About two weeks ago we had an unusually cold spell of weather sweep through Oklahoma. During that flap of weather, we discovered our home’s heater was no longer working. Dad and I messed around with it for a few minutes Easter Day before deciding neither of us knew what the problem was. After spending one night too many cuddled around the gas fireplace, we called our local HVAC repairman out to the house.
On the first trip, the repairman said that some part of the furnace had been damaged by
Here are a couple of jokes that took me over 20 years to finally get the punch line.
Joke #1: In the 1936 Three Stooges classic film Disorder in the Court, through a comedy of errors (which pretty much describes every situation the Stooges ever found themselves in) a man's toupee ends up attached to Larry's violin bow (at the 8:30 mark). After Larry mistakes the hair piece for a tarantula, Moe grabs the bailiff's gun and shoots the toupee multiple times. When Larry picks the toupee up from t
A couple of weeks ago, we (the external user provisioning team) needed a projector for our meeting, which we borrowed from PC Service here at work. Along with the projector came three or four different video cables -- VGA to VGA, s-video to VGA, and so on.
Later in the day, one of our friends (Paula) came over and said, "what the heck is this cable?" I am usually pretty good at this game. I've been around computers for so long that I can usually recognize even the most obscure cable ... but
Back when I was four-years-old, I remember watching an episode of The Electric Company that explained how apostrophes worked. The short cartoon involved two words, a bulldozer, and a crane. In the cartoon, two words were pushed together, like DO and NOT. Eventually they would get pushed together so tightly that the lettter "O" would disintegrate, leaving DON(pile of rubble)T. A crane would then pick up a piece of the "O" that looked like an apostrophe, and hang it in the air, spelling "DON'T". T
I'm not into politics much (a quick search of this site turns up one instance each of the words "Obama" and "McCain", an entry last week mentioning political signs), but I guess an obligatory presidential entry is probably expected. So, here it is.
With as little as I know about politics, I have the distinct advantage of viewing each presidential election through the eyes of a complete idiot, or at least those of a naïve child. That being said, once Obama received the Democratic nomination I
Came home the other day, found a note on the front door. "Your gas has been turned off due to a suspected leak. Call us to arrange an inspection. Love, Oklahoma Natural Gas." Turns out, ONG has a courtesy service where they automatically shut your gas off when your bill hits a certain number. Apparently that number is around $500.
ONG was called and the night shift fellow (who was quite friendly) stopped by. He checked our meter and found a tiny leak -- so small, it may be costing us $2/mon
Those of you who remember Mad Magazine may remember a regular feature Al Jaffe used to write titled "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions." In each one there would be a stupid question ("Did you catch that fish?") and then several snappy answers (such as "No, I talked him into giving himself up" and "No, I was sitting here minding my own business when the crazy thing jumped into my pail").
Help me brainstorm snappy answers to the stupid question, "So, is it hot enough for ya?". I've heard thi
This week, I've been working double shifts. From 7:30AM to 4PM, I've been doing my normal work duties (and what a week it's been). From 4PM-midnight and beyond, I've been putting the finishing touches on my new book, Invading Spaces. This last writing push has made me not want to blog much this week, but I thought I owed it to everybody to know where I've been.
My original goal was to finish the book by the 1st of July; that date came and went. My drop dead date was this past Monday; that's
Invading Spaces is complete. So let it be written, so let it be done ... or, something like that.
Completing the book has been very hectic, and I remember Commodork coming together much the same way. Even though it's only been two years between projects, my life has changed a lot during that (relatively brief) span. My kids are getting older and more demanding of my and Susan's time; as a result, finishing Invading Spaces felt like more of a sacrfice than Commodork did. Other than the writin
After four months of sales, the first run of Invading Spaces (100 copies) has basically sold out (I actually have four copies left, for anyone looking for a last minute Christmas gift for that arcade-loving man or woman in your life). I have more copies on the way, but it'll be two weeks before they're here.
Invading Spaces has sold at a slower pace than Commodork did. I don't think this is because Invading Spaces is an inferior book. My biggest problem with Invading Spaces has been marketi
A couple of weeks ago while on vacation, Mason and I snuck away to catch the latest Indiana Jones film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I haven't brought myself to write a full review of the film for Review-o-Matic.com yet and I'm not sure I will. I'm not sure what to say about it -- if you liked the previous three movies and don't mind a greater than normal suspension of belief (even for an Indy film), then this one's a no-brainer. There were a few parts that seemed more of
Yesterday a billboard for a new restaurant caught my eye. The restaurant is called Pole Position -- yes, like the videogame -- and the advertisement promised pizza, drinks, and go karts. I decided to surprise the family for an outing to Pole Position today, so the four of us along with dad loaded up in the car and drove to the new restaurant. Unfortunately when we arrived we found a big "COMING SOON" sign hanging on the door of an obviously unfinished building. It was similar to the end of Natio
(Lucky you -- two updates today!)
