Cocktail Confessions

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Being the somewhat anal retentive person that I am, I hate unsolved mysteries….especially those that were caused by me that affects something I had worked on and the summation of the individual parts don’t match the outcome. 

Call it a little OCD on my part, but I really can’t rest when I know the answer is right there in front of me, but I just can’t see it.  I’ve always been like that, trying to figure out puzzles and riddles, or putting something back together that I took apart and it just won’t fit together exactly right.  I’ll comb wiki’s, faq’s, user notes, etc., to decipher were I turned right when I should have turned left.

So as noted earlier, I had discovered that my FeedBurner (upper right hand corner of my Blog) wasn’t updating correctly and I narrowed it down to something that had changed over the last 4 posts.  After meticolously combing over as many various avenues I could think of (and sometimes repeating them 2, 3, 4+ time just to make sure) which all seemed to have a positive outcome, I sat there scratching my head for a while.

As a last ditch effort, I went line by line (in HTML) over the last few posts, and sure enough, about two-thirds through one of them, I found a suspicious tag.  On the surface it looked innocent enough, a ’span’ tag that was opened and closed properly by all account, but basically served no real purpose in the place that it resided.  It just didn’t belong if it isn’t really encapsulating anything, so I took it out…and voila….post update and publish and FeedBurner was back up.

It took me quite a few hours to find it, but at least it allowed me to clean up some other coding as well, and now I’m back on track.  Now that I restored it, my mind can rest, and all is right withing my little universe.

Before I get to the site updates, here’s a but that’s going on:

The step-daughter has moved into our house.  At 17 years of age it has been somewhat of an adjustment to undertake and a lot of people are giving us advice.  However, all the advice in the world cannot change the attitude of someone who doesn’t care about school.  Overall, she’s a good kid: she’s polite to neighbors and friends, she doesn’t drink or smoke or do any drugs that we are aware of, no tattoo’s, no errant piercings, no foul mouth.  She just doesn’t do her school work and likes to ditch which has caused her to slip behind….far behind everyone else her age.  And in California where our state is ranked pretty low to begin with in education…..well, as the guidance counselor recently told us….she’s setting herself up for a long life of retail employment.  Sigh.

As far as my diet goes that I self imposed on myself last Sunday, it’s been going ‘okay’.  So far, I only broke down last night when I got home from work and had one Bud Light, otherwise I’ve been drinking water.  I’ve had a few cookies here and there, but overall, my portion sizes have been reduced (although I am a bit hungry and have a mild headache…more so due to my allergies I figure than not enough food), and I’ve been eating a bit healthier.  I could and should even alter my diet a bit more and eat healthier foods (salads, veggies, etc) and need to start some additional exercise.  I had planned on doing some exercise this past week when I get home, but I just haven’t.  No real excuse. I just haven’t.

Halloween is tomorrow, and quite honestly I just don’t care.  I have a costume…more so because my wife wants us to go to a party…but I have no real desire to dress up.  I’m sure I’ll have fun at the party, but I know the temptation of too much drinking may be a factor.  I went to the same party last year, drank a lot, and fell on my ass where I believe I fractures my tail bone.  No joke.  I also had a mild hangover as well…something I’d like to avoid this year.

I have a podcast with my grandfather that I need to complete editing so I can post, and I hope I can do a few recordings this next week as well and supply a bit more content here.

Feedburner: I noticed the other day my regular Feedburner was no longer updating itself correctly and I’m not 100% sure why.  I haven’t made any changes at all to the FeedBurner settings, and after spending quite sometime looking at the various settings pages, account, and some basic troubleshooting it appears it all boils down to possibly a missin “/meta” tag somwhere.  After pinging and validating my pages and getting the “congratulations” response, some further digging revealed that FeedBurner is conflicting with itself somewhere else.  A search of the FAQ stated that this can indeed happen when you copy and paste from MS Office applications like Word or Excel.  Well, I do know I had done some recent cut and paste work from Word and unless I scan line by line the HTML code for the last few posts for a possible errant tag (which I may or may not find), it may or may not fix the issue.  Bums me out since I think Wordpress should be smart and compliant enough with Word to not insert additional XML tags, but apparantly not.  Hopefully this will eventually correct itself in the future when I post enough new content to bury the old stuff way down.  So let this be a little knoweldge to you: Wordpress, FeedBurner, and MS Word don’t play well with each other.

