Al Quida in Texas
From Out of Water

When my unit was conducting vehicle checkpoint operations is Iraq we came upon numerous vehicles with Texas registration. We would take pictures of the registration stickers for later investigation. Seems pretty clear how this particular vehicle got to Fallujah: stolen in TX, taken across the border into Mexico, put in a sea-land container and then placed on a ship, shipped to Egypt/Lebanon/Jordon and sold on the black market, bought by terrorist, driven to Iraq. Out of Water

I remember reading years ago that vehicles taken off the streets of my fair city of Houston have been tracked to the Mexico City police force, Sandinista Army, farm vehicles in the Australian outback, and now to the mean streets of Iraq. The blog link above quotes a story that says a Texas registered SUV was being stripped and filled with explosives for use as a car bomb in Falluja. It was found in a mosque. Houston has one of the highest car insurance rates I've heard of. Something like one in five Chevy trucks will be stolen that is registered in Southeast Texas. I wish I knew where I read that. We are supplying Central America and apparently the Middle East with affordable transportation.
Dammit, I'm sick of being mocked and taken advantage of by the rest of the world.

Russia's anti missile missile
Russia has a system similar to the U. S. missile protection system in the testing faze.

Russia has successfully tested a modernized anti-ballistic missile at a range in the former Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan, its defense ministry says. . . . The test suggests Russia has a working system in place around Moscow as the US presses ahead with the deployment of its new anti-ballistic missile (ABM). BBC

It seems that many countries get bent out of shape of a defensive anti missile system. They know it will just make the U. S. and now Russia more arrogant and self confident when pushing other countries around. There is some treaty this stuff violates from well before people thought it was feasible. Oh, and from long before Iran had intercontinental ballistic nuclear weapons. Oh, wait, Iran doesn't have those yet, they are just doing research.

In 1995, Iran signed $940m in contracts with the Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy to complete a commercial nuclear power plant, and instantly became part of the nuclear weapons proliferation puzzle. Why, the experts began to ask, would Iran, a nation with huge supplies of natural gas, commit itself to an expensive nuclear power program that could not possibly generate electricity as cheaply as its natural gas program - unless of course the real plan was to gain the capability to make its own nuclear weapons. Guardian

Between Iran, Pakistan  and North Korea, it is no wonder the larger "super powers" are antsy. Maybe there was something to that whole "Axis of Evil" thing. You think? It sounds like the Russians could have saved themselves some headaches and just not sold a bunch of nuclear stuff to Iran in the first place.

Now it makes sense.
I wondered why Israelis were so upset by this story from The Guardian.

Of all the revelations that have rocked the Israeli army over the past week, perhaps none disturbed the public so much as the video footage of soldiers forcing a Palestinian man to play his violin. . . . The rightwing Army Radio commentator Uri Orbach found the incident disturbingly reminiscent of Jewish musicians forced to provide background music to mass murder. "What about Majdanek?" he asked, referring to the Nazi extermination camp.

I remember a scene in Schindler's List (Oh my God, I spelled that right on the first try) where this was depicted. Now I'm torn.

Lease
I have to give my apartment  complex notice by the end of December. The bastards want sixty days notice, or they charge you an arm and a leg. Who let that bill pass? Well, I HATE moving. I mean, I HATE moving. I would love to stay, except for the neighbors. They are mean and loud.  I want to buy a new computer, except I live in a shitty neighborhood and I don't want the DELL boxes to show up at the front office. I HATE moving. Now I have a one in a million chance at a job down town. I would love to live in the city. Well, except for all the people. Stuff is nice, but the people get in the way of it all. Rent is due day after tomorrow. I promised myself I would write a letter requesting my rent amount for next year on December first. That way, I'll have a one time shot to go looking around for another apartment, and some time to pack and higher some movers. I HATE moving. Some one needs to come up with a prohibitively expensive business plant that simply moves you in one shot. They show up in the morning and take your keys from you at work. They disappear for several hours. They don't bug you with any details. You simply show up at your new place. They hand you the key and you hand them a check. Behold, you are moved. I HATE moving.

Ukraine
The Ukraine is in some real trouble. Every one is worried about the money. Two guys have claimed victory in the latest presidential election. There is evidence of fraud in the election. The Ukraine has a bunch of cheep experienced labor and Russia (supported by one of he "presidents") and Europe (supported by the other "president") both want the country in their flock. If something doesn't give soon, it is going to be a nasty mess.

Work Email
Didn't I just gripe about my work email going down? Now, I'm really stuck. I have no idea where I left off on stuff. I leave that kind of information in the Outlook task list. I leave it there, because the company says to do that kind of thing. The email came back online after a while, but the network ground to a halt with loud squeaks and clunking noises.

News Updates
One thing I noticed this weekend, MSM (Mainstream Media) didn't update many of their web pages very thoroughly. Until about 10:00 Monday, Reuters didn't have a single RSS feed update since the 23rd. However, the blog-sphere was updated pretty religiously. True, not every blog was updated every day, but many were. At least one had a guest author because the regular author was in Libya on assignment. I was joansing for news and my only fix was blogs.

From Little Green Footballs

A masked Palestinian woman helps a boy to hold a toy gun near other children during a rally in support of Hamas movement in the northern Gaza Strip refugee camp of Jabalia.(AFP/Mohammed Abed)

Yes, this kind of makes me ill. Someone has to show you how to hold a gun. My parents taught me. This is a display of children holding guns to make a political point.  I've never met any one raised in the Middle East who was willing to tell me about their childhood. I have to say, this photograph is beyond my tolerance level for culture shock.

Songs

Artist:	John Anderson [ Search RP ]
Song:	Seminole Wind
Album:	Seminole Wind [ Search RP ]

Artist:	Portishead [ Search RP ]
Song:	Glory Box
Album:	single [ Search RP ]

Poker
Poker was fun. We played Texas hold-em. When I was out I went in and watch SciFi channel on a 61 inch TV. Nice evening.
I'm not sure what age every one was, but we all seemed close. The p;lace we plaid was one of the guys houses. He is single and has a really nice house. The one guy who was married there seems to have had a hard time of it. I won't go into details.
I lost $20. I gave up and went and watched SciFi on the 61 inch TV. Did I mention that already?

Life
I'm watching the Incredibles. I've missed my calling. I should have been a super villain. I'm already good at rants. I have a good hair style for the job. I'm strange and might qualify as the "quiet" type. Most of my big schemes tend to fail in the end. I'm a jerk. I'm on the edge. I'm a loner. I have a dark sense of humor. hmmm. I need to update my resume. Oh, and get one of those snazzy outfits. And, I need the whopping great bags of money it takes to build and maintain a layer. I'll need minions. I'll have to find some cool top secret technology too. This could work.

