Twenty-Four Going On Fifty
Whilst I was going on my usual Saturday duties - cleaning my apartment, vacumming the floors, and doing whatever weekly dishes have ammassed in the sink, I started to compile a list of weird things I have started to do lately that have led me to one life changing conclusion.
I'm getting old.
How do I know this? Easy.
1.) I can't sleep past 10am anymore. Yeah. It just doesn't work. I can't do it,
and I've tried, believe me.
2.) I get up twice in the night to visit the bathroom. I don't understand it. Apparently my bladder has shrunken to the size of a Dixie cup.
3.) I get backaches. What's that? I used to be able to pick up a truck without any type of pain. Now if I look sideways at the wrong moment, my neck crinks and I wind up walking around like the drunk version of Lurch.
4.) I've had heartburn. Now, don't go quoting me on this just yet. My father has heartburn, and I think that I've got something like it, but I'm not willing to admit defeat yet.
5.) I increased my screen resolution because the text was too small. Me! The guy who has
always had the reslolution on the maximum. Now, at the max, I feel like I need a pair of binoculars to read anything. And no - I
don't need glasses!
Those five things are making me believe that I'm getting old.
But you know what? I REFUSE to believe that I'm getting old! That's right. I've changed my mind. I'm
not old, and I
won't be old for a long time.
Now I have to go.
My dixie cup is full.
It's Raining
It's a raining Friday night, and I'm glad.
I woke up at 7am to go talk to the local School Board about equipment for B.O.C.E.S (Board of Cooperative Educationtal Services) after falling asleep around three in the morning. As you can guess, I'm tired.
Around nine thirty, the power here in my apartment went out, and I was left here in absoulte darkness with the rain lightly dancing across my bedroom window.
It was so relaxing. The darkness coupled with the absolute silence aside from the rain, began to sway my body and I started to fall asleep.
This, of course, was the moment that the power came back on, and all of my equipment powered back up - which woke me up quite swiftly. So I've decided to go to bed early tonight. To power down the electronics of my life, lay in my warm bed and drift off to sleep listening to the rain outside my bedroom window.
It should rain every night.
Reach Out And Touch Someone
Being that my snazzy Nextel cellphone (pictured left) has free incoming calls, I don't have a home phone. The phone on the left
is my home phone.
Anyway, I recieved my cell phone bill a few weeks ago. A 78 page cell phone bill filled to the brim with 172 phonecalls to someone in Japan. The total cost? $2,178.00.
After picking myself up off the floor, re-attaching my jaw, and taking about a dozen ibuprofin, I decided to see what was going on.
I called Nextel, and the told me that I "have a friend in Japan." I quickly scanned my friends list in my brain and then promptly told her that I don't know a single person not currently in the Continental United States.
After much debating, seven days of phonecalls and arguments, and me getting a lawyer, we figured out what's going on.
Someone stole my SIM number - the part of the phone that identifies itself to the cell phone networks.
I had to turn my phone in so that they could track the guy
or girl down. So, for a few weeks (as I was told) I won't have my phone. Not a bad thing considering that I don't really use it all that much.
However, I did a search on the web and found a new way to communicate.
Somthing called "Morse Code".
He's Back
Welcome to my post about the third and final Presidential Debate, where systematically, and soundly, President Bush took every single one of John Kerry's arguments and shut him down.
At this debate, finally President Bush wiped the floor with Kerry. Even the liberal news organizations, NBC, CBS, and ABC admitted afterwards that Bush was "In clear command of every topic." - NBC "John Kerry didn't win a single argument - he tied a few, but he didn't clearly win a single discussion." - Tim Russert
The long and short of it? President Bush won the debate.
T-Minus three weeks to victory.
I raise my Pepsi to you, Mr. President. Long live the King.
Teaching The Kids
Well, the kids came. They saw. They left. With food.
The kids from SABA (School And Buisness Alliance) showed up today at 10:15. They were supposed to show up at 9:30am, but the bus driver got lost.
That's right, the bus driver got lost. Seriously, He would have found us faster if Ray Charles had drawn him a map.
Anyway, after we toned down from Defcon 2 (we thought they were dropped off, and something happened to them between the exterior of our building and our office) they finally made it. Thank God.
So I showed them what I do everyday. Two out of the three apparently were there acting as Hellen Keller. They never spoke. The third talked more than a liberal spin team in full retreat covering for John Kerry.
God Bless her.
So, they hung out with me, and with one of my co-workers, and with my sister. (Codename: "Sissykins"). We sent said "Sissykins" to Wendy's to get lunch for everyone while I showed them everything that I did. The end result? They took a vote for "Who has the coolest job". Guess who won that!?
I won.
They all thought that I had the coolest job out of everyone.
Tonight, I go to bed as "The Champ". Remember, Sissykins! Second place is the
FIRST LOSER!
