Dispositional Shift

Ups and Downs

2007-06-14T21:50:00.000-04:00

As usual, a lot has happened since my last post. I can't seem to piece together a cohesive post, so here are the interesting bits.

Travel

Emma, Alicia and I went to Rachel and Aaron's wedding in West Palm Beach, Florida. It was a beautiful wedding in a beautiful place-- with beautiful flowers! Alicia was terribly busy with the flowers and being a Matron of Honor, so we didn't get to do the beach thing. I still managed to get a sunburn, though. I met lots of cool people, too. All in all, it was time well spent.
I was in Longmont, Colorado for several days for work at the beginning of June. I nearly didn't make it because I missed my flight due to an awful accident on I40, but Southwest managed to get me there. I toured Seagate's R&D facility, learned how they make the new rugged hard drives we just started selling, and climbed a mountain. Ok, so most of the mountain climbing was done in a car, but I did go to Rocky Mountain National Park and did a bit of hiking. Most of the trails were still snowed over, but I did hike up to a 12,005' elevation site. It was tougher than I expected! It was windy, winding, cold and snowy. There wasn't all that much oxygen, either. I managed to drag my big self up there and enjoy the view for a while. Then I went back down the mountain and watched the elk for a while.
I visited my parents in Wilmington, North Carolina a couple of times, too. It's a fairly short three hour drive, and I always manage to feel recharged when I go there. I visited with my grandmother while I was there. She's looking more frail than ever, but her spirits seemed to be higher than previous visits this year.

Other stuff:

I started playing EverQuest again. This is starting to turn into kind of an annual thing. Alicia and I play for three or four months when we are trying to save money. It's cheap, fun and keeps us from going out and blowing money on big dinners and entertainment. If anyone is concerned about my ability to control myself, worry not. If anyone asks, though, I might say I'm playing WoW. That just seems more socially acceptable.
It seems like I'm getting more responsibilities at work. Or maybe I'm just imagining things. Either way they're putting me on the road more and I'm spending more time with important vendors and clients. I hope it keeps up.
I'm sleepy.

I need one of these.

2007-04-19T10:25:00.001-04:00

Alicia and I have put a lot of thought into building a new house.  The old one is...well, old.  I'm lobbying hard for a personal retreat, and this is just what I need for the entrance.  I've always wanted a secret door!

5-4 the SCOTUS says, "Die Fornicators!"

2007-04-18T16:33:00.001-04:00

I tend to stay well away from political issues in this blog. Once I speculated with Jenny that keeping non-political was why I'm often quiet. This, however, is something that must be discussed. Today five men decided the fate of a bunch of babies. Sounds great, right? Not so fast. By doing so, these men are also preventing women in life-threatening situations from life-saving surgery. You can read more here, but be warned: there is strong language and imagery.

Babies are snuggly, sweet little noise machines and they often grow up into lovely people. I'm very fond of babies. But wouldn't a living, breathing woman be better than a motherless baby with little chance of survival?

I'm on fire!

2007-03-21T11:28:00.001-04:00

Three posts within a month. If that's not some intense bloggification, I dunno what is! That's not why I'm on fire, though. I'm trying this new (to me) Firefox extension called ScribeFire. It adds a friendly little notepad icon in the corner of the Firefox window that brings up a fully featured blog editor with drag and drop support. If it sounds familiar, you may know it by its former name "Performancing." Names aside, maybe this is just what I need to make my posts less texty and more sexy. And more frequent.

In transit

2007-02-28T14:02:00.000-05:00

3:30am comes early. It comes extra early when a guy is leaving on his first real business trip. My bags were packed for a three day stay in sunny San Diego. My alarm clock was set. I crawled into bed, more than a little apprehensive about what the next day would hold for me.

I launched out of bed when the alarm went off! …so I could turn it off and go back to sleep. I sat back in the bed for a moment, wondering if anyone would notice if I missed my flight and just stayed at home and slept for a few days. I shrugged, resigned to my fate, and climbed out of bed. Alicia dragged herself out of bed shortly after me, and looked on in mock disgust as I ate a pair of overdone waffles for breakfast. It might have been mock disgust, anyway. She could have been nodding off. I printed a copy of my itinerary, checked for flight delays and decided to skip online check-in so I could try out the fancy computerized kiosks at the airport.

After narrowly missing no less than two rabbits, fourteen deer and a grizzled possum, we made it to the relative safety of I-40 and arrived at the airport in a most timely fashion. I checked in, strolled to security and presented my belongings to the privacy invasion agency. Shoes off, in a bin! All liquid, gel, non-solid and potentially damp-smelly-moist-squishy stuff in quantities no greater than three ounces in a quart-sized plastic bag. In the x-ray machine, not in the agent’s hand! Laptop out and in a bin. Jacket off, in a bin! Bags placed at a reasonable distance from each other—SIR! Is that a metal belt buckle? IN A BIN, THROUGH THE MACHINE! Obey. Obey! OBEY!

I felt like I’d been processed for a life of enslavement by a squadron of Daleks. Unbelted and barefoot, my pants yearned to become glorified ankle warmers. I staggered through to the collection point and struggled to simultaneously gather my belongings and my dignity. I pulled myself together in the bathroom and jogged down to the last gate where my flight was just announcing final boarding. I had an assigned seat, but I slipped into line between an elderly couple and a pregnant porn starlet. I had to keep my skills sharp for future cattle call flights and my eventual entry in The Amazing Race! No one noticed, which must mean that I’m awfully smooth. Or that it was 5:45am and no one was awake enough to care.

On the first leg, Kevin Costner woodenly cheesed his way through The Guardian and defended the lives of idiots and the good name of puddle pirates everywhere. I nibbled on raisins and sipped orange juice. Ahh, the Continental (airlines) breakfast! An old man strode heedless of the fasten seatbelts sign to the rear of the craft. I wasn’t sure if he was bound for the head or to berate one of the hostesses for the poor breakfast, but another geriatric followed him. Others came too. One by one they returned, all but the two old folks. Like my ankles, my bladder was swollen. I had to go too! I unbuckled, slid past an airline hostess and bounded for the pair of aft lavatories. Both were occupied. From the right were the sounds of someone struggling with a mighty load. From the left were… other sounds. I was practically pissing myself and those old people were scrogging in the shitter! I realize that septuagenarians have sex too, and that they have just as much of a right to scratch off items on their “Things to do before I die” list, but ew! Ew! Ewwww! They finally emerged, red-faced and avoided my knowing eyes, and those of everyone else nearby. I relieved myself and returned to my aisle seat next to Carlos and Charlie as they grumbled quietly in Spanish about the fat bastard sitting next to them. I should have skipped my pre-flight shower so they would have had more to bitch about. They were mightily surprised when I asked them if they knew of any good places to grab a beer in Houston. In Spanish.

My Latino seatmates never answered my question, and I never got to find out. I had less than an hour to get from one end of the airport to the other. One train, a tram, three people movers and two escalators later, I jogged down a jetway and slumped down into my seat. “Lo siento senor,” I apologized in advance to the brown skinned fellow in the middle seat. “Eh?” he replied. “Not good English… Saudi Arabia.” Aha! No wonder people kept looking at the guy funny. As our Boeing 737-900 sped down the runway, he whispered “Not good… fly.”

Ding-diiing! “This is your captain speaking. I have illuminated the fasten seatbelts signs, as we are entering some rough air. We’ll be in beautiful San Diego in a little less than an hour. Hang in there and you’ll be enjoying the sunny city or well on your way to the city or country of your final destination!” My seatmate was sweating. More people were looking at him. Not just quick glances, but full blown sideways stares. We began our final descent into San Diego. The jet shuddered and bounced like a bag of microwave popcorn. The recipient of so many stares to my left started opening and closing his hands spasmodically and murmuring “Allahu akhbar!” under his breath. People were whispering. He was shaking. I slammed my hand down over top of his and looked him in the eye. “Listen,” I began. “You have to calm down. We’ll be on the ground in ten minutes. Got it?” He twisted his hand around and squeezed my fingers. I looked away. He didn’t let go for the next ten minutes. He did shut up, though, until we were safely on the ground. “Thank you!” he said. I nodded. “Don’t mention it.”

Welcome back!

2007-02-28T14:00:00.000-05:00

Thanks to a certain Bunny, it's looking pretty good around here. I'll try to keep it up a little better this time around. Cheers!

I need a new body

2006-07-15T21:30:00.000-04:00

Ten years ago my favorite television program returned after a long hiatus for one night only. The Doctor Who movie wasn't anything spectacular, and most fans choose to forget it. That's much easier to do now that we've seen more than two dozen episodes of the spectacular new series, but one bit of the 1996 movie still sticks with me. The Master, played by Eric Roberts (yes, that Eric Robers), was dying. His borrowed body crumbling around him, he insisted, "I. Need. A new. Body!"

That's me. Not that I'm particularly villainous, nor am I stumbling around in a stolen body, but I sure could use a new one. I probably wouldn't feel so bad about it if I didn't need a tailor. Or surgery.

The Misshapen Donnie

I bought a suit two weeks ago. It's a nice-looking single breasted black suit with a charcoal pinstripe. I like it, and it's a good thing that I do. It's the only one I could find that fit me! Finding shoes was harder. The only dressy shoes I own are brown and have seen better days, so they aren't the best match for my sharp new suit. I wear a 15EEEE which are few and far between. We struck out at all of the local shoe and department stores, so I'm resorting to mail order. My new black captoe oxfords-- not my first, second or third choice!-- will arrive on Tuesday. That's just four days before the occasion at which I'm wearing them, so they'd better fit.

At least I did manage to find a suit and shoes somewhere. Shirts are a different story. I have a 21" neck, 54" chest, 47" waist and 27" sleeves. Shirts are only manufactured in 20" and 22" neck sizes, which translate to a 5X and 6X respectively. That means that in order for a shirt to fit me in the neck, it's three or four sizes too big in the chest. Also, most designers expect men in larger sizes to be a sort of O-shape. I'm more of a V-shape, which means the bottom of the shirt bells out for the expected 72" waist. I think that bears repeating: my shirts have a seventy-two inch waist. Holy shit. I'm a big guy, but I shouldn't have to wear a tent! I picked up a couple of 22" neck shirts in hopes that the alterations place doing the hem and cuff on my suit pants will be able to take in the shirts a bit. It looks like they'll be able to take in six inches on each side, which should make them look better on me. I hope.

I think I need to build a good relationship with a tailor. How does one do that? Does anyone in the 21st century use a tailor anymore? Anyone besides P.Diddy or whatever he calls himself this week? The word tailor sounds expensive. I've got other things to spend money on, for now...

The warranty is out

I get as many sinus infections, ear infections and bouts with bronchitis in a year as most people get in a lifetime. Every year my allergies get worse. Antibiotics, antihistimines, histimine blockers and other remedies help, but my doctor and I decided that it was time to investigate the root of the problem. I had an appointment with the renowned Dr. Pillsbury at the UNC Hospital ENT clinic. He is the head surgeon and the same guy that did my one and only previous surgery, a tonsillectomy ten years ago. I think he was pretty pleased that I recognized him. We weren't able to do any allergy testing since no one bothered to tell me that you can't take allergy meds for a week prior to testing. Dr. Pillsbury was good enough to ask me about my medical history, look up my nose and explain that I have a badly deviated septum and enlarged turbinates. He mentioned a CT sinus scan for a future visit, asked me to reschedule the allergy test, shook my hand and told me he'd see me soon. He was done in five minutes. I'm going back on August 3rd. I hope that visit is more in-depth. The allergy test scares me a bit, but not because I'm worried about a few pricks. If that was the case, I wouldn't go to the doctor's office in the first place. Or out in public, for that matter.

If I need to get a septoplasty to fix my nose up so I'm no longer a dirty mouth-breather, I can look forward to a few hundred dollars of fees that aren't covered by insurance. A few hundred more if I need to get an inferior turbinate reduction. And a few hundred more if I need to get some rhinoplasty thrown in to patch up years of wear and tear from wearing heavy eyeglasses. There is a problem with all this, though. Septoplasty patients can't wear eyeglasses for six weeks following surgery. I can't see without glasses. I don't know if I can wear contacts due to some scarring on my eye from a childhood accident. I might have to get lasik surgery before I can get surgery. If that's the case, that rings up my out of pocket costs to the $3500 range. I think I need to start selling stuff from around the house or get another job. Maybe I shouldn't have bought that suit. I've got to look halfway decent for my class reunion, though. More on that next week, I've rambled too much tonight.

Oh happy day

2006-07-03T11:12:00.000-04:00

Jenny tagged me with this meme thingie. I had a pretty good time reading about all the strange things that have happened on my birthday. These are some of the more noteworthy happenings.

Instructions:
1. Go to Wikipedia.
2. In the Search box, type your birth month and day (but not year).
3. List three events that happened on your birthday.
4. List two important birthdays and one interesting death.
5. One holiday or observance (if any).

My birthday: March 10th

Events
1804 - Louisiana Purchase: In St. Louis, a formal ceremony is conducted to transfer ownership of Louisiana Territory from France to the United States.
1977 - Rings of Uranus: Astronomers discover rings around Uranus.
2000 - The NASDAQ stock market index peaks at 5048.62, signaling the beginning of the end of the dot-com boom.

Birthdays
1940 - Chuck Norris, American actor and martial artist
1957 - Osama bin Laden, Saudi-born Islamic extremist

Death
1913 - Harriet Tubman, American abolitionist (b. 1820)

Holiday
Fans of video game character Mario celebrate Mar10 Day, by singing songs about him, watching the movie and show, and playing Mario games.

Wow. It has all the trimmings of a major motion picture. An American icon, a villanous terrorist, a freedom fighter, a bursting bubble, new territories, other worlds and a mushroom munching super plumber. My birthday rocks! There were a bunch of earthquakes on that day, too. My birthday really rocks!

I read the news today, oh boy

2006-05-15T23:45:00.000-04:00

I love reading the news. There's nothing like seeing how screwed up the world is to make you feel better about whatever petty crap is going on in your life.

"SHOCK: Bears Eat Monkey in Front of Zoo Visitors." See, there's this thing called "nature." Yep.

"Orgy of Violence in Sao Paolo kills 80 Brazilians." Which is it? Eighty of them, or brazilians of them?

"Team Captain says he is 'absolutely innocent.'" Special thanks to the NSA wiretaps.

"Pentagon Releases Gitmo Detainees' Names..." They're all named Mohamed. Don't ask why they're not releasing their photos.

"Bush vows to secure border." Hmm, I think border patrol might be on his level.

Headlines courtesy of The Drudge Report, your source for completely biased news.

