No Escape. No Mercy. Nowhere Else!
Yes, you guessed it! I went to
Howl O Scream Saturday night and it was a blast. A little warm though. 6 Haunted Houses, 4 Scare Zones and plenty of rides open. Check the
web site out. It works best with broadband and flash. I hope the links survive past the 31st.
Follow up from yesterday.
I did better today. However, I'm only leaving an hour earlier than I did last night. At this rate, it will be 2 weeks before I'm on regular schedule again.
I now realize that I am not in control of my schedule. In the past 24 hours there have been four major schedule changing events. A business rule issue was not resolved before implementation so about 600 customers were not able to log in to our system. That issue required immediate attention. The discovery-identify-alter-verify process was pretty quick but it still took an hour I had planned for other important things. The second major issue was similar to the first. A system improvement required a change over for a partner company but the communication of the change was cause for end user confusion. Another hour. The third issue, while minor on the "overall" scale of things caused the most impact: 2 hours. Installing a Windows PC on a network correctly is hard enough as it is. Upgrading from one PC to another for a "Power User" AND leaving the original PC in working order added a lot of complexity. Mainly software version problems dealing with which software program was installed where and which license could be moved and which needed upgrading. So far I've worked 4 hours on things that were not in my schedule and evey one of the new things needed to be done today. I forget what the fourth major issue was because I couldn't do anything about it. I'll figure out how to solve that problem another day.
If everything I do is a choice then why do I choose this?
To be SO busy? It seems I am always telling someone (anyone) they can choose how they react to things. Or they can choose what to do about something. Sometimes I say "everything is a choice". So, following my own advice I chose to take three days off from work. Thursday, Friday and Monday. Taking three days off gave me five days away from work. I knew last month I needed time away and I used the time to catch up on my mountain biking. The time away helped a little but I still worked from home so things wouldn't be so bad when I returned. Right, so much for "time off".
Here's the cycle I need to change: I wake up around 6:30 am and either start my day or "snooze button" until 7, 7:30 or even 7:45. Each morning I expect (hope) to go to sleep that night before 11:30 and each night it's 1:00, 2:00 or as late as 3 am. I'm non-stop during that entire time though. E-Mail, Work, Events, Volunteer work, whatever. Seems I always have to "just get this one thing finished...".
Today was something else. Busier than ever. I decided to "just do the very important things" at work and then go home. Hmmmm. I'm posting from work now and it's 7:45 pm. I guess my plan for today didn't work either.
Posting about this seems to help. How? Well, I'm not sure yet.
Great, now I'm talking to myself on my blog.
Wonderful.
Good night!
I am not an existential wiggle
I've heard about the movie
I (heart) Huckabees and it sounds interesting so I'd like to see it. While I do think many (if not all) things are related, I believe there is a purpose and meaning to life. I feel it every day. I heard that movie reminded someone of me.
The Wiggles put on a kids show. They are from Australia and toured Tampa this past weekend. No, I didn't go, but some of the kids did. Great. They came back and said I do many of the things they do and maybe better in some cases. (OK, I added that 'better' part) In other words, that show reminded them of me.
How is that possible? For two different cases of different people being reminded of me, in one week? When I've never, to my knowledge, reminded anyone of anything else.
I'm sure if I WERE an existentialist I would just say it's all related with no true meaning. As a Wiggle, I'd sing a captain feathersword song about it.
What would I do if I were BOTH?
The Karaoke Birthday Card was funny
I just had to laugh.
Thank You
16 miles out in the open air
Here's a more simple post.
The Wilderness Trails Association maintains over twenty miles of
off road trails just 10 minutes away from the house. If you click on
this map link you will see how three local parks are joined by a loop (the red numbered trail) of 14 miles of trail. The Trout Creek site, the Morris Bridge site and the Flatwoods site. The green loop, in Flatwoods, is a 7 mile paved loop for runners, roller blading and road bikes.
