Looping the Hen

Beijing does Stanley Kubrick

I bet with drugs and electric shocks you can cure just about anything!

I am currently reading a virtual reality/fantasy written by Tad Williams called Otherland and it makes me think China may actually be ahead of the curve. Internet usage will only get more immersive in the next 50 or 100 years, and I can easily see people reacting (something at this point I reflexively disagree with) with full-blown interventions on a large scale as it begins to replace the 'real world' to a larger and larger extent. Teens (and many Blackberry toting adults) are already connected 24/7 and we are only at the beginning of the Digital Age. When we get to the Cyber age (shortly) where we experience true sensory input through VR devices (for lack of a better term), things will get a lot more dicey. Unless the Singularity gets us first! (That is a must-read for all true wannabe technophiles and geeks)

Comment Authentication On

Not that there has been much to comment on...but I have turned on comment authentication, which means one would need to register with Typekey in order to comment. It's a pretty easy process for those who choose to, but I understand if people don't.

At this point I didn't have much choice, as I got whacked with over 1400 spam comments over the weekend, which I am still in the process of deleting. Although Tammy and I have found a variety of interesting and creative websites, most of them would offend your average Methodist!

Sorry!

Fine him for breaking the law of gravity!

Unbelievable!

Elf Yourself

Apparently one of the new hot things this holiday. via Officemax and Elfyourself.

My *cough* ex-friend Billie is responsible for this.

Carma

Well, I must have been mean to someone this weekend, and whoever that was, I apologize. Bad Tobias! The Karmic Train stopped by and I woke up this morning to someone having egged my car and let most of the air out of my tires; I'm still hoping they're not punctured, especially as they are apparently the Rolex of tires (not that I would know) and run around $400 each or something ridiculous. I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry!

Yes, as always, things are mostly my fault. Because my proximity alarm is as sensitive as...well, I probably shouldn't illustrate just how sesitive it is on a family website...anyhow, it's very sensitive, so I took to just leaving it off. I've had my car nearly 14 months now and no one has ever bothered it at home. I'll have to dig out the alarm clicker this evening and make sure I park well clear of anything, including the curb, because if I am within a foot of anything with it on my car chirps every 60 seconds or so.

Other than that lovely piece of news, things are mostly good. I have the coolest fiber optic Christmas tree; Tammy even took some of my little people and put little ribbons on them and hung them up! Although we're not going to make it up to Connecticut after all this year; Tammy has had some horrific car problems (3 separate and fairly big issues over the last week) and I got hit with a special assessment on my condo for a bunch, so a trip would just exacerbate the financial impact, especially at Christmas. So, that means 11 days of video games and ramen noodles...yay, I'm back in the 90's! Err, I mean 9 days of video games and plenty of time with my significant other! How about 5 honey?

Anyhoo, I'm turning geek, so I'll run!

So what do you get for the couple who has everything?

Here is my Honey's wish list.

Here is my wish list.

It is actually kind of cool, because I ordered some stuff from hers and it auto-deletes it so no one can duplicate it. Anyone else with a wish-list somewhere please let me know, because I actually like shopping this way instead of at the mall!

For any of my players, these are cool things I would like that would be used in our games but I can't bring myself to get for myself.

Yay!

As everyone knows, I am the epitomy of modesty and self-restraint...however, I must say I just received my 3rd promotion in 3 years and it feels pretty good. I am now Purchasing Manager, and have to admit I greatly enjoy my career, far more than I ever could have envisioned in the 90's. Not too bad for someone who started at my company as an $8.00 an hour temporary in 1999!

Tammy would probably say that as stingy as I am personally, Purchasing is a perfect avocation for me. I guess everyone is happy that our department's budget continues to go down every year instead of up.

Go me!

Rob from the poor and give to the...

Happy 200th post! Go me!

This must be my bad year for customer service. I think I find it more frustrating to have a bad experience(s) now because most of my job is working with folks of various levels, from clerks to VPs to vendors, and helping each of them the best I can. My department often gets compliments for their genuine desire to do their jobs well and serve their customers. So when I reach clueless customer service folks, people who could care less about whether they've actually helped me, let alone done the right thing, or just downright refuse to respond (like my condo management company), it perturbs, annoys, or in Sprint PCS's case, makes me downright angry.

I'll get to Sprint in a minute, because I'm actually going to file a BBB complaint against them for a dangerous security policy, and need to work myself up into an appropriate lather.

Having listened to G and read about many condo associations, property associations, and condo management companies, it is obvious a good deal, maybe even most, are horrible. It seems mine is no different. I am sure some of you will think 'what's the big deal?' but my condo management company compounded their initial, and probably minor, screwup by refusing to respond to any request of mine for information.

So when I bought my condo, I picked what I thought was a great unit. It is always 10 degrees cooler in the summer than most of my neighbors due to great shading (a big deal in TN), it's a corner unit so I only have two neighbors (the weird Karaoke neighbors for those who have heard me babble on about them; the other unit behind me is currently vacant). It has a good view of the pool, has a nice little stream (when there is actually water running through it, which only happens about 1/4 of the year), and the trash dumpster was very close, about 20 yards from my front door.

Well, about 5 months ago I was going to take my trash out and noticed my dumpster was gone. Huh. That's odd. I thought maybe the trash company was replacing it or something. I ended up walking almost 200 yards to the next closest dumpster. In the middle of summer, it's quite a hike in 95 degree heat carrying two 40-lb trash bags. I have a feeling it won't be any better in the middle of winter.

So when I sent my next association payment (two actually, as I double up so I only write them a check every 2 months), I dropped them this note:

Robin Hood Condominiums
Jim Curley Properties
177 Belle Forest Circle
Nashville, TN 37221

May 30, 2006

Ma’am/Sir,

Could you please send me a key for the laundry room? Neither of the two sets I have works for the new lock.

Also, could you drop me a note to explain the movement of the dumpster from near my building? I (and all the units around me) have to walk nearly a quarter mile there and back to the next closest dumpster.

