This entry went to bed immediately after making this post.
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Pictures and oddities
As promised, I've uploaded and posted the photo galleries from both the camping trip to Lake Isabella and of Rece getting buzzed (only looks right in Internet Explorer). I'll probably change the layout of Rece's buzzed photo page, but hey, it works for now - sorta. Enjoy!
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
The New Adventures of Surely, Frankly, Truly, & Seriously
Warning: Extremely long post!
This weekend was a lot of fun. Rece and I joined Christine and Sam for a camping trip up to Lake Isabella. The plan was to camp out (in tents) for a couple of nights over Memorial Day weekend.
Day 1 - Saturday, May 27th
Prior commitments prevented us from leaving until around noon-ish on Saturday. This was fine, as the traffic proved to be fairly light - especially for a holiday weekend.
We had initially planned to borrow Christine's friend's new Ford Escape (an SUV), but interestingly enough my older Ford Taurus wagon (with 98,000+ miles) ended up having more storage space for our gear. We scrapped the idea of taking the Escape and instead opted for my wagon. I was a tad bit worried that this higher-mileage vehicle might give us problems on the trip, but it proved to be just fine for the job in the end.
Of course I brought my GPS receiver and pre-planned some geocaches to find along the way. I strategically chose a few going over 'The Grapevine' (as they call it) to provide a stretch for the legs and to keep the pre-teens from revolting out of boredom. The first cache attempt wasn't much of an attempt at all. I led us up an access road to some powerline towers that turned out to be nowhere near the cache. We had to go back to the car - and still couldn't figure out where to park in order to get to it. We simply gave up on it and continued along our way.
The second cache we went after turned out to be an interesting one. It was well hidden, but it was the fact that it was extremely windy (we got sand-blasted!) and there was a hot dog vendor in what seemed like nowhere that made it so interesting. So this hot dog cart guy was there, waiting for customers in the middle of nowhere, just watching us as we attempted to find this cache. As luck would have it, he got a customer just as Sam found it. I wonder how much business this guy gets here, since the prior log in the cache also mentioned the vendor in it - and that was from a week prior... odd.
After our caching break, we pushed on down 'The Grapevine' and on (then through) Bakersfield toward the hills. The drive along the Kern river was nice. It was a small 2-lane highway with fantastic views of the river and its rapids - sometimes it's a bummer being the driver and not being able to take as much in.
The 2-lane highway opened up to 4 lanes towards the top and we discovered that it wasn't as rural as we had expected. (they had a Vons supermarket!) The area was beautiful and the lake was so blue! A little further driving (past the Vons) brought us to our campsite. It was bustling with activity, as many people obviously had the same idea to camp over the weekend.
We both (us boys and them girls) had new tents, which meant a bit of a learning curve for both parties to set up. With just a little fiddling we both got set up and then went on to cook our dinner of burgers, fresh veggies, and baked beans - OK, maybe it isn't such a good idea to have beans when you plan on sleeping in a tent later that night. This first night we had to endure some pretty rude behavior from neighboring campers - one group that blasted rap music until around 11 pm and the other that carried on loud (and drunken) conversation until at least 2 am (the last I checked my watch before managing to fall asleep).
Day 2 - Sunday, May 28th
On the morning of day 2 (Sunday) I woke up tired and a bit stiff in the joints... but since I was out camping, my mood was still happy. Christine and I went about getting the important morning stuff done (coffee) and then cooked a breakfast of sausage, eggs, toast, fruit, and potatoes - oh wait, forgot the potatoes... and the butter... and the sweetener for the coffee. Fine, off to Vons we go! Oh look, there's a coffee place... and a donut place... we'll keep that in mind in case we get lazy (which we never ended up doing, by the way). OK, so yeah, 3.5 hours later we finished eating breakfast... hmm... should we start making lunch now? Naw, let's go geocaching and check out the area.
We discovered that there was a general store not 1/2 a mile up the road from the campgrounds, which was much closer than the 6 miles to Vons, while driving to our first cache. Yep, 3 crosses on a hill... oh wait, this is a multi-cache... and we're in the wrong area to start... and Sam strained her ankle while climbing some rocks... gah! We gave up on this cache and went after another one nearby. It had a great view of the lake and we encountered a group of people at the cache location who turned out to be the people who originally hid it. We spent a little time talking with them and enjoying the beautiful day before moving on to explore.
After finding just one more cache deciding against going after a couple of others, we turned our attention to checking out downtown Kernville. This is a very cool little town, with all sorts of shops (most of which you'd expect in a tourist area) and a quaint town square. There was even a petshop that sold ice cream... anyhow... We decided to check out the museum, which turned out to be one of the most interesting and fascinating museums I've ever been to. If you ever find yourself near Kernville, this is a must see! (free to enter - but donations are welcome)
We went back to camp after our day out and made what Sam called 'Hobo Stew' which was simply a bunch of veggies and stew beef thrown in a foil pouch (that we made the night before we left) and placed over the campfire on the grill. We left them on for about an hour and spent the time drinking quite a bit and talking/laughing with some of our camp neighbors. The stew was delicious and I don't think any of us were able to actually finish them completely. Christine had quite a bit more than I did to drink that night and we spent the evening relaxing by the fire and laughing quite a bit. Eventually we all went to bed and settled in for a good night's sleep. The rude neighbors didn't make a peep this night and I was able to get in an amazing 9 hours of sleep!
