Fo Frizzleday!
Wahoo! It's freaking Friday...and another week of work has gone on by. Plus it was payday, so Kels and I are planning on taking in a movie -- Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- this evening. I've read a few reviews and they rate from "fabulous" to "so-so; it just didn't do the book justice". Well, DUH! it's not the book...it's a Hollywood version. I'm going in with an open mind, hopeful that the movie does not completely turn my impression of one of the funniest tongue-in-cheek science-fiction satires of all time.
In addition to my excitement about going to see Hitchhiker's, I just found out about CAPE! -- Comic And Pop-Culture Expo occuring Saturday, May 7th, 2005 from 10AM - 6PM at Zeus Toys and Comics here in Dallas. Some of the best new comic book artists will be there, including Scott Kurtz. I love his strip PVP...
Anyway, must...get...back...to...work.
Dear Blogger...
I'm sorry I've neglected you. I've been busy the last couple of days at work. Plus, when I can I've been working on a mock-up of the Springfield YMCA for my sister Carolyn. She's the marketing/media person for the Y there in Springfield, MO and is looking for a revamp of the site. So far, it looks awesome. Carolyn provided me with an excellent layout document and I've taken it and added my touches to it. The current site looks like this; the new site will hopefully look like this.
I played hockey on Tuesday night with the Shifters, a playoff game. I was in net due to Mas (their regular 'tender) being out of the country. Sooooo, the game was intense. I got a penalty for roughing -- yes, goaltenders can do that -- and the game was amazing. We went into overtime, then one shootout, and another. They finally scored on the 9th shooter and that was it. I got beat blocker side, just over my shoulder. I was so disappointed. The summer session will start again soon -- April 30th in Frisco and May 8th in Plano.
Oh, I forgot to mention this the other day, but Kels is now officially no longer a teenager. Her birthday was on Saturday, but with all the family fun it was kind of overlooked. I took her out for dinner the other night (Buca di Beppo) and we had a good ole time. I'm taking her shopping tonight for "birthday clothes", so that should be fun.
Also picked up Guild Wars at lunch today. A bunch of the gang from Vagabond's Rest are playing it and it should be a fun supplement to my WoW time...
Trip pics
I've added a few of the pics from our weekend in Missouri to the Image Gallery (2005 April). Most of them are just random shots of us on our way to Missouri (mostly during Doogan's pit stops), running around Dad's house and our visit to mom's grave on Sunday.
Tuesday Blues
Despite going to bed relatively early last night (11pm), I'm still attempting to recover from the weekend. Kels made some delicious "crock pot beef stew" last night for dinner and afterwards I played some WoW. After I talked with my kids around 9pm, Kels and I got in bed and watched Moulin Rouge till we couldn't keep our eyes open any longer. I love that movie...
It's Tuesday today, all day. Hopefully I'll find the motivation to do something productive here at work.
Zzzzzzz....*blink blink*
When I was younger, the events of this weekend wouldn't have effected me as much as they do now. But, here I am on the worst day of the week (yes, I hate Mondays) realizing that despite having a fabulous weekend with my family and kids, I'm exhausted.
In total, I was in my car almost as much as I was awake and spending time with my family. It took about nine hours on Friday to get to my dad's house, but add in dinner with Carolyn and Amos, we didn't get to dad's until 2:30am. I woke at 6am on Saturday to the pitter-patter of little Doogan feet ready to go out for a potty break. I then drove to Springfield, IL (four more hours round-trip) to pick up my kids. On Sunday, I drove the kids back to Litchfield to meet their mom -- another 3 hours in the car. Then we left my mom's gravesite around 4:00pm and headed down the road. Fourty miles down the road we realized that we had left Carolyn's laptop. Dad met us in Stanton (24 miles back up the road)...and then we "officially" got on the road. It took almost ten hours to get home, arriving at 2:45am.
After all was said and done, I spent about 26 hours in the car, behind the wheel, attempting desperately to keep my eyelids open. I think I'm going to bed early tonight.
w00t -- it's Friday!
As you should be able to gather from my Unkymood (at the bottom of the navigation bar over there =>), I'm very excited about today. Why you ask? Well, first off I'm only working half a day. That should make me excited enough as it is. But wait! THERE'S MORE! The reason I'm taking a half-day today is because I'm driving to Missouri to see my family as well as my kids. I can't wait to see everyone, hang out at Dad's house and watch my kids and their cousins play with Doogan.
