ESPN.com: Page 2 : 10 things I hate about you: "Actually, that makes her doubly crazy because she hates that I think my clothing affects the outcome of games."

So I'm not the only crazy one.

CNN.com - Last of swept away dolphins rescued - Sep 21, 2005: "JACKSON, Mississippi (AP) -- Marine biologists have rescued the last four of eight trained dolphins that were swept to sea by Hurricane Katrina."

Shell, this one's for you!

"Well, unless Ralph is willing to buy me a new car, I'm going to have to stick with this one until the wheels fall off."

Ah, my car. Shortly before I left for San Diego (actually, the Friday before Labor Day to be exact) my car went from sounding like a regular car to sounding like a damn tank. Of course, I have NO CLUE about cars so I didn't know what the hell was the matter with it. I looked at the muffler (a baby's 'looked at' not a mechanic's) and didn't seem to find anything wrong with it. I didn't think much about it because I wasn't going to need to use it Labor Day weekend and then after that I'd be gone for 10 days. I'd take it to Midas once I got back home and settled.

I met Court at Midas yesterday afternoon and we dropped it off and then I took her back to work and went home. An hour went by and the guy from Midas called. There was a cracked pipe coming out of the catalytic convertor...a new CC would cost $600 he said. Then, he said, we can replace the pipe with a flex-hose and make it as good as new. He said Ford makes the cc that way so you have to replace the whole thing if even only the pipe is cracked. Mechanics have come up with a work-around of using this flex-hose that'd make it just as good as the factory would. The price of that...$150. I chose that route. :)

One thing I like about our Midas is, there've been two times when I took my car there with something *definitely* wrong with it. Once, it was dying every once in a while and I took it there and they fixed the spark plug firing or something and that problem went away forever. The second time is this last time. Both times it cost me less than $200 (the level where fixing a car stops being a screw-job and becomes a minor inconvenience, to me anyway) and both times the car ran perfectly afterwards.

I hate taking a car in for some problem only to have it run (seemingly) the same damn way it had been running and have it cost me hundreds of dollars. (see recent Boots vet visit) With this fix the noise level produced by my car decreased 800%, so it was well worth it.

My car costs us nothing and I hardly use it so it's a perfect situation. There's definitely a level where if the fix had cost a certain amount (maybe say, over $500) that I would have said 'screw it' and either gotten a new car or gone without. I'm glad that didn't happen.

boy, if I get to see a moon landing someday...


(more later, I promise)

Still alive, just busy. More later.

CNN.com - Customs officials send seized goods to victims - Sep 6, 2005

How cool is this? What a great use for stuff that's probably just taking up space somewhere.

"But when I pulled on one of those threads...I unravelled the tapestry of my life."

Ok, now a break from our regularly scheduled "horrific news from New Orleans" or "somebody died" posts.

I was thinking the other day. It's now September 2005. A little over 10 years ago, I acted on a HUGE decision in my life. It's one that shaped my (then) future and continues to do so to this day. I went to NIU.

After high school I had always figured I would go to college somewhere. I just didn't think about where. A guidance counselor mentioned that NIU was a 'good accounting school', and since I had liked my HS Accounting classes (mostly due to my teacher, Mr. Booth) I decided to go there.

I had some thoughts about joining the Navy. The silly thing is, if JAG had been as big back then as it later turned out to be, I might have joined. I've always had something of a fascination with the Navy...I figure it to be the most 'civilized' of the Armed Services anyway. I took the ASVAB in High School along with some friends. It's the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery. At the time, I remember it got me out of a study hall or something. It was full of real 'does this square peg fit in a round hole' type questions. I'm not sure if it even still exists in that form. At the time, it was basically a coin flip as to what I would do. A Navy recruiting Chief came to our house to talk to me and left some information. They were saying that with my scores they could send me to Nuclear Training School in Orlando, FL. (ironic)

I later found out they tell that to everybody. :)

I had sent my ACT scores to NIU, UofI, and Notre Dame, just for grins. I heard back from all of them and responded to NIU. After finding out how to deal with their financial aid stuff, I chose to forget the Navy and go to NIU. It was as simple as that.

That one decision, admittedly one of the most important in a young person's life, made me the person I am today. I don't know how I would have turned out had I gone into the Navy. I'd like to think I would have excelled and advanced and all that. I'd probably be in much better physical shape.

But I wouldn't have met my wife, who I love. I wouldn't know my brother and sister in law, two of my best friends in my life. I wouldn't have my dog or my cat. I probably wouldn't have my job with my good friends from work and all that has brought me, financially and otherwise.

I decided to go to NIU. I wouldn't have it any other way.

CNN.com - Armstrong: Mars trip will be easier - Sep 6, 2005: "KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- Neil Armstrong said Tuesday that a human expedition to Mars won't happen for at least 20 years, but might be easier than the trip that made him the first person to step onto the moon in 1969."

I certainly hope I am alive to see a landing on Mars. I can only imagine how amazing it would be to experience, even as an observer back on Earth.

CNN.com - Bob Denver, TV's 'Gilligan,'�dies at 70� - Sep 6, 2005: "Bob Denver, TV's 'Gilligan,' dies at 70"

I *promise* that later tonight I will have something to write about that doesn't involve somebody dying or a city being destroyed.

I promise.

Chief Justice Rehnquist Dies at Home - Yahoo! News

Boy, in so many ways, this is not good. RIP. :(

CNN.com - Lt. Gen. Honore a 'John Wayne dude' - Sep 2, 2005: "Lt. Gen. Honore a 'John Wayne dude'"

This guy sounds like an ass-kicker. Glad to see he's in charge.

Kayne West is crazy.

Seriously, I don't even know who this guy is. But his ranting is kind of funny. It's a shame he had to pick this event to be an idiot...though I'm not sure he's able to turn that off.

CNN.com - Bush: 'Results are not acceptable' - Sep 2, 2005: "'These are some of the 40,000 extra troops that I have demanded,' Blanco said. 'They have M-16s, and they're locked and loaded ... I have one message for these hoodlums: These troops know how to shoot and kill, and they are more than willing to do so if necessary, and I expect they will.'"

And these guys aren't going to be on patrol in Iraq, Kosovo, or Afghanistan. They're going to a major American city, patrolling for roving bands of ARMED assholes.

I've been able to get a hold of a video of the Anderson Cooper interview of Mary Landrieu. Here's a transcrip:



AC: "Joining me now from Baton Rouge is Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu. Senator, I appreciate you joining us tonight. Does the Federal Government bear responsibility for what is happening now? Should they apologize for what is happening now?"

ML: "Anderson there will be plenty of time to discuss all of those issues about why and how and what and if. But Anderson, as you understand, and all of the producers and directors of CNN and the news networks...this situation is very serious and it's gonna demand all of our full attention through the hours, through the night, through the days. Let me just say a few things...thank President Clinton and former President Bush for their strong statements of support and comfort today. I thank all the leaders that are coming to Louisana and Mississippi and alabama to our help and rescue. We are grateful for the military assets that are bringing brought to bear. I want to thank Senator Frist and Senator Reed for their extraordinary efforts, Anderson, tonight--I don't know if you're heard maybe you all have announced it--but Congress is going to an unprecedented session to pass a ten billion dollar supplemental bill tonight to keep FEMA and the Re--"

AC: "Excuse me, Senator..."

ML: "Red cross up and operating."

