Intellectual Poison

How bizarre is my life? I got up this morning with Sullivan who was running a bit of a fever and was just not thrilled with the universe.

While he was laying on the couch and I was getting coffee, he coughed a bit, sat up and looked like he was going to puke. Having nothing to catch the impending mess with, he vomited into my hand.

Normal and I used to know each other (not real well but well enough) but he hasn't come around in a long, long time. His younger siblings, Chaos, Mayhem and Nasty spend far too much time here.

Labels: raising children, sick

Crowdy - what happens to indoor spaces when its get cloudy and nasty out, they get filled with crowds. Or, I suppose it could also describe a rowdy crowd.

Added to the Fictionarium.

Labels: nwotd

Trying out Haloscan's rating system. Because, as all bloggers, I crave feedback, validation and digital interaction. We'll see if it stays or not. I wish it were toggle-able for individual posts rather than the whole nine yards across all of my blogs on or off.

Oh well.

The question is, is no rating better or worse than a low rating?

Labels: feedback, ratings

I make no secret of the fact that I am a very big mixed martial arts fan and especially of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, including the reality, The Ultimate Fighter.

This season of The Ultimate Fighter has been superb, marked by excellent fights and alot less focus on the drama in the house where the fighters all live together. This despite one wanker's attempts to paint himself as a bad boy who got the living snot beat out of him in his fight.

Anyway, I'm sure slicker pens than mine have dissected the differences between boxing and MMA. For me the main difference is that boxing is, well, boring. Its one dimensional, those huge puffy gloves look like pillows and I find myself wondering why the hell they aren't throwing kicks, knees, elbows and taking the fight to the ground. Why? Because any pro boxer will get the holy crap beat out of him in a mixed martial match.

Not everytime since chance and luck do come into play in any fight. But the vast majority of the time, a boxer will fall to a more rounded and capable fighter.

But, as with any new and upcoming sport with its share of controversy, there are myths, stupidities and outright lies being circulated about mixed martial arts.

So it is with pleasure that I read, MMA myths debunked again because there is an awful lot of bullshit pretending to be reality when it comes to MMA.

Don't get me wrong, boxers are highly trained athletes competing in a dangerous sport. It just happens to bore me to tears.

MMA is a multi-discipline sport requiring expertise in at least three areas, striking, grappling and submissions. Th rigors of MMA training outshadow boxing by a good margin since each discipline is its own fighting art in its own right. Boxing is one, MMA incorporates all of them.

I'm not a huge fan of the bloody matches where an elbow strike opens a squirting bleeder on top of someone's head but its part of the game. My favorite kind of fights are the wars that go back and forth with each fighter scoring points, the fight has stand up elements, ground and pound elements and dynamic special moves like Superman punches, flying knees and spinning back fists. A good MMA fight has been likened to a physical chess match and some of them really are, especially the jui jitsu fights that looks alot like foreplay to the uninitiated but is anything but.

I enjoy MMA where I used to enjoy boxing. Now boxing looks old, tired and slow compared to how dynamic and exciting a quality MMA match is.

Here's the short list of myths debunked in the article and my short comments in italics:
John McCain once called mixed martial arts “human cockfighting.” - unlike boxing which is ballet with punching.
MMA was once banned in nearly every state. - polygamy is banned in nearly every state too.
Mixed martial arts was a rules-free freak show until the UFC’s current ownership came in and cleaned up the sport. - I think people are confusing the tv wrestling (is that clearer, Ryan?) with MMA. One is filled with misogynistic steroid freaks pantomiming gutter dramas and the other is a sport for elite fighters. Easy to get them confused.
Mixed martial arts is a haven for white trash. - yes, because white trash has the dedication to train in three disciplines to the exclusion of everything else and no other demographic could possibly do so. MMA is rife with international fighters, to say otherwise is to ignore patent fact.
MMA contributes to the level of violence in our culture. - Again, MMA is not WWE. WWE contributes to violence against women and violence against each other based on perceived insults and rigged results. MMA fights are selected by organizers, the fights take place in strictly controlled venues and have conclusions that are irrefutable (they may be disputed but a win is a win).
Mixed martial arts is inherently more dangerous than other contact sports. Tell that to the dude who rode a mountain bike down the side of a volcano and found out how dangerous pumice is at high speed. MMA is no more dangerous than any contact sport and is probably safer in many aspects due to the controlled environment, excellent referees and rules.
MMA is unskilled bar-fighting; while boxing is refined and genteel. This is just an asinine thing to say. If you are basing all of MMA on Kimbo Slice then you might have a point, a totally illogic and stupid point but a point nonetheless. MMA requires an amazing amount of skill and discipline and training and dedication.
Mixed martial arts fans are bloodthirsty and just want to see people get knocked out. I'll admit that I like a quality knockout as much as the next fan but I also love a great submission just as much. Also, let's apply the same logic to NASCAR fans, they just want to see the fiery crashes so they can go "Woooooooooooo" some more.

There, that was kind of fun.

Also, tonight is the network debut of mixed martial arts in the form of the sole superstar outside of the UFC, Kimbo Slice, who rose to fame via YouTube videos of his backyard ass kickings. Not traditional, not conventional and alot of MMA fighters are thoroughly pissed off that he's one of the faces of the sport. But either way, the debut on primetime is a big, big step forward for the sport. I'm sure the panty-twisting crowd will up in arms about the "bloodsport" on television but they tend to get all wadded up over pretty much everything so who really cares, eh?

Labels: boxing, fighting, mma, ultimate fighting

No, this is not a post about boners or Natalie Portman, sorry.

I make no apologies for being a geek who gets jacked up about geeky things. I love technology, I love new ways to use and innovate using technology to help educate, explore and entertain.

And I love me some sproingy visualization. Sites like Liveplasma or the Visual Thesaurus are just fun to play with and teach through visualizations.

Well, now you can make your own sproingy visualization via Text2MindMap. It is simple, cool and can really help to demonstrate the relationships between sets of things. Oh, and you can download the resulting sproingy goodness.

I can see this being really useful for a family tree to easily show how everyone is related or to visualize the complexity that is the school district I work for. Heck, it'd be fun to use it to categorize music but there'd be an awful lot of work in doing that.

I'm going to play around with it some more and, presuming I can create something worthwhile, will post my sproingy up here.

Labels: cool, visualization

I saw in my Google Trends that Brit royal Zara Phillips has been voted one of the hottest royals in the world. So, of course, I clicked on the Google Images link to see if my assessment is in alignment.

And I came across this sweet, sweet shot of Zara Phillips tasting the turf as her polo pony bows to her grace. Its actually a really cool photo.

As for her being one of the hottest royals? Meh, she's cute but I guess the pool is pretty shallow if she's a top 5. But I do love the name Zara so that counts for something.

