Another deal, another day

I originally had an awesome idea for a very reflective, deep post- unfortunately, though I started to write it, I think I started to late as all my awesome ideas were failing to form on the screen.

Instead I decided I would take you on a tour of what my days look like now. And since this may bore many of you, I brought pictures!

Below I give you a tour of my week. Of course, the way I keep track of all this is with my lovely secretary, Miss LG-VX9800. By now just about everybody has met her, but heres a picture anyway:

Monday

Get up at 8:00am. I need a place for my recycling business to grow outside of the garage, I set up a meeting last week to look a place in Nashua. Its at a decent location, has a loading dock, has 1000 sq ft. with alot of room to grow AND its at a good price bracket. The only negative about this property is that its right near the river and in the basement. This year and last, it flooded to about my chin. This makes it tough to sell. But its also one of the reasons I love it: Since copper and aluminum don't rust, flooding means maybe at worst moving the steel and tools out of the space once a year, and at best a bargaining chip for a lower price. So I'm excited about the property- it looks like a great place to chop of transformers like this one:

Went to a computer store, bought a cooler a contact wanted in exchange for some scrap. Then I pulled into a car tuner store and asked them how much to install some body kit parts. My truck, glorious though it may be, is not going to be with us much longer. I want to get a stable commuter and a big cargo carrying vehicle. For the commuter, I have my eyes on this hott 1993 Honda Prelude. What makes it so utterly attractive to me is that its butt ugly right now- half of the body kit is installed but not painted, and the back end isn't installed. All the parts come with it though, and the guy wants to sell it. I can probably trade the truck in to him and get it for $400 or so. That leaves me room to throw the body kit on and paint it, and get a cargo vehicle. See? Responsible and practical...

Okay, I'll admit- this car is drives and looks AMAZING too. Heres a stock Prelude from the same year (complete girl with freaky death stare):

Not too bad looking, eh? Yeah, well if I get the one I'm looking at, the body's been all tricked out and looks way cooler.

Anyway, after getting the quote from that dude, I went home and ate, then left to work at [AwesomeCo] till 11. Came home and watched two episodes of "The Office" with my sister. Went to bed around 1 someting.

Tuesday
Got up at 9:00am, I think. Met my old economics teacher at 12:00pm to let him hawk me insurance. The cool stuff about this insurance (Perm) is that you can do stuff with it. Unlike regular (term) insurance, you are actually putting money into something you own. It gathers interest and you can even withdraw money from it like a bank account. The cool part is its tax differed- so you don't get charged for the interest you earn like in a regular account (such as my ING Direct). He bought lunch (score!) and I had a good time.

After that we walked down the street to a Practice where he introduced me to his lawyer, whom I might very well use for my upcoming business venture. I got to ask him a few questions and got his pricing and contact info for later.

Left Manchvegas, went back to Salem and got to work for [AwesomeCo]. Got out at 11, went to bed about 12.

Wednesday
Got up at 8:00am. Left at about 10:00am- picked up a large wad of cash at the bank, then headed off to Antrim, NH. I had seen a guy trying to sell several computers on craigslist for awhile and I finally emailed him and started haggling over a group price. After a lot of going back and forth, we decided I would just and settle the price once we got there. Obviously, both of us thought this would be in our favor. Obviously, one of us was wrong.

Sadly, I think I was the loser here.
1. I had committed to driving there (about an hour and ten minutes both ways), so I wanted to leave with something. No longer did I have the advantage of no connection, where I could take it or leave it indifferently. I had already invested time and gas into it, so that would affect my decision.
2. The stuff was all newer hardware. It was still used, but it was way better then scrap. Pentium 4 stuff. I have never really flipped this kind of thing before.
3. The guy was firm as a rock with his price. I barely got him down at all.

Some of the stuff I from the Craigslist guy in Antrim.

Hopefully I can flip the stuff, or I'm out a sizeable amount of cash. I'm working on it... we'll see. If not, hey- another expensive lesson. As much as I love an education though, I really would have rather bought a car instead...

Went to work at 3. I made my first almost major mistake. There is this ONE file that I check around 3:30 every day. I go in, check for it, then start a script that sends it out to another company. I record how long it was, wait for them to send a report back to us, then print it out. The report should say "no errors" and if it does I staple it to a form, put an initial and I'm done for that check. Simple stuff.

Well, when I first learned to do this, the guy who taught me showed me that he also checked the bottom of the file to see if it also said "no errors". Every other day I did this. Today, I did not. At 9:00 something the company called because they had just realized that their server had run out of room and never got the file all the way. Thats bad on their end, but we should have realized that right after we sent it out. I went back and looked at the print out... at the top it said "no errors" ant the bottom it had a specific error. Oi. Not cool. I worked with the other company to get the file resent and and had to write an email to the morning team explaining what happened. Got out as usual at 11, came home, ordered lunch for thursday via email (explained below) and got to bed.


Thursday
Got up at 8Am. At about 10:00 I got a call from a friend who told me the church was throwing away two EKG machines in if I didn't want them. I told him I did. I got there at about 11:20, loaded the two machines (which actually turned out to be EEG machines) into my truck and was off to my next meeting.

The two machines loaded into my truck. This ballance of this is even sketchier then it looks...

Thanks to an invite from my economics teacher, I have been going to these Business networking lunches in Manchester since last week. Every Thursday, people from all these businesses from around the Granite state get together, eat lunch, talk about their businesses and socialize. Basically the idea is that by establishing relationships with each other eventually everyone gets good referrals- not just from each other, but from people that everyone in the group comes in contact with. They only allow one person from each niche join so it is really a great deal for everyone involved. They didn't have a recycling broker niche yet, and I was formally accepted into the group on this fine thursday.

After the meeting ended at 1:00pm, I shot out to pick up some servers from a guy I met through craigslist. Over the past month or so I have bought out his entire collection (about 90) of PCs and sold them out to my scrap contact. The first 20 I bought I lost money on. The next 20 I made a solid trade with and the one after that I made over 200% profit. This time, I was picking up servers and he haggled me a bit on the price. There were only about 10 of them, but it was a challenge to get them all in the truck around the giant EEG machines. I ended up putting a lot of them behind my seats and about 4 on the passenger seat. The truck was loaded.

After loading up there, I turned around and shot off towards Smitty's new place. Smitty- or "Slick Smitty"- is the nick name for the guy who I usually sell electronics and computer scrap too. His real name is Sean, but when I first met him I thought he looked like a new york watch dealer... I told this to Jim who later referred to him as Slick Smitty, and the name stuck.

I got there at about 2:10ish and unloaded all the PCs. I bought them for $100. At 25 cents a pound, I sold them for $160. Not bad... at least it was a quick flip. The guy that was unloading the stuff started eyeballing the EEG machines.

Look at all those purty switches and knobs...

"Interested in these?" I asked.

"Well yeah I am pretty sure we are... don't know how to price them though, never done an EKG before."

We proceeded to agree that I could store one there and I would talk to Smitty about price later. It solved the problem of the big machines rattling against another in my truck and falling out, since I could lay the remaining unit down on its side. I then realized that it was 2:40 and I was still in Auburn. I got in the vehicle and shot out like a rocket, trying desperately to make it to [AwesomeCo] before 3:00.

On the way I got a call from Leah.

"Can you drop me off after the movie tonight?"

My mind pulled a blank for half a sec, then I realized that I was going to the midnight showing of Spiderman 3 with her and other friends.

"Yeah, no problem." Shoot, I thought I better buy my ticket.

I went down 93 much faster then I would advise anyone going in my ailing truck, but with my file checking goof last night this was NOT the day to be late. I got there only a few minutes late and no one seemed to care. I was a bit tense for a bit, running through my checks and checking my email. After things calmed down, I bought my ticket. Then Abi decided to join so I bought them again. This was all fine... until I left.

I started the truck up and was about to peel out when I noticed a weird feeling... a kinda dragging, tilting feeling. I stopped the vehicle and looked out to see exactly what I was hoping it wasn't: A flat. Greeeat.....

I called up Abi and ordered an extraction. She laughed, but complied and got over double quick.

Friday
Long story short, we saw the movie (it was good), but then Jarin had to stay at my place because he couldn't drive home after 1. This is fine and good but for some reason we ended up having more tea and talking in lou of sleep. I got to sleep at about 4am. I got up at 7:40am, a bit panicked- I wanted to be in Deerfield by 9:00am.

I was going to an event called NEAR-fest- basically an amateur radio festival and general geek swap fest/flee market. I had gone to an event called "HOSStraders" last year which was very similar, but this event has basically taken its place. Jim found out about each of them. He also found that on the forums, people were discussing what to do with the spare electronics and things left over.

As you may have figured out, I had some ideas. I offered them a solution and I talked to the organizers. As a show of good faith, I got there early Friday Morning (the first day of the festival) even though I didn't get any scrap. Jarin came with me that day, and I picked up Anders as well. It was a good time. Went back and worked at awesome co. at 3. Got to bed late again.

