that whole group. I'm not sure when Simon and Brad fell into the mix, but as people came and went, Simon was there for the long haul. Then we met Miles and Jessica shortly before Olivia, Lindsey, and Julianne. ("Are those Arkansas A's or Alabama A's?" "Roll Tide!") The trip really would not have approached the level of awesomeness it obtained without these people.

That doesn't even include the bartenders. Greg from NYC was our guy at De'Tatch. He really was one of those people who had been everywhere and seen everything. There was David at Pickled Parrot, girl from North Carolina (or was it South?) at Barefoot, Tracy from Delaware/Florida at J-Byrd's, and of course Erik at Yoli's.

Which reminds me... Have to mention how awesome Yoli's is! I hate that I don't have any pictures of it, but it sits right at the edge of the water on a pier. You can literally dock your boat, walk 30 feet, and there you are. It's easy to spend money here, but since the exchange rate is in our favor, it's like using Monopoly money. If I had to sum up our trip in one picture, it would be this one on the right:

The day after I returned to the U.S., Steve McNair died. So allow me to recap. I go to Marietta, GA for two weeks and Alabama has to vacate 20something wins and gets put on probation again. I go to Belize for one week and at least 4 really famous people die. I think I'll try to hold off on my next big trip for a while.

Here are all the photos I took: http://my.opera.com/BAMAToNE/albums/show.dml?id=817760