Saturday
I hope something interesting happens today. I'm getting anxious. So far today I've accomplished nothing. I can't even bring myself to fold the cloths in the dryer. I haven't even eaten the customary sandwich.
My parents are trimming the hedges in the front of the house. I'm watch Anaconda (4 I think). Poker is tonight. Well, we hope.

Links / News
It's a Dan-derful Life from IOWAHAWK (I found it on Little Green Footballs)

Turkey Day
It was great. Ate too much, drank three glasses of wine. Watched a bunch of TV. Shot the breeze with friends. It was great.

Song

Artist:	Fairport Convention [ Search RP ]
Song:	Matty Groves
Album:	Liege & Lief [ Search RP ]

New Flashlight
I ordered a new LED flashlight. I have to say, it is the brightest LED I've ever seen. It has a nice field and been. I do have a fixation for flashlights. It says water proof to 100 meters. That at least means it will not go down with the first  drop of rain. We will see how many hours of useful light I get out of it.

News/Links
Here we go (Iran)
Iran refuses to allow inspections or to shut down several centrifuges. I could have told you this was coming. They close their governing house (parliament) with official chants of "death to America" "death ti Israel" and those in Europe think they are going to comply on one damn thing? The Europeans didn't even require Iran to stop a Plutonium system. Who's side are those guys on anyway? ... Well, some one is keeping watch.

Song

Artist:	Greg Brown [ Search RP ]
Song:	Who Woulda Thunk It
Album:	In The Dark With You [ Search RP ]

Artist:	Be Good Tanyas [ Search RP ]
Song:	Rain and Snow
Album:	Blue Horse [ Search RP ]

Boring Day
It has been the most boring day. Even the news is boring. It feels kind of good though. It's raining outside. It is muggy and not too warm. I did one load of laundry. I made it to the store for bread and the like.

Lawyers and Blogs and the Truth, Oh My
I'm noticing several blogger talk about receiving letters to stop talking about (criticizing) what someone says. Some one writes something in a blog about a web page, then the web page owners get a bunch of lawyers and try to shut the bloggers up. It cracks me up. The web page folks spout some bullshit about politics and then get all pissy about some one calling them on it. They should save the lawyers' fees and spend more money and effort checking their facts. "We don't need to tell the truth, we need more lawyers." It is that pesky constitution again.
Every word you write on the internet is immediately ready for criticism. I think these people are more used to writing books. There, you are able to complete a complex thought before every one starts bitching that you are full of crap. Grow up, don't lawyer-up. You are free to say quite a bit in this country. People are free to say you are full of shit to.

Thanksgiving
Tomorrow is Turkey day. I'm off to a friend's house to enjoy a sort of traditional turkey dinner. I did the same thing a couple of years ago and it was a blast. There will not be any where as many people this time. Just a few dregs of social misfits. I will be the only one there without a significant other.

Wish and Wonder
It's cold outside. I think that is appropriate for Thanksgiving day. I wish I could say I was packing for the family trip to wherever. My wife is putting the kids to bed. I finished my honey-dos today so I'll have a day to myself when we get back. Or, maybe I wish I could say that I was working on my PHD over the holiday, or volunteering to help someone. Maybe building a house with Carter.  Maybe in Iraq, a career officer, squatting in a hole somewhere looking forward to my turkey flavored MRE. I'm half way up the scale. I'm not homeless and I'm not Trump. I am a member of the great and powerful American middle class. We make America possible. And, I'm holding up my end all alone. My luck, I'll have to be a pallbearer at my own funeral. Did I wish at some point to do it all myself? I bet I did. By mistake, I said that I wanted to do it all myself. To prove that I could. Well, I've done it. Now I wish to do it alone no more.
God, I wish I had someone to share tomorrow with. You know what I mean. Someone special who finds me special. What happened? Where did I go wrong?

P. S.
I tried not to type the above paragraphs. I stopped and deleted them twice, but they just kept coming back. Sorry.

Links
Simpson's personality test.
Bob Marley.

WOW
I've been looking for news about new energy sources. This blog (Winds of Change) has compiled quite an amazing list of recent developments. I don't have real idea of what will go in the tank of your next car, or what will generate the electricity in your home in ten years. They all sound like good ideas to me.

Writing
I have a friend who recently asked me about writing. She thinks she can write. That is all it really takes. I don't know if I can write well or not. I put the words down on the page. Now there are software based systems to write for you. These systems are in their infancy today. Most people are not creative. I suppose computers will not be required to achieve a genuine or unique thought either. The publishers would hand you a bowl full of fingernail clippings if you were willing to pay for it. They are in it for the money.
I enjoy writing. I am enjoying typing this right now. I don't really care if any one is reading this or not. I used like having it out there.
The one thing that I've always wanted to do is write fiction. The trouble is, I'm not very good at it. Perhaps practice would help. I'll spare you from proving my point. I enjoy reading sci-fi, but I'm terrible at writing it. The only thing I seem to be good at is writing anecdotes. I wrote a purely factual account of meeting a cat a couple of months ago. I got some positive response. I enjoyed writing it too.

Smoosh
I walked over to my friend's cube at work today. It is Tuesday before Thanksgiving. I'm taking tomorrow off, so this is my Friday. I had already gotten most of my work done for the day. It wasn't even lunch time. We chit-chatted about inconsequential stuff for a moment and I noticed her tweak one little rod on her desktop toy. It is one of those magnetic rod and steel ball constructor set doo-hickies. I have one much like it. She looked at the toy with quiet awe. I reach over as smooshed it flat (no harm done). Her heart skipped a beat. She gasped. and you would have thought I kicked her dog. I made some goofy construction that I knew she would instantly undo when her will came back. I'm glad we have a long break before Monday. Though she has already rebuilt her masterpiece, she will not forgive me by Monday.

Oceans
I learned a fact a long time ago. If you drop a basketball into a puddle of water and pick it up. The damp on the surface is deeper than the Earth's oceans, relatively speaking.
If I were able to shrink the earth down to the size of a basketball, how much would it weigh?

Links / News
What is wrong with letting Amtrack go out of business? What is wrong with the government taking it over (nationalizing it)?
VR Helmet Comparison Chart

Plane Crash
What did I just say about a plane crash? There was a bad one in Houston today. We heard about it at work this morning.  The weather is nasty. We speculated on what might have caused the trouble. It turns out, George Bush senior. was scheduled to take that plane on a business trip. That is why it was flying into Hobey Airport.  The plane clipped a light pole on the Beltway. Those things are quite high, but not so high you would expect planes to clip them. I wonder if it hit the pole after something else caused it to loose altitude. That was a corporate jet. I've heard those things are pretty reliable. I might be wrong. Here is another opinion. (from the Daily Brief) People have horrible opinions about this.

