Just hanging out
7:30. Standing in the bay-window, looking out at the highway and the Safeway across the valley. People arriving to get their last minute fixings. Snow gently falling, pine trees along the creek covered in snow. Creek slowly flowing as the snow builds up. It fights winter, not yet freezing completly. House is quite, no one up yet. Check the "turkey bag" instructions. 3 hours for a 19lb turkey. Used to have to get up at the crack of dawn to start the meal... We are eating at 3:30 so folks can get some skiing in. So... don't have to put it in until noon!

Will probably cook a big breakfast and then take the girls up to the gondola ride and check out the valley and the skiers, if we can get back by noon. Then a few hours of cooking and baking and "the meal".

We are blessed! Thank you God!

Stuffed Shells
And before I forget... Made Stuffed Shells the day after I made Chicken & Vegtables in a Rich Red Sauce. It was really easy, tasted great, and was a great way to use up the extra sauce!

Hi-tech
Oh... and Becky got DSL installed yesterday. Pretty cool. Up here in the mountains, snowing outside... and I'm sitting here working and blogging over a high-speed line. Yup, its good to be alive!

Happy Thanksgiving!
Up and Becky and Rich's for turkey day. Lorraine and Autero are here and we brought Erika with us. We've been up here since Tuesday. Here being Vail. Its really beautiful. I was hoping to get some great pictures and post them, but our digital camera just stopped working. Not sure what is wrong... but looks like we won't get it fixed till we get back. But anyway, having a great time just getting away, hanging out, and eating some great food. Ate at Vendettas last night. Awesome carpaccio!

Well... I'll be spending the day cooking - which will be a blast, and just hanging out. Hope everyone else has a great time! And maybe I'll get some of Jaime's pics and post them.

Tackling Hunger
Tackling Hunger is a Chunky Soup web site. Every day you can go there and click on the football helmet of your favorite team and they'll donate up to 5M cans of soup. Easy to do, takes a few seconds. (You click the link, click the helmet, and then fill in a number they display). I've posted it under daily blogs on my blog web page, so that I am reminded to visit there daily.

Reflection
Got the following email from a friend:

I've enjoyed your site. It's a side of you that I didn't know existed. THE QUIET GUY SPEAKS! Keep up the good thoughts. It's become my "daily soap opera". :-)

This isn't the first time I've heard this. Lana (my sister-in-law), when she first started reading my blog, told Tina, "I've known James for 25 years and never knew 1/2 these things.".

Yeah... as I've said before. Kind of weird. Tina always asks me why I blog... The truth is, I don't really know. But I expect it is for a number of reasons.

• I'm a geek
  
• It is much easier for me to express my thoughts on the computer
  
• I'm very much an introvert... I don't think that means I don't want to talk to people... I think it just means I'm a little uncomfortable in certain situations or something... anyway, much easier to type :-)
  
• Cause I think about a lot of these things at weird hours and there is no one to talk to about it, but by putting in on the blog, I talk to everyone about it.
  
• Cause I'm a pack-rat, and this lets me keep some of my thoughts forever

So... that's some possible reasons. Also, I've had a number of people say it is cool and they enjoy it, and that's pretty much enough reason right there!

So... thanks everyone for your kind words. I truely appreciate them!

Foreign Language Studies
Just in case you might be interested in learning another language:

• Klingon
• Elvish

Jaime wants to learn Elvish... and hey, as a home-schooler, maybe she can get credit for it! I'll have to look into it.

Winter meal
Dropped the girls at the mall, then braved the elements to go to the store. Got some of the stuff I needed for Thanksgiving Dinner, as well as stuff for dinner last night. First big snow of the season... almost blizzarding out. It was crazy, the store was packed. Drove home trying to avoid getting run into by anyone... If you don't get tense, and just flow with it... it is actually kind of fun. The whole thing was an adventure.

