Recently in Blogging and Bloggers Category

Sorry if the site was screwed up for a little while. I managed to hose some of the code in my header and it caused everything to disappear. Shit happens. It's fixed.

I should be in bed by now but I made the mistake of lying down for a short nap around 4PM this afternoon. Apparently my ten year old came in and asked me at some point what time I wanted to get up and I must have told her not to wake me up. BAD mistake. She let me sleep until the phone rang at seven. I may end up drugging myself tonight just so I can go to sleep. As opposed to drugging myself so I can stay awake I guess :) You know what they say though, sleep is just a cheap caffeine substitute...

So I think I mentioned yesterday the Temple PD was out raising money at one of my stores this weekend. Either they must have hit the $5k mark or they just decided to throw in the towel early because they cleared out around 3pm today. If they just decided to shut down I don't blame them. The weather this weekend has been pretty crappy and it's been pretty darned slow this weekend as well.

The girls have left for South Carolina. I spoke with the wife shortly after I left work this afternoon and they had just gotten to Bluffton. I guess they will be back later in the week. I have Friday off so I think they are planning on being back by then.

I unfortunately have to go back to work tonight. I was supposed to be working a double shift today but with the wife and kids leaving town I decided to come home for a while to let the dog out. They are fine anyway and don't need my non-smoking stressed out personage up their butts all evening.

I think I will spend some time surfing a couple of blogs I haven't had the chance to visit in a few days. Speaking of blogs I like to visit, if you go to Parkway Rest Stop on occasion tell the guy with the big hair my fucking IP address is banned and neither myself or my wife can get to his site from here. I need to just get Jim's email from someone else I guess and send him a not but I just haven't had the time.

I never did get to go to the gym today. I had every intention of getting started, I even got there and two women were already there using the equipment I was going to get started on. Rather than hang out as well as being embarrassed because I really don't know what the fuck I am doing I feigned a cell call and beat it.

If I can manage to get my ass out of bed on time in the morning I will try and get there between five and five thirty tomorrow morning, that way I can get a shower in afterward, prior to heading off to work.

Speaking of getting out of bed on time, I didn't wake up until shortly before seven this morning. That's like two hours later than normal. I think part of it is because of my sun burn and the rest is due to the fact that my body is just pooped. I have worked something like six weeks with five days off, maybe six. I am supposed to be off Thursday and Friday this week and had planned on being off two days the next but since one of the other district's and myself seem to be overlapping again I don't think I will get both Friday and Saturday. I have already told her I am willing to give up my Saturday that week but I get the following weekend off. We'll see how it goes I suppose.

That's about it for tonight. I spent a few minutes working on this logo creator thingy that I have to write a review for on another site, that was pretty cool. I'll post some screenshots later. How about some of these taglines...

Shadowscope...better than the bomb

...sleep is just a cheap caffeine substitute (of course I've been using this one for several years anyway).

Shadowscope...better than a fart in a hot tub!

I enjoy what I do on the web but make no mistake about it. I don't consider myself a serious writer. I suppose if I were to take the time to reteach myself the rules of grammar and then find something that would catch the audience's (YOUR!) attention, then I might be able to write something a bit worthwhile. There are a few bloggers that are actually worth reading though. I have links for two of them here.

One is Eric. If you haven't been to Straight White Guy and read a few of posts then go check it out. Definitely worth the time spent and you may even get caught up reading and wonder where the time has gone. Apparently he's had a piece published in A Southern Journal. That was a story I had not heard yet so it was fresh for the mind when I came across it last night.

Earlier this week my brother sent me a link and I have been remiss in posting it here. If you haven't read his book, Republic, you are missing something. He is in the midst of writing the sequel and the first three chapters are online. Bear in mind that they are a work in progress, and as so some of the details may change and they still have to be edited for grammar and spelling. He also sent me a couple of links to the podcasts as well.

You can check it out at YouTube or subscribe through iTunes.

Podcasts are OK but I much prefer reading for myself and so spent the other evening reading all three chapters when I should have been writing about them instead :)

My web host has suggested that I move to a new server they have online. That will be nice as it should make things a bit faster. I received this email earlier:

That will be pretty darned nice. I have had to disable 90% of the plugins and addons for MT due to CPU usage and the fact that I couldn't even log in. I even had to disable my server stats plugin, MT-VisitorStats because the MT dashboard refused to load even after upgrading to the newest release. It will be nice to be able to use some of them again.

I got an email from a friend the other day. Seems that a few bloggers are getting together for dinner tonight in Atlanta. I lucked out on that one. One of my manager's is supposed to be off this weekend but he is wanting to go skiing the weekend prior to my vacation with some buddies and wanted to know if I would trade days off with him.