Saturday
I wanted to get up early this day so I could go replace the tire on my truck and still be in Deerfield by 9 for day two of the flea market, so I set my alarm to 7. My body had other plans- I woke around 8ish. Semi panic strucken, I got dropped off at the parking lot of [AwesomeCo] and finnished the job. Talked to a coworker I haven't seen in since I left the graveyard shift, then went back home. It was past 9 by now and I just accepted the fact that I'd be late.

Called up Jim and Brandon and we eventually met up and caravaned out of Londonderry- it was pretty crazy: Two 15 passenger vans with the seats taken out, on our way to get us some junk. With those two beasts we could have singlehandedly shut down 93 if we wanted.

Anyway, much longer story somewhat shorter, I ended up taking more then half of the electronic scrap. We filled both vehicles. We probably could have packed one of them to the top if it wasn't for our scrap lord rivals- the enemy in his giant truck, having others go around for him on a tractor picking up stuff. We would see the little JohnDeere operated by the cleanup staff and try to beat it to the good stuff. Or if the other guy wasn't around when the tractor came by, we'd just help them unload it into our vehicle. At first I wasn't so gutsy, because I was under the assumption that we were going to do some sort of civil "split the bounty 50/50" type of thing because of a previous oral arrangement. But after I finally talked to a coordinator and he said it was pretty much every man for himself, I knew what to do. We drove around that place like the scrap ninjas- One of us would patrol the grounds with the vehicle, then when we would see something we would barely stop the vehicle before the other two would jump out and grab the target, throw it in the van, jump back in and speed away before anyone else was the wiser. This was not with out danger:

Brandon was a bit new to the acceleration characteristics and apparently thought the van wasn't going to take him seriously when he stepped on the gas. It did. I having no warning, flew back screaming while desperately trying to find something to hold onto and landed on a military grade "radio fax machine" machine just long enough to tear my shorts and start to cry out in suprise and pain. Hearing this, Brandon slammed on the brake which thankfully saved me from further damage by throwing me back on my feet, at which point I was able to catch a passing seatbelt and die. The whole thing lasted only a few seconds but was the source of endless jokes for the rest of the evening.

Got back to my place at about 5 or 6 and unloaded both vehicles. Thats a story in itself- suffice to say, between our two vans and my truck we heavily damaged the cosmetics of one vehicle and invented a new budget dumping method with another. Stay tuned for that- Youtube videos should follow.

After this I went with Brandon and Jim to his house where we... looked...at some stuff from his work. IT WAS REALLY COOL- wish I could tell you guys about it. I am part of a semi paranoid company so I can sympathize with Brandon's and their wishes not to run on about this stuff, but its really a shame. You all would enjoy it, I'll just say that.

*looks around *
I hope I haven't said to much...

_--__-_
And that my friends, was last week. In
closing, and to thank those of you who got this far, here is a picture of a "Shatter proof blade" that I shattered while cutting through a transformer. Enjoy.

Automotive woes, part the second

Okay, so now I have guilt. I felt a little stupid putting in that plea for comments, much for the same reasons that everyone so rightly threw it back in my face: Write it and they will come. Returning to a site that doesn't update is boring. So, my apologies- BUT! It worked. I didn't have to analyze the logs to figure out who was hanging around. So my plan worked, even if it was pretty stupid.

Alright now- on to the second story. And since you all have been so good to me, I shall deliver it in rhyming verse.

Once upon an interstate
Once upon a time there was a boy named Zed
Who was given a truck not at all very red
This truck came to him as if heaven-sent manna
But was oddly colored as if a banana

One morn our hero rushed off like a riot
His engine roar breaking the still morning quiet
He had to get to a parking lot and get there fast
To pick up his friend, so he wailed on the gas

His friend would be waiting for Zed to come
To help work for Zed's client and not be a bum
And help Zed he would, but not quit on time
And not even as planned on Zed's Gasoline dime!

This fateful morning on interstate 93
The one thing all drivers hate happened, you see
"What could that be?" you beg as you ask
Well tell you I will, for that is my task-
To tell you the tale of what happened so fast
When poor boy Zed pressed down on the gas.

The truck shuddered and sputtered,
It whined and it cried
And some swear it muttered
"I wish Zed had already died"

Long story short, Zed pulled over his truck
Tried to start it again, but no luck- it was stuck
He called and got help from Anders mother so Kind
He called the client, and they did not even mind!
Zed had the truck towed to a lot then went on with his day
To later drop in on the shop, to talk and to pay

"So there he is" the mechanic said in a jest
"Do you think its the tranny?" Zed asked, not suspecting the best
"I think its something simple, not something big for the most...
I don't think its serious. I don't think that its toast."
When this beam of light landed on zed, he had a new hope
That he would not have to drop 2 grand for a used truck like a dope.
At any event they were just starting to close for the day,
So Zed's was told to call him tomorrow and they'd figure the pay

The next morning Zed dialed the number and waited with out-held hope
Only to hear the mechanic laugh out what happend-

"You ran out of fuel, you dope!

-_----_-_-

True story.* In my defense, I was calculating my fuel consumption off the tripometer (the fuel gauge broke some months ago). By my calculations, I had 30 to 40 miles left. Thats why the thought of running out of gas hadn't even crossed my mind. I did run it in 4 wheel drive a bit during one of the snow storms, but I didn't think that would throw off my calcs that far.

I think its because my fuel tanks leaks fuel when you fill it up all the way. Yup- I started paying more attention and found out it drips gas if you fill it all the way. So I've started refueling it in smaller doses and more often...so far, it seems to be working.

But just in case, I now always carry about 3 gallons of gas with me in the truck. Never again I say!

------------
*Sort of. The events are mostly true, but not quite verbatim. For example, Zed's mechanic does not actually call customers "dopes", and cool as he is, he does not talk in rhyme.

Automotive woes, part the first

Greetings to my continually declining readership!

Let me just get this out of the way: Normally I'm not a very a paranoid guy. That being said, I do believe there is a conspiracy against me. No, its not the usual suspects- CIA, FBI, or as that guy from Heroes says "Any organization made up of letters". Its not aliens, don't be silly. Its automobiles. Specifically, the vehicles I drive are trying to kill me. Yes- it seems that as of late my car and truck are plotting my demise.

It started a week ago, during the beginning of the great April snow storm. I had just got out of work. It was my first time driving the little Camry in the inclement weather- so even though the snow didn't look like it was going to accumulate to much, I decided to pop into a parking lot or two to see how it felt to loose traction in it since it was still pretty slushy out.

I've driven a front wheel drive mini-van and Volvo in weather like this before, but even though this is front wheel drive it felt pretty different. Instead of sliding into the direction I turned, it slid forward. Ergo, if I turned left and was slipping in a rear wheel drive I would swing the whole car left, where as in this one if I turned left and was slipping I'd just keep going straight.

I experimented with locking the back wheels with the hand brake, which would kick my back end out and move the slide in the direction I wanted to go. This worked out pretty well in the tight little corner scenarios I created in the parking lots. Then I moved back out into the open road. It was all down hill from there...well, I mean, it wasn't down hill all the way, but... --ehh, just- *sigh* figuratively okay! Cut me some break. Or give me a slack. You know what I mean.

It started out alright. I even got on and off the interstate without incident. Believe it or not, from what I could see I didn't even expect to see any snow the next morning. It was just slush-nothing really accumulating at all. This is the frame of mind you must have as you follow me through this story- "Or nothing you hear after this point will seem wondrous."

I was driving down 111, listening to Imogen Heap when the real trouble began. I was going a bit shy of the speed limit, which was 40. One moment, I noticed the vehicle riding up and sliding ever so slightly off to the left. I added a very small control adjustment ever so softly to steer the vehicle back on course, and...nothing.

The next moment, I realized that I wasn't turning left, I was spinning left. I was spinning down 111 at about 35 mph. At this point, I realized that it was as if someone had just found a big "traction for the car" switched and flipped it off. There was no point in trying to enter a correction, especially since at this point I was in a pretty delicate situation, and any false move could have very, very bad effects.

The front end was now pointed directly at the barrier rails on the other side of the street. I watched them pass me sideways with fascination. I held on to the steering wheel tensely, but did not move it. Then I felt the force of the car going across the road sideways meet up with resistance of the road and start to lean the body down.

"Is this car going to roll?" I thought indignantly.
"No way...this car is too low center to the ground...why is it going to roll?" my mind asked as I instinctively huddled a bit lower, in an attempt to either lower my center of gravity, or brace for impact- I don't really know which.