Day 3 - Monday, May 29th
Christine awoke rather early and a bit hung over on Monday morning. She immediately set out upon the task of making coffee and, ultimately, breakfast. Shortly before 9, Rece woke me up and I was delighted to find that I felt well-rested and not a bit sore as I had been the morning before. As I was putting on my shoes I got a good chuckle out of one of the other neighbor's method of waking his camp-mates. He had started playing the guitar with lyrics that went something along the lines of...
"It's time to wake up, so get up you fuckers...
It's time to wake up, so get up you fuckers...
Wake the fuck up you sleepy fuckers..."
The singer's voice and humor reminded me of my brother Danny a lot, as this is something he would have likely done in the same situation.
Breakfast burritos, fruit, coffee were on the menu for breakfast and it was very yummy! After eating we packed up our gear and were happy to find that we had a lot more room in the car now that we had used up most of our provisions. With a bunch of bungie cords and a cargo net, we securely strapped the tents and chairs on the roof rack of the car (something I needlessly worried about breaking free on the way up here as well). We broke camp at noon, right on schedule.
The trip back down the mountain was pleasant, with the view of the river and rapids and mountainous cliffs. At the base we stopped to admire a man-made waterfall that roared out of a hole in the side of the mountain. We then continued our journey back, stopping at the Flying-J truck stop for a bite to eat. The rest of the journey home was sedate, as we were all rather beat from camping.
After getting back to my place and unpacking, we ordered a pizza and then proceded to buzz off all of Rece's hair. He wanted it done and we finally had the time to do it. Christine took pictures of the process, which I'll post later today or tomorrow (along with the camping pictures).
This was a very fun trip to an area of California I've never been to before. The Sequoia National Forest is a beautiful place - even though the area we were camping wasn't much of a forest. My only real complaint is that the restrooms were disgusting and there simply weren't enough facilities to support a full campground. I even opted against taking a shower the entire trip because of this (one more day and I'd have started to smell pretty bad, I'm sure). Aside from that, everything was great.
I'll be posting pictures of all this in the next day or so. I'll make a post with a link to the web page when I'm done.
This weekend was a lot of fun. Rece and I joined Christine and Sam for a camping trip up to Lake Isabella. The plan was to camp out (in tents) for a couple of nights over Memorial Day weekend.
Day 1 - Saturday, May 27th
Prior commitments prevented us from leaving until around noon-ish on Saturday. This was fine, as the traffic proved to be fairly light - especially for a holiday weekend.
We had initially planned to borrow Christine's friend's new Ford Escape (an SUV), but interestingly enough my older Ford Taurus wagon (with 98,000+ miles) ended up having more storage space for our gear. We scrapped the idea of taking the Escape and instead opted for my wagon. I was a tad bit worried that this higher-mileage vehicle might give us problems on the trip, but it proved to be just fine for the job in the end.
Of course I brought my GPS receiver and pre-planned some geocaches to find along the way. I strategically chose a few going over 'The Grapevine' (as they call it) to provide a stretch for the legs and to keep the pre-teens from revolting out of boredom. The first cache attempt wasn't much of an attempt at all. I led us up an access road to some powerline towers that turned out to be nowhere near the cache. We had to go back to the car - and still couldn't figure out where to park in order to get to it. We simply gave up on it and continued along our way.
The second cache we went after turned out to be an interesting one. It was well hidden, but it was the fact that it was extremely windy (we got sand-blasted!) and there was a hot dog vendor in what seemed like nowhere that made it so interesting. So this hot dog cart guy was there, waiting for customers in the middle of nowhere, just watching us as we attempted to find this cache. As luck would have it, he got a customer just as Sam found it. I wonder how much business this guy gets here, since the prior log in the cache also mentioned the vendor in it - and that was from a week prior... odd.
After our caching break, we pushed on down 'The Grapevine' and on (then through) Bakersfield toward the hills. The drive along the Kern river was nice. It was a small 2-lane highway with fantastic views of the river and its rapids - sometimes it's a bummer being the driver and not being able to take as much in.
The 2-lane highway opened up to 4 lanes towards the top and we discovered that it wasn't as rural as we had expected. (they had a Vons supermarket!) The area was beautiful and the lake was so blue! A little further driving (past the Vons) brought us to our campsite. It was bustling with activity, as many people obviously had the same idea to camp over the weekend.
