April 1999

Entry... 4/1/99 11:59am

Welcome to April, the month that sensationalizes showers - and true to form - it's raining.

Sing me a song for Thursday, I can't take it anymore. Another new virus at work today. I just can't believe people sometimes. They must live inside a box. They have got to know by now that attachments are a bad thing, especially those that are executables. But yet, when tempted with the promise of a cute little bunny and exploding eggs, they click happily away. Geez. There are two employees here now I affectionately call "Thyphoid Mary".

Only one April Fool's joke that I know was played here at work. Two employees had everything in their cubes switched. I know who did it, only because they secretly confessed to me because they had switched the phones with everything else, and you just can't do that with digital phone sets; so they got disabled. The perpetrator felt bad and wanted to apologize for creating extra work for me. I wanted to play an April Fool's day joke on my boss, by handing him a letter of resignation as a joke, but I realized that he would probably get all excited and hand it back to me and tell me I forgot to sign it.

Pop can count: 76

Entry... 4/1/99 4:42pm

Went out to lunch today to one of my favorite restaurants, and one of my favorite waitresses told me that she is quitting her job there, so that she can go work in Lake George for the summer. Boy, does that sound great or what? Just work, and hang out, and get blasted all the time. I mentioned that I had a working band, so she asked me for my number. Maybe I'll get a gig out this! Lunch today was a big bacon cheeseburger, well done, with fries, and an irish red.

When I got back to the office, I had a phone message from a local headhunter. So, I gave them a call. They had one job that they thought that I would be good for, but I didn't like the sound of programming in FoxPro for a living; although the money was good. They told me about another job that sounded very interesting. So I told him to go ahead and submit my resume for it, and we'll see what happens. It's almost a 80% pay increase. So, keep your fingers crossed out there, gang.

I found out today that a good friend here at work is seperating from her husband. She and I took a walk and talked for awhile about it. I wanted to make sure that she was ok, since I know both of them. I guess the passion fell out of their marriage, and she doesn't want to live without it anymore. I know she loves him, and I know that he loves her. Life is a series of fuckups, I guess, and everyone makes mistakes that we pay for in one way or another for the rest of our lives.

Been a fairly heady day. It's church night. Let's see what happens next!

Desk pop can count: 77

Entry... 4/2/99 1:49am

Home again, home again. Just got back from church in Saratoga. Played some air hockey (I did a lot better, but still lost the series. Might it have something to do with beer consumption as the evening goes on? Hmmm....) and shuffleboard, and a game of pool. Shuffleboard was cool, because it doesn't cost anything to play. Oh, I also played this electronic bowling game thingy. Not at all like real bowling, because I actually threw a bunch of strikes, and that never happens in real life.

There were a group of girls there tonight and one of them was having her birthday. It was pretty funny. They were all loud and boisterous, laughing, taking pictures of each other. It got predictably uglier as the evening went on. One girl kept flashing the bar by lifting up her shirt. The birthday girl ended up in the phone booth, crying her eyes out about something. Happy birthday.

Oh, remember that waitress I told you about? She called me while I was out, and asked me to go out with her tomorrow night. Woo hoo!

My friends L&M sent me this link: Virtual Insults FREE Greeting Cards. Check it out.

Psst... April Fools! No one called and asked me to go out. I thought I would do a day after April Fool's thing, since I didn't do one properly.

*Stretch* Well, it's bed time. I am going to strip down to my boxers and a sweatshirt and slide into the old bed. I can feel my eyes wanting to close right now. Sweet dreams, all.

Entry... 4/2/99 9:37am

It's Good Friday, a good day for the dead. I am here, at work, and as usual on school vacation days, I am all alone over here in my unit. The other guys I work with are Super Dads and stay at home with the kids, because their wives have jobs that they can't miss time for. I am hoping that there are not going to be any huge emergencies.

My brother has a home page, that you can find off my links page, but he posted a poem that I love and identify with, so I thought I would direct your attention to it. Why don't you visit Skeeve and read it?

Another friend of mine just uploaded his new web site last night while I was over at his house. Give the Hittman a visit!

Todays number is 21.

Entry... 4/2/99 2:04pm

Just helped a friend install Space Invaders and Galaxia on his Palm Pilot. He's pretty psyched. Bad move on my part, since conversation pretty much ended the second that it worked. He was distracted playing the game, while I tried to ask him questions.

Great news! Read on!

TRENTON, New Jersey (AP) -- A man has been arrested and charged with originating the e-mail virus known as Melissa, the state attorney general's office announced Friday. David L. Smith, 30, of Aberdeen, was arrested Thursday night at his brother's house in nearby Eatontown, said Rita Malley, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Peter Verniero. Smith originated the virus, which caused worldwide e-mail disruption earlier this week, from his apartment in Aberdeen, Malley said. State and federal authorities took part in the arrest.

I went for a little walk at lunchtime, and I am back in my office now, drinking coke, eating a Cadbury Crisp bar, and listening to Rush's "Exit Stage Left" CD. Looks like I will spend the evening at home, making music with my brother and a friend of his who plays bass guitar. Feeling pretty good right now.

Desk pop can count: 79

Don't forget to Spring Forward on Saturday night. Clocks go forward one hour, and now we get to enjoy some day light when the work day is done.

