Sunday, December 31, 2006

Happy New Years, 2007

The mental script I had in my mind this year for New Years Eve involved frigid winter breezes carrying the promise of a chilling January, salt air creating a crust of silt on the windows, and the possibility of snow blowing through the Carolina breezes, changing direction in mid flight and creating small momentary tornadoes as it swirled through the air. Reality, however, brought us warm oceanic breezes, bright sunshine, and the warm feelings delivered by good coffee and cheap vodka.

It's noon on New Years Eve and the view you see above is the view I have as I sit here in my tank-top, pajama pants and comfy slippers sitting here on the beach chair watching the dogs torment each other over the possession of a kitchen rag that will never again see it's way to the sink.

Above, you can see that Junah won the contest for the rag, at least momentarily. Her regal bearing in the sunlight is just another reminder that this New years Season is a little bit off from my mental imagery.  She seems poised for fun and frolic in the middle of a summer afternoon, anxiously awaiting the tossing of a tennis ball so she can enjoy a swim in the river, not at all like an animal in winter.

It should be noted that the absence of cold weather and snow are in no way an impingement on my enjoyment of the holiday season. I am at the beach house relaxing and actively doing as little as possible, which is exactly as I had intended to do. April is curled up with her feet under her in Tom's rocker recliner reading a novel. Claire is likewise collected in the corner of the couch with Tim's PDA playing a game to pass the time. Tom is in the shower and Tim is walking aimlessly around the house looking for something technological to do. in the midst of all the urbanism.

//---- Insert Break to Feed The Ducks ---- //

Tom returned from his shower and noticed the ducks were landing out at the dock, so I left for a moment to give them a new years meal. The mallards and seagulls dined today on white bread and for dessert were treated with toast with grape jelly. I guess they enjoyed it, however I'd hate to be a windshield near here anytime in the near future. I'm not sure what effect grape jelly and MSG have on seagulls, but I'm quite sure it can't be a positive experience.

As you can see, feeding the aviary visitors became a group new years event. I think April caught Junah drinking out of my coffee cup, which I have only now noticed and upon close inspection I find that it might explain the funny things floating in my cup.

I'd like to introduce you to Juan and Carlos. Carlos it the one on the right with the intimidating expression on his face..umm.. beak. These are two of the beautiful male mallards April caught on camera. Snow notwithstanding, nature and its companionship are quite perfect way to spend this vacation before heading back to Africa next week.

Not being ones to remain left out when there is food available, this "laughing gull" flew in as an advance scout to see what all the commotion was, upon which he promptly flew back to his gull squadron and returned with reinforcements, flying in coordinated attacks to try to steal the food from the flock of mallards. In the end, the mallards defended their turf admirably, eagerly gobbling most of the bread before the gulls could swoop down from above. If they would adopt the lazy mallard tactics and simply wait there while we tossed food at them the could have enjoyed the holiday dinner with much less effort, but then again Seagulls have never been the smartest of our local birds, although their accuracy when performing clam-shell bombing runs on the causeway is unrivaled in the aviary community. These guys can hit a windshield from 300 feet at 40 miles per hour all day long.

This is our family of mallards, who have made our beach house a stop on their daily routine. I'm quite sure they'll return later this afternoon or tomorrow to see if the offered banquet will be repeated for them.

As you can see, our little troupe of holiday weekenders have yet to migrate into actual clothes. With the exception of Tom, we are all still sitting around the house in our PJs, quietly performing mundane tasks to amuse ourselves. As usual, I spend that time here writing to all of you. This has become one of my favorite hobbies in recent months. The occasional viewer who comments provides all the gratification I need to continue in my posthumous writings.

It never ceases to amaze me that Tim's expression and habits are not environmentally reflective. He has the same expression in the morning, no matter what city, state, country, or continent we may be on at the time. It's a continual expression of "what? I'm not awake yet. What do you want from me? Do I have to hack something for you this morning already?"

This is about a perfect morning for me. My coffee, a labrador retriever, and the woman I love all bundled up together on the water downeast. This is where I'm at home. I haven't said this in while on here, but Thank You darling for being here with me, today at this place and everyday in my life. You're great and I love you.

This is a flashback moment to two years ago when Tom and I were at the Rascall Flatts concert, except at the time our roles were reversed and there wasn't a dog looking at my butt like he was hungry and in the mood for a flank steak. Come to think of it, I wonder if I can find that photo...

There it is!

And here is the cute married couple! If they were superheroes they would be called iPod boy and Palm girl. Together they would save humanity with digital technology, their light sabers would be styluses and their power would come from the planet of Duracell. If they were the wondertwins, they would combine to form the "Coppertop" super machine. lol.

Well, you now where our New Years has gone so far. If you're of a mind, share your experiences here with us. I'll update more as the day goes on. Happy New Years!

 

Friday, December 29, 2006

Saddam Gets His

Saddam Hussein Hangs in 13 minutes! 13 minutes and 13 loops in a noose.. how appropriate.

Smell that Salt Water?

Date: Friday, December 29th, 2006.
Time: 1657 hrs.

It's the first day of my New Year's vacation and I'm down at Tom's beach house for the weekend. It's been a nice day. April went to work this morning and I started packing when I had consumed enough coffee to faintly resemble the rest of humanity. I walked around the house, jacked in to my iPod, packed all my entertainment gear for the weekend; including but not limited to my guitar, guns, laptop, PDA, cell phone, iPod, two books, and PJ pants. I got on the road around eleven and got here to the house around 1. Tom is coming down after work, but I got to come down early and spend some alone time in the beach house, which I appreciated a ton. I like my private time and sitting here in the house is the first real "tommy-time" I've had in awhile. No Internet, no phone calls (yet) and a full bar... whatever will I do to occupy my time?

Well, I started with vacuuming the house, dusting the layer of abandonment off the tables and counters, setting up the dog fence in the backyard, turning on the heat in all the rooms, and going to Food Lion to get grub for the weekend. That's been enough to keep me busy for the last several hours. At the moment, I'm taking a break from my iPod audiobook to converse with you all before getting back to the routine and vacuuming the last room.

Speaking of strange stuff today, what in the hell is pickle loaf? While emptying the various dead and decaying things the last tenants forgot to take out of the fridge, I ran across this wonderfully hideous substance brightly stamped with a .99 cent sale sticker, proudly proclaiming "pickle loaf." What in the hell is that? Don't the people who work in the food industry have some guidelines at which they have to stop being creative? Pickle loaf is NOT a food. It's not! Ok, here's why: First, "pickles" aren't technically a food, they are a nickname for the process most commonly performed on cucumbers, but also done to other kinds of food to preserve them. Second, no cucumber ever grew in a loaf! Third, I thought the word loaf was reserved for either bread items or certain kinds of meat dishes.. and whatever the hell this is, it is NOT a meat dish. It looks like the paste one might use to patch a floor tile back on the Jefferson's show in the 1970's. It has all the right colors, but maybe heat needs to be applied to make it turn into actual spackle. I'll report back on that when I've set it on fire and discovered the results.

