The Captain's Chair

I love me some Outback

2009-03-15T11:59:00.004-04:00

It's really expensive, so I don't get to go very often, but Jen and I stopped at Outback for dinner yesterday. When we first started going, I always got the New York Strip. Delicious steak. Then I got hooked on the Alice Springs chicken. I've gotten that every time we've eaten there for years. Well, yesterday we'd eaten a late lunch, and Outback was going to be an early dinner. So I super hungry and decided to try something a little different. I was looking at the menu and saw that they had a Teriyaki Marinated Sirloin that was new. I figured I'd give it a try. Wow! Possibly the most flavorful steak I've ever eaten. I put that first bite in my mouth and my taste buds exploded! You can ask my wife. I savored every bite of that steak. Took me forever to finish because I didn't want it to be over with. LOL! I was talking to our waitress about it, and she said they marinate the steak in the Teriyaki marinade for 30 hours. That's a long time! It was an incredible flavor combination. I would highly recommend this to any steak fan. I'm sure I will be eating more of these bad boys! I told Jen that I might have to become an Outback advertiser just so I could really spread the word about how amazing this steak was. Oh, just thinking about it makes me want to go back and get another one. I think I'm drooling.

Who Watches the Watchmen?

2009-03-15T11:29:00.003-04:00

I do! That's right. Yours truly went to see Watchmen on Friday night. Let me just say, holy frakking crap! That was frakking awesome! This movie feels like you are watching a comic book, which was what they were going for. And it was graphic! Possibly the most graphic violence that I've ever seen. Of course, that's part of why it was so awesome! I will admit that it actually surprised me just how graphic it was when the first violent scene finished. I think it was key to the overall look of the movie though. Oh, and the nudity. To all you uber geeks out there, yes, you get to see Silk Spectre II naked. Very much so in fact. Picture some Friday night Cinemax soft core porn. Yeah, that's pretty much it. I would spoil it, but they had a unique way of making it not completely cheesy. :-) Needless to say, this is not a kids movie. I'd probably caution against even early to mid teens.

Now there is one thing that I could have done with a little less of. If you seen the movie, yes, I'm talking about the ridiculous amount of Dr. Manhattan blue CGI penis. I mean, the nudity doesn't really bother me, but the guy hardly wore cloths for the entire movie, and I swear they didn't miss a chance to display that not quite right penis front and center. I wouldn't say that it really hurt the movie at all, it was just a bit odd.

Probably the coolest thing was how ever now and then, they would throw in a slow-mo scene that would make everything look straight from a comic book panel. I mean, picture the scenes in The Matrix where they did the whole slow-mo thing. Then imagine it being twice as cool. Yeah, that's it.

Overall, I was impressed with how deep/layered this movie was. From what I saw, there were a number of side story lines that they could have explored. At 2 hours and 45 minutes long, I can see why they didn't. I was a little worried at the beginning. It does start a little slowly, but it just continues to build all they way to the end. My favorite character? Rorschach of course. Despite the brutal violence, I couldn't help but laugh every time someone made a smart remark, and he'd crush them in some completely unexpected way. Greatest sociopathic dude ever! My ruling? Go see it! Go see it now!

Kids Cancer Tribute

2009-02-25T19:54:00.003-05:00

I ran across this on Digg the other day. It's a really cool story about how construction workers putting up a building near the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute are paying tribute to the children that are there receiving cancer treatment. Basically, the kids go out into a glass walkway and write their name on a piece of paper. Then they hold it up to the glass and the construction workers spray paint the kids names on the giant beams they are getting ready to lift. It's a simple thing, but it's become such a ritual for the kids getting treatment there. Sounds like the kids get so excited to do this. It has to be helpful to them and their families.

There is a video on the story linked above, and here is a slide show with some pictures and descriptions. There is just so much crap in the world today, that it's really nice to good stories once in a while.

Musical Tesla Coils

2009-02-25T19:48:00.003-05:00

Okay, anyone that has read this blog knows that I have a thing for video game music. Well, I also have a thing for science stuff. Well, enter the musical tesla coil. And it's playing my song!

One of my favorite video game tunes. How cool is that?

Says it all

2009-02-09T08:51:00.003-05:00

Can't argue with this!

To make my stance clear, I have absolutely no problem with Michael Phelps smoking pot. I could honestly care less. I think it should be legalized, not because I want to use it, or ever have. I just think we spend a lot of money on law enforcement and prisons to house people arrested for possessing or using this drug. A drug that is not as unhealthy as cigarettes, and doesn't impair you as much as alcohol. Seems kind of dumb to me.

MIA

2009-02-04T19:40:00.001-05:00

Yeah, I haven't posted in a while. No excuse. Just lazy. I'll try to do better.

Wil Wheaton is a frakking rock star!

2009-02-04T19:27:00.006-05:00

Okay, I was never the biggest fan of Wesley Crusher. He was kind of the annoying know-it-all that you just wanted to push down the stairs. I liked where they went with his character later in the series, but still. Wesley Crusher was played by Wil Wheaton. Wil is awesome. At the Pheonix Comicon he arranged a "Rock Band 2 room." Basically, you could show up and play Rock Band 2 with Wil. You can see several videos from the event here, but I think the video below shows that he truly is a frakking rock star. YOU ROCK WIL!

Daughters First Movie

2009-01-05T19:40:00.004-05:00

Yes, she has watched movies before. But this past Saturday, I took my daughter to her first movie at a movie theater. Here in Traverse City, we have a theater downtown called "The State Theatre." It's a beautiful place that first opened in 1916. It closed for a while, but then Michael Moore started the Traverse City Film Festival and worked to get The State reopened after a number of years of it being closed.

Every Saturday morning, they have a kids matinee. They play some kids/family movie, and the best part is that they only charge 25 cents. That's what they charged for tickets in 1916. So the two of us saw a movie for 50 cents total! Sweet! We saw "Finding Nemo" and Kaitlin had a great time. She spent the rest of the day asking when we could go again. She seemed a bit overwhelmed when we first got there. Huge theater, lots of people, loud. She came around after a few minutes, and she was laughing right along with everyone in no time.

This place is plush. Nice huge foam seats that actually recline a bit. Lots of leg room. The building is beautifully restored in a very classic style. Before the movie, the screen is covered in a huge velvet curtain that goes up at showtime.

I think this place is one of the best things to happen to downtown TC in a long time. The first time I went there was on a team outing at work. We saw a mock documentary called "Kenny" about a guy who was in the porta-pottie rental business. Absolutely hilarious. Then Jen and I went to see "The Dark Knight" a few months later. Holy crap that was awesome. Comfy seats, huge screen and uber loud! Glorious.

Tickets for regular movies are about the same as a regular theater (pretty good considering how nice everything), and the pop and popcorn are considerably cheaper than a regular theater. I see many future trips there for me and the family.

These Guys are Nuts!

2009-01-05T19:34:00.003-05:00

Wingsuits. About as close as you can get to human flight, minus a plane. Would it be fun? Sure, I'd give it a whirl in a heartbeat. Not as "extreme" as these guys maybe, but it could be cool. Check it out!

wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T11:14:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year! January 1st 2009. Yep, it's that time again. Resolutions. Almost everyone makes them, and almost no one keeps them. Of course, I'm certainly included there! But as usual, I have a couple of resolutions for this year.

First is probably one of the most common resolutions ever. To lose weight and get in shape. I'm quite a bit over-weight, and really need to get it off not only for myself, but for my family as well. I have two young kids, 5 and almost 2, and I can't keep up with either of them. I want to be able to run around and play with them and have fun. Right now, after about 5 minutes, I'm done. I know I can lose the weight. I've done it before. About four years ago I was down almost 60 pounds. I wasn't quite at my target weight, but I was close. Looking at pictures of myself from then, I was looking pretty good! I want to get back to that. My wife is making the same resolution, so hopefully we can stick it out together and get in shape!

