Back from vacation

Hey folks, I have a lot of news and posts and stuff.....and stuff. I am also trying to catch up at work from my five day vacation. Stay tuned and I'll have them up today and tomorrow with a ton of pictures!

Weird quotes from work 5-21-2007 edition 2

"Arrrrrg!!!!!!!......That's it! Computers suck! Susan put in an order for twenty abacuses' for everybody!"

Weird quotes from work 5-21-2007

"Wow, that's about as innovative as Mime Porn-o"

Upgrading my super calculator

I think it was four years ago! That is how long it has been since my computer got its last upgrade, not counting the time I got a new hard drive. I got the hard drive cause my other one kicked the bucket. So that doesn't really count.

Anywho, I assume it is way over due for some TLC for "HAL" the computer. I noticed it was laggy when I play Civ4 or run a newer video file. Also my work is starting to use both Office XP and Office 2007. Which means I might want to upgrade so I can work from home.

So I started to put together a list of the stuff I have to upgrade in order to get my system "up to specs". This time I am going AMD, here are the ordered items:

1. Mother Board: Foxconn NF4SK8AA-8KRS Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD
2. Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Toledo 2.2GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939
3. Video Card(s): BFG Tech BFGR76256GSOCE GeForce 7600GS 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 (qty 2)
4. Power Supply: LOGISYS Computer PS575XBK ATX12V 575W Power Supply 100-120V/ 200-240V cUL, FCC, CB, CE, CSA

I am going to keep using my SATA hard drive and attempt to use the same RAM (Older DDR) in the hopes that this mother board is backwards compatible.

I managed to keep this order under $500 and my wife seems to be ok with all this. She has been really patient with me lately. I have spent a couple of thousand dollars on tools and house stuff and I know she is getting really scared of the amount of money coming out of the account. Hell, who could blame her?!?

Reminds me... I need to do the dishes, take out the garbage and give her a night off from the kids and laundry. This week might be mommy's week off!

Feral Children

Ok folks, short post this morning. I got a ton of work to do and a forecast to spin out before I can start trolling the web again. In the mean time here is a site that is a good time waster. Fun reading too!

Feral Children

The Office Predator

It hasn't even been an hour and there is already weird going-ons in my office. And no I am not talking having to change my password or butt-heads with the I/T guys to get them to....you know...actually do some work.

No, I am talking like supernatural stuff here. I keep hearing this strange noise......it is like a long drawn out series of small clicks. I get the sense that something is hunting me. I am seeing a blur in my peripheral vision and I am finding little stacks of dollars bills that make a trail into a dark part of the building.

We found one co-worker dead in the bath room. Hung upside down and skinned! Someone spotted the killer. I was able to draw this to help search for this Office Predator!

The Reverends Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton

There was a great post over a Steve Jones' blog just the other day. Here is the link to the post: The Link.

And here is the post, if you get a chance. Head over to his blog and rummage through his other postings. I envy his wit and writing ability.


The Reverends Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, while visiting a primary school class, found themselves in the middle of a discussion related to words and their meanings.

The teacher asked both men if they would like to lead the discussion of the word "tragedy". So the illustrious Rev Jackson asks the class for an example of a "tragedy".

One little boy stood up and offered: "If my best friend, who lives on a farm, is playing in the field and a runaway tractor comes along and knocks him dead, that would be a tragedy."

No," says the Great Jesse Jackson, "that would be an accident."

A little girl raised her hand: "If a school bus carrying 50 children drove over a cliff, killing everyone inside, that would be a tragedy."

I'm afraid not," explains the exalted Reverend Al. "That's what we would call a great loss. " The room goes silent. No other children volunteered.

Reverend Al searches the room. "Isn't there someone here who can give me an example of a tragedy?"

Finally at the back of the room little Johnny raises his hand. In a stern voice he says: "If a plane carrying the Reverends Jackson and Sharpton were struck by a missile and blown to smithereens that would be a tragedy."

