How was your day? Part 8

[GoTeamGirl]

Wow! I'm glad nobody was hurt, 'chutes. One of my friends had a similar experience. Deers and cars just don't mix...

My school newspaper meeting was rescheduled for a third time to this Thursday. My school had a two-hour delay today, so the two tests I was supposed to take were canceled and will be taken tomorrow (Spanish and Chemistry). And we went to Confession today during Religion class. I have to say, I liked it better when the teacher left the chapel last year, whereas this year's teacher stayed. It's a little intimidating with them in there.

I can't wait until next year, though. The second half of this year hasn't been that good, so I'm hoping that the new year will be better. My friend already started making New Year's resolutions, and asked me mine. I don't know yet, so I told her as a joke that it was to ask more questions. (This being funny because I already ask a lot of questions, and everyone would probably run away if I vowed to ask more than normal.)

[Cloud23465]

Well... I've been in the new house for about 6 days now. We still don't have all of the stuff out of the other house so things as far as unpacking are going slow. It's not fun trying to get used to a new house when you've been sick for the past week and a half but i'm trying to make the best of it. I love having carpet again though :biggergrin:. I've got my Diecast cases on the wall and there filled back up... and I also remembered how many diecast i got and i need to get another case someday. I did get a nice desk and retired my old one. Check it out here (http://www.sauder.com/furniture/product.asp?p=687) Living in a military area makes finding good prices on furniture pretty easy cause there always having there biggest sale of the year every weekend :laugh:. I ran cable to my room yesterday afternoon and had to go under the craw space.... that about as fun as getting teeth pulled but i finally have cable though it's not on my tv (it's on my tv tunner of my pc) I'm going to refinish my enterainment center hopefully in the next few days so i can get my tv in the room and get my surround sound, playstation, dvd player and other things unpacked. All in all it's getting better slowly... I have smooth surfaces to draw on now so when i get the time ill kick some artwork out soon. Well i'm beat so i'm going to Zzz :sleeping:...:P

[Sir Sebastian]

I'll just add my last two cents to the alcohol discussion I seem to have missed.

To my defense, I usually don't get that wasted, and I can't figure out how it got that far. Normally it takes a lot more than beer to get me in that condition. Maybe some chick slipped me roofie.. :)

Anyway, drinking has a negative stigma attached to it, and when people talk about alcohol consumption, the image automatically is someone getting plastered. There's so much more to it than the abuse of the stuff.

Personally, I like the finer spirits: whisky, cognac, a nice red wine every now and then. It's the overall experience of the thing: the smell, the taste, and the resulting relaxation. Nothing beats a good book and a tumbler of peaty scotch (neat of course, no form of water sullies my drinks).

And then there are times when you just need to get hammered.

Basically, it all comes down to personal choice and responsibility. You shouldn't look down on people who choose to enjoy the stuff, or abstain completely because of the negative image you have. Try it before you judge it.

[jeriddian]

I'll just add my last two cents to the alcohol discussion I seem to have missed.

To my defense, I usually don't get that wasted, and I can't figure out how it got that far. Normally it takes a lot more than beer to get me in that condition. Maybe some chick slipped me roofie.. :)

Anyway, drinking has a negative stigma attached to it, and when people talk about alcohol consumption, the image automatically is someone getting plastered. There's so much more to it than the abuse of the stuff.

Personally, I like the finer spirits: whisky, cognac, a nice red wine every now and then. It's the overall experience of the thing: the smell, the taste, and the resulting relaxation. Nothing beats a good book and a tumbler of peaty scotch (neat of course, no form of water sullies my drinks).

And then there are times when you just need to get hammered.

Basically, it all comes down to personal choice and responsibility. You shouldn't look down on people who choose to enjoy the stuff, or abstain completely because of the negative image you have. Try it before you judge it.

I have tried it. Did not care for it one bit myself. It's fine to appreciate a good liquor every now and then, and young men do have a tendency to 'overdo' it now and then ( I did once or twice, I admit). As long as you do it responsibly (which means rarely), it's not a problem (which also means stuff like when you know you've had too much, you let someone else drive you home, and stuff like that.) :)

[TransWarpDrive]

I'll just add my last two cents to the alcohol discussion I seem to have missed.

To my defense, I usually don't get that wasted, and I can't figure out how it got that far. Normally it takes a lot more than beer to get me in that condition. Maybe some chick slipped me roofie.. :)

Anyway, drinking has a negative stigma attached to it, and when people talk about alcohol consumption, the image automatically is someone getting plastered. There's so much more to it than the abuse of the stuff.

Personally, I like the finer spirits: whisky, cognac, a nice red wine every now and then. It's the overall experience of the thing: the smell, the taste, and the resulting relaxation. Nothing beats a good book and a tumbler of peaty scotch (neat of course, no form of water sullies my drinks).

And then there are times when you just need to get hammered.

Basically, it all comes down to personal choice and responsibility. You shouldn't look down on people who choose to enjoy the stuff, or abstain completely because of the negative image you have. Try it before you judge it.

Agreed. The key to sensible alcohol consumption is to know your limits - don't drink any more than you can comfortably handle; and don't mix different kinds of alcohol (for instance, don't drink beer, wine, and whiskey together - you'll get sick to your stomach for sure). Also, never, never, drink and drive - it's too dangerous; and the authorities are really getting tough on drunk drivers. It's just not worth the risk.

And I also agree with Sir Sebastian about the relaxation factor. I myself like to mix a bourbon and Coke, put a jazz CD in the player, slip on the headphones and listen to the music while sipping my drink. It's a pleasant way to mellow out on a Friday or Saturday night.

[campy]

Nothing beats a good book and a tumbler of peaty scotch Oh, I don't know. A Bruckner symphony and some XO Armagnac
in a snifter are about as close to perfection as I can imagine.

[jeriddian]

Nothing beats a good book and a tumbler of peaty scotch Oh, I don't know. A Bruckner symphony and some XO Armagnac
in a snifter are about as close to perfection as I can imagine.

For me, it's Beethoven's 5th at 90 decibels and a fine 20 year old port.:biggergrin:

[campy]

Nothing beats a good book and a tumbler of peaty scotch Oh, I don't know. A Bruckner symphony and some XO Armagnac
in a snifter are about as close to perfection as I can imagine.

For me, it's Beethoven's 5th at 90 decibels and a fine 20 year old port.:biggergrin:I love a good port. Got any recommendations?

I uncorked a bottle of Graham's "Six Grapes" last night. It was pretty good.

[lunchmeat]

MD 20/20 and Ding Dongs? :) In seriousness, I'm rather fond Drambui, music varies with mood.

[jeriddian]

Nothing beats a good book and a tumbler of peaty scotch Oh, I don't know. A Bruckner symphony and some XO Armagnac
in a snifter are about as close to perfection as I can imagine.

For me, it's Beethoven's 5th at 90 decibels and a fine 20 year old port.:biggergrin:I love a good port. Got any recommendations?

I uncorked a bottle of Graham's "Six Grapes" last night. It was pretty good.

The Graham's is a good inexpensive port. In the $20 to $30 range, that's a nice choice. Taylor makes several ports in this more inexpesive range as well, and some of them are good, although I admit some of them were not to my taste. In the $80 to $100 range, I would consider the Dow's Port '94 vintage. I've had a bottle of that and thought it was excellent. Fonseca vineyards is another consideration. Graham also makes a vintage port in this price range. However, the key is what you are looking for. There are many flavors to choose from with large variety between the light rubies and tawny's, to the richer LBV and vintage varieties.:)

[GoTeamGirl]

I get to skip Math tomorrow!!!!!

I'm really excited. My friend and I are actually going to my former Religion teacher's class instead (with the permission of both teachers) to get them more...involved, I guess, than they actually are. I miss that teacher so much, he's really nice, and he gave me some good advice about the future (well, college).

On another futuristic note, my Spanish teacher went on a tangent about how we are put in debt all our lives starting in college. I could see his point but...it was Spanish class. And I don't know how we got on that subject.

The ask the school newspaper also got questions, so I'm happy. There were only two, but I was expecting none, so I'm really pleased.

[campy]

On another futuristic note, my Spanish teacher went on a tangent about how we are put in debt all our lives starting in college. Who's this 'we'? I wasn't; mrs c wasn't; our girls weren't. (Okay, one daughter borrowed about $11K, which we're paying off over I think 10 years. AFAIK, a 22-y-o woman's life expectancy is longer than that. :rolleyes: )

[GoTeamGirl]

On another futuristic note, my Spanish teacher went on a tangent about how we are put in debt all our lives starting in college. Who's this 'we'? I wasn't; mrs c wasn't; our girls weren't. (Okay, one daughter borrowed about $11K, which we're paying off over I think 10 years. AFAIK, a 22-y-o woman's life expectancy is longer than that. :rolleyes:

I don't know specifically who he was referring to, but it was a more general we that mostly applied to our class. I honestly don't know where the conversation came from, but he seemed very passionate. Afterwards one of the guys in my class said, "What else bothers you?" :P

[lunchmeat]

[quote=campy;7670]
The Graham's is a good inexpensive port. In the $20 to $30 range, that's a nice choice. Taylor makes several ports in this more inexpesive range as well, and some of them are good, although I admit some of them were not to my taste. In the $80 to $100 range, I would consider the Dow's Port '94 vintage. I've had a bottle of that and thought it was excellent. Fonseca vineyards is another consideration. Graham also makes a vintage port in this price range. However, the key is what you are looking for. There are many flavors to choose from with large variety between the light rubies and tawny's, to the richer LBV and vintage varieties.:)

I'll have to try those, I like port.

I once knew a girl named Tawny, er, never mind......:rolleyes:

[Fireand'chutes77]

Nothing beats a good book and a tumbler of peaty scotch Oh, I don't know. A Bruckner symphony and some XO Armagnac
in a snifter are about as close to perfection as I can imagine.

For me, it's Beethoven's 5th at 90 decibels and a fine 20 year old port.:biggergrin:I love a good port. Got any recommendations?

I uncorked a bottle of Graham's "Six Grapes" last night. It was pretty good.

The Graham's is a good inexpensive port. In the $20 to $30 range, that's a nice choice. Taylor makes several ports in this more inexpesive range as well, and some of them are good, although I admit some of them were not to my taste. In the $80 to $100 range, I would consider the Dow's Port '94 vintage. I've had a bottle of that and thought it was excellent. Fonseca vineyards is another consideration. Graham also makes a vintage port in this price range. However, the key is what you are looking for. There are many flavors to choose from with large variety between the light rubies and tawny's, to the richer LBV and vintage varieties.:)
*Pulls out paper and pencil*

Should I be writing this down? :biggergrin: :laugh: :P

[TransWarpDrive]

Nothing beats a good book and a tumbler of peaty scotch Oh, I don't know. A Bruckner symphony and some XO Armagnac
in a snifter are about as close to perfection as I can imagine.

For me, it's Beethoven's 5th at 90 decibels and a fine 20 year old port.:biggergrin:I love a good port. Got any recommendations?

I uncorked a bottle of Graham's "Six Grapes" last night. It was pretty good.

The Graham's is a good inexpensive port. In the $20 to $30 range, that's a nice choice. Taylor makes several ports in this more inexpesive range as well, and some of them are good, although I admit some of them were not to my taste. In the $80 to $100 range, I would consider the Dow's Port '94 vintage. I've had a bottle of that and thought it was excellent. Fonseca vineyards is another consideration. Graham also makes a vintage port in this price range. However, the key is what you are looking for. There are many flavors to choose from with large variety between the light rubies and tawny's, to the richer LBV and vintage varieties.:)
*Pulls out paper and pencil*

Should I be writing this down? :biggergrin: :laugh: :P

Good idea - you never know when there'll be a pop quiz...
:laugh: (JK) :laugh:

[jeriddian]

Nothing beats a good book and a tumbler of peaty scotch Oh, I don't know. A Bruckner symphony and some XO Armagnac
in a snifter are about as close to perfection as I can imagine.

For me, it's Beethoven's 5th at 90 decibels and a fine 20 year old port.:biggergrin:I love a good port. Got any recommendations?

I uncorked a bottle of Graham's "Six Grapes" last night. It was pretty good.

The Graham's is a good inexpensive port. In the $20 to $30 range, that's a nice choice. Taylor makes several ports in this more inexpesive range as well, and some of them are good, although I admit some of them were not to my taste. In the $80 to $100 range, I would consider the Dow's Port '94 vintage. I've had a bottle of that and thought it was excellent. Fonseca vineyards is another consideration. Graham also makes a vintage port in this price range. However, the key is what you are looking for. There are many flavors to choose from with large variety between the light rubies and tawny's, to the richer LBV and vintage varieties.:)
*Pulls out paper and pencil*

Should I be writing this down? :biggergrin: :laugh: :P

Naw... .....you got four more years before you able to apply the knowledge.:P:harhar::laugh:

[campy]

*Pulls out paper and pencil*

Should I be writing this down? :biggergrin: :laugh: :P

Naw... .....you got four more years before you able to apply the knowledge.:P:harhar::laugh:Hey, you're never too young for Bruckner symphonies. :laugh:

[GoTeamGirl]

Today was a good day. In chemistry we had to sing a song called "The Atom's Family", which wasn't good but my group got "saved by the bell" quite literally. Then we went to my former religion teacher's class and, well, I can see what he meant by it being a dead class as soon as my friend and I walked in. We told them to ask more questions, any questions, just to get involved in the class. I'm not sure if it worked...

The rest of the day all my classes did nothing with the exception of English. I also got some nice Christmas presents from my friend's, including a Bon Jovi Concert DVD (the Lost Highway one).

[lunchmeat]

We got an early out today, courtesy of our department head, I got some last miunute Christmas shopping in. In keeping with long standing tradition the balance of the day was spent in dissipation.

As Rudyard Kipling put it:

The Betrothed

"You must choose between me and your cigar."
--BREACH OF PROMISE CASE, CIRCA 1885.

Open the old cigar-box, get me a Cuba stout,
For things are running crossways, and Maggie and I are out.

We quarrelled about Havanas--we fought o'er a good cheroot,
And I knew she is exacting, and she says I am a brute.

Open the old cigar-box--let me consider a space;
In the soft blue veil of the vapour musing on Maggie's face.

Maggie is pretty to look at--Maggie's a loving lass,
But the prettiest cheeks must wrinkle, the truest of loves must pass.

There's peace in a Larranaga, there's calm in a Henry Clay;
But the best cigar in an hour is finished and thrown away--

Thrown away for another as perfect and ripe and brown--
But I could not throw away Maggie for fear o' the talk o' the town!

Maggie, my wife at fifty--grey and dour and old--
With never another Maggie to purchase for love or gold!

And the light of Days that have Been the dark of the Days that Are,
And Love's torch stinking and stale, like the butt of a dead cigar--

The butt of a dead cigar you are bound to keep in your pocket--
With never a new one to light tho' it's charred and black to the socket!

Open the old cigar-box--let me consider a while.
Here is a mild Manila--there is a wifely smile.

Which is the better portion--bondage bought with a ring,
Or a harem of dusky beauties, fifty tied in a string?

Counsellors cunning and silent--comforters true and tried,
And never a one of the fifty to sneer at a rival bride?

Thought in the early morning, solace in time of woes,
Peace in the hush of the twilight, balm ere my eyelids close,

This will the fifty give me, asking nought in return,
With only a Suttee's passion--to do their duty and burn.

This will the fifty give me. When they are spent and dead,
Five times other fifties shall be my servants instead.

The furrows of far-off Java, the isles of the Spanish Main,
When they hear my harem is empty will send me my brides again.

I will take no heed to their raiment, nor food for their mouths withal,
So long as the gulls are nesting, so long as the showers fall.

I will scent 'em with best vanilla, with tea will I temper their hides,
And the Moor and the Mormon shall envy who read of the tale of my brides.

For Maggie has written a letter to give me my choice between
The wee little whimpering Love and the great god Nick o' Teen.

And I have been servant of Love for barely a twelvemonth clear,
But I have been Priest of Cabanas a matter of seven year;

And the gloom of my bachelor days is flecked with the cheery light
Of stumps that I burned to Friendship and Pleasure and Work and Fight.

And I turn my eyes to the future that Maggie and I must prove,
But the only light on the marshes is the Will-o'-the-Wisp of Love.

Will it see me safe through my journey or leave me bogged in the mire?
Since a puff of tobacco can cloud it, shall I follow the fitful fire?

Open the old cigar-box--let me consider anew--
Old friends, and who is Maggie that I should abandon you?

A million surplus Maggies are willing to bear the yoke;
And a woman is only a woman, but a good Cigar is a Smoke.

Light me another Cuba--I hold to my first-sworn vows.
If Maggie will have no rival, I'll have no Maggie for Spouse!




-THE END-
Rudyard Kipling's poem: The Betrothed

Or (I got into trouble for submitting this one as a favorite porm in high school literature class, a million years and a billion miles ago:)

The Grave of the Hundred Head

There's a widow in sleepy Chester
Who weeps for her only son;
There's a grave on the Pabeng River,
A grave that the Burmans shun,
And there's Subadar Prag Tewarri
Who tells how the work was done.

A Snider squibbed in the jungle,
Somebody laughed and fled,
And the men of the First Shikaris
Picked up their Subaltern dead,
With a big blue mark in his forehead
And the back blown out of his head.

Subadar Prag Tewarri,
Jemadar Hira Lal,
Took command of the party,
Twenty rifles in all,
Marched them down to the river
As the day was beginning to fall.

They buried the boy by the river,
A blanket over his face--
They wept for their dead Lieutenant,
The men of an alien race--
They made a samadh in his honor,
A mark for his resting-place.

For they swore by the Holy Water,
They swore by the salt they ate,
That the soul of Lieutenant Eshmitt Sahib
Should go to his God in state;
With fifty file of Burman
To open him Heaven's gate.

The men of the First Shikaris
Marched till the break of day,
Till they came to the rebel village,
The village of Pabengmay--
A jingal covered the clearing,
Calthrops hampered the way.

Subadar Prag Tewarri,
Bidding them load with ball,
Halted a dozen rifles
Under the village wall;
Sent out a flanking-party
With Jemadar Hira Lal.

The men of the First Shikaris
Shouted and smote and slew,
Turning the grinning jingal
On to the howling crew.
The Jemadar's flanking-party
Butchered the folk who flew.

Long was the morn of slaughter,
Long was the list of slain,
Five score heads were taken,
Five score heads and twain;
And the men of the First Shikaris
Went back to their grave again,

Each man bearing a basket
Red as his palms that day,
Red as the blazing village--
The village of Pabengmay,
And the "drip-drip-drip" from the baskets
Reddened the grass by the way.

They made a pile of their trophies
High as a tall man's chin,
Head upon head distorted,
Set in a sightless grin,
Anger and pain and terror
Stamped on the smoke-scorched skin.

Subadar Prag Tewarri
Put the head of the Boh
On the top of the mound of triumph,
The head of his son below,
With the sword and the peacock-banner
That the world might behold and know.

Thus the samadh was perfect,
Thus was the lesson plain
Of the wrath of the First Shikaris--
The price of a white man slain;
And the men of the First Shikaris
Went back into camp again.

Then a silence came to the river,
A hush fell over the shore,
And Bohs that were brave departed,
And Sniders squibbed no more;
For the Burmans said
That a kullah's head
Must be paid for with heads five score.

There's a widow in sleepy Chester
Who weeps for her only son;
There's a grave on the Pabeng River,
A grave that the Burmans shun,
And there's Subadar Prag Tewarri
Who tells how the work was done.




-THE END-
Rudyard Kipling's poem: The Grave of the Hundred Head

[jeriddian]

Beautiful words, LM

Kipling is fave of mine too.

[GoTeamGirl]

It's barely the first day of Christmas vacation and already I wish I was back in school.

Today I'm supposed to be going out with friends, later, so hopefully that will be fun. I just hate being in the house, especially with just my dad and sister, especially when one of them is sick(ish) and the other is in a bad mood. Which is why I made plans to be out in the first place.

Oddly, I had a series of pretty disturbing dreams last night. Luckily, I woke my self up during the most disturbing one, which had to do with my school. (The other had to do with tornadoes...)

