Movie Thoughts: Iron Man

What surprised the living begeezus out of me was Mother's Day. The 5/8 requested that the family to and see "Iron Man". Now, she isn't against movies, but her wanting to see a movie, made from a comic book character clad in metal, with ginormous explosions aplenty...well...I'll tell you this, I searched the basement for pods before we left for the theater.

I liked the movie. While I used to collect comics religiously, I never collected much in the way of Marvel comics. I know most of the main characters; Spiderman, Hulk, X Men, Submariner etc. But I've never read them with frequency. So my opinion is somewhat skewed from that of the (as Stan Lee would put it ) 'True Believers'.

When I first heard that Robert Downey, Jr. was playing Tony Stark (Iron Man's alter ego), I wasn't certain how good the movie was going to be. I mean, come on...this is the guy from movies like "Weird Science", "Back to School", "The Pick-Up Artist" and "Less Than Zero". Okay stuff, but certainly not anywhere near the character he took on this time. But then I figured, if anyone can play a hopeless drunkard...he certainly has the real life experience for it.

So, coming from the perspective of one who knows who Iron Man is, and has some idea of his origin and the like, but not being a complete fanboy, I have to say, I thought that movie ROCKED! Almost from the start. It never got slow or boring. And some of the scenes where Stark is upgrading/testing his armor are down right laugh out loud funny.

Of the recent crop of super hero movies, for pure entertainment value, I think I would even put Iron Man above Spiderman. With Iron Man, you have a great concept, but not a gigantic fanboy base like with Spiderman, so they didn't have to spend so much time on the creation, and could spend more time just having fun with it. And it shows.

Even if you're not a super hero movie fan, but like just good raucous fun, this movie is great. You could pretty much walk in at any point, and be entertained by it.

Motivation

I started this blog a couple of years ago for no real reason at all. I didn't have any set goal in mind when I did. I wanted to document some of the things happening in and around this part of the nation that is referred to as 'fly-over country' - that is to say the Midwest. It is amazing to look at the analytics and server logs and see that people actually stop by my little home on the range here. That people not only stop by, but that some continue to come back time after time. What it is that makes you come back, I can't figure out. The musings of some unknown guy in some nigh desolate area of the country that the vast majority of people think is still being kept in line by a guy named Matt Dillon.

I was fairly gung-ho about it in the beginning, but then slowly began to wane in the frequency of my posts. But then something happened. A friend of mine...well, really, my best friends wife to be exact started her own blog. And she wrote about her life and her families adventures up in the (even more) desolate area of Minot, North Dakota. For those of you not in the know, if you had a good arm, and a new baseball, you could probably through a baseball from Minot, and have it land in Canada. That's how far north it is. You can't get much more north and still be in the good ol' US of A.

At any rate. She started her blog, and it was good. I was an avid reader. Always interested in seeing pictures of her kids, and seeing what was going on up nawth. And she gave me inspiration to post more frequently, and (I think anyway) more quality stuff. To improve my writing skills as it were. To make something that wasn't just a ho-hum rambling of some faceless guy, in fly-over country. She had blessed me a couple of times with praise in her blog. For which I still am not fully certain I deserved. One simply has to wonder if she did so because we know each other. Our families actually shared a house for about a month up in Alaska (when both she, and the 5/8 were about 7 months pregnant), but that's a story for a different post entirely (and one that I promise I'll get to - eventually).

But, she recently quit took a hiatus from posting. She had a long, informative post about it all. Seems that she just ran out of things to say, or at least, things she wanted to talk about. Maybe she felt like she was getting whiney, or like she was maybe boring people. She wasn't, on both accounts (at least, she did neither in my views), but she made the decision.

Without even realizing it was happening, it seems that my own posts started to dwindle. And you can probably tell, the last couple have pretty much been nothing much at all. A movie thought or two. But looking back, I realized that this started about the same time that Military Mom quit posting on her blog. I think seeing her post so much, actually gave me some sort of motivation to post more myself. Not that it was a contest or anything. But part of it, I think, is that I knew for certain at least someone was reading this, and at least one person was actually enjoying what I wrote (or, at least, went through the trouble to 'claim' to enjoy it).

I've got some things I'm working on now, and hopefully I will soon feel they are ready to post. So I'm certainly going to make an effort to post more frequently. Seriously, I am. I know I've probably said it before, but I really mean it this time. Or maybe I just mean it, but like the 50 new people we see at the gym just after New Year's, it will go good for a while, and then peter out again. And what do I know anyway. Maybe that is like a cycle with people who blog as a passion. Maybe every six or eight or two months, it just gets pushed to the back burner for a while, while the old cranial batteries regenerate, or recharge, or whatever else.

There is a lot coming up. School is about to end for the summer. No. 1 Son was promoted to Corporal in the USMC Jr. ROTC program at his high school. So there should be plenty to write about - at least for the near future.

Movie Thoughts: I Am Legend

When I saw the first commercial for this Will Smith flick, what went through my mind was "this is a remake of 'The Omega Man'". I was right.

In this version, a doctor finds a cure for cancer. But the cure comes with a cost...the destruction of man. The cure causes a virus to be released which mutates man and beast alike into carnivorous, cannibalistic beings with a great hunger for human flesh.

Smith is the doctor that stays behind in an empty New York City trying to find a cure.

Why the writers or producers or whomever didn't just name the remake "The Omega Man" is beyond me. The "I Am Legend" title comes from the book that inspired this movie, along with The Omega Man (with Charlton Heston in the lead) and "Last Man On Earth" (with Vincent Price in the lead).

Some of the scenes in Legend are taken directly out of Omega Man (I've never seen "Last Man On Earth"). Near the opening in Omega, Heston visits a car dealership and drives of in a new Mustang. In the opening credits of Legend, Smith is racing around the empty streets of New York City in a new Mustang, hunting deer and trying to avoid the lions.

And the endings were almost exactly the same. Although I just realized there is an alternate ending on the DVD for Legend which I haven't watched yet (that'll teach me to ignore the special features). Supposedly the alternate ending more closely mirrors the book.

If you're a fan of post-apocalyptic-killer-vampire-like-zombie-creature movies, this is a pretty good one. It isn't scary so much, but maybe that is because I already knew the story. I saw the Omega Man the first time when I was just little kid, watching with my mom. I thought Matthias was creepy as hell. And he was much more intelligent than the protagonist vampire-zombie-creature-thing in Legend.

While I liked Legend, after watching it, I'm ready to watch Omega Man again. Don't get me wrong, I like Will Smith, I think he's a great actor...but he is certainly no Charlton Heston.

My Top 10 Picks for Windows Software

I have noticed there seem to be quite a few people discussing their top 10 picks for software for their computer. From these lists, I have found quite a bit of very useful, well written and completely bug-free stuff. Most of these items are free, and the few that aren't are almost-but-not-quite free. So here is my Top 10 Software Must-Haves:

