Wonderful Wednesday Webcam Wackiness

It's no secret that I have a strange fascination with webcams. So friends and family probably weren't surprised when I told them about the one that I set up at home. Primarily it is used to keep an eye on Rece during the time period he's home after school, before I get home. He knows that it is there and can tell when it is on (the blue light on it turns on when it is active).

Aside from doing his chores when he gets home (which take less than 15 minutes or so to do), Rece has been told that he must do his homework in the living room on the sofa, which is where the webcam is set up to capture. I have informed him that his mother and I (and sometimes our friends, too) will be checking the cam to make sure he's doing his homework and not goofing off.

Of course we can't just sit at our jobs and stare at him to make sure he's staying on task, but we do check in from time to time. Occasionally we see him goofing off instead of doing his homework, and in some cases, we don't see him on the webcam at all - which is against the rules (except in regards to the aforementioned chores or when he goes to the can). At these moments we'll give him a call and remind him to get back on task.

The system seems to be working rather well now. In fact, it may be that Rece has become a bit too accustomed to the webcam being there to the point that he forgets about it completely. Why do I suspect this? Well, it may have something to do with what I caught him doing today.

While checking the webcam, I noticed that Rece wasn't doing his homework, despite having been home for over 45 minutes. Since chores and bathroom don't take him that long, I gave him a call. As it turns out, he was messing around with his hair to improve upon the style it was done in for the "Wacky Wednesday" theme at school today. I reminded him that playing around wasn't what he was supposed to be doing and that he had to "un-do" his hair, then get on to doing his homework. He acknowledged my directive and this was the result...

He did this while I was still waiting on the line. The sounds of struggle he must have been going through to remove the stuff he put in his hair were so funny, it was all I could do to keep from bursting into laughter. In fact, I did let out a few snickers, which garnered the attention of the two coworkers outside my office door. After the struggle, he returned to the sofa and started on his homework assignments.

About an hour later I checked back in on him, and was happy to see that he was on the sofa, doing his homework... wait... what the...

As you can see, he was up to his elbow doing something other than homework. This activity continuted for at least 2-3 minutes before I could stomach it no longer - I called him again. "That has got to be the most disgusting thing I've seen in a long time, dude!" I chided. "What? Oh... uh... sorry," he replied, as he glanced into the webcam, realizing what I must have meant. With a gentle reminder that he was still on the webcam and that searching for buried treasure wasn't part of his homework duties, he went back to work.

This entry was brought to you by Big Brother - he really is watching you.

No! Make it stop! NOOOO!

Stumbled upon this video on YouTube. I'm not quite sure if I should laugh my ass off or puke... or both.

This entry feels violated somehow.

A scorching case of basket ass

As odd as it may sound, it appears that Rece really enjoys going to the laundry mat. Ordinarily I do my laundry in the laundry room at my apartment complex, but last night I went to the local laundry mat with my friend Jennie (she needed to wash a large blanket/quilt/comforter/thing). Rece was with us and having himself a great time. He likes putting the quarters in the machines and starting up the dryers. He also likes playing in the rolling laundry carts quite a bit. Who would have thought a kid would like what most adults find to be dull and tiresome?

Rece was a little bummed when we eventually had to leave and asked if we could come back again sometime soon. I told him we would come back some day... and people call me strange...

This entry was accidentally thrown in with the load of reds.

Performancing, take two...

This is my second entry made using the Performancing extension for Firefox that I mentioned yesterday. While it seems to work just fine for creating new posts, it has given me trouble when I attempt to edit an existing post.

For my next trick, I'll attempt to insert a couple of images and see what this thing allows me to do with them. Here goes...

The above images should be right next to eachother, with a single space (I hit the spacebar) between them.

Ok, so the left image was inserted without any resizing. The image on the right was inserted and then resized within the Performancing screen (grab a corner). The really neat thing that I noticed right away was that the image size (in pixels) was displayed as I was resizing the image. That's a very handy tool!

I also made the image on the right a hyperlink. I was disappointed that it didn't offer a target option, so I was forced to go into the HTML edit mode and add the target="_blank" tag manually. In the editor there's a blue border around the hyperlinked image, but I don't see any border tags in HTML edit mode, so we'll see if that carries over after posting.

Alright, time to post this and see what happens...

This entry was done while bored at lunch.

Testing... 1, 2, 3...

This is my second attempt at posting to my blog using the Performancing extension for Firefox. It should allow me to post to my blog without having to actually log on to blogger/blogspot. It also has a few other blogging tools that I'll explore at a later date.

