August 2006

macinhouse.

In 15 minutes is the keynote address from Apple CEO Steve Jobs from the WWDC, the Worldwide Developers Conference. He’s expected to give us a preview of the latest version of Mac OS X, Leopard, and perhaps reveal some other new goodies that’ll get us Mac-fanatics all worked up in glee.

I’ve become very Mac centric again over the past week or so. My Linux computer works well enough, it’s just not easy enough to use. I always end up back on the PowerBook.

I have dreams of moving the servers in the basement over to a Mac or two in the near future. Let’s see if Earl wants to play along! When we win the lottery, I’m going to buy everyone in my family and a select group of friends and fellow bloggers a state of the art Mac. Then I’m going to fill the computer labs of three school districts with all Macs.

You read it hear first.

7 August 2006 by Geek 0

Who Wants To Be A Superhero?

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I’ve found one reality show that I’m really enjoying this summer. It’s not Big Brother. It’s not Catwalk or whatever that model show is called. No, it’s something a little further than reality.

I’m really diggin’ “Who Wants To Be A Superhero?”

Shocking, isn’t it?

Found on the SciFi channel Thursday nights at 9:00 Eastern (do they still say 8:00 Central?), comic book genius Stan Lee is looking for the newest superhero for his next comic book. There’s the usual reality show twists and turns and eliminations and all that, but what I like about this “reality show” is that they are looking for a human that really is a superhero on the inside. We’re only at the second episode right now, but it looks to get really interesting.

My favorite superhero right now is Major Victory, mostly because he looks the part. He’s a little overboard with the cheesiness. I’m not getting a superhero vibe from the others at all, except perhaps for Fat Momma. I look forward to learning about the others as the series progresses.

At first I was cheering for Levity, but he let it slip that he hoped to make some loot by selling toys he designed in his likeness. Come on Levity, every gay man knows that Wonder Woman donated all the money from the dolls sold in her likeness during World War II to charity. You shouldn’t use your superpowers for financial gain.

I’m really hoping they do a second run of this next summer. Now there’s one reality show I’d definitely try out for.

6 August 2006 by Superhero. 0

Work First.

I did something for the first time today. I ventured a little bit out of the area while I was on-call. Usually I stick within a few minutes of home the entire week for fear of some technological catastrophe happening, but today the weather was good and we had a family reunion going on in Syracuse, so I decided to venture out of the little realm of safety and go to the shindig.

It wasn’t a bad experience at all. Thank goodness the weather cooperated and I was able to handle my work responsibilities with my cell phone, two notebooks of data and a pad of paper out in the Jeep. Earl and I were able to enjoy the picnic relatively stress free.

This might make my work experience more enjoyable. It’s like a whole new realm of possibilities.

5 August 2006 by Ponderings and Musings 0

Amazing After All These Years.

So Earl and I just got home from the big high school reunion. Twenty years, where has the time gone?

Simply put, I had an absolutely amazing time. I was surprised to see that about half the class showed up; not bad for a small group of graduates from a small high school in the middle of nowhere. Friends came in from Nebraska, Delaware, Florida, all corners of the country. It was kind of neat to walk into a party of strangers and actually know everyone there.

I think Earl had a good time too. Everyone gave him hugs and such when I introduced him. It was refreshing to talk about my life experiences openly and honestly for the first time with people I had known for half my life.

I think I’m amazed at how my classmates went fared; I was tending to think of them as the graduates I left behind in June of ’86; now I know them as doctors, drug counselors, human resource managers, nurses, teachers and real estate brokers that travel the globe. As the memories were shared and pictures were shown and my true geekiness was revealed by letting out the secret that I still knew my high school locker combination, I gained a new respect for my contemporaries. It was good to see them all.