Got home and made Chicken & Vegtables in a Rich Red Sauce over Gemelli. Spent about an hour preping and cooking, then the girls called and they were ready for me to pick them up. Got to the mall and they both said, "Yum... you smell really good. What's for dinner!". Nothing like the smell of olive oil, garlic, onions and tomatoes. Got home and the whole house smelled like it. Yum... I love a dark rich tomatoe sauce dish w/ paste as the snow and cold rage outside. Eaten with a glass of wine by the fire!

Snow!
So... this previous week Colorado Springs had record highs. It was in the mid-70s several days. It is currently snowing outside... And the forcast says next Sunday it will be 54. That's one cool think about CO. Snowing one day, and a few days later it is warm again.

Format change
FYI: I changed the format from publishing 10 entries on the main page to publishing 7 days. I *thought* 7 days meant a week, but it really is the last 7 days of posts, i.e., 7 days that I have posted. (Confused? Well if I've posted on 7 of the last 10 days, then 10 days show up).

I did this because every once in a while I'll end up posting 10 entries in one day... which moves everything over the last day to current. I realize everyone may not read this blog every day... so I switched the format.

Its just kind of strange
So I'm driving along listening to Classic Rock the other day, and Up on Cripple Creek comes on the radio. I've heard it before, but not enough to really know it. And when it gets to chorus

Up on Cripple Creek she sends me
If I spring a leak she mends me
I don't have to speak, she defends me
A drunkard's dream if I ever did see one

I think, Well that is certainly strange/funny - "A drunkard's dream" Not really a love song, just a funny kind of song. But then I listened to the next two verses

I took up all of my winnings, and I gave my little Bessie half
And she tore it up and threw it in my face, just for a laugh
Now there's one thing in the whole wide world, I sure would like to see
That's when that little love of mine, dips her doughnut in my tea

Now me and my mate were back at the shack, we had Spike Jones on the box
She said, "I can't take the way he sings, but I love to hear him talk"
Now that just gave my heart a throb, to the bottom of my feet
And I swore and I took another pull, my Bessie can't be beat

And I started thinking, "Wow... this really is a love song.

I don't know... what really struck me was the simple things. Seeing her dunk her doughnout in my tea and gave my heart a throb, to the bottom of my feet.

Now I won't say I know exactly what this song is talking about - but those words touched me. After being with someone for 25 years, you become one flesh. And it really is the little things that Tina does that sometimes make my heart throb, to the bottom of my feet. She always says to me, "Tell my why you love me" and I never have any good words for it. It isn't any one thing. It isn't that she is so beautiful (although I think she is), or that she is a great wife (which I think she is)... its all the little things. Its that she does little things kind of like dunking a donut in my tea that make my heart throb all the way to the bottom of my feet...

Great song!

Lizzard
After having said that Mellisa looks like her Mom, I got several comments of "What? No she doesn't, she looks like Joe."... And in this picture, yeah, she looks way more like Joe. So... I'm not sure what it is. But sometimes when I'm around her I see Shirley. So maybe that isn't "looks like", but its something!

Pics
Put some more pics on my web site. There are two sets of pictures and two ways to view them. One is "Links to pics", which has individual links - for those with slow browsers that just want to see a few of them. The other is "A page fo pics', which links to pages where the pics are embedded. Even with dial-up, they download pretty fast.

• A few pictures I took of pictures of the kids at Becky's reception, so I could post them, and
  
• Pictures of people at TommyT's sushi/welcomeBackFish get together. Hey... there is even one of me!

And speaking of worship
I've been thinking about this for some time. Reading Erika's post made me think about it even more...

Background I stepped down from the adult worship team to work with the youth about 2 years ago. The youth worship team has grown tremendously, Bobby and Michael are both able to lead it so well, and I've been working in one form or another 7 days a week. Even if you are called to something and have a great time with it, it is a committment, time away from family, etc. So, about a month ago I stepped down from the youth ministry. A hard decision, but one I felt I had to make. Meanwhile... A while back (spring maybe?), I started playing on the adult worship team again, but not going to practice. I'm in a position where I can do that, and Teresa was great enough to give me the freedom to do it.

