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This is an archive collection of entries from my main personal blog, My Mundane Mid-Life.
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This collection of entries is from June 2004.
Wednesday, June 30, 2004
Ring PlaneCassini just crossed Saturn's Ring Plane... I have a feeling I'm not going to be awake to actually see what happens tonight... and it's my first mission that I get to watch on NASA TV on DirecTV.
posted at 09:14 PM | Link | Space § |
Big Brother 5 Cast Announced THEME
The cast for the U.S. version of Big Brother has been announced, along with a tour of the house.
Oh, and here's one of the twists: Two people that are in the house are related by blood... but don't know it.
And - for the first time - a daily internet talk show... with Marcellas!
read more of this entry »
The house was also shown on Entertainment Tonight. The house layout is identical to all of the years prior, just re-vamped. The three bedrooms have themes: The Wood Room has 3 single beds (it's the open area near the Diary Room), The Cloud Room has 2 double beds and windows that open-up into the Wood Room., but the windows are actually liquid crystal and can be "glazed" just by flipping a switch. The last bedroom is the Cement Bedroom. Yes, everything is made of concrete, including the beds which have only a thin camping mattress pad on them! (It sleeps 4). This is the bedroom next to the bathroom, which looks the same.
The dining room looks the same. Between the dining room and living room, where there used to be bar stools and a ledge is now a fish tank. Actually, it's a shark tank as there's a few baby sharks in there. The living room couches are of course different, much squarer, with two green pieces for the nominees to sit in.
The Kitchen is larger, now with an island with chairs, a full size side-by-side refrigerator with ice & water dispenser, and it looks like multiple ovens.
The door to the backyard has been replaced with a sliding patio door. and it's further down as the kitchen is actually a bit bigger due to the new appliances).
The backyard still has the pool but has lost the basketball court. In it's place is a putting green. There's also two hammocks instead of one and a kick boxing station.
Now, the cast:
- Name: Adria Okins
Age: 30
Occupation: Web Designer
Hometown: Birmingham, Ala. - Name: Lori Valenti
Age: 26
Occupation: Yoga Instructor
Hometown: Boston - Name: Karen O'Neil Ganci
Age: 30
Occupation: Portrait Artist
Hometown: Saddle Brook, N.J. - Name: Jennifer Dedmon
Age: 21
Occupation: Restaurant Hostess
Hometown: San Antonio - Name: Diane Henry
Age: 22
Occupation: Cocktail Waitress
Hometown: Burlington, Ky. - Name: Holly King
Age: Get a load of this - CBS is releasing her age as "in her 20s"
Occupation: Model
Hometown: Los Angeles - Name: Scott Long
Age: 26
Occupation: Sales Representative
Hometown: Pittsburgh, Pa. - Name: Drew Daniel
Age: 22
Occupation: Recent College Graduate
Hometown: Urbana, Ohio - Name: Michael Ellis
Age: 23
Occupation: Security Officer
Hometown: Durant, Okla. - Name: Marvin Latimer
Age: 36
Occupation: Mortician
Hometown: Conway, S.C. - Name: Mike Lubinski
Age: 41
Occupation: Commercial Painter
Hometown: Eastpointe, Mich. - Name: Will Wikle
Age: 26
Occupation: Registered Nurse
Hometown: Tupelo, Miss. - Name: Jase Wirey
Age: 28
Occupation: Volunteer Firefighter
Hometown: Decatur, Ill.
HOUSE CALLS: THE BIG BROTHER TALK SHOW, a half-hour, streaming video daily talk show, will debut Wednesday, July 7 on CBS.com, one day after the fifth installment of BIG BROTHER premieres on CBS.
HOUSE CALLS, hosted by Marcellas Reynolds, a houseguest on "Big Brother 3," and Gretchen Massey, an on-air host on Infinity Radio's KLSX Los Angeles, will interact with viewers though phone calls and e-mails, discuss events that transpire in the Big Brother house, offer prognostications, analyze strategies, interview former "Big Brother" houseguests as well as current houseguests following their eviction.
HOUSE CALLS is believed to be the first live Internet talk show produced exclusively for a television network.
HOUSE CALLS will be broadcast live Monday through Friday (1:00 PM/ET, 10:00 AM/PT). The call in phone number is 323-CBS-1000.
