/\/\/ A Day in the Life \/\/\

April Fools!

2008-04-01T10:18:00.002-04:00

I really love internet April Fools day pranks. My favorites have always been the new products from thinkgeek.com

I could post plenty of information about stuff going on, but that would take forever. Biggest thing going on right now is our house search. It's in full swing now. We've gotten approved for absurd amounts of money, we've got a real estate agent to make money of us, and we have a pretty good idea where we want to live, and what we want in a house.

We're meeting up with REAgent again this evening, to go look at a few more houses.

WOOT!

2007-12-07T08:30:00.001-05:00

There's a wootoff today!

woot

nothing to see here.

2007-11-28T12:13:00.001-05:00

11:56:03 AM: Casey: Chad...
11:56:27 AM: Chad: Hi sweetie. This is a suprise.
11:56:35 AM: Casey: :-)
11:57:04 AM: Casey: I am the helpdesk agent assigned to a ticket you have open about some elite errors.
11:57:25 AM: Casey: for the last month I have been trying to get some help from our Elite admin...
11:57:40 AM: Casey: and not had ANY response.
11:58:21 AM: Casey: I just want to verify that this IS still an issue before we press him a little further.
12:04:53 PM: Casey: ...
12:10:08 PM: Chad: sorry. that is my sister-in-laws name too. I feel really weird now.

truth in advertising, and a long needed update.

2007-09-14T13:21:00.000-04:00

Wow.... how's that for contextually based advertising, eh Ian?

So, lots has happened in the 2 months that have passed since I last posted. Allow me to highlight the main points.
- I went Golfing for the first time in a long time.
- Jannelle and I moved out of our Apt with the help of our friends, and are now squatting in a sweet house in Mt. Lookout.
- Lots of scary things (some good and some bad) happening to close friends have brought along a flood of emotions.
- My boss at the big insurace company mentioned trying to get my hired on full time, no details yet though.
- Don, Matt and Amanda came to town for the labor day weekend, and we went to Paul Brown to catch the WEBN fireworks.

Daryl and Paula are coming to town this weekend for Greg's 30th birthday party. I'm really excited to have more guests in the house. Thank's P&J for leaving a great house empty for us... We love the place. oh, and in the event that you read this, the neighbors on the right (the parcel people) have their house for sale!

yo

2007-07-11T13:13:00.001-04:00

Hey everyone. How're things?

the saturday before our anniversary, Jannelle let me go to indy for the USGP round 3 practice, and qualifying. it was the first time seeing F1 cars in person. Awesome.... on the trip i had the pleasure of running into 2 of my favorite people from Sofo's. I knew Frank Lazzaro and Phil Flores would be there, but I never imagined I would run into them. I think the saturday turn-out was record-breaking, so running into 2 specific people was pretty unlikely. It was very nice catching up with them and the happenings at Sofo Foods.

Franky Lazzaro, Phil Flores and Me at the USGP

We saw Transformers last Monday. We were all pretty entertained. I only had a few gripes really, but then again, I didn't going into the movie expecting much more than a CGI orgasm of action.

found this, and thought it was pretty entertaining. This guy is pretty talented.
Optimus Prime Speed-paint

On the 4th, I spent most of the day doing dirty garage guy stuff with Greg. They finally got power run to the garage! 60Amps of lovin! The compressor works like a charm! We swapped out the suspension on Greg's 91 BMW 325i. We had other things we wanted to take care of too, LCAs, removal of the Power-Steering, bushings... but we just didn't have time. the usual problems came up... stuck nuts, cross-threaded bolts. I was really sore after sitting on the ground all day wrenching, perhaps I'm getting too old. I hope not, there's plenty of work to be done on the Galloway fleet. Friday or Saturday we're taking on a wheel bearing on the Hyundai.

In the middle of August Jannelle and I are moving into the Swindon house in Mt.Lookout. Pat has taken a 12-18 month contract, through work, for a job in Leeds, England. Pat left this past Saturday, and Jamie leaves early August. Best of luck to them, and thanks for the house. J and I are really looking forward to the move. We like our current location, but have lots of problems with our apt. It will be nice to have a house, and not a mortgage!

Work is going well. there are definitely some things that don't mesh with long-term carear goals. more about that some other time.

300

2007-06-21T07:25:00.000-04:00

2007-06-18T08:46:00.000-04:00

I have a new job that I started a week ago.

I went to the USGP 3rd round practice, and qualifying this weekend.

Our 1 year anniversary was nice.

This is really funny.

The kid swapping market, or the children's gender reassignment facility.

Halo Music

2006-12-20T14:33:00.000-05:00

Despite all the hype back in the day, I never dedicated much time playing Halo. As soon as Microsoft bought Bungie and the project was diverted to XBox, I lost interest. One thing, however, about all Bungie products that shines brightly are their original scores. The music in every Bungie game I have ever played (Oni, Myth, Myth II, Halo, Marathon) has been spectacular. I've become a dork for Video Game music, and bands covering old game music (Generic, Minibosses, MetroidMetal...) I ran across this jewel on Ananadtech.com, a tech forum I frequent. Once you accept the guitar using all kinds of digital processing it's pretty sweet. Enjoy...

http://www.break.com/index/halo_theme_performed_live.html

I'm sorry to have to do this...

2006-12-08T08:50:00.000-05:00

Please don't hate me. What I am about to reveal to you all could very well change your lives forever. Such news has historically torn apart best friends, caused divorce, even ruined nations. That which I am about to show you could possibly consume all your brain cycles, and all your free time, from here on out.

I present to you....

Armagetron Advanced
Multiplayer online, Tron lightcycle awesomeness.

Happy Halloween

2006-10-28T23:27:00.000-04:00

Shaun and Mary the zombie from Shaun of the Dead. Scratch built.

I was very proud of this make-up job. I've always thought theater make-up was cool... especially gory stuff. Woot childhood Fangoria memories! And yes, that's a fragment of record in her head!

2006-08-26T11:22:00.000-04:00

:sniff sniff: what's that smell... It's getting pretty stale around here lately.

I think I see a new, Biggie Sized update coming soon. perhaps even today. I'm in the cleveland office, pulling my hair out and throwing CDs into the dry erase boards and watching them E.X.P.L.O.D.E.

It's going to be another long day in the office.

catch you all later.

La Isla Mujeres!

2006-06-20T18:07:00.000-04:00

Jannelle and I have just returned from Isla Mujeres where we got to do several things I didn't think we would ever do.
First I'll say that I never expected to get Jannelle on a boat. but today we spent about 3 hours sailing to and from the island on a wonderful catamaran. it was about 25' long, and drinks were free!! then, even after getting Jannelle on the boat, SHE suggested that we sit all the way in the front with our feet dangling in the water. it was on netting.... you could see the water beneath us. It was very nice. after about an hour of sailing, and a reapplication of sun screen, we got to the island were we were able to go snorkeling. It was a so so time thanks to the extreme saltiness and running sunscreen in our eyes. what time we were able to open our eyes, and that they weren't burning, was nice.

I have just booked a trip to chichen Itza for tomorrow. 7am to 7pm. it will be a long day.

time to go assess the damages to our skin.

PS, I had free range iguana today!

-- Casey and Jannelle

Hola Todos!

2006-06-19T17:22:00.000-04:00

Buenas Dias y Hola!
Jannelle I arrived yesterday on time, and were shuttle to the hotel were we have settled in. www.casamaya.com . We spent some time in the pool yesterday, and this morning, and haven't gotten severly burned yet. Tomorrow, following today's scuba class in the pool, we will be going to La Isla Mujers for scuba and snorkling on the reef. Currently we are planning on heading to ChichenItza on wednesday, and Xcaret on Friday.
We both slept wonderfully last night, for the first time a few weeks, and are relaxing. Thanks to everyone for making our wedding so wonderful!
My Spanish is coming back at a suprising rate...
Buena Suerte, y Hasta Luego!

-- Casey y Jannelle Galloway

HEY!

2006-06-15T10:21:00.000-04:00

If things weren't completely nuts for me already, I am just getting ready for my 1 year review... wish me luck. fill you all in later, or this weekend!

Jason Mewes

2006-04-19T08:49:00.000-04:00

YO!

I finished reading a "short-story" of Jason Mewes, Jay of Jay and Silent Bob, and his struggles with addiction. Kevin Smith has been posting it on his blog. It's worth checking out. There are 9 parts, so start reading from the begining.

http://silentbobspeaks.com/?m=20060328

Congratulations Elizabeth for a great run in Boston!

And then.......

2006-04-12T10:13:00.000-04:00

It was a nice weekend in NWO except for a few misfortunes. Jannelle and I went north Saturday morning. It was an uneventful trip, except that it felt like it took forever. I'm sure it had something to do with us completing 45 minutes of errands on our way out of town.. We hit town right around 1PM, and stopped off at my parents for a brief visit. Jannelle and I hit up Wixey Bakery to look through cake info. 30 minutes later, we had decided on a cake style and gave them out deposit. We need to head back and get some samples to choose what we want. The other big wedding planning success is that we finally nailed down a rehearsal dinner restaurant. Looks like it's going to be at Sam B's in BG. YUM! Jannelle got to try on her wedding dress. Unlike the size ten that she tried on in the shop, this one actually fits very well! I didn't see the dress, let alone her in it, but she says it's nearly a perfect fit. One of the weekend's misfortunes, also wedding related, is that we found out that Daryl's buddies wont be able to shoot the wedding. So, we're continuing our search for a photographer.

I got to spend some time with Neil, Anne and Joel on Saturday. I headed over to their place after the cake outing and met up with Randy and Sal. It's always nice to catch up with people. Even in the 3 weeks it's been since I've seen Joel, he looked bigger... He fit into his skin better... no more baby wrinkles!

Saturday night Jannelle and I were to worn out to head to Sal's for movie night. I guess they had a test run of having Joel over, and it went well.

The other bad thing that happened this weekend was my car stereo crapping out on me. I was driving out to pick up Kat(crazy shadow stalker girl) in Swanton (BFE) for brunch/project meeting and while changing directories on my mp3 cd, my stereo just turned off. It was tragic... Thankfully Saranga had his old clarion head unit that he's let me barrow for the time being. I went over to sal's and we dissected and tested the thing as much as we could, but to no avail. I spent and hour or so soldering up my wiring harness to his old clarion, and jannelle and I didn't have to drive 3 hours home, in silence. THANKS A LOT SARANGA!!!!!

Monday night was a mini-mega battle at the game shop. It was 3x 1500 Eldar lists vs 2x1500 necrons and 1500 tau. It was fun I suppose, but I really don't like playing against Patrick's Iyanden list, and Greg's list was an Aspect warrior list. 4500 Vs 4500 didn't take as long as I expected, but it was a late night.. I got to bed at 2AM. I'm still draggin ass today....

