Comcast follow-up

Yesterday I received some excellent customer service from @ComcastBonnie on twitter.  She helped me understand a bunch of stuff - and not just related to needing new converter boxes.  I also spoke with someone on the phone who was very nice and understanding, and again, helped me understand what is going on - and took my order for two free boxes and two that I'll be paying $1.99/month.

I think blogging about it yesterday was good.  I was really mad about this and blew off my steam in my post.  By the time I talked with these two people, I was calmer and able to talk with them instead of blowing up at them.

No, I'm still not happy at having to give Comcast yet more money, but I'm ok with everything.  Oh, and last night I saw a Comcast commercial that this time said I WOULD need either a cable or converter box.  I found that funny after I complained their commercials said I didn't need anything.  haha

COMCAST SUCKS!!!!

I've been with Comcast for a long time (we have our TV, internet and phone with them) and while they aren't GREAT, I haven't really had too many problems or issues. In fact, for the last probably five years, I can't think of a single problem.

The government says all over-the-air TV will become digital and you'll need a converter box. Hmmm... I'm on Comcast, they say they have digital cable. Does that mean I still need a box?

I give them a call and ask specifically about the TV's I have connected directly to the wall outlets, not through a cable box. They tell me I'm fine, I don't need any additional equipment. Cool!

I tweet @ComcastCares asking the same question. His answer was a little confusing but my understanding was again I was fine, no additional equipment needed. More Coolness!! (Then again, maybe I missunderstood him, which is possible.)

All of Comcast's tv commercials say if you're a Comcast customer, you're set, good to go, you don't need additional equipment. WOOHOO!!

Then I get this letter in the mail from them saying I DO need additional equipment.

What they are saying is I don't need anything for the government-mandated switch. HOWEVER, Comcast is changing channels 32-71 to digital format and I need a box for THAT!

WHAT?!

Wait, wasn't I told I didn't need anything? Didn't their commercials say I didn't need anything? And now they are telling me I DO need something?! WTF?!?! What kind of missleading advertising is that?!

I know a lot of people who slam Comcast and I've always semi-defended them saying things used to be really bad but they've been pretty darn good for us for a long time. After this crap I'm not sure I can defend them anymore.

Oh, I forgot to mention Comcast will be happy to rent us a converter box. It's only $1.99/month/TV. No, it's not THAT much, but it's $1.99/month/TV more that they are getting on top of the already high prices I'm paying.

I've got friends and family with Verizon FIOS and they are very happy. I'm nervous about changing because my wife works from home and simply can NOT have her phone and internet down. But after this latest piece of crap way for Comcast to gouge more money out of us, I'm going to do some heavy research and give them a call.

Comcast, this was really lame on your part!! (And if my parents didn't read this blog there would be a lot more uncensored words here.)

How to Fix the Economy

I know how to fix everything.  It's really simple.  Ready?

Have all the economists and other financial experts LIE and say we're out of this and things are getting better. 

Yep, it's that simple.  Why?  There are a lot of people and companies out there who listen to these experts and based what they do on what these people say.  Instead of being all doom-and-gloom, these experts should say something like:

"We've been talking about this for the last couple weeks, talking with everyone in our field.  After going over the data over and over and over, we have come to the conclusion that things are definitely getting better and we are heading out of this.  Our economy is soon going to be back and no one needs to worry anymore."

People would hear this and decide they no longer have to put off buying that new car, that new HDTV, that new iPhone, groceries, clothes, etc.  Companies would start buying the things they've been putting off, like upgrading computers and software, new equipment.  They would also start hiring people again.

Why do I think this insanely simple idea would work?  Because I blame these so-called experts for the dot-com bust.  Things were going really well, not a problem, and these experts said, "The economy goes in cycles.  Things have been going up and have been too good for too long.  We are due for it to come down and when it does, it'll come down hard because it was too good for too long."  And gee, within about six months of saying that, things started crapping out.  Then these experts were jumping back on the news patting themselves on the back saying, "See, we told you this would happen."

No.  They didn't know it would happen.  They MADE it happen.  Well, OK, it's not 100% their fault.  A lot of people and companies listened to these experts and put the brakes on a lot of things based on what they said.  Had they not said anything or people and companies not listened to them, there wouldn't have been a crash, or at least not as bad as it was.

We still have a lot of people listening to these same experts and waiting to do stuff based on what they say.  And what are they saying?  "Things suck and we don't see an end to it."  "We thought we'd be out of this by now but it looks like it'll last another year at least."  People and companies hear that and say, "Wow, we'd better hold off for awhile on spending any money."  No money is spent, jobs are lost, things continue to get worse, and the experts say, "See, we told you." 

So it's simple.  If the experts would just say things are starting to get better and we are out of this, people and companies would say, "AWESOME!  Let's go spend that money!  Let's hire those people!  Let's get busy!"

But they won't.  Why?  Not because it might be wrong or anything like that.  Nope.  It's because they have HUGE ego's.  Each one wants to be the one who says, "See, I told you so."  If they'd all do this, they could never be the one who called it, never say, "Yeah, we just decided to lie about it all to turn the economy back around."  They would have to live with the fact that THEY made the economy better - and no one would ever know.

A few ego's vs. millions of people around the world who are having a real hard time right now.  Some have even done horrible things like killing themselves.  Is an ego worth more than that? 

Anyhow, that's my plan.  I know a lot of people will give all kinds of reasons it won't work, but I know it would.  Too bad it won't happen.

Sick weekend. :(

I felt fine Friday night.  Saturday morning I woke up with a sore throat and feeling all achy.  Then I worked WAY too much around the house.  Marci took the kids shopping and gave me 3-4 hours of rest time which was really nice.

Got worse Sunday.  I woke up in the middle of the night with a REALLY bad sore throat, hurt to breath.  Got up, drank lots of water - I've read many places that water is the best on a sore throat - ate some food cause I was hungry and took some sore throat things.  That helped and I was able to get back to sleep.

In the morning it was much better.  So of course I overworked myself again.  D'OH!  Was really super tired by 5pm and called it a day.  We all sat around, watching tv, playing games, and I played quietly with the kids.  Got to bed early and got a good nights sleep. 

I feel much better today (Monday), but still not 100%.  Mostly just really tired with a bad sinus headache.  My sore throat is mostly gone which is nice - those kill me more than anything.  I'm going home at lunch to get some more rest.  One more night of good rest and I'll feel back to normal or close to it tomorrow.

At least we finally got the ornaments off the tree and I can take it down now, we got the house cleaned up some, and we hung up some new coat racks which look great!  And I had fun playing with Riley and his radio controlled car he got for Christmas.  He really had fun with that - and I did too!  ;)

Resolutions so far

I'm on day 3 of my resolutions and so far I'm 1.5 for 3.

I've been eating LOTS better. WIN!
I haven't exercised yet. FAIL! :(
I have been doing better at being a better husband and father, though I think I'll always be working on this. ;)

It's been hard to get all of us back on a work/school sleeping schedule. Not getting to bed early enough and getting up too early. I'm very tired. Each night I say we're going to get to bed on time, and so far we've failed. The only time I have to workout is before work. To do that I have to get up between 4am and 4:30am. To do that I have to get to bed by 9pm. I'll try again tonight.

Right now I'm resisting the urge to have another soda and eat my cookie BEFORE lunch. Not easy! haha

Happy 2009! Resolution time...

It's a new year full of possibilities, opportunities, excitement of what may be - and the pain of dropping the 20 pounds I regained. About four years ago I dropped 40 pounds and felt fantastic! I did it by eating better - LOTS less junk - and exercising. Since then I have not kept up the exercising regularly. I'd go 3-4 weeks of doing it regularly, then something would cause me to not get to it for a month or more. Each time just as I was getting my body used to exercising, I'd stop.

One thing I have learned over the last five years is if I don't exercise, I have to eat really small portions, and I can't eat much snack stuff - cookies, candy, chips, ice cream, etc. that also includes beer. :( BUT, when I DO exercise, I can eat more and more snack stuff without gaining a pound. Plus there's the added bonus of 1) feeling better physically, 2) looking better which causes 3) feeling better mentally, and that's a BIG win!

We've got an elliptical trainer at home for those days when it's too cold or wet to go outside. Starting today I am going to eat better, drink more water, less soda, less beer, and exercise at least every other day. That's what I did before. I'll just keep asking myself the same questions I did before: Do I want that or want to feel better? Do I want that or do I want to be able to play with Riley? Do I want that or do I want to take a chance at diabetes? I ask that one because my Dad got it from being overweight. I'm 45, will be 46 in March. Riley is 6. I'll be in my 50's when he's in high school. I won't be able to keep up with him like I could if I were in my 30's or 40's, but I don't want to be sitting in a chair because I can't do it at all.

I WILL drop these 20 pounds I put back on!

My other big resolution is my trumpet. Each year I say I'm going to practice, be in shape for the Rose Parade, and I never am. Last year was the worst! Then after the parade when I'm in ok shape, I say I'm going to keep it up, and never do.