Entry... 4/3/99 10:42am

This week on PYX 106 radio, they were talking about those billboards from God that have popped up around the Capital region. I mentioned them here in my journal awhile back. They had a contest to see if someone could come up with a slogan for a billboard that they were going to put up from Satan, just to see what sort of controversy that would cause. After all, if God can have posters, so can Satan, right? It's only fair. I called in and got on the radio, but I didn't win anything. I don't know what slogan they did choose, because I was at work by the time the contest was finished. Mine were: "Go ahead, invite me up" (in response to the "Don't make me come down there" billboard I saw) and "Do not underestimate the power of the dark side" (Can James Earl Jones do billboards? No? Hmm?). My favorite one was one suggested by one of the comedians they have one the show. He imagined a black billboard with fire around the edges, and the caption: "Why no, it hasn't frozen over..."

This morning I had a dream that reminded me of the phrase "Cancel the cold cuts." I've always liked this phrase. I picked it up in high school from my 10th grade current events professor. His class had a history of attracting seniors who thought it was a cake walk, and he hated that attitude, so he made it a point to make the class a little harder. He told us a story of one such senior, who was going to fail his class due to his terrible work ethic. Now we all knew that he was just telling us this story to scare us into submission, but it was funny. This is a senior we are talking about, facing graduation and the real world, and here he was - poised to fail a current events class. Not like it was mathematics or anything, but still, the loss of credit would make him short, and unable to graduate with his class. The teacher got a phone call from the students distraught Mother, who went up one side of him and down the other about how irrelevant his class was (funny.. I thought it was called "current events"...) But it seemed that the biggest thing on this woman's mind was that she had a big party planned for the post graduation ceremony. A tent. Relatives from out of state. Food. It was all set. Her son just couldn't possibly fail the class and flunk his senior year. She had a party to throw. She begged. She whined. She threatened. I guess she pissed off my teacher so badly that he just said "Ma'am, I'm afraid that you will just have to cancel the cold cuts."

Entry... 4/4/99 7:29am

Or, rather, 6:29am. I guess this is just a hint as to what jet lag feels like. My computer clock self corrected itself for the time change. I did my alarm clock before I went to sleep, but now I have maybe a thousand more clocks to change around here. I went to sleep somewhere around 4am this morning.

Today people all over the world make their annual trek to church. Perhaps somehow feeling that they are paying their spiritual dues. Little girls in new dresses, women in hats, little boys in stiff new shirts, and fathers who go without too much complaint since there isn't any football on, and basketball is a joke this year. Then, perhaps, a dinner out. Or the family gathers together for a repast, whatever the tradition holds. Either way, we are all making those memories

I'm heading for the shower. Happy Easter, folks.

Entry... 4/5/99 4:59pm

It's a blue skied sunny day outside. Of course, here I am, trapped in an office building. It's so hot back here in my section that I am having a hard time staying awake. And I went to bed at 11:30 last night. So I know I got enough sleep. I know that once I am outside I will fill my lungs with the fresh air and be fine again. Even walking to the front of the building was an improvement.

I had been craving pizza for a few days, so today I had pizza for lunch. The standard 3 mega slices and coke did me fine. Of course, a big lunch could be another reason why I am sleepy. Anyway, the girl who works there and I have become more familiar with each other, so she tells me that she is applying to school in California, and hopes to go sooner than she planned to go. When I asked her why sooner, she sort of made noises that things weren't happy at home anymore. I guess she and her girlfriend have reached a parting of the ways, and it was a nasty ending. I had met the girlfriend before, and sort of had the feeling that they weren't right for each other, but it is always a surprise when things end. The hurt is still fresh to her. You could see it in her eyes. Not all humans are great actors.

Tonight, I plan to go see the movie "Elizabeth." A two hour period piece, and I hope that it is good. I saw Rowan Atkinson's Blackadder Christmas Story over the weekend that was really funny, and the latest episodes of the Simpsons and Futurama. Don't forget - South Park is new all month!

Entry... 4/6/99 12:12am

Went to Proctors Theater and saw Elizabeth tonight. It was long. About 2 hours long. It wasn't that good. They even featured "Credits for Dummies" at the end, where they have to go and tell you more about what happened to the characters after the movie story comes to an end. I think they were attempting to appease the test audiences who wanted some sort of a happy ending, instead of leaving them to simply guess, or read their history books.

Got a load of firewood from my Dad yesterday, so I carried it in tonight. Roaring fire, anyone? Well, it's supposed to be cold tomorrow, but really nice on Thursday and Friday. I am thinking about calling in well.

Some jokester in my household thought it would be funny to hang one of my biscuits on the wall in the kitchen. I hate electric ovens. So what, they got a little burned. One second, a golden brown, then next second and *whammo* charbroiled. He considered it art. So I put cherries on top of it and served it to him as a dessert biscuit. Art, my ass.

I added a Bio to my page, sort of an at-a-glance type thing. I have seen similar things on many of the online journals I read, so here you go.

Entry... 4/6/99 10:10am

Mayor Rudolph Giuliani speaks out against carpetbagging today. Specifically, Hillary Clinton. I have posted an Associated Press story about his new website here. His website is called HillaryNo.com.

Rode my bike to work today. Great day for it, not to hot and not to cold. Problem is, tonight is volleyball night, so I get to decide if I want to die on Fuller Road, Lincoln Boulevard, or the Northway (if you can even ride a bike on the Northway). People around here aren't too used to driving near bicyclists, and it's going to be dark. Instead of fresh air, I got to breath in a lot of carbon monoxide. Instead of birds chirping innocently, there was the whine of brake pads on metal discs. Tragic, but seemingly necessary.

When I woke up today, I had one of my owns songs in my head. Now I have "Long Distance Runaround," by Yes kicking about in my skull.

Entry... 4/7/99 2:06am

Winding down over here. I am finally relaxing in the quiet of the house before I slide in bed and drift off to dreamland. Last night I know I had another disturbing dream, and thankfully, I don't recall the details of it. I was left with a very uneasy feeling from it, I remember that much.