European opinion.
I've said many times that we should not take the Europeans opinions too seriously. Europeans are going to do what the Europeans do best, sit on their hands and bitch until America bails them out. Here is another opinion. (from Tim Blair)

Asshole
I hope this guy (the fan who threw the cup) gets seriously smacked by the legal system. I don't care who did what, players, who make millions, should never go after a fan. If the fan pulled a knife, or gun, I would say different. The guy threw a cup of ice. Look Mr. Multi-millionaire, (wait, not so much any more (hehe)) give it a rest and be the bigger man. You have a million impressionable kids worshiping your every move. Looser. I wish they would fire you and sue you for the hundreds of millions this may cost the NBA.

Ah, it is Us vs Them
Even a tolerant people will tern on the intolerant. When people who think they are the most welcoming folks in the world find themselves under siege, they will tern. They will defend their homes with the same ferocity as grisly will protect her young. It cannot be the people on the other side of the world in trouble. It cannot be people they do not know who are threatened. It must be them, their children, their way of life, their existence, their place in history, their legacy, and not one item less. They will tern, unless it is too late, unless they have been terned against.

Links
Some disturbing pictures from Falluja. (Thanks Cynthia)
A cool Flash experiment showing a battle in ASCII format.

Artist:	Ollabelle [ Search RP ]
Song:	Soul Of A Man
Album:	Ollabelle [ Search RP ]

Poker
We are going to try poker again this evening. ... Holy crap. I typed that last sentence and my phone rings to cancel. It terns out we have no real place to play. That is freaky. We will try again next Saturday.

Ordering Food.
No poker tonight. I had my mouth all watering for something bad for me. I figure I'll order some Chinese food. I call the place up and an Arabic guy answers the phone. Hey, it is the 21st century. I start placing my order. He doesn't speak English. I mean, not at all.  I can hear people in the background speaking English and Chinese. Never mind. I call another place that delivers subs. It is another Arabic guy. He speaks more english, but not enough to get the whole "no tomatoes" concept across. BAH! One more try. I call a third place. This one is a pizza place that also does subs and salads. A (cute sounding) Mexican girl answers who speaks better English than I do. I can't wait to find out if there are tomatoes on anything.

MP3 Editor
I found a program called AudaCity that has done pretty well so far editing my MP3 files. When you obtain these things, sometimes they have problems. This thing fixes them pretty well.
You need the Lame_enc.dll to save MP3 format. This is the problem with open source. They can't include it because of distribution rights. They make it easy enough to install though.
Some dope out there thinks it is better to record one long MP3 instead of breaking things up into manageable pieces. This software makes it easy to highlight chunks and save as MP3. This would work well for converting old tapes or even (heaven forbid) records, if you are in to that sort of thing.

MP3 Player
I received my MP3 player today. It has been charging for a couple of hours. This one was recommended by only a couple of people. There are so many "iPod Killers" out there now, that it is difficult to tell them apart. I haven't thought of many new requirements for the ultimate personal device.
I'm having some trouble getting my old MP3 DVD to read. Most of the MP3's I've acquired over the years are burned to data CDs. I recently burned a data DVD and it has some trouble reading. I hope it is not corrupt. The copy faze is going to take longer than I thought. I don't really have an index of my stuff, so I just have to go digging. You can only really copy one thing off a CD or DVD at a time because the head has to jump from one spot to the other. That operation is extremely time consuming on a CD or DVD drive.
Lets see, how many MP3s do I have.70 data CDs and one data DVD. Lets say that those CDs are about 85% full. (750 * .85) * 70 + (4.3 * 85) = 44 990.5 gigabytes. That is not nearly as many as I thought. I'm only putting  I'll be able to go through my whole collection.

Poker
We are going to try again this Sunday. This one is a cheaper game, so I should only be out a couple of bucks for a fun time.

God Kills
This comment (from samizdata.net) makes an interesting extension of how candles may lead to lung cancer via churches. You know Europe is on the way to making tobacco illegal. They ban smoking everywhere. They are talking about making fatty foods illegal in the States. It is never going to end. As long as there are new politicians or news correspondents who need a cause, something has to be the top story.
Politicians need crusades to fight for. They need the voters to be just pissed about something to vote for them.
News people need news. There is not always a plane crash to cover. They want you to be just mad enough to keep watching.
What is the answer? Talk to people around you. Talk to your family. Turn off the TV. Find a pen pal in another country. Don't be afraid to say something every now and then.

Addictive Behavior
This article scares me. I remember a few years ago at my day job some people were passing some pornographic images around through email.. They got busted and many of them got fired over the incidents. Some people who had very long histories with the company were allowed to stay with the company with a promis to stop. They did not stop. They just tried to hide it better. They sued the company and ended up getting their jobs back, sort of. I bet their argument had something to do with the addictive nature of pornography.
I remember sitting in some one's office/cube talking about why someone would keep doing the transfers via email even after they had been caught. I told this coworker that I thought it was because porn is addictive.

News
Who's Next?
Between North Korea, Pakistan, Iran and the U.S.  selling all kins of bad stuff all over the world, this whole axis of evil thing is more or less true. I'm sure Russia and China are not far behind. Hell, France sells jets to African nations. If memory serves those jets France blew up in the Ivory Coast last month were French made.
Some Good News
A Polish woman was freed after being held in Iraq for a while. I guess you can't make any Polish jokes about freeing hostages.
Contractors Die in Iraq
Wow, allot of contractors have been killed and injured in Iraq. I had no idea. (from IntelDump). I know at my company contractors are teated a bit like they just don't count. We do much of the same work and have no benefits. I wonder how many direct employees of those companies have been killed or injured. Or, is the term contractor being used differently here? I may just need to get my terms straight.
Scramjet
Scram Jet Test is successful. It is basically a high speed ramjet (the f-16 has a ramjet design). I thought scramjets were invented in the 60s. I've looked around and it looks like the ramjet was invented in 1913. The scramjet seems to be considered a variant on that design and there is not much of a line drawn between the development of both.

War Blogs
I'm really getting into reading blogs. I've found several that are political and military in nature. The Belmont Club gives a definition of aware crime. Later there is a great description of battle tactics used in Grozeny last decade against the Russians and how similar tactics have been used against us in Falluja these last few weeks.
The blog-sphere is very full of itself lately. Bloggers are proud of a couple of good catches. They are only humans and are just as fallible as MSM (Main stream Media).

