Strolling in the woods with my wifer.

Chauncey at the ArchCam

Anyone else think that Chauncey needs to make an apperance at the ArchCam?

That is all.

From the Christmas Parade

Joy to the World! Courtesy of the "Victory Chapel".

Cyber Monday Doesn't Exist (from Slashdot)

I had a suspicion that Cyber Monday was media hype.

Happy Birthday to Erin

After a week (and a half) of birthday celebration please join me in wishing Erin a Very Happy Birthday-Day.

Soggy

Here's hoping that everyone else makes it through this soggy dreary day in good spirits.

Wired: Eat, Sleep, Work, Consume, Die

Technology makes it possible for us to work harder than ever. If you're lucky, you get paid more for your labors. Then you consume more. And the cycle repeats itself. Is this the sign of a healthy society? Ummmm ... no. Commentary by Tony Long.

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,68742,00.html?tw=wn_story_mailer

Ambient Jazz + Headphones = Sanity

I can think at work for the first time in a month. I realized late yesterday that I have been getting absoultly crap done at work for the past few weeks. I hope that this is at least partly because I have had trouble adjusting to cubicle life. I purchased a set of good headpones yesterday and they seem to be doing a good job of blocking out the noise. I will be able to tell for sure when whatever it is in the ceiling that intermittently clang-clang-clangs begins its clang-clang-clanging.

Love's jerkey aisle.

Ru Sans a no-no

I would like to start by saying that I gave it a fair shot. I have been there three times. While, it has seemed to get better each time that I have been, I must draw the line in the sand.

Henceforth, Ru Sans is dead to me.

I would like to encourage you all back to the superior sushi restraunt in Athens: UTAGE.

Welcome the Wifer

I would like for you all to take note of the arrival of my better half on the blogging scene. She is new to this whole blarging thing so take it easy on her. Her Blog can be found here.

How to Exercise an Open Mind - WikiHow

I found an artice called "How to Exercise an Open Mind - WikiHow". It has some neat ideas. Need to put some of these into practice.

Rock Eagle 2005

I am up at Rock Eagle for the annual USG IT Conference. Mostly fun for only us geeks but, I do have a 3:55 tee time for a putt-putt tournament and there will be a fireworks show this evening.

Deutschland Update

I promised a update on my trip and here is ... a computer keyboard does not have 128 keys. I guess that I was tired.

The trip was a blast thanks to Ludwig our host and to Mad Ludwig II for building a crazy castle and to all, or at least most, Germans for being very welcoming. There is never enough time to see it all but, we gave it our best shot. A slide- show- show- and- tell- drink- the- doppleboch- dunkle- that- I- carried- down- a- mountain party will be soon.

Good to be back on US soil.

Stuck in Dulles on layover. Beginning cultural readjustment. Will update more completely when I have 128 keyes instead of 10.

Jittery Chuck

We survived the trip to and from St. George's Island for Chris and Cliff's Wedding. All in all it was a very good trip. The house that they rented for the occasion was awesome. It was on the far west side of the island. The weather held out fine and other than the wind and whatever was in the air making us all cough, everything was great. Due to the Bloody-Mary-Mimosa-Sangria-Margarita combination that I drank over the course of the day I had a rocking good buzz on. It was good as always catching up. The plethora of digital cameras made the event one of the most documented weddings that I have attended. Thanks to Jared and Tiffany for sharing the trip with us, we need to do more road trips together in the future.

I unoffically joined the EITS Coffee Club this morning. I was running late so I neglected to make a pot this morning. I came in and found the dripping pot overflowing all over the counter. I consider my cleanup efforts my 25¢ contribution for today and will join offically the next time I need a cup o' joe. Now for the Jittery part ... this coffee is STRONG. It is giving me the shakes.

My Blog Just Got Spammed.

Craziest thing just happened.

An anonymous comment advertising Adult Movies was posted with a link. Kind of smart if this was done by via computer. It may of course have been one of my buddies since we are engaged in an active round of the gotcha game.

I am on my way now to disable anon posting.

Standalone QuickTime Player

As of QuickTime version 7 Apple has chosen to advertise only a download of QuickTime that is bundled with iTunes. The Standalone QuickTime Player can be downloaded here:

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/standalone.html

This is it ...