I thought that was a pretty good idea. My weekend off wasn't supposed to roll around until that weekend four days before I start my vacation and I am pretty sure I would have lost at least one of those days off once my boss looked at the schedules. This way I still go on vacation in three weeks AND get THIS weekend off. Sweet. We even found a babysitter for the girls for tonight, so the wife and I will both get to go. She's made it to a couple of blogmeets with me but not had the opportunity to just go hang out with them.

Today is the boy's birthday but I will post about that later today. It's kind of sad because this is the first time he has never been with us on his birthday. I think I will call him shortly and see if he's awake. He has a pretty bad cold in addition to being miserable because he has no clothing to speak of. Maybe I can send him some Sports Authority coupons :)

Actually he already has received his birthday present. He wanted the Orange Box version of Half-Life 2 and since he lost the password for one of my Steam accounts and can't seem to get it reset, that was perfect.

This really has nothing to do with demographics (maybe a wee bit) but I came across this blog quiz at Michelle's and dropped by to take it. Like you do.

The first question is the the group thing. Damn, I am now in an entirely different age grouping. 41-50. I fucking think not. I have almost an entire decade before you can group me with fifty year olds by GOD!

Anyway, here's the quiz.

WTF?  Bar Social Butterfly? At least I'm not the Bar Slut.

I have spent the great majority of the morning going between reading news sites and fooling with paperwork. Since the wife and I are going to the Bahamas next month and I don't have a passport, while her's expire ten years ago, there is quite a bit of stuff to do.

It takes two or three weeks to get one if you are willing to pay out the nose, which we are having to do. The first thing we had to do is get online and order our birth certificates. We got hers this weekend but I didn't get mine until today because a signature is required and of course I am at work during the day. Fortunately I am off today and tomorrow. My first two days off in a row since December 8th. I feel it too.

I was supposed to go to the doctor today at 9:30 or so but they have moved the office and I misunderstood where the location was. Needless to say I missed my appointment. They were nice enough to reschedule it for tomorrow morning for me. That's cool because I have some writing to do today anyway. Tomorrow I am keeping RePete home with me as she also has a doctor's appointment tomorrow afternoon.

I have to go pick up another copy of my auto insurance policy as well. We have decided that the time has come to get new automobiles and as much as I am a fan of driving a car until the wheels fall off and hate car payments, it's not worth the inconvenience when one of them breaks down and that will be at some point in the near future. We both take good care of our cars and have over 200k on both of them, but with my job I can't be car-less. Since I donated the van a few months ago to the Alzheimer's Association I don't have an extra vehicle in case something happens with one of these.

I prefer to go through 99% of the car buying process online. Financing all the way up to finding the car. All I should have to do at the dealer is take a test drive and if I like it, drive it the hell out of there. The last car I bought was in 2000 and we ended up spending about 30 minutes in the dealership. The only reason it took that long is that I had not arranged to have it added to my insurance ahead of time. I won't make that mistake this time. I have to stop and fax my license, insurance and references to the financing company in the morning and then I can start looking at cars. I was hoping to have everything taken care of by yesterday morning so that I could pick the car up today but no such luck. That's OK, it will give me time for a bit of research. The wife can go get her car this weekend and I will go on my days off next week after researching a few. I still haven't decided what I want anyway.

Traffic has been pretty heavy (for me) at the site over the last 72 hours, mainly because of the Meredith Emerson posts I put up. Somehow I have landed fairly high at Google and Yahoo! (number 2 and 4, respectively) and I have had something like 16,000 visits on those two posts alone. Several comments as well, which is nice because it means that someone is actually reading it and not just breezing through. If I could just bottle that and figure out how Google picks the top stories I would retire my happy ass tomorrow.

During the next few weeks you may notice that once a week a couple of folks will be dropping by to put up a guest post or two here and quite possibly at my tech site. We'll see how it goes.

It's nice every once in a while to get different views on stuff and with the posts that I do about politics here and there it will fit right in. The Marine may even be persuaded to write something every once in a while if he can tear himself away from the X-Box 360.

Speaking of guests my brother may drop in occasionally as he has done in the past. If you haven't had the chance to read his book, Republic, you should head your happy ass on over to Amazon and get a copy.

Being blog of the day when there's a big old Love Ewe on the top of the page. I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.

...Just saw the wife and girls off to work and school. I am working an evening shift once a week now in order to improve the business and training. Although I like being at home with the girls in the evening it's nice to be able to sleep in on a work day. Except for a few days like today where it falls smack in the middle of my work week I have set up my second shifts to coincide with the day after my day(s) off so that I get one or two off and then come in late on my first day back. Considering that I always stay up too late blogging when I am off that will work out nicely.

