So, I've noticed today that a lot of people seem to just link to a specific image I have instead of grabbing it and using their own bandwidth. I'm considering replacing it with an actual image of men having sex. I understand using the image, since it's a funny one, and it's the day after the Super Bowl, but really.. no need to leech. I'm thinking I may wait a day or two so they won't notice, then suddenly in their blogs/myspace/etc... archive it'll have a nice image of some man-sex.

Here's the  image which seems to popular.

Either this woman knows WAAAAAY too much information on the Obama's, or she meant "fist bump".

Thanks to Andy for the link.

During an inauguration! Nobody was on the roads, and the store was pretty empty. It's usually filled with housewives and the elderly mid-day, but not today!

Remember this in 4 years, you'll thank me!

As I was looking at my homepage here a little while ago, I saw some AdSense ads for Ford and GM appear. So, I clicked on them. They are basically pages saying how good the companies are, and... well, just propaganda. After all, they know people don't back them being bailed out, so I'm sure this is to try to change minds.

I did a WHOIS on the domain for Ford, and it's indeed owned by Ford Motor Company, not some 3rd party lobbying type firm. I then looked at my AdSense account, and noticed that these clicks gave me a little over $2/click.

That made me think of how many clicks these links are getting around the internet. And, if each would be roughly $2 each. That could surely be a lot of money they are spending on clicks, while they are (right now) begging for taxpayer money.

Sickening.

A few weeks ago we went to a Winter Sport Expo, and learned a new store called "Life Is Good" (http://www.lifeisgood.com/) opened up here. The shirt quality is very good, and the graphics are basically stick figures doing various sporting things. Really nice, and fun-loving.

This past weekend we were "downtown" and went into the store. I then noticed something interesting. Everything is made in Peru. The shirts (which are like $30+), hats, water bottles, coffee mugs, everything.

I've spoken about this before, how if you go to a store and look at where things were made, America seems to not have the technology to make anything. But, I am pretty damn sure we have the technology to print stick figures on t-shirts and mugs.

Suzy bought 2 shirts from them. I bought nothing. And, I don't think I will. I'd rather buy a Hanes and draw a stick figure on it with a Sharpie (I hope those are made in the USA!).

Of course, I sent the company an email. I doubt they will respond with more than a form letter, but I did ask why they don't make their (over priced) products in the USA. We'll see if they respond.

PS.. I found this site. May be good to keep these places in mind. Support companies which make products in America.

Every once in a while I want to discover more about my family tree. So, every once in a while I go to ancestry.com and try to get one started (with an account I've used, or sometimes a fresh new one). I can fill back 2 generations that I know of, then hope to use the site to fill in more. I've seen their recent TV ads with how happy a woman is when a "leaf" showed up and she filled in so much more of her tree. Great!

So, this time I saw a leaf! I click on it, and am asked to pay for a subscription. WTF? How do I even know the leaf gives me something useful and pertaining to my actual family? Around every turn, it seems like I need to pay to even see if information is useful. Why would I do that? It's like I go to a store and ask the doorman "Do you have widgets?" and he says "We may, and we may not. Give me an entrance fee and you can go find out."

I think a smarter way would be to allow people to go back a few generations for free, then make you pay. Do something to at least show me I won't just pay you and then be stuck again.

In February a barrel of oil was around $88/barrel and gas was around $2.97. Right now, it's around $89/barrel and gas is around $3.40.

So, why exactly aren't we paying around $3/gallon right now? Where is the extra cost margin going, or coming from? We shouldn't be paying around $.43 extra per gallon when a barrel only costs $1 more.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/03/eviction.suicide.attempt/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

This seemed sort of sad, until I read:

In 2004, Polk took out a 30-year, 6.375 percent mortgage for $45,620 with a Countrywide Home Loan office in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. The same day, she also took out an $11,380 line of credit.

Over the next couple of years Polk missed payments on the 101-year-old home and in 2007 Fannie Mae assumed the mortgage and later filed for foreclosure.

Perfect example of stupid people being lent money from stupid people. I don't know about you, but if I were a loan officer and an 86 (at the time) year old person wanted to take out a 30-year mortgage AND a line of credit, I'd say no. By all logic, how did they expect her to pay this all back? Unless she had a LARGE amount of money in her estate to pay the loans off, I'd figure she wouldn't be around to make payments until she's 116. These are exactly the kind of things I don't want tax money going to help.

Last year we donated some money to the WWF. And, I think every week we've gotten at least 2 mailings from them which ask for more money, include address labels, calendars and/or notepads. Plus, all the printed material the include to say how we should give more.

uyyyyyyyyyjuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh

Sorry, kitten on the keyboard....

Anyways, for an organization which worries about wildlife, why the hell do they send out so much printed material so frequently? How much of someones donation goes to all the printing, packaging and mailing of these things?

Save a few trees and donation money, send out a simple letter every quarter.

I sometimes see people on LinkedIn with 500+, 1000+ or 2000+ connections. How the hell does that happen, and why do they do it? I know a few of these people, and pretty much know they don't know 500+ people, let alone have 500+ (1000+, etc...) people they could connect to. Even people I know that know many people don't have so many. Hell, I've maybe spoken or emailed directly to maybe 1000 people in my life, and they aren't all on LinkedIn.

Do they think having hundreds or thousands of bogus connections will somehow further their careers? A future employer would say "WOW!! You have over 1000 LinkedIn connections, YOU'RE HIRED!!!"

All my connections are real. I either know the person (in person, or 'virtually' know enough to be linked). I don't add people who are simply a member of the same fraternity, went to the same school, or worked at the same company. I've declined all those connection requests.

Why do people do this? Is there a contest I don't know about? If you want a big buddy list, go to MySpace.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/08/05/starbucks.deal.ap/index.html

This doesn't seem like much of a deal or value, like they say it is. According to the article, if you bring in a receipt from your morning over-priced coffee, you can then get a $2 iced grande (large?) drink after 2pm. So, it's a "value" if you've already gone there and made your non-value purchase.

Why don't they just make the drinks $2 after 2 for everyone? I'd be more likely to go there after 2 if they were cheaper than the better alternatives (better coffee and better prices just about everywhere else).

http://www.saratogaracetrack.com/

Over the past few weeks, upstate NY has been turning into NJ, which happens this time of year. It's a slow progression which peaks in about 3 weeks from now. At first, you get the regular tourists who visit our beautiful part of upstate NY. Then, you get the pre-track people, as you start seeing more inconsiderate drivers, and people who simply don't know where they are going (hello Canadians!). Next, about 1/3 of the license plates you see are from NJ, and there are suddenly 1/2 as many parking spots (because people double park), 90% less blinker user, a jump in cigar smokers (somehow, track season means smoking cigars), and generally more crowds.

This time of year I generally avoid downtown as much as I can. Well, just driving downtown. I'll take back roads and whatnot. Going downtown is still fun, but the driving time can double or triple between more cars and people who think crossing the street is the Wild West.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/07/14/anheuser.inbev.ap/index.htm

Will Bud stop tasking like horse piss now?

First, I'll say the Apple tech on the phone before sending it back a 2nd time was very nice. His name is Kurt. He provided his email address in case I needed anything, or had any questions. At one point, I emailed him, but no response back. So, my thoughts on Kurt aren't so favorable anymore. Don't say you'll help, then not. But, anyways...

I watch online and see the laptop arrives at the depot. Later that night, I see it's again pending return. Great! Or, is it? Well, it's not. As I await to see a DHL tracking number appear for three days I decided to give a call. They were waiting for a top case to come in. What a top case has to do with my problem, I'm still not sure. They couldn't tell me if the main issue was resolved, when it'd be resolved, or really anything at all. This was on a Friday. I think this is when I emailed Kurt, obviously wasting my time in doing so.

I call on Monday to see what's up. Still waiting on a top case, and no information to share with me on the actual status of my laptop. But, this time the person puts in a global parts search and says someone would call in 2 days if the part doesn't arrive. 2 days later, I call. Now, they are waiting on a screen bezel. Still, nobody can tell me if my laptop is working or not, or what these parts have to do with my issue, or what has been replaced this round. Nothing. It's seeming like people at Apple don't really communicate with eachother, or at least with techs at the depot. In fact, I think the people at the depot are really mole-people who don't have phones, so nobody can just call them and ask a question like "So-and-so is wondering about their laptop, what's the status?" That'd be too easy, so instead every one of the multiple people you talk to on the phone instead has to skim (I don't think read, just skim) any notes. Anyways, a screen bezel. I ask what that has to do with my issue, and eventually get Danny, a supervisor. Ultimately, he only did another global parts search and said he'd call if it was going to take a long time to get the part. I also, that evening, got an email from Stuart, a customer service admin saying he didn't have a working phone number for me, and to contact him. First of all, my phone number is connected to my Apple Care, plus I've given my phone number to every single person I spoke with (about 7 or 8 at this point).

The next day, my phone rings and it's Danny. He said the part would take until the 17th to come in. However, he offered me a replacement. I thought for a minute, and accepted the replacement. Frankly, I had little confidence at this point they actually know what's wrong with my laptop. At least, nobody could tell me if they did. I asked Danny if I could get my old laptop back with the new one, so I could transfer data from it. He said Apple doesn't do that, and sets up delivery of my replacement.

About 30 minutes later, Stuart calls me. While on the phone, he noticed Danny took care of me. But, I ask him if there is a way to get both laptops back. Lo-and-behold, there is! Danny must have missed that memo, but Stuart got it. He said the guy who is sending me my new laptop will call me. At little while later Ryan calls. He said he'll send me some legal form, and take my CC number. That way, he can send both laptops, and I have 30 days to send my old one back. I explained to him (as I did Stuart and Danny) why I wanted my old one back. Since I couldn't burn DVDs, I couldn't really back a lot of stuff up. All my music and videos were there. He emailed me forms, I faxed them back, and two laptops were coming my way. All seemed good. Too good.

The next day, two boxes came a few hours apart. New laptop, old laptop. I was pretty excited and got the initial setup of the new one done. Then, I popped open the old one, fired it up and... well... there was some Phoenix diagnostic thing. Uh oh, where's my data? Apple certainly didn't send me a laptop with no data on it when they knew I wanted the laptop to get data from, did they? I mean, someone had to know the data was wiped before shipping it to me, right? They wouldn't waste my time, would they?

I call Apple, again. The first rep kept asking me how I would be transferring the data, and I kept saying I want to know if the data is still there to transfer. I was getting kind of annoyed, since sometimes Apple reps don't seem to listen to what you're saying. How you go from "I'm wondering if the hard drive was wiped" to "are they connected via firewire?" is beyond me. So, I was transferred when I said "It doesn't matter HOW I'd transfer the data, I wan't to know IF there is data to transfer."

So, the next rep. She asked her colleagues and confirmed the data was wiped. I was pretty pissed. Not because the data was gone, because that could happen, but because they sent it back to me with the data wiped, negating why I wanted it back. After she read the noted, she even said it stated the data was wiped. Again, confirming these people skim notes, and don't read them. Or, at least communicate. Someone should have noticed this and called me. She was apologetic, and offered me an iPod Shuffle. By now, I've spent about 6 hours on the phone (2/3 on hold), a botched repair job, and probably spoke with at least 10 different people with varying levels of clue and helpfulness. So, a Shuffle doesn't exactly make me happy, but a Shuffle it is.

This was a horrible experience. This is what I've learned:

1. The techs at the depot are mole-people which people can't contact.
2. People don't read case notes.
3. People want you to go by their script, rather than listen to you.
4. Nobody can actually tell you what's wrong with your computer.
5. Apple has good hold music.
6. You can't get a reliable single contact.
7. You can get passed around tech people more than a joint at a Dead show.
8. Apple Care is well worth it (I kinda knew that anyways)
9. Apple needs viable competition. If this were Dell, I could just buy HP for now on, for example.
10. There is a "global parts search" as opposed to something else. A "local parts search"?

I like my new laptop, so no complaints there. But, I also liked my old one. I especially liked the 40G or so of music on it, and the family movies I had on it. I don't like that I now have to set up mailing back the brick of a laptop they sent me for no reason (or I get charged $2k). Urgh... this was a large pain in my ass, and I'm not sure how it could have gone any worse.

Ever give your wife "coupons" for a holiday? Not coupons to save $.20 on a loaf of bread, but ones which provide things like "free back rub", "do laundry", etc... They are a good idea, and I think they are appreciated. However, you really need to put an expiration date on them. I gave Suzy some of these at Valentine's Day, and yesterday she whips out a "do laundry" coupon. I tried to backtrack saying those expired on Mother's Day, but that wasn't floating.

So, here's a tip. When you give these, make sure the ones you really don't want to do (like, laundry) have some sort of an expiration date. But, the other ones can be open ended.

As I was finishing a can of Mountain Dew (still waiting for it to come in an IV), I thought about the $.05 deposit on the can. Then, I looked at all the empty cans I have, and thought of all the deposits I've left. Some states (a national bill has been introduced in the House) have a "Bottle Bill", where essentially you're charged a deposit for various cans and bottles. The idea is that you then return your cans and bottles to get the deposit back, and the items are recycled. The distributer charges the deposit to merchants, which then charge you.

I'll bet most people, if they look in their trash or recycling bill, have a few bucks of deposits. And, with the summer here people will buy more beer and soda, spending more on deposits. A case of soda/beer is $1.20. With the amount of drinks with deposits purchased over the course of time, this can add up.

Why does nobody talk about a "holiday" from this? I don't think people realize how much those $.05 and $.10 deposit savings could add up.

Link....

Darn! If I knew he was in court here I would have gone to see!!

Last week, I filled my tank at $3.99/gallon (I use premium). Over the weekend, I saw the price was up to $4.05, and today I went and filled up at $4.11. I went in and asked when they last got a gas delivery, and they said on Saturday they got more premium. So, the gas I purchased today at $4.11 was delivered Saturday when the cost was $4.05. And, I'm assuming the refining process takes at least a few weeks to go from oil to gas. So, the gas being delivered had to of been made of oil purchased at prices from at least 3-4 weeks ago.

So, I'm not exactly sure a) why the gas I'm paying for doesn't reflect the price of oil it was made from, and b) how the price of gas in the ground went up. I simply don't get it. Honestly, for all I know, the oil used to make the gas I filled up with today cost $80/barrel. But, the price is up because of the market instead of the actual material.

I'm happy that some politicians want to stop putting oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (which I heard was about 98% full as it is). This would allow about 70,000 barrel barrels of oil a day be put on the market, instead of the gov't buying it and storing it. Some people oppose this, saying the pennies we'd get off a gallon of gas don't matter much. You also have Obama, who doesn't like the tax holiday idea, for the same reason. And, here in NY they want to do a tax holiday for state taxes, and of course some people oppose that.

The way I see it, is if not putting oil in the SPR saved $.05/gallon (a figure I heard on the news, not sure what it would really be), the Federal tax holiday saved $.30 and the state one saved $.18 then that's $.53 per gallon. That's a lot. If you had to fill up, say 10 gallons a week that'd save you $5.30 a week. And, that's a conservative 10 gallons a week. Being summer, people would drive more anyways, so the savings would be greater. If you're a family of two drivers we're up to $10.60 a week. If you also have a kid who drives, then it's $15.90/week. Plus, the psychological effect of saving any money is probably greater than the actual money. In any case, any saving is good savings.

I'm just simply baffled.

UPDATE: I happened to drive by the gas station just a few moments ago, the price is now $4.13. So, even yet another $.02 for gas put in the ground 5 days ago.

Back in March these people sent me a letter saying my payment is past due. Well, I get another one today. I do the same as last time, and look up the payment at my bank. And, yet again, it was posted 4 days before it was due. Yet again, they send me one of these letters. I call, and of course they got the payment. I can understand 1 mistake, but 2 in the course of 3 months, up yours.

Get your shit straight. Nobody likes these letters, especially when the make sure you're paid, every month, BEFORE the due date. I will never, ever, ever use 1st National Bank of Scotia again.

Frosts the last 2 days (killed my veggies), pretty cold since the weekend in general. Where's this "Global Warming" I've heard so much about?

Late night on the 31st I figured I had to do something to prank someone, anyone, at work. So, I IMd my CTO and suggested that I lock everyone out of the time management system (which most people would use every morning), with a note like:

"Sorry, this account has been disabled. Please contact [CTO name] unless he has already set up a phone conversation with you."

He liked the idea, so at 9am on the 1st, that's what I did. You'd log in, or hit any page once logged in, and see that message. He then took it a step further. After a while, he sent out an email to the company. It said, something to the effect of, 'You have likely noticed you've been locked out of the time system. Please see this blog post for an explanation...." Then it went to an (internal) blog saying we had been bought out, he didn't know about everyones job, etc... Finally, with a link at the bottom to a press release, which really said "April Fools" when you clicked on it.

This would work if two things happened. First, someone forgot it was April 1st. Second, if they didn't click on the PR link. Both happened :-) Some people were pretty freaked out, and the prank went off pretty well.

The best thing about it, is that people want to get him back! I'm just a silent partner in it.

I need a better way of organizing my notes. I have always been in the habit of just using a single text file, where I track and note various things. But, that file is now very long. It works well for me, but I think I duplicate some things, and some things I don't need anymore, or do need but don't need them in the file.

How do others organize these things? There is probably some OS X app which could better organize these things, and I just haven't seen it. It's probably noted in the text file to look for something.

I always liked April Fools Day. I could have an excuse to play dumb pranks which spawn from my odd sense of humor. But, it's sort of hard when you're a telecommuter.

I have Food Network on a lot, and sometimes watch Rachael Ray (although she can grate on my nerves). But, she cooks quick meals and since I usually cook, I like to get ideas. But, she says "delish", and this bugs the crap out of me. What's so hard about adding 'us'? Delicious.. not hard to say, just an extra syllable and it's actually a word.

I also hate "sammy". It's a "sandwich". I'll even take "sammich", but not "sammy". If you're wanting to refer to a smaller-than-usual sandwich, at least use the word "slider". I think slider is more reserved for mini-burgers (a la White Castle), but it makes more sense than "sammy".

http://www.javapop.com/

We were at Ocean State Job Lot the other day, and I saw this soda. It was $1 for a 4-pack, so I picked up two to try it out. Soda + coffee, how could I go wrong? I didn't. It's really really good. If you see it in a store, worth trying out.

Dear IRS,

I really appreciate that you sent a letter out via the US Mail telling me that a stimulus check may be coming. However, and I think I can speak for everyone here, when you open your mailbox and see mail with the envelope saying 'IRS' on it, your heart skips a few beats. Although your intentions are good, it's just plain scary.

Also, what paid for those letters to be drafted, designed, printed and sent? Next time, just save that tax money used for letters to tell us a check us coming, and just send the check. Not that that was a waste of tax money or anything, but it was.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Kevin

Being someone who is usually up until 1am (at least) anyways, the Spring Forward time change always sucks for me. I'm sleepy.

This is brilliant. If you haven't seen it, here is Sarah Silverman's message to her boyfriend, Jimmy Kimmel:

And, his response:

I'm admittedly not the  best speller, and if I didn't have spell check (spell check just told me 'spell check' isn't "spellcheck" as I wrote it), I'd certainly spell many (more) things wrong. But, if I had a company which printed things and sent them to the public, I'd spend the extra $5 to have someone look over a simple sentence.

The funny thing is, there was another box from the same company with a slightly different product right next to this one, with it spelled ok.

I've been itching to get a new tattoo. I just can't decide what, or where. My current tattoos are in places I don't get to see (back and thigh), so I'd like something somewhere that I can see. I'm not sure if I want my arm/shoulder, or something on my leg extending from my thigh down to the knee (I'd see it when wearing shorts, at least).

I also don't know what I'd want. I considered a portrait of Kyla. But, finding someone I trust to do a good portrait may be hard. Or, something which tells a story. Not sure, I guess it'll come to me.