... the blog. THE blog that you have all been waiting for. The one where I tell you all how cool my new job is, how cool my new colleagues seem to be, how cool my spanking new laptop is. Well ... it is all very cool, so there you have it.

On another note ... Anyone else heard of The Foundry Park's new "Melting Point"? (NOTE: Melting Point not Melting Pot; I am not talking about fondue here). The Melting Point is the new large scale music venue attached to the Steam Company Pub. The info hasn't hit the website yet but, one of my new colleagues showed me a glossy of it and says that it is open. I hope this is not detrimental to the regular local Jazz and Bluegrass that has been there in the past but, I welcome a new venue for touring artists. I will let you know when I have seen it in person.

TTFN.

Chicago Tribune | Amid urban surroundings, Chicago opens "green" school with living roof

I love the fact that Green Roofs are begining to pop up in major metropolitan areas. Checkout this artice about a "green" school with living roof in Chicago.

To continue our quest for the best BBQ in GA ...

.. I encourage all of you to join me to sample the fare of Rooster's at the corner of Hiwasee and BLVD at some point in the near future.

Webcam Snapshot of Me

For all of you who missed the Webcam Snapshot of Me. Fear not it is back and now dynamically updated. If you don't like what you see refresh. If you still don't like what you see look at someone else.

Unfortunately though, due to the hack that I had to use to load the dynamic images my Blogger Profile image now has to be static.

Résumé of Charles Leggett

Checkout this link Résumé of Charles Leggett. Who's résumé do you think that he is talking about? For the record yes, I had to lookup "curriculum vitae".

Kung Fu and Junk Food ...

... if there is a better combination I don't know what it is. Thanks to EB and John Bryant (and others) for putting on the vet school's renegade movie night. I hope that you made some money on it. Kung Fu Hustle had us "boys" jumping around and acting the fool during our impromptu tour of the vet school. Had fun and can't wait for the next movie.

Of montreal rocked to unimaginable levels.

Feed Junkies be aware ...

... Google now offers News Feeds in both RSS (2.0) and Atom. There is even a customizable news feed search.

Insomnia and nausea

I had the worst night's sleep last night. Erin and I spent a long weekend in Gwinnett visiting her Family and celebrating Terry's birthday. I fell asleep fine but, I woke up around midnight and could not go back to sleep. My stomach was upset by the large quantity of pizza and wings that I ate at my folks house. I ended up dinking around on the net until around 2 and went back to bed only to wake up again around 3. I tossed and turned on the couch for the rest of the night. I feel like death rolled over. I will need a nap this afternoon.

On the plus side. My brother bought his tickets to Germany last night. This trip is going to be the bombsish (having the quality of being the bomb).

Popfest 2005 Official Lineup

The mystery guests have been revealed. Here is the full lineup/schedule:

August 9th Athens Music Museum Rooftop show FREE corner of college and
clayton
Keith John Adams - 3 PM
Geoff Reacher - 3:30 PM
Marshmallow Coast - 4:15 PM
Shot Heard Around the World - 5:15 PM

August 9th 40 Watt Club FREE doors open at 9 PM
Scout Niblett
No Parachute DVD premiere

August 10th Little Kings
the Elks - 4:00 PM
Ryan Anderson - 4:30 PM
the Ether Family - 5:00 PM
Tracer Matula - 5:45 PM
Folklore - 6:30 PM
small intermission
Superfallingstars - 8:00 PM
Cars Can Be Blue - 8:30 PM
Louis - 9:15 PM
the Eames Era - 10:00 PM
Palomar - 10:45 PM
Keith John Adams - 11:30 PM
Summer Hymns - 12:15 AM
The Great Lakes & the Late BP Helium - 1:00 AM

August 11th Little Kings
Cocker Spaniels - 3:30 PM
Charm School - 4:00 PM
Mouser - 4:45 PM
Fabulous Bird - 5:30 PM
the Mega Hurts - 6:15 PM

August 11th 40 Watt Club
Pipes You See Pipes You Don't - 8:30 PM
the Instruments - 9:00 PM
Scott E Spillane - 9:45 PM
the Visitations - 10:30 PM
Human Television - 11:15 PM
Bunnygrunt - 12:00 AM
Tullycraft - 1:00 AM

August 12th Little Kings
Lake Holiday - 3:30 PM
the French Horns - 4:00 PM
the Smittens - 4:45 PM
Fishboy - 5:30 PM
Col Knowledge & the Lickity Splits 6:15 PM

