seasons greetings

Hi all, haven't posted in awhile. Hope everyone is having a great holiday. Spent X-mas down in Florida. For those who know the details about that trip then you understand why i say that i have had better Christmas's. But I am back in one piece and most sane. Tomorrow I jump on a jet plane and head out of the country: New York City. I am still trying to work out how this all came about. This whole last month has been a bit of a blur. All i know at this point is: I still hate hospitals and the unexpected can sometimes be great.

Merry Whatever!!!!

......and now I am old!

So I guess it was just a matter of time. I'm old :'( Last Friday was the big day that I officially became old. I turned 30!! Although, as my grandmother used to say, it beats the alternative.

The birthday was on Friday and I most certainly wasn't going to spend that day at work. The only thing better then a three day weekend is a four day weekend; I took off Thursday as well for good measure. You have to be careful about these things.

Thursday evening, I met up with Noah and took the train down to DC. The ever wonderful Heidi (I am not calling her that because of the tasty food she keeps making, well thats not the only reason) was waiting for us at Union Station. With Pat and Dave to round out the ranks we made our way over to the Dubliner. After one good meal and a couple too many tasty beverages, I was in a happy place.

Friday evening, Kelly picked me up and we headed into B'more. She had gotten a reservation at a Thai place on Charles street for us and the Ferguson crew who came up from DC. Food was good but traffic was horrid. Afterwards we all walked over the Charles Theater to watch a strange Swedish vampire movie. Sadly, though, the movie stopped showing the night before. We switched gears and saw "Slumdog Millionaire" which was an awesome movie but far from the feel good movie that the poster claimed it to be.

Saturday, Greg, AJ, and I went to the Columbia Earthtreks X-mas party. It was lame so we only stayed a few minutes then went to Panera to eat dinner. We all came back to my place and after a few false starts we final decided to watch Akira.

Sunday, I install roof racks on my car so I can haul snow boards easier. They look silly up there, and they whissle at around 40 mph, but they work. Greg, Jessie, AJ, and I went to Rockville that afternoon to go climbing. It was fun, although i was starting to come down with a cold.

Yesterday the cold hit me like a hammer. I made soup and buried myself under blankets. Today the cold is breaking up, but i still feel like poo. Took a half day at work, going to eat more soup and curl up under a good blanket again.

such as life.

One Brain for Sale!!!

The job market, the idea that you are a commodity that can be bought a sold. I found out that a good friend of mine, who had retired and then came back as a contractor, had a purchase order number linked to his job like a piece of test equipment. Finding this a bit odd, I asked him how he felt about that. His response was that he didn't mind being bought a sold like test equipment it was the probing they did every couple years for calibration that really hurt.

The hiring process is more then an auction for brain matter. Going on job interview is like going on a blind date. You both know that since you are there you are both a little desperate, but neither of you want to admit that. There are a lot of awkward question why you try to carefully feel around and see if the other person is out of their mind. You have to delicately balance the amount you lie about yourself: can they verify my lies, would i need to prove i actually know anything about what i claim to know, do they know even less then i do??? Such a fine line between deceit and exaggeration.

At least I have learned a couple usefully bits of knowledge: I am grossly underpaid and I can cleanup nicely when I want to ^_^

30 to 30

So I realized yesterday that I have only 30 more days until I turn 30. Now don't get me wrong; I am not depressed about this. I am really depressed about this!!! I remember when my dad turned thirty (and since I am the youngest of three that says something). He had a (sorta) mid-life crisis and bought a sail boat!! 18 foot hobbie cat; a lot of fun that boat was shame he got rid of it. Now I know some of you are saying, "Hey, you are a guy!! Guys are just growing up at thirty!!"

And maybe thats the problem: I am going to be a full fledged grownup. I am not sure I am ready to give up being a kid. Of course I am going to keep being a kid at heart. I won't be a silly good for nothing twenty-something year old, but instead be that creepy guy with the peter pan complex :( I am not ready to give up sugary cereals, Saturday morning cartoons, and pointless day dreaming.

Sadly I do tend to pick cereals based on their fiber content; not its sugar. "but its frosted mini wheats!!!!", the inner child cries. I don't watch Saturday morning cartoons, actually i don't watch must TV at all anymore. I cancelled my cable account cause it wasn't worth the money. So what I watch now I download off the internet. "I download anime, lots of anime!!!" the inner child tries to argue in vain.

I still day dream. That won't stop, but sometimes that makes working in a gray soul sucking cubical harder then it could. Maybe I should just let the cubical win. let it take away any hopes and dreams. Wait out the rest of my days waiting for retirement like the rest of the sheep. But I think then I would be old. And as much as I am not ready to stop being young; I sure as hell don't want to be old yet!!!!!!!!!

that is all

And they are up

So yes, i finally posted all the photos from the New Zealand trip!!! check them out!!! Thanks to AJ and Bayta/Tzip for letting me steal/borrow/bum photos and camera use after my camera died on me. Found a new feature in Picasa that allows me to place each photo on the map by itself, so its easier to track where these photos were taken (unlike knowing its somewhere around Sydney for example). Sorry it took so long, i have been rather unusually busy at work.

smiles

silly little electron shifter

So good news, the computers are up and running!!!! And no data lost (that i can tell or noticed). The desktop still won't run Windows, but i did get some open-source programs to manage my iPod. And by programs and i mean at least two different ones to make it happen. One program to load the music, and other to fix the damage the first program did to my player. But it works for now, and thats all that matter. At some point i'll find something that does everything: loads songs and doesn't corrupt it.

