Musings of a Lurker

All we know is that we like you. We have no taste, but we like you.

2010-07-18T17:35:00.005-04:00

After almost a year of...well, nothing, am I really about to write something that's essentially a summarization of how bored I am?

Yes. Yes I am.

A good part of today was spent watching Animaniacs. I really can't think of a better a better cartoon. Id include Pinky and the Brain, but as it started as an Animaniacs short before venturing out alone, it counts. The amount of things that were snuck into this show that went completely over the kids heads is hilarious. On the other hand, it was quite educational. If asked to list as many nations of the world as they can, Id wager a good many people in their twenties will half speak, half sing something to the tune of the 'Mexican Hat Dance'. The state/capital thing probably has a similar story.

Netflix has tons of old (Ducktales and Animaniacs are old? NO!!!) cartoons. None of which are on instant watch. That kinda blows.

There's plenty of other stuff to watch, though. I'm almost done with Battlestar Galactica, and Ive discovered that Babylon 5 IS on instant watch. Along with XFiles, Buffy, Angel, Mythbusters, Farscape, Dr. Who, MST3K, Futurama, Southpark, Firefly, and...um. Yeah.

See? No reason to be bored at all.

Except I wasn't allowed that much TV as a kid (what was it...one show a week? Mom, I know your reading this. You tell me.), and it kind of stuck. Only thing I watch nowadays are the three or four shows on prime time, and that's it. Don't feel the need to turn the thing on and watch it all that often. Instead, Ill just hang out online all day long. That's much better.
Ive been told I have a crappy attention span when it comes to the television. This is untrue. I sat through 'Young Victoria' without doing anything else. Hah.

So, what am I doing anyway? Reading, mostly. My ipod has somewhere around 130 books on it, and there are several more on my computer awaiting (eventual) transfer. Or Im on the computer doing something or other.

Some of you may be familiar with the current video-gone-viral; the Double Rainbow, and then the Double Rainbow song. Funny video. Shows us that getting high isn't all that bad. Story over, move along to the next big thing.
Except that someone decided to make 'DOUBLE RAINBOW ALL THE WAY!' (DRATW) a catch phrase, and it caught on. Now, not only have several people that I follow on twitter started using it, but the one whose being credited for the catch phrase is retweeting the hell out of it at a rate just under spam. Not that a guy with just over a half-million followers would actually notice that I unfollowed him, but it does almost feel like Im saying 'screw you'. Almost.
No. Im not twitter obsessed. Why do you ask?
Coincidentally, My three-year twitter anniversary is a week from today. It was a very sad day when I realized that twitter had hit the mainstream. Very sad. :(

I suppose thats why I havent been here much. Most of what I have to say can easily be summed up in a single 140 character post. Or three. I don't mind dividing them up (as opposed to the twitlonger thing). I want to hit 20k tweets by my birthday.

You know, Im sure theres some rant about the Gulf Spill, or copyrights and DRM, or politics that I could stick here. Useful, informative stuff. But thats not what this is for, and I don't like writing about it.

San Diego ComiCon is coming up, and after that, PAX. I want to go to those things so bad I can almost taste it. I wish there were enough Demands to get the awesome show known as W00tstock on this side of the country. Oh well. One day, I will go and be among my own kind.

America's Priorities

2009-11-20T17:07:00.004-05:00

Moments ago, I received various breaking news updates from BBC and CNN on my twitter feed. BBC reported that after a 14 month hiatus for repairs, the Large Hadron Collider was restarted about an hourish ago (as of the current time of 1710 EST/2210GMT).
CNN reports about a woman who cut in line at Wal Mart (Id give the link but it's down).

What. The. FUCK?????

Can someone please explain to me how some woman cutting in line at Wally World takes precedence over the LHC?.

Sleeeeep

2009-10-26T00:18:00.003-04:00

Or: "Why Nothing in this post makes sense"

I'm tired. Very tired. I want nothing more than to skulk to my bed and wallow under three layers of covers for the night.

Granted, thats not happening for at least another hour or so. Need to get this thing done for class tomorrow.

On the other hand, if I didnt have to finish it, I guarantee you Id be be wide awake right now. Oh well. At least I havent spiraled to the point where Im crashing at four in the morning and waking up around lunch. Yet. Finals are still another month off, though.

I think I need a new chair. My upper back and shoulders are killing me. In the spirit of Halloween, if anyone asks, Ive decided to tell them that Im growing wings as a part of my costume. They might be done in time. Seriously. It hurts right where theyd be if I had them.

I just lit some rope incense. Slightly more focused now. I really enjoy being able to burn the stuff now as much as I want. Fortunately, there are a lot of places up here that sell it. I also have a handy order form for a place that I got loads from at Renn Faire.

Does anyone get netflix? Ill probably get it soon, but my big question relates to that thing about 'current TV episodes'. How current? How long does it take for an episode to be available on netflix after the original airdate? While getting the service in the next couple months is a given, and I will also possibly get the roku box to hook up to my TV. Depending on the answer to the above question, I may end up canceling cable. Seriously, I only watch three shows weekly. The other two I watch online later due to class. Castle and How I Met Your Mother are both available online as well. The only problem at the moment is Big Bang Theory. Thats not online anywhere yet.
Seriously, is cable really worth it for three shows and the occasional football game or movie when Im not busy? Not particularly. Netflix is 9 bucks and I can make a roku pay for itself in no time.

Posted at 12:18 is a lie. It is now 1:48.

Move Along

2009-08-01T23:46:00.003-04:00

So it goes.

Finally.

After applying to Graduate programs at Western Carolina and Appalachian State Universities, I got in both. After some thought (okay, actually not all that much...), Ill be moving up to Boone for the next couple of years. Spent this past weekend up there doing a brief orientation and apartment/house hunting. Found a place not far from campus with an AppalCart stop at the end of the street. Routes go across campus and all the way through Boone. And its free. This means I have decided not to get on campus parking registration. There's really no need to.

We had looked at a total of four places. Being so close to start of term, there weren't that many places available...not to mention there's a housing shortage anyway. Methinks we got lucky.
My favorite place was really nice, but it was also a good bit away from campus. Almost out in the middle of nowhere, and I could look out my window and have deer grazing a mere ten feet away. At least, they were there when we viewed the house.
Oh well.

The decision to go with App over Western wasn't exactly all that hard. My Bachelors is in Criminal Justice from WCU. Being the idiot I was, I didn't have a minor. I should have, but I didn't. I recall recently wandering WCU's website for something when noticed that they developed a Forensic Science program (focused as a minor) about a year after I left. That was one of those facepalm moments. I find the topic somewhat fascinating, and I don't even watch CSI (I can count the times Ive seen NY and Vegas on one hand, combined...and Miami is just complete utter shit). My math is only decent, and I haven't really done much with science since high school chemistry/biology.

Have I mentioned that I'm a walking contradiction?

Okay, back on topic. The minor thing wasn't really that relevant. My BS was in Criminal Justice, so it would make sense that my Masters would be in something similar. Of course I would look to my Alma Mater first. If I had gone that route, Id be getting an MPA (Masters in Public Affairs) with a focus in Criminal Justice. That was...okay, but how much of that material was going to be on whatever PA was and how much was going to be on the CJ part? So, I started poking elsewhere. I actually applied to UNC Charlotte a few years ago. Didnt get in. Oh well.
Appalachian State also had a Masters program for Criminology and Criminal Justice, so I applied there too.
Long story short (wait..really?), applied to both, picked App.

For those of you who don't know, App and Western are Rivals. Ive gotten plenty of jibes from my Western friends and classmates about it and I expect a good bit from the App people. Especially when they see the WCU alumni license plate frame on the back of my car or the window stickers that I never got around to putting on the back of my window (they've been sitting on the back dash since I graduated). Ill put an App sticker up too.

The only thing I have to say about the Rivalry is that my loyalties lie with whoever happens to be the home team during the Battle for the Old Mountain Jug. As its an odd year, its at App.

Otherwise, I support both teams Equally.

I hate beans. This could be a problem if I ever go vegan. Or Vegetarian. Or...uhm, yeah.

2009-02-23T23:26:00.009-05:00

A handful of the people I follow on Twitter are from California. As it turns out, most of that set are vegans in some form another. This is cool. This probably means theyre healthier than I am.
...Maybe. I overheard someone scoff at that and mention chocolate was on the 'okay' list. They were a fan of Lindt

I know a few around here, too. Had classes with some, which wouldnt normally be anything major, except it was a music class and we toured. The class was usually no bigger than 12ish people any given semester, and about half were vegans. A couple of the others were meat/potato type people, and then you had a few like me, who didnt care so long as they could find something on the menu that was halfway decent. It wasnt unheard of for the first two groups to get into arguments about where to stop for dinner. Especially since we were often in or near Asheville NC, which has often been considered the "San Francisco of the East Coast", and has plenty of Vegan-friendly eateries. So, yeah. We hit a few of them up. We also hit a steakhouse once or twice as well...just to be fair. Normally, I was nice and got something that wouldnt throw the others off too much, as my usual Outback faire is something most would have a cow (er, no pun intended) over. Though, once I did order it anyway out of spite because a couple of them had done something to piss me off. Oddly enough, the one that was made most uncomfortable was a classmate that had labeled herself a 'recovering Vegetarian', and had gotten a well done ribeye, or something. I did feel bad for her, as she wasnt the cause of my ire.

I used to think about trying it...just to see if I could do it.

I dont think I can. Maybe a half-assed version (isnt there a 'no red meat' variety or something?), but not full on.

Im (usually) not that much of a picky eater, but as luck would have it, I pretty much dislike what apparently makes up a good percentage of vegetarian foods. Mostly beans. I hate beans. I think there were a total of three things on a very vast menu that did not include beans. I think I ended up with chips and pico di gallo salsa. On the bright side, it was very good. Humus? Maybe. Itd be an aquired taste, and if I recall correctly I wasnt a fan of the consistency. Tofu was a by-the-dish thing. Most of the time, I didnt care for it. Others, it was okay. The tico burrito and low country rollups from a place called Laughing Seed Cafe in Asheville looks good.

Also, after looking at these menus, Im going to admit that I dont have a damn clue what the heck tempeh is, and am googleing it in another tab. It looks like its going to be another 'wont know til I try it' things.

Theres the fact that I really could care less that Mickey Ds uses beef extract for fries. Sorry about that.

When I started this post, I was looking back at my diet. While it could be better (psh. lot better), Ive found that theres not much in the way of red meat on there that I like. I think Im mostly limited to burgers and steaks in that regard, and Italian sausage (though I honestly dont care for meat at all in Italian food). None of which come along all that much. Not a fan of stuff like pot roast or meat loaf and such. I think this had occurred to me before. I donate platelets on a regular basis (or try to), and Ive gotten turned away more than once due to my iron count being too low. They ask me how much red meat I eat, and in hindsight, Im always surprised that the answers 'not all that much'.

Okay, so maybe if I really, really tried, I might be able to get away with it. But not here. I looked up Charlotte Vegetarian/vegan places, and theres not much. Mostly Indian places with lots of things I cant pronounce and lentil. Lentil is too close to beans for my liking.
Like I said...Asheville's the SF of the East. They have lots of places that look interesting. Its also no secret to anyone that I want to move back west to the mountains. Its a win-win thing.

Itll still be the beans that kills me, though.

Bowling is a vicious game,

2009-02-21T00:08:00.004-05:00

By now, we all know that the scoring system at my center, AMF Accuscore Advantage, is older than dirt and needs to be replaced. Its not on the agenda any time soon.

Just because the upper brass wont give us working updated bowling equipment doesnt mean they can slack on other stuff. Like speakers and audio gear for instance. Something that would have a left/right speaker fade or a separate volume adjustment for each speaker would be an awesome awesome plus.

Itd keep league nights with multiple leagues running much smoother. One league wants its just under blasting, and the other associates an acceptable volume with elevator/Dr. Office muzak. Neither are willing to compromise. Yes, we DO keep it at a mid-range volume and refuse to move it either way. But that doesnt stop them from bitching...because they LOVE this song and wanna dance, or hate this other one and to turn it down, or insisting that we raised/lowered it to placate the other league...Just another night at the alley.

Theres this one guy a lane or two over who hits single pin conversions in a way that sounds like the ball is hitting the sweep. Its driving me up the bloody wall.

Theres nothing like an awesome game/set being blown to bits by coming within a single open frame of an 'accomplishment'. This time it was an open away from 200, which isnt a big deal anymore. It used to be. I cant tell you how many 198-99s I got before I finally hit 200 for the first time years ago. The last time this really annoyed me was last year, a damn pin away from a first 600 set. Only needed 9, rolled 8, and so on and so forth.

Still havent hit it yet. Meh.

Speaking of, my league is having an awesome night in general. The center makes a congratulatory announcement anytime someone rolls a 200 or above, and we've been getting a LOT of them tonight.
There's a reason our leagues handicap is 90% of 220, instead of 80% of 200, which is used by most bowling leagues.

We totally dont suck at this game.

A cat probably wont eat the drapes, but he might climb them to see what the room looks like from the ceiling.

2008-12-27T00:35:00.003-05:00

Apparently, Whisker Licken crunchy treats are the new favorite of my three cats. Theyre pulling new stunts to get to them. Even now, Ive had to edit this thing three times because Lacie has sat on the keyboard for them. Atleast she didnt reprogram or restart the thing. Yay for small favors.

Rascal, atleast just sits on top of the mouse (and, at times, my hand) and merely attempts to steal my glasses off my face.

These cats are entirely to spoiled. But if your a cat owner, you knew that already on principle. Cats will bend their humans to do their bidding. We are trained well. For those of you who say something like "ah, no...my cats are trained, not the other way around", Id very much like to know what fantasy world you live in.

Ive grown up with cats all my life, but it seems to me, we let Lacie, Rascal, and Riley get away with a heck of a lot more stuff than Mike and Peaches EVER did.

Mike and Peaches would have NEVER been permitted to walk across the kitchen counter in order to get to the bay window (granted, the bay window wasnt there then, but thats not the point). I remember mom breaking up Mike and Peaches when they 'fought'. Now, we happily egg them on.
I always got scolded for 'dropping' bits of dinner for Mike if he was underfoot. Rusty had a chair at the table. And a bowl.

Rascal is permitted to sit in aforementioned chair, and can sample whatever I give him, but he doesnt have his own bowl.

Oh. And for those of you who are about to haggle me on the dangers of giving cats people food, dont worry. They dont like people food all that much. So far, Rascal likes the pork loin from last night, and Im pretty sure Lacie like Clam Chowder. Vienna Sausages are okay, and if sardines count, Lacie prefers hers with mustard, while Rascal likes Louisiana hot sauce. Dont ask. Blame Dad.
Other than that, they turn there nose up at people food. Theyre perfectly happy with standard Science Diet dry.

This portion sponsored by Duncan Hines' family of baking mix products

2008-12-20T23:38:00.002-05:00

Today started the discussion of Christmas baking. Sort of. It came up last week sometime with a "What cookies do you want to make?".

The arsenal of goodies to be sent out has changed quite a bit over the years. When I was a kid, they included basic cookies that my sister and I 'painted' with icing made of egg whites (or yolk? or both? I dunno...) and food coloring. We also had this gadget that made cookies in really cool shapes. That thing was cool. The shapes were neat and it was fun to play with.
The only problem was that the cookies werent all that good. Very bland. I didnt even like the dough all that much. Which is saying something. It came with its own recipe because the dough consistency had to be specific.

Neither of those get made now.

A few survived. Cookie kisses are a must. Hershey kisses wrapped completely in dough and covered with powered sugar. Walnut cookies are in there, along with oatmeal and Neiman Marcus. My mother also makes up a few loaves of strawberry bread.

At some point in time, we may get around to watching my two favorite Christmas movies: Die Hard and White Christmas. Watched some of White Christmas already. It was on Lifetime. Nevermind that I had just brought the DVD. I still watched it on TV, with commercials. Now, for Die Hard.

I swear, no matter how many times you watch it, it never gets old.

About nothing. And maybe some basic math.

2008-10-11T23:41:00.002-04:00

I love calligraphy, even though my attempts are barely amateurish at best. I like fountain pens. I want a nice one. You know, the type that comes all nice and pretty in a box and cost about $50 for a single pen? At least, thats how much the ones at Office Max were. Actually, they were all ball point. Blergh.
The refill section of the pen wall had plenty of fountain refills. No actual pens, though.

