i'm with stupid
Wow. Sign me up. $20 for nothing.
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February 25, 2006
it's saturday
I'm currently having the best breakfast I've had in years.
Ann made the girls pancakes, so made me some with peanut butter chips. Then she made me some barely cooked, extra fatty bacon. I had one piece of the bacon and had to go take a cold shower.
I have a new fantasy, and involves a lot of bacon.
I had a large list of things I wanted to get done today. I can already tell most of them are not going to happen, as suddenly, taking a nap has superceded them all.
February 24, 2006
new world man
I think I'm finally offically well. At least I'm at the point that I'm not taking any more drugs. I still cough a little, but it's not so bad that I can't put up with it.
Played volleyball last nite, and lost again. Played poker, and set a new record for getting beat out of a tournament the quickest. At least I got my customer demo for next week working. I also haven't been able to finish all the homework problems due this week, but apparently, no one else in the class could either, because I got this email yesterday afternoon.
Homework 2 will be due Thursday 2 March 2006. I will probably add a couple more problems over the weekend. I will try to schedule a problem session for Wednesday evening, 1 March 2006.
Woohoo! That's a whole level of stress taken away.
February 22, 2006
you're perfect, yes it's true
Aubrey and I had his confirmation class tonite, as we do every Wednesday. He just finished up a major section, so we're that much closer to being done.
We get home before the girls, so just he and I walked into the house, and there was a box of tampons on the kitchen countertop. As we walked in, he said "Are these yours?"
I looked at him, paused while I thought of a dozen smart ass replies that surely would not be understood, and said "no".
He laughed, and said "I know".
I know he doesn't know the full in's and out's of them, (HA!), but that's a sense a humor. I'm going to mold this kid right yet.
trucks and trains
Took another truck in to the be fixed last week. This was my dad's truck that I was driving while mine was getting fixed. He bought it new in 1976. It currently has ~73k miles on it. Almost everything on it is original, apart from the stereo.
Anyway, despite the fact that it gets ~10 miles/gallon, he refuses to get rid of it, and likes to drive it when he's back here. It makes a nice back up vehicle though.
Going to chicago again monday. Just for a 2 day trip. They must love me there.
I haven't played any live poker for almost 2 weeks. I've just been too sick. I think my days are getting better finally, but I still have a terrible time trying to get to sleep at nite. I think I'm going to try some of the new sleeping drugs, because I am a huge believer in better living through modern chemicals.
The beast that is the poker table hoist has resurfaced. I had another brilliant idea to get it going that apparently Jeff had weeks ago that I poo-poo'd. Anyway, now it's my idea, so it's great. If I get this working, I'll be famous! Famous for having the most jerry-rigged device to store something on the planet.
February 21, 2006
soul meets body
An exetensial post:
I've been thinking about death recently. Not in a morbid, depressing way, but in a "what do I really want out of life" way.
I'm a fan of Boston Legal, and recently, Micheal J. Fox was on there, playing a terminal cancer patient. Not a exactly a stretch. But his dying character has a funeral before he's actually dead, because as he says "I wouldn't know who showed up if I waited until I was dead".
Too true.
Everyone seems facinated with how many people are at there funeral. I think I care more about how many people are with me now. And I'm far more interested in quality, not quantity.
Anyway, what do you talk about at the funeral? About the person, what you liked about them, what set them apart from everyone else. Which got me thinking, "what would I want people to say at my funeral? What have I done that sets me apart from everyone else?"
There's gotta be something, right?
So I'm trying to make a list of things that I think make me unique. Perhaps slightly narcisistic, but I've been sick and feeling like crap for > 1 week now, so I need an ego boost. However, I must note that my wife has been a shining star for me lately, always happy and cheering me up, so it hasn't been all bad. I'm just sick of being sick.
So the list
-I make a point to surround myself only with people whom I feel are intelligent. This is not strictly in the academic sense, more in the logical or reasoning sense. I get frustrated too quickly with people who cannot follow logical conclusions as I see them. I make a god-awful teacher.
-My taste in music is all over the place, but consistantly seems to be about 90 degrees from what all my friends like. I don't hate all the stuff they like, but I like so much more and quickly tire of the "norm". I always worry this makes me seem like some kind of music snob.
