Sunday, August 31, 2003

Masachistic tendencies

originally scribbled on my PDA 08/30/03

Gluttons for punishment that we are, Marcy and I went out last night for a little karaoke fun. Given the company that we were with, and their propensity to smoke, I thought for sure I would be starting over at day 1 again in our quest for a cigarette free life style. As it turns out, both of us want this badly enough and as I'm happy to report, we are now on day 6 (now 7).

Updated stats:
Time Smoke-Free: 7 days, 3 hours, 43 minutes and 57 seconds
Cigarettes NOT smoked: 64
Lifetime Saved: 11 hours

Money Saved: $10.55

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Saturday, August 30, 2003

Who's the Real Cheat

Two lawyers, Jon and David, head out for their usual 9 holes of golf. Jon offers David a $50 bet. David agrees and they're off. They do a great game. After the 8th hole, David is ahead by one stroke, but cuts his ball into the rough on the 9th.

"Help me find my ball. Look over there,'" he says to Jon. After a few minutes, neither have any luck. Since a lost ball carries a four point penalty, David secretly pulls a ball from his pocket and tosses it to the ground. "I've found my ball!" he announces.

"After all of the years we've been partners and playing together," Jon says, "you'd cheat me out of a lousy 50 bucks?"

"What do you mean, cheat? I found my ball sitting right there!"

"And you're a liar, too!" Jon says. "I've been STANDING on your ball for the last five minutes!"

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Friday, August 29, 2003

Day 5 - Friday Linkage

Day 5, still we have not had a cigarette. If we get through the weekend, we will be done with what the Q calls "hell-week". It hasn't been all that bad either. I think with the right state-of-mind, actually wanting to quit because we're sick of how smoking makes us feel, and what it does to our pocketbook, only makes things easier. Still, with the long weekend ahead, I think we will need to keep ourselves mighty busy, that shouldn't be hard to do.

It's Friday, and I've decided that from now on, instead of bombarding you all week long with interesting links from around the www, I'm going to save them all week and bombard you on Friday, in one shot. Since I've only decided to start this today, I only have a few links for ya, but I hope you enjoy.

First, I have one link that goes into my "funny as hell" category: (via Metafilter)

Flash Animations for your viewing enjoyment

Next, in my "These-guys have way too much time on their hands" category, I bring you: (via Metafilter)

Burgers Having Sex & AT-ST Love

Finally, in my "This guy is too stupid to breathe" category: (via Metafilter)

This moron gets what he deserves

Yes, if life was the internet, and oxygen was bandwith, that guy does not deserve to share mine. That's all for today, more links will come your way next week. And if you find a strange or funny little morsel of www goodness, leave me a comment or send me an email and I'll feature it here next week.

_______
Stats:
Time Smoke-Free: 4 days, 13 hours, 43 minutes and 52 seconds
Cigarettes NOT smoked: 41
Lifetime Saved: 7 hours
Money Saved: $7.54


Thursday, August 28, 2003

Day 4 - Sorry, I Didn't Mean To

Ever since we quit smoking, it feels like my lungs are trying to purge themselves of all the smoke that I have injested into them over the years. I didn't mean to release it all at once though, sorry. Seriously though, I wish I could sometimes, release it all at once. Instead of hacking day after day, take one big giant breath, and hack up all the tar and smoke that my lungs have had to intake because of my habit. Not a pretty picture eh? I imagine though that the picture looks clear compared to what the inside of my lungs looked like. Yeah, I think I'm definately ready to live the rest of our lives without smoking. Yesterday I went until noon without taking my first hit off of the inhaler, let's see how long I can go today, shall we?

I talked to Marcy's brother Bobby last night after putting up his, er Ahnold's, video:
Bobby: I told Marcy that that video better not end up on your site.

Me:Cmon Bobby, you know me better than that. It had to.
Bobby: I know

In a bit of good news, Marcy's Dad came through just fine, in fact, there were no blockages in any of his arteries or valves. Definately good news.

