Flack

Ol' Santa brought one of Morgan's gifts early ... a case of pink eye. The doctor at the weekend clinic yesterday said it spread from an upper respiratory infection she contracted. So along with some other medicine, we also have to administer eye drops to the 18-month-old. Fun. Last night that involved waking Morg up at midnigt and using a warm cloth to wipe the gunk from her eye so that we could open it and squeeze eye drops into her eyeball. And let me tell you, what child doesn't love being woke from a deep sleep only to have her eye forcibly pried open and filled with medicine. Feliz Navidad, little one. Of course Morgan's sore throat has spread throughout the house. Mason seems to be the only one unaffected, and who knows for how long. Morgan got up for the day at 3am (Susan got up with her). By the time I got up, both kids were awake and Susan was ready for her nap -- and when she awoke, I was ready for mine. Mason took a two-hour nap somewhere in the middle of the day; Morgan had a short one earlier, and needs another one before company arrives in a few hours. Susan just left to run to the store for a few last minute items for our Christmas party tonight. She took Morgan with her, and Mason's asleep. I know the next few minutes will be my last taste of silence for a day or two.

Well, this is almost exactly how I got my system yesterday. My wife was standing in Wal-Mart near the electronics section when she saw someone walking out with a PS3. When she asked the man about it he said they just put 3 on the shelf seconds ago. My wife walked over and picked the second one up, and the third one was gone a few seconds after that. Right place, right time I guess. The OKC Craigslist has PS3s for right around cost that aren't selling. The people that held on to them this long may end up putting them under their trees.

There's a fellow over at DP (he may be here, too) who converted one of those to a MAME cabinet. http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=91654 EDIT: More information on that guy's cabinet here: http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=152236

Platform titles for the PSX? Unfortunately Nintendo's Super Mario 64 introduced the scourge that is 3D platforming to the masses. I think my favorite genre may be 2D platformers. You'd be better off with a 16-bit console for that, but there are still a few good ones on the PSX. Heart of Darkness was particularly fun. Castlevania, Earthworm Jim, and the Oddworld games were also good.

PS3 (60 Gig) - $600 Second Controller: $50 Resistance: Fall of Man - $60 NBA 2K7 - $60 Ridge Racer 7 - $60 ... with tax, = $900. While it's definitely impressive, I still feel a little sick at my stomach over the price. I'll have a more in depth review after I get a chance to spend a little more time messing with it.

I first heard about Boba Tea earlier this year when my friend Justin mentioned trying it to me. Justin lives in Dallas; it takes a while for these trends to migrate to Oklahoma. Later in the year, other friends of mine (Pantechnicon and Ubikuberalles, both from Albequerque) also mentioned Boba Tea in their blogs. Finally, the excitement that is Boba Tea has arrived in Oklahoma. I'm guessing more than a few of you are now wondering, "what is Boba Tea?" Apparently, "boba" is black, gummy tapioca balls -- ergo, boba tea is tea with these tiny balls dumped into the bottom of your cup. So saying "I had boba tea" really means nothing, because you could have had any kind of tea. You can have iced tea, green tea, jasmine tea, whatever. Or, you could have a fruit drink with boba in the bottom of it. Or, a smoothie, or a coffee, or a frozen drink, or whatever. So boba is kind of like, "ice." Saying you had an "iced drink" isn't specific enough. Me? I had the "Rocky Road Bobaccino", a cappuccino that included rocky road ice cream, marshmellows, almonds, whipped cream, and of course, "boba." And how was it? Just like an ice cream shake with cappuccino and little chewy black balls in the bottom of it. Uneventful, in my opinion. After all the buildup I found the "boba" added very little to the experience. It wasn't bad, it wasn't good, it was just different. It's like having someone ask you, "so, how was the ice in your drink?" Icy, I suppose. Sorry guys. I didn't hate it, it just wasn't that exciting.

