Friday the 13th...

I'm going to keep a type of 'running total' for today...Friday the 13th (dum-dum-dummmmm).

---

08:00
So far, not a terrible day. Sure it's raining, but I did get to meet with a fellow Topeka blogger this morning. It seems that I won a contest on his site for a copy of the book "Good Debt, Bad Debt" by Jon Hanson. Well, okay, I was the runner up, but the original winner didn't claim their prize so I won (w00t!).

And...I made it to my desk without having to be nice to the little dictator that sits in the corner office (double w00t!).

---

10:41
Everything seems to be coming up roses. No complaints about the the module I delivered at close of business yesterday (I am awesome!). I finished up the bug I was working on - and was expected to take the rest of the day fixing. I mean sure, the weather stinks, but other than that....

---

17:57
I made it through the day with nary anything bad happening. I even made it home through the freezing rain without incident. When I got home, the 5/8th had cooked a delicious chicken and noodles -all that while the kids were home sick. So it is my observation that Friday the 13th is not necessarily an unlucky day. I also would not classify it as a lucky day since I did not find any money just laying on the ground, I did not receive an unexpected pay raise or bonus, and generally, nothing lucky really happened - but then, neither did anything unlucky.





Technorati Tags: Friday the 13th, Luck, Superstitions

"You can just drop me off"

Little Sister is set to start her second year of softball out at Shawnee Lake. Her second softball season, but her last for coach-pitch T-ball. Next year she graduates to 'real' softball where the other team pitches.

She is a good hitter. Probably the best on her team. I'm not saying that because I am biased, it just happens that she hits really well, she always has. She has been having practices on Saturdays and Tuesdays in the school gym. I know, softball in a gym doesn't seem like it would make any sense at all, but they make it work I guess.

Her coach this year is a much more strict coach than last year's. Last year it was all about playing around and having fun. This year it is all about preparing the girls for the cut-throat world of real softball they will be experiencing next year. Some of the mothers were complaining early on about how strict the coach is. But they asked this guy to coach. I took her to a practice, and frankly he didn't seem that strict. Maybe he was only strict, I told the 5/8th, the first couple of practices to set into the girls' head who was indeed the boss of the team.

Last Tuesday, the 5/8th told me the coach would allow parents to stay and watch practice, but that he would rather they didn't. I was going to leave it up to Little Sister. I asked her if she wanted me to stay with her at practice or just drop her off. I was certain what the answer would be. She had never attended anything without either mom & dad or one of her brother's present. I didn't want to drop her off. I wanted to watch the practice. I wanted her to know that dad was right there...always.

When she went to Judo by herself one Saturday because the boys had a Boy Scout event to attend, she wanted me to stay with her there. I was sure as nails that she was going to want me to stay. But when I heard "you can just drop me off," my heart sank. She was too big now to have dad chaperon her around. She doesn't need dad in easy reach for everything anymore.

I begrudgingly dropped her off at the school gym. When I picked her up an hour later, she seemed different. Like something about her had changed. She was excited, more than usual, about nothing. I think it was because she proved to herself that she could make it through something like practice without having dad around for security.

I am certain I will be hearing a lot more "you can just drop me off" statements from her in my future. For Judo, for school events, for practices, movies, skating....

I suppose it is unavoidable. As she grows older she must grow more distant. That is the normal progress of things -but that doesn't mean I have to like it.





Technorati Tags: softball, growing up, daughters, dads

I'm it?

Okay, I'm an idiot. I didn't read the rules properly, so here goes it the proper way (I'm new to all this stuff, so please bear with me!).'

I've been tagged by PixelHead for the meme (no, I don't know what a meme is, just go with it okay?) "Gotta Get Goals" started by Alex Shalman. Take a look at Alex's blog for the rule (I didn't and now I have to perform 50 mea culpas - don't let this happen to you!)

So, I need to set some goals. Here we go:
1) Spend Christmas in Bethlehem (talk about your 'down home' Christmas)

2) Spend Easter in Jerusalem.

3) Visit the Aztec, Inca and Mayan ruins in Central and South America

3) Open a bar in Telluride, CO

4) Start a horse ranch in either Colorado or Alaska ( or heck, BOTH)

5) Have kids that actually do what they are told, when they are told, with a smile on their face thankful for the opportunity to do the task assigned, and without whining, complaining or otherwise ticking me off.

I know, that last one is a huge stretch, but the rules said "achieve your wildest dreams" or something, I'm paraphrasing.

I know, I know, they are not the best goals, but I've never been all that great a goal setting.

In return, I figured I'd give a couple of people some tags as well. Places one might like to visit, and even hang out a while.



tags: ianr, mylifestartsat42, fortywhat, my2cents



TAG - you all are it. Now you have to tag someone else! Have fun, and thanks for visiting.







Technorati Tags: Tag ur it, blog community, bloggers

Good Friday

It's Good Friday. The boys were asked to serve at the noon Stations of the Cross at the Church of the Assumption downtown. It had been I don't know how many years since I had actually been to a Stations of the Cross.

They (Catholics) usually do this on Good Friday. It got me to thinking how neat it would be to spend Easter in Jerusalem, and on Good Friday walk the real Stations. would also like to spend Christmas in Bethlehem sometime.

*sigh* When that numbers on that lottery ticket (which I never buy) finally get picked.

The Stations were very moving. What was said at most of the stations seemed so...personal. Almost as if they were talking specifically about my own life. The crosses that I am to bear. I know that what seems like giant heavy crosses I tug along are rather insignificant to a lot of people, but they are there nonetheless, and I (like most I believe) think how much better life might be without them. Pains, trials, reservations, resignations, regrets.

