The Squeaky Mouse Gets the Cheese

Gone facebooking, back later

2009-06-06T22:16:00.000-07:00

This blog was never that active anyway. I am now semi-active over at facebook (the evil facebook, yes) and wondering daily why I wasn't involved in creating something so simple.

peace out

Thought for the day.

2008-09-26T19:55:00.001-07:00

I thought of this yesterday at lunch and we had a laugh. My friends persuaded me to go ahead and mock it up. I hope you like it. It makes me laugh.

so here it is...why not more posts?

2008-08-04T20:52:00.000-07:00

Honestly, i think of something funny or interesting to talk about every day, and if I made time, I could at least blog about it every few days. Do I have the discipline or determination to keep it up regularly? Obviously not. The other thing however is that whole privacy thing. It creeps me out a bit to think my thoughts could be quoted back to me or psychoanalyzed by others years later once I toss them out into the net-a-sphere. Sure, on the message boards I'm on I say stupid stuff too left and right, and no one is truly anonymous on the Web, only fools believe that, but in general, it's semi-anonymous. This blog however...well, it can and will get searched by professionals looking into my background, or friends and/or enemies in my personal life.

Maybe I'm just a bit too open, or trusting, or plain-spoken to have a blog in that respect. I mean, if you know me, and many of you do, I will tell you my views on religion, and politics and all kinds of incendiary stuff, cause I trust you to know that I see both sides of the argument most of the time. I realize when I'm saying capital punishment needs to be way easier in our system that that could be ME, or my kids, someday who are not getting the second strike, or that when I'm a victim somehow I may feel differently and not want that eye for an eye so much. Maybe, who knows, you don't know until you're there. As an aside to that particular argument, yes I'm aware that while I think we as a human race have zero need for keeping the monsters amongst us (violent crimes, premeditated ones), I am fully aware that when send Bob to the chair, he has a family somewhere, a mom who will forgive him and not want him executed, no matter how heinous the crime. Etc etc... I know there are two, three, nay hundreds of sides to every argument.

Still, I will spout off about anything anyway. I will argue with you all day long that the american league system is lame and the national league has it right, the pitcher should have to hit, the rules should apply all the way around, do they let the catcher only have to get 3 bases to score a run since that guy's usually not fleet of foot? No. The DH is stupid. Now, would I feel differently if I was born in Boston and grown up watching the AL? Yeah, probably. Like most arguments, there are no facts, this is just opinion. I like the Blues, my deluded friend John likes the Red Wings. We haven't won our Cup yet, they went and bought 3 already. That's how it goes. If the internet teaches us anything, we should realize arguments are silly and rarely have a lot to do with fact. You cannot convince people of much, all you can do is let them see your viewpoint, and maybe tip their hat to it before they disagree. With web forums being so frequently a slow non-interactive conversation (compared to a chat with long-winded arguments back and forth, i.e. no rapid fire exchanges) we all should get it. The web is about people who like to talk and hear themselves do it. I'm not different than most of you in that respect. Do you really care what I think, reader? Unlikely. Maybe I spark a thought in your head and it changes how your day goes. That'd be good. I like sparks. If not, well, fine, ignore me. As I said above when I started this, I'm not posting something here every day anyway.

peace-
M

Awesome link for the day: Tron 2 bootleg trailer

Happy Father's Day

2008-06-15T11:56:00.001-07:00

Happiness is being lucky enough to be a good Dad.
And having big shoes to fill trying to match up to my own.

Create your own family sticker graphic at pYzam.com

I know an artist!

2008-06-05T22:30:00.000-07:00

It's amazing to me that people have such talents and they're real... I mean, I guess I know that Sidney Crosby is real too, but I've actually MET Sarah Wyman. No wait, okay, I met Sidney too once (briefly, we didn't hang out or anything, actually it was more of a 'hey kid, you are like awesome and I'm a hockey nerd, please sign this... I traveled 1000 miles to see you play and you are going to play in the NHL and like uh, I envy your skill and future endorsement deals, you rule dude!')

Okay okay we get it... the point is I know Sarah and she's awesomely talented and as her friends we get to see her dream come true as her professional artist career takes shape. How cool is that?

Green Weeds is her etsy site-- she makes very cool art. You should totally check it out, maybe get a print or a painting for someone if you know they appreciate nifty creative stuff.

She is on the cover of Underwired magazine this month. Go Sarah Go!

a friend

2008-05-30T17:24:00.000-07:00

My friend Mayuri passed away last night, after she battled breast cancer the last 5 years. She was so much fun, it makes me cry to think of her jokes now.

She sent me this last year -- and naturally apologized to her family but not to the rest of us. She wouldn't have to, cause I knew she was just warped and we loved her for it. It hurts now to think of her gone. Life is so cruel.

Mayuri was only 35, and leaves behind a great husband Sean. I used to play hockey with Sean and I worked with Mayuri for a few years back in ths 90s, before I moved out of biology into IT and she ended up going to vet school with Sean. She was wickedly funny and loved to shock people with jokes or stories. She being Indian-American (from Texas, so she was one of those in-your-face American women), she hid her relationship with Sean from the folks for years, affectionately calling him her 'pasty-faced irish boy'. Once she got diagnosed, they immediately got married since there wasn't much reason to hide the relationship anymore (She actually said "I figured why not throw the grenade as long as I'm dropping the bomb") and her family welcomed him in to the fold, they had a full Hindu ceremony to make the folks happy and poor Sean did well stumbling through his lines with henna painted on his hands and arms etc. She looked lovely on her big day and they were both so happy together...basically they were always like that since I can remember meeting him.

I hurt today and I can't imagine Sean's loss. I grieve for my friend who's gone and I hate the disease that took her from us. Give your friends and loved ones a hug when you see them, and please consider giving at least a buck or two to the Komen walk for the Cure if you have a chance. Mayuri had the benefit of her cancer being somewhat treatable with hormones (I think she said something like 'oh I have the good kind of malignant stage 4 cancer!') -- I think that bought her years. I already miss her brashness, her twinkling eyes and amused laughter, and it hurts right now to think of her, because she still makes me laugh, and then I cry again.

Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure

slacker

2008-02-19T21:38:00.000-08:00

hey, I'm doing a lot of other stuff okay, so I'm not blogging.
I've never been a diary-keeping type, so if you've been by here to see new content lately and you've left unhappy (and probably thinking 'slacker!'), well, I apologize. You should manage your expectations though :)

Blues won tonight. Great game. Kids are great, one is swimming like a champ, the other is getting potty-trained quickly suddenly--he's getting 'bigger bigger bigger!' as he says.

Dar is good, work is good, what else matters?

an essay on social networking sites

2007-11-03T12:51:00.000-07:00

Okay, if you've ever mailed me and said something about linkedin, you know I'm not a fan of the SNS (social networking sites) thing. I can't put my finger on exactly why but gauche or overly trendy/young is a great way to describe them.

So... Here is a fascinating essay, and it surely has some sociological views/opinions in it, along with facts, so some may find it controversial, particularly if they are big MySpace fans I guess. It's a blog type post but the author is a PhD candidate at UC Berkley writing her dissertation on the topic.

Here are a few interesting quotes a friend pointed out to me. (we were discussing using facebook to arrange scrabble matches with our online friends, which strangely enough may have finally been the straw that made me decide I must have a facebook account now):

The goodie two shoes, jocks, athletes, or other "good" kids are now going to Facebook. These kids tend to come from families who emphasize education and going to college. They are part of what we'd call hegemonic society. They are primarily white, but not exclusively. They are in honors classes, looking forward to the prom, and live in a world dictated by after school activities.

MySpace is still home for Latino/Hispanic teens, immigrant teens, "burnouts," "alternative kids," "art fags," punks, emos, goths, gangstas, queer kids, and other kids who didn't play into the dominant high school popularity paradigm. These are kids whose parents didn't go to college, who are expected to get a job when they finish high school. These are the teens who plan to go into the military immediately after schools. Teens who are really into music or in a band are also on MySpace. MySpace has most of the kids who are socially ostracized at school because they are geeks, freaks, or queers.
--
Most teens who exclusively use Facebook are familiar with and have an opinion about MySpace. These teens are very aware of MySpace and they often have a negative opinion about it. They see it as gaudy, immature, and "so middle school." They prefer the "clean" look of Facebook, noting that it is more mature and that MySpace is "so lame." What hegemonic teens call gaudy can also be labeled as "glitzy" or "bling" or "fly" (or what my generation would call "phat") by subaltern teens. Terms like "bling" come out of hip-hop culture where showy, sparkly, brash visual displays are acceptable and valued. The look and feel of MySpace resonates far better with subaltern communities than it does with the upwardly mobile hegemonic teens. This is even clear in the blogosphere where people talk about how gauche MySpace is while commending Facebook on its aesthetics. I'm sure that a visual analyst would be able to explain how classed aesthetics are, but aesthetics are more than simply the "eye of the beholder" - they are culturally narrated and replicated. That "clean" or "modern" look of Facebook is akin to West Elm or Pottery Barn or any poshy Scandinavian design house (that I admit I'm drawn to) while the more flashy look of MySpace resembles the Las Vegas imagery that attracts millions every year. I suspect that lifestyles have aesthetic values and that these are being reproduced on MySpace and Facebook.
--
A month ago, the military banned MySpace but not Facebook. This was a very interesting move because the division in the military reflects the division in high schools. Soldiers are on MySpace; officers are on Facebook. Facebook is extremely popular in the military, but it's not the SNS of choice for 18-year old soldiers, a group that is primarily from poorer, less educated communities. They are using MySpace. The officers, many of whom have already received college training, are using Facebook. The military ban appears to replicate the class divisions that exist throughout the military. I can't help but wonder if the reason for this goes beyond the purported concerns that those in the military are leaking information or spending too much time online or soaking up too much bandwidth with their MySpace usage.
--
MySpace is the primary way that young soldiers communicate with their peers. When I first started tracking soldiers' MySpace profiles, I had to take a long deep breath. Many of them were extremely pro-war, pro-guns, anti-Arab, anti-Muslim, pro-killing, and xenophobic as hell. Over the last year, I've watched more and more profiles emerge from soldiers who aren't quite sure what they are doing in Iraq. I don't have the data to confirm whether or not a significant shift has occurred but it was one of those observations that just made me think. And then the ban happened. I can't help but wonder if part of the goal is to cut off communication between current soldiers and the group that the military hopes to recruit. Many young soldiers' profiles aren't public so it's not about making a bad public impression. That said, young soldiers tend to have reasonably large networks because they tend to accept friend requests of anyone that they knew back home which means that they're connecting to almost everyone from their high school. Many of these familiar strangers write comments supporting them. But what happens if the soldiers start to question why they're in Iraq? And if this is witnessed by high school students from working class communities who the Army intends to recruit?

interesting no? I look forward to seeing the final dissertation now.

peace-
Mouse

cheap blog

2007-10-22T16:14:00.000-07:00

Kinda like a cheap date...

I liked this video so I'm posting it as my entry for today since I don't have time to write more:

How your cat wakes you up

Other things going on this week:
Mizzzouuuuu!

Merfolk are back, and Magic: the Gathering returns to my geeklist of hobbies. Sweet!

My boys had awesome halloween pictures today, and as usual, my wife is amazing.

hockey whinge of the week: damnit, put my guys on IR earlier yahoo...you know the guy can't play, why do you insist on hosing me? Out to get the back-to-back champ, that's what it is...which one of them's paying you?

well look at the time...

2007-10-08T23:17:00.000-07:00

damn, I guess I'm not much of a serious blogger right now eh? Yikes, over a month without a post.

Life's been busy. Work, family, more work, more family.

Watching: Heroes, Prison Break, Jourenyman, High Stakes Poker, WSOP

Reading: Neuromancer, new Terry Brooks Shannara

Celebrating: 12 years married last week. Pretty amazing, every moment is priceless and I continue to be lucky beyond belief that she puts up with me.

Fun stuff: Car is still super awesome. Got myself a poker table and her a Nano for the anniversary. Vin de Set is an absolutely amazing restaurant. Best atmosphere in St. Louis on a nice night. Just wow.

time to sleep -- cheers all

Mouse

A challenge...

2007-08-13T22:00:00.000-07:00

Like games? I warned you.

Twist

Reading Richard Morgan's fifth book right now, Thirteen. Wow.

Okay, I take mercy on you, as Twist will be beating you down in a moment..this game is much more fun - behold, Bombwars.

wow

2007-07-22T22:50:00.001-07:00

New Potter book was excellent. Bravo.

Heckuva good two weeks

2007-07-04T20:23:00.000-07:00

So in the last week and a half, I caught my biggest fish ever (a 5-1/2 pound, 29" northern pike); I saw an awesome performance by my favorite band, who no one thought would ever tour again, The Police; my Blues signed a serious high-end free agent in Paul Kariya (and brought back a good player in KT), affirming they are not going to be content being .500 next year; and to top it off my employer is adjusting compensation for a lot of our positions and I got a respectable bump out of it.

Happy 4th of July. A sincere thanks to all the veterans, past and present. I feel fortunate to live in this great country.

Serious fish

2007-06-19T19:41:00.000-07:00

We'll see how lucky we get..going fishing soon. This wouldn't be a bad catch. A real monster like this would just about be insane...

Pike get to about 20" long at 3 years... they can live to be 25 years old. A 5-8 year old fish is going to be 30"+ and get into the 7-8 lb range. A guy I talked to at my local store caught one that was 46" long, which should be about 30 pounds.
Really, I just hope to catch a lot of "little" ones . If we get lucky and each catch at least one nice one, it'll be the trip of a lifetime. Biggest thing I've ever caught was about a 4 lb bass. Longest fish was a chain pickerel of almost 21". I am quite ready to improve those records.

Oh, there's walleye there too, so we'll be catching a bit of both. Maybe even a trout.

But let's be real. It's all about the big pike.

Grats!

2007-06-14T22:32:00.000-07:00

Grats to Growing Moss on a baby boy! June 1, I am finding out a little late but this is awesome news nonetheless.

slick moves, another youtube link

2007-06-14T22:08:00.000-07:00

This kid Bryan Gaynor's got serious skillz (from So You Think you can Dance)

You know, the more ubiquitous youtube (this one is a youtube link embedded in another site) is you wonder why no one else thought of the concept first. Not just the technical ability to stream the videos, but the wisdom to realize you make the perfect sharing portal with just the public bulletin board/forum idea. Generate revenue by ads etc, but ($$$ sound) definitely sell the concept at that point before the issues of copyright drag down the market's enthusiasm.

It's a common space, for video...we had a common space for auctions years before (a large successful one, there were lots of smaller ones before the big E came along) and surely there is or should be a common space for putting art (think of an art gallery you can stroll through virtually where people can just add things and it goes into the correct area by theme/style) or just for decorating and advertising your personal profile(the equally ubiquitous big M).

