Noise/Sports

I'm sitting here working (okay, taking a couple minute break), and it is very loud out there. We have a family holiday part/reunion in the hotel, and they wanted to watch the Iowa/Texas bowl game, not a big deal. The problem is that they decided to watch it in our lobby. Now let me tell you, everyone with this group has been very nice (much more so then most groups of this sort), so this is not a comment on them personally, this is a comment a situation that I see often, that they happen to have caused as well.
This involves two things, one that I hate (Noise/Crowds) and one that I just don't understand, sports (the type that you don't actually participate in).

• Noise/Crowds. As you may or may not know, they drive me nuts. It is loud enough that I really just want to curl into a ball, and cry. I can't stand it. It just grates on your nerves, gives you a headache, and just activates that primal part of you that wants to run from loud noises - crowds cause the same reaction. The only thing that is keeping me from curling into that ball, forcing myself to keep busy so that I don't have time to do anything.
• Sports. I can understand wanting to play a game, sports games, but I can't understand just wanting to watch them, unless someone you personally knew was playing. To me it is like watching some stranger lift weights for hours. What is the point? Please, someone explain the point of pro, semipro, or college sports.
  

Exercise

Who doesn't need to do more exercise in their daily life? Okay, apparently the Amish don't, but for the rest of us, I'm willing to bet that we could all use a bit more exercise. What got me thinking about this was a blog post I read (while not exercising). The post was a person wondering if the Nintendo Wii would help slow down the obesity trend in youngsters - personally, I think it could *help*, but I'm not sure how much since I haven't been able to try out the Wii yet. The post brought me to another blog post about a man who would only play World of Warcraft when he was riding his exercise bike... what a great idea!
I wish that I could find a way to do something I love and add exercise into the mix - no sex is not what I mean, though that would qualify from what I just said. I just don't think that I can find anything that I like to do that would cause me to loose concentration on peddling or anything that I might do. I should take that back, what I do like to do that would give me that kind of concentration on one thing I just don't feel that I have time to do it.

Man, time is always an issue, I effectivly work 12 hours a day, or more, and try to sleep eight, that only leaves me four hours with Jana and Fozzy, I don't think that's enough. Maybe I should try this when I drop Jana off in Wyoming for two months, it will keep me occupied, and I won't feel bad. Thoughts thoughts...

Quick note, it looks like the Wii is the least expensive new game system... this could be a good thing.

What a day

Well today has been an interesting one. We left Wyoming about 11am (Mountain Time), a bit later then I wound have liked, and headed for Sioux Falls. I was counting Wall Drug signs along the way, while watching the dark clouds in the east - nothing was going wrong. Then just before the last exit to Wall (South Dakota - of Wall Drug fame), my car suddenly gave a jolt and "Check Engine" light came on, and despite frantic shifting, I just could not get the car to go. We ended up at the bottom of the off ramp, I checked everything that I knew to check - not being a car guy - and everything looked great to me. Fortunately, a nice couple came down the ramp and stopped at a garage for us to get someone to help (huge THANK YOU to them), the garage owner came and got us. We are waiting to hear back about the car now - I hope it's not too bad.
Jana and I have been enjoying our stay in Wall, we found a Super 8 that had a room, the garage owner let us borrow his truck so that I could get Jana there, we had a good dinner, and we are going to watch a movie next (we brought some DVDs).
Oddly enough today has been rather good, I think its because it is a relaxing day with only me and Jana.

Time is always an issue

Since I doubt that I will have time in the next couple of days to do this, I thought I better do it now.

I want to wish everyone a Happy Winter Solstice! I'm wishing everyone all the best for the next year! May your life be filled only with good things!

What I have needed

A bit of background here. Jana's parents have a camper that they were going to let us use while we were staying, regrettably the heat did not work when we arrived. The heat got fixed today. After letting the camper warm up for a bit, I decided to go relax in there - to get away from the chaos. I have been sitting here reading for a bit and am finding it a bit difficult to concentrate on it. My mind is just finding it difficult to accept that work isn't going to call, or that something else is going to happen. I better get as much of this as possible, I think this is what has been missing from my life for a while, this is what I need to function properly.

Wall Drug

Wall Drug - what can you say about it... it's a small business that has made it big, it's a stop in the middle of no-where, it's a tourist trap... no matter how you define Wall Drug there is not debating that is a prolific advertiser (as billboards go). What has brought up this subject you may be wondering, well I will tell you a small story, then give you some info; sound fair?

I have been making the trip from Des Moines, Iowa into northern Wyoming for a few years now, any time of the year. Each trip is different, you never know what you are going to encounter, sometimes you will see cops every few miles, other times you will see hardly any. Sometimes things will go great, other times you will wish that you had never gotten out of bed, sometimes the roads will be busy with people on vacation, other times the roads will be practically deserted. I have found one constant, once you hit I-90, you can't get away from the billboards, advertising almost everything, killing animals, not killing fetuses (that's a whole other topic that I don't wish to get into), attractions and services along the way. Anyone who has traveled I-90 for any distance will know that many of the advertisements are for tourist traps Murdo, Corn Palace, etc. Now one of the most prolific advertisers is Wall Drug.

The last time I drove this trip (Friday), Jana and I counted the number of Wall Drug signs from Sioux Falls, SD to Wall, SD. We counted 97, that's about one (1) sign every three (3) miles. Let me tell you that can get very annoying after the first 20... Then to top things off, the two times that I went to Wall Drug , I can't say that it was anything terribly impressive, some small stores, not much for good food, and far from enough parking. Though I did get Jana's ring from there, a nice ring too.

Here is someone else's blog posting on Wall Drug: http://www.brandlovehate.com/2006/08/wall_drug_adver.html

Trip - Part one

The last couple of days have been interesting. Thursday Jana and I packed up the car (the back was so full that I could initially see out the rear-view mirror); after packing up the car we took Fozzy to the vet to stay while Jana and I are out of town. Fozzy looked so scared, I feel so bad about leaving him there, all alone. :-( After that we drove the 4 hours to Sioux Falls South Dakota. After being lost for a a few minutes Jana was able to guide me to the hotel. We had a nice stay in the hotel, Residence Inn - we had a good room, good food, and friendly staff all around. After a good nights sleep, and I mean some great sleep for me, we got up, and headed out to Wyoming.
The trip to Wyoming was mostly uneventful, Jana slept a bit, I drove, we counted (more on that in another post), and finally got to Wyoming (with only running into a bit of snow). I must say that the trip is always nerve racking for me, the whole environment of Jana's family in Wyoming is so different from anything that I have ever really experienced in my life - that it scares the brown stuff out of me. The environment is chaotic to say the least, animals all over the house (not a big deal to me), many different people; and to top it all off, I'm never sure what exactly is going on. I won't even go into the smoking thing (yuck).
Today we unloaded the car of all the gifts - took about five trips. Then we went to Wal-Mart, the only reason I went there was to hopefully get away from some of the chaos... though it was packed with people (darn it). Despite all the chaos, and noise, I do like Jana's family, they are nice people who only mean well; they have shown me so much love that it amazes me. Five days left till we leave, I'm sure I will be ready for it, get a good shower.
Now to see if I can get rid of this headache and runny nose.

