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This is an archive collection of entries from  my main personal blog, My Mundane Mid-Life.

This collection of entries is from the Category "Memes".

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Thursday, May 01, 2008

*nose wiggle* *nose wiggle*

I have no clue how I remembered to "Rabbit, Rabbit!" - this morning to get some luck after so many months... (with two nose wiggles from our two bunnies Indy and Chip who fortunately are still alive and kicking)...

It's great knowing I don't have to say"Tibbar, Tibbar!" tonight, Go checkout the Wikipedia entry on this: "Rabbit rabbit".

posted at 06:29 AM | Link | Memes | Care to comment? | § |

Thursday, November 01, 2007

A cold *nose wiggle* *nose wiggle*

I have no idea why I had great satisfaction this morning, waking up and saying out loud "Rabbit, Rabbit!" - to get some luck... (with two nose wiggles from our two bunnies Indy and Chip, who are "meatloafed" in their cage keeping warm)...

It's great knowing I don't have to say"Tibbar, Tibbar!" tonight, Go checkout the Wikipedia entry on this: "Rabbit rabbit".

posted at 07:07 AM | Link | Memes | Care to comment? | § |

Monday, October 01, 2007

*nose wiggle* *nose wiggle*

We had a nice fall storm move through the area overnight... which, to keep a long story short, tripped a GFI breaker in our house, which took down the distribution amplifier in our garage for our DirecTV system...

..again, trying to make this short, I had to go downstairs to reset the breaker... which was the cause of me talking to Carol before I realized I needed to utter the correct words for today - "Rabbit, Rabbit!" - to get some luck... (with two nose wiggles from our two bunnies Indy and Chip)...

so... since I am doomed for not saying the luck phrase that pays (unless I remember to say "Tibbar, Tibbar!" tonight), go checkout the Wikipedia entry on this: "Rabbit rabbit".

posted at 06:49 AM | Link | Memes | Care to comment? | § |

Saturday, September 01, 2007

*nose wiggle* *nose wiggle*

First of the month, first words today - "Rabbit, Rabbit!" said out loud for luck... (with two nose wiggles from our two bunnies Indy and Chip)...

...and I forgot to do it - again - as my first words were on some discussion on packing as we're on our way to my sister's house in Michigan for an extended Labor Day Weekend vacation away... God I'm tired.. .and exhausted... from a whirlwind two weeks playing ambassador to a friend visiting from England.... ya, know... that's a much harder job than I had anticipated...

so... since I am doomed for not saying the luck phrase that pays, go checkout the Wikipedia entry on this: "Rabbit rabbit".

posted at 06:47 AM | Link | Memes | Care to comment? | § |

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

*nose wiggle* *nose wiggle*

First of the month, first words today - "Rabbit, Rabbit!" said out loud for luck... (with two nose wiggles from our two bunnies Indy and Chip)...

...and I forgot to do it, as my first words were some expletive as I squeezed out too much shampoo into my palm in the shower...

so... since I am doomed for not saying the luck phrase that pays, go checkout the Wikipedia entry on this: "Rabbit rabbit".

posted at 08:09 AM | Link | Memes | Care to comment? | § |

Sunday, July 01, 2007

*nose wiggle* *nose wiggle*

First of the month, first words today - "Rabbit, Rabbit!" said out loud for luck... (with two nose wiggles from our two bunnies)

... pausing to hear the echo in the empty room, wondering if there's anybody out there still visiting, still reading...

...after 5 years, 5 years of a mundane life, I'm having so much problem trying to get the motivation to write anything here... I still want to write, I just haven't found the motivation... and then there's the issue of trying to find something to write about... somehow I have to find something to write more often...

posted at 07:35 AM | Link | Memes | Care to comment? | § |

Friday, June 01, 2007

*nose wiggle* *nose wiggle*

"Rabbit, Rabbit!"

*whew*... got that out of the way... had to be the first words out of my mouth this morning to have good luck... finding reasons to NEED to be lucky today...

Going to Arlington Park this afternoon as part of the fans going to the Secretariat Suite from the Eric and Kathy show on WTMX... might rain, though.. but we'll be inside, eating, drinking, partying...

posted at 07:04 AM | Link | Memes | Care to comment? | § |

Thursday, March 01, 2007

*nose wiggle* *nose wiggle*

How can it be the First Day of the Month already? Again according to meme tradition..., you better say "Rabbit, Rabbit!" as your first words of the day to have good luck! (Now, if you blew it, before you go to sleep tonight, to still try to gain luck, your last words have to be "Tibbar! Tibbar!")..

And for other derivitives to this meme, check out the alternatives: "White Rabbit" or Rabbit! Rabbit! Rabbit!.

posted at 06:51 AM | Link | Memes | § |

Thursday, February 01, 2007

*nose wiggle* *nose wiggle*

It's that time again - you were supposed to say "Rabbit, Rabbit!" as your first words of the day to have good luck! (or, if you blew it, before you go to sleep tonight, you can still try to get some luck, your last words have to be "Tibbar! Tibbar!")...

...not like it's helped me at all, but, that's the legend anyway...

... for other derivatives to this meme, check out the alternatives: "White Rabbit" or Rabbit! Rabbit! Rabbit!.

posted at 06:37 AM | Link | Memes | § |

Monday, January 01, 2007

Happy New Year 2007

Hey there everyone... a new year is upon us...

We spent the evening last night at B&B's, with friends... ringing in the New Year... after SUFFERING through watching the Chicago Bears LOSE to the Green Bay Packers... which.. the WHOLE thing, about the NFL MOVING the game from noon to 7pm... on New Year's Eve, causing chaos in homes, restaurants, and bars around Chicagoland, (do you have/go to a party? do you open your business instead for Bears fans to watch the game?)

We watched the local coverage of New Year's celebrations around Chicago, and heckle the people being shown, whether they are the local hosts doing a poor job transitioning from remote to remote... or the choice of clothing that everyone being shown is wearing... and... perhaps the sad state of decent music being played at these venues

So... that was last night.. celebrating with friends...

This morning, it was the Tournament of Roses Parade. We caught the KTLA broadcast in HD on Discovery HD. We normally watch the HGTV coverage, because of the different approach to it (all bout the float decorations and materials), but... it's just damn hard to pass-up HD broadcasts...

And George Lucas as Grand Marshall... an Ewok float... a Naboo float... original costumes from the movies... The Grambling Marching Band dressed in Empire Officers uniforms playing Star Wars music... and 200 marching stormtroopers, in uniform and all variations of them, all of them fans from around the world. Way cool...

Well.. it's way too late in the day to say "Rabbit, Rabbit!" as your first words of the day to have good luck (or, if you blew it, before you go to sleep tonight, you can still try to get some luck, your last words have to be "Tibbar! Tibbar!")... But.. I wonder what happens on a day like this? I mean.. are we supposed to say "Rabbit, Rabbit!" as our first words after midnight, instead of "Happy New Year"? or... is it the first words to utter after you awake for the day?... I'm so confused...

posted at 03:21 PM | Link | Mundane | § |

Friday, December 01, 2006

*nose wiggle* *nose wiggle*

It's the last reminder of the year to say "Rabbit, Rabbit!" as your first words of the day to have good luck! (or, if you blew it, before you go to sleep tonight, you can still try to get some luck, your last words have to be "Tibbar! Tibbar!")...

And for other derivatives to this meme, check out the alternatives: "White Rabbit" or Rabbit! Rabbit! Rabbit!.

Now, if you're in Chicago... you're actually out of time and out of luck, 'cause it's time for the Chicago Winter Parking Ban.

posted at 06:36 AM | Link | Memes | § |

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

*nose wiggle* *nose wiggle*

It's the Frost on the Pumpkin reminder to say "Rabbit, Rabbit!" as your first words of the day to have good luck! (or, if you blew it, before you go to sleep tonight, you can still try to get some luck, your last words have to be "Tibbar! Tibbar!")...

And for other derivatives to this meme, check out the alternatives: "White Rabbit" or Rabbit! Rabbit! Rabbit!.

posted at 06:16 AM | Link | Memes | § |

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

*nose wiggle* *nose wiggle*

How can it be the First Day of the Month already? Again according to meme tradition..., you better say "Rabbit, Rabbit!" as your first words of the day to have good luck! (Now, if you blew it, before you go to sleep tonight, to still try to gain luck, your last words have to be "Tibbar! Tibbar!")..

And for other derivitives to this meme, check out the alternatives: "White Rabbit" or Rabbit! Rabbit! Rabbit!.

posted at 06:42 AM | Link | Memes | § |

Thursday, June 01, 2006

*nose wiggle* *nose wiggle*

It's the First Day of the Month, again, and according to meme tradition..., you better say "Rabbit, Rabbit!" as your first words of the day to have good luck! (Now, if you blew it, before you go to sleep tonight, to still try to gain luck, your last words have to be "Tibbar! Tibbar!")

I'll tell you, we all got lucky with Indy... I can't believe that her health "issues" this week were due to dental problems.

Oh, and for other derivitives to this meme, check out the alternatives: "White Rabbit" or Rabbit! Rabbit! Rabbit!.


...and why the hell am I up so early?....

posted at 06:01 AM | Link | Memes | § |

Monday, May 01, 2006

*nose wiggle* x 2 . . . *cough*?

It's the First of the month, again, and according to legend... or meme tradition..., you better say "Rabbit, Rabbit!" as your first words of the day to have good luck!

(It's Times 2 because of the two because of our two resident rabbits, Indy & Chip! The cough? Well, that's because I heard Chip make this noise yesterday that could only be described as a cough. He did it once later, too. We've been keeping our eye on him, because typically this is not a noise a rabbit should make. In fact, this is the first time in over 20 years of rabbit ownership that we've heard that noise.)

Now, apparently, this meme could actually be "White Rabbit" or Rabbit! Rabbit! Rabbit!. The jury is still out, and luck is sooooooo subjective...

posted at 07:09 AM | Link | Memes | § |

Saturday, April 01, 2006

*nose wiggle* x 2

Hey! No Foolin', you better say "Rabbit, Rabbit!" as your first words of the day to have good luck!

(It's Times 2 because of the two because of our two resident rabbits, Indy & Chip!)

Now, could it actually be "White Rabbit" or Rabbit! Rabbit! Rabbit!?

posted at 07:10 AM | Link | Memes | § |

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

*nose wiggle* x 2

"Rabbit, Rabbit!"

(It's Times 2 because of the two because of our two resident rabbits!) Could it be "White Rabbit" or Rabbit! Rabbit! Rabbit!?

posted at 06:55 AM | Link | Memes § |

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Time for a Lucky Nose Wiggle! (x 2 for us!)

Time to awake and say a lucky Rabbit, Rabbit" !

... or a "White Rabbit" or Rabbit! Rabbit! Rabbit!

posted at 07:31 AM | Link | Memes § |

Sunday, January 01, 2006

New Year's Nose Wiggle (x 2!)

Hey!, YOU try saying "Rabbit, Rabbit" instead of Happy New Year after midnight!

Not Easy!

(It's Times 2 because of our two resident rabbits!) Still don't know if it could it be "White Rabbit" or Rabbit! Rabbit! Rabbit!?

posted at 12:01 AM | Link | Memes § |

Thursday, December 01, 2005

*nose wiggle* x 2

"Rabbit, Rabbit!"

(It's Times 2 because of the two because of our two resident rabbits!) Could it be "White Rabbit" or Rabbit! Rabbit! Rabbit!?

December 1st: First day of the Snow Route Parking Ban in the city of Chicago. Also, official "end" to hurricane season - as Tropical Storm EPSILON is still out in the Atlantic...

UPDATE: A day later on 12/2, Tropical Storm EPSILON becomes Hurricane Epsilon, the 14th Hurricane of the "season"

posted at 07:10 AM | Link | Memes § |

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

*nose wiggle* x 2

"Rabbit, Rabbit!"

Still don't know if it should be "White Rabbit" or Rabbit! Rabbit! Rabbit!

posted at 06:50 AM | Link | Memes § |

Saturday, October 01, 2005

*nose wiggle* x 2
posted at 07:09 AM | Link | Memes § |

Thursday, September 01, 2005

*nose wiggle* x 2

"Rabbit, Rabbit!"

I've been at this for a few years now, you would think that at least some good luck would come my way!

posted at 07:07 AM | Link | Memes § |

Monday, August 01, 2005

*nose wiggle* x 2

"Rabbit, Rabbit!"

Crap... it's a "Tibbar, Tibbar!" day for me! Totally slipped my mind that it was the first of the month!

posted at 06:08 AM | Link | Memes § |

Friday, July 01, 2005

*nose wiggle* x 2

"Rabbit, Rabbit!"

Beginning of the month, beginning of a holiday weekend.

2 reasons to "Rabbit, Rabbit!"

(Plus our own personal two reasons - Indy & Chip (or, as we're starting to call him - Chip The Bruiser. He's not growing at all, but he's just one solid little bunny, running everywhere he can, picking up anything he can, and annoying every bunny he can)

posted at 06:31 AM | Link | Memes § |

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

*nose wiggle* x 2
posted at 06:47 AM | Link | Memes § |

Sunday, May 01, 2005

*nose wiggle* x 2
posted at 07:38 AM | Link | Memes § |

Friday, April 01, 2005

*nose wiggle* x 2
posted at 07:03 AM | Link | Memes § |

Tuesday, February 01, 2005

*nose wiggle* x 2
posted at 06:48 AM | Link | Memes § |

Saturday, January 01, 2005

2005

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

and "Rabbit, Rabbit!"