But without these personal crosses, I would be a completely different person. Without them my wife - whom I love with complete devotion - would be a different person. We are the sum of our personal experiences, and if any of those experiences were to change, we as we are now would cease to exist. We would become someone else. Perhaps not very much, perhaps just the vanity to splash some Grecian Formula on the gray around the temples, but enough that it would change us. Forever.

No, I don't want my crosses removed. I'll bear them, and hope and strive to bear them with pride. They are a gift. A gift which is given by God. Sure, they don't seem like a gift. How can one make a gift of pain and despair? But it is through these trials that we emerge as a better person.

Sheesh, this post didn't start out to be so melancholy, but it seemed to have ended up that way. Sometimes my mind gets to racing when I'm sitting at the keyboard, and what was going to be just a post, ends up quite the ramble.

I want to thank you for your attention, and for visiting.

Happy Easter everyone!









Technorati Tags: Easter, Good Friday, Stations of the Cross

No shaken martinis here

Hello again. It has been a pretty good week. The kids were all excited on Friday as each got to wear their Gi to Judo class on Friday. They received them on Wednesday, but they had to be washed at least once before worn. We did learn that to properly dry takes longer than 24 hours though. In case anyone was wondering. The Judo Academy did well last week in Nebraska competition - taking three or four first place slots. They are gearing up now for the Sunflower Games. The middle boy and Little Sister both are looking forward to knowing enough to compete. The teenager isn't so sure about the whole competition thing.

We were able to watch the new James Bond flick - "Casino Royale" - this weekend. I was, in a nutshell, disappointed. It was a good action film in and of itself...but it wasn't a good James Bond film. It was missing that certain James Bond flair that we have come to expect after 20 movies about the iconic secret agent for British spy house MI-6. I don't think I set my expectations too high to guarantee my disappointment. I knew, for instance, that this Daniel Craig fellow was not in any way, shape or form going to be as good a Bond as Sean Connery.

Bond films have always had a certain feel to them. It seems there were some things missing from this film. Namely things that made Bond, Bond. Like loads of beautiful women (there were two), fast cars, Q and his gadgets, and vodka martinis...shaken, not stirred. This seemed a much more politically correct Bond, along the lines of the Timothy Dalton Bond, and not the Bond most of us grew up with.

Gone was that distinctive Bond music that opened all of the other films (with the exception of "Never Say Never Again" - because the makers could not get the rights to the music). They managed to include the theme in the credits, but that music, those blaring of horns, were always the signal of good things to come. Maybe that's why they put it at the end. As if they were saying "don't worry, the next one will be better." Also gone from the opening credits were the silhouetted shapes of curvaceous women - instead we get South Park quality cardboard cutouts of Bond in various stages of fights or shooting his weapon.

Personally, I don't see Craig as a good James Bond. He is a good action figure though, but his face is a bit too...what is the word...mean I think. His appearance is too rough around the edges. He looks like he grew up on the streets and graduated Cum Laud from the University of Hard Knocks. Like he is more of a thug than a thinking man. Bond was always a thinking man. He seemed to have information on just about anything ready when asked. From diamonds to nuclear reactors to hydrofoils, he knew about it all. It was part of his mystique. Craig's appearance would fit better in Tony's crew on the Sopranos, than the fancy glitz and glamor top-dollar drawing rooms Bond frequents. He just doesn't have the right look. Bond always looked as if he was comfortable and right-at-home in his tuxedo. Not like he just got off work as a long shore man.

BTW: Bit of trivia. Most people think the first incarnation of "Casino Royale" was the David Nivens/Peter Sellers spoof of 1967. But the first actual film version of "Casino Royale" was a 1954 television adaptation for the "Climax!" television show. In it Jame Bond was an American spy for the CIA and Leiter was his MI6 liason (role reversal because the hero had to be American - this was American television after all). In it Barry Nelson played James Bond and Peter Lorre played Le Chiffre.

Thanks for visiting. Keep well and safe.







Technorati Tags: James Bond, Casino Royale, David Craig, Judo

New virus hiding as IE7 download

I'm just trying to spread the word here - I don't do this much, but I believe this to be very important



Trojan masquerades as IE 7 downloads by ZDNet's Ryan Naraine -- Spammers are using fake Internet Explorer 7 (Beta 2) downloads to lure Windows users into downloading a nasty backdoor Trojan. The fake downloads are part of a massive spam run that includes an official-looking graphic (see image below) linked to Web sites that auto-launch an executable named "ie7.exe." A copy of this spam that landed in my [...]



Technorati Tags: virus, IE7, trojan, zdnet

Nina and Paolo?!?!?! Are you kidding me?!?!?!

LOST this second half of the season has been getting good. I think the producers have discovered that if they keep exponentially increasing the number of sub-plots, with resolving nothing in the meanwhile, frustrated viewers are going to start leaving. And leaving in droves. Viewers can be forgiving, but one can only play them for so long before they get tired of being lead around by that ring in their nose.

Last night's episode, I can't quite figure out. Perhaps in the weeks to come some light will be shed on it. There are two characters that were essentially introduced this season, Nina and Paolo. They went with Locke, Sayid et al. to the Pearl hatch to find what they could find. (It was Nina who brilliantly pointed out in the hatch that possibly the blank TV screens connected to other hatches - DUH!).

That, until last night's episode, was it for the couple. But last night started with Nina and Paolo flashbacks (she was an actor, he a chef, and together they were scheming to steal diamonds form a rich movie producer in Australia). Anyway, their back story revealed to everyone who was left scratching their heads saying "so what, who cares about these two?".

These two die and get buried while their back story is being told. But at the end we discover they are not actually dead, just paralyzed via the bite of a very rare species of spider that has a paralytic venom which paralyzes one for about 8 hours, but does not actually kill them.