But the vehicle kept rotating until it was almost completely 180 degrees the other way. I'd say, 174 degrees, at which point, like magic, the tires suddenly found traction and pulled the vehicle to a stop. I heard something change in the engine noise and as I looked down the first thing I thought was "Stupid, you left the clutch in 4th gear! Now you've stalled it!" Then I looked up from the dash and realized I was facing the wrong way on a divided highway. Luckily, the only car coming at me was a good ways off, just cresting a hill. As calmly as I could muster, I put the clutch in, started it up, backed it up to turn it around, then was off- albeit a bit slower then before.

The whole thing probably took less then 10 seconds.

As I drove away, My first thought was "Wow, thank you Lord."
My second thought was "Dude, I'm so blogging this."

Our hero has survived the first round of automotive assault, but can he best the next, or will he be headed for the scrapyard? Tune in next week* to find out, in...AUTOMOTIVE WOES, PART THE SECOND!

By next week, I mean after I have a suitable number of comments to restore my ego which hath so freshly been brusied by the declining readership of this blog.

One liners of wit or wisdom, but probably neither

This is a jumbled up, to-much-weirdness-swirling-around-after-to-many-days-of-running-ragged sort of post.

---_---
Maybe you've heard the song "Everyone's Beautiful." Well, I get what he's driving at, but I think I have to make qualifications on this.
A) MOST people are beautiful. I truly believe this as basically everyone I know is beautiful, to some degree if not an extreme one. I don't care what you look like, you have to be pretty messed up to not have at least a trace of beauty in you. It probably comes from the Divine family resemblance.
B) That being said, even to such undiscerning tastes, some people I think can truly be evil at their core, whether it be reflected in their facial features or not.

So, to restate it I suppose it would go "Most people are beautiful. And some are quite pretty, too." Hmm... I see why the great band water deep didn't go this route though... not nearly as good a line to build a song around.
^-*Frustrated exhaling of wind from the esophagus* I don't think I conveyed quite what I was trying to say here.

---_---

I want to be near a hail storm once, if not just so I could go out, pick a hail stone up and announce to everyone that this is a piece of war. "War?" they ask, "Why yes," I'd reply, "Haven't you heard? War is hail."

Actually I bet their are alot of jokes just waiting to happen after a hail storm. It would seem to me that frozen water is a comic gold mine.
_-_----

Google is sometimes just as geographically challenged as me. We make a horrible team.

_--_-

I'm a bit concered for Brad when I heard he was going to Norwhich univerity. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the name an abrieviation for "Nordic Witch Univeristy"? Brad, what are you doing getting mixed up with those Viking wiccans?!

--_-_


Me, upon trying the new Cheesy Angus Bacon Burger: "My name is Zeke Gable, and I approve this burger."
-_---

Its Palm Sunday- *high five*

(...get it?)

_-_-

I feel my fortune is double edged. On the one hand I am surrounded by beauty. But on the other, I feel I am forced to only look at it from a far. I am so afraid of spoiling it, or perhaps of what others think of me if I tread upon it, that I dare not enjoy but a fleeting shallow interaction.

I suppose it doesn't help that I've once carelessly destroyed a prized garden. And I had been so careful up until then. But one destruction as such, one defeat via the enemy through me, and I'm out. I find it safer. I find it more prudent. I find it unbearably difficult as well.
_-__--

Is it possible to call in well? Like, my sister has to work all day Saturday. Thats a drag, but you see she's not sick. Can't she just call in and say "Hey sorry I have to call in well. Saturday is a going to be really nice and I'm going to be too well to come in. "

^This one was alot funnier before I wrote it down.

--_-_--

If you have elder-berry echinacia tea, I think its Biblical to respect it. I don't really know how far the whole "elder" thing goes, but I figure I'll be on the safe side.
_-_--

Okay, so that was a meaningless just sort of ramble on the keyboard post. Don't mind the overdue teenage angst, I'll be better after some sleep. I just wanted an outlet.

Update 2

1:15 -The bill passed. Someone got up and said under part 2 article
24, they were filing theie protest. After this a huge line formed of
reps. submitting their protest. I'll have to look it up, but it
appears that it is something they can do to go on the record somewhere
of not wanting anything to do with it.

Update

12:30- Just called roll call. Closing arguments now, voting should start soon.

Apparently they are voting wether to vote with an ammendment of to
take out the withdrawl language. That ammendment failed.

Now a notion to table the bill for later has been raised.

12:37- Notion failed. Voting on the bill itself has not started.

Day 2 from Concord

Live once more from the NH house of representitives in concord...

I'm going to try to do this in a moe live blog way... Lots of small
edits to one post. It is the first time so bare w/ me...

11:49- They are discussing HR 10 right now, which is a two edged bill
that both attempts to help fund some veteran affairs and requests to
the US president and congress that we begin talks to pull out. Both
sides are making huge speeches, but the main dem. advocate takes the
cake. He went through an entire history lesson starting seemingl
begginning of time. Anna thinks he might be fillibustering.

LIVE from the NH house of representitives building

The NH house of representatives

EDIT: Uploaded pictures taken from phone and added captions.
This isn't quite live since I had to "claim" the post on my PC. Small spelling mistakes and other minor changes have been made as well. But still, almost the entire post was typed up live as it was happening from my mobile- how cool is that, eh?

This post brought to you live from the floor of the NH legislation offices via
my new kick butt phone...

We packed the public balcony almost completely. Sorry to the man who's picking his nose here. I really didn't mean to capture that.

We arived and the session of the day was already in progress- we've
been here about an hour and the main issuse we came out to watch
aren't up yet. So far they have discussed insurance reform and a
committee to study the effects of fiat currency on the state (an
interesting idea; it was ruled down because it couldnt really lead to
anything).

12:12ish-Now they are discussing a review of the death penalty- its interesting
to hear them debate commonly know arguments. The form is almost
identical to the form used in debate class, and I find myself mentally
preparing rebuttals to each side. Most of them are pretty common.
Someone did try to use Officer Briggs as a sort of rallying cry. Genuine, but certainly an "Appeal to emotions" I thinks. The other side brought up the cost to the state, but used numbers from New York- "non topical".

Closing arguments are made in the death penalty repeal (HB607-FN) case. Man with agenda looks on- these were available for free and had a summary of the bills and amendments to be reviewed, as well as a short synopsis of both side's arguments.

12:30ish- They have called roll call (where they literally go out to
the halls and yell "roll call!"). Kind of funny. I wonder what would happen if I just started shouting that randomly some time in the hallways...

They just voted. It was close- 185 to NOT review it, 173 to review it

Someone got up and said she voted wrong, and asked for a vote to allow a re-vote.

The notion was rejected.

We're leaving now because they have ajorned for lunch and won't be back in session until after I should have left. Some members of AGAPE are still there rep'n it out.

Big changes subtly realized

Hi everyone, big life announcement-

I'm getting married.

No, no, I'm just kidding.... well I hope to eventually but I'm not any closer.

Okay, so seriously.

I'm moving to Arizon.

Okay, nah I'm just kidding there as well. I mean I won't rule it out. But I'm not going anywhere.

Okay.

I have a cell phone.

No, this one I'm serious about. What, not a big deal? Yeah, I get that. Check it- I'm edging towards 21 and I finally decided to get one. It is cool. Just...not very spectacular (this post is not a gadget post, but remind me sometime to tell you about this phone because it is pretty sweet).

Thats basically what this post is about. Not about the phone or even major life changes, but a life changed majorly, and when you look back at the things that caused it, you can't help but scratch your head and say "thats it? Thats what's caused all the difference?"

Perhaps the events really are major and I just adapt to change too quickly and too well. I hadn't thought of this until now- but that would make sense. I've sort of built up an indifference- immunity to change over time, (a "just roll with it" type of deal) and it has served me well for the most part. That could be it- maybe not. Either way though, growing up can be terribly anti-climatic.

For me, I've only noticed a major differences while realizing a major tug of war in my schedule. I have work 8 hours a day now, and I've been trying to start a business at the same time. I can be pretty busy. But on the other hand, my job has begot money, which has begot mobility, and when mobility is full grown, it gives birth to freedom. This is wonderful- it allows me not only to go to and from work, but also enables me to be more actively social (sort of). I can now visit my brother, meet clients, and get together with friends from Agape with out having to sync myself to the van schedule.

About that last part- friends. I feel like I am on a sparse middle ground between the professional world (or at least "real" world- the junk business isn't that pro...) and adolescent world- the safe sandlot world, where one can have fun and make mistakes with out worrying about how it will play out in the rest of your life. I say its sparse ground simply because I know not of many others that tread it- its not really difficult the way I walk it right now, but it is strange, I think, to others. I have friends ranging the ages and I still really have fun with them. I go to concerts, I hang out with people (though not as often as I'd like), I even got to visit the school yesterweek. But at the same time, I am watching the clock like an adult- I know their is no question as to me arriving at work when I say I will. I have a ball with my friends from Agape, I miss them! Nothing really has changed in the way I interact with them, but mentally I spot a difference.