1. Textpad: This isn't free, but it is worth every fracking penny! This is a notepad replacement text editor, but also does color coding for PHP, HTML and others. With displayed line numbers, and tabbed interface and all sorts of other goodies, I don't know that I could live without it. ($16.50)
2. Windows Live Writer: Honestly, I don't see how anybody that blogs can do without this beautiful little gem. It posts to a list of blog software longer than my arm. Blogspot, Wordpress.com, Wordpress (stand-alone),LiveJournal,LiveSpaces and the list goes on and on and on. There are also some great plugins for it. It is so easy to insert a picture, position the thing, give it a border or a drop shadow just to add that little extra 'oomph' for your readers. (Free)
3. IZarc: This free program is a great replacement for WinZip and it's rather limited capabilities. This thing opens just about every type of compressed file imaginable. I know, I know, file compression in the ZIP format is natively available in XP and Vista, but there are so many other formats that are not compatible with the Windows File Compression (or WinZip) - such as RAR, TAR, GZIP and a host of others. There is absolutely no reason what-so-ever to NOT have this thing on your machine. It is fast, and small and once you have it, you won't understand how anyone could not have it. (Free)
4. Paint.NET: When I first heard about this program,I'm thinking to myself. "Ho-hum, it's MS Paint, but written in .NET, so what, MS Paint is probably the absolute worst graphics program...EVER". But I visited the website anyway, and WOW, this thing does so much more than MS Paint could ever DREAM of doing. It uses layers, there are plenty of people making plug-ins and actions. This is a quick and easy light-weight (and FREE) Adobe Photoshop instead-of. There is also GIMP, but my opine is that Paint.NET is easier and much more intuitive than GIMP...but a long shot. For quick lightweight photo manipulation, or graphics creation, I always turn to Pain.NET. OF course, it is no where near as powerful as Photoshop, so is in now way a Photoshop replacement. But I've found about 70% of what I do with pictures, can be done in Paint.NET. (Free)
5. Firefox: The best browser money can buy - and it doesn't cost any money. I switched to Firefox before Internet Explorer 7 was released, because Firefox has tabbed browsing. You can open a multitude of pages in different tabs, in a single window. Awesome! Great for doing searches, as you can right-click the link and select "open in new tab" and still have the original search results available. There are very few pages any more that actually require MSIE, and for those that do, you can download an add-on for Firefox which adds "View in IE" to the right-click menu of any web page. Simple, elegant, and it works great. (Free)
6. StumbleUpon: This is actually a browser toolbar instead of a program, but I still dig it. You setup your account at StumbleUpon and install the tool bar. The tool bar gives you a"Stumble!" button. Get bored? Click the stumble button and StumbleUpon serves you up a random web page that falls within the "likes and dislikes" criteria to setup at their site. Plus there is a thumbs-up and thumbs-down button on the toolbar, allowing you specifiy "Yeah, this is cool, I like this kind of stuff" or "Stupid, I hate it, don't show me this kind of junk anymore". (Free)
7. Windows Live Photo Gallery: Another of Microsoft's Live offerings. It appears to integrate seamlessly with Windows - it has the same look and feel as the native image viewer, so everything is comfortable and familiar. Allows you to index, tag, keyword photos and videos, and upload them to both Windows Spaces and Flickr (Yahoo's very popular online photo album/sharing site). It doesn't natively upload to Google's Picasa, but then again, who want's Google to have all of their photos stored in a database that you can't ever ever ever delete anyway? (Free)
8. PCTools AntiVirus: I used to be an AVG fan. I really did. But then I started playing with Microsoft's new web-graphic flash knock off called Silverlight. The problem is, that AVG would block access to Silverlight files, so I was forced to investigate other options. I found PCTools, and haven't looked back. Look, everyone needs an anti-virus program running, even with Vista's beefed up security, it's just a darned smart thing. I hate Norton, it is slow, clunky, extremely bloated and seems to start up at inopportune times (read, when I've got Dingo in the sites of my Famas, and just ready to pull the trigger). PCTools, on the other hand, creates a smaller disc space footprint, and a much smaller memory footprint. Enough to make even Al Gore proud. (Free)
9. Google Desktop Sidebar: If you're not running Vista with its ultra-cool (and even somewhat functional) sidebar, then you should look into the Google Desktop Sidebar. You can put all sorts of widgets in it. Clock, calendar that hooks into your Google Calendar, file shredder, remote desktop connection, as well as many, many others. There is another sidebar supported by Microsoft called "Desktop Sidebar" but frankly, I found that one unstable, and sorely lacking widgets. (Free)
10. µTorrent: Oh c'mon, there are plenty of reasons to need a bit torrent client that does not include piracy or pr0n. I can't happen to think of any just now, but there are - people assure me of that. In any case, this bit torrent client is small and quick and is anything but a resource hog. You won't even notice it's running. (Free)

So there's my top ten free/nearly free programs for Windows. And just to show I'm not prejudiced against the Mac, here are my top 11 must-haves for Macs:

1. Windows Vista: An extremely versatile and easy to use OS. Has decent enough security, and there are oodles more programs (read: games) for Windows than any other operating system:
2. The ten other items listed above...

There you go, 10 for Windows, 11 for Macs.

Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

Twenty years ago, when the 5/8 and I were just 'a couple' and not yet a married couple, we sat in my parents' living room and watched the Kansas Jayhawks win the NCAA basketball championship. I can still remember the feeling of watching that happen. There was a kind of quiet pride. I didn't feel like hooping and hollaring, but I did remember this kind of peaceful happiness that came over me. Kansas isn't known for much see. We are the very definition of 'fly-over country'. People arrive in, or travel through Kansas because they have to - very few because they want to. So some positive recognition coming out of Kansas is always a good thing.

Last night, I got to feel that feeling again. Luckily I might add. With about 6 minutes left in the game, and Kansas quite a bit behind, I was contemplating turning the TV off and just going to bed. But, then I figured that in basketball, 6 minutes is an eternity. So I watched a little more. With 3 minutes left in the game, and the prognosis not much better, I began saving the work I was doing on the computer while watching the game, and shutting it down. Figuring we gave it a decent try, but just weren't playing to our potential, and we'd once again walk away from the championship game without the win.

But then that guy on the Memphis team missed his two free-throws, and something, it seemed, began to happen for the 'hawks. They seemed to sense that this gave them a fighting chance. The score now was very close, one possession could win or at least tie the game. And it did, ridiculously, with something like 2 seconds left in the game Kansas scores the tying field goal, and the game heads to overtime.

The overtime period was quite an exceptional display of what the 'hawks are capable of. They came out and played better during that period, than (I believe anyway) any other time in the game. Meanwhile, Memphis seemed to have lost their steam. It was truly a great game. And I send out a giant, heartfelt congratulations to the Kansas Jayhawks. Let's hope there are many, many more of these to come our way.

General Electric sUxX0r!!!!!

General Electric is a humongous company. If it exists, they probably either 1) make it, 2) make a part that goes in it or 3) consult on the production of it. They do everything from light bulbs, to airplane engines, to wind turbines, to nuclear reactors, to movies (Universal is owned by GE) to television shows (NBC is owned by GE).

I used to work for them. I know what they are like. They are all about 'The Process'. The Process is what is all fired important. It is, in fact, THE most important thing at GE. Even in the customer service arena, the customer takes a back seat to The Process. A CSR can have 1000 customers angry with their performance, but as long as the CSR followed the process, they don't have to worry about a poor review, or losing their job. Meanwhile, a different CSR can have 1000 customers happy as snails, and ready to throw away all of their appliances today, and spend their hard-earned Benjies on brand spanking new GE appliances, but if that CSR didn't follow The Process, they are in danger of losing their job and will undoubtedly receive a poor review. In GE, The Process is everything...always.

About eight years ago we purchased a new washing machine. It was a GE brand. It world great for us for about six years, then started to show signs of wear and tear. We have three kids. We do laundry probably five days out of seven every week. The machine was used and abused for six straight years. Then about two years ago we had to have the service guy out to fix it for the first time. Over the past two years, the service guy has been out to fix our old GE washer maybe eight or ten times. Finally, we decided that it was time to get a new machine.

We had such a great experience with the previous GE machine, we naturally gravitated to a new GE machine. What we ended up with was basically an updated model of the one we had. We had it about a month before it started making some gawd awful noise. We called GE since it was still under warranty, and they came out and fixed it. Some kind of stabilizing arm had broken. That should have been the first clue that this machine was made with quality that was almost-but-not-quite exactly unlike the quality of our old machine.

We had the machine a mere month before it broke down and we had to call invoke our warranty to have it repaired. I seems that some dohickey responsible for the stabilazanitator that connects to the thingamabob broke. Ummmmmkaaay...sure. They fixed it it all up and everything went humming along splendidly for the next five months. Then one night, after putting a load in the wash, and settling down to see what questions weren't going to be answered on LOST that week, a noise came rumbling up from the basement. It was an ominous noise. Not unlike (I would imagine) two buffalo fighting. I don't mean just butting heads fighting - the way animals do in Wild Kingdom - I mean real honest to goodness, John Wayne style knock-down drag out fighting. It seems the entire house was shaking.

Long story short, the washer quit...again. So now we've had this thing six months, and it has broken down twice. Call up GE again, they say they'll send someone out on Monday. Monday comes and goes, no one show sup. call them back. They say someone will come out on Thursday. This time someone actually shows up (surprise!). Bad news is, he has to order parts. Worse news is, one of the parts is back-ordered. Back ordered. The machine is six months old. I would expect a part for...say...a ten year old machine to be back ordered. But six months? Either this part that broke is so freaking rare that they don't feel the need to keep any in stock...anywhere, or the parts breaks so fracking much they can't keep them in stock. I'm leaning towards believing the latter.

Fast forward a month - that is a month, mind you, where we were spending $60+ dollars a week at the darned laundromat - and they repairman finally comes back to the house. All ready to make the machine purr like a kitten again (not to mention actually wash clothes). And...OOPS...there is yet ANOTHER part the guy needs. And guess what? They don't have THAT part in stock either, and need to order it from GE. The guy says he'll be back next Friday to fix it (I think he is assuming the part is not on back order - a pretty big assumption if you ask me).

So, we get to look forward to yet another fun Saturday afternoon at the laundromat.

I seriously cannot see myself buying another GE product, period. These people have really ticked me off but good.