This year I have decided if I want to play trumpet, I WILL practice. Even if it's just in my car at lunch, that's better than nothing. It'll take me longer to get in the shape I want, but I CAN get there. I AM a good player and could be a REALLY good player. But I've gotta do what it takes to get there. I want to be in shape enough that if someone calls asking me to play a gig or something quick, I can.

I WILL be buzzing my mouthpiece in my car. I WILL practice in my car at lunch and I WILL practice correctly! Not just playing songs (which is better than nothing), but actually practicing the way I should to improve my overall playing.

This other one isn't really a resolution, rather something I'm working all the time: Being a better father and husband. Sometimes I do really well, sometimes I fail big time. Mostly it's because I get frustrated and mad too fast. Well, I had pretty much two weeks off over Christmas and today I feel fantastic! In fact, at an intersection where cars cut me off all the time, when it happened again today, I didn't get upset or anything. I didn't even think about it until a few seconds later when I realized I was ok with letting them go first! All day today the things that really pissed me off before my vacation haven't been bothering me at all! I guess I needed that more than I thought. So now I'm in a MUCH better frame of mind and will work hard to stay that way so I don't blow up at my family for something they didn't deserve.

So there are my two big ones. I have a lot of other ones but these are the two I say I am going to do every year and I fail at horribly. I am going to concentrate on these. Instead of picking a ton, I have just picked two so I can focus more attention on them. I will be checking in at least once a month to share how I'm doing.

To begin with, today I DID buzz my mouthpiece on the way to work and I HAVE been drinking more water and eating better. So far so good! Now, let's see if I can keep it up for more than two days. ;)

Into work early for nothing

I need to install an update to see if it fixes a problem. Last night I tried to do it from home but for some reason the bandwidth was horribly slow. I decided to get into work early in the morning and do it.

I'm in at 5am. Perfect, plenty of time before people need the application for me to install the update. Logon to the server, shutdown the processes. While that's running, logon to the citrix servers that need the update. Get into the first one, open up windows explorer, try to get to the server for the update and find out I can't. Hmmm... I must have typed it wrong, let me try again. Nope, can't. Let me try a different way. No luck. It says that has been turned off. Ok. Let me try it from my computer, can I get into to server with windows explorer? Yep, no problems. Ok, let me try it one more time. Nope, it's just not gonna let me in. Fine, let me try the other citrix server. Same problem.

ARGH!!!!!!!

Now I can't do the update because I can't get the update onto the citrix servers! Nice. Thanks for changing that. I'm supposed to be in the admin group for all the computers so I SHOULD have rights to do this. Someone is going to get an earful when they get in! ...well, actually they'll get a nice earful. As much as I want to yell at them, call them names, tell them various things about how they compare to pond scum, telemarketers and spammers, I've grown and learned over the years it's best to be nice first.

SO I get to try the update again tonight or tomorrow morning, assuming they can get this fixed for me. sigh....

Not looking my age

When I was in my late teens to early 20's, I looked 5-8 years older than I was. That was cool because people didn't think I was some dumb kid, they took me a little more seriously.

Over the years things changed. Now I'm 45 and look younger, I've had people say I look as young as 34.

Normally I'm really happy about that. But sometimes it's a pain because people sometimes don't take me as seriously as they should, especially in a business/professional environment. Now and then either people write me off as some young kid who doesn't know enough or as some young kid who needs a lecture about stuff. It gets very frustrating when I have 20+ years experience yet people don't want to believe me even when I tell them how much experience I have and how old I am.

sigh....

Maybe I just need to wear a t-shirt all the time with a picture of my drivers license showing my birth date, or next time I get my hair cut have it died grey. haha

Freaking cool video!!

This is just simply amazing! After you start the video, put your mouse on the video, hold down the mouse button and move your mouse. Is that awesome or what?!

Men's vs. Women's Bathroom

At our office the women's bathroom is quite different from the men's. I've never actually been in there, only seen a little bit as I walked by and someone was going in or coming out. First off, there's music playing. They also have a bench to sit on and quite often you can hear several women in there having a lively conversation, I'm sure they've been there for longer than just the call of nature. I'll bet there's also candles, maybe some essential oil diffuser thingy, hints of lavender and and other women stuff.

The men's room is simple, plain, used for one thing. But if the women can have their special room decorated nicely and all womanly, I say we men should be able to upgrade our bathroom.

First, replace one of the urinals. Instead of pulling the handle to flush, you pull the handle to fill your glass with beer! Get rid of the bland colors and put up some posters and tool company calendars, sports team logos, street and other traffic signs, a nice hunting trophy or two. Replace the tile floor and carpet with garage flooring. Have a radio on the sports channel or better yet, a flat screen tv above every stall showing your favorite sporting event. When you flush, make it sound like you are reving the engine on a muscle car. Put a high powered exhaust fan in one area so you can have a quick cigar before heading back out. And instead of paper towels coming from a little ugly metal container, have some life-size carboard cutouts of some Hooters gals holding the paper towels for us.

We are men! Let us have our manthroom!

More ID 10 T Drivers

What was up yesterday with drivers? It must have been "Be an A$$hole to Rich" day or something.

I'm bringing Maddie home from the dentist and on 217. Speed limit is 55. I'm going 62ish in the left lane passing cars in the right lane. Car in front of me is going 62, I can't go any faster. The car behind me has to be less than 6 feet from my bumper. She's honking at me, flashing her brights and flipping me off wanting me to move over! Normally I don't move when they won't gain anything by getting around me. But this time I had Maddie in the car, asleep and recovering from the surgery, so I felt a little more like being careful. About 3/4's of the way up 217 I finally was able to pull over - and got flipped off as she went by. Then she went right up to the next car and did the same thing. Just once I really wish a cop were sitting somewhere to see that.

Then while bringing Riley home we stopped at Albertsons to pick up the X-Men Playstation 2 game I promised him. We're getting ready to leave, he's in the car and I'm talking to him, he's still a little out of it and upset about how his mouth feels. As I'm talking with his door wide open, this cab driver decides she needs to park in the spot right next to me but can't until I close Riley's door. I see her there but Riley is more important. Plus there are TONS of other parking spots. After maybe a minute, she starts honking at me and yelling at me to move. Well, by now I'm really tired and have already had one bad driver experience, so I'm in the best mood. I turn around, look at her, and say loudly enough so she can hear, "Gee, I'm soooo sorry the parking lot is sooooo full that you can't find another spot and HAVE to have this one." Then I go back to trying to calm down Riley. She honks again and this time I say, "Hey! My son just got out of oral surgery and isn't feeling great! I'm going to talk to him until he's calmed down THEN I'll get in the car! Go park somewhere else if you're in such a hurry!!" She honks, yells, and waits. I ignore her, get Riley calmed down and close his door. She zooms up fast but has to slam on the brakes when I open my door almost hitting it. I didn't think she'd do that or I would not have opened my door yet. I gave her a dirty look, had several choice words to say but for once wisely kept my mouth shut, and got in my car closing my door. She zoomed up, opened her door and continued yelling at me. Riley asked, "Why is she yelling at us, Daddy?" "Some people are just mad all the time and don't have any patience," I said. As we left I just gave her a big smile and waved.

It was really and truely a weird driving day.

Starlight Parade

Had a great time as always with the Starlight Parade this last Saturday. Man, a little over a week ago I got a little sick. Not enough to really put me down, but enough to make me tired, all phloemy, stuffed up, the usual ickiness. I've gotten back to about 98% and stayed there for a long time. Part of it I'm sure is not getting enough sleep. It was a little tough marching because I was tired. But I made it. Fortunately it's a short parade. The upcoming Rose Parade is much longer. I need to get lots of sleep this week, eat right, etc, etc. I just want to get over feeling tired and get rid of this stupid phloem stuff.

But it was fun and I had a good time. My lips survived which I was a little worried about since I'm horribly out of shape. My New Years Resolution this year was to keep playing until next years rehearsals start. It's easy to want to take a day off, play a game at lunch, etc, but I really need to keep in shape so next year my lips won't hurt as much, won't be as chapped, and I'll have more fun.

Geez, I sound rather pathetic, huh? Well, I know no matter what, I'll have a great time at the Rose Parade, I always do. :)

On another note (no pun intended), every year they get these beauty pageant types to hold our banners and march with us. This year they have Miss Oregon Teen. She's 17. I've been in the band longer than she's been alive!

I'm old. ;)

Cookies & being sick

I don't understand this.

I haven't gotten a lot of sleep for the past week and yesterday woke up with a sore throat. As the day progressed, I started feeling worse and worse. Got home and was feeling your basic cold sick ickiness.

I was hungry. Looked through the kitchen to find something to eat, nothing sounded good. I had to pick up my OMTAAMB uniform, so I took Riley with me. On the way back we stopped at Albertsons to get some bread. As we walked in they had their fresh baked cookies right there on sale. Riley asked if we could get some.

I looked at them and all of a sudden my sick body started screaming, "YES!! THAT'S WHAT I WANT!! BUY SOME! BUY LOTS!!!!"

Sure enough, after I ate several at home they hit the spot. I've had this happen before and don't get it. You'd think you're sick and your body would crave something good for you, like chicken soup or fruit or other good things. Nope, mine wants chocolate chip cookies.