Another note...Im trying to figure out the difference between regular colored pencils and watercolor. Ive got an...interesting art project/hobby/doodle thing (If youve known me for any length of time, you probably have an idea of what this is). Im thinking color would do well with it.

ICanHasCheezburger is a fun place to play. By now, theres over three hundred pages of Lolcats, a bunch of loldoggies, some general news/political ones that are okay, and the new one that mocks tv shows and movies. Mostly Star Trek. Speaking of which, since lolcat has Caturday, theyre making a Star Trek day. ShatnerDay is the popular one. I think it sucks muchly.
Ive even made some lol's. Go see. :D

Stopped at a party store to grab a few favors for a thing. The total came to $6.30, gave the lady a Ten, searched for the 30 cents, didnt have it. The person at the register gave back $4 in change, as if we had actually had the change. Thats not a big deal. I think I made a couple bitty errors like that at the register. The issue came when we tried to correct the error, giving her the dollar back so she could give us the correct 70 cents.
She couldnt figure out what the hell we were doing, or once she did, couldnt figure out the numbers were right.

I thought basic addition and subtraction were required to get out of elementary school.
Maybe Im wrong...

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Now playing: ABBA - Take a Chance on Me
via FoxyTunes

Sleep? At a sleepover? Hrmph.

2008-10-08T20:36:00.003-04:00

....todays report was written over the span of a couple hours. yay.

A colleague of mine 'hosted' a sleepover for his daughter and some of her friends this past weekend. The next day, one of the moms called them up. Did the kids stay up all night??? Her daughter had been asleep since they got home!

Since when were sleepovers for sleeping? Youre supposed to stay up at all hours of the night doing this, that, and/or whatever (read: movies, games, uhmm...fridge raids, pranking whoever dozed off with the hand-in-water thing).

Not sleeping. Heck no!

I didnt do all that many of those when I was a kid. Two, maybe? And one wasnt even mine, it was my sisters girl scout troop. Mine was kinda...eh... whatever.

The next closest thing was the all night extreme party that the bowling alley held for the Junior bowlers. We got dropped off at 9 or 10 at night, and were picked up at 7ish in the morning. Loud music, no tap bowling, and other stuff. Was much fun.

In a rare display of...something, Rascal is in my lap. He's not a lap kitty. I feel honored.

Im in the process of seeking out and making a playlist of all the music featured on a TV show called WitchBlade. This includes the Original Score by Joel Goldsmith, some stuff from "Witchblade - The Music" released a couple years ago, and various other songs played throughout the series. The tracklist is about 100 songs long. I wouldnt have been able to do it if not for an extensive list identifying the songs over at http://www.bladetv.com.

Not a moment to soon, either. Where there would normally be a link to THAT list, it seems within the last day or two the site has shut down, leaving only a link to amazon for the series on DVD. Meh. I really hope thats not permanent.

Presently, Im moving my mattress off the bedspring in an effort to find osmething under the bed. Its confusing Rascal.

...who has decided now's a good time to explore. Damn.

I didnt find what I was looking for, and Im not looking forward to the day when I actually have to clean everything out from under there. Meh.

You could try and read this handwriting if you like. It's even worse than mine

2008-10-04T00:59:00.003-04:00

When I was in 5th grade, my cursive really, really sucked and I was one of three or four students one of my teachers sent off elsewhere twice a week to improve it.

My handwriting is quite legible now. My boss even said I had the best handwriting in the workplace. Heh.

I think that comes from a combination of extra elementary school lessons and the fact that I taught myself calligraphy when I was 15. I also enjoy the act of writing. Which is a pain when I cant think of anything to write about.

Over the past couple years, Ive gained a little interest in graphology, or handwriting analysis. It looks really interesting, and I really want to know what mine says about me. This is mostly because I dont write the same all the time. With minimal effort, I can make it look like various people added their input to one paper. Big letters, little letters, right slant, no slant, all caps...I use it all at different times. What my handwriting looks like at any given time is dependent upon quite a few factors.. pen (rollerball, gel, fountain?) or pencil (wood or mech?), the type of paper Im writing on, whether theres only a single sheet or a few more under it...
It ridiculous, and Id love to know what that says about me.

We all know Im crazy. We just dont have the paperwork to prove it. Yet.

This bowling ball isn't human! It doesn't feel pain! It can't be reasoned with!

2008-10-04T00:08:00.004-04:00

Eh...yah. I missed a day or three. Sorry about that.

I got pulled into the middle of an interesting spat at work today. It was very strange...I think they were both defending me to each other on...something. I still have questions. In an unrelated, (but not really) scene, Player One kept asking Player 2 to explain something or other regarding an incident last night. P2 did. Or tried to, anyway...P1 barely let the guy get half a sentence in edgewise before making all kinds of (incorrect) presumptions and bullshit empathetic 'i understand' statements regarding P2s job. Ahem. Right. Theyve been bad about that lately.

Bowling itself is going pretty well. Came out of the 9 game establishment with a 154 average and currently hold a 160, as opposed to the 140s of last year. So long as I can maintain it, Im good.

Not likely, though, Ill have a handfull of crappy sets coming up soon. Ill be back down to the 140s in no time.

I also think I established a new personal high of 235 last week. I dont remember exactly.

Completely unrelated, but I FINALLY got ahold of some music that Ive been searching for for years. WitchBlade was an awesome show that got kicked way to early. Part of what made it so awesome was its music. It was an awesome combo of some known artist and songs, and original compositions by Joel Goldsmith. The first batch...songs that were played throughout the episodes like U2 and Rob Zombie, Crystal Method, and many others were easy to find. The original stuff, however, was no where to be found. No official releases of anything, which meant there were no unofficial releases, or even bad quality bootlegs some electronic genius geek managed to snag from their tapes.

For my birthday, I received WitchBlade DVD, and Ive been able to spend some time catching up and rewatching episodes. This, of course, has brought back the fact that I still want the music, so along with plans to not only burn a new WitchBlade mix and edit a WitchBlade playlist on my zen vision, I made one more futile attempt to search for the original score. It surprised the hell out of me when my search wasnt futile.

I got my signed CD yesterday. W00T!

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Now playing: Joel Goldsmith - Retro Motorcycles
via FoxyTunes

2+2=5. Seriously! Just ask any math major!

2008-09-30T19:31:00.002-04:00

Because by the time these students reach college, their math textbook is about 99.5% anything but numbers. They can do all kinds of things with letter and symbols.

Numbers? Nah. Basic arithmetic stuff got tossed out the window long ago. Dont believe me? Okay. When you go down to write down a team score on bowling, game subtotals and handicaps are given to you. Series totals? Your on your own. On most of the college league recaps, they fill out the provided game scores, only to leave series blank. I dont know if its because theyre lazy, or they panic at the thought of adding big numbers.

As I was processing their scores yesterday, I was muttering incoherent not-so-nice things about them (I do this all the time to all of the leagues at some point.) and theyre stellar math skills, and how college students should fricking know how to add.

Ahem. Right. At the computer next to me, one of the mechanics (a student) was taking some kind of test when he overheard my peeved ramblings. Apparently, math majors having issues with basic math isnt all that uncommon. One of the bowlers on his team is a math major, and he's always having to correct some of his score totals.
Or so he says. It wouldnt surprise me.

Math professors need to stick a page or two of 6th grade math quizzes in the next exams.

Back again. Maybe

2008-09-29T22:29:00.006-04:00

I realized that its been almost 4 months since I posted here. I wouldnt say that I dont have that much to write about, but as Ive ranted on earlier, I tend not to remember whatever it was I wanted to write about earlier.

Actually, thats not true. I have 3 drafts sitting in edit that I havent finished. Topics are kinda...touchy. Which is why they arent posted yet.

As for this whole thing now, I dont like it when theres months between post. With that in mind, Im going to restart a thing i did a couple years ago. Blog a day for 30 days.

Maybe.

Honestly, I dont expect to do quite as well.

Not much going on now. Catching up on Fall TV premiers. Ive had to work late these past couple weeks.

Sarah Connor is turning out interesting. ~~I dont remember the neighbors name, but it wouldnt surprise me that the boy she's carrying is which ever one of the Reese brothers is older (No. I dont remember which ones older)~~.
I take that back. The timings not right. Nevermind.

CSI Miami is so full of absolute shit, I dont know how its still on.

NCIS is my favorite show thats on right now. I love the character dynamics and interaction and the plots. Im surprised that its not as popular as some of the other shows.

Speaking of CSI shows..Has this been used yet? I only watch NCIS and barely pay attention to CSI Miami, so I dont know about New York and Vegas. Some computer hack has a load of info on their hard drive, but no one can find it. That old Nintendo on the shelf is just that...right? The R2D2 in the corner looks quite at home among the rest of the Star Wars toys. So does the guitar in the corner, and that old radio, and the....

You get the picture.

I can see Tony (NCIS) finding the Nintendo by accident. He and McGee have returned once again to the vic/suspects residence, and another search has once again proved fruitless. Tony goes to mess with the NES, and either a)notices the non-nintendo outlets in the back or b)tries to turn it on and wonder why it doesnt work.
Enter Gibbs with a Gibbs-slap for going off task.

Im almost done playing catch-up. Still need to watch Knight Rider some time tomorrow, and we recorded Chuck while Terminator was on.

DVR is damn useful.

Charlotte's still mostly out of gas. I thought Id be able to hold off til the lines get down and we get gas back in. Looks like Ill be joining the que of the first station I find tomorrow thats not empty. If I really wanted to be an idiot, Id say that I have about 30 more miles and hold off longer. Which, I do, actually. I dont measure how much is in my tank by the gas gauge. Trip odometer gets reset at every fill-up. Damn needle is all over the place once I get the 1/4th tank remaining mark.

I cant decide if Im sorry or not, but I find NFL football quite boring.

2008-09-07T19:55:00.006-04:00

A while ago I attempted to watch some of the San Diego vs. Carolina preseason football game.

Quite frankly, I found it dull.

I suppose its to be expected, after a summer full of Tri-Nations and Guinness Cup, and a hand full of other Rugby tourneys shown throughout the summer. I was also introduced to Australian Rules Football. While not as quite as rough as rugby or American football (yes, Im adding the American prefix on it now. With soccer, Aussie football, American football, and Gaelic football, and rugby football how else am we going to differentiate between them all??) its still a blast to watch for various reasons.

One of them being that play doesnt stop all that much because someone gets tackled. From the few AFL (aussie rules) games I watched (theyre aired on Setanta live, which is about three in the morning here), full blown tackles arent near as common as rugby and NFL (American rules), but when they do, either the ball gets back out, or the ref blows the whistle and play is 'reset' for 3 seconds only to resume immediately.

Erm, Im going to point out now that Ive seen maybe three games of AFL, and most of my observances are just that...and that for the most part I have VERY little idea of what Im talking about rule wise other than if a player catches the ball in their dome-area the get a sort of free shot at goal. Mkay?

Rugby is the same way. Tackle? Get in the ruck, get the ball out and keep going. Play never stops. The closest thing rugby has to the NFL line of scrimmage is the scrum, but this only occurs if theres a rule infringement, such as an offside player or a forward pass or something. Theres also the line-out when the ball goes out of bounds.
Otherwise?
Nope.

Not like the NFL where the players take 2 or 3 minutes to regroup, figure out what the heck theyre going to do next, line up and do it again every three feet every time someone hits the ground.

Also, as hard as ruggers tend to tackle each other, they dont feel the need to wear enough armor to rival a medieval knight.

I almost hate computers now.

2008-06-20T20:00:00.003-04:00

With the added income of a decent tax return, plus the stimuli check, I had planned on getting a new laptop.

Easier said than done.

Problem One: Vista. The initial response for this OS was generally a massive FAIL. So of course I wanted little or nothing to do with it. It looked pretty, but other than that, no thank you. When I got the laptop Im currently using, Vista had just been released, so XP Machines were still floating around a-plenty.

Now, a couple years later, its quite the opposite. I think Ive found one decent new computer thats got XP. Probably because Microsoft stops selling the thing at some point this month.

I ask around. Is Vista really that bad?

Responses vary. I got everything from "Best. OS. EVER!" to "Almost as bad as ME", and everything in between. Not helpful, people.

After some poking around, and annoying more people about this topic, I finally said "what the hell". Ill get a damn Vista. If I dont like it, Ill down it.

Here we have problem 2:
Microsoft has made is very, very difficult to do this. One would have to have a good deal of time on their hands and figure out, then find the various drivers needed to do this. Apparently wireless ones are a bitch to find, as are some sound card drivers.

If need be, Im about 75% sure I can figure all this crap out. Maybe. I like voiding warranties.

Thats another thing. Taking it back to XP is a damn good way to kill the warranty on it. Thats alright though, because I always get an extended via whatever store I get it from.
Which, if its not from an online retailer, will be Best Buy. Initially, I was going to get it from Circuit City. I like them, and Ive had issues with BB (Best Buy) in the past. Problem is that if I get it from CC (Circuit City) and then decide to downgrade, FireDog has to do it, or Ill void that $200 warranty too. Taking it to them will take forever, and itll cost me at least another $100.
Not so with Best Buy. The employee informed me that their warranty covers hardware only, and that installing an OS is pretty much seen as a software upgrade (he compared it to installing virus software). Me screwing with the OS wont kill the BB warranty.
Gee, wonder who Ill pick.

If that wasnt enough, I did in fact find one I really liked. Of course theres a problem. Vista, no service pack. Enough (anti-vista, too) people have said that SP1 is necessary.

I cant win.

I have to wonder why Im giving myself such a damn headache over a laptop. Why not get a Mac? or install Linux?

Unless someone has a spare $1000-$1500+ they can give me, I wont be touching Macs. Id love to try a MacBook, but its sadly quite out of my price range.
At some point in time, Im going to figure out which one of these LiveCD boot disks I like the most and install it on my old school desktop. For something completely (sorta) new? Not yet. I cant afford to start from scratch with something I dont know that much about yet.

Though, if while downgrading, I manage to break it...I have 7 linux CDs.

Um, lets just call this an update.

2008-06-09T23:08:00.003-04:00

I realize that I havent posted here with anything resembling frequency lately. There are a lot of reasons for this, none of which Im listing, mostly because I dont want to.
Go figure.

Spent last week in the Outer Banks of NC. Was very nice. I even got a tan! It goes from the back of my hand to my elbow.

Im strangely pleased to announce that my forearms are untouched by said tan. Heh. Still working on the chaco tan though. A couple more weekends should do it.

A bit of Friday was spent on a waverunner. That was enjoyable for the most part. This particular company had a small boat they kept out on the water to assist anyone that falls off or to scold anyone that goes out of the company's area. Whoever owned this place last year didnt have that. I thought it was a good thing.

Atleast, I did until he decided to park the boat smack in the middle of their 'area' instead of lurking about the edges. Waverunners are supposed to maintain a 50 yard distance from each other and anything else in the water(kayaks, parasailing boats, etc). It was a bitch going around him all the damn time.

I should also mention that my dad and sister also took a runner out. She managed to toss him off. Heh.

Internet time on vacations should be a minimum, Ill admit.
That must be why OBX wireless can be considered an epic fail.
My choices were as follows: The freebie one, which usually had a decent connection, but had an ever-present, cant ever get rid of, top ad-banner for local OBX stuff.
This isnt a regular ad-banner though. It has its own url in front of the regular address. 90% of the time, once the banner finishes loading it doesnt see the other web addy and it thinks its done.

I (okay...we, meaning Dad and his company card) couldve also gone haves on the $40 a week for ad-free, but I could barely pick up that network anyway.

Last month we finally got DirecTV. I also got my rugby channel for the low, low price of $15 a month. Yay me.

Good to know I couldnt watch it for the better part of the week. It would figure that my TV is the one that has all old wires heading to it. Why the original tech guy didnt replace them, I dont know. This is a 20+ year old house. Most of the cables are original.

Fortunately, that was fixed rather easily as another technician replaced said wires so that I can now watch Scotland and Wales battle it out in 6 Nations. Wales currently has a 4 point lead.
If they would air Australian Rules Football at a decent hour, I would be most pleased.

Up until today, DirecTV technician/customer service people were held in fairly high regard.

