Entry... 3/2/2000 3:56pm

Most of the snow is gone outside now. We have been enjoying fairly balmy temperatures for the last week. It's a little nippy outside now, though, and we had some flurries. Nothing is staying around. This is all good news. I did go outside and play in the snow this week. I went tubing with a group of friends last weekend. It was a lot of fun. We went down in big long chains of legs and tubes and screams, and experienced terrific speeds. On one run down the mountain, I lost my favorite hat. They wouldn't let me walk up and get it, so a friend of mine grabbed it on a solo speed run. After we were done tubing, and about to go to the bar, we watched a whole mess of idiots racing their snowmobiles up the lower hills. It was quite a show - full of loud smelly machines and pure testosterone that actually got boring to watch. After awhile, we went inside and drank. The snow was melting, and we all got really soaked. What? Snowballs? Who's throwing snowballs? (Innocent look)

Been pretty busy at work, and I suppose I can blame that directly for why my journal throughout February suffered. I couldn't even get a mess of fine links for you to follow. The running gag these days when I walk into a room I put on the correct "hat" for the job. Any given day I could be wearing my desktop support hat, or my network hat, or my PBX hat, or my pricing and purchase order hat, or may printer repair coodinator hat, or maybe even the email system hat. We don't have to talk about my fix-stuff-that-broke hat or my carry-my-groceries-to-the-car hats, but trust me, they expect it.

Need some Lite news?

Even the freaking Girl Scouts gyp ya these days. I bought 3 boxes of cookies (thin mint sand Caramel deLights) to enjoy, and when I opened them up, I found that the boxes are barely 3/4's full. They pad the shrink tube with air to keep the cookies from sliding around inside the box, and make it look like you have a full row of cookies. They could have put 8-10 more cookies in this box. (Can you tell that I am not getting out much?)

My favorite tv show remains NYPD Blue (I also watch Frasier and Just Shoot Me). They have a new cop on the show to replace the James Martinez character. When he takes off his shirt (and he seems to do this at least once per show), he looks more like a Calvin Klein model than a cop! The actor is Henry Simmons, previously on a couple of day time soaps and a couple movies. They are really playing up the 'black' angle and getting Arthur Fancy more involved in cases and dealings with Baldwin's old boss, who is also black. I'm very interested to see what's going to happen next. Oh - and bad news. Andy might have a love life again, which means that we may have to see his butt again. I don't care that he lost weight. Hush.

Some of the more risque online cams...Steph TV (You can also see the Jennicam ferrets here in their new home), Isabella.Com, Naked Nerds, and last, but not certainly not least, I love Holly.

Entry... 3/6/2000 2:56pm

I just visited the AFTRLife, a web page dedicated to Tom Robbins and read that his newest book will be out on May 2! It will be titled "Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates." I can't wait! Is it May yet? Is it May yet?

Want the inside skinny (sorry) on the porn industry? This well done site chronicles the industries roots and profiles the major players.

I saw Clint Eastwood's most recent movie, True Crime on HBO on Saturday night. The movie was ok, but one scene with James Woods really stood out. Eastwood played a womanizing ex-drunk reporter and Woods played his Senior Editor. They had a couple great exchanges that make the movie worth seeing. As they say on the street, "It's a rental!"

Stumbled across a couple do it yourself erotic sites at Bobbi-Jo Cam and Sexy Noelle's haven. Noelle also has a great set of links to her "friends" at Noelle's Hot Bods.

Mardi Gras time, boys and girls, or as they say down South.... Carnival!!! Fat Tuesday is fast upon us, and I am sure that things are rocking down in the French Quarter of New Orleans. With all of the usual fanfare, I present to you a web site filled with authentic Creole recipes and products that you will need to make your cooking taste as good as it does down there. Chef Masion Lousianne and the recipe page of the Gumbo Pages Want to see how they get all those beads? Check out the infamous Five I's site.

Desk top pop can count rockets to 180 today.

Entry... 3/7/2000 2:23pm

What a beautiful day in the neighborhood. I don't even think that cops are writing tickets today. They are too happy to be outside in the sunshine with all the rest of us cave dwellers. Maybe I'll try to sit on my deck tonight and read before the sun goes down and it gets too cool. I am trying to finish off my first Stephen King novel in years, and I have maybe 70 pages to go.