So, last night we drove into the city to our annual celebration at Barry & Buffy's house with Debbie and Kenny & Pat. The drive was great - except you had to be alert for all of the idiots speeding, tailgating, and slaloming down the tollways and expressways. It took me half an hour to find a parking spot in their Wrigleyville neighborhood. Let's just say the area was jumpin'. I wound up getting a parking place 2 doors down from B&B. Go figure.

*sigh* We're getting old.

I think everyone fell asleep at one point or another during the evening - and this was before 11:30! Poor Debbie is just absolutely wiped-out from working overnights at Fields from Thanksgiving to Christmas. We ate like fools again. This year it was all appetizers and desserts and there was a lot to go around. For some strange reason, though I had every intent to do it, I didn't take any pictures this year. Did we stay long? I think we were on our way by 12:30.

Yes, we're all getting old.

*sigh*

My RC Mini Cooper
P.S. I got an early birthday gift from Barry and Buffy (they always try to do something for me since my birthday is just in a few days - the 4th - and Buffy just had her birthday on the 30th).

Anyway, it's a really cool little radio controlled Mini Cooper. Wonder if Erin would be jealous? (even though it's a little plastic RC car and not the convertible Mini Copper that she wants...)

posted at 08:01 AM | Link | Mundane § |

Wednesday, December 01, 2004

*nose wiggle*
posted at 06:54 AM | Link | Memes § |

Monday, November 01, 2004

*nose wiggle*
posted at 07:33 AM | Link | Memes § |

Friday, October 01, 2004

*nose wiggle*
posted at 07:05 AM | Link | Memes § |

Wednesday, September 01, 2004

*nose wiggle* *nose wiggle*

"Rabbit, Rabbit!"

(Had to give two wiggles - we've got two bunnies in the house now!

posted at 07:58 AM | Link | Memes § |

Sunday, August 01, 2004

*nose wiggle*
posted at 06:31 AM | Link | Memes § |

Thursday, July 01, 2004

*nose wiggle*
posted at 06:31 AM | Link | Memes | 1 comment § |

Tuesday, June 01, 2004

*nose wiggle*
posted at 07:36 AM | Link | Memes § |

Saturday, May 01, 2004

*nose wiggle*

"Rabbit, Rabbit!"

Almost forgot! It's been a while!

posted at 07:30 AM | Link | Memes § |

Friday, March 05, 2004

Friday 5 - Old Favorites

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
What was...
1. ...your first grade teacher's name? Oh, oh.... I don't remember... a Nun... Sister Mary.... Vincent?
2. ...your favorite Saturday morning cartoon? Wow, when I was slightly older, I really got Bugs Bunny. I remember always watching them.
3. ...the name of your very first best friend? That must be Paul from down the block
4. ...your favorite breakfast cereal? Toss up - Captain Crunch or Lucky Charms
5. ...your favorite thing to do after school? Play baseball at Steinmetz, or just running bases on the front sidewalk or in the alley

posted at 08:33 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Monday, March 01, 2004

*nose wiggle*
posted at 08:08 AM | Link | Memes § |

Friday, January 16, 2004

Friday 5 - Your Mark

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. What does it say in the signature line of your emails? My personal email? Nothing. I don't like sigs at the bottom of my personal email. My company email? Typical name/address/contact info stuff
2. Did you have a senior quote in your high school yearbook? What was it? If you haven't graduated yet, what would you like your quote to be? Our yearbook never had quotes. Oh well...
3. If you had vanity plates on your car, what would they read? If you already have them, what do they say? I was thinking something about my last name or initials & address... I don't need to have anything else... oooo, wait...maybe "Mundane"?
4. Have you received any gifts with messages engraved upon them? What did the inscription say? Yes, an award that loks like an Oscar, but isn't... and I can't remember what it says right now...
5. What would you like your epitaph to be? "He tried to be above average, but never succeeded"... hmmm, too depressing, I need to figure out another one...

posted at 06:40 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Saturday, January 10, 2004

23 points

Saw this in Erin's blog:

Pholph's Scrabble Generator

My Scrabble© Score is: 30.
What is your score? Get it here.

posted at 10:59 PM | Link | Memes § |

Friday, January 02, 2004

Friday 5 - Looking Forward

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
What one thing are you most looking forward to . . .
1. ...today? being lazy!
2. ...over the next week? My birthday on Sunday, and (believe it or not) returning to work on Monday
3. ...this year? Getting some kind of job that actually pays a decent wage, and celebrating our 25th anniversary
4. ...over the next five years? Slowly getting out of debt
5. ...for the rest of your life? Spending it with Carol, perhaps traveling perhaps relocating, not working for a living and being retired and having a enjoyable life together

posted at 11:44 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Thursday, January 01, 2004

*nose wiggle* Toot! Toot!

"Rabbit, Rabbit!" and Happy New Year - 2004! Whooo Hooo!!!!!

posted at 12:01 AM | Link | Memes § |

Friday, December 26, 2003

Friday 5 - New Year's

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. What was your biggest accomplishment this year? heh... being employed
2. What was your biggest disappointment? not being employed at a salary level that is anywhere near what I used to earn...
3. What do you hope the new year brings? A more positive earnings outlook (boy, this seems one track right now...)
4. Will you be making any New Year's resolutions? If yes, what will they be? No, no resolutions. I just don't do it... I never wind-up keeping any, so why bother?
5. What are your plans for New Year's Eve? The annual party at B&B's!

posted at 07:38 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, December 12, 2003

Friday 5 - The Holidays

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. Do you enjoy the cold weather and snow for the holidays? NOOOOOOOO!!!!!! OK, snow, yes, cold, no.
2. What is your ideal holiday celebration? How, where, with whom would you celebrate to make things perfect? The entire extended family together in one place. Period. None of this split-family stuff where no one gets together, only to go their separate ways to celebrate their own ways with their families. Just once I want all of us together. We're losing too many of our family members and I feel that we're losing quality time together.
3. Do you do have any holiday traditions? We have always had a Christmas Eve extended-family get together, and Christmas morning has been at my parents.
4. Do you do anything to help the needy? Toys-for-Tots, whenever we can. I'm just feeling a little needy myself this season...
5. What one gift would you like for yourself? Money. Just money. Nothing else. We need to get out of debt. I don't need anything else.

posted at 06:08 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Monday, December 01, 2003

*twitch*?

Aw, Nuts! I forgot about "Rabbit, Rabbit!" Now I've got to remember "Tibbar, Tibbar!"

posted at 06:09 PM | Link | Memes § |

Friday, November 07, 2003

Friday 5 - Love/Hate

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. What food do you like that most people hate? Raw ground sirloin (ground beef) sandwiches with salt, pepper and onions
2. What food do you hate that most people love? Anything with liver (including paté), broccoli, asparagus, celery
3. What famous person, whom many people may find attractive, is most unappealing to you? Sarah Jessica Parker. I just don't see it.
4. What famous person, whom many people may find unappealing, do you find attractive? Wow. I don't know... I've got to think about it...
5. What popular trend baffles you? Where do I start? How about those stupid, baggy, usually too long stovepipe jeans that are falling off the body, usually with some strips or chains or other things attached to them. Facial piercings of any type (though I'm tolerating tattoos... some tattoos depending on location, size, and quantity...). Is the overuse of the word "dude" finally going away???

posted at 07:01 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Saturday, November 01, 2003

*nose wiggle*
posted at 08:44 AM | Link | Memes § |

Friday, October 31, 2003

Friday 5 - Halloween

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. What was your first Halloween costume? Haven't the slightest idea. I remember seeing a picture of me in a cowboy outfit, but I really can't remember.
2. What was your best costume and why? I went as a washing machine one year. It's really the only costume that sticks out in my mind.
3. Did you ever play a trick on someone who didn't give you a treat? Nope, never.
4. Do you have any Halloween traditions? (ie: Family pumpkin carving, special dinner before trick or treating, etc.) No traditions - it's not a holiday that's high on my list.
5. Share your favorite scary story...real or legend! Oh, crap. I don't have one. Really - I don't. Sorry. Boring answers this week. Sorry, people - move along...

posted at 06:28 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, October 24, 2003

Friday 5

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
...Not this week. Looks like they're taking off a week, maybe two, maybe longer (sounds like they're getting slammed by trolls, just like many blogs and meme site seem to be lately. Just too many asses out there that just won't STFU).

posted at 06:53 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, October 17, 2003

Friday 5 - 5 Things

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. Name five things in your refrigerator. Hershey bars, Jones Apple Soda, Swiss cheese, Caffeine Free Coca Cola, Indy's endive lettuce
2. Name five things in your freezer. Microwavable burritos, Eggos, ice cube trays, frozen & vaccu-sealed meat from the butcher in Michigan, chocolate chip cookie dough
3. Name five things under your kitchen sink. Windex, Resolv, ScotchGuard, a recycling bin, draw-string garbage bags
4. Name five things around your computer. Other computers, lots of software boxes, can of compressed air, 2 staplers, clock
5. Name five things in your medicine cabinet. Crest toothpaste, Crest SpinBrush Pro, Gillette deodorant, Pepcid AC, Armani Mania.

posted at 08:19 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, October 10, 2003

Friday 5 - Sports

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. Do you watch sports? If so, which ones? Baseball, hockey, a little football
2. What/who are your favorite sports teams and/or favorite athletes? Chicago White Sox, Chicago Wolves
3. Are there any sports you hate? Well, there's "wrestling" (or is that entertainment?). I'm not crazy about college sports, mostly college basketball
4. Have you ever been to a sports event? Have you ever read my blog???
5. Do/did you play any sports (in school or other)? How long did you play? Nope, never played anything organized (other than bowling leagues).

posted at 08:00 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, October 03, 2003

Friday 5 - Cars

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. What vehicle do you drive? 1997 Infiniti I30
2. How long have you had it? Since April, 1997
3. What is the coolest feature on your vehicle? It's the smallest thing, but man I love it - the self-dimming rear view mirror. Greatest thing for night driving.
4. What is the most annoying thing about your vehicle? My automated climate control of the interior gets a little "buggy" and doesn't do a good job of controlling the temperature on long trips
5. If money were no object, what vehicle would you be driving right now? Well, I want a Mini Cooper, but I'd really like another Nissan Z. Whatever it will be, it must have a good GPS system in it.

posted at 09:04 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Wednesday, October 01, 2003

*nose wiggle*
posted at 07:47 AM | Link | Memes § |

Friday, September 26, 2003

No Friday Five

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five... but this week, there is no a href="http://fridayfive.org/" target="_blank">Friday Five - they're taking a week off (which is good since I, too, am off in southern California!)

posted at 05:46 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, September 19, 2003

Avast me hearties!

International Talk Like a Pirate Day
Arrrr! Smartly come aboard, Splice the Mainbrace 'till your deadlights turn red to International Talk Like a Pirate Day and Go On The Account! Blimey, no souls pass near here... aye, I may hang the jib, but I have no want to Dance with Jack Ketch... oh and no sprogs allowed on me ship...

We kindle and char and inflame and ignite.
Drink up me 'earties yo ho!

And j'st call me by My Pirate Name - Black William Rackham

Update: Harrr! Avast ye scurvy curr!! is a moblog to post pix of squiffies tryin' to talk like the Brethren of the Coast.

posted at 12:00 PM | Link | Memes § |
Friday 5 - Music

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. Who is your favorite singer/musician? Why? Don't have one since my tastes are all over the place.
2. What one singer/musician can you not stand? Why? I have no tollerance for any Hip Hop/Rap artist out there. I just despise the genre and I just can't tolerate it.
3. If your favorite singer wasn't in the music business, do you think you would still like him/her as a person? See #1. Hard to say if I don't have a favorite.
4. Have you been to any concerts? If yes, who put on the best show? Of courser I've been to concerts. Haven't been to one in quite a while (Dixie Chicks being the last one)
5. What are your thoughts on downloading free music online vs. purchasing albums? Do you feel the RIAA is right in its pursuit to stop people from dowloading free music? Whoa! Wait a minute! The problem is that I believe the music should not be free for download unless the original artist(s) wanted it that way. That being said, I think the RIAA is way over the line on the prosecution perspective.

As you can tell, though I like music I don't live my life through music.

posted at 12:46 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, September 12, 2003

Friday 5 - Your name

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. Is the name you have now the same name that's on your birth certificate? If not, what's changed? Why, yes it is.
2. If you could change your name (first, middle and/or last), what would it be? No, I'm OK with it.
3. Why were you named what you were? (Is there a story behind it? Who specifically was responsible for naming you?) I'm a Jr., meaning that I have the same name as my dad.
4. Are there any names you really hate or love? What are they and why? I'm neutral about names. I have more feelings about what people name their pets than I do about names of people.
5. Is the analysis of your name at kabalarians.com accurate? How or how isn't it? You know what? No, it's not that accurate. It sounds like it makes me out to be stronger than I am.