Literary Thoughts: Knights of the Black and White

I'm not a big fan of fantasy literature. Sure, I've read "Lord of the Rings" and "Watership Down" and they were  enjoyable. But mostly, I'm not into reading stuff where people are named stuff like 'Glimmermear', just can't seem to get to into it. I mean, seriously, if you have refer to a glossary just to pronounce the names, it's just too much work to make for an enjoyable read. But I digress...

Jack Whyte is an author I hadn't heard of when I ran out of reading material and was at the local Dillon's store where I managed to find this book. It is book one of the "Templar Trilogy". Now, I've always been a sucker for the mysteries of the Knights Templar, the Priory of Sion, ancient Church societies and the like. So I picked it up. He starts his tale just before the first Crusade in the mid 11th Century. Knowing this, I was a bit curious how he would handle the Crusades and subsequent occupation of Jerusalem and other areas of the Middle East.

And true to any author in today's climate who doesn't want to have a fatwa issued against him, or be branded a racist, the occupying Muslims were all nice, peaceful folks until the Franks from Christendom invaded their land and brutalized everyone. And even after that, the Muslims (along with the group who were to become the Knights Templar) were the only people who had any honor.

Now, I don't mind books that are critical of the Church or Christianity. I loved Dan Brown's "Angels and Demons" (even more than his "DaVinci Code"). And I know that throughout history, and especially in the early part of the second millennium, the Church was full of people who were only out for themselves. People who, by birth order, were pretty much forced into priesthood and what not. But come on, could Whyte not find one single Church official that would display at least some modicum of Christian ideals? For him, every pastor, bishop, cardinal and pope, everything they did, they did for some ulterior, self-gratifying motive. In addition to that, there must have been twenty or thirty pages, peppered throughout the book, where he kept repeating how evil and dishonorable the invaders from Christendom were. Once or twice, and I can get the message, but over and over ad nauseam. It started to remind me of that 50+ page speech given by John Galt in "Atlas Shrugged" (I have to be honest about that, I didn't read the whole speech).

But his misrepresentation of history aside, the book wasn't all bad. His descriptions of the people and the surroundings and the activities were well thought out. The story, while a bit slow to get rolling, did start to click along at a good pace once Jerusalem was conquered. I'm certain that I will finish the trilogy when the others come out in paperback - if only because I'm a sucker for stories of the Templars. Kind of like I'm a sucker for time travel movies, no matter how badly they stink, I can't not watch 'em.

Easter

It seems like it was just a couple of months ago that we were coloring Easter eggs. But that was a year ago, and this weekend, we were at it again. Boiling eggs, smelling that acidic vinegar smell as the little tablets of dye bubble and pop and dissolve into it. Covering the kitchen table with old newspapers to keep the dye - which will inevitably be spilt - from staining the table.

No. 2 Son is too old this year for coloring Easter eggs. No. 1 Son became too old a couple of years ago. So it was up to Little Sister and myself to color the eggs. She did a great job. The 5/8 had bought some egg coloring kits which came with little foam stickers. So, naturally for a nine year old, the more foam stickers you can use, the better off the entire world is. Needless to say several of the eggs were so covered with foam stickers, they could have been dropped from the top of the house without even cracking the brittle shell.

On Good Friday, it has become somewhat of a tradition that we get Long John Silver's for lunch, eat it at Gage Park (which, BTW, got a lot of print in Stephen King's "Dark Tower: Wizards and Glass"), and tour the Zoo. Two years ago we went, it was dreadfully cold and windy. Last year we didn't go. The weather man promised rain in the afternoon, so we skipped the Gage Park/Zoo tour. But the day was mostly nice, not near as bad as it was the year before. Lesson learned I suppose. This year, despite the gloom predictions of weather, we made plans to go anyway.

Our plans were delayed by the need to meet the Lowe's delivery guy at the Ol' Man's apartment building. The Ol' Man owns an old, mostly run-down apartment building. It was built eons ago. Sometime in the early part of the 20th Century, the building belonged to the American War Dads fraternal organization. The building has a gigantic, beautifully decorated (at one time anyway) basement which was hand-dug by the AWD. I can't imagine digging that basement, with 10 foot ceilings, by hand. I certainly can't see anyone doing that kind of work in this day and age. Instead, they would simply tear down the building and build a new one with a basement built-in.

At any rate, the Lowe's delivery guy called me about noon, just as we were getting ready to head over to LJS to get our food. He was wondering if someone would be there to help him unload the tons of carpet, ceiling tiles and linoleum the Ol' Man was having delivered. The Ol' Man is in his 70s, and about 8/10 blind. He has trouble standing, let alone walking or actually carrying anything, so we took a detour to the building to help the Lowe's guy unload the items.

The zoo was nice. It wasn't too cold, but chilly nonetheless. I have discovered over the last couple of years, that the best time to see the zoo is when the temperature is somewhere between 50 and 65. In the cool temperatures, the animals seem to be out and about much more than in either the cold or the hot weather. The bears were out playing and wrestling with each other. The Orangutans were outside, climbing on the impressively complex looking equipment their environment contains. Even the female gorilla, which usually only has her foot or knee visible from her hiding spot, was able to be seen.

Easter was...well...Easter. We spent the holiday with the in-laws in Lawrence. Not my favorite place to be. The 5/8 family, especially her sisters, tend to treat her like a red-headed stepchild. Constantly putting her down and pointing out her faults, even ones that aren't there. It ticks me off, and the kids are aware of the tension all around which usually lasts for a day or two after any visit to Lawrence. But this time, this time they seemed much more cordial than they have in the past.

While Easter and Christmas are closely related, it is clear to all that Christmas is definitely the bigger holiday. My kids know the reasons we celebrate these times. If you ask them, they'll acknowledge that of the two, while Christmas is a bigger celebration, Easter is the more important of the two. I'm thankful, and proud they know the reasons, not only in a way that they can recite that Easter is the "day Jesus rose from the dead". But that I get the feeling they really, really know what it is about. We haven't kept them close-in and sheltered from other faiths and beliefs. They know that Buddha, and Mohamed and a host of other religious founders were all born a natural birth, like Jesus. But they also recognize that only one of them rose from the grave. No re-incarnated, but re-animated. He conquered death, and with that, waits to absolve us of all our sins and fallacies.

With that, I extend to everyone a (belated) Happy Easter day, and season.

Cats & Dogs, working together

Are the end times upon us? Has anyone seen lions laying down with the lambs? I have to ask this because, in what I'm certain is a sign of the end of days, our cat and our dog seem to be in cahoots.

When the dog wants outside, she scratches at the door. The cat is not allowed outside. It's cruel I know. I fully support the notion that the cat should be allowed outside. Far, far away outside. Now, when the dog wants in, she again scratches at the door.

This morning, the dog scratches at the door. I get up, open the door and the dog runs to the end of the porch. Frustrated, open the door a bit more to whistle for her. That is when I noticed the movement, out of the corner of my eye. A dark slinky shape moving at an incredibly inhuman speed towards the open door, at an angle.

Luckily, I am wicked fast (well, not really) and closed the door enough to slow down the attempted egress of the feline, slow enough for me to reach down and grab it. The whole thing was timed with the precision of a Swiss watch. I can only conclude that the dog and the cat were in collusion.

Worries...

No. 1 Son left last Friday for a week trip to Orlando, Florida with the high school band. I was extremely proud of his efforts to earn his own spending money. He left with about $200 for spending. They left Friday morning, and arrived in Orlando around noon on Saturday. The 5/8 and I had given him another $40 to buy his siblings some T-shirts, not thinking it fair that he spend his own hard-earned money on stuff we wanted him to buy.

He thought he had a bundle of money. I explained to him that it really wasn't all that much. $250 works out to about $35 a day. He seemed to understand that. At least I thought he did, until he called this morning to let the 5/8 know he had blown through his entire stash of cash. In less than 36 hours, he managed to burn through all of his money. He is now 1/2 a continent away, and penniless.

He'll get $20 when they get back on the bus for the trip home so he can buy meals and what-not on the trip. They have meal tickets (I think about $15/day worth) for meals at the parks. But still....still it is hard. Knowing how easy it would be to pick up the phone, call the hotel and arrange to wire some money to him. But I can't. I have to let him learn and have this lesson indelibly burned into his psyche.

But I wonder. Am I being too harsh? Shouldn't I just wire 20 bucks to the kid? I haven't felt this kind of worry about any of my kids to date. That knot of tension in the back, just below the neck and between the shoulder blades. It isn't going away. He really only has two days left now. Tuesday and Wednesday. They leave Wednesday night for the ride back to T-town. So he'll be ok. He has the meal tickets, and the hotel supplies a large breakfast buffet.

So there he is 1/2 a country away, without money. If I do nothing, I feel callous and cruel. But if I give in and send money, he doesn't learn this valuable lesson. This is a lesson that cannot be taught any other way, period.