Today is primary day here in New York. I went home at lunchtime today and picked up my housemate so that we could go and preform our civic duty. After the votes were cast, it was time for lunch. Joys of joys! The brand new Century Buffet was open today! Their second day of operation found an incredible selection (everything from Sushi to Won Ton soup, ice cream to hot dogs) of food, friendly, attentive staff and a really great price. I'll be back there, I'm sure. Now they just need a beer bar.... "Hey! You been here four day! Get out!"

I rented the movie "Better than Chocolate" last night. It featured Christina Cox and Karyn Dwyer, two up and coming Canadian actresses. The film was shot in Vancouver, a city I would someday love to visit.

Updated my beer page. I found this website that provides you with a molecular picture of favorite beers around the world.

Entry... 3/8/2000 9:58am

Ow. Ow. Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow. Leggo. I did my taxes returns last night. Ouch. The pain. Agony. Wow. The bill was already bad, but last night I learned that if you settle a debt during the course of a year (like say, accept a 50 cent on the dollar payout for a credit card balance), then the amount of money that you "would" have paid over the life of loan immediately becomes INCOME in that year. For example, you owe $5000 and they say gives us $2500 and we'll forgive the debt. Then the $2500 you don't have to pay them, in the minds of tax lawyers, becomes actual cash in your pocket and therefore, taxable income. Ain't that the craziest thing? Well, I didn't settle a credit card debt last year, but I did have another situation that I had gotten myself into. I had no choice but to get out. Now that extra (phantom) income pushed me into a higher tax bracket. Can I say OUCH again?

I did have a productive night last evening. I didn't get to read on the deck, as I had hoped. When I got home it was time to think about dinner and then talk turned to grocery shopping and the next thing you know, I'm pushing a full cart around a brightly lit Price Chopper for an hour. My housemate somehow talked me into buying 12 rolls of paper towels ("It's a better deal," he says) in a huge pack. I'd better not have to buy any of those for awhile. So, we cooked dinner (perogies and sour cream and biscuits) and watched Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy and Who Wants to be a Millionaire? I normally watch Just Shoot Me on Tuesday nights, but it was a rerun, so I took an hour off and worked on the aforementioned taxes (ouch). I wasn't quite done with them when NYPD Blue came on, so I ran into the kitchen and worked on them more during commercials. I had laundry going all night, and when all was quiet I finished the Stephen King book, folded laundry and got to sleep by 1:30am.

If you have a Shockwave Flash player plug in installed, then you can enjoy the fun and excitement of Hecklers.Com. I really liked the William Shatner acting course.

Entry... 3/9/2000 2:48pm

The odometer on my car recently rolled upwards to 24,800. Since it is only a 5 digit odometer, you can't see the numeral 1 that is supposed to appear in the front of the number. 248 happens to be my favorite number, and I love it when it occurs in my day to day life. So for a thousand miles I get to enjoy it on the dashboard.

Warren Zevon recently released a CD called "Life'll kill ya" and I got to borrow it for a weekend from a friend. Here is a web site that has listing of everything he has ever done. Warren also has his own domain. I just realized that I last saw him in 1994 during his Learning to Flinch tour.

Entry... 3/13/2000 12:10pm

Last night I saw Warren Zevon play in a club downtown. As usual, the club didn't let us in when they said the doors would open. Most of the audience stood outside in the cold and sleet for an hour and a half. I was safe inside, having a few beers at the downstairs bar. The shows there are general admission, so if you are pushy enough you can go in when it starts and still work your way up to the front of the stage. No worries there - when I did finally go upstairs there was a clear shot all the way to the second row, center stage. Typical Albany crowd, mildly apathetic, arms crossed, scowls on their faces as if to say "Go ahead. Play your little guitar and try to move me, I dare you." Warren was alone on this tour, unlike last time around when he had a guy named Big Daddy Doctor Baby Head Face (or something like that) playing flute and Saxaphone on a few songs. Warren played the gig very low key, almost looking bored and bemused during instrumental passages. He was very talkative, and handled the hecklers well (and there were hecklers, the loudest most obnoxious one was this fat guy in a blue baseball hat labels "President of the United States of America, Air Force One". He wouldn't shut up between songs, yelling out his requests and "We love you, Warren!" He was taking pictures and even held up a cell phone during Werewolves of London, blocking the view for the people behind him with his arm. His behavior was totally unnecessary and rude. Most people around me were wishing the security guard would punch his lights out. Oh, and if you are reading this you fat prick, you were uncalled for.) When asked where Doctor Baby Head was, Warren deadpanned "I don't know what you're talkin' about, Man" and smiled. In fact, Warren did a little too much smiling. He was certainly too happy to be playing his music, which is typically angry or best observed through a cloud of smoke. On the last tour he attacked his guitars (a road weary 12 string Gibson) and the grand piano. On this tour he played two six string Gibson guitars, some open tunings and lots of capos, and a Kurzweil PC88 keyboard. Like last time, he used a digital loop to lay down a rhythm track so he could jam over the top of it on 'Detox Mansion' and 'Play it all Night Long' Lined up on the table behind him were bottles of Evian water and the mildly addictive Mountain Dew. Thank goodness - he still has a vice.

