Webcam

Music

My Songs

Podcasts I Like

moveabletype

Yay! Blog!

Ripley, X-Files, Janeane G, and the blasted fence [07/21/08]

[What's Going On?]

  • Ripley's doing much better since his stay in the hospital. I still need to find out the best kind of food to feed him so his bladder doesn't get blocked again.
  • This coming weekend is "X-Files" weekend. I'm going to Texarkana to see it with my bgf Shann. I watched 5 of the 6 episodes that Chris Carter recommended watching before going to see the movie. Right now, Post-Modern Prometheus is my favorite episode.
  • Speaking of my bgf Shann, she pointed out that Janeane Garofalo graduated from my high school the same year I did. My only confirmation of that so far (besides Wikipedia and IMDb) is a program from my 5 year high school reunion that has her name in it. It's possible that she witnessed my first and only solo vocal performance in a football stadium. I sang "The Greatest Love of All." I even have a low fidelity recording of it.
  • Now that I have a new fence on one side of the yard, another part of the fence is falling down. I need some kind of strong cord to tie it up. I guess a trip to Home Depot is in order. Think I'll see Tony Stewart there?
  • In the 16 years I lived at my prior residence, my fence only broke twice. Now that I own a house, my fence barely gets fixed before it's broken again.

Ripley Cat, the Dead Body and Elton Hoot [07/15/08]

[What's Going On?]

  • Ripley cat is in the hospital. He had a blockage in his bladder. Poor thing.
  • On my way to work yesterday, I had to take a detour because a train was blocking several intersections. There were police at each of the train crossings. Turns out there was a dead body on top of the train.
  • Saturday Night, my friend Ke hosted Elton John Hoot Night at her house. We played Elton John songs most of the night. I sang "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters" and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds." I know that "Lucy" is a Beatles song, but good ol' Elton had his own version. There's talk of more Hoot Nights: Rolling Stones, Police, Beatles, Billy Joel, Aerosmith. Who would you hoot?

Fence Done! [07/10/08]

[Yay! Pictures!]

new fence
The fence went up yesterday, and it's beautiful. The fence people cut the phone line when they put in the posts despite the spray paint on the grass that showed right where it was. And my neighbor wants the wood from the old fence that the fence people left in his yard. Yay!

Fence Posts Up [07/08/08]

[Yay! Pictures!]

Fence posts and a stack of old fence panels
The fence posts went up today despite rain. They look good and feel solid. They're supposed to finish it tomorrow after the posts set overnight. They stacked the panels of the old fence in my neighbor's yard. I feel bad about that. I hope they haul it all off tomorrow.

New Fence Today [07/08/08]

[Yay! Pictures!]

Four panels of my fence on the ground
My fence fell down last month in heavy winds. A company is coming out today to tear the rest of it down and put up new posts that won't lean. The previous owners put up a good looking unstable fence to sell the house. It worked.

New Skin, Vacation Pictures, Starbucks, MT, and Cell Phone Stuff [07/06/08]

[Just Some Stuff]

  • I created a new skin for my Web site. It will forever be called the "Hotel Grim skim" due to a typo that stuck. It's based on the Hotel Grim in Texarkana which fascinated me on my recent trip there. My BFF Shann suggested I make it and use a grayscale scheme. I spent most of the day yesterday working on it. Creating a skin always takes far longer than I anticipate. This one did because I've never used a graphic background before and had to make sure all the words on all the pages had a solid background to be readable. More pictures of the hotel will be available when I get my vacation pictures done.
  • Speaking of vacation pictures, that's what I worked on all day Friday. There's still a lot more to do, but it's begun!
  • My biggest complaint about Starbucks (which is only a small one, really, since I'm completely addicted to the place) has been that they don't offer free wi-fi. Now they've come up with a deal with ATT to give registered Starbucks card users one session of up to 2 hours of free wi-fi per day. I went to Starbucks today to see if it works, and it does. Yay!
  • For Movabletype Geeks: This morning, I spent a while clearing out my Movabletype activity log and MT Blacklist databases. They had gotten so large from comment spam attacks that I was getting a server error when I tried to view them. I had to go into the actual database and delete records. The good news is that the spam attack defenses I have in place work so well that I wasn't even aware they were happening (that's why the log got so large). Just since I cleared the logs this morning, I've gotten 7-14 spam hits per hour. I think I probably need to close comments on my old blogs and change the URL for making comments. That'll fool them for a while.
  • More for Movabletype Geeks: I'm still using MT 3.16. I hate upgrading. I'm starting to be afraid that something will break, though, and I won't be able to get any support.
  • I tried two cell phone related services this weekend. YouMail and TreasureMyText. Both look cool. Neither work with my phone. I is very disappointed. But I'm not going to spend more money on a phone just to use those services.

Fireworks, July 4, 2008 [07/04/08]

[Yay! Pictures!]

Fireworks
Fireworks in my neighborhood on July 4th.

Twitter Updates

Last week
I listened to...

kinez's Last.fm Weekly Artists Chart

Email Standards Project

I'm spreading the word about the email standards project. Standards make it easier to deal.

E-mail Standards Project