I just did all the dishes that I found in the sink. That's therapeutic. I was reminded of when I was in college; to relax at the end of a day I would shovel snow. Usually at 1 or 2 in the morning. It was incredible. The stars might sometimes have been out, and there's nothing but fresh powder up to my knees, and a sidewalk to clear. And no one else is around but me. That's the second memory of college I had today. The first was when I was riding home tonight on my bicycle after volleyball. I never had a car when I was in school. Instead, I went everywhere on my bike. Even between buildings during class changes. My ride to school was about 2 miles (and yes, one way was *up* hill - a very steep hill) each way. As I rode tonight, I remembered that I would play mental games with myself as I pedaled to help pass the time. I would memorize song lyrics, or compose poems in my head, or rehearse lines for a play. Even surrounded by traffic that whizzed by me, I was alone, and protected within my mind.

Oh, the desk pop can count went up by two today: 81 Another coworker stopped by my desk today and saw it for the first time. He said "Wow, that's quite a collection. Aren't you afraid of it falling over?" He went on to tell me that he had a smalled collection once and it fell over, and made quite the noise. I told him that I wasn't afraid of it falling because I give it a little adjustment every now and then. But now, ever since he put the idea in my head, I am trying to conceive of a way to glue them together.

I am thinking that I might be forced to change how I do my log entries. If I keep up the current pace of updating, this file will be huge by month's end. Many other online journals split each entry (or at least - the day) into seperate pages. I like that the month is at a glance, though. That way different days can catch the reader's eye, and draw them in, without so much clicking. I have a script written in my head that could manage the seperate page idea, and make it easy for me to update the entries, and still provide the framework for easy navigation. But, again, that means splitting the entries, and running the risk that a non-java browser will choke on the page. Still some thinking to do on this. Maybe I'll just keep it *big*.

My fingers are shrinkled and I have Shania Twain's "Still the One" ringing in my head. Time for bed. I feel ready to sleep.

Entry... 4/7/99 11:05am

This site has got to be worth a giggle: Al Gore.Com. He takes himself seriously. So why can't we?

Entry... 4/7/99 8:05pm

The Al Gore website has already been attacked! Not by hackers, but by parents. It seems that his website violated a brand new law passed by congress that prevents commercial websites from soliciting the identities of children. Mr. Gore's website had a feedback "Just for Kids" section that asked children to fill in their Name, email address, and zip code so that they could ask Mr. Al a question. He had promised to get back to one or two questions a day on the site, which they claim to be a "living, breathing" entity. "Living, breathing" means, in techno-speak" "We make it up as we go along." Anyway, they still ask for questions from kids, but not for the email address and the zip code. Just a first name now. Also, keep a lookout for the numerous references to Al's claim that he invented the internet. Good job, my boy. Hahahahahahaha.

I am freshly home. My brother and I went exploring today. Since it was such a nice day outside, we couldn't just come home after work. We just pointed the car southward and ended up in Voorheesville. We ran into some people he knew, so we visited for awhile (and I got my brain picked about laptops for elementary aged children...aieee) but got directions to Five Rivers Wildlife Preserve from them. So we went there and walked around Beaver Pond (sans beavers) and teased a couple of geese and a duck. Then we stopped for ice cream in Delmar on the way home. In a bit, I will reheat some Chinese food, and settle in to watch the new South Park.

Incredible. Rob Brezsny's Real Astrology website predicts that as a Cancerian, I may well reach a summit of my life in the year 2007. He is not so far off. When I am 42 years of age, in the year 2007, I will have seen all of my children to the age of majority: 21 years old. An incredible prediction, and spot on.

Entry... 4/8/99 1:22am

My housemate wrote me a note tonight. What triggered it was that he is pretty quiet, and kept startling me whenever he walked by. I would jump, and gasp. He taped the note on the kitchen wall while I was washing the dishes. The note said: "You are not on the planet alone!" At first, I laughed, since I found it funny. But as I stood there scrubbing, I started to think about it more and more. And he's right. I am not alone on the planet. Neither is he, or any of us. But sometimes it sure does feel like it, doesn't it? And sometimes, perhaps even more so, sometimes we would really like to be alone. But I hardly think that people need these extremes to survive. We all choose different ways to fill our lives. Different ways we fulfill our dreams, our needs. Each person completes the circle of their life in a vastly different way. Depending on who you are, you find happiness in your children. In another person. In commiting your life to a God. In the solitude of a fishing boat at sea. Climbing high peaks. However we humans busily toil away on this spinning globe, the basic theme remains. We are not alone on the planet. Not in a physical sense. But can this simple truth be somehow comforting?

Entry... 4/9/99 2:11pm

Entry... 4/9/99 3:08am

So, there I was laying in bed sleeping. I had been reading and eating peanuts M&Ms when the urge to nap overcame me and out I went. Now this is at 7:30pm on a Friday night. This is no half awake daydream nap, either, this is flat out *out*. My phone rings somewhere in the midst of this, and I don't hear it. But I wake around 8:45pm, and listen to my message, and it's a friend of mine who wants to go out. Now, I am all for getting out of the house. I am also thinking: food. I skipped lunch, and dinner hadn't been thought about yet (gave its life for a nap), and I had also skipped breakfast. So, I am big time thinking: food. So, an hour later, off we go. I went to a dance, paid to get in, and then didn't dance at all. I just didn't feel like it. I sat at the bar and talked to a guy I had just met that night, and we were telling dirty jokes, and talking about traveling, and jobs, etc. I had one of those Nitrous laden cans of Guiness Stout, and it was really quite not good. Had a bacon-like aftertaste. I think it gets that from the can. This guy and I had good beer in common (that's how we got to talking - when I ordered something dark "preferrably burned" at the bar.) We got to talking about Mahars in Albany. So he and I made plans to meet there on Saturday night and have a few Beamish Stouts together.