Holidays

I was hoping to post this from Google Docs, but I was not able to get it to work, kept getting errors - I will have to do some investigating on that. Now onto the post at hand.
Okay, I want to rant - I do that an awful lot, don't I? :-) Well this one is about holidays. Yes, it is time for that subject again - it only seems like it was a year ago that this was brought up (not really by me, but by many many others). So why do I bring it up - because I want to put my 1¢ in, that's why. Will I have anything new and original to say - most likely not, but humor me. What got me thinking on this was this post: http://www.scott-o-rama.com/2006/12/07/how-dare-i/ , go ahead, read it, I'll wait. ... ... ... ... Done yet? Okay, good. Now that post got me thinking about all the times in the previous years that I heard people say that the winter holidays should always be referred to as "Christmas", and if you don't then you are trying to kill Christmas, or you are a Satanist.
Two things: 1) I don't celebrate Xmas, I'm not a Xian after all. 2) Many other religions have celebrations around this time of year, not just Xians. I don't see why so many Xians have trouble understanding #2* (at least here in the US). I don't care what holiday you celebrate, or don't celebrate, but I don't like people thinking that their holiday (religion) is the only one that matters, it's purely egocentric. As far as I'm concerned you can celebrate Xmas, it's your right, but I should be free to celebrate my holiday of choice. Everyone deserves respect, and demanding that people say "Marry Xmas" rather then "Happy Holidays" shows a complete lack of respect for others. I wonder how many Xians would feel if everyone started wishing people a happy solstice rather then a marry xmas - I'm willing to bet they would have a similar feeling to mine (but then again how would I act...).

Let me know your comments, that what the comment section is for after all.

* Please note, I know that not all Xians are that way, but from my perspective those good souls are few and far between.

It's been a while

Well, it's been a while since I have posted anything. I've had a rather rough last few months, my mind has been on vacation (too bad it didn't take me with it), and I just haven't been myself. I think things are getting better now, at least I remember that I even had a blog. Not much has really happened since I last wrote - good thing I didn't write and bore everyone then.
Oh well, I'm at work right now, sick and board... needing something to do, so I posted. Okay, off I go, time to find something worthwhile, and less tiring to occupy my mind.

Not much

Boy, I use that title a lot - though, not enough for my tastes. After being woken yesterday about work, today has gone really well. No calls form work, didn't have to do a thing - it's nice for a change. The weather has been rather dreary, so neither Jana or I have felt like doing anything. I've watched a couple movies (since I have that working on my laptop now), played some music and been lazy - though I did some exercise earlier.

The only odd thing to report is that I have felt weird lately - not at all myself. At work I can't concentrate (messing-up) on the stuff that I should be able to do with my eyes closed. At home I feel more lethargic then I feel I should. All of this is broken by periods of feeling great (thinking that everything is great) only to find that something wasn't right after all. I just can't get it together - and it's hard to get it together when you can't focus long enough to do so... but I have no choice (and I would not choose any other choice even if I had one) - I have to get it together. But how? You know, I think it's time I made a doctors appointment.

Dvorak

Okay, here is the deal, I prefer to type in the Dvorak keyboard layout - it's just easier and quicker (once you get used to it). A couple problems with this though:
1) Work computers are not normally setup to use this layout - though you can normally change that if you are the only one using the computer.
2) In Linux (the version that I use), it is difficult to tell what layout you are using - if you are also using the US QWERTY layout - the few times I do. I'm hoping the ever helpful Linux community can help with this one.
3) In Windows if you start out with the US QWERTY layout then you have to change each separate program use dvorak (it doesn't change on the whole system).
Despite these few problems, I still prefer to use Dvorak, it even came in handy when I hurt one of my arms and had to type with one hand (it has layouts for people who have the use of one hand versus two. Plus it's fun to say.

Happy one month

Well, It's a bit late, but happy one month of blogging to this blog.
Not much going on in life right now. I finally got into the Yahoo Mail Beta (only been trying since I first heard about it) - of course anyone can get into now that it's a public beta. It's a good interface, runs well. I like it much better then the new Live Mail (Hotmail). The Yahoo interface is cleaner, easier to read, and much easier to use - plus half the screen isn't taken up with an ad (though I fixed that with the use of Adblock). As for which webmail I prefer to use, despite all the nice enhancements that have been made to Yahoo and Hotmail, I'm still sticking with my Gmail account. Gmail doesn't have as fancy of an interface (which is important to some people), but it is faster then either of the other two, I can use POP and SMTP access with it, plus I prefer the way it organizes the emails.

Now onto the question of the day, this one is borough to you by all the restaurants that Jana and I go to after normal dinning hours. Really this is a simple question, but one that I just can't answer. First a little background on this. Whenever Jana and I go to get something to eat after normal business hours (from about 10pm to 4:30am), if we go to a restaurant that has both smoking and nonsmoking sections, then Jana and I are usally the only ones in the nonsmoking section, while there can be two or three tables of people in the smoking. Why is that? If I recall correctly, about 75% of the US population does not smoke, but I seem to run into more smokers then nonsmokers, especially at night. Anyone have any ideas why?

Only one more day

Well, I only have one more day left of work, then I'm off for two whole days - maybe I will turn off my phone. I wasn't feeling too well the last couple of days, something weird with my arm, and I think I caught something. I've been feeling better today - feels good.
Now that I'm feeling better, and my arm doesn't hurt every two seconds, I think it is time to get back into the exercise habit. I need to get my body in shape so that I can get my mind there as well. Baby steps, but steps none the less.
Not much going on at work, computer went to down, took me three hours to get the OS back up - but I lost half my files. Of course the problem happened because of a bad backup - so I didn't even have a good backup to get my files from. I'm happy that my address book, calendar and task list were all backed up on a separate service then the one my company uses.
I'm looking forward to tomorrow night - freedom for two days!! Woohoo!!

Two part posting

Okay, todays post is a two parter (maybe three, I haven't decided yet) .

Part 1 - Sports
Okay, I know this is going to be sensitive one - so I'm going to do it first. Now please keep in mind I don't follow pro sports, I actually rather hate them, so this post is going to be a rant from that perspective. You have been warned, if you don't like that point of view, then I would not suggest reading on.
Now today was a big day in Iowa - a football (American) game; today was the day that the two major Iowa colleges played a game against each other. Not a big deal, and not something that I would normally rant about - but there is more. Since Wednesday, that has been all the talk, and starting Thursday I saw people in businesses wearing shirts to reflect which college they supported (I mean the employees). Friday that is almost all I saw, that and cars with an ever increasing number of stickers and flags on them. Today that is all anyone wanted to watch on the TV.
I don't understand this obsession with football, pregame shows, postgame shows, clothing, complete car makeovers, multiple TV stations only about that, and the such. People seem to spend way too much time worshiping a *game*. At least here in Iowa, that's how it is.
Today the satalite at work was having some problems due to some bad weather. Apparently peoples only complaint about it was - they could not watch their football game. Now I want everyone to take a step back, look how people treat this game, and
TE###33333333333333####################FW@gvbbbbbbbbbbbb (that's from the cat) tell me that it is not an obsession, and that people don't spend wholly too much time and energy on it.

