Back to school! No, really. I decided to get an actual CS education. I'm gonna pick up some background first, taking ugrad classes at GA State. Then, if I still feel up to it, I'm gonna see about gettin' a Masters.

Best part of it? Looks like my employer, Oracle, is gonna pick up the tab.

Way.

Sorry I've been so far out of it. Life calls.

XO, betches.

Oh, yeah. Pens won the effin' cup! w00 h00!!!!111

Happy New Year!

Sorry for the long delay between updates. Yeah, as if it really matters to you.

In preparation for the coming disappearance of analog TV, my cable company sent me a note saying that I would need one of their digital tuners (at an additional monthly cost of about 3 bucks) if'n I didna already have one. Now, I only use the cable for local TV, anyhoo, and since my DirecTV tuner has support for tuning digital local signals over the air, I decided to see if I could get decent reception thataway. Turns out, the reception through the satellite tuner is better than I had been getting using my vcr to tune the (analog) cable (I don't have an actual TV; I use the vcr and satellite tuners connected to a projector). sweet! I decide to actually CANCEL the cable TV (just the TV; I want to keep the internet service).

So, I look at my cable account online. I'm paying $18.95 for the tv service and $42.95 for the internet service, for a total of $61.90 + tax. I call 'em up and ask for the tv service to be cut off. Ok, say they, but that'll affect what you pay for the internet service. Hit me with it, says I. $59.95, say they. WTF?! REALLY?! Outta the $18.95 I'm paying for tv service, I'm gonna get back $1.95?



Fine, bitches. I'm still not gonna play ball with your scammy pricing. Gimme my 2 bucks.

Otherwise, things are goin' pretty good. Enjoyed the holidays with the girl. Spent a bit o' time with friends, a bit o' time with family.

Can't FRIGGIN' WAIT for January 20! w00t!

XO!

I got a natural gas bill the other day.

Atlanta Gas Light Charge: 16.59
MXEnergy Customer Charge 5.95
Sales Tax: 1.58
Total Gas Charges: 0.00

That's right. I used no (or a negligible amount of) gas, and I got a bill for $24.12.

WTF?!

Wow! It's really been almost 3 months since I put something here? Just been really busy with the "real" world. Me 'n' the girl just took a week "staycation" to install new hardwood floors upstairs. I originally wanted bamboo, but I decided to go the even more eco route and get reclaimed hardwoods from Distinctive Building Materials. They buy like old barns, tear them down, and mill the wood into tongue-and-groove flooring. To top off the lefty feel-goodness, it's a local, woman-owned business.

We ordered it a few months ago and also ordered a pod that we moved half our shit into. Then I started doing prep work - tearing out the carpets, etc. When I was working on one of the rooms, I found a damp spot under the carpet. So, I rip off the baseboard, and it's covered in a beautiful black MOLD! Seems the AC drip pan had cracked and been spilling its contents in the attic for who knows how long?. I stuck a screwdriver through the ceiling and held a pitcher under the hole to catch the water. I went into the attic and removed handsful of sopping insulation. Fudge.

So, it cost me $350 to get the AC fixed. I got an estimate on drying the place out and rebuilding. It would've been just a couple grand, and I have a $1000 deductible. Since I could do it for about $100, that was a no-brainer. So, I pulled down 3-4 sheets of gyp board from the walls and ceiling, removed door casements, a light fixture and crown moulding. I had to scrub the framing with bleach and wait for it to dry then rebuild it. It wasn't super hard until the ceiling. The piece of drywall I had to cut for that was an irregular pentagon with a light fixture in the middle of it. I got a bevel gauge to measure the angles. I drew it out on the drywall twice with two different results. Finally, I just said fuck it and cut the thing. It was a little big, but I just forced it up there with a bit of crumbling. I didn't even cut the hole for the light fixture. I just pushed until the screws for the junction box broke through then sawed around them. Most of the seams are covered by crown anyway, and the one that isn't got plenty of mud.

We got the wood (huh, huh) on like the 15th and had to let it sit for 5 days to "acclimate". During that time, we finished the preparation. After we took up the carpet and baseboards, we used vinegar to scrub up a few pet stains. I scraped old mud off the floor and pounded in some nails, etc. Then we used some oil Kilz to seal the floor against added pet stains. That shit is effin' nasty. Just about Kilz'd us.

Eh, I'm tired of writing right now. You'll prolly have to wait another three months to get the rest of the story.

XO, betches.

m@

I read an Amazon review the other day, commenting on the upside-down American flag that is American Recordings' logo. The review said, "it's stupid to combine a political statement with Johnny Cash."

...

Uh, says I, "have you ever listened to Johnny Cash?!"

jeez

I almost got into a fight the last time the Pittsburgh Penguins were down here against Atlanta. Some twat behind me kept referring to Georges Laraque, a black man, as a monkey. I turned around and called him a douche. We had a few words, all of my words being "douche".

Laraque won the Penguins' community service award.