I think Netflix recently made their New Releases section less useful. They used to have a "Releasing This Week" section, where I could see, well, what was releasing this week. I'd usually add things to my queue in there, since I would think "Oh, yeah I wanted to see that!" Now, it's just some Ajax horizontal scrolling thing which isn't of much use to me. I'm lucky if I remember the name of a movie I wanted to see 6 months ago when it was in the theater, let alone what they may categorize the genre as (is it more comedy than action? More thriller than drama?).

Am I missing it? Did they move it? I just want to know what's being released this week.

A few weeks ago I wondered if you could "beat" postage by sending something with no postage, and the sender/arrival address being the same. Well, pseudo-ironically, this was tested by accident. Someone, who I won't mention *cough*Alan*cough* sent me a New Years card. But, didn't include enough postage. So, my postman put an envelope in my mailbox asking me to put $.17 in it.

So, I guess that's what happens.

Have a happy '08!

I was looking for a book, and do as I usually do.. go to eBay to try to get it cheap. Sometimes, you can get it with shipping for less than retail + tax. That's the point, right?

So, I find the book, basically half price. Good. Then, I see the shipping of this regular sized paperback is $1 less than the retail price. So, it'd cost me more to buy from them than actually stop by the book store, pay retail + tax.

I'm just glad to know that I'm not so lazy that I'm willing to pay MORE online just to not leave my house.

If you were a Nintendo DS, where would you hide?

This is from my new local Asian buffet (which is awesome, BTW). I knew Asian folks have a problem with their R's, but didn't know about their "are"'s!

I keep forgetting to take a photo of their "Hot Buttered Bum" label for one of their dim sum dishes. Maybe next time.

Making plans to go see Alan in NYC in a few weeks for a weekend. Totally psyched. Got a day off from work, got someone to watch Kyla for me, so only need to go get the train tickets.

So, I'm doing some fresh scambaiting, and the scammer was sending me their "Money Order" (which I "cash", and give some back). They did it via UPS to a fake address I gave them. It was sent "overnight" on Oct 3, and it's been funny watching the tracking since it's pretty much been back and forth this country about 4 times. Finally, it's made it to the right town. But, this is the latest that the UPS site says:

THE RECEIVER'S ADDRESS IS INCOMPLETE. UPS IS ATTEMPTING TO OBTAIN THE ENTIRE ADDRESS AND COMPLETE THE DELIVERY. / A POSTCARD HAS BEEN SENT TO THE RECIPIENT REQUESTING THAT THEY CONTACT UPS.

Soo.... they don't know the full address, so they sent a postcard to the address for the recipient to tell them the address. Funny stuff.

Diana Inquest: Three Key Questions - TIME

Questions:

1. Who cares?
2. Who cares?
3. Who cares?

Nope, just a barrack at the Coronado Naval Base.

See it yourself.

So, I was looking for hotel prices in the DC area, and was on Orbitz just now. I saw Crowne Plaza Hotel THE HAMILTON was 'from' $94/night. Great.. let's see what happens when I go to book it. I did nothing in those 5 seconds except saying 3 people for the room. We're talking at about a 5 second different, 10:45pm on a Sunday...

Due to changes in availability, the average nightly rate for the hotel room you selected has changed. The rate has changed from $94.05 to $329.00. (Message 1805)

Uh, quite a jump in price, no? Maybe it's just the message? If it said "Oh, sorry... 3 people means over 300% more than you just thought.. sorry", then maybe it wouldn't look like bullshit.

Haven't had one, but still wouldn't mind a smoke. No nic-fits, still... but the "something is missing" feeling comes over me through the day.

One week down, many more to go.

No comment needed.

Still wanting to have a smoke. I can't say my urge to have one has gone down much, although I still can't say I've had a "nic fit". I may have to not drink coffee for a bit, though. After drinking it, I start to want to go out onto the deck and smoke, which is what I usually do. Maybe I'll have some tea instead, since I don't associate tea with smoking. I haven't been overeating, but did notice I'd go open the fridge more than usual (but, generally not get anything). So, I broke out a bag of sunflower seeds so I can keep my mouth busy.

But, in either case, another day down.

Well, yesterday sort of sucked. I was a little bit edgy, although taking the patch off before bed certainly helped with the dreams. Today, not so on edge, but I'd still like to have a smoke. This morning I actually woke up feeling like I smoked last night. But, the urges today were fewer than yesterday.

So far, so good. Let's hope this time it sticks.

So the patch went on yesterday (early) evening. As I said, I left it on all night. What a mistake! Holy crap.. I was woken up every two hours by the most unwanted vivid dreams. The only one which was "scary" was when some guy was trying to stab me in the face with a needle of some sort. The rest were just very vivid, and would wake me up because of someone calling my name, touching me, etc... which would startle me out of sleep. It really sucked. I fell asleep at around 2am (Surviverman was on, and I missed the end so it was probably around 1:45am), and was startled awake for the last time at 7am. I was able to just lay there with my eyes closed for about an hour after that. Horrible night. Not because I wanted to smoke, but because I had that stupid patch on.

Today, however, no real nicotine craving. I did want to smoke. Mainly, I wanted to perform the act of smoking, and taste a smoke. But, I don't think I had a "nic fit". I think that's what quitting mainly is, getting past the habitual part of it. The dogs are even confused now, since they are used to me coming outside with them. Now, I let them out and they turn around and stare inside at me like they are saying "What the?? Why aren't you coming out?" I'm not going out because I need to try changing that pattern, of course.

So, aside last night, today was a success. I kept myself busy painting the basement, and really wasn't even on edge. It's 11pm now, and I took the patch off about 10:45, hoping I won't have these dreams tonight. We'll see how tomorrow goes.

Not sure why, but one night I felt like taking some screen grabs of me winning a tourney. Of course, I didn't know I was going to win.. but I was pretty darn sure (I'm no slouch at poker, after all, and I felt the win coming). This was at the final table. I think there were 360 or 380 people in the tourney. I'm the handsome guy on the bottom.

I'm chip lead over 3 others. A card was flying down at the time, I wasn't in this hand. When there are short-stacks I usually play fairly tight because they can have a tendency to go all-in at any time instead of trying to just win good hands and grow their stack.

The shark is gone. He went all-in, which is what I was guarding against.

Uh oh, I have Jacks. I believe I took this hand.

The rock is now gone, A7 offsuit, only raising 16k, I called.

Last grab, 195k, now I have 309k. Guess my A7 payed off.

No question who was going to win this hand. My confidence was high, and the stupid gecko wasn't going to beat me.

Flop on the (what would be) final hand. He's at 90k, either he'd push in, or I'd force him to (you can see it's my bet, so I bet 100k). He'd have to know if he folded it's be quite an uphill battle from 90k to overtake my 450k stack. Especially, at that 10k/20k blinds.

Sorry dude, my fish hooks win.

Yipee! Yet another round 2. I lost it, but recall I was in the top 60 (out of more than 2000 people).

Anyways, maybe I should take grabs more often. It's sort of fun looking back on games.

Man, I really hate filling out any type of forms, and 401K ones seem to be no different. I finally decide that enrolling in the 401k plan would be a good idea so I sit down to fill out the forms. First, easy enough.. name, SSN, address.. no problem. Then, all of a sudden there are 4 pages of various allocations. I'm not a dumb guy, but that's when it gets confusing. All I want to say is "Put N% of my check into a moderate risk plan" and be done.

It's hard enough for me to send my money to somewhere I can't touch for 30 years as it is, let alone worrying I'm going to check the wrong box and end up in some high risk plan.

When a virus is on the loose, make sure Conan the Barbarian is there save the day! The government won't say it, but he's the real reason the Bird Flu isn't the pandemic it was to be.

I love it when Google News has a photo next to a story which has nothing to do with each other. Some serious politics going on, but Clay Aiken smiling makes it all so light hearted.

Last night was the final night in the "local poker season". At least, for regularly scheduled games. I shouldn't have to mention that I won, but I did. Actually, myself and the other final guy decided to just split the winnings since we were pretty even and didn't feel like see-sawing for 2 more hours.

I'd like to thank Jesse for hosting all the time. I had a lot of fun, and really like all the guys I regularly play with. In my last group of people I played with I went to just play poker, since I really didn't like the group as a whole. But, here I never minded if I lost, because I always had fun.

The Palace Theatre

"Gandhi (7:00 PM) Part of the Certified Angus Beef Movie Series"

I'm not sure why this strikes me as funny, but it does.

U.S. Mail Charges Increase, New 'Forever' Stamp Goes on Sale

I really should give the USPO my mailing address so they could send me a note to tell me that prices are increasing. I think I have yet to every know it's going to happen until it happens. So, yet again, the 50 stamps I have now I can't mail anything with without going to buy new stamps to add to those stamps. I was even at the post office last week, and don't recall any signage saying "BUY $.02 STAMPS, PRICE INCREASE ON MONDAY". Imagine that! That would have alerted me to the the increase BEFORE the increase while I was actually AT the place which sells stamps.

1. They don't put forth effort to complete a task

Google Maps

Anyone in Belgium? WTF is that?

April 4, and it's snowing. Just when everything melted, too! We're supposed to get 2-4", so not too much. The ground is pretty warm, so I'm sure it'll all be gone by tomorrow evening. But, still.. snow in April? Better than a hurricane, though!

NYC to london - Google Maps

If you want to make a cross-Atlantic trip, don't plan it with Google Maps. Step 23 seems a little inefficient.

Yesterday I was activating my new AMEX card and the person asked if I could use help with anything else. I said "You can lower my interest rate." Instead of hearing a laugh, I heard "Let me transfer you to customer service."

I few seconds later the CS lady asked what she could do for me. I again said "You can lower my interest rate." Still, no laughing at me, but instead "Hold on one second, let me see what I can do." A few seconds later she offered me a lower rate. Then, she asked if that would be good for me. I said, "Can you do any better?" and got another "Hold one what second, let me see what I can do" and was offered an even lower rate.

Somewhat surprised, I asked if there was any better, and she said that was the best. As it turns out, you CAN get a lower rate just by calling and asking. A CC company "rewards" you periodically by allowing you to borrow more money, but they never seem to send you a "We've lowered your interest rate!" mailing.

I'd suggest trying this with all CCs. And, don't take the first offer, ask if they can do better. After talking with the CS lady, they offer you something "better", but not the "best" at first. Kind of like if you ask to borrow money from me, and I say I can lend you $1. But, if you ask if I can do better, I'll offer you $5. I won't give you $5 right off the bat.

In either case, I lowered my interest rate by about 6%.

Sometimes I like to do some 419 baiting. This is when you get those scam emails and respond like you are interested. There can be some funny back-n-forth. But, although I don't feel sorry for the losers who get scammed, every time they email me is a time they don't email some white trash idiot who thinks someone in Nigeria is going to send them millions.

When I do this, I say my name is "Mike Oxlong", and I own a company called "Peenile Sukers, LLC". One of the main things while baiting is to get a photo of the person on the other end. They are always willing to send a stock photo, but it can be hard to get a new photo, with them holding or doing something you request. So far, I haven't had too much luck with that. I've had a few funny conversations, and only two people who actually wrote what I wanted on something and sent it to me, but not on a photo they took for the purpose. I generally request "Mike Oxlong and I love Peenile Suking", because I'm childish and that makes me giggle.

Anyways, I was just going through an old folder and found these. Figured I'd share.

Both him and his wife love Peenile Suking. Those Nigerian swingers!

That one was from "Monica Martins". I corresponded with "her" for about 2 weeks until she said I was treating her like a prostitute by asking for the photo of her with the sign in it.

Hopefully, I can find a good way to export my emails so they would be easy to post and read. I especially like the one where I correspond with "John Edwards", and keep asking about his run for VP and being a senator, and he keeps denying that's who he is.

As of late, haven't been writing much. Simply been too busy, and when not busy, not too enticed to sit in front of the computer.

I didn't mention it, but I switched jobs at the beginning of the year. I left my other job for various reasons I won't go in to, but I needed a change. I'm still on good terms with them, so that's cool. My new job is pretty cool as well. I needed to be challenged again, and work on some fun things with a fun framework.

The snow is melting, so Spring is on its way. I'm really looking forward to doing some hiking and stuff around the yard.

Found some new people to play poker with. Pretty good bunch of guys, and I have a fun time with them. Hopefully, they learn that me being mainly quiet is just me (and me sizing them up). Once my comfort level grows the sarcastic "good time" Kevin will come out more.

Kyla is now a high-green belt in Tae Kwon Do. She is pretty happy, and I'm very proud of her. She's going to make a good black belt one day. And, I don't think she'll be one of these "go through the motions" black belts, but will be someone who can use what they have learned.

That's it for now.. just a really quick summary.

(Click image for full size)

Yep, that's what I was looking at when the cable (my net connection) decided to go out. That's me on the bottom.. I was #2 in the tourney at the time. The power didn't come back on for about an hour.. and I saw I was knocked out at #9. This was a WSOP round 1 qualifier.

So, screw you Time Warner! I was on a roll! But, no matter.. I later won another qualifier.

Since we have a few feet of snow outsite, it makes it hard to walk out there. Mainly because the snow goes up to my crotch. But, the dog poop sits nicely on the top. Usually, this would suck and the poop would have to wait until Spring, or the snow melts enough. But, thanks to my new snowshoes I was able to walk on top of the snow, and do my weekly poop patrol.

Mummified body found in front of blaring TV - CNN.com

That's sort of how I figured I'd go. Heart attack while sitting in front of the TV, and nobody giving a crap to notice for a year. I'd just hope I'm watching something good at the time.

Finally, after a super-mild Winter we are getting a snow storm. They are expecting around 3' of the white stuff.

Here's a cruddy picture (Photo Booth from the Mac) of what it looks like from my office window right now into the back yard.

iTWire - Kids at greater risk of seeing online Internet porn than ever

Of course. The first thing any kid old enough to start wonder what their "special purpose" is for searches for when they get to an un-censored 'net connection is search Google for "boobs". In fact, I just did it.. it took me an hour and half to finish this entry after doing my research.

Enjoy it!

Bad idea to get into an online card tourney that starts at 9:00pm. I thought I'd just get in and out, but ended up being up until 2:30am playing when I was finally bumped out in 7th place. I was playing Razz, which isn't really "my game" (I generally play Hold'em, Omaha or Stud), but I somehow did very well.

Razz is barely a game. If you haven't played it, the worst hand wins. That is sort of anti-poker in my mind. Essentially, the way I see it, is you need to be a big loser in order to win at Razz. And, I was a pretty large loser last night, since I did so well :-) (insert obvious cutdowns here)

I've been playing on Full Tilt Poker for a while now. I don't pay to play, and only play with fake money unless I place in a freeroll money tourney (like last night) and win a couple of bucks from it. Otherwise, it's all for fun and practice. Why FTP and not another one of the many poker places? Well, they were the first I found which had a client for Mac. But, I really like the interface and number of freerolls and WSOP qualifying tourneys. Right now, I keep playing qualifiers to get on Poker After Dark. It's a long shot, but I've made it to the 2nd round twice (and lost both times in a respectable position). If you like cards, you should check it out. It's lots of fun.

We should have about 2.5 feet of snow right now. But, we've had a total of .7" so far this year. Plus, most of Winter has been in the 50's and sometimes 60's. Today it was a normal temp of 15.

Hopefully, we'll get some darn snow soon! I'd like to ride my snowmobile, do some skiing, etc... But, I still can't complain about a mild season. At least gas prices have come down a little because of it.

Can David Beckham save American soccer? - Sports - NBCSports.com

America has soccer??

2006 is gone, and 2007 is here. Yipee! Actually, I don't think it really matters much. Years just sort of go by now. 2006 was a year of home building, selling, moving and working way too much.

Anyways, something I like to do at the start of a year, which amuses me, is to look at what prediction renowned fraud psychic Sylvia Browne said for the past year. This is the list I have, let's see how well she did.

1. The natural disasters we have been seeing in the past year will be just as bad or even worse in the coming year

Nope. No tsunamis, Katrinas or bad disasters, let alone worse. I also recall her saying the Northeast will be hit by hurricanes. Um, no. In fact, we had a pretty quiet weather year.

2. New York and Los Angeles will experience an earthquake

Well, LA experiencing an earthquake isn't exactly someting you need to be psychic to know about. I am unaware of any earthquake in NYC, which is what I assume she meant by "New York". There may have been a minor earthquake in New York (state) since there is sometime minor quakes. I'll say she got this wrong, since there was no noticable quake in New York (state), and saying LA will have one is almost a gimme.

3. The hurricane season will be just as bad -- we will have upwards of 30

Nope. Very quiet hurricane season.

4. There will be major earthquakes in Mexico, India and "volancoes going off everywhere."

I think the Philippines had a notable eruption, but the Philippines is neither Mexico or India. I think this one is safely a no.

5. Arnold Schwarzenegger is going to lose

He won

6. McCain and Kerry will announce their intention to run for the presidency.

Well, this is true. But, I can also say there would be a tornado in Kansas, and that wouldn't make me psychic. If she said Obama, or that governer from Ohio or wherever it is, I'd give it to her. But, not with McCain and Kerry.

7. Bush's popularity will continue to decrease until he starts bringing the troops home

Again, do you need to be psychic to make this prediction? But, we don't even know if his popularity would stop going down if he started bringing troops home. He finally gave up the "stay the course" thing, and that didn't help. So, for this one, no.

8. Bush will not be impeached

Since she is so far 0 for 7, I'll give her .5 on this one. He wasn't impeached. Then again, I don't know that anyone thought he would be or that this was an "out on a limb" prediction.

9. there will be no more train terrorism but truck terrorism is a concern

I'm not sure that it being a concern was a prediction, but that there would be a "truck terrorism" attack. There wasn't.

10. Britney Spears will divorce and then remarry

Divorced, yes, remarried, no. Although anyone probably could have guessed it, I'll give her .5 for the divorce.

So far, she's shooting 10%.

11. Bruce Willis will marry a 19-20 year old model

Nope

12. Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas are on the outs

She also said this in 2005, and she again got it wrong. Well, maybe they are "on the outs", but us common folk don't know about it.

13. Jennifer Aniston will remarry, but the hubby will not be Vince Vaughn

Nope, she's still available

14. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt will get married

Nope, they have been too busy adopting every 3rd world kid.

Here are a few medical related ones. I'm not sure about these...

15. MS and ALS patients will be pleased to hear about new discoveries with the hypothalamus gland.

Don't know

16. there will be a non-invasive manner of removing plaque from the heart and arteries that will eliminate the need for bypass surgeries

Don't know

17. SIDS will be discovered to be an allergic reaction to dairy products in infants

I think I may have heard something about SIDS in the news this year, but don't recall if it were dairy related.

18. there will be a vaccine created for lung, colon and stomach cancer

No cancer vaccine's that I know of.

19. the worries about the pandemic are completely unfounded

I think she referred to the Bird Flu. This is a hard one, since only time will tell if they are unfounded. I don't think they are unfounded now, since Bird Flu has been found(ed) to, you know, kill people. Maybe a .5 on this, but I don't think so.

20. a hormone will be found that will keep people's weight off, making them feel full

Don't think so. She should have mentioned the pill to give you 500% MORE EJACULATION!!!! since SPAM says that one exists.

21. Bush will start bringing the troops home

Nope. If she added ".. in body bags", then she would have gotten it.

22. Aliens will reveal themselves in 2010

Uh... she should get a -2 for this one. I won't count it though.

So, let's see. Not counting 22, that 1 out of 21. That's a 4.76% success rate. Even being nice and not counting the medical ones I don't know about, she has a 5.55% success rate. Not very good for a psychic. Actually, not very good for someone making random guesses. And, but "someone" I mean a monkey, and by "guesses" I mean flinging poo at random words.