Questions remain, will Nina and Paolo dig themselves out of their grave? If so, how freaked out will Locke be that The Island has brought the dead to life?









Technorati Tags: LOST, ABC, Television, Nina, Paolo

smörgåsbord - I love that word

Luckily about 20 some odd years ago, I happened to meet Mrs. Right. I met my wife when I was attending the University of Kansas. I needed coinage, so I sauntered into Checkers Pizza (get it, Checkers, it was right across the street from Domino's Pizza). Checkers was a local owned business, and she was the weekend manager. I managed to get a job as a delivery driver. Oh, don't get me wrong, the qualifications were stringent and I almost didn't make it. But since I had a pulse, and a car, she decided to take a chance.



We knew each other for almost a year before we started dating. Then another two years of sometimes rocky on-and-off dating before she one day sat on my lap and would not get up until we set a date for the wedding. "Fine," I said, "how about September 31st." That lasted about 30 seconds...until she realized that September only has 30 days.



Nowadays one has a much more vast field of play when looking for dates, partners and life-time commitments. Back in my day, to meet someone usually involved going to a bar or other place where people gathered. I've never really been much of a people type of person. Stupidity really irritates me. And stupid drunks doubly so. Now people have the Internet for hooking up and hanging out. One can go online, setup their profile, and wait for the emails to just start rolling in. It is a virtual smörgåsbord of dating goodness.





This post brought to you by

justsayhi.com

Devil in the church

Don't blame me, I found this one on the 'net, but I also found it amusing, so I thought I would pass it on...

One Sunday morning, everyone in one bright, beautiful, tiny town got up early and went to the local church.

Before the services started, the townspeople were sitting in their pews
and talking about their lives, their families, etc. Suddenly, Satan
appeared at the front of the church. Everyone started screaming and
running for the front entrance, trampling each other in a frantic
effort to get away from evil incarnate.

Soon everyone was evacuated from the church, except for one
elderly gentleman who sat calmly in his pew, not moving... seemingly
oblivious to the fact that God's ultimate enemy was in his presence.
Now this confused Satan a bit, so he walked up to the man and said,
"Don't you know who I am?"

The man replied, "Yep, sure do."

Satan asked, "Aren't you afraid of me?"

"Nope, sure ain't," said the man.

Satan was a little perturbed at this and queried, "Why aren't you afraid of me?"

The man calmly replied, "Been married to your sister for over 48 years."

The Vista Premium Installation

I was using Windows XP Media Center - which I thought originally was a crock, but I have to admit I love the ability to record TV progs on my PC and the like - but I wanted to upgrade to Windows Vista. I purchased the Vista Premium upgrade from Academic Superstores (it pays to have kids in school) for $70.



I didn't really want to perform an upgrade upgrade because I don't believe that ever goes as well as a clean install. Plus, my XP came on the computer from the store, which means that HP put oodles of crap on it that I didn't ask for and didn't want (Netscape, aol, msn, earthlink - name something it was [unmentionable] on there).



At the DailyTech there is a work around for this here. This was a way to let me wipe out the HDD partition, format and install from scratch. The way Vista works is, if you have an upgrade key, you must run the setup from within a version of Windows that is upgradeable to Vista - these are Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP or Windows Vista only. That means, if you are still running Windows 98, or Me or NT I think you might be out of luck. But the work-around seems to negate that anyway, you don't even need a disc or your old Windows key to prove you had one of the versions of Windows in Vista's upgrade path.



The work-a-round is such.

1) back up all your stuff because you are going to lose it

2) boot from the DVD

3) do NOT put in your Windows Vista key when prompted

4) do the install

5) after it is all installed, pop the DVD back in

6) upgrade your Windows Vista Premium to...Windows Vista Premium - enter the Windows Vista key when prompted



The initial install took about 30 minutes to perform, including deleting the drive partition, making a new partition and formatting that partition.



The upgrade though, sheesh it took close to an hour to upgrade a clean install of Vista Premium to Vista Premium. One would think the install would have compared files and said "nothing to do here" but I believe it backed up the original file system, then installed the new file system, then removed the back ups.



My laptop came with two hard drives. I moved quite a bit of things (photos, videos, music, documents etc) to the D drive for safe keeping while I installed Vista. When installing Vista, I gave my laptop a new name - this may have been a mistake, let me explain. As stated, I moved stuff to the second HDD for the install. Well, when I opened up the drive in Vista, I couldn't see jack. I could not interact with anything, I had absolutely zero permissions on that drive.



This is the second day messing around with it, but still having some problems viewing/executing files.



Anyway, I'll figure it out eventually (hopefully it will not require giving 'everyone' full control of everything).



Other than that, things went fairly smooth. The only thing that did not work right out of the box (so to speak) was the audio. Actually, the sound worked, it was the sound controls that did not work. I could mute the speakers and I could un-mute the speakers, but I could not adjust the volume. After a lengthy perusal of the HP website and other places out in the web-o-sphere I resigned to downloading the XP version of the audio drivers from HP and go with that (at least until HP gets off their kiester and gives me my drivers).





Technorati Tags: XP Media Center, Vista Premium, Upgrade

The "Beautiful People"

Beautiful People - that term has come to mean people of means. People with money. It wasn't always that way. Once upon a time, way back in my youth, there were truly beautiful people. People like Lauren Bacall, Anne Margaret the starlets of old. They carried a natural beauty almost not available now-a-days in the era of plastic surgery.



Don't get me wrong. Personally, I have no problems with "augmentation procedures." Or nose jobs, or liposuction or any of the other plastic surgery procedures. But it used to be those of a truly natural beauty rose to the top in Hollywood. Now, with enough coinage, anyone can look like Dolly Parton or Britney Spears, or Cher.



