January 2007 Archives
...and he is a fucking komodo dragon.
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CHESTER, England - Scientists unveiled five squirmy black and yellow Komodo dragons Wednesday that were the product of a virgin birth, predicting that the hatchlings offered hope for breeding the endangered species.
Read more about it here.
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I slept like shit last night. Well, maybe not exactly like shit but I tossed and turned and didn't get nearly enough sleep. The smallest one has been in bed with us the last two nights, but I am not even sure that was it as I didn't sleep very well the night before either. I may be able to get a bit more rest later this week though as my newest manager trainee has to work the graveyard shift for me all week so I am pulling the guy that usually cooks it up on days with me. Lazy week, but those are occasionally nice.
I am finally having that legal investigation against me on Thursday morning. I probably will not post the details once it does but at least the general gist of what it was about and how it went. That's one of the things that make my job so difficult. It's hard enough having to let someone go that has a family to support but when they are just a sorry sack of shit that has to turn around and complain about discrimination because the only way that they can keep their job is to threaten you with that crap, it just pisses me off. Maybe he can get a job at the car wash across the street, but I doubt he will hold it long, as they expect you to work.
The doctor gave us a prescription for Zantac for the middle child yesterday and told us to keep watching her diet. Anything with acid in it we have to be careful to moderate the amounts. At least she (the doctor) didn't say we have to completely cut it out of her diet. It's a pain in the ass when the stuff you want to eat is only the stuff that is not good for you.
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Guitar World Magazine has their list of 100 greatest guitar solos up over at about.com for your perusal. I don't agree with a lot of them, and there are some great solos that have been left out or relegated to the bottom of the list and a few that are in the top ten that are not deserving. Ursi via Cityrag has linked to the top ten and has links to the youtube videos as well.
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Updated at 10:45pm and again at 11:15PM. I think I have done enough damage tonight, it's time to take my happy ass to bed.
I finally got it to work. After having spent $2 on a little piece of crap flash player from Flashden that supposedly lets you load multiple instances on the same page, but won't work at all, I came across a little javascript over at del.icio.us called playtagger that you imbed in the body of the web page using the following syntax:
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://images.del.icio.us/static/js/playtagger.js"></script>
Any mp3 that you link to in the normal way, i.e.
<a href="http://www.shadowscope.com/files/18.mp3">Alice Cooper - 18</a> becomes a playable link that looks like this:
It takes forever to load on my page because of all the crap in my sidebar I think, but just wait for the damn thing. The main reason I posted the directions was so that my wife could use it.
Originally posted at 6:03PM on 1/26/2007
Damnit. I got the flash music player code working on the first one, but it won't show up at all on the second post I have it in. It's pissing me off. Moveabletype doesn't have a decent music player plugin, so no easy solution for me other than hand coding the links. I made sure to even just use copy and paste from the first one to the second, and it still won't work.
Maybe I will test and see if it works on the second player with the song from the first. I suppose something might be wrong with the file itself.
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I sort of threw a wrench in my boss (two levels up) and his plans for the next few weeks. I let him know that I was not particularly interested in the district that he wants me in, that if he had NOBODY else, I would step up to the plate, but it is only about a $5k raise for a hell of a lot more work and I can make that staying where I am answering straight to him.
There is one other guy who is up for promotion, but way down the list. I suggested that they give it to him and just leave me alone for know. Things are finally starting to look up for me at work with money and I don't want to jeopardize that by stepping in to a situation where I would be in over my head.
I would jump on it if it were either of the other two districts out here, but this one just sucks. Two of the stores together do almost as much in sales as my single store. Three times the headaches, lots more hours, responsibility. Hell no. I may still end up with it, but I really really hope not.
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Looking through my visitors and referrers today, I came across the author of this blog. The Lingerie Gals. Right away I knew it was the place for me to visit. I've had an extremely long day at work due to meetings and am tired as hell so I knew it would be relaxing to look at something nice for awhile since my wife had to go to the store for a few.