AC: "Excuse me, Senator, I'm sorry for interrupting. I-I haven't heard that, because, uh, for the last four days I've been seeing dead bodies here in the streets of Mississippi. I--and--to listen to politicians thanking each other and complimenting each other, uh, y-ya know there are a lot of people here that are very upset and very angry and very frustrated, and when they hear policitians slap, you know, thanking one another, uh, it just, you know, it kinda cuts them the wrong way right now. Because literally, uh, there was a body on the streets of-of-of this town, yestrday, uh, being eaten by rats, uh, because this woman had laying on the street for-for forty-eight hours and--and there's not enough facilities to take her up. Do you--Do you get the anger that is out here?"

ML: "Anderson, I have the anger inside of me. Most of the homes in my family have been destroyed. Our homes have been destroyed. I undestand what you're saying and I know all of those details, and the President of the United--"

AC: "Well who are you angry at?"

ML:"--States knows those details. I'm not angry at anyone. I'm just expressing that it is so important for everyone in this nation to pull together, for all military assets, and all assets to be brought to bear to this situation. And I have every confidence--"

AC: (indistinct, to me at least)

ML: "that this country is as great and as strong as we can be to do that, and that effort is under way."

AC: "Well, well, I mean there are a lot of here who are--are kind of ashamed, uh, of what is happening in this country right now. Ashamed of what is happening in your state, certainly, and that's not to blame the people who are there, it's a desperate situation, um, but it--I--I guess, you know, th---who---who can, I mean do--no one seems to be taking responsibility. I mean, I know you say there's a time and a place for kind of, you know, looking back, but, this seems to be the time and the place...I mean there are people who want answers and there are people who want someone to stand up and say 'You know what? We shoulda done more.' Are-Are all the assets being brought to bear? I mean...today for the first time--"

ML: "Anderson..."

AC: "I'm seeing National Guard--"

ML: "Anderson..."

AC: "troops--"

ML: "I know."

AC: "in this town."

ML: "Anderson, I know, and I know where you are and I know what you're seeing. Believe me, we know it, and we understand, and there will be a time to talk about all of that, trust me. I know what the people are suffering. The Governor knows, the President knows, the military officials know, and they're trying to do the very best they can do to stabilize the situation. Senator Vitter, our congressional delegation, all of us understand what is happening. We are doing our very, very best to get the situation under control, but I want to thank the President. He will be here, uh, tomorrow we think. And the military is sending assets as we speak. So, please, I understand, I--I--I understanad. You might say I'm a politician, but I grew up in New Orleans, my father was the mayor of that city, I've represented that city my whole life, and it's just not New Orleans. It's St. Bernard, and St. Tammany, and Plackman Parrish that have been completely under water. Our levee system has failed. We need a lot of help...and the Congress has been wonderful to hlep us and we need more help. Nobody's pefect, Anderson, everybody has to stand up here, and I know you understand, so thank you so much for everythign you're doing."

AC: "Well, I--I--I appreciate you joining us on the program tonight I--I can only imagine how busy you are. Thank you much--very much Senator uh..."

ML: "Thank you, Anderson."

AC: "Senator Landrieu."

ML: "Thank you so much, thank you."

AC: "And--and--and good luck to you and all the people working to solve this problem, cuz at this point it is very hard to try to figure out how this problem is gonna get solved."

Chaotic scene at convention center - MSNBC TV Live - MSNBC.com

Boy, this video is just...horrifying.

CNN.com - New Orleans mayor issues 'desperate SOS' - Sep 1, 2005

Amazing. Was just watching 'Anderson Cooper 360'. He was interviewing Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu. Basically, it went like this.

Senator: "I just want to thank Senators (blaa blaa blaa) for all their support, and former Presidents Clinton and Bush for (support), and also Congress for having a special emergency session for (funds)".

Anderson Cooper: "Do you understand how angry it's making people here that the response from you they're hearing now is thank-yous and pats on the back to fellow politicians?"

Senator: "Oh yeah, I'm angry too...(blaa blaa blaa)."

What a joke.

American Red Cross

Work is matching donations, which is nice. I've also heard there will be a benefit of some sort on TV tomorrow.

My first thought when I got into this was that I would be glad when it was over.

Well, it is over. And I am glad.

My feet are KILLING me. It's around half-past seven local time, and my plane leaves in 3 hours. In about an hour I'll take a cab to the airport. It's less than a ten minute ride. I'll then fly to Atlanta, getting in at (too lazy to check) and then leave at (too lazy to check) for Orlando where I'll land at 8:15am Eastern. I'm sure I won't sleep on the plane. I just hope if I do happen to fall asleep nobody is snoring loudly and no kids are screaming and crying.

Today's session went well. Mark called me this morning. I thought he'd was calling for breakfast but he was at the airport. He was catching an earlier flight home because his son is sick. I putzed around a little, did a tour of the USS Midway, ate lunch at a local mall, and then headed back to the hotel to clean up and get dressed.

The show was ok today. Less people than yesterday, I think. Around 5pm people seemed to get more interested in drinking and eating than in anything we had to say, which was fine. Made some good contacts and met some nice Motorolans. We have some opportunities for follow-up, which is what this was all about I guess. I spoke to a bunch of people and didn't drop the ball or anything, so I'm happy about that.

Signing off now to lay around and moan and groan about my feet.

stay classy

ESPN.com - NFL - Favre's boyhood home a total loss, family safe

Of course, I am thankful his family is safe. But did Sportscenter really have to report this story and make a big deal over it? I'm sorry, but today I saw a story with a family from Gulfport. Their home was destroyed, as many were. The casino where the mom works was destroyed, the dock where the dad works was in shambles. They have nowhere to live and no jobs. Somehow I doubt they have a gajillionaire son to buy they a new house wherever the damn well they please.

Actually, one of the family's sons worked at something of a 'Sea World' type place. He said some of the seals and otters had been killed, and one seal was shot and killed when it got into somebody's backyard and was apparently unruly.

Hyatt | San Diego hotels | Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego hotel

The hotel I'm at.

Anyways. Tonight, work hosted an event onboard the USS Midway. I'd say a great time was had by all. Of course, with free food and booze for this crowd that alone was probably enough. There was a band there that played some Outcast and Black Eyed Peas along with Van Halen and Journey, so that was nice. Food was pretty good. This is the type of thing I haven't seen Moto do in YEARS. Everybody seemed impressed and all so far as I could see.

We manned the booth today, along with a half dozen other people. It went well. Better than I thought it would anyway. One mistake I did make...wearing the wrong damn shoes. My feet are killing...KILLING...me now. I have a HUGE damn blister on my left heel which hurts like hell. Tomorrow is NOT going to be fun. If only my Born shoes were black, damn it. One of the first things I
ll do upon returning is buy a nice pair of comfortable black shoes. The ones I have now are cheap dress shoes...they go with my "somebody died" black suit. They hurt like hell and were uncomfortable about an hour into the dealio today. Unfortunately, I had to stand for about 4 hours after that. For the event tonight I changed into khakis and my brown shoes, so that helped. But my feet still hurt like hell.

Mark leaves tomorrow morning, so I'm flying solo for tomorrow's session. Wish me luck.

Two things to remember to post about tomorrow...

