Weekend Wupdate

You ever have those weekends that end up being surprisingly productive?

With that piano sitting in my living room, space here is at a premium. Using Your Shape:FE carried a bit of risk with it. The left side was ok, with a space between the end of the couch and the recliner, but off to the right was the piano. It sat directly along the outer edge of the play space. Maybe even a little inside it. So kicking out to the right required shifting over to the left.

That problem has been solved.

There was a little built in desk that took up a good chunk of the living room space, considering the chair clearance and desk itself. I don't think it's ever been removed, since they first installed it. It uses those stupid oblong proprietary fasteners that can be removed with just the right size flat head screwdriver and some cramped muscles.

So with that out of the way, I shifted the piano over making a clear space off to the right. As small as that desk is, it's remarkable how much more open the living room seems with it gone. They replaced the carpet at some point in the long-ago past, but they were lazy and didn't move the desk. So there's a beautiful patch of green shag carpet peeking out from under the piano now.


You might be wondering what I've done for computer space. Well, I am probably overloading a circuit in this high-quality trailer of mine. I've wanted to test my 47" LCD for it's computer compatibility for a while now and have been pleasantly surprised. Even at full-screen, Netflix has decent quality and now I can watch Hulu, Youtube, and news sites. The TV is a Sharp and does a good job at boosting the signal from the PC.

Here's my new home office:

Right now I have an older 5.1 Sony receiver, BD player, Xbox 360, wireless router, subwoofer, PC, Kinect, and the LCD all plugged into the same surge protector. Nothing's popped yet, probably because I don't have everything turned on, but I will not be surprised if it does anyway.

See that new 'desk' I made? Back when I was a kid, my parents had one that we stashed under the couch. It was very handy. Great as a TV dinner tray or coloring desk. I made one out of a decent piece of finished plywood. For now it's just cut out and sanded down, but I'll have the girlies paint it someday.

I splurged on that wireless keyboard/mouse set. It works good, but I have a complaint for Logitech. I expected it to have a fairly short range. Somewhere between 5 & 10 feet. But the help contents say something about a potential range of 30 feet. My entire house is only 40 feet long. But it lied! The website says that max range is around 6 feet, which seemed more reasonable, and that's about how far it works, but still...they got my hopes up.

I don't mind. The chair can be far enough away and still allow reasonable distance from the TV. A little closer than they recommend, but only by a couple of feet.

Then on top of that was a broken valve on the fire sprinkler system at work, which hit around 6:30pm on Saturday, starting a series of events including 2 trips to work, 5 fire trucks, phone calls with 2 plumbers, a visit by the plumber on Sunday, and me doing some work on Sunday while I waited for him because it can't wait until Monday since it was supposed to freeze on Sunday night. At least it wasn't pouring water onto the shop floor like it did last time.

So did you do anything productive this weekend?

Saturday Scavenger Hunt - Start

A synonym of 'start' is 'beginning', and that's probably closer to what my photo is about.

This building is very near my work. They're closing soon, hence the for sale sign. Off in the background is a new building being constructed. It's an extension to a satellite farm just to the right.

I thought of this as a start in different ways. The building in the back is the start of a new venture for that company, the start of a new job for some people, and the start of more traffic in our neighborhood.

The building in the front is an ending in most ways, but it's also the start of new adventures for those people looking for new work. Maybe not a fun adventure, but an adventure none-the-less. If the building is sold, it may be the start of a new business and different opportunities.

Haven't seen any other Scavenger posts yet, but hop on over to Eclectic Spaghetti to check for yourself. Please comment here and post a link to your shot. Thanks!

Wordless Wednesday

Now don't get too excited. This was played on Hard and too be honest, I don't think I danced any better than for the first score. I'm sure anyone who wants to can beat this too.

I mean, hey, I only hit 97% of the moves... :)

EDIT: Trying out Groovesharks music widget, rather than using youtube.

I'm tellin' ya....Peril....as in danger

Why do I still get surprised?

I keep telling myself that I don't expect her to change, but maybe I do? A parent expects their kids to grow up, but if they don't, don't they usually stop at some point? Stop being surprised and stop trying to force them to grow up.

I know she's under some financial stress, but....