Looking down through the posts I came across the one for nipple covers from way back in December. What? Damn, I didn't know they made these things. I've gotta get myself some of those. I hate it at work when I have my daytimer and pen in my pocket, and the shit is rubbing the hell out of my nipple. I end up being a bit nipply for hours afterward. Yeah, I know. TMI.
Anyway, I started looking at the prices and decided I don't need them that fucking bad. I've got me a big ass roll of duct tape and a knife.
I wonder if I could market this shit.
Anyway, go check out The Lingerie Gals. I'll bet if I showed it to the dude with the cameras it might have kept his ass out of jail.
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My boss had to work for a few hours last night along with the rest of the managers at her level cleaning up a store that belongs to someone else. All I can say is that I am glad it wasn't me. They are wanting to take my store away from her and have me answer straight to the boss at the next level up. It's mainly just internal politics and bullshit. It probably would mean a tiny bit more money for me, and I have run restaurants before with no boss, but it is more of a pain in the ass than anything. The bad thing is that she is threatening to quit if they do it. That would probably place me in HER job.
While I wouldn't mind having three stores, I don't particularly want HER stores. I guess I can't be that choosy, at least it would keep me local, but the money wouldn't be quite as good in her district, and she has been there for eight years, and both of her other managers are big pains in the asses.
I am going to have to think about this one for awhile. I have a discrimination investigation going on in the meantime anyway, so after that the whole thing might be a moot point. I didn't realize that stupidity was a protected minority, but apparently so.
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Police found hidden cameras in the women's room at the Waffle House in Mirror Lake community, which is part of Villa Rica, GA, but sits just inside Douglas County, not Carroll County as WSB TV has been reporting. I've made light of this most of the day and talked about bringing my camera to work next week, but it's a pretty serious issue. This guy is a fucking scumbag. Apparently he was transmitting the images wirelessly to computers and possibly burning them to DVD as well.
What I have heard from customers that were in there and other people that live in Villa Rica pretty closely mirrors the other information that has been on the news today. It sounds like this guy is going to be spending some quality time down at the iron bar motel. Hell, if they find any minors on the videos, he will go away for a long LONG time on charges whatever charges that they file on sexual predators.
There goes my fucking stock (what little I have anyway).
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There are a bunch of spoofs of the PC vs. Mac commercials over at youtube. Here's one of the ones that is pretty funny. There are a bunch of others over there as well.
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This is kind of cool. Maybe it's not a new feature, but I just discovered it. Youtube allows you to send videos from your cell phone and post them. Very cool for stealthily blogging nasty shit you don't have time to write about. It also allows you to post to certain blogs, unfortunately movabletype is not one of them. Maybe later.
Anyway, this was taken at the oldest girls lunch last week. She was very excited that I came to eat lunch with her.
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Someone from Verizon called me back first thing this morning as I figured they would. Any charges are being taken care of and they apologized. She did make sure to tell me that I should have suspended the phone immediately the same day that it was stolen, and she is right but they should have taken care of me the first time they were asked, and not tried to get my wife to purchase something utterly useless and then blow me off when I complained about it.
At least all that is settled. All that is left to do is for my wife to call the coach at the other school and let them know they have a damn thief on their wrestling team.
I hate dealing with Customer No-Service and once I have dealt with them once with no satisfaction, I feel like it is time to do what I did and email everyone else in the damn company that CAN fix the problem.
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One of the handful of TV shows that I watch came back on last night. Battlestar Galactica. The have changed the day and time that it comes on now to Sundays at 10PM though. This will be the last time that I stay up. I tossed and turned for a couple of hours last night and ended up getting maybe four hours of sleep at the most. I feel like shit. It's on a lower channel so I will set it to start recording. What sucks is that I also watch The Sopranos which will probably be on at the same time and I cannot record that as my cable box is no longer hooked to anything but the TV.