I believe your body does crave certain things when it is lacking in them, like oranges when it wants vitamin C or bananas, things like that. I also say when you're sick, your body needs the food to help fight the bug and get better, so eat whatever sounds good. SO, if my body wants chocolate chip cookies, who am I to argue? ...I think it's time to eat another... ;)

Wynton telling the truth

If you're into playing music at all, you MUST watch this!

http://trumpetkings.blogspot.com/2008/04/wynton-marsalis-telling-truth.html

Why are you following me on Twitter?

Long time no post, sorry about that. I've been trying to focus on work and getting things done, and if I start blogging I get side-tracked REAL easy.

Twitter is kinda fun, would be more fun if I had more friends on there. And by friends I mean people I actually know. I'm following a few fun people, like Wil Wheaton and Samantha Murphy from SMTV.

But now and then, I'll have these random people decide to follow me. I don't know these people and when I look at their profiles, I haven't a clue why they have decided to follow me. Some have been companies wanting to use Twitter as a marketing tool, they get banned quickly. Most are just random people that I can't figure out what I might have in common or why they'd want to follow me.

I'm not upset they want to follow me, it's actually kinda neat feeling that some random person thinks my tweets are interesting enough to follow me. It would just be nice if they'd send a message to ME introducing themselves and why they want to follow me. Why? Because I'm the curious type (I HAD to be a cat in a previous life) . :)

So if you want to follow me (I'm richtpt), that's way cool! Just please send me a tweet introducing yourself. Thanks!

Comcast fun

While they are getting better, last night and just now I encountered the old fun Comcast support.

Last night I called to get a service call setup for someone to come out and swap our box with one that has a hdmi output. I was told it would be better for me to go to the service center and swap it myself because 1) If a tech came out we’d be charged a minimum of $19.95, and 2) The tech might not have a box with a hdmi output by the time he go to us. Huh? I was told in the morning the toss in all of the stuff they need for the calls they have. But sometimes things happen and they no longer have what a customer needs by the time they get there. Like another customer might say, “Wait, this one doesn’t have a hdmi output. I need that.” Then the tech – trying to offer good customer service – gives them one of the boxes with that feature. Now by the time he gets to us, he’s given out all of those boxes.

Gee, that makes a lot of sense. How about, “Sorry sir, but I don’t have any of those on my truck.” Then he will still have one for us when he gets to us.

Oh well, that’s ok, going to the service center will save me a little money, no problem. Just now I tried to call the service center to make sure they have the box I want so I don’t make a trip for nothing. I was told I can’t do that. Even the Comcast support number I call can’t call them. When I said, “So there’s no way for me to know if they have the box I want?” I was told, “I’m 99.9% sure they have it. I don’t see any messages saying they are short on the latest boxes, so they’ll probably have it.”

That gives me a nice warm fuzzy. I guess I’ll cross my fingers and rub my lucky rabbits foot while driving over there tonight. ;)

Jerry O'Connell is a RIOT!!!!

Oh man, this is soooooooooo funny!!!!

Stupid Alaska Airlines!

Each year I fly to Boston for a meeting at Progress Software (in Bedford). It's a 5 hour flight. On the flight back I fly from Boston to Seattle to Portland. I usually have enough frequent flyer miles to upgrade to 1st class, which is the only way to go on that long of a flight.

Well, last year (around August) Alaska decided to change their policy. Now you have to purchase a Value ticket (or higher) in order to upgrade using miles! There are two other ticket options that are less expensive, about $100 less and $150 less. Oh and let's not forget that I have to hope 1st class is available (which it usually is).

So for $100-$150 more, I get the chance to maybe upgrade to 1st class. What a ripoff!!

Sure, it's a nicer seat, more leg room, free drinks, better food (WAY better food), and a free digiplayer to watch movies, tv shows, and other things on. But is it worth that much extra? And if 1st class is full I just spent $100-$150 for nothing!

I have loved Alaska ever since I started flying for work many many years ago. I've always found them to be friendly, good seats, a good price (not great, but not the worst), generally just the most enjoyable way to fly. Plus being able to upgrade was great. Now in order to upgrade I have to pay $100! I've got plenty of miles but I can't use them. Oh, one more thing I learned. It's now 15,000 miles to upgrade instead of 10,000.

I know airlines are hurting and need money, but this just ticks me off! Alaska, you just went down a couple notches in my customer service book. Yes, I'll probably fly them again, I just won't be upgrading to 1st class anymore. sigh....

Joost is way cool!

I saw a blog that Joost now has classic Star Trek on it. I went to their website, looked at what they had and decided to try it - after all, it's free.

WAY COOL!

I watched a very high quality version of "The Trouble with Tribbles." It was awesome! I don't know how they are doing this free, but I'm VERY excited about it. I looked at their cartoons and saw they have several Rocky & Bullwinkle's, some Ren & Stimpy's, and lots of others.

This is a neat service, you should try it!

Not a slimy car salesperson

A few months ago I contacted a few internet sales people at various Honda dealerships in our area. I wanted to let them know we are interested in a 2009 Honda Fit when they come out (probably around June). These are popular and the new models will be even more popular, so I wanted to get on the top of their list.

Most of the sales people emailed back with something like, "Ok, you're on my list." Nothing rude, but nothing extra either. One lady emailed back what looked like a form email saying stuff like, "I can get you in one NOW! Is this the right car for you? Have you looked at others? I can help!!" It was a rather pushy sounding email especially since I had just said we are NOT interested in a 2008 but a 2009.

I sent her a rather firm email back stating I thought that email was a bit pushy and reiterating we did NOT want a 2008, only a 2009. She sent back a really nice email apologizing for the standard response email. We exchanged emails many times and I discovered that first email was just a reflex response and she is definitely not pushy, actually quite the opposite.

Last week she sent me an email (actually everyone in her contact list) that everyone who test drives a car will be entered in a contest for a Wii. I emailed her back saying that'd be cool but we already have one, we definitely wouldn't be buying if we did test drive and we didn't want to waste her time. After talking with Marci we decided to drive the Fit - after all, sitting in it at the autoshow and driving it are two very different things. So we went out this last Sunday to test drive it.

She was really nice, friendly, not slimy or pushy at all. Marci took the car out first as I waited with the kids. Marci said she LOVED the car and it was tons of fun to drive. Cool! She also wanted to look at the CR-V's and Pattie (the cool sales lady) was going to get someone else to ride with me for the test drive. I decided if Marci likes it that's good enough for me and decided not to try it, I'll just wait until the 2009's arrive.

Marci drove a CR-V and really liked it a lot. Pattie told us she had a 2007 model fully loaded (navigation, the works) she could sell us for $200 over invoice. Well, for a moment we got caught up in the excitement of new cars and asked to see it. About that time Pattie had another customer show up who also just wanted to test drive a car for the contest. Pattie asked if this other sales guy could show us the CR-V while she took this lady out and she'd be right back. No problems.

WOW! What a difference! We went from feeling like we were chatting with a friend to someone who made us want to run away and never come back. He was pushy, slimy, kept asking about what we were looking for, wanted to run numbers for us, etc. When we told him we were here just to test drive the Fit and were waiting for the 2009 model, he said something like, "People are always waiting for the next thing because they think it'll be better. You gotta grab it now because there's always a next thing and you'll be waiting forever. Let me go run some numbers for you on the Fit and CR-V." That's when I said, a little more firmly, that we KNEW what the 2009 model's were going to be because we had seen the previews on the web. After seeing what they will have in them we would NOT be happy with a 2008 model. He then said, "Oh yeah, we were just looking at them online. Aren't they sweet?"

Just looking at them? Really? Then why the push to buy a 2008??

Finally after he got us a CR-V brochure, we thanked him and said we were just going to wait for Pattie to get back. While waiting we had time to realize we planned on one new car payment this year, not two, and while the CR-V is a great deal, we just need to pass, other great deals will come along. We thanked her a lot for her time and said we'll be in touch.

After we got home and had time to laugh at what a jerk that other guy was and how nice she was, I sent her an email again thanking her and letting her know how much we appreciated her. Marci said when they were test driving the Fit that Pattie said she'd take the job ONLY if she could be 100% honest and not slimy/pushy/the usual car salesman stuff. Her boss didn't think she'd have what it took but decided to give her a chance. She's now the top salesperson there! Guess she showed him.

What a world of difference! Pattie made us feel comfortable, right at home, and definitely want to come back to her. The other guy (I honestly forgot his name right after we drove off the lot) made us want to run away and never come back to that dealership. Why can't other's learn from Pattie and be cool? Oh, and when we got there, we weren't even out of the car before some guy was on us asking how we were doing and what he could help us with. No offense, but let us get out before you start trying to feed!

Here's to Pattie at Larry Miller Honda of Hillsboro! A different kind of salesperson, one that actually makes you want to buy a car and leave knowing you got the best deal possible. Looking forward to dealing with her for a 2009 Fit!

I need these printed...

There needs to be some kind of digital photo orientation everyone has to take because I get this all the time:

Here are some photos. Could you please print them as 8 x 10's?

