I’m dog tired. The day started early this morning, we had rehearsals all day long and then the big show was tonight at 7:00 p.m. It’s hard work being the emcee for the Miss Mohawk Valley scholarship program pageant!
Here I am pictured with my co-host and Miss New York 2006, Bethlene Pancoast.
![[Miss MV]](http://www.jpnearl.com/assets/missmv.jpg)
I felt I needed to get super spiffed up to hit the stage tonight. 🙂
The experience was wonderful and I’ll write more tomorrow.
This weekend I hit the stage for the first time in a couple of years. It is the annual “Miss Mohawk Valley Scholarship Program Pageant”, and while some would chuckle to think that I’m competing for Miss Mohawk Valley I am actually the emcee. Actually, this year I am a co-host, sharing the emcee duties with the current Miss New York. This winner from this pageant goes to Miss New York, and then Miss New York goes to Miss America, so it’s mildly exciting.
The last time I had the honor of being a host for this show was two years ago. I hope I’m not a little rusty and that my jokes have not run stale. It’s a good thing I have a script to follow, so I don’t try to funny with words like “shizzle”.
I suppose I’m going to have to get cleaned up in order for the tux I have to look right. Perhaps I’ll share a picture on the blog by the end of the weekend.
I was bopping around “YouTube” tonight and came across a track from 1990 or so that I used to go crazy over.
Here’s Lizette Melendez and “Together Forever”.
Oh, in the “let’s reveal something about our past department” I used to dance to this song (much like the dancers in this video), in nothing but Fruit of the Looms and a leather jacket, on a big speaker at a bar called “Citi” in Boston. How’s that for fun?
A couple of days ago I mentioned that I used to be a tuba player and that perhaps I’d like to start playing the tuba again. A few said I should go for it and find a band to play with and my mother suggested I should look into joining my alma mater’s alumni band.
The Alumni Band only did one gig – in 1996.
Until this year.
I’ve started the ball rolling on getting an Alumni Marching Band together for my hometown’s Field Days (think town festival) in August. There’s already been considerable interest.
I think I’ve found my “keep busy” activity for the summer and I’m wicked excited about it.
When the semester started in January, my sociology professor informed us that we had a paper due on March 22. The task was relatively simple, we needed to find, read and critique a peer-reviewed article in an accepted sociology journal. The paper was to be four to six pages long. We’d even meet in the library for one class so that we could see how to find an appropriate article and all that.
March 22 seemed so far away back then.
I had planned on having this paper finished before Spring Break. While that didn’t happen, I did make strides and found an article and I even showed it to my professor to make sure I was on the right track. She was impressed and said to stick to it, the paper should be easy to do.
Today is March 21. Anyone want to venture a guess as to what I’m doing today?
I am hesitant to write this blog entry for a couple of reasons. First of all, it’s about the geeky subject of computers, and some looking for some beefcake shots may find that boring. Perhaps I should pose with the computer naked or something. Secondly, and this is the primary reason I was hesitant about writing this, I’m talking about the latest incarnation of Microsoft Windows and that would be: Windows Vista.
Where oh where has the Mac fan boy gone?
In our large stable of computers in our Macinhouse, we do have one relatively new HP Pavilion laptop computer. We purchased this back when I started school so that I would be able to keep up with my civil engineering drafting assignments, and remain compatible with my teachers and peers since Microsoft Word for Mac can occasionally get a little wonky when trying to convert to the PC platform.
Since we bought the PC during the “Vista is coming any minute” time frame, we were offered a free upgrade to Windows Vista Home Premium. The CD arrived while we were away.
The upgrade process was rather painful as I got several “blue screens of death” on my “Windows Vista Capable” computer. I finally just backed up my documents and wiped the hard drives completely and started from scratch.
I hate to say this but I really like Windows Vista. It’s a smarter, better looking version of Windows XP and believe it or not, there are some things that it does better than Mac OS X. (I didn’t think Windows Calendar would trump iCal, but I like it better and find it a little more intuitive to use.)
There were some drawbacks to the upgrade: my virus protection software is not compatible and there’s a few programs that complain about not knowing what Vista is, but on the whole I’m rather enjoying my Vista experience. And I’m surprised by this.
I no longer feel guilty because I’m ignoring this brand new school laptop. I’m rather enjoying it now.
I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned this before, but when I was a wee lad I was a tuba player. From fifth grade through my senior year, I proudly played the tuba with the concert and marching bands. In fact, I went to SUNY Fredonia for music education as a tuba player, probably because we tuba players are rare and the college was desperate.
When Earl and I were on vacation last week, we had occasion to watch several marching bands and I found myself eager to start playing the tuba again. I haven’t played the tuba since 1988 or so but I still remember all the fingerings and how to do it.
I wonder if I can find a tuba on ebay. Then I’ll just be a tuba player in search of a marching band.
Because we all know what happens at band camp.
Here’s a picture of me (on the left) as a freshman in high school at band practice. Band was the last period of the day (the geek remembers: 8th period, 1:49 to 2:30), that’s why I had my coat on because I had an irrational fear of missing the bus.
![[Tuba]](http://www.zayre-electronics.com/tuba.jpg)
Here, enjoy one of the songs we used to play (though this is the demo version). It’s called “Aztec Fire”.
I’ve often commented, well actually complained, about how I feel that cell phones are destroying our country. I’m really hoping that they discover that cell phones make people impotent or something because the only way we’re going to get some peace and quiet is by threatening people that they won’t have sex anymore if they keep yakking.
Unfortunately even the House of the Mouse is not safe from this technological virus that has gripped our fine land from sea to shining sea. Cell phones have invaded Walt Disney World just as they have intruded in every other aspect of our lives.
I watched a mother scold her young son (maybe eight or nine) because he was talking on his cell phone during the boat ride through Norway (at Epcot). It’s a shame she scolded him for doing something that comes naturally when a mother gives a single-digit child a cell phone to begin with. “Here’s your cell phone, now don’t use it or I’ll smack you.” That’s just wrong. He shouldn’t have been on the phone, but he shouldn’t even have had a phone to begin with. My sister didn’t get a cordless phone until she was 15 and then it only reached about 10 feet away from the base and involved an antenna that should have received messages from Telstar. What on earth does an elementary school child need a cell phone for?
I guess because we live in a rather rural part of the country we don’t get to see the Blackberry fixations. There were Blackberries everywhere! Granted, Earl has a Blackberry for work, but he’s rather tame with his. If he starts getting a little intense with his Blackberry, I always ask him how he enjoyed Iowa last summer and then he stops. (He Blackberried through a good portion of Iowa and it begat an argument bested only by the Great Chip Encounter of 1999*). I saw many lily white (from lack of sunlight), unshaven, vacation clothed assumedly businessmen totally ignore their family, the Mouse and any safety precautions given prior to riding through Space Mountain as they tap, tap, tapped an “I Miss You darling” to their secretary back at the office.
I think I mentioned during our vacation that a couple of people near us tried talking on their cell phone during an attraction/ride/plummet through The Everest Experience until Earl gave them “the look”.
Oh this takes the cake though. Earl and I were walking through Disney’s Animal Kingdom, “Africa” to be exact. There’s a walking tour where you get to see all sorts of glorious nature and wildlife. There’s a energy in the air that just bathes you in all the Universe has to offer. You’re reminded that we are only one tiny part of this existence. The feeling is glorious.
And there’s Cell Phone Claudia sitting on a bench, with her Verizon Wireless BILL IN HAND, screaming at the customer service representative over her Motorola. She ignored nature, she ignored the Universe and my God she ignored “The Look” from Earl. So I stepped on her foot by accident.
She should have looked where she was yakking.
*I don’t think I’ve ever written about the Great Chip Encounter of 1999. I won’t go into details, but I’ll summarize by saying there was yelling, a few explosive bags of potato chips and a Great American grocery store that closed a couple weeks later.
The bags are unpacked. The cat has been picked up and returned home. I’ve run the snowblower for the last time this year. I’m in my jammies.
It’s good to be home.
According to the telephone sitting next to me here at the hotel desk, we’re in Largo, Maryland tonight. We left WDW this morning around 9:30 a.m. We drove and drove and drove and drove up Interstate 95, seeing signs like this one:
By the way, there’s something with this sign that the Transportation Engineer in me appreciates very much. Anyone want to venture a guess why this sign is more legible than most?
Anyway, I had hoped to drive all the way home tonight, taking all 21 1/2 hours in one big gulp. It obviously didn’t happen for a couple of reasons: 1. I would have been driving the familiar part of the ride in the middle of the night, increasing my chance of falling asleep at the wheel and 2. Earl and I don’t want to repeat the “driveway full of snow” episode after enjoying such a lovely vacation.
Tomorrow we’ll tackle the potential snowbank in the driveway in the daylight.
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!