My TV Debut

2006-02-13T14:14:00.000-05:00

Just in case you missed it, this is the news story from around Thanksgiving in which I commented on road construction and stuff. Click the picture below to behold me in my unkempt glory!

I Keep Me In Stitches

2005-12-28T17:42:00.000-05:00

Warning: medical/trauma stuff ahead. Also, please forgive any typos. I'm typing one-handed.

Alicia received a six pound honey baked ham from her employer for Christmas. She also received a very nice, very sharp set of knives. I was cutting and packing the rest of the ham to freeze for a later date, using the lovely new eight inch chef's knife. A ham is slightly awkward, and a fork wasn't working to steady it for the last few slices, so I held the bone firmly in my right hand. The cuts were quick and true, and I was almost finished when the heel of the blade hit upon the other end of the bone. The heavy blade, its handle lubricated by the sweet pork juices --that sounds awful, doesn't it? -- slipped free of my grasp and shot upward. Everything slowed down. I saw the knife coming down like a wicked guillotine toward the side of my hand. I let go of the bone as if it had become a small sun, and pulled back as quickly as I could. The knife struck home; not where it would have at the place my right index finger meets the palm, but one knuckle up.

Much blood. Oh no!

I somehow caught the slippery knife in my left hand and flicked it into the sink basin, turning on the faucet in the same motion. The chilly water rushed over my hand, flushing away the crimson so I could see the extent of my injuries.

Finger not severed. Oh yes!

You know your day isn't going well when you're celebrating the fact that your finger hasn't been cut off. I applied first aid for forty-five minutes. The next forty-five were spent discussing the injury with a nurse at my doctor's office and then pulling myself together --literally!-- for a journey to the emergency room. I didn't have any latex free bandages, so I improvised with a some gauze and masking tape. I managed a shower with a plastic grocery store bag and more masking tape. Geoff, my father-in-law, took me to UNC Hospital and provided tons of moral support. It was a good bonding experience for us. After a short wait, a gorgeous nurse practitioner named Sarah patched me up and kept me entertained all the while with some hockey talk. I'd love to chat with her again sometime, but I'd prefer to do it over a drink, and not a suture kit.

I'm back in one piece now, although my finger won't be usable for several days. This is the first time I've ever had stitches, so I'm not sure what to expect, but it's been more of a humorous occasion than anything else. And now, it's time for painkillers.

Cheers!

Dribs and Drabs

2005-12-28T01:10:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas! Happy Chanukah! Happy Yule! Blessed Solstice! Kickass Kwanzaa! I'm back like cancer.

Spielberg's Munich wasn't bad, aside from nearly dying of old age before it ended.

I'm playing EverQuest again. In moderation. Seriously.

An acquaintance of mine was carjacked. In Carrboro. Carrjacked?

I've reconnected with a ton of old friends through MySpace. It's too bad the site looks and acts like it was designed by that room full of monkeys that are trying to write Shakespeare...

If you've given up on me updating this, don't worry. I did too! I should get one of the ghosts that lives (deads?) on my front porch to write it for me.

Acquaintance is damned hard to spell. And dude. Dude. Ross got carjacked. In Carrboro.

Fox cancelling Kitchen Confidential was criminal, it was just getting good. They only aired 4 episodes, but 13 were produced. A DVD release would be very nice.

New TransFormers comic book comes out next month! I picked up the preview issue today while hanging out in Chapel Hill with Ian pretending we were teenagers again.

Continuing the return to childhood theme, the Doctor Who special episode "The Christmas Invasion" rocked like no Doctor Who Christmas Special has rocked before. Granted, it's the only one, but it was still mighty good.

We got a honey baked ham for Christmas. I hear it calling my name.

Cheers.

Say it to my face

2005-09-29T22:18:00.000-04:00

There's a whole lot of drama going on.

It started several weeks ago with a new washer and dryer. Simple enough. The delivery company arrived to deliver them, but there was no convenient turnaround location, so they backed their very large truck down the driveway in order to try to reverse up it. Nevermind that they were already in front of the house and didn't bother to take the new appliances out. Once they were at the bottom of the drive, they decided it was too dangerous to back up it, and opted to try to re-deliver in a smaller truck. We received a call later that day: no smaller truck available. Can we meet them at the end of the driveway with a pickup truck. If we had a pickup truck available, would we have bothered to pay fifty American dollars for a delivery fee?

Alicia and her brother Adam ended up driving to Raleigh to the nearest Home Delivery America office, where the washer and dryer were being held hostage. They picked them up and we set them up without any assistance or old appliance disposal service from the useless delivery company. After some negotiations with Home Depot, the delivery charge was reversed. This appeared to be the end of the saga for a while, but something else came up-- if the morons from Home Delivery America couldn't make it up the driveway without staining their underwear, how were we supposed to get heating oil delivered this year? Nevermind that heating oil has surpassed three dollars a gallon. If I happen to knock over a liquor store, or if the heavens tear open and money starts raining down on me, I might need to accomodate a truck bearing number two fuel oil.

Ginger, Alicia's mom, happened to be setting up a new homeowners policy on the family property, a stretch that includes this house, their house and her late mother's house. She needed to provide photographic evidence that all of the houses exist, and are still standing in relatively good order. In an attempt to kill two birds with one stone, she got Adam, Bobby the foreman/handyman and Jeff the family friend to come out with a bobcat to do some grading, clearing and general cleanup outside the house. For those that know me well, this was very necessary. Several years ago, we were offered the chance to move into this house rent-free-- all we had to do was make it livable. It'd been abandoned to the wilderness for well over a decade before then, so we had our work cut out for us. Unfortunately, we only had about six thousand dollars to spend on this project, most of which went to plumbing work. The exterior of the house has been sorely neglected, and to make matters worse, we had gone through a pair each of barely working hand-me-down washers and dryers, all of which were sitting behind the house. All of which would have been removed if Home Delivery America had bothered to attempt to deliver the washer and dryer.

The guys arrived yesterday morning to do the clearing and grading work. They chainsawed away at the massive hulk of an oak tree that had tumbled into the woods in a storm last summer. They scraped the driveway and made it passable. Around the entire house, they plowed, pushed, dragged, piled and flattened. They did a great job. They even cleared half an acre adjacent to our house-- a real place to turn around. Hell, there's enough room there for an entire new house. We'd asked for years what it would cost to get someone out to do this sort of thing and were always shot down. "It's not your property, just leave it alone." About the driveway: "That thing has Chapel Hill Grit on it. It doesn't need any work." We tried to do as much by hand as possible, but with everything else going on in our lives its seemed an insurmountable task. We appreciate the work more than anyone could imagine. After all, we do have to live here.

Before we had an opportunity to thank anyone, however, the mouths started running. Before we knew it, half of Alicia's extended family was running their mouth about how we live in a hovel. It was like a grade school game of telephone, and the further down the chain it went, the worse it became. Every window is broken out! Hundreds of mangy dogs roam the property! A ten foot tall pile of garbage stands spewing flies by the back door! Dozens of disabled vehicles and discarded appliances rust at every turn! Hazardous waste to rival the 9th Ward of Orleans Parish covers the ground as far as the eye can see!

Alicia's parents heard about this before we did, and evidently it got ugly. Uglier than the things that were said about us. I've never in my life dreamed that they'd take a moment to defend me or Alicia in any way, but they certainly made me think twice about how they feel about us. I don't know exactly what happened, but I've heard things that made me raise my eyebrows. Things that may take a long time for some people to get over.

Things that wouldn't have happened if someone had just bothered to let me know they had a problem. If only they'd said it to my face...

This one is serious.

2005-08-28T14:25:00.000-04:00

Hurricane Katrina will be the fourth Category 5 hurricane to strike the continental United States. The referenced warning speaks volumes about the danger this storm brings. I have quoted the more poignant portion of the National Weather Service dispatch in case the link expires.

HURRICANE KATRINA
A MOST POWERFUL HURRICANE WITH UNPRECEDENTED STRENGTH...RIVALING THE INTENSITY OF HURRICANE CAMILLE OF 1969.

MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS...PERHAPS LONGER. AT LEAST ONE HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL
FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL...LEAVING THOSE HOMES SEVERELY DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.

THE MAJORITY OF INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS WILL BECOME NON FUNCTIONAL. PARTIAL TO COMPLETE WALL AND ROOF FAILURE IS EXPECTED. ALL WOOD
FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED. CONCRETE BLOCK LOW RISE APARTMENTS WILL SUSTAIN MAJOR DAMAGE...INCLUDING SOME
WALL AND ROOF FAILURE.

HIGH RISE OFFICE AND APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL SWAY DANGEROUSLY...A FEW TO THE POINT OF TOTAL COLLAPSE. ALL WINDOWS WILL BLOW OUT.

AIRBORNE DEBRIS WILL BE WIDESPREAD...AND MAY INCLUDE HEAVY ITEMS SUCH AS HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES AND EVEN LIGHT VEHICLES. SPORT UTILITY
VEHICLES AND LIGHT TRUCKS WILL BE MOVED. THE BLOWN DEBRIS WILL CREATE ADDITIONAL DESTRUCTION. PERSONS...PETS...AND LIVESTOCK EXPOSED TO THE
WINDS WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH IF STRUCK.

POWER OUTAGES WILL LAST FOR WEEKS...AS MOST POWER POLES WILL BE DOWN AND TRANSFORMERS DESTROYED. WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING
INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS.

THE VAST MAJORITY OF NATIVE TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. ONLY THE HEARTIEST WILL REMAIN STANDING...BUT BE TOTALLY DEFOLIATED. FEW
CROPS WILL REMAIN. LIVESTOCK LEFT EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL BE KILLED.

AN INLAND HURRICANE WIND WARNING IS ISSUED WHEN SUSTAINED WINDS NEAR HURRICANE FORCE...OR FREQUENT GUSTS AT OR ABOVE HURRICANE FORCE...ARE
CERTAIN WITHIN THE NEXT 12 TO 24 HOURS.

ONCE TROPICAL STORM AND HURRICANE FORCE WINDS ONSET...DO NOT VENTURE OUTSIDE!

Slush Drawer No More

2005-08-27T17:58:00.000-04:00

New look, new name, same Donnie-- but the name does reflect change. It can mean all sorts of things, and it's meant to be ambiguous. More on the name another time. For now, I'm headed next door to do laundry. The washing machine died a loud and painful death recently, so it's off to the in-laws' house to ensure Alicia, Emma and I have clothes for the coming week.

Cheers!

TV Blogging Redux

2005-08-03T21:23:00.000-04:00

TV Blogging Redux

It seems I am not the only one who felt so strongly about Tara's awful performance. Tonight, INXS told her to hit the road. This move makes it much more likely that I watch again next week. In other television news, tonight I learned that my favorite CSI: New York character will be written out of the show. I don't think anyone that reads this blog is a fan of CSI: NY, but I'll keep the details under my hat so I don't spoil it-- just in case.

Blogging TV

2005-08-02T22:52:00.000-04:00

Blogging TV

Rock Star: INXS is a Mark Burnett reality series that chronicles the convoluted audition process of a replacement singer for the band INXS. The would-be rock stars have big shoes to fill; the late Michael Hutchence had presence and talent. I absolutely hate American Idol and all the vocal wankery exhibited there, and this is a nice contrast. Rock Star does suffer from minor oversaturation, occupying two hours of weekly prime time television spread across Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I caught the latter half of tonight's episode, and I have to rant about one of the performances.

Tara Sloan. There was nothing to enjoy about this girl and her song at all. She looked like she selected her wardrobe in the dark and from a rack of clothes two sizes too small. She sings without soul, joy or stop-plosives. For the love of God, woman, learn how to enunciate. That, or never get in front of a microphone again. Seriously. Shit.

Ok, I'm done.

Game on!

2005-07-21T14:04:00.000-04:00

Game on!

TSN reports that the NHLPA has ratified the new Collective Bargaining Agreement. It's official: three months from now, I'll be helping to make the RBC Center the loudest arena in the NHL. Go Canes!

Tear Down the Wall

2005-07-11T12:12:00.000-04:00

Tear Down the Wall

With a slightly quavering voice, a giddy Roger Waters sang for the world on the Live 8 stage. Behind him, a winged pig soared through the sky on a massive video screen. Pink Floyd took the Hyde Park stage with their formerly estranged bandmate in the most significant performance in recent rock history. The brief set at Live 8 was billed as a one-time event, a discarding of enmity to heighten awareness of the poverty and suffering of the peoples of Africa. It would be foolish to think that a few old men on a stage could be more important than the African tribulation, but for twenty minutes on the second day of July, Africa was the farthest thing from many minds.

A's, B's and many C's of Reality TV

2005-07-10T23:25:00.000-04:00

A's, B's, and many C's of Reality TV

Lately I've been under the weather. That is, the weather is kicking my ass, and I've felt no small discomfort from an ongoing series of dental problems. With the heat and humidity making it unbearable to do much of anything, and my prescription pain-killers preventing me from doing anything that involves anything resembling coherent thought, I thought it was time to get a taste of something I've missed out on in the past few years: Reality Television. Thanks to Blockbuster's online DVD rental service and a certain notorious P2P filesharing program, I've plunged wholesale into the manufactured reality of Survivor, The Amazing Race, Hell's Kitchen, Survivor UK, Big Brother and a few of their poorer cousins; The Real Gilligan's Island, Love Cruise and more.

What I've discovered is intriguing. This programming is gripping, and yet gratuitously pointless. The concept is simple: don't hire actors, just select unpaid applicants willing to take part in the "experience." Leveraging inexpensive equipment and the simplest production values, document every detail of the lives of the participants before, during and following the scripted events. Edit together the juiciest, meatiest tidbits for prime time audiences, throw in a million dollars to the person that makes it to the end, and you've got yourself a program. The winner isn't the "sole Survivor," the winner of the race or the viewers-- this is all about the bottom line for the broadcasters, and this is how they do it.

Animosity - In tense situations, even the finest of friends will find themselves in a fight. Put perfect strangers into similar circumstances and the events will make for exciting, if not quality, television.

Alternative lifestyles - Tell me, have you seen a reality show without a token gay guy, or whiny vegetarian?

Bloodthirst - Using camera-born innuendo and sly editing tricks, put the audience in a front row seat as the contestants butcher fowl, hogs, caiman and take their frustrations out on coconuts. Don't worry about looking away at the last minute, though, in this flavor of reality, the program handles that detail for you.