The laptop is up and running again. Had to reinstall Ubuntu to make this happen. But thankfully you can run Ubuntu from the CD and access the hard drive to salvage any random bits of data. Which is a pain but since that random bits of data was all my vacation photos from the trip, i was motivated to learn how to do this. I got to learn about using "chown" command to access files (which has nothing to do with 'clowns') and i also learned that though Linux boxes can easily connect to a networked windows boxes they don't play as well with their own kind. I got to setup a 'FTP' server (which worked but couldn't get it to upload) then i learned to use SSH. Which is far easier to setup. actually almost stupidly easy. which means the geek will want me to try even harder and sillier things to do with Ubuntu. Sadly I am starting to get use to using the terminial to get things done.

No i still haven't posted the pictures from the trip, but i am using the excuse that the computers were broke, and i was busy, and possiblily lazy. :P

well thats all for now.......

The un-Midas touch

Well i am making progress, sort of. I could not reinstall Windows on my desktop. Why you ask I still don't know. Was able to boot Ubuntu off the CD and at least confirmed some functionality of the hardware. But all the hard drives were locked out. This was not good; I have a good 150 Gigs of 'data' on one of those drives that I couldn't even think about trying to recollect.

Well after beating my head on a table for a while, I have figured some stuff out. My 80 gig IDE drive is scrap metal. The 40 gig and 250 gig SATA drives are fine. I have installed Ubuntu on the 40 gig drive and it boots normally and seems stable. Windows although finished the initial install will not boot. I still am clueless about that. The data on the 250 gig drive is intacted and useable. phew!!!!!

Second problem, Ipod does not play well with Linux. iTunes was never meant to be installed in Linux even through a virtial machine. There are some open source programs that should be able to connect and manage the iPod but still require a little shoehorning to get to work. I was playing with that while I was trying to get the desptop working, and of course I did something wrong and now my laptop will not boot!!! :'(

I think I have the magical ablity to take perfectly good working hardware and make it completely hosed, or maybe i am finally becoming a proper Linux user ;)

If it's not one thing its another

So I was on Newegg looking at cameras and I bought a iPod. I'm not really sure how this happened either. There is a list of things in my head that I want and for one reason or another I don't buy, but I have researched into. Most of the time, the things i want cost too much for what I want out of them. An iPod is a good enough example of this. I wanted a small MP3 player with good battery life at least a few gigs of memory (I don't need to store my entire music collection on the silly thing, just enough to give me verity over the week), and not cost an absurd amount of money. An iPod fit most of these requirements except the money part, but they were coming down.

While checking on cameras I decided to check in on the price point for the iPod nano (for those not up on the Apple music players, Nano is the smallest player they make that still has a screen, I expect that in the few years it will be implantable). To my surprise the price point not only dropped but a whole new generation of the model had come out. It had reverted to a form factor of about two generations back (which I liked better anyway) with a larger screen, motion control (which seems silly for a device designed to be used while running and such) and a whopping 16 Gigs of storage!!! Before I knew what was going on they had my credit card number and my new silver nano was on its way.

First impressions: MY GOD ITS SO SMALL!!!!! The packing material and box weights ten times more then it does. Imagine a pocket comb then broke it in half thats about the size and weight we are talking here. I am going to assume Apple designed it to be a little bit rugged but I am a little afraid its going to break in my pocket. That sadly is all I can say about it because I cannot put music on it yet. Why not, you ask. Because about the same time I was ordering the iPod my desktop decided to take a big dump and stop working. Good thing I have two computers ^_^ Windows starts to boot, blue screen of death, reboots, step repeat. Its so hosed that it won't even boot in safe mode, and I have never had that happen before.

So trying to reinstall Windows. The quick format failed so I am having to do it the slow way. Its about 59% through. At this rate it might be done some time tomorrow. Makes me seriously want to install Linux on the box. It may not be that much more stable then Windows but at least its free.

Final thoughts

So it seems some of you are still checking this blog for more crazy stories about my trip. Silly rabbit; blogs are for whining and lamenting about your life. But I'll indulge you all a little further with some final thoughts.

1: New Zealand is a place that even when you want to go home, you still know you didn't have enough time there.

2: Soy lattes should be found on every street corner. (I'm spoiled now, and going through caffeine withdrawals)

3: I know whats wrong with American foods now: high fructose corn syrup. Everything in NZ/Aus is made with just sugar and you can tell!!!

4: I am willing to single handedly try to get meat pies to catch on here in the states.

5: There is a point at which breath-taking views start to lose their impact. Then it becomes how hard was it to get to see that view. Next time I'll plan to hike for three days then spend one day in a small gray cubical, so then I'll be excited about going out and playing again.

6: Only under special and very controlled circumstances should friends go on a long vacation together. Somehow it always ends up being a bad idea. I blame no one for this; I have been on other long vacations were I never really talked much with the friend afterwards. This trip went much smoother then that.

7: Although I thought it was silly and strange at first, ending almost every conversation with "No worries." started to really grow on me. I think I'll start using it for now on.

8: Jet lag is not worst going east rather then west; it just effects your normal day more.

9: You should never avoid going on a long trip cause you are worried about all the stuff you have to do at work, because it will still be sitting there waiting for you just the way you left it.

10: It is possible to completely stretch out across four seats in an airplane to sleep while remaining buckled in. The crew will let you sleep like that as long as you want as long as they see your seat belt. This is the preferred way to do a 10+ hour flight. I was only awake for about an 1.5 hours total on the return flight.