..but it's not all my fault.

She insists that it's all my fault.

No, I'm not exaggerating. All. As in everything. Everything from her current financial state, to the fact that she quit her "only good job", to the $6,000 in bills she's accrued over the last 4 months..

Take a wild guess as to what that "only good job" was.

Yes, the used car sales job. The one where she owed money when she quit.

No, I'm not joking.

And how do you accrue $6,000 in past due bills over 4 months, when you got almost that same amount from me and your monthly bills barely add up to that?!! And you have a job!!

I've never met anyone who was so adamantly opposed to taking responsibility for anything. It's kind of amazing. And sad.

It's the conversations that really get to me. Remember that age old saying, "You get more flies with honey than with vinegar." What about shit? Flies like that. Maybe that's what she's going for. Her statements to me are riddled with accusations, off the wall rants, and just plain irrelevance. How can she expect anyone to want to talk to her when she does that? I've mentioned before that she goes through friends like trashbags. Why do I think that will change?

I still hope she does change. For her and our girls' sake. She insisted on having this latest 'conversation' with the girls there. I know I was a captive audience because I was waiting for something, but that doesn't make it right.

In my mind, it's a glaring neon bright sign saying that sooner or later, the girls are going to see her petty, unforgiving, and just plain mean attitude. And they aren't going to like her for it.

I'm climbing an uphill battle here folks. That battle is making sure my girls don't continue the same cycle that their mom is continuing from her mom and probably her grandma.

I know God heals all. I've been praying for a miracle for a long time now. Which ever way it goes will be according to His plan, but that doesn't mean I have to be patient about it or like it...



I considered closing this crap post to comments, but if anyone wants to rant with me, have at it.

A weekly dose of musical culture - Trance

Ready for your next new music experience?

Trance.

Trance is an electronic form of music. When it first became popular, it was generally created with a combination of drum machines, synthesizers, and mixers. You wouldn't see that at a show, as it's DJ'd with turntables and all that but any more it's computer generated or at least computer controlled.

There is a huge representation of trance DJ's in North America, but the Netherlands probably has the highest concentration of famous DJ's, at least in names I recognize, like Armin Van Buuren, Tiesto, Afrojack, and Headhunterz, to name a few.

Trance is a large genre, containing a lot of sub-types, with hard trance and acid trance on one end and ambient trance on the other. There is a lot of cross-over between other genres, like pop, indie, and rock. Some people might not associate vocals with trance but that's not really the case. There is a lot of trance that does not have vocals, but there is a lot with vocals too.

In my experience, trance is very open ended. Wikipedia says it's "generally characterized by a tempo of between 120 and 145 bpm" which may be it's only cohesive characteristic.

Hard Trance is probably what most people think of when they hear of trance. Fast, with a lot of drums, and no vocals. Not my favorite, but something I'd listen to when I want to drive fast.

On the other end of the spectrum is one of my favorites called "In and Out of Love" by Armin Van Buuren. A lot more like pop music. Something I think a lot of you will enjoy too. I really like it when professional DJ's have female singers do the vocal work. Sexy.

Trance DJ's do a lot of remixing too. Pick your favorite song and there is probably a remixed version somewhere.

If you like this, check youtube for artists like Tiesto, Paul Van Dyk, ATB, or Paul Oakenfold (he's got a fun one called Ready Steady Go, featured in The Bourne Identity. Weird video.)

Enjoy. Hope you learned something new today.


If you'd like a certain type of music featured, just let me know. If I don't know what it is, I'm sure I'll have fun researching it!


disclaimer - I am in no way shape or form an expert on trance. Or any type of music for that matter. I just listen to it some times. Feel free to correct me if necessary.

C'mon N' Ride It

Aight you Dance Central Playa's.

C'mon N' Ride It - I scored 549,708 points on easy. How 'bout you?



This is not me:

They did it on Hard.

This Kinect is fun. We're having some trouble with the face recognition for E (my 4 yr old.) I think we can take care of that with more front lighting. Otherwise it's working good. Cooperation is certainly something we'll have to work on. A (my 6 yr old) gets pretty frustrated with anyone she's playing with if they don't do it right. Good place to practice.

