sargent D
hmmm. the wysiwyg editor is a failure...
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July 29, 2006
July 28, 2006
eye of the tiger
Man, this week has been kindof rough. First I learn about my cousin having cancer. At the same time I learned somewhat less rough, but still not great news that a great uncle of mine just died of cancer. I hadn't seen him for many, many years, but still, that's no good.
Yesterday I found out that a former co-worker at transcrypt, and pretty good friend Gary Gore died tuesday. He was a really good guy, and Ann and I both worked with him, and liked him a lot.
Depending on when the funeral is, it may change the Adventureland plans.
July 26, 2006
living in chaos
I did get the honda running again last nite, after we finished staining the deck. The problem: out of gas.
I'm a mechanical genious.
I'm going to ride it around a little bit tonite when I get home, right to the harware store to buy a for sale sign for it.
Anyone want a newly revamped 1969 Honda CB350? It's very nice...
Mark, our IT guy from Chicago rode his BMW 1150 RT from chicago to boulder, and is now on his way back to chicago. He stopped here today, and he, Steve and I all rode to seward for lunch. We all traded bikes for each leg of the ride, and Mark's bike rocks! And he likes mine a lot too. Maybe I'll just trade him straight up... NAH!!!
fung shui
I'm planning on taking the family to adventureland again this year. Last year, the girls were too short to ride many of the rides, but they were able to ride most of the stuff at disneyland, so they should be ok now. I'll have them wear high heels to the park to be safe.
I called my uncle so we could see them while we were out there, and he told me about their daughter Brianne, having a nasty lump of cancer in her throat. She just had some nearly emergency surgery to remove it all, which I'm sure was quite traumatic.
So that blows, to say the least. Bums me out. Hopefully the surgery was complete, and it will not come back, but only time will tell.
I have to try to get a lot of extra work done this week, so I can take monday off to get out there. That way the kids get a vacation too, since I've been on two so far this summer....
July 25, 2006
don't pick it up
Got my new battery for the honda, installed it, and of course, it didn't start anymore. I'm going to blow that thing up.
I cannot figure out why it's so tempramental.
Also got my temperature gauge for the GS, and a GPS is on the way! That stuff is new, so it will actually work.
I'm 75% done staining the deck, and have a good idea now how to finish this shower.
The savage still isnt' painted, I need to pick a color out apparently, although I thought I had done that.
I did replace the fule filter in my truck, and now it seems good again.
So I'm slowly getting through my list. I got several small things done, and am nearly done with one big thing (the deck). The bathroom is an anomoly. I'm going to set a record for taking the most time to finish a bathroom on that thing, I can tell already.
July 24, 2006
lee
Had a record pot in this weekend's poker tournament. It was a $35 buyin, with a $20 rebuy, which nearly everyone did. We had 18 people , and $900 in the prize pot! Sadly, for the umpteenth time, I was 2 spots from the money. I need to start doing something different. so I can get a part of these record pots.
Ann introduced me to a new song this weekend. Crazy by Gnarls Barkley. Very good, I highly recommend.
All of us went to a Saltdogs game last nite, it was a pretty good time, although none of my kids pay any attention to the actual game. Most of the other kids there do, but my kids definatley do not. They were far more interested in playing in the playground equipment or jumping castle.
July 22, 2006
this will hurt someone
someone else....
Kicked butt in poker last nite, so since that happens so rarely around here anymore, I have to make note of it.
I have several projects going right now
-stain the deck
-finish installing the shower, hook up te water in the bathroom
-fix the fuel filter issue in my truck
-do the 12k service on the GS
-put the savage back together
-put the honda back together, sell it
-I have a backlog of movies to watch, including
the nightmare before christmas
the arisocrats
schindler's list
the brandan teena story
blazing saddles
history of the world part I
and I need to start getting this season's rescue me's. Good show.
Speaking of which, if you pay any attention to this site, and the things I care to comment on, you probably have a a good feel for the things that interest me.
In no particular order,
-taking my family on vacations
-motorcycles
-poker
-combative sports (judo for me)
-stand up comedy
-lifting
I love stand up comedy, and thus, I actually pay attention to one "reality" show, but only because I do feel it's "legit", in the sense that it's just a competition, and no one's voted off for unpopularity. You get voted off if you're not funny.
So if you don't watch, and didn't watch the first episode where the call in voting happens, skip ahead, you won't care.