I've been a member of eBay since June 15th, 1998. In the past eight and a half years I've not had a single major problem with an eBay transaction. There have been little gripes to be sure -- the occasional poor packager, slow shipper, and shipping overcharger -- but I've never had an out and out bad transaction. Over the past week, I've had two. I recently put 100 CDs up for sale on eBay. Out of those hundred, around half of them sold. In the past I've had a couple of deals in which I drug my feet when shipping items, but these days I'm very prompt. (In fact, most of my recent feedback comments mention "fast shipping.") As each person paid I packaged his or her CD up and took it to the post office that same day. I am fortunate enough to work next door to the post office at the airport, who routinely deliver packages faster than any other post office around. And, they're open 24 hours. eBay has a relatively new service that will insert all the details about a movie or album into your auction automatically. It goes to reason that the seller is responsible for any information in his or her own ad, and I should have apparently paid more attention to the information going into the ads. Two weeks after all the CDs had arrived, I got an e-mail from one one seller claiming that the CD he received was not the same CD I had listed. When I looked at the ad, I realized what the problem was; the automated eBay information had said that I was selling a 2CD package, when in reality the version I was selling had both CDs on one actual disc. The songs and music were identical, but I guess the one I was selling was just a different release. I begrudgingly offered the buyer a refund. I can't complain, especially if he is a collector and was looking for that particular release. He even offered to send me the disc back, which I thought was a nice gesture. My other buyer, however, has been a problem from the beginning. For starters, he waited until one of my auctions ended, and then e-mailed me asking me to relist it so he could purchase it. Then, instead of a normal PayPal payment, he paid with an eCheck. It really makes no difference, except an eCheck has to clear, which means unless you want to take a chance of the check not clearing you have to wait for it to clear, which also means you can't mail that particular CD with all the other CDs, which means another trip to the post office. Another flag was, the name on the eBay account and the name on the PayPal account were completely different. Doesn't necessarily mean fraud, but it was just another red flag. I had a bad feeling about this guy from the beginning. Of course, two weeks after all the other discs have arrived, this buyer claims to have not received his CD. It was shipped priority mail, which means it arrived there in 2 days, just like every other disc I mailed out. In the return emails I've received from the seller, he asked, "did you pay for tracking?" This is a secret code in the eBay/PayPal world. Let me explain it to you. Should a buyer file a complaint against a seller, the first thing that occurs is the seller is contacted and must show proof that he/she mailed the package. This is done by providing a tracking number, which is something extra that must be purchased. Without that proof, the claim is awarded to the buyer and the money is automatically taken out of your PayPal account and awarded to the buyer. In the event that you don't have the money in your PayPal account, they will withdraw it from your bank account -- and if you don't have enough there, they'll disable your account. Without delivery confirmation and knowing the buyer had me over a barrel, I had no option but to refund his $14. All I sent back was a short note that said "Merry Christmas" and "thank you for teaching me a lesson about delivery confirmation." The reason I wasn't any ruder is because of the unlikely but slightly possible chance that the buyer actually did not receive the package. The only bright side here is that I learned the lesson for only a couple of bucks, instead of trying to sell something like, oh, a Playstation 3.

Whoops --I should have made that more clear. He had used his phone/mini-computer to connect to my phone using Bluetooth and was browsing the pictures on my phone without my knowledge.