I've been a good boy and worked out 4 times this week with Your Shape Fitness Evolved. It says I burned 572 calories this week. A gamer friend mention that the calorie counts don't compare to some other methods, but I suppose it doesn't matter much. This is my first week back into exercising in about 10 years. The main goal is to get the intensity worked back up and then I'll start adding weights.

Blogfrog review - rewind

So after my less than stellar review of blogfrog, I didn't follow through on my threat to back out. I was curious about the release of their new site and it was kind of cool to join in on the chat. After some very unsuccessful searching for men-like people, a very nice lady opened a thread just to welcome me.

Thank you RedheadRiter, and all those that commented in that thread, for that fantastic welcome.

A few other guys raised their hands there too. 4DAUTRZ, Diplo_Daddy, and Chris.

So now my reader has a fairly respectful group of guy bloggers.

AlienCG - the first blog I ever read
dmarks - I'm a lurker over here
ChopperPapa - motorcycles are cool
SydandDensDad - new to his blog
PapaK - new to his blog
JDB - very new to his blog

I kinda hate to do this, but my reading list is probably going to have to get cleaned up a bit. There are a few blogs in there that I rarely read and never comment at. A couple who haven't posted for months (sorry auntie), and a few that have never been here, so...

So all this means that I have 100 unread posts in my reader now. In a very small way it's kind of nice that we're not super busy at work right now. I'm totally destroying our 'no personal internet usage' policy though.

probably not


not yet anyway

Rant - peril to all ye who enter here

I am so very annoyed right now.

Very frustrated.

With these half-assed processes and programs we have at work.

We can't even properly handle a single friggin purchase order.

By the time we're done processing an order, that order number will have been retyped at least 7 times!!

AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! *ripshairout*








*putshairbackin*

Our stupid design software can't even stack windows right! WHY ARE YOU PUTTING THE PRINT WINDOW BEHIND EVERYTHING ELSE!!!!!

*poundsthecrapoutofkeyboard*



NO I DON'T TO RESTART MY COMPUTER EVERY TIME THERE'S A PROBLEM YOU IDIOT HELP DESK PERSON!!!!



*sleep*

Ok. I wrote all of that yesterday. Rereading it is just reminding me how mad I was. I know, I know, I'm the architect of 80% of these problems. When you don't have any money to spend on a comprehensive order processing program, and have the skills to build decent spreadsheets, that's what you do. Build spreadsheets. Spreadsheet after spreadsheet. The thing about spreadsheets is that they're usually only good for doing one thing. Or a few things, at the most. So at the moment, I have 6 major spreadsheets to handle different order processing functions.

We're getting the job done, but it can be a huge pain sometimes.


So there's my rant for the day. Not too positive so I'll replace it with something better soon.

What's Flamenco?

I was chatting with someone yesterday who asked me what kind of music I like, mentioned Flamenco music, and got a whahuh? There is probably a past post or two mentioning it, but never an example.

I described it as fast Spanish guitar music, but it's just as much a type of dance. If you've seen Mission Impossible II, there's a whole scene that works around a Flamenco dancing troupe. This is that song:

Here is another very nice example:

Very sexy. *spanishaccent*

So there's your daily cultural experience. Enjoy.

The fellow chatter asked if I like Creed. What's Creed?





just kidding

Weird weekend

Before I get into my scheduled topic, I need to give credit where some credit may be due. Remember that girl I told you about, the one with the 3 year old and infant who has a really high Halo rank? Well, since the first time we played together, she hadn't gotten online again until last night. I was probably a little too quick to judge. Sorry about that.



This weekend felt...off. Not sure why but it just seemed like I was only half there. Like there was something I should have been doing, but couldn't remember what it was.

In a nutshell, it was a lazy/quick/expensive/windy/boring/painful/entertaining/lonely with a dash of productive weekend.

I hung a magnetic knife strip to clear some space on my counter. That was the extent of my productivity. I may have cleaned a dish too.

Expensive because I picked up the Kinect and a couple of games.

Entertaining because that's pretty much all I did...entertain myself. Books, movies, games, music.

Windy...well...because it was windy.