August 12th 40 Watt Club
Dan Deacon - 8:30 PM
Kiddo - 9:00 PM
Poison Control Center - 9:45 PM
We Versus the Shark - 10:30 PM
Casper and the Cookies - 11;!5 PM
the Marbles - 12:00 AM
Pylon - 1:00 AM

August 13th Little Kings
Good Lord to the Devil - 3:30 PM
Lil Kickers - 4:00 PM
Vetran - 4:30 PM
New Grenada - 5:15 PM
Ceiling Fan - 6:15 PM

August 13th 40 Watt Club
the Love Letter Band - 8:30 PM
Galactic Heroes - 9:00 PM
Red Pony Clock - 9:45 PM
Elekibass - 10:30 PM
the 63 Crayons - 11:00 PM
Circulatory System - 11:45 PM
Of Montreal - 1:00 AM

See http://hhbtm.com/popfest/ for more information.

V i d e o g a l l e r y of bike messenger races

Check out this v i d e o g a l l e r y of bike messenger races. Crazy Shite!

That's great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an aeroplane ...

...It's the end of the world as we know it.

Apple has released the Mighty Mouse (not to be confused with Mighty Mouse) the first Apple branded multibutton scroll mouse. Hockey Puck eat your heart out.

In Soviet Russia Trivia Owns You.

Played Jigsy's Trivia again Wednesday night. It was the first time that we finished "off the podium" in the three weeks that I have played. It was a good night none the less, I had a coupon for a free milkshake from Chick-fil-a and $15 worth of Jigsy's Pitchers thanks to last weeks 3rd place finish. My vote is to move the trivia train to the next venue. Jigsy's has been done.

Dreams of Snausages and Bier are dancing in my head.

So, I was playing around with Google Earth and though to myself I wonder if I can find the park that Oktoberfest is held in. Sure enough after I flew to Munich it took me about 3.4 seconds to pan around and find it.

System Administrator Appreciation Day

This year, in conjunction with Dirty Herb's birthday, I am celebrating System Administrator Appreciation Day (Friday July 29th 2005) by taking the day off to go camping.

The scrolling message mug

I am going to Oktoberfest this year with a group of friends. I think that we each need a scrolling message mug.

Free Online Motorcycle Repair Course

I have found a Free Online Motorcycle Repair Course. I am on the first page and I have already determined it to be link worthy.

Tired

I have been exhausted at work the last few days. I have been running myself to the edge. For the past month or so I have been working out almost every weekday. Running in the morning Lifting in the afternoons (sometimes both in the same day).

Yesterday, despite Mother Natures best efforts to stop us, a group of us went out to the intramural fields for a little bit of the old toss around (aka. Softball). We played catch and took turns hitting before retiring to Sons of Italy for a bite. I thought of it as an off day from working out but, I am left tired and sore today from it.

I will rest when the wifer and I go "off the radar" this weekend for a little R and R.

Sssh ... I have a secret

Had a PostSecret party over at EB's last night. It was very cathartic. Got a good secret off my chest and, thanks to the no peeking rule and the honesty of the group, I am fairly sure that my anonymity will be preserved when and if they post it. If nothing else I learned definatively the age you are at which you are 18 and that you can also get carpet burn on your elbows.

After we straightened up the billions and billions of magazines scattered across the floor (sorry EB), we took a trip up to the midnight release party of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince at Borders. The Erinses got their copies and I got some good people watching. The costumes were not as plentiful as I had hoped but, there were a few.

Up early this morning to help Dirty H and A move. I can't wait to party like its 1999 in their new abode (or at least like the summer of 1998). The Sun and I have a date.

P.S. All apologies for falling off of the blogging horse. Back in the saddle.

PopFest and Surprise Guest Musings

My cash (well, credit) is on the barrel head for the upcoming PopFest music festival. There are some cool bands in the lineup. I didn't get out as much as I would have liked for AthFest and I am not going to be able to return to Austin City Limits (this year) so I am hoping that these shows will make up for it.

Also, I found out that one of the two surprise guests is likely Pylon, which is not as cool as I had hoped but, there is still one special guest to be announced.

Google Earth

Let me be the first to sing the praises of the utter coolness of Google Earth. Especially now that they have a free version.

