Motivated.

After sleeping in for a bit this morning, I awoke to a paw in my face (reminding me it was tuna dispensing time, logic would dictate that it was not Earl’s paw that was in my face at the time). After doing my various Daddy duties I went downstairs and started my morning ritual of checking out various blogs.

It was then that I saw the wooftastic shots posted by BrettCajun. I’ve been known to look at a few pictures of good looking guys in my day but when I saw Brett’s photos I said to myself, “if he can look that good, so can I.” I mean, we’re nearly the same age. It’s not like I’m trying to flatten my stomach to look like one of my college classmates or anything. I want to feel good about myself. I’m not nearly as heavy as I was back in 2000-2001, but I’ve crept up the scale a little bit and it’s mostly in my gut (hello beer!) So (insert favorite deity here)-damn it, I’m doing it.

I laid down a few ground rules that I plan to follow: 1. Beer consumption is limited to Saranac Thursday nights. I can’t cut out beer out of my life completely, that will lead me down the path to failure. I’ll renegotiate the beer with myself when I get to weight goal number (there are a total of three). 2. No more sleeping in until I get a headache on my days off from work. I’m up exercising and getting all brisk with myself. This includes working out before work. 3. I will continue to use the new Wii Fit on various nights of the week just to keep myself in check. 4. I will continue to climb the stairs to my third floor office everyday and I will shun elevators and escalators whenever possible. 5. I will not eat after 7 p.m. unless something weird is going on with my schedule. Fat grams are always in the single digits and calories are kept at a reasonable level. 6. I’m back on the bike as soon as the sun decided to make an appearance.

Long, long ago a psychic at the State Fair told me that I wouldn’t make it to 40. I intend to prove the bitch wrong.

Vacation Time.

Earl and I have decided to take a little vacation next week. We are going to visit my sister and her boyfriend Thursday and Friday in Toronto and then it just happens to be Gay Pride weekend in that beautiful city. We’ll be staying on Yonge Street.

Now there is something to look forward to.

Oh That’s Real.

I don’t know why we call a certain genre of television “reality television”. Who in their right mind thinks that what they see on a reality tv show is real? Are there people out there that really think that network X scooped Joe Citizen off the street to make him star? Please.

I was folding laundry and turned on TV Land hoping to catch an episode of something classic: “The Munsters”, “Leave It To Beaver”, “I Dream of Jeannie”, something nostalgic. Apparently TV Land has shucked the whole nostalgia angle because now they’re showing “She’s Got The Look”, a reality tv show aimed at making women over 35 into models. They scooped them right off the street.

Yeah, right.

As I tuned into the middle of tonight’s episode, a very angry barely-female looking woman was ranting and raving about not being understood. She had a lot to say about stereotypes and how the world is superficial and no one gets her. It would have been somewhat interesting and mildly amusing if I hadn’t seen it LAST year when she gave the SAME speech dressed up some superhero, I think it was “The Shrill”, on “Who Wants To Be A Superhero?” And yet we see another duplicated real person on a reality tv show. Remember that Man-Beast Toni who was on “Love Cruise” and then “Paradise Hotel”? You know, that ugly chick on steroids with the bugged-out eyes1. She made her rounds on the reality TV shows and now she’s gone.

We can only hope that Paula, a.k.a. “The Shrill” meets the same fate.

And while I’m ragging on TV Land and their as of late idiotic programming, I know that I have mentioned how much I dislike the ads for medicine on television before. I don’t know what the latest miracle drug was for (maybe it was another one to make taking a dump more comfortable) but one of the listed side effects was an “irritated pancreas”. “If you have an irritated pancreas you should consult your physician.” What the hell does an irritated pancreas feel like? I’m not even sure I could point to where my pancreas is. I’m pretty sure it’s in the torso. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone in a grocery store say, “I should eat more brussel sprouts to help my irritated pancreas.”

And while I’m having a fit about these stupid drug commercials, for the love of all that is worthy would someone please pull those damned medical ads from the movie theatre chain preview shows? I have yet to see someone abandon their popcorn and intended movie to run out and have an MRI. “My GOD I haven’t had an MRI in years! I must leave!” Or those varicose vein ads – “Someone please get rid of these varicose veins right now!” It’s disgusting and detracts from the enjoyment of popcorn, M&Ms and Raisinettes.

Thank you.

1 Wow, I’m a little harsh tonight!

Lost Video.