Her is how I judged the performances
 |
| Ty Barnett |
 |
| Josh Blue |
 |
| Chris Porter |
 |
| Michelle Balan |
 |
| Roz |
Going into this show, I didn't think much of Ty, and didn't think anyone was even close to Chris, but I was proven wrong. Chris has blown everyone away for most of the show, and honestly, Ty hasn't had to do much, yet still gets through, so maybe the producers have been sandbagging him, I'm not sure yet. But he was way ahead of all the others for this show.
Roz has got to go, I couldn't understand how she got as far as she did, much the same as Michelle.
Just my opinion though.
Looking to go on a vacation with the family here next weekend, hopefully. Still need to get some work stuff straightened out, but I'm planning on it right now.
Big poker tournament here tomorrow nite, we'll see if I can cash in the my own tournament for the first time in what seems like months.
July 19, 2006
every rose has its thorn
So I was perusing a motorcycle accessory website, and due to Ann's influance, I first hit the sale section. (ok, I probably would have done that myself, I'm a bit cheap too)
I anticipate this being fixed sooner rather than later, but saw this ad:
Roadcrafter One Piece Suit #31439 | |
I first thought, "Wow, $65k is a sale price for that suit?!?"
Then I saw the obvious mistake, but I still thought it was funny.
life on mars
Hey, I fixed the time on the server, so the posts don't show up at crazy wrong times!
Another improvement you could care less about.
July 18, 2006
knights of the round table
My new favorite video
Warning, you must be a pretty big nerd to truly appreciate this.
July 17, 2006
intolerance
All of these are legitimate companies dealing in regular products and services, but they didn't think their domain names through. Some of them are prime candidates for the "What was I thinking?" award....ALL these websites actually exist, selling something totally benign (and work safe, in case you're wondering).
1. A site called 'Who Represents' where you can find the name of the
agent that represents a celebrity. Their domain name is
http://www.whorepresents.com
2. Experts Exchange, a knowledge base where programmers can exchange advice and views at
http://www.expertsexchange.com
3. Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island at
http://www.penisland.net
4. Need a therapist? Try Therapist Finder at
http://www.therapistfinder.com
5. Then of course, there's the Italian Power Generator company at
http://www.powergenitalia.com
6. And now, we have the Mole Station Native Nursery, based in NewSouth Wales:
http://www.molestationnursery.com
7. If you're looking for computer software, there's always
http://www.ipanywhere.com
8. Welcome to the First Cumming Methodist Church. Their website is
http://www.cummingfirst.com
9. Then, of course, there's these brainless art designers, and their wacky website:
http://www.speedofart.com
10. Want to holiday in Lake Tahoe? Try their brochure website at
http://www.gotahoe.com
my little runaway
Had a fun weekend, despite the fact that it was about as hot as it can be without me just bursting into flames from just walking outside. It felt like I might everytime I was outside.
Friday I finally got the missing shower parts for the basement shower, so I wanted to finish it that nite, but of course, I quickly found more parts I needed.
Saturday we went to BJ & Shelly's 35th birthday party, which was at Shelly's parent's pool. The pool and beer made it possible to tolerate the heat all day.
Sunday we had no pool access, so I stayed inside as much as I could. We did have to go to the girls' TBall game, where everyone was miserable, so got back into the AC as soon as we could.
I tried to continue to work on the shower, but because I have no knowledge of how to install these body spray things, I now have to wait for more help. Even when I finish, I'll have to wait for the plumber to show up to solder it all. But after that, I'm hoping things will move quickly.
July 14, 2006
don't care anymore
HA! I got the blasted honda running. It was the spark plug(s). A new battery now (I've been testing it using a different bike's battery) and she's officially for sale. I need some garage space, for another bike.....
up all night
I finally got my pictures developed from my ride to Ft Collins for the brewfest and such. As it was a crappy disposable camera, the pictures are of disposable quality, but fun for me to look at nonetheless.
rosetta stoned
This honda is driving me crazy.
It was running fine last summer, and I got it running briefly a couple weeks ago. Took off the air filters, sparyed some starter fluid in, kept cranking, and it eventually fired off and ran. Then I put the air filters back on (a tedious task, to say the least. Taking the white panel on the side in the picture involves removing the exhaust!), and it no longer ran. WTF?!?!
So I tore it all apart again, and tried it again with no air filters, and still nothing. It seemed to have gas and spark, but wouldn't catch. There didn't appear to even be a sign of life, no puffs like anything was even exploding in the chamber. ie. no spark. But I verified the presense of spark several times.
