Friday, October 31, 2008

I've gotta quit reading the news...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20081030/pl_politico/15099

Stuff like this just amazes me - the McCain campaign saying Obama is getting a "free pass" on negative advertising because of his race. They're complaining about an ad linking his economic plan to President Bush's - which can truthfully be done. Yes it is "negative" advertising - any ad that points out a bad thing about an opponent is a negative ad. But compare that with the fliers I've gotten in the mail the past two weeks saying Obama is a terrorist and a Muslim. That is not just negative advertising, it's lies. It's sensationalism.

And if you're going to talk about free passes, how about Sarah Palin in the interviews I've seen of her and the debates. Every interview I've seen that has been unscripted asked fairly "easy" questions (at least relative to what the other candidates get asked) and she still seems to struggle to answer them. The debate? She never really even answered a question directly - all I could see is her winding her answer back to some scripted answer about something she knew. All politicans do that, but she was doing it a lot.

I can't wait for Tuesday.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

50

Amazing how much nicer it feels outside when it's above that temp. Today is supposed to be a really nice day, the best of the week.

Had a really great salsa band practice on Tuesday - we finally have a new regular piano player, and he is doing a great job picking up all the songs (I keep trying to remind him that we've been playing these songs for 2 years and he's only had 2 weeks - when we started it took us 2 weeks to learn one song!) Last night, dinner with some friends at Green Mill - I do like the food there, but I don't think I've ever been there and not had slow or bad service. Our server wasn't bad last night, but everything was just really slow. I guess I should learn to relax and enjoy the evening and not worry about how fast stuff is :)

Listening/Reading/Watching

Watching too much CNN - is it Tuesday yet? The only reading I'm doing, unfortunately, is news sites too, so need to not do so much of that. For music, I am now on "P" in my playlist - I started in July on "A", determined to play every song in my collection while I'm working. It takes awhile.

I have to confess that I'm hooked on a new lawyer show called "Raising The Bar" on TNT. The two main characters are a now long-haired Mark-Paul Gosselaar (you may remember him as Zack on "Saved By The Bell") and Jane Kaczmarek (probably best known for being the mom on "Malcolm In The Middle"). Despite having to get past thinking of those two shows, this show is really compelling. Why do we watch lawer shows? Probably the same reason we watch any "drama" show that's not a soap opera - because we all secretly love soap operas, and shows in a specific genre are more socially acceptable :) My friend Chris always points out that "Star Trek Deep Space 9" is the soap opera of Trek, and he's right - and it is, and I love it! Monday's episode was one before the mid-season finale, and the closeted gay lawyer came out right at the end - very dramatic! I'll be on pins and needles waiting for the next one...

50th Ave Update

I haven't given a construction update lately because there hasn't been much - it just seems like they keep pushing dirt around. But it does finally look like they're getting ready to do the concrete now - at least that's my guess until they shove more dirt around again. Here's hoping...

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Water Water

I have to post these two links, because reading the first one today brought back wonderful memories of a Dilbert from long ago...and this one is an on-running joke between Erin and myself...



geekculture.com

and

Dilbert.com

Monday, October 27, 2008

Aeeeeee-y

No matter you're voting, this one is pretty funny:

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/cc65ed650d

Behlod, the power of...

So after a few days of trial and error (mostly error), Erin finally figured out that if you wrap the kitten's medicine in a small piece of cheese she'll gobble it up. Any other method we have tried she was too clever and picky to eat it (putting it on a treat, mixing it into wet food, etc.). Of course Mr. Fluffy Face will gobble up whatever you put in front of him, so we have to make sure she eats her medicine before he gets to it :)

I had a fun weekend - the Huskers were victorious against Baylor (and it was even a pretty entertaining game), Erin and I did some errands on Saturday afternoon (including spending my $40 of Kohl's cash), and headed over to some friends who were hosting a murder mystery-themed dinner party. Wow was that fun! Eight courses of food, and 8 rounds of clues and discussion related to trying to figure out who murdered the "victim". It must have been well-written (or we are all really bad investigators and should keep our day jobs) because the two "inspectors" didn't get it the first time, then we all voted, and NONE of us got it (4 different suspects were voted for and none were the killer), and then the inspectors got another shot after eliminating 5 people, and still didn't get it. I did find it amusing that all of the women suspects were picked first (4 out of the first 5). A fun time.

On Sunday I headed out to Ironwood Springs ranch in the morning to catch the second half of the Peer Ministry retreat. I've been a Peer Ministry trainer for 6 or 7 years now, ever since our fantastic youth directory Lisa started working at church. I think it's a neat program - for one thing, it gives 10-12th graders something to continue doing after confirmation, and the skills you learn and things you talk about aren't just religion or church related, but are really life skills and topics. This is the biggest group I can remember (18). When I drove out at 7:30am, it was 50, sunny, and breezy. When we were leaving at 3pm, it was 30, snowing, and the wind was so hard it was hard to drive.

