One week down

Made it through the first week of both Tink and I working full time. She got a great job working for a real estate company at the front desk taking care of just about everything around the place. She had an interview on Wednesday and got hired on Friday, wanting her to start on Monday. Normally not a problem at all, but add a 5 year old who was starting school on Tuesday to the mix and it made things a bit more fun :) All in all, everything went smoothly enough. Pickle started school and daycare and seems to be adjusting well to both. Tink is adjusting to having to get up at 6 A.M. for work, and I am adjusting to having to pick her up after work. I don't think she would like me too much if I forgot her in Oxford.
On a side note, I've added about 5 more pages to my "book". I'll show it to you later Tink. Maybe someday I will call it a reall book, but for now, I will leave it in quotes.

Is this for real?

I am truely scared now. Anytime I see this moran on tv now, I will only be able to picture this :)


The George W. Bush Garden Gnome

GMail

The other day I mentioned that I had some GMail invites left. All gone now. They went fast. Google is not giving out invites as quickly as they had been, so if you e-mailed me and I did not send you an invite, please do not take it personally. I will try and get one out to you when I can. If you have gotten one from someone else, please either let me know or decline the invite I send you. That way we can spread them around a bit more.
I do have an unlimited number of Orkut invites though so don't hesitate to ask for one. It is nice adding people to the friend list :)

Listening to-- "It's a Sin - Pet Shop Boys"

Birthdays

Had a great time this week with out oldest turning 17 and the youngest turning 5. It kept us all pretty busy and more or less broke :) Now we have a couple of weeks until we have another string of birthdays. One turning 16 and the other 15. Damn, I am starting to feel old. Ah well, that happens.

On a side note, I have a few GMail invites and a bunch of Orkut invites if anyone wants one. Just e-mail me or leave a comment.

[Listening to: Here Comes President Kill Again - XTC - Oranges & Lemons(03:35)]

Mickey, my son and me

Was looking at old pics on the computer and came across this one from last year.

Game gem of the moment

I'm not going to call them "Game of the Day " anymore because you would have to go back a long ways to find the last game of the day. Instead I bring you "Game of the Moment". That way I can update it any damn time I feel like it. :)

Here it is--- Free Flight

Movie Villain

Great site

DubyaSpeak.com : : We record the damage.

The Ultimate Geek Tool

For the geek who has to have it all, we now have the Swiss pocket knife with USB memory.

http://www.swissbit.com/haupt.asp?nv=2288&spr=2



I have got to get me one of these 

FireFox to the rescue

SANS - Internet Storm Center - Cooperative Cyber Threat Monitor And Alert System - Current Infosec News and Analysis: A large number of web sites, some of them quite popular, were compromised earlier this week to distribute malicious code. The attacker uploaded a small file with javascript to infected web sites, and altered the web server configuration to append the script to all files served by the web server. The Storm Center and others are still investigating the method used to compromise the servers. Several server administrators reported that they were fully patched.

If a user visited an infected site, the javascript delivered by the site would instruct the user's browser to download an executable from a Russian web site and install it. Different executables were observed. These trojan horse programs include keystroke loggers, proxy servers and other back doors providing full access to the infected system.

The javascript uses a so far unpatched vulnerability in MSIE to download and execute the code. No warning will be displayed. The user does not have to click on any links. Just visiting an infected site will trigger the exploit.



After hearing that news today, I decided it was time to look into using a different browser that is not tied to IE. For a while, I had been using MYIE2, but it is just a front end for IE. After searching around, I finally decided on FireFox and so far, have been very happy with that decision. I was surprised at its speed and flexibility. After just a few minutes, I was able to track down a Google toolbar and a Yahoo toolbar. Now I have all the features that was making me hang onto IE.
Now all I have to do is convince my wife to give it a try. She hates it when I start changing things on the computer :)

Belated Fathers Day

Just wanted to wish everyone out there a Happy Fathers Day. I know, it's a day late, but it is the thought that counts.
Myself, I had a pretty good one. Nice time with all the kids and my Tink. Thank you honey. I loved the presents :)

[Listening to: Por una Cabeza -by- Astor Piazolla ]

This is the love of my life. Hope you don't mind honey. Gotta post this one since you won't let me post the others ;) 

Posting Pics

Below is a goofy pic of myself posted using Hello. Looks like a nice easy way to post pics to blogger accounts. I'll try it for a while and see what happens.

