X-Men

Having the day off today, we got to see a matinee of X-Men: The Last Stand.

I disagree with nearly every review I've seen of this movie. There was nice continuation, characterization, dialogue, action, development, etc. What is driving the bad reviews is one simple thing: It disregards the canon of the comic book X-Men. The last two movies were decently respectful of the stories already told in the comics, but this one promised to tell the epic "Dark Phoenix Saga" on the movie screen, and it didn't do that. Too bad, so sad, nerds!

First of all, it couldn't tell the Phoenix story as written in the comics unless it delved into comic book fantasy crap that would never work in the movies involving X-Men in outer space and aliens.

Second of all, the first two movies built a story arc on prejudice and government regulation that had to be concluded in this movie.

I thought that this movie did a good job of concluding the story arc, while telling a Phoenix story that made sense in context, even if it was the back-up storyline in the movie. It also set up the next trilogy of X-Men movies with new, younger team members if they choose to make them.

Fanboys might sulk over some deaths to major characters that happen in this movie, but this happens in the comics all the time in order to move characters aside so that new ones can be featured, and I expect the younger members of the team to take center stage in the next movie.

Management

When I left IBM 2 1/2 years ago, it was primarily due to my disgust with our second-line manager. This scumbag was laid off by Lenovo last month, and I couldn't be happier about it except that I know he got lots of money in severance due to his 25+ years with IBM.

Here's a list of his transgressions:

• He made an appearance once a quarter, just to show us that he still was our boss, but otherwise, we never saw him.
• Played golf with other managers and went to manager meetings, and that's about all the work he ever did.
  
• Didn't allow any training whatsoever, despite corporate policy that tells him all employees should get a minimum amount of training each year.
• Wrote our personal business commitments for us (against policy), then ignored them at evaluation time (also against policy).
• Allowed the company to move most of our department's work to another department, then assured us that our jobs were safe from layoffs. (Guess what happened? 50% of the department got laid off.)
• Forced out my first-line manager, whom had allowed me to do the job I was best suited for and praised my excellent performance, reneged on the promise I was made of a promotion (never got a raise or promotion in 10 years with that company, despite good evaluations), then took away the job I was doing (change management) and made me do not just one, but three jobs I hated that had belonged to those who had been laid off. (doing metrics and bean-counting) and then added a fourth job later. All of these were jobs that produced statistics that were looked at, then promptly circular-filed and never acted upon.
• After not allowing us training and reducing our responsibility so that we were all big targets for downsizing, he prevented us from taking other jobs in the company by refusing to give us release dates.
• Never gave a single employee any recognition in 5 years.

Here's the second-worst one, which applied specifically to me...

• During a layoff sweep through the department, I was called into his office and told that I had survived the downsizing, and would now be doing the job of the four people who had been laid off. Instead of offering encouragement, or some sort of motivation, he then proceeded to tell me that I was lucky because if ___ had not gotten married and left the company last week, then I would have been chosen to go. What a motivator! I could have killed him with a smile on my face at that very moment.

And here's the worst one...

• My first-line manager and I were friends, having worked together for 8 years before he got promoted. I had let him know privately how unhappy I was with my job, and how I would love to get different responsibilities or move to a different department, etc. He was always sympathetic but let me know that the second-line was not allowing any of it to happen. So, one day, my first-line tells me that if I wanted to leave the company, he can offer me a severance package of several month's pay to leave the company voluntarily, just like a layoff. He gave me a month to think it over. I went looking for other jobs, found one with a different company, and told him that I accepted. The offer of the package, and my acceptance, was supposed to be confidential, HR stuff., incidentally. I signed a waiver of my right to sue before I accepted based on that confidentiality. On my last day, a bunch of friends took me to lunch, and my first-line announced that I was leaving because I had found a better opportunity. On my way out, another manager in my department (under my same second-line) pulled me into his office and told me that "he knew the real reason why I was leaving" and that he "thought I was being dishonest", etc, about my circumstances, but wanted me to know that he knew and I wasn't fooling him. I was too shocked and frankly, unconcerned about what this guy thought to disillusion him, so I just left, but I realized that the confidentiality of my situation was not honored by my second-line, who apparently decided to tell every one of his direct reports about it, and to embellish it to make me look bad.
  

Well, here's an article from the web today, describing 10 things not to do when you manage "geeks". This jerk was wrong on every one of them. Go figure.

Oh, and Skip Gilmer, if you happen to ever find this blog and read this - bite me.

The Polls Are Open

Alllllllrighty then! The last performance show of the American Idol season is over, and here are my thoughts:

The show:
Darn it, Idol producers! The original songs absolutely suck! You should have opened the show with them, as they definitely left us flat at the end. I realize you want mucho royalties from these songs, but you'd do better to let someone with talent write them and split the take. And please lay off the cheesy inspirational crapola songs! Neither of these finalists do that kind of song well.

Katharine:
She picked two of her best songs of the season to encore. Good choices, I think. When she did "Black Horse and Cherry Tree" the first time earlier this season, it was better than the version on the charts. This performance was not quite as good, but close. I think it was an appropriate choice, since that song saved her on a night when she wasn't good at all. "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" was very very good. I didn't get to hear it last week, so I can't say whether she did it better this time or not, but nonetheless, great job. Especially since her monitor earphone failed.

I hate to say it, but Katharine got screwed tonight. The original single for her was just a pathetic song. It was too low and soft for her in the verses, and she couldn't hit the notes. It was so bad that Paula hated it. The composer should be taken out back and beaten, have his fingers broken, and then be kicked to the gutter and left for the dogs. It was that bad, and Idol should be ashamed of allowing the final vote to hinge on some unknown composer's bad song.

Now putting that aside, if Katharine were a better performer, she would have changed the key of the song and tweaked it in rehearsal to make it better. This is a skill she does not yet possess, however, and that's going to lose the prize for her.

Taylor:
He nearly made a bad mistake in picking "Levon" as his second song. It may be his favorite, but it's boring, and does not translate well to a "one verse and two choruses" format like you get on Idol. Luckily for him, he got the better of the two final numbers. He started off with the song he did back in the Stevie Wonder show, and it was a very good opener with good energy. The original single he got was far and away the better song when compared to Kat's. "Do I Make You Proud", was a cheesy inspirational song, just like Kat's, and I was afraid at first that it was going to be too low and slow for Taylor, just like Kat's. Taylor did what Kat couldn't, though, and made the song his own by coaxing the band to speed up and to back off of his vocals.

Let me reiterate my point here - Taylor can lead a band. He knows how to cue and coax and cajole a band (and an audience, too) to conform to his lead. This takes experience - something Kat doesn't have, and this makes Taylor the winner this season.

Prediction:
It's Taylor by a mile. I will be shocked if it isn't.

PS: At 9:30, Taylor leads on DialIdol.com with 72% busy signals to Kat's 67%.

The Six Million Dollar Horse

Da da DAA daaaaaa... (sorry)

I do not follow horse racing. But for some reason, I have been enthralled by what has happened to this horse, Barbaro. I severely broke my ankle a few years ago, so maybe I have sympathy for this animal that's driving my curiosity.

I've been doing some reading on the subject and here's what I've learned:

1. A broken leg usually means the horse gets euthanized.
2. Broken legs on horses usually do not heal due to very little blood flow to the legs. There is no muscle below the knee on horses - just tendon, bone, and cartilage, and therefore very little vascular tissue.
3. Horse physiology requires the animal be upright nearly all the time. They cannot digest their food if they lie down for long.
4. Horses are not capable of functioning with 3 legs. Therefore, amputation is not a viable treatment.

The owners of Barbaro, whether driven by the prospect of millions of dollars in stud fees, or by simple compassion, are pulling out the stops to try to let him heal and live. The veterinary facility that is treating him put 28 screws and a metal plate into his leg so that he can immediately stand on it. He was floated in a pool while he recovered from anesthesia so that he could flail his legs and not cause more damage. He's being watched and treated constantly to make sure his spirits are high and that he is not in pain and that he gets the best chance at healing.

And so far, he's doing great. If he lives, he gets great food, fresh air, and all the sex he can handle until he dies of old age. What incentive, eh?

Who's It Gonna Be?

Tonight's the night! Which one of these two singers will America pick to be the next "American Idol"?

Katharine McPhee: The Hollywood-raised diva with acting aspirations and a classically trained voice but inconsistent stage presence and grace under pressure.

Taylor Hicks: The soulful professional performer with the propensity to make us smile, but sometimes leaving a cheesy aftertaste.

Pre-performance, I have to give Taylor the edge, but tonight's performances will tell the tale. Will 3rd place finisher Elliott Yamin's fans move toward Taylor or Katharine? Stay tuned!