Only one more week of election crap, and I'm about ready to be done - I have received about 20 fliers in the past week (from both sides), as well as two robo-calls (which I promptly delete from voicemail). Both sides are using some pretty underhanded tactics, I think the two worst ones I've gotten are the one portraying Barack Obama as a terrorist (pretty directly) and the one trying to scare me into making sure I vote republican because only the republicans will appoint judges who will "vote" against abortion (last time I checked, judges aren't supposed to be political, they aren't VOTING). Funny, every time the judges rule in favor of things the "left" supports, they are called "activist"...but apparently it's ok to be "activist" if it's ruling pro-life. I am not saying I am pro-life or pro-choice, or anything at all, I am just saying when it comes to judges you can't have it both ways - you can't call them activist when they rule "against" you but not when they rule "for" you. Why don't we choose good, qualified judges and let them do the job they are supposed be doing, which is interpreting the law fairly, based on the circumstances, without political, religious, or other biases?

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Word To Your Mother

I was especially excited about the trivia question at Caribou this morning - sometimes I don't answer the question because they're so easy and I don't feel like I've earned 10 cents off (stupid, I know). But I bet I was one of very few people who ACTUALLY definitively knew the answer this morning (it was multiple choice so I'm sure some people guessed correctly). The question was:

"What was the first rap song to hit #1?"
a) Baby Got Back
b) U Can't Touch This
c) Ice Ice Baby

Before I reveal the answer, I have to explain the two reasons why I knew this one. The first is because I find the answer extremely ironic and thus memorable. But the second reason is that I went through a 4-year period of being completely obsessed with music charts growing up - to the point where I was making databases on my Apple IIGS of them (now you will all KNOW I am an OCD geek - my friends were playing video games on the computer, I was making databases and spreadsheets - I really was destined to work at IBM). So I know this because I was "there" :)

The answer is "Ice Ice Baby". I find this ironic because every major rap artist or group prior to Vanilla Ice was black and had way more talent than Vanilla Ice did (I use "talent" loosely referring to rap music). "Ice Ice Baby", while still a cultural icon to anyone growing up in the late 80s/early 90s, really isn't much of a song - the words are pretty stupid when you listen to them, and he ripped off most of the bass and rhythm tracks from "Under Pressure" which he totally used without permission (claiming he added one note which made it ok).

Yes I do know all the words, and sing them with my friend Ericka whenever we get together. Add that to geeky OCD.

And the only really important part of this whole story is that I have my 20 oz cup of Caribou Coffee and am ready to tackle the day.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

A thought for the morning

http://flickr.com/photos/criana/2390656195/

Let's hope the next president has a chance to do this.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

coffee maker angst

I may have blogged about this before, but I've been in a continuous coffee maker saga for the past year or so (mostly of my own doing). Over several years I've bit on two "free" coffee maker offers from Gevalia - strictly speaking you don't have to buy anything beyond the initial coffee purchase, but it was so hard to cancel I let it go for quite awhile, so I've probably paid back "free" in triplicate. But in all fairness, both coffee makers were actually pretty good for "free" (one was the full pot maker, one was a dual-single cup maker). However, anything "free" wears out eventually, and the pot one started dying sometime in January.

So I decided this time around that I wanted a really good coffee maker, that did everything automatically (grinding, etc.) so I'd use it more. Well it turns out to get a quality one that really does that, you have to spend like $400+ (every review of the "grind-and-brew" ones that are in the $50-150 range were bad on the grinder and cleaning). So I dialed that down and decided I could continue grinding beans myself, and read reviews and bought what I thought was the best brewing machine - a Cuisinart model, in June. Since then, I have tried every combination of things I can think of to get the coffee to come out not so "watery" - using the permanent gold filter, white filters, brown filters, double filters, gold + paper filter, filtered water, unfiltered water, built-in water filter, not built-in water filter, different coffee, etc. etc. and it all still just tastes a bit watery. I should have returned it immediately, and now it's probably too late.

Meanwhile most people tell me that the cheap Mr. Coffee or brands like that from Target are just as good, and that really it's just the coffee you use. So my friend Ryan brought in an old 4-cup maker he had used before he moved out of an office and into a cube, and let me take it home and try it. Well, the coffee tastes pretty good - I didn't do anything special (it uses just plain standard filters), and even buying a new one just like this is probably $20 or less.

So now I have to decide what to do with the $80 Cuisinart that I'll probably never use again, and whether I should make my own coffee every day or just go to Caribou like I have been and pay the $2 for a cup in the morning (which I have to admit is kind of a "fun" part of the morning - those Caribou marketing people really know how to make the atmosphere in there nice).

Do I spend too much time thinking about this? Probably...

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Political flyers

Really, I'm just ready for the election to be over...but I do find it interesting receiving the flurry of political fliers, door knockers, etc. that are now in full force. I missed one last night (Erin was here), that was "re-polling" me - I guess to make sure I'm still voting the way I'm voting? I've also had a representative for state rep Jim Jensen stop by, and Jim Bier himself (running for county commissioner) came to my door personally. Strangely no republicans have stopped by...maybe they know?