This morning I parked the car at #4, a place called "Hole in the Fence", and worked on sections of trail from there all the way to a section past #21, about where the red arrow is. It doesn't look like much looking at the map but its a constant challange to see how many different ways I can handle the mountian bike.
We have things too easy here
This is a serious moment. I saw a picture today that brought home all the horror of war, torture, kidnapping and death. I can't think of a more perilous situation to be in than in a sure-death situation and knowing what might happen. Soldiers go to war knowing there is a chance something might happen to them. They are also well trained and know they have good odds through team-work. However, one untrained civilian being grabbed while on her way to or from work does not know anything but the odds of her situation. Very few, if any, have survived.
I want to talk about everyone's part in such a situation, how money is the biggest motivator. How a desperate group of people could be so cruel or believe they have reason to be so cruel. There are no good guys here. Only one innocent person at a time, with no choice, being a pawn over someone wanting more money.
I can't put into words what I want to say and I think a link to the picture would be too much for me to stand. I'll leave at this: This is not a situation any of us would ever want anyone to be in. We should work to make sure that no one else is in that position and no one else feels compelled to inflict such atrocious acts of cruelty.
We do Carrie-Hokie here
My Daughter says this blog sounds like Carrie from
Sex and the City. She also said it's
kind of hokie. She's right.
Carrie writes (using a Mac computer) thoughts that are meant to entertain and inspire the viewer. This author wishes for that kind of inspiration to appear on this blog. I do try too hard and that can be a little
hokey. I admit I get sentimental or silly at times. In the past 24 hours I have been told:
- I think too hard
- My guts are hated
- I was stubborn but I'm not/wasn't stubborn (then or now)
- I don't think in a prescribed manner
- I should know what a cyberwarner is
- My blog sounds a little like SATC
- Some things I write are a little hokie
This list could go on.
I heard all these things within 24 hours of this post and the Carrie and Hokie comments inspired me the most. Figures. I started this blog to learn "What is a Blog for?". Now I know I have been asking the wrong questions.
I should be asking myself "What do I want MY Blog to be?"
(or maybe I should just ask:
What is a Hokie?)
I changed the profile picture.
The new picture is a little old though.
I am not Spider-Man, so am I responsible too?
Spider-Man is called a superhero. He says "With Great Powers Comes Great Responsibility". This means he saves people regardless of what they think,
even when many think he is the 'bad' guy. After all, Jameson's paper calls him a public enemy. (I guess that shows you can't believe everything you read in the papers?)
According to an opinion on a
radio story today on NPR we are all responisble for making this a better world. (Sorry I can't find the audio story link from
Morning Edition)
John F. Kennedy said "The problems of this world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were."
Well, I am certainly NOT presidential nor do I have any "super" powers. I do not think I am a hero (super or otherwise). However, I
do feel responsible for making the world a better place. I can make a positive difference if it's just one moment at a time, one person at a time. Even if others think I am the 'bad' guy. While I may not be Spider-Man, I do have human "powers" (we all do) and for that reason (and others) I feel responsible to make an effective positive difference in the world I see. I hope you do too.
New Worms attack Instant Messaging just as the MSN Messenger Service has problems
I noticed quite a few problems over the weekend and into this week
(especially Monday) with the MSN IM service. First, the system was
shut down for a couple of hours for maintenance and (secondly) it was
all downhill from there. I'm not convinced that a worm had much to do
with the server problems at all but an
article (click here) in EWeek noticed the coincidence.
I suggest you make sure you know who is on the other end of that IM.
Do NOT click on any links posted in an IM window unless you know that
person and you know they sent it to you. We have to be careful now
with IM just like we have to be careful with e-mail. Just make sure
you are expecting that file or link before you do anything with it.
You never know when the WANShark is going to knock at your door.
Can you handle the speed?
I hope you don't mind a commercial site but I've wanted to sail on something like
THIS for quite some time now. VERY exciting!
If you are not able to view the movie, try this link:
Hobie Cat TriFoiler.