After I stepped down from youth, I decided I really didn't have a good reason for not going to practice. Its hard when you are working 7 days a week, but now I had Saturday off, and it is easier to do stuff on a day when you are already committed to something else. Plus I had been feeling this loss. Worshipping with the team on Sunday was cool... but somehow I wasn't feeling a part... or maybe totally a part. I was... but I wasn't. If you get what I mean.

Anyway, a few weeks after stepping down and getting some other stuff in line, I started going to practice again. And it has been AWESOME! Who would have thought? But it has been. I've gone through times of practice when it is something you have to do, so that you can worship on Sunday. I know it probably isn't like that for everyone. Some people work on their parts quite a bit in practice. But I pretty much just play what I feel and once in a while someone (Teresa, Steve or Greg) will suggest something else. And as drummers and percussionists know... you spend a lot of time not doing anything. We are working on the vocal parts... could you STOP MAKING SO MUCH NOISE. Yeah... faced with boredom we tend to tap, drum, etc. Which is why I tend to go sit down... so I don't just start making noise out of habit. :-)

But it hasn't been like that. I've had these times in the past, where I come home from worship practice and I'm so wired that I can't sleep for a few hours. And it isn't like it was some big spiritual thing where God showed up, everyone realized it, we all fell to our knees or something. I think its just HIS PRESENCE. He's just THERE. You can feel Him, you are worshipping Him, and you are just having a great time Prasing Him and playing with Him. That is the only way I can explain it. I've been in secular bands. Lately I've done some secular stuff. And it was fun. And it was cool. But it WASN'T the same. At least for me.

If it isn't worship, its just lacking something. And that is a real revalation to me. I've always suspected that was true. I've always felt it would be true, deep in my heart. But I haven't done anything secular since I've been worshipping, until lately. And it was confirmed. Like I said, it was fun and cool - and I'd probably do it again... but it just wasn't the same. Nothing can beat playing music to God and worshipping Him. It was what we were meant to do. And one of the coolest things about it... is that it is easy.

It isn't a big reverent thing. It isn't a big "I'm playing before GOD. I have to be PERFECT." It is a fun thing. A joyful thing. A playing around thing. It's "I'm playing before God... my friend. The creator of the universe who loves me, wants to be my friend, and sent His some to DIE for me... just so we could hang out FOREVER." When we let go, aren't uptight, and don't worry about things. When we just have fun, He enjoys it. That is the way it was meant to be. And in Him having fun, we are blessed...

Again, that's the only way I can explain it. David worshipped, danced, and praised before The Lord joyfully, with abandon, with his whole heart, and he was a man after God's own heart.. And God delights when we do the same.

I once asked God, "Why? Why is it that people will say I'm annointed. That I just seem to GET worship? Why is that? I'm not a big scholar. I don't spend enough time with You, in the Word, etc. Why have you blessed me? Why is it that worship is so fun for me?" And He told me, "That's exactly why. Because it is so fun for you. I have blessed you because you bring me joy. You joy in worship, and that is what I'm looking for."

I think He does that with all callings. He is looking for someone to do a particular thing... and when He finds someone who will do it, and have a good time doing it, He blesses them.
Part of my desire, and I think why I was called to work with the youth, is to get people to understand that about God, their calling and especially Worship. Its all about the passion, the fun, the delight in doing what God has asked you to do. If it isn't fun, if it doesn't feel right, if it is a strain...then I'm not sure its God. I believe He calls us to things that will bring us joy... because He put that desire, ability and joy in our hearts for the things He has called us to!

So yeah... I'm just very excited with how practice has been going lately. I've talked to Tina about it. It just feels so right. We go through highs and lows in our walk... and I'm very happy to be in a high right now. Practice has just been so AWESOME and I come home so jazzed. Its a great thing to Worship Him.

Is 40:31 Chik
Erika has posted again. As always, it is a great read. Some excerpts:

Saturday was pretty good, considering we didn't have our usual worship leader. It's nice having Michael there because things seem to run smoother; people seem to pay more attention. Not that nobody respected Bobby and Scott, but I don't know...Michael's the worship leader, and I guess that's just what we've all adapted to. That's not a complaint at all, just a thought. I think it's interesting how things seem a little lacking when we realize how much Michael really does lead us, not just the congregation. When he leads, he ministers to us, not just sings to the congregation. Anyway, so yes, worship practice was good, because, after all, Scott does know how to lead.

