July 2012

Friday Night Dance Party: Spinning Around

From 2000, here’s Kylie Minogue with “Spinning Around.” We played this track on WOWZ/WOWB when I was Program Director, though it wasn’t ever officially released in the United States.

This track was originally written for the comeback album Paula Abdul never recorded. Personally, once I knew that I could easily hear Paula Abdul singing this song, though I really like Kylie Minogue’s take on the track. I swear I can hear the riff from Earth, Wind and Fire’s “September” in it, but if it’s there it’s not credited.

20 July 2012 by DJ 0

Sequel.

It’s the second day of the “Click To Add Text” presentation at work. Only half of the attendees have joined the coast to coast broadcast this time around. I’m one of them. I’m crazy like that.

The Centrally located decided that lunch would be at 1:30 p.m. Eastern. And the lunch break would only be 30 minutes.

This makes me somewhat cranky but I’ll get over it.

There is a different staff on at the Dunkin’ Donuts closest to my office today. Maybe they change after the lunch shift. No one knew what I ordered. Perhaps they forgot about me due to my telecommuting ways.

Whoops, the bell will ring shortly and I must get back to the “Click To Add Text” presentation. Ain’t it a gas.

19 July 2012 by Fun and Games Dept 0

Hot.

So last night it was insanely hot for this part of the country. When I woke up at 0100, drenched in sweat, I noticed that it was still 81F. This morning at breakfast time it was 79F and the humidity was at 80%. I’m not used to such a warm evening and not having air conditioning in the house is making it mighty hard to sleep at night. Sex is completely out of the question and that makes me cranky.

I said it.

If you follow my Instagram photos (either on Instagram or on the newly built Instagram page available in the menu bar at the top of this page*), you’ll notice that last night I was taking some photos of lightning. I also took a video and posted it on YouTube. The storm in question blew north of us, but it made for some very interesting lightning displays. There was a lot of cloud-to-cloud lightning so the clouds were basically just lighting up in interesting ways. We had a brief sprinkle of rain and some wind, but nothing that was ever going to cool this area down. It was kind of a bummer. I’m in the mood for a wild thunderstorm to blow through; something that’s going to make a ruckus and maybe make the weather station freak out. I like that sort of extreme weather. I always have.

It is currently 90F here at the homestead at lunchtime. Luckily, I figured out how to completely remove the window in my office so that I can have an ample breeze blowing through and keeping it all manageable. The humidity has dropped down to 50% so maybe there’s some relief in sight.

When folks find out that we live in Central New York, famous for its snowfall, they ask how we can live in all that cold weather. Truth be known, I’d much rather be cold than hot. It’s easier to put another layer of clothes on instead of trying to keep cool. If this global warming thing is going to keep things so toasty we might just have to break down and put air conditioning in the house after all.

18 July 2012 by Ponderings and Musings 2

Friends.

It has been a year with many highs and too many lows, but I’m wishing the hap-hap-happiest of birthdays to my sister today. Here’s one of my favorite photos from when we were kids. I’m guessing it was taken around 1980, since the house didn’t have siding on it yet and the back porch is just a slab of concrete.

I wish I could find an adult-sized version of that t-shirt I’m wearing. Happy birthday, sis!

18 July 2012 by Ponderings and Musings 2

Distraction.

You may find this hard to believe but there are times where I am easily distracted. Now, I don’t mean that I go running off into another room because I saw something bright and shiny in there, ok, that only happened one time and I didn’t know it was the ladies’ room, but there are times where something will catch my eye and my brain will have to process it.

Today is the first of two, six-hour days of training for work. Because it is the 21st century, I work for a company that tries to be hip, the team I belong to is scattered all over the country and most importantly, remote training sessions are much easier on the budget, I am watching this training via WebEx and listening in via conference call. Actually, it’s not WebEx, it’s GoToMeeting and the audio connection information on the GoToMeeting should be ignored so that we can dial in with a landline instead (vs using the headset attached to my Mac). I am watching the presentation on my personal Mac because the display is much bigger than the screen on my work provided MacBook Pro.

I sound like an Apple fanboy.

I am an Apple fanboy.

Where was I? Oh yes, distractions.

I noted at the beginning of the presentation that the presenter mentioned one ten-minute break each hour during the day, however, at no time did he mention a lunch break.

Sacré bleu!