"I'm not exactly sure why my demo isn't working," our presenter confided to me during a break. "It looks like your firewall may be blocking the ports I need to use. What all ports do you guys block on your network, anyway?" he asked. At any other conference on any other day to any other presenter I probably would have freely given up the information; this time, however, I hesitated. Despite his friendly disposition and warm smile, I cannot forget who he is: Kevin Mitnick, the world's most infamous hacker. Kevin Mitnick, myself, and Alex Kasper The Background Mitnick's adventures both through computer systems and the penal system are well documented. After serving three years (including eight months in solitary confinement) in federal prison and another two years of probation, Mitnick went on the run to avoid even more jail time. He successfully avoided the FBI's radar for two years before a front page newspaper article rekindled interest in his case. Mitnick was eventually re-arrested in North Carolina and was (unconstitutionally) held in prison for almost four years before charges were ever filed against him. Almost five years after he was imprisoned, Mitnick was freed in 2000. For several years after that he was not allowed to access a computer (his first book was written using a manual typewriter). By the time Mitnick was apprehended, the legends surrounding him had exceeded things he had actually done. The tales of his exploits had become so exaggerated by then that it's no wonder the authorities were so afraid of him. The guy spent years amassing source code, passwords, and other private information that should have been difficult or impossible to obtain -- and the most interesting thing about it all was that quite often, he simply asked people for it. Social Engineering, or the art of getting information from people, is what brought Kevin Mitnick and longtime friend Alex Kasperavicius to our FAA office in Oklahoma December 14th, 2006. The pair of technological wizards presented the psychology behind and examples of social engineering to a crowd of forty or so employees. Mitnick and Kasper shared presentation duties throughout the day; both of them were extremely knowlegable and enjoyable to listen to. Allow me to backtrack for a moment. The wheels for this class were set in motion a couple of months ago. Actually if you want to get technical, they've been in motion for over a decade. My interest in Mitnick's case began back in 1994 when I attended Hohocon (a hacker conference) in Austin, Texas. Over the years I picked up several books pertaining to his case, including Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier and Takedown. My interest in his case was eventually picked up by my wife Susan. Earlier this year, Susan was tasked with finding some applicable training for the FAA. She found Mitnick's website and his social engineering course, and the rest was history. The Day Unsurprisingly, one of the stipulations of Mitnick's visit was that neither he nor Alex were to be unescorted on our government campus at any point throughout the day. Susan elected me to stick with them, a role I gladly accepted. My day began by meeting the two of them down at the guard shack. The two of them showed their IDs and were granted visitor badges. I smirked a little as the two of them signed their names and were handed their passes. The all day class covered the basics of social engineering, ways to protect against being socially engineered, and enough real world demos to make you want to run home and change every one of your passwords to 30-character-long Chinese symbols. Having already read The Art of Deception I was already familiar with most of the attacks demonstrated, but there's somethere inherently cool about watching Kevin Mitnick standing in front of a classroom spoofing Caller ID information to people's cell phones. There was also a dumpster-diving demonstration that led to the discovery of multiple credit cards, internal memos and travel vouchers. Several various social engineering attacks were explained and demonstrated throughout the day. I don't want to give all the surprises away, but let's just say everyone left the conference a believer. From what I could gather, there were three basic groups of people attending the workshop. About a dozen of us were there because of Mitnick (a few of us even brought items for him to autograph). There were a few managers and helpdesk employees who were there to find out more about social engineering. The rest were there because it was a day away from normal work duties. But like I said, regardless of the reason people originally attended the workshop, no one left thinking that social engineering wasn't a dangerous problem. The Night After the class ended, several co-workers and I took Alex and Kevin out for a night on the town. As Alex lives in Los Angeles and Kevin resides in Las Vegas I knew a night out in Oklahoma City wouldn't be that exciting for the two of them, but we tried anyhow. Our adventures throughout the night led us from work to the Bricktown Brewery, Abuelo's (for dinner), the Purple Bar, Graham's (by far the most redneck club I have ever set foot in), and eventually, Waffle House. Throughout the night we all shared many stories and experiences. It was great to go offsite and actually get a chance to talk with both guys. And, between the Country Christmas Carols, being approached by security at the Murrah Memorial, seeing a redneck getting tasered, getting tossed out of a country bar for not meeting the dress code (belt buckle too small, perhaps), and seeing a fast food employee working without a shirt on, the two of them got the true Oklahoma experience crammed into a single evening. During dinner, Kevin commented on one of the pictures on my phone. When I looked down at it, I saw a note that read, "Bluetooth connection established." Mitnick just smiled. After dinner, a woman stopped us outside the restaurant, asking for a picture. Kevin agreed. It then dawned on us that what she wanted was Kevin to take a picture of THEIR group. The irony was hilarious, and I did manage to snap a picture of Kevin taking their photo. Between destinations, Kevin, Alex and I made a minor detour and stopped by the Murrah building memorial. It was 10:30pm by then; I'm not sure if the memorial actually closes, but there were only four of us there; Alex, Kevin, myself, and the security guard who ran all the way across the memorial to then come stand within 10 feet of us. "I'll bet you get that a lot," I joked to the two of them. By the time we got to the Waffle House we were down to four: Myself, Mitnick and Alex, and Paula (another co-worker). After squeezing into a Waffle House booth, Mitnick (unaware of Waffle House's social status) tried ordering a bottled water, and got excited momentarily when I joked about them having latte's. He settled for a glass of OJ while the rest of us had (somewhat chewy) coffee. As the party died down, the four of us sat around bullshitting about old versions of Linux, The Cult of the Dead Cow and old work and war stories over various flavors of Waffles. Shortly before the late night bar rush was scheduled to arrive, we ducked out and called it a night. Afterthoughts At the beginning of the day, I was excited about meeting Kevin Mitnick, the celebrity. (I have to admit, the first time I answered my phone and heard "Hi, this is Kevin Mitnick", I giggled like a schoolgirl.) Throughout the day my perception of him changed; I began to see him less as a celebrity and more as just a guy who loves technology. His eyes occasionally sparkled as he reached back and relayed a particularly wiley hack or two from his past. Throughout the day, I couldn't help but remember that here's a guy who has spent one fourth of my lifetime in federal custody on essentially bogus charges. If ever there was a poster boy for "the punishment does not fit the crime," it's Kevin Mitnick. Regardless of what you think of the guy, there IS no crime heinous enough that a person should be held unconstitutionally for over four years. As they mentioned in Freedom Downtime, "even the Unibomber had a bail hearing" (Mitnick was denied a bail hearing for over four years). While Mitnick has no doubt pulled off some serious hacks in his days, the fact remains that the charges he was held on (one was essentially software piracy) were things that many of us have done -- we just didn't have the misfortune of having our adventures pasted all over the front page of the New York Times. Links: Kevin Mitnick Alex Kasper Mitnick Security Consulting Books: The Art of Deception by Kevin Mitnick The Art of Intrusion by Kevin Mitnick Movies: Freedom Downtime (A feature length documentary about the Free Kevin movement and the hacker world.) Propaganda to avoid: Cyberpunks (book) Takedown (book) Takedown (movie)

Yesterday was a bittersweet day. The up was that it was Mason's birthday; the down was that it was also Jeff Martin's grandfather's funeral. We have known Papa and Amma Martin for many years; in fact, they moved to Sun Valley (my old neighborhood) a long time ago and we used to stop by and visit them from time to time. Of course as time went by the visits grew further apart. I was glad to attend the service and be there to support the Martins, but in the same respect it was sad to see so many people I knew so sad. I attended the funeral, the graveside service, and the gathering at Amma's house afterward. I hung out at Amma's with everyone for a little over an hour before Susan called me, requesting my presence at Chuck E. Cheese. On the drive over I had to mentally change gears, switching from a funeral mindset to a festive birthday mood. We ended up going to Celebration Station, which is like Chuck E. Cheese but closer. Liz, Becky, and Dylan met us there to play some videogames and eat some overpriced pizza. I'd like to say "eh, it's only once a year" but when Mason realized we were at Celebration Station and not Chuck E. Cheese he cried until I promised to take him there soon too. Ugh. The kids all had a good time playing games and earning tickets. As I'm sure you know, one of the major changes of the American arcade is that most of them are now filled with redemption games -- games that dispense tickets, which can later be traded in in exchange for prizes. At the end of the night while scanning through the ticket counter, I saw a Pirates of the Carribean action figure for 1,800 tickets. I saw the same figure for sale at Wal-Mart last weekend for $6. Through this, I figured out the going exchange rate -- one ticket equals one third of a cent. That means if you put a token in a game and don't get 75 tickets back, you just got ripped off (most of the games we played gave back around ten tickets; some more, some less). Mason's cousin Dylan was nice enough to donate his tickets to the cause, and at the end of the night Mason ended up with a little over 1,000 tickets, which he exchanged for a chess/checkerboard. After we got home we spent the rest of the night playing checkers, watching Elf, and just hanging out.