"BIG BROTHER has been the model for convergence between the Internet and television and this innovative programming takes it one step further," said David Katz, Senior Vice President, Strategic Planning and Interactive Ventures, CBS Television. "HOUSE CALLS will be another avenue for 'Big Brother's' loyal fans to offer opinions and dialog. This really puts the chat back into chat rooms."
HOUSE CALLS: THE BIG BROTHER TALK SHOW will be produced by Eye Net Works, a division of CBS.com. « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 06:33 PM | Link | Big Brother § |
Tuesday, June 29, 2004
Cassini-Huygens
The Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and its moon Titan arrives tomorrow after being launched October 15, 1997 and traveling 2.2 billion miles. It's going to make 76 orbits during a 4-year mission, and will execute 52 close encounters with seven of Saturn's 31 known moons. How cool.
posted at 12:29 PM | Link | Space § |
Monday, June 28, 2004
Asphalt
We were all oiled up last Wednesday and today was the final step - our street got a nice new layer of asphalt. The noisiest part of the whole thing were the steamrollers. The house actually vibrated with a low-pitched hum when they went by.
All in all, the village's intrusion onto our little, quiet cul du sac was very uneventful and easy to endure.
posted at 04:24 PM | Link | Mundane | 1 comment § |
Sunday, June 27, 2004
White Sox 9 - Cubs 4
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Well, there seems to be a lot less tailgating today. No idea why. While standing outside Gate 3, there seems to be more Cub fans today than yesterday. Also, there seems to be more people looking for tickets, though I never saw a single person selling.
The pitching matchup was going to be thrilling: Esteban Loaiza vs. Greg Maddux. The game starts with Timo Perez running out to his position in right, doing a Sammy Sosa impression. In the 1st, Loaiza throws 7 pitches, Maddux throws 35 pitches and gives up 2 runs. That's how the day is going to go, back and forth, each pitcher having their own problems. In the 2nd, Sosa has a 454-foot homerun to dead center, hitting the ivy in the batter's eye. Sammy has another homer in the 3rd. Timo Perez has a homer in the third, and as he cross the plate he points to the sky. Sure enough, as he goes in the dugout, he's doing another Sammy Sosa impression, the whole two-fingered salute and kiss. Wooo boy. The Sox take the lead and stay that way the rest of the game. The boys win at home on a Sunday to keep that record going - 6-0.
Getting out of the park, the parking lots, and onto the Dan Ryan was miserable. It was offset by hearing the news about "the trade". Miguel Olivo (who caught the game and left after his at-bat in the 7th) was traded to the Seattle Mariners along with minor league outfielder Jeremy Reed and infielder Michael Morse to get pitcher Freddy Garcia and catcher Ben Davis. I guess Olivo took it hard. He's going to be miised. But... Garcia? Does this mean we've got a complete rotation now?
(Boxscore) « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 10:09 PM | Link | White Sox § |
Saturday, June 26, 2004
White Sox 6 - Cubs 3
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Well, the game doesn't go at all like I had thought... Felix Diaz doesn't last just one or two innings - he goes six innings, gives up 3 runs (including a homerun), but the Sox give him run support with homeruns from Konerko, Crede and Valentin. I think more than anything, the Sox went after Carlos Zambrano and just messed with his head. He wasn't getting his calls and we knew that gets to him, and then we just fed on that to try and rattle him. He gave up a 3-run homer to Konerko and then Timo Perez got on first. Timo just taunted Zambrano and forced him to throw to first quite a few times before he finally pitched to Crede - who hit another homer. The crowd of 39,553 was pretty well split Sox/Cubs, though it just felt there were more Cub fans. It was odd - everytime the Cubs did something, it seemed like the whole place was up and cheering. Then when the Sox did something, it seemed like the whole place was up and cheering. Weird. I do have to say, however, that the buzz had gone out of the Cub fans as the game progressed. In general, I saw no fighting and no severe taunting that I've seen in prior years.
The most electrifying moments? Every pitch by Shingo Takatsu. They really played-up his intro and in the 9th everyone was on their feet and cheering every single pitch. How can we have a "closer by committee"??? Give him the job already!!!
Let's see how the game goes tomorrow...