• Rumsfeld (yes, him) at the Padres game)


• Idiot, IDIOT, I-D-I-O-T weatherman getting blown around in the hurricane

Fightertown, U.S.A (well, close to where it used to be anyway)

coming to the end of day one in San Diego. The clock here says 10:01pm but to me it's 1:00am since I'm still on Eastern time today. I got up at 6:00am got ready and stuff, and Court, Hooper, and I went to the airport. We said our goodbyes and eventually I boarded the plane at ~8:15am. The flight to Denver took over 3 hours. During the flight the pilot told us to look out the left side of the plane (where I was) and we could see the hurricane waaaay off in the distance. When I got off the plane I was ready to eat since it was like 12:30pm (eastern) and I hadn't really eaten anything. I went to MD to get a burger or something but they were still serving breakfast. It was only 10:30am in Denver, damn it. I waited a half hour and got a #2.

The Denver plane boarded at noon (pacific) and we landed in San Diego around 2:30pm (pacific).

One of the things I thought would suck about getting here was that due to the VERY short notice I was only able to pick center seats through the online booking tool. Luckily, I was able to talk to the gate people and get a window seat going to Denver and an aisle coming here to SD. We'll see how the return flights go.

On the way here to Denver I sat with a woman who was afraid to fly and a 22-year-old girl from Holland who seemed to make friends with everyone she talked to. Her and the woman talked the whole way there. They apologized for bothering my reading and I told them it was no big deal. We talked for a little while. I was amazed that this young Dutch girl had gone to so many places....she'd been to Berlin and to a bunch of other places. I guess when you live in Europe going to another country is like going to Wisconsin.

Anyways, I landed here and Mark called me. We got in around the same time so we eventually found each other (well, he found me) and took a cab to the hotel. During the cab ride we passed the USS Midway (which we are having a reception at tomorrow night) which is now a museum ship with tours and flight simulators and stuff. There are some planes up on the deck...an F-14 and a few others I recognized. The real prize was across the bay though...CVN-76, the USS Ronald Reagan. Amazing. Even from far away it looks like it can kick ass. Very cool to see. I can't wait to get a better look tomorrow.

After we worked at making sure our booth presentation would work we had a meeting with the other Motorola people going over how things would go over the next few days. After that Mark and I went to dinner to a place called Anthony's which has very good seafood. I guess Uncle Bruce and Aunt Angie and Grandma came here when they were in for Matt's wedding. Mark likes to seafood but his wife doesn't so he never gets to have it. I had a chicken pasta which was good and it came with broccoli which I didn't eat but I know Court would have loved. The girl asked us about dessert and when she mentioned spumoni I couldn't so no. (shout to the Pag's days in DeKalb) I figured it would be a scoop but it was 3. Needless to say, I didn't finish it.

During dinner Mark and I talked about work stuff. Pretty boring if you don't know the details and people involved so I won't get into it. He did say that there's a lot of traction with our services and stuff with customers so that's good. Some other good things were said during our meeting today so it all sounded positive.

After dinner we walked back to the hotel. Mark's feet were killing him so he went back to his room. Me, on the other hand...

When I found out I had to come here I checked the Padres schedule. They were in town. They were even playing at times(7pm today, 7pm tomorrow, 12pm Wednesday) where I could see a game. When I got here I did a mapquest dealio to see how far I was from the park. .9 miles. I looked out the window, figuring I should be able to see it from the directions. I can. During the day it was a little harder to make out in the jumble of downtown, but it's plainly visible if you know where to look. Tonight, right now, with the lights still on, it's obvious. Anyways, I walked to the park, figuring I would get the best seat I could for around $20. I got there in the 4th inning and the guy told me he could get me a seat behind home plate for $40. I bought the ticket, and eventually sat down in the best baseball seat I've ever had, ever. Section 102 (right behind home plate, probably 6 inches to the third base side), Row 20 (20 seats back from the foul net), Seat 6. Amazing. Everything just *sounded* closer. It was VERY cool.

The whole point to visiting PetCo Park was to get a mini-bat, which I've begun collecting. I've got ones from PacBell Park, Bank One Ballpark, SkyDome, Dolphins Stadium, Tropicana Field, and now PetCo Park. I'd like to eventually visit each big league park so I can get them all. Obviously, I've been to Wrigley and Comiskey but didn't get bats. I'll fix that next year...or maybe if I get the chance when I get up to IL in 2 weeks. I left the game in the bottom of the 8th to beat foot traffic because I thought I might take a cab back. I ended up walking anyway and went right by the San Diego Convention center. Did I mention that VoiceCon is a Freeman show? heh

I noticed by the scores that the Cubs lost, White Sox lost, and bad for the White Sox since Cleveland and Minnesota both won. They better watch it.

Well, tomorrow is 'man the booth' day from 2pm-7pm, then the reception at 7:30pm. I asked Mark about meeting him tomorrow morning and he said 'sleep in, don't worry about it'. Of course to a guy that gets up at 5:30am sleeping in probably means 8am. That's fine by me. :)

ChicagoSports.com - Woe ... whoa, backup!: "That same crowd spent most of the first half lustily booing Hutchinson, who finished with a passer rating of 0.0 after going 3-for-14 for 33 yards, two interceptions and three sacks."

yikes!

CNN.com - Bush: We will complete the mission - Aug 24, 2005

(this is the story I speak about below)

I saw something on CNN today that made me think. Cindy Sheehan (sp?) was returning to Crawford to resume her protest. I guess there are also people there that are supporting the President too. Anyway, during some meet-and-greet somewhere the White House produced the mother of a family where the husband and one son just returned from Iraq and the other two kids are still over there. They're in support of the President and our mission (whatever that is, natch) in Iraq. The mother did say that Cindy Sheehan is mourning in her own way, and it's not particularly the way she would mourn, so I thought that was nice. Anyway. I'll say two things.

- Trotting out (and this was a trot-out, no doubt) this family to put them as an argument answring the Sheehan people seems pretty silly. Also, I'd say that if (G*d forbid) somebody in this woman's family is killed her support for the President might fall, especially if she starts thinking a lot about why we're over there and what prompted this.

- Secondly, I heard the President say that if we leave now 'the terrorists' will have thought they beat us. I don't have the exact quote, but he basically said the old "If we run away with our tail tucked" dealio. I'm just wondering...what do 'the terrorists' have to do with why we're in Iraq?

The President continuously uses a lot of terms that dance around the fact that he believes people who are against the Iraq war are not patriotic. That makes me want to puke.

This day has bounced back and forth. I got a last-minute trip dropped on me for this weekend. Me and the boss will be heading to San Diego on Sunday and staying until Tuesday or so.

This means that I'll be traveling Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, then coming back home and then leaving for Canada the next Sunday--->Friday then Canada straight to IL for a week.

Not a happy thing.

A really nice thing though. Court made a special trip on her lunch to buy me a new hat. Also, she bought me a Red Sox hat (for the playoffs, baby) as well. So that was a nice capper to a kinda crappy day.

A Purrfect Storm: "We didn't even get any oil out of the deal. Remember how much of the war's cost was going to be repaid by a generous new Athenian-style government from its bountiful oil revenues?"

I've been wondering this myself. Where's all our oil, dagnabbit???

CNN.com - Northwest mechanics go on strike - Aug 20, 2005

I've heard it said that these guys would rather see the company go backrupt than have wage and benefits cut.

Union boneheads.

ChicagoSports.com - Still searching for signs of a miracle: "Still searching for signs of a miracle
Cubs lose 3rd in row on Jones' blast in 9th"

Shell was at the Cub game last night. The Cubs have driven me nuts since the all-star break. I'm not happy that they lost, but at least Shell got to see her favorite player (Chipper) single-handedly win the game for the Braves.

That's me all over.

CNN.com - Tiger kills teen during photo pose - Aug 19, 2005

Tiger killed for being a tiger, basically.