Labels: fall

It was time to get into the summer mode mentality and that means spending a couple of hours with nasty chemicals on my head to bleach out the brown and replace it with the blond. I'm lucky to have a wife who's a pro so I can basically just let her do her thing and just try not to go insane from the burning and itching on my scalp.

By her own admission, this is the best bleach job we've done so far on me and I'm pretty happy with it. It was a bit too bright last night but a couple of showers and some de-brasser shampoo and conditioner and the color is mellowing out and, I think, looks pretty damned good.

Of course, the kids at my schools think its absolutely freaking awesome-tastic.

And it makes me smile everytime I see myself in the mirror which is good for me and my mental health. Hard to be too serious when you've got a pile of hay for hair!

There's a part of me that wonders if having a blond head will negatively affect my job hunting but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it and I'm starting to interview. Speaking of which, based on my sister's excellent advice, I'm going to start planning and requesting some informational interviews with a couple of companies I want to work for to see if I really want to work for them when I get a closer look. Its also a good way for them to get an informal look at me.

I will report back on whether or not blonds do, in fact, still have more fun.

Labels: blond, fun, hair color, summer

Today's new word is a combination of two words to mean that the person being referred to is both a pleasure to be around and a treasure too.

Preasure - both a pleasure and a treasure.

Labels: nwotd

I just enabled Wireless Access Control on my wireless network. The reason being is that my broadband access had been reduced to dialup speed crawling.

So I ran a quick line speed test on Speakeasy to confirm my gut feelings. My speed? A rather pokey 200 kbps download and 135 kpbs upload.

After turning on Wireless Access Control (basically I need to approve and add your wireless card to the whitelist or you get nothing) I retested the line for speed. The results? 2500 kpbs down and 423 up.

I've got no problems sharing my bandwidth with people so long as they don't hog it and so long as they don't use it to spam people.

Since I'm paying for my bandwidth, I reserve the right to use 99% of it whenever I want to. If you're using 90% of my pipe when I want to then don't be too surprised when you get shut off and blocked.

Granted its the middle of the workday and I should be working but I'm off sick today and need to be using my computer. Sorry, free riders, the free broadband pipeline is closed until further notice.

And yes, I do have password controls on my wi-fi. And yes, I do know precisely who was hogging my pipe on amateurmatch.com (I love perusing my log files and seeing what the free riders are doing).

[Update: Once I'd gotten my stuff done, I turned access back on for him. I know he's also looking for work and not having web access can severely limit that effort. But I'll probably have a word with him the next time we run into each other out front. Just to let him know what's going on and why his pipe got pinched!]

Labels: bandwidth, freerider

As the end of the school year approaches at breakneck speed, there's a mixture of anticipation, fear, uncertainty and good ol' excitement at each of my schools. There are also alot of events to commemorate and mark the ending of this school year.

Today we had an event put on by the grateful and happy parents at one of my schools. They are grateful and happy because the school is one of the top elementary schools in the whole state. Which means that their kids are among the top students in the state. Oh yeah, it also means the property values in the surrounding area get a bump too.

But that really isn't why the event was put on as its been going for years and is a traditional way for the community to say thanks to all of the people who make the school run. From the teachers to the office staff to the yard duty supervisors to the teaching interns to the computer guy.

The theme was the far east and the decor was awesome, unique and really cool. I sat at the Koi Pond table which turned out to be a coincidental choice. But let me rewind for just a minute. Yesterday the boys got a close up look at a tabletop zen garden, the kind with a miniature rake, tiny little pagodas and wee boulders. And they loved it. They were both absolutely fascinated by it.

And the Koi Pond table's special little thank you was a mini-mini zen garden. Which made my day after already having an awesome meal (though the lack of sake with sushi is troubling, understandable since the lunch was at school but troubling nonetheless).

There's another school party coming up and then maybe one more party at my other school. Not sure about that one right now. But today's party was a really nice time made all the better by a neat little thank you gift.

Labels: party, school, thank you

From 9 Money Rules to Live By

We are not a nation of money geniuses by any stretch. In fact, according to the article, a quarter of adults failed the test given to teens (almost half the teens failed and that number is growing). Women were far more likely to fail than men (42% to 15%) and men were far more likely to get an A or B (51% to 17%). What does it all mean? It means we, as a nation, need to come to grips with some financial rules to subscribe to in order to dig ourselves out of the massive consumer credit debt hole we are in.

Here's the short version, the linked article expands on all of these:
The difference between needs and wants
Scarcity makes your choices for you
The pointlessness of the hedonic treadmill
Every money decision has a cost of its own
Why supply and demand rule
Throw no good money after bad
The role risk plays
The time value of money
The miracle of compound interest

I talk about needs and wants with my dog and kids all the time. Graydon doesn't need to watch SpongeBob, he wants to. Nande doesn't need to go out every six and a half seconds, she wants to. Sully doesn't need another Otter Pop, he wants one. It is an important mindset to understand and knowing the difference between a need and a want can save you an awful lot of money.

Throwing good money after bad is an attempt to buy your way out of the hole. Sometimes money just gets spent badly, it gets wasted on materials that are consumed without a tangible product. Sometimes you just need to call the loss for the loss and move on without sinking more money into a failing or failed project. Emotional investment can often make this alot harder than it needs to be.

Now, all I need is some money to put some of these concepts into practice. Anyone with a spare million? I promise to send you a really nice thank you card.

Labels: guidelines, money

McClellan's book blasts Bush administration, you know, the same administration he was the spokesman for. The one he lied for, obfuscated, berated and otherwise misdirected the press and effectively ran interference for the worst administration in the history of the world.

And now, after the smoke is starting to clear and the universe is looking forward to getting Bush out of office, now you want to cash in on your part in the great deception?

Sorry, Scott but you can go fuck yourself. If you'd published your book within a year of leaving the position then I'd be lauding you. But you've waited until his term is nearly over and the GOP as a whole is trying to distance itself from him even though its just lipstick on an elephant.

You were complicit, Scottie, and now you want a big payday for it by turning on the hand that fed you and gave you pets. It is nice to see the rats deserting the ship that is the Bush administration but its still far, far too little far, far too late.

Labels: bush, politics

Professional tennis player Ashley Harkleroad fulfills naked ambition with Playboy shoot.

And that's all well and good, she's attractive, is in great shape and will represent the female athletic form really well. But let's not candycoat this whole thing, she wouldn't be in the magazine if she weren't a tennis player. She's good looking but she's not gorgeous or totally stunning.

Plus, Harkleroad is a fun name to say. And that's got to count for something.

[Edit: Upon reconsideration and listening to KNBR on the way, apparently a rather large number of men would be willing to specifically buy an issue of Playboy with Serena Williams in it naked. The number who'd be willing to specifically (that is, buy it when they don't normally) buy the issue with Ashley Harkleroad is significantly less. But I don't necessarily think its about beauty, maybe more about booty. Either way, I'm not buying either issue. Though I might use Zinio to check out the online version.]

Labels: nekkid, playboy, tennis

Want to read some full-page free magazines on your iPhone?