Site notes:

• BluBerry Power Press updated to v1.0.3.  I think I may try the full service soon as my podcasts aren’t showing up yet on Zune Marketplace and I don’t know why.
• Sociable upgraded to v3.5.2.  No real change for me as I didn’t change my options.
• The Hacker’s Diet - installed v0.9.8b.  This is a plugin behind the scenes in which I should be updating my weight.  You won’t see anything unless I take a snapshot and post it as a picture in a regular post.
• Count Per Day - Updated to v2.4.2 and I use this again behind the scenes.  Traffic monitor.
• Wordpress - Still using v2.7.1 although v2.8.5 is available.  I’m a little hesitant to upgrade.  I’m sure it’ll be fine for the most part, but there is always some hidden thing that gets screwed up.

I’ve been saying that for wee…..I mean months now.

The fact is, despite dropping some weight a few months back and being relatively proud of it, I’ve been feeling a little heavy as of late and kinda new something was up by the feel of my work pants and blue jeans as of late.

Also, the fact that I almost don’t recognize the profile of the guy walking past the windows at work (my reflection) due to the slight protruding bulge located directly above the waist yet just below the chest has been somewhat….disheartening.

My friend Brian was a ‘heavy’ individual the last few years, tipping the scales at over 300 lbs although I would never have labeled him morbidly ‘obese’.  But through the determination of a friendly competition he had with a few friends and his modified take on the Atkins diet, he has lost over 80 lbs to date.

I, on the other hand, seemed to have gained weight.  Granted I did have a little ‘bender’ this past Friday night (I recall 2 pints of Bud Light, 1 bottle of Racer 5, 1 Stella Artois, 3 Jack & diet cokes, some Jim Beam & Pepsi, and a little rum) where I am sure the calorie count was pretty much up there for the evening.  The following day, I went to the gym and weighed myself and was personally embarrassed and ashamed I was clocking in at 238lbs!  Even though I did have breakfast only a few hours before, and it was smack in the middle of the day, I have never weighed that much before.

The last few years I had been hovering around 225 lbs and at my weeding six years ago I had managed to get down to 216lbs.  Oh, and I guess I should mention I’m 5′11″.  Needless to say, this recent revelation hit me hard and I’m placing myself on a self imposed diet.  Does that mean drinking is out?  Kinda hard to have Cocktail Confessions when yours truly stops imbibing in libations.  Rest assured, I have not stopped drinking, but need to alter my habits:

1) No drinking during the week while at home watching television….Save it for the weekends..and even then save it for social gatherings (i.e. not by myself).  Instead, drink much more water or zero calorie drinks in the evenings at home.

2) Mix alcohol with diet drinks where applicable, and/or switch to light liquors (vodka, clear rums) and avoid sugar mixers for the time being.

3) Try not to binge…At 39 years old, it’s a bit tougher to shake off that dull headache/hangover than when I was 19 or even 29 for that matter.

4) Eat more portion controlled dinners and slightly earlier.  I have a bad habit of eating around 8pm, and then hitting seconds as well.  Nope, need to eat earlier, smaller, and more veggies as well.

5) Dust of that Wii Fitness I spent $90 bucks on last year and now haven’t touched in a few months.  Although you would be surprised on how much I walk on a weekly basis.  I walk a lot both at work (between buildings) and when I get home to walk my dog.

6) I need to chart my weight on a semi-regular basis.  To measure my progress every other day or so as opposed to once today, and then recheck…say 4 weeks from now to never.  Maybe I’ll look for a little Wordpress Plug-in widget that allows for charting/graphs that I can update and let you all give me shit if I begin to slip.

Came across this news story from FOXnews earlier today, and as soon as I read where….why wasn’t I surprised?  Okay, sorry if this seems somewhat insensitive, but all stereotypes are indeed borne out of some truth….otherwise it wouldn’t be labeled a ’stereotype’.

The number of teenage moms has increased in recent years — and one Chicago high school has reportedly become a shocking example of that, revealing that one in eight of its female students are pregnant.

Of the 800 female students at Paul Robeson High School in Chicago, Ill., 115 are expectant mothers, CBS2Chicago.com reported Thursday.