I'm Back

Just got in ^_^ the flight from SanFran was delayed (several times). But all in all no worst for wear. Cause of the camera problems it going to take a little while to compile all the photos, but i'll get it pulled to together soon enough. Now i just need to get my bills from Rob and see how many are already late ;)

good night all :D

~ken

On the way back

In Sydney airport again, wait through my first long transfer in my flight home. My food just came up, so i got to go.

~Ken

Into the fray

at some point in around Sydney:

Old buildings always seem to have a certain smell about them. Not a bad small per say, but a distinctive odour that's all its own. Sort of old wood and stale blankets. If you add some potpourri it would remind you of grandparents. The boarding house was down a long narrow alley way off the main street in town. One of these alleys you would swear your car could not fit into until you find the off street parking at its end.

The house itself is a hodgepodge of extensions added on at random every decade or so as needed. Yellowing white paint cracked and pealing in places giving the whole building a uniform creepy feel. The place was awesome. The birds in the attic (yes i am going to believe that they were in fact birds) settled down shortly around sunset.

The human body and mind's ability to adapt is quite amazing. We are suffering jet lag as much as our bodies refusal to adjust any further off (now that we are in NZ were its just at about 7 (edit) hours off, we are fine and back to normal sleep patterns). I cannot stay up much pass 7-8 pm and pretty much after 2 am I can't fall back to sleep. But thankfully between those times I am fully functional. Driving here is fun. Thankfully AJ has drove in Commonwealth states before and didn't find it too confusing. I however was dizzy and nearly sick trying to make sense what my subconscious was telling me was completely wrong. The first day with the rental car I did not drive until we were well outside the city and safely in a quiet state park. Four days later I drove through Sydney to get to the airport without problems. It still requires constant concentration but it doesn't seem so wrong now.

There is no coffee in this country (or at least what blue blooded Americans would call coffee), but they love their espresso. And because they are a progressive country its not to hard to find soy lattes. My new favorite thing in the whole wide world ^_^ I think I have drunken more coffee here then I have in my whole life.

Cheers all,

~ken

Almost done

Well getting down to the last day or so, be stuck in airports in one way or another starting tomorrow evening until i get back :(

trip has been a blast, i am getting very jaded about stunning vistas, and i am kinda looking forward to being home a little. I have more blogs to post at some point about the trip, but will probably have to wait until i am home. I'll probably be typing up different stories about this trip for a while. :) well sleep calls soon, later

~ken

Hi oh

So I am in Picton, NZ. Blink and you will miss it. I am in a Communist themed bar and restaurant, have a half of pint of beer in me, and they have a free Internet terminal. Things are going well. ^_^

Moving on

Leaving Wellington today. I been making day trips north with another tag along that was getting sick of the city. Found some rather wonderful places to visit within a short drive. Have many pictures to show all of you once I get back.

That is of course wonderful pictures up to the point at which my camera crapped out on me. It seems in the course of my travels the camera has taken a liking to the taste of fresh batteries. At this point a brand new battery last about four hours or four pictures whichever comes first. Although i guess that's what I get for buying a $80 Kmart special camera. I should be thankful it has lasted this long. Luckily other people have their own cameras with a lesser hunger for power packs, so I'll just have to compile the pics once I get home for varying sources. (Oh for any family reading this and wondering what to get me for X/mas/B-day later, I am starting a camera fund, give accordingly ^_^)

As my time here comes to a close, I reflect on things I have gotten accustomed to here that I will not find back in the states. One of which (and high on the list at that) is meat pies!!!! By far one of the greatest accomplishments of pastry cuisine ever to work its way out of a baker's oven. Its a small flaky pastry pie shell (much like an apple pie shell) filling with tasty goodness. My personal favorite (short of the veggie pie at Mr Pie Face on the streets of Sydney, if you can find one get it!!!) is the egg and bacon pie. Its simplicity in motion. Take the wonderful shell, drop a couple eggs into it (don't bother mixing the egg up, would only ruin the experience) chop up a couple pieces of bacon (think more like Canadian Bacon, not American style) put a top on it and bake in the oven until flaky and happy goodness for my belly. I have been getting up each morning finding different bakeries to sample which one I like best. Its a tough job, but someone has to do it.

Well, I think i am going to walk down to the water and find a nice spot to read. Still have some time before I need to meet up with AJ again to head off for the ferry. Its a tough life. Later all :D

~kw

Foiled again

Sydney, 09/17/08

Perhaps they get asked the same question too many times, or its just the fact they want to do everything differently then how one would expect the world to work. But toilets in Australia (and new Zealand) do not swirl. No swirling action at all. Neither clockwise or counter-clockwise. Aussie toilet just dump water from all directions and push any contents straight down the pipe. So when someone ask you which was does a toilet flush in Australia, you tell them that its a trick question. One final interesting side note in the toilets in that most have two flushing modes. A little flush and a big flush. The only thing I have found that the little flush ends up doing is causing you to waste more water when then you have to push the big flush to finish the job.

Today was beach day. In the morning we took the train out to Bondi Beach. Its a sleepy little beach town within spitting distance of Sydney. It was cute. the shear cliffs into the ocean were breath taking and the people really friendly. At the beginning of the Bondi Beach hike, you go look at the Aborigine carvings. To do this required walking straight through an active golf course that shares this site. And the other then being asked by one old man to move over a little to the side some so we wouldn't get hit by his bad drive, no one took any notice of us.