Stats:
Time Smoke-Free: 3 days, 11 hours, 3 minutes and 7 seconds
Cigarettes NOT smoked: 28

Lifetime Saved: 5 hours
Money Saved: $5.60

Wednesday, August 27, 2003

Total Recall 2003

Guessed who stopped by for an impromptu visit... You got it, Ahnold...and he went over some of the platforms that he will be running on. Luckily, Marcy was there with the camera to catch this most unexpected visit. He also told me off camera that you must go buy a shirt or else his next stop may be your house.

Stats:
Time Smoke-Free: 3 days, 1 hour, 22 minutes and 10 seconds
Cigarettes NOT smoked: 24
Lifetime Saved: 4 hours
Money Saved: $4.20

Quitters

If you haven't noticed already, Marcy and I are quitting smoking. I have found a couple of websites for some support, but Quit Net is by far the coolest. If your in the same boat we are, or are thinking about jumping ship, Check it out.

My Stats:
Time Smoke-Free: 2 days, 21 hours, 4 minutes and 32 seconds

Cigarettes NOT smoked: 23
Lifetime Saved: 4 hours
Money Saved: $4.20

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Day 3 - He's A Little Bit Special

Well, day 3 of our smoke-free life has started and I have Stephen Lynch's "Special Fred" stuck in my head. Thanks to Marcy's brother Bobby singing it that is. A couple of month's ago Bobby called me up late one night and told me to turn on Comedy Central. The comedian that he had been telling me about for a month or more was on. I did, and ever since I have been hooked on his songs. Check out his website for more information, you'll be glad you did.

Last night we finally set Marcy up to start selling on Ebay and submitted her first two auctions. She sews handmade quilts and tote bags, so if you are looking for something like that, check out her auctions. We will be setting up a website for her soon as well, I will post where you can find it when it is complete.

On a more serious note, Marcy's dad is going in for surgery today, we saw him off to the hospital this morning. The doctors will be doing mostly exploratory work on his heart valves and arteries, but they have indicated that angioplasty will most likely be necessary while they are in there. Some repair to the main heart valve may also be necessary today. He is in our thoughts today, please keep him in yours.

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Tuesday, August 26, 2003

A little bit of Hilarity

I've only watched the first two episodes so far, will continue during tomorrow's lunch, but from what I've seen so far this is hilarious. Red vs Blue

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Mum's the Word

Ok, my Sitemeter tells me that I have readers, but noone comments on the posts, that is except for this guy. Not complaining, just commenting on an observation, that's all. No pun intended of course.

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Day 2

Ok, now that I have my past life wrapped up and taken care of, I can concentrate on this one. It is day 2 of my and Marcy's most recent bid to quit smoking. So far, so good. We both are using the Nicotrol Inhaler sparingly, in fact I have not yet needed to use mine yet today only needed to use mine once so far today. I remember though, it seems that the last time I tried to quit earlier this year, was much worse. The cravings were worse, and the gum of course was no help at all, unless you enjoy feeling nauseous. All in all, it's probably something that is completely metal. I think I am definately more ready, or mentally prepared, to quit this time. I guess I'll just have to take it one day at a time, and see what happens. Either way, I will quit.

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Past Life?

What were you in your past life? Here's my results:
Your past life diagnosis:


I don't know how you feel about it, but you were female in your last earthly incarnation.
You were born somewhere in the territory of modern Portugal around the year 1750.
Your profession was that of a sailor or shoemaker.



Your brief psychological profile in your past life:
Inquisitive, inventive, you liked to get to the very bottom of things and to rummage in books. Talent for drama, natural born actor.


The lesson that your last past life brought to your present incarnation:
The world is full of ill and lonely people. You should help those, who are less fortunate than you are.


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Monday, August 25, 2003

Priority: Critical

Please turn your attention to the bottom right hand corner of this picture (Click on it to enlarge), and you will plainly see just how important this perscription is. As you can see, Marcy and I have quit smoking....again. It has now been officially 24 hours without a cigarette. I'm not quite ready to rip the kids heads off yet, but the inhaler does work quite well. So far, it has curbed the cravings much more efficiently than either the gum or the patch ever did. I'm impressed to this point, tomorrow may be a completely different story, but that remains to be seen.