I had forgotten I had made this video on Friday night. It was wicked hot in the DJ booth.

[MEDIA=62]

The Frog.

I may be crazy but I know that I read somewhere that if you place a frog in hot frying pan, he’s going to jump out. However, if you put a frog in a cold pan and then heat it up slowly, the frog will never jump out but instead he’ll just sit there and burn to death, content all along his journey to delicacy.

I think that is exactly what is happening in the United States today. As Americans we were very content in the “cold pan” of yesteryear and for the past several years the heat has steadily been increased. We are eventually going to burn to death without even realizing what’s happening to us. I am applying this metaphor to countless topics. For example, on my way home at lunch I noticed that the price of gas jumped six cents between 7:30 a.m. and 12 noon. A gallon of unleaded is now $4.259 at the corner store. It was a year ago that I was outraged at $2.399 a gallon. Doesn’t anyone care? Why are people not outraged? I know folks that are miffed, but where is the outrage?

People think nothing of standing line at an airport for three hours as your bags are scanned, your illegal shaving cream is confiscated and the fear of God is instilled in you as you board an airplane to your favorite destination. It’s all in the name of security, you know. Be afraid. Be very afraid. That’s been the theme of the 21st century. “Be afraid”. The Flying J still boasts a threat level of orange. Please.

And while I’m at it, why in the hell should I pay extra to bring my luggage along on a vacation? They don’t want us to bring our clothes, they’ve designed xrays that strip us of our clothes yet the rent-a-secure-feeling personnel balk every time I suggest I just go through security naked. Do you want clothes or not? Just follow the lead of the gas companies and raise the fares for everyone. “You’ll have to pay extra for your luggage.” Stupid.

You need a passport to cross into Canada. We need a fence along the Mexican border. What happened to “tear down that wall?” What has Canada done? More importantly, why are people not questioning things? Why are tomatoes all of a sudden the forbidden fruit (or vegetable, I can never remember)? What happened to growing your own tomatoes? Hell, I can grow tomatoes in a 5 gallon pail on the back porch and know that they’re safe from pesticides and god knows what else. And why do we accept high-fructose syrup in “all natural” tea (and yes, I’m firmly entrenched in the “New Coke/Coke Classic” conspiracy theory from the 1980s). Why do people think that Splenda is splendid? The stuff was rushed to market. It’s unnatural. In the 1970s it was all about the saccharin. And today people are literally dumping scoops of Splenda into their favorite dish. I know I eat a lot of crap but I still go out of my way to avoid chemistry when I can. Up until a couple of months ago I was an avid diet pop drinker. That was until I discovered it had many of the same ingredients as rat poison.

Personally I think the United States was headed toward insanity in 2000 and my suspicions were confirmed when Bush Lite was re-elected in 2004. It’s a slippery slope we are headed down. Something has got to give, and when it does, it’s not going to be pretty. When does this madness stop? When will the pan get too hot?

Saranac Thursday Night.


Flickr Link.

Tonight I went to my first Saranac Thursday Night of the season. Earl was out to dinner with his boss so I made the trek alone. I met up with friends from work.

It was two weeks ago that there was a good sized fire at the West End Brewing Company. The fire took out the bottling area of the plant. The F X Matt Brewing Company is in the process of rebuilding. Saranac Thursday Nights didn’t miss a beat and it seems like there’s more people there than ever. Throughout the city and neighboring villages, business have signs up that say “Get Well Soon Schultz and Dooley!” Some details of the fire can found on my blog entry from that night.

One of the things that I love about Saranac Thursday Nights is that people from all walks of life are there: blue collar, white collar, executives, biker chicks, gay, straight, fat, thin, big, small; it doesn’t matter. I feel a sense of community whilst I’m there.

Tonight I chatted with my friends Shirley and Christine and John while I downed three Utica Club drafts. I recently replaced Christine at work, she is wicked smart and is pursuing new employment opportunities after earning her Master’s Degree from the New School. Shirley and John still work at the telecommunications company I work at. I enjoy chatting with them off hours. I need to get better about not talking shop.

I’ve posted more pictures from tonight’s fun; I tend to take random shots with my iPhone when I have the opportunity. You can see them here on Flickr.

Here I am all duded up for the occasion.

Flickr Link.

Tech Thursday.

Today is all about the multitasking. Not only am I folding laundry, vacuuming the house and doing other odds and ends that need to be done; I am also watching and listening to podcasts, rebuilding the home server and engaging in other geeky activities.