I show it to you all now; mark it well. You can make mistakes now. You can work out human nature's drama in your social circles at this time. Its like a sandbox. Thats what its there for- you learn to work out who you are and even work out who you don't want to be. Yes, there are repercussions. You have the potential to get into a lot of trouble. But when your on the other side you'll see a difference, I think. What I mean to say is that for alot of people, adolescence is like the Vegas of life- what happens there can stay there. Except lessons learned can be carried through. Its really remarkable.

In the back of my mind I wonder if I went through the social mazes too well. I got by pretty well by playing it, at least as I saw it, smart. I avoided alot of mistakes I saw people make, or heard of them making. I would oft go against my natural instincts or desires in favor of better judgment.

*removes hand from keyboard and looks around nice office, and at dual screens, reflectively*
Well, maybe its not such a bad idea....

Still, reading, learning and doing business has banged a concept into my head so often that I suddenly realized I believe in it at a very core level. And that concept is that making mistakes is the best ways of learning. And that, yes, you want to calculate and not aim for failure, but getting out their and making some deals that go bad, by getting burned on something- doing this EARLY is much better then doing it late.

Right now I'm trying to be a scrap broker. I bought 22 computers for $200. I was hoping to turn around and make $300 or at least $250 on them. I had talked to the supplier, I asked him about what they had in them. They were supposed to have 512Mb of ram each- I knew I could sale the ram alone for $20 on ebay or somewhere else. I calculated what I needed to do. I had it down.

But of course, when I got them back, they didn't all have 512MB of ram. 4 of them did. 3 of them had 320MB. The rest had 128MB, with the exception of the three that wouldn't turn on.

According to a philosophy that I am increasingly subscribing too, this is a perfect opportunity. Instead of cursing out my supplier and hitting myself for being an idiot who didn't test everything or drive a hard enough bargain, I should stop and think "What is this circumstance trying to tell me?" [Editors note: I am not implying any sentience on these events, like they are part of something bigger and smarter. I am merely personifying.] I think I know the lesson here- always verify claims of people to the best of your ability, and don't be afraid to point out where they fall short. Its not being rude, its protecting yourself and your livelihood. Lesson learned. $200 pleas

Getting back to the point I was making.... This is an example of an early mistake. This was a small mistake- I may have lost, at the most, $200, plus time. Am I upset about that? Yeah, its not the ending I would have chosen. But what if I got lucky this time, and the next, and the next- lets just assume that things go peachy for me for deal after deal where everything is always exactly what they say. When I finally getting around to making this mistake, I might make a two hundred thousand dollar mistake instead of a two hundred dollar mistake. It is better to fail early and learn then to avoid failure at all costs.

So how does this apply to me? Well...what if I should have made mistakes earlier? What if I should have gotten into trouble? I know this is a really weird line of reasoning, please bear with me. I'm not going to go postal or crazy just yet or anything so don't freak out. Its just something that I've been wondering about. Does the same thing apply in other things? In love? In social choices?

"What would you suggest?" I can hear you ask. "Would it be better for you to have slept around and mugged somebody so that you could know you don't want to?"

I don't think so. I don't really know the answer to these hypothetical questions. And I don't want to encourage people to go out and do stupid stuff or anything. But some things that have happened in the last year or so have brought it vividly to my attention: After a certain point, some mistakes can NOT be afforded. I am past that point for alot of mistakes. They are no longer a option.

Here's hoping I didn't need them.

[Editors note again: I really don't know what to think of this post- it was going to be much different, but curse my unruly fingers, this is what it turned out to be. I just sort of rambled. Its big, I know. Consider that punishment for begging for another. By the way- I'm on face book now. Sorry y'all, its just that much cooler. Name's Zed Fable, if you care.]

I may have shot the clutch, but I did not shoot the depuzeke

So, some have accused me of being the anti-blogger.

Yeah, I don't really have any defence. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

Whats been up recently? Welll... Work has been great but has kept me busy (I suppose thats what its there for). I went to an AMAZING fort Pastor concert, and they solidified in my mind how awesome they were. They are just such real, honest, nice people. They remembered us. And a guy from SoulFest was there, and he remembered us too. How cool is that?

Concernting the title, yes I know its basically the lamest title EVER. But I paid for it, dang it.

You see, I was getting onto the highway with my good friend Mike, taking him home. I was going in my dads car, which is a manual, which I recently learned to drive. Or maybe not.

As I was pulling out of the stop light on to the on ramp, I thought "Wow, this thing really is going today- look at that RPM shoot up!" and I had to shift faster to account for the faster rev up. Which I thought was pretty cool. It sounded more like a sports car. Shifting can make you feel pretty cool when your not bouncing around in a parking lot trying to get into first. Thats a fact.

But of course, by the time I got into 5th I realized that I wasn't going as fast as the RPM would have me beleive. In fact, in 5th, I wasn't passing 50, and my RPM was almost redlining. About that time, Mike asked "Dude, do you smell that?" to which I replied like any good friend "SHUT UP! DON'T even joke about that.... you must just be smelling the heater. I don't smell anything."

But as I could tell something was up, I pulled over. THEN I smelt it. "Great." Juustt great. I tried putting it into gear again... I had to have that thing up to 4000 before it would budge. "I'mmmm in trouble. Can I borrow your cell?"

Long story short, my dad came and towed us out. In the van. With a tow cable. Yeah, it was pretty cool. I drove the van, with a line of communication constantly open between the vehicles, courtesy of Mike's cell. I would warn him when I was going to break, he would tell me if I was going to slow or if I needed to move a little more off the shoulder, etc. I towed him to the next exit, which thankfully happens to be the exit our mechanic is at.

So what happend? Welll.....

APPARENTLY, the clutch is designed to slip. This is what my dad told me when I asked him how on earth I was supposed to get a start going on a hill with out falling into the car behind me.

"No Zeke, you can take the clutch out a little bit to defeat the backwards motion... you don't have to go all in right away."

"OH! Like how an automatic is always going forward a bit when stopped!" says I.

"Yeah, sort of..." my dad replied, not realizing the chain effect this had on my brain.

APPARENTLY, your not supposed to slip the clutch for long periods of time. Say, on a hill, while waiting for a red light to change for thirty seconds. HUH, oops. Thats basically what I did for a day or two in Manchester. Heh, my bad!

I paid to have another clutch put in. The mechnic showed me what I did. I literally caught the thing on fire. Pretty funny actually.

So thats why I say I paid for my lame title. Though I didn't document that use. I did however, document the biggest portion I got out of this whole ordeal. On the memo to the mechanic, I wrote "An expensive lesson".

A Heinz Post

I call this my Heinz post. How come? Why, because I have to Catch up, of course!

The last post would have been okay I suppose, had I followed it up soon with another one and another one that were just the same style. But left as a final note on a marriage, it is a tad underwhelming. My apologies.

Because of the lateness of this post, I will change from doing a play-by-play recap of the previous day in a roughly chronological order, to simply giving you the highlights from the days I didn't blog yet. I will even add bold headers to the different sections as a gift to you guys, so if you get bored of reading geek stuff then you can skip to right where you want to go. Okay... commence tomatoey sauce- NOW:

Keep'n it White and Nerdy
Originally, dX wanted me to bring down my computer, so we could kick it in Counter Strike like old times, but I told him their was no way I could seriously game on that thing. It is...lacking. I am too ashamed to even post the specs on this blog...not that I game very much these days anyway, but I do appreciate and use the power usually.

I have been needing an upgrade now for awhile, so one of the ideas I had was that I could build a system while down there and ship it back. But when you boiled it down, it really didn't make any sense- I would be paying way to much, rushing myself into the purchasing, limiting my choices, and probably end up using some of the money I wanted to use for his gift. I didn't decide this, though, until after I got there, so I had brought my own optical drive with a windows XP CD, as well as a spare hard disk of questionable lifespan. But thats another story.

And so, being the easy going guy he is, dX took the news in stride. It turns out, he had accumulated a collection of computer pieces since he had moved out there, so we decided to REALLY kick it like we used to: Spend some quality time with the hardware on a makeshift bench, and Electro-static precautions that would make a QA representative faint. I'll spare you the details of building the box, but it was a lot of fun. dX and I hadn't really gotten down and dirty with a system like that in awhile, and we both agreed that it was our quickest build ever- when we actually sat down to work on it, we finnished it up in a few hours. And it was unnaturally fast- we had scrounged up 128 MB of ram, and put it in a 400 mhz P2 system with a crummy old 32 MB ATI card, but the thing FLEW. I kid you not; it was more responsive then my current system at home. And oh yeah; we loaded it up with XP. I cut down the services that ran considerably, but still- it was an impressive feat. I used it as my own system, and when I left he gave it as a gift to his sister.

People who don't smoke and cars that do
The night before the wedding, dX had a little party with me and a few friends. I hate to call it a bachelors party because of all the pejorative connotations that come with that term, but thats what he called it so that I suppose is what it was. Basically, it was a bunch of guys, hanging out, laughing, eating pizza and dorritos, and playing Game Cube. It was alot of fun.