(Boxscore) « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 06:16 PM | Link | White Sox § |
Friday, June 25, 2004
NationMasterWas over at Boing Boing (and noticing what happened to Erin), when I read about this reall cool site: NationMaster. It's a statistical database on... well, everything in the world. Want to know the richest nation in the world? (It's not the U.S.) The most muderous? (The U.S. is 24th) Maybe you want Mortality Rates? Like Contact with powered lawnmower (per capita)? (U.S. is 7th).
posted at 01:48 PM | Link | Mundane | 1 comment § |
Thursday, June 24, 2004
Gwyneth wants a Big Brother film? THEME
Gwyneth Paltrow is apparently a big fan of Big Brother U.K. So much so that she has contacted her godfather - director Stephen Spielberg - about pursuing a feature film based on the 'Big Brother' reality show concept.
posted at 08:32 PM | Link | Big Brother § |
WardrivingEvery once in a while, I'll see an additional wireless network available in the house that's definitely not my equipment. So, just on a lark, I decided to see how many wireless networks are actually in my neighborhood. So I loaded-up the car, fired up Network Stumbler and drove at 10 mph down to the cul du sac and back. That netted me 5 additional networks just on my block, and all but 1 are open. By going around the block and around another, I netted 13 networks, 5 of which have WEP turned on, and 3 whose SSID's are still LINKSYS - straight out of the box, probably.
posted at 03:54 PM | Link | Mundane | 1 comment § |
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
Where happy little bluebirds fly...
We had an interesting series of storms go through. When you look at the radar image, it looked like a pearl necklace - small round storms along a front. Sure enough, when they went through they dumped a bunch of rain, but the sun was still out. And you know: rain + sun = rainbow, so I had to run out in the rain and get the Rainbow At The End Of The Cul du Sac shot.
posted at 06:58 PM | Link | Mundane § |
A good oiling
Well, the next phase in our street repair has commenced - oiling the street before the asphalt is laid. The question is - how long are we going to be oiled before the asphalt is laid?
posted at 03:54 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
100 Songs
Man, I absolutely love these freakin' shows!!! CBS ran AFI'S 100 YEARS...100 SONGS: AMERICA'S GREATEST MUSIC IN THE MOVIES. These are wonderfully produced shows, just like last year's "100 Years… 100 Heroes & Villains". The American Film Institute comes up with a list of 400 songs and their membership decides which 100 are the best. Here's the list of songs (PDF).
posted at 10:09 PM | Link | Movies § |
Monday, June 21, 2004
A civilian in spaceThe first privately financed rocket ship to enter space returned to Earth in California. This was pretty cool to watch on CNN. They didn't know if they made it or not because the engine shut off by itself instead of being shutdown by the pilot. Then on the way down, the pilot (Michael Melvill) heard a big bang. There was a large dent in the engine faring, so they'll have to figure that out. I guess later in the day the FAA awarded their first civilian astronaut wings to Melvill. Apparently this flight had nothing to do with X-Prize - they didn't have any ballast for passenger weight or any actual passengers, so I guess this was just a real test to see if they could hit altitude, which was radar verified.
read more of this entry »
posted at 10:58 AM | Link | Space § |
Erin's 34th!Make sure you stop by and say Happy Birthday to Erin today!
posted at 08:09 AM | Link | Blogging | 1 comment § |
Sunday, June 20, 2004
SummerThere's something wonderful about coming home at 9:30 at night at still having the sky slightly lit by the setting sun. Summer rolled in just a few hours ago and tomorrow is the longest day of the year. Such a nice day outside all day, too. First full-day of summer is tomorrow, but this is a nice start.
posted at 09:44 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Saturday, June 19, 2004
Dinner with friends
It's been a bad year for friends. Well, at least for us. We haven't seen them hardly at all this year. That's why we had Barry, Buffy & Debbie over for dinner today. Carol whipped-up some ribs, chicken, corn on the cob, salad, and apple pie for dessert. I whipped-up to photo books of pictures that I've taken over the past 5 years of the 5 of us. I had them 4-color printed, bound and sent to us by
MyPublisher. I got the 6"x8" books and I really recommend them. I need to do try one of the large 9"x12" hard-cover books and see what they look like. The one's that I produced were 36 pages and only cost $17.70 each.
After dinner it was DirecTV Pay Per View time with Last Samurai, a better movie than I thought it would be.