Yeah, when you are part of a team, and that team has grown in unity, purpose, focus, etc., then when people aren't there it just feels different. Especially when that person is the worship leader. What a great testimate to how much Michael has grown, and how called he is to be the Worship leader. Michael, if you are reading this, that is great when the people you are leading feel this way. You truely are called!

RE: "improv" - yeah... sometimes you have to just turn it over to the Holy Spirit and not worry about what you are playing, but just flow with it. Very cool you are starting to feel that and walk in it.

The worship time as a whole was good. It was missing Michael's playing and singing, but Bobby, Nicole and Scott did a good job working together to make sure there was never anything truly missing.

Yeah... its a worship thing. You guys are strong enough together that given there is a core group there, you'll flow with it. As long as you stay focused on God. You all have come such a long way.

I was really surprised later, because I was praying with someone, and Bobby stepped up and sang for a while after the message. As usual, he did very well, even though he thinks he always sounds [terrible]

Although Bobby may not have the perfect voice, he does have a good voice... and he has PASSION. And that is what worship is all about, and that is why he does so well.

Maybe we're never supposed to stop growing, and although James isn't with us all the time, and Michael wasn't there that night, things are feeling back to normal.

I'm glad to hear it. You guys are so awesome. I missing being there... but I'm always there in spirit. And yes, you never are supposed to stop growning. You guys continue to grow, moving in what God has called you to and has for you, and find out where He wants you to go.

Thanks for posting... you ROCK.

Catching up
Read some good stuff last week, which I usually post. But it was so crazy early in the week at work that I really never got caught up. Worked some this morning, but the girls are still sleeping... Here are some cooking tips:

From MightyGirl

• A no-mess way to open pomegranates, and
• a guacamole recipie containing them. Yeah... sounds weird, but she says "it will make your taste-buds ache." Hey... I HAVE to try it.

I just don't get it
I'm leaving the Starbucks parking lot, having spent a few minutes watching someone try and figure out driving procedure. Hint... when someone is trying to back out, and you want to pull into their space, don't get so close that they can't get out. It just irritates everyone waiting for the drama to unfold, as well as the person trying to back out. Anyway...

So I'm leaving that, and I notice a pickup with a camper on it stopped in a fairly narrow two lane road. Weird place to stop, I think to myself. Then I notice he has a shopping cart tied behind his camper:

1. How did the shopping cart get there? It is below a Kings Sooper... but there is about a 30 foot embankment. Did it fall down? Did someone leave it on the road and he is being a good citizen and trying to return it?
2. Why is it tied to his truck?
3. What is he doing with it?

As I drive pass, he makes sure it is tied securly, gets back in his truck, and pulls forward. It makes it all of about 5 feet before falling over at which point he just drags it behind his truck for about 10 yards; gets out; sets it back upright, and starts all over again.

By this time I'm out on the road, heading for work and have no idea why this was happening or how it unfolded...

Master and Commander
Went and saw Master and Commander last night. We all thought it was a very good show! (Tina, Jaime and I). Of course, Billy Boyd (Pippen) was in it... so for Jaime, it had to be great.

Very little geek
Jaime has very little geek in her. Told her we were going to name our new boxes Raptor and maybe Tweet and she said, "That is so Geeky dad." :-( Tif would have thought it was cool! Oh well... she is into LOTR and some other geek stuff... so she's got some of my genes. ;-)

Tweet
Besides Raptor we also thought about Tweet:

• Tweets are about the loudest plane there is, and
• Brian flies a Tweet... so I think it would be cool

Geek's and Fighter Planes
Gigs is picking names for our new boxes, often refered to as "the jet engines" because of the noise they make. Chuck suggested fighter planes. We got Raptor, and we are looking for a few others. In the midst of the search we found links to aircraft nicknames and to some nose art. The nose art was found when Kris mentioned that his uncle was the pilot of Miasis Dragon.

defective yeti... blog of the day
Perhaps its not good to admit this to everyone, but defective yeti had me silently laughing in my cube with tears running down my face. TheSquirrelly is the kind of thing that just cracks me up.