Thank you!
Toby Truman

A week passed, then two, and by the time it hit a month I figured I wouldn't get a response. Even if they didn't want to send me a note, they definitely should have sent me a key, which they didn't. Initially I thought it may have been possible they didn't receive my note, but they cashed my check, so that isn't what happened.

Two months later I was writing out another check for this company which now provides me less service than I had when I moved in. I included a more detailed note:

Robin Hood Condominiums
Jim Curley Properties
177 Belle Forest Circle
Nashville, TN 37221
07/28/06

2nd Request for Reply

Ma’am/Sir,

Attached is a copy of a note I sent two months ago; I have not yet received a reply. If there is a different address I should send correspondence, please let me know so I can re-route if necessary.

If this is the correct address, I hope someone will reply to my concerns.

I have a severe case of tendonitis/arthritis that makes it difficult for me to carry bags of trash long distances. The two trash dumpsters where I am required to walk to now are more than twice the distance away from where my original dumpster was for over a year. Would it be possible to move one of those back to the position of my original dumpster? That would make it much more convenient to anyone who lives in my building. (Building 2)

If this is not possible, I would appreciate an explanation letting me know why our original dumpster was moved and why no correspondence was sent out letting owners know it was occurring.

Thank you!
Toby L. Truman
Robin Hood Condominiums

Well, it's been almost a month since they cashed that check, and again no response to my concerns. It's not even like I expect them to move the dumpster back (even though the building deepest into our complex now has two dumpsters and two, maybe three buildings now have no dumpster at all.) I do, however, expect a response from someone I pay every month. We even pay more than most condos in our town do, ($139 monthly; my friend AKBar, who lives in an infinitely nicer neighborhood with more amenities one town over pays $99.) so the least I would expect is to maintain the standard of living I had when I moved in.

I did a quick web search of the condo management company, Jim Curley Properties, and they only have 6 Google hits for an exact match when I last checked, so this post will be very visible if anyone decides to research them. I'm not sure if I can file a BBB complain (or if one is applicable), but if I can, I will. It seems JCP handles one of the swankier condo neighborhoods in Nashville also, so maybe that's why we get so little service.

In any case, my next step will be to email them a note at the one email address I could find and see if they will reply to me from there.

It's funny, I used to get irritated at my previous condo management group for their little newsletters, which was downright degrading to some of the folks living on the property (usually the non-payer's of fees). The one thing I can say though, is I at least knew what was going on, what the balance sheet looked like, and any news. This new company appears to be getting the same amount of my money for far less service.

He's Smaller Than He Thinks

Well, I'm off to the Land of Black Squirrels for the next 7 days, but wanted to leave with an anecdote about my new adopted wannabe Cerberus.

So I took Arnold out this morning to do his thing. For those who have never met him, he is a massive 7 pounds of razor sharp teeth, a keenly developed intellect, and bulging muscles. He also doesn't much like other dogs, even those who tower over him and outweigh him by 10 to 1.

Whenever he is done, he runs back up to the door and proceeds to sit (very cutely I must add, I taught him this!) so I can take off his collar, and then we admire the day for about 10 seconds before I let him in. At which point he usually bolts across the house until he is back within 5 feet of Tammy. I am convinced Arnold thinks he has a small explosive capsule buried in his brain which will detonate if he spends more than 7 minutes away from his mother.

Anyway, this morning, something came up that was infinitely more important. The raging ball of fur decided he needed to pick a fight with the largest dog in the complex, a 150-lb monster Great Dane. (To be completely honest, I don't really know whether it was a Great Dane, but he was huge and could easily have fit Arnold under his tongue like a furry cough drop) About 2 seconds after I took the leash off, Arnold spots Frankendane and is gone before I knew what happened, across our little creek and vigorously assaulting the much larger and scarier looking dog while it's owner is holding it with both hands to prevent it from killing the little gnat yapping at it.

It was very much like those nature shows where the itty-bitty badger is fighting off a grizzly. It is a good thing Arnold is more scared of me than of massive mountains of teeth. I finally got between him and the Dane and chased him off for a moment. Sometimes I used to think Arnold is not the pointiest fork in the drawer, but now I know it. He kept making these huge sweeping runs to try to get around me and to his prey, yapping fiercely the whole time. The lady was pretty nice about the whole thing, and managed to get her dog back to her house, while I finally scared Arnold back to my front door.

Thinking back, I am pretty sure the Dane was actually more curious about the tiny creature engaging it than intent on crushing him in it's massive jaws. Anyhoo, I got a lovely twisted ankle cavorting around in my socks and work clothes, so it looks like running up in loverly British Columbia may be out. Grrr.

Anyhoo, have a great week y'all, I doubt I'll check in between the squirrels, museums, beer and whatever other amusements G has dreamed up. Back on the 8th!

I didn't want to hurt Arnold's feelings by telling his secret out on the main page. We were over at AKBar's a few weeks ago for poker and he was outside with Molly, a mild mannered grey housecat who Arnold alternately chases and runs away screaming like a little girl from.

So we were all inside and somehow Arnold got left outside in the little yard. Molly was hiding underneath the firepit tarp and we never really saw her the entire night. But apparently Arnold did; after about a minute we hear a loud, terrified, whining yelp as he scratches at the door. Looking outside, Molly is still not in any way visible (or threatening him in any manner) and he is squealing like the 2nd to last girl left alive in a zombie movie.

Sorry Arnold, I couldn't help it.

Saving on Bandwidth...

I am working on resizing my skydiving pics, but for now there are some over up on my Myspace for anyone with an account.

Tobias - 1, Gravity - 0

I didn't give a bad name to screaming little girls everywhere, and managed to curb my heart-stopping fear long enough to not squeal when my instructor pushed me out of the plane. It was still the most terrifying event of my life, and once will be plenty for me. I will now cross it off of my list of things to do in my life.

It almost felt like a day (or weekend) populated by little pre-death rituals that might be performed by a samurai or zulu warrior. Tammy and I talked about the disposition of my estate and my desire for fireworks at my funeral. I called dad and we prayed. I didn't call mom, as she asked me to not to when I first mentioned it, so I called her after. Went to Nikki's (my jump cohort) and had our last meal; cheesy eggs, pancakes, biscuits and bacon, mmmm.

