Absent Minded Ramblings

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 21:00:27 GMT

It seems I only write in this thing after traveling, how odd.

I spent the first part of the week in Phoenix, Arizona for work. I have to admit, the 70F degrees versus the -5F degrees at home was nice. For work I needed to give a demonstration on some data gathering software. My part of the meeting took a whopping 15 minutes, but I had to sit through the entire four hour shindig before I could leave. I guess the work I put into creating my animated PowerPoint demo really shined as nobody seemed to pay attention but instead just asked question after question. Also, the graphics looked terrible after being downgraded to fit on the projector so that just added to my fun.

But, everyone smiled and said it was very informative so I’m not too concerned. Actually, I’m relieved because it’s part of a million-dollar bid package and I’m glad my part wasn’t one of the areas of contention. If anything, whenever I talk about all the boring data collection and reporting capabilities, they always want more. Guess I should be happy for the job security, but mainly I see a future filled with constant “can you just do this on more thing…” statements.

On the plus side, I did manage to still connect over the web for my Tuesday night D&D session via webcam. My boss summed up my life with one sentence “you’re in Phoenix Arizona; your boss is paying for dinner if you come along with drinks guaranteed afterwards, and you spend the night in your hotel room…” Yep, I qualify as both a geek and a nerd I guess. At least I didn’t call my mom. But, I didn’t feel right leaving the other five guys hanging and so what if I missed a night out, it’s not like I was going to be lucky enough to find a woman for a one night stand. That stuff only happens in movies as far as I can tell…oh, and to rich guys or guys who pretend they are rich. I have too many things I want to waste my money on as opposed to one night pretending to be someone I’m not.

Well, I just wanted to try and add a small note while my server was updating, time to get back to work. With any luck, my next meeting will be in the Bahamas’! I’m allowed to dream, especially since it’s a regular heat wave with temps up past 20F today.

Back in Town

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:52:27 GMT

Spent all last week up in Wisconsin. I did manage to avoid all the fog that caused multiple highway wrecks. Just dodged the winter tornado's that were spawed as well. Anyway, so now I'm back at the office trying to set up a server simulation for a client. It seems so much easier in a class with notes. But why is it when trying to create a system for the first time that everything that is done is something that "wasn't covered" in class.

Also played the online gaming using web-cams this Tuesday. That went very well.

So just an update since I said I would "try' and use this journal this year!

I should have known...

Sat, 05 Jan 2008 23:30:21 GMT

I think LJ hates me. I'm not sure how, but this program secretly knows when my life is going to get complicated and messes with it.

I started writing again because I assumed I would be in the office at least for the next month. On Friday, I learned that I’m spending all of next week in Wisconsin. Wisconsin! What the heck? Its cold enough where I’m at, but now I have to go farther north? And I am certain, just like the last place I was at; there will be some sort of reason why the internet will be either non-existent or buggy.

So, now I have to get everything in the house all cleaned up and ready for me to leave for another week, otherwise my youngest child will assume that contributing to the mess is an acceptable thing to do instead of cleaning up after himself. Unlike his older brother, he has no problem leaving everything where it falls. Oscar Madison has nothing on my youngest child.

Caucus mess

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 16:37:16 GMT

Well, I decided to take my 18 year old son to his first election Caucus in Iowa.
Seemed like a good wholesome American thing to do. I always say, if you don't vote or know what is going on politically, you can't bitch about it.

Well, we went through the typical who to vote for scenario where I had him try to pick a candidate first.
To his surprise, he had more in line with Republicans than Democrats.
For him, this wasn't a good thing. See, Republicans sent both his dad and brother to Iraq, so he really didn't want ot have anything to do with them. Plus, he sees the current gas issues and huge debt as a direct reflection of a Republican run government...hard to argue with what he sees and who was and is currently in charge.

So...I drug him kicking and screaming to the Republican Caucus to pick a candidate. As I explained it to him, this was merely a chance to show support, not a final selection.

Let's just say, the press was way off on their saying "very little turnout" in Iowa. The auditorium in the high school was literally standing room only. Who says people don't care, they just don't get as many good choices is what I think the real problem is.