A guy named Fritz and I both needed to get some money from an ATM to help pitch in for pizza. Since Fritz was was the first one there, we decided to all duck out for the errand and get some snack goodies while we were out.

"Can we take your car- is it running okay?" dX asked.
"Well, the radiator is a bit leaky... hows yours?" Fritz responded.
"Oh, just a leaky radiator? Psh, my alternator might be going..."
"Okay cool, we'll take mine".

Ahh, those fateful words. The radiator turned out to be more then a little issue, and it got very bad by the time we had got to our first stop. Steam was coming steadily out from the hood. We decided to stop by an auto store. They were pretty sure it was the cap on the radiator, so we picked up another of those and some radiator fluid. When we added just a little bit of the fluid, the thing fired up like a smoke generator- steam clouds erupted violently into the night. It did this for several minutes, until it was finally cool enough to put the fluid in. There was much laughter, and I was heard to say "DUDE- where's a camera when you need it? I'm SO blogging this."

We finally got the fluid in the radiator, and it seemed to improve with the new cap. We drove a very short distance to Wal-Mart from there, and as we were cruising through the parking lot, Fritz kept looking back in the mirror. "Dude," he said "Am I smoking?"

When we parked and got out, we found- quite graphically- that we indeed had been. It wasn't like something was on fire, it wasn't a black smoke- but the tail pipe was emitting enough emissions to make Al Gore cry. dX thought perhaps the O2 sensor was faulty. I just sat back and wished I had a camera again- the smoke from our tailpipe was even more fantastic then the radiator. It rose slower and lingered more. You could literally see our trail from the auto store to Wal-Mart, rising slowly into the heavens. When we drove, it must have looked like we were the world's slowest rocket powered car.

But wait, it gets better- when we headed back home, the radiator problem came back. With vengeance. Whenever we stopped at a stop sign, the steam from the hood would quickly flood the view from the windshield in less then a second, like our own personal fog area. Luckily there wasn't any other cars around at those intersections- we would stop, the view would disappear, we would go, and we could see. As long as we kept going at all, the steam was pushed around us.

When we parked I wished again that I had a camera. The vehicle was a sight to see. Smoke coming out one end; steam coming out the other. It was hilarious. Fritz ended up having it towed out of there in the morning.

Coffee, Coffee, everywhere and all the drops to drink
I think I mentioned before that many in the grooms family work at the a very nice local coffee establishment. Just in case your passing through some time, its called "Harbor lights". Personally, I think it sounds more like a cigarette then a coffee shop, but the atmosphere and quality of beverage more then makes up for the odd name (I mean, its KANSAS- there aren't any harbors to speak of). I told you already about the George's caramel mocha blast. I suppose that the rest of my experiences won't translate as well in print. I'll just say- Its a great place. They have books, and games out for you to use if you want to at both locations. Its a great atmosphere. OH! And I almost forgot-

They make custom soda's there. Yup- on demand. I had an irish creme soda- with (get this) whipcream. The groom's mum told me that about the custom soda's and made me one. I think its basically club soda/soda water with flavor shots on demand. I don't know exactly how its done, but I can tell you why its done- because they taste AWESOME. And whipcreme? On soda?

....

GENIUS!

I told everyone there "The boys back home will never beleive this- 'Whaa? Whipcream in soda? Your making that up!' and I'll be like 'No man really! Thats what they do in Kansas!' it'll be great."

Wedding

The wedding went off pretty much with out a hitch- well, sans of course, the Marriage of dX and his new Bride. But this, I'm told, was entirely intended.

I got to meet Sarah (dX's wife- man that is still weird to say), which was great as until this point I had never had the oppertunity. And she was a great person- Conesiur of coffee and music, edging a bit on the artsy side, yet able to love a geek and even having established some welding skills. I'm very happy for them.

Super duper suite
The wedding wasn't a huge operation, but it wasn't ghetto. It was still very nice, even if the couple wasn't made of money. Nate and I, for example, were basically their getaway vehicle. Get away to where? The Chateau (said with extreme accentation- shut up, its a word now), but of course! They were kind enough to bring up their suitcases and such so we got a chance to see the establishment. It was some high class stuff. The room's looked like something out of the imagination of a Disney set designer- I think their's was an "island escape" theme, complete with a huge front end of a ship that served as the balcony and bedroom, a giant jacuzzi and exotic trees and plants a plenty, shooting from everywhere. There was probably more, but we didn't really hang around to long...

Neil Gaimen Evangelism
I got to hang out with Nate a bit as well, (if you recall in a post previous, I dissconnected his family from the internet using his computer- always a great ice breaker) but that night and the next day, I got to spend some more time with him. It was a blast- Nate is a genius and (I had forgot) an Artist. He sketches quite often, always striving to better his craft. I was almost sure that he would appreciate Mirror Mask. I was going to bring it with me to watch before I headed out, but of course, being myself, I failed to remember to. But things turned out all right; after dropping off the happy couple, we took a jaunt down to the local video rental establishment.

On our way we discussed the pros of wearing suits. Originally, he had protested his general level of discomfort in the suit and that he didn't really look forward to wearing it. But by the time of the wedding, we had both noticed that it was quite fine indeed to be wearing the suits- not only were they comfortable as heck (I know, I know- its a misnomer, okay?), but they also gave us the strange urge to possess and use a Katana, a handgun, or (preferably) both. They just make you feel and look that cool. So on that note, we walked into Hollywood video, commenting that we were probably their best dressed patrons ever and joking to each other that we could just buy the establishment if the lines were too busy.

If you haven't seen Mirror Mask, I'm very sorry but there really isn't any good way I can explain it. I just ask that you go, look at the trailer, then rent the movie. Heck, you can even watch it for free in semi cruddy quality on Google Video, legally. Or, preferably, buy and watch the DVD. Whatever you do, watch this film- then you will know that it is indeed an amazing movie. And it will seen a foregone conclusion, that yes, OF COURSE, he loved the film.

And you would be right. He found it quite impressive. I also evangalized Regina Spektor to him, which I wasn't as sure about. But he recognized and appreciated her genius as well. He was fasinated by how expressive and subtle her face was in the videos. "I have to try and sketch her" he said.

And that, in a nutshell (a very large, approximately 2000 word nutshell), was my trip in Kansas. Happy? Good.

So. What happend with you guys while I was gone?

I broke the internet.

Hello everybody.

Heres a small update of whats gone down since the last post. Sorry its taken so long, things have been crazy busy and fun over here.

So, on the 31st I left on the plane (on time- early, even!) and successfully landed and was picked up by 10:22 local time. Much better.

Mrs. F narrated the drive through Kansas as we went. We ended up picking up Nate, which was a blast. He still was wearing one of his awesome hats.

We got to their house and I ate some monkey bread. I go ape over that stuff. *ducks*

I spent alot of time chilling out with Nate in his room. He decided he wanted to show me a game he got called Prey, because of some crazy multi-dimensional mind bending physics engine stuff. He had recently rebuilt his computer, so he had to reinstall it. At this point, he found out he had misplaced his key. And his manual. "I just cleaned up my room..." his voice trailed off for a second. "Oh man, I hope I didn't throw it away."

Long story short, since he couldn't find it I decided to see if I could find it first online, and when that didn't work, I decided to port scan to see if I could find any hidden FTP servers that might have a key.

That, put simply, was a horrible idea. You see, port scanning is basically where, instead of using a search engine or typing in a website URL, you simply start at one part of the internet and start looking door to door till you find something. Its fun. You can find websites at random, or other things like file sites that aren't availible normally. You can find all sorts of weird network devices. You can find print servers from Itally (my friend did once). A friend of mine got me hooked on it for awhile, and we would share our findings every now and then.

Well, we told Mr. F what we were doing thinking he'd get a kick out of it and he got really upset. "DON'T PORT SCAN ON MY NETWORK! I don't want the liability..." and about that time, the scanner stopped working. And so did all of our connections outside to the internet. The whole house had lost the network. And he used IP Telephony, so... the phone died too. Yeah, smooth move Zeke. Way to make an entrance. Either we had got ourselves shut down for port scanning, (I guess it was against their Terms of service?) or we triggered hit something that freaked out the cable modem. I felt so bad.

Eventually Mr. F had to go to the Road Runner (Their ISP's) office and have them reset it. Talk about a comedy of errors...

So that was a bad start, BUT! It honestly got better... That night Mr. F himself even bought me a "George's Carmel Blast" at the coffee house half his family works at, Harbor Lights. It was really really good. Legend has it, that a guy named George would always come asking for a Carmel Macchiato with extra extra carmel. The guy REALLY liked carmel. Finally Tim started experimenting with his drink, finally stumbling upon glazing the inside of the cop with carmel, then doing the rest and putting whipped-creme and carmel drizzle on top. Word got around, and when they redid the signs, they put it up as "George's Carmel blast". Man, I want a drink named after me! So cool...