Sure, no problem. Except the photos are small, 640 x 480 at 72 dpi, which is about 8.9" x 6.7". This means the chance of printing it as an 8 x 10 and have it look any good is slim to none. To print it 8 x 10 at 150 dpi means it needs to be 1600 x 1200 at least. Printing the 640 x 480 72 dpi photo at 150 dpi means it will print at 4.3" x 3.2".

Fortunately I have Photoshop, Genuine Fractals and Noise Ninja. With all of these tools I can get pretty close. 8 x 10 is still really tough and not looking that great, but 6 x 8 looks pretty ok at 150 dpi, thanks to Genuine Fractals which saves my butt and makes me look good.

I just wish I could do some Vulcan mind-meld so people would know what size the photo they send me needs to start out as so I can print it for them.

Ah, Christmas vacation

Christmas is such a wonderful time, especially with little kids who really enjoy the season. Of course little ones also want you to play with them and all their new toys - all the time. While I don't mind, it certainly made for a busy vacation rather than relaxing. Part of me is a little happy to be back at work where I can just sit here quietly at my desk and write code. But part of me misses being at home, having our son or daughter come over asking me to play with them, where my biggest thinking problem is how to put something together and which pair of sweat pants to wear.

Usually Christmas seems to take forever to get here then it's gone too quick. This year seemed different. It seemed to get her fast and stick around a little longer. That was nice. Staying up late, sleeping in, playing games, eating cookies and other bad things, a time not to care about stuff like diets, rather to just enjoy.

It was a good Christmas, I'm already looking forward to the next one. :)

Sometimes there is justice

Yesterday I was on my way to Kinko's. I got off the freeway and came up to the light, there was one car in front of me. As the car in front of me is getting to the light it turns red. This car wasn't driving fast and had plenty of time to stop. But NOOOOO! Mr. "Laws don't apply to me" decides to drive through the red light.

As he drove through I looked to the right to see if any cars were going to jump off the line when it turned green and hit him. And what did my wandering eyes see? A nice police car sitting right there watching the whole thing! The cop was shaking his head, hit the lights and pulled him over to give him a nice ticket.

You see people running red lights all the time and it ticks me off. But it's nice now and then to see someone pay the price. I smiled about that all day!

Sunsets

Three versions of the same sunset. The top is the original which was made up of 8 photos (I used Photoshop CS3 to create the panorama). The middle is after I played with it in Photoshop. In this case I bumped up the blue too much but thought it looked cool. The bottom has better color and I added the moon. This was fun. :)

Cross-posting

I just put up a post on my family blog (http://rmrmu.blogspot.com) about Frankie, our Pembroke Welsh Corgi who passed away recently. It was a little hard to write, and my eyes became a little watery. Time for something to take my mind off it - starting up Doom.

Some people...

Sunday we took our puppies to the Puppy Romp. It's a one hour play time JUST for dogs 10 weeks to 6 months old, a great way to get the socialized. It was Zoey's last day as she is now 6 months old (and is getting fixed today). We have a great time here and rarely have had or seen any problems.

This time two people just made us shake our heads and wonder what they have for brains.

To make the place playful and fun, they have some things for the dogs to climb on, the walls painted nicely, and a few colorful kites. One is in the shape of a butterfly with some long tails. This must have been the first time Zoey looked up because she started barking at it. We were all laughing, even the gal who runs the place. Zoey wasn't barking a lot and was actually starting to calm down when this other lady saw her and started baking back. Of course this made Zoey bark even more. Marci and the gal who runs the place looked at each other like, "What is up with this lady??" Finally we had to tell Zoey to stop. I REALLY wanted to walk over to that lady and tell her to shut up (actually I would have been nicer and asked her not to do that), but I decided she was the type who wouldn't listen anyhow. So we just told Zoey that was enough, distracted her and she was fine the rest of the time.

The other lady really made us all wonder even more. She has a standard Poodle. For some unknown reason, she just HAD to bring it to the small dog side. Oh, I forgot to say this place has a big dog area and a small dog area so the puppy Mastif's aren't with the puppy Pug's. This time they even had a very shy dog area. Anyhow, they tried to get her to put her dog on the big dog side but she said she just HAD to be on the small dog side. We felt a little bad for the Poodle. His tail was wagging and he just wanted to have fun. But his fun was a little more rough than the rest of the dogs. And he had one Lab he just wouldn't leave alone. He kept trying to hump the Lab and at one point squeezed so hard he made the Lab yelp. His name was Andre but she kept calling him "Poodle". A few times Andre tried to play with the smaller dogs and they just kept running from him scared. Yet the lady just smiled and would say, "Look, he wants to play!" I think they let her stay on the small dog side because she got there with only about 10 minutes left.

Man, some people just live in their own world. It reminds me of a quote on Cheers with Fraiser talking to Woody, "What color is the sky in your world, Woody?" LOL!

Snow update

It has been snowing, but not that much. It snowed pretty good for about 20 minutes and was starting to stick, then stopped and almost all of it melted. Still some tiny flakes coming down but it doesn't look like we'll have any snow sticking, which is ok with me. :)

Snow Saturday?

Right now they are saying there is a chance of snow Saturday. Nothing major, might not even have anything stick below 1000 feet. Then Sunday it warms back up to 50 for a high and next week the high's will be in the 50's.

That's fine with me. While I enjoy playing in the snow, it's usually too wet to do anything and a major annoyance for driving. Mostly because too many people don't have a clue how to drive in it, and then there are the idiot's in the big 4x4 trucks who think they can do anything. Sure, they might have traction to go anywhere but they still have to stop.

When it does snow it makes me happy to work in IT. I just put on my sweats, slippers, turn on some nice music, and logon from home. ;)

No one understands...

Yesterday I was working on making a program run automatically when someone changed an order status. I could have found the code that runs to update that field in the database - and there are probably several programs that update that field - but I decided to add a trigger to that field in the database.

Now anytime a change is made to that field, some code will run looking for certain conditions. If those are met then this other program will run. I've done this before, but it has been a long time and wasn't remembering if it would work how I wanted.

It did. I was thrilled. Jumping out of my chair thrilled. Hands in the air as a sign of triumphant success thrilled. Others here in my IT department wanted to know what made me so happy. I told them. The reply was, "And that's a good thing, right?"

sigh....

Sometimes it's so frustrating when you do something really cool and no one understands how cool it is. You want to share it with someone, have them jump up and down with you, high-five, do the jump-in-the-air-chest-slamming thing. Oh well, in my mind I did that and enjoyed it a lot. haha

Too long between posts

ARGH! My was going to post at least once a week this year. I was going well then got busy and next thing I knew several months went by. D'OH! I'm going to try to get back on my schedule of once a week.

Neat quote

Heard this tonight on a tv show:

Ever beginning has an ending. But in life, every ending is just a new beginning.

Very cool!!

Sometimes there is justice

This morning I'm driving to work at 6:30am. The speed limit is 40, I'm doing 45. And as usual, some idiot is right on my bumper wanting me to go faster. I've never understood this, we're the only two people on the road, I'm going FASTER than the speed limit, yet some jerk feels the need to tailgate me.

Anyhow, I get to a nice straight part of the two-lane road with a double-yellow line and the idiot decides to pass. They really didn't go THAT much faster than me, maybe 5mph more as I watch them pull away. They get to the stop sign and pretty much don't stop at all, just slow down a little. I stop, then continue on at my normal morning driving speed. Up ahead I see them, still not really going THAT much faster than me.

Then Karma hits them.

They get behind a car going slower than they want and can't pass, so of course they have to drive a couple feet away (it was probably more than that but it sure looked way too close). The car they are behind ends up going about the same speed as me so the idiot doesn't get much farther. We come to a traffic light and it turns red just before the idiot gets there. They go into the turn lane and I go straight.

As the light is red I pull up right beside them, it's some stupid young girl who looks like total white trash. She looks at me and wasn't happy when she saw it was the car she illegally passed way back there. All I could do is laugh at her.

Once in awhile Karma does happen, this made my morning!

Finished Deck (well, almost)

Today we FINALLY finished staining the deck. We needed to get between the boards on about half of it - we did the top completely earlier this year - and decided it would be a good idea to redo the entire deck.

Ya, right, good idea. We're still wondering which one of us came up with that idea and why the other agreed to it.

Took us about 4 hours. Riley and Maddie wanted to help but it just wasn't working out. So they started playing and just Marci and I did it. Then they wanted stuff and finally wanted Marci. So I finished it by myself.

Sore, tired, long day, but it looks great! Now we're ready for winter with it. Next up, the fence. :(

Panorama's with Photoshop

Photoshop has made making Panorama's really easy. Take the photos. Open Photoshop (I'm using CS3, don't know if this is in previous versions). Choose File -> Automate -> Photomerge. Browse to your images and select them all. Leave all the defaults there. Click the OK button and wait. Depending on the size of each photo, how many photos you have and the speed of your computer, this could take awhile.

The above photo is made of six images each about 2MB. It took about 10 minutes on my laptop, but I also have a lot of other things open at the same time and was actually trying to work. Once the merge is done all that's left is to crop it out and you're done!

This is sooooo easy and cool that I'm going to start making more panorama's.