My band played a gig on Saturday that we dubbed a "Boy's night out." Our lead singer left on vacation to sunny Florida, and left us behind to cover for her. We dug up enough songs and went out and played, mostly since we needed the money. We weren't stellar, but I think we pulled it off given the number of practices we had. The next gig will be easier, since she is town. We are playing a benefit this month to raise money for a woman in a wheelchair. She wants to get one of those stairway chair lifts. They having all sorts of 50-50's and raffles. One of the funnier events planned is a a male auction. One of my friends is in it. Bid high, ladies!

In the car department, the Beast has decided to act up a little. One of the belts is slipping and making an awful screeching racket. Smells good, too. Gotta get that fixed.

Happy Birthday, Dad! Here's your horoscope. All of you Taurus's can check it out, too.

Entry... 3/14/2000 4:44pm

It's amazing how quiet my office gets at 4:30pm. Everyone seems to bug out of here early these days, usually about 4:30. Except me. What am I still doing here? I get here before most of them do in the morning.

I somehow ended up at Denny's two nights in a row this weekend, both Saturday and Sunday night. On Saturday after my gig I had their French Slam, and on Sunday after the Zevon show I had a couple of english muffins. The whole weekend was filled with diners, now that I think of it. I ate Saturday dinner at a diner in Amsterdam (chicken teryaki) and a late night coffee stop on Friday after the hockey game at another diner. I tend to doodle on my placemats while I wait. Here is a sample of my work from Friday night:

What's New with the Car Department: Got the car fixed yesterday. Cost me $50 for 3 new belts and installation, but it is purring right along once again. I drove it to volleyball last night and had no problems. Now for the tie rods...

A friend of mine is setting up his own webspace, and though he admits that it is still a work in progress, I felt that it was ready for some visitors. He has several complete discographies of his favorite bands, and lots of pictures. Click here to visit Legends of the Fall" I also have a few links for you that I found at home. A complete guide and history of hacker jargon can be found in the New Hacker's Dictionary. A huge list of excellent sites. An online Script Library for movies written by Quentin Tarantino, John Woo, Robert Rodriguez, Martin Scorsese, and Kevin Smith.

Entry... 3/15/2000 2:13pm

Not to be content with one way of doing something for very long, I finally seperated out all of my poems and put them up on seperated pages, with an index. I went back and changed all of the links in my old journal entries so that they wouldn't be broken.

I went to a luncheon today for a departing coworker. Nothing special, othen than that they chose the restaurant that I worked in for 3 months a couple of years ago. I really needed the money so I slaved as a dishwasher on weekends on Friday nights. I saw more weddings then you can shake a stick at.

My friend The Hittman wrote up a review of the Warren Zevon show for his chronicle. He found some great Zevon links (mp3's!) as well, so you can check that out here.

Entry... 3/15/2000 6:27pm

The following text was snipped out of a newsgroup and forwarded to me by a friend in Illinois:
Below is the history of the known standard for music pitch used.

1715 A=419.9 England, John Shore
1740-1812 A=424.1 Eutin, Germany.
... snip ...
1937 A=440 London. An International Conference standard pitch.
1987 A=440 Toronto. Confirmed as the International Standard


Trust Canadians to set the international standard pitch for "A"
As in:

Player One: "What are you tuned to, eh?"
Player Two: "Yes"

Entry... 3/16/2000 11:24am

The Rough Guide to Rock is online, and worth a look. Since I am in a Warren Zevon state of mind, here is his entry on that site. (And if you are a Rush fan like I am, here is their entry.