Five years ago today, at this very minute, Susan and I were camped out at the hospital awaiting the arrival of our first child. To the hospital, Susan brought her favorite pajamas and pillow. I brought a duffle bag filled with clothes, a second bag filled with snack food, my laptop, 200 DVD movies, CDs, my Gameboy, and various other odds and ends -- none of which got any use that day (except of course, the laptop -- I had pictures of Mason online five minutes after his birth). It's funny that I brought so many things to the hospital that day; once Mason was born, all I wanted to do was hold him in my arms and look into his eyes. That is, until he started screaming in the middle of the night, at which point we tossed him back into that plastic tupperware bin of a crib and begged the nurses to whisk him away to the nursery, desperate for just one more night of uninterrupted sleep. I love my little man as much as I did that first day, maybe even more -- which is funny, as I don't think a day has gone by that he hasn't screamed at the top of his lungs just like he did that first night. Some things never change. Happy 5th, little man.

When I got to work last Friday, Susan called me from her cell phone and asked if I was the one who had gone through her van and ransacked it. I wasn't. Apparently, someone went through the (unfortunately unlocked) van Thursday night, rifling through all its contents and throwing papers everywhere. All our junk mail from the post office box had been opened and sorted through. "While visions of identity theft danced in their heads ..." As Susan was talking, my heart sunk as I remembered I'd left an expensive digital camera out in the van. Fortunately for us, it was still there. The thieves had placed the camera inside Mason's school backpack, but in their haste they forgot and left the items behind. Susan also said the side gate was open, the gate that leads back to the arcade. With the kids buckled in the car, she was unwilling to leave them and go see if anything had been taken (or worse, if anyone was still back there). I leave the door to the arcade unlocked more often than I should. I've never worried about someone stealing a 300 pound arcade game, although the minute you think the building may have been broken into you begin to think about what else is out there, like the microwave, mini-fridge, etc. I jogged back out to my truck at work and zoomed home as quickly as I could. While I was driving I remembered that I had probably left the side garage door unlocked as well. It was unlocked because that's where I have been stashing Christmas presents. All a thief would have to do it try the door; the slightest crack would have revealed a pile of brand new presents in the box, ripe for the taking. Fortunately for us, everything was still intact. The arcade and garage door were both unlocked, but neither had been opened. I quickly locked them and kicked myself for the close call. Susan mentioned the incident to her sister who also lives in our neighborhood, and she said the same thing happened to her Thursday night. For some reason, that took a lot of the worry off of me. I hate the idea of having my house targeted for theft, but knowing that we were just a random victim along with a bunch of other random victims in the neighborhood makes it a little better. Unfortunately for Susan's sister, she had the title to her car in the glove compartment. It's gone -- the title, not the car. Yet. I mentioned this story to my sister over the weekend (who lives in a neighborhood near mine) and she said the same thing happened to both of their cars a month or two ago. Sounds like someone is making the rounds. What pisses me off more than anything is I was chatting on the phone late Thursday night when I should have been out walking instead. Had I been walking, I might have seen something.

Saturday was Mason's 5th Birthday Party. This year we held Mason's party at Xtreme Mini Golf inside Crossroads Mall. It's the mini golf course we visited last week; everything's painted black or neon, and the whole place is lit with blacklights. Mason along with all the other kids who attended had a good time playing putt putt. The kids played golf for around an hour or so before heading back to the party room to have birthday cake (actually a giant birthday cookie), ice cream, and watch Mason open his gifts. It was a fun party and there was much less sword fighting with golf clubs than I had expected, but something about being in a dark room with neon lights for a couple of hours gave me a headache that lasted the rest of the day. It was either from that, or being in a small case with a dozen five-year-olds. Pix: http://www.robohara.com/albums/Mason_Birthday_2006

Well, that and the -60 pounds ...