I miss these guys. I enjoy the times we have together. Fortunately, Carol & I and B&B are going to spend a cheap vacation at my sister's home in Michigan next month and getaway, relax, and enjoy the company.
posted at 10:43 PM | Link | Friends § |
Sox Yard Sale
Went to the White Sox Yard Sale at the park. Normally it's usually around the 2nd week of March, but because of the extensive construction around the park, they postponed it until today. And instead of being a Garage Sale, it was billed as a Yard Sale held in the Patio area. It seemed like the number of jerseys available has finally gone down after a couple of years, so it was getting hard to find a "good" one, though they were there for a price. The regular jerseys were about $150, but the "good" ones are at least $350. It didn't matter - I didn't have any "good" money with me, even to purchase a cheapo jersey. I was there to pick up any All-Star Game tchochkies that was still still left over. i was able to get an All-Star Media Guide which I wanted - for 25 cents. Spent a few more bucks on some All-Star Bobble Heads (miniatures of the ones that were deployed around Chicago to celebrate the All-Star game last year).
The odd items this year? Parking lot and stadium signage, seat parts, players luggage (huge, hard-sided Samsonite), bricks (from where?), and scoreboard modulator pieces (no idea which scoreboard).
While this was going on, there was Family Day in the Park in the outfield, where families can go (for a price - $20/adult $10/child) to play catch in the outfield for an hour. We've done this every year as part of season ticketholder parties, but it's never been done with the public. The place was packed. But there was something I had never seen before - it wasn't fathers bringing their young kids to play catch. The people that stood out were the 20- and 30-somethings that brought their fathers to play catch. An early Father's Day present that could really be something precious to have.
posted at 11:35 AM | Link | White Sox § |
Friday, June 18, 2004
Dangerous Intersections
Everybody has got one (or more) of these in their community - an intersection that seems to generate more accidents than others. We've got two in opposite directions from our house. Carol and I were out grocery shopping at Dominick's. When we came out, we noticed a whole bunch of people at the far end of the parking lot, many walking back to the building. From what we could gather, there was another big accident at Golf & Barrington. So, just like everybody else, we put out groceries in the car and walked over to see what happened. Looked like a 2-car accident, with one of the vehicles - a small SUV - had flipped over. Lots of fire department equipment and police (include a Forest Preserve police car?) There were a lot of ambulances going by, too. Not for the accident, they were transporting patients to St. Alexius which is just up Barrington. Evening traffic at this intersection is always bad and there's always something happening here. Hard to tell if anyone was injured or not.
posted at 07:33 PM | Link | Mundane § |
SpaceShipOneMonday is going to be soooo interesting...
Investor and philanthropist Paul G. Allen and aviation legend Burt Rutan's company Scaled Composites have produced and succesfully tested their Tier One - Private Manned Space Program.
Yes, they have built a spaceship, SpaceShipOne, that will be lauched into space on Monday from the Mojave Airport as the first commercial manned spacecraft in history. (Info on the Mojave Aitport Special Operations webpage). Oh, and the Mojave Airport (HMV) (known for it's aircraft "graveyard" (aka storage) is now known as "America's First Inland Spaceport " (Launch Site Operator License # LSO 04 009) as of yesterday.
Here's how their system works:
read more of this entry »
: To reach space, a carrier aircraft, the White Knight, lifts SpaceShipOne from the runway. An hour later, after climbing to approximately 50,000 feet altitude just east of Mojave, the White Knight releases the spaceship into a glide. The spaceship pilot then fires his rocket motor for about 80 seconds, reaching Mach 3 in a vertical climb. During the pull-up and climb, the pilot encounters G-forces three to four times the gravity of the earth.
SpaceShipOne then coasts up to its goal height of 100 km (62 miles) before falling back to earth. The pilot experiences a weightless environment for more than three minutes and, like orbital space travelers, sees the black sky and the thin blue atmospheric line on the horizon. The pilot (actually a new astronaut!) then configures the craft’s wing and tail into a high-drag configuration. This provides a “care-free” atmospheric entry by slowing the spaceship in the upper atmosphere and automatically aligning it along the flight path. Upon re-entry, the pilot reconfigures the ship back to a normal glider, and then spends 15 to 20 minutes gliding back to earth, touching down like an airplane on the same runway from which he took off. The June flight will be flown solo, but SpaceShipOne is equipped with three seats and is designed for missions that include pilot and two passengers.
