Archive for category musings of a back porch
Drown in the now…
Posted by Tom in musings of a back porch, Not doing things the easy way, Observations that no one else cares about on March 18, 2010
I seem to have picked up a new hobby in the last couple of months and I didn’t even realize it until I got done talking to my dad. Apperntly I’ve stumbled into gun collecting or at the very least the old man is giving me first dibs on guns that he either already has or doesn’t want. Now the part about the old man offering me guns is nothing new. The new part is the quantity and the quality of the guns…
2009 and before… it tended to be new rifles and more of a informative “Hey if you want a new hunting rifle this is one you should look at”. In 2010 I’ve talked to my dad three times this year… twice he called about guns the first one was a heavy barrel .308. I already shoot a 30-06 elk and deer hunting so the .308 isn’t of that much interest to me… though if you knew the kind of country we hunted elk in (an area that we lovingly refer to as the “nuclear wasteland of elk”) a .308 starts to make alot more sense. Of course setting up what amounts to a sniper position for elk hunting doesn’t really appeal to me all that much… but then again that’s basically what I’m already doing.
The other gun my dad called me about was a Colt AR-15 .223 (post ban no flash suppressor) that one piqued my interest and I have no idea why. It’s a .223 round which at distance is a little light for elk hunting (figure 200 to 300 yd shot) but it would be good for just about everything else. So this gun truly comes into the category of “toys” or if your Curtis “zombie weapon”.
My issues are all my own and I’m torn, yes I would really like to get this “toy” but at the same time the responsible side of me says there are alot of other things you can do with that money (I get that alot from responsible side it’s all responsible and stuff, it’s really annoying) why am I posting this? because it’s truly the biggest drama in life.. and if my biggest problem is whether or not to buy a gun I know that I truly have no problems.
It’s out of my hands…
Posted by Tom in friends, musings of a back porch, Not doing things the easy way on February 17, 2010
No it really is… mainly since it’s ethereal in digital realm and all no physicality…
OK let me start again, so there was this “fire” over the weekend, and if you haven’t already you can go read about it. However it did get me thinking if I was presented with a similar set of circumstances what would I do? Probably nothing since I would never pay enough attention to connect all of the dots. No really I probably wouldn’t notice until my couch was fully engulfed and even then I would have to be sitting in it.
No honestly what would I do? I look at my “house” and I don’t have any real attachment to it… I mean it’s a nice a house, the back yard is killer, and if I was just a tad more social I would probably invite people over more often then the divisional round of football playoffs. I think the best way to describe my relationship to my house is probably quite similar to that of “Tyler Durden” or rather the man the that spawned Tyler Durden to paraphrase
no matter what I had the couch situation taken care of, now it’s gone. I need a new couch…
I know it’s no where close (and I can’t find the exact quote just deal). The cruxt of the scene is it’s all just stuff. That you don’t need or more then you need. And that’s how I look at my place it’s just the Kingdom of stuff. Nothing that can’t be replaced. I don’t have any pets, I don’t have wedding pictures what pictures I do have are of friends or their kids and while the pictures of the kids are cute I’m pretty sure I will get more at some point, and lets not get me started on furniture or clothes. As for the electronics, I was due for a upgrade anyway! I have a bookcase of DVD’s that I’ve watched once or twice each that can almost all be replaced. And those that can’t will be out on Blu-Ray or whatever the format of the digital future will be.
The “stuff” that I have that matters to me is all digital in nature. My pictures from various hunting trips, races, trips to the East Coast, and as silly as this sounds I have a couple of cell phone pics from outings to where ever that I keep for the memories. Music, so much music from so many things that I listen to constantly (and all three regular reads know that I generally pull the title of each post from what ever song is playing in iTunes when I’m writing). Files… all of my files from school personal projects and writing that I’ve done (not everything I write ends up here). Finally records… tax, finical, and other various tracking mechanisms. All totally digital.
Now granted I have multiple backups of all of these files and if I lost ONE computer I could pretty easily recreate 99% of the content. In a total loss situation though I would screwed since I don’t take my laptop (which for everything but gaming I consider my main computer) everywhere. Heck I take it on trips and that is probably the single dumbest thing I could do.