Ok. My inner sense of unrest is rearing its ugly head again. I can't rest when I know there are things to do around the house still. I still need to vacuum Tom's bedroom, sweep the porch, and clean up a little more. I'll be back later...

1803  hrs.

Ok. I've been to the liquor store now and I'm equipped with a fifth of Absolut Vodka. Additionally I got the digital cable working and now the cable modem just came online. Now, I just wait for Tom and April to get here with the Cranberry-stuff I use in my fru-fru drinks, and I'll be good to go. Meanwhile, I'm on the phone here with this guy, Patrick from the cable company who's getting my Internet finalized. Actually, I'm on hold. That's the good thing about the Internet. There's no such thing as "on hold" with blogging. I've been away from the computer now for over an hour and did you even notice? Nope. Not a bit. Imagine just sitting here scrolling down for the virtual hour, waiting for me to come back with some little bit of virtual wisdom, only to poof off again in ten minute.

I think that's going to be my mantra this weekend. 1.) Go do dumb stuff.  2.) Come back and blog about it. 3.) Rinse and repeat. You people out there are lucky we're not charging you for pay per view blogging. Me, Tom, and April and a few fifths of liquor and a 4 bedroom house with a jukebox in the living room all weekend. It's gonna be a hoot-n-anny. For those of you don't know, there are actual stages of southern gatherings.

Get together: Two or more people sitting around talking about nothing.

Shin-Dig: Same as get together, but there's liquor OR music involved.

Hoot-n-anny: Same as Shin-Dig but there's liquor AND music involved.. and usually guns.

Picnic: Any of the previous three listed above, plus a pig pickin' and followed by the hanging of a black man in the tree outback (cause' there's always a tree 'round somewhere) and we break out the "good sheets."  (You'll have to ask Ed about the definition of a picnic.. he's the black guy who told me that one... so don't burn MY house down about it... well, even though he's really as white as they come...) the dude has no "soul" side to him except when he's singing, in which case he's the next James Brown.. woooo.. speaking of: James Brown died last week... I wonder if there was a picnic?

Ok.. back to the drinkin. I'm slowing down now.

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Rambling until the coffee kicks in... *yawn*

Good morning everyone. I hope this finds you well. It's 8 AM and I'm getting ready to get motivated to get a shower and get to work this morning.  The team and I have another camera installation to do today, so that'll take up most of the morning and early afternoon. Meanwhile, I have to actually get awake enough to start the day. Right now, I'm sitting here behind my keyboard in my new red and black pajama pants and memory foam slippers, smoking a cigarette, and polishing off my first cup of coffee for the day.

I got to spend a little time with Marisa last night, for those who are interested. It's been awhile since I got to hang out with Agent M, but it was cool. It's really funny if you know my friends... everyone got iPods for Christmas this year so sometime in the few days following Christmas they all call my house and say "Hey. Can you put some music on this thing for me? I don't know how to use it.

Topic #2: Writer's Block...

For lack of anything inspirational, I'm trying to think of things to write about but keep coming up dry, so I went to check out "It's Just The Coffee Talking," a blog by a lady that April turned me on to. Apparently it's not just me today. For those of you who like the voyeuristic approach to blogging, you should take a look at her's. It's a nice site. She's a lot like me from time to time. She wants to write, but doesn't have anything to write about so sometimes she'll just rant for three paragraphs about not having any subject material. She has some really cute stuff on her blog though. I've looked through it from time to time and I always laugh at least once while I'm there.

What else is new with me? Well, not too much. Santa was good to me this year, which always works out somehow... no matter how much I freak out pre-christmas it always works out ok. April and I got a lot of nice things, got a lot of time with friends and family, and got to spend time together, which is all I can ask for.

I'm stuck in this adult vs. adolecent issue right now that I'm trying to resolve. lol. My mother gave me money this year in addition to the other gifts she bestowed upon me. Well, it's enough money to buy myself some cool gifts that I've been wanting (like that .12 gauge Mossberg Pump Shotgun...) but it's also enough to pay a few bills with.  The adult in me wants to save the money and apply it towards the bills I have this month, because lord knows they've piled up. However, the adolescent in me sits there belligerently arguing with my adult-side that it's supposed to be use for "christmasy" stuff... not real life stuff! lol. So, I sit here back and forth trying to decide what to do with it. I suppose it could be in the bank earning interest while I make up my mind, but instead it just stares at me from the bar across the house, begging to be spent. It's actually watching me now.. it knows I'm talking about it. It wants to be spent on... on... on... ahhhh... I can't decide.

(Pouring cup #2)

Ok. I'm back. I think the Scooby site needs prizes for readers. LOL. I've been thinking of completely dumb goofy stuff I could do just for fun. Yes, I need more hobbies I know. Ohmygosh, I sat on the couch last night and watched about 10 episodes of Reba recorded off my DVR. I love that show! If you don't watch it, you should. It's great. And of course she's Reba... she has awesome hair.

Ok. I'm waking up now. I can feel the beginnings of the fuel hitting my system. Sparks are starting to fire off in my brain. The neurons are slowly waking and beginning their non-stop hum that keeps me going through the day. I'm starting to think what I have to do today, let me see:

  1. Go to warehouse and get tools for job for today.
  2. Get ladder for running ceiling cabling.
  3. Have Chris and Shane run coax cabling while I install cameras on the interior installation points.
  4. Have Tim install and configure the DVR.
  5. Mount the LCD wall bracket for the monitoring system.
  6. Invoice for the Rocky Mount job.
  7. Purchase the firewall/VPN's that I need.
  8. Notify clients that I'm leaving for Africa next week.
  9. Secure parts needed for Africa trip (batteries, etc.)
  10. Get Tim to format laptop for me tonight.
  11. Call the Tingen client and get ready for the smart-home job.
  12. Call Lisa and get ready for the wiring job.
  13. Make plans for working on the new church job when I get back from Africa.
  14. Program my new remote control I got for christmas (how did this task pop in my head?)
  15. Download more audiobooks for the flight to Africa.
  16. Put more music on my iPod.
  17. Finish putting the techno on Marisa's iPod.

Crap.. it's Thursday! I was thinking it was Wednesday. This whole Monday-Christmas thing has thrown my internal clock off by a day. I have to go to the beachtomorrow and get the beach house ready for everyone to come down tomorrow night.