[jeriddian]

It's barely the first day of Christmas vacation and already I wish I was back in school.

Today I'm supposed to be going out with friends, later, so hopefully that will be fun. I just hate being in the house, especially with just my dad and sister, especially when one of them is sick(ish) and the other is in a bad mood. Which is why I made plans to be out in the first place.

Oddly, I had a series of pretty disturbing dreams last night. Luckily, I woke my self up during the most disturbing one, which had to do with my school. (The other had to do with tornadoes...)

Keep the faith, girl. This too shall pass.:)

[GoTeamGirl]

My mom comes home today. We're supposed to meet her at the airport. I'm excited!

Last night's show was good, and we had a nice time with a bunch of friends.

[campy]

Our daughters came home this afternoon and we just finished decorating the Christmas tree as a family for the first time in several years. Recently it's just been mrs c & me doing that since they went off to college and adult life, but since we put it up so late this year they were able to join in.

[TransWarpDrive]

Right now I'm waiting for my last load of laundry to get done in the clothes dryer. While I started my wash earlier today, I cleaned our upstairs bathroom (not a fun job, but it needed it...:ohwell:). After a dinner of homemade chicken noodle soup, I'm thinking of going to see a movie. I'll either see that new Disney flick "Enchanted," or "Alvin and the Chipmunks."

[Ace Ian Combat]

I saw Alvin and the Chipmunks with the rest of the academic team. It was pretty good, and I found it amusing that Chris Bailey's name was on the beginning credits for animation (or at least I think it was animation, I can't remember right now). Enchanted is one I want to see as well.

[Twila Starla]

I saw Alvin and the Chipmunks with the rest of the academic team. It was pretty good, and I found it amusing that Chris Bailey's name was on the beginning credits for animation (or at least I think it was animation, I can't remember right now). Enchanted is one I want to see as well.

I saw Enchanted, it was really good! Such fun! I'd reccomend it fully! :thumbup:

[Ace Ian Combat]

I've basically had a very bad week. After my grandmother recovered from breaking her hip twice and having her lungs full of carbon monoxide, my other grandmother became ill with massive clots. She passed on last weekend, but it took until Thursday after the memorial (she was cremated, so no funeral) for it to really sink in. I still have to write a way overdue poem for my mentor as well, and Christmas came too fast this year.

[Twila Starla]

I've basically had a very bad week. After my grandmother recovered from breaking her hip twice and having her lungs full of carbon monoxide, my other grandmother became ill with massive clots. She passed on last weekend, but it took until Thursday after the memorial (she was cremated, so no funeral) for it to really sink in. I still have to write a way overdue poem for my mentor as well, and Christmas came too fast this year.

Terribly sorry to hear things are rough, girl. :( You have my best wishes for you and your family this Christmas.

[TransWarpDrive]

Sorry to hear about your grandmother, Ace. Hope the next week goes better for you.

[Ace Ian Combat]

I've basically had a very bad week. After my grandmother recovered from breaking her hip twice and having her lungs full of carbon monoxide, my other grandmother became ill with massive clots. She passed on last weekend, but it took until Thursday after the memorial (she was cremated, so no funeral) for it to really sink in. I still have to write a way overdue poem for my mentor as well, and Christmas came too fast this year.

Terribly sorry to hear things are rough, girl. :( You have my best wishes for you and your family this Christmas.

Thanks. I'm glad that we gave my grandmother her Christmas present early around Thanksgiving though.

[Twila Starla]

I've basically had a very bad week. After my grandmother recovered from breaking her hip twice and having her lungs full of carbon monoxide, my other grandmother became ill with massive clots. She passed on last weekend, but it took until Thursday after the memorial (she was cremated, so no funeral) for it to really sink in. I still have to write a way overdue poem for my mentor as well, and Christmas came too fast this year.

Terribly sorry to hear things are rough, girl. :( You have my best wishes for you and your family this Christmas.

Thanks. I'm glad that we gave my grandmother her Christmas present early around Thanksgiving though.

*whips tears from eyes*

That's awesome that you did that, just beautiful.

[campy]

Many condolences on your loss, AIC.

[GoTeamGirl]

I'm so sorry about your grandmother, AIC. I hope Christmas turns out better.

[Fireand'chutes77]

My condolences. :( Losing someone like that is always hard around Christmas.

[Ace Ian Combat]

Thanks guys. It's always nice to have the support of Internet friends as well as the people you know in real life. Always makes me feel warm inside to know that when I chose Kim Possible as my favorite show it opened up such a great fanbase of potential friends to me.

[lunchmeat]

While here is no way to make it easier, I hope that you have a good Christmas (or whatever you celibrate, I'm not too good at the PC thing), remembering the good times sometimes makes these things a bit less painful. Best wishes.

[jeriddian]

As do I, GTG,

With many condolensces for the loss of your grandmother, I hope you have a Merry Christmas in which you and your family can remember all the good times you had with her thorugh a long and fruitful life.

[campy]

Mother-in-law is here and we just finished the traditional Christmas Eve dinner of mrs campy's family—about 8 kinds of fish, pierogies (Polish dumplings), and other tasty treats. Soon we're going to have dessert, then look at our daughter's pictures from her recent Italy trip and show our cruise photos.

[jeriddian]

A long first day back on call. Twelve hours, twenty patients, three admits.........it don't look good for Christmas day.:dubiety: Duty calls.....

[Cloud23465]

A long first day back on call. Twelve hours, twenty patients, three admits.........it don't look good for Christmas day.:dubiety: Duty calls.....

I'd gladly trade places with you and take your work cause... Moving still tanks (about as fun as getting teeth pulled:biggergrin:) factor it one mean dad and internet router problems for him and you get a bad... uh week?

[campy]

The campy clan shared a delicious Christmas turkey dinner this afternoon, with mother-in-law, sister-in-law, a niece and her hubby, plus a grand-nephew in utero in attendance.

My best present so far: mojito-flavored jellybeans. :P

[jeriddian]

Unfortunately, I called it. Started at 7AM this morning, just now getting home at 10PM. I'll be looking at the new posts quickly and then call it a night. More of the same tomorrow, but I'll wish everyone here a Merry Christmas just the same.:)

[Fireand'chutes77]

...mojito-flavored jellybeans...
They make those? I don't even know what mojito is. :huh: (To Wikipedia!)

EDIT: They now make jellybeans in the flavors of a Cuban cocktail? Wow.

----

I've had a pretty good Christmas. I got pretty much everything I wanted, although my sister got a larger proportion of loot; she got a new sewing maching to replace our old broken one, and also got equipment and thread to go along with it.

Highlights - camping supplies, hiking socks (they have the inner liner and outer Smartwool sock sewn into one), a mesh "attic" for my tent so I can store loose gear in the ceiling, clothes, a "Modern Fighter Aircraft" calendar, Clive Cussler's new book, The Chase, Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods, the annual Christmas boxcar (a tradition begun with my very first Lionel train in 1995), The Incredibles DVD (LOVE that movie), and all three of the Jason Bourne movies. (I *love* that series too; my family and I watched Identity tonight.)

A new joystick is on its way, but it hasn't arrived yet.

In addition, something triggered my dad's memory about a box of train cars he had stored in one of our basement closets. He had a model train set when he was a kid, and he's given me most of what was left when I got into the hobby. However, this particular box (which he had packed in 1994, to judge by the newspaper stuffing) had gotten buried and forgotten in the bowels of this closet under the basement stairs. He'd meant to give me this stuff gradually, in a series of Christmases and birthdays, but it wasn't until today we finally gutted the closet and pulled the box out. Inside was a crossing gate, a signal block tower, two-track-spanning signal bridge, five pieces of rolling stock, and an aluminum two-track-spanning footbridge. It was like Christmas morning all over again. (It made me miss the afternoon showing of AVPC, dammit. :dubiety:)
I cleaned up the gear, and the footbridge and rolling stock are currently involved in the Christmas tree layout. :)

[TransWarpDrive]

A good Christmas at home. Opened gifts with Mom and my younger brother; got a number of DVDs that I wanted - Ratatouille; Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer; Meet the Robinsons; Splash; Batman and Robin. I also got two Star Wars paperbacks - Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter, and Darth Bane: Path of Destruction; as well as the 16-month Star Wars Saga calendar. My hand-made ornaments were well-received, both by family and friends. Mom put hers in a section of her Christmas village, under the tree.
We had roast chicken sandwiches, carrots, and mashed potatoes for our Christmas dinner (we had turkey for Thanksgiving - didn't want to be redundant :P). After dinner, I watched one of my new DVDs - The F.F. movie (I watched Ratatouille this afternoon).
The day went smoothly; no problems at all.
However, I have to go back to work tomorrow...:(
(Blecch!)

[kyojikasshu]

Well, Christmas was fairly decent... I did get a few nice things, and the family get-together went pretty well.

Today at work has been mind-numbingly slow. I'm amazed I've even seen all of eight people in the building today!

[lunchmeat]

Good dinner, good booze, good company. Not a bad day.

[campy]

I've been sick all day. Coughing, chills. I went back to bed for about 2 hours this morning after the progeny headed back to their homes in the east. Couldn't get any writing done.

[kyojikasshu]

I know how it is, campy... sometimes, when I'm sick, I just want to crawl up in my bed and stay there. Sometimes, though, I get some good, if off-the-wall, ideas...

[lunchmeat]

I've been sick all day. Coughing, chills. I went back to bed for about 2 hours this morning after the progeny headed back to their homes in the east. Couldn't get any writing done.
Boy, kids in college and they're still bringing home whatever is going around....
Been through that one myself, I kept thinking that this should have ended when she got out of public scholl. In the immortal words of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation: Sharing is caring :)

[TransWarpDrive]

Back to work...:dubiety:
Had three (count 'em, three) tubs of incoming mail to sort:Saturday's; Monday's (I was off Xmas Eve), and today's. Got it all sorted out and delivered, however. I also ran 3233 invoices through the meter to go out today - that's eight trays of presorted mail! :D
Tonight at home, I began studying a book I bought back in May: "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Theory" by Michael Miller. I want to learn how to read music so I can then learn to play an instrument, like maybe the piano. I've studied "Chapter 1: Pitches and Clefs" tonight.
My musical journey has begun...

[GoTeamGirl]

My Christmas was good. I got a Bon Jovi box set of songs that didn't get released for various reasons, four CDs worth, as well as a DVD of the band's explanations of why the songs weren't released and a bunch of behind the scenes videos, some of which looked like home videos (not taken at home). It's good at showing how an album is put together.

Yesterday was boring. Today shouldn't be much different. I'm going to listen to CD 4 of the box set now. Then...I don't know what I'll do.

[Cloud23465]

Sadly I was flat on my back Christmas day and the day after... I'm not sure what happend or what hit me but I couldn't get out of bed all day on Christmas day unless it was trips to the bathroom. I was dizzy and tired... Gatorade was the only think I could keep down. Yesterday was a bit better... I could get out of bed and sit or stand for periods of 30 minutes to an hour then have to lay down and rest for a few hours. Today compaired to christmas day is 1000x's better. I actually was able to eat and keep it down and I don't feel as dizzy as I had been. I'm just now opening what hand full of christmas presents i had that I never got to open. This is a year I hope to soon put behind me and forget... that's for sure.

[campy]

Sadly I was flat on my back Christmas day and the day after... I'm not sure what happend or what hit me but I couldn't get out of bed all day on Christmas day unless it was trips to the bathroom. I was dizzy and tired... Gatorade was the only think I could keep down. Yesterday was a bit better... I could get out of bed and sit or stand for periods of 30 minutes to an hour then have to lay down and rest for a few hours. Today compaired to christmas day is 1000x's better. I actually was able to eat and keep it down and I don't feel as dizzy as I had been. I'm just now opening what hand full of christmas presents i had that I never got to open. This is a year I hope to soon put behind me and forget... that's for sure.My sympathies, Cloud. I'm still tired, weak and coughing from whatever I picked up a few days ago.

Hope you feel better soon.

[kyojikasshu]

Back to work...:dubiety:
Had three (count 'em, three) tubs of incoming mail to sort:Saturday's; Monday's (I was off Xmas Eve), and today's. Got it all sorted out and delivered, however. I also ran 3233 invoices through the meter to go out today - that's eight trays of presorted mail! :D

We had three tubs of inbound mail yesterday, and five outbound...


It's even quieter today than it was yesterday. I'm just thinking about plans for my day off tomorrow... so far, the best I can come up with is getting a much-needed oil change, and a haircut. I'm not going shopping with my Christmas money until after my birthday, at any rate.

[Cloud23465]

Sadly I was flat on my back Christmas day and the day after... I'm not sure what happend or what hit me but I couldn't get out of bed all day on Christmas day unless it was trips to the bathroom. I was dizzy and tired... Gatorade was the only think I could keep down. Yesterday was a bit better... I could get out of bed and sit or stand for periods of 30 minutes to an hour then have to lay down and rest for a few hours. Today compaired to christmas day is 1000x's better. I actually was able to eat and keep it down and I don't feel as dizzy as I had been. I'm just now opening what hand full of christmas presents i had that I never got to open. This is a year I hope to soon put behind me and forget... that's for sure.My sympathies, Cloud. I'm still tired, weak and coughing from whatever I picked up a few days ago.

Hope you feel better soon.
Thanks, Campy. Today overall was alot better then the past two days. As long as I get a goods night sleep I should be over this fully... then back to the fun of unpacking. We luckly got an extention on the walk through with the city on our old house by a week. I was supposed to be tomorrow but there's no way we would of been done with me down like this.

[jeriddian]

Hope you get better soon, Cloud. I know how that bug can get you down like that for a couple or three days like that. I have a few minutes to wait while I wait for records on a new admit I'm trying to get done, so I can come by here for a short time. If I'm lucky I'll get home around ten or eleven. Long day again. 14 hours yesterday, 13 today. I'll be very glad when Sunday comes.:sick::confused:

[campy]

It's a nice, sunny day here, up in the mid 40s. I went to the dump, then washed my car. Now we'll probably have another snowstorm soon.

[kyojikasshu]

Well, on my day off, with my boss also off, leaving my teammates to fend for themselves...

Shortly before 9 AM, I get a call. A minor thing, and I'm able to answer their question over the phone, but still...

The good news is that they haven't called back since, so I can be fairly certain in assuming that all's quiet. I'll find out about any issues on Monday, I'm sure.

[GoTeamGirl]

I spent today with my best friend at the mall, which we must have walked around at least three times. It was pretty fun. Tomorrow I might do some homework and write an article for my school paper...

I hope next year is a good year.

[TransWarpDrive]

I had a wonderful day! :D
One of my co-workers bought me two tickets to the "Star Wars" exhibit currently at the Museum of Science and Industry (until Jan. 6) as a Christmas gift. I invited a close friend of mine to accompany me to view the exhibit, and he eagerly accepted. We met at the museum this morning (he lives waaay down on the south end of Go City, while I reside in the western 'burbs); and we toured the "Star Wars" exhibit, as well as the Henry Crown Space Center (where they have the Apollo 8 spacecraft on display) and the U-505 submarine exhibit. My friend was impressed by all the exhibits, especially the U-505. The last time he'd been at the museum was 10 years ago, before they moved the sub indoors. He only got to tour the boat's interior then. His initial reaction to seeing the sub's exterior was to comment on how he never realized just how big it was. I agreed with him; just going inside it - which was all we'd ever gotten to do in years past - did not allow one to comprehend the boat's true size. We didn't tour the sub's interior today; tickets for that were all sold out. But we did walk all the way around her exterior, and my friend was fascinated by the displays surrounding the boat. We both agreed that the U-505's current display really makes its history come alive, as well as preserving it for future generations to enjoy.
The "Star Wars" exhibit was just great! They had models of the various spaceships on display, as well as some of the costumes and props used in the movies. What they did throughout the exhibit was present some feature of the movies - say, the droids in "Star Wars" - and compare it to its real-life counterpart. A couple examples: the droid display compared C-3PO, R2-D2, and their peers to our real-world robots; while the display on Darth Vader compared his armored life-support suit and breath mask to real-life prosthetics used by humans today.
All in all, it was a marvelous exhibit, and I'm glad I got a chance to go see it. I'm so grateful to that girl at work who gave me those tickets; that was a completely unexpected gift (which made it that much better).
Between those tickets, and my finishing my ornaments early for once, I think this has been one of my best Christmases ever. :)

[Greenmandmz]

I'm so exhausted after these past two days. Yesterday was my grandfather's wake, and today the funeral. It was a very beautiful ceremony, my disadvantage being that it was entirely in Spanish so I only got bits and pieces, but I got the gist of everything. The most powerful moments didn't need words.

Now I'm home, and everyone is just relaxing and waiting until Monday.

I've basically had a very bad week. After my grandmother recovered from breaking her hip twice and having her lungs full of carbon monoxide, my other grandmother became ill with massive clots. She passed on last weekend, but it took until Thursday after the memorial (she was cremated, so no funeral) for it to really sink in. I still have to write a way overdue poem for my mentor as well, and Christmas came too fast this year.
Well, this certainly has been the month for grandparents passing on. I also give my condolences on the deaths of each of your respective grandparents. I also lost my grandmother about a month ago (on my mom's side). She had been in poor health for several years now, and then just last month her body finally just succumbed to her poor health. Naturally, it hit my mom the hardest. She flew out for the funeral a few weeks ago, but is now back home. She is dealing with as best she can given all my family has been through during the past 2 months. I didn't know my grandmother all that well. Last time I saw her must have been 12 or 13 years ago, so it didn't hit me nearly as hard as it did my mom, but I still feel because it is a death in the family. I've seen very few them in my lifetime, so I guess I'm fortunate in that regard. I got to visit my parents this Christmas which I just back from and my mom seemed to be doing a little bit better than the time I last talked to her previously.

It was a good Christmas visit. Hopefully, things will finally slow down for them and they can finally get some breathing room. It would do everyone in the family some good.

[TransWarpDrive]

My condolences on the death of your grandmother too, Green.

[kyojikasshu]

That is weird... considering I lost one grandfather right before Christmas, and fifteen years later, the other one passed right before Thanksgiving. Just an amazingly weird coincidence, I suppose.


Today's been pretty boring. Waiting, anticipating, not knowing what to expect this evening...

[jeriddian]

My condolences on the death of your grandmother too, Green.

Same here, GMZ. Funny thing, yesterday was the fourth anniversary of my mother's passing. It definitely seems like the month for it.:ohwell:

[kyojikasshu]

I had a fairly nice birthday dinner with the family... and I got a few nifty gifts. Most appreciated is season 8 of Stargate SG-1. I finally get to see how the end of season 7 was resolved, since for some inexplicable reason, I have kept missing it on SciFi.

[Greenmandmz]

@TWD & jeriddian: Thank you. Deaths in the family are always hard to cope with, but they are one of the realities of life.

As for my day, I was on duty here at the station, but didn't do a whole lot. We're currently in midst of Christmas & New Years' leave schedules, so duty right now is pretty light.

[lunchmeat]

.....As for my day, I was on duty here at the station, but didn't do a whole lot. We're currently in midst of Christmas & New Years' leave schedules, so duty right now is pretty light.

Same here, not getting a lot accomplished, since even the people that I need to troubleshoot stuff are on leave, on the plus side nobody has shown up with any hot button items for the last two weeks. Downside, I'm sure things will go nuts next Monday.

[Sir Sebastian]

I've been developing a light cough for the past few days, and last night it got to the point where it got phlegmy and kept me awake. When I woke up this morning, my throat felt like it was on fire. It's fine now, but I also got a fever. Apparently, I have the flu.:sick:

That's just great. Second New Year's Eve in a row that I get to spend home alone. Though, last year it was by choice, and instead of getting wasted, I snacked on some chips and read fanfiction. Same thing this year, I guess.:ohwell:

With any luck, next Wednesday the parts I ordered will arrive, and I'll be assembling my new computer :biggergrin::thumbup:

[campy]

I've been developing a light cough for the past few days, and last night it got to the point where it got phlegmy and kept me awake. When I woke up this morning, my throat felt like it was on fire. It's fine now, but I also got a fever. Apparently, I have the flu.:sick:

That's just great. Second New Year's Eve in a row that I get to spend home alone. Though, last year it was by choice, and instead of getting wasted, I snacked on some chips and read fanfiction. Same thing this year, I guess.:ohwell:That's a shame, Sir S.

