Just another Weird site…
I saw “Furbee” on TV this evening, so between that and the sudden rush of football games one can only assume that football season is on us yet again.
So it is now only a few weeks until the Cardinals march onto the field and school their opponet of the week in the ways of the bird… for the bird is the word.
Yes here is to the hopes of entire group of maybe twenty people that the Cardinals will be 8-8 this year.
Go Cardinals!
For the record….
My PACS Vendor + Open Bar = Tom out of shell…
Thank you and good night I will be out of my shell again the second tuesday of next week.
Photographic evidence from trip #3 to Milwaukee…. went on “safari” in downtown Milwaukee on the River Walk with people from the class… Here are the highlights in pictures.
Here we have a picture of Dr. Franklin (this one is for Kristi and Matt) from a place called the “Safe House”. Interesting place… next time you see me have me talk about it. Other notables on the wall of Celebrity’s at this place. Anthony Daniels (C3PO) and two of the three “Lone Gunmen” (that one is for Curtis).
And because no trip is WI is complete with out some sort of cheese like product…..
And the last two were on the out side of this bar on the River Walk… Ironically I did not have Guinness instead I had Smithwicks.
On a business/training trip to Milwaukee.. you know it’s not like I haven’t been here before but my god man couldn’t I go someplace different for a change?
Traveling is always a endurance race for me… I don’t really like flying, actually the term I would use is I loathe flying. And in my book loathing is one step above sheer contempt. My biggest problem with flying is my lack of control over the situation. You know I’m driving in my truck if I choose to run in into the median and cut over 6 lanes of traffic that is my thing. If the pilot decides to take us to the scene of the crash before the paramedics show up that’s not cool. And as always when I fly I have to ask the following question. If the seats turn into flotation devices how come the plane doesn’t turn into a boat!
Other random observations from my travels… BSOD on a pay phone (that’s a first for me) and people literally kicking their luggage down the aisle at security. I dislike my luggage but I don’t kick it through security dislike it. I only check my bags in at the counter dislike my luggage. And the only reason I did that was because I don’t have a printer at home to print out my boarding pass.
Anyway flying from Phoenix to Milwaukee is much like flying from Las Vegas to Milwaukee. Not eventful at all, however the two hour time difference is kind of screwing with me… I had a cup of coffee and a bagel for breakfast at the airport. That was at 7am Arizona time… the next thing I had to eat was a brownie that Kristina made at 3pm (5pm WI time) (thanks again Kristina).
So on the hunt for sustanance I decided to check out the mall that is across the street from the hotel. I don’t remember if it was Cody or someone else but I’m going to chalk this on up to Cody. “When I’m in someplace new I always try to eat at someplace local and avoid the big national restaurant’s” I’m in WI I’m going to do like the locals at the mall…. well if the mall is like a mall in Phoenix that is what I got. Ok the mall was a no go. Well there is a bar in the hotel that has a full dinner menu I will check it out. Really all I want is a beer and a burger. So I belly up to the bar order my dinner and have one of the better fruity ales that I’ve had in a long while (it’s called “Spotted Cow” look to the beer blog for additional information).
I’m sitting there drinking my beer eating my burger watching ESPN on the bar TV thinking to myself how many nights has Cody done something like this. I start thinking about it more and more and decide. Cody has a much better go at it now.
Other things I have learned… I now understand why Cody likes his Marriott so much. And HBO on the road is a nice perk since I’m to cheap to pay for it at home.
You know I think I can really get used to this whole back porch thing… It’s February and I’m sitting on my back porch with a beer, laptop, and iPod. Just taking in the whole serenity of the evening.
I find that having a bit of alone time is good every now and again. I’m talking serious alone time 24 to 36 hours of the stuff. It’s good for finding a center of your being, it’s almost zen like. Well as zen as one can be with out being either a Buddhist monk or a Novel Netware Admin.
I live in the East valley… now I’m not that far out in the East valley, but it’s only 10 minutes in 2 diffrent directions to hit open deseret. (south and south east by freeway). I never noticed before but the clouds at night absorb the light of the city and glow reddish. It’s kind of strange but at the same time cool.
The album of choice is “Mezzanine” by Massive Attack. Everyone should check it out.