I also wanted to mention that I was the only guy at this dance with hair past his shoulders. I love it. So, when the dance ended, I ended up at Denny's and ordered their Grand Slam breakfast, but replaced the bacon and sausage (never did like their sausage) with a slice of ham. Once over eggs, and pancakes, and of course, coffee rounded out the repast, and now I am home, sated and still wide awake. Gee, maybe I'll finish my taxes.

Oh yeah... Desk Pop Can Count: 82. I think I am going to move this count to my Bio page, based on a suggestion from a reader. Or maybe I might display it in both spots. Haven't decided yet.

I've been reading this online journal today: Brianna

Entry... 4/9/99 5:55am

The sky is a beautiful blue right now as the sun begins its long climb into the sky. I did, in fact, finish my taxes. Then I surfed some web sites, mostly shockwave sites. Incredible stuff, very pretty, but they sure are useless. Not many people have shockwave. I read an online diary from beginning to end, and I drank a lot of water. Now I am thinking about a few hours of sleep. Off to bed with me. See you a bit later.

Entry... 4/10/99 9:45pm

It was such a gorgeous day today. I got up around 10am, and talked on the phone for awhile. I spent the whole day with my brother and his girlfriend. We went out to breakfast together, and almost got thrown out of Peaches and Cream. We were making each other laugh, and generally misbehaving. She splashed me with water, and I splashed her back, and then she put jelly in my coffee. Before we escalated the battle, we wisely asked for the check. There was this young guy sitting at a table nearby, and everytime we did something (like make a face or do something to crack each other up, or tell a joke) he laughed. Then we hit home depot for all sorts of lawn supplies and spent the rest of the afternoon raking and making a huge flower box and a flagstone patio in her backyard. My brother and I stopped by Mahar's to meet that guy Doug that I met last night and some friends for a couple of glasses of Beamish Stout and a big plate of nachos.

Entry... 4/11/99 1:30am

Stopped in for a pizza at our neighborhood pizza place just as they were closing, so they sold us a full cheese pizza for 5 bucks. We watched Matt Stone and Trey Parker's "Baseketball" tonight. It was campy and stupid, which was exactly the point. I'm glad that I finally saw it.

Entry... 4/12/99 12:33am

I let myself sleep in this morning. Only because I woke up, and felt wide awake, but my body was actually still snoring. That was weird. It's happened to me before. So I rolled over and let myself drift off for awhile longer. I got a couple phone calls and one of them was a friend of mine who plays guitar. I showed her some chords and muting techniques last week, and she had written a new song that she was very excited about and played it for me over the phone. It was very cool, and a good song. She had been practicing what I showed her all week and wrote a song about it. I had band practice today. It was a very productive practice. We learned 5 or 6 new songs, and they came together very well. We are playing a dance/reception next weekend so we had to learn 2 songs for that (requests), and I added 2 songs that I sing to the mix. We talked for a long time after practice about general band business. Like I said, very productive.

Another work week stretches before me. Pity we have to dress up for work. I may have to work late on Friday, and one of our guys is on site in Little Rock, Arkansas for a day or so. I am hoping that nothing big goes bad and the network stays up. That would be nice.

This is a great web site for weather information. The Weather Underground

Entry... 4/12/99 4:52pm

Oh man, what a beautiful day. I was half hoping that I would walk inside this afternoon after lunch and learn I'd been fired. That would be really hard to take right now. Unemployment, here I come! But, alas, I'm still here.

This is so me!

I went out to the used CD store at lunchtime today and picked up the "City of Angels" soundtrack, Neil Young's "Unplugged" album, and a CD by a group called The Hoax. I had never heard of them before, but it's great guitar based blues, in the vein of Stevie Ray Vaughn with a good swing to it.

For sale: 1989 Chevrolet Caprice Classic Wagon. Burgandy exterior. Burgandy interior. Comfy seats. Fold down gate. Rumble seat. 116K. Fair cond. Runs good. See a picture of it here. Inquire within.

Entry... 4/13/99 1:07am

My roommate and I were sitting in the living room eating our dinner tonight when we got a phone call from a friend of ours. He wanted to go out and get some coffee and dessert. So we all went out to the Vanilla Bean. They had napolean and I got the carrot cake. We went down to the mall and bought a wire brush for this guys barbecue grill, and ended up in Sears. He wanted a video camera, so we looked through the selections, and I helped him buy one. A nice Sony 8mm unit. He is supposed to come by so I can show him how to use it.

When we came home, I had to find my baseball glove, as today is the first practice for my softball team. I oiled it and bound it, so it should be all ready to use tomorrow. I don't even have a bat of any sort. Or a ball, even.

Just got through playing a couple games of cribbage. I won the first game, and tied up the series, and then lost the first game in the next series. We watched Jay Leno do his headlines segment. The best one was a hardware store. Their motto was: "If it's in stock - then we got it!"

Here's a great collection of quotes for the workplace.

Entry... 4/14/99 1:50am

Looks like Tuesday is done, and it's really none to soon. It was a generally crappy day with a couple nice high points. I feel that there is so much to say, but I am lacking big time in energy, both physically and emotionally right now, and I know that if I take the time to blow off steam here, it'll all be different tomorrow. Well, a few things won't be different, but what are you going to do? Just keep on rolling, I suppose.

Found a link to this online purity test. Give it a whirl. It's tamer than tests that I have seen in the past, but this one is cool because it plots you against all the others who have taken the test. Of course, I am sure all the other ones do this too. Oh, it's 100 questions. They don't bother to tell you that when you start.

