Yahoo! News - Men Arrested for Dumping Dirt in a Forest

Yahoo! News - Men Arrested for Dumping Dirt in a Forest

Deputy Robert Gomez said the U.S. Forest Service confirmed that it was illegal to dump anything, including dirt, on the federal land.

I suppose this means we're not allowed to take a dump on federal land either. So remember folks, you can't just throw your dirt anywhere. In fact you should probably keep it inside if possible.

joy of rss

i've spent the evening discovering what a wonderful thing rss is. unfortunately the shift key on this laptop has decided to not work, so i'm stuck with no capital letters. i've set up both my yahoo and bloglines.com. i think i'll end up sticking with my yahoo to read everything, but i've got my blogroll and notification set up through bloglines, so i'll just see what happens. if you're using rss please let me know what your using to get your feeds.

a picture

I just noticed that I hadn't put any pictures up with my last few posts so I figured I'd throw one up. I've really enjoyed the last few pics that Bryan has posted and this is as close to the same style that I have.

That was all I was going to say, but then I noticed something while I was putting in the tag for the picture to show up. I am such a perfectionist about some things. I never just put in the address of the picture in my img tag. I also specify the height , width, alt text and title text. I laugh at my dad for being so anal, but I can be just as bad. Of course this isn't the first time I've noticed this. In fact I've had some laughs with him about the whole thing, but it's always amazing when I realize how much alike we are.

Brushes with Fame

Yesterday my brother was watching Awesomely Badder Fashion on VH1. I'm standing there watching it for a minute and two girls come on to comment on something. My brain goes a little something like this. "Hey these girls are pretty cute. Hmmm, that name seems familiar. Wait that can't be... It is, I read her blog." I say to my brother, "I like, know her kind of. I've e-mailed her and... hey, I've given her html advice."

If you like criticizing celebrity fashion you should definitely check out the site that got the girls onto the show.

Today I hear on the radio that Julia Roberts is a new mother of twins. I actually met Julia close to ten years ago when I was deployed to Haiti. Congratulations Julia.

So I've had two "brushes with fame" in as many days. It's amazing how significant having had contact with someone you see on tv seems.

Mitch

After missing the first two appearances Mitch Hedberg made in RI this year I managed to catch my favorite comedian's show tonight. I am so glad I did because the show was awesome. There were plenty of jokes I had never heard, and plenty that I was saying right along with him. There was one joke where he stopped because he said he couldn't remember the rest of it, so my brother and I finished it off. We're pretty sure he would have said something about that if we were in the front. He's touring with Stephen Lynch who also put on a great show. Bottom line, if they're coming to your town and you don't have anything planned, go see them.

I actually had a choice to make when I found out that Mitch had added Providence to the tour schedule. Tonight was also my 10 year high school reunion. It wasn't a difficult choice since Mitch was cheaper and I enjoy him more than any high school classmates. I'm sure no one missed me.

I just got a statement that says I've paid off a credit card. What a wonderful feeling it was to delete that payment from the recurring payments in my online banking.

I got to work and realized that I didn't actually have anything to do today. My boss took today as a vacation day and her boss has already left for the day. Since I didn't manage to get home until 5pm last night I'm getting out of here.

Traveling through snow

Last night Kansas City was served it's first snow of the year like an unflavored slurpee from the sky. And just like 7-11 the sky was open all night. Apparently this same snow storm moved east today and landed on Chicago, the city I have a connection through to get home. I'm sitting in the Kansas City airport being told that all flights are being delayed a minimum of two hours. I knew flying the day before Thanksgiving was not going to be fun and that has certainly held true.

On the brighter side I went back to the 75th Street Brewery for lunch today and really enjoyed the beer this time. But what I enjoyed the most was the apple cobbler. It was simply amazing.

Ironically the only thing on tv catching my interest is the football game.

Are you ready for some football?

I'm not. While I was trying to get to my hotel I got stuck in the traffic heading to the stadium and had to turn around just inside the booths where you pay to park. What a fun little adventure. I saw plenty of New England Patriots jerseys heading for the stadium, so I don't feel that I'm abadoning any duty I might have to represent New England.

Alicia Witt is stunningtly beautiful.

I ate at the 75th Street Brewery for dinner. The greek pizza and happy hour prices were very nice. The beer however didn't excite me and that made me kind of sad. I was gonna keep drinking beers until I had a great one but something about consequences and being responsible echoed around in my brain and I decided to call it quits. Maybe one of these days I'll have to admit that I've grown up.