So with the brief winter that Phoenix experinces now over we are into the part of year that I like to call “Why we live here weather”. Let’s face it folks no one in their right mind lives in a place where it gets 120 in the summer and has 100+ days of 100+ degree heat. No I don’t count I moved here willingly and love it. I’m also a PACS administrator. If you ever meet another PACS administrator they will tell you anybody who does that job willingly is either stupid or crazy. I’m going to have to go with crazy people for $100 Alex.
I’ve come to the realization that everyone is beautiful on myspace. Which is why I use a comic for my picture (and here too). It’s not what the author looks like it’s what they have to say. Now I’m fine with the fact that this is page is a cesspool of incessant rambling and talking about things only I care about (for the record I haven’t talked about Linux in like 3 months). Myspace just feels like the sewer system of internet. Everyone goes there, but no one I know freely admits to going there on a regular basis. Actually let me rephrase that… people I call my friends admit they go there, they however have mostly moved to becoming flickr and blogger whores (welcome my brothers and sisters). So why have the myspace? I don’t know… part of me wants to be able to reconnect with my past… the other part of me doesn’t want to look back. I keep the myspace to keep the part of me that wants to look back happy. I keep this to keep the part of me that wants to look forward happy.
Every now and again some of my comrades in blogging will comment “Tom, I’m decided to listen to you about not blogging about work. XYZ happened and I’m glad I didn’t write about that shit”. Actually it’s been one person who has said it to me multiple times and it makes me feel good about my decision. Even if it does cut down on the amount of material I write about. Granted I have broken that rule from time to time some times worse then others but by and far I tend to stick to it.
The nice thing about about have the proverbial MAC(s) to my PC blog is that they have interesting links and seeing as how links to blogs came up at dinner on Saturday night. Granted the topic lasted all of 45 seconds but it was enough to send me to re-examine what I thought were previously static link tables.
Yep they are all pretty static except for one additional link. I’m trying to figure out how Cody came upon this person and decided to link to their very nicely done blog actually this is the sort of blog that gives me blog envy. Actually for the record it doesn’t take much to give me blog envy these days a few nicely placed pictures and a link table or two and I’m yours.
Damn if you had a C++ gui programming manual I would so be your friend.
OK so where I was going before I decided to head to tangent-ville, this blogger the “dooce” was fired from a job for blogging about work. I present to you know a excerpt from her “FAQ” section….
“I started this website in February 2001. A year later I was fired from my job for this website because I had written stories that included people in my workplace. My advice to you is BE YE NOT SO STUPID. Never write about work on the internet unless your boss knows and sanctions the fact that YOU ARE WRITING ABOUT WORK ON THE INTERNET. If you are the boss, however, please don’t be a bitch and talk with your hands. And when you order Prada online, please don’t talk about it out loud, you rotten whore.”
So there you go kids… that is a good enough reason to not talk about work. Well that and it’s not very intersting, no one cares, and it’s really not that professional.
Today is a day of pondering, today was full of those questions that you always ask your self but they never make it past the formative stage to the fully vocal stage. Normally the questions I pose get squashed by the higher learning centers of our brains. I’m happy to report that I’ve neutralized the higher processing centers of my brain to bring you these droppings… I hope you are happy.
OK first up… automatic paper towel dispensers. Yes these lowly devices that bring you drying goodness after you have finished doing your doing your business. I find these to be odd contraptions they give you half as much material that you need to use to properly dry yourself and make you wait 30 seconds for the next bit of paper. Granted your time and amount dispensed will vary depending on which Mexican restaurant or hospital you are at. I mean honestly whats the point? I think other then driving certain people up the wall these devices have no real function.
Also in the interest of full disclosure this particular issue was brought to my frontal lobes by a consultant at work who I found reads the pile of crap known as this blog. John Smith (not his real name) this one is for you.
Ok next question… I ordered a LINUX fish from Thinkgeek, so this thing weighs damn near nothing but it comes in a box that looks like the one to the left. Now there is nothing special about this box other then it contained my LINUX fish and alot of packaging material. So my question is this why couldn’t the fine folks at thinkgeek just ship me my damned fish via a padded envelope? Is it really that hard?