 

*sigh*

Whoa Nellie...

The wind was blowing with a good gale, and the air was cool to begin with. Which all added together made for a fairly cold day. The temperature hovered in the mid-thirties throughout the day Saturday. Saturday was one of those days where the stuff you have to do just doesn't seem to end.

My niece was having a birthday party in the morning. One just for the kids. I took Little Sister and dropped her off. I would have liked to stay, but had other things that required my attention. The party was rather unique, a candle making party held at a candle shop downtown. Then I had to run out to the east side of town to meet Sandy. Sandy has a daughter who used to be in girl scouts, but quit. She ended up though, with more than a few people who wanted girl scout cookies. So the 5/8 took her orders and Little Sister ended up selling some 250 boxes of cookies.

I met Sandy at the Sonic Drive-In on the east side of town. While I was waiting for her to show up, I idly wondered what the folks at the Sonic were thinking about the guy in the little red car who didn't order anything and didn't get out of his car. Then she pulled up in her big white Dodge Ram pickup and I got out and walked over to the truck. She handed me the envelope full of cash from the cookie sales. I thanked her, stuck in the inside pocket of my coat and returned to my car. After pulling out of the Sonic parking lot, I started wondering how long it was going to be before the fuzz pulled me over. I mean, how did that exchange really look? Some guy pulls up in a car, sits in the parking lot, then a truck pulls in. The guy gets out of his car, walks to the truck. The wind blowing the tails of his coat around his legs, takes an envelope full of money from the driver of the truck, gets back in his car and drives off. To me, that would look pretty suspicious. But I suppose the folks at the Sonic are either oblivious to their surroundings, or they see that kind of thing every day since the fuzz never did pull me over to see what the transaction was all about.

After the party, Little Sister's brownie troop were scheduled to meet at some stables south of town where the girls would get to ride horses and earn some horse badge thing. It was cold, and wet but thankfully the stables had an indoor arena so we didn't have to be outside. The lady running the show was nice enough, but she did have to go and talk about how much fun horse birthday parties are, and that she just happens to host them, right there at the stables. With that announcement she pretty much got on the dark side of every parent in attendance. I know for the last two days I've been hearing about how Little Sister just has to have a horse party or she will positively just die. *Sigh*

During our family movie (Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium - fab movie BTW) No. 1 Son called from Florida. He was all excited they had driven through Atlanta just after that massive tornado that tore up the city. He was telling me all about it when I heard some girl giggle in the background. Putting on my ultra-authoritative fatherly voice I asked "are you in a hotel room with a girl?" "No, dad, they just barged in...sorry dad, I gotta go" - click...buzzzz. Sounds like he's having fun anyway.

...And they're off...

Last Friday I went in late to work. I wanted to see No. 1 Son off. Make sure he got on the bus along with his trumpet and clothes and what not. The high school band had been invited to perform in the parade at Disney World and Epcot Center down in Orlando.

No. 1 Son worked his bum off earning money. Money to help may the 600 clams for the trip as well as earning some spending money. I was proud of the work he did. The savings he accumulated for spending money. We gave him about 40 bucks and instructed him to use that to purchase t-shirts for his younger sister and brother. I didn't think it would be fair for him to have to spend his own money on curios for his siblings. He would have, without hesitation, don't get me wrong. That's the kind of guy he is. He'd give you the shirt right off his back if you asked him for it, and he thought it would help you out.

I realized, as I was escorting him to the buses, then waiting for them to board, and the buses to pull away, how little I know if his school persona. I know some of his friends. Friends he had while attending Mater Dei school, and there is the kid from across the alley. Good kid, and No. 1 Son's best friend. But when we arrived, there were two girls, cute ones mind you, who were all jumpy and squealing when No. 1 Son arrived. One I know somewhat and I know they are just friends. The other, I don't know anything about. She's the one in the pic with the 'Home Alone' expression. No. 1 Son is on the left, the kid from across the alley is the other 'joe cool' with his sunglasses in a cloudy day. I don't know the Jayhawk fan, never seen him before.

I'm certain they're going to have a great time. And I trust No 1 Son completely. I have no fears at this time in his life that he would do anything inappropriate. Now, in the next year or so I fully expect that to change, but for now, I have complete faith in his  gentleman-ness and chivalry.

Determination

Browsing through the Google Analytics for this blog, I ran across an interesting keyword used to find it. The keyword was "nadine cross". While I know I've talked about Stephen King and The Stand at least once, I don't recall ever mentioning the wacked out woman who shares the devil's bed in the story, Nadine Cross.

Curious, I went to Google and entered the keywords. Whoever found this place by using that keyword must have been much more determined to find information regarding Nadine Cross than I was in finding where this place falls in the Google hierarchy concerning this character. I gave up after looking at 20 pages on Google.

News from fly-over country

It's been a weather induced roller coaster here in fly-over country. First we have 50+ degrees for a few days, then it hits near rock-bottom temps with even more snow and rain. Last week the weather man - who is affectionately known as Mr. Rogers because of his delivery style - informed us that we have had the coldest, wettest winter since sometime around 1895 or so. I sent Al Gore an email, asking him when we could expect our share of that global warming, but so far haven't heard back from him. Maybe he's out buying carbon credits or something.

Two weeks ago the 5/8 had one of her tonsils out, and some work done on the inside of her nose to free up something or other to make her breath easier. I couldn't understand 3 words the doctor said. He is Asian. A great doctor, but certainly has not mastered the English language, at least pronunciation-wise. I was expecting a few days of peace and quiet. If you ever know someone to get their tonsils out in this day and age, don't expect them to not be able to talk. It seems there is some new procedure whereby they freeze the things off instead of cutting them. Speeds up the healing and all that jazz. The downside to that is the patient is able to nag talk straight away.

Over the weekend Little Sister has been feeling down. I think she had a light case of that flu thing going around.  She missed a couple of days of school and pretty much felt miserable over the weekend. She is the only one of us that didn't get a flu shot this year. I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but No. 1 Son made high honors at school. A great feat. As a reward I got him "Burnout Paradise" an XBox 360 driving game. Near as I can tell the whole purpose of the game is to drive fast, do jumps, and run into things seeing how dramatic of a wreck you can have. The 5/8 started playing with it over the weekend, and now we can't seem to pry her away. I think the kids just lost their game console.

In local news, the premier local television station, WIBW is in a bitter fight with the local cable carrier Cox Communications, over money (natch!). WIBW wants Cox to pay them a penny a day per subscriber in order to carry their regular and High-Def content. Cox doesn't want to pay them anything. The contract between the two expires at midnight on 28 February. WIBW hasn't been the best of sportsmen in the quite a while. WIBW is the CBS affiliate for this burg. And there is a CBS affiliate over in Kansas City. Cox carries both, but most of the time if you were to tune into to the KC station, you would see a black screen with white scrolling letters informing you that due to some FCC regulation, the channel is blacked out at the request of the local affiliate. Fox, NBC and ABC - all with local and KC affiliates, never had this problem. I don't know what will happen, but I'm pretty certain that Cox would rather pay the KC station for HD content, than pay WIBW anything at all. I dropped Cox over a year ago, and glad I did.

Really though, that whole situation is crap. Nobody wins. WIBW will undoubtedly lose advertisers because their market share will dwindle. Cox will lose some customers as they switch to satellite. And those that stick with Cox will lose their local CBS affiliate.

Movie Thoughts: Across The Universe

I thought this was going to be a real chick flick. I picked it up because I know the 5/8 like those kind of films. I figured it would be some sappy love story set with the turbulent 60's as the backdrop, with a killer soundtrack by The Beatles. That's what the previews let onto anyway.

Now, to be fair, it is a sappy love story, but it isn't a story so much as a musical, with a killer soundtrack of songs by The Beatles. To be honest, the imagery was engaging, and it is a lot of fun to watch a musical where you know the words to all the songs.

It is rated PG-13, and while there was inference of some drug use, it wasn't blatant, and it wasn't all "hey let's get stoned because it's good". The 5/8 and I understood when they took drugs, and the kids figured it out when it went into the drug-induced imagery; including a great segment where Eddie Izzard belts out "For the Benefit of Mr. Kite" which, if you can believe it, was last performed on the big screen by - get this - George Burns.

There was one scene where a woman's nipple was shown, but it was not in anyway obscene or vulgar. And another scene the bums of several guys were shown as they were swimming. All in all, it was not a movie that I had any problem with any of the kids watching - including Little Sister. And it made me want to listen to more Beatles tunes, and even possibly rent that 1970's hit rock-opera"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (you remember, with Peter Frampton and the Bee-Gees).