In Order To Save The Village, It Was Necessary To Destroy It

I heard that quote from the Vietnam War the other day, and I realized it applied to our house. Now that we've sold what there is to sell, the boxes must be stowed and we have to reorganize what we're going to live with.

I started pulling apart my office yesterday - the only room in the house that has unopened boxes in it. Bernie gave me the look when I started taking things out of the office and putting them in the kitchen, but I think I was able to explain what I was trying to do. Once I got things moved around, the office seemed much larger than before.

Well, now we went and bought two more of those plastic wall cabinets for the garage (with hopefully one more on the way), so more mess must be generated in the name of organization. I think one cabinet is reserved for kitchen appliances that are not used all the time. The rest will be for tools and stuff that's been on the garage floor. I ordered a storage "shed" (it's really a plastic box with doors) for the lawn mower today, too. When I'm done, I think the garage might be empty enough to epoxy the floor, then put both cars in it!

However, I think our time will be spent this week on cleaning. Bernie's been dropping hints, and I have noticed a few places where cleaning is called for, and, like my mom says, "If Jason thinks something's dirty, you'd better call the sanitation department." I have the typical male ability to not see dirt until it reaches critical mass. It's time for a scrubbing.

Results: The Garage Sale

We made about $200 from the sale, and got rid of a lot of things we didn't want to put back in the attic. Aside from the dude who lied to me about a "pocketknife" he was buying (it was a Swiss tool that I had put a $20 price tag on, not a pocketknife that I put a $3 price tag on), it was a nice day. We donated the leftover clothes to Goodwill and I will donate the leftover books to the library, leaving just some plastic cups and a wicker chair to put away.

Note to self for future garage sales: Don't try to sell old lamps or lampshades. No one is interested.

For Sale- Cheap!

The neighborhood is having a huge multi-family garage sale tomorrow from 7am to 2pm. We have spent most of our free time in the past 3 weeks getting stuff organized and tagged for sale. Essentially, anything that fits the following criteria is for sale:

1. It's mine, and
2. Bernie doesn't want it around.

Actually, I'm selling all my "skinny rack" clothes (some with the tags still on them!), plus all the kitchen gadgets that didn't make the cut, plus computer hardware that I don't want any more, plus about half of my paperbacks. All the plastic cups and mugs that a bachelor accumluates are going away, too. So is the lawn mower that is guaranteed to start on the first pull (guess why?). We also went through my junk boxes and dumped them into a basket with "Free!" posted on it.

I don't think there's a single item for more than 10 bucks in the batch, and we'll take less. Anything that doesn't sell is going to Goodwill.

Come one, come all! We will NOT be undersold! If you don't buy something, I'll club this baby seal!

Elliott goes home, Taylor and Kat move on

Poor Elliott. Any other season, I think he'd have won this thing. He goes home with a 100,000 vote deficit out of over 50 million votes cast.

I didn't get to see the performance show due to being on the road, but thanks to the expanded results show tonight, I got to see at least some of the work done last night. In my opinion, the voters got it right, even down to the closeness of the results.

The performances this week, from what I've seen, were less uptight than previous weeks. I wonder if the three have finally learned to relax and be comfortable on stage? Singing live is the hardest part of being a singer, and if you can master it, the world is your oyster. The improvement this week tells me that all three of these idols have great potential as professionals.

Taylor: Three home runs on his songs. Joe Cocker meets Michael McDonald. Tonight's CD song, "Takin' It To The Streets" is one that I've been waiting for him to sing all season. My opinion of Taylor's gamesmanship went up this week. He knows what he sings best and has been saving it for the finals. It's his to lose, now that Elliott is gone. Taylor made it seem effortless this week, and that's the first time I've been able to say that all season.

Kat: Got a boost from the songs that were chosen for her. The one she chose for herself was the weakest, so she hasn't learned a lot from the experience. I loved her rendition of "Think" tonight.

Elliott: He goes home having maxed out his "Idol-tude". He did the most on this show even though his potential wasn't as high as the others from the very beginning. He won over a lot of people with his courage and hard work that might never have liked him otherwise. Kudos to him for doing that. I loved his song tonight as well, and his swan song from last night at the end of the show was great as well. Put him in a tour with Clay Aiken and they'd sell out stadiums anywhere in the world. You listening, Clay?

Finals - Taylor vs Kat:
I have to go with Taylor here. He wins the crowd over much better than Kat does, picks better songs, and makes better decisions. Notice how he sang his song with his arms around Kat and Elliott tonight? That scores points with the viewers. No sweat for Kat, though. Second place generally gets a better deal from the record producers since the "prize" for winning Idol is non-negotiable.

Can't wait for next week!

The Interlude Between Acts

Back home today between business trips. Just got back from a hellish weekend in Anaheim, and will be off tonight for a (hopefully) easy trip to the Atlanta area.

I had to be the software liason for a store installation this weekend. This means I do no dirty work, and just answer questions from the installers while they do their thing. The install started at 10pm and should have been done by 4 am.

It didn't happen that way. The installers were total idiots, didn't know the first thing they were doing, had to consult the step-by-step instructions every step of the way, etc. Then we found out they had skipped a meeting on Saturday where updated instructions were given, so I had to drive at midnight to headquarters for the company to get them. During my drive, these guys had done absolutely nothing. 3 hours behind, I pitched in and did more work than both of them. I hung monitors, ran cable, disconnected old hardware, etc. The installation was only done when I had to leave at 10am to catch my flight home. The store management was furious, but they told me that they knew the reason why (the idiot installers) when I left. The stuff that still wasn't done was mounting hardware, etc., when I had to leave. I had been awake for 26 hours straight and was looking forward to sleeping in first class on the way home.

Delta decided to downsize our aircraft, so when I got to the airport, I got the nasty surprise that my first class upgrade had been downgraded. Despite the best that the gate attendant could do for me (and she really tried), I ended up in coach. I did have an empty seat next to me, though. I wonder if that was her doing? If so, she deserves a medal. I got a few catnaps on the plane, and got home at 12:30am today. Tonight, I rent a car and drive to Atlanta where I get to start work at 7am tomorrow and babysit the store on Thursday, then drive back home.

At least I got to sleep at home and hug my wife. I slept until 10:30 without waking up.

Now for something happy: My Zen arrived! Being anti-Apple, I didn't ever want an iPod. So I ordered a Create Labs Zen M Video (30GB), which is vastly superior to the video iPod and costs less. I put 200 MP3s on it and took up around 1GB. I plan to start downloading torrents of TV shows that I've never seen very soon. This thing will come in handy on these long flights where the only movie is "Big Momma's House 2".

My sweet, darling wife got me the Chicago 30 CD for our anniversary and it was the first thing I ripped to the Zen. Thanks, darling! I love you!

More Chris Daughtry News

Apparently, Chris isn't going to leave American Idol empty-handed. Check out this rumor.

Shocked!

Oh my....Chris is gone! I totally didn't see it coming.

I'm in shock, but it adds up when you look at the evidence.

1. Chris took the week off. I thought he could afford to do it, but apparently not.
2. DialIdol.com predicted it...they judge the voting based on percentage of busy signals when dialling.
3. Elliott's surge in votes came at Chris's expense, not Kat's, as I expected.

I've learned a lesson. I truly think that the Idol voting is a closed system now. There is a finite amount of votes each week and when one contender gets more votes due to a great performance, another contender loses votes. I will also pay attention to DialIdol from now on.

I think Chris and Simon are more shocked than anyone at the results.

I have to revise my predictions now, and I think that you have to put Taylor and Elliott as the favorites going into next week. Whodathunkit?

This is why American Idol leads the ratings, folks. Great show.

PS: Incidentally, regarding my song choices for the contenders in my last post? Did you check out the group-sing medley on tonight's show? It's freaking eerie!

Katharine the not-so-great

I can't believe it. Katharine has stumbled and will be gone tomorrow night.

Analysis:

Taylor: Did exactly what you expected. After a couple of bad weeks, he got back in stride last week, and took tonight's theme seriously. "Jailhouse Rock" was great, despite what Simon had to say. It's young Elvis, dude! Elvis was constantly over the top in his early days, and if you don't do it that way, it will fall flat. Taylor's original spin on "In the Ghetto" was top-notch. He gets top marks for the night.

Chris: Man, this guy read my mind tonight. If I were on Idol, and it was Elvis week, I would have picked "Suspicious Minds" and "A Little Less Conversation". Chris did them both well - solid base hits, not home runs, but safe. Chris lacks the broadness of voice in the low range that made Elvis the King, but, then again, no one does. Nice job, good for a tie for second place tonight.

