Happy New Year

I hope all my friends and family had a great 2008 and will have an even better 2009.

I don't really have anything much more than that to say. It has been nice to have a little downtime as work has gotten to be hectic. They let a LOT of people go where I work and those of us who are left have had to pick up a lot of work with no extra pay. I'm not grousing too bad though because, as I said, a LOT of people lost their jobs just before the holidays and had to spend that time looking for new work.

I hope they all find something better and a little more secure.

Kirk out!

Spam from worldswidedomainnames got you down?

I was a little dumbstruck at how dumb some spammers can be but this guy is the dumbest I have seen in quite some time.

For some people who explain it better than I could and to not re-create the wheel and steal someones nice work; I point you to DYNAMOO and SKILLETT.
These guys do a nice job of telling the story.

I thank them for clearing it up because I was starting to get a little miffed wondering what the heck was going on.

Blogger Buddy Post

I'm just checking out the little Blogger Buddy gadget on my toolbar. I already have my MS Live Writer that I love so I don't know if this guy will be worth taking space up on my bar or not. I guess if I made lots of quick and dirty posts this will be useful. I just don't know how much the world is interested in my random thoughts.

As long as I'm here though, I've started administering my neighborhood web page and it uses Joomla! It took me a few days to get the hang of it but it is a pretty nice way to run a web community web page. I've been checking out all of the cool addons and ways to modify it using PHP. It was relatively easy to set up an WAMP server on my pc and then load Joomla! on the pc to have a test environment to tear apart without fear of screwing up your live site. I reccomend using the PHPAdmin for you MySQL administration. It is a fairly easy to use graphical database/table manager.
My only problem at the moment is I want to upgradet the site from 1.0 to 1.5 and there are several 3rd party components that dont' get moved over in the migration script that I'm trying to figure out how to replace/replicate in the 1.5 environment. I also have to update the template so that it is 1.5 compatable. Until then, 1.0 is fine.

New Laptop

I broke down and let go of a dime. I didn't spring for the MAC I have lusting over for so very long but settled for a very nice Dell Studio. I really didn't think I was going to like Vista since all I have read about it made me think I was going to uninstall it promptly but as it turns out it is pretty nice. Admittedly it is a little more cumbersome to do some tasks as you have to go through an extra layer of security but it isn't all that bad really.

We'll see how it is after I try to get everything I want to load on it up and going. So far I've only had trouble trying to install ActivePerl. Komodo went in without a hitch and most of my Art related software works great.

Another Mother's Day Cartoon

Results of the Crawfish boil

As it turned out the weather was beautiful by the time of the crawfish boil and remained so for the duration.  We made the mistake of showing up on time.  The tickets said the gate would open at 2:30PM and they did have us start making a line a 2:25 however; they didn't open the gates until 3:00.  They never said why the delay but they entertained us driving various lifts in among us and then deciding that it needed to be driven back out an another one driven in to the middle of our line.  Yes it was dangerous and annoying but not nearly as annoying as the rednecks hollering "hey, let us in it's two thirty already!" over an over for the next half hour.

Here we see my daughter and her friend next to the second of two lifts that they drove into the crowd, parked it and left as a nice obstacle.  Prior to this I had a nice shady spot that I was enjoying while waiting for the gates to open.

I wish they had waited until they were ready before asking us to line up.  Once inside the gates it was pretty nice.  They were at a new location this year but as this is my first year to go I can't comment on if it is better or worse than other years.  We made a bee line for the VIP area to get in line for the crawfish.  They had a decent enough setup.  You get in line for a plate of crawfish, boiled corn and new potatoes and go sit under a tent or in an open area and eat.  Not too bad but it would have been better if they had broken up the extremely long and close table rows into two columns instead of one large one