Entry... 8/1/2000 10:00am

In the news:

Vonnegut accepts prestigious teaching position at Ivy League college

NORTHAMPTON, Mass - Kurt Vonnegut will start teaching at Smith College in Massachusetts this fall. He is moving, in part, to recuperate from injuries he suffered in a fire. Vonnegut, 77, is one of the United States' most acclaimed writers. He has penned such popular satirical novels as Slaughterhouse-Five, Cat's Cradle and Breakfast of Champions.

I am very happy to learn that Mr. Vonnegut is recovering. He won't be living very far away from me, as it happens.

The picture this month I took on the west shore of Michigan, facing Wisconsin, during a spectacular sunset.

Here's that link fest I promised you yesterday. Now I have to get back to work.

Old Man Murray is the gamers portal for news and reviews. A funny site, too. Read about Erik, the boy who looks like a girl, and his attempt to relocated to Cuba.

Find out what happened today in history, courtesy ScopeSys. You can also drill to a specific date, if you want.

Coolsites attempts to list, uh, the cool sites on the web. Not all of them are really that cool, in my opinion, but some are. Take a wander.

Ever get the desire to do your own phone wiring? I do it all the time. It's fun and easy. Read more about it here.

Zills are finger cymbals that are used by professional dancers. Do you have your own yet? Maybe I will make my halloween party a theme this year, and require everyone to come dressed in a bare midriff outfit. Don't forget your zills.

Thinking of quitting your job? Need a little help writing just the right resignation? Visit Kiss My Freckled Ass Goodbye.

Alma Records has a pretty cool site. I got to them because they do business with The Dexters, a band that Alex Lifeson of Rush sometimes plays with in his club in Toronto.

The following sites are not for the faint of heart, or easily offended. This first one, is easily one of the most offensive things I've seen yet on the net. These next two take you to a magical world where grown women party and take off thier clothes and engage in meaningless sexual congress. This is what we imagine the 60's were like. The first one, Flash Mountain centered on folks who liked to ride a similarily named ride at a certain theme park and show their stuff off to the automatic cameras that snap your photo mid-ride. Then there's the folks who like to flash the camera in various public places. For good measure, I thought I would toss in an amatuer site that is fairly well done, with lots of freebies. She's Simple. There are many many places to go from these two pages, so I bid you adieu until next time.

Entry... 8/2/2000 4:30pm

I went to the CD Release party for the Ominous Seapods last night. They played a very good set, highlighted by the addition of a lap steel player. The lap player also joined forces with the opening act, the Coal Palace Kings. I know a couple of guys in that band, so it was a treat to see them out and about. I had a good time, and was home by 3am. What a bonus!

Did a little tinkering to my splash page today. Upon request, I made it so that you get a random picture everytime you visit. Now I don't have to remember to change it every month or so. The drawings have been great! Keep em coming!

I have a long night of softball ahead of me. We'll play a double header tonight. I am more concerned about dinner. I wonder if I can get a pizza place to deliver right to the field...

Entry... 8/8/2000 1:59pm

Is it only Tuesday? I feel as if a lifetime has gone by in the last two days. There is a local strike of Verizon (Bell Atlantic), and on the way out the door, some malicious jerk-off actually cut a fiber optic cable. So, needless to say, I have been up to my neck is getting a myriad of connections restored. I honestly thought that we got hit by lightening, so bizarre and unfocused was the damage. Some things worked, some things didn't work, and some thing sort of worked. We were cut off from the internet completely. How did businesses survive before we had that? Things are looking up now. Only one circuit is giving me problems now, and hopefully that will get figured out soon.

Big changes for my band. One of the principal members has quit, leaving us to figure out what to do in his wake. It was decided that we would carry on. Depending on the personnel we hire, I may shift from bass to guitar. It's going to be interesting. Of course, we have a wedding to play this weekend, so we're scrambling to find a temporary player for that gig.

I had some links to share from last week, so I will do that now. I think I found the band that Jennifer Ringley's new boyfriend Dex is in. It's called Polhemus. Meet Webfoot. She has a site full of sparkly things. Meet Maggy and her online journal. Here's a site for hypertext based novels and stories. Another journal, by Al. One more journal, Cut While Shaving.

Desk pop can count up by two today, and now stands at: 203.

Entry... 8/9/2000 3:23pm

Well, no thanks to the moron who cut the local fibre cable, my network is back up and running today. 3 entire days wasted because of this petty, childish behavior. I hope that they find out who this miscreant is and never let him (or her, lets take a nod to equal rights on this) work in this business again.