If it were up to me, the O'Hara family Christmas tree would go up a few days before Christmas Day and would come down shortly after. But as I and countless other married men before me have learned, it is not in fact up to me. The only leverage I ever had in the matter went out the window when we made the switch from real trees to an artifical one. By delaying the real tree's delivery as long as possible and then constantly complaining about my allergies, dry pine needles and fire hazards, I was able to decrease our annual pine's visitation by a week or two. I lost my bargaining chips when we switched to an artifical tree several years ago. With my tree delivery services no longer required, our fake tree now gets ceremoniously drug out of the hall closet and assembled the first time I turn my back after Thanksgiving. For us, the pros of fake trees outweigh the cons. About the only con I can think of is that fake trees don't smell, a problem easily rectified by pine-scented candles, potpourri, or car fresheners -- none of which matters much to me; my nose has been stopped up for twenty years so I can't smell them anyway. Fake trees sure are a lot less hassle. Ours assembles in minutes, has built in lights, and at no point involves sawing, watering, or vacuuming. Still, it doesn't quite seem like Christmas without the month-long worry of something catching on fire. This year, as much as Mason has helped with decorating the tree, Morgan has unhelped. The tree is sparasely decorated from the ground to around the 3 foot mark; Morgan's removed just about everything she can reach, and has begun using the couch to work her way up to the higher levels. The tree now resembles my old Grandpa O'Hara's head; mostly bare, with the remaining ornaments clumped together in one small area. Morgan, not unlike Cinderella, decided the blue and gold beads Mason and Susan draped on the tree would make a lovely fashion accessory. As for the plastic snowflakes and plastic ornaments (we're no dummies), Morgan removes them and brings them to us one at a time, usually during dinner. Our Christmas tree needs a box to stand on. Last year, Susan kidnapped a computer from our garage (one I had just repaired for a customer and was getting ready to return), draped a blanket over it and put our tree on top of it. It took me several days to realize I wasn't crazy and hadn't lost the computer. Other than having to explain to a client why their machine now had a slight treestand-shaped dent in the side it, no harm no foul. This year, Susan asked me to build something out of wood. My woodworking skills are legendary ... in a bad way. The box isn't quite square, has splinters on almost every edge and has corners sharp enough to take Santa's eye out should he slip on the plate of cookies we always leave out, but it serves its purpose and doesn't look too terrible with a blanket atop it, hiding my un-handywork. The box's main purpose is to raise the tree off the ground high enough for train clearance. I don't know if setting up a choo-choo train is still a tradition for most people, but it is for us. Mason got a trainset from my dad his very first Christmas; this year, his cousin Griffin got one too. Next year I'm lobbying for a giant flat screen television hooked up to a PC, running a Christmas tree screensaver and Railroad Construction Set. Somehow, I see myself getting outvoted 3-to-1 once again.

It didn't suck to be 18 in the states, but it sucked if you didn't have a CD player and were stuck listening to the radio.

Throughout the day I jot down ideas for blog entries in Notepad. When I get one completed I'll cut and paste it into my blog. When I don't update for several days, I end up with a backlog of entries that, reading back, don't seem that important now. So, without anything earth shattering to report this morning, I'll just summarize those entries to get you back up to speed. My trip to visit friends in Arkansas last weekend got cancelled due to the weather. Hopefully we'll be able to reschedule sometime right after Christmas. Mason's birthday is the 12th. Last weekend he and I found an indoor mini-golf course out at Crossroads Mall, and we're going to have his birthday party there next Saturday at 10am. The golf course is very dark and lit only with black lights, so wear stuff that glows! Last Friday, mom and I attended Robert McCanliss' funeral. We saw a lot of old friends from the old neighborhood. Exercise has become a pain due to the winter weather that blew into town. I've tried the treadmill; I hate it, but I'll do it over nothing. Last night I just put gloves and a hat on and went walking around the neighborhood. I only slipped on the ice twice. Sunday, while driving through our neighborhood, we spotted this. Ho, ho, ho.