Bitchiness - What do you get when you combine our two A's? Another A: all-out-bitchfests. A meeting of the mouths to last precisely one half of a viewing season, contestants will not fail to find reasons to hate each other. There are times when certain groups of people truly seem to love each other, like Survivor: Marquesas after Boston Rob got the boot, but even then, the happiest of housemates will always break down as their reality comes crashing toward an end.

Cameras - Cameras are one of the biggest expenses for reality programs. Some call for remote controlled rotating, auto-focusing monstrosities in every conceivable location, while others load up on evening-news style battery powered units. The goal is always the same though: as many eyes as possible.
Challenges - Give the participants an activity to stir emotions, test their limits and drive their competition into the ground.

Chickens - Like the token homosexual, you simply can't have reality TV without some chickens. Whether they're dinner or the non-feathered variety that refuse to bungee jump and swallow wriggling worms, chicken is a staple here.

Chicks - The ladies rule in reality television. My friend Tarus is an avid Survivor fan, and has pointed out to me that each series has had one female whose sole purpose seems to be carriage for a massive rack. Not that I'm complaining; you wouldn't find me watching an all-male reality program.

Cheese - Less than skillful flirtation, grade school poetry, letters from home and unreal situations... there is nearly as much cheese as chicken to be found, which one would think might improve relations on the set of Hell's Kitchen.

Chemistry - Ahh, romance. If participants do manage to get along, the producers hope they'll get it on. Television romance is more fleeting than the career of a professional athlete, but that doesn't stop contestants from trying to find the love of their life on the boob tube.

Conflict - And sometimes things get physical. Reality television isn't supposed to be a contact sport, and the production companies will be sure to step in and settle a squabble that gets physical-- but not before they get some great footage.

Controversy - The most important C of all. All of the aforementioned elements of reality television lead to this, which fuels the buzz and pumps up the ratings. The most recent season of Charlie Parsons's brainchild stranded its Survivors in the Philippines in their street clothes. What's next, intentionally crashing a plane full of players into a mountainside to see who is cannibalized first? It's probably not too far off, but the host should hire a bodyguard; they'd probably be the first in the cookpot.

Soon

2005-07-06T19:50:00.000-04:00

Soon

I'm getting back on my feet after some medical stuff. I'll spare you the details... for now.

2005-05-12T19:00:00.000-04:00

When I rock the mic I rock the mic right.

2005-05-12T18:50:00.000-04:00

Typically one only sees cats asleep on top of a computer. Molly, my number one bitch, is seen here breaking new ground. She devotes as much time as possible making advances for canines everywhere, so long as she does not have to wake up. Or put forth any effort whatsoever. Actually, she might be a cat after all.

Cold hard cash

2005-04-27T23:02:00.000-04:00

Cold hard cash

Today the House of Representatives passed a bill to authorize the creation of a new one dollar coin. This coin will be a little different from the last two attempts, the ill-fated Susan B. Anthony dollar and the largely ignored Sacajawea dollar of 1999. Perhaps the third time will be the charm, since these new coins will follow the pattern of the very successful State Quarters series. The new coins will be released four per year starting in 2007. They will feature the visages of each President of the United States from Washington until the current President in the final run of the coins in 2018.

More information is available at CNN.

Atom feed

2005-04-27T10:08:00.000-04:00

Ch-ch-ch-changes

I'll eventually get this site working correctly in Firefox. Until then, you may wish to use the XML feed: http://dgsiii.blogspot.com/atom.xml. It is Atom formatted rather than RSS, but should work with most newsreaders. You can also syndicate it to your site, livejournal or whatever.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, check out this primer.

The adult mouth has...

2005-04-26T22:41:00.000-04:00

An adult human has 31 teeth

This human, that is. The occasional hearing loss I mentioned several weeks ago appears to have been the symptom of a very unhappy wisdom tooth. I visited Dr. Wilson this morning to take a peek at it. He took a look after a thorough cleaning by Sue the hygienist, and told me he'd like to take it out. Before I knew it, my mouth was numb and I was explaining to Alicia that she'd have to hang out in the waiting room a little longer while so they could pull the tooth. She seemed more surprised than I was. I returned to the little exam room, got all the gory details on what could possibly go wrong with the procedure, and gave the nod to get it over with. Three minutes later I was clamping down on a piece of gauze. Twelve hours after that, I'm struggling to wrap a blog entry while 15mg of hydrocodone is tickling my opoid receptors. Beats the hell out of hurting. Now I go back to bed so I can wake up and see if I can handle working tomorrow.

A small favor

2005-04-25T18:49:00.000-04:00

A small favor

Hello to you, lovely person currently reading my weblog. I would like to ask a small favor from you. Could you help me with something? This is somewhat complicated, but my sister's boyfriend's sister in beautiful Puerto de Acajutla, El Salvador is in a competition; an online beauty contest to become Miss Acajutlaonline. Her name is Iris, and she hasn't received nearly as many votes as she deserves. It would be awfully nice if you could take a moment to vote for Iris. I'm sure she'd be most appreciative.

Cinematic Disappointment

2005-04-21T10:12:00.000-04:00

Dungeons and Dragons - The Movie

On the RTSFS e-mail list, we've been discussing television and film disappointments in the realm of speculative fiction.

This was my contribution:

I was terribly disappointed by the Dungeons and Dragons movie. Movie-goers 'round the world still cringe when remembering Jeremy Irons' rediculous jibbering coupled with his seizure-like hand gestures. Also, who can forget Jar-Jar Snails, or Mister Blue-Lips uttering as seriously as possible, "Give. Me. The Rod."

Actually, I think I might watch it again sometime soon-- I could use a laugh.

A fanboy moment

2005-04-20T13:16:00.000-04:00

A Fanboy Moment

Around lunchtime on Monday I was looking for information on that night's episode of CSI Miami. TV Tome didn't have anything, so I stopped by CSI Files to see if they had what I needed. Not only did I find a brief description of the episode du jour, I also found a link to Calleigh Duquesne actress Emily Procter's website. Her character is my favorite in the series, and I happily clicked on the link. I learned from her bio that she is a Raleigh native and ECU graduate. I sipped my iced tea thoughtfully, then clicked on the "contact" link-- I just had to say hello. To my surprise, Ms. Procter responded almost immediately. She sent a brief but charming reply, which resulted in a few moments of utter fanboy bliss.

GreenZap

2005-04-14T15:24:00.000-04:00

GreenZap not a hoax?

I received this email from GreenZap today:

Dear Donald,

As you probably know, we have been diligently working on setting up systems to
manage the amount of traffic that GreenZap is getting and is expected to get.

Rather than install a temporary solution, Dell and Cisco are assisting us in
building a very robust, expandable system to grow as our community does. As a
result, it has taken a little more time than initially expected.

We expect the final pieces of our systems to be completed by tomorrow, at which
time we will make the site available.

Once available, you will notice some additions, including (i) a contact us page,
(ii) an FAQ section and (iii) an area for news and recent press releases.

We appreciate your patience and look forward to servicing you.

Have a Zappy day!

By request...

2005-04-13T21:46:00.000-04:00

By request, Alicia Springfield

Alicia was asked to design the flower arrangements for the UNC Tar Heels Mens Basketball Banquet. Two of the fourteen centerpieces she created are visible in the background in at least one of the official photos at tarheelblue.com Also, several of my coworkers reported seeing them during the telecast. Just in case you missed them, here is a closer look at the prototype design at one of the work tables at the shop:

The Wounded

2005-04-13T21:31:00.000-04:00

The Wounded

Yesterday at school Emma was hurt on the playground. She missed a rung on the monkey bars and fell face-first into the gravel. We have kept a close watch on her for any change in symptoms and she appears to have a minor concussion, but she claims to be just fine. After waiting all year for her turn, this is her week to be the "pledge leader" in school; the child that leads all the others in the Pledge of Allegiance, and not even a blow to the head is going to keep her from this very important duty.

Here she is, showing off her battle scars:

Updates

2005-04-06T00:22:00.000-04:00

Updates

-The Caller is still calling, and it appears that it goes by Daylight Saving Time

-Megadeth is going on the festival circuit this summer, with a new creation called "Gigantour."

-The Tar Heels are the national champions!

-The Pope is dead.

-Terry Schiavo's body joins her mind, fifteen years later. Eating disorders are bad, mmmkay?

-The Pope is still dead, no new Pope yet!

-New PayPal like service is coming soon. If you feel like reading my schill about it, see this post's comments.

The wise words of Destitution M. Superintendency

2005-03-15T13:33:00.000-05:00

The wise words of Destitution M. Superintendency

Unsolicited email is the bane of my existence, but sometimes I get some spam that's just great. This particular message came from one "Destitution M. Superintendency."

Tionana

An excuse is worse than a lie, for an excuse is a lie, guarded.
Each generation produces its squad of ''moderns'' with peashooters to attack Gibraltar.

A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than you love yourself.
When new turns of behavior cease to appear in the life of the individual, its behavior ceases to be intelligent.

Only sick music makes money today.

To read too many books is harmful.
There is no fatigue so wearisome as that which comes from lack of work.
Stop the habit of wishful thinking and start the habit of thoughtful wishes. It's sad that, in our blindness we gather thorns for flowers: Ah tell me not that memory sheds gladness over the past what is recalled by faded flowers save that they did not last?

It is normal to give away a little of one's life in order not to lose it all.Accuracy is to a newspaper what virtue is to a lady, but a newspaper can always print a retraction.

My sword I give to him that shall succeed me in my pilgrimage, and my courage and skill to him that can get it.
The pleasure of reading is doubled when one lives with another who shares the same books.To the timid and hesitating everything is impossible because it seems so.
Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.
Drink to me.

If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars.

2005-03-10T14:48:00.000-05:00

I turned 27 today. We're not doing much for my birthday, but next year I want to celebrate by going on another cruise. I won't even complain during the muster drill.

Short cuts

2005-03-02T14:40:00.000-05:00

Short cuts

Today is the tenth anniversary of Yahoo! Can you remember a time before Yahoo? I think I can, but it's very faint.

Alicia and I have been watching lots of tv this season. CSI finally got us hooked, and we haven't missed an episode of 24 this season either. We've also enjoyed the supernatural dramas Medium and Point Pleasant. Medium will definitely be back next year, but it doesn't look good for Point Pleasant. That's a shame, I'm really enjoying it.

Alicia didn't like our trip to Woods Charter. She is extremely wary of sending Emma to the same facility as high school aged kids. With her concerns in mind, we have opted to forgo submitting an application, and to take a closer look at other options.

One of my friends asked why I hadn't challenged the school about Emma's suspension from the bus. I explained that I didn't want to be the parent that ended up on the 6pm news for an altercation with his child's school administration.

Did you know Emma rides the bus for an hour each afternoon? In the morning, Alicia takes her to school and drops me off at work, which is about five minutes away. The morning trip takes fifteen minutes if traffic is kind. There is another public elementary school five minutes drive from our house, but Emma can't attend that one due to the zoning. Even though ours is the most distant home in the district, Emma must attend PES because we're on the Northbound side of Highway 501. I find that odd, though, since Pittsboro is to the South.

Alicia and I caught the Peter Jennings UFO special several days ago. It was interesting, especially the part where they spoke to the physics professor at CUNY about wormholes and interstellar travel.

I have the best friends in the whle world, ever.

Malley's chocolate covered pretzels are good.

So are Werther's caramels. Mmmmmmmmmm.

I'm running out of things to say.

I guess I'll stop.

Absolutely rediculous

2005-02-24T20:58:00.000-05:00

Absolutely rediculous

This came home with Emma today:

On the afternoon bus ride on Wednesday, Feb 23, 2005, the bus driver reported that Emma was talking on the bus and continued talking after he asked her to stop. The assistant principal had to get abourd the bus before it left campus to get the students quiet and orderly. Instructions were given for all students to be quiet and to travel the bus route that way. Emma chose to continue talking after the bus driver asked her to stop. This is Emma's third bus referral about misconduct on the school bus.

AS A RESULT, THE FOLLOWING ACTION DISCIPLINARY ACTION WILL BE TAKEN:

Emma is suspended off any bus transportation vehicle sponsored by Chatham County Schools for ten (10) school days. Emma can begin riding a school bus again on the morning of Monday, March 14, 2005.

RIDING THE BUS IS A PRIVILEGE AND IS NOT COMPULSORY

I'm so very glad that Pittsboro Elementary School has solved all of their other problems and is now cracking down on the incredibly malicious act committed by the most wicked of children: talking. That's right, talking! I'm not sure what Mary Stephens, PES's Asst. Principal has against Emma. This is the second time that my six year old daughter has been suspended for something that seems to be utterly inconsequential. Once again, the school punishes the parents and not the child. Shouldn't the punishment fit the crime? This, to me, seems like a public execution for jaywalking.

In related news, this weekend Woods Charter School is having an open house. We intend to be there at 9am Saturday to take a look at their facility, meet the staff and begin the registration process. Can anyone think of a reason why Emma should continue to attend PES? I certainly can't.

Two doctors and a loan officer...

2005-02-22T21:41:00.000-05:00

Two doctors and a loan officer...

It sounds like a "...walks into a bar" joke, but I was the one that was walking-- into their offices. I had to cash in a valuable sick day. Those are a precious commodity indeed, but these things needed to be done.

I did better at the eye doctor than I expected. The doctor reported that the "interesting" scar on my left eye hasn't changed in the two years since our last meeting. There was talk of a biopsy last time, but after three visits in the past five years with no changes, he's convinced that it isn't any cause for concern. I assured him that I'd call him immediately if it started singing showtunes or applying for unemployment. My astigmatism in the same eye has decreased somewhat. I asked if this would prove to help my depth perception at all. We did a depth perception test while waiting for my eyes to dilate from those damnable eye drops. I didn't do very well, and he explained to me that sometimes when children have depth perception problems, they can be corrected. By now, though, my adult brain is essentially hard-wired to interpret the things that I see as I currently see them, and there is little hope that I can gain the depth perception that other adults have. Also, even if I had corrective eye surgery-- for which I may not qualify, since I have an astigmatism-- it wouldn't improve my depth perception anymore than my corrective lenses already do. This means I can tell how far away things are better than a blind person, and somewhat better than a person with one eye. I don't have anything on most two-eyed adults, though, and I'll never be able to see one of those stereoscopic hidden pictures. On the bright side, I'll be getting new glasses soon. I hope they look alright on my face. I was nearly blind from the eyedrops when I picked them out, and then blinded by the total expenses of the visit and new spectacles on my way out.