It was a nice drive in my hunny's jeep, small rodent dog and everything. We got there almost an hour earlier, as we were a little unsure of where it was. (I forgot my map) The pre-event was a little bit less strenous than I thought it would be. Watch a video, sign a document saying I won't hold anyone liable if I end up as 200 pounds of mush on the airport asphalt, put on a jumpsuit and harness. I had expected some formal training on how to land, how to get out of the plane, how not to panic and attempt to pull my tandem's rip cord out prior to exiting the plane. There was very little, just some cursory explanations of how to hold my head, arms and feet.

To be honest, it is fine there wasn't more of it, because my brain shut off just prior to leaving the plane. The bravest and most fear-inspiring thing I have ever done, and I can only remember bits and pieces of it. The jumper actually made one signal to me during the free fall, but I could not for the life of my remember what I was supposed to do when he made it.

Even the plane ride was a bit scary, as we were in one of the fastest climbing planes in the US. We reached jump altitude of 14,000 feet in around 4 minutes 30 seconds; the plane was back on the runway while I was still under canopy at around 4000 feet. (Maybe 2 minutes into the experience) The instructor is attached to a tandem in 4 places, left and right shoulder and left and right hip, each 2500 or 5000lb test. One nice thing is the harness feels sturdy and appropriately tight and for some reason it made me slightly more comfortable, perhaps because I felt that it was one less failure point.

There were 13 of us on the plane; 3 tandems (6 people), 3 camera folks for the 3 tandem jumpers (I thought it was an interesting way to make a living! Although my camera person was only 15), and 4 other random jumpers (though 2 of them knew Nikki from work). She was first off the plane, I was last; watching everyone else jump before me I think heightened my fear. Actually, I think it was more stark terror of the about to be killed by an axe-murderer variety. I was very close to calling the whole thing off, except I think I would have died of humiliation in that case, having told everyone here and at work I was going to jump out of a plane. Scary. Dreadfully scary.

Or, I'm just a wuss, which is quite possible also, but I must emphasize the fear. Even now when I force myself to remember it, my heart starts pouding and my hands start sweating. When I got up to the door and put my hands on either side (remember the kitten imagery?), the instructor says 'Grab your harness...grab your harness!...on the count of 3 we go.' Then, 'one, two...' and he jumps...ugg! I had one more second to live, egads! It felt like it was 30 degrees and my face was flapping like a paper in the breeze. He made the signal to me, and I guess my legs were out of place because he kept wrestling them around with his.

I think I made some horrid faces for the camera, we should have those here tomorrow for your amusement. Other than that, the one thought I can remember (other than how cold it was), was that if the parachute failed, I would have around 80 seconds to live. No joke...I barely noticed the pretty scenery rushing toward me like a large steam-driven freight train. Somewhere I felt the canopy open like a jackhammer and jerk me back to existence. I was surprised by how heavy I felt then as the harness dug into my thighs. After the chute opened I almost relaxed, but I wasn't comfortable really until about 1000 feet. I think I could finally make out Tammy at around 500 or so, like a cute little ant on the runway.

I'm glad I did it. I originally said I would never consider doing it again, and I probably won't. However, when I listened to my dad on the phone, he was almost wistful and worried at the same time. He was in the Airborne when he was younger and made about 50 jumps. Maybe one day I'd do it again for him. However, I can't possibly see any other reason I would do so unless my plane was crashing.

Anyhoo, a big thanks for everyone's support (Lillian, I hadn't been remembered the Ambrose quote in ages, thanks for the reminder), and for my dear lady, who was there with me all the way.

Summer 2006 – Fireworks, Gravity Test, Girlfriend

This summer looks to be one of the more interesting of my life! July 3 I will take my life in my hands and jump out of an airplane with a friend of mine. (And y’all thought I was kidding!). It’s a little scary, a lot exciting, though those emotions may reverse roles by the time I reach the plane. It’s going to be a tandem jump, meaning an instructor will actually be the one with the parachute and the jumpees don’t really have any responsibilities other than to fall, scream and land. Mom, you didn't hear this!

At the beginning of August G-Max I will be going to Vancouver for a week. It will be my first out of country trip, so it is also very exciting. They have a fireworks display contest that I am very much looking forward to, and we should be able to make it to two shows.

I’d also like to make it a point to run a road race in every country I visit, but the only one I can find on the dates I am there is 10k (6.1 miles, my normal races are half that), so I’ll make sure to bring a copy of Chariot’s of Fire to get me all the way through. Gibb and Serira, it looks like I will be coming into and leaving out of Seattle, so if y’all’d like to catch a drink or dinner on August 1, let me know!

I must also brag on my newly acquired Girlfriend, one of only two to ever not make me completely insane (yet? JK Hunny!). Yay! Although I must say, I think she makes me ditzy instead. I know G-Max has mentioned my legendary forgetfulness and lack of common sense here, but it mostly went away when I moved to TN. In the 2 months or so since Tammy and I have been dating, I feel like I have reverted to the old days.

Last weekend while trying to open a movie I stabbed myself with a steak knife and almost needed stitches. Mucho blood and unpleasantness. We were at the park (yes, that park) a few days later and I had just finished my run and was catching up to Tammy. I keep my car key in my inner pocket of my running shorts so I don’t lose it. Well, by the time I caught up with her I was thinking, crap, where is my key? So we start walking back the way I had run from, looking on the ground for my key. We got about a quarter of a mile and my brain was trying to tell me something, because I swore I remembered feeling my key on my run. Seems I got distracted as I was getting my key out and had dropped it in my shorts, where it was settled snugly. Ugg.

The absolute worst happened this past weekend. So I was taking a shower and umm, something (someone?) seemed to distract me. When we got out of the shower I noticed it wasn’t draining, and figured someone’s much longer hair than mine had clogged it. I had some Drano handy and poured it all in, and it didn’t work. Uh oh, I thought, bad clog, definitely not my fault! This was the day of the big Poker Tourney’s I mentioned last week, so I figured I would go out after them if I needed to. Figuring I didn’t want to take any chances, I went to Lowe’s and picked up both a plunger and a pipe snake. After over 2 hours of fiddling with both, still no dice. Part of me was thinking of a big man with a crack in my bathroom charging me $200 to fix my plumbing. I go out again to Walmart and pick up 3 different kinds of Drano stuff. Nothing could survive the upcoming barrage of flesh-eating base I was about to pour down my drain!