This is all for the Ansari X-Prize
The ANSARI X PRIZE is a $10,000,000 prize to jumpstart the space tourism industry through competition between the most talented entrepreneurs and rocket experts in the world. The $10 Million cash prize will be awarded to the first team that:- Privately finances, builds & launches a spaceship, able to carry three people to 100 kilometers (62.5 miles)
- Returns safely to Earth
- Repeats the launch with the same ship within 2 weeks
« hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 10:28 AM | Link | Space § |
Thursday, June 17, 2004
Big Brother UK Fight THEME
I've been watching UK's Big Brother 5. I don't know why, I just wanted to see how they treat the show over there, which is such a huge hit and media circus there compared to how the show is treated here and how so many people hate it here.
read more of this entry »
I'm not watching the live feeds - they're not available outside the UK. Instead, I've been watching the broadcast shows. It's so popular there that there are shows every day of the week, the eviction show is live with a huge live audience (actually, it's just outside the house), one of the digital channels over there (E4) actually broadcasts the live feeds. To top this off, there's also a second show (Big Brother's Little Brother) that's aired almost daily. It's ridiculous.
Anyway, speaking of ridiculous, something historic (soft of) happened. It all started when 2 houseguests were removed from the house in what was thought to be an eviction. Instead, they just went into another room inside the house, where they lived for about 4 days, watching live feeds of their housemates. They were put back into the house (it's a long story on how... you could always go to the website and read about it), but a food fight erupted. That escalated into an honest to God fight, where the houseguests trashed the house. The staff had to call security into the house to restore the peace, and viewers called the police to help out. It was tense and intriguing to watch... too bad it was so hard to understand the diverse amount of heavy accents... « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 05:43 PM | Link | Big Brother § |
Wednesday, June 16, 2004
Street munching
Well, we've had the warnings for weeks... at 8:30 this morning the crew came by to remove the asphalt on my street in anticipation of repaving sometime in the future. Cool equipment. It took them no time at all to do the street, but of course you have to take a few breaks now and then!
(13Mb 30 second video)
posted at 09:40 AM | Link | Mundane | 1 comment § |
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
Thermos 100
Carol's company had their 100th anniversary recently, so they held a party tonight for employees and spouses to celebrate. The really big deal was the opening of an exhibit at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History of lunch boxes. Yes, lunch boxes - that unusual piece of Americana that reflects, well, us. They played a videotape of many celebrities talking about how they felt being on a lunch box, and what it feels like having that lunch box in an exhibit at the Smithsonian. Then there was another videotape showing a dinner at the Smithsonian (set under the Pentagon 9/11 flag) and curators talking about the "National Lunchbox Collection" which just felt a little... weird. I just never thought about how significant the lunchbox is in American history. They catered dinner for us and the employees also got gifts (t-shirts, desk sets). Oh, and of course, cake.
posted at 07:46 PM | Link | Mundane § |
DONE Part IIBack in April, I said I was done.
Here I am saying it again.
I'm done. The project is over, again. Like I said yesterday, in retrospective, they didn't really need to bring in a group to do this.
It was nice to work again, with people I know, at a place I know.
I'm hoping to do this again...
posted at 01:36 PM | Link | Work § |
Monday, June 14, 2004
Half DayJust a half day of work today. I just realized that , slowly, people are disappearing. It's down to just 3 people plus the two EDS leads. There's only a handful of machines left to deploy.
In hindsight, they should have never brought in a team of techs to do this. We're not working a full day and we've been off a few full days as well.
This is going to totally screw up my unemployment benefits...
posted at 02:40 PM | Link | Work § |
Sunday, June 13, 2004
White Sox 10 - Braves 3
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Odd, day at the ballpark. Odd. It's Interleague Play time. That's only a little odd. Then today is Spiderman 2 today in Major League Baseball. All kids get a Spiderman paper mask and a foam hand. At least MLB backed-off having the logo on the bases during the game. It's Kids Day, so there's autographs before the game.
Then came the oddest part of the day. It made me angry. It made me mad. It made me ... embarrassed.
The new marketing guy (Brooks Boyer), who came from the Bulls, is still tweaking everything. First, the player introductions are much more elaborate, lasting almost 5 minutes. (Every time I hear AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" I always think of the Wolves). We also now have a small team of people that slingshot & throw T-Shirts into the crowd in-between one of the innings.
But before the game today, marketing took one more step forward and it's one step too far.
Before the game, in center field, they unveiled... a new mascot. Oh, cripes, WHY do we need a mascot??? It's some kind of indescribable thing called Southpaw. I couldn't find him during the game to get a picture of him. Maybe we'll see him again at another game <*blech*>
The game itself was strong and was a very good win. Carlos Lee now has a 27-game hitting streak, tyeing the franchise record with Luke Appling and Albert Belle (what a group).