One thing I plan on doing to facilitate that first resolution is to sign up for the Iceman Cometh mountain bike race. I seem to do better when I have some motivation, and a 27 mile mountain bike race in November is certainly some motivation! I got up this morning with the full intention of getting on their website and registering first thing. The last couple of years, registration has filled up within just a day or two, so I didn't want to miss it. Of course, my luck, this year registration does not start until February 27th at 7PM. I'm still going to sign up, I just have to wait a couple of months now. LOL.

My second resolution isn't quite as big and important as the first. The second resolution is to just practice on my guitar more. Currently, I will pick it up and play fairly regularly for a while, and then sometimes I'll go a month or two and never touch it. I enjoy it, and I really want to get good at it. I took lessons for a long time, but the financial strain of kids finally took it's toll and I had to quit. Maybe we'll see how things look this year, and maybe I can start back up again. But, before I do that, I want to make the commitment, and follow through, with just practicing more on my own. I know a lot of basic stuff, but I really still need to work to get to the point where it's second nature. Then I can work on some of the more fancy stuff that I think would be a lot of fun. Who knows, maybe I might get to the point where I can actually play with people! That would be cool.

Here's to rocking it out and getting fit in 2009!

Do you Digg Bacon?

2008-12-30T19:34:00.004-05:00

Bacon. That wonderfully delicious breakfast...anytime of day...food. I also like surfing Digg. It takes up the hours I spend at work when I should be working. I've noticed lately that there are a lot of stories on Digg relating to bacon. Which, given how good bacon is, isn't really surprising. I'm certainly not complaining!

The other day, I got to thinking. I was wondering how far a Digg submission would get if it was just a link to a blog post about how common bacon was on Digg. So, here it is! I know, I know. Is this guy crazy or what? I live in northern Michigan. We have like 10 feet of snow, so there isn't a whole lot to do other than think about stupid things. So anyway, this is my blog post about how awesome bacon is. I'm going to submit it to Digg. If you think bacon is awesome too, Digg it! Let's see how far it goes!

Mmm, bacon...
Image courtesy of IHEARTBACON.COM.

SSD and Me!

2008-12-24T13:52:00.004-05:00

I just read about some SSD goodness. I love me some SSD. What is SSD you ask? Well, the hard drive that you probably have in your computer is made up of many moving parts. All must work perfectly in tandem to read and write things to and from large metal platters. They have a reasonably long operating life, but once something gets out of whack, your hard drive is most likely kaput. SSD stands for Solid State Drive. Basically, a data storage device with no moving parts.

Yes, I know, solid state storage has been around for a while (in computer terms), but mostly in small devices like media players (Ipod, Zune, etc) and thumb drives. Until recently, the tech was not refined enough to provide storage capacity large enough to be a feasible desktop/laptop hard drive. Just in the last year or two have we started seeing SSDs with storage comparable to small hard drives, around 30 or 40 GB. And while they are not yet approaching the storage capacity of standard hard drives, they are closing the gap in leaps and bounds.

Enter Intel, who has just released a 160 GB SSD. That's bigger than the 145 GB drive I have in my desktop PC, and a doubling of capacity from just a few months ago (the article mentions Intel announcing an 80 GB drive in August). Holy crap! If anything close to that trend keeps up, we're looking at SSD catching standard hard drives within a year or two. Now I don't know what technical or engineering issues could stand in the way of ever increasing capacity, but still, that's pretty sweet.

Of course, price is a big factor. Standard hard drives are pretty inexpensive. A friend of mine at work is fond of saying "storage is cheap." With SSD, that's not the case. Intel has not mentioned a price for this 160 GB drive, but the 80 GB that I mentioned above is going for about $500 on Newegg.com. That's probably on the lower end of the price spectrum. On the same site, I can get a traditional Western Digital hard drive with a storage capacity of 1 TB for $120. That's a pretty big difference, and because of that, I don't see a mass exodus towards SSD. Yet.

As the technology matures, the capacity increases, and the price decreases (which is the natural flow of computer hardware), I think you will see the traditional hard drives being steadily replaced by SSD. They are faster and more reliable. There really isn't a downside, so I think the switch will be inevitable. Once the price comes down, maybe late 2009, I might look at getting one to at least play around with. I mean, I couldn't call myself a geek if I didn't get excited about things like new hard drive technology. Right?

Dragonforce

2008-12-12T18:49:00.006-05:00

Okay, so if you've been around in the past week or two, you may have seem my post about my brother taking me to a Dragonforce concert. Well, the concert was this past Saturday, the 6th. I can only describe it as E.....P.....I.....C!!!! That's right. EPIC. In caps. With four exclamation points. Yep.

Luckily, the weather stayed okay, and we left about 2 PM on Saturday. We dropped my brothers wife at a friends house, in Troy, MI, and continued on to Royal Oak. The tickets we had were printed online, and allowed us entrance without having to wait in line. We parked about a block up the street right at 7, and basically walked right in. It was sweet. Totally worth the extra $6.

The Royal Oak Music Theatre holds about 750 people. That means there isn't a bad seat in the house. Regardless, we went and stood right near the front. We were about six or eight feet from the stage! Nice. We had about an hour until the opening acts came on, but there was a waitress coming around, so that was nice. Oh, and the bathroom had an attendant! You may be thinking that that is a little highbrow, but he was just a big dude, not dressed up or anything, and he also sold candy. But still, a nice touch that made for a clean bathroom.

The first opening band was called Powerglove. I got grabbed two of their albums the week before hand, so I knew their songs. If you read this blog, you know I like the 8-bit metal, and that's exactly what these guys are. Metal interpretations of video game music. They are amazing! They wear these big foam(?) props that look straight out of a D&D game. I recommend going to see them if you have a chance, or at least pick up their albums. If you like metal, video game music, or both, you won't be disappointed.

The second band was awesome too. They were called Turisas. They hail from Finland. Everyone knows I like me some Euro-metal! Now, american bands seem to be stuck on having just guitars and drums. European bands seem to be willing to try things you might not expect. Turisas has a fiddle player. He was cool. They also have a very beautiful woman who plays the accordion. Yes, I said the accordion. You know what, it works. They would definitely fall under the Power Metal heading. They were all dressed up in viking/barbarian type garb. Animal skins, the lead singer wore a piece of shoulder armore, and they were all in war paint. It also happened to be Finland's Independance Day. So in the middle of their set, they stopped and did their national anthem. They seemed very proud of that, and that was cool. I would also go see them again in a heartbeat.

Then came the big show, the main attraction, the band known as Dragonforce. My god. They were unbelievable. They played an awesome mix of stuff from their new album, Ultimate Beatdown, and their previous albums. Yes, they did Though the Fire and Flames during their encore. I mean, c'mon, it's a staple, and an all around face melting song. I screamed until my abs hurt, and I headbanged until my neck hurt, and it was completely worth it. Before the show, I'd read so many places that they either weren't as good live, or that they couldn't be as good because their songs are so fast an technical. Well, I can tell you from experience. Those people are as wrong as you could possibly be. In fact, in my opinion, they may have been better live than their recorded albums. I'm sure they missed notes here and there, but you know what, with everyone yelling and the general noise of the concert, you couldn't possibly notice a missed note here and there. Plus, their energy, their presence, and the fun they seemed to be having on stage brought something that couldn't possibly be on a recorded album. I haven't been to many concerts in my life, but I couldn't see another concert being better than this one. It was just epic!

