Entry... 7/4/2000 10:40pm

"Throw the lumber over, man! Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need - a homely home and simple pleasures, one or two friends, worth the name, someone to love and someone to love you, a cat, a dog, and a pipe or two, enough to eat and enough to wear, and a little more than enough to drink; for thirst is a dangerous thing."
- Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat

This month's picture was taken at Friday's firework show in Scotia with my digital camera. Both the Scotia and the Albany show (which was tonight) were great. I took a lot of pictures at both shows, but I haven't had the chance to review them at all. This one looked pretty good during a quick review, and I wanted to use one for the picture of the month. So, there you have it.

Last Thursday, I got up at 5am and delivered myself to the train station, where I shortly found myself aboard a southbound train to Penn Station in New York City. I was bound for an annual technical conference at a convention center on the west side. I enjoyed the view of the Hudson River from the right side of the train, and again, caught myself daydreaming of sailboats and still waters when I caught the glimpse of a sailboat motoring down the center of the river. There is so much to see along the Hudson. There is an island, complete with the ramparts of an old castle like fort. There are the bridges that traverse its width. There are the barges, filled with whatever, pushed along by boats just a tenth their size. There are dead and dying husks in dead end shallow; hulls of wooden boats left to rot, stripped bare of their brightwork and equipment. There are the rich histories of early pioneers and settlers traveling the river for the first time. The conference itself was enjoyable. One day is all I require of that sort of activity. I wandered the numerous exhibit booths and tried to whet my whistle on the myriad of new products. The coolest thing I saw there was the Mimeo, a device that sticks to a whiteboard and throws what you write to a computer. You can also get a version of it for flip pads. It's very cool - and so new that I can't find their website. I got a few free t-shirts (I know - I don't need any more!) and other goodies. After the show, I stopped for a Murphy's Stout at an Irish pub in Manhattan. You could cut the atmosphere with a knife. Penn Station was a block away, and I read while I waited for my train. I grabbed one of the seats at the end of the car that face inwards to each other, so that I would have leg room. I was joined by a tall gent with huge arms (I think he works out, folks!) who sat kitty-corner to me. He immediately slapped a cassette in a mini player and stuck earphones on his head. Then he pulled a magazine out of his bag, and started rifling through the pages, one at a time. Every now and then he would stop and read an article, and then pull it entirely out of the magazine. When he finished with the first magazine, he got out another one and began flipping through it in the same way. Across the aisle sat two african american women with their respective young children. Very young children. When they first boarded, one commented to the other that it was going to be a very long two hour ride. They passed the time by playing peek a boo, mostly. One Mother would hold her baby (a boy) to her chest and hum the prettiest melody of her own creation, or sing a few lines from "The Tracks of my Tears." Her companion kept shussing her to stop, but I was enjoying it so much that I leaned over and said so. I pointed out that my seat mate couldn't even hear her through his earphones. The singer smiled at the compliment. We were joined in Croton by a young girl in K-Glow bell bottoms who, in need of a seat, perched cross legged in the seat next to me since there was no room for her legs. She claimed that she was comfortable, but we older and wiser ones knew better. She also set to reading. She pulled a thick, black book from her backpack - a New American Standard Bible - and opened it to Book 1, Chapter 1, Verse 1. Well, nothing like starting from the very beginning, is there? Later, after our male friend departed and she had the whole seat across from me to herself, she told me that she had promised her Mother that she would read the bible through. I told her that she was going to get a kick out of the book of Isiah. She asked what I was doing for the weekend, I told her of my plans to go to the lake to celebrate my birthday. She told me that her Mother was at a christian camp on the same lake. That would be Camp Fowler. Like many people do, she confused Sacandaga Lake with the Great Sacandaga Lake. She is a fellow Cancer, so happy birthday, Ti.

I had a great birthday weekend (Fireworks not included.) Had a great steak dinner prepared by my parents and friends on Saturday night. My cake featured a full tee, fairway, green, and flag in miniature. The presents were also very needed and appreciated. I got Warren Zevon's new CD, a golf shirt that I wore all weekend, slacks, new life vests for my boat, golf gloves, and cash - a favorite! We had a DJ at the club on Sunday night after the paper sailboat races (and another great dinner, whew!) I danced, got a little nuts, played football with a pack of kids, went for a boat ride, walked in the sand on the island, visited family and friends, lit off some fireworks... Oh, jeez, I'm gushing. I'm a lucky man. I'll stop now.

I finished "Sailing in a Spoonful of Water" by Joe Coomer today while sitting outside on my deck in the sun. I was supposed to have gone to Lake George, but he got called away to drive to Flushing today. He had to play taxi for his brother whose flight got delayed so long that he missed all of the limousines out of the city this holiday weekend. The weather didn't look so great anyway. We did get some rain this afternoon, in fact. I enjoyed the book, more so the anecdotes regarding his family than anything else, but I could identify with his dreams as they parallel my own. When he wrote this book, he was a only a couple years younger than myself. He is an author, by trade, and I find myself a bit envious of his ready supply of cash and free time to go exploring. My Father pointed out that Joe Coomer's exploring on the Pisquataqua River occured very near Portland, Maine. Portland is just north of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, a city that I have been to many times. Whenever I get out there, I love to drive Highway 1 on the shoreline and look at the Isle of Shoals located just 5 miles out to sea, and watch the waves crash upon the rocky shore.