24 comes on tonight, so I will watch it again, and then try and pass out. No damn coffee for me after 7PM. That is part of the problem I think.
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I found the email address for the Georgia/Alabama press contact and sent this email to her, as well as the last one. Persistence pays off and I have gotten myself worked up to where I am pretty pissed off now:
If you have an email address where I may get in touch with someone who will take care of my issue, I would appreciate it. I found all of your addresses via the contact page as there is nowhere else that I seem to be able to get in touch with anyone. Your Consumer Advocacy page only allows for 700 characters in the complaint, which is nowhere near enough.
I am also cross posting any emails that I send or receive via my blog. Thank you for your help,
Richard Miles
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Updated at 9:58pm. I managed to find some contacts. Thanks to the help of Google, I managed to find several media contacts on their news center. I emailed the letter below to Robert.Kelley@VerizonWireless.com; Thomas.Pica@VerizonWireless.com; Sheldon.Jones@VerizonWireless.com; caran.smith@verizonwireless.com; Carolyn.Culbertson@verizonwireless.com and Nancy.Stark@verizonwireless.com. Hopefully someone will respond by tomorrow evening, otherwise I will start hounding the BBB and some of the local news channels with their pain in the ass Consumer Advocacy Alert Teams, or whatever the hell they are called now.
Originally posted on 1-21-2007 at 9:14PM
I have attempted to contact Verizon. I did find one link to email the Customer Advocacy department, but it won't let you send a fucking message over 700 characters. I am looking for email addresses to any of their VP's or Presidents, particularly in the marketing or communications departments if any of you guys know them. Contacting customer non-service is fucking useless, I am tired of dealing with them. Perhaps someone with the company that would not like bad press would be willing to take care of my problem.
Here is the body of the email that I have been trying to send this evening, edited for content that you guys don't need. More in the extended entry.
On Saturday, January 13th, my son's mobile phone was stolen from him at a wrestling tournament. His mobile number is EDITED and he is on my Family Choice plan. I called it a couple of times, the first time someone answered and then hung up. After that they just let it roll to voice mail. For a couple of days they must have had it turned off as it would roll straight to voice mail without ringing.
We tried several times to call whoever it was, and last night Saturday January 20th I had a friend who is NOT in my son's contact list call. They answered and hung up after briefly speaking with my friend, and then called back. After getting no information from them they hung up and called back from another number EDITED, also a Verizon number apparently registered in Newnan Georgia. They also hung up on my friend after they figured out what we were after. I called this new number and threatened them with legal action if the phone was not returned to me immediately. They said OK and then hung up. After a few minutes they called me back and gave me a story about a neighbor having the phone, and they didn't want to have anything to do with it. When I told them that they would be considered accessories to theft they agreed to get the phone and return it to me today.
Continue reading A letter to Verizon.
My brother and I drove to Carrollton around noon along with my youngest and my son. I finally managed to get in touch with the guy who had the cell phone, apparently he was in church in Newnan, which is about 40 minutes from there. We agreed to meet at 5PM this evening in Carrollton to get my cell phone back. In the meantime, we decided to stop and eat lunch at the Mellow Mushroom. The owner is a friend of mine and a former regular customer (only former because I am at a new store, not because I ran him off) then we paid a visit to the Verizon Wireless store in Carrollton, which is a corporate store.
I explained what had happened with his phone being stolen. There were a couple hundred text messages which had been sent and then deleted, and a few phone calls, one being long distance. I also explained that the Verizon Reseller in Villa Rica had suggested insurance fraud to get him a new phone cheaper and talked my wife into adding insurance on his phone. This woman's answer was "You can't add insurance, this has to be done within 15 days of purchase". Excuse the fuck out of me, but I have the printout where the reseller removed the "insurance declined" on his phone.