-I spent the first 18+ years my life saving fanatically for nothing in particular. I was notoriously cheap to the point of angering my friends. Since getting a real job, I have gone out of my way to try and make up for that, by purchasing a kegerator and hosting several get togethers and the like where everything is provided by me. I ended up finding that I actually really enjoy hosting parties by doing this. I really want to erase this cheap image I have, even though it is largely still true. It's just that it used to be that I was cheap to the point of alienating the few friends I had. At this point, I'm hoping that I'm at least still frugal, but not viewed as a total cheapskate by friends and family.
-I am detail-oriented, at least with the things I care about. I suppse that's largely true of everyone though. But when it comes to the things I want to do right, I can do what I consider a good. highly detailed job more often than not. This is mostly my opinion, since I know I can just as easily do a half-ass job when it's not something I care as much about.
-I can multitask. It seems like I've always had to, and although everyone does, I always seem to juggle more than most. I don't know. Maybe this is debatable. Everyone has to multitask. In fact, maybe I'm actually worse than most, and that's why it strains me so to think about all the things I should be doing.
-I am inventive. I am constantly coming up with many ideas for things I think would be infinately useful to me, and possibly several other people too. But I lack the time to implement them all, or even start doing so.
-I thirst for knowledge. I'm back in school, and I don't hate it, even though it's time consuming, and incredibly uncomfortable socially. I really like to learn new things, my life feels stagnant when I cannot do new things.
-I'm fairly proud of the shape I'm in. I've been working out consistantly (minus a few months here and there due to various surgeries) ever since I was 13. I actually find it fairly remarkable that I have been lifting weights regularly for >20 years. I'm no Mr. Universe, but I could be in a lot worse shape.
-I am learn physical skils quickly. I can do several physical tasks required to get most household repairs done on my own. It has also allowed me to become pretty good at a couple of sports, notably wrrestling and judo. And competent enough at several others to hang with people are are good, like raquetball, tennis, table tennis, diving, swimming, soccer, gymnastics, track, softball, and volleyball. This leads quickly to the next item...
-I am incredibly competative. Is this good? I think so. I almost cannot not take something seriously. I have to win at whatever it is I'm doing. I try to temper it in most situations so that I people are still willing to actually to hang around me. I don't even let my kids beat me in stupid board games. This has led to me always doing everything I can to get better at whatever sport I'm participating in at the moment. Typically lifting weights, running, o rdoing agility drills on my own. But I do think my success in sports has been because I am so competative.
-I am self-motivated. I've always been able to set a goal and ultimately get there. Right now, I can't think of many unfinished goals I have. Most are sports-related, like winning state wrestling in high school, so it's not like I can actually acheive that anymore. But my parents were good at just planting seeds in my head of what needed to be done for success in life, and I made sure on my own that was going to acheieve those things. Two things I can think of off hand were to get the best possible grades in high school, and graduate from college.
So somehow, this needs to tie back into my funerual, or my dying, or something similar.
I guess if at my funeral these things were mentioned, and possibly some other wonderful things about me that I might have somehow overlooked, that's about all I can hope for.
I just see things everyday that make me realize how fleeting life is. Some days I feel indestructable, the next I realize how closely I just skirted certain death. And I don't want to go down in history as the cheap, cynical bastard I used to be. I'd like to think I've evolved into something more than that.
An afterthought: I've told Ann this before, and for almost no good reason other than my slight Irish geneology, I want bagpipes at my funeral. I've just always thought that instrument was awful sounding, and was only really appropriate at funerals.
February 19, 2006
in your mind
I have been nasty sick all week. Got a sore throat last sunday nite, and it's gotten no better all week until yesterday. Last nite I actually started feeling ok. This morning, I woke up feeling half crappy again, but drugged up, and feel pretty good now. I'm in the middle of wiring up the bathroom as I write this, just taking a break for lunch.
I took the girls to the YMCA climbing wall again yesterday morning, then we went to the Lincoln ABATE bike show. It was nasty cold, but just warm enough to brave the weather.
The bike show was pretty good, but not much in the way of much being sold. Mostly just stuff to look at. But there were some nice looking bikes, and plenty of bottom of the barrel people. I was there too, so I guess myself included. But seriously, a lot of freaks.
I guess someone from Lincoln won the latest 300+ million lottery. I got asked twice this morning if it was me. Unless they started a new thing were you can win without buying a ticket, I doubt it very much. My opinion of the lottery has not wavered since it's inception, it's an idiot tax. I'm sure whichever neighbor of mine just won it doesn't think so, but I wonder how many continue to put $$ into it and have seen a positive return.
