my socks are not flame retardant

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This Morning
Hard day ahead.

More Stupidity!

How NOT to launch fireworks

Thanks to Terreus for the link!

Whowah!

The Superficial notes: It's about time somebody recognized the underrated sport of lollipop surfing...

Stupid Decisions

Dear Abby, I let my 16-year-old daughter attend a frat party where something bad happened.

Technology: McDonald's Outsources Drive-thru

"Do you want fries with that? Btw, it's snowing here. How's the weather at your McDonald's?"

The order taker is in a call center in Colorado Springs, more than 900 miles, or 1,450 kilometers, away, connected to the customer and to the workers preparing the food by high-speed data lines.

Anyone see India perk up? "I am thinking sthis is a vnew market!"

Technology: Real Time Airport Information

Air Traffic Control System Command Center from the FAA.

Airports America provides a searchable listing of every active airport in the United States.

Whether you're a pilot, tourist, or business traveler, you can use this comprehensive list of airports to plan out the fastest way to reach your destination.

(Note its made with ColdFusion!)

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This Morning
I finally feel like I'm getting back on the right track. I'm focused on producing income for the family and results for the clients. I'm putting do-it-yourself on the back burner and allowing the house and the vehicles to fall further into decline instead to earn money to have others fix the issues.

The cash flow still isn't where I wanted it to be by this point so I'm going to be really strung out over Christmas.

I also feel like I'm still walking a tightrope as several things (jobs, vehicles, teeth, etc) stand the potential for collapsing at any moment.

Ready Aim...

My posts usually don't come anywhere close to the quality of Very Mom's Garlic Shooting Vagina (certainly a novel approach to fending off vampires and husbands). I feel the need to slip into bathroom discussion.

For those of you that may not know this, boys pee standing up but they don't have to. Girls pee sitting down but they don't have to. (Device Free method)

Today I chose to stand. Now, speaking of pee I've been trying hard these past few days to convince the dog to use the grass instead of the hardwoods. Finally out of her cage she was feeling playful and carrying her tennis ball around to solicit a game of fetch.

I should mention one of the benefits of peeing while standing and public restrooms is the flies, cockroaches and other various moving targets that make it into the urinals. As a matter of fact, as a child my family would frequent a particular grocery store that had toys in the urinals which as liquid was applied would spin and land on horoscope type quotes or points.

Today my target rapidly became a tennis ball. First reaction wanted to be anger but came out as laughter. Second reaction was to question if I could flush that. Third was "do I wash it off?" And final reaction, after finishing my target practice, was to reach in, throw it away and wash thoroughly.

In other tabloid sex news..

EIGHT in ten women use sex — or the promise of it — to keep partners in line.

Well duh!

Tabloid warning! Article taken from The Sun

The Downside to Sex with Twins

And all this time I thought sex with twins was a male fantasy...

It is a paternity suit that not even DNA testing can solve. A five-year-old boy may never know his father's identity because his mother claims she had sex with identical twins at the time he was conceived.

Tabloid warning! Article from The Guardian

Technical Issues

So last night I finally went to bed after becoming seriously frustrated. I started to get my head around this object oriented undocumented mess and decided to create some hardcopy documentation but suddenly I could print without locking up ColdFusion Studio. Even notepad refused to print.

So I woke up thinking everything would be fine after a good reboot but still nothing would print. Finally I put some paper in the printer and everything worked out fine.

The Curse of Tecumseh

(The Curse of Tecumseh) see also

So Reagan got shot but didn't actually die. Did this count? Or did he break the curse? Certainly there was no attempt on GW Bush during his first 4 years as the curse would have implied. So, does an article in today's Knoxville News Sentinel explain that the curse has indeed happened to GW Bush?

Colombia: Rebels sought Bush assassination attempt
Colombia's main rebel group asked followers to mount an assassination attempt against President Bush during his visit to Colombia last week, Defense Minister Jorge Uribe said. There was no evidence Saturday that rebels even tried to organize such an attack. Uribe told reporters late Friday that informants said the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia told followers to attack Bush during his four-hour visit last Monday to Cartagena, where he met with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.

Well, this article may not answer The Curse of Tecumseh question but it certainly tells us that Target is not GW's supplier--looks like he goes straight to the source! (Source of joke: three independent sources close to the Bush family report that Governor Bush was arrested in 1972 for cocaine possession)

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This Morning
Yikes! The holiday weekend is over. I'd planned 4 days of intensive programming. Where'd it go?! On the positive side it has been a great 4 days. I feel destressed and vibrant but let's see how the rest of this day goes. I am also getting my head around this Object Oriented PHP but more on that later.

Today I have programming, dog school and more programming.

Local supplier giving you bad weed? Go to Target!

Target beats Walmart to the punch as first retailer to offer marijuana. I'm sure this link won't hang around long and some Target IT person is sure to be on the chopping block. For prosperity I've save the HTML just for giggles but probably won't put it up for fear of lawsuit. Before it is implied, no this is not done with photoshop. It is actually on Target's real website.
If pot is not your thing, try some crack
Got the munchies? Here's a cookbook.
There are two sexual related Target links but I'll let you find those on your own. 
Links to other pictures:

• Marijuana Cookbook
• Unholy Handjob
• Crack
• Anal Cabaret

Book Recommendation Solicited

I need a good PHP reference. Suggestions?

Argh the frustration!

I can understand software developers becoming schizophrenic and affected with multiple personality disorders. We often have people attacking us for blame or "why doesn't this do that?" and then we have such conflicting rules in our lives like "meet the impossible deadline but don't neglect the documentation or quality." One of my favorite quality assurance quotes is "9 women can't make a baby in 1 month."