Personally, I tired of watching years end and begin a long time ago. Other than 2000, 2001 (the real century/millennium change :) ) and this year, when we were on a cruise, I stay home and go to bed well before midnight even if I'm healthy. That's tonight's plan.

[jeriddian]

Same here, campy. My condolensces to Double 'S' on the flu. I know whereof he speaks. I am now coming off a week of on-all duty and did not get more than 3 hours sleep on all nights except one. I came down with a mild viral cold that's developed into a pretty deep pneumonitis. I'm off now for about a week, so I'm going to spend most of today and tomorrow in bed and recover. There are a few things I have to get done today, but they'll take me only an hour or so. I'll probably brew plenty of hot green tea, cover myself up in a blanket, and write Fan Fic when I'm awake. I want to finish my delayed Christmas story while the season's feeling is still fresh. After that I have to write the script of the video as it's getting to be time to attend to that, which I need to finish in about a couple of weeks. On Wednesday, I have to take my Suburban to a specialty shop in Lubbock (140 miles north of here) to get some work done on it. Then I have to drive to Dallas to pack up the rest of my house. The movers come in two weeks to move everything out (I hope. I still have to arrange that, which I am trying to do today.) Then the house can go on the market February 1st as planned.

And then I have to set my schedule for studying for my boards.....:sick::dubiety:

Like Kim says in Car Alarm, "Why is this never easy?.......":huh::rolleyes::P

[kyojikasshu]

Well, today (Monday) was slow as heck, as there was virtually nobody in the building at work. The one frustrating thing was that DHL had told us to have our packages ready by 2 PM, expecting an early pickup, but they didn't show up until after closing time. I called the local hub at 4:40 to express my displeasure, but I only got the voice mail at the dispatch line.

And, like I said, they did show up - I was already in my car when the truck pulled up. But, in my voice mail, I did say that if they didn't show up by 5, the packages would be in the drop box. (We only actually had one package, but that's beside the point - they gave us the expectation that they'd be early, and they were late instead.)

The only thing I had to do was gather the end-of-month data for my manager. We had no jobs, and we only received two packages, so it was not like there was a whole lot else to do. I ended up spending a considerable amount of time surfing as a result.

Tonight's been boring, since I'm home all by myself.

[lunchmeat]

Our intern, working the holidays between semesters, was the only one in the building besides myself. The place is a modified airplane hanger and can be kind of spooky when it's empty. There wasn't a lot to do since all the peole who I needed to talk to were on leave. I'm saving mine up for when the weather is good enough to go enjoy myself outside, hiking, fishing, roadcutting, that sort of thing.

[GoTeamGirl]

Happy New Year everyone!

Yesterday I visited some family and then counted down to midnight at home. Today I need to do homework before school starts again.

[kyojikasshu]

It was a quiet New Year's Eve for me.

Anyway, I'm currently over at my sister's house, and posting on her PC. I'll be working on setting up the Vista driver for her Nintendo WiFi USB Connector a little later... I found that I had to redownload it, because she hadn't downloaded the complete ZIP file (it was about 6% of the size it was supposed to be).

I tell you, though, this mobile broadband she has on her laptop is lightning-fast... that 1.7MB file downloaded in just a few seconds!

I'm really irritated, though, since I'd planned on getting more work done on my strips today, and without power, I can't access any of it. I may just break down and get a lapper myself when I decide to upgrade.

[campy]

I just came back from shoveling the first snow of 2008 from my driveway. :ohwell:Yesterday I had to deal with the last snow of 2007. :mad:

Anybody know if Al Gore is visiting Massachusetts these days?

[lunchmeat]

Given his level of hot air production, I don't think you'd be dealing with snow.....

[Greenmandmz]

Happy New Year everyone!

Yesterday I visited some family and then counted down to midnight at home. Today I need to do homework before school starts again.
Indeed. Happy New Year to everyone at GJA! Here's to hoping your day is more exciting than mine is! :laugh:

[kyojikasshu]

Given his level of hot air production, I don't think you'd be dealing with snow.....

I think that's exactly why he's so keen on the former VP coming to the Bay State...

Well, I'm home and I have power. That's always a good thing.

[campy]

Given his level of hot air production, I don't think you'd be dealing with snow.....

I think that's exactly why he's so keen on the former VP coming to the Bay State...Actually, no. I was wondering if I was a victim of the phenomenon some commentators have dubbed the Gore Effect (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Gore+Effect) (Definition 1).

:alumnus:

[jeriddian]

Given his level of hot air production, I don't think you'd be dealing with snow.....

I think that's exactly why he's so keen on the former VP coming to the Bay State...Actually, no. I was wondering if I was a victim of the phenomenon some commentators have dubbed the Gore Effect (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Gore+Effect) (Definition 1).

:alumnus:

Ugh... ....how positively Gory........:laugh::laugh::laugh::P

[TransWarpDrive]

Last night I went to a local tavern and hoisted a few to celebrate the New Year. Had a good time, and despite the amount of alcohol I drank, I did not have a hangover this morning. Today I helped my brother shovel the snow off our driveway. Then this afternoon, I went to pay the rent on my storage cubicle and then put some gas in my car. Now, after a steak dinner, I'm doing my laundry while posting on our forum.
Happy New Year, everybody! :D

[lunchmeat]

You're lucky, our local beer joint was closed New years (I don't grasp their business plan, they're often closed on weekends and virtually every holiday where people might want to hoist a glass) so I ended up watching DVDs and having a couple of drinks from the home bar. I didn't want to drive the 25 miles tothe nearest major town since I think the penalty for having passed within half a mile of anywhere that alcohol is present is summary execution.

I learned an interesting thing about Gore from a buddy of mine who was part of the Camp David security force during the Bill and Hillary years (what he's had to say about them, corroborated by other sources, has further cemented my commitment not to vote for her). Former VP and failed presidential candidate Al apparently detests the outdoors and avoided going up to the retreat if at all possible. Sort of a strange stance for a guy that's suppossed to be Mr. Enironment.

[TransWarpDrive]

You're lucky, our local beer joint was closed New years (I don't grasp their business plan, they're often closed on weekends and virtually every holiday where people might want to hoist a glass) so I ended up watching DVDs and having a couple of drinks from the home bar. I didn't want to drive the 25 miles tothe nearest major town since I think the penalty for having passed within half a mile of anywhere that alcohol is present is summary execution.

I learned an interesting thing about Gore from a buddy of mine who was part of the Camp David security force during the Bill and Hillary years (what he's had to say about them, corroborated by other sources, has further cemented my commitment not to vote for her). Former VP and failed presidential candidate Al apparently detests the outdoors and avoided going up to the retreat if at all possible. Sort of a strange stance for a guy that's suppossed to be Mr. Enironment.

I don't know - IMHO, you don't necessarily have to be an outdoorsman in order to want clean air and pure drinking water for future generations. I myself used to go on camping trips when I was a Boy Scout ("A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..." :P), but nowadays I agree with a close friend of mine when he says his idea of roughing it is a motel room with a black & white TV and no air conditioning. :laugh:

[Sir Sebastian]

I'm beyond excited! The new parts for my computer arrived today :dribble:. All I need is some DDR2 memory. I still haven't gotten the bug out of my system (my body, not the computer :) ) but I'm still going to ride my bike into town to pick up some Corsair DDR2.

Since the system is a 64bit platform, I spent yesterday doing research if I should migrate to XP 64bit, Vista 32bit, Vista 64bit, or keep to the XP Pro I'm running now. I think I'm going to have to configure a multiboot system so I can test all of them side by side.

[Cloud23465]

Sadly I needed a good nights sleep and I didn't seem to get it.... I was up at 4am and didn't need to be up till 6 but i couldn't fall back asleep :dubiety:. Going to be a cold one today with tempatures not getting out of the high 30's and winds of 20-30mph making the wind chills in the teens all day.. yea!
where's "global warming" when you need it? :laugh: Anyways... some time next week i'll hopefully get to post some never before seen work that i've found... if i can find it again:laugh:. I'm off to work :P

[lunchmeat]

...
I don't know - IMHO, you don't necessarily have to be an outdoorsman in order to want clean air and pure drinking water for future generations. I myself used to go on camping trips when I was a Boy Scout ("A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..." :P), but nowadays I agree with a close friend of mine when he says his idea of roughing it is a motel room with a black & white TV and no air conditioning. :laugh:


Maybe so, but it makes it look more like he's just latched onto a convenient cause rather than having a real commitment to conservation.

[TransWarpDrive]

...
I don't know - IMHO, you don't necessarily have to be an outdoorsman in order to want clean air and pure drinking water for future generations. I myself used to go on camping trips when I was a Boy Scout ("A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..." :P), but nowadays I agree with a close friend of mine when he says his idea of roughing it is a motel room with a black & white TV and no air conditioning. :laugh:


Maybe so, but it makes it look more like he's just latched onto a convenient cause rather than having a real commitment to conservation.

Good point - especially since how well one does in politics is largely based on perceptions and not reality.

[TheGreenMagic]

The majority of my day (as well as the past day or two) has consisted of shoveling... a lot. Good way to kick off the new year. :ohwell: ;)

Other than that... uhm, read up on the backlash that the current Spider-Man story (entitled One More Day) is receiving. Never in my wildest dreams could I have ever imagined that the Clone Saga could lose it's place as the most hated of all Spider-man stories (though the Sins Past storyline from a few years ago seemed to come close). If I didn't know better... I'd almost think the guy in charge of Marvel Comics is one heckuva anti-shipper. ;)

And now, going from one shipping extreme to another, I've gotten a good chuckle or two from reading some real drama over at deviantART. 'Tis utterly ridiculous twaddlespeak says I, but still good for a laugh nonetheless.

Edit: As for now... I'm trying to keep to one of my New Year's vows to actually finish rewriting Crossroads Over Time so that it can fit in with a post-Season 4 future of Kim Possible. The joys of having written a story that takes place two decades after So the Drama...

[GoTeamGirl]

The first day back at school and I'm exhausted, though that is largely because I didn't sleep well last night. But school didn't help either, since most of my teachers are in full pre-midterm mode now. Except for my Religion teacher, who doesn't want to review.

I'm supposed to have edited an article for the school paper. Unfortunately, it hasn't been written yet, and there's not much I can do about that. Fortunately, I already did a fair bit of editing and other stuff for the paper this issue. Hopefully no one was dying to hear about the begins of rehearsals for the school musical, because they might be disappointed. :P

[TransWarpDrive]

Had a real "Darth Vader" day - the kind of day that makes you want to go over to the "dark side." Got a huge new mailing from Marketing; I was informed that all the December invoices I have need to be mailed out before the end of the day tomorrow (unfortunately, that's not going to happen); and I had an epic struggle this afternoon getting my folder/inserter machines to work properly - one of them even got a major envelope jam late in the day that required my using a pliers to clear it. I also worked an hour overtime to clear up my backlog of invoices.
Not a good day for your old pal TransWarpDrive...:(
*sigh*

[GoTeamGirl]

I woke up with muscle aches and a sore throat today and did not want to go to school. Being the person I am, I went to school and sat through a long mass (I would make a bad church advertiser). The most interesting part was the Gospel in Spanish, provided by the Spanish club in honor of Three Kings Day. The rest of the day was pretty boring. In Religion we were let out late because the teacher was stubborn. I did write a story in study, which I need to finish now.

My cousin's birthday party was post phoned from tomorrow due to a case of the stomach bug. According to my grandmother, who watches him, it wasn't pleasant.

[Greenmandmz]

My cousin's birthday party was post phoned from tomorrow due to a case of the stomach bug. According to my grandmother, who watches him, it wasn't pleasant.
Bleh! Those flu bugs are never pleasant and they always, and I mean always, strike at the most inopportune times.

@TWD: Sorry to hear about your day. I know full what you mean when dealing with malfunctioning pieces of office equipment. I also know what you mean wanting to go "Darth Vader" on the device.

As for me, my day just officially got better about an hour ago. I have defeated the evil that is non-connection to the internet! :D

For the last 2 1/2 months, my internet connection in the barracks here at the station has been spotty at best. Being at the opposite end of the building from the wireless router didn't help things as the signal had to travel through multiple walls to my computer. After bouncing between 2 or 3 different networks for the last 2 1/2 months and almost wanting to pull my hair out a few times, at the suggestion of one of my shipmates who is hosting the network, I went to Circuit City I bought myself a range expander that boosts the wireless signal from the router where it originates. Had to fuss with the equipment and settings for a little bit, but now I am in business. My signal should be constant and uninterrupted, with the only anticipated problem with being disconnected is if the internet service provider itself goes down.

I'm so glad I got this problem solved. Less time on the internet means it takes longer to get my daily online tasks done; and less time spent with you guys.

So yes, I'm happy to have finally solved this problem. Life will definitely be a little bit easier now! :)

[jeriddian]

Glad to see your internet troubles resolved there, GMZ.:D

I had to travel back to Dallas today. Yesterday I gave myself my Christmas present (Which I actually had been promising myself for the last three or four years), which was I traded out my old Alpine CVA 1005 Video player with a new Clarion 775VXD with Bluetooth for my phone, Sirius Radio, and a navigational unit. So I get video player with a pop out 7 inch screen (which is also hooked up to the small TV for the second row) with all of that, which is hooked into my old Alpine V12 300 watt amplifier going through four Boston Pro 6.5 series mid bass and tweeter setups for the four doors, with individualized crossovers in the doors, and two twelve inch subwoofers in the back. And yes it totally rocks!:biggergrin:

Anyway, I have to have the moving company come in tomorrow and estimate what it's going to cost to pack up all of my stuff in the house and store it so that I can put the house on the market. Ugh.......I am not going to like this..:dubiety::mad:

[GoTeamGirl]

I saw National Treasure 2 today with my friends. One broke up with her boyfriend (I hated him! and so did everyone else) before the movie. She was sad for a bit, but my friend and I cheered her up with some laughter, which always works well, along with a little advice.

I'm glad we weren't seeing a romance movie...

[lunchmeat]

Boyfriends and girlfriends come and go, if you want another one, they're kind of like busses, one will turn up eventually....

[GoTeamGirl]

Boyfriends and girlfriends come and go, if you want another one, they're kind of like busses, one will turn up eventually....

:laugh: Interestingly enough, that's true for her. Very much so. Whereas my other friend and I keep "missing the buses."

Today I plan to buy some books to read.

[lunchmeat]

I wouldn't sweat it, contrary to what TV and other media put out, you can actually live quite nicely without always being in a relationship. You have lots of time.

[GoTeamGirl]

Well, I got three books to read, so I should be pretty entertained for the next few weeks.

[Cloud23465]

Well... last Thursday we handed the keys over to the city (I wasn't there for that) But we were over by my brothers house so we stopped by there to pickup one last thing mom missed... Seeing a sign on the front door that said "Properity of the city. No trespassing" made me feeling alot of emotions at once... I felt like i got kicked in the gut.:dubiety:

[TransWarpDrive]

Thanks to the freakishly warm weather in Go City right now (it got up to 64 degrees today...sixty-four!!:blink:), my brother decided today would be perfect for taking down the outside Christmas decorations and putting them away. So, I was rousted from my nice warm bed at 8:30 AM (on a Sunday...*grumble grumble* :angry:) to help him. We got everything taken down before noon, though. It's probably just as well we did this now, because it's supposed to get cold again by the end of the week. They're also forecasting snow for us Thursday and Friday.
After that, I went to my monthly SF club meeting up in the near north suburbs. Came home around 5 or so, and did some laundry so I'd have clean office duds for work tomorrow. Now I'm just waiting for the 11:30 repeat of "Kim Possible."

[kyojikasshu]

Thanks to the freakishly warm weather in Go City right now (it got up to 64 degrees today...sixty-four!!:blink:), my brother decided today would be perfect for taking down the outside Christmas decorations and putting them away. So, I was rousted from my nice warm bed at 8:30 AM (on a Sunday...*grumble grumble* :angry:) to help him. We got everything taken down before noon, though. It's probably just as well we did this now, because it's supposed to get cold again by the end of the week. They're also forecasting snow for us Thursday and Friday.
After that, I went to my monthly SF club meeting up in the near north suburbs. Came home around 5 or so, and did some laundry so I'd have clean office duds for work tomorrow. Now I'm just waiting for the 11:30 repeat of "Kim Possible."

Man, I know, low-60s today here in the Motor City... and it's supposed to snow again on the weekend. This weather's going to play havoc with my sinuses...

We had a recurring print job today, that the last couple of times took a complete business day to finish. Today, we found that the customer had pared it down considerably (fitting into 2" binders instead of 3"!), so the job printed and assembled by the time I went to lunch. Other than that, it's been a pretty average day at work, with a few crazy items (mostly dealing with transitioning of our B/W copier service from one company to another).

[Cloud23465]

Well I took advantage of the warm weather to move more boxes and such around. At some point I'll get things organized enough to relax and be able to find things. :laugh: Mom want's to go to Chicago by the end of the month so that will be a welcomed vacation for me... other then driving the 16-18 hours up there... to tell you the truth i'll enjoy that more then moving :thumbdown:

[GoTeamGirl]

Today was pretty boring. The teachers keep telling us how hard they're making all of the midterms. I can't wait until midterms are all over. I'll be so happy.

[TransWarpDrive]

Today was a mixed bag of bad and good. The good included mailing out all the remaining December invoices (I got them all inserted working overtime on Friday), inserting all the meter inspection forms for Inventory Control (they'll go out tomorrow), and making a big start on the letters for Marketing. The bad included being interrupted by people wanting things while I was busy working; taking my lunch late due to having to escort the first-aid vendor through the building as he replenished the supplies in each first-aid kit; and having to stop what I was doing while a guy from Marketing brought a group of dealers into the mail room to demonstrate one of our table top meters that had a computer hooked up to it with postage-management software. Believe me, I was thinking some evil thoughts about my employer today. :angry:
Of course, the weather on the drive home was rather spooky.:errr: Thunderstorms to the south and east of where I live in the Go City suburbs lit the sky with lightning flashes that were almost constant. We had a tornado watch for the area that lasted until 9 PM Central time. I was so concerned about the weather that I made sure I had a working flashlight handy.
But now things have calmed down a bit and we're just getting rain showers right now.

[kyojikasshu]

Well, last night was awful for me. Being acutely susceptible to sudden weather changes, I was knocked for a loop, and I couldn't sleep all night.

I made it to work this morning all right, but found early on that I had difficulty in focusing, which put me in an awkward spot with my boss during our morning huddle. Fortunately, I was able to get past that, and as the morning moved on, I started feeling remarkably better.

There was some craziness today, but no more so than usual. And I'm working on training people across the nation on mail merge! Whoo-hoo! :thumbup:

[campy]

I took our Christmas tree to the town dump today, and haven't done much since then. Could have been worse, I suppose. At least I didn't have jury duty this morning like mrs. campy did.

[Ace Ian Combat]

Today was better than last night. We had a tornado warning for the area around my house and my school with five funnels out of monstrous wallclouds surrounding us.

I still hate our neighbor's barn for having a roof unable to withstand 80 mph winds in non-tornadic conditions that one spring because of nails the wrong length. No car or truck should ever have a barn fly into them, and leave two baseball sized holes besides smashing in the driver's doors. That's besides the barn rendering a newly built chain link and wooden fence useless, and wrapping around several trees. Neither one of the cars have worked properly since and quit within a week of each other.

And the insurance company should have no legal claim that it was an act of God and refuse to cover the damages when a human was the one who put the wrong sized nails in their barn to begin with.:angry::mad:

[GoTeamGirl]

One of my school's buses got into an accident with another car today, right near the school, which made almost half the students late to school. Luckily the students on the bus were okay. Not so lucky, the driver of the other car appeared (to those there) to be severely injured, though there's been no official word about that.