Wow. It's gonna be a busy day today. Gee whiz. I'm gonna go jump in the shower and get ready for the guys. They should be here in a few minute and we're off to work for the day. See you all soon...

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recipe from nicoles b-day

t-t-t-tommy here is that recipe from the other night Pasta with Wild Mushroom Sauce Recipe courtesy Wolfgang Puck, 2004 Show: Wolfgang Puck's Cooking Class Episode: Pasta Sauces I 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 1/2 medium red onion, finely chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 sprig marjoram, plus more for garnish 1/2 pound assorted wild mushrooms (golden chanterelle, shiitake, cremini, oyster, porcini, etc.), trimmed and sliced 1 cup mushroom stock, recipe follows 1 cup heavy cream Salt Freshly ground black pepper 1 pound bucatini Grated Parmesan In a large stock pot, bring salted water to a boil. In a large saute pan, over high heat, heat the olive oil. Add the onion and garlic and saute for 1 minute, just until beginning to turn translucent. Add the marjoram and saute 1 more minute. Add the mushrooms and saute until they begin to brown and release their liquid, about 5 minutes. Add the mushroom stock and reduce 5 minutes. Add the cream and reduce about 5 minutes, or until the sauce begins to thicken. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper. Cook pasta until al dente. Drain and quickly toss with mushroom sauce. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Divide onto serving plates and serve immediately garnished with marjoram sprigs. Mushroom Stock: 2 cups chicken stock 1/2 cup mushroom trimmings, stems, or pieces Combine the chicken stock and mushrooms in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer and cook until reduced by half. Strain. have fun with it lee

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Two turtledoves, anyone?

With the 12 Days of Christmas still ringing in my ears, I greet the Scoobs. The Headman said to post a test, so here it is, sir. Hope that everyone had a great Christmas (white/snowy or not). Here in SoCal we were at 76 degrees, and not a sign of snow anywhere on the flatland, but could see some up in the mountains. Oh and Doc, good thoughts and strength to you and the troops as you spend these days away from family and friends! Peace to all!

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

How I know I'm the "head scoob"

Cause it's written on my underwear....

I feel that I'm SOOOO gonna regret this someday...

See those memory-foam slippers? That's right. Racin' Stripes! Cause I'm Fast! LMFAO!

(April, think this qualifies as a HNT photo?)

Christmas Photos (and a note for Doc)

No, I'm not going to slow down the blog by posting them all on here. That would take forever to load and would bore some of you to death. I DID however, put them in the Christmas 2006 album on the photo site. Click here to see the photos.

Also, if you have any of your own that I missed (Ray, Miss Cathy, etc) email them to me and I'll post them up there with ours.

 

One picture of note that I DO want to share...

I went to Mom's house on Christmas Eve and I almost cried when I saw this. This is the picture we put up the last time Doc was gone for Christmas. We took his picture with us so he would know he was remembered. This year, mom had it prominently displayed in her tree so Doc would know she was thinking of him and so he could share our Christmas with us again this year.

 

Merry Christmas Brother. I love you and miss you, man. Come home soon. Everyone sends their love and they all miss you. I stopped by to see your folks tonight on the way home to wish them a Merry Christmas. Your Mom and Dad send their love. I didn't get to take a picture of them, but I got a friend of yours who I'd thought would want to say hi.

 

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Prostitute! Prostitute! Prostitute!

Nope, sorry, wrong word... Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas y'all! I am spending all weekend at work, so if you feel sorry enough for me you can always call me and entertain me! Love y'all a whole bunch. Be safe and have fun! Bridget

look who's back

thanks for bringing me back tommy...!!! merry christmas ya'll...

Seasons Greetings!

Merry Christmas!

If you're one of these politically correct people who would rather hear "Happy Holidays" then, well just bugger off and enjoy your ba humbug in another country! This is america and we were founded on Christian beliefs, so MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Yes, it's that time of year again. April and I have been shopping for weeks and it will all be over in less than 48 hours. Actually, to be fair, April went fighting the crowds. I sat home like the geek that I am and paid the extra shipping to buy it all online and avoid the hassles. I'm quite happy that I havent' spent one single moment caught up in the shopping frenzy in the local stores.

We will be leaving tomorrow to go see April's parents around mid-afternoon in Williamston. Then we're headed to my Mom's down at the beach to spend Christmas Eve night with her. Christmas morning, we'll all get up and head on to Aunt Faye's for the annual Christmas Dinner event and be home again by dark.

I want to thank every single one of you who have been part of my life this year. You all mean the world to me. I'd like to thank my friends and family for helping us out when we were overseas this year. You'll never know how good it was to have you here to handle things while we were gone. 2006 has gone by too fast and it seems like I haven't seen some of you all year. Let's make a plan to spend more scooby-time in 2007.

Love you all and I'll see you after the holidays.

PS: Don't forget Nicole's Bday party on Tuesday. Be here by 7.

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Oh This is SO me and Tim... lol

GPS Locator Device This is SO something I would say. I'm getting to the point where it takes me ten minutes to leave the house because I can't find the stuff I need to get out the door...

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Rare Scooby Spotted In The Wild

Late breaking report: Dependable sources spotted this Scooby in her natural habitat. Sources close to the scooby state that she put up a horrible fight and eventually escaped captivity, only to wander to this party and pose with this margarita in hand.  THIS is her mugshot.

Actually M, I just thought it was a really good shot and thought you'd like it. Bet ya wonder how I got it? I have eyes everywhere! Like Santa Claus, I'm watchin' you!

LMAO

 

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Blog Members

Ok. Here's the full memberlist of this blog:

  1. April (Re-Added. Done.)
  2. Agent M (reinvited. Awaiting acceptance.)
  3. Bannag (don't know)
  4. Little Bit (don't know)
  5. Clay (don't know)
  6. My Mom (don't know)
  7. April's Mom (don't know)
  8. Todd (don't know)
  9. Shak (Upgraded. Done.)
  10. Rogue (don't know)
  11. Flamin (don't know)
  12. Tom (don't know)
  13. Rain Man (don't know)
  14. MacKenzie Steele (Upgraded. Done)
  15. TeaFeary( don't know)
  16. Claire (don't know)
  17. Me (Works. Done)
  18. Dez (pending)
  19. Bridget (Reinvited. Tested. Done.)

Update comments to this post if your account won't work.

BETA Issue and New Scooby Doo

Two things of mention.

1. Dez got a blog, so go pester him to update it!

http://dezmodious.blogspot.com

2) Would all the members please TRY to make one test post. I don't think you'll be able to unless you upgrade to the new blogger beta, so I may need to reinvite you. I need to know who I need to reinvite though. I don't need you to comment on this post, but start a new post of your own. If it doesn't work, let me know via email and I'll resend the invite to that email address.