Elliott: Geez...this guy pulled out the guttiest performance of the season. He's definitely peaking at the right time. 5 straight weeks that he's had his "best performance". The dark horse will make the semi-finals, since Katharine stunk up the joint tonight. His rendition of "Trouble" was perfection. Classic case of the underdog coming out on top. Tie with Chris.

Katharine: Is it just me, or did Katharine sound like Kellie tonight (Kellie having a bad day, even)? Definitely a little bit of country crept into her vocals today, and she picked the wrong songs as well. This may have doomed her, unless she has a voter base that can save her. "Hound Dog" is a non-impressive song, no matter who sings it, and Kat didn't do a great job with it on top of that. "She had a shot to save herself with "Falling in Love", but the arrangement that started out great, sounding like a Whitney Houston anthem in her prime, went straight into outer space on the first bridge and ended up sounding like a Queen rendition of the song with blazing tremolo lead guitar that totally distracted me from her vocals. She tried to wail out the home verse and chorus to get on top of the music, but it didn't work at all. A terrible performance, and it will now be an all-male semifinal. It was hers to lose, and she lost it tonight.

Revised predictions:
Taylor, Chris, and Elliott move on. Chris makes the final, and Taylor and Elliott face off next week to decide the challenger. No idea of the theme at this time, so I can't handicap the contest, but Elliott is on a roll.

Further prediction:
You will hear from all four of these quarterfinalists on the charts very soon.

Unsolicited advice in hindsight:
Taylor: Maaaaybe should have picked "Burning Love" as the first song instead of "Jailhouse Rock". He might have picked up some new voters for wailing on the "hunk-a-hunk-a burning love" chorus.

Chris: No advice. He did what I would have done. I'd love to hear him do "Are You Lonesome Tonight", though.

Elliott: I can't improve on his performance, but I probably would have picked two more well-known Elvis songs, like "Don't Be Cruel" and "Kentucky Rain" for him.

Kat: It would be hard to do worse than what she picked. I'd have gone with "Devil in Disguise" for the first song, and followed up with something slow with a big ending, like "The Wonder of You" or "My Way". I'd have paid good money for someone to do "My Way".

Ode to Elliott

I read this article today, which says some interesting things regarding Elliott. Despite there being some racially-motivated whining between the lines, the author has a point. Elliott may indeed be destined for a successful R&B career after Idol is over, and I agree that the judges are doing a little lobbying for their preferred contestants.

However, America still does the voting, and I hope that fans of the show are smart enough to believe their own ears instead of listening to what the judges have to say in interviews.

Remember, this show is geared toward the pop music scene. No matter if Barry Manilow and Stevie Wonder appear every year - the show is looking for a pop star. They want someone who will be on the mainstream radio stations and MTV. Who fits that mold most this season? I don't think it is Elliott.

Caveat: Clay Aiken didn't fit that mold either, and he's had the second-most successful career of any Idol contestant. Elliott may do the same after it's all over. Remember, the winner has to accept the contract offered. The runners-up are free agents and can sign with anyone.

Short addendum: Kellie Pickler is bound for Nashville to meet with music producers this week. Good luck, Kellie!

AI followup: Simon or me?

On Good Morning America, Simon predicted a final of Chris vs Taylor. I'm predicting Chris vs Katharine.

I've been right in my predictions for all 3 weeks that I've been making them, so who do you think has it right, Simon or me?

It's American Idol time again!

I totally didn't get the theme tonight - Tribute to Billboard. What does that mean? Apparently, you can pick anything Billboard ever ranked.

Anyhoo....on to the performances and my brilliant analysis:

Taylor: Did two of my personal favorite songs. "Play That Funky Music" was ok, but he overdid the dancing again. I personally think if he'd dressed in a pimp outfit and done this one standing up, he'd have had a better grade. "Something in the way she moves" was just fantastic. I totally could see Joe Cocker doing this one the same way. Taylor survives to see Elvis next week.

Elliott: This dude has completely turned his fortunes around in the last 3 weeks. I think he read my blog and took my advice to ditch the vanilla stuff and embellish his vocals. His two songs tonight were "On Broadway" and a tearjerker from Micheal Buble who's title I didn't catch and he did them both well. Elliott survives.

Chris: Rocked out. "Renegade", Foreigner's version of "Bohemian Rhapsody", in my opinion, was done well, but not better than the original. Possible violation of rule 6, but the song is so old that I don't think the world cares. His second song was also done well, but wasn't memorable. Chris has such a lead on the rest that I think he could sing "Mary had a little lamb" and still move on next week.

Katharine: "Against All Odds" was off-pitch a lot, but the recap made it sound better than I remembered. The choruses were good. I hated the arrangement. Her second song, which title I didn't catch, is a current hit and was great, great, great. Katharine keeps rolling.

Paris: "Kiss"...interesting, she chose to do it in the Tom Jones style, which was a good move. It didn't pop, though. Good, but not memorable. The second song, she violated rule 6, but the judges seemed to let her get away with it. In my opinion, they are being kind since they know she's going home this week. I think Paris tried out for AI three years too soon. If she had more sex appeal (and at 16, she doesn't), she'd have a better chance. I think Paris gets sent packing this week.

Revised predictions: Chris leads, Katharine is second, and Elliott has passed Taylor for #3.

Next week: Supposedly, this will be an Elvis theme. If Paris goes home this week, this will be a dogfight between Taylor and Elliott to determine who stays. Taylor has the advantage due to the theme.

Cultural Faux Pas

Fark.com linked the following article from Airman magazine.

Boiling it down, it listed 10 things that Americans do when travelling that can be considered offensive to citizens of other countries:

1. Public displays of affection
2. The OK hand gesture
3. Single gift giving
4. Improper eye contact
5. Using the left hand for eating, handshaking, etc.
6. The thumbs-up gesture
7. Sticking chopsticks in the bowl
8. Not respecting the elderly
9. Showing the soles of the shoe\Putting feet up
10. Blowing nose in public

From the discussion thread on Fark, a poster named Savonola had a particularly biting retort that I found funny (and I've edited it - my apologies to Savonola if he reads this and doesn't like my edits):

What Americans consider to be rude behavior:
1. Flying airplanes into our buildings
2. Sneaking across our border and collecting welfare
3. Starting wars with your neighbors, then asking us to bail your ass out
4. Aiming nukes at us - correction - even pretending to aim nukes at us
5. Dumping your products on our markets then closing your markets to our products
6. Impressing our sailors on the high seas then burning our capital
7. Committing genocide
8. Growing opium and coca then blaming us when your country is undermined by armed gangs
9. Sending your people to our shores on rickety boats or across the desert and then blaming us when they die
10. Electing Hugo Chavez

Here's a few I'd like to add:
11. Joining the United Nations (for which 25% of the budget comes from the USA alone), then blaming the Americans for everything that's wrong with your country
12. Getting a degree on scholarship from an American university, then going home and becoming a terrorist or political activist holding a "Death to America" sign on TV
13. Eating McDonalds food and swilling Starbucks coffee while cursing America's "oppressive culture"
14. Criticizing human rights in the USA while your country allows dismemberments and maiming of anyone any unelected street preacher doesn't like, and considers women to be "property"
15. Criticizing US politics while your country is led by a guy who ousted your last government through a military takeover.
16. Criticizing the US for not signing the Kyoto Accord, when your country hasn't come close to living up to the emissions cuts you agreed to when you signed it.

Cna yuo raed tihs?

Got this off a message board today.

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid, too.
Cna yuo raed tihs?
i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I wbs rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh?

I wonder if it gets harder if you make the middle letters random?

Niw ljts tky it wkjh tnjcddy rjnjdm lnddews bkmaan tne fmcjst atd lmct lkwwrns.

Hmm...not as easy.

Transcontinental Divide

Here I am in California again. The boss called me while I was in Nebraska last week and asked me to come out to Anaheim on Sunday night and stay until Tues morning. I got most of a weekend at home, which was spent putting up our new fence in the side yard with my Dad and John, a handyman. So, I at least got a full dose of sunburn and sore muscles before I had to get on a plane.

Bernie ain't happy one bit with all the travel, and, to tell the truth, I don't blame her. I'm going to try to stay home for at least a couple of weeks this time. My wife needs me, and I need her.

On the bright side, the fence is all done and looks great.

Rant #1: Delta airlines, for the flight home, you had better make damn sure that the air conditioning works better than it did on your plane last night. Putting people in a tiny seat with no legroom for 4 1/2 hours in 80 degree heat is worse than what the government is doing to prisoners at Gitmo. And showing Hoodwinked as your movie at the same time violates the Geneva accords. You will be hearing from my lawyer.

Rant #2: My weight is getting out of control. The travel, plus the irresistible desire to relax and enjoy life whenever I get home is wearing on me. Tapering off and being sensible isn't working, so I'm tempted to do something drastic, like a liquid diet. Slim-fast shakes+ vitamins + juices may be worth a shot for a couple of weeks.

