Microphone Please ...

Memorial day

2011-05-30T09:06:00.000-07:00

What is it about sleeping in so late. Normally I get up before 7 a.m. for work. Sometimes I get up at 5:45 a.m. . It just seems natural to get your body up early. Today I got out of bed after 10 a.m. . Ugh! My body felt worse then if I got up early as usual. I dont know in these cases if the extra sleep really helped.

Saw Bridemaids last night with my wife. Hilarious as hell movie. I was surprised. Only thing though is I really recommend not watching so many trailers. It seems as though the trailers, especially after release, seem to show you more and more of the film. Shame.

Still want to go see Pirates in 3d.

oop, breakfast is calling.

Later

Stab your eye out. (look it up...)

2011-05-11T12:11:00.000-07:00

Decided for now to just deactivate my facebook account. I can see where people say "I just don't need the drama.". It's one less thing I just dont need right now. I'm deciding right now I just dont want that much exposure in my life. Think I'll put my time into playing WOW and just keeping a low profile. I mean how much trouble can a person get into playing World of Warcrack? We'll see how this goes.

I think secretly I long for the days when we were just a little less visable.

It's raining outside. Thank God for small favors.

Corperate sociapathy is alive and well.

2010-08-23T08:41:00.000-07:00

I just dont understand people sometimes. Why is it that there are people who find it incredibly instinctive or natural just to lie about something rather then just say "I don't know.". So often I meet people, usually in my job, that just seem to want to lie cheat or steal there way through a job or in life in general. They have no compulsion in doing so much less any moral center. I see it time and time again. These are just not nice people in general to deal with. Furthermore what happens is not only do they behave this way and get away with it but in a corporate structure these are the people that are groomed and promoted by the very same types of people. No moral character whatsoever. They just give me the chills in general.

These types of people are the very same people you see that have caused our economy to turn on its very head. People like Goldman Sachs that will put together hedge funds and investments with others and bet against them knowing they are going to fail on the other side selling them to their very same customers as a market boon that will make money. They rip off people for billions of dollars and get away with it. Another example is the "former" VP for IBM who got caught in insider trading along with a variety of other characterless people only to blame it on a relationship with a young lady who sold him into the insider trading to begin with. Time and time again we just let these people get away with this and we just move along like nothing happened.

Then on the other hand we see where groups like FOX NEWS want to stir up contraversy about a Muslim cultural center being built at "911 ground zero" only to find out its 3 blocks away, while shouting about ties to terrorism when the second largest contributor is a muslim himself with ties to the Saudi family who also has ties to the Ladins who helped finance 911 to begin with. Amazes me. Yet people keep running around quoting fox this and that for a republican agenda. It just gets old. Its all very insane and I won't swallow any of it.

Roaches on the walls.

2010-06-09T06:16:00.001-07:00

You know I can't say it enough. Coming into the office to work is highly overrated. I work in a cubicle in an office close to the big city. This building was probably built in the 70s. I think we have a cleaning crew that comes in maybe once a week. Its disgusting. I can't tell you how many times I have come into the office and killed between 1-4 roaches in the day. Worst I think was a 6 count. It came as a shock to me though that today the refrigeration on our water fountains If I didn't love my job so much, i'm sure I would be doing something else.

On the lighter side. This may our city council decided to put fees into our local town community pool. The "newly elected" council decided to do this the first day they held office as part of their first agenda. It came as a shock to much of the town. It left me a little bit miffed. Not so much for the money fee issue as it was the way the council barged in the first day of council meetings and pushed this through. There was no serious justification or even review of why they had to do this. Well it put me at odds enough to see what one city member could do about it. I noted that in the council charter, a citizen of trophy club can request the right to petition. Well now!!! I did just that. Over the last 2 weekends including memorial day I have been out at the pool each day holding a petition to press the town to have a vote on whether we have pool fees or not. The object is that if I get over 1200 signatures of the registered members of trophy club it will force the town to take a vote on the subject. I dont feel the council should have done what they did. They dont lord over our town like kings and queens. I feel a few of them hold a pretty smug attitude including our town mayor. Lets see how I do. I just want the vote but lets see what the council does. I'll be out there this weekend.

Oh BTW. I was front page of our local paper. I'm guessing our town mayor will have a few posts to some of her cronies.

Off my soapbox for now.

Julian

Iron man 2 easter egg

2010-05-12T18:32:00.000-07:00

For those of you who went to see Iron Man 2, you all know of the easter egg at the end of the credits. But there are some others. I highly suggest you see it again. There is a scene at the end of the movie where Tony Stark is looking at the Avengers Initiative. If you look in the right corner there is a new clip running on one of the monitors and it is labled ...

Attack at culver university

This is the scene from the latest hulk movie where hulk is fighting at the campus against the military. Nice lead up to the avengers movie which will be the avengers going to stop the hulk.

Hope everyone goes to see it again.

whats burning?

2010-04-09T05:33:00.000-07:00

Ever burn the roof of your mouth but the pain doesn't hit for a day or two later and you're left wondering "WTH? Where did that come from?" ? Over the last few days I have been going through some serious silent suffering with some serious mouth pain. Somehow I did burn the roof of my mouth on something and I am left a little clueless on how. With each bite I take with just about anything I eat, a wave of pain runs from my mouth right to my brain. If anyone has experienced this, which I am sure most of you have, you will know how excruciating every bite can be. Nothing seems to taste good and food just comes off as repulsive. Anywho, take each day as it comes on this one. Cold soup anyone?

A President that makes sense.

2010-04-01T12:09:00.000-07:00

Finally a President that makes sense. After the last one, I was really beginning to worry if there was any hope. So many people complain about this President but in the scheme of things I see someone who is genuinely accomplishing something. Whereas the republican administration has offered nothing productive and merely wishes to spend its time stonewalling. BAU and nothing I would expect from them. My only hope now is to see reforms placed on banking, lending as he did with credit card companies. In over a year he has done more then the previous President has done in 8. And for some odd reason, that really may not be saying a lot.

Health Care Reform WIN!
Credit Card Reform WIN!

Lets keep trucking and do more!

Diabetes, weight, looks and peoples general ignorance on the matter…

2010-01-28T09:08:00.001-08:00

Ok, so here is something new that came up last night that bothered me. Playing poker with some friends of mine and as always some discussion will come up that will get a little heated or debated. I have one friend who is a doctor, well two really but this one is more of your family practice doctor. Now, I really like this guy. He has a humor all his own and sometimes he just says things a little off the cuff that tends to come off as a bit abrasive. I don’t think he means it, its just his nature. When I showed up he made a comment about my stomach being a bit more pronounced and asked if I was gaining weight or was it maybe how I had my shirt tucked in. I noted a couple of things right away, one being that whenever I have a big meal that my stomach tends to distend. Now understand that I am in a room full of guys who all think they are comedians. So out comes some of the pokes and jabs when I am being serious. Its not so much what I eat as much as it is that when I do eat it distends and then after a few hours it goes back down. My thought is that when I eat I either swallow air or its part of me aggravating my liver which causes other issues. But you know how guys are, they all think they’re funny in some respect and don't really care to talk about the reality of the issue.

The second point being is that there is a long history of diabetes in my family running a few generations. In the last few years I have gradually lost some 70lbs. the last 20 being in the last 6 months or so with my wife changing her lifestyle and loosing 95 lbs in a year. What anyone who has undergone huge weigh loss will tell you is that the first thing that comes off is the arms and legs fat and the last is the stomach. The very nature of how most weightless works. Another issue that also has concerned me is that maybe is a byproduct of wasting from diabetes. If you don’t know what wasting is with respect to diabetes, Google it, I wont bother going over it. I know what it already is.