Thanks.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

New Blogger Out Of Beta

Blogger.com touts today that "Beta is dead" and that the new version of Blogger gains its official version number today. If you're one of those out there who hasn't yet tried the new blogger (which I keep almost-referring-to as beta by sheer habit) then now is the time to make the transition. I've been using the new blogger platform for almost a month now and it's been pretty seamless for most. I'm one of those who hacks his template to pieces but I still have an increased functionality, better design, faster aesthetic fixes to my templates, and overall better performance than with the old blogger.

To read more about google's press release:

"The New Version of Blogger

The new version of Blogger in beta is dead!
Long live the new version of Blogger!
(P.S. The old version of Blogger is not dead, but it would like to retire for a little while... maybe go to Hawaii or play World of Warcraft all day? It begs you to let it play World of Warcraft all day.)

I am overjoyed to announce that today we have o’ficially graduated the new version of Blogger from “in beta” to “.” Why is this significant? Allow me to explain via analogy:

Battlestar Galactica with Lorne Greene : Battlestar Galactica with Edward James Olmos :: Old Blogger : New Blogger
The new version of Blogger is metaphorically bursting with features, from the big guns like drag-and-drop template editing and post labels (which are perfect, by the way, for indexing the 131 historical figures you may have written about), to little polishes like a better-designed Dashboard or that you no longer need to solve a word verification CAPTCHA to post a comment on your own blog." (read more)


New Blogger Under Fire:

 The legal lexicon of blog users has brough the new blogger interface under fire this morning, so I thought I'd share their comments with you. I didn't particularly agree with their information myself; it seems like they havent' actually used the new blogger enough to know what they're talking about yet. You can read the article here:

New version of Blogger not enough for law firms

 

 

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Monday, December 18, 2006

A Note About The Blog: (Slooooow)

Some of you have certainly noticed a lag in the blog lately. It's not due to the amount of images or text on the page, contrary to popular belief. The problem is when I switched to this three column layout (which I've been trying to do for over a year now) I'm using a different structure, called Table Layout, as opposed to the regular layouts that blogger beta supports. Basically this means that the page can't show up in your browser until the whole entire page loads, whereas it used to load in top-down order so by the time you scrolled down it was already loaded in the browser.

This is a tough one I don't know how to easily fix just yet, but I'm working on it. I'm going to spend some time in the developer's forums this week when I have a few minutes and I'll see what I can do to remedy the situation. The only solution might be changing the whole design again, which really sucks because I love this layout. 

Anyway, if you're a loyal reader and have been noticing the lag, this is why. Bear with me and I'll fix it as fast as I can.

Happy holidays!

 

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Ok. I've been moniker'd.

I've been working on a new site platform being offered for free from Microsoft. It's called Microsoft Office Live and as part of the beta users group I get a free domain name. Well, I decided to catch up a little bit in this new cyberworld we live in and come out of the box a little with the new web site. Rather than hiding under the mask of the Grey Mage, or Gandalf, as I was known for years online, I just decided to come out and put up a personal site with my real informaiton on it. I've been leaning that way for awhile now in my blog posts, my web work, and other online venues. So anyway, lacking anything else creative at the moment of decision, I setup www.tjordaniii.com.

Now, it's nothign special, nothing fancy, and contains absolutely nothing that most of you already don't know. However, I'm looking for opinions on the content and the theme, ideas for new things, etc. I want to streamline this blog a little because it's getting to where it takes quite a while to load, so I thought that would be a good place to put the content.

Anyway, give it a look-see and leave me some comments on what you think.

PS: I'm having real trouble with the Microsoft beta developer platform. It's still kinda buggy. So if any of the pages look absolutely out of whack, let me know what browser you're using and what looked strange about it, so I can see about fixing the problem. I'm loading it in IE7 and FF2, so it looks ok to me

Thanks all

 

Another Easy Sunday: Shootin' Off Our Mouths.. (and pistols, and rifles, and shotguns...)

Well, today was another easy relaxin' day for me and some of the Scoobs. After this week I enjoyed some much needed R&R on what is starting to be referred to as our own little private pistol range. My brother came into town this weekend to meet Mike (our friend who's been over in Iraq) but Mike's plane got delayed in Alaska, so we decided to spend the day being worthless and contributing nothing to society as a whole.

The morning started with Bojangles and coffee, which is in my opinion how every morning of a good day should start. April went to see her parents for the day, but I had company to visit with so I stayed in town and spent some time with them. By the way, HAPPY BIRTHDAY FRANKIE...

The Rest of the Day...

Rather than bore you to tears with long intricate details of the day's events, I'll give you a photo journey through our day. Let me start with the cast of characters. Unfortunately I know I missed at least 4 handguns, and 3 long guns in this photo, but you can see the arsenal of weaponry we broke out this afternoon. This should be a "you might be a redneck if" statement. "If you and your friends have enough munitions to storm the beaches of Normandy in your trucks at any given time during the day, you MIGHT be a redneck."

Present to day were two .12-guage pumpshot guns with two cases (not boxes) of game load, one .20-guage pump shotgun, two full cases of skeet, one semi-automatic .22 long gun, one .22 caliber single shot bolt-action rifle, at LEAST four .22 guage pistols of various make and model, one Ruger .45 double/single action pistol, one browning .9mm pistol, one Ruger .9mm semi, and some other weaponry that I can't even remember now. LOL.. we have everything out there today except the fully-automatic machine guns, but I can't promise that these guys can't turn up a few of these if given a few hours to prepare. This was all planned with what was already available to us.

Here's a few of the highlights. I'm keeping the pictures small, so they won't take TOO long to load in your browser. (If any of you guys who were there want the original large photos, leave me a comment and I'll email 'em to you.)

 

My Brother Raymond: Trying out the .22 pistol I bought last month.

Joe and Mark: Taking turns shooting the tops off .12-guage shells from 50 yards with iron sights. By the way, Joe's a deadly little bastard with a .22!

Joe: He's hitting targets the size of a dime from 50 yards without a scope on on the first gun his parent's ever gave him. And he's pretty danged accurate with that thing.

Scott and Raymond: Well, now it's time to switch to the big guns. Scott pulls for Ray while he gets used to his first real experience firing a shotgun. After about ten shots, he got it down pat. He was NAILING skeet 1 second out of the shoot 8 out of 10 times.