Entry... 4/14/99 9:58am

Just 24 hours to go until your taxes are in! Everybody all set with this? Don't wait for the last minute - the lines will be incredbile tomorrow.

I came across these poems on the internet today.

I got an email today from a Journal reader, who was concerned that the Desk Pop Can Count may not be Y2K compliant. Our engineers were deeply concerned by this possibility, and leapt quickly to work this morning. After a lot of crashing and booming, and some swearing, they submitted their findings to me, and I have prepared and released the following statement:
In a live action test, conducted in our well equipped laboratories and in cooperation with several federal agencies, it was determined that the height and weight of 100 soda cans would be adequately serviced by my current desktop configuration. However, if I begin to build past this number, I will be forced to move my phone to the other side of the desk, to ensure against accidental contact of the receiver and its required cord with the stack of precariously balanced cans. The count stands now at 82, but confidence is high that we will attain a count of 100+ by the end of the calendar year. Unless I get sacked.

Entry... 4/14/99 4:28pm

I had to grab a quick lunch and eat it during a meeting. It's been a crazy day. So, who *doesn't* have a virus on their system? Our email server has also decided that it likes to reboot spontaneously. Desk Pop Can up by two today: 84.

The Mining Company is a great web resource. Check out their many features and sections, and if you are feeling more adventurous, there is a great section dedicated to decent erotica written by women. It can be very risque, so make sure you can handle it, and check it out. Amber's Erotic Stories rate very high on the list.

Entry... 4/15/99 11:20pm

Well, it's official. We have a new virus at work. It has infected a good portion of the PC's and is causing some real headaches. It's a support nightmare. I don't know if I am going to be able to rid our network of this electronic poison anytime soon. The name of this virus? McAfee VirusScan 4.0

We lost another employee to a large software corporation this week. I realized today that save for one man, we have had 100% turnover in our development shop in the last 3 years. That's from the VP of that division all the way down to the programming staff. The one guy who was there before me had since moved out of that department. He and I were tlaking about all the turnover today, and we relized that he is probably, in terms of senority, in the top ten. I am in the low teens myself.

I had dinner with my parents tonight. My Dad and I did the annual move all the summer implements upstairs, winter implements downstairs drill tonight. Mini bike up, snow blower down. I can't believe that they are still getting upwards of 18 inches of snow in the mid west. Crazy! After dinner, we played some cribbage and had some laughs.

It's shaping up to be a busy weekend. I have a happy hour and a party tomorrow night, and then a work party at the lake on Saturday. Saturday night, my band has a gig. Sunday is sketchy yet, but it's starting to fill in. Probably dinner and a movie with some friends later on.

South Park last night was an absolute riot. I was in stitches on the floor. It was as good as it has ever been.

Entry... 4/18/99 3:55am

It's the wee hours of the morning, once again. I am freshly home, and changed into my sweats. It's nice and quiet here, and I am loving the peacefulness. I was up till this time last night, too. I guess I should flash back in time and catch you all up on my activities. Friday night was happy hour with a group of coworkers, and we somehow all ended up back here at my house afterwards. We had some drinks, and spent many hours playing music down in the basement. It was a very good time. The music had a very heavy metal feel to it. I entertained myself by jumping around on the instruments; mostly playing bass and drums and a little keyboard. We broke up around 3:30 or so, and then I had some emails to write. 4am is a perfect time for that sort of thing. So I slept in till about 10am. My phone kept ringing, so I figured I may as well get up.

Tonight's gig turned out to be very much the wedding reception. After a brief misunderstanding early on in the evening, everything got straightened out and we ended up getting our larger wedding fee, so that was nice. I got to be the master of ceremonies for the cutting of the cake, and the whole garter belt/bouquet portion of the evening. Everyone had a good time, and we passed out a number of business cards. It's really funny how many people want band t-shirts right away. Most of them have only heard us once, and they act like we have been selling CD's for years. We have gigs lined up for the next few months. I am going to be trying to book us out in my neck of the woods now. It's their turn to drive. After the gig, I went out for breakfast and had french toast and coffee. I needed it to get home. I am still surprised when I have entire highways to myself. There's enough people in this area to warrant traffic at all hours of the day and night, but we really don't have a lot of 3 shift industry around here anymore. The cars are few and far between. I didn't drink at all tonight, nor did I speed. I was half begging the cops to pull me over for a routine check or something, just so that I could get off with no ticket or anything.

My brother showed me a satirical "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace" movie trailer today. It was done with a South Park theme. It was really funny. Unfortunately, he doesn't know where it came from, otherwise I would link to it here. Keep your eyes out for it on South Park related sites, as it will surface there, I'm sure. I have a few of those on my links page.

A friend of my brother has an article about Geek Guys on his web page that I found funny. Take a look.

Oh yeah, my Mom saves the Life and Leisure portion of the Times Union for me so that I can read the Dave Barry articles that appear in them. I read maybe 5 of them today. I figured that I would link to a site of his today. Oh, and don't forget - Dave plays with the band "Rock Bottom Remainders" on occasion. Check out the Don't Quit Your Day Job website.

Ok, one last thing. We had a birthday party for a coworker on Friday, and we went to the Colorado Mining Company to celebrate. When you are there, they put this goofy hat on the birthday boy and take a polaroid picture and... well, heck, just take a look for yourself. Happy birthday, big guy. Thanks to Michele and Cynthia for putting up with our rowdy group.