So now to the meat of my subject. Its always funny that when you bring up a topic like weightloss it is always the skinniest person at the table that has the most to say. One of the guys made the point of “Well maybe if you just work out harder and eat more salad blah blah blah..” you know the routine. When I bring up the rebuttal of “I eat no differently in my lifestyle if not less then you.” They look at you funny and thing “Well that can’t be right, look at you”. I know this is just ignorance. Its the whole Jillian Michael PUT DOWN THAT DONUT YOUR FAT mentality. The truth is that two people can live the exact same lifestyle, hell the one with diabetes could live even a more constringent lifestyle and because of genetic factors, he can still be overweight and have high cholesterol or diabetes. I’m not saying there probably isn't more I could do sure, but I am more frustrated by other peoples ignorance of the matter then anything else. Its always easiest for the thin person to point fingers and to line out a lifestyle they themselves wouldn’t even do if they were in the same shoes. I’m not laying blame, I just think more people need to take the shoe out of their mouth.

So back on the discussion that I was having with this doctor. Immediately its off to the talk of well with diabetes you really have to look into controlling everything about your aspect of life. Working out and itemizing everything you do in your life. Ok, this I have to agree with 100%. I am not denying that it is a HUGE lifestyle change. Let me be clear, there is NO cure for diabetes! There will never be one. Not everyone's body is designed the same way and not everyone can commit to a huge lifestyle change. Sometimes the cards are just dealt the way they are dealt. Not a copout but I chose my lifestyle. We only have 24 hrs in the day, I work 9, I sleep 8 and what time is left of the rest of the 8 in the day is pretty damn precious to me and working out an hour of the day just doesn't fit into it. So finding he treatment that fits MY lifestyle is going to be key for me. Ok so here again, you’re thinking oooh you mean eating cheeseburgers and pizza every day isn't going to work either. No…. that again is ignorance on your part. Another person I play poker with is one of those “Iron Man” Olympia kind of guys that does all the extreme bike rides, triathlons. I’m sorry but this isn’t your every day kind of guy here. First of all he is a TRUE type A personality. If you have even known this person, you’d know exactly what it means. This doesn't work for me either.

What lifestyle fits for me is I have a job where I sit behind a computer some 9 hours out of the day answering phones. My breakfast today was a bag of cheerios and my lunch will probably a turkey sandwich and dinner will be something light and moderate I’m sure as well. I don’t snack in between as well. Again, I am already hearing “well maybe you shouldn't eat those carbs and maybe don't eat the cheerios eat some oatmeal.”. The reality is that its less then what most people eat and its a fairly health meal process. But this is what I get so often in the topic. You need to eat this and this, not even looking into the rational of what I am eating and that its no different then most peoples meal plan if not a little bit healthier.

See this is my point, my internal battle isn't so much with how I feel but rather so much a struggle with what so many other peoples ignorance is about the subject. All together really I feel fine. I will give credit to one guy said on the table. “Bud you 90% there is your heart is beating and you can get up and walk around.” Thanks … Nothing offensive, a positive comment and overall cordial.

On a lighter note, yeah I do continue to work my diet. More later on the medical community, treatments for disease etc next time.

Rant on self checkout.

2010-01-21T11:28:00.001-08:00

I went to my local grocer chain today to get my usual lunch. Turkey smoke stack if you’re interested. In a trend of trying to compete, this store has changed their shelves and looks approx some 4-5 times in the last 10 years. More recently then ever though they have been making employee changes and shelving changes. Its like a rat in a maze now trying to find anything. They are constantly trying to appeal to the crowd that managed to pay more by shopping at places like Central Market.

Now here is what I have to say on this. People that shop at central market, shop there because that is THE place they want to go and be seen as well as tell others they have been there. Realistically, I don't care. But what my store has to understand is this. People that shop at Central Market shop there because it IS central market. Places like Tom Thumb, Kroger or Albertsons are places I got to get my groceries. Not a place that I choose to hang out and be “seen” but rather get my eggs, milk, bread etc and go.

Now for the “go” part. I’m sorry, I know this economy sucks but the only part of society that corporations have not figured how to outsource is the grocer cashiers/baggers/stockers etc. Although I am damned sure that if you could put Haji ramakasunaram in front of a webcam in India and have his face greet you at the checkout they would. I will absolutely refuse to shop there when they do. The key reason why I go to the store that I choose is because of the people. As of late though they have let go some of the key people that I really appreciated. Now when I go into my local store I have one express checkout, which btw they always put the new guy on and don't ask me why, and the rest are 4 self checkout scanners and one person standing in front of a screen. Ok, again… I REFUSE TO USE THE SELF CHECKOUT. Sorry if it is my punishment, but what is the point of even opening the express checkout of its THE ONLY friggin checkout manned in the store. GAH! Lady in front of me today had a whole friggen vegetable and fruit garden and the guy at the checkout had to look each one up in a book.

Why is it that stores are punishing the consumer? See it used to be if you didn't like the store you told them “Fine I'm going someplace else”. But now they have done two things. The large stores destroyed the mom and pop biz with competing services and now that those stores are gone, they have succumbed to destroying what service they were giving us. Don’t believe me. Go into Wal-Mart sometime. 24 registers and 3 of them are manned. 1 at mine after 9pm. 11 at night I go in there and there is a line all the way back to women's clothes and nobody will come open another register. GAH!

I can’t tell you how many times I have left the buggy sitting right in the middle of the store and walked out because of the stores incompetence. I refuse to deal with it. If I could get a majority of my groceries online and shipped to me, I would do it. We had a group called pee-pod here that did it, I loved it. It was another one of those good things that don't last. Damn shame. Stores today are seeing the industry die to the web markets of today/tomorrow. Malls are drying up along with a variety of major chain stores. Why ?? Its simple. You keep putting management so far removed from there chains until the point that all they are seeing is a number… $$$$. That's it. Well eventually more people like me will be leaving the buggies in the isle and going someplace else. You want my business, offer me services. The people make the store chains work. Especially the grocers. Not the food or prices. I can get my groceries anyplace but again I’ll got to the place that will offer me the best service and price combined not just price.

More testing of Windows Live Writer.

2010-01-10T10:18:00.001-08:00

Lets see how a picture post works for me.

This was taken when we first brought chi-chi home.

Another year has come and gone.

2010-01-10T10:14:00.001-08:00

So anothere year has passed us all by. I’m not sure what really came of it to tell you the truth. I am tired of the politics and watching people I know loose jobs they have had for years. It seems as its just a blur. I’m still employed, but with IBM nobody knows how long that will last. I just have to keep counting my blessings. My kids are healthy and moving thru school with a nudge or two.

It was the year of facebook for me though. Several people I know from highschool have added me as friends and its been interesting on that front. I can’t say that I have a lot to complaint about but it feels like I don’t have a lot to be overjoyed about either. Lets see how 2010 works out. Ooh and I have windows 7 up and running so I decided to try this through the windows live blog editor.

Julez

There is a GOD!

2009-10-20T18:39:00.001-07:00

Today I discover that Bob Moffatt was caught with his hands in the cookie jar over at IBM. He was being groomed to replace Sam Palmisano but it isn't going to happen now. It would seem that cooperate greed does come back to bite everyone. Even you BOB! You work at IBM for 30 years only to not even allow people to make it past 20 below him and send those jobs to India on a whim. I believe in Karma and I believe in what you do will eventually come back to haunt you. Bob is just the first.