Fantastic!" exclaims Jackson and Sharpton, "That's right. And can you tell me why that would be a tragedy?"

"Well," says little Johnny, "because it sure as hell wouldn't be a great loss, and it probably wouldn't be an accident either!"

Constitutionaly confused

Here is a great post about simple misunderstanding about our 2nd amendment protected right to carry firearms.

Link: Munchkin Wrangler on the 2nd amendment

Special thanks to Marko for writing this

Not so truckin' anymore part 2

Hrmmmmm.....well I read the comments some of you left behind and I can see where that would cause a CD not to work in the truck. So working of your advice I burned a back up copy of music that I hold a license for and tried it in the truck.


*WRRRRRRRRRRR* Unreadable CD

Keep in mind that this a used truck so I am going to chalk this up in the "Dead CD player bucket". Time to call my "dealer" and ask him how to start working under the warranty so I can get it replaced.

Oh, by the way. The left back window got left down and we had a heavy rain storm last night. I am having a bad morning. *Grumpy*

*GASP*....Internet connection! Finally!

Sweet Mary mother and Joseph. I am about as happy as Michael Jackson at Chucky Cheese! I finally got my computer wired to the house router.

Took about 4 hours, two holes in the floor joist, 25 feet of network cable, and two network wall plates....and in the end here I am posting....first try mind you. Fear my network cabling skills.

Next time on this old trailer, well show you how to wire an extra plug, an additional phone jack, est. a central phone distribution, and wire the trailer for whole house networking. Stay tune kids!

old post from old blog

I went over to the old blog and read what I have written over the last year. I can see where my writing is improving and I am able to communicate my thoughts a little bit better. I am no where as good as some as these professional bloggers are but at the very least I am improving.

Anywho, I moved a few posts that I found worth keeping over to this blog and deleted the rest. Now the old blog is a re-direction post over to here.

So...enjoy and I can't wait to read your comments :)

Honey do list

In keeping my promise, here is the list of things to do around the house:

1. Wife and mother want a deck with a second story observation deck
   
2. I need to brick up the skirt before I make a deck
3. I need to realign the driveway since half of it is on the neighbors property
4. Fix the driveway retaining wall
   
5. Network the house
6. Establish a structured wiring with junction box
   
7. Fix the electrical sockets in the master bath and in the mothers room
8. Fix the electrical socket outside
9. Put in new 1" wood frames for both entry doors
10. Weatherstrip all the windows and doors
    
11. Get new screens for almost all the windows
12. Install light switches for the master closets instead of those stupid pull-chains
13. Install light switch for the pantry instead of that stupid pull-chain
14. Make a bookshelf for the small library that we have
15. Organize my shed
16. Dig out the rock in the back yard (another soon to be post)

I am going to stop there...

Children of the corn

When I lived in Austin Major and Austin Minor (Round Rock) there were your fair share of crazy people. Now that I am living outside of the city...sometimes crazy follows you. So, I have a pretty odd cast of characters in my neck of the woods. I have Son of Sam pulling crop patterns for his alien race with his riding lawn mower. I've got the Evil Knievel twins spraying rocks and dust over the old people in the neighborhood with their dirt bikes/ATV.

And now we have .......... the Children of the Corn!

About half a mile down the road from me is this huge plot of land. Totally covered in trees, high bushes, and other what not. Totally......blending in, except for the people that live there.

Every morning I see the people that live there, standing by the road waiting for the school bus. I see mom, I see dad, I see another mom and another dad and then I see all the children. Kind of creepy but then...They all have blond hair and blue eyes. Very pale skin and all.....

Creep factor raised when the local pest extermination truck that I see around town pulled into the plot and one of the dads got out. The name of the pest extermination....."White Knight Pest Extermination".

Lord have mercy, this is going to problem in the future for me. I'll have to get a star of David decal for my truck. If you know me then you know that I love to cause trouble and well ....... theres all sorts of crazy here.