I am a day or two behind at this point in posting, but instead of sit on this post for another day, I'm going to let it go. I'm off to the wedding rehearsal now...

The all star of gate D3

Its amazing how quickly you get used to things.

Yesterday at 9 I was confused and frustrated about staying the night. By midnight I felt like I knew the airport almost completly.

I knew where the outlets were. I knew where all the internet stations were- the one that the well intentioned but mislead Continental staff told me didn't exist. I knew where the tunnels and moving sidewalks were. I knew the bathroom system. I even had a favorite urinal that I considered mine... (Thats really where I got a bit concerned that perhaps I had grown TOO comfortable...)

At first, I sat by an outlett to charge my PDA and batteries. I listened to Illinois by Sufjan Stevens and watched the airport staff scury outside through the window. I kept thinking how cool it was the way all those people and specialzed vehices were working together. I wish Abe was there to see it too- he would have loved it.

Sleeping was not so easy. I tried several things, finally slouching over in a phone booth. A guy on a cleaning machine passed me a couple times. Then one time I saw him pass me- then back up. He called once. I ignored him- I was afraid he was going to tell me I couldn't sleep here. He called a second time. I looked up groggily, doing the "who, me?" gesture. He asked if I was staying the night. I told him I was. He said "Let me see if I can get you a cot." and sped off. I was ever so thankful.

Long story short, he wasn't able to find one in this half of the airport. But he assured me there was some through the tunnel. I thanked him and ran off- by this point I allready had a pretty good grasp of the geography of the Airport- which, if you know me is pretty suprising.

The only one I found was behind a continental service desk. After passing it a few times looking for others, I finally bit the bullet and jumped the gate to retreive it. Okay, so the gate was open. I took it back set it up by gate D3.

That actually helped only mildly, since, well..... Its a cot. My arms didn't know where to go and proved a perpetual problem. But I did get some sleep- dont ask how much, I have no idea.

I went over today to a place that said it served- PROUDLY served- Phoneix Cofee. I had taken Brad's wisdom of getting cofee while here to heart. I decided it had to be local. I got a mocha phoneix something something. It was flipp'n GOOD. I could taste the chololate, yes- but the coffee was certainly there, strong and not acidic. Just how I liked it. I got a breakfast sandwhich there as well. The people behind the counter were the nicest people I've met in any store in awhile. But everyone sees nice here.

Okay, over my time again.

Everyone, thanks for the comments. It made logging on worth while. Anon, MHT is Manchester Airport. Oh, I see someone said this already. Quick, you are. Hannah- you crackedme up with the Kevin Max thing. You do realize he's getting on nowadays, right? In years and in girth? ;)

Later e'ry body.

dot dot dot

So... for those of you who didn't know, I'm going to see my friend get married in KS this week.

Well. I won't pontificate around the bush, because I am on a airport computer and being charged by the minute. I am stranded in Cleavland. I'll update more later perhaps, but here is a brief recap of today:

Got up at 8:00ish.

Ate, hung out with Mo and then Jen.

Packed.

Washed nice wedding clothes.

Packed.

Packed.

(So far so good)

Learned something about a friend of mine that made me very sad and a bit angry.

Got to MHT with my sister. Aparently- the time on the e-ticket is the time the plane LEAVES. Not the time you BOARD... I think I knew that but...still. Missed 2:10 flight. Got resheduled to the 6:00 o'clock flight.

Called mom. Told her that we needed to call my friend's mom so we could tell her not to pick me up. She kept looking for the number then said someting like "oh! Grandma Streeter fell and broke her-" *pause* "I gotta go, I'll call you back."

Then-

My sister got a call. One of my cousin's friend has been missing for over 24 hours.

Then we finally got ahold of Mum. She says she is having trouble finding the number. Grandma fell and broke her arm.

Oh, and Chris- our OTHER cousin- was hit by a drunk driver. Head on.

Miracuously, he's alive. I am not sure, but I think the girl is too...

So. That was a sort of sucky few hours.

Then our plane got held in the air for like, 25+ minutes because of the weather and volume of traffic.

But hey! This is some adventure. I've stopped reeling enough now to laugh at the bizarre amount of stress that just landed on me. Funny stuff.

Despite all this, I still can't wait to go and see my friend and his bride get maried.

Later er'y body.

Better and picture post

Edit:Oh yeah, by the way I'm feeling better. Thank you all for your nice comments, concerns and prayers. Even the lurkers- it means alot to me. Now back to your regularly scheduled blog...

Here it is... only about three months overdue, too! By golly, I think I'm improving...

With out further ado ladies and gents:

This is part of the main room for my group at [AwesomeCo]. Our company is a fan of the stock market; can you tell?


They are also a fan of long piles of paper that have seemingly no purpose.

Pictured here is a list of words generated from the middle initial of employees with birthdays on odd years appended to the breakfast selection of employees with even years, divided by pie. Cherry, if I'm not mistaken. This stack must be kept on hand for 2 months because of strange rules that no one understands anymore.

At least two sentences in the above parpagraph were true.


Here is the wall my mini-cube faces that look up at in my "mission control-ish" room. They are actually two computers with dual screens each. I can take control over either of them simply by moving my mouse up off of my screen and onto those ones, thanks to the cool synergy setup I installed. Everyone else can as well. We manage reading text because I turned on windows magnifier so there is a window on the left monitor that follows the cursor and magnifies whatever is around it. Yes, I am proud. Its bona fide PDG (Pretty darn good). Originally I thought I'd have to blur out the data on the screens, or at least on the board in the background, but lets hear it for bad camera skills! With him and mister poor-lighting-without-using-flash working together, its amazing what I can render unreadable.


Looking back from the doorway, here is my mini-cube as I like to call it. Note small tidbit of epic white board with important data censored behind me. Also note multiple beverage containers of undetermined brand.

Here is my dualy-setup, complete with censored post-it notes and pirate ducky watchguard. Why two screens you ask? Because 4 on the wall is clearly not enough. (Note: I'm JK, it is pretty useful and important for what I do actually since I need the screen real estate. Even though making "this room is actually a tax-haven" jokes would be fun...)

Another view. Note my fastidious use of post it notes. I adore those little yellow buggers. They are so cool.



Hey! What is that beautiful yellow thing with such rugged good lucks? Is that... a post it note with wheels?


Aha! Its a truck! Sorry, you can not marry Truck. It is mine- plus- wHAT THE HECK ARE YOU THINKING? Its an automobile for crying out loud. What would the children look like? Think of them...
This is the amazing Cat in the hat Hat. Its from Kiaya. (Thank you once again!) It rocks my socks (but more directly, my phro).

Well ladies and gents, this has been fun, no? Maybe we should do it more oft.


(Yes, it is possible that I got carried away with the censoring of my images. Its alot of fun. You all should try it sometime. )

I'm down with the sickness

Yesterday I got very very sick. Fever, sweating bullets and alternating chills, etc.

So far I feel a bit better this morning, but I am very very sore. I feel like all my muscles are 10 times more sensitive. As much as I need rest, it hurts to be on one bed for too long...

This isn't a "pity me" post (well....), but just to let you know that if if you can't get ahold of me, this is why.

Oue, my neck...

Zeke burns gas like its 1927

I love my truck.

Today, I was afraid I might be a bit late for work. I couldn't afford any slow downs, and I decided that saving my gas by driving conservatively wasn't worth being late. I took off a few mental limitations to my acceleration and handling routines. And I thoroughly enjoyed it.

For example: Coming up to the light on 111, I saw it go to red. "Shoot..." I thought to myself. I suddenly remembered that mapuest once took me up the little road to my left by accident and spit me back out on the road 111 just a few hundred feet further. I quickly checked checked out the traffic surrounding me, then decided to go for it. I powered into the turn at a comfortable 20mph. I could have pushed it further with , but no reason too... plus it was over a 90 degree turn. I raced down the little strip of road to the part where I could turn right again and eventually hook back up to 111. The road was still wet from the rain, and there was sand on the turn as well. I slowed down a little and made the turn. The truck slid around the corner like it was covered in snow. I was a bit surprised but simply steered to correct and kept the gas where it needed to be. I straightened out and didn't even slow down that much at all. I connected to 111 and got there ahead of the light. Then I laughed like an evil genius.

"Dude!" I thought to myself, "I just totally power slid around that corner and didn't even flinch!! I'm awesome!" Then I thought to myself that I wished someone else was in the driver seat besides my lunch of pizza and cheezy homeade ravilo. They're nice, but I can't give them a high five and say "DUuuuDE!" with them in unison.

So I figured I'd post it instead. Cause it was awesome and, it wasn't illegal, I'm pretty sure. Honest.

Google is trying to make me hate them

...and you know how hard that is. I believe I've stated in previous entries that I would do something to the effect of jumping off a cliff if they asked me to. Well- NO longer.