Tom DeLay
I voted against this guy. He is as crooked as a cornered snake. Now congress changed the rules to protect him. That makes me ill.

Jordy Glasses
I've been thinking about building a pare of glasses with a camera and display like this for years. I may have to check these guys out. The product that might work best for me is the Jordy Glasses. Pretty cool stuff. This will fall far short of letting me drive. Honestly, that is the biggest shortcoming to my situation. If I lived in New York (blech) I would not perceive it as a problem.
I'll tell you what I really need. I need a car that drives itself. I want to sleep on the way to work. I want people in the front to face the people in the back. I want there not to be any windows (or they are opaque most of the time) so there is no reason to flip people off. I want to play video games while I am on my way to and from aunt what's her names place. I want to watch satellite TV whirl traveling across the country. I want people who cannot stop drinking and driving to have the wheel removed from their car so they cannot endanger my life.

Oil for Food
I remember people complaining about Iraq getting money for oil during the embargo. Now they are after a French bank, among many others, for laundering money for Iraq under the cloak of humanitarian aid. This really makes me sick. I knew it was a mistake letting Iraq export any oil. It sounds like more money went into the hands of Saddam and Al Quida than the Iraqi people. I blame the bleeding heart liberals in both the U. S. and Europe.

Unusually High Volume
Every time I call the help desk at my office, I get "all agents are busy" and a note about how some exchange server has crashed. It is always an exchange server. Our company runs on email. If something happened to email the U. S. economy would collapse. Anyway, I have to call in and up the priority on the ticket to fix the server. They hate that. I've had a license server with problems since yesterday and I cannot get any help from them. We call it 1-800-No-Help. I had to listen to crappy light rock and the same help messages over and over and over and over. There was a company that had interesting random facts on their hold lines. People griped when they got a human because they were waiting for the answers to the trivia.

400GB
Nice. I've sworn my next computer will have 2 gigabyte of ram and as much hard drive space as I can stuff in the box. Of course, I've also said I'm going to get one of those portable desktops. The truth is, I may not buy another box like I have before. I may stick to portable computers and left over / second hand desktops for servers.

Telling Picture

Things that jumped out at me with this photo.

• They are only waring kneepads on their right knees.
• The guy on the right is a sniper. That is a semi-auto sniper rifle with a specialized scope.
  
• The sniper is waring elbow pads as well.
• The Hummer is armored. Look at the doors (that louver look on the back door) and the thickness of the roof panel.
• The little tower just behind the sniper's head is the snorkel kit for the Hummer. Which means, it can drive through waist deep water (up to the windshield) without too much trouble.

Joke
To impress a woman:
Wine her. 
Dine her. 
Call her. 
Hold her. 
Surprise her. 
Compliment her.  
Smile at her. 
Listen to her. 
Laugh with her. 
Cry with her. 
Romance  her.
Encourage her. 
Believe in her. 
Pray with her. 
Pray for her. 
Cuddle  with her. 
Shop with her. 
Give her jewelry. 
Buy her flowers. 
Hold her hand.
Write love letters to her.
Go to the ends of the earth and back again for  her. <>

To impress a man:
Show up naked.
Bring chicken wings.
Don't block the TV

Christmas
I haven't decided what to do about Christmas. I don't know what to get any one, or if I'm going to get anything. Christmas i a fun time for kids. I'm 35. I'm old. I'm tired of worrying about it. Lets go to mass and have done with it.
Then I think about all the fun we had a couple of years ago. My parents and I said it was going to be a lean year. I bought them a play station and a remote control truck. They loved it. My mom to this day chases the dogs around with the truck. The dogs are smaller than the RC. I'm not sure what is going to happen this year. The earlier they start playing Christmas music and putting up Christmas decorations, the more anti-commercial I become. Thanksgiving is next week. I've already become sick of the whole Wal-Mart Christmas world. Hopefully I can pull myself out of it.

Language
I agree with this language expert. The English language is falling apart because of managers and people trying to sound committed when they are actually saying nothing.

Warp Drive
Sometimes the internet has too many answers. Sometime this afternoon I wanted to sit down and figure out how long it would take for Voyager to get home. I thought for sure they did something screwy with the math I plunked a couple of search words into Google and behold, some one had not only done the math, but made tables and fully explained and contrasted the different series math. It was a bit anticlimactic. It looks like this is the math they based the series on alright. Ill have to figure out a more obscure thing to ponder.


Childhood Memories

How much of my childhood did I spend playing with these cars?

Data
Let's see, 75 CDs with about 100 songs on each is 7500 songs. If you throw in the couple of data DVDs with seven times that many songs per disk, we are looking at 10000 or so songs. Well, that is nothing. The person in this article is going overboard. He wants to have a copy of every song ever recorded. I didn't catch how he keeps track of the songs. I can't get to the text because it is being slashdoted.

Song

Artist:	Blondie [ Search RP ]
Song:	Rapture
Album:	The Best of Blondie [ Search RP ]

Me
I've given up. I mean it this time. I've come to the conclusion that there is no point in wishing for happiness. I'm thirty five. That is the age where most people trade in their dreams for security. I'm trading in for some quiet. I've said in the past that I'm tired of hearing myself complain. Here I go again. It is far more frustrating on my end. In the last couple of days I've come to the realization that I should stop wanting happiness. A mate will not make me happy. Several people have told me that. Mom, stop asking me about grandkids. Friends, don't ask me about my love life. For God's sake, don't talk to me about sex or love or relationships. I'm done with it. I am a non sexual being. I am here for the ride. From this point on, I'm running out the clock.
I quit.

OUCH!!

Song

Artist:	Heather Nova [ Search RP ]
Song:	Walk This World
Album:	Oyster [ Search RP ]

Poler
Well, that was fast. Never mind the poker. Someone died and someone canceled. It is complicated. No poker. I shaved my head and everything. I'm going to order some Chinese and keep blogging I suppose.

TV
I forgot how bad the dubbing is on TV. I'm watching Die Hard 2 on regular TV and they masked the bad words and hack the movie to pieces to try and cut language and violence. No wonder I haven't been watching in a while.
I also caught a news story about poker. Since ESPN has put poker tournaments on TV people have been playing more. They interviewed some high school kids only to find they play for money. I remember playing cards in school. Never for more than a couple of bucks. It is just good timing that this story came on during the time I was supposed to be playing myself.

Poker
I'm off to play poker in a bit. That is, if we can find the other two people who said they want to play. This is a different set of people than last time. We are doing smaller anty stuff. It should be fun. I hope we order some greasy food that is really bad for you.  Fifteen times, I' said to myself that I don't want to go. I seem to be afraid of social stuff these days. Well, I have been for years. I'm going if it kills me. I hope that isn't ironic in the end.