Who wouldn't want to pose for their senior picture with a siberian tiger? (sarcasm)

I feel bad that after 4-5 good days (including a visit from Aimee and Chris and our 2nd anniversary) I'm writing right now in a pretty crappy mood.

Last night I went out to ship some things I had sold on ebay. On the way back I heard a weird brushing-type sound from my left front tire. I just wanted to get home so I could take a look at it since it was 10pm and there wasn't really anywhere to stop. Of course, once I was SURE my tire was going flat I was just about to go up a hill about 10 minutes from home. I drove and drove, hearing worse noises from my tire as I went on. At the point where I was driving on the rim I was able to turn right at a stoplight onto a side-street.

Yeap, it was on the rim. And worse, the tire was totally shredded. I don't know how it happened...I didn't notice anything jarring until I heard the brushing noise. Of course, there's nothing like Florida idiots blowing by you as you're changing a tire on a hot, humid, weekday night. Some idiot didn't even get into the other lane all the way while passing me...not that there was ANY other traffic around for him to avoid. Idiot.

So I get back home, my knees killing me from having to kneel in the street, I took a shower and got ready to go to bed. I went out to get a pillow that was on the chair and banged my left knee on our coffee table giving myself a nice bleeding gash that still hurts right now. Good times.

We're going to the Yankees/Devil Rays game tonight. The Cubs won last night so they are 1-1 in the MHBOOTT* era. I got a nice Cubs jersey from Court for our anniversary and she liked the thing I got her so that's good.





* - My Hat Blew Off On Test Track

No clear finish line in Iraq - washingtonpost.com Highlights - MSNBC.com: "No clear finish line in Iraq
Timing is muddy for U.S. withdrawal"

Wow, so glad our men and women are over there. What's the criteria for finally leaving? "Uh...i dunno."

Wonderful.

ChicagoSports.com - Absolutely no relief in sight

The Cubs have totally imploded.

CNN.com - Jury convicts video game defense killer - Aug 10, 2005: "While the judge barred jurors from hearing testimony linking the 2003 shootings to the game, defense lawyer Jim Standridge reminded them that Moore, after his arrest, told police 'Life is a video game; everybody has to die sometime.'"

What a joke. This dope goes nutso and tries to play the 'videogames made me do it' card.

Is it any surprise that the idiot woman who almost ran right into me as she was cutting me off yesterday with her huge SUV had a 'Bush/Cheney' bumpersticker?

CNN.com - 'Discovery is home' - Aug 9, 2005

Woo hoo!

In about 4 hours the crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery will be landing back here on Earth.

May God Bless them and keep them safe.

"Gentlemen, what are your intentions? I'd like to go home."

I had expected to be awakened by Discovery's sonic booms as it returns home to Earth. Court said it was enough to wake up someone sleeping and also disturb Boots enough to freak him out. I went to bed around 3am so I figured that after only being asleep for an hour or so I'd most likely be awakened. I was not.

When I woke up in the morning, I was a little freaked out. I was afraid something had happened to the shuttle. I turned on CNN right away and learned that Discovery will try to land tomorrow. Whew!

CNN.com - Peter Jennings dies of lung cancer - Aug 8, 2005

I didn't even know he had cancer.

RIP

tomluv: Who's your favorite faux Christian ex-rock star?

This guy looked like a total idiot on Celebrity Poker Showdown, that's all I know.

The future's so bright...

I tend to put off things that I know I will enjoy. Kind of a 'saving it up for later' type deal. For instance, I've never seen the Godfather part anything. I know I'll probably like it when I sit down and watch it, but I just haven't gotten to it yet. Also, I know getting my wisdom teeth out will probably get rid of the (pretty much) constant headaches I've had for the past few years. The reality is I'm just too lazy to do anything about it and I'm saying I'm 'saving that for later', but I digress.

I watched the movie Super Troopers the other day on Comedy Central. I was looking through the Tivo listings (probaly for Superman or super-something) and I saw Super Troopers on there and I set it to record. Normally when I do this I end up deleting the thing anyway because I don't think I have 'time' to watch it. With this, I made the time and I'm glad I did.

The movie (done by the same people who did Club Dread, which I liked) isn't one of those 'stupid funny' movies. One of the funniest bits is one trooper betting another one on how many times he can say 'meow' to a guy he pulled over. It was Comedy Central so they cut out the swearing (dubbed with other words, and maybe 4 times through the whole movie) and some nudity...it suffered a little for that because there's a part where Rabbit (rookie trooper) gets in trouble for something that really didn't show at all so it kind of came out of nowhere.

Anyways, I bring this up because The Dukes of Hazzard, which opens tonight was directed by the same guy and has the people from the Broken Lizard comedy team in it. I think that Thorn (the director) and his partner might even be in it as 'themselves'. As if having Jessica Simpson AND the General Lee in the same movie wasn't reason enough to go see it...

CNN.com - Police: Handcuffing girl not a violation - Aug 4, 2005: "The girl's mother, Inga Akins, sold her story exclusively to a tabloid TV show, and her attorneys have notified the city that she plans to sue. "

There are enough idiots in this story that I'm not even going to single them all out. Nice to see the 'parent' will get to cash in...what is this world coming to?

I weep for the present.

"The point is ladies and gentlemen that greed, for lack of a better word, is good."

I went through my closet and collected up some stuff to sell on ebay. Basically some toys that I had seconds and thirds of and hadn't taken out of the packages. Of three things I've put up two have sold. They've gone for a little over what I paid for them. It's not about the money, though that's nice, of course, it's mostly about cleaning up my closet and getting rid of some stuff.

Once I sell this last thing I'm going to put some more stuff up.

Oh, and Shell, good luck with your ROOT CANAL! :)

"Gordie wrote a story!"

Happy birthday to TV's Wil Wheaton who's 33 years old today.

"Nobody ever goes in...and nobody ever comes out."

We went and saw "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" last night. I enjoyed it. I've always been a fan of the "Will Wonka" film with Gene Wilder and I went into this latest with the expectations from that one.

The story from this movie follows that of the book. As such, there are certain things different in this one than the old movie. In this one, Veruca meets her 'fate' like she does in the book. Also, Violet brings her mother instead of her father, and Mike brings his father instead of his mother. Other than that, it was mostly the same. There were some things added in about Wonka's childhood that seemed added in to make the movie a bit longer.

The production design was amazing...though I think the 'chocolate room' in the earlier film was a little neater than the one in this one. The 'inventing room' in this newer film was a lot more detailed and interesting than the one in the earlier version I thought.

The songs were different in this one too. The ones from the early movie are classics, of course, but the ones in this film were pretty good too. It was hard to hear some of the lyrics due to the music, unfortunately, but from what I heard they were pretty funny and catchy.

I thought Johnny Depp did a good job as Wonka. His voice and mannerisms were pretty distinct. A few times he did or said some things that made me laugh out loud and that's always nice.

All in all, a good movie. A movie worthy of the earlier work.

Know when to walk away and know when to run.

Yakface.com | Star Wars Action Figure News!: "Yak Reader Tony Wan Kenobi sent in this report from Tulare,Ca:
Hi my loving wife again scored for me at our local wal-mart and target. First at walmart yesterday she scored 47-50. She decided to go back today and she found 51-55."

The insanity above--getting your wife to go hunt Star Wars toys for you--kind of illustrates why I'm getting out of the Star Wars toys business.