But, this woman will defraud hopeless people out of their money for another year, and again amuse me in Jan. '08 when I again look back at her predictions.

Starts tonight at sundown. Have a good one for anyone who celebrates.

People picks its 'Sexiest Man Alive' - CNN.com

They picked George Clooney, for a second time. Not that I expected to see myself being picked, but is George Clooney sexy? He looks like Droopy Dog to me. I'm neither a woman, nor gay, so maybe I'm not that great of a judge on male sexiness. But, Clooney?

Um.. who's the loser?

From rkbqk@yahoo.com Sun Nov 5 18:08:44 2006
Date: Sun, 5 Nov 2006 15:07:18 -0800 (PST)
From: "rkbqk@yahoo.com"
Subject: what's up Kevin
To: blog@perlguy.com

You're a sad, pathetic loser.

Cobain bumps off Elvis as top-earning dead celeb

Dead people make more in a year than I'll make my whole life.

I'm tired today. This is somewhat unusual for me since I'm usually going with a max of 7 hours sleep and am what some may consider a "morning person". Maybe my lack of sleep is catching up to me, which happens every so often. I'm also sort of unmotivated today. I think I'd rather sit on the sofa watching recorded Judge Judy shows and movies today than anything else. Of course, that won't happen.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 8 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

I bet the other 7 aren't nearly as cool as me!

Security in our schools seems to be more and more important these days. It's one thing to worry about kids who want to kill, but when you have adults who aren't parents of students coming in it's a different type of ballgame.

I have wondered about the security in the schools where I live. You can pretty much walk right in and wander about. That's not safe. After the killing last week in CO I emailed the President of the School Board asking about security. Today, the Superintendent of Schools called me to assure me that security is high priority and things are being discussed to make sure our kids are safe. First, I must say, I'm surprised the Superintendent called me. That, to me, says a lot.

I had suggested looking for volunteers, for the time being, to watch the front doors of the schools. Checking IDs and giving the visitor passes. I know if a bad guy was coming in, and I was there, I'd take a bullet if the sound gave someone else the time to call the police and tell teachers to lock their doors. I also suggested seeing if there are off-duty cops who may want to volunteer. There is a State Police station right across the street, so maybe finding a few cops to spare a few hours a week wouldn't be out of the question.

If you don't feel your kids school is safe, call about it. Go to a School Board meeting and ask what's being done. Be pro-active. Crazy people killing kids isn't limited to the big city, and is just as likely to happen in your town.

Judge orders OBT motel to shut down for 90 days - Orlando Sentinel : News Judge orders OBT motel to shut down for 90 days - Orlando Sentinel : News

"People went there for one purpose: to sell drugs and to prostitute," Detective Don Woods said. "We believe the owners let it go on because it keeps rooms booked."

Purposes found by detective.. one. Purposes stated.. two.

I've been sneezing and blowing my nose for three days. I feel kinda crappy. Sort of like my head is a balloon filled with Jello. Except, it's really my head and it's snot instead of Jello.

In the pocket of a pair of pants which were in a wicker chest in the basement under boxes! Whee! I've wondered where this is, I don't think I've seen it since I moved to NY. I always had this thing with me. I'm whole again *sniff*

I'm tired. Very tired. I've really been working too much lately. Not just work work, but with everything. I can't not be doing something. I'm either working, cleaning, cooking, cleaning from cooking, picking up, re-arranging or doing something else which prevents me from just relaxing.

I need to relax. If anyone wants my undying love.. get me a maid for a month, and a personal chef. Maybe that would help me free up some time to just do nothing.

So I go to toysrus.com to look for a boomerang. Figured I'd get one for Kyla, and wanted to see how much they are retail. So, I go and enter the search term 'boomerang'..

We are having trouble locating a match for your search: boomerang

Did you mean: boomerangit

So, I click on 'boomerangit'

We are having trouble locating a match for your search: boomerangit

Did you mean: boomer

When clicking "boomer" I got to this item which is a "Boomer Plane", and I have no clue what it does.

What the hell is a boomerangit?

I'm not sure why she was fired!

I've been listening to Air America over the last week. I enjoy listening to Springer, but overall this station is WAY too leftist. I mean, beyond what I can even stand listening to.

I consider myself a polictal moderate. Not that I'm middle of the road on everything, but if you averaged what I'm liberal about and conservative about, it probably averages to moderate. But, Air America is SO skewed with what they say, and don't say, is almost sad.

As you all know, it's 6/6/06. No sins count today!

I don't know why, but I think it's funny that when you call the UK, the tone of the ring is different. For some reason, puts me in the mood to listen to some Pink Floyd...

I remember years ago in college we had some guy from the UK stay with us for a bit. When he went back, I gave him a call to see how he was doing. For the life of me, I don't remember what town he lived in, but it wasn't a "major" town or city that an American would recall. His mum answered the phone, and I couldn't understand a damn word she said to me. I know she was speaking English, but the accent was so thick and distorted, I couldn't understand her and really didn't know if she understood me. Imagine if current-day Bob Dylan had a thick British accent.. that's all I could compare it to. To this day, all I think I got out of the conversation is that he was out riding a moped or something. Or, milking a chicken. Knowing him, it was the chicken.

I just learned that a local pub, Tin and Lint, is where Don Mclean wrote 'American Pie'. That's pretty cool.

Can someone explain to me why the price of gas would be lower yesterday, even though the gas station didn't get a new shipment of gas? I watch the price of oil, so I know when it goes up. I also know that the station didn't get a new shipment (I asked). So, how can the price of gas which was already put in the tank go up?

I'm not overly familiar with how gas stations work, but I assume they pre-pay or are invoiced an amount for what goes into the tank. So, if the price of oil/gas goes up overnight, whatever is in the tank is already paid for. Isn't this gouging? I'd expect to pay whatever the price is based on what was paid for the gas in the tanks... not the market price. No wonder oil companies are making record profits! This morning, $2.85/gallon for the Super Premium.

CNN.com - Rumsfeld's Iraq-Germany analogy disputed - Mar 19, 2006

"Turning our backs on postwar Iraq today would be the modern equivalent of handing postwar Germany back to the Nazis"

When will people learn. You simply can NOT compare anything to Nazi Germany, or anyone to Hitler and get away clean. Never. I don't even think you can compare Hitler to Hitler or Nazi Germany to Hitler and not get people all in a frenzy. If Stalin were alive, he couldn't compare himself to Hitler!

Rule of thumb.. never compare anything to Hitler or Nazi Germany. Just don't do it. Instead of Hitler or Nazi, use something still hated but less fury enspiring, such as 'Yoko Ono'. Instead of Nazi Germany, use somewhere else people would enjoy.. like 'Graceland'.

"Turning our backs on postwar Iraq today would be the modern equivalent of handing Graceland back to Yoko Ono"

See.. much better. And, that comment would totally fit into the absolute nonsense that Rummy usually says!

First, I started seeing some more birds around. Then, over the last few days I've seen the geese migrating back. Then, this morning, the real sign. The resident ducks are back in the pond.

I think we have a few cold days ahead, and some snow showers, but Spring has basically begun to spring.

I hadn't known of Stacy Keibler until Dancing with the Stars. Well, once in a while Andy and me IM eachother with various hot-chick names to see if we agree on their state of hotness. Yes ladies, your theories that adult, well educated, men still sometimes act like 17 year old boys is true. Anyways, he didn't seem very impressed by her.

But, then my issue of Stuff came in yesterday. Look at that cover! Whoaboy. Andy, you're on crack!

At some point, I did a free account thing at classmates.com. I don't recall why, aside it didn't let me see names of people signed up unless I did. Of course, now they always email me saying "10 NEW PHOTOS ADDED!! WANT TO SEE THEM? PAY US!!", and I will never pay for it.

One thing when I look at it, is that I don't recognize the names. I'm sure I went to school with these people, and may have been friendly with some of them. But, nobody rings such a bell that I need to contact them, or pay to do it.

Besides, what would you say to someone who was someone you "knew" in high school after 15 years? "So, what's up?"

Anyone use these sites? What do you say to people? I figure if they are someone important from back then, you somehow have kept in touch over the years or have Googled someones name to try to find them that way.

I wonder if there is a high school reunion coming up. I missed the 10 year one, but I guess there isn't a 16 year one, so I'll have to wait 4 more years to sit in a room trying to remember how I knew someone. I long to have an evening of "Wow Kevin, you've changed!".. "Thanks, I'd say the same to you but I have no idea who you are."

But, it could be funny. One year I had a haircut called a 'Gainsville'. It's basically a shaved head, but the front has long hair which came to my chin. Sort of like a 'slab', but less hair (Kelly, you there? Remember that?). I still have my class photo of me, with that haircut, wearing a P.I.L. (Public Image Limited) shirt. It would be funny as hell to have a shirt made with that photo on it, and wear it to a reunion. Then, say innapropriate things around peoples spouses. "Bill, remember that time you put peanut butter on your nuts and let Jeffs dog lick it off? Man, that killed me. Oh wait, Bill didn't have a dog!"

I crack myself up.

This man is angry about:

a) The CIA airstrike in Pakistan
b) The Pakistani Government working with the US
c) His Colgate toothpaste and extra waxed mint floss shipment was stopped at a checkpoint, and not allowed through to his village... for the past 30 years.

Since I'll be on vacation next week, I wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmass, Happy Hannukah, Fun Festivus, Cool Kwanza, Happy Kevmass and Happy Whatever Holiday You Celebrate In A Religious Or Secular Manner.. and a safe and happy New Years.

Now that you know your days are short for getting me a Kevmass gift, a Think Geek gift certificate is always quick and easy :-) I could always use a new shirt, or some caffinated mints. Amazon is also good, and eBay.

Only 6 more shopping days until Kevmass!

Enjoy the holiday!

The inside of a garbage disposal is one of the nastiest things I've had my hands in. The other day I was using a hand-held can opener, and my Hurculean strength broke it, sending the sproket into the drain, jamming the disposal. Today, I had to get it out. Ick.

Chinese Buffet.. the friend of hunger and enemy of the stomach.

I had a good time in L.A. It was mainly work related, so I didn't get to do too much. But, Saturday was spent being driven around see various areas. UCLA, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Malibu, etc...

For the most part, I don't care much for L.A. The only place I liked was in the mountains (imagine that!). But, L.A. itself, and pretty much the surrounding areas were just too congested for me. So many people, so little blinker use. 1,200 square foot homes on a whopping 5,000 square foot lot for no less than half a million bucks.

I look forward to returning and seeing some places again, but I could never live there. I'd probably live there before I'd want to be in Florida again.. but a paper cut on my retina followed by eye drops of lemon juice is more appealing than moving to either place.

I hope almost everyone down there in SoFla came out OK from the latest hurricane. I watched it on TV.. looked like it sucked.

(Thanks to Justin for the image)

In the spirit of buymeaferrari.co.uk, I figure if that guy can raise a few bucks, so can I! The difference, is that in my case, you'd not just be buying me something, you'd be helping me provide the best for my daughter!

What would the money be put to? It would be directly put to the down payment of the house. The more I can put down, the less debt I'm in and the lower my monthly payments are, which means more time and money to spend on Kyla. For the most part, I don't buy squat for myself, and everything goes to/for her. This is your chance to be a part of that!

What do you get out of it? Not only do you get the warm fuzzies for being nice, but if you donate enough, I'd likely even plant a tree/shrub in your honor in the new yard. That way, as the years go by I can always be reminded of the random kindness of virtual strangers.

So, how about it? I'm sure you have an extra few bucks in a PayPal account. If you come here somewhat regularly, I'm sure I've made you laugh a few times, or smile, which may be worth something. And, if you are a regular, then you've missed every single birthday and this would make up for that! :-)

Anyways.. I don't expect this to work.. but worth a shot.

Anyone have any experience with Berber and cats? I'd like berber, but get nervous the cats will rip it. Easy to repair? Hard to happen?

do, do do do, do, do do do, do, do do do, dooooooo

Guess the song and you'll know what I'm watching right now, and the song will be in your head all day.

I've been quit for a while. No real reason why.. hiatus from journaling I suppose. Although, there has been a lot of things I've wanted to spout shit on. Maybe soon.

Ez Bar

or

Easy Rider

The first is embarassingly long, but may be better. I like the double handle. The second seems pretty easy, but wonder if there could be less control. One handle, but it's closer to the bike.

Decisions.. decisions...

Been quiet as I was in Toronto for a week, and I was sick the last few days. I'll have to update on the cool city of Toronto, YAPC and other random crap.

Two days ago I drove up the street and notice a 'Sold' sign in front of one of the houses. It happens to be the same house as mine, about 5 or 6 houses up the street. Actually, it was the house we saw when we decided to build this one (that one was already built and sold). The only difference I can recall is that it had stainless steel appliances. They have no fence, and they have a much smaller deck. And, no good view of the pond.

When I saw it I was like "huh?? When did that go on the market??" I was just out talking to some neighbors about our new island in the front yard, and they remarked if I saw the sold sign. They said the house was sold the same day it went on the market. SAME DAY! But, they don't know for how much. I need to talk to my other (real estate agent) neighbor and see if she knows. Very interested in what they got.

I was driving back from the store this morning and saw a jack rabbit. In my head, this is what happened:

"Awww.. what a cute rabbit"
"hop hop hop... cute"
"Holy shit, it going in front of the car"
"MOVE!!"
"It isn't moving away!!!"
"Screeeeeeeeeech" (that was my tires, not a sound in my head)
"Whew!"

Rabbits and deer are both pretty stupid animals when it comes to roads. Coyotes run across as well, but do it well since I've never seen a dead one. Turkeys seem to stand there like they own it.

Official Ticketmaster site. Tony Hawk's Boom Boom HuckJam tickets Pepsi Arena Albany, NY, Directions, seating chart.

Oh man, this would be sooooo much fun to go to. Sick skating, crazy motocross. Maybe Kyla would like it. I think this is one reason to take a trip into Albany!

A few years ago I saw an accident on the way to work, and journaled it. Soon after, an insurance company took my statement, and I figured that was the end of it. Today, I got a letter from an attorney for one of the people.. turns out the one whose insurance company did not call me.

They said they were trying to find me, since I was the only person (out of the probably dozen+ cars who saw it) which stopped and spoke to the police. They asked me what I saw. Being that it was in 2/02, I couldn't recall which car I thought was the asshole by running a red. But, thanksfully, I put it in my journal! I just looked it up, and it call came back to me.

Of course, I'd rather not be bothered (like the dozen other cars which saw what happened), but then again, it's nice to know I can help and did the right thing.

The smell of freshly cut grass is great. Until you leave a tashbag of it open in your garage overnight.. then it stinks.

So, it's not three birds so it's not exactly Bob Marley lyrics.

We have these two little trees which flank our front door. And, over the past week or so I notice two little birds fly from one of them whenever I go close to the door. I figured, at first, it was just random birds, since they are all around now due to Spring starting. Then, I noticed it was the same ones. I would sneak to the side window and try to see them. Here are two pics of them sitting on the tree. One is male, one is female.. that much I can tell. The pictures suck since I was standing far away from the window so they wouldn't fly away.

When I stick my big head in the window, they either fly away or flutter there watching me. A few minutes ago they would fly to the roof, swoop down, look, see me, and fly back up. So, I ran upstairs and took this photo of them.

What are these? Finches? Sparrows? I have finch food, for some odd reason, and may put a dish out for them.

Today is the first nice day of Spring. It's now 58F outside, sunny with a light breeze. I took a nice drive to the bank, and stopped by a tile store on the way back (we want to tile our backsplash). Not exciting, but got me out for while. Now Kyla is home, so I'll finish up some work and we'll head over to the park for a while. Then after I come back I'll do some more work, and go pick up the rest of the dog crap in the back. I know you're jealous about that. Nothing like poopie patrol on a nice Spring eve.

Is there a proper way to dispose of a cross? One came in the mail from somewhere asking for a donation. It's a necklace, silver and is about a 2 inch cross. I wouldn't wear it, know nobody who would wear it and don't know what to do with it. Is there some proper way to get rid of this religous symbol? Would I be struck down if I toss it in the trash?

I've mentioned some pros and cons of working from home. But, I was re-asked to list some of the pros and cons. So, here we go.

First, I'll say I've been working from home for close to two years. For some of that, I wasn't really "working", I was doing odd (programming) jobs. I've been working full-time from home since last summer. I have a flexible schedule, as far as my work hours go.. but I usually put in at least 50-55 a week. What I do can easily be done from home, rather than an office. I can't think of any ex-coworker who can't effectively do their job from their home, at least part time. But, for some reason many places feel that somehow programmers are better kept in cubes with bad lighting. I don't think I've met anyone who says "Man, I do my best work while in a cube as opposed to my home office. The distractions, politicing, random meetings and uncomfortable desk chair sure allow me to do my craft the best I can." But, that's another rant to do. I think if these folks could telecommute, they'd be so much happier.

Let's get on with it. I'll start with the cons, since there are fewer:

Cons:

1. No people. Little opportunity to get to know who you work with on a non-virtual basis. This could, or could not, be a good thing.

2. Sometimes things can take longer because people work at different times. Sort of relates to #1. I can't walk to somehomes cube and know they will be there to get an answer. If I'm working 9-6 and the other person is working 12am-8am, there can be a lag in conversations. But, this isn't a huge deal. Important things do get done in time.

3. You're always at work. When you're home, your at work. You can overcome this being a problem, but it's still a con.

4. No "war room". You can't just take a co-worker into a room and brainstorm on a whiteboard. You can still brainstorm.. but no tag-team whiteboarding. I suppose if you live in the same area as your team members, you can still do this. I don't.

Pros:

1. No people. It's nice not to smell other peoples farts, catch their colds, hear them yell at their wife on the phone, etc... Nobody poking their nose in saying "meeting.. now", or asking "How is project XYZ going?" 5 times a day.

2. Work when I want to. I usually work the same hours. But, I sometimes mix it up. I may work late in the summer so I can sleep in since I don't have to get up to get Kyla to school. I can go for a hike, a bike ride, grocery shopping or whatever I want during the day. I could work half a day one day (or just take the day off), then just make up the time. This is really a very nice freedom. It may be a bit mental being that you don't feel Big Brother owns you for certain hours of every day.

3. More time which isn't work-related. If you have to be at work from 9-6 (8 work, 1 lunch), plus spend an hour before work getting ready, a 30 minute commute each way and another 30 minutes un-offitizing, you're spending at least 11 and a half hours a day doing things related to work. You can gain 3 or more hours a day for yourself. Compared to when I last commuted, I save about 60 hours a month.. which is 1.5 full work weeks.

4. Lower bills. I don't have to buy a wardrobe for work. I don't buy lunch out, or at a cafe, 3 or more times a week. I spend money on gas only for personal things. I have lower car insurance since I don't drive anywhere. Pretty much any money which would be spent for travelling to an office, I keep in my pocket.

5. Write offs. I write off my home office, electricity, mortgage, broadband, and everything else which I purchase that is work related.

6. No dress code. I could work nude if I wanted. I don't, but I could.

7. Environment. I control where I sit, what the lighting is, what I'm wearing, what music is on, how loud, if the TV is on, the temperature, etc... I can make my environment to whatever I want it to and whatever is best for me to accomplish my work. Much easier to get into a "zone" and accomplish quite a bit.

8. State of mind. Being able to do some of the above really helps keep you sane. No traffic, accomplishing things, being comfortable. I feel less tense, don't dread Monday mornings when it's still Sunday and generally feel who I'm working for cares about me (since they let me work from home). Good morale.

9. Sick/Snow days and vacations for Kyla. If she doesn't have school, no problem. Nobody has to call out of work, lose pay or vacation days or have anything bad happen. Someone is already home and can be there with Kyla.