Your name of Michael gives you a clever mind, good business judgment, a sense of responsibility, and an appreciation of the finer things of life. You are serious-minded and not inclined to make light of things even in little ways, and in your younger years you had more mature interests than others your age. Home and family mean a great deal to you and it is natural that you should desire the security of a peaceful, settled home environment where you can enjoy the companionship of family and friends. Whatever you set out to accomplish you do your very best to complete in accordance with what you consider to be right. In the home you assume your responsibilities capably, having the self-confidence to form your own opinions and make your own decisions. Others can rely on you; once you have given your word you will do your utmost to fulfil a responsibility. However, there is a tendency to be a little too independent in your thinking and it is difficult for you to accept the help of others when you should.

posted at 08:59 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, September 05, 2003

Friday 5 - Housekeeping

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. What housekeeping chore(s) do you hate doing the most? Oh, crap - housekeeping!!! OK, look. I'm a male. I'm a guy. I'm also a pig. When it comes to housekeeping, my duties center around garbage - collecting it, bagging it, taking it out to the curb. That's about it. I do it and I don't do it well. The rest of the housekeeping is done by my lovely wife. There, I've said it. I don't do it. I'm sorry. I'm a lazy slob. I have to get that out there for everyone to hear. Yes, I'm a lazy slob, I don't do housework. That being said, this week's Friday Five just isn't going to be good for me, if you know what I mean. OK, thing I hate most? How about taking out the garbage... (God, that's lame...)
2. Are there any that you like or don't mind doing? For some reason, I don't mind doing windows (which I rarely do) or - get ready for this - I've enjoyed defrosting a freezer. Go figure.
3. Do you have a routine throughout the week or just clean as it's needed? Umm... as needed. Yeah, as needed...
4. Do you have any odd cleaning/housekeeping quirks or rules? Ummm.... not doing it?
5. What was the last thing you cleaned? The screen on one of our TV sets.
(Boy am I going to get slammed for this...)

posted at 08:54 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Monday, September 01, 2003

*nose wiggle*
posted at 08:50 AM | Link | Memes | 1 comment § |

Friday, August 29, 2003

Friday 5 - School

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. Are you going to school this year? Nope. That's over for me.
2. If yes, where are you going (high school, college, etc.)? If no, when did you graduate? High School - 1975, College - didn't graduate
3. What are/were your favorite school subjects? TV Production, History of American Popular Culture, Meteorology, and a favorite - a 2 credit hour Geography course: Wine, Beer, and Booze Geography!!!
4. What are/were your least favorite school subjects? High School Drafting - only course I flunked and had to talke summer school
5. Have you ever had a favorite teacher? Why was he/she a favorite? Two guys - Bob Morris and Bob Brown. Had them in High School. Funny guys, both driven, knew how to talk to the students and motivate them

posted at 12:42 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, August 22, 2003

Friday 5 - The Last Time

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. When was the last time you laughed? Wednesday when we went to see Finding Nemo
2. Who was the last person you had an argument with? Wow, an actual argument? I can't recall...
3. Who was the last person you emailed? That would be a former co-worker Peggy to talk about Elvis Night tonight at "The Cell"
4. When was the last time you bathed? Why, I just got out of the shower. Yeah, that's it... I just got out... squeaky clean... yeah...
5. What was the last thing you ate? Last night - steak/green beans/noodles for dinner

posted at 08:22 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, August 15, 2003

Friday 5 - Your internet

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. How much time do you spend online each day? Not as much as I expected now that I'm unemployed again. Only a few hours during the day and a few hours at night (which does not include watching any Big Brother 4 live feeds...)
2. What is your browser homepage set to? about:blank - I can't stand waiting for the page to load, I just want the browser to open quickly
3. Do you use any instant messaging programs? If so, which one(s)? Trillian, but I don't have it up that often.
4. Where was your first webpage located? at my original website - The Cousins, which was a failed attempt at trying to get all my cousins online. Now it's just a gutted skelton that needs to be killed.
5. How long have you had your current website? since December 2001.

posted at 11:42 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, August 08, 2003

Friday 5 - Travel

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. What's the last place you traveled to, outside your own home state/country? State = My sister's house in Michigan. Country? That was in 1993 when Carol and I flew up to Toronto for the day to watch our White Sox lose to the Blue Jays during the playoffs.
2. What's the most bizarre/unusual thing that's ever happened to you while traveling? No bizarre things that I can remember... unusual? How about being in the cockpit of an American Airlines 707 at 39,000 feet over the Pacific on my way to Hawaii? I'm sure I have something better... I just can't think of anything...
3. If you could take off to anywhere, money and time being no object, where would you go? I want to go to Australia and Japan.
4. Do you prefer traveling by plane, train or car? Plane. I love flying. Don't like the security hassles right now, but I love flying. Hate cars. If time wouldn't be an issue, and depending where I was going, train would be great, too.
5. What's the next place on your list to visit? I NEED to get back to Las Vegas. BAD.

posted at 08:11 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, August 01, 2003

Friday 5 - Starting the day

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. What time do you wake up on weekday mornings? When I used to work, it was 6:30am. Now it's about 7:30am-8:00am
2. Do you sleep in on the weekends? How late? I try, but it's usually just until 9:00am
3. Aside from waking up, what is the first thing you do in the morning? Check my email. It's not like I get a lot of mail (OTHER than the spam I get)
4. How long does it take to get ready for your day? 15-30 minutes
5. When possible, what is your favorite place to go for breakfast? I hardly ever have breakfast, so I don't go out for it. Denny's maybe? (shudder)

posted at 09:14 AM | Link | Friday Five § |
*nose wiggle*
posted at 06:51 AM | Link | Memes § |

Friday, July 25, 2003

Friday 5 - Your Movie

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. If your life were a movie, what would the title be? Probably the title of my Blog - "My Mundane Mid-Life"
2. What songs would be on the soundtrack? Lot's of 80's stuff. Don't know why, I just love the genre.
3. Would it be a live-action film or animated? Why? Wow. I've never thought of that. Live action would be more "tru-to-life", but, you know, you just don't want to get too true to my life, so animation may be the way to go. Traditional animation, like Warner Brothers and not high tech Pixar-type or the newer styles of animation like Johny Bravo, Ren & Stimpy, or Powerpuff Girls. And I don't think my life warrants Anime.
4. Casting: who would play you, members of your family, friends, etc? I'm thinking Miguel Ferrer would play me. Bernadette Peters would play my wife Carol (in a TOTALLY non-singing, non-dancing role).
5. Describe the movie preview/trailer. No narration. Just shots of me on the computer, working on my blog, me driving in my car, me walking into the ballpark, me watching the White Sox. Fade to black. Fade up title "My Mundane Mid-Life". Cross fade to "Coming Soon". Fade to black.

posted at 08:21 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, July 18, 2003

Friday 5 - The evil you

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. When was the last time you cheated? Hmmm... I guess I cheat every day when I drive, when I run a yellow light, go over the limit.
2. When was the last time you stole? Stole???? You mean like the binder clip I have in my pocket right now? I'm always taking office supplies... paper clips, I love binder clips (and I don't know why)... they don't have any good pens here, though
3. When was the last time you lied? I work at a help desk... I lie every day to customers to tell them one thing when in actuality something else is happening behind the scenes. In fact, my boss wants me too. I don't like misleading the user community, but I do.
4. When was the last time you broke or vandalized another's property? NEVER, I don't do that. I may take office supplies or lie, but that's it. I don't cross the line.
5. When was the last time you hurt a loved one? Wow. It was about a decade ago, that I know of. I may have done it unknowingly.

posted at 08:21 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, July 11, 2003

Friday 5 - Friends

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. Do you remember your first best friend? Who was it? I think it was Paul from down the street. We used to play what seems like everyday. I don't ever remember playing football with him, mostly only baseball.
2. Are you still in touch with this person? No. I have no idea what happened to the family.
3. Do you have a current close friend? I thought about this for a while. Other than my wife, I think I do now - I think it's my buddy Barry
4. How did you become friends with this person? I Interviewed him for a job back in '90 (or was it '91?). We were co-workers after that, and we started doing things over that time. When I parted ways with the company, we always kept in touch (so did our wives). We travel together and go out together.
5. Is there a friend from your past that you wish you were still in contact with? Why? Yeah, a former co-worker Randy, who was just a great guy. No matter how you slice it, this guy was fun and was good at what he did.

posted at 06:55 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, July 04, 2003

Friday 5 - Childhood Stories

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. What were your favorite childhood stories? I have no recollection of any stories or books. Don't know why.
2. What books from your childhood would you like to share with [your] children? Have no idea since I can't remember any.
3. Have you re-read any of those childhood stories and been surprised by anything? Again, I don't remember reading anything.
4. How old were you when you first learned to read? Wow. I don't know. 5 or 6 maybe.
5. Do you remember the first 'grown-up' book you read? How old were you? Don't remember that at all.
Wow, this was enlightening...

posted at 07:11 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Tuesday, July 01, 2003

*nose wiggle*
posted at 06:51 AM | Link | Memes § |

Friday, June 27, 2003

Friday 5 - Summertime

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. How are you planning to spend the summer [winter]? Hey! This kind of fits being on my vacation! Watching as much baseball as possible and enjoying the weather as much as possible... oh and enjoying my vacation in Orlando!
2. What was your first summer job? I never had a "summer" job.
3. If you could go anywhere this summer [winter], where would you go? Every year I really want to vacation in Washington DC around the 4th of July. Carol & I did that one year and absolutely loved it.
4. What was your worst vacation ever? Wow... has to be a fmaily vacation, but I'm not sure which one...
5. What was your best vacation ever? That 4th of July in DC or it just might be the one I'm on right now!

posted at 06:59 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, June 20, 2003

Friday 5 - Hair

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
HAIR?????? This week it's about HAIR????? How evil is this! I'm going bald and they're doing an F5 on HAIR????? Oh, cripes...
1. Is your hair naturally curly, wavy, or straight? Long or short? Whatever is there is straight
2. How has your hair changed over your lifetime? Other than going gray and falling out on top, it hasn't changed much at all
3. How do your normally wear your hair? Ummm... OK, look, I refuse to do the comb-over thing. I'm not attempting to hide the fact that there's hardly anything up there anymore... I just don't want it to go away...
4. If you could change your hair this minute, what would it look like? I would PUT IT BACK on top!!!!!
5. Ever had a hair disaster? What happened? I can't recall a disaster of any type... unless you call balding a disaster...

posted at 06:43 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, June 13, 2003

Friday 5 - Potpourri

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. What's one thing you've always wanted to do, but never have? Go into space. OK, how about a Zero-G environment? I was supposed to feel that about 15 years ago (has it been that long) but never made it.
2. When someone asks your opinion about a new haircut/outfit/etc, are you always honest? Well, yes. I can't help myself.
3. Have you ever found out something about a friend and then wished you hadn't? What happened? Not that I can recall.
4. If you could live in any fictional world (from a book/movie/game/etc.) which would it be and why? The Jetsons. Everything is just so friggin' cool. Everything is high-tech, flying everywhere. And just think - everything is clean, there's no racial strife, there's no wars, there's no poverty.
5. What's one talent/skill you don't have but always wanted? Something to do with music - either be able to sing or play an instrument (either guitar or piano, but I wouldn't mind knowing how to play a horn - could come in handy at hockey games...)

posted at 06:47 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, June 06, 2003

Friday 5 - Love

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. How many times have you truly been in love? Other than my wife??? What, are you nuts??? You really expect me to answer that???? I'm letting this go...
2. What was/is so great about the person you love(d) the most? Oh, God, I hate this week's 5... I don't know right now... and if I don't say anything, Carol will kill me and if I say something wrong, Carol will kill me so why should I answer?
3. What qualities should a significant other have? Empathy and the ability to make you feel good - and that could have soooo many different meanings.
4. Have you ever broken someone's heart? I don't think so...
5. If there was one thing you could teach people about love, what would it be? That there's so many facets to what love is and could be, don't overlook or ignore the tiny things

posted at 06:38 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, May 30, 2003

Friday 5 - Your place in the world

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. What do you most want to be remembered for? Right now, I just want to be remembered. Could actually be an underlaying reason for why I started this blog in the first place...
2. What quotation best fits your outlook on life? I didn't claw my way up the food chain to eat vegetables!
3. What single achievement are you most proud of in the past year? I haven't really achieved a thing over the past year, with the exception of landing a permanent job after 19 months, but my buddy Barry was pretty instrumental in that...
4. What about the past ten years? 10 years isn't long enough. There's a few achievements in my career that I'm proud of, but just past 10 years ago. Nothing else come to mind.
5. If you were asked to give a child a single piece of advice to guide them through life, what would you say? Be polite and treat every human with respect, even when you don't think they deserve it.

posted at 06:46 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, May 23, 2003

Friday 5 - Brands

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. What brand of toothpaste do you use? Crest gel
2. What brand of toilet paper do you prefer? Oh, oh... this is a wife-thing. She buys it and I never see it in the wrapping, so I don't know what it is!
3. What brand(s) of shoes do you wear? Rockports
4. What brand of soda do you drink? I'm a Coca-Cola Man, not a Pepsi man (which, somehow, has infiltrated every sporting venue that I go to...). Specifically, Caffeine-Free Coke. Runners up: Green River, IBC Root Beer.
5. What brand of gum do you chew? Favorite stick - Juicy Fruit. Has to be something that lasts a while. I've got some grape Big League Chew at my desk, too.

posted at 06:24 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, May 16, 2003

Friday 5 - Food

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. What drinking water do you prefer -- tap, bottle, purifier, etc.? Prefer bottled - the absolute best is Voss - clean, smooth, silky, absolutely no aftertaste whatsoever. Unbelievable. But, I have to tell you - Chicago tap water is pretty damn good compared to other cities and towns...
2. What are your favourite flavor of chips? Barbecued or salt & vinegar
3. Of all the things you can cook, what dish do you like the most? Cook??? ME????
4. How do you have your eggs? Scrambled, over hard (but prefer Eggs Benedict!)
5. Who was the last person who cooked you a meal? How did it turn out? That would be Carol two nights ago and it was wonderful, as always. (I'm a very lucky man.)

posted at 06:51 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, May 09, 2003