Upon returning to Sydney, we got a rental car (an automatic) and drove south to the Royal National Park and Garie Beach. Garie Beach is a quiet undeveloped beach that seems worlds apart from Sydney which is really only minutes away. The beach is surrounded by shear cliffs and valleys with small streams flowing slowly in to the sea. I loved it!!! as you walked around you could feel the stress leak out of your body and seep into the sand like the small streams flowing from the mountains. This has been a good day.

In New Zealand

Made it to New Zealand today. All is well, been having a great time. Going to post more once i have a better Internet connection. Have about 300 pictures so far ^_^!!! check back soon, hope to have more posted shortly.
later all
Ken

Off Kilter

Sept 14 San Fran 9pm (local time)

There are a few constants in life that never change: little Asian tourist shops all look the same, sleep and travel for me are two completely unrelated things, and if something could go wrong it most certainly will.

The first leg of the trip started today. I had been sleeping well for the last couple weeks, but last night I might have gotten an hour or two. This of course happens every time I travel so I gotten used to running on sever sleep deprivation. I don't even understand why I bother trying to sleep on the plane. But as I said, I have experience traveling like this, Sleep? I don't need no stinking sleep.

The layover (on the way out and back) is the buetiful and hilly city of San Franisco. And when I say hilly I mean HILLY!!!! I may need to redefine my standard of the term 'hilly' to be synonymous with SanFran. I have never seen a city built on such a steep gradients. I understand why they are afraid the sity would slide into the ocean if there is a major earthquake. I can't see why it doesn't do it on its own on a nice sunny day. You can't drive here. It makes DC look logicly organized, and then the previously mentioned hills. The mass transit is surprisingly well designed to ensure people get to see their great city on foot. SanFran is a city to walk through.

The weather was great, and I got a couple good pics of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. We walked over most of the down town area. And as far as heart of the city goes it is one of the nicest major cities I have been in. Hell even the Hobos are well maintained and have different little gimmicks and shows to actually earn your money. I am glad AJ talked me into this eleven hour layover. I would love to fly out here again as a starting point for a west coast road trip. ^_^

So far only one major snafu. My VISA for Austrilia for some reason did not get linked to my passport. Thankfully the international terminal here in SanFran was not that busy so they issued me a new VISA (for an extra fee) at the desk. At this point I couldn't care less as long as I don't get kicked out of the country once i get there.

On a side note, In the international terminal here they have a shower shop. After flying on a plane all morning and then walking around SnaFran all afternoon. that was the best eleven bucks I have ever spent at an airport!!!!

over and out

All is well

We made it to Sydney. The flight was crazily long, but slept through most the of the SFO to Sydney arm :D I have a blog entry written up in my book about the San Fran layover but i only have 14 minutes on this terminal so I'll post it later. So just a quick check in, all safe and sound. ^_^

Curse of the PawPaw

This morning i found at my desk a little surprise of a bag of unidentifiable fruit. Finding random things left at my desk is not that unusual and lately fruits and vegetables have been appearing more times then not. So when i saw this bag of plant material on my desk i simply assumed it was more summer squash, which has been the norm lately. But when i opened said bag the over powering smell was not that of summer squash. I examined the strange green lobes. they were soft and wet squishy sound when pressed. the smell was something like rotting taro root, if that could be imagined.

Knowing that this bag of unnatural fruit came for only one likely source, i questioned him about the origins of this vile bag. The fruit as it would seem comes from the PawPaw tree. And according to Wikipedia:

is a small fruit tree native to north east america.

Pollinated by scavenging carrion flies and beetles, the flowers emit a weak scent which attracts few pollinators, thus limiting fruit production.

Larger growers sometimes locate rotting meat near the trees at bloom time to increase the number of blowflies.

I placed the bag in the trash in the break room. I could still smell the fruit for the rest of the day. The worst part is "Paw-paw" is what i used to call my grandfather. Now i kind of feel bad calling him that all those years.

the coming storm of stupidity

So tropical storm whatever her name is is going to pass through here sometime tomorrow. This was part of a conversation between Greg and I in which we discuss the coming storm of stupidity.

(04:21:52 PM) Greg: I'm looking forward to a good storm
(04:21:56 PM) Ken: :D
(04:23:03 PM) Ken: do you have your stockpile of toilet paper and bottled water? ;)
(04:23:09 PM) Greg: and duct tape
(04:23:12 PM) Ken: :D
(04:23:15 PM) Greg: :-)
(04:24:02 PM) Ken: now place the duct tape as an 'X' across the windows of your house
(04:24:08 PM) Greg: heh
(04:24:12 PM) Greg: so the windows don't shatter
(04:24:13 PM) Greg: of course
(04:25:40 PM) Ken: well, they are going to still shatter, but the glass shards will stick together at lease where the tape is, which of course just makes a sticky sharp tape monster of death, but still it beats nothing
(04:25:59 PM) Greg: ha

Just another day....

This has been a surprisingly cool August. Not in the snow is falling on my head but the lack of insanely hot and muggy days. This i am not complaining about; I have plenty of other things for that. Tonight it is going to cool rather rapidly and even get in the high 50's (crazy i know) and right now it is in the wonderfully cool mid 60's. That's good sleeping weather right there ^_^

The plan was to leave the windows open with a fan to help the circulation, then bury myself under a nice blanket and then sleep like a log. But that is not to happen, because some person (with close range) decided that mid-60's is cold enough to get the fireplace going!!!!!!!!!! now i don't really have bad sinuses, but it thick enough i am surprised my fire alarm didn't go off. So to keep from waking up with the worst headache I have had in years (and everything i own smelling like burn oak) i am going to have to close the windows and miss out on the great cool air :( this makes me sad inside :'( see the tear??

