Crazyredwizard's Workshop

Another TV appearance

2005-07-13T21:06:00.000-04:00

Friday night I will be appearing on the show Deadline on HD Net. HD Net is a national all high definition network. You can check here to see if your service provider carries it.

Engagement

2005-05-22T13:41:00.000-04:00

If you look at the picture of the happy couple above you'll notice there is a ring on the beautiful lady's finger. Yup, that's an engagement ring. I'm getting married. Planning is already in full swing and we're looking at fall of 2006 for the wedding.

Friday I woke up to my cell phone ringing. I got to it just in time to see that it was my boss trying to call me before it went to voice mail. It's never good to be woken up by a phone call from your boss, but fortunately she wasn't calling to find out why I wasn't at work since I had arranged to work from home due to the fact that my car needed to go in to have the transmission replaced. She was calling to let me know that instead of going to Pennsylvania tomorrow I'm going to be flying to Iowa instead.

One of our clients there has been having sporadic issues for the last couple of weeks since we did an upgrade to their system. No one has been able to nail down what's causing the problems so the plan is for me to go on site and figure it out. (I don't call myself a problem solver extraordinaire for no reason.)

It's certainly head-swelling to be the person they send in when all else has failed, but what happens if I fail too? My biggest issue is that I'm going to be dealing with things that are outside of my area of expertise and in fact outside of my job description. I love a challenge and I'm not afraid of learning new things but this is a job that belongs squarely to another department and I'm quite unfamiliar with.

I'm sure everything will work out fine and I might even get to look like the hero. Heroes have pretty good job security don't they? Alright, that will be my plan then. Go there and get everything working so I can be the hero and I'll put my cape on and fly straight home, without having to go through the airport rigamarole, into the waiting arms of my lovely bride-to-be. I've never seen Superman carry a suitcase though. Does he hide it under his cape?

My Busy Life

2005-04-18T18:01:00.000-04:00

I guess it's rude to not be around much with no explanation. The simple fact is that I've been spending a tremendous amount of time with my new girlfriend. I'm a very happy guy! Thanks to those that left comments to let me know that I've been missed. I really appreciate it. I refuses to make promises about being around more or apologies for not having been, but I don't have any plans to abandon my post here.

Finally!

2005-04-17T20:12:00.000-04:00

I just checked tvguide.com and it shows that my episode of Steve Harvey's Big Time Challenge will be airing next Sunday, April 24th.

Mitch Hedberg Passed Away

2005-03-31T18:32:00.000-05:00

I found out today that my favorite comedian, Mitch Hedberg has passed away. I'm generally not a big fan of many entertainers but I was certainly a fan of his. I know when I go I'd prefer people to be able to celebrate the life that I had instead of being saddened by the ending of it. In that vein here a few of my favorite jokes that he told:

"When I go to shave I figure someone else in the world is shaving at the same time so I like to say, 'I'm going to shave... too.'"

"I wake up in the morning and make myself some instant oatmeal and then I don't do shit for an hour. Makes me wonder why I need the instant oatmeal. I could make regular oatmeal and feel productive."

"One time a guy handed me a picture and said, 'This is a picture of me when I was younger.' Every picture is of you when you were younger."

"I think Pringles initial intention was to make tennis balls. But the day the rubber was supposed to show up they got a bunch of potatoes instead. Pringles is a laid back company. They said, 'Fuck it. Cut em up.'"

"I have two straws in here in case one breaks down. You know those crazy straws they go all over the place? These fucking straws are sane. They never lost their mind. They said, 'We're going straight to the mouth. That fucker that takes a while to get there. He's crazy.'"

"One time when I move I want to get a really easy number to remember. Something like 22222222. Then when people ask how to get ahold of me I can just say, 'Just press 2 for awhile. When I answer you will know you have pressed 2 enough.'"

"If you find yourself lost in the woods, fuck it, build a house. 'I used to be lost but now I live here. I have severely improved my predicament.'"

"I'm a mumbler. When I'm walking with a friend he won't hear me and say, 'What?'. I'll say it again but he still won't hear me so he says, 'What?'. And really it's just some insignificant shit that I'm saying but next thing you know I'm yelling, 'That tree is far away.'"

"I remixed a remix. It was back to normal."

"When you go to a restaurant over the weekend they'll call out the names, 'Dufrene party of two.' If no one answers they'll say it again, 'Dufrene party of two.' If still no one answers they go onto the next name, 'Bush part of three'. Yeah, what happened to the Dufrenes? They're in somebody's trunk with duck tape over their mouths... and they're hungry. That's a double whammy. 'Bush, search party of three. You can eat once you find the Dufrenes.'"

More quotes from wikipedia.com

Silly Kids, Birthday's Aren't for Screen Names

2005-03-22T15:19:00.000-05:00

You may notice that my pictures aren't showing up today. The reason is because my daily bandwidth has been exceeded on my web hosting plan. Apparently alot of people are watching my silly videos because this happened yesterday too. Not sure how I'm gonna handle it yet. It sure is nice to be getting attention.

---Start Rant---
Have you noticed that kids like to use their birthdays in their screen names? Do they not realize that is way more information than they should be handing out over the internet? Why do they do that?
Well, alot of times to have a unique screen name you end up having to use numbers at the end of it. Why use random numbers when you have a perfectly good set that you carry around your whole life? Tack that birthday at the end of a name and your chances of having a unique name are pretty good.
Of course this is a really bad idea because there are nasty evil people out there and you just never know when you're going to end up talking to one of them. Do you really want them to know that you're 13 years old? No. Would you tell them if the asked? Probably not. If your birthday is in your screen name they know as soon as you start talking to them. Bad idea. Don't do it.

---End Rant---

Tolls

2005-03-17T20:06:00.000-05:00

Tolls are really annoying.

I had to drive down to New Jersey this week for work and these are the annoying things I noticed about tolls from the trip.

Alot of times you only get hit up going one direction. You can take 95S through New York without having to fork over any cash, but there are two toll stops when you're northbound.

The signs telling you that you're going to have to stop and pay a toll are too close to the actual toll stop. Do they not realize that some people need to scrounge around on the passenger side floor to get enough change for their $1 toll? Here's a tip if you need some extra time. Get in the lane with a big truck. One truck takes longer than three cars.

It costs more to go over one bridge into NYC (but only if you're headed north) than to drive through the entire state of NJ.

One last unrelated observation. While I was stopped because of traffic on a bridge I saw a sign that said, "No stopping on bridge." I swear the sign placers are messing with people.

