You did WHAT?

Well Ryan told me today (when we went to Classy's for his leaving lunch) that Tristin got chewed out by her realtor for this clause to the listing thing. I guess she didn't much like doing what the customer wanted even if it means she doesn't make any money on the deal. Not an attitude which would make me want to go with her. But I'm pretty much decided on going this way.

And my landlord called again telling me he was going to stop by "to chat". No idea what this means but I'm wondering when my lease is up and if it might have something to do with that.

I'm reading George R.R. Martin's "Game of Thrones". Maybe I should go get the FFG board game too. I was really getting into it and recalling what Jay had told me about the families in the story (no real clear hero, everyone has something bad about them). Then the one that seemed to be shaping up to be heroic (Bran) is pushed out the window by the Queen's lover (her brother? not really sure who is who yet) after accidentily hearing them conspire against his father.

Only one more disk of Stargate SG-1 episodes left. Done with Kung Fu but still have all the Battlestar Galactica and The Tick ones left to go through. And a few movie DVDs yet to watch.

A house??

Okay I went to dinner last night with Erik, Ryan and Tristin (what a cool name for a way cool lady) and they convinced me to buy their house. She found out there was a way to put a clause in their listing so that if I decided to buy it then we'd bypass all the realtor paperwork and so the time constraint (her realtor was going out of town next week so she was pressuring her to list it by Friday) was relaxed a bit. And the best thing is that their kitchen has an island!

Brain Dump

Well waiting to go to dinner with Ryan and Tristan. She's a research hound apparently and she's done a ton of research into buying a house and she's going to unload on me so that I can decide if I want to buy their house. Apparently we'll save (I'll save?) a bunch of money if we don't mess with a realtor. I went to look over some of the VA loan stuff and it's a headache. I found the form you have to submit (to the St. Louis Regional VA office) and it was a pdf but the file was corrupt and wouldn't print much less display. I sent off a note to their webmaster but given Government bureaucracy it'll be some time after I retire before it's fixed.

I also played around with the template some more trying to make the BlogItemTitles smaller and they turned red. Not that much smaller but enough that the day title looks bigger, which is what I wanted.

Since I can't get another bike

People who know me know I had a motorcycle accident a year ago last October. Some bozo made an illegal left hand turn out of a parking lot while I had right-of-way and I smashed into him and sailed over his hood, breaking my bike up good and my pelvis. At least that's what the police report says. I don't remember any of it (which is probably a good thing). I got a Subaru WRX as a balm instead of getting another bike and testing my luck further that people actually KNOW how to drive (see previous posts on people's driving). It's a sweet little car based off their World Rally car from about 8 or 10 years ago (that design won 9 of the last 11 World Rally Cups).

However while I was in Phoenix we went out to visit my cousine Kirsten (No, it's not Kristen, her mother is Danish - as in from Denmark, my-uncle-married-a-Danish-girl-after-the-war Danish). She married a new guy a few years ago, a former cowboy apparently. They bought a house on the outskirts of the city and have (now) four horses. Quarterhorses, three ... drat, I forget what kind but the other one is a sorrel (Rusty, the calm one, Flash, who always wants to run, Buddy and Thor, who bucks lately). The kids all rode at least once (Cameron, the littlest, rode four times and Nick, the next youngest three) and then she and I took a ride. I knew I wasn't doing it well but I was trying. And I was looking around thinking "This is pretty damn cool". I forgot the hat I bought last Christmas in Tombstone, D'oh! And now I understand why they where those goofy looking boots with the huge heal and the pointy toes. My damn tennis-shoe/hiking-boots wouldn't go into the stirrup for crap and they kept wanting to slide out. So the bug for this has bitten now and I'll have to talk to Mary and see if someone she rides with has a horse I can ride a few times to see if the it takes.

"The District"? WTF???

Well I'm back in Missouri. Ugh! Sweat is already rolling off me and it's supposed to rain today. Much different than Phoenix where it was 20 or 30 degrees hotter but it didn't feel nearly so oppressive.