Surf on over to zinio.com/iphone and you'll get access to 20 top shelf magazines for online perusal including Playboy, Saveur, Popular Mechanics, Outside and Men's Health among others.

Now that's cool! I bet the link will work if you're using another phone to get there but you won't be anywhere near as cool.

Found via the always interesting and always useful Lifehacker.

Labels: iphone, magazine

Is this normal?
If you answered yes then you might be a redneck.
If, however, you laughed at Mr. Multi-tasker (he's crapping AND talking on his cellular telephonic device) then you might still be a redneck but at least you've got a sense of humor.

Found on an old hard drive I installed into my external enclosure. More to come, I'm sure as there's a big old folder of pics and goodies. As well as a stash of some long lost mp3's! Which is what we call a score!

Labels: crapper

Calling the targets of viagra and other boner pill spam emails "low hanging fruit" is ironic and kind of funny.
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I'd really like to understand the process by which I go to sleep wearing boxers and wake up buck naked (but not in a truckstop just over the Mexican border with a fresh set of stitches where one of my kidneys used to be).
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Why do people "jackrabbit" from stoplights, cut other cars off and basically floor it to get up to speed and then go under the speed limit once they get on the highway?
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How can anyone look at Sarah Jessica Parker and think "Oh yeah, I want some of that?" unless they have a thing for horses?
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Why is wrestling still popular and why is it so hateful towards women and, further, why is that hate tolerated?
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I have an overpowering hatred of the word "zany" and I'm not sure why.
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I think I'd have imploded long ago if I didn't have access to my music at any time of the day or night.
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There is no funnier opening scene in any movie than the start to Super Troopers. "How do you boys feel about Mexicooooooo? Yeeeeha!" In fact, the entire movie is pretty goddamned hilarious. Shame their other movie was such a horrible (and really unfunny) turd (with the exception of casting Brittany Daniel).

Labels: random

Refrigerator door hinge - 1
Erik - 0
First round to the refrigerator door hinge. But reinforcements (spare parts) are on the way and the battle will be won by Erik.

Pile of old pay stubs and bank statements - 0
Crosscut shredder - 1
Never bet against the shredder despite two stoppages due to overheating and a jam.

Bag of Mega Bloks - 1
The never ending pick up - 1
Stalemate here. These blocks get picked up once a day minimum but you'd never know it.

My sanity - 0.5
My non-stop mess monkeys - 1
A close battle but the boy's win on persistence and an ability to whine without pausing for breath.

Nande's sanity - 0
The Watsonville Fly-in - 1
The jets have no idea how much total pwnage they have over my dog. She howled all weekend long because of the planes but especially because of the two jets, an FA-18 fighter and a C-17 cargo transport (which was frigging' ginormous).

More to come as they occur to me.

Labels: scorecard

Even in defeat, Patrick main attraction at Indy because of a potential confrontation and the basic fact that she's gorgeous. She looks alot more like an umbrella girl than a driver, but she can drive like a demon.

Americans love nothing more than a beautiful face except when the pretty, pretty is also capable in her actually chosen field. In Patrick's case, she races Indy cars, a sport about as exciting as waiting for a pile up on the evening commute. Which is pretty much the only reason I'd ever watch it and I don't think I'm in the minority. Not that I want drivers to get hurt but it breaks up the monotony of the actual race.

Danica Patrick is one, Milka Duno (love that name!) and Sarah Fisher are two more.

I'm sure there are more good looking (and capable, let's not forget the capable part) that are being speeded through the lower ranks to bring some eyeballs back on the sport.

But yeah, Danica is a marketing dream, she's determined, she's tough and she's smoking hot. Not a bad combo plate at all.

And, oh yeah, no I didn't watch even a moment of the races this weekend. Just not into watching cars go in a big circle at high speed but I bet it gets more fun when you add in sun exposure and case after case of cheap beer.

And this has made me wonder what other sports I semi-follow even though I don't care for the sport, just the pretty faces who play it? I'd have to say a good portion of tennis falls under that designation. Its the reason we have female sideline reporters in football, a little pretty to break up a whole lot of ugly. Or did you really think Erin Andrews was a truly top-notch football analyst? Heck, here's an entire website dedicated to the pretties on the sidelines to add to/distract from the sporting event.

And there you go, some Monday morning hawt boy blogging to get your day started.

Labels: beautiful, racing, sex sells, umbrella girl

Here are a few additional shots from yesterday:

My Memorial Day weekend has gotten off to an early start. Actually it started yesterday afternoon when I left school for lunch and, when I called in to check, was told to take the rest of the day off.

This morning I should have checked my email before leaving for work. But, in retrospect its a good thing I didn't. If I had then I would have known that the entire district was closed down due to air quality concerns.

But since I didn't, I drove up the highway into work at the school. Only to find it almost completely deserted. Almost, except for one of the school's "grandmas" was standing on the curb with a distressed student.

What had happened, I think, was that her father had dropped her off at the bus stop out on the street and didn't drive down to the school. There was a sign at the steps leading down into the school announcing the closure but nothing out on the road at all.

Anyway, it took a little doing but we got her mom's company name out of her and I, using my superior iPhone technology, looked up the number and called it. She asked for her mom and let her know what had happened and could she come and pick her up? Did I mention she was in shorts and short sleeves and it was a heavy fog morning?

I called the school principal to let him know what was happening and took her into the library to get her out of the cold. She's either quiet as a mouse or was pretty upset by the whole thing. She got a book and sat to wait.

I checked my email and, sure enough, there were several emails about the district-wide school closure. And news that at least one district employee's house had burned down.

I'm home now, told to stay indoors due to air quality issues again. Trying to keep the boys from killing each other, trying to work on resume stuff and keeping an eye on job boards.

I am glad that I went into work today and was able to help the student get picked up. Her day had already been pretty unfun. And I got to do a good deed.

The good thing about the cold fog today is that its apparently helping the fight the fires and the news reported 20% containment as of 8 this morning. A good start and I hope nobody else has to lose their home.

And that a sensible undergrowth clearing plan is put into place. The fire spokesman said there is a hundred years of undergrowth up there and the dry spring basically makes it one huge tinderbox.

Labels: closure, fire, school

Wildfire in Santa Cruz Mountains prompts some evacuations and has cast an enormous cloud of smoke across the entire Santa Cruz area.

My car, parked in the driveway and a good thirty miles from the fires, was covered in ash this morning.

There's a thin layer of blue skies just at the horizon and then nothing but brownish dark clouds above. Its kind of a bizarre sight really.

There's a decent chance that area schools are going to be shutdown because of the ash falling all over the area. In fact, my principal is announcing that parents may be coming to pick up kids due to the smoke and ash.

And it will get worse before it starts to get better.

[Update: A local news blogger, Brittney Gilbert, has picked up the photo and is running it on the CBS 5 Eye on Blogs! Also, the full sized image can be found in my Flickr photostream.