Part 2 - Homework
I came across an interesting article today, it reflected a thought that I had when I was in school and even after I left school. The article was about the amount of homework that schools give to children. It's just way too much. In high school I was normally up till about 2:30am doing homework, only to get up at 5am, so that I had enough time to finish my homework before school started; granted I was taking more classes then most, but if you cut it down to a normal class load, it was still too much homework. I want everyone to look back on when they were in school, did homework want to make you go back to school, or to live a life of learning? If your answer was "yes", then I bet you are in the minority. Homework is tedious and normally rather pointless (at least to the extreams that it is given). Take the many many hours I spent on spelling words for class - I still can't do it, I use spell check or a dictionary to make sure words are correct.
How about, instead of giving children hours of pointless, frustrating work, why let them have more choices in how they learn? If you give them the option to learn what they want to learn - and relate the other subjects to that - then you will have sparked their interest and the desire to learn, wouldn't that be worth the extra costs? Maybe someone needs to start a school that does just that...
Here is the link to the article:
The Myth about Homework I also saw a book by the same title in Barnes and Nobel tonight.

Part 3 - I guess it was going to be three subjects after all
Never mind, it's hard to type with a cat in your lap.

Yesterday

Well yesterday was fun. I got off work the day before yesterday at 11pm, Jana and I decided to head to IHOP for a quick bite to eat so that I could head to bed after that, since I had to be back to work at 7am. Well sometimes things don't work out as they are suppose to. We got to the IHOP, and after a 20 minute wait we finialy left. The waitress sat us, got us some water, and never came back, she was at a table on the other side of the restaurant smoking and talking to someone. I guess we were not as important as that. Oh well, we decided on McD's drive though instead.
Well, I got up about 6, with a good 3 and a half hours of sleep under my belt. Jana said that when I kissed her goodbye that I felt a bit warm. I get to work, it turns out that the breakfast person called in (again) so guess what, I'm doing breakfast, housekeeping, sales, and GM... what a day. By the time I got home my feet were killing me, and I was starting to feel crappy.
After some food, and a good 7 1/2 hours of sleep, I'm feeling better, my feet still hurt and I feel tired - but better then I did yesterday.

Busy day, but good

Well, I had to work today (joy of all joys), but today wasn't too bad. Can't complain too much - so I won't at all (what a change). Things have really been going better since I got my sleep schedule back in order, and since I have started to exercise a bit each morning - more stamina for starters, I can't wait for what comes next.

I found out today that my old haunts in Iowa City have changed - I really should go for a visit and see what has changed - maybe run around the Ped-Mall for a bit. I miss Iowa City - it was so comfortable, and had a fun culture. Des Moines is nice, more to do, but the culture is different (not as diverse), and the down town area was easier to get around it (walking wasn't such a chore). Oh well, you make choices and you live with them. Maybe on my next couple of days off Jana and I can go down there for a look see (last time it was winter, and very cold so we didn't stay out long).

Tummy problems

For some reason I have been having tummy problems today. I have been on the toilet often (you wanted to know that - I just know it), and my tummy has been feeling queezy. I have felt fine otherwise, except for a bad headache earlier in the day. I'm hoping tomorrow will be a better day - I want to get on with my exercising and stretching (which I have postponed for today due to the problems mentioned above).

Future Be Warned: Keep Out!

This is something I have wondered about. Read on and find out what they propose.

http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,71724-0.html?tw=rss.index

By Vince Beiser 02:00 AM Sep, 07, 2006

A half-mile below the surface of the New Mexico desert, the federal government is interring thousands of tons of monstrously dangerous leftovers from its nuclear weapons program --plutonium-infested clothing, tools and chemical sludge that will remain potentially lethal for thousands of years to come.

It may be safely secured now, but how to keep our descendants centuries in the future from accidentally unearthing it?

That's the question posed by the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the nation’s only underground repository for military-generated radioactive waste.

So I have weird thoughts

Okay, so I have some weird thoughts sometimes, I admit it. Here is the weird thought (question) of the day for you. Really it's a two parter.

While at the Ren Faire, many men were wearing kilt (as they should). I heard a few women ask what the men were wearing under them (in different ways). In case anyone is wondering, the only proper answer to that questions, is to point out that you are wearing shoes, boots, etc. Now, this whole what are you wearing under that questions, just makes me wonder - why is it okay to ask a man what he is wearing under his kilt, but it would not be okay to ask a woman what she is wearing under her skirt? Isn't their a slight gender gap there?
Now that question, led me to another one - hold on to your under clothes for this one.
Why the hell do we wear underclothes anyway?! What is the point? Now I have heard women give many reason for needing to wear underclothes, but none of them have struck me as being a really good reason. Maybe it's because I'm not a woman, and I really would not understand - but to me is just seems like the whole underclothes was a tradition passed down from more stringent times (you know, when they used to wear 10,000 layers of skirts for no reason). I just can't see the reason for it, especially when many studies have shown that a person is healthier who doesn't wear them. Now I'm a male, and I know all the excuses for wearing underclothes, and big surprise, I don't buy any of them (this time that it's not just because I'm not the proper sex).
I don't understand the excuse that it makes someone feel naked not to wear the underclothing, of you course you are going to feel naked for a bit - you would feel naked if you wore a veil your whole life then suddenly went without one.
The only valid excuse that I have ever heard is this very simple one - it's used to absorb sweet that comes off the body, otherwise it gets trapped and makes me rash. Even that one is flimsy to me, you would not be sweeting so much if you were not wearing the bloody things in the first place.

Ren Faire

Well today was a good day. Jana and I went to the Des Moines Ren Faire. We had a great time. I must say that the DM Ren Faire group has a great setup there, many wooden shops, nicely laid out, a wooded area for some groups, and just plenty of room. The portajohns were even put behind a wooden fence so that they were not in plain sight (a nice touch I must say). I have three complaints, 1) Parking was difficult 2) The roads were muddy in some places (thought is to be expected with so many feet and rain the week before) 3) The building did not seem to be completely done, you could see the modern technology in the back of most of them (thought that can be hard to hide).
The people were great, many people in costume. Many of the people that I have met at a Ren Faire were nice, and just fun (I don't get to meet many people like that in my normal life). Jana and I got stopped by a couple of people selling pickles (I don't know what it us, but people like to sell her pickles), and she told them no, she even went so far as to tell them that she would bite their dragon (since they threatened to have one attacker for not buying their pickles) - that caused some laughter around us.
We went and saw the jousters, they are good (amazing they aren't dead by now). We saw the Scurvvy Dawgs, a pirate comedy troupe, who hardly ever failed to get a laugh. During the second show that we saw with them, Jana tried to get one of the cast members stabbed with a tiny plastic sword.
We also saw the Muddy Misfits, they are funny, but in a very different way from the Scurvvy Dawgs. They (two of them) like to retell common stories (we saw Goldilocks) - but with much mud added in. Needless to say we got dirty (time to wash the kilt). Oh, Jana decided that the girl didn't have enough mud on her, and was very vocal about it. Jana almost got even more dirty then she already was.
In there, we go some good food. I got a bottle of root beer (okay, two). I did some archery (I need some practice at that), and threw some knives (I need a lot of practice at that). We got to see some neat items for sale.
As I already said, it was a great time. I would love to go again. Can't wait for next year.

Online Music Services

Well, I'm going to rant here for a minute - so if you don't want to read that, then please don't read on. You have been warned.