Her answer to the text messages and any charges was that I needed to speak to "customer service" and that she couldn't help me. I guess she must be the highly paid door greeter since obviously she has no customer service.
As far as me telling her that the Villa Rica reseller is not only condoning insurance fraud, but suggesting it to customers, her answer was "They are an authorized Verizon dealer". Now what the fuck does that have to do with anything? Bitch. Thanks for the help. The lack of interest and the fact that she obviously doesn't give a shit about her company makes me want to dump them and find another carrier. If I could do so without incurring a shitload of penalties I would do it tomorrow.
Since that is not an option, I have some research to do. I will do the same thing that I did with Blockbuster a couple of years ago, and email the crap out of all of the division presidents and anyone else in the marketing department that wants to hear it, demand that I not get charged for anything that happened on his phone over the last week, and that they let him re-download the ringers that were deleted, otherwise I will start hammering on the better business bureau and anyone else that will listen on the Internet. Asshats. The more I think about their reaction, the more pissed off that I get. Obviously this is not a company as a whole, or even representative of most of them, but the attitude of "don't give a shit seems to permeate companies as they get bigger and don't have to worry about one customer that pays $180/month in phone bills. That's a drop in the bucket for them I guess.
Trackposted to Rightwing Guy, Wake Up America, Faultline USA, Big Dog's Weblog, basil's blog, The Pink Flamingo, Cao's Blog, Dumb Ox Daily News, Conservative Cat, Right Voices, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
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Lisa found the lost video from our blogmeet in Helen last fall, and has posted it. I particularly admire the color choices that they made for their dancing clothes. Damn, that was so wrong it's funny.
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Unfortunately due to meetings I ended up working until after 9PM last night, thus the lack of anything on the blog since yesterday morning.
I was behind the eight ball the entire day it seemed. Of course I started the day short staffed, couldn't find one of the keys I needed that opened the office, was very busy all day, and then had to go to Oxford Alabama for a meeting, my favorite thing to do. I think I got to spend all of about five minutes with my wife on her birthday, which sucked. She was watching Grey's Anatomy when I got home so I left her alone and checked my email and surfed for awhile until it was time to pass out.
Hopefully today will run a bit more smoothly than yesterday. I have a lot I need to get done today before my weekend off.
I saw a video on CNN this morning that prompted me to do a bit of searching. Ed Brown and his wife, in New Hampshire, believe that they have the legal right NOT to pay the federal income tax. They have holed themselves up in their house, along with weapons, and are ready to defend themselves to the death if necessary to stand up for that belief. So far the government has been trying to work with them.
I happen to agree with them about taxes and the law, but I don't believe that tax evasion is the way to get this changed. I feel like the 16th Amendment is unconstitutional. but the way to get that changed is to support a change in the law. Unless we make our lawmakers uncomfortable and vote their asses out the door, nothing is going to change and a handful of people around the country involved in tax evasion just is not going to change this.
http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007701100361
http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2007/01/10/tax_protester_trial_underway/
http://yannone.blogspot.com/2007/01/will-plainfield-be-another-waco.html
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I saw this over at youtube last night or this morning, and my brother sent me the link as well, so I decided to share. Pretty damned funny
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I remember being in school (it seems so long ago now) and how there were always one or two teachers that truly inspired me and made me enjoy learning. I really like being in school, and like learning from them. Unfortunately not enough to keep me from dropping out. They did their part however, the choice to drop out of school at 16 was my responsibility and decision along with my parents, NOT the school systems.
For a long time I have taken the view that our public school system sucks and we need to start over, or turn all control back over to the states instead of the federal government. My view on that has started to change over the last couple of years. Up until his Junior year, my son has been in private school his entire life, as have both of my girls. We finally made the choice at the end of his sophomore year that we just couldn't afford it anymore, and put them in public school.