Group Skeet Shooting:  (Ray, Joe, and Me) I'm pretty sure this would never be allowed in competition shooting, but it was fun for us. Ray would fire first and if he missed, Joe got a shot off with the .22 long gun. If Joe missed, I got to take it out with the .20 guage. Needless to say, very few skeet actually hit the ground. Some were getting blown in half, then both halves would get blown apart before they ever hit the ground. All in all, it was some nice shootin' on everybody's part today.

I got to take that one out. I just like the photo because Marion caught the muzzle smoke with the camera.

This is what I call the Scooby Salute: (Me, Joe, Ray, and now Marcus had to join in the fun too.) We were jacking shells all over the place. Half the time one of us would miss only because the shell from the other's gun hit us inthe face. Absolutely NOTHING made it past this onslaught of firepower. Any random flock of ducks would have been in some serious trouble today.

Tired?: Now that's pure lazy. We were getting so good before the day was out, we were just sitting down almost on the ground to shoot.

Lit' Bit: She camped out on the back of the truck and kept a running dialogue of who hit what while we took our turns scaring birds off.

Boom.

Sexy as hell!  There's something distinctly sexy about a cute woman with long hair and a pistol in her hands. She emptied that clip in about three seconds and was putting her fair share of holes in the targets all afternoon.

Switch: Ray put his .12 down for a few minutes so Marcue and I actually got to get a few rounds off at targets that were still whole. Marcus is on the .20 while Mark and I are on the .12's and Marion is pulling for us.

Rare Photo: You don't often see the Jordan boys out together. I thinik today was a great time though.

Ooooh: Only after I loaded the puller did Mark comment on where I was positioned in relation to that spring loaded steel swing arm. It makes my groin hurt just to think about it.

 

At the conclusion of the day's events, Ray, Scott, and I returned home to April who had started dinner for us. She was busy in the kitchen making home-made chicken and pastry while we sat at the kitchen table cleaning pistols.

All in all, a good day, good fun, good food, and good times. We should have more like this. I miss getting my Scoobs together for roughneck, redneck weekends.

Hope you all had a good weekend too. I'll see you soon!

 

Friday, December 15, 2006

Making Windows Live Writer Work With Blogger Beta (Text Instructions)

Author's note on this workaround: I'm not sure this is going to work for all of you yet, but I'm doing my best to assist the developer community to come up with a solution for this issue.

Ok. I'll try to make this simple for you. This tutorial assumes you already know three things:

  1. You're running WLW version 1.0.1 (6).
  2. You're running blogger beta
  3. You know how to get your FEED ID from blogger's Dashboard site.

Step 1:
Delete your blog from WLW completely. Don't skip ahead, because it's a really dumb fix that you'll miss if you follow the instructions WLW provides.

Step 2: Add New Blog
Press Tools--> Add weblog account and follow the prompts:  (Names of Prompts are in Blue)

ADD NEW BLOG SCREEN: Choose the second option, titled "Another Blog Service" and press NEXT.

Step 3: Configure Writer to work with your current blog service.
Weblog URL: ENTER A FAKE ADDRESS THAT WILL NOT RESOLVE! I used "http://text" for mine.
Username: enter your blogger beta email address "username@gmail.com"
Password: enter your password.
Press NEXT

(The screen will now say "Analyzing Weblog Settings" which is actually the problem. If you give WLW the correct address, it's going to setup wrong. This way, we're going to trick it into thinking you have some strange custom blog that its not expecting)

Step 4:
Select Provider: Choose "Blogger (Atom)" from the list of available providers.
Remote posting URL for your weblog: This is already going to appear in the text box and it will look like this: "http://www.blogger.com/feeds/<feed-id>/posts/full"
Replace the <feed-id> with your own unique ID for your blog. This will be a number format and will look something like "1234567890123456"

If you did this, the link will now look like the one below:
http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1234567890123456/posts/full

Press NEXT

(DETECTING WEB SETTINGS: At this point, the WLW program is going to try to get your template code and do a few other things. It will probably fail.. that's ok. You can fix this in a minute.)

Step 5: Thank you for using Windows Live Writer
Enter a friendly name here for your blog: "My Blog" or whatever you want it to be.

Make sure the "Switch To This Weblog Now button" is checked.
Press Finish

DONE WITH THE TWEAKS... ONE MORE THING

Now, you SHOULD have a new blog post screen opened up before you, but you won't have your blog template yet most likely.... now we fix that.

Go to "Weblog --> Edit Weblog Accounts..."
Choose your blog, and press "Edit" on the right.
When the screen comes up, to edit your blog settings, DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING. Just press NEXT, until you get to the screen with the 'Update Style Template" button. Press this button and wait while the program detects your theme and downloads it to your computer.

Note: Mine gave me the "unable to delete test post" message, but that's ok too. You can do that manually from the blogger dashboard.

Once this is done, you should be able to press NEXT again.
Now, press Finish
Once you get back to your main screen, press "View --> Web Layout" and you should now be seeing your template view on your WLW screen.

I hope this helps you all out. When I tested this, I did encounter one error on one blog, but not on the other. The error was that WLW posted the message as a draft, so it appeared in the user's dashboard as ready to publish but didn't publish completely. We BELIEVE this was a glitch as it seemed to fix itself later.

Comments welcome and appreciated.

 

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

What does your name stand for?

Ok. I saw this on she who shan't be named's site and I had to do it again because I couldn't remember it.

You do it... I wanna see what you get.

THOMAS
T is for Trustworthy
H is for Honorable
O is for Outgoing
M is for Moral
A is for Altruistic
S is for Sensational

Monday, December 11, 2006

Hey Good Lookin! What Ya Got Cookin?

Well, pork-chop, apple, raisin casserole if ya must know. lol. I spent some quality time with my iPod tonight and hung out in the kitchen awhile to get away from this infernal computer!

I was jammin out to Montgomery Gentry, Randy Travis, ooooh.. I should have put Chris LeDoux on that playlist. (Making a mental note add that to my guitar practice list.)

Ok. I know you're asking "what the heck is that and how can it be good?" Well, it really is.. I promise. I've made it once before and I posted the recipe on here. Check it out if you feel like getting creative.

 

 

 

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Backseat Romeo (the one and only)

I got a few pictures of the ever-elusive Ed Prophet the other night when he came over to practice a little before his gig at Dr. Unks, downtown Greenville. Some of you havent' got to see him lately, so I thought I'd upload these.

 

Click to Visit His Page on MySpace

Ed, jamming out to something... I forgot what now.

Click to visit his page on MySpace

It's good to see ol' Ed. I miss hanging out with him on a more regular basis.