Working hard at goofing off 

Great button

I gotta get me one of these

Questions for Bush

I regularly surf the web looking for interesting news stories. Today I came across something that really caught my eye. I agree with question 12 and wondered about that myself when I heard he was giving a speech at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pa.

I thought I would repost it here instead of sending it out by e-mail. All credit for these questions goes to TomDispatch.

Twelve questions for President Bush Meant to Help Strengthen His Remaining Speeches about Iraq
By Chalmers Johnson

1. Please tell us more about your notion of "full sovereignty" for Iraq. Will this be like our returning Okinawan sovereignty to Japan in 1972, when we retained exclusive control over the 38 military bases on the island and the deployment and behavior of American forces on them?

2. Please tell us: If we plan to return Iraq to the Iraqis, why is the U.S. currently building fourteen permanent bases there?

3. Presumably the American troops to be stationed on these bases will remain under the control of the Pentagon and beyond the legal reach of any "sovereign" Iraqi state. Such arrangements are usually covered by a "Status of Forces Agreement" (SOFA) that we normally impose on the government in whose territory our bases are placed. Who will sign the SOFA on the Iraqi side? What are its terms? Will it be binding on the new government you hope the Iraqis will elect early next year?

4. The sovereignty discussion has been focused mainly on the question of who will control the actions of what troops -- Iraqi or American -- in the coming months. But American advisers will be stationed in every Iraqi "ministry"; the new government will evidently be capable neither of passing, nor abrogating laws or regulations laid down by the occupying power; and the economy, except for oil, will remain open to all foreign corporate investors. Please tell us if this really strikes you as "full sovereignty"?

5. You say that we will tear down Abu Ghraib prison if the Iraqis so wish. What if they wish to preserve it as a monument to our cruelty as well as Saddam Hussein's?

6. Your administration has recently confirmed that while captured Taliban and al Qaeda fighters were not, in your eyes, covered by the Geneva Conventions, Iraqi prisoners and detainees were. The acts in Abu Ghraib prison contravened those conventions. We now know that teams of interrogation experts were sent by Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, commandant of our Guantánamo prison from Cuba to Abu Ghraib to teach Americans working there "better" interrogation techniques. If these contravened the Geneva Conventions, should General Miller be brought to trial for this? If General Miller acted at Guantánamo and elsewhere on the basis of guidelines and urgings from his superiors in the Pentagon and the military chain of command, should they face the same? Your views on this would be appreciated.

7. If it turns out to be true that some of the acts of torture in Abu Ghraib prison were, in fact, committed by members of the Israeli intelligence services, who were placed in the prison via our independent contractors, does this not further confuse American policy in the Middle East with that of Ariel Sharon's Israel? Is this really a good idea?

8. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the war and occupation in Iraq by 130,000 U.S. troops now costs close to $5 billion per month, or $60 billion a year. So far the war has cost American taxpayers $186 billion in direct military expenses. You've asked for another $425 billion in defense appropriations for the 2005 Pentagon budget, plus another $75 billion for Iraq, $25 billion for the development of new generations of nuclear weapons, and untold billion for such things as military pensions and veterans' health care. Not included in these figures are the multibillions in secret amounts spent on the CIA and other intelligence activities, not to speak of other Department of Defense "black budget" activities kept out of the appropriations process. Where is all this money going to come from? Why is our government putting all this money on the tab for future generations to deal with?