In previous posts I made it clear that during the Bush era the SEC had no teeth and Bush made sure of it. All through his administrations he let cooperate greed run in full force. Now people like Bob get caught and are squealing like pigs to not spend a day in Jail. We shall see. What I can't help but find funny though. No memo will go out at IBM like all the other thousands of people that were "let go" to let you know this person is no longer working for the company. Or even a memo saying that a change in the company head was made. IBM's trying it best to bury this one. Ooh yeah btw, IBM stock fell $7 in one day. Watch how far they distance themselves from an employee like Bob.

Yes Bob you were an employee and now your going to jail. You and every one of your cooperate cronies that you will squeal like a pig on. Am I resentful? Damn right! Now that we have a new President in office the SEC is going to have power again. Let's see how this plays out. If I get to see Bob rott in jail for the rest of his life, I'll feel just a little bit better about this world were in.

Dow hits 10,000 today!

2009-10-14T10:32:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I am sitting here watching CNN and I see the Dow hit 10,000 today. Yes this a first in a very long time showing a very strong market. My concern is though, what does this mean to the middle class to below middle income earners. People who have little or nothing to invest. 10% unemployment right now, the worst in recent history by far. People unemployed and the corporations that are reaping the rewards of all this bailout money haved moved jobs outside the U.S. This not to mention corperations playing games and hiring former employees back at about 1/2 there regular pay and little if no benefits. What does this come down to. Simple...

The rich get richer and a simple destruction of the middle class. Key points. Corporations got fat off the bailout and it did little for the income earners out there working for them. They aren't hiring in the U.S. and if they are its at incomes less then what it was 10 years ago. Its sad. As for me, is my 401K going up. ooh yes it is. Im not complaining on that end but I just can't help but see that this was a recent administration that was out to bilk every penny and destroy the middle class. And those people loosing jobs, homes and cars even with this 10,000 on the DOW, are reaping nothing from this.

Off my soapbox.

Much ado about nothing.

2009-09-08T07:36:00.000-07:00

Labor day weekend came and went. If anything I got the front yard cut. I did some patch work in the master bathroom and it gave me the chance to hit home depot. For the longest time now I have been thinking about ripping the carpet out of the bathroom. Its a small master bathroom in an L shape around a walk in closet. I figure I have 6x15 with the 3' width. I took a look at some tile bargains. While I think I have the basic steps down having ripped up my master shower and laying up tile in there, the prep is always the nastiest of the work that I dread.

There is some nice tile sitting at Home depot on the floor in boxes at 68cents a sq ft. About 8 bucks a box. Oddly enough on Friday I meet an friend who just happens to have a wet tile saw. This only edged me closer towards getting the project done. Last fall and winter I was able to rip the carpet out of my office and lay down some nice faux wood tile. Yeah its cheap but its a whole lot better then the carpet. This way I can sweep it out and I know its clean.

My best thought on it is that with having to cut the tile in the garage, I want to it to be damn cool if not freezing. It makes working the project a whole lot easier.

Lets see, what else? New church starting up in my town. The interesting thing is that its the same people who built a gorgeous church already some 5 years ago here. It would seem they didn't like the actions of the church and decided to split off and go and start another one. I really dont understand organized religions. I really dont. Does it make me any less of a christian? Well I think I have bigger things to worry about there besides that. "Pray in a closet" is what I always say.

I bought a plant for my desk at home. Nothing big. I just needed something to make me feel like there was a presence in here with me. It appears to be working. The plant girl over in Tom Thumb told me its a pretty hardy plant so that much is good. Water once a day and give it some low indoor light. Its going to have a nice window view.

One more thought, started taking a new combination of Vitamins. I have been doing some research on a few things. Currently taking

1000mg vitamin C, 1000 mg L-Lysine, Multivitamin. I have to admit that I do feel better because its very noticeable when I get off of em. It would seem as though this combination with my lisinopril 5 mg (very low dose) works very well in my overall mood and health. I have much more energy then I have had in quite some time.

Thats about it for now. Hope for a much mellower new me.

Skank of NY blogger

2009-08-24T06:58:00.000-07:00

Why is it that it never ceases to amaze me that our rights are never protected when the constitution says they are. Another blogger deserves her anonymity to be protected but because google doesnt want to take the time to fight our government then what rights to we have.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/08/18/new.york.model.blog.lawsuit/index.html

Its a damn shame. Makes me want to mind my P's and Q's. Naah not really...

Miss California tells the truth? God forbid!!!

2009-04-21T10:07:00.000-07:00

Hurrah to Miss California. I was shocked by this. A woman when asked a question by an openly gay judge only to expect that she just might tell the truth?!?! My heart felt blessing goes out to her then Miss Prejeans. For standing up for what you believe in. For speaking the truth when so few of us do. You were put upon by this person only to expect that you might lie and say the politically correct thing. Again my kudos! There should be more contestants like you.

As far as I am concerned "Perez hilton" can bite me.

Comics, Conventions, gubbament and other things.

2008-11-19T07:38:00.000-08:00

Ok so lots have been going on for me. Back into the comic scene 2 weeks ago and attended my first convention in 20 years. Boy have things changed. Met a wide variety of people, made some new friends and met a few artists. What is interesting was the day of the convention I was getting out of the hospital after having a pancreatic attack. Not good. Need to really work on my health stuff. Turned 42 and even though I have lost a ton of weight, (looooooking good mahn!), my cholesterol and some other crap is through the roof. Dunno... don't want to live a life on drugs but what can you do? Walking heart attack and all that.

Anyways, those 3 days were a blast. Cracked open my old collection and couldn't believe what I had put away in 20 years. 12 cent fantastic fours, Amazing spiderman and the like. Decided to go through them all and sort and clean up the collection with a few fresh bags and backing boards. Also picked up some new issues to check out the new artists and some of the new story lines. The stuff now is so incredibly expensive. You're talking 3-10 smackers and issue and not to mention varying story lines and variant covers. Expensive hobby. At least it can be. Might toy with a few subscriptions just to keep things interesting. But yeah its a whole new world here.

On a more serious note. Elections. I have told people in the past. I just don't vote for the president in the November Primes. It just doesn't make sense. For 1, we don't really elect a president the electoral college does it for you. Never understood why in today's day and age why this still happens. Personally I don't thing we really have a choice in the matter. Call it a conspiracy theory but I think the bigger powers out there pick your president for you. You're just in it for the dog and pony show. For the most part think about it... Really ?!? You are given two, for the most part, people to pick. You seriously think that we were going to get a 70+ year old man with a walking time bomb as a president? I seriously thing your setup to move a certain direction. Obama was going to be our president no matter what and you were pushed into the direction. They never wanted a close race and they pushed you away even further with picking Sarah Palin as your Vice President. You were pushed off a cliff hard into the direction of who the greater powers wanted as your president. It just seems to abundantly obvious. Anywho, In the long run going about my daily business, I dont think it really impacts me on the whole.

Now the issue about gas prices. Here is another one that gets me. We were at a national peak for a better part of 4-8 years between 3-5 bucks a gallon for gas. We see Bush on the way out and suddenly gas is going down to 50$ a barrel all of a sudden? What am I missing here? To think that Bush and his cronies didn't rob America for 8 years, you have to be a little naive to miss that one. Gas in my area all of a sudden is 1.75 a gallon? WTF?

Also this great national bailout of the economy. Why did this all of a sudden happen at the 3rd quarter of bushes last year? This is a proverbial money grab for all of bushes cronies again before Bush leaves office.

I'm sorry America but you were ripped off!!

Iphone review.