So we end up standing in the doorway trying to listen. At this point a lady comes up and says all the information is lost and we have to fill out new forms and hand them to her. What? Give you all my information and who I want to vote for because you misplaced the real forms? I was upset with their ineptitude and told her I'd figure something out later but that she could keep her form. She stared at me like I was insane, totally at a loss that I didn't capitulate to her request. Then, and this really upset me, they shut the doors in front of us. Didn't ask us in, just shut the door. We couldn't squeeze in, so I said "forget it, they obviously don't want us" and I took my son and left. It could be my bad hearing from playing army or the fact that I'm just very noisy, but I'm not a quiet guy; thus I said it fairly loudly. Again, the deer in headlights look as people were shocked we would brave the sub zero temperatures and then just 'leave'.

Needless to say, not a good experience for my son. I hope that when we actually vote, and he will vote - even if he doesn't like the choices he has to choose from - it goes better.

Back to the gym.

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 13:38:02 GMT

With the monster project done at work, I managed to get to the gym. Day one finished, only 300+ to go.

Did I mention that I'm sore as hell? Steeling a quote from the movies...."I'm getting too old for this"

Why not...

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 04:32:58 GMT

So...a six month break from LJ. Work was a nightmare with twelve hour shifts and 2 hours of travel a day, sometimes involving weekends. A great company to work for, a caring boss, and nice people at the clients site, just long days.

My plan it to avoid that situation again because it's a pain...but life always seems to have different ideas from what I plan.

I could regale you with the plane flight on the Friday before Christmas to Iowa from South Carolina during a Midwest snowstorm that resulted in me getting a new flight to O’Hare in Chicago and then driving to Iowa with a guy I had never met before in a rental car so we could carpool and keep each other awake in the terrible weather back to Iowa, but that happens all the time. I can't imagine a woman doing the carpool with a stranger, but it was an absolute riot and the guy turned out to be a rich architect who had cool computer gadgets and amazing stories. Lets just say, I'm envious of his planned trip in the Bahamas in February on a $2.5million dollar catamaran with his wife for a week to help out a friend...I need friends like that.

I did manage to take the last week off of work, except for four hours on Friday that "they just had to have my input on" before the new year, but after spending the time there, I think it wasn't needed.

Managed to spend a wonderful new-years eve at evildmguy 's place. He invited a coworker and spouse over to play games.
One of the games was designed to generate "discussion", or as most people phrase it, arguments. Only happened once, fortunately, and didn't involve either politics or religion...not sure how that happened. I'm very opinionated, but I try and actually listen to other peoples sides...not that I change my mind very often, and sometimes they have to repeat it for it to sink in what they were saying, but I like to "think" that I listen. Hmmm, this year I promise to try and listen more, as long as it doesn't involve me talking less...people who know me will get the joke in the second part of that sentence.

Visiting them is always a treat for me, and I didn't cause his other friends to throw anything, so I think it went well. The sister in law was also there, but she hid the whole night connected to the internet through an electronic umbilical cord. I am always conflicted on how to handle her because she is so quite and I'm never really sure if I'm upsetting her or not. Reading women is hard enough, but when they just keep quiet and smile it's like trying to open a Chinease puzzle box in the dark hanging by your feet with the wind blowing in your face. It's difficult, uncomfortable, you don't know if what your doing is right, and there's always the fear you could fall into a bottomless pit at any moment without knowing why. She seemed happy enough when I left, and again, no furniture came hurtling at me so I take that as a good sign.

Ok, that's a nice start. Let me see if I can keep this thing working this time! Happy holiday's to everyone I missed, and I hope all a good 2008.

Jogging...the ultimate torture

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 02:38:01 GMT

To Gym Teacher: It has been 18 months since my last exercise routine....
Reply: do 50 push-ups and run two miles.

I hate exercising. Yes, I know all the great things it does for my body. First, it keeps me from getting fat(ter). It's supposed to make me all healthy, although walking around in pain all day sure doesn't feel healthy. It's supposed to help with stress relief...the stress I feel before going on a run sure doesn't feel too reliefey (ok, it's not a word, just work with me here). It will make my heart stonger (and if the pounding I get in my chest is any indication...it could explode at any minute, now that's strength!).