No!
Schwarzenegger wants to be president. I'm not sure I like the idea. All the war movies and shitty strong man movies will not convince me he is any good at running a country.

Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart holds the most Information about it's customers, and employees. According to this article, twice as much data as the entire internet. I doubt that. I don't know what they are counting as data.
One thing I learned in the article. The number one selling item during the last couple of hurricanes that hit Florida was beer, not batteries. The number two item was Pop-Tarts.
<2004-11-14 16:00>
Yikes, I posted this before slashdot did. Creepy.

Mobile Phone Projector

Well, they have red, now they need green and blue. Check out the cool laser projection display these Germans came up with. There are a million uses for this. I wonder if I should ad this to my PDA wish list below. Here is a Google translation of the original site. This little invention really has potential. While I was first reading the SlashDot article, I pictured line drawings and solid levels of  gray, er, red. I didn't catch what the power consumption is, but this little puppy has got to make it. I want this one to work. Motorola, get on the bandwagon! I'm telling you, this is the worst time in history to buy a new mobile phone. There are too many cool inventions that are just one hair's breath away from our pockets.

Really Reality TV
The BBC reports on a new reality TV show that makes some sense. This show rebuilds homes destroyed during the war. I'm not sure how, but people are selected and their homes that have been completely destroyed are rebuilt. It might boil down to who has the best sob story reading the one example they give in the article. I may have to stop putting the whole genera of reality TV down. Na!

MP3 Player
I just ordered an MP3 player. This one does all the things I wanted a couple of weeks ago. Some new parameters have come up. While doing research, I figured out that many of the next generation media players will play videos and, perhaps, play satellite radio. Now, if they also had built in phones and did what some of the palm and other devices do, then they would be the ultimate hand held device.
I've compiled a list of features that i want in my next all-in-one personal communications/media device.

• Full featured mobile phone that actually works.
• Net surfing.
• Address book and personnel data retention.
• Play media including audio video and whatever new stuff pops up.
• Receive all forms of TV and radio  transmission including satellite.
• Interface with existing computer networks.
• Allow easy fast friendly input through voice tactile and motion sensors.
• Talk to me if I desire so I can do other things wile using it.
• Hold computer information I may need (external drive).
• Take high resolution images and video.
  
• Communicate wirelessly with other similar devices and hubs.
• Play games (including online and over the wireless network).
• Have a power source that lasts weeks on a charge.
• Have a Lo-Jack type system and be secure enough for every day use.
• Fit in my pocket and be both shock and water proof.

This isn't too much to ask, I'm sure. This list keeps growing. I'm quite sure you will get another idea from me in the weeks to come. As I look at my phone, palm and this new MP3 player, I will note all failings and revise my requirements. Any one have suggestions?

White Bread
On my way home yesterday I figured I should stop and get some food for the weekend. Normally, I blow it off and just order some pizza or something, but it was a nice chilly day yesterday and I would almost enjoy waiting on the bus. I stop at my local grocery store and begin tossing a few odd foods into my basket. I use the carry kind of basket because I only want to get enough stuff to carry home on the bus. I grabbed some green bananas. I got cereal, some cans of soup, hot dogs, lunch meat, and some store brand mac-and-cheese (with real cheese).  Typically, the last thing I grab is bread. That way it is on top and less likely to get smooshed.
I walk slowly up and down the wall of bread. I start pacing faster and faster and grunting in disbelief. All the bread is something special now. There are fifteen kinds of wheat bread. There are nine kinds of white bread, half of which are some kind of wheat. The loaves that say white bread don't look white. I say to myself out loud (really too loud to be just to me) "Is there no ^white^ bread in this country any more." Just as I was about to embark on a rant to no one on the liberal infection taking over the food industry, this little old lady standing a few feet away stops and says "Oh, honey, you want this stuff." She points at the bottom shelf. The loaf says "enriched white bread." I thank her and say "This sounds like the stuff I was looking for." Oh, baby this stuff is great. It reminds me of the sandwiches momma used to make. I'm about to embark on a toast making adventure with my new, fresh, enriched white bread.

Arafat's Funeral
I'm listening to the funeral of Arafat on the BBC. Live commentary is broken only by gunfire from the crowd. People are standing around shooting AK-47s in the air in celebration. The militants are running around in jackets and those table cloth head scarves Arafat liked so much. The helicopters circled a couple of times before landing. I bet they didn't like the look of the crowd. The body is stuck on one of the helicopters. The crowd rushed up and surrounded the landing zone.
The commentator is ducking. It's terrible. I can hear him duck when automatic fire cracks off near him. He describes the people around him as jubilant. They don't seem to care about the gunfire all around them.
The car is having to plow through the crowd to get to the aircraft. It has to push people out of the way. The commentator is still surrounded by automatic weapons fire. People are trying to touch the coffin. The people carrying the coffin are being blocked by the crowd. People are climbing on top of the coffin. The Egyptian helicopters are unable to take off for several minutes. The commentator calls the situation chaos. He has lost sight of the coffin. There are ambulances trying to make their way in the compound.
There are comments coming into the news studio saying the Ayatollah's funeral was like this.

Dear Dogbert
A friend of mine sent me this in email. I can't find the original link on Dilbert. (I didn't look very hard.)

Dear Dogbert,

Lots of people write blogs, but I've never heard of anyone who actually reads them. What's up with that?

Kurt


Dear Skirt,

Blogs exist to fill the important market niche of writing that is so dull that your eyes will burrow out of the back of your head to escape. People do read blogs, usually by accident, sometimes on a dare, but those readers are later mistaken for Mafia victims with what appears to be two holes in the back of their heads. On closer inspection, you might find their eyeballs clinging to the drapes directly behind them. Unless the cat gets them first.

Sincerely,

Dogbert

Next Topic
The golden rule. The one with the gold makes the rules.
Law of supply and demand. The one with all the supply, can demand whatever the fuck they want.

Time Tracking
I've had a requested to track my time at work. I complained about it in an earlier post. I'm looking at my Outlook calender. It is amazing how many things double up on my time. I have multiple entries for several swaths of time throughout my week. I feel like Hermione Granger in book three.  Who says there is no such thing as time travel.
Last year I had a person schedule a meeting for several Fridays in a row on something that was complicated and involved thought. I have since scheduled an LMA meeting every Friday for the last hour of the day in my Outlook calender. (LMA: Leave Me Alone)  I think I need to do the same thing for the first hour of Monday. I've heard of some one scheduling early morning meetings on Monday.
That is still not as bad as a buddy's wife who has to call in at 2:00 AM because the meetings are in Europe. Screw that.