Oh well, conceptually they aren't hard to come up with I guess, the real hard part is the technical research and implementation and then finding the investors. Server space and security aren't cheap. Sometimes I wonder if I ever want to strike out and go entrepreneur someday or if the standard ladder-climbing rat-race will be enough. Hard to say. At this point I'm reasonably happy doing what I do and I like my job. In 10 years, life will have brought new challenges and we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

I babble...check out the clip. good stuff. Here's another if you want to see some uncommonly good singing.

heh

2007-06-08T23:31:00.001-07:00

I liked this bud lite commercial. I would guess it was internal-only and never aired due to suggestive language (so maybe not safe for work)

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=66c_1181150659

heheheh

what's been going on

2007-05-31T22:50:00.001-07:00

Busy at work lately but it's very good. Another trip to the UK looks to be on the horizon.

Kids and Dar are great. She's awesome, do I mention that enough?

Reading the 3rd Takeshi Kovacs novel from Richard Morgan --this guy's stuff is brilliant. Just finished the sequel to Jumper from Steven Gould, Reflex. Great followup to a very good book, recommend those two to anyone. Also read Blink by Malcolm Gladwell a few weeks ago, that one will get you thinking.

Movies seen recently: Inside Man (pretty damn good), Pan's Labyrinth (good) and the Good Shepard (fascinating, very intelligent).

Fun activity today -- pitching a ball to Cameron with his soft-core padded baseball bat. He drilled quite a few pitches and is getting more confident with his swing. Continues to blaspheme about baseball being better than hockey whenever he gets a chance. He knows it drives me nuts. I was so proud however about two weeks ago when we passed a guy at his day care center in a Detroit Red Wings shirt. I booed the guy a little, saying I hope they lose to the Ducks and then as he was walking away, Cameron told him loudly that Red Wings fans get coal in their stockings for Christmas. Ha ha. That's my boy! He of course speaks the truth, and we've confirmed that our friend John from Michigan actually does get coal in his stocking from Santa in the past few years since he's a Wings fan. Santa likes the Blues. And by the way, let's hope those Blues trade up from #9 in the draft or make a move to acquire a premium center. It's time to add some cash to the young talent we've been working on. They're still a year away or so unless they add a lot more soon.

Played poorly at poker tonight. I've been running cold for a few weeks. I've know I'm not a fish, but I definitely have some donkey blood in my veins. We play a .30/.60 limit game with a kill button if you're ever around and want to join--give me a call.

Looking forward to some serious fishing in a few weeks in Canada...we're going to bag some Northern pike and walleye up near Sault St Marie. I can't wait!

Peace out.

may updates

2007-05-01T18:13:00.000-07:00

Working a lot. kids are good. Dar is good. Got to go to a great wedding in Texas last week and we had a ball. Austin is very beautiful and not so hot this time of year.

Watching Heroes and Lost. Reading newest Raymond Feist book, though I can't wait for the next Richard Morgan one now that I've finished his first two... wow he's good.

Out of shape, not eating well or playing any sports regularly unfortunately...but I am in a sand volleyball tournament next week, so that will be great. Who knows..I had a loaded team last year and we got upset, so maybe this year with my random parts team we can win a few rounds. I really need to find a summer league team to play a whole session with.

Here's a semi-recent picture from back in October when the Cards won the series. Yeah, they're struggling now, but hey, you know my favorite baseball saying 'so? It's hockey season!'

And here's me while over in England in March.

That's the view of the Royal Observatory from One Tree Hill in Greenwich...the whole park is beautiful there and if you looked to the right you would see the Royal Naval College, with London sitting about a mile away across the Thames.

grief. sadness. numbness.

2007-04-16T20:13:00.000-07:00

I can't, and I don't want to, imagine what it's like today to have lost a child, a parent, a loved one at the massacre at Virginia Tech. I'm sad and just horrified thinking about it after watching the news. An alum mentioned that they loved the school, always felt safe there and their is such pride in it. Hokie pride. This tragedy is what many people who didn't know Tech before will associate with it. Think of what Kent State means to people now. Or Littleton, CO. And it was a great place...it still should be...but this spectre will loom in everyone's memory forever, and the sadness will stay with us, and it should. Many of us are grieving out of empathy, but we weren't personally affected...hundreds of families had their lives changed today, and that is even more horrifying. Many people's children, husbands, wives, fathers and mothers...will not come home tonight.

I know all about Hokie pride, and I'm so sad today. My dad loves his alma mater. My two uncles love it. My cousin Kevin and his wife love it. We all love Tech. I'm so proud to have so many family from such a great school, and with their recent success at sports, some years I good-naturedly root against them and tease Dad, my uncle and my cousin...and other years I can't fight the family pull and I give in and root for 'em. In that admittedly ugly brown, maroon and orange color scheme. I won't ever be able to root against the Hokies again. And I don't know if any of us will ever be able to think of the school again and not feel an echo of this sadness today.

Tech, the families, the friends, the community. You're in our thoughts.

35

2007-04-11T05:45:00.000-07:00

A year older today. Nothing to see here.
Woulda been nice to have the birthday on a weekend and not have to work, but c'est la vie.

Stanley Cup Playoffs start tonight, so I got that going for me, which is nice. I'm picking the Ducks as a sleeper, though I wouldn't be surprised to see Buffalo, San Jose or Nashville take it all. NSH/SJ in the first round is going to be an insane series--too bad one of them will have to go home. Oh, and I won my hockey pool...back-to-back. Not an easy fight, I got some breaks here and there.

We're going to Texas soon for my cousin Kate's wedding... first trip to the Lone Star state, we're going to have a ball.

Bah. 35.

no news is good news

2007-03-31T14:39:00.000-07:00

All of us are fine here. My march madness pool got derailed thanks to North Carolina throwing their game vs G-Town away...chokers! My implementation at work went really well last week though, so no complaints about anything else. Major rollout, problems almost zip. Perfect. The 4 of us are doing good healthwise and Spring has come so we're trying to get out more and enjoy the sunshine. Yardwork and walks, lazy saturdays once in a while, etc.

Patrick turned 2 on Tuesday...it's weird to think he's that old finally, after he's been 'almost 2' for months and months now. He's growing up though--so much more intelligent and more communicative than he was 6 months ago. He's constantly showing me the 3 year old he's going to be. Overall he's good, he's healthy--that alone makes me happy. This week I am thinking more about family and being thankful for things in life that you usually take for granted. Some friends of ours are dealing with challenges with their newborn and I find myself thinking a lot during the day that I hope he's fine, I hope things go right, I hope the breaks with medicine and surgery all go their way. I know many people pray for such things, but with my personal beliefs being what they are, it's up to luck, the Fates and hope. So hope it is. I'm trusting those things to work out for them here. I've known a few people who didn't get to take their child home from the hospital for a week or more after he/she was born and I can only imagine how hard that is after the emotional rollercoaster pregnancy can be. You worry about your kids all the time once you get 'em...if you're lucky that worrying doesn't have to start before they're even home with you. I was an an emotional wreck for months leading up to Patrick's birth, hoping that things would be okay, but knowing that if we weren't lucky, if the Fates weren't kind, they might not be. Things that momentous are scary, to put it bluntly.

Here's hoping for the best. To our friends, we're thinking about you guys.

Madness

2007-03-22T22:07:00.000-07:00

Today, like after every day of the NCAA tournament, I chant the same refrain all of the other millions of people in online pools are saying. "I...can still...win." Yes, it's a long shot, and it would be really nice to be ahead of a lot of the other donaters now hoping that complete chaos comes, but c'mon, there were about 6 good teams this year (all the 1's and 2's except Memphis and Wisconsin, that's my opinion). So any combo of those 6 in the final 4, and basically you had a shot to win by getting the last 3 games right...even if you can't pick upsets or favorites in the first 2 rounds to save your life.

I'm still mathematically alive to win it all even though I lost a final-4 team tonight. Thanks a lot Texas A&M. Damn overrated, you are, Big 12. Oh well, when UCLA beats Kansas, the overrated 12 thing will be doing me a favor.

It is really annoying though that people who just picked the top seeds to advance to the elite 8 are doing well in most pools right now. That's just... lame.

I admit I'm bitter, it was a mean night of poker. Feel the tilt.

oh well, back to work. Cross your fingers for good network connection speed in the UK tonight.

Still squeakin

2007-03-19T22:52:00.000-07:00

~Feb 28, 2007 - Fill out my tax return online, jumping at a $9.75 or $9.95 price for online tax software. Missing 2 or 3 pieces of info..plan to come back later.
~Mar 4, 2007 - Have all the pieces of data now...not motivated to finish taxes
~Mar 10,2007 - Think about doing taxes...yawn. It is our money (refund) ya know...why let them borrow it another month? Yawn. Whatever.

~Mar 17, 2007 - Realize April is approaching. Bleh. I still have to do the State forms too, don't I? Stupid...I do those by hand because they're easy to calculate, they cost $10-15 additional on top of Federal, and uh... okay, well I kinda like numbers. Yes, there is probably a recessive accountant gene somewhere in my family. Horrors. No, I'm not helping you with your taxes. I kinda enjoy mine though. Sad.

~Mar 19, I mean 20, 12 am... Finish and prepare to file taxes. WTF. 'Please let us know how you would like to pay your $14.95 fee for basic tax software, simple return.' $14.95? Dude, you raised the price? I re-read all the information on every page. I find their alternate sites..yes, one at least says $9.95 still. I'm not crazy, it was not $15 when I started, I know it. I am not paying $5 more now-- no way, no how. I briefly consider the idea of scraping all the data off the forms and using a competitor's site or this one's other $9.95 page even... Nah, screw that. They quoted me $9.95. Bitches. It's on now.

~Mar 20, 12:20 am. Find their websites offering coupons. Try all coupons. No dice.
~Fire off scathing email. 'Bait and Switch' phrase used of course. Not appreciated. Mention that I'm loyal returning customer (which I am). Okay, loyal is maybe stretching it, as I can be bought away for about $2, let's be real. I am a returning customer though. Attempt to come off as irritated but understanding customer. Which I am...if I end up getting my $5 at some point.

~Try online chat function...you get automated robby the robot semi-intelligent (a word that actually means un-intelligent) customer service AI. Ask Robby one question. throw hands in air and type in 'live help'...assuming I won't get any. Wonder of wonders...a person types back.... Hello helpful Aaron dude! Ya, there's this thing where you guys tried to scr-- er I mean you changed the price etc...
Aaron come back in a minute -- 'Sorry, yes they scale the price up as the date approaches.. can I offer you a coupon for the difference?'

At this point half of me wants to dance the snoopy dance and give the sign rugby officials give for a goal, but the Squeaky Mouse part of me is sad...because this was too easy. I consider saying 'hey I'll tell you want, you better knock off another $5 as well because I'm pissed now.' but I think better of it. Aaron seems like swell guy (I'm sure his real name is Aaron too and he lives in the states...doing online tech support at midnight) and this wasn't so difficult... I just thank him and take my coupon. I suppose I have my $5 back now and it didn't take more than a few minutes, so no harm done.
~I try the coupon before I close the chat, ya, my $5 credit works now. Sweet! Bam. Okay, mouse goes back to his hole.

So once again, today's moral is: Never give up fighting for what is rightfully yours. And/or what is someone else's but they're unwilling to fight over. Remember especially if they represent a company...it's not their money, so they really want to give it to you, the customer they empathize with from within their squalid, underpaid call-support-center working conditions. They're your ally on the inside. This is the cult of squirrel concept. As a business-owner, never trust a squirrel to defend your nuts against other squirrels..they are all in on it together. Little bastids... this is why we have to raise costs ya know. Ahem.

Oh well, all's well that ends with me getting mine. Peace out yo.

p.s. Cool moment of the day. Riding in the car with Cameron after school--I turn on my CD and ask him what he wants to hear. 'The one with the na-na-nanana' 'What?' I ask him. 'I don't understand.' 'The one with the ... with the... with the,' he's not sure how to describe it. 'What's it sound like?' I ask, not expecting him to know lyrics. 'The one with the boys and girls!'
It dawns on me. 'You mean 'hey girls, hey boys, superstar djs...here we go!' 'YES! The boys and girls!'
Awesome. My kid just put in a request for Chemical Brothers.
I queue it up. 'hey girls...hey boys.... superstar DJs... herewego!' We agree it's very cool, and he grooves a bit as we cruise along. I run by the bank to deposit cash and we get watermelon dum-dum lollipops to celebrate our awesomeness. Fin.

The Police - July 2, 2007 in St. Louis

2007-03-10T15:47:00.000-08:00

'We are The Police, and we're back.' - Grammys, 2007.

I didn't get to see the Grammy show live sadly, since I was in London, but I caught the video the next week. Hearing Sting yell that and then kick off the show with Roxanne just gave me goosebumps

Well the best band ever is back and I'm going to be there to see 'em in July. I maybe went a bit crazy and made sure I got the best seats I could without paying more than face value. The standard seats even by using the fan club were still considerably pricey, but hey it's the concert of a lifetime for me. I've been crazy about the band since sometime around 1984, which was unfortunately too late to see them back then, but they are BACK. I really like Sting (seen him 5 times, or was it 6?) but I think the Police stuff was even better and I already have gone on a yo-yo ride the last few days wondering if I should have hocked the house and my car to make sure I was in the first row or two. Still i did really well. 21st row center. Can't wait!

Happy, delirious, crazy, stoked, amped, insane, ecstatic, overjoyed and excited am I.

EEEEE OOOOO

h8in - a quick thought

2007-02-25T00:20:00.000-08:00

Ha, this is just so funny. Remember, it's not mean-spirited to laugh at people if everyone else objectively agrees that they are twits.

http://indexed.blogspot.com/2007/02/life-sure-does-come-at-you-fast.html

:)

pond hockey

2007-02-19T17:08:00.000-08:00

Pond Hockey -- awesome.

Man I shoulda been born up north. This looks fantastic. Watching the clip makes my soul soar a bit. I'm still grateful I got to play outside so much on wheels back in the 90s, but it's not ice...