The fliers today were particularly interesting, because one was for Norm Coleman, and the other was for...well Norm Coleman, but at first glance it looked like it was for Al Franken. But really it was telling me how bad a person Al Franken is. I was watching CNN, and they were showing there are now only 7 battleground states. and 7% of independent or undecided voters. So basically they're saying the election is going to be decided by 7% of voters in 7 states. When will we ever get rid of this ancient electoral system.

OK enough ranting about the election. I don't think 50th Ave is going to be done before winter, so we're going to have a closed road all winter, which actually is probably ok given the condition it gets to in the winter anyway. I have officially been named a "team lead" at work now, which doesn't change my job one bit, doesn't give me a promotion or more pay, and I'm sure I've been a "team lead" on other projects, but oddly enough until today I've never actually seen it on a chart. Kinda neat. Sunday was my first Sunday as handbell director for the adult choir, and it went great - I think this group is going to be a lot of fun. We played through about 5 new songs last night and we're planning on doing 4 great Christmas songs for the St. Mary's service. While I miss playing, I do admit I like being in charge :)

Off to bed and on to Wednesday!

Friday, October 10, 2008

Barack Rolling

This is just classic...and whoever did it has way too much time on their hands :)



Home from New York! Time to do some laundry and catch up with everything...

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

From NE to NY

I'm a little behind on my blogging, but I have good reason - I was home a total of 18 hours in the last 6 days.

The whirlwind started last Thursday night, where some of my band went downtown again to play for the Art Walk - I had thought last time was the last one, but apparently there was one more. A bit chillier, and not as many people walking by, but still fun.

But the traveling started Friday, when, at noon, I hopped in the car and headed southwest for Nebraska. It was a beautiful day for driving, and gas was $2.96 in Iowa, so all was good :) I purposely stopped a few times just to get out and enjoy the day and the fresh air. I arrived at my friend Paul's at about 6:30pm, and pretty soon the old gang was over at Paul's to play video games, watch movies, play cards, etc. Seeing my old friends is always a good time - after so much time together in our lives, when we get together it's just like old times.

Saturday I headed down to Lincoln to meet up with good friend and fellow Husker fan Will, to watch some football and head to a late 8:00pm game. By far the latest game I've ever been to - I think I went to one 6:30pm game once. Fortunately the weather was fantastic and we got there at 6:30. Unfortunately the Huskers have a ways to go - losing 17-52 to Missouri. Most of us in the crowd didn't really know how to handle this kind of game, as it never happens. But I have faith that they'll get better - and Missouri is pretty good this year. Many many thanks to Will for providing me with such awesome tickets every year - Will you da man!

Sunday was great because I got to sleep in a bit, have a nice breakfast with Will & Amanda, and then drive back to Omaha (via Dodge Street because I can never resist seeing how far out things are built now) to visit Grandma Bye. Grandma and I had a wonderful afternoon, complete with a trip to the grocery store. Many of you may not know that my grandma is actually my step-grandma (although all of that happened long before I was born). So strictly speaking we are not blood-related, yet I always feel like I turned out just like her - we are both the busiest people I know, getting together usually involves blocking off time on our calendars, and we think a lot alike.

I had decided not to drive back until Monday morning, so I had the chance to hang out with good friends Trevor & Karli for dinner (Spaghetti Works!), Rock Band, and Karli buying me coffee in the morning before I left.

I got going right at 7am, and got home at 12:30 - another nice day for driving (and $2.96 gas). A load of laundary, repacking, handbell practice, a few hours to hang out with Erin and the kittens, and I'm at the airport at 6:15am checking in and heading to New York for work. I had the chance to go to New York in March for a conference for the new project I'm on, and was happy to get the opportunity again. A bit rainy as we left Rochester, but flights were all on time, and it was nice weather landing in Westchester. I was out of the airport in about 5 minutes, picked up my rental Ford Mustang from Hertz, and made my way to IBM Yorktown to catch the second half of day one. Some very interesting presentations, and good to get to see the New York half of the project. Tuesday night everyone ate at a great little place called "HorseFeathers" in Tarrytown. Afterwards I caught most of the presidential debate (I've decided those things are worthless - everyone finds what they want to hear anyway and 2 minutes isn't enough to thoroughly answer a question).

Wednesday was day two of the presentations, and they were certainly very good. Toward the end of the day they provided refreshments for everyone, including the biggest strawberry shortcake I've ever seen (I bet even with all the people only 1/3 of it was actually eaten). I decided to drive around and explore since I had an all-paid-for car with unlimited miles, and saw some of neat parts of Westchester county - everything feels like it's in a nook or cranny, and there's something else around every curve in the road. I know it's really just because there are so many trees that you can't see anything, but it's still neat. I explored Mount Kisco (where I'm staying) and found a New York style pizza place and ordered some really good pizza.

Tomorrow is day three, and I'm spending the day at the Hawthorne site to meet with some more of the people I don't normally get to see in person. I had hoped to fly out Thursday night, but with how limited flights are getting these days, and because of the short lead time, there was nothing out of Westchester Thursday after 11:15am, so I am going to fly out early Friday morning. I will be looking forward to being home, sleeping in my own bed, and hanging out with Erin and the kittens!