I just noticed that I forgot to post the possible vacation locations for voting on Sunday. I will put them up tomorrow.

Cough Drops

2005-03-11T10:29:00.002-05:00

Us bloggers love to review things. I'm not so big on doing those book and movie reviews though, so I'll review something else I've had close experience with lately. Cough Drops.

Halls Mentho-Lyptus - All of the cough drops in Halls line give you that great vapor action. If you're looking to mentholate your mouth then Halls is the way to go. Believe it or not the different flavors actually have different amounts of menthol and the Mentho-Lyptus weighs in with 6.5mg. Even though other flavors have more menthol I found that this one made me want to suck air in and exult in the mentholation. This particular flavor is fairly neutral but pleasant. This means it's less likely to get sickening quickly.

Halls Cherry - With 7mg of menthol you get a good amount of vapor action. The flavor is strong and is fairly unbearable after just a few drops.

Halls Honey-Lemon - This is a pleasant enough flavor but over time it can give you the same sickening sweet feeling that I found with all of the Halls that I've used. This one has 8mg of menthol. It really is a good combination of flavor and vapor action in general.

Halls Strawberry - This has to be my personal favorite of the Halls line. There is only 3.1mg of menthol in these which is perfect for those times you just need enough to take the edge off. The flavor is quite good without getting overpowering quickly.

Robitussin Honey Cough Honey Almond - There are others in the Honey Cough line but these are the only ones I've tried. Based on my experience I'm more than willing to test out other flavors as well. You only get 2.5mg of menthol and they don't have the same type of vapor action happening that the Halls do. That's not always a bad thing however since sometimes you don't need your mouth to be frosted like a good beer mug. There is real honey used in these which really does help soothe your throat and gives you a very pleasant flavor experience. There is a gooey center that might be straight honey which spreads out over your tongue and throat like a soothing balm. Yeah, I like these. Alot.

One further recommendation would be to have multiple flavors available. If you're sucking these things down like the candy that they really are you'll probably get sick of any one flavor.

I just looked back over this and I even think it's lame. Too bad though I'm publishing it anyway.

I'm still taking vacation location recommendations.
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Let The Suggestions Begin

2005-03-06T20:19:00.000-05:00

Alright, you guys asked for it. I'll let you tell me where I can go. Leave a comment with your suggestion of where I should go on my summer vacation. Next Sunday, March 13th I'll list the suggestions and let people vote on them. I might throw a couple of my own suggestions in there too but the voting will be all you guys. Whichever location gets the most votes is where I will go.

Here's the rules though. You didn't think I wasn't gonna put down some rules now did you?

-You have to give me someplace specific to go. States are too big of a target.
-Give me a reason any reason. A beautiful national park is a good reason.
-It has to be west of the Mississippi. It's a free ticket. No point going someplace closeby.

Here or There

2005-03-04T22:23:00.000-05:00

I just downloaded a trail map for a local Audubon Society refuge. It says, "Please return map" on it. Does that mean I have to upload it back to there website once I'm done?

I have a delightful dilemma. I got bumped off of a flight recently and they gave me a free round trip ticket as compensation. So where in the country do I want to go for vacation this year?

The Siege Continues...

2005-03-04T19:31:00.000-05:00

Day 29: The coughing siege continues. I have tried every combination of spell and incantation that I can find to ward off this menace. A good wizard knows how to make do with what he has available and so I have settled on the weapons illustrated above. I have also been employing the magic of soup and hot tea. This is a very powerful combination and unfortunately cannot be used continuously. I can only hope that this siege does not last much longer.

Nap Mishap

2005-03-03T02:23:00.000-05:00

It turns out that if you're really tired at 6pm and decide to sleep for a couple of hours you will not be tired when it's actually time to sleep at say 2am.

Damn Dirty Cough

2005-02-28T21:18:00.000-05:00

This cough really must go. It's annoying the crap out of me. Cough drops have helped but only so much. Ironically enough I ended up coughing a cough drop out of my mouth today. That's right, I coughed and the cough drop dropped.

I don't even feel like I'm sick. It's just really really irritating that I keep on having to cough. It's also really irritating to have too many cherry flavored cough drops in a row. So I spent the day waffling between letting the cough irritate me and letting the cough drops irritate me.

Here's how my cough usually goes:

caw cAW cuf cuf CAAf CAAf cAWCAAAWWW CAAAAWWWHAAAwHAAAw AWWWk fuck

The convulsions must be giving me some kind of a workout though, right?

TV show update

2005-02-28T08:46:00.000-05:00

I just checked out the Steve Harvey's Big Time Challenge website and it shows that episode 219 (mine is 217) will be airing this coming Sunday (Mar 6th). Maybe Mar 13th then.

Ice Caterpillar

2005-02-28T00:38:00.000-05:00

I submitted this picture to a Picture of the Day site and it's being displayed there today.

check it out

I just got back from Salt Lake City and I have a couple of stories to tell but they'll have to wait until later because it's just too late.

2005-02-16T08:49:00.000-05:00

Sometimes when I feel really hungry, it makes me sneeze.

I just can't stop myself from singing along to Susan Tedeschi's It Hurt So Bad.

Camera Update

2005-02-15T15:08:00.000-05:00

The new camera has been delivered. Woohoo. Well according to the delivering companies web site anyway. Hurray, hurray. I can't wait to get my hands on it. Why didn't I just work from home today? Oh yeah, because I wouldn't have gotten anything done. Is it time to leave yet? Hurray new camera.

TV Show Info

2005-02-13T22:17:00.000-05:00

I'm back from LA all safe and sound. I'll be posting the whole story soon, but in the meantime here's the info on the show.

Steve Harvey's Big Time Challenge
Sunday's at 9PM EST on WB (check local listings for exact time and station 8-þ)

I believe my episode will air on 2/27 but I'm not positive. When I know more I'll put it here.

2005-02-13T01:04:00.000-05:00

I'm sitting at the LA airport waiting for my flight home. The taping went great and I had a ton of fun. More later.

Exhumed Post

2005-02-09T13:23:00.000-05:00

~kimberly~ left a some funny comments on my Sponge Blahb post that reminded me of an old post from my deadjournal. I figure why not resurrect it here.

Wednesday, July 14th, 2004
11:57 am
My cube mate is such a character. I'm often out of the office for long stretches, and occasionally I come back to find something new hanging on my part of the wall. Once it was an FBI Ten Most Wanted poster where my face was put on Osama Bin Laden's head. All of the information was also humorously changed. This included:
"Bin Laden is the leader of an installation organization known as Al-Gui, '5.0'. He is right-handed and walks with a hip hop beebop."
"Considered armed and extremely legged."