Let's play some hockey -- stay tuned for updates for the April roller hockey game.

blogging

2007-02-18T18:12:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I wish blogs were more personal. It is a good medium to communicate to lots of people at once, friends and acquaintances--even the random stranger who shares my interest. However, when you want to really share your problems or open your heart, it's not the place. Much like those crazy kids and their myspace pages, we all have to realize that anything committed to the public aethyr can be forever referenced and used to profile you in your career. Do I care if a future employer knows that I like poker, fooseball and Mini Coopers? Or that I'm a firm believer that The Police were (are!) the best band ever, or that Microsoft inhibits innovation and has caused more bad than good with their contributions to the world's desktops? Naah, we're all entitled to opinions. Should I tell you my feelings about unions, affirmative action, flag burning or same-sex marriage though? Okay, now we're getting more into the area where your opinion that your friends respectfully disagree with can hurt you someday with someone who's not your friend. What about sharing medical history, past or present? Some things are best kept private, or at least private enough that they're not one google click away from anyone who may not have our best interests at heart. Are you censoring yourself? Sure. Is that sad? Yeah, it is. A private diary the 'net is not. A blog is great for sharing some things, but not for all.

A coffee house and a friend are worth more than all the bandwidth and audience in the world.

How was London? Good, bad, indifferent. Tough. Busy. A few days were great. A few were way bad. It's been a rough few weeks...work can be hard. That makes taking care of/being part of your family hard. It's a balancing act and many will tell you that there are clear times you must choose one or the other, and yes, some will tell you that the choice is simple and always should go one way, but nothing is that simple. I wish life wasn't so hard, but that's like yelling into the storm. What will be, will be. To quote Mr. Gump, that's about all I have to say about that.

Random thoughts of the week:
Shout out to the Freemans, going travelling soon, have fun, good luck.
Happy Birthday to Matt
I'm looking forward to FOMO XIII
Nick Skupnik is engaged, grats Nick

Follow up to conversation of the week (a.k.a. ill-advised thought of the week):
For the record, a few of us discussed this touchy subject this week and I wanted to clarify my view: I think doing the multiple jobs of both raising a family and having a professional career is worthy of slightly more respect than managing just one. I respect both situations, but I can't say they're equal. I would say the same about someone who does multiples of either...two jobs, more impressive than one. Raising three kids, more impressive than raising two. Handling a marriage and a job and kids, more props. Going to school and having a career with kids and the marriage, well, even tougher, etc etc. I'm not knocking anyone's personal choice--that's just my opinion.

Two incomes, no kids. Single parent, with career and kids. A couple with one career, one stay-at-home. A 5-year window where you do something else than what you prefer until the kids are out of those early formative years, whatever. There are lots of combos that work for different folks. My point is that people who have kids and/or a spouse, and then go to an office all day don't come home and just go to sleep--they parent and work on their marriage as well once they're back and they're behind now because they were gone all day. There are exceptions to everything, and every situation is different, but I tend to think the juggling act is tougher than concentrating on just one. Are both activities work? I'm not saying they're not. Some jobs you don't get paid for, and some jobs you don't leave the house for, yes, but at the end of the day, if you can quit the job and you don't lose the roof over your head and your other possessions, then in my opinion it's not the same stress as one where you have that consequence. As important as both things are, that is just the economic reality.

Every person must make their own choice on what they do with their life and how much time they spend at it, and what works for some of us won't work for all. Some of us don't get the same choices as others too, remember. Finances dictate a lot of what people decide on things like career and family. Still, you should do what makes you happy, or at least try to. We all try not to judge others, yes, but everyone has an opinion and it's human nature to think yours is more valid than others. Remember if you ask for someone's opinion to listen to it and not disagree with it. If you want to know what someone thinks, be prepared to hear a slightly different view than your own. That makes the world more interesting anyway.

Peace out yo. (and flame away)

horrid customer service

2007-01-27T09:27:00.000-08:00

If your bank/credit card company gets acquired by Bank of America, just kiss any concept of service you may have goodbye.

I just loved my MBNA card I had the last few years..great service on calls, great performance on the website. Now when I call BoA I get extremely long hold times, confused service reps who can't do much to help me, and if I do ask about fees and such, all they can do is confirm 'yes, we have fees for everything' It makes using the card for rewards painful. Using the card internationally (3% fee on every txn) is just out of the question.

Oh well, just whining. I'll be using the capital one when I'm overseas.

late nights

2007-01-23T01:23:00.000-08:00

One of the good things about international ops is you get to travel a few weeks a year. One of the bad things is that you are on call or working a much longer day all the rest of the weeks of the year. Tonight was a crummy night on call but not really bad or anywhere near terrible--just a few hours. Got paged at 11:30 while starting to snooze/telling the oldest son a story. Minor issue, spirals up a bit, then the fallout and some emails to make sure we do better next time, etc etc. So it's 3am and I'm going to bed. Then I'm lying there awake, thinking the workday needs to be 12 hours, not 8-9, because I didnt' make enough progress on every project I needed to today...a few made progress, but not all. Oh well...worry about it tomorrow.

Then just before I drift off, I realize that I didn't see my younger son today. I hadn't seen him in over 24 hours. Boy that just feels freakin great... I about cried thinking that it's one of those things you always think 'I didn't even see my family today!' but it doesn't actually ever really happen. And then it does. I peeked in him, and he's fine...but I still feel like a lousy parent. I also fed the cats while I was up (They said they have been neglected a lot too, but I don't believe that. Cats lie about everything.), then I put my hours in for the day and read a few more emails of what's happened in the last 20 mins. So now back to bed, it's 3:30.

I would say that someday this will all pay off, but honestly, I like my job and they do take care of me. I just need to stop more often, know when to quit for the day, and keep in mind that there are more important things. The little voice in my head keeps saying 'bad parent' though. Damnit.

January

2007-01-21T00:43:00.000-08:00

It's going to be quiet on here for a little while. Lots of work, lots of family time, and I'm working on my house when I get spare time. Some tidbits.

We saw Casino Royale the other night. Fabulous. Very nice to get out of the house for a date too. We had a nice meal at Stir Crazy. Thumbs up for them too--recommended.

Blues are on a win streak...what do ya know? Is it real? Are we indeed the .500 team with potential we thought we had coming into this year? Ehhh...i dont think so. We're overachieving a bit right now, no injuries and new coach Murray is doing a great job, but I think we'll have a slump soon to offset this recent spurt. I think if we're a few points from playoff contention near the trade deadline, we'd be wise to sell. Too many teams every year think they're buyers and they're not. Let's be real...we are not doing better than maybe a #7 seed and a first round upset then a crushing in the 2nd round, if we even do make it in at all. That isn't bad for some teams, but c'mon, with our team's history, we aren't satisfied with round 1 OR 2. Let's invest in the '08 and '09 seasons now and deal some of the older talent to teams that want to win right now. Trade KT. Brewer if possible. Drake if possible. Ruccinsky for sure if someone will take him. Any goalie out of Cash, Sanford and Legace is fine by me...we want the future to be Schwarz and Bishop anyway.

Finally, as for the NFL on Sunday...c'mon Saints and Colts. Nothing personal against da bears, but they're a flawed team. Time for the clock to strike 12 on that bad offense. And F the Pats, plain and simple. I hope their luck finally runs out and the other team doesn't GIVE them the game again, as has been done in a few of their impressive wins of the last 6 years. Yes, theyr'e a good team, good coach, good QB and good talent, but they've gotten some nice breaks too in their opponents just jumping on grenades when they get a chance. My rams in 01 is a good example of course, and then you have the chargers last week doing it again.

Hope this note finds you, and finds you well.
Cheers,
Mike

Spider Studies

2007-01-04T20:36:00.000-08:00

The short-term effects of various toxins on spider behavior (Canadian zoological research)

You know I used to do biological research. Ground-breaking stuff like this makes me wonder why I ever sold out and moved into IT.

2007

2007-01-03T19:12:00.000-08:00

Things to look forward to this year--- a business trip to London, a trip to Austin (just the 2 of us!), a fishing trip to Ontario with my dad and brothers. Cam turns 4 this week, Patch will be ...wow... 3 (much later in the year), a little less debt, my first spring with my MINI, hockey playoffs on Center Ice (yay!) and hopefully an all-around great year like last.

Oh, and mark your calendars if you skate--we're playing hockey come April. My 35th birthday party is going to be pickup hockey! I can't wait. Place and date TBA.

Hope 2007 is good to you too, my friends.

Hockey

2006-12-22T18:27:00.000-08:00

Did I mention I'm in first place in my fantasy hockey garage league?

The guy I just offered a trade is about to laugh at me, just watch.

The team's doing okay, but I can't help wondering if a lllooooong-term keeper league that's very deep would be even more fun. Maybe someday.

Blues won two games in a row!!! Omg, it's Christmas!

Happy Holidays

2006-12-21T23:59:00.000-08:00

Peace on earth, goodwill to men, yadda yadda. Hugs to you all.
May we all get something naughty and nice this year.

can't fix stupid

2006-12-09T11:52:00.000-08:00

Sometimes there just aren't enough calculators.

Verizon twits

As someone who almost enjoys arguing with billing companies when they're wrong, I have to say this one might not be worth pursuing. At least not with the first 2 people...you might have to keep escalating until you get someone who graduated high school.

I miss hockey

2006-11-29T22:29:00.000-08:00

No, not the stuff on TV...getting lots of that lately. I miss playing.

I am really looking forward to spring, when I am planning on putting on a birthday party rink rental for myself and anyone who can skate is welcome to come play pickup hockey. You know who you are....if you're a washed up almost 30 or over 30something that used to be pretty good but haven't strapped the pads on in a while... If your excuse is that work and family come first, you can't get out to play hockey each week anymore, then hey, I hear ya. But once or twice a year, you just gotta say 'I am the greatest... Drop that puck, and fear me you puny mortals! (C league mortal only please)

Btw, this video is freakin hilarious. Ilya is now my hero.

p.s. If anyone knows of or wants to play some pickup hockey on weekends in St. Louis or is thinking of playing a rec league again, give me a buzz.

insomnia

2006-11-23T04:20:00.000-08:00

I've been away lately and not putting up any posts.
On this Thanksgiving, naturally I wanted to say that I hope you are all well and to enjoy your turkey day. Additionally I'd like to say that insomnia sucks the big one. Where the hell did this come from and how did I get so fucked up in the first place, to use the correct terms--pardon my French.

I talked to a sleep specialist at a party a few months ago and he said I had to cut the caffeine as the first step... I have a habit of drinking sodas all day if you didn't know. I'm not sure I'm willing to do that...that's about as reasonable as someone telling me to stop using the internet, the television or to no longer read books. Now if I was getting kidney stones (ouch! knock wood), ya, that 2-5 sodas a day would be cut back. Yes, they're all diet, 0 calories, and yes I know they rot my teeth, but arrgGGH, they are so good. Even without the caffeine, is it MY fault that my almost-4yo doesn't sleep, stays up late, comes into the bedroom and tosses and turns at 4am? Is it my fault the cats jump on us while we're sleeping and whine they don't have food at 5am, making it unbearable to not appease them immediately? I live with 6 dictators!
(Is it my fault that you can get good fantasy hockey advice 24/7 and Yahoo doesn't post results/updates from the night before til 2am??) Is it my fault that my job has me on call til 1am for a third of the year...oh wait, okay, yes that one's mine. It seemed to fit my profile.

It's quite unhealthy...and it's convenient yes to only really need 5.5 hours sleep, but being tired frequently in the mornings at work is not good for your career (I even drink coffee sometimes though. I don't like coffee, how fubar is that). I used to be able to rationalize when I stayed up and read all night...hey, it's 2am but I'm not tired anyway, and reading is good for you. I will 'live' an extra 3 years over some of you perhaps if you add up all the nighttime hours over my lifetime... err...okay that has the assumption that I don't wear my body out early by burning midnight oil so much that I have a heart attack or stroke at age 68.

Oh well. Back to bed, 6:19am. sick sick.

IE 7 -- whee, thanks a lot...

2006-11-05T21:57:00.000-08:00

So I needed to update a few patches for XP and though I know they lie a lot with most releases, I decided to trust the evil bastards. I can always restore and go back to IE6, or use Firefox...or whatever.

This thing is a piece of dung. To return to the popular 'your computer as a car' metaphor, this is like having your car worked on and, after you agree to the warranty work, next thing you know you go to pick it up and there's a guy sitting in the front seat...a helpful advisor. Who won't shut up. And won't leave. He a) speaks only his mixed dialect of Swahili-Phoenician, b) is unaware that you didn't ask for him, c) is permanently attached to your car now. d) is quite unattractive and takes up most of the available space you had in your car. Heck, he even waves his hands in front of you while you try to drive. Cool upgrade, thanks!

If you haven't tried it, just remember that lovely feeling you used to have with old track-ball mice...you move it around and it doesn't do what it should. You clean it out and it still doesn't...you try to work and it impairs everything you are attempting to do. You lament the fact that it has a cord so you can't throw it very far. I'm not saying every new feature they have is useless... lots of their new functionality is so useful that we've all been using it for the past year in our google toolbar. Whee, I have duplicated stuff all over now, with incentives to remove Google's! Got anti-trust? Now I have the one auto search bar in my toolbar that is labeled Google, and I have the plain-jane one that IE7 doesn't let you disable without using a tweak/registry change. I would have appreciated it having a setting to turn it off, but you know those MS guys...always going with the logical approach of 'well if you can disable the Google one and you can't disable ours, maybe you should just umm.. use ours? Duh! You're welcome!' Note, here's the link to tweaks to move the main menu for your IE to the top (wow...heresy..who would want to do that...don't make that a built-in option guys) or to remove the MS search window (which I would have set to default to Google's engine anyway).

Another excellent feature... not allowing scripted windows by default... as in the easy html linkage buttons on pages like this one to embed a link while you're writing some tool-powered HTML. Feel like linking something while you post on blogger? Okay, well just try it, then click the popup bar to allow scripted windows temporarily. Oh, and every time you're on the page you're going to be doing this. There's no setting for 'allow this site to do this in the future'... oh no, that would be helpful. Of course, you could probably disable all your security settings for mid-level security sites and that might fix it. That's how I used to browse most places actually: medium level security. Well now if you're not pretty high-level security, IE gives you a complimentary window-wide message bar at the top of your screen on *EVERY* page reminding you that 'Your computer settings are not secure...click here!' You can search some on how to remove this stupid feature from hell if you'd like by gimping out your standard settings -- naturally changing IE7's default settings can and will remove some functionality from Web sites you regularly visit. Here is a discussion on it...

Why not just set IE 7's security level to "High"? It's always possible to crank IE's Internet Zone up to the High security level instead of Medium-High. Doing this, however, makes most Web sites unusable, because IE then pops up a warning every time some harmless page script runs. Sometimes, several warnings appear on every page of a site. Using the customized settings shown above — and adding respected companies to your Trusted Sites zone — provides you with fairly good protection without subjecting you to such pointless harassment.

Ugg. Really. I am not a super tweaker of web-browsers but to return to the car analogy when they F my engine up this much, I pretty much am resigned to buying the parts book and learning how to build my engine from scratch now just so I can continue to drive the thing. And don't you feel sorry for people who can't even figure out how to change their menu settings on a program? This thing is as bad as AOL. Hand-holding? Try chinese fingercuffs.