No cameras were allowed in the venue, but thankfully, the theatre has people come in and take pictures during the concerts, and then puts a slideshow of them up online. You can see the pics from this concert here. There is one picture of two girls, one wearing a red Weezer T-Shirt. I'm the glasses, forhead, and hair peeking over the tops of their heads. :-)

The coolest thing about the whole concert? I GOT A PICK! Yes, a guitar pick. A Dragonforce guitar pick. With Sam Totman's signature printed on it. Below are a couple of pictures. This is not my actual pick. I swiped these photos from ebay of someone selling a neclace made with this pick, hence the hole and little metal ring at the top. Otherwise, this is identical to mine.

I mean, how cool is that?

Scotty, beam us up.....to Detroit!

2008-12-12T18:30:00.004-05:00

What am I talking about? Well, I ran across an article today that made me very excited! I was very bummed about "Star Trek: The Experience," located in Las Vegas, closing. However, I didn't know that there was an exhibit, "Star Trek: The Exhibition", making it's way around the country. In February, February 14th to be exact, it's coming to Detroit, Michigan! I live in Michigan! I'm only about four hours from Detroit! I could actually go! Woot!

From the article:

"The 9,000-square-foot exhibit features re-creations of the bridge of the famed Starship Enterprise, Capt. Jean-Luc Picard's quarters, the command chair and the transporter room.
It includes two flight simulators, a model of the USS Enterprise used for shooting starship scenes and a collection of authentic props and uniforms used throughout the five "Star Trek" TV series, a cartoon show and 10 feature films."

That is freaking awesome! It's not just a short week long thing either. It runs from Feb. 14th to Sept. 7th. Almost 8 months! I imaging that I'd have to be able to work it in somewhere. Maybe a birthday present or something (hint hint.) To be able to walk the sets, touch panels, and (hopefully) sit in the captains chair would be so exciting. And to see props and other items that were actually used in production of the shows and movies. Epic. It's like a piece of history coming to my backwater state!

I'll be sure to remember this and make plans to go down and see it next summer. If the wife doesn't want to go, I'm sure I could find someone to go. I have Trekker friends. Hell, my daughter would probably enjoy it. And if I can't find anyone who wants to go? Screw it, I'll go myself. Oh yeah!

Have you seen this person?

2008-12-12T18:24:00.002-05:00

Yeah, I know I haven't posted in a while. It's not all my fault though. Someone neglected to pay the cable bill (not me), and the Internet got shut off for a while. It was like four or five days. I know! It was terrible! It was turned back on on Tuesday, and I still didn't get around to it until today. Whatever. In any case, I'll leave this short and get on with some of the specific things I have to talk about. Trust me, they're awesome!

Most Epic Rick Roll EVAR!

2008-11-28T00:35:00.004-05:00

Holy crap, so I'm watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Things are going along as expected, and then up rolls a float for Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends. It's a kids cartoon on Cartoon Network. My daughter used to watch it when we had cable TV. It was a pretty funny show. Anyway, the float rolls up, the TV people announce it, and the camera bounces around as the characters on the float begin to sing some kiddie song. Then, the music suddenly stops. New music starts, and within a few notes, I realize what is coming. Out comes Rick Astley singing Never Gonna Give You Up. Oh my god, this is possibly the greatest Rick Roll in all of recorded human history! Freaking Cartoon Network owns! Whoever came up with this idea is genius. Completely out of the blue. And that's what it's all about! Below is a YouTube video of the epicness. Enjoy!

OMG! OMG! OMG!

2008-11-28T00:09:00.002-05:00

Okay, so at Thanksgiving dinner today (or yesterday technically as it's just after midnight), we also did Christmas with my grandparents, my brother and his wife and one of my sisters and her fiance. Got some gift cards and other good stuff, but my brother got me something awesome. He got me a ticket to a Dragonforce concert! Freaking awesome! He's going too, and anyone else we can find that wants to go, and it's going to be awesome! I'm a metal fan, and I absolutely love Dragonforce. A friend of mine turned me on to them three or four years ago. Yes, before they were on Guitar Hero III. Anyway, I'm really excited. That's a really different gift. I don't get to go to very many concerts. It's been a few years, so this is really cool. I can't wait to go!

Video Update!

2008-11-24T18:27:00.003-05:00

Yeah, I've been lazy again. I want to get on here and share stuff, but I just can't seem to get up the gumption! Oh well, I'm here now. On today's episode, I'll be sharing a couple of videos I ran across today.

Up first, you may have heard about the meteor spotted coming down over Canada last week. It was big and bright. Some people think it may have made it to the ground. Unfortunately, Canada is a vast, and largely unpopulated chunk of land. This video was taken by a police cruiser dash cam. It is easily the best of the videos I've seen. It's pretty awesome. Just watch.

Pretty sweet huh?

Up next is a pretty funny video. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it, but I'm a big metal fan. I've taught my daughter the pinkie and index finger up while sticking your tongue out, and of course she can do some air guitar. After seeing this video, I guess I need to get on it! The little girl is at her best during the first minute or so, but if you like your Iron Maiden, stick around for the rest. These kids sure aren't half bad!

Rock on!!!!

Want to be a Quadrillionaire?

2008-11-19T23:15:00.003-05:00

Move to Zimbabwe. A friend of mine sent me this article yesterday. Basically, Zimbabwean currency has been devalued by so much that the effective exchange rate is 642 quadrillion to one. In the timeless words of Frank Barone, "Holy Crap!" Everyone thinks our currency is worthless. It isn't great, but it's a lot better than that! According to the article, a single egg would cost about $35 billion Zimbabwean dollars. That had better be a damned good omelette!

Waiting

2008-11-16T20:58:00.003-05:00

I posted earlier about the new WoW expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. Well, it is freaking awesome! The only problem is that because it's so awesome, all 11 million subscribers and all their friends are playing. That means LOOOOOOOOONG queues to log in. When I first logged into Burning Blade, my server, I was 1054 in the queue. I'm approching 45 minutes waiting, and have another 10 to 15 to go. Almost there!

A lot of people like to complain about it. Yeah, it sucks, but in a couple of weeks, most of the people just trying it out, or coming back to see what it was, will lose interest and the queues will get shorter or non-existent. In the meantime, I'll just do my best to actually log in an hour before I want to play.

Well, it might be getting close, and I don't want to miss any of my small amount of play time!

The Taking

2008-11-15T12:09:00.003-05:00

Well, I promised a review of the Dean Koontz book, The Taking, when I was done. I finished it a few days ago. I must say, it was a VERY suspenseful book. I swear, I spent the whole time thinking "what the hell does that mean, and what does it have to do with the story!?" Basically, I was guessing, incorrectly, for the entire book. Which believe me, is not a bad thing!

The story centers on a couple, and their struggle to survive in what is turning out to be a new world. It's hard to really say much about it without giving things away. One of the first scenes in the book involved a mysterious downpour and some very strange behaviour in the local fauna. Of course, this leads to an incredibly eerie encounter on the main characters front porch. Koontz is good at completely sucking you into a scene. I almost felt like I was there.

The unexpected ending did well to tie up the loose ends too. I'm sure not everyone will like what he did with it, but if you can get past the "theme" he used and just take it as fiction, you'll be just fine.

I also like how this book was setup. It had normal chapters, but it was also broken up into seven sections (I think it was 7). Each section proved to be just about perfect for an evenings reading. I hate it when chapters are so long that you have to read for an extra half hour just to get to a good stopping point. Yes, I always stop on the chapters. I know some people who don't, and I just couldn't stand that.

Anyway, I would definitely recommend this book. It's an interesting blend of drama, mystery, horror, with some sci-fi mixed in for good measure. All in all, a good read that kept me wondering what would happen next!

Wrath of the Lich King

2008-11-15T11:30:00.005-05:00

Well, I finally talked my wife into letting me get the new expansion for World of Warcraft. I installed it last night after we got back from Traverse City at around 11pm. Once installed and upgraded, I waited in a queue of about 700 to log in. Took about a half hour. Then I played for around 3 hours. So far, a lot of fun!

