No Free Chalupas, So I Made Enchiladas Instead

So Wednesday night I went to the Blazers career fair.  The room was completely full and the other attendees were mostly my age - either still in college or just graduated.  The keynote speaker was from Mandalay Entertainment.  They dabble in television, film, and own several minor-league baseball teams.  He talked about the most common way to get into sports, ticket sales, and what it takes to be successful in selling tickets.  After the speech, we all had time to browse around and talk to the various companies that were there, and give them resumes.  This didn't go over so well because all the booths were crammed into a very small room.  With about 200 people, it made for a very crowded space.  I handed out my resume a few times, but there were no real prospects.  Nonetheless, it is always beneficial to here from insiders of whatever industry you want to work in.

After the career fair I went to the Blazer game, thanks to my brother who bought my mom a ticket too.  We sat in section 110, which is the closest I've ever been for the Blazers.  Below is a picture from our seats:

They didn't make it 100, which means we didn't get free Chalupas from Taco Bell.  That really bummed me, but I still had a lot of fun.  I was in the mood for Mexican still so last night I made enchiladas.  It was the first time I've ever made them and they turned out great.  I looked up several recipes online, but ended up making my own version.  Here it is:

• 1 large chicken breast, shredded
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
• oregano
• chili powder
• salt/pepper to taste
• 3-4 whole wheat tortillas
• shredded cheese (I used a bagged Mexican blend)

In one quart pan I sauteed the onion, garlic, and pepper together.  In another, I cooked the chicken long enough to get it shredded.  Add the chicken to the onion/pepper mix and season with spices, salt, and pepper to taste.  I let that simmer together from about 15 min.  Meanwhile, I seasoned the condensed soup with some chili powder, thinned it out with a little milk, and brought it to a short boil.  I added half of that mixture to the chicken.  Then spoon the mixture into a tortilla, wrap it, and place in oven-safe baking dish.  Once all the tortillas are stuffed and wrapped, pour the rest of the soup/sauce over the enchiladas and top with the shredded cheese.  I finally baked it at 350 degrees for about 20 min, basically until the cheese was melted.  I enjoyed, and I hope you do too.

Going to Portland!

So today I will be trekking up to Portland to attend the first ever Portland Trail Blazers "Rise with Us" Sports and Entertainment Career Fair.  I am very excited to see what's in store, and hopefully I can get some great information.  It includes a ticket to the game tonight against the Charlotte Bobcats, so that is always a great time.  I'll bring my camera with me and posting pictures when I get back.

Get Your Best Buy at Circuit City

Just woke up this morning to see that Circuit City will be closing its remaining stores and liquidating all of its remaining merchandise.  The article is here:

http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/16/news/companies/circuit_city/index.htm?postversion=2009011611

If you have ever wanted an HDTV, you better go get yourself one right now.  I am definitely going to be at my nearest store tomorrow, when the sales start I guess.  Still being unemployed, I don't quite have enough money for a plasma.  But maybe I could find a great deal on some thumb drives, or DVDs.  I expect there will be a mini Black Friday atmosphere at all the stores for the next few weeks.  Good luck to all you shoppers!

Snow Dog

So this is what it looked like outside our new apartment when it snowed about a week and a half ago. If we get another storm, I'll try and get photos of Autzen Stadium. I wanted to do it this time, but I just forgot. Oops.

And here is a picture of my girlfriend's dog, Grace. She a 3-1/2 year old yellow lab. I caught then when she was asleep while sitting, then woke up right after I took the picture.

My Own Apps I Can't Live Without

Michael Arrington of Tech Crunch recently had a post titled "2009: Products I Can't Live Without." In it he lists web applications and products he uses on a daily basis. I thought I would give my own list. These are the products I use everyday and couldn't live without:

• Microsoft Outlook: Probably the #1 office productivity software out there, I first used it in high school. It found me once again in my first job after graduating college. There may be better options out there for RSS readers, but I still find myself using it everyday - email, calendar, and RSS.
  
• Xobni: What Outlook lacks in several capabilities, Xobni easily makes up for it. The Xobni plug-in for Outlook installs a toolbar that add social network-like capabilities. There is so much this app does, best of which includes threaded conversations (much like Gmail); integration with other Web apps like Facebook, LinkedIn, and more; incredibly fast email search. Xobni is the reason I keep using Outlook everyday.
• Digsby: This app allows you to combine instant messaging, email notifications, and social networking in one convenient location. This easily saves a lot of time. I use Facebook Chat, AIM, Google Talk, Twitter, MySpace, and LinkedIn all together. And there are even more web applications it supports.
• Facebook: I don't think I need to explain this one that much. Along with MySpace, easily the two biggest ways to keep up with friends everywhere.
• Gmail: This is my personal email source. Although, I mostly read it through Outlook, Gmail is still the best email service out there, by far.
  
• Hulu: Hulu is an amazing online-video service that has relationships primarily with NBC, Fox, but many other network as well to watch free TV shows online. I don't have a DVR, so this is my way to watch episodes of my favorite shows in case I miss them. They have shows in HD and movies as well. Hulu has been my television savior.
• Pandora: Pandora is the awesome internet music service that taps into the Music Genome Project. Customize your stations my genre or artist, and it will give you tracks from bands you might not have heard of before. And now, with a Vista Sidebar widget, I don't even have to leave my desktop to listen to great music.

Now they are certainly some honorable mentions to this list. These are products I still use very often. I don't count FireFox simply because it is my default browser. I don't even think about using Internet Explorer, and I am also testing out Google Chrome for a while. I check Twitter everyday, but I sometimes forget to update myself. I just joined Flickr, but Picasa remains my top photo application. As you can see there are a lot of the same products as Michael Arrington, but I have also included a few of my own.