Ok, I'll stop ranting. Volleyball last night went well. Lord, was it hot. We didn't win, but we played great. I have a softball game tonight, and it's another scorcher out there. I'll have to remember my towel and water. I have another mini-link fest for you and I am late for a conference call, so here we go. Three more online journals: Ones and Zeros and Venus Burning, and a terrific looking Pale Sky.

This site is fairly graphic in nature and is not for general audiences. Proceed with caution. The Stile Project.

Read all about it! Get yer odd news stories here!

What are Peeps and just what will make them dissolve? Read and see the exciting medical breakthrough as Quintuplet peeps, conjoined at birth are seperated!

Entry... 8/9/2000 3:23pm

A little brown bunny rabbit has been seen hopping around my neighborhood. He's not very shy, either. You can get about 4 feet away from him before he starts to move away. I wanted to get a picture of him, but he's been scarce the last two days. I'll keep a watch for him. Speaking of small furry creatures, I came to the aid of a bat in need on Saturday night. We were all sitting on the porch of the yacht club, drinking wine, singing songs, and playing the "do you remember this television show" game. I was feeling pretty good by that time, so when my friend pointed out a big moth stuck inside a lantern, it took me a couple seconds to realize that it was no big moth - but a bat. The poor thing had most likely crawled inside the lantern when it was off and cool, and now it was hot and bright inside. It kept trying to crawl up the side, but would fall back down to the bottom. I was on a mission of mercy and removed the screen and brought the lantern inside. Some of the porch crew were making fun of me, but I carried on my task, and removed the top of the lantern so that interested parties could stare and point at the tiny creature in the lantern, as it pulled its wings over its eyes. I carried the lantern outside where it was dark and cook, and waited until the bat recomposed itself enough to get out and fly away. I could hear the "Born Free" theme in my head. Fly, little bat, fly!

Our softball game this week turned out to be a forfeit. Between the players and their kids, we had enough people there that we played a friendly scrimmage against ourselves. (I wasn't last picked, but second to last.) Somehow I ended up skinning my knee sliding into home plate. Go figure. We only have two more games before playoffs start, and we are currently in third place.

I stopped by a friends new apartment last night. It's a nice place, and the location is great. Right in downtown Saratoga. The drive to work has got to suck. If I ever lived up there, I would get a job up there. Another friend of mine, who writes The Hittman Chronicle got himself a new domain, so you can visit him at www.davehitt.com.

Watching the fuel prices in your neighborhood climb? AAA has a comprehensive, nationwide Daily Fuel Gauge Report.

Two web sites in my They'll Shock You category are Eightball Magazine and I Love Bacon. I Love Bacon is chock full of off-color pictures, jokes, and full motion videos, and Eightball Magazine is an irreverent commentary on news events.

I play a wedding on Sunday. It's going to be interesting (and wet, I hear) doing the gig as a four piece band, now that one person quit. I guess we'll muddle through. I'll be spending some time practicing his songs tomorrow, since I'll have to sing them while playing the bass.

Hey Cyberslackers... There's a place for you on the web.

Entry... 8/14/2000 3:23pm

Rain, rain, rain. It's been a summer full of rain. The lake level is still incredibly high for this time of year. It's nuts! Our softball tonight has again been cancelled due to the weather. Nothing to do but sit inside and listen to the drip, drip, drip.

We're going to have new neighbors soon. I was cleaning my trunk, when I overheard the across the street neighbor talking to my next door neighbors about moving out this weekend. New owners will be moving in soon. This will be fun. There's always a learning process as people settle in, and discover who parks where on our street. We have very limited parking available, and the folks across the street have always added to the problem by never parking in their driveway. Maybe the new girl will use it. There was a big to do this morning in the house behind us. Ambulance, EMT, Pumper Truck (all the cop equipment) were out there, strapping someone to a gurney. In then 2 years I've lived here, I have never seen anyone in that house but a guy and his Mother. Now the yard is full of children playing and the dog won't stop barking. I wonder why they all showed up all of a sudden? I am thinking relatives from out of town, visiting because of the illness.

The band pulled off the gig with great success on Sunday. I am very pleased at how it turned out. We had to go in shorthanded at the last minute when our lead singer quit. I sang 4 or 5 songs that I have never sung before and played bass the whole night. The rain managed to hold off, but for 10 minutes of drizzle while we set up under a tarp. There was some sunshine, and a lot of stars later on. We got a lot of nice compliments from the party goers, and left feeling higher than a kite. There's nothing like a full moon!