The staggering number can be attributed to various factors inside the home — not the school — principal Gerald Morrow told the station.

“It can be a lot of things that are happening in the home or not happening in the home, if you will,” Morrow said, according to the network, noting that “absentee fathers” are another factor in the school’s high number of teen pregnancies.

The birth rate for teens ages 15 to 19 increased 5 percent from 2005 to 2007, according to a March 18 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics.

What I can’t believe (actually I can because it does indeed defy conventional logic….but that’s what left-centric causes and ideologies perpetuate…excuses and placing the responsibility on someone else’s shoulders rather than those that put themselves there to begin with.), is the fact that the explanation comes in the lame form of “It can be a lot of things that are happening in the home or not happening in the home..”

Really?  Whoa!  Some one check out Mr. smartypants and his credentials.  Of course it can be things happening or not happening in the home…I’d like to take a stab at it…Teenage kids are having unprotected sex and no one (including the kids) are taking any responsibility for it! 

Now don’t give me this horseshit that kids aren’t educated or don’t know any better, or lack of sex education or that they come from poverty.  My word man, are you really telling me that more than 1 out of 8 kids in Chicago are that stupid?  Well, since it actually takes two kids to make things happen, the odds of getting two like minded dumb-shits together seems somewhat staggering.  What you’re trying to sell me is that these kids apparently don’t know what happens from movies, from neighbors, parents, church, siblings, television, the streets, or say….the other 100+ kids in the school that made the same judgment call.  There are countries out there with much worse social and financial problems than we have and their pregnancy rates aren’t that high and that concentrated.  No, are kids and those that surround them are in la-la land and think good ‘ole Uncle Sam has the responsibility to take care of them.  Bullshit.

STOP making excuses for these r-tards and stop asking me and the rest of the Joe Public and government to pay for them.  In the advent of health care reform the president and the left is trying to rail through capitol hill, our monies are going to pay for this.  No…..

Between cocktails and lucidity, even I like to keep up with a few techno gadgets that I’d like to get my grubby little fingers on.

First up was a complete surprise to me, the “Zoom Q3 Handy Video” recorder.  I recently purchased the Zoom H2 audio recorder and am pretty impressed with it.  I actually recently recorded my very first podcast with it in interviewing my grandfather (I haven’t posted as of yet) and have plans to use it more often.  Well ‘lo and behold, now this little gem appears to be a first in the genre and records records 24-bit/48 kHz audio via a pair of condenser microphones, gets powered by two AA cells and captures video at 640 x 480 (30fps). There’s also a 2.4-inch 320 x 240 LCD and an SDHC card slot, though you’ll have to shell out $249 in order to get this kind of technology into your own pocket. 

From the pictures I’ve seen, it look as if it has very similar functionality and interface to the H2 audio recorder and may work out really word for video podcasting.  Of course, the list price of $249 is a bit much for me right now (you can probably find it cheaper online eventually) and it is a first gen (I tend to wait for second gen stuff unless they get real good reviews), so overall, this is a pretty cool little device.  And if you’re into recording your drunk friends or perhaps a little ‘bedroom olympics’ with out having to break out the big camera or cellphone, this may be the answer you’re looking for.

Next up is the long awaited Blackberry Storm 2.  I’ve been waiting for this since it was announced, or at least rumored, after the disappointing performance of the original Storm.  Rumor has it that the Storm 1 was released a little prematurely in-order to capture holiday sales last year and a lot of people complained about it’s tactile touchscreen keyboard and some other functionality.  Anyway, long story short, the Storm 2 is being hailed as what the original Storm ’should’ have been and a vast improvement from the original.  Although I did recently read one review earlier today as a matter of fact that was more or less a complaint against the aging RIM OS, not the device itself.  Well, the OS can always be updated as MS does all the time anyway.

I’m with Verizon as my service carrier, and I truly do believe they have the best domestic coverage and customer service amongst all the other carriers despite a some criticism in their lack of phone variety, especially in the smart phone or PDA category.