If however you prefer to look up instead of down let me recommend: Celestia.

Many thanks ...

... go to all of my friends who got together to make the celebration of the 27th anniversary my birth so much fun.

I escaped the river without being turned into a redneck, either by the sun, or by the good ole boy on and around the river.

I must have forgotten to warn the group about the libationary skills of my wife (a.k.a. The Margarita Queen). I am glad that everyone made it home safely.

A special congratulations goes to Cliff and Chris for the announcement of their engagement. Although, we didn't expect it so soon ;-).

TTFN.

iTunes 4.9 With Podcasting Support

If it wasn't the case before it is now, Podcasts have hit the big time. Apple has added Podcast support to its newly released iTunes 4.9.

I would like to listen to the many cool podcasts that I have found, but I never seem to have the time.

Gentoo and e17

<geekSpeak>

I just wanted to mention that I have been building a new box at work for fun. I am of course using my favorite distro gentoo but, the item of note is that I am using enlightenment 17. I was a e16 user "back in the day" but, ditched it for Window Maker when active development stalled. The new version offers many reasons to switch from your current WM.

From the website:

"E17 is a next generation window manager for UNIX operating systems. Based on the Enlightenment Foundation Libraries (EFL), E17 is much more than just another window manager - it's an ambitious and innovative project that aims to drive the development of graphical applications industry wide for several years to come. E17 has not been officially released, nor is it supported yet. It's currently in a pre-alpha status and is under heavy development."

It is defiantly pre-alpha and not for the faint of heart but, if you feel up to the challenge I recommend it.

</geekSpeak>

The Onion 2056

The Onion 2056 is cool.

Justice

Killen was found guilty of the killings.

On top of the world, with a 270° view.

Had a great time in Ft. Mountain St. Park this weekend for Crease's birthday. My feet held up about 90% (I need new boots). The weather was gorgeous. The hike was awesome. The fauna was so dense in some parts that I had flashbacks to the Rainforests of Costa Rica. All of the gang gets my "cool to camp with" seal of approval.

Looking forward to many more outings to come.

Metathesiophobic Tendencies

I don't understand the "fear of change" phobia when it comes to technology. I can understand that some people adapt to new things on a different timeline than others but, when the advancement provides a dramatic improvement over the "old way" it should be embraced rather than rejected.

Like the commercial (who's product I can't remember) says:

You have to change the para-dig-um.

Sincerely,
Your resident Metathesiophile.

Oki

I am the proud adoptive parent of a loggerhead seaturtle named Oki. Erin adopted her in my name as a gift last christmas. They have recently updated their site to include my name as an adoptive parent.

She hasn't been seen since Feburary of this year but, you can see her movements up until then.

Asleep at the wheel.

Have you ever had one of those days. Lets say for instance that you just got back from a long trip. Maybe you have just been to Vegas for 5 days. When you get back the first day is great because you are still riding the wave but, on the second day you crash. I have crashed. I am afraid to close my eyes for fear that I will wake up two days from now face down on my desk with a drool encrusted beard.

I am looking forward to going hiking and camping this weekend for Crease's birthday. I haven't been camping in at least 6 months. I am treating the useless bone sacks below my ankles with as much TLC as I can between now and then so that I can participate without having to use a wheelchair.

Blog on the Road: Las Vegas, #5

So, after getting in bed about 6:00 I woke up and hit the road about 10:00 with Mike, Rhonda, and her Sister's family toward Hoover Dam. It was of course immense. We spent some time on the dam and then spent some well needed time resting in the air conditioned cafe.

Much thanks to Rob, Teresa, Robby, and Kate for showing me a good time. I had fun.

I spent the rest of the day exploring hotels. I think that the Luxor was my favorite in so far as overall ambiance. The Bellagio and Wynn are tied for "classiest". The Vencian had the best "outside replicated inside" section. The Bellagio had the best outside show.

The penny smashing was good today. I got nine for you Herschel.

At the airport now and my flight is boarding for the trip home.

I already have a reason to come back. I missed the Secret Garden Habitat and Dolphin show at the Mirage.

Blog on the Road: Las Vegas, #4

Does anyone else think that this guy is compensating for an inadequacy?

Blog on the Road: Las Vegas, #3

Well as it turns out I was able to turn it on for another night, and how!