People at the beach

This last weekend we went to the beach for a few days with my parents. My Mom's family owns a little condo-type thing at Neskowin and any of us can use it anytime we want for free. Very nice!

It was a great weekend, almost perfect weather. The only thing that was annoying was some of the people. We're sitting in one spot, kids (and me) were digging in the sand, and some people just HAD to walk right next to us - I mean so close they were accidentally kicking up sand on our blankets. Others had to walk between where we were sitting and the kids were digging, about 10 feet difference. There wasn't anyone around us, they could have easily walked farther away. Another time Riley and I were digging some big holes and stuff, and another family HAD to setup right next to us and let their kids play right where we were digging.

I just don't understand people sometimes. Did these people feel they had to let us know we don't own the beach or some stupid thing like that? Oh well, we did have a great time anyhow. :) I'm uploading photos right now and will post about it on our family blog.

No free moments for me...

I thought I'd have some free moments tonight because Marci was taking the kids to visit her sister. But when I got home, Maddie was asleep. When Marci left she didn't want to wake Maddie, I agreed. Of course five minutes after she left Maddie woke up. I tried to call Marci but her cell phone wasn't on. D'OH! So it's me, Maddie & the dogs tonight, and she's wide awake. I was going to play our new Guitar Hero, but now I'm just watching The Wiggles with Maddie. It could be worse of course, and I'm enjoying our father-daughter time together. :)

Free moments...

On the wrapper of my little piece of Dove chocolate there is a little message:

Take advantage of every free moment you have.

This got me to thinking - what does it mean to take advantage of a free moment? Most people seem to take this as, "Don't just sit there, go do something! Read a book, enjoy your hobby, go for a walk, ride your bike, get in some quick exercise, etc." However, when you are always busy, sometimes having a free moment can mean doing nothing.

To me, taking advantage of the free moment means doing something you wouldn't be able to do if you didn't have that free moment. Maybe you've been extremely busy all day and you just want a moment to rest, watch something you recorded, listen to some music, not really do anything at all, just rest. You're still taking advantage of that free moment, right?

Tonight I might have a free moment and I've been trying to decide what to do. I could mow the lawn, do some laundry, clean the house, go through boxes we moved when we got our new carpet, or something like playing a game on the computer or Playstation, playing the piano, watching a stupid movie and drinking beer. I'm still not sure what I'll do. All I know is I will be taking advantage of my free moment.

So what does that little saying mean to you? Is doing nothing ok?

My 3D Photos on a NASA website - Coolness!!

NASA has a website that explains how to create 3D photos, the glasses, and shows off photos other people have done. They have two of mine right now. I sent them links to my other ones on Flickr because I think I have much better photos than the two they picked.

Coolness to be on a NASA website!

How to make 3D Photos

There are many ways to make 3D photos. This way involves creating those blue-red photos that you need the special blue-red glasses for. These instructions are specific to Photoshop (and Windows Photoshop at that, don't know the Mac keyboard equivalents), though I'm sure other programs can work too. You can see some of my 3D photos here.

When looking for 3D photo ops, look for things with lots of depth, stuff close to you, stuff in the middle, and stuff far away. You want to try and focus your camera on something in the middle if possible. Also, try to have as little movement as possible between the two photos. You don't want someone in one photo and not in the other, or people leaning one direction then the next in the 2nd photo. Then again, if you have two camera's hooked together and synced to shoot at the same time, you can take photos with any kind of movement.

1. Take TWO photos.
   This is important. You take the first photo, then move to your right about 3-4 inches - NO MORE! - and take the 2nd photo. Your eyes are only that far apart so that's how far apart you want the two photos. Any further and it won't work well.
   
   
2. Download the photos to your computer and open then in Photoshop.
   
   
3. Select the photo you took first. Go to Channels and select the Blue & Green channels by holding down the shift key.
   
   
4. Go to the 2nd photo. Select the entire photo (CTRL-A) and copy it.
   
   
5. Go back to the 1st photo and paste what you just copied.
   
   
6. In Channels, select the RGB channel. Now you see an image with the familiar blue-red look to it. But you're not done yet. You need to line up the two images. You'll notice there are little eye's next to all of the channels. This shows you which channels are being viewed and which are off.
   
   
7. In Channels, select the RED channel. Next to the RGB channel in the box where the eye was, click that. This will display all channels with only the Red selected.
   
   
8. Either choose the move tool or hold down the CTRL key. Now move your mouse to line up the images. What you want is to pick a spot that's somewhere in the middle of the depth and move the image so there is no red or blue showing. This will create your depth when you view the image with the glasses.

And that's it! Save your document and go find some blue-red glasses to view what you just created. It's actually quite fun. I just wish I had two camera's setup to take photos at the same time. Then I could do some really cool photos without worrying about people moving.

Tour of the resort

Next week I'll be heading to Phoenix for my annual Progress Conference. I was looking at the hotel's website and saw they offer a 60 minute tour of the grounds for $65 - on a Segway! Not sure I'll have time for that, but would be fun just to say I've been on a Segway. We'll see what happens.

Deep thought....

I can't take credit for this but I do like it.

Some people are like Slinkies:
They don't really have a purpose,
But they still bring a smile to your face
When you push them down the stairs.

Gamefly is way cool!

Netflix is a cool way to rent movies as long as you don't want it RIGHT THIS SECOND. We used to use it all the time, but then we had kids and rarely have time to watch anything, let alone a two hour movie.

In the last few years Riley has really been enjoying playing our Playstation 2. We joined the game clubs at Blockbuster and Hollywood Video, but they didn't have much of a selection. Then I found out about Gamefly. It's exactly like Netflix only it's for video games instead of movies. And they have a HUGE selection! Riley's really into Monster Trucks. I found two games awhile back and wanted to buy them both. Only one I could find to buy, the other was not available. However, Gamefly has them both! The other game is now in our queue waiting to be sent to us. Cool! AND it's not that expensive at all. Really it's an excellent service.

If you want to check them out and join, please use this link: Gamefly.com They have a rewards program where if you use this link and sign up, we get points that we can redeem for game rentals and other stuff. Give it a try, I think you'll like it a lot. The other big cool thing for us is we can try these games before buying them - some have looked cool and actually sucked and we were glad we didn't buy them.

Appendix = Beer?

I think I have figured out why we have an appendix. Ever since I've had mine out (back on March 13th), my desire for a beer just hasn't been there. There have been plenty of times a beer sounded good and I've had a few sips here and there, but while it tasted good, it wasn't great and my tummy just said, "No thanks, not interested." I mean it didn't get upset or anything, just not in the mood. It's been very weird.

The upside is it's easier to keep the weight off with less exercise (just got the ok last week to start exercising again!) and saves on the pocket book. STILL, I LOVE beer, or at least used to. How long can this go on?? Is there no end to the madness?!?!

American Idol Gives Back rant - I oopsed!

Edit: Ok, I was wrong. American Idol IS giving back to America too. See, my problem is I've been bombarded with this stuff for all my life and now when it comes on the tv I tune it out. I'm tired of the film clips showing you how horrible it is, making you feel bad, pulling your heart out and stomping on it until you decide to give some money. So when AI was talking about all this, I tuned it out because I didn't want to hear it again. And I wrongly assumed they weren't giving money to America. I apologize to AI for that. We all know what happens when you assume, right? You make an ASS out of U and ME - and I certainly did that to myself.

I guess part of the problem is you rarely ever year about money being given back to our own country, you only hear about it when it's helping people in other countries, especially ones where living conditions are so bad. It's like watching the news - you rarely ever hear good stuff, it's all sensational things. You hear all the bad happing in Iraq, our soldiers dieing, but you never hear all the amazingly great stories of Iraq people who are thankful to our soldiers. It's just not newsworthy, and I think the same about when people give money locally. If I were to give 10 million dollars to some 3rd world country it would be all over the news. But if I gave it to some group here that helps people who are living just as badly, you'd never hear about it.

Anyhow, AI is doing the right thing. I love the show and am glad my brother pointed out to me that I need to check my facts first, I feel better now. :)


This post is likely to make me unpopular.

American Idol is "Giving Back" in the form of raising money for kids in 3rd world countries, places where living conditions aren't exactly nice (to put it mildly) and they don't have much in the way of food or supplies (medical and otherwise). While I applaud them for wanting to help people/kids in need, I have to ask this question:

What about the people here in our own country that need help? Why help these others instead of our own people?

This is something that has bugged me for a long time. You see groups like American Idol, celebrities, and others wanting to help people in these impoverished countries more than wanting to help people in their own backyard. I'm not saying the people in these other countries aren't in need of help. What I am saying is we have plenty of problems right here at home, plenty of people who need help. There are still many from Katrina who need help. A tornado went through a town in Texas that wiped out a school. There are lots of kids living on the streets, people who are living in horrible conditions, babies who are born with little chance to survive because the mother can't afford to go to a hospital. Why can't we help these people too?

American Idol raised over 30 million dollars. That's incredibly cool. If they want to help these other countries, fine, take half of it and give to those countries, and half to needy people here in America. How would it feel to you if you were living on the street, in some area where there is so much crime you worry about your life when stepping outside, couldn't afford medical help, etc, and heard all this money was raise to help people in another country? Aren't we supposed to help our own?