After the eye doctor, Alicia took me to our family doctor to check out my ears. Dr. Corey couldn't find anything conclusive in my ears beyond some irritation in my left ear. My sinuses were inflamed and my throat was irritated, and he quizzed me on some recent illnesses. He suggested that I had something he called a "super-infection." He prescribed a serious course of antibiotics and instructed me to contact them if I got worse or didn't get better. By this time, I was ready to go home and crawl back into bed. The day just wasn't going well-- a super infection, and no chance to judge distances like a normal person. I decided to keep my chin up and press on with the next two stops. Why not? Being normal is boring, anyway.

I grabbed some documents from the office, dropped the Netflix off at the post office and Alicia and I went to the newly expanded Pitt Stop for lunch. It appears that their prices have been expanded as well, but it's still a better meal than most of the other options in Pittsboro. Our next stop was the Credit Union, where we hoped to refinance our truck. We bought it in late 2003 after Alicia's accident since the car had been totaled and our finances weren't in the best shape. We took the best loan we could get, which was only slightly better than no loan at all. It took about an hour and a half for everything to get sorted out and for the paperwork to be filed. We left after signing a new loan with less than half the interest rate of the old one, and a one month break before we have to start paying. Not bad, and maybe even nice enough to make up for the fact that I'm a freak of nature.

The caller

2005-02-22T00:27:00.000-05:00

The caller

Every night at 12:30am, my telephone rings. When I answer it, no one is there. If I hang up, it rings again. This has been going on for months, and I'm sick of it. To add to the mystery, each night after I *69 to see who the mysterious caller is, I get a different number in my local exchange. Tonight it was a residence on Silk Hope/Gum Springs road. A couple of weeks ago I got several different numbers from Big Hole Road. The Big Hole is a serious source of local legend and that weirded me out a bit.

Now, though, I'm no longer excited, surprised or concerned when the phone rings at 12:30am. No, I'm not worried that there is a robber at the nearest telco switch, pinging my line to see if anyone is awake. I'm not frightened that zeta reticulans are calling to invite me to tea. No, now I'm just peeved. I intend to do something about it, just as soon as I can get a living, breathing human being from the local telco on the phone. Of course, my local telco is Sprint, so it may be more likely that the reticulans invite me to tea.

Tilling my own grave

2005-02-22T00:02:00.000-05:00

Tilling my own grave to keep me level

My ears seem to be doing a bit better. Tomorrow morning my eyes will be sucking. I really, really hate getting my eyes dilated at the eye doctor. I hate eye drops. I hate things getting anywhere near my eyes. I hate lots of things, I guess. The good news is that I'm taking a sick day tomorrow so that I don't have to spend seven or eight hours in front of a monitor after I have those godawful eyedrops put in my eyes. That's what I did last time, and it wasn't a very pleasant experience.

Today was pretty eventful at work. Some suspicious login attempts were discovered in logfiles on a number of machines. Our hysteria became somewhat muted when it was pointed out to us that the logins were coming from our new network monitoring solution that is currently in testing. Oops!

Aside from that, there were the usual assorted network management jobs, database operations, file manipulations, hardware tests and customer support tasks. Good times! With all the things coming at me from various directions, however, I wasn't able to make any progress on a large project, the deadline for which is looming.

Deafness

2005-02-20T21:46:00.000-05:00

Can't hear a damned thing

I've always had a little trouble hearing, especially out of my right ear. As the weekend passed by, however, my hearing got progressively worse. I'm not quite sure what's going on, but I really don't like it. I think it may be a combination of my allergies, a cavity and some random virus. Ok, I'm just speculating. Who knows what the heck it is! I'll enlist a doctor for a little help figuring it out if it doesn't start turning around tomorrow. I'm taking a sick day on Tuesday so I can get my eyes examined. I really need some new glasses. It's been two and a half years since I got these, and they're in rather poor shape. In fact, if they weren't made with flexon, I probably would have had to replace them sooner. I may be able to get new lenses and forgo the new frames for another year or two. I'm definitely getting some prescription sunglasses this time around, though. Maybe that will motivate me to spend more time outdoors. Back to my ears... I hope they get better quickly. I've never been able to hear well, but being mostly unable to hear at all is scary.

After proofreading: this entry is hopelessly disjointed. I don't really feel like editing it to death though, so it'll have to do.

Free stuff

2005-02-19T13:00:00.000-05:00

Free stuff

Last week, UPS delivered small package to my house. It was in a brown carton with a nondescript label. Inside, I found an onyx Game Boy Advance SP and a letter thanking me for my participation in a contest I entered several months before. I bought myself a copy of the NES Classic, Legend of Zelda, and planned to enjoy it immensely. That is, until Emma commandeered it. Now she already has a small collection of GBA games, and I have nothing. I decided I was going to do something about it.

I don't have much faith in my ability to win another game system so quickly after this one showed up, so I figured I'd try something new. I've been following the "Free iPod" craze for several months now. To get a free iPod, notebook computer, flat screen or whatever, one signs up for an offer then gets several other people to sign up using their referral link. After the required number of offers have been completed, the free item is shipped. I've been getting the majority of my information from Gratis Offers Guide and the GOG forums. Today I took the plunge and joined a conga line there to see about getting a free Sony PSP. In this sense, a conga is where someone makes a post with thier referral link, other people sign up under that link, and as the required number of offers are completed, the referral link is updated to reflect the first person in the conga. It works out rather nicely, and although the people that sign up later tend to get the short end of the stick, I'm only nine or ten spots from the top on this very new list. With that in mind, I think I might actually score some completed offers out of it. I've got a few weeks though, since the PSP won't be available in the USA till mid-March.

My referral link, if anyone is so inclined, is http://www.FreePSPs.com/?r=15373817

Site notes

2005-02-19T12:36:00.000-05:00

Site Notes

I've been fooling around with the template a bit. Those of you who visit this site in Firefox know that the layout is hopelessly fubared in that browser, which is a bit of a disappointment. I have no CSS skills whatsoever, which is the basis for this template that the lovely Jenny selected. I have toyed with the locations of the elements a bit and changed the alignment of some of their contents a bit. That went fairly well, so I'll probably try to do some bigger changes to see how Firefox behaves. I've also added a little something from Google on the table to the left, mainly because I wanted to see how their program worked. Certainly not because I have any illusions that people visit my site, much less that anyone is willing to click any links on it! I'll keep tweaking it, though. Perhaps if it behaves better under Firefox, people would be more likely to read it!

2005-02-03T10:06:00.000-05:00

Out of the "wtf" file

There's this kid named Jesse McCartney who is currently burning up the pop charts with an obnoxious song about a girl he's falling for. The song really disturbs me, but it's not the start-stop rhythm, lack of a melody or other late Madonna-esque-ness. No, it's not that. It's the lyrics. This is a portion of the chorus: "You're the one I wanna chase / You're the one I wanna hold / I wont let another minute go to waste / I want you and your beautiful soul"

What the heck? Who does this guy think he is, Satan? Dude! Leave her soul alone, dammit, that's just disturbing.

2005-01-25T10:20:00.000-05:00

An accurate look at my brain

The term "meme" has been greatly overused-- and in many cases, misused-- in recent years, but I can't think of another way to refer to this little quiz widget that I just used. I found it on a friend's LiveJournal page, and it seems to describe the inner workings of my brain rather well. This also ties in nicely with my Jung-Meyers-Briggs personality type, ENFP.

Your Brain Usage Profile:
Auditory : 31% Visual : 68% Left : 38% Right : 61%

Donnie, you possess an interesting balance of hemispheric and sensory characteristics, with a slight right-brain dominance and a slight preference for visual processing.
Since neither of these is completely centered, you lack the indecision and second-guessing associated with other patterns. You have a distinct preference for creativity and intuition with seemingly sufficient verbal skills to be able to translate in any meaningful way to yourself and others.
You tend to see things in "wholes" without surrendering the ability to attend to details. You can give them sufficient notice to be able to utitlize and incorporate them as part of an overall pattern.
In the same way, while you are active and process information simultaneously, you demonstrate a capacity for sequencing as well as reflection which allows for some "inner dialogue."
All in all, you are likely to be quite content with yourself and your style although at times it will not necessarily be appreciated by others. You have sufficient confidence to not second-guess yourself, but rather to use your critical faculties in a way that enhances, rather than limits, your creativity.
You can learn in either mode although far more efficiently within the visual mode. It is likely that in listening to conversations or lecture materials you simultaneously translate into pictures which enhance and elaborate on the meaning.
It is most likely that you will gravitate towards those endeavors which are predominantly visual but include some logic or structuring. You may either work particularly hard at cultivating your auditory skills or risk "missing out" on being able to efficiently process what you learn. Your own intuitive skills will at times interfere with your capacity to listen to others, which is something else you may need to take into account.

2005-01-05T11:53:00.000-05:00

The Year In Review

2004 was an unusual year for me. This is a look at the highlights-- and low points-- in my life.

My parents moved out of the area. Dad hadn't really been around since the end of 2003 because he was starting a new job in Wilmington and overseeing the construction of their new house. The whole event was drawn out, pretty stressful and opened up a big void in my life. I don't expect anyone to tailor major changes in their life around me, but it seemed like an incredible personal inconvenience at the exact time I needed my parents the most. Emma was having trouble adjusting to her first year in school, Alicia had been in a serious car accident late in 2003, and work was becoming increasingly stressful. They settled down though, and we grew comfortable with the idea of them in Wilmington. After all, that's only two and a half hours away.

I traveled more in 2004 than any other time I can remember. Alicia and I left the country for the first time, and went farther than we ever have in all four cardinal directions. In April we traveled West to Las Vegas, Nevada for the Fifth Anniversary EverQuest Fan Faire. We were reunited with old friends, met new ones and had all sorts of adventures, some of which can be found in the archives of this very blog. It was such a good time that I completely forgot to bring my occasional tobacco habit back home with me. During the stressful winter it became much less occasional and far more habitual, so let's hope it stays there!

We also visited our lovely friend Jenny for her birthday in her hometown of Bay Village, Ohio. Bay is a beautiful little town; a perfectly cut gem in the rusty industrial wasteland of the Cleveland area. We went to some of Jenny's favorite places, took a walk on the beach, ate some great food, visited the zoo, wandered around and made fun of things and spent all sorts of time together doing nothing productive at all. It was wonderful, and I can't wait for the opportunity to do it again.

Our last major trip in 2004 was something we had literally talked about for years. We went on our first cruise on Carnival's Imagination, and are already in the early stages of planning another. We had originally planned to travel a Western Caribbean itinerary on the Carnival Inspiration out of Tampa, but we ended up on a different route out of Miami with what appeared to be more attractive ports. Unfortunately, the busy hurricane season had other plans in mind and our stop at Grand Cayman became a jaunt to Nassau, Bahamas. Miami was less fun for us than Nassau, but Jamaica turned out alright. We really enjoyed the parts at sea more than the ports of call, so we'll be more careful about the dates and locations when booking our next one.

Several more things took place in 2004 that I'd love to gloss over, but can't honestly leave out. My company was bought out, I went through a major change in management, job duties and general expectations at my place of work. Numerous health problems led to Alicia being unable to work regularly. There was also the part where one of my best friends was arrested and charged with murder. I'm not prepared to comment on that at this time, but if the trial ever ends I'll post my thoughts and feelings on what appears to have the makings of a television courtroom drama.

Bad must come with the good, but I'm glad to see the year come to an end. Here's hoping that the new year is more friendly than the last. Cheers!

2004-12-10T09:50:00.000-05:00

2004-12-07T10:13:00.000-05:00

You Know You're From North Carolina When...

You've gotten used to the smell of cow manure on a car trip to Raleigh.

Saying "y'all" isn't just a cute expression; it actually means something.

There are big labrador retrievers in the back of every truck.

You give directions using KFC and Waffle House as landmarks.

You still see Dale Earndheart tributes on cars.

You can't imagine life without Bojangles' sweet tea

Your annual church fundraiser always deals with bbq and potato salad

You have a sunburn from May to October

Your 'heavy winter clothing' consists of some turtleneck sweaters, a fuzzy jacket, and your daddy's boots

Your family has fried chicken once a week

You can tell the difference between cotton fields and tobacco fields while driving

One of your neighbors has a confederate flag hanging on their front porch

Those "damn yankees" are taking over your school/church/workplace/neighborhood...

You've been "properly raised", and yankees love it when they hear you say "ma'am" and "sir"

You get your carbs from biscuits, rolls, pancakes, and grits

You know the difference between a "redneck" and a "hick".

You own at least one surf shop or seafood restaurant shirts.

No matter what those people in ohio say, we are still "first in flight"

The Coca-Cola 600 is as big as the Super Bowl

You prefer Chick-fil-a to KFC

You know pastry is a chicken stew, not a dessert item.

Every time you visit someone you’re offered something to eat and a glass of tea.

Your granddaddy always wore overalls and your grandma always wore an apron.

In summer you have home-grown tomatoes with every meal.

When it rains and the creek rises, everyone gathers to see how high it rose.

You know that "chunk" the ball means to throw it.

You've had a burger "all the way" - chili and slaw on it.

You can recognize a copperhead and your heart drops when you see one.

You have at least one relative that raises collards.

Your folks have taken trips to the mountains to look at leaves.

Your school classes were cancelled because of a hurricane.

You know Krispy Kreme makes the best doughnut.

You have an opinion about UNC. You went there and loved it, or you hate everyone who did.

You know the best BBQ is found in Lexington

You would rather eat at Bojangles's than McDonald's

You have actually uttered the phrase "It's too hot to go to the pool"

You faithfully drink Pepsi or Mt. Dew everyday of your life.

You have your own secret bbq sauce.

You or your neighbors have more hunting dogs than you have family members.

You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from North Carolina.

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2004-10-19T14:00:00.000-04:00

Where the hell are the dancing cats?

We took Emma to see the musical Cats in Raleigh last week. Although Cats doesn't run on Broadway anymore, the touring production is still going strong. We were slightly late, but managed to get seated before the show started. Emma had a great time, and was amazed that there were real people on the stage, singing and dancing in front of her. I wasn't quite as impressed, but Cats is hardly a theatrical masterpiece. It's one hell of a song-and-dance exhibition, and all of the performances were outstanding.

On the way home, Emma informed us that her favorite Cat was Rum Tum Tugger. According to the program, the actor was "John Boy." I thought that was a little curious-- especially since the only John Boy I know is a redneck radio host-- so the next day, I googled for cats "john boy" and came up with this article. After reading it, and another web search, I found my way to his website and sent an email. To my surprise, he wrote back within an hour, and seemed pleased to hear from me. Of course, no one was more pleased than Emma, to hear that her favorite Cat had sent an email for her to read. I printed the message and gave it to her that evening. She read it without any help, then pinned it to her bulletin board. Here it is:

Donnie-

hey! glad u guys liked the show. In Raleigh for the rest of the week
then on to the next city. We love Raleigh and emails like yours really
help when you are on the road for a year. thanks!