Oh well... there ya go. I'm 'upgraded' now, and the top of my screen is much more cluttered and not the way I like it. Whatever happened to the concept of offereing the user the option to 'use classic view'? It sure makes XP bearable as an OS.

Sucktastic. That's what is on the horizon, I mean vista.

p.s. The fix to the windows script linkage thing, i.e. not wanting to be prompted everytime by a frequently-visited site like blogger.com ,is to enable this option under Tools/Internet Options/Security: Allow websites to prompt for information using scripted windows. I'm surprised the little warning strip didn't come back from doing that, but hey, I had just assumed there were two security settings 'danger will robinson' and 'high-default-allow-nothing'. That'll fix the problem for now though. I'm sure that's painfully obvious to the web-scripters and devs out there reading this, but try to think of the non-I.T. people who are upgrading to IE7 and dealing with this crap.

Like I said, sucktastic. Damn my UI looks like hell now. Will have to work on it more tomorrow.

Happy Halloween

2006-10-30T23:13:00.000-08:00

Today is my wife's favorite holiday, which means it makes me pretty happy too. We went to a cool party last weekend and I went to a 2nd party without her. Lots of fun. I went as a lamer tourist Saturday....hawaiian shirt, cameras, shades, black socks and sandals. 2Chav4U! Dar went as a princess, with a very cool medieval gown that she made herself--she's quite proud of it. Cam was a knight ("an evil knight?" "No, a true knight!" ha ha), and Patrick was a frog prince. Obviously someone in the family didn't get the fantasy motif memo... bad dad. Shoulda been a dragon. Sigh.

By the way, that whole evil djinn story is true. Be careful what you wish for. I've been wanting a challenge at work lately and I got a new project that is now occupying a lot of my time. Work is good though, can't complain.

My dad's going to be 60 in a few days! That used to seem so old, but now he's that age and I know he's not that old of a guy. Weird. I love him so much. Happy birthday Dad! I can't tell you yet what I'm getting him, but it's cool.

Eragon

2006-10-25T22:12:00.000-07:00

Very good book. I think it can be a good movie too. As fantasy novels go, I think it was just good enough, but not so overly complex, that it could be a good film. A lot of what I consider high fantasy, for example the Riftwar Saga, the Wheel of Time, or a Song of Fire and Ice, or even the Dark Tower series by King, is just too deep to make into a good popcorn movie that Joe and Jane Moviegoer are going to enjoy. Eragon like Harry Potter, can be made into a movie. The chronicles of Thomas Covenant... umm, no way.

I look forward to this one. I may be hoping for too much from it, but until I'm proven wrong, I'm going to keep hoping.

h@x0rd!

2006-10-19T16:37:00.000-07:00

So I was at the store today and they declined my card! What!? I swiped again..no luck. Used my other card, came home and called. Hold for 15 min or so..and then I answer a bunch of authentication questions..yes yes..blah blah..yes yes.
Then I get a list of charges... $14.01 at business type 'grocery' ? Check..that's the one that didn't work just a while ago. $69.80 at Pizza and Wings? Huh? Another $69.80 at Pizza and Wings? Another $69.80...

Hacked--omg! Luckily the total stopped there and I wasn't forced to wonder how many times you could charge pizza in a night before the restaurant realizes you don't look like you belong on that show Entourage. It seems it was 3, and either this guy had stolen my stripe code, bought it from some resell business, or cloned it, etc...
Oh well, no harm done. There were no other fraudulent charges, and my new card is on the way in 5-7 business days. And hopefully the doofus who stole my card # has his door beat down on Cops! soon and I get to see it.

Oh well, it could have been far worse. My limit would have let them buy a bit more than some pizzas, assuming the merchant didn't check the signature, etc etc.

Thumbs up to MBNA (That's Bank of America now) and their handling of this. Good work guys.

How to be a squeaky mouse

2006-10-14T08:49:00.000-07:00

Okay, if you don't know this already, kids, here is a lesson.

1. Saturday - Review SBC, er, AT&T DSL bill...find that my normal expected bill of $50 is $85. (For $50 I get $15 internet service, a phone line, call waiting, caller ID and a load of taxes) $85!?? My brain verbalizes the 3 letters w, t and f as the sound 'whatthefu--'. I look for the phone and glare at it for a second. Bastards.

2. Call SBC, er, AT&T customer service. Resign myself to being on hold next 10 minutes. Review other bills in the meantime. Bastards.

3. Get through to Cust service and explain problem
Squeaky Mouse: 'What's the deal here? I usually pay $15 and now it's $50? Explain please!'
ATT: Let me look that up sir
ATT: Ah, well you signed up in Sept 05 and you had a promotional rate of $15...that promotion ended in September 06. You now pay the standard rate. It was a 12 month promotion.
SM: Actually I was told then that my 'normal rate' would continue after 12 months, and my 'normal rate' was $15. I don't think $50 is a good deal for DSL, and I really don't want to have to switch services. Am I really going to be charged $50 now?
ATT: Let me see if we can review your account for promotions....do you want me to do that?
SM: Yes. I have to switch my cable soon to another provider and I need to know if I'm going to be changing ISP as well.

4. Customer service addresses primary concern
ATT: Okay sir, your rate for the express service (1.5Mbps if you're wondering) is $19.95. Can I interest you in the higher speed for $25, or the superl33t highspeed for $30?
SM: You said l33t!
ATT: Er, I mean premium.
SM: Well, I used to game and may have needed it then, but for now it's good enough as it is, gimme the $19.95. The service is good and $5 for inflation/lack of promotion/Standard DSL cost is fine I guess. if you go up next year, I'm gone though
ATT: Okay, so your rate will now be $19.95 and will start the 19th.

5. But there is still cheese to be won. Squeak on brother.
SM: So am I still being charged the 50 for this month? Do we pay ahead or behind the billing cycle?
ATT: Ah, well yes, that rate was applied Sept 17, though you might get a partial back
SM: I am not happy paying $50 for DSL.

(pause...wait.... Let the silence work for you.)

6. I like cheese. Gimme!
ATT: You know what, I can issue a one-time customer satisfaction credit for the difference, would you like me to?
SM: Yes, please! SM mimics stabbing his enemy with a dagger and twisting it. 'Gotcha!'
ATT: Okay, that's all set. The $30 credit will apply next month. Please be nice if they send you a survey! because my bonus is linked to that part!

--------------------

So, you see... you need to ASK for these things, and you will get them. If you no ask, you no get. I'm not thrilled paying $5 more for my DSL now, don't get me wrong...if I could have talked them back into another 12 months at my old rate, I would have, but at least I got $30 just for the asking. You should ask, always. And be persistent...they are running you through a gauntlet and he who gets to the end will get a reward. If nothing else, you can exhaust your opponent and they will concede you anything they can to be rid of you.

You can do this with utility or credit card companies of course, or with poor restaurant service, car dealer or about any other business where two things are true. 1) The person listening to you is not paying the money out of their own pocket, 2) You are a customer with other options. Customers with other options are valuable. That's why credit card companies have entire departments called Retention. You say you're unhappy and leaving, they pull out a list of things they can do for you to make you happy. Remember that key phrase. 'I am not happy.' That works wonders, particularly if you say it more than once and then go silent and leave the ball in their court. Their resulting Christmas spirit is approved of by the customer service team's management for one reason. Only 2% of the mice squeak, and pissing them off isn't worth it. Give that small number what they want and you get goodwill. These particular customers, since they've already shown the willingness to attack you, are also the most likely to go out of their way to badmouth you if you don't treat them well -- they may even say nice things and do your marketing for you. Remember, even if you're not the magical opinion-shaper who influences others (and marketing people lust after those folks)...there's power in impersonating that guy.

Credit card companies are actually the easiest. They usually charge slightly more to everyone than they need to and only lower the rates if you ask...most sheep just accept what they're told, so in their mind they're doing nothing wrong. (Note that it helps if you actually ARE a good customer who keeps accounts in good standing.)
'Can I get a lower rate?' 'let's see...yes, you can'
'My payment is going to be late...strange circumstance. Never happens. Can I send it now and pay no fee?' 'Yes sir, I have noted it, no problem'
'Hey, there's a late fee here...I'm never late.' 'Ahh, indeed you are not sir...let me remove that fee for you. A one-time adjustment of course'

Oh yes, of course. One-time until next time I need something.

on blogs, mice and men

2006-10-09T20:03:00.000-07:00

So if you're reading this, I think we can both agree that blogs can be interesting. I really enjoy reading those of my friends to see what they're up to. By the same measure, for some strange reason I like posting on here to let you know what I'm up to...even if half of the posts come down to just whinging about life. Hey, most places in the world you would have to pay some stranger $5 to hear your bad-beat poker story! So the point is...blogs, can be good. There are probably a fair number of horrid ones as well. Either they lack content or they have no point, or perhaps the author is just a hack writer. Perhaps they are just adventures in narcissism. And I'm not suggesting that I'm Chaucer here, but I try to hold your interest while at the same time keeping it pretty brief-- a bit of the Seinfeld concept.

Now to take the lameness to a whole new level...go look on youtube for vblogs. I was randomly tooling around in youtube tonight, since they have entered into their 'we get rich and you get to see if this concept really has legs' agreement with Google. There seems to be a small community that spends their time posting vblog responses to each other, i.e. 're: dudeman's response to lonelygirl15's response to...' bleh bleh bleh. And they're not even LOW-quality video--they are terrible. Come ON people. If you want to regulary toss out your opinion on things in a video media format, i.e. you think you are an underground Stephen Colbert, then at least produce the thing well, and have a point. Never mind. Comparing 99.8% of this video drivel to commentary by our established media, whether it's Jon Stewart or George Will, is much like pointing out that you could live on the hot dogs from 7-11. Technically it's food, but not really. Vblogs--same thing. Technically it's a medium, but for much of what's out there... drivel is being too nice.

Okay, now I'm ranting about other people who produce craptastic cyberspace flotsam, aren't I? Yes, they are kicking up the equivalent of cyberdust and leaving it out there in our internet cosmos (the one that Al Gore sacrificed so much for to bring to us) and unwitting surfers may just waste 15 minutes watching this junk. I weep for the future.

And you thought that we Children of the 80s - Gen X - Star Wars Geek - Brat Packers were a bunch of ritalin-popping zoomed-out weebies who grew up watching too much junk TV? Let me assure you, our kids are going to grow up to have the attention span of a clapping cymbal monkey.

Random Cameron commentary as he just walked in here: "you got nothing! The Blues are bad!" Thanks Cam...I know we don't have a win yet, but hey, they're a lot better than last year. Note to John Davidson: My 3 year old thinks the team needs work. Maybe you should have signed a #1 center?

ouch II -- Doh!

2006-10-08T20:57:00.000-07:00

Well, we won 6-2 in dominating fashion, clinching the division series at home, which sets off a huge downtown party that was no doubt awesome. And the game was moved back to 7:00 instead of 2:00, giving me just enough time that I could maybe have gone to the memorial service 4 hours away and made it back in time... but, it would have been a) inappropriate, and b) close, so... pobrecito. I will now lament forever that I missed the game for a good reason.

sigh...at least we won. rams too...and mizzou. Another good weekend.

Blues -- 0-1-1... not so good.

ouch

2006-10-06T19:38:00.000-07:00

I had to send a painful email today.
It was most painful because it included these phrases:
"thank you but" "unfortunately I cannot" and
"please return the Cardinal playoff tickets to the pool".

Family thing Sunday, so I'm going to that and not going to see Padres/Cardinals in the division series. (If I'm lucky Cards will win game 3, there won't BE a game 4, and I can be relieved that this didn't matter.)

Go Redbirds...just don't win it in game 4 by 10 runs or something silly...I will be most perturbed then.

Game on!

2006-10-05T21:43:00.000-07:00

Hockey...
And so is Fantasy Hockey. I enjoy both the NHL and our little group of friends who play in a fantasy league. It's a geeky pursuit, but that's what geeks do when they're not playing other games...they obsess over people who play games for a living.

I did okay at our draft last week, but not spectacular--I probably have as good a chance to win as the Blues do of making the playoffs, which means I need to get some breaks now. I usually draft really well (past few years) and last year after the draft, I was convinced I had one of the best teams. Which was right, they kicked butt for me and I had a very good year. This year...well, I made some poor choices and didn't get as lucky as I needed to on a few things. It's early, and my team is very well rounded (we have 11 categories, so just picking high scorers doesn't necessarily win anything for you), but some of the other teams look much more fearsome. I'm guessing that means some of my assumptions were wrong...like drafting goalies early. There were very good ones left near the end, so obviously while I was taking care of that, everyone else went for the Jagrs and Kovalchuks...that was fine if I gained an advantage to offset theirs, but almost everyone else went scoring scoring early. A few other people sought balance, but for the most part, there was a lot of drafting of scorers. Anyway, I'm looking forward to the season. Also, I just remembered that a hockey geek like me who's always wondering about box scores... shouldn't carry a pager which has scores on it 24/7.

Poker...

Won $17 at poker tonight, which is good, but I was not a good winner...whinged a little bit about hands I didn't win, and argued too much with a friend of mine who is a better player than me. I admit to being only a slightly-above-average poker player who doesn't play disciplined enough. As much as I would like to learn to play limit poker better, I seem to remain slightly-above-average after playing for almost 20 years now. Maybe I am actually a good player when I try to be, but I just throw that out way too often and play loose and wild. Then again there are some professional players who play lots of pots and some that even play very wild...but they only get respect because when they have a good night they win a tourney. When I have a good night, I just double my money.

Oh well, note to self--do some more studying, use some more discipline when playing, and spend some more time analyzing my game, not just winging it.

Cards are playing well right now...won again today. Maybe we'll make it to the series again and actually play well when we get there, something our much better team couldn't do two years ago. Go team. Blues...playing badly tonight but managing a tie at the moment. The Rams haven't played well yet and are 3-1, so that's good if we can pick up our game and actually start to play to our potential.

First week of fantasy hockey--- no standings yet. About even with Kevin at the moment, but a terrible night tonight for the team.

Office

2006-09-28T22:36:00.000-07:00

Watching some more of the UK version of the Office. So funny, and so non-PC. I don't really watch the American version yet. I'm sure it's good, but I wanted to watch the original first. I'm guessing even with the same writers that it can't be as offensive due to our censors... a lot of the jokes just wouldn't fly in our country (at least on network tv).
After watching a few episodes of both the US one and the UK one, I have to say I prefer theirs. A lot of the same situations get adapted and I'm guessing that will continue throughout the season, but I think the UK one has a little more edge.
Anyway, quite excellent if you like the English brand of humor... it's just obnoxious. Not for everyone, but if you like witty, dry humor, check it out.