So we get up Saturday morning. I was up pretty early originally. I woke up around four and reset the alarm for six so that I could make sure that everyone was going to show up for work. I called the stores when I got back, made sure that my six o'clock girls were there and called all of my cooks to make sure they were all up and on the way. At seven I called the stores back to speak to the managers and get their sales numbers. Amazingly everyone showed up for work Saturday. It took that one manager 40 minutes to count the damned drawer and finally get her numbers to me though. I don't know what the heck takes her so damn long but it's like pulling teeth to get it done.

Once she finally gave me what I needed I called my boss and told him who was in each store and so on...at which point he asks:

"where are you at today"

"I'm sort of off, but I'll be taking care of staffing"

"That's what I thought. Talk to you later"

Bwahaha

At this point I went back to bed until nine or so. I wanted to try and sleep later but it just wasn't happening.

We decided to go find people and maybe go eat some breakfast, as the bagel I had eaten just wasn't going to do it. V-Man and Key had just driven back up to their cabin after having waited forty minutes somewhere and never getting fed. They had to check out of their cabin and needed to get cleaned up, but V-Man was still hunting something to eat. The previous year we had  eaten at a pretty nice buffet off the beaten path called the Farmer's Market Cafe so we decided to go there. The wife and I, Elisson and SWMBO, and V-Man wandered down there. No wait and the food was good. It's really not that far from the main road so I don't know why they weren't that crowded. Luckily they were nice too. I left my travel mug and the waitress chased us down to return it. My favorite on too (the mug, not the waitress)

After breakfast we wandered back down to the Chalet Kristy and found some of the reprobates already hanging out in front of their rooms. Erica was up pretty early considering how long she had been awake the night before. I don't know how late everyone had stayed up since I was in bed around eleven or so.

After we had made our greetings and all of that happy shit we decided to gather down by the river.

That's the view of the Chattahoochee from the swings outside of the Chalet Kristy. The place is a dive but it's the only one that will let us come back year after year. It's also a family-owned type place so we are giving our business to locals rather than some corporate conglomeration, which is kind of cool.

I have to go get ready for work but will post more pics and whatnot once I get home this afternoon provided everything goes well at work today. I have to return the rental and then go to a three o'clock meeting but that's about it as far as I know.

Against my better judgement I pretty much skipped out on work this weekend and drove to Helen with the wife and a friend of ours. I have been wrestling with it all week because I don't particularly want to hassle with my boss. So much for that.

Friday we cooked breakfast for 150 teachers at my wife's high school. I went in around 5AM or so and got everything started and we made it to the school around 8:30 or so and got out of there by 11. I had planned on getting the girls from the wife and shooting out of work early but the stores got a bit busy so I helped until almost two before I was able to leave. I was hoping to get the hell out of Temple and through Atlanta before Friday afternoon traffic but no such luck. I took almost four hours to make the two hour drive.

As we drove into the parking lot I knew it would be an interesting evening. Most of the bloggers were standing around the parking lot of the Kristy sampling Chatham Artillery Punch and meeting folks they hadn't met before or greeting old friends. Let's see if I can remember who was there. Elisson and SWMBO, Sam left his evil twin at home but did bring the wife, Zonker, Catfish, Recondo32 and Georgia, GuyK, Erica, Jimbo and the bodyguard, Joan of Argghh and the Jolly Roger, The Grouchy Old Cripple, Key and V-Man, Leslie, and shortly after we got there, Dax Montana himself.

Once everyone had been greeted I checked in to my cabin. The last thing I had eaten had been several hours prior and I was starved. We unloaded the truck (rental) and walked up to the "strip". The Chalet Kristy is right on the Chattahoochee smack dab in the middle of town so there was no a long walk. I don't drive once I start drinking somewhere which is one of the reasons I like having the blogmeet right in town.

The restaurant/bar we went to was full of bikers and other tourists. The atmosphere was pretty cool but it took fucking forever to get my food and by that time the live band 20 feet behind me had started blasting out rock & roll tunes. Pretty good stuff until they got to Van Morrison, which spoiled the mood. I ran outside at 9PM so that I could get sales and staffing for my stores. All I had until that point was soft drinks as I was really afraid I would have to drive back to work and didn't want to attempt it even with one beer.

We got back to the hotel and rather than partying in one of the cabins we all ended up in/around Erica's room and overflowing into the parking lot. I hung out there for awhile but after a couple of beer I was damn tired and retired to the cabin to get some much needed sleep. Prior to going to bed though, Sam and I picked up Elisson's date...

Thanks to GuyK for the photograph. I had the camera with me (I think) but was so busy laughing that I forgot to take any pictures. The sheep is a "gotta be there" thing. Elisson put up a post a few months back about being in one of those stores that sell interesting things such as the Love Ewe and he was wondering what kind of self-respecting guy couldn't get a date with a real sheep...I immediately went online and found one for him.

Somewhere there are pictures of me blowing the sheep, or rather, inflating the sheep. I am sure they will come out sooner or later.