The Rules: Go to the the following site: http://www.popculturemadness.com/Music/Pop-Modern/2006.html and check out the songs from the year in which you turned 18. Bold the songs you like. Strike the songs you don't. Leave the ones you're indifferent to alone. 1. Unforgettable - Nat and Natalie Cole Yeah, I get it and all, but I just wasn't a fan. Through the magic of computars a girl can now sing (and later appear in the video) with her dead father. Total buzzkill. 2. Summertime - DJ Jazzy Jeff and Fresh Prince The Fresh Prince, all growed up. This song captures that out of school summertime feeling. 3. (Everything I Do) I Do It For You - Bryan Adams I'm a "Cuts Like a Knife"/"Summer of 69" kind of guy. I didn't like this song the first time I heard it, and beating it into my skull 10 times a day for two years didn't help. Those were the worst days of my life. 4. Gonna Make You Sweat - C + C Music Factory The 70's had disco, the 80's had nu-wave/dance, and the 90's had this -- drum machines layered in fake horns and dancing dudes with big muscles. 5. More Than Words - Extreme Was this before or after "Hole in my Heart?" Typical example of a formerly-hard rockin' band whose power ballad charted higher than their normal style of music did. Curse Nuno for popularizing the black fingernail thing. 6. God Bless The USA - Lee Greenwood The redneck patriotic anthem. Am I even allowed to diss this? Of course I am; it's America. 7. Strike It Up - Black Box (No Idea) 8. Power of Love/Love Power - Luthor Vandross (No Idea) 9. O.P.P. - Naughty By Nature I dug this song back in the day; nice Jackson sample, and a tee-hee topic. I was down with OPP, and still never got any. 10. True Companion - Marc Cohn (No Idea) 11. When A Man Loves A Woman - Michael Bolton If he really loved her, he would get her earplugs. 12. Its So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday - Boys II Men Never a fan; Motownphilly was better (Boys II Men -- ABC -- BBD!) 13. Enter Sandman - Metallica You know, mixed bag here, but before I heard it a million times I really liked this song. It took the metal I loved and put it on top 40 so my mom had to listen to it. The Black album had better and worse songs, but have you seen what 1991 looked like? This was a highlight. 14. Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless) - Crystal Waters 15. Lets Talk About Sex - Salt N Pepa I loved S&P's album Hot, Cool and Vicious, but this era was just kind of dopey. Not "Waterfalls" dopey, but pretty bad. 16. Crazy - Seal Not a fan, although he's now married to Heidi Klum so I'm sure he could care less what I think about his little song. 17. Unbelievable - EMF As we entered the 90's, a few bands figured out how to combine synthesizers from the 80's with rockin' guitars to make electronic songs that rocked (before Reznor came along and re-wrote the book). Only those who owned the album really knew what EMF stood for. I just heard this song the other day on a Kraft commercial. Wow. 18. Black Or White - Michael Jackson You know I'm old school; I was raised on the cool "Thriller" Michael Jackson, not the chimp owning, child molesting, plastic surgery modified Jacko you kids know today. While the song is so/so, the video was an amazing work of computer editing. I could watch it a hundred times a day, which is coincidently how many times a day MTV used to show it. That end morphing sequence was phenominal back then. 19. Rico Suave - Gerardo Once you got over the fact that "oh wow it's the guy from Colors who got shot", there wasn't much here, was there? Between flea market shirts and Taco Bell commercials, this was a bad song made worse by over exposure. 20. It Ain't Over Till It's Over - Lenny Kravitz I wouldn't change the station if this came on, but I'd take Mama Said or Are You Gonna Go My Way a thousand times before picking this track. 21. Good Vibrations - Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch It's hard to sell a convincing "tough guy" image when you're the younger brother of one of the New Kids on the Block. And for some reason I still bought this CD. I think it was the pecks. 22. Here We Go - C+C Music Factory Oddly enough, just like the other C+C song on the list, with a different chorus. 23. P.A.S.S.I.O.N. - Rythm Syndicate (No Idea) 24. Coming Out Of The Dark - Gloria Estefan (No Idea) 25. Wind Of Change - Scorpions It was okay, like, maybe twice. 26. Things That Make You Go Hmmmm... - C+C Music Factory Did these dumb asses actually have three of the top 75 hits of 1991? This song had more lyrics than the other two combined, which made me like it even less. It's like when Jessica Simpson opens her yap. Less is more. 27. Coming Out Of The Dark - Gloria Estefan (Did this chart twice?) 28. Emotions - Mariah Carey I only leave this one alone because early Mariah was hot and I can't remember if this one one I liked or not. My favorite early Mariah song was "Someday". 29. I've Been Thinking About You - Londonbeat No. 30. She Talks To Angels - Black Crowes I have always liked the guitar sound on this song, and I think we all know a chick or two like this. 31. Baby Baby - Amy Grant There is nothing about this track or artist that I should enjoy -- in fact I feel the need to throw out a couple of Hail Satans just so I don't feel so icky -- but I always liked this song. Hail Satan! There, I feel better. 32. Can't Stop This Thing We Started - Bryan Adams Again, enough of the new Bryan Adams. 33. Someday - Mariah Carey This is the best Mariah Carey song! If I remember correctly the video has her wearing blue jeans, so you can tell where she was in her career. It also has a guy playing the drums on a plastic bucket which was a fad for a couple of minutes I think. 34. I'll Be There - Escape Club Um, no. Wild Wild West was a one hit wonder, now exit stage left. 35. Joyride - Roxette Much bigger fan of "She's Got the Look". Joyride had way too much whistling, for one thing. 36. Deeper Shade of Soul - Urban Dance Squad YESYESYES!!! "Mellow ... that's my style." Pool Skating, a DJ, and a dude in a Charlie Brown shirt. I own their first two (only?) albums, good stuff. Definitely people doing their own thing at the time. 37. Silent Lucidity - Queensryche I'm not a huge 'ryche fan but this song was okay before over exposure took over. 38. Something To Talk About - Bonnie Raitt For a vehemous anti-country music person, this song was tolerable. 39. Set The Night To Music - Roberta Flack and Maxi Preist (No Idea) 40. Gett Off - Prince & The New Power Generation Apparently 1991 was the year of image changes; Prince started singing into a golden gun and everything went to hell. 41. Motownphilly - Boys II Men Decent. 42. Star Spangles Banner - Whitney Houston I have to strike this one out of principle. 43. Right Here, Right Now - Jesus Jones I've always hated this song. It's amazing how many people will compare Jesus Jones to EMF, when I liked one and didn't care for the other. Jesus Jones was one of the leaders of the "alternative" movement before people began referring to it as "puss rock." 44. Around The Way Girl - LL Cool J LL Cool J magically tranformed himself from a tough guy rapper into a lady's man, much to my disappointment. Mama says knock him out. 45. Love Will Never Do (Without You) - Janet Jackson I'm not striking this one out of spite; I actually dug "Black Cat" and a few of her other tunes, but not this one. 46. Walking In Memphis - Marc Cohn I couldn't tell you what this song is about (other than the obvious), but I remember enjoying it. 47. Love Is A Wonderful Thing - Michael Bolton Not by him, it isn't. 48. High Enough - Damn Yankees I'm a fan of supergroups, but this song was a bit stinky even for me. 49. I Don't Wanna Cry - Mariah Carey Mariah graduates from performer to octave-showoff. 50. Blowing Kisses In The Wind - Paula Abdul Bring back the dancing cat, lady. 51. Justify My Love - Madonna I used to work at a pizza joint, and every night after close we would just play this song a hundred times in a row on the jukebox and dance while scrubbing pizza pans and wiping tables. 52. Every Heartbeat - Amy Grant A little bubbly, even for me. 53. Sadeness, Part 1 - Enigma I dug this song as a single, but didn't remain on the Enigma bandwagon. I never understood the long term fascination of this band, it's like an ... what's the word I'm looking for ... 54. Everybody Plays The Fool - Aaron Neville Dumb falsetto crapola. 55. I Wanna Sex You Up - Color Me Badd This was one of the first songs I remember dropping sexual innuendo and just coming out and saying it. Despite the fact that these guys were from Oklahoma City (and that I actually owned a t-shirt with the song's name on it that I won at the fair), I gotta give the thumbs down here. Tick tock, they finally stopped. 56. Miracle - Whitney Houston 57. Losing My Religion - R.E.M. Isn't it amazing how I can just go through and strike through some of the greatest songs of our time? Way too serious REM for me. "Orange Crush", "Stand", and "It's the End of the World as We Know It" -- that's my REM. 58. I Touch Myself - Divinyls You know what's funny? I had never even heard of this song until Weird Al threw it into one of his polka medleys ... I thought it was something goofy he just made up until years later when I heard the original. 59. Now That We Found Love - Heavy D and The Boys Another song I more than dislike; I really hate this song. Something about the stupid samples, and the obvious attempt to take rap to the radio. Ugh. Fashion tip: if you're overweight, don't wear a yellow trash bag as an outfit. 60. Round and Round - Tevin Campbell (No Idea) 61. Where Does My Heart Beat Now - Celine Dion Wow, she's been around that long? I thought I'd only been hating her for a decade or so. 62. How To Dance - Bingoboys with Princessa (No Idea) 63. Kiss Them For Me - Siouxsie & The Banshees How is it possible that this made the list and "Peek-A-Boo" didn't, which is the only song I remember from that era. 64. Learning To Fly - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Tolerable, although not in my top 50 Tom Petty songs. 65. Touch Me (All Night Long) - Cathy Dennis All I can think of is the Samantha Fox song by the same name. 66. You Could Be Mine - Guns N' Roses Why Use Your Illusion 2 was better than number 1. 67. Don't Treat Me So Bad - Firehouse The tail end of hair metal, (barely) sneaking on to the countdown; they brought up the rear along with Trixter and Slaughter. 68. (If There Was) Any Other Way - Celine Dion Noooooooooo. 69. Love... Thy Will Be Done - Martika (No Idea) ...but let me just say, Toy Soldiers is one great tune. 70. Let The Beat Hit 'Em - Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam (No Idea) 71. Wicked Game - Chris Isaak While I'll agree the chick in the video was hot, that can't save the wailing chorus. 72. Into The Great Wide Open - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers Again, not a great Petty tune, but I'll let it slide. 73. The Motown Song - Rod Stewart (No Idea) 74. Do The Bartman - The Simpsons I could name 100 better songs from 1991 than this. It's amazing that "Bart Simpson" edged out things like Nirvana's Nevermind. Amazing. 75. Shiny Happy People - R.E.M. A little too shiny and happy for me, although I did enjoy the version they performed with the Muppets. So there's my take on the top 75 of 1991. It's amazing to me what all DIDN'T make the list. Highlights of 1991 included Nirvana's Nevermind, Pearl Jam's Ten, Red Hot Chilli Pepper's Blood Sugar Sex Magik, Soundgarden's Badmotofinger, Smashing Pumpkin's Gish, Ozzy's No More Tears, Primus' Sailing the Seas of Cheese, U2's Achtung Baby, Ice-T's Original Gangster, Van Halen's For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, and tons more. Thanks to Gloomchen for the meme.