And ya, I may have turned into an Anglophile the last few years. IF I hadn't been a fan of Red Dwarf in the past, I might wonder if it's all a recent thing.

petrolhead... (eh?)

2006-09-26T22:27:00.000-07:00

Over here we call them gearheads... in the UK it's a petrolhead. Either way: car. geek.

This is an interesting episode of Fifth Gear from BBC. This one guy owns both a McLaren F1 and a Ferrarri Enzo... which is just rediculous, as that's over $3Million US in two cars. Just the 6000-mile service on the McLaren will set you back 30,000 pounds...

Anyway, what excited me and the other car-geeks from the MINI boards is that sitting in his driveway with these two monsters is a BMW and yes... a MINI Cooper :)

Good taste there, mate.

new kid on the block

2006-09-25T18:37:00.000-07:00

September 25, 2006. Welcome baby Lilah Marie Wyman. Mom, Dad, Big Bro and the newbie girl are all doing well. Congrats!

Got Shades?

2006-09-23T23:17:00.000-07:00

This is pretty funny... I think I did occasionally read pvponline a while back when I played EQ, and so I followed the link on Mypetrock's page. I have to agree with the author that classic Ray Ban Aviators are well, classic. I think I have some of mine from circa 1990 laying around still. Now it's true that none of us look as cool as Sting in them... case in point--

but hey, that is the best band of all time, so I can live with that.

So, on the subject of Shades--I love my new shades. I had a semi-cheapie pair ($40 is a semi-cheapie pair in my opinion) from Eddie Bauer the last few years that I really liked, but I had the same old problem I've had my whole life with sunglasses. I don't wear my contacts most of the time, and choosing to have my "real" glasses on so I can see, or my shades so I can tone down the sunlight and look cool at the same time--well, that's not much of a choice. Particularly when I'm driving. You people with good vision just don't know how good you have it.

For the record, I have about 20/40 vision now, with a moderate astigmatism. I've worn glasses since I was in 4th grade, and with my ego I always kinda' considered that a tragedy. I look much cuter without the glasses! (oh so vain...but hey, no one reads my blog, so I can say what I want here.) Now, in junior high and high school I wore my contacts most of the time and yes it did help with the ladies. And you thought 'four-eyes' ostracism in school-kid culture was a myth didn't you? Nope, that stuff really happens. Luckily, most people grow out of such shallow judgments by the time they're 21. Anyway, to get back to the point -- I had worse vision until I was in my late 20s and then it got better, as unbelievable as that might sound to you if you don't know much about eyes. You probably know our eyesight can shift over time, but going from near-sighted to almost-far sighted is a bit of a weird pattern. One of my eyes is close to far-sighted now, if you don't factor in the astigmatism. What that means is I can basically drive fine during the day except that I have to get to within 100 feet of a road sign to read it, whereas you can see it from 200 feet. Not a major deal if your major concern while driving is 'Do not hit things!' instead of 'hey, what's that guy's license plate number?'

I digress, as usual. Point is, I had to get some new spectacles a few months ago, and with the 'buy one get one' deals that places run now, I treated myself to some nice prescription Oakley Teaspoons.

I almost went with some more conservative black wire-frames, but I figured I'd live a little, and like I said, I was an ugly duckling for way too many years, so I'm not shy anymore. And I love these shades! I would have preferred to get LASIK, yes, and ditch the whole need for prescription lenses, but oh well, that wasn't in the cards. The story on that: I was set to get it last year and sadly, one of the reasons my vision changed in my late 20s was my developing mild keratoconus, which affects about 1 in every 2000 people. Therefore, not a candidate for Lasik. Oh well, while it still annoys me that I can't just fix my eyes like most people with glasses can, the experience did scare me a bit by revealing that I could be much worse off. I'm pretty relieved that my KC is mild enough that it's correctable, and in the same line of thinking...there are a ton of worse things you can be diagnosed with. So as a result, I finally got around to getting some prescription shades, which I like very much. I still don't look as cool as Maverick though.

Do you wear shades? What's your look? Cheap-but-functional, or stylish and pricey? Over the top, trendy or high fashion? If you wear glasses normally and haven't ever gotten some Rx ones, try em out. Not cheap, so don't lose em, but I can tell you it is NICE to have the option when you want 'em.

web searches, Google, pageviews and musing

2006-09-21T21:29:00.000-07:00

I was surfing around tonight...from the CNN list of top US billionaires, to the Wiki pages of Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page (both 33 and worth way more cash than you and I will ever be) and such. It's fascinating to read about entrepreneurs that have grabbed the world by the tail...you wonder if you had really applied yourself and studied the right area of computer science back in the 90s when the web was new... could that be you? Similarly, I've enjoyed reading the bios on guys like Jobs, Gates, Ellison, Wozniak... and even Mark Cuban over the years. I guess as I get older I am realizing I may never leave a huge mark on the human race like I once hoped, but I'm happy with my modest successes at life for now, and I'm not half done yet, so who knows.

Anyway, I read up on PageRank and that's one of those things like the explanation of gravity or newton's laws...you read it *now* and say 'well duh, that makes sense', but obviously figuring it out first takes the whole apple, research and patents process. Cool for them...I hated the way search engines behaved back in 1997 too. There are some bad ones now, but thumbs up for anyone who works on making them more intelligent.

Anyway, those pages are fascinating... there's some interesting stuff like the initial paper on the search engine Google here and some other good stuff. Then I was intrigued a bit more thinking of what a crap product by comparison something like Myspace is (ha, no hyperlink for them, editor's license), and in googling that, I found this interesting article stating how pageviews are obsolete. That's a pretty cool read.

Good moments of the day: driving to work, an interesting pair of meetings at work, driving home, hugging my wife when she got home, carrying my son up to bed after he fell asleep. Spoke to my aunt and uncle, who are really cool people. Pondering career future at work and not feeling too much pressure, just take it a day at a time. Went to store late with Cam so Dar could enjoy her Grey's Anatomy fix. Stood outside briefly and enjoyed a strong pre-storm wind on a cloudy moonlit night. Watched LOST episode S02E11.

Crummy moments: it was a good day, no real complaints. Poker was cancelled though. Boo. Cards blew a meaningless game, possibly hurting Carpenter's Cy Young chances. Not enough time with Dar. Insomnia returns this week.

Nice Hand, Sir

2006-09-19T19:52:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I've never actually had a Royal Flush in poker when playing without wilds...until this last weekend.

Much like a hole-in-one in golf, or a 300 game in bowling I imagine...it's pretty damn cool to have something like that happen and for you to be the one doing it. I wasn't playing online or on the boat, and no serious money changed hands, but I am thankful that Doug didn't fold since I got to enjoy the hand longer that way. In fact since we were early into the game, he wasn't paying enough attention to realize the flush had hit and he reraised me all-in thinking we were splitting the pot with matching straights, so hey the $20 doesn't hurt either--it is a small bet in the games he plays at the boat and it's a nice pot for me and my small-stakes game.

I was dealt AsJs and raised the big blind, but at the same time I was thinking to myself.. 'Ace-Jack...a hand many people die on.' It's known to be not such a great hand for no-limit poker, but very nice in low-limit like we were playing (we play .30/.60 blinds, everyone buys in for $20).
The flop came Ks, Ts and something red, I forget what. I either bet and he called or I may have checked and called him. I'm not really excited about the chances at that point because it's still only 2 chances at 1 card in the deck, but hey a flush makes me money here most of the time, so that's good enough for me. Then the Qs hit...

My mind immediately forgot about what money I could earn on the hand and started thinking "O...kay... Wow. Now how can I make sure I get to show this hand, and not in that 'oh you folded, good move because I had' way."
Poker face wasn't an issue as I was ready to make the nut flush with any spade, and now with the nuts...(and I mean THE nuts.... usually you preface nuts with 'stone cold' or 'absolute' or something like that when your hand is better than a full house) well I was doing a good job of smiling on the inside at this point, but selling the concerned 'hmm, do you have it, or are we both still racing?' look that everyone in is expected to throw in this situation.

I did say 'I have to bet this hand' as I bet the turn, but people say that when they have a good draw, two pair, or even a set, so I figured it to be a nice smokescreen. Doug and I always tend to not believe each other (/salute) so I actually had a feeling he would call me even if he had just a pair. An ace hit the river and I bet, he raised, so I figured he had the lower flush then...reraise right back at you. He reraised ME then again...which made me wonder what the heck he had..had the board paired? I admit when you have a royal flush you reallly don't look very hard at the other cards...unlike about any other poker hand. We were not allowing 5-of-a-kinds tonight ya know? So I reraise again, and Sarah or someone said 'holy...' and then Doug says 'i'm all in' and sadly, the first thing I thought was not 'Ah Doug, I'm sorry,' no the first thing I thought was 'hey, that's $20, cool!' and then I thought, 'ah man, I'm sorry' and I felt a bit bad turning em over... Especially when we all realized at the same time that Doug hadn't noticed 3 spades on the board, so he had made a fatal misread. *I* have done that before when a flush hit too, so I know it happens. Sometimes you are just thinking of all the other potential hands and forget about the flush.

P.S. Doug was a good sport and could care less about the money because he's hit the same hand on the boat before with a poor dude making quads in front of him and a third maniac in front of both of them pushing all his chips. That pays pretty well no matter what limits you're playing, trust me.

AKQJT spades. Nice hand, sir.

And I tripled up for the night, so I did play okay when I wasn't being handed cards as well. Against that table, that's a good night too, there are no easy fish in that group.

My other funny hand that night was when I hadn't looked at my cards yet and I said, 'you I know I'm going to have to raise you because I have pocket rockets here.' Then I looked at them and yes, they were Aces... They held up too and I got called all the way down since you can't take anyone serious who lies like that then starts betting heavily. Better to be lucky than psychic.

p.s. The phrase in the title comes from a funny pokerism/t-shirt that goes, 'Nice Hand, Sir...and by hand I mean Catch, and by Sir I mean moron.'

film adaptations, part II

2006-09-15T22:13:00.000-07:00

Hmmmm

Wolfgang Peterson. Original author helping with the story adaptation.
There may be hope.

updates

2006-09-13T21:39:00.000-07:00

no blogging lately... too busy. wake, kids to school, work, kids back home, eat, sleep, lather rinse repeat. One year at Jones now. I like it a lot--we're both happy with each other.

So what is everyone else up to?

Dan and Star bought a house and are engaged.
Merl and Kristi are expecting!
Mike and Sara are very expecting and may be parents any day now...or even right now since I didn't hear from him today.
Adam, Lisa and Oliver and I went to the Rams game the other day...lots of fun. Lisa's sister and brother in law are Broncos fans and really enjoyed the Wilkins show.
Haven't seen John and Chrissy since Alan's moving party..I hope they are well.
Paul is apparently only playing WoW or poker now...we never see him. This actually helps my poker cash flow but I miss him.
Missed Lynn's last party. Still bummed about it. Cameron thinks Lynn is the best. Whenever I say I'm going to see my friends, Cam says 'Is Lynn going to be there?' Did you know you had a fan club Lynn?
Sarah Lynn and Paul - also expecting.
Cam is going to be working on swim lessons next few weeks.
Patrick is thinking of being cute for a living.
Doug came to play poker with us a while back at Sarah's house but since then... where are you Doug?
Amanda and Phil still don't know when or if going to England--that's the last update I heard.
Adam and Jennifer--we're all working so haven't seen em enough. They totally should babysit more often though, because my kids love 'em.
Owen turns 3 this weekend, so we should see most of the old crew there.
I'm watching Lost Season 2 still. Oh wait, this isn't about me.
Still haven't seen Sukanek's kid yet, but I'm sure he's awesome and learning to handle a puck right now. See you at the draft Steve!
No update from Danny in almost a year now! I must email the boy and make him come visit.
Ditto on Martin. His daughter's going to be 11 soon..how weird is that? Time flies.
I want to go see Blue Man Group in October! Oh wait, that was about me again.
Donna Mackay is coming in town next week, woohoo!
Adam likes working at the new company, where Randy is as well. Long time no see the Randy.
Speaking of long time no see... did Enrique get married? Where's he been?
Man I need to have a party. It's the only way to get updates on all you slackers.
Really want to get Center Ice this year. Ha, me again! Mmmm...hockeyyy...

MINI takes the States

2006-08-30T22:15:00.000-07:00

Had a fun time last night...went down to hang out at the tailgate party as the MINI takes the States tour rolled through St. Louis. Buncha free stuff and good food, ice cream, etc, plus we got to check out some hot minis. There were a few customized paint jobs and one GP. Then there was the M600 Flamethrower... 500+ horsepower, under 1700 lbs, a few hundred grand in mods. Quartermile in 11.0 seconds. It was pretty sick. And these guys on Team Fireball build them constantly, this is just one of the latest in their line of Fireballed cars...
Also got a free ticket to sit in the partybox (thanks ESPN) but we got crushed by the Marlins, so it might rate as the second worst game I've been to.

Here's some pics:

Cheers,
MC

google video

2006-08-28T19:53:00.000-07:00

first it was one every few weeks...the most recent funny thing people are posting on their friends/guild/hobby forums. Then it was one every few days. Now it seems there are about 10 to 50 funny videos (and about 500 unfunny ones) hitting the web daily and you can't even keep up with them if you just want to see the best...it's like having a TV with 2057 channels and everything on.

And yet... when you see real talent..someone who gets the medium and is both enjoying themselves with it and entertaining the anonymous masses. Well, you just have to applaud.

This guy Curtis Drew a.k.a. the Parodyking, is flippin brilliant. The Madonna video is just so bad and tongue-in-cheek that it made me laugh. Then I really thought about it...how ballsy do you have to be as a teenager to put that much video out on the web basically making an ass out of yourself? Between stupid and ballsy, I am going to give Curtis the nod for ballsy in that he has a talent, albeit a strange and twisted one, and he's using it for the power of good. Runaway and Feel Good, Inc are both pretty good. I like the way you move has some good style too... I think he perfectly captures the personality of the Bodyrockers vocalist. And he has no mic...the guy is doing all this with primitive circa 2003 tools!

So again, my question is... with such a huge vista of expression and communication out there as the Net, how brave would you have to be to permanently put some video out there of you being a dork? We've all acted like an idiot at some time or other in front of friends or family, and yeah, some people do that routinely at karaoke bars... but to throw it out there on Google video... You are posting your own version of Paris Hilton's video (okay, well maybe not quite that embarrassing) out there to live in infamy. I hope you're okay with the fact that you might own a company some day and perhaps be in politics...yet you're still best known for the rest of your life as one of the Two Chinese Students , I mean Backstreet Boys.