Cat in the Hat
Having seen a few trailers... I had a feeling, and although I don't always agree with reviewers, after reading this I think I'll just skip the movie.

FCC Gives Bono a Pass on 'F' Word

WASHINGTON — When it comes to cursing, the government says, it's all in the delivery. That's the view of the Federal Communications Commission in its decision that U2 singer Bono's colorful language during the Golden Globe Awards didn't violate federal indecency rules.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. If unchallenged and successful this could hearld a wave of profanity on prime time.

Say what?
Scenario: Eating at a new Italian resteraunt on Sunday. Tina orders the Ribeye, medium to medium well. Waitress comes over to see how the food is after it is delivered.

T: I may be dumb or something, but this looks pretty rare to me.
W: No, you aren't dumb, that is really rare. Who could eat something like that?
T: He could, pointing to me.
W: Oh sorry
M: I used to eat steak medium rare, but now I perfer medium.
W: Just let it drop out of the cow's a** and slam it onto a plate huh?
M: Ah... yeah
W: I'll go get that cooked some more for you.

Waitress leaves

T: Did she just say a**?
M: Yeah... I believe she did.

SushiFinder

Love Sushi? What’s not to love! Our Sushi Finder will help you discover your next favorite raw fish experience.

Support for various cities. Colorado Sprinsg isn't listed, but Denver is.

New Release
Picked up both Let it Be - Naked from the Beatles and LOTR: Two Towers, extended DVD which were released today.

Busy weekend
Was working most of the weekend on the last implementation release. Got things working though... Lots of interesting stuff I saw on-line that I wanted to post links to. Maybe in the next day or two.

No more FireHawk
Dan wreaked the FireHawk this last weekend. :-(

Sushi
Went up to TommyT's yesterday. Emily is back from YWAM and so we were celebrating her birthday (which was in August). Melissa and Tracy came over. Haven't seen them for a while. Cool. We ate sushi and dim-sum. Good stuff. Tom was making the sushi and so I made some too. First time ever! It was fun. I love sushi but have never made my own. After doing it yesterday, I'll have to give it a try at home.

FVO
Rolled out a new release (fvo - I don't remember what it stands for, but it means deploying the application in production) of one of the implementations. I worked on the first release, but not the second one. But the team for the 2nd release was small, I'm familiar with it, and they were having issues with it in production. Kind of cool stuff (trouble-shooting, etc.), but worked 13 hours on Friday, 3.5 yesterday, and have spent an hour and a half this morning looking around. Late in the week typically isn't a good time to fvo... because you then end up spending the weekend trouble-shooting, if there are issues...

Isn't it ironic, don't you think?
And the ad on the article in the previous post... is for Oracle Outsourcing

ComputerWorld: Outsourcing's Dirty Little Secret

Outsourcing is perceived as the silver bullet of the day, and many companies indeed benefit from it. But the dirty little secret of outsourcing has emerged: Everyone isn't happy.

By the end of the first year, more than 50% of the companies that have outsourced major IT functions are unhappy with their outsourcers, according to an informal survey of my clients. By the end of the second year, 70% are unhappy.

Yeah... no surprise there.

Desktop images
LOTR desktop images. Some very cool stuff.

Forest
Cool shot from Heather today. Reminds me of the trees in LOTRs. :-)

ComputerWorld: Microsoft patches three critical security problems
2000, XP and IE patches. I'm still running 98 at work, so I didn't have to bother with the 2000 or XP patches, but running Windows Update showed that I did need the IE patches.
I would have seen it on Monday anyway... as I weekly checked WindowsUpdate, what with the frequency at which the put out patches.

Cool Calculators
CheapskateMonthly has a list of free calculators you can use. Some looked pretty cool. I don't know much about the site, a friend just posted the link on irc.