I have a box in my locker for the school newspaper that I need to return soon. I was going to this morning, but I wasn't sure if the teacher was there so I did homework instead (turned out he was there).

I wish I had a day to just write. I have a ton of stuff I want to write (both for the school newspaper and just for fun) and there's no time with midterms. Midterms are really, really annoying. But I do get a day off during the midterm week.

[Fireand'chutes77]

Today was better than last night. We had a tornado warning for the area around my house and my school with five funnels out of monstrous wallclouds surrounding us.
And you say that's better than last night? :blink:

Suddenly the worst weather in our area seems a bit boring. :unsure:

However, as Mr. Stoppable once put it,

"....Bored is good. Bored is safe!"

I still hate our neighbor's barn for having a roof unable to withstand 80 mph winds in non-tornadic conditions that one spring because of nails the wrong length.
Um..... I don't think I've ever had that problem before. :surprised: :scared:

At the same time, to an Easterner at least, the scale and specifics of that are darkly hilarious. I mean, the casual requirement for "a roof to withstand 80 mph winds in non-tornadic conditions" is more than a little boggling.

If only we could get those requirements in Florida, though... :hmm:

[TransWarpDrive]

Today was better than last night. We had a tornado warning for the area around my house and my school with five funnels out of monstrous wallclouds surrounding us.
And you say that's better than last night? :blink:

Suddenly the worst weather in our area seems a bit boring. :unsure:

However, as Mr. Stoppable once put it,

"....Bored is good. Bored is safe!"

I still hate our neighbor's barn for having a roof unable to withstand 80 mph winds in non-tornadic conditions that one spring because of nails the wrong length.
Um..... I don't think I've ever had that problem before. :surprised: :scared:

At the same time, to an Easterner at least, the scale and specifics of that are darkly hilarious. I mean, the casual requirement for "a roof to withstand 80 mph winds in non-tornadic conditions" is more than a little boggling.

If only we could get those requirements in Florida, though... :hmm:

I think she meant that the tornado warning and the five funnels out of monstrous wallclouds occurred last night.
At least that's how I read it...

[GoTeamGirl]

My school's teachers are at it again with the strike plans, only this time they seem much more serious (except one who was singing "One more class...one more class... and I gave him a weird look).

Otherwise everything's normal, except for the weather, which is unusually warm for January. I want snow, badly.

I should be writing an essay, but I'm stalling.

[kyojikasshu]

Today was a marked improvement over yesterday. We got some necessary stuff done, involving training and audit points and such.

Oh, and I might be heading to Go City again as early as February 5th! My manager's trying to get me approved for some more training, but it's a 3-day session. The nice thing, though, is that if I do get approved, my airfare and hotel will be taken care of! And I could even hit downtown for the evening, should I fancy, since the hotel and conference center are right on top of the Cumberland Blue Line stop. Very convenient...

Meantime, I'm working on planning a vacation for late April, to head out to California and visit my friend Leslie. I'm especially looking forward to that one, as I haven't had a nice vacation trip in a long time.

[GoTeamGirl]

The sickout took place. However, only 7 teachers stayed home (apparently only 7 are in the union at my school). Other schools had so much teachers absent that they closed. Not the case in my school. No one noticed anything until after second period so there wasn't much disturbance. The other schools, though, had a lot of disturbance...

That said, I have an English essay to work on that I've delayed working on for a week....

[TransWarpDrive]

Went back to work today after calling in sick yesterday (intestinal troubles; don't ask...). Not much of a backlog; just yesterday's incoming mail to open, sort and distribute. Spent most of my afternoon inserting what few invoices they gave me today into envelopes, then resumed that big ol' mailing project for Marketing (boxes of letters promoting a new postage-meter feature we're selling). Basically, it came down to my killing time with this project, because it's just one letter being folded and stuffed into each envelope - no return envelope needed. This made the inserter run faster - so fast, in fact, I needed to run only one inserter instead of both. Even with just one inserter running, I still managed to empty half the box the letters were stacked in (and I'm talking about a box that stands a foot and a half high). I figure I'll have this project done by Monday, at the very latest.
At home after dinner, I made a copy of my second KP soundtrack CD (the "New and Kim-proved" edition, released in 2005) to keep in my car at all times. That way, I don't have to worry about losing (or destroying) the original. :D

[GoTeamGirl]

I found a loop hole in an answer to a question I asked a teacher about religion. Hmm....

I went to a basketball game with my friends. I never knew three minutes could be stretched out so long!

[Cloud23465]

It was just one of those days today. The more I tried to seem to want to get something done... the harder and harder it got. I spent hours clearing enough room to get atleast the nose of my car in the garage but to no avail as I couldn't find the jack stands. I ran the car on a curb but it wasn't enough clearance to get where I needed to get. I'm trying to find and replace my speed sensor that's been on the fritz for some time now. The Mph guage bounces around and I learned to deal with it by learning and listening to the RPMs and gears I was in to know my speed. But then the cruise control quit working and with a 16 hour drive to Chicago coming in a few weeks... it's time to get this fixed for good. My brother the mechanic spent all day in court as an expert witness for some guy who got a bad deal from someone else. So while he was there I was looking around trying to find it and he finally calls me and tells me to bring the car to his shop. Well I was going to do that but my car wouldn't start then... turns out I knocked the neutral safety switch loose. Got that fixed then the car was turning really high RPMs while idling... throttle body got stuck... i fixed that... got to the shop and around 2-3 hours later he finally looked for it but couldn't find it with the car at ground level. He didn't have any lift open at the time so... today was just a bad day... really bad :thumbdown:

[GoTeamGirl]

Today, and this whole weekend, is turning out to be really busy. Today I'm going to my cousin's birthday party, followed by a (short) concert. Sunday starts off early with a doctor's appointment, followed by a mass, followed by a lunch....It would all be fine without the appointment.

[jeriddian]

Today, and this whole weekend, is turning out to be really busy. Today I'm going to my cousin's birthday party, followed by a (short) concert. Sunday starts off early with a doctor's appointment, followed by a mass, followed by a lunch....It would all be fine without the appointment.

Interesting. You have a Doctor's appointment on Sunday? I have heard of some physicians opening up their offices in off hours. It does help the working class.:)

[campy]

Interesting. You have a Doctor's appointment on Sunday? I have heard of some physicians opening up their offices in off hours. It does help the working class.:)And the rest of you get better tee times at the country club! It's a win-win! ;):laugh:

[NinjaNaco]

Recently bought "Axis & Allies" (the PC game), and it's fun, though maybe I should have bought the improved Pirates! instead.

Still, I may be going to that store again soon, and there's plenty of money left on my gift card...

[Fireand'chutes77]

I had a really cool day today. On Friday evening, my Scout troop and I left for Norfolk naval base for a Saturday tour of several ships stationed there. We slept in WWII-era barracks at Ft. Story - not very nice accommodations, but it was a place to crash - and got up early the next morning. Both breakfast, and later, lunch, were provided by the Norfolk base. The food was bad, but I guess that's what happens when you have to feed several thousand very quickly.

Our first stop was a tour of helicopters at one of the land-based hangers, courtesy of helo pilot contact one of the military-connected leaders had. We got to crawl all around and inside one of the birds, a Sea King, they had under renovation. We got to photograph the heck out of that, but the pilot politely asked that we not take pictures of the active-duty Blackhawk-class helos right beside it; we obliged.

After that stop, we went to the main attraction of the day, the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Theodore_Roosevelt_%28CVN-71%29).

In a word: :flabbergasted:


That thing is *huge.* Actually, *huge* doesn't even begin to describe it. I might be able to get pictures, but for now, suffice to say the scale and complexity of the interior was dizzying. Up, down, sideways, through, left, right....

Our group got to see the hanger deck, the landing cable hydraulic tension room, the steam generators for catapult #2, walk on the flight deck (staggering... and windy) the bridge, and the flight deck controller station (at the very top of "the island"). I play a lot of WWII fighter sims, and my favorite involves the air war in the Pacific. To be finally standing on the deck of an actual carrier was incredible. $4.5 billion of taxpayer dollars at work! Wooo-ahh! :thumbup: :D

(I got a huge kick out of her nickname - The Big Stick. :biggergrin:)

After lunch (also crappy), we toured the guided missile destroyer U.S.S. McFaul (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_McFaul_%28DDG-74%29). Very, very cool. :biggergrin: This ship was much more modern than the Big Stick, and it showed. All doors leading into vital areas were made of positive-pressure CBNR airlocks, and all other doors had rubber seals. We toured all over the ship. As a group, we went into the officer's mess, the bridge, the missile launcher caps, the Big Gun, the crew mess, the weapons control room, crew berths, and finally the helicopter flight deck.

True to its destroyer name, this ship could pound the, uh, snot out of anything that got in its way. The main 15-inch gun could fire 20 rounds a minute, she could fire 20 STS missiles over a range of a 1000 miles, she had 6 torp tubes, 8 "Harpoon" torp tubes (these torps launched from the deck and then plunged into the water, and had the power to break a cruiser in half), and, perhaps most blatantly awesome of all, two automatic, self-tracking, self-firing Gatling guns housed in R2-D2 housings.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalanx_CIWS

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

Everybody, from the newest Tenderfoot to the oldest Eagle, to me, to the adult leaders, to the ensign tour guide himself, couldn't overcome a gleeful, undimmable-grinned giddyness at being so close to a truly massive amount of firepower. It brought to mind the saying - Boys never grow up. Their toys simply become bigger, more expensive, and break easier. :biggergrin:

Best of all, we were given an extensive tour of the weapons targeting and control room, located deep within the bowls of the ship. The guide said we wouldn't ordinarily do this, but he'd gotten clearance from his higher-ups; the only condition was that, unlike the rest of the tour, we were not to take pictures. Dark, cramped with electronics, control stations, and circular map boards, dimly lit with red lights and LCD screens, this thing was straight out of a movie set. Actually being inside the "brain center" and hearing about the guide's explanation - he was in charge of the firing squad for the Big Gun in the bow - gave me a much better understanding/mental picture of a scene from Lunchmeat's fanfic, Semper Fi, Mr S (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3952123/1/Semper_Fi_Mr_S).


…Ron's finger traced the coordinates against his notes and double checked the reference against the grid on his map. "Tango one sierra, solid copy, shoot".

A hundred miles away, in the darkened confines of a ship's combat information center, the Tactical Action Officer (TAO) double checked the grid coordinates that the Gunnery Liason Officer whom Ron had spoken to had passed to him before entering them into his own console. Everyone in the room was illuminated from below by sensor scopes and small, red or blue desk lights. It gave people a bizarre appearance not unlike the "villain light" popular in films and TV, enhancing facial features in strange ways. The TAO looked at the range rings on his own console's display.

"He's out of range for RAP, GLO; go with bulldogs," the TAO said, pronouncing GLO "Glow", and referring to the rocket-assisted-projectiles - or RAP rounds - for the ship's gun. Bulldog was the proword for surface-to-surface missiles.

The targeting coordinates appeared as stylized symbols on the flat-panel plasma display that portrayed the map of the target area. Checking his loadout display, the GLO called Ron over the radio.

"Golf niner whiskey, this is tango one sierra. I have SLAM ER and BGM-109 with CBU, over." CBUs were cluster bomb munitions. They could saturate an area the size of a football field with explosives and shrapnel. SLAM ER was a powerful bunker busting missile.

"Roger, request two SLAM and four BGM, over"

"Roger, golf niner whiskey, this is tango one sierra, interrogative laydown, over"

"Tango One Sierra, this is golf niner whiskey, shackle, laydown three zero zero, unshackle, over"

"Roger, golf niner whiskey, this is tango one sierra, wait."

He entered the route way points through which the missiles would travel, these appeared as white dots connected by thin white lines that ran back to the own ship symbol, a blue circle with a cross hairs in it. Satisfied, he uplinked the data to the Naval Tactical Data System, informing the other ships in the force as well as the early warning aircraft of his actions. He scanned the displays as well as his own scope, observing the unprocessed data referred to as skin paints, for vessels and aircraft in the danger zone. After taking a sip of coffee he called Ron on the radio.

"Golf niner whiskey, this is tango one sierra, standby for shot. IP will be shackle three seven romeo 451778 break 3318888, unshackle, over"

"Tango One Sierra, this is Golf niner whiskey, shackle three seven romeo 451778 break 3318888, unshackle, over"

"Golf niner whiskey, this is tango one sierra. Solid copy, standby out." The officer turned to face the rear of the cramped, low room. "Captain, TAO, I am preparing to engage hostiles with SLAM and Tomahawk.”

"Very well," the shadowed figure at the far side of the compartment said after looking at the display briefly.

"Bridge, TAO, standby for missile launch, two SLAM, four Tomahawk bearing zero seven zero."

On the bridge the Officer Of the Deck, Junior Officer Of the Deck and lookouts scanned the sea and sky along the bearing.

"TAO, Bridge, range clear."

Down in the control room, the Tactical Action Officer tapped the side of his earphones in satisfaction, nodded to himself, and clicked frequencies. "Weapons control, TAO, with two SLAM and four Tomahawk CBU, engage my coordinates," he said softly into his lip mike, "Range clear".

"TAO, Weapons control, Bulldog affirm," Weapons said.

The missiles had accepted their targeting data and were ready to launch.

"Bulldog away," weapons announced after a few moments as the missiles left their vertical launch cells with loud bangs rather than the whoosh one heard in the movies.

They rose into the air on their rocket boosters, wings folding out from the fuselage, turbojet engines starting with a whine, as they climbed up and away into the air…


Needless to say, I had a lot of fun today. Plus, this will give me a superb "imagery library" if I ever have to describe a shipboard operation in a future KP fanfic.

[Ran Hakubi]

That reminds me of when I was a boy scout. We got to tour Tinker Airforce base in the Oklahoma City area. We went into some of the aircraft, went into a control tower, and that night, we stayed in a game room. I remeber how at the time, I still hadn't grapsed the whole "change" concept and usually gave the lady who ran the register where we got our meals a whole slew of pocket change. Every time. We ate there 5 times. Ah, to be young and stupid again.

[GoTeamGirl]

Yesterday was great. My cousin's birthday was fun, and the concert I saw was good, but a little fast. It felt almost like an express concert at an hour and a half, but I can't really judge accurately, since the last concert I saw was Bon Jovi, which was over 2 hours, and this was a much smaller artist.

Today was okay. My Chemistry teacher e-mailed me homework due on Tuesday. The thing is, I didn't have Chemistry on Friday so I didn't bring home my book, and apparently tomorrow will most likely be a snow day. So unless he moves the assignment back, I'm doomed. I wish Chemistry wasn't my first class...

[campy]

This morning we went out to some factory outlets where we met our daughters for some shopping and lunch. I bought a shirt at Eddie Bauer, $9.99 with a coupon. :D

[TransWarpDrive]

Crazy weekend. Yesterday, my mother was on a cleaning frenzy, and made me vacuum out my room and the spare bedroom to get rid of the accumulated dust. Then, she made me box up some more of my books and things to take over to my storage cubicle, which is getting piled high with boxes. My brother suggested I buy some steel shelves from a hardware store and put them in my cubicle to stack the boxes on, better utilizing the space in the cubicle (I'm going to do that soon, so I have the shelves ready for when I clean the cubicle out in the spring. Weather's too lousy right now to do it).
Last night, I went to a concert at the United Center (home of the Bulls and Black Hawks). The concert started at 8 PM, and lasted until about 11(opening act and main attraction). I'd been invited to a party at some friends' house up in the northern suburbs, but like I said, the concert let out at 11 and it would have been around midnight by the time I got up there. So I just went home, parked my car, and walked up to a local tavern for a drink.
I took the boxes of stuff to my cubicle today and found out how big it is - 10 feet by 15 feet - that'll give me an idea as to what size shelves to buy. This afternoon, I surfed the 'Net, and discovered my computer was running slow. So I ran a spyware check, and sure enough, I found something slowing me down so I deleted it. We had steak, potatoes, and mixed vegetables for dinner, and now I'm finishing up my laundry while chatting here on the forum.

[Cloud23465]

Last Night... I finally got to experience the power of a HEMI!!!! 7.1L Supercharged 426 Hemi Charger....putting out some 820hp... the only way i could describe it was just stupid fast. Like riding in a rocket maybe and the car just handled so smooth that we were doing like 80mph and it didn't even feel like the car was moving. Highlight of my year so far.:thumbup::biggergrin:

[Fireand'chutes77]

Last Night... I finally got to experience the power of a HEMI!!!! 7.1L Supercharged 426 Hemi Charger....putting out some 820hp... the only way i could describe it was just stupid fast. Like riding in a rocket maybe and the car just handled so smooth that we were doing like 80mph and it didn't even feel like the car was moving. Highlight of my year so far.:thumbup::biggergrin:
Now, now, with great power comes.....

.....Naaaahhhhhh.

FLOOR IT! :biggergrin: :biggergrin: :biggergrin:

Were you trying out a new car, a rental, a friend's car....?

[Cloud23465]

Last Night... I finally got to experience the power of a HEMI!!!! 7.1L Supercharged 426 Hemi Charger....putting out some 820hp... the only way i could describe it was just stupid fast. Like riding in a rocket maybe and the car just handled so smooth that we were doing like 80mph and it didn't even feel like the car was moving. Highlight of my year so far.:thumbup::biggergrin:
Now, now, with great power comes.....

.....Naaaahhhhhh.

FLOOR IT! :biggergrin: :biggergrin: :biggergrin:

Were you trying out a new car, a rental, a friend's car....?

My brothers working on this car for a customer. He just got finished working on it and taking it out for a test run... and what a run. State troopers in our area are getting the exact same car and I can see why... wow!

[TransWarpDrive]

Last Night... I finally got to experience the power of a HEMI!!!! 7.1L Supercharged 426 Hemi Charger....putting out some 820hp... the only way i could describe it was just stupid fast. Like riding in a rocket maybe and the car just handled so smooth that we were doing like 80mph and it didn't even feel like the car was moving. Highlight of my year so far.:thumbup::biggergrin:
Now, now, with great power comes.....

.....Naaaahhhhhh.

FLOOR IT! :biggergrin: :biggergrin: :biggergrin:

Were you trying out a new car, a rental, a friend's car....?

My brothers working on this car for a customer. He just got finished working on it and taking it out for a test run... and what a run. State troopers in our area are getting the exact same car and I can see why... wow!

Yes, police departments get high-performance engines and transmissions installed in their patrol cars as part of what they call "interceptor packages." Such packages also include heavy-duty shock absorbers, anti-sway bars, more powerful brakes, as well as tires designed to take the sort of punishment that high-speed pursuits dish out.
And I know what you mean when you describe doing 80 without realizing it. A few years ago, I got a chance to test-drive a 12-cylinder luxury car and noticed the same thing. That sucker was doing 85 before I realized just how fast I was going and backed off the throttle. Lucky for me there were no cops around... :P

[campy]

We got snow last night. Looks like about 5 or 6 inches worth. I'm going to go clear my driveway in a minute. :ohwell:

[Cloud23465]

We got snow last night. Looks like about 5 or 6 inches worth. I'm going to go clear my driveway in a minute. :ohwell:

Hey... I'll take the snow down here... you've just gotta finda a way to get it to me.:laugh: I love snow!

[GoTeamGirl]

Well, today my school had a two hour delay, but no closures. I guess the storm wasn't strong enough. Everyone's preparing for midterms now, and for some reason this year's set of teachers is making me nervous.