Labels: fire, santa cruz

Wolf whistle works, woman strips out of frustration. The only problem is her stripping gave them pretty much exactly what they wanted.

The police sergeant noted that "She's not an unattractive looking lady."

I'm sure the road workers learned their lesson and are whistling even louder and longer than before since they've now learned wolf whistling can actually result in an impromptu strip show.

Heck, it makes me want to start wandering the streets and whistling at all the beautiful women I see to see if they'll strip for me.

Labels: strip, wrong lesson

Are you curious about the incidence of crime near your house or place of business? Do you want to be depressed?

Check out SpotCrime and go to your state and select your city. Like, oh I don't know, let's look at Oakland and you can even select the crimes you want to see represented on the map. There have been 53 shootings in Oakland and 300 assaults, 180 acts of vandalism and that's just in the last two months.

The site doesn't include smaller cities and towns but I hope they are working to add them as I'd like to get a sense of the real level of crime near my house. And I will certainly be making use of this site when we do get to a point where we can relocate to a new house.

You can even pop in an address to see how close it is to see crime "hubs" for an extra-depressing reality.

Labels: crime, map, mashup

Belaboration - this one's actually pretty easy to parse, belabored elaboration. Came about during a recent upheaval in Skyrates.

Labels: nwotd

Thurvive - thriving in a survival situation. Akin to Ozzy from Survivor being able to hunt, fish and otherwise gather plenty of food to not just survive the conditions but thrive in them as well.

Plus, its kind of fun to say.

Labels: nwotd

Rather than shoot our future by cutting funding for education in California (again) I would prefer to see the Governator do something progressive, thoughtful and inspired.

I don't expect inspiration from him because I tend to think he's a colossal meatheaded douchebag who can't even speak for himself, he has to quote his lame movie lines.

But I can still hope.

Anyway, my idea is the sin tax. Taxing non-essential "sin" items like alcohol and cigarettes. Raising the cost of these items actually does several things. One, it will generate an enormous amount of revenue. Two, it will encourage some to quit smoking. Three, those smokers who quit will be healthier over the long run and will reduce the load on the healthcare system proportionately.

Is a sin tax the perfect solution? No, not at all. But we don't live in a perfect world, we live in reality where something's got to give or the whole shithouse is going to come down on us. And shorting education is about the worst solution I can think of (save perhaps closing all the prisons and letting the convicts run free).

And why not other progressive ideas? Like legalizing marijuana and taxing it? There's no doubt that a substantial percentage of Californians smoke pot regularly. It aids an untaxed black market economy that could represent a rather large revenue stream. Also, decriminalizing pot would ease an enormous and unnecessary load on our prison system since putting a dope smoker in prison will likely just convert him from a "lipstick" crook into a full-on thug via the penal education system.

I don't have any idea how the whole thing could shake out but I do know that taxing sin items has multiple positive aspects to it (and some negatives to be sure). Far more positive than shorting education and producing less qualified, less educated and less educatible population which will be more likely to resort to criminal lifestyles as a means of survival.

Tax optional sin items, legalize and tax marijuana for personal use, do not short education, do not close national parks to save piddling amounts of money and actually lead by example instead of relying on pathetic, short sighted and overly optimistic lottery earnings to save us.

Or hey, here's another idea. Make a dollar lottery ticket cost a buck ten and put that extra ten cents towards the shortfall.

Labels: budget, legalization, solution, taxes

I work in two different towns, one where I live and then one up the road a ways. There's a nice big highway connecting where I am now to where my schools are located. Its generally fast, direct and timely.

And I usually take the highway on the way into work when I have a place to be by a certain time.

But, on the way home, I meander, I explore and I take the roads I've not traveled yet. I see what's over the next ridge, I see if I can get there from here and I find previously undiscovered (to me) treasures.

I've found where I'd like to move if and when we are ever afforded the opportunity to upgrade. Plus its just nice to be reminded every so often that the fastest way to get somewhere isn't necessarily the best way to get there. Sometimes the scenic route has quite a lot to offer too.

Labels: commute, long way

Techdirt: ABC Still Excited About DVRs That Disable Fast Forward despite the patent fact that NOBODY will buy a DVR with a basic feature disabled when the next model on the shelf does not have that basic feature disabled. DUH!

How do they figure on penetrating the market with these crippled machines? By force and legislation. And that works really, really well in a free market economy.

Besides, is there anything worth watching on ABC anyway? I can't think of anything at all on the station much less something worth watching.

Way to push yourself to the margins, ABC.

Labels: crippleware, stupid, television

With each day that passes, I get one day closer to being retrenched again and I need to be compensating each day pushing me out the door with an effort to get another door opened.

I've been working on my materials, my resume, cover letters and the like. It isn't very much fun but I don't expect it to be fun. Hunting for a job is work, work that pays really badly but its work nonetheless.

And what have I learned from my daily and sometimes hourly perusal of job boards? That things are very tough all over and that it is most definitely an employer's market right now. I'm seeing help wanteds offering a ridiculous $15 an hour for skilled employees with master's degrees. Let me be the first to tell you that you are not going to be able to pay your bills AND have money left over to eat with at $15 an hour.

Unless you are somehow able and willing to work 80 hours a week, which I am not nor am I willing.

The good thing about this pending layoff is that I can see it coming, I can prepare and make it a stepping off point rather than a laying off point. So there's some good. And I'd be pretty hard pressed to find a job that paid less than what I'm making now so that's good too, sort of.

There isn't a whole lot of good in this pending layoff but there's some and I'm going to try and focus on the good and leave the bad behind. I probably won't be a hundred percent successful but I think its the effort that's important rather than the outcome.

Labels: employment, layoff, work

I've known I was a punk kid for my whole life and I still feel like a punk kid despite the fact that my next major birthday will be when I turn, gasp, 40 in a couple of years.

And now I've got some validation for my sense of punkiness.

I saw the Virtual Age calculator on Amy's blog this morning and had to take the quiz to find out. She crushes me on virtual age but I still did pretty darned well.

My biological age: 38
My virtual age: 24.4

Average life expectancy left: 75 years
My life expectancy left: 88.6 years

I lost some time due to poor sleeping and not being able to get as much exercise as I'd like to get. But still kind of interesting and useful, especially if it gets my butt in the saddle more.

Labels: life expectancy

This was an unusually busy weekend for us with three parties in two days. One was an end of the school year faculty party held at one of the teacher's houses above Watsonville with a stellar view. One was a birthday party for a four year close to some other friend's with a great backyard. And the last was a bbq among our pals leading into drunken poker (which I didn't stay for).

We almost made it out of the party mode without any injuries but my two over-tired and crazy boys got into a game of chasing each other around the car's in the carport (after Grady had a night-ending accident but was in some clean undies again). Sully was in pursuit and either dragged his foot or just tripped over it. Either way, the end result was a bloodied up toe and screaming loud enough to wake the recently deceased. Which gave way to passing out as soon as we got on the road heading home.