I heard another radio commercial this morning for the downtown area that "they're" trying to label "The District". It would be less pretentious if the city were big enough that there's some other named area. Like St. Louis with "The Hill" (the Italian section) and "The Landing" (the riverfront) and ... heck, I don't even know many of the other areas of St. Louis but at least the place is big enough it doesn't strike me as "putting on airs".

And I can't say I blame them for trying to revitalize the downtown shopping area, but parking is the first thing they should fix (and they may have with two "new" parking garages in the last few years but they're not well known since I don't even know when they were put up besides driving past them). But this whole thing smacks of over-inflated self-importance (I want to say "self-agrandizement" but I was never really sure what that term meant!) and pretentiousness. And while I like a restaurant with good food and a nice, relaxed atmosphere, those snooty places are annoying as h3ll. All this ad campaign is doing is making me avoid the place since voting with my legs and my dollars is the only way to get their attention (another email might not hurt). I wonder how annoyed some of the businesses are having to redo all their advertising.

Now the *real* fun starts

Well in response to an email I sent to our group (at work) Erik (rightly) points out "how are we/they supposed to know when we/they are contagious?" and shouldn't come to work for fear of infecting the rest of us/them. Having taken biology exactly zero times I have no idea except an inkling that you're going to be contagious before you actually start hacking and coughing and otherwise showing symptoms. So I don't have an answer to that. However, that's doesn't make it any more pleasant when you've had this crud for ten days now with no end in sight. Or wondering if there was a way to avoid it, especially since it's not your fault you got it. Perhaps not his fault either.

Hereabouts the kids are off school now for summer vacation. Everyone slept in this morning (well Cameron didn't wake me up until 6 this time and putting him in my bed got him back to sleep for another hour and a half). But it seems to be more difficult to get them to do their chores before we go see "Shrek 2" than it had been previously. I know if I go down and turn the TV off until chores are done there'll be tons of screaming but telling them they won't be able to go doesn't seem to get them moving any faster. Ah, the joys of parenthood ... ;-P

Hello from Sun City

Okay I don't really know what Phoenix is called (the way Chicago is called "the Windy City") and there actually is a suburb named "Sun City" but anyway hello from Phoenix.

Jon and Tricia should be landing in Montigo Bay about now. I dropped them off at the airport last night about 10 and their plane was supposed to leave near midnight. Turns out it actually left an hour later and when they called to talk to the kids before they went to school this morning they were still in country.

The first morning (and last night too) actually went well. Matt is doing his best to behave and doing pretty well. I'm not going to provide too many details about why this is so significant but let's just say that his mother dying from a brain tumor when he was eight has turned out to be the least of his problems. If they all keep up this behavior I'm going to get all teary eyed when I have to leave next week.

Now I know that the guy in the cubicle over the wall from me doesn't read this but if, by some strange quirk of fate he does, I want to warn him that I'm going to give him the Mother of All Charlie Horses when I get back. He was hacking and coughing all last week (well Monday and Tuesday anyway) and he gave it to me before I left. If I were there it would be no big deal, I'd just take some sick leave and get over it. But I'm here and it now sounds like Cameron (the youngest) is coughing. However I didn't give it to Jon or Tricia before they left (that would really, really suck, getting this sick in Jamaca!). But let me say it for the record (and quite forcefully),

"If your Freaking SICK stay the Freak HOME DAMN IT!. I have not now, nor have I ever had, any desire to experience YOUR illness." (even to avoid working with people I don't much like or do projects which are stupid)

All for now, more updates from Phoenix coming.

Further Developments on the News at 11

Okay, I think I'll keep posting this while I'm in Phoenix so that anyone who wants to know how it's going watching the kids can stay tuned. They have a new interface and I'll have to poke around some and see what it does. At first look it seems like they've gotten comments now so I took the HaloScan stuff back out again and still have people post things to my entries.

Ryan D is leaving at the end of the Month. Serious bummer. He was my *nix go-to guy. First Joe leaves and I can't go to him for advice or to get pointed in the right direction. Now him. Well Bryan says this will be a great opportunity for him. However I won't get to talk to him much about the whole deal since he's last day will be Friday the week I get back. First Erik leaves the group then this. At this rate I'll be the *nix guru in a few months. Except that Brian and Jill just bought a house so he's probably not leaving. And I don't think Brand will go since Bobbi's family is in town. And as long as Erik's daughter is here they won't leave town even if he does change jobs. But then you've always had to change jobs in order to advance at the University (in IT at least).