Long before Mason was born, I knew that someday Susan and I would be very interactive parents. My parents were both very involved in my early education. My mom volunteered as a homeroom mother every single year. My dad brought our personal computer (a TRS-80 Model III) to my classroom and did a computer demonstration, introducing an entire classroom of kids (and a few teachers) to computers for the very first time. My dad came to school and spoke on career d
Imagine, if you will, the following exchange in a high-level KFC board room meeting.
"Sales are down -- there's no denying that fact. Some of you have speculated that our drop in profits has come from an increase in our customers' nutritional education. Less people are eating fried foods in general. Others of you suspect that the decrease has come from media reports about complaints from PETA, in how poorly we treat our chickens (before we kill them and cook them). But that is not the case.
Shortly after the premiere of 2004's "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story," real dodgeball centers began to pop up across the country. One such center is Maximum Dodgeball, where Mason and I attended his friend Dominic's birthday party on Saturday.
Those of you who attended school in the 70s and 80s like I did (before school districs began banning the game) probably remember playing dodgeball. Teachers saw it as a way for kids to burn off energy and aggression, and we saw it as a way to pu
...does that mean good things do, too?
Picked up my third cabinet in less than a week last night -- Commando, by Data East (1985). It's a dedicated cabinet in great condition with a like new/refurbed monitor. The game looks and plays fantastic; it needs nothing. Years ago when I started collecting arcade games I made a list of "the top 10 games I'd like to own" -- Commando is on that list.
In the summer of 1986 I went on a school trip to Washington D.C. for 4 days. On one of the fo
Five years ago, Susan and I stopped by a thrift store at lunch. At the thrift store, I found a Macintosh computer. The computer was priced .99 cents, and I still couldn't bring myself to buy it. What on earth am I going to do with yet another old computer, I thought. The lady working behind the counter read my mind. "Don't forget, it's half-off Wednesday," she offered. That sealed the deal; I plunked down my fifty-cents, and brought my new (old) Macintosh back to work with me.
Surprisingly,
Just last week while our neighbors to the north were getting their first taste of winter weather, it was still 70 degrees here in Oklahoma. How nice of them to finally share the ice.
Here's the fam and I posing in front of dad's big tree ... or what's left of it. These ice storms are terrible on the trees; the weight of the ice breaks the limbs, sending them crashing into the ground (or occasionally, people's roofs). Dad was lucky (or smart) and paid a tree trimmer just last week to cut
I’ve wanted one for 25 years, and now I have one.
A Mohawk.
(Wow, this is going to take some explaining.)
I should start by saying that to me, hair is just, uh, hair. You wash it, you comb it, you cut it, repeat. I have particularly thick hair that grows rapidly. I’ve never had a bad haircut for more than a week or two; it simply grows out too quickly.
Throughout my life I’ve had many notable “hair adventures”. There was the time Susan and I dyed it blue in honor of Best Buy
Yesterday, our new CIO visited Oklahoma City for the first time. All employees were asked to clean up their work areas and dress nicely. I wore a nice pair of khakis, a dress shirt, and my suit jacket that normally only comes out of the closet for weddings and funerals. For those of you who don't know, I work in a basement behind locked doors; dressing up isn't a typically a job requirement.
If I seemed bitter or sarcastic on Monday, I was. Every time anyone of importance visits our branch,
Last night I got invited to my first work Texas Hold 'Em poker party. I was a little nervous about attending, as I know two or three of the guys attending regularly play poker tournaments at the local casinos. I didn't go in with any intentions of winning. All I really hoped to do was make a good showing. House rules were $20 buy-in, which got you $3,000 in chips. Blinds started at $25/$50, and doubled every 15 minutes.
First hand of the night, I drew an ace/nine. On the flop we saw a pair
I made it! My lapband surgery was a success, and I'm alive and doing well. Thanks to everyone who offered me even the slightest amount of support during this time. The phone calls, e-mails and blog comments were all very kind. Thank you all very much.
My adventure began Monday morning with a 7:15am check-in at the hospital. I had blood work (poorly) drawn by a girl barely old enough to drive. From there it was off to the surgery check-in room, where I was soon met by Susan, and shortly after
Took the boy to go see Iron Man yesterday after school at the local theater. $10 for two tickets, which (I guess) isn't bad these days. Personally I'd rather watch it at home, but the boy's getting wise to me. "How come everybody else gets to see new movies at the theater and we have to watch them at home? And why do all our movies have words at the bottom in other languages and why are people always walking in front of the camera?" I think the real reason he likes to go to the theater is that t
In the movies, crafty computer wizards always have a self-destruct button somewhere on their computer's desktop. Just click a button and POW, all their private data is erased, permanently and instantly removed from existance.
Back in the day, I had one too -- a secret batch file named KILLME.BAT that, if ran, would have performed a quick format of all my computer's hard drives. I had a copy of this batch file on my old BBS computer, ready to run at a moment's notice. Should "the man" have sh
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