My roots are in software quality assurance but I'm basically a developer now. I know why and how to document software but we all know that often budget ($) and time just don't allow for the documentation and correct coding.

But it's so infuriating when you have to take on a project that is undocumented and obfuscated! I'm on what should be a simple simple project but the previous developer went 'include happy' (that is, writing 5-25 lines of code in one file and including it in another but not reusing it anywhere else) and tried to write this object oriented. This project did not deem the need for object oriented code. I'm about to pull my hair out.

Amy Sings - 0:31

I tried to get Sarah to join do a song but she clammed up. "Dad you're so embarassing!"

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This Morning
Woke this morning, added wood to the fire, lost the battle with the puppy on housebreaking (it's going to take 3 concentrated days of effort) and decided to settle on some programming. Allowed myself to get lost in some blogging. I've been wanting to do a followup post to Spy Journal Blog Tips "How do I change my cursor?" and succeeded in posting "Styling the Cursor". Now I can settle in for a long day of programming.

I love this time of year!

I went out last night around midnight in jeans and no shirt to collect kindling for the fire. The air was crisp. The sky cloudless and the moon full or nearly full. I stood on the stump 2.5 feet of what was once a tree that must have stood 100 feet tall--that is until I climbed it and cut it down. Now there is a small clearing in my yard where I can stare up at the moon and see the leafless trees around me reaching up toward the sky as if they were placing the stars on the sky as decorations. There is a chill in the air but I am not cold. Nature's energy abounds and brings serenity. The ground glows in the moon light and man's modern contraptions and technologies seems unusual silent tonight. Nature itself is peaceful. Few dogs bark. The coons are not shuffling about. The hoot owl is silent and there is no drone of crickets. I breath in deeply through my nose and stare up at the moon to break the still air with a hushed "hello mother!" What a beautiful night.

Tonight is the same and I had to sit on the retaining wall of the driveway and simply enjoy and revel in nature's beauty. I would enjoy a backwoods camping trip right now.

C-SPAN Shows Boobs!

You heard right! On the Briefing on MediaWise Video Game Report Card (Nov 23) Unfortunately C-SPAN only keeps the video archive up for 15 days. It's an hour long and exceptionally presented. The discussion is about how to keep "immoral" and violent video games out of our children's hands. Although I do not agree with all their points, the speakers deliver their message very well. We have all been faced with our children asking to play Grand Theft Auto and we can deny them but what happens when their are at their friend's house? It is up to us as parents to instill a sense of right and wrong in our children, an understanding of reality versus pretend, and to openly discuss with our children what we want them to do or not do with the choices we can expect them to need to make (games, sex, shoplifting, drugs, laws and so on). I enjoyed hearing David Walsh speak.
Click here for a screenshot (not work safe---well, it was on C-SPAN) Fleshbot has other screen grabs.

Thanks to BoingBoing for leading us here.

The Guy Game

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This Morning
Woke cold. I'd let the fire die down but we still had enough coals for me to get it roaring again. The dog and I will do battle today and try to begin teaching her to go outside. I am now the only person in the house trying to train her and I haven't put the right amount of time into her training so I will try to sqeeze in some training. I will try to work in some work on 3 different projects. At some time I need to go drywall this weekend as well as make repairs on my own house.

Gooble Gooble

Well we all went over to the inlaws and had a Thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat then we headed over to the dump but the dump was closed it being Thanksgiving...whoever heard of a dump closed on Thanksgiving...so we headed back to our house which closely resembles the dump.

We had a calm and relaxing Thanksgiving Day with the exception of Cathy's grandmother falling, splitting her head open, getting 7 stitches, MRIs and CAT scans. Oh, our appliance curse followed us to the inlaws as their gas heater started making a peculiar sound and vented a lot of heat to the outside. We played Aggravation , Pokeno, built card houses and had a blast!
  

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This Morning
Woke up feeling a bit anxious but calmed.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today I am thankful for:

• all the small miracles that keep my family functioning
• for my children and child to be
• for my wonderful wife
• the strange ways the bills get paid
• the reminders about the truly important things
• my parents and the values they instilled within me
• the winning lottery ticket I'm holding but have yet to check
• the cold front coming through and not being terribly cold
• Bush's term is one day closer to finished

What a day

Started my day off with phone calls to prepare for my 2 hour phone call then followed it up with some more phone calls then called State Farm to see if a replacement heat pump could be amortized as part of the home owner's insurance and they said to call KUB for that service plus gave me a phone number for a great heating and air person so I called him then when the tree down the street fell across the road I made 3 more phone calls (one with a 35 minute hold time..fortunely they had a 'leave a msg/get a call back' service) to County Roads (fast response!), Comcast, and BellSouth and followed up with a phone call to the heating and air person to warn him the street was blocked. Some phone calls paid off and the road was quickly cleared and lines retensioned. Heating and air person showed up and said he couldn't buy the part needed until next week. Took a break to take the wife, Noah and Amy grocery shopping and during our shopping I took another 20 minute business call. Went into Walmart with Noah came out without him?! (Grandfather came and took him for the evening) Came home. Had dinner. Power napped and now prepare to work some more.

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This Morning
I missed all my goals yesterday. Unbelieveable! Today is going to be similarly crappy. Everything needs to be completed by lunch because after lunch there is going to be chaos and panic in this house. Oh. And I have a 2 hour meeting from 9am-11am. The tension level will go through the roof as panic over lack of groceries ensues.

Big Brother Attacks

Rather to Resign 'CBS Evening News' Post

Dan Rather, whose nearly 24-year tenure as anchor of the "CBS Evening News" was clouded by a recent questionable report on President Bush's National Guard service, said Tuesday he will step down in March.

It's the new world order folks. Say anything bad about your leaders (no matter how truthful) and the thought police will screw with your life. It'll start with the IRS or your employer and get uglier from there!