And, I have to add, that the drug-induced imagery did not hold a candle to the wild and wacked out imagery we get when viewing "Yellow Submarine". That is some crazy stuff man.

One size fits none

In our house, we have this large built-in cupboard. It covers and entire wall. A small wall, grant you, but still reaches from floor to ceiling and one end to the other. This is where we keep our plates and glasses and bowls and jars and pretty much everything we use for cooking save for utensils and pots & pans.

We have a enormous section of this cupboard wall dedicated to those little plastic containers that you never seem to be able to bring yourself to throw out. Butter cups, sour cream tubs, large yogurt containers, those rectangular plastic containers that a lot of sandwich meat comes in now.

In this cupboard wall, we have 132 round plastic containers. In addition, we have 178 round plastic lids.

Now, can someone PLEASE explain to me why none of the lids fit on any of the containers?

Lessons Learned

You have to remove the gunk from the bottom of your oven before you use the self-cleaning feature.

Movie Thoughts: Planet Terror

If you're old enough (like me) you'll remember the drive-ins. No, not drive throughs (sheesh, kids) but drive-ins. These were outdoor movie theaters where you'd pull up in your car, grab a tinny sounding staticy speaker from a post and hang it on your partially rolled up car window. Then look around (to make sure the manager couldn't see you) and pop open the trunk, letting out the three or four friends who managed to fit in there.

The movies at the drive-in weren't all that good. In reality, I don't know that people really went to the drive-in to watch the movie. Mostly it was to do other things. Make out, drink, cause general havoc and mayhem for the other patrons. The movies were mostly those "B" type monster films. Evil Dead, Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead. Corning writing, corny characters and completely predictable. Mostly they were older movies too, and not not such good shape. Scratches and dust marks all over the film, the sound would warble at times. But like I said, you really didn't go to the drive-in to actually view the film.

All this comes back to me now because I recently watched Robert Rodriquez's "Planet Terror". I don't know why I rented it. Probably because on the cover, Rose McGowan was sporting a MACHINE GUN FOR A LEG!!! How crazy is that? Rodriquez was one of the directors behind one of my favorite films of recent years, "Sin City", so that, along with the chick having a machine gun for a leg, made up my mind for me. The movie was a bit more than I expected. I kind of expected that whole "B" movie experience, but really, it is more like a "A" movie, masquerading as a "B" movie - complete with the dust marks and scratches and warbley audio and everything. At one point, the film melts - just like the old days. I can't remember the last time I was in a theater and the film melted. It was awesome.

The movie is utterly and completely over the top in everything it does. It starts out with a faux "Coming Attractions" trailer for a movie called "Machete" during which the announcer declares "If you hire Machete to kill the bad guy, you better make sure the bad guy isn't you." Basic storyline is thus: Bad chemical escapes, people are being turned into zombies, a rag-tag group of people are immune, end up banding together to fight their way to safety.

This isn't a movie where you are going to be surprised, just thoroughly entertained (if you like that over-the-top campy kind of stuff).

Did I mention the lady with the machine gun for a leg?

8th Grade Education

Remember when grandparents and great-grandparents stated that they only had an 8th grade education? Well, check this out. Could any of us have passed the 8th grade in 1895?
This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina , Kansas , USA . It was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina , and reprinted by the Salina Journal.

8th Grade Final Exam: Salina , KS - 1895

Grammar (Time, one hour)

1. Give nine rules for the use of capital letters.
2. Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications.
3. Define verse, stanza and paragraph
4. What are the principal parts of a verb? Give principal parts of 'lie,''play,' and 'run.'
5. Define case; illustrate each case.
6 What is punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of punctuation.
7 - 10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.

Arithmetic (Time,1 hour 15 minutes)

1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.
2. A wagon box is 2 ft. Deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. Wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?
3. If a load of wheat weighs 3,942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1,050 lbs. For tare?
4. District No 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?
5. Find the cost of 6,720 lbs. Coal at $6.00 per ton.
6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.

 

7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. Long at $20 per metre?
8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.
9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, t he distance of which is 640 rods?
10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt

U.S. History (Time, 45 minutes)

1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided
2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus
3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.
4. Show the territorial growth of the United States
5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas .
6. Describe three of the most prominent b attles of the Rebellion.
7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton , Bell , Lincoln , Penn, and Howe?
8. Name event s connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, 1865.

 

Orthography (Time, one hour)
[Do we even know what this is??]

1. What is meant by the following: alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication
2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?
3. What are the following, and give examples of each: trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals
4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u.' (HUH?)
5. Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e.' Name two exceptions under each rule.
6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.
7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi, dis-mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup.
8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last.
9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane , vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.
10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.

Geography (Time, one hour)

1 What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?
2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas ?
3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean?
4. Describe the mountains of North America
5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia , Odessa , Denver , Manitoba , Hecla , Yukon , St. Helena , Juan Fernandez, Aspinwall and Orinoc ..
6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S.
7. Name all the republics of Europe and give the capital of each.
8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude?
9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.
10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give the incl ination of the earth.

Notice that the exam took FIVE HOURS to complete.
Gives the saying 'he only had an 8th grade education' a whole new meaning, doesn't it?!

SNOWFALL

"They can put a man on the moon, but they can't keep this white crap from falling from they sky?" - Alex P. Keaton

Actually, I love the snow. It is my firm belief that cold weather is a complete and utter waste of time without snow. And we got the snow. Truth be told, we got more snow before Christmas this year than we normally get all year long. It hasn't snowed this much here in Fly-Over Country since I was a kid. I love it. My kids are lovin' it. The 5/8 is hating it.

When I got out of bed this morning, I looked out the window to the dark, snow-covered street below, it was calm and serene looking. A neighbor had his truck running, headlights casting shadows up the street as I heard the distinctive scrape, scrape, scrape sound that can only come from a shovel, shoveling snow off concrete. It didn't look that bad. I figured the kids were going to be in school, and the 5/8 would hate it even more for having to drive in it. But, being the dutiful and generous and loving husband I am, I sneaked downstairs and fired up the web browser and hit the local news station website.

WIBW Channel 13. That is the news station that everyone turns to for closings and cancellations. Oh, the other stations have the list, and run the ticker along the bottom and read the list on air. But if you were to ask any state employee, city employee, school teacher, pastor or just about anyone else, WIBW has the de-facto official list. Sister Corita would tell us it doesn't matter what is said anywhere except Channel 13. If Channel 13 doesn't say school is closed, then school isn't closed. And for those of you who know her, you know there is no arguing with Sister Corita - ever.

I took another look out the front door window as I worked my way to my cramped little den and turned on the monitor and logged in. Still, it didn't look that bad. Opening the school closings page, I was shocked to see that the schools were closed. 'Maybe it's because it rained all day yesterday, and the streets are really slick' I though to myself 'Oh well'.

I gingerly worked my way back up the stairs. Trying to make as little noise as possible on those creaky old stairs. Told the 5/8 that school was canceled and turned her alarm off. Watching the news as I was preparing for work, they were saying we received 7 inches of snow overnight. Looking out the window, it still didn't look that deep to me. They had some young lady out in their parking lot, making snow angels and sticking a ruler in the snow. Poor kid, she was probably and intern, they get the worst assignments. She measured 9 inches with the ruler. I don't know how scientific that measurement is.

Heading out the back door towards the garage I was stunned to see how much deeper the snow looked up close and personal. Oddly, it seems our street had been plowed. We live on a wide street that I would have thought would be a priority for plowing. Back in the day, the trolley used to run down our street. Even with cars parked along both sides, two fire trucks could drive down our street side-by-side, that is how wide our street is. But until today, I don't believe our street had ever been plowed. Today it was, and that was a pleasant surprise.

I was prepared (I thought) for the drive into work. I knew that other people, even people who lived in Kansas way back when it used to snow like this all the time, didn't really exhibit the skills required for snow driving. Having lived in Alaska for around four years really taught me a lot about driving in the snow. Add to that about three years of driving my Jeep through the mountains of Colorado, I learned how to keep a vehicle moving forward with minimum traction.

The key is using the front tires to constantly seek new traction. Let's say you're at a stop sign, and you have little-to-no traction starting out; one thing that has never failed me (yet) is to turn the wheels left to right continuously. I'm not certain exactly what this does, but I do know it works. I drive that little POS Honda Insight (which is great for highway commuting, but pretty much worthless other than that) and I didn't have any problems with traction or getting stuck. The folks at work were amazed I could get in to the office in that little thing. I told them I have skills - with a z.