[TransWarpDrive]

Today turned out to be rather slow for me - at least in the afternoon. I managed to get the last of the letters for Marketing inserted on Friday, so all I had to do was meter them this morning and send them out. After sorting and delivering today's incoming mail, I had nothing to do, so I killed time by surfing the 'Net - mostly catching up on today's news and such.
- Although I found a link to the Detroit Auto Show, where Volkswagen unveiled its new Passat CC four-door coupe (yes, you read that right). It's bigger than the standard Passat, but has a curvy roof that makes it look like a "fastback" sports car. I like it - it looks so much better than the redesign VW did on the Passat in 2006. The interior's not bad, either. VW's supposed to offer the car for sale this coming fall.
Cleared the snow off my car before driving home (only got a dusting of the stuff - just enough to make the roads slippery); had to stop and get a new snow brush since I broke mine this evening. Listened to the radio for a weather report, and I also got word that the Eisenhower Expressway was jammed up mostly because of traffic going to the Hannah Montana concert at the United Center tonight! :blink: Now you know that a performer's made it big when his/her event backs up traffic so much they discuss it on the news...
Anyway, after dinner, I watched some TV, put my clean laundry away, and changed my bed sheets. Now, after watching the KP ep "Odds Man In," here I am on-line with you guys... :)

[campy]

I found a link to the Detroit Auto Show, where Volkswagen unveiled its new Passat CC four-door coupe (yes, you read that right). It's bigger than the standard Passat, but has a curvy roof that makes it look like a "fastback" sports car. I like it - it looks so much better than the redesign VW did on the Passat in 2006. The interior's not bad, either. VW's supposed to offer the car for sale this coming fall.Nice car, but I'll take the Aston Martin Rapide (http://www.autoblog.com/2006/01/09/world-premiere-aston-martin-rapide-concept/) instead. So what if it'll cost 3 or 4 times as much as the VW? :ohmy:

[GoTeamGirl]

Listened to the radio for a weather report, and I also got word that the Eisenhower Expressway was jammed up mostly because of traffic going to the Hannah Montana concert at the United Center tonight! :blink: Now you know that a performer's made it big when his/her event backs up traffic so much they discuss it on the news...


:laugh: I said the same thing about Bon Jovi in Newark. Unfortunately, we were actually going to the concert, so we missed a bit of the opening band.

Today was interesting. I ended up with no homework for the first time in forever, because in my Global class we had a test and the rest of my classes are reviewing for midterms. I should be studying. My first midterm is Global, but we haven't reviewed yet, so I will study Religion, the second midterm.

[jeriddian]

Well, the movers came in and packed everything up, so the house no longer looks like it used to look. Tomorrow they come and actually move everything out to storage, so the house will be empty. there will the isolated odds and ends like cleaning stuff and one of my electric grands which I will move out later once the case is ready for it. But I feels odd. They'll break the water bed down tomorrow at the same time they move everything out, plus get all the little odds and ends. Then it'll all be done. :ohwell::mad: But I hate losing this house, especially as bad as the market is.

[Cloud23465]

It's been one of those... weeks. I'm trying to get my brother to help me (and i've been down this road before) replace my speed sensors in my car so my speedometer and cruise control would start working for the long trip to Chicago. Needless to say that's gone the same way as in the past... so I found one of them and replace it but that's not the one that's not working it seems. I replaced the output sensor... Now I have to replace the input but the only problem is that i'm clueless as to where it is. Sunday I ended up at a funeral for a close couple that wen't to our church... there eldest son had died after suffering a diabetic coma. Tuseday it snowed a bit... but as fast as it came it was gone. Also my brothers dog passed away after 16 long years with us... she'll be missed. Yesterday I finally got the ethernet cable wired up and my sholders still hurt from being in the craw space. So there have been highs and lows this week and it's not yet over with.

[Fireand'chutes77]

It's been one of those... weeks.
You too? :(

I swear, this has been one of the roughest weeks in my school career. Tests every single day, 2-3 hour robotics meeting every single day, studying for exams (one of which is tomorrow) every day, a story for newspaper which got lost in the shuffle that is due tomorrow, work.....

The only thing good about today is that there's only one more just like it.

[kyojikasshu]

The last few days have been pretty crazy for me. My line at home is down, so I have no 'net access where I'm most comfortable - I have to sneak online where I can (right now, it's slow as we're getting ready to close down shop for the day). They said I should have service restored by Friday, so we'll see...

Work's been getting a little crazy at times, but I'm hanging in there, and getting things under control. No word on whether or not I'll be able to take that training class in Go City, and that's coming up in just a few weeks.

[GoTeamGirl]

One of my old teachers said hi to me this morning in an interesting way: "Hey, Plato." They proceeded to tell me that our school might be offering a Philosophy course in the future, which explains the greeting. I'm excited about that.

Everyone in my Global class is freaking out about the midterm. If it snows tomorrow I'll be upset; I want to get that midterm over with. It's driving me crazy. Our teacher is not an easy test maker.

I found out that my favorite Broadway musical Rent is closing on June 1st. I'm sad, but I knew it would happen. Luckily, I've seen the best performances I wanted to see, and anything more might take away those memories.

[jeriddian]

Everyone in my Global class is freaking out about the midterm. If it snows tomorrow I'll be upset; I want to get that midterm over with. It's driving me crazy. Our teacher is not an easy test maker.

That reminds a little of when I was going through medical school in the first two years (back then, you took the basic sciences in the first two years, then went to do clinical work in the last two years.), so it was all classroom material, but it was also the equivalent of about 50 to 60 hours of college coursework per semester. Every class scheduled their tests the same way. Two major exams and a final five weeks apart in a sixteen week term. We called test day "Black Monday". You took all of your exams all on the same day, testing from 8AM to 5 PM. They did it that way because they wanted you to study everything together in a balanced fashion, not concentrating on one subject to the exclusion of others simply because a test was coming up. It was pretty brutal, but the good thing about it was that once Black Monday was over, you were free for five weeks.:rolleyes:

EDIT: As to my day.... ....ugh. The movers came and moved everything out of my house. They couldn't quite finish and they hav to come back tomorrow, which will delay my going to Houston to check on things there, and cut the visit short by one day. I'm exhausted from helping to make sure things were packed right, although it still made me very nervous. After all, these guys are moving a lot of irreplaceable stuff that I have into storage. It's climate controlled, but I just hope they stored everythying right. I have to go there tomorrow and see it for myself. :ohwell::confused::dubiety:

[TransWarpDrive]

Listened to the radio for a weather report, and I also got word that the Eisenhower Expressway was jammed up mostly because of traffic going to the Hannah Montana concert at the United Center tonight! :blink: Now you know that a performer's made it big when his/her event backs up traffic so much they discuss it on the news...


:laugh: I said the same thing about Bon Jovi in Newark. Unfortunately, we were actually going to the concert, so we missed a bit of the opening band.

Well, missing just part of the opening act's not so bad. You got to see all of Bon Jovi, and that's what really matters.

As for my day:
Somewhat busy this morning, as I had some new invoices to mail out. Only one of my inserters is running OK; the other one won't let me reset the folds on the invoices so they fit properly in the envelopes (with the address showing in the window). So I'm making do with just one inserter, which fortunately is running fine. (Of course, it also helps that the stack of invoices isn't very big, so I can afford to do without the other machine right now.)
This afternoon, we had a big company meeting in the lunchroom. The new CEO of our parent company in Germany is visiting us for a few days, looking over our operation, and he and our company president did a presentation on the results of a company-wide survey we participated in last fall. The survey was a chance for everyone to tell - anonymously - what they felt was wrong with the company, and how they felt about working here. We briefly reviewed the results, and were informed that the next step was to conduct a series of workshops in which each department goes over the results, and "brainstorms" ways to improve things at our company. Our president urged us to be completely candid - he promised no reprisals for anything said in these workshops - the idea being that improving our company will give us a better chance at getting a larger share of the postage meter market. I'm looking forward to the workshops - it's another opportunity for me to campaign for some brand-new folder/inserters for the mail room to replace those out-of-production models I have that keep conking out on me...
Tonight at home, I learned from my brother that my Internet connection had been severed last night because the plug on the end of the cord that links me to our server was broken. He had me unplug the other end from my computer, so he could replace the broken plug. Then after plugging everything back in, he had me fire up the CPU and check to see if I had my 'net connection. Of course, the repair job worked, and now I'm back on-line again.:D
(That explains why I didn't log on last night. When I tried to, I got the "No network connection" icon in the lower right-hand corner of my taskbar, amongst the other ones. It was after midnight then, and my brother was already in bed, so I left him a note on the kitchen counter.)

[kyojikasshu]

Last night, I got to put together a bookcase. It was a gift, an extra bookcase that wasn't needed, but I put it to use anyway. Since I didn't need it to hold books (I have plenty of space filled up with books anyway), I decided to use it to display some of my toys. So, the first two shelves are filled with G Gundam figures, and the third shelf has my Unicron and Cybertron Primus figures, both in planet mode. I haven't figured out what to put on the lower shelves yet.

Today's shaping up to be a monumentally slow day at work.

[campy]

We woke up to an ice-covered driveway, so we're staying in the house this morning. Luckily, mrs. campy can telecommute to work.

[GoTeamGirl]

The Global midterm was canceled, and I was in school three hours earlier than I had to be, because there was a two hour delay (but my school doesn't announce this stuff). I saw my Global teacher, who said, "You have another week to study!" Unfortunately, they rescheduled the test for the morning of the 28th, a morning that I will not be in school, so now I have to talk to the people in charge of scheduling. In addition, my new class schedule should be coming soon...

The Religion midterm was easy, except for one odd question about Advent. And I must have written the process of Baptism about four times on the test. I hope I did well.

My old Religion teacher sent a story I wrote for the school newspaper to this organization that publishes works of (literary) art by high schoolers in a book, so I'm happy. Hopefully it'll get published. My English teacher actually talked to me about the same thing, and wants me to write something, so I guess I'll have two things submitted.

That Global test is going to bother me all next week. My friend was so happy it was canceled. She doesn't have the same teacher, though, so her test is different. She's not worried about forgetting what was reviewed.

[Fireand'chutes77]

A scoutmaster finally uploaded pictures of the Navy trip I mentioned above.

The image below, down one of the Teddy Roosevelt's corridors, gives some scale of how massive this ship was.

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/3942/corridorkb5.jpg

This 2D picture truely does not do it 3D justice. There are no mirrors. This is a straight shot all the way to the black dot in the very center of the picture. In person, the effect was dizzying, akin to vertigo. :blink: :blink:

[jeriddian]

My old Religion teacher sent a story I wrote for the school newspaper to this organization that publishes works of (literary) art by high schoolers in a book, so I'm happy. Hopefully it'll get published. My English teacher actually talked to me about the same thing, and wants me to write something, so I guess I'll have two things submitted.

Good luck on that, GTG!:D

A scoutmaster finally uploaded pictures of the Navy trip I mentioned above.

The image below, down one of the Teddy Roosevelt's corridors, gives some scale of how massive this ship was.

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/3942/corridorkb5.jpg

This 2D picture truely does not do it 3D justice. There are no mirrors. This is a straight shot all the way to the black dot in the very center of the picture. In person, the effect was dizzying, akin to vertigo. :blink: :blink:

Very impressive, 'chutes. I would have liked to have been with you on that tour.

[TransWarpDrive]

A scoutmaster finally uploaded pictures of the Navy trip I mentioned above.

The image below, down one of the Teddy Roosevelt's corridors, gives some scale of how massive this ship was.

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/3942/corridorkb5.jpg

This 2D picture truely does not do it 3D justice. There are no mirrors. This is a straight shot all the way to the black dot in the very center of the picture. In person, the effect was dizzying, akin to vertigo. :blink: :blink:

Yeah, that's a long corridor, all right...
That photo's also a textbook example of what an artist calls "one-point perspective"...where everything diminishes in size with distance until it converges on one point on the horizon, which is referred to as the "vanishing point." :alumnus:

As for my day:
Got up early this morning in order to make my 8:30 AM appointment to have my car's oil changed. Got home, only to get nagged about a blind in my room whose pull cord's broken (it's been that way for some time now); it seems my mother was wiping the condensation off all the windows during this cold spell (keep it from turning to frost on them), and she had problems with that blind. Well, I got some string from the basement, and re-strung the blind - essentially teaching myself how that blind works in the process. After that, I had some lunch, dozed off in front of the TV for a while, then finished reading a book - Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. I don't know why, but I always read that book in winter when it gets really cold out.

[Cloud23465]

Well once again out local weather people blew up the whole situation of us getting some snow and calling for 3-6 inches... we dont even have a trace on the ground. Just a few cars have maybe a 16th of an in but... they were wrong again... what a shocker. It did snow but by the time it started the ground was way too wet to keep the snow from melting on contact. Oh well... maybe ill get to see a good snow in Chicago.:errr:

[Fireand'chutes77]

My old Religion teacher sent a story I wrote for the school newspaper to this organization that publishes works of (literary) art by high schoolers in a book, so I'm happy. Hopefully it'll get published. My English teacher actually talked to me about the same thing, and wants me to write something, so I guess I'll have two things submitted.

Good luck on that, GTG!:D

A scoutmaster finally uploaded pictures of the Navy trip I mentioned above.

The image below, down one of the Teddy Roosevelt's corridors, gives some scale of how massive this ship was.

[image]

This 2D picture truely does not do it 3D justice. There are no mirrors. This is a straight shot all the way to the black dot in the very center of the picture. In person, the effect was dizzying, akin to vertigo. :blink: :blink:

Very impressive, 'chutes. I would have liked to have been with you on that tour.
Yes, I think you would have liked it. One of my favorite pictures (and currently my desktop background), taken from the stern helo deck of the McFaul at sunset:

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/6516/destroyersunsetar3.jpg

[kyojikasshu]

Yes, I think you would have liked it. One of my favorite pictures (and currently my desktop background), taken from the stern helo deck of the McFaul at sunset:


Now that is a pretty nice picture right there. :thumbup:

[GoTeamGirl]

My old Religion teacher sent a story I wrote for the school newspaper to this organization that publishes works of (literary) art by high schoolers in a book, so I'm happy. Hopefully it'll get published. My English teacher actually talked to me about the same thing, and wants me to write something, so I guess I'll have two things submitted.

Good luck on that, GTG!:D


Thanks! :D

Today I went skiing with my one of my best friends, who took her first ski lesson today. Ski conditions were great, something I haven't experienced in a long time. My sister and I got three runs in before lunch. Then, after lunch, I went with my friend to one of the easier trails. Unfortunately, it didn't go too well, so I'm planning more ski trips in the near future so that she can gain experience. I think her skis were off-they released way too easily, and getting skis back on in the middle of a trail is hard for anyone, especially beginners.

Then we went to a house on the mountain where we'll be staying with some others soon. My cousin and her friends were there...they were so different than the kids we're used to! I don't know exactly what, but they were. Maybe it's that they go to public school and we don't, or they live in a different state, or that they are all just different in personality than we are. I know my cousin changed from when I knew her during our younger years, to now, when we don't talk as much. Perhaps it's because we have less in common than we thought.

[AinoMinako]

Yesterday we finally got snow in Alabama. (Okay, so it was only about an inch, and it melted by 2:00, but it's still exciting.)

Today was really fun. My friend and I kidnapped one of our other friends (complete with pirate outfits) and went to Atlanta. The primary purpose for this was to go to the kosher restaurants, as she keeps kosher and happens to be the only Hasidic teenager in Alabama at the moment; we went to one of the malls in between lunch and dinner. The only downside was that I have a cold.

[kyojikasshu]

Nice Scrubs avatar, AinoMinako!

Today was fairly eventful at work. We found out that they've hired a new area manager from outside the company, so my site manager won't be getting promoted... and, as a result, I won't get promoted to take his place. Disappointing, to be sure, but I feel worse for him than for me. I think I do need a little more time before I can truly feel ready to take on a manager's position.

And it works out that I can still take my vacation time with no worries! :laugh:

[jeriddian]

What a horrible, horrible day for me........:confused::sick::dubiety::( I won't get into too much of it except to say I had way, way too much work, literally spending about 32 hours straight working. I've managed to get off a about seven oclock, and have rested some . I ate a little, posted here for about half an hour, and now I have to go to bed. I start again at about 6 AM. Being on call really sucks.:mad:

[Greenmandmz]

What a horrible, horrible day for me........:confused::sick::dubiety::( I won't get into too much of it except to say I had way, way too much work, literally spending about 32 hours straight working. I've managed to get off a about seven oclock, and have rested some . I ate a little, posted here for about half an hour, and now I have to go to bed. I start again at about 6 AM. Being on call really sucks.:mad:
:blink:

Man, that does suck! My sympathies, jeriddian. And here I thought a few 18 hour days I worked were long. You've got me beat there. Be sure to get plenty of rest when you're off the clock again, and get a good nights' sleep tonight.

[Ace Ian Combat]

No school today due to ice. I'm not really worried, we get seven snow days this year, though they're usually used for basketball/baseball/softball state. I hated that they used up our four snow days last year for when they went to state but didn't end up winning, then we had an extra week and a half added onto our school year when the snow and ice did hit.

[Twila Starla]

No school today due to ice. I'm not really worried, we get seven snow days this year, though they're usually used for basketball/baseball/softball state. I hated that they used up our four snow days last year for when they went to state but didn't end up winning, then we had an extra week and a half added onto our school year when the snow and ice did hit.

Lucky, got yesterday and today off. The weather just warmed up here, in fact, it almost never snows here, not that it would affect my school life (homeschooled). :P

[Ace Ian Combat]

No school today due to ice. I'm not really worried, we get seven snow days this year, though they're usually used for basketball/baseball/softball state. I hated that they used up our four snow days last year for when they went to state but didn't end up winning, then we had an extra week and a half added onto our school year when the snow and ice did hit.

Lucky, got yesterday and today off. The weather just warmed up here, in fact, it almost never snows here, not that it would affect my school life (homeschooled). :P

Actually, I had school yesterday. It almost never snows here either.

[Twila Starla]

No school today due to ice. I'm not really worried, we get seven snow days this year, though they're usually used for basketball/baseball/softball state. I hated that they used up our four snow days last year for when they went to state but didn't end up winning, then we had an extra week and a half added onto our school year when the snow and ice did hit.

Lucky, got yesterday and today off. The weather just warmed up here, in fact, it almost never snows here, not that it would affect my school life (homeschooled). :P

Actually, I had school yesterday. It almost never snows here either.

You had school on Martin Luther King's birthday? I was off!

[Ace Ian Combat]

No school today due to ice. I'm not really worried, we get seven snow days this year, though they're usually used for basketball/baseball/softball state. I hated that they used up our four snow days last year for when they went to state but didn't end up winning, then we had an extra week and a half added onto our school year when the snow and ice did hit.

Lucky, got yesterday and today off. The weather just warmed up here, in fact, it almost never snows here, not that it would affect my school life (homeschooled). :P

Actually, I had school yesterday. It almost never snows here either.

You had school on Martin Luther King's birthday? I was off!

I'm pretty sure we were the only ones in the whole state as well.

I've been working on the finishing touches on Ch. 2 of Demonic since I have the time.:)

[Twila Starla]

No school today due to ice. I'm not really worried, we get seven snow days this year, though they're usually used for basketball/baseball/softball state. I hated that they used up our four snow days last year for when they went to state but didn't end up winning, then we had an extra week and a half added onto our school year when the snow and ice did hit.

Lucky, got yesterday and today off. The weather just warmed up here, in fact, it almost never snows here, not that it would affect my school life (homeschooled). :P

Actually, I had school yesterday. It almost never snows here either.

You had school on Martin Luther King's birthday? I was off!

I'm pretty sure we were the only ones in the whole state as well.

I've been working on the finishing touches on Ch. 2 of Demonic since I have the time.:)


Ohh! I can't wait to see it! :biggergrin:

[Ace Ian Combat]

I'm pretty sure we were the only ones in the whole state as well.

I've been working on the finishing touches on Ch. 2 of Demonic since I have the time.:)


Ohh! I can't wait to see it! :biggergrin:

I'm still patching up Drakken's short bit, but it'll be complete soon. Gonna get some lunch right now.:D

[GoTeamGirl]

Yesterday I took my English midterm. The teacher kept putting on the board, "The end is near", followed by "The end is nearer" and then "The end is nearer than you think."

I also rescheduled my Global midterm. I am so happy. I have today off and Monday off as well due to having no midterms on those days. Thursday and Friday I'm in school all day to take four more midterms. Then on Tuesday my new schedule should be given to me, since this year I'm taking two 1-semester courses. Last semester was Keyboarding (thank God that's over!) and this one is Health.