Entry... 4/18/99 5:40pm

I had a strange dream this morning. In it, I was sitting on the couch in the living room, talking to my brother. He had his hair cut short again, and mine was actually long enough to pull back completely (my bangs refuse to grow). I remember vividly sitting behind myself, and doing my own hair into a pony tail. I also washed my car in my dream. I was first in my driveway with a little bucket of soapy water and a towel, but then I was at one of those pay as you go car wash places. I had to keep putting in quarters so I could rinse the soap off the car and then the wax, and it would always stop with just a little of the car left to do.

Definition of a Californian Divorce: The husband gets to keep whatever falls off the truck as it's pulling away with the last load.

It was a great day outside. I opened up all the windows and did some dusting. My housemate and I went out to a couple garage sales. I got a brass fireplace tool kit for 10 bucks (they were asking $35) and a monitor from a commodore computer for 2 bucks. They had the whole computer there, but I didn't want it. I now have two of these monitors. They have a great picture tube, and accept composite video in, so they are great for editing and dubbing.

I think it is going to be movie night. My brother rented a ton of videos and left them in the living room, so I plan to just hang out here and watch a few of them tonight. If you're looking for me, I'll be curled up on the couch under a blanket with a bag of doritos and some coke. So much for my girlish figure.

Entry... 4/18/99 5:54pm

Dr. Jack Kevorkian is in jail for murder. Interesting world we live in. How do you feel about assisted suicide? Here is one man's testimonial from his direct dealings with Dr. Kevorkian and his own Mother. Here is an interesting site about Kevorkian and assisted suicide. Here is a link to Kevorkian's paintings.

Something I have been thinking about doing is posting the comments I get in email from my readers. If you have something to say about any of the subjects, poems, dreams, issues, songs, jokes, etc that surface here, feel free to rant on. I can easily set up an area for this. It may be fun. I will, of course, withhold your real name. If you would prefer to be known with a moniker of sorts, tell me what you would like, or I'll just choose one for you. Like Miss X, or Mister Y.

Entry... 4/19/99 11:17am

The tragedy of life is not death,
but what dies inside of us
while we live.
- Norman Cousins

Entry... 4/20/99 9:46am

Welcome to Tuesday. It's sports night here. I get to choose between volleyball and baseball this afternoon, and I think that neither will win. Yesterday I had a pinched nerve. My left arm was tingly and numb most of the day, and it hurt to move my neck. It made driving an interesting experience. Heck, it made sitting at my desk an interesting experience. I tried to take it easy when I got home, but I had to get new tires on the back of my car. So my housemate and I went out for dinner and walked the malls of the area while the car was being worked on. When I got home, I watched a movie ('Gattaca') with my brother and his girlfriend. We sat on the couch and ate salsa doritos. My brother worked on my back for a little while, and that helped. You know how it is when you have pain - everyone tries out or suggests their favorite home remedies to you. Motrin, anyone? It feels a lot better this morning, but I don't want to push it.

Entry... 4/20/99 5:47pam

Know what I love? I love big sunlight coming through the window at 6 o'clock at night. I feel a lot better this afternoon, shoulder and armwise, so I have decided to go and play a little volleyball tonight. If it starts to bother me, I'll just rest it, but I don't want to leave the team high and dry. I already missed one practice due to softball last week. Even if I don't play much, we can still talk about administrata.

I spent just about the whole day in meetings. There's so much stuff going on here at work. I don't know how we will be able to get all these things done with our limited resources, and now limited capital. It's crazy.

Desk pop can count is up to 85 today. I had to have a soda when I got back from lunch. I had a beer at lunch, and I needed a shot of caffeine or else it was nap time.

This song has been on my mind all last night, and now again here at work. It's by Everything for the Girl.

Entry... 4/21/99 1:05am

I drove all the way to the volleyball place, and sat in the car for a few minutes, and talked myself out of playing. I really didn't want to stress the shoulder. So, I figured that I would get my car inspected instead; since I had all this free time. May as well take advantage of it. So I drove to at least 6 places. One place was out of inspection stickers. Their check to NYS didn't clear yet, so they can't get any released to them. Ok, this is sort of understandable, but this was Sears. All of the other places I went to couldn't take me, or more likely, had no one onsite who could do the inspection. I gave up, and came home. My brother told me to try Armory garage. So he called there, and they said that they could inspect, but if there was something wrong, they wouldn't be able to fix it. They suggested we try Denoyer Dodge. Ok, I called them. The guy was friendly enough, and when I asked if he could do an inspection, he said this: "I got 2 technicians on tonight, and work for 6." There was silence, as I attempted to figure out if this was a yes or a no. I guessed no. So we went to Armory Garage. I don't know if I like this full service stuff. I am too used to "park it anywhere, give me the key, see you in an hour, ok buddy?" I couldn't handle driving right up to the counter, having a polite service representative take my order, call me sir, and lovingly prepare the car. He then walked us into the main lobby, to show us where the snack bar, waiting room, and gift shop were. Too nuts. Oh, did I say gift shop? I meant gift shopS. Everything was on sale. Even the signs on the wall. However, my brother doubted that the sign that said "All signs $29.99" was actually for sale. But I'll bet it could have been. Everything for cars was for sale. Everything about cars was for sale. Cars were for sale. Things made out of cars were for sale. Things for sale on the floor, on the walls, on the ceiling. It was too much. And the Clam Chowder was lousy (thankfully, there wasn't much of it). The dessert menu, however, was cool. It was a viewmaster on the table with pictures of the desserts featured with items that were sold in the gift shops that surrounded you. "Yes, I'd like a cheesecake, without so much NASCAR Barbie in it, please." I also got a free car wash. I think that's the first time I have washed the car in 2 years. Oh, and it passed the inspection with flying colors.