Another time there was a sign that said "Please do not disturb ongoing dust settlement experiment." I just noticed that it was gone, so I asked him about it. He said "I had to take it down. Didn't I tell you? There was no more funding for it. I said to the guy, 'But you're not doing anything. It's just sitting there.' ".

Welcome to the Dogg Pound

SpongeBlahb

2005-02-08T09:57:00.000-05:00

Two of the three comics on my Yahoo homepage were jokes about the irritating, absorbent character known as SpongeBob. Not being a fan of the squishy guy it should have made my day to have two comics rip on him... but they didn't rip on him. He was just the punchline of the joke. As if he's funny enough just being there to carry otherwise very clever comics. I'm so disappointed.

For those of you that like talking cleaning supplies:

Close to Home

Non Sequitur

Keep an Eye Out

2005-02-07T16:38:00.000-05:00

I'm about useless here at work today. I'm having a hard time concentrating because I found out that I'll be going to LA later this week for the taping of a tv show that I'm gonna be doing my can head trick on. Woohoo!

Check out this cool dragon. Watch the video to appreciate the effect.

Year of the Rock Gym

2005-02-06T19:57:00.000-05:00

I bought the camera. Woohoo, how exciting! I can't wait until it gets here.

Back in January my brother(the guy in the picture up there) and I decided to start going to the rock gym on a regular basis. Unfortunately that was January of last year and we never really put our plan into action.

Well 2005 is the year of the rock gym. We've outfitted ourselves, prepaid visits and have managed to go twice this last week. Yesterday we even found a really nice place to eat not far from there. So there are no excuses to not go now. I can walk in, tell them my name, put my stuff on and start climbing. Afterwards I can go have a good meal with a good selection of beers on tap. Hey, you need to replenish carbs after a workout, don't you? No? That's ok, it's still better to have one beer at a restaurant after a workout than three at home in front of the computer. Plus it's good motivation. Hey, I wonder if they would let me hang beers at the top of the wall. They'd probably look at me like I'm crazy if I asked. I'll have to ask them. I like it when people look at me like I'm crazy.

On a related note. If you live in RI(or closeby) and you're looking for something fun to do check out the Rhode Island Rock Gym. They're open until midnight every day and the staff is always friendly.

To Buy or Not To Buy...

2005-02-05T11:46:00.000-05:00

Anyone that's been reading my blog knows that I love taking pictures. What happens when you start getting into something like that? You want better equipment of course. Currently I have a Canon A70. It's a great camera and I've done alot with it but I've been drooling over the Canon Digital Rebel for a few weeks now. It looks like I have the money to buy one now, but before I do I figured I'd better think about it more closely.

Will it make me a better photographer? No, the camera itself won't make me a better photographer.

Will I be able to take better pictures with it? Yes, absolutely.

Will I be able to improve my photography skills with it? Yes.

Why can't I just use the camera I already have to improve my photography skills?

Well, I'm glad I asked this. Here's the crux of it: It's all about being able to see what's actually gonna be captured. I don't know how many times I've taken a picture and everything looked just fine and dandy on the camera's screen, only to find out that it's horribly out of focus when I pulled it up on the computer.

Can I really afford it or am I just telling myself that I can? I could use the money to pay down credit cards. This is however money in the bank account and will not further indebt me.

Ok, I'm done talking to myself now. I'll open the question up to you readers now. Should I buy it?

Hello New Phone

2005-02-02T17:30:00.000-05:00

My new phone arrived today. It's so purdy and shiny and new.

That Content is Dynamic!

2005-02-02T09:07:00.000-05:00

I searched high and I searched low. I tried using ready made scripts and I tried making my own. Forums didn't help and neither did tutorials. In the end I needed some good old html. What was I trying to do? Add that little thumbnail to my sidebar that will always show the most recent picture in my Lunch Special album.

The problem is that when I'm trying to figure something out I get a bit obsessed and I just can't let it go. I literally spent hours to add that one little thing to my blog. Of course the positive aspect of that is I now have some knowledge of how php, javascript, the object tag, and iframes all work. I love learning how things work. The biggest lesson learned by far was "look for the simplest solution".

Below is an explanation of how I did it in case someone that's trying to do the same thing stumbles across this. Warning: droll technical speak beginning now.

I use Coppermine Photo Gallery to display my pictures. I wanted to be able to show the thumbnail of the most recent picture uploaded to one specific album on the sidebar of this blog.

I found out about the ssi.php mod on the Coppermine Photo Gallery support forums. The instructions included are very good and will do a much better job of explaining how to use it to display different thumbnails than I could here.

Using the ssi.php instructions I created a new php file that calls the ssi.php script to display the specific thumbnail that I wanted. I wasn't able to use a php include or a javascript call. I found that I could do it with an iframe or an object tag. The object tag worked fine in Firefox but Internet Explorer bawked at it. So I ended up using the iframe. Unfortunately that meant I had to format it so it would display nicely. If you want to see the code just view the source and look for the iframe tag.

Bye Bye Old Phone

2005-01-30T21:32:00.000-05:00

Back in November I started having a problem with my cell phone. Sometimes I'd get a call or make a call and I'd be able to hear the other person saying, "Hello... Hello? Jay? Helloooo". While it's fun to answer the phone every once in a while and just not say anything to make people sound like an idiot, this isn't what I was doing. I was actually trying to talk to them.

So I realized I needed a new phone but I was still a couple of months away from being able to get the "New Every Two" deal from Verizon. Since I wasn't about to fork over money for a phone when I was gonna get a free one so soon I did the only logical thing. I told everyone the story of how stupid my phone was. "So if you call me and you don't hear anything, please leave a message at the sound of the silence." Of course when that failed I would just call them right back with my work cell phone. Sshhhh don't tell.

My strategy has worked out and I should have my new phone in a couple of days. The best part is that my new one uses the same charger and data cable as my old one. Woohoo! Hurray new phone! (said in the style of the Red Stripe commercials)

New Video

2005-01-26T01:59:00.000-05:00

I just added a new video to my Stupid Human Trick page. You should get a laugh out of it.

Edit> I just added an outtake video as well.