Last night J and headed over to G&Ss for and end-of-the-day beer and cigar. We sat on the porch, enjoyed the relatively warm evening, smoked our stogies, drank our drinks, and enjoyed some fine company. It was really relaxing. I think the 4 of us are going to see Avail on Friday... It should be fun.

back to work for me... Here's another group of madmen\geniuses... Aquabats - Fashion Zombie, enjoy!

Weekend.

2006-04-08T09:05:00.000-04:00

YO!

Jannelle and I are getting ready to head north. We've got a date at the cake shop today, and I think we're headed the the florist too. Jannelle's dress was delivered to her fathers house a few days ago, and I know she's really excited about that... We'll probably be going out to dinner tonight with my parents because we still haven't locked down a place for a rehersal dinner. So yeah, that needs to be done too. I look forward to hanging out with people tonight though.. I hope my buddies are available!

Sunday I'm meeting with Kat, the girl that shadowed me at Sofos. She has a big networking project due soon, where she has to interview a local network person, and map out their network. It should prove interesting, and heck, I get a free meal out of it.

Here's a little musical genious/madman bender!

Devin Townsend Band - Vampira

Love you long time.

2006-03-23T13:06:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry to everyone that actually misses my blog, that I haven't updated in 3 months. I haven't got any other excuse besides not really wanting to take the time to update it. Anyone that knows me well, can tell you that my interests work on a cycle. I get interested in things for a few days, or even weeks/months at a time, and like a child putting down his toy for something new, I leave them behind. But, like my other interests, I come back to them eventually. I HOPE that I can find motivation to bring back at least weekly updates to the blog, but I make NO promises.

ok, now that that's finished, I'll start writing about my daily life stuff....

Work has been going well, and I've been busy with projects, and support. I have been finding my days contain less "free-time" over the last month or so. Most of the stuff I deal with are support issues, but I have projects every now and then. Tomorrow, for example, I have to drive to out Cleveland training facility to work on the PIX firewall. For some reason, the computers behind the firewall are no longer able to get out onto the internet. Fun Fun Fun!

Wedding stuff. Well, despite dragging our feet, things are coming along. But we still have a lot of stuff to do. Jannelle has her dress. We have a reception hall, and chapel. We have arranged our meal for the reception too. We have started the planning for the invitations, and plan to make them ourselves. Steph and Jamie have been a really big help. Without their guidance, Jannelle and I would have crappy invites.. and wouldn't you all be upset by that? We need to secure a photographer, flowers, and a cake. Then, of course, there is all the legal work too. We're getting there.

Fun stuff. Jannelle and I are really glad that we have befriended Sarah Theilman and her man, Shawn. They are lots of fun, and fit in well with our group. Most thursdays Pat and Jamie, Steph and Greg, and now Sarah and Shawn, come over for "Super Fun Time." Usually it's just games and/or movies. I try to present specific movies or games so that we don't sit around trying to decide what to do. And we have a good time.

Jannelle. Oh my dearest Jannelle... She spent a good portion of the beginning of this year working in a call center scheduling people for Lasik surgery. I know she really liked the people there, but the work stunk. I can't say I would enjoy it either. Well she moved on from that job a few weeks ago, and has been looking for something else. Since she hasn't had anything to wake up for, her sleep schedule is out of wack again, and she isn't sleeping well. But things will change soon. She starts an 8-5 tomorrow, doing general office work in an office about 8 miles down 275. It will be really great having the same work hours! I hope that things work out for her there! I will miss being able to go home at lunch time to wake her up! Guess I'll just have to start going to the gym again.

I'm headed to Cleveland tomorrow, as I mentioned, and will be spending the weekend in Canton with Daryl. I know we're planning to get in some 40K time... and I hear that David is trying to convince randy to come visit so that we can have lots of fun playing!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Fun.

2005-12-19T09:33:00.000-05:00

B.Y.O.B. (System Of A Down)

Well, I'm almost finished Christmas shopping. I've got just one more person to finish up. Saranga was in town for the weekend. Grats to Sal for finishing up school!!! Hope your drive home is/was safe. We all hope that you can make it back for Greg and Steph's party.

Wedding stuff is coming together. At this point we are 98% set on date and location. Once I have absolute verification I will make sure that everyone knows....Jannelle and I are very excited!

Comedy picture for today...
I found this picture while rummaging through the boardgamegeek webpage. It was on a Geeklist entitled, "You know you're a geek when...." Then heading for the entry on the list was, "... you can avoid distraction."
This is the type of thing us game geeks joke about as the ultimate weapon... I even think there was a "Turn Signals on a Land Raider" episode on the same topic... let me check. yes, here it is...

Hope everyone had a good weekend.

Hey all...

2005-12-09T12:18:00.000-05:00

Hey all! There's lots to post about, so this may be long. I chose the following song/video based on it's title and it's relevency to why I need to post, and because I really like the video. It's not supposed to auto-play, I figured that would be annoying, but we'll see if that happens. Press play! Thanks Elizabeth for the video link site thingy idea.

BEFORE I FORGET (Slipknot)

So, since I'm scatter-brained,(thanks Mom for that term) I'll not be following chronological order here.... I'll be posting things as I am reminded of them.

Yesterday was a big day in the planning phase of our wedding. We started the discussion with parents back around thanksgiving. At that point, Jannelle and I agreed that the most important detail out of the few that are Date-time specific is the Pastor. We didn't have our hopes on any one church, or any one reception hall, but we had a Pastor that was very important. We decided that becuase of this, we would work out a date based on the availability of said Pastor. Well, as of yesterday, we can be assured that Pastor David Andersen, currently of Helena, Montana, will be performing the Ceremony. Jannelle and I are honored and excited that he would come all this way to marry us. Next it's time to find a church and hall.

I've been spending time on Myspace.com ( clicky ). It's a quasi blog/IM/networking site. Everyone has their own page ( hence "myspace") to decorate, customize and design. It's so advertisey though, and slow at times. I hate how much it reminds me of AOL, but it does have an establish user base. Included in that are a lot of people that I was friends with at some point in time. I've been talking with people that I haven't seen or heard from in years... YEARS I tell you. But don't worry.. I swear I haven't been blogging there either.... my MySpace blog section points here.

DDR!!! Oh yeah.. when I went out to help move David and Elizabeth, I scored a really great deal on some DDR stuff. I picked up a pair of Cobalt Flux DDR pads that are gently used and work GREAT! These things rule! I was so lucky to find 2 of them used at the price I did.... and then, to be able to pick them up instead of having them shipped!!! I bet I saved 100 bucks in Shipping alone. I found a girl selling them on Ebay (they were listed on cleveland craigslist prior), that lives in Canton. SCORE! So anyways.. they have been seeing a lot of use around the apt. Steph and Greg really enjoy playing, and Jannelle has even graduated to Standard level songs! I can't say that I am back to the level I was when I played with Sal a lot, but I'm getting there. I even bought a new pair of sweet running shoes to help absorb some of the shock (these pads are hard pads, not foam... ) and help save my knee. so far, no knee pain. DOUBLE SCORE!!

I've been playing more WoW recently. Patrick is playing now, and we're on a server with Daryl.. Patrick and I are now up to the same level range as Daryl so we are grouping up to work on the same quests. it's been a blast. I miss Colin though. especially after I moved down here, I only every really got to see him or talk with him online in WoW. He plays on a different server... and I can't blame him for not wanting to start a new character on ours.. he has invested A LOT of time, as have we, in his characters, and starting over means abandoning the hard work he(we)invested. Eh well, eventually (so I've heard), you will be able to transfer characters from server to server. It will likely have a fee associated with it, but It will be worth it to be able to play with my all of my buddies again.

Have you all seen the christmas lights display, set to a Tran Siberian Orchestra song?
linkage
- Lights
- Snopes

Well what you may notice, thanks to snopes, is that this display is located in Mason. And guess what. I work in Mason, no more that 3 miles from that guy! It's amazing, I admit... and Jannelle and I went to check it out the other night. We had heard through a friend, that the guy was running the display from 6-10PM, and that you could tune-in to 96.9 and listen/watch the show. We were lucky to catch the show at all. let me explain. When we got there, there was a news crew setting up. Report, Lights, cameras, the whole works. We tuned in, and heard nothing on the station reported by the "tune your radio to 96.9" sign. The report happend, and all the lights were running but nothing on the radio. We decided to roll down the windows and listen for music outside, but didn't hear anything. Shortly after the reporter finished his spot, all the lights went out(inside and out) of the house. LOL, we thought he blew a fuse or something... then, over the radio, "Merry Christmas everyone. Unfortunatly, due to the inconvenience it has caused my neighbors, Until further notice the lights will not be running. I'm sorry for any inconvenience this might have caused you and your family. Happy holidays!"
AWE MAN! That sucks.. there were 5-8 cars standing around on the little street waiting to see the lights, and more coming and going all the time. I can completely understand though. If the lights weren't enough to drive you crazy, then the increased traffic in your peaceful little neighborhood would. oh well.. we got to see the current internet crazy first-hand. It would have been cool to meet the star-wars kid in person too...

Work has been off and on busy. I've been spending more time admin-ing Exchange, and IIS. I got Outlook Web Access up and running, so people can check their email from anywhere they have a connection (VPN free!).

Jannelle and I are headed to Patrick and Jaime's house tonight for a chrismas cooky thingy! I know we are both looking forward to it. The roads are finally cleared and we shouldn't have any more snow in the immediate forecast.

Hope things are well with everyone. I should be home around christmas time, but nothing has been scheduled in stone yet!

Beer Snob

2005-10-31T09:03:00.000-05:00

Thanks everyone for the kind words! Jannelle and I are very excited about the engagement.

Adele asked about the "scary" themed beer for saturday night. Here's a list of what I brought....

Wychwood Brewery : Hobgoblin
English Brown Ale.

Wychwood Brewery : Scarecrow
English Pale Ale.

Rogue Brewery : Dead Guy Ale
Mailbock Ale

Stone Brewery: Ruination IPA
Inda Pale Ale

Flying Dog Brewery: Old Scratch
Amber Lager

AleSmith Brewery: Horny Devil
Belgian Strong Ale

(Warp speed,) Engage!

2005-10-29T13:04:00.000-04:00

So, the news....
Jannelle and I, as of earlier this week, are officially engaged again. There aren't any details on the where and when yet, but I will keep everyone informed as plans are made. We are both very excited and happy to take this final step. Sorry about the shitty picture, but this technofile has yet to invest in a digital camera.