I was hanging with evildmguy, and he mentioned that the human heart only has so many beats in it, and if I'm working it this hard, I'm just cutting my life shorter sooner. Hmmm, somehow, that almost makes sense.

Anyway, I guess this is one of those things a guy has to do. Like the line in Animal House: "Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life"....hmmm....I guess I can work on the fat thing....

Waiting for the other shoe to drop...

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 17:56:59 GMT

It’s quiet….and that is always a bad sign. The head of the company, a real big-wig, came through. I was lucky enough to get pulled away and totally miss everything, but a walk through like that always leaves an impression on people, so either they will all come back gun-ho ready to do everything, or they will have a new list of things that were spotted that need fixed. Either way, it’s more work for me! On the plus side, nobody has mentioned working over the weekend! I’m keeping my fingers crossed and my head down, if I can somehow sneak out early before anything pop’s up, that would be ideal.

Still alive...

Thu, 28 Jun 2007 16:52:03 GMT

I wish I had time to go out and troll everyone's page, but I barely have enough time to post this!
I typed it in word and pasted it quick, thus nobody sees what I'm doing. Yes, it's my lunch break, but I'm in the middle of a factory and anyone walking by can see what I'm doing, appearance is everything!

So, I'm still doing the on site plant work. The company has some brand new lines it is installing, and they should be making real product soon. I have no real idea how long my involvement in this project will continue, but at least they make me feel needed. I just wish I could help on some of the very technical issues. Some of these issues are so unusual; the company rep’s don’t know how to fix them.

Anyway, I wanted to give an update. I am still working 10-11 hour days when you include travel, but that only takes away my time for computer fun!

The long weeks ahead

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 16:45:13 GMT

Well, I haven't posted in awhile, so I thought I better put something down.

I am currently working "out of the city." Not too far, but far enough to create an hour drive each way. Add to that the fact that the job takes up from eight to nine hours a day, and it has the beginning of a long day written all over it. I think the worse part is that I have to be here by 6 a.m., so I have to be up by 4 a.m. to get ready and then drive here. This has created all kinds of weird side effects, like going to bed some nights at 8 pm. That is insane. I've only done that when I was sick, so I guess this project is making me sick! Add to that the fact that I've had to stop in at the office for things they needed done there, and the days get even longer. My office coworkers don't see the problem because they don't leave until five, but that additional two hours is huge.

Anyway, that is why I've been absent. No real computer access at the plant, no real work breaks other than a 1/2 hour lunch, and just running ragged.

On the plus side, I had this last weekend off, so I stained my deck. Sounds simple enough, but it took eight hours to do that. Pretty much ruined my Saturday, but the deck looks sooo much better. The only downside is I had only power washed the front side, not the back side. So, I have about another four hours of staining on the back side once it's cleaned. I am not looking forward to that!

Last, my son purchased the "Lord of the Rings" online MMO for me to play for a month for fathers day.Took me all day to get all the downloads an updates. I was able to get to level 4 in about an hour. Looks like it has 50 levels. I haven't played enough to get any solid comparison to anything. Graphics are ok, but nothing spectacular. Same with the music. Standard interface. They did give a ton of bag slots to hold stuff, but that could be due to massive collecting that is required later in the game, I'm not sure yet. If anyone else plays, reply so I know what server to get on.

And that's it!

I need a longer weekend...

Tue, 29 May 2007 17:51:05 GMT

Normally, a 3 day weekend is great. This one was a lot of work and went so fast it was gone before I knew it had ended.

My son graduated. Long story short, party at my house for everyone instead of a park on Saturday. I had seen from the weather that rain was a chance, so I thought this would work out better. It did. We crammed all the adults into the 2 car garage with the food, and had a tent outside for the kids. I put my old furniture in the garage since my new stuff was in the living room, so that was very cool. Unfortunately, the kids eventually escaped the tent prison and attacked the food...but that's another story.