The server that I play on is Burning Blade. We had our first player to reach level 80 last night. Players name was Veloxis. He is a Night Elf Druid. He hit level 80 at around Midnight, Eastern time. He claims it took him about 46 straight hours of playing. So pretty much the second he got the game, he started playing and didn't sleep until he hit 80 yesterday (this morning). There were a lot of upset people. I don' t really get that. I probably won't be in the first 100,000 to reach 80, LOL. Anyway, congratz to Veloxis!

He wasn't the first to reach 80 worldwide. It was someone in Europe I believe (that's what I heard). Not sure what their name was. Really, I just want to hit 80 on one of my characters before my game time expires in two months. I'm about halfway through level 70 (between 70 and 71). I should be able to reach 71 tonight. I might try to snag a group, maybe even some Ðwntrddn, for one of the new instances after that. I want to get my fingers into everything! I do plan to take my time and enjoy it, unlike some others....Veloxis

The new continent is really cool. Blizzard improved the graphics of the game. Nothing photo-realistic or anything, just a step up. It's nice. I'm playing in the Borean Tundra right now. A nicely varied zone, but picturesque in places. I haven't explored all of it yet, but a pretty good chunk so far. Seems like more thought was put into the quests in this expansion. Yes, there are still the "go kill 20 of these things", but they mix them up a bit too. There were a couple I did that involved baiting traps, and releasing baby mammoths from traps. Still a go do something so many times, but it's nice to collect and release instead of just killing.

So far, the tentative truce between the horde and alliance seems to be holding. I only ran into one group of horde who were ganking everything in sight. Otherwise, everyone was pretty much leaving everyone else alone to quest. That's another thing, the area isn't nearly as congested with players as Hellfire Peninsula was when The Burning Crusade came out. I think the new Death Knight class is helping with that. A lot of people are starting a DK, which starts at 50 in a new zone in the Eastern Kingdoms. Probably cutting the number of people in Northrend by at least a quarter. I can't say if it was intentional, but good job Blizzard! I may also play around with a DK tonight as well. Lots of new things to try, and not enough time to try them!

Well, hope to see you in Northrend. Hopefully I don't pwn you!

How very Odd

2008-11-12T22:13:00.004-05:00

I read quite a bit. Just about every day actually. I recently finished reading the Odd Thomas series, written by Dean Koontz. It's a series starting with Odd Thomas, then Forever Odd, and finally Brother Odd. These were some of the best books I have read in a very long time. They are funny, intense, exciting and dark all at the same time.

Basically, it's the story of Odd Thomas. A seemingly normal guy living in a small town. However, he has a unique gift. He is able to see the lingering dead. He takes it upon himself to try and help these spirits move on, or to help them get justice. I must say, the books were not what I was expecting when they were loaned to me by a friend. Odd is such a human character that it's hard not to connect with him in some way. I must say, the ending of the first book hit me like a ton of bricks. Yes, I'll admit, I cried a little. I like to get into my books, so sometimes it happens. In any case, I would highly recommend this series to anyone.

I just discovered that the fourth book in the series, Odd Hours, is out. I really need to get it or borrow it. From what I see, Koontz plans on writing at least six or seven books in the series. That's awesome. If the rest of the books are half as good as the first three, I'll be very happy. I also see that the website for these books has a series of webisodes that make up another Odd Thomas story. Believe me, I'll be checking them out as soon as I have some free time.

I'm currently reading another Dean Koontz book called The Taken. I'll probably finish tonight, so look for a review of it in the next few days. Later!

Antarctica

2008-11-12T21:57:00.005-05:00

The Boston Globe has a web project called The Big Picture. Every few days they post a series of pictures covering some theme. These series often contain stunning and powerful images. A few days ago, they posted a picture series from Antarctica. It is a dangerous, but immensely beautiful place. Below are a couple of pictures from the picture series.

I've always been a big space fan. Not just sci-fi, but astronomy in general. Space can be a beautiful place. This is a spectacular picture of one of the manned stations in Antarctica with an amazing view of the night sky overhead. Just wow!

This is just a picture of an iceberg. An absolutely awesome picture. The rich color combined with the starkness of the surroundings makes it look unreal. Again, wow!

I highly recommend keeping an eye on The Big Picture site. You never know what you might find.

Where did he go?

2008-11-11T22:06:00.003-05:00

Yeah, I haven't posted in a few weeks. No excuse really. Just been too lazy to get on the computer. How bad is that? Anyway, here I am.

Gas! Yes, that liquid that you pump into your car that costs an arm and a leg. Well, now it only costs an arm! A few days ago, gas dropped below that $2 a gallon mark here. Today, it was $1.97. How sweet is that. I do remember back in high school when gas was about 90 cents. Not quite back there yet, but after $4.25, I'll take it!

What else has been going on around here. Oh yeah, the Iceman Cometh! The Iceman Cometh (or Iceman for short) is a mountain bike race held the first Saturday of November (unless the first Saturday is November 1st). It's a 27 mile point to point race starting here in Kalkaska and ending in Traverse City. Obviously, being in northern Michigan, there is no guessing what the weather will be like. I've ridden the race four or five times now. My first year the weather was sunny and 60 degrees. Other years we've had a couple feet of snow. I haven't done it in the last few years. One year because I was busy with family, and a couple because I've missed the sign up. I know, no excuse. I'm planning on going for it again next year. I love riding, and this is a great race just to finish. There are several thousand riders, and you meet some interesting people on the trail. Maybe I'll use this blog to track my training progress for the race. First up, drop 50 pounds! LOL!

Speaking of losing weight, I really need to get healthy. Just a few years ago, I was down to about 220. I'm 6'1", so that's not much over what I want to be. I've managed to put on about 70 pounds since then. It's really depressing when you think about it. I really want to get back into shape. My daughter has endless energy, and it's all I can do just to play with her for an hour after work. Leaves me exhausted. That's not how I want to live. I'd love to get it down to about 200 pounds. That's not as low as "The Man" says I should be, but for me, that's pretty skinny. Plus, I'd like to actually have some muscle. If I was at the 180 the government recommends, I'd be a fraking twig. I've been trying to eat more reasonably the last few weeks, so if I can keep that going and start working in some exercise, I should be able to get some weight off. Maybe I'll do a weekly weight post to track my progress. I seem to do better when I know that someone might be checking on me!

One more event from this past week, SNOW! Yes, that dirty little four letter word. Yes, there are some things I like to do in the winter. I used to cross country ski a lot. Actually, that's about it. Tubing is fun, but I almost never go. I also like downhill skiing, but I do that even less than tubing. I do get to do a lot of shoveling. Yay......not. I hate shoveling. I know, it is some exercise, but it takes away from the little bit of time I have with my family during the week. I know it's a necessity. Better that losing my house to a hurricane, earthquake, or tornado if I lived most anywhere else in the country. I still don't like it! LOL

Well, I suppose that's enough for tonight. However, I'll leave you with something really cool. I saw this in my Uncle's blog. Not sure where he got it, but....WANT!!!

The Savage Beast

2008-10-24T19:56:00.002-04:00

Myth Busted! Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. The Mythbusters is one of the greatest science shows on TV. Each week they have various theme's or groupings of myths. They take a skeptical look at the myth, and them put it to the test. It's a great show, and I would highly recommend it as something to watch as a family (if it wasn't on so late.). Anyway, the entire cast is awesome. Kari Byron is hot! Anyway, Adam Savage (get the title now?) is my favorite. He is just awesome. Hilarious, and excellent at what he does. He's a prankster, and is not afraid to use science to his advantage. Below would be an excellent trick to play on someone for Halloween, well, except sulfur hexafluoride is quite expensive. Anyway, enjoy.