When I visited over the 4th I heard my second cousin's son (young kid) talking about a Star Wars figure he wanted. The thing was, I had two. Now, I'm 27 years old. I had two of a figure a little boy wanted. Of course, right off I knew I would send him one that I had. But the thing that got to me was the fact that they'd been hunting all over for this figure and couldn't find it.

Now, obviously I didn't buy ones they would have eventually found (especially since I bought them in Florida) but still, it made me think.

I'm not going to be into the business of buying some toys some kid might enjoy more. I'm not going to 'work' to hunt these things down anymore. If I see something I think is particularly cool, I'll get it. But I'm not going to be so focused on it anymore.

Fly me to the moon...

CNN.com - Eager fans cheer Discovery liftoff - Jul 26, 2005

I wanted to do this for the last launch attempt which was cancelled. This morning, on the spur of the moment I decided to drive out towards Titusville (route to KSC) to see if I could get a better view of the launch. I stopped when threre was a break in the surrounding trees where I thought I could get a nice view.

There was already a car stopped there, and shortly thereafter a bunch of people stopped too. I offered to take a picture of a group that was waiting in lawn chairs when one of their group was taking a picture of the other two. Behind me a Florida Highways truck stopped and the guy got out and walked up to my car. He asked if everything was ok and when I told him I was stopping to see the launch he said that's cool because he was too. After a shortly while I'd guess a couple dozen cars stopped along the same section of the highway.

It was an amazing thing to see. I'm glad I decided to head out there.

"You're gonna need a bigger boat."

Over the weekend I played some City of Heroes. While flying around Talos Island somebody announced they were taking on Lusca. It was a great battle. You have to take it down a tentacle at a time and it takes a long while. There were probably around 20 heroes fighting it at once. I wish I'd taken a screen cap...it was real 'justice league' type stuff.

"Remember, at 4:00 you have to shove a pineapple up Hitler's ass."

CNN.com - Atta's father praises London bombs - Jul 20, 2005

Somebody give this guy the 5:00 appointment.

Don't sell the sizzle sell the steak.

Omaha steaks has called again. See, the trick is to just say 'our freezer is full'. That gets them off the phone pretty fast. Sometimes you'll get a sly whip who'll say 'well, we can just delay shipment' but most of the time they say they'll call back later.

"Do you know where 1640 Riverside Drive is?"

Luckily, directions were not needed this time. Today's journey back to the comic store store I'd already went to was uneventful. Second time around is easier I suppose. I went there hunting the old Marvel GI JOE comics. I've recently gotten back into them thanks to a find in the Superman store in Metropolis, Illinois believe it or not. Anyway. I've decided to try to get the complete collection. I'm not entirely sure just how many I have in storage at my Mom's--but I do know what the covers look like for the ones I already have.

Military Jokes Military Humor

This had me busting up. :)

CNN.com: "Police say evidence left at the scenes has given them what may be a 'significant breakthrough' in the case."

Boy, what a world. Let's hope these bastages get caught.

CNN.com - James Doohan, 'Star Trek's' Scotty, dead - Jul 20, 2005

RIP :(

Google Moon - Lunar Landing Sites

36 years ago today. Fantastic achievement!

SI.com - NFL - NFL agent Rosenhaus performs CPR, saves boy - Tuesday July 19, 2005 8:21PM

Luckily Drew was able to use his dark powers to resurrect the boy.

I wonder what hotel it was...

Hitting to all fields...

• yesterday I slept until 2pm after going to bed at 2am. I guess that's called 'paying your sleep debt'.


• Stargate, Atlantis, and Battlestar were all great. The new guy on Stargate will add a little comic relief, which is good.


• We had dinner at the San Angel Inn at Epcot on Saturday. I noticed that while most people write Gonzalez with an 's' at the end (not how my last name is spelled) Mexicans almost always write it with a 'z'. I wonder if that know something I don't.


• On that front, I noticed something else. I had always thought that I was the last male Gonzalez from our family. Turns out, there must be others. I get emails from my Great Aunt every so often and there are other male Gonzalez's in the To: fields. It's a little bit of a weight off my back I guess--though it was probably the height of hubris to assume I was the last.


• I had a dream last night that I won $20,000 from some casino coin machine. woo hoo!


• Roofing company guy is up on the roof looking for problems. Since they re-did the roofs in our complex after the hurricanes people (including us) have had problems with leaks. He's pounding away up there...I'm waiting for him to come down and say nothing is wrong with it. My response will be, of course..."What the hell were you pounding for then?"

More later.

CNN.com - Harry Potter frenzy begins - Jul 15, 2005

Just got back from Borders where they're having a big celebration tonight. After Court went to bed I decided to surprise her by going and picking up the book. There were more people there than I thought. Luckily, I got a good number and only had to wait around 45 minutes. There were a lot of people there in costume and stuff--even the employees. A few teens customers were looking and acting like they were too cool to be there. My question would be: Why are you there then?

Hitting to all fields...

• For today's comic book store adventure, the first place I went to turned out to be somebody's damn house. Switchboard.com shows it as a "Comic books and Collectibles" business...must be somebody web-based business. jeez. At least the second place I went to existed--even though the web directions were for shit. Took me forever to get there because they had me go a stupid way...and the cherry on top was that I took a wrong turn anyways. Getting there: 40 minutes. Getting home: 10 minutes. Figure that out. Anyways, I was in such a bad mood I bought stuff there I didn't really need and could have gotten cheaper on amazon. oh well. Seemed like a nice enough place.


• Trip to Canada for work, which was supposed to be in two weeks, has been moved to 'no clue' status. That's always nice.


• Did my second taskforce (in as many days) for City of Heroes last night. I was up until 2:30am I think. Damn things take 4+ hours because they're like 15 missions in a row. Luckily, nobody dropped off. Actually, I dropped off once or twice because bellsouth was having a maintenance period starting at 1am this morning. Luckily enough I was able to connect back on with no probs. Even got a shiny new badge too.
  


• Heard tell it's a possibility Mark Cuban might buy the Cubs. (I'm not gonna say anything and jinx it)
  


• Serenity comic book was very good...it's too bad the show got cancelled. Yes, I got all three covers. :)

Oh yeah...and new Stargate, Atlantis, and Battlestar tonight!

CNN.com - Rehnquist silences retirement speculation - Jul 14, 2005

3 more years! 3 more years!


We can but hope.

Ok, so I headed out after work today to try to find a comic book store. I had gotten directions to one from the internet and I mailed them to my phone. Unfortunately, I left off the mileages so once I hit the last place I had no clue how far down it was or whatever. Consequently, I came home without going to a comic book store since I could not find it.

Tune in tomorrow when I try to find it *again* during lunch.

gah...

I'm working on something for work and it's not working. (let me throw work in there a few more times)

Anyways, what I've got is fine for what I need...but I'm trying to be slick and make it a little nicer and it's just not happening.

Should I throw in the towel and call it? Or should I keep plugging away?

Decisions, decisions...

GateWorld | Your Complete Guide to Stargate!

Both Court and I are really looking forward to tomorrow's season premieres of SG-1 and Atlantis. After the demise of Enterprise :( it's nice to be able to look forward to some good scifi TV. Also, Monk has started back up so we're watching and enjoying that too.

This season Stargate is moving away from Egyptian mythology and moving more towards Arthurian/Medieval type stuff. Looks very interesting. They've also added a new team member...Ben Browder who used to be on Farscape. I've never watched Farscape but I know some people who have and they've enjoyed him.