Jay

Kansas City Zoo

I arrived at my hotel here in Kansas City to the welcome view of a taco bell right next door. I am also right across the street from the Kansas City Chiefs stadium. Interestingly enough the New England Patriots are playing there Monday night. I'm not really a football fan, so I'm not going to go watch it, even if the home team is playing.

Yesterday was a beautiful day for the zoo. Unfortunately the Africa section of the zoo is closed for the winter. I knew that before I got there, but I didn't realize that half of the exhibits are in that section. I would have really liked to see the chimpanzees again but I still had a great day.

This elephant not only likes to paint, she likes it so much that she won't let the other elephants at the brushes. You can buy them at the gift shop starting at $25. I considered getting one but passed. If you want to see some elephants mess with some lions see the Imax movie Roar: Lions of the Kalahari. In fact go see it anyway if you get the chance. It was very good.

I don't think this dingo moved all day long. I went by his place twice a couple hours apart and he was in the exact same spot both times.

This maned wolf was napping the first time I went by as well. When I came back he was nice enough to get up and roam around.

I love the red pandas. I could hang out with them all day. It doesn't hurt that they're right next to the maned wolf, so I get to visit both at the same time. I do have a video of one of these guys that I might post later on.

Equally adorable is the tree kangaroo.

Seals are always fun to watch. While I was watching them a guy was idly playing around with a lock on a gate. Apparently these guys thought the sound meant they were about to get food, so they all came over and looked at us waiting for fish. While I thought it was kind of fun that we found this out, I didn't like the fact that the guy kept playing with the lock to get the seals to come over. Teasing just isn't nice.

I wasn't at the zoo long before I heard a rustling in some bushes and looked down to find this peacock. It turns out that there's more than one of them wandering around the place. Some little kids like to chase them. Others try to get their attention by yelling, "Peacock! Peacock!"

As it turns out the peacocks aren't the only animals that aren't strictly confined. The kangaroos don't get to wander the whole zoo, but they do wander onto the path that the people walk on.

You might wonder where kangaroos might want to go. Well some kangaroos apparently like to go visit their cousins the wallabies.

I can't wait to visit the zoo back home again. That's all I've got for right now. If you want to see more pictures from this zoo check out the Kansas City Zoo Photo Club's site.

Jay

St. Louis Zoo

I woke up this morning believing I had the day to myself but fate had other plans for me. I had to go visit the client again for a few different reasons which may have included the powers that be not giving me what I asked for yesterday. Fortunately I was out of there pretty quick and I still had time to visit the St. Louis Zoo before I headed here to Springfield despite a bit of rain here and there.

I zipped through pretty quick because I knew the zoo closed at 4 and that I had a 3 hour drive ahead of me. In fact I spent just over an hour there altogether. I managed to see pretty much everything I wanted to and I got plenty of pictures. You'll notice that I even got a picture of a squirrel that happened to be in the middle of the path having a snack that's about the same size as he is.

This hamadryas baboon seemed kind of sad. In fact all of the baboons seemed a little down. I would have jumped in there and played with them to cheer them up, but I've been warned about doing that again.

They actually have both african and asian elephants which you don't often see.

They had a few different types of bear there. These two guys were probably my favorite animals of the whole day. Look at them. What's not to love?

This kangaroo was staring me down big time. I didn't notice that evil glow in his eyes until I saw the picture. I'm glad I didn't stick around there too long. If you hear about anyone going missing after a day at this zoo make sure you tell someone to investigate this kangaroo. Who knows what he's managed to get away with over the years.

This rhino sure looks tough, but he was actually slipping in the mud. Alright, I guess that doesn't mean much, since I tend to slip in mud too. It's just nice to know that animals aren't perfect either.

I was surprised that this sifaka sat still long enough for me to get this shot.

These penguins on the other hand were just standing there. It was kind of cold in that exhibit. Maybe no one ever told them that you stay warm if you keep moving. Maybe they were looking up at a clock because they were waiting for the next swimming session to start. "Swim session A is now over. All penguins with blue bands around their ankles must now exit the water."

The last animal I saw today was a chicken, but it wasn't at the zoo. In fact it was made out of rubber and was hanging off of a truck.

Jay

I know better... part 2

and I almost run right past my gate. I get onboard and settle in. I'm glad I didn't kick myself back in the line, because having to sit now wouldn't be very fun.

I saw a full spectrum sunset through the window of the row in front of me. I managed to get this shot of it, but it doesn't do it justice.

Since I didn't download a book to put on my Palm I read the airline magazine. It would have been nice to have some music, but I couldn't convince myself to go pick up a soldering iron on Friday night to fix my mp3 player. Perhaps I wouldn't have noticed the sunset if I had those other forms of entertainment but it sure would have been nice to have the distraction.