So i squared off with the hottest pepper in the world today. One of the techs at work decided to grow some Naga Jolokia peppers. A pepper so hot that is ground into a paste and smeared on fences to ward off wild elephants in Indian!!!! Now thats HOT!! So anywho, the first of the crop has come in and the tech was daring people to try and eat even the smallest of pieces. One guy reporting that he lost all feeling and ability to taste anything for an hour or so after being stupid enough to try this. So of course that means i need to try this.

Now, myself being smarter then the average bear, i did not try to consume any of this solidified capsaicin, whereas i cut a fresh edge on the pepper and rubbed off just a slight amount of the oil on my finger which then i licked off. My mouth burned and went numb for about 20 minutes. Those pepper are dangerous. I washed my finger in rubbing alcohol to get the oils off. i do not plan to repeat my foolishness.

Real Definitions

Lead Engineer:

lead en·gi·neer [leed en-juh-neer] –noun

1. The first person to get blamed when something goes wrong, the only person that doesn’t get credit when something goes right, and the last person to hear when something gets changed on a design project.

Not what i was expecting.....

I ordered a shirt online a week or so back. This is something i never do. Mainly because, even though my size has change dramatically over the course of the last half a dozen years, my size has never one that main stream clothes designers consider normal. So finding shirts and such that actually fit in a way i want them to do at the time is rather difficult.

While perusing an outdoor liquidation website, i found this rather cool looking shirt. A 'Bamboo' shirt. My first thought is, "That's awesome!! A shirt made of bamboo." Knowing a little about bamboo, and a little bit of knowledge is a very dangerous thing, i figured it might actually work. Bamboo is a very light long fibered grass. It could in theory be made into a fabric. i mean weirder things have been in the past. And it was dirt cheap!! Cool and cheap, how could i go wrong??

Looking to order the shirt i had to pick a size. I look to the 'handy' little sizing guide, which is a guide to some article of clothing just not this shirt. And compare its sizes suggestion to my own frame. According to the numbers i should fit in a large. Now this took me a little bit a surprise since that many of the last shirts i have bought were mediums. But in the end i went this the guides suggestion figuring that the shirt may have been meant to be snug fitting, and i wouldn't be able to breath in the medium.

So i get in the shirt today and notice some amazing things that i did not know before now. It seems polyester is made from bamboo. This was a shock to me since i thought it was a man-made material. but no; my 'bamboo' shirt is made from polyester. either that or the shirt was made from recycled fake polyester bamboo plants you buy (or don't) from Wally-world. Also another interesting thing is that wherever that sizing guide was made at, they use a different standard for inches. much like there is a different standard for a gallon if you are in the States or in the UK. Cause the shirt fits like a hockey jersey.

Mad adventures in shingling

Sometimes i do, agree, or even volunteer to something without really thinking it through. Kind of a 'knee jerk' reaction to the feeling of being needed. This was the case when i volunteered to help my friend AJ to replace the shingles on her shed after the HOA (the evil Nazis) sent her a lovely letter indicating their displeasure. Its not like I was going to get anything out of this other then a sore back and a possibility of major injury. But at least it did give me an excuse to buy a really nice tool belt. Every guy (and girl) should have a nice tool belt to do home improvement projects. "What you have a leaky sink? Let me get my tool belt!!!!"

Now truth be known i haven't done roofing in years, and then it was a metal roof not an asphalt shingle. 'But hell' I figured, 'how hard could it be.' And I probably know enough about what I doing to buff the rest. I mean it works for me professionally.

Roof requires three things to come together at the same time: good weather, materials, and cooperative workers. This took several weeks to get together. But after several false starts we finally got to start working. The shed was in pretty bad shape. But we had hammers and tool belts!!!

The roof stripped off easier then I had expected. And surprisingly enough the wood was in very good condition. Thank goodness for small miracles, no patching in plywood!!! One of the front molding beams was rotten (not load bearing) so we replaced all of them. Which turned out to a far easier fix then i was guessing, which of course made me very concerned, this was going far too well. Something bad was going to happen, very bad.

So a little tar paper and a nearly thrown out back trying to get the pack of shingles on to the roof, and we were off. And after awhile AJ was starting not to be so afraid to be up there ^_^. In fairly short time we were making noticeable progress and thanks to a very well placed tree we were in the shade almost the entire time. Which even though it was a very nice day (compared to what we have seen around here) made this adventure much more bearable.

And then there was the last full shingle. So why do i look like i am not done yet? That because there is a second little roof that needed attention that was not in the original request. But after looking at its poor state, I took pity on it and put it out of its misery. Now all the rot fears I had for the shed were materialized in this little utility closest. I wish i took some pictures of it before i patched together a new roof for it, but after some swearing and beating it with a large hammer, we were able to pull together a respectable little roof.

So all in all, project was a success and since its just a shed and no one is going to care if it leaks, the roof is perfect. So no broken bones, and only a few sore muscles, not bad, not bad at all.