Which maybe why there are even television shows (Nip/Tuck - which, BTW, i have never watched) about people giving and getting cosmetic surgery. I'm pretty much just following thoughts here. This is the kind of thing that happens when one forgets to pay the cable bill and actually has to think for an evening.



Thanks for visiting!



This post sponsored by:

Beverly Hills Plastic Surgeon





Technorati Tags: Ann Margaret, Lauren Bacall, Plastic Surgery, Cosmetic Surgery

How cool is this?

As I have mentioned, I have another blog chronicling my attempts at making money via blogging. That blog is A Little More Income. Well, about two or three months ago I posted this post - in which I excitedly exclaimed that the blog had been visited by someone from Belgium and that my grandfather and great-grandfather were immigrants from Belgium.

Fast forward to just the other day, and I am contacted by a fellow who says his grandmother used to talk about relations in Crawford County, KS who shared the last name of my grandfather. Long story short, I found a new cousin.

How cool is that?

It's here - It's here

I checked the UPS tracking site today, and it says my Vista Premium
upgrade was delivered this afternoon to my house (w00t). So tonight
I'm going to be busy copying all the stuff I want to keep to some
external hard drives, and tomorrow I plan on actually installing Vista
with a clean install.





Stay tuned for the full play-by-play XP Media Center to Vista Premium update special!



Technorati Tags: XP Media Center, Vista Premium, Microsoft, Upgrade

Last Call

Jim over at fortywhat reminds everyone to re-register for the do-not-call list. Not that it seems to have done me much good. Do they have one of those for bill collectors? Probably not (bummer).

Don't call me . . . I'll call you (I'm forty-what??!!)


Technorati Tags: Do Not Call, Solicitation, Phones

NNNNNNOOOOOOooooooo

April 23rd? April 23rd? What is up with that?!?!?! Just as Heroes is getting kick-butt good, and builds up all kinds of suspense...they go on hiatus until April 23rd? Crud. That is almost two stinking months! Man, Mondays just got a lot worse.





Technorati Tags: NBC, Television, Heroes

Gonna take the plunge

After careful review of the services and benefits offered by both AT&T and Cox Communications, it looks like we will more than likely switch to AT&T for our communication and media services.

With Cox, we are paying through the nose for about 70 channels of TV plus the local High Def channels (well, the big three anyway, CBS, ABC and NBC). With AT&T we can pay through the nose for 200 channels of television, plus local High Def channels (including FOX - I can't wait to see Jack Bauer kick the crap out of some tangos in HD!), plus several other HD channels (a Kung Fu movie channel in HD - who knew there was a market for that?).

Also, the internet from AT&T is about $10/month less, and we will get a discount on our Cingular phone service.

Downside is....$50 setup fee for the Dish network, and $70 for a new DSL modem/wireless router combo. That's $120 smackers. But there are some pretty good limited time discounts which should make up for that part of if.

Oh, and we'll be getting HBO and Showtime - which we don't currently have, but have to get before Soprano's start up again.





Technorati Tags: ATT, Cox, Television, Broadband, Phone

Love 'em or hate 'em...

Credit cards. Some have them, some don't. Some love them, some hate them. Some use them wisely, others foolishly. There are those that preach the evils of credit cards and the credit card industry. Personally, I've never been in that camp. Even when, many years ago, I got into my own little area of Hades concerning credit cards.

I had several, I charged them up, then it took me years and years to pay them down. I was under the thumb of the creditors. But all that time, even with the sky-high (for the time) interest rates of 21% (I think they go much higher than that now) I knew it was not the credit card companies fault that I was in the position I was in.

See, I am a big believer in personal responsibility. Credit cards are a tool that must be used responsibly. Mis-use of any tool can and often does lead to disaster.

Now, I use my credit cards wisely. I have two. One for medical expenses. The medical expenses are reimbursed through my Flexible Spending Account (FSA) at work. So I usually won't carry a balance for more than a couple of weeks on that card.

The other card is a mileage credit card. Last year the 5/8s and I went to Cancun while the boys were at scout camp. We enjoyed it so much we wanted to return with the kids. We decided to take this years tax returns and put it in a 12 month CD. Add nex years tax return to it, and we'd be able to afford to take the whole family to Cancun on vacation. With that, we also decided to obtain a mileage credit card so we can get air miles on the things we buy. We charge everything on that card, and I pay it off every two weeks on payday.

There are so many different options for obtaining credit cards these days. They have reward or cash back credit cards, there are cards that let one transfer the balance from other cards at 0% interest. And there are plenty of places where one can get credit card comparisons so they are fully armed with knowledge about which card is best for them.

Credit cards are not the enemy to the American consumer that uses them, carrying personal debt is the enemy to us all.

This post is sponsored by the CreditCardStore.co.uk

I am so ashamed.

I simply can't believe some people. Last night this area was rife with severe thunderstorms and tornados. All of the big three networks (ABC, CBS and NBC) in Kansas City went to full-time weather coverage due to the severity of storms and the presence of tornados in their viewing area.

While no tornados actually hit the Metro KC area, the smaller towns and rural areas around KC were affected by the storms. Listening to the Shanin and Parks show today on the way home, I was astounded by the number of callers into that show that complained because they didn't get to see Medium, or Lost, or Jericho or some other television show they wanted to see.

The sheer selfishness and lack of concern for their fellow man completely floored me. This is actually the first time that I have to admit I am ashamed of those fellow midwesterners that acted in such a childish manner. I would expect behavior like this from the east or west coasts - but in fly-over country, we are supposed to be more civilized.