Reaction to Idol posts

Well, my shallow ploy seems to be working, as I'm getting replies again. :)

(My wife is trying to steal my mojo by making AI posts, too, I notice)

Kellie indeed was sent home yesterday. I was quite disappointed in her for the last two weeks, as I thought she might show some improvement over time. She's appeared to be depressed lately on the show, and I wonder if the pressure got into her head. She's got a couple of months to rest up before the American Idol tour this summer, so maybe she can pull it together and start a career.

I stand by my predictions of Katherine and Chris being the finalists. If Taylor can survive one more week, I predict that the Elvis week will send either Elliott or Paris home, and make him the second runner-up. He's got to get past whatever the theme is this coming week, however.

On an unrelated subject, NC State University is seeking a new basketball coach. Resumes should be sent to Lee_Fowler@ncsu.edu. Serious inquiries only, please.

More Idol

Tonight's contest was the most disappointing one all season. The bar was set low, and still many of the prospective Idols failed to jump over it. Why the heck Idol chose to publicize the appearance of Andrea Bocelli (whom no one that watches Idol would know) instead of publicizing David Foster's appearance, I can't fathom. Foster showed tonight that he's forgotten more about singing and performance than Simon could ever learn. Take the bottom 6 contestants from this season and let them work with Foster for a month and then let them compete against the top 6 and I'd bet we'd see fireworks. If I were the Idol winner, I'd sign over half the contract earnings to Foster just to have him produce my first album.

Now then, onto my criticism:

Katharine: She broke rule #6 tonight and got spanked. Even though Whitney can't sing her way out of a paper bag right now, apparently she's still untouchable in the judges' minds. I think she did a great job, myself. Not in danger.

Elliott: David Foster got on his case for the same things I said last week. No risks or originality. He made Elliott take some risks on riffs and it worked like a charm. See what I mean about Foster? He's a genius. Elliott is not in danger this week.

Kellie: Ohhh...bad bad bad bad song choice and lackluster effort. She broke rule #7 in a big way. Kellie, this may end it all for you. Easily the weakest performance of the night two weeks running. DANGER!

Paris: Performed a song that is supposed to be a light sorbet and covered it with chocolate sauce, chopped nuts, and thick merengue, and it was bound to cause a serious intestinal blockage. Still pretty good, though it may violate rule #6. Possibly in danger if Kellie's fans come through for her again.

Taylor: Took a great song choice and whiffed. Taylor has been giving lip service to the verses in order to get to the big choruses. It backfired big-time tonight. Rule #7 in play again. DANGER!

Chris: Picked a pretty obscure song, but totally killed it. POW! over the right field wall. Not in danger, and back out in front as the favorite.

Bottom 3: Taylor, Kellie, and Paris.

Out: I'm predicting Kellie goes home unless the text messaging station outside the bar in Albemarle, NC glows in the dark tonight.

Comment Trolling: American Idol analysis

OK, folks. I've been slack, and you've noticed and I don't get comments any more. This will now change, as I will unashamedly bring up the subject everyone wants to talk about: American Idol.

This season of AI has been my first - I never watched it regularly before now. I hear that this season has been the best, and I must agree that it is definitely a better show than the few spots I caught here and there in previous years. After watching Rockstar:INXS this summer, I had to admit that the singing on INXS was much better than AI. This is still true, but AI is a different animal, in that it encourages singers with little or no experience to try out, whereas INXS required a resume' of sorts to get on the show.

This season has pleased me and disappointed me. We had a strong final 12 (with the exception of Kevin Covais), and a broad selection of musical styles to choose from amongst them. What has disappointed me, however, is a fairly low musical IQ to go with all that talent in the contestants.

Here's my individual analysis of the final 12:

Ace Young
Ace had girl appeal. He wasn't the most masculine contestant and his song choices were notoriously poor. His best performances were "Father Figure" and "Tonight I Want To Cry". America grew tired of Ace in week 6, and he was in the bottom 3 all but one week after that. I predict we'll never hear from him again.

Bucky Covington
Bucky survived a long time on his personality, but his voice wasn't strong enough to pull off a win. Even when he got to sing country, where he was strongest, he was frequently drowned out by the backup band, and was off-pitch a lot of the time. Bucky was surprisingly good in his song choices, though, and I think that kept him around much longer than expected. His best performances were two of his last three: "Real Good Man" and "Best I Ever Had". If Bucky can get a good agent and some vocal coaching, he just might be heard from again in the future.

Chris Daughtry
Chris is the favorite to win this thing. He is versatile and has a good musical IQ. He's also experienced, fronting his own band back in McLeansville, NC. Chris nearly lost his audience when he sang a Creed song back in week 6 and Simon accosted him for being too "indulgent" with his song choices. Chris took that advice to heart and has chosen to show that he is more than just a "rocker" since then. His appearance in the bottom 3 this week is an anomaly and won't be repeated. I think that Kellie's poor performance this week caused a sympathy vote swing at Chris's expense. If Chris is lucky, he'll be the runner-up and get a better contract than the default one given to the winner (a la Clay Aiken).

Elliott Yamin
Elliott is quite talented, but totally unpolished. He sings vanilla vanilla vanilla, which is good, but boring. He also refuses to take risks on high notes or difficult arpeggio runs, which will doom him. He lost my vote during the Queen show when he declined to finish "Somebody to Love" the way the song demands to be finished (with a high note and arpeggios). Take some risks, man! I predict his demise in the next couple of weeks. Elliott will probably never be heard from again after AI wraps up.

Katharine McPhee
I put her just behind Chris as the front runner at this point. She's got it all. If she can just find a decent dress to wear occasionally. Her song choices have held her back, but lately, she seems to have gotten it figured out. Her last two performances, "Who Wants To Live Forever", and "Someone To Watch Over Me", have been masterpieces and closed the gap. Katharine will be big-time someday. I predict she has a nice recording career and ends up headlining in Vegas. If she wins, she will eclipse Kelly Clarkson as a star (not right away, but eventually).

Kellie Pickler
She's #3 at this point. Kellie gives new meaning to "raw" talent. This girl needs a manager and vocal coach because she's country gold just waiting to happen. Surviving one of the worst performances ever seen on AI, Kellie did it on sheer personality. Kellie has picked great songs except for two, "Suds in the Bucket" and "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered" last week. This indicates to me that she's smarter than she's letting on. If she had chosen Katharine's song instead (Someone To Watch Over Me), she'd have hit the home run her fans have been waiting for. Now that she's survived that debacle, her voters are exposed - they are voting for her, not for her performances. I predict that someone coaches this girl into a dazzling Nashville career. She could be the next Dolly Parton.

Taylor Hicks
You have to love this guy. Taylor is great, but has shown an annoying tendency to pick loser songs. Taylor is not very versatile, and he has to know that and choose songs that he can hit out of the park. I put him at #4 right now. Next week's theme will really challenge him, but I think, like Kellie, that he has his votes locked up every week, and how he does from week to week isn't really that important to his voters. Taylor will end up in Vegas when it's all over.

Paris Bennett
She's good. Damn good. If the girl only pronounced the lyrics correctly, we'd have something. It's annoying! "Live" is "Leave", "Love" is "Loaf", etc. The people that have been voting for her aren't enough to keep her in the competition much longer, I'm afraid. Paris was born 50 years too late, and I just don't think there is an audience for the music she wants to sing, the way she wants to sing it. I predict she'll go to college and lose interest in a singing career after AI.

Kevin Covais
He didn't belong on stage with the rest of these people. Very little talent or charisma. I'm glad he's gone, because his performances cheapened those of the other performers. If we ever see him again, it will be as an actor, after he grows up.

Lisa Tucker
She was a poor man's Paris. There's only enough room for one Paris. Sorry.

Mandisa
Mandisa has talent, and a heck of a set of pipes and a good musical IQ. I think her gospel style and her looks doomed her in this competition.

Melissa McGhee
Ah. Melissa. #1 example of how poor song choice can get you sent home. She made bad choices three weeks in a row and went home long before her talent deserved it. I wish Ayla Brown had survived in her place. Seriously, Melissa, how could you let Kevin outlast you? My prediction is that Playboy gets her to pose some time in the near future.

So that's my analysis. A lot of these folks let bad song choices send them home.