Apparently RSM showed up Friday evening as well. I missed him until the next night. It's nice to see that he is doing well. I got out of the habit of going over to When the Smoke Clears while he was in basic training. I need to rectify that and go visit more often as he is a pretty talented and descriptive author.

Tomorrow I will try and post about Saturday. It's going to be a long day and I have to deal with the fall-out of ignoring work entirely after Saturday afternoon (I will get to that later). All I know is that it might get ugly. It is time for my beauty sleep now. After all of the alcohol I consumed this weekend I need plenty of it.

...and maybe even a word or two. I've been home about six hours now but I have just recently crawled out of bed. Chocolate Vodka kicks ass...

We had a pretty good time last night. All of the usual suspects were there, and I got the chance to meet Blackfive as well. Guess I need to update the sidebar again but I think I shall wait until after this weekend. I will get to that shortly.

Line of the evening:

"Am I in the right fucking church?"

It's been at least fifteen years or so since I have been in the area where we ended up last night and boy has it changed. Actually I have been to a couple of concerts prior to the Omni getting torn down but that was normally a case of riding the train in, going straight into the Omni and watching the show. It is amazing how different Marietta Street has changed since the days of the Metroplex.

I arrived a little early and took a walk around Centennial Park since I have never been there. Shot a couple of photos with my new phone mainly just to try it out. Noting worth posting, but the pictures are pretty darn good.

I finally wandered down to the Embassy Suites where we were to meet up. Elisson and Shovel Boy arrived shortly after and we went on in to Ruth's Chris Steak House for a drink and to await the others. It wasn't long before Blackfive arrived and we all sat around and chatted for awhile awaiting the rest of the group. Three beers later (for me anyway, I was the light-weight since I had to get up early today) and everyone else arrived.

Rather than spend a small fortune we got a cab ride a few blocks away. According to the information desk whom Blackfive had to threaten with bodily injury (maybe not) to get the information out of, there was an Indian restaurant four blocks away. It was more like eight, at least driving it. Had we walked it might have been four or five taking shortcuts.

I had some kind of shrimp dish, which was pretty good, particularly after adding a wee bit of this spicy mango stuff. Indian food looks so damned nasty, yet is pretty good. I couldn't eat it every night as some folks can, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I enjoyed the conversation, although as usual I was pretty quiet and just took it all in. It is interesting to note that although people are slightly different than their blog personas you can usually tell who is who because their stories sound just like their blogs. The more entertaining and popular ones are usually also the entertaining and 'popular' conversationalists as well.

At one point in the evening we did have to steer clear of the shovel fiasco and go back to the 'safe' topics of religion and politics, but Eric had to make clear what had happened last October. It was nice hearing it from his side, which actually closely mirrored what I have heard from other bloggers, minus the wide-eyed fear What is interesting is that he is having us back (not that I was able to make it last year). I doubt if I can get the time off and I think that may even be the weekend of Pete's birthday party, but I will damn sure try, particularly since I may or may not end up skipping out on this weekend.

That brings me to my conundrum. I am really torn about this coming weekend. I am extremely angry with my boss and work right now, as I am on duty this weekend. I have four choices at present. Either I skip the weekend entirely and go to work while the wife and our friend attend, or I attend as planned and commute home Saturday and Sunday morning. The big problem is that I don't particularly want to drive three and a half hours at four in the morning, particularly after a night of heavy drinking. My other choice is to go, and then drive home Friday night, go to work Saturday, drive back up there and drive back home Sunday morning. That choice entails not drinking at all because as I said before, I am a lightweight. I just don't drive after drinking. I had three beers in all last night, and although I was nowhere even close to buzzing when we finally left the restaurant last night, I was ready to take a damned nap and those last few miles home were done with the air and radio blasting and the windows open. My last choice is just to say "fuck you" and go, take care of business over the phone and deal with being in trouble when I get home. They won't fire me or anything, I am about 99.9% sure of that, but it doesn't mean that they will make my life any easier. At some point between now and then I guess I will make up my mind.

I have to start getting ready to head in to Atlanta. There are a few bloggers meeting up around Centennial park someplace and I plan to be there. I am running way behind today because of my stupid cell phone dying a painful death. It's been acting up quite a bit lately and just turns itself off, drains the battery or reboots randomly in the middle of a call. I bought a brand new battery for it yesterday and the damn thing was drained by today and wouldn't turn back on.

I went to Verizon this morning and ended up getting a Moto Q 9m, not exactly the phone that I wanted but it is pretty cool thus far. I have 30 days I think if I want to switch so if the XV6800 comes out before then I may just have to get it instead.

The main thing I don't like about it is that it is somewhat laggy and slow to respond. Haven't tried it blogging yet but I did take a photo and try to send it to Flickr unsuccessfully. Maybe I will have more time to play with it later and see what the problem is.