A Book Meme

1) A book that changed my life: I would have to say it was "My Side of the Mountain" that I read over and over again as a very young lad. It really stirred in me a love for the woods and surviving in the wild.

2) A book I've read more than once: There would be several answers to this but I guess I'll go with "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever" by Stephen R. Donaldson since it's my favorite.

3) A book I'd take to a desert island: "Lord of the Rings"

4) A book that made me laugh: Funny, no single book stands out in this category, so I'd have to say all of them at some point. I don't generally read books of a comedic nature.

5) A book that made me cry: Never.

6) A book I wish I had written: "The Earth's Children Series" by Jean M. Auel mostly because I would have liked to have been involved in the archeological study that was used to garner information to create the series.

7) A book that should never have been written: Is there really any such thing.

8) A book I'm currently reading: "The Wheel of Time Series" by Robert Jordan which it seems like I've been reading forever.

9) A book I'm planning to read: "The Wayfarer Redemption" by Sara Douglass.

The Cyborg Name Generator

This one is pretty simple, you just type in your name and pick an avatar and it will give you your Cyborg name, or maybe just the cyborg meaning of your name. Anyhow I thought it made my "name" sound pretty cool...oh yeah, I had to edit the code a little to make it show up right, it appears that they missed some spaces. Make sure there are spaces between each part of the code...

Scents in the Wind

It's hard to believe that next weekend is Labor Day already. The summer seems to have flown by so quickly. In my hometown fall often sets in directly after Labor Day. I have often thought it strange how suddenly it seems to change seasons around here, kind of like a door slamming shut. One day it will be summer and the next, fall, without much of a gradual change from one to the other. I have been seeing some small signs of the coming change though.

After our summer hot spell, the nights seemed to have turned much colder, making me close most of the windows before I go to bed. It will soon be time to put the storm windows down, enclose the back porch, and generally get this house ready to endure the long, cold winter months. I still have to get my pellets in for winter, since I use a pellet stove to heat my house, I'm very late on that. I don't want to have to heat my house with gas this winter; it would be way too expensive.

My red squirrel, "Oscar", has returned, I hadn't seen him all summer and didn't know where he had gone off to. I was worried that maybe one of the hawks had gotten him, I'm glad to see he has survived. I saw him this morning for the first time, climbing around on "his" shed. He seems to have timed his return with my black walnut tree starting to drop its walnuts. I have to go clean out "his" shed again before he starts filling it up with walnuts for the coming winter, I'm not the only one around here getting ready for winter. I wonder if he's noticed that I have torn out half of the deck that he liked to romp around on so much, or how he feels about "Chubby" the groundhog who has taken up residence under his "shed". "Oscar" looks pretty fit; it appears that he found plenty of food over the summer. The last time I saw him was in the spring, when he looked awfully scrawny after enduring the long cold winter. I've noticed that "Chubby" has put on a lot of weight and seems quite ready for winter as well.

Lately I have noticed the flocks of Canadian Geese gathering for their annual trek southward. Earlier in the week a large flock had landed up the street in a neighbors yard, that has a very nice pond. They apparently were visiting my neighbors' white geese, which live there all year, and were mingling among the rest of the flock. My neighbors' geese, which like to come out to the road and harass the cars as they go by, seemed quite happy to have the company. This morning two very large flocks flew over my house heading south; is it time for them to go already? Surely there is more warm weather left and plenty of time for them to make their migration. Perhaps these are just the "early birds" getting a jump on their long journey, or are they warning of an impending long and cold winter coming?

I have been feeling very rushed, of late, to get all the things done that I need to do, to prepare for winter. In this part of the country it's not good to have winter set in on you unprepared. We don't get many natural "disasters" here, like earthquakes, tornadoes or hurricanes, but if you get caught in a good blizzard, it can be just as dangerous. There is also the "sealing up" of the house, and the planning for how you are going to heat it, still to be done. I know there is plenty of time left, but I can't help but feel a little trepidation over what I know is on it's way. I often wonder why I live in this part of the country, when I dislike winter as much as I do. The only thing I can say is, this is home for me, and always will be, no matter what comes with the wind...

pictures provided by All Creatures

Flirting with Disaster

When it comes to bloging everyone has certain problems they must deal with every time they put up a post. They must decide what kind of blog they are going to write, how personal they are going to get. Do they care if someone they know were to find their blog and read it? There are as many different bloging styles out there as there are people bloging.

Many people don't get very personal with their posts, choosing to write about their hobbies, put up pictures for the rest of their family to see, etc., allowing many people they know to have their blogs address and share in their life. For them getting very personal is not an issue, because they don't get deeply personal, they don't fear anyone they know finding their posts. They often put up pictures of themselves and will quite often use their real name.