So I pour a big ole 64oz bottle of generic Drano in and go back to play some more poker while it works, hoping the fumes don't make it to my bedroom and render me unconscious. Two more hours go by and nothing. I was about to crack open a 2nd bottle while I was staring in dismay at my tub, the plunger, empty bottles, and my pipe snake. And something clicked, and ghastly I turned toward the faucet (Ode to G-Max). Sure enough, my drain thing was closed. I am the Stupidest. Person. Ever. Of course the drain opener stuff had carved little black holes into my beautiful stainless steel. Ugg. And ugg again I tell you! Tammy, I’d like my brain back any time now, thanks!

Anyhoo, this has gone way too long! Other minor things going on include a Little People Pre-release on July 1, and my first race of the summer on Independence Day, where I will try to help motivate a friend into finishing her first race. (Spy) Other than that, I was just thinking of streaking through the park.

Error is between keyboard and chair...

So umm...I feel a little stupid. Okay, maybe a lot stupid. Like, umm, Duh kind of stupid.

So after all the headaches in backing up my files and reinstalling XP, once I was back on line I had the same issues (Not sure if I had gotten into them in a previous post, but basically I was unable to download any files (although I could surf, which is why the whole thing was weird) and my Internet was horribly sluggish). Doh!

My next call was to Comcast. The Comcast guy was here for near 3 hours, doing all the same troubleshooting I had done over the last 3 weeks. I tried to tell him it wasn't IE related (as I had had the same downloading issue with Mozilla), but he worked through all the IE fixes I had Googled.

After all was said and done and he couldn't figure it out, I suggested switching the cable modem out, as I had started having the trouble when a lightning storm had killed the prior modem and they had replaced it. Well, this line of thought (which I should have had 2 months ago) led me to think, if the storm whacked the cable modem, could it have affected my internal wiring? (My brother set up my house to have 4 network outlets, one in each bedroom, one in the living room and one in the dining room)

So I suggested to the cable guy that maybe we should try running the CAT-5 directly from the modem to the PC. Ding, fixed. Ugg.

Anyhoo, as my brother said my computer was all sorts of kluged after having been using it for 3 solid years without a wipe, and a reinstall has been good for overall response times and the like. Still, the idea that the fix was that simple confounds me. In the last 7 years as I have gone from a technical lead position at work to an administrative one, my once-decent techie skills have atrophied to the point of non-existence.

Danger Wil Robinson, Danger!

Okay, going through the ultimate scariness in a few minutes, and I am going to try to reinstall my OS, without a CD, off a 2nd drive. Yippee! So if you don't hear from me for about 9 weeks, you know what happened.

At least it wasn't crash related, so all my files and things are safe, just random Windows screwiness preventing me from getting anything done.

So anyway, here goes! Good luck to me!

Oh, and BTW, now I really know what Bethany thinks of me...

Sent by Lady M this afternoon:

Crap, I'm nesting again...

Every few months I go through a phase of tossing out old junk (or Ebaying it, if it is good old junk) I've been living with for sometimes 20 years. It's pretty amazing I even have any junk left, but it seems to breed when confined to dark closets or dingy storage rooms. But now I've decided it's condo improvement time; and for those who know me know that is something I dread with an inhuman horror of the Lovecraftian variety. Still, one gets to a point where they just can't take it anymore!

I continue to curse the painter who screwed up my floors (Not that I would have forced even my old floors upon some random Eqyption Pharoah lying dead in his 3000 year old tomb), wishing upon him boils and sores! Well, no, I don't really wish upon him boils and sores, but he still makes me mad! Thus, I am on the Great Hardwood Floor Hunt to replace my kitchen and dining room laminate. I remember the last time I checked into them they run anywhere from $12-$30/square foot. (Although I'm hoping more toward the $12/foot range) I'm lucky that I don't actually have a lot of square footage there, maybe 250-300 or so.

It was either that or all the cabinets and countertop, but I'm not sure what goes into all that (nor am I certain of my taste), so I'll stick with something I can probably manage without gouging my eyes out in some Oedipul rage. (I will also probably get another two or three bookshelves so I can put out the rest of my books and knick-knacks.)

I sense many epic battles ahead with the forces of Lowe's, Home Depot, and Floors N' More. More later!

Yikes!

I came and everything was blank, eek! So I am typing this blah blah blah just so y'all know I am still here!

Not much going on other than surviving the tornadoes that wrecked the town where I work, playing lots of D&D and poker, and running like Frank Shorter (not!). More going on on the gaming side, sorry!

For anyone who wants to hang out with me, event registration for Gen Con Indianapolis opens May 1, and I am looking to go and play DDM and probably the Dreamblade release. It is from August 10-13; I've been to two prior Gen Con's, and it is always a good time. (Someone (a Magic player specifically) should remind me to tell my 1st Gen Con story over on the gaming side!)

Okay, tie-red, going to bed!

Lightning Storm 1, Cable Modem 0

FYI, my cable modem fried due to a lightning strike on my condo yesterday. I had a friend outside watching the storm and he almost got zapped! I think it was part of this storm system. I will not be able to respond to any of my home or hotmail emails until at least tomorrow afternoon.

Those who need to can write to me at my work email!

Boring!

Per a recommendation from an anonymous user, I did away with the previous picture. I hope this one is better!

Not much going on; met with some friends about a possible investment group.

Broke my first 7:00 minute mile in 15 years; was on my way to doing a 2nd when the treadmill gave out on me. I felt pretty good and could probably do 6:30 if rabid dogs were chasing me.

I plan on going to my first movie in ages this weekend; I haven't checked the reviews and it is probably awful, but I am looking to see Ultraviolet (holy moly, 10% at Rotten Tomatoes), V for Vendetta, or 8 Below, which my father said was great. Or I should go see Night Watch or G-Max is going to blink furiously at me!