Rum Tum Tugger (John Boy)

>Subject: Cats in Raleigh, NC
>Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2004 12:54:41 -0400
>
>Hello,
>
>Are you the same John Boy performing in the touring production of
>Cats? If so, I just wanted you to know that my wife, daughter and I
>greatly enjoyed the show last night, Oct 13. My little girl is six
>years old and last night was her first theater experience. She had
>a blast, and after the show she informed me that Rum Tum Tugger was
>definitely her favorite cat.
>
>Thanks for entertaining us! I hope you and the rest of the cast have
>a great time on tour.

2004-09-27T17:51:00.000-04:00

Still Alive!

Heya folks, I'm still here. I havent written in a while because I'm lazy. Well, that and life has had more than a few interesting surprises for me, few of which I can talk about here. I'll write more in the coming weeks as I'm able to. See you soon!

2004-08-25T10:19:00.000-04:00

The Tractor Update

Sears replaced the lawn tractor, but couldn't manage to get the correct model by the time they had promised to make amends. Rather than creating any further delay, they delivered a better one. Our 16hp tractor was replaced with an 18hp model with a cast iron axle. The $250 upgrade makes the three trips to and from their store much more tolerable.

If you're up for some dry reading, the user manual is available in soft copy. I've been poring over it, getting ready to change the mower belt. Thanks to a rather unfriendly tree root, the original belt didn't last much longer than four hours. That, of course, is another story.

2004-08-24T12:34:00.000-04:00

She's So Special

Jenny fixed my blog for me! It's a good thing too, because I'm helpless with style sheets and all that stuff. The images had become broken and the new Google bloggerbar thingie at the top was encroaching down onto the blog, but she fixed it. I'm so happy :)

2004-08-24T11:15:00.000-04:00

The Pain! The Pain!!*

Alicia has been in a great deal of pain lately. She recovered very nicely from her surgery, but about the same day I wrote the entry about that, she started to experience some pain in her left side. I was pretty convinced it was her appendix. UNC Hospitals' on-call OB-GYN wasn't sure what the problem was, but those symptoms aren't usually associated with the surgery, so yesterday Alicia went to see our doctor. They suspected it was a kidney stone, but urinalysis was inconclusive and her blood test didn't indicate anything interesting happening with her gall bladder or appendix. They did prescribe a large bottle of narcotics, though, and she'll be going back on Wednesday morning for further testing. If that turns up negative, they'll probably send her to the hospital for a more intensive battery of tests.

*My apologies to Herve Villechaize

2004-08-19T12:02:00.000-04:00

Population Control

Alicia had her tubes tied a week ago. The procedure is actually called a "tubal ligation," and there are no knots involved. Instead of tying knots, they put little titanium clips on the fallopian tubes. I thought the concept was really cool, but then the surgeon explained that she wouldn't set off airport metal detectors. My excitement waned quickly.

Some people have expressed confusion with Alicia opting for sterilization. In fact, her doctor called the morning of the surgery and asked her if she wanted to back out. The surgeon requested the call in case someone--such as her husband-- was trying to pressure her into the decision. That's not the case at all, though. Alicia is not interested in having any more children. She suffered numerous complications during and after pregnancy, and we're both pretty sure that Emma is as perfect a kid as the two of us can make, so we are both comfortable with her decision. We have discussed it at length, and this gives her the opportunity to have her wish, and leaves me the choice of having children with someone else if something should happen to her. Kind of morbid, I guess, but it's one of those things you need to think about, like life insurance, cemetary plots and a will.

2004-08-05T11:14:00.000-04:00

The Tractor

Our self propelled lawn mower became a push mower two summers ago. The wimpy front wheel drive system just couldn't handle the terrain, and the mower itself began to falter last Fall. This spring we breathed a bit of life back into it. After a few attempts to get it back in proper working order, the thing finally gave up the ghost. Our weed eater also hadn't worked for nearly four years, not since a friend from New York came to visit and volunteered to do some yardwork. I'm not really sure what happened, but I think he put gas in without mixing in any oil, and the motor siezed. We've been borrowing yard tools for a long time, and more often than not just ignoring the yard work altogether.

With our dearth of working lawn equipment, and nature encroaching, we prepared to outfit ourselves and reclaim our house from the wilderness once more. My very tactful brother-in-law informed us that he would come help us with some tasks around the house just as soon as we made it "look like white people live there," so getting the outside of the house tamed had become a priority.

Over the past month Alicia and I went to Lowe's, Wal-Mart and Sears to compare their lawn mower offerings. After some discussion, we opted to go with a riding lawn tractor. Alicia and Emma went to Sears on Thursday and bought a 16hp Craftsman riding mower. It was the last one they had, and we were somewhat dubious about this, but Tuesday is the only day they deliver in our area, so I told her to go for it when she called asking if she should get it.

Things started to go wrong right away. They told us the driver would call Monday night and schedule a delivery time during Tuesday. We never got a call. Alicia heard from him midday Tuesday, and he delivered the goods just before time to pick me up. On the way home we bought and filled a new gas can, then headed home to fill up the mower.

With gas in the tank and the startup checklist followed, Alicia tried to turn the mower over.

Click

Nothing. We tried a few things, including charging the battery with our truck, and jumping from our truck. No dice. I called Craftsman and they suggested it was a wiring fault or a bad fuse. Alicia called Sears and suggested that they take it away. They asked her to drive out to their store (35 miles away!) and pick up a new battery. We went there immediately, which caused us to be late for Alicia's dad's birthday dinner. Both of us were in pretty sour moods, and when we arrived at home in the dark at half past ten, I quietly dropped the new battery in and Alicia climbed on and turned the key.

Keh-heh-heh-heh-sputsput-rumble-rumble-vooooom!

We have liftoff! She wheeled around in the yard for a time, changing gears and getting a feel for the mower. She moved to engage the attachment clutch and try to mow a little bit, and it stalled. Alicia cranks again and engages the mower. Stall. She tries to do things in a different order. Same thing. With a sigh of resignation she stepped inside, took a shower and we agreed to call Sears tomorrow and give them hell.

Not long after taking me to work, the manager of the lawn and garden department at Sears called asking if everything was working. Alicia explained the new problem, and the manager was quick to let us know that she was going to have a replacement delivered on Saturday. We were hoping to go out of town this weekend to visit my parents, but we need that tractor as soon as possible so we can get the yawn in order before Alicia's surgery. That, being a completely different story, is the subject of my next entry.

2004-08-02T15:06:00.000-04:00

The Job

My company was bought out, or rather my company's owner was bought out. Now we are the American subsidiary of a Canadian subsidiary of a monstrous American corporation. Sounds bad, eh? It certainly could be. This event has been the single biggest contributor to my stress level ever. I think we'll make it through alright, but there are lots of unanswered questions and some serious changes on the horizon. I handle change ok, but the overall atmosphere at the workplace was rather grim for a while. Today things have seemed better, overall. It's the first day of a new month, we're still in business and we-- the employees and more importantly, the company-- are still making money. What else is there to do but keep our heads up and do our work? Besides keeping the resume up to date, that is.

2004-08-02T14:46:00.000-04:00

The Tattoo

Alicia has been wanting a tattoo for a long time. I have been wanting her to not get a tattoo for just as long. I did not want her to be in pain, I did not want her to do something she might regret later, and I did not want her to make a permanent change to her body that both of us have to live with for the rest of our lives. This year, as a twenty-fifth birthday present to herself, she decided to go through with it. She had been interested in an intricate triangular celtic knot for a long time, but was informed by Glenn, her artist, that he wouldn't be able to do the design she wanted unless it was stretched across her entire back. She picked another, simpler triangular design from his flash (tattoo industry speak for stock art) and came home with a new tattoo last Wednesday.

Now that she's had it done, I've warmed to it a bit. I was more than a little unhappy to be the one that had to clean and moisturize it for her for the first few days, since it's located on her upper back at the base of her neck, but aside from that I suppose it isn't so bad. Here's a look:

2004-08-02T11:42:00.000-04:00

Do Over?

Back in elementary school, things were so easy. If we didn't like the way things turned out, we could declare "Do over!" and give it another shot. I wish I could have a Do Over for the past month or so. The only bright points were Alicia and Jenny's birthdays. The rest of the time, the events of recent weeks have seemed a lot like a horrific accident unfolding in slow motion. I can't look away and I'm helpless to change the course. I keep telling myself that if I hang in there a bit longer, everything will be ok. I'm getting awfully tired of hearing myself talk, though.

2004-06-14T17:08:00.000-04:00

Vegas Recollections, part 2

We trudged back to the Hilton just before noon Friday morning after managing to sleep a bit later than the previous day. It was raining, and we couldn't get a cab, so we were more than a bit damp when we arrived at the hotel. I couldn't participate in the Live Quest since I wasn't attending the convention as a player, so I sat back and watched and caught up with a few friends in a similar situation. I met the managers of SOE's international customer service offices and chatted with Anna and Jenny-- Nif, that is, not Jennyjenny or Jen or Fer.

A bit later Andy, Alicia and I met up with John and Rob for a late lunch at the Paradise Cafe. Rob is an interesting guy. He also looks exactly like his EverQuest character. John is pretty cool too, and looks way younger than he is. He is nearly fifteen years my senior and looks like an undergrad. After our dinner engagement his wife was arriving. Since she had a different arrival day he took advantage of the situation by arranging to have a limo pick her up at the airport. There were a couple of other folks there, who I don't know well enough to be comfortable mentioning. Lunch was nice, although we had hoped to eat at the Mexican restaurant at the Hilton. The wait was well over an hour there, though, so we opted to go with the faster service at the Paradise.

Before long, Alicia and I were headed back to the Mardi Gras to get ready for our invite-only dinner-- again, walking! The line at the taxi stand was incredibly long. Our feet were already well blistered, and Alicia informed me that there was no way she was walking back to the Hilton. We got cleaned up and changed into our nice clothes and ended up walking back to the Hilton. At this point, we realized that cabs simply did not come to the Mardi Gras; not even when you called them forty-five minutes prior. We strolled back in the drizzle and arrived half an hour late for our dinner. We didn't miss out on the chance to eat, or the chance to chat with folks, but we did feel really strange walking in wearing damp, slightly rumpled clothes with wet shoes. Alicia, who was wearing a brand new pair of heels, was more than a little unhappy about it. Door prizes were awarded, none of which I won, but a friend got a nice wireless keyboard and mouse. There was an hour or so of discussion and Q&A, and then we headed to the main convention floor to meet with our friends and prepare to hit The Beach. It was there that we realized we had forgotten our wristbands to get into The Beach, the nightclub where SOE, in their infinite wisdom, offered several hours of live music and open bar for Fan Faire attendees. Andy graciously offered to pick them up back at the room and bring them to us at the club, and after the reception we met up outside and made our way in.

Once inside, all sorts of interesting things happened. One of the reasons I had procrastinated so long in writing this particular entry is because I have some massive holes in my memory. I usually remember everything that happens when I drink, but with the open bar and the encouragement of my evil friends, I drank a ridiculous amount of alcohol. In fact, after the thirty-one assorted bottles, cups, shooters and shots I put away, I'm amazed that I know my own name. That's right, thirty-one. Most of the folks in the area were keeping count, so I didn't really have to, but the number certainly stands out in my mind. It's one of the few things that I do remember! There were other things: the punch I threw, the stool I broke, the spokesmodel I accidentally (really!) fondled, Andy using my player badge to meet women, the girl with the remote control, the girl that bit my button off, the two block cab ride and the too-big tip for the too-little trip.

When we got back to the room, we started to get comfortable. Actually, I had other things on my mind than getting comfortable, but Alicia was dead set on sleep. She stopped me and suggested, "Why don't you call your Jennyjenny?" I waited a moment or two to see if the world was rapidly coming to an end, but Alicia was just looking for any excuse she could to get rid of me and get unconscious. I humored her and gave Jenny a call, as promised. We talked for nearly an hour. I gave her a running commentary on how cute Alicia looked curled up on the bed with her feet poking out of the covers. Jenny insisted that I didn't sound drunk, and I insisted that she was terribly sweet but thoroughly insane. My consciousness was waning and Andy should have been arriving at any time, so I got off the phone in a hurry. I called her back two minutes later because I forgot to tell her something. She admitted then that I did sound a little drunk. I asked her to call me the next night, and she promised she would. I don't recall hitting the pillow or hearing Andy arrive, but only three hours passed before I woke.

I expected to wake to a twisting stomach and a pulsing skull. Instead, the only pounding was coming from the door. I stumbled out of bed and answered it. Outside was a wide awake, slightly damp, bright eyed Ashley wearing a towel. She bubbled that she was ready to be awake, and we should all be awake too. I was in no position to disagree, there's no real chance of going back to sleep anytime soon after that wakeup call. Andy woke up too; in fact he might have actually opened the door. It's a little fuzzy! Ashley went back to her room to get some clothes on, and Andy and I debated about what to do. We decided to try out the complimentary continental breakfast, and then maybe take a cab to the strip. It was only seven in the morning, but Vegas never sleeps, right?

The continental breakfast was horrible. We stepped outside to catch a ride to the strip, and then remembered that cabs didn't come to the Mardi Gras Inn for whatever reason. It was drizzling softly, but that didn't stop us from deciding to walk "a couple of blocks" to Terrible's. Terrible's is actually something more like three quarters of a mile from the Mardi Gras, but our distance estimation skills were somewhat enhanced by the previous night's imbibing. We began our trek and the bottom fell out about halfway there. We were certain it was just another block, but fifteen minutes more and a complete, bone soaking drenching later we entered the casino. Among the amazing things we found at this haven for Vegas locals was a McDonalds actually in the casino. There were no artificially inflated prices and no glitzy gimmicks in this place. They also had a huge bingo parlor, but it hadn't yet opened for the day.

After exploring Terrible's, we hopped in a cab and made for the strip. We weren't really sure where to go, so we decided to start out at the Luxor. Several people had told me it was the most interesting of the Vegas casinos, so we headed there. Our cabbie suggested we go to the Excalibur first, then the Luxor, then the Mandalay Bay. We did as she recommended, and checked out the Excalibur. It's pretty neat, but it boiled down to being a glammed-up and way overpriced Chuck E. Cheese/Medieval Times hybrid. We couldn't figure out how to get on the tram to shuttle between hotels, so we walked again in the rain to the Luxor. We staggered around, took pictures of the cavernous Egyptian interior, and then photographed each other in ridiculous poses with the semi-nude bronze statues outside the entrance to Club Ra. As we staggered back out the door at nearly eleven in the morning to make our way to the Mandalay Bay, Andy looked at me and said, "Dude. Do you realize it's eleven a.m. in Las Vegas and we've been awake for four hours?"