Yesterday we spent the better part of the day setting up a big ass-HDTV. The technicians were supposed to be here between 6 and 8 in the evening to set up the HD/DVR box.

They apparently showed up at 4:30. No one was home. They didnt come back either.
For some reason or another, a message from Customer Service was on our machine.
The current thing with companies customer service HQ being in India or somesuch is really pissing me off. The message on our machine could barely be described as english. The message had to be replayed multiple times to a) figure out what the hell they wanted and b) to copy the number down.
I still dont know what it was about.

A couple of days ago I got a FireFox extension called PMOG. Its some kind of Online RPG you play by browsing the interwebs. Im still trying to figure it out. Must be doing okay, Im almost level 4. Yay!

It just sent me on a "Mission" for more FireFox extensions. The two Ive seen so far look really good. I wonder if ForecastFox will allow me to kick weatherbug.

UPDATE Weatherbug can consider itself kicked. ForecastFox is friggin awesome. So is adblock.

It doesnt 'rightfully belong' to anyone yet.

2008-05-03T14:15:00.004-04:00

In yesterdays Charlotte Observer, an article was printed that some Indiana voters would stay home if Barrack Obama was denied a nomination that was "rightfully his".

Im curious. When, exactly, did this happen? While he does hold a lead over Clinton, it is in no way shape or form "his" nomination. Its not like the last time, when the Indiana and North Carolina Primaries(along with five other states held in weeks following) didnt mean anything because the Democratic Candidate has long since been decided by the time it got to us. Including the two primaries held Tuesday, theres still seven more states to get for the Democratic nomination.
In order to win, a candidate needs 2025 delegates to win the nom. Neither of them are there yet.

In all honesty, Id be surprised if Clinton manages to overtake Obama. Clinton got Pennsylvania, but not by much, she only got 10 more delegates than he did. The entire race has been something like this. Sure, one candidate technically "won", but the difference in delegates has only been a few. Hell, in Delaware, Obama was proclaimed the "winner" yet they both got 9 delegates (though three of Clintons were Supers). Obama's managed to get just enough of an upper hand so far. Clinton is over 100 votes behind. At this point, if theres any hope for her, she'd have to do a lot more than just "win" a state. She'd have to take it by a damn big margin, something a little more than 55/45 or 60/40 even. Itll be tough, but who knows? Anything can happen.

Theres still 717 delegates up for grabs before either of them can 'rightfully' claim it. Patience, people. Its just one more month.

The Clash

2007-12-20T16:23:00.000-05:00

Clash of the Choirs has been an interesting week thus far. Its something Id like to see again, but done a little differently next time.

Nick and Patti were the only two that held the auditions correctly. Listened to everyone, took notes, THEN chose the twenty. Not pick and choose as you go along. For all you know, once youve chosen everyone, the GREAT onces could have been the next person in line.

Though I had been splitting my votes fairly evenly among Nick and Blake, I wanted Nick to win. Then Blakes choir did that incredible perfermance of "Joy to the World" last night.
I was floored. THATS what a choir is supposed to sound like. There has been way to much emphasis on soloist and choreography so far. That performance proved that you can do awesome by simply standing there and not moving...much. Also, up til that point, there really wasnt that much harmonizing with, say, alto's doing one thing, tenors doing something else, and soprano's have their descant. It was so good to hear that.

Dont misunderstand me. Patti's choir is awesome, and she has some amazing talent in her ranks. The solo's have been incredible.

Which, unfortunately, is the problem. The show is Clash of the Choirs. With Patti's soloist belting out the melody, its almost impossible to make out the rest of the chorus, other than an occasional "echo" line.

So, yeah. I will be disappointed if Team LaBelle wins.

What I would like to see next time (if there is one) is more themed stuff. They get a "pop" arrangement like theyve been favoring, something traditional (Id like to see them pull off something from Handles "Messiah". Amen Chorus, perhaps?), and maybe a choral broadway piece.

Lot of interesting things to do here. Just cut back on the solo's.

It's a crosswalk you friggin' idiot!

2007-11-16T23:30:00.000-05:00

I really, really wish cops would enforce jaywalking. Having said that, theyll decide to do so when I decide to cross a very empty, non-busy street.
Seriously though. I had to slam the breaks in order to avoid hitting some woman who decided to stroll across a busy section of Tryon. Even if she were running across, motorist would still have to had hit the breaks. Two or three of us blasted horns. She looks at us like 'how dare we' and flips us off and slows her pace til she gets across.

Its even worse on Central Blvd. In just as heavy traffic, there are people constantly crossing back and forth. Most of them are mothers pushing a stroller one-handed while the other hand pulls a 5 year old behind them.

For a couple blocks, theres a median between the two lanes of traffic. The median has a decent landscape. It also has a spot for pedestrians to wait out the other lane of traffic. This is all well and good. Less chances of them getting hit. Nevermind the crosswalks less than a block away in either direction.

Theres a reason Charlotte has a high rate of people getting hit.

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Now playing: Ferry Corsten - ferry corsten - star traveller
via FoxyTunes

Bit and Pieces

2007-11-14T22:10:00.001-05:00

Its been to long. I keep waiting for something nice and noteworthy to write about, but its not going to happen. Atleast, not while Im at my computer. Theres been plenty of stuff elsewhere, but not when I can write it down. Soon, its long gone.

Since the start of the WGA Strike, Ive sort of wondered if they have similar issues. Obviously, since there are issues to be settled, they arent writing.

If I were a member of the WGA and currently picketing, THIS is when my muse would bombard me with all kinds of awesome idea's for TV episodes and movies. I wonder if any of them have similar issues.

Tonights league at the bowling alley was interesting. A mother/daughter pair, who dont bowl on the same team ended up against each other tonight (no...it wasnt Mom and I). About halfway through the second game, the mother (who Im calling JoAnna) is doing fairly well and her daughter (Mary) isnt. Mary decides to order a nice, big Long Island iced tea. When JoAnna reacts (erm, our Long Islands are kinda strongish), Mary states "If your going to beat me, it wont be while Im sober."
I have no idea how game 2 ended up.
I do know that in game 3, JoAnna wasnt doing all that hot, and Mary started out with a Four Bagger. Apparently bowling is one of the few TRUE drinking sports.

On other notes, nothing much has changed. Im still pulling double duty as League records and lane server at the bowling alley and still hunting for a full time jobs. Ill be damn surprised if I get Thanksgiving off. Dummy over here forgot to stick the request form in.
A friend on facebook recently posted some awesome fall mountain pics, so now Im more than a little homesick to boot. Depression is such a bitch.

On a brighter note, I got me a new bike. If anyone around Charlotte wants to ride, let me know. I havent ridden in years and need to get back into it.

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy"

2007-10-04T22:09:00.000-04:00

I dont drink. Well, much anyway. I never have had much of a taste for beer, and alcoholic beverages as a whole cost too much for me to mess with. Seriously, why would I pay $3.25 for a bottle of Bud or $7.54 for a margarita (that Ive never had) when I get soda's for free? Hell, I can honestly tell you that I taste no difference between Miller and Budweiser. The last time I had a beer was in April.

Needless to say, when I randomly splurged and brought a Sam Adams mixed pack (I wanted to try something different that actually was different), my parents were surprised, and not pleased.

For the life of me, I dont know why. Im over 21,and therefore legally able to purchase alcohol. Theyve never said a word to my sister (whom you may recall has 'issues')when she brings home wine coolers and orders some kind of mixed frozen drink thingy every other time we go out to dinner.

So why does me buying a 6 pack bother them so damn much, especially when my last drink was in April? Ive pretty much resigned myself to the fact that they arent going to see me as anything older than 10 until I aquire a job that pays enough to move out. I really, really dislike living here.

Or maybe its because theres not all that much room in the fridge.

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Now playing: Mychael Danna, Jeff Danna - The Blood of Cu Chulainn
via FoxyTunes

I come to the Temple

2007-09-21T23:12:00.000-04:00

I dont watch Survivor. I never did see the point to reality shows in general. However, when I heard of a particular incident, I headed to CBS.com and youtube for a look. Sure enough, Leslie got upset over a Buddhist ceremony and walked out.

There are so many things wrong with this, Im not sure where to begin.

Worship? What were they worshiping? Honoring...yes. Worship? Not exactly. No one asked you to renounce Christianity and convert. Most consider Buddhism a set of philosophical and spiritual teachings of wisdom than a religion, with huge focus on meditation. Depending on the branch of Buddhism, some just refer to Buddha as a God, but that doesnt mean he's all powerfull. Other branches, such as Mahayana give the Buddha's a little more credit. Its not like you

It doesnt matter if its a church service, a ceremony, a concert, a play...YOU DONT GET UP AND WALK OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF IT!!!! Its extremely rude to your hosts. The monks have taken a lot of time and effort to do this for the group, to welcome them and THIS is how she shows them her gratitude? I dont know about that particular Temple, or Buddhist Temples in general, but some of those places are very picky about letting the public in. There were so many different ways she could have dealt with this a little more respectfully. The most obvious would be to stand quietly off to the side somewhere. Thats what most people do when confronted with a ceremony or service they arent familiar with. Sit(or stand), watch, learn. People's (such as Leslie) refusal to atleast learn about the chosen paths of others is what causes the vast majority of the problems stemming from religious intolerance. Those who arent Christians arent going to burn in hell for enternity just because they walk a different path. There are many streams, rivers, and waterways (oh...and drains...cant forget the drains) on this Earth, but they all lead to one place.

Why is she even there, anyway? One doesnt travel across the globe and not have some kind of culture crash. Not in the Bible Belt anymore. They are in a place where religions like Buddhism, Hinduism, Shinto, Taoism, and other similar philosophies are dominant. I wonder if this was part of her goal? To proselytize and convert? More than likely, she didnt think she would encounter something such as this. It would be just her and her fellow Survivors in China's wild (and a few campfire devotions).

A few months ago, she was the guest speaker at an event that my church held. I was unable to attend due to work (i think...), but now I wish I could have gone. Maybe seeing and meeting her in person, knowing a little about her wouldnt make me hope that she be one of the first to get voted off.

At this point, I hope she is.

And I hope that the one that kept rolling her eyes all the way through is next off.

The importance of the headcount

2007-09-07T00:39:00.000-04:00

Ive seen and heard the stories where the school bus finishes its round, only to notice the sleeping child in one of the back seats during the final check. It happens. What else are you going to do during a two hour bus ride home? There are a couple blind spots in those mirrors.

One thing I had never (or rarely) heard of were incidents when a child was left behind on a field trip.

Well, until today, anyway. There was a small group of kids doing a Special Olympic thing at the alley. About a minute or so after they all filed out the door and onto the bus, another boy popped his head out from behind one of the video games, and looked around in confusion for his group. The front-desk people and I got outside in time to see the bus pull out the lot and head down the street.

Well shit. This isnt good.

Eventually, someone ended chasing the bus down to get them to come back and get the boy. Other options would be to contact CMS Bus dispatch, or let the cops do it.

How the hell did this happen? Why didnt they do a head-count to make sure they had everyone? I dont suppose they had any idea how the poor kid felt.

They had better not discipline him. No, he probably shouldnt have been messing with the game as they were about to leave, but once those bus doors are closed and the engine starts, the blame is no longer on him. Its the teachers responsibility, and their job to look after the students when theyre on a a trip. And someone failed. Horribly.

Id love to be a fly on the wall when the boys parents confront these teachers.

Just some stuff

2007-08-30T22:58:00.000-04:00

Theres an amusing DUI commercial making the rounds. Three different guys in their vehicles driving along, the cars filled with whatever the guys had been drinking earlier. First guys had beer, second rich guy munches on an olive from his martini drenched sports car, and the third is red...something or other.
I found the three different personalities of these 'gentlemen' amusing, and wonder how intentional is was. Mr. Hillbilly beer dude just sits there. He's not sure whats going on, and he'll probably wake up in a cell wondering WTF just happened. Rich Martini Man has this 'how dare you pull me' expression on his face, just fuming. The third guy almost makes you feel sorry for him. Almost. He knows he was a bad boy and he got caught.

Spent a really long weekend in the Blowing Rock-Boone area this past week. Was nice. About ten years or so ago we reguraly made yearly trips to a gem mine to get buckets of dirt and sift through them for pretty gems. Didnt do have bad either. Have baggies full of amethyst, rubies, garnets, sapphires, emeralds, and other stuff which names I dont remember. We went back this year, got another decent load. I got some nice chunks of sodalite that I will probably have cut into something.
One thing that took me by surprise was the proximity to the McDowell/Mitchell County line.
Wait. What??
Thats not all that far from camp. The missed opportunities astound me. Not only was this something that I enjoy doing (even if the baggies of rocks will just end up piled somewhere), its something I find very relaxing.
Oh well. Atleast now I know where it is. 12 year olds in the back seat tend not to pay attention to these kinds of things.

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Now playing: Our Lady Peace - Not Enough
via FoxyTunes

Discrimination is many things. An infantile "no fair!" exscuse because you didnt get your way is NOT one of them.

2007-07-31T21:32:00.000-04:00

Today, I was in and out of the office doing paper work when a small group of people walk into the bowling alley. When I walk over to them, there are two people at the front counter, standing about a foot apart, and a couple other ladies somewhat behind them. One of the ladies at the front counter said she had a 10:30 reservation. I confirmed it and asked them how many kids there were. She responded 45. At this point, a few handicapped/mentally challenged teens started making there way in. I thought (thought, not said...) something along the lines of '45 handicapped kids? Should be interesting'.
By this time, the other person who was working the front counter had come out of the office to assist with getting the kids set up on the lanes. I briefly left the counter to double check something. When I returned to the counter less than a minute later, a different, group of kids were lining up for shoes. It was at this point I realized that the two ladies that were standing side by side at the counter were of different groups.

When the line of summer camp kids in need of bowling shoes had shortened, my colleague went to assist the other lady and her group. All of a sudden I hear her shouting, and a couple of the younger ones in line are startled by it. From what I could catch of the conversation, apparently she was there first and was pissed because I hadn't spoken to her.

Sorry, but you gave absolutely no inclination that you were in a different group. Why didn't you say anything when I first spoke to you and the woman I thought you were with? That would've been easier and saved us a whole lot of trouble.

The next thing I know, I'm being accused of discrimination. I didn't take her group first because they were challenged. Excuse me? Where the hell did that come from? I didn't even know I wasn't dealing with this group until after the fact. I was willing to discuss this particular accusation until she brought up her next 'argument'

You'll note that the summer camp had a reservation. The challenged group did not. Even though we had enough lanes to accommodate both groups, the one with the reservations usually have some precedence. The woman starts up again, and insists that they didn't require a reservation, that they were told they could come in whenever they want, and they'd be able to bowl.

It went from discrimination, to the fact that she was told she didn't need a reservation because her group was 'special'. to a whole bunch of other bullshit I don't remember.

One: I try very very hard not to discriminate against anyone for anything. If someone mentions that they're being discriminated against, Ill usually try to get the whats and the whys

But if you try to list discrimination as one of 3 or 4 bullshit temper tantrum excuses, you've lost any and all credibility you ever had with me. Like I said, I would deal with that accusation. But not like this. I'm not even going to try. Ive worked with enough children to have some idea of how this goes. Dealing with an adult acting like a child shouldn't be much different.

As far as reservations go...while its not 'required' to set something up, we ALWAYS recommend that you go ahead and make a reservation so we can guarantee your lanes (even if its just one person). We NEVER tell anyone "Naw...you don't need to make reservations...come on in!"

While I'm on the topic of discrimination....why they hell is NAACP getting themselves involved in Vicks case? A dog fight doesn't have a damn thing to do with racial discrimination (unless it was a yellow lab vs. a black lab...).
Okay, so you want to make sure Vick doesn't get unfair treatment (or whatever). Fine. Does the NAACP send out a representative for every black person that goes through the judicial system? Or just the rich celebrity types?

I dont work here, damnit! Leave me alone!

2007-07-22T17:10:00.002-04:00

It never fails. At one time or another, in many of the stores Ive been in someone has approached me for some kind of assistance, thinking I work there.

Sometimes, it baffles me. Im wandering around in jeans and one of my odder t-shirts, and the actual associates have on a nice store-logo shirt and khakis.