Rome over Disney any day of the week

***ADVERTISEMENT***

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My brother and his wife are putting money aside to take their kids to Disney World. My wife had talked about doing that. Personally, I'm not into it. The kids don't need Disney World. I grew up just fine without going there. Besides, I think for close to the same money one would spend for a family of five at Disney World, one could take the family on a true adventure. Somewhere like Rome.

There aren't very many places in Europe I would like to go. I don't have much use for most of that continent. I have no real desire to visit England or Ireland, especially not France, Germany or Belgium.

About the only two places I would like to visit over there are Spain and Italy. And really, not even the whole countries. Spain, I'd like to visit the Manzanares el Real (that's a castle that bears my name) as well as the town of Manzanares. In Italy, the only place I have any desire to visit is Rome.

Rome has so much to offer a visitor. The artworks of the great masters. All the ancient churches and, of course, Vatican City. Being Catholic, it would be somewhat like a pilgrimage to visit the Vatican. That would be the real reason to visit Rome.




Technorati Tags: Rome, Disney World, Vatican City

HRG and Creepy Haitian Voodoo Guy Pull A Fast One

One of my favorite characters from the NBC show Heroes is who I originally named "Horned Rim Glasses Dude." He turned out to be Claire Bennett's father (I still can't remember the character's first name though).



We learned a lot about HRG's past in the latest episode. We saw him first get his job with "The Company" (still uncertain if it is a government entity or not - they kept that kind of vague). Saw how he obtained Claire, and some about his past with Mr. Invisible Pigeon Fellow.



What I don't fully understand is what happens towards the end. Creepy Haitian Voodoo Guy is at the house when everything goes nuclear and Claire saves the day. HRG's boss is there.



1) Why didn't Creepy Haitian Voodoo Guy suppress Nuclear Man's powers like he does other peoples' powers? This would have kept him from going...well...nuclear.



2) Why couldn't Creepy Haitian Voodoo Guy take the memory of the event from HRG 's bossman?



I suppose this would be to further the story, and get Claire to New York where she can hook up with Peter Petrelli. It looks like The Mind Reading Copper is going to work for The Company and HRG Dude in particular.



This is one of those shows that makes one wish it was Monday, so they could see the next episode.





Technorati Tags: Television, Heroes, NBC

Only in Kansas...

Yesterday the temperatures reached into the balmy 70's. It was beautiful. The sun was shinging brightly, the wind was blowing softly and gently. It truly felt like a spring day. Last night, more signs of spring. As I drove to my parents house to (once again) show my father how to use his VCR (sometimes it stinks being the smart one of the bunch - but I manage), I was able to witness a spectacular lightning display off to the southeast of Topeka.

Seems there was a super major storm system, which gave the folks down there the years first batch of tornados. And this morning, after hitting the gym, it was snowing. 40 degrees outside, and the snow is falling large, heavy and fast.

In less than 12 hours, we go from 70 degrees and sunny to thunderstorms and tornados, to snow storm - We must be back in Kansas Dorothy.

Cool custom poker chips

***ADVERTISEMENT***

---

Every year the parents and supporters of my kids' school get together and have a casino night. The parents obtain donations from community businesses as prizes - and even donate some items themselves.

They asked for a$20 donation which would buy one $10,000 in play money. We have been using play money, but for next year, I'm going to try and gather enough donations from the parents groups to get some real poker chips. At e-pokerchips.com one can order custom poker chips. It seems like they can put any image on them desired (some examples even had Cpt. Kirk).

But this year, this year I spent the whole night (aside from the hour I voluteered to deal blackjack) at the poker table. I have been playing Texas Hold 'Em on the computer. I caught the poker bug from my father who is mostly blind, but still likes to journey up north to the Indian Casinos. Since he is unable to drive, I'm the one that gets to make the drive north to pick him up on Friday and Saturday nights.

I didn't do nearly as well at the casino night as I do at the "play money" casinos online. But it was still a fun time, and raised money for a good cause.

Technorati Tags: Gambling, Poker, Nightlife, Recreation, Charity

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Looking for a change

We currently have our cell phones with Cingular (family plan...natch). Our home phone, television and Internet is through COX communications. I'm getting kind of tired of COX.

They block ports on the Internet so I can't hook up with my SQL server from outside, and I can't run a web page from my home (well, I can, if I put it on a different port - but that just doesn't work for me).

In addition, they have bandwidth limits. One can only have so many bytes incoming and so many bytes outgoing per month. Yet they give do not give one a way to check their usage and make adjustments if necessary.

I'm seriously thinking of switching to ATT for all of our television and communication needs. According to their website, we can get DSL at 3Mbsfor less that what I'm paying COX for (supposedly) 3.5Mbs (but I rarely, according to DSLReports.com) get more than 2Mbs).

My only concern is local High-Def channels. I don't think we will get those with the satellite and might have to fork over some $$$ for a High-Def antennae - and maybe a receiver? I'm not 100% certain on how all of that would work. I spent a good hour over the last weekend poking around ATT website, but couldn't for the life of me find a phone number to call so I could get some answers.


Technorati Tags: Television, Internet, Cell Phone Service, COX Communications, ATT, Phone Service

How Smart Are You

Tonight on Fox at 20:30 is a new Jeff Foxworthy show titled "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?" - it looks to be an entertaining show. We have it setup in the DVR to record the show. We can't watch it live because it conflicts with "The Unit" on CBS. And we all know we cannot not watch "The Unit" - which is the best hour long U.S. Army commercial in the history of television!





Technorati Tags: Jeff Foxworthy, Television

T-Town hockey is back!

CJOnline - Topeka gets hockey — again

"I have no expectation," Lorang said. "If I'm losing $100,000, I'll be happy. If I have at least some of the bills being paid, I'll be the happiest person."