10. If Kyla got sick, or had any problem, at school I can take care of it. One day she needed a new pair of underwear. No asking the boss to leave, running home, running to the school and running to work. I just took 'em over, and came home. When she's been sick, done the same. No permission needed.

11. More time with Kyla. I get her off to school, see her off the bus, cook her dinner and get to spend more time with her. Want to go to the park after school? No problem! Flexible hours allow for that.

12. More time for the house. I can keep the house cleaner, since I'm always here. I can do a little through the day, or the whole house. Although I sometimes get too busy, it's still kept cleaner more often than when we both worked outside the home.

13. Can work when sick. Unless I'm doubled over in pain, I can pretty much work when I'm sick. No worry about getting other sick, using a sick day, or getting sicker. If I can sit at the computer for at least an hour at a time, I can still get plenty of work done.

14. No meetings. I still have 'phone' meetings. But, there aren't unexpected meetings with 10 people. When you're in an office, meetings can sometimes take up so much time out of the day, no real work is done. And, let's face it, most meetings are useless anyways.

15. Less gossip and drama. I hate drama.

16. Train of thought. If I am in a zone and I'm working on something as my train of thought is on target... I can allow for myself to not be disturbed. I can not answer IM, not check my email and not answer my phone. Since nobody can just "pop in" and wreck the train of thought, I can block everything else out.

I'm sure I can come up with more pros. There are a lot of mini-pros mixed in to each pro listed above. Being able to manage your own time, and knowing that you actually gain personal time is such a boost. Again, I'm a programmer. This career is really great for working from home. Even if not every day, there is probably little reason to not work from home more than not. I can't speak for other professions, but assume that they would have much of the same pros as I mentioned.

That's what the weather folks said at first. Then, before bedtime it was 2-4 inches. Wake up, 12". This year the weather folks have sucked. Last year, they were good. I think they should just say "It's going to snow, but instead of lying to you and showing I am wrong, yet again, I'll say I have no idea how much snow there will really be."

You really start to realize how large a yard is, which seems to grow, when you go around picking up a Winters worth of dog shit. There was finally enough melted snow to start this task, so I did some tonight since garbage day is tomorrow. Dirty job, but someone has to do it!

There is actually a recipe for a cake called Tunnel of Fudge. Sounds like the title for a show on late nigh Cinemax or something.

"Would you like to try my Tunnel of Fudge?"

Gap Drops SJP

Thank God! I really can't stand that commercial they have with her singing. It's so damn annoying, and it forces me to mute the TV when it's on. Frankly, SJP isn't very good looking. She was a but-her face a decade ago, and now she's just repulsive. She isn't cute and nobody but middle aged women who watched Sluts In The City, or maybe some gays, care for her.

They are replacing her with Joss Stone. She's a 17 year old soul singer who gets compared to Joplin quite a bit. SJP is all pissy about this:

"Joss is not only a teenager, she's also a virtual unknown. Had her replacement been a big star, perhaps Sarah wouldn't have minded so much."

I'd wager that Joss is known in the demographic the Gap wants to attract... and SJP is known by middle aged women, and those of us who saw her in a movie 20 years ago or watched her on 'Square Pegs' in '82. The last halfway decent movie she was in was 'Honeymoon in Vegas' in '92. In either case, I don't know how she'd make people want to shop at the Gap, or who would believe she would wear Gap clothes if not being paid to.

Why do I care? Eh, I don't. Just feel like griping about something this morning.

Suzy got some new air freshener thing which automatically sprays from a mini aerosal can every 45 minutes. *shhhhhhht* is what I hear every 45 minutes, which startles me every damn time.

Locally, there is an issue with Wal-Mart. Not the store which currently exists in my town, but one they want to build in a town about 15 minutes away. It's sort of the classic issue which arises with Wal-Mart in various places... including a town divided.

Why doesn't the town need Wal-Mart? First, it's a nice little town. Nice Main Street and things to do. They certainly don't need the extra traffic, which has already been growing since the area itself is growing. Also, Wal-Mart does drive small business out. They don't need that. Actually, most places don't need that. Not to mention there is a Wal-Mart Uber-center here in my town. Wal-Mart does have a pattern of opening multiple stores close together, driving out others, then closing a store. Nobody really needs two stors so close, and nobody needs one shutting down in a few years. The people there aren't starved for shopping. There is Target and whatnot in the area. The area also isn't impovrished. I don't know the need for minimum wage workers is really needed. As far as I know, people are pretty well employed around here. Again, this could be wrong but I certainly don't see much people in need. Anyways, that area is all part of a "Tech Valley" which is in the works, and I think Target is re-opening a distribution center around there. Not to mention another Wal-Mart about 15 minutes South of there in Clifton Park.

Also, my town benefits from the Wal-Mart there is. I think my town let some people build here in order to offset some taxes. I know we don't pay some taxes (city taxes or something) because of some of the things we have here. I certainly want the tax money from people from out of town shopping here. But honestly, I'm not sure how much it would effect my personal finances, short or long term, if there was a new store.

I'll be watching this and see what happens. I do hope they don't let them in. I know that some people who Wal-Mart wants to buy land from want it to happen, but many others don't. It's mainly a small town attitude here, and a "big box" store can crush that. It hasn't where I live for two reasons. One is that it's contained. It's where we border with Saratoga Springs, about 2 miles from 'downtown'. The rest of the town is kept rural except that one area which is maybe around 2 square miles, if that.

My mom left a Pilates DVD workout thing here. The other day, I decided to try it. I mainly followed the "mod workout person", or as I called.. "the example for fat retards like me" person. I did pretty good, and my stomach was pretty sore the next few days. I haven't had a chance to do it again yet, but do want to do the 20 min. workout every day. My belly has grown and I need to rid myself of it. Luckily, Spring will be here soon so I'll be able to do some hiking as well to help that (I think I said that last year too).

I also noticed my flexibility was, er, lacking. Back in high school and college when I was wrestling, I could bend myself like a pretzel. Now, I can't get my leg straight when extended in the air.

I'll try this workout thing and see what happens. I don't see how doing this, even every day, would actually help. It's not a very hard workout. Maybe I can also jump rope or something in conjunction with it, and add in a 30 minute bike ride when the weather warms up.

Or not.

I order my stamps from usps.com every few months. That's convenient. I could just go to the post office, but, eh.. I don't want to. It's a nice post office though. Very small and sort of a "the Pony Express still operates here" feel to it. But, eh, I don't want to go there for something I can order.

But, every time I order, I forget to grab my CC before I sit down to do it. So, I have to get up, get my wallet, get my card, enter my order, put my card away, put my wallet back, and come back. Ugh.. not to sound too lazy, but that's SOOOO MUUUCH! I won't save my CC info on their site, since I really dislike doing that. Seems half-convenient. Then again, I'm usually ordering them on Sunday nights and am extra lazy then.

Man, it's 32 out and sunny. Almost feels like Spring. I think we're supposed to get flurries about every day this week, but still be warm. Kinda sucks since my mom is coming up and I was hoping for deeper snow for some snowmobiling. But, we still have some down, and as long as the sun goes in for a while, it should stop melting. I've noticed more birds lately. Some sort of bird which looks like a Robin, but smaller and not quite like a Robin. If I can, I'll get a picture of one.

Yep, so mom gets here Friday. We're all pretty excited about it, and glad she's coming up. Kyla has some mid-Winter-nonsense-Presidents-Day-Vacation next week, so she's coming up at a good time. Plus, I have Presidents Day off of work, and Suzy will also be home. I think my mom is worried about the cold. It's been years since she has seen real coldness. But, that's what heat and a fireplace are for. Not like we live in a barn :-)

I just need to go get some grocery shopping done, and clean the house up before she gets here. No biggie. At least I know she'll show up.

Note to self.. after applying Tiger Balm.. make sure you have cleaned your fingers off better before you itch your eye.

I've been trying to remember someones phone number for 2 days now and simply can't!

Very annoying.

Woke up with another 5" of powder, and still going. I'll have to get a few pics up later today of the white tundra, and my sled.

My one gripe is that it takes FOREVER (it seems) for the TV station to scroll through delays/closings. I always seem to wake up when they are on the A's or B's, and I have to wait for the S's. By time it gets to M I'm debating if I should go downstairs and just look it up on their website or not. But, don't want to get out of bed if there is a delay and I can sleep for an extra hour or so.

But, no delay today. This school district doesn't delay or close as easily as some of the others.

So, uh.. when you have your oven on "self cleaning", is there supposed to be flames?

I decided to have it do this today since something dripped down to the bottom of the oven and would smoke and I wanted to bake cookies with Kyla tonight. After about 10 minutes, I look through the oven window and see flames. Not tiny flames, but roast-marshmallow flames. I immediately stopped the self cleaning, and the flames stopped.. and smoke came out of the vent thing.

I think I'll clean it by hand. That was scary.

Cold today. About -4 on the thermometer, and "feels like" of -25 with the wind. The sun is out with no clouds, just to trick us into thinking it's a nice day out!

The one thing pissing me off is the lack of snow. It snows, then gets warm a few days later and melts it all. We had about 3" yesterday, which is good. But, since there was no snow left before, we only have 3". Not enough to ride in, or have snowball fights. Hopefully, we'll start getting some more snow!! I think this is the least amount of white stuff up here for years.

If I don't get a chance to this weekend, I hope everyone has a good, safe and fun holiday weekend.

And, don't forget.. Monday is Kevmass.

I wouldn't usually suggest any sort of product to people, but this one I have to. This stuff rocks. I may have mentioned it before, but if not, I am now. I wouldn't normally use something which has someone yelling at you to buy it in the commercial. But, I think Suzy got it at some point. I keep a spray bottle with it mixed and ready to go.

I've used it to clean up things the animals get on the carpet, marker, dirt, and used it in my car(s) on the carpeting. Last night, it made me do the "damn, this stuff rocks" dance again. Kyla has a boo boo on her knee, which re-opened while she was pretending to be a pig. The boo boo isn't a big deal.. new bandaid and she was all set. But, it dripped a little blood on the carpet in 6 drops. Red blood, beige-like carpet.

I grabbed the spray bottle and the paper towels. Squirt squirt.. wait.. dab. Blood is gone. I love this stuff.

This morning it's -3 out, and "feels like" -20. That's what they say, at least. It's sunny out, and only feels like maybe 10 to me.

I remember when I was a kid at the bus stop, we used to judge how cold it was by how fast our spit would freeze on a stopsign.

Our neighbors left a holiday card in our mailbox. We weren't going to give them a card. Are we now obligated? Wouldn't it be tacky to give a card after you got one?

Not sure why, but I've always been a terrible card person. If it weren't for Suzy, nobody would get a card. I'm more of a "real life" greeting card. I'll call people, email them, IM them.. or whatever fits the bill. But, buying a box of card all saying the same thing almost seems less personal than none at all. But, it's still a nice thought. Not even I can rag on card sending.. I'm just terrible at it. I get birthday cards for people I can hand them to, though. I gave Alan a birthday card. He should probably frame it.

I know what bad etiquette is. We went to the birthday party of one of the neighbor girls. The kid is a great kid, and Kyla likes her. The mother is kind of a bitch. Anyways, I took Kyla to the party (which was a bowling party.. which I think they got the idea from Kyla's party.. since that was the first time their kid went bowling). This was sometime in late summer.. still no thank-you card for the gift. Now, that is totally lame. Maybe for next years gift, I'll include a thank-you card with a SASE. Passive aggression.. nothing like it.

There is a town nearby.. Greenwich. People around here call it "green-witch". But, nobody here can tell me why Greenwich, Connecticut and Greenwich, England are pronounced "Gren-itch". As well as Greenwich Villiage in NYC. Why is every other "Greenwich" gren-itch, and this one is "green-witch"?? Huh?? Nobody can answer this for me.

Until then, I'll keep saying Gren-itch, and tell others they are wrong :-)

I had something to say.. but now I forgot.

Um..

Well, there you have it.

On Wednesday, the first round of movies from the queue arrived. And today, they are back in the mail.

Bad Santa: Eh. Wasn't great. Was ok, but not great.

Elf: Pretty darn funny. Was good for all of us to watch, and we all enjoyed it.

Deliverance: Classic, and hadn't seen it in a while. Suzy never saw it. Now she understands when people make that banjo noise at things.

Finally signed up for NetFlix. I figured it's a good time since there are a lot of non-school and non-work days coming up with the holidays. I made the queue a good mix of things for Kyla, Suzy, me and all of us.

I have a feeling a DVD burner is in my future.

So, I'm watching this sled on eBay. Waiting to see if anyone hits the reserve. The seller wouldn't tell me what his reserve is. I hate that. Why not start the bidding at a few bucks below the reserve? Why takes bids which won't count?

Anyways.. the only thing I don't like about this sled is that it doesn't have reverse. I swear I saw this sled, or one much like it, being sold in front of a masonary shop near the vet. I should take a drive by it and see if it's the same one, or a different one for less money. I'm an endless price comparison shopper.

Of course, I also have in my head "snowmobile... new TV.. snowmobile.. new TV..." I'll probably end up getting both. But, not sure which to choose if I were to get one. TV is, well TV. I always have the TV on, so every penny would be worth it. A sled I know I would ride, since there are trails all around. But, it has added costs: registration, insurance, helmets, gas, maintainance, storage. But, how much fun could it be? A LOT! I could get up in the morning, fire it up, and go riding!

What I really hope is that this sled never hits reserve, and the guy emails me again asking what I'm willing to pay. We'll see.

This morning when I was returning from taking Jazzy to the vet, I saw two Goldens running up the road. One had tags, one didn't. The one that did kept going, but the one without came up to me. The dog was wet, dirty and had burrs on it. But, it had trimmed nails and wasn't unfed. So I knew it wasn't a stray, and must have run off from somewhere. My first thought was... two Goldens, running from the direction of the woods.. must have belonged to a hunter.

I got a tennis ball, and played catch in the front with the dog. I was hoping someone would drive around looking for their dogs. No luck. So I called the dog catcher (which doesn't catch dogs until after 4, apparantly), Town Hall and a few vets. In case someone was looking around for their dogs, I wanted them to be able to call me.

After a while, I decided to let the dog out in the back yard with Jazzy. I figured they could play, and I should be able to see/hear anyone looking for a dog from on the deck. They played very well together. I'll tell ya, it was nice having a big dog around to play with and nice having a partner for Jazzy to play with. Don't tell Suzy that though :-) I not-so-secretely would love another dog.

I figured I'd wait a few hours, and see if anyone drove by or called. 2 hours had already passed. Since the dogs were getting along, I'd wait a while then take the dog to the vet and see if it had a chip, and go from there.

Then, I remembered that some people up the street had two dogs. I couldn't remember if they were Goldens or Shepards. Took a while for this to come to mind since the dogs came from the other direction, and "hunter" was my thought. But, I'd take a walk down there and ask them if they had Goldens. I did, and they did. The woman was just getting ready to go look for Buddy, this dog. Buddy. The one damn name I didn't try calling the dog. I always called Zeke "buddy" or "goofy boy", so I don't call other dogs those things.

Anyways, she came down and got Buddy. He was new for them (they now have three Goldens), so wouldn't have known to go "home" there yet. It was a nice refreshing morning for me (and Jazzy) though. Playing with a large dog again, frolicking on the lawn with it. Almost makes me want to go rescue a dog. Hmmm... Suzy is in FL for the next week. Hope I don't get bored this weekend :-)

I see "flurries" in the 7 day forecast for the nights. Actually, one day they actually have it as "Flurry?" They don't even know. Not "Possible Flurry", but instead "Flurry?" as if they are asking everyone else. Will be nice to see a few flakes. The ground is still warm, so nothing would stick yet. I guess this means it's time to take out the snow blower and make sure it still starts :-) And, get a damn snowmobile!! There's one on eBay which is being sold from someone local. Waiting to see when it hits the reserve first.

Looks like if Kell comes up, she may see a few flakes.

In the All Hallows Eve spirit, what's the scariest place(s) you have ever visited? I have three (no particular order of spookyness):

1) I forget the name of this graveyard. It's in Rockville, CT and has a large stone building in the middle. When you drive up the road to the building at night, stop and shine your brights on it, it looks like a big skull. Nothing amazing about it since it's from the shape of the large doors and shadows.. but eerie. This graveyard is also home to "The lady in blue". I knew many people who saw her, and most people wouldn't give you an odd look if you said you did. I never did. But, when we'd go to the graveyard at night and walk around, it was sure spooky. I name this place since it's the only graveyard I would walk around in at night, and would usually be pretty freaked out. We'd only spend maybe 15 minutes at a time there. It would just become an "Ok, let's just go" sort of thing because it's just spooky. Of course, most grave yards are at night.

2) Dudleyville, CT. You can look this place up on Google. It was a town in CT which was founded in the 1700's and had very bad luck. Suicides, desiese and many odd accidents. Eventually, the town was destroyed and all that's left is foundations in the ground surrounded by woods. It's known as a "dead zone" since the amount of birds and wildlife there is oddly sparse. There has also been many reports of people having their car battery die when there. It's not easy to find, and most people in the area really don't want people going up there. We had to stop for directions, and people acted like they didn't know what we were talking about (we ended up being 3 miles from it). We went during the day, so it wasn't overly spooky. But, there surely was a lack of life. I don't recall seeing or hearing any birds, squirrels, crickets.. anything. And it's in the woods, where you should see/hear these things. We found some foundations, which as pretty cool. I can't say we had any abnormal experiences, but the place really does have an odd feeling about it. I do recall feeling like the woods were looking at you, if that makes sense. It was just very still, and stale in there. I wouldn't go there at night. You can look up ghost photos and info about the area.

3) My friends grandmothers house, Tolland, CT. Oh man, this place is scary. It was built in the 1700's, and the guy who built it is buried up the road. This place has had things happening in it for some time. My friends father used to see things (like someone sitting at the foot of his bed, and outside his door) when he was a child. The smell of something baking when nothing was (which I experienced), things moved around, shadows, noises.. the full spectrum of haunting activities. There was also a "blood stain" in the attic. It wasn't always there, however. It only appeared when she was going to sell the house.. I think it was after the husband died. When people would come to see the house, a small pool of "blood" would appear in the attic. When they would leave it would go away.. leaving a small stain on the wood that couldn't be cleaned. It didn't always happen, but they did take the house off the market. Whatever was there, seemed to like the grandmother being there. As far as I know, she never had any bad experiences there until she was about to move (was time to go into a "home"). When the time to move was close, she would hear banging on the walls, and activity would rise. But, nothing bad or violent that I knew of. It was suspected that the guy who built the house was still there, the grandfather (he was seen outside in the apple trees, which he loved), and who knows who else. There were plenty of things found on the property and in the house from the "olden days". Secret compartments under stairs, hidden rooms, etc...

We used to have fires in the back yard (was 20 acres of land or so), and hang out. But, day or night.. the house was spooky. Most of us, day or night, would run as quickly as we could out of view of the house (or into it). The house stared at you. It knew you were there. It saw you, and everyone felt it watching you. This wasn't a "Man, feels like someone is looking at me" feeling, it was "Holy crap, the house is watching me" feeling. ALWAYS. Even people who would go over there and didn't know the stories of the house would feel it. I went there dozens and dozens of times, and would always look at the ground, and get to where I was going as fast as I could. I wouldn't dare look at the house... I'd may look at a window and see something I wouldn't want to. Again, nothing bad seemed to happen there. There was a "black shadow" that would sometimes come, and make people uneasy. But, no things flying across the room, or whispers saying "geet ouuuut". One of the brothers once saw the black shadow come from the bedroom and seem to lunge at his grandmother. That bothered him, but this was also in the time closer to her moving where more things seemed to occur. Oh, did I mention that bedroom which she stayed in was the old "birth and death" room?