Are Flightless Fowl Inherently Good or Evil?

I tried to go to this site today at work but it came back as 'tasteless and offensive' or some such. I'm surprised, because the site is a little on the tame side (well, unless you count the pentagram).

(Hat tip to G-Max!)

(Update: Just as an experiment, I tried my site with this post, and it came back as 51% Good and 49% Evil; we're holding a Looping the Hen Revival!)

The Great Hendersonville Crime Spree

Hendersonville is a town very much like Madison, CT or Old Saybrook near where I grew up (I went to HIgh School in Old Saybrook). Slightly upscale, residents very sure of their place in society, good schools; generally a strong middle/upper middle population.

I live in a town, coincidentally, called Madison, TN. It is more like Branford/East Haven. Some good areas, some rough areas, lots of businesses, shopping, and commerce. Generally also (so I've heard) a higher level of crime. In fact, several of my friends regularly refer to my area of town in less than flattering terms. (To be honest, though, Akbar and WCB have every right to, as he was carjacked there)

Thus, one could say I was mildly perturbed when I walked out of AKBar's house in Hendersonville Friday night after Battlestar Galactica to find my car gone from where I parked it. At first I thought it was a joke and someone had grabbed my keys and moved it. I had parked it on the median of their cul-de-sac, on a fairly good decline. In a last ditch attempt to locate my vehicle, I started pushing the unlock button on my alarm. (it has a range of several hundred yards) Much to my surprise, my vehicle was at the bottom of the hill, in front of someone's garage, surrounded by a crowd of people, including a police officer.

Ugg.

As I approached, the officer told me to turn around and he started with the questions. Your car? Yep. Drinking? A couple. You realize your car ran into this person's house? Errr, nope. I tried to remain friendly and keep my humor, which seemed to work, as he lightened up. All this time, all I can see is the back of my car, and horrid images of a crumpled plastic front end ran through my head. I finally got to take a look: *deep sigh of relief*. The damage was minor; my front end was nicked and scraped, a few hood scratches, damage to the rear quarter panel of the other car in the driveway, and several broken bricks on the garage. He shines the light in the car, and the parking brake is definitely engaged. We try to push it. Nada, not moving.

Best as my friends and I could come up with is someone tried to jack my car by popstarting the clutch, ended up failing, the wheel lock kicked in, car rolls at almost a 45 degree angle (that's the hardest part for me to visualize, because the driveway it was in was at a heckuva angle to where I started), bumps the garage, taps the rear quarter panel of the other car with a tire, and rolls back to a rest. Evildoer then has to climb over my seat to get out of the vehicle, because my car was literally no more than 6 inches away from the Camaro next to me. (The mirrors were within 2)

According to the timing that we put together, this happened within 15-20 minutes of me going into the house, and the cop said he had been there at least an hour and had just called the tow truck and was about to put out a hit-and-run notice for me. Double ugg. I am very lucky I was trying to get to bed for my race in the morning, because otherwise I would never have left the house to find out what had happened. I'm not really sure why no one knocked on any doors looking for the owner of the car, but hey, that's just me.

To be honest, the whole thing could have been much, much worse. It was a pretty fancy piece of driving (see below) that kept both vehicles and the house more or less intact. Still, I'll be happy to remind my friends to lock their cars and hide their cats lest they fall prey to the Great Hendersonville Crime Spree.

That was harder than it looked!

Okay, that's enough fiddling for now. Mom and Dad get a pic, my links will continue to grow as I add on the sites I actually use or read regularly.

Those 3 very simple changes were the result of around 4 hours of trial and error; HTML has a simple grace when you figure out what it is trying to do, and why. I've just scratched the tip, but I'm much more comfortable poking around now, so maybe in a month or so I'll start looking at a full site redesign, including color scheme, and maybe moving down to only one sidebar to allow the columns to be a little bigger.

All suggestions welcome!

Yuck, more goals!

So far so good; I managed to get through the worst part of the winter in reasonable shape, so it's time to figure out my goals for the next several months. It's horrible, but I think the one day of kick-boxing actually helped; I benched reps at 170 when I normally do them at 153 or so. If it helps my running times as much, I'll definitely have to keep doing it. Blech.

Anyhow, my next stepping stone back to decent times is 24:48, 8:00 minute pace. I don't know why it is, but to me that is the threshold of casual running and competitive. No, it is not 'competitive' per se, but most people over 30 who run an 8 minute pace have put some time and effort into doing so, or are fit from other activities. I doubt I will make that time in my next race (Saturday), but I'll try! My other health goal is to get down to 199. I seem to be losing slowly (read: very slowly), but surely. Even through the holidays, it seems like I am taking off around 1 pound every 10 days or so. So in 7 weeks I should be there!

Okay, now to that HTML!

Some of my friends would ask...

Which one is the scammer?

One of my more unusual hobbies is collecting Nigerian Scam Emails (so if you have any please forward them my way!)...you know, the ones where some Nigerian first-born prince wants to send you 10 million bucks or so if you'll just transfer him $60,000 for lord knows what. Hundreds of people in the US were scammed (and a few are still being scammed) out of huge dollars before they become well-known, and now are almost passe, and somewhat a joke. Thus, I nearly fell out of my chair when I stumbled across this (here):

TO: Bush, George W.
FR: Hassan_JIM
RE: An EXCITING Opporotunity I Give You
My friend Bush, George W. FIRST, I MUST SOLICIT YOUR STRICTEST CONFIDENCE IN THIS TRANSACTION. I have small time to receive answer from you to my urgent desire. I am Hassan of United Arab Emirates. My great grand father has just gone to his fate by POLITICAL ASSASSINN'S KILL and in order for the collection of my inheritance I must have from valid AMERICAN bank account routing number and chance to control ports. However the government here is rigid and to would take this inheritance from my righteous family. My great grand father was wealthy financeir with many fortunes from his young biz ness, DUBAI PORTS WORLD! I need urgent help. I ask YOU personally for hands in this matter. I wanted to contact you on the telephone but it is tapped. I must E-MAIL. Provide me AMERICAN banking account numbers for transfer and contract of port control. This transaction is quiet and very safe from the eyes of lookers. In exchange for your saving, I desire to you send $40 million in your dollars. This is urgent request. Please give me reply quickly, for the time is low. If you will only provide American bank account and give east coast ports to DUBAI PORTS WORLD bliss will be upon our families. Please, your speedful reply is what is needed. I will contact you Bush, George W, swifty after.
YOURS FAITHFULLY,
Hassan
DPW

Changes

Hmm...I've been thinking about how to reorganize the site, and some changes that are a long time coming. This will require speaking to the dreaded HTML-Monster, something that I have greatly feared.