Okay, today I have one simple thing that I want to do - I haven't wanted to do this in a while - since before I changed to an all Linux system. I wanted to download one song - I even wanted to pay for it. Simple, right? Nope, not when you use Linux apparently. I don't blame Linux on any of this, I blame the places that sell the music.
Previously I used iTunes on Windows, they don't make a Linux version (I searched high and low for a version that would work with Linux). Then I thought, well Wal-Mart sells music, and it doesn't require any large program to sell it, they don't support Linux either, basically only WinXP (not even Mac).
Okay, so I don't find any programs that will download music nativity on a Linux machine - so I do what any simisane computer geek would do - I hop onto the forums. Oddly enough, I came up blank, I saw where someone asked about this same thing - about a year ago, but there was no solution posted. I did find ways of getting iTunes for Windows to work under Linux - but it doesn't work that well apparently - not worth my time to try that...
I really don't want to spend $14.00+ on a CD, just for one song - even if I would like the other 10 songs - it's still cheaper to download them all.
What BS.

Vet trip

Guess what today was... nope, that wasn't it. Today was the day Jana and I had to take poor Fozzy to the vet. It all started when we had to get him into his travel kennel. Needless to say, Fozzy wasn't too happy with that, he whined from the moment he got in the kennel, till about halfway to the vet - about 15 minutes. The actual appointment didn't go to bed, when I took him out of the kennel to get him weighed (13 and some odd pounds) he put himself as close against me as possible. Then when we got into the exam room, he deiced that hiding under the bench would be the best course of action.
The vet was very good with him, and he behaved (except for when they were getting the facial sample). The vet said he has a clean bill of health - go Fozzy go.
We then had to wait for Bev to get off work so that she could come see Fozzy. While we were waiting for her, a little dog came in. Once Fozzy heard that dog, he thought the far corner of the kennel would be the best place for him. By the way, the dog weighed less the Fozzy - by a pound.
Once Jana opened the front door, Fozzy started to whine, he knew he was home and wanted out of that kennel right then. After a couple minutes of getting used to being back home, he got some treat. Now he's bathing - his little rear end seems to be a popular place to lick.

What a day

Not much really happend. Got up too early - after going to bed early because I didn't feel well. I played on the computer for a bit before I relized that I was still tired (I can't wait till Wednesday when I can sleep all I want). Jana and I then went and got a sweet treat - yep that diet is going great. Then I went to work for 12.5 hours - it was very slow there.
Now I'm writting the message as Jana is threatening Fozzy because he is being hyper and she wants to sleep. Better get to bed, I have to be to work by 7am. Another fun day when I work with only 4 hours sleep.
I don't need a sleep study, I need a predictable sleep schedule - that doesn't go against my natural sleep schedule (where to find a good paying job that would allow me to go to bed at 5 or 6 am, and still get enough sleep).

Not much to report

Well, not much going on. It's been slow at work - I can finialy get some work done.
Life has been fairly normal at the house.
All in all, it's been very nice lately. I'm happy for it being normal and not changing from second to second - I don't like change that much (unless I'm directing it, and even then it sucks).

Long sleep, short sleep

20 guesses what this post is about...If any of your 20 guesses involved sleep, then you would be right - more on that later.
Today went pretty well, didn't do much - it's nice for a change. Jana made sloppy Joes for us, they were good. Other then that, I played on the computer, and worked on another one.
Well, Jana and I are planning on our diet to start Friday - after I get paid so that we can afford real food. This is going to be a joy. As I think I said before, I will need to make a checklist - information sheet - I need that kind structure to make sure it works for me - I think Jana might too.
This week has been kind of rough on me, the previous week I worked the overnight shift, then this week I went back to working the morning shift - well, it's not an easy change. So the first part of this week (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday), I didn't sleep well - you know, can't fall asleep due to being used to the overnight shift, keep getting interrupted with the bloody phone when you do fall asleep, etc. Well I had yesterday off, and I literally slept 14 hours - so naturally I could not fall asleep all night. I slept about 30 minutes so far - and I have to be to work in 1.5 hours. Ugh.
On the positive side, it gave me the time to finish fixing the computer that I was working on. I must say one very simple thing - I have Windows, what kind of OS gives people access to a root account first thing, and doesn't ask them to make another more limited account? I also must talk about Windows Defender talk about a useless program. I installed Spybot S&D and Ad-Aware, both of which were detecting problems long after Windows Defender said everything was perfectly fine.

Sitting here

Well, I'm sitting here thinking that I really should get some sleep... I'm running some scans on the boss's son's computer - I think I have all the viruses and ad/spyware off of it. A couple more scans and I will be sure. Woohoo.
For some odd reason, Jana seems to think that I'm obsessed with Fozzy... I mean come on - just because I take a few pictures here and there doesn't mean anything, never mind the fact that he is the background on my phone and on one of the desktops of my laptop... it's just silly.

Computers computers computers

Well, today has been about meetings and computers. First thing in the morning I had a meeting, about 3.5 hours, could not help but yawn. Reorganized the office some, called a woman with a complaint - nothing too bad. Woohoo

I brought home my boss's son's computer, it's very infected with viruses and the such - I've never seen Firefox open 7 unrequested new tabs before. I installed AVG and was able to scan a bit of the computer before the battery went almost dead - have to get the power supply before I can continue. (for some reason he didn't update his antivirus software).
Lately I have been trying to get compiz to work on my laptop - with absolutely no success. In Gnome I can see the themes, but can't get them to start, and I can't get anything to work in KDE - I have followed 5, "sure fire", guides on how to get this to work - guess what, none of them worked - they all made it so that X wouldn't start. Good thing I'm comfortable using the command line. I will look some more on this later - it's bed time now.
Oh, I got my first comment in the blog just about a day ago. Wow. hehehe

For those who blog

Time for a hunt

This message is to Jana.
I have something hidden where Garfield and his friends are feeling rather flat.

Mornings are evil

I'm betting that you think you know what this post is about just from the title... well if you are thinking that it's about me not liking mornings, then you would be right.
Well, it's about 7:30am, and I slept a grand total of about 1.5 hours. That's the problem with going from 6 nights of working 11pm to 7am... and then turning around to work at 8am with only one "day off" (a whole 25 hours (less if you want to count the driving time and the time it takes to actually get out of the hotel, and the time it takes to get ready for work), closer to 22 hours).
I just could not get to sleep last night (that working till 7am thing again), and I didn't till I went to bed at 4:30 am. I'm sure the only reason I fell asleep so quick was because of what Jana and I call "Kitty Magic". "Kitty Magic" is the seemingly magical ability Fozzy has to make me fall asleep.
Okay, I'm tired right now, and I'm sure I will be doubly so by the time I get off work. Maybe things will go good at work and I will be able to skip out a bit early and make up the time later in the week.

Thought I would post

Not much to report, I mowed the lawn today. Jana and I went out to for dinner at a mexican restaurant. Right now it's about 2:30am, and we just got back from McD's - that diet is going great. I need to get some sleep, I have to be to work tomorrow at 8am.

Nude teens raise eyebrows

For those of you who know me, I find the following article both pleasing and troublesome.
Pleasing, because some people are enjoying life how it was meant to be enjoyed - nude.
Troublesome, because one person has a problem with it so the city decides to try and make a law against it.
Why can't people be nude, what is wrong with that. The people aren't going around jiggling their bits at little old ladies or children, no they are letting the warm air hit them rather then roasting in some clothing (which is bad for you I might add).
Now about the one person who complained, ""The parking lot is not a strip club," she said. "What about children seeing this?"" well let me answer these two things:
1) Strip club reference - at a strip club, people go in to see people take off their clothes - their clothes were already off (how I read the article anyway). Also in a strip club, people go in to see shake their bits - as I said earlier, this is not the case.
2) The children. This is what people always say when they want to stop something (the Simpson's have made fun of this more then once). Studies have shown that children who are exposed to non-sexual nudity tend to be better socially adjusted then children who are taught that any kind of nudity is bad (taught to dislike their own bodies).