Personally, although I suppose I’d like an iPhone just as much as everyone else does, in the end, I just want a good phone.  I’m not a huge believer of changing my phone every six months and as a matter of fact I have had the same LG VX800 for almost three years, and prior to that, I had another LG for just as long.  LG makes good workhorse phones…heck, LG makes good shit in general and I’m really impressed by all their stuff.  Can you believe I still have the same, original battery for my phone (3 years and counting) without ever having to be replaced?

That being said, Verizon does annoy me with all their stupid ass text messages, automated phones calls, and mailings stating I am eligible for a free phone upgrade.  Yeah, I know that…I don’t need you reminding me of that ever week Verizon.

So why do I want a Smartphone?  To be honest, I’m not exactly sure.  Yeah, it may be kinda cool to get an email here and there, to do some minor Facebook updates, but I’m not buying a phone to watch videos on a 2″ x 2″ screen or take professional pictures.  A lot of the ‘apps’ that are available are pure fluff, and I figure, I’ve gone on this long without having them and I don’t feel I’m missing out on too much….I’m actually saving money by not activating a data plan.  But my tech does feel a tad bit dated, and there have been a few ‘rare’ occasions I wish I could look something up, look at a map, or send/receive an email when there is no computer in sight.  But the data plans just kill me, and something I’d really not like to spend extra money on.

After some self-induced procrastination as of late, I finally sat down earlier this week to record this ‘filler’ episode for you all.  I’ve been kind of disappointed with myself as of late allowing my recordings to fall slightly by the wayside and it’s actually surprising how much I kinda forgot in producing an episode.  That includes the formatting, the folders, the uploading, fiddling aith Audacity, etc.  I made a few mistakes along the way, but it all came back pretty quickly and I hope to get back on track soon enough.

Episode 11 is completely unscripted, meaning, I had no idea what I wanted to talk about or where I was going with my blathering.  I just sat down, turned on the mic, and went at it hot.  Before I knew it, I was at the 30 minute mark or raw recording and didn’t feel as if I stumbled too much. 

In this episode I speak briefly about a new hobby of mine I stumbled into not too long ago and really found myself enjoying it: Model railroading, and my foray into n-scale structure modeling.  I then talk a bit about my experiences in multi-level marketing and how my wife has recently jumped on the pyramid band wagon and my chagrin about it.  But maybe she’ll prove me wrong (I hope she does actually) and make some money at it.  Finally, I attended the inaugural Long Beach Comic Con this past weekend, took some pictures, bought some artwork and action figures, and my overall critique of it….hopefully it is better next year.

Show Notes:

Intro - “Kryptonite” by 3 Doors Down as a tie-in to the comic con.

 1:00 - Powerade cocktails: Grape Powerade and Rangpur gin - good.  Grape and Jack Daniels - bad.

 1:52 - My mid life crisis in defining yet another new hobby for myself and my foray into the world of N-scale train modeling.

 7:50 - Multi-level marketing scheme’s and the wife’s recent plunge into it.

15:48 - Long Beach Comic Con - My critique and observations of has-been stars, artist alley, the worthless DC Nation panel, and organized chaos. (See pics in gallery).

34:10 - Wrap up.

Long Beach Comic Con Gallery

[View with PicLens]

Map

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (31.8MB)

I seriously wish I could indeed take credit for this masterpiece of creativity.  I came across this ‘rant’ letter today from “Emails From Crazy People.”, and I swear this author and I must have crosses paths at one time or another.  I too work with a few people whom I spend way too much time contemplating how they got their job and wondering how they got past HR and the interview process. 

Anyway, with out further ado, I offer up this perfect slice of wickedly funny WTF:

To the women who work in my office… I hate you

Girl with the bright blonde weave who works in reception- I don’t know how you got your job, you are so uneducated it makes me sick. Did you graduate grammar school? I think I would respect you more if the answer to that is no. I want to throw a rock at your face every time I walk by when you are answering the phone and you say something like ‘who you callin’ for?’ or ‘he in a meetin’ right now’ or my personal favorite, ‘who this is?’ I bet the people on the other end of the phone want to throw a rock at your face too. I also can’t stand when I get message notes from you that are written like so: Mr. Smith called hes wanting to kno wen he shuld ecspect the letter of aprovle. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? It amazes me that the only two things in your job description are answering phones and taking phone messages and you can’t do either of those things!