The worst I had to deal with was somebody driving up Huntoon St. They were scared I'm certain, being very cautions, driving about eight miles per hour. I don't have a problem with people driving slow in the snow. If they are comfortable, and I'm certain that the slower you drive, and the more confident you are behind the wheel, the safer it is for everyone. But this guy was on a four lane road, and driving down the middle of it. Taking up two lanes, going eight miles per hour. I don't know why they didn't pick a stinking lane. I know my vehicle, and I know what I can handle. I know how fast I can drive in what conditions. And I knew that I would be comfortable and safe at around 20-25 miles per hour. But this guy would not relinquish the middle of the road so that I, nor anyone stacked up behind me, could get around them.

But other than that, it was a fairly easy drive in.

Fly-over news

It turned out to be a pretty good week in the on-again-off-again-frozen-then-thawed-then-frozen area of Northeast Kansas. Mid-week we had the exciting basketball game between rivals Kansas State University Wildcats and Kansas University Jayhawks. The favored were the Jayhawks. The 'Hawks are always favored over the 'Cats. It is a much bigger school, with more funding and more national recognition, especially in basketball.

I have always felt more at ease around the KSU crowd than the KU crowd. KSU started out as a agriculture and mechanical school. And it still pretty much is. Which is probably why I like the people there better. They are less pretentious than the folks over at KU. I'm glad that KSU won that game. It seemed...I don't know...just - somehow.

That was followed by the news that No. 1 Son was promoted to Lance Corporal in his MJROTC unit, along with making the high school's Honor Roll. His grandmother took him to the Japanese restaurant to celebrate. He was excited about it all, and the food was good.

So things were going pretty well. The the Super Bowl comes around. I was rooting for the Giants because, like KU, I thought it was time for the Patriots to lose. I was getting tired of always seeing them win the Super Bowl. Call me the champion of the underdog or whatever.

No. 1 Son was rooting for the Pats. Poor kid, he was also rooting for the 'Hawks. I kept asking him, as the seconds ticked away at the end of the game what it felt like to back two losers in the same week. He did a horrible job of trying to deflect my taunting. I know he felt bad because I'm pretty certain he chose those teams specifically because I hadn't chosen them.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again; the Internet is such a wonderful creation. The best friend I have in the world I met while working in Alaska. He is now in North Dakota, while I'm stuck here in Kansas. But that didn't keep us for watching the Super Bowl together (if even virtually). We fired up the computers and IMed the hell out of each other, commenting on commercials and plays. It was almost-but-not-quite exactly like sitting right next to him - except, him being in North Dakota, and me being in Kansas, he couldn't drink all my beer!

The city council here in Topeka is still in somewhat hot water regarding their actions (hey, there's a surprise, someone finally catches on that the council is full of a bunch of corrupt pinheads). A couple of years ago, the citizens of this city, fed up with the crap the council and mayor were heaping upon us, voted to change the city charter to convert the government to a city manager form. We still have the council and we still have the mayor, but the city is pretty much run by the manager (and not very well, I might add) with the big decisions (the ones that affect our pocketbooks) being made by the council.

The council voted to approve several things, a new over-priced, under performing computer system, a raise in court fees, a (second) new helicopter for the police department, which the mayor vetoed (and rightly so). These were expenditures which were unnecessary, and generously unpopular with the citizens. Greater than 80% of citizens that weighed in on the matters didn't want these things that the council approved anyway. After the mayor vetoed the bills, the council voted and overturned the vetoes.

While all that seems normal on the surface, the problem lies in that the new city charter does not specify that the council has any authority to override a mayoral veto. This is a bad thing. The mayor, in essence, has the ability to squash any legislation the council comes up with, and there is nothing the council can do about it. The good part of it is that the city may be forced to back out of all of these stupid deals that were made, thus saving the average Joe taxpayers millions of dollars.

Love the Zune

I love music. All kinds of music. I seriously cannot think of a time or situation, where music would be unwelcome. Sure, certain types of music are better for certain situations, but on the whole, music is always welcome where ever I happen to be. Its a tough question when someone asks me  "What kind of music do you like." My usual reply is "All kinds." From Hank Williams (Sr) to Dire Straits, to Led Zeppelin, to Thelonius Monk to Count Basi, to Christina Aquilera, to Glen Miller to Mozart and Beethoven and their crowd and on and on.

I will admit that usually the radio station in the car is tuned to country music. But not exclusively. Many times I switch on over to the rock station, or the soul station. The problem with radios is, you only get one genre of music at a time. Then you have to go in search of something else if you don't want that particular genre any longer. Albums err, I mean CDs are the same way. They are not only one genre, but mostly one artist. That is what I love about having a media player. I hadn't thought about it before. If I had, I probably would have gotten one a long, long time ago. One great thing about having the media player is I have the ability to quickly and easily load pretty much whatever I want to hear at any particular time. Most decent ones (1GB and up) will hold hours and hours of music. Music that you have ready access too. Sometimes, I like to simply turn on the 'shuffle' mode, and start it to play everything in my collection (that's a ton of songs people). I do get sometimes a bit annoyed at some song I happen to have that isn't one I wanted to listen to at the time, but mostly, I get surprised by songs I may have not listened to for a long time.

And heck, I haven't even really gotten into the whole "podcast" thing yet. But I'm certain I will before too long. It just seems too easy not to do it.

LOST again

Today the new season of LOST begins. I can't wait. Especially after last season's finale.

A small trip down memory lane for those who don't quite remember what happened.
1) Charlie died. He drowned in the under water pod after shutting down the whatever system it was he was supposed to shut down. It is presumed it was the system that keeps the island cloaked.
2) The ever-present flashbacks regarding the characters' lives before they arrived on the island were replaced with "flash-forwards" (for want of a better term). In these we see that Jack and Kate for certain make it off the island. Jack is a drunkard, and stops by a funeral home for a viewing. The casket is short, and we never see who is in it, and the funeral home is empty. The funeral director tells Jack that no one has come to pay their respects. The short casket, and the fact that no one attended tells me the person on the coffin is the bug-eyed Ben - leader of 'The Others'.
3) Jack has been traveling the world-over. He tells Kate he wants to go back to the island. During this conversation Kate speaks of 'him' and we are all led to believe (or at least I imagined I was led to believe) that 'him' is Sawyer, but that is truly never revealed and I know from experience with this show, you can't assume anything and have it stick.

My guess is that Locke will not leave the island, no matter what. He was crippled and confined to a wheelchair after his father threw him out a third or fourth story window. But on the island he has full use of his extremities. He can walk, and run and jump and all those things that people who are not confined to a wheelchair are able to do. I believe Locked would rather die than go back to being in the wheelchair.

No sign of Jack's current main squeeze, the hot doctor lady from 'The Others' in the flash-forward. And since he is flying all over the place, it would appear they are not together any longer. Perhaps she stayed on the island, perhaps she died. Perhaps she just couldn't put up with his constant drinking and flying off all over the world using the 'Golden Ticket' the survivors received from Oceana Airlines.

Whatever happens, it is certain to be a heck of a roller coaster ride. I'm guessing at the most there are two seasons left in this show. I read a year or so ago that the producers have created the end for the show, but didn't way how long down the road that end would come. They didn't want it to end up like the X-Files, which lasted about three years past when it should have. I don't look for all of the questions to be answered. In fact, I am kind of looking for most of the questions to remain questions. There are some things that are just unexplainable. The smoke monster for one, what is it? Who created it? Who is this enigmatic "Dharma" group that got Ben there in the first place? And who were the other people that were already on the island? We know they are not part of Dharma. Are they survivors of the Black Rock shipwreck?

One thing I would like to know is what happened to Michael and his kid, Walt?

Usually before the new season they would do a kind of "catch up" show, which discusses the major happenings, refreshes everyone's memories, and brings everyone up to date. It is mostly a discussion show with some clips. They did that differently last night. I didn't watch it (we DVRed it), because I was busy watching the Wildcats make the Jayhawks run around like chickens with their heads cut off (go 'Cats!). At any rate, I did get to see a few minutes, and what they did was show last season's finale, but with pop-up info texts explaining what was happening and giving some background. It was a neat way to get everyone caught up. Or, it would have been if we hadn't been in some stupid winter weather warning so that the bottom left half of the screen wasn't taken up with the little map and text 'splainin what the map meant.

Nigerian scammer's comeuppance

We've all received them. Those emails. Written with poor spelling and a more poor command of the English language. The person is the son/daughter/nephew of some deposed dictator or high government official in Nigeria. Or perhaps it is just from some corrupt bank official in same said country.

The premise is always the same. There are several millions of US dollars in some account that the originator of the email can't get to by themselves, but with your generous help, they can. And for your troubles, they will reward you with great sums of dollars. Sometimes several millions of dollars. All you have to do is be willing to say you are somehow entitled to the money.