I knew by 8 or 9 on Saturday that I was going to be pretty well wiped out come Sunday morning. And I was. But that's alright, it was a pretty fun weekend even if I was in a pretty crappy mood on Friday afternoon due to some even more depressing news from my department and district. Suffice it to say that I'm not so bummed to be leaving anymore since the support crew is getting shuffled up and downgraded in quality and ability. Not good. Also, I found out who has officially taken my position at the one school that has re-upped the site support tech contract for next year. That was kind of depressing.

I also got more research time in on job leads, building out my skill list and continuing to craft my cover letters.

Oh, and I got some tomatoes planted which will be really nice. Fresh dirt, four seedlings in a half barrel in the sun and we should be very good to go! I was going to take a pic and then try to do a new pic every couple of weeks or month but time got short this morning and I had to roll out at speed to get to work close to on time (not that anyone's really waiting and watching for me but still).

Labels: party, weekend

I thought I had completed my search for the perfect (for me) iPhone case. I found a case by Griffin at Target for a decent price, checked it to make sure it wasn't a silicon outside that would make slipping it into a pocket impossible and annoying and it even came with a screen protector and armband.

But, when I got it home and got it out of the box, it was missing one of the crucial pieces, the belt clip. Which meant it was about half as useful as it could be. Maybe even less so since the armband couldn't work without it either.

And, of course, it was the only one they had in stock so it went back, no replacement and my iPhone is still languishing in the poor case that came with my wife's old iPod Mini a couple of years ago. Its better than nothing but only because of its protective qualities, it is not easy or convenient to use at all.

So, if anyone's got the perfect iPhone case and they feel like passing along some wisdom, leave a comment and let me know what you've got and why you like it so much.

My wife is looking for her own perfect iPhone case and its nothing like my perfect iPhone case (she wants a flip cover that flips over the top of the phone). Any info would be greatly appreciated!

Labels: case, iphone

In the process of rebuilding my laptop after Apple replaced the hard drive and I upgraded to OS 10.5.2 (apparently 10.5.3 is a bad upgrade right now so I'm holding off) I've had to rebuild alot of my processes, find some slightly out of date documents and reinstall and reset my helper applications like Quicksilver (still the bestest of the best).

But, in the course of this rebuilding process, I'm also examining my workflow and working hard to streamline it. Things like using Geektool to automatically display my task list on my desktop and having it set to automatically update when I change the master text file.

I'm also slowly incorporating Spaces into my workflow to keep my desktops as clean as I can and assign applications to specific desktops instead of one huge jumble of apps and windows on the single desktop. It will take some getting used to but the process is getting better and my ability to keep on top of my task list is improving.

Right now, I can work in FireFox and have what amounts to a Smart Stickie in the bottom corner of my screen that contains my top tasks for the day. I can add to the list without opening the document via Quicksilver's Append To... command.

It is still a work in progress but I'm liking the ease of which I can check my tasks, the cleanliness of my work surface (this pane of Spaces has nothing but FireFox available in it) and the ease with which I can update or change my tasks as the day evolves.

I've been using this post from Zen Habits to help build out my particular workflow. Some excellent information here even if you're still stuck using a PC.

The next major step is, once I've gotten this machine set up all perfectly, is to clone it to my old laptop so that I'll retain all of this improved productivity even after they pry my district laptop from my hands at the end of my contract.

Labels: Quicksilver, workflow

Edwards endorsement pays off for Obama and should send another strong signal to the Hillary camp that now is the time to display some grace in defeat and bow out of the race so you can retain a shred of dignity.

As it is, every day that goes by and Hillary keeps on fighting an unwinnable battle, the GOP snickers and laughs and keeps planning their swift boat assault on Barack once the in-fighting has ceased.

Hillary, for the love of democracy, you need to quit the race. It isn't a race anymore, its a flogging and your ass is the one getting beat. Quit now, quit soon, quit so the party can come back together and pound the snot out of the GOP so we can start to repair 8 years of Bush stupidity and ego-wanking.

Please, Hillary. I don't want to hate you but I'm finding it increasingly hard to not see you as a shrill, double standard holding, selfish and self-absorbed party cancer. Which is a shame because I used to hold you in pretty high regard. How quickly your stock has fallen and it certainly hasn't been helped by jumping up and down and all the screeching and poor behavior.

Tomorrow is Bike-Walk to Work Day and you are highly encouraged to get your butt in the saddle and work up a sweat on the way to work instead of cooling your heels in your SUV.

I rode in this morning as I am at my nearby school today and there's no chance I'm riding tomorrow (the official Bike to Work Day) as that would mean a 16+ mile ride out on Freedom Blvd where people drive like idiots and there are long, long hills.

I'm all for bicycling where possible but I'm not so much for riding where the roads are really poorly set up to accommodate cyclists. Its just too easy for a distracted jackass to run you down and not even notice it.

But I got my ride in already, got here in pretty good time and feel pretty good about myself for doing it. Plus, it is going to be a freakin' scorcher today (it was over 80 degrees in Santa Rosa at 7 am this morning!) and I needed the excuse to wear shorts and a tank top.

.......
Jenna Bush's wedding photos
.......
Anything to do with Jennifer Lopez
......
Anything to do with Madonna unless its her neighbors publicly calling for her eviction
......
American Idol
......
The Sex and the City movie or anything to do with Horseface Jessica Parker
......
The sham that is the Olympics in China
......
Whether John McCain wears boxers, briefs or Depends
......
Jennifer Aniston
......
How loud you can play your bad music while you cruise around doing nothing all night in your oversized, gas-sucking SUV
......

Labels: do not care

I've been summoned by the government to potentially serve on a jury in United States District Court in San Jose. Which would be kind of interesting and somewhat cool if I wasn't working, lived closer and the trial was interesting.

But I live in Watsonville, which is like forty miles away from San Jose, I have a job that's winding down and I need to get as many work days in while I can.

The "compensation" for jury duty is a joke, of course, but they also reimburse for travel expenses so it wouldn't be a total wash. Still, I'd rather be working than sitting in judgment of someone else's misdeeds. No wait, I don't mind judging others, I just need to get paid more for it.

But I was supposed to call in on Sunday to find out if I'd been selected. Since I was sick all of last week, it slipped my mind and I finally called in last night, expecting them to rip me a freshie but got a recording telling me I haven't been selected yet and to call back after 5 in a couple of days.

I'm not against civil service and jury duty in general but its a bit on the ridiculous side to expect someone to travel such a long distance, especially if the trial starts at 8 or 9 every morning. That would mean a ridiculously early departure, slogging through the gnarly commute over 17 and then a long, late drive home as well. All for a piddling $40? No thanks.

So keep your fingers crossed that they do not require my particular services this time around.