Grow that baby's mind!

MSN has a nice article titled "20 Ways to Boost Your Baby's Brain Power" You'll be surprised by the power of these easy, everyday moves. By Alice Sterling Honig, Ph.D.
The list:

1. Give your baby a physically healthy start before he is born.
2. Have meaningful conversations.
3. Play games that involve the hands (patty-cake, peekaboo, this little piggy).
4. Be attentive.
5. Foster an early passion for books.
6. Use diaper time to build your baby's emotional feelings of having a "lovable body."
7. Choose developmentally appropriate toys that allow babies to explore and interact.
8. Respond promptly when your baby cries.
9. Build trust by being attentive and focused.
10. Use body massage to decrease your infant's stress and enhance her feelings of well-being and emotional security.
11. Enlist help from your toddler at clean-up times -- a good way to practice categorization.
12. Set up a safe environment for your crawling baby or toddler.
13. Sing songs such as "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Ring-Around-the-Rosy."
14. Match your tempo to your child's temperament.
15. Make meals and rest times positive.
16. Provide clear responses to your baby's actions.
17. Use positive discipline.
18. Model empathic feelings for others.
19. Arrange supervised play with messy materials, such as water, sand, and even mud.
20. Express joy and interest in your baby.

For more details read Alice Sterling Honig's full article

Economy Upturn?

Perhaps the economy is improving or perhaps business is just saying "let's get on with it" but I'm getting good phones. Yesterday I received a call for a ColdFusion contract in Florida. No details yet.

Product Endorsement

ARM & HAMMER® Super Puppy Pads I found them at Target. I can't seem to find these online. These pads works so much better than newspaper! Let mess. Less smell. Scented to encourage the puppy. The only problem I have with them is that they are intended for "puppies" and our puppy doesn't match that definition. The pads are 22.5" x 22.5" so we use two at each of Molly's 4 favorite spots. The website mentions a "ARM & HAMMER® Home Alone Pads". Perhaps that is what we need instead.

If you are trying to house break a puppy, I highly recommend this product!

New graphics for your blog?

Looking for some quick, nice imagery for your blog? I recommend gifART. I have used their work on brochures and websites and give them a great recommendation.

I am an affiliate so if you sign-up please do so by clicking the image above. Thanks!

You can also use them for Christmas/Seasonal imagery.

A New Day!

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This Morning
I laid down last night for "a couple of hours" and woke at 3:30 this morning to Amy hollering for her "lion." I gave her a stuffed bear and took a bath. At the end of my bath I heard a little more chatter from her but then she faded back to sleep.

There is a very pleasant rain right now. It is nice to listen to while programming. Of course, the negative side to the rain is in getting to puppy to do her business outside.

Status

The day ended up being fairly stress free and productive. None the less, I am ready for a break.

RIP

Today we put to rest two technologies, one 67 years old and the other came to exist, majorly altered your life, and died all within your lifetime.

Rest in peace VHS

In a move that marks the beginning of the end for a hugely successful chapter in technology history, Britain's biggest high street electronics retailer Dixons has announced that it's taking VCRs off its shelves for good.

Kodak projector, 67, slides into history Kaachingk Clang "And this is little Doug feeding the sea gulls on the ferry..." *laughter* "Oops. Slide is upside down." Who can forget the whir of the fan, the hot air blowing, the clunky noises and that distinct smell of a slide presentation. This looks like the one I grew up using.

The Eastman Kodak slide projector, that magical box of light and lens that turned snapshots into tools of family bonding, passed into history Thursday night in Rochester. It was 67.

Its financial health failing for several years, the projector succumbed to a variety of technological and societal factors. Families eventually got too busy for home slideshows and cultivated a preference for photographic prints, while businesses migrated to computer-driven multimedia presentations.

The end had been expected since September 2003, when Kodak announced it would stop making the money-losing projectors as part of a shift from film to digital imaging. The last projectors came off production lines to cheers and tears at Kodak Park on Oct. 22.

...

Kodak presented the final five projectors to the Eastman House and the Smithsonian Institution for historical display.

...

The company estimates it made 35 million projectors in seven decades...

Of Grasshoppers

Student: I am working without a plan.
Master: Then plan on doing a lot of work.

This is National Family Week

Nov 21 - 27 "honoring strong families and the role they play in making communities stronger"

Pointed out by Cathy

Non-human NaNoWritMo'ers

For you ardent writers out there, Kurzweil points out "A computer program known as Brutus.1 is generating brief outbursts of fiction that are probably superior to what many humans could turn out."

"Dave Striver loved the university - its ivy-covered clocktowers, its ancient and sturdy brick, and its sun-splashed verdant greens and eager youth. The university, contrary to popular opinion, is far from free of the stark unforgiving trials of the business world: academia has its own tests, and some are as merciless as any in the marketplace. A prime example is the dissertation defense: to earn the Ph.D., to become a doctor, one must pass an oral examination on one's dissertation. This was a test Professor Edward Hart enjoyed giving."

That pregnant opening paragraph was written by a computer program known as Brutus.1 that was developed by Selmer Bringsjord, a computer scientist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and David A. Ferrucci, a researcher at I.B.M.

Quote from The New York Times (remember BugMeNot.com)

Sensory Deprivation

I want a total sensory deprivation experience but my wife is vehemently opposed.

Pulse Pulse Pulse

That strange pulsing sensation in my lower right rib cage is bad real strong. I feel like jabbing a knife into it.

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This Morning
I am completely tripped out today. This weekend went really badly--well, I didn't accomplish my goals. I have deadlines upon me. The budget isn't landing where I expected so I'm fretting over Christmas. It's bill time.

Cathy. First trimester October 2001. 

November 2004 

So how do you wash your dog? 