The Kids Are Coming To Town
Ahh Wednesday - or, "Hump Day". The day that we all fight to get through - because at the end of the day, we're in the home stretch for the weekend.
And I love Saturdays...
Anyway, tomorrow isn't an ordinary Wednesday. Tomorrow we get interns for the day. Young kids in High School who want to see what we do, and how we do it.
It's one of the most entertaining parts of working where I work. When I was in high school, my architecture teacher changed my life when he gave me an internship to a local Research & Development company. When I came back, there was nothing else for him to teach me - and he gave me a copy of a program called 3D Studio Max. That's what got me started on my future in graphics.
So tomorrow, kids who are interested in what we do are coming to see us.
Here's hoping I can teach them something.
Protecting My Reputation
As I've been sitting here, thinking about getting ready for bed, I've decided that I need to start protecting my reputation. As a webmaster, I feel it's my duty to build my own website about me, with this blog as only part of it.
For those of you with doubts, here's what I get to do:
www.InsightHouse.com
www.GIHomes.net
www.MeleJewelryBox.com
So there you have it. Some of the stuff that I get to do everyday.
Now this is where you, my blog attendees get to lend a hand. What do you think would be cool in a website? Is there anything that you
don'twant to see in a website? Now although, I am asking for your opinion, just remember. In the end I get to do what ever I want.
After all. This website is a dicatorship, not a democracy.
Now were are my peeled grapes?
It Never Works For Me.
Being a guy who loves technology, I'm always ready to try out any piece of hardware or software that will make my online experience more enjoyable - and when I was told by a few friends that Yahoo! Messenger was a better chatting client than AOL Instant Messenger, I decided to try out Yahoo! Messenger again to see if it had changed since I used it five years ago.
Yahoo! Messenger is a chat client that loves to trumpet it's features over those built into AOL Instant Messenger. On paper all the new features that it has a cool - IMVironments (your screen changes to an interactive room), Audibles (Audio soundbytes that you can send), and some other cool features.
From what I've read online, version 5.5 worked great. The features were wonderful. So, Yahoo! built on top of the features and came out with this new version. (6.0)
The only problem is that on my computer none of these features work. After doing some research online it appears that a lot of people who have broadband cannot get any of these features to work either, and Yahoo! knew this when they released the program figuring that they would just fix it later.
What kind of a decision is this? Right now 48% of all households that are online have broadband, and every day thousands of families are leaving the world of the one lane dial-up road, and getting on the eight lane super highway of broadband. To release a version of Yahoo! Messenger where they're yelling about how great it is, but at the same time
know that it's got some serious compatibility issues is terrible customer service, and bad buisness.
Come on, Yahoo! You can do better than that!
Taking Care Of My Baby
There she is. Right there on the left. My baby. The most expensive thing I've ever bought, looking all shiny and clean.
I took that picture yesterday due to the fact that as October marches on, the weather is beginning to shift more and more in the favor of winter, and soon snow will fall again.
And my car will turn into a salt magnet.
When she's clean, my car looks amazing. The only problem? Black shows
everything. Especially salt. So from the months of December until April, my car looks like an off-roading deralict.
It also doesn't have the ground clearance that my previous vehicle had, and seeing as how the Utica DPW believes that waiting until the snow melts is a good way to clear the roads, driving in inclimate weather isn't always a good idea. If the snow gets deep enough in the road, my car turns into a toboggan. Not necessarily a
good thing.
Well, in any case, I took that picture as much as for me, as for you guys.
So shiny...
We've Lost Superman
Yesterday while I was getting ready for bed, I flipped over to FoxNews only to find some bad news. We lost Superman yesterday. The first man who wore the blue and red suit of justice - Christopher Reeve - passed away.
I grew up watching Superman. He symbolized everything great that man could be. Plus, he always laid the smackdown on the bad guys - and we all know that that's just good entertainment.
In 1995 Christopher Reeve fell off his horse, and landed on his head. Unfortunetly, his injuries caused him to be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
Well, now he's hanging out in Heaven, with the original Superman - God.
I raise my Pepsi to you, Mr. Reeve. You'll always be Superman to me.
Renovating The Future
Well, I showed up at my parent's house today just in time to start drawing architectural plans for their new renovation.
This spring, my parents' house is going to undertake some much needed renovation. This includes knocking a lot of walls out, and changing the entire layout of the house.
So, I got to draw out the architectural plans. See, my father can build anything, but visual style isn't his...well...style. So after basically telling him that his idea was "CRAP!", I drew out what it should be.
And the peasants rejoiced.
My additions to the plan? Some layout designs, an enclosed porch, a stone walkway, and enough landscaped recess lighting to make any gardener envious.
Another reason why I am a genious.
If you need me, Mr. Deville, I'll be in my trailer.