Once I got here to St Louis I realized that I had downloaded directions from the hotel to a brewpub, but I hadn't gotten any directions from the airport to the hotel. "Not to worry," I think. After all I have a map program on the Palm. That's what it's for. Oops, I didn't download the map with St. Louis. I guess I'll have to rely on the directions Avis can give me, except that they give me the wrong card. But they were nice enough to include a map in the Avis folder which got me going in the right direction. As I'm cruising down the road I hit the scan button on the radio, since of course I don't have an mp3 player with me, and find Howlin' Wolf singing about his lil red rooster. At this point I know everything is just fine.

Now I'm sitting in my hotel, using the free high speed wireless internet and digesting the free cookies they gave me. The moral of this story certainly is not to shirk responsibility because everything will turn out ok anyway. The moral is to keep a positive attitude until you know you're screwed. Then you need to keep a positive attitude too. Otherwise you'll be sitting somewhere with a sore butt and that's never fun.

Jay

I know better...

Friday night as I was driving home I told myself that I was going to pack on Saturday. I knew that I didn't have anything planned for the day and for once I wanted to not stay up late to make sure my laundry was done or have to pack in a hurry. I wanted to have everything ready so I wouldn't have to worry about a thing.

My flight was at 4:55pm, which means I should be at the airport between 3 and 3:30. Since I hadn't done any laundry on Saturday I threw some in when I got home from church on Sunday. I'm kicking around the house waiting for the laundry to dry when I realize, "Hey it's already 3:10. I haven't packed anything yet."

I stuff all of my gadgets into my computer bag and start tossing clothes into my suitcase. It won't be my proudest moment if security decides they need to open my bag up, but at least everything I need is in there. It's just hitting 4 when I get to the airport to find one of the longest lines for security I've ever seen.

That line was only getting longer as I had to stand in the line to check in and then the line to get my bag screened. I find myself near the end of the big line around 4:20. At this point I really have no idea how things are going to turn out and I think about starting to kick myself. It may have been the possible danger to the people around me that stopped this or it may have been that I just accepted that I'd have plenty of time for self-flagellation if I didn't make the plane. There was just no reason to get all bent out of shape for a "what might come".

I get through security, put my shoes back on and hustle towards the gate. That's when the announcement comes over the PA. "This is the final boarding call..." I start running...

to be continued

Jay

It's never too cold for the zoo

I woke up this morning to find that we had our first snow of the year. I believe the very next thought after "Wow, there's snow." was "I hope my parents flight got out alright." (Jay suddenly realizes that he never followed through on that thought and checks the flight status at the airlines website.) Not to worry they'll be landing in Cancun in about an hour. Right on top of the concern for my parents was concern for my own flight tomorrow, but I doubt there will be any problem with that.

I started out dreading this trip. I'm being sent there with a promise to our clients in Missouri that I can fix all of their issues with our product. I was the one that installed this product for these clients in the first place, which is a little positive and a little negative. The positive part is that I know exactly what to expect at each place. The negative part is that I know exactly what to expect at each place.

One of these places had one problem after the other when I was installing this originally. In fact this will be the third time I visit this particular client. Another place has a CEO that is fairly demanding. Now that I'm thinking about it the other three places don't worry me much.

Here's the new positive light that's shining on this trip. This last week I had to update two local clients with the same product. One of those clients was an absolutely train wreck the first go around, but was a dream this time (this will actually have it's own post). I was done with the other client in about half a day. This means that for the first two places that I'm going to, where I scheduled two days at each, I very well could end up with some free time.

What could I do with some free time? Well, I was talking to my boss yesterday about the trip and how I'm looking forward to going back to the Kansas City Zoo. She mentions that St. Louis has a really nice zoo. St. Louis happens to be the first place I'm going, is one of the places I've scheduled two days for and is one of the places that I didn't have many problems with the first time I was there. How awesome would it be if I was able to visit two zoo's during one business trip? How cool is my boss that I can tell her that if the client doesn't need me the second day I'm taking it off and going to the zoo?

One thing that I can definitely bank on is that I'll be going to the Kansas City Zoo while I'm there over the weekend and this time I'll have a camera to take pictures of those crazy kangaroos.

Jay

Watch a baby rhino being born.

Father, Entertainer, Friend

My parents are leaving for vacation in the morning. My brother just told me via IM that at some point today the power went out at their house and my dad said, "What if the power goes out during the night and we don't get up in time and miss our flight?"

I knew exactly how my brother would reply to this and sure enough he told him, "Don't worry Dad, I'll set the alarm on my cell phone."

Dad comes back with, "You better put it right next to your head."

