What a BuzzKill

Wow, some of these bring back early memories. This is what we had to play with when I was a kid… and we liked it!

Read this article about privacy. I think it was well said and not portrayed in a paranoid fashion, as I’ve seen others do. Check it out…

Wired News: The Eternal Value of Privacy

This weekend turned out to be one of the busiest for me in a long time.

My dad drove down on Friday night to sleep over and catch his plane on Saturday afternoon. I gave him my bed, moved Rece to sack out on the sofa, and I took Rece’s bed. I think my dad had hoped that I’d drive him to LAX (about 45-60 minutes away, depending on traffic). I knew he was coming down at some point during the weekend, but he didn’t provide me with any specific timeframes ahead of time. Assuming that he didn’t need my help with anything, I went ahead and planned my weekend. I felt kind of bad telling him that he should take the shuttle to the airport, but my plans for the day took me all the way up to Pasadena – and the plans involved 2 other people besides me and Rece, so I wasn’t going to break them. He didn’t say anything about it, but I did tell him that in the future it would be a good idea to let me know specific things like flight times and such so I can lend a hand in the future. Aside from that, we had a good time hanging out. We drove down to Newport Beach, picked up some donuts, and then walked the pier, enjoying the evening.

The plans for Saturday were for Rece and I to join Christine and her daughter Sam for a trip up to Pasadena to check out the JPL-Nasa open house. This is when they open up their otherwise very closed campus to the public and have exibits about the various projects they work on. One of Sam’s friends joined us, who turned out to be pretty cool. All the exibits were interesting, albeit nerdy (which I totally loved). We got to see the Mars rover (the one they practice with on Earth), learned about the search for planets around other stars, watched a film about the recent mission to study and capture comet material, and saw a pair of 700-pound gliding robots! If you’re interested in space, or have children who are, I highly recommend checking this place out the next time they hold an open house.

On Sunday we started off the day with a hike with some friends (Christine, Sam, Rana, Niki, and a dog named Sierra). It wasn’t too long of a hike, but it was enough to get some exercise and just to be outdoors. I introduced Niki to geocaching (the only one of the group who didn’t know what it was yet), as I was also out there to check on the geocache that I have hidden in the area. The trip only lasted about 1.5 hours, but there was a decent incline to conquer on the way back. Rece played photographer, which I’ll probably get around to uploading and posting on my site this evening. Maybe Rana will send me the pictures that she took as well. After the hike we went to PCH (Pacific Coast Hot Dogs – not the highway) and chowed down… cuz that’s what you do after a healthy hike – munch on some very yummy hotdogs!

After lunch, Christine, Sam, Rece, and I went to pick up our swimming outfits and then headed on down to Wild Rivers for their season pass holder preview day. Being that Sunday was forecasted to expect rain and it was overcast and also preview day, this meant practically no lines and no overcrowding. We had so much fun running (ahem, briskly walking) to each of the water slides and taking them on with reckless abandon! Rece, being the weakest swimmer and somewhat of a chicken, didn’t go on all the slides we did, but he enjoyed the ones that he did go on.

I’ll admit that I am totally out of shape when swimming is concerned. I suspect that I had a few lifeguards’ attention when I decided to swim across the wave pool in the deep end – I must have looked like I was ready to sink from exhaustion! A simple change of stroke and adjusting my energy to work with the swells allowed me to get to the other side safely to catch my breath. One of the slides we went on was akin to being flushed down a toilet. You slide into a bowl from this chute and skim around the sides until your momentum slows and allows you to drop through a hole in the center and into a pool. In theory this would seem to be a fun idea, but the speed you’re going meant experiencing a slapping sensation on your back and the possibility of being dumped into the pool at an unusual and potentially disorienting angle (just my luck, I was dumped going backwards and upside-down on my shoulder – good thing my sense of direction is good). So yeah, that ride sucked – but the rest were great!