8 Bit Metal

2008-10-24T19:40:00.003-04:00

There are two things I love. Okay, there are a lot of things that I love, but two of them are video games and music. I've played many different video games over the years, but some of my best memories are from when I was a kid playing my old NES games. I also like most different kinds of music, but my favorite genre is probably hard rock/metal. What do you get when you combine the two? 8 Bit Metal! Below are some my favorite 8 bit game songs done with a metal flair.

First up, almost everyone has played one version or another of Tetris. You know, little blocks of varying geometry fall at increasing speeds and you have to stack them properly. Very addicting. Of course, if you've spent many hours playing this game, you'll recognize this first tune.

Another of my favorite games growing up was the Megaman series. They are still making them, and most of the old ones are available. WiiWare anyone? Anyway, the best song in the game, in my opinion, is Dr. Wily's theme. Here it is in an awesome arrangement.

That brings us to my all time favorite video game theme song. I played this game for hours a day, weeks at a time as a kid. I borrowed it from a friend, and I had it for well over a year before returning it. I beat both the first "world" as well as the alternate "world" that comes after that. What can I say? It's an awesome game. The overworld theme may be one of the most recognized theme songs in video game history, possibly even more so that Mario! Below is an awesome metal rendition of the Overworld Theme from The Legend of Zelda.

And there it is. Some of my favorite 8 Bit metal. Rock on, and game on!

To Boldly Go...

2008-10-17T20:16:00.008-04:00

It's no big secret that I'm a huge Star Trek fan. My favorite series will always be The Next Generation. It's the series I grew up on. However, I like them all. I was a big fan of Enterprise too, and was very disappointed when it was canceled.

Regardless of my favorite, I know it all started with Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the original NCC 1701 crew from TOS. Imagine my excitement when I first heard that they were going to "reboot" the series with a prequel TOS movie. It's directed by J.J. Abrams, and is slated to release on May 8th, 2009. The teaser trailer first came out early this year, and the first full trailer is showing before the new James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace, in November. Gonna have to go see that!

I think the casting looks very good. Lots of names I don't know, but several I do know. Most notably Zach Quinto, who most may know as Sylar from Heroes, as Spock. I think that could be spot on. It looks like a very fresh look at the franchise, which admittedly could use it.

Below, are a couple of my favorite images that have been released so far. First is a pic of the crew, minus Spock.

The next is a shot of the new bridge. It's very bright and Shiny. Not in complete contrast to any of the other series, but much brighter and shinier than anything we've seen before.

I'm very, VERY excited about this movie, and I can't wait to go see it. I'm not sure if my wife is nearly excited, but I've made her watch it before and while she'll deny it, she does like it. And if she doesn't, I'll just go without her! I'm not missing this!

Blasphemy!

2008-10-15T19:15:00.003-04:00

That's probably what my grandma would tell me. About what? Why, my religion of course. I am fully committed as a member of The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or a Pastafarian as we are known. Since becoming a member of the church in late 2005, I have enjoyed many happy times with fellow worshipers. If you are interested and want to learn more about my faith, visit the link below. Everything you need to know is available there, as well as many testimonies. Who knows, maybe you too will be touched by his noodly appendage!

RabbitHoles?

2008-10-15T19:05:00.004-04:00

Could this be the future of movie posters? I ran across this on Digg the other day, and it is one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time. It was created by a company called RabbitHoles. It's basically just a hologram, but it incorporates over 1200 individual frames. There are some really cool graphics. There are many possible uses, but the article states that James Cameron has expressed interest in the technology in the past. With some non-documentary movies coming soon (he's been a fan of documentaries lately), maybe he's looking to incorporate this into his advertising campaign. Check out the video below, also available in the original article. Pretty sweet!

RabbitHoles 3D Motion Holograms: Gnomon Gallery, SIGGRAPH, and Pixologic / Gnomon Party from douglas johnson on Vimeo.

Turtle! Turtle!

2008-10-13T19:57:00.003-04:00

So I'm at work today, and I get an email from my wife saying that her mom found a baby turtle in front of our porch. Not really surprising since we live about 100 yards from a river. I remember seeing turtles all the time when I was growing up here.

It's a tiny little snapper turtle. She has it in a small tote in our kitchen right now. Her and our daughter were going to take it back to the river tonight, but it got dark before we finished with dinner. (Sucks, seems like just yesterday it was light until 10 O'clock at night!) Anyway, they will have to take it back tomorrow and set it free.

I told her, my wife, that she couldn't keep it. She's a sucker for pets, and would own a zoo if I let her! Hey, I have to draw the line somewhere! We already have a dog, two cats, two newts and two kids. She used to have two birds, a prairie dog, and two frogs as well. Not to mention the other two cats that ran away after we moved. See what I mean?

WoW Patch

2008-10-13T19:42:00.003-04:00

Well, the last patch for World of Warcraft before Wrath of the Lich King drops tomorrow, and boy is it a doozie! I downloaded most of it tonight. It's in three parts and is about one gig in size. A buddy of mine uses satellite internet, which has a daily download limit, so I was getting it for both of us. Tomorrow, that last small piece of the patch will be available.

This patch will contain most of the stuff that everyone needs for the expansion, which comes out next month. Basically, it's because if you don't buy the expansion, you still need to be able to "see" the gear and such that other people who do get expansion will have. It won't contain the new continent of Northrend, but just about everything else is most likely in this patch.

I haven't been playing WoW since I've picked up Warhammer. I plan to get WotLK, but I'll probably wait for a month or two after it comes out. Then things won't be so crowded, and they'll have worked out most of the bugs. Until then I'll keep cracking on Warhammer. I'm certainly having a lot of fun with it!

I would recommend either game to anyone in a heartbeat. WoW was my first MMO, so it will probably always be the best to me. But I certainly won't hold that against any new games that come along.

Party

2008-10-12T20:34:00.002-04:00

We had my daughter's B-day party today. All her grandparents and aunts and uncles. Shot got lots of good loot. She's playing with some of her toys and watching Nim's Island right now. She's been going non-stop, so she should sleep really well tonight. Yay!

After most of the family left, my brother and his wife stayed, and we went out to the back yard, got a fire going, and had S'mores. Gotta love them! Then we came in and ordered a pizza for dinner. First real food I'd had all day.

Well, that was pretty much our entire day. Just gonna chill until the kid's bedtime, and then play me some Warhammer before bed. Woot!

Plink! Plink!

2008-10-11T21:38:00.004-04:00

One thing I remember doing from a very young age is shooting guns. I used to go hunting with my dad, and it was always fun. I didn't really stick with the hunting, mostly because if you kill it, you have to clean it. Cleaning animals never really struck me as fun. I was more a fan of just the shooting. We used to go out to my great-grandparents house and just shoot at various things like pears, pine cones, pop cans, or anything else that made a decent little target.

My daughter just turned 5 on Wednesday. Today, while working on the "Honey Do" list I mentioned earlier, I ran across my old Daisy BB gun. I got that gun as a gift when I was 5, so I figured it was the perfect time to take my daughter out in the back yard and have her give it a shot. She watched me shoot it for a little while, and then she finally decided to try it. I had to help her with holding and working the safety the first few times, but within about 10 minutes, she could do everything but cock it. She had a huge grin on her face. Her grandpa will be so proud. We got some pictures of her shooting it and will be sending them to him.

I look forward to many years of going out and plunking things. Hopefully when she grows up, she'll look back on it with the same fond memories that I do. And if she decides that it's just not her thing, that's cool too. I just want her to at least try and experience everything she can. You never know what you might find that you really like.

Saturday

2008-10-11T14:20:00.002-04:00

Yep, it's Saturday. Got up with the kids. Made breakfast. Watched TV and played with the kids. Made lunch. Put the boy to bed for a nap. Hopped on the computer. Yeah, that about covers most Saturdays. I can't complain though. I'm not at work!