[TransWarpDrive]

Today was fairly slow for me. In fact, it was so slow, I actually sat down at my office computer and started work on another Kim Possible fanfic for a while. I only finished a couple of pages, however (and it is a first draft, with revisions sure to follow). This afternoon, we got some more snow - only about an inch. I had to brush my car off before I could drive home tonight.
Speaking of the drive home, that was actually the busiest part of my day. First, I stopped at Walgreen's to pick up something I needed; then went to the gas station across the street to refuel my car (with sub-zero temperatures forecast for my area, I don't want to worry about either running out of gas or having my fuel line freeze up). Once I got home, I had to haul out the trash, since it's my turn this week. I also had to pull Mom's minivan out of the garage, so I could take the bags of salt (it's really a granular ice-melting compound that only looks like rock salt) out of the vehicle and stack them in the garage.
Ah, the joys of winter...
:P
EDIT: Right now, I'm running a full-system scan on my computer with my Norton antivirus software at the same time I'm posting on-line. I hate the way it's slowing my computer down. I know it's necessary to do this on a regular basis (besides, I got a message saying I have to do this right now); but it takes so long, slows down my computer, and the timing is, well, lousy. I don't need any more hassles - I already have enough as it is.

[TransWarpDrive]

Another slow day for me. Very little outgoing or incoming mail, so I mostly busied myself at my office computer surfing the 'net for news stories and the like.
We had some sad news at work today: one of the men who worked on meters in the repair shop suffered a massive stroke. From what I've heard, the poor guy's practically brain-dead as a result. He used to load money into one of the meters I once used whenever my funds ran low. I just took the electronic part of the meter into the shop, and he'd load the money into it for me. He was a very nice guy, and we're all saddened by what happened to him.
I had to reprint a couple of purchase confirmations I got via e-mail at work this afternoon. For some reason, my home computer wouldn't print them right (my printer's OK; I even ran a test page which came out right - maybe there's a glitch in my e-mail connection), but the office printer did.
Oh, and we're back into sub-zero temperatures here in Go City. We have to leave our kitchen faucet running at a steady trickle; and leave the cabinet doors under the kitchen sink open at night so our pipes don't freeze up. Like I said yesterday:
Ah, the joys of winter...

[GoTeamGirl]

I finished my midterms today! I am so happy. Today was Chemistry, which was pretty hard, and Spanish, which I didn't think was hard but a lot of people did. The Spanish test was long though-175 questions and two "essays" (which, together, really only add up to one essay-sized piece of writing). The room I took the test in had only three people from our class, with the rest taking Italian, and there was a lot of distracting artwork on the walls.

This weekend is going to be fun. I'm going skiing with my friends, and I have Monday off as a result of changing one of my exams. The reason I changed it was because I am getting my braces off.

[jeriddian]

Got up at 6:30AM, washed up, got dressed. In hospital by 7:30. Finished at 10:15 PM. Went home. Checked the Web site. posted a bit. Will go to bed at 11:00 PM (and hope I don't get beeped all night.) Then do it all again tomorrow.....:ohwell::mad:

[Ace Ian Combat]

I had a good day. I received a puppy today. It's part beagle, part Pomeranian, and it's a boy named Kendrall. The bad news is I'm not allowed to keep it at my house, so it's staying at my friend's house with its brother Jake and sister Danielle. The other brother went to Petco to be adopted.

[campy]

Since the temperature soared into the mid 30s this afternoon, I decided to wash my car today. I had to get a hose from the basement, because the one I keep in the garage was clogged with ice.

[TransWarpDrive]

I got up at 8:00 AM, which is unusual for me on a Saturday. I did so for two reasons: first, I had to use the bathroom, and second, I managed to pull all the sheets off my bed last night with my tossing and turning. After fixing the bed, I got dressed, looked out the window, and decided to shovel the snow off our driveway and sidewalk. After shoveling the snow, I helped out around the house by doing the dishes while my mom began taking down the Christmas tree (our outside decorations came down early this month during a warm spell), then started a load of laundry. This afternoon I went to Borders and, taking advantage of a 30%-off coupon, saved over $9.00 on two books. One's a biography of Jimmy Stewart that I'd wanted to get; the other's a book on the American Revolution. After dinner tonight, I did the dishes (again! :ohwell:) and finished up that laundry; now here I am on-line with the good ol' GJA.

[GoTeamGirl]

I had a lot of fun skiing today. Then, while I was standing still (oddly enough) my ski bindings broke. So I need to get new bindings. It was pretty funny-all of a sudden my boots popped out.

[TransWarpDrive]

Quiet day at home - basically, I just took care of a few things I needed to get done today, like laundry and running to the store to pick up more Coke Classic. Fortunately, I managed to get everything done before dinner.
This afternoon while I was updating my CD inventory, I discovered that the floppy disk I was using as a back-up had gone bad - I could open the Excel spreadsheets for the music inventory on the floppy, but not the DVD sheet. So I copied my inventories off my hard drive onto a new floppy, and destroyed the old disk after making sure the new one worked OK. It's odd the way it would open one spreadsheet but not the other. I guess it's true when they say that nothing lasts forever...:huh:

[jeriddian]

I am now officially off call (at least for the next two weeks) :surprised::scared::confused::errr::blush::ohwell: ................

GAWD!.........well, it's my own blasted fault. I chose to do it.:o:confused:

Anyway, averaging 13 hours a day of actual work, interspersed with another several hours of hassles, calls, beeps scattered through the rest of the time over the period of a week is enough to drive a man to drink (or the insane asylum). Fortunately, I do not care that much for alcohol except in sips, and I'm already crazy to be doing this job.:rolleyes:

Now I can get back to work on my video script. Just a little thing I'm trying to do. Have to finish it out in two weeks. I have to go back to Dallas this weekend to finish setting up my house to show for sale. In two weeks I start on a music project with ProTools (actually it's the same one I've been trying to do for a while, but I'll finally have the additional software package I need by then.:P So much to do, so little time........:dubiety:

[Fireand'chutes77]

I am now officially off call (at least for the next two weeks) :surprised::scared::confused::errr::blush::ohwell: ................

GAWD!.........well, it's my own blasted fault. I chose to do it.:o:confused:
So.... is that a bad thing? :unsure:

[kyojikasshu]

Well, I had a great, productive Friday off...

... then I get home, and find that my computer has decided to die. It gets stuck in a boot loop, where the option to select Safe Mode in Windows comes up, but no matter what you pick, it simply reboots. Leave it alone? Reboot!

It's eight years old, though, and pretty much non-upgradeable at this point. I was planning on replacing it anyway, but just not this week... :mad:

It'll probably be the end of this week that I'll be back online at home. Until then, I doubt I'll get much, if any, time in online... (I only have a few minutes here and there at work, like right now)

Later...

[jeriddian]

I am now officially off call (at least for the next two weeks) :surprised::scared::confused::errr::blush::ohwell: ................

GAWD!.........well, it's my own blasted fault. I chose to do it.:o:confused:
So.... is that a bad thing? :unsure:

It takes so long to recover from it.:mad:.......

[TransWarpDrive]

I am now officially off call (at least for the next two weeks)...
...Now I can get back to work on my video script. Just a little thing I'm trying to do. Have to finish it out in two weeks. I have to go back to Dallas this weekend to finish setting up my house to show for sale. In two weeks I start on a music project with ProTools (actually it's the same one I've been trying to do for a while, but I'll finally have the additional software package I need by then.:P So much to do, so little time........:dubiety:

And he's our Administrator, too.
If we had an "Official Title Thread" here, I'd post the following:
GJA's Renaissance Man - jeriddian
:D:thumbup::biggergrin:

[Fireand'chutes77]

Well, yesterday I started a new chapter in my life.

Yesterday, I joined the ranks of the Glassed and the Furious. :biggergrin: :harhar: :dubiety:

Yes, I've gotten glasses. My ability to see things far away had been gradually deteriorating. My left eye was pretty much shot - it had a range of about 3 feet before everything became fuzzy - but my right eye had, until recently, been able to cover for it. Unfortunately, that eye started sliding about a year ago; a routine eye check put up the first warning signs. I started having trouble reading far-off Interstate signs. However, for a while, I was able to limp along with my right eye, with the left essentially there for stereovision. However, about 3 months ago, things started going downhill. I could still see OK for general use, but trying to read interstate signs was a chore, and I now realize I was usually navigating by prior knowledge (OK, my offramp is two past this meadow) than actually knowing what the signs said. The final indication that told me my glasses-free days had ended was a ski trip to Timberline about a month ago (the one where we hit the deer). It was nighttime, and I missed two turnoffs because I couldn't see the sign clearly until we were almost under it, and my mom's Outback's headlights made things worse. They're designed not to blind people on the low setting, so they have this weird "cutoff" that slices the upper half of the beam off. This meant that by the time we'd come close enough to the overhead sign for me to see what it said, the beams weren't shining on it.

I had an eye test at the beginning of this month, and the doc said I was on the very borderline of passing a DMV eye test... And then she drew up a glasses prescription, which we picked up yesterday.

I guess it's not until you see things clearly you realize just how crappy your eyes are. All the colors suddenly became a lot more vivid, and text on everything became a lot clearer. It was like an HD movie. As my mom drove us home from the doc, I kept flipping my glasses up and down as we approached signs... "Wow, I can see it!" "Now I can't!" "Now I can!" :laugh:

The doctor said I only have to use these mostly for driving, and watching movies or reading the board when I want to. They really wreck with my close-up depth perception, so I can't really wear them when I'm walking indoors.

I don't have excellent 3D vision, but the glasses can't do anything about that. (That fact pretty much rules out ever becoming a surgeon or fighter pilot. Not that I'd wanted to become a surgeon or fighter pilot, but now the option's no longer there.)

At least they don't look that bad. They're squarish navy-blue wire rims, and the fitter remarked, "Wow, they really bring out the color of your [blue] eyes... You did a good job picking." My neighbor said I looked like Clark Kent, so I think that's a good thing.

In the end, I've got mixed feelings about them. I've been able to escape them much longer than my dad - he got glasses in 2nd grade - and they look a lot better than his did. I'm glad I can finally see, and I'm wowed by all the new colors, but at the same time, I'm sad. I realize that I haven't been seeing the world "properly," and I'm never going to be able to see it as it is without some sort of aid, either glasses or contacts. My natural eyesight is suddenly subpar. My born-with eyes have failed me. On top of that, I've now got to worry about keeping up with these glasses, cleaning them, not losing them, and having to pull them out every time I need to see something far away or drive. I'd (jokingly) asked the optometrist if she could give me glasses that would give me "supervision -" allowing me to see better than a normal human, better than 20/20, but she just smiled and chuckled.

I'm hopeful that, given the medical advances made just 8 years into the new millennium, glasses will only be a stopgap measure. In 20 years, doctors could be using robotic electron microscopes to buff and polish and reshape the cornea, not only giving patients perfect vision, but "baby eyes" as well: the buffing process would remove the thousands of little pits and scratches we accumulate on our corneas over a lifetime, and we could look up at the stars, blazing razor-clear overhead, with nary a twinkle.

Even more daring, using stem cells, doctors could remove a single cell from the cornea (or anywhere else on the body) and grow it into a brand-new, custom-made-to-order cornea. They'd then remove the old cornea and transplant on the new one, giving ordinary humans the visual capabilities of Master Chief. :cool: :thumbup:

[campy]

Well, yesterday I started a new chapter in my life.

Yesterday, I joined the ranks of the Glassed and the Furious. :biggergrin: :harhar: :dubiety:

[...]

On top of that, I've now got to worry about keeping up with these glasses, cleaning them, not loosing them, and having to pull them out every time I need to see something far away or drive. I think that's the worst of all worlds glasses-wise. I had glasses just for reading for a few years, and I was always leaving them someplace. Now I wear them all the time, and I think it's better. Mine add a little sharpness to long-distance vision, but I could easily get along without for anything except reading & other close work. (I took them off for my last driver's license renewal—and passed with no problem.)

It's just so much more convenient to have them right there all the time. :D

My day so far: I went out to get my hair cut, then I went to Walgreen's and bought some KP valentines. They had two boxes, no foil ones.

[Sir Sebastian]

Yesterday, I joined the ranks of the Glassed and the Furious. :biggergrin: :harhar: :dubiety:

Welcome to Club Four-Eyes!

As someone who's had to wear glasses for almost two decades, I can say that you'll get used to them - eventually. I was actually kinda excited when I had to get glasses, don't know why.

As for the indoors use: if you keep wearing the glasses, your eyes will adapt.

[jeriddian]

My condolensces (or congratulations depending on how you look at it), 'chutes. I wouldn't know about it though. Depite my advanced years, I'm still 20/20 (I was 20/10 in my youth.), although I do have a slight vertical astigmatism. However, I do find it harder to focus now, especially when I'm tired.

[Ace Ian Combat]

Well, yesterday I started a new chapter in my life.

Yesterday, I joined the ranks of the Glassed and the Furious. :biggergrin: :harhar: :dubiety:

Yes, I've gotten glasses. My ability to see things far away had been gradually deteriorating. My left eye was pretty much shot - it had a range of about 3 feet before everything became fuzzy - but my right eye had, until recently, been able to cover for it. Unfortunately, that eye started sliding about a year ago; a routine eye check put up the first warning signs. I started having trouble reading far-off Interstate signs. However, for a while, I was able to limp along with my right eye, with the left essentially there for stereovision. However, about 3 months ago, things started going downhill. I could still see OK for general use, but trying to read interstate signs was a chore, and I now realize I was usually navigating by prior knowledge (OK, my offramp is two past this meadow) than actually knowing what the signs said. The final indication that told me my glasses-free days had ended was a ski trip to Timberline about a month ago (the one where we hit the deer). It was nighttime, and I missed two turnoffs because I couldn't see the sign clearly until we were almost under it, and my mom's Outback's headlights made things worse. They're designed not to blind people on the low setting, so they have this weird "cutoff" that slices the upper half of the beam off. This meant that by the time we'd come close enough to the overhead sign for me to see what it said, the beams weren't shining on it.



You're not helping me not worry, 'chutes. My left eye is so near-sighted I can barely see over a foot away with it, while my right is perfectly far-sighted and I can see quite far. I have a contact that I currently wear for the left, but I like my far-sighted eye!

[Fireand'chutes77]

You're not helping me not worry, 'chutes. My left eye is so near-sighted I can barely see over a foot away with it, while my right is perfectly far-sighted and I can see quite far. I have a contact that I currently wear for the left, but I like my far-sighted eye!
Well, here's to hoping that your right eye carries on. That "monacle" option is probably what I would've done if my right eye hadn't started going down as well. Hopefully, you've caught it through your contacts, so your right eye won't have to strain as much and wear out faster.


Mine add a little sharpness to long-distance vision, but I could easily get along without for anything except reading & other close work. (I took them off for my last driver's license renewal—and passed with no problem.)
That's probably the better option... with near-sightedness, I have to switch to glasses every time I want to see something far away... It gets annoying. But at least I can see what's in front of me without glasses; people with farsightedness might have problems seeing/avoiding close-up things if they lose their glasses.

Depite my advanced years, I'm still 20/20 (I was 20/10 in my youth.).
*Grumble grumble* Lucky.... :dubiety: :laugh:

That's probably one reason you're a doc... You've got above-par eyesight.

-----

I wore my glasses most of the day today, even if I didn't really need them, to see how much people would comment. Surprisingly, not too many people noticed (Is this because I look good in them? Or do people just not notice me enough to care? :cry: *Degrades into self-esteem basket case* :P :laugh:).

The only person who really noticed was one guy at our lunch table, who exclaimed as I sat down, "Hey, you look like that guy who plays Spider-Man!"

*He thinks for a moment*

"Or... or... that guy who's Superman...!"

"Clark Kent?"

"Yeah!"

... I should keep a running list of Clark Kent comparisons. :laugh:

[jeriddian]

Depite my advanced years, I'm still 20/20 (I was 20/10 in my youth.).
*Grumble grumble* Lucky.... :dubiety: :laugh:

That's probably one reason you're a doc... You've got above-par eyesight.


Actually, if anything, my profession really should make my eyesight worse.:P Just lucky, I guess.:innocent:

[Twila Starla]

I understand your sitch, fireand'chutes. Last year, I went to the eye doctor and they said I have lazy eye in my left eye. After I got my glasses, everything I saw became sharper and more vivid, but I have to get another pair, my current ones are so strong they give me massive headaches. :thumbdown:

[TransWarpDrive]

'Chutes, don't feel bad about having to wear glasses; Sir Sebastian's right when he says you'll get used to them. I've been wearing glasses since the fall of 1965, when I was in first grade, so consider yourself lucky - I've spent most of my life with glasses on my face. At least I can still fly a plane; I had to get a special waiver from the FAA (my eye doctor filled out a form which I sent to their aeromedical division) which exempts me from the eyesight restrictions and allows me to have a Third-Class Medical Certificate (the one for Private Pilots).
As for your discovery of how clear everything suddenly looks with glasses, that reminds me of a story from my youth:
I never realized I had bad vision. As a little boy, I'd look across the street at the kids playing over there, and all I saw of each kid's face was a flesh-colored blur. But having no basis for comparison, I thought that was normal. It wasn't until I started school that my parents became aware of my vision problems. My first-grade teacher realized I was having trouble seeing the chalkboard (they always called it a "blackboard" even though it was green. Talk about confusing... :huh:); and after a conference or two with my parents, I was taken to the eye doctor for an exam, and fitted with glasses soon after.
My mom recently told me that, during the drive home after first getting my glasses, I was commenting on how clearly I could see everything (much like you did). Mom said hearing that made her and my dad feel guilty over not having taken me to the eye doctor sooner.
As it turns out, all three of my siblings (my sister and both my brothers) ended up needing glasses, too, so I didn't feel like such an oddball. Both my grandmothers and my maternal grandfather wore glasses, so the eyesight problems do run in the family. Oh, yes - my mom also wears glasses. My father wore glasses sometimes for reading; however, he didn't need them all the time - his eyes were better than ours. Lucky man...
I got compliments about my glasses, too - the teen-aged son of the family next door nicknamed me "Professor" when he first saw me wearing them. Other folks compared me to Clark Kent, like they did you (truth be told, I'd rather be compared to Clark Kent than Peter Parker - Kent's not as nerdy as Parker was...:laugh:).
Of course, this past year I ended up getting bifocals for the first time. Over the last few years, it became harder for me to read books and magazines without holding the literature at arm's length and moving it back and forth until the print came into focus (the late Bing Crosby once compared it to "playing the trombone" in a scene from his movie, White Christmas). Since my employer's benefits included eye care, and I was off work on disability this spring due to my busted elbow, I thought I'd take the opportunity to get my eyes checked out. For the most part, I've gotten used to reading with the bifocals - although when I'm sorting the incoming mail at work, I find myself having to constantly refocus when I shift from peering through the reading lenses on the bottom to using the distance parts on top as I read each envelope, then look to see what shelf to put it in. Gets a little distracting, there... :unsure:
So hang in there - before you know it, you'll get used to wearing glasses. They'll become such a part of your life that you'll be putting them on without even thinking about it. :cool:

[campy]

[...] I find myself having to constantly refocus when I shift from peering through the reading lenses on the bottom to using the distance parts on top as I read each envelope, then look to see what shelf to put it in. Gets a little distracting, there... :unsure:
So hang in there - before you know it, you'll get used to wearing glasses. They'll become such a part of your life that you'll be putting them on without even thinking about it. :cool:That's what it was like when I started wearing the glasses all the time. Mine are the progressive, 'no-line' style, so I can find a 'sweet spot' for whatever distance I'm trying to see. It was a little weird at first, but now I'm used to it. :D

[Cloud23465]

I'm trying to mentally and physically prepare myself for the next 4 days. Thursday and Friday are work days... Satuday is a get the car packed and rest after. Satuday night at about 10pm I hit the road for the 14+ hour haul to Chicago. Sunday's going to be the only clear day. Oh... I just looked at the tempature up there... 0 with a -19 wind chill.... I must of lost my mind:laugh:. Thursday, Friday and Satuday are all day it's supposed to snow up there... Sunday is mostly cloudy then monday will have freezing rain. So it's going to be go or go home... I mean stay home.:confused:

[Fireand'chutes77]

Ungh... I've been having a nasty couple of days. On Tuesday morning, I had a minor case of the sniffles, but that developed into something like a fever by noon. I felt weak, shivery, and generally crappy. I went to the nurse's office to get my temperature checked, but they shooed me out after their instruments turned up a reading of 97.8. I'm not sure how that happened.