Sorry about the lack of updates. No excuses except that I have just not thought about it. Work has been busy, and truthfully it's where I have been the most active for blogging. I'm not complaining, being busy at work makes me feel more secure. I started some programming this week (gasp!).

I've been spending a lot of time in the evenings painting.. I think it's good stress reliever. My tryanids are coming along well, and I hope to have a full 750pt detachment finished by the weekend of the 13+14th. I'll be heading to Daryl's place for the weekend, but spending my time with David and Elizabeth, doing what I can to help in the move. On saturday, david has set up a really interesteing 5-way game of 40K, that I very much look forward to playing.

Jannelle and I are headed to Greg and Steph's tonight with Pat and Jaime. We're having a co-ed "slumber party".. oooohhhhh... It'll be a night of games, food, movies, drinking and a bon-fire... I'm picking up "scary" themed beer. woot

Catch everyone later!

Weekend-o-Fun......

2005-10-06T12:56:00.000-04:00

Random Internet Kitty : Too cute to live, your mission is clear!

The birthday weekend was nice. My parents came down for the day along with prissy the wonder yorkie. The got in around 2 and stayed till 9:30 or so. J and I took them out and showed them the Loveland. I think they were really impressed by how non-connected to the big city loveland is(they didn't see the traffic I have to deal with in the mornings). We also took a stroll through Indian Hills, land of HUGE houses, REALLY HUGE, and AMAZINGLY HUGE houses. There are a lot of new houses there, but I know my parents really like a lot of the old houses best. It wasn't a trip to Dauphin Island., mom, but I'm glad you had a nice time while you were here. We had dinner at the Works .. yummy pizza.

After dinner they headed north, turning down a trip over to Grephanie's for a small get together. Greg's birthday had been just the week before ours, so it was a big (small) get together in celebration. Rick and Becky were there, and so were Pat and Jamie. After the fire was built, a few of G&S's neighbors, all of whom were nice but with varying shades of scarlet necks(if you catch my drift), decided to join us. The night wasn't very long, but was a good time.

Monday night I headed to the game shop for some fun. Pat and I played a game of Axis & Allies minis, the new release from WotC. Don't worry, I didn't buy into it. Pat had enough pieces, of both armies, to play a full game. It was interesting, but I got trounced. Damn SS Geshtapo! While I was there, I spent a some money... I picked up Carcassonne: Inns and Cathedrals, the first expansion for Carcassonne. It will let us play 6 players and includes a few new ways to score points. As well, since it's now October, I thought it would be appropriate to have a good "scary" game to play. Along with Jannelle's favorite childhood game Midnight Party, I am now the new owner of Betrayal at House on the Hill. Brady brought it over once when I was in BG, and we played it. If I am not mistaken, I think he helped play-test or design the game when he Co-Oped at Hasbro(Avalon Hill). It was a lot of fun, and I really like the replayability factor. Tonight will be it's introduction to the group(G&S, P&J, and C&J).

Work has been going well. I have feel a lot more confident now that I have been through the Cert class. I understand what the customers are asking for, and can better interprete their needs. Poker has been slow since I returned, I've only won once.

Jannelle has started working. It's not much but it gets her out of the Apt and brings in some money. She started at Subway a few weeks back as an official Sandwich Artist. She hates it, of course, and is continuing her search for a more "career" oriented job. GOOD LUCK BABE!

David Hansen and Daryl are coming to Cincy this weekend, but not at the same time. David will be here around 11:00 tonight and leave 8-9ish on Saturday. Daryl will get here 8:30-9:30 on Saturday, and leave on Monday morning.. CRAZY! I look forward to having you guys around... I have been missing the NWO crew lately... I think I'll be back into town next weekend, but we'll see. I'll be sure to let you all know..

Catch you all later.

Birfday

2005-09-27T13:08:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I turned 27. Jannelle made me a nice dinner and a Boston Creme Pie. YUM!

Not much has been happening around here. I started playing Voodoo Vince on the Xbox last week. I broke down and spent the 20 bucks for it. Jannelle and I are hooked (again)! I got my new video card last week. I had been relying on an old system for entertainment (Geforce4m) since the 5600Ultra in my main box was slowly dying. Whenever the system would try and render anything 3D, it would eventually start artifacting and lock. It started locking up playing World of Warcraft, 3 months ago. Then, 2 weeks ago, it started locking up on the screen saver. I replaced it with a modest Geforce 6800 from newegg.com. I followed some guides, installed Rivatuner, have the extra pipes opened, and it's running at 400/800 beatifully.
I got Jannelle We <3 Katamari (katamari 2) for her birthday( on thursday 29th), and just could stand to keep it a suprise. Saturday, after we had dinner at Mei, a great sushi and sake place in Montgomery, I gave it to her thinking it would compliment our Japanese evening. After the F1 race on sunday, I don't think the PS2 got a rest. I'm glad she likes it!
J and I may go out for Thai tonight. Steph had mentioned something about it last week. We'll see whether or not she skips out on whatever she has planned for the evening.
I just found out that I need to have the 2006 fiscal year budget numbers together by EOB today. YIPES... back to work...

Back with a vengeance

2005-09-18T16:31:00.000-04:00

Ok, there's no vengeance....

I made it back in one piece yesterday, but it was a long trip. I decided to look into taking a earlier flight from AZ to Cinci, and It ended up a mess. I took the car back at 2:00ish, and took the shuttle to the airport. When I got to the airport the ticket counter for US Airways said, "Ticket counter closed till 7:45." GREAT! So, I hung out in Shitty terminal #2 at the Phoenix airport till 11:00 to catch my flight to Charlotte. Then, as precious as she was I still hated it, I sat next to a 14 month old. No sleep on the plane for me! In Charlotte, it was 5:45, so everything was opening up and more and more people were coming in to get their flights. Well, it ended up that I found a semi-quiet corner to "sleep." Sleeping upright in an uncomfortable chair, with "Due to increased safety restrictions..." Playing every 3 minutes, is not sleeping at all. I caught my flight and made it home. Safe and Sound, but sleepy.

The exam went well. I missed 1 question that I didn't remember covering in the book. The "highlight" of my exam was the fact that I exposed a bug in the Saleslogix administrator Console. The teacher who has taught this class for 3 years didn't know about it, and probably the support people didn't know about it. So I'm am a certified SalesLogixv6.2 Engineer now. Now I can actually help people! :)

Jannelle and I went to The Original Pancake House for breakfast. She had a spinach, Sun-dried tomato and Feta omelet, and I had pecan pancakes. YUMMERS! After breakfast, we took a 1.5 hour drive through the Indian Hills (RICH!) area while listening to prairie Home Companion. We saw the 37 million dollar house. It was about 5-7 big houses connected together..

Off to take a shower. J and I are headed to Greg and Stephs tonight for some pizza, beer, Family Guy, and a Fire!
Catch you all later!

Done.

2005-09-16T13:40:00.000-04:00

Well, I've finished my SalesLogix Engineer's Cert Exam, and I am just waiting for my system/test to be graded. I think I have done well. If I have messed anything up, then I can spend whatever time I need, until 4:00pm, to finish. Once I am finished here, I'm not sure what I'll do. My flight doesn't leave until 11pm tonight. I though about heading south to Saguero National Park and checking out some cacti. I may also call up to US Airways and see if they have an earlier flight they can stick me on. I just hope someone is there to answer the phone when I call. I guess they've filed for Bankruptcy. If I can't get on an earlier flight, then I'll be home at 11:20 am tomorrow. I'll post an update on how I did, when I get back to my own PC.

Classic Man!

2005-09-15T18:47:00.000-04:00

Clark Gable
You scored 14% Tough, 28% Roguish, 33% Friendly, and 19% Charming!

You're a pretty interesting guy, all man but approachable and friendly. You like the lovely ladies, but you're also a real stand up guy with a true sense of honor and duty. You're respected by most men, although they probably wouldn't trust you alone with their girlfriends and even wives. Women find you intriguing, drawn to your playful sense of fun and true-blue core. You think most women are rather silly, but strong dames with smarts really turn you on, and you tend to marry them. Leading ladies include Claudette Colbert and Vivien Leigh, women who find you somewhat charming but a little dangerous.

Find out what kind of classic dame you'd make by taking the Classic Dames Test.
Find out what kind of classic leading man you'd make by taking the
Classic Leading Man Test

Google at it again!

2005-09-14T16:38:00.000-04:00

Looky Looky.

Google is at it again. A blog search tool. Ever want to find a blog on certain topics? well there you go!.

back to class!

Yipes

2005-09-13T12:25:00.000-04:00

I burned my mouth on some hot scalding Tofu! I walked around last night trying to find this burrito place I saw, but I ended up at the China Chili. I got a plate full of stir-fried veggies and tofu... it was yummy, but hot.
I woke up at 4:30 this morning when my internal clock went off. I got out of bed at my leisure as I didn't have to be in Scottsdale till 8:30. I ended up at IHOP for some french toast and scrambled eggs. Yum! I took a different route to class today, Indian School to Scottsdale ave, and still arived an hour early :) . This took me past a lot of interesting looking restaurants, including the Vegitarian Garden. I think I may stop by for some dinner on the way home tonight. Class is going well this morning. I'm getting a lot of good information.

Casey

Greetings from Scottsdale, AZ

2005-09-12T14:38:00.000-04:00

I flew into Phoenix, AZ yesterday. Sage Software, the company that owns SalesLogix, is based here. I'm in town til friday night, for an "Administration and Implementation of SalesLogix v6.2". Woo Hoo, I finally have some real training.
Total travel time was about 10 hours after the layovers. I flew from Cinci to Charlotte, then to Phoenix. I got into PHX around 7pm local time. I picked up my rental '06 Ford Taurus and headed to my hotel. It's in the buisness district of PHX, and generally crappy. It seems like it was a nice place 5 years ago, but has not been kept up. Mirna booked me a smoking room so I can't even hide away in my room and avoid the "ick". The room, like all hotel rooms, is pretty stale and the smoke smell is strong.

I struggled to sleep in till 6:15 (8:15 ohio time), in time to head down to the restaurant for food. I was sad, but not suprised, to find that he restaruant is closed... for good. I decided to go ahead and head to Scottsdale (16 mile commute across town through traffic = SHIT ) to see if I can find some food. I ended up at a place called "Paradise Bakery and Cafe." It was Panera-ish. Coffee of the day was Black Raspberry Chocolate. YUCK, I ended up with a Crapuccino.