And what's what adopting kids from these countries? There are plenty of kids right here in our own country that could use adopting. When I see some celebrity adopting someone from another country I'm happy for that kid because they'll hopefully have a future they couldn't otherwise have - and maybe they wouldn't have lived past five. But it also seems like they are doing this only because it makes them look good, not because they really honestly care about the kids. Now I don't for a minute think they are going to mistreat these kids. I'm just saying there are plenty of kids right here in America who could benefit from being adopted just as well as these other kids.

And you know those films they love to show about how horrible things are in these countries? I'm not saying they are making these up, rather I'm positive you could easily make a film showing similar horrors of people living here in America.

Again, I think it's great that people want to help these other countries that have horrible living conditions. I just think it would be nice if they would care a little more about people in their own backyard.

Travelling in the 21st century

My how times have changed. As I said in my previous post, we went to Reno this last weekend. I remember going on trips with my family as a kid. We got in the car and went, maybe checking the weather reports on the radio, tv, newspapers, calling people we knew in the area, stuff like that. If we made this trip back in the early 70's we would have just said, "Don't know if we'll hit snow or rain or really nice weather so let's be prepared for all of it."

Now we have the Internet. Web cams. Online weather reports from many sources.

The week before we left I started monitoring the weather reports for the areas we'd be driving through. I also pulled up the traffic web cams to get a visual of what the roads looked like. On some of the web cams they had the temperature too. I saw a big cold front come in and some of the places we were heading were getting snow. All of the reports said it would be gone by the time we got there, but just to be safe we bought tire chains (don't really have a need for them around town and we can take them back if they are unused and get our money back, so a good precaution).

The morning we left I checked the web cams - all clear. And sure enough it was. If I had a GPS, I could have tracked our exact location all the time so we could see where we were and how much longer we'd be on the road. A friend of mine said he did this and input all of the rest stops so they could see how much longer before they could get rid of all that soda they just drank. While in Reno, I was still watching everything and saw a snow storm came through Saturday night. One web cam showed the area covered including the road. That was at 9am. By 5pm the road was almost dry. By the time we left, all but a few traces of snow was gone and everything was clear again, so we drove home relaxed and confident we'd have a nice trip.

Sometimes technology makes our lives miserable and can be a pain to deal with. Other times - like taking a 10 hour drive somewhere - technology can be wonderful. You can be prepared for road conditions, you know what clothes to bring/wear, you can see what's coming up, where you are and how much longer to go. I've been around computers most of my life, yet I think because I'm old enough to remember when they weren't around I still get amazed by some of the things you can do.

Speeding up in the passing lane

This last weekend we drove from Portland to Reno. Most of the drive was on I-5, a nice wide highway that has at least two lanes in each direction. Four hours of it was on a 2-lane road through some very beautiful national forests. The only problem with 2-lane roads is when you get behind someone who's driving enough slower than you are to make you want to beat them over the head with a lead pipe until they speed up. Fortunately there are usually plenty of places to pass, either a nice long stretch where you can see no oncoming cars so you can pass, or a real "Passing Lane", you know, where your one lane becomes two, the slower traffic moves to the right so you can pass them on the left.

At least that's the theory.

Why is it you are behind someone going 10-15 mph slower than you want to drive and as you come to a real passing lane, while they do move over to the right, they also speed up to how fast you want to go and sometimes faster? THEN when the passing lane is over, they slow back down to their original speed!! What is up with that? And it happens way too many times to be just someone being a jerk. Or maybe all of them are jerks, I just happen to find them all the time.

While this does annoy the hell out of me, I think I know what's going on. These people have one lane in their direction. On their left is another lane and on their right is unpaved earth (or a cliff or something like that). It's a normal width lane, but it feels narrower and they are probably a little nervous driving too fast on it. Then they get to the passing lane, there's now another lane next to them, their lane doesn't seem so narrow anymore, they feel more confident, and they speed up to how fast they'd really like to go. I'll bet if that whole way there were two lanes going in their direction instead of one they'd drive that faster speed the entire way.

At least that's my theory. Doesn't make it any less annoying, but sometimes rationalizing something makes me feel a tad less stress; enough to put the lead pipe away for another day.

Who needs a stinkin' appendix anyhow?

On Tuesday March 13th I had my appendix removed. I posted the full story on my family blog.

American Idol - Sanjaya?????

It's American Idol season again. I've been blogging on the American Idol website my thoughts each week. But I had to add a post here about Sanjaya getting through.

Who are these people who are voting for him?! He doesn't suck, but he's no where near as good as the rest - the people who left were better! I can understand his family and friends voting for him, but even they have to admit he doesn't have a chance to win.

I think what's happening is there are people out there who find it funny to vote for the worst person just to see how long they can keep them on. You know, the longer people stay on the show, the better chance they have of getting a recording contract. And while some of these people don't have a chance to win, they can still have a successful career. Look at Kellie Pickler, she's doing quite well. By voting for the worst people just to keep them on, other people who have a chance at a real career are getting voted off. Do these people think it's funny to mess with peoples lives this way? I'll bet they also like kicking kittens and puppies.

Please everyone, just vote for who you want to win, don't turn this into a circus. We have gotten some amazing talent out of this, some great music for us to listen to. Sanjaya needs to go next week.

Oh, and if there is justice in the universe, Melinda will win. :)

How much toilet paper do you use?

This probably belongs in the TMI or WTF category, but that's what this blog is about, my mindless ramblings - and I think people will agree this is definitely mindless. :)

I like to not be wasteful of anything. Water, paper towels, electricity, even toilet paper, I like to use the minimum possible to get the job done. After seeing people in the bathroom grab a huge handful of paper towels to dry their hands off when probably half of those never got wet and were just wasted, I got to wondering about toilet paper - do people grab a TON of it like they do paper towels or just the right amount?

Do people grab one sheet? A set amount of sheets? A length that looks good? Pull off half the roll? Do they wrap it up in a ball? Fold it? Crumple it up? And how many times do you pull off a sheet/section? Once? Twice? Thrice? More? Of course all that got me to thinking what I do.

I realized I probably use more than I need. That's because I pull off enough to make sure it covers my hand cause I don't want my hand to get any on it (ewww!). (of course I do wash my hands, but still, eww!) And I do three or less wipes. I've decided while I don't really waste that much, I should try and use less.

We just bought some cool toilet paper for our kids. It has pictures of a puppy and paw prints on it. There will be several sheets of paw prints, then a puppy, several paw prints, then a puppy. The purpose is to teach them how much toilet paper to use - tear right after the puppy so you only have paw prints and a puppy. I looked at how much that is and it's a good amount, not too little, not too much. I think it's an excellent idea.

So, how much do you use?

People carrying "Repent or else!" signs

I'm having fun watching Mardi Gras on a live video stream from nola.com. Lots of people who look like they are having fun, some dressed normally, some very creatively. And there are a few carrying signs with the usual religious stuff on them, "Stop now! Repent! Save your lives or forever burn in hell!"

I am most definitely a religious person, but I just have to wonder about these people. Do they really think someone is going to read their sign and go, "Wow! He is so right! I DO need to stop everything I'm doing right now and change my life so I won't go to hell!" I mean what's the purpose of holding a sign like this? Most people are just going to ignore it, some might even laugh at it. I'm sure it makes them feel good, that they are doing something to stop the downward spiral into damnation and all that, but really, do they ever change anyones life? Does anyone really take them seriously?

Bathroom stuff..

When guys go into a public bathroom and stand at the urinal to pee, why do they always spit into the urinal too? I've never found the need to do this, yet I see guys doing it all the time. No, I don't watch other guys pee, just notice it when someone is next to me.

And what's up with washing hands? Guys will turn the water on, run their hands under quickly, then turn it off, grab about 10 paper towels to dry their barely wet hands and quickly exit. If you're going to wash your hands, then WASH them! Put some soap on them! And why waste so many paper towels? Probably half of those weren't even wet! Take one, dry off as much as you can, take another and finish, and if you need use a 3rd. I can almost always get my hands dry with two paper towels. Just bugs me to see people 1. not wash right and 2. waste so much. I want to grab a big hack paddle and tell them, "Go back and do it right or bend over." hehe

And why does the ladies bathroom where I work have music playing and we don't? I'll bet it's because the ladies keep it down low and on a nice station where if us guys had music, it would be loud and some good hard rock. No dainty, frilling music for us! ARR ARR ARR! [that's supposed to be a Tim Allen grunt]

The Color of People

Have you ever noticed people including race or color in conversation? For example, if someone was in a bar and some guy was being a jerk, I've noticed if the person recounting the experience is white and the jerk was white, they'll say, "There was this guy who was such a jerk." But if the jerk was black, they'll say, "There was the black guy who was such a jerk." Or "There was this mexican/latino/hispanic guy who was such a jerk." Yet these same people will say they are not racists, and for the most part aren't.

So what does it matter what color/race the person was? Why can't we just say, "This guy was such a jerk." Now if you are describing someone to the police, yes, race and color are important. But if it's just recounting something where some guy was a jerk, do race and color matter?