I managed to hack my way through the rest of the school day, feeling miserable, and skipped robotics at the end of the day. I got home, dumped my backpack, and crashed into bed. I didn't wake up until 8:30. I missed my troop's Court of Honor, which I'd really been wanting to go to, and which my dad reported was very good.

The next morning, I stayed home from school with a minor fever that dissipated by lunch...... And then the coughing kicked in. It was a nasty, draining, dry cough that didn't do anything except wear me out and irritate my throat. Cough drops, tea, water, and asthma treatments didn't really make a dent.

This morning, I woke up with a lot of congestion and thought I had cleared out; I felt OK in the shower, anyways. But as I ate breakfast... The dry coughing started again. I'm staying home again today, and now it' starting to mess with my school work. I can still get my homework through my teacher's internet pages and friends, but I'm missing class time.

My asthma used to be worse when I was younger, but it's almost completely gone now. It's never interfered with pets or exercise. The only real trigger for it seems to be a cold... and then it takes a 1-2 day cold and drags it out over 3-4-5 days. :ohwell:

Uhhhhhh.... :(

[campy]

I went out to do some errands this morning, came back and watched KP at 1:30 pm, then went to the grocery store after that. Now I'm home again. That's about it so far.

[GoTeamGirl]

Feel better Fireand'chuttes77! :)

Speaking of sickness, my sister ended up with strep throat, which is apparently going around (I notice that every time someone gets sick, no matter what it is, the doctor always says "It's going around."). She was terrible yesterday, and almost better today, which is good because, my mom having gone to another country, my dad can't handle much more of this. She was also labeled as extremely contagious until tomorrow, so hopefully it doesn't spread.

I started Health as a second semester course, and with the exception of the very first day my health teacher has been absent. However, we have read through two chapters. I'm not sure what to make of that....

And report cards were supposed to be handed out, but are now being distributed Monday as a result of the delayed first midterm.

[campy]

I started Health as a second semester course, and with the exception of the very first day my health teacher has been absent. Oh no, is the health teacher sick? That would be somewhat ironic. :laugh:

[Fireand'chutes77]

Feel better Fireand'chuttes77! :)
Thanks. Around lunch, it seemed to migrate into a stuffy nose... which makes me cough *and* gives me a sinus headache.... :ohwell:

http://aycu04.webshots.com/image/39603/2002631236809381885_rs.jpg

I canbt breeb through by nobe! :dubiety:

And my afternoon was a lot like this (http://caps.kpfanworld.com/images/46a%20Sick%20Day%20Pics/PowerDVD%202006-07-13%2010-26-40-03.jpg).... Yeah. :thumbdown: :(

[kyojikasshu]

Feel better Fireand'chuttes77! :)
Thanks. Around lunch, it seemed to migrate into a stuffy nose... which makes me cough *and* gives me a sinus headache.... :ohwell:

image

I canbt breeb through by nobe! :dubiety:

And my afternoon was a lot like this (http://caps.kpfanworld.com/images/46a%20Sick%20Day%20Pics/PowerDVD%202006-07-13%2010-26-40-03.jpg).... Yeah. :thumbdown: :(

Well, Fireand'chutes77, I do hope you feel better. Seems everybody's sick these days... even my manager had to go home early on Tuesday.

Well, I've finally got my brand-new Compaq Presario 5350 up and running, and my Westinghouse 19" widescreen LCD monitor is a thing of beauty. What's amazing is just how bright everything is. My old monitor was flat-out dim - I could tell the difference at work, but this is pretty incredible.

I'm still getting used to Vista - and, is there a way to turn off that freakin' authorization thing every time I try to open a program? I mean, my user account's Administrator-level... anyway, I'm still pretty impressed with how the system's running.

The only real downer is that I got a self-install kit for Comcast High-Speed Internet, but even though everything's connected, it's not picking up the signal for some reason. I think it might have to do with the cable setup for the house, and that it's going through two splitters. Later on, I'll try taking one splitter out, temporarily disconnecting my TV so I can see if that works. In any case, I've got a tech coming out on Saturday to try to resolve this.

By the way, it's really great to actually have real money, and not have to worry about living paycheck-to-paycheck anymore. ^_^

[Cloud23465]

Well we ended up knocking 2 days of work out today.. I could of used the hours but with the weather going to turn south, I've felt a bit under the weather and a 16 haul to Chicago in less then 48 hours... I was more then happy to get it done. 100% of rain all day and possible thunderstorm... but that's not the reason why we did what we did... it was the 25-35 gusting to 40mph winds. When there is 6 tons of steel spinning in the wind... you don't have a good day.:laugh: Time to ugh... take another one of these wonderful tasting alka-seltzer pluses and get some rest. Tomorrow packing and saturday leaving... Oh boy... what have i got myself into again? Chicago in feburary? I must of lost my mind.:laugh:

[TransWarpDrive]

Hope you feel better soon, 'chutes. I once came down with a head cold while attending an SF convention over Memorial Day weekend. I felt absolutely miserable on the drive home that year.
As for my day:
We're printing invoices again at work - got the bugs in the program licked, and they're giving me all 15,000 at once. As a result, I'm swamped - even worked an hour overtime yesterday to try and make some progress.
Today I managed to get everything out that I did yesterday. I was hoping to get more done by staying late again tonight, but my boss came in at 3 PM and told me that they were shutting down the office early because of the snowstorm here in Go City - they wanted everybody to get home safely. So I ended up clocking out at 4, and cautiously drove home through the snow and slush. After a brief stop at Walgreen's to get a few supplies, I arrived home and parked my car only to go back outdoors and help my brother clear the snow off our driveway and sidewalks. He used the snowblower while I manned the shovel.
I just checked the Weather Channel - their radar image shows we're still getting snow, yet it seems to me from looking out the window as though it's letting up around my place. But our driveway almost looks as though we never plowed it - that's how much it's snowed since 5:00 when we were out there shoveling.:thumbdown:
*Sigh* I hate winter....

[jeriddian]

I won't be able to post much. I'm back in Dallas, getting the house ready to sell. I hate moving.......:mad:

[GoTeamGirl]

I started Health as a second semester course, and with the exception of the very first day my health teacher has been absent. Oh no, is the health teacher sick? That would be somewhat ironic. :laugh:

:laugh: Sadly, I think so.

No school today. I was so surprised. I woke up and some schools were closed and some had a two hour delay because of the ice storm that nobody seemed to know about. Then my school district closed, but my high school was still open. It wasn't until I started getting ready that they closed my school. And now report cards will probably be pushed back...again...

It is really icy out, though. It's the most surprising school closure I've ever had, I think...

[kyojikasshu]

All but two school districts shut down in the metro Detroit area today because of the snow. Grosse Pointe and Harper Woods schools stayed open. (The Pointes and Harper Woods are east of Detroit, right by Lake St. Clair.)

Of course, I still had to come in to work... and I nearly got hit three times by pickup trucks being driven by people with no freaking clue. Oddly enough, though, it's looking better outside - the snow's stopped for now, the roads are looking clearer...

We've been pretty quiet today. I've gotten my end-of-month stuff taken care of, assigned a mailroom project to our junior team member, and we're just waiting for a couple of jobs to come in. Thing is, in order to meet their deadlines, we need to have the documents right about now, but we haven't heard anything from them yet. And we warned them up front, too...

At least my boss decided to give us free lunch today, even though he's not in. That was pretty cool.

[campy]

I went out on some errands this morning. I'm shopping for a new digital camera, and I wanted to check the model number of one I saw last week and then read reviews online. I'm thinking of getting a Canon A560. it has 4X optical zoom and a 2.5 inch display. My present Nikon only has 3X and a tiny display.

It's a good thing I went out early, because it's messy weather outside now.

[jeriddian]

I went out on some errands this morning. I'm shopping for a new digital camera, and I wanted to check the model number of one I saw last week and then read reviews online. I'm thinking of getting a Canon A560. it has 4X optical zoom and a 2.5 inch display. My present Nikon only has 3X and a tiny display.

It's a good thing I went out early, because it's messy weather outside now.

Hmmm. Canon A560.... ...nice camera:biggergrin:. Been thinking about getting one myself.:D

I spent the day cleaning out the last of the trash from the house. Tomorrow, I take it to the dump, then I can go back and get the last of the stuff in the house that I will take back to Midland with me. The carpets get cleaned tomorrow. I will try to do a little touch up painting here and there. Then hopefully I will be able to let the house be shown. I should have enough time for it all before I leave on Sunday back for Midland. I go back on call Sunday night..... ....Yeah I trade out a week with one of my partners, but that will give me three weeks off after that week.

[kyojikasshu]

Moving is always a pain in the neck.

Well, it's finally happened... I have my high-speed internet! WHOO-HOO! As I figured, the service tech had to install a new line from outside, so that I'd have enough signal strength.

Now, I just have to downgrade my old ISP...

[campy]

We had a brief visit from the older daughter this morning. She and a bunch of friends are spending the weekend at a Vietnamese New Year's celebration in Binghamton NY, and they stopped here on the way from Boston.

After everyone left, I washed my car. Silver cars show the dirt so easily. I wish I still had my tan Mazda; I think I washed that twice in 6 years. It always looked the same. :D

[TransWarpDrive]

After everyone left, I washed my car. Silver cars show the dirt so easily.
Yeah, I know what you mean. My silver Passat looks so grubby right now - especially with the goose droppings on her nose. :sick: Problem is, I can't wash her right now, since it's below freezing here and my doors might get stuck shut. Oh, well...
Today I ran some errands - paid the rent on my storage cubicle; went to the store to buy some soda pop on sale - that sort of stuff. Tonight I'm going to see that "Hannah Montana" concert movie - I'm curious to see how that Disney Digital 3-D system works.

[campy]

After everyone left, I washed my car. Silver cars show the dirt so easily.
Yeah, I know what you mean. My silver Passat looks so grubby right now - especially with the goose droppings on her nose. :sick: You should wet a paper towel and get those off, if nothing else. You don't want to leave bird droppings on the finish for a long time. They're nasty to paint, I hear. :unsure:

[TransWarpDrive]

After everyone left, I washed my car. Silver cars show the dirt so easily.
Yeah, I know what you mean. My silver Passat looks so grubby right now - especially with the goose droppings on her nose. :sick: You should wet a paper towel and get those off, if nothing else. You don't want to leave bird droppings on the finish for a long time. They're nasty to paint, I hear. :unsure:
Good idea. Thanks for pointing that out - I forgot about that. :unsure:

[GoTeamGirl]

I went to the mall today and bought a lot more than I usually do. Mostly clothes and music. Tomorrow I need to do some school work (my friend can't believe I won't be watching the Superbowl, but I'm not a football person).

[Cloud23465]

Well in less less then 5 hours I hit the road. Hopefully the roads are clear where they got the winter weather from thursday and friday. Hopefully by this time tomorrow ill be reporting from Chicago.

[Ace Ian Combat]

I started Health as a second semester course, and with the exception of the very first day my health teacher has been absent. Oh no, is the health teacher sick? That would be somewhat ironic. :laugh:

:laugh: Sadly, I think so.

No school today. I was so surprised. I woke up and some schools were closed and some had a two hour delay because of the ice storm that nobody seemed to know about. Then my school district closed, but my high school was still open. It wasn't until I started getting ready that they closed my school. And now report cards will probably be pushed back...again...

It is really icy out, though. It's the most surprising school closure I've ever had, I think...

We almost got out because of the ice/snow storm here, but no dice.

We had state academic competition today. We did horrible and were out of the competition by the end of our second game. It always seems like that I always know them when I'm not playing, then I know none when I'm up.

[campy]

We had state academic competition today. We did horrible and were out of the competition by the end of our second game. It always seems like that I always know them when I'm not playing, then I know none when I'm up.I remember that happening to me when I was in high school and we had a competition. It was so frustrating. It wasn't nerves, either; they just asked stuff I had no idea about while I was in the game. :dubiety:

[jeriddian]

Well in less less then 5 hours I hit the road. Hopefully the roads are clear where they got the winter weather from thursday and friday. Hopefully by this time tomorrow ill be reporting from Chicago.

Have a good trip, Cloud. Stay Safe.:thumbup:

[GoTeamGirl]

I relaxed today, for the most part. I can't wait for school tomorrow (odd, I know). Hopefully we'll get report cards, otherwise my waiting will have been in vain.

[Cloud23465]

13 hours later at about 12pm Central time we made it into Chicago. I've been up almost 30 hours now and i'm starting to feel it. Anyways when we came in there was already about 5-6 inches of snow on the ground and a few hours ago we got about 2 more. My car did great and I am happy I did... even though I had no Cruise control on the whole drive. i'm going to turn it. I hope to get some pictures and upload them. l

[jeriddian]

Well, I finally got everything out of my house and cleaned it, painted it wiht touch up stuff. I spray painted the front door. Took 1500 pounds of trash to the city dump, loaded all the last stuff into the trailer, and drove 320 miles back to Midland. The house goes on the market tomorrow. I just hope it sells at a decent price where I don't lose my shirt.

[TransWarpDrive]

13 hours later at about 12pm Central time we made it into Chicago. I've been up almost 30 hours now and i'm starting to feel it. Anyways when we came in there was already about 5-6 inches of snow on the ground and a few hours ago we got about 2 more. My car did great and I am happy I did... even though I had no Cruise control on the whole drive. i'm going to turn it. I hope to get some pictures and upload them. l
Welcome to Go City, Cloud!
Sorry about the snow; they weren't expecting this. It popped up all of a sudden. Fortunately, it seems to have tapered off now. They're forecasting a high temperature of about 38 degrees with rain tomorrow, so that'll probably melt most of what we got today.
Anyway, have a good time here in the Windy City - I look forward to seeing the pix you take. What places of interest are you planning to visit while you're here?

[campy]

Go City is the happening place, I guess. My younger daughter is moving there this summer. I'm sure I'll be coming for a visit in the near future. :D

[Cloud23465]

13 hours later at about 12pm Central time we made it into Chicago. I've been up almost 30 hours now and i'm starting to feel it. Anyways when we came in there was already about 5-6 inches of snow on the ground and a few hours ago we got about 2 more. My car did great and I am happy I did... even though I had no Cruise control on the whole drive. i'm going to turn it. I hope to get some pictures and upload them. l
Welcome to Go City, Cloud!
Sorry about the snow; they weren't expecting this. It popped up all of a sudden. Fortunately, it seems to have tapered off now. They're forecasting a high temperature of about 38 degrees with rain tomorrow, so that'll probably melt most of what we got today.
Anyway, have a good time here in the Windy City - I look forward to seeing the pix you take. What places of interest are you planning to visit while you're here?

Now were under a winter storm watch till wednesday. There saying another 6 inches of snow? That on top the already 8 inches... oh boy... I wanted to see snow but this is crazy :blink: I should of watched what I wished for:laugh:

[campy]

I went to my health club this morning. It was very depressing, with all the disappointed Pats fans around. Then I bought a SD card on sale for my new digital camera, and now I'm washing the mattress cover from mrs. c's and my bed, something I try to do once a month.

[GoTeamGirl]

Well, no report cards, which doesn't make sense. All the grades are in (they were due last Wednesday) and the list of those who made honors was posted this morning (further proof of the grades being in), so you'd think they would give us report cards. But due to the snow day on Friday they are waiting until tomorrow.

In my history class we found out that the entrance essay for the AP course next year is next Tuesday. I'm nervous, but the teacher is nice (I had her freshman year) and she knows us all pretty well...and I don't think she's the type to give us a torturous essay...I hope...:laugh:

[jeriddian]

13 hours later at about 12pm Central time we made it into Chicago. I've been up almost 30 hours now and i'm starting to feel it. Anyways when we came in there was already about 5-6 inches of snow on the ground and a few hours ago we got about 2 more. My car did great and I am happy I did... even though I had no Cruise control on the whole drive. i'm going to turn it. I hope to get some pictures and upload them. l
Welcome to Go City, Cloud!
Sorry about the snow; they weren't expecting this. It popped up all of a sudden. Fortunately, it seems to have tapered off now. They're forecasting a high temperature of about 38 degrees with rain tomorrow, so that'll probably melt most of what we got today.
Anyway, have a good time here in the Windy City - I look forward to seeing the pix you take. What places of interest are you planning to visit while you're here?

Now were under a winter storm watch till wednesday. There saying another 6 inches of snow? That on top the already 8 inches... oh boy... I wanted to see snow but this is crazy :blink: I should of watched what I wished for:laugh:

Well, if you get blizzard'ed under (Not a word, but accurate), enjoy it while you can, Cloud!:D

Today, I'm back on call..... .......At least I'm not as heavily inundated as last time. My house is cleaned out back in D/FW and is on the market. I got the last of my stuff in storage here in Midland (the last climate control space available! Phew! That was lucky.), and I took my trailer to the shop to get repaired. The lights are shorted out on it somehow.:hmm:

[GoTeamGirl]

Report cards were today. I was pretty happy with mine, but my friend wasn't. Everybody wanted report cards, so I guess it's kind of a "be careful what you wish for" situation.

Otherwise, I have a few things on my mind now that the third quarter is in session. Apparently this is an important quarter: I know of at least two major projects to be done during the third/fourth quarter and our teachers are going to start determining who gets into which class next year.

My little cousin left the funniest message on the answering machine. Halfway through my grandmother says, "No one's there" and she yells "Shh! I'm on the phone!" :laugh:

[campy]

I did very little all day. UPS delivered my new camera a few minutes ago, so now I'm going to Read The Friendly Manual and try to figure out how it works.

[GoTeamGirl]

Ash Wednesday. My school really is in over it's head when it comes to school population, during mass (and lunch...). Too many freshman, anyway.

Today was great. I have a lot of studies on this particular cycle day ("F" day), three in a row (with lunch in between), so I just hang out in the library. It's nice, and right in the middle of the day.

Something seems to be going around. A few of my friends got sick within the last three days in quick succession. I think it's strep throat. This is rare; not a lot starts "going around" in my school.

[kyojikasshu]

My nephew Sam's den meeting was cancelled, since the other kid in the den is sick. I seriously think that these kids should be moved to another nearby pack that's actually fully functioning... it's rather unfortunate that they're getting short-changed because of the lack of organization on the pack level. Jen's been doing her best to keep things in order for the den, but it's tough to maintain a unit like this, without any support.

I ended up taking my other nephew, John, to karate class instead. He's practicing for a board-breaking demonstration that will help him celebrate his reaching black belt. Pretty nice that he'll have his belt before his 10th birthday.

I got home, and found one of my recent eBay purchases waiting for me - Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance. I'm waiting for MGS3: Subsistence to come in.

And I've just booked a round trip from Detroit to Los Angeles for late April. I did several comparisons, and for my needs, Priceline had the best prices... although I could do without the spastic images of The Shat on the processing screens. :laugh:

[TransWarpDrive]

Snow. Lots of snow. I brushed a light, loose coating of slush off my car this morning before I drove to work, but when I went to go home (they closed the office early about 3:30 PM), it took me 15 minutes to clean it off; then I had to get three guys to push me out of my parking space. The snowplow pushed up a nice mound of snow behind the row of parked cars that prevented us from backing out. There was at least four inches' accumulation on my car. Fortunately, it didn't take me too long to get home; maybe 10 or 15 minutes longer than normal (and it normally takes me 25-30 minutes to get home, depending on traffic).
I could definitely sympathize with the disc jockey on the "oldies" radio station this afternoon when he said, "I have had it up to here with winter! Enough is enough!!" :thumbdown:

[TheGreenMagic]

Let's see... I finally managed to finish off Super Mario Galaxy. 'Twas an epic game to say the very least, especially the last level. One of the best games I've played in ages.