Mostly Risible (found through BlogExplosion) shares this awesome 1954 Popular Mechanics guess at what a home computer in 2004 would look like. I suppose they foresaw the popularity of the racing game with the inclusion of the steering wheel. 

Shoot me now

Fancy electric pencil sharper isn't working now. My fingers are blackened.

I will accomplish nothing today.

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This Morning
"It's a new day. I will do the best I can with it. At the end of the day, I will put this day to bed and start new tomorrow."

The day started off with me committing to myself to program all day long in 4 hour increments. At the end of each 4 hours I would stop and switch to another project.

A phone call. Cathy and I try to rush off to church to deliver much needed clothing (Noah was bare back). Took us 40 minutes to get out of the house, gas in the car, return to house to turn off stove top, get to the church then another 20 minutes to get home. When we returned home the water from the backed up sink (the one with the busted garbage disposal) was running all over the floor from the dishwasher. Task change: fix plumbing.

Wife gets upset at filthiness of kitchen. Task change: clean house.

Task change: no, work.

Tommy is fighting his Trojan Horse project. Task change: Go buy balsa wood and build Tommy's project with him.

Task change: no, blog to calm.

Task change: no, work.

Task change: no, just sit around and wig out.

Yesterday/Last Night
Rushed Noah out the door to get to his 10am soccer tournament. I took Molly as she had dog school at 2pm. The day promised to be an interesting juggling act of children swapping. Cathy had planned on being there for Noah's first game then taking Sarah to Girl Scouts but they were running behind. Noah lost his first game in the tournament then played with his friends and jumped in the Bounce House. Molly was so over excited that by the end of the day I felt like I'd been chopping wood all day long. I kept her from jumping on people except for one sweet little girl in a white shirt. Did I mention how muddy the fields were? 20 minutes into the first game the grandparents joined us with Amy and Tommy. Granny left after a short bit for a rather lengthy time. Tommy slept in the chair. Amy bounced and played in wet beach sand and became a terrible mess. Molly calmed and wet pet by a thousand kids while parents cringed and warned their children not to approach dogs. My reply was always, "they already know each other" as most of the children had already pet Molly. A 3 month old Bassett Hound (I think that is wrong) showed up and they barked at each other until I asked if they could meet and the owner and I cautiously let them approach. The small dog's child owner freaked but the dogs did no harm to each other and the small one realized "I should be scared of this" so I backed Molly off.

Noah lost his 2nd game and started to become dejected. Noah then disappeared for 30 minutes while I ran around with Molly trying to stay calm. I could not find yellow number 10 to save my life. Turns out he was right beside us with his gray sweat jacket donned.

Molly, Tommy and I parted company for dog school and Noah lost his third game of the tournament and declared he didn't like soccer anymore.

Dog school was hard. Molly was overdone by that point. I gave Tommy the honors of walking to 1/4 mile down to the convenient mart to buy himself some food and he was thrilled.

After dog school we went to Agrifeed to have Molly's picture made with Santa. She did really well!

Cathy and I decided a date was in order and ended the day on dinner and a movie (National Treasure) and included Tommy who was polite and well behaved.

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This Morning
Good day of work yesterday. Met the family at the mall. We let the 11 year old girl, her 12 year old best friend and our 8 year old boy go see The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie by themselves. Controlled safe environment and Mom never left the mall. The kids felt empowered and were all giddy as all get out!

We finished up with a dinner of boiling Mr. Crab. I let loose with my own adlibed script and cooked dinner while speaking for Mr. Crab, SpongeBob and Patrick. I think I did pretty good with each of their voices including Mr. Crab's scream as he entered the pot to SpongeBob's manic laughter. My voices faltered slightly when my audience of Sarah, Noah and Sarah's friend (via phone receiver held in air--I was broadcast!) showed up and I started to laugh. The kids seems quiet amused with this one with big grins on their faces as opposed to their typical eye rolling 'dad you are sooo embarassing' responses to my humor. What fun! "SpongeBoooob! I'll ye mah last dollar to get me outta this pot. Aven't aye been a good boss to ya?" "Heeeheheheee" "Uh, Spongebob, Mr. Crab is turnin a funny shade of red."

The evening was calm and destressing.

Today is the soccer tournament. 20% chance of rain. Noah, 8, will play 3 forty minute games (20 minute halfs with a 5 minute break between). Between games are a supposed hour and 15 minute break for them to rest up on jumping games like moon walks and other amusements. This guy is going to be so worn out at the end of this day I'd expect he'll passout at dinner time!

Help me spread the word! Powerball, Lotto 5 and Cash 3 results are posted daily at Tennessee Lottery Results (tnlotteryresults.com).

Down Gitters Down!

I may have majorly stopped my caffeine intake but that doesn't mean that I have to stop bathing in it! Has a minted scent to it too!

Jerry Bit the Dust

*Snap* and it was over. Apparent Jerry missed the sign that said "no mice allowed in the kitchen."

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This Morning
I was weak last night and gave into unnecessary sleep. Now I have a bit of an anxiety build up but am fighting to stay calm. I need a haircut badly but don't know when I can work it it. This week was short because of me. Next week will be short because of Thanksgiving (A time we give thanks b/c the Indians showed our forefathers how to live through the winter so we could kill them in the spring). This is a hard time of year.

Political

I've had this window open since the election with intent to summarize, review and comment. However, at this point I can only say, interesting read.