No Notification Blues

2005-01-24T20:22:00.000-05:00

I hate it when I run out of "things to look up". You know, that lull you hit when you've been online for a few days straight and you've seen the latest on all of your favorite sites. I usually get over that by checking my numerous e-mail addresses or maybe some people's blogs and my mind snags on something I want to go searching for. Unfortunately I've set myself up to get notifications for everything. I have so many things that notify me that something's happened that it's almost depressing when none of them is going off. Maybe that means I should get out from behind the computer and watch a movie or something. That's bound to make me think of something I want to look up. 8-þ

News-Star Online'Stupid Human Trick' 01/23/05

2005-01-24T10:21:00.000-05:00

News-Star Online'Stupid Human Trick' 01/23/05

For anyone that enjoyed my Stupid Human Trick I found out about another person that not only can stick cans to part of their head but is auditioning for "The Late Show".

This is what happens when you don't listen to everyone that keeps telling you, "Send the tape in. Send the tape in."

I actually hope Mr. Snodgrass makes it onto the show. Good luck Jeff.

Photography, Photographs and Photo Albums

2005-01-24T01:23:00.000-05:00

Have I ever mentioned that I'm really lazy? I've spent yet another weekend not leaving the house. But somehow I can't find time to watch my netflix movies either. What have I been doing with all my time?

Well I've been drooling over Canon digital SLR cameras, reading a ton of photography info, posting in photography forums and entering a couple of photography contests. I think I might be interested in photography.

Unfortunately I didn't take many actual pictures this weekend. I suppose I could use the excuse that we got a ton of snow, but really that should have been more reason to go outside and take pictures of it.

While I was in Salt Lake last week I delivered the Gerbera Series to it's intended recipient. She really liked it, but she didn't really tell me that until Thursday. There's a whole story to tell about her, but that will have to be for another time. Maybe after I figure out what the whole story is.

I really appreciate everyone that has made comments on my photos. I've decided to try getting out to take pictures during my lunch break. The pictures I like from those I'll be putting into an album in my photo gallery called Lunch Special. If you like that concept let me know. It'll help motivate me to get out there every day.

Well this post has a really odd feel to it for me but I really wanted to post something. So I guess this is what I get.

I'm Back

2005-01-20T13:46:00.000-05:00

I had a great time this weekend in Salt Lake City. The main office for my company is there and a few of the people from my department work out of that office. Another co-worker from my office and I decided to go out there and visit since we don't get to see everyone as often as we'd like. It ended up being one of the best vacations. There was no stress about what to do every day. We just hung out and enjoyed being with friends.

We did go Skiing on Monday and I was able to get some great pictures. They were worth all the spills I took coming down the mountain. This was only my second time skiing ever. We did two runs down green trails from one lift and then decided to go on a lift that went higher up the mountain. The view was absolutely breathtaking but we found out that there were no green trails to go down.

I'm a trooper so we start down a blue trail. We didn't get far before I went down... about ten feet in fact. That trend continued most of the way down the mountain and I was getting really tired of losing a ski and having to get it back on. I also realized it was much easier when I was sliding down on my back than when I was up on the skis. So I did the only logical thing the next time I fell. I got on my back, put my feet up to keep the skis from hitting the ground and popping off and put my hands in the air to reduce the friction so I would slide further, laughing the whole way.

My friends said I looked like a turtle that was stuck on his back, which was passed onto my boss and I got to work yesterday to find an e-mail from her that announced my name was being officially changed to "Turtle".

The pictures I was able to get from the top were worth all of it though. In fact I came away with some sore muscles but no bruises... not even to my ego.

Late Night Packing Blues

2005-01-14T02:22:00.000-05:00

I have a flight that leaves at 7:10am and I'm sitting here at 2:22am packing. What is wrong with me? Any sane person would have gotten laundry done as soon as they got home from work and packed everything up. Now I'm wondering if I'll even end up sleeping. I only have about 3 hours before I need to leave the house.

I just looked at parking rates at the airport. The weekly rate is less than what I paid to park for the one day I was in New York City.

Time to finish packing so I can consider getting some sleep.

lazy weekend

2005-01-10T01:28:00.000-05:00

I never made it out of the house this weekend. I did manage to frame the Gerbera Sunset series today, which is good because I need to bring it with me when I go to Salt Lake City this weekend.

I really should go to bed now. But first, one last thought.

If you make a tree out of origami and then plant it, would that be considered recyclying?

Latest Photo Project

2005-01-09T01:32:00.000-05:00

This week while I was driving back and forth from work I kept thinking about how I didn't have any daylight time to take photos. I decided the only thing to do was come up with shots I could take at home. Well here are the results:

Neither of those photos has been altered from the way it came out of the camera except for resizing. This next one I put together in Paint Shop Pro:

I guess I can understand why people are always telling me I look scary/mean now.

My family got me the photo printer(HP Photosmart 8450) that I asked for, for my birthday. I'm working on printing out my favorite photos and making an album. I've also framed my first photo and hung it on the wall.

Very exciting stuff. For me. That is all.

crazyredwizard.com is born

2005-01-09T01:12:00.000-05:00

So I'm the proud new owner of my very own domain. Whether I'm the master of my domain is for me to know and for you to find out as we always used to say. 8-þ

I've got my stupid human trick page up there, which is pretty damn funny. I've also got the beginnings of a photo gallery up.

Army Jokes

2005-01-06T18:41:00.000-05:00

Here's a few jokes I was thinking about today that I heard/used all the time when I was in the army, but never as a civilian. I really kinda miss them.

He's ate up like a soup sandwich.

He's ate up like a football bat.

I think you need to check the user headspace and timing.

Hey new guy. Go to the supply room and pick up a can of turn signal fluid and a box of grid squares.

Hopefully I'll think of more that I can share.

Yahoo! News - Iowa Deputies Capture Wandering Kangaroo

2005-01-05T18:00:00.000-05:00

Yahoo! News - Iowa Deputies Capture Wandering Kangaroo

Phew!!! I'm safe.

Yahoo! News - Wis. Police Search for Wandering Kangaroo

2005-01-04T23:13:00.000-05:00

Yahoo! News - Wis. Police Search for Wandering Kangaroo

I hope this isn't the kangaroo they saw. If it is I have a feeling he's trying to find me. Fortunately for me he's headed in the wrong direction, but shhhh, don't tell him that.

frame blah

2005-01-03T22:30:00.000-05:00

I picked up a frame for my gerbera sunset series tonight that claims to hold three 5in x 7in images. As it turns out the openings are in fact 4-7/16in x 6-7/16in. I am damn glad I decided to check that out before I did my final prints. 9/16 of an inch. What the hell are they thinking? I don't have room to have 9/16 of an inch cropped off these. I need to resize to get them right. Frickin' marketing people.