This entry took a couple of tries to post.

OMG, Firefly!

Last week I ordered Firefly: the Complete Series DVD set and Serenity DVD as a package deal on Amazon for just under $38. Sweet deal. Well this sweet deal turned out to be even better for me, since I'm apparently a late-comer to the entire Firefly/Serenity scene.

Back when Firefly first aired on TV, I remember catching most of one episode (I think it was the pilot) and liking it. For whatever reason I never managed to catch it again and as it turns out the series ended up getting cancelled. So last year I see these previews for this movie named Serenity and it looks pretty good. My son and I never got around to seeing it in the theaters, but we vowed to catch it when it came out on DVD.

Back in December Rece and I went to the video store and discovered that it had been released on video, so we rented it. HOLY COW! This movie turned out to be one of the best sci-fi flicks I've seen. I mean, it ranked right up there with Star Trek: The Next Generation, in my opinion. We loved it so much that we watched all the extras (except for the commentary) and I learned about the Firefly history of the show. NO WAY! It was at this point that I realized that I must buy not only the movie, Serenity, but the entire Firefly series on DVD. Money around the time was tight because of Christmas, and then Rece's science camp tuition, etc, so buying them was out of the question. This month my expendable income was back to usual, so I ordered the set after following a digg link to the deal on Amazon.

So far I've only had time to watch the first 2 DVDs of the series and I am thoroughly impressed! How this show ended up getting cancelled, I'll never know. I've seen som pretty crappy sci-fi shows go far longer than they should have, but this great show got canned. Go figure.

Anyhow, I'm about ready to go watch some more Firefly now. I just couldn't contain my excitement about the whole thing. If you're a sci-fi fan, then do yourself a favor and check it out for yourself!

This entry was boarded by reavers and never heard from again.

I'm rain

No surprise there!

You Are Rain

You can be warm and sexy. Or cold and unwelcoming. Either way, you slowly bring out the beauty around you. You are best known for: your touch Your dominant state: changing

What Type of Weather Are You?

Delete with caution

Found this interesting article about how a man is being sued for deleting information from his laptop by a company he worked for. It seems like a circular argument to me, so I'm having difficulty understanding how this is going to play out.

A company gives you a laptop for you to work on. You sign an agreement about not using it for personal business and also that you can delete information from the hard drive when you return it. You use it for personal business anyway, the company starts to suspect as much, you delete your personal business (and go so far as to permanently wipe it) from the computer, quit your job, and return the laptop. The company then attempts to recover evidence of your personal business from the hard drive, find that it's been wiped, then because they don't have the evidence that you used it for personal business, they sue you based on the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, because you deleted possible evidence that they could have used against you - if it were even there at all. Hmm...

Part of it seems to be that the company wanted to get hold of some of his other business info/contacts, hoping to gain some knowledge to use for themselves. Anyhow, I thought it was an interesting read.

This entry was given a gag order, then it smirked, pulling out some handcuffs and a whip.

Good Night, and Good Luck

This past Friday we had a potluck lunch at work. It was themed off the Academy Awards Show, which was being held the following Sunday. Our staff was asked to bring in a dish and to come up with a name for it somehow derived from the list of Oscar nominees. As usual, I decided to bring my oriental cabbage salad, which has now become a regular dish at our company potlucks - if I don't bring it, people almost get upset with me!

I must have missed the part about naming my dish, so when I was asked at the last minute what my salad was to be called, I quickly came up with something. To accompany my salad on the buffet table, I made the following sign with the name on it...

(click image for larger version)

This entry was made possible by Nissin noodles!

100 Firefox Extensions Installed!

Found this funny link on digg this evening while surfing around the web. It just seems funny that somebody would try this. The amazing part is that it didn't slow Firefox down as much as I would have expected the guy to report it had. It really is an amazing browser!

This entry was written while waiting for a kid to finish his homework. Grrrr...

You twit. It's 'sponge', not 'plowed'!

Wow! What a week! So much has happened that I couldn't possibly cover it all. Lots of fun, lots of laughs, plenty über geekiness, a couple of nice surprises, and a lot of time spent with friends.

I got to help my best friend celebrate her birthday - twice. Her friends and family were able to surprise her with a birthday dinner 2 nights early. It was great to see her genuinely surprised and I could tell that she was touched by our efforts. On her actual birthday I took her family out to for some delicious sushi (all you can eat - YUM!), then I hung out with them for a few hours afterwards just doing whatever came next. There's no way that I can sufficiently express how much I appreciate the fact that she was born, which ultimately allowed for her to be such an important part of my life.