My advice to future Idol-wanna-bes:
1. Identify the threats and the losers early on.
2. While a loser survives, take risks with your style. As long as they are worse than you are, you're safe. Early in the season, it's OK to whiff on one as long as one total loser remains to get booted off ahead of you. Taking risks earns you votes. If you are the loser that's just hanging on, go vanilla and do something else to earn votes, like snark off at Simon.
3. Show personality and build a fan base early.
4. Get better every week. Don't relax and take a week off with something safe.
5. Pick songs the audience knows.
6. Do NOT pick a song by a current artist unless you are prepared to change it radically, or else do it better than the artist.
7. Once the losers are gone, you must swing for the fence every week.
8. Don't listen to the show's stylists unless you are completely hopeless on your own.
9. Listen to Simon's advice and ignore Paula and Randy's advice. Be nice to Paula, though.
10. Know what you do well and make sure you do it every week.
11. Don't let the guest artist pick your song for you.
12. Once your fan base is built, they will vote for you no matter what.
13. If the night's theme is your favorite, you have to hit a home run. No excuses. You can lose your fan base if you don't 'have a moment' here.
14. Be aware that it is the voters that keep you alive every week, not the judges. Suck up to the camera, not to Simon.

Sore and Happy

I can hardly lift my arms today. It was so hard to get out of bed this morning, that I called in sick. This is from wrestling with a roto-tiller and shovelling and raking and lifting bags of dirt on Saturday, followed by more lifting and then seeding and fertilizing the grass on Sunday. My parents came over to help on Saturday, and they were too tired to go to church on Sunday, so I could have predicted how bad I'd hurt today.

Did I mention that I love/hate lawn maintenance? Hate the work, love the results.

Saturday night, Bernie and I had to make dessert for Easter dinner on Sunday, so we took our tired and burned out selves and tried to make a cheesecake. I knew - KNEW, mind you - that I should consult the Alton Brown archives to make sure I was doing it right, but I was too tired and simply followed the index-card family recipe that mentions ingredients and the only mention of cooking technique was "1 hour at 375". It turned out about like you would expect. Brown, cracked, falling apart (but quite tasty, strangely enough).

For those of you who read Bernie's blog in addition to mine, let me give you the menu for Easter lunch, since she didn't mention it.

Appetizers:
Celery with pimento cheese
watermelon rind sweet pickes
olives
Devilled eggs

Main course:
Spiral-cut ham
Yeast rolls
Southern-cooked Lima Beans (known as Butterbeans to us)
Potato Salad
Cranberry jello cobbler

Dessert:
Lemon curd cake
Cheesecake with oreo crust (the aforementioned disaster)

Today, nature rewarded me with a rainshower, so I don't have to water the lawn. I've been a lazy slob and haven't lifted a finger all day. Tomorrow, back to work, then on the road for the rest of the week.

Haven't posted in a while

Not much of importance going on, but I'll give a brief update:

I've been home and not travelling for 7 whole days! Rah!

Sophie and Brian had their baby! Little Elise is at home and doing great. We will visit them later this week.

30-day walkthrough on the house happened yesterday and was fine. Looks like the punch list will be worked on.

Decorating is nearly done until we decide to buy more furniture. Just need to hang the pictures once we decide what and where.

We've been cooking lately and have been shaking the rust off of our skills and producing some nice stuff. See Bernie's blog for details.

We want to build a fence, and I've submitted plans to the HOA committee. We'll see how it goes.

That's it for now. I need to do a post on other subjects soon to liven things up.

Alive!!!

I'm home. I'm alive, and all is well. Phew.
My wife is right where I left her and so is the cat. Bernie apparently missed me a lot, and the cat is more of "Oh...it's you. Hi."

Got 3 whole hours of sleep in my bed, then we went out to run some errands and took my mom to dinner and watched American Idol.

If this sounds boring to you, go sit in a Carl's Jr for 5 days.

Incidentally, I saw a DVD of "The Aristocrats" while I was waiting in the airport. This is probably the funniest movie I've seen in my adult life, and I can't give it a higher recommendation than that. It's a documentary by Pin Gillette about an old vaudeville joke that professional comedians have been telling and re-telling (to each other) for decades, each one embellishing it as much as they can to make it more and more disgusting and vulgar. The best version of it on the DVD is by Gilbert Gottfried and it just howls. Good thing I was wearing headphones.

You know what really stinks?

Being on the road on April Fools Day and not being able to perpetuate the annual prank, that's what stinks. Not getting more than a couple of hours away from this restaurant at a time, that also stinks. Not being able to eat decent food for 6 days, that really stinks.

At least I got a couple of bottles of local wine to take home. There's a little winery a block from my hotel. Funny thing, though...the winery gets grapes from other places - one of which is Paso Robles, where I visited late last year, and it looks quite a bit like Camarillo, where I am now. Go figure.

My cell phone started dying today. Got a line across the screen that wouldn't go away, so I took it to the Verizon store that was conveniently next door, and they replaced it. Also sold me an extended battery that was on closeout. That made me happy, so I splurged and got a handsfree that I needed.

Just one more full day and I can get on a plane and fly home and see my wife - for two days - then I'm off to Nebraska. The boss has already inquired about my schedule after that, so I think I'll be doing an Atlanta trip almost as soon as I get back from the next one. It's doing wonders for my self-esteem, since I'm obviously needed, but Jeez...can't we spread the trips out just a little?

Almost dinner time...wonder what I can find that's close by and not a burger?

Boooooooooorrrring!

Geez...I hope I survive this week(end).
I spent 22 hours awake yesterday and slept for 4. Had to stay until closing at 12am, then be back for opening at 5:30am. I am sitting in a popular fast-food establishment in California, simply being present in case there is a problem with the software. Well, thankfully, there aren't any problems requiring my attention, but the sitting around is killing me. I have an extremely tenuous wireless connection here, so I can browse and check email as long as I'm patient and the wind is blowing in the right direction. I may take a break when the lunch rush dies down and go to the hotel for a nap, then get back for dinner rush.

5 more days of this to go. One and a half books read. If I can get my mind focused, maybe I'll try my hand at writing some fiction, since Chris got my interest up with his resolution to give it a go. More later.

Going out of town

I'm being sent (along with most of my department) to LA until next Tuesday. I hope to be able to do a little blogging while I'm gone. Poor Bernie! I hate to leave her alone for all that time, but my parents promise to keep her company while I'm gone.

Gross question for my readers

A couple of weeks ago I **twice** stubbed my little toe and split the toenail...vertically (ouch). I have since been using superglue to try to hold it together with mixed results. Today I had to go back to the old bandaid trick, as one side of the nail is snagging on my socks and pulling in the wrong direction.

Is there anything that can be done about this that I haven't tried? Would a pedicurist be able to do anything to help?

One room 90% complete

We finally got the living room within shouting distance of where we want it. Curtains up, entertainment system connected and functioning, furniture in place, etc. Just gotta get pictures hung and cap off the wires for the speakers.


PS: Dear Wife,
You didn't get to hog all the pics for yourself tonight!
Love,
Jason

Wife stole my thunder again...

Since Bernie posted all the pictures I took yesterday, I yield and simply link to her blog.

We're in!

Finally! We have moved all our stuff over the last 3 weeks, and now we have moved ourselves into the new house. TV, phone, internet, etc is all hooked up and running, and we've slept in the new place for the past two nights.

I had forgotten how disconcerting it is to adjust to a new living configuration. I haven't slept well for these two nights, though the bed is comfy (1200 thread count sheets from our wedding booty). I'm not completely sold on the shower (separate shower stall and tub, and the stall is not roomy enough for my taste, and the water pressure from the shower head I installed isn't as powerful as I'm used to). But overall, it's great.

Another realization that you only make when you move is that you discover how much stuff you have, and I've discovered that while I don't have an amazingly huge load of possessions (despite what my wife says), I do have two things that are hugely out of proportion with my other stuff. 28 boxes of books, for instance. 28!!! I'm floored by that, truly. My plan is to siphon off the ones I like best, and to get rid of most of them. At least half.

The other thing that is out of proportion is my kitchen stuff. I know that my old roomie, Bert, and I were kitchen-crazy, but I apparently have 10 steel mixing bowls, and I don't even bake! Top that off with the set that Bernie and I got when we got married, and something's gotta give. Several chopping gadgets are on their way out as well, as I need the shelf space. I didn't realize that I hadn't left a place for flour, sugar, etc in their respective bins, and now I need a shelf for those. (Grits get a bin, too - this IS the South, you know.)

Of course, some things have just disappeared during the move. I had a board for hanging keychains on - gone. I had a knife magnet - gone. My refrigerator magnets!!! - gone. My marker board for the grocery list - gone. Every tiny piece of computer-related junk that I wish had gotten lost made it through the move, but all my ethernet patch cables? Gone. Sacrifices to the storage deity. I had to go to Wal-Mart at 11pm last night to get Bernie's PC on the internet so she could work from home today.

Anyway, after all the lifting and such, I am sore and tired and here it is Monday again. Work. Ugh. Maybe after I post this, I can wake up fully and start working.