As I mentioned ealier, it was overcast, but it was also breezy so we’d get cold standing in line. The trick was to stay in water as much as possible. The “lazy river” (as we called it) was relaxing and we got out to go sit in the hot tub to relax even more. After about a minute I looked at Christine and asked, “does it worry you that this is the murkiest water in the place?” The expression on her face indicated that she understood what I was getting at, then Sam asked, “what do you mean?” I quietly stated, “lots of people, warm water, lots of kids, murky water…” to which Sam replied, “EW!” and promptly got out. Christine and I followed suit and we decided to go on a couple more water slides. Rece, being the boy that he is, didn’t seem to care and was content with remaining in the bacteria bath.

As I type this, my muscles are tired, some are a bit sore. All in all, this was very fun weekend!

As I sat here waiting for the plumber to show up, I read through a few blogs that I regularly check out almost daily. For some reason I was left to ponder what to write about in my blog next. Thinking a bit further into it, I came to the realization that my blog probably isn’t as funny as it used to be. This might just be my own perception, but if this is true, then it means that something is off.

Most of my friends seem to find my oddball situational comedy (sitcom!) entertaining. I can usually count on a chuckle or a laugh from something I said. There’s no real pattern to it (aside from frequent innuendo) and I just say whatever pops into my head, even if it doesn’t make sense. On occasion I’ll just get a blank look from people, but most of the time they find it strange enough to laugh. I enjoy making people laugh and it’s something that seems to just come naturally.

So why do I think my blog doesn’t go into humor as often lately? Maybe I’ve been getting more of my “funny” out than before and just don’t have much left to write about here. Maybe it’s after the scare I had at work and I suspected that some of the things I write about work might possibly get me in trouble there (most likely just paranoia). Whatever it is, I hope to get myself out of this rut and explore my humorous writing side a bit more.

That being said, found this “what (thing) are you” and as usual, it seems to describe a bit of my personality…

You Are Midnight

You are more than a little eccentric, and you’re apt to keep very unusual habits. Whether you’re a nightowl, living in a commune, or taking a vow of silence – you like to experiment with your lifestyle. Expressing your individuality is important to you, and you often lie awake in bed thinking about the world and your place in it. You enjoy staying home, but that doesn’t mean you’re a hermit. You also appreciate quality time with family and close friends.

Yep, that’s the best title I could come up with.

My hot water situation is a little better now. While I still don’t have hot water, it’s at least a bit warmer and I’m not walking out of the shower shivering. I spoke with the management and they said that they had a water heater blow out, but that there were still two that were operating. Apparently only one other apartment (out of 11) had called to complain about the water situation. This makes no sense to me. Stupid neighbors.

I left a message letting them know that I was still only getting minimal water temperature yesterday. Hopefully they send somebody out to get things working properly today.

Last Thursday I went to E3. A friend of mine hooked me up with a pass to get in. My name for the day was Christopher (last name omitted). This was the first time that I’d had the option to go and I was lucky that my boss was cool about only having 4 hours notice of wanting to take the day off. There was so much to see and take in.

The “booth babes” were hot. The gadgets were cool. The game graphics were incredible!

I was lucky enough to get into a 30-person Huxley tournament. It’s another one of your typical first-person shooters. We were in 2 teams of 15 and prizes were awarded to the top 5 players. I came in 5th place, which yielded some nifty swag – not to mention pride in doing so well in a game I hadn’t ever played before.

On Saturday I went to the Renaissance Faire with Rece, my ex, and one of her girlfriends (who bought the tickets). This was the first time for me at a RenFaire. It was a total blast! If you’re a “boob man” like me, this is the place to be. You’ll likely never see so many women in push-up corsets in one place anywhere else! I definitely want to go back next year in full costume – no, not in a corset.

Sunday (Mother’s Day) I got to talk with my mom for awhile. It was nice to catch up and hear that she’s doing well. I worry about her sometimes, as her lifestyle doesn’t seem to include much security for the future. I do envy her for being able to do what she enjoys and on her own terms, though.

Read about this fellow who managed to change the display of one of those construction signs often found on the side of the road. I found it pretty funny.