Target already has valentines stuff

2005-01-03T20:44:00.000-05:00

Target already has valentines stuff out. It seems so early for that.

a simple blue cord

2005-01-02T14:19:00.000-05:00

Today I said good-bye to a friend of mine that is being deployed to Iraq. It's strange to realize that it was ten years ago today that I was faced with my deployment to Haiti. I had been thinking about this friend of mine and his impending deployment in the last few weeks. I decided I wanted to be able to give him something that I had received when I was in the army that he could take with him. I thought about the awards and the coins and I realized that none of those really had much meaning for me. Fortunately I was in my car when I was thinking about this and I saw my infantry cord hanging from my rearview mirror.

The infantry cord is a light blue cord that is worn on the right shoulder of dress uniforms. It is only given to soldiers after completing infantry training. So you'll never see a person walking around with a blue cord on their uniform just because they were assigned to a unit that wears the blue cord.

The day before my basic training graduation we had a day where parents were allowed to come visit which was ended with a cord ceremony. For this cord ceremony you were allowed to either have one of your parents or a drill sergeant put the cord on your uniform as you stood in formation. I chose to have my mom put my infantry cord on. This may have been the proudest moment of my life.

I drifted through high school doing as little as I needed to get by. Fortunately for me I was smart enough to not need to study or really do much work at all to pass. Basic Training was just the opposite for me. I had to work at it. My attitude was totally different. I actually spent more time studying for tests in basic than I did in all of high school.

The graduation ceremony was a formality. The true award for my accomplishments was that blue cord. Being able to have my mom put it on me while my dad looked on was just awesome.

After 9/11 I decided to hang my cord from my rearview mirror to express my willingness to defend my country. So I saw it hanging there and I decided that this is the item I would give my friend. I told him I wanted him to take it with him and bring it back to me and that when I notice it missing from my car I'll think of him.

Birthdays past

2005-01-02T13:06:00.000-05:00

Many people like to think about the previous year on New Year's day. There also alot of people that think about the preceding year on their birthday. Having your birthday on the second day of the year is a double whammy of annual contemplation. This morning I started thinking about what I had done on my birthdays over the last ten years. So on this day in:

1995 - I had arrived in Ft. Polk, LA a couple of weeks before. I was fresh out of basic training and this was my first duty station. I didn't know anyone there yet and we were getting ready for a deployment to Haiti. I felt very alone.

1996 - My best friend had come down to visit me at Ft. Polk. We had gone to get our first tattoos together a couple of days before. We decided to go to Houston and stopped in to visit his aunt that lived there. I get a surprise phone call from my parents while we're at his aunt's. Since I didn't have a phone in the barracks this was possibly the first time they had ever been able to call me since I went into the army.

1997 - I've been in Korea for about 8 months. The drinking age for soldiers there was 20, so turning 21 wasn't much of an event. I decided to stay up on the 1st until midnight to have a toast to myself anyway. I don't remember exactly what I did that day, but I'm sure I spent some time in the Lair (one guy's room that we always drank and watched movies in) with my buddies. When I arrived in my platoon in Korea, for the first time in my life I felt like I immediately fit in with a group of people. So to Ring, Rosales, Terry, Sgt. Hood, Chang, Ortiz and all the rest of the platoon we renamed the Reservoir Dogs thank you for that monumental year in my life.

1998 - I'm stationed in Ft. Drum, NY but I'm home on leave for the holidays. I had met my ex-fiance a week before. My best friend drove me back to Ft. Drum the next day (I believe). Being home is a wonderful thing.

1999 - I'm home. I'm working at Subway. I'm going to school. I'm dating the ex-fiance. I have no idea what I actually did on that day but I know I saw my family.

2000 - I'm still in school. I'm still dating the ex. I'm now working for a web-based computer hardware reseller. I have no idea what I actually did that day.

2001 - I'm no longer with the ex. I'm done with school and working with one of my best friends from school. Once again, I don't know what I did that day.

2002 - I have no job because I was laid off. Yet again I don't know what I did that day.

2003 - I'm working at the computer hardware place again because I desperately needed a job. I get a call from my current boss and she tells me that I'm getting the job.

2004 - I'm in San Antonio, TX for work. My boss is there along with a couple other co-workers. I didn't get to see my family for the first time since 98 but they are family enough. I believe we had sushi and chinese that night.

I don't like not being able to remember what I did on the birthdays of the years I was home. So today I want to do something that I'll be able to remember. I have no idea what that is though. Right now I'm supposed to be playing paintball, but apparently I decided to blow that off. I'll come up with something.

Happy New Year!

2005-01-01T10:20:00.000-05:00

Everyone at my place went out last night so my brother came up and we played a little Mortal Kombat and watched Spider-man 2. To ring in the new year we popped open a nice bottle of Hennepin and watched the ball drop. Yes it's a beer, but it had a cork so it's perfectly good for such a celebration. After that he crashed and I headed to bed so I could make into work today.

I got up, took my shower and got ready to go and I still had fifteen minutes before I needed to leave to make it here for eight. So I made the mistake of jumping online for a few minutes. Next thing I know it's eight and I'm just getting in my car. Bad news since it takes forty minutes to get to the office.

When I pulled into the parking lot I knew something was wrong. There definitely should have been more cars. The door to the building is locked. There's no one here. I don't have a way to get any more information except to drive all the way back home.

I decide to wait until nine to see if people show up and sure enough they do. So I went from being very late to being pretty early just like that. I guess it works out well in the long run, but now I'm kind of aggravated because I could have slept an hour longer, not screwed around and been here on time. I like my sleep. Especially in the mornings. Maybe I'll let myself sleep in tomorrow since that's my birthday.

So my new year is off and running. I hope everyone is enjoying the start of their new year.

crazy cubemate

2004-12-31T14:20:00.000-05:00

I heard my cubemate say to his wife on the phone, "I was looking at those things you can make dough with." I'm not sure how she replied, but she definitely didn't understand what he meant because he was trying to describe it a different way.

"A mixer.", I say.

"Oh yeah a mixer.", he says. "Thanks"

His conversation continues and I hear him say, "... those good ones. Kitchen Aid, right."

The scary thing is that I knew he was talking about Kitchen Aid when I said mixer, I've known him for two years and she has lived with the guy for 20 or more. Shouldn't she understand him a little better than me?

blahger

2004-12-29T22:34:00.000-05:00

I just lost a damn fine post. Blah. Hehe, wouldn't it be great if there was a rival blog site called blahger.com?