As you may have heard (now there’s an understatement), Apple announced a few things at the WWDC conference during Steve Jobs’ keynote speech on Monday. Even though we were swamped with tech calls at work during the speech, I was constantly refreshing various sources on the web to see what was up. Later on Monday night I watched the keynote from my home studio. As expected, Steve announced the release of the next incarnation of the iPhone, the iPhone 3G. Though still tied to AT&T here in the States, the iPhone 3G will use faster technology to do it’s internet magic. The current model uses a slower technology called EDGE. For the most part I’m pleased with my current iPhone so I’m going to stick with what I have. If someone were to buy me an iPhone 3G I wouldn’t complain, but I don’t feel that I can justify the cost right now. I also have to admit that I like the metal casing on my iPhone. I am disappointed that MMS messaging was not mentioned in the iPhone 2.0 software upgrade. I have a lot of friends that like to send me pictures via phone (and I like to do the same as well) and I can’t using my iPhone; I have to resort to sending them via e-mail.

Another announcement during that same keynote was the conversion of .Mac to the new MobileMe service, which is expected to hit the ‘cloud’ in July. I have had a .Mac subscription since I switched to OS X platform earlier in the oughts, but I don’t use it as much as I could. The MobileMe platform is a complete revamping of it’s predecessor and includes ‘push’ technology: I don’t need to go out and fetch the information, my information comes to me. This is wicked cool. If I update a contact, calendar entry or photo on my iPhone, it’ll be on my MacBook, Mac Minis and other computers in a matter of seconds. If I had a Windows computer here in the Macinmanor it would also be there. Microsoft Office users are familiar with similar capabilities through the Microsoft Exchange technology (when coupled with Outlook or Outlook web interface). I’m looking forward to my .Mac account being converted to MobileMe and have already started migrating away from the myriad of free services I currently use to .Mac in preparation for the conversion. This brings up another topic.

I’m changing my contact information, again!

My e-mail address is now
imachias-at-mac.com

imachias-at-gmail.com will continue to work indefinitely but I will not be using it as my primary account. Please update your address books. I’ve always been a little cynical about using the free service of gmail, even though Google has done nothing to make me distrust them, ever. On the other hand, why I trust Apple with my information is beyond me, maybe it’s paying for the service that gives me a false sense of security.

The bigger home server here at the Macinmanor crashed last week after I tried to apply routine upgrades to the Ubuntu Linux OS. I lost most of the information on the hard drive. The hard drive is fine, but Ubuntu did something to the file system that prevented me from doing anything with it. I discovered a Linux distribution called SystemRecoveryCD that allowed me to boot the server off the CD and rescue some of my data. If I had found this earlier in the troubleshooting process I probably could have rescued all of my data. I guess we all live and learn. Today I am rebuilding the server and have opted to use FreeBSD as the operating system instead of one of the Linux variants. Let’s see how helios 2.0 (the server is named ‘helios’) does.

Dance Already.

As the weekend looms on the horizon, I feel it’s fitting to get your toe tapping.

This single is from 1996 and still does quite well on the dance floor if there’s enough alcohol flowing. Only a few rarely believe who is singing when they ask.

Whew.


Flickr Link.

I’ve worked it out so that I work three days a week until July 10. Then it’s four days a week until Labor Day and then I’m full time after that. How’s that for setting a nice summer schedule? It is the social season, you know.

I’ve made several big decisions this week: a full-time job, school on hold, etc. I could go on and on about how my head is spinning but to be honest it’s not. I always listen to my gut and my gut says I did good. I feel great. I feel remarkably stress free, though I know that’ll change once I get back into the on call schedule again in September. The great thing is that since all the positions in my group are now filled the on call schedule is manageable with my turn coming up once every five weeks. I can live with that. They have added incentives to on call to make it a little more bearable. I see gadgets in my future (after the debt is paid down).

Ironically, as soon as I sealed the deal with my boss with a handshake, all hell broke loose in the Network Operations Center and it hasn’t slowed down at all. The controlled chaos came back at full-tilt and quite frankly I was reveling in it. Instead of one or two customers losing their internet connection at a time, we had 60 to 70 dropping at once. No xtube in lots of offices this week!

Now I get to relax for Thursday and Friday. I have a few projects around the house I want to finish up. I might even run the vacuum cleaner from where Tom threw a plant at us at 4:00 a.m. this morning.