So they bought blogger- fine. Thats cool; their GOOGLE, thats kind of what they do. They buy important stuff and make it better or make it free, or both. I had no problem with that. Then for the longest time, they had this "new blogger in beta!" but I didn't join up. Well, its out of Beta they say now. Thats great! That means its stable, right? And better? Or at least, it works over 80% of the time?

Apparently, google is using an ancient meaning of the word Beta- its a little archaic, but I did some research and I found the word. The root for this is in the latin "Beaht" which literally means to suck at life, and the English colloquialism "duh" which means to express one's less then adequate mental prowess. In their defense, now that I think about it, this actually makes a lot of sense. I just was using the wrong definition.

If you are reading this, it means you got to the site. Congratulations! You're doing pretty good for yourself already. For me, I usually have to type the URL, hit enter, wait for it to NOT load all the way, then hit refresh (which I fancy is sort of like a slap in the face, because it makes me feel better) at which point it comes back like someone awaken from stupidity. At least, this has been my experience in Firefox. Two or three different versions of Firefox.

But even if you are reading this, the problem still remains that you are reading this, not the other post which I made. What other post? Oh, you know- the one with all the pictures and witty titles- you remember, it had pictures of [AwesomeCo] finally, and my truck and... what, you don't remember that post? Huh- neither did GOOGLE.

Yeah- google kept timing out while I tried to save that post. Now, if this was a little startup company that got really popular, I would totally understand bandwidth issues- but guys, were talking frick'n GOOGLE here. There is no excuse. They are basically half of the Internet's bandwidth anyway.

*exhales* Okay. Sorry. I had to rant.... *quickly saves before Google grows wise to his plans*
NOTE: Before saving this, I copied it to wordpad. Which is good, because the first two tries died. NOT EVEN KIDDING.

Alright, now on to topics which I have neglected. I feel I owe Gwyn a shoutout, because she is basically awesome and the funniest person she knows, and because she gave LON and I our own post.

The other day, LON and myself got to go hang out at her swing'n dynamite pad. Its pretty cool- shes got a kitchen, a bathroom, a bed, and when we were there, a Christmas tree. Being in that close proximity to self-reliance makes you feel cooler- like you too are basically there. Or you can pretend to be and call yourself cool. So, thanks Gwyn. Thanks for making me able to pretend to be cool.

Oh, and another thing- which she tends to not enjoy herself but I find absolutely awesome is her ability to get lost in her own backyard. Recently, she asked use if we had ever been in her car and not gotten lost at some point. We started to open our mouths to assure her that we had, and that she didn't always get lost.

Then we shut them again and kind of just laughed akwardly.

But thats all fine, because LON Gwyn and myself get lost, we just laugh more and end up doing something totally arbitrary like talking in accents until we get unlost (or TRYING to anyway).

and- HOLY CRAPOLY, another long post. I'm sorry guys. I'll cut it short right now, honest.
I think I have write-iteous or something. Weird.

This is the picture post. But it isn't at the same time.

I was seriously intending on posting a whole bunch of pictures- of my work, of my truck and of my hat- yesterday. I had taken them all. I was quite pleased with myself. I merely had to upload them to my computer, edit out any identifiable information from [AwesomeCo] and upload them. It was going to be wonderful. It was going to be marvelous. It was going to be simple, and yet it was going to be so satisfying.

Then... the camera cable or the connector in the cheap camera I use to upload the images from had... "issues". Issues that caused it to loose power while connected- several times. Connection issues that caused it to literally ERASE all pictures on that 512 MB card. And so... all of the pictures are gone. In case you were wondering, the above picture was an interpertation of what I felt like and probably what I looked like when I found out all the files were gone. If I was a girl.

But, since I told you all I would have pictures, here you go:



I am a man of my word.

Saga of this week (As oppposed to the Sega of this week, which would be promptly replaced with the SNES of this week)

Greetings, one and all. Some people claim that all my sister and I do is collect comments that beg for updating. To you I say... well, I mean hey, everyone needs a hobby, right?

The last week or two (its hard to tell where one ends and the other begins now-a-days) have been intense. Not all great, not all bad, just bigger. More stress, but more fun. And less sleep.

Monday
Ahh, Mondays. Technically, I don't work Monday. Its a little weird. I work Early (1 AM) Tuesday morning. So Monday is supposed to be the day I adjust back to my weird work hours. I've tried a few different ways to do this- take a nap at a certain time is a popular choice, and I've tried it. But most of the time, if I have not been deprived of sleep, I won't be able to take a nap. I end up just lying their, in my bed, waiting to go to sleep. Bo-ring.

The approach I've recently taken to this is based upon a proprietary theory that I have dubbed "The Sleep Deficit theory". I believe I have enlightened most of you about this in person; if any of you want further explanation on the details let me know. But the point is, it has served me well recently. This week though, I had more sleep deficit then I bargained for.

Monday I purchased a truck. I bought it from my friend, Mr. L. As part of the deal, he paid for or deducted from the price all the repairs needed to make the vehicle return to tip-top shape. But when I drove it out of the mechanics to close the deal, the blinkers weren't working. I brought it back to the mechanic that night who said that he had noticed that issue but had forgotten about it. Apologetically, he said he'd do the deal with out labor costs. He thought he found the problem- the switch. This is the rocker arm that you use to control the blinkers and the windshield wipers. Yay. He would have it the next day, if I could bring the vehicle by. I said I'd be there, considering I had been resorting to using hand signals. At night. On the highway.

Tuesday
I got home from work at about 9:30 as usual. I ate. I called up the mechanic and he told me he hadn't the part yet, but he would call me "as soon as it walks through the door". Meanwhile, I called town hall about a mistake I had made on the title and how to fix it. Four seconds after I hung up with them, the mechanic called me to let me know the part had indeed waltzed in at that very moment. I drove to the shop.

By this time I was a bit tired. I had gotten there I think around 11:00, and it was supposed to be a quick (20 minute) fix. 30 minutes later the mechanic comes in and says "Its not the switch. Only thing I guess it could be now is the flasher..." and got on the phone to find one. Meanwhile, I was sitting down taking small several-second naps. I'd just sort of zone out and then wake up. Judging by my surroundings, I had barely slept- A few seconds at most. But hey, I'll take what I can get.

Long story short, it wasn't the flasher module either. He sent me to go get it down at Auto Fair on south willow, but it wasn't the problem. He took awhile looking at some schematics and then started doing some more probing with a meter. Finally he said the problem was some of the wiring between the fuse box and steering column. He ran some new wire as a work-around for the short term so I could get back on the road and he'll fix it up proper when I bring it back to get state inspected.

Waking hours with out sleep at this point: About 28.

Unfortunately, the truck work left me at home by 1:50ish. I had to be at Agape by 3:00- Tonight was movie night at the Gs and I wanted to get their earlier so I could exchange gifts with Kiaya, who sadly wouldn't be able to come. I talked to mum a bit, then I went to sleep for about 20 minutes. I got up at 2:34, and sped away in my shiny (sorta) yellow truck.

I arrived at Agape at 3:00 on the dot. Sadly, it became apparent that I had missed Kiaya by mere minutes. I saw Anders playing soccer outside like old times and I talked to him for a bit. I then went in and roamed the halls of Agape, which were almost vacant because of the time. I felt like a ghost, haunting my old romping grounds. How so short a year made so large an impression on me I'll never know. But it was good to be there, even if there hardly was anyone left. I was welcomed warmly by Mrs. Woodman and Pastor Gary, which was great. Actually everyone I ran into was kind, as usual.

I ended up sitting in on Mrs. G's class. They had an amazing guy there named Ramses who was sharing his testimony. He was really cool. Then, class dismissed and I hung out with everyone. I opened H's gift for me their, which was an awesome great big Z with all my names and aliases. It was full of inside jokes, like references to my mispelling of the blogger name and such. So yeah, it was "basically awesome".

I then opened up Kiaya's gift. She made me the most AWESOME wearable piece of art ever- a full size Cat in the Hat style hat made out of red and white duct tape. INCREDIBLE. I'll have to post pictures later. The thing fits me great and is such a blast to wear. I've done the rest of my Christmas shopping in it and the reactions you get are so great.

Anyway, the whole lot of us (sans, sadly, Kiaya) went to H's house and we watched "A white Christmas" and "A Christmas story", the latter of which I had never seen before. We also just hung out and chatted for awhile after that. Me and Mrs. G got conversation about where all the plastic packaging we generate ends up (a land fill or the ocean for the most part, sadly) and recycling and what we can do about it. We left at 11 something o'clock.

Waking hours with out sleep at this point: 38.

Mrs. G had given me directions, which I followed well up to the 495 part. Mrs. G hadn't specified which direction to go on 495, but I surmised that since we were in Mass. and we wanted to get to Derry, we wanted to go North, naturally. Well.... We never got the chance to get on 93. We only had the option to get onto 95. I took it.

I was a little bit concerned because of the hour and my uncertainty with the route, but I did know that I wanted to go North. Eventually, I figured, we would get to a place that either I would recognize or could transfer to 93. We drove a long time and didn't see it. What we did see were exits for Portsmouth passing us. When I realized the last exit for Portsmouth was coming up and after that I'd be in bloody MAINE, I got off the highway.

Now, I've been around Portsmouth before, but as a passenger, not so much as a driver. I recognized where I got off- it was the Portsmouth traffic circle. I went around it maybe three times. Finally Abi spoke up and put her vote in for the Rochester/concord turn off. That made sense to me- concord was at least in the right direction. I think.

Well, shortly after taking that turn off (which was onto 16/4 and some other highway) I saw blue lights in the rear view mirror. I pulled over. The cop came up and started the whole "Where did you come from, where are you going tonight?" questions. When I told him I was trying to get to Exit 4 on 93 he looked at me like "Are you serious?" and said "Your not even close."

"Yes, yeah, I know- I was going north, I knew that was important but I wanted to get over to 93. I couldn't find where to get over..." He asked me what I had in the bag in the back.

"Some presents, and OH- can I get out to show you?" he said I could, so I got out, pulled the seat forward and continued "Tthis really cool Cat in the hat hat...my friend made it- out of Duct Tape!"

He was quiet and a little confused for a second, but quickly regained his composure. "So thats not 5 pounds of dope in the hat?"

"Nope, just a hat."

In truth I had been tempted to make a joke back, saying something like "Five pounds? Ha, thats ten at least!" But in the end I decided against it. Probably one of my better choices.

He took my license and registration (the latter of which I had to explain was not in my name yet because I had just bought the vehicle) and went back to the cruiser. Abi noticed that another one had pulled in behind me with its lights off for backup. She looked in the mirror.

"I think their laughing."

The first cop probably told the newcomer where I was trying to go. See, I'm good for a laugh even for cops on the beat. While we were waiting I said "Abi, I don't think I was speeding." She said that she was pretty sure I wasn't and that maybe they pulled me over for swerving around while I was trying to find out where to go.

Finally the officer walked back up to the truck and handed me my stuff back.

"Do you need directions?"

I consented that I did and he gave me them. Before I left, I asked

"Officer- why was I pulled over? I wasn't speeding was I?"

"Yeah you were. Its 35mph right here. You were doing 65."

Surprised, I asked "But- isn't this part of the highway?"

"Technically no. Its an in-between, and its residential. There are some houses over there, but its right between highways so its sort of confusing. " With that, he let me go. Thank God. If you had seen it, you would be utterly confused too. It looks (at least at night) like part of the bloody flaming highway. Double the speed limit is not good for your record. Yeesh. My guess is that he only used that as an excuse to get me over so he could see what I was up to. He didn't even give me a warning- I don't think he cared. But crazy, nonetheless.

Wedensday
The officer told us it would be over an hour to where we wanted to go. At this point, it was already about 12:30. Great. I needed to call work to let them know, so I went for my PDA but I didn't have it. I had left it at the G's. Double great. I had to call... so, I called my dad and woke him up we told him what was going on. He looked up the number for me and I called it to tell them I had just gotten un-hopelessly lost and wouldn't be there till later.

From their, I drove on for a very long time. I was quite tired. Though I tried to avoid it, I blinked out once or twice. I got a latte at one of the junctions, and that helped a bit. Abi got dropped off at 1:44. I then turned right around and hightailed it to work to arrive at just a little later then 2. Dan said "I can't believe the governor got lost in his own state." Ha.

Work that day was very tired. After running in and making sure nothing major was dying, the first thing I did was make a cup of dark coffee. I would be back to the cafeteria often during my shift, but they didn't do much. One thing I had to do took a little longer then normal because I kept waking up in the middle of it and had to double check what I had just done. I couldn't dare sleep longer then a few seconds though- I'd usually wake up to Dan or Tony chuckling. I didn't want to know what they would do if I fell asleep for longer then a minute. Glue me to my chair, most likely. Maybe staple my pants to the floor. I couldn't risk it.

After what seemed a very long time, I arrived home at 9:20ish.

Waking hours at this point: Over 48.

I was a little tired. BUT. I had an appointment. I had rescheduled a little get together with my friend Brandon to Wednesday after I couldn't make it at the last second before. He needed a monitor and a crossover cable and some help installing stuff. I went over and worked on it with him till about 12. Or maybe I got home at 12. I dunno; it all gets foggy there. Either way, when I finally gone to sleep I had gone about 50 hours with out serious shut-eye. Ahhhyeah!

Suffice to say, I slept pretty good. I woke up at about 9:24pm- which was great. I got up and went to work.

The more observant of you will be realizing that I don't normally go to work so "early". That is true. My boss's boss was bringing in a little Italian food as a thank you to the night team, and he said anyone that wanted to have it could come in at 10:00. It would be overtime. How sweet is that? Paid overtime + food. Y to the UM! I ate food, and worked into Thursday morning.

Thursday
After I got home, Abi called. Operation "Escort" was a go. I asked her when I had to be in the parking lot.

"1:45."

"I'll be there." I said as I hung up the phone. Since it was already 10:30ish, I decided to stay up. I shaved, freshened up and figured I could get some last minute holiday shopping in then come back, get some stuff and go to Agape. "Hmm, better bring Kiaya's gift just in case you don't have time to come back" I thought to myself. By the time I parked at Wal-mart, I realized I had grossly estimated my time. It was 12:20- I should be leaving now. I got back in the truck without entering the store, and quickly made my way towards 93. After I had gotten on 93 for a few miles, a sudden panic shot through me. "The gift!" I realized as I searched frantically in the seats, "I left it by the door!"

Sadly, I hadn't a cell phone. All that was to be done was for me to rush towards home. I turned the truck around and doubled back. I got home about 1:20, rushed in, found the gift and called Brad's cell. I talked to him for a sec and asked if I should meet them at the airport directly. It was funny; I talked to him and Abi for a few minutes and they talked entirely in code. First brad was like "The eagle hasn't left yet." And later Abi said something about "The mustard seed is departing." Anyway, it ended up that I was able to make it to MHT on time. Brad, Hannah and Abi were waiting outside the airport door for me very nicely. I had my hat on.

"Take that off! We have to sneak by them up to the food court." I did as I was requested and obscured the hat to the other side of my person. Kiaya and her brother were still checking in, and we exploited the distraction to get ahead of them and into position. Now, we waited.

Kiaya and fam came up pretty soon and she was apparently totally surprised. It was great. We hung out and chatted (Though I stayed in a McDonalds line for far to long only to find out they had totally forgotten about me) until she had to leave. We did our families tradition of stalking the person to the last possible moment. Then the rest of the Core went to Agape, and I headed home. But I stopped at some stores first (Christmas shopping). I roamed the halls of wal-mart and the mall with my huge cat in the hat hat (CITAH from now on) and I enjoyed the responses. Some people would do a sublte double take, not wanting to look stare. Others would turn a corner and start laughing mid sentence. Alot of mothers out with their little children would point up to me like I was a show in the circus. "Look honey, do you see that? Is it the cat in the hat? Yeah!" To which I would smile, and tip my hat. One big guy I almost ran into turning a corner just had this look of awesome admiration and said totally seriously "Cat in the hat- how ya doing?" to which I replied fine. I felt that the gift itself not only was "Kiaya" in the design, but continued to express herself through it. Maybe its the lack of sleep talking, but I could see her getting a kick out the reactions.

That was the good part, but when I'm tired, I get cranky pretty easy. I didn't get hardly anything, at the stores and one of the only things I did get I was growing anxious about, wondering if it was any good. I thought maybe I had been pressured into making a last minute choice that no one would admit to not liking even if they truly didn't care for it at all. Then I got home, and waited a bit for dad to come home so I could talk to him about truck stuff... only to find out he was going to be running errands late. I went to bed finally at 6:00pm- way to late.

Friday
I woke up to my dad's voice saying something. It was saying alot of stuff before I was coherent. I was trying to figure out why he woke me up. I looked at the clock- 1:39. It took a few seconds to register. Finally, my dad's voice came in clear:

"Tony called and wanted to know whats up with you. Your supposed to be there."

CRAP. I looked up at my dad and held my little brothers alarm clock.

"Dad, I brought two alarm clocks so this wouldn't happen. TWO!" I said in frustration as I jumped up and got dressed. It turns out later that someone must have fussed with the switches on my main alarm- it was set to radio, which doesn't work. I don't know why the other one didn't work.

I was at work by 2. Stupid eewah... sleeping in. Between this and the Portsmouth incident, there goes most of my overtime. This time after I got home and ate, I slept.

And that, my friends, was my week.

Oh, and by request: "Merry Christmas" gosh!

Yeesh!

Pictures next post guys.- Honest. :) Hold me to it.