Tall girl in design with the short brown hair- You have horrendous body odor! I’m not talking a little stench here and there I am talking everyday when you walk into the building people drop dead. I don’t know how you don’t notice it. I’m going to buy you deodorant for Christmas.

Fat woman who works in suite 19- I don’t know exactly what you do for this company, but I know far too much about your personal life. When you talk to your boyfriend on company time, please refrain from telling him it felt so good when he slipped his hard dick into your fat ass! Yea I heard that, and so does everyone else that walks by your suite when you are on the phone. It’s disgusting, and we don’t want to hear about it, so keep your voice down.

Blonde woman who works for accounting- I know that you are 30, not 25 and I also know that at the Christmas party last year you had sex with the bosses son in the broom closet and that he got you pregnant. Please don’t insult me in front of our coworkers again or I will tell everyone.

Hot girl that works in sales- When you wear that brown skirt with the white flower on the bottom and you sit down, we can all see that you don’t wear panties.

Boss’ old receptionist- My name is not, John, Jason, Jack, Jim or Jared’ it’s Evan.

Middle age woman who works in reception- Your job is not that hard. You answer phones, put people on hold, and take messages. I don’t care that you were up late cleaning the house or that you sat up all night waiting for you delinquent son to get home, that does not give you a reason to get rude with a customer or walk around bitching about how your job is so stressful. Half of us come in still drunk from the night before, but we never yell at clients, bitch about our family members or say our jobs are soooo hard.

Pregnant bitch- There is only one of you, so no need for further description but let it be known that you are not the first person to ever get knocked up! You are not the first person to get heart burn, you are not the first person to get morning sickness. You are not the first person to pee their pants because the baby put too much pressure on your bladder and you certainly are not the first person who has had strange cravings for cheese and anchovies. Stop complaining about it!

Little intern girl- You are so cute with your stringy brown hair, acne and braces but your coffee skills are lacking. All I ever want is a large black coffee but you seem to thing that I would rather a low-fat latte, or a caramel machiato, or even a Chai Tea. Nope I don’t want those, I just want a damn black coffee! Also, you obviously don’t know your alphabet because my filing cabinet is a mess. F does not come after R, sweetie. Do you want to flunk the class you are doing this internship for? No? You better shape your ass up and get me the right coffee then!

Pretty girl who is head of the writing department- You are the only girl who works in this office that I can stand. You greet me every morning with a bright smile and a cheery hello. And you are so damn smart. No wonder you are 22 and head of the department that could pretty much make or break our company. One time I asked you the Circumference of the earth and you kew it! Usually I would think that is weird and dork but from you, I find it really hot. I also like that you are the only girl in the company that hasn’t slept with someone that works with us. But for the record, if you slept with me, I wouldn’t respect you any less.

Hispanic girl who works in design- You wear way too much makeup, I hate that you draw your eyebrows on, and I’m pretty sure you have an adams apple and are a man.

35 year old secretary- You have a 20 year old son, and a 15 year old son… yet you dress like you are 16. I would be embarrassed to be your children. Oh and you look really stupid when you wear that plaid school-girl skirt with the white tights and hooker boots. This is an office… not a brothel.

A load of crap

Yeah, I know I’ve been a bad blogger as of late.  When i initially started this blog a few months ago, I really did have all of the best intentions to bring new content (in the form of podcasts or text entries) on a pretty consistent schedule.  However, as things happen, (namely me being lazy and suffering from writers block), I haven’t posted much as of late.

I can tell you I haven’t abandoned this project at all….I’m in it for the long haul…but all things being the same I really have been at a loss for words lately and other things have cropped up to keep me very busy.

I did however record a new 30 minute podcast last night, totally unscripted and on the fly.  I just sat down and turned on teh mic and talked about whatever came to my mind.  So you can tune in the next few days or so to listen to a little ranting on my thoughts on Xowii multi-level marketing pyramid that seems to be taking the Valley of the Dirt People (the often mocked Inland Empire) by storm, the questionable first annual Long Beach Comic Con (in which I actually attended), why grape Powerade and Jack Daniels are not friends, but Rangpur gin is, and finally my recent fascination with N-scale trains as a new hobby.

Lastly, there have been a few upgrades here behind the scenes.  A few plugins have been upgraded, although you probably won’t notice anything yet, but perhaps some new thinsg will debut soon.