You can't handle the truth!
Why do so many of us think that other's can't handle the truth? Maybe it just sounds that way to me. The dialog from the movie clip from where that line came from can be read here at
A Few Good Men. Read why others feel it is ok to lie when we want to
protect our identity (read this link). That might be one of the few reasons to lie.
The bottom line (in my thoughts today) is that you may think it is easier to lie. This might be true in the short term, but the truth almost always comes out sooner or later. Truth works best in the long term, even though truth might be much harder in the short term.
The REAL trouble is finding that one single truth. Is my truth the same truth as yours?
I managed to update my profile with a smaller version of a
picture taken at Boyette Scrub on March 27, 2004
This was the "Back to Boyette" Event we had after opening many new off-road mountain bike trails.
Friday again and no time to post
Ha! I've posted anyway. Lots to do today. Work, a birthday party for Justin (1 year old) and off to watch the high school marching band where Logan will be playing percussion.
I'm excited at the prospect of another storm-free weekend. Funny, I never thought about storms so much before? Maybe it's the fact that out of the last 8 weeks 5 of them have been spent riding out hurricanes. Well, it's not just that. The fact that these have been CAT 3 and CAT 4 storms adds a lot of stress. Better buildings then I use (home and work) have been demolished by these storms.
Next week will be another nice weekend and the storms will begin to fade into history.
Until next time....
I'm no Driving expert
My latest driving thoughts are my opinion only, taken from my experience.
I've been thinking about how people drive ever since I started using the local
511 service. Provided by
traffic pulse, you can see real time
average speed estimates from the web or hear average travel times over the phone. I've found that I can usually beat the average travel times but it takes some work and a little luck as you never know how a lane might move during a given "weird" section.
There is more to Fast Driving than Driving Fast!
It always amazes me how many
times cars pass me on the highway. I drive 60 miles per hour. They Drive 70 or more. How is this possible? Traffic patterns and silly drivers.
I think the record (4 times) is held by a silver Mercedes, over a 60 mile trip. It was on a 6 lane highway which makes it more amazing. This car would look for any hole and drive right into it...only to be in back of a
much slower vehicle, like a truck. At one point I had the chance to see just how easily this driver could be directed. The left lane was slowing down so this driver slipped in behind me. I anticipated my center lane to be clear in a few minutes. Even though the right lane looked like the best one to be in at that moment, I knew it would slow up in a few moments when that slow moving truck merged from the entrance ramp ahead. Since I had a clear view ahead I knew the Mercedes could have seen this too. Well, I decided to test my theory (This guy only drives the road right in front of him). The right lane was moving slightly faster than my lane but not enough to make a difference. Since there was no traffic behind the vehicle to my right, I decided to slow a little bit to let the right lane appear to move faster still. Sure enough, that was just the nudge Mr "M" needed. The Mercedes changed lanes to the right. The car previously behind him filled in the gap and the right lane slowed almost all at once. I didn't anticipate the car behind him coming up on me so quickly, I thought he would have a chance to reconsider and move back over. This didn't happen and the traffic pattern changed very quickly. The cars lined up behind me in the center lane and the right lane started to slow. At least 7 cars behind me passed him. In fact, I didn't see him pass me again for 15 minutes. I thought he might learn...until I passed him again 4 minutes later.
When I drive on the highway, I drive according to what the vehicles around me are doing. All vehicles. Five vehicles in front of me at least. All lanes, including what is going on behind me. I don't want to change lanes to the right when a car, traveling 90, comes into my lane from the right (I've seen that happen too).
I wish there were schools that would teach good driving habits. The schools I've been to talk about stopping distances and who has the right of way and when. One class did mention "Anticipate conditions and always have an escape plan" but didn't follow through with very much.
Maybe you have some thoughts about this? If so, click the "Comments" button below and use the "Post a Comment" button.
Thanks and have a great, safe day on the roads!
Tag:
Driving
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