Okay, I'm done with my rant. Now on the the article:

Link
Nude teens raise eyebrows
Fri Aug 25, 2006 10:10 AM ET

By Scott Christianson

BRATTLEBORO, Vermont (Reuters) - Some have appeared naked in a downtown parking lot. Others rode their bicycles or simply strolled the streets in the nude.

Teenagers in the quaint Vermont town of Brattleboro are raising eyebrows this summer with brazen displays of nudity.

So far they haven't been arrested or ticketed: public nudity isn't illegal in the town of 13,000 people, unless it's done to arouse sexual gratification.

Vermont has a live-and-let-live tradition, allowing skinny-dipping and nude sunbathing. Brattleboro, the first permanent English settlement in the state in 1724, is home to a community of writers, artists and musicians as well as transplanted entrepreneurs from Boston and New York.

When the weather grew hot this year, a couple of dozen teens took to holding hula hoop contests, riding bikes and parading past the shops wearing only their birthday suits.

Nobody, including the police, seemed to take offense until one local, Theresa Toney, went before the town government in August to complain about a group of youngsters naked in a parking lot.

"The parking lot is not a strip club," she said. "What about children seeing this?"

Town officials asked their attorney to draft an ordinance to ban such displays for the Select Board to vote on in September. When the teens heard about it, some staged a nude sit-in.

"I don't see why it's such a big deal," said Alec McPherson, a recent high school graduate as he sat at a coffee shop table, browsing a thick volume of artwork from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Everyone's naked in this book."

His companion, Jeremiah Compton, a high school junior who plays in a local metal-and-punk band, agreed. "It's just that we're bored and expressing our right," he said.

"We have a nuclear power plant a few miles away and a ridiculous war in the Middle East, countries getting bombed," said Ian Bigelow, a 23-year-old who had gathered with some of his friends outside a bookstore. "So why's it such a big problem if we chose to get nude?"

Too much time awake

Well, today has been a long one. I got off work about 8:00am, an hour late, then Jana and I decided to go grab something to eat. I think I finally fell asleep about 10. I woke up about 1:40pm, since Jana had a doctors appointment at 2:30 (apparently the alarm clock went off about three times before I got up) - turns out that Jana hadn't slept at all.
We get to the doctor, and he comes in trying to make in impression (even I could tell this through my half asleep mind). Turns out Jana needs to loose some weight (we forgot to ask how much exactly) - and what a coincidence, I need to as well (that last part was from me, not the doctor). So I guess that Jana and I are going to be on a diet for a while - there goes those deep fried lard nuggets.
After getting home, we head back to bed, by now it's 4pm. I set my alarm for 9:30pm - I can get a few hours more sleep. Then my work phone goes off - it was the best kind of call, "Sorry, I didn't mean to call you!". Whelp, I'm up, have been since 7:15pm - with a total of about 7 hours, even though it feels like less.



Right now I have a gassy cat sleeping on my lap - he hasn't gotten enough sleep either, and I'm working on a spreadsheet to try and tack how much I eat, and how much I exercise - maybe Jana will use it too - who knows.
Dwight just popped onto IM, apparently Amy is going in for open heart surgery tomorrow. I wish there was better news then that.
Well that pretty much sums up the day - crappy.

Trip

You know, I'm sitting her at work, I have a little extra time on my hands, and I planned out a trip from here to Oregon. Man I would like to take that trip - maybe I could talk Jana into it for next year - if I try hard. I would like to take about a week and a half off, and just drive it. I could go see Amy, Dwight, Marian, Monica (in alphabetical order to avoid hurt feelings :)) show Jana the great scenery, and even show her my home town. There are of course concerns, Jana would be sore from the trip (so would I), and what to do with the every lovable Fozzy - but I'm sure we can figure out something.
I will have to think on this more.

Only in Iowa

Link
Fleeing calves shut down I-35
Firefighters and police officers become ranchers after a cattle truck crashes and overturns.

By ABBY SIMONS
REGISTER STAFF WRITER

August 23, 2006


An accident that involved a truck with 128 young cows triggered a Tuesday morning roundup for West Des Moines firefighters, police officers and volunteer ranchers on Interstate Highway 35.

The 7 a.m. wreck, on a railroad overpass just south of the Grand Avenue on-ramp, backed up traffic for more than three hours as 300-pound calves were chased, herded and corralled.

West Des Moines' deputy fire chief, Jack Benge, said the truck driver, Jared Dudley, 30, of Corydon, lost control of the rig when he merged onto the interstate. The trailer tipped onto its side and the livestock got loose.

Dudley was unhurt. He declined comment on the accident.

Cheryl Miller of Boone was behind Dudley in her sport-utility vehicle when the truck tipped. She called 911.

"He slid over, and you know the rest of the story," she said. "He got out before I did, and we tried to stop the cattle from getting out."

Miller, a truck-driving instructor, said Dudley was not speeding or negligent.

"He did everything he could, had the bridge not been there, he would have saved it," she said. "He did what he had to do to stop that truck from going over the bridge and losing even more."

Firefighter Bill McKibben, who raises cattle, was among the first to arrive. He called his father, who brought corral fencing. Jeff Ewing, who owns the cattle, called for extra trucks.

Two severely injured cattle had to be shot by West Des Moines police. Five others were dead in the damaged trailer, Benge said. Three were taken to a slaughterhouse with broken legs.

Four calves escaped. A pair headed north; two more ran west toward the city. They were later rounded up, Ewing said.

He said the cattle, which are insured, are worth about $80,000.

When the roundup was over, the interstate was a muddy, manured mess. Iowa Department of Transportation officials decided against a good rinse and used sand instead.

"If you've ever been to the Iowa State Fair after they hose down the cattle areas, it's slick. This would be the same way," Benge said. "This bridge has seen quite a few wrecks, but this is the first I've seen with cattle."

Another quiet night

I think it's a record, two quiet nights in a row. :-) Jana packed me a nice lunch.
Not much to report, just about to go to bed. Fozzy is starving for attention again, I will have to give him some - after I get up.
Now Jana is getting me some juice - Woohoo!!

Maximum Ride by James Patterson

**Please keep in mind that there are more then likely going to be spoilers in these posts, so if you don't want to know anything - then please don't read after the first title is presented (titles are in bold


All righty, here we go again, another review by yours truly. Today we shall be looking at the Maximum Ride series (currently two books - I'm thinking there will be a third).
This series is about six kids (ages ranging from teenager to six years old), who escaped from an institute they call "The School". I won't go into details as to what they did in the "School", but I will say that it wasn't good. The story is mainly written from the point of view of Maximum Ride, the oldest of the six. One more interesting little tidbit, all the children have wings. This series has it's own blog, I don't mean one that was made by a fan, but one that is suppose to be written from the character's prospective. Link Be careful, the blog takes a lot of processing power, many images.