Then it would spontaneously dump gas all over, so I realized the floats must have gone bad and weren't shutting off the gas flow, so I ordered new carb kits for it. I installed those monday nite, and still nothing. But at least it doesn't dump gas all over anymore. I'm going to get new plugs today, and if that doesn't do it, I give up.
What else could keep this thing from running?
I want to sell it, but who's going to buy a non-running bike?
July 12, 2006
right in two
So I've been listening to the new Tool album, 10000 days, for a couple months now. I was so excited for it, but when it came out, I was not getting into it. But I didn't let it sway me, the previous album took some getting used to, because it was so different from anything else they'd done. So I kind of expected the same thing. Only problem was, that wasn't the case. The songs were different, but not that different. In fact, the whole album seemed, formulmatic. (Which doesn't seem to be a word, but it should be). Meaning, they just sort of took the formula for the songs that have been successful in the past, turned the crank, and out came 12 new songs very much like previous songs. I was expecting something new.
Isn't that just typical? Wouldnt you hate to be a popular band? Everytime you put out something new, you can be garunteed half the people won't like it because it's "not original enough" or "rehashed, or formulmatic", while the other half will say it's "too far away from previous work", or "doesn't sound like X". You can't win, and apparently I'm as guilty of being over-critical as the rest of the mindless nation.
At any rate, I now like the album enough to give it a thumbs up, but I was expecting more from them.
July 11, 2006
lovefool
Well, I've spent the majority of the evening screwing around with the gallery, and I finally am convinced it's in full working order, and at the latest and greatest version, which is important. I'm still moving some things around, kindof trying to match the previous hierarchies I had, but only loosely, so that you can have fun trying to find pictures you remember. Then you can have wasted as much time as I just did.
Enjoy!
subdivisions
For Ann's benefit
July 10, 2006
story of a lonely guy
Had a decent weekend, although a bit lackluster after the past few weeks. Just sat around mostly, but did attempt to get the restaining of the deck underway by applying a nasty solvent to it all to strip off the old stain. I did this because I wasn't sure if just powerwashing it was adequate, and didn't want to pay for renting a powerwasher anyway.
Then as I was just finishing up, my neighbor was giving me a hard time about staining the deck, you know asking "having a good time?" type of thing, and I explained I wasn't even at the staining part yet. Then he told me I should've just borrowed his powerwasher and then just restained it.
Yeah thanks, I didn't know you had a powerwasher. That's good to know, now.
Oh well, maybe I'll go use it yet to finish up before I actually stain. Which I'm already no looking forward to.
No poker this weekend, just working on the website, and spending $$. Bought a new GPS unit for the GS,
and a bag of ryobi cordless power tools.
I suppose I better get some work done today, so I can afford this stuff!
July 7, 2006
rolling
Now we're up and running people.
Gallery seems to be fully functional, and the poker blog, as is the movableType interface. Now the blogging can begin.
Note I've got the domainname worked out a little nicer. No longer a work url, but my own hotrod, free one.
Whoop-de-frickin-doo.
But now, it should be fairly stable. We'll see.
Work has been kicking my ass lately. I was told in the middle of the week that I will most likely be taking a 1-2 week trip to hong kong to train some new customers in the middle of July. Great. Really looking forward to that.
By myself in a rathole country where no one speaks english. Sweet.
Oh well, we'll see, maybe I can dodge it.
Til then, I need to get my honda running again, so I can sell it. But in the meantime, I'm actually considering another bike, but who knows?
July 5, 2006
maybe I'll catch fire
I just got some interesting news, and I'm not sure what to think.
We just got a hotrod new contract with a large customer in China, and they want me to go train them on the new part they're going to use. This involves me going out there for 1+ weeks. I've never really desired to go to China, and had artfully avoided it up to this point. This trip sounds like a cakewalk, but I'm still hesitant because I know what it leads to. Me having to go help these guys for every problem they have, for several years.
July 4, 2006
my own worst enemy
Well, well, well.
Check, check, check it out yall.
I'm back, and got the apache server back up and running, serving php and cgi nicely again. Which to you means you have the pleasure of seeing my particular brand of informative, meaningful posts on a daily basis again.
I'm back from two seperate trips that both were very good.
Trip 1: Fort Collins for Brewfest
My neighbor Dan and I rode our bikes to Ft Collins, and picked up his friend Steve along the way, as he lives near York, and is a big time sterotypical Harley rider. Every other word out of his mouth is F**K, I never saw him once without a beer, he had a Freddie Mercury moustache, and a big belly. He was entertaining to say the least, and a bit much to say more.