We both (us boys and them girls) had new tents, which meant a bit of a learning curve for both parties to set up. With just a little fiddling we both got set up and then went on to cook our dinner of burgers, fresh veggies, and baked beans - OK, maybe it isn't such a good idea to have beans when you plan on sleeping in a tent later that night. This first night we had to endure some pretty rude behavior from neighboring campers - one group that blasted rap music until around 11 pm and the other that carried on loud (and drunken) conversation until at least 2 am (the last I checked my watch before managing to fall asleep).
Day 2 - Sunday, May 28th
On the morning of day 2 (Sunday) I woke up tired and a bit stiff in the joints... but since I was out camping, my mood was still happy. Christine and I went about getting the important morning stuff done (coffee) and then cooked a breakfast of sausage, eggs, toast, fruit, and potatoes - oh wait, forgot the potatoes... and the butter... and the sweetener for the coffee. Fine, off to Vons we go! Oh look, there's a coffee place... and a donut place... we'll keep that in mind in case we get lazy (which we never ended up doing, by the way). OK, so yeah, 3.5 hours later we finished eating breakfast... hmm... should we start making lunch now? Naw, let's go geocaching and check out the area.
We discovered that there was a general store not 1/2 a mile up the road from the campgrounds, which was much closer than the 6 miles to Vons, while driving to our first cache. Yep, 3 crosses on a hill... oh wait, this is a multi-cache... and we're in the wrong area to start... and Sam strained her ankle while climbing some rocks... gah! We gave up on this cache and went after another one nearby. It had a great view of the lake and we encountered a group of people at the cache location who turned out to be the people who originally hid it. We spent a little time talking with them and enjoying the beautiful day before moving on to explore.
After finding just one more cache deciding against going after a couple of others, we turned our attention to checking out downtown Kernville. This is a very cool little town, with all sorts of shops (most of which you'd expect in a tourist area) and a quaint town square. There was even a petshop that sold ice cream... anyhow... We decided to check out the museum, which turned out to be one of the most interesting and fascinating museums I've ever been to. If you ever find yourself near Kernville, this is a must see! (free to enter - but donations are welcome)
We went back to camp after our day out and made what Sam called 'Hobo Stew' which was simply a bunch of veggies and stew beef thrown in a foil pouch (that we made the night before we left) and placed over the campfire on the grill. We left them on for about an hour and spent the time drinking quite a bit and talking/laughing with some of our camp neighbors. The stew was delicious and I don't think any of us were able to actually finish them completely. Christine had quite a bit more than I did to drink that night and we spent the evening relaxing by the fire and laughing quite a bit. Eventually we all went to bed and settled in for a good night's sleep. The rude neighbors didn't make a peep this night and I was able to get in an amazing 9 hours of sleep!
Day 3 - Monday, May 29th
Christine awoke rather early and a bit hung over on Monday morning. She immediately set out upon the task of making coffee and, ultimately, breakfast. Shortly before 9, Rece woke me up and I was delighted to find that I felt well-rested and not a bit sore as I had been the morning before. As I was putting on my shoes I got a good chuckle out of one of the other neighbor's method of waking his camp-mates. He had started playing the guitar with lyrics that went something along the lines of...
"It's time to wake up, so get up you fuckers...
It's time to wake up, so get up you fuckers...
Wake the fuck up you sleepy fuckers..."
The singer's voice and humor reminded me of my brother Danny a lot, as this is something he would have likely done in the same situation.
Breakfast burritos, fruit, coffee were on the menu for breakfast and it was very yummy! After eating we packed up our gear and were happy to find that we had a lot more room in the car now that we had used up most of our provisions. With a bunch of bungie cords and a cargo net, we securely strapped the tents and chairs on the roof rack of the car (something I needlessly worried about breaking free on the way up here as well). We broke camp at noon, right on schedule.
The trip back down the mountain was pleasant, with the view of the river and rapids and mountainous cliffs. At the base we stopped to admire a man-made waterfall that roared out of a hole in the side of the mountain. We then continued our journey back, stopping at the Flying-J truck stop for a bite to eat. The rest of the journey home was sedate, as we were all rather beat from camping.
After getting back to my place and unpacking, we ordered a pizza and then proceded to buzz off all of Rece's hair. He wanted it done and we finally had the time to do it. Christine took pictures of the process, which I'll post later today or tomorrow (along with the camping pictures).
This was a very fun trip to an area of California I've never been to before. The Sequoia National Forest is a beautiful place - even though the area we were camping wasn't much of a forest. My only real complaint is that the restrooms were disgusting and there simply weren't enough facilities to support a full campground. I even opted against taking a shower the entire trip because of this (one more day and I'd have started to smell pretty bad, I'm sure). Aside from that, everything was great.
I'll be posting pictures of all this in the next day or so. I'll make a post with a link to the web page when I'm done.
This entry didn't want to go back to work today.
Friday, May 26, 2006
I'm not the only one!