Friday 5 - Organization

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. Would you consider yourself an organized person? Why or why not? Noooo!!!! Are you kidding? Have you ever seen my desk???
2. Do you keep some type of planner, organizer, calendar, etc. with you, and do you use it regularly? No. I used to, when I had a functioning Palm device, but that was some time ago.
3. Would you say that your desk is organized right now? Work desk - somewhat. Home desk - not really, but I know where things are!
4. Do you alphabetize CDs, books, and DVDs, or does it not matter? No, it doesn't matter to me. The collections are small enough that the organization is irrelevant.
5. What's the hardest thing you've ever had to organize? My portion of a Data Center move.

posted at 06:58 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, May 02, 2003

Friday 5 - 5 Songs

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. Name one song you hate to admit you like.
2. Name two songs that always make you cry.
3. Name three songs that turn you on.
4. Name four songs that always make you feel good.
5. Name five songs you couldn't ever do without.
OK, I'm not playing this week. Here's the deal - I'm just not into music that much. I have a hard time recalling songs, let alone what I had for dinner last night. So, I think I'll skip this week. Let's see what next week brings.

posted at 06:39 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Thursday, May 01, 2003

*nose wiggle*
posted at 06:41 AM | Link | Memes § |

Friday, April 25, 2003

Friday 5 - Last

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. What was the last TV show you watched? This morning's Today Show (well, just a little bit of it while I was getting ready to go to work)
2. What was the last thing you complained about and what was the problem? Traffic on the way home last night - see the entry
3. Who was the last person you complimented and what did you say? Oh, oh... I don't remember... that doesn't make me a bad person, does it?
4. What was the last thing you threw away? Three DAT tape cleaners, just a few minutes ago
5. What was the last website (besides this one) that you visited? that would be Christine's Big Pink Cookie

posted at 09:19 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, April 18, 2003

Friday 5 - Celebrity

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. Who is your favorite celebrity? Hmmm... don't know... maybe Sandra Bullock...
2. Who is your least favorite? Any "diva" (and diva, in my book, is not a good attribute), especially Mariah Carey
3. Have you ever met or seen any celebrities in real life? I worked with Broderick Crawford and Tony Cox on a pilot
4. Would you want to be famous? Why or why not? No - I don't have any impending "need" to give up my private life like they do. If it was for a short period of time, a "flash in the pan" sort of thing, that would be doable - as long as the thing that "caused" my fame wasn't negative (like, oh, I don't know... me running onto a field at a baseball game (something I would never do)). Now, if my fame was not due to being in the public eye, but I could be famous and still be just another Joe on the street, sort of an anonymous sort of fame, and it only comes up in conversation - then that's way OK by me. I'm more of a "behind the scenes" kind of guy anyway. I wouldn't mind it at all.
5. If you had to trade places with a celebrity for a day, who would you choose and why? I really don't have a choice - like I said, though you may get praise from others for what you have done, there's always someone out there that either doesn't like the same work, or just doesn't like you. I don't have a need to trade and I've never thought about it.

posted at 09:36 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, April 11, 2003

Friday 5 - Music

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. What was the first band you saw in concert? Hmmm... that would be highschool... Styx played a few of the dances I went to, but this is a concert... could have been Chicago & The Beach Boys at the Chicago Stadium... maybe Cat Stevens at the Stadium... Seals & Crofts at Arie Crown? John Denver? The Stadium? damn... I don't remember...
2. Who is your favorite artist/band now? Don't know. Nobody stands out in my mind right now.
3. What's your favorite song? Can't pick a single favorite. Does anybody have just one favorite song?
4. If you could play any instrument, what would it be? I'm torn - guitar because it's a bit portable, or piano
5. If you could meet any musical icon (past or present), who would it be and why? I've said this before. Frank Sinatra - the Rat Pack years. It's not only his music, but it's also the era and his reputation, true or false. He was just so damn cool for his time. Not shocking or stunning as Elvis or The Beatles were, just cool.

posted at 12:20 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, April 04, 2003

Friday 5 - Stand in the place where you live

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. How many houses/apartments have you lived in throughout your life? let's see... 1 apartment, 1 house before I got married 1 apartment and 1 house since I got married.
2. Which was your favorite and why? The one that we're in now - because it's mine (Whoops... OK... ours)
3. Do you find moving house more exciting or stressful? Why? Hmmm... stressful, not exciting. Exciting afterwords.
4. What's more important, location or price? Location. I want to live where I want to live, and not have to live somewhere because I can afford it.
5. What features does your dream house have (pool, spa bath, big yard, etc.)? First off, house has to be wired. I want multiple CAT5, RG6 and fiber to multiple locations in each and every room. Since I don't have one now, gotta have a basement. Huge wooded lot (gimme an acre or so). yes, pool - heated. Big bathrooms, maybe a steam shower. Media room, data center (yes, complete with raised floors and proper HVAC). Doesn't have to be big. I don't know, I haven't thought about it too much...

posted at 09:56 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Tuesday, April 01, 2003

*nose wiggle*
posted at 06:30 AM | Link | Memes § |

Friday, March 28, 2003

Friday 5 - Your place in the world

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. What was your most memorable moment from the last week? Toasting what would have been my dad's 89th birthday
2. What one person touched your life this week? I don't recall anybody touching me. (That sounds weird...)
3. How have you helped someone this week? All I've done is my help desk work - I've helped my user community, but I think I can honestly say that I don't believe I've helped mankind this week.
4. What one thing do you need to get done by this time next week? Get the day off so that I can go to the White Sox Home Opener!
5. What one thing will you do over the next seven days to make your world a better place? I have nothing planned. Perhaps my little world would be really a better place if I can get my taxes done...

posted at 06:46 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, March 21, 2003

Friday 5 - Different

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. If you had the chance to meet someone you've never met, from the past or present, who would it be? Frank Sinatra. Actually, anyone from the Rat Pack. No, no... the entire Rat Pack, backstage, waiting to go onstage at the Sands...
2. If you had to live in a different century, past or future, which would it be? Future, though not too far - not sure humans would be around!
3. If you had to move anywhere else on Earth, where would it be? An island, private, somewhat large, South Pacific. Hey, I can dream...
4. If you had to be a fictional character, who would it be? Superman. Love that flying thing.
5. If you had to live with having someone else's face as your own for the rest of your life, whose would it be? Mel Gibson. Don't know why.

posted at 06:59 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, March 14, 2003

Friday 5 - Telephones

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. Do you like talking on the phone? Why or why not? Hate it. HATE IT. Go on, ask anybody that knows me. I just don't like it and I have no idea why.
2. Who is the last person you talked to on the phone? Well, since I hate talking on the phone SO much, what do I do for a living? Run a help desk where I'm on the phone all the time. It was a user from Chattanooga.
3. About how many telephones do you have at home? Three. Used to have four, but Indy chewed through the phone cable that's not replaceable (It's a clock radio/phone in our bedroom. Needs to be replaced.)
4. Have you encountered anyone who has really bad phone manners? What happened? No sure about what the definition of "bad phone manners" is, so I'll pass on this one.
5. Would you rather pick up the phone and call someone or write them an e-mail or a letter? Why or why not? EMail. Hands down, EMail. Because I can write the EMail on my time and the person can receive it when they have time. Doesn't require that both people MUST be in simultaneous communication at a specific time.

posted at 08:46 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, March 07, 2003

Friday 5 - 5 Things

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. What was the last song you heard? Crap. I had the Channel 5 news on this morning and they had a musical improv troupe on that did a song about Dr. Phil called "What was I thinkin'" and it was soooo bad and now it's stuck in my head like an earworm.
2. What were the last two movies you saw? Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Die Another Day. (Don't get to the movies as often as we would like.)
3. What were the last three things you purchased? a marchFIRST windbreaker from eBay, a powered 5x8 multiswitch to redistribute my satellite signal around the house, and some cables to do a better job of video capture with my Dazzle Hollywood Bridge and Adobe Premiere.
4. What four things do you need to do this weekend? See our friends B&B, go to the movies, do to Comiskey Park (damn it, I can't call it U.S. Cellular Field yet...) for the Garage Sale, and have my mom & sister over for dinner.
5. Who are the last five people you talked to? I work on a help desk - I talk to people around the country. I don't remember who they all are.

posted at 06:37 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Saturday, March 01, 2003

*nose wiggle*
posted at 08:30 AM | Link | Memes | 1 comment § |

Friday, February 28, 2003

Friday 5 - Reading

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. What is your favorite type of literature to read (magazine, newspaper, novels, nonfiction, poetry, etc.)? OH, CRAP!!! I've said it before - I DON'T READ!!!! I mean, I can read, it's just that I don't read. Magazines. I read magazines. Yeah.
2. What is your favorite novel? The Adolescence of P1. Go ahead, try and find it.
3. Do you have a favorite poem? (Share it!) Not that I can recall.
4. What is one thing you've always wanted to read, or wish you had more time to read? Books. Any.
5. What are you currently reading? Magazines. Yes, I'm still reading magazines. God, I hate these questions...

posted at 06:35 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, February 21, 2003

Friday 5 - Possessions

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. What is your most prized material possession? Wow. I don't really know. I think it was this denim shirt that my aunt embroidered the entire back with a special a drawing by Bill Jackson depicting all of the characters from the kids show I did - Gigglesnort Hotel.
2. What item, that you currently own, have you had the longest? Gee, I don't really know or recall. I mean, I have stuff from grammar school, like papers and stuff like that, and of course photos, but other than that I can't remember any specific item.
3. Are you a packrat? ABSOLUTELY. Carol hates me for it, but absolutely.
4. Do you prefer a spic-and-span clean house? Or is some clutter necessary to avoid the appearance of a museum? I would actually prefer a "spic-and-span" house, but who the hell has time to keep things that clean??? As long as your house doesn't start looking like a senile old-lady's with one hundred cats and piles of newspaper 4 feet tall with only a path to go from room to room. Also, it has to be nicer than that if you entertain frequently.
5. Do the rooms in your house have a theme? Or is it a mixture of knick-knacks here and there? No theme at all. No sense of style much, either. We just don't have the money to get new furniture - the living room stuff is over 20 years old.

posted at 09:21 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, February 14, 2003

Friday 5 - Blogging

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. Explain why you started to journal/blog. I'm not sure exactly why I started. I just wanted some place to write about things in my life. I'm not a good writer, I'm not a witty writer, I just wanted to write for me.
2. Do people you interact with day to day or family members know about your journal/blog? Why or why not? There have been a few people that have visited the website a few times. I guess they're somewhat regulars. But (with the exception of this past week and the unusual traffic with people Millionaire or Bachelorette digging), this site has very low traffic. I know my sister visits somewhat regularly (and sometimes she updates Mom with news from here), but I'm not really sure the extended family ever comes over here.
3. Do you have a theme for your journal/blog? Nope. It's just my life and things I do and things that interest me.
4. What direction would you like to have your journal/blog go in over the next year? I don't have any aspirations, I just wish I would write more about topical things - more commentary (like I have something important to say. Riiiiight.)
5. Pimp five of your favorite journals/blogs. OK, here we go:
Erin's GiggleChick
Robyn's Ain't Too Proud to Blog
Mike's aka Cooties
Quin's QuinnMacDonald
Dawn's A Life Uncommon and Chicago Uncommon (which are more photoblogs than blogs, but she has a great eye for photography)

posted at 07:26 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, February 07, 2003

Friday 5 - Food

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. What did you have for breakfast this morning? If you didn't have breakfast, why not? No breakfast. Rarely eat breakfast at all - unless I'm traveling. I'm not a morning person so I just try to squeeze out as much sleep as possible and then just getup and leave for work.
2. What's your favorite cereal? Corn flakes., Actually, Kellogg's Sugar Frosted Flakes. Gets pretty soggy, though.
3. How often do you eat out? Do you want that to change? As far as Carol & i - we eat out about maybe once a week. Since where I work has no cafeteria, then actually I eat out almost every day.
4. What do you plan on having for dinner tonight? Got a recipe for that? Friday's are our potential eat out nights. Carol wants to do that because her Weight Watchers weigh in is on Fridays, so we, in a twisted way, go out to eat on Friday nights. Tonight? No idea where we're going. I've been told it's my pick, though, as carol doesn't believe today's weigh-in will be a "good one" for her.
5. What's your favorite restaurant? Why? Magnum's in Rolling Meadows. I written about it a few times - check out the links for the "why".

posted at 08:29 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, January 31, 2003

Friday 5 - Potpourri

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. As a child, who was your favorite superhero/heroine? Why? Easy - Batman. Superman had the whole flying thing and strength an other cool powers, but Batman was just a normal guy (well, OK, Bruce Wayne really wasn't all that normal I guess... how about "average" guy?... OK, how about "average millionaire"?) He had the coolest stuff! The whole Bat Cave thing, the Batmobile, and God knows what in his Bat Utility Belt. I just thought that was cool.
2. What was one thing you always wanted as a child but never got? Umm, well, I wanted to go into space and of course that didn't happen. I can't recall wanting something and being devastated by not getting it.
3. What's the furthest from home you've been? Hawaii - Senior class trip 1975. Big Island, Maui, and Oahu.
4. What's one thing you've always wanted to learn but haven't yet? I want to be able to speak a foreign language fluently. I stumbled through a few years of Spanish in high school and that's about it. I've wanted to learn Russian and Japanese.
5. What are your plans for the weekend? Going over to Barry & Buffy's tomorrow night, going to my Mom's on Sunday, but tonight - it's SoxFest 2003 at the Hyatt Regency Chicago!

posted at 06:58 AM | Link | Friday Five | 1 comment § |

Friday, January 24, 2003

Friday 5 - 5 more things

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. What is one thing you don't like about your body? This is in reverse order - I think it should be 5 things here and 1 thing at the bottom. I'm not liking this week's Friday 5... Height, weight, rapidly disintegrating hair line, ears, nose... pick one from the list.
2. What are two things you love about your body? Huh? I am "neutral" about my body. I don't "love" it.
3. What are three things you want to change about your home? Carpeting, landscaping, furniture
4. What are four books you want to read this year? HA!!! If you know me, you know that my wife Carol is the voracious reader. I never pickup a book. I am visually stimulated (TV & movies)
5. What are five promises you have kept to yourself? I have failed most of my promises, and right now, I can't remember even one.