Godspeed my friends.

~~~
Here’s a picture of me and Shelly, my chemistry lab partner from our senior year. She has since forgiven me for burning off one arm of her sweater with the bunsen burner back in spring of 1986. She was still wearing the sweater when I did it and yes, it was an accident.

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4 August 2006 by Fun and Games Dept 2

20 Years Later.

Tonight is my 20 year high school reunion. Instead of having it around graduation day in tandem with the annual high school Alumni Banquet, my graduating class decided to have the reunion around the town field days (village fair). At least we’re doing something for 20 years I suppose, because to my knowledge there hasn’t been a reunion since our fifth year, unless of course I wasn’t invited or something.

I’ve only seen a very few members of my class since graduating high school. I haven’t seen my best friend from high school, Jeff, in about six years. I ran into a good friend who is a really talented piano player a couple of years ago and we’ve kept in touch on and off over e-mail since. Other than a passing glance here and there when I’ve been in town, I’ve had little contact with my classmates.

I must admit that I’m intrigued about the whole shindig tonight. I’m a little curious as to see how my other classmates did in this quest called life. I’m also a little bit nervous in a junior high sort of way because of the whole gay thing. It was pretty much a given that I was gay (hell, I knew since second grade), especially the last half of my senior year of high school, but it wasn’t something that was talked about outside of a joking or taunting way. Looking back, I don’t think I was really picked on that much for being who I am aside from a few remarks here and there and a scathing “character analysis” study we did in an Ethics class in which we all discussed what was wrong with each other. An undoubtedly now rabid republican went to town on my homosexuality basically insinuating that I would have to sell myself on the street to survive since that’s what “they” did because they couldn’t be employed in “normal society”. Looking back on that experience I smile a little bit, because I learned a lot about myself and about people in general that day. And to think I’ve only had to sell myself once or twice to make ends meet.

Calm down, I’m kidding. (Mom, you can pick yourself up off the floor).

So tonight Earl and I will make the trek up north to take a trip down memory lane with a few pictures taken along the way. I think it’ll be a good evening.

4 August 2006 by Ponderings and Musings 1

That Would Suck.

My pager had gone off in the middle of the night again for the third night in a row. Some produce company in the bowels of Syracuse had lost their phone service and it was time to become SuperTech; no time for tights, no time for a thunder clap, a flash of lightning or an orchestral accompaniment as I made the change, I’d had to act fast and I had to do it in the buff.

After burning what’s left of my eyesight out staring into the bright LCD in the dark of night, I did what I needed to do, involved the people that needed to be involved and forwarded said produce company’s main phone to a cell phone, I kicked back on the futon, hoping to catch the last hour of sleep before having to really get up to start the day.

It was then that I thought, “you know, it’d really suck if I were to die in my sleep right now.”

I realize that a thought like that is quite morbid, but when you’ve been jarred awake for the past several nights by the shriek of your friendly work pager, odd things start floating around in your brain.

It’s not that I’m afraid to die. At all. Despite what the bible beaters will have you believe, I just know in my heart and soul that there *has* to be something better than this on the other side. I just know it. This can’t be all that there is because, well, that would really suck. Think about it; if the meaning of life is making money for “the man” and trudging around with a bunch of basically insane lunatics in every facet of life, then life would suck royally and I don’t believe that the Universe would have it that way. No I think this is a proving ground. You do well, you go on to a better place. If you have more lessons to learn, well, then it’s try, try, try again for you.

After having these thoughts all race through my head, I decided that I would skip the futon, take my chances with another jarring pager announcement and snuggle up next to Earl. Because if I go, I’m going to go a happy man.

4 August 2006 by Spiritual Stuff. 1

Plan B.

Last night was one of my busiest on-call nights ever. I was able to only clock in 1 1/2 hours of sleep before having to get up and get my day started. It hasn’t slowed down at work today but at least it feels like there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, so I’m managing.

I had hoped to sneak a catnap during my lunch break. I thought if I caught 20 minutes of sleep I would be able to chase away this headache that’s lurking about and I would just be able to deal with the rest of the day.

The nap didn’t happen.

When I drove into the driveway, I noticed that the lawn service was here doing their weekly thing. There’s three of them this week, all younger than 25, all quite buff, all quite tan and well, all very hot.

Three men doing lawn work shirtless will perk me up more than any nap, so I guess I’ll just go with Plan B and watch the guys work.

3 August 2006 by Ponderings and Musings 2

Bloggus Interruptus.

As I type this blog entry it’s lightning and thundering like crazy. The noise is non-stop. There’s no wind, there’s no rain, just a lot of rumbling goin’ on. I’m waiting for the power to go out again. Storms seem to be the theme of the summer.

I’m hoping these storms blow through before the end of the workday so that I don’t have to deal with all sorts of work related outages tonight. On one hand, the overtime would be sweet but on the other hand, I really would like to play around with the video camera again.

Crazy neighbor lady is flapping her cowbell in attempts to call her cat. She’s standing out on her back deck dinging her bell, shrieking at the top of her lungs and clapping her hands. All she’s missing is a metal pole in her hand. I bet the Universe didn’t think anyone could beat thunder when it comes to decibels, but I have living proof right here with crazy neighbor lady.

I think I’m ready for some cool weather. Maybe that’s what the thunderstorms are bringing along. Whoops, here come the winds. Here we go again.

I’m resisting the urge to stand on the back deck and yell “Go North! Go North!” at the storm, hoping to steer it away from our customer service area. I’m afraid crazy neighbor lady will just flap her bell at me.

2 August 2006 by Ponderings and Musings 0

Getting Witchy.

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So I decided to mess around with the video camera tonight, since Earl is out of town and I didn’t have much else to do other than on-call stuff.

You can take a peek at my latest special effects experiment here (requires Quicktime).

Or if you prefer the YouTube version, take a peek here.

1 August 2006 by Video. 2

About J.P.

Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.

Weird? Eccentric!

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August 2006
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