Finally, a reputible tech magazine has put together a list of horrible tech products. For me, the best part is that I've been trying to tell people about how bad most of these products were/are as far back as I can remember! Check it out:
PCWorld.com - The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time
Hell, just yesterday I overheard a conversation in the office where one gal was telling another gal that AOL's free email service was great. There was little option but for me to interrupt their conversation to say, "Anything AOL sucks. Try anything BUT AOL or Hotmail unless you like lots of SPAM." Grrr...
PCWorld.com - The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time
Hell, just yesterday I overheard a conversation in the office where one gal was telling another gal that AOL's free email service was great. There was little option but for me to interrupt their conversation to say, "Anything AOL sucks. Try anything BUT AOL or Hotmail unless you like lots of SPAM." Grrr...
This entry said, "Ha! Take that AOL & RealPlayer!"
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Picture pages, picture pages...
As promised, I've posted some pictures from this past weekend's hike. You can find them here.
This entry went over hill, over dale...
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
It has begun!
Guess what this is...
That, my friends, is the empty void that used to be occupied by my drum set!
Yep, after 13 years I finally set my drums back up!
At this point I'm stuck, as I now have to pick up some parts for the set. It is in a semi-playable state as-is, but I'd like to get it cleaned up a bit and in more of a final state before I can actually start to seriously think about playing.
I'm so excited about playing! (despite the blank expression in the above picture). Okay, that's all - I just wanted to post an update about this.
That, my friends, is the empty void that used to be occupied by my drum set!
Yep, after 13 years I finally set my drums back up!
At this point I'm stuck, as I now have to pick up some parts for the set. It is in a semi-playable state as-is, but I'd like to get it cleaned up a bit and in more of a final state before I can actually start to seriously think about playing.
I'm so excited about playing! (despite the blank expression in the above picture). Okay, that's all - I just wanted to post an update about this.
This entry paradiddled into a double-stroke roll!
On global warming... again
Believe me, I'm not trying to say that global temperatures aren't rising, but I have a difficult time believing that our burning of fossil fuels is the biggest factor in it. Here's an article that argues against the commonly accepted notion that our actions are the sole reason for the global increase in temperature and says that while CO2 levels might be a contributing factor, the sun itself is actually hotter. Nothing we do here affects the sun.
We've only recently (relative to history) been able to track changes in things like this. Such short-sighted analysis of what amounts to a blip in the timeline of the history of the planet doesn't seem right to me.
We've only recently (relative to history) been able to track changes in things like this. Such short-sighted analysis of what amounts to a blip in the timeline of the history of the planet doesn't seem right to me.
This entry doesn't believe that the sky is falling or that we're ruining the planet.
Bing! Bang! Boing!
Wow, some of these bring back early memories. This is what we had to play with when I was a kid... and we liked it!
This post was brought to by WHAM-O!
Monday, May 22, 2006
Well said: Privacy
Read this article about privacy. I think it was well said and not portrayed in a paranoid fashion, as I've seen others do. Check it out...
Wired News: The Eternal Value of Privacy
Wired News: The Eternal Value of Privacy
This entry was written to be read in public.
Tired and achy
This weekend turned out to be one of the busiest for me in a long time.
My dad drove down on Friday night to sleep over and catch his plane on Saturday afternoon. I gave him my bed, moved Rece to sack out on the sofa, and I took Rece's bed. I think my dad had hoped that I'd drive him to LAX (about 45-60 minutes away, depending on traffic). I knew he was coming down at some point during the weekend, but he didn't provide me with any specific timeframes ahead of time. Assuming that he didn't need my help with anything, I went ahead and planned my weekend. I felt kind of bad telling him that he should take the shuttle to the airport, but my plans for the day took me all the way up to Pasadena - and the plans involved 2 other people besides me and Rece, so I wasn't going to break them. He didn't say anything about it, but I did tell him that in the future it would be a good idea to let me know specific things like flight times and such so I can lend a hand in the future. Aside from that, we had a good time hanging out. We drove down to Newport Beach, picked up some donuts, and then walked the pier, enjoying the evening.
The plans for Saturday were for Rece and I to join Christine and her daughter Sam for a trip up to Pasadena to check out the JPL-Nasa open house. This is when they open up their otherwise very closed campus to the public and have exibits about the various projects they work on. One of Sam's friends joined us, who turned out to be pretty cool. All the exibits were interesting, albeit nerdy (which I totally loved). We got to see the Mars rover (the one they practice with on Earth), learned about the search for planets around other stars, watched a film about the recent mission to study and capture comet material, and saw a pair of 700-pound gliding robots! If you're interested in space, or have children who are, I highly recommend checking this place out the next time they hold an open house.