**Possible Spoilers below - you have been warned**

The Angel Experiment
Now you know, I wanted to write a nice detailed explanation of what happened in this book, but too much happened to be able to do that. So I will give you a quick rundown.
Six kids were experiments at a place called "The School", with some help, the escaped. They managed to start living a fairly normal life, they had a home, watched TV, didn't have any parents, and never went to school (either kind).
Then all that ended, when some other experiments from The School attacked them and kidnapped the youngest girl, Angel (seeing any relation to the title?). The remaining kids then go on and try to save Angel from The School.
Their house gets destroyed, by the other experiments from The School. They are now out in the world, alone and without a place to go. On their way to save Angel, Maximum Ride, is injured helping a normal child. She later finds help with that same child and her mother.
After returning to the flock, Maximum Ride and company then focus on rescuing Angel. Most of them get captured though.
The ones who did not get captured, then rescue Angel and the others.
Maximum Ride starts to have major headaches, and sees images. With these images and some information that Angel learned (she can read minds by the way), they head to New York to try and find out information about their parents.
They get to NY, only to find that they don't know where to go, and end up sleeping in some subway tunnels and in the park.
Maximum starts to hear voices as well as seeing images. With the help of this mysterious voice in her head, they finally reach their goal, a place called The Institute.
Getting into The Institute, they find a bank of computers, and some information on themselves and supposedly some information on their parents. While there, they find another lab, with experiments just like them. They free them, and try to run for it. They are found by some Erasers (the bad experiments I mentioned earlier), and Maximum is forced to fight one that she knew as a child.
Of course they escape.

School's Out - Forever
This book starts out with the children heading to Florida, and a quick stop at Disney World (admit it, you would too), where they narrowly avoid being found by Ari (the Eraser that Maximum knew as a child) - they were helped out by a child who thought that Ari was Wolverine.
Later they get attacked by Ari, who is pissed because he missed them at Disney World, and Fang is hurt badly. They end up having to take Fang to a hospital. The hospital staff notices right away that he is not normal. Rather quickly the FBI is called.
Soon enough, the flock ends up being taken to the house of one of the FBI agents, who treats them very well. She feeds them (tries to cook), clothes them, and even makes them go to bed on time. Maximum is feeling very conflicted at this point. The flock then works on trying to find their parents with the information that they took in the previous book - they have little success.
The FBI agent decides that it would be a good time for the children to go to school, a private school (noticing something about the title yet?). The flock goes, and tries to be normal, with little success of course. Though Fang does get an admirer, and Maximum even goes out on a date. Things turn south from that point on. After Thanksgiving dinner, and an announcement that the FBI agent would like to adopt them, the children are almost caught by The School (the really bad one in this case - man this could get confusing) - but manage to escape, and flee the area.
Camping out in the swamp lands, they run into a couple of kids - who escaped from an institute just like the flock, and end up giving the flock a lead as to where to go next.
Following this lead, they decide to find out more about a company that supposedly controls almost everything - and might accidentally nuke the world.
Sleeping in a motel room close to this companies headquarters, Maximum is kidnapped, and replaced with a double (the rest of the flock see through the double in no time).
Maximum manages to escape (with some help from her voice), and tracks down where the flock is. Maximum is just in time to save the flock from a trap that the double and The School had set for them.
There is some more, but nothing of too much note.

I know I was rather quick on these, but there was just so much going on, that it would have taken a book to fully review these books.
I can't wait for a third one, there has to be a third one.

Censor the classics?!

Okay, here is the deal. Tom and Jerry, along with other classic cartoons are being censored so that they cut out "...any scenes or references in the series where smoking appeared to be condoned, acceptable, glamorized or where it might encourage imitation,". All of that because ONE person complained.
While I don't like smoking, never have, I don't think that changing the past should occur just because I don't like something. Parents should use the occasions where smoking comes up, to talk to their children, not just let the TV be the kids baby sitter. One more problem I have with this, just because a young person sees Tom smoking a cancer stick, doesn't mean that they will imitate it, he's often the bad guy anyway, I haven't seen a kid run around and smack someone with a shovel and an iron because they saw it on a cartoon.
Here is my opinion on this one - raise your kids, teach them what is right, and give them the resources to make the right decisions; but I guess I just don't know what it means to be a parent (and that means my parents didn't know how to be parents either).
Here is the link to the article. Link

Ahhh....

Well, today is another day. I got off work about an hour ago. After taking out the trash, and changing out the mouse on Jana's computer, Jana was nice enough to make me some breakfast.
Work wasn't bad at all. I was training the new guy, nice guy. I'm sure I would have a better time of that if I didn't have such a problem with people I don't know. Oh well, tis life.
Not much else is going on, life as normal. Jana and I are about to go to Sonic to get some more breakfast - what we had just wasn't filling. Then it's off to bed for all good little Duanes'.

Ah mornings

I love to sleep through them, as much as possible. Like today for instance, I went to bed at 3:30am, and didn't get up till about 2pm. I know that seems like a long sleep, but I needed it after my previous day with little sleep.
I guess I should go out and mow the lawn again - we've had a lot of rain and the grass is growing like crazy (damn it). I'm still trying to convince Jana that just removing the grass, and putting rock out front would be better - and would look nice. Maybe someday.

Good day at work

I had a rather good day today, depsite the lack of sleep from last night. Work went rather smoothly, a few hicups here and there, but all in all - smooth. I even help a guest with a question he had about the SunOS (I'm thankful for Man pages). Got to leave on time as well - woohoo!!

Jana's a bit on the sore side, but not too sore to make me a tasty steak dinner. Yummy. I just can't figure out why she called me a Hee Haw.

Fozzy is wanting to play bad, have to do that before I go to bed - that way he might sleep though the night. Did you know that cats are the number one cause of insamnia? (Neither did I, till I made up the fact).

I'm thinking a nap might be in order - soon.

Online Photo Services

Other then Flickr account that I had - and was not happy with, I decided to try a couple other online photo services.

Photobucket
I liked the storage, and the monthly bandwidth limits they put in place (1GB, and 10GB respectively), it's a sure number, you can choose what size images to upload - lots of small images or a few large ones - you get to choose! I wasn't impressed at all with the interface, or how they thought it was best to organize things (very little choice there).
One positive that I did find with this, was a program called Flock. It allows you to upload and view photos from a Flickr or Photobucket account. Too bad I don't use either of these. Big plus on it, it's based off of FireFox.

Walgreen's
Well, what can I say, it has to be one of the best services I have used. Unlimited storage, you can share images online, and you can get the prints shipped to you - or pick them up at a Walgreen's ($0.19) if you are close to one. I actually used this for work today - very handy. Only problem with this is that it doesn't have that pleasant of an appearance, and not much of the handy functionality that others have.

Yahoo Photo Beta
I used Yahoo photo before, wasn't that impressed. Now I'm starting to get that way. You don't have the storage or bandwidth limits that others have (Yahoo has more money), you can add labels to your photos, comments, and even sort the photos into multiple albums. Only thing I miss is the ability to select who can see what photo, with Yahoo you have two options, Private or Public. I miss the ability to select Friends, Family, Public, or Private (from Flickr).
The interface is very nice, and intuitive. It also has a handy extension for FireFox that allowed me to drop and drag photos from my Linux desktop (I didn't see that on the rest of them).
Big problem with this so far - it's still a beta. I get errors often; odd thing about all but one of the errors, after I clicked okay on the error message, it did what I asked anyway. The errors are negated by the cute hamsters that you get to see every once in a while.

