The company that hosts jpnearl.com must love me. I have been installing new features to the website that I’d like to start using soon (a new photo gallery system) but I keep crashing the server. I’m in Upstate New York, the server is in Pittsburgh. I keep sending them trouble tickets and they keep responding. They’re friendly enough though.
Hopefully tonight the dust will have settled enough that I can do a proper blog entry.
Earl and I made the trek to Albany yesterday to visit with our friends Sean and Jeffrey. Sean is the one I share a common ex with (from over 18 years ago, not that we are old or anything). He and his partner Jeffrey have been together for about as long as Earl and I have been. We ran into each other online a while back and decided that we needed to get together and just hang out.
Simply put, we had a smashingly great time. We arrived at their apartment a little after two, chatted, snacked and ate dinner, chatted some more and then all of a sudden it was after midnight. It was like we had known these guys forever. I’m looking forward to getting together with them again soon.
Living in a smaller city, I occasionally feel that Earl and I are out on some sort of gay fringe, because of the longetivity and honesty we have with our relationship. It frequently feels like others just don’t get us. Few believe that Earl and I have no secrets from one another. Many shake their heads when they see that we enjoy each other’s company all the time. I often feel like we’re too whacky for words for most. We’ve been together over 10 years yet it still feels like we’re on a honeymoon. It has never gotten old between us, the adventure has just begun. I sense the same with Sean and Jeffrey.
It’s fun to have others ride the rollercoaster with you from time to time.
Tonight’s Friday Night Jam is one of my favorite tracks. It reminds me of spring and just gives me a happy feeling all over.
Enjoy The Stellar Project and “Get Up, Stand Up”. Unfortunately, it’s a shorter version that what I’m used to but what can you do. If this was around during my radio days it would have been on the station 110+ times a week (once every 90 minutes or so). Our thanks to YouTube.
After a night of rain, ice, sleet, wind, falling tree limbs and power brownouts, I stepped out onto the porch to get the mail and was welcomed with a glorious blue sky, bright sunshine and temperatures in the mid 40s.
I can see the pavement in the driveway!
More importantly, the birds are singing.
And so is my heart.
I’m ready for spring.
O.k. The last ’bout with Windows was quaint, but it’s over. I’ve made a new batch of kool-aid and my PowerBook has never felt better.
Before I get rolling on this blog entry, I’m going to say it right away so that I can continue with a clear conscience. I am using my Windows XP based HP notebook to write this blog entry.
Now I have a fully acceptable reason for jumping over to the Microsoft world. It’s really quite simple. I’ve run out of Apple Kool-Aid. Actually, I use this laptop for my school projects because in the engineering world it’s all about the Windows programs. I’ve tried to create some CAD drawings on Mac based software but quite frankly it was a pain in the butt. So when I was ready to start out on my school experience, we purchased this laptop and I’ve been using it as school has been chugging along. Today I did a bunch of web site editing on it and I must say it’s not half bad once you get back in the dark side frame of mind. I received an e-mail telling me that my complimentary upgrade to Windows Vista has been shipped so I’m actually looking forward to playing around with that.
Maybe it’s the weather that’s making me crazy.
The National Weather Service has issued another Winter Storm Warning for our area, this time with the promise of two or more inches of ice overnight.
Gee Beav, that’s swell.
To ready myself for the impending storm I went to the local dairy store to pick up some milk and bread because that’s what you do in times like these. I took the glass milk bottles along to return (no, there isn’t a cow in the store filling the bottles as they bring them in) and saw that there was one bottle of milk left on the shelf when I got to the store. There were two people headed for the dairy case, so I slugged the old man and tripped up the woman with the walker and got the last half gallon no-fat.
Calories always count, even during the impending second Ice Age.
Always looking to stay healthy I gulped down some leftover nachos for lunch today. Last night our friend Eric and I went to dinner. The appetizer (said nachos) was HUGE, so when the server offered to wrap them so we could bring them home I said sure. It’s a good thing Sean wasn’t along, I probably would have dumped them into the closest manpurse I could find if she hadn’t offered the doggy bag.
Today the instructors at school warned us that we’d probably lose power tonight so we should get our assignments done early. One of them then told us about the “Pandemic Flu Task Force” that has been active all week. They’ve come up with a contingency plan for when the students start dropping like flies from some variation of the Bird Flu. I guess I didn’t know that a Pandemic was coming, but then I refuse to be sick so there you are.
And if you’re wondering if I’m bat shit crazy because Earl has been out of town all week, let me answer that with an uninterruped “absolutely”.
Today’s kids have everything they can imagine and more. They come home from school, still dazzled by the PowerPoint presentations that have replaced the overhead slide projector and sit in front of their gaming console and play video games while chatting with their friends on their very own cell phone.
Back in my day (he says like a wise old sage after having a few beers), we kids had this after school:
One of my college courses, “English Composition”, is an online course. Back in December when I was setting up my schedule, this was the last course that I needed to schedule and I had successfully kept my Fridays empty and I didn’t want to mar that record, so I signed up to take the course online.
Now there’s a sentence that would make the grammar police cringe.
As with most online courses, you post your coursework to a discussion board, where your classmates and instructors read and review it and make comments. Since this is my first stab at college in a long time, I’ve held back a bit in my comments. I say things like “I found your essay had a casual feel to it. I didn’t feel like I had wasted my time by reading it” in an effort to try to be nice to some of the rougher drafts posted for discussion.
However, as of late I’ve started becoming the spelling police. I’ve begun posting little catch phrases in an effort to help my fellow students with their spelling mistakes.
“You want two desserts in the desert, not two deserts in your dessert!”
“Why don’t you lose some weight so your pants will be loose?”
“Where shall you wear your clothes tonight?”
“They’re excited that their friends will be there.”
I believe that correct spelling is important regardless of the medium or the circumstance. We all make mistakes, but that’s what the red little squiggle line in Word is for, to help you find your mistakes. When I was working in technical support I would get messages that held intelligent phrases such as “My ‘puter went broke. Can U fixit?” Requests such as these went to the bottom of the pile and rarely saw the light of day. When I was at the radio station, resumés were instantly discarded if I saw a spelling mistake or if said document was based on an Office template. I figured a lack of attention to detail and a lack of creativity were not qualities I was looking for in a candidate for air personality.
I can’t even send a text message on my cell phone without writing out the whole word. It’s just not in my nature.
At least I know the proper spelling of OCD.
With tonight being the busiest school night for me, it’s only natural that Earl is home from his various business trips one night only this week, and tonight would be that night. Luckily, I finished up my project at school early and was able to get out of class ahead of schedule.
As you can see from this photo, I dressed up for the occasion. Now don’t go thinking I wore these popcorn pants to school because I don’t think I’d have the nerve to do that. But as soon as I got home I was delighted to slip into my lounging clothes.
Tomorrow my jet set partner heads to Tennessee and then from there to New Jersey before arriving home late Friday night.
Such a whirlwind life.
Tonight’s “Heroes”. Amazing. Unbelievable. The best episode yet! That’s what good television is all about.
And no Nikki/Jessica two weeks in a row!
Yay!
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!