On Sunday we started off the day with a hike with some friends (Christine, Sam, Rana, Niki, and a dog named Sierra). It wasn't too long of a hike, but it was enough to get some exercise and just to be outdoors. I introduced Niki to geocaching (the only one of the group who didn't know what it was yet), as I was also out there to check on the geocache that I have hidden in the area. The trip only lasted about 1.5 hours, but there was a decent incline to conquer on the way back. Rece played photographer, which I'll probably get around to uploading and posting on my site this evening. Maybe Rana will send me the pictures that she took as well. After the hike we went to PCH (Pacific Coast Hot Dogs - not the highway) and chowed down... cuz that's what you do after a healthy hike - munch on some very yummy hotdogs!
After lunch, Christine, Sam, Rece, and I went to pick up our swimming outfits and then headed on down to Wild Rivers for their season pass holder preview day. Being that Sunday was forecasted to expect rain and it was overcast and also preview day, this meant practically no lines and no overcrowding. We had so much fun running (ahem, briskly walking) to each of the water slides and taking them on with reckless abandon! Rece, being the weakest swimmer and somewhat of a chicken, didn't go on all the slides we did, but he enjoyed the ones that he did go on.
I'll admit that I am totally out of shape when swimming is concerned. I suspect that I had a few lifeguards' attention when I decided to swim across the wave pool in the deep end - I must have looked like I was ready to sink from exhaustion! A simple change of stroke and adjusting my energy to work with the swells allowed me to get to the other side safely to catch my breath. One of the slides we went on was akin to being flushed down a toilet. You slide into a bowl from this chute and skim around the sides until your momentum slows and allows you to drop through a hole in the center and into a pool. In theory this would seem to be a fun idea, but the speed you're going meant experiencing a slapping sensation on your back and the possibility of being dumped into the pool at an unusual and potentially disorienting angle (just my luck, I was dumped going backwards and upside-down on my shoulder - good thing my sense of direction is good). So yeah, that ride sucked - but the rest were great!
As I mentioned ealier, it was overcast, but it was also breezy so we'd get cold standing in line. The trick was to stay in water as much as possible. The "lazy river" (as we called it) was relaxing and we got out to go sit in the hot tub to relax even more. After about a minute I looked at Christine and asked, "does it worry you that this is the murkiest water in the place?" The expression on her face indicated that she understood what I was getting at, then Sam asked, "what do you mean?" I quietly stated, "lots of people, warm water, lots of kids, murky water..." to which Sam replied, "EW!" and promptly got out. Christine and I followed suit and we decided to go on a couple more water slides. Rece, being the boy that he is, didn't seem to care and was content with remaining in the bacteria bath.
As I type this, my muscles are tired, some are a bit sore. All in all, this was very fun weekend!
My dad drove down on Friday night to sleep over and catch his plane on Saturday afternoon. I gave him my bed, moved Rece to sack out on the sofa, and I took Rece's bed. I think my dad had hoped that I'd drive him to LAX (about 45-60 minutes away, depending on traffic). I knew he was coming down at some point during the weekend, but he didn't provide me with any specific timeframes ahead of time. Assuming that he didn't need my help with anything, I went ahead and planned my weekend. I felt kind of bad telling him that he should take the shuttle to the airport, but my plans for the day took me all the way up to Pasadena - and the plans involved 2 other people besides me and Rece, so I wasn't going to break them. He didn't say anything about it, but I did tell him that in the future it would be a good idea to let me know specific things like flight times and such so I can lend a hand in the future. Aside from that, we had a good time hanging out. We drove down to Newport Beach, picked up some donuts, and then walked the pier, enjoying the evening.
The plans for Saturday were for Rece and I to join Christine and her daughter Sam for a trip up to Pasadena to check out the JPL-Nasa open house. This is when they open up their otherwise very closed campus to the public and have exibits about the various projects they work on. One of Sam's friends joined us, who turned out to be pretty cool. All the exibits were interesting, albeit nerdy (which I totally loved). We got to see the Mars rover (the one they practice with on Earth), learned about the search for planets around other stars, watched a film about the recent mission to study and capture comet material, and saw a pair of 700-pound gliding robots! If you're interested in space, or have children who are, I highly recommend checking this place out the next time they hold an open house.
On Sunday we started off the day with a hike with some friends (Christine, Sam, Rana, Niki, and a dog named Sierra). It wasn't too long of a hike, but it was enough to get some exercise and just to be outdoors. I introduced Niki to geocaching (the only one of the group who didn't know what it was yet), as I was also out there to check on the geocache that I have hidden in the area. The trip only lasted about 1.5 hours, but there was a decent incline to conquer on the way back. Rece played photographer, which I'll probably get around to uploading and posting on my site this evening. Maybe Rana will send me the pictures that she took as well. After the hike we went to PCH (Pacific Coast Hot Dogs - not the highway) and chowed down... cuz that's what you do after a healthy hike - munch on some very yummy hotdogs!
After lunch, Christine, Sam, Rece, and I went to pick up our swimming outfits and then headed on down to Wild Rivers for their season pass holder preview day. Being that Sunday was forecasted to expect rain and it was overcast and also preview day, this meant practically no lines and no overcrowding. We had so much fun running (ahem, briskly walking) to each of the water slides and taking them on with reckless abandon! Rece, being the weakest swimmer and somewhat of a chicken, didn't go on all the slides we did, but he enjoyed the ones that he did go on.