Oh, I lied my post did show up. I still think it would be funny if there was a blahger.com.

Subway Soap Star

2004-12-29T22:04:00.000-05:00

I used to work at Subway and I just don't understand these kids that work there these days. When I worked there I would regularly make three or four sandwiches at the same time if they were all going to be on the same order. The thing I hated the most is when a person would order one sandwich and wait until I had wrapped it up and taken off my gloves before they said, "Oh, I have another one." Especially if there was a line waiting. Putting those gloves on is one of those inverse proportion laws. The more people waiting the longer it takes to get them on.

Today I went to Subway for lunch with a couple of my friends. Since I had left my wallet at home today (which I did find on my floor, but not as quickly as I expected. I guess I should probably clean or something.) one of my buddies was covering me for lunch. Of course I tried to help the guy out by saying, "We're going to be together if that makes a difference to you." Apparently it didn't make any difference to him because he made my sandwich, wrapped it up, took off his gloves and was waiting for me near the register until I said, "The two of us are paying together."

Now I would assume that he just didn't hear me tell him the first time but... Right after I said that one of my pals made a snide comment about us "being together" so I jokingly replied, "Oh, not that we're together...". The Sandwich Artist (if that's what they're still called) said, "Hey that's your thing. It doesn't matter to me."

I love to give people options for why they may have done something, so here they are:

1. He took my statement of "Oh, not that we're together..." as a recant to my original statement and thought I was one of those screwed up customers that can't make up their mind. With those people you just ignore everything they say until they announce "Foot long turkey on wheat bread."

2. He believed I was making a statement about the state of my relationship with my friend and I was asking for his approval. "I don't care. I'll still make you a sandwich."

3. He's a dope.

The girl there is so much more efficient. And she's much nicer to look at. Of course I've never seen her handle four... never mind.

Sonic Assault

2004-12-29T17:46:00.000-05:00

Today on my way to work I threw in a Sepultura CD. Apparently I cranked it way up on the drive in and turned the car off during a very heavy part of the song because the sonic assault that hit me when I turned the car on actually made me jump. If anyone had been standing next to my car watching me they surely would have been laughing their ass off.

Humility

2004-12-29T11:03:00.000-05:00

For some reason I decided I need to feel my ass as I was walking into the office today and discovered that my wallet was not in my back pocket. It's actually kind of nice not sitting on it all day, but now I don't have any means of purchasing food and I'm hungry. I guess I'll have to do some begging so I can get lunch.

Will work for beer

2004-12-28T21:28:00.000-05:00

A friend of my cousin's husband is trying to get connected to Xbox Live. I told him what he needed to get but he keeps running into problems and he has no experience with this type of thing. He finally asked me if I would go over his house and set it up for him for $50 because the cable company told him it would cost about $300 for them to do it. I said, "No man, I work for beer. Hook me up with a six pack and I'll take care of it for you." I've never seen someone so excited to buy a six pack in my life.

Gerbera Sunset

2004-12-21T22:35:00.000-05:00

I finished the Gerbera series. You can see the results here

There's nothing like...

2004-12-20T13:54:00.000-05:00

the smell of burning CDs in the early afternoon.

Daisy-framed cont.

2004-12-16T21:58:00.000-05:00

I picked up some more daisies today. I wish I had been able to get more of the orange ones, but they only had red or white. I'm still trying to decide which of these I like better. I didn't really expect to have a shot of the red ones that was so much like the shot of the orange ones. Maybe I'll get some yellow ones and make it a series.

Google Search Star

2004-12-16T16:50:00.000-05:00

Google Search: pizza crust

How about that. My buddy just told me that he saw my name when he was looking for pizza crust. Sure enough I'm in the description of the third hit for pizza crust on Google. My Google Star has risen just like my pizza dough.

So much for being Mr. Jones.

Oddly Enough News | Fake Explosives Lost

2004-12-16T11:58:00.000-05:00

Oddly Enough News Article | Reuters.com: "PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Security screeners at Newark Liberty International Airport lost a bag containing fake explosives used to test the airport's bomb-detection system, federal officials said on Wednesday.

The bag was mistakenly loaded on a Continental Airlines flight to Amsterdam, where it was retrieved on arrival, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration said. The airport near New York City was one of three used by the Sept. 11 hijackers."

Rene had posted about some french cops that lost some explosives a couple of weeks ago. Now I find out that we're almost as bad. Unlike the french though, we didn't use real plastic explosives AND we were able to retrieve the bag.

Rock on

2004-12-16T01:12:00.000-05:00

I actually got off my ass tonight and went to the rock gym with my brother. In the beginning of the year we went there few times and were thinking this would be our new thing. Between overworking ourselves and being short on money we ended basically forgetting all about that idea. Well, my brother got a gift certificate to EMS (because my cousin saw the super long line at the bookstore and this store was right next to it) and immediately thought "climbing gear".

So now we have a plan, and tonight we actually put the first part of it into place. We've pre-paid for our next four visits, which means no getting out of it because of a funds shortage. Perhaps more importantly we didn't kill ourselves tonight. We had a good time and I'm looking forward to our next visit. And that, my friends, is the key to me getting off my ass with any regularity.

The Laugh Police

2004-12-15T19:47:00.000-05:00

So the manager I'm now calling the Laugh Police came by my desk today. The conversation went something like this:

Laugh Police: Mr. Jones*, are you busy?
Jay: Let's see, right now...
Laugh Police: You're not doing anything. I left a message with Cool Boss about this client but I haven't heard back from her. Would you be able to set up their upgrade?

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm usually not rude to people by cutting them off when I'm asking them to do something for me. It wouldn't have been wrong of me to inform him that he'd have to wait to hear back from Cool Boss, but the client would have paid for my petty revenge and that wouldn't be right.

Why did he have to be rude? I've come up with two possible reasons:

1. He's got a bit of a god complex and feels that his higher purpose outweighs the rules of order and decorum.

2. It chaps his ass that he has to go through me one way or another to have these things to get done.

I'm going to console myself by believing in option number 2.

*Jones is a good, generic last name, right?

Daisy-framed?

2004-12-13T21:55:00.000-05:00

Over the weekend I bought these gerbera daisies with the intention of taking a picture of them that I could give to a friend as a present. Unfortunately I never quite made it outside to take some pictures in sunlight and now the daisies are too droopy. The only flowers I usually keep around are origami, so it's kind of odd to see petals start to wilt.