Others tend to get very personal with their blog, using it as a form of diary, and only feeling safe if complete strangers read their posts. These people use fictitious names, never post a picture of themselves and always live in fear that someone they know will find their blog and recognize them. There posts often contain references to their jobs that could get them in trouble at work. We've all heard of the people who have been fired because their boss found and read their blog. Many people who choose to have blogs like this often tell stories of family, friends, lovers and co-workers that would cause them to die of embarrassment if any of the people they wrote about ever read their posts.

The majority of people tend to fall somewhere in between the two extremes. They tend to keep themselves anonymous, sometimes getting personal with their posts and sometimes writing very common stories about the everyday goings on in their lives that even their mother could read. They keep their weblog private for the most part, usually only allowing a few close personal friends to know their secret identity.

One of my favorite blogs "Flirting with Disaster" is no longer part of the blogosphere. The editor, my friend Claire (fictitious name) suddenly and with very little warning pulled her blog down because she was afraid that her cover had been blown. Her blog quite often got very personal, but was written with a flair and style that truly made it a joy to read. She was the kind of writer that could have written about sheep and would have kept you totally enthralled. They certainly would have been the best sheep stories on the web. Before her blog came tumbling down, she fired off one post saying that she thought her anonymity had been blown and she was probably going to take her blog down, it was up for a couple more hours. It's very sad when a blogger has to go to these extremes, and very strange when someone you have been reading about and commenting to, suddenly is no longer there.

I know many bloggers that struggle with keeping the anonymity of their blog and retaining the freedom to write as they choose. They struggle with the choice of having a public blog, taking their chances with their anonymity, or creating a private blog that very few can see, which limits the amount of readers they will get, and friends they will make. We all have to make these choices sooner or later, and they are never very easy choices to make.

"Claire, I hope you will find your way back, and overcome the problems you have encountered. I will miss your writing very much; I will miss you very much. If you find yourself in my neighborhood of the blogosphere, please drop me a comment"...

Ad Lib for Lack of a Better Reason...

I shamelessly ripped this off of Claire's Blog with no regrets whatsoever!

I like my coffee________________(with creamer only, Thank You very much!) While, sipping my coffee, I really like to______________(wait for my eyes to focus, my brain to turn on, and remember my name. I also like to listen to the birds singing in my back yard.). If I am really struggling, energy wise, later in the day, I will have ________________(a sugar fix...) or ____________(more java juice, after all Coffee = Life...) to pick me up.

On my way to work, I listen to _______________(The sound of my engine, If I play music, I'm constantly turning it down because I think I heard something in my engine, I'm paranoid that way.) I ___________ (hate, especially in the winter) my commute to work, except when__________________(All those other people stay off of "my roads!"). I'm so glad I don't_____________________ (have to commute like I did when I lived in Florida, 2 hours one way.)

Today I am feeling_________________(The sadness of summer slipping away and not being ready for winter) and i really wish that after work, I could _________________(get my van from the mechanics.) I also wish I had enough money to________________ (Pay the mechanics and get my pellets to heat my house this winter.)

Last night, I drank __________________(Pink Lemonade.)
and thought about________________________(getting some more RAM for my PC.) It made me feel kinda _________________(frustrated.)

As the weekend nears, I am looking forward to ___________________ (Nothing, since I'm still trapped at home without wheels.) I really need to _____________________(get ready for winter) and I hope i get to do that also.

Ye Olde Karaoke Battle Wagon

Well here I am stuck at home with no wheels. This weekend the "Olde Karaoke Battle Wagon" decided it wanted the service I have been promising it for sometime now and not delivering on. Generally I take reasonable care of my vehicles but one of the vans problems has been going on for a very long time without me getting it fixed.

My 97 Dodge Caravan, which I affectionately call the "Olde Karaoke Battle Wagon", due to the fact that we originally bought it to haul our karaoke equipment, has been leaking transmission fluid for about a year and a half now. This was originally my ex's vehicle but when it stopped shifting she parked it at her girlfriends parents house and bought another vehicle. This van is not your soccer moms mini-van. It has leather quad bucket seats and a v-6 that will smoke the tires on command and sometimes when I don't mean to. It's also hauled more gross tonnage in the time we've owned it than most guys' pickup trucks. It spent most its time packed to the ceiling with half a ton of karaoke equipment and was rarely unloaded, so it was always carrying that much weight around. This van has earned the right to be called "Truck" more than most trucks have (sorry just had to defend my vehicles honor there for a minute.)