I said, "Yes, I do... and I hurt!" Without any further deliberations, we hopped into the line at the taxi stand to make the trip back to the Mardi Gras. We stumbled in and were greeted by a slightly amused Alicia, who had woken up not long before. Once again, I was asleep before I hit the pillow.

I barely remember the trip back to the Hilton, but I do recall that we loaded up all of the leftover libations from the Thursday night Pajama Party and actually managed to get a cab to take us to the Hilton. It's a good thing, too: the suitcase weighed well over one hundred pounds. I checked into my room at the automated check-in station at the entrance to the casino, part thanking myself that I didn't have to deal with a human being, and part kicking myself because of all the noise radiating at me from the games. It was not long before we were sitting in the bar at the Margarita Grill in the Hilton, and I was nursing a beer while we watched the Final Four game on the television. Andy also had a beer, and Alicia ordered the biggest margarita I have ever seen in my life. She decided she wasn't interested in drinking it after all, so she slid it in front of me and I expressed my dismay in the consumption of tequila. She insisted that I drink it, and like a good husband I did as my wife asked. Looking back, this was probably a mistake. A short eternity passed by before a table became available for us. My burrito was massive. I ate each and every bite, ignoring the protests from my belly. I knew what would become of me if I chose not to eat, so I put the beastly thing away, and a basket or two of nachos, to boot.

Another hour passed and it was time for the banquet dinner, reception and closing remarks. We hadn't intended to spend four hours at the Margarita Grill, so we didn't really get to take advantage of the free food offered to us at the reception. One of my friends won a nice new video card as a door prize, and we watched the costume contest and other interesting things unfold. I caught up with a few more friends, met some new friends and then made my way up to the room to get things ready for the night's party. Most of my friends followed me up to the room right away. There was some drama going on in the background unnoticed by myself, but it came to my attention when Jenny called. She talked to Alicia a bit first, who informed her that one of our friends that was present had a death in the family. Jenny mentioned this to me and I got off the phone pretty quickly so I could look into it. I upset her a little bit by letting her go so quickly, but I think she understood later. I met up with my friend, but he wasn’t interested in talking. Later on we found out that his father had not yet died, but did not have very long. Fortunately, father and son were able to share some time before he passed away.

It took me a little while before I was back in the partying state of mind. I noticed right away that we were short on cups and shot glasses, and had less beer than people wanted, but I did manage to convince a couple of people to go on a beer run. Thanks Charles and Alyce! Even though most of us had gotten completely sauced the night before at the Beach, and there were some other more notable parties happening, we still had good times. I mixed some drinks too heavy and ended up helping their recipients drink them. I stepped away from the booze at that point. My body was beginning to express its unhappiness with my hard drinking and the stress of pulling off two successful room parties within two days. I think the pajama party was a little more fun that the Saturday party, although we had more people at the second one. The most people in the room at one time was right around thirty, and I suspect somewhere between fifty and sixty people attended for some length of time. Hotel security stopped by at around 3am and shut us down. I was actually glad to see them, since my body informed me that it was done with any and all revelry somewhere around midnight. Ryan, Joe, Ashley and a few others were in and out over the course of the next hour as we settled down to sleep. They helped clean up the room a little as I started to doze, then Alicia chased them away and we settled down for a short night’s rest. Check-out was at 11am, just six hours away.

This entry was altogether too long. I'll wrap things up in Part Three, whenever I get around to it.

2004-06-12T01:39:00.000-04:00

Trif

I lost a friend recently. I don't particularly feel like going through all the details, but you can find them here.

Mike Trifaro was never one of my teachers. He taught a number of kids in my class, and in the summer after my Junior year, we played a few board games together. He was a good guy, and he gave far more than he got. I'm sorry to see him gone, especially the way he went.

During my first little tenure in the SCA, I spent a great deal of time with my friend, now Sir Daemon. At the time, Daemon was squired to Duke Anton, and therefore a member of the Moose Lodge. Sir Forgal, the head of the household, was in the Special Forces, and there was a ritual I learned way back then. When a friend, family member or teammate died, they'd drink a shot of tequila. After all, the only thing that tastes worse than death is tequila. I had my first taste of tequila when my friend Andrews dad died. I tend to agree; that is some nasty shit.

Tonight, after attending Trif's memorial servce, Alicia and I each had a shot of tequila. She's had it in mixed drinks before, but she’d never had it straight. After downing her shot, her reaction was much like mine the first time I drank it: "People WANT to drink this?"

I do, but only when I lose someone I love. You were a good man, Trif. We shared little, but it meant a great deal to me. I will consider myself lucky if I see you in the afterlife.

2004-05-28T00:18:00.000-04:00

I should have known...

I should have known something was wrong when it started snowing. In May. In North Carolina.

Something strange was happening in the refrigerator. Water began pooling beneath the crisper drawers. Condensation beaded on the milk bottle. The lettuce was limp, and then there was the snow in the freezer. This was no ordinary frost, mind you. A nor'easter had arrived inside my icebox, and the fury was intense. Glittering, many-faceted crystals of ice swirled in a seasonal dance, oblivious to the oppressive heat that assaulted everything around this isolated wintry haven.

I had not really given much thought to the atypical behavior within the appliance. Strange things happen on a regular basis in this house, from the trio of ghosts on the front porch to the light bulbs that burn out prematurely when I find myself in a foul mood. I've gone through all too many light bulbs as of late, but like the ski resort that recently opened in my frigidaire, I simply chalk it up to yet another odd facet of my life. I suppose I should have been a bit more inquisitive, after all it is unusual when Winter and Summer arrive at the same time, particularly in the same appliance. Now I'm faced with a refrigerator full of bad food, a frosty freezer and a hefty repair bill. It seems that the self-defrosting feature of the freezer had been working overtime and a combination of dust, dirt, pollen, smoke and anything else that might have been lurking in my air clogged up a tiny tube within the belly of the beast that must be flushed out.

At least we have an excuse to clean a bit.

2004-05-21T11:07:00.000-04:00

The Tale of Precious

Two Sundays ago a dog appeared at our doorstep. This is not unusual, since we live in the country and have two and a half dogs of our own. One showed up a couple of months ago who decided to stick around. We called the shelter and informed them, and asked some folks nearby, but he didn't really seem to belong anywhere, so on our porch he's stayed since around February. He's a malamute and late last month he shed his winter coat. That's why he only counts as half a dog-- he's much smaller than he used to be. That fellow will be moving in with my friend Andrew before long, but I digress; back to the vagrant. The one that showed up that Sunday was different. She was no male chasing the lingering scent of a bitch recently in season. This was a female pit bull, barely out of adolescence wearing a too-big collar and covered in mud. Rain was sheeting down and she was pressed against the back door, eyeing me hopefully as she tried to avoid the brunt of the deluge.

We were not about to let this dripping, dirty dog into our house, and I mentioned that she was probably out exploring and got lost looking for shelter when the storm rolled in. I tried to avoid making further eye contact with her, and knew that she would leave sooner or later. A couple of hours later, Alicia and I had to pick our daughter up at my sister's house. The rain had not slowed, but our visitor was not in sight either. We jumped into the truck and made our way down the driveway and started to pull out onto the highway; we live just off US 501 North. As Alicia glanced left she saw the dripping, dirty dog dart across the road, and into the other lane. Alicia slowed and pulled off the road to make sure that the girl stayed on that side of the road. She did not.

Two cars skidded and swerved as the confused animal turned twice in the middle of the southbound lane. Another car saw her and locked their brakes, rocking back and forth as they hydroplaned toward her. She recognized the danger and attempted to leap out of the way. The car struck her left haunch and accelerated, speeding away from the scene as the dog sailed through the air and landed with a heartwrenching squeal in my driveway. We burst out our car doors and ran, looking for her. A Lexus SUV pulled over as well, and the driver and passenger of that vehicle joined the search; calling out and wandering in the rain. I charged up the driveway, calling out for her. On a hunch I ran to the porch, hoping she would be at the door. She wasn't pressed it, but as I stood there I heard whimpering. In the overgrown bushes in front of the porch, she was huddled, whimpering and shivering.

The girl was obviously going into shock, so with no time to waste I circled the porch, crawled to her and gingerly extracted her. Completely drenched and covered in muck, I carried her down the driveway, stumbling all the while because I could not see for all the rain running down my glasses.

I emerged from beneath the tree covered canopy of my driveway and our small search party clustered together at the edge of the road to cross so we could get the dog to a vehicle and an emergency vet. They already had a dog in their car and it didn't get along with other animals, so Alicia and I took her to the Apex Animal Emergency Clinic. They kept her overnight and patched her up. She was scraped and bruised, but had no broken bones or internal bleeding. She came home with us the next day, much to the dismay of the other dogs, Molly and Lexi.

We called her Precious, and she loved me. She would not leave my side. I am still not sure if that was due to the other dogs threatening her, or if she felt like she had to be with me since I rescued her. She crawled into my bed at night and slept pressed against my hip. She sat next to me on the couch, or at my feet when I did not want her on the furniture. She attempted to make peace with Molly by bringing her stuffed animals and other gifts. She stopped limping after a week. She disappeared the day she could walk normally again.

Precious didn't stay long, and I have a strong feeling that she returned to where she belongs. While she was here, she was loving, affectionate, tried her best to be an obediant dog and to repay all the kindness that we had given to her. It saddens me that she didn't stay, but I know in my heart that she could not have remained. After all, when I first saw her, I knew that she would leave sooner or later. Was it worth the $244 veterinary bill for one Precious week? If it happened again, I wouldn't do anything differently.

2004-05-20T16:02:00.000-04:00

Cute cat. What's its name?

I've been working with a customer at a prominent national nuclear research facility for the past few days. I really despise our conversations because he makes me feel like a complete idiot. I guess if it takes a nuclear physicist to make me feel dumb I'm doing alright.

A little while ago a would-be customer was asking about some products, but they simply weren't going to fit in her application. I told her so, and as we were wrapping up the conversation, she said this to me: "I appreciate your honesty. And... I don't think we're ever going to talk again, so I have to tell you: I think you have a beautiful voice," then, hurriedly, "Thank you for talking with me." click

2004-05-18T11:00:00.000-04:00

Thirteen thoughts to ponder today...

13. Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway...

12. Life is sexually transmitted..

11. Health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die....

10. Men have two emotions: Hungry and Horny. If you see him without an erection make him a sandwich...

9. Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach a person to use the Internet and they won't bother you for weeks.

8. Some people are like Slinkies . . . not really good for anything, but you still can't help but smile when you see one tumble down the stairs....

7. Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday lying in hospitals dying of nothing...

6. Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again..

5. All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism...

4. Why does a slight tax increase cost you two hundred dollars and a substantial tax cut saves you thirty cents?

3. In the 60's people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal...

2. Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first...

AND THE # 1 THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
You read about all these Terrorists. Most of them came here legally, but they hung around on these expired visas, some for as long as 10-15 years. Now, compare that to Blockbuster; you are two days late with a video and those people are all over you. I think we should put Blockbuster in charge of immigration & Homeland Security...

I didnt write these, but I thought they were worth sharing. If anyone knows the author, please comment so I can edit for credit. Thanks!

2004-05-10T15:21:00.000-04:00

Catching up

I'm alive, although the past week has pushed me to a few limits. Forthcoming is the Tale of Precious, and the long awaited second half of my Vegas Recollections, as vague as they might be. Those last couple of days were more interesting than the first, by far.

In other news, I signed up for a livejournal account so I can comment on my friends posts there. I would crosspost, but I'm really not fond of LJ. I think I will update my journal there with the first sentence or two of my posts here with a link. Maybe that will work. If any readers (I know I have at least two... hi treespring! Hi Jenny!) manage multiple blogs, let me know how you do it. Use the comment link thingie. I like comments.

2004-04-14T14:55:00.000-04:00

Hockey!

There's something special about this time of year that really gets my blood pumping! It's probably just all the allergens affecting my blood pressure, but I'll pretend like it's because I give a damn about this year's NHL playoff picture. After all, with the upcoming CBA expiration I don't expect to be seeing any hockey next season. I think I'll root for the Nashville Predators. They're not toooo far from here, I hate Detroit (their opponent in the first round of the playoffs) and my Canes didn't make the playoffs, so why not?

Some friends were talking about sports on a message board I frequent, and someone mentioned that hockey sucked to watch on tv. I took it upon myself to enlighten him. After all, hockey only sucks if you don't know the rules or if have crappy reception-- I don't even like sports and I love hockey! I suggested they enjoy some playoff hockey, but first commit the following to memory:

This should help you "get" hockey.

There are three main rules in hockey that cause a stoppage in play.

1. The puck sent the length of the rink (to delay play) is "icing."

2. The puck must move into the zone before the attacking player or it is "offside."

3. There are three lines in the middle, the centerline, and the bluelines. This area is the neutral zone. The puck cannot be passed more than half the length of the neutral zone-- a pass that crosses two of those lines is an offside, or a "two line pass."

After that, the other stuff just sort of makes sense. If a player does something bad (and gets caught) they get penalized. Penalties give the other team a man advantage-- the power play. Goalies play their position the entire game. The other positions (three forward, two defense) are changed on the fly; they switch in and out while the puck is in play.

If you lose sight of the puck, look for the guy that has two hands on his stick. He's got it.

2004-04-14T11:53:00.000-04:00

Eerily Accurate

I think horoscopes are fun to read. I usually look at them the night of, rather than the morning of, so I can see if any of it applied to my day. Last night, I was looking at my astrology.com horoscope for the day and saw what might be the most accurate horoscope I've ever had:

Pisces - April 13, 2004.
Distraction is your middle name. Maybe you're the one causing all the disturbance. Maybe your attention is all over the map, lured every which way by rogue stimuli and passing whims. Admit that you're built for fun right now, and you'll feel much better. There's nothing in store for you but good times if you can get out of your responsibilities this easily. Maybe you're a slacker, but that doesn't mean you're without a clue. Anyone who talks to you will surely recognize your wisdom. Anyone who passes you by is missing out on the experience of a lifetime.

Romance

You need to reach out and tend to folks outside the confines of your primary relationship.

Technical

Budgeting isn't your strong suit. You'll gladly help someone else spend his or her available funds down to the last dollar. The good news is that you know what things are worth. You have a valuable eye and a golden touch.