Song

Artist:	Lush [ Search RP ]
Song:	Undertow
Album:	Split [ Search RP ]

TV-Night
My friends have TV-Night on some Thursdays. It's fun. Tonight was not TV-Night. My friend's TV is on the fritz. I'm at home reading blogs and watching Star Trek Voyager.

Arafat
Arafat is dead. One of the blogs I read said "France says Arafat's condition has improved. He is dead." He is yet hated by many. I have to say, I believe he is a murderer and stole far more from the Palestinian people than all their enemies combined.  His wife is self centered and those who surrounded him at his death bed's side were far more interested in knowing where the money went than easing his passing. Now the vultures dissect the power that was Arafat. Even some Palestinian people say the road to peace can now continue. Every thing I've read says "He was a great voice for his people, but he was in the way of progress." I remember thinking years ago, when Arafat was first pinned in his compound, they are just going to wait until he dies. They are not going to do anything about this despot. I remember thinking the same thing about Saddam Husein. Thank God he is not still in power. Neither of these evil men wield control over armed men any more.

Spam
Tracking doesn't work. Tracking is tracking down people who have written virus programs or who issue spam emails. Someone just got nine years for an email scam. That is the exception. I don't think it is a deterrent because the money is still there. It is the same as illegal drugs. If the money disappears the crime will dry up.
Filters don't work. For every filter you try to implement, the spammers have seven ways around it. I've heard one of the spam filters grabs emails that don't have any real words in the subject.
Now, you can get infected with a virus from clicking on a URL in an email. It used to be, you had to open an attachment. I've noticed the nasty trend of these virus writers getting smarter and sneakier. There is more than bragging rights involved these days. Computer virus are big business. They make money by sticking spyware on your computer or taking over the operating system to infect other computers. The way spyware makes money is by tracking your movements and selling your habits to advertisers or by using the data collected to steel from you or your company.
I've only found one filter that seems to work.I use Gmail and there is a community of people out there marking email as spam. As a bunch of people mark the email as spam, Gmail starts pulling the emails into people's spam folders.

Theory of Everything
If I'm at the origin, and the furthest known (known: piece of knowledge of any sort) is at point 1. Then is there anything at point 2? The moment you know something is at point 2, it becomes point 1.
Will there always be something at point 2? Was there always something at point 2?
String Theory: More complex bullshit spouted by physicists who really won't admit they have no idea what is going on at the sub atomic level. Basically, String Theory says once you delve below protons, electrons, and  neutrons, you run smack into all of these little funny subatomic particles that have been given all kinds of cool names like B1 and B2 ... Those particles are actually gas-zillions of these tinny vibrating strings. The strings aren't made of anything. They just "are". Actually, they are little bits of torn reality or poly-dimensional-intersections. Some say for Strings to exist, there must be 6 hidden dimensions, or was it 29, or was it an infinite number? The strings don't really exist themselves. They are manifestations. Perhaps they are just the overlap of these many dimensions. The strings change shape or rate of vibration and they, in tandem, become different forms of matter or energy. As they change shape or rate of vibration, they give off electromagnetic energy, or the emit gravity, or the strong or weak force.
This all boils down to the simple fact that science cannot tell us what gravity is. It drives scientists nuts. It makes me laugh. We cannot say what holds us down. What holds the planet and sun together in a dance through the galaxy. That is the target of all of this. I wonder if I'll know in my lifetime. If you have ever dropped a bolling ball on your toe, you know about as much about gravity as any of the smartest people on Earth. Well, OK, knowing more would probably not help your game.

Media Player
I'm in the market for a new MP3 player. The trouble is, they do more than play music now. Some of them play videos. Most of them act like hard drives. It is a bad time to want one of these things. Next week some one will come out with the all in one doo-hickey that is a phone, plays music and videos, plays radio and TV, receives satellite TV and radio, acts like a palm device, has GPS, and lets you really surf the Internet for $39.95. I just know this is going to happen to me. I can feel it. Someone please tell me which one to get.

Office
some one commented on the MS Office post below. They recommend Word Perfect Office. I'm not so sure. At home, I use Open Office. It is free and works extremely well. I haven't upgraded in a long time. There is another called EZ Office. It is designed for Windows only. It appears to have gone from the scene. Star Office is basically Open Office. Sun has donated allot to the project. To each their own, but MS Office sucks.

Word
Microsoft loves their word processor. For years MS has been telling people who are trying to come up with a generic document format to go jump in a lake. Word for years has been deliberately incompatible with the formats that have come out. Why should MS change things while they are on top? Well, HTML, the language of the Internet, is part of this larger generic document language standard. XML, the data language is also a subset of the same standard. These and many other forms of communication came about despite Microsoft's efforts. Much of the innovation that we call the Internet came to be in the face of lawsuits and software patents that attempted to sop it? If MS had it's way, we would still be faxing word documents back and forth. MS seems to fight every new thing that comes along. They buy companies that do something new and act like they invented it first. I really want to see Microsoft fall. The trouble is, it will be by a foreign entity. There is no U. S. company that can stand up to them on their own turf.

Falluja
The New York Times has a great article on the fighting in Falluja. The best feature is the list of pictures. They have slide shows (on the right hand side) of both fighting sides. Some of the rhetoric between the soldiers is interesting as well. All those scary things you've seen in SciFi movies about soldiers having an unfair advantage with night vision and the ability to sand off for kilometers and destroy the enemy without them knowing are coming true.

Ivory Cost
It looks like the French are getting a taste of modern war. First I suppose we must define modern war. I define modern war as a technical impossibility You are not allowed to conquer a country or people to sort out the trouble makers. You must somehow single out only those who wish you harm and only after they have done you harm. You are not allowed to take any casualties. There can be now collateral damage, and no one is aloud to admit you are there to kill people.
France is in the Ivory Cost  Here is the scenario as I gather it. The official government is trying to put down a rebellion with force. The people are pissed because, well, they are the rebels. Their families are the ones getting killed. They hold protests, then throw rocks, then attack out-write French soldiers as they go about their daily business. The French are sending in more troupes. The local government is backing off a bit. It is the same old story. It is a domestic fight. As soon as the cops show up both sides turn on the cops (in this case , the French). Isn't this how Vietnam started?