2008-10-02T06:41:00.000-07:00

Like of the herd of lemmings, I decided a couple of months ago to go purchase my new Iphone. Over the last 2-3 years I have had a treo 650. I really did like my Treo, but due to the weight and size of the device, its time was coming to an end. My wife purchased hers first and I purchased mine a week or two later. Went to the local Apple store, wait and purchase was a total 15 minutes. Sweet!

Now understand something, I am not a chatty person on the phone and I rarely even answer my phone. The iphone is more about the apps and geek device then it is the phone. Between Safari and the apps, I get about everything I need out of the phone. The surfing is quick and I can check my emails and get my sms messages. Even for the ipod portion of the phone, I mostly listen to books. Now that I have had the device for a few months, it would seem that there are some things about the device that bug me.

- If you were to look at my playlists on my iphone, you wouldn't find a lot of music. My playlists are mostly filled with audiobooks. I have one or two that are for music but its the occasional upbeat song from the 70s and 80s for some generation of mood or friday hurrah. When it comes to my books though, I thoroughly enjoy my ipod/iphone. I can listen and catch up on several books I own in paper and I just dont have the capacity to carry all that I am reading. My peeve is this. When you listen to an audiobook, most people know that the books are comprised of several cd's that are carved up with mp3 files. In most cases those files are not individual chapters and are spliced between the individual files themselves. So you may have 30 files on cd 1 that may have 13 chapters. It bugs me to no end when you have to stop where you left off and only to come back later and find that you completely lost where you left off. If you immediately return usually there is a bookmark of some sort. But if you come back a few days later or so, that bookmark is usually gone.
Also you will notice that if you have several playlists with music or books, each individual playlist will not keep where you left off. So if I am listening to two or three books at a time then its difficult to find where you last left. This is just huge peeve to me that you cannot bookmark sections in your playlist
- another peeve, speaker phone on the dialpad. They need to move this as my ear keeps touching it during the call and the next thing I know everyone is privy to my conversation. They really need to move the position of the button in the keypad.
- Auto-completion in sms. I am seriously debating turning this "feature" off. I am just not sure how long I am willing to put up with having my messages changed from what I meant to put in to something I didn't by auto-complete. I am seriously contemplating changing our daughters name from Zoe to doe. Although I think my wife and daughter beg to differ.

Vacation is done.

2008-07-20T14:19:00.000-07:00

I have to admit, vacation can be really enjoyable when you can take a week off and do absolutely nothing. As I stated before, last week I celebrated my birthday on July 14th. I decided to take the whole week off and just vedge and can I see that it was sheer HEAVEN!. It was a week off of nothing but some serious self indulgence. During the week, I had the chance to take in a couple of movies both with my family and by myself. I had the chance to watch my 2 girls finish up swim lessons and hung out at the pool a few times soaking up some rays and catching up on some audio books.

Bartimaeus Trilogy (My daughter got me hooked on this series, thank you Adrianne)
Cryptomnicon
RA Salvatore's Orc King

Hit the bookstore a few times. Southlake Towncenter's B&N is really nice. There is this one hidden soft couch/chair that is in the corner by the window on the second floor just below an A/C vent and its hidden away from the other chairs in the area. I can grab a couple of magazines a few books and fall asleep for a few minutes. Picked up my favorite copies of Hak magazine and 2600.

I also took a few trips over to the local Frys electronics to work on upgrading my main computer in the house.

Now its a ...
Athlon Dual Core X2 5800
4 gigs of Memory
1+T disk
Dual boot WindowsXP Pro/Ubuntu Linux Server 64bit
Gforce Video Dual SLI
42" Vizio monitor/HD

Also worked on updating the router, WRT54GS running new release of Kamikaze.
Updated Snort intrusion detection on it along with Dsniff tools.
loaded msploit on Ipod Touch with jailbreak at 1.1.4.
Did some wardriving to test it out. Ill post more on my findings here later but its amazing what people leave wide open on samba/windows shares.

Picked up off of Ebay a DVR for the Dish for my den as well.
Programmed for Dr. Who, Stargate Atlantis, DollHouse (Fall 08), Top Gear and others.

Ate some great food. There is something to be said for having a nice big fat medium rare steak, just you a fork and a knife.

All of this and a heck of an enjoyable birthday on the day itself. The week itself looking back now seems like it was almost two weeks. It was long and extremely enjoyable. Thanks goes out to my wonderful adoring wife who really let me just enjoy myself. I really needed it. Its back to work tomorrow but I am well rested and ready to go. Its hard for me to imagine someone that just doesn't work doing this all the time. Whats the point really? It wouldn't be nearly enjoyable without work being in place. But then again I enjoy my job and so it doesn't seem to me as if Im working if its something I like doing.

Enough of my ramblings. Back to enjoying my last day of my vacation. I think I'll go take a nap now. This blog post was tiring. (Hyuck Hyuck)

Bush and congress to bailout banks and lenders.

2008-07-19T19:12:00.000-07:00

Ok, I recall about 6 years ago going to my local bank lender to apply for a new loan on my current home. I sat with my lender and listed to her tell me "We can pre-approve you for 250-285,000 on your new home." . At the time I pretty much knew the home I wanted and it wasn't going to cost me $285,000 bucks. At the time I pretty much knew that if I wanted to pay for a $285,000 mortgage I was going to have to skimp on quite a few luxuries. i.e. eating, toilet paper, tshirt on my back etc. There was no way I was going to put myself into payments for that kind of a mortgage and for what?? A huge home that I wasn't going to spend a whole lot of time in.
The way I figure it is this... My home has a place to prop my pillow, a room for the kids and everyone pretty much gets shelter. Its not a cardboard box, but it doesn't have to be a 5000 sq ft mansion either. 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths and a place to put the cars in a relatively (well really nice) neighborhood. Now come 6 years later and I'm living pretty comfortable with my payment arrangements and the house gets a few touch ups.
Now back to my point. Come July 2008, we are seeing in the news that Bush is asking congress to approve a multi billion dollar bailout for his cronies. Not for the people that were duped into signing for a mortgage that they never could have afforded to begin with. Granted, I will agree with you that 1/2 of this was the buyers fault. But you can't honestly tell me that the banks/lenders have some level of culpability in this from the start. They preyed upon the very nature that every family wants the dream home, so they fattened up the mortgages with balloons and variable rates and when the economy continues to go bust those variable rate mortgages went up as well. The banks knew this at the time they gave the loans. When a bank forecloses on a home, they just don't let the home go or call it a loss. They sell the home from its original owner for a pretty penny and get their money back.

Now lets think about this for a minute. The bank gives the lender a home on an interest only loan or one at a variable interest rate that the lender will probably have paid little to no principal in the last 4-8 years. Meanwhile the home is earning equity at a sizable amount. The buyer, with an every sinking economy, can't make good on the loan. As I stated the bank forecloses on the home, knowing in this economy the seller can't sell the home, and the bank gets the interest paid, the home itself and any equity on the home? The original owner is now out a home and ruined credit for at least the next 8-10 years.

I'm missing it?? Why are we bailing out the banks with billions of our tax dollars? Why aren't companies like Fannie Mae and other lenders not eating this one? Easy. Look who we have in office as our president and vice president. Follow the money.

BTW Fannie Mae's stock went up $2.50 on Friday. Go figure.
$4.00 a gallon for gas national average.

Another birthday post. Now 42 but made ooh so special.