Will Dell help?

Well I posted a request for help to Dell's site. We'll see how quickly and to what effect they help me.

Funny, it seems that whenever I'm away from the computer I ponder things and end up with at least a couple I want to post here but when I sit down to type most of them have slipped away. Maybe I can try to put a few of them up here now.

*
Water in your ears. I got water in my left ear a couple of times last week when I was showering. It's always a pain when I can't get it out since I have to then use isopropyl alcohol which leaves me smelling of it. Ah well, nothing this week so far.

*
"And then there was One"

Jeff asked Laura to marry him and she said yes and he told us about it. It seems like I'm the last then. And it's not for a desire to avoid matrimony, rather a lack of opportunity. Or perhaps a fear of involvement since I've been by myself for so many years. But the last one was Lorie and she came back from the War last April and said she only wanted to be friends. It had been going so well up to that point, or so I thought. Well at least it wasn't as bad as Lucy where I went home for Christmas and came back and she was married.

*
I think I don't like to travel anymore. I like being settled someplace and into a routine but not picking up, packing, getting to the airport (or driving), arriving and unpacking. It's all so disruptive and I want it to just be over. I fly out of KC tomorrow at 2ish, which means packing tonight and then driving up tomorrow. Ah well, it'll be good to see the kids again.

Maybe more later.

PDA Problems

Well it looks like it might be giving up the ghost.

My Dell Axim X5 is having problems again. I use it mainly to keep my Exchange calendar and to beep at me when I have a meeting (I missed a meeting after lunch because of this problem). I also play bejeweled and rocketmania on it. But suddenly it would start mysteriously pulling down menus and picking options. Last time it did this I had to do a hard reboot and lose all my information. Not really a big deal except for installed software since everything is synced with Exchange. I get it working acceptably and that lasts for about three or four weeks now. Now it's happening again and a hard reboot doesn't stop strange screen problems.

There's nothing I can find in the FAQs and nothing helpful on the customer boards. Guess I need to submit an email and ask what to do about it. The PPC is more than 2 years old it seems since I can't find my order for it online and they claim to have 2 years order history available online. I wonder what the lifespan of these things is. If it's less than 2 years that sucks. It may be time to switch away from Dell if this is the way they handle customer support.

Final Episode?

Well I didn't want to, but I did anyway. I watched the final episode of "Friends" instead of just taping it and watching it whenever. The hour before may have been funny but it was still "I've seen this one and I didn't watch that one the first time around."

And Leno's monologue about it was funnier than the show itself.

"I heard that it's going to DVD in 5 days. The only other thing that went to DVD that fast was Gigli!"

But tonight there's another episode of "20/20" (or whatever the NBC "news" show is ... not "20/20", it's "Dateline", that shows you how much it impresses me, I can't even remember it's name) about it (there was one the night before). And next week they're doing the whole stupid thing all over again with "Frasier". Reminds me of how we were taught to teach in the Army. "Tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you just told them." At least those things were worth something, if only passing whatever test came next.

Sheesh!

It's not like it's the cure for cancer or Shakespeare or anything, it's just a freaking TV show. And one which was past it's prime at that! Retire gracefully. Quietly. Fade into the sunset. Don't cry and cry about it. Let us get on with our lives. I don't remember this much bullsh*t about the M*A*S*H finale all those years ago and that show was a lot funnier and not nearly as blase at the end (of course Alan Alda did get kind of preachy when he started writing/directing them).

But in an era when in order to be a marketing executive you must have a pre-frontal lobotomy (and definately NOT be funny) and in order to be a network executive you must meet that requirement, have no soul AND have all your common sense removed, it's not surprising in the least. Andy is right, TV isn't worth the time. I can find something better to spend it on, even if it's only vacuuming the house or cleaning the catbox.

Whoa, cleaning the catbox is more fun that watching TV. Sad. Really sad.