There are 5 other people in my training class. The class has 5 men, including me, and 1 woman. 2 people are Sage employees, one from OZ. Rest of us are from all over. Portland OR, San Jose, Cincinnati(me!), and Calgary, eh! Guess what, I'm the only out-of-towner not staying in the Gainey Suites (the hotel next to Sage's office.) So much for late night networking at the local bar(walking distance). I'll have to commute my ass back to Phoenix. UG.

I am really glad that I am getting some good information, but it's really hard for me to not be a little bitter about the situation. It's so frustrating that I can hardly stop thinking about it. The commute... the stupid flight times.. ug.. must... think.. positivly....

We just got done with Lunch. I had a crappy, but free, salad. I'm on a French dressing kick lately, and man that was some spicy french dressing.

Jannelle is in P-burg for a few days. She had some business to attend to there. At least she's not all alone in Cinci.

I only have connection to the internet in the class room. I'll be checking email and surfing on break and lunch.

time lapse

2005-08-30T14:59:00.000-04:00

One month later.....

Hey everyone. Things are well here in Loveland. Jannelle and I have been busy unpacking and arranging. The apt is nearing completion. It is so unlike me to have taken a whole month to unpack, I guess I've been in a bit of a funk (no offense adele). I have had very little motivation, and I'm not sure why. I think I felt overwhelmed. Either way, things HAVE calmed down, and the dust is settling.

I still haven't finished the 6th Harry Potter book, but I am slowly closing in on the last 25% of the book.

Labor day is coming up, and I look forward to a long weekend!

Jannelle and I get our new furniture on thursday, and we're both pretty excited.

The weather here in Cincy is pretty crappy. we've got Katrina for the next 36 hours. It hasn't passed dusk here all day, it's so dark and rainy.

Work is going well. I am being challenged more by our product. I'm also turning up to be a better poker player than I thought.

Operation Sofa Safari; Complete

2005-07-30T02:26:00.000-04:00

Well folks, thanks to the dedication of all those that helped, I am now moved out, and in.

Operation "ditch the couch in the dumpster without my landlady's notice", AKA Sofa Safari;

:: Complete ::

Primary objecive: Complete
Completion time : 07/30/2005 0200hr
Casualties : 1, The couch
Cost of Operation : 3 hrs sleep
Debreifing time : I don't wear briefs

Dismissed!

Thanks to Patrick and Jaime, Greg and Steph, and especially David for making the hike from Cleveland just weeks after his herniated disk surgery, for all the time and energy! I owe you all!

16' big yellow box with a lift gate.

2005-07-25T11:44:00.000-04:00

truck is secured! Woot $30 + mileage(60cents a mile with <10 estimated).

I got the 16 footer for 10 bucks more so that we won't have to walk the heavy stuff up a ramp. that should make it a little easier.

I had a good time at G&S's last night. We cooked out, had some drinks, and played some games. R&B were there too. I learned a dice game called farkle, and lost a game of poker to B.

about time for lunch time poker here, then off to the back and to find a place to fix the flat I got on the honda.

Another Start

2005-07-24T16:12:00.000-04:00

To packing that is... Ug.
Jannelle and I move in together this coming weekend. We are both really looking forward to it. We've been together for 7 years now, and this is a big move for us, no pun intended. This is conceivable my last sunday living by myself... I've spent the weekend playing World of Warcraft (woot lvl 58!!!), reading HP6, and procrastinating my packing.
I attended a really nice party at Pat and Jaime's place yesterday to celebrate Pat's M.B.A.. Those 2 are some really great people. I really look forward to spending more time with them. Pat and I have a lot of common interests. Today I've actually made a small start with my packing. On top of that, I watch the F1 race this morning. BAR's Jensen Button raced a good race, GO HONDA!!! I've just browned up 1lb of ground beef(yes it's free range) to make a big taco salad. I wanted to have dinner a couple nights this week that will be easy. I anticipate a lot of long nights at work and with packing. David may be coming in to help move. well Time to finish some stuff... I'm headed to G&Ss for din din tonight... then over to work to get a head start on the stuff I need to get finised up.

And for your viewing pleasure, my cowgirl Jannelle!!!!

here we go..

2005-07-17T21:19:00.000-04:00

I've revamped this place becuase I was sick of the way the right frame was causeing all pictures to display BELOW it unless I reformat the size...

I have some cathing up to do with everyone. Last weekend is where I'll start since I can't really remember past then. Sal and Colin came down on Thursday for the weekend. I think over all it was a good time. I'm sorry about the uncomfortable couch, Sal. We me up with Greg and Steph for an evening at the Works, one of my new favorite places. I was under the impression that it was an old fire house, but I guess it was just part of the water works... Either way, it's a pretty old building that has a lot of character. All the food that I've had there has been pretty good, including their specialty brick-oven pizzas. It's no Myles, but it tastes wonderful. My favorite thing about the place is their draft beer selection. They have a few my fav. beers on tap... namely Bell's Two Hearted Ale. It's an IPA brewed in Kalamazoo Michigan. mmm Beer
On saturday we enjoyed a showing of Batman Begins at the local IMAX. I really enjoyed the movie, and the theater was great. It was a dollar more per ticket to see the movie, but it is worth the extra to see "big" movies there. Then we went to Chipotle and met up with Greg and Steph again. Sal and Colin were both satisfied with their HUGE portions of good stuff all wrapped up in a wonderful tortilla. later that evening we then went to Competion Racing and had a great time karting. I know that Sal didn't have a good time, sorry man, and it was like playin Mario Kart as King Koopa/Bowser watching Colin. Greg and I enjoyed it so much that we are recruiting Pat for the fall league. It'll be a blast! Saranga got roughed up, and his back ended up pretty hurt. Colin and I went over to G&Ss for a bonfire and drinks to finish the night.
Monday and Tuesday were spent in Sandusky for our annual "meeting". WE sat down and discusses work related stuff for about 45 minutes on tuesday, the rest of the time was party time. There was a lot of drinking and having fun.
The rest of the week was back in Cinci, where I worked my tush off. I was at work late wednesday and thurday, also several days of the week prior. I am having a really difficult time swapping ISPs. It's not the actual ISP swapping that is an issue, but getting the PIX to PIX VPN tunnel back up. Oi!
Jannelle came to town on Friday and we had a very productive weekend. We found a place to live!!! We have a place just down the road. Assuming my credit app goes through ok, Then I'll have a movin date of Thursday the 28th. I am entertaining any offers for help. Anyone that would like to come visit has as much floor space as they want..... J and I went out to Dinner last night with Pat and Jaime, and Greg and Steph. We all had calzones at Dewey's. Then it was back to P&J's wonderful place for a round of munchkin. I think it was the first time I've won. everyone was lvl9 and I was lvl6 at the start of my turn. I sold off enough stuff to get lvl9, then beat the lvl 3 monster with ease for the win.
Greg and Steph came over today... It was Tour de Loveland day, the annual bike race. The people here are pretty serious about their bikes. the place jannelle and I have picked out is even closer to the bike trail than I currently am, and I just got my bike back from the shop.. I'm really excited about riding it....
please excuse the slopply post.. having so much to catch up on makes it tough.

Jannelle, Good luck on your exams on monday!

da weekend

2005-07-07T20:42:00.000-04:00

I have a lot to catch with, but this won't be the post. Colin and Sal are nearly here, and I'm cookin din din. spaghets for tonight! whoops, gotta get the laundry.

Back in the Office

2005-06-22T13:33:00.000-04:00

Midstar's "main" office is there in Sandusky just behind the Great Wolf Lodge. I spent Monday and Tuesday there for work. Incidentally the quarry people(mmmmm sulfur) are just across the street, and when they are blasting it shakes the office. My time there was spent getting some Hardware together for me, going through the Employee Handbook and filling out my new hire paperwork. I spent a small amount of time with Rich, the guy I am replacing. I listened in on a few calls and watched what it is he does with the system. It was a pretty productive time, I'd say with one exception. As we were loading everything up, we somehow actually just left the PC there for me. All that time setting up the PC and we left it. It was a mood killer to get back to Cinci and realize that we had left my PC. Oh well, one of the guys from the Sandusky office is headed this way on Friday and will be dropping it off. Meanwhile I am making due with an old Viao laptop and VNC.

Monday night after work, Rick, Dan and I went to the Thirsty Pony for dinner and entertainment. By "entertainment", I mean I now know how to bet on horses. It was an experience, that's for sure. In the picture you can see the 6 TVs I think. Each TV had a different race track, and different live races. There were these ATM like machines where you insert your money (cash or credit) and choose which venue/race/horse(s) and win/place/or show bet you want to place. A "win" bet is when you bet a horse will win. A "place" bet means you bet the horse will finish top two, and "show" means top three. You can place on as many horses as you want, and each horse has different odds. It's really very interesting. I only played 10 bucks total and lost if after a few races. The other guys started with a lot more money, and they both ended up ahead. Rick hit it pretty big though, "winning" a $5 bet on a 28/1 horse. That 5 dollars ended up as 140 something, and after the night was over, he cashed out nearly 160 bucks ahead.
Friday night I drove to Bowling Green in the Saturn, and spent the evening curled up with Jannelle. It was a lazy night, and I was pretty tired. I think I went to bed at 11pm or so. Saturday morning I got up pretty early and traveled to P-burg to take my folks out (my dad really) for father's day. My plan was to finish up on the Honda afterwards so that I could take it home on Sunday. Well the mornings plans surely didn't go as expected, but suprisingly I was able to get everything taken care of. Greg drove up and had lunch with his folks, then we headed out to Daryl's around 3:00. The three of us had a great night out in Canton. We went out for burgers and beers at the Winking Lizard, then hit the pool hall for some games and drinks. Sunday was Disc golf, and boy was I rusty. It was a really nice time, and I think Greg is a little motivated to throw more often. I guess that means that we'll be heading out sometime soon.
I'm finished with my Chipotle and I've lost my dollar in today's game of Hold 'em. I guess it's time to get back to work. I'm looking into an ISP swap as my first project here. Cya later folks!

First Day Thoughts.

2005-06-18T09:04:00.000-04:00

So here's a brief step-by-step synopsis of my first day at Midstar.

-Get to work at 8:30 AM (soo much better than 10AM)
-Meet with Rick for a while, went over what we need to accomplish with my training time as well as more overview of the job. Til 9:45
-Sit in on a weekly conference call with the developers. 10-11:15
-Go to the Irish Pub across the street for lunch. Included in this trip was a serving of fish-and-chips and 2 20oz Guinness'. We met a bunch of other software guys from another place that Rick worked called Domin-8(yes really).11:15 - 12:50
-Get back from lunch and belly up to the 5 dollar buy in Texas holdem table in Rick's office. I went out first, but it's all part of my plan to hustle them. 1:00 - 3:30
- Sit at my desk and tear through the software and network.3:30 - 5:00
- Go home!