Other than that... I've been working on a KP fic to be a part of MrDrP's Valentine Day contest. The pairing involved? Oh, that'd be telling (though I can guarantee it won't be involving DNAmy and Naked Mole Man). Actually, I'm not sure what pairing will be the main focus of the story. I guess I'll let the events of the story dictate that. It seems like the best course of action...

[Ran Hakubi]

My day wasn't to bad. I did kinda get caught in the middle of a fight between my mom and dad (not a first). I also had to slog through 8 and a half hours at work while not feeling so hot. In the paper work, I found that we were over fifty bucks short.

After work, I swung by Wal-Mart to see if they had any skins for my 360. No such luck there, but I was able to get a recharge kit for my controller, so that was good. I also treated myself to a Mt. Dew, pack of cigs, and some beef jerky. Dinner of champions.

Tomorrow I'm hoping I can get farther in Half-Life 2 (Orange Box is BADICAL!). I'm also going to check out a couple of more places to see if I can't find a Spider-Man skin for said 360....although I suppose I should really be looking for a hard drive...

[jeriddian]

Still running around like a chicken with its head cut off, Just had enough time to quickly check in and see how things were going. Now (and yes I hear Shego in my head saying it), it's Back To Work!:dubiety:

[campy]

Still running around like a chicken with its head cut off, Just had enough time to quickly check in and see how things were going. Now (and yes I here Shego in my head saying it), it's Back To Work!:dubiety:You'll learn to love your obedience collar in time, jeriddian! ;)

My day has been very quiet: just sitting around listening to music, watching KP and surfing the web. We had some snow this morning, but it didn't stick.

[TransWarpDrive]

I had a bad day right from the beginning...:thumbdown:
To make a long story short, I hit a pothole which blew out my right front tire. As a result, I was an hour and a half late for work since I had to find a phone and call for help then sit by the car and wait for them to arrive. Fortunately, the tow truck driver who responded was able (and willing) to change my tire for me. I would have done it myself, if not for the fact that I'm still restricted from lifting heavy loads with my left arm by my doctor (broken elbow, remember?); as well as all the slippery ice and slush on the roads.
The tire change cost me $75 at a time when my finances are low; and I'll most likely have to spend more than that to replace the tire. Thankfully, I have a full-sized spare tire, and not one of those space-saver "donut" spares. I'm also glad it was only a flat tire, and not an accident. No one was injured and no property was damaged - except for my tire, of course! :laugh: So I must admit it could have been a lot worse.
Unfortunately, Murphy's Law wasn't quite finished with me yet. At work I got inundated with 8,000-plus invoices to insert and mail out (Billing solved their invoice problem and promptly began printing the new batch); my big postage meter developed problems with printing the postage on the envelopes (bottom half of the imprint wasn't showing); we discovered to our horror that we hadn't ordered enough of the window envelopes I need for my outgoing mail; and to top it all off, I forgot to punch in this morning. HR just had me fill out a "time clock correction form" for today to make up for it; that way, I'll get paid for today.
Then I come home, and get a phone call telling me that a friend's father died suddenly, and the wake is this Sunday afternoon.
This has been one lousy day for me. I'm glad it's over...

[Ran Hakubi]

Okay, so, I didn't get anything done in Half-Life 2, and I wasn't able to find a skin for my 360, but its all good, because my mom's back pay (part of it) from her lawsuit came in today, so I was able to get myself...

wait for it

almost

getting warmer

A new laptop! A nice one too. 120 gig hard drive, Vista Home Basic, 1 gig of RAM, and then some. This sucker leaves my clunker of a desktop in the dust! And I also bought a gig flash memory card so I could transfer all my music and documents and pictures and what nots so I can keep writing and hopefully bring a tear or two to your eyeses.

All in all, its just another brick in the wall, I mean, its been a good day. Or was.

[GoTeamGirl]

Today was the most interesting day of school I've had in a long time. It was mostly in Religion class. No one likes my religion teacher because of the way he teaches, which is basically just reading the book and having us read the book. He doesn't answer questions, he doesn't let us have enough discussions, ect. Somehow, this issue was brought to light during class, and we really were honest. He asked, "Well, you're not suggesting anything to fix it." So we suggested that we have notes. He said that it was a "thinking" class and notes weren't thinking. (I had to laugh at this because my class last year was a thinking class and this one doesn't even come close). We told him that reading the book wasn't thinking and that we could either: a) take notes and then have a discussion or b) have a discussion and then take notes (the discussion would lead into the notes). After saying he was open minded, he told us that he wasn't going to change the way he teaches, despite the fact that we don't understand, because he's been teaching for years. Apparently, someone's brought this issue to our school's head of the Religion Department.

Now, every othervclass I've been in gives notes. I asked a few teachers whether they thought notes were a good or bad idea, and the response was mostly that they were good (with the exception of my Global teacher, who doesn't mind them but prefers discussions). My Religion teacher from last year, when I asked him, asked "Are you in a debate? On the non-notes side?" I told him I was for notes, and that yes, in a way it was a debate. He laughed when I said it was in Religion (though I didn't say why or who was involved).

I hope something changes. I'm glad the issue came up, because even if nothing does change, we at least expressed our opinions and a majority of the students agree with our class.

[campy]

Boring day. I took my semi-regular trip to the town dump; that was the most exciting thing I did all day. :dubiety:

[jeriddian]

I had a bad day right from the beginning...:thumbdown:
To make a long story short, I hit a pothole which blew out my right front tire. As a result, I was an hour and a half late for work since I had to find a phone and call for help then sit by the car and wait for them to arrive. Fortunately, the tow truck driver who responded was able (and willing) to change my tire for me. I would have done it myself, if not for the fact that I'm still restricted from lifting heavy loads with my left arm by my doctor (broken elbow, remember?); as well as all the slippery ice and slush on the roads.
The tire change cost me $75 at a time when my finances are low; and I'll most likely have to spend more than that to replace the tire. Thankfully, I have a full-sized spare tire, and not one of those space-saver "donut" spares. I'm also glad it was only a flat tire, and not an accident. No one was injured and no property was damaged - except for my tire, of course! :laugh: So I must admit it could have been a lot worse.
Unfortunately, Murphy's Law wasn't quite finished with me yet. At work I got inundated with 8,000-plus invoices to insert and mail out (Billing solved their invoice problem and promptly began printing the new batch); my big postage meter developed problems with printing the postage on the envelopes (bottom half of the imprint wasn't showing); we discovered to our horror that we hadn't ordered enough of the window envelopes I need for my outgoing mail; and to top it all off, I forgot to punch in this morning. HR just had me fill out a "time clock correction form" for today to make up for it; that way, I'll get paid for today.
Then I come home, and get a phone call telling me that a friend's father died suddenly, and the wake is this Sunday afternoon.
This has been one lousy day for me. I'm glad it's over...

Very sorry to hear of your day, TWD. I hope you experince very few such periods.

As for me.... .....still on call..... ......and I just got loaded with a whole boatload of someone else's patients to look after on top of mine. It's going to be a terrible weekend.......:confused:

[Ran Hakubi]

My day started bad. I woke up with the mother of all sore throats, and it just went down hill from there.

Didn't get anything transfered over to my laptop, realized I more than likely sent Zaratan to long of clips for my Fannie noms. Not sure what I need to change for my presentation.

Oh, and my truck caught on fire.

Yeah, my truck is now on the side of the road burnt out.

Man today stunk

[TransWarpDrive]

Ran, you and I are in the same boat. The universe seems to be taking pot-shots at us both.
Yesterday was bad for me, but today's events only added insult to injury. Read on:
Despite getting off to a good start - getting to work via an alternate route that not only had fewer potholes, but was shorter and got me to work earlier - my day went downhill from there. I hardly got anything done in the AM, because I had to escort first the vending-machine guy, then the first-aid guy, through the building so they could refill their respective dispensers (security protocols as per postal regulations). I managed to get all outgoing mail metered and all incoming stuff sorted and delivered, then got started inserting more invoices only to be told not to mail out any of the postal reset invoices because they were printed without the reset dates on them (we can refill our postage meters electronically via analog telephone line for our customers, and we bill them for it on a monthly basis). So, I set those stacks of invoices aside (all 8,000+ of them) and worked on the regular bills for monthly meter rent.
My relief at being done with work for the week was short-lived, because when I got home I found I'd been served with a summons. I'm being sued for $50,000.00. :surprised:
The lawsuit was filed by the woman who drove the car I collided with back on Groundhog Day, 2006, on my way home from work. She's claiming pain and suffering from injuries she received in the crash; yet I clearly remember her getting out of her car that day, walking around the scene of the accident, waving her arms in the air and cursing like a Marine (she used the "F-word" at least three times that I recall...). She didn't seem injured to me; IMHO, she's got a shyster lawyer who's trying to milk me for everything he can...:angry:
Anyway, my brother, who was home to receive the summons from the process server, told me that the guy suggested I turn it over to my insurance company and let them handle it - which is exactly what I'm going to do. I'm going to call my insurance agent on Monday and talk to her. I'm also going to consult our family lawyer and see what he has to say about this.
Man, I don't need this right now. I don't have that kind of money, and I don't see why she's suing. My car insurance should cover that sort of thing; that's what it's for. I guess all I can do right now is sit tight until Monday, then see what my agent suggests. Hopefully, the insurance company can settle this out of court.
But still - fifty thousand dollars! Yipe...:unsure:

[campy]

But still - fifty thousand dollars! Yipe...:unsure:Ouch! Hope things work themselves out quickly and well for you, TWD. :ohmy:

[kyojikasshu]

Well, I ripped a couple of CDs and installed AIM, and then my computer decided it didn't want to play media files at all. I was really ticked off, but fortunately, I simply went back and restored the system to the way it was as of Thursday. So, I won't be re-installing AIM anytime soon...

I also happened to be at a card shop last night, and they had their Christmas ornaments on clearance - 75% off. I picked up the Wrath of Khan ornament (http://www.ornamentmall.com/2007-Star-Trek-II-The-Wrath-of-Khan-magic_p_557-4831.html) for only $7!

[jeriddian]

Ran, you and I are in the same boat. The universe seems to be taking pot-shots at us both.
Yesterday was bad for me, but today's events only added insult to injury. Read on:
Despite getting off to a good start - getting to work via an alternate route that not only had fewer potholes, but was shorter and got me to work earlier - my day went downhill from there. I hardly got anything done in the AM, because I had to escort first the vending-machine guy, then the first-aid guy, through the building so they could refill their respective dispensers (security protocols as per postal regulations). I managed to get all outgoing mail metered and all incoming stuff sorted and delivered, then got started inserting more invoices only to be told not to mail out any of the postal reset invoices because they were printed without the reset dates on them (we can refill our postage meters electronically via analog telephone line for our customers, and we bill them for it on a monthly basis). So, I set those stacks of invoices aside (all 8,000+ of them) and worked on the regular bills for monthly meter rent.
My relief at being done with work for the week was short-lived, because when I got home I found I'd been served with a summons. I'm being sued for $50,000.00. :surprised:
The lawsuit was filed by the woman who drove the car I collided with back on Groundhog Day, 2006, on my way home from work. She's claiming pain and suffering from injuries she received in the crash; yet I clearly remember her getting out of her car that day, walking around the scene of the accident, waving her arms in the air and cursing like a Marine (she used the "F-word" at least three times that I recall...). She didn't seem injured to me; IMHO, she's got a shyster lawyer who's trying to milk me for everything he can...:angry:
Anyway, my brother, who was home to receive the summons from the process server, told me that the guy suggested I turn it over to my insurance company and let them handle it - which is exactly what I'm going to do. I'm going to call my insurance agent on Monday and talk to her. I'm also going to consult our family lawyer and see what he has to say about this.
Man, I don't need this right now. I don't have that kind of money, and I don't see why she's suing. My car insurance should cover that sort of thing; that's what it's for. I guess all I can do right now is sit tight until Monday, then see what my agent suggests. Hopefully, the insurance company can settle this out of court.
But still - fifty thousand dollars! Yipe...:unsure:

Yep.....:mad:......now you have an idea of how I feel. Sorry for that, TWD. Obviously you had the misfortune of running into a real greedy you-know-what who's looking to s**** anybody she can for as much money as she can get. The world is full of these trolls, but that is why you have insurance. Be sure and read your policy to make sure how these things are handled. Still, it is a good idea to consult your lawyer. And in fact, depending on how egregious the falseness of that suit is, you might be able to countersue her for filing a frivolous lawsuit.

[Sir Sebastian]

Sorry to hear of your misfortunes, TWD and Ran.

I find it kinda curious, TWD, that you have a family lawyer. Is that common in the States? I don't think I've ever even met a lawyer. Well, other than my friend's wife who has a law degree and, if I recall correctly, is working in consumer protection, which I think is similar to your FTC.

[campy]

Mrs campy & I went out to dinner and the Springfield Symphony tonight, heard some Mozart & Mendelssohn. Driving home, we got about 500 feet from the house and found the road blocked because of an accident. We turned around and drove about 5 or 6 miles out of our way just to get around the mess. :angry:

[jeriddian]

Sorry to hear of your misfortunes, TWD and Ran.

I find it kinda curious, TWD, that you have a family lawyer. Is that common in the States? I don't think I've ever even met a lawyer. Well, other than my friend's wife who has a law degree and, if I recall correctly, is working in consumer protection, which I think is similar to your FTC.

Actually, Double S, it is fairly common. Most affluent Americans will have a family lawyer for several purposes, usually business related. Most blue collar workers probably won't. I suspect that in Europe for the most part, lawyers (or barristers, or whatever name is used) are paid base salaries and do not charge individually for their services, and as such the manner in which they are employed will vary greatly than in the United States where lawyers traditionally charge a fee for each of their services (as do doctors for the most part still, though that is changing).

This is because the US is still pretty much the most capitalistic country around. The economic marketplace of the US encourages everyone to be an entrepreneur in some way, including professionals, so lawyers here do advertise and look for business. For example you will find ads for "Divorce for $59" and such, or a making a will would cost you maybe a couple hundred bucks or so. If you wish to engage the services of a lawyer, in a lawsuit for instance, they will usually charge you by the hour for their time generally, unless there is some sort of package deal which was previously worked out.

If I'm not mistaken, in Europe, for the most part, most lawyers work for a salary doing a specific legal specific job, though I wonder about European criminal defense lawyers. It seems to me they would have to charge for their individual services. But I'm not sure.

One interesting fact is the status of a Bail Bondsman. The United States is the only country that has a Bail Bond system. A person who is arrested and incarcerated is usually given the option to get released on bond in order to help his lawyer prepare a defense at trial. The bond is a cash amount which the defendent must give to the court as a surety he or she will show up in court. If the defendent skips and runs away, the bond is forfeited to the court.

In the United States, there is an actual industry surrounding this practice. An incarcerated defendent can go to a Bail Bondsman (actually a representative for him since he or she is in jail), and can contract with the Bail Bondsman for the amount of the Bail Bond. The defendent will sign a promissory note on his house, car, bonds, stocks, whatever he may own which is equal to about ten percent (I think) of the bond amount. In return for this, the Bail Bondsman will post his full bond to the court. This is done for a cash fee on top of the promissory note or properties held in trust to the Bail Bondsman. If the defendent is true to his or her word and stays around and doesn't run, the Bail Bond is returned to him or her, or to the Bail Bondsman if that is the case. The Bail Bondsman then releases the promissory note to the defendent, less his fee of course. If the defendent runs, a Bail Bondsman is out his money to the court, but has the authority to hire bounty hunters to hunt down the defendent and return him to the court. If he succeeds, the court will return the bond amount to the Bail Bondsman, and the defendent forfeits what he promised to the Bail Bondsman in the promissory note. This is the only situation in American Justice where a defendent's freedom is determined by a cash transaction.

The funny thing is that in European countries (at least as I understand it), this is considered by their legal systems as an attempt by an outside party to influnce or bribe the court and is therefore highly illegal. European Justice would view a Bail Bondsman as someone who was hired by the defendent to pay money to a judge in order to influence him to release the defendent from custody, i.e. a bribe.

[TransWarpDrive]

Sorry to hear of your misfortunes, TWD and Ran.

I find it kinda curious, TWD, that you have a family lawyer. Is that common in the States? I don't think I've ever even met a lawyer. Well, other than my friend's wife who has a law degree and, if I recall correctly, is working in consumer protection, which I think is similar to your FTC.
Actually, our "family lawyer" happens to be a boyhood friend of my dad's. In fact, my mom worked in his law firm's office for some years as a secretary. My older sister's also a lawyer, so, in a manner of speaking, I have two attorneys in the family. :D
BTW, I spoke to him (the lawyer) today. He gave me the same advice as the process server: Send the summons to my insurance agent and let the insurance company handle it. He advised me to keep a copy for my records, of course.
I'm sure the insurance company will fight the lawsuit to avoid paying the money, but hey, better them than me - that's what I'm paying my premiums for.
I also found out how much it'll cost me to get a new tire for my car. I'll get that done tomorrow (this tire dealer's open seven days a week. How's that for convenience? :thumbup:).
It wasn't all bad news today. I got a card in the mail informing me that a membership in the National Air and Space Museum - including a year's subscription to "Air & Space Smithsonian" magazine - was given to me as a gift by one of my friends. That was very nice of her...:)

[TransWarpDrive]

Well, I called my insurance agent today and explained the sitch to her. She instructed me to fax her the summons and court papers I got, so she could contact the insurance company and get the ball rolling on this. So I faxed her the stuff; then made photocopies for myself and mailed her the originals via Certified Mail, return receipt requested. I have to laugh, though - her assessment of the woman who's suing me is about the same as jeriddian's:
Obviously you had the misfortune of running into a real greedy you-know-what who's looking to s**** anybody she can for as much money as she can get. The world is full of these trolls, but that is why you have insurance.
:laugh:
My agent doesn't think this woman has a prayer of getting $50,000.00 out of the insurance company - it seems "pain and suffering" just doesn't yield big lawsuit awards anymore. Anyway, she told me not to worry about it. Most likely, any court battles that happen will involve her lawyers vs. the insurance company's, and won't affect me one bit.
You know, I feel a lot better now that I've talked with my attorney and my insurance agent. I also feel better now that I've taken steps to deal with this issue. Taking action to solve a problem is always better than doing nothing. :)

[campy]

I went out to my health club and then ran some errands this morning. Among them was a trip to the town offices. Let me back up: there's an empty lot next to my house, and an 8-acre or so parcel of land behind. For years there have been rumors a road would be built on the empty lot, making the 8 acres available for 3 or 4 houses. Today I found out there's just going to be a driveway and a single house built, apparently conservation issues constrain use of these parcels. The really good news is that the driveway is going to be as far as possible from my land. They could hardly develop this property in a way that would have less impact on me than if they tried. :D I'm happy.

[GoTeamGirl]

This past week has been weird. Last week, a few of my friends got sick, and this week my two best friends got sick-one with some weird version of strep throat (I think) and the other with mono. So one won't be in until Thursday, and the other not until after winter break, but then she'll only be taking half days. Which sucks, because her birthday is that week. I still haven't gotten sick yet.

In addition to having no one in school, the entrance exams for AP and Honors history classes was rescheduled for today due to snow, but today is a snow day (yes!) so they are tomorrow instead. Speaking of snow, my dad woke me up at five thirty so that we could shovel and clean up the cars. It was messy since there was ice and snow, and it was pouring, so we got soaked. Then I got ready for school, only to find out (after I was fully dressed) that it was closed. :laugh:

I'm so glad we have the day off.

[Cloud23465]

I finally got my laptop back to full working shape. My stupid keyboard had some issues where I didn't have the 1, Q, A, and Z keys. Of course I noticed how much you use the letter A in the past few days. Anyways... there's like more then 12 inches of snow on the gound and this past weekend we had a nice high of like -2 with a -30 wind chill. Chicago in febuary... what can i say? :laugh: I bought an optical mouse from newegg so i dont have to mess with this stupid touch pad anymore. Never a dull moment here at my grandparents house... well 7 days left till we should be leaving... give or take a day. Time for dinner