The easy changes will be modifying my blogroll to include more stuff, and will probably be broken down into categories of political, personal, and gaming, at least to start.

I've long considered putting alot of my gaming and D&D stuff online to help my players with backstory, history, anecdotes, stories and the like, but I didn't want to put up too much stuff that was of little interest to anyone else. I think I will ask my brother how I make a subdomain, probably http://games.loopingthehen.com if I can figure out how to manage it. It would also include any Mini-related items, including builds, game reports and the like.

That would leave the main site basically the same, ie. nothing much going on. I'm not quite sure how to fix that, but my brain seems to run in spurts, with focus in vastly different directions depending on the week, month, phase of the moon, or whatever else distracts me. I definitely need that tropical vacation! We are going to go to some exotic place this year, right G?

Anyhoo, I hope to start some of this later in the week; anyone with good (or popular) video game sites that they read, D&D sites, political sites, etc, feel free to drop them by and I will check them out and see if I should include them in my links.

Night y'all!

Not Quite Prefontaine...

But then again, nobody is or ever will be. Still, I finally made two of my goals yesterday at the Predator's 5k.

It was below freezing when the race started, but that was mainly because of the wind funnelling around the Gaylord Entertainment Center. By the time we hit mile 1, it was beautiful and felt almost like 40, which was perfect for the way I was dressed.

I was a little disconcerted when the timer said I crossed the one mile at 10:20, but I found out at the end my chip time was around 1:40. (the chip keeps track of when you cross the starting line, and starts your 'personal' clock then) My main goal was to run a 26:30, and I felt like I was way off pace because I thought my chip time was only around a minute or so. I ended up at 25:38, and the course may have been the hardest one yet, or just barely 2nd to the Frostbite race in 5 degree weather. There were two significant uphills at the start of the race, and another at the end. A good downhill following the last up helped me make up some time though, and I had a good kick left for the finish. (even though I felt like I was being tortured by some hideous running deity!)

My 2nd goal was to have my last mile be faster than my first, and it was by about 10 seconds. This one was important because all my other races showed how bad my wind was, because my last mile has always been a minute or so slower than my first.

All in all, a beautiful race, and the t-shirts were pretty nice: 100% soft cotton and an attractive design.

Go me!

Not sure what month this is...

But it's 65 degrees out and I'm about to go tooling to Walmart with the top down! Need my weekly supply of Hot Pockets and Wheaties.

I wonder what I can do to mess with myself this week

Ran another good practice run today, my best so far: 26:11 for a 5k. Exactly a minute better than my prior best (2 weeks ago). My goal for the Rudolph Run on Friday night has been 26:24 (8:30 pace), so it should be achievable, but I am wondering what I can do to mess this one up like I did the last one.

Still, it's a cool race that is run prior to the Nashville Christmas Parade, so everyone gets to run to thousands of cheering people; I am guessing that should be about as motivating as it gets. Although I am not looking forward to 35 degree weather!

Choke!

Ugg, ran that race today. Was hoping to break 27:00, and had good odds of that with a flat, fast course. Of course, as always, I am my own worst enemy. I typically drink infrequently, and even if I do, not much. I found 9 Amberbock bottles downstairs this morning following our D&D game last night. I'm not sure that is the good kind of 'carb-loading' runners talk about.

I ended at 28:32, which although 1:34 faster than my prior race, was simply horrible. I ran my first mile in 7:53, a very good pace (for me) that would have gotten me my time. However, I was already dead at the marker. I ran the 2nd at 9:12; usually, I am a very consistent runner, with my miles speeding up or staying close over the course of a race, so I knew I was in bad trouble. Still, a 17:05 split at the 2-mile meant I only needed to do another 9:00 mile to finish where I wanted. Considering I felt like I was going to cough up a lung (or two), I knew that wasn't going to happen, and my last mile was a pathetic 10-something. (with 2 minutes of walking)

Bad Tobias.;) I will redeem myself on Thursday! I don't care so much about beating any particular time in that one (due to heavier hill content), I just want to run a good, consistent race.

Funniest thing was I ended up top in my age group and got my picture taken (will link to it when they put it up) and won 5 bucks and everything, although I am pretty sure that is because I was the only one in my group. Go me! (The race was only 82 folks.) Still, it was catered by Panera Bread, and two asiago focaccia bagels made everything better.

Downtime

Sugar I'm going down down! (Sorry, just received my Fall Out Boy CD, the last business I will ever do with Sony BMG). I mercilessly copied it to my hard drive, and I just might make a copy for both my car and for work. Heck, I might want to make a backup to keep at my dad's, and my brother's, just in case my dad is involved in a nuclear accident. One for the CD player in the other room, and the 2nd computer also makes an even 7 copies or so. Then I'll make copies of all my CD's to keep at Mom's for when I go to Connecticut, and another to store at my friends in Sacramento. And another for Africa when I join the Peace Corps.

Sons of bitches.

Hadn't actually intended to get on a RIAA rant, sorry!

Took Thanksgiving week off, aaaah, a full blissful 7 days of laziness! Although not quite: have 2 road races, on Sunday and Thanksgiving. Ran a 27:16 tonight as my last heavy practice until the 20th; hoping to break 27:00, as the course is flat and fast. (Describes only 1 of my exes!) Thanksgiving's race is at the nicest mall in Nashville; of course it will be closed. Blech.