Filled out my Census form and mailed it back this week. I was one of the lucky recipients of their "Short Form." Designed to handle up to 6 persons, they asked only 6 questions of each person. The longest question pertained to the nature of ones "Hispanic Origin". A friend of mine got the "Long Form," which has a total of 53 questions that ask you to detail you work history, salary history, and information about the plumbing in your home. According to the site, 65% of American responded to the census in 1990. That's lower than I thought. Also on the census site is an excellent mapping resource - Tiger Maps of the country provided by the US Census department. You can also see State and County Demographic and Economic Profiles here. The Census really has an amazing site online with full database searches available right from the raw data in 1990. Give it a try.

Rented "Stir of Echoes" last night. It starred Kevin Bacon, and was sort of like "The Sixth Sense," but I don't want to spoil it for you if you plan to rent it. It was sort of ok.

Entry... 3/19/2000 10:22pm

Happy Spring! The vernal equinox is upon us. At 2:35am on March 20th (somewhere in the wee hours of the morning as I slumber), spring will officially arrive, bring with it 12 hours of sunlight. In just 2 short weeks, we will be rolling those clocks forward again, ending daylight savings time. I hate daylight savings time because I hate to go home in the dark after work.

I spent most of the weekend up north. I took friday off and attended a funeral in Glens Falls, test drove a Toyota Solara, and started the St. Patrick's Day celebration at Davidson Brothers with their wonderful stout. Did some bar hopping in Saratoga to close out the night. Spent the rest of the weekend in Lake George, visiting friends with a beautiful 4 bedroom house on several acres of property in the woods. They call it a "camp," but I would be happy living there year round. We didn't get to swim in the pool, but instead killed a few bottles of wine, jacuzzied, watched videos, played trivial pursuit, and went out to eat at every opportunity. Ah, wonderful decadence!

Entry... 3/20/2000 11:15pm

Pretty much got my summer volleyball team organized tonight. It's good to have that worry over with. Of course, the same day that we get enough players for our own team, I get asked to be on another team. So now I get to quit that one. I'll call the woman who is running that one directly so that she gets the message right away. I had told them I was interested, if I couldn't get my own team going.

Link fest: Another web cam. Circumcision? Don't make that cut!

The gas prices are murderous. I filled tank today (and got a couple quarts of oil; par for the course with an 11 year old car) for the low, low price of 28 bucks. Ouch.

Desktop pop can count is up by one today. The grand total is now: 181

Here are a couple of doodles that I drew. The first one is a little dog, and the second of some birds.

Entry... 3/21/2000 9:13am

Now maybe I'm pushing it, but I walked out of my house this morning with my coat on my arm, rather than on my back. Tis Spring, Spring, wonderful Spring. Men's hearts turn trippingly to that of fancy, office affairs bloom, and children again return to the sidewalks in the early dusk to jump rope and smoke cigarettes. The drive to work was uneventful this morning, not too many crazies on the road. I have just one irrational fear that I have to thank my housemate for. I live on a one way street, and each morning when I back out of the driveway, I am terrified that some wacko is blasting the wrong way down my street. My housemate had told me people were cutting through, and I actually saw someone in a small, black Honda Civic doing this two nights ago. I was standing in the living room and whizzzzzz there he went. Mr. Wrong Way Floyd. The thought scares me, but I hope that whoever plows into the side of my steel car is well insured.

The Blue Moon computer. Everything you wanted to know about this event, but were afraid to ask. Take some time to learn about New Moons, as well. The second New Moon in a single month is called a Black Moon, and spells cast at this time are believed to be especially powerful.

Should you be considering a membership to the The Dull Men Club? I'm a life long member!

Entry... 3/29/2000 12:29pm

I hate it when I really want to write in my journal, but can't seem to find the time to do it. Work has been just one big emergency after another lately. We've had so many people leave that I'm losing track of who is here and who is not anymore. 2 more resignations yesterday, and one was a big surprise. Just this morning, there was another huge merger deal announced between my new company and an even larger firm wth some 8,000 employees. We're supposedly worth billions now and for some strange reason my company is the "acquiring" firm, even though we are smaller. This is going to be interesting. It could be great. It could be very, very bad. Anyway, back to what I was talking about. The hard part about not writing in the journal when I don't have the time is that I still collect links, and ideas to put in here. Almost everyday I am seeing something that I want to share here, but when I can't do it the idea languishes in a text file that I keep on my computer. Now is the time to dump it all out here, and regretfully, I lose some of the context when I do this. It becomes a linkfest. So, sue me, and enjoy.