Despite the travel (a little over 9 hours), I plan on having a fulfilling weekend. I've arranged to swap for the kids tomorrow morning at 10am at the "half-way" point between my dad's place and Forsyth. I haven't seen the kids in over a month...and I miss them terribly. I can't wait for them to meet Doogan, they're gonna love him!
We're leaving around 1pm, swinging through Springfield, Missouri to pick up my baby sister (Carolyn) and then trekking the rest of the way tonight, as the sun starts to decend into the western sky. We'll probably not get there until late into the evening (or perhaps early morning) depending on how traffic is and how many "poop stops" we need to make for the critter...
Wish us luck!
Habemus papam!
"We have a Pope!" -- or something close to that.
 From Hitler Youth as a teenager to the papal throne...who'da thunk it!?!? Cardinal Ratzinger, served as a Hitler Youth ( mandatory of all German boys of age in 1941), but was released when he began training for the priesthood. In 1943, he was drafted into the army and served as an anti-aircraft gunner. In 1944, he deserted and was held by American troops as a prisoner of war. Pretty amazing story...
So what's in a name? It's all about ritual and tradition and the first thing that Cardinal Ratzinger had to do, was chose his name: Benedict XVI. It wasn't until 996 AD that it became a tradition when Bruno, the first Germanic pope, chose his name to be Gregory V. Prior to that, most of the priests elected to the papacy kept their original name -- Adeodatus, Formosus, Hyginus and Anastasius Bibliothecarius.
Benedict, which comes from the Latin for “blessing,” is one of a number of papal names of holy origin, and many believe the choice of name clearly signifies the role that the pope wishes to take in the papacy.
Monday Night Baseball
I almost completely forgot to mention this, but tonight is Monday Night Baseball! The league team that I play on in Plano got vouchers to the Texas Rangers v. Oakland A's tonight and Kels and I are going, along with a number of the guys from the team.
The game is at 7:05 tonight, and will be my first time at Ameriquest Field, the home of the Texas Rangers in Arlington. It's also my first time across town that far west. Heck, that's almost Fort Worth! The vouchers are for $22 seats, so they should be pretty good.
Go Rangers? :P
Monday again *sigh*
Gosh, I hate Mondays. It just arrives to completely cut off any weekend that I may have enjoyed, and I did a lot this weekend.
Saturday I woke up really early (read 3:45am) to tend to Doogan, who had what I would like to refer to as "the atomic $#!+$", a side-effect of the antibiotics he's on for his puppy bronchitis. So, that wasn't fun. But getting up that early gave me an opportunity to play WoW with Dave Burrus and level up my new toon on the Burning Legion server. We took Doogan to White Rock Lake Park to play, run and get picked up by the neck by a much larger dog at the dog park. Scared me, but he was unscathed. We also went to the Dallas Auto Show at the Convention Center downtown. It was not as exciting as the auto show I have attended in Chicago, but there were some cool vehicles -- I love concept cars! I had a hockey game in Frisco, which we won in a blowout -- 5-1. I remain undefeated...
Sunday, Kels had to work till 3pm, so Doogan and I just hung out at home. I played WoW, and when Kels arrived home we just layed around the apartment until my early game in Plano. What a wild game. I got hit in the face twice. The first in the forehead (right between the eyes) and the second in the mouth. We won...but it wasn't pretty.
It's Monday again. Grrr...
Master Leonardo
Today is Leonardo da Vinci's birthday. He was born in Anchiano near Vinci, Italy 553 years ago (1452 AD) and lived much of his childhood years in Florence. An illigetimate child, his father, Ser Piero da Vinci, was a young lawyer and his mother was likely a slave girl. He was a talented artist, architect, engineer, inventor, anatomy(although he liked to dabble more in the study of cadavers than the living) and science.
He is among my inspirations. In life, he lived hidden away from the public and was ridiculed by many for his 'strange' lifestyle. His sketches and notations, kept in notebooks that are now on display at museums around the world, display visions of the future, concepts far ahead of his time, as well as images and ideas of beauty and wonder.
Happy birthday, Master Leonardo!
Old friend
The other day I received an email from my buddy Dave Burrus, a grade school/high school chum of mine that was a member of the exclusive "Gamma Geeks". While our little group formed in 5th grade (1982) we weren't officially dubbed with the name until 1984, when Mrs. Mende allowed us to play RPGs like Gamma World (hence the name) during our study hall time. Dave joined us in 1983 when he moved to the area. Somehow, Dave was always the one picked on more than me. His means were meager, but he always had a smile on his face. Even when Rick Guehne relentlessly tormented his textbooks with pickles in high school, Dave was smiling and laughing along with us.