In the long run

As I had mentioned before for some reason unfathomable to me, i have started running on a consistent nature. Actually I do know why I started running again, i want to lose the last of the 'college' fat that i picked during grad school, and trying to stop eating doesn't seem like a good plan. So I have managed to keep a up a three day a week, 3/4 miles a day running schedule. And I have noticed a few things, I am not running all that must faster, but I am recovering a hell of a lot faster then i did at the beginning of the season. The first month i would run three miles and then my legs would be sore and stiff for days afterwards, usually ending with me running the next time with legs still sore from the first. But slowly that started to get better; soon i would only hurt the following day but would be fine by the next time to go running. Finally now i only am only sore (and its really just sore i don't hurt like i used to) just for a couple hours after running and by that evening I am doing good. With of course means i need to start running longer and harder ^_^ So I set myself a new goal for this summer, I wanted to run from my place to around Lake Elkhorn and back. The route!! This run would be just a hair over 5.5 miles (a way a bird flys, there are a lot of elevation changes on this route). I figured that would be a fairly good goal i could reach by the end of the summer. Well this morning I finished the run in about an hour. ( I know I was shocked too) It was a shockingly great morning, (its almost lunch time, i still have the windows open its so nice out there) the plan was to run just to Lake Elkhorn then back, which is right at 4 miles round trip. This is (was i guess now) the upper limit of my running range, but since I didn't have to go to work today I wouldn't mind the extra time this morning. So i made it to the lake and I noticed that I was still feeling fairly strong. My legs hadn't started hurting yet (they normally do a little at two miles) and nothing had cramped up on me, so i figured what the hell, I'll run around the lake and see how far I could make it back before my legs gave out underneath me. The lake was shockingly crowded for a weekday late morning as usual. And about halfway around the lake i started regretting my foolishness, but I pushed on telling myself, "All you have to do is keep running." For some reason in my tired stupor that actually worked i a continued going. The run back actually was easier as i felt there was a gentle push behind me prodding me along, and obvious sign that i was hallucinating. But I managed to slowly work my way back and made the whole loop without stopping. I stopped at the apartment complexes gym on the way back and weighted myself for the first time since I started running. I have lost eight pounds since I started running. That may not seem like all that much, but I was far from being considered over weight. Eight pounds is about 5% of my total body weight.


On a unrelated side note, the angry noisy downstairs neighbors are moving out today (actually they are getting kicked out ^_^)!!!!!!!! Now I am going to meet up with a buddy from work for lunch to celebrate the wonderful weather. I think this is starting to turn out to be a really great day!!!!

Random Bits

"I waste my life waiting for my life to happen"

And for you viewing pleasure, seemingly random pictures arranged into a grid.





I stole this from Greg, who got this from Karina... Have fun doing it.

Here are the rules:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page of results, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The Questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

Running down a dream

so for some strange reason i have started running. Now i had ran a little last year, but at best i only managed once a week. This winter, since snowboarding was nearly a wash, i started running on a treadmill. Now my personal opinion on treadmills and stationary bikes are that they are like masturbation; it gets the job done but its not nearly as much fun as the real thing. Now i had thought i was doing pretty good with the treadmill thing. I was running twice a week and according to the little readout i was running like 3 miles. Though now i realize that 3 miles on a treadmill has nothing to do with 3 miles in reality.

My 'friend' Noah (aka Running Nazi) suggested that we should start running after work on the airport loop (he did suggest this back when it was cooler then it is right now). So twice a week we started running after work (aka the death march). I quickly noticed my body thought this was a bad idea, i mean a very bad idea!!!! I would make it about 1.5 miles and my legs would knot up into a painful ball of objection. Of course this was nothing to the shin splints i started getting a couple weeks later. If you are familiar with these then you know what i am talking about. If you haven't then you don't run.

Slowly over the next month or so, the running became easier and the legs stop hurting as much, that was until the heat of summer kicked in. One day after work i was so over heated that i nearly collapsed on the trail. Both Running Nazi and I agreed the running needs to switch to a morning running routine. But because neither of us liked the idea of using the company provided showers, this forced me to run by myself near my apartment. so now i find myself waking up early just to go run around my area for no good reason then it has become habit. and i am a creature of habit.

So twice a week was becoming to easy to run my ~3.5 miles i bumped it up to three times a week (it also helped i was getting harassed by the running nazi) and i noticed something interesting. and by interesting i mean something that hurt a lot. My leg started hurting just below the knee on the shin. This seemed strange since there is no muscle there to speak of. it actually felt like the bone itself was hurting and it was getting worst. Now i am known to ignore pain to keep doing the silly things i do, but hurting badly for an entire day made me wonder if i should really do something about that.

My first thought was to look at my wore out running shoes. They are not that bad and they probably still have several more miles left in them. But i go to the shoe anyway. although i dont go to any shoe store, i go to a running shoe store, now the store is not running, that would be interesting. no this was a store that specialize in running shoes and running clothes. Which concerned me a little bring these places tend to mark up prices because well they can. After some fancy measurements they found that the shoes i had been using were completely wrong for my feet. And suggested some actually very comfortable shoes, comfortable and costly shoes.

No matter what sport you play if you have to buy specialty shoes you are going to pay somewhere around $100-$150 no matter how much shoe is actually there. this doesn't make sense to me. should shoes cost by weight or something, if there is 1/10 the shoe shouldn't it cost 1/10 the amount. So i tried out the new shoes this morning, and well its shocking the difference properly fitting shoes can do for a run. i have a little muscle soreness (which is expected) but no major leg soreness like last sunday. I still think i paid too much for shoes, but it was still money well spent. oh well, guess i'll have to keep this up for a while longer.

How to end an evening that no one will forget

Stop poking me with a stick! I am not dead yet!