My life-long friend, René, was able to drop in for a visit this weekend, as well. We spent a couple of hours looking through my copies of our old junior and high school yearbooks. She's been experiencing a lot of health problems over the last 4-6 months, but she seemed to be doing much better, which was a relief to see. We had a great time spent talking and relaxing. She's been my friend since we were 14, which is the longest I've ever known anybody, outside of family. She means a lot to me and I'm so fortunate to still have her in my life after so much time has passed.

Today Rece and I went geocaching with a new friend. The three of us walked about 4 miles and found 11 geocaches in less than 3 hours. There were a lot of people on the trail, which meant that we had to be rather creative in searching for, retrieving, and then replacing the caches without attracting any attention to our actions. Stealth was the key. The variety of ways we went about accomplishing our objectives provided us with a lot of laughs and just an overall good time.

Those are just some of the highlights and I assure you that there were a lot more little moments in between that filled my week with a lot of fun and the enjoyment of time with my friends.

This entry was copied, moved, renamed, then organized alphabetically.

The one about 500 geocaches

With some help from my best friend, I achieved the 500 geocaches found mark a couple of days ago. We were out night caching (as we often tend to do) and nabbed the last 9 I needed. It feels pretty good to have gotten this far, especially since I'm not one to really care about the numbers when it comes to geocaching. It's mostly just a way for me to get out of my apartment, meet folks with similar interests, and enjoy spending time with some great people.

I also got around to hiding another cache, this one being a more out of the way/wilderness hide - like, as in you actually have to hike to it. It's in the foothills above Orange/Anaheim Hills, along some hiking/mountain biking trails. The location was found while I was out hiking with some friends from work last month. It just seemed so odd that there was a trail to this particular place, that I thought I'd hide a geocache there. I decided to call this one "Well-Defined Trail to Nowhere".

This entry was found aimlessly walking around a park in the middle of the night
holding a flashlight and staring at a strange cell phone-looking device.

In John They Trust

The Smithsonian Magazine website has a fascinating story about some South Pacific Islanders and how they worship what seems to be an American. It's interesting to read about how Americans had an effect on the spiritual beliefs within the culture when they suddenly appeared during World War II.

Their website seems to have a lot of interesting articles that I look forward to reading, as time permits. Hopefully you get something out of it, too.

This entry worships the almighty shopping cart!

Brokeback to the Future?

File this under "obviously somebody had too much time on their hands" (wait - that wouldn't fit on a file tab)...

My buddy Quinn posted a link on his blog today to a rather entertaining spoof of a trailer for a non-existent movie called Brokeback to the Future. It's pieces of movie footage from the various Back to the Future movies put together to make it look as though Doc and Marty had some sort of "relationship" other than that of Delorean-time-machine-inventor and accidental-teenage-time-traveller. Funny stuff!

This entry was brought to you by a rainbow bumper sticker.

Photos from the 2/11/06 hike

As promised, here are some of the pictures taken while hiking through Riley Park this past weekend. Click an image to view a larger version.

An Old Studebaker Wagon

Entrance to Butterfly Garden

Staci Ann & a Live Oak Tree

A Coyote in the Nature Center

Trails Climbing Up Rolling Hills

Looking Back Down at the Trail Up

Rana, Barbara, & Staci Ann

Rana, Barbara, & Gabe

The View From Horned Toad Vista Point

Thanks to Rana & Staci Ann for taking the photos!

This entry brought to you by the OCUW Hiking Crew.

Happy V.D.

This is the second Valentine's Day in a row that I haven't felt any pressure to do or give something to somebody that I didn't want to do or give on my own. It feels great!

My ex, Sherise, is the type of person that expresses her love through gifts - or "tokens of love" as she used to put it. So by her reasoning she felt loved when she was given stuff, especially when accompanied by some sort of mushy sentiment along with it. Now I'm not saying that she's wrong for being like this, not at all - it just isn't the way that I feel driven to show my affection for others. This fact didn't help in our relationship at all, as one might imagine.

Having gone through the stereotypical Valentine's Day routine with Sherise for over 14 years, I can say that I'm officially done with all of the "traditional" V-Day stuff. I'll express my feelings for the gal I care about in the manner that I feel I show it best. If that isn't enough for her, then she isn't the one for me!

When I care for somebody (friend or more), I do things for them. Be it tuning up their computer, helping them move, watching their pets, listening to them talk about their life, etc. - I'm there for them. This is something I enjoy doing for them. Sure, I might give gifts when appropriate (birthdays & Christmas), but it's usually something that the person can use - preferably something they actually need. I'm reluctant to buy something for somebody when they already have pretty much all they need. There are some exceptions to this line of thinking, but it isn't the norm.