(Boxscore) « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 05:23 PM | Link | White Sox § |
BlogTreeI haven't paid attention to something for about 2 years, and all of a sudden this morning I get an email from BlogTree. BlogTree is a site that a blogger can subscribe to to show who you have been influenced by and who you are influencing to write blogs (As an example, here is this blog's genealogy.)
I have said that Erin and Mike (though I'm not sure what's going on in Cooties-land right now...) were the people that influenced me to start this blog, so they are my "parents". Whoever else was influenced by them are my "siblings".
Well, I now have a Blog Child - Who should we trust - though there seems to be a lot of many parents.
posted at 08:43 AM | Link | Blogging | 1 comment § |
Saturday, June 12, 2004
White Sox 10 - Braves 8
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Great night at the ballpark. Finally, I'm sitting in my seat at a night game in short sleeves and no jacket. It took us this long to get good weather. The place is packed, too (34,719, second largest this season). The Draw? The Braves. It's cross-pollination time and this is their first visit to the South Side.
The new marketing director is slowly making his changes - the player introductions are getting longer and bigger, there's a group of people that come out between innings (OK, just one inning) and slingshot T-shirts into the crowd (Very Bulls-like - after all that's where the marketing guy is from).
Esteban Loaiza got roughed-up for 6 runs and 2 homeruns. Nobody could figure out the strike zone of home plate umpire Gerry Davis. Pitches directly over the center of the plate weren't getting called. Eventually, in the 6th, we see Davis yelling into the Sox dugout. Ozzie emerged and put his hand out as if to say, "hey, I'm coming out here to discuss, not argue." Well, that lasted about 30 seconds and Ozzie got tossed. That set him off and he started yelling for at least 3 minutes. We were all wondering if the umpire understood a single word Ozzie said in his tirade... Welcome to management, Ozzie - you just got your first ejection...
It was a battle, where the Sox scored in every inning except the 1st. Carlos Lee extended is hitting streak to 26 games, going 3-5. Frank Thomas, who actually played 1st base in anticipation of National League parks during interleague play, had two homeruns in the game, adding more fuel to the "statistically, he hits better when he actually plays a position during the game instead of DH" debate.
Speaking of debates, we were smack dab in the middle of another one - who was going to close? There was only a 2 run lead (which has proved to be not enough is some situations - thank you, Billy Koch). The answer was Shingo Takatsu, who threw 7 pitches, 6 for strikes to retire the side in the 9th, while the crowd the whole time was on their feet chanting "Shin-go! Shin-go! Shin-go!" He's got a 1.16 ERA now. Just let the guy close already, will ya? He's the Japanese all-time saves leader, don't you think he can do this?
(Boxscore) « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 10:11 PM | Link | White Sox § |
Friday, June 11, 2004
Hard to ignore - Part IIPut on C-SPAN this morning and left it on all morning. In times like these, I feel it's important to listen and watch all of the events without a single person narrating or interpreting what I'm seeing. It makes the moment more poignant, perhaps bigger than life. It makes you feel like you're there, part of the process, part of the mourning, part of the celebration.
I just hope to God that the shot of Bill Clinton with his eyes closed was just his way of being in the moment and listening to the Battle Hymn of the Republic, and not sleeping...
UPDATE: C-SPAN is definitely the way to go... I've had it on all day, and the final ceremonies tonight were riveting. Watching Nancy saying her final goodbye, was just heart wrenching... C-SPAN kept the camera's running into the dark, showing everyone viewing the casket for the last time before they left the grounds, lit by a single light... this was a great experience to be part of, even though it was miles away and only via television, the coverage just seemed to bring you there...
posted at 11:39 AM | Link | Current Events § |
Thursday, June 10, 2004
Mesmerized...posted at 10:03 PM | Link | Mundane § |
What'd I SayHow could this be? Ray Charles died. I didn't even know he was sick. What a voice, what a career...
My favorite song? How about his version of "America the Beautiful", although, I have a special place in my heart for "It's Not Easy Being Green."
posted at 04:20 PM | Link | Current Events § |
The Amazing Race 5 cast is announced THEME
CBS has finally set the schedule for The Amazing Race 5 and it will start on-time this summer on July 6, with TAR6 scheduled for fall! There's no indication as to why the "powers that be" changed their minds, or why they will run TAR5 and TAR6 right after each other.