9. Speaking of military pensions and health care, would you please address the fact that something like 30% of the troops who participated in the first Gulf War are now seeking disability payments for illnesses contracted there -- chiefly as a result of our use of depleted uranium shells. Would you please discuss some of these long-term dangers of modern warfare (even when our initial short-term casualties seem relatively modest)? How will our military hospitals be able to care for all the soldiers who are likely to develop cancer or give birth to children with birth defects as a result of the current war?

10. On June 1, 2002, in your West Point speech enunciating your new doctrine of preventive war, you said there were 60 countries that were potential targets for regime change. Would you please list those 60 countries for us, and are you still determined in a second term to proceed down this list?

11. If you are determined to start new wars, or if the Iraq war drags on and not enough soldiers re-enlist, will you reinstate the draft?

12. Why do you usually give your speeches to the American people before audiences of servicemen and women at military academies, on bases, and the like, where they have been ordered by their superiors to attend and to applaud? Why not give one of your speeches -- especially if you're going to propose reinstating the draft -- at a large state college?

Chalmers Johnson is the author of The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic and of an earlier volume, Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire, among other works.

Wow

Well, I have to say I am impressed. I just logged in to rave about my new Belkin SpeedPad N52 and got quite a suprise by all the changes to Blogger. Looks much better and easier to use then the old version. If they keep this up, I just may have to update more often :)

Why?

Why do I take these damn things. I keep telling myself just this one more and then that will be all. I can quit any time I want to. I need to join a support group or something....




Tarzan!


What movie Do you Belong in?(many different outcomes!)
brought to you by Quizilla

Dante's Inferno Test

Sixth Level of Hell - The City of Dis

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You approach Satan's wretched city where you behold a wide plain surrounded by iron walls. Before you are fields full of distress and torment terrible. Burning tombs are littered about the landscape. Inside these flaming sepulchers suffer the heretics, failing to believe in God and the afterlife, who make themselves audible by doleful sighs. You will join the wicked that lie here, and will be offered no respite. The three infernal Furies stained with blood, with limbs of women and hair of serpents, dwell in this circle of Hell.



The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Sixth Level of Hell - The City of Dis!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Very Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	Very High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Moderate
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Very High
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	High
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Extreme
Level 7 (Violent)	Very High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Very High
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Moderate

Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test


Damn, I had the Worst score you can get :) Why doesn't that suprise me?

GMail

I'm a happy camper :) Just got signed up for Googles new GMail service. Because I use Blogger, I was invited to join. I have to say I love it. Ads are very minimal. Service works great. A few small problems with it though. I use MyIE2 as my main web browser and it does not always work correctly with GMail, but I will find workarounds.
Off to play some more with it :)

Kill Bill

Day after Tinks surgury and all went well. She was doing much better last night then I thought she would be doing. Spent most of the day sleeping, but then was up and bouncing around like her normal self. Took today off just incase it all catches up with her at once.
Finally watched "Kill Bill Vol.1" last night. Damn good movie. Going to be seeing Vol.2 at the drive in this weekend if the weather is nice and everyone is feeling up to it.
Other then that, not much else going on in this part of the world. Work is going well. I found out last week that I am the IT dept :) and I love it. Got this really nice old tool box that was Tink's grandfathers from when he worked for GM in the tool room. The whole box is made of wood. Don't see many of them anymore. Working on getting it cleaned up, but even covered in dirt and dust, several people at work offered to take it off my hands for me LOL I don't think so. After doing some searching on the web, I found out that it is a Gerstner from around 1941 or so.



I'm turning into a tool junkie. Gotta collect more at garage sales this summer :) If that fails, there is always E-Bay.

[Listening to: Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) - Nancy Sinatra - Kill Bill (2:40)]

Easter

It is easter once again and it's fucking snowing outside. I am so sick of winter this year. I usually don't mind it too badly, but this year sucks ass.

I usually don't answer the Friday Five questions, but this week I thought I would.