It looks like Topeka will once again be in the hockey business. But this time, it looks like we might actually get a team that stays. I don't know if Mary Magalene Lorang is serious with that statement, but it brings hope that someone who doesn't care much about the finances wants the team to be here.



Plus, she says she will move to Topeka with the team, which means no more long-distance owners, and someone who will be part of the community.



I think this might actually work out!







Technorati Tags: Topeka, Sports, Hockey

The low-down on your fav soaps

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You know, when I was in college, I was addicted to Days of Our Lives. Heck, my roommate, girfriend and I all scheduled our classes around that show. This was back when Stephano was still king of the baddies and his kid Count Tony was a close second.

Things have changed quite a bit since then. Now people can get the latest on their fav soaps just about anywhere. There is a new site, about 6 months old (I guess, in reality, that is kind of old in Internet age), called soaps.com.

Soaps.com is a fairly easy site to navigate. Clicking the "List of Shows" button takes you to a page that has the soaps categorized by network (ABC Soap Operas, CBS Soap Operas, NBC Soap Operas). In addition, the soaps are all listed along the left of the page, so a simple click on the title of your fav soap takes you to it's details.

One thing this site has (which, I must admit, I spent some time perusing) is a "where are they now" section for Days of Our Lives. It is interesting to see where the actors are now and what they are doing (and if there are any plans for them to appear on the show again).

Most people want to do good.

Growing up, who didn't sometimes imagine what they could do with some sort of super powers? Each of us would imagine saving the world, or doing good. I didn't know anyone who, if granted some sort of great power, would dream of doing evil.

The NBC show Heroes examines what people do and how they react when they discover they have special powers. Of course, the writers are, I imagine, fairly typical folks who as kids also dreamt of being heroes with super powers. Deep inside, I truly and honestly believe that man is a decent creature who wants to do good. That he does not set out to do evil. It happens, but I believe it is usually the unintended consequences of man doing what they believe to be a good deed.

Sure, there are those that are simply evil. There are those that are - for wont of a better word - flawed. That have no desire to do good, or just don't really care if what they do is good or bad.

What got me thinking about this is the TV show Heroes. In it there is one guy aptly named 'Hiro'. He is Japaneses and a comic book sci/fi fanatic. When he discovers he has powers, there is no question in his mind. He can't sit by and ignore he has the powers. He can't pretend he doesn't have them. He is compelled to seek out a mission and use his powers for the benefit of the world.

Then there is Sylar. Sylar is the big baddie. He goes around finding other people with special abilities, killing them and eating their brains. By eating their brains, he absorbs their powers. The show gives me the impression that Sylar doesn't care if his actions are good or bad. Doesn't care what other people think of them. He wants the power, and he will do anything to achieve it.

In between these two polar opposites are the rest of the special ones. In this week's episode, three of them got together in an attempt to find out what the mysterious Mr. Bennet has done to them. Two of them got together, and recruited a third, who is an ex LAPD officer whose power is the ability to read minds. They tell him "we can be heroes." Which seems to be a common theme. Most of the folks with powers in this show it seems genuinely want to be heroes. So far there are only two that don't seem to actually want to go the hero route.

Anyway, it is a show worth watching - for many reasons.

Heroes TV Show on NBC: NBC Official Site

Latest & Greatest cell phones for FREE!

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I am somewhat of a techophile. I love having the latest greatest of any technology. Unfortunately, new technology is expensive enough, and there are enough other expenses with the 5/8, and the kids, what with Judo classes, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts etc. etc. etc. that I don't always (okay, almost never) get to have the latest and greatest tech.

For instance, one thing I am usually several years behind in is cell phone tech. Cell phones have become outrageously full of cool and neat features (some of them even allow you to place phone calls!). I have had cell phones on and off since about the late 80's. You know, those big bulky bag phones you plugged into your cigarette lighter in the car and it cost you something like $50/month and $.30 a minute? With roaming fees in the umpteens? Yeah, those were the ones I'm talking about.

When we moved to Topeka in '99 and I started working in Kansas City (about 70 miles away) I knew I would have to find a phone that 1) I could afford and b) that would work everywhere (since I was going to travel a little with the new job). So I settled on Sprint PCS phone. It was big, it was clunky, but it did the job. After a couple of years with Sprint, I changed to Cingular. With Cingular I got two Nokia phones for about $20 each (one for the wife). Cingular at the time, worked in many more places than Sprint did. With absolutely no roaming charges. With Sprint I still had roaming charges to pay in some areas, and simply couldn't use the phone in other areas.

There has been almost no place I couldn't use my Cingular phone. Since I signed up with Cingular, I have received several upgraded phones for free! Not the latest and greatest mind you, but I finally have a phone that plays MP3 ringtones, takes pictures and has Bluetooth. But I'd love to have one that can hold more music, in essence, has an MP3 player built into it. Something like Sony Ericsson w300i - now that is a phone I could sink my teeth into (so to speak, I don't really eat phones).

After looking at the WireFly site, I wish I didn't already have Cingular as my carrier though. I don't know how these guys do it, but they have the phones with all the latest and greatest technologies for FREE! No, really, they are free! No payment for the phone. Oh, sure, there is a two year contract with Cingular, but hey, from WireFly you can get a RAZR FREE. With Cingular, the RAZR would cost you about $100, and you'd still need the two year contract. If you're simply not crazy about the flip phones, they also have the ultra smooth, ultra classy Samsung D807 which slides up to reveal the number pad. How cool is that?

This post brought to you by:
Free Cingular Wireless Phones and Other Cingular Cell Phone Deals from Wirefly

"I've Never Felt More Alive"

I took my 14 year old to the Department of Motor Vehicles today to get his driving learner's permit. He had to take a test and get his picture taken. He received a paper receipt with his photo on it. Kansas these days will not give you a license or ID card on the spot. Instead they mail to the address they print on the card. I suppose this is to ensure that one actually has access to address given.