I'll admit that I am totally out of shape when swimming is concerned. I suspect that I had a few lifeguards' attention when I decided to swim across the wave pool in the deep end - I must have looked like I was ready to sink from exhaustion! A simple change of stroke and adjusting my energy to work with the swells allowed me to get to the other side safely to catch my breath. One of the slides we went on was akin to being flushed down a toilet. You slide into a bowl from this chute and skim around the sides until your momentum slows and allows you to drop through a hole in the center and into a pool. In theory this would seem to be a fun idea, but the speed you're going meant experiencing a slapping sensation on your back and the possibility of being dumped into the pool at an unusual and potentially disorienting angle (just my luck, I was dumped going backwards and upside-down on my shoulder - good thing my sense of direction is good). So yeah, that ride sucked - but the rest were great!
As I mentioned ealier, it was overcast, but it was also breezy so we'd get cold standing in line. The trick was to stay in water as much as possible. The "lazy river" (as we called it) was relaxing and we got out to go sit in the hot tub to relax even more. After about a minute I looked at Christine and asked, "does it worry you that this is the murkiest water in the place?" The expression on her face indicated that she understood what I was getting at, then Sam asked, "what do you mean?" I quietly stated, "lots of people, warm water, lots of kids, murky water..." to which Sam replied, "EW!" and promptly got out. Christine and I followed suit and we decided to go on a couple more water slides. Rece, being the boy that he is, didn't seem to care and was content with remaining in the bacteria bath.
As I type this, my muscles are tired, some are a bit sore. All in all, this was very fun weekend!
This entry got flushed down a toilet!
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Not enough funny
As I sat here waiting for the plumber to show up, I read through a few blogs that I regularly check out almost daily. For some reason I was left to ponder what to write about in my blog next. Thinking a bit further into it, I came to the realization that my blog probably isn't as funny as it used to be. This might just be my own perception, but if this is true, then it means that something is off.
Most of my friends seem to find my oddball situational comedy (sitcom!) entertaining. I can usually count on a chuckle or a laugh from something I said. There's no real pattern to it (aside from frequent innuendo) and I just say whatever pops into my head, even if it doesn't make sense. On occasion I'll just get a blank look from people, but most of the time they find it strange enough to laugh. I enjoy making people laugh and it's something that seems to just come naturally.
So why do I think my blog doesn't go into humor as often lately? Maybe I've been getting more of my "funny" out than before and just don't have much left to write about here. Maybe it's after the scare I had at work and I suspected that some of the things I write about work might possibly get me in trouble there (most likely just paranoia). Whatever it is, I hope to get myself out of this rut and explore my humorous writing side a bit more.
That being said, found this "what (thing) are you" and as usual, it seems to describe a bit of my personality...
Most of my friends seem to find my oddball situational comedy (sitcom!) entertaining. I can usually count on a chuckle or a laugh from something I said. There's no real pattern to it (aside from frequent innuendo) and I just say whatever pops into my head, even if it doesn't make sense. On occasion I'll just get a blank look from people, but most of the time they find it strange enough to laugh. I enjoy making people laugh and it's something that seems to just come naturally.
So why do I think my blog doesn't go into humor as often lately? Maybe I've been getting more of my "funny" out than before and just don't have much left to write about here. Maybe it's after the scare I had at work and I suspected that some of the things I write about work might possibly get me in trouble there (most likely just paranoia). Whatever it is, I hope to get myself out of this rut and explore my humorous writing side a bit more.
That being said, found this "what (thing) are you" and as usual, it seems to describe a bit of my personality...
| You Are Midnight |
 You are more than a little eccentric, and you're apt to keep very unusual habits. Whether you're a nightowl, living in a commune, or taking a vow of silence - you like to experiment with your lifestyle. Expressing your individuality is important to you, and you often lie awake in bed thinking about the world and your place in it. You enjoy staying home, but that doesn't mean you're a hermit. You also appreciate quality time with family and close friends. |
This entry was going to tell a joke, but got heckled by the guy sitting in the back wearing leopard skin pants and sipping a Zima. Go baby, go!
Monday, May 15, 2006
Mental doodles
Yep, that's the best title I could come up with.
My hot water situation is a little better now. While I still don't have hot water, it's at least a bit warmer and I'm not walking out of the shower shivering. I spoke with the management and they said that they had a water heater blow out, but that there were still two that were operating. Apparently only one other apartment (out of 11) had called to complain about the water situation. This makes no sense to me. Stupid neighbors.
I left a message letting them know that I was still only getting minimal water temperature yesterday. Hopefully they send somebody out to get things working properly today.