I had a really good weekend. Friday was a nice easy night, just dinner at home and a movie. I had seen the trailer for "The Adventures of Sebastian Cole" with my Brother, and when it finally arrived in the video store, I had to get it. Set in Dutchess County, New York, it chronicled the senior year in high school of said Mr. Cole and his mighty adventures. It was generally alright, but not great. I played mostly all day on Saturday for a benefit for a coworker's wife. She is in need of a special stair type elevator lift for her home, and the community got together and raised more than enough money for her. It was very nice. I was a part of the entertainment for the day. On Saturday night I had dinner at the new Chinese Buffet near my house and then watched a movie that my Brother rented called "Plunket and McClean". This movie was set in 16th century England - very good! On Sunday morning I got to attend a taping of the local show called Sounding Board featuring the band Arc. It was fun applauding on cue. The band sounded great and I can't wait to see this show on TV. Definitely check it out if you get it! After the taping, we ended up at a buddy's house and had a terrific barbecue. We had cigars, and wine, and I got reaquainted with my good friend Captain Morgan (with Orange Juice on the rocks). We watched the Academy Award pre-show and made fun of the "pretty people," and I went home before the show was over.

Thinking about studying abroad? How about Australia? Visit Deakin University

Over at my parents house, I have a circa 1970's AMF Sunfish sailboat. It's not the prettiest thing in the world, but it works. My Dad has done a lot of work on it for me, and recently sent me an email detailing his adventures with fixing my leaky self bailer. Nothing like a self bailor that lets more water in the boat then out of the boat. No wonder that damn thing got so heavy all the time. He tells me that he fixed it with a normal ball cock from your standard flush toilet. Nice. He sent me a gif of a sunfish that happened to be the same hull color as mine (I have a light blue and white sail, and with the orange of the hull, it is a really hideous combination) so I doctored the picture a little and sent it back to him.

The Ominous Seapods are a local jam band that I have yet to see live. Actually I did see 3 members of the Pods play out and didn't realize it. I was at valentine's one night, and witnessed a performance of the Holiday Ramblers. 2 guitars and a bass player doing any cover song they could remember. More Seapods stuff can be found at AtticFox (who also has a page about being a Non Practicing Lesbian.)

I got on a cartoon kick one day last week, and found a mess of links to share. It started innocently enough; I was curious about who did some of the voices on my favorite shows. For instance, Don Messick, who provided the world with the voice of Scooby-Doo also had his hand in many of the cartoons and television shows of my youth. The Voice Chasers website attempts to document who said what where, like the late Mark Kay Bergman, who did all the female characters on South Park.

Other cartoon links: Comedy-O-Rama, Yesterday Land, Melissa's Looney Tune Page, Wiseacres Looney Tunes Page, Unofficial Looney Tunes World, Citizen LunchBox, The Wonderful World of Animation Art Gallery., and Cartoon World

I saw the movie Pushing Tin on HBO. Once again, Billy Bob Thorton stole the show as a somewhat off the wall Air Traffic Controller. The funniest scene in the whole movie was watching a CGI animation of what happens if you stand too close to a 747 during a landing. Wheee!

I downloaded a few mp3's of this band, Drowning Noah. Nice stuff.

Computer Stupidities, a collection of stories about computer users who just ahven't gotten it yet. Jane Houston wants you to be her Ghostwatcher... Are you ready? If you have flash, you can enjoy the work of Joe Cartoon. You probably want high bandwidth, too...

This is a really good Rush website.

And finally, the desk top pop can count is up to 186! Whew...see you next time.

Entry... 3/30/2000 10:28am

I didn't have band practice last night, so I thought it would be a great chance to relax and spend the evening at home with a video. So I rented Eyes Wide Shut, Kubricks last film with Tom Cruise (and a cameo by Nicole Kidman's ass). This movie was the worst piece of trash I have seen since Waterworld. Long, boring, terrible. I think I know what killed Kubrick.

Don't forget that Daylight Savings Time ends this Sunday at 2AM. Spring forward they say! For your handy reference, visit this page and print out the Chart. I say it's about time we abolish this silly law!