Now, I don’t know about most American workers these days but I try to work balls to the wall so I can get my stuff done and get to my lunch hour. I then work balls to the wall in the afternoon so I can get my stuff done and get out of the office at a reasonable time. Now, this might sound like it’s self-serving and quite frankly, it is.

The lack of the mention of the lunch break distracted me. As I pondered over whether we would have an actual lunch break or not during the presentation, I came up with alternate plans on how I would enjoy at least a snippet of a lunch break. This distraction led me to another distraction, and that was that the presentation and training seminar was apparently called “Click Here To Add Text”, but I digress.

I did my best to pay attention and I did learn some things along the way, but that niggling wonder of whether we would get a lunch break or not was always present in the back of my head. What am I going to do?

12:00 came and went. At 12:05 it was announced that we would take a ten-minute break and reconvene at 12:15.

NO LUNCH!

I ran upstairs (luckily I’m working from home today) and made myself a bowl of popcorn because a. I love the stuff, b. I find comfort in popcorn and c. it’s quick and easy.

I rejoined the conversation at 12:14, with a minute to spare. Said conversation was already in progress because they started at 12:13 with the assumption that everyone had already returned.

If we were on GoToMeeting’s audio and video controls they would have seen that I was still away.

Ugh.

The presentation continued as I munched on popcorn and listened to the tinny little voices on the conference call. I used the MUTE button on my phone so that others wouldn’t know about my secret stash of popcorn. I had usurped the lack of lunch during the “Click Here To Add Text” presentation! I made a little evil laugh.

At 12:50 it was announced that we would break for lunch and reconvene at 1:30 p.m.

w00t!

It turns out that the presenters are in Central Time while I’m in Eastern Time. I’m not used to having to bow down to another time zone. I guess they don’t realize that we are in the Eastern Time Zone, the time zone that reigns supreme from the mountains to the valleys and to the oceans white with foam. Stock markets close at 4:00 p.m. Eastern. Prime time television starts at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. I don’t care if you’re still eating lunch when “American Idol” infests the television yet again, that’s not my problem. If you want to see it on time, you’ll move to the East Coast which is the most important.

So now I have 11 minutes left in this Centrally Timed Lunch Hour. I supplemented the clandestine bowl of popcorn with a chicken salad-on-croissant sandwich and a large, unsweetened iced tea from the local Dunkin’ Donuts. I was happy to note that this store closest to the house is back to its old ways with the crankiest employees on the planet again.

And now it’s getting ready to thunderstorm. That will liven up the presentation nicely!

17 July 2012 by Ponderings and Musings 2

Warm.

It is another warm day here in lovely Central New York. We got some rain yesterday, just enough to put a damper on my bike riding plans, but it wasn’t a whole heck of a lot of rain. The lawns are still looking quite brown. This is sometimes how it goes.

The coveted spot in the shade was taken by some younger guys in a modified Honda Civic. They looked kind of smug. I decided to park in my routine spot. There is enough breeze to keep the Jeep somewhat cool. If the sweat starts to drip on my keyboard I’ll have to go for a ride sooner than expected.

I was hit with a round of exhaustion around 10:30 this morning so I went for a walk around the parking lot. The exercise and fresh air were both helpful. I normally go for a walk with co-workers in the morning and afternoon, but when you have back-to-back-to-back conference calls, it’s hard to plan these things accordingly.

The week is off to a good start and this makes me happy. I’m ready for the next adventure.

16 July 2012 by Fun and Games Dept 0

Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

So the secret destination for my birthday weekend was lovely Saratoga Springs, N.Y. The little city is about two hours to the east of us and actually not that far from where I work (when I go to the office). The weather was lovely, the downtown area was bustling with people and we had a very relaxing time.

We had a balcony and everything because Earl is a “Diamond Club” member. He spends a lot of time in hotel rooms.


We walked around Congress Park in the afternoon. I was the only one that dared to drink some water from one of the mineral springs. The water was naturally cold and had a tinge of sulfur in the taste. It reminded me of growing up but without the addition of Kool-Aid to the sulfur water.

Some ducks did a synchronized swim routine for us. I don’t think they’re paid to do that for the tourists or anything, they just kind of did it on their own.

After the duck show we posed for a family photo. My new bathing suit is in the Eddie Bauer bag to my left.