Of course, that doesn't mean I don't have work to do. As usual, there's the "Honey Do" list. It's not too bad this weekend. We're are having my daughters birthday party tomorrow, so I have to clean up the front and back porches. I also have some old end/coffee tables I need to put under the house. Those are currently in the family room which we are turning into an apartment for my mother-in-law. I also have some of my parents stuff to pack up into totes and put into the shed.

That's the long (short) term project that I'm working on. Getting that room all cleaned up so we can paint and have the carpets cleaned. I also have some finishing work to do in a few places. My sister and her fiance are taking the piano, table and chairs, and the love seat that are all currently out there. At that point, most everything will be gone and we can really get to getting everything fixed up. My wife is actually bribing me to get it done quicker. She told me that when I got it done, she would get me Rock Band 2, or maybe GH: World Tour. I haven't decided yet. Sweet.

What do I think about my mother-in-law moving in? I've got no problem with it. We get along just fine, and she'll be a built in cook and baby-sitter! I certainly can't complain about that!

Well, the "Honey Do" list isn't getting any shorter. Might as well get on it and get it done. Later!

Back.......yet again!

2008-10-10T21:54:00.002-04:00

Well, it's been a while. A long while. Not like anyone reads this anyway.

My wife has been getting into the blog thing pretty heavy lately, so I figured I'd give it another go. I'll be working on getting everything updated so it doesn't look like total crap. Then we'll just see where it goes!

What the hell is that?

2006-09-05T22:19:00.000-04:00

Hello.

Well, I'm back

2006-01-04T21:18:00.000-05:00

I know, I haven't posted in a couple of months. While I'm all for Christmas, I really hate that time of year. I'm always stressed out, and usually in a bad mood. This one wasn't really any different. Now, to top it off, we had some completely unrelated problems. First, the our DVD player crapped out, and then within a few days, the microwave crapped out. Minor, but hey, I need to watch movies and eat right? Then, a couple of weeks ago, my car started misfiring. It started out slow, and got worse and worse. I swapped the spark plugs, and that helped for about a day. Then it started again. I should have tried changing the wires too, but my Dad said he thought it might be something else. So I took it to the dealer, and it turned out to be the spark plug wires. $125 spark plug wires. Damn.

Now here's the thing that just put it all over the top. Monday night, I was on my way back from the store. In the middle of the intersection, there was a big tire. It was dark and raining, and my attention was more focused on looking for idiots coming from the other ways. If you've ever read this blog, you know how I feel about stupid drivers. Anyway, by the time I saw the tire, it was to late. BAM! Right into the front of the car. Smashed the air dam and all the plastic behind the bumper. It also smashed the A/C condenser and radiator back a few inches. Enough to break them both and cause the radiator fluid to leak out. So now, after all the needless expense of Christmas, I have to pay the $500 deductible on my insurance. Sure, it could be worse, but after Christmas and the other problems, I don't really have $500. So, now I have no car. I don't know how long it will take to get fixed, but hopefully it won't be too long. Life sucks. Hopefully it will get better from here. I'm not holding my breath.

So, onto some better news. Our new software rolled out on Monday at work. The developers were preaching the whole way about how there won't be any problems, and everything should work fine, and that we should be able to take over support within a week or two. Yeah, right. Not gonna happen. They have had tons of problems. A lot of minor ones, but also a few pretty major ones. Of course, this means they've thrown me under the SQL bus. Basically, I was given some reports to write, however, I have had no training in SQL Enterprise Manager, or with writing stored procedures, and I haven't worked with the reporting software we're using in over two years. BUT, they need the report by today. Needless to say, it didn't get done. I think I have the procedure written, but that took me all day, and I don't even know if it's going to work. Guess they should have thought of that before yesterday. I like to think I'm pretty smart, and pick up things pretty fast, but I'm not God. "We expect you to learn SQL, stored procedures, Crystal Reports, and write these reports in two days." Yeah, good luck with that one.

Since I've been away for a while, I have a good number of links to post. I don't really feel like putting them all up, but here's a few. Conspiracy Theorists beware! I've been on this huge google video kick lately, so I have quite a few from there. I was never too much into yo-yo's, but this kid almost makes me want to take it up. This is just crazy, but I'd do it in a heartbeat. Here is a site with a ton of comics. Hilarious is all I have to say. Ninja's rule, and if you disagree, I'll send my army of Ninja Monkey's to kick your ass. Don't play this one around your kids, but it should teach you to be aware of your surroundings. One last one for the road. Tell your mom I said thanks. Later.

2005-11-20T21:52:00.000-05:00

Well, it's been a couple of weeks since I've posted. It just seems like it has been so busy lately. I've either had something going on, or I just didn't feel like posting. I've been practicing my guitar quite a bit. I had been slacking during the week leading up to the Iceman, so I've kind of been working a bit harder this past week or two. I've also been slacking in my running, which I hope to crack down on and get back into.

Lets see, what's been happening lately. Oh, Sony's anti piracy protection software fiasco. What a colossal screw up. Okay, lets put software to keep people from using/making copies of the music that they legally own. That and the fact that they gave the instructions on how to get around their own software. And last but not least, the fact that it opened peoples computers up to hackers. So, they spent all this money developing and including software on their music discs, that a) didn't work because they gave out the workaround, and b) opened all the users computers up to hackers. Wow, thanks for that great bit of protection Sony. Jackasses.

Here's something that's bothered me for a long time, but has really been getting on my nerves lately. All the TV shows that have previews that start, "Ripped from the Headlines!" What the hell? You can't come up with any good ideas on your own so you just take the worst things that happen to people in real live and make a show out of it? I think it goes along with the fact that Hollywood in general hasn't had many good ideas in quite a while. Now it's spreading to TV. Great, I read on the internet and see on the news all day how some really bad thing happened to some happy family or innocent kid. Now I have watch it on every primetime show on TV. And it's supposed to be entertaining no less. What a load of crap! "Hey Mom! Can I watch the show where the little kid gets molested and then murdered? Please!" Sounds like fun. Oh wait, I'd rather watch The Bachelor. Yay...

Hey! I stopped by my parents house tonight, and ordered my RAM. 512 MB of PC133 at CAS 2. It'll be here in 3 to 7 days. So basically in about two figuring in the holiday. Damn. Well, whenever it gets here, I'll finally be able to play Civ IV which my brother got me for Christmas last year and this year. I've had it for weeks but can't play because I don't have enough RAM. Problem solved!

Again, I had a bunch of cool links, but I can't seem to remember them at the moment. I suck. Anyway, here is the one I had the foresight to email to myself at home. This one is for all you conspiracy theorists. I know your wearing your tin foil hats right now so you may want to read carefully. That should get you thinking. And get the government reading your thoughts! Hopefully I'll feel like posting more. Turkey day is coming up, and that's about all I'm looking forward to at the moment. Here's to eating way too damn much food and then watching football! Mmmmm, Pecan Pie. Later.

The Day After

2005-11-06T22:29:00.000-05:00

Well, yesterday was the annual Iceman Cometh. It's the largest single day mountain bike race in the country. For a race with the name Iceman, the 55 degree weather and sunny skies made it quite nice. I finally got my time back down the around three hours. Last year I was about 3 and a half, and the year before was over 4 hours. This year my time was about 3 hours and 2 minutes. They haven't posted the official times yet, but I kept track on my watch. That's only about 7 minutes slower than my first two years. Not too shabby. I must say, I felt better afterwards this than I have any of my previous years. I love it, and will probably keep doing it for years. I also had my annual after race ritual. I ate a whole DiGornio's Spicy Chicken Pizza. Good stuff.

In other news, my brother got me my Christmas present for last year and this year. It was Civilization IV. Yay! Now I just have to wait until I get more RAM so that I can actually play it. Min specs say 256 MB, of which I only have 128 MB. I've already got plans in motion to get it though. My parents are going to cover most of it for my B-day. I just have to come up with the difference. I might be able to borrow some from a buddy until I get it though so that would be cool.