And it tastes good too
Getting enough magnesium in your diet may help reduce your risk of heart disease. Good sources of magnesium include soybeans (80 milligrams per half cup), cashews (80 milligrams per ounce), and tomato paste (75 milligrams per half cup).

Yum... I like all those things. Hmm... maybe I should get some Edamame for lunch. :-).

I always knew that olive oil, garlic and tomato paste were good for you. Thus, a pasta with a nice rich sauce with veggies is good. So... maybe the carbs in the pasta are offset by the other stuff.

Above was from RealAge.Com, via mom who sends me tips all the time on how to improve my health.

Support your local worship team!
If you are in the area, don't forget that tonight is the worship team fund raiser at Chic-Fil-A. If you mention "Impact Christian Center", our worship team gets 15% of your reciept. This is valid at any of the Springs locations, although most of us will be at the location on Powers which has a play area for the kids. See ya there!

YahooNews: 'Iceman' Grabs Shark To Save Men
An Icelandic fishing captain, known as "the Iceman" for his tough character, grabbed a 660-pound shark with his bare hands as it swam in shallow water toward his crew, a witness said Thursday ... "He's called 'the Iceman' because he isn't scared of anything," he said. "I know the people in that part of the world. They are really tough."

Yeah, I'd call that tough!

Documentation
It is extremly hard, imo, to write documentation for something when you totally understand it (because you wrote it) and the person reading the documentation is clueless. I never cease to be amazed at the questions people will ask.

I truely admire people that write user documentation for the masses. Maybe that is one reason for customer support. "Nope... I'm not answering every stupid question in the doc. Let them call someone and ask."

Sigh...

A BIG pot of Cream of Broccoli soup
Melt a pound of butter, and in 3 cups of flour and cook for a few minutes. And in a quart of 1/2 & 1/2, then thin with a gallon of milk. 1/2 hour before serving and in a pound of broccoli. Yum. :-) Not very low cal, but tastes really good! Made soup for the church director's meeting last night. I'll post the exact recipe later.

JT's pictures
Jonny's picture page. Some great shots of JT, TommyT and the girls.

A week of glasses
No contacts for a week. I'm going in next Monday for a seminar and lazik examine. Cost is about $4K to get my eyes fixed. I'll get an MCI discount, plus having it come out of pre-tax dollars helps. Still expensive, but its getting so I can't really use my contacts and always focus on my display. It will be worth it. Seeing is important when you work on a computer. And I just don't feel like wearing glasses all the time. But... to get away from them, I'm have to wear them for a week.

WiredNews: Is it On? Building Silent PCs
Average cost about $150. Seems like it would be worth it, especially in the business environement. My machines are humming around me all day long.

And it gets easier and easier
Went to AnyWho, online directory. Did a reverse lookup on my phone number, and sure enough, it found me. From there I could get a map to my house, a list of all the people on my street (and their phone numbers). I could also lookup public records. Clicked on "Marriage Record", and it doesn't have mine (because I was married in MT), but it did have my friends, who was married in TX.

Amazing the info you can find on someone on the internet...

Geek humor
An audio clip. May only be funny if you are a geek... but I laughed. I did have to follow the link.

Google on the task bar
Ev discusses GoogleDeskbar, which puts google on your task bar. Looks like it is pretty cool stuff. I've installed it and will play with it for a bit.

Hmm...
Walked into the cafe at lunch today, and thought, "Wow, that smells good." And then it hit me, how unusual for me to think that when walking into the cafe.... kind of sad.

You are what you read... kinda
I follow a number of blogs daily. Well maybe not daily for all of them, but I follow them quite a bit, depending on how busy I am at lunch, etc. While some of them were on my links side-bar, I decided it was easier to just put them on my blog web page. This way I can easily go there, and open each one in a new tab, and then scan through them. Some don't take much time... Check out a picture and just stare at it for a minute or so... yeah, that's cool, etc. Anyway, just in case someone wants to see what I read, check it out!