Here's the basic premise of Frank's book: In Kansas (and really the rest of the country) religious conservatives have overtaken the Republican Party at the grassroots level. Having been abandoned by the Democratic Party during the sixties in favor of Rainbow Coalition, urban cultural politics, these rep-Cons (Frank's term for conservative, working-class, bible-loving former Democrats that now vote Republican) stewed in their own religious fervor--which apparently is especially feverous in Kansas and has been since the state's radical founding--until they became a massive Jesus-infused political force and began chucking rep-Mods (Moderate, socially liberal, old school Republicans) out of office. And here's the rub. The rep-Cons, for a variety of reasons, fully support the rep-Mods economic ideas (ideals), even though that way of thinking, economically speaking, is analogous to a slave supporting slavery.

Again, en masse, the working poor of Kansas are electing politicians that make their lives worse. And the people are doing it gleefully, out of their own free will. So they think.

Dataste.com has another kitten picture. What's with all the kittens today? I found Dataste.com via BlogExplosion. Scroll down for other funnies such as Homeless but still blogging and Things Yoda Might Say While Making Love. There are several good kitty pictures too.

Follow the Boobs...or not

Warning to guys checking out other women! (worksafe. content safe.) You will cry laughing!

Brought to us by Skoopy (links to matchmaking sites)

Kitties

Looks like someone has been making postcards! You will probably want to click and release your mouse wheel then drag the mouse pointer down slightly to use the autoscroll. I should be mean and say something like "that last picture was funny!" I actually went to the end to see if there was any joke as the last picture (something I would personally do). I doubt many other people will make it all the way through. Enjoy!

Thanks to My Likes and Dislikes for the link!

Looks like one of these postcard pics was used for the famous "Everytime you masterbate God kills a kitten" picture.

Since the topic came up, here is a must watch anti-masterbation commercial No nudity. Worksafe with the exception of the word "masterbate" being spoken repeatedly.

Mouse Hunt

The cat has failed to catch its prey. My Hunt (amz) has begun. The evident of mice in the kitchen is disturbing. Time to eliminate the rodents without hurting the toddler, cat, dog or curious 8 or 14 year old. I give the 11 year old enough credit to stay away from the traps.

Letter To My Boobs

Mommy Matters has an exceptional letter. I give it a must read!

A New Day!

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This Morning
I worked through the night! And it felt great! I am no more tired this morning that I typically am.

I am trying to figure out why TN Lottery Results is not getting ranked by google. By the documentation and FAQs I've been reading it is possibly due to a lack of external links to the page. The blog is not ranked possibly because they think the page is a "landing page" or "doorway page" for TN Lottery Results.

Google Adsense

I'm having too much fun with Google's Adsense right now. I just added the skyscrapper to the left to try for a day or two. I already think it looks too obnoxious. I have a total redesign for this blog coming soon anyway. I don't want to turn the blog into a large advertisement.

Need a good reference

I'm a reference person. I realize that the biggest difference between my ColdFusion experience and my PHP experience is a pocket reference. Granted, I have years of ColdFusion over PHP so there is a greater familiarity but as much as I like searchable online documentation I still have an affinity for a paper reference.

Time to shop O'Reilly's.

To Death and Evil

When I came across the Chickadee
It still had life where it lay
A beautiful creature with sweet song
It lived to fly and from breeze
To breeze it flew without care.

Never has a barrel of bad apples
Been turned to edible fruit
With the inclusion of a single
Good apple. Much to the chagrin
Of the optimists, one bad apple
Will ruin the bunch. One good apple
Is devoured either by the bad
Or for a snack or lunch.

On this day, Evil lay in the tall grass.
A cat stalked its unawares prey.
That poor Chickadee was singing
Its last song today.
Having left the nest with foul words
Its mate declared "Good riddance!
Sing with your flock." Though she meant it not.

When left uncared for wood will rot.
Kept polished, oiled and dry
It will last centuries.
Stains leave curvy marks
Where instead there should be grains.
Termites eat the innards like cancer
Eats the brain.

I rose from the grass
Held the bird in my hand
And crushed from its chest
Its very last breath.

-DM 11/17/04

Changes

Tonight my relationship with everybody permanently changed.

I don't know what sins I committed in past lives but they must have been some doozies. I sure would like a hint as to when my penance will be paid.

Talking is exhausting

I can't believe how physically exhausting talking can be. Today has been a series of long phone calls with coding between. I need a nap.

Monitors...It's so dark!

Anyone have a good source for cost effective monitors? I figure it will be a sale at Office Depot, Stapes, Best Buy or CompUSA. No, I really wish we had a Frys.

Cathy. First trimester October 2001. 

Today's Technical Issue

"The Norton AntiVirus Auto-Protect Driver could not be loaded."
The solution: When using multiple logins with Windows98 this error occurs after logging off one user and logging on another user. The solution is to restart the computer between logins.

A New Day!

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This Morning
Woke at 2:30 rearing to go. I had so much energy that if I knew where my running shorts where I was tempted to jog around the neighborhood. I was excited that I was dressing to go program for a few hours. Then it happened. The sirens song wafted into my ear. My wife's call was too strong and I returned to bed only to rise sporadically until 5:30 when I started my day.

Uncomfortable phone calls scheduled for today.

What next?!

Fuel line split in the car. You know..50 cents worth of fuel line but this car with all of its sundry dealer specific options has managed to create dealer only part out of the fuel line and rings in at $291.18 and thats the part only!

Great. Now the cable is out. How am I supposed to work without the Internet?! How do I pay for things if I can't work?!

Tis a sign. Let's fix some things. I will read about the fuel line repair. That is the highest priority. Then the garbage disposal.

Alright. Since I started drafting this I've jacked the car up and inspected the fuel leak. Looks like road debris got the line. The repair will involve removing the entire fuel tank and the shop can't see us until Wednesday. Seeing how the part is $300 alone I bet that repair comes close to $1000. So I thought for safety I should rent a car. To get one that fits us will cost $550 for a week. Don't forget the garbage disposal just went out and that $99-150 and if we wait too long things will begin to smell. Oh, and then there are the chilly nights with no heat pump (think anywhere from $300-3000). And I've been budgetting $800 to finish the french drain. And then there is urgent dental work which may be $1500-2500. Another project is being budgetted at $400 per month until it can be paid. And I want to replace our vehicles with a new one and I anticipate that to be $700-800 per month plus some cash ($2000-3000) down.