Dungeons and Dragons
We played DnD again yesterday. Some of our player friends were not there. We had fun to be sure, but it wasn't the same group. The more business like group was there.
I missed Chris' left turns. He likes to play party-line characters, but he is so innovative so as to appear chaotic. He really is the mad scientist of the group.
I miss the whorl-wind that surrounds Sarah's character and her world. She reminds me of the torrent that runs through my head. Always turning and jutting off in it's own direction.
I miss Ken. Ken is the brain. He is the adviser behind the king.
The ones who showed all have their traits that make them unique.
Ethan is a Force Recon, soldier of all duties.
Brian is the chaotic entity, who always ends up fighting for the better of the group.
Alexis is the loner. She causes trouble for the group, or is it adventure? We wouldn't have it any other way.
Bryan is the essence of order and lawful acts. He is far to good at playing the "for us or against us", but it makes the game interesting.
Adam is insane. He is the perfect chaotic universe to play the Dungeon Master.
I, well, I am the watcher. I play fighters who tag along and only do what they must. I observe, and enjoy the ride.
I haven't come up with anything new. I bet all of these people have said these things about themselves at some point during play.

Party
I have this reoccurring dream. It is not identical every time. It is similar though. I'm at a party and I'm flirting with a pretty girl. Then a wave as tall as a house rushes over us. The water tastes of salt. The sensation of tumbling and choking on the cold water follow screams of drowning people and dimming lights choked out. I feel myself hit something soft and slippery. The water begins to recede away from me. I open my eyes. Then the most amazing thing happens. I keep dreaming for a moment. I look around my room and in some direction, not down, the water recedes away from me. The cold slippery mud I'm covered in turns to my warm covers. The room slowly appears as a wall of rippling murk slithers away.
The terror that occurs in this dream only touches the surface. I've had it so many times I know it is coming and I've trained myself to relax. I only wish I could save the girl.

WWII
I'm tired of movies about movie makers. I'm tired of books about writers. I'm sick of stories about cops and PIs. I'm tired of stories about World War II. I'm on a site that has a bunch of short stories. Several of them are about WWII in one fashion or another. It is the last great conflict from which you are allowed to make something beautiful. Now you are not allowed to make anything beautiful that comes from something where so many people died. truth is not politically correct. People die in conflict. People live too. Will you deny the stories of the living for the fear of hearing about death? I dare some one to be creative. Make a very interesting story about a guy who cleans carpets for a living.

Friday Off
I didn't go outside. I'm told by my friends who IM me from work that the day was beautiful. I leveled my character. I slept. I did some simple surfing and read some blogs. There are allot of people disillusioned about the election. I've noticed people who complain about Bush think of themselves. People who say they voted for Bush say things about other people.  There is allot of anger. There are anti-American blogs. People all over the world still hate us. 
I've noticed another trend. People talk about America and they talk about L. A. or New York. I said just the other day that The East and West coasts are not all of the U. S. There is much more to it. The people in the middle count. I still hear people calling Bush supporters hillbillies. I'm not a hillbilly and I support Bush. I (sometimes) think all liberals are fags. They are, of course, not all fags. Did I just say something that is not politically correct? That's too bad. I would watch my mouth, but this is America and I have a first amendment right to air my opinion. I take offense to being called uneducated because I don't have a degree. No body seems to care about  offending me. Is it because I'm white?

Arafat
I'm listening to the BBC talk about the Palestinian government and Arafat's health. It sounds like a bunch of ghouls circling a hospital waiting for information to slip out the door. Of course there will be a nasty transition when Arafat steps down. The big trouble is that he has not assigned a successor. They are hanging on some scan he may have been received. Is he dead, is he brain dead, is he dead dead? Come on guys. Lay off. The Israeli TV has announced he is brain dead. Bush says "God bless his soul." They keep interviewing different diplomats from the region. I have to say it sounds like allot of people have been waiting for this moment.

New Blog Idea
I'm thinking about starting a new blog just for my friends. You would send me an email and I would publish the note on the blog. You can pass out the address at will. I'll try to post a limited number of pictures. The whole thing would be open to any one who I see fit. You could publish anything from "My kid puked on my shirt before work." to "The mouse brain they have flying flight simulator will one day become self aware and take over the world."
I would act as editor for a while. Maybe someone else would take it. Or, every one would get their own blog. Maybe I could just start telling other people's stories on my blog. I've done this a couple of times lately. That one seems more like I'm steeling other's ideas.
Any thoughts.

Joke
Chicken and an egg lying in bed. The egg looks over at the chicken and in a pissed off voice says "Well, I guess we answered that question."

Day Off
I'm taking tomorrow off. The weather promises to be pretty. I'm going to sit out on the balcony and read. I'm trying to eat up some of those hours. I fully intend to get nothing productive done. I may be on chat, I may not. I don't have a clue if anything interesting will happen for the blog.

Go Eddie
Eddie's got the idea. I was listening to the comedy channel online. Eddie Murphy comes on and gives his routine and says that all men cheat. I know he is making people laugh. He also says that all men must conquer women. He harps on the conquering aspect of woman chasing. I've heard this comparison before, but It has never really dawned on me like it did today while listing to Edie telling people that they have no hope of ever having a monogamous relationship. My problem is I don't have the killer instinct. I wonder if my problem is that I am not dominant. Dominance may be a compulsion.

Election
It looks like Bush won. It cracks me up how the threats of lawsuits have not really started flying. As I'm typing this paragraph, the Democrats have not conceded. The rest of the world seems to be OK with whomever wins. I suppose they have to say that. They keep talking about past elections and how long is Kerry going to wait to take a hike.
There is something I noticed during the election. The U. S. is split right down the middle. California and the upper east coast were blue. The whole south, all the way through the high west coast was red. I am sick and tired of hearing about California and New York. The people in those two states think they are all of America. Puerto Rico may want to be the 51st state.  I wish I could give California and New York their own country to go to and be happy. Is there a way to throw a state out of the union?
The media is sitting there, looking at Kerry's front door waiting for an announcement The Democrats are saying "we want every vote counted." That sounds good I suppose. It really is going to come down to a few thousand votes again..
This s the first time I've voted. I'm among those four million or so votes Bush can count on to be ahead in the popular vote.

Baldness
Are there advantages to baldness? I'm trying to figure out how baldness came to be in the genetic fabric of humans. I don't get it. I heard somewhere that Chimps have male pattern baldness (we are similar genetically). It happened in the chain long before humans came along. Does any one out there have theories? I'm thinking extra cooling of the head as one ages, but then why mostly male baldness? I figure it must be a sign of age so younger males will know when to challenge the elders.

Radio
I constantly listen to online radio. I like the BBC in case you couldn't tell from all the posts quoting it. I notice many shortcomings. They drop the connection. They can't play some things because of contractual obligations. They sound like crap when some one is on a mobile phone because digital signals don't re-digital over the radio very well. There are other things that make me nuts, but I have to say I like listening to British radio. I hope they don't charge me a license fee.