Anyways, we're going to order up some $5 Little Cesar's and have a good time.

(I'm also looking forward to Battlestar, but Court doesn't watch that...yet!)

I've gotten my cat addicted to dog treats.

It could be worse. He could be addicted to starbursts.

The Superficial - Rob Thomas is offended: "'If I were gay,' says Rob, 'Tom wouldn't be on the top of my list. It would be Brad Pitt. I'm more offended by the rumours saying I'm Scientologist.'"

I've only heard about 3-4 things Rob Thomas has ever said...but they've all been funny as hell.

Ok.

Please keep in mind, anonymous posters, that nothing makes me happier in life than the false sense of power I get when I delete comments from people who're being nasty or making racist comments.

Yes, Michelle called people losers...directed to the person (or persons) that has made multiple racist comments on my posts.

If anybody wants to slam on somebody, slam on me. I don't care, really. Particularly when it's either from somebody I don't know or somebody I do know that's not identifying himself (or herself...) for some reason or another.

Everybody is free to come here and comment. I try to make the posts interesting but mostly they're random thoughts I have and stuff I want to talk about.

Let's direct the comments to the posts (or at me, personally) and not to other posters.

Channel 2 sees future in expanding Web site: "*'This Old Cub,' the 2004 documentary about Cubs third-baseman and broadcaster Ron Santo, will air for the first time at 7 p.m. Saturday on WGN-Channel 9. The film, narrated by actor Joe Mantegna, was written, produced and directed by Santo's son, Jeff."

Give it a look if you have the time.

From Sunday night to Thursday night I get about 4-5 hours of sleep a night. Now, this is no one's fault but my own. Ever since I was in college (actually, before that) I just haven't been able to go to bed before 1am or so. Sometimes I start reading around 1am and stay that way for hours. Sometimes I eventually drift off in my chair with my glasses on and my book in my lap. I usually make up for the sleep-loss by sleeping in big time on the weekends, but sometimes I have to get up early for one reason or another.

On Sunday we got up around 9am for the Cubs/Marlins game...and I didn't exactly get to bed early the night before. During the weeks where I don't catch up on my sleep during the weekend there's usually one night a week where I have to go to bed early--like before 11pm--or I'll start hallucinating or something. As I fell asleep watching the beginning of the All-Star game, it seems tonight will be that night.

Press Briefing by Scott McClellan

Wow. Way to go press corps!

ESPN.com - ETICKET - Searching for Bartman

I'll let it speak for itself.

Needless to say we are back in FL. The drive home was abyssmal. Lots of traffic and two accident--one pretty serious--slowed us down two hours from our trip up. Keep in mind please, a drive from FL to IL (and back) gets old after about 45 minutes.

Court started driving in both cases and then got tired so I took over and drove most of the way on both trips. Hooper was tired as hell on the way back and slept on the passenger's lap the entire time. We probably should have done it that way on the drive up as well.

We got in at 3:30am Saturday morning and both slept until around noon. We saw 'Fantastic Four' that afternoon after unpacking. More on that later.

We went to the Cub game (more damn driving) on Saturday and saw the Cubs beat the Marlins 9-2. Why the Cubs couldn't have won the last damn game I saw them play before this in Florida I don't know.

I did get a mini-bat, putting my collection of mini-bats at 4. I've bought mini-bats at Pac-Bell (Giants), Bank One Ballpark (Diamondbacks), SkyDome (Blue Jays), and now Pro Player Stadium (Marlins). I'm going to make it a mini-goal to collect bats from different baseball stadiums I visit. On the horizon is a trip to Tropicana Field to see the Devil Rays...and possibly a day in/game/out flight to Atlanta in August or September.

Everybody's got to have a hobby.

I've just decided the next TV we get will be a DLP projector and screen.

There. I've said it.

I just gave Boots a pupperonni. Hopefully they're not made from ground up cats or anything.

Britain launches search for bombers.

Britain is our greatest ally, and an attack on them might as well be an attack on us.

In a way, yesterday and today have been what Warren Harding might call 'a return to normalcy' for me. I went into the office for work. I have to say, it's very nice to be back in the 'real world' career-wise. I have always missed my friends, but something about the simple task of driving into work, getting settled, and getting to work really made me feel 'normal' for the first time in a long time.

Though I've recently been assured to the contrary by the boss, I sometimes feel like less of a 'worker' when I work from home, or that I'm really just getting away with something, I guess. I don't know. I'm happy they're happy with my work, of course. Of course I'm happy that I wasn't told that I couldn't work from home under the last regime change as well. It has just always felt a little weird. I sometimes think that other people think I have a pretty easy job because I work at home...not that I particularly care what anybody thinks.

In any case, I am excited about what the future holds in terms of returning to IL. These last few days have been nice. We've had a good time visiting with everyone and seeing Tom off to start his journey towards serving our country overseas. Best of luck to him and God bless him for it.

In terms of things here--though I've seen that some things will not be exactly how they were before I left I am still excited. Maybe some things will go back to the way they were before. Maybe the things that don't aren't meant to anyway. Such is life. That's why they play the games, right? To see what happens.

CNN.com - Storm Cindy�tiring as Dennis rallies in Caribbean - Jul 6, 2005: "The models disagree, however on where it finally will make landfall -- anywhere from New Orleans to Tampa, Florida."

Ah, Florida. I can't leave you soon enough.

CNN.com - Bush tightlipped about high court candidates - Jul 5, 2005: "But he has said he won't have a 'litmus test' for judges on that or other issues."

Boy, I miss the days when the only time I saw 'litmus test' was when I had to find whether something was acid or base.

Visited with family today and had a very nice time.

In the 'I feel old now' department, I wore my 'Classicly Trained' shirt with the original Nintendo controller on it...only to have my second cousin's young son ask me..."Is that a radio?".

Oh course, he's got a PS2. But oh man.

With this I happened I noticed just how few of the Justices that were on the court when I originally learned the make-up (for school) are still there. Some have retired (Day O'connor, now) or died (William Brennan, Warren Burger, Thurgood Marshall) but some are still around, like William Rehnquist and Antonin Scalia (who replaced Burger).

Of course, this is a big political matter, as she will be replaced by President Bush. Also, I have to believe Rehnquist himself (80 years old) will be retiring soon. These are big political matters because the court can make pretty big decisions regarding our country. President Bush will have the opportunity to greatly effect the future of this naiton, for good or ill.

(of course, his pick will have to be confirmed in any case)

I have to laugh when people think not talking to you is some kind of punishment. :D

You've gotta give value to get value: "Bidder pill for Congress"

Shorter version of the below story...and no reg required.

Taking Aim At Soros Is Hardly Politic: "'They could use some friends on the Hill right now, and this is not the way to make them,' Davis said yesterday."

Long story short, a Republic Congressman from Virginia is against the Nationals being sold to somebody who's been critical of President Bush. Read the article to see the BS reasons why.

Hitting to all fields...

• We got a new car...

I think we got a good deal on it but who knows. We did pay what Edmunds says you should pay for what we got, so it's all good. Bargaining was kind fun, too. We got a good amount for the Cougar, which was nice.

• Boots went to the vet this past week. At first we thought there might be something seriously wrong with him. A second visit (and an EKG) later and it ended up he's fine.


• We load up the new car Thursday early morning to drive up to IL. (ugh to the drive)


• Cubs took two out of three from the White Sox at the Cell, thankfully

More later.

Thanks to some quick thinking, the Starburst situation has been remedied...for a time.