Apparently, I give off that vibe. Or atleast, thats what the person at Dillards told me. I was lurking around waiting for the people I was with to try on pajamas¹, and she said that the way I was looking around made it very easy for people to think that I worked there. Huh. I dont know how I managed that.

I plan to get one of these shirts, and once I leave my current post at the bowling alley, I plan to wear it every time I go.

¹ Why in the world does anyone need to take 15 minutes to try on PJs??? No, not those lingerie thingys from Victoria's Secret. Those dont count. These are just plain ol' top and bottoms that your going to sleep in. There's no alternate motive here. None! Your just sleeping! Theres really no need to spend 15 minutes trying the things on to see which looks better.
Besides, whats wrong with lounge pants and an old t-shirt? Loads cheaper.

30 Ways...

2007-07-17T21:57:00.000-04:00

Even though I do occasionaly check this guys blog out, I hadnt seen it in awhile til another blog posted about it. 30 Random Ways to Have a Happier Life is an awesome post that you should really check out. Its really the little things that count. Here are some of my faves.

10. Love what you love. Don't trick yourself or others.
12. Find joy in condiments. Similarly, acquire tastes just for the hell of it. Like Sauerkraut and Whisky. But not together. Unless you're high.
22. Change is unavoidable. Embrace it, on every level.
15. Learn to play D&D. If you're already laughing this one off, learn it immediately.
Note: If there are any D&D or other RPG groups around Charlotte, message me! I really want to learn to play this stuff (this addendum is mostly for the facebook feed)
20. Get good at frisbee (or a woosh).

Take a message, will ya?

2007-07-10T23:20:00.000-04:00

When I was at school, a couple of the upper level english classes (and some others) focused on resume building and some helpful hints when scoring that one big job.

For instance, having a contact email such as Whiskey_Jack69@yahoo.com wont score many points. It takes less than five minutes to make a new yahoo account for JBillings or JamesBillings or something a tad more formal. It was the same with voicemail. If a prospective employer calls you up to leave a message only to hear "Yo, dis be Big J...you know the drill, man..." In some voice you think sounds cool, do you really think your going to get that message?

All this week Ive been making calls to various bowlers to see if they plan on returning for the fall season, and apparently, theres a new thing in the world of voicemail and such. Instead of the standard dialtone I hear while waiting for the party to pick up, they can program something so that I hear someones favorite tune instead. Same with voice mail. I listen to about 10 seconds of some song til someone finally tells me to leave a message after the beep...only to here another ten seconds of music before the damn thing beeps.

This is cool. Id stick this on my phone if I knew how.

I just wish people would be a little more...picky about what they play.
Granted, Im pretty sure none of the people that have these are in the job market, but do you really think I want to listen to how some girl/guy reeeeaaaallly wants this other dude/girl in their bed and what theyre going to do when they get there? Seriously people, there are all kinds of places to share your favorite music. Your VM Box isnt neccesarily one of em.

They're children. How could you do that?

2007-06-15T16:27:00.000-04:00

Or: Reasons why current generation of children will grow up to be really screwy.

I really, really wanted to write a nice, detailed blog essay about this. But everytime I tried to write it down, I couldnt get the words to flow. Maybe later itll come to me, and Ill repost this.

For now, Ill leave you with this and this. Dont forget to read the comments, too.
Yes, Im aware theyre two different issues. One deals with the wisdom of bringing 6 year olds to R Rated films, and the other one deals with children who are raised by a daddy named 'Sony' and a mommy named 'Dell' (er, no offense if this actually is your name). But are they really two different issues? These are the same kids we're talking about, being raised to be completely dependant upon technology, and by parents who apparently dont care. They dont care about their kids enough to find a baby-sitter or a better movie while they go see some freakish R-rated thing that could seriously damage a childs mental well-being. They cant pay enough attention to their child, so instead they hand them a gameboy or a PSP or drop them
in front of a TV for hours on end.
Whatll happen when these kids grow up to be functioning members of society? Im really not looking forward to the answer.

Not so out of reach, is it?

2007-06-14T13:17:00.000-04:00

A couple years ago, I wrote a term paper that mentioned that as far as technological advances went, we were making so many that we could hardly keep up with ourselves. Things that were once only conceivable via something like Star Trek are popping up all around us.

Its happening again. While this project has been in development for a few years, it looks like its about to go public soon.

Eventually, it might be affordable (current price is estimated around 5-10k, which actually isnt that bad...). When it is, I want one. I also want the version thats wall-mountable.

I wonder how long itll take them to implement a 3D holographic feature?

GPS Navigational System? Eh, Ill keep my maps, thanks.

2007-06-03T16:02:00.000-04:00

Not quite a year ago, my dad got himself one of those Garmin GPS whatsits. Took it with him on his buisness travels, came home singing its praises.
He hooked it up before we headed to the OBX. I was curious as to why, because we've been here before, surely he knew the way.

"I just want to see which way it takes us" He said.

Ok, fine.

It took us from 85 to 40 via the Raliegh Durahm area. During an evilish traffic Jam on 40 due to construction, I pulled out my road atlas to find an alternate route around it. After all, GPS's dont usually take things like that into consideration. This one didnt, anyway.

Eventually we did make it through, and I kept my road atlas out just in case.

The trouble started a little further down i40. It lead us through some twisty-turny route via Ralieghs inner loop, and then dumped us back on 40. Eventually I figured out what it was doing.

Next up was Highway 64. From there it was a straight shot to the OBX. Yay!

Or not. Later, I glanced up from my book just in time to see the handy GPS take us somewhere else. A few more twists and turns, another highway (My sister can now say she has been to Nashville, by the way...she doesnt have to mention which state), we were finally on highway 158. Another straight shot, this one ended up further north on the Banks.

No funky detours this time.

No GPS for me. I dont want some bitty computer telling me where to go and hollering at me ("Please make a legal U-Turn") when I opt to go the other way. Im okay with my maps.

Nostalgia's such a bitch

2007-05-30T00:15:00.000-04:00

As I have recently tended to do during random spouts of boredom, Ive joined various groups on Facebook just for the hell of it. Some of these include a couple groups for the Nalgene Waterbottle, various Star Trek groups, something saluting the slinky, a couple for the lolcats, and a group thats bitching about North Carolina changing there license plates from blue to red.

At last count, Im in 55 groups. I only have 23 friends. And this is even after a friend kept nagging that my friend/group ratio was so skewed. So, if you know people that know me, send em my way.

We're getting off topic.
My most recently joined group is one for Camp Counselors. They share tips, tricks, good camper/evil camper stories, memories, quotes, pranks and all kinds of fun stuff from working at various camps from around the world. Of course, being the time it is now, everyones excited to be going back to camp.

If Im really, really lucky I might be able to sneak back fir a week to volunteer after the tournaments over. Im not holding my breath.

I miss camp. I miss being in the mountains. I miss my fellow counselors (well, most of em). Ah hell, I might as well say I miss it all.

Ok. Now that THATS out of my system, lets see what other nonsense groups I can take up space with.

Its all about the wood.

2007-05-13T23:21:00.000-04:00

So, this year the USBC Womens National Bowling Tournament is being held in Charlotte NC. While neither of the main events are being held at the center I work at (singles/doubles and team), we are holding something called the Forty Frame Game, and the Ladies Bowlers Journal Singles Challenge and No-Tap Doubles. Both of these are optional first come, first serve tournaments that are mostly for fun.
We've had ladies with averages all over the place come in and bowl this thing. Some are barely breaking 100, while others are super-awsome bowlers with 200+ averages.

Its the latter group that surprises me. You would think that these people with uber high averages would be taking up all the spaces in the Top 25 posted, hoarding all the payout monies, etc.

For the most part, they suck.

Well, thats not to say they bowled badly. But to someone with a 208 average, a 160-something is not usually considered a good game. Hell, the woman up now has a 180 average, and might squeeze b with a 155 if she Turkeys in the Tenth.

My average fluctuates between 148 and 151, and I get miffed at myself if I bowl 148. How do you think some of these people feel?

A possible (and likely) explanation is that Uni Lanes are wood. Most places nowadays are synthetic. Apparently, people do better on synthetic than the real stuff. Why? I dont know. Im sure theres a nice detailed explanation for it, and if a really good, serious bowler type person stumbles upon this, Im sure theyll be able to enlighten us as to why.
Cuz I certainly have no idea. The only difference I can tell between the two is the sound my ball makes when it hits the lane after delivery.

I also cant tell much of a difference between a wet (fresh oil) and dry (little/no oil) lane, other than getting an oily ball back through the ball return.

Shows how much I know.

Before I leave you friend, theres something that Ive got to say...

2007-04-30T01:50:00.000-04:00

Theres so much I need to put here, and yet I dont really know what to say.
This was one of the best weekends for me in a long long time. It was something I really needed, especially now when my depression relapses are getting much harder to keep at bay.
It felt good to finally feel like I was apart of something. The pancake breakfast tonight was awesome, as always. I dont remember the last time I let my gaurd down like I had done on Friday night.

These last 3 days have flown by way to fast for my liking, but isnt that the way it always is? Heading back to Charlotte...I refuse to call it home... will be difficult, because I truly dont want to go. I wish I could stay. I wish I could find a job somewhere near here. Hell. I cant find a job anywhere else, what makes me think here would be easier?

Anyway, Presby, I dont know if its possible to convey how much you all mean to me. How much I love you. I dont think that a day goes by without me thinking of y'all. I hope it wont be as long as it was last time before I can come back again.

"Tell me, oh muse..."

2007-04-27T00:43:00.000-04:00

About a month ago, I accidentally discovered Loreena McKennit was going to be in Ashville the same weekend I had planned to be in Cullowhee. Okay, a day earlier, but whose counting?

The concert was absolutely incredible. Loreena, of course was great, and so was her band. Especially the cellist and the violinist (Not to long ago I decided if could ever go back to fourth grade and repick the instruments we had to learn in 5th and 6th, Id go with those two, instead of sax and trombone :\ ).

I had never been to one of her shows before, so I wasnt all that sure what to expect. I had heard somewhere that there were two sets, the first being music from the latest album, which the tour was for (in this case Ancient Muse), and the second was other music from previous CDs (Lady of Shallot, Mummers Dance, Highwayman, etc).
This wasnt the case tonight. She played both types on both sets.

I have no idea how often (or if) this happens at her shows, but tonight we had dancers. Other showgoers just got up from their seats, and danced. I first noticed the one during "The Highwayman". There was ample space on the side walkway, under that balcony, and she just danced, swaying and occasionaly leaping to the music. Not a care in the world, not giving a damn of what others thought. A couple of songs later, I noticed movement in the balcony of the other side of the stage. A couple others were standing along the top aisle, swaying. Every few minutes I glanced back, and almost each time another had joined them.
I was envious of them on two counts. One, because I didnt have the guts to do something like that (though I kind of felt like it) and two, even if I did, I wasnt sitting anywhere near and open spot. Just smack in the middle of a row. Yay.

The only negative aspect was the venue itself. The seats were cramped, and for someone like me, it wasnt all that comfortable. Usually, I get aisle seats. Not tonight. The seating made it difficult to just sit back and relax. Hard to do when your knee's slam into the seat in front of you.

Right when Loreena started into her second piece of the evening, "Mummers Dance" the event staff had opened the doors to allow the latecommers in. How distracting! Okay, so they technically waited til she had finnished the first piece, but still...

I stood in line at the merchandise table, trying in vain to decide between the T shirt and the Nights at Alhambra DVD. Come crunch time, know which one I ended up with?

Pah. I got em both. It was very spur of the moment. I had already been standing there with an "uhhh..." look on my face for a few seconds.

I really enjoyed this show, and I look forward to watching the DvD. Perhaps Ill write more when Im not so tired (incoming 1am here), and my mind is clearer.

New toys

2007-04-20T22:53:00.000-04:00

About a week ago, I broke my mp3 player. Sinse it was purchased from WalMart, I made a couple attempts to BS my way into a new one there. Heck knows it worked enough in Sylva.

Guess my luck ran out. The Zen Touch run ended months ago, and Walmart.com hasnt offered it in about as much time. The best I could do was claim that I got it this past Christmas (actually, I got it the one before). I had a receipt and everything.
Thing is, Walmart cant make up thier minds. One says 15 days, one says thirty. Someone also says x amount of months if you have this, this and this.

Screw it. Walmart can go fuck itself, and I went and got a pretty Zen Vision from Circuit City. Squee!

And I got the case. It was on sale.

When loading music, it was easier to dump everything in it, then go back and pick out the stuff I didnt want on there. What started at 3500 songs is now down to 3200. Im almost halfway through.

Now I just need to find a place to get vids.
If I have time this weekend, I have a couple seasons of MASH, Star Trek DS9 and West WIng I may fiddle around with.

Eh, are the video's on iTunes formatted for Pods only?

Labradoodle's abound!

2007-04-20T11:03:00.000-04:00

Im going to let this one speak for itself.

uh oh

2007-04-11T14:29:00.000-04:00

This morning, I spent a couple hours over at the ~~vampires~~ Redcross for my monthly platelet donation. This thing usually takes about a couple of hours, so I came armed with my book and my trusty Zen mp3 player to pass the time. The particular center I visit also has TVs set up for movies, but usually something Im not interested in is already playing (read:chickflick), or the other patrons are perfectly happy watching Dr. Phil do whatever it is he does.

I finished (and passed!) the pre-procedure exam (iron count), and headed to the main area where the chairs were set up. I set my book and Zen on the bench they pointed out to me, and made a quick pitstop. A bathroom break in the middle of a donation is a very. bad. thing. Or, I guess it would be.
Anyway, I came back, picked up my stuff and moved to sit down. I felt it first. The Zen had started to slide, and before I could catch it, it fell to the floor with a clatter.

Shit.

To make matters worse, I dont have a case for it. I got the Zen Touch near the end of its run a year and a half ago, and by that time Zen Micro's were on the market. All the Zen things were made for it. And of course there was iPod stuff.

Although, it didnt sound all that bad, and it landed flat, not bouncing off a corner.

I picked it up, hoping upon all hope that I didnt break the thing. Turning it on, I was relieved to see that it booted.

A minute later, when I went to find a playlist, it was still on the title screen.

Shit. again.

4 hours later, its still sitting like that.

It wouldnt turn on, it wouldnt dock to my computer. It just sits there.

At this point, Im waiting for the battery to die and shut the player down, then try again. If that doesnt work, then I have two options:

1) SOMEWHERE is paperwork and warranty stuff. Plus I got it at WallyWorld, so I might be able to weasle something. But its been to long so I doubt it.

2)Get a Zen Vision M
and yes, the Vision has a nice little skin/case thingy.

29/30

Genesis 101: Adam, Steve and the Banana

2007-04-09T21:42:00.000-04:00

The various ways people translate the Bible is an extremely broad spectrum. Some believe that every single thing it says is precise and clear, not up for debate and must be obeyed regardless. Then there are others who see it as sort of Guidelines (defined ala PoTC), if you will.

All that aside, the non-law based mistranslations are more fun. One of the more commonly 'known' ones would be the Three Wise Men/Kings myth.

Three Gifts? Yes. Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh.
Three king-like people to deliver them? Um, no.
Nowhere in the Bible does it ever say that there were only three people. Besides, would someone with such a high stature as a 'king' be out all on his lonesome with only a camel for company? No again. He'd have a military escort of some kind at the very least, and at the most he wouldve packed up a good bit of his household and drug them along for the ride.

Another amusing myth is the story of Adam and Eve and the Forbidden fruit. In any case that the fruit is actually named (not just called the Forbidden Fruit), its always an apple (never seen otherwise). Apple? Why apple?
Once again, the Bible does not specifically say that Eve got an apple.

For all we know it couldve been a banana. Theres all sorts of ~~kinky~~ things to do with a banana. Maybe God wasnt quite ready to go there yet.

Besides, if the apple really was the forbidden fruit, dontcha think it would be listed right up there with pork as 'list of things to avoid'?

28/30

Fore!

2007-04-08T22:19:00.000-04:00

It recently came to my attention that XM Radio has a golf channel.

...

Um, how exactly does golf get succesfully broadcasted over a radio? I occasionaly watch the sport on TV, and play (albeit not all that well) on occasion.

Sports like Basketball, hockey, football, and Ill (reluctantly) admit it, NASCAR have more or less nonstop action to report and keep you on the edge of your seat if its a good game. Baseball has its potential (I have Sirius, so I wouldnt know).