That's me, no?

2004-04-13T18:48:00.000-04:00

The Bicycle Whore

People say Las Vegas is a different kind of city. I'll give them that. With the nickname Sin City, it's no wonder I had a little experience like this. I was walking alone from the Hilton after escaping the Karaoke disaster. The line at the taxi stand was literally out of sight, so I opted to hoof it. I was on my way back for my wife's pajama party and picking my way through the edge of a construction site that had encroached on the road.

Brrrring-brrrrrrring! The sound of a bicycle bell rang out behind me. I glanced over my right shoulder and eased over a bit to the left. A dark-haired girl on a bike rolled up next to me and I started to walk a bit faster. She paced herself at my walking speed and managed to stay upright with only a little wobbliness. "Hey-ey" she says, with a touch of song in her voice.

"Hello, hello," I said politely, although I probably should have ignored her.

"What are you up to?" she inquired.

I replied, "Just headed back to my hotel for the night."

She visibly perked at this. "Oh yeah? Wanna have a good time?"

"My wife is there, and I don't think we're going to need any help having a good time," I said, as I steeled myself for another Atlanta incident (Sorry, that story has to be told in person).

"I bet we could all have a really good time together..." she countered.

"Yeah, but I don’t think our girlfriend would like that." I said, ending the discussion.

"Touche!" she exclaimed, "You have yourself a good time, baby. I'm gonna find some fun of my own!"

She turned left and I watched for a moment as she rode out of site; bell ringing, fishnet clad legs and high heel tennis shoes pedaling in search of another perspective john.

Has this sort of thing happened to anyone else? Is it safe for me to say "Only in Vegas?" or is this another one of those "Only Donnie..." stories?

2004-04-09T17:07:00.000-04:00

The Friday Five

Just taking a little break from the Vegas recap for The Friday Five!

1. What do you do for a living?

I wear about six different hats at a computer distributor that specializes in industrialized, embedded PCs.

2. What do you like most about your job?

I really enjoy putting my problem solving skills to the test.

3. What do you like least about your job?

Spending hours and hours on the phone with people that either don't plan to buy anything, or are too freaking stupid to figure out something rediculously simple on their own.

4. When you have a bad day at work it's usually because _____...

When I get two or three of those phone calls above, or when I get slammed with multiple tasks from multiple aspects of my job.

5. What other career(s) are you interested in?

Teaching has always fascinated me, but I don't think I have the patience. I would love to write fiction! I think I need to wait a few years and experience a little more life before I try to actually sell any fiction, though.

2004-04-07T02:01:00.000-04:00

Vegas Journal- Part 1

It looked like we weren't going to make it. Emma wasn't quite ready to go. Alicia had to enter and stamp another seventy bills. I was certain I was forgetting something. A small engine aircraft made an emergency landing on Airport Road, the primary means of entering and exiting Raleigh Durham International Airport. We started out the door at quarter till five. I realized I was missing the itinerary-- I had left it printed out on my desk at the office. Was the flight at seven o'clock sharp, or half past? In which remote lot should we park? What terminal were we supposed to use? Which gate? What was the baggage limitation? Arrgh! We stopped at Alicia's parents' place on the way out so I could print a copy of the itinerary on their printer. My notebook didnt cooperate with their network or their printer. Five minutes after five. Time to go to my office! We made the best possible time to Pittsboro and grabbed the itinerary. My coworkers were shocked, I had left at about 3pm so I would be able to load up and beat rush hour traffic on I-40. I said "No time to explain, or I'll miss my flight!" snagged my itinerary and jumped in the car.

The departure was at seven-forty. We had time, but not much time. Our next stop was not East to Raleigh, but back North to Chapel Hill to drop off Emma with my mother-in-law, Ginger. Alicia skillfully selected back roads through Chatham and Durham county which dropped us off practically across the street from Ginger's office. We had planned to stop to get a bite to eat on the way, but time was growing short. Less than two hours left and we were still twenty or more miles and a metric shit-ton of traffic away from the airport. We somehow managed to arrive with forty-five minutes to spare, catch a shuttle bus from the park and ride lot, get our luggage checked and suck down a cheeseburger from the A&W restaurant next to our gate. We hastily boarded when the call was given, and I found myself in the window seat. It wasn't much of a window seat, since we were at the wing, but it wasn't so bad. Alicia was in the middle, then another fellow about my size, with long brown wavy hair in a pony tail, similarly goateed and mustachioed arrived to sit in the aisle seat. He was holding a copy of RA Salvatore's "Exile." I had in my hand a copy of RA Salvatore's "The Crystal Shard." Strange. I asked him where he was headed and he opened his mouth to say something, shut it, and then said "Oh, just a Billiards show. Fun stuff." Uh huh. I'll see you at the EverQuest Fan Faire, Jack. I can't poke too much fun at him, though. When he asked what brought us to Vegas I said, "Oh, we're planning to meet some friends." Hey... we are planning to meet friends! Two thousand, five hundred fellow recovering, budding and of course, current EQ addicts.

Whoa, hold on there Donnie. I thought you didn't play EQ anymore!

Well, I don't really play EQ anymore, get that notion out of your head this instant. I do have other interests related to the game, though, and my many friends that I met there. I was done with the game last summer, and while I did play a bit in the fall after Alicia's accident, it was more for lack of anything to do than a real, serious interest in the game. I still care about my friends that I met while playing the game, and my extended family of Crimson Tempest. The main reason I don't play anymore is due to the sheer time requirements in order to get anything done in the game. I'd rather spend time with my family and closest friends. I feel more comfortable playing Star Wars Galaxies because you can play for a short period of time and still have fun. EverQuest 2 looks to be that way, but I'm still undecided about playing that one. I'll check out the EQ2 preview tomorrow during the Fan Faire and see what the latest version of that particular game is looking like. Now, back to the story...

Somehow the flight was only four hours and twenty-three minutes long. I was expecting to be in the air for five or more hours, and so did our flight itinerary. Evidently we had some favorable winds. When we disembarked, the first thing we saw were slot machines. Tons of shiny, sparkly, happy slot machines and mindless zombies twitching slightly as they shoved every bit of available currency into the machines. Fun! We decided to skip this, find the nearest bathrooms and hit the baggage claim. As I strolled up to the luggage carousel, our suitcase slid onto the conveyer. I scooped it up and we made for the cab concourse. We found Anna, Craig, Pat and her husband out there and made plans to meet up outside Quarks at the Star Trek Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton.

We checked into our room at the Mardi Gras Inn after the confused clerk tried to figure out how to assign a room. I thought he was new, but it turns out he was just a fecking idiot. I ran into him again this morning, we'll talk about that a bit later. We lugged out bags to the room and spent the next half hour unloading and freshening up. Quarks had closed by the time we arrived, but all our friends were still inside. We explored the Hilton a bit and pissed away ten bucks in some nickel slots, ate a bite at the twenty-four hour cafe at the Hilton, visited a jewelry store with some really gorgeous goods, poked around in a fashion boutique, got mauled by a kilted barbarian, met up with Anna and Eric and headed to Tom's room for some drinks. Captain Morgan, Grey Goose and a two liter bottle of coke went nicely with the company of Anna, Eric, Tom, Lubey, Mish and a couple of other folks that I didn't know beforehand. Alicia decided to call Jenny, and they spoke, then the phone was passed to everyone in the room. After our cell made a circuit of the room, I snagged the phone and chatted with her for a good ten minutes, huddled in the corner with my hand over my other ear so I could hear her over the din of three different conversations happening at once. I would have talked longer, but it was noisy and my ear was hurting really badly so I gave her my love and passed the phone to Alicia to say goodnight. We left shortly afterward and caught a cab back to the Gras and shared a little snuggletime since our pal Andy was arriving Thursday to hang out with us for the weekend.

Interlude: About my ear
Warning: disgusting health stuff here. You might want to skip this paragraph!

If you read my old diaryland journal, or know me pretty well, you have probably heard about my post-Pennsic ear infection and the ruptured eardrum. My ears are pretty sensitive after tons of ear infections as a child. I only hear well out of my left ear. Things sound sort of washed out in my right ear and I can't hear any midrange tones in it. Major changes in pressure play havoc with my inner ear, and this time was no different. Things were a little more different than normal though, because I've had an earache. When I got off the jet Wednesday night, I could not hear clearly. In fact, it was pretty painful. I had a small clue what was happening, so Thursday morning I bought a bottle of hydrogen peroxide from the hotel gift shop and used it to irrigate my ear a few dozen times. After an hour or so, and the spectacularly horrifying experience of washing out something that clearly couldn't have fit in there, I could just about hear normally again. Of course, later that night at the Karaoke party, I was rather wishing my hearing was still gone.

Thursday

I stumbled out of bed and fell into my clothes at seven in the morning after Armando called waking Alicia. I was hoping to discover the hotel's continental breakfast, but I didn't quite have it all together yet. I decided to pay a visit to the cafe instead and eat a real breakfast. Strangely enough, the idiot that couldn't figure out how to assign a room for us last night was my host this morning. His eyes were even more glazed over than the night before and he seated me at a table for ten. Then he seated another guy at a table for ten. The same table for ten! Then another. Not too long afterward, nine people showed up for breakfast and they sent all of us to the bar. Well, all of us but me; I got re-seated at a table for four. Evidently I looked like I needed some serious table space. My silver dollar pancakes and sausages arrived in short order, and I wasn't sent to yet another seat, but I was wondering if they were going to ask me to move to the bar when three folks walked up to the host stand. I tipped the waiter, but I decided it was best to stuff the money in his pocket rather than leave it on the table where Fernando the Wonderfuck host could get to it.

After breakfast, I doctored my ear and woke Alicia. If you skipped the second paragraph before this one, just ignore that line. We planned to relax a bit, but we had tons of people stop by our room and call our cell. We agreed to go to the Sahara Buffet with Johnny, Rich, Jay, Beau, Ashley and Tiffany for lunch and to get party supplies. I headed out with Charles, Alyce and Dan to get liquor, beer, mixers and soft drinks for that night's pajama party, but there was a small misunderstanding between Alicia and I and she didn't know where I had gone. We cruised out to the Henderson Costco and bought copious amounts of libations and I returned to a grumpy wife. Oops. She got over my three hour disappearance and I picked up my badges and the birthday gifts provided by SOE for EQ's fifth anniversary. We called Tabby and passed the phone around to all the folks she knew. Aftarward we deliberated for about an hour on where we were going to eat. I returned to the hotel with Alicia to get the punch mixed, then I walked back to the Hilton for the third time since we arrived to check out karaoke at the pre-party.

Karaoke was pretty bad. I got to watch Ruka and Fanther sing a song each, and a few other performances of note. One guy sang a System of a Down song and absolutely nailed it. Another did Dead or Alive by Bon Jovi and could probably replace Jon a la Ripper Owens if the need ever arose. The rest of the songs were as bad as those were good. I couldn't bear much more, so I strolled back to the Mardi Gras for pajama action. Tiffany and Ashley were just arriving, and some of the guys had already showed up, though none were wearing any pajamas just yet. Beau strolled in wearing my silk pajamas, which arrived directly from Thailand a week before and were actually a size too small. They were a little warm, but he sat in front of the air conditioner and did just fine. I changed clothes in the room because no one seemed to be paying attention, and I just don't really care anyway. The first dozen or so at the party seemed pretty dubious of my "Rescue Ranger Punch" (3L Hawaiian Punch, 500mL Bacardi 151, 250mL pineapple juice) but after I passed a cup for a taste test, the first gallon went quickly. Mike mixed the next few batches and made them a bit stronger, but you could hardly taste the alcohol in any of them, so it was all quite good-- and quite dangerous.

My friend Andy arrived as the taste test was going on. We welcomed him to the room and he jumped into his pajamas upon hearing threats of violence by Ashley. He seemed to get along alright with all of my freaky friends, which is no easy task considering exactly how wonderfully freakish they all are. That, of course, is an overstatement. Most of my folks are perfectly normal, except perhaps Rich. Andy and Alicia had a long talk about the rules of the room, since he was staying with us. He said if we needed privacy, just hand him a dollar and tell him to play in traffic. He'd do the same with us if he found someone special. We're so considerate, no?

Interlude: The Italians

These two italian guys showed up just before midnight at the room next door. One put his hand on my shoulder as I stood on the balcony with some friends and said "Ees paltayuh?"
I said "Yeah, we're having a party. Want to come over and have a drink?
"Ahhh, No-uh, we f-f-f-f-fly ahhh italia ahhh ... sis ay em," which means "We have to get up early to fly back to our god forsaken country at six in the morning."

"I will do my best to ask my friends to keep it down. Sleep well, friends," I said. Then I re-entered the room and informed everyone of the situation.

The party raged on until the wee hours of the morning. The wee hours, of course, are when everyone is so incredibly drunk from rescue ranger punch that they are running around on the terrace shouting "Weeeee," which, in turn, causes angry, sleepy italians to run outside of their room making throat slashing motions and describing in stuttering, slurred and broken english how they are going to kill everyone, or call the cops or something. I wasn't quite sure which. Johnny, better known to some as Gohron, saved the day. As my guests dispersed, he headed off the manager and flashed his badge, explaining that the party was over and the situation was under control. The cowed manager returned to the front desk. Thanks, Johnny!

Alicia, Andy and I roamed around the room removing evidence of the party. We dumped ashtrays (and things that had been used as ashtrays), disposed of cans, bottles, cups and anything else that didn't look like it belonged. Andy stepped outside to dispose of the trash. I thought I had seen a dumpster around the corner, but it was a grease dumpster, and these things simply werent going in there. He wandered down the street in his pajamas until he found an appropriate receptacle, while Alicia and I were snuggling discussing whether we should send him out with a buck to play in the street. He got back before we made up our mind, and we settled into bed to get ready for the next day's Live Quest and the party at the Beach. Alicia cracked a joke about getting another call at seven in the morning tomorrow, and just as we stopped laughing, our phone rang. It was Jenny! We talked for almost an hour, and I still didn't tell her everything I wanted to say. She let me know she was still planning to write every day and she missed us lots and lots. Before long, it was time to go. Alicia was very tired and I had been keeping Andy awake too. I promised Jenny I would call her the next day, and asked her to look for us at the Beach webcam. I gave her my love and reluctantly got off the phone. I plugged it back in and kissed Alicia good night. I was asleep the moment I hit the pillow, the happiest I had been since arriving in Sin City.

2004-03-22T22:33:00.000-05:00

I prefer to be called a "geek"

47.61904761904762% of me is a huge nerd! How about you?

More later. Sleep now.