Below are the two shots I like the best. My room makes a pretty poor background so the original background was replaced on one of them to spare your eyes. Pretty flowers brighten up a room and all, but they don't do miracles.

Now I have to ask for your help. Is either of these shots "wall-hanging" quality? If yes which one? I can always get more flowers, so don't be afraid to say, "Sorry Jack, these are whack."

Speaking of "wall-hanging" quality photos, I received my print from Bryan on Friday. It looks great. I took it to get framed and the lady there was remarking at how nice it was. There was a big discount on the mounting, matting and framing if I dropped it off and picked it up in January, so I have to live without it being around for a couple of weeks. Thanks Bryan.

Shhh! No laughing allowed

2004-12-08T10:25:00.000-05:00

Apparently I'm too boisterous at work for one of the manager's taste. I was warned by a co-worker that he had made comments about me when he had a meeting for his department. Of course he's not my manager so it's not as if I'm in trouble. I guess this is what happens when you pack people from four different departments into one area of the office. Departmental personalities don't always quite jive. I guess I'll think about avoiding "laughing all the time." Nah

Judge taken off criminal court

2004-12-07T23:20:00.000-05:00

This story was sent to you by: Jay

Here's what happened to the judge that screwed up.

--------------------
Judge taken off criminal court
--------------------

By Robert Perez
Sentinel Staff Writer

December 6, 2004, 3:26 PM EST

SANFORD -- Seminole County Court Judge John R. Sloop was taken off criminal court today, three days after he ordered 11 people jailed for arriving late for their traffic court hearings.

All 11 had been directed to the wrong courtroom and were about two hours late for their hearings, but Sloop refused to hear their cases and had them arrested.

Records show seven people were jailed Thursday by Sloop under similar circumstances.

The order moving Sloop to the county civil court, issued by James E. C. Perry, chief judge of the 18th Judicial Circuit, goes into effect immediately and until further notice.

Eleven people jailed Friday spent eight hours or more at the Seminole County Jail before being released without being required to post bail. Sloop reversed his decision to have them jailed, although it is unclear why he had a change of heart. Attempts to reach Sloop have been unsuccessful. Perry also ordered the 11 released Friday.

The seven people jailed Thursday were not so lucky. While some were able to post bond that same day, others spent as many as three days in jail before posting bond.

Copyright (c) 2004, Orlando Sentinel | Get home delivery - up to 50% off

Visit OrlandoSentinel.com

Courtroom mix-up puts 11 in jail

2004-12-07T23:06:00.000-05:00

This story was sent to you by: Jay

Here's the full story about those people that were jailed for being directed to the wrong courtroom.

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Courtroom mix-up puts 11 in jail
--------------------

They were misdirected, but a Seminole judge locks them up.

By Robert Perez
Sentinel Staff Writer

December 4, 2004

SANFORD -- After being directed to Courtroom 1B, the six men and five women waited Friday for a judge to hear their cases. And they waited and waited, but their names were never called.

Meanwhile, in an adjoining courtroom not 100 feet away, Seminole County Judge John R. Sloop was waiting for the 11 defendants to appear before him. When they didn't show up, he signed warrants for their arrests.

By the time the 11 finally discovered that they had been misdirected by court personnel and asked to appear before the judge to explain what had happened, he would not see them and ordered their arrests.

"When the officers came out, they had handcuffs," said Irving Merced, who was in court on a ticket for driving without a license. "I thought, 'I'm getting arrested? Why?' "

Before everything was straightened out, the defendants spent eight hours Friday in a Seminole County Jail cell.

Many of the defendants were angry and some began to cry as they were taken into custody, Merced said.

"I'm hungry, I'm tired and I'm disgusted," said Frantarshia Coleman, after she was released from jail Friday night. "This is ridiculous. This is disgusting."

Coleman, 33, of Orlando was in court on a ticket for not having her registration and proof of insurance. She was quick to pull out a wrinkled, yellow traffic ticket indicating her court date in Courtroom 1B. She and the others were supposed to be in 1A.

Theresa DeClue, 28, of Heathrow and Aileen Nunez, 24, of Orlando also recalled their shock at being jailed.

"I really thought, 'This is a joke. This can't be happening,' " DeClue said.

Nunez said she would contact an attorney.

"I hope that judge gets fired," she said.

Nunez and the others would have stayed in jail longer -- likely overnight -- had Sloop not signed paperwork later in the day allowing them to be released without having to pay bail. It is unclear why Sloop reversed his decision. Attempts to reach Sloop were not successful.

About the time that Sloop was reversing himself, Circuit Judge James Perry, chief judge of the 18th Judicial Circuit, took similar action to make sure the 11 would be released Friday.

"When I was made aware of this, I tried to reach Judge Sloop," Perry said late Friday. "When I was unable to reach him, I took steps to make sure they were released on their own recognizance."

Perry would not discuss Sloop's handling of the case or whether he planned to speak about it to Sloop next week. When asked, Perry said he would not have handled the issue the same way as Sloop.

Sloop has developed a reputation as a hard-nosed judge and was the only one of 10 Seminole County judges to receive the lowest rating -- "poor" -- in the 2004 Central Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers poll. Sloop's lowest rating in the poll -- 2.08 out of a possible 5 -- was for "demeanor."

Robert Perez can be reachedat rperez@orlandosentinel.comor 407-772-8046.

Copyright (c) 2004, Orlando Sentinel | Get home delivery - up to 50% off

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Dreams

2004-12-07T13:38:00.000-05:00

I've determined that you should always try to remember your dreams. How else are you going to accomplish them?

I remember having a dream recently where I read most of a 300 page book in 5 minutes. A co-worker asked if I remembered what happened in the book. Damn, if I could remember what happened in the book I could write it and make some money, because it was good.

Like Mitch says, "I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm gonna find out where they're going and meet up with them later."

Yahoo! News - Teacher Faces Fine for Using Doorstop

2004-12-06T21:00:00.000-05:00

Yahoo! News - Teacher Faces Fine for Using Doorstop: "State Fire Marshal Sterling Lewis Jr. said the corridor wall that contains the door is a smoke partition and the door must be able to close if there is a fire to hinder the spread of smoke. He said not all doors in the building fall under that designation, so some can be propped open legally and some can't.

Sixth-grade teacher Susanna Robinson said her door was not labeled a smoke partition. She said the windows in her classroom do not open, teachers have been told not to adjust the thermostat and the room is too hot when it is filled with students."

More infuriation. I'm hoping the judge ends up being humanitarian enough to drop the citation.