Adventures in legal land

Odd thing happened on the way to work today. Just down the road from me there were five sheriffs parked all in a circle jerk. Driving further down the road I was passed by two more sheriffs on their way to the circle jerk.

The only thing I can think of is that a family of Mexicans were(/was?) living in a house right where the circle jerk was happening. But now that I think about it...the sheriffs have been casing out that part of the neighborhood for the last two weeks or so.

odderly

Not so truckin' anymore

Well....since I now have a truck it was about time to put the mark of the State on it. I went down to the TxTag office to get my little sticker for being a good boy.

and well...you just can't stop there if a major electronic store just haaaaaappens to be right next door. So two Johnny Cash CD's later I am on the road!

With shaking hands of a 12 year old at Christmas unwrapping the box he knows is his BB rifle or maybe that of a crack addict....I unwrapped my JC album and popped it into the CD player of my truck.

*wwwrrrrrrrrr* and it gets spit back out with 'CD is unreadable"

So I try again.....*wwwrrrrrrrrr* *sigh*

So my CD player doesn't work and I can't get rhythm that JC has. At least not in the truck...for now.

Truckin' part 3

I bought it.....

You should see the smile on my face. Pics will follow soon

Guajillo tree/bush

Heh, I started a post about my xeriscaping project with the Guajillo bush and I go lost in some long rant about all the projects that I have on my plate. So now lets focus on the Guajillo bush post and I can talk about my projects in an another post.

Ok so xeriscaping is one of my projects for the house. I really don't like to water my lawn and I'll admit I like the idea of having efficiencies in my works. Even if it comes from my landscape. Not to mention that most of the xeriscaping down here in Texas involves using native plants which are already hardy, drought tolernt, and resistant to diseases.

Enter the Guajillo bush

It is a large bush/small tree that grows 9' to 15' wide and 9' to 15' tall. It provides a medium density growth which makes it perfect for a privacy bush. It also emits a soft vanilla small when its buds a blossoming. Finally, its pods can be used to make a sweet jam or its pollen....one or the other.

I picked this pant cause it is safe for the kids, smells nice, meets my xeriscaping demands, and makes a fine privacy bush.

Somewhere down the line I can do a complete write up on the bush, how to plant it, and how to maintain it. With pictures of course!

Next I am going to be working on those damn Cedars and replacing them with Live Oak.

Truckin' part 2

Update on the truck........its still sittin' in the parking lot. HA!

No, seriously. Wife and I decided that we are going to buy it. After all the shopping we have done over the last two weeks and stuff, this is the truck we both want.

We have also had a couple of banks trying to draft loans for us. We finally accepted an offer that we like and will pick up the check after work.

We also now have insurance on the truck as of ten minutes ago.

Last thing to do is to have the dealership cough up the title and we are groovy!

Excuse me as I squeal in the corner with the delight of a truck fan boy.

Weird quotes from work

"Yeah, I was totally thinking about a full body shave."


*shutters*

Gone truckin'

Sitting in the parking lot here at work is the Chevy 2007 that we might be buying soon.

We went to an auto dealer that is pretty far off from the main city. The salesman, Mike, is a country boy auto mechanic turned to the dark side of the auto industry. Still, I have respect for techs of all breeds.

I know that techs (being a former tech) are very literal and consider it a black mark on our honor not to give accurate information. Unlike a true sales man who would sell his grandmother to the Mexican sex slave market for a high margin sale.

Anywho, Mike is letting us drive the truck for a day to see if it is really something we like. To be honest, I kind of do like the truck. All but the turning radius is just fine and dandy. Seats the family well, has a respectable bed size, moves nicely and is a comfortable ride.

I took my mother for a test drive up one of the nameless roads around the house. Even she, miss "I-know-absolutely-nothing-about-cars" was very impressed with everything!

Well, I just blue blooked the trucks value and we are getting a great deal on it. Also just finished an auto check on the truck and that also comes back cleaner than a hippies colon on chaff wheat diet.