When we got home, we were still hungry so I made personal pizzas. Just fried up some pizza dough, and covered it in sauce, spices, cheese, and ricotta. Then we watched "Excess Baggage" with Alycia Silverstone. Hey, don't waste your time. I think I had more fun trying to figure out the order they filmed the scenes in. The continuity was lacking. Pass this one over.

It's bed and a book time. I am still working through the latest Tom Robbins. I have to finish it soon, because its owner is moving to Boston soon.

Entry... 4/24/99 1:12pm

Goodness, what a busy week. Work has been crazy lately. Not a moment to sit and reflect and write, so I haven't been. It's a beautiful Saturday afternoon, the sky is majestic blue and clear of clouds. However, it is a bit chilly out. It's just as well, I won't be tempted to take my daily shower in any nearby lakes today. It's been a real stretcher of a morning. I have been languishing beneath blankets, reading. In fact, I have a passage from the book "Half alseep in Frog Pajamas" by Tom Robbins to share with you. I may as well do that now:

"We modern human beings are looking at life, trying to make some sense of it; observing a 'reality' that often seems to be unfolding in a foreign tongue - only we've been issued all the wrong librettos. For a text, we've been given the Bible. Or the Talmud or the Koran. We've been given Time magazine and Reader's Digest, daily papers, and the six o'clock news; we've been given schoolbooks, sitcoms, and revisionist histories; we're givenn psychological counseling, cults, workshops, advertisements, sales pitches, and authoritative pronouncements by pundits, sold-out scientists, political activists and heads of state. Unfortunately none of these translations bears more than a faint resemblance to what is transpiring in the true theater of existence, and most ofthem are dangerously misleading. We're attempting to comprehend the spriraling intricacies of a magnificently complex tragicomedy with librettos that describe barroom melodramas or kindergarten skits. And when's the last time you heard anybody bitch about it to the management?"

Desk pop can count up by two on Friday (made a run to the deli in the midst of our big internet project): 87

I'll be on the road in a few hours, heading to a gig. Everybody have a safe weekend, ya hear?

Entry... 4/26/99 9:35am

We just had a fire drill at work. Shades of high school. I had seen the building maintenance men in the hallway just as it went off, so I knew that it wasn't anything real. If it were real, I would have taken my keys and jacket and tool kit with me, gotten in my car and left. I do not want to have to deal with trying to piece this place back together if it did blow up. One of my coworkers actually grabbed the briefcases with all of Friday's backups in it to preserve them, just in case they needed to rebuild the system.

My ISP was down yesterday, so I couldn't write about my weekend, so I will have to do that now. On my way to the gig on Saturday, my car died. Teaches me right to get my expectations up that the thing will actually work for more than a week at a time. To add to the injury, I happened to be going through a drive through restaurant when it kaputed. And, ok, I'll have to make the confession that it was a Burger King fast food restaurant. I needed food. I was in a hurry. It was right there, 1/4 mile from the gig. So, I paid for my food and got out of the car and gave it a push. I'm sure the employees and people in line behind me were entertained. Luckily there was a little incline, so I hopped back in the car and piloted it to a stop in the parking lot, taking up three spaces. I called the bar, and left a message for someone to come rescue me and all my equipment, and then I started taking the car apart. I discovered that I had no spark at all. The drummers girlfriend showed up about 20 minutes later and we loaded her car up and went to play. It was an off night for people to be out, so attendance was low, but we had a good time anyway. Now, of course, everyone is a backyard mechanic, so I got to spend my breaks listening to car stories and trying to glean some good advice regarding my tank. I was forced to crash up there for the night; with no overnight bag nor toothbrush. Luckily, my host had a brand new toothbrush in a box, of which I am now the proud owner. The plan had been to call this guy who is quote Really good with engines and stuff unquote in the morning. So, first thing, we call, and learn that he is down to the big city (Albany) to watch his kid bowl. Great. So I call the keyboard player, because he knows a lot of guys who do engine work for a recommendation for a local shop that won't rob me. He think for a second and says he is going to call his buddy R.J. about it. Now you know when a guy has initials for a name, he spends 1/3 of his life under a car, 1/3 of his life in a car, and 1/3 of his life shooting at things in the woods. So R.J. has this idea that it is probably my "Pick Up Coil." Now, mind you, I have no idea what a pick up coil is. Never saw one. "Sorry, Officer, pick up coil doesn't live round here no more." My keyboard player says that it is under the rotor and just plugs in. Ok, fine. So out to the car we go, still in the lot, still taking up three spots, friend to seagulls, but thankfully still there, and not vandalized, ticketed, towed, or otherwise stolen (wait...would that be a bad thing at this point?) I take off the cap, and the rotor, and there I see a nice little plastic GM part, ready for plucking. I take it out, and we head off to the parts store, waving this thing proudly high like some prize of war. I walk up to the counter and say that I need a pick up coil for an 89 Chevy, 305, V8. the lady behind the counter takes one look at the thing in my hand and says "That's not a pick up coil." I say, "Well, what is this?" She says "It's an Ignition Module." So, confused, I offer it to her, and ask her if she can test it. Turns out that they can. So she finds that the unit in my hand is bad, and it needs replacing. So for 20 bucks I buy the new one, and we head back to the car, praying in our hearts that this fixes the car, and that we don't suddenly have to go searching for where the pick up coil really is. Oh, while we were in the parts store, the keyboard player's son comes running up to him and attaches himself to his leg. Turns out the ex-girlfriend/mother of the child was just 'driving by, returning videos' (she's stalking him, I swear it) and saw his truck out front, so she came in. Now we have a 4 year old in tow. We get back to my car, and the 4 year old sets off to chasing the seagulls around the lot, while I put the new part in, replace the rotor and the cap, and hook up the plug wires. Air filter back in place, and key in the ignition, and vroooom! Yay! It worked! To celebrate, I bought everyone lunch for putting up with me and my car all weekend. The engine idle was too high for a little while, but that's normal, since it takes the computer 30 minutes of running to readjust how the engine fuel mixture is set. Between the part, and lunch, and the gas to get there and back, I lost money again this weekend.