Quick notes:
Elizabeth and Chris delivered their second child this weekend after a grueling 2 whole hours of labor. Congrats to the new second-time parents and newborn Marcus!
Not a good weekend for customer service. Had to cuss out the car dealer for not returning phone calls or sending our tube of touch-up paint as promised, had 2 terrible experiences at restaurants, and the Dish Network guy who was supposed to arrive between 12 and 3 showed up at 7pm, never called, did a crappy job, and whined the whole time about how long a day he had had. My heart bleeds. Really. Not.

Geek heaven

Did it. I've been threatening for a month, but I finally pulled it off. The new house now has in-the-wall wired ethernet. No more slow, insecure, cranky wireless network for me!

I called a structured wiring company and the guy came out and put in an OnQ cabinet, which basically pulls the outside wires for phone, cable, etc inside the house. Then I had Time Warner hook me up with Road Runner (no television - I'm getting satellite TV. 100% of my cable bandwidth is dedicated to internet this way) and mounted the cable modem in the OnQ cabinet. I bought a fast router and mounted it in the cabinet, then tonight I took the Cat-5e that was supposed to be for my phone jacks (I'm using VoIP and cordless phones, so no need for them) and re-terminated both ends for ethernet and plugged it into the router. Presto! 100Mbps in the wall!

The bonus was that one of the outlets upstairs had two sets of Cat-5, so if I go wireless later, I can put the wireless router upstairs and get better coverage.

Eat your hearts out, folks. Geeks rule.

Religion of Peace

OK, I'm not getting many comments lately, so I'm going to post on something topical and controversial just to stir things up.

Late last week, a perfectly nice, normal guy from South Charlotte, who recently graduated from UNC, decided to go berzerk and try to kill a bunch of kids at random with his SUV. He drove into the Pit, which is a gathering place on campus at UNC, and swerved and managed to hit 9 people. Luckily, he didn't manage to run anyone over or cause serious injuries. He got back on the road, and pulled over and called police to come and get him.

Oh, did I forget to mention he's a Muslim and claims he did this to get revenge on the US Government?

What makes people do things like this?

It's easy to say that it's Islam as a religion, since most of the violence that concerns us in the USA lately is at the hands of Middle Eastern Muslim terrorists. But I've visited Malaysia, which is an Islamic state, and this crap doesn't happen over there. Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and Christians seem to actually get along there.

I'd like to say that it's the combo of Islam and oppressive governments, but this kid was raised in the USA all his life, though he was born in Iran.

I'd like to blame this on the brainwashing and programming by radical Islamic clerics, but this kid apparently studied the Koran on his own. Maybe future investigation will prove this assumption wrong, but the available evidence indicates that he worked alone.

Therefore, none of the conventional wisdom and rhetoric seem to apply to this case. This kid has been meek, quiet, and respectful during his time in court, although he is unapologetic for his actions. He has not displayed a load of anger and hatred in his demeanor at all.

For those of my friends and family in Malaysia, I'd like to try to explain how I think most Americans feel about Muslims at the moment. We know that our American culture is under attack by a lot of people who hate us, for no reason other than their religious leaders say that they should. These attackers have little or no regard for human life, which is something we can't comprehend in our society, as we have been taught that there is nothing more precious. These attackers claim they are Muslims and call for all Muslims to join their jihad. This makes us look on other Muslims with a slightly suspicious eye. After all, we were attacked and hurt by people that came to the US posing as students, taking advantage of our education system, under the guise of friendship, and betrayed our trust in the goodness of human nature. I think it's understandable that we are a little more wary since then.

I'd like to apologize to the millions of peaceful Muslims in America and the rest of the world for this behavior. However, I hope you are reasonable enough to understand that those of us who don't share your religion might not be as easy to get along with as we once were. You could help the situation yourselves quite a bit, you know, if you would speak up about how the actions of Al-Qaida, Hamas, etc are in conflict with Islam and show a little outrage towards them sometimes. Excommunicating them or something would go a long way, really it would. We'd certainly feel a bit more trusting if you were to do that. And by the way, your reaction to the cartoon thing? Not really helpful. Jesus taught his followers to "turn the other cheek", and most of the time, it remains good advice. Just shake it off - it was in bad taste, yes, but it was a tiny little newspaper from a country that doesn't have much in the way of entertainment. (Incidentally, the USA had nothing to do with it. Please address your complaints to Europe.)

Anyway, I've rambled on long enough about this subject. Hopefully, I've explained my perspective and we can have a nice discussion in the comments.

Catching up on things

Here's the wife with her new car. We washed it today for the first time.















I've been very slack on posting pics, and Bernie beat me to the punch and used all of todays pics in her blog. Therefore, I'm being lazy and linking directly to her post.

Just for the record

I feel my wife is my perfect soul mate and my marriage is the best thing that's ever happened to me. Any perceived criticism of my wife or my marriage exists solely in the mind of the reader and you should be ashamed of yourself for even thinking that way.

No kidding. The plain truth. Nuf Sed.

The things I don't have time for right now

My life is moving forward again, and although I'm happy as I can be about that, I've lost the time to do lots of things I love doing. I mean, TV-wise, I haven't seen Smallville at all this year (well, twice) nor have I seen any Battlestar Galactica. I've never seen a single episode of 24 or Alias, ever. TV consists of a couple of hours a week watching a show with Bernie. I just bought a new PC with my bonus money from work, and I haven't touched it except to set it up to make sure it runs. I got a new car stereo for Christmas that plays MP3s off the CD, and I want to rip every CD I have and condense them to MP3 format so that I only have to keep 4 or 5 CDs in the car (Haven't even gotten started). I've hardly had any time to blog, so I'm doing it during lunch today.

For those of you who are wondering, the new house is going great. We've got all the furniture in, and we've emptied the storage unit into the garage and nearly got all that stuff put away. We have a room that a friend lent us in their house that is full of more boxes that needs to get moved, so that's next on the list. Once the cabinet maker returns to fix his unfinished work, we can move in kitchen stuff and then bring in the bed and actually start living in the house for real.

Bad news, the custom blinds don't fit. We measured twice before ordering just to be sure, and last night, after we discovered the bad fit, we re-measured and it was different. I think the painters/sheetrock folks did something after we measured, but bottom line is that the $300 custom blinds for the living room won't fit. Hopefully, Lowes can trim them for us when we buy the rest of the blinds for the house. This really bummed me out last night, I can tell you.

Bernie has pretty much decided that every stick of furniture I brought into the marriage must be chopped up and burned, then she wants to scatter the ashes. She is grudgingly allowing most of my stuff to go into the house for now, so that we have something other than the floor to sit things and ourselves upon. I think we're going to buy a new bed for the master bedroom first thing. After that, we start replacing things one at a time. My parents (and wife, too, I think) are on a witch-hunt to get rid of my comfy chair in the living room. Darn, I love that chair. I think my comfy sofa is next on the hit list after that.

My next project that I'm looking forward to is to re-terminate my phone jacks to make them into ethernet jacks so we can have a wired network in the house. Then I need to put a wall plate on the surround-sound pre-wire, so I can just plug in components. This is guy stuff, and it's something that no one else in the family can interfere with, so I'm really excited to get started on it.

You tawkin' to me? Do I AMUSE you?

Big Pauly People Iced: Forty One Car Bombs Planted: Nineteen Favorite Weapon Switchblade Arms Broken: Thirty One Eyes Gouged: Four Tongues Cut Off: Fourteen Biggest Enemy: Smuggler Get Your HITMAN Name

Pencilling in a butt-kicking for tomorrow

Went to the house tonight. Nothing's been done in the past 2 days. The vanity mirror was delivered and is sitting on the front porch since no one worked there today and unlocked the place.

The builder gets a call from me at 8 am tomorrow. I ain't happy.

It's curtains for you, Lefty...curtains, I say...

We closed on the house on Friday, and despite some things not being totally complete, it's all ours.

We spent the day today hanging curtains, putting a floor in the attic, getting a garage door opener installed, and having the appliances delivered. Tomorrow, I epoxy the garage floor.

You may have noticed that none of this includes moving furniture. As usual, I'm doing this backwards. We move the furniture next weekend, after all the add-ons are done. Not that we have much furniture anyway. I have my old couch and chair, my mom's old dining room set, a futon, a chest of drawers, and a couple of TVs. The bed is a select comfort mattress, so it deflates and packs in a box. We're going to have to buy new stuff to fill the house, and we are NOT in a hurry.

I'm hoping this goes down as the easiest move ever. Wish us luck! Pics of the house will come next week after we get moved in.

No time to post right now

No time to post today. Everybody's over at Elizabeth's blog talking about her kid's penis.