Maybe I should take the bus to work

"So many drivers, so little skill"

That's been my motto for awhile now. Or to grab a billboard-we'd-like-to-see from the site Aaron sent me yesterday

http://www.dribbleglass.com/subpages/billboards74b.htm

"China. One billion people, three good drivers!"

At that ratio how many good drivers can I expect to find in Columbia?

Okay, this is not my fault

I'm just following Ryan's instructions.

"Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad to find herself a handsome young stud and have herself assigned to him, to gracefully slip into retirement ... Perhaps if she pleased Dyran enough, when he tired of her, he would permit her to have a mate of her own choosing."

It's from Elvenbane by Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey (yes John, I can read her and I do have a penis). And it's not really a torrid romance novel since it's about elves and humans and dragons. And the only scenes were people are missing their clothing involves babies who were just born so clothing is optional for them (anyone who has young children or is friends of people with children will understand how optional clothing usually is for them - the kids you freak!).

Here are the instructions which caused me to post such a ... well to post it.
Instructions: Grab the nearest book, open it to page 23, find the 5th sentence, post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

And being as literally minded as those who know me know only I can be, this is the 5th sentence since the first isn't complete and thus doesn't count.

Not MY Friend

---

Enough already!

I was going to watch "West Wing" last night but didn't get a chance to check the listings. Well they preempted it (big deal really) for some "Friends" special since tonight is the last episode ever (so what?). Sure it might have been interesting seeing the actors backgrounds and stories from the series and such but the horse has been dead for a few years now. They may think they're going out on top but that's only because they're competing with all that nauseating "reality television" (I have enough reality in my real life, I don't need to use my escapism time to watch more of it).

Then I hear on the radio this morning that of the "2 hour special" the first hour is highlights of the show. Big deal, if it's not scenes that I've seen already then it's things I didn't have the interest to watch in the first place. I'll tape it and go play Galaxies. Even as bad as that game gets sometimes it seems to still be echelons above most television.

I was going to write NBC an email and I had all these clever phrases lined up. "Enough already", "Competing with Fox for lamest network ever" (worst episode ever - hmm, ah, the comic book guy from "The Simpsons"), with the highlight being

"Could you BE any more overdramatic?".

However once I located the 'contact us' link on their site I discovered I don't even have the interest to complain to them. It's not like it would be read by anyone other than an intern and not shitcanned afterwards. It's not like it would actually matter or change anything. Modern American television is crap and it's going to continue to be crap with very little the viewer can do. Well except for finding more significant or enjoyable ways to use our time.

The link for today reminds me of Blue Planet and the orca that Brand played in our Marshal campaign.

http://www.dribbleglass.com/subpages/billboards77a.htm

It's a well known (though seemingly seldom considered) fact that only 20% of communication is actually verbal and the remaining 80% a combination of other things most of which is body language. Consider your car (and your driving). Wouldn't the turn signals (among other smart/saft driving techniques) be considered communication? If so is it verbal communication or body language? And if you don't use them what does that indicate about you (besides my usual rant that you don't know how to drive!)?

http://www.spamfighter.com/movie_forreal.asp

Byron bounced some of us this the other day. I watched it this morning and it reminds me a lot of a video that Jeff and Shae made years ago (while going to school here) about assorted Cthulhuesque things. Especially the style. I wonder if Jeff still has that VHS tape and if we can ditigize it and put it someplace on the web. I wonder if we should?

I finally remembered (when I was listening to the radio in the shower this morning, and then promptly nearly forgot again) the quote that fled my brain. Well the circumstances at least. Last weekend I was watching the next disk in season six of Stargate SG-1 and O'Neil was talking to one of the asgard I think when he made his comment about the shoe dropping and the alien in question promised to try to avoid falling footwear. Now I need to go back and watch that disk again to see if I can find the quote and write it down. What will likely happen is that I'll realize that this isn't where it was from.

Been pretty busy since I locked down bigbrother last Friday. No posts but stuff going on. And next Wednesday I fly to Phoenix for my sister-in-law's graduation then I sit with the kids while they get a long overdue vacation/honeymoon.

More later ...