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More Names

Looks like the KGB RIAA has issued more subpoenas. Better check the link to make sure your not included in this round.
Subpoena Database Query Tool

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Oh What a feeling!!

Finally, the day has come, and we have a new camera. We finally broke down and bought a seperate still camera, instead of continuing to use our Video camera to take our stills with. Even though it did have the capability of taking an almost 1 MP picture, it is bulky and troublesome to upload onto the computer. Besides, I think the model we went with, and it's 5 MP pictures, is just a teensy bit better. Check out my first day with it in the form of the movie of Breanna singing to her favorite song.

Another milestone happened this weekend when the guy from Comcast went to my parents house and connected them to the internet. They are finally online, after only 7 years or so of my constant badgering to try to get them to connect. It did take my picking out a computer for them, but they were the ones who wanted high-speed broadband access so I tip my hat to them for that. If your going to do something, you might as well do it right. I started their online journey by e-mailing them that clip of Breanna. I think they are instantly hooked. Welcome online Mom & Dad.

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Saturday, August 23, 2003

Recent Comment

The aliensandchildrens.org site owner paid me a visit today and left this comment regarding my post a couple days ago:
The drawings of aliens on my website are authentic. They are what I say they are. Alien abductions are real. See Dave Jacob's website, ufoabduction.com for information alien abductions.

Reality check on your side, not mine. That's why there is a website of the drawings.
Right, and kids have never been known to let their imagination run wild before, right? Ahem, McMartin Trial, hem, hem. I'm not blasting these kids either, don't get me wrong, I'm merely stating that kids are very impressionable, and TV (especially cartoons today) are feeding them with the imagery they need to imagine this type of thing. I am a parent myself, and realize when I'm not spending enough time with the children by the way they act, and the stories they come up with. Imagination is a great thing for kids to have, but it's us adults that hold the key to them feeding too much into their imagination, crossing the line between reality and imagination.

Looking For RSS for Palm

I'm not one that truly enjoys sitting in front of a computer screen all the time. I like to move about, change scenery, but I still have to be somewhat connected. The problem however lies in that I don't have wireless connectivity for my PDA as of yet, still too expensive for me, so I have to rely on syncing as my means of taking information with me. Which until now has never been that much of a hassle for me. Then came RSS.

Now that I am literally hooked on RSS as my main resource for news, I am looking to sync RSS with my Palm. Right now I am using JPluckX to convert RSS feeds to plucker format and using Plucker to view on my PDA. I'm wondering though, and I've exhausted all my searches, if there is any Desktop RSS aggregator that will directly sync with the PalmOS. I love the way my aggregator keeps track of read posts, and would really like that ability on my PDA. Please leave your comments if you have any ideas of where I might be able, if it exists, to get my hands on such a program.

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Thursday, August 21, 2003

Sobig Pain in My A$$

When it's on the regular local news, you know that it's a problem. I have been receiving emails for the past two days from postmasters informing me that I have sent someone an email that "may be infected" with the sobig virus. E-mails that I have not sent, and I do not recognize the address that they were sent to, that are coming from an IP address that is not mine.

After a couple of hours of virus scanning and using various removal tools from symantec and some forum searching, I've come to the realization that it is not my computer that is infected. In fact, from a tip on the forum, I found out that the sobig virus will spoof a from e-mail address to make it look like it's coming from somebody else's system. It does this so as not to tip off the user of their computer's infection. At least I'm not infected, frustrated as hell, but not infected.

You do need to make sure however that your anti-virus is up-to-date and that you are not infected, because on the surface, you may not have any warning signs that you are infected, but your infected system may be causing much stress for someone else...like me.