I'm going to go hide in bed.

Gimme a break!

I really would like to take today off.

That rhythmic pulsing just below my right rib cage is back. It's like an eye twitch that you cannot control.

A New Day!

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This Morning
"So little to do, so much time. Strike that. Reverse it."

Noah this morning asked for his own blog. I'll have to think long and hard on that one. I suggested he write a paper journal first.

I've been asking myself lately "did I ever have will power?" The reason is I feel like I give into whimsy far too easily. I find myself sleeping when with the least effort I could get up. I play when I should work. I indulge when I should abstain. I do not feel like the pillar of strength that I once did. On the other hand when I was that pillar I was lonely and unfulfilled and now I am whole.

Bored?

Watch some people getting booked at the Anderson County Detention Center Their disclaimer:

DISCLAIMER
This is a real life transmission of the Anderson County Sheriff's Department. Instances of violence or sexually inappropriate behavior by detainees during the booking process may occur. Viewer discretion is advised. This is a Jail, not a simulation. The persons in this transmission are either employees of the Anderson County Sheriff's Department or arrestees.

Cam brought to my attention by Earthcam

Scared the ....

Warning to my religious friends! The links contained herein may cause offense!

The cat just scared the bejesus out of me! I've always said, "bejebus" in the very rare cases I've said it. Usually its something more akin to Carlin's (amz) dictionary. But then I had the inkling to look "bejebus" up in dictionary.com and wikipedia.com I found nothing despite various phonetic deviances until I came across "bejesus."

Now just what is a "bejesus"?
Dictionary.com suggests:

Used as an intensive: The bear scared the bejesus out of us.

Fortunately for those of us willing to ponder just "what comes out of us?!" there is a website devoted to the topic of "bejesuses" and that is the Bejesus Quarterly.

Share the Love - 1:10

Ambivalence

Wow! I've been drumstruck with a "productive ambivalence." I'm getting something done but I could be getting more done and I need to go feed my family but I really just want to sit at the computer psuedo-multitasking.

Coincidences

Last night I was having a conversation and a, ahem, "younger" person said, "Have you seen that movie 'Dawn of the Dead'? Did cha know its a remake!" At this point I had to rant on how a large percentage of "new" movies today are simply remakes such as "The Bourne Identity". Here is the 1978 version of Dawn of the Dead and the 1988 Bourne Identity Mini-series.

So the conversation shifts to Shaun of the Dead. I've never seen this one. But people start to gather around and share in their mirth over this movie. Apparently Shaun of the Dead is side splitting funny.

So today, I'm using Blog Explosion for a moment and come across Jersey Shore posting on Shaun of the Dead! Tis a sign! So, having not seen it, I must recommend Shaun of the Dead to any zombie fan!
      
   

1 dike 10 fingers 11 holes

Ok. First the heat pump (if you don't want to count the array of problems with the vehicles, the computers, couch, dental work and other things that predecessed the heat pump) and now the Garbage Disposal - In-Sink-Erator 444 (amz) (and yes, that's the exact same one we have!) It's been a good unit. And it has an "in-house 4 year warantee" which I guess I now get to figure what that means. The motor now just hums and yes I checked to make sure the blades were not jammed. It also looks like we have some leakage out the bottom now. I have to assume that a seal has broken or that a utensil dropped in the disposal punctured something. I don't know. But this moves up pretty high on the priority list.

A New Day!

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This Morning
This morning it would be real easy to slip into panic mode. As such, I made a point to not have coffee today. I can't say enough how much calmer I am on drastically reduced caffeine intake. I still have an overwhelming urge to do things today that I should not.

Today is about computing. Somehow cleaning, finances, blogging, home repair, vehicle maintenance and programming need to work their way in.

Today's Technical Issue

"String DLGASKDESTTS_MSG1 was not found in the string table."

The solution is provide in a comment on Uninteresting.info by Gianluca Neri of http://www.gnueconomy.net:

Here's what I've just found using Google Groups (God Bless Google):
--------
The "String DLGASKDESTTS_MSG1..." error message that you received may have been caused by other running applications when you launched the Install Wizard. I suggest that when you install,
close all other applications including any applications that are running in the background. If you have an anti-virus installed in your system, temporarily disable this while doing the installation.

As an additional safeguard that will minimize the chance of having those error messages again, I also suggest you follow these instructions:
1. Please delete the Program Files\Common Files\InstallShield\Engine
folder
2. Clear out the Temp folder
3. Delete the following folders (IF they exist):
\Program Files\InstallShield Installation
Information\{b8d35119-e9ce-4258-9813-9715dacdca0a}
\Program Files\InstallShield Installation
Information\{a4d64993-5175-4534-8583-355f925644d4}
\Program Files\InstallShield Installation
Information\{53437f29-e703-11d4-a51f-0010b541cdae}
\Program Files\InstallShield Installation
Information\{94492602-f802-48fa-a5ab-ac13dc358475}
Note: Please make sure you can view hidden files and folders before
trying those steps

Uninteresting.info has this to say about his stats and this error.

Last night was Incredible!

Without giving anything away, I have to say that "The Incredibles" (trailers) was incredible!

There were many incredible aspects of this movie. It began with the previews. Your normal movie has that series of slide advertisements with the trivia mingled in, then there are hopefully several movie previews.