One time we put an infrared video camera and a few mics around the house at night. What did the takes reveal? Strange noises like people were walking around (nobody was there... we were all outside at the fire) and flying "orbs". I don't recall if there was any "voices" on the tapes. I didn't listen to all of them. I do remember that a door which was closed, was opened. The sound was heard on a recorder downstairs, and the initial walkthrough showed the door closed, then later it was opened. I know a person didn't open it since there were no footsteps (old wooden floors, you'd hear it).. just the sound of the door. I get shivers just thinking of the house. It wasn't a mean house, it just watched you. I really can't explain it. In Dudleyville, the woods saw you.. but this house watched you. It knew you. It knew where you were, where you were going, and stared.

Some new people moved in. We aren't sure if anything strange has happened since. We do know the police were called out there the first week for something. And we do know that all the lights were on in the house at night for quite some time (people would drive by the house to see what was going on. It was a beloved house). Were they always on because they were still moving stuff in, or because they didn't want them turned off? We also do know that they called the father, at least once, asking about strange things. But, he wouldn't talk about it to the kids.

Ok.. so those are the spookiest places I've been. I'd say the house was the spookiest.

Urban Legends Reference Pages: Sports (Winning Tradition)

You may have heard by now about the Redskins "predicting" the outcome of the presidental election. In short:

The Washington Redskins have proved to be a time-tested election predictor. In the previous 15 elections, if the Washington Redskins have lost their last home game prior to the election, the incumbent party has lost the White House. When they have won, the incumbent has stayed in power.

Green Bay beat the Skins today, which was the last home game before the election.

Someone (a Bush supporter) sent me this today:

Check your Heinz 57 labels
Shortly after reading the following e-mail content, I happened to look at the label of a jar of Heinz sandwich slice pickles. Yep.... "Made in Mexico".
Check some of your Heinz products.
Sen. John Kerry keeps talking about U.S. corporations leaving this country and setting up shop in foreign countries, taking thousands of jobs with them. He is right, because that has happened. However, he is trying to blame it on George W. Bush.
As far as I know, Bush has not moved one factory out of this country because he is not the owner of a single factory.
That cannot be said about Kerry and his wife, Teresa Heinz-Kerry.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the Kerrys own 32 factories in Europe and 18 in Asia and the Pacific. In addition, their company, the Heinz Company, leases four factories in Europe and four in Asia . Also, they own 27 factories in North America, some of which are in Mexico and the Caribbean
I wonder how many hundreds of American workers lost their jobs when these plants relocated to foreign countries. I also wonder if the workers in Mexico and Asia are paid the same wages and benefits as workers in the United States.
Of course they're not. However, Kerry demands that other companies that relocate should pay the same benefits they did in the U.S. Why does he not demand this of the Heinz Company, since he is married to the owner?
If Kerry is elected, will he and his wife close all those foreign factories and bring all those jobs back to America? Of course they won't. They're making millions off that cheap labor.

I read it, and said to myself "Wow.. this looks like a load of crap." So this was my response after looking up some public records, and using some common sense.

60% of Heinz products are sold overseas, which is a reason to have
factories overseas. You need to do this to keep prices affordable to
local markets, and keep supply closer to demand. Heinz is a US based
company which sells products to dozens of countries. Take for example
Coca-Cola. We wouldn't expect every bottle of Coke to be produced by
US based bottlers. McDonalds doesn't ship all it's meat from US farms.
Clothing companies don't use all fabric/silk produced in the US. Dodge
trucks aren't all assembled in the US.

Teresa, let alone Kerry, has no involvement in the operations or
management of the company. And Teresa doesn't own controlling interest
in the stock (<4% interest, I believe).

Heinz is not on the Board of Directors:
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/46640/000119312504113396/ddef14a.htm#toc82155_4

Nor a principal shareholder:
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/46640/000119312504113396/ddef14a.htm#toc82155_2

The original email doesn't mention where the author lives. Southern
California? Arizona? New Mexico? Perhaps closer to a Mexican factory? I
have 4 Heinz producs in my fridge right now, all made in the USA. Made
in Mexico? I actually don't see a Mexico plant listed on their
site: http://www.heinz.com/jsp/di/corp_pro2003/corpProfile6.jsp

Another thing the email talks about is outsourcing. But, it doesn't
mention (and I can't find) any Heinz plant closing in the US to move
that factory to another country to serve the same market. Opening a
factory in Africa to sell to Africa, isn't outsourcing. Calling tech
support for Dell and speaking to someone in India, is. Your medical
records being sent to India to be processed instead of using US
companies to do it, is. Having IBM move 4,700 programming jobs to India
and China is outsourcing.

The email seems to be riddled with spin, and falsehoods. It says
Kerry/Teresa own, or have ownership/operational stake in Heinz. They
don't. It states that factories were relocated, but doesn't say which
ones, from where to where, and even it occured.. were they selling to
the same market. It stated Kerry is married to the "owner", which he
isn't. It asks if Kerry and Teresa, if elected, will close factories
abroad and bring them to America.. they can't.

It was a fun read, but after it made my head spin to the right, it
wasn't hard to find out that it wasn't anything but propoganda.

Politics is a lot like religion, in some ways. People can just say things, and other people will just accept it. Some people may know it's bullshit, but pass it along hoping others won't. Usually when I get these emails I do a quick read, realize it's spin, and ignore it. This time I happened to know it was BS. I figured I'd share this one in case anyone else gets it from someone. Or, if you get something similar it will make you think about looking up some facts. These amount to little more than those emails where "little billy is dying of cancer and wants you to send him a get well card, then ask 5 friends to do it too."

Looking forward to Tuesday to cast my vote. Then, watching the months of legal battles which will come afterwards!

CNN.com - HHS: More flu shots from abroad unlikely - Oct 14, 2004

Ok, this isn't really about just the flu shot. Mainly a thought on Bush. In a previous debate (the second, I believe) Bush was saying we aren't going to re-import drugs from Canada until he feels they are safe to do so... thus not allowing the cheaper drug costs until this occurs. But, we can import from England, I suppose, since that's where the contaminated flu shots were coming from. But, now we may not be able to get shots from Canada because they may not meet FDA requirements in time for flu season.

Thompson's comments came after President Bush suggested during Wednesday's presidential debate that Canadian supplies might ease the vaccine shortage. "We're working with Canada to hopefully ... help us realize the vaccine necessary to make sure our citizens have got flu vaccinations during this upcoming season," Bush said.

The president made those comments even though his administration has fought municipalities' efforts to import cheaper medications from Canada, questioning the drugs' safety.

Will people not get the flu shot because Bush sat on his hands on this issue for almost 4 years? You form your own opinion.

Bush did say last night that he won't be getting the flu shot, so others in more need (elderly and the young) can have it. How gallant. I don't believe it for a second, however. I think he'll have his shot, but of course I can't prove that he will. And, even though he's trying to win people over by saying he won't get a shot.. um.. helllooooo. You're the president. The last thing we need is for you to be stuck in bed for weeks because you have the damn flu. It's borderline reckless for the President NOT to get a flu shot. With all the germ riddled people he talks to and shakes hands with.. get the shot.

Wilford Brimley - GREAT CHARACTER ACTORS: MovieActors.com

Wilform Brimley always seems angry. Even when he is saying something he apparanly likes, he seems angry. I see him in some Liberty something drug delivery commercials. He says how it's so good for seniors, and it's a great service covered by Medicare... but he seems so mad about it.

"Grrr... they deliver RIGHT to your door.. grrrr.. those bastards.. grrrr"

I wonder if he's really the best spokesman for seniors.

From my cousin Ken:

Little David was in his fourth grade class when the teacher asked the
children what their fathers did for a living. All the typical answers
came up; fireman, policeman, salesman, doctor, lawyer, etc. David was
being uncharacteristically quiet, so the teacher asked him about his
father.

"My father's an exotic dancer in a gay cabaret and takes off all his
clothes in front of other men and they put money in his underwear.
Sometimes, if the offer is really good, he will go home with some guy
and make love with him for money".

The teacher, obviously shaken by this statement, hurriedly set the
other children to work on some exercise and took little David aside
to talk with him about his answer, "Is that really true about your
father"?

No", said David, "He works for the Republican National Committee to
re-elect George W. Bush, but I was too embarrassed to say that in
front of the other kids".

Tigger ran out the sliders while I was closing them onto the deck. I rushed out to get that fat cat and seemed to have cut my foot on the deck. Hurts like crap, but don't see any splinter. Damn cat.

Just uploaded photos from August and September to my photo album site.

We all know that we are taxed to death. Our paychecks have taxes taken from them, then when we buy good with the remaining money we are again taxed. We get maybe $.70 of buying power for every dollar earned (depending on tax bracket, witholdings, etc...). The one and only good thing about FL was no income tax. NY has income tax, as do many other states.

Let me know if I'm smoking crack on this idea. Wouldn't it be good if states which collect (charge) income tax gave a tax break in this way.. every 2 months or 3 months (to make it quarterly) there was NO state tax charged on non-luxary goods. This could last for maybe a week, every few months. No state tax on things like food, clothing, electronics, etc... Still tax on houses and cars. This would give relief to people because they could spend more money during that week (dollar could go a little further). Plus, it could help business since people could purchase more goods.

I'd vote for someone who proposed this!

I hate the commercial because the guy yells at you. BUT.. the stuff is great. Between 2 cats, a dog and a 6 year old.. it's come in quite handy. I now just keep some in a spray bottle so it's handy.

Aside from the idiot who always posts here trying to be mean to me, I hope everyone is ok through the storm. Keep safe.

It's amazing that after all these years, Fruit Rollups are still a pain in the ass to open. I'd pay an extra $.10 each of they were rolled in something coated with teflon. Or, if they were Fruit Rolledouts... and came flat.

NYRA.com - Travers

Today is "The Travers", which is the big annual race held at the Saratoga Race Track. Over 66,000 people will be at the track today.. which is why I won't be there :-) I like going to the track, but still not sure what's the big deal about single races. Better horses? Better jockeys? No clue. I know this track is the oldest in North America, which is why so many people seem to like it. And The Travers is the oldest "stakes" race for 3 year olds. Big deal.. I'd bet my $2 or $4 and win or lose just as any other race. Guess I just don't get it. Maybe I'll have a local explain it to me.

Guardian Unlimited | Life | 'I've seen things...'

Scientists agree.. Blade Runner is the best sci-fi film ever.

Man, I've had a hard time sleeping lately. I seem to be up until 2 or 3 about every night. My usual is 12 or 1, with the occassional 2 or 3. But, been at 3 for over a week now. Then, still up early. Some nights I've been up working late, but then just don't get to sleep. Some of it, I blame on the kitten. Damn thing thinks I'm it's pillow and scratching post. It is almost always sleeping on me (she is right now). When I go to bed, she follows and lays on me, next to me or next to my head. If she is awake, and sees my foot or hand move.. ATTACK! Hasn't helped my sleeping much. I know I'll go upstairs in a few minutes.. she'll follow me and wake up in the process. As soon as I lay down, she'll want to play. I'll lay still as not to seem like a toy.

Well, a Three's Company I don't remember seeing is on. Guess I'll watch it.

You refer to downtown Albany as "The City."

"Vacation" means going to Lake Ontario or Niagra for the weekend.

There are 7 empty cars running in the parking lot at the Hannaford at any given time.

You know to avoid tractor trailers (or cars for that matter!) on the Northway with Canadian plates.

You don't consider what Domino's or Pizza Hut sell as pizza.

You know that "First Night" isn't a Sean Connery movie.

There is no such thing as waiting for the left turn arrow at an intersection.

Your career ambition is to work for NY State.

Even with the slightest threat of snow, you know that Ichobob Crane schools are closed.

You think everyone from down-state has an accent.

Down-State starts just south of the Thruway.

You're in line to get the first custard cone when summer comes.

If you consider it a sport to gather your food by drilling through 36 inches of ice and sitting there all day hoping that the food will swim by.

If you're proud that your region makes the national news 96 nights each year because Saranac Lake is the coldest spot in the nation.

If your local Dairy Queen is closed from September through May.

If you instinctively walk like a penguin for six months out of the year.

If someone in a store offers you assistance, and they don't work there.

If you have worn shorts and a parka at the same time.

If your town has an equal number of bars and churches.

If you have had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number.

You measure distance in hours.

You know several people who have hit a deer more than once.

You often switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day and back again.

You can drive 65 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard, without flinching.

You see people wearing camouflage at social events (including weddings).

You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked.

You carry jumper cables in your car and your girlfriend / wife knows how to use them.

You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.

You know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter and road
construction.

You can identify a southern or eastern accent.

Your idea of creative landscaping is a statue of a deer next to your blue spruce.

You were unaware that there is a legal drinking age.

Down South to you means Albany.

A brat is something you eat.

Your neighbor throws a party to celebrate his new pole shed.

Your 4th of July picnic was moved indoors due to frost.

You have more miles on your snow blower than your car.

You find 0 degrees "a little chilly."

You think sexy lingerie is tube socks and a flannel nightie with only eight buttons

You owe more money on your snowmobile than your car

Your snow blower gets stuck on the roof

You frequently clean grease off your barbecue so the bears won't prowl on your deck

You know which leaves make good toilet paper

You've ever kept food cold by putting it on the back porch

The mayor greets you on the street by your first name

There is only one shopping plaza in town

From May to October there is a festival every weekend celebrating a
different fruit, vegetable, or agricultural product.

Every vehicle you own has a ski rack or a gun rack.

FYI.. it seems when people are leaving comments, I'm suddenly not getting the email saying so. So, if I am slow to comment back, that's why. Pretty annoying. Also, all of a sudden, ssh on the box isn't accepting connections right. Not sure what's up. Things used to run so smoothly. Maybe I should move this all over to my other domain, on another server. Of course, if I can't access the server, I can't redirect this domain to there :-) Blah... hopefully it will get cleared up. I can't complain too much, since this hosting is done gratis.

Last night I watched a CSI I had recorded. One of the cases was at a Logos tourny. Logos was a game, but I can't find any info on it. I assume it's real, but whenever I search for "logos game" I get a bunch of results for logos, and not a game named Logos.

Anyone heard of this game? Any info/links on it?

I go to schwans.com (food delivery), click on Meals -> Balanced Choices -> Meatless and all it shows me is an ice cream sandwich.

Not quite what I was hoping for.

Enjoy it!

Went and voted on raising the school budget for next year. As I read the paperwork we got in the mail, voting "yes" would raise some taxes. I don't like taxes, I pay enough taxes every freakin day on every damn thing. So, you may be able to guess how I voted.

And, on the way home.. saw a rainbow!!

Hope it's a good one.

WeatherPop, the weather app I use, has been showing my temperature as 24F for about the last week. I'm pretty sure this is wrong :-) Changed my location to Glens Falls (just up the road) and it shows it correct (61F right now).

I'm glad it was wrong, otherwise it would be snowing!

Pentax USA

Pentax now says they are the "Official Camera of the Internet", referring to the Optio. How the hell can something be an "official" anything of the internet? The internet isn't the Olympics or an entity which a board can name something as being "official". Not sure why the think they can use this slogan, pretty stupid if you ask me.

I now deem I am the "Official Cynic Of The Internet"©.

Walt Disney World Resort® - Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa

I leave Florida to Saratoga Springs, and Disney is bringing Saratoga Springs to Florida!

In Florida, at least where I lived, streets are squares and getting lost is sort of hard. When getting directions you can hear "Turn left at Dunkin", or "Make a right where (some company) is." But, usually street names and cardinal directions are fine. If you make a wrong turn it's not too hard to find your way back to somewhere you know or a main road.

Up here, very different. There is basically a single landmark people use. A place called "Stewart's". It's like a 7-11, but they also have their own brand of ice cream and use local farms. I think 9 out of 10 times you get directions, Stewarts is in it somewhere. "Take a right/left at the Stewarts", "Just past Stewarts", "Go past the Stewarts", etc... They are everywhere! Which, is good for them and good for me. They are actually the closest place for me to run out and pick things up (bread, milk, eggs) without going into town. It also happens to be close to the last name of two ex-coworkers. Good thing I like them both, since it always reminds me of them :-) Wonder if they are related to Donald Stewart, who founded it.

One interesting thing on the history of the store is they say [in 1948] "Stewart's was the first to introduce the square folding half gallon ice cream carton." I still think the fact the potato chip being created here is cooler. You can still get "Saratoga Chips" at restaurants which are pretty darn tasty.

Anyways.. if you are every up here driving around, stop at Stewart's!

Anyone pull or have pulled on them any good April Fools today?

Does this woman (Condoleezza Rice) ever smile? She always looks so pissed off and mean.

It's about 60 today, and is supposed to be around that for the next week. I was out in shorts and t-shirt today.. was very nice. The geese, ducks, hawks and other birds are all flying around. I saw four deer racing across the field earlier.

Of course, we could still get a snow storm over the next month or so, but the next week is going to be fantastic.

A note came home from the school that there were some bear tracks found around the school. Apparently, last year there were bears (at least one) in the woods behind the house. It would be cool to see one, from a distance. Since there are more homes here now, than last year, it could be possible. Some people leave their trash cans outside in the back of their house. If I were a bear, that would look like a buffet!

I haven't mentioned my tank in a while. Why? Well, all the fish died (aside the snail.. which turned into 20). But, I had a thriving algae farm going. I think the placement in the room wasn't very good. Some sun would get on the tank in the late afternoon. Something I didn't think was going to happen there. But, sometimes it can take an extra time or two to get a tank going right.

Well, round 2 is now against the South wall, where it looks much better and will have no sun on it unless the Earth takes a nasty shift. I'll be letting the tank run and sit there for about a week, then add some fish. Of course, I get impatient and will probably go to the pet store during the week :-)

I also found an old laptop, which maybe I'll use for a fish cam. This way I won't have to get up to go look at it!

I hope everyone enjoys a Guinness today!

(09:11) Gavin: looks like 8-10 inches of fun later

I *think* he meant the snow we're getting!

St.Baldricks Event, National Childhood Cancer Foundation

I learned about this today. They are events where people get donations for them to shave their heads. All the money goes to the National Childhood Cancer Foundation. I think it's a great idea! So, I called them up for some info, and sent an email to the local bar I go to (who are also clients) to see if maybe they would be interested in having a shaving event there. I'd try to drum up support with the local law enforcement and firefighters. People can accept donations on the site (so I'd be expecting my regular readers would donate), and I think it could be worthwhile to do.

Hopefully, the pub will be interested. If not, maybe I'll shave my head anyways :-)

Do people actually pay attention to these? Or really base their vote off them? I pretty much ignore ads because I figure they are all spinning the truth to meet their motives. I, although I know who I won't be voting for already, usually use the debates to decide. Ads don't sway me. I guess they are used more for the undecided votes. I'm not much into the attacks, I'm more into "Here is what I see as broken, and here is my plan to fix it" ads. Of course, what a president (or any politician) does when in office is unknown.

I'd like to find a site which has all the campaign promises that Bush made, and what he actually did in comparison... and if what he did was effective. If anyone knows of one, please pass it on.

Did my part in the primary today and voted. I couldn't remember if voting was at Town Hall or the courthouse. Luckily, they are next to eachother. It was in the court house... which almost looks like a few double-wide trailers put together. Ahhh.. small towns. It was the old-school voting where you pull a lever. No hanging chads here!

My book came in yesterday. It's the paperback, instead of the hardcover.. but that's fine (same book!).

Leffe

I went down to the bar tonight to listen to some live jazz and have a pint of Old Speckled Hen. While I was there I saw the owner, which I'm sort of related to in a non-related way... but we know eachother (and I do their website and webhosting). He was on his way up the street to a bar someone he knows just opened. When there, he said to try Leffe, which the had on tap. It's a Belgian, quite fruity, beer. Man, that stuff kicked my ass! (8.2% vol) I enjoyed the taste, but like Gunness and Speckled Hen better. But, after a few of these I'm feeling pretty numb. It was a good night, live jazz... hanging out with someone and enjoying some good beer.