On my way home, I stopped at my parents house. My Dad had just picked his boat up from winter storage, so I knew he would need help taking his mast down off the boat. The mast electrical system actually needed a lot of work this year, and somehow we ended up doing most of it right away. We had to feed wires through 17 feet of metal using simple tools that we could find. Over in that area, they have an annual scrap pick up program, and people put everything they don't want out by the curb - like refrigerators, couches, chairs, junk, TVs, tires. A guy across the street had just thrown away some long pipe, so I grabbed 2 sections of it and we fashioned a long pole from it. In the midst of the project, my Dad asked me if I thought the students at RPI did this sort of thing all day - sit around and figure out how to do complicated tasks in different ways. I did my Walter Cronkite voice and said "Using only a hand held calculator, some masking tape and a small farm animal, construct a system of Government that is firm, but yet somehow fair." We got the wiring done, despite the bad jokes.

So I loaded my car with the Sunday paper, and my brother's dog (my parents were dog sitting for the weekend, so I volunteered to bring it home) and drove back to Albany, some 24 hours after I left. When I got home, I was put to work cooking dinner. Seems we were having company. My housemate and I made a red sauce with meatballs, ziti, bread, and salad and entertained for a few hours. As I said before, my ISP was down, so I couldn't receive mail (I could send for some odd reason), or work on my home page, so I watched a couple shows on HBO (we have a free month) and we played cards during a John Cusack movie.

And now it's Monday. Oh God. Not another week of this.

Entry... 4/26/99 6:30pm

I have a big screen tv in my living room now. All you have to do is use the binoculars on the coffee table. It's incredible.

Entry... 4/26/99 9:42pm

I woke last night to the sound of thunder
"How far off" I sat and wondered,
started humming a song from 1962
Ain't it funny how the night moves
We just don't seem to have as much to lose
Strange how the night moves
with autumn closing in

Entry... 4/27/99 3:48pm

Last night I was feeling tired and I was thinking about hitting the sack early. About 10:00pm, my brother wanted to know if I was doing anything, and I said that I wasn't. So he and I went down to the basement and made some music for an hour. Then he got on his computer and started to play this internet capable game where you pilot these cute little worms to their deaths. I decided that I was awake enough, and made to watch my tv shows. I had two weeks worth of NYPD Blue to watch. So I got myself a snack of herring, crackers, and milk and watched the shows. While I watched, I did some excercise and worked with a weight a little bit. I ended up going to bed at 5am.

The Albany Fire Department bit off a little more than they could chew today. They hosted their "controlled burn" of the pine bush this afernoon, and it got a little out of control. The NYS Thruway is functionally closed, and the main road out of my office park is closed. This morning, I had smelled something burning and thought that it was a power supply or a server. We sniffed around here for awhile before we realized that it was coming from outside. I don't know what these people were thinking. We have had no rain, and the winds have been whipping through here for a week now. Not too smart, I fear. I wonder if my office building will be here tomorrow. I suppose this is why they had that fire drill yesterday. A friend of mine thinks that it is a big plot to get rid of us all, and they were in here disabled the alarms yesterday so that they wouldn't alarm us when the building goes up. All this for a couple of silly butterflies. I went for a walk this afternoon with a friend, and the smoke was pretty thick.

Entry... 4/28/99 12:24am

Here are two really great sites. This one is for a complete almanac of the phases of the moon from the year 1 to the year 2249. This site is the U.S. Naval Observatory's home page. Complete moonrise and moonset times, links to the Tiger Census maps. Check out their cgi that will tell you your longitude and latitude just by keying in the name of a town.

It's 12:30am, and I have decided to watch my shows. I taped them earlier, but I can't wait to see them. I also need to remember to tape South Park - another new one tonight, and I'll be heading to band practice right from work today.

Entry... 4/28/99 11:03pm

I gave up watching my shows last night. I just didn't have the energy to put up with it. I drank a couple of glasses of water and brushed my teeth and went to sleep around 1:30am.

Here's another crazy cool moon site: Moon Phases.

Child support. Family court. Debt collectors. Summonses. Skip tracers. Accused of harrassment. DMV. Cops. Fines. Tickets. Tow trucks. Tow chains. Bounced Checks. A membership not in good standing. Certified letters. Suspended registrations. Uninspections. Neglections. No sleep. Bad dreams. When does life get any freaking better?

It's a heavy time right now. I hope it breaks soon. I can't take much more of this. We continue to breath, despite it all. God, I hope so.

Entry... 4/29/99 6:13pm

I ate lunch outside for the first time this year today. It felt great to be sitting outside in the sunshine. Something funny happened this afternoon: I got a phone call from our receptionist, and she started doing this bit like she was a psychic or something. She told me exactly what I had for lunch, and I know that no one I worked with was there at the deli. So I was a little freaked out as to how she knew. Turns out she was on the phone placing an order, and the woman who took my order just set the phone down and didn't press the hold button. So the I work with could hear everything, and recognized my voice. Desk Pop can count is up by 2: 89

The John Morse band, a local group that I go to see every now and then has a new CD out. The CD release party was written up and a friend of mine sent me the write up. I am going to be helping the band set up a web site, so I will include this review on that page, so for right now you can click to the review where it is now.