Last Thursday I went to E3. A friend of mine hooked me up with a pass to get in. My name for the day was Christopher (last name omitted). This was the first time that I'd had the option to go and I was lucky that my boss was cool about only having 4 hours notice of wanting to take the day off. There was so much to see and take in.
The "booth babes" were hot. The gadgets were cool. The game graphics were incredible!
I was lucky enough to get into a 30-person Huxley tournament. It's another one of your typical first-person shooters. We were in 2 teams of 15 and prizes were awarded to the top 5 players. I came in 5th place, which yielded some nifty swag - not to mention pride in doing so well in a game I hadn't ever played before.
On Saturday I went to the Renaissance Faire with Rece, my ex, and one of her girlfriends (who bought the tickets). This was the first time for me at a RenFaire. It was a total blast! If you're a "boob man" like me, this is the place to be. You'll likely never see so many women in push-up corsets in one place anywhere else! I definitely want to go back next year in full costume - no, not in a corset.
Sunday (Mother's Day) I got to talk with my mom for awhile. It was nice to catch up and hear that she's doing well. I worry about her sometimes, as her lifestyle doesn't seem to include much security for the future. I do envy her for being able to do what she enjoys and on her own terms, though.
My hot water situation is a little better now. While I still don't have hot water, it's at least a bit warmer and I'm not walking out of the shower shivering. I spoke with the management and they said that they had a water heater blow out, but that there were still two that were operating. Apparently only one other apartment (out of 11) had called to complain about the water situation. This makes no sense to me. Stupid neighbors.
I left a message letting them know that I was still only getting minimal water temperature yesterday. Hopefully they send somebody out to get things working properly today.
Last Thursday I went to E3. A friend of mine hooked me up with a pass to get in. My name for the day was Christopher (last name omitted). This was the first time that I'd had the option to go and I was lucky that my boss was cool about only having 4 hours notice of wanting to take the day off. There was so much to see and take in.
The "booth babes" were hot. The gadgets were cool. The game graphics were incredible!
I was lucky enough to get into a 30-person Huxley tournament. It's another one of your typical first-person shooters. We were in 2 teams of 15 and prizes were awarded to the top 5 players. I came in 5th place, which yielded some nifty swag - not to mention pride in doing so well in a game I hadn't ever played before.
On Saturday I went to the Renaissance Faire with Rece, my ex, and one of her girlfriends (who bought the tickets). This was the first time for me at a RenFaire. It was a total blast! If you're a "boob man" like me, this is the place to be. You'll likely never see so many women in push-up corsets in one place anywhere else! I definitely want to go back next year in full costume - no, not in a corset.
Sunday (Mother's Day) I got to talk with my mom for awhile. It was nice to catch up and hear that she's doing well. I worry about her sometimes, as her lifestyle doesn't seem to include much security for the future. I do envy her for being able to do what she enjoys and on her own terms, though.
This entry staggered down a path, going nowhere in particular.
Friday, May 12, 2006
Klaatu barada nikto
Read about this fellow who managed to change the display of one of those construction signs often found on the side of the road. I found it pretty funny.
In other news: Today makes the 3rd day in a row that I've had to take a cold shower. It seems that one of the water heaters for our apartments went out and either they haven't replaced it yet or they did something wrong when the did. I barely had enough heat to wash dishes the night before, let alone take a shower.
I was so irritated by this that I put up a sign at the mailboxes (the only place that all tenants are likely at some point during the day to be) telling people to call the management company and tell them that there's a problem.
After I put up the sign, I ran into my next-door neighbor and asked how his water situation was. Of course it was the same. I asked if he had called the landlords yet and to my astonishment he said "no". What's with people like this? Do they expect that things will get fixed all by themselves? I suggested that he give them a call so that they hear more than just my voice over and over complaining about broken things around the place. He said he would give them a call. This is the same guy that had the solar water heating pipes over his apartment leaking and dripping down on/over his balcony for a month... I'm guessing he didn't call then either, because I finally got tired of hearing a trickle of water and called - the problem got fixed within a few days.
This isn't the first time that this apartment management company has taken their time to fix something. About a year ago the water main going into the apartments broke and was gushing water at an astonishing rate (this was also a morning when showering was a problem). I called them about it before going in to work (8:00 am) and when I arrived back at home (5:15 pm), it still hadn't been fixed! About 20 minutes after I arrived, a plumbing truck pulled up and they had the problem fixed in less than 10 minutes. ARRG!
Anyhow, I'm hoping that they get this problem fixed soon!
In other news: Today makes the 3rd day in a row that I've had to take a cold shower. It seems that one of the water heaters for our apartments went out and either they haven't replaced it yet or they did something wrong when the did. I barely had enough heat to wash dishes the night before, let alone take a shower.
I was so irritated by this that I put up a sign at the mailboxes (the only place that all tenants are likely at some point during the day to be) telling people to call the management company and tell them that there's a problem.