By the way, and if in some way you've been under a rock without Google Video for the last two years, that 'I want it that way' video is still the best. If you don't agree, correct me. Gotta love the roommate in the background ignoring them.

For those of you who don't like any of these...okay, fine, I'm not posting it for you. Your refined sense of humor is probably more suited to Bill Maher or Woody Allen. I suppose you don't like Triumph the Insult Comic Dog either eh? Don't dismiss the stupid! It will live on long after wit and intelligence are gone.

boo

2006-08-25T20:50:00.000-07:00

I'd just like to say that traffic tickets for speeding are lame as all hell. I know the cops doing it are just doing their job, but it's just annoying that they have to go out there, watch 50-100 people drive by exceeding the speed limit by 8-14 mph and then jump up and ruin the day of the lucky driver who is going 16mph over. All so that the municipality can make some revenue. Don't kid me about safety. I was in a line of folks on the highway, with a guy in front of me and behind me, and trucks next to me, everyone's doing 55, and there's no room to pass. It's almost impossible to be going faster than the guy in front of me for more than a split-second as there's no room to pass and I've been following him for the past mile... but allegedly, I was going 61 for a second. 'You were overtaking him slightly' mr helpful officer says. Thanks....are you kidding me??? Do you really comprehend that everyone within 20 cars of the person you're ticketing was exceeding the speed limit, including at least 3 or 4 18-wheelers? Oh, but Hazelwood needs money, sure... and they'll get slightly more because of the twisted justice system in this country. Say it with me now kids... points on license bad, lawyers good. I knew you could.

Damn expensive night when I was just 10 minutes earlier feeling good about digging out of a $16 hole in poker and only ending up down $3 (lost on the last hand). Then Mr. $250 inconvenience fee throws on his lights and decides to ruin my evening. And I'm cheap by nature, so that's a lot of cash and it hurts. I held off on buying some dragon books for my son last night because I wasn't really thrilled at paying $17 for shipping for the 5 books...even if I was getting them all at half price or better. Sigh...try to save $17 and then life comes along and kicks you in the ---- for a few hundred.

Yes, I'm in a bad mood now. I think Ice-T said it best. Nod your head if you get that reference.

And for the record, yes I exceed the speed limit sometimes, while driving both safely and attentively, but it's really annoying to get a ticket when I'm actually behaving. Sigh. I guess it's the first installment of what my Mini dealer called the 'extra tax that I just write off to owning the car...' (He said he gets 5-6 tix a year... sadly I guess I'm used to getting one every 2 years or so.) Btw, another tip for you kids... if you bother to _get_ a radar detector and then only use it say 70% of the time you're out driving, well, you're just asking for it.

Drive safely. And by all means stay 10 miles over since they don't care about it. Hypocritical @$#*s.

film adaptations of classic fantasy

2006-08-13T20:44:00.000-07:00

You know, now that we're a year+ removed in retrospect from Lord of the Rings...all the fans are so relieved and thankful that not only did they not mess it up, but it was great, and it introduced a lot of the world to one of the best books ever written. I can't wait to see the Hobbit brought to the big screen eventually by Pete Jackson. I am starting to believe after movies like The Matrix, X-Men, Spiderman, that a very good attempt at Ender's Game will someday be made... again, we fans must wait and cross our fingers, whispering 'don't F it up...don't F it up'.

That said... this one has me very nervous. More info on this site dragonlance-movie.com. Hmm..animated...not live action and not heavy CGI... I am worried. Look at what was done with the dragons in Reign of Fire. I really think they could do a pretty good job of this if they spent a serious budget on it...but there's the rub eh? It's pure fantasy, and probably not mainstream enough to penetrate the Harry Potter/Tolkien audience.

Let's hope they don't F it up badly. But what was the last non-CGI animated movie that was good? Final Fantasy Spirits Within? If it can measure up to that we'll be lucky.

READ THIS ARTICLE

2006-08-07T19:59:00.000-07:00

This is an amazing article on Iraq, from a journalist that's there all the time, not living on a US base or embedded with the troops, but out talking with the people and being among them. It's sad to hear. I think too many of us in America are still under the impression that the 'Iraq War' is about the US and the new Iraqi government against insurgents... no, this is pretty much a full-on civil war already according to this article, with more civilian casualties than militants.

Life in Hell, A Baghdad Diary

The numbers are staggering, as the author points out, the worst casualties coming out of Lebanon and Israel pale beside the average daily figures of Iraq--and it's almost all Iraqi v. Iraqi now.

How long will it take for peace to come? I'd say 5 years is a minimum, so it's a tough call, yes, but I think the US and the UN needs to get out of there now except for humanitarian efforts. It's hard to watch a gang war occur down the street from your balcony without wanting to intervene, but much like Palestine and Israel for the past few decades, some things just have to be solved by the involved parties. I know that's an isolationist point-of-view, but I think you have to face facts after you make a determined effort to be the world's policeman. Some problems just can't be solved by outsiders, and we can't enforce our wishes on the people as a whole (the Hussein regime DID need to go).

Taking a closer look at some of the worst places in the world definitely reminds me that most of us have it really really good. Remember that when you fill up your tank and you are annoyed with the price of gas.

Notes from 12:57 am

2006-08-01T23:02:00.000-07:00

Minesweeper sucks.
You just can't walk away til you have a good run.
Evil little thing. Nasty minesweepersses.

feeling hot hot hot

2006-08-01T21:39:00.000-07:00

You know those rare people you meet who think air conditioning is a luxury which one can do without? 'I drive around all the time in my old car and do without it...you get used to it man.' These are lunatics! I suppose they also think the incandescent lightbulb is a fancy bit of technology better left alone, so they only use torches and candles at home.

Our otherwise wonderful vacation took an evil turn at its very end yesterday just as we're travelling through Indiana...ye olde hoosier state. As we drive through Indianapolis, a scant 240 miles from home or so, after making nice time from the Lake and Pennsylvania...there is a change in the air. With a small sigh, our air conditioner in the Caravan just decides to stop working. I look up immediately and notice the computer heading says West, 98 degrees. Oh, nice... So much for having your systems checked and fluids topped off two weeks previous! Hey, fancy 4 hours in an oven with your family? And options? Not many. One shudders to think what you do when the dead air conditioner luck combines with that old standby, the flat tire or dead engine luck.

Well, to make a long story short, it sucked and we definitely needed the bag of ice we picked up at a quickie mart. The boys were none too thrilled with the heat and Darlene and I weren't much happier than they were. With an appointment made for Thursday via cell phone, and the problem mostly diagnosed as something we couldn't fix, we just settled in to drive...with the fan going and the windows cracked...and the outside temp now 100 degrees. About 3:30 pm on a hot afternoon on the last day of July and you're sitting in a box of metal with an internal combustion engine churning along at 75 to 80 mph. Oh joy. Hours later we stumbled into the (thankfully) mostly cool house and showered, exhausted and beat... and when I get home today the air conditioner here is on its last legs as well. They'll be out to fix that tomorrow morning, but today we just toughed it out--don't ask why. Remember I'm inherently cheap...the air conditioner is really really old, and I'm hoping I don't have to replace it, but at the same time the service visit alone will cost us more than the car is going to -- go go gadget 'power train plus' warranty, the odds have just paid off on that one. To have them out tonight woulda been a lot more money and I figured we could make it... as I sit here sweating and the house is still 86 degrees (with air circulating, but not cooling), I am second-guessing that call now. I'm also dreading the news that we are propping up an extinct dinosaur of an AC unit...a new one will cost a pretty penny alone, but if you're going to replace that you also ... yeah, new furnace etc... ouch ouch ouch, someone has just kneed my wallet in a bad place.

By the way, Pennsylvania is lovely this time of year... remind me to retire up there some day for all my summers. Highlight of the trip - Cam gets 3rd place in 4-and-under swimming at the Water Sports, good for a trophy! Woo woo! He was lovin' it but I think I was even happier than he was. Super proud papa!

All for now. Hope your air is working. Stay cool San Diego.

The Lake

2006-07-17T20:07:00.000-07:00

Soon we're going to The Lake. It's my one annual vacation. For the past hmm, 7 years, I've not managed to get more than 2 weeks vacation because I've changed jobs 3 times. I did barely get my 3rd week while at Amdocs for 4 years, but that was because they changed the policy to make it 3 years seniority to have 3 weeks vacation...they made that change in july I think...when I had an out date in September. Gee Thanks. I earned 1 extra day of vacation in the meantime before I left. Anyway, let's just say my annual all week + both weekends 9-day spectacular Lake trip is the bestest time of the year. Better than Christmas! I mean, c'mon...how it can not be..we're going to The Lake.

Lake Nuangola, Pennsylvania. A small lake up in the Poconos, also known as the Appalachian Mountains. It's about 3/4 of a mile long and 1/4 mile wide and has a local population of about 800 or so I think. Let me think on my history here. My grandfather Norm's grandfather and great uncle built two cottages there near the turn of the century..pre-1900. One cottage would become my Aunt Peg's...she now spends summers in it, and the other one next door went eventually to my grandfather, Daddy Norm as we knew him. (Their younger brother, my Uncle Walt, spends summers down the street now in his own.) Our cottage was the destination every summer as I grew up... for weeks if I was lucky. Staying with my Dad for much of July and/or August I could spend all sorts of time in the water and hiking and being outdoors. Canoeing, sailing, fishing, swimming...a lot of swimming. I swam the lake (we refer to that also in capitals, Swimming The Lake) when I was 10, which is pretty good. That means you go across the width of the lake without your life jacket, which is I think about 500 meters or so. Not a bad swim for an adult, but hey I was ten, gimme some props. I understand nowadays that the kids have learned there are no alligators or freshwater sharks in there, so they can sometimes do it at age 7 or 8, but that's beside the point. The Lake is full of history, family and old friendships...some that go generations deep. My children will play with my childhood friends' children there...as I played with the children of my dad's childhood friends. It's a very cool place. To me, there isn't a better one.

I can't wait to go there. Blueberry picking, night swimming, sailboat races, campfires roasting marshamallows and if we're lucky listening to my friend Steve Koons(that's Stevie to his friends) play guitar and sing. He's quite good, and we played street hockey and goofed off doing all kinds of other things together when we were kids, so he and his family are some of the coolest Nuangola residents around. But you know...everyone at Nuangola is great. And probably 1/4 of them seem related to me at this point (1 in 20 actually ARE related to me I bet)...my family has about 7 cottages and we're related to a bunch of others through various marriages over the years. How cool is it that I can go to one place and see old friends from childhood, my aunt, uncle and cousins, my great aunts, great uncle and my dad's cousins...my second cousins, and my boys' third cousins - it just goes on! Plus, you can catch the odd 3 or 4 pound bass, water ski, play some volleyball, drink marguaritas (Happy Hour starts at 2. What day? Umm, all of them) kayak over to see some friends who live around the bend or down by the outlet, etc... and there's the Boardwalk, which is at the heart of many Nuangola memories itself. The Boardwalk is a plank walkway standing about a foot above the water where it cuts across the swamp and the lake's inlet...it has a arched bridge in the center that is just high enough to row under if you want to take your canoe/kayak over there. Lillypads abound, and at night you can hear tons of things moving around over there..if you walk slowly through you might see a few turtles, a snake, maybe a beaver...and a ton of frogs. For a nature-lover like myself, it's awesome. There's also frequently a board missing here or there, so watch your step... the muck can be waste deep, ask my cousin Kevin (ha...we won't ever let him live that down).

And at night you can lay on the dock (preferably with at least a little bit of bug spray on) and stare up at the sky..and the stars are so close. You can see a whole dome over you of bright stars and no city lights... I've seen shooting stars there before while looking up at that starry sky. The air smells so clean and it's so still at night, you only hear the frogs and then once in a while a fish will splash somewhere. Maybe I'll get to go night sailing this year..I've always wanted to do that...definitely night swimming is wonderful, but you need it to be warm. This year shouldn't be a problem for that--it's been 99 here in St. Louis, so I hope it's nice there...wow, 96 high today as I just looked it up. That should be intense...the water will be warm day and night.

This year we'll be there for Cottage Decorations, a fishing derby and then the Water Sports. Darlene will love the Cottage Decorations...everyone decorates the lakefront and arranges themes on their docks/lawns and then the judges and spectators will walk or boat around checking them all out. It's a wonderful thing to see the whole place lit up and you run into everyone you know while you're out looking. Water Sports has a lot of memories for me as a child..the kids swim in 2-year groups, so 11-12 year old boys, 13-14 year old boys, etc... because of that I won every year and got 2nd every other year until I was about 17, when I unfortunately missed a few years due to college. I've not been to water sports in a few years now--we've been going up for July 4th for quite a while now, but I do remember loving it... with any luck I can get into a good 4-person canoe team and maybe I'll try 2-man as well. I don't know if I still have the swimming legs in me at my age, but we'll see. Cameron can hopefully get comfortable during the week and will be able to race with his life jacket on... next year he won't need it, I can just feel it. The boys will both probably turn out to be fish ... somewhat due to the Lake no doubt, as it's in our blood.

Some other interesting things at the Lake:
hiking up the mountain
there are bears sometimes seen in the backyards or raiding trashcans
looking for baby catfish and crayfish in the shallows
swimming at Red Rock, the deepest part of the Lake
sailing...primarily small boats like sunfish, butterfly, laser
they play ice hockey on it during winter (I've never seen it in winter)
we saw a pair of swans there when we went on our honeymoon in October '95
ice cream socials...something our family is known for
cards, trivial pursuit, relaxing and reading
very good food....a lot of chefs in the family, including a few pros
moonlit walks
mosquito bites
horsefly bites...
family..friends...a lot of people who are both.

Anyway I can't wait to go. I've been almost every year of my life except those college years, and I hope that trend continues into my old age. Dar loves the Lake too, which is a good thing in a Coats wife... (I was told long ago that if she didn't I would have to throw her back.) Oh and this year Cam's going to catch a fish! Grandpa Roy is going to show him how it's done...I'm not a bad fisherman, no, but I will probably let the Old Master teach him. He taught me. I still remember catching that fish. I have a lot of memories from Nuangola...and every year I add more. It's an almost indescribable place, but hopefully from this, you get part of the picture.

Mike

Father Time 1, Mike 0

2006-07-03T19:07:00.000-07:00

I'm old. And getting older.

I played my last vball game of this short season I was in (10 games) tonight and i was awful...I was much better a few weeks back and my fundamentals just keep going to hell the more I play. I didn't have another league lined up anyway but now I am contemplating retirement to just friends/picnic volleyball or taking up climbing or roller hockey again. And I was a sub in a low-power A a few months ago and then I've been playing a B league now...I feel SO C-league tonight. I made bad play after bad play, and I'm hard on myself yes, but no one else was as consistently bad tonight as me. Just poor fundamentals.