Posted June 26, 2006

After a while a normal person will begin to wonder how many times you can cheat death. Thankfully I am not even close to be mistaken for normal. I nearly died this weekend or at least got as close as I would want to get. Was it one of my many extreme sports that trying to do me in? Nope, it was an overpriced meal. Now it was not the price of the meal, which of course should have given me a heart attack, it was the meal itself. Actually I am not sure what it was; all I know is that one moment I am fine the next I am lying lifeless on the subway floor.

My friend, who I have always said would be the death of me, wanted to take her old college friend out to eat in DC. So a group of us went to this Moroccan restaurant in south DC. We ate quite bit a food, which was very tasty, and drink some wine, which was alright, and watched some belly dancing, which was very good. Afterwards being remarkably poorer, we decided to go home. The walk back to the metro station was pleasant; my belly was full and head slightly blurred due to the wine. But as we approached the station platform, my stomach began to considerably hurt and my head was noticeably fogger. The train was still several minutes away so I move to the side and squatted next to pole to try to get my head to clear. This wasnt working and I was beginning to feel even worst. About this time the train arrived and my friends moved to get aboard. I got up and realized that was a mistake. I stumbled towards train and tried to say that I was feeling right. I say tried because I do not believe I actually managed to say anything before I went out.

The next part of the story I am telling second hand, because for all intensive purposes I was not there. Somehow I managed to stumble across the station floor and fall through the train door without actually hitting anything or anyone else. When my friends turned around they found me lying lifeless and the train floor with my feet hanging out the door. Now of course my friends had no clue what to do with me at that moment, however thankfully there was plenty of helpful good Samaritans around to give suggestions. This was to pull my feet onto the train so they could get going. Luckily they decided against this suggestion. They tried to wake me up, which I vaguely remember somebody calling my name. This got me to stir a little but then I went under again. At this point they pulled me off the train. Unfortunately I was not responding to calling of my name so they where out of ideas. So as my friend called 911 the rest stared at the lifeless lump on the floor that was their friend. Luckily at this point a 'real' good Samaritan came over to help. She is a school teacher who had been trained in first aid and CPR. She came over and checked my pulse and breathing. I had very weak slow pulse at this point but I was breathing. So she stayed and continued to monitor me for several minutes until I finally came to. Oh, if that really nice school teacher is reading this, thank you very very very very very much!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am not sure if it would have happened anyway or if the passing out triggered it but then I threw up all over my self. This of course made for a lovely scene for the paramedics and police who showed up not moments later. The paramedics began to question me. My head had cleared up fast and I answered everything to best of knowledge, which was limited in regards to the last ten minutes or so. The paramedics asked if I needed to go the hospital, and of course being the hard headed stupid male I told them no I was fine. This said the man who had been passed out for the last several minutes with little to no heart beat, sitting in a puddle of his own bile, and pale as a ghost. The cop decided he needed to put his two cents in worth and said, "No No no! You are either going to the hospital or I am going to lock you up."

I realized instantly that he had a valid argument for this ultimatum. I looked over at the mess I had made and responded, "Yeah, I guess this does look pretty bad, doesnt it?" The cop agreed and I continued, "Well if those are my only two choices, then off to the hospital I go!" So began the second half of the story, but that will have to wait till later.

I smell death on you

Posted July 4, 2006

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me

~ Emily Dickinson

I am finding it rather difficult to write about what happened to me a couple weeks ago. Its not that this keeping me up late at night; actually I have been sleep quite well lately. I dont have trouble talking about what happened. I tend to actually talk it up as if I had cheated death. Maybe in the back of my mind I believe I have and the closer securitization of the incidence that this median requires makes me uncomfortable. I meant to write up the story rather quickly after I got out of the hospital. But I kept finding other things to do and avoiding having to relive that night. It took well over a week to write the first half; I thought well thats it I am over the shock, I should be able to write the second half now in a couple days. Then another week passes and still I have to nearly force myself to sit down here to write the rest of the story. I am not the kind of person who lets their life be defined by fears. There are several friends who would claim that I dont feel fear. I often ride too close to the edge just to feel alive. But as I lie on the ER bed and felt the life flow from my body I knew I was dieing. And through the fog of slipping in and out of conscious blurs of people would appear and disappear. I looked to the side, mainly because I didnt really have choice in the matter and I saw the ER doctor. I had not seen this doctor before, but I knew it was him. He was just standing there watching me. And I remember thinking or saying I cannot tell you which, please do not let me die. I had never been more scared in my life because I knew it was not my choice to make.

I am not sure why I blacked out again in the ER. By this time any effect of the wine had had dissipated. But thankfully that was the last time blacked out (so far) without any ill effects. After few hours everyone was feeling better that I would not drop out again, the staff nurse came in to see me, he told me that they were waiting on some blood work and trying to get me into a regular room, "But that may take awhile, why do you try to get some rest till then?"

"I nearly died three times tonight, I have a tube in one arm, all kinds of cable coming off all parts of my body, there is a defibrillator at my feet, and the smell of death all around me and you expect me to fall asleep!"

Sleep did not come easy that night, of course it did not help that every thirty minutes the blood pressure thingy would pump up. As just as I am about to fall asleep, the thing would go off and about squeeze off my arm. The next morning I am moved in a regular room. Its a single room with hard wood floor and a stone lined bathroom. Thank goodness I blacked out in the good part of town. Although I guess a few play toys are going to have to wait. I guess it could be worst. By seven when they released me I was scratching at the door to let me out.