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Wednesday, August 20, 2003

Old Virus, New Plague

I got an E-Mail last night from a postmaster of a server that I did not recognize telling me that I had sent an e-mail to an e-mail address I did not know that was infected with the W32.Sobig.F@mm virus. A quick virus scan let me know that I had not been infected, but this little beastie has been making it's rounds again. It is an older virus that has been getting a lot of attention in the past two days. Symantec has upgraded the threat of the Sobig virus because literally thousands of reports have come in of infections in the last day. Read more about it here: Symantec Security Response - W32.Sobig.F@mm, including a removal tool download if you have been unfortunate enough to be infected.

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Flying High

I got a brief chance Sunday to catch a little film of Bobby flying. Last night he stopped by and we both put our efforts into this little film of the event. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: If you got physically sick from the shaky video of the Blair Witch Project, this movie is not for you. A tripod is definately needed.

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Tuesday, August 19, 2003

No, really....cmon

unearthed at boing, boing

Oh, my lord, are are children really this messed up in the head??? I think it's time us parents spent a little more time with our children, and stop letting the TV babysit them so much. Talk about a reality check, read this:
aliensandchildren.org::Alien Drawings by Children

Monday, August 18, 2003

The End is Near?

You may think so too if you walked out into your back yard and found that perched on the side of your pool. This sucker survived being held under water for five minutes, as well as being kept in a plastic sealed tub all morning. She, and I call it she because I cleaned a bunch of her dead babies out of the pool yesterday, finally died when I sprayed some Windex into the container and closed it back up. An hour later she was finally dead. What is it? Why is it in my back yard? I think it's a locust and I don't know. Marcy is calling our friendly-neighborhood pest control company to come out today and tell us.

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Friday, August 15, 2003

Ohio-hio-hio

As many of you might have known, Marcy, Breanna and I recently spent 12 days in my home town of Cleveland. We made a prolonged stay of going back for my 10 year reunion, and loved every minute of it. I want to say a quick thanks to all those who met us out or invited us into their homes. We had a blast. In pretty much the order we saw you, thanks to Rick, Nate, Dawn, Dave, Chris, Dave, Jen, Jen, Cathy, Dylan, Jill & Matt. Thanks also to my parents, grandmother, and my sister. We can't wait to see you all again.

While we were there, Marcy discovered that a log cabin stood down near the flats which is a replica of her 7th Grandfather's cabin he built being the first settler in Cleveland. We took a trip down there to see it. You can check out the photos here. I've included some history, not much, but some, of Lorenzo Carter's first cabin in the narration of the pictures. Feel free to peruse them.

Thursday, August 14, 2003

Ping-Pong on Crack

Who said Ping Pong isn't entertaining. Check out this movie to see this sometimes made fun of sport, like you've never seen it before...

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Wednesday, August 13, 2003

Update Windows Lately?

If you haven't, update now. A new worm is on the loose, and you don't even need to open an email to be infected. If you are running Windows NT, 2000 or XP you are most likely vulnerable to it's attack. I found that out yesterday first hand when my brother in law Bobby's computer was acting funny. If infected it will slow your computer down, not let you run Windows update, and will run a maliscious script on the 16th (supposedly) that may crash your computer completely. The following link will provide you with more symptoms, and what you can do if you find you are infected. Please read. Symantec Security Response - W32.Blaster.Worm

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Saturday, August 02, 2003

Things my mother never told me...

I thought that since we're at home visiting my parents, this was a relevent entry:

Smile, it's the second best thing you can do with your lips.

Sex is like air, it's not important unless you aren't getting any.

Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyways.

If vegetable oil is made of vegetables, what is baby oil made of?

No guts, no glory, no brain, same story.

Cocaine is gods way of telling you that you make too much money.

If quitters never win, and winners never quit, then who is the fool who said "Quit while you're ahead"?

If you don't die from it -- it is healthy.

If everything is going well, you don't know what the hell is Going on.

One good turn gets most of the blankets.

It is better to be looked over than overlooked.

Duct tape is like the force -- there is a light and a dark side and it holds the universe together.

There are three kinds of people -- those who can count and those who can't.

It is not what a teenager knows that bothers his parents, it is how he found out.

Since blue and white are the international sign for handicapped, what does that say about the Iowa license plates?

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