posted at 06:51 AM | Link | Friday Five | 2 comments § |

Friday, January 17, 2003

Friday 5 - Jobs

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. Where do you currently work? in the "discontinued operations" part of IT at Corporate of an eye surgery and laser centers company
2. How many other jobs have you had and where? In IT, it looks like six. I started as a COBOL Programmer Trainee at the World Headquarters for a company back in 1978, worked my way over to systems programming, networking, security, etc. until a RIF in 1997. I had a consulting gig doing a GroupWise to Notes R5 conversion for a home builder, went to an established consulting company to work as a Notes Admin for its infrastructure group, then the company merged with another and wound up one of the dotcom darlings - for all of a few months, when the company crashed and declared bankruptcy. Parts of the company were purchased by another dotcom'er, but I was brought over on only a 60-day contract. I had a contract with a company also going through a GroupWise to Notes R5 conversion, but that was cut short when the contracting company lost the support contract. Then a really short contract (9 days) with a company recovering emails that were lost in the WTC attack (no valid off-site backups for 2 months prior). There's a lot of unemployment time in that span from 1997 until now.
3. What do you like best about your job? Right now - it's a job (something I haven't had in too long of a time). The commute is very tolerable. The workload, right now, is light. I'm learning a few new things (but, unfortunately, not getting very deep into them to feel like I've learned something extensively). It's a permanent position instead of a contract, so at least I have benefits.
4. What do you like least about your job? It's not in my area of expertise over the past 5 years. It's at half the salary I used to earn. the job will end as IT is being downsized (it's already down from 52 to 6) and outsourced, so I probably only have another 3-4 months max staying here.
5. What is your dream job? NONE Meaning I don't want to be working. I've enjoyed my time when I was unemployed, and I real, really, really want to win a Lottery so that I can accomplish that. Now, barring that, I wouldn't mind finding a line of business that allows me to work from home that I would enjoy doing. Barring that, I want to work for an airline in any corporate capacity, but with the industry going into the tank, I don't think that's going to happen either. *sigh*

posted at 09:43 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, January 10, 2003

Friday 5 - Right Now

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. Where are you right now? Sitting in my cubicle at work, drinking coffee
2. What time is it? about 9:40am
3. What are you wearing? This is starting to sound like an obscene phone call... Forest green cotton button-down shirt, black pants.
4. Any people or animals around you? Describe them. My cube is in the middle of 18 empty cubes. There are coworkers down the hall, but I'm alone.
5. What are your plans for the weekend? Wolves hockey Sunday afternoon. Oh, and sleep as much as I can.

posted at 09:41 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, January 03, 2003

Friday 5 - Personal Decorations

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. Do you wear any jewelry? What kind? Just my wedding ring, and a watch if I want to wear it (it's a bit large).
2. How often do you wear it? Umm, the wedding ring doesn't come off unless I shower (weird, eh?) The watch has more to do with where I'm going, what I'm wearing, since my cell phone (which is always on my belt) has the correct time I don't have to rely on the watch.
3. Do you have any piercings? If so, where? Nope, none.
4. Do you have any tattoos? If so, where? Nope, none.
5. What are your plans for the weekend? My birthday is tomorrow and nothing is planned. It's a bad enough week. The stress of all this happening just over New Year's and before my birthday is a bit draining. Time to recharge.

posted at 11:13 PM | Link | Friday Five | 4 comments § |

Friday, December 27, 2002

Friday 5 - New Year

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. What was your biggest accomplishment this year? Finally getting a job after 20 months.
2. What was your biggest disappointment? Not being able to get a job in my field (though at least it's a related field). Finding out that my Dad's cancer came back with a vengeance and can't be cured.
3. Will you be making any New Year's resolutions? Nope. Never do. Too hard to keep.
4. Where will you be at midnight? Do you wish you could be somewhere else? We'll be at our friends' house - Buffy & Barry. And no, we have no desire to be anywhere else.
5. Aside from (possibly) staying up late, do you have any other New Year's traditions? Lately, it's just going over to B&B's, drinking champagne, and eating and eating and eating...

posted at 08:28 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, December 20, 2002

Friday 5 - Holidays

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five... (Hey! It's back!)
1. What holiday or holidays do you celebrate this time of year? Well, Christmas, of course, with celebrations Christmas Eve and Christmas Day
2. What was the best gift you have ever received? There could have been better, but recently the best gift sounds weird - it was a Herman Miller Aeron chair from my sister that I have at my computer at home. It's the world's best chair. When I worked at marchFIRST, that was one of the many extravagances that they had purchased. Why is it the best present? A few reasons - it's comfortable and my butt and back enjoy it, but most of all it was a bit pricey and and it was a very generous gift that I'm much appreciative of.
3. What was the worst gift you've ever given? OOOoooooo... I just don't to talk about some things in public... I have received some pretty bogus things over the years from people that may have been trying to be considerate, but just don't get it.
4. Where will you be celebrating the holidays? Are you hosting? Going away? Christmas Eve will be at my sister's house, Christmas Day at my parents.
5. If you could spend the holidays with someone who isn't around, who would it be with? Why? I guess it depends on the definition of "someone who isn't around". If it refers to geographic location, all of my family is local to Chicago. If it refers to someone who is no longer with us, well that's a whole different story. I would love to go back to the Christmases of my childhood, with everyone alive and vibrant, when the extended family was big, and loud.

posted at 10:03 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Sunday, December 01, 2002

*nose wiggle*
posted at 08:26 AM | Link | Memes § |

Friday, November 22, 2002

No Friday 5

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
Hmmm... going to the website, it says:

smattering the weblog is gone

friday five - nothing until december

more than was expected is going on this
month between birthdays, family visiting and
going out of state for thanksgiving. the f5
falls to the bottom of the list this month but will return
in december. thank you for understanding.

So I guess it'll be a while for the Friday Five to come back.

posted at 09:03 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, November 15, 2002

No Friday 5

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
Hmmm... going to the website, it says:

smattering - gone

friday five - not this week
a vacation? why, thank you!

11.14.02

A bit cryptic, but alas, no Friday 5 this week.

posted at 12:05 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, November 08, 2002

Friday 5 - Politics

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. Did you vote in your last elections? Yep, sure did.
2. Do you know who your elected representatives are? Yes, wel... no. The local State reps I don't really know
3. Have you ever contacted an elected representative? If so, what was it about? No. Nothing ever came up to have me contact them.
4. Have you ever participated in a demonstration? No. Saw one or two, but no.
5. Have you ever volunteered in an election? What was the result? No, I never volunteered.

Boy that was quick. Guess I'm not much of a political activist.

posted at 12:09 AM | Link | Friday Five | 1 comment § |

Friday, November 01, 2002

Friday 5 - Religion

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. Were you raised in a particular religious faith? Yes, Roman Catholic.
2. Do you still practice that faith? Why or why not? No. It happened when we moved to where we live now. I've always felt part of my old parish, and I don't feel connected anywhere now. That just made me feel lost, and I started to have feelings about the absolute necessity of going to church every Sunday.
3. What do you think happens after death? I don't know. All I know is that then end of a life just feels too... final. I feel that there is something more. Heaven? Perhaps. Another spiritual plane? Perhaps.
4. What is your favorite religious ritual (participating in or just observing)? Baptism. It's just really cool to see parents bring a child into the church.
5. Do you believe people are basically good? Yesh. I would have normally said Yes a few years ago, but society has changed so much in just 5 years, that I am wondering if people really are "good" if there exists so much evil in the world, so much meanness to one another.

posted at 09:03 AM | Link | Friday Five § |
*twitch*?

Aw, Nuts! I forgot about "Rabbit, Rabbit!" Now I've got to remember "Tibbar, Tibbar!"

posted at 08:28 AM | Link | Memes § |

Friday, October 25, 2002

Friday 5 - Halloween

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. What is your favorite scary movie? Has to be my first - The Exorcist
2. What is your favorite Halloween treat? Hmmm. to me the definitive Halloween treat is Candy Corn.
3. Do you dress up for Halloween? If so, describe your best Halloween costume. I don't dress. I don't go to Halloween Parties. Not my "scene".
4. Do you enjoy going to haunted houses or other spooky events? Nope. In general, I don't enjoy Halloween.
5. Will you dress up for Halloween this year? Nope.

posted at 09:02 AM | Link | Friday Five | 1 comment § |

Friday, October 18, 2002

Friday 5 - Television

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. How many TVs do you have in your home? There's only two of us in our household, yet there's four TV's.
2. On average, how much TV do you watch in a week? Since I'm at home, it's from when Carol gets up at 5am until I go to bed after 11pm. Every day.
3. Do you feel that television is bad for young children? Not at all, if it is used correctly and monitored.
4. What TV shows do you absolutely HAVE to watch, and if you miss them, you're heartbroken? Dramas: West Wing, CSI (original only), The Sopranos. Comedies: none, really. Reality: "Tier one" stuff only - Survivor, Amazing Race, The Mole (when it was on) and not necessarily Big Brother because the Live Feeds where so much more enjoyable.
5. If you had the power to create your own television network, what would your line-up look like? Wow. Warner Brothers cartoons, quality sitcoms, and quality dramas with an edge. Even though I LOVE reality television, I don't think I'd program it unless there was a new genre that would be a winner.

posted at 09:24 AM | Link | Friday Five | 2 comments § |

Friday, October 11, 2002

Friday 5 - 1-2-3-4-5

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. If you could only choose 1 cd to ever listen to again, what would it be? Oh, crap, not one of these lists... I hate this type of list... OK, Les Misérables Original Broadway Cast (I'm a sucker for musicals)
2. If you could only choose 2 movies to watch ever again, what would they be? Young Frankenstein (don't know why, don't ask), and Mystery, Alaska (ditto)
3. If you could only choose 3 books to read ever again, what would they be? READ? I don't really read. So, a Bible would be one pick, and I don't know about the other two
4. If you could only choose 4 things to eat or drink ever again, what would they be? FOOD! Now we're talking... Fresh brewed A&W Root Beer for the drink; Portillo's Italian beef, wet, with sweet peppers (with fries, if that doesn't count against the 4 picks); a steak from Magnum's; and Prime Rib from Lawry's.
5. If you could only choose 5 people to ever be/talk/associate/whatever with ever again, who would they be? OK, loaded question - my wife Carol would be one and the other four I won't discuss in public in case someone reads this and gets offended by not being on the list!

posted at 08:23 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, October 04, 2002

Friday 5 - Shoes

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. What size shoe do you wear? 8 - 8 1/2 D
2. How many pairs of shoes do you own? Seven.
3. What type of shoe do you prefer (boots, sneakers, pumps, etc.)? All of my shoes (except one pair) are Rockports. Not a boot style, just a "Rockport" style.
4. Describe your favorite pair of shoes. Why are they your favorite? I have a pair of brown Rockports that I am wearing to death. They're soft, they're comfortable, they just fit right. The soles are wearing down, though and becoming smooth - which is a HUGE problem if I get near anywhere that is wet regardless of the texture of the surface. I've lost my footing way too often under those circumstances. But I love those shoes...
5. What's the most you've spent on one pair of shoes? About $125, I believe.

posted at 08:18 AM | Link | Friday Five | 1 comment § |

Tuesday, October 01, 2002

*nose wiggle*
posted at 06:30 AM | Link | Memes § |

Friday, September 27, 2002

Friday 5 - Relaxation

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. What are your favorite ways to relax and unwind? Go to a baseball game, watch TV, sit outside on the deck at my sister's house in Michigan and do nothing
2. What do you do the moment you get home from work/school/errands? Well, back when I used to work, I would usually just sit on the couch and watch TV. I love TV.
3. What are your favorite aromatherapeutic smells? Coffee, Chocolate. Pizza, maybe with a slight burned cheese smell. Oh, wait! I got it! BACON!!!
4. Do you feel more relaxed with a group of friends or hanging out by yourself? By myself. I can just veg out and do what I want and not have to talk or entertain, even though I love my friends.
5. What is something that you feel is relaxing but most people don't? Surf the web and just do stuff on the computer.

posted at 08:29 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, September 20, 2002

Friday 5 - Relationships

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. Would you say that you're good at keeping in touch with people? Absolutely NOT. I have let way too many people slip out of my life due to my inaction. I miss them all.
2. Which communication method do you usually prefer/use: e-mail, telephone, snail mail, blog comments, or meeting in person? Why? EMail - it allows you to communicate when you can - you can respond to Email when you have a moment as opposed to calling someone and have them be in the middle of something and can't take the time to talk. I would prefer face-to-face, but is difficult to coordinate.
3. Do you have an instant messenger program? How many? Why/why not? How often do you use it? Yes AOL, MSN & Yahoo. I never use them. I probably should.
4. Do most of your close friends live nearby or far away? Most of them live in the Chicago area. I have some friends that have recently moved out of state - I miss them, but hopefully we can communicate through my blog and EMail
5. Are you an "out of sight, out of mind" person, or do you believe that "distance makes the heart grow fonder"? I'm not "out of sight, out of mind" kind of guy - I don't forget anybody, I just keep them with me in my thoughts. For some of them, there isn't a week that goes by that I don't think of them, even after many years.

posted at 06:24 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Saturday, September 14, 2002