But Golf?

What would they say? "Johnson hits a drive down the fairway using the three wood, coming in just this side of the rough at 210 yards. He switches over to the 7 iron, and it looks like a nice shot, but the wind is not in his favor and the ball rolls into the left sand bunker"

Yep. Award winning broadcasting right there.

27/30

Is it hot in here, or is it just me?

2007-04-07T16:18:00.000-04:00

Guaranteed way for people (other than your parents) to treat you like your 7: Go out when its (sort of) cold without a jacket.

I am so fucking tired of people (some random) making some comment or another about my lack of extra layers. They either think Im nuts for not having one, or insist that I go back to my car/house/whatever and get it, sense I must have forgotten it.

Eh, 'forget' implies that my omission was not intentional.

I usually didnt bring a jacket because, to me, 50-something degrees(f) doesnt warrant the need for one. It needs to be down another 10 or so for me to consider it. Or just be really really windy.

One of the few good memories of my pre-college life sort of revovled around this. The assistant principal at my highschool was always...amused at this. Id be in school in jeans and a t shirt, jacket stuffed in my bookbag ( I couldnt get away with leaving the house without it, back then). She'd be monitoring the courtyard huddled in these heavy jackets that the football coaches had. She rarely 'told' me to put my jacket, because she knew that the weather didnt bother me. She wasnt blind. No shivering, no goosebumps...though she did get a few laughs at my expense when the wind picked up.
Ms. Perry was one of the (very) few highlights of highschool.

26/30

MLB has cheerleaders?

2007-04-04T20:30:00.000-04:00

As much as I love baseball, I really dont see it as a sport that includes cheerleaders. And yet, there were about 6 of them dancing atop the Reds dugout as they broke for commercial break.

So, I admit, Ive never been to a major league game, so I dont know if it's common. There werent any dancer/cheerleaders at the minor league games. The closest venue is Atlanta, and Ive never had a reason to go there, other than to catch a flight to Miami in the middle of the night. But that was in December.

Baseballs back. Its a new season, and the Chicago Cubs have a new manager. As of right now, the Cubs are in Cincinatti. Bottom of the 6th with ~~one~~ two outs, and the Cubs have a 2 1 run lead.

Im going to stop now, lest I jinx them further with my optimism.

and...no, the pic doesnt reflect tonights game.

25/30

okay...ow?

2007-04-04T15:05:00.000-04:00

I really dont know how I managed it. I was at the gym this morning doing my usual routine with the weight machines. I had barely started. Did a quick run on the elliptical for a warmup, then moved on.
All of a sudden, when I moved to adjust the seating on one, my back almost more or less gave out. It fucking hurt. And I have no idea why. I wasnt doing anything strenuos (or atleast, more so than usual). No extra weight increments yet. Like I said, I had barely gotten started.

I immeadiatly stopped and changed, and drove on to work. I figured sense I was only doing a deskjob, Id be alright for awhile.

Uhh...no.

Standing still kinda hurt. And I realized that sitting down was out of the question. I dont know how I managed to drive home.

Either way, I made copies of stuff that needed copying, and double checked that the info for the next couple days were ready. Then (somehow) managed to get home.

As of now Im alternating between my laptop and contemplating the poster that I stuck on my ceiling when I was 9 or 10.

Pain meds I found arent working. Damnit.

24/30

Me, I got clown's feet.

2007-04-02T23:56:00.000-04:00

You may or may not recall that I tend not to like shoes all that much, and that unless its required by law, Im perfectly fine with going barefoot.

Well, usually.

Being that its the start of 'barefoot season' and my feet have spent a good bit of the winter enclosed in various close-toed shoes, the soles of my feet arent quite as tough as they should be. I noticed this as I wandered across our yard to figure out what Lacie found this time. I can tell you where the rest of the gumballs are though. I stepped on em all.

In another month, this wouldnt be a problem. Even gravel driveways won't faze me.

There is one itty bitty problem though. When I give enough of a damn to try and land me a boyfriend (ush. I hate that term. Is there something else?). I really hope he doesnt come with a foot fetish. The bottom of my feet have various rough patches from this or that, and Im missing toenails. oops.

Yeh. Peticures would help this a lot, but I dont want them to. I was talked in to having one done once. Aside from the fact that I couldnt tell a bit of difference looking, walking over a fucking pebble hurt. Everything had been undone, and I wasnt the least bit happy. Huge waste of $30.

Atleast it wasn't my $30.

23/30

ESP

2007-04-01T23:28:00.000-04:00

Under normal circumstances, I wouldnt even bring it up. Its almost dumb and most people think its bullshit anyway.

But this has been getting really odd, and at 30 minutes til midnight on tonights 30 day deadline, I have nothing else to write about.

Therefore, laugh and/or scoff all you want. Here ya go anyway.

I had a meeting at work today. On the way out, as I was getting in my car "Music of the Night" got itself wedged in my head, starting with the first line. I didnt think much of it. With my affinity for music, its not uncommon for 3 or 4 different songs to be battleing out for position in whats usually an interesting medley of tunes. Anyway, I got in my car, hooked up my satelite radio, and started the engine. What does my radio play? It had just started "The Music of the Night". In the exact same place where it had wedged itself into my skull seconds before.

Thats happened before, though usually with not such precision. Usually Ill hear another song by the same artist, or pick it up in the middle of said song, or...

Yah. You get it.

When I was in college, I would mistake a person for someone else in the distance. As they got closer, I realized it wasnt the person I thought it was (not like I called out to them. Id see them, and be like 'oh, theres Tim....wait, no its not', and move along). But then, often times, within the next couple minutes, Id see whoever I thought it was.

When I was in highschool, I could accurately time my 'Now!' exclamations for when the traffic light went from green to yellow. But that more due to observations of traffic patterns and such that any dormant psychic abilities.

I think I broke the rule about no sucky posts....didnt I?

Oh well.

22/30

Its all about the music

2007-03-31T22:53:00.000-04:00

If I had to choose whether to be blind or deaf, I dont think Id have to think about it. Id choose blindness. No contest. Music is too important to me.

Years ago, from about the time I was 8 up until I was 10 or 11, I took piano lessons. Sadly, they didnt stick well. It wasnt that I didnt want to, or that I didnt practice, it was just that the normal teaching method...whatever that was, didnt work on me. Eventually, I stopped when my last piano teacher went on maternity leave and never took it back up again. Nowadays I get envious of piano players, wishing I could sit down and play something from 'The Piano'(an...interesting movie, but an INCREDIBLE soundtrack). At present, I can more or less read music, and can pluck out the melody to almost any song Ive ever heard. I might be able to add a chord or two. Thats it.

More recently, Im semi decent at the guitar, so long as there are no bar-chords.

Maybe some people would consider me one of those types that always have to have 'background noises' around (always having the TV or radio on, whether or not theyre paying attention to it). In some ways, I suppose its possible, but I kind of hope not. So what if listening to music helps me concentrate and keep me from going stir crazy? Its not background music. Im listening.

Ive always been like this. I remember that it was cause for discussion during a parent-teacher conference in 6th grade. Everyone thought the radio and my tapes were to distracting. The solution? Listen to classical. The compromise? Hooked on Classics. Eventually, I decided that while HoC was an awesome series, some of the music sounded fine without the addins. I suppose we should ~~blame~~ thank Mrs. Dryden for that.

My music taste is extremely ecclectic for the most part. I love what I call 'modern' classical (read: movie soundtracks), celtic, celtic rock, rock, alternative, techno, country, some folk...theres not a lot I dont like. I suppose rap/hip-hop falls into this category though. After ten minutes or so it starts to sound monotonous.

I have different music for different moods. If Im pissed, Ill usually stick Evanesence in my CD player and turn the volume. Celtic music helps me to relax, and Peter Gabriel's Solisbury Hill can usually calm me down at any given time. I have two CDs which I call 'Happy Music' Vol. I and II. Dont be fooled by the titles. I burned them when I was depressed. When I want to think of home, I play David Lamotte.

Being hearing impaired is bad (and annoying) enough. But I dont think I could live with deafness.

21/30

programmers with too much time on thier hands...

2007-03-30T21:42:00.000-04:00

Back when I was in the market for an MP3 player, iPods were nowhere near the top of my list. To me, they were too mainstream and at the time they didnt support windows media files. .wma's make up about half of my music collection. The other half being mp3 files. If I got a pod, Id have to convert all the wma's to either mp3 or iTune format which is something I dont have the time or the hard drive space for. Eventually, I ended up with a Creative Zen Touch. Although it doesnt look as pretty or have the graphic capabilities that pods have now, its suits me just fine. Plus I like the Creative line. My previous mp3 player of 128megs was a creative nomad. Lasted through a couple years of hard use til I was ready to upgrade.

Then something happened.

I was browsing Facebook for some decent linux groups when I saw it. A couple years ago someone developed a kernel for iPod. I was sort of amazed and amused at the same time. It didnt surprise me a bit that someone had done it though.

While linux on Pods are all well and good, that wasnt what had me briefly consider looking into a ipod vid for 10 minutes.

On the FB group, the primary showing and discussion for Linux on iPod video was Doom. The original 1993 old school Doom.

I fucking love that game. Ive been playing it sense I was 12ish and it was a shareware game that came with Wolfenstein 3D. Hell, I still cant figure out how Final Doom was released without me knowing about it.

Fortunately, common sense prevailed. I still dont need a Pod, and can play Doom, DoomII, and Final Doom whenever the hell I want on my laptop. Or find a cheap gameboy advance and the those games, along with Wolf3D and DukeNukem3D from ebay.

20/30

Write. It. Down!

2007-03-29T23:25:00.000-04:00

Normally, I have a minipad and a pen or pencil of some sort within arms reach of me. I learned a very long time ago that inspiration strikes (or Gibbs-smack, in my case) at any time, usually at the oddest most inopportune moments.

Apparently, I have been lacking. Earlier today I had a couple different trains of thoughts that would have made a decent blog entry or two. For some reason or another, I didnt have anything to write with. You already know, dont you.

I cant for the life of me remember what I found interesting enough to write about. I think one was computer related, and the other was something I found absurdly strange and defied any sense of logic. Meh.

Tomorrow is another day, and my minipad isnt leaving my back pocket.

19/30

who are you, and WTF are you doing in my car?????

2007-03-29T00:35:00.000-04:00

Some months ago, when I was at the bowling alley, I went to get something from my car. As I was walking to the lot, I noticed an old red bike sitting in the lot near my car. I found this odd, because most people dont park bikes in the middle of a lot. They tie/chain it to something. After a second or two, it ceased to be interesting and I turned around, getting ready to put the key in the lock.

Except theres someone sitting in the drivers seat.

In the space about half a second, I went from being midly-but-no-longer-curious about a bike to really really pissed off. I jerked the door open and nicely (ok...not really) asked him what the fuck he thought he was doing, and to get out. Needless to say, he hauled ass out, and as I glanced back to make sure he didnt take anything, he got on his bike and hauled ass out of there.

In hindsight, theres a lot of things I couldve (or should have) done differently.
-Had I been paying a tad more attention, he wouldve been visible from the door of the center.
-Confronting him was probably a bad idea. I know damn well he couldve been armed. Oh well. I was already there. Why not go all the way.
- Turning ones back on the bad guy is always a bad idea.
- Sinse I did establish that he (probably) wasnt armed, I couldve taken him. Easily. But no... I had to make sure my satelite radio was still there, giving him the opportunity to run.

On a brighter note, because of this B&E episode my back window is now functional. Whatever this guy did to break in involved doing something via the back window. It didnt work before hand.

18/30

29 and counting

2007-03-28T22:19:00.000-04:00

On April 26, I head westbound for a nice long weekend in Cullowhee, with a quick stop to Ashville for a Loreena McKennit concert. The minister of the church I (mostly) attended while I was at WCU is having a retirement party at the end of the month, and Ill take any exscuse to go 'home' for awhile, even if its only a few days. The concert is an added bonus. I had already made plans starting on the 27th, and then I was made aware that she was going to be in Ashville on the 26th. Whats a day early? Heck, Loreena is an incredible artist that tours all over North America and Europe, and one of her stops is a mountain city that many may not even consider a major city? Im stoked!

All in all, I really look forward to seeing and spending time with my friends again, and doing some of the stuff we used to. I miss them so much. Some days more than others. If I wasnt in the middle of a federal civil-service exam test-prep thing, Id make more of an effort to go job hunting in Ashville. But the civil service thing is in Charlotte (for now), and I dont have that much more to go.

Im almost dreading how much money Im about to spend though. Who knows what kind of stuff Ill get at the concert, plus the fact that I have EVERY intention of taking the Blue Ridge Parkway from Ashville to the Balsam exit as many times as I can, so long as the weathers decent (Taking this trip in the fog with less than 10 ft of visibility is NOT fun, thanks :P ). Based on the trip up, and the trip back, and then popping back to Ashville, Im counting atleast 3.

Taking the Parkway instead of I-40/Highway 74 adds more than a little extra mileage.

But its well worth it.

April 26 cant come fast enough.

17/30

Transparent Screens

2007-03-26T23:36:00.000-04:00

Im sure quite a few of you are familiar with a sort-of-new computer desktop trick. Transparent screens. I first saw a few of them about a year ago on College Humor, when it was still an amusing site. More recently, a flickr slide show of these things starting making rounds. Its really cool. Not only are there the standard single computer screen with whatever's behind it, there are some that have multiple screens lined up one behind (or off to an angle, or...) the other.

One thing I have noticed though, is that all Ive seen are Macs. I think. There might be a couple that could be Linux, but I cant get a good look at the screen to try and ID the OS. Im pretty sure Ive never seen it with a Windows machine though.

Why? Do Macs have some special tool that makes this project easier, or is it one of those things that Mac users just like to do that Windoze people dont bother with?

Okay, I spoke to soon. A quick google image search let loose with plenty of Win-based desktops as well. Oops.

So Ill ask this. Whats the best way to do this? Take a picture of whatevers behind your monitor and photoshop the dimensions to death 'til it fits?

16/30

Here we go

2007-03-26T00:00:00.000-04:00

I had mentioned in a previous 'my job sucks' rant that my employers were hesitant to let people go due to the fact that we were so short staffed.

It looks like something has happened thats changed all this. I got a call from my boss wondering if I was available to work a few day shifts (Im a night type). It was stated plain and simple that people were getting fired this week, despite the fact we're already short.

Though I wonder how they are going to schedule me. Im already there during the day doing league work, and I do from noonish til my regular evening shift starts.

Meh. These next weeks are going to suck.
But thats not new.

15/30

Damn Cheats

2007-03-25T00:03:00.000-04:00

Is there no middle ground for these things? Theyre either really good, or they suck.
Anyone play Pogo? Online game site with all kinds of board type games, pool, cards...the works. Many of the games are multiplayer games, and if you dont have another person to fill the spot, a comp player takes over

I suppose that it would be expected for the AI player to be a little better than average at a game. But when the computer clears a pool table on its first turn, or goes out in a game of gin in less than 5 moves, and constantly pulls flushes and full houses out of its tin can ass in Texas Hold'em is going a bit far.

On the other hand, one of the other computer players totally sucks at these games. Missing an easy shot at a striped ball, having little or no checkers strategy, etc. It never fails. Computer 1 is the game ace, and Comp 2...well, isnt. Or maybe its the other way around.

Why oh why cant their be a middle ground? I get tired of roomhopping all the time.

14/30

Just One

2007-03-24T01:17:00.000-04:00

How often is it that a single number can mean so much? A single run, goal, or a point. A margin of less than a second can mean the difference between a victory or a defeat, or in some cases, life or death.

No, Im not about to bore you with an epic tale of how someone managed to escape death at the last possible second. Go watch an action movie for that. Besides, Im horrible at those kinds of stories, anyway.

I did, however, miss bowling a 600 series by one pin.

One. Fricking. Pin.

Im sure some of you know the mood. Im standing on the approach, taking the last shot of the tenth frame. All I needed was a 9, and bam! 600 Series.

So of course I rolled an 8.

Okay, so yes, 599 is a new high series for me, and I have a new best game of 239. But missing that last pin completely blew THAT cloud I was on away. Faaaarrrr away.
Though to be completely honest, missing the 600 wasnt quite as bad as the 3 or 4 times I rolled a 199 or 198 before hitting my first 200 game.