Well, not really much else to say. I have run across some cool links, but I can't for the life of me remember. I'll post them another way when I think of them. Later.

Whatsi-ma-happenings

2005-10-30T21:07:00.000-05:00

Back to my usual once a week posting ways. It was good while it lasted.

Anyway, there was some cool stuff this week. 4d4m's forum has become incredibly popular among the handful of us at Hagerty that actually post on it. Anyway, it's been a great way to let off some steam while at work, and without actually getting yelled at for being too loud. It's pretty cool, and hopefully we'll get some more poeple on there and get a nice little community going.

Chapter two of the getting my home computer and Visual Studio working. After my successful XP upgrade a couple of weeks ago, I couldn't get Visual Studio installed. I decided to do a full XP reinstall. Jason brought over his (Hagerty's) USB HDD, and I copied all my stuff that I wanted saved. I did the format and reinstall and still couldn't in stall VS. So I went to reinstall my old software and found that nothing would install. After checking the event log, I discovered that it was a memory addressing error.

The problem required a BIOS flash. I'd never done it before, and I'd always heard the stories about it going wrong and destroying the MB. But, I didn't really have any choice. I did the flash, and everything went according to plan. And my PC boots faster now, woo hoo! Anyway, I setup my BIOS settings, and fired up the system. I ran the VS install, and it installed without any problems. I also got all my other software installed. Problem solved. I haven't had a chance to test yet, but I'm hoping that fixed the problem I was having with my CD-RW drive. It has been acting funny lately too.

Thanks for your help Jason.

Well, that's about all I have for today, but here is a site Jennifer found. It's a site with various video clips and such. There is some pretty funny stuff. We spent several days looking at the stuff. There, that should about cover it for this week. Later.

Some days

2005-10-25T18:57:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted in a few days. I wanted to just relax for the last few days of my vacation. I basically sat around and played Civ III all day. That reminds me, Civ IV was released yesterday. I don't have it yet, but my brother reserved me a copy and the store he works at. I've got to scrounge up some cash to pick it up. It looks awesome! I'll post a review whenever I get around to getting it.

Anyway, today started out about as crappy as could be. My daughter woke up crying at about 5AM. Between her and the dog chasing the cat around my bed, I didn't get back to sleep before it was time to get up. So I get up, get dressed and ready for work, and wander out into the living room to put my shoes on. I look out the window just in time to see the garbage truck driving away from my house. An hour earlier than they are usually here. To make matters worse, my mother in law dropped two bags of garbage off at my house last night to put out with ours. Damn.

Well, I make it to work through the wealth of incredibly stupid drivers that were out this morning. Work doesn't start out too bad. I get there and there are only a few helpdesk requests. I kick them out and clean up my inbox. Most of the day goes pretty well. Adam added a discussion forum to his website, and a few of us spent some time "discussing" on it. Then, I decided to do some of my school work that I couldn't do while I was on vacation because crappy Visual Studio wouldn't install on my home PC. Well I launch it and start working and when I build and run my project, it doesn't work. Turns out my Visual Studio at work has now crapped out as well. Looks like God is trying to make me fail this class. I'll try reinstalling tomorrow, but I have not been very impressed with VS, particularly the install process as I had problems with it the first time I installed it at work. Oh well.

On a lighter note, here is part of an email I got from Alisha today. It's pretty funny.

INDUHVIDUAL QUOTES
==================

Here now, some quotes from Induhviduals, submitted by DNRC field operatives.
Apparently the most confusing concepts for Induhviduals are anything involving
body parts, beverages, food, or animals.

"It's so cold I'm getting goose nipples!"

ÂI'm as full of vinegar as a Christmas turkey.Â

ÂYou can stop kicking this dead whale down the beach and find another hobby
horse to beat to death.Â

"One man's trash is another man's garbage."

ÂI think I was speaking to Tom, and if it wasn't Tom I'm sure it was someone
else.Â

"Check the pulse on the temperature."

"He's making a mole hill out of an issue."

"Don't look at me in that tone of voice!"

"I home school three children and am expecting a forth!"

"This is the worst headache I've ever had in the history of my head."

"Imitation is the sincerest form of mockery."

"The squeaky wheel gets the worm."

"You're not the smartest peanut in the turd."

"I'd give an arm to be ambidextrous!"

For some reason, these are funny but don't particularly surprise me. Here are a couple more links that I found particularly hilarious. This is an article about a new "religion", and here is the actual site for this particular "religion". I think I might be switching over! that's thats about all I have today. Hopefully tomorrow goes a little better, but I guess you just gotta take the bad with the good. Boy, was that sappy. I'll try harder tomorrow. Later

Serenity Now

2005-10-20T01:08:00.000-04:00

Well, Jennifer and I went out to a movie tonight. We did see Serenity, so as promised, here is my review.

Disclaimer: I am a sci-fi lover. If it is entertaining, regardless of plot holes, bad dialog, etc, I will probably like it. If you cannot look past such things, you probably won't like the same movies as I do.

That said, this movie was great. For anyone who watched the show Firefly, this movie picks up where the show left off. Same actors/actresses and all. I haven't seen the whole series, but it started out with some back story that filled in some blanks for me. There was an excellent mix of humor and action. And, as typical with the show, it held mostly true to a sci-fi western. Fancy space ships, with what look like old fashioned handguns. An odd blend, but it makes for an excellent setting. To top it off, there were some exceptional one liners.

So, if you like a good exciting and entertaining sci-fi movie, I would highly recommend Serenity. If you don't like a good exciting and entertaining movie, what the hell is wrong with you?

Okay, I have another quick review for you. No, it's not a movie, although I watched The Last Samurai the other day and thought it was a pretty damn good movie. After seeing Serenity, Jen and I went to Pizza Hut to take advantage of that buy a large specialty pizza and get a medium pan for a quarter. I decided to a large stuffed crust BBQ Chicken pizza. While I was expecting a good pizza, I wasn't expecting one this good. They have BBQ chicken and onions on the pizza, and they replace the pizza sauce with some sort of BBQ sauce. Jen turned her nose up at it, but that just means more for me. Anyway, if you like to try something different on your pizza, I would highly recommend trying the BBQ chicken pizza. It's Grrrreeeaaat!

Okay, I'll leave you with a link from the Adam files. As he put it, this is someone with too much time on their hands. Very cool in an odd, dorky sort of way. Later.

Success!!!

2005-10-18T20:12:00.000-04:00

In the words of Stewie Griffin, "Victory is Mine!" Yesterday I successfully upgraded my Windows 98 computer to Windows XP. I got XP free with a programming class I'm taking online through UCLA. I did some research prior to upgrading and there were many stories of people having problems. I wasn't super worried, but you can't be too safe with data.

I started out by trying to backup all the stuff that I didn't want to loose under any circumstances. Tax info, family pictures, etc. When I tried to do that, my CD burner/software was locking up the system if I tried to burn more than just a little data at a time. So after about an hour of burning a little at a time, I finally got everything I wanted.

Then I downloaded the XP drivers for my video card. You know, just so I had them locally. Then I stuck in the upgrade CD, entered the license key, and hit go. I sat back for about an hour, and then it was done. No problems at all. I installed the XP driver for my video card, and I was good to go! Rock on. Pretty damn easy I must say. I'm very pleased.

So, I'm typing this on a Win XP OS now instead of my old 98. I know what your saying, "It's about time." Well, my 98 machine was working fine. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Right? Anyway, I'm happy that everything went well.