February 17, 2006
bailey's walk
So I finally got my truck back. I have to say I was impressed with these guys. Which was very lucky considering I called these guys with no prior knowledge of how they worked. They had to put in all kinds of extra hours and tried 4 parts before it worked. Each time you have to uninstall the driveshaft, then fix up the bearing, reinstall the driveshaft, and drive it around to see if it worked. This is a crazy time consuming process. It took all week to get it done.
Anyway, I'm just glad to have it back. Time will tell if it's really done.
Apart from that, the weather here sucks. It's currently 0 degrees. This sucks.
Tomorrow I'm going to try and get some wiring done on the bathroom, and go to a motorcycle show. But if it's still this cold, I may just stay in a watch tv.
February 16, 2006
13
My truck has been at the shop all week. Everyday they apparently try something new, put it all back together, and it still squeaks. I just got the call that it's still squeaking again this afternoon. This is unbelieveble!
I think I can see the conclusion to this already, which is that they will give up, and say they cannot fix the squeaking, but it is harmless. And I will be told I will have to live with it. You watch and see. If I'm wrong, I will never have been so happy about it, but I doubt I will be.
February 14, 2006
happy anniversary baby
Today is valentines day. Also, it's Ann and my wedding anniversary. We've been married 8 years now. It hasn't seemed that long. In fact, until she reminded me of a little thing called math, I thought it was our 7 year anniversary.
We look forward to continuing to grow old together
February 13, 2006
messengers
Another typically busy weekend.
Let's see:
Friday: Brian Regan at the rococo. In a word: awesome. Far better than I expected. I have seen him something like 5+ times, and I was willing to see him again, but I thought it would be mostly material I had alreay seen. Nope. I'd say I had only seen 25% of the material before, so it was great. Plus, many of the people there were as fanatical about him as I am. He came back out for an encore. I'm sure that's all part of it, but it was still cool.
Then we went with Joe & Shannon to his friend's bar The Alley, which I had never been to before. Joe designed/maintains the website in exchange for free drinks for him and everyone with him. This sounds great, but it has a downside that is not immediately clear, which is that you are gaurenteed to over do it. Drinking Tanqueray & tonic's from a 1qt mason jar is a recipe for disaster. Ann & Shannon were clearly impressed with Joe and my drinking abilities. I was not so impresse the next morning, when I woke up with my mouth feeling like sandpaper. Have some water next time, fool!
Saturday. My carrier bearing was supposed to be fixed tuesday. I get the truck back and it clearly has a new bearing, but it still squeaks. So I left it there friday, and picked it up saturday. Still squeaks. Neat.
I finish up all the soffetts in teh bathroom. Time to do the plumbling.
Finish up project #2 for my class., or so I think.
Setup the garage for a poker nite. Only expecting 11, but then people fall out, and we end up with 9. This was a crazy nite, and we will not try to run a 3 card triple draw pot liimit again.
This nite finishes up at 4:30am. Ugh.
Sunday: I get up around 10am, and Ally is still sick. Both Abby & Ally have been sick all week. Stayed home from school tuesday & Wednesday, but at least went to share the pain Thursday and Friday. But today, she doesn't want to do anything but sleep. Fine by me. Everyone else goes to church, and Ally and I stay home and sleep.
2pm, I have to go to campus to do another lab for class. This takes 4 hours. Wow.
I get home, and everyone has been sleeping all day, but are still tired and are going to go to bed soon. I go get myself a burrito, as I have proclaimed my diet basically over. I lost 19lbs at least, and it's no fun dieting and running everyday. Hopefully I'll be able to just stay close to 180 for the remainder of the year.
Kids go to bed, and Ann and I watch Lost. This was a very good episode. By the end of it, I noticed my throat was really hurting, and I woke up at 3:30am with it hurting so bad, I couldn't sleep anymore. So great. I'm sick now too.
Monday: Take the truck back in to get the bearing fixed again. Goto work, work out over lunch, goto class, back to work.
Go home, eat dinner, work on bathroom, and hopefully watch a movie. Then go to bed early and get some sleep.
February 10, 2006
burn that bridge to the ground
30 minutes from eating and drinking and seeing Brian Regan! I can hardly stand it!
Played some fun poker at Misty's last nite. More 3-5-7, which is fairly insane.