Luck 13/30

creepy eyes

2007-03-23T22:29:00.000-04:00

He's staring at me. Not doing anything, just sitting behind my laptop,staring at me. Im not sure what it is he wants. His bag of treats is almost directly in front of him, but he's ignoring them. That's a first, by the way. Rascal loves kitty treats.

He hasnt tried to shut my laptop, or shove it off the desk yet, so whatever he wants must not be all that important. So Im content to let him be til he decides to let me in on his little game.

Sorry this ones so late. Had no net access yesterday. I was staying overnight for a 'Room in the Inn' church thing, and though the church had a wireless network, it was secured and I didnt feel like going to the upstairs office to figure out the code.
Back now though. All is well.

12/30

Well, we've decided. In outer space it's okay to wear white shoes after Labor Day.

2007-03-21T23:28:00.000-04:00

While I was working, someone stopped me and out of the blue asked me how many pairs of shoes I had. Apparently, that was the discussion of choice at their table and they were using me to prove a point.

For some reason, they were shocked when I gave them a grand total of 6 pairs, only 4 of which I wear on a semi-regular basis.

What can I say? I hate shoes. I hate wearing the damn things. Given the option, Id go around barefoot.

And I did. Unless there was a 'shirt/shoes required' thing somewhere, I spent the better part of a semester going to classes and the whatnot barefoot. I also spent a good bit of this past winter tuning out "Where are you shoes!!!" lectures after forgetting (Yes, I usually forgot. Its gotten to the point where its not something I think about) to get shoes before heading outside to get the paper/mail, fill the feeders, etc.

With the exception of work and bowling, Ive been wearing my chaco sandals for a couple weeks now. If the winter and fall seasons are mild like they have been the past couple years, Ill be wearing them primarily until at least November.

11/30

here kitty, kitty kitty

2007-03-20T23:38:00.000-04:00

This could very well be the first time our not-quite-1-year-old cat, Rascal has spent the night outside, all night. Which means very little sleep for some people in the house.

Its not intentional. He was let outside a few hours ago, and he just hasnt come back in yet.

Having him out all night isnt a big deal. When its not cold out, thats where most all of our cats have chosen to spend the night. I suppose its just first night jitters.

Oh. Theres also the fact that Rusty, Rascals predecessor, was hit by a car one night last July. Rusty was a big time Momma's Boy, and he had made damn sure that everyone knew which human he favored.

Its strange how our luck has turned. We had Mike and Peaches for 15 and 12 years, respectively. This time around, poor Rusty was hit by a car, and Winston went AWOL. We never knew what happened to him.

Ah, someone just went downstairs to try and call him in. Again. I think its the 4th time in 15 minutes.

He'll be fine. Come tomorrow morning, we'll find him sleepy-eyed in a chair on the porch.

Besides, you werent planning on the week long beach vacation in June be his first nights out, were you?

10/30

Trekkin'

2007-03-19T23:50:00.000-04:00

Every 3 or 4 years, TPTB over at Paramount (or whoever owns Star Trek) attempt to come up with a plot for a good movie. They wrack their brains looking for a new and original idea that would hook their audience, giving them a reason to see the movie other than the fact that its a Trek film.

Um, guys?

Your thinking a bit to hard.

Theres more to Star Trek than Star Fleet and the Federation.

-Klingons. Kahless the Unforgettable against the Tyrant Molor.
-A long time ago, Vulcans and Romulans were the same race. What happened?
-Cardassian Occupation of Bajor
-If they can do an early version of Kirk, what about Picard and his Stargazer?
-ST First Contact was set in post-World War 3. What about this 'war' itself?
-Section 31 (Yay! Spy Movie!)
-How Borg became Borg. The various cultures they assimilated, the attempt at Species 8472.
-For about two whole minutes, I thought that a Trek Series based around StarFleet Academy might be interesting. I also had similar thoughts about something dealing with Red Squad.

Like I said, two minutes. An Academy Series would probably turn out to be something very near to soap opera-ish, and Wes Crusher wasnt all that popular a character on TNG. With that in mind...how do you think people would react to an entire ships worth of late teens/early 20 year old geniuses? hrm.

The point is, 5 Star Trek series have given AMPLE material to work with as far as movies go. Theres really no need to pull something completely new out of a hat and makeTrekkies scratch thier heads in confusion, wondering why a particular movie event contradicts something Riker said back in the 4th season.

9/30

Stumbling around....

2007-03-18T17:23:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I know that these posts arent supposed to be "follow this cool link" for fillers...but this isnt an "I Have Nothing To Write, So Here's a Cool Link" post.

Thats for tomorrow. Or maybe the day after.

About the same time I started this insane blogging project, I also followed a little linky to an add-on called StumbledUpon. Select your interests, and hit the magic button. Viola! Random sites to play on.

I really dont want to think about the time Ive wasted with this little button. I could have been doing something like playing Fallen Sword or Gothador or reading fanfic, or one of the 3 novels I have stashed somewhere (yes, I read more than one book at a time). Oh, and job hunting. Thats important.

Ive got a bookmark file thats crammed with some of this stuff, and I ended up adding a couple extra Mozilla addons and greasemonkey scripts that came through.
Yes, Im aware that both of these can be found via the addons page on the mozilla website, but this was more fun.

Hell, I added about 4 or 5 scripts for greasemonkey, and I only remember what two of them are. One's a dictionary/search thingy that allows you highlight a word, right click (or maybe hit a letter) and itll give you said definition or go off and search (whatever you wanted to do).

The other one I remember getting put RSS feed buttons in an easy to find place so I dont have to hunt them down. Perhaps I should hunt the rest down later.

Anyway, out of all the interests that I listed, it tends to give me a lot of cat-related links. Video montages of America's Funniest Video-type antics, and lots of pictures. My two favorites is this story thread, and a pic blog that has pictures using yet another form of tech speak (WTF is that anyway??? something to go along with that emo bullshit popping around?)

Im a cat person. Have you figured that out yet?

LikeBetter is freaky. It shows you two pictures, and you click on whichever one you liked better. After doing this for a few sets, the little 'brain' under the sets turns pink, and itll tell you something about yourself. 80% of the time, the damn thing is right.

Its also sent me to a bunch of online flash-type java whatever games, like a Mario thing, and a couple quiz games, and an interesting sand...thing.

As it goes, if your looking for a good way to waste time, or even some decent information about a particular subject,the stumbledupon Firefox add-on is the place find it.

Although, I suppose this should be a Mozilla/Firefox Browser plug as well, as you have to have it.

Come on people, lets step away from IE. Its a piece of poo, and you know it. Especially if you upped to 7. 6 was tolerable. 7, is..well, shit.
Make the change. You know you want to.

8/30

More work blah

2007-03-15T14:04:00.000-04:00

While Im more than a little eager to finally get a new job, at one point I was hesitant about leaving before my employers hired more laneserver-type people. As Ive said earlier, the bowlers are dependant upon the service, and not having it would suck. I like the bowlers. Well, most of em.

I asked my boss yesterday if he were planning on hiring any more laneservers. He said he certainly wasnt going to hire highschoolers for the position (which is apparently what the primary demographic among applicants is). Which is all well and good, as we sell a shitload of alcohol. 16 and 17 year olds cant even touch a beerglass, much less serve liquor.

When I mentioned that UNC Charlotte was barely 5 miles up the road and would be an optimal place to recruit, he just shrugged it off. Atleast, thats what it looked like to me.

The front counter has gotten new people. The snackbar has gotten new people. The only other laneserver has been assigned mainly in the snackbar, with the exception of two days. It used to be that snackbar and laneservers were cross-trained to do either. That hasnt been happening for awhile.

When the time comes for me to move on, and they dont have anyone trained to replace me...

Tough shit. They know Im searching for more permanent work. If they dont want to adequatly prepare themselves, thats not my problem.

7/30

I talk to myself, I talk to my cats.

2007-03-12T17:28:00.000-04:00

Its around 4 in the morning, and Im awake due to my odd sleep habits. Not being able to get back to sleep, I get up and head to the bathroom for some water. Shutting the door most of the way, I reach for one of the little dixie cups near the sink. Just as Im doing this, the door is shoved open and my cat, Lacie hops up on the counter. She then proceeds to sit in the sink, waiting for me to finnish.

When I'm done she hops out, races ahead of me to my room, and probably to my bed. Sometimes she'll just stop and wait for me in the middle of the floor.

This is a problem. Lacie is black and brown. Not only that, but its pitch black in my room, and the preceeding hallway (I dont turn on the hallway or bathroom lights because I dont want to blind myself or bug others sleeping. After living in the same house for almost 20 years, you have a vague idea of where things are). I know that slightly to my left is a box, and a little further in on the right is the trashcan I heard the other cat knock over a couple hours before. Where SHE is, however.... I dont know. Therefore, I walk towards my bed with my hand to the ground, hoping I dont trip over her (actually, this time I almost sat on her).

No, Im not going to turn the light on. Im too stubborn for that.

I will, however, put these on my Christmas List.

6/30

Its COOKIE time!

2007-03-12T16:49:00.000-04:00

Girl scout cookies: Great for the general public. Not so much for the Girl Scout's themselves. During the couple months at the tail end and start of a year, girls of all ages bust their asses selling cookies by going door to door and having booth sales. And for what? Sure, we (the public) get yummy cookies from the deal, but what do the girls get?

Not a whole hell of a lot. There are bitty consolation prizes and stuff if a girl sells the most boxes in her troop, and there might be troop prizes if a particular troop does tops in the district/council. The individual prizes may as well be something along the lines of "I sold 300 boxes of cookies and all I got was this lousy shirt". Or in some cases, a bandanna. Or a cheap waterbottle.

For every box sold, the troop itself gets back a certain percentage of profit..approximately 10%(give or take...i think there are some who get 12%) to do with as they please. Usually this means a trip somewhere.

Anyone good at math? In my area, cookies are 3.50 a box. Based on the figures above, a troop gets .35-.40 cents (Seriously doubt the 40 part...) per box sold. Common trips are either
a)Raleigh (trips to your state capital are always fun)
b) Savannah GA, where Juliet Lowe's birthplace is located,
or if your troop is overly ambitious (or knows lots of rich people) then,
c) a beach trip

.37 cents a box, taking about 3 boxes to equal a little over a dollar. Room/board have to be taken into account, along with food, and any admission/ticket prices for activities planned.

For a quick look, if a troop planned a weekend in Raleigh for fun state-capital educationish things, it would cost around $95 for a room that you can cram two or three girls. Theres 285 boxes right there. That in itself isnt too bad...except the average troop has about 8-12 girls. Theres another two or three rooms.

And thats just hotel cost. Looks like mom and dad get to shell out more money.

I think the 'goal' that has the most chance for success was the Brownie Troop outside Harris Teeter a couple weeks ago. The younger ones are easy to please. They're perfectly happy having an overnight in one of the nicer area hotels complete with pool, room service, and any other fun stuff the hotel has to offer.

Sure, the rest of the money goes to other 'worthwhile' parts of girl scouting, such as special programs and projects and camp maintenance, but I never saw a lot of it back when I was a scout. In order to attend many of these programs, there was still an entry fee for us and I think we still had to pay extra as a 'contribution to the presenter" or some bullshit like that(and it wasnt that good a program either).
There was always some maintenance thing or another at the camps. One year, the highropes course was down. The next year a popular set of trails were closed due to fallen branches from a storm at the beginning of winter (we were there at the end of April).
I spent a little more than two summers working at a summer outdoors camp, and have done a good bit of camp maintenance. If we can trailblaze/make a completely new trail up the side of a mountain in a couple of days, it shouldnt take 5 or 6 months to get around to clearing out some fallen tree's and branches. We couldve had it done in less than an hour.

They say the rest of the money is benefiting Girl Scouting and the girls in general. Prove it. Obviously, my luck with it sucked, and Ive never heard a single troop leader speak positively on the monetary distribution aspect of this decades-old fundraiser.

What about the rest of you? Girl Scouts, former scouts, scout moms and dads? Have you or your troops seen these benefits?

The girls have been getting screwed over on this for years. It makes me sad. :(

5/30

Thanks a lot =P

2007-03-12T00:46:00.000-04:00

Things I do to waste time on the internet:

1. Read fanfic Yes. I admit it. Im a fan fiction addict. fanfiction.net used to be my homepage. Actually, it probably still is on my old computer. Erm...

2. Play games like Gothador and Fallen Sword. Damn cows. *sigh* I also frequent Pogo .

3. Browse youtube. actually, not all that often.

4. Sift through all the cool shit stumbledupon hurls at me.

So, this makes two things Shane Nickerson has me hooked on. First is this 30 Days project, and now I glanced at Stumbledupon. Hundreds of dozens of ways for me to waste time.
I have a new file in my bookmarks that already has about a dozen links to go back to and look at later.

Thanks. :/

Oh, on another note, I loaded the plugin to the other computers Mozilla Browser and set an account for my mother. Soon after, she found me. "I wish you hadnt showed me this". She said....or something like that.

Another satisfied customer.

4/30

ZzzZzzzzzzz

2007-03-12T00:05:00.000-04:00

Um, Saturday night/Sunday morning WAS the early version of the Spring Forward of Daylight Savings...right?

Damn, you'd think we were at the other end of the scale, just 'falling back' with how tired I am. 24 hours ago, it was just after 11pm. I'm usually no where near this tired. Now at a quarter after midnight, my flannel sheets are so tempting. sheesh.

In my current residence, (and my car) there's one clock that doesn't work 6 months out of the year. The one in the house doesn't get changed simply because its such a bitch to take the thing down, change it, and put it back up. Therefore, during standard time we know that its an hour behind whatever the clock does show. For awhile, in about the summer (or winter) Dad would decide that the clock needed to be set right, and would take on the task of changing it.

Needless to say, this screwed us over completely, being so used to reading it an hour off. Sometimes we were almost late to appointments. Other times, we might've been ridiculously early had we not glanced at one of the regular clocks elsewhere.

My car-stereo clock remains on the wrong time because I dont have a fucking idea of how to change it. Dont get me wrong, with many car stereos its taken me all of 5 minutes of 'messing around' to discover most of the ins and outs to it. Not so with mine. Actually, due to us changing the battery a couple months ago, its now an hour and 33 minutes off. Or just 33 minutes during DST.

Luckily, my Satellite radio has its own handy clock display. And I wear a watch.

3/30

Seriously, how good is Heroes?

2007-03-11T14:19:00.000-04:00

Um...I really dont know. Ive never seen a single episode.

Actually, Ive seen very little of primetime TV these past couple of seasons. What few hours I do get in my current job are straight through primetime. There are actually a handfull of shows that I would like to watch, Hero's is one of them. I also enjoyed The Unit. Though most people think its stupid, Wife Swap has its hysterical moments. Mind boggling moments too.

That leaves me with a mere 3 shows that I watch on a semi regular basis: NCIS(when I remember to set the VCR)and Numb3rs are the two most frequent. I also watch CIS Miami, but with much less enthusiasm. Miami has had so many plot holes and 'WTF?' incidents these past couple of seasons that its barely watchable. I kind of watch Men in Tree's, but its sort of on the dull side at times.

At the moment, my favorite show in NCIS. I started watching this one somewhere near the start of the second season, give or take. Or maybe it was near the end of the first...Im not sure, because Kate was killed off in the 2nd season finale, and I recall a bunch of Kate stuff...to much for one season.
I recall that by the time "Twilight" came around, everyone knew someone was going to die, but they didnt know who. Damn...I thought Kate was the obvious choice.
The two characters they brought in to 'replace' Kate were, well...both good and bad. For the most part, Ive enjoyed watching Ziva, though I think they missed out on a HUGE opportunity for her character development from the episode "Dead Man Walking".
Director Sheppard? Hmm....Most of the time, I didnt mind her all that much. Most people hated her though, and its pretty obvious as to why. Sheppard and GIbbs have an intimate history. During her first season, it was a rare episode where she didnt bring that up. We got tired of it, and a particular fangroup really didnt like her 'intruding on someone elses territory'.
She has, however, gotten much better about it this season.

Ive found it extremely amusing that almost everyone knows what a Gibbs-slap is. Even those that dont watch it.

Damn. I just did an entire post mainly on TV Gossip. Holy shit.