Painful because one of the games I picked up for the Kinect is Your Shape Fitness Evolved. It starts you out with a fitness evaluation. Which kicked. my. butt. And it seems I was trying way too hard because it suggested an 'advanced' level for the training program. Dangit. My legs are still sore. Gotta work those toxins out I guess. I'm going to stick with a 3-4 workout/week regimen and aim for an hour a day. All this means is that I decided to skip the gym and go with the Kinect workouts. I also got it because I would really like my girls to do more active things than watch movies when it's 20 degrees outside.

Lonely because I didn't really interact with anyone once my girls left on Saturday morning. Skipped church because I was lazy. I did jump into a room with my regular group of gamer friends in the evenings. So maybe I wasn't a total recluse.

Entertaining in all sorts of ways. Still reading through Lee Childs' Jack Reacher series. Almost finished with the 15 he's written so far. Played some Kinect games, including Dance Central. You are welcome to laugh out loud. I certainly did. My girls are going to get a kick out of that. Went out to see The Green Hornet. Funny movie. Cool car. Stayed in to re-watch GI Joe and Hancock.

Quick because it just seemed to fly by. Part of it may have been because I had the girlies on Friday night. I usually have them on Thursday evenings. Sleeping in until 9 probably didn't help.

Hope your weekend wasn't as disconnected.

This song has nothing to do with anything. I just browsed to it in the Dance Central marketplace.

Oh, and if you know anyone that has a Kinect and hasn't been naked in front of it...they should. It's hilarious.

Blogfrog review

I've discovered blogfrog. (Through BlokThoughts, in case you were wondering...)


I like the concept. It gathers bloggers into communities where most of them focus on a particular topic. It could help me with my blog hunting. 'Blog hunting' is just browsing through follower lists looking for something worth reading. The success ratio is horrible. 6 out of 10 don't even link to their blog (assuming they have one.) Most of those that do link are about things I'm just not interested in, like fashion, mommyhood, crafts, or porn. The crummy thing about that is my interest is piqued only by either the profile picture, description, and/or blog title. Probably not something the average writer focuses on developing to encourage visiting.

It looks interesting. Interesting but intimidating. The estrogen practically oozes out of my monitor when I visit that site. The intro video doesn't really suggest that the site might be for guys either.

There's a live coffee chat thing going on now too. Sponsored by International Delight and hosted by Girlfriendology. Yeah, as much as I like coffee, I will not be joining that chat.

I'm half tempted to post one thing, "are guys allowed in here?" Just to see what would happen.

They'd probably assume I'm homosexual.



Wait! I was just browsing and found another guy!

Oh my goodness. He has another guy on his followers list!

And another! Woohoo!

Ummm...darnit. Not really interested in the content of their blogs. *sigh* One was ok, but it seems he only posts quotes. Huh.

Some cute girls following him though. *clickity*


One cool thing is the homepage, which has 3 panels, scaling left to right, from community, through hot discussions, all the way down to new posts. The last one just continually updates with the latest replies. Never seen that before but it looks useful.

Like I was saying...there is one guy featured in the Hot Community panel. One. And he's probably part of the site development team.

Yeah, I think I may have to slowly back out of that room...

Too much time...on her hands

This is me:


No, really.

Ok fine. It's what my Halo: Reach character looks like. Bungie.net finally got around to making the character picture on my service record page look like the one I built in the game.

I wish it showed off the larger shoulder pad on the right side. Looks professional to have more armor on the leading shoulder.

Yes, I know. I've thought too much about it...


A couple of nights ago the matchmaking system paired me up with another player for some Firefight. (It's a certain type of game...in case you were wondering.) The system was acting up a little. There were 6700 players playing just that game. 6700 people either playing or looking for a game. Even with that many people the system was taking a long time to find people to match up.

Anyway, after waiting 15 minutes (way too long) the system paired me up with one other player. It was supposed to find 3 other players, to make a foursome, but the system recognized how long we had been waiting and just started the game with the two of us.

Both of us had our mic's and headphones on, which doesn't always happen, and we started chatting. Come to find out she lives in the same city I do.

You may not think much of that, but considering the fact that there were probably more than 100,000 players in Halo at that moment, 6700 in that gametype, and the city we live in only has around 60,000 people in it, it's fairly remarkable to get matched up like that.