2008-07-15T19:21:00.001-07:00

It would seem that time just flies buy occasionally stopping only to tag you on the should and say "You're it!". This happened again yesterday. What is interesting though, this time it didn't bother me so much. With everything this past year that has been going on, primarily dealing with my health, my wife and two wonderful daughters really made my birthday enjoyable. I think for me birthdays really never had that much importance, but to my wonderful wife, birthdays are the big to do.
Yesterday she put out all the stops as usual. She took me and my girls to go see "Journey to the Center of the Earth." in 3D. For me there is something about going to the movies with my family. It tears me away from everything else and just really slows time down for a couple of hours for some simple basic fun. No yelling or whining, just grab your snacks, kick back and relax. Whats funny is though, this cost my "Incredibly loving wife" (yes I know she'll read this) $70+ bucks for the tickets and the litany of snacks that ensued after hitting the in house cafe at the theater. (I got the chili Cheeseburger with fries and Diet Coke to wash it down) I didn't really think of the cost so much till I heard my oldest daughter Adrianne (12) gasp "$70 Dollars ?!?!" to mom on the way out in the parking lot only for mom to bark out a quick "shh!".
See if I had to pick out the one thing to put out on top of my list about my wife, its this. No matter what it costs her, you're going to be happy on your birthday!.

To this I say "THANK YOU!". You really know how to make a guy happy.

Oh one more note! The homemade chocolate cake her and the girls made along with the dinner at my favorite place to eat didn't go unnoticed either.

Thank you again!

Grandmother comes to visit

2007-09-25T05:28:00.000-07:00

I can't help but be impressed whenever I see my grandmother. Here is a woman who was born in 1921 in Buenes Ares Argentina. She is about as coherent as can be and can tell me everything I want to know about my family on my mothers side. My mother was born and grew up till her early 20s in Argentina. Her mother came from Argentina and he Father came from Syria and her mother from Spain. Her husband, My grandfather who passed away some time ago, came from Spain and his family was from Spain and France. She was born during a time of Model T's and cars with rumble seats. She had 3 girls and one boy who are now all living members of my family as aunts and uncles.

Last night I watched an 85 year old woman make my parents dinner. Angel hair pasta with fettuccine and talapia fish in a crunchy kind of Parmesan style batter. Her cooking skills certainly surpass mine. Its interesting to see 4 generations of my family sit in one room from my two girls who are 5 and 11 to their mom to my mom to my grandmother. Needless to say I got plenty of pictures. I couldn't help but say that if I lived to be 85 and was that sound of a mine it would be a major blessing for me. Right now though, I can't begin to imagine living another 40+ more years as I'm 41 now. We shall see.

Today one of my two best friends passed away.

2007-08-28T12:54:00.000-07:00

Today one of two of my best friends passed away. Jeanie our cat of 18 years was put to sleep. Her and Pookin our other cat were both members of our family since kittens. They were only about a year apart. Pookin passed away last year and Jeanie from there just seemed to get worse. I think she died from a broken heart knowing pookin was gone. She meowed for months and I really feel she was asking for him. Today Jeanie passed away. I was at work and I pretty much knew that she had to go to the vet and wasnt coming back. At 2:00 coming home and crying in my car it hit like a wave rushing over me. I can't tell you how hard I cried. Memories just kept flashing into my mind the day we brought her home as well as Pookie. Both our cats lived through my 18 years of marriage together with all of the events and disasters in our lives.. They ushered in our two girls and were more of a family to me then any friend I ever recalled having.

Loosing Jeanie today to me just ended an era in my life. I don't know that after Pookie and Jeanie I could ever get another cat again. Right now we have Macie, our Basset Hound, and we are going to continue taking care of her as well as we did our two cats but Pookie and Jeanie are just to irreplaceable in my life. I don't think I'll ever have greater friends. There isn't much more that I could even begin to put into words.

Jeanie (AKA Beaner)
RIP 08/28/2007

Birthdays and such

2007-07-23T08:41:00.001-07:00

Well, I turned 41 this year. Woop De Doo! Of all the things that I am learning, I would have to list them below. Please denote the obvious...

1. Being and staying married and raising a family is by far the HARDEST DAMN thing I HAVE and WILL ever DO! But yet, its also what I feel is my greatest accomplishment.
2. For me physically, crap starts coming apart very quickly. All kinds of things from my blood sugar, cholesterol (spelling ack), pain in my legs and feet if not numbness etc. Its funny to because my mind still thinks I'm 21. I don't feel any different mentally but my brain calls out to my body saying "HELLO! WTF? Whats going on here?"

3. Where I am at from where I have been. What do I mean here... Well its about where I have been in my life, my accomplishments, my moves, my family etc. In the last 20 years or so I have moved about 10-12 times that I can count since getting married. My income has steadily increased, I'm in a much better job or a stage in my career making far more money then I probably could have ever imagined. But yet to a degree it doesn't seem I have changed in terms of my lifestyle or what I have. I had my first mortgage at the age of 22. Not a lot of people can say that. I have always had my house, cars, things and crap. Thats right things and crap.
See there in lies the conundrum. Outside of my wife/family accomplishments, I think the rest is just more crap. Can I say that I am any more or less happier, it wouldn't seem so. Again dont get me wrong, I love my family. But for the most part, I'm still doing the same things. I get up go to work and enjoy my off time with my family. Its probably stupid but I dont think any guy doesnt look back after turning 40+. So am I any different, prob not. I know, "Quitcha bitchin."

4. One thing I can say is an accomplishment for me. I have read a LOT! I mean books. Some of them really good, some of them stunk. But I have read a lot of books. I am amazed today by how many people just don't read.

For the most part its not so bad. I just wish my younger mind would catch up with my older aged body or someone is gonna get hurt.

Jules

Bush and Putin at Kennebunkport

2007-07-02T07:22:00.000-07:00

Its funny seeing these two in a photo op. They have about as much in common as a turd and a diamond. Ok probably not my best analogy but hey. These guys just don't add up. Here you have a the former head of the KGB (this scares me alone.) and the former head of ..... uuuh.... absolutely nothing. I think the only reason he comes to a visit is to talk with daddy bush who he DOES have a greater interest in seeing. Do you think its somewhat subtle that dad is looking away making sure he shows a lack of interest in the photo op?

Doesn't it bother anyone that the two people running the two largest powers in the world are both from the cold war? And with old slicky Dicky still making sure he's watching Bush Jr. in the background.

Sigh its a sad state of affairs we live in.

The big screen giveaway...

2007-07-02T05:14:00.000-07:00

I find, more often then not as you can see, that I just don't understand the nature of people. Here is an example. Last weekend I decided to clean up a few things in the house. My focus was the screened in patio in the back of my house that I really wish we could put to better use. Its become sort of a dump storage area that I haven't been to thrilled about in creating. One of the items in the patio is a big screen TV from 1989. Outside of our first home, I feel it was one of the first big purchases in my marriage. Its been with us through over 10 moves from Florida to Texas and was one of the few objects, don't ask me why, that survived Andrew when we were in Homestead. Around 2-3 years ago some of the bulbs started going out and I wheeled it into the patio hoping I would get a chance to ordering some new bulbs and fixing it myself. Well that never happened.
Last Friday I decided it was time to go. In all my wisdom, I put up an ad on craigslist in the free section figuring someone has to want this thing. Maybe some electrician can tinker with it and fix it and make some $$. Within the 2 min of the post, I had over 30+ replies. I went through the list and tried finding someone to come pick it up. It was going to be gone this weekend I thought. I thought.... It would seem to me that most people would understand what the term "big screen TV needs bulbs" means. Its broken and it needs bulbs. Nope. Human nature dictates that everyone is getting a free flatscreen that's working and maybe has some warranty.

Ok right here is where I start reminding myself how incredibly ignorant people really are but I decided Sunday to try one more time only in the post in which I made it very very clear.