While Winter hasn't officially arrived yet on the calendar, someone forgot to tell Mother Nature. Starting early this morning in central Oklahoma we received a layer of sleet and freezing rain followed by six inches of snow. Right on cue, local weathermen issued every warning they could think of -- blizzard warnings, slick and hazardous road warnings, low visibility warnings ... you name it, we were warned about it through a constant barrage of scrolling tickers and program interruptions. Despite the continual warnings, amateur winter drivers hit the roads in full force and soon there were so many crashes that I-40 was closed in both directions multiple times throughout the day. Due to the storm, Mason's daycare, Mason's school, and our work were all closed, although there seemed to be a little confusion about that last one. Despite the fact that the FAA center was officially closed, a few people still made the journey in. Fortunately, I was able to do most of my work remotely. Unfortunately Susan left her laptop at work, and after a power outage reset a few of our servers, that gave Dad, Mason and I an excuse to head up to the FAA, braving the ice to find out how the aptly-named Avalanche handles on slick roads (turns out, not too bad). I'm sure a younger me would've spent more time out playing in the snow, looking for hills to slide down or making a snowman (or snow ice cream!), but unfortunately I spent the majority of my afternoon sitting at my laptop, working on a few work projects and helping out where I could. Plus, it was cold as cold gets (with the wind chill, it hovered right around 0 degrees). Still, we managed to squeeze a *little* fun in today ... While tomorrow's technically my day off, I need to make up about three hours tomorrow morning. After that I've got a funeral to attend at 10am and I'm picking up Stephen for the Hornets game at 5pm -- between those two events I need to get my CPAP machine over to the sleep study place to have it adjusted, and get a haircut. All that on a layer of ice. Yikes.