2004-03-16T18:01:00.000-05:00

Lazy afternoon

I had a rough night last night, and a busy day today at work, so I'm not feeling too creative. I am trying to write in my blog every day leading up to my vacation-- and maybe even once or twice while I'm on vacation-- but who knows it that'll happen.

I took some quizzes in the past few minutes...

ENFP - "Journalist". Uncanny sense of the motivations of others. Life is an exciting drama. 8.1% of total population.

Take Free Myers-Briggs Personality Test

This is the fourth Meyers-Briggs-Jung test I've taken in as many years, and the fourth time I've been categorized as an ENFP. I'm beginning to feel that I might just be an ENFP. How about that?

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Hmm... well, my mother is Teresa. I can see how I received this response, though.

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

I hate to say it, but I've never actually seen this movie! In high school my art teacher had us watch this, but I fell asleep! It's out on DVD now, so I will have to check it out.

More later!

2004-03-15T11:37:00.000-05:00

The Friday Five!

Yeah, so it's Monday. Sue me.

1. What was the last song you heard?
Some ambiguous electronica has been eminating from Bleep's speakers today. The last song I heard that I recognized was "Sweet Child O Mine," which was promptly turned off by my lovely, Axl-hating wife. The last song I intentionally listened to was "Comin' Down" by the Crystal Method.

2. What were the last two movies you saw?
Underworld and Once Upon a Time in Mexico

3. What were the last three things you purchased?
Two bacon egg and cheese biscuits and a medium Diet Coke.

4. What four things do you need to do this weekend?

Survive the week

Pressure wash the ferret house

Clean the front porch

Plan a place for the dogs to stay while we are in Vegas.

5. Who are the last five people you talked to?
Scott, Bleep, Anne, a customer named Gary and a customer named Craig

2004-03-14T23:58:00.000-05:00

Drained, yet recharged

I returned home tonight from a weekend trip to visit my parents at their new home in Wilmington. Emma's sixth birthday was Saturday, and she wanted to spend it with them. We got a bit of a late start on Friday, but we managed to get there shortly after 9pm. I was amused and surprised when Dad asked if I would ride with him to pick Grandma Frances up from a dance. In the past year and a half, she has gone from losing her husband and nearly dying herself, to going out, socializing and meeting new people. She told me she wasn't willing or interested in marrying again, but she was having a good time getting out of the house. I'm pleased beyond words that she is able to enjoy her life, which seemed to be holding on by a thread not so long ago. In fact, yesterday she got second piercings in her ears. She says she's in her second childhood.

After returning from Grandma's house on Friday night, Alicia and I headed out to Kure Beach for a late night stroll on Kure Pier. The pierhouse was still closed for the winter, but the pier was open for those that were daring enough to stroll or fish in the chill wind. I was in shorts and short sleeves since it had been fairly warm during the day, so we didn't stay too long, but it was the most refreshing walk I've had in a while. There's definitely something magical about that place. We got a milkshake at the 24-hour McDonalds drivethrough, and as I was checking my email on Mom's computer, I found a Jenny online! That was a pretty big surprise, since she wasn't home either and her computer access was extremely limited. We had a nice talk, then Alicia and I crawled onto our king-sized airbed in the as-yet unfurnished guest room. We even got to sleep in the next morning.

Emma had a great birthday. She got so many presents, it almost looked like Christmas! She wore a silver tiara with blue fuzzy stuffs on it all day, since she was the Birthday Princess. My Grandma and Grandpa Hinshaw came over, along with Grandma Frances, Aunt Linda, my parents and Alicia and I, of course. Emma had a yellow sheet cake with ribbons, white frosting, Barbie decorations, her name spelled out in M&Ms and six blue candles. With a little help from her Grandparents, she read her own birthday cards for the first time ever. She got two pairs of new shoes, two new pillows, a pair of pillowcases, a barbie doll, a ken doll, two sets of barbie clothes, some glow in the dark no-tie curly shoelaces, a blue (her favorite color) toy truck, a coloring book, some crayons, a little money, and a ton of books from Aunt Linda and Emma's cousins, Victoria and Matt. She had a great time, but we were pretty exhausted. Once the excitement was over, Alicia stretched out for a nap and I tried to relax, too.

My rest was cut a little short as I attempted to set up a wireless LAN for Mom and Dad, but Charter Cable broke something somewhere and their cable internet went out for the remainder of my visit, so I wasnt able to get that done. I did fulfill a promise to Grandma Frances, though. I visited her house and did a little computer maintanence for her, cleaned some windows and dusted some out of reach places. I'm almost two feet taller than her, and I could barely reach it on a stepstool, but she knew the dust was there and she really enjoys living in a spotless house. It's the least I can do for her, so I made sure I took a benedryl before I went, and survived the ordeal with little trouble. She also gave me a tour of her nearly completed new kitchen, and we had a glass of wine and talked candidly about all sorts of things for perhaps the first time ever.

Alicia and I went out for a late dinner after I returned, leaving Emma with Mom and Dad for the rest of the evening. We went to Elijah's on the Cape Fear river in Wilmington for dinner. They are a mostly seafood restaurant, but I felt safe with a bacon cheddar cheeseburger, and the benedryl I had taken earlier. Alicia ate surf and turf, and we had a couple of drinks there, including a vodka, bourbon, spiced rum, peach schnapps, and iced tea concoction that was rather good and quite potent. Alicia hoped to have another drink or two at a bar near Mom and Dad's, but between the five drinks in me, the zyrtec and the benedryl, I was falling asleep in the car. She took me home, and I practically passed out upon hitting the pillow.

Today we feasted on Krispy Kreme doughnuts for breakfast, washed our clothes and bedding from the trip, Alicia cleaned the guest room and bathroom, Mom and I cooked lunch, and we enjoyed a family meal before hitting the road. We took a detour to Kure Beach for another visit to the pier and some cleansing, energizing salt air, and then made the three hour trek back home. Alicia's Dad had tended the pets while we were out of town, so they were happy to see us when we got home, but not too disappointed by our lengthy absence.

Now... my bed calls. Good night!

2004-03-09T22:41:00.000-05:00

My mother showed this link to me:

Fairy's Strange Junkfood Tribute: How to Make Fried Oreo Cookies! Thanks Mom, my intestines ache just thinking about them!

It's rather nice to be able to talk candidly to your parents through an instant messenger, especially now that they live in another area code. Mom being a few keystrokes away was especially helpful over the past two days as a small crisis erupted around my family. I'll spare the details, but those that are close to me know what was going on.

On a lighter note, March 10th is my birthday. That's tomorrow, right now, but when most of you read this it will be today. Something like that. Most of my birthdays have sucked since I turned 20, but I'm determined to make this one different. I'll be 26, and this one's going to be good, damnit! On Friday we'll head to Wilmington for mine and Emma's birthdays, and to visit Mom, Dad, Grandma Frances, Grandma Bettie, Grandpa Hinshaw, Aunt Linda and all the rest of the family at the Beach. I gave Mom and Dad a list of birthday gifts to buy for Emma, and they picked those up tonight. I'll reimburse them when I get there. I feel kind of bad not getting them myself, but this way we won't have to try to hide presents from Emma, or try to find a way to buy them without her seeing it. Less stress is a Good Thing. Speaking of which, I'm going to bed early now, in order to ensure a good day tomorrow. Good night!

2004-03-04T17:32:00.000-05:00

So...

I survived yesterday. Going to bed was probably the best part of the day. Today is almost done, and tomorrow is the end of the week. We're going to lay low this weekend and attempt to relax at home and not spend any money.

Alicia went to the doctor today to get a new prescription for pain meds, and update various other medications. The doctor has high hopes that continued treatment and physical therapy will begin to show results. It's looking less and less like surgery will be required, so Alicia's outlook has improved a bit.

I can't wait for my vacation! We leave for Vegas in 28 days, but it looks like we're going to stay the 12th through the 14th at Mom and Dad's new place in Wilmington for mine and Emma's birthdays. Time to go home! More later.

2004-03-03T23:35:00.000-05:00

Yeah.

Today sucks. Good thing it'll be over 25 minutes from now. Maybe tomorrow will be better. I'll spare you all the details, besides... I don't even know half of what is wrong with me. I'm going to stick my nose back into a book now and pretend I'm somewhere else.

2004-03-01T01:30:00.000-05:00

Catching Up

This weekend was all about catching up. Catching up with my wife, catching up with my friends, catching up on movies, on the laundry, on the dishes, on the garbage. I'm batting 1000 on the first few, but I halfassed the last half. I'm more than pleased with all that I managed to squeeze into the weekend, though. I also managed to finish all the arrangements for the Vegas vacation we'll be taking from March 31 - April 5.

Alicia had a bit of a scare this week with a trip to the emergency room after her back flared up. She couldn't feel her lower half, and the doctor at the ER got her the painkillers and muscle relaxers she needed-- and finally convinced her to see the specialist she had been avoiding. The trip to the specialist wasn't half as bad as she expected. In fact, rather than telling her that she had to have surgery, they informed her that surgery was the very last thing they had in mind. She's going to start an intense regimen of physical therapy on Friday March 5, focusing on her now officially diagnosed sprained back and neck. They took X-rays which were inconclusive, but when she returns after her first few PT sessions she'll be bringing her MRI results and getting an ultrasound on her back and neck, so that will shed more light on what's goin on inside her.

My sister volunteered to watch Emma this weekend, so I handed over my little girl and $40 to spend on her and my niece and nephews. Twyla took the kids to Chuck E Cheese and thoroughly exhausted them. Alicia and I took advantage of the quiet weekend to spend some time together. Friday night I kept her company at the flower shop from 8pm till 1am while she arranged flowers for a wedding. I picked up a book about Las Vegas a few hours before and read the more interesting parts to her while she worked, taking breaks to chat with Jenny. Alicia overslept the next morning because she had taken her meds a few hours than normal and couldn't get out of bed. When she did manage to get back up, we rushed to the shop where her coworker had finished the small pieces for the wedding, and I actually helped Alicia deliver a wedding! I've never done that before. Funerals, sure. I've even tried to pitch in on holidays, but never an honest-to-goodness wedding. It was kind of cool wandering around in this church all by myself, and seeing how all the pieces Alicia put together were laid out. After that, we had planned to meet my parents at their old place to say hello and pick up some of our old things we had left behind, but that didn't pan out. Mom and Dad opted to stay in Wilmington because they weren't sure if the snow and such had cleared up, so we went out to lunch instead and held hands and smiled at each other alot. I wanted to see a movie afterward, but Alicia's back was bothering her, so back home we went so she could take a little nap. That was interrupted a few hours later by Ian, aka Bleep the Elf, pulling up to get directions to Scott's birthday party, and generally whipping the dogs into a frenzy. Alicia woke and decided to go party too, so off we went.

We caught up with friends at Scott's thirty-third birthday party, which started out looking like a bit of a wash. When we arrived, the only folks there were Scott's girlfriend Rachel, her friend Rose, my boss Lyle, his wife Tami, their kids and Scott's neighbors. A number of folks arrived a bit later, and Scott invited me to taste a couple of different vodkas, so it didn't turn out so bad after all. I had a happy little buzz going on, so I made my way to bed shortly after arriving back at the house. I woke far too early and ate some leftovers for breakfast. Jenny decided that she didnt really feel like being in bed, so we had some interesting conversation this morning while I watched movies. She managed to keep me awake through the more dull parts of Star Trek: Nemesis and Once Upon a time in Mexico. Alicia got out of bed to watch Underworld with me, but I'm not nearly as good as Jenny at keeping people awake, and she passed out at some point in the last half.

During all of this, I took little breaks to round up a huuuge contractor bag full of assorted the trash and junk that's been piling up since Alicia's accident in September. We're not the neatest people in the first place, and with her unable to do much of anything, and me being the lazy bastard that I am, it's gotten to an obscene level of dirtiness around here. I also washed three loads of laundy, washed a few days worth of dishes-- only two or so months worth to go... I think we switched to paper plates and plastic cups at some point in December-- and then it might almost resemble a house again.

Twyla brought Emma home around 9pm, after taking her kiddos back to her ex-husband's place outside Greensboro. Emma has a raging ear infection and a really upset stomach, so Alicia's going to take her to the doctor tomorrow. I'm going to stop here because I've already practically written a short novel. Perhaps I'll write more tomorrow with some info on our upcoming vacation plans.

2004-02-27T10:11:00.000-05:00

Jesusaurus Rex

I heard this happy jingle playing on television this morning, as Emma watched Baby Looney Toons on Cartoon Network. A few lines from the commercial for a kids macaroni product jackhammered into my subconscious and I found myself picturing Christ from Mel Gibson's overhyped film bebopping bloodily on my television screen. That turned into a far more amusing image as I saw the poorly rendered Cheese Dinosaur waterskiiing in a sea of cheese (cheeseskiing?) and I pictured the battered, dying Christ just having a blast doing the same. Disturbing, no?

2004-02-24T12:28:00.000-05:00

When I was growing up, I was never too far from the ocean. I was born in Portsmouth, Virginia at the Navy hospital. Within a year or so, my mother, sister and I moved to Kure Beach, while my father was stationed on the USS Nicholson, which was based out of Charleston, SC. In Kure Beach, we lived in one of the cottages at my Aunt Faye and Uncle Norris's motel, the Sandcastle Inn. One of the highlights of this location was that we were one block away from the beach-- and the Kure Pier. I don't recall much from those years, but little things stand out in my mind...azaleas blooming, the time I dropped a really large conch shell on the comode and shattered it (sorry, Uncle Norris!), the occasional trip to Jubilee Park, running barefoot across the hot asphalt to cross the only tangible barrier between me and the beach.

I recall very little of the Pier from my earliest days, save my mother and sister, Twyla, telling me that I really wouldn't fall through the cracks and drown. Not exactly a comforting memory, one might think, but it is one of the few places that I really hold dear. We moved around for most of my childhood, as Navy families do, and I remained close to the coast until I was about thirteen years old, and Dad took a detached duty position with the NROTC unit at the University of North Carolina. I desperately missed the ocean, especially after having just spent the entire summer with my Grandpa Hinshaw, clamming, fishing, getting up too early, going to bed too late and doing all the things that boys do. Grandpa and I didn't spend any summers together after that year, and that made me miss the place even more.

To this day, when I'm ailing, hurting, ill or just down, I go there and it never fails to make me better. In fact, I think I'll go there today...

2004-02-16T13:16:00.000-05:00

I used to have a site at Diaryland, but it wasn't very user-friendly, and it seemed like all my neighbors were angsty teenage girls with eating disorders. I'll be posting here now, hopefully a little more regularly.