Anyway, the cast has been announced.
read more of this entry »
- Alison & Donny - Dating - Yes, it's that Alison & Donny. Alison is 23, unemployed, and lives in Meadville, PA. Donny is 21, a student, and lives in Shenandoah, PA
- Bob Barron & Joyce Nicolo - Internet Dating Couple - Both live in Mount Laurel, N.J. He's 61 and retired, she's 53 and a Medical Practice Admin
- Brandon Davidson & Nicole O'Brian - Dating - Nicole, 21, lives in L.A., was Miss Texas USA 2003 and second runner up at Miss USA 2003, is also an actor. Brandon, 25, is a model and lives in Houston (they met at Bridal Extravaganza)
- Charla Faddoul & Mirna Hindoyan - Cousins - Both 27 and born at the same hospital in Syria one month apart. Charla is s store manager and has a form of dwarfism, lives in Phoenix, MD (I didn't know there was a Phoenix in Maryland). Mirna is a Lawyer and lives in Towson, MD.
- Chip & Kim McAllister - Married Parents - Chip is 46 and is the owner of a web technology company. Kim is 44 and is the owner of an information technology recruiting company. They've been married over 25 years and live in Coto De Caza, CA.
- Colin Guinn & Christie Woods - Dating - Colin is 24 and is the owner of a cell phone store, while Christie, 26, is the managing partner of a "Longevity and Wellness Center". Oh, an she was 1996 Miss Teen USA. They both live in Corpus Christi, TX.
- Dennis Frentsos & Erika Shay - Once Engaged - Oh, boy... that's a good moniker... this should be interesting to watch. Why did they break up? From the CBS website: Dennis broke off the engagement after Erika went skydiving naked. As Dennis describes it, "I thought I was dreaming, but no, here comes my future wife floating through the air with nothing on but socks and sneakers and a naked instructor strapped to her back." He's 27, a mortgage broker and lives in West Nyack, NY. She's 25, a wedding planner, and lives in Piermont, NY.
- Jim & Marsha McCoy - Father/Daughter - She's 26 and a law student at the University of Florida College of Law while living in Gainesville, FL. He's 53, a helicopter pilot, and lives in Jacksonville, FL. Oh, I guess Marsha was a Jacksonville Jaguars cheerleader.
- Kami & Karli French - Identical Twins - 26 and living in Eugene, OR, Kami is the general manager of a restaurant and Karli is a full-time student at the University of Oregon.
- Linda Ruiz & Karen Heins - Best Friends - Living in Palmdale, CA, are bowling doubles partners and mothers. Karen, 41, is a stay at home mom and Linda, 45, teaches tennis
- Marshall & Lance Hudes - Brothers - Marshall, 31, and Lance, 26, are from New York but live in Dallas, TX where they own and operate a pizza shop.
« hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 12:32 PM | Link | Amazing Race § |
Weather whipsawFrom 90° to 59° as I left this morning. It's pouring outside. There's a small river going down the street outside my house. The base was soaked as well, again with all the streets turning into small streams. I was on the RTC side of the base and had to wait about 45 minutes for the machines I was deploying to be delivered, so I just waited outside under a large canopy and just watched the rain. It was great watching the divisions of recruits march by in a torrential downpour.
Unfortunately, we don't have much work to do, so it was only a half day today, and we're off tomorrow for the National Day of Mourning. It's supposed to continue to rain until Monday.
Figures. We have more White Sox games this weekend...
posted at 12:23 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Wednesday, June 09, 2004
Hard to ignore...posted at 05:12 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Tuesday, June 08, 2004
Hot as Venus90° today. Actually, 91° at work and we're on the damn lake where it's always "cooler by the". Guess not today.
On top of this, something weird is happening on the base. It's hot out, right? You want something cold to drink... every friggin' soda machine in every building is empty. I've got this bad feeling that Coke lost a vending contract somewhere and they're not refilling the machines so they could haul them out and replace everything with Pepsi products.
In the mean time, no relief...
posted at 06:09 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Venus Transit
Couldn't see it. Wanted to see it, but, jeez that's just a bit dificult to see live. But maybe I'll figure it out by June 6 2012 - the next time this happens. If I miss it, the next one is December 11, 2117 and I'm guessing I'm not going to be around for that one...
posted at 07:03 AM | Link | Space § |
Monday, June 07, 2004
Heating up...It figures that now that I'm (temporarily) working that the weather is warming up. Went to my car after sitting in an asphalt parking lot all sunny day and was stunned by the heat coming out of the inside. I guess I've forgotten what it feels like - hot leather seats, the stifling waves of what should be air that seem to take your breath away. I had an unopened can of Red Bull in my cup holder that I didn't have time to drink on the way to work this morning - I couldn't touch it because it was so hot. I think the cold weekends at the ballpark have been skewing my views of the outside world...