This show started off with what appeared to be a teaser more than a movie preview. Then there was an encouragement to turn off cell phones and use good manners. Then there was another teaser. We started to get the picture that an animated picture called "Bigs" (Bigfoot) is in the works. Then there was a movie preview for "National Treasure" (some production pictures) Then more appearances by the Bigs cast. Our comment, "they must have a lot of money." Then we enjoyed a Pixar animated short (welcome back old time days of movies!) titled Boundin' (See a sneak peek.). It slowly became evident that Bigs is actually a Regal production (I could be wrong) and likely to be a series of short films that they are going to show before the movies instead of advertisement! We had no traditional ads! There were two product refences. When we were told about concessions Coke was mentioned and when the reminder to silence cell phones came up Cingular was mentioned.

The movie was action packed, had a wonderful plot, great subtly, fantastic balance of adult and child humor, and exceptional animation. I highly recommend seeing "The Incredibles" and suggest Fandango. They were turning people away at the counter but because we Fandango'd we had tickets and a compliment from the person behind the counter.



(picture unrelated to the movie but er, .. incredible)

From the Mouths of Babes

Amy is drinking water this morning so I thought I would add another sign and teacher her the sign for "water".

She looks up at me and says matter of factly, "I don't do that." I told her that made me sad.

On the positive side, she signed "thank you" when I gave her some food.

Image provide by LifePrint.com on line sign language learning

Amy Sings the Alphabet at 2 and half

A New Day!

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This Morning
Busy day ahead. My wife is in training all day long, Tommy is grounded (meaning everything is a fight), Sarah was throwing up at 4:30am (but "is feeling much better!") - no fever, Noah is the quintessential 8 year old boy, the grandparents are occupied, we've got dog school at 2pm, and after my wife's training I have a mock casino to deal craps. Sarah was to be my babysitter for dog school but now I think she is going to be confined to quarters which leaves me with Tommy and Noah to watch the 2 year old during dog school. Granted, they would be in a field within my eyesight the whole time but I don't like that plan.

I'm setting my wife's computer up as a development environment. That way I can be upstairs and still be productive. We need a couple of rockin' laptops like fish need water!

Ironies - Life so full of them!

I know I haven't written part II to "I had my day! No I get 30 more." but this has to come first. Thursday night we hadour den meeting. The plan was to have the boys do a craft, an activity, and a discussion. The scheduled discussion was with a police officer and who shows up but none other than the rookie right out of cadet school that gave me the ticket for the midnight slow and go (which I fully stopped for) through an insignificant stop sign.

My initial desired responses to his presence were all evil, inappropriate and definitely a bad example for the kids with at least one potentially landing me in jail. So, I did the right thing and sucked it up and helped him figure out what to say to the kids then introduced him.

Related posts:
My Day in Court Part I
Paranoid
The Story
The day of the ticket

amped in a bad way today.

A New Day!

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This Morning
Last night was lovely! Exceptional! I opted to not fret and worry and instead gave the wife a relaxing massage and conversation. This morning I fret and worry.

So Thirsty

I wanted to buy some scotch on the way home from scouts but somehow didn't think that a scout leader in uniform should be walking into a liquor store.

I've majorly cut down on my caffiene intake (thanks to herbal teas) so maybe this is just a sign to continue health habits.

Walls closing in

In 30 minutes I am supposed to be setting up to receive 24 8 year old boys that will begin arriving in as little as 45 minutes. I am not familiar enough with the procedures of the group and have nothing prepared. I need 1 hour to buy supplies and the hardware store around the corner is now closed. I also cannot leave the house. I almost stopped at Home Depot on the way home but didn't want to lug my dog pee smelling briefcase, calendar and bag of scout paperwork into the store and didn't want to leave it unguarded in the Jeep. I had two weeks to prepare for this. Now I have half an hour.

Sums me up pretty good.

ps. in this same 30 minutes I have to prepare dinner for the family and we have no food in the house.

Quote of the Day

Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to the end, requires some of the same courage which a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men to win them.
- -- Emerso

Brought to us by IWon

Molly at 6mths old - Good Posture

Hey! Could you stop with the camera already. You're blocking my view of the tube!

Animals? Of course we don't let animals on the couch. Only us humans!

 

Gas prices to go up uP UP and AWAY!

Tim of Spy Journal fame originally introduced me to the concept of "Peak Oil". Kurzweil brings us more.

Darn the afternoons!

Hitting that slow down part of my day. This is went I should change tasks and do something Not Urgent and rewarding to me. Instead I'm likely to build up a good anxiety attack as I try to figure out how to accomplish all the remaining tasks if the day.

Comment Away!

You may now boldly comment where you've never commented before!

I like Haloscan but for along time was thinking I'd write my own commenting system. Today I decided to support the system I like so I've made a donation to Haloscan (and encourage others to do the same). The benefit to you is that now you may comment up to 3000 words (comment spammers rejoice) and no advertisements appear in the comment window. Domestic Psychology is also the same way.

Type away!

Truman Show

Sometimes it feels like we are on Prime Time.

Here's a "that happens to other people" event: One of our neighbors and father of our daughter's good friend just got deported to the Philippines after a 7 year battle to try to gain citizenship. Apparently INS just "showed up" yesterday and took him away.

Wow! Did he have time to pack? What happens when he arrives back at the islands? Could you imagine?

Quote of the Day

A professional is someone who can do his best work when he doesn't feel like it.
- -- Alistair Cooke

Bought to us by: IWon

Desires

There is an expression "I want it so badly I can taste it." So, just how badly have you ever wanted something?

Have you ever wanted something so badly that you hurt?
So badly that it distracted you from everything else?
So badly that you were physically ill?

What of trust?
Have you ever wanted something so badly that you were willing to lose someone's trust?