"Free BROKEN 46" Pioneer BIG SCREEN TV needs bulbs" . That's exactly what it said in the title and in the subject I kindly reminded everyone it was broken and it was from 1989 and it was a big screen. Now people..... How many flat plasma displays did you see in 1989? Ok how old am I, 41 this year? Some of these people reading this post on Craigslist weren't around in 1989 much less know or can remember what a big screen tv is. I asked people not to ask where they could get the bulbs or how to fix it or what the model number was.

AND YET THEY ASKED. I even called some of the numbers and one guy even asks "IS IT A FLAT SCREEN? Is it easy to FIX? " In the overdroned redneck hick tone. "My truck is broken, can you drop it off?" Ok at this point I am reminded, PEOPLE ARE F*CKT*RDS!!!

Sorry but again I run into the nature of the general populous that can't quite figure what most of us would see as common sense.

As I began reading through the free offers through craigslist and checking the rolling emails coming in with the same stupid questions asked over and over, I can't help but see that I am trudging in the bottom 1% here. I saw one lady offering a beautifull piano that she clearly stated that 3 of the keys were broken and yet she had to keep reminding people over and over that it was as is and that she couldn't deliver it. I would be honest with you, if I had the capacity to get it, I probably would have. It was gorgeous.

Living where I do, it would seem that I am sheltered from much of this. (I don't have a description at this point of what "this" really is.) But between having my small cult of a neighborhood and the shuttling back and forth to work that I do in the safety of the bubble that is my car, I feel comforted in knowing that I probably won't be posting in places like craigslist for quite some time. Its dangerous out there.

This reminds me of the shirt I once saw where Bart Simpson (if you don't know, don't ask) was looking into his crowd of Simpson cartoonies and the caption read "I see stupid people..." .

BTW, the Big Screen TV. It went out with this mornings trash. Lets see if its another battle in getting my garbage people just to pick it up.

sicko ?

2007-06-21T20:08:00.000-07:00

Do you think Michael Moore would really care so much if he wasn't making millions off his movies? Could he be the Rush Limbaugh for the left? If we had goverment health care do you think he would be the first one to sign up?

Somehow I don't think so. I don't think he has so much a political agenda as he does have an avenue for finding ways to make money off of generating contreversy. Im wondering if one day he'll attack the drive by news media or the paparazzi that helps him promote his films? Hrmm... Maybe we'll see him sunbathing in Monaco with a thong on the cover of National Enquirer.

Inquiring minds want to know?

brrr.......

Here we go again.

2007-06-21T19:49:00.000-07:00

Again I ask, why do we care? In a previous post I talked about is. Why does anyone care what this woman does? How many other people are serving more or less the same sentence right now for the same crime? Is it that the people care first and want to see it in the media or is it that media playing the "wag the dog" again?

Train wreck news. Sigh. Move on.

Not your normal war. 14 more US soldiers dead

2007-06-21T07:28:00.000-07:00

Folks. This isn't your normal war. Then again, what do we call a "normal" war? 14 more soldiers dead in 2 days. Parents and families cringe each time they see this in the news. Waiting for that letter or knock on their door. Who could stand this kind of trama.

These soldiers aren't killed in the line of fire or combat. They're killed by cowards that run up in cars filled with explosives. We cannot fight this kind of religous war. Don't believe me, ask the russians. They gave up on doing this kind of battle against Iran and Iraq years ago. How can you fight a simple act of a car driving up to checkpoint where gaurds are doing their job and waiting for the next car to explode. Drive up.... BAHM! another 4-5 soldiers dead. Its pointless. Its a pointless war were no real battle can be fought and this continued nonsense will continue. It makes me angry! What makes me more angry is that we created this mess. Our goverment. Meanwhile boatloads of oil are being shuttled out on tankers and our illustrious goverment is protecting them as well as the endless bilking of our pockets without price controls on oil or energy prices. Each bill passed to our president is vetoed and will continue to be vetoed without reason.

Ill be the first to say, if the Iraqi's want to win this war it wont be through the death toll (by the way, its over 3000 as of this post.) It will be through the media. Drop the guns, pick up cameras and follow the tankers. Head out to the oil fields and track where their countrys oil is going. Put it back in the faces of our goverment. Show them how their countries oil is being bilked and stolen to pay for a war they really dont want to have anymore.

Its a war of their religion and our wanting to suck them dry of every natural resource. I can garuantee once the country's oil is gone, We will be out!

Windows Live Writer? Does it work for everyone?

2007-06-19T10:55:00.001-07:00

I have to say that I have been looking for a better interface for my blog then what blogger has to offer. By no means am I a coder. For me it preferable to have a tool that just works without having to understand some new development language or interface. So is Windows Live writer the one? We shall see...

For now, how about a photo of the sisters?

bank overdrafts pending transactions scams fees

2007-06-19T08:57:00.001-07:00

I think the title about covers it all. Let me make it clear, I hate banks. 20 years of having checking accounts and I can't stand them. Here is why. Banks are not out there to just hold your money, they are out to make billions off your money. The average American today lives paycheck to paycheck. I don't care what you make. Banks pray on this. They play the odds they know that work.

- ATM Fees
- overdraft fees
- transaction fees
- check sorting

All of the above are what the banks consider just gravy on top of what they already make on your money in terms of investments. If the banks couldn't make a large amount of gain off of all the money they hold for you, they wouldn't bother. (Don't believe me, look at corporate pension funds? Gone they cant make the money and can't afford the loss) Some of you probably ask, "you wouldn't have this problem is you just balance your checkbook." and I would agree with you. Except again, banks play the odds and the odds are the majority of people don't carry checkbooks. Find me how many restaurants today even take a check. Ever write a check at a gas station and see the dirty looks you get. So for right now lets play upon reality and being that the banks know you're going to use your check card.

Right now, every bank out there could turn your "debit" card into a full fledged credit card with a preset limit and every transaction would clear right away out of your bank at the MOMENT you made the transaction. No overdrafts! GONE! Tell me a normal credit card company that pends a transaction much less bother sorting one. Even a debit transaction comes right out of your bank right away. Well sorta, lets talk about that in a minute because that's a farce too. The banks don't want your "debit" card to act as a credit card. They gamble on you to overdraft your account. They would loose billions in revenue every year without it.

Overdraft fees. Every year they get worse. My bank, Wells Fargo, is now up to $35 for an overdraft fee per transaction. you overdraft by so much as 5 cents they will charge you $35. The system that does this for banks is automated. The software and accounting for overhead has LOOONG been paid for. Its gravy and costs the banks practically nothing to do. Its now an extra electron on the screen.

Check sorting - One of my biggest gripes is every bank check sorts. What is check sorting? let me explain.

Say your bank account has $100 in it on Friday and they state that you can shop the whole weekend but they wont update your pending transactions till Tuesday morning. This is what Wells Fargo does. You will show the pending transactions, (on and off) throughout the weekend online. They will even show them in the manner in which you made the charges. Now look below at your weekends transactions...

Friday - Coffee $2
Friday - dinner $12
Saturday - new shirt $5
Saturday - Ice cream $1.23
Saturday - new radio $32.00
Sunday - new tires $64

You understand looking at the end of the day you made one transaction too many. Or did you?
How much did you overdraft and at what point? the one overdraft right? The $64 right? You over drafted on one transaction at $64 so a $35 is feed one time right? Even on Sunday the bank shows you the account in the way in which you made them throughout the day which you assume to be correct.