Dan and I headed out ~4pm, and picked him up ~5pm. By 6:30, we were in Holdrege, getting gas. Steve pointed out a local nudie bar, and insisted we stop for a while. I said I didn't want to, and Dan and I pushed on, while Steve said he would catch up later. Dan and I made it to holyoke, CO as it was getting dark, 3.5 hours later, and no sign of Steve.
We got a hotel, went to get something to eat, and called Steve, who it turned out was still in the nudie bar.
Quality.
So Dan and I drank, ate, and went to bed. Got up at 10am, and took off. Hwy 14 was incredibly frustrating with all the construction, but we got into Ft Collins around 12:30pm, 30 minutes after Steve. He apparently averaged 100mph the whole way, and had a 96mph ticket to prove it.
Genius.
We went to Big City for lunch, then got a hotel room, and let the riding begin.
First we went up the Poudre canyon just past the tunnel, because we had to meet my friend Daryl at 4pm back in town.
He rides a 99 BMW RT, and he took us up rist canyon, then down through masonville to carter lake. There we had a beer, chatted, and headed home. Except Dan's battery committed suicide, and he had to push start his bike. We limped it to a few places that didn't have a battey for him, push starting it each time, until we finally got it back to Sears in Ft Collins, where he got one, and fixed the problem.
We then went and ate, and went to bed.
The next day was brewfest, but Steve and Dan got up early to ride more, and I just wanted to sleep and not ride for a while. So while they were gone, I went and checked up David and Tiffany's hot rod new house. Very nice, easy to be jealous.
We went to Big City for lunch again, and headed to brewfest. We always have a good time at brewfest, despite that it's overpriced, way too crowded, and has 15 minute beer lines. You might ask why we keep going back, and we asked ourselves that at the time several times, but by the end, it was very fun, and we were all glad we had gone.
The Ayruad/Dougherty clan left a little early to celebrate Terry's birthday, so Dan and I stayed until the hairy end, then went to eat at Coopersmiths, where I had a very tasty tuna steak sandwich.
Then I wanted to show Dan Washington's so I could have him see how it's just like Pears here. We were still there when Jeremey called and ultimately showed up there. Once Jeremy enters the picture, too much to drink is the enevitable conclusion of the nite. I was practically getting sick while still sitting at our table. I never puked, but I felt terrible for several hours the next day, when we got up went riding again.
Steve had gotten some call that his brother just had a kid, so he bailed and went home on his own, no complaints from me.
So I went and got some food to try and kill the hangover, and then we went and rode rist canyon to the poudre canyon, to cameron pass and the main town beyond that. Out past North park and all that, can't remember the name.
Had lunch there, and turned around and came back.
From there I went and briefly saw Robin, who is painfully pregnant, but otherwise good, then we went to have dinner and play poker at the free bar poker place Dave plays at. We all got spanked, but I had some of the hottest custom made wings I've ever had, very satisfying.
The next morning, we got up and hauled home. Made it in 8 hours, which is pretty good considering we have to stop every 100 miles to refill Dan's tank.
I was home for 2 days. I saw the girls run a track meet, where Ally got 2 fourth places, and Abby got a 1st and a 2nd. And Ann said they weren't fast. pishah!
I worked as much as I could, and tried to get everything squared away before I left, but of course everything went to hell right when I was leaving. I came back from lunch wednesday and my desktop PC was froze. I tried to reboot, but it wouldn't even get a bios screen, although the power supply was good. 100% dead. This is the machine that hosts all the gallery pictures, and I do all my work on, now dead while I try to help get stuff released before I leave.
Too bad. I leave anyway.
Trip #2:
5pm we're on the way, and on the way, we find out Chad is already out of the $1500 WSOP event he entered. So we travel along, nearly miss our connecting flight in denver, but get there happily. Once we're there, it's 2/4 for the next several hours, and plenty of drinking.
We have a real fun time that first nite, mostly trading our own money between us, and I lose ~$20.
Thursday, we head to the rio, and do some star ogling for a while, and check out the various WSOP memorabila.
Due to the drinking the nite before, I was having what could only be described as a 'bad colon morning' and had to make frequent bathroom trips. I prefer to go to the more isolated bathrooms, so I hauled myself off once to the remote bathroom, which only has 4 stalls. Walking in, I saw the far end, handicapped stall was open and made a beeline there. On the way, I could see the adjacent stall was occupied, and the guy had his shoes off.
weird, but whatever. He's probably changing or something.