One box will of course be frozen in carbonite for posterity.

So far today I've had two calls from Omaha Steaks (a constant around here) and one from a car dealer we visited this week.

I really need callerID on the phone up here.

Warp Speed ahead...

Release the hounds!

For the last two days my Tivo'd PTI has been a half hour of the College World Series and then Sportscenter.

What the hell?

CNN.com - Police: Lions free kidnapped girl - Jun 21, 2005

At first glance I thought this would be the *Detroit* Lions.

Chicago Tribune news : Local news: "'But if we can save one person from going through the suffering that Michelle and Maddi had to endure, maybe we make an effort,' he said."

Are you KIDDING me? Hell, let's just ban open flames all together! Because if you can save one person from getting burned...

Disturbing news from Michelle yesterday. Seems that they've changed my favorite candy, California Starbursts. Now they're 'Baja California' with some junky kinds of different flavors. Now, I may like this new kind, maybe even better than the California kind, but I'll never know, because I'll NEVER try them because I'm protesting Starbursts.

Court even went to Sam's (at my request) today to pick up a few cartons of the California Starbursts. She reports that they only have the Baja kind.

This is not good.

Had a very nice Father's Day yesterday. Court made me a great breakfast of french toast, bacon, and toast, and I had some of the Canadian maple syrup that I brought back. It was all fantastic.

We then headed to the Hyundai dealer to test drive the Santa Fe. We were both very impressed--even more so with the salesman who was not pushy at all. (maybe he just thinks we're not buying...)

We then headed to Epcot for dinner at Le Cellier in Canada. To kill some time (and cool off and relax since it was hotter than hell) we went on Spaceship Earth and Journey into Imagination. Right outside Journey into Imagination (figment ride) there were a bunch of Disney characters out for photo ops and autographs. Now, don't get me wrong, it's nice that they do that, but somebody explain this to me? How in the world do these characters go together?

• The cat that wears rags from Pinocchio--I think he meets up with him on Pleasure Island


• Some creature that looked like the above but was a different color and shorter


• Pluto


• Robin Hood


• Timon

Timon was the kicker. How the hell do they pick out characters to appear together? Just pull them out of a hat or something? Why not 4 Aladdin characters? Make them all be from the same movie not just some mix that makes NO sense. Disney does this all the time.

Dinner was superb, as always. We had maple creme brule and rasberry sorbet for desert. woo hoo!

I'm just tired. There's no other way to say it.

Bleed Cubbie Blue :: A Chicago Cubs Blog: "Now, a show of hands, please. Before the season began, how many of you thought the Cubs would go into Yankee Stadium on Friday, June 17, with a better record than the Yankees?"


How cool is that???

• Republic Commando game review

What can I say about this game? It's one of the better shooters I've played in a long time. Some FPS games team with with a 'squad' that fights along with you. For some games these guys are pretty useless. They don't do much damage to enemies and frequently get in your way and then bitch and moan when you accidently blast them. For Republic Commando, your squad IS the game.

You play as Delta Squad, and you play the Squad leader. He's voiced by Temuera Morrison, the guy who played Jango Fett--and thus, the face and voice of every clone trooper and Boba Fett. Your squad consists of yourself and 3 other people. Each of the three have their own specialties but any trooper can perform any task. You can give standard orders during combat (form up, defend, etc...) but at certain locations (like a good covering spot, for example) you can order them to cover you, launch grenade attacks, launch sniping attacks, or heal themselves.

The orders are given by running your crosshairs over these 'hotspots' until you see a little holo-outline of the trooper performing the task. Clicking makes the trooper perform this action. It's a pretty innovative function, I thought. You can also make some small decisions like going through a door by slicing it (hacking into the controls silently) or performing a door breach, much like SWAT teams do now.

I really enjoyed this game. It didn't seem very long, mostly because it's pretty difficult to actually 'die'. If you go down in battle you can order one of your squad to bring a Star Warsian defibrilator to revive you. Same goes if one of them goes down. You only really die if the whole squad dies. I thought it was an interesting choice that you do not take command of another member of your squad if you die. It's a little more 'realistic' this way I guess.

Gameplay was fun. Another bit of 'realism' it had was the fact that you can only carry 2 weapons at once, along with your sidearm. Unlike some games where you can half about a half-dozen heavy weapons...you have to wonder how in the hell they can all be carried. At least the Star Trek Elite Force games can claim they use a mini-replicator or something.

This doesn't really touch on the prequel films at all...you do take on some of General Greivous's bodyguards at one point, and you do see the General himself from a distance. Also, you can fight alongside the Wookiee Tarful on Kashyyyk...so I guess it's kind of the start of the battle that they show in Episode III. A lot of the battling is against battledroids and trandoshan slavers. You do have a mission in a damaged Republic Star Destroyer that's pretty neat.

I would have preferred a level or two where you fight alongside a Jedi, but this game was mostly based on the importance of the squad itself, so I can see why that was not included.

All in all, a great game, and one I do not regret paying full price for. That's always nice.

• New computer possibilities (it's a new Cold War, baby!)

While I was in Canada last week my new computer parts arrived. I spent Friday night and Saturday building it. I had to go out and buy a new power supply because my mobo has a 24-pin (BTX or EATX I guess) connection and I only had a 20-pin (ATX) connection. I then pieced my system together. The heatsink (cooling system and fan on top of CPU) didn't really fit onto the CPU the first time and in putting it on I thought I might have damaged the stock thermal material that was on the bottom of the hetasink. This material has to be on there perfectly so it allows the heat to pass through from the CPU to the heatsink. A mistake here could lead to a destroyed CPU, and that's costly. I removed the stock material with a Q-ip and then put some arctic silver thermal conducting grease between the heatsink and the CPU.

I got to power it on...and it it looks like it powers up for a half-second and then does nothing. I then turn it off and on at that point and nothing happens. I disconnect power cables and turn off master switch on PSU, then reconnect everything and turn it back on and the loop repeats itself starting with the half-second of power.

I checked the power switch/mobo connections and it seems they were connected correctly. Also, there was no tell-tale (thankfully) smell of burnt electronics at any time.

I thought it might be an issue with the new power supply, that is, it not being powerful enough to power my system. There aren't many components to power, as I only have a gfx card as a slotted card. Also, two HDs and a CD drive along with 3 internal fans.

I tried removing my new (lighted) round IDE cables in hopes that they were drawing too much power, but that wasn't the case. Even with regular gray-ribbon IDE cables it did not power up. I posted to the Raven boards and usenet with my problem...the advice was to bare-bones the system and see if that helped. It did. Everything powered on fine. I was happy to see the CPU powered up normally and didn't smoke, whine, or explode. That's always nice. I added things back into the system one by one, until I came upon the blue lighted case fan that I have. No dice. Remove it, fine. Add it back in, no dice. It's possible the fan has a short of some sort, I don't know. I replaced it with a normal fan I had to spare and it worked fine.

System is up and running now. The new mobo has a bunch of USB ports and 5.1 outputs. Might be time for some new speakers in the future. System is performing very nicely. All data is migrated over from the old computer. My 250GB drive, which wasn't reporting it's full size because the Western Digital software utility I had to enable that wouldn't do it since the drive was the system drive (drive windows is installed on). That drive is now my 'storage' drive and a drive I got back from Western Digital to replace a failed drive is now my system drive. I had a problem with reboots yesterday (due to a drive conflict of some kind) but it seems that is cleared up now after installing what I assume was a malfunctioning software package.