Labels: jury duty

Pitching to Lance Berkman is almost as stupid as pitching to Barry Bonds when he had his A game swing going. The Giants lost last night's game despite an excellent effort from Barry Zito (who looked good and carried himself with confidence that's been missing for the last few months) because they tried to pitch to Berkman.

The guy is absolutely white-hot right now. Do not give him any pitches to hit. Walk him. Frustrate him. Do not try to beat him, let him beat himself.

Unless its Cain or Lincecum pitching AND its early in the game (i.e. fresh arms) there's just no upside to going after him, most especially with a man on because that makes his dongers more painful.

Other than that, I think Zito pitched a helluva game and hope he's turned a corner and will resume some of his swagger from when he had his confidence and could throw that big old nasty curve on ya.

Note, I'm advising the Giants in direct opposition to my fantasy baseball needs as Berkman is one of my studs (along with Josh Hamilton). I love the Giants THAT much!

Labels: baseball, fantasy baseball

One of the most difficult aspects of job hunting for me is trying to narrow down my search into a single job title. Professionally my experience pegs me as a Public Relations/Marketing wonk but the lines between my PR/Marketing skills blur considerably when you toss in my recent and relevant site tech support work, my previous data analysis and regurgitation, the conferences I've organized and run, my photography experience and a dozen other skills that are relevant but make me harder to pigeonhole.

Add into my experiences, the intangibles that I bring to the table, my creativity, my positivity, my drive, my ability to either step up and run the show or work in the background, my inherent geekiness and love of technology, my evangelism and innate curiosity and I end up in a pile of possible job titles that can be applied to me but none quite fit me as perfectly as I'd like.

My ideal job position at this stage would be to work as the business equivalent of the sweeper position in soccer. The sweeper can go to where he/she is needed the most, either in direct support of the offensive effort or getting back and providing extra horsepower on defense.

My ideal job title will be a mouthful: PR/marketing/tech/advertising projects leader generalist with evangelism, training and tech-passion.

My ideal company would be: a smaller tech-focused company just on the cusp of greater things, in need of workers with vision, flexibility and capability to shepherd multiple concurrent projects.

Oh yeah, and to top the whole work thing off. I met with my boss on Friday and he was happy to tell me that there will very likely be a job for me in the fall if I'm still looking for work. Which is nice to know. It won't be at my current schools as two of the three have lost the funding for my position but that's alright. At this point, I'm going to keep my current job in my back pocket and hope I don't have to play it though its nice to know I do have it, sort of.

Labels: job title, work

We've been on a little bit of a movie watching tear of late, a tear for us is getting through two or three movies in a week.

Part of this tear is because our local supermarket has installed an easy means of movie renting and returning without the need to interact with anyone (have I ever mentioned how many people I talk to in a given day? it can be somewhat overwhelming). Choose your movie, swipe your card, get your movie and go.

Plus, I'm not(oops) checking movie reviews via iPhone before choosing one to help cut down on the crappy movies.

We watched The Waterhorse the other night and I rather liked it though they really stretched the family rating with the violence and gunfire towards the end. Not especially appropriate for the younger viewers like Grady. But gorgeous scenery and pretty well done, if a little maudlin at times but that's part of the Scottish culture so it fit.

The movie we watched last night was okay and suffered because it tried to be more than it needed to be while leaping past important story elements. The movie was Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium starring Dustin Hoffman and the effervescent Natalie Portman (sporting a slick Aubrey Hepburn-esque look and hairstyle). The movie had its moments where it was entertaining and beautiful but it also had too many moments where it felt like it was trying (and failing) to be a new Willy Wonka.

But, amid the pap and trying-too-hard-Hoffman, there were a couple of quotes that I really liked and stuck with me.

The first is:

Your life is an occasion. Rise to it.

The second is actually a mini scene:

Mr. Edward Magorium: 37 seconds.
Molly Mahoney: Great. Well done. Now we wait.
Mr. Edward Magorium: No. We breathe. We pulse. We regenerate. Our hearts beat. Our minds create. Our souls ingest. 37 seconds, well used, is a lifetime.

The movie could have been better, it could have developed more characters from the cardboard cutouts (Jason Bateman needed to thaw alot earlier and more noticeably). But at least they had some memorable lines. Some movies don't even have any of those.

Or my name ain't Nathan Arizona! Yes, Peter, that was for you.

Labels: movie, quote

A rare forward from my busy brother....(my comments in italics)

Baseball's All-Scandal Team featuring:

First base: Mark McGwire Mob informers are easier to find than Big Mac
Second base: Billy Martin
Shortstop: Miquel Tejada The only active player on the list
Third base: Wade Boggs
Catcher: Paul Lo Duca Lo Duca was news to me but it makes sense
Left field: Barry Bonds Even without the steroid taint, he's got more skeletons than a coroner
Center field: Ty Cobb Truly one of the nastiest and least sportsmanlike stars of all time
Right field: Darryl Strawberry Should have been named Sniffberry but they got the straw part right
Designated snitchhitter: Jose Canseco Self-absorbed bitter needle junkie with terrible hair and a penchant for turning on former friends and teammates
Pitcher: Roger Clemens The poster child for bluster, lies, obfuscation and, eventually, tearful admissions and then jailtime, I hope
Pitcher: Dwight Gooden Dr. Feelgood and Straw were like a coke sniffing baseball star duo, they strike out and hit home runs during the day and snort massive piles of Columbian flake
Pitcher: John Rocker Racism IS alive and well in major league sports
Bench: Albert Belle, Rafael Palmiero, Sammy Sosa, Mickey Mantle Palmiero is the poster child for stupidity and hypocrisy, Sosa's the poster child for post-steroid pump shrinkage (he turned into his little brother when he went off the juice) and Albert Belle's the poster child for 'roid rage
Manager: Pete Rose I believe Pete Rose has gotten a raw deal and should be in the Hall for his accomplishments as a player and its a joke he's being held out because of a personal vendetta
Owner: George Steinbrenner Owners should own, players should play, coaches should coach and the Steinbrenners should SHUT THE HELL UP ALREADY!
Trainer: Brian McNamee I have no animosity towards McNamee except for that his injections helped the Yankees cheat and win more games than they had a right to. On second thought, burn him!

I skipped over some of the lessor known and not so contemporary players to focus on these fellas. I find it rather interesting that, of all of those listed above, one is still playing, Miquel Tejeda. The rest have gone into hiding or are scaring the shit out of local yokels on company teams (can you imagine facing John Rocker at the company picnic?).

It may not be actually true but it seems like the majority ran afoul of cocaine and hot chicks (or in Clemens' case, HGH and fugly country singers).

Who else should be on the list?
I'd say Ken Caminiti's one, Jeff Kent should get an honorable mention for being such an ornery liar (broke his wrist riding his motorcycle in contradiction to his contract and lied about it), Scott Boras (not a ball player but he's done as much more harm to the game than any other non-player by disvirtue of his contract negotiations and escalating salaries) and Bud Selig (complicit and profited from rampant steroid use as owner and commissioner). I'm sure there are plenty, plenty more that could be added here.