I WALKED to Freemont Street. Walked is significant because it is a 10 mile round trip. Walked is also significant because I watched the sunrise on my way home. I saw the "real Vegas" enroute. I passed about 10 wedding chapels, 5 strip clubs, and saw one of the famous Welcome to Las Vegas signs. Freemont street was definitely an experience. I think that I enjoyed this area more than the strip.

The only bummer is that I had some where between $20 and $40 lifted (or dropped) out of my pocket.

Blog on the Road: Las Vegas, #2½

I forgot to mention the best part. While at the DLP party Elvis asked me to jump on his Harley and cruise for chicks with him.

Blog on the Road: Las Vegas, #2

So, Mike and I were talking with the Dell Reps on Wednesday and although the put off my questions about my headaches related to my 3300MP they did hook us up with passes to the Huey Lewis and the News private party that was hosted by DLP (Texas Instruments) among others.

The party was in Rain (watch out for audio) at the Palms. There was free food which was surprisingly good and free Beer, Wine, and Absolut and 7up. The Absolut and 7 had the highest octane and I figured that 7 was a good number so that is how many I decided to drink. No need to mention that I was hurting the next day but, at least I was functional.

I ended up not seeing Heuy or his News at all. I hungout poolside all night (which incidentally is the pool that MTV is currently shooting from) and met a local. He was a bar back by night and an 8th grade Math teacher by day. He said that he made 67k a year cleaning up drinks to support teaching AP math, which he enjoys. We ended up meeting some Germans which we hungout with the rest of the evening. Nadia from Hitachi, if you are out there you owe me a DVD player.

The bottom of my feet are going to peel off soon. Each of the smaller blisters that I got the first night have teamed up to form one big blister. They are even talking about forming a union. They demand that Dr. Scholls be signed as their exclusive healthcare provider.

I am gearing up for another night on the strip. I am not sure if I can make it two more nights but, I am going to give it the old college try. I am going to need to channel the partying stamina of Buckelew and the tolerance of Kari Krieg to make it happen. I am going to try to find the WPT tournament tonight to pick up some tips from Daniel Negreanu so that I can bring Pops back to his right full owner. Wish me luck.

Blog on the Road: Las Vegas, #1

So far, I have learned two fundamental truths about this town:

1) Nothing is truly free.
2) Only Las Vegas Blvd. has true sidewalks.

I learned the second as a direct rusult of learning the first. You see, Wednesday morning I woke up at my normal EST time of about 7:30 which is of course 4:30 Vegas time. I battled the demon imp that was holding my eyelids open for a couple hours but, had to get out of bed around 6:30. I found the Health Club in my hotel (Imperial Palace) and asked if I could use on of the treadmills. They wanted a "daily use" fee of $20. So, I went outside to run. Whenever I tried to veer off of the strip, the sidewalks went Shel Silverstein style within a block and a half.

I have only fed one of the reverse ATM machines so far. It was a Monty Python Holy Grail themed one so I consider it money well spent. As for table games one of the comedians described it best on the PA of the Flamingo Hotel. He said, "If you want to learn how to play Roulette it is a lot like Blackjack ... You put your money on the table and the dealer picks it up."

TTFN from the land of neon.

Do you see what I see?

When Herschel came to visit the other day he was excited to see what the view from the other side of my webcam looked like. Well for the rest of you here it is. As you can clearly see, I subscribe to the mad scientist philosophy of desktop organization.

Bright light city gonna set my soul
Gonna set my soul on fire
Got a whole lot of money that’s ready to burn,
So get those stakes up higher
-Viva Las Vegas!

I am going to Vegas in a couple of weeks. I have never been before. I am getting more and more excited as the days go by. I am going to be there for 5 days which should be about enough time to see 0.05% of it.

I would like to introduce you to Miss Suki. This is Herschel's "other bitch". It is currently in a hundred pieces in my garage, which has been rechristianed MAN LAND.

Ontology is Overrated -- Categories, Links, and Tags is a very cool read for anyone interested in Tags or any of the sites that use them such as: del.icio.us, Spurl, Flickr, Gmail, etc.

The Lineup for the Austin City Limits - 2005 Festival has been posted. I had alot of fun last year and would like to attend again this year.

Unfortunately I will not be able to make it to The Time Traveler Convention - May 7, 2005 but, maybe at some point in the future I will be able to.