Good stuff. If you happen to see it on tap somewhere, give it a try.

I'm somewhat torn on this issue. I do believe that two same-sex partners should have a legal agreement to be able to benefit from much of the things married opposite-sex people do. For example, tax benefits, time off from work to care for the other, being able to sign documents, etc... But, I don't know that I think the historical definition of marriage should be changed. I think "marriage" should be between one man and one woman, but legal benefits can be bestowed upon two people committed. I don't agree with a constitutional change, as Bush proposes. Leave the Constitution alone on this matter, unless maybe it is to solidify defining marriage between only 2 people.

One thing about allowing a non-traditional marriage to be a marriage is opening it up to people with other alternative lifestyles... like polygamists. I'm not sure that allowing same-sex marriage won't open the doors to legal polygamy. You can't pick and choose which alternate lifestyles are "valid" and which aren't.

I do believe that marriage is a cornerstone of our society and doesn't really need to be messed with. But, do believe (2) committed people of any sex should have some legal benefits. Maybe some sort of Civil Union meets Common Law Marriage. I'm just not sure. I'm also not sure if it's a Federal issue or a State issue. This one has me momentarily stumped.

I said before I'm reading it. Great book, very long and between working, playing, parenting, etc.. it's taking me a while to get through. I renewed it from the library today, but decided to also buy it so I can finish it at my own pace as well as re-read it when I feel so inclined. The book is out of print so I have been looking for it on eBay and on Amazon Marketplace. The book is sold for anywhere between $60 and $80. Blah.. I can buy 7-10 volumes of the Vagabond manga for that! Other places on the web said they had it, but really didn't. Finally, saw someone in Amazon selling it for $30 (no dust jacked, reasonable condition) so I grabbed it. Looking forward to it getting here!

Main Entry: pier
Pronunciation: 'pir
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English per, from Old English, from Medieval Latin pera
1 : an intermediate support for the adjacent ends of two bridge spans
2 : a structure (as a breakwater) extending into navigable water for use as a landing place or promenade or to protect or form a harbor

Main Entry: peer
Pronunciation: 'pir
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French per, from per, adjective, equal, from Latin par
1 : one that is of equal standing with another : EQUAL; especially : one belonging to the same societal group especially based on age, grade, or status

Being under "pier" pressure is probably painful.

I like how every news channel, for every Primary, says how the voters in that state don't vote with polls, vote for people because other states do, and doesn't like to be told who to vote for. I'm waiting for the state which they say "This state basically votes for who everyone else has, and who the polls say is in the lead as the people don't think for themselves in any way."

I was looking at my journals activity log to see who's been throttled or auto-banned. I saw a crapload of searches from 152.121.36.65, including: porn, porn links, sex, slave, anal, rape, sodomy, sodomize, prostitute... and more along the same line of query. That IP is gateway-fincen.uscg.mil, which is the US Coast Guard. Seeing the timespan between searches, it doesn't seem like a robot... so I assume some lonely Coast Guard is sitting behind a tax payer supplied network searching my journal for porn. How nice.

Dance Flurry 2004 Homepage

Going on in town this weekend. Looks interesting. Their website sucks though.

I do the hang up, put the phone down, breathe heavy, ask what they are wearing tactics to tick off telemarketers. Today, I tried something different which seemed to work very well. "WHY YES!! TELL ME MORE ABOUT YOUR POSTAL SCALE!!".. that's right, I showed INTEREST!! Very enthusiastic interest!!

"Wait!! You mean it keeps track of my postage?!?! AND it weighs my letters??? Holy crap, that sounds fantastic.. how does it work??"

I kept this chick on the phone for about 30 minutes asking questions about this incredible deal she was offering. I was also on my laptop working while I was doing it, so it wasn't wasting my time. I suppose speakerphone would also be a good thing for this.. or a headset.

Anyways.. after about 30 minutes I said "Well, I don't really think I'm interested." Oh boy, the chick sounded pissed. She just spent a half hour on the phone with me for nothing. "But, you can return it within 90 days." "Yes, I know. But I already have one of these from the post office and get bulk rates, so I don't really need this. Thanks for the offer though."

*click*

This seems to be making the rounds in various journals. I like it, so I'll put it here as well. I can honestly say I have worked with people who consistently give over 100% (according to this math)

What makes 100%?

What does it mean to give MORE than 100%?

Ever wonder about those people who say they are giving more than 100%?

We have all been to those meetings where someone wants you to give over 100%..

How about achieving 103%?

Here's a little mathematical formula that might help you answer these questions:

If: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Is represented as:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

Then:
H-A-R-D-W-O-R-K
8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%

and,
K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E
11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%

But,
A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E
1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%

And,
B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T
21+12+12+19+8+9+20 = 103%

AND, look how far ass kissing! will take you:
A-S-S--K-I-S-S-I-N-G
1+19+19+11+9+19+19+9+14+7 = 118%

So, one can then conclude with mathematical certainty that:

While, Hardwork and knowledge will get you close,
and Attitude will get you there,

Bullshit and Ass kissing will put you over the top.

Since it is nice and warm today (32F) I decided to take Jasmine out for a walk. My neighbor was out shoveling and his dog (a large lab) was out loose in his yard.. as it often is when he's out. As we walked by his house this dog took off at Jasmine. Not friendly butt-sniffing, but was growling and I saw teeth. Jasmine yelped and I kicked his dog hard in the head with my boots... which made it go away. He apologized profusely. Luckily, I don't see any injuries on Jasmine but if that happens again I'll have to call the authorities.

I understand that this is a rural area, but people still need to leash their dogs if they choose not to build a fence.

Went to the library last night and took this book out. It's about Miyamoto Musashi (1584-1645), who was a boy in the 17th century feudal Japan. It's about his life and how he became a renowned swordsman and masterless samurai. He developed the 2 sword fighting style, and basically kicked a lot fo ass. I have mentioned the manga Vagabond which I follow, which is also about Musashi. The book is 976 pages, so I'll probably end up buying it to finish it :-) So far, it's a good read. Very easy reading and enjoyable.

This was the first time, in who knows how many years, my chin and upper lip have been exposed to cold without the warmth of a beard on them. It's -11 this morning, and that was a new experience of cold for me. It was like my face was fine with the cold... then I was thinking "Hey, what's that sensation on my chin and upper lip!??!!"

Since you need to experience everything to the fullest, I stood outside for an extra few minutes to feel the cold on those areas.

A few people have asked me if I miss the weather in FL. I always admitted that for a few weeks in the Winter (like now) the weather down there is perfect. It's deceiving, since about 10.5-11 of the other months, it's morbidly hot. But, right now there is low humidity and nice weather. But, soon enough the humidity rises, the temps rise and it sucks. I don't care what anyone from there says.. it sucks and they all know it.

Not too cold today. Was about 14 or so, nice and sunny. Was great snowmobiling weather. I like it when it's cold. I don't think I have ever complained about the cold. But for Christs sake, when you sweat just going to the mailbox... that's just plain stupid. I even went to the mailbox today in a t-shirt! I went out back for a while and threw the ball around in the snow with Jasmine.

Mid winter has a lot of things to enjoy. The cold isn't too much of a big deal assuming you have clothing, and a home with heat. I keep the house at 73, and turn on the fireplace in the evenings and morning. Even Suzy hasn't complained about the cold. It's basically sunny out unless it's snowing... and I love it when it's snowing.

Luckily, I am self-employed and don't have to drive to work. The tires on my car are meant for warm streets.. not snow. Basically, worthless in the snow. Hasn't been much of an issue since the roads are like summer a day or two after a storm... and I don't really have to go anywhere :-) I think I've driven twice since Christmas. Not because I can't, I just don't need to.

The weekend is here and we'll be back in the reasonable 20's. Probably get some snowmobiling in, maybe some snowshoeing with Kyla. Kick back with the fire, go see a movie with Suzy (Big Fish).

So no.. I don't miss the weather in FL. It's nice for a few weeks, and crappy the rest of the year. This is a nice time to visit, but living there wasn't for me (2 times.. don't want to try a third). I prefer snow to sweat, the Adirondacks to red ant hills, fireplaces to A/C and seeing stars at night as opposed to the ever growing glow of the congested landscape. But, some people enjoy the lifestyle down there. I never did.

ASCENT 8000: Expedition FAQs

Gavin and I were discussing the cold weather we're having. The topic came up of how people crap when doing expiditions in cold areas. Which, made me wonder how people do it when climbing things like Mt. Everest. There is a latrine at basecamp, but what if you are midway up to peak? So, I turned to Google with the search "shitting on Everest", and the above link seems to have the answer. Ziplock bags. Clothing worn can be partially removed (I guess like a trap door) and you go in a ziplock.. put it in your pack, and carry your frozen dung up and down the mountain. Gavin said your ass would freeze in -40 weather like that. But, the weather people keep reminding us that frostbite can set in in about 10 minutes at -30.. so I'd figure you have about 7 or 8 minutes to do your duty.

Now, the question is pissing. All us men know about the "cold water effect". I couldn't imagine the "-40 effect". Even if you could whip it out in that cold, I doubt you could easily pee, especially if it's windy. I thought a diaper would do the trick. Maybe a thermal diaper of some sort, so it is multi-purpose. However, that could block the trap door unless it's a modified diaper. But, Gavin found this gem which is an external catheter with a leg bag. Makes sense. Isn't this what astronauts do? I guess that could work for cold weather.

So, it seems if you are doing an arctic expidition you need to arm yourself with an external catheter with leg bag, and ziplock bags.

Cold front moving in. The temp is 1F, but "feels like" -13. Honestly, I don't think it's that bad unless the wind is blowing. Love the cold!

Duluth News Tribune | 01/07/2004 | Recovery with no jobs puzzles economists

Have you wondered why the economy seems to be recoving, but new jobs aren't being created? Well, I have.. and it seems some economists have been too. There is always recovery.. the economy has its ups and downs, and it has been down. Lately, stocks are up and people seem to be spending more (consumer confidence, I guess). But, new jobs aren't really coming in. In fact, many are being outsourced. Usually, new jobs come, then people spend, then recovery happens. In this case, there appears to be a recovery, but the jobs aren't really coming back.

Over the last few years there have been a lot of layoffs (and jokers like me who quit their high paying jobs to build a home in a new state!).

... , where you see the profits today because you've gotten rid of a cost. You don't see the future expenditures and you hope maybe those future expenditures will be hidden by the fact demand will be high, prices will be high. So nobody will notice that.

Seems logical. Your profit estimates are high.. you get rid of cost (people), have hourly workers do more work in less hours, and you end up posting a profit. Post a profit, stock goes up.. stocks go up, consumer confidence goes up... but unemployment isn't neccesarily going down.

You can see the stats here. Unemployment was down (and steadily heading down) until Bush came in. Since then, it has risen. According to that graph, we were at 5.9% in November, and 6.0% in Dec. 2002. We peaked at about 6.4% in June 2003.

I need to go back and reread some of my economy books, maybe then I'll understand it better. But, if economists are puzzled, I guess it's ok I am.

To me!!

I went to a CoC mixer last night. Really not my scene. The food and drink were good, but schmoozing really isn't my thing. I talked with some people, then basically people watched. Maybe if I knew someone there it would have been easier. I'm just not a "strike up a conversation" kind of person.

But, that's ok. Maybe the CoC will somehow do ok for me. But, I'm pretty filled up with work for the moment, so it doesn't matter right now. Different world for me.

Official Website of the New England Patriots - 12/15/03 12:48:42 PM

Pats beat the Jacksonville Fag-u-ares.. I mean Jaguars. Good game, in the snow. I like watching football when there is snow, since it gives an extra element of randomness to the game which can make it more interesting. Since I was a kid I always liked the Pats and Bills. Over the years I've cared less about football (and sports in general, aside from hockey) but still like the snowy games.

The Bruins are doing ok so far this year, which has always been my team to root for with hockey. It's unfortunate that there is no pro sports teams in the area. Well, pro hockey team. There is the Albany River Rats, an AHL team. I'll probably go check out a game or two and see how it is. The Stanley Cup was up here a few days ago, but I missed seeing it. That would have been cool.

If soccer was a winter sport, I'd probably watch it.

This ever happen to you? I was just at the gas station getting some OJ, and the cashier is telling me how she is tired and needs some sleep. In my head are two canned responses "I know how you feel" and "I know what you mean"... and it comes out "I know how you mean." I thought to myself "What the hell did you just say?" I do that once in a while. Like, "How are you doing" and "How's it going" coming out as "How are you going?" or "How's it doing?"

I'll just chalk it up to being a Kevinism.

You know you want to get me something, but you just don't know what. So, you can donate some money to me for my birthday! If everyone who reads this site donated $5 I'd have like $15!!

I'll measure tomorrow, but I think we got a little over a foot today. I did the driveway a few times (I enjoy doing that), played in the snow with Jasmine and did some snowmobiling with my neighbor. Some snow still coming down, so probably get another few inches. Luckily, tomorrow is Sunday so nobody has to go anywhere. Probably more snowmobiling and snowball fights tomorrow.

Woke up this morning to a lot of white. Went outside and took care of the driveway, and measured the snow in the front and it was around 7". They say it's about 1" per hour now. Just took Jasmine out back and threw snowballs at her. This is the first time she was out in snow. She was very leery about going outside.

Suzy had to go to work this morning. It was taking her about an hour to go 3 exits (she has to go 9 exits... 25 or so miles in all on the highway) so she called and they sent her to the store near our house. But, since nobody is really going out to get eye exams today, she is coming home.

This was mainly for my own enjoyment.

I live about where I put the red dot.

And, here is the updating image from The Weather Channel.

I get so excited with the first storm of the season!

We're supposed to have a lot of snow starting tomorrow with over a foot coming down. So, I decided to go get some things I need. Like gloves, winter hat, salt for ice, etc... I also needed some food, so I went to the Wal Mart since I can get everything in one trip. Man, what a mistake. That place sucks. What a madhouse. You can barely fit down aisles. It took me 20 minutes to find hats! And, I still don't know where scarves are. Anyways, I'm home with my stuff.

The way I take to that part of town is partially a nice twisty back road (well, everything here is basically a back road). I figured this may be the last time I can go fast on it, so I took the road at about 100. Nice rush. I'll do it again next Spring.

East Armageddon - Post Apocalyptic hot sauce. As you may know, I love hot sauce on my food. And, I can take more heat than the average guy. This sauce I generally use sparingly. If you put too much on your food it can be overwhelmingly hot. It's great when cooking, but you can't spray it on like that wussy Tobasco.

My head has been clearing up, so I decided to give it a little boost. I took a decent amount of sauce, put it on a small piece of bread and popped it in my mouth. About 10 seconds later I think my sinus' released everything they had in them! So, for the moment at least, my head is clear :-)

BBC NEWS | UK | Scientists create 'perfect' toast

Another useless study. Luckily, it was in England. After 3 months and 10,000 pounds these crack researchers came up with the equation to make the perfect piece of toast.

I'm really waiting for the formula to make the perfect ice cube.

(Thanks to Alan for passing the link along)

My head is turning into a large reservoir of snot. It started yesterday, but luckily hasn't gotten worse. I'm blowing my nose and drinking lots of OJ. Head colds sucks, but is better than the flu. I even got head colds in FL around this time... 'tis the season and all.

Until my birthday!

Enjoy your holiday.

Kyla is now on Thanksgiving break. Actually, it starts Wednesday, but tomorrow is a "teacher planning day". What the hell is a teacher planning day?? I've wondered that since I was in school. And, why can't the teachers "plan" over the 3 (plus 2 weekend days) days they are about to have off? Last week there were 3 half days for parent/teacher conferences (not even a half day.. 9 to 11) and now there is a "teacher planning day" butting up against a holiday.

Anyone know what's really done on these days? Especially for K-5.

SI.com - MLB - Yankees pour it on after pitchers' duel, rain delay - Wednesday October 22, 2003 5:29AM

Went out to walk Jazmine this morning around 8, and it was lightly snowing. Now, it's lightly raining, but had a little snow this morning. It didn't stick to the ground since the ground isn't frozen yet.

Snowmobiling before I know it!

There are three people from my past I'd love to get in touch with to catch up on. Well, four. I've tried finding these folks, but have had no luck.

Brian Parsons: Last seen, Oakland Park, FL. He has a sister Rachel. He could be in South Florida, Puerto Rico, or the D.C. area.

Seth Maynard: Last seen, Burlington, VT (UVM, early 90's). His father used to live in Clinton, CT. and I think his mother owns an Inn around Bennington, VT. but I don't recall the name of the Inn, or her first name. I've tried phone number lookups in those areas, and have found nothing. I'd assume he is still in the Northeast.

Brian ??: Last seen, Davie, FL. Last I heard (some years ago) he was doing alligator wrestling in the Everglades (I kid you not). He was my RA at Nova University, and we hung out quite a bit. He looks like Henry Rollins. His family is from NJ, but I don't recall where. No idea where he may be. The fact that I have a hard time remembering his last name makes him difficult to locate. Last time I tried to remember it took a few days then I was like "AHA!!", tried some phone number lookups, then forgot his last name again!

Brian Cassidy: Last seen, Dayton, OH. Frisher told me he joined the Army after 9/11. But, don't know where he is. We lived together in college (as I did with Frisher), and he was in my wedding. Big guy, rosey cheeks, very loud Brooklyn guy.

I think these four people are the only ones I'd really like to catch up with who I have lost touch with. There were two others, Randy and Bob, which I tracked down in CO and gave a call to.

CNN.com - Study finds mirrors hinder women's workouts - Sep. 24, 2003

So, another useless study. Turns out that when a woman looks at her fat ass in a mirror while exercising, it hinders her workout. This is an amazing breakthrough!! I'm glad they did this study on womans health, as opposed to breast cancer or any of those other useless things that can be studied.

Next womans health study: Do Ho-Ho's cause fat to go to your thighs, or belly?

Yesterday I went to the DMV to see about getting my NYS drivers license. Of course, you need about a billion things to prove you are you (which makes sense). I had everything, except my birth certificate or passport. Aside from an out of state license, they need one of those two things to prove your date of birth. I have 3 different voters registration cards (all with my birthdate, from different moves I've made), as well as my Selective Service Card (am I the only one who still carries that around?).

I think it is pretty stupid that I can't use a Selective Service card instead of my birth certificate or passport. It's a federal document, with my date of birth on it. It's not like someone would lie about their DOB to *get* a draft card!! And, it is the same DOB on all the other documents I had. What an annoyance.

Of course, my birth certificate is a single piece of paper currently packed away among 13,000 pounds of stuff.

Soon we'll be in the new house and I'll want to meet people. I'm ok at being a loner, but I do enjoy having some people to get together with and have some social interaction. Of course, the neighborhood will be a good place to meet folks. I've always been friendly with my neighbors. But, since I don't have a workplace to go to, I won't have any built-in place to meet people with something in common (computers, in that case).

So, these are the things I think I'll try:

* Volunteering at Kylas school. I will probably help them out in the computer lab. This may be a good way to meet some people who work at the school, and maybe some parents.
* The PTA (or Home/School Association, as they call it). I'd do this anyways, since I'd like to be involved in that. Maybe it will also be a good way to meet some parents. Possibly I'll hit it off with one or two.
* Trail days. There are lots of parks and trails around which have things like "Trail cleanup day", or tours. I may be able to meet some people who also like to hike.
* The bar. A sort of extended family member owns a bar downtown. Maybe going in there once in a while will allow me to meet someone. I'm not much of a bar person, but it is a jazz bar and I do like jazz. I also like Guinness :-)
* Randomly talking to people. Not likely.
* Looking for any local computer clubs, chess clubs and the like. (meet other geeks)
* Part-time job. Maybe even getting a part-time job somewhere would help. Not at the top of my list, though :-) If I need the money, then that will happen anyways.