[Update: Big Joe read the post before I'd had a chance to amend it to remove Tony Gwynn from the list. I'd crossed my wires and was thinking about Kirby Puckett who got crazy after his retirement and might have been crazy during his playing days. Apologies to Padres fans and fans of Mr. Gwynn. My brain isn't quite up to full speed after last week's meltdown.]

Labels: baseball, cheaters, cocaine, steroids

It feels like I've been through a battle (the likes of which I'll not disturb you with) and I'm still a bit sore from the whole thing. But I am back on my feet again and not half doubled over in pain anymore, which is kind of a refreshing change.

And just in time to go back to work tomorrow. Some interesting happenings on that front.

It feels like spring has just sprung or I just got a new pacemaker or something. I'm pretty damned happy to be alive again.

Labels: health

Neccophilia - a compulsion to have sex with a Necco wafer or wafers.

Not a word for widespread use and likely not even a new word but it made me smile a little bit and that's all I need.

Labels: nwotd

You do not, in fact or theory, own the road. You do not, in any way, shape or form, own the parking lot outside Safeway and you most definitely do not have any right to treat crosswalks and people in them like personal insults.

You'd do well to slow down, learn that other people exist in the universe and not try to run people, like me, over just because you're too high and goddamned mighty to depress your brake pedal in your expensive ego-stroke of a car.

Or, if you do, don't look so pissed off when someone, like me, reminds you what a crosswalk is all about. Or just keep your windows rolled up and your wraparound sunglasses firmly in place. Or you could just run me over and we'll see how long you keep that car while cooling your heels in jail for attempted manslaughter. Or you could just slow down and show a mote of grace when someone is in a crosswalk in front of you.

As it is, you provided a moment's entertainment to a mother and her daughter who overheard my spur of the moment education I attempted to impart to you about crosswalk manners. I'm sure the lesson was lost when it bounced off your coif or your superiority complex though.

Seriously though, show some class, show some societal concern, show some manners, slow down, cede the right of way and quit being such an uptight lead-footed bitch.

Sincerely,
Erik

Labels: crosswalk, driving, manners

During my long day of complaining, my wife mentioned that she had a stomachache around this time two years ago. If you can call being nine months pregnant a stomachache.

Sullivan was born the next day and will turn two friggin' years old tomorrow. To say that the kid is a pistol is an understatement.

The delight he takes in baiting his big brother and the twinkle he gets in his eye when he grabs the centerpiece toy from Grady and runs like only he can run. His grin gets even bigger when Grady chases him screaming. This happens pretty regularly but we are working on teaching Grady how to not react which will, hopefully, convince Sully to find another way to have fun.

Happy Birthday, Sullivan. May your next year see you find a wee bit of restraint and some way to take just the top edge off your scream (or you can choose to employ your scream less often, that would be alright too). Either way, you never fail to make me smile even when you're being a wicked little bugger.

Labels: birthday, raising children

I've been pretty quiet this week and especially the last few days. The main reason for this is that I've had the worst case of gastro upset I've had in the last five or ten years.

What this means in my moment to moment is that it feels like someone has been kicking me in the stomach for the last few hours, they switched to my kidneys for an hour or two and then back to kicking me in the stomach again.

To say that this week has sucked would be pretty strong understatement. I stayed home from work yesterday, will stay home again today and really just want to stop feeling like I got run over by kicking machine. Oh and I wouldn't mind if my bowels stopped their rebellion as well.

Lovely post, eh? Be glad you're not living it.

Labels: nausea, sick

100 Hypermiling / ecodriving tips & techniques for better mpg.

Good info on how to make the most of your car's efficiency to get every last inch out of that gas that is going to do nothing but get more expensive.

Be careful with the over-inflation of tires though. Too much pressure plus too much speed plus too much heat build up can equal a really, really bad day and a car rolling multiple times.

Once upon a time there was almost nothing more important to me than page views, entry pages, exit pages and time spent on site. I had a compulsion to check my SiteMeter stats multiple times per hour, dozens of times per day.

Because there was, at the time, a sense of clicks = cash. And there still is an equation that relates greater income production to higher click throughs.

Only, somewhere along the way, I stopped caring in the least about traffic. I stopped caring who read my blogs and started caring alot more about who comments, who comes back and who has their own blog I can read as well.

I can't remember the last time I checked my site stats nor can I remember the last time I got a check from Google AdSense for the traffic I do generate on my alternative blogs but I'm sure another will show up some day and it'll be nice to have a "free" $100 to spend. Usually it just goes back into the tech, either some new widget or webspace or a domain registration.

Anyway, I just thought it was kind of an interesting evolution of my blogging to have cared soooooo much about traffic to now not giving it the slightest thought.

Labels: blogging, traffic

Apropos of nothing save my brain that never stops, today's new word isn't especially kind or nice but when has that stopped me from publishing them?

Nupgrade - replacing the old wife with a newer and hotter model.

Labels: nwotd

It was with great relief that I unpacked my repaired laptop yesterday afternoon. Two weeks without its high power computational abilities was about a week and a half too long. But it was back, I was happy and I was also going to get OS 10.5 loaded on it as well (since the hard drive problem before prevented me from upgrading).

Imagine my delight when I got it fired up and noticed that my previously 100 gig hard drive had magically been upgraded to a much more spacious 185 gig post format drive.

The nicest thing about this unexpected upgrade is that I am finally going to be able to wrangle my ridiculous and sprawling music collection. There's been no easy way to roll through my multiple mp3 libraries and get rid of the duplicates, of which there are many.

So I'm importing all of the songs into iTunes, allow the application to copy the files to the iTunes folder. Once all of the disparate and overlapping folders have been consolidated into one mega folder, I'll use the Show Duplicates function and cull the extras from the list. I expect that'll take a little work as I haven't figured out an automated way to do it yet (got a solution? share it!).

But it will result in a final consolidation of four or five distinct but well overlapped libraries funneling down into one and I expect a space savings near a hundred gigs. Which means I'll be able to start on my next consolidation project of pulling all my photos into one mega-library. That'll be lots of fun, I'm sure.

I wish the repair hadn't taken so long but Apple more than made up for it with the hard drive upgrade. And boy does this MacBook Pro scream (in a good way now!).

Labels: macintosh, repair, upgrade

Busiting - (biz-it-ing) students in Elementary schools like to think that they are capable of being both busy and visiting with others, hence busiting. Teachers, generally, hate it when students try to busit.

Labels: nwotd

It never ceases to amaze that true rock stars can be playing almost in your back yard and you wouldn't know it unless you actually take a look and see.

In my, seemingly, neverending quest for employment that actually pays my bills, I have come across a start up in Santa Cruz that appears to be a near perfect fit for my skills, temperament and motivations.