My son's friends would stop by, eat, and take off. The rest of the crowd was family. I even had the idea to start cooking an hour early. This worked out great due to everyone showing up at once, so by the 2pm start time, we had food on the table ready to go. The only item that didn't go as planned was a brand new $100 canopy I purchased didn't survive a rather hard rain that fell in the late afternoon. It collapsed and broke. I am letting it dry and going to see if I can exchange it. I don't feel optimistic about it, but I'm out nothing trying (except I look like an idiot who can't put up a tent after 21 years in the military sleeping in nothing but tents....).

Besides family, I did manage to get </a>jeniferj2 and </a>evildmguy to visit. I had finally received evil's birthday gift. Another long story short, what i ordered was sent and lost in the mail, then out of stock. So I ended up getting him a new gift, a roman centurian helmet, the kind with the horse hair topper to really make him stand out. At least, that was the plan. Turns out, evildmguy has a gigantic head. I don't mean kind of big, I mean really really big, elephants would be dwarfed in his hat. lol. Just kidding. The helmet was too small for him to wear. Falls under the title "best laid plans of mice and men...." So, instead of being a cool helmet he could put on and scare his pet rats with, it will now be a knick-knack placed on a table. Albeit a big table. So much for trying to get a history grad. a cool gift. I'm sticking to chocolate next year, at least his wife will be happy....

Sunday was cleanup. Again, I was lucky because my ex-sister in law likes to clean. Thus, all the dishes were washed and all I had to do was throw away the trash. Someone took all the leftover plates & napkins...not sure who or when, so that was odd, but one less thing to clean up! On the plus side, I have a refrigerator in my garage we put all the pop in (instead of coolers with ice). I had 10 cases of pop, and about 4 left over. That's enough pop for a whole month at my house, so I won there. Except for piling up my canope remnants, it was a relaxing day. Actual school graduation in the evening. Except for me being in exactly the wrong place for photo's, it went well and quickly.

We did play some WoW for about 5 hours on Monday. That was fun. I ran </a>evildmguy through a quest to catch him up. It's amazing how fast a level 68 can walk through a bunch of sub 40's. I remember the quests being so difficult, it was fun running him through and letting him get all the stuff. The only downside is he actually passed my level 33 character in xp, oh well. Then later, our two level 33's did a quest lower than the one I had just ran him through, and it took forever! Kind of put it all in perspective. As I mentioned in another LJ, it would be nice to find a good guild on our dragonmaw server so we could group with people. We just get stuck either doing duo's or trying to get a pug (pull together group) together, and those are really hit or miss.

And that was it! It sure seemed like a lot more at the time. Oh great, the journal links hate me again...sigh...

Return of hte Evil PC

Thu, 24 May 2007 16:02:38 GMT

Well, just when i was making progress on the tree attack front, the pc's have created a secret alliance with the trees to make my life miserable.

A few days ago, I mentioned a pc I built for work out of new parts, thus I could build the pc in 1 day and it was in a small box you couldn't pick up from Best Buy. Well, it had issues. Long story short, I ended up replacing the motherboard and processor, and it's been running all week just fine. I finally loaded all the software on it, so it's ready for prime time operation. The reason it makes me so happy, besides the fact that I hated building a busted pc, is that now the company is not out the almost $700 it cost for parts/software.

So things looked good on the pc front...until I tried to uninstall a program from my work computer. Apparently, it didn't want to leave, so it created a coalition with other programs and they are staging a lock-down in protest. Not only didn't the program uninstall, it locked up all the other programs on the pc...effectively ending my ability to do my job. So, I'm 2 hours into trying to fix this now, and I'm not amused. For those in the computer know, my image file was a few weeks old, but I didn't think I'd need it for an uninstall, and restore points don't work either. So, I'm stuck with "uninstall/reinstall" with my fingers crossed.

What a waste of a morning.

How I spent my weekend...

Tue, 22 May 2007 12:56:16 GMT

Figured I'd mention what I did this weekend, nothing too exciting as usual:

- I managed to get the 2nd tree in my front yard surrounded by bricks and rocks. I think I might figure out how to post pictures so everyone can see the result of what piss poor planning and a total lack of talent or training can produce. The sad thing is even if I had used a level on them, the ground and roots would not have cooperated, so in that sense, I do think it looks better than giant dirt mounds. Also, I feel safer just knowing the darn thing is slowed down if it the two of them ever decide to take out the house.