Of course it's a scam. Usually there is some sort of processing fee involved, probably several thousand dollars, or possibly tens of thousands of dollars. But really, what is the four or five or twelve thousand dollars when you stand to gain $1.5 million? Peanuts. So you go through all of this, fork over your money, only to find out there isn't any money. Never was, never will be. It is all a scam.

These scams, come to be known as Nigerian email scams, are also known as 419 scams. The 419 is the section of the Nigerian penal code which deals with these types of scams. That's kind of a laugh though. I guess just because a law is on the books, doesn't mean that the law is ever enforced. But I'm starting to ramble. What I wanted to talk about here is the saga of Nicholas Okorie.

Nicholas Okorie is one of those adorable Nigerian scammers. His problem is that he contacted the wrong person. No, he didn't get in trouble with the law (at least, as far as I know) but he did receive some justice.

You can read Okorie's story here, at 419eater.com It's really quite an amusing story. Suffice it to say, he was talked into getting a tattoo to prove his 'worthiness' of the finances he was trying to scam from a church. Here's the picture he sent to the church proving his tattoo. You have to read the whole story though, it is quite imaginative. Makes me wish I had the time and knowledge to mess with people like this. The tat is the 'church' logo. Here is a better picture of the tat.

Showdown

Those of you who know me know that I'm not some crazed sports nut. Sure, I like the Chiefs, and I like to watch the Royals play when I can. But if I miss the game, its no big deal. I've never been much into sports. Probably because growing up I was simply too fat and too slow to play sports to any degree of anything.

We played neighborhood pick up baseball games, and they were always fun, and I cherish those memories. But I was never part of a real team. My older brother was exceptional at baseball. He was in the summer leagues up through junior high (yes, that's right, back then we didn't have middle schools, we had junior highs). And he was good. Real good. I believe to this day he could have played, at least in the minors, with success. I also believe the reason he quit was because the Ol' Man was just too pushy and overbearing about it all. So much so that my brother would choose to walk away from a game he loved, rather than put up with the Ol' Man.

I can't remember the last basketball game I watched clean through (other than at college when it really wasn't about watching the game so much as socializing). But tomorrow I'll have my eyes on the tube watching the KU/KSU game. I really don't know anything about these two teams. Other than what has been in the headlines. KU is currently undefeated. KSU is 14-4, undefeated in conference play. Both teams are in the AP Top 25 (KU at 2 and KSU at 22). KU is once again getting, in my opinion, the raw deal. They are 20-0 and the AP #1 team is 19-0. But that is the curse of being in Kansas. You get no respect. I remember the World Series between the Kansas City Royals and the St. Louis Cardinals. It was the first series I ever remember where the Goodyear blimp wasn't present. But who cared? It was only Missouri right? This kind of thing is all to familiar to those of us in fly-over country.

Against common sense (not to mention everyone in my family) I'm rooting for the 'Cats. Yes, that's right, I'm hoping that KSU beats the 'Hawks. Why? Living only 30 minutes from Jayhawk HQ (Lawrence) and about 70 minutes for Wildcat HQ (Manhattan), and having spent a couple of years attending KU, it would seem natural for me to be rooting for the 'Hawks.

But I'm an underdog kind of guy. I don't have any love for either brand, but KSU is certainly due. It's been something like 24 years since KSU has beaten KU at basketball at KSU. With a record like that, the law of averages has to, just has to catch up at some point. Plus, KU has to lose a game sometime (yeah, that's probably what people said about the football team), and I'd like that loss to be handed to them by KSU. If KSU were to pull off a win, it would certainly be one of those David and Goliath style upsets (and I don't mean that kid and his dog).

Either way, it is sure to be an exciting game, and I'm looking forward to watching it.

WHY MEN ARE NEVER DEPRESSED

This came in the email today (well, okay, it came yesterday, but I didn't read it until today). And I thought it was just to true not to share.

Your last name stays put.

The garage is all yours.

Wedding plans take care of themselves.

Chocolate is just another snack.

You can be President.

You can never be pregnant.

You can wear a white T-shirt to a water park.

You can wear NO shirt to a water park.

Car mechanics tell you the truth.

The world is your urinal.

You never have to drive to another gas station restroom because this one is just too icky.

You don't have to stop and think of which way to turn a nut on a bolt.

Same work, more pay.

Wrinkles add character.

A wedding dress is $5,000 but a Tux rents for $100.

People never stare at your chest when you're talking to them.

The occasional well-rendered belch is practically expected.

New shoes don't cut, blister, or mangle your feet.

One mood all the time.

Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat.

You know stuff about tanks.

A five-day vacation requires one suitcase.

You can open all your own jars You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness.

If someone forgets to invite you, he or she can still be your friend.
Your underwear is $8.95 for a three-pack.

Three pairs of shoes are more than enough.

You almost never have strap problems in public.

You are unable to see wrinkles in your clothes.

Everything on your face stays its original color.

The same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe decades!

You only have to shave your face and neck.
You can play with toys all your life.

Your belly usually hides your big hips.

One wallet and one pair of shoes, one color for all seasons.

You can wear shorts no matter how your legs look.

You can "do" your nails with a pocket knife.

You have freedom of choice concerning growing a mustache.

You can do Christmas shopping for 25 relatives on December 24 in 25 minutes.

Took the plunge (finally)

Well, I finally did it. I have been wanting to for some years now, and finally, I just said "enough is enough, I don't care what happens, I 'm just gonna do it." And, of course, I'm talking about getting an MP3 player - or what they refer to these days as a "Media Player" because most (like the one I got) will also play videos.

I've been wanting an mp3 player for years. The kids all have one, but I've never gotten myself one. I had high hopes this past Christmas when the 5/8 said she got me something I'd been wanting. I'm thinking to myself 'w00t! she got me an mp3 player'. But of course, that was just wishful thinking. What I ended up with was some portable FM radio thing that never really worked. It would just shut off for no apparent reason, or change station without warning. Anyway, I'd finally said to my self, "self" I said "self, enough is enough. You never really buy anything for yourself, and to hell with it, you're getting yourself a Zune." So I did. And I'm not sorry about it either.

After consideration of the options, I chose to go with the Microsoft Zune. The price - feature ratio is pretty good, and I just couldn't go with the iPod. The iPod, for those not in the know, is married to iTunes, and will only accept one type of music file. The Zune, on the other hand, will take any kind of music you throw at it, and load it up and play it, without the need for time-consuming conversions. Also, a built-in WiFi sync with the PC (which I haven't yet been able to get to work) and the ability to trade music/videos/photos/podcasts via WiFi with other, nearby Zune players is kind a cool (again, I haven't used it, and quite frankly, don't know that I ever will, but it does have a high cool factor).

Oh yeah, and I can plug the Zune into the kids' XBox 360, and watch the videos from the Zune on the TV. I don't think the iPod will do that (but I could be wrong). So far, I love this thing. I almost haven't stopped listening to music since I got it, and I only have two small complaints.

The most annoying thing are the ear buds. The Zune 80 (which is what I got) comes with 'premium' ear buds. They come with several sizes of rubber attachments that fit into your ear. This creates a seal which 1) pretty much completely seals off outside noise - very nice (especially when the 5/8 is ranting about yet another thing) and b) makes the full range of music sound oh so much nicer and more vibrant. I have never really paid much attention to things like headphones or earphones and their quality and what not. But my-oh-my these things make you feel like you sitting right there next to the musicians while they are playing.

Now, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking 'so what is annoying about that?', and the annoying thing is this. Well, I'll tell you. The Einteins that designed these things have a cloth-type covering for the cable instead of the standard plastic covering. While this gives the cables a nice look and feel, the problem comes when you're listening to the thing and the cable moves. The sound of the rough cloth-rope-like texture travels the cables and is loud.

The other minor annoyance is that you can't sync the Zune using Windows Media Player. I love WMP. I have tried other media players for the PC, and I have found them all somewhat lacking compared to WMP. I use it for everything, and even purchased the plug-in to allow me to play .m4a files (mp4 audio - what iTunes uses). Personally, I prefer using .wma files with their variable bit rate, but we can't get everything we want.

I can't figure why they did that. I mean, it is Microsoft after all. They make the Zune, they make Windows Media Player. It seems to me that it would have been much more efficient to create a plugin or special version of WMP to sync with the Zune than to create a whole new program that for doing it. Oh well, I suppose that is why Bill Gates & Co are worth billions and I'm...well...me.