Some of the things that I have learned are these:
They got a decent education in private school, but nothing spectacular. Most private school teachers (including very pricey exclusive schools) make HALF or less than public school teachers. That doesn't mean that they don't do a fine job, but usually they are somewhat limited in funds and stuff that they can do with the kids. The big selling point for me at the time when they each started was the SOCIAL environment. Sure, kids in private schools have sex, get pregnant, and smoke dope too, but it is not nearly as prevalent as it is in the public schools. I didn't want my kids around that shit, and still don't. By the time the girls are in middle school, I am hoping to be able to afford to send them back to Oak Mountain, or one of the other private schools nearby, but it has nothing to do with the education they will receive, it's the KIDS they are around.
I hate to go out on a limb (not really) but if you hang with trailer trash all day long and that is all you see, that is what you start to act like.
My son has spent his Junior and Senior years in public school, and for a change, he is being challenged. He's in all AP classes, and also is getting the chance to participate in sports, which is much more difficult in a small private school as well, unless you are into golf or tennis.
The people that bitch because teachers make such HUGE salaries just don't know what they are talking about. My wife for instance, has busted her butt and gotten two degrees, and is in her twelfth year of teaching. According to the US Census Bureau, people with a Masters Degree earn on AVERAGE between 70-80,000 per year base starting salary. She makes somewhere in the 40's. She has her Master's and will still make less than I do. Boy, that's huge. Now, if we moved into a more populous county, she could probably raise that at least 10k per year, but my salary would go up as well, just like everyone else's.
I have sort of lost my train of thought on this, but I read a post over at Catfish's site and it just crawled all over me tonight. This was way too long to put in a comment there, so I decided I would put it down here.
I think the biggest issues in getting a good education, whether it be public school or private is parental involvement, and having the administrators AND parents be willing to back the teachers up. When I acted stupid and got detention, or suspended (say it isn't so!) my parents would ask what my dumb ass did. They didn't call the teacher whining about makeup work and call the principal to let them know they were going to take the school to civil court or whine about how unfair it was, or accuse them of discrimination. They weren't so worried about me getting my feelings hurt as they were about me getting a good education.
(Cross-Posted at Indie Bloggers)
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...is a good thing around here. I had a pretty boring day at work, which is always a good thing. I had not even planned on posting anything tonight, but just changed my mind a few minutes ago and decided to get online for awhile before I hit the sack.
Supper tonight was pretty darn good if I do say so myself. The oldest had a wrestling match tonight so it was just me and the girls. I baked a couple of pork tenderloins. It was just too damn cold to grill tonight. One was just plain old pork (but still kicked butt) and the other was marinated with black pepper and mushrooms. Butter beans, corn and green beans filled out the rest, with the leftover Mac & Cheese from last night.
It isn't snowing or anything here yet, but it looks like it could go either way tonight. Hopefully NO DAMN SNOW.
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Not completely, but I am pretty much in a non-posting mood this morning. I stayed up too late last night. We watched the season premier for one of the few shows that I watch on TV, 24. For some reason, even though 90% of the stuff is just incredulous, I still enjoy it. Last night was no different. I did get a good laugh though, right about the time that Jack Bauer ripped into the jugular of one of his captors with his teeth to escape. All I could think of was "Lost Boys".
After TV I read until a bit after 11PM, well after I should have been asleep which is why I am feeling crappy this morning. I should be finished with One Bullet Away this afternoon if I get a chance to read at all today.
Apparently Barzan Hassan and Awad Bandar were hanged right before I went to bed last night. Barzad was Saddam Hussein's half-brother and the former chief of his secret police and Awad was the former chief judge.
It's supposed to start getting back down into the 30's here at night tomorrow. This is some weird damn weather. It's been in the high 60's to mid 70's the last two afternoons. I'm ready to get winter over with but I am just waiting for the other shoe to drop. As soon as I get out and do something in the yard, we'll get ice or snow. Just fricking weird.
Damn, gotta get me one of these for my rear view mirror.