In other news: Today makes the 3rd day in a row that I’ve had to take a cold shower. It seems that one of the water heaters for our apartments went out and either they haven’t replaced it yet or they did something wrong when the did. I barely had enough heat to wash dishes the night before, let alone take a shower.

I was so irritated by this that I put up a sign at the mailboxes (the only place that all tenants are likely at some point during the day to be) telling people to call the management company and tell them that there’s a problem.

After I put up the sign, I ran into my next-door neighbor and asked how his water situation was. Of course it was the same. I asked if he had called the landlords yet and to my astonishment he said “no”. What’s with people like this? Do they expect that things will get fixed all by themselves? I suggested that he give them a call so that they hear more than just my voice over and over complaining about broken things around the place. He said he would give them a call. This is the same guy that had the solar water heating pipes over his apartment leaking and dripping down on/over his balcony for a month… I’m guessing he didn’t call then either, because I finally got tired of hearing a trickle of water and called – the problem got fixed within a few days.

This isn’t the first time that this apartment management company has taken their time to fix something. About a year ago the water main going into the apartments broke and was gushing water at an astonishing rate (this was also a morning when showering was a problem). I called them about it before going in to work (8:00 am) and when I arrived back at home (5:15 pm), it still hadn’t been fixed! About 20 minutes after I arrived, a plumbing truck pulled up and they had the problem fixed in less than 10 minutes. ARRG!

Anyhow, I’m hoping that they get this problem fixed soon!

I read a news story today about some drunken idiots (and I dare add that they live in the south) that got into an argument over how to use a PS2 game system. The fight ended when one of them pulled a gun on the other and shot him dead.

What I’m wondering now is which group is going to speak up first? The anti-gun crowd blaming the gun for the killing, the anti-video game crowd saying that this is another example of the violence in video games, or people against alcohol? Oh the humanity!

I happened upon this website and immediately sent them an email telling them that I wanted to volunteer to help them in their efforts. I also included a sample image of what I can do (see below).

Restoring digital photos is something I seem to have a knack for and I’ve done it for a few friends and family members over the years. The most difficult one I was asked to restore was from one of my co-workers. His dad had passed away not too long before and he had discovered an old picture that his mother had been carrying around in her purse or wallet for years. Time and abuse had taken their toll on the picture and he asked me if I might be able to help. After a few days (during lunches at work) I was able to bring the picture back to a much better state.

Here’s that picture…

(click for a larger view)

This brings back memories of some work my mom did when I was a kid. She would take real photographs and either restore them or colorize them (this was way back before personal computers). It was a way for her to use her artistic talents to restore and/or enhance photographs. Now, in the digital age, I have a chance to do the same.

Anyhow, hopefully they get back to me and find my skills useful enough to start putting me to work!

Big communications companies are attempting to change how the Internet works at a fundamental level. What is being proposed is a multi-tiered Internet where those can afford to pay what amounts to extortion fees to telcos get preferential treatment of bandwidth (Internet traffic) and those who don’t pay get whatever is left over.

The Internet is a place where anybody can create something and has an equal footing with huge corporations. It’s a way for everybody to have a chance to be heard and a great method of communicating.

Network Neutrality is what the Internet currently enjoys now. Nobody gets any preferred treatment over anybody else. This needs to be maintained so that everybody has equal chance to succeed with whatever it is they want to do on the Internet.

It’s a topic that’s causing a lot of stir on BOTH sides of politics. When both Democrats and Republicans are making strong efforts to prevent something, chances are that it’s because they’re fighting against something most would consider “unconstitutional”.

Back up the efforts to stop big telcos from controlling the Internet!

This entry was written while the Internet was still neutral – let’s keep it that way!

Quinn, his daughter Allissa, Rece and I went hiking and geocaching up in Crestline and Lake Arrowhead this past weekend. The weather was outstanding and about as good as it gets for being outdoors.

I posted photos and details on a new web page on my website. Both Quinn and I took a lot of photos, but you’ll only be subjected to around 47 or so…