- I power washed my deck. To set the stage, I had always assumed I would tear this thing out, because it was basically black wood with green mold like coverings where it may have been covered by plants prior to our purchase of the house. Well...it's still there. So, I decided to power wash it. I was amazed to find out it used to be stained red! Also, it does look a lot better, at least cleaner. I'm not afraid of picking up a disease from the mesozoic period that had been sleeping peacefully awaiting it's next victim.

- My new furniture arrived! I have real furniture in my living room, not the 15 year old stuff that has been limping along the past couple of years. The only problem, I planned on using the old furniture on the deck for my sons graduation party this weekend, so I can't just throw it out yet. So, needless to say, my living-room is a maze of furniture squished into a small space. I actually saw a rat get lost last night trying to find his way to the kitchen. I should ask evildmguy if he's missing one...

And now I'm onto work. Big project, short time frame, lots to do, and constantly getting calls to distract me from what I'm doing.
Just another week at work I guess....

Tree Revenge

Thu, 17 May 2007 14:03:09 GMT

Well, I decided to put some pretty bricks around my trees in the front yard.

Long story short: the roots destroyed the wood box around them, and then destroyed the black edging replacing the blocks, and one in ten of the plants put around them died leaving a barren wasteland around the trees. Oh, grass seed won't take after 2 years of attempts at that either. Thus, I have big trees with six foot dirt mounds surrounding them. Lovely. I was tempted to just plant cactus and leave it.

Being a geek, I drew the brick up in AutoCad, drew a perfect circle, aligned the bricks accordingly, and then picked up all the stuff I needed. Reality is not a kind teacher.

I don't own a truck, they use a ton of gas and I never need one...well, except for the once a decade furniture purchase or the decision to put bricks around the trees in the front yard.

So, four trips later so as to not overload my car, I have everything I need at the house. I can't park next to the trees because everyone else in the neighborhood has friends, so they are parked in front of my house. Never had I thought I would ever need to own a wheel-barrel, but it was a long walk from my garage where I unloaded to the trees.

To sum up, the ground isn't flat due to the roots, I needed 2 rows of bricks to make it balance out, I had three five-gallon buckets of dirt I moved to a new mound in the back yard, I rescued some of the plants and put them along the fence, and I ended up with the top row being smaller than the bottom row so now I have to cut a brick to make it fit (the bricks have an edge on the bottom to help grip, but it moves them inside the circle, thus a smaller circumference). Oh, and since I used more bricks than anticipated making a second row, I was able to get only one tree done.

I think the tree is winning the battle. I would not be surprised to come home and see that it has escaped it's new rock prison and is wreaking havoc on the neighborhood.

Online Gaming Cowards

Tue, 15 May 2007 16:53:52 GMT

Well, played some world of warcraft with evildmguy last night. We play on a player-versus-player server, meaning someone on the other side can try and kill you. Well, we went to an area that we had avoided because that had happened to us before. I think we were there maybe five minutes before we were killed…in one hit each…by a higher-level enemy player.

I have to say, that is the one bad thing about the server I am on, the plethora of idiots. I tried playing on a server that didn’t have PVP enabled, and people just acted differently such that I really couldn’t get into it. They didn’t want to group, were rude because there was no incentive to be polite, and in general it was just not a good experience. This happened many times, not just in one sitting.

But on a PVP server, there is an entirely different type of jerk. The one that is 50 levels above you and still wants to kill you because they have no real life to speak of and this is the only type of self-gratification they will ever get. The funny thing was later on as we played an enemy player attacked our group, solo. Evildmguy said it was the best part of the night…the ability to dish out some revenge as we killed him.

Anyway, that was my rant on losers who are too chicken to fight a real one-on-one and can only attack people who are almost dead or 50 levels below them…spineless cowards one and all.

Weekend in the weeds

Mon, 14 May 2007 22:03:28 GMT

Spent the weekend doing yard work.
Cut down a bush that I think was trying to push the house over, weed whacked some grass along the fence that thought it was a rose bush, and tried to build a nice wall around my front yard trees.
I say tried, because:
A - I don't have a truck and those fancy bricks are heavy in a car meaning multiple loads
B - there wasn't any river rock left at any of the hardware stores because everybody else had the same idea!