$24.95 for the Dope on a Rope. Damn, they even have a Jesus action figure. Oh crap. I could have some fun with these guys.
There's a big deal going on at work right now about monster.com. I have had my resume there for several years, but haven't updated it in quite some time. Apparently one of the recruiters, or some nosy bastard at the corporate office discovered that several people in management with my company had theirs up, and they were updated and actively searching for new jobs. Apparently about half of the management team in the area a bit closer to Atlanta from me has theirs up, and the have been told that they HAVE to take them down. Damn. I don't particularly want to get involved in this little brouhaha, but it would really piss me off if they demanded that I take my resume down. The fact is though, that even though I have been with them for twenty years, if the right job came along, with the right $$$, I would probably jump on it, but unfortunately tech jobs at my level of education pay about half what I make now, so I have no interest in looking for one, and I am not interested in working for any other restaurant. Most of them pay less, have less benefits, and are certainly not as financially stable as my company. If we shut the doors to our restaurants right now we could continue to pay everyone, including our hourly associates, for about a year.
The wife turns 40 this week. Everyone get their asses over there and wish her a happy birthday.
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Damned if my days off were long enough this week. I am ready for just one more. I think it's because I should be due for a vacation right about now. I get one every four months or so, but I took my last one early (beginning of October) due to my store opening. I won't have another one until the end of March. Six months. It's easy to burn out in my job which is why I space them the way I do.
I turned in my vacation schedule recently and it is just as screwed up as it has been this past year. One at the end of March/beginning of April (10 days woo hoo), one in June or July I don't really remember which, and then one the week after Labor Day weekend, just in time for Helen if we keep to the same schedule. At that point I will try to get the next ones four months apart again and take my first one of the new year in January instead of March. Right after the holidays I always need one anyway.
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Want to be inspired while you drink your morning coffee? Me too, but I picked humored instead. Good cup to drink cheap bourbon out of. I kept it at NO markup so it's certainly cheap enough. Gonna have to order one myself. Inspired by Erica? Actually, blatantly stolen is probably more like it.
That's the only product I have put in, but I can certainly set it for t-shirts if anyone is interested. Check it out here.
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When I took apart my HTPC recently I stuck two of my TV tuners in my computer, and will probably put the USB tuner in as well. The big problem was that there were still some issues with BTV and Windows Vista. I happily received an email today with the release of a public beta version for Vista. I am getting ready to install it. Sweet. I don't know if it's in the build or not, but I understand that at some point they are going to add a plugin for MCE. That would be sweet, as I don't particularly like MCE's TV stuff.
I have been meaning to write up a review for BTV for quite some time as well, so once this is released I will do that as well.
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I finally got my headphones to work with the music player on my phone. Sweet. It's not an iPhone, but it's a damn site cheaper, and available NOW.
Buddy Holly - Peggy Sue
Zombies - Time of the Season
Pixies - Planet of Sound
...are what I have heard. It's nice because the girls are playing Mario Party and I am trying to block out the sound.
I can't get my damn DV camera to work with Vista now. Creative just released new drivers for the Audigy a couple of days ago, I am installing them now as I think the other ones timed out a few days ago. I think that is all that I need right now.
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20 years and two weeks. Damn. This is my Friday. I can feel it too as it has been both an easy week but a tough one. I will probably post more about it tomorrow once I have actually had more than four hours of sleep at a time. I have been trying not to bitch and moan about work quite as much as I did toward the end of last year. I know that the last three months of the year were one big long whine and rant about the assholes at work.
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I don't watch much TV but I used to occasionally watch King of the Hill, at least for a season or two. I saw this show and this bit just cracks me up every time that I see it.
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Damn, check out this aquarium. That thing is huge. Now if it connected with my computer and cooled it, that would just kick ass. Plenty more pics at the link.
Update - I posted a link to a pretty cool pic, but I guess they don't want it using their bandwidth (understandable) so just go click the damn link and check out that monster.