I just hate the fact that when you're in your late 20s you are still in pretty good shape and can leap and really slam a ball in a sport like racquetball, volleyball, tennis, basketball, etc...and then you see all these 40 year old guys and they rely on position and taking safe hits and playing 'smart' because they aren't as spry as they used to be. Somewhere in between, you change from the 25 year old to the 40 year old guy...the one with the headband and the knee-brace, you know who I'm talking about. And for some reason tonight it feels like that point is age 34...

Another example I played pickup softball for a friend's league a few weeks ago (on short notice as I came by to say hi and got conscripted..wearing jeans). And guess what...I can't field for crap. And I can throw the ball quite far still..but nowhere near the cutoff-man or the base. Hitting was okay...but not great. And sure, I haven't played softball in years, but I'm in shape. I've been playing something for the last few years. Damn i hate getting old. Oh and i mildly tweaked my ankle tonight, that also doesn't feel good. Someone got under me at the net and i rolled it slightly...hate that.

Feeling decidely unathletic now that my best skills may soon be fooseball and poker. Ouch. That is so lame. I admit to liking about any physical activity, but it's nice not to completely suck at it. I still feel like I could go play defensive back in a tackle football game with friends tomorrow...or a game of ultimate, or softball, or bike 15 miles at the drop of a hat, or take up climbing and show an aptitude for it that I've had since I was 3, block a good vball hitter, play a mean game of racquetball, beat you at a 100meter freestyle, be competitive at a 50meter butterfly, play a pretty good game of ping pong, or do a decent job in a game of lacrosse or roller hockey. (Note: I make no claims about my basketball skill, or soccer... I had limitations there long long ago). However, my evidence shows differently. I'm slipping. I'm becoming 40 year old guy who doesn't realize his best days are behind him. Yes I can really tee up a slap shot once in a great while, and I can make a nice pass or wrister as well with a puck. And I can block a good hitter every once in a while, and I have a good volleyball serve sometimes...but none of it is consistent anymore.

I probably just need to find another league and practice some more. At least I know and can admit that my skills have gone to hell now. And knowing is half the battle. Btw, if you want to help my ego, please come by and foose with me. That or remind me if you're older than me...I like that. :)

I am going to go ice my ankle, and/or salve my wounded pride. Perhaps I can win some cash Thursday at poker...that would help much. Will let you know.

Thanks to Amanda for reading my blog! She's a sweetie and unlike the rest of you lurkers, she said hi to me!

lurkers!

2006-06-26T21:41:00.000-07:00

No one has ever posted a comment to this blog. I'm announcing a contest. Whoever posts a comment to this entry will be mentioned in a future blogging.

Thanks for lurking. You know the first blog I ever really read was Mil Millington's Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About, which was basically a blog before the word was invented...he published his thoughts online and then when his page was overrun by web-hits he went to a mailing-list. I've been reading his stuff for years. Those of you who are aspiring authors should take heart that while a columnist in England for The Guardian Mil started publishing a lot of his quirky observations on his website... and hey, a decade or so later he's published 3 books.

Random Thoughts:
Dar is watching Season 2 of Lost lately. She's completely enthralled, like a toddler mezmerized by the Wiggles. Personally, I'm watching season 2 of Hustle, which is the best show on TV right now.

A funny site: if you like games I hope you never missed out on Acts of Gord. Excellent.
And the winner of the tournament won the controllers that were opened for the tournament (worth $80), and $20 in cash. Second place was a can of coke and an autographed picture of Gord. Third place was $20. The Gord likes to remind people that second place is just the first loser.

Kudos this week to Dan Craven for being a lucky bastard and hitting running kings against my pair of aces to make sure I didn't finish in the money at Sarah's poker tournament. 'Nice Hand Sir'

Mr. Fixit and the faucet from hell

2006-06-24T20:15:00.000-07:00

Okay, so when you buy a house, there are those misc items that are always disclosed. Mostly it's stuff like 'this isn't perfect code' or 'this is really old and should be replaced'. The person selling the house has a duty to disclose all things they know about and the person buying the house has to live with the knowledge that no seller in their right mind will be completely honest.

We bought the house in 99 I think, so it's been almost 7 years (can you tell from the principal remaining on the house 2 refi's later? heck no, but that's a different rant). We still have two of the disclosed crappy items still to be fixed, which means either a) they were more expensive than we originally realized, or b) i'm a lazy, crappy handyman... okay, c) both is actually true, but if you guessed a) or b) you can give yourself a point.

The most noticable thing in the house that we never fixed is our rear sliding glass door downstairs has a broken thermal seal...what that means in english is that the double-paned glass is all fogged up with dirt and dust and you can't see through it very well...it's insulated still for the most part, but it looks bad. If any of you have ever installed a glass sliding door on a house, please give me a call...the prospect of getting one door out and the other not all the way in while my air/heat leaks out to the elements for a few days...all while spending $600 to $1k, well it just motivates me like hell, so that's why i'm getting right on that anyday now... like I was going to do first-thing back in 99.

The 2nd item is a smaller, minor item...the external water faucet out back doesn't work. We were told originally it leaks somewhere inside the house if it's on and to replace would involved going through the siding and the walls, a plumber for a bit of time, two search and rescue hounds and 200' of good climbing rope...or something like that. So that has also never been fixed. I cart my entire 100' of hose all the way around the house when I need water out back...that also resulted in a few dead hoses the first year as I learned that most aren't made very well to be stretched and pulled around corners that much. Watering out back is to put it bluntly, a royal pain in the ass. Guess what? Our yard out back has never really grown well either. Cause. Effect. Wife likes gardening too, so when yard out back not grow well, husband hear about stupid broken faucet every year or so. As the mice said about the cat-- something must be done.

I looked at it a bit a few years back...but to find where it enters the house it looked to me like you either have to take off the siding, or start looking around in your walls to trace all the plumbing to find the leak. Not a good thing when you know there has to be 30 feet of pipe running around in there. And yes I confirmed once that when the water is on (had to test it once, you know...the wet paint theory) , water leaks all over the place..like someone dumped a 30 gallon cooler of water back there, right under the wall. The carpet behind the bar and in the bedroom next to it were soaked. Not so good... mmmm, love that musty carpet smell. Lots of drying later, I decided we don't need to test the faucet again, I'm convinced. It can wait for a plumber Someday When We Have Money (estimated SWWHM date is 2010 for now). The whole thing screams 'fuhgettaboutit' to me... Except that I don't like losing. And Mike 2006 is way way more handy than Mike 2002. I can do electricity now. I can fix minor plumbing. I built part of a room. Did I mention I love the part in Cast Away where Tom Hanks is jumping around beating his chest and yelling at Wilson, 'Aha. Look what I've created. I ... have made FIRE!' Anyway, that's how tool-time-tim-taylor Mike feels whenever he gets a new task done around the house. So I still never let go that someday it would be nice to fix The Faucet.

So now that's it's been years I finally get around to talking to people who know How To Do Things about my crummy faucet, and lo and behold, I have friends who have good ideas... and doh, suddenly someone explains it to me and it's not that hard to fix. DAMNIT. Why didn't I research it more long ago? Okay, maybe Friends 2002 also weren't good at fixing things... the cumulative Borg hivemind of fixitness has grown in the last few years it seems. Matt was the one who finally explained it to me. The only way that faucet could leak only when it's on...and not when it's off (which you have to admit is Very Strange and I did always wonder just wtf was going on there) is because those external faucets are like 12-15" long and the valve is at the other end from the knob. Ohhhhhhhhhh. Now you tell me. Damn, that makes sense. So the valve leaks when it's open, but you can shut it off. Duh. Wilson, me not make fire very fast. Me should be fired. This new insight was no help at first however, because even if I can find where that valve is, it's behind drywall and an entire permanently-mounted cabinet that is on the wall behind the bar... read, no room to work, and a real pain to get to. So then Matt (and Adam) come in with revelation #2... you know, that pipe goes into the wall perpendicular and continues. So it has to be running within the wall between the two rooms, and your bedroom on the other side...just has plain drywall there. Instant access, and now you know where the leak is don't you? Eureka!

Long story short... (and why would someone do that on a blog anyway? Long story is the point!), I'm sweaty and tired now, it's 10:30 at night and I'm still working on it, because the little bugger had complications and I'm now in the 'water to house is shut off til you fix this' panic period. So back to work. More on this later. I will not be defeated! Die you little project!

Hour later. I win! Just remember these words of advice - if you're fixing anything and you have the thought, 'I'm going to need to use a hacksaw' then the fun task just became a freaking annoying task. Particularly if some or all of these extra factors are true: There's no room to use the saw. You have to use your 'off' hand for some of the sawing. It's hot and poorly ventilated where you are working. The item being sawed is steel. You cut through said steel item and find an inner piece that is a higher grade of steel, or even iron. Don't get me started on iron.

The kicker of all this is that of course the old faucet (it's called a sillcock valve btw, so make your own joke there) of course froze and blew up one year is why I have this problem. Some nimrod apparently left his hose connected during freezing temperatures...good one Clyde. When that happens yes, the valve expands and blows out inside the wall...and if you're lucky, that's after it's been run through a perfectly-sized hole in the studs, so you'll need the aforementioned hacksaw to get it out of there once you unscrew it. Brillant! (sic) Elapsed time to get to and remove evidence of old homeowner's stupidity: 2-3 hours. Elapsed time to install new hardware: 15 minutes (and $25). I have made fire!!!

Mr. Fixit tip of the week I owe to my neighbor Ed, who had to do this very thing once (found this out after I had got my solution from Matt). Don't patch drywall, install a vent over it for an access panel. Easy access if it happens again, and extra venting means the pipe stays warmer as well -- so less likely to freeze.

Notable 80's tunes listened to while fixing this:
mary's prayer - Danny Wilson
don't stop believin' - Journey
pop goes the world - Men Without Hats
always on my mind - Pet Shop Boys

Hockey Note of the Day: Good job in the draft so far Blues! Now go trade to get Pronger back. He should be here for the rest of his hall of fame career.

Loss

2006-06-12T21:54:00.000-07:00

A friend of ours recently had a loss, and last week one of Darlene's coworkers lost her mom in an auto accident. Sudden, painful. Life is just so brutal sometimes. Whenever things like this happen I usually think the same thing ... there are no words. That is my preferred saying of all the cliches and encouraging things people share. When it comes down to it, a hug feels much better at a time like that than anything someone can come up with and verbalize. Words just can't capture the emotion at a time like that, so I always feel lame trying to think of something to say when I hear about a new tragedy. I'm also not religious, and when life is particularly rough, that's one of those decisions/mindsets you wonder about. I think it would make things simpler to deal with, but that's probably me just thinking the grass is greener.

We had two miscarriages before our first son was born, and they were quite different. After waiting for years and years to finish grad school we finally took the plunge and allowed ourselves to try as school was winding down for me--I think it was 2000. We'd been married 5 years and had friends married after us who had 3 or more kids already. We got pregnant pretty quickly once we tried...and that was the last good news we would hear for a while. Everything went wrong around 6-7 weeks and it shouldn't have surprised us. Things didn't seem to be going well after the first doctor visit: blood counts were off, Dar didn't feel well, and there were tons of indicators, etc, and when you hear nurses and doctors constantly saying things along the lines of 'that's not good but...' and 'it might be okay' you eventually learn that's code for 'if you're extremely lucky it might be okay, but prepare for the worst.' Anyway, it was painful and we were scared we could never have children, and it put a dark cloud over us for about half a year I think. However, eventually you can try again, and conception at least assures you that you're fertile, even if you have to worry about the carrying to term part. You toughen up mentally under that adversity and you trust that things will work out. You breathe in and out and just move forward. And that pain did fade eventually. I look back now and with all the good we have, to be honest I don't recall much about that first miscarriage. Time really does heal all wounds, they say. Sadly, it's also been forgotten due to how bad the other one was, and that one time never really will heal all the way.

I don't know why I started writing this blog tonight, but I felt like talking. Suffice it to say that with the second loss, everything was going well after a long damn time of waiting, planning, surgeries and doctor visits, and then when we went for the long-awaited good ultrasound to confirm things were just as good as they felt -- well, it wasn't good. A little embryo, 8-10 weeks along, had its little heart but...it wasn't beating. We went from expecting, hopeful and excited to... misery. It just took a second or two to do it too, like being sucker-punched completely without warning. It was instant grief, and I remember holding my wife and wanting so bad to take that pain away from her and at the same time being glad she was there for me, because I just lost it for a while there in that room. It was the worst moment of our lives. I have no doubt about it, looking back. I felt...shattered. I don't know how we got home, or how I managed to stumble through work and life the next few days. They did genetic testing later and found nothing conclusive, which in some strange way was perhaps supposed to make us feel better, except that they told us it was a boy. Ouch, that hurt too -- I really wish I hadn't ever found that out. It's weird, but that made it a bit more like losing a what-could-have-been instead of a never-was. I'll leave that place now. Having our sons years later helped heal it some, but like the other losses in my life, I usually choose to not visit the memories--it makes it easier.

The point is -- whether or not you've personally gone through a tough loss, every experience is unique, and the only common truth is that yes, it hurts. I don't want to know what a worse tragedy feels like, though I know they happen every day and someday my luck will wear out--it's inevitable. On things like that, you just have to hope or pray that you stay untouched as long as possible. And hug those you love... because fate can take them away much too easily.

And remember, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. If you're Lost , it's even more important. Ciao for now.

MINI arrives. Late night driving

2006-05-31T23:42:00.000-07:00

We got our MINI today. It's unbelievable in so many ways--just a wonderful little car. I am refreshing myself on thinking as a manual transmission driver now--for the most part it feels natural, but I'm going to have to be careful on hills for a little while.

I didn't get home til about 10:10 after showing the car to some of Dar's family--we actually left the dealer around 8 I think, having started late due to a few factors. Once we got home, I was so tired, but I knew that I needed to go practice in some low-traffic situations and hone my shifting skills. I almost went to bed, but safety comes first, and if I'm going to be driving the kids in the car next week, I want every bit of practice I can get in. So now the car has 62 miles on it. It had 10 when we got it, and I just got back from exploring the Missouri bottoms as they're called. The flood plains have a lot of long straights with no traffic this time of night, and I explored a neighborhood and a few parking lots on the way back as well, playing with some little hills and some big ones, practicing rollback starts.