After I put up the sign, I ran into my next-door neighbor and asked how his water situation was. Of course it was the same. I asked if he had called the landlords yet and to my astonishment he said "no". What's with people like this? Do they expect that things will get fixed all by themselves? I suggested that he give them a call so that they hear more than just my voice over and over complaining about broken things around the place. He said he would give them a call. This is the same guy that had the solar water heating pipes over his apartment leaking and dripping down on/over his balcony for a month... I'm guessing he didn't call then either, because I finally got tired of hearing a trickle of water and called - the problem got fixed within a few days.
This isn't the first time that this apartment management company has taken their time to fix something. About a year ago the water main going into the apartments broke and was gushing water at an astonishing rate (this was also a morning when showering was a problem). I called them about it before going in to work (8:00 am) and when I arrived back at home (5:15 pm), it still hadn't been fixed! About 20 minutes after I arrived, a plumbing truck pulled up and they had the problem fixed in less than 10 minutes. ARRG!
Anyhow, I'm hoping that they get this problem fixed soon!
This entry didn't need coffee in order to wake up this morning...
Monday, May 08, 2006
Who do we blame now?
I read a news story today about some drunken idiots (and I dare add that they live in the south) that got into an argument over how to use a PS2 game system. The fight ended when one of them pulled a gun on the other and shot him dead.
What I'm wondering now is which group is going to speak up first? The anti-gun crowd blaming the gun for the killing, the anti-video game crowd saying that this is another example of the violence in video games, or people against alcohol? Oh the humanity!
What I'm wondering now is which group is going to speak up first? The anti-gun crowd blaming the gun for the killing, the anti-video game crowd saying that this is another example of the violence in video games, or people against alcohol? Oh the humanity!
This entry was shot while arguing over which video game character is better: Mario or Luigi.
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Operation Photo Rescue
I happened upon this website and immediately sent them an email telling them that I wanted to volunteer to help them in their efforts. I also included a sample image of what I can do (see below).
Restoring digital photos is something I seem to have a knack for and I've done it for a few friends and family members over the years. The most difficult one I was asked to restore was from one of my co-workers. His dad had passed away not too long before and he had discovered an old picture that his mother had been carrying around in her purse or wallet for years. Time and abuse had taken their toll on the picture and he asked me if I might be able to help. After a few days (during lunches at work) I was able to bring the picture back to a much better state.
Here's that picture...
(click for a larger view)
This brings back memories of some work my mom did when I was a kid. She would take real photographs and either restore them or colorize them (this was way back before personal computers). It was a way for her to use her artistic talents to restore and/or enhance photographs. Now, in the digital age, I have a chance to do the same.
Anyhow, hopefully they get back to me and find my skills useful enough to start putting me to work!
Restoring digital photos is something I seem to have a knack for and I've done it for a few friends and family members over the years. The most difficult one I was asked to restore was from one of my co-workers. His dad had passed away not too long before and he had discovered an old picture that his mother had been carrying around in her purse or wallet for years. Time and abuse had taken their toll on the picture and he asked me if I might be able to help. After a few days (during lunches at work) I was able to bring the picture back to a much better state.
Here's that picture...
(click for a larger view)
This brings back memories of some work my mom did when I was a kid. She would take real photographs and either restore them or colorize them (this was way back before personal computers). It was a way for her to use her artistic talents to restore and/or enhance photographs. Now, in the digital age, I have a chance to do the same.
Anyhow, hopefully they get back to me and find my skills useful enough to start putting me to work!
This entry was color-corrected, sharpened, blended, and rasterized.
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Save the Internet!
Big communications companies are attempting to change how the Internet works at a fundamental level. What is being proposed is a multi-tiered Internet where those can afford to pay what amounts to extortion fees to telcos get preferential treatment of bandwidth (Internet traffic) and those who don't pay get whatever is left over.The Internet is a place where anybody can create something and has an equal footing with huge corporations. It's a way for everybody to have a chance to be heard and a great method of communicating.
Network Neutrality is what the Internet currently enjoys now. Nobody gets any preferred treatment over anybody else. This needs to be maintained so that everybody has equal chance to succeed with whatever it is they want to do on the Internet.
It's a topic that's causing a lot of stir on BOTH sides of politics. When both Democrats and Republicans are making strong efforts to prevent something, chances are that it's because they're fighting against something most would consider "unconstitutional".
Back up the efforts to stop big telcos from controlling the Internet!
This entry was written while the Internet was still neutral - let's keep it that way!
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
High road to the Moony Temple
Quinn, his daughter Allissa, Rece and I went hiking and geocaching up in Crestline and Lake Arrowhead this past weekend. The weather was outstanding and about as good as it gets for being outdoors.
I posted photos and details on a new web page on my website. Both Quinn and I took a lot of photos, but you'll only be subjected to around 47 or so...
I posted photos and details on a new web page on my website. Both Quinn and I took a lot of photos, but you'll only be subjected to around 47 or so...
This entry got itself a nice sunburn while hiking!
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