Revolutions...
Oh yeah, and I'm back from the movie. It was pretty good. Jaime said, "I'm going to have to think about that for a while." I thought it was MUCH better than the 2nd one. Can't say much more than that... don't wan to give anything away. Oh, I can say there was WAY more action. I thought it was cool.

TechWeb: Quovadx Acquires Rogue Wave
The article really doesn't explain well what RogueWave does. Probably focusing on the latest marketing material. Anyway... we used to use RogueWave extensively as our class library... but are in the finally touches of removing it from our sytsem and going to an open source product. So... doesn't really effect us much (at least not long term), but still an interesting note.

Revolutions...
Off to see Matrix:Revolutions with Jaime and Dan. It should RAWK. Update later...

UserFriendly looks at the Microsoft/Google "merger"
In case you don't understand why Microsoft acquiring Google would be a bad thing... UserFriendly is running a series of comics on the subject.

Backplate, yeah... I knew that
Deep background: although my brother is quite the mechanic and used to have no problem with pulling his 327 out of one Chevy and dumping into another, whenever he got a new car; I on the other hand spent a week trying to put headers into my 57. Needless to say, I'm not too mechanically inclined.

Context: My SVX has been making some weird noise, I took it to the shop, the CV-boots were hosed (I knew that) and so they replaced the front axles, and while doing that, the front-breaks as well. On my way home I noticed the car was making a noise. I dropped Jaime at piano on the way to work and she said, "Yeah... that doesn't sound too good." Encouraged by the mechanical knowledge of my 16 year old daughter, I figured the wise course of action would be to stop by the garage... just in case there was something wrong.

G: Can I help you?
M: I had my car in here yesterday for repairs and now it is making a noise
G: What kind of noise?
M: Grinding.
G: Grinding?
M: Yeah... grinding, rubbing, I don't know... doesn't sound good.
G: Just a sec... Jeff will meet you out front.
J: Your car is making a noise?
M: Yes.
J: What kind of noise?
M: I don't know... a grinding, rubbing, doesn't sound good kind of noise.
J: When you drive it?
M: Yes
J: Pull it forward.

I do... he walks around front, leans under the car and messes with it for a minute.

J: Yeah... when you replace the CV-boots the backplate gets bent sometimes. I usually get them straightend back out. Guess I didn't catch this one. Should be good now. Sorry about that.

And now its fixed!

Yeah... the backplate. Of course! ;-)

Quote of the day

If Java had true garbage collection, most programs would delete themselves upon execution. -- Robert Sewell

Another revolution
Matrix:Revolutions opens tomorrow. If Dan can get tickets, Dan, Jaime and I are going. Not sure when... probably some time during the day.

Geeks are allowed time off from work for major sci-fi movie openings: Matrix, StarTrek, StarWars, LordOfTheRings, TombRaider, etc. I guess that would be Sci-Fi and Fantasy.

Note to self: go check out the Lord of the Rings link for the new trailer!

Computerworld: Check 21 becomes law, allows speedier electronic settlements:
Banks no longer have to ship paper checks all over the country, they can just send images. Its a good thing. My bank, DCU, has been doing this for years (at least internally, they don't ever send me the paper).

vnunet.com: Microsoft goes for Google
Looks like Google isn't interested. Good!

Science proves
that Kansas Is Flatter Than a Pancake.

Spam, and one of those Mondays
Logged on a little after 5:00. I didn't check my email on Saturday and I couldn't connect to work on Sunday for some reason, so I have 270 email messages. Argh...

Ran MailWasher and it was going to bounce 29 of them and delete 46, but then my connection dropped. Got back on and now I have 274. Lets try it again...

Bouncing 29, deleting 46. Quick scan of the remaining "Normal" mail to see if any addresses look like they might be real. Then the "Friend" list, to look for my own address (since SPAM sometimes uses your own address as the return address so you can't bounce it an ANNOY them). Mark all the normal mail to be blacklisted... scanning the subects to see if anything looks real. Nope, thats another 162 to bounce, 165 to delete. 1 more disguised spam to delete and I'm left with 63 mail messages to look through.