L'Morte d'Jeep

Today was a good day until 1:30 or so. I was taking care of all the little personal to-dos that needed to be done before the house closing on Friday. Last item on the list: Get the brakes on the jeep fixed.

A little background: My old 1979 jeep that I've had for 7 years in hopes of slowly improving it to something other than a rust-bucket has been in storage since I moved to Charlotte. I dusted it off in December in order to get it inspected and it passed, after I got a muffler replaced. No other problems. A month later, I started it just to keep the battery alive, and I noticed the brake pedal went straight to the floor with no resistance. This usually indicates the master cylinder is dead and needs replacing ($35 + labor). So I called Pep Boys who has a great deal on towing where you get a rebate if you get repairs done there.

So I have the jeep towed to Pep Boys, and they call me at 1:30 with good news and bad news. Good news: The master cylinder is the problem. Bad News: They can't get it on the lift.

"Why can't you get it on the lift?"
"Because the frame has rusted through and if I lift it, it will break in two."

That was it. The jeep was dead. Getting a new frame and getting it installed would cost $3000. The jeep isn't worth 1/3 of that, and I don't have the money to invest in it since I'm buying a new house, furniture, and a new car for Bernie this month. I'm having it towed to the junkyard tomorrow.

One of the many things I was looking forward to this spring was driving my jeep again. Now I'll never be able to. I loved this thing enough to haul it down to Charlotte on a trailer when I moved from Raleigh and to store it indoors for 16 months, and now all that effort is wasted. My mother mentioned that there are only two items of my former life before moving and marriage left: The jeep and my cat. Now there's only one.

I'm pissed off, depressed, and sulky. This was an unkind cut, and even though it isn't truly important to my life and plans, it hurts.

Gearing up for the big week!

OK, this week is a biggie. I've got V-day on Tuesday, and closing on the new house on Friday. I went out to the house today, and folks, it ain't ready yet. They've got quite a bit of work to do to have it complete on time. We are walking through on Tuesday to put together the punch list, but at this time, there are several doors without knobs, missing appliances, wires hanging from ceilings, paint-sprayed windows, uninstalled fixtures, no electricity, etc. Good luck, P&N builders - you're on the clock!



Meet Bernie's new ride! We got a 2005 Hyundai Elantra GLS fully-loaded with only 18,000 miles on it. The only thing I didn't like about it was that the speakers for the sound system were 90% non-functional on the left side, and the brakes were a bit mushy. They are taking care of both for us and we pick it up on Monday evening. After I signed the deal, I handed Bernie the keys and told her "Happy Valentine's Day! Isn't this better than flowers?" She's pretty happy with it, but wishes she had it here today to show off.

The trap has been set

Ahhh...yes. Valentine's Day is just around the corner. So, being the conscientious, loving husband that I am, I ask the wife "What do you want to do for Valentine's day?"

The answer: "Nothing. Just make sure I'm happy that day."

As Admiral Ackbar would say, "IT'S A TRAP!"

Here's the pitfalls with that statement:

1. It's a workday. She hates her job. How can I keep her happy at work all day? Think I can convince her to take the day off?

2. She's sworn off chocolate - says it makes her heart race. She's not into stuffed animals or flowers. The easy answers have been ruled out before the game begins.

3. The rest of my family is dieting - this makes going out for dinner problematic. Plus, we're having our family 'cheat' meal out on Saturday at a pretty fancy place. That being said, having dinner out is part of the plan.

I've got a few days to think about how I can pull this off. I just wanted to state for the record that I know there's a trap here somewhere. I've just gotta avoid stepping in it.

The suckiest week...

I've been on the road this week. The company put me on a project where we are installing our new Drive-thru timer product in a bunch of (name deleted, but they have pretty good roast beef sandwiches) stores. This is a pilot project, meaning we expect problems to occur and to have to resolve them, taking extra time to do so. I'm in charge of the software installation and configuration, and the company that we contract the hardware part to sent along a nice fellow to travel with me and hang all the monitors and run the wires. Unfortunately, we allowed the other company to schedule the travel, and so we are doing 4 stores in 4 days in 4 different states. We started by flying on Sunday to Richardson, Texas, working a 12 hour day on Monday, then flew to Indianapolis.

On Tuesday, we were supposed to install a store, then drive 6 hours to Middleburg Heights, Ohio to install a store on Wednesday. Instead, the other company asked us to install a second store in Indianapolis (one that had not had a site survey, so we didn't know what to expect). We protested, but they had of course already committed to the customer, so we had to do it (what are our opinions worth, anyway?). Well, as you might expect, we ran into serious problems. We had disconnected the existing system, so there was no going back, and no way we could leave until we had it resolved. We ended up on the phone to the programmer and developer until 2 am. Driving to Ohio wasn't possible, so we checked back into our original hotel and slept for 6 hours and hit the road the next day.

We got to Middleburg Heights at 4pm and ran into more problems. I couldn't get the Win2000 back office PC to connect to the SQL database on the WinXP drive-thru PC. We have run into this before and after wrestling with it for about a half hour, it tends to miraculously give in and connect. Not this time (of course). I spent another couple of hours on the phone trying to resolve it, and this time we had to give up. We got on the road at 11:30pm and drove about half the distance to the next site by 2am and got a hotel to catch some sleep. We cancelled our flights home, as there is no chance to get to Baltimore by 5pm. I called Hertz and told them we'd be driving all the way back to Charlotte and I'd return the rental car there.

Luck was with us, though. My wife found us flights back to Charlotte from Harrisburg, PA, which is just 30 minutes away from the job site in Shrewsbury.

Today, we got up at 7am and drove 4 hours to Shrewsbury, PA. At last, we had an install go easy! We got there at 11am and got the install finished by 3pm. Now I'm sitting at the airport in Harrisburg (there's a free wireless hotspot!!!) waiting to go home. I'll get back to Charlotte at 11-something, and I'm ABSOLUTELY NOT going to work tomorrow.

Add it up, and I worked (driving included) 68 hours this week in 5 days. This doesn't include air travel time. Putting it another way - I've averaged about 5 hours of sleep each night, and those are the only hours I wasn't working or travelling, so (5 x 24)-20= 100 hours of work. I'm going to sleep all day tomorrow.

Tagged

My wife has "tagged" me and all of our blogging buddies. This apparently is an invitation to reveal all my secrets. Well, so be it.

What was I doing 10 years back:-
Getting my first grey hair, working helpdesk for IBM and learning what the meaning of "depression" was.

What I was doing ONE year back:-
Wedding planning and stressing out constantly over Bernie's immigration paperwork.

5 snacks that I enjoy:-
Cold pizza
Slim Jims
Untoasted Bagels w/cream cheese
Chipotle peanuts
Chex mix

5 Songs I Know All The Lyrics Off My Head Right Now:-
Mack the Knife
Come Fly with Me
25 or 6 to 4
The Way You Look Tonight
Every Time I Roll the Dice

5 Things I Would Do If I Was A Millionaire:-
Turn it into 5 million through investments
Pay off all debts
Get my wife a car
Hire a full-time personal trainer
Start my own business

5 Bad Habits: -
I don't have any bad habits, people just like to nit-pick me. :P

5 Things I Love To Do:-
Sleep late
Stay up late
Eat
Play backyard football or softball
Travel the world

5 Things You Would Never Buy, Wear, or Get New Again:-
A Mercedes or BMW - too expensive to maintain!
Regular length shirts - tall sizes from now on!
A cell phone with an external antenna
Anything made by Apple
A Dixie Chicks CD

5 Favourite Toys:-
My PC
Sirius Radio
My Dad's Magellan 360 GPS
Eurorails
My cell phone

Laws of Stupidity

While using my favorite new Firefox extension, StumbleUpon, I found this neat site today.

Basic Laws of Human Stupidity

I was amazed at how well it sums up my feelings on the large amount of stupid I have to wade through every day. Check it out!

Been a long time, been a long time, been a long...

OK, I've gone too long without posting. I've been sick with a nasty head cold, sent out of town for 3 days for work, and basically had nothing to post about. I'll try to do better tomorrow or sunday. For now, it's cold med + bed.

A few new photos

Just to show that my life doesn't totally suck, here are a few photos of some good things that have happened lately.

This is the house. Got stone on the front now! Lots of new stuff on the inside, too!


Like the stone on the fireplace and the sheetrock having been put up so you can see the layout of the place.


I don't normally put pics up to show off how cute my cat is, but this one was too good not to share. "TURN OFF THAT LIGHT!"


My Christmas gift to Bert, Jeff, Dave, Ed, Chris and Elizabeth, Brian and Sophie, Phil and Selena, etc. Whenever I see you next, you get one of these lovely jars of the best homemade spice mix in the world!


My team wins my office Fantasy Football playoffs!


82-69. Nuf sed.