A new group The Athens Cigar Club is holding a meeting this evening “On The Pavilion” at The Foundry Park Inn. I have smoked cigars off and on for several years now. I have never gotten "that" into it but, participating in this club may be fun.

It looks like Real has just released its Rhapsody To Go — portable music subscription service. I have used Rhapsody for over a year and really like it. I can't wait to tryout their portable service.

I would really like to have a set of Tetris Shelves along the wall of my staircase. There is no way that however, that I am going to shell out $7k for these.

Brew Fest 2005 or how I learned to love the HazelNut Brown Nectar

Another Brewfest has come and gone and I have survived. Our group combined with Herschel and April's amassed a small army of seasoned drinking veterans most notably both April and Erin's mom and dad and April's Uncle Buck. The turnout was great. The event as a whole started out as it often does as little over crowded and uptight but, by the end of the event the attendees we were all swaying in unison and conversing as if we were long lost friends. Speaking of long lost friends I ran into the expected group of people that I usually see at Brewfest Andy H, Andy F, Nico D, Jonathon J, Clay D, and Craig H. Many of which I may not see again until next year - Same Brewtime, Same Brewchannel.

I have a short list of favorites. Not that I didn't enjoy many of the others but, these were exceptional in my book.

• 
  Rouge Ale's HazelNut Brown Nectar
  


• 
  Samuel Smith's Nut Brown Ale
  


• 
  Oskar Blues' Old Chub Scotch Ale
  


• 
  Big City Brewing Co.'s Lion Heart Stout
  

As always leaving Brewfest had me doing two things. Looking for a meal to soak up some alchol and looking forward to next years Brewfest.

So until next year ... Cheers!, A votre sante!, Alla Salute!, Egé szé gé re!, Kanpai!, Na Zdrowie!, Ooogy Wawa!, Prosit!, Salud!, Saúde!, Skal!, Slainte!, Wen Lie!, Yasas!, Za vashe zdorovye!, Zivili! and Zum Wohl!

Russell Beattie Notebook - What's on my Nokia 6600/6620 is another good list of series 60 apps.

To paraphrase a wise man "I believe someone just went to Philadelphia...so ...uh... BLOG."

Erin and I just got home from Philly. We went to visit our friends Kate and Josh. There were several things that could have spoiled our weekend but we enjoyed ourselves anyway.

To start with we missed our flight. I am not talking about running up to the gate as the door is shut in your face; on top of leaving the house a half hour after we planned we had to stand in a 30 min baggage check line and then an hour plus security line, mostly due to the Spring Break crowd. We had to fly standby. The problem with flying standby due to a busy airport is that you are not the only one flying standby. There were about 10 people in addition to us who were on the list. We missed the 10:45. We missed the 3:15. The 5:45 came around and we were looking pretty good. A lot of the "others" had either made a flight or given up and gone home. We stood at the gate as the confirmed passengars were loaded and the attendants made the final counts. 2 seats left ... Mr. and Mrs. Leggett enjoy your flight. So, we jump for joy and then board the plane ... only one problem ... only one available seat. Apparently someone was in the bathroom or something during the count. So, I get back off the plane and send Erin on ahead. I am now looking down the barrel of another 5 hours until the next flight which I am still not confirmed on. Thankfully the gate attendant felt bad for the miscount and offered me a confirmed seat on the 10:45. Hurray, now all I have to do is kill the time between now and then so in the immortal words of Ford Perfect I decided that "[I] must get drunk immediately!", so I did.

I can't tell you everything that I did for those few hours primarily because I can't remember. I would like to thank DND from The Dawn and Drew Show! for helping me kill a couple hours. I got a few funny looks when I laughed out loud at the funniest parts.

Finally, 10:00 aproaches and low and behold my flight is delayed due to the weather wherever my plane is coming from. It is rescheduled for 12:15. The plane finally does show up and as I am boarding the plane my clock chimes 1:00. I tried unsucessfully to sleep during the 2 hour flight and landed in Philly a little after 3:00. One $20 taxi and a cold beer later I curled up to sleep in K and J's apt.

I said that there were several things but, I have rambled on so much I will give you the high points: Sideways Rain on Saturday, 33 degree wind chill on Sunday, beautiful on Monday as we left for the Airport.

After all of that though I would like to stress that Erin and I had a really good time. Kate and Josh were a blast (I miss seeing them). We saw the Dali exibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art which was awesome.