When we all graduated in '89, a majority of the "Geeks" went off to college. Wagoner, headed to New Mexico Tech to study Physics. Stough stayed in the area attending ECC then on to U of Missouri at Rolla for Engineering. I went off to Blackburn to pursue History/Pre-law. Dave saw his opportunity serving our country and shipped out with the US Navy. He's somehow involved in nuclear technology and is in Hawaii now. The best part about friends like Dave is the ability to -- after so many years -- just pick up where we left off.
He's playing WoW as well (a lot more than me). I started a toon on the server he's playing on, so we can play together. The time difference will make it difficult during the week (he's 5 hours behind me), but we'll have a chance on the weekends to hook up.
Hump Day *sigh*
So I'm playing World of Warcraft (WoW) last night with some of the gang from Vagabond's Rest (Taka, Demiglot and Taka's brother) when Taka's brother announces he's finishing up a quest called Demon Seed. At about the same time, Kels says, "Hey Scott, did you hear Brittney Spears is pregnant?"
Coincidence? I think not!
Today is Wednesday -- aka Hump Day -- and right now I'm riding the downhill slope...just waiting for work to be over so I can go home and not think about work for the next 12-14 hours. There are days when I really love what I do. Still, there are days where I wish I did something else. What, I'm not quite sure. But it wouldn't involve using so much of my brain...
Woah!
Argh! I nearly fainted when Brandy at the State Farm agency nearest to my apartment told me the price for insurance -- $1004.46 every 6 months!
That's two cars (my 2004 Mazda 6 and my 1998 Honda Civic) as well as renter's insurance for the apartment -- just in case. And that's almost $600 more per year than what I paid in Illinois or Missouri. Why so much? Lucky for me -- and every other hard-working person -- the state of Texas boasts one of the highest rates of uninsured/underinsured motorists in the United States. So I get to pay for Joe Dirt's insurance...*sigh* You gotta love the system!
In other news...
oh nevermind.
DDay + 3
Yes, it's Doogan Day + 3 and things are progressing well with the pup. He's still had a couple of accidents, but he's getting better at cluing us in to when he needs to go. You can pretty much watch his erratic behavior and tell -- the dog has to go! Last night, he went to bed with Kels when she went to bed, and slept with her till I showed up around 2:30am (yes...I played WoW till 2:30am). Then I moved him to his bed, where he stayed the remainder of the night/morning.
One thing that has me concerned, is the hacking cough that he has. Initially, I thought he had something caught in his throat (the pup chews on everything!), but it wasn't ever clearing. The cough has not improved and so I did a little online research and think I may have found the problem.
Apparently, some pups that undergo stresses (like transport, shipping, long-term kenneling) will develop tracheobronchitis -- also known as "kennel cough" -- brought on by a viral infection (Bordetella bronchiseptica). It really can't be treated unless it shows signs of moving on to other respiratory issues. We can give him an oral cough suppressant to alleviate the cough, but we basically have to let it run its course and make sure it doesn't run for more than 10 days. In extreme cases, antibiotics can be administered. If it does or the coughing worsens, it's vet time...
Puppy in a puddle
So, Kels got home from work around noon today and found Doogan in a puddle. Of what -- I dare not explain -- use your imagination. Needless to say, Doogan took his first bath today and the following are a series of pictures from today's "Life with Doogan" file:
I added a couple more pics to the Image Gallery, including a whole section called "Puppy Pics". Here are a couple of those:
Enter Doogan...
This weekend was pretty busy, I hardly played WoW because of the arrival of our new puppy -- Doogan!
Friday night, Kels and I went to Studio Movie Grill in Addison to see Sahara -- an action/adventure/comedy based on the Clive Cussler book of the same title. I was pleasantly surprised, mainly because reviews had panned the movie. I suppose that's why I enjoyed it so much, going in with no expectations helps. The story was not only intriguing -- involving archaeology, Civil War history & mystery, good action scenes and medical drama -- but the comedy was really good. Dirk Pitt (Matthew McConaughey) & Al Giordino (Steve Zahn) are treasure-hunter/explorers searching for a mysterious Civil War "ironclad" that disappeared with a secret treasure. Zahn is hilarious, McConaughey is believable as a leading man/action hero. The only thing that lacked was the character of Eva Rojas (Penélope Cruz). I just can't stand her acting -- or lack thereof. We got home around 11ish and decided to turn in...
