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.