So there it is, my first day at Midstar. I have no complaints. I do understand though that starting next week, we are really going to get down to business. I'll be training in the main office in Sandusky, with Rich the old System Engineer. I think I'll be there for the first part of the week, but I'm not sure when I'll be back in Cinci. Then when we get back I'm going to start looking into swapping the ISP from a crappy 768k DSL connection to something a little beefier. Oh, and Rick wants to make me the IP Phone system Beyyotch (those are his words).

It's still rather early here in BG. I'm blogging from Jannelle's place. I drove home the Saturn last night so that I could spend some time with her. I crashed hard last night though(not the car, but my brain). I slept straight though till 7:30 this morning and I've been wide awake since. I think my dad is going to come pick me up soon, and I'm going to take him out for breakfast as an early father's day present. Then, I'll be working on the Honda for a few hours to finish it up. Then, Greg will be in town with the Hyundai and be eating lunch with his grandparents. Then, he and I will be headed over to Daryl's for the weekend. There's lots of traveling in my future, but it'll be worth it for sure!

talk to you all again soon!
Casey

Ask and ye shall receive. (subject to change)

2005-06-16T16:12:00.000-04:00

I would like to see the outside of your office building.
# posted by Destrawt : 9:24 AM

This was the reply to my question below; Any requests from my adoring fans on what they would like to see in my next pictures?

Well, here you go. Here is 4705 Duke Ave. The Siemens building. 6 floors of call centers. If you look closely, on the 6th floor, after the first indentions of the windows, you can see my desk. Ok, not really, but you can imagine me sitting there, can't you?

Now, here's the exception.

This building is no longer where I work. As of 8:30 AM on June 17, 2005(that's tomorrow folks), I will be working across the street at Midstar. Today at lunch I met with Rick Stevens, a buddy of mine that I met through Greg and Steph. I was originally to be the Cincinnati counterpart to the Lead Support Tech/Systems Admin basted in Sandusky, Ohio. Through one issue or another, the funding wasn't available for me to join the team. Well, the tech put in his 2 week notice this morning, and Rick needed someone that could come in and train/take over immediatly. I will be the new Lead Support Tech/Sys Admin starting 2 weeks from Monday(when the other tech leaves). I am so pleased to know that I will be working hands on again. This new job offers me a fantastic raise, medical benefits, and an IRA option. They're even going to cover my cell phone bill, and I can come to work in shorts, a tee shirt and sandals. WOOOHAAAA!!!!!!
I'll fill in the rest of the details over the phone or in person. You all know how to reach me.... It's party time!!!!! ::dance dance dance::

Oh... and who is Destrawt, and why is that person my only adoring fan?

The Grind

2005-06-16T09:02:00.000-04:00

So I have been listening to the new Meshuggah album this morning. Daryl mentioned to me yesterday that he picked it up, but I didn't even know there was a new album. So far its iffy. They assembled the albums so every song transitions into another. It's pretty progressive of them I guess. I like being able to pick out songs that I enjoy, and listening to them from start to finish. Now for any song to feel resolved, I have to listen the rest of the way through the album... and that is assuming there is resolution at the end, I haven't gotten that far. I'll keep listening and report more.

Here's what I look at when I'm at work. It's an OLD Dell GX system. The monitor will support decent resolutions and refresh rates, but I think it's getting fuzzy. My eyes ache sometimes.

This is what my PC sees all day. Isn't he just the cutest Siemens employee ever?

And when I get tired I look out my window. I know this is a bad picture, but there is some sort of tinting on the window. whatever....

Time to hit the showers. Any requests from my adoring fans on what they would like to see in my next pictures?

New start

2005-06-15T08:59:00.000-04:00

Ok.. now that I have my bluetooth adapter, I have renewed interest in sharing with you all the world around me. I will TRY, every day, to get a picture posted about something that's going on.

FYI, in general, everything is well here in Loveland. We've had some really cool storms here the last few days. I've been walking at, lunch time, around the parking lot that is about a mile in circumfrence. My little in wall air conditioner is working it's poor life way as it has been really muggy and hot recently. I got my replacement phone last thrusday, and the new one is working a lot better. Jannelle is well, but had a little "issue" before she tried to leave on sunday. At this point the Drs. have said that it was muscle spasms in her neck ( a la Colin Mac) and they gave her muscle relaxers.

ok, so here is the first contribution. Remember, all these photos are coming from my little Motorola A630 cam-phone. In the mornings, as I sit at my computer, the sun shines right through my blinds and into my drowsy, sleepy face.

Gasp... I almost ran out of breath.

2005-05-03T17:43:00.000-04:00

It's official. I managed to bust my ass getting home to be here before the cable guy. I thought I would drown in boredom without my connection to the rest of the world if I had to wait much longer. And, in addition to my newly re-established RR connection, I have also bought into a highly discounted HD cable package despite what I early thought I would do. It's ok, i can always cancel the service without penalty... :)

So I have this new job. So far, that being two full days, It's not so bad. I have sat with a few support people and listened in on the calls. I haven't run into an issue that I wasn't at least on the same page as the support tech. I think the learning curve will be getting used to the in-house helpdesk software. The techs that I watch zip through it. I'm sure I'll get to know it, as soon as I get some formal training.

The move went well, thanks to all involved. Jannelle, Greg, Steph, Randy and Ruth... thanks for all your help. And to all you other wimps out there... You need to get some muscles and stop being girly men. :) actually, it was just a circumstance of timing. With Sal being off in cali visiting Brady, and Colin's physical condition... oh and me not calling Neil ahead of time to ask for assistance, there were just 2 of us ( on each end) that could move the heavy stuff. Everything did manage to go smoothly though. By Saturday night I had everything in the Apt. and was starting to unpack. As of now, I think everything has been unloaded that is going to be unloaded. There is a lot of stuff that I am just going to leave in boxes, cause I won't need it before I have to move again. Conveniently I have a great big closet, and some great box storage shelves in my bedroom closets that I have just throw the full, not-being-unpacked boxes into.

The place hardly feels like "home" yet. I'm still getting used to all the new noises in my apt. The floor above me squeaks a lot, and the old guy that lives there has a condition that makes it sound like he is going to cough up a lung. The lady across the hall has an uncountable number of pets, but at least 2 dogs and a cat. From the smell of it (yes smell), I would guess that she has at least another 3 animals in there. All in all though, everyone I've met here seems nice enough, despite their quirks.

Loveland, where I live, seems a lot to me like waterville with hills. I live on top of a pretty steep hill, that, if it weren't for the great big trees in the way, would overlook downtown. The short few blocks that make up downtown are great. There's at least a few food/drink shops there, and a great park along the little Miami river. There's also a long bike trail that runs through the area that I would love to explore sometime. Greg and Steph have offered their bikes to me, should I want to take a ride. Thanks for that...

I miss Jannelle a lot, and it's only been a few days. I'm sure it will get "easier" over time to be apart, but I'd like to think I'll never get comfortable with the idea.

Time to play search around and see what I have missed the last few days that I have been unplugged.

Goooood Morning Ciiincinnati!

2005-04-25T09:10:00.000-04:00

Greg and Steph have so graciously allowed me to crash in their spare room last night. I got here in a nice round 2hr 23 minutes last night. Not my best, but not shabby either. Friday was my last day at Sofo foods. It was pretty nice, I didn't really have anything to do. There wasn't much work that hadn't all ready been passed on to Bruce and Barb(sorry guys.) For lunch, there were 10 of us that went to Jed's for chicken and salads. It was however the worst service we had ever had. Gary Bialoruki was the comedian of the hour, poking fun at every bit of the restaurant. Oh well… It was a nice time none the less, and I was flattered that so many wanted to come. Thanks for getting that all put together, Bruce. I made my rounds after lunch, making sure to stop by everyone's desk that I thought really cared. I sent out an email thanking everyone for everything, packed my boxes, formatted and repartitioned my laptop, got a few more hugs and left around 3:30. I felt naked leaving without my laptop or cell phone.
I stopped by my parents place, on my way home, as my new cell phone had arrived. I picked up a supper cool new phone from Amazon, and signed away on a 12-month contract. If you want my new number, leave a comment, and I'll see that you get it.
I've spent the last few days, with fluctuation motivation, packing, cleaning and organizing. It’s been hard to focus on it.
Saturday night there was a get together at Neil and Anne's place. They were great hosts and I think everyone had a great time. The food was great, and so were all the people. Lets see, it was Anne, Neil, Sal, Jannelle, Randy, Ruth, Moe, and I. I saw this get together as a last-time-all-together-for-a-long-time kinda get together. It’s really sad, and I'm going to miss the convenience of seeing everyone.
So here I am, at G+S's, on a Mac, blogging while finishing my bagel, prepping to find the apt I'll be living in for 4 months. I have showered, eaten, and let Harley out for her business, no more distractions. I'll let you all know when something comes up. I love you all!

Cincy Living situation

2005-04-20T10:51:00.000-04:00

Here I am at work, anticipating another free lunch, killing my time. It's nice to know you'll be missed. I'm sure gonna miss a lot of people here too. There was even some crying today from a few people. How flattering.. I pretty much have everything wrapped up here. I just need to document a few things. I don't know what I'm going to do for the next 2 days.. Maybe nothing, but then again how is that different than what I was doing before.

The current news on the Cincy living situation is discouraging. The stupid lady at that shity apt complex rented the apt out from under me the same day she took my money for application. I knew that my application didn't guarantee anything, but she new my situation, intentions, and didn't mention that anyone else was interested in the place. And for crying out loud, the place was being cleaned still when we looked at it. Sometime between 2:30-3 when I left the office and 5 she apparently rented it out. I called her back and asked if she had another 1 bedroom available, " Not right now, dear. You want me to call you if something comes up?" SO, as far as I can surmise, I am going to have to come down AGAIN and look for another place. The good news is that I am done here on Friday and will have all next week to find a place and move. But that means I am going to come down, find a place, come back, find a truck and load it up, then drive down again. And then, I will still probably have to come back to BG to return the truck (usually a lot cheaper to do 2-way and not 1-way). Maybe this is a blessing. I mean, I really was questioning my decision to live there. It wasn't the nicest place, and the people weren't that great either. I kinda felt like I was settling for it.... oh well, I just don't want to take all the trouble to find *another* place that will take on a 4 month lease in my price range.

EDIT :::: Oh yeah.... I am going to go see Hotel Rwanda tonight with Jannelle. I'm looking forward to it..

Alright...