I haven't got much work done on the bathroom since tuesday nite. I just need to finish up the soffets, and then start running the plumbing lines. It all sounds so simple.
I have to do another lab for class this weekend, and we just got another homework assignment due next week as well.
This class is insane. We have due nearly every week, a project, homework, and a lab. I fail to see how projects are different from homework. Labs are time consuming too. Sure am glad I signed up for this.
Glutten for punishment I guess.
February 9, 2006
when they get what they want
argh. I'm still a solid 1 lb away from 180. I thought I might be done today.
Now I have to starve myself one more day.
I'm nearly done framing up the bathroom, so I need a new project, right? Gotta wait for some plumbing to get done. But after a conversation last nite, I may even be taking that on myself as well.
I'm going to try and buy this:
If anyone knows where I can get one cheap (ie. < $50) other than ebay, please tell me, so I don't have to try and win one on ebay, which annoys me.
Once that's done, a new poker table is already being planned. I am currently making a list of items to buy to build it, and will start purchasing them so I can get the 2nd table built by march, so I can have them good and ready for when I have the WSOP satellites.
Remember, satellites are 4/15,4/22,4/22 with the finals 5/6. These will be nearly all day events, I'm planning on them lasting ~6 hours.
February 8, 2006
out of control
I'm losing some serious weight now. I've lost ~5 pounds since the weekend, but I gained at least 1 lb over the weekend. But that puts me 1-2 lbs from my goal, at which point, the drinking will begin!
And the timing could not be better, as Brian Regan is here this friday nite, and I will be drunk and beligerent. To others in general, not Brian. If I met him, I would probably turn into dorky fan-boy and sound like a complete moron. Which is, by the way, the complete opposite of how I usually sound.
February 7, 2006
dont' bring me down
I love vehicles. They always cause me pain. This truck I've had for 6 years, and it's been one of the more trouble-free vehicles I've had. But right now, it's torquing me off. A very simple looking bearing, called a carrier bearing just had it's rubber housing degrade to the point where it all fell apart. The bearing itself looks fine, and spins fine, but the rubber failed. Of course, you can't buy just the rubber housing. You have to buy the whole thing, $90 at the parts store.
AND, you have to have all kinds of gear pullers and the like to get the driveshaft apart to put it on, so I can't do it myself.
I called a couple places, and one guy said the part would only be $20 through them.
"Pencil me in, then" I told him, and took the truck there this morning.
He called me later and said "yeah, the estimate is $440"
WTF!?!?
"Oh, the other guy quoted you the wrong price for the part, it's really $230".
Nice trick. I also had the part on order at the parts store. I could have just brought them the part to use.
This happens to me everytime I need to go to a mechanic. They're all crooks. That's why I do as much myself as I possibly can.
February 5, 2006
on the catwalk
Just finished framing up the bathroom. So then I watched this week's grey's anatomy. This is my new show. It's not my favorite, but it's quite good, and I now officially want to watch it.
I guess I'm now ready to do the plumbing.
Jeff came over Saturday morning and drilled the bottom 2x4's into the floor, and I did the rest. I have a feeling I'm going to have to get someone to do the plumbing though.
fire escape
Yesterday I played in the longest poker tournament I've ever been in. Not the largest, the longest.
The largest I suppose would have been the WSOP qualifier in vegas last June, with ~200 players. The longest tournament I've played in before was probably one of mine, which in the beginning would somtimes last 4-5 hours.
The tournament yesterday was run by a bunch of guys I know from the barpoker tournaments. It started at 2pm, and I just barely cashed. By just barely cashing, at 8:15, I got 8th place, $40 for a $33 entry fee. So it wasn't even over, after 6+ hours. Some friends I play cards have been talking about having a tournment that was longer, so the blinds weren't so fast that they killed you, and then you could "play good poker". This tournament was definately that. So it was fun in the sense that I could really wait for good hands, and try to play well. I really only made one big mistake, of course right at the end, nearly knocking myself out of the money.
Then I came home and started framing the bathroom, until 2am. Then I did some homework. Then I finally went to bed.
Today I continued framing, and now I'm off to do a lab for class.
I'm bored. There's nothing to do.
February 4, 2006
the contortionist
My weekend is not starting well.