SparkNotes is the Cliff's Notes of the internet, providing free online study guides to many popular works. And yes, Cat's Cradle is in there.

FuFMe... could this be a replacement to CuSeeMe? The site is so well done, you might find yourself thinking this is a real product. The scary thing is - it will be.

Pop can number 201 came from a hot dog vendor in NYC. I got a sauerkraut dog and a coke and ate it while I stood outside the massive US Post Office building on West 33rd street.

Today's number, in honor of the 4th of July, is then 4.

Entry... 7/6/2000 12:14am

Got home from work today in time to play moving man. We inherited yet another used couch for the basement. In order to accept this one, we had to eject one. So I picked the oldest, most uncomfortable (and lightest) couch that we had for disposal. Right now, it is sitting by the curb, awaiting trash haulers. We called the city and let them know that we had something large to get rid of. Pretty nice deal. The replacement couch has been sprayed with a good strong combination of chemicals, and sits in the garage airing out. I'll drag it outside tomorrow for some sunshine. After a good vacuuming, it'll get tossed downstairs into the playroom.

You may not have noticed the change, but Buckstar.Com had a backoffice move. I flipped over to a new web hosting service. I didn't go looking for them, they cold called me off a client list of their competitors. I'm not complaining to loudly, since I got more drive space and transfer rates out of the deal, and a nicer selection of free toys for less money. Plus Mindspring/Earthlink (where I was before) totally pissed me off. They even tried to charge me for an extra month when I closed my account, but I refused to pay it. Eventually, that was taken off. Bastards.

I spent most of the evening watching a tape of the Wimbledon semi-finals. I miss playing. If I had any free time, I would try to get out there again. Speaking of sports, I have a softball game tonight. I may have to miss church.

What do you get when you put a Star Wars fan in a room with 15 pounds of Legos? That's right. A Millennium Falcon made out of Legos.

Visit JinxWorld, and don't forget to see what the trendiest people are wearing to comic book conventions these days.

It's not Jennicam. It's something wrong.

Visit MonkeyBagel just cause of the name.

I know that I've mentioned The Editing Room before. They offer scripts to popular movies that really cut to the chase. They lampoon The Matrix here.

Entry... 7/6/2000 12:14am

Another new look! I am working my way through the site with a new top line menu design. The javascript is fun and all, but I went for a cleaner (and much smaller) image map solution. I wanted to get back to the top line design so that I can do some other changes that I have had in mind for a long time, but couldn't implement since the left side of my pages was the main navigation menu. Now, the doors are open. I hope you enjoy the new (and I think, improved) look.

How about another link fest to keep you occupied. I think I have more at home, too.

Comicazee offers up alternative comic strips online. Take a look at Dykes to Watch out For by Alison Bechdel.

Visit Hot Head Paisan, the Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist and a Fan Site.

Cheater. All the cheat codes you could want are here.

Entry... 7/10/2000 2:35pm

Another working week stares us straight in the face. What fun. I mistakingly wore nice pants and a shirt to work today, just to find out that we were shipping 2 servers to Colorado. Nice. I could've worn jeans. I think I might just wear jeans for the rest of the summer. I'll never know just when I'll have to carry a 200 pound server out to the shipping dock, or crawl around the floor searching for the right power cables to go with it.

Between working on laptop configurations and supporting remote users (and the standard last minute pleas for help) I have been surfing the web. I think I found a good batch of links for you today. Tonight I think I will hang out at home and work on the Arc website.

Planning a Briss? Here's your guide to all you need to know, including the favorite anesthetics.

Visit The Bastard Operator from Hell, and their jenniCam parody BOFHCam

The Network Flight Recorder provides software to help you monitor your network. Call it a black box solution.

Another online strip - check out Bob, The Angry Flower. In other comic news, the word on Helen, sweetheart of the internet, is that a lot of papers are replacing Cathy with her. This is good news. I hope she makes it to Albany.

Mother Goose and Grimm is one of my favorite strips. Grimmy has his own site, too.

Entry... 7/14/2000 7:32am

Vacation
All I ever wanted
Vacation
Had to get away
Vacation
Meant to be spent alone
- The Go-Go's

Today begins my vacation. I'm leaving for Toronto in less than 2 hours to pick up my Daughter and a friend of hers and bring them back here for a week of activity, before we go to Michigan next weekend for 4 days of camping. This will be fun. I'm very excited. I hope that you all have a good weekend. I'll be in and out while we are in town next week, so see you then.

Entry... 7/31/2000 11:50pm

Uh oh... I didn't mean to be away this long.