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Oh man, this thing is so cool. I found a video of the music interface over at youtube. This is what Christopher wants for his 18th birthday. NOT likely at $499, particularly considering that it's not even available from my provider not to mention the fact that the cool web browsing stuff won't even be available out her in eastbumblefuck Georgia. Here it is anyway.
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Holy CRAP. I think I have changed my mind about wanting to get a Palm Treo. THIS is what I want now. The new Apple iPhone. Too bad they aren't releasing it via Verizon. Only Cingular. I might even be willing to change providers for that.
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Email, Web, Phone, and an iPod. Damn I have a serious case of tech envy right now. Guess it's better than penis envy.
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When I saw the name of the Video "Five Second Rule" I immediately thought of work. Damn. Don't watch if you just ate.
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I really need to stop moving my damn head around. I need to go find some pictures of hot chicks to post now.
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Since I have reclaimed my PC and put together spare parts for my home theater setup, I have been having more and more problems with the HTPC. I finally just shut down and disconnected the server last week. It sucks. I don't watch much TV, so it hasn't been a huge issue, but for the TV watching segment of the family, including all three kids, this has been a real big issue so I spent the majority of yesterday afternoon and evening taking apart my home theater setup, rewiring, finding the old DVD player, and making sure everything works correctly. What a pain in the ass.
I still have to set up the remote and hook up a couple of gaming consoles, but it is all together now. I have put my TV tuners in my personal box, at least that way I can record stuff off normal cable, just not the higher channels. I am probably going to hook up my Ocelot and install Homeseer on it too, which I haven't had running in a few months.
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I don't watch much TV, particularly sports, and this was no exception. I did however, read about it this morning over at CNN and while I am sure that Redneck is well aware of the score I just thought I would drop a note to say that the Buckeyes were STOMPED on by the Gators 41-14. Damn, everyone I know that was talking about it was sure that Ohio was going to win.
Speaking of "football" Vman apparently likes it when Redneck is on bottom. Damn, I know some strange ones.
You know if I skipped work to go to a football game, they would eventually fire my ass, but it's apparently OK for the people that are getting paid out of my taxes. Asshats.
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You know how sometimes you just have to blow your nose and a big ass handful of gooey snot comes out and YOU HAVE TO LOOK AT IT? Yeah, me either. But thanks to Og I have spent the last little while checking out another site and I have now seen something worse than a handful of gooey snot.
Continue reading Worse than a handful of snot.
I don't usually link to stuff over at Instapundit. It just feels weird, I mean everyone reads him so why would he need me to link to him. When I came across this post though, I knew I had to. It's basically just a link to M-LAW's tenth annual wacky warning label contest.
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Nothing more needs to be said, but if you have some time, click the pic. Found the link over at Blank Forever.
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One of my Christmas gifts from my brother was a book, One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer
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I am currently testing Norton Antivirus 2007 beta for Windows Vista. Up until I started running Vista I used Mcafee Viruscan, mainly because it is free as a paid AOL user. Not that I run their software much, but I do keep it for my Grandmother's use as it is her only Internet access. Mcafee, or at least the version that AOL uses, is not compatible with Windows Vista, so I started looking at different AV products awhile back. The main thing for me is that I needed it to be non-intrusive. The only thing I want it to do is catch viruses. I don't need all of that other security crap. Either it is built in to Windows, or I use other products that I like better.
I haven't had any problems with the beta version I am running (it's been installed for about a week now), so as long as it stays that way I will stick with it. I like Norton 2007, and as soon as this trial beta version times out I will most likely purchase it from these guys. I checked the prices against what Norton charges in their online store, and they are comparable.
This is (hopefully) a paid advertisement.
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Our friend sent me this picture as well, I guess she wasn't sure if my wife's email address was still the same or not. In the email she said "imagine seeing this every day".