NO

Come Tuesday all of those pending transaction are sorted from largest to smallest by your bank. Its call check sorting. Banks do it on purpose. They yell you that they are working on YOUR best interest by clearing you biggest transactions first. THAT'S CRAP!

What you end up with ...

$100 in account

- $64 = $36
- $32 = $3
- $12 = - $9 (plus a $35 fee)
- $5 = -$14 (plus another $35 fee)
- $2 = -$16 (plus another $35 fee)
- $1.23 -$17.23 (Another overdraft fee again $35)

You have just now accrued $140 for one overdraft mistake you made on Sunday. Again you might say, well its your fault for not keeping track. I have to disagree, since when does the bank have the right to take your money and play games. Check sorting should be illegal but its not. Every bank does this.

My bank told me, if you want to make sure the money is removed right away then you should use debit. Again, they lied because both Wells Fargo and Bank of America sort debit transactions as well. I have seen my bank take a debit removal out of my ATM where the money no longer existed and sort it ahead of another transaction that didn't exist when I had removed the funds. They play the transaction to suit there needs.

Deposits - The bank tells you your deposits clear before transactions. However my payroll, which is direct deposit the 15th and 30th of every month, hits a 2 .am on those days. Guess what, my bank first tells me they don't control direct deposits but yet my payroll department says they are lying and they have the money from my job 3-5 days in advance and they ARE indeed in control of when the deposit hits. So again, my bank lies to me.

So my point. Banks are there to gamble and they only play the odds that win. I wouldn't even care so much about the overdrafts if it wasn't for the check and transaction sorting. You miss one check or transaction and if its big enough they can hit you against a ton of smaller ones that you already know about. STOP CHECK SORTING !

The swill that is our existence.

2007-04-11T06:24:00.000-07:00

Ok, here is a second post for the day. Why is it the swill that is our existence is largely based on what we are spoon fed every day in TV and in radio by the mass media? Why am I constantly bombarded by news about someone I don't care about on some TV show, talk show or self proclaimed famous person. Some key points below.

1. American Idol

I DON'T CARE DAMNIT! Why is this the focus of everyones life today? Its crap yet millions of people are watching it and talking about it the next day. I have never cared about this stupid show. It is the brain poo that fills our minds while so many other important things are going on that we just ignore. Why do we focus on crap like this? I'm telling you that the world goes by and so many things are happening behind our backs and yet we're drawn to this crap!

Ok so you might say, "Fine don't watch it." . But that isn't my point, Its not that I want to force the general public to stop watching it, but you would think they would care that there are just other things just a little more important to focus on.

2. Anna Nicole Smith

How many dead dumb hicks do you care to hear about in the news? Here is someone who if they were anyone else in life, nobody would give a damn who she was. But because she made herself to be some self proclaimed star and was disgusting enough to degrade and do the things she did, people now seem to care? Im really confused here. She a dumb drug addict who spun on a pole and found herself a rich old sick coot that would give her money and she pimped herself out as the whore she was. Do you care about the whores that are in most major cities just as much? Jesus people WHO CARES!! Get a frigin life and move on.

3. Don Imus

This is a new one that surprises me and I'm not sure where to go with this. Radio personalities are constantly looking for the next big raiting to boost their image. Really I didn't know who this guy was till all this crap started happening recently. Some radio host says "nappy headed hos" and now out of the wood works come some self proclaimed idgits that make themselves to be the forefront leaders of the black community? Sorry but to me, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are the Anna Nicoles of the world. You ask the average black person if either of them represent them as a whole and they'd tell you to F*CK OFF. Why do these roaches of the world come out of to look for this "news" and stake some claim? I'm sorry but maybe they should be just as appalled by looking at their own communities. Number one crime in the nation of black minitority is black on black crime? Why don't they come out just as outraged? Rap artists constantly putting out lyrics with violence againt other blacks and women and spouting degrading comments? Where are they then? But again, I just don't get it. WHO CARES!??!

Something I want to leave you with. Think of how many Walmart, Kroger, Tom Thumb, SacNSave and Randalls grocery stores there are out there. In the hundreds of thousands total. Think of how much food we destroy every day due to a label that meets some federal regulation as to when it expires LOOONG before it ever does and how much is destroyed that is perfectly edible. People I'm talking about food in the TONS! Eggs, dairy, bread, meats .. You name it. The grocers can't give it away due to the liablity reasons that someone might sue them and yet we have levels of poverty in this world that should be non existant. Im not talking about feeding some wandering useless people in Africa. Yes hate me, but they're useless. Many and most of them you hear about are out there waiting in deserts to die because they REFUSE to use birth control!! Not to mention guerilla warfare that slaughters that population in the millions. This country has been going this way for several centuries and they refuse to do anything themselves about it. We should be focusing on the countries that CAN.

With the amount of food destroyed today there isnt a single person in at least the U.S. that should ever go hungry but yet we want to sit back fill our lives with this dribble we call news or media. ARGH!

Ok I ranted but had to get it out.

bye

Ok so where have I been.

2007-04-11T05:37:00.000-07:00

Life seems to move on. Kids grow up and go to school. I am still working my same job although getting more and more skilled as time progresses. Seems like I am always looking for a new hobby or interest. As of late it has been a sailboat. Don't ask me why but maybe its the thought of escaping in a boat and getting away for awhile that appeals to me. I really want to take sailing classes this summer.
People have been asking me as of late why I have stepped down from being the team backend. I wouldn't really say its stepping down as I never got a pay increase for taking the job, only more responsibility. Ive left it as I have done so due to health reasons. Nothing could put it better.
My blood sugar has been acting up as of late. Its interesting what certain foods do to CERTAIN people. My wife has been packing my lunch as of late and I have to say it helps. But... Is it helping? I don't know. If anything I was amazed at the amount of money I save not buying breakfast and lunch every day. 300-400 per month.
Ok so for the most part the above is probably some senseless ramblings, but it feels like that has been my life as of late. Senseless ramblings. Maybe thats why I have been wanting a boat. Middle aged crazy coming out of me? That could be. But it would be a hell of a conversation piece. Something to tinker with on the weekends, talk about with friends, etc.

Anyways, who knows where Ill be in a few years. Not that I think anyone reads this blog anyways.

been a long time since posting.

2006-12-20T10:55:00.000-08:00

Well another year has come and gone. Work has become ever so boring. Its amazing how quick a person can take up a task and become proficient at it. Lately I have been re-evaluting the whole work/life balance thing. Seems like more people I know, work to live rather then the whole live to work ideology. Then again, they are at a totally different tax bracket. (Nice way of saying I make more money I guess.) Dont think I could spend my life playing WOW all day long and flip burgers or work retail to keep up my WOW habit. Oddly enough I guess it just hasn't interested me enough to think about getting hooked on it.

I turned 40 this year, so maybe its just the whole middle aged thing creaping up on me. I think in 07 I am going to take up some direction in my life instead of just muddling along. For the most part maybe I've just been coasting.

On the lighter side of things, its out with the old and in with the new. I decided that I wasn't getting enough out of my cable provider so I went with direct TV and also picked up ATT as my new isp. With all the shifting ground, cable has totally blown over the last couple of years. I guess I can count this as some level of change.

I think I'm going to call 06 pretty much a wash and focus on some level of renewed vision for 2007.

Recieved a pay raise.

2006-07-30T16:41:00.000-07:00

Well got my pay raise this year. 4%. Now I have to think, this is about equiv for me as now fueling my gas going back and forth to work. That pretty much it. So the economy pretty much sucks. I keep hearing of some rising growth but yet the top corperate pirates seem to be keeping this growth for themselves as some sort of incentive or payback for what they claim to be all because of the efforts they have done to turn their company around. Boggles the mind...

