He’s in the music business… he’s calling you DUDE!!

So about a year ago I moved to this new word press blog thingy…. and about two weeks after that I discoverd the joy/pain of upgrading your blog’s database.  That was a consequence of “rolling my own” as it would be and well since I’m a I.T. guy I surely don’t get enough of this shit at work I just rolled with it….

Many many many times as it woud turn out.  Now why am I writing about this… well it turns out that Live Journal has sucidal servers when you get a 404 page not found error.  And I found it so humerous I took a screen shot saved it to the desktop and went to load it up here.

And that’s when the problems started… because the day before I had yet another one of these upgrades that has caused “no problems” up until now.  And of course as I google for solutions and try to not blow my database tables (turns out WordPress has a really nifty export function) I discover I’m far from the only person that is having this problem.  Which leads me to be the only logical conculsion.

The internet hates wordpress….

Not God… or god… or vishnu… or theatons… no the internet hates wordpress.

So no funny picture for you… and no I’m not going to hyper link to the picture… the whole point was that I was going to craft this story around this one picture…

You know I’m going to stop now, I’m starting to sound like a damned engineer.

Oh and yes I’ve been usually quiet… I don’t know why but it may have something to do with a few games that I’ve picked up….

Letters to Santa…

It’s that time of year again… when lots and lots of snow flakes fall and we all bundle up against whatever cold has come our way.

So in the spirit of the Season, I now present to you “Letters to Santa if he answered them honestly…”

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Deer Santa,
I wud like a kool toy space ranjur fer Xmas.  I’v ben a gud boy
all yeer.

Yer Friend, Billy

Dear Billy,
Nice spelling. You’re on your way to a career
in lawncare.  How about I send you a book so you can learn to read and
spell?  I’m giving your older brother the space ranger.  At least HE can
spell.

Santa

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Dear Santa,
I have been a good girl all year, and the only
thing I ask for is peace and joy in the world for everybody!
Love, Sarah

Dear Sarah,
Your parents smoked pot when they had you,
didn’t they?

Santa

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Dear Santa,
I don’t know if you can do this, but for
Christmas, I’d like for my mommy and daddy to get back together.
Please see what you can do.

Love,
Teddy

Dear Teddy,
Look, your dad’s banging the babysitter like a
screen door in a hurricane.   Do you think he’s gonna give that up to
come back to your frigid mom, who rides his ass constantly?   It’s time
to give up that dream.

Let me send you some Legos instead.

Santa

****************************************************


Dear Santa,
I want a new bike, a Playstation 2, a train,
some G.I. Joes, a dog, a drum kit, a pony and a tuba.

Love, Francis

Dear Francis,
Who names their kid “Francis” nowadays?  I bet
you’re gay.  I’ll set you up with a Barbie.

Santa

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Dear Santa,
I left milk and cookies for you under the tree,
and I left carrots for your reindeer outside the back door.

Love, Susan

Dear Susan,
Milk gives me the sh!ts and carrots make the
deer fart in my face when riding in the sleigh.   You want to do me a
favor?   Leave me a bottle of Scotch.

Santa

****************************************************


Dear Santa,
What do you do the other 364 days of the year?
Are you busy making toys?

Your friend, Thomas

Dear Thomas,
All the toys are made in China .  I have a condo
in Vegas where I spend most of my time making low-budget porno films.  I
unwind by drinking myself silly and squeezing the a$$es of cocktail
waitresses while losing money at the craps table.

Hey, you wanted to know.

Santa

****************************************************


Dear Santa,
Do you see us when we’re sleeping, do you really
know when we’re awake, like in the song?

Love, Jessica

Dear Jessica,
Are you really that gullible?  Good luck in
whatever you do.  I’m  skipping your house.

Santa

****************************************************


Dear Santa,
I really want a puppy this year.  Please,
please, please, PLEASE, PLEASE could I have one?

Love, Timmy

Dear Timmy,
That whiney begging shit may work with your
folks, but that crap doesn’t work with me.

You’re getting a sweater again.

Santa

****************************************************


Dearest Santa,
We don’t have a chimney in our house.  How do
you get into our home?

Love, Marky

Dear Mark,
First stop callling yourself “Marky”, that’s why
you’re getting your a$$ whipped at school.  Second, you don’t live in a
house, you live in a low-rent apartment complex.  Third, I get inside
your pad just like the boogeyman does, through your bedroom window.

