Kool Aid Served Daily

I spent most of the day either stripping branches, sawing branches/limbs, chainsawing limbs, moving wood, or helping others. I loaned our chainsaw to a neighbor, then we finished off most of 3 houses. The two neighbors had more damage (just a lost chunk of fence) than my house. I'll post some pictures of the wood collection soon.

Here is a picture of that truck from Tulsa Ice Storm images:

You can kinda see the crimp on the bed wall where it meets the driver's side of the cab.

Contrast that with the one down the street, which I saw after the limb had been removed. You can see the limbs here:

Here is a closer image:

And here is one from the side a bit - you can see that the probably took a chainsaw to the limb while it was on the cab. If you compare the two trucks, I bet if the limb on the first one had fallen 6 inches away, it would have crushed the cab as well. For the size of the limbs that came down there, both the house and the truck were lucky.

I don't think you can buy a chainsaw in Tulsa right now. But you can hear them all day. I know my son was proud at one point to tell a caller on the phone that his mother was slow to get there because she was too busy running a chainsaw.

Our house got hit lightly. My truck is even in better shape than some of those of my neighbors. I saw one which a limb fell on the cab.

Another neighbor also got off lightly - big limbs fell on his house and truck, but there was minor damage. (Note, I am not an insurance adjustor...)

You can see how the ice created a blanket on the large tree. Look in the lower right hand corner, that red is his truck. Look again and you can see the main limb on his truck. Go over to the middle right and you can see a main limb on his house.

You can see where the limbs split from the tree here:

And you can see the truck in more detail, so to say, here:

And finally, I got a nice juxtaposition between the individual branches and the split in the tree. I had some better compositions, but I had the camera on action shots, so they were not as nice:

It rained all night and it went below freezing. I had to scrape my windows before I went to get donuts this morning. And the Crispy Creme worker said it really hurt their business.

Anyway, my wife called me at about 4 and wanted me to meet her for dinner. I threw on a new TU hoodie and started off. I took I169 to avoid the holiday traffic. I was rounding the huge corner by 91st (right where it merges with the Creek Turnpike). I was in the lefthand lane. There were some cars ahead of me in the right and some behind me in both lanes.

Before the turn, you could see that there were emergency vehicles on the right side. As we got closer, we were slowing down. That wasn't enough for the person right ahead of me on the right. They decided to shift left, straight into my safe breaking zone. As they shifted, I started to slow. And that was when I realized we were on the overpass and the only patch of ice.

I spun into the left hand concrete barrier. I don't know which hit first, the front or back. I then ended up going across two lanes of traffic, missing every one of those cars. I pulled over to the right side, stopped the car, and got out. A guy in a truck asked me if I was okay. I don't think he was the driver who started to cut me off.

I said sure, looked at the back, the light and panel was hanging down. I couldn't get it back in. I went to the front, it just looked a little crooked. Well, I was also 5-10 feet behind a police car. The officer came over, asked me if I hit his patrol car, and I said no. I told him what happened and said I'd be on my way.

I got back in, started it (I should have checked for a gas leak first.) and figured out that the front end was jammed into the tire. I got out and there was no room. I told the cop, he asked me if I had Triple-A and if I wanted him to call a tow truck. I said, sure, if they can get here fast. He said Storey Wreckers were fast. Bzzt, he was wrong.

My cell phone's power ran out and I stood there for 45 minutes waiting on them and my wife. She showed up, wanted me to leave and I wouldn't. They had come and picked up the car which was there when I had my accident. She had to pick up her cousin (whom she had left at the restaurant). She left me her cell phone and I ended up calling my insurance company. 45 minutes later, still no wrecker, but I've finally got Farmer's to send me out a wrecker. They chose Allied, who quoted us 90 minutes and showed up in 15.

The truck is at the dealer and the rain is coming down harder. The roads will be bad in the morning.

The police always chose Storey. And this is the second time it has bitten my family. I'll pass on them from now on.

Also, I want to send a shout-out to that kind person who started to cut me off and didn't stop to check on me or admit to causing my accident.

I'd been busy replaying Half Life 2 and reading about Portal on UserFriendly and The Whiteboard. So, I caved and bought it. I wish I had known that before I got Half Life 2, Episode 2. Because I would have just got the Orange Box for $9 more.

Anyway, both games were great. I know some reviewers complain about the length, but I appreciate getting the content now and not 5 years from now. I also value the replay as being high. I've gone through Half Life 2 about 4 different times and enjoyed it each time.

In My son has computing needs, I finally admitted that my son needed his own computer. Well, we waited until school got out and the prospect of both my son and my wife being bored at the same time. I ended up ordering myself a new Dell 2007FPW and gave him the older Dell 1701FP. And then I also gave him wont.

That was the machine I built to do the articles in ;login on OpenSolaris and a NAS box. The needs of my family were greater than my needs for a lot of storage. The only downside of the box, as far as gaming goes, it that it has a PCI video card (still drives DVI) and not a PCI-Express one. It wasn't a matter of price, but more a matter of compatibility. The first card I got stopped the box from booting.

Anyway, I loaded WinXP on it and warned him I might need to take it back at some point. He promptly named it mega-monkey, which ought to tell me when I can get it back. He actually has the most powerful machine in the house. Well, the Sun w2100z is probably beefier, but I haven't rebooted it since the last large thunderstorm scare.