My vacation is going well. I had to get up at 8 am today to take the dog to the vet. I know! 8 AM! I thought this was a vacation. It's okay, I'll sleep in tomorrow. I'm hoping to go to Traverse City for an afternoon out tomorrow. I want to see Serenity, so if I do, I'll post my review on here. Maybe eat out somewhere. Hey, Pizza Hut has that buy one get one for a quarter thing. That would be sweet. Mmmmm, stuffed crust!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. The sidewall on the back tire of my bike had a bulge in it. I figured it hold out for a few days. I went for a ride today, and it held while I was riding, but about 20 minutes after I got home, I heard a loud POP from the front porch. I poked my head out the door, and sure enough, the back tire blew. I've got to replace it now with the Iceman coming up in a couple of weeks. It looks like I can get it online for about $20, but it would be easier to just stop at the local bike shop. We'll just have to wait and see what they charge.

Well, I guess that's about all I have for today. Later.

Bad call

2005-10-15T21:19:00.000-04:00

Hey, what's up? Today was the first day of my vacation, and it was pretty nice. I slept in. Then I got up and watched cartoons for a little while. Specifically, G.I. Joe Sigma Six. You might think I'm pretty weird, but the Scarlett in this G.I. Joe is much hotter that the one in the original. You know, in a cartoon sort of way. Anyway, my wife, daughter and myself spent the afternoon in Traverse City cruising around for Halloween decorations and such. Pretty relaxing day.

Now, you may be wondering what the title of my post is all about. Well, I'm watching game four of the ALCS with the Angels and White Sox. If you watch baseball at all, you probably already know about the bad call in game 2 (if I recall correctly) that let to the White Sox win. Well, there was just another lousy call by the umpiring staff that may end up costing the Angels dearly. When the batter was swinging, the catcher stuck his glove out and it was hit by the bat. According to baseball rules, the batter should have gotten first base free, which in this case would have moved the runner on first over to second loading the bases with one out. Instead, it's called a double play and the inning was over. The Angels are currently down by 2, which they may have very well gotten if that call have been correctly made. Personally, I would love to see the Angels win solely because they are the ones who knocked the Yankees out of the playoffs. I hate the Yankees. We're only about half way, so we'll have to see if the Angels can come back.

Personally I would like to see an Angel/Astros World Series. The Astros are the Wild Card team, which is cool, and the Angels knocked out the Yankees. I don't have a personal stake, so I have to root for someone. Houston is doing pretty good so hopefully they will pull it off, and we'll see if the Angels can come back.

Right about now, Adam, (a friend at work) would be saying, "baseball sucks!", at which point I would be telling him to shut up before I come over there and kick his ass!

Suddenly, I have the munchies. I'm not hungry at all. In fact, I actually feel pretty full. I just have this horrid urge to eat. My wife was wanting some munchies earlier, so I may end up going to the store. I'm trying to resist, so we'll just have to see how it goes. Maybe if I wait long enough it will go away. Oh well. I'm going to get back to the game and cross my fingers that the Angels will come back. Later.

Another week, gone.

2005-10-13T19:35:00.000-04:00

Well, it's been another week. I know, I'm slacking. Oh well. I've been working, and getting my wife off the computer is quite the task. I have all of next week off, so I will try to post more often.

Well, Lost was on last night. That show rocks. I watched all of season one, and every episode of season two so far, and I have absolutely no idea what the hell is going on. My wife have been frequenting the some Lost discussion forum. They find all sorts of little stuff that I never see. All I have to say is that some people have WAY to much time on their hands. In any case, wanting to find out what is going to happen next always have me excited about next week.

Man, I was talking to a buddy at work about Battlestar Galactica. Now I'm itching for the new season to start, and it's still two or three months away. Grrrrr. Oh well. I can still watch reruns from season two on Fridays.

Here is a cool link that I ran across. www.starwreck.com. It's from some fans in a European country, Sweaden maybe? Anyway, they did it on a guys home computer and everyone that worked on it worked for free. I haven't watched it all yet, but the pieces I've seen are pretty funny. They make fun about almost everything. One of the better Star Trek parodies I've seen. It's pretty large, so a broadband connection is recommended.

Well, I guess that's all for tonight. Like I said, I'm off of work next week so I'll try to post more. Later.

It's been a week. So what?

2005-10-06T21:05:00.000-04:00

Yeah, I know. It's been a few days. Sorry. I've been busy.

Sorry, but I'm going to vent a bit here. I am so sick of the stupid, ignorant, incompotent people that are allowed to have drivers licenses. I drive about 40 minutes, each way, to work every day. Everyday, at least a half a dozen times, some dumbass bastard does something stupid around me. They cut you off. They speed up when you try to pass and slow down after the passing lanes. They don't signal. Oh, I almost forgot the jackass semi trucks that are passing people on a two lane highway when there is oncoming traffic. Specifically, me. Yeah, I've fought the road rage bug. I still get mad but usually I just call them names and such. Thanks Jen. :-)

Okay. That's out of the way. So, last night was lost. That show rocks. I also hate it. Basically, each episode brings up more and more questions about what is going on without actually answering anything. When they do manage to answer something, it usually just creates ten more questions. But, I guess that's why I keep watching it every week. Really, I do like that show.

CSI is on now. Dead lady at the bottom of the stairs. Husband all covered in blood. Yeah, he did it. Probably cheating on his wife and wanted to be with the other one, i.e. Scott Peterson. Now they are saying they sleep in separate bedrooms. Guilty as hell. I'm probably completely wrong, but who really cares.

I don't know if I've mentioned it, but I'm taking guitar lessons. My wife signed me up for them for my B-day this year. I've been wanting to learn to play for years. A couple of years ago, I bought myself a sweet Fender Strat. I'm gonna get good and rock the hell out. Hell yeah! Yeah, pretty soon Metallica or System of a Down will be calling and asking me to replace their lead guitar player. Oh, and then I woke up. I enjoy it anyway. Maybe I'll find someone to jam with one of these days.

I'm also taking a C# programming course online through UCLA. The credits should be transferrable to the local college where I am actually going (some years) for my Associates. Yesterday was the first official day of class, but we don't have our books yet so I'm still kind of waiting. I may be upgrading my home PC to Win XP this weekend so I can work on it at home. Three other guys at work are taking the same class, so I'm thinking it should be fun.

I'll leave you with this link. Tourettes Guy. I'm pretty sure he doesn't actually have tourettes, but what do I know. Some of it is pretty damn funny. BOB SAGET!!! (You'll understand after you watch some.)

Later

2005-10-02T20:46:00.000-04:00

Hey. Not much to report. It was a busy but uneventful weekend. Friday night/Saturday morning, I had to take my mother in law to work because her car broke down, so I slept until 11am. Then I got up and ran a couple of errands before we went to watch some soccer. My uncle is coaching a team, so we go to watch all the home games. Gas is to damn expensive to go to the away games. Then my daughter took a nap and then we went and wandered around the mall.

Sunday, my parents took us out to dinner with the rest of the family. They rock. It was a 45 minute drive to get to the restaurant, but the food was great. Then we came home and sat around a while. I just finished taking care of the helpdesk requests from work so that I don't have to do them in the morning. I'm trying to save myself some time tomorrow, we'll see how it goes. Otherwise, I plan on just sitting around the rest of the night watch my dumb dog chase her tail. That's about it. As I said, pretty uneventful.

Later.

First Update!

2005-09-29T20:49:00.000-04:00

Well, I just added some links. Just a few of the places I like to go. I'll add more as I think of them, but my big bookmark list is at work. Figures. Oh well. Well, I'm gonna get going 'cause CSI is coming on in a few minutes. One of my favorite non sci-fi shows. Guts and gore rocks! Meedly meedly meedly meeeeeeeee!!!

Later

I am here!

2005-09-26T21:41:00.000-04:00

Hello. Welcome to The Captains Chair. I'm not sure where this will go, but I imagine it will end up containing my whims and musings. Basically, a repository coolness and such. I'll keep this one short as I don't really have anything to say at the moment, but as soon as I see/hear/come across anything interesting, I'll be sure to share...whenever I get around to it. Later.