Me 'n' the girl have been working like ants. We painted her whole place inside. I made a few ceiling repairs and re-cemented some tiles on the kitchen floor. At home, we put up a new section of fence (with a gate finally!), planted some grass seed, ad infinitum. The smoker's outta commission right now. I've got it taken apart for rehab. Gearing up right now to tear up the carpet upstairs and lay some hardwoods. Found a place in Alpharetta that mills reclaimed wood (from barns 'n' such) into tongue and groove flooring.

Hope y'all are having as good a time as I am.

GO PENS!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving, all! Been busy as piss, so the 4 day weekend couldn't have come too soon. I'm working on a couple of cool projects at home. One is a built-in media storage unit. There's a big niche above my fireplace - like 51" wide by 46" high by 24" deep - that was designed for a big screen tv 'n' such to go in. Since I use a projector and screen, I'm not using that niche. So, I'm putting a bunch of "vertical drawers" in there to hold dvds and cds and such. Another project I'm working on is to set up my air compressor so that the hose and switch are accessible from outside the house. So, if I decide I need air in a tire, I don't have to drag the compressor outside to do it. I also want to make a big Kucinich banner for the front of my house. Since the MARTA rail passes by not too far away, it should get plenty of views. I just have to find time to squeeze it in among everything else.

I haven't had anything really assigned to me at work in some time; just fixing a few bugs here and there. So, I took it upon myself to work on converting type 1 fonts to compact font format for writing into PDFs. It's a real sonofabitch, but it's something I can sink my coding chops into.

Other than that, me 'n' the girl are satisfying ourselves with NHL and Netflix and hitting the holiday parties. We've been together a year now.

Party on, Wayne!

Hola!

Me 'n' the girl went hiking in Tallulah Gorge with a couple o' friends last weekend. We did the Hurricane Falls trail, about 3 miles. It was pretty sweet. Then we went over to Anna Ruby Falls in Unicoi State Park. That was another .8 miles round trip, lots of uphill going in. Highly recommended.

Not recommended is the drive through Helen to get from Tallulah to Unicoi. The traffic was major suckage. We did get to stop for some fudge, tho'.

We watched some Netflix, too - "Into the Void" and "This Movie is Not Yet Rated". Both were friggin' great.

Other than that, I've mostly just been spending free time working on the ol' homestead.

Hockey season starts in a couple of weeks! My girl works at CNN as a temp. Permanent employees get voucher books for free Thrashers tickets. Two people gave her their books, so she went and got tix to the 2 Penguins/Thrashers games in Atlanta - section 117 and section 112. That's gonna fuckin' rock!

Hope y'all are gettin' along. Drop by for a beer sometime.

In the keg: Sweetwater 420

On the nightstand: "Screwed: The Undeclared War Against The Middle Class", "Playboy's Silverstein Around the World"

In the Netflix queue: "Office Space", "Where The Sidewalk Ends", "Kiss Of Death"

Happy belated labor day. Me and the girl went to Tybee for the weekend with two other couples. It rained the whole damn time. We still got in a little bit of swimming. The surf beat the shit out of us, and I got a bit of rug burn on my knee from getting dragged around in the sand.

Mostly we're just doing the domestic thing - netflix, grilling, etc. Nothing real momentous to report. Among the things we've seen are Blood Diamond, But I'm a Cheerleader, and Murderball. All recommended.

I'm loving the whole spate of China recalls. Talk about reaping what you've sown. Are we gonna learn a lesson? Prolly not.

In the keg: Sweetwater 420
In the DVD player: But I'm A Cheerleader
In the MP3 player: Judas Priest... Live
On the wish list: State of the Union: A Century of American Labor by Nelson Lichtenstein

Ok! Time for my approximately bi-monthly post.

I went to Seattle with the girl late last month. It was pretty cool. We were only there for a few days, and much of that was occupied with attending a friends wedding in Port Townsend, so we didn't get to do a whole lot. We did go the the REI flagship store. Very cool, but how 'bout a little bit more of the "Made in USA"? We also went to Archie McPhee.

Last week, we got a new puppy!!!!



Her name was Lacey, but we'll call her Swee'Pea. She's about 6 months and a barrel of laughs. Yesterday, she went to drink out of the small patio pond I have (like she saw the big dogs do) and fell in.

We had another yard sale yesterday. We'd only had about 3 sales when scary Mary arrived. She claimed to not be bipolar, but in hindsight, she was most definitely manic. She bought everything we had for $200. She told rambling disjointed anecdotes which I was only too happy to hear as long as she was paying. In hindsight, though, I don't know that I should've sold her anything, given her state.

xoxo

Current beer: Sweetwater Road Trip
Most recent Netflix movie: There's Something About Mary
Next item in the Netflix queue: Mystery Men

Still here. Hope ever'body's doin' good. I got a new bike this week. It's a '98 BMW R1200C, pretty much my dream bike.



Me 'n' the girl are enjoying domestic bliss with our netflix and kegerator. I promise, as soon as we get shite cleaned outta here (I may have just sold my big-ass radial arm saw!), we're gonna have a party.