Sweet dreams,
Santa

Well at least I got a good story out of it….

Consider the following… the story behind the wine…

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So your probably looking at two bottles of wine… assuming they showed up in one piece, if not your probally looking at a very red piece of paper and alot of glass shards.

Assuming your looking at two bottles of wine… let me tell you a little story about the two scribbles at the top of the bottle.  The winemakers autographed your bottles… This is the story of that autograph.

So a couple of days ago (I’m writing this on a Wednesday… so lets call it Sunday) I was driving home from something (lets say a Cardinals game) And this advertisement comes up on the radio station I was listening to (lets call that KUPD) talking about a wine bottle signing at a local Whole Foods on Wed here in the East Valley.  I think to myself wow that would make a great gift for someone… then I hear who the will be at the signing…

Maynard Keenan

I then think to myself, “Wow this is the perfect gift for Eve and Cody! Wine for Eve and Bottle and Picture for Cody!!” Then the advertisement says “No pictures”

Ok it’s still a pretty cool gift even with out the whole pictures thing.

Well I think so.

So Wednesday afternoon rolls around and I make my way to Whole Foods… On the way over the disc jokey on the radio chimes in multiple times “don’t take your tool stuff, don’t take anything, all your getting is a bottles of wine signed up to the number 1”.  The disc jokey is a bit of a jack ass so I don’t sweat it to much.

I get in line which only takes up about half of the front of the store and notice that it’s doubled back on itself.  No worries I get in line, the nice girl from Whole Foods hands me a ticket and wine list, in front me is a VERY VERY VERY pregnant woman (who I would later in the line experience find out was having contractions that morning!)

Behind me is a older woman, like 40’s older so it’s your pretty typical TOOL / APC crowd.  There a couple of guys in front of the VERY VERY VERY pregnant woman who are talking about selling a PlayStation for something or another and other topics that I catch bits and pieces of. The line moves pretty quickly and everyone is very nice in the early evening coolness of what would turn out to be the coolest day yet in 2008 (both temperature and things happening).

So we finally get to the front of the line, they are letting in groups of 15 at a time to purchase the wine and then go to another section to pick up the wine. So we go into the store, purchase the wine and then I get into the next line and I’m wearing my normal jeans and black hooded sweatshirt.  The nice Whole Foods girl who’s minding this line (different from the other nice Whole Foods girl) tells me that Maynard’s body guard told the staff working the event “no sweatshirts or closed jackets” this is in addition to the large jackets, bags, purses, cell phones, and camera’s” they told you about earlier.  So I take off my sweatshirt and I look behind me and there is the same older woman who was behind me in line earlier I, she tells me that her mother is over at tables by the registers and will watch my sweatshirt.  Sweet..

I dump the sweatshirt and get back into line.

Next line they actually give you your wine, I got a couple of bottles so I also get one of those retarded little caddies that won’t stay together to save your life for more then 10 minutes.   There are probally 10 people in this line total and the next line, which leads to a dark corner that has a partition up and people are going behind and coming out of one at a time.

So we move to the next line, as we have gotten closer and closer the line has become increasingly quit I come up to the partition and what I assume to be the “bodyguard” waves me forward and directs me to stop two feet behind the partition all with out saying a word and only moving his hands.  He then waves me through after the person in front of me completed their wine signing.

I place my retarded caddy of wine on table and the first gentlemen who’s looks to be in his mid 40’s looks very tanned and has grey curly hair takes a bottle signs it and passes it to Maynard.  He asks me how I’m doing, where I heard about the wine signing, and how was the line experience (I’m doing very well, on the radio, and extremely positive (well except for the whole no sweatshirt thing but I don’t mention that)).

As I step over to get my retarded wine caddy Maynard looks up from his chair looking very tanned and very bald in his blue track suit (I’m not making this up) makes eye contact with me and says “Thank you, enjoy the wine” I say “Thank you, I will”

I walked away from the table and got 20 ft before I started to just giggle.

I go back to the front of the store and retrieve my sweatshirt and the woman who was behind me is right behind me.  We chat for a short bit and during the course of the conversation she says “I just wanted to ask the strange little bald man “Why are you signing my wine?”” In her defense she had been to multiple TOOL concerts and I’m pretty sure she had anyway.