A card is what I tend to give during special days (like today). If I were romantically involved with a gal, I'd definitely take her out to dinner (or cook something special myself) and try to find something that we could do together that was fun and best suited to our relationship and personalities. It's possible that a gift might be involved, but that would depend on many different factors.

So before I come off sounding like an uncaring oaf, I hope it's clear that I'm not saying that I won't express how I feel to the people that I care for. Quite the contrary! It's just that I won't waste my time trying to express it to them in a way that feels false or completely foreign to my core personality (sensibilities?) anymore. WYSIWYG!

This entry was brought to you by geek <3.

Love Cache?

Just got home after attending a Geocaching event (gathering) named "Love Cache" (yep, it's a spin-off of the B-52's song "Love Shack" - go ahead and sing it, I won't try to stop you). Not much love for BuzzKill (my geocaching alias) to find, as the single gals in their 30's that I was told would be there by the event organizer were nowhere to be found.

That didn't stop me from getting too much unwanted attention from a 14 y/o girl, though. EESH! This is the second time that I've been at one of these geocaching events where a minor (the first one was 15) ends up giving me ga-ga eyes and hangs around trying to talk with me for a good portion of the event, while I'm doing my best to talk with the adults. It's a very uncomfortable thing, I tell ya! At least this one didn't come straight out and proposition me. (shudder)

Speaking of strange minors; a boy - I'd have to guess around 9 or 10, walked up to the table where me and 5 other (adult) geocachers were seated and announced, "I just violated a cherry!" We stared at him sorta stunned for a moment before he grinned and held up a maraschino cherry skewered by a half a dozen plastic sword toothpicks. Uhm... yeah.

The event began to thin out after the raffle was over, so I decided to say my goodbyes and go home. On my way out to my car, I passed by the flirty 14 y/o who waited until I was 10-15 feet away before telling me to "shake it". What on Earth are parents teaching their kids these days!?

This entry ended up feeling rather creeped out when it got home.

...and one gram of protein

This morning was spent hiking with some of the gals from work that I'm friends with. We (well, I) decided that we should give Thomas F. Riley Wilderness Park a try, since none of us had ever been there before. Like the rest of Orange County's parks, this was a pleasant place to visit. The weather was clear and not too warm, and the UV factor was low, so I didn't even need sunscreen. It doesn't get much better than this for a hike with some friends.

It was the shortest hike that our group has done so far (just barely over 2.5 miles), but we spent the entire time talking and laughing. Either because of our noise level or that it was just a slow day for critters, we didn't encounter much wildlife on the trail, which was a shame.

After the hike we enjoyed a potluck picnic and more laughter. For the most part the items we brought were pretty healthy, but one of the gals had brought some sinful marshmallow/cookie treats along. Out of curiosity, we looked at the ingredients on the box and were astounded not only by what was in it (3 types of sugars, partially hydrogenated oils, etc) but also by the sheer length of the ingredients list! Not surprisingly, the nutritional value of these sweet morsels was practically none, but the gal that brought them was quick to point out that at least they provided 1 gram of protein. I'm just going to leave that part of the story at that...

After the picnic a couple of us went to check out the park office and nature center. I wanted to talk to one of the rangers to see if they were open to allowing the placement of a geocache or two within the park. The ranger was very nice and told me that I could, as long as I worked with them when I go about hiding the caches.

We took some pictures, so hopefully the 2 gals with cameras will send me the pictures soon and I'll post them here.

This entry enjoyed a breath of fresh air on a lovely day.

Edit to add: Photos have been uploaded and posted here.

Geek humor

My boss just sent me the following email:

A horse walks into a bar and the bartender says

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Well, all the question marks were actually those little boxes you sometimes see when an invalid character can't be displayed. Anywho, I thought it was hella funny.

This entry was brought to you by ≲ാऊउ㰉牴ാऊउउ琼.

Edit to add: After reading this on my home computer, I see that it was partially made up of some Asian language, so you may see Asian characters instead of just question marks or boxes on your computer.

The Mystery Door

Went to lunch with a couple of the gals from work. We went to a Salvadorian pupuseria (Pupusería San Sivar) just off of Harbor and 19th Street in Costa Mesa. Very tasty food!

While we were there we noticed this door that had been covered 1/2 way up by linoleum:

What really struck us as funny was the fact that they didn't even bother to remove the "Employees Only" sign after they were finished.

This entry is for Employees Only.