I'm not sure what else I could try. What do people usually do to meet like-minded, similar aged people? I've always lived places where I've had school friends, or work friends to be social with. Now, I'm in new territory and will need to try something new. I also have the opportunity to re-invent myself, so I can always try doing things I normally wouldn't.

Anyone been in this situation? What has worked for you, and not worked? Anything else I can do that isn't on my list?

Nothing funny about car bombs, but on cnn.com they say:

At least 142 wounded people were wounded, officials said

I've been shopping for a new pair of hiking boots lately. I had a pair of Timberlands, which I had for years, but just don't know where they are anymore. I like a nice pair of hikers for hiking, as well as wearing in the winters. The rest of the time I'll wear sneakers, sandals or be barefoot.

I saw a lot of Timberlands in the stores. They are everywhere. But, what exactly happened to them? I remember when I first started wearing them years ago they were boots for outdoorsy stuff! Now they have so may kinds which look like they are for fashion, and not meant to be worn by anyone going near a trail. Pink!! I saw pink Timberlands! I guess they are reaching out to another market now... too bad.

So, I just ordered a nice pair of Columbia hikers. I tried some hiking shoes of their on in the store and they were sooo comfy. I couldn't find any boot styles in the store, so I ordered them online. I hope I like them when they get here.

I didn't see any pink Columbia footwear.

Yesterday I'm sitting in this guys bar helping him with some computer issues. Suddenly, the lights dim, go up, go down and go off. After a few minutes we thought it was just the Saratoga Springs area. So, I left for home and heard on the radio that it was a large blackout. Got back to the apartment, of course, light out. Not too big of a deal. I sat out on the porch, watched neighbors mull about. Took the dogs out back and played with them. Then, it started getting dark out. Then, blackness everywhere. Finally went to bed a little after 10 after being on the porch for about 5 hours. At about 2am the power came back on.

Much of NYC is still without power.

RedNova News: Contagious Yawning is a Real Phenomenon

Cancer? AIDS? Nah.. let's study why people yawn!! Something the article doesn't mention is that the average yawn is 7 seconds. I read that somewhere some time ago and times myself (and others) a few times. Worked out to 7 seconds. If I were a researcher at a university, however, I think I would concentrate on cancer, and not yawns.

Name Statistics - How popular are your first and last names?

I don't know what's in a name, but you can find out how common yours is.

I feel sorry for those females!

The mangos on the trees are nice and ripe. They are sooooo goooood. That's probably the only thing I'll miss about living here is the mango trees in the back yard.

I'm still alive. Been wicked busy and not able to journal much. But, I have some exciting news coming up!!

I put a new garbage disposal in tonight. Was a pain in the ass just because of the odd way I had to screw it on, but was pretty easy. I generally do my own stuff around the house, but my first time with a garbage disposal.. and saved myself $100 since someone didn't have to come do it for me! Yay me!

Happy Mothers Day to all you mothers!

Kelly says I am way behind on updating.. and yes, I am. Sorry. I'll be back to my usual journaling self pretty soon.. mark my words!

Another dental appointment today. My mouth is still numb from the Novocain. It's fun for a while, but after 4 hours you just want your mouth back to normal! But, went well. I have one for appointment and I'll be all done. My dentist is great. With all the work, root canal and all, I have felt no pain. Maybe my statement of "hurt me and I'll hurt you" the first day worked!

Kids out there... take care of your teeth and see the dentist when you should! Maybe if I didn't have bad experiences as a kid with dentists, it would have helped. Anyways... teeth are better now.

Very tired today. Jasmine was barking for no apparent reason and woke me up. I couldn't fall back to sleep after that. Watched Signs and some other TV until I finally fell asleep at some unknown time.

One thing which was amusing... I was watching the Poker World Series (or whatever) on ESPN and one of the commentators was Gabe Kaplan! (Remember Gabe.. Kotter in Welcome Back Kotter). Now, I'm interested to know if he got into poker so he could have a job, or if he has always been a big poker fan. Anyways, based on the cash prizes I think I should start honing in my poker skills.

President Bush and Colin Powell are sitting in a bar.
A guy walks in and asks the barman, "Isn't that Bush
and Powell sitting over there?" The barman says, "Yep,
that's them." So the guy walks over and says, "Wow,
this is a real honor. What are you guys doing in
here?" Bush says, "We're planning WW III ". And the
guy says, "Really? What's going to happen?" Bush says,
"Well, we're going to kill 22 million Iraqis this
time and one blonde with big tits. The guy exclaimed,
"A blonde with big tits? Why kill a blonde with big
tits? Bush turns to Powell, punches him on the
shoulder and says, "See, smart ass, I told you no one
would worry about the 22 million Iraqis!"

Friday night: nothing, squat, diddly.
Saturday: Hung out with Kyla watching some Sailor Moon. Picked up a bit. Basically bummed around.
Sunday: Went to Toys R Us and the pet store. I picked up a magnet/glass cleaner thing for my fish tank. The cleaning part is on the inside, and the "handle" on the outside and they stick through the glass with a big magnet. Then, you just drag it around the glass to clean the inside. Much nicer than sticking my hand in there. Suzy and Kyla went swimming (too cold for me). Jasmine went nuts in the pool. It was fun throwing things in the pool and watching her fetch them. Cleaned a bit, watched a little anime (first two episodes of Love Hina) and am now doing nothing. Tonight is the season premiere of Six Feet Under, so I'll be watching that.

Nothing special this weekend, which I guess is ok... albeit a little boring.

I had no cigs this morning (finished a pack last night), and I didn't pick any up on the way to work. Let's see if I can go the day without smoking or flipping out in the process!

I think I'll have to name this recipe "Kevin's F*CKING HOT SAUCE". Because it is f*cking hot! I made a decent amount, and gave it a try by dipping some tortilla chips in it. It made me sniffle it was so hot. It's now in the fridge with the flavors mixing together. In the next few days I'll give it a try on some food to see how it really tastes. The recipe is in my head, so I know what (if any) changes to make next time. Gotta love that heat!

Another decent weekend. Did nothing Friday night but relax. Yesterday Suzy had to work for a few hours so Kyla and I went to get my car washed, then spent a few hours at the park. There was a nice breeze, and some cloud cover at times, so we had a good time at the park. We came back home and I waxed my car (and vacuumed, etc...). Kyla was out front with me reading some books, then she decided to get into the act and got her Barbie scooter out and washed it. Never too early to learn to take care of your transportation! ;-)

Last night I went over to a friends house and re-watched
Blade Runner [Director's Cut]. Still an enjoyable movie, and the theme of "what is human" is still one I enjoy. When I got home, the Tyson fight was just starting. I always enjoyed watching Mike Tyson fights, so I checked it out. 49 seconds later, it was over with Tyson getting another KO.

Today, nothing special. Suzy and Kyla went out shopping, so I just pressure cleaned the patio. Now, just sitting here having a rest. I think maybe I'll give making my own hot sauce a go today. I've been meaning to do it, and I happen to have some habenaros, and be out of good hot sauce here in the house. I put hot sauce on virtually everything. I've always wanted to give making hot sauce a go. I make some pretty killer salsa after some practice and making my own recipe... figure I could do the same with the sauce! Oh, and the series finale of Oz is tonight. Sunday is always a good TV night.

Had a pretty good weekend. Friday night Kyla slept over at her cousins. We did nothing special, and went to bed early. We were both pretty tired since we are fighting off head colds. Yesterday wasn't bad. Suzy worked so I went and got my car washed (always important), went around with a friend on his hunt for a PowerBook (neither Mac Center nor Comp USA has the 1Ghz in stock. Bastards!). Then, I made up some of my famous hot salsa and (not so famous) tamago to bring over to Kelly's house. Then, went over there for a few hours and ate and played Trivial Pursuit. Was a good time. Today we took the dogs to the dog park, hung out at the house and went out for Mexican.

In all, a good weekend.

[rant about work removed. I don't know who reads my journal.]

And, one rant about dinner... what the hell is it with people and small dogs? I don't mean cocker spaniels, I mean the slightly overgrown rats that bark. Why do the owners feel they can bring these dogs into public places which they have no business being? Tonight at dinner some lady had her little rat-dog in a bag.. IN THE RESTAURANT! That's frickin nasty! Do you think I would have the gaul to bring my dogs into a restaurant? Hell no! Why? Because DOGS DON'T BELONG IN RESTAURANTS! And, even though small dogs don't qualify as dogs in my book, they should be left at home. Stupid rat-dogs, and inconsiderate owners.

Ok.. venting over :-) Now I can continue on with my night, watch Oz and get some sleep. I need to be rested, since I am going to see an advanced showing of Daredevil tomorrow night. I hope no one brings their rat-dog into the movie!

Since my sex life is basically non-existent, I am now accepting virtual donations. Anything is better than nothing! (click the image to donate)

It's now 38F outside. Not very usual for South Florida, but I love it! Too bad it will only last a few more hours. I can't wait until I am living in a seasonal state again... whenever it happens.

A funny thing. I was watching MSNBC and saw the Florida Agriculture Commissioner talking about the cold and the fruit crops. They were showing video of a past freeze, with ice on the fruit. But, they had the sprinklers running!! TURN THE DAMN SPRINKLERS OFF! I mean, I know you don't have to have much education to be a farmer, but even the fruit could figure out that when it is below freezing, you DON'T TURN ON THE SPRINKLERS! Morons.

On another note, they should try attaching water heaters (solar powered, like a pools solar powered water heater... just larger) to the sprinkler systems. Then, when it gets below freezing, the warm water may keep the fruit from freezing, while still giving it water.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings PC game. Get it now, it is FREE (as in beer) after the mail-in rebate! Can't be that with a bat!

Yukiko's mom brought me over a pan to make tamago for sushi. So, being all excited, I came home and made some. It was pretty fun. I made a small change to the recipe by not using the fish stock the recipe called for, and used soy milk instead. It came out pretty good, if I do say so myself. My mom and Suzy (who loves tamago) also said it was really good.

Next time I will get some of the other ingrediants in the recipe, if I can find them in the grocery store. But, good is good, no matter what you use! Thanks Yukiko, and Yukiko's mom!

Ahhhhh... Monday. They boil on the ass of the week. It's a nice brisk 55F down here this morning, which is nice. My weekend was pretty good. Hung out for a while with friends on Friday night... on Saturday my mom actually took Kyla to the park. My mom has rarely done anything outside her self-scheduled times with Kyla over the last 2 years. This is a whole other can of worms. But, boyfriend is gone and now her grandchild takes the priority she has always deserved. So, since I was home alone for a while I clean... as usual.

Saturday night another couple was supposed to come over and hang out. So, that's what I was planning. Yadda yadda yadda, and Suzy is going out for drinks while I am home alone with Kyla. I wasn't too happy since if someone figured out earlier than 8pm that we weren't getting together I could have called someone else to hang out. Yesterday wasn't too bad. The bulk of the day was spent getting some new ceiling fans and putting one of them up. Got some nice Hunter fans with lights, remote controls and wall controls.

Now... back at work!! YAY!! /etc/shadow was hosed on the dev box and no one can log in. Oh wait.. now we can. Guess I should get to doing something :-)

NP: Numb from the album "Dummy" by Portishead

Shaolin Wheel Of Life Kung Fu Martial Arts Temple Monks

This is coming to town next week. Saw a commercial last night for it... looks pretty damn cool. I think I'll go.

January 1 of a new year. Should be a happy day, but is kinda sucks since I have to go back to work. I haven't missed work one iota. I know going back will be just going back to the same old stuff as last year. Nothing will change, I'll keep making suggestions which will be ignored, then hear other people say the same things months later like they had some original epiphany.. which will lead me to continue to always say "Um, I said that month ago." Blah. I just have to hope it gets better, and that I don't get laid off or fired. Losing this job would devastate me. Since I took a $10k/year pay cut to work here, I don't have a stockpile of cash to cushion me in case of emergency like I used to have. Blargh! Anyways... we'll see what happens (and what doesn't happen). I'll try to keep positive!

So, last night John came over until about 11. We hung out, talked, drank some Chivas and had a cool time. It was nice hanging out with him like that again. After he left I went and laid with Kyla (although she was sleeping) and watched the ball drop. I gave Kyla a kiss (since my lovely wife went to a party and wasn't home), and went to sleep next to her. Not a bad way to end a year, and start another.

Today, I took her to the park for a while. I'm a little groggy (not hung over, just in a haze) and not feeling very motivated. She's outside playing with the dogs, Suzy is at work, and I guess I will just spend most of the rest of the day cleaning the house.... AGAIN!!!!!!

I hope everyone had a happy and safe new years eve.

Oh yeah, what about resolutions? Anyone have any good ones? I have my usual ones:

* Be a better person
* Be a better father
* Find a way to be happy

NP: Mock Song from the album "Round Room" by Phish

So, last day of the year. A day of reflection and looking ahead. In reflection, I don't think 2002 will be one of my favorite years. Almost got a divorce, had moving to Utah ripped from under me, growing dislike for my workplace (I really hope there are good changes in the coming months), growing dislike for Florida, realizing I am stuck here in Florida, my puffer fish dying, dogs being let out by the pool guy, etc... So, too many large things were not favorable. Hopefully, in 2003, my job will get better, marriage will get stronger, and I will somehow get the hell out of Florida.

The regular "circle" of friends, being that it is not longer a circle, isn't doing anything together this year. This is kinda stupid, but I try not to get involved with inter-personal issues between people. So, Suzy will be going to a party at her boss' house, and I will be at home with Kyla. Yay! Party!! WOO! *cough*

Ok, so I'm not counting the days of vacation anymore (hence the ?'s in the subject) since I am on the downhill of days until returning to work. Christmas eve was nice. My mom was over and we let Kyla open a few presents. I made my mom a CD photo album of over 650 pictures and she was VERY happy about it.

Christmas morning was fun. Kyla woke us up early, and we watched her open her gifts. The rest of the day was pretty lax... basically I did a lot of cleaning. This morning, I took Kyla to the pet store to get some fish for the tank I got her. She got 2 mollies, 2 tetras and a flounder (since she likes mine so much). I figure that if the flounder grows, I'll put it in my tank later on. Later, we have some bird food to put in her new bird feeder, and a Chia pet to do.

NP Stream: 13 Steps Lead Down - Costello, Elvis (Extreme Honey - The Very Best)

Just wanted to wish everyone a happy xmas.

Ugh. I am so sore from tarring the driveway yesterday. The broom used to do it was about 12" too short, so I had to bend over quite a bit. Now, I am sore as hell. In about an hour Merry Maids is supposed to come and clean for a few hours. We have had maids come before, and I never notice the difference. I dust and vacuum and wipe things down like they do... so we'll see if I actually notice what they do. Windows I would notice, since all the sliders have kid and puppy prints on them. What they really need to do is come over and organize! That's what my home needs, organizing and stuff being put away, or thrown away.

I guess I'll go take some Excederine, have some breakfast and wait. I wish Merry Maids had a "topless" option, so at least I would enjoy them being here ;-)

UPDATE: I am very glad these two women are NOT topless!!!

Exciting day today! I re-tarred the driveway! Don't get jealous. Also did a little holiday shopping. Other than that, just hung out.

Yesterday we went down to a dog bakery (three dog bakery). Spent way too much on dog treats, but it was fun. We know two couples with dogs, so they will get some holiday treats. The rest was hanging around, relaxing and such. I really love being on vacation :-)

NP: 06 - Seven Below from the album "Round Room" by Phish

Yesterday was day 5 of my vacation. Wasn't a bad day. Slept in a bit. Then, took Kyla over to Dunkin Donuts for a donut (for her) and coffee (for me). We even got a batch of Munchkins and took them over to Suzy at work. Next we headed over to the park and stayed there for a while. Next, we went over to John's for a bit. I started cleaning up the house (something I seem to do too often), and Suzy came home. We went to La Bamba for dinner and basically relaxed the rest of the night.

Well, "relax" for me included upgrading my routers firmware and installing snmptrapd. So, another good vacation day. I got to spend a lot of time with Kyla, and that was great. Welp, off to cook some breakfast!

Do you tip people during the holidays? I mean the garbage men, postal person, etc...? I plan on tipping my lawn guy, since he does something *instead* of me doing it. I would have tipped the pool guy, if he didn't let my dogs out ("Who let the dogs out? THE POOL MAN!") I don't have a paper boy, so no one to tip there. So, that leaves me with the postal lady, and the garbage men. I'll probably leave some money for the garbage men. Maybe $20 each (not sure what the "standard" is). I would leave some for the postal lady, but 3 times she didn't deliver my mail. I figure since my taxes pay her salary, and she didn't deliver my mail 3 times (once because garbage cans were around my mailbox, once because a delivery truck was in front of it, and once because my car was within 3 feet of it) I won't tip her. I mean really, Florida has no sleet and no snow to keep her from her appointed rounds... I figure she could have taken her fat ass out of her car to put the mail in my mailbox.

Anyways.. who else is there to tip? Do others tip? What are the "standard" amounts for people? I'm not sure on the etiquette on this. I think I used to give the garbage men $20 each and the postman $20 or so when I was in CT.

Now, the real question is.. who tips me? ;-)

NP: It Could Be Sweet from the album "Dummy" by Portishead

After taking Kyla in to school I had a little breakfast and chilled out. I went to Home Depot and picked up some paint (I have some painting to finish up). Then, there was a ring at the door. AirBorne Express has my PowerBook! This was good. So, I made sure it was still all nice and shiny. It is. Even shinier. Did a few things around the house, then went to buy a new dishwasher. Suzy and I generally do a 'for us both' gift for the holidays, and a new dishwasher is it. We really need it. The one we have now really kinda sucks. It's loud and doesn't always clean well. So, I got a new Maytag. Also upgraded to OS X 10.2.3.

Just watched Ghosts of Mars. This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I saw Blair Witch 2 last night, and thought that was bad. Two horrible movies. I expected more out of Ice Cube!

Anyways, that was basically it. Pretty mellow day. Nothing wrong with that!

I had a few minutes so I updated my articles page, and my resume. Feel free to read the Perl articles, and my resume if you are looking to hire :) Although I am not "actively" looking for a new job, I have very open ears.

Day 3 ended up being a day to pressure clean the patio. Sounds fun, doesn't it? Well, it isn't too bad. One of my projects is to repaint the patio, so I needed to clean it. That took most of the afternoon, so that's all I really did. Of course Jasmine pissed on it this morning. That damn dog simply will not go outside the dog door if it is dark out (DAMN YOU DAYLIGHT SAVINGS!).

So, now to figure out what to do today. May clean the garage, may clean the house, may do nothing. Decisions decisions.

Well, it's really the start of Day 3. Yesterday was very good. Sent my PowerBook off to Apple (I'm in Windows Desktop Hell right now), and met up with Alan for The Two Towers. The movie was GREAT. Since all three were filmed at the same time, it was seamless. If you read the books, you know the plot. If you saw the first movie, you know how great the visuals are. I really liked the emphasis on Gollum. Seeing his internal struggle on if he should help the Hobbits or not. You can really see how insane the Ring has made him, and start seeing how it is also doing it to Frodo... as it did to every Ring bearer before him. Eowyn was there, and Treebeard wasn't a dissapointment from how I envisioned him as a kid. That's one thing Peter Jackson continued to do well. Much of what he has done with the characters is close to how I saw it as a kid, and many others say the same. It's amazing that Tolkien seemed to write characters and worlds which so many envisioned so closely.

Don't wait to see the movie... run to see it! And let me tell ya, the Muvico Premiere seating is the way to go! Nice big seats, great view of the screen. Thanks again Alan!