The only thing that would have made the experience better would have been you guys in line to experience it.

T

Football town USA…

I have almost always considered Phoenix a NBA town first and foremost… and a MLB town in the summer and with the Dbacks doing good.

Today on my way to the Cardinals game on I-10 just South of the Broadway Curve there is a billboard that reads simply “Go Cards”

Holy shit!  The Cardinals aren’t even in the playoffs and there are Pro Cardinals signs up!

I think the clincher for me was at the stadium seeing a thinner then usual crowd of Blue and White and a very loud and racious Red Sea on the inside…

Now if they could have just won the game….

Oh well I guess I can’t everything.

GO CARDINALS!!

Take me to the river….

I consider my self a gamer, I’m not any one kind of gamer I like all kinds of games.  Board, card, video, and sports (more watching not so much the playing).   I’m not partial to any one type of game over another I just enjoy playing games.

On the subject of video games I consider myself a PC gamer first and foremost and console gamer a far distant second.  I’ve been that way for coming up on 10 years now (basically since my first run through with the original half life and the X-wing / TIE fighter games of the later 90’s).  Last night I had a experience that may have signaled the shift of my PC gamer status.  Playing the “Left 4 Dead” demo with Curtis and Nick we kept having some serious technical issues.  We are all running Vista on our gaming boxes and you all know how much I loathe Vista, sadly Vista didn’t cause the headache it was game itself.  Which is really unfortunate since it runs on the STEAM service for the PC and honestly if I’m going to buy a game on the PC and it’s on STEAM that is how I’m going to buy it.

The problems seemed to be mostly of the beta/demo variety which I can understand, but after having such a good experience with Team Fortress 2 last year during the beta period I was fairly disappointed by the technical problems last night.  What happened next is to me amazing, I downloaded the “Left 4 Dead” demo onto my Xbox and played for about an hour online with public groups with really no problems outside of the occasional lag spike.

My experince with “Left 4 Dead” is probally not that common experince I will still pick up the game since when it did work the game lived up to the usual polish and refinement that I have come to expect out of the folks at Valve.

I have to say though, this is the first game that if I knew more people who would be picking it up on the Xbox I would probally go that route rather then the PC.

Walk on by…

So as mentioned in the post last night I was on vacation for a couple of weeks.   So part of being on vacation is stopping your mail.  And in Phoenix when you ask to have your mail stopped it actually stops and just doesn’t pile up in your box even though your mail man know your elk hunting and you put in multiple requests to the post office.

I digress… so I’m looking through the mail which is mostly coupon flyer’s and shoppers guides (spam), bills, and credit card offers (more spam)

/sidebar/

Why is it’s perfectly acceptable to get credit card spam in the post mail and penis offers in email but not the other way around?

/endSidebar/

So as I’m sifting through the mail I notice a post card extolling the virtues of wind power to make beer… signed by one “J. McCain”

I look closer and the beer bottle on the front of the post card is a Fat Tire beer…. which is odd because I always had Mr. McCain pegged as a Budweiser man.

Turning left, it’s not just for nascar anymore…

So I’m in the final evening of a two week vacation where I have been red necking it up the entire time.  I started with Deer hunting for 10 days in Kingman, came back to Phoenix, and then did 5 days at Phoenix International Raceway to watch cars turn left.

So what is the net result of this vacation?

1. When dad says get the gun don’t stop by the tire to rack up the shell in the rifle.

2. The Blackberry Pearl is a excellent email and text machine, and in a pinch it’s a decent mobile Internet reader (just don’t expect much)

3. I would really like to goto a Sprint Cup Race and have someone other then Jimmie Johnson I don’t know maybe someone like this guy hell even this guy I’m not picky just someone other then Jimmie Johnson.

4. When I spend a hour at Best Buy and a 2 hours at Fry’s Electronics because it’s a Wendsday and just because I can it’s a sign that I may need to unplug.

5.  Additonal sign I may need to unplug… I seriously thought about buying a second wireless router (Draft 802.11N/802.11G/802.11A) just so I could have Wireless A/N in my house for the Laptop and Xbox.

6. Spending the better part of Wednesday night and Thursday morning trying to justify to my self that the second wireless router was a good idea.

Yes folks somethings just don’t change.

And if only that deer had gone left…