1. What do you do for a living? I work for a spring company making of all things, Springs

2. What do you like most about your job? Not getting stuck in a rut doing the same thing everyday. Always something different. Plus, I could not ask for better bosses/owners. Charlie and Nevin are the best people I have ever work for.

3. What do you like least about your job? I have only work there about 6 months and have never done anything like this before. Everything is new to me and I get frustrated because of the time it takes to learn.

4. When you have a bad day at work it's usually because _____... I have spent a week setting up a machine to run a part and something breaks 5 minutes after I start it running. Just happened yesterday.

5. What other career(s) are you interested in? I had always been interested in computers, but I am really enjoying what I am doing now. After working for Gateway for a few years, I guess I am burnt out on the computer industry


Something fun for everyone--- Just in time for Easter / Spring

Jesus Dressup

[Listening to: Mercy In You - Depeche Mode - Songs Of Faith And Devotion (4:18)]

Lots of Stuff

Lots of stuff going on lately and after finally looking at my old posts, I discovered that I have not posted anything lately. So here it goes.

Finally got our new computer system. It rocks. I was not planning on upgrading as much as I did, but once I got there, I could not resist. Here is a rundown of the specs--
AMD 3000+ processor
1 gig ram
100 gig hard drive
256 meg vid card
I have been playing Unreal 2004 with it and everythign runs great. No lags on the vid or anything. I have not started to overclock anything yet even though it will be very easy to. I just really don't have the need to yet. We will see when the Sims 2 comes out if I have to overclock anything.

Last Monday, I went to the first funeral I have been to in years. I don't have a problem with dead bodies at all. I grew up in a funeral home. My grandfather owned one and I remember playing hide and seek in the coffins :) The thing I hate about funerals is the need to make everyone cry. I don't think the guy doing the service was going to be happy until he had everyone there crying. He just kept hammering the family with quotes from the bible about life going on without the deceased. I wanted to tell him to get on with it, but I restrained myself. After the funeral, we went to the family get together, also know as, "The Let's Get Drunk Party". The problem I had with that was all these high schoolers there getting drunk and wasted on what ever they were smoking. They were all down in the basement doing who knows what, then driving off to get more beer or drugs or whatever. It is amazing that no one got hurt or killed or arrested. As far as I know, but we left after a few hours and went to a friends house around the block and had a great time over there. Thanks again for dinner :)

Time to go, have to work on a science project with my youngest daughter :)

[Listening to: So Cold The Night - The Communards - (4:41)]

Let's try this again

Damn, I have not done an update in ages. Please don't throw anything at me honey :) Love you.
Same old same old happening here. Tink is off at a conference today and I'm just taking a break fromm finally getting the bed room cleaned up. Yes honey, I know it is about time LOL. Gotta get it done so we can head down to the Gibraltar Trade Center tomorrow to get our new computer. Not going to be top of the line, but good enough to play The Sims 2. If you have a high speed connection, here are some videos of the game in action. Looks like it is going to kick ass. This is going to be the most expensive game I have ever bought when you figure in that I have to get a new system to play it. Oh well, it gives me an excuse to get a new system. Of course, once the game comes out, I'll never get a chance to play it cause Tink will be on it all the time. The kids are going to be getting our old system. After I clean out everything that they don't need. That will take a while since there are years of assorted junk on it. Back to work now. I promise that I will try and get better about all of this :)

Sounds like something out of a chic flick

This guy got more then he planned on when he got married :)

Where have you been?

Stumbled across this tonight. I may have been to more states then this, but my childhood memory is swiss cheese.



create your own visited states map
or write about it on the open travel guide

About Damn time

Alright, I guess I have to do this. I have not done an update in quite a while. Don't know why really, just have not felt like writting anything. Things are going pretty good. Still working at the same place and still enjoying it. Damn that sounds lame. I have not done anything here in over a month and all I can think abou to write is work.
I will honestly think about it and get back here soon.