Well I guess all of this just gives us an excuse to go back soon. I guarantee that I will make it to the airport about 7 hours early next time.

iCopulate, funny ... very funny.

Odes to hair:

• Flat-Top Crewcuts


• World Beard and Moustache Championships


• Mullets Galore

I recieved this very funny bit attributed to John Cleese today in an email:

John Cleese: Notice of Revocation of Independence
2005-02-13 Politics

To the citizens of the United States of America, in the light of your
failure to elect a competent President of the USA and thus to govern
yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your
independence, effective today. Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths and other
territories. Except Utah, which she does not fancy. Your new Prime
Minister (The Right Honourable Tony Blair, MP for the 97.85% of you who
have until now been unaware that there is a world outside your borders)
will appoint a Minister for America without the need for further
elections. Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire
will be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed. To
aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules
are introduced with immediate effect:

You should look up "revocation" in the Oxford English Dictionary. Then
look up "aluminium." Check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed
at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it. The letter 'U' will be
reinstated in words such as 'favour' and 'neighbour'; skipping the
letter 'U' is nothing more than laziness on your part. Likewise, you
will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters. You
will end your love affair with the letter 'Z' (pronounced 'zed' not
'zee') and the suffix "ize" will be replaced by the suffix "ise." You
will learn that the suffix 'burgh' is pronounced 'burra' e.g. Edinburgh.

You are! welcome to re-spell Pittsburgh as 'Pittsberg' if you can't cope
with correct pronunciation. Generally, you should raise your vocabulary
to acceptable levels. Look up "vocabulary." Using the same thirty seven
words interspersed with filler noises such as "uhh", "like", and "you
know" is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. Look up
"interspersed." There will be no more 'bleeps' in the Jerry Springer
show. If you're not old enough to cope with bad language then you
shouldn't have chat shows. When you learn to develop your vocabulary,
then you won't have to use bad language as often.

There is no such thing as "US English." We will let Microsoft know on
your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take
account of the reinstated letter 'u' and the elimination of "-ize."

You should learn to distinguish the English and Australian accents. It
really isn't that hard. English accents are not limited to cockney,
upper-class twit or Mancunian (Daphne in Frasier). You will also have to
learn how to understand regional accents --- Scottish dramas such as
"Taggart" will no longer be broadcast with subtitles. While we're
talking about regions, you must learn that there is no such place as
Devonshire in England. The name of the county is "Devon." If you persist
in calling it Devonshire, all American States will become "shires" e.g.
Texasshire, Floridashire, Louisianashire.
Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as the
_good_ guys. Hollywood will be required to cast English actors to play
English characters. British sit-coms such as "Men Behaving Badly" or
"Red Dwarf" will not be re-cast and watered down for a wishy-washy
American audience who can't cope with the humour of occasional political
incorrectness.

You should relearn your original national anthem, "God Save The Queen",
but only after fully carrying out task 1. We would not want you to get
confused and give up half way through.

You should stop playing American "football." There is only one kind of
football. What you refer to as American "football" is not a very good
game. The 2.15% of you who are aware that there is a world outside your
borders may have noticed that no one else plays "American" football. You
will no longer be allowed to play it, and should instead play proper
football. Initially, it would be best if you played with the girls. It
is a difficult game. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed
to play rugby (which is similar to American "football", but does not
involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar
body armour like nancies). We are hoping to get together at least a US
Rugby sevens side by 2005.

You should stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event
called the 'World Series' for a game which is not played outside of
America. Since only 2.15% of you are aware that there is a world beyond
your borders, your error is understandable. Instead of baseball, you
will be allowed to play a girls' game called "rounders," which is
baseball without fancy team strip, oversized gloves, collector cards or
hotdogs.

You will no longer be allowed to own or carry guns. You will no longer
be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous in public than a
vegetable peeler. Because we don't believe you are sensible enough to
handle potentially dangerous items, you will require a permit if you
wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

July 4th is no longer a public holiday. November 2nd will be a new
national holiday, but only in England. It will be called "Indecisive
Day."
All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap, and it is for your
own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we
mean. All road intersections will be replaced with roundabouts.
You will start driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same
time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit
of conversion tables. Roundabouts and metrication will help you
understand the British sense of humour.