2/30

Another Strike for Windows

2007-03-11T00:21:00.000-05:00

Or: Day One, Post One.

For some reason or another, TPTB decided to move daylight savings time up. How they mangaged to pull this off, or why isnt really important right now. Maybe tomorrow, but not now.
What IS important is all the trouble this damn thing has been causing my computer. In order for my computer to adjust its clock accordingly, it needs the latest Windoze update. Fine. Since this is (sort of) important, Ill look into it. I wander to the Updates sight and follow the easy steps.

It doesnt work.

Not only that, I havent had an update sense November. WTF??? And while we're on the topic, how did I miss this?

It tells me to reinstall/reupdate some files that are apparently missing or hiding. Should be able to do so from there. Fine.

Well whaddya know, after three tries, it doesnt work.

Fine, I can set the clock on my computer all by myself, thanks. Not a big deal. I a, curious about the rest of my computer though. Were any of these updates vital?

Ah. Here we go, found the files that needed to be installed and did so via the handy-damndy .cmd route. After a brief wait, all the updates I had missed were ready and waiting, eager to be installed. I got most of em, ditched a few ( IE 7 anyone?), and now my comp ( I need to give it a name...hmm) needs to do the required shut-down thing. Because I really, really hate that "Windows needs to restart" popup, Ill humor it.

30 posts in 30 days

2007-03-10T14:00:00.000-05:00

It occured to me earlier that there were a few blogs that I havent visited in awhile, so earlier today I ended up on Annie Sertichs blog. I scrolled down to the point where I had last read (most of the way down. Sorry about that :( ), and worked my way up. Second from the top was the start of Something Shane Nickerson Started a couple days ago.

30 blog posts. In 30 days.

After a bit of debate, I thought 'what the hell'.

Therefore, from March 11 (tomorrow) til April 11ish, youll hopefully hear from me ( or read from me, or whatever...) daily. Yay! You should be thrilled.

Mr. Nickerson has imposed a list of rules about this effort. I will adopt the following:

1. No mention of blogging, or bemoaning this "damned thing I promised to do, so here's the friggin' post."

2. No link-only posts that say, "I found this at blahblahblah.com and you NEED to check it out!" Granted, I might stick a few links here and there, but by no means will that be the only thing.

3. At least every third post will have photos.

4. Exciting news that has something to do with THIS.

5. Responses to interesting comments. Presuming I get any, of course. This includes the FaceBook feed as well as anyone who reads this straight from blogger.

6. Seriously, how good is Heroes?

7. No less than 100 words.

8. Of course, no ads.

This looks to be an interesting project, and I hope to be able to find enough material to cover. If I have to, Ill make all my Linux updates seperate, instead of reupdating the same post about ten different times.

On that note...see you tomorrow!

Linux

2007-03-08T14:30:00.000-05:00

For the past couple weeks, Ive been dabbing around in the world of the Linux OS. So far, my sucess has been mixed. At present, Im currently DLing and burning LiveCDs of various distro's. At the moment, Ubuntu and Knoppix are the only two that Ive done anything with. I just finnished burning a Mepis .iso, and Im currently DLing a Kubuntu and PClinuxOS.

So far, things havent quite gone as well as I have hoped. My ubuntu CD seems more like a demo disk, acting like it wants me to actually install the thing before I go further. Maybe Im missing something (probable)here. While I hope to install linux in a dual-boot system with my exsisting WinXP, Im not there yet. Ubuntu also doesnt want to read my hard drives correctly, and I forgot to write down the error message. derr.

The first time I booted Knoppix, it worked quite well with the exception of my wireless card. At the time, that wasnt a big deal. Everything else worked okay, and I could get help with that part later. When I ran Knoppix again last week, I had all kinds of trouble. I couldnt get to the place where I was last attempting to get my wireless up and running, and when I did things like atempt to consult the help file, or minor things such as chaning the desktop appearance, it told me that the directories/files werent there and had to be created. I did what it told me to do. Whatever it DID do, it still didnt work.

Later today, Im going to try the Mepis disk I just burned and see what happens, along with the PCLinuxOS and the Kubuntu. Hopefully those will work. I dont recall if it was Mepis or PCLinux that wouldnt do anything when I booted it. Maybe I had burned it wrong.

Any assistance with the afformentioned Ubuntu/Knoppix problems (and anything else for that matter) would be greatly appreciated.

Stay tuned to this post for updates. :\

UPDATE 1.0 Mepis was a mostly succesfull test, I suppose. Due to time constraints I didnt get to test it as much as I had wanted to. It also did something that strongly resembled freezeing up on me. Whichever programs caused this were 'terminated', but it never unfroze.

One thing I have noticed as far as wireless goes, on the ones that tell me that my wireless card is disabled it wont tell me where to go to enable the thing, and for the life of me I cant find it. gr.

Fashion at the Oscars

2007-03-04T22:45:00.000-05:00

I dont consider myself the fashion type. I know enough to be able to color coordinate most things, but as for the 'latest and greatest' and 'oh, that was SO 5 minutes ago!'...I dont care. Really. My daily wardrobe of choice is jeans and a t shirt.

Recently the fashion editor of my local paper, The Charlotte Observer did a column on the Oscars (who didnt?). She mentioned that Nicol Kidmans dress was beautiful (I agree), except for the bow thingy at the top. If you were looking straight on, it looked like a cup holder.

My first thought?

"Ooh. That would be usefull"

facedesk

2007-03-04T15:44:00.000-05:00

Im not sure who Im more pissed at. Co-workers that wont do their jobs, or my boss, who hired one of these people knowing full well that the new employee was only working the grill.

Actually, thats fine. If he wants to stay on the grill, thats cool. Personally, when Ive got a regular snackbar shift, Id rather be at the register. What doesnt make sense is that he also refuses to plate the items as well. Huh? Why? Normally theres two people back there. One on the grill, and one on the register (who's also supposed to get drinks). The register peep doesnt have time to go back and put stuff on a plate. Sheesh.

On a brighter note, the worst of the no-gooders is getting fired at the end of her shift today. *happydance*

Alcohol Tolerance

2007-03-02T17:39:00.000-05:00

No...no. Not that kind of alcohol. Ive never had enough of the stuff to get a grasp of what my tolerance is. I know I can handle two beers and feel nothing. Never tried to go for more. I dont like the stuff all that much.

I use antibacterial hand stuff a lot. Theyre more convienent and my hands feel cleaner than they would via soap and water.

At any given time, I have numerous scratches on my hands due to an active and playfull cat. Now, take lots of itty bitty open cuts + a solution with an active ingredient of ethyl alcohol.

Yeah.

Actually, I barely notice alcohols burn anymore unless its on a huge scrape and I cant find any peroxide. Suppose it comes from using the hand stuff so damn much.
Oh, and my 'rush' habit when I was younger. Some people got there highs from inhalants, or maybe doing stupid daredevil things, or alcohol (er...the drinking variety). Me? I picked my scabs and dumped some rubbing alcohol on it.

Meh. We all have our moments of random stupidity.

Nothin' but the rain.

2007-03-01T16:49:00.000-05:00

As I walked out to the garage to get something out of the big freezer, my cat Lacie scurried under my feet and passed me to the door leading outside. Nothing new here. She'l do this even if another door is wide open during the Spring and Fall seasons.
When I opened the door, she took a half-step out, and hesitated. It was raining. Not hard though, just a drizzle. After a few more seconds, she went out all the way, and I shut the door.

After I had gotten the bag of hotwings out that I intended to eat for lunch, I happened to glance back outside.

Lacie, of course, wanted back in.

So, I let her in, and she ran back into the house. This time, she ran for the door that leads to the back porch. Im quite disappointed to announce that it was raining there too. Not one to be dissuaded, she tried the front door.

Care to guess what she found?

Let's talk briefly about your work ethic

2007-02-23T23:20:00.000-05:00

If you were to look at my old livejournal, youll probably come across a mini-rant or two about incompetent co-workers. It turned to mostly online growling, as I didnt want to be repetitive and bitch about the same old thing.

However, I dont think Ive graced this page with a work-rant yet. So here we go.

Right now, Im currently employed as a laneserver (read: waitress) at a bowling alley. A job that was only supposed to last a couple months is creeping towards the year and a half mark. Though its not the best thing I could be doing, most of the time I suppose I like my job. I like chatting and working with the league regulars (well, most of them, anyway) that bowl there.

These past few weeks its gotten much harder for me to go to work. Im at a point where I could easily not show up, and turn my phone off to avoid "where are you?" calls...and I wouldnt give a damn. I wouldnt give a damn about the consequences to me, or to a bowling center and bowlers that have become dependant upon laneservice. I was so tempted tonight to just walk out and let them deal with irate customers. As a laneserver, I have very little control of the quality of the food that goes to the floor. I put the orders in, and I take them out to the floor when theyre ready. If theyre wrong, then I can bitch about it. The thing is, the order isnt exactly "wrong". Its just below the standard expected by AMF. Technically, below standard = wrong, but my colleagues dont care. The customer wanted BBQ Wings? Okay, plain fried wings with a little sauce squirted on top. There ya go. Next order? They dont care if its not right, and they refuse to fix it because, as I mentioned earlier, its not "wrong". It doenst help matters any if the customer is a regular and knows damn good and well what he is supposed to get, as opposed to the wimpy plate of wings I ended up taking to him. Of course I ended up taking the brunt of his complaints. He's well within his right to complain, and he damn well should. Except that as a lowly lane-server, there isnt a hell of a lot I can do about it. I dont have the authority to give out refunds. Depending on whose in the back cooking, I can usually sneak in an extra order of this or that as a supplement. I was lucky tonite. Im usually not. The most I can do is send management their way, and assure them that I will also be speaking to my bosses on the matter. Im getting tired of having to make lameass exscuses as to why certain foods are unavailable, when, in reality, my co-workers are just lazy.

Their incompetence gives me less and less desire to do my job. Seriously, how am I supposed to deliver a product that I know is below standard and the cooks refuse to correct?

Yes, the center managers are aware of the problems. As a matter of fact, we recently got back a rather ugly secret shopper report that implicated two of them in exactly what Im trying to say here. The customer waited at the counter to be served for quite some time while the snackbar attendant merrily chatted to someone else that was around. Just small talk. An order that should have taken about 10 minutes tops took 35. The thing is, at the time, I dont think theres a lot that can be done about it now. We're barely running on a skeletal staff as it is, and cant afford to let anyone go. I dont know how theyre running the hiring process, but I hope they get some fresh blood here soon. Some, perhaps, with a work ethic.

omfg

2007-02-19T23:20:00.000-05:00

I really need to get a new job. Then, along with my huge wishlist of material type things (computer, new vehicle, software for computer, Thinkgeek junk, Everlast punchbag set, etc) I can afford to join various online communities and participate in wonderfull discussions like THIS one.

Well, damn.

2007-02-19T00:17:00.000-05:00

Theres a clipboard with paper and a pen sitting on top of it on the shelf next to me. Its a good pen too. One of those gel pens where the ink is so smooth and flawless. With such a pen, I can almost give new meaning to "words flow across the page". I dont know why I write so much easier with them, but I do. The pages are blank, begging to be written on it. I long to appease it. To pick up the pen and start writing. Only problem is, I cant think of anything to write. For all the prompts and plot bunnies, all the songs and music Im scrolling through, all the articles of this and that that I pick up via my RSS reader; I cant think of a thing to write.
Damnit.

Wil Wheaton talks about the decline arcades

2007-02-08T17:24:00.003-05:00

Wil Wheaton goes into discussion about arcades, the impact of arcades on a generation, the emergence of consoles and and what the decline in arcades may mean to those that spent all their hard earned allowance on those machines.

read more | digg story

While there was a mall like the one Wil described ("and every mall worth visiting had both a video arcade and an ice skating rink"), my most absolute favorite place to burn my allowance (what little I ever got...my parents arent that type) was the PuttPutt. I could (and would) spend all day alternating between the greens and the arcade. Id get a few dollars wort of tokens and then re-up on those sliding machines (where you have to drop the token so-timed that itll slide into a bigger pile and knock some more off) that everyone insisted were a huge waste of money. After that I usually made rounds between whackamole, skeeball, pinball, and a few others. Of course, during the time that PuttPutt had the Addams Family Machine, I spent more time there. I dont think I can describe the shock and horror that went through me as my tokens and I bounded up the stairs to play Addams.....and it wasnt there. It had made the rounds out. I remember searching for it, hoping it was only moved to another spot. But no. It was gone.
The PuttPutts long gone now. Replaced by...well, Im not sure. Last I saw it was an empty plot. Figures. Everything that we used to hold dear in some form or another is slowly going away.

Edit

2007-01-24T23:41:00.001-05:00

For all you Facebookies out there, the link in the post below now works. Yay!

Part Deux: Until I start getting comments ala spam (unlikely) Anyone can comment. I thought I had changed that already. Apparently not.

Can I get a...

2007-01-17T00:20:00.000-05:00

Anyone read this? Or does the silent tap-tap of my keyboard echo in the middle of nowhere? Whether its here, or from the FaceBook Feed, I dont care. Take two seconds and say something. I dont even care what you say. Flame this thing, for all that it matters. Will it stop my feeble attempt at blogging? Doubt it. But nice try anywho =D.

Good news: SPIKE TV has FINALLY started to air reruns of Star Trek Voyager. YESSSSS!!!!!! Bad news: The current air times are at 5 and 6 pm. There are many problems with this. 1) Its dinner time. Some people have problems with having the thing on during dinner. 2) The first episode comes on at the same time "Ellen" comes on, and everyone else wants to watch that. Dont get me wrong, I love the show, and havent enjoyed a talk show sinse the first season or two of Rosie O'Donnels show that was however long ago. Choosing between Ellen and STVOY would be on a case by case basis depending on what episode of Voyager is on and who Ellen has on the show that day. 3) I work at 6, have to leave the house at 5:45. So its not like I could watch the whole thing anyway. Though I did manage to get the bartender to put it on one of the TVs, so I dealt.

Okay, so Voyager wasnt the best of the 5 series. That honor, IMHO, goes to Deep Space Nine for a slew of reasons that Ill go into another time (careful TNG fans, you dont want to screw up your monitor with all the stuff your wanting to throw now...). But for the most part Trek is Trek. DS9 and Voyager were the only ones I saw and appreciated on its first run. Saw some of TNGs first run, but I was 5 when it first aired, and something onscreen had sent me jumping behind the couch with a yelp. Saw? Yes. Appreciated? ehh, no. But that was years ago, and I enjoy TNG reruns just as much as the other two.
As for The Original Series? When I catch it, I try to watch it, but I dont get G4, and no matter how hard I try, I can never get into it as well as the others.

Long Live all things TREK!

So, Im reading this book...

2006-12-25T01:03:00.000-05:00

Its a Star Trek book, based around the Klingon Empire. The Fleet has been given the assignment of exploring (every klingons dream =p) and charting an unexplored area of the beta-quadrant, with the intent of finding worlds to conquer and make apart of the Klingon Empire. According to Klingons, any world that they do succesfully conquer is theirs, and the natives are reduced to something called jegh'pu'wI, which is more or less defined as something between a slave and a citizen of the Empire.
I was wondering. What if that happened to us? Here we are, mere Earthlings going about our everyday buisness and all of a sudden some alien spieces show up with every intent on conquering us. Not neccesarily kill-anything-that moves way, but an overthrow. Would Earth be able to put up adequate defences? Or would the fact that we have so many individual governments spatting at each other hinder it? If the take-over species is capable of that kind of spaceflight, then they probably are extremly superior to us in other matters as well; technology, weapons, that kinda thing. Doubtfull that they would have anything like the Prime Directive on file. Some species may not be as thoughtfull as Vulcans, waiting until we achive Warp (or something similar) to make contact with us. From what many people say, it sounds as if we're expecting to be some of the first in space, establishing First Contact with everything else out there.
Who knows? Maybe theres a fleet of something out there, just beyond our satelites range, watching, plotting. Waiting to make US theyre jegh'pu'wI?

Yeh, I know Im harping a lot on Trek Lore, but its something to think about. Not only are we probably not alone in this big, bad universe; Its more than likely that most others we run into can kick our asses to the Delta Quad and back a few dozen times.

What are friends for, anyway?