What also bothers me about this is when they are saying this around young kids. These kids are learning racism. True it's a quite mild, but it's still racism. They will grow up with a slanted look towards people who aren't like them.

Now I will say I have seen groups of blacks/hispanics/asians/etc perpetuating the stereotype by their actions and looks, but I also see whites doing the same things, it's not just non-whites. I'm not saying everyone should be boring, tie-wearing cogs, just if you don't want people to look down on you or think bad of you, don't act like jerks. And saying Nigga, Nigger, etc, isn't cool, it's just stupid.

Anyhow, I've just found it interesting how white people who say they are no WAY racist find they have to say, "This black guy" instead of just "This guy". Yes, I have found myself doing this and now try not to do it, unless the color/race is important to the story. And no, I'm not perfect, just trying to get along with others more.

Portland Autoshow

This weekend we went to the Portland Autoshow. It was a TON of fun! I've got a more detailed description on my family blog. Basically, it was great, I decided the new Mustang convertible isn't a good family car, the Honda Civic Si Sedan would be great fun to drive, but not enough back seat family room for the kids, the Element was nice, but smaller than I want, and the little Honda Fit is perfect for my driving needs. There's only one thing I don't like, it is GUTLESS!! 0-60 in 11 seconds!!!!

So after many years, I was able to get a Honda s2000 (a 2001 model). It was AWESOME!!! You know those old guys with grey hair driving the Porsche's? They finally got their dream car and are enjoying driving it. That's how I felt with the s2000. But it wasn't a good family car, no back seat and you couldn't turn off the passenger side airbag. Semi-ok for one kid, but no way with two. After 10 months I finally agreed to say goodbye to it. Believe me, there's not a day that goes by that I wish I still had that car!!!!! Got a 2001 VW Passat 1.8L turbo. It is actually fun to drive, has decent pickup, really good stereo, but a step down from what I had. The s2000 wasn't necessarily fast (0-60 in 5.2 seconds), but a TON of fun to drive on corners! Perfect 50-50 balance, could corner like it was on rails, just more fun than I've ever had behind a wheel.

Anyhow, the Passat is fun, and a better stereo, but a step down. Now the Fit. 31-37 MPG. I drive about 6 miles/12 minutes to work each day, and I don't drive it much otherwise. If the family goes anywhere, it's in the Honda Pilot. So for me driving back and forth to work, the Fit is a perfect "fit" (ya, I know, bad pun but no other way to say it). BUT, I'm not sure how fast the Passat goes 0-60 - I'm guessing about 8 seconds - the FIT does it in 11 seconds!! So I'm going to from 5 seconds to 11! ARGH! Yes, that's hard to drive a car where I step on the gas and it says, "Huh? What? I'm sorry, you wanted to get up and go? Oh, ok, hang on, let me get things together..." If this thing would just do it in 8 seconds I'd be really happy.

Fortunately there are things I can get to help. K&N has an air filter and an intake filter that can help boost horsepower and fuel economy, so I can probably easily go from 11 seconds to 9. I don't necessarily want something that jumps off the line, just want to be able to downshift, step on the gas and have the car easily pass the car in front of me.

However, there are no Fit's to be found in Portland! I emailed a couple dealers and they told me the Fit is very popular and they don't have any. One said they aren't taking any new orders for at least 6 months. 6 months!! Wow, I guess this thing is really popular. Oh well, that's actually kinda good. We have a tendency to jump into things and this gives us a reason to think about it more and make sure this is right.

There were lots of other cool cars at the Auto show. Audi had their S8, their sporty version of the A8. $110,000! I didn't feel worth enough to even sit in it. Lots of other cool sports cars, lots of actual race cars, we sat in a Land Rover and found out why people like them - talk about cool features! It was a fun 3 hours, and the funniest part was trying to get Riley to leave. Until I sat in the first car, he didn't want to be there or sit in a car. When it was time to go, he was mad cause he wanted to sit in more cars! LOL!

Learn to Speak Body: Tape 5

This video is FANTASTIC! It is by BodyVox and Mitchell Rose. BodyVox is owned and run by one of the owners (and his wife) of the company I work at, she's in the yellow dress and he's in the "I don't know" set. Checkout MitchellRose.com for more videos from BodyVox. My personal favorite is Deere John.

Feeling better & Snow

So last week I slammed myself into the concrete. Here it is a week later and I'm feeling pretty good! Pretty much everything is much better, my knee is a tiny bit sore, my right elbow is almost completely better, my face never got any bruising (which surprised me since I hit really hard), but my back is still quite sore. Obviously that's where I did the most damage, I'm pretty sure I pulled a muscle or something. I just need to take it easy, which isn't easy with two little kids around. haha

Today we have a snow storm here in Portland. I know many other parts of the country laugh at us for getting 1-2 inches and having problems driving. We just don't get a lot of snow here so people don't know how to drive in it. And we have a LOT of hills here, you can easily go from 300 feet to 1000 feet in a matter of a few miles. So what looks good where you are is really bad trying to go over the hills. These are days I'm glad to be working in IT where I can work from home!

Which is harder, concrete or my body?

First, I have to say I thought this blog thing would be fun to just share random thoughts I had. I still that, however for it to work, I kinda need to actually write stuff here. D'OH! Last year from Sept on got crazy busy in every way possible. I took a week off from work between Christmas and New Years and that really re-energized me. I feel refreshed and ready to go! So this year one of my New Years resolutions is to blog at least once a week. SO, to start it off, here's hopefully a good laugh for everyone from this last weekend. I know I'm laughing about it. :)


We get our Christmas tree right after Thanksgiving and take it down the weekend after New Years. This year we had a fantastic tree, it was still taking water even the day before we took it down!

So this last weekend my wife was at the beach with her mom and I was home with the kids, they were actually very good and we had a great time. Sunday morning at 8:45am I remembered the Christmas tree had to be at the curb by 9am for the boy scouts to pick it up. I quickly took all of the ornaments off the tree, the lights, and shoved it out the door top first (I know that was the wrong way to push it out, I can only say I'd been up for about 15 minutes so wasn't thinking clearly, which probably explains the rest of this story, that or I'm just stupid which is always a possibility). Of course it got stuck, I took off the tree stand and pushed it out the rest of the way.

It went out fine, but then started to fall to the right. I didn't want it to fall on a plant so I was trying to guide it. As it was falling faster than I could guide, I went to move my right foot to catch myself, but I caught it on my pajama pant leg and proceeded to fall over off a two foot step onto the hard concrete in front of our house (and ours has those little rocks coming out, not the smooth kind).

Hit my left shoulder, left side of my head (my cheekbone and head), my right knee a little on the inside, my right hand to catch myself, and after I was down my feet finally came down too. I laid there thinking, "Oh great, my wife is at the beach and I've done something stupid and probably broken something." Took a quick inventory and nothing felt broke so I started to get up. My left side hurt (upper back and upper front on my chest) and my right knee, I couldn't put pressure on it to stand up or use my left hand, which is of course how I always get up so had to change position to stand up.

Got up, checked everything again, all felt ok, nothing broken or out of place, so I finished taking the tree to the curb.

When I got back in the house, I looked at my knee and it had a HUGE welt on it! My left should only has a few little marks and they look normal, and very little bruising. My right hand has three cuts which are healing fine. I went into the bathroom to checkout my head and was shocked to find NOTHING! I mean there wasn't any sign I'd tried to shove my head through the concrete! Very weird, but I've always known I'm thick headed. hehe

When my wife got home, I asked her to check my back as it was still sore and hard to lift my left arm. (Did I tell you she's a licensed massage therapist?) She said it felt like I pulled a muscle or really strained it. By the end of the day my knee was feeling better, my back was ok, but now my right elbow was acting up, really sore. I think when my right hand came down I kinda jammed it or something. This morning my knee feels great, just some cuts and it's still tender where I hit it, my hand is fine, my back is sore but better, my head still feels fine with no signs of anything, and my elbow was feeling better, though today I've been leaning on it too much and it's hurting again. I did think I might have gotten a concussion from that, so I looked it up online and had none of the symptoms.

I'm quite shocked that I came out of it feeling pretty much just fine, just a few scratches and bruises. So now I can laugh about it cause I'm sure I looked really stupid, I certainly felt stupid.

But I did get the tree out in time and they did take it! WOOHOO!! And that's what really matters as I didn't want to have to deal with it. hahaha

Hyundai ad

I just saw a new ad on TV for the Hyundai Santa-Fe. In this commercial, they sprayed water on a giant yellow piece of plastic that they put on the road making a very long slip-n-slide. At the end of the commercial they were talking about how sure footed the Santa-Fe is because it stayed on the wet road like it was dry.

Um, I don't know a TON about cars, but isn't staying on a wet road like that more a function of the tires than the car itself? If the car can grip the wet road, that's all in the tires. So this ad was very misleading. At least to my limited understand of cars.

New Diet!

Have a special event coming up - class reunion, company party, hot date - and you need to lose 10+ pounds in two days? Think it's impossible to do it? I've got the diet for you!