What of sacrifice?
Have you ever watned something so badly that to have it briefly you were willing to give it up forever?

When it comes to wants, needs and cravings, what factors into self-restraint versus self-indulgence? Is it simply a matter of strong versus weak? Survival of the fittest? Moral versus immoral? What gives the preacher will power and the drug addict none? What allows one child the steal candy from the store and another child to ask for desert and happily accept no as an answer?

Where are our boundaries and how are they built?

---

Strangely related:

Stupid Evil Bastard talks of caffeine addiction

Errors

Parse error: parse error, unexpected $end in filename.php on line 23

I think the compiler would be more efficient if it was a little less detailed in these error messages

Exploded

I rang in the Mystery Credits on Blog Explosion yesterday! Won 25 credits rapidly followed by 2 and 2 for a total of 29 credits. The only problem was I didn't have an interesting blog yesterday. Nothing to say to a sudden influx of visitors.

This tells me I need to model myself after my wife, Tim, and South Knox Bubba who all have nicely formatted sites with great content and a psuedo-regular pattern to their posts.

Ah! Let's not forget Big Orange Michael, Hula Dula, and.. wow.. there are so many! I shall have to create a huge list during my next break.

Junkies

How would you judge a person with the following traits:

• Has the shakes
• Spends enourmous amounts of money on their stuff
• Sacrifices friends and family for their stuff
• Gets irritable when they don't get enough stuff
• Always wants better stuff often researching in great detail techniques for better stuff
• Loses sleep for habit
• Has caused relationship problems resulting in therapy or divorce due to habit
• Often thinks of giving up stuff
• Frequently has bloodshot eyes
• Talks to their stuff
• Wants a bigger pipe
• Honestly believes they can't have enough
• Always thinking of new ingenius ways to use their stuff
• Alienates self to only relating to other junkies

Poem - On Stage

Oh It's like a game.
The Teachers try to teach
     the meaning behind Arthur's play
But it is cruel.
The Teachers know the rules.
We cannot be told until after school
But when the final bell has rung
We are gone and a new class has begun
     That cannot be told until after school.
So while in class we ponder the moral behind Arthur's play
     So we can make our report and make an A.
Then after school has come
     And we are eager to get out and have our fun.
But no one is there to remind us that Arthur's play has begun.
We get out and make our calls to impress the Boss
     And all the while Cliff's notes sit at home.
Why do we not remembe the moral of the play
     from day to day after school?
Then sometime when it is far too late
     Perhaps sitting in a bar being contemplative
We will think of Arthur's play
     And recognize our after school fate.
Arthur tried to teach us early
     That we are all destined to play a role.
     And we shall all be Willy in his Play.

-DM 4/31/98

Spy Journal Tips

If you haven't checked out Tim's tips pages yet you should have a look at Spy Journal Excel Tips, Spy Journal Blog Tips, and Spy Journal Tech Tips.

Below is a reprint of a Spy Journal Blog Tip that I contributed. The tips found on Spy Journal Blog Tips are all well written and worth checking out by all bloggers.

---

How do I change my cursor?
Note: The techniques in the article should work in most modern browsers. To see examples in action hold your mouse over any word with text that is not in a regular font (such as emphasized or bold)

In CSS Positioning the acronym CSS has a faint line beneath it and placing the mouse pointer over it changes the cursor (in most browsers) to an arrow with a question mark. How was this done?

First I should comment that I am amazed to find that in nearly a decade of coding websites I still find basic HTML elements that for one bad habit or another I either do not use or have overlooked. I now make an effort to periodically review the basics. The W3C has invaluable reference material concerning Internet specifications and W3Schools is an absolutely wonderful place to review a skillset or develop a new one for free.

What is the difference between an abbreviation and an acronym? Dictionary.com gives the following definitions:

abbreviation

A shortened form of a word or phrase used chiefly in writing to represent the complete form, such as Mass. for Massachusetts or abbr. for abbreviation.

acronym

A word formed from the initial letters of a name, such as WAC for Women's Army Corps, or by combining initial letters or parts of a series of words, such as radar for radio detecting and ranging.

The W3C in section 9.2 Structured Text devotes a sub-section to Phrase elements. These include: EM, STRONG, DFN, CODE, SAMP, KBD, VAR, CITE, ABBR, and ACRONYM. In this article alone I have made use of EM, STRONG, DFN, CODE, CITE, ABBR, and ACRONYM.

Now that we have learned or relearned some basic HTML, let's combine it with some CSS to create a working example. Let's use the acronym CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) as our example. Since this is an acronym and not an abbreviation we will use the HTML <acronym>:
<acronym>CSS</acronym>
That changed the appearance but didn't give us text. The text is added with the title atttribute.
<acronym title="Cascading Style Sheets">CSS</acronym>
Now if we hover our mouse over CSS for a second or two the words "Cascading Style Sheets" appear. What about the cursor? The cursor needs to be done with, ironically enough, CSS. We will use an inline style in our example and discuss alternatives in a different article.
<acronym title="Cascading Style Sheets" style="cursor:help;">CSS</acronym>
Abbreviations (definitions etc) can all be done the same way.
<abbr title="Street" style="cursor:help;">St.</abbr>

In upcoming articles, I will discuss:

• different ways to define the style for this method
• pointer options

The inspiration for this article came from frequent visits to Terreus who uses this technique and inspired me to ask "How does he do that?!" Terreus has to be one of the most exceptional well marked up sites I have visited in recent times. Kudos to the developer!

djuggler's personal blog is Reality Me.

---

Of Grasshoppers

Student: I am tired.
Master: You think you are tired.

A New Day!

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This Morning
Have you ever been so tired that you wanted to cry? I probably need exercise more than sleep but I cannot have either right now. At least I'm up at 4:30 like I wanted to be.