Panthers deeeeeee-stroy the weak NY Giants!

What a wonderful new year's celebration!

Well, I was waiting for the other shoe to drop, and it did. The contractors my company hired to do installs for my project had not one, but two installers either get contagious rashes or have car accidents, so I had to drop my holiday plans and work. My company now owes me three days of missed vacation.

I spent my New Year in Seminole, FL, installing our software and hardware in a brand-new Panda Express. My wife would have been furious if she hadn't been sick and in bed the whole time. Bernie let me know that she LOVES New Year's. Personally, it's not my favorite holiday, but that's mostly due to past years of not having a significant other to share the moment with. I can see that this will change in the future.

I did make it back home in time for the traditional New Year dinner of roast pork, greens, and black-eyed peas. Those of you who weren't raised in the South should note that the pork is for good health, the greens for money, and the peas for good luck in the new year.

Oh yeah, I got a remarkable fortune in my cookie from Panda Express:
"You will move into a beautiful new home this year"
First of all, it's true. Secondly, how many fortunes do you get that make a specific prediction like that? Thirdly, it sort of implies that the fortune was meant to be read on New Year's. Quite neat.

Today's post is to show off the new house we are building. It should be ready in late February.



home-in-progress




The plan

First of all, we discovered a really nice home design in a subdivision that we weren't crazy about. Then we looked at another neighborhood that the same builder was building in. Of course, the nicer subdivision didn't offer the design we liked from the previous neighborhood.

Then a miracle occurred! The builder was actually flexible and allowed us to build the house design we wanted in the better neighborhood! We got a corner lot, and built the house we wanted and we'll even get a yard for the cat! The builder even let us mirror the design to get the windows on the open side of the house, allowed us to fix the only design flaw (no pantry), to tile the whole downstairs (except the living room) and to move the crown molding from the eat-in-kitchen/dining area to the living room, where it will be appreciated. All these changes were for little or no cost.

We just can't wait for this house to belong to us.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Christmas at our house

Merry Christmas week - and a shopping story

Two Christmas parties down, none to go. The countdown to Christmas day has begun. Christmas shopping is done, mostly done by my wife, but with some exceptional help from myself, plus the presents that I got for her, which (if I do say so myself) are outstanding.

It wasn't long after I met Bernie that I discovered that she's one hell of a shopper. The definition of 'good shopper' is NOT 'one who shops long and hard and comes home with a stack of boxes and a long credit card bill'. Bernie is a great shopper because of the following:
1. She doesn't buy something if she doesn't really want it/need it.
2. She HATES paying full price, or even a significant percent of full price.
3. She does the research before she buys.

It's my belief that the Asian culture she grew up in is the cause of these wonderful traits.

A quick anecdote:
When I travelled to Malaysia to get married, Bernie and I decided that we would buy her father a new computer so that she could use the internet to webcam and chat with her parents properly once I got her back to the US. Bernie, her cousin Felicia, and I went to Low Yat Plaza in Kuala Lumpur to have a good, no-name computer built for us. This place is amazing, by the way. Imagine a 6-storey mall with the top 5 floors being competing computer stores (the bottom floor is competing cell phone stores). We spent the morning gathering price lists from the various places, spent lunchtime comparing them, then targeted the best 3 places after lunch to negotiate.

Malaysia is a neat place to shop in the first place. Most stores have somewhat negotiable prices, but they at least start you out with a labelled price tag to go by. Then you ask for a "discount", and they write it down on a pad for you. Then you ask for the "best price", and they write something different on the pad. You can haggle down from there if you are good, but you eventually settle on something around 80% of the price tag. No sales tax either.

Needless to say, being Asian helps. White Americans don't get the best prices, but that's to be expected, and it's fair, since we are already reaping the benefits of a 3.8-to-1 currency advantage, dollar to ringgit.

OK, on with the story. Bernie and Felicia sit down on barstools at the counter of the computer shop, with me standing behind them. This young sales guy comes up and I start out telling him what components we want in this computer. He adds it all up and gives me a price. Now the ladies start in on him, in Cantonese. I don't know any Cantonese, but I must be psychic, since I can tell that the ladies are telling him what a horrible person he is and how he must think we're stupid and how we should report him to the management of the mall for giving us such an oppressive price on this PC that is for Bernie's poor lonely handicapped father (he isn't) whose only wish in life is to communicate with his only daughter. This takes all of 10 seconds, and the ladies grab me and start to leave towards the next store.

The sales guy calls us back (big mistake). He scratches off the price he wrote earlier and lowers it by 15%. (Bad move...shows weakness). The ladies smell blood and start in on him again. The guy blushes (I had no idea Asians could get red in the face), and lowers his price again. I'm just sitting back and enjoying this show - it's hilarious. Bernie and Felicia are playing 'good cop, bad cop' with this kid. I figured that Felicia would be the bad cop, but to my surprise, it's Bernie! My dear, sweet, quiet bride-to-be is giving this poor kid 6 different kinds of hell, while Felicia is batting her eyes at him and buttering him up. Anyway, we eventually get the kid down to his rock-bottom price, and he even tells us to buy the computer case from the place across the hall to save 20 ringgit, since they have one cheaper and better than his, and to bring it to him and they'll put the PC together for us for pickup in an hour. I get the feeling he's doing his best to placate us just to get away from us by this point. Anyway, we agree and I sign the papers, finally. I haven't said a single word since the beginning.

During the hour that we wait for them to assemble the PC, he calls Bernie's cell phone and apologizes, but the DVD drive we wanted, he doesn't have in black...would we accept a gray one? I can just see him cringing while he explains this to Bernie. Bernie says yes, but asks for additional discount on the drive...which she gets. We pick up the PC at the assembly shop on a different floor, and wave to the poor guy on the way out of the mall.

(We ended up getting a nice high-end customized PC with name-brand components for less than $300 US)

Bernie's pulled off some good bargains in the USA since she got here, so I don't even worry about letting her have money. In fact, she can shop with me any time. Coming from a guy, that's high praise.

90% nice weekend

I darn near had a perfect weekend. More on why it wasn't perfect at the end of this post.

On Friday, Bernie and I waved a tearful goodbye to my mom and dad, who are vacationing for 10 days in Williamsburg, then cooked our dishes to take to Chris and Elizabeth's Christmas party in Raleigh (Apex, actually).

We got up early on Saturday (10am, ha ha) and got in the car. Despite a couple of unscheduled stops (Bernie is still a little car-sick), we got to Chapel Hill and had lunch with some old friends at the Malaysian restaurant there (Penang - wonderful, authentic, and inexpensive) then made it to C&E's house by 3 in time to help out a bit before the party began at 7. We didn't have much to do, actually, so it was nice to relax a bit before the rest of the crowd arrived. After several hours of great food and company, and Elizabeth's "evil santa" gift exchange, we went to spend the night with two more old friends.

On Sunday morning, we had breakfast with Phil and Selena and had a great time - reminding me of how much I miss all my friends in Raleigh. We went and visited Bert for a while, dropped off a Christmas present from my mom at one of her friend's houses, then went shopping at two Asian grocery stores. The Asian groceries in Charlotte really stink (literally), so we save up for our trips to Raleigh to stock up. The trip home went pretty quickly and Bernie didn't have any car-sickness, so thumbs up on the whole weekend to this point. Once we got home, we took advantage of my folks' absence and made dinner our way - in the rice cooker.

One of my greatest pleasures in life is using my rice cooker. When I first got this device, I wasn't convinced I'd use it. In bachelorhood, it turned out to be a great time-saver and I fell in love with it. Throw in rice, liquid up to the mark, and whatever tasty leftovers there might be in the fridge, close the lid, and press the button. 20 minutes later - dinner! Since I've been married, Mom has been doing all the cooking in her kitchen, so it's been in storage. We got it out of storage last week and Bernie and I finally got to use it last night. Bernie had leftover corned beef hash from breakfast (not my favorite, but it is tailor-made for the rice cooker, being very fragrant and flavorful), and we added turmeric and used garlic chicken broth. It turned out great.

Now, of course, it was time for fate to intervene with some bad news. I'd had it too good for too long.

Dad calls and says that the realtor that is representing our buyer for my Raleigh townhouse has sent us the inspection report, and it has something about codes and firewalls in the attic. Despite the fact that my townhouse is 30 years old, and that other units have been changing hands for all that time in the same condition, the inspector apparently thinks he can force us to comply with 2005 building codes. Now I'm pissed off. The law says that houses must comply with current code at the time they are built, which this one obviously was. What idiocy! And now the realtor says that even if we choose to terminate the sale, we'd have to report these items on a disclosure report to future buyers. Sounds like a shakedown to me. Thus ends the nearly perfect weekend. Grrr.