I started the conversation with a "so where are you from?" She answered with the state she is in and I countered with the city I am in. She didn't say she was from the same city right away, but rather with a "No way!" She thought it was pretty freaky and thought I was creeping on her. Of course I wasn't and she eventually deduced that because she didn't have her location in her bio, it was highly unlikely that had I known her city beforehand.

It's like a 20 minute game so we had plenty of time to get to know each other. Found out a few things. One thing in particular that made it difficult for me to not stereotype her.

- She's married (no problem there)
- moved here 12 years ago from a little podunk town of less than 4,000 people about 70 miles from here (the way she asked her husband, it sounded like they moved together. Ok.)
- has a 3 yr old and a 1 month old (congrats)
- works part time at a local 2nd hand store for kids clothing (one I've been in a few times)
- lives in low-income housing (I was looking for that too)

So after learning all that I really have no stereotype set yet. There was one thing that kind of bothered me though.

She's a General.

Whahuh?

Halo: Reach has a ranking system, similar to the US military. To put it in perspective, I'll compare it to my rank, Colonel Grade 1. To get to Colonel Grade 1, it takes 960,000 points, which a player earns by playing.

It takes 2,000,000 points to get to General. Over twice as much. And she's probably not gaining any more points per game than I am. Maybe even less because she's not any better than I am. That means she's spending a lot of time playing Halo. A lot. How does she do that with a 3 year old and an infant?

Makes me wonder.

Letters from the Editor

Hey belly,

I took my first step in destroying you. Bought a new pair of running shoes. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Yes, I know I had chili cheese fries for lunch. Yes, I know you're not very afraid. Shut up.

Yes, I know I also had a chili polish dog. I said shut up.

Next time,
Mmmmmchilicheesefries



Dear IT guy,

You know I love you Michael. You're a very funny guy and I'm looking forward to a ski trip with you some day. But when I ask for suggestions on how to improve my new awesome spreadsheet, I don't want to break one function just to improve another. And your ending to the conversation, "Well, it does what you want now. You can figure out the rest." What? That just pissed me off.

Sincerely,
Nevergoingtoaskyouagain




Dear building contractors.

Get to work would ya?

Sincerely,
Boredtomoretears




Dear Sid the Science Kid parents,

How much have you spent on batteries in the last month? That kid never puts that microphone down and it always works. And dad, what do you do for a living? You leave the house the same time Sid goes to school and you're there when he gets back. I want that job.

Sincerely,
Dadtoavidfans



Dear Gigapan photographers,

Those pictures are awesome! Not a huge baseball fan, but I really like the World Series....series. To have a combined picture as large as the stadium, yet still be able to zoom in and see the catchers eyes is pretty amazing. I wonder who the unfortunate lady in the game 4 picture is. The lady to the right of the batter, bending away from the camera. Hmmm...who could I FB tag that as...? Hee hee. I'm going to see if it caught anyone picking their nose. And tag them.

Maybe I should start attending baseball games. There are a lot of cute girls in that picture.

Sincerely,
Picturelookeratter




EDIT: I'm neither Fat Bastard or a skiing sumo wrestler. Just sayin'.

The gears are grinding...

Oh, what to post...what to post.

I seem to be going through one of those lazy blogging periods. There are 2 incomplete drafts (not counting this one) setting in my posts list and 193 unread blog posts in my reader. Even trying to comment on posts by my regular readers is falling by the wayside. Sorry about that.

Part of the problem is that I have a lot on my mind. Thoughts about my spirituality, my girls, the stbx, my job, finances, health, and just life in general. I suppose I'm having some trouble with directionality right now.


It's proving difficult to stop thinking of the stbx. We have regular contact. Not every day, but pretty close. The weird thing is that the 'feel' of the interactions alternate between flirting (from her only) and anger or frustration (from her only.) I know what I think about it. I've known for a while that she has some real issues to deal with, but it's hard not to think about it when they rear their ugly head again. It's kind of interesting in it's own sad way.

The worst part of it for me is my reaction. It's hard to ignore it and I've found myself retreating into entertainment (gaming, with trash novel reading coming in a close second) because I don't really want to think about it. I should have something more productive to preoccupy my mind.