Saturday we woke, excited about driving nearly four hours to Muskogee, OK to pick up our new puppy. We arrived early and waited on the breeder to arrive with the little fella. When she got there we were so pleased. The pup was just too cute for words. Kels grabbed him up and held him the whole time. Sherli gave us all the pup's paperwork, we made the exchange and headed home. Driving south we stopped a few times for "poop stops", but our nervous little passenger wasn't interested in that. He just ran around, tripping over his feet and making us laugh. We got home around 4pm and got Doogan acclimated to the neighborhood and our apartment. He settled right in and promptly whizzed on the carpet... *sigh* Kels and Doogan went to my hockey game in Frisco, where we won (6-1) in a trouncing.
Sunday Kels had to work in the morning, so Doogan and I just hung out. Around 10:30am, we visited Kels at work and then I did some running around (hockey gear switch, supplies for the pup and an oil change). Doogan stayed home, pinned in the kitchen (or so I thought). When I got home, he was barking furiously at the window. Silly pup! Kels got home and we went for a walk, grabbing dinner at Oliver's. We all took a nap and woke in time to get ready to go to my game in Plano. We lost in overtime...grrr.
I'll have pics of Doogan up this afternoon once Kels gets home from work...he's soooooo cute!
So it's Friday...
Yes, it's Friday all day. I'm busy at work, busy with life, all in all -- I'm busy. I've been that way for years though, and I'm finding as I get older, I want to occassionally slow down and reflect some. But I never seem to have the time. The life of an over-achiever, I suppose.
While working today on "real" work stuff, I also worked on the old VR site (just here on my local machine getting it operational, connected to my local SQL Server and modding it accordingly), I rewired this blog a bit to get the Atom/XML/RSS feed working properly for users of RSS Newsreaders. I've stayed away from XML as much as I could in my programming lifestyle, but every time I have played with it I'm just amazed at it's extensibility -- hence the name, I suppose.
Anyway...users of readers like RSSOwl can now grab the RSS/XML feed for this site and read it, if they so desire. Technology is just friggin amazing, isn't it?
But there will always be Fridays...
The return of "the Rest"
In March 2002, my buddies Randy Varnell (whom I now carpool with to work daily), Brian Huff and I, started on a little community-building project centered around the MMORPG game that was planned to be released by Sony Online Entertainment. The game, Star Wars Galaxies (hereafter known as "SWG") was going to be the backdrop for the utopian-like city of our dreams -- Vagabond's Rest. Randy, being the "feature-driven" meglomaniac that he is, put together a twelve-page requirements document for me and I started coding the website to encompass all of the stuff that we wanted for our city.
Several months and many sleepless nights later, vagabondsrest.com, emerged. It incorporated my own clanky forums software (hand written and based loosely on a number of forums that I liked), business, user and character profiling system, voting and government simulation system, the works. It was a game for us, attempting to guesstimate what SOE would do in-game that was similar to our systems at VR -- or would atleast complement them.
Ultimately, we built a city or better yet, a community, outside a game that we new very little about. Vagabond's Rest was a success months before the release of SWG to the masses. We had ties to a thousand very interested and focused players, a conduit to the developers and a reason to be heard. Plus, we were writing some great fan fiction in the move from our characters in Anarchy Online (AO) to the universe of SWG. When the game released in June 2003, we had already been a community for a year. The game, was lackluster and we quickly learned that the mechanics of the game didn't play well with the mechanics of our "city plan". Turmoil, in-fighting and rivalry insued. The Founders had lost interest in the utopia we had once invisioned. Then the website was hacked from the "inside" and we were forced to shut it down.
VR died abruptly. I didn't look at the code again until today when Brian sent me the last backup copy he had made of the site and its plethora of data. I'm happy to say that I am working to restore the site to its former granduer, mostly as a museum peice, but also to see the amazing work we churned out in a just a few months.
Welcome back baby!
When are you gonna?
So I was fumbling through other people's blogs again today. I'm just amazed at all the right-wingers bashing left-wingers (and vice versa), "Christians" bashing gays, everybody bashing Michael Jackson and of course -- photoblogs!
There are some really great blogs out there by relatively normal people. There are also some absolute fanatics (in good ways and bad) out there. But that's the beauty of blogging. Everyone can do it and we can pretty much say what we want, state our opinion of things and not have to catch hell from anyone for it. It's also a pretty nice way to escape and just write...
After all is said and done, these blogs will just fade away, like humanity will. So it's nice to see links like the When will you die? quiz at NerdTests.com.
I took the quiz, and thank goodness I will meet my demise at the ripe ole age of 75! I thought for sure I was doomed! :P
A puppy in our future?