Last year "T2" (my ex) asked me "would you take over the van and the payments, I can't afford it", to which I said, "Yes but you will have to get the vehicle to me first" (I didn't know where it was at the time). She said, "The transmission has gone out and it is going to cost $750 to get it replaced." I then said, "How do you know that the transmission is toast and it will cost that much to get it replaced? Where did you take it to get it checked out?" she said, "I haven't taken it anywhere because it won't move and that is how much it cost to get the transmission replaced on my other car." I said, "Have your girlfriend "J" check to see if it has transmission fluid, and if it's low put some in, because this can stop it from shifting." She called me back a little while later and in a very excited voice said "We put transmission fluid in it, and now it goes forwards and backwards!" It was all I could do to keep from splitting a seam laughing. They delivered the vehicle to me a short time later.

That was about a year ago and I did have my friend "N" put the van up on the rack at the garage he works at, which is when we found that a small 4" x 4" access plate on the side of the transmission was rusted and leaking the fluid. We didn't have the part to replace it so I kept driving it and kept putting transmission fluid in it when it was low. This plate is not a major problem so I guess it just became easier to add a quart of fluid in every week than to bother getting it fixed.

About a month ago another problem started, it began leaking power steering fluid. I started pouring power steering fluid into it all the time saying to myself "I really had to get it into the shop to get it fixed." Well the power steering fluid requirements got to be excessive, with me having to put fluid in every day. About two weeks ago the front end started making noise, which got me to worrying that this may be the rack & pinion going out, which is a sign when you start to loose power steering fluid. Having to replace the rack & pinion would not be cheap by any means. So I decided that I had to get it to the garage.

I took it down to a local garage on Wednesday after work. This garage is run by two older fellows that are really nice and not only don't they rip you off on the work they do, but sometimes they forget to charge you for some of the things that they do work on. The one that was there on Wednesday said that the other fellow wouldn't be in until tomorrow and he did all the scheduling, so I should bring it back Thursday. I went back in on Thursday and the other fellow said he wasn't able to put it up on the rack since they were full and to bring it back Friday night. Well after I left there the front end started getting very loud, with the kind of crunching, grinding, squealing noise you really never want to hear coming out of your vehicle. Friday morning I decided not to drive it to work, because if that was the rack & pinion I didn't want it going out while I was flying across the highway. I coaxed it the mile or so down to the garage and told them "it had decided it wanted to come to the garage now."

The one fellow called me back Friday evening with the good news, that it wasn't the rack & pinion. The power steering fluid loss was caused by a bad pump, and all the racket had been caused by the inside brake pads being worn completely off (funny the outside ones were like brand new) to the point where it was metal on metal. So I'm going to need a new plate on the tranny, rotors, break pads (maybe calipers), and a power steering pump. This will be fairly expensive but nowhere near what it would have cost to replace the rack & pinion.

The "Olde Karaoke Battle Wagon" has served me so well and for so long that I really should treat it better, besides the fact that I really can't afford to get another vehicle right now. It's worked hard over the years and is still reasonably young though it has quite a few miles on it. I think it's still a good vehicle that I can get many more miles out of. Maybe that's why I like it so much, it reminds me a lot of myself...

Linguistics

A few years ago I had the pleasure of going to Mexico. We stayed at a lovely resort hotel a couple hours south of Cancun. The very first night after settling in, we went to one of the hotel bars to have some fun and drinks. We weren’t at the bar more than a few minutes when a lovely couple came and sat down beside us. We immediately hit it off with them and began to have a great time together.

We started having rounds of “Tequila Boom-Booms” which are a shot of tequila, slow gin and 7-Up in a tall thin shot glass which is covered by a napkin and slammed on the bar which causes it to fizz up and you take it and quickly shoot it down. This became our drink of choice whenever we were together.

Every day we would go off and “do our own thing” but come evening we would meet up with them at the same bar and describe what adventures we had had that day to each other. We would spend the rest of the evening just having a ball, bar hoping, going dancing at the disco, whatever mischief we could find to get into together, and invariably closing down the last bar together before retiring.

Later I found out that they were on their honeymoon, and was surprised that they chose to spend so much time with us. We would even hang out together at the pool during days when we didn’t have something going on. I would have thought they would have wanted to spend time alone, as it was their honeymoon. We really did have a lot of fun together and it was very sad at the end of the week when we had to fly back home and leave them behind.

You might be wondering what is unusual about this, as people often make friends while off on vacation. We spent many hours together and really seemed to enjoy each others company, but our relationship posed one minor problem for us to overcome.

You see Antonio and Daniela were from Italy and did not speak a single word of English, and we were from the U.S. and spoke no Italian. The entire time we were together was spent “playing” a very elaborate game of charades, trying to communicate to each other. Though some things we were never able to communicate to each other, you would be surprised at just how well you can “talk” to each other if you try hard enough.