So...I have a garage with bricks stacked and waiting to be set...wonder how I can put that off for another weekend? I do have the nice water cloth to put down too. I just hope this looks nice when I'm done, or I swear I'm going to cut down my trees, rip out the grass, and have a nice parking lot instead of a front yard.

Along those lines, I was going to rip out my rose garden and plant grass because the darn thing never grows.
So, I clean it all up and I have nine rose plants that survived the winter. That's about eight more than usual. Only three of the plants didn't come back so far this year. Isn't it always the way, when you finally decide to give up, the stupid thing suddenly grows? I wish the lottery worked in the same manner....

I was also able to get my power washer running (it was being mean and stubborn) and managed to clean most of the egg off the 2nd story. But I think it cooked on, I may be forced to climb and scrub by hand.

Bad karma

Sat, 12 May 2007 17:30:43 GMT

Well, Friday ended with a call from my ex-wife. her Apartment had been robbed. Her computer and all the jewelry I'd purchased her over the years were the big items. Along with credit cards. She of course called me knowing I still keep records even thought she's been gone for a year so she can cancel the cards. And, I know she didn't want to because when I asked "did you get the renters insurance when I told you" she said "no." So, first off, to anyone reading this that hasn't spent the $100 a year on renters insurance, do it!!!

It was odd how this bothered me. I suppose it's like a story a friend told me. He said people should all be shot to see how much it hurts, and all gun problems would go away. See, people have all cut themselves, and they know - that hurts. So, when someone pulls a knife, there isn't any bravery, just a "oh, he's got a knife, better do what he says." So, as his theory goes, if someone pulls a gun, everyone would become very polite instead of trying to be hero's like TV has tried to teach us...dead hero's usually. Anyway, I've been robbed...a lot. So I can empathize with her pain. At the same time, it was odd how I wanted to still protect and comfort her, especially since she left me in a rather painful way. The urge to call her and constantly check up on her was intense.

I finally broke down and called evildmguy. This plus chatting with jeniferj2 seemed to help and I was able to get to sleep.

And that pretty well ruined the start of my weekend. At the moment, I'm at work, working on PC's and servers again. Hmm, maybe I'll buy a lottery ticket. Because, when things start looking up, I want to make sure I've got the right items to get lucky with!

Evil Computers

Tue, 08 May 2007 19:13:08 GMT

A work project required us to order parts and build a computer, this method allowed us to get a computer delivered in 1 day with overnight shipping, assemble it in about 2 hours including putting XP on it. So everything came in parts: processor, motherboard, RAM, hard drive and video card.

Then, we ended up using a different computer for the project, so we decided to give this little pc to one of our shop guys for timesheets & such.

Simple, easy, and saved money by being able to re-use the pc….until I turned it on. The stupid thing locks up except the mouse keeps moving, but otherwise, splat. I’m not a computer beginner, I removed/loaded new video drivers, Scandisk/Defrag the hard drive, did a low level Scandisk to ensure no bits were stuck sideways blocking the zero’s from rolling by…but it is still locking up. I have no idea what to do next!

It has a thermostat built in with and LED indicator, the processor is not overheating. It passed the one-hour low-level scandisk, so I again don’t think it’s the processor. As mentioned the video seems fine. No errors in the log. RAM usually blue screens everything; it doesn’t usually leave the mouse free to scamper across the screen…

Needless to say, I’m lost. I may try to find some nice burn-in free software, but otherwise? I feel like shooting this thing! Maybe I should find a new line of work…with flowers or something…

O'Dark Thirty

Tue, 08 May 2007 10:17:43 GMT

Well...here is what happens when you don't come in on the weekend. It's 5 am and I'm setting up the new server (it being the only time nobody in the office is here). I of course couldn't do it late last night, because someone decided to stay late. Oh well, this is a once a year type thing, not something I normally have to worry about.

On the bright side, I get to catch up on everyone's journal while I sit here for an hour waiting for the darn thing to format!

End of the weekend...