I used to consider moving to Alaska. A beautiful place once you get past the tundra and mosquitoes. I love the picture and do want to visit, but I don't want to move to Alaska anymore. Something to do with getting older. Now I want to move south, somewhere near the beach. Key West sounds just about right.
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Normally we (I should I here) make resolutions every year, some to be kept, but most to be broken. This year I decided to lower the bar a bit and make sure that I had resolutions that I know I can keep, thus feeling better about myself this time next year. Thus, in no particular order, here they are.
1. Smoke more
2. Cuss more
3. Get fat
4. Make less money
5. Work more hours
Here's to the new year and hoping that I can exceed my expectations over the coming months.
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Damned if someone that has me in their address book must have a virus. I am getting spammed with about 100 emails a day with virus attachments. I haven't bothered to deeply check into it, they are all getting delivered to my domain under different email addresses that don't exist, and of course forwarded to me as administrator. Not that spam is anything new, this just seems to be the trend lately.
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Thank goodness. This is the first time I have had two days off in a row since December 12th. I decided to keep the youngest girl home with me today and we are just kind of hanging out. I have to make us something to eat and I think we are going to play with blocks here shortly, so I will be busy for awhile.
Other than moving the Wife's computer into the kitchen and installing a wireless link I think I am going to take it easy today though. I still can't seem to shake this fucking cold.
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That 1 Guy posted a Bluegrass version of Fad to Black this morning which I just came across. Very cool. Metallica's music has been "translated" into many different music genres over the years and most of the time they come out sounding great. I like Metallica and used to be a huge fan of the group. Their best albums are the first three (arguably just the first two). I saw them for the first time on the Master of Puppets tour prior to the death of Cliff Burton. They opened for Ozzy Osbourne on July 30th 1986 at the Knoxville Civic Coliseum. Ozzy blew fucking goats, but Metallica kicked ass.
I've seen them several times since, but nothing compares to the first time. About ten of us road-tripped to the show, and we got to hang with the band as they were staying at the hotel next door to the Coliseum. Somewhere I have a few pictures but I couldn't find them to scan. This one was taken after the show out in the parking lot. It pretty much shows my attitude toward everything at that time.
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I have updated some of my old posts from 2000. This aren't really going to be of interest to anybody (including myself). I was going through some old backups, and came across some of my net backups. Back in '99 and 2000 I hosted my web site in my living room. Talk about co-locating. Most of the stuff from that point in time was strictly about skinning and desktop customization. This is my "current" desktop screenshot from that time.
It was actually pretty cool. I was trying to find a particular skin that I had ported over to Windows from Enlightenment (Linux X11 window manager). I never did find it, but as usual, found a bunch of other stuff to keep me entertained for a while.
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...is where we are at this week. The holidays are over and it's back to work for the wife today. The smallest one went back to the daycare yesterday, and the two oldest start school tomorrow, just in time for my two days off. I am still a little congested, but I feel much better today than I have in a week. Still pretty weak, but nothing a day of rest won't cure.
Unfortunately that won't be today. It's my seventh day at work, and shaping up to be long one. I managed to bugger up my schedule and I originally had the gentleman I have cooking last night coming back in at noon. Don't know what the hell I was thinking when I made the schedule. I told him on the phone this morning that I would just cook for him until 4PM or so. Considering that I get my food delivery around noon today, that is going to make for a fun-filled day. I will be lucky if I get to leave before nine tonight.
The wife was not particularly happy with me yesterday. You see, she was pulled over on her way to the Doctor's office yesterday afternoon for having an expired tag. If you recall, my birthday was December Fourth. Just a wee bit late. I have remedied that situation online, and printed the necessary documentation to leave in the cars until the stickers actually get here. Damn, a $150.00 fine. Not good, and one of us is bound to get pulled over at least once more before the stickers get here. The paperwork and receipts should be enough to convince the officer not to write a citation, but you never know. Thank goodness for online transactions though...saved me from waiting in line.
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