Thursday afternoon my truck starting making a strange new noise, that I didn't recognize as anything familiar. I eventually decided it must be one of the rear drum brakes squealing, as I didn't change it last year when I changed the other. So in emergency fashion, I changed that brake in < 1 hour before class. But the noise continued. Jeff suggested it was a driveshaft U-joint, so I finally crawled under the truck and he was close. It was a rubber gasket of sorts that holds the driveshaft up. So I'm not sure what to do about that.
But Ann went to her mom's for the weekend, so I don't have access to the van. And it's quite cold all weekend, even a chance of snow, so riding the bike is pretty much out too.
Jeff and I went to a new bar poker game last nite, but we both got crushed. This bar game gives away cash. That's right. Cash. AND, you have to put in a quarter per person to play. The quarter is apparently a "bounty" on the previous game's winner. How this is not gambling is beyond me.
Today I'm going to work on framing the bathroom wall, and then we're going to a new home poker game this afternoon. But I guess I'm at Jeff's mercy for a ride....
February 2, 2006
you might think
I used to like the cars. I don't know what happened, but I don't much like any of their songs anymore.
I'm still addicted to Lagwagon, Unwritten Law, and the Foo Fighters.
Resolve, Lagwagon's latest album, was my official pick as best album of 2005. Green Day's American Idiot was very good. It came out in 2004, but most give it credit for 2005 since that's when most of the songs were "released" for radio airplay.
But Resolve is better still.
So I would say, best albums of 2005
1: Resolve - Lagwagon
2: American Idiot - Green Day
3: With Teeth - Nine Inch Nails
I can't even think of any other albums that came out in 2005 that I even listened to.
I am on a quest for new music. I listened almost exclusively to < 10 bands all last year.
spare me the details
I finished the DaVinci code last nite. Took me about 2.5 weeks to read it. I'd say it was pretty good, but not the best ever. Say 7.5 out of 10. I got a little tired of all the puzzles, and how the heros solve them all in a matter of minutes. But that's fiction I suppose. It was entertaining to see all the theories that were there just to piss off the catholics.
Bloody catholics. Filling up the bloody world, with bloody children they can't afford to bloody feed.
I heard from a couple people that they didn't like the end. I suppose that's when the big mystery villian is revealed. Whatever. It was ok, I didn't mind that part.
I also bought a new saw for building my bathroom, as it only took 4 cuts of 2x4's on my hand mitre saw to decide I wan't going to frame a whole wall that way. So I got this:
I can use for several things I suppose. But at that price, maybe I should have got the table saw instead....
February 1, 2006
M-I-C K-E-Y
I've never been to disneyland. I went to disneyWORLD when I was around 10, but not to CA. In fact, I have been very few places in CA in general. I spent four days in san luis obisbo for work, so no fun there.
We have been talking about going disneyland for a while now, perhaps only because the Ayrauds go every other month, I figure there must be something to that place. Then I see all these new promotions where you can go there for "$1500 or less". And it was true. At least the for getting into the park and such. Getting there costs a lot more, but the total is still affordable.
So, much like Joe Montana, I'm going to disneyland!
But not til March.
no conviction
One this I failed to mention about the weekend was that I was preparing some nacho cheese dip for the poker tournament, which entailed me chopping up a bunch of hot peppers in the hand chopper I use.
However, the fumes that emminate from the hot peppers are too much for everyone else, so I've taken to loading up the chopper, and then taking it out to the garage so no fumes in the house. So as I was picking it up, it slipped out of my hand, and started tumbing to the ground, where my first instinct was to catch it.
Bad instinct.
I was trying to catch it by pressing it against the counter with my hand. Of course the protective cover fell off first, and as it fell it rotated such that the blades were facing away from the counter.
So I slammed the palm of my hand right on the blades.
Nice. I instantly relized something bad had happened. But when I checked my hand, there wasn't much blood, but I knew it was deep.
It turned out not to be a big deal, I put pressure on it, and it stopped after a short time. But for the first time in my life, I was getting faint from an accident like that. I have never been woozy from blood, I've seen all kinds of blood, and probably my own more than anyone's, so I couldn't understand it, but I had to go lay down. I guess I'm turning into a big pansy as I get older.
I only mention all this because the cut was small, but quite deep, and still is. It's so deep that it's really not healing. SO today I bought some liquid bandage, and hope to seal it up that way. Otherwise, it hasn't been healing, and it's just as deep as friday nite. It's so deep, it opens like a mouth when I move my hand right. I'm my own puppet.