Sun, 06 May 2007 18:27:17 GMT

So why is it the weekend vanishes so quickly while the work week drags? I know I'm not the only person with this observation. One would think the founders of this great nation would have thought this out better and maybe had Wednesday as a day off too.

This has been a fairly uneventful weekend thus far. As is typical, laundry and house cleaning - oh joy. I waited to mow the lawn and it rained today...that's as close as an adult can get to a school snow day!

Watched Spiderman 3 with my son, his friends all canceled at the last minute. At least I hadn't gone early as originally planned. I will say it was a good show, mixing much of the comics into a form that normal humans without years of comic influence could enjoy. I don't see it being a huge repeat viewing type show, though, due to more story and less excitement. Not quite enough of a "chick flick" to keep the girls coming back like Titanic, after all, it is Spiderman.

Friday night I was lucky enough hang with </a>jeniferj2 who was again in the area for work. I had to concede to her that I would not in fact enjoy a job requiring that much travel, but she seems to understand it's a means to an end and part of the job. My job has had me going from Canada to Mexico, so I guess I can understand.

So now I'm catching up on reading and Tivo. Saw Both Stargates, good ones for a change, both. And I'm going through some birthday books given to me by </a></a>evildmguy It kind of makes me feel guilty, he really finds the coolest gifts for me, and yet I always seem to come up lacking when I try to get something for him. But how do you buy a gift for someone who already has all the coolest toys? It's very tough.

Well, time to swap the laundry from washer to dryer, and then back to the world of books!

oh great...I'm still having trouble with the LJ links...I think the internet is out to get me....

Late Night Chatting...

Wed, 02 May 2007 14:48:55 GMT

So, it's been about a year since I've gone out on a date. When I was younger, this would have been indicative of a crisis situation that would require immediate attention. Now...not so big a deal.

My good friend decided to set me up, but just my luck, it was with his wife. Wonderful... :)

Actually, she was in town for work and had to stay overnight. So, we went out to dinner and had an uneventful night just hanging out and talking. Just our luck, we missed movie time by a mere 10 minutes, but I think it actually worked out better this way.

It has been a long time since I just hung out with a woman talking about nothing in particular. And, since she was my best friends wife, the agenda was totally plutonic - which means all innuendo jokes were purely for fun...and that just made the evening that much more enjoyable.

Eventually things turned towards how her home life was going. Unfortunately...I talk too much...way too much sometimes. Add to that a penchant for telling the truth...not always a good combination. Now, as long as I didn’t say anything that will get me in too much trouble with my friend, and I’ll be safe. But, I’m just waiting to hear back from him with those dreaded words “you told her what?”

lol Actually, he isn’t like that at all, and if I heard those words it would be followed by some subtle joke comment. And, since I know he reads my “absent ramblings” journal, I’m sure to get a response to this.

Hey buddy! It was all about you man! WooHoo! You da' man! hehehehe

Egg on my...house

Tue, 01 May 2007 16:24:14 GMT

Some kid egged my house.
Now, this wouldn't be a problem if I was yelling at them to get off my lawn, or I called the cops for their loud music, but to come home and find it for no particular reason? That bites. I think they just want me to feel old.

The sad thing is, even if I find the kids, there is nothing really that can be done. I tried talking to parents once when the neighbor kids smashed my pumpkins. The kids parents said it was just "kids having fun", but when I reached for one of their pumpkins, they said they would call the cops. Go figure. I guess adults can't have fun. Calling them hypocrites to their face didn't seem to faze them either.

At least this isn't onee of the major problems people in big cites have with gangs and guns and such, but it still makes me feel violated.

Although, now that it's just my sons and I, there is nobody to keep me from connecting the 120-decibel pull chain to my pumpkins this year (available at any Radio Shack)! That will at least add a little treat to their trick of grabbing my pumpkins. It will also add some fun bonding with my adult kids, making pumpkins knowing they are armed with sound, I’m actually eagerly awaiting Halloween! Yes I know, the eggs would soon follow a foiled pumpkin snatch, so I have to weigh the payout here, maybe if I connect a camera I can put it on u-tube? lol Oh well, lets see how motivated I feel in October.

Maybe I should look into making a nice air cannon egg launcher; an engineer can never be too prepared for pranksters.

