Monday May 12, 2008 Weblog
Monday May 12, 2008 I'm strongly considering dropping my DSL modem as my cable has been rock solid for several years now. I don't really use the DSL at all any longer. Here are the results from a test this morning.
Joined the Wii nation this weekend.
My little guy turned 10 over the weekend and he and his sister, my daughter came to me with a proposal. They would kick in 50% of the price of the unit and I/we paid the rest. We were lucky enough to find a unit at the local GameStop, they held it for us for a few hours on Saturday (thanks).
What a blast it is to play the Wii... What fun! I think the scarity is brilliant.
( May 12 2008, 10:27:27 AM EDT ) Permalink Comments [2]
Friday May 09, 2008 I finally shipped the final items from the recent eBay spring cleaning. Amazing what some of the things went for... We cleared about $500 after all was said and done. Surprised how much shipping charges have gone up since the last big eBay jam we did. Trading my old stuff for other folks $$ is a great feeling.
( May 09 2008, 03:41:11 PM EDT ) Permalink Comments [0]
Thursday May 08, 2008 Book Review: 21:Bringing down the house, by Ben Mezrich
I needed a book to help me kill time on the flight to Orlando and back this week. 21 was just the answer. It was a fun fast read that could be put away when landing and picked up several days later and within a paragraph, I was right back in the book. My recent fun with Poker makes the book more meaningful. Highly recommended to anyone needing to kill 4-6 hours.
http://www.amazon.com/Bringing-Down-House-Students-Millions/dp/0743225708
( May 08 2008, 11:17:26 AM EDT ) Permalink Comments [0]
Tuesday May 06, 2008 There are dolphin encounters that can be pretty pricey, I have read about being in a shark tank which is also expensive, but that doesn't hold a candle to my run in, literally, with that damn turkey from my recent blog. Getting it checked out tomorrow, but worst case is a G. Not on the top of my list on ways to drop $1000. Oh well.
( May 06 2008, 09:41:57 PM EDT ) Permalink
Sunday May 04, 2008 The best boogboarding 40 year old there...
Yep, I am not the fastest, richest or best looking, but today, I was the best on the boogie board at the MassWaterPark in Harrisonburg. My son had his 10th bday, really not until next weekend, today with some great friends and his bonehead dad at the Water Park. I'm a big fan of the place and the bday party deal is awesome. $190 for 10 guest for 4 hours (which is plenty) and pizza/cake/drinks and $3 at the arcade. It was $38/person to get in otherwise, so this was a steal. The place was also really quiet today, so we got lots of time on the wavemachine.
Going to a business meeting in Norfolk this past Friday, and I ran into a turkey, or the turkey flew into my car, worse, my wife's car, as I was going about 75, err, 65 on the interstate. It was about 6:40am and with about 5 other cars and I spotted a turkey and clearly, he didn't see me. But the stupid bird didn't turn back and worse, flew at the last second, just in time to get up to my hood area and with a quick puff of feather, it was over. I didn't think it could have done the damage it did. An hour later I was getting gas and the person at the pump beside looked and said, "Dude, that sucks." I then went to check out the damage and he was right. I'm sure it will be $5 less than whatever my deductible is these days...
( May 04 2008, 10:07:34 PM EDT ) Permalink
Tuesday April 29, 2008 I spent most of the weekend doing "spring cleaning" type of activites. Keep in mind, I'm big time type A, so having a list and crossing stuff off the list is quite a nice feeling.
In the last few week, when picking out clothes for my kids, not a regular happening, I always find the shirt that doesn't fit and the "high water" jeans... So on rainy Sunday, we pulled all the clothes from the closet and only put back the items that fit. We lost like 1/3 to 1/2 of the clothes. A fair amount of them are now on eBay. We have more than 40 auctions running and will probably sell $500-$800 of stuff that still has life in it. Name brands like UnderArmour, Boden, Izod and Polo sell like crazy and thankfully my little one with all the cool threads is easy on her clothes. Seems that we get better than 50% of the price back on lots of items, so the next purchase isn't bad.
I could do a whole series on selling on eBay, but not today. If you have stuff to sell, first be a buyer. See what you like in a seller and what annoys you. Build up your feedback score, I'm well over 400 at this point and don't sell until you cross 10 or 20 positive feedbacks.
( Apr 29 2008, 01:53:30 PM EDT ) Permalink
Monday April 28, 2008 Which heals quicker: broken arm or cut on shin???
Depends if you are 7 or 40... The day before my little one broke her arm, I got a pretty bad cut on my shin while helping my wife coming in on her kayak in the waves at the beach. The next day, shorty broke her arm. Today she got the cast off and is more or less fine. 98% healed as her doctor described it. Yet my shin is still not 100%. I'm sure it is that I'm old and very little blood flows to the shin, so repairing itself is slow. Oh well. Getting old sucks. :)
( Apr 28 2008, 10:57:07 AM EDT ) Permalink
Monday April 21, 2008 4 cute kids - 3 human and 1 goat
My folks have a great farm with lots of petting zoo animals and a fun place to play around. They recently, 2 weeks ago, had 3 baby goats. They also have 25 sheep which were clipped this past thursday. In the picture are my kids and a little one's BFF and one of the female goats. We are expecting another goat mom to have more babies this week. I'm sure if that happens, we will be in the car again next weekend.