Yesterday, for no apparent reason at all, I realized that it's time for Kels and I to get a puppy. Mind you, I've been pretty adamant about not getting another pet after having "Cinderelly" and giving her to one of the girls at Starbucks. I'm just not a cat person. Never really have been. I've always had dogs around throughout my life. From Pepe, the little feisty cihuahua (my first remembrance of a dog) to all the black Laborador Retrievers we had around the house growing up. Kels wants a puppy pretty badly and I'd love to have one -- even if I act like I don't.
So, with much excitement, kind of spurred on by seeing the blog of one of my online acquaintances, Nick Diaz and his dog Shakkan, I went hunting for a pup. Kels and I have agreed on a few breeds -- something mid-sized, energetic but not too nuts, fun-loving and intelligent. We settled on terriers (ie Jack Russells, Rat, etc). I looked at online Dallas-area kennels, pounds and breeders, but found nothing that fit our requirements.
Kels then sent me a link to PuppyFind.com and that's when I found him -- he's as cute as a button! So...we called the breeder, who put us in touch with the owner and we're going this Saturday to look at him. And she only wants $175 for him! I'm so excited!
Taxes...grrr
I finally did my taxes this weekend, and while I'm getting money back from federal as well as state (Illinois and Missouri), I'm still in a daze over the time it took to actually do them.
Initially, I was going to TurboTax® my returns, until I saw all the catches involved. Why in the heck should I pay $39.99 just to buy the software? So I did them the old fashioned way. With calculator, pen, W-2s, 1099s and several copies of the US 1040, Schedule A and Schedule C (printed off from the IRS website), I went to work figuring up how much the government owed me from their coffers. Four hours later -- I was done...and everyone owes me money! And even though I'm getting money back, I'm still frazzled about how taxation works and how utterly complicated tax laws are. Such is life...
As Joel Fox once said -- "Nothing is certain but death and taxes. Of the two, taxes happen annually." I'd like to add to that quote and state -- "And after you've done the latter, you feel like you'd rather have the former."
I'll probably e-file my federal return, just to get it in and the money back sooner, but the state returns will go in the mail today, and I'll get THAT off my chest for another year. *sigh*
April Fool's Day 2005
There were a ton of really good April Fool's Day jokes/parodies/etc out on the web today. Of the plethora of gags, the following were my personal favorites:
- ThinkGeek -- introduced a number of products on their home page that were just fabulous! From the Executive PONG Set to the SkyTag™ - Green Laser Aircraft Tracker -- all great tech gifts.
- Google -- introduces Google Gulp (BETA)™ a line of "smart drinks" designed to maximize your surfing efficiency by making you more intelligent, and less thirsty.
- World of Warcraft's developer Blizzard, pokes fun at Sony and EverQuest2's /pizza command by announcing the /panda command to order Panda Express Chinese from in-game! hehe
- Somebody put'em together! Ahhhhh! Yahoo! and Google search capabilites with Yagoohoogle!
These are just a few of the many good ones. For a list of the best AFD 2005 gags, click here...
A mother's letter
Kelsey was doing more "spring cleaning" around the apartment yesterday on her day off. Part of her plan was to tackle the mess that is our storage closet, very close to the office nook/sunroom. I had, for atleast a week, stalled her progress with claims that I wanted to be involved, but she finally got tired of waiting on me. It was a pile of papers, storage boxes and rubbermaid containers -- until yesterday. One of the best attributes that Kelsey has is her affinity for organization. I may get terse with her when I can't find something after she's moved the piles of stuff off my desk, but in reality I love the fact that she wants to keep the place clean, organized and functioning. Plus she's cute when she does it...
So, while Kels was going through some of my "keepsakes" she ran across a letter that my mom had written me and tucked into my 30th birthday card. She read it, cried and told me about finding it. I recalled it vaguely, but would soon realize how important it was to me when I got home.
I had all but forgotten about the one-page letter, typed and printed out in a flowing scripty font very similar to my mom's own handwriting. It is the kind of letter any son would be elated to get from his mom, relating a story about the day thirty years prior that the son arrived in the world. Then it continued with flattery of the motherly type -- a mother showing pride in her first-born and his decisions. It was the last few sentences of the letter that really hit home -- with references to mortality and the importance of spending as much time with one another as possible.
My mom, whom I knew almost as long as my father did, died on Saturday, April 24th, 2004, after fighting ovarian cancer and its complications. It was then that I realized, she had written this letter three years before. She understood her mortality despite the fact that her children thought of her as everlasting. She was the best thing that could ever happen to a child...and I miss her dearly.
If I never thanked you for that letter mom...now's as good a time as any.
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