2005-04-18T11:14:00.000-04:00

My last post was a good indication with the level of satisfaction derived from my job. I am now pleased to announce that I have a new job. I guess technically I have accepted a new job, but not actually started working it yet though. The job is with Siemens, and is located in Mason, Ohio. Mason is a Northeast of Cincinnati, along I-71 to Colombus, about 25 minutes from the Ohio river. I'll be working with their business services division. Basically Siemens has 50 or so companies and the Business Services division is the tech support for most of them. And, in addition, they also support 3rd party companies like Coca-Cola (the team I'm working in), Givaudan(Steph's Company), and more. It will be a call center job, where I will have NO face to face contact with the people, nor hands on contact the with systems that I support. Needless to say, It's not the kind of job that I really wanted, but the amount of growth and movement opportunities inside seimens is almost overwhelming. If I end up despising the job, I can always remember this; I'm only a temp employee (till they decide they want me full time) and therefore have no obligation to stay, I can stick it out for a year and hope to get transfered to a better position, I'm making more money while still in a related field, and it's better than working 2 jobs flippin burgers for the same amount of money.

I took a few days off work last week for a face-to-face interview, and spent time looking for an apartment. Finding an apartment was a very difficult thing, as my lease length requirements were very limiting. I needed to find a lease for 4 months or 6 months. Jannelle, when she is finished with school will be moving to Cincinatti as well. That will be in the middle of August. The 4 month was harder to find, but would allow me only the time I needed to live on my own. A 6 month lease would have to be in a single bedroom(can't afford double), but still be big enough to house Jannelle for a few months. I found a 12 month lease that will require me to forfeit my security deposit to break. I made the landlord aware of my intentions to move away after 4 months, and as long as I'm a good tenent there should be no problems. The location isn't "great", but it was in my price range.

About one and a half hours ago, I handed Jeff my letter of resignation. My hopes, in honesty, were that I would be let go immediatly becuase of the security threat I posed (having access to electronic file in the company). I would like to not have to pack up on the weeknights(while still working) and rushing to move in one weekend. Knowing that there was a possibility this would happen, I made all the needed backups of files and the such from my laptop, servers and cell-phone. I also scoured the Employee handbook this morning to discover no official policy about giving 2 weeks notice. I decided becuase of this that I would only give notice to work the rest of the week. My presentation of the letter to Jeff was far less painful than I had imagined. It was all very professional, and buddy-buddy. I told him where I was going and for whom I would be working for. He was impressed and wished me good luck. He told me he understood that "I needed to I look out for myself." He stood up and shook my hand, wishing me "good luck", and "all the best in the future." I was plesantly suprised... although there was this part of me that would have liked Jeff to look suprised and paniced. Even if only for a moment.

Next thing to do is secure housing. I found a place that would meet my budget and leasing requirements. ...... actually the landlord just called. Apparently they rented the apt out, but that she should be able to get something together in a small amount of time if needed.. hmm...
may have to spend some more time looking... Guess I have all week to make some phone calls.

Oh well..
here I am, sitting at my desk, planning to work the rest of the week, not giving a flying F about getting things accomplished. I may get some stuff done.. we'll see. I will probably get a new Cell phone this week. I'll make sure that everyone has my new number via email/Neil's party.

stay tuned lots of exciting things to come!!!!

Merry Christmas!

2004-12-24T09:58:00.000-05:00

So, the feelings right now are anxiety and frustration. My boss forgot to put through the annual bonus I earn working my ass off getting the A&M WAN project completed. I was counting on this money for the holidays. I haven't done anything but mentaly spend the money, but I've also made plans to travel to Cincinatti for new years. Things are just going to be really tight for 2 more weeks. UGGGG.... I'm soooo frustrated!

anyways,
I'm looking forward to a nice time with my family, and Jannelle's. I don't really have anything for her brother or father though.. I am headed to the Retail store to get a Christmas Basket for the grandparents. I also need to stop and get some wrapping paper....

I'll write more later, when I'm not so mad.

The Times....

2004-12-10T13:28:00.000-05:00

Good Day blog fans. I'm updating...

So, the last few weeks have been interesting. I won't bore you with all the details. here are some interesting points though....
About a week ago I left the ranks of non-quiterhood, and quit smoking again. I have taken up a healthier regime again including regular DDR and better eating. Thus far, I'm happy. I hope I can stay motivated. Jannelle and I have discussed some preliminary post school plans. We have tenetivly begun looking at a relocation to Cincinnati. Everything is still very high in the air, and there are a lot of factors to figure in before we can guess where it will come down. I love you guys... all of my friends... I crave social interaction with my friends.. but I am really yearning to get away from NWOhio... We'll see what happens.
In other news, I did 8 loads of laundry last night....
Christmas is coming, and I haven't done any shopping yet. for that matter, I haven't really started thinking much about what to do/get for people. 2 weeks left.
I've got the Firefox and Thunderbird running on my work laptop. I like them so far, but I have had a few issues. I wish it would have really imported my cookies when it said it was going to. Thunderbird is mozzila's new email client.

here's a piece of comedy for you all...
warning:: it's a bit long (10 mins I think) and has some icky meat processing footage.
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/kidsshow2.html

Electron FUN!

2004-12-10T13:04:00.000-05:00

I found this linked from DDRfreak.com
HOLY FRICKEN COOL!
someone get me a Lichtenber figure for christmas!

Vintage

2004-11-22T13:15:00.000-05:00

Good Monday all...

This weekend was generally pretty relaxing. Jannelle and I were going to go to the Blue Nile in Ann Arbor on friday night, but plans sorta fell through. Instead we just relaxed and went to Easy Street for a few drinks. On Lukas' suggestion, we both had a Hazed and Infused. Yummies!

Saturday was fun.. I did laundry and played some counter strike after Jannelle and I returned from Breakfast. Later that evening Saranga and Colin came over. We played some DDR, had some horrible taco bell, and then played some X-Men Inleashed on the XBoX.
Sunday was my lazy day. I did nothing... Well I guess I did something, but not much. I went and got coffee and a bagel for Jannelle in the morning. She went to Campus for some studying. She has 2 exams today.... Then I came home and did nothing....

I found this while surfing today. In the theme of the 80s, I though this would be appropriate.

http://www.bezoar.org/?poop=2

WHA WHA WHAAAT? yes, an update...

2004-11-19T09:33:00.000-05:00

Life has been extraodinarily busy for the last month. Let me highlight a few things...
- Got to race the Honda, after a busy Saturday makeover.
- Voted for Kerry, and was very disappointed in the nation's choices.
- Went out for Sushi with Lukas and Amber, Then came home for some (mostly) good beer.
- Traveled to Canton, Oh to help Daryl move.
- Worked approx 55 hours in the last 5 work days since we swapped out the router and firewall.
- Got off work early last night, bought half-life2 and played it for 3 hours straight. I haven't played a video game that could hold my attention for so long since the first half life. It beautifully rendered, shading, lighted and textures are amazing, and the game play is fantastic.

I found this today while I was browsing. It reminds me a lot of Jannelle and all of the good natured ribbings she takes from me. She was young enough not to remember a lot of the 80's that I do. Some of this list may be a bit off, and catered towards girls, but you get the point.

Children of the '80s
You know you are a child of the 80's if...
1. You've ever ended a sentence with the word "SIKE".
2. You watched the Pound Puppies.
3. You can sing the rap to the "Fresh Prince of Bel Air"
4. You wore biker shorts under your skirts and felt stylish.
5. You yearned to be a member of the Baby-sitters club and tried to start a club of your own.
6. You owned those lil Strawberry Shortcake pals scented dolls.
7. You know that "WOAH " comes! from Joey on Blossom.
8. Two words: M.C. Hammer
9. If you ever watched "Fraggle Rock ".
10. You had plastic streamers on your handle bars.
11. You can sing the entire theme song to "Duck Tales".
12. When it was actually worth getting up early on a Saturday to watch cartoons.
13. You wore a ponytail on the side of your head.
14. You saw the original "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" on the big screen.
15. You got super-excited when it was Oregon Trail day in computer class at school.
17. You played the game "MASH " (Mansion, Apartment,Shelter, House)
18. You wore a Jordache jean jacket and you were proud of it.
19. L.A. Gear....need I say more
20. You wanted to change your name to "JEM " in Kindergarten.
21. You remember reading "Tales of a fourth grade nothing " and all the Ramona books Ramona completed in 1st grade.
22. You! know the profound meaning of "WAX ON, WAX OFF"
23. You wanted to be a Goonie.
24. You ever wore fluorescent clothing. (some of us...head-to-toe)
25. You can remember what Michael Jackson looked like before his nose fell off...
26. You have ever pondered why Smurfette was the only female smurf.
27. You took Lunch Pails to school.
28. You remember the CRAZE, then the BANNING of slap bracelets.
29. You still get the urge to! say "NOT " after every sentence.
30. You remember Hypercolor t-shirts.
31. Barbie and the Rockers was your favorite band.
32. You thought She-Ra and He-Man should hook up.
33. You thought your childhood friends would never leave because you exchanged friendship bracelets.
34. You ever owned a pair of Jelly-Shoes. (and like #24, probably in neon colors, too)
35. After yousaw Pee-Wee's Big Adventure you kept saying "I know you are, but what am I? "
36. You remember "I've fallen, and I can't get up "
37. You remember going to the skating rink before there were inline skates.
38. You ever got seriously injured on a Slip and Slide.
39. You have ever played with a Skip-It.
40. You had or attended a birthday party at McDonalds.
41. You've gone through this nodding your head in agreement.
42. You remember Popples.
43. "Don't worry, be happy "
44. You wore like, EIGHT pairs of socks over tights with high top Reeboks.
45. You wore socks scrunched down (and sometimes still do... getting yelled at by "younger hip" members of the family)
46. "Miss MARY MACK MACK MACK, all dressed in BLACK BLACK BLACK "
47. You remember boom boxes vs. cd players.
48. You remember watching both "Gremlins " movies.
49. You know what it meant to say "Care Bear Stare!! "
50. You remember watching Rainbow Bright and My Little Pony Tales
51. You thought Doogie Howser was hot.
52. You remember Alf, the lil furry brown alien from Melmac.
53. You remember New Kids on the Block when they were cool.
54. You knew all the characters names! and their life stories on "Saved By the Bell ", the ORIGINAL class.
55. You know all the words to Bon Jovi - SHOT THRU THE HEART.
56. You just sang those words to yourself.
57.You remember watching Magic vs. Bird.
58.You cut your t-shirts in half and wore it with your homemade Levi shorts.. (the shorter the better)
59. You remember when mullets were cool!
60. You had a mullet!
61. You still sing "We are the World "
62. You "Pegged " your pants ritually. You're still singing SHOT THROUGH THE HEART in your head aren't you!!!
63. Youfrench rolled your jeans.
64. You owned a bannana clip

Weekend of fun

2004-10-11T13:32:00.000-04:00

Wow, where to start?