After he received his permit, I took down to Forbes Field to practice some driving. Other than NASCAR, Need for Speed and other driving sims on the computer and game consoles, he has never before been behind the wheel of a real automobile. He was excited, but confided in me that he was a bit nervous. I couldn't allow it to show, but I was a bit apprehensive as well.

We took the Insight. Which, for those not in the know is a gasoline/electric hybrid that I purchased about five years ago to save money on fuel for my daily 70 mile one-way commute to work. The car is very small...tiny really, and it is manual transmission. I wondered if first learning to drive on manual transmission vehicle would be too much for him to digest, but figured that people did exactly that for the many years between the mass production of cars, and the invention of the automatic transmission. Plus, if he does any damage, at least it is to my car and not to the wife's minivan.

Forbes Field used to be the Forbes Air Force base. It is huge and with almost regular like streets. Now it is a smallis commercial airport and the home of the 109th Air Refeuling Wing of the Kansas Air National Guard. What is great about this area for learning to drive is there is very little traffic, and there are real streets with real street signs. So he could drive at 10 miles per hour, and not impede the flow of traffic for regular folks. Practically no one else was there.

He started out slow and choppy as one would expect. Getting started moving the first time proved to be the most challenging. So much to remember; put the clucth in when stopping or you'll kill the engine, apply some gas - but not too much - when starting from a stop, let the clucth out slowly, apply the brakes evenly and smoothly, but also press the cluth when slowing down or you'll kill the engine.

After about 10 minutes off engine killing jarring popping starts, we finally got going. Drive about 100 feet and hit a stop sign. He had to stop three times before he actually made it to the sign. After about 15 minutes of driving around he was really starting to get the hang of it. His take offs were much smoother. He still has some problems with mashing the brake down after he is almost stopped, causing us to jolt forward and the seatbelts to lock.

At one point, he got up to 17 miles per hour and was grinning from ear to ear and stated, with all the excitement one could imagine, "I've never felt more alive in my life!"

"Too little, too late"

"Too little too late." That is what my friend kept saying last night as we watched the second half of the Super Bowl 'together' last night. My friend is up in Minot, ND. For those of you who went to public school, that is about two spits away from Canada. Thanks to the excellence of American ingenuity, we have the internet. Yes, I know that some guy from CERN named Tim Berners-Lee created HTML and the first web browser, thus launching what became known as the World Wide Web. But what does the web run on? The Internet. The internet was developed by the United States Armed Forces for their own communication. Back then it was called ARPANET (I don't remember exactly what ARPA stands for, but knowing out government, it is an acronym for something).

Anyway, several years later the military turned their arpanet over to the National Science Foundation. NSF quickly opened it up to universities, and the Internet was born. So yes, I can with all degree of accuracy, I can say emphatically that the Internet we all know and love was created by the good ol' United States of America. But I digress...

My friend and I, we were able to watch the game together from 1700 miles apart due to the miracle of instant messengers. We were able to chat real time while watching the game. Commenting on commercials, on plays and what not.

The game was a little dry the second half I thought (no pun intended). I always enjoyed watching foul weather games more than fair weather games. The rain last night made for some fairly unpredictable incidents. Several fumbles I saw were, I believe, a direct result of the moisture in the air and on the ball. It got off to a good start. I loved the first play when Chicago ran the opening kick off back for a touchdown. 14 seconds into gameplay and 6 points were up on the board. The first half, as I said, was exciting. There were close calls, some fumbles and interceptions. The game was moving along and mostly unpredictable.

The commercials were alright, but I don't think they held up to the smashing commercials of years gone by. I think my two favorite commercials of all time to date are the EDS commercials, the one where the cowboys are herding cats, and the one about the "Running of the Squirrels". My favorite from this year has to be the "Rock, Paper, Scisscors" from Budweiser followed closely by the GM robot nightmare. The next two would be the Blockbuster mouse doesn't work (although, technically, that was a pre-game commercial, not a super bowl commercial) and the Carlos Mencia Bud Light English as a Second Language commercial.

All-in-all, it was a fun game to watch.

Snow (at last!)

We finally received some actual, honest to goodness snow in Topeka this week. It waited until Saturday, which I believe was awfully thoughtful of it. It teased us last week with a load of ice, and gave most of the surrounding area some inches of snow, but had, until now, bypassed Topeka so far this year.

It started about mid-afternoon Saturday. In the morning Little Sister had a basketball game at the community center, we all went there to watch and support her...well,...most of us did. The boys like to go because there are pool tables and ping pong tables at the centers, so they get their pool time in. She did well in her basketball even though she had never really played before, and she had missed last weeks practice.

Back to the snow. It started coming down in what seemed like flurries mostly on Saturday early afternoon. Little tiny flakes that blew and whirled and twirled in the wind rising and floating back down before they finally lighted on the ground. As the afternoon progressed, the snow flakes thickened and got bigger. Little Sister took a bucked outside to catch the snow. She likes to make snow ice cream with a fresh snowfall.

Sunday morning we awoke to about 2 inches of nice, pack snow. The type of snow that sticks together well, and is exeptional for the construction of snowmen...or snowwomen...or snowpersons(whatever). Not only snow people but also forts and snowballs. About mid-morning I ventured out into the snow. I had too. My driveway was full of snow and it needed removing. A lesson one learns while living in Alaska, is that one must keep on top of the snow. One must be diligent in the removal of snow from where it needs removing. Otherwise, the snow will get ahead of you, and you can never catch up.