Anyone that knows my father can appreciate the humor in this little story. Since my friend Brian knows him I copied it and IMed it to him. Whadda ya know, he was on the phone with my dad at the time and actually heard that conversation.

Jay

The more I listen to any Cake album the more I like it.

Belgian Beer Fest

The Boston Belgian Beer Fest was fun, but we didn't get to enjoy it to it's full potential. Since my brother had to work until 5 we didn't get to leave until close to 6 which is when the second session started. By the time we drove up to Boston and found a spot to park it was almost 8. Then we find out that they're at capacity and can't let people in even you've already bought tickets. Apparently their only plan at that point was to have us stand in a line and wait as people came out smoked cigarettes and went back in. After about half an hour they started letting people in. I also heard someone come out and tell the guys working the door that they should ask people that came out if they were leaving, and to take their wristbands if they were, so they could let new people in.

Once we were in we grabbed the nearest beer and then made a beeline to see our buddy from Unibroue. We also got to see Matthew from Offshore. Other than that it felt like a mad dash to get around and use up our tickets before we got cut off at 9:40. No beer came home from this event kiddies. I wish I could at least remember some of the beers I liked, but it was mostly a blur. Except for that guy in the restroom taking pictures of the ceiling.

Jay

I just took the one thousandth picture with my camera. Unfortunately the picture doesn't rate to be posted.

Life in the Office

Normally my job requires me to travel fairly often. Lately I've been stuck in the office. Fortunately I have some great people in my office and today through a collaborative effort we were able to produce a full size replica of the upper body of a co-worker that was on the road.

For some reason people keep telling me I need to get back on the road.

Jay

Beer Fest

It's been about two weeks since the Great International Beer Fest. My brother and I brought home just over 10 cases of beer. I just did a little beer administration and I've got 4 cases set up as mixed 12 packs for easy deployment to the refrigerator. I absolutely love having a constant variety of beers to choose from. Wait, I didn't mention that even though we had over 10 cases of "free beer" (we did volunteer at the beer fest and put a 14 hour day, but we didn't have to shell out any cash) we've each bought beer in the last two weeks. Of course there's a good reason for that. These were beers that we hadn't found commonly and knew the other brother hadn't had a chance to sample. Aren't we considerate?

So we have a lot of beer, we've enjoyed it immensely and we've even picked up a few that we hadn't tried. Guess what we're doing tomorrow night? We're going to the Boston Belgian Beer Fest. With the Blues n Brews Festival at the beginning of October this will be three beer festivals in less than two months.

Future beer activities include putting together a website featuring our beer bottle collection(In the past I've always referred to it as "my" beer bottle collection, but I realized that my brother has contributed as much to it as I have, so it will heretofore be known as "our" beer bottle collection) and possibly getting equipment to brew our own.

I love beer.

Jay

What's better than having a confetti filled balloon to hit over the cube walls on a Friday afternoon?

As you can see...

it's a beautiful day here at the computer.

A Change Will do You Good

At my church we have two worship teams that play the Sunday morning music. I'm on one of them. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a great christian example that should be up in front of people every other week leading them in worship. Recently I've considered not doing it anymore because the only reason I was doing it was because I had made a commitment to, not out of any sense of worship. It just happens that our music leader just left and at the going away party for him there was a discussion about the state of the youth group at the church. One of the girls that's in the youth is definitely frustrated and would like to see things changed. I've worked with the youth in the past, and invariably the question came up of whether I was going to start working with them again. Once again I'm not a very good example to follow.

So why don't I just start being what I would consider a good example? Ok, let's look at what I would need to do to have that happen. I'd need to strive to improve my relationship with God. In fact that's all I would need to do. The problem is that I don't want to work on my relationship with God. Relationships with God cause changes in people and I'm being selfish and don't want to change. Or do I? Obviously I think something should change since I don't think I'm the right person to do two different jobs that I'm being asked to do. Perhaps I do want to change.

Jay

Trim and a shave

I just shortened up my goatee. I wonder if the cute girl at work will notice. Oh wait, the cute girl at work is two time zones away. Maybe that's a good thing since I managed to cut myself while I was shaving my head too.

Jay

I want to see how

I want to see how this looks.

This was a test to see how I could post by e-mail from my phone. It only took two days to show up. Better late than never.

Fire Tree

Last night I took a picture of a tree in the parking lot of my office building. Actually I took several shots with different settings. I looked through them, got some advice from my brother and took some more shots tonight. This was my favorite and it happened to be the first shot of the night.

Jay

A Welcome to Myself

I'd like to take a minute to welcome myself to blogger.com. I've kept a blog elsewhere, but I've decided to move on, which brings me here.