Killing the weekend

This past weekend started out well enough. I took Friday off work because, well, I just needed a day off. I'd been putting in extra hours since before Christmas, and it was starting to take its toll. So Friday was my day. I wasn't going to do anything for anyone except me. Between work, and doing stuff for everyone else in the world, I just wanted to be left the heck alone for a day. It started out pretty well. The 5/8 took the kids to school. This is a miracle in and of itself as she doesn't normally do anything that I could do instead. So it was pleasant to roll out of bed around 9:30 in the morning, coffee steaming in the Bunn and no kids to deal with. I did need to roll some cigs though, so I popped in "The Bourne Identity" for something to watch while I rolled the cigs. The 5/8 made me an egg and sausage sandwich for breakfast. I love egg and sausage sandwiches. This is something else that doesn't normally happen (refer to above where she doesn't normally do anything I could very well do).

She brought me the sandwich on a plate. The egg still steaming, the grease on the sausage glimmering and reflecting the light of the room. It smelled exceptional. I took the sandwich and leaned back on the couch, opening my mouth in great anticipation and took a big bite, and SPLOOSH. Yellow crap practically squirts out of the sandwich, splashing my hand and covering my shirt and pants. Seriously, who doesn't know that when one makes an egg sandwich, the yolks should be fully cooked? No, really, who doesn't know this? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this little tidbit out. But I think I found at least one person in the world who couldn't figure out that an egg with a runny yolk is a really lousy idea in a sandwich. But I recovered. I went upstairs and changed my clothes, came back down and finished eating my now cold, and runny egg sandwich.

Saturday brought some bad news though. Some of you may recall that I have a hobby of brewing beer. I hadn't brewed any in about six months or so. Between being busy, and finances and what not. Just never really had the time (or energy) to devote to it. There are a couple of recipes I use which I really like, and I've had good luck with. I went over to Ale-N-Vino which is the only store in Topeka where one can buy supplies for brewing beer and making home made wine. I'm not much of a wine person so I try to stay away from that. Just don't have the palate for it. If I made my own wine, I wouldn't know if it was good or not because it all tastes kinda crappy to me anyway. But beer. Ah, beer is the most important beverage ever - next to coffee. The cost of my supplies nearly doubled. I discovered this is due to a world-wide shortage of hops. Hops, one of the four ingredients of beer. Not only does this shortage make the cost of hops sky-rocket, most of the hops I use, like Golding and Fuggle, are no longer available - period. In addition, I've been informed that it doesn't look like these varieties will ever become available again.

Now, while I have brewed some good beer, I've always followed recipes from a book, or retrieved from the Internet. I would not call myself an accomplished brewer. I don't make my own mash, and I simply don't know enough about the whole process to figure out how to make good beer with the types of hops that are now available to us. That is something I'm going to have to start experimenting with. It looks like it is going to be a long, arduous year of creating beer, tasting beer, and deciding if it is a worthy mix. It is sad really. Sad that I am going to have to drink so much beer just to find a few good recipes. Worse though, is that I'm certain some of the beer will have about the same flavor (if not consistency) of skunk water. But that is the price we have to pay for excellence and innovation I suppose.

I'm going to be keep much better records now that I'm really into the experimentation stages of this brewing thing over at http://thebeermakingblog.blogspot.com my beer making blog (which has, right now, only one entry from like 2 years ago. I have a couple of more entries around somewhere that I need to get posted up there, and I will, soon, I hope.

Other than that, the weekend was mostly harmless. We watched "That Darn Cat" (the original) which was an enjoyable flick. Strange how the boys moaned and groaned about it 1) being old and 2) being a 'kids movie', and yet, the laughed and enjoyed it immensely. Disney, back in the day, certainly made some great, quality stuff that withstands the test of time. I'm fairly certain that in 20 or 30 years, my kids will be watching these movies with their kids.

The other movie we watched was "Farce of the Penguins". And I have to say, for a guy who has pretty much been 'penguined out' over the last couple of years with the flood of crappy penguin movies and penguin everything else, this movie was a laugh riot. This is rated R and definitely not for kids, at all. It is narrated by Samuel L. Jackson and stars the voice talents of Bob Saget, Carlos Mencia, John Stamos and a slew of others that I can't name off the top of my head. The movie was written by Bob Saget, and frankly, who knew this kind of stuff could come from a guy like that? It is irreverent, overtly sexual and sometimes downright nasty. All this, from the all-around good guy and nigh perfect father from the 90's sitcom "Full House".

Whiskey on the mind

This song has been stuck in my head for at least the last week or so. I don't know why. The 5/8 thinks I'm going nuts. But I think it just means I'm not drinking enough whiskey. She disagrees with me though.

Hello again, dear reader

It has been a very busy and hectic almost first month here in Northeast Kansas. The snow barely melted from the ground when it started to rain yesterday, which later in the night turned to snow. The streets were a mess last night, but much better this morning. We finally found a few hours of time this past weekend to take down our Christmas decorations. Let me tell you, it really isn't easy raising parents. If you have the chance to move away before you feel like you would be abandoning them because they are so needy - DO IT! Do it fast, and never look back. You can always go back and visit for holidays and stuff. I have to say that sometimes (most of the time?) it sucks to be the smart and responsible one. But I manage.

No. 2 Son is still in trouble school wise from last semester. The school are supposed to post a progress report every Wednesday on a secure web site so parents who care can track their student's progress. But the stupid site hasn't been updated since 13 December and I'm getting kind of ticked about it. He had a couple of Fs on that progress report, and the decision was made that he would not be able to play any computer or video games of any kind on a school day until his grades come up. He tells me that with the new semester, everybody starts with As. And that may be true, but all I have to go on is the last progress report. So still he is in his pickle.

He has been doing better so far. Every day he gets at least one or two of his teachers to sign his homework tracker. The deal there is; his bedtime is 9 PM, but for every teacher that does not sign his homework tracker, he goes to bed 10 minutes earlier. Since we started this back in late October, he has pretty much held a 7:40 PM bedtime. Now he is getting to stay up until 8:30 or so most nights.

I know, it seems like I'm a hard-ass, and I feel that way much of the time. But something has to be done. Nothing else we do seems to get through to him. And believe me, if you mention it, I've probably tried it. This kid is as stubborn as they come. I think he is 1/2 mule and 2/3 goat.

I know it's been a while since I have posted anything here. I'm not ignoring you, but I have been extremely preoccupied with work. The end of the year was a madhouse with so many projects having deadlines, it was sheer nuts. We're in the process of setting standards for the software department. This is something new because up until now, software has mainly been a kind of internal support/sideline thing. But the company realizes that web-based applications are where the world is going, so they are really pushing to beef up their software side of the house, and I have to tell you, one of the things I'm pushing for becoming a standard is zero deliveries to clients between 20 December and 7 January.

My Band's New CD!

The Count had a pretty cool post about a new band. Well, okay, not really a new band, but a fun little exercise type thingy. See, you follow the directions below my band's CD cover, and create your own band, album and cover. Pretty cool. Here is mine.

The rules are simple enough to follow:

Go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random and the title of the article that appears is the name of your band.

Then go here: http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3 and the last four words, of the very last quote, is the name of your album

The go here: http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/ and the third picture, regardless of what it is, is the cover art for your band's CD.

Then take all that into some graphics program (I like Photoshop) and create your CD cover.

Oh, BTW, a CD cover dimensions are 4.725x4.725 - but I'm a slacker, and I used 4.7x4.7 because, who the heck really cares?

Go ahead, give it a try, and let me know how it comes out.

Elephants & Mice

You've all probably seen Dumbo, and seen the cartoons where an elephant sees a mouse and goes running scared. I know I have. I also know that I have accepted as fact that elephants are afraid of mice. I never quite knew why they would be afraid of mice, but then again, I am a few hours short of my large mammal psychology degree from that online college in Belarus.

Be that as it may, there is a television show on Discovery channel that tackles things like "are elephants afraid of mice", "can a chicken destroy an airplane window" and "can you get electrocuted by peeing on the third rail of the subway". That show is Mythbusters. For those that haven't seen it, I would highly, highly recommend giving it a peak. It is entertaining and puts to rest many myths and urban legends, while confirming others. Over the Christmas they had an episode where they tried to set a Christmas tree on fire with just the tree lights. They couldn't get it to happen so they tried putting 25000 c9 lights (those are the big ones) and left then on for hours and hours, but never got hot enough to catch the tree on fire. But the ignited one little spark and WHOOSH! The tree was so dry by the time the stand-by firefights were able to move the 50 or so feet to the tree, it was gone.

At any rate, in this video the Mythbusters take on the myth of whether or not elephants are really afraid of mice. Take a look, you might be surprised.

Mouse v elephant
Uploaded by krupis

A most amazing kid...

Ben underwood is truly an amazing kid. Blind after having his eyes removed at age 3 (dues to cancer). He is the only known human who used echo-location to navigate the world. Check out this vid from the YouTube.