Then there are my girls. With my decision to not fight for custody, I'm thinking a lot about their interaction and relationship with their mom. Unless something drastic changes on her end, I suppose I'll be doing clean up for a long time. She doesn't protect them emotionally and it bothers me. It bothers me a lot and I can't talk to her about it. I know this is all for a purpose, but I hate that they have to deal with this.

There's a concept I've heard about. It's called 'breaking the cycle' and in this case it dealt directly with emotional problems and abuse of all kinds in a family. A good friend of ours and I talked about it a long time ago. We were talking about how we thought my stbx was doing just that, breaking the cycle of failed marriages and instability in her family. Thinking back, that was very presumptuous. We presumed she recognized the problem and was dealing with it. We presumed that I would be able to help her take care of the issues she brought to the marriage. We presumed she would be willing to accept that help, if offered.

You know what they say about presumptions....

What about my girls? They're part of the cycle now. The advantage they have, that their mom never had, is a father that recognizes the situation for what it is and is willing to support them. I also recognize that 'willingness' needs to translate into a plan and active engagement.

More stuff to think about.

Just the other day I asked a coworker if he'd ever had one of those days were the mental gears were grinding from shifting too much. He laughed.

I was totally serious.

Hear! Hear! ing

Well, the hearing went as I expected. I'll have to pay a whole $23 more per month that what we'd originally agreed to. It was obviously not what she expected. She almost started crying. I felt kinda bad. We didn't discuss it afterward, but we both think they overestimated her income. It's not that she doesn't make what they figured, it's just not a stable income.

She had the chance to contest it and she didn't. The attorney made it sound like there really wasn't much point, which may have been true, but she may have been able to make a case for reduced income on her part. I almost advised her to contest it and let it go to the judge. Almost. I'm quite surprised how little the child support amount changes because of income changes. For her to see a $100/month increase in child support, her income would have to be half of what they calculated with originally.

I'm guessing that she's not going to get approval for state aid either. Maybe a little for child care and food stamps, maybe.

I just wonder what it's going to take for her to find a cheaper place to live. Her new landlords dropped her rent, which is pretty good for her, but because of the way she mishandles her money it's still more than she can afford. She could get into a brand new apartment and cut her rent almost in half. It's all because of the dog that she stays where she is. I've already suggested the dog stay with me and she can have her whenever she wants. It's not like I really want the dog anyway, but she's such a sweet dog that I'd hate to let anyone else have her.







So that's about it. Nothing's really changed for me except that the hearing's over, which is something of a relief. Now I just have to save the pennies for a divorce.

Randomonday...again

- I know, I know, my last post was a Randomonday. And no, it's not because I've been terribly busy. Mr Lazyass is rearing his ugly head.

- The pipes to my kitchen, washer, and toilet froze early on Friday. -20 windchill will do that. Didn't get everything back until late afternoon on Sunday. It was ok. Had to do some dishes in the bathroom sink and fill the toilet tank with the shower head, but it gave me an excuse to not cook.

- I'm glad I forgot to give the caterer her jalapeno bbq sauce back. That stuff is pretty good. Could use a little more heat though.


- Along with a co-worker, I'm a Champion of our first annual Ping Pong Tournament. Not a bad tourney either. We had eight 2-man teams in a single elimination bracket. If the design manager had drawn a better teammate, or hadn't played us earlier and gotten eliminated, the championship game would have been far closer. As it was, we stomped them. We played to 21 and I don't think they ever got into the double digits.


- When that little voice tells you not to heat the meat up on the sandwich bread, listen. Soggy bread is gross.


- Went to bed around 10pm on New Years Eve. I had the girlies and unless I'm invited to a party or throwing one of my own, I very rarely stay up to ring in the new year.


- Woke up this morning and absolutely did not want to get out of bed. Finally got up about 10 minutes before I had to be at work. I was late because I took my sweet time getting ready and now you know how my year at work has started. It's month end and I have no assistant. Fun fun.

- The hearing to establish child support is tomorrow. Hopefully everything goes smoothly and nothing changes.

- I raise my glass and wish you and yours a fantastic 2011. May you get that big raise (without the promotion) or go on that dream vacation. Cheers!