The company was founded by a bonafide internet and technology rock star. A man with vision and the financial backing (his own cash since he appears to really dislike being beholden to any VC or shareholder interests) to do what he thinks is best which is good because he has a track history of success, innovation and of leading the market.

I have entered the next phase of my process, that of collecting information, finding out more about the company and the founder. Then crafting an entry into the company based on my experience and skills.

Ideally I would be able to function in a role best explained by a metaphor, I'd like to play the position of sweeper on a soccer team. That is, a player who can equally contribute on offense and defense, can use his judgment to impact the process at the point where he will be the most effective and to fly free to determine where to best help out.

My reasoning is that I have a solid body of experience in many aspects of running a business. From my public relations and media handling skills to my ability to rip into a data file and find relevant information for internal and external use. To my ability to provide extra horsepower on deadlines to my underutilized ability to develop marketing materials, slogans and logos. I have an awful lot to offer a company, not the least of which is my attitude which is pretty relentlessly positive and not prone to fits of freaking out.

I am not, of course, neglecting my other job searches and won't be putting all my eggs into this basket because I need to get and keep as many irons on the fire as possible. How's that for a bad mashup of metaphors? Eggs, baskets, irons and fires. Loverly.

Back to my research work. Woops.

Labels: employment, target

PETA wants Eight Belles jockey suspended after filly's death during the Kentucky Derby. Note, they don't want to investigate and then suspend the jockey, they want the suspension in advance of the investigation. Which is to say, PETA has already found the jockey guilty of something. Most likely cruelty to animals by being a jockey in the first place.

Does anyone who's not already a PETAhead really care in the least what they have to bleat about? Unless its hot chicks in lettuce bikinis I know I really couldn't care less.

And not just because Ingrid Newkirk is an atrocious hypocrite staying alive because of medical research done on animals. Mostly because PETA comes off like a dictatorship laying out decrees of decent behaviour as if they have a moral authority to dictate to others. Engage me in a rational conversation about the abuses being heaped on animals and you're much more likely to get an ear. Scream your lame slogans at me and you get a stone wall while I have some BBQ ribs.

Its all about the approach. Shrill gets ignored, rational gets a seat at the table. And yes, I'll put away my ribs before we start talking because I'm a polite guy.

The Sharks started the second round of the playoffs by quickly getting to three games down against the Stars. But before the scary elimination game four, I stopped shaving and joined the Fear the Beard fan campaign to support the team. And they won game four. And I still didn't shave. And they won game five. And I still didn't shave.

This afternoon is game six and I have not shaved yet. And today is the peak scratchy face day. At least I hope this is the peak because I'm going to go insane if it gets itchier.

I hope the Sharks win but either way, tomorrow the beard will either be gone or, hopefully, grown out enough to not be like thousands of pins jabbing my face.

I'm humbled that my beard has been the turning point for the Sharks and I just hope I'm strong enough to keep from shaving it.

[Update: Well it took four Overtime periods to end but it did end for the Sharks last night. Fantastic goal tending from both the Stars and the Sharks and I'm bummed there will be no game seven. But damn, what an awesome final game of the season for the Sharks.]

Labels: Fear the Beard, hockey, playoffs, Sharks

If you're a CostCo member (and there's no reason you shouldn't be) and you've got a stash of old technology in your house then you might want to play around with the Costco Trade-In and Recycle Program to get an idea of what the gear might be worth.

Some stuff isn't worth anything anymore but they'll still take it and recycle it for you. But other stuff will get a few bucks here and there and some stuff will actually get you a pretty decent chunk of change.

But the mere $5 they will pay me for my antique first generation iPod is nowhere near its value to me. That actually revolving scroll wheel is just too awesome. But the firewire connection needs a little TLC to work again.

Anyway, it can't hurt to clear out your old tech and doing it the right way is alot more environmentally responsible than just tossing it in the garbage.

Labels: old technology, recycling

Snarkolepsy - a compulsion to make snarky comments.

Labels: nwotd

It was with a father's pride that I read about the Ibis Mojo: Bike of the Year awarded by Outside Magazine to a bike company that went under and then came back and is stronger than ever before and producing fantastic bikes (as always).

I've been an Ibis rider for more than 20 years now and I'm not planning on switching anytime soon. It appears others will likely be switching to join Team Ibis though.

A bit more over on NorCal Bikers.

One fun aspect of my job is that I get to control one of my computer labs via Apple's Remote Desktop (ARD). This allows me to spy on students using the computers, take control of their machines when they are misbehaving and to play jokes on the students that I've gotten to know.

Alot of the power of ARD stems from its ability to use Unix commands to control the machines. Things like Say "How about a nice game of chess?" or drutil tray open/close (makes the CD tray open and close) or just taking control of their cursor and mucking around.

Today I learned another new one that goes a long, long way to maintaining whatever passes for my sanity. Its a means to automagically set all the volumes on the computers to a more reasonable level before I launch one of the more annoying and noisy activities for the younger kids. Its osascript -e "set volume 7" where the 7 (max volume) can be set to anything from 0 (mute) to 7 (jarringly overloud).

I SHALL have my peace and quiet, even if I have to mute all the machines to do so!

Got a slick Unix command you want to pass along? Let me know and I'll add it to my arsenal!

Labels: apple remote desktop, unix

This month's is all about ultimate (not the frisbee game). Without further jibber-jabber, let's get to the cheese, eh?

1. Your ultimate car: Ford Gt40, no question.

2. Your ultimate house: I could settle for Hearst Castle, I guess. Failing that, I'll go "slumming" in Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water. But if I were being somewhat realistic, there's a great Mexican style villa on the market in Freedom that I'd love to have. Maybe I'll snap a pic one of these days when I stop to get the real estate agent's number to see what its on the market for.

3. Your ultimate career: my ultimate career would be a combo plate of skills including advertising creation, marketing and public relations. I have a very strong creative streak that can be applied to logos, slogans and advertising campaigns. That or President of the US (and I can absolutely promise I'd be a better and more effective leader than the current asshat in charge).

4. Your ultimate toy: The ultimate toy for me would probably be an A-10 Warthog, oh yeah!

5. Your ultimate trip: A year long trip around the world with a full month being spent at any place that strikes us (of course I'd have my family with me). Extra time spent in Cape Town, Barcelona, Prague and Paris.

6. Your ultimate dinner or meal: Start off with oysters on the half shell and shrimp cocktails. Follow up with marinated skirt steak on the grill with fresh sliced pineapple on top, grilled veggies on kabobs, grilled corn with chili butter and as many Amstel Lights or Pyramid Hefeweizens as I need to make it through the meal. Dessert could be any number of things but I'm particular to cheesecakes and warm from the oven apple pie a la mode.

7. Your ultimate relaxation: A good long day of riding through the redwoods followed by the high speed descent out to the ocean via Wilder Ranch and topped off with the ultimate meal above. And a blowjob.

Labels: cheddar x, ultimate