Oh by the way, Enron CEO dies of natural causes. Never spends a day from his criminal activities in jail. Also since their was no official conviction, his wife and kids get to live off his crooked bilkings and get away scott free. Not even a civil suit will touch any of the money left behind. Meanwhile, a few thousand people get to die and never retire with the money they spent so long to save. Sucks ass. Thats life. Why is it that the thievery of people like this and so many other CEO's seem to just piss me off.

http://money.cnn.com/2006/07/05/news/newsmakers/lay_death/

Sorry Mr. Lay and family, you're the crap of the earth!!!

Spam ?

2006-04-28T13:19:00.000-07:00

When spanish people get spam, do they call it flan? Today I had lunch a a nice little spanish diner. Reminds me of where I grew up in Miami and I really enjoy the food. After finishing my lunch, I asked what they had for desert. The waitress said "We only have flan." . My ears perked up and my heart raced! FLAN! OOH WONDERFUL FLAN! Not since living in Miami have I had this wonderful treat. It has all the sweet texture of cheesecake but its something completely different.

Then I got to thinking.... When spanish people get spam mail, do they call it flan?

Ok so maybe I just think too much.

What happened to our economy?

2006-04-28T09:10:00.000-07:00

I started to rant into a post and decided to edit it... This pretty much says it all. The average employee last year with IBM recieved less then a 3% payraise. Of which now for me I have gotten 0 for 3 years while being rated by the company come bonus time as a "Solid" contributer. But yet I read this about our company president.

http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060310/BUSINESS01/603100349/1066

CNN Money quote
"Just in terms of CEOs' base salary, the average increase was 8.5 percent, still multiples above that for workers, for whom the average pay increase in 2005 was 3.4 percent, according to Hewitt Associates."

Where is my tax refund !!

2006-04-26T11:45:00.000-07:00

Ever wanted to find out the status of your tax refund ..

https://sa.www4.irs.gov/irfof/lang/en/irfofgetstatus.jsp

The only problem is you have to recall what the exact figure of the refund was. Hopefull you keep your records handy. As for me ... expecting a lot but probably not going to get it back. Turns out my IRA people decided not to withdraw all my taxes I took on the home downpayment! ARGH!

Note !!

2006-04-26T11:12:00.000-07:00

Never ever shutdown an HMC in the middle of a firmware upgrade on any power based system!! It can create a VERY GRUEELING SITIAAATION!

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/eserver/v1r3s/index.jsp?topic=/ipha5/fix_serv_firm_kick.htm

More on upgrading firmware to various power 5 managed systems can be found at the above link. Enjoy!

Stay the course...

2006-03-09T16:53:00.000-08:00

How is it that a person can survive answering phones all day I'll never guess, but I seem to do it. Pays the bills. A majority of customers are really nice but there are those few that really can try my patience. I find so often that if you just stay the course and be polite things work out in the end. The Team is pretty cook, but the 10-7 shift can really be exhausting getting some with enough time for a meal, hug kids, read a book and off to bed.

Speaking of book reading, been catching up on my Salvatore books. Really like his stuff. The newest "Witch king" book has me hooked. When I read them I tend to slow down at the end cause I want to milk the story for all its worth. Can't say how much reading means to me. Tend to do 3-5 books at one time rotating each night between them.

Think this weekend if the weather holds out Ill just relax, try and get the webserver back up and running. Damn chinese hackers but hey gives me something to do. Wife is getting a little impatient though. I think my provider is blocking that one box out on my network cause of the recent hack but who knows. Anyways, something to do this weekend while I catch up on my Tivo and LOST episodes.

D&D acitivity is back on track.

2006-03-08T12:06:00.000-08:00

Its amazing, with the advent of moving to the new position, I have been able to a D&D campaign going on Sundays about once or twice a month. Nice to have a life again isn't it.

2 players 1 DM (me of course)
1 thief female elf
2 monks (yeah unusual but it works)
1 gnome illusionist (Npc)
1 Dwarven cleric (npc hes a nut)
1 Magic user (sorcerer)

So far the group now is up to 2nd level and have been through a couple of small campaigns based out of Forgotten Realms and all met at Waterdeep. They have created quite a reputation by helping out a local merchant trying to rebuild his rep and his shipping lanes by bringing back a local lighthouse taken over by pirates as well as recovering some family treasure from a crashed ship.

During the lighthouse recovery they had found info on a connection to a portal that had been taken over by a group of bandits working with some other foreign evil alignment. They have since moved through the portal only to find it worked one way with an activation sequence but not having the correct activation sequence to get them back. This has now tied them into the caves of chaos where they are looking for the reasoning behind the evil enemy taking over control of the portal. Where this leads I wont say but its going to be good.

I have lots plan so lets see where they go with it.

Dont try this at home!!

2005-11-25T09:09:00.000-08:00

http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu/3211.html

Somehow I read this an found it extremely funny that someone might have this problem.

Jules.

Looking for holiday cheer .

2005-11-21T16:16:00.000-08:00

I don't know but lately I haven't been seeing it. Not sure if its this crappy economy or what. Bills keep going up but my pay seems to stay about the same. Nothing to really be that cheery about. Lord knows I try. I came into work today and started with a team meeting that went south. Dilbert really says it all in discussing cubicle team politics. There is always the winer, the complainer, the person that dodges the bullet, the person with the new ideas (usually talking very loudly) and then the manager. I am finding we have an interesting mix.
I remember seeing a kuzzi once that said "It used to be what I wanted was a career, now I just want the paycheck." That pretty much sums it up. You know, I shouldn't complain that much for what I get paid to do. Its just like everything else inflation kills when your company/economy can't make up for it. Lord knows I miss the Clinton era!

Its funny that I can't count how many times I just go out at night and just stand in my front yard doing nothing. My wife came out once and asked me "WTF are you doing. Its freezing." My response... "I'm looking for something. Don't ask me what. I am just looking."

Happy Holidays.
Jules

p.s. Christmas wish ... can someone please pay off my mortgage? Eeh its worth a try.

its not all work

2005-10-16T15:19:00.000-07:00

Finally picked up my new rifle sat evening. .223 H&F fluted single shot with choate stock. Got my but up early today to go to the range and shoot it. needless to say I am pretty happy with it. pics of it coming soon. 100 yds sub moa.

I have a life...

2005-10-15T15:28:00.000-07:00

seems like my saturdays are filled with going to my daughter cheerleading peewee football games. Surprising enough its interesting to watch these kids play so hard and the parents take it so seriously. Don't know who wants it more the boys or the dads. One thing though why is it that so few dads of just the cheerleaders ever show up to watch their daughters.

Another glorious day of an IBMer.

2005-10-05T13:42:00.000-07:00

Why do I do this to myself? Is it because I like pain and punishment. Decided as of a few weeks ago that I would move into another position in the company that would put me back into a cubicle again. Having worked from home for the last 5 years, it seemed like the right thing to do. It gave me the opportunity to watch my kids grow, not to mention my stomach.
It could have been environment related, I just got tired of dealing with the politics of the position. At least in the new position, I gain some control. Not to mention education and new skills made available.

Old position, IBM architect for Global Technologies Center handling web application deployments.

New Position : Software engineer support Power series on AIX 5.3 and Linux. (ooh fun / Joy. Virtual processing and supercomputing) HMC, Virtual I/O etc.

I guess its just the tech in me that makes me drool at this stuff. I've just been introduced into a lab that has enough computing power to run a large city. Drool!

Enough of this though. This is my life and adventure into my new position.