Don't waste time trying to eat zero carbs. No exercise needed. No grapefruit. No diet pills. This is 100% natural and guaranteed to work!

What can this wonderous thing be? How is this possible? Have I found some alternate dimension where two days here is two months there? How much does this cost? And is it from Ronco?

First the price. It's FREE! That's right! No cost, no shipping, you pay nothing. Are you interested? Want to know what this is? Ok, I'll tell you. It's called...

The Stomach Flu!

That's right, nature's own little bug that grabs your stomach, twists it inside out, upside down, in a zillion knots, then makes you empty everything that was in there. But that's not all! After you have emptied your stomach, this wonderous bug won't let you eat anything else! It'll make you want to sleep for at least one day, maybe two. During that time this bug is still going strong and won't let you eat a thing.

Yes, you'll feel a little weak, won't be able to go dancing all night without passing out, but isn't that a small price to pay for dropping that weight quickly so you can look good for that special event?

How do you catch this fantastic bug? That's the tough part. You can't just go to your local pharmacy and buy it. There are several ways you can get it though. Find someone who has it and let them breath on you. Find an area where this bug is spreading and visit a doctors office or a school, preferably with kids in 2nd grade or less who's resistance is low but bug carrying ability is high. Wander around shopping malls looking for people coughing and follow them trying to get some of their cough to land on you.

So remember, the next time you need to drop some weight really fast, go looking for The Stomach Flu!


Seriously, our family caught this thing and it was nasty. I RARELY throw up. I mean I'll roll around on the floor fighting it for hours until I don't have to throw up. This time I started feeling a little bad around 4pm, and by 6pm I was seriously puking! An hour and a half later, puked again. I could NOT hold it back! Finally I slept. Felt like I was going to throw up again at 10:30pm, but didn't HAVE to. So I fought it and won this time! Ate a tiny bit of a cracker and that settled my tummy. I slept through the night, got up, checked my email, 15 minutes later was out again, woke up at lunch for an hour this time, and crashed again. I didn't eat anything that day except a few crackers, drink some Fresca. Finally ate a burger at night and slept all night, and was able to go to work Thursday. This was bad, but I did drop 10 pounds. Of course I don't have any energy and am ready to sleep for two days, but it was nice that my pants were a little looser. LOL!

From the silly but fun department.  I found this on someone elses Flickr page and decided to try it myself.  Some I can agree with, but I think my face broke the software for some of the others.  LOL!  Go ahead, try it yourself!

powered by performancing firefox

Interesting Scott Adams (Dilbert) Blog Posting

I was catching up on my rss feeds with Google Reader (3 days worth) and came across the post below from Scott Adams on his Dilbert Blog about Steve Irwin being killed by a stingray. Now I like Scott Adams and his sense of humor, and I like on his blog he has no problem calling people stupid and foolish when they are being stupid and foolish.

However, this post was out of line. Now while it is probably true that everyone figured Steve Irwin would eventually be killed by some animal - I mean how many of us have seen him or one of these other guys do things we consider insane - the post seemed rude to me because Scott Adams was rubbing Steve Irwin's face in it, like "Told you so!" Just poor taste and bad judgement on Scott Adams part to post this.

So I was curious to see what comments people were leaving about this post. Guess what? It's gone! I'm guessing someone with a few more brains, like his new wife or his publicist, smacked him upside the head telling him to delete it unless he wanted to commit professional suicide. Some things are ok to make fun of, some aren't. This is one where he should have kept his comments to himself. And a good reminder to all of us - in cyberspace, there is no delete, so be careful what you say. So here's his post for you to judge.


What? No Way!

Scott_Adams Sep 04, 2006 - Show original item

I was shocked when I heard the news that the Crocodile Hunter died in a “freak stingray accident.” I had ten dollars bet on “misjudged the speed of a crocodile.” Something tells me that the media already had his obituary written with a fill-in-the-blank for the specific creature that killed him.

Readers of the Dilbert Blog know that I believe death is not a laughing matter, unless the guy who gets killed is in the process of bothering dangerous animals. And by “animals” I include all manner of aquatic, flying, stinging, clawing, bitey things. When someone gets killed doing that sort of thing, it’s a good lesson for the kids. I think it lends credibility when you tell them not to pet strange dogs that are foaming at the mouth. “Don’t pet that dog, Timmy. If you do, you might be killed by an entirely different animal that is not normally considered dangerous. Remember the Crocodile Hunter.”

I remind you that the Crocodile Hunter is the same guy who in 2004 famously fed wild crocodiles with one hand while holding his infant son in the other. Just be glad the Croc Hunter didn’t have triplets because you know he would have tried juggling them.

It seems weird to me that the stingray that got him is now the world’s most famous aquatic creature and doesn’t even know it. He’s probably floating around eating kelp or whatever-the-hell stingrays eat, oblivious to the fact that he’s as famous as O.J. I hope he gets a book deal because I’d like to hear his side of the story. I realize that stingrays have brains the size of a dried raisin, but that doesn’t stop athletes from writing books. All you need is a good co-author.

STINGRAY: “Well, I was minding my own business, eating kelp or whatever-the-hell I eat, when this guy jumps in the water and yells ‘Crikey!’ like a crazy seal. So I killed him and then hired a co-author who is both handsome and talented. You will find his contact information in the back of this well-written book.”

Steve Irwin, the "Crocodile Hunter" dies...

I was in total shock when I heard he had died!  I loved his shows, they were fun, silly, and educational.  I've been reading about it on the web this morning just tragic, such a loss.  I have never understood why great people like Steve Irwin have to die so young when there are so many other horrible people in the world who deserve it more.  My prayers and thoughts go out to his family.

Feeling my age...

This last weekend we went to the beach. Had a great time, played in the sand, let the waves wash up on our feet, and it was Maddie's first trip to the beach. The weather was really nice, not too hot or cold, just about perfect.

There's a little river that runs by where we stayed to the ocean that's extremely shallow right now, I don't think it got even up to my knees. Riley and I made a little sand fortress by dumping sand into the river about 6 feet to close off an area. Then we bailed all of the water out. After that was done, we had fun digging a big deep hole. Great father son bonding stuff.

Normally I don't feel my 43 years of age, but today my body is reminding me of them - all of them. I'm fine sitting here, but when I have to get up it takes about 3x as long! Walking is also an interesting experience. As much as I hate to admit it, I guess I really am getting older. LOL!!

Say this tongue twister, or else...

This is just crazy.

http://www.glumbert.com/media/tonguetwister.html

Is this one of those crazy Japanese game shows? Or maybe a new way to interrogate customers? Who in their right mind would do this? And if it is a game show, what do you win if you get it right - other than the ability to have children?

Would love to know more about this clip.

powered by performancing firefox

Tree Farm Trip

On Wednesday 7/26 I took a trip to visit one of my companies tree farms. It was VERY beautiful and wonderful! I had a fantastic time! It was more like hiking on a weekend than work. I posted some of the photos I took on Flickr.

Winternals & Sysinternals bought by Microsoft

I just heard about this from Mark Russinovich's blog.

First I want to say Congrats to both Mark and Bryce Cogswell.  If Microsoft chooses to listen to these two, they are getting some first class people who will help make Windows a better more stable product, and give us better tools to work with and administrate it.  So I'm quite happy for them - again, if Microsoft chooses to listen to them.

Second, I want to say NOOOOOO!!!!  WHY?  WHY?  WHY?!   There are a TON of great utilities available for FREE on the Sysinternals website that I have used a lot.  I now think they will either go away or at a minimum no longer be free.  And I doubt Mark and Bryce will be available to create other free utilities either.  We have lost one of the most valuable resources around for Windows administration and troubleshooting.  You can read what others are saying on the Slashdot article.

So it is a mixed blessing for me, I'm happy for them, sad to lose all the tools.  Once again Microsoft as assimilated and shown "Resistance is futile".

powered by performancing firefox

The Voice of GOD

It's funny how when you're surfing the web for one thing, you can find links that take you somewhere totally different.  That's how I found the Religious Freaks blog.  On there he has a post about Samuel L. Jackson doing an audio book of the New and Old Testement where he will be the voice of God.  (Personally I would rather have it be James Earl Jones.)  I then listened to the audio clip and couldn't believe it was real.  Did some quick Googling and while I couldn't verify the clip as real, it appears the audio book is.

Some have said they thought the clip was from Pulp Fiction.  Could be, it's been awhile since I've seen that movie.  But I remember there being a LOT more swearing when he did that.

Anyhow, it's a funny clip to listen to and could be a good audio book.

powered by performancing firefox

Why we have kids

This weekend I finally learned the real reason we have kids.  Here are some reasons I have heard before:

• To further the family line.
• The joy of being a parent.
• Nurturing young minds to make the world a better place.
• Living vicariously through your kids, seeing them do things you never could.

These are nice, but not the real reason.  This weekend I was steam cleaning the carpets upstairs and drinking a beer.  My 4 year old son came in to see how I was doing.  As he left I asked if he could do something for me.  When he came back, he had a fresh beer for me.  That's when I realized why we have kids - to bring us beer so we can continue what we're doing, be that cleaning carpets or watching tv.  ;)

powered by performancing firefox