Which Sim Are You?
posted at 03:56 PM | Link | Stupid Quizzes § |

Friday, September 13, 2002

Friday 5 - School Days

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. What was/is your favorite subject in school? Why? It was my television production classes in both high school and college It allowed me to be creative and do something that I really enjoyed.. My second favorite in college was History of Popular Culture. Third favorite in college was Wine-Beer-Booze Geography - complete with wine tastings.
2. Who was your favorite teacher? Why? In High School - Mr. Morris, the Communications Department chairman. He was irreverent, yet had a good feeling fort television In college, Howard Shapiro a director for ABC. He directed a lot of local stuff, as well as some Olympic coverage. He wasn't a professor - he was a real guy in the business. Forget the books, get educated on how it's done in the real world.
3. What is your favorite memory of school? High school was the TV studio and the staff and productions we had done through the years, as well as the daily shows. In college - it's the time I spent outside of class, hanging out, eating microwave burritos.
4. What was your favorite recess game? I don't recall any organized game at recess in elementary school - I just remember hangin' on the monkey bars (and falling off once)
5. What did you hate most about school? I don't remember anything I hated about High School. In college, I hated that my professors were just professors and had no clue about how things are done in the real world. Hated that arrogance - teach by the book with disregard to how things are done.

posted at 12:06 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, September 06, 2002

Friday 5 - Pet peeves

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. What is your biggest pet peeve? Why? Drivers who have no clue of what's happening around them, or having a "Me First" attitude. I wrote an entire list of things that just piss me off. These people are dangerous.
2. What irritating habits do you have? I don't clean-up after myself - put the dishes in the dishwasher, put my empty soda cans in the recycling bin, throw out the junk mail after you (may) have read it, etc
3. Have you tried to change the irritating habits or just let them be? I've tried, but I just keep forgetting. I'm a mess.
4. What grosses you out more than anything else? Why? I'm assuming that this is along the lines of irritating habits... chewing tobacco. It's the inevitable spitting that is just gross.
5. What one thing can you never see yourself doing that other people do? Again, assuming that this is along the lines of irritating habits... the chewing tobacco thing. It's just not my style and I just don't undertsand it at all.

posted at 09:26 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Thursday, September 05, 2002

What Drink Are You?

Hmmm... I'm not believing this one...


What Drink Are You?
What Drink Are You?

posted at 02:06 PM | Link | Stupid Quizzes § |

Sunday, September 01, 2002

*nose wiggle*
posted at 08:23 AM | Link | Memes | 1 comment § |

Friday, August 30, 2002

Friday 5 - Clothes

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. What's your favorite piece of clothing that you currently own? Damn... a Friday Five about clothing... OK, look. I have no fashion sense, I just know what I like or don't. I need others to tell me what looks good or doesn't, but I can tell immediately what looks good or doesn't look good on someone else. On Me? Forget it. I don't have a favorite piece of clothing. Wait... I have a journalist/safari vest from Banana Republic from the 1980's that I still use when I need a lot of pockets for photography stuff...
2. What piece of clothing do you most want to acquire? There's a SCOTTeVEST Version 2.0s that I want. Someday.
3. What piece of clothing can you not bring yourself to get rid of? Why? The only piece of clothing I can't get rid of is an embroidered shirt that my aunt made for when I was working on Gigglesnort Hotel. It will never leave me.
4. What piece of clothing do you look your best in? No idea. Like I said, I can't tell anything about me.
5. What has been your biggest fashion accident? If I don't know what I look good in, God knows what I have done!!!

posted at 10:10 AM | Link | Friday Five | 1 comment § |

Thursday, August 29, 2002

100 Things
100 Things
So, you wanted to know more about me? Are you sure? Like it or not, here is my entry to 100 Things - 100 Bloggers - 100 Days:

1. I was born in Chicago, Illinois at St. Mary's of Nazareth Hospital
2. I am a Capricorn
3. I never knew my grandfathers
4. I still remember the apartment that we lived in for my first 6 years of life
5. I have only one sibling, my younger sister Diane
6. My sister hit me in the head with a frying pan when she was 4
7. I played Little League baseball, but only one year
8. I went to the Illinois State Science Fair when I was in 7th grade
9. I played football in 8th grade and loved it
10. I went to a Catholic grammar school - St. Ferdinand
11. Yes, I was an altar boy
12. I was in Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, and Explorers
13. I still remember to this day going to my first White Sox baseball game with my dad
14. I also remember going to Kodak Photo Night and taking pictures of the players on the field
15. I remember my first twilight double header, Sox vs the Kansas City Athletics who wore those yellow jerseys one game and green jerseys the next
16. I had an allergy test when I was a kid and found out I was allergic to grass, trees, dust, dogs, cats and vermouth
17. I had a pet parakeet though my mom was afraid of birds
18. I had some pet mice though my mom was deathly afraid of them (she still can't look at mice/rats on TV)
19. The only fight that I've ever been in was in grade school when I head-butted a kid in class in 4th grade
20. I went to a Catholic all-boys High School - Gordon Tech
21. I worked in the high school TV studio, and did the morning news for two years
22. The high school TV studio bugged the principal's office but had to remove the mic when the Secret Service came for a sweep before a Walter Mondale visit
23. I got drunk for the first time at a Stage Crew New Year's Eve party on Sloe Gin Fizzes
24. I used to call Bingo for my High School twice a week
25. When I was calling Bingo, a patron offered me a job as a jockey for his race horses
26. My first used car was a green Ford Maverick and I didn't get it until I was in college
27. My first new car was an beige AMC Concorde
28. I used to be a serious John Denver, Neil Diamond and Barry Manilow fan
29. Though I know I attended my prom, it was unmemorable
30. The worst job I had was working for a catering company
31. I never left town to go to college - I went to Northeastern Illinois University
32. I never graduated from college, but got three years of education
33. I auditioned to be a puppeteer on a children's TV show in Chicago without having puppeteered before - and got the job
34. The TV show that I worked on won to local Emmy Awards for Children's Program and an IRIS Award for Excellence in Children's Programming from the NATPE
35. The TV Station in Chicago (WLS, the ABC affiliate) took us all out to the Pump Room to celebrate the IRIS award and take publicity photos - I thought this was so cool
36. I was actually mentioned by name in the acceptance speech for one of the Emmy awards. Way cool.
37. There was a girl that was at the auditions that was on the crew that I just couldn't forget
38. I married that girl 4 years later
39. My first day as a puppeteer I had to don a full size gorilla suit and ride a bucking six-foot banana
40. I have absolutely no pictures of me puppeteering on any of the shows and it upsets me greatly
41. I puppeteered in a pilot of a potential series and worked with Broderick Crawford
42. Because of the pilot, I am now three degrees away from Kevin Bacon (I worked with Broderick Crawford in this pilot, Broderick Crawford was in A Little Romance (1979) with Diane Lane, Diane Lane was in My Dog Skip (2000) with Kevin Bacon)
43. I was a Medium Sized Soft Drink in a McDonald's Happy Meal commercial
44. Puppeteering was the best job I have ever had still to this day
45. I have been in the IT industry since 1978
46. I've always felt that my IT skills were in my head, but my puppetry skills were in my heart
47. I went to a friend's prom as her date while I was engaged (with my future wife's permission, of course)
48. After I got married, I lost my hair, gained weight and needed glasses. Go figure.
49. I started taking flying lessons in a Piper Cherokee 140, but stopped after my instructor had me fly into clouds to understand the sensation (with less than 8 hours of time under my belt)
50. The clincher to leaving my instructor was sitting in the backseat during another student's cross country trial, only to have the plane run out of fuel because the instructor wanted to go to a different airport
51. I used to go on ski trips to the Michigan Upper Peninsula, renting a chalet with a large group of people, but haven't done that in decades
52. 5 days before my wedding, a girl I worked with that sat across from me in the office was killed in a car accident, sending that week into turmoil
53. I was in the first pilot program for an adult session at US Space Camp, and have returned several times since
54. Carol & I moved out to Hoffman Estates in 1984 and have been living here ever since
55. We had the house built on a large corner lot because a kid had moved around pins on the development map in the sales office, allowing us to put down a down payment on a lot that already was sold to a couple that was actually in the office at the time. It was a way for the developer to make amends for forcing us out of the lot we chose
56. This is the longest Carol and I have lived in one place for all of our lives
57. I have lived in only 4 places my entire life
58. Carol & I used to feed bunnies outside our patio door when we first moved into the neighborhood
59. Carol and I have had 3 pet bunnies over 20 years
60. I love watching airplanes, being at an airport, and flying and would love to work for a major airline
61. Other than a short cruise to the Bahamas, I have never been outside of the country
62. I do not have a passport
63. I have never been arrested
64. I've watched baseball games at Comiskey (old and new), Wrigley, Dodger Stadium, Camden Yards, Miller Park (and old County Stadium), and Comerica Park
65. I bought a Nissan 300ZX with a 5-speed manual transmission without knowing how to drive a stick, and had to be driven home in the car by the dealer
66. I Drove to Florida to watch the launch of STS-26 (the first shuttle launch since the Challenger disaster) from special viewing area inside the Kennedy Space Center, went to Space Camp 7 days later, then flew to Houston to go to the Johnson Space Center to see the crew from the shuttle flight
67. I worked with a group of students in Norfolk, VA to flight-test an experiment on NASA's KC-135 prior to it being launched on the shuttle
68. I was supposed to be on the KC-135 with the experiment, but even though I passed my Physiologic Training at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, I failed the Air Force physical for being 3 pounds overweight. I never got to experience Zero-G, though my friends did.
69. I played co-ed 14" "Mush Ball" in a league
70. To my knowledge, I've never broke a bone (I may have broke my little toe last year, but I never got X-Rays taken since you can't do anything about it)
71. The only stitches I've ever had was because of hand surgery to release a captured tendon in my left index finger (which I need to have done again)
72. I've never stayed overnight in a hospital (the hand surgery was outpatient)
73. I have partial season tickets to the Chicago White Sox and the Chicago Wolves (AHL). I have no idea how I started to like hockey
74. I'm sorry, I know this is contrary to too many people in town, but I hate the Chicago Cubs, but love Wrigley Field
75. I have no tolerance for people that drive like idiots. No wonder there is road rage...
76. I don't like the way I look
77. I have been unemployed since June 1, 2001, though I have had two very short-term consulting gigs since then
78. I have no tolerance for people who believe that New York City is the absolute center of the universe and no other place on earth is any good. The world does not revolve around you!
79. I LOVE BEEF and my motto is "I didn't claw my way up the food chain to eat vegetables" Beef. It's what's for dinner. As often as possible.
80. I love Las Vegas and wouldn't mind living there
81. I love photography (as you can see from the photographs with my blog entries) and videography
82. I love my TiVo and think it has changed the way I've viewed television. Oh, and add to that our DirecTV systems. Ooooooooo...
83. I am one of the many that have been unemployed due to the Dot Com Crash and I miss my Dot Com times
84. I love taking long walks, though I don't do it
85. I don't understand why I enjoy Reality TV as much as I do. I would love to be on The Mole, Amazing Race, and maybe Big Brother
86. I don't smoke and I have no tolerance for people that smoke around me without regard to me be effected by their smoke
87. Carol and I don't have any kids and I'm starting to regret that
88. I've been amazed at my wife's strength when she went through her double mastectomy 2 years ago
89. I've been amazed by the determination that Carol has shown recently to lose weight and feel inadequate to do so myself
90. I procrastinate every chance I get
91. I get a certain exhilaration when I gamble, mostly at craps, and blackjack, and I'm no good at sports bets
92. I am not what people would call a "drinker", though I do have a drink every now and then
93. I can't remember the last time I drank a glass of milk
94. If money were no object, I'd travel the globe for the rest of my life
95. I am getting increasingly concerned that when I die, no one will remember me. I will have left no footprints of my life behind.
96. I dream of building a "time machine" that allows the recording of events that have happened in the past, to help with producing a truthful history of the world, not to mention a means of showing the truth for legal trials. It would be run by the UN so that the world could become a better place. Yeah, like that's going to happen...
97. I don't cook, but think I could do a good job if I had the chance
98. I never felt an earthquake
99. I love gadgets
100. I have let many of my friends slip away from me over the years through my inaction, and have deeply missed them all. I just wish I can get everyone back into my life

You know... 100 things, though hard to put together, may not be enough. I may have to add to it when I remember other things...