Conclusion
I will stick with Yahoo Photos Beta for now, unless I can find a reason to switch to another service.

Another day and another rough night

Well, last night was another rough one for me. I had trouble getting to sleep. Just layed awake, and talked to Jana - I guess I was a grup to boot. I think I fell asleep about 3:30am, after Jana massaged me for about an hour (thank you again). I prefer to go to bed and sleep around that time, if not a little later - but not when I have to work in the morning. Well, I'm up, and I feel like posting for a couple of minutes before I get ready.
I'm going to work this morning, all bright eyed and bushy taile (okay, not really, but I can lie - it's my blog after all). Today shall be an interesting day, I will be taking care of housekeeping - and I won't have to watch the Front Desk at the same time - enough coverage. Too bad the boss didn't listen to me and give the guy who is coming back today a few days worth of retraining before he started on again.
Yesterday I relized that I'm not skinny, okay, I'm fat (good thing Jana doesn't read). Guess I knew that before, it just never hit me before. Now what am I going to do about it? I guess some exercise and diet is in order - where to start, it all seems kind of daunting. I'll have to give some extra thought to this.
I'm off to get ready for work. Woohoo, extra woo.

Surveys

Couple of surveys for everyone to try.

Pop Vs Soda
The eternal debate continues. Let the world know what you think is the right term. Only takes a couple of minutes. Just so you know, pop is the current winner.

English Dialect Survey
This is the second one in the series. It is a long survey, and makes you think on many of the questions. I found this one very interesting. Give it a go if you have a free hour or two.

Pig-Latin Survey
And for those of you who know Pig-Latin. I did not take this one, since I don't speak that particular "language".

Flickr

Well, today I deiced to try using Flickr for many of my photos... I can't say that I have been really impressed.
It's a good service, but it just doesn't seem to live up to the hype that I have been bombarded with. The Pro service is more what I expected of the free account, the free account is just so limited that it can't be used by anyone who wants to use the service to archive and organize their photos.
The benefits of the pro account ($24.95 per year):

• 2 GB monthly upload limit
• Unlimited storage
• Unlimited bandwidth
• Unlimited photosets
• Permanent archiving of high-resolution original images
• The ability to replace a photo
• Ad-free browsing and sharing

Compare that to what you get with a Free Account:

• 20 MB monthly upload limit
• 3 photosets
• Photostream views limited to the 200 most recent images
• Storage of smaller (resized) images

Let's compare the two sets of features.
Monthly upload limit: Pro 2GB, Free 20MB. I don't think that the upload limit is that big of a deal, unless you constantly uploading photos - but for the normal person, 20MB should be fine most of the time.

Storage: Really this the most annoying thing for me. Pro - Unlimited, Free - 200 most recent images. For the free account, I can see them wanting to put a limit of the amount of storage (after all, they have to pay for it), but to limit it to 200 images, that just seem kind of arbitrary. Why not put a size limit on the storage? That way people can ask "Well, I can upload 300 smaller images, or 200 larger images - which is more important to me?"
Now with a storage limit on the free account, you would think that no more photos would be allowed, or older ones would be deleted, once the limit is reached, but they are not. According to Flickr "Your photos are NOT removed from Flickr, only from the list of your photos." What?! That means that if I have 201 pictures, and the first one I uploaded was that of my newborn baby - then it's still there, but I can't get to it unless I pay $25.00.
Here is the deal, they are not limiting the size of the account because they have to pay for the extra storage, but only because they want people to pay for the service. Yes, limiting the number of photos that people can see is a way of paying for the extra storage - you will get people who pay - but really it sounds more like blackmail to me.

Photosets: Pro - Unlimited, Free - 3. These are basically just super tags, that have a nice image to represent the tag... not a big deal or a huge waste of storage. So why do they limit the free account to only 3? Not a deal breaker, you can at least use tags, but they aren't as useful (harder to find) then the photosets.

Image size: Pro - Unlimited storage of high-resolution images, Free - storage of smaller (resized) images. I think I explained my take on this in the Storage section.

My take on Flickr, can be useful for very limited uploading of images for blogging or something like that (as long as you use the account once every 90 days), or very good for frequent updating of images for many reasons (if you are willing to pay for it), but it doesn't seem to have a good middle ground.

Midnighters Trilogy by Scott Westerfeld

**Please keep in mind that there are more then likely going to be spoilers in these posts, so if you don't want to know anything - then please don't read after the first title is presented (titles are in bold print).**

One of the most recent series that I read was Midnighters by Scott Westerfeld.
Simply put this series is about five teenagers who have one thing in common, they are some of the only few people who are awake during the secret hour (which resides in exact midnight). Of course this secret time could not be a peaceful time of enjoyment, no, it is also inhabited by demons who's only desire is to remove these "Midnighters" from their time, and is a time when any modern technology does not function.

**Possible Spoilers below - you have been warned**

The Secret Hour
This book mainly deals with introducing the individual Midnighters, their personalities, their present situation. Immediately a monkey wrench is thrown into the normality of the Midnighter's lives, when Jessica moves into town.
Jessica is not like the other Midnighters, her eyes aren't photophobic like the rest of them, and she is just too normal. When Jessica is around, the darklings (those demons that I talked about earlier) go nuts.
Now it turns out that each of the Midnighters have an ability, one can read minds, one can do complex math in her head, on can see signs of the darklings, one has almost no gravity during the secret hour. There is one small problem, Jessica doesn't seem to have any ability to keep her safe during the secret hour. Jessica spends most of the book having the other Midnighters protect her with their abilities and their knowledge of darkling lore (did you know that darklings have a fear of the number 13?).
The book ends with Jessica taking a great risk (along with the rest of the Midnighters) to figure out what her ability is. She is the one that the darklings have feared would come - the one who could bring fire and light to the secret hour.

Touching Darkness
This starts to give you an insight into the past of the Midnighters (those of the previous generations), and another threat that the current generation of Midnighters must face - but with some help this time.
Jessica now has her ability, and the darklings are now scared beyond reason, everything should be cake from now on - right? Nope, life is never that simple. The long and short of it is, that some of the Midnighters discover that one of Jessica's daylight friends family may have some knowledge of the secret hour, and have found a way to communicate with darklings.
Des, using numbers and math finds a hidden spot in the midnight hour, and there is a Midnighter from a past generation (one that everyone thought was completely wiped out). All of this leads to the Midnighters making the discovery that about 50 years in the past, the Midnighters had been betrayed, and one of their own was now part of a darkling.
It turns out that the Midnighter from the past, the one that was now part of a darkling, was dying. That means that they will want another Seer.
Jessica's daylight friend's family is pulling out all of the stops to get the current seer. They succeed. He is taken as part of a darkling (the other seer is left to die in the desert), but is saved by Jessica; he is not the same though - something changed in him, he's not fully human now.

Blue Moon
This book is the one that has the fastest pace of them all, it's a non-stop thrill ride, with a shocking ending.
The seer is now part darkling, the mindcaster now has control over her ability, and everyone else is the same.
Early in the book, things start to get weird. The five Midnighters are in a school assembly, when the secret hour suddenly comes (in the middle of the morning). Things are obviously wrong, but no one can figure out what.
This one you can finish on your own. I may not fully agree with the ending, but it does provide some food for thought.