 

City Bistro: Tight Arse Tuesday (with Bill Agans)

I had the pleasure to hear my friend Bill Agans playing again last week at the City Hotel and Bistro in Greenville. Any of you MySpace locals who haven't had the chance to see him, should make time to do it. He's absolutely awesome. He's a one-man band that plays every instrument in all his songs, then lays the individual tracks down in the looper so he can play drums while he sings. This guy is plain awesome! You can check him out once a month at the City Bistro.

Santa Humor

Now THIS is funny!

 

I Really Wanna Wii, Please

 

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Wow... The Senate REALLY is Stupid! (Inflammatory)

Click to read this crap. Ok. You all know I prowl the net all night looking for anything to occupy my mind while I wait for sleep to take me. Tonight, I was glancing at the news headings down on the left side of this blog and I saw an article titled:  Senators Want More Protection For Social Networks, so I clicked on it to see what it said.

Now, I'm gonna paste the article here because I think it bears repeating, but you can always read it by clicking the link above. Here's the context of the article, in its entirety, so you know I'm not just picking on a portion of the article out of context.

U.S. Senators Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) want all registered sex offenders to submit their active e-mail addresses to law enforcement officials. (Good Idea. Not gonna happen, but good idea. How are you going to make them? Do they have to register all 47,642 email addresses, or just the one they plan to molest kids with?)

Under legislation to be introduced in January when the new 110th Congress convenes, any sex offender who submits a fraudulent e-mail address to authorities could face jail time. (Ok. I can't even begin to describe how asinine this comment is. It's like that plastic popcorn your TV came shipped with.. completely useless.)

The two senators said the bill would allow online companies such as social-networking sites to cross-check new members against a database of registered sex offenders to ensure that predators are unable to sign up for the service. (Which you just completely ruined ANY chance you had of this working the moment you publicized it, you idiot! You might have just as well told them you bugged their car with a gps tracker. Oooh that's smart. They'll just take the bus idiot!)

"Just like in our actual neighborhoods, sex offenders must themselves be known in our virtual neighborhoods as well," Schumer said in a joint statement with McCain. "Millions of teenagers log on to websites like MySpace and they shouldn't have to worry about running in to these predators online." (NO ONE HAS TO BE "KNOWN" IN A VIRTUAL NEIGHBORHOOD. THAT'S WHY THEY'RE VIRTUAL!!! *slap*) 

The announcement by Schumer and McCain comes just a day after MySpace said it is developing a database with Sentinel Tech that will collect the background information on 550,000 convicted sex offenders now listed in numerous individual state and federal databases. (Very good idea, but once again, you ruined their chance by publicizing it. The public should NOT have the right to know everything under the mask of journalistic freedom you constitution-waving moron. Some things just can't be protected if you tell the whole 180 BILLION PEOPLE BY PUTTING IT ONLINE IN A NEWS ARTICLE! I bet the guys at MySpace REALLY love you today, Roy!)

MySpace has been subject to criticism that it does not do enough to protect minors who members of its community. Earlier this year, MySpace instituted a number of membership changes, including limiting contact between users above 18 with those under 16. The social-networking site also made it possible for users to set their profiles to private, as well as make ads more age appropriate.  (No, the judicial system LET them come under fire by not throwing that case out on its ass the moment it came up in court!)

Both Schumer and McCain praised MySpace's efforts. (That's the only smart thing they've done so far that I can see.)

"[The bill] highlights our interest in working with the private sector to find innovative and effective approaches to stopping the exploitation of our nation's children both online and in the offline world," McCain said. (Let me explain something you don't seem to get. Let's say that in your best and wildest dreams, there are 1 million of you trying to protect people's safety online, and that's about ten thousand percent higher than you actually have, but I'm giving you the benefit of virtual firepower here. There are BILLIONS of others who are smarter than you that will hack past ANYTHING you can deliver in a matter of minutes. You will spend billions of dollars on projects like this and a fifteen year old whiz-kid with a graphics calculator will shred your security in minutes. Look at Microsoft. If ALL OF THE TEAM AT MICROSHAFT can't stop ten year olds from hacking the worlds' strongest encrypted operating system, what makes you think you stand a chance of protecting the nations' children online with a lame-ass program like this?)

Schumer added, "Sex offenders have no business joining social network communities -- especially those with teenage users -- and our legislation will keep them out."  (Your legislation isn't worth the rash I'd get wiping myself with it. Go back to the drawing board and find a way to keep them OFF the net. I know... smart ass. Why don't you just KILL PEOPLE WHO SCREW KIDS? HOW'S THAT FOR EFFIENCY? I'll make you a deal. You line up 1 million registered sex offenders, and I'll buy you the 1 million bullets. At the going rate, it would cost the US government less than twenty thousand dollars to put a bullet in each of their brains... hell, maybe less if you lined them up in a row and shot from the end.)

 

Can I stop and just ask these idiots exactly WHAT they know about the web? I applaud MySpace's efforts to protect minors, especially when they almost got sued because some sex offender used their web site to contact a minor. Ok, first off I have a big problem with that. MySpace is a portal site that connects users together. That's it. How true the information on the site may or may not be, is absolutely no responsibility of myspace.com. No idiot ever sued Yahoo when a sex offender used Yahoo messenger to communicate with a minor? How is what that guy did anymore the responsibility of myspace than any other portal provider? Does this mean I can:

  • Sue the phone company if someone harrasses a minor by a telephone number from the phone book?
  • Sue Google, Yahoo, AIM, MySpace, ICQ, Jabber, or any other messenger if someone contacts my underage daughter through their service?
  • Sue the mall where my daughter might get stalked by some sicko, just because they are a mall that creates a place for social interaction?

It's friggin' ludicrous!

Now, that wasn't even the point of my rant here. My actual rant is for the purpose of taking objection to the LAME ASS attempts to protect minors. Do you REALLY think that an already-convicted sex offender is going to just call everyone up and say "Hi, I'm a pedophile and I like boys! I just wanted you to know how to reach me via email. Thanks!" Hell no they're not! IF they are online and IF they want to pursue that particular avenue of disgusting.... stuff, they're certainly not going to do it with their own contact information. I could sit here for days and type out all the anonymous remailers and free web based email sites that exist specifically to allow people their privacy. Now, I'm not saying that the IDEA is bad. It's certainly not. Trying to crack down on sex offenders is certainly a great idea. However, they're going about it all wrong.

First off, you CAN NOT trace everyone online all the time. Anyone who wants to REALLY be sneaky just needs to go to the free wireless at a starbucks, barnes and nobles, etc and just pop on their internet connection for free to do their surfing instead of doing it from home. This means you can't trace their IP back to their home address or home connection.

Second, they're going to use a series of random, rotating, anonymous email addresses that they can dispose of easily within 30 seconds if they need to.

Third, they're going to be smart enough to use a web-proxy to mask the geographical IP idendity information.