101. I am extremely shy, and that is often misinterpreted by others
102. I (somehow) never get hugged. And yet it's an awkward situation when I don't know when to hug someone (I don't come from a family of huggers)
103. I carry a grudge
104. I can't dance worth a damn
105. No one has seen my legs in public - I never wear shorts.
106. For the last twenty years, I've had a police scanner radio next to my bed that is on overnight while we sleep, listening to police, fire, EMS, calls for Chicago and surrounding areas.
107. I haven't been in a pool in over a decade
108. In general, if it's green, I don't eat it (lettuce, green beans, green onions, green peppers are the exception)
109. Nothing is better than cold, fresh, off the vine tomatoes, in the summer - sliced, with salt and pepper
110. My only phobia is that I'm afraid to cross drawbridges. I can feel the hair stand up on the back of my neck when I get to the center. As soon as I step over the "seam" in the center, I'm fine
111. I have no interest in college football - even less (if that's possible) in college basketball
112. I don't vote in primary elections because it requires me to declare a party - which I refuse to do. I want to vote for who I believe is the best candidate, regardless of party
113. In my head, I feel 10 years younger, but my body feels 10 years older
114. I despise Microsoft with every fiber of my being
115. I believe there is no excuse for parents ignoring misbehaving kids in public
116. Underwear of choice - Jockey tightie-whities (wow, I don't believe I actually put that one out here in public...)
117. I don't play any musical instrument - I have no rhythm (see #104)
118. I have directed the Folk Choir at my parish for a few months while waiting for them to hire a permanent replacement (remarkable, considering #117)
119. Favorite music: Pop and classic rock
120. For some reason, I have no interest in reading books
121. I think they would be doing us a service if the Federal government would just abolish pennies
122. I guess I do have another phobia - I'm a little nervous about heights
123. I have no flowers, let alone a garden - too many allergies (not to mention Carol being deathly afraid of bees)
124. I took a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® test about 5 years ago, and I was classified as INFP
125. We use Caller ID heavily. If we don't get a valid phone number that we know, we don't answer the phone. Screw you, telemarketers!
126. I hate needles. I dread blood tests and hate having to take ENG/NCV tests
127. I am very self conscious about the fact that I'm a bit "furry"
128. At 5' 3", I am the tallest member of my immediate family
129. I had braces in grade school, and still to this day have the permanent retainer on my bottom teeth
130. My carbonated beverage of choice is Caffeine-free Coca-Cola
131. I've never flown First Class
132. Secrets? Yep, got 'em. Nope. Not sharin'
133. I like finding and knowing the big picture of things
134. I feel nekkid if I'm not wearing my cell phone
135. If I would shave off my beard, I would look like a seal. (This has happened once.) It ain't coming off.
136. I just don't like fruit. Don't know why.
137. I'm not good at wearing clothes. I don't buy them myself, and rely on others to find stuff that looks right on me.
138. I enjoy a good cup of coffee in the morning, usually first thing when I get to the office. Since I've been unemployed 15 months, I haven't had much coffee this past year.
139. If at all possible, I'd rather pay someone to do something inside my house that try to do it myself.
140. I've always said "I'm not a hardware guy" during my IT career. It applies to my domestic life as well (see #139).
141. Re: #139, #140, for some reason I love This Old House, Changing Rooms, Ground Force, and Trading Spaces
142. I have been told that I am not corrupt, but that I am corrupting.
143. I don't have a tattoo and don't understand the fascination with them.
144. My guilty obsession is tacos from Jack In The Box. There are no Jack In The Boxes anywhere near Chicago. I have been known to take Ziplock bags with me when I travel out west so that I could go to a Jack In The Box and buy a dozen or so tacos, put them in ziplock bags, and bring them back home with me. The new 99 cent tacos at Burger King just might hold me over until I can get out west again.
145. Favorite comedian - Eddie Izzard
146. My last name is not the same as my father's original last name - the entire family had changed their names - all differently - decades before I was born
147. I am not a "morning person"
148. I have actually been at a private party at the Playboy Mansion in Chicago (back in the 70's) for - of all groups - Women in Broadcasting. (The grotto pool was very cool indeed)

posted at 01:17 PM | Link | Mundane § |

Friday, August 23, 2002

Is it GODZILLA?


Is it GODZILLA?

brought to you by Quizilla

posted at 12:39 PM | Link | Stupid Quizzes § |
Friday 5 - Jobs

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. What is your current occupation? Is this what you chose to be doing at this point in your life? Why or why not? Oh, crap, here we go again... another Friday Five that I can't answer... OK, other than being unemployed, my occupation has been a Messaging Engineer. I have wanted to maybe get out of day-to-day work and get into a more managerial role, but no one has seen that in me. And of course, no one has seen that over the past 14 months...
2. If time/talent/money were no object, what would your dream occupation be? Professional Gambler? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I love gambling. Being able to go to different casinos, have a good time and gamble... of course, this is where the "money has no object" part comes in. Of course I would need a bit more talent...
3. What did/do your parents do for a living? Has this had any influence on your career choices? My parents both worked for the government - The Veteran's Administration in fact. Mom stopped working soon after I was born. Dad retired from the VA. I don't see how this influenced me - except maybe in the concept of white collar work. I never was interested in anything physical, so blue collar work never appealed to me. Still doesn't.
4. Have you ever had to choose between having a career and having a family? No consciously, but Carol & I have been together for quite a long time and have chosen to not have any kids.
5. In your opinion, what is the easiest job in the world? What is the hardest? Why? No job seems easy to me right now. In this definition, I view easy as not only "little work or labor" but it also has to be something you enjoy as well. As soon as you don't enjoy it, it ceases to become "easy" and becomes laborious. Hardest? Parenting probably.

posted at 10:09 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, August 16, 2002

No Friday 5 today

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
Nope. They're taking a week off, and so will I.

posted at 08:05 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, August 09, 2002

Friday 5 - Cars

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. Do you have a car? If so, what kind of car is it? 1997 Infiniti I30
2. Do you drive very often? Let's see... for twenty years I drove 45 minutes to an hour each way for my commute. But for the past 14 months I've been unemployed , so not much driving like I used to.
3. What's your dream car? I actually had it - it was a Nissan 300ZX 5 speed, T-tops, electronic dash... I loved that car. No, I loved that car. The only car I have missed. *sniff*
4. Have you ever received a ticket? Sure. Speeding. In that 300ZX.
5. Have you ever been in an accident? Yep. I was sandwiched between a car that had stopped suddenly at a red light in front of me and a guy who was behind me who wasn't paying attention to the traffic. Then, while in my wife's Suzuki Grand Vitara at 6am in the morning on January 1, 2000, while on my way to work to assess Y2K, I was stopped at a stop light with no one around for blocks when a guy rams me from behind and continues to push me into the intersection. The guy must have been asleep because he was still pushing me. I mean, there was no one around at that time - how did he NOT see me?

posted at 12:08 AM | Link | Friday Five | 1 comment § |

Friday, August 02, 2002

Friday 5 - Geneology

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. What is your lineage? Where are your ancestors from? My mom's parents are from Poland, my dad's are from Lithuania.
2. Of those countries, which would you most like to visit? Probably Poland. I feel closer to my Polish roots.
3. Which would you least like to visit? Why? I guess that would leave Lithuania as odd man out, only because I know nothing about the country or its people.
4. Do you do anything during the year to celebrate or recognize your heritage? Well, my mom has a tendency of bringing up all things Polish throughout the year, whether it's food, or heritage, or whatever, but not any real celebrating.
5. Who were the first ancestors to move to your present country (parents, grandparents, etc)? Grandparents. I found my mom's mom at the Ellis Island website, but can't find anybody else yet. Also, having a difficult time trying to trace the family tree any further back than my grandparents.

posted at 08:36 AM | Link | Friday Five | 1 comment § |

Thursday, August 01, 2002

*nose wiggle*
posted at 06:46 AM | Link | Memes § |

Saturday, July 27, 2002

Does your weblog own you?
31.25 %

My weblog owns 31.25 % of me.
Does your weblog own you?
posted at 10:54 PM | Link | Stupid Quizzes § |

Friday, July 26, 2002

Friday 5 - Blogging

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. How long have you had a weblog? Since December 2001. I'm a relative newbie.
2. What was your first post about? Commenting on the first Bowl game of the season - I thought that it was too early
3. How many changes (name, location, etc.) of your weblog have there been, if more than one? I've had no name changes. On May 1st I moved off of Blog*Spot over to my own domain.
4. What CMS (content management system) do you use? Do you like it or do you want to try something else? I'm a Blogger guy. I liked it because it gave you a way to get up and running (with a Blog*Spot blog) in absolutely no time. I'm thinking about Moveable Type, just because of some of the features.
5. Do you read people who have both a journal and a weblog? Or do you prefer to read people who have all of their writing in one central place? Actually, some of the people that I read have multiple blogs! It doesn't really matter to me - I'm looking for the human connection, trying to figure out who they are. Normally, you can pick that up through journals, but a blog is just as effective.

posted at 12:01 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, July 19, 2002

Friday 5 - Locations

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. Where were you born? Chicago, Illinois
2. If you still live there, where would you rather move to? If you don't live there, do you want to move back? Why or why not? We've actually had discussions about moving to Las Vegas, out favorite town, probably when we retire... whenever that will be
3. Where in the world do you feel the safest? The safest I've ever felt was staying on Walt Disney World property. Weird, eh?
4. Do you feel you are well-traveled? Not at all. How could you feel well traveled if you never left the continent?
5. Where is the most interesting place you've been? Sundance. Love that place.

posted at 08:53 AM | Link | Friday Five | 1 comment § |

Friday, July 12, 2002

No Friday 5

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...

...except they haven't posted one again. They're getting a little spotty over there. But then again, they're in Orlando for the week...

posted at 10:21 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, July 05, 2002

Friday 5 - Potpourri

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...

1. Where are you right now? Sitting in my den (sort of a messy computer room right now), recuperating from our family get-together at Diane's house in Michigan.
2. What have you lost recently? Here are my knee-jerk reactions to this question: My job - except that was 13 months ago. My skill set that started to decay as soon as I was let go, and dimisnishes with each day that technology passes me by. My confidence that I will be able to earn a living doing what I used to do. My optimism that this will all be over really soon. My well being knowing that I used to be financially OK and now I'm way too unsure of where we're going.
3. What was the first CD you ever purchased? Does that embarrass you now? No clue, though I do know that I still have it - I just can't get to it to find out what it was (it's burried, and I may not be able to get to it this year!)
4. What is your favorite kind of writing pen? A nice rolling-ball pen, any type, as long as it doesn't gunk-up. Gel is good, too.
5. What is your favorite ice cream flavor? Baskin Robbins Mint Chocolate Chip

posted at 09:01 PM | Link | Friday Five § |

Monday, July 01, 2002

*nose wiggle*
posted at 09:28 AM | Link | Memes § |

Friday, June 28, 2002

Friday 5 - Last Time

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...

When was the last time you...
1. ...sent a handwritten letter? Have no idea. Wow. No idea.
2. ...baked something from scratch or made something by hand? Well, those parasol frames I guess would qualify as making something by hand. Still making them.
3. ...camped in a tent? Wow... late 1970's... can't recall exactly...
4. ...volunteered your time to church, school, or community? Too long ago. I don't recall. Could have been around 1995-96, helping out with a church talent show. Or, does creating and producing tickets for my mom (as well as managing the membership list) for the St. Anne Society at my old parish, St. Ferdinand's? If so, that was just a month or two ago.
5. ...helped a stranger? About a year and a half ago, downtown at the Ogilvie Transportation Center, I helped a blind woman and her dog into the train station. It was weird, she couldn't figure out where the entrance was, so I helped her in.

posted at 12:04 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Wednesday, June 26, 2002

Michael is...

OK, let me jump in with the meme du jour - From links from Erin (from Zannie (from Lynda)), Mike (from Michele (from Fredo (from Beau, Max, and Kris (from Meg))) and Jamie (from wKen (from Robyn (also from Michele)))), and Kate (from Colin (from Christy)):

Go to Google, Type in your name plus " is" and see what you get:

Michael is 27 years old, retired, and lives with his girlfriend Christine in the Great Neck neighborhood of Long Island
Michael is excited to finally be combining his talents in the areas of dance, exercise, teaching and weight loss into one technique which is suitable for those in top shape or beginners
Michael is the Applications Liason for Internet 2 activity at KU
Michael is a man of extraordinary talents
Michael is a delight to work with and an outstanding performer
Michael is a nice looking boy who is profoundly deaf and communicates through American Sign Language
Michael is the creator and maintainer of two award-winning web sites
Michael is the author of two upcoming books
Michael is most recognized for his more quiet sounds for musical meditation and contemplation
Michael is confused, lost, delirious (as usual)
Michael is a frequent speaker and workshop presenter on Internet strategy and fundraising online to nonprofits nationwide
Michael is a very caring and compassionate person
Michael is co-chairing the program for the 2002 Symposium on Computer Animation
Michael is the most popular name in North America
Michael is described as: the first of the chief princes or archangels who is supposed to be the guardian angel of the Israelites
Michael is one of the principal angels; his name was the war-cry of the good angels in the battle fought in heaven against the enemy and his followers
Michael is out on the road playing
Michael is quite an ordinary tomcat with its own catlike view of the world
Michael is indeed a sax superstar all on his own
Michael is also the author of numerous books
Michael is part of a large family which he remains very close to, even being 3000 miles away
Michael is in the studio with over 300 images to work from
Michael is recognized as one of the fastest illustrators in the country
Michael is very cool

Intersting...

posted at 12:11 PM | Link | Memes § |

Friday, June 21, 2002

Friday 5 - Housing

The Friday Five
Time for another Friday Five...
1. Do you live in a house, an apartment or a condo? A house in Hoffman Estates, Illinois
2. Do you rent or own? Own. 18 years into a mortgage, though.
3. Does anyone else live with you? Well, of course! There's Carol. Oh, and our little bunny, Indy
4. How many times have you moved in your life? Three - once when I was six, once when I got married, and once to move into this house.
5. What are your plans for this weekend? Plans? Just my cousin Jane's wedding on Saturday. Hopefully that's it.

Hey, this one was easy!

posted at 04:52 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, June 14, 2002

Friday 5 - Laundry

The Friday Five
Time for the return of The Friday Five...