You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call 'French fries'
are not real chips. Fries aren't even French, they are Belgian though
97.85% of you (including the guy who discovered fries while in Europe)
are not aware of a country called Belgium. Those things you insist on
calling potato chips are properly called "crisps." Real chips are thick
cut and fried in animal fat. The traditional accompaniment to chips is
beer which should be served warm and flat.
Waitresses will be trained to be more aggressive with customers.

As a sign of penance 5 grams of sea salt per cup will be added to all
tea made within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, this quantity to be
doubled for tea made within the city of Boston itself.

The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling "beer" is not actually
beer at all, it is lager. From November 1st only proper British Bitter
will be referred to as "beer," and European brews of known and accepted
provenance will be referred to as "Lager." The substances formerly known
as "American Beer" will henceforth be referred to as "Near-Frozen Gnat's
Urine," with the exception of the product of the American Budweiser
company whose product will be referred to as "Weak Near-Frozen Gnat's
Urine." This will allow true Budweiser (as manufactured for the last
1000 years in the Czech Republic) to be sold without risk of confusion.

From November 10th the UK will harmonise petrol (or "gasoline," as you
will be permitted to keep calling it until April 1st 2005) prices with
the former USA. The UK will harmonise its prices to those of the former
USA and the Former USA will, in return, adopt UK petrol prices (roughly
$6/US gallon -- get used to it).

You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers or
therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows
that you're not adult enough to be independent. Guns should only be
handled by adults. If you're not adult enough to sort things out without
suing someone or speaking to a therapist, then you're not grown up
enough to handle a gun.

Please tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us crazy.

Tax collectors from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to
ensure the acquisition of all revenues due (backdated to 1776).

Thank you for your co-operation.

I have finally found a version of the Bible that I can read: The Brick Testament

I am going to sound a little Boy Scout here for a second but, it made me feel good so I am going to relate the story.

I was walking on campus earlier today and came across a Flash Drive hanging on a fence post. My first thought was devilishly: "Cool I just found myself a new Flash Drive!" When I flipped the thing over however, I found that much to his credit the owner had put a label with his email address on it. So, I stuck the thing in my pocket and brought it back to the office with me.

I sent an email as soon as I got back and, within an hour, had received a response. We arranged a meeting time and location and within another hour he had it back in his hand. He was understandably very happy to have it back and the smile on his face was priceless.

Remember: Do a good turn daily.

P.S. I would like to thank the other good samaritan in this story; the one who hung the drive on the fence post, instead of stealing it, when they found it.

Erin surprised me with a visit to my work late on Friday. Which is the one and only reason that I look this happy at work (... well that and the fact that it was late on a Friday). 

On Thursday, March 10th, 2005 @ 3:11:06 PM a new high in trash talk, in what was until then a relatively friendly banter, was reached.

If a picture is worth 1,000 words what is a picture of 6 words worth?

Rafe's Blog: Series 60 Freeware is a very good post about freeware series60 apps.

I can't quite figured what I am looking at here: Waterford Crystal. This isn't the first time that I have seen something like this on a blogsite. I realize that it is some form of advertising and I assume that the blog is feed into someother site somewhere but I can't figure out the benefit of doing it this way.

So, I was thinking to my self the other day I wonder what is going on over at "FnkyBuda's Blog" but, then I realized that there is jack squat going on because in order for something to be going on I have to be doing it.

Erin and I went to see Elvis Costello at the Tabernacle Sunday night. The energy was amazing, they played for 2+ hours straight the band even played through the quick guitar changes every few songs. Elvis used no less than six guitars including a "$150 piece of rubbish". That particular guitar sparked one of the most memorable parts of the night when Elvis sang through the pickups on the guitar, that's right held it up and sang into the bridge. It seemed to be impromptu because I noticed that the guy at the sound board got a big kick out of it (and picked up the voice nicely I might add).

As much as Elvis and the imposters were rocking I spent alot of time checking out the Tabernacle. This was my first time back since it was the House of Blues during the olympics and I was happy to see that they kept all of the cool paint. Every surface in the place is patterned with stripes or dots or other designs and there is random cool stuff everywhere. Definately one of the best venues in ATL.

I love google!!! Check out their new "movie:" Search Keyword.

I think that being able to Order pizza from within Everquest is very cool. I have ordered pizza online before so ordering directly from within a game seems like a logical next step.