Is this the Vintage Stock over in Midwest City? I went there this past weekend and they were barely open (one section of the store has concrete where carpet will be installed soon). They may be a little higher than GameXChange on some items, but it beats driving to Tulsa whenever I want to browse. I'm pretty sure the ones in Tulsa have systems set up where you can test carts before you leave with them. I'm not sure if the OKC store(s?) have that or not but I'm sure they will.

What do Russian sluts and computer viruses have in common? You get both of them installed on your computer for free if you run stupid software off the Internet before scanning it for viruses first. Oops. Yes, even the FAA Antivirus guy gets caught off guard occasionally. Multiple sadness. It wouldn't be so bad if every time I opened Internet Explorer I wasn't immediately redirected to a Russian porn site. This stupid virus is making me hate computers and want to move to Russian at the same time. Oxana, here I come!

Last night's sleep study went well. For those who haven't had the pleasure, here's what having a sleep study is like. Participants are instructed to arrive at the sleep study center (mine's at Integris Hospital) at a specified time (mine was at 8:30pm). When you arrive you'll sit in a waiting room with a bunch of other people with sleeping problems. Everybody's nervous, which means some people will be talking nervously and asking a bunch of questions while other people sit quietly, reading or watching the lobby television. The veterans (people who have already been through this) answer questions for the amateurs while we all wait. ("No, there's no TV in the rooms. Yes, there's a shower. No, it doesn't hurt. No, you won't get a good night's sleep.") One by one, each person is called into the nurse's office where your paperwork is reviewed (and more importantly, your insurance is verified). Once everyone's checked in, the sleep attendants will come get the group and herd them into the sleep lab. The sleep lab is like a little motel within the hospital. Those who have never been to the lab are forced to watch a short film about sleep apnea and other sleeping disorders, which actually has two affects; one, it informs patients, and two, it is so incredibly boring that it makes the viewer sleepy, preparing him for his sleep study. Since this was a return visit for me, I was spared the watching of the video, although the television was right outside my room so I still had to hear it. As it is a sleep lab, the rooms are designed for one thing; sleeping. My room was 8' x 12', with a bed at one end and a small dresser at the other. Next to the bed sits a CPAP machine (that's why you're here). A few magazines sit on the dresser. A video camera, mounted in the corner of the room, ominously points toward the bed. Just like the doctor's office, the entire event is "hurry up and wait" -- there's a rush to get you to your room, where you'll get to wait for an hour or so until the sleep technicians come and wire you up with around two dozen wires, most of which are attached to your scalp with gooey glue (good luck getting that out in the morning). The first time I went, this time was spent worrying about the impending study, but this time I was just bored waiting for the test to start. The first time using a CPAP machine is a unique experience. For the first time you'll be sleeping with a large mask on your face that blows high volumes of air up your nose. Nighty night! Don't get my wrong -- I've had a CPAP for 3 years now and I would not trade it for the world, but the first night is very stressful and can make people panic. For me though it's old hat. Once they finally got around to getting me wired into the comptuter and got my machine going, I was out. I slept like a baby last night. The first time I went (three years ago) I don't remember sleeping longer than 15 minutes at a time, but this morning the techs had to come wake me up this morning when the study was over. The rooms at Integris have bathrooms and showers in them, so this time I took a change of clothes. I was out of the hospital by 6:30am and actually arrived at work 5 minutes early.

Anyone who says they love Christmas can not possibly have as many battery-operated Christmas-related items in their immediate living area as we have. Any act of clapping, yelling, or simply walking from the kitchen to the living room is enough to set off a chorus of animatronic Santas, snowmen and reindeer, all singing different tunes at the same time, competing for our attention and pounding my last nerve. The real issue tonight is my impending sleep study, which I don't particularly want to do. Four years ago I had a sleep study done, where it was determined that I had severe sleep apnea and needed a CPAP machine. My machine has changed my life for the better and I would never give it up, but apparently the force at which the air blows is related to your weight, and my recent weight loss has thrown the machine out of balance. I'm pretty sure someone at the sleep center could twist a screw and adjust the machine's pressure in a matter of seconds, but if they did that no one would get paid. Instead I've had to set up a doctor's appointment who made another sleep study appointment for me, which is tonight. Later this week I'll have to go back to my doctor, where he'll read tonight's numbers and then write an order as to what it should be adjusted to, an act that will be performed by a third party. Everybody's gotta get paid. I'm not nervous about tonight's study, at least not like I was last time. I pretty much know what to expect and I'm already kind of tired from playing with the kids all day, so falling asleep shouldn't be a problem tonight.

I vaguely remember that movie. Now what was the name of his imaginary friend again ...