Weekend Update - now with even less content!

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 17:18:19 GMT

April 30th, that means, I had to add a year to my age this weekend.
Oh joy.

At times like these, as it seems to happen whenever an age milestone is met, I often reflect back to where I am now and where I thought I would be. At these moments, I realize I not only missed the boat, but fell overboard and I'm caught in the current rushing towards a waterspout. Not only am I not where I envisioned, I'm so far away that I have trouble even figuring what off ramp I took to get here. Oh well, nothing left to do but just continue on and maybe think of a way to improve the sad state of affairs my life has become.

Along those lines, I at least can loose myself in some warcraft. If only EvilDMguy wouldn't play at 4am...

My youngest son has started a new job at a local theatre. Growing up, I always envisioned that as being a cool job. Seeing all the newest movies, getting movie posters, yeah, it seems glamorous. All he has to say is "my feet hurt from standing all day." Hmm, maybe my teenage impression was somewhat off....

My oldest son found out he isn't coming home early from Iraq. Yep, he's playing in the big sandbox. I told him it wasn't that great when I was there, but kids never listen. He had originally been told that they would only be extended a short time, well, now he's been told that "due to the extension of all incoming soldiers to 15 months, you get to stay an extra 6". Kind of makes one question the countries leadership, when they say they support our troops, and then tell the troops they get to stay and extra 3-6 months. I'd hate to see what they would do to our troops if they didn't support them? Extend them for 3 years? Yikes. And here I thought his signing up for the guard would be a good thing since it wasn't the "active army." I'm thinking the government has forgotten the purpose of "national guard" and should just rename them the new "international guard" to keep confusion at a minimum.

Ok, almost done - picked up my new couch. It's all cushy but isn't broken in like the old one. Of course, it's not collapsing in on itself like it has a singularity in its midsection like the old one, so that's nice. Mowed the lawn for the first time this year, and looked at all the work the house needs done...omg, it's a lot. I sometimes think it would be faster to burn it down & start over...but then I'd have no place for my stuff, and I have a lot of stuff!

Maybe tonight I'll figure out how to make a cool LJ page like everyone else has!

End of the week

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 16:38:07 GMT

Where did the week go? So much work to do, so little time. I will have to come in to set up a new server this weekend, that bites.

I finally decided to buy a new living room set. After almost a decade, the old stuff is looking...well...lets just say I wouldn't buy it at a garage sale for a quarter to put in a kids clubhouse. So, this will be a nice addition. But of course, with the worlds "just in time" inventory method of storage; my couch is in, the chair and foot rest are 3 weeks out, and the love seat will be delivered during the next solar eclipse at the stroke a midnight if it's raining outside....maybe....if I'm lucky....lovely.

I managed to snag <lj user="evildmguy"> to play some warcraft last night. Parts of it were not a lot of fun. It was one of those "you need 30 of these" missions and the item I needed just wouldn't drop. So on and on and on it goes. I get it, it's a motivater to play longer, still doesn't mean I like it. Other than that, not too bad a night. It's always fun to play with <lj user="evildmguy"> , but we either need to get a free phone network or set up a voice link. It's just not as personal typing.

I'd like to get a regular group together and play, but unlike D&D, waiting a week between sessions in a video game stinks. We tried that when DDO (dungeons & dragons online) came out, and it was like pulling teeth to get people together.

Darn, it's only lunch time and I'm already behind! More to follow.

BAH! I can't get the name links to work...it's always something

Day 2 on LJ

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 17:49:07 GMT

Ok, the joke profile icon has lost it's luster at day 2 already...time to make a new one.

I've already tripled the number of LJ friends, one more than anticipated by day two! (nice to meet you magependragon)
Now, if I can get a reply from evildmguy on how to make those actual links...lol.

Today has been a "computer day" at work so far, fighting a resolution issue with a 22" Wide screen monitor, and building a mini-pc.

I had to update the bios of a computer without a floppy drive and windows XP OS. Lets just say, having to find a way to get a windows 98-boot disk and then making it work was a joy, but it went off without a hitch. All hail the mighty Internet, storage device for obsolete technology.

And thus ends my lunch. Back to the grind.