Friday night, after work is probably the most logical. Colin, having recovered enough from his wisdom teeth extraction, suggested we go disc golfing. And so we did. Neil joined us too. The round wasn't spectacular by any definition, but it was nice to be out and playing. The only really bad part was that I managed to strain my neck. It hurts, still, just like it did after the super-duper-awesome-neato AVAIL show. hmmm..
After the Disc Golf we came back and relaxed for a bit. I think that's when we busted out the DDR. We had planned on watching the debate, and I thought I would be heading out to spend time with Jannelle and her brother. As it worked out, Jannelle said that I should just stick around with my buds... So I did. Colin Left, and Anne and Saranga showed up. Anne brought with her some super yummy food. We all, Randy, Ruth, Sal, Anne, Neil, and I ate, watched the debate.
Later that evening, Brady showed up. Brady always has something for us to test out for him. He designs games, creates prototypes, and then has us test them. This time he brought along his fun chess variants. The only version that I have gotten to play is his cool 4-player chess. Neil, Saranga, Brady and I played. It was a lot of fun, and I've gotten in another game since. Sal stayed over in preparation of the super-fun Saturday that had be planned

Saturday....
I woke up after sleeping in (gasp I slept till 9), and started on my first task. I took the tire from the front drivers side of the Honda and had it serviced at Tireman. I ran to Pburg for a little bit, then While the tire was being worked on, I went to Grounds for Thought and grabbed a couple coffees and donuts and went back to Jannelle's place. She had gotten up a bit earlier, and was very happy to hear I was bringing coffee. We had a nice time, and I left shortly after 11. She went to Perrysburg to meet her Dad, and I went to get my tire. 17 bucks, a patch and plug, yielded a usable tire. I put it back on and went for a drive. It will be nice to get some more work done so I can feel a little more comfortable driving it to and from work.
We talked about going out for a round of disc golf, but as we were leaving Randy took a call from the sheriff. Apparently the museum was vacant, accept for the seniors that were there for a tour. Doh, so Randy had to go to work. Sal and I decided instead to play some Dawn of War. Randy made it back around 3:15, and was followed closely by Adele Funk AKA.. Funky A, or A Funk. Adele brought with her the most interesting, and eventually time consuming toys ever. She had a 2x2x2 Rubik's cube molded into the shape of Homer Simpson. That Darn thing.. I bet there no more that 15 minutes of time passed as down time. That thing got a workout, that's for sure. More later.
Eric Stoner came over, and reluctantly Saranga and I agreed to play Lord of the Rings Risk. I don't think either of us really wanted to play, but agreed to since Eric came to play. Eric, due partially to my errors on turn 1, was able to get pretty strong, uncontested hold of 3 continents early. He pretty much wipe the board with us. Carla showed up and played Settlers of Catan with Adele and Randy. Ben stayed home to finish downloading Metal Slug 4. Neil showed up and we played a round of 4 player chess. During the game, Brady called, and Ben and Jannelle came over. After the games were completed, Ben busted out the PS2, and he and Sal finished metal slug 4 with unlimited continues. He also brought another game, Katamari Damacy. Jannelle is in love...
That evening went pretty late. I found a webpage to describe the method for 2x2x2 rubiks. Sal, Ben and I spent 45 minutes or so and got the darned thing put back to normal.

Sunday....
I got up around 8:30, and snuck into the lab for some early morning Dawn of War. Randy made pancakes for breakfast. I found Jannelle awake about 11:30 when I went in to wake her up. She went home to get ready, and I went out looking for shoes and a car. At 2, we headed over to the wedding reception for Bob and Johari that was at Bob's Dad's place in BG. It was a really nice party with lots of friends and family. Bob and Johari looked nice, and the decorations were great too. They decorated in a Harvest theme, with pumpkins and leaves and a nice fire in the pit.
The party closed with Bob's dad showing us through his Mustang collection. He has a very pretty 64 convertible, Burgundy with white interior, a 67 Shelby (think Bullet) and a 69 Mach 1. All of them in great condition.
Sal, Randy, Colin, Ruth and I headed back to my place. It was a snooze fest, I think colin was the only one that fall asleep. He was playing Dawn of War on my computer while the rest of us dozed off wathing football.. I joined in on the carnage with Colin. That was fun. Neil, and Brady both made their way back to our place, and David Hansen came from Cleveland too. We played a 5 player game of Settlers where colin pulled a 3 point turn into a win, where I would have won. It was CLOSE...
Neil and Brady tried to recruit others for some mischeif. I wonder how that went. I had to decline so I could make it to bed.

this morning I came in to work and found that the Shumie brothers took 1-2 at Suzuka (way to go Ralf), and my BAR boys pulled a 3-4.

I think that's it....

Links...
Katamari Damacy --> http://www.namco.com/games/katamari_damacy/
2x2x2 Rubik's Method --> http://www.geocities.com/jaapsch/puzzles/cube2.htm

RNC cliff notes.

2004-10-05T16:28:00.000-04:00

This is Comedy to the MAX

Hola!

2004-09-29T09:06:00.000-04:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JANNELLE
I love you more than Chocolate Fudge ice cream.
make sure to leave a happy birthday comment for Jannelle....

On my way to work this morning, I stopped to fill up gas. I always stop at the barneys by my house, cause they have these really good sour cream glazed donuts.... Any ways.. This morning, I found out that they are selling Bawls now. That's right, you can get Bawls, and Sugar-free Bawls at Barneys, for 1.50 each. So, here I am, sitting at my desk, drinking a Bawls. It's a good day.

Yesterday I finally got around to selling all my car stuff. I posted it all around 4:40, and by the time I got home at 6, I had already sold the coilovers, sway and strut bars, and the intake. As of this morning, I have interested buyers in the the exhaust and Gauge-pod pillar. if these go through, then all I have left to sell are the wheels and tires. They will be the most expensive things too, based on their weight. If I get exactly what I asked for, which I hope I do, then I should walk out of all of this with 1650 bucks, minus the total cost to ship. I'm guessing I'll have about 1450 bucks that I can start planning the Honda with.

I've just realized that my neck is feeling a lot better. It's not sore, or tight anymore.

Last night, I got to play some DDR. I haven't played much recently due to lack or energy, or time, or something... but I think I did pretty well all things considered. Neil, Randy and Ruth showed up after my shower, and after Jannelle and I had ordered our Pizza. (Pisanello's broccoli thin crust). We gabbed for a while, then Jannelle and I started watching Fruits Basket. We watched 4-6, and are eagerly waiting for the next few.

Think I'll try and be productive today at work. It's a good morning (thanks caffeine!)

Bawls.com
My Auction Thread

Last few...

2004-09-24T16:41:00.000-04:00

My poor misguided friends, with very good intentions, held my birthday party on Wednesday.... EHEHEHEH... Despite being early a few days, It was right on time.... That's to say that I needed a fun night, and a REALLY fun night is what I got. I had a blast that night.. Saranga bought me the first two B.P.R.D books, and I got a copy of Dawn of War too... They even made me some yummy chocolate cake. Colin brought over his copy of Star Wars: Battlefront, and we played that for a bit. It's really cool. We ordered some Pollyeyes stuffed breadsticks, and played some Settlers of Catan. And whatever you may think, or may have been told, they did NOT let me win because it was my birthday. I trounced them fair and square. GG 4 cities on the 8... WooT!
If you guys see this, know that I had a really GREAT time. Thanks so much.

Last night I drove to Cleveland for the AVAIL show. It was another awesome night. I haven't had that much fun at a concert in a long time. It was Awesome seeing Mishell and Daryl.
WE talked about all the shows we went to in High School, ah the memories. I didn't get home till 2:15ish, and I've been tired and sore all day.

Where I've Been

2004-09-23T13:40:00.000-04:00

Add to this France, Italy, and Canada....

create your own personalized map of the USA
or write about it on the open travel guide

Oh yeah!

2004-09-21T21:04:00.000-04:00

I forgot to mention it.....

Neil and I pulled all the performance parts from the Elantra. It was a record 5 hours to pull the wheels, coilovers, exhaust, rear sway, and intake, and replace with stock....

Off to campus to catch a free showing of Harry Potter 3, Prisoner of Azkaban.

Ciao

Tuesday....

2004-09-21T15:04:00.000-04:00

The food show is over... and thank goodness. It makes my life a little easier not having all that stress around here. Things went alright on Monday. The only thing to mention was Chef Rocco Dispirito, from the reality TV show The Restaurant. He came to the show, at great expense, and did a cooking display. He walked around and did signings and pictures with the Customers. They ate that guy up man. I had never even heard of the show until someone explained to me who this guy was. Also, on Sunday night, we had our company party. Aside from some of the "work" stuff I had to do at the party, It was a lot of fun. I had a few drinks (on Mike and Tony Sofo, Thanks!), and watched some boxing. I had never seen boxing live, and I have to say, despite being skeptical, I actually enjoyed it. I guess seeing that the 2 guys treated it as a sport, and were friendly, took the animalistic, cave-man side of the sport away. It was cool..

Today I went to the Game Room for lunch, and ran into Ken Boone. This really cool guy that's in the master's program at UT. He was there just chilling, and we talked for some time. Ill be headed there on Thursday for a long(er) lunch to play a 500pt. game of 40k. I can't wait.

I talked with Daryl for awhile today too. I'll be meeting him, and Mishell Touve at Peabody's in Cleveland on Thursday night for an Avail show. I had thought that I wouldn't be going, but daryl convinced me to that I should. Even though I am strapped for cash at the moment, the show is only 13 bucks..... and that's with ticketmaster fees. So I'll be going to that..

Guess I'll call Krogers in BG and see if they have a ticketmaster.

Food Show

2004-09-19T16:13:00.000-04:00

Here I sit at out Powernet Booth. It's been pretty hairy. I worked at the Printing center this morning, printing and reprinting a lot of crap. The biggest pain in my A$$ has been that Airpath wireless, the company that host our wireless connection here at the Seagate center, blocks VPN. Since Barb didn't get the Vendor Price Lists downloaded properly, I need to get to work and re work them. But I can't cause they are blocking my VPN access. On top of that, I need 20 bucks to turn on a phone line in one of the sales rep's Hotel Rooms..

gotta Jet... have a customer intersted in out Powernet

Dreary

2004-09-17T13:16:00.000-04:00

I'm back at work from an early lunch. I basically just spent the paycheck I just got.... I'm just behind on my bills, and it's annoying. I hate being "strapped" for cash... It depresses me. I went to the bank.... Deposited my check, and paid my overdue car payment. I went to the storage place, transferred the account from Ian's name to mine, and paid the overdue bill. I then drove to BG to pay the balance of my 03 city tax, and catch up on my quarterly tax crap.