So, gee whiz man, what do we do?

MONITOR YOUR DAMNED CHILDREN YOU FREAKIN IDIOT!

I have a ten year old daughter who I'm pretty sure can out-hack most grown adults. You have GOT to be smarter than your kids or at LEAST PAY SOMEONE WHO IS to monitor what they do online.

Even that has its drawbacks. If you take the above scenario and flip it over on the parent, now the child will be the one going to the mall to use the free internet because they can't do it at home because Mommy has locked down their browsing habits. They'll go to a friend's house, use their CELL PHONE BROWSERS, etc.

I'm not one to traditionally just blow up and legislation, but for God's sake, these people are running our country! Let me explain something to you people, and I'm not kidding when I say this. I had a ten year old the other day who knew better than ME how to crack the new encryption algorithms on microsoft's operating system to get past their "new" top of the line validation protocols. You think a motivated sex offender can't get at LEAST that much help? Hel, I got an idea; Let's hire a bunch of fourth graders to solve the problem and let you idiots get back to your pastrami on rye... your cappuccino is getting cold, Senator!

 

Jack Black is Back

Ok, so Let's agree not to hold Jack Black personally accountable for Nacho Libre, ok? Fair enough? The guy's a movie genius. And the good news? He's got another movie coming out. Seeing as I just spent half a year missing all the movies while I was overseas, I'm taking a personal interest in finding out what's out there right now to be seen.

I don't know all the details yet, but it looks like a metal version of School of Rock, except it stars the Devil, some demon lord, and a lot of guitar action. No, I have absolutely on idea what to expect, except that I'm sure I'll be able to get Todd to go see it with me because it has Tenacious D in it... lol.

I was reading the bio and saw that there's apparently another band called Trainwreck? Anyone besides me not know this? You think anyone ever told Adrian?

See interview except:

What’s the best thing your partner’s done away from you? JB: Trainwreck. KG: Trainwreck is my side-project band. The irony is that the bass player, the guitarist, and the lead singer are all part of our show. We just changed the drummer to make it look good. I’d say the thing that Jack is most proud of is Never Ending Story III. Obviously, everybody’s fond of Never Ending Story I. It’s like the Rocky movies; the odd ones are great! JB: In III they got back to the magic.

Anyway, Nacho Libre aside, the guy's as comically as good as they get so I'm adding it to my hollywood To-Do List for next year. I just want to see Jack Black in a devil's costume... just to get halloween inspiration. Dude, I could go "as" jack black "as" the devil... that's two levels of costume depth there? You think April would let me cut my goatee but keep the flavor saver?

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Sunday, December 10, 2006

Sunday: over and done.

Well, it's 10:58 PM Sunday evening and the day is almost done. I left out early this afternoon in the Jeep and drove down the highway to Marcus place on Mills road. We met out at the pond, just three guys hanging out with the dog and George Strait's "Heartland" playing on the radio. The afternoon progressed as expected, culminating in our complete childish amusement as pistol shots rang out into the afternoon air. It was a warm afternoon, perfect for spending outdoors, with the temperature dipping down to around 57 in the middle of the evening before turning cold for the night.

After our couple hours out at the pond we took a ride through the woods to visit a probable camp spot I might take advantage of here some day soon. It's a quiet little place back off the highway, behind a cotton field and down on the creek where no one will bother me much most any time of day. I briefly considered the idea of losing myself back there for the evening; setting up a camp chair and a bedroll down on a floor of leaves and starting a little camp fire. I actually wanted to use it as a place to write, or at least that was my thought as I stood there today, but it seemed unnatural to sit back in the woods with nature and then to violate the natural surroundings by breaking out my laptop, but we'll see as time goes on.

Later in the day I called Tim to give me a hand and went over to Bill's house. (By the way, Sassenach, he and Scarlette say hello.) Bill just bought a new 42" plasma TV and wanted me to install it for him. Not only did he not want it on the wall with the cable jack, he wanted it on the opposite wall, over the fireplace on the mantle, and wanted to wire up his surround sound without making the wiring visible. Well, needless to say, four hours later Tim and I had it mostly done. We ran the cable under the floor of the house and up on the other side of the room, mounted the plasma screen on the wall with the help of our handy-dandy laser level, which I at least used today, thereby vindicating myself of the guilt from purchasing it, and ran all the surround sound and audio/video cabling down through the mantlepiece and installed a new surround system.

Bill kindly repaid us for our time by taking us and our significant others (Thanks again Bill) to dinner at Logan's where I quite thoroughly devoured half the yeast rolls, most of the cheese fries, my salad, and most of the right side of a cow, while chasing all that down with three cokes. All in all it was a nice day.

I got to see good-ol-Brad tonight, who apparently reads this blog every couple of days just to keep in sync with what's going on, which I really appreciate by the way. It makes it worth it to know I have readers... lol. Otherwise, this would really be just me sitting here talking to myself day in and day out, which is kinda neurotic if you ask me. Now, based on Brad's consumption levels, he might not even remember seeing me there tonight. Maybe he'll read this sometime this week and say..."Dude. Did you know I saw Tommy last weekend? Yeah, I didn't know either.. but he told me on his blog." See, I perform a public service by detailing my life on here. I'll help Brad reconstruct his drunken evening. By the way, who were the hot girls with you again? *kidding*

Medical Discovery

Well, on the less positive note, I did discover something useful today. I've finally diagnosed what I think has been plaguing me for a year or two now. Most of you know I suffer from hives from time to time. Clinically it's called "Urticaria." Apparently 60% of males between ages 20 and 30 suffer from hives throughout some point in their lives. Well, after suffering from random issues with hives now for almost three years, I can tell you it's quite the pain in the.. well.. skin. (thought I was gonna say somethign else huh?)

The good news? I know what it is and that I'm not crazy. What I have is one of the more rare kinds, called chronic idiopathic urticaria. Broken down, this means that I've had them for six weeks and they have no apparent cause or cure. Actually I've had them for almost three years and for the first year I tried every remedy known to man; changing diets, shampoo, body wash, foods, vitamins, everything you can think of. What I found out was surprising, and pretty disturbing for someone who hasn't already gone through it before. Apparently, it's quite common for idiopathic hives to react to antihistamines or other drugs for a short time, before become immune to them. I went through this for two years before I gave up and just decided I was going to have to deal with them, which is what most people say is actually the trigger for making them cease... huh, imagine that. All the various tricks I tried made my body react to them accordingly, but the hives then became actuated to the new state of "normalcy" and were completely unphased by benadryl, or any other histamine blocker. Long story short; there's nothing you can do about them. That's why they're called idiopathic hives. Doctor's don't know what causes them.