I prefer to call it a social experiment

Posted July 24, 2006

A few years ago I moved from the sunny Florida to this "lovely" Baltimore/Washington area. During the move I switched banks. This however did not work exactly as I had planned. One day in a rather sarcastic mood, I wrote this letter to my old bank:

############## Federal Credit Union

300 ######### St.

#########, FL ######

To Whom It May Concern:

As a member of your credit union, I was very pleased with the quality of service that I received. So I was very dishearten to close my account when, for work, I moved outside the useful range of your bank. Though not as dishearten as, apparently, you were about losing of a member, because this account I allude to has yet to be closed. My last inquiry requested that the balance of the funds be sent to me and the account closed. This was done as I requested in a prompt and timely fashion. However do to some strange computer glitch; my account was reactivated to deposit the weighted interest for that accounting month of a grand total of $0.22.

At first I found this very humorous to receive account summaries every month of my little nest egg, and hoped someday it would collect enough interest to be a full quarter. However after over a year, I have come to two conclusions: you will not stop sending me account statements, and my nest egg is under the threshold to collect interest. So I feel its time to end this little social experiment.

So this brings up a problem of how I collect my twenty two cents. As it should be apparent by now, I am not concerned about ever receiving the balance of my account. I simply wish the money put to a better use. I personally would love if the sum was to be split among your tellers; everybody gets a penny. They were always nice and helpful people, and deserve this bonus. However since I am sure there are rules and regulations in place about such matters, I assume you will insist on cutting me check for $0.22, and spending $0.37 to send it to me. At which time, I will have to deposit said check so that it may rejoin the previously transferred funds. The nature and means for which you remove the funds I shall leave to your judgment. My only wish is that this account finally be closed.

Sincerely,

Kenneth

After a few months I had forgotten about the letter, when I received a package in the mail. It was a letter for one of the VPs of the bank saying they fixed the computer glitch and thanked me for my help. Attached to the letter in a small plastic bag was a shiny new quarter.

Cheese Blues

Posted Feb 18, 2007

In life, sometimes the things you love you cannot have. For me that is cheese. I have an allergy to milk based products. Now this is not a lactose problem; that I could take a pill for. No, it's more like someone who is allergic to cats, if only the cat got inside you and wouldn't leave for a week. I can give up milk for soy replacements. They are not as good but it works, and first thing in the morning I cannot be expected to put together anything more complicated then cereal. But no matter how much they advance the art of soy based replacements, they cannot get the pure joy of real cheese. And of the many wonderful creations I miss so is mac & cheese. I don't mean the cheap stovetop kind you find a box, but the real kind you make from scratch and cook in the oven. The crispy skin on the top, the hot gooey center, and the firm penne pasta makes the casserole something truly heavenly. But like many things I love I cannot have it.

So my little non-dairy doldrums was momentarily lifted when I found this recipe for a completely non-dairy Mac & Cheese. I say momentarily because it only lasted long enough for me to make this heinous concoction that goes against all things beautiful in life. Soy milk does not taste like milk; at best you find one that has as little taste as possible. I cannot describe what soy cheese taste like because I do not possess the necessary mastery of the English language to truly convey how disturbing foul it tasted. And when you combine these two ingredients you create something that should never have been. It does however create something that resembles the target meal from a distance. If one was to get too close you would quickly realize was amiss for it has the smell of molten Playdough. Then if you were to taste it, you would wonder why you were not tipped off by the smell and regret your foolishness.

Don't get me wrong, I have hope for the future. I am sure that one day some food scientist will come up with someway to make a non-dairy version of these foods that are just a good as the original. I look forward to that glorious future.

Keeping to the spirit of this blog

I am not anti-social; I just hate being around stupid people which greatly limits my social circle.

Rage is amazing thing. It does not fade or evaporate. All feelings and emotions temper with time but rage. It festers and pools in the recesses of your heart. Waiting to flood out. Maybe rage is not truly emotion. Rage does not follow any of the normal rules of emotions. Rage is a virus, it works its way in, creates more of it own, spreads to others around you, and no amount of "meds" will get rid of it. A couple days ago I experienced a max build up of rage. Someone couldn't even say hi without me wanting to bite their head off. You can even feel it boiling trying to get out; wanting to be free to spread to others. This doesn't happen often, but it happens to everyone.

How can there be equality when people are not equal? Two brothers, adopted, grow up in a loving family, given all the opportunities that could be given within their social bracket. One brother will do well; one will not. One has a higher mental potential, a focused mind, and strong work ethic. The other was not as blessed; he will struggle through life never reach feats that seem so simple to his brother. Anger will fester rotten him from the inside. Jealousy and resentment will harden him as a person and he will learn to hate his brother. His brother not knowing any better will always feel guilty for this, and both will suffer.

Shattered glass upon the floor shines the new day's sun.

Reflecting hundred times over the light for you wish not to see.

Bending, folding the world outside into a kaleidoscope within your mind.

The madding world at the doorsteps rips you out from the inside.

For the world is the glass you see,

And it is only the illusion that keeps you sane.

(Wow, I don't even know what I was smoking when I wrote that)

Reasons are the lies we tell ourselves so that we can sleep at night. In the end there is only yes and no; the rest is meaningless.

First time

So I had a blog on myspace i used to update, but i never liked that site very much so i stopped. Like kicking someone when they are down, it seemed like the thing to do. i am not sure what i am going to put in this little hole of the intrawebs, but this is a blog i can put down any crap i feel like. Its not like anyone going to read this anyway, so it doesn't really matter. Maybe i'll grab so of my better post from the old blog and repost them over here. So as you may have guessed this was just a test post; the good stuff comes later :)