Now, I'm trying to budget when I'm gonna get caught up. I have a a lot of crap still hangin that needs taken care of ASAP...

gah.. I wish I could pay for things with computer parts... I'd be rich.

::gasp:: IT'S OVER! ::sigh::

2004-09-15T13:19:00.000-04:00

So, we're done printing all the crap for the Food Show. That means for the next few days, things can go back to normal. And just in time for me to see that there are 2 new Teen Girl Squad episodes.

Anyways.. So lots of stuff has happened in the last month. Lots of negative work stuff.... Some fun weekends with friends, and a few parties over Labor Day weekend... We got Jannelle moved out of her old place, and in to her new place. Lauren was married. I got some work done on the Honda, but it's still not close to being ready. Jannelle's Dad broke her foot, and had surgery. I planted some things at my parent's place, and did some computer work. Randy threw a hole-in-one on hole 9 at carter park. The new Warhammer 40K book is out, and it's great. I've even dusted off some of my Necrons, and moved them across the board. I watched M. Schumacher spin out in the chicane on lap 1 of the Italian Gran Prix, and still come back to place 2nd. (darn Ferrari's).

Now, Let see... I've gotten in a lot of disc golf lately, it's sorta become my exercise. Better than nothing I guess, but I would like to start playing DDR again. I bet it's been a month... I signed up for the Escalation League at the Game Room. I'm gonna head there for lunch and see what's up with that. I guess we are supposed to have our first meeting on Saturday (18th). It's a neat lay out that I hope to get at least Randy and Colin involved in.

Vic has been in contact with me again, and really wants to start up something. Since I held some drum sticks for the first time at Alumni Band on Friday, I've sorta craved playing again. There are some problems though. Our main 2 problems are that we don't have a Bass player or a place to play. Eh, maybe we'll figure something out.

Jetting for now, it's time for the Lunch.

funniest Strongbad EVER!
http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail109.html

Busy..

2004-09-14T13:51:00.000-04:00

Dear me, It's been nearly a month.

despite my best efforts, I have failed to keep this updated. Work is really busy RIGHT NOW... So I have to go, Stay tuned.

Edit!

2004-08-19T13:55:00.000-04:00

Here's my creation.
Right-click, save as

http://hyundai.ohioracing.com/movies/072504/cgvsnb.avi
tell me what you think..

Possessed

2004-08-18T20:50:00.000-04:00

It's mine. My very own 1991 Honda Civic Si. In great shape, and only 500 bucks....
I changed the oil today, and spent some time on the rust spots. The spot near the passenger rear wheel well is gonna be a doozy. It's been professionally "filled" and painted already, and has since started bubbling again. All the rust was on the inside, and that's bad. I broke all the bubbled crap out, and sanded what I could till I got to some real, clean, metal. It's gonna take some work to make it look decent again.

Right now I'm installing Adobe Premiere 6.5 on my system. I wanted the new version, 7.0, but it requires Windows XP. Isn't that silly... It REQUIRES XP... How strange. Anyways, I'm getting it, cause I wanna try my hand at some video editing. My first project will be to do split screen, side-by-side comparisons of my racing. I think it will be really cool to see where I was faster than Neil. I'll be sure to post a link when I get something together.

Jannelle made it to Florida ok yesterday. The trip was mostly uneventful. We've talked a few times, and she emailed me today. Apparently the high light of her day was getting some facial wash. I hope things get a little more exciting for her. ALTHOUGH... she was just really busy with the move... maybe this time away from everything is just what she needed.

Kat, my stalker job shadow girl is moving into her dorm tomorrow. She thinks college is gonna suck, but I distinctly remember to the contrary. It was definitely some of the best years of my life.

that's all for now.. Daryl is messaging me, and I want to talk with him...

Becuase Tonight, tonight, tonight, toniiiIiiight oooh ohhhhhh

2004-08-17T16:37:00.000-04:00

So tonight is the night where I get to pick up my car. Neil is picking me up around 6:00, and we're headed out to get the car. Lukas is gonna meet us back at Neil's we we will have a testosterone enduced pow-wow, and sacrifice many animals(cruelty free of course) on the grill.(this was Jannelle's thought)...

I've decided to race the Elantra this weekend, as I'll have a few more events to help secure my placement in HS. This way, Greg, Steph and I can all race the same heat. Registration is low right now(only 14 in STS so far), so I'm hoping we'll get 5 runs.

I got to hang out with Jannelle last night. We got her packed up for her few days out-of-town. She took off for Florida this morning. She'll be there for a few days, with her Mom and Alicia, visiting her Granddad and Uncle. I hope things go well for her. She is reminded of her Grandma whenever she's there, and It depresses her. Also, She and Mom often get sick of each other (Alpha Female).

Work was interesting today. I actually worked for most of the morning, straight through. I didn't get to lunch till 2:30. After an hour lunch, I've only got to be here for another 1.5 hours. Sometimes I really like late lunches, because it makes the afternoon go faster.

I'll see if I can get some photos of the car, and post them tomorrow.

Oh the times we've had.

2004-08-16T12:52:00.000-04:00

I always love going to Cincinnati. Greg and Stephanie are so great, and I love the town. Some day I could see myself moving there. Greg kept pointing out that the neighbor's house was for sale. It would be pretty cool If I had a house down there, but I would be leaving a lot of friends here. Someday I may decided to make the trip.

Friday....
So I got out of work a little early, closer to 4:30 than 5:00. When I got home I finished up some stuff around the Apt. I had some dishes and cleaning I wanted to do before Randy got home(he had been gone for a week recovering from surgery). Jannelle came over with the vanilla ice cream that I left in her freezer. Before I left she whipped together some root beer floats that were completely delicious. I haven't had a root beer float in quite some time...

I made the trip down in record time. I think it took me 2 hours and 10 minutes to get to 275, and I stopped for gas. I think that's something like 82Mph average... We went out for some food when I got there, and ended up at a sports bar called, ummm, Willy's I think. Not a bad place. Steph and I split Spinach and Artichoke dip, and I had a few Guiness Draughts.

Saturday was car wash day. I washed my car, Greg's car, Steph's car, and we painted Greg's race wheels. They turned out well, and I may consider painting my wheels now too. Later in the evening we went to the 48 Hour Film Project that made a stop at Northern Kentucky University. It's a really neat concept film project, but I wasn't sure what to expect. There were a a few really neat entries, but a definite majority were pretty bad. After the movies, we went to get food. We ended up at Joe's Crab Shack, and it was the only time I've seen a fist fight in a restaurant. We were sitting with a good view of the the kitchen doors. I watched one guy walk out from the kitchen, and another just jumped out and decked him in the face. There was no yelling or screaming, and the guy that got hit, wasn't fighting back.... The got pulled apart, and moments later it happened again. The same guy, just walking away, and BAM decked in the face again. We decided to skip desert, and left at that point. When we got home, Greg and I enjoy a nice cigar for desert before heading to bed.

Sunday was race day. Greg and I haven't had much opportunity to race together, so it was a nice time. The course was a little scary, and it definitely made me appreciate the strict SCCA safety guidelines. The course seemed completely irresponsible. There were a lot of dangerous hazards. All in all I raced well. I got better every lap, and finished pretty close to my goal.

I had a pretty uneventful drive back(except for the stomachs contentment with a Chioptle's Carnitas Burrito).

Jeff (boss) is off today, so my day is a bit more relaxed.... Time for lunch...

Lunchie Munchie

2004-08-13T14:45:00.000-04:00

I had a nice lunch today. I met up with Jannelle, her mom, and her mom's partner, at The Original. It's this really great breakfast nook on Central Ave. We had some good conversation, and it was a very nice time.
I'm really looking forward to leaving work today. I hope I don't have to stay to late. I need to get home, get some stuff together, do some straightening up, and leave for Cinci.
I hope Bruce(co-worker) and Kevin are OK. They had a long weekend for vacation, and went to Florida. I think they said Naples. According to Weather.com, which is really slow right now, Hurricane Charley is Category 4 and right on top of Naples.

Anticipation

2004-08-13T08:55:00.000-04:00

So i went out and looked at that car last night. For 500 bones it looks like a great deal. I was a little frustrated that it didn't work out that Lukas could come along. I know he's busy, and owes me nothing....
It's a Black 91 Civic Si Hatch. The interior was nearly perfect. The exterior was were the problems were, but even they weren't bad. The hood and roof were faded, and there were some rust spots on the bottom of the doors and wheel wells. the rust spots were controlled and still under the paint. I'd just sand them out and repaint over them. The car ran, but there is apparently an issue with the Distributor. I'm sure one of the coils is going.

I will probably be making another trip out there on monday to pick it up.

Ease into it.

2004-08-12T12:49:00.000-04:00

So here I am. I'm Casey, and this is my Blog. Lets start this..

Here I am with Jannelle, my SO of 6 years.

Now, you know what I look like, so lets move on.

here's the news....

So, today has been good. I started the day out with an email from an old friend, Lauren Eastman. How nice it is to hear from old friends. She and I dated for a good while back in High School (Perrysburg, Ohio 1992-96). those were good times. We now keep a good causal friendship. She moved away from BG a few months back, along with her fiancee Ryan. They are engaged to be married in the next week or so, and I'm really excited for her. How exciting it is to move away and start a new life. I'm sure it's scary too.

Tonight I'm going to look a car. It's 91 Civic Si. I am really intersted in getting another car so I'm not racing my only means of transportation. Not only that, but I have discovered that my current car is not capable of competing in the class I race in. This Civic is a proven winner in the classes it races.

ok, let me do some explaining.....
I compete in timed driving events sponsored by the SCCA (Sports Car Club of America). These events are called SoloIIs, or autocrossing. Here's a few pictures of me and my current car, a 2001 Hyundai Elantra GT.

I love my car....

I'm looking forward to this weekend. I'm headed to my best bud's place in Cincinnati. Greg and Stephanie are having me for the weekend. This may be the last event were I'll be racing the Elantra. Greg and I are gonna go at it, mano y mano. He's gonna race his Focus ZX3 against the Elantra. It should be intersting. I look forward to see who has the best setup (of driver and car).

well I'm off to lunch.. if my day is slow, I'll write more later.

A Silent Install.

2004-08-12T12:21:00.000-04:00

Everything starts small.
I'm here because I love looking in on people.....
So here I am, making myself available for all...

hello world