This site is loaded with links to Trivia, and has a great movie trivia page.

Entry... 8/16/2000 12:33pm

I'm home for a quick lunch (and I forgot my checkbook). The internet connection at work is down again, so I though tthat I would write a quick update while I was here and connected. I also had to fix an error in the last entry. You wouldn't believe the whining I am hearing at the office. Some people try to disguise their inquiries as being work related, but I know that all they want to do is check their personal email and hit cnn.com.

The desk top pop can count went up by one yesterday to 204.

Entry... 8/18/2000 2:58pm

When I was visiting friends last week, we started talking about old TV shows that we watched when we were kids. I found a website that has a pretty complete run down on every single television show ever made, and it includes saturday morning shows. Check out Yesterday Land. My friend detailed a segment of a show that she could remember, and it struck a bell with me, but I can't remember where I saw it, either. The segment started with a camera taking a run inside a model castle. The drawbridge would fall, the front door would open, and you would travel inside to a cozy sitting room beside a tiny fire. Then a real hand would reach down inside, and arrange the chairs so that they formed a circle. I guess the idea was that you were being invited to sit down and listen to the story. At the end of the segment, the camera would reverse out, the door would close, and the drawbridge went up. Anyone out there remember what show this was from?

Among the many problems at work this week (another frame line down, and no internet access), I lost the hard drive in my own PC. When I realized that it was gone for good, I sat there for a second, and wondered who I get to call for help. So I spent Wednesday rebuilding myself a box. Luckily, I didn't lose anything but a BMP I used for my wallpaper. I did find the picture on my website, so I copied it back down and made it into a BMP. All better.

Having no internet yesterday, I played Minesweeper. I haven't played it in a couple years. I finally managed to solve the expert level! It took me almost 6 minutes. I took a screen print of it.

Entry... 8/30/2000 9:41am

Wow... is it really the end of August already? I've lost track of time yet again. I suppose this is what summer is for, though. Most of the time I have had available to work on the computer, I have been spending working up web sites for area bands. I finally developed my first fully frames based site for Yukon Cornelius. It was a lot easier to work on their site once they got some pictures and content to me. Other than that, it's been the standard summer business for me. The sun finally broke out of its prison, so we have had a long string of nice days. Been hanging out at the lake, swimming and going for boat rides. The band is shaping up. We found a new bass player, and I have switched to guitar. I'm doing more singing these days, and feeling comfortable with it (just call me The Wedding Singer). We are adding so many fun dance tunes. I went to Friends Lake last weekend and went tubing for the first time this year. They had this big flat tube with no center hole, and man, was that thing fast! My friend owns a jet boat just like mine, and he whipped me around pretty good. I only wiped out twice. They said I looked like a rock skipping over the surface of the water.

I bought a present for the new car yesterday. A cheap, Sony CD player. I had looked into moving the CD player from my wagon over to the BMW, but everyone I talked to was reluctant to do it, since the BMW's use a custom wiring harness. It would have cost me double the install fee, since the uninstall takes as long. So I waited, and found a place that was having a free installation special. I called to make sure that it applied to any car, and it did. So I picked out the bottom of the line Sony, and they tossed it in the car. While I waited, I had lunch at Bob and Ron's Fish Fry for the first time in years. I read a copy of the New York Post and slogged through my two frys covered with hot cocktail & tartar sauce, and caught up with my car an hour later. The sound is very good (thank you, German engineers for nice speakers). The first song I played was 3 Doors Down's Kryptonite. Then I played Warren Zevon's Sentimental Hygene CD.

Today will be a busy day. I am leaving work early to go to an open house at a new company. I am hoping to make some contacts, and perhaps talk turkey about a new job. We'll see. I have to leave right from there to band practice.

Convert any web site into a dialect. Redneck is the best. Try it out on with the URL to my page

Rubber Burner. Must be what this guy is smoking.

All Idiots and Monkey Pumper are a couple of opinionated, rude and obsene web sites. Funny, though.

The fellow at Ain't It Cool? features little animations of himself on his website. The whole archive is here. A friend of mine at work put it this way:
New PC - $800.00
Gif animation software - $79.95
Incorporating your image into pop culture via the internet - Priceless

Desk top pop can count up by two (somewhere in the last 2 weeks) to 206.