1. How often do you do laundry? Here we go again, still another Friday Five that has me at a disadvantage of answering. I am fortunate (and I do mean fortunate) to have a wife that does the laundry and who doesn't want me to touch it! Carol does the laundry at somewhat irregular cycles, so judging by the piles that I am seeing right now, the generic joke answer is "Not often enough!". That's not really true, but it's not done on a weekly basis, and it could be 10 days to two weeks that I am witness to the process.
2. What's in a typical wash load? Huge.. See #1.
3. Front or top loader? Powder or liquid detergent? Top load Maytag. Liquid - Wisk, there may be some Ultra Clorox involved as well.
4. Do you use fabric softener in the rinse cycle? Hmmm... not to my knowledge - she uses Downey Dryer Sheets in the dryer
5. Dryer or clothesline? Dryer - matching Maytag to #2

posted at 11:10 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Saturday, June 08, 2002

Me on the tollway

My first Mirror Project submission - it's just something from back in March that I put up here in my blog.

posted at 09:50 AM | Link | Memes § |

Friday, June 07, 2002

Ferrara Pan Candy

From a link from Erin, I had to find out:


discover what candy you are @ stvlive.com

And, if you know me, doesn't this fit???

posted at 11:43 PM | Link | Stupid Quizzes § |
Friday 5 is offline

The Friday Five
Time for the Friday Five... except I can't get to their site. What's going on over there???

posted at 11:57 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Saturday, June 01, 2002

*nose wiggle*
posted at 06:07 AM | Link | Memes § |

Friday, May 31, 2002

No Friday 5

The Friday Five
Time for the Friday Five... except they're taking another break this week, so I guess we'll take one, too.

posted at 07:50 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, May 24, 2002

Friday 5 - Dreams

The Friday Five
Time for the Friday Five...
1. What's the last vivid dream that you remember having? Wow... dreams. I know I have them, but my memory of them seems to vanish pretty quickly lately (I don't know why - I remember being able to recall dreams with greater detail. Now, I just know that I dreamed and I'm not sure where I was or what I was doing.) I can almost feel the dream fade as I try to remember them in the morning. Very ethereal. Damn. This is going to turn out being another boring Friday Five. Last week it was hair - which I'm losing, this week it's dreams, of which I don't remember. Great.
2. Do you have any recurring dreams? No. No recollection of anything repeating recently.
3. What's the scariest nightmare you've ever had? It's been years, perhaps decades since I had a nightmare. I don't recall what it would have been.
4. Have you ever written your dreams down or considered it? Why or why not? The closest I've come is trying to write a blog entry after I had woke up. Not very effective (see #1).
5. Have you ever had a lucid dream? What did you do in it? Hmmm... I don't recall being lucid while dreaming. No, I take that back... I remember lucid dreaming once, remembering that it was pretty cool and sort of third-person-ish, but beats me what was going on. (Is that weird, or what?)

posted at 12:00 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, May 17, 2002

Friday 5 - Hair Care

The Friday Five
Time for the return of The Friday Five...
1. What shampoo do you use? Oh, no... this is a bad group of questions. OK, look, before I go on, there's something you have to know - I'm going bald. In fact, I'm well on my way, and the finish line is right around the corner. OK? So having said that, questions about hair & hair products are a bit of a "sensitive" issue... Alright, my answer is Head and Shoulders Intensive Treatment. Crap, it's bad enough to lose your hair, but to have dandruff on top of it, sheesh...
2. Do you use conditioner? What kind? Umm, no. No conditioner.
3. When was the last time you got your hair cut? I don't get it cut very often, maybe about four to six times a year. The last one was about a month ago... I think
4. What styling products do you use? Styling products? Who are you kidding????
5. What's your worst hair-related experience? Oh, you mean other than losing it??? I think that has to be the worst experience - watching the hair - follicle by follicle - turn kind of stiff a crooked and then just falling away. Yeah, that's it.

And to think I was looking forward for the return of the Friday Five!!!

posted at 12:01 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, May 03, 2002

No Friday 5

The Friday Five
Time for The Friday Five...
Hey! They're taking a break and there's no The Friday Five this week! I guess that's OK - my internet connectivity has been spotty all morning and I couldn't even get out to the net for hours, so I guess I'll take a break, too.

posted at 11:48 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Thursday, May 02, 2002

No nose wiggle

Nuts. I forgot to say "rabbit, rabbit" yesterday. Heck, I forgot to say "tibbar, tibbar", too. I guess no good luck for May. And you would think that in this house, this would be so easy to say... I need an EMail reminder...

posted at 11:11 AM | Link | Mundane § |

Friday, April 26, 2002

Friday 5 - Hobbies

The Friday Five
Time for The Friday Five...
1. What are your hobbies? Aw, nuts. Hobbies. Boy am I going to be boring for this Friday Five. Other than tinkering (and I do mean TINKERING) with a few websites of mine, I have no hobbies.
2. Do you collect anything? If so, what? I collect casino chips. I have over 300 of them right now, mostly from Las Vegas casinos, but I have some from the local riverboats around Chicago, as well as some chips from Elko, Nevada (a whole other story). I have enough chips that I had to get software to categorize them and special binders to put them in. However, though more of Carol's doing, we also collect Bunnies, usually little ones, though I think we have a Lladro and I think something from Tiffany.
3. Is there a hobby you're interested in, but just don't have the time/money to do? Hmmm... Model Railroading. I would like to have an absolutely huge layout, both passenger and freight, multiple controllers, all kinds of landscape and modeling. I've even wanted to do local commuter rail and even rapid transit (of course, this would mean a much larger house)
4. Have you ever turned a hobby into a moneymaking opportunity? Nope. Never did anything that I could make money off of.
5. Besides web-related stuff (burbs, rings, etc.), what clubs do you belong to? Uh, none. Damn, am I boring!

posted at 06:35 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, April 19, 2002

Friday 5 - TV

The Friday Five
Time for The Friday Five...
1. What's your favorite TV show and why? The West Wing. Writing, casting, cinematography... everything. And perhaps maybe the other intangible - the hope and wish that Bartlet could be our President. Second would be CSI. I love the cast, and, since I love Las Vegas, it was a perfect fit. But I am addicted to another genre of programing - Reality TV. Survivor Marquesas and all of the other seasons. The Amazing Race. Big Brother (not only the US show on CBS, but also I watch the camera feeds from the UK and Australia shows over the Internet if I have time - they're the only countries I can understand - sort of). I'm waiting for The Mole to come back on the air (the first season was good). I caught a few episodes of The Bachelor and like the production of the show, but I'm not sure how I feel about the premise. Then, there's the ultimate reality show - The Osbournes!
2. Who is your favorite television star? Hmmmm... dunno... I guess I don't have a "favorite"
3. What was your favorite TV show as a child? A local show - Cartoon Town. It was a puppet show (with cartoons) with this guy Bill Jackson. How much did it effect me? Read the response to question #2 in this prior Friday Five.
4. What show do you think should have been cancelled by now? Ally McBeal. Oops, too late. OK, how about Spy TV? Wait, I think that's gone. Touched by an Angel? I think Spin City has overstayed its welcome... Oh! Wait! Baby Bob and George Lopez! Oh, please cancel Jackass and The Andy Dick Show.
5. What new show do you hope escapes the axe this season? The Osbournes! Let's see another season of them!

posted at 07:52 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, April 12, 2002

Friday 5 - Dining Out

The Friday Five
Time for The Friday Five...
1. What is your favorite restaurant and why? My favorite is Delmonico Steakhouse at The Venetian in Las Vegas. We've been there twice. The experience is wonderful, the food - to die for. To us, it's a must do when we're in town.
2. What fast food restaurant are you partial to? Portillo's. Love the Italian beef.
3. What are your standards and rules for tipping? I always start at 15%. You have to screw up bad to make that move down, but if the service is stellar, it goes to 20%, and, in rare circumstances, even higher. Make me feel good and you get more money. It's more service-related than food quality-related.
4. Do you usually order an appetizer and/or dessert? Normally, neither, but it depends on what I chose for an entree. If the entree isn't as filling as say 16+ oz. steak, I'd consider an appetizer. The dessert will be based on how I feel after the entree. There have been times when my eyes have been bigger than my stomach, and haven't been able to handle a dessert that I really wanted.
5. What do you usually order to drink at a restaurant? Non-alcoholic is always a Coke (Pepsi if I must). Alcoholic is usually a Shiraz or Merlot - it usually goes with everything I order, since I don't usually go out and eat foods that go with white wines!

posted at 08:55 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, April 05, 2002

Friday 5 - Your Day

The Friday Five
Time for The Friday Five...
1. What are the first things that you do in the morning to start your day? Roll out of bed, throw on a robe and hit the morning EMails, first checking the job site EMails for any postings that my agents have collected from their respective job sites. Then put together a "Daily Diversions" EMail to my friends, consisting of quotes and horoscopes. Then read some stories online from the Las Vegas Review-Journal, ending with reading the sports stories of the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Wolves. I do this seven days a week.
2. What are the last things that you do at night before going to bed? I never go to bed without hitting the computer first, for any last minute EMails and perhaps any last minute sports scores.
3. What daily routine have you recently added to your day? Well, the last six weeks I had my Radiation Therapy Chauffeur™ duty, but as of today, I don't have to do that anymore.
4. What routine do you wish you get rid of? BEING AT HOME! A NEED to find a job!!!!
5. What's the one thing that makes you feel like something is missing if you don't do it some point within your day? Checking my EMail! I somehow need to feel connected to my friends and the world.

posted at 08:04 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Friday, March 29, 2002

Friday 5 - Fame

The Friday Five
Time for The Friday Five...
1. If you could eat dinner with and "get to know" one famous person (living or dead), who would you choose? Tom Hanks. His body of work has been great - even back to the days of Bosom Buddies. He's a quality actor/director/producer. And he seems to be a quality guy. We also have a the same passion about one subject - Space. I'd love to be able to sit down and talk to him about it.
2. Has the death of a famous person ever had an effect on you? Who was it and how did you feel? Jim Henson. His death was so deeply sad. This man had brought so much joy and happiness to so many people. I wanted to be him - in fact, I started along a certain path because of him. Here's something I haven't written about yet in this blog - I used to be a puppeteer from 1975 to about 1980. I worked on a local children's show in Chicago for one of my childhood idols - Bill Jackson. Bill, Nancy Wettler and I were the performers of a show called "Gigglesnort Hotel" for two years (the show actually lasted 3 years, but I joined Bill to start the second season) on Sunday mornings on the ABC affiliate in Chicago, WLS-TV Channel 7. The show won two Emmy awards and an NATPE Iris Award for Excellence in Children's Programming. We did another short series called "Firehouse Follies" that was only 13-weeks long. We did some commercials for Plywood Minnesota, we did some HR Training videos for the Budd Company (the train car people), and, when Bill left Chicago to teach at Cal Arts, I went out to Los Angeles once to do a pilot for a series with him. We all wanted to be part of Henson Associates - in fact I think Nancy may have actually auditioned for him. He's what we strove for. However, I feel absolutely blessed to have worked with Bill Jackson. I have many stories to tell about my brief stint in local television, but that was over 25 years ago. Back on April 5, 1995, The Museum of Broadcast Communications had "An Evening With Bill Jackson" and it was at that event I realized how what I worked on changed the lives of so many people. Looking back, it was the best time of my life.
3. If you could BE a famous person for 24 hours, who would you choose? George Clooney. Here's a guy, very famous and good looking, who's still having the time of his life - working on some quality projects, with quality people, who seems wanted by everyone. 24 hours of that would be a great ride.
4. Do people ever tell you that you look like someone famous? Who? This is pretty lame, but I actually had someone come up to me and say that I looked like Steven Spielberg. No, seriously. No, somebody actually said that to me. I had a baseball cap on, and they said it. Really. It doesn't help that he's 10 years older than me...
5. Have you ever met anyone famous? I worked on a pilot with Broderick Crawford. Let's see.. I worked with Broderick Crawford on Le HotSpot in 1980. Broderick Crawford was in A Little Romance (1979) with Diane Lane. Diane Lane was in My Dog Skip (2000) with Kevin Bacon! Is that three degrees from Kevin Bacon???? ( I checked this at The Oracle of Bacon at Virginia)

posted at 08:30 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Saturday, March 23, 2002

Age Gauge

Linked via KateSpot (I'm not sure if this makes me feel younger, or just adds to me feeling older than I am):

Boy the Bear's Age Gauge

read more of this entry »


posted at 06:32 PM | Link | Memes § |

Friday, March 22, 2002

Friday 5 - Seasons

The Friday Five
OK, I'm jumping on the bandwagon, I am now going to participate in The Friday Five!
1. What is your favorite time of year? Spring, Has to be Spring
2. What is it about your favorite season that, well, makes it your favorite season? Two things. First, it just feels like a re-awakening from a deep sleep - the colors start coming back, the sounds, the smells, the warmth... And then the second thing is - the start of baseball. I seem to measure my life around baseball. My year is the baseball season, and after the World Series, I just seem to... hibernate. If there is a baseball strike/lockout, my entire body-clock gets screwed-up The year seems "incomplete" and I feel lost.
3. What is your least favorite time of year? Why? Winter. Winter in Chicago stinks. Yes, there are times of absolute beauty, but, damn, it gets cold here. The days are so much shorter. The wind rips through you. Commuting actually feels like it ages you. It's difficult to stay warm.
4. Do you do anything to celebrate or recognize the changing of seasons? Not really, though I still associate it with Baseball - Baseball season that is. I make sure I go to Opening Day and try to be part of the last home game of the season - let's face it, we don't know post-season baseball in Chicago. There's almost an overlap between Baseball Season and Hockey Season, which we also follow a bit. We try to to do the same with that, too. (Opening game, last game of the season).
5. What's your favorite thing to do outside? Other than sitting in the stands watching a ballgame on a warm, bright, sunny day with just a hint of a breeze when your team is winning?

posted at 08:35 AM | Link | Friday Five § |

Thursday, January 24, 2002

Which drink are you?

Great... I'm so damn boring, I'm taking these online tests!

Drink me!
Which drink are you?
posted at 09:32 AM | Link | Stupid Quizzes § |

 

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This Blog was last updated Friday December 18, 2009 13:03:12 CDT (-06:00 GMT)
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