Back-Up Plan

My company has decided to open a 3rd field office in Minneapolis. Originally they only were going to open up 2 offices. 1 in St. Louis and 1 in Dallas where I was going to transfer. Since they just recently opened another office they are not yet sure how that is going to effect the hiring for the other 2 locations. So basically all the original plans I had and my company had are up in the air. Of course nothing could change and everything could move forward as originally planned. Or everything could change. So this has led to a back-up plan. If this offer in Dallas falls through Emily and I would still be moving our of state. However not to Dallas. We would make a move that we were thinking of doing about 3 years ago and heading out to Las Vegas. While home prices have increased there and we would clearly not be getting as much as we could in Dallas, it's the next logical move for us. So more details to follow when I get them. The bottom line is we are going to be moving, the location is just up in the air.

Trapped In The Drive-Thru

Weird Al has done it again. Check it out as he lays the smack down on R. Kelly.

How did such a smart person get so dumb?

Maybe traumatic brain injury. Anyhoo... Ben Stein has surrendered any respect I once had for him. He co-wrote and will star in Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, a movie that defends intelligent design creationism and portrays it's proponents as poor victims of a vast Darwinian conspiracy. It is aimed squarely at influencing the '08 election (which the creators admit freely) so release is scheduled for February. Only time will tell how many morons will be taken in by this crap.

I still have a pulse so I guess I'm alive

I got very little sleep Sunday and Monday night. Last night was when I planned to catch up. Unfortunately, life got in the way. I spent the early morning taking Niki to the emergency room after an inadvertently inhaled piece of corn and the resulting cough sent her neck into spasm. This happens from time to time ever since she was in a car accident back in '97 although it is rarely so severe. The ER visit is just a very time consuming way to get some quality pain killers and muscle relaxers.
We didn't head home until about 4am so I had already resigned myself to the idea of no sleep. Just when I thought things were pretty miserable, I got pulled over and received a ticket. I'd be pretty pissed off but I don't have the energy.
Between Niki and my mom, I have driven people to the emergency room/urgent care many times. That in itself doesn't bother me too much. But why does it always seem to happen late at night when I should be sleeping? And why always on work nights?!?

Don't Panic!

I just finished reading the first book in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. If you liked the movie, you will love the book. For those unfamiliar with the story, it follows the crazy adventure of Arthur Dent, an earthling who is transported from the planet just seconds before it is demolished to make way for an interstellar highway. Along the way, he meets up with an assortment of wonderful characters like the two-headed President of the Galaxy (and fugitive), Zaphod Beeblebrox and Marvin, the clinically depressed robot.
The entire story is incredibly imaginative and funny. I can easily recommend it to anybody who likes sci-fi and/or dry British humor.

NSFW... because you should never laugh this hard in a cubicle

I nearly shat myself.

Getting my geek on

I will be spending this evening building a new computer. It's all motivated by the business plan (need a reliable platform) but it will obviously be used for more. I did a lot of research and have ordered all the parts from Newegg which will be delivered today. Let me tell you... it's gonna be a monster. Here are the specs:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz (which will be overclocked to 3GHz)
MoBo: GIGABYTE GA-P35C-DS3R
Memory: 4GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2 800
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
Video Card: EVGA GeForce 8800GTS 640MB
Power Supply: ENERMAX INFINITI 720W w/ modular cabling
DVD Drives: LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe SATA (2 of them)
Case: Cooler Master Stacker 830
Monitor: SAMSUNG 226BW 22" 2ms

In other words, just enough power to take over the world!

Why old people shouldn't drive

The future of public education in Texas

Anybody planning on moving to Texas (I wont name any names) should start saving money so their kids can get a private education. The new head of the State Board of Education is a moron. Unfortunately, this could effect us all because Texas has a lot of influence on what gets printed in textbooks. Damn Texas!

Jesus is my co-pilot... and accountant

Maybe this is why I flunked Nance's algebra class. I left god out of the equations.

Find your personal power animal

If you go to Is this your name? it will tell you a bunch of useless crap about your name. My personal power animal is the Kalahari Meerkat. Is that good?

Got Tux?

Motivated by a need to go legit, I overcame my fear this weekend and tried out Linux. When running a business on a PC, that PC needs to be stable, reliable, and (most difficult for me) free of all illegitimate software. This basically leaves two options.... Mac or Linux. Add another requirement, cheap, and you are left with only one option. Linux. I'd love to get a Mac but I don't want to spend the money on all the software I would need.
For those who are not informed, Linux is an entirely open source operating system based on Unix (like Mac OSX). It has many advantages and several disadvantages. The biggest advantage is that it is entirely free. Any software you could possibly want including replicas of Office (OpenOffice) and Photoshop (Gimp) are also free. It is also VERY stable, endlessly customizable, fast, uses very little resource overhead, and nobody writes viruses for Linux. Watch this video for a demonstration of the amazing things that can be done with the Linux interface.
The biggest disadvantages are lack of hardware support and you still need to know some Unix (I don't) to really be able to configure it past the basics. I had difficulty getting it to work correctly with my video card and wireless card. There are a number of ways to fix these issues but they all seem to require Unix commands. Ugh. I can learn some Unix but that will take some time. There are an endless number of Linux distributions available made by different people/companies so I am going to try a different one and see if that works better.
I still haven't ruled out getting a Mac.

Somebody... make them stop

The Duggar family just had their SEVENTEENTH child! I don't think anybody should have that many kids but especially these weirdos. These are American Taliban types. I'm not saying they are violent but they are extreme christians of the sort that requires women to wear dresses that go down to their ankles... when they are swimming. I'm glad Jim Bob (yes, that's his real name) lost his bid for Senate!

My contribution the literary world

Niki and I went to Barnes & Noble Tuesday night to get a couple books (Ender's Game for me and The Ultimate Hitchhicker's Guide to the Galaxy for Niki). While I was there, inspired by a blog post I read recently, I took it upon myself to fix an error that some book stores have made in their categorization. I made my way over to the Science section where I found The Edge of Evolution by Micheal Behe (poster boy for the Intelligent Design nut jobs) prominently displayed with the front cover facing out. I grabbed the book and stealthily re-shelved it in it's proper section... Religion.
I wish I had more time to fix some other mistakes but my Mom was with us and I knew she would disapprove. It wasn't until the next day that I revealed my scholarly endeavors to her. Her displeasure was evident. She understands my motives but feels that it is wrong to reorganize books at a book store. I see it as lending a helping hand to repair what is obviously an oversight. Any rational person familiar with the topic would know Intelligent Design books belong in the Religion section. I'm sure they would thank me if they knew.
I'll be more thorough next time.

Cornholed

Read this Rolling Stone article that explains why corn ethanol is NOT the answer to our problems.

On the road with Dime

The last time I made a California trip, I stopped at Best Buy in Ontario for an impulse buy. I was in the mood to listen to Cemetery Gates and the only Pantera album I had was Vulgar Display of Power. I found a best-of CD/DVD combo for $10. It has been a long time so I forgot how many good songs Pantera had. I listened to it the entire ride home and many times since then.
I have really enjoyed "rediscovering" Pantera and would like to state for the record that Cemetery Gates is one of the best metal songs of all time. I also realized what a huge influence they had on the modern crop of musicians. It's easy to see their fingerprints on bands like Korn, Avenged Sevenfold, and pretty much all metal-core.