I sit down, and now I can see under more clearly, and can hear a distinct, constant scrubbing sound. Now I have to look more closely, and I see a pair of boxers thrown on the floor at the back of the stall, and I realize the scrubbing sound is him taking wads of toilet paper and scrubbing the seat of his jeans. Then I notice that his socks have stains. This means that not only did he not make it in time, it soaked his boxers, and ran down his legs to his socks.
Take a moment to appreciate that, like I did while sitting right next to him.
Holy Jesus.
He continued to scrub, put his jeans on, at which point I could see under the divider the huge wet spot on the ass, and walked out. How would you like to walk out of a crowded casino in the middle of the day with a huge wet spot in the ass or your jeans, reeking of human fecal matter?
Actually, I fellt pretty sorry for him.
We then left for Ceaser's new poker room for some more 3/6, where I get owned all afternoon and lose $150. Fun.
Apparently some member of the latest roundball team to win the world series was there in the room, as everyone was fawning all over him, asking for autographs, etc. but I was not impressed.
Then we went and ate at the main street buffet, where I ate so much I thought I was going to be sick, but it tasted so good.
More 2/4 all nite, where I continued to get outdrawn, and generally pissed off at poker. Probably lost another $100.
Friday, Jeff and I leave early to go to the local Harley dealership where they rent bikes. I rent a wide glide, and he rents a softail. It's 110 degrees, but we take off to ride. We go to Mt. Charleston, the "only suggested ride this time of year" since it's 30 degrees cooler at the top of that. I was reapplying sunscreen at a furious rate, and still getting burned, it was quite unpleasant. But the bike was nice, and once in the mountains, it was great. I really dreaded going back down into the desert. But we did, fought interstate traffic back to downtown, where I said I was not riding anymore in the sunlight.
So we waited until dusk, and we all went back to the Rio's super seafood buffet, where I again ate so much I thought I was going to be sick. This time it was mostly sushi though, but oh so good.
Jeff and I then did some nite riding just around town, nothing terribly interesting, but fun. We did take the strip from one end to the other, but on a friday nite, it's not very fun, mostly just sitting there, and it was still hot. I'm pretty sure I saw a temperature gauge say 96, and it was 11pm!
We got back to Binion's and played some NL hold'em for the remainder of the nite, where Chad got killer hands at killer times and made ~$500, where as I just played tight and made ~$100. But I was happy to be profitable. A dealer even came over and said "I see you're at the NL table now, got tired of being outdrawn at the 2/4 table?"
"100% right on that" I replied.
Sheesh, I was getting killed so bad earlier, the dealers were remembering me, (which they typically don't do)
I stayed up way too late, as the bikes had to be back by 10am, and Jeff had gone to bed ~3am to get some sleep.
I rolled in about 7am, then got up at 10am to get the bikes back in time.
Getting back to Binion's most of us were about poker'd out, so we decided to play craps.
Jeff had never played, so we had to teach him, and his being a beginner garaunteed he was going to be a killer roller, which he was. He hammered the hard ways so many times, the pit bosses were getting suspicious. I made $450 in profit from his rolling in < 1 hour. That's why craps is so great. But the luck eventually ended, and I left before pissing away my profits.
Then we went and started at the NL table again, and were there most of the afternoon. I left there even after being stuck for $200 most of the time.
We then went and ate at a mexican restaurant where Jeff and Chad tried to convince me a million year old double down theory could make us rich, then I explained with a crazy theory called math why it wouldn't work.
So they were pissed at me the rest of the nite for raining on their parade.
More NL the rest of the nite, when I was going to stay up the whole nite to make the 7am flight. I couldn't play cards effectively as it got later and later, so I went to the hotel room and layed down, but never slept, as I had been pounding pepsis to stay awake.
Then we got home after racing through the denver airport, as they told us we were going to miss our connecting flight, and would get home at 10pm instead of 1pm. We got there 10 minutes before the connecting flight was scheduled to leave, so we ran like fools from the gate to the connecting gate (concourse B to councourse A) and made our original flight.
I got home, slept 2 hours, then got on the bike and went to Columbus where Ann and the girls were to hang out a few hours.
There, satisfied? That's 2 weeks of what I've been doing, with some good details.
The gallery is still broke, because, as I mentioned, that machine died. So I don't know exactly when it will be up again. Soon hopefully.
I expect to make more big changes later too, but for now I'm satisfied with just gettin everything back to the way it was.