Guinness World Records

2004-12-06T20:58:00.000-05:00

Guinness World Records
Fastest Pint Of Stout
Multiple record-holder Peter Dowdeswell drank a pint of Guinness stout in just 2.1 seconds at the Millwall Football Club, London, UK, on April 24, 2001.

Brian and I agree that his is one record we wouldn't mind trying to break.

Yahoo! News - 11 Directed to Wrong Courtroom Arrested

2004-12-06T19:57:00.000-05:00

Yahoo! News - 11 Directed to Wrong Courtroom Arrested: "By the time the 11 finally discovered that they had been misdirected by court personnel and asked to appear before the judge to explain what had happened, he would not see them and ordered their arrests."

This simply infuriates me.

Yahoo! News - Notable Quotes

2004-12-06T16:02:00.000-05:00

Yahoo! News - Notable Quotes: "'I'm Colin Luther Powell

Public service is my thing

Don't do it for the ring, don't do it for the bling.'

--Secretary of State COLIN POWELL, making his debut as a rapper at the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington."

Hunka Hunka Burning...

2004-12-06T08:20:00.000-05:00

As I was tooling along towards NYC on Saturday I saw a plume of black smoke coming from over a hill up ahead.

When I got close enough to actually see fire I thought it was the grass on the side of the road burning because some jackass had done something stupid.

But when I got closer I realized it was some sort of heap that was burning not just the grass. But why wouldn't the fireman just put out the burning hay bales?

I finally realize that I'm seeing a vehicle burning. As you can see the entire thing was engulfed in flames. I was able to determine that it was a Ford pickup truck because the tailgate was still visible. I guess this doesn't do much to disprove the Found On Road Dead acronym.

I certainly hope no one was in the truck. I wasn't able to find any news articles about it. Seeing this makes me feel even more fortunate that my "proof that two forms of matter can't occupy the same the same space at the same time" as Joey put it, wasn't more serious.

This was just on the way to NYC. There's more to come. No more fire, but certainly some heat to talk about.

New York City

2004-12-05T01:59:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to do a quick post to say that I'm in NYC. So far I have a little story to tell that involves fire. I'll post more when I get home.

phil ringnalda dot com: Right-click Add Live Bookmark

2004-12-03T17:46:00.000-05:00

phil ringnalda dot com: Right-click Add Live Bookmark

For anyone that likes the Live Bookmarks feature in Firefox, but wishes there was something like a Live Bookmark This Link... this extension is for you. It gives you an Add Live Bookmark option in your context menu to use on those sites that simply give you a link to the URL for their RSS feed instead of having the information built into the HTML.

pics of the damage

2004-12-03T14:29:00.000-05:00

I'm sitting here on the phone in a training class, so I figured I'd post a couple of pictures of the damage to my car from the other day.

scary lunch meat

2004-12-03T13:37:00.000-05:00

I hate scare lunch meat. It always waits until you have the mustard and cheese on the bread before it yells, "Uggada Uggada UGG" making you toss it in the trash in disgust. Of course the scary lunch meat is always the last lunch meat in the fridge which leaves you with nothing to put on your sandwich.

Hydroplaning Horror

2004-12-01T23:41:00.000-05:00

I had a really rough time getting myself moving this morning. I did finally get myself started on my 40 minute drive to work in the pouring rain. I was cruising along in the fast lane not even half way there when my car starts turning sideways.

I'm hydroplaning and my tires have decide to treat the water that's under them like it's ice. I quickly turned the wheel to keep my front wheels pointing in the same direction as the highway and the car cooperated by starting to straighten out.

My instant of relief was very brief as I realized that the car was now turning past straight to go the opposite direction. I was able to get the wheel turned the other direction and also became aware of a car in a lane that I was now creeping towards.

I don't know how long my fight for control lasted, but I turned the wheel back and forth 5 or 6 times. The fight ended when the car turned past the point of no return and I realized that I was about to be looking at people's oncoming headlights.

Just about the same time I was completely facing the opposite direction I also came into contact with the guard rail and suddenly realized I had this thing called a brake. I came to a complete stop in the high speed lane, facing traffic, with part of my passenger side becoming intimately acquainted with the guard rail.

Of course the next thing I did was jump out of the car to assess the damage. There was one concerned gentleman that pulled his truck over in the breakdown lane to make sure everything was alright. I assured him that I was fine, saw that the tire closest to the guard rail seemed whole and jumped back in to get out of the rain.

At this point I realized it would be a damn good idea to put my emergency flashers on. Of course if someone sees headlights pointing at them in the high speed lane it's a pretty safe bet they're going to realize there is something drastically wrong.

I waited for a break in the cars going by, pulled a Uie, waved at my concerned friend to say thanks and proceeded to work.

If my concerned friend does read this let me tell you that I am extremely grateful to you for stopping and checking on me. If I knew who you were I would buy you a beer.

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

2004-11-30T21:40:00.000-05:00

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

2004-11-30T01:26:00.000-05:00

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

2004-11-29T10:02:00.000-05:00

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

2004-11-29T09:50:00.000-05:00

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

2004-11-27T03:07:00.000-05:00

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.

2004-11-26T15:33:00.000-05:00

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.

2004-11-26T13:33:00.000-05:00

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

2004-11-24T20:08:00.000-05:00

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.

2004-11-22T21:42:00.000-05:00

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

Are you ready for some football?

2004-11-22T20:33:00.000-05:00

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

2004-11-21T18:49:00.000-05:00

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

2004-11-17T01:56:00.000-05:00

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

2004-11-15T01:54:00.000-05:00

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...

2004-11-15T01:05:00.000-05:00

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

2004-11-13T11:20:00.000-05:00

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

2004-11-12T19:09:00.000-05:00

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

2004-11-10T15:55:00.000-05:00

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

Belgian Beer Fest

2004-11-08T10:58:00.000-05:00

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

2004-11-06T09:02:00.000-05:00

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

Life in the Office

2004-11-05T23:26:00.000-05:00

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

2004-11-05T22:25:00.000-05:00

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

2004-11-05T15:15:00.000-05:00

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

As you can see...

2004-11-05T08:51:00.000-05:00

it's a beautiful day here at the computer.

A Change Will do You Good

2004-11-04T23:05:00.000-05:00

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

2004-11-04T08:47:00.000-05:00

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

2004-11-03T06:07:00.000-05:00

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

2004-11-02T20:22:00.000-05:00

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

2004-11-01T21:44:00.000-05:00

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.