2006-12-22T23:36:00.000-05:00

When did a simple concept such as friendship become extinct? Apparently, no one can see a pair of guys or girls hanging out together without thinking something along the lines of 'theyre probably gay'.
The subject of Ophrah being a lesbian because Gayle's is always somewhere about was brought up.
Again.
GodDAMNIT its getting old. One, theyre really great friends. Yay! People take friendship like this for granted. Dont. Sometimes these friendships can mean just as much (if not moreso) than the relationship you have with your boyfriend/girlfriend/whatever. Two, she's rather high up in Ophrah's magazine/tv show/and-so-on (forgive me, Im really not the talk show type, and the only time ive ever picked up her magazine was at the doctors office. No offence, just not my type of thing. Thats why Im not sure exactly what Gayle does) . It wouldnt do if they hated each others guts, now, would it?

That goes for a guy and a girl hanging out together as well. Did you know that it IS possible for a male and a female to be very good friends, and not be dating/sleeping together/and so on? Probably a foreign concept to many. My two best friends are guys. I tend to get along with guys much better than I do girls.
So whats going to happen when I land myself a boyfriend? Will I have to fight off his jealous streak every time I talk to another guy? Every time I go hang out with my best friends? That just wont do.
Im tired of having to repeat time and time again that neither of the guys I hang out with are my boyfriend to the same people. "Are you sure youre not going out?" they ask, "Maybe your in denial" or "perhaps your ignoring the signals."
Its none of the above. I know where I stand.
Ive had to defend a similar position with another friend of mine, a woman. It was semi-common knowledge that she was a lesbian. We became friends when I was in school. Because I had been seen hanging out with her, all of a sudden I was bombarded with questions about me being gay. That did nothing but piss me off. Damnit, these were people that knew me! Or I thought they did anyway, at least well enough to know where I stood here.

Id say that the gall of some people amaze me, but at this point, Im no longer surprised at how shallow we've become.

In an old city bar...

2006-11-14T23:19:00.000-05:00

If you ever get the chance to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra in concert, then for the love of all thats holy....GO!!! Its one of the most incredible, moving, and fun concerts Ive ever seen. At the moment it ranks #1 in my list of favorite concerts. This is only my second time attending the show, and though it was (mostly) the same as last year, I didnt feel like I was sitting through something a second time, as if it were a rerun. I enjoyed every minute of it, and will hopefully continue to do so.
The talent of TBO is absolutly magnificent. The vocalists are absolutly magnificent, especially with their harmonies. The instrumentalist are wonderful too. Mind boggling. Makes me wish I hadnt (sorta) given up on piano. Granted, one teacher said that the 'normal' method didnt work on me. I have no idea what that means. My piano skill is limited to poking out stuff by ear. Yay me.

I have no idea what kind of venues they usually play in, but here in Charlotte, they played in the hockey/rodeo/whatever else arena. Standard round thing. As much fun as Im sure the floor people had, in order to get the full effect, light show included one must sit off to the side, sorta near the back. This way you have a good view of the stage and can oooh and ahh the lights.
Oh. bring sunglasses.

Never heard of TSO, you say? I doubt it. You just didnt know what you were listening to. One of their most well known pieces is Christmas in Sarajevo. Or, if your looking for a tune your more familiar with, its a heavymetaled version of Carol of the Bells.
About this time last year, a Video went around the net of a dude who did up the lights on his house to activate based on some music. If you didnt see it on the web, you mightve seen it on TV, as Miller beer used a portion in a commercial (strangly enough, I never saw it...)
That particular tune is Wizards in Winter.

Their next album, Night Castle, is due out....umm...some time. It was originaly supposed to be out last year and then this past Spring they were going to do a tour for it and Beethovens Last Night, the other non-Christmas album. Oh well. If their rendition of "O Fortuna" is anything to go by...its well worth the wait.

Well, THAT was fun...

2006-10-14T00:59:00.000-04:00

Sara Evans quit "Dancing With the Stars". She's filed for divorce and needed to be with her family. What shitty timing. Really. Surely this wasnt some sudden descision. This had to have been on the back burner for a good while. The only thing I can think of is that she had never expected to get this far. Her dancing may be (barely) mediocre, but she probably had the biggest fan-base ever seen on the show. As we've seen, fan base means everything. A lack of it has sent the two best ladies home for two weeks in a row.
I feel even worse for Willa, now. It would have been so easy for the DWS people to stick Sara and Jerry in the "red", and then send Sara home. Now, unless by some odd miracle they invite Willa back ( I wish...), not only is ABC ending the series a week early (shouldnt be to hard to stick "Special Episode" of Housewives or Lost or Greys in their somewhere), but the timing block might have been skewed. Or maybe not. I think next weeks show wouldve already been down to the hour mark anyway.
Sara is an awesome artist with wonderful music, and though I pretty much respect her descision in this matter, I have to wonder...why now? why wait so long? why sign on for this in the first place?

Not all that relevant now, but the episode after she dropped out didnt actually eliminate anyone. TV Execs CAN be smart. Cool. I missed the Results show, and would have loved to see if they stuck a couple players in the red to scare the crap out of them...

Dancing with Disappointment

2006-10-10T19:09:00.000-04:00

The latest episode of Dancing with the Stars airs in a little under an hour here on the east coast. Im still reeling from last weeks results show. Vivica???? WTF!!??!!? Vivica was the best female dancer on the floor, hands down. She and Joe(y) Lawrence were in a tight battle for the entire show (and Mario, when he and his partner do what theyre supposed to...) . I think that the final week should have been between Vivica and Joey. My reaction when they aired her an Monique (I think she has some funky way of spelling that, but I dont know it...) as the last two, and one of them leaving was something like "Ohh....shit", because both were good dancers. One thing I wish they would do is get the judges reactions afterwards. Ive read Bruno Toniol's blog, but actually seeing them....sometimes one looks forward to thier rants.

This just goes to show that the ratio of Judges vs. Audience voteing is skewed. When Vivica can give such an outstanding performance and end up getting eliminated, but Sara Evans gives....whatever THAT was, get the scores she did, and the immeadiatly shooed to the next round, well...
Dont get me wrong. I like Sara. Really, I do. "Real Fine Place To Start" and "No Place That Far" are two of my favorite songs, ever. But her "Paso Doble" was bad. It looked more like a stiff waltz with some extra bits thrown in. Sara's fan-base is beyond huge. If she makes as far as say, top three or four or whatever, it will be because of the fans, not her dancing skills. She's not getting the votes because she did well on the floor. She gets them because she's Sara Evans, and country music fans everywhere will vote for her simply because of that. But the, Master P's fans only kept him alive for so long...
Who knew who Vivica was at the beginning? I didnt know, except for the fact she looked familiar. When it was pointed out she was Will Smiths girlfriend on Independence Day, the light went on. Damn good movie. I checked out the rest of her filmography on IMDB. Theres a lot of stuff on there, but few I recognized.

Everyone remembers the rematch in the first season. Perhaps she can pull one of those. This was completely undeserved. Completely.

Stereos and crowded places

2006-09-24T21:46:00.000-04:00

Its crowded in the bowling alley. People chatting, laughing, sometimes grumbling if they ended up with a split or didnt pick up what should have been an easy spare. And of course every three or four seconds the sound of bowling balls slamming into pins.
Faintly, I can here the stereo system in the background. Im actually thrilled at this, as they dont have it on the same station that they seem to favor every night. Whatever they do have it on has a playlist of thirty songs. Hearing them night after night for a year, well....you get the picture.
Anyway, they finally decided to play something different. However, it was at a level I could barely hear. Trying to figure out the song, I had narrowed it down to WallFlowers "One Headlight" and Sean Combs/Puff Daddy/P-Diddy/Who-The-Hell-Cares-Anymore "Ill Be Missing You". The base parts are actually quite similar. When I did finally identify it as the latter, I could hear the song quite clearly; every word, note, verse, chorus, etc. As if I never had any trouble at all in the first places.
Maybe sense it was a song that I already knew, once I identified it my brain went ahead and filled in the rest of the puzzle for me. Didnt have enough information the first time around.

Ok. Nuff of my random nonsense for now.

Laa dee Dah

2006-09-17T22:51:00.000-04:00

Damn. Im bored.
Do I have any readers? Blogs should have counters on them, so you can atleast see how many people accidently stumble in.
If ye do read this...blah.., leave me a note? even if its just to say this thing sucks, or leave a smiley, or a moon, or...eh, I dont care.
None of my fanfic haunts have updated recently. Ive done my share of hunting for the day in Gothador and then messed with the head of another player who didnt know that I was actually both of the Characters he was talking to.

In other news. I agreed to serve a 2 (or maybe 3..I dont remember) term as a Deacon of our church. What was i thinking??????
Where I personaly stand on religion has been in question for almost 5 years. I dont much agree with many of the Church's philosophies. An over abundance of Christian, churchlike stuff makes me uncomfortable. Dont know why, it just does. I was also asked to serve last year. My answer was no before they even finnished asking (though i did wait for them to finnish). My reasons for turning them down then still exsist now. Why my subconscious didnt protest this time, I dont know. But the 'damage' is done, and I get to spend the next couple years deciding when to bite my tounge and when to speak out. I do not mean to offend any Christians who stumble over here. I respect and applaud you in the fact that you walk the spiritual path that you choose to walk. Unfortunalty, no matter how hard I try, Im pretty sure that its not mine.
Which path is? I have no idea. If Im honest with my self, Im tottering a border between pagan and pagan-christian. I dunno.

I would like to post the following poem. It was sent around on a mailing list I was on a few years back.

I Don't Want to be Saved

I don't want to be saved.
I don't want to read your scripture.
I don't want to tell you what I believe on your scripture.
It will mean nothing to you
...unless it is the answer you want to hear
and that would be a lie.

I'd rather have a relationship with you.
I'd rather share my heart and feeling.
I'd rather be your friend.
I'd rather get to know you.

For that is where my beliefs lie.
With my heart and feeling.
It is that vital human connection
.. where one lives, breathes, loves,
where one celebrates, dances, cries
where one mourns.
Real feelings.
Real lives.
Real beliefs.

I sit apon a mountain.
I feel it's stone and cool earth beneath me.
I feel a wind apon my cheek.
I feel its rain and fog on my brow.
Here I connect to the heart of the earth.

I listen to people,

sharing joys, concerns, and frustrations.
I hug and I cry.
I console people in need or just want.
Here I connect to people.

I find God in many things,
through people, nature, books,
within me, chruch,
listening to a child's giggle,
Dancing to my soul,
creating ritual and rebirth.

I am a Christian, a Buddhist, a Jungian, a Taoist,
a Pagan, a spiritual being, a witch, a therapist, a counselor
I am an devine child.
I have gone through so many trials
I have been through many set backs.

But I have survived and continued on.
I took a journey through the heart and soul.
It has been a terrifying journey at times
and a journey of wonder and joy at other times.

I fought for what I believe.
I am not giving my beliefs up.
They change from day to day.
But they are my beliefs!

I respect you for your beliefs.
I would like you to respect mine.

I don't want to be saved.

I already am!

by Flutesong
Copywrite 2002

Where're all the cars?

2006-09-08T12:46:00.000-04:00

Yeh. Weird, I know. Not an hour ago I was sitting in a nice 'little' clog due to a fender-bender and here I am asking where the cars are.
NC liscence plate system is as follows. The first three characters are letters, then theres a dash, then 4 numbers. So your basic non-custom standard plate looks like this: ABC-1234. It takes about a year for a letter to run its course (The first letter...). This year all the plates start with V, last year was T, the year before that was S...get the picture? Anyway, a few years ago. There were tons of cars that had P series Plates, Pxx-xxxx, and a handful of Ns. Not many before that. The next year, I didnt see to many Ns, a handfull of Ps, and a shit load of Rs. This pattern continues to present day. Where V plates and T plates are all over the place.

Are we really so materialistic that we absolutly have to have a brand new car every other year or something? What other reasons am I missing that everyone seems to be getting a new vehicle all the damn time?

Ill keep my "A" series plate, thankyouverymuch.

I dont understand...

2006-09-02T00:31:00.000-04:00

Maybe its because Im still stuck living at home (cant find a job that pays enough to get out), along with my older sister, (who in all likelyhood will probably be for a good while yet to come) and treated like a mere child and then reprimanded like one when I decide to go a different route than what is 'suggested' to me.
I dont understand how my older sister can get away constantly get away with such bad and childish behaivor; yelling, screaming, vulgar language, the occasional hit, and so forth, and yet before I even think of opening my mouth to retaliate (am I supposed to let my sister constantly get away with calling me a fucking bitch all the time? umm...no) I am yelled at by my parents to stay out of it and not aggrivate her. Aggrivate her???? As opposed to what? She's already at her peak!
Of course, none of the latter would be happening if I had been permitted to walk away. When she started up her rant, I had every intention of leaving the room. But no, I had to sit down and stay put, and "not let her win", as it were. I fail to see how refusing to stay in the presence of a child is letting her win. Ive seen 4 year olds with more maturity.
Mom, Dad, Im sure you figured it out, but she won. She was ordered to leave to room, and she refused. The movie credits were played, as per her wishes.
Believe it or not, ladies and gents, my 26 year old sister had a temper tantrum thatll rival that of a 2 year old because SOMEONE STOPPED THE MOVIE WHEN THE CREDITS STARTED. Other than a cast list, ending credits arent all that interesting.
Im tired of the exscuses. Im tired of hearing "I would think you'd understand by now..." or "be tolerant" or "thats just the way she is". Granted, we dont know why she is the way she is, but at this point, I dont see how a medical 'lable' will change anything.
Its always the same, she erupts over something minor, gives us all royal hell, and rant herself to sleep. When she wakes up its as nothing ever happened ("she doesnt remember"), and its back to 'happy' family.

And Im supposed to accept this?

I forgot this was here!!!!!

2006-08-28T17:42:00.000-04:00

As much as i love my DeadJournal, its time for me to move on. So, here I was, registering a new space for a blog, and lo and behold, "SandieK" is taken. Ack!!!!! No!!!! How many of me are out there???
Then I had the bright idea to try and log in. Ill be damned. It worked.

Yay!

Reality sucks

2006-08-28T17:32:00.000-04:00

Tragedy befell a fellow Gothador player earlier this week. His ex and infant son were both killed in a car accident. Drunk driver. Figures.
The support he got? Well, hearing it from him, it all came from his fellow Gothador players. The out pouring support was tremendous. More than 300 of us gathered in a single square ingame for a memorial to show support for our friend and fellow player.
Real life? Some of his 'friends' had the gall to call him a party pooper. If I understood him correctly, his place of work is allowing him a single day of greivance leave. To be taken on a day thats supposed to be a holliday anyway.

And people wonder why Im on the computer all the fucking time.

Is it possible?

2005-02-09T16:22:00.000-05:00

For me to pop on here without feeling guilty all the time? I feel like a damn 7 year old who's sneaking in a cookiejar or reading under the covers at night.
Peace would be nice.
Stuck on You is on. Seems okay, but nothing special so far.

So...

2005-02-09T02:20:00.000-05:00

Wonder how much you canoverwrite and edit HTML on this thing anyway...My DJ looked cool.
Anyway. Lets see...Bush is an asshole. If you disagree...well, shame on you. Ok, so you have a right to your opinion. Oh well.
Cutting funding for Domestic stuff so he can build up our military. Whats wrong with this? Heres another goody
http://www.drudgereport.com/flashss.htm

MS. MORNIN: That's good, because I work three jobs and I feel like I contribute.
THE PRESIDENT: You work three jobs?
MS. MORNIN: Three jobs, yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Uniquely American, isn't it? I mean, that is fantastic that you're doing that. (Applause.) Get any sleep? (Laughter.)

Not funny. nope, nada... She shouldnt have to work three jobs.

Okay, on to cheery stuff. Im not cheery though. Umm.... I cant find a job. I get to settle for parttime shit til I can find something decent. CJ is a really good field to study, but sense my thing about being a cop went out the window, I cant get up the motivation or interest to find anything else. Oh well. Theres always my music. and meteorolgy. Seen Twister waay to many times.
Bah

2005-02-07T19:43:00.000-05:00

Yay. New blog. Realized my deadjournal started deleteing old posts as I uploaded new stuff. Nice of them.
If your nice, Ill give you the old link. Maybe.