Joke
A psychiatrist was conducting a group therapy session with four young mothers and their small children. "You all have obsessions," he observed.
To the first mother, Mary, he said, "You are obsessed with eating. You've even named your daughter Candy.
He turned to the second Mom, Ann: "Your obsession is with money. Again, it manifests itself in your child's name, Penny.
He turns to the third Mom, Joyce: "Your obsession is alcohol. This too manifests itself in your child's name, Brandy."
At this point, the fourth mother, Kathy, gets up, takes her little boy by the hand and whispers. "Come on, Dick, we're leaving."

Career Advice
I sent this to a friend headed to college soon.
<start>
I don't have any straight forward advice. I would suggest you consider a career you enjoy and can make a living with. Don't aim for allot of money. Science people usually end up in a lab somewhere performing the same tests over and over and over for an eternity. Engineers are some of the most satisfied people I know. Doctors are some of the least satisfied.
Think about what you can do every day for the rest of your life and try to turn that into a career. The funny thing is, many people in my office are not doing exactly what their degree is designed for. We have several ex-school teachers. There are some English majors managing programmers.
I like messing with computers. I always knew I would get a job making computers do what they were supposed to do in the first place.
College is nothing like high school. You are actually responsible for your own actions, and given incredible freedom to make it work. That is good and bad. I failed the freedom test.
If you do make a decision now, don't worry if you find out it is not the final answer later. Why do you think adults keep asking kids what they want to be when they grow up? They are looking for ideas.
...
If you hate being young, you will really hate being old.
* They will probably give you a credit card at 18, but if you don't have a job you will get in over your head and those evil money mongering banks (who really are out to get you) will come take everything you do have away from you.
* Going out on dates sounds good until you find out that every one is just out for one thing, or they just want to be friends, or they have issues, or the banks are after them. There is always baggage other people bring to the relationship.
* Kerry is a good guy, but he can't make up his mind. The thing that seems to have gotten him this time was his own voting history. Kerry's agenda seems to be "Kerry". I'm glad you want to vote.
* I am 35 and cannot drive. I seem to do OK. Not having a car saves me a fortune. The minute you get a car, you become the errand-child for the entire family.
* You will be forced to get a job for most of your life. Enjoy the time you can spend learning and read allot.
* College is cool. I didn't do well, but I bet you will excel.
* I've ended up in the emergency room about a dozen times in my life. (not usually for me) All but one of those trips were when I was out with friends.
* Being 18 will not put you in control of your life. You have to put yourself in control. Turning 18 just puts the weight of  decisions you make on your own shoulders.
<end>
I wish I could follow my own advice.

Changing Media
Newspapers are publishing mobile phone pictures on the front page. Bloggers are read as much as the top web pages for news. Things they are a-cha-a-nging. I wish the music industry would be as flexible. All people want is access to music. Sewing your customers and denying them what they want is a lousy way to win them over.

Gmail
There are two serious limitations to Gmail that are really making me reconsider using it.
1) To delete an attachment you must delete an entire conversation. If some dumb-ass replys to a long list of emails and attaches a four megabyte attachment I cannot remove the attachment without deleting the entire conversation.
2) HTML tags. I'm finding more and more that I need some form of formating that allows links and simple things like bold and italics in my emails. I've just become used to using them

Voting
I voted last Friday and I had to wait in line. I never voted before. I live in Texas. Lets face it, this is not a swing state. I'm listening to BBC 5 Live and they are covering the election. It is very interesting to listen to a foreign journalist explain the system we have in the U. S.. Voter registration is done by state here and the country on the whole there. While listening to the BBC talk about America, I realize how diverse this country is, both by region and from neighbor to neighbor. That fact makes me feel pretty good.
At lunch today the discussion was not who will win, but will we know the answer tonight. I hate to say it, but I know some people who would vote for a torque wrench if it were put up against Bush. I wonder if that is how Hitler won the general election. I have never done the homework to find out if Hitler was just running against some one unpopular. That is a scary thought.
I hear there are special funds the parties want people to contribute too specifically for the lawsuits we all know are coming. That is sad.

Halloween Party
Costume
I went to Justin's Halloween party Saturday evening. I was Mr Clean. It was a simple costume, but it went over well. I definitely didn't win any contests. There were a couple of people who showed up late who didn't have costumes on, but they were forgiven.
Best Costume
The best costume in my (byes) opinion were the two guys who showed up as storm troupers. I don't care if they did rent them. There were an unusual number of angels (and fallen angels) there. All in all a very creative crowd.
My Pictures
I walked in and started taking pictures. About a half hour before leaving, I looked down and noticed my camera said "Memory Card Full". I thought "That can't be right. I have a 512 megabyte card." I plopped in my backup 128 megabyte card and took a couple more. I was terrified that some error had happened and I lost them all. I didn't even get up Sunday except to puke and take some aspirin. I looked at the card today and sure enough there  were 250 pictures on it. I was floored. ... I have a problem. I admit it. I need to not take quite that many pictures.
I did take some pictures out because of poor shot quality, or I took too many pictures of some pretty girls (give me a break).
Here Are My  Pictures.
My HomePage.
If there are any pictures that need to be taken down, let me know and I'll be happy to oblige.
Other Guy's Pictures
Here is a link to Shannon's pictures. He is the tall guy in the red evening jacket and pipe. Oh, by the way Shannon, When I step in front of your shot I fully expect a beat-down.
Here Are Shannon's Pictures.
Kiss
I did get to kiss one lovely lady. I hope she wasn't just drunk. I've noticed her at other functions with the TMS crowd. We ended up on the couch making out like freshmen. I really should be embarrassed, but I liked it. I hope she did too.
So, someone tell me why I didn't get her number. I was drunk. BAH!!
Another Woman
There was a lady there who I'm kind of interested in. I was drunk enough to say something about it too. She would look at me, then immediately look away, and blow the momentum. She did this like five times. I don't know what was going on. Every time I was about to walk up and say Hi, she would dive into some other conversation. Great, she finds me repulsive.
Oh, Another Woman
There was a woman I hit on who, it turns out, had a boyfriend at the party. oops. I thought they were talking about another woman in black. You can't win them all.
Letter of Apology
Kelly doesn't get out much. Please forgive his childish advances and immature antics. Or is that Immature advances and childish antics? Anyway, he is just a goofy bastard trying to make his way the only way he knows how. "poorly."
I hope I have no vendettas waiting for me the next time I hang out with this crowd. Did I mention I was drunk?
Overall
It was a heck of a good time.