I have let that lesson slide somehwat since returning to the lower 48. Heck, I didn't even go out and shovel while the snow was still falling, nor even the same day it fell. In Alaska, I would never have let myself not start shoveling while the snow was still falling. It is simply better to shovel the paths 10 times in a day, then to wait and try to shovel 23 inch deep snow all at once.

It was quiet outside. Normally it is fairly quiet on a Sunday, but this day it was more quiet than usual. Everything seems quieter in the snow. Part of it I suppose is much less activity. Kids aren't running and riding their bikes or scooters or skateboards all around the neighborhood. Cars travelling the wide street we live on are few and very far between. But I think mostly it seems almost as if the snow acts as a sound insulator. Like it dampens everything and makes the sounds softer and somewhat more hollow than normal.

One could hear that distinct scratchy-scraping sound that a snow shovel makes as it grinds along concrete. The sounds differ depending on what type of shovel is used. One could easily tell which neighbors had the plastic shovels (a lower, more growly scrape), the aluminim shovels (a higher, more whining scrape) and the heavy duty steel shovels which gave a full ring of a scrape sound. One could also hear the faint cries of glee and laughter which echoed from the children at the park.

They were sledding, and building forts in preperation for a snowball war. One team finished their fort, then went inside someone's house to play Xbox while the other team finished theirs. But then the first team came back out, they discovered that the second team had co-opted parts of the first teams for for their own. They weren't very happy, about it, but made due. The war was a draw.

Afterwards everyone gathered for hot chocolate (instant of course, no one makes actual hot chocolate with milk anymore). All in all it was a nice ending to a sometimes hectic week. And at least we finally received some snow, if only for a few days (supposed to be in the 40's by the end of the week).

Winter has arrived (finally)

The almost snow finally came to Topeka this weekend. I say almost snow because it was quite almost, but not exactly, like snow. Basically what we recieved from the great sky was sleet. And lots of it. It was cold enough that the sleep pellets just piled up.

Looking out on the lawn through the window, from the warmth of the living room, with a cup of coffee in my hands...a cup where the steam was still rising, making ghostly cloud-like swirls in the air, it looked like it had snowed. But stepping out into the cold and into the 'snow' one realized that it was not snow. But something else...almost like tiny bits of hail that had piled up. Which, if one thinks about it, is pretty much what sleet is amlost...but not quite.

It was cold enough that when one stepped out into the frigid air, there was a tendency for the dampness in one's nose to freeze after only one or two breaths. It's the kind of cold that makes one want to breath through their mouth, to save the freezing of nasal moisture.

It had gotten progressively colder throughout the week. Culminating on Friday with the beginning of the sleet storm. The storm, according to the vaulted and learned weather people, was promised to land us five or more inches of snow throughout the weekend. I didn't believe it for minute. I didn't think we would get five inches of anything, not even snow. And we didn't.

But as Sunday afternoon approached, there were those that were beginning to worry about the promised five inches. "If it hadn't even started snowing yet, that means we'll get those five inches all over night. That means the road will be horrible, just horrible tomorrow. Thank goodness it's a federal holiday, and most people won't have to go to work." That's true for the most of Topeka. Topeka is a government town. Just about everybody works for either the City, County, State or Federal government - which means aobut 75% of the population of Topeka didn't have to go to work today.

Friday was the first day Little Sister's brownie troop could sell their cookies. I had to work late and didn't get home until after dark, close to seven. But Saturday morning I took her around the neighborhood. She has set a goal for herself of 200 boxes of cookies. Last year she sold 180 or so, and this year she wanted to sell more. She is quite the go-getter. She wants to be better than everyone else. She wants to exceed and excel and show everyone how great she is. If she doesn't lose this drive and ambition, she will accomplish tremendous things.

She took orders for nearly 100 boxes that Saturday morning. I think she got a lot of sympathy orders. So many people commented on her dedication to be out on such a cold and gloomy day selling cookies. We got invited in to warm up at quite a few houses. But sadly, no one offered hot chocolate. After 1/2 the block we decided to head back home to warm up with some hot chocolate. That was probably a mistake because after the hot chocolate, we went back out, but only got to about 1/2 the number of houses we had visited earlier that morning before she got too cold to go on. Still, almost 100 orders for just a few hours on a cold and sleety and crappy Saturday morning.

Next week the boys have the Boy Scout Klondike Derby where they run a dog sled style sled loaded with all kinds of camping and survival stuff to different stations and perform different functions. Sometimes the stay the night, but this year they are only going for the day, them coming back. So probably I won't go with them. I'd certainly try my darndest to go if they were camping, but I'm not much for going out and standing around for a day then coming home cold and tired.

Tech Tags: Girl Scout Cookies snow sleet Topeka weather Boy Scout Klondike Derby

Waiting for the snow (still)

Christmas and New Years has come and gone here in northeast Kansas, and still we have no snow. Out west...out west we have lots of snow. Too much really. Almost greedily too much. They shouldn't have kept all that snow for themselves. They should have shared some, but they didn't and now look at the state of affairs they are in. Cattle are starving or dehydrating, or just generally down in the dumps.

The prez has finally declared the area a national disaster area. It should have been done a couple of weeks ago, but it takes time. We are, after all, midwesterners. We don't expect, nor desire, the federal government to swoop in and save us, or our cattle, just because we got stingy and held on to more snow that we should have and didn't let anyone east of us get any of the powdery white goodness.

New Years eve was an interesting night. An 8 year old beat us all at Monopoly. In my defense though, it was "Sponge Bob" Monopoly, and not the regular everyday Monopoly. Not that it should make that much difference. The game is the same, only the names - and the tokens - were changed to better match the kids show. I'm standing firm though, that since I could not be the shoe, is why I lost so miserably to a second grader.

And hey, thanks for visiting!