Articles

Here are a couple more articles for your enjoyment:

Woman accused of heroin-soaked panties
BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese woman has appeared in court accused of transporting panties and long johns soaked in heroin, state media said Friday.

Know when to wear 'em, know when to bare 'em...
LONDON (Reuters) - Up to 200 strip poker players will compete Saturday to see who will lose their shirts -- and more -- and who will scoop 10,000 pounds by retaining their clothes and modesty.

Woohoo!!

I'm almost out of sales!! Now I'm just waiting for them to hire someone to replace me in that roll.
On another note, why is short hair on men associated with not being professional? I have long hair (okay, had now I just have a stub) and I am a better employee then most... but because I have long hair people see me as someone who is - I'm not even sure what. Maybe it seems like I don't play by the rules, but then that seems to be what makes the best employee - a person who is independent enough to think for themselves, and others when needed. Okay, that rant is over.

All in all, a good day. I plan on going to a celebration dinner (because of not being in sales any more).

Morning

Another early morning. Didn't sleep too well, but I surprisingly don't feel too bad - I'm sure that will change as the day goes on. Jana and I got up, and went to have some breakfast at McD's; too bad the weather is so bad right now - rain and thunder.
Today is the day that I have to go in to make up for that day I called in sick. Lucky me. I don't plan on staying all day - but I must say that I am worried that I will end up being there all day (I know how these things work).
Let's see, I talked to Dustin last night, for the first time in I'm not even sure in how long (isn't IM great?). I will have to talk to him again later.
Note to self, write a quick review of some books that I have read lately - I think that might be a good use for the bandwidth that I'm using. BTW, if you haven't tried the Blogger Beta, you should give it a try, it may be missing a few features, but it's still got some stuff that Blogger was missing.

Mood: Cautiously Optimistic

Oops, I posted this to the wrong blog twice - I must be tired.

Family faces eviction for loud night prayers

I could care less if you pray, but damn, atleast keep it quiet for the rest of the world.
Link

Lawn

All right, I mowed the lawn! Everyone happy?!

Difficulty

Well, I had brought my laptop to the bedroom, in hopes of being able to write a bit more on my story. The rather sad truth is, I made one mistake that is preventing me from doing this... I put Fozzy in my lap. Now Fozzy is sound asleep, and I can't focus enough to write. I know that I could just move him, but have you ever seen him sleeping in your lap? It's not as easy as one would think - it's almost like he has some sort of magic that makes those sorts of actions difficult. Maybe he will move shortly... though I doubt it.

NASA can't find what?!

And this is the one government agency that I almost look up to...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government has misplaced the original recording of the first moon landing, including astronaut Neil Armstrong's famous "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," a NASA spokesman said on Monday.
Link

What a night

Well, yesterday I ended up calling in sick. I was just too dizzy to even drive to work, let alone be any use to them at all. I ended up sleeping most of the day, and finally got up at 4pm. Since I was feeling a bit better, Jana and I drove to Sonic and got a bite to eat, then it was back home. I stayed up till about 9:30 or so, then went back to bed. I slept great for about an hour, then it was all down hill from there. I just could not get comfortable, and just caught snatches of sleep here and there. Finally about 3am, I went and grabbed my notebook, and started writing out the start (or possibly the middle) of a story. Then it was back to trying to sleep for me... not much luck till just before my alarm clock went off.
Now I'm still dizzy, not as bad as yesterday, and I still have a headache from hell, but now I'm just really tired as well. I will be heading off to work soon.
Jana has been good to me though, she got me some Wal-adryl, and some vitamin C earlier, and even rubbed my back for a bit. Now if she just wasn't so nosy about what I write in my notebook in the middle of the night. ;-)

What Old People Do For Fun

Okay, this was just too funny.

A few interesting articles today

"Charm school" helps men perfect the pick-up

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ben had a rough Friday night picking up women on the Hotel Gansevoort's balcony after being coldly rejected by two attractive blonds.The 23-year-old documentary filmmaker, who asked his last name not be used for fear of ridicule, suffers from an acute case of "premature ejectulation" -- ejecting himself early from promising conversations with women for fear of rejection.

Such was the diagnosis from the coaches of "Charm School Boot Camp," a three-day crash course on seducing women that Ben and five other men paid $1,600 apiece for in early August.

Border cops nab cheese smuggler

PHOENIX, Arizona (Reuters) - Puzzled U.S. border police arrested a Mexican smuggler with 88 pounds (40-kg) of cheese hidden in a special compartment in his truck, police said on Friday.

Feeling blue, say 'I do'

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lonely? Feeling low? Try taking a walk -- down the aisle. Getting married enhances mental health, especially if you're depressed, according to a new U.S. study.

Pluto's status attacked

PRAGUE (Reuters) - Despite being the farthest planet from Earth in our solar system, Pluto has come under attack from astronomers and may be about to lose its status in the battle.

Long day and other things

Well today was a long day, see the other blog for details. But in case you don't want to do that, here is a quick breakdown.
Worked 13 hours, not enough staff, working in housekeeping, mean people.
There was one more thing, that I want to share about my day - here is what I posted in the other blog:

On a positive note, there was a caterpillar at the hotel that decided to spin it's cocoon on the side of our building - I got a few pics with my phone, I will share them once I figure out how to post them.

Not much else went on today, since I worked all day. It's muggy, and rainy. Jana and I went to Village Inn after I got off work - they were out of her pie (yet again).
At least Jana seems to be feeling better from her pokes - oh and Fozzy just bit her (good boy!). Fozzy is a bit hyper, he's running around chasing a red laser light as I type this. :-) Oh, and chattering at it.

Mood: Tired.

Driver gets 70 speeding tickets in 5 months

I think this one word summarizes it "DAMN".

Cisneros racked up 70 speeding tickets in the last five months, a record for the Scottsdale Police Department, police said on Friday.

Speeding cameras in Scottsdale, a suburb of Phoenix, snapped pictures of the 32-year-old woman as she tore through the sun-baked city in her Honda Civic between March 2 and July 31.

Link

Another day at work

Well today, was another day at work. Can't say that much happened. I wrote a rather long post (long for me) in my other blog, about work, and what I do; it gave me a good way to think things through. Long and short of the post, I'm not happy, and I won't be as long as I'm doing sales. Time to work on the ol' resume. Maybe I'll get lucky and someone will die, freeing up a good position for me (yes, I'm joking).
I haven't felt very well today, bad headache, stomach ache, some shortness of breath (that I attribute to my stomach ache), and feeling hot all day. I'm sure some sleep will do me good.
In the morning I'll tell you the story about how I raced into a burning building to save a little kitten. (Yes, I'm lying.)

Before I go to bed

Hmm, let me see. What to post. How about a bit about me (it's all about me, me, ME). I live with my fiancee (love her to death), my cat (he's so cute, and knows it), I'm a computer geek, and I work at a hotel (not that I'm enjoying that too much right now). I think that about sums it up.
Let's see, what do I like to do:

• Read
• Fiddle around on my computer
• Play with the cat
• Annoy my Fiancee
• Relax

Maybe I'll post a list of what I don't like later.

Now off to bed so that I can work early in the morning. Maybe I'll play on the computer for a couple more minutes though.

First Post

This is the customary first post (okay, the second, but that first one was just "Hello", and was quickly deleted). I guess I'm suppose to do something interesting with this, but since I can't think of what that may be, I will just post this. I'm sure I can come up with something interesting later.