More good news? They always go away, eventually. Their mean life span, the average, is about 9 years, but I hope I'm on the leeward side of that national average.. ugh. Six more years of them would drive me crazy. Specifically, what I suffer from the most is called cheiropomphylix which is simply hives on the hands and wrists. More acutely, I have an even more rare form of idiopathic hives called Delayed Pressure Urticaria (DPU), which is the part that really sucks.

Basically, when I work with my hands all day long doing something like pulling cable, or using a hammer, anything physically pressuring my hands, I am unable to close my fingers for the next two days because of the swelling (hives) that occur under my skin, down in the muscle. My fingers, palms, and the meat of my hands aches, not the joints, which is something that most drugs can't affect.

As bad as it sounds, it's much better to KNOW that I'm NOT nuts and NOT dying of some strange disease, lol. The good news is that the life span of DPU in a person is often much shorter than the rest of the hives. So not only do I have the rare form of hives, but I have a rare form of a rare form, and have both forms at once. But I know now eventually they'll go away and I'll be able to get back to normal, which is very good news to me.

I actually don't let them slow me down much now, but I do often suffer for it in the days following serious physical work with my hands or legs. It's funny. People wear knee pads to protect their knees. I can't wear knee pads because the presure on my skin from the straps causes the backs of my legs to get DPU hives down in the muscle, so I'm better off to have the bad knees because I can cure that with Advil and nothing cures the DPU pain for about three solid days. Tonight, when I got home from working at Bill's house, the pressure of my boot laces on my ankles made my ankles swell with what I guess I'll start referring to as the DPU ache... I need to think of a funny acronym for DPU that'll make me laugh when I think about it at night lying in bed unable to sleep. Hmm... "Dumb Pain Uncurable?" Ok.. my acronym's need work, I admit it. I'll think on it. Enough on the hives and DPU subject for now.

What else?

Well, it's 11:42 PM (42!!) and I'm sitting here drinking a fresh pot of coffee. Do I need to be drinking a fresh pot of coffee at almost midnight? Probably not. However, I have this internal regulator that helps me determine what's missing from my day to make it complete and satisfying. This is something I think most adults have, whether they know it or not. Tonight when I got home, my internal regulator told me I was missing something from my day, and more specifically that something was that little bit of joy I get from sipping on a hot cup of coffee while I sit here and write to you all, which has started to become quite the habit for me as of late.

So, here I am, cup in hand, banging away on the keys. Maybe I'll go research a new PPP post to make today. I've already made three that got approved, so I'm actually getting paid to blog! How cool is that, right? It's not a lot, maybe a few hundred bucks a month, but it's a few hundred bucks I dont have now, so why not?

Ok.. I'll see what's out there in the PPP world tonight and get back to you all again soon.

Till next time.

Feedback Requested: Blog Design

Anyone got any thoughts on the new design of the blog? Compliments, Critiques, Suggestions, things you'd like to see added? Leave comments please.

Sunday again already?

Looks like it's been another week in the life and times of everyone, gone by again in a blink. As some of you can tell, I've not gone back to Africa yet. When my trip was being planned this week, I laid some ground rules for the client to prevent me having to waste a lot of time over there. Apparently, they aren't sure they can meet those requirements, so the trip is being postponed for a couple days or possibly until the beginning of the year. See, I've learned a few things about that culture as a whole that are really interesting when compared to American business practices. For example, I was supposed to be there for tasks A, B, and C, but the client got it in their head that I would also do D, E, F, G, and other tasks while I was there and this got back to me. So, I pretty much stated exactly what I was going for, what transportation assest I required to do that job, and what timeframe I expected them done in. Then, I got the call.. lol.. "umm, they're saying they're not sure they can do that."

So, it looks like I'm back on schedule to do some client work this week, which is good too. I've got a lot of local work around Greenville and some in Virginia and Tennessee to get finished before the year's done, so maybe I'll have time to knock all that out.

Today, however, I plan to spend getting in touch with my masculine side. (ha). I'm going to get Todd and maybe Wess and go down to the pond with the boys to take them shooting this afternoon. It'sa hobby that serves absolutely no purpose except to improve my accuracy and vent a little stress. There's nothing quite like emptying a magazine of 165 grain .45 hollow point shells to relieve you of any stress you've got pent up.

Later in the afternoon, it looks like I'm going over to Bill's house to help him install his new 42 inch plasma TV on the wall. He has this unnatural fear of snakes, so he won't dare crawl under his house if his life depended on it, so I'm gonna help him move the cable wiring in the living room so it'll run up over the mantle.

That's about it for me today. With the exception of those agenda items and some possible guitar practice, that's about all I'm doing today.

Well, I hope you all enjoy your Sunday afternoon. Hope to hear from you soon.

Nasa has nothing on me...

(And you people think I just sit around and play on my computers all day)

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Installing Updates Without Using Windows Genuine Validation

Lots of you out there have asked me how to get past the issues created by Windows Genuine Validation, which seems to be the most annoying piece of software Microsoft has ever made. With nothing else to do today, I decided to give it a try. I actually DO have a valid copy of XP service Pack 2, so back off if you're a lawdog reading this.. so peddle your piracy crap somewhere else.

Contrary to popular belief, there are actual valid users who can't access new updates because of DLL issues, installation problems in the registry (which was my problem apparently) and other issues.

I did some Googling this morning and found the solution in about 30 seconds, which amazed me. I was trying to install Windows Media Player 11, just because I wanted to see what it does. I'm a dedicated Itunes boy now, but it never hurts to scope out the other programs out there. You never know what macroshaft will come up with next.

So, I found a program out there called muBlinder that fixes these annoying issues. All I did was run the program, and keep it running while I tried yet again to turn on media player. This time, instead of dying when it tried to check for validation, it worked smoothly! Ok. So far this program is 1 for 1.

A'ight, let's see what else this little puppy can do. While I still had it running, I downloaded the "blinder" file for Internet explorer 7. This file tells the computer that IE7 is allowed to be installed. It's a lot more complicated than that, but I'll leave it at that knowledge level for now.

Long story short; in less than 30 minutes, I've installed two programs that have been boggling me for the last three months. Viola! Now this program sits at a comfortable 2 for 2 with me. I'm actually admitting that I'm impressed. Great job guys!

So, if you're out there, and you're interested in getting the program, take a look at their site. And do Not email me for support... they have a site out there for that and you should have to go through the same headaches that I did if you want to reap the benefits.

The program is called, once again, muBlinder, and it's available from:

http://www.p2plife.com/forums/Official_muBlinder_Page-t320.html

Ok..now I'm going to work on my blog header... see ya again soon... except this time I'll have new graphics.