Will go see Harry Potter at a Monday matinee and drown in extra butter and peanut butter Twixes. Maybe an extra day of Dungeons and Dragons with some friends. Hopefully 2 nights of Amberbock and poker. And the rest of the time will be spent blissfully unloading on people with my L85A1 in BF2. Anyone with any other ideas please let me know! I will not think about budgets! I will not think about saving money so higher-ups can spend it! I will not think about how they are decorating my cubicle while I am away!

Yaay, go me!

The Coming Dragon

They may be having a rough start (hat tip: Instapundit), but the fact they are selling to Europe at all indicates a level of backing that means the major manufacturers better factor in significant market share erosion in the next couple of decades.

I'd venture to say it won't be but 5-7 years before they are competing with the best of the off-brands, and 10-12 before they give Honda and Toyota a run for their money. Foreign nationals in the US and elsewhere will assure they get on the road in sufficient quantities to assure visibility.

So you're the new cabin boy, eh? Aargh...

Hat tip to my chick-magnet (or *cough* should I say chic-magnet?) friend from Sac:

I don't think even these would help me (make sure you read the whole thing):

'These pants are in excellent condition. They were never taken on pirate expeditions. They weren’t worn onstage. They didn’t straddle a Harley, or a guy named Harley. They just hung there, sad and ignored, for a few presidencies.'

My apologies to the low-res readers

Crud, my apologies to those using lower resolutions than I am when editing my blog! I’m curious, what resolution does everyone use on his or her monitor? I’m at 1024x768 at work and noticed my photos aren’t cropping correctly. I must be at 1184 at home, because they look fine there. Does anyone still use 800x600? I’m sure everything looks terrible at that resolution, if it is even readable.

My ability to decipher HTML is similar to my skill in translating documents located at Khirbet Qumran, but I am going to take a look at stretching the main text box using some of the spacing between the center column and the right or left. Of course, this will require random tweaking on the order of 15-20 settings. Blech.

My worry is if I tweak at too high a resolution, my columns will run together for folks on a lower resolution or smaller monitor and everything will be a mess. Of course, if I tweak for the lowest common denominator (800x600 I guess, though on occasion of I have old games that push me into 600x480), then there will be huge amounts of wasted space for those with higher resolution.

Catch 22. Does anyone know if there is an easy way to make a style-sheet scale individual components (boxes, pics, and the like) depending on resolution? I notice some other blogs that seem to have put limitations on how they scale (based on changing browser window size at random), and wonder if I can do something similar. This also might be why most of the bigger bloggers use a base-white background and use very little in the way of frames and boxes, and their separation is based only on negative space.

Anyone with any general stylistic advice that may help this all look right to a majority of people, please let me know!

(I will go back and re-edit the picture posts, with hope mid-week)

Not quite cooking with gas

But it'll do...a pair of 40's of Boone's Farm and a 6-pack of Amberbock and I still won at poker, went to bed at 3:00am, got up at 6:43am and ran a 30:30. Hardly a land speed record (in high school I ran it in about 17 even), but I ran the first mile with a friend and it probably took 40 seconds off my overall time. Next week a little harder course, my goal is to be a little under 29:30.

Also, being awake at 9:31 is a little miracle in itself!

Update: The official results came in and I actually managed a 30:09. Go me!

So much for the Black Eyed Peas...

I went looking for the video to 'My Humps' by the BEP's; of course they haven't done one yet. I wouldn't have posted this except for Lil Miss Blizzard; I have no idea if it will even be funny for WoW players, but the song sounds straight off the album for those who haven't heard it. (It's 28 megs and I was getting 514/kb/second download off my cable, so not too long, though your results may vary)

WoW version of My Humps

Quitting coffee? Not this morning...

(Dere will be noah da quitting dis morning, my 4am phone call is catching up to me, sanqu dollbaby.)

I have been training to run some 5k’s, and I read somewhere (sorry no link, this was prior to blogdom) about enhanced performance in short-distance races for those who had zero normal caffeine intake. I trained yesterday for the first time at near 2 miles, and I am going to increase that to a full 3.1 miles on Wednesday.

I hope to run the Octoberfest 5k on Saturday; they give you free beer at the end, woot! Not quickly this time around; I would be thrilled to hit 27 minutes (though it will probably be closer to 30). There’s another the following week and I hope to take a minute off whatever I do this week. (Plus Boo#5 will be running this race also; I hope to at least remain upright through the whole thing)

My mid-term goal is a 21-minute 5k for the Resolution Run on New Year’s Day and down to under 20 minutes for Memorial Day. Of course, that may be physically impossible for a man of my years, but we all need goals right?

Oh, Saturday is also picture day! I hope to have a friend taking some pictures of my new sexy car and me with his gazillion dollar digital camera. Sure it won’t help make silk from my sow’s ear, but I hear Photoshop can do wonders! I’ll have pics up as soon after that as I can.

Yahoo 1, Google 0

As I sit here with butterflies in my tummy hoping for a random phone call from Jessica Rabbit, I need to tell the owners of Google that you ain't all that! So here I was, running myself ragged doing my best 007 spy work, and Google slips me tantalizing 5 year old links, 7 year old dead-sea newsgroups, but nothing of the current Livejournal blog my quarry keeps updated regularly. On a whim (actually, I was using Yahoo's People Search), I did a Yahoo search and score, 10 minutes later I am reading not only some light erotica by Lady Jessica but looking at my muse in various stages of dress and undress.

Advantage: Yahoo

You'd think they could afford a better cup...

If I am going to pay $1.97 for a cup of coffee, I expect one that does not overflow at random onto my shirt, lap, or car fixture. Starbuck's truly has some seriously sucky cups. I typically (err, always) order a venti bold standard black coffee. The problem is when they fill their crappy corrugated contraptions up to the top, they invariably overflow through where the lid meets the main cup and send scalding Kenyan or Guatemalan down my new Land's End cream-colored polo (yes, this happened Friday night prior to our weekly poker game). Almost as bad as that is the cardboard doesn't insulate well, and if I don't finish my once-core-of-planet temperature drink within 12 Earth minutes, I am left with a lukewarm (or if I wait 25 mintues, cold) cup 'o joe.