I listened to the engine a lot more than the radio tonight...I love the thrum of it and the popping of the exhaust. No supercharger whine yet, as I have to be good for a break-in period of about 1200 miles. That means basically practicing smoother shift patterns and not really hitting the tachometer very hard. It accelerates pretty fast between 20 and 60 I wonder how fast it's going to be when I can use a bit more RPMs? Didn't really test the top end out much...I had my radar detector on me, but I still felt paranoid driving very fast when there's no one and nothing else around for cops to be looking at. I got it over 80 on this really long straight stretch, and again on the interstate. It doesn't feel like it's going fast at that point, but as I said it moves pretty quick. Other things I noticed--those yellow signs advising a speed for upcoming curves really are just advisory. And the turning radius is just as tight as you'd guess. I went around a lightpost in a parking lot a few times and about made myself dizzy. Mostly though, I just practiced shifting...on hills, downshifting to a stop to conserve clutchwear, revmatching when downshifting, which is basically tapping your accelerator slightly as you move down into a lower gear and your RPMs are low compared to the clutch... I'm no expert on this stuff yet, but you can find such folks at http://www.standardshift.com/ I bookmarked it a few months ago and I followed up with some research tonight before I went out. I got home around 1:30, proving that I'm a nut. The practice was very helpful though.

Not much else to say. It's almost 2 am and I need to sleep. Everyone else is asleep, including MINI in the garage. He doesn't have a name yet, but I think he's a boy and he'll get one soon enough. (Yes, I'm a geek, and yes, most Mini enthusiasts name their cars).

First passenger other than Darlene and me: My father-in-law Doug. He liked it.
First song listened to in the car, while sitting in the dealer showroom: Clarity by John Mayer.
First song listened to as we drove home: Speed of Sound by Coldplay.
Car ownership: 6 hours, 62 miles
Number of times I've polished the front of the car, wiping off smudges: 2
Favorite feature so far: the engine/exhaust sound

Other highlight of the day: I was leading/tied for first in longest frisbee toss competition when I left the division picnic. I'm sure they measured later and we'll see how I did. Also won a gift certificate as a quasi-door prize and broad-jumped 94", which was good for 2nd at the time, but I'm guessing some tall folks beat that later. That's 2.4 meters by the way. The world record is 3.47m. Can you imagine standing and jumping over 11 feet?

Insanely happy today! Now, back to reality and sleep. I can drive again tomorrow.

A visitor!

2006-05-27T16:36:00.000-07:00

Today was most excellent. I was out just finishing up mowing the lawn and as I started to empty the last bag, I thought I saw some rubber tubing that Dar had left in the mulch near our big oak tree. My inner child's eyes went wide with happiness as I realized..is that.. is it... could it be...a snake? SNAKE! It's a snake!!! Woohoo!

While I at first backed away to get a good look, I almost immediately wanted to jump up and down with excitement. I grew up near woods and so I have always liked snakes--they are just really neat creatures. I walked up to get a good look at our visitor, who was about 4 feet long, all black with a light belly. I'm still not sure if it was a black king snake or a black rat snake, but I'm leaning rat snake. The head wasn't triangular, and solid-colored in the Midwest is a pretty good indicator that a snake isn't poisonous (about 90% of snake species are non-venomous so the odds are usually in your favor), so as I checked him out I felt pretty confident he was a good visitor, not a bad one. I called out to see if my wife in kitchen and might hear me, but no luck. My boy Cameron has to see this! Hmm, anything back here to help me trap him, a bucket, a bag? Nope. Oh well, just gotta grab him and take him around to Cam. No way I'm walking away and risking Cam not getting to see him. Of course he's seen Rikki Tikki Tavi, as any child at his age should, but I was pretty sure he'd not seen an uncaged snake before.

Okay, if you're not familiar with snakes, I don't advise doing this, but obviously if you feel uncomfortable around them, you aren't going to want to catch one anyway. If you do know snakes, then you probably already know -- they're not too hard to catch. Since a trusty long, forked stick is never around when you need it, you need to be able to catch a snake without any stick at all, or at least only small twigs to help you. Basically, advance smoothly, don't startle the little guy, and if he runs, try to circle him to keep him where you want him. If he bolts, you need to be sure he's nonpoisonous if you want to stop him, as you do risk getting bit if you attempt to handle him. I checked his mood at this point by dangling a small stick in front of him...if he is not such a nice snake at this point, he will strike the stick, and if you happen to see fangs at that point, well then you know your snake-identification technique needs a lot of work. Back to Steve Irwin, I mean, my wanna-be show. Basically, you grab the snake near the tail, and if he tries to curl back some, you keep pulling that tail away from him and stepping away...while leaving most of his weight on the ground. Picking him all the way off the ground is a) not nice, and b) a better way for the snake to have leverage to flip around and strike at you. So he rests 2/3 of his body on the ground, and you politely and nicely hold his tail (firmly, but no need to squeeze..snakeskin is pretty rough so he shouldn't slide away). Once he calms down and isn't trying to slither away, walk around behind him, moving slow so he's not startled. (Note, I'm calling him a 'he', but that's just because boy snakes are nicer...if it was a female, I'm sure she'd have bitten me. They're like people in that respect. Males - harmless and easily captured. Females - sneaky and mean. Ha, only kidding. I think.) Okay, so now you get to show off your snake-like reflexes... we humans are actually what snakes call 'pathetic and slug-like' but nonetheless you can think you're fast if you want to.

So you snatch and grab behind his head, carefully, a lot like when you grab a fish out of a stream with your bare hands. Just don't telegraph it, and if you miss, don't let any snake you haven't identified yet get a bite at you. I'm assuming here you've had ninja training and done this hundreds of times. If not, well, you will probably miss your snake and he will laugh at you. Once you have him, make sure to hold his neck firmly...just an inch or two behind the head, so he can't bend back to bite but you're not actually holding his head either, which isn't going to be comfortable for him. And don't squeeze. Now you can run off to show him to your kids, neighbors, anyone you know how is afraid of snakes is an excellent choice as well. Cameron was quite impressed with the snake (strangely he did not comment on my snake-catching prowess...hmm, maybe next time I'll have him catch the snake). Darlene watched from a bit farther away. We explained that some snakes are poisonous, and that they will bite, so if he ever finds one he is to run away and get mommy and daddy. However, this is a nice snake. He was about 4 feet long and about 1.5 inches thick at his widest. Cam touched him and I explained how his scales are rough if you rub them the wrong way. Reminder to self--Cam should get to handle a boa constrictor sometime and feel how cool it is when they curl around your arm. I explained how our new friend here was going to go back outside and renew his search for moles, mice and bugs in our yard. It was a cool visit, and I was glad that Cam was interested in the snake. Cam went back inside and I released the snake near where I found him. He seemed unperturbed by our inspection, which made me feel better about disturbing his day. I advised him as I let him to go be on the lookout for our local mole population, and that anything he could do would be appreciated.

In retrospect, I didn't take a picture of our visitor today, but I hope he'll be back. I enjoyed the visit immensely. I had just been telling Dar a few weeks ago that it made me sad I'd never found a snake in the back yard. Hmm, maybe I saw one long ago, I forget. We used to have a woodpile back there which was major snake territory, but more of a copperhead haven than anything else, so it had to go. I am glad in a way that we didn't have a copperhead today. I am very live-and-let-live with most wildlife, and I would have been tempted to let even a venomous snake go in my yard...except that I have the two small children. I thought about it afterwards and even though I would feel very guilty...a venomous snake in the yard cannot be trusted not to return if I go through the trouble to capture him and transport him a distance away. And he's not deadly to me probably, but to a child, any poisonous snake is a threat. I'm afraid if that happens Mr. Copper is going to have to sleep with the fishes. So I hope none of them puts me in that position. I wouldn't enjoy dispensing Man's justice.

An excellent day. I don't know if you want a snake in your yard, but if you do, I hope you find one too! And I hope this guy comes back, he was quite cool.

The MINI

2006-05-23T19:22:00.000-07:00

Okay, so if you know me and have talked to me in the past few months, you know I'm super geeked up about something. I'm practically singing while I walk around, a la Gene Kelly. The thing is...we're expecting. No no, not one of those...sheesh, I got two of those little devils.

Here's the new baby.

He's made in Oxford, England, but with German engineering... he does seat 4 adults if we need it, which seems to surprise people. I've had a lot of questions from people who were curious if I had entered mid-life crisis mode and forgotten I had 2 children, or perhaps they wondered if I had mistaken the Mini for a super- practical family car. No I'm not middle-aged yet, only 34 thank you, and yes this is a decision the wife and I have both made. We already *have* a practical car. Our Grand Caravan seats 7 and screams suburban stereotype---all we need on it are a soccer ball decal to complete the mold we've fallen into. Travelling to Pennsylvania, Chicago, Tennessee? Minivan all the way. Taking 2 kids and 2 adults out for the day--Minivan. Buying lumber or furniture? Minivan all the way. Yes, very practical. (We thankfully skipped the SUV on my cousin's advice, after he'd had both and he said he liked his van a lot more. I have to agree, it is great. SUV's bad!!!) By the way, I've sat in the back seat. It's a real back seat, much like any small car's. Not super comfy if the person in front of you is 6' tall, but I can say that about my current car. How often do I have an adult in my back seat now anyway? A few times a year maybe. The majority of the time, my car has 1 or 2 people in it, and Cam is very excited about the new car (except that he wanted it to be red.)

So as I said, we do have a practical car already, and we're pretty practical people. However, I do really like to drive. I am not Speed Racer out there challenging every punk kid in a scooby to a duel mind you (Scooby is a nickname for Subaru...see you learned something here), but I really do enjoy cornering and accelerating in my car. Safely, but yes, fast. I like having good control of it in turns or in bad weather--I despise cars that handle poorly. The car should be an extension of you out there. You want to stop fast, you do so. You need to get up and go, you do so. (Those of you who think I drive like a maniac should be comforted by the fact that I tone it down some when you're in the car with me.) Anyway, to tell the truth, this car was heading for me for a long time. It's like it was made for me. Let me explain.

Let's go back to 1978....as a child growing up I just loved MG's. Triumphs as well. Small car = cool car in my book. Into the 80s. I wanted a Porsche 914 so bad. I recall the envy I used to have for the next-door neighbor's bright yellow fiat. Alfa Romeo? Yes please! Late 80s. The 1961 Ferrari 250GT California? (faint) 'Ferris, he never drives it! He just rubs it with a diaper!' Oh, I admit it, my absolute dream car is a porsche...if I ever get the money someday I'll get a 911. However, until that point, I have always wanted a reasonably priced, fun little car. Fiats, Alfas, yes, most of them are usually European. I have never been a fan of the big american cars, the Vettes, Mustangs etc (though I admit the Viper leaves you in awe if you see one in person.) No. Small, nimble, quick... that's been what I wanted for a long time. Going on 20 years now. And I've never had a new car for myself. We really do share the Civic and it's been great, a wonderful little car, but we picked it more for Dar and because it was practical. Before that we got a new Neon, but again this was Dar's car. I settled for whatever we could scrape by with, hand-me-downs, the bus, whatever. I'm 34, and I've waited a long damn time for a new car. In 2003 I noticed the new Coopers in the remake of The Italian Job, and it was love at first sight.

The original Mini was born in 1959, a little efficient marvel with an 850cc 34hp engine... In the 60s their fame took off as they became the cool car of the celebrity and they started to gain notoriety as a rally car...the Cooper S would win the Monte Carlo Rally outright for 4 years in a row starting in 1964. They were made through the 60s,70s,80s and they aged well...so you still see them all over the place in Europe as production continued through 2000. In 2001 the brand was reborn, re-engineered by BMW with 115hp and based heavily on the rally cars raced by John Cooper...the Mini Cooper S is the supercharger version, topping out at 170 hp, and if you really need every ounce of performance there's the JCW (John Cooper Works), which adds another 30+ horsepower. While on the subject of performance, it should also be noted that Coopers have very good safety ratings thanks to anti-lock brakes, traction control, corner brake control, 6 airbags, etc etc.

Sadly, I can't afford the JCW right now, as the Works package is hideously overpriced in my opinion...but hey, that's what aftermarket mods are for. I hope to get that 30 hp a little cheaper eventually. I'm already starting to become a bit of a gearhead after researching this car for the past two years or so (I almost got one in 2005, I considered it in 2004.). I am a frugal person, most of the time, I'll have you know. I come from a long line of cheap Coats men. I worry a little less about a buck here or there if it's a gift for someone, but for the most part, I think about every penny that goes through my wallet, daily. You could call it maniacal. So what the heck am I doing buying a car that is a) new and b) not cheap? Cars are one of the worst investments possible! C'mon Mike you work in finance, you know that! Why not get a used Honda? Well first of all, the MINI has great depreciation right now, because of the interest and cool factor they provide. #1 make/model in resale value according to Forbes magazine last year, beating the likes of Mercedes and Lexus. Secondly... Well I finally realized this is what I would be saving my money for anyway if I wait until I have spare money some day. And Dar and I talked it over and we decided...if I wait until I'm 40 I'll easily be able to afford a nice car... heck, even my dream car perhaps, but if I stretch a little bit now I can do it and get something I've wanted for most of my life. Strangely enough, since we swap our cars a few times during a week, Dar didn't argue with that at all. Thirdly...I admit that this is a decision I'm making with my heart. And I've felt warm and fuzzy every day since we made it. Obsessed? Yep.

The point is...it left Southampton almost two weeks ago and should be here on US soil this week. Woo woo! My baby is coming home.

More on the MINI later. 1 week to go!

First post

2006-05-22T00:53:00.000-07:00

Well here it is, after enjoying reading a few friends' blogs I thought I might just add my puff of noise to the storm. I don't know how often I'll be able to keep up with it, but if you know me, well I never run out of things to say. I also have a habit of being up later than I should, for a good reason or not, so hey, something else to do when I can't sleep at 2 am. (actually it's 2:30 now).

I was thinking of a title and while a few sounded cool or interesting, I wanted to go with one that was more about me as others see me, not just what I'm interested in or what I do. I've always shared my opinions openly ('ran my mouth' some would say), so much that quite a few people are turned off by it and think I should just shut the ---- up, but ya' know, most people enjoy me, and I hope that most of my friends actually love my 'inane chatter'. It's not me to be quiet. I like to communicate. I like to talk about anything and everything. And when I think about something and ponder whether it should be said or not, what do you think I usually decide on? I am the human equivalent of a loud squirrel in a tree, chittering away (and throwing things). I am the squeaky wheel, a.k.a. the squeaky mouse who likes cheese. I appreciate discretion, diplomacy and privacy. They all have their place and time, yes, but if we are going to talk then let's do it.

I will now smirk and apologize for running off at the mouth. I may do it again in the future, so please forgive me.

So here's the blog. I don't know if my thoughts are organized enough to be a good read for you or not, but I will try. Right now, I have to head to bed. Cheers.