Jay Leal . com

ACL Music Festival

2007-09-18T12:29:00.001-05:00

ACL was this weekend and it was a blast! Three days out in the sun listening to live music with friends is heaven. The Arcade Fire was fantastic on Saturday night and were certainly the highlight of the festival.

Van Halen Tour With David Lee Roth

2007-08-13T19:04:00.000-05:00

HISTORIC CONCERT TOUR MARKS FIRST OF ITS KIND FOR VAN HALEN IN 22 YEARS

LOS ANGELES, CA -- August 13, 2007 Beginning this September, in what promises to be the most exciting live tour this year, Van Halen will embark on a national concert tour throughout the U.S. and Canada with its original lead singer David Lee Roth for the first time in 22 years.

Considered by fans and media alike as one of the most highly anticipated tours in rock and roll history, Roth, guitarist Eddie Van Halen and drummer Alex Van Halen will perform with Eddie’s son, Wolfgang who joins the line-up as the band’s bass player. Van Halen and Roth have not performed or recorded together since 1984’s classic multi-platinum album “1984” and subsequent tour, making this tour truly a historic event.

25 dates in all were announced today for the tour which is slated for a September 27th kick-off in Charlotte, North Carolina. Tickets for select dates on the tour go on sale beginning on Saturday, August 18th and are available on http://www.livenation.com/.

Fans can enjoy the ultimate Van Halen experience including concert pre-show parties, backstage access, premium seating and more. For additional details go to http://www.iloveallaccess.com/.

Fans are encouraged to also check in at http://www.van-halen.com/ or http://www.davidleeroth.com/ for additional information.

Girl in a Coma Coming Back to the RGV

2007-07-21T15:03:00.000-05:00

Girl in a Coma is coming back to the Valley. If you have not heard or seen this band, you will be amazed. This three-piece, all-girl band from San Antonio rocks. Check out their video for Clumsy Sky. They will play at City Lights in Harlingen on July 27 and at Trade Bar in McAllen on July 28.

Border Fence Story on NPR

2007-07-13T15:39:00.000-05:00

Check out this great piece from NPR last month. It details the universal opposition in the Rio Grande Valley to the border fence. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11118125. Local leaders such as JD Salinas, Hidalgo County Judge, as well as business people, environmentalists and ranchers oppose building this fence which will do very little to stop illegal immigration. Even the government official interviewed says they know at best it will only slow down the border crosser. Why spend all this money, damage the local ecosystem and further damage our relations with our neighbors to only "slow down" an illegal??

OptOutPrescreen.com

2007-07-09T23:36:00.000-05:00

As corny as it sounds, Live Earth this weekend made me take a look at what I can do to help the environment. A great site to start off with is OptOutPrescreen.com. This site will stop a good chunk of those credit offers that fill up your mailbox. Nine times out of 10 we just throw those credit card offers away. Here's how we can stop receiving them and save a couple of trees at the same time. I did it and it only took a few moments. I think everyone should do this too.

MySpace

2007-06-13T21:04:00.000-05:00

Well, like so many other people, I have finally gotten on that myspace wagon. I've been on it for a while, but I never did anything with my profile. It's neat that I have been able to connect with some old friends on there. Check it out at www.myspace.com/jayleal and add me as a friend.

Winner!

2007-06-08T12:20:00.000-05:00

At Microsoft TechEd, they give away a lot of swag. From pens, to t-shirts, to giveaways likes XBoxes and iPods. I just won a TaylorMade golf club driver. Random, but cool. I also won a bean bag chair. These items are so big, I had to ship them separately back home.

I went to Universal Studio's on Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday, I went to a party at the Hard Rock Cafe where there was a great live band and free drinks. Thursday, I did a couple of the rides like Dr. Doom's Tower of Doom. That was cool.

I head back to the RGV on Saturday....

In Orlando!

2007-06-06T12:51:00.000-05:00

Well today is day four in Orlando. I am at the Microsoft TechEd conference. There is so much to learn! My flight here was a nightmare. I was on a 7 am flight out of McAllen with a connection in Houston to Orlando. The McAllen flight had mechanical problems and didn't take off until nearly noon. That caused me to miss my connection. The airline could not get me on any of the other Orlando flights so they flew me to Tampa and then got a limo service to drive me to my hotel. That drive was about 90 minutes. In all, I got to Orlando at 10:30 pm instead of 1:30 pm.

I am staying in a Disneyworld hotel. This place is fantastic, but the room is a little crappy.

Long Time Since Last Post

2007-05-27T13:46:00.000-05:00

I know it's been along time since I have posted. Updates since my last post:

I got a promotion at work. I am now First Vice President. This was unexpected and really appreciated. I love my job and the people I work with.

I just bought a house. That's a picture of it below. It's in Sharyland Plantation which is just outside of McAllen. It's a great home in beautiful neighborhood.

Jay Leal in the Press

2006-06-04T18:37:00.000-05:00

Like a lot of people, I searched for my name in Google to see what came up. I had forgotten that I was quoted in several articles that were published on the web. Here are links to some of those articles.

Microsoft Patch Causes Users Pain - NetworkWorld, Apr 10, 2006
PolicyMaker Update at Microsoft IT Forum, DesktopStandard.com, Nov 15, 2005
Battle Lines Drawn Again Between Browsers - NetworkWorld, Sep 5, 2005
DesktopStandard Success Story: First National Bank, Jan 2005
Task Force to Tackle Group Policy Standards - SearchWinIT.com, Jun 22, 2004
AutoProf Config Manager Takes on Windows Desktop - eWeek, Jun 14, 2004
Gates Unveils Windows 2000 - San Antonio Express-News, Feb 18, 2000

Austin City Limits Music Festival - Sept 15 -17

2006-05-24T22:29:00.000-05:00

I'm going! Don't know with who yet, but I've got the tickets.