Also in case you were worried that I would be putting the LINUX fish on the back of my truck. Don’t worry I might be a geek but even I have my limits. I would like to get laid again sometime in this decade.
Does Eve (the woman not the game) watch “Digging for the truth” with Josh Binswanger with the same disdain that I watch most computer and technology shows?
How could the Charges lose they have the LT!
Will the Cardinals ever come in at .500?
Will the Suns ever win a championship?
Hey look my beer.
Logging into blogger this evening I notice that it is no longer in “beta” status… I think that this is a first for a Google application. Even more importantly I think that this is the first time that a product from google has gone through a entire life cycle. What will happen next? Gmail will actually become stable and not lose 50 messages out of the 5 trillion a day it receives? Oh MY! Google products will work across multiple platforms and web browsers and it will all work exactly the same!
I mean it’s like someone came along and created a set of standards and then someone else came along and followed those standards and didn’t try to create their own.
Of course I’ve been under the weather this weekend and broke from my normal no meds policy and did shot of nyQuill at midnight two nights ago… so that may be influencing this post. Then again so may the have drunk high ball of CC&7 sitting next to me.
What Tom’s not drinking beer? First Google brings a product out of beta and then Tom isn’t drinking a beer when he posts? The next thing I will be telling you is I found a woman!
Sadly somethings just don’t change with me.
So with it being the new year I’m supposed to make a new years resolution. Why do I need to make it on January 1? Why can’t I make it on April 1? Other then it being on April Fools? Yes it would still count. Anyway my point is you shouldn’t use the first of the year as a excuse to make a resolution to do something. Take me for instance. I swore off soda at home in March! I resolved to leave Kingman in April!! I vowed to start going to the gym in August!!! OK two out of three aint bad… Gosh I miss coke at home.
Ok now that I’ve beaten that horse .
I wish all of my loyal readers, which the latest nielsen ratings have come in and it says that my readership is up to 3.4 people with a .00000000000000000000001 market share! A happy and healthy new year and may my little corner of the intertube bring some light into your day at one point or another. And who knows maybe just maybe you will be apart of some tale of mine that gets it’s own movie like name.
Bring me greater pleasure then drinking a beer, having my music cranked, and working on LINUX!
I am such a geek.
This statement is brought to you by Captain Obvious… When you need to have the blatantly obvious pointed out to you.
Once again the whole having friends who blog thing has brought out the envious side in me. Not that it’s that hard to do. I’m forever compensating for something… You flaunt your married-ness with home life and either kids / pets / or lack there of. I flaunt my single-ness and my general lack of attachments to anyone or thing.
So really it’s pretty much all aspects of my life.
My latest place where I feel a need to compensate… Cody and his damn blog pictures. And it’s not just his blog it’s his damn myspace too!
I pick the oddest things to get worked up about… I really need to find a way to relax… Oh look a fridge full of Guinness.
OK so getting back to object of tonight’s angst… Take a look at those pictures. I think the guy has talent his pictures are how I see my pictures in my head. Use of shadows almost all of them off the cuff and “natural”.
Really I think that is what drives me up the wall most about photography is that so much of it is unnatural and posed. 
Now I realize that alot of photographs are posed for artistic reasons or because there is a large group but I look at so many and there always things that seem a little to perfect.
And don’t get me started on advertising. I may be in the coveted 18-49 male demographic but I resist 99.9% of that advertising
YES LORD JOBS I WILL NOT REVEAL THAT YOU ARE THE .00001% THAT GETS TO ME
That was weird I blacked out there for a second.
Anyway… I am envious of Cody and his pictures… Or maybe I’m envious of Cody and his mad iLife skills. And Eve’s ability to do the ninja camera thing.
Ok so the married people have me on that one. In order to get my “natural” shot and be in said shot it can no longer be “natural” and must be posed in some way shape or form.
And the pictures I have posted here? Well I worked from home today which means I finished working a hour early since I didn’t drive in and was already here and didn’t have to drive home. So I took a couple of pictures at lunch. I even did the faux iPhoto thing to them in Picasa and well look at mine compared to Cody’s “nature” shots…
I need to go compensate some more.