Hey nice MacBook Pro, I’m going to take that now!
To top it all off I’m a IT guy for my day job, well I like to think of myself as a IT guy most days. And what do we preach in IT when it comes to backups? One copy onste and one copy off-site (more then 50 miles away, and on different media if possible) I mean it’s not rocket science though some days it seems like it. I guess it’s time to break down and look at something a bit more comprehensive then just “Time Machine” for my backup needs.
I need secure, automagic, high storage limits, and accessible anywhere. I would like neat, easy, and multi-platform. I don’t need to backup all my computers just one. Anything that doesn’t live on my laptop can be copied over easy enough.
Who would have thought a little fire could cause so much thought?
The only downside to this plan? When the zombies come I’m scewed for my data not so much for guns.
Singles awareness day…
Posted by Tom in musings of a back porch, Not doing things the easy way, Observations that no one else cares about on February 14, 2010
I’m not a huge fan of most holidays… I like the summer ones where I get a day off of work and almost have enough time to take a short vacation, and if I do it right I absolutely do (thanks again to Boulder County / FoCo crowd for putting me up). I’m not a fan of the holidays where some obligatory amount of money is spent on a person simply in the name of being spent (I’m looking at you birthdays) I will admit it I do like spending money on others at Christmas (when else can I walk into a liquor store spend $300 and no one thinks anything about it?).
My level of apathy to Valentines day has always been low. I would think of all of the “Hallmark” holidays that I would hold the most anger and angst towards it. It’s the one holiday where the only reason I know it’s getting close is those little white bears start showing up at work at the desks of people who are not married but in some sort of relationship. I have bought flowers on valentines days for a woman before, she was worth it, it was early in the relationship so it seemed appropriate if nothing else to show that I had some sense when it came to close interpersonal relationships (boy did I fool her with that one). The following year it was a different woman and she at the time seemed worth it but proved herself not to be on multiple levels.
As for the here and now… it’s same as it ever is. Not much other then a seemingly causing a small avalanche of people to join a facebook group called “I hate Valentine’s day” and lets be honest if a 6 pack of beer showed up at my door every year that said “from your valentine” I would totally drink it. And I would probally like this day a whole lot better because I got beer.
Merry Christmas!
Posted by Tom in Cameras are good, musings of a back porch on December 24, 2009
Just wanted to wish a Merry Christmas (or happy Friday if you don’t celebrate Christmas).
Checking Google Analytics this morning I noticed that we have a fair number of visitors from the great state of Colorado, this picture is for you folks. We feelish your pain (kinda).
Merry Christmas folks.
House of the holy….
Posted by Tom in friends, musings of a back porch on June 10, 2009
Three days back from conferences with people who do the same thing that I do and what do I have to show for it?
A smoking credit card and a severe “Sweetwater” withdrawal later I’m home.
Nothing much changed… most of the stuff left on the counter is still there, the bedroom and office are both still disasters, the grass is a little longer, and finally I still have no beer. So par for the course on the home front.
On the work front there was only one cataclysmic event, my partner in crime at work switched from drinking a Monster Energy drink every morning to drinking coffee… actually two cups of coffee every morning. In the 4 years I’ve worked with him I would have never seen this coming in a million years. I guess it only took 4.
Of course this has led to a series of discussions about coffee in the work place. Now both of us are damned cheap so we won’t be taking the Curtis solution to our work time coffee fix. So this change of events has led to a series of discussions but the most surreal of which is the following….
N – So which coffee is better the stuff upstairs or downstairs?
T – Well it depends if you want to use the good bottle water go with the upstairs stuff but there is no sink so telling how long since the coffee pot was last emptied. Downstairs has a sink but all it has is a charcoal filter that hasn’t been replaced in 3 years. It’s all about the water here since the coffee is the same crap upstairs and downstairs.
N – huh?
T – The coffee here is all about quantity not quality.
N – Oh ok…. so upstairs or downstairs?
T – Downstairs the coffee is better.
So needless to say not only do I cover beer but I guess I’m going to have to bone up on my minutia of coffee detail.
Easier said then done since I like Folgers….
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