What the heck happened to July? Summer tends to be a very busy time of year for me, and this year is no exception. As you know, I took a longer vacation then I normally do - a week and a half. I had something going on every single day, and most days, more than one thing. I doubt that I will cover it all here. You know that feeling you get after a vacation that you kept yourself too busy with activity? I have been back for almost a week now, and I still feel like I need another vacation. I had a lot of fun, though. I'll try to recap.

While my daughter was in town with her friend, we watched a bunch of movies, played pictionary, went out to eat, cooked breakfast, visited an amusement park, (they) watched a lot of world wrestling federation shows, and went swimming and tubing with my newly repaired boat (after I almost passed out inflating the tube and air mattress with lung power alone - Super Dad saves the day! I have since learned my lesson and purchased a better pump. SuperDad also carries the wallet.) I was supposed to have taken them to see "Scary Movie," but we never made it, and from what I hear, I am glad that we didn't. It's a little too suggestive for a couple of young teens. We had a good time, I think.

I spent half a day provisioning for the camping trip and packing gear, and managed to bring the wrong tent along. The air mattress was a godsend, however (coupled with the aforementioned air pump.) and I was able to rig the tent with string and a few extra trees. The running joke of the weekend was that I was going to leave the tent behind for the next set of campers, to save them the trouble of setting up their own crappy tent. (I did end up taking it, so now I run the risk of accidentally packing it again next year.) The weather turned out to be absolutely perfect, and once I blocked out the hell of a 13 hour trip in a rented Cheverolet Blazer, I was able to relax and read for much of the weekend. Actually, I'm kidding. The trip went very smoothly and was no problem at all. It was nice to see everyone again. We sang songs (including some really old ones that we hadn't done in years. I had to dredge up the lyrics from the darkest nether regions,) cooked some marshmellows, shot pictures of stars, went for a long hike (Do I look like a hiker?), chased a racoon, and laid on the beach on the sun. The water was almost too cold. I braved the chilly temperature for a cooling dip on two occasions. On the way back from the campsite, we stopped in Niagara Falls for a night. I love it there. A friend tells me that the negative ions produced by falling water helps purify the air we breath in by attracting particlate matter and dropping out of our breathing space. You can read more about waterfalls and negative ions here.

Oh, I forgot to mention that my "new" car coughed up a ball joint the day before I was supposed to leave. Standing in the middle of a street a block from my house for an hour while I waited for a tow truck was so much joy. Ended up that they dispatched a flat bed to move the car, and I watched in pain as the guy fooled around for half an hour getting the car onto the bed, and then fooled around for another half an hour getting it off. Because the ball joint gave, the whole wheel was loose in the well, and tended to butt up against the fender. It didn't want to move. I had to rent a car for the Toronto trip, but luckily my mechanic was able to get the right part and install it soon after I returned. All is well, again. He is supposed to be coming around soon to fix up the old dragon wagon for me. It needs a couple hundred dollars sunk into it, but then it should be back in shape. I want a winter beater, as well as a practical vehicle that I can haul music stuff and tow my boat with.

I know that I have a ton of links at work to stick in here, but I'll just put them in an August entry. I didn't bother to send them to myself in email to put in here tonight, because, honestly, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to write at all tonight.

Since I have been back, I played in one softball game. I get to play volleyball tomorrow night for the first time in weeks. Lots of changes at work; more people are leaving earlier to be expected. I'm gonna miss the old gang. I am swamped this week, as a coworker is on vacation, and I am covering for him.

My band played a gig up at Sherman's last weekend. The attendance was low, but it was an afternoon gig on a gray day. I liked playing there. There was so much room! We also had a great view of the lake right through the windows next to us. I'd like to play there again. We did get booked for a wedding in two weeks out past Cooperstown by a dreadlocked groom who came out to see us. The father of the bride (a hippie type girl) is president of the local chapter of Hell's Angels. It's going to be an interesting gig.

Congratulations go out to some friends of mine who just bought their first house, and to two other friends who are moving in together. (One of which I helped move tonight.) Good luck!

Since I spent tonight watching a couple of episodes of South Park, and quite a bit of time telling a friend about the show, how about I share with you some information about the show?

South Park
General Info:
Aired from: Aug 1997 to present time
54+ eps, 1 feature
Comedy Central, 30 min, stereo, closed captioned

Regulars:
Trey Parker as the Voice of Stan Marsh/Eric Theodore Cartman/Mr. Garrison/Officer Barbrady/Terrance/Various Other Voices
Matt Stone as the Voice of Kyle Broflovski/Kenny McCormick/Pip/Jesus/Jimbo Marsh/Phillip/Various Other Voices
Mary Kay Bergman as the Voice of Wendy Testaburger/Mrs. Cartman/Mrs. Sheila Broflovski/Mrs. Sharon Marsh/ Mrs. McCormick/ Mayor McDaniels/Ms. Crabtree/Principal Victoria/Shelly Marsh/Nurse Gollum/Various Other Voices (episodes 1 - 46)
Isaac Hayes as the Voice of Jerome "Chef" McElroy

And most likely replacing the Late Mary Kay Bergman, we have:
Dee Dee Green as the Voice of Unknown (season 4+)
Mona Marshall as the Voice of Unknown (season 4+)