We did meet one fellow that worked for the hotel who could speak Italian and English (that is how we found out it was their honeymoon, we never could get that one across with charades). He offered to spend the week with us translating, but not for free. We declined his services because we were just having too good of a time together, with our own form of communication, and spent the rest of the week plying our charades and having a ball.

There is more than one way to communicate with people that don’t speak your language. We would never have met Antonio and Daniela if we had chosen to turn the other way that first night at the bar, just because we didn’t speak the same language...

Spammed!!!

I received this Post Card from Liz today. I knew I was taking a chance giving out personal information to her just to get a Post Card, and sure enough I was right. Along with the post card came a whole load of Spam.

I generally never worried about getting spammed by snail mail because I always figured, if I did, I could just move my mail box to the other side of the road.

I was just so excited about the prospects of getting a card in the mail that I really didn't think about the possible consequences. It's amazing how something as small as this can brighten up your day, but I guess for everything there is a price to be paid. The thought of getting a beautiful card in the mail can make you overlook little things, like "Devil Horns", not to mention a name like "Liz Vicious".

So be warned guys she may seem very sweet and be d.d.g. but there is definitely a little devil inside of her. So if you'll excuse me now I have to go put this beautiful post card up on the alter with the rest of the stuff...

Thank You DearHeart!!!

Righteous Geekdom

You are not a geek You are not into anything typically considered geeky. In fact, you probably make fun of every geek you see. Come to think of it, you're probably that serial killer who has been killing all of those nerds. Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

I'm sorry I just can't agree with this assessment. I have always been good at hiding my geekyness though. In high school I had long hair, wore an army coat and hung out with a rough crowd, none of my friends knew I was in the chess club. On the first day I walked into the chess club the first geek I encountered said, "you know you're in the chess club, don't you?" Boy did I enjoy beating him.

I am also an A+ Certified PC repair technician which I earned going to school for computer systems administration. This quiz says I'm not geeky at all just because I don't enjoy their particular video games. I was crushing computerized chess games before most people knew what a computer was. I bought my first computer in 1980 it was Commodore VIC 20. I am fluent in just about every operating system there is including Linux and UNIX.

I work in Mechanical Engineering, and everyone knows we are all geeks, including the IT department. Yes I own pocket protectors! I never thought I would have to defend my geekyness, when I have spent so many years covering it up. I guess it's time to come out of the wiring closet. I would like to thank Spider Walk for posting this test, though I still would like to protest their assessment...

Excuse me, but I'm going to watch Star Trek now...

Letter from the Heart

Well the heat has finally subsided somewhat around here, at least It's cool enough that I can Blog with the light on. I had planned on mowing my lawn yesterday but when I passed the bank on my way home from work it said 97, and with a heat index of 106, I decided it probably wasn't a good idea. I checked out the weather channel and they said it was going to be much cooler come the weekend, so that pretty much decided it, no mowing last night.

I received a letter in the mail tonight from my girlfriend "J's" daughter "E". I posted a little while ago that I had ran into her sister "K" when I found her working at the drive thru at a fast food restaurant. It sure was nice to hear from her, since I hadn't talked to her since Christmas.

In the letter "E" mentions that she was in a car accident. She was up on the interstate where she was cutoff, lost control, went thru the median and hit an SUV. She said the accident was pretty bad, but no one was seriously hurt, and the vehicles were trashed. She asked me if I heard about it because it was on TV and in the newspaper, I hadn't (I don't watch the news), and it's probably best that I didn't because I surely would have freaked out. I don't know if I could handle something like that happening again.

"E" also mentions that she's been getting piercings. She now has her tongue, collarbone, and nose pierced and is getting her belly button pierced on Friday. She says "her family doesn't like her piercings, but she really doesn't care", and that "She knows her mom would like them, as she liked the things "E" liked, weird things." Yes I know "J" would have liked them, because she did like weird things... like me...

Be safe out there...

Swashbuckling since 1973...

My pirate name is:

Bloody Davy Kidd

Every pirate lives for something different. For some, it's the open sea. For others (the masochists), it's the food. For you, it's definitely the fighting. Even though you're not always the traditional swaggering gallant, your steadiness and planning make you a fine, reliable pirate. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

I would like to thank Mad Ethel Kidd (not sure what that means) for the fantastic post she dedicated to me and also for finding this Pirate Name Generator..."Not sure I deserved that"...

I would also like to thank Tai for coming up with her own pirate name for me, "Dagoth the Multi-hued, Terror of the Sea!", I can honestly say I've never been called Multi-hued before..."Not sure I deserved that either"...

It's good for a Pirate to have more than one name, Ye never know when an alias will be required..."Do you have a little Captain in you?"...Yaaaargg!!!