Well, after the big day at the movie I did a quick stop at the pet store to return some things, and picked Kyla up from school. I don't miss being at work one bit. I do miss my PowerBook :)

So, it is the start of day 3. Trying to figure out if I want to do anything, and if I do.. what? I'll let you know... later...

Fairly uneventful. Suzy didn't go into work until 1, so I stuck around and annoyed her for a while. Then, went to the pet store for some fish supplies. I cleaned the tank, relaxed a bit, then went to get Kyla. The box from Apple arrived, so I am about to start backing up the PowerBook (just in case) and pack it up. Adios, for now.

My Japanese lessons have been going pretty well. I have some basic greetings down, numbers, dates, times, etc... Starting now on family (I have learned some already) and complete sentences dealing with family and people. My "teacher" will be giving me more more words and phrases to learn over my vacation. I'm fairly good with pronouncing things, although some things take me a while to say. For example, it takes me a while to say the sentence:

きょわじゅうにがつさんじゅうにちきんようびです。
(kyo wa jyuu ni gatsu sann jyuu nichi kinn youbi desu ... or Today is Monday December 13) But, I do know how to say it. I have to work on speed a bit.

One of the first things I asked my "teacher" was what language she thought in while speaking. She said she thinks in Japanese, and translates in her head. Now that I am learning these things, I find that's what I have to do. For example, I think "December", then that "December is 12", then "ni jyuu" for 12 and "gatsu" for month. More practice will surely help.

I think I have been helping her with her English as well. At least she says I have been helpful :) One thing I have been really working on is having her pronounce the "L" sound better. If you have spoken to a native Japanese person, you know that "R" turns into "L". There isn't a sound in Japanese which is like "L", so it makes it difficult. Also, most Japanese sounds have up-down tongue movements. English has up-down and forward-back. So, she has to retrain her mouth a bit.
So, it's fun to do, and I'm learning a lot.

NP: Bicycle Race from the album "Greatest Hits" by Queen

My TrackBack wasn't working right. After poking around I saw I missed an entry in my templates. Now, I see the pingable entries in my bookmarklette. Sweet!

Stream: American dreaming - Dead Can Dance (Toward The Within)

Suzy told me about this dog that they have at work. What I know is this is a 6 year old, 160 lb., Bull Mastif whose owners bring him, and their wierner dog, in for boarding quite often. The dog has always shown a good temperment, and even my daughter has pet the dog. Apparantly, yesterday when the kennel person was taking it for a walk, it saw another dog (also from the kennel, being walked) ran over to it (dragging the kennel person), picked it up, shook it around, threw it, and did the same thing again. The other dog had to go into surgery right away. I think it was some form of rat-dog (anything under 12 lbs and yips is a rat-dog to me). In the process, I think it also bit the kennel person (I guess not too bad, since I didn't hear of her having to go to the hospital. Apparantly, once before some time ago, the dog also bit someones ear at another kennel (Suzy's works sister-kennel) after they tripped over the dogs leash and landed in front of it. I'm unclear about that one, but it may have happened more out of being startled than being mean.

So, they spoke with the dogs owner and she wants to put the dog down, saying it is vicious. This sort of bothers me (on top of my headache last night). If the dog doesn't really have a history of attacking, how is it vicious? Maybe something else triggered the dog. Maybe the dog thought it was playing (since it could have easily killed the other rat-dog). And, maybe the owners shouldn't own a 160 lb. dog if they always need to board it! So, I blame the owners.

I just can't wrap my head around killing a 6 year old dog over this. They could certainly give it up for adoption. I guess she doesn't want to because they don't want to see a headline of "BULL MASTIF MAULS CHILD" in the papers. I'm sure, though, that someone with a nice size yard, who doesn't need to regularly board the dog, could be found and the dog could have a happy life. My in-laws dog has bitten a few people (including my daughter, which BETTER NEVER happen again) and dogs and somehow hasn't been put down. Although, they did have to go to court.

What do you think? That breed of dog isn't prone to attacking. If it were a pit bull, then it would have to (somewhat understandably) be put down. But, putting this young dog down seems a bit extreme to me. I really hope they decide to put it up for adoption instead. It is possible the dogs lifestyle isn't good for it, and should get a second chance.

Opinions?

Last night I had a terrible headache. I used to get them a lot, now I get them much less. I also had a bad one last Monday. Maybe it is a Monday thing? Anyways, it started at aroun 1:30. Small cramp in my neck and pain in my head. I took some Advil.. didn't help. By time I got home at 6 it was pounding! I took some Exederine Migrain and put Tiger Balm on my neck and head. This combo can usually stop a headache if caught early, but it was too late. I was up until about midnight with my head pounding and neck killing me.

Woke up this morning and it was gone. I put some Tiger Balm on my neck before work in hopes it will loosen any tight muscles. I really hope it doesn't happen again today.

Last night we signed up on Public Direct. So, they are supposed to deliver our groceries between now and 11:30. We'll see how it works out. I'm a bit nervous about the fruits and veggies, since we don't get to choose them by seeing them. Overall, it seems like a decent idea. Only $7 delivery charge, and saves us from having to actually go to Publix (which can be a major pain in the ass). Also, you can shop when you want, make your list(s) and have them deliver when you want. I'm unclear how you can use coupons, but I rarely use them anyways.

So, I should have these delivered withing the next hour or so. We'll see how it turns out. Oh, damn! I forgot to order Chai and hot peppers! I guess one good thing about being there is if you forget something, you can just run over and get it :)

My Japanese lessons have been going pretty well. In the past few weeks I have learned about a dozen greetings (more I still have yet to memorize), numbers, how to say dates and time, and some other phrases. My "teacher" says I am making good progress... and I just hope it keeps up!

Although it is crappy and rainy out, the temerature is nice today. Actually have all the windows open. Too bad it is all wet and cruddy out, because this would be a perfect day for the park. So, I guess I'll just go to the pet shop instead :)

We're also having a flooring guy come out and measure today. We are recarpeting 4 rooms, and putting wood laminate down in 1. The quoted price wasn't too bad for all this. The carpeting is all original, and needs to be replaced. So, we will enjoy it while we are here, and when we try to sell the house later on, it will be more appealing.

Anyways... nice temps today. Should be like this all year round.

Dear Mr. Bush,

Please do something about the economy. It has been bad since just after you came to office, so please fix it. Many of us care more about our jobs and economy more than Iraq. So, do something or you will be a 1-termer like your old man.

With Love,
Kevin

One fun thing about having a public journal is that many random people stop by. And, some of them decide to make comments which aren't really worth the 1's and 0's used to create them. Then, I basically get to yell at them, call them stupid assholes and have a nice chuckle. It's actually pretty fun, since it isn't really how I am. Sort of like being, well, like them... moronic idiots who somehow think they know you based on a few paragraphs they read. That's the fun part.

The cool part is getting real, valuable comments from people. Some people email me directly, and some (not enough) comment. It's cool having actual dialog, while it is fun trolling idiots into arguments. Best of both worlds I 'spose.

Just a reminder that my 30th is coming up next month. Just want to make sure everyone remembers!

I, as many, get 'pre-approved' credit card offers in the mail all the time. Today, I actually opened one of the mails (snail mail, not email). It's for a Fleet Platinum Visa, and has 0% APR for a year on balance transfers. Well, the bulk of my debt is in my AMEX (aside the house and cars, of course). I'm wondering if transfering that balance would be worth it. Seems like it would be since I will save on some interest, and as long as I pay what I usually pay, I'd end up saving some cash.

Anyone ever do this out there? I know consolidation is good to do, but my cards are basically consolidated, since I mainly use AMEX (since I get Sky Miles with it). Any thoughts out there?

Took the day off of work today. Needed to take my dad to the airport this morning, so took a day. Suzy is at work, and I am here with Kyla for the rest of the day now. I need to clean up the house. It would be nice to have a full day off sometime, with nothing to do. Just, nothing.

Anyways, it was nice having my dad here... as always. It's always a glum day when he leaves. I also made sure I voted this morning. It was too bad there were no Libertarian candidates on the ballot. So, I voted the way I vote when there are no Libertarians. As for some of the initiatives to vote on, I voted to not cage prego pigs. I'm not sure why something like that has to be a law, but people just don't care enough about pigs to just be humane without state intervention. I voted against a tax exemption for people building living spaces for parents or grandparents. I figure there are enough old people here, and if these people get tax breaks, I will somehow end up paying for it. Also, I it looks like something that can be easily abused, and again, I would end up paying for it somehow.

And, I voted to ban smoking in certain indoor places. Being a smoker or not, I don't care much for smoke indoors. And, I really don't like smoking in any indoor place where children are. I was at both Bennigans and IHOP this weekend. At both places I had to walk Kyla through the smoking sections to bring her to the bathroom. I really don't like that. So, this would solve it :-) And, it would also mean those moronic parents who sit in the smoking section (and may be smoking themselves) with their young children. So, I hope this passes.

Well... I'll have a few more minutes of quiet before I start cleaning (yay).

Got Kyla a Pixter Plus today. The thing is really cool. It's sort of a handheld for kids, with various expansion modules for other fun and learning. I added a few link on the buy stuff page for it and a few of the cool modules.

A good place to keep up on (and research) candidates is on VoteSmart. Put in your zip+4 and get educated!

It's 6pm, and dark. That's pretty damn stupid.

It's a nice brisk 30F in Lehi, UT right now, and a warm, semi-humid 80 here. I should now be in UT in some pre-winter clothing waiting to come home and use my fireplace. Blah.

Someone posted this on the IS300 forum I hang out on. I thought it was pretty funny:

First-year students at Med School were receiving their first anatomy
class with a real dead human body. They all gathered around the surgery
table with the body covered with a white sheet.

The professor started the class by telling them, "In medicine, it
is necessary to have 2 important qualities as a doctor: The first is that
you not be disgusted by anything involving the human body."

For an example, the Professor pulled back the sheet, stuck his finger in the butt of the corpse, withdrew it, and stuck a finger in his mouth. "Go ahead and do the same thing," he told his students.

The students freaked out, hesitated for several minutes, but eventually
took turns sticking a finger in the butt of the dead body and sucking on
it.

When everyone finished, the Professor looked at them and told them,
"The second most important quality is observation. I stuck in my middle finger and sucked on my index finger. Now learn to pay attention."

I have been totally slacking with updates. I guess that's actually good, since I have been a little busier. Here are a few quick updates:

Kyla
She's doing well. No ear infections (knock on virtual wood... hmmm.. that doesn't sound right) since her surgery. She is doing well going to school 5 days a week. She is always singing songs she learns in school, which I enjoy.

Puppy (Jasmine)
She is healhty and happy. She has doubled her weight (as of last week) since we got her. She hasn't totally gotten the whole "You must shit and piss outside" thing yet. And, when outside in the back, she hasn't gotten the "No, the patio isn't considered 'outside' when it comes to pissing and shitting." She'll get it sooner or later. Other than that, she is a typical happy puppy.

Fish
I put a Snowflake Morey Eel in the tank, lasted 24 hours before the Jack Dempsey finally finished it off. That was a quick $20 for nothing. I think if someone I knew wanted a Jack Dempsey, I would give them mine. Maybe.

Dad
My Dad is coming down to visit at the end of the month. I always like having him around.

In-laws
My mother/father-in-law have now moved to Northern Fla. Yes, I am bitter about it. I have to move back to Fla. (mainly) because they live down here, now they move, and I am stuck here (as you know, I am not in Utah right now or for the foreseeable future).

Kelly and Lily
Lily is doing well, so is Kelly. I haven't been able to see the baby yet, but will this weekend.

Marriage
Things seem to be better. Of course, I thought things were ok before Suzy went off on me... so what the hell do I know?

Dan and Marie
They are spawning again. Congrats to them. I wish I was out there with ya.

Lexus
I am having continuing issues with JM Lexus. Too much to go into here. But, let me just say that when you send emails to the right people with complaints, wheels get set in motion.

Work
I can't comment on work, good or bad, because I don't need flack for what I say. What's this? An eggshell under my feet? I better tread lightly.

I think that's all :-)

Some scientists in the UK, after much gut-wrenching studies, have unvieled what they say is the worlds funniest joke. You decide:

Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn't seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other guy whips out his cellphone and calls the emergency services. He gasps: "My friend is dead! What can I do?" The operator says: "Calm down, I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead."

There is a silence, then a shot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says: "OK, now what?"

Haven't had an update in a while. Let's see... this week at work has been MUCH better than last week. But, I won't get into what has been happening at work for obvious reasons.

The puppy is feeling much much better. I forgot what a pain in the ass it can be to house train a dog.

Kelly (I have refered to her as Belly) had her new offspring, Lily, on the 12th. I have been too damn busy to mention it. I wish her well. It's amazing. I went to high school with Kelly (and her hubby, Dave), and now we all have kids (they have 2). I remember the days of partying and getting loaded with them, now we are "responsible adults". Although, I still feel like I am in high school, even have the same clothes and style :)

Suzy is still working at the animal hospital. This is good. Her parents are moving away next week, that is bad. Not bad because I will miss them, but bad because it reminds me of why I am back in Florida, and why I am stuck here. When Suzy wanted to leave Ct. she wanted to come back down here, mainly (I'd say 80%), because her parents are here... now they are moving and I'm not. Ironic, isn't it. I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little bitter. Ok, a lot bitter.

Installed 10.2 and 10.2.1, finally, on the PowerBook. So far, I like it. Finder is a bit snappier, and things generally run nicer. Entourage crashes when I Ctrl-Click on a folder. But, Entourage *is* a Microsloth product, so I am not surprised something would make it crash.

My book is in its 3rd printing. That's why Amazon is out of stock for so long. I wish my publisher would get on the ball and organize these things a bit better. It would have been nice if it were in stock when the review on perl.com came out.

That's an update in a nutshell. I guess I should work now.

Since I am not moving to Utah for a while now, I figured I would refinance my home to save some cash while I still live there. What to do with the house is still up in the air. I am considering renting it, still selling it, or staying in it. But, may as well save some cash in the meantime (since I now have a rate of like 8.25%).

So, I went to lendingtree.com. They, for free, take your info and use it to shop around for lenders. Within 24 hours you can have offers from up to 4 lenders. That is what happened to me. This is good, since lenders only contact you when they know you will be approved, and they also know up to 3 other lenders are competing for your business. I've now gotten it down to two lenders, E-Trade Financial, and Wachovia. Wachovia is giving me a better rate, and lower closing costs. Now it is up to E-Trade to beat this (or give me $500, since they say if they can't beat it they pay you $500).

This is pretty cool, and a pretty easy way to get the lenders to come to you. If you are looking for a mortgage lender, I suggest giving this a try.

Phis is doing 4 dates!!! 1 at MSG for News Years Eve, then 3 in Hapton, VA 1/2-4. So, looks like a trip to VA may be in order for yer old buddy Kevin.

Fuckers stole my Open House signs again today. I put them up at 1, and went out at 3... they were gone. There were only two other open houses on this street, so I took their signs down. One, which didn't have an address on it, I put in front of my street. Seems a little odd to me that every time my signs are stolen, no one elses are. I'll now sit by the street to see if I see someone trying to steal mine. If someone does, I will beat them with a bat and shove the signs up his ass. I'm pissed, and not playing around any more.

I think I will stop going to bowling on Thursdays. We are in last place, which isn't making it much fun. As well, almost every week I get annoyed that people we are playing against don't pay attention. I don't like sitting around wasting time because some moron can't look at the screen and see it is their turn. Sometimes, they wander off to chat for 15 minutes. LAME! I also need to save cash. Although $15 a week isn't over the top, I could use that money to put towards my move. With something like 8 more weeks, that's enough to cover food for driving to Utah (and then some).

And, I just don't have that much fun. We, as a team, don't really cheer for eachother. I know no one there aside from my 3 team mates (2 of them work for the company whos league it is). And, conversation usually revolves around any of my team mates work, living situation, dogs, current fuck partner or something I am equally not interested in. The same conversations every week gets pretty dull. So, I usually sit there, wait my turn, bowl, then sit again. Pretty damn exciting, isn't it?

The first few weeks weren't too bad. But now, it can be like a chore to stay once I am there. I do enjoy the bowling though. I do like hanging out with my buddy John (since we never seem to at any other time these days). But, I don't enjoy teams which can't keep the flow going, the same conversations, and basically sitting there.

So, maybe I will go this week, and maybe not.

Me as a Lego Man. The bat I am holding is a clue-bat. If you show lack of clue, you get a whack.

I thought this was interesting, someone who seems to be an al Quaeda supporter posted on my journal. He posted from IP address 203.81.193.9, and obviously learned English by watching Ren & Stimpy re-runs. I say everyone should mail this fucker and tell him how you feel!

We are still short of subs for tonight.
If anyone knows of someone willling to sub, please bring them with you
tonight.
Thanks.
Sal

Since Sal is the guy who runs the bowling, I assume he means we need substitutes and not submissives. Could turn into an interesting night! I'll bring along some baby oil and nipple clamps, just in case.

Today, try to work the phrase "bling bling" into a work related conversation. Say it like it fits into the conversation, like:

"The project was heading south, then bling bling we were back on track"
"I don't like the bling bling of that design"
"I'm sort of busy, can you bling bling me later on?"
"Man! The bling bling of the traffic this morning was terrible!"

If you do this, comment here on what you said.

I hope you all have a happy and safe holiday!

Just got a copy of the 2nd printing of my book. I didn't check to see if all the errata made it in, but will tonight. If you haven't gotten it yet, BUY IT NOW!!!

Ok, I'm getting better :smile First game; 108, second; 130 and third; 140. Overall, I think we lost last night, but I am getting better! I think I need a bowling shirt.

Just testing out the use of smilies.. used a little hack to MT to do them automagically.

:angry
:biggrin
:blush
:drunk
:kiss
:lol
:rofl
:sad
:smile
:talker
:wink
:yawn

The Beijing Evening News, a publication in China, reprinted an article from The Onion, believing it is true! One of their freelance guys read Congress Threatens to Leave D.C. Unless New Capitol Is Built, thought it was real, translated it, and printed it. Pretty damn funny.

On a side note, Free Tibet! The land isn't yours China, give it back you commie bastards.

Sucked again last night. Got a 99, 107 and 143. Better than last week, but I should be getting in the 140's all the time. By the end of the season I'm sure I will. I did find a bowling ball at the alley which was good. Fit my fingers perfectly, perfect weight... so, I "borrowed" the ball until the end of the season :) No bowling for me next week, I'll be in Utah!!

When taking a horse pill sized vitamin, make sure you have enough fluids handy.

Happy mothers day to all you mothers. To all you kids, give your mom a call!

Well, the root canal is done. Honestly, it isn't as bad as many people make it seems to be. Of course, my mouth is a bit sore right now that the novocaine is wearing off. But, I have Vicodin, and will use it!

I'm getting a root canal at 10:30 this morning. I am sooooooo excited! </sarcasm>

This morning my dad left (he was visiting for 2 weeks), and I got my Powerbook back with a new combo drive installed. So, bitter-sweet.

Came across the web log of Adam Curry. Some nice dirt on MTV and some "stars". Also nice to know he is also a geek, and also uses OS X. I wonder if his hair is still the same as it was when he was an MTV VJ.

If you know me, you know I don't like living in South Florida. It is hot, flat, hot, congested, hot, humid, hot, flat.. and did I mention it is hot? I have mentioned I wouldn't mind moving out to Utah. I went there for 2 weeks for work (during the Olympics, YAY!) and really liked it.

So, bringing up moving again with the family we decided to figure out what the best place to move would be. I found the site Find Your Spot which asks a bunch of questions about you, then recommends some places to live. Guess what was the #2 place it recommended?? The Provo-Orem, Utah area! EXACTLY where my work has an office!! It was second to Fort Collins, CO. Pretty ironic how the place I have been thinking about going was mentioned by this site. We'll see what happens....