I once lived in the land of milk and honey. Ahh, Connecticut, I miss you. Sure, for the toxic beaches and snobby girls, the overpriced housing and usurous income-tax, but mostly for the simple pleasures. Dunkin Donuts is so much better than Starbuck's. They use real earth-damaging styrofoam cups! I remember when my first ex-fiance and I would pick up a cup of coffee in Clinton on the shoreline and head off to New Hampshire or Rhode Island; if you kept the little drink-hole closed, you could still have nuclear fusion temperature coffee in Providence.

If I actually wanted to drink my sumptuous black beverage prior to the next solar eclipse, I would request a cup of ice. A fresh cup could turn a half pound of solid cubes to water vapor more quickly than Martha Stewart getting her broker on the phone. (Yes, that was poor, but I haven't gratuituosly smacked Martha around yet this week)

I went to Detroit, Ohio about three weeks back to pick up my new(er) car and packed home 2 pounds of beans from that beautiful Dunkin Donuts state (plus as an added bonus I got to drive across infamous 8-Mile!). There is one I have seen here in Nashville, but not only do I not know where I saw it, I am pretty sure it's in Scaryland.

And so I will continue to suffer through Starbuck's fairly regularly, and just whine. Although if the Tigermarket's continue to serve up that Mountain Blueberry, they'll have a customer for life.

Everwho?

Blech, what was up with Everwood tonight? For the last 2 years it has been one of the most consistently well-crafted shows on TV. Tonight, it felt like everyone was a caricature of themselves. Bright was too dopey, Amy too googly-eyed, Dr. Brown was too weenie, Dr. Abbott had too much meth. None of it clicked; both Amy and Hannah were way too sexified. (Yummy yes, but that's not what I watch Everwood for) It also feels like they closed off the triangle with Jake, Dr. Brown and Nena a little prematurely, there was a lot of tension left to be had.

And worst, the moment that Nena decided she loved Jake was almost a carbon copy of the finale of Gilmore Girls the prior season where Lauralei asked Luke to marry her. They were both going through some trauma and stress, and the two men both made strong statements about how much they loved the two ladies children. Poof, both Momma Gilmore and Nena just swoon. I really liked the scene with Lauralei, not so much the second time around.

If I had to take a guess, I would say they switched writers (maybe the ones from Gilmore Girls got moved?). I hope the rest of the season gets better.

I Remember When DOS Was Easy

Now I struggle with these here modern contraptions they call com-poo-ters nearly every day. I thought I was pretty slick last night to have managed to transfer my domain, get my email working, set up my blog, change it's style-sheet, and make a few posts.

This morning, I felt like I was Indiana Jones trying to figure out how to get the little Golden Monkey (was it a monkey?) off the pedastal at the beginning of the first movie. He brought a little bag of dirt to hopefully keep whatever trigger pressed down. Good idea, but it didn't work that well! I felt the same way: I had my bag of dirt, so why didn't everything just work!.

I have a pretty regular schedule...shower at 6:45, go downstairs and weigh myself, upstairs, get dressed. 7:05 and I get 15 or 20 minutes on the computer to feed and water my Neopet. This morning I let my poor Aerie go hungry so I could get into Movable Type and my site control panel.

Password not accepted
Password not accepted
Password not accepted

Crap! I have used the same basic 3 passwords for years (although one has always been ridiculously hard even 10 years ago before easy cracking). However, AQ Host who runs my site forced me to choose a password rivaling the Enigma codes. (Almost no joke, I thought this thing was going to want to do a retinal scan before it accepted a password I chose) But I was bright-like-sun and wrote it down! Too darn bad I couldn't remember my farging username!

Same thing on the Movable Type side...so I used the lovely 'recover password' feature. Too bad that my email stopped working sometime between 12pm and 7:05am. AAAARGH! (and not the good pirate kind of AAAARGH)

At least I would be able to admire my pretty color scheme...I have to admit without any modesty that the Chely Wright post complemented my new style-sheet exquisitely. It's too bad I couldn't get my site to pull up either. Double crap. 7:35 and I was determined to get my site working! Of course, this was before AQ Host informed me many hours later that it was some cache-thing or other on my local computer that was messing me up. So my fiddling only made things worse when I got to work and tried to pull it up there.

I get to work at 8:03 (first time I have arrived at work past 8 in almost 6 months). My bosses are ultra-flexible and probably wouldn't mention tardiness unless I strolled in at 9:17 three days in a row smelling of patchouli and tequila. Still, the guilt! 8:03!

There is a happy ending here somewhere though! I must admit the AQ Host folks have been super. I opened 4 or 5 seperate tickets for various and asundry things (that were mostly my ignorance of such arcane terms as /flushdns). I am still trying to get my email worked out, but I am confident they will help!

So all my once-quite-mighty DOS and Windows 95 skills (used mostly to get resource-intensive video games working) feel mostly useless to me. Nowadays, most things just work. ( Well, except for Freedom Force, which took about 6 hours of manhandling to get it to quit crashing me to desktop.) But still, most things!

Except for the coolest ones; the ones I am going to try to communicate with a couple billion people with. Except for the ones I am going to try to use to find Her. Ah, well, nothing to do then but soldier on and learn it.

Style Monkey For the Save

There appears to be a great community of Movable Type Elves! This style courtesy Style Monkey. I'm not sure it's working 100%, as my calendar appears a little off, but it is beaucoup better than the fuzzy nightmare I was looking at prior. CSS and HTML are not as scary as they appear, and changing some random numbers around in the style sheet produces immediate (if unexpected!) results. I'll fiddle more on the morrow and with hope will have a final design by the weekend.

Take that evil Martha style! (Sorry Akbar!)

A Clue For the Clueless

If Movable Type is good enough for Glenn Reynolds, I have to believe it is good enough for me! However, I must say their documentation could, well, be better. I am about to have a brain tumor staring at this slate blue template. The video instructions pointed to buttons and menus that aren't there (or I, in a Hendrix-inspired kind of blue haze, have yet to find). I shall soldier on and hope to have this site looking like something not out of Martha Stewart's Blue Hades before anyone comes to visit!