Wednesday April 16, 2008 Book review: Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
First, I have to say that I loved this book (written in 1997). I mention the date from 11 years ago, but I don't think that million years of humans on the earth has changed much in the past 11 years. This book had my attention on every page.
From Wikipedia - But the book is not merely an account of the past; it attempts to explain why Eurasian civilizations, as a whole, have survived and conquered others, while attempting to refute the belief that Eurasian hegemony is due to any form of Eurasian intellectual, genetic or moral superiority. Diamond argues that the gaps in power and technology between human societies do not reflect cultural or racial differences, but rather originate in environmental differences powerfully amplified by various positive feedback loops. He also, most explicitly in the epilogue, argues that societies with food surpluses and high-to-moderate degrees of interaction with outsiders are more likely to encourage great people to realize their full potential and to adopt new inventions. A major theme in the book is a fundamental difference between Eurasia and other landmasses being their main directional axes: Eurasia, comprised of Europe and Asia together (with north Africa often included as well by the author), is laid primarily over the west-east axis, while both the North America - South America landmass and Africa have north-south as the main axis. This, together with Eurasia's large area, results in much wider continuous ecological areas in Eurasia compared to other landmasses (see the Mediterranean climate areas for example). Therefore domesticated plants and animals and technology spread much faster in ancient times inside Eurasia compared to other landmasses.
If you like historical nonfiction and every wondered why things didn't turn out differently, this is a must read. It was a great airplane book or a "i'm sick and not getting out of bed this weekend" book.
( Apr 16 2008, 10:50:15 AM EDT ) Permalink
Tuesday April 01, 2008 Vacation Bounce Message for email...
1. I am currently out of the office at a job interview and will reply to you if I fail to get the position. Please be prepared for my mood.
2. You are receiving this automatic notification because I am out of the office. If I was in, chances are you wouldn't have received anything at all.
3. Sorry to have missed you, but I'm at the doctor's having my brain and heart removed so I can be promoted to our management team.
4. I will be unable to delete all the emails you send me until I return from vacation. Please be patient, and your mail will be deleted in the order it was received.
5. Thank you for your email. Your credit card has been charged $5.99 for the first 10 words and $1.99 for each additional word in your message.
6. The email server is unable to verify your server connection. Your message has not been delivered. Please restart your computer and try sending again. (The beauty of this is that when you return, you can see who did this over and over and over...)
7. Thank you for your message, which has been added to a queuing system. You are currently in 352nd place, and can expect to receive a reply in approximately 19 weeks.
8. Hi, I'm thinking about what you've just sent me. Please wait by your PC for my response.
9. I've run away to join a different circus.
10. I will be out of the office for the next two weeks for medical reasons. When I return, please refer to me as 'Lucille' instead of Steve.
Thanks to Art for sharing...
Setting my bounce tomorrow, wonder which I'll use...
( Apr 01 2008, 08:20:08 PM EDT ) Permalink
Monday March 31, 2008 That is catchy. I might re-brand my blog. I take part in a great health care benefit called a medical savings account where Sun and the IRS allow me to reduce my taxable income and set aside an amount to use for co-payments, deductibles, and other medical expenses (like glasses, chiro, dental, over the counter meds, etc). That is the great part, no complaining here.
The bad part is the HC Visa that Sun outsources to a third party. Instead of paying out of pocket, I use a special Visa card tied directly to my $$ set aside. Still not a bad option. Trouble is putting together the receipts and the report from the third party. I got a report a few days ago asking me to write a check or produce paperwork to justify some claims. I totally get that if I used the healthcare Visa at an office supply store or a greasy spoon diner, but I'm being ask to send in a receipt from Pediatric Assn of "my town". Same thing for Dr. Clark & Covert, Eye Surgeons...
As an former EDI geek in a previous life, I understand the amount of information available in point of sale systems and would imagine that running $15 on my HC Visa at my kids doctor (co-pay) should get passed to Sun's third party in a usable format to save me the bother...
Back to the report to show that my $227 for my new glasses wasn't online poker or something... Good Grief.
( Mar 31 2008, 03:41:05 PM EDT ) Permalink Comments [2]Comcast Cable DVR: the worst computing device in my house...
I rarely opening gripe about stuff. I privately bitch about stuff all the time, but not here...
I reboot and by that I mean unplug and wait 15 seconds and then provide electricity again about every other day. If using the remote and scrolling down too quickly in the list of recorded shows, when I go to play the selected show, it never comes back and freezes. If I wait it out, typically 5-7 minutes, the unit may reboot itself and restart.
I have two units and I just recently replaced one of them. The newer unit is no better. Apparently, I'm on a waiting list for a newer DVR unit.
If anyone has a great user experience with Comcast DVR's, please post a comment.
( Mar 31 2008, 10:05:15 AM EDT ) Permalink Comments [3]
Thursday March 27, 2008 Sledding without snow - my kids...
I thought this was pretty cool. My little ones are running around the house today due to some nut shooting at cars last night about 20 miles from my house... My kids get a lot of neighborhood smiles and grins from passing cars as they take a big plastic sled and cruise the mulch and grass. I think they are pretty smart to create this. Actually, my daughter is in front and her friend Sarah is in the back.