Oh, the other thing about the warm weather - the traffic gets worse. It took me an hour and 45 minutes to get home...
posted at 07:06 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Sunday, June 06, 2004
Something Wicked This Way Comes
We decided to try something different in our plan of attack for our next summer movie: We went to the AMC South Barrington 30 to catch the 11:15am showing of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, figuring that most people may be at church at 11:15am on a Sunday. Well, we were close, but we didn't take into consideration that they first showing of the movie would be in a tiny theater, so it was packed. Since we couldn't find two seats together, I decided that we should catch the next show at 11:45, which happened to be in one of the large theaters. We were the first ones in and got our favorite seats - first row of the stadium seating, dead center.
The movie was great, but really different that the prior two. Yes, it's darker in content, but the film itself is also darker - the colors are muted, there's a lack of sun in the exterior scenes - at least those shot during the day.
Not much more that I really want to say, other than the movie was great and the kids are growing up.
I read somewhere that the new director - Alfonso Cuarón - had unwittingly, without any knowledge, accidentally "tipped-off" two things in this movie that J.K. Rowling hasn't written into the next books yet, that are going to happen. I wonder what they are?
posted at 02:43 PM | Link | Movies § |
Saturday, June 05, 2004
Lazy, sleepy day8 o'clock at night. Doing nothing all day. Watching Trading Spaces now, still in my robe. Didn't sleep all that well last night, but passed-out on the couch this afternoon and slept hard - hardest, deepest sleep in quite a while. No idea why.
Turning into an odd day - no Ronald Reagan, no Smarty Jones. D-Day is 60 years on. White Sox lose (but have the 4th best record in all of baseball). Magglio Ordonez goes under the knife.
Thinking about getting some ice cream...
posted at 08:06 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Friday, June 04, 2004
Segway Tour of Chicago!I really have to do this...
According to today's Chicago Sun-Times, a company called City Segway Tours is going to start running tours in Chicago. The way it works is an individual pays $65 for a three-hour, seven-mile tour of the city's most popular lakefront sites, including Millennium Park, Buckingham Fountain and the museum campus. Every rider gets an instructional class on how to operate the Segway and a helmet -- just in case.
Already operate in Paris, Nice, with Chicago, Washington, DC and New Orleans coming this year.
Check out their website at www.citysegwaytours.com
posted at 08:51 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Thursday, June 03, 2004
Back at it
8 weeks later, I'm back at the job I started in October.
It's not the same position(s) at all. Here, I'm just another technician deploying machines. There are no team leads - there's only a staff of 9, even though Steve - a former lead - is back, as well as me.There's no Project Manager, though Dave came back and is a Admin instead. The EDS team is different. It's the same, though it's different. It's... comfortable.
And it's really only for two weeks. Big deal. But, I enjoyed my time there and I thought it was worth going back.
It's only two weeks to make more money than what I'm getting from unemployment...
And perhaps position myself for more work that is potentially coming up...
posted at 05:44 PM | Link | Work § |
Wednesday, June 02, 2004
It was fun while it lasted...I guess 8 weeks is enough this time around...
posted at 04:38 PM | Link | Work § |
New FUNdamentals at USCF
I was going to comment on this last week, but never got around to it...
The White Sox have this great area for kids called FUNdamentals, with batting cages, pitching cages and base running areas, all staffed by White Sox instructors. A lot of people may not even know it exists - it's by gate 3, so if you don't go in that gate, you may never see it.
The Sox announced that as part of the proposed rehabs of TPFKAC™ (U.S. Cellular Field) for next year, they are going to rebuild FUNdamentals and put it over the left field concourse.
It looks like a great location (it also looks like you just might be able to watch the game from up there) and will definitely give the area more exposure and better access.
posted at 10:48 AM | Link | White Sox § |
Tuesday, June 01, 2004
DirecTV heaven...posted at 07:04 PM | Link | TV § |
When backed into a corner, call a hardware guy
20 Minutes.
$85.
The ceiling fan is alive and well thanks to Roselle Electric, who also doesn't know exactly why there wasn't any power in the bedrrom.
Sounds like something I would say when I would "fix" a user's computer...
posted at 02:10 PM | Link | Mundane § |
*nose wiggle*posted at 07:36 AM | Link | Memes § |
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