I ran the 3D benchmarks to see what my score would be. While it's not as high as Arnold's it's still a great deal higher than my previous machine did. I had originally meant for this machine to have two video cards, but I had ordered the wrong cards from newegg and I'll have to return them. I went to CompUSA on Saturday to get the correct cards but only got one since it was $100 more than the ones I'd gotten from newegg. I'll buy a second in the coming months when we figure out what's going on with buying a new car and house.

• Arizonification

We went to Arizona for Beth and George's wedding. A good time was had by all, I think. The hotel and church were very nice. While we did not get to see Beth & George's new house or Uncle Bruce & Aunt Angie's new house, we will some time in the future. B&A left for Arizona the other day and arrived yesterday. They close on their new house tomorrow. While I know it was tough on the family for them to leave (and tough on them as well) I wish them the best in Arizona. I know it is hard to move cross-country away from your family and friends. They will have Beth and George (with a baby on the way!) there with them, so that's good. Their new house does look very nice. I just can't imagine their old house in IL (which I practically grew up in) empty of their things and them themselves. It's very strange and sad. Good luck to them.

007 373 5963

Word.

CNN.com - Researchers: Dolphins use sponges as�tools - Jun 6, 2005

Welcome to the beginning of the end for humanity, baby.

In Canada now. Very nice here, so far. The guys I'm working with will be here in 20 minutes or so. At the airport I had to go through the same stuff I did when I arrived in the Dominican Republic. On the airplane they pass out customs forms and you give them to the customs people when you get to the airport, along with your passport. They didn't stamp my passport which stunk because I thought it'd be cool to get another stamp. The girl who worked the customs desk (just like the ones they had in Miami) looked right out of Le Cellier in Canada.

On the way to the hotel I noticed a few things. There's a giant windmill on the coast...one of the white wind-farm looking things, not a Holland type. :) Also, while there are ads on the sides of the expressway, they're not crappy looking ones like we have in the US. These are actually 'sculpted' into the hillsides on either side of the expressway. It's a great way to get the ad across and make the sides of the expressway stay nicely cut and manicured. I thought it was pretty sharp looking.

Well, more later.

Well, it's about that time...

• Episode III (which was great)

Ok, Episode III. Well, having read the novel (parts that I just couldn't wait to see) and read the 'Making of Revenge of the Sith' book, as well as playing the Episode III game on my new xbox, there wasn't much to be surprised about with seeing the film. That's not to say I wasn't looking forward to seeing it...in fact, I really couldn't wait.We had tickets for two showings on that Thursday. 10:30am, which was a digital screening at the Disney West Side theaters, and 10:30pm at the Muvico 'Giant Screen' IMAX theater. We got there about an hour and a half early for the first showing and there was already a good-sized line.The first two guys in line had brought a laptop and were watching the Clone Wars - Season On DVD. That's dedication. They were even watching it in the theater before the movie started. For those of you playing along at home, I call that 'going too far'.

The movie itself...the opening sequence was absolutely amazing. It was a VERY large space battle, one that will help me better visualize the space battles that show up in Star Wars books (expanded universe) all the time. Lots of great lightsaber battles in this one. Anakin/Dooku, Obi-Wan/Grievous, Mace/Palpatine, Yoda/Palpatine, Anakin/Obi-Wan....absolutely amazing. The speed was fantastic. Nick Gillard did a hell of a job with the choreography of those battles. A friend was thinking they were computer-enhanced in terms of speed, but stuff in the 'Making of' book makes me think that the actors (or stunt people, in a few cases) were just that fast.

The story really doesn't have any slow points...maybe a bit of a slow-down when it comes to Padme and Anakin I should say. There really aren't any of the boring 'senate' scenes that show up in the other two prequels.

There's really only one senate scene and it covers the conversion of the
Republic into the Empire...it comes right along with the scene of the Jedi purge and it's very powerful. The senators clapping while the Emperor basically proclaims himself top banana for life while padme says "This is how liberty dies...with thunderous applause" was pretty telling--especially in terms of what's going on in our country these days. I have a few favorite scenes...Obi-Wan confronting Anakin on Mustafar while Anakin and Padme are talking...Yoda doing a few cool things like throw two Royal Guards against a wall with a flick of the wrist and throwing his saber into the chest of a clone trooper then leaping onto his chest and pulling it out. Awesome. At the end of the film everybody ends up where they belong until the beginning of Star Wars (A New Hope), basically.

The dialogue was a lot better than I'd thought it would be, it's the best of
the prequels. It seems a lot of the clunky lines that are present in the film in the 'Making of...' book got cut out. Some bad ideas were dropped (young Han Solo? No thanks) and some good ones were too (Darth Plagueis being responsible for Anakin's birth? How cool is that) but that's too be expected. Artoo has some GREAT moments and Threepio is the Threepio of the original trilogy rather than the prequels...he just seemed more like 'Threepio' in this film...and it can't just be the normal Threepio gold-coloring showing up for the first time. Even the voice seemed more Threepio-like even thought it's been Anthony Daniels throughout the whole saga.

I thought the film was great. It met expectation and probably surpassed them. It's hard to judge these things and I'm extremely biased. I've seen it three times and haven't been board at any point. There just isn't time to be bored during Episode III.

• Hooper and giving him a smidge more responsibility
  
  

Ok, so before we left for AZ last week Hooper had really been coming into his own and growing up in terms of being housebroken and not destroying anything in the house. He's well-behaved and I've wanted to give him some more trust around the house. Basically, penning him up in the kitchen rather than his cage when we leave, stuff like that. A lot of nights where I fall asleep in the chair he falls asleep on the couch and stays there for hours until I get up to go to bed and then I put him in his cage. I was afraid that being at the breeder's while we were gone would 'break' him, or get him to pick up bad habits at least. Though I'm not sure they followed all of our 'rules' for him while they had him, he didn't come back psycho or anything. He will need to be groomed since he was around other dogs and now he stinks like a dog.

I figure a few more weeks and we can stop keeping him in the cage at night. Also, I usually have him penned in the front bedroom here with me while I work. If he does his business while we're out getting the mail I just give him free roam of the house for the rest of the day. He's taken to eating Boots' food now so I'm not sure how fast we'll move with that. We'll see.

• Neighbors and their wrong-ness
  
  

The other day our left-side neighbor (looking at the house) came up to me and asked me to be sure to pick up after our dog. I said, "We always pick up after him" and she seemed to dismiss that saying she'd found dog mess over by the side of their house and stuff...pretty much insisting I was lying about picking up after him. Well, two things. First of all, I *ALWAYS* pick up after the dog, even though I really HATE doing it and it's pretty gross. EVERY TIME I take him out I take 2 of these brawny paper towels napkins out with me and I pick up whatever he does and cart it back to the house. This happens every time. Court does it too. So you can imagine how much fun it is to cart that crap (literally) back to the house and flush it down the toilet just to have somebody accuse you (even in a nice way) of not doing that.

Secondly, he doesn't even do his stuff over by their house. He does
that twice a day...usually by the FAR side of our pond walk (of course, so I have to carry it ALL THE WAY BACK) and the second time is during our night walk where he always goes within 3 feet of the same spot that's way on the other side of our complex. He doesn't crap anywhere near their house. She should try blaming the damn raccoons for her crap problems.

More on that other stuff later...

Hearing the footsteps...

He's just a boy. Obi-Wan can no longer help him.

More on the Cold War heat-up later.

Woo hoo! Cubs just won their fifth in a row!

I'm tired.