After trying some of the other spring water offerings (that didn’t have that sulfur taste), we relaxed in the air conditioned comfort of our suite at the new Hampton Inn for a bit until evening time. I took the opportunity to put on my new bathing suit and go for a swim. Earl watched to make sure I didn’t drown.


When we ventured out again we were approached by a 30-ish attractive looking bear of a guy who asked if we knew any good dining spots. Downtown Saratoga Springs has a lot of them so we recommended a couple and then we had a nice conversation with him for about 15 minutes. His name is Dan and he was in from Middletown for a School Bus Convention. I think he approached us because of our bearish ways and before you know it we were talking life stories and ended up inviting him to join us for dinner since he was in town alone. He decided not to join us but he wished me a happy birthday. I think we have a new friend in Dan. At first I thought he was Kevin from Danbury (they could be brothers) but he was Dan.

We ended up eating at Wheatfield’s at one of the sidewalk tables. It was a delicious meal, though the seating was a little crowded. It became extra crowded when a passerby decided to chat with the folks at the table next to us. To accomplish this he hung over the little fence between the dining area and the rest of the sidewalk. I thought Earl was going to offer him a bite of his pasta but he didn’t feel that cordial.


After the nice dinner we walked around downtown again and then headed back to the hotel for some cupcakes from Bettie’s Cakes before calling it a night.


This morning we headed home by back roads for a bit before jumping on the Thruway and reaching the Manor around 1:30. We have been relaxing ever since.

I did snap a photo of these very old looking power line towers that seem to have a unique flair.


My batteries are recharged. This next ride around the sun is off to a good start.

15 July 2012 by Fun and Games Dept 5

The Wanna Write Conundrum.

I don’t know if this is actually a conundrum, because technically a conundrum needs an answer in the form of a pun. This is definitely a “first world problem”, as I’m about to somewhat complain about one of my technological arrangements that I am currently pondering. I know, many should be so lucky to have these problems.

I am typing this blog entry on Jamie’s laptop whilst sitting in a hotel room in Saratoga Springs. I didn’t bring a laptop, because I have pretty much relegated my 2008 MacBook Pro to being my DJ computer. Adding the additional stuff necessary to make a vibrant blog would bog the older MBP down too much. Plus, I like the ability to travel with just my iPad. I don’t have to worry about backpacks and all that; my iPad is available to me just about anywhere and pretty much fits all my needs.

Except when I want to write something, especially if I didn’t bring along an external keyboard.

Apple purists have a fit when someone mentions using an external keyboard with an iPad. They say that Steve didn’t design it that way and if we really need a keyboard, we should buy a MacBook Air or something similarly sized if we dare stray outside of the Apple Reality Distortion field. The truth of the matter is, when you’re capable of typing at nearly 100 words per minute, you’re going to find the iPad virtual keyboard on the screen to be quite frustrating. I know that there’s videos of people typing at nearly their native speed on the virtual keyboard, but they are people with less than 5% body fat and therefore have fingers that are bony (and usually kind of ugly without the accompanying hand makeup). My fingers move quickly but I find the experience of typing a blog entry directly on an iPad to be vexing. Frustrating. Not worth the effort.

This is a shame because there are times that I really just want to write, whether it be on my blog, in my journal or just to get my thoughts down in a text document. It’s what I do.

Here’s where the first world problem comes in.

On my lunch hour I have the bluetooth keyboard that is stored in the Jeep. The iPad (and cover) are draped over the steering wheel, the seat goes back to its farthest position and the keyboard sits on my lap. The problem with this, for travel outside of the Jeep, is that I need to remember to bring that keyboard along in my suitcase. I barely remember to turn off the lights in the house let alone grab a keyboard from the Jeep. But I definitely don’t want to incur the expense of another computer (besides, that would NOT fly with my budget views nor my husband’s views).

So, for folks that have an iPad, do you think that I should get one of those cases that comes with a keyboard and makes it look pretty much like a Macbook Air? Do you have any experience with one of these keyboards? I tried one like that a while back, but it was made of plastic and the keyboard was tiny. From what I understand, the new versions of these have full-sized keyboards and are quite sturdy.

Any recommendations would be most welcome.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled weekend in Saratoga Springs. If have included a link to all my Instagram photos in the menu bar across the top of the blog. Erik helped out with getting that working.

14 July 2012 by Geek 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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