The box is now dead quiet, I finally put the side back on.

After a couple of days, I like the Dell 2007FPW better than the Dell 2005FPW. They have the same real estate, but I like the bezel better and the buttons are easier to use. Since they have the same functionality, perhaps I'm also just so used to them that a minor change (recessed and a tad bigger) makes a huge impression.

I'll blog elsewhere about my impression of using a Sun Ray 1G with it. My main beef right now is that I can't change the screen resolution, the server seems to give out only one offering. I'm going to investigate getting from 1280x1024 to 1680x1050.

I'm a Talent!

You're a risk-taker, and you follow your passions. You're determined to take on the world and succeed on your own terms. Whether in the arts, science, engineering, business, or politics, you fearlessly express your own vision of the world. You're not afraid of a fight, and you're not afraid to bet your future on your own abilities. If you find a job boring or stifling, you're already preparing your resume. You believe in doing what you love, and you're not willing to settle for an ordinary life.

Talent: 54%
Lifer: 23%
Mandarin: 54%

So my son finally got a computer game which was something I could so see myself getting - Star Wars: Empire at War. And my wife hasn't been able to get to her computer. The other factor is at some point he will want to start playing against me online - which means I'll need to get a second copy of the software.

I've been waiting for this for a couple of years, she finally asked me if the Monster needed his own computer. I laughed. She said it didn't have to be much. I laughed some more - it is for gaming, right?

When I bought my wife an EasyShare z740 for her birthday, I took him with me to Staples. He was looking and asked, "Who would pay $1000 for a camera?" I replied, "Someone who liked to take nice pictures." I then asked him, "Who would pay a $1000 for a new computer?" Without blinking, he said, "You Daddy!"

Now, I didn't pay $1000 on the camera and I wouldn't pay $1000 on a new computer for him. But my wife has some vision of me spending $200 on something for him and that won't do. New parts would kill me and the budget.

I also don't think she was considering where we will get a monitor. I refuse to give him an analog, or something much less than DVI. I don't want to be paying that back in glasses prescriptions.

You know you've been doing too much network configuration when you pick up the phone and start off with 192 and wonder where the '.' is. This almost happened to me - Tulsa is area code 918, so I got to '19' before I realized I was down the wrong path.

Here are some pictures of me and the Monster out enjoying the snow. It was the 3rd day and the top of the hill had melted. We had started to leave after playing for a bit, but Stacy showed up and made us have more fun.

Here is the Monster clearing a ramp:

Here is what happens when someone a bit heavier tries it:

Here is a full frontal of the Monster, I also like the black and white effect my wife applied later:

Finally, here are some of myself, standing tall and proud:

If you go to fluideffect, you can see some wonderful photo editing. Select 'portfolio', then 'agree', and then start with 'before/after'.

Honestly, I can't tell if they are adding fake 'realism' or touching things up. The William Petersen one is a good example of something I think they touched up. But when they move arms (see Tom Cruise) or remove flesh (see Nichole Richie), I suspend doubt. Perhaps that is just a sign of their skill.

By the way, I think the cowgirl is Jessica Biel. Hmm, look at her on the set of the "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre". Yes, it is she...

My wife took a recent photo of me. The glare and pores of it remind me of some of the before pictures (see the one of John Cusack). Which is in favor of the site being real.

All in all, a fun waste of some time.

My sister forwarded some more Cheney art:

and

:->

My wife sent me the lemon pictures via email. When I finally opened the page in my web mail browser, here is comment:

 How to save a picture
Simply right click on it and select "save image as."
Mac users, click and drag the image to your desktop.

What an endorsement for the Mac - every other OS is too complicated to save a picture.

I must admit I sometimes use the Web in ways I should not.

Here is a way I can use it for Good and here is how I can use it for Bad. I got adicted to these sites when I was leaving NetApp. Don't ask me why, I normally avoid E! and other tabloid publications.

I guess I got interested when Meg Ryan changed her looks. She was the classical Hollywood beauty and now she isn't. See for example this expose or this one. I wanted to watch her age naturally - there was every indication it would be graceful.

The Nikki Cox pictures are just as disturbing.

Well, I finally hit the big time with my blog - I made the cut onto 'Hot Blogs : Daily Hits' on Blogs.sun.com. I have evidence:

The astute reader will notice this is on my WinXP system I play Impossible Creatures on with my son. I have no clue how to get a screen dump on Solaris. :->

Here is a close up:

Note that I am almost the last on the list - kinda like the joke about what do you call the lowest graduate from medical school? Doctor. By the way, that reminds me, I'm not one of those guys who fixates on being called Doctor or who puts his PhD after his name on his business card. Some of the guys at Sun had known me for 4 years and it was only after I had to disclose my education on my resume that they found out I had higher education.

This was taken right after I started the 'Serialized Science Fiction' category, so I honestly do not think that made an impact. And checking the timestamp (12 straight up) and statcounter.com confirms that thought. My guess is that it was my entry on Reviewing 2nd Edition of Solaris Internals. Which tells me what I should be writing about if I want to score big. And here I thought revealing my mustard and purple passion was the key.

Now that I am famous, I'll need to work on getting a higher technorati.com score as shown here at my profile for 'Kool Aid Served Daily'.