September 11th Video

2006-05-17T21:33:00.000-05:00

Vatican Declares Intelligent Design Not Science

2006-01-19T21:04:00.000-06:00

Vatican paper raps intelligent design - Science - MSNBC.com

This is what those on the religious right don't understand. You can be a Christian and still believe in evolution and The Big Bang. Genesis was written millions of years after the dawn of man. It's most likely the story, passed down from generations to generations, used to explain to children where we came from. It helped explain to children why there was sin and evil in the world and helped reconcile how God could be good, but let bad things happen. The religious right need to recognize the Bible is not always literal and was written by religious men - not by the hand of God.

Kacy Crowley on Rollergirls

2006-01-19T11:34:00.000-06:00

On the new A&E show Rollergirls, Kacy Crowley's songs are featured throughout the second and third episodes. Her song, Badass, fits perfectly as a theme song for the skaters in Rollergirls. If you are a fan of the show and were trying to find who sings this song and where you can get it, visit www.kacycrowley.com. Some of the lyrics from this song include:

I was the runt of the litter
I was a weakling
I was the last to discover
I was the ugly duckling

We're all the same on the inside
but we're always up against everybody's outside
And its hard to live up to a strangers beautiful
Some people always finish last
Still I ended up a Badass.

Not Proud - online confessions

2006-01-09T20:02:00.000-06:00

Not Proud - online confessions

This website is great. You can post or just read confessions, easily divided into the seven deadly sins. Some of these confessions are wild.

2005 National Champions

2006-01-05T13:08:00.000-06:00

We did it! The Texas Longhorns are the 2005 National Champions. Congratulations Mack Brown and all of the fantastic Longhorn Football players. Let's hope Vince Young will stay for his senior year.

Work, Work, Work

2005-09-25T16:31:00.000-05:00

Work has been very busy. Not only did we have new locations opening up, but I've got a long project list that I am trying to make a dent in. I can't tell you how much I am enjoying my new job, though. I have four guys working for me and I will probably hire a fifth in the next month or two. Lots to do, but I hope to make it to Austin sometime in October and plan for a vacation around the begining of the year. I am thinking New York City would be fun. Hopefully I will have someone to go with me.

Texas Beats Ohio State!

2005-09-11T15:19:00.000-05:00

I had to go to a friend's wedding last night and I had to record the UT-OSU game. We were all checking the score from our phones during the reception. I just finished watching and what a game! Can Texas go to the National Championship? Hook 'em!

Anti-rape condom aims to stop sexual assaults - Sexual Health - MSNBC.com

2005-08-31T16:50:00.000-05:00

This is crazy.

Sausage & Nuts

2005-08-21T16:45:00.000-05:00

Saturday my brother and dad came over to watch some boxing. I had already picked up some fajitas, chips and beer, but decided to run back to HEB to get some sausage. After I picked up the sausage, I remembered that my dad likes to snack on peanuts. I grabbed a can and headed to the checkout. The checkout person couldn't help but point out what I was buying - sausage and nuts. We both laughed.

New Mainstream in Texas

2005-07-21T13:56:00.000-05:00

The election for Texas Governor is still some time away, but one Democrat who looks like he is running is Chris Bell. He is one of the US House Democrats that was re-districted out of office. Check out some of what he is saying.

"It is not enough to be right about them being wrong. We have to start defining a future not just for the Texas Democratic Party but for Texas as a whole. We can no longer charge into battle and assume that our armies are right behind us. We need to give Democrats something to fight for. "

"There is a disaffected majority of Texans in the state who are waiting, just waiting for us to find the basic moral courage to talk about the world the way it is and not the way it polls. They are waiting for us to stop pandering to the issue of the day and to start offering visionary solutions to create a tomorrow that they can get excited about."

The full text of the speech is available on Chris Bell's website, so take a minute to read what he has to say about the future of the Democratic Party and the future of Texas.

New Job!

2005-07-07T16:18:00.000-05:00

Well, I have found a new job. I am the head of the technology department for a $1 billion bank headquartered in McAllen. The job so far is great. I had competing offers from Dell and this bank. It was hard to turn down the job at Dell - and returning to Austin - but the offer from the bank was too good to pass up let alone the amount of challenge and opportunity the job itself has. To everyone that was supportive of me during this time, I thank you and for those bitter souls who wished me ill, thanks for the opportunity to make a lot more money!

Kacy Crowley Singing Live

2005-04-24T11:53:00.000-05:00

Check out Kacy Crowley singing Church Organ live in 2003. http://www.news8austin.com/shared/video/buildasx.asp?AdShown=&vids=13960&mswmext=.asx

Motley Crue Live in San Antonio

2005-04-16T13:21:00.000-05:00

Friday night was the Motley Crue show in San Antonio. It was off the hook. Two hours of Crue! There was no opening band, just lots of women and dwarfs on the stage. In September they will be here in McAllen and I think I will try to go to that show too.

Just Got My New Car

2005-04-06T12:59:00.000-05:00

I have just sold my truck and now am the proud owner of an Infiniti G35. I know, I know I said I would never buy a Japanese car, but this car is beautiful and much better than I could find in an American car. Why can't an American car company build a car like this?

Front View
Front Angle
Back Angle