Aaaannd...yup Consumer Reports doesn't have a recent report on the 2007 model but the comments from owners indicate that this is a good truck.

Only thing left is to take it to the mechanic but I am debating if I should since it still has either a 3 or 5 year warranty....any thoughts on this?

Talladega talent pool

My wife and I discovered the second most popular method of personal transportation in my neighborhood. The first method is tailgating with your truck.

The second most favorite method is a riding lawn mower. Seriously! In the month that we have lived there it is almost a daily event to see some scrawny teenager (possible future homicidal serial killer). Perched on a lawn mower seat like some sort of gargoyle just coasting along down the street.

The more well off kids in the neighborhood have ATV's. I can hear them from time to time racing up and down the hill next to me. Hell, yesterday one hauled arse around a corner, fished tailed his ATV and made a cloud of dust and flying rock, straightened out and took off....all on purpose. He knew what he was doing.....he knew how to do it....and he must have been at least ten years old.

I was in awe......and jealous

Not just 100 yards down from Evil Knievel III was another little kid zipping out of his driveway onto the road on his dirt bike.

If you ever want to know where Nascar/Indy 500/Son of Sam goes for their talent pool.....it's right here in my neighborhood.

E-mail thingy

Let's start off by admitting it is strictly for my ego...the e-mail subscription box to the left. But it is not entirely for my ego. See I also care about my readers, which right now is just my mother. So I wanted a function that allowed my readers (mom) to have a notification in their e-mail in box when I got to scribbling words.

I've also been meaning to add some other bloggy goodness to the Hill Country Blogger blog. Mostly eye candy and maybe some other functions that could draw some traffic.

I really don't know why I want traffic other than to know that my writings are being read by other people. Why does this matter? Beats the tar out of me

The Martini Procrastination

Monday was about prep'ing the house for the cabling for the home network. I had it all planned out. I would take off a skirt panel near one of the phone jacks in one of the target rooms. Then I would determine how to remove the under-paneling for the floor. Then determine how to locate the floor joist thingy and determine how to fine the phone jack location from there.

So what actually happened?

Martini.........

So I ended up moving the reclaimed brick into piles while I stewed in my intense buzz. I wasn't about to crawl into a cramped area in that condition.

OH GOOD NEWS! Wifey and I are heading out to shop for a pick-up truck after work! I wanted a Dodge but I think she has her heart set out for the Chevy. I tried to tell her that they found the Chevy by the levy but it's not use. She gets what she wants and I am totally cool with that :)

Loud Office Lady

Grrr.....

I want to take a poll... How many of you "Enjoy hearing someone talk on their cell phone as if they are attending a rock concert"?

• I wub to soooooow much!
• Sure, I can give some tolerance to this
• Not sure
• I frown at such action
• I'm gonna shove that damn phone up her over powdered nose and pull the antenna through her eye socket.

P.S. No, I do not know why blogger is making little flowers out of my bullet points.

First BBQ

Well I have officially christened the property! We had our first BBQ on Sunday!

I got a bag of wood chips, I hate charcoal, and started up the BBQ grill. My mother and wife also decided this was a wonderful idea and loaded me up with 4 steaks, a large chicken breast, 5 beef franks, 6 hamburger patties.

2 hours of BBQ mayhem!

Judging by the clouds I moved the BBQ grill and lawn table to the car shanty and other than a slight drop or two it was pretty much not an issue. It did provide for a nice humid day which is nice for BBQ I suppose.

One side effect from BBQ is that mosquitoes will NOT bother you. I did enjoy this little event in ultimate ease. Sitting back, BBQ filling the air, birds chirping, eyes closed....and the sound of a shrilled little voice "I'll put out the fire daddy".

WTF....! Damn it he is doing it again! Seems my son doesn't get the concept of a BBQ. He thinks that fire is bad and must be put out with dirt from his brand new shovel....and the food is still on the grill.

I managed to get the shovel from him just before our food would have had a nice glaze of dirt de jour.

We also had our first yard wrestle! My son thought it would be funny to act like a super hero and use his super punch to defeat me. A grab of the wrist, a slight chop to his arm pit and a leg trip to the ground and evil has won the day! I guess daddy never told his son about his Kung-Fu training. All in due time....all in due time.

Wrestling did ensue.....quite the little fighter in him.

Wireless is not the way to go

Well dang nab it! this weekend was suppose to be about me crawling under the house and installing network cable. I had planned to drill 1/4 or so holes going in the base boards and all to run phone and network cable. But I listened to others and thought that wireless would be faster, cheaper, and easier.

*Side note: I already have a wireless router. It drops connections faster than Paris Hilton can drop a line of coke.

Easier, yes it was easier...if you don't count that I had to run to the store to get network cards as I found out my mother does NOT have a on-board network interface. I thought those were standard with computer from 2000 on up...which may lead to another story some day down the road.

Cheaper, Almost....by a few bucks. For the wireless option, the new router cost me $60 and the two network cards cost me $19 each (but don't quote me on that yet). The wired option starts at $26 x 2 for the network cable (100 ft each). Plus the RJ-11/RJ-45 (Phone/Network) jacks cost me $8 @ a qty of three.

- Wireless: $98

-Wired: $92

Hmmmmm....now that I have done the numbers it does look like wired is cheaper. I still need to buy RJ-11 cable to run from the demarcation box to my previously planned network junction box. Not to mention AWG-22 (I think) Black/white/ground wires to said junction box. But still.....The cost looks almost marginal and I get the reliability of cabled network. And hey, those wires run like 19¢!

Faster, Considering the opportunity cost here. Had I fallin' back on my project management skills I would have "costed" out the project, calculated the opportunity cost, built my time lines, and assessed the risk. Big fat "L" on my forehead. I know better and I got caught up in the easy solution.

So as of faster... Considering that I now wasted a perfectly good weekend and my schedule for this week looks full. I might get small 1 hour breaks to pick away at the first option. Delaying the whole "project" by a week. Not to mention that my wife is getting a little P.O'ed every time I say "Well, I have to go to Lowes...."

She's threating to give them a picture of me and telling them to cut me off.

Is their a home improvement anonymous group in the Leander area?

The Interweb!

w00t! DSL modem arrived Wednesday! I tripped over the water soaked box on my way into the house during the monster storm we were having. Lucky for ATT and my sanity that it was wrapped in plastic!

I got it all setup last night....and checked my gmail and went to bed. Doesn't sound like a guy that has been internet deprived for over a month now does it?

Anywho, I'll be running a phone cable from the demarcation box to the master closet. It is the center most location in my house. Where I will be creating a junction with a phone jack, power outlet, modem holder, router holder, and line outs for several CAT5 cables.

A lofty task for this weekend but it should be well worth it to have the house networked.

Since I am still looking for the charge to the digital camera, I got a few extra disposables for pics during the project. Stay tuned kiddos! You get to watch first hand how a man screws himself out of home owners insurance!

Troll way

So I live far away from people...on purpose! It also means I drive far to get to work. It is beautiful drive and I do enjoy seeing the sun come up over the valley but damn. It is about 45 minutes each way and with all the stop lights I eat about quarter of a tank everyday.

So I broke down and sold my soul to TxDOT and their cronies,the CTRMA. I am now offically a "Toller". Here is a pic of my own personal little Satan on my window. A daily reminder of who I really work for.


I haven't done the math on this one but it seems like it saved about 15-20 minutes off my trip. I may hold an official time study of the tr183a/tr45 route. I'll need to record gas used and time taken and compare that with the cost of tolling.

P.S. gov. Perry, just because you won this doesn't make you any less then a grade "A" arse. You can bet that I'll never vote Republican again...or Democrat since you folks didn't even cough when this troll business was all going on.