Australia here I come...

I know this is a reference that not everybody's going to get, but: Alexander's daddy has had a terrible, horrible, no-good, very-bad week.

My Song....

Hey look - somebody wrote me a song! (All except the bubblewrap part...)

The parable of the water bottles

I went to my car this morning and there was a water sitting by itself in the cup holder next to the driver's seat. Since it was only 4 degrees outside, it was solid ice and could only be used to kill small rodents. However, behind the seats I had a package of 24 other water bottles - same size and same conditions as the water bottle by the drivers seat, however, since they were together in a bundle, the ice inside the bottle was thin and with very little effort, was drinkable.

Last summer, the water bottle next to the driver's seat was hot and horrible to taste. However, again the water in the bundle, although not exactly wonderful, was refreshing enough on a hot day.

Travel Log

Doing better on the US than...

Yeah... It counts as 0%

Do you think I can visit the 37 non-original colonies before I hit the main Atlantic? I think I should try to hit Maine and Alaska before I leave the country.

Been to Florida 3 times - all by flight. My opinion: It doesn't count as an East state or a South state - it's Florida.

Looks like the next family trip gets to be N. Dakota. Yay! Perhaps we could go to the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople.

create your own visited states map or create your own visited countries map

Yay Bureaucracy!

So, the other day, I put in a request to buy a few copies of Windows Vista and Office 2007 for my school. I wanted a few people to try running it so that as we get closer to the day the district buys it, I will know some of the ins, outs, and other issues, and will be a lot more effective in training teachers on how to use the new products. I can also test the other software that we have for compatibility. (Keep in mind that these are both huge parts of my job description. Also keep in mind that I have been running the Betas and Release Candidates for both for several months - and love them - I just want to get the official final releases - to see if the RSS issues that I'm having got fixed - among other things. It would also be nice for my entire life not to collapse in April when the Betas expire.)

Of course, my request was turned down.

Now, the reason is the fun part. I was turned down because somebody in ITS (who happened to be me) loaded the Beta for Windows and found an issue that was significant. Well, last week, we upgraded our email software, the main program that I had a conflict with, and so it would be nice to run the new email software on the official release of Windows Vista to see if the problem still exists. But I can't because I previously found an issue and reported it.

Well, I wrote to one of the people whose job is it officially, by the district, to do this testing and reporting, let her know about the hang-up, and she found a way to get me a few copies of both. And my old department chair, who is now her boss, okayed the purchase, so I might be getting back to work soon....

That is, if it ever stops snowing so the shipment can actually get here.... It should all thaw by April. Right?

Addicts, addicts, everywhere!

So, my sweet bride has passed 100 on her gamerscore - playing Viva Piñata. My daughter also has a gamerscore of 40 on the same game. My score has gone up significantly in the last week too - same game - as well as Lego Star Wars II.

It's good to be home :)

December 2006 Summarized

So, here's a visual of what happens when global warming confronts a drought. Just imagine what would happen in there was moisture or cold!

So, we thought that yesterday might be a great day to get all the Christmas shopping done... Oh well... Looks like today is out too... Tomorrow? Don't know - tomorrow is the first day of winter... If this is fall, I hate to see what winter does to us.

Much of the rest of December has felt the same as the last two days - just in very different forms.

And finally, my least favorite feature of Blogger "Beta" (it's out of Beta, but still doesn't seem to work) is that the RSS feed now says that everything posting on January 1, 2006 - it was a busy day apparently - this could be my RSS reader, but since it used to interpret them correctly something must have changed.

FYI - 2003 was worse...

Be afraid!

Be very afraid!

A non-gamer's progress

I've finally "beaten" Uno. It's the first Live Arcade game I've got all 12 achievements on. 'spose it's big considering how little time I spend on my XBox.

I've finally got a couple new 360 games on my Christmas list, so hopefully in a month or so we'll see another short spurt of progress once again. Then whenever Fuzion Frenzy 2 and Halo 3 come out we'll be back at it again.

Random movie quotes

Take your best guesses...

1) Stop helping me!
2) But... its got 11.
3) Claire, the whole world. Whole world, Claire.
4) Pie Jesu domine, dona eis requiem.
5) Oureyay oingay otay etgay itay in the airchay.
6) It's not the volts - it's the amps that'll get you.
7) Don't make me waste letters - R U O K?
8) How do you read this? There's no pictures!
9) It's possible... pig...
10) I gave her my heart - she gave me a pen.
11) You know better than to trust a strange computer.
12) You believe in the Users?
13) If anything gets in your way, turn.
14) Sorry guys. You're just too darn loud.
15) The world's first unmanned flying desk set.
16) If that's the way it must be done, then that's the way you must do it!
17) They keep creating new ways to celebrate mediocrity.
18) I'll have you Longshanks!
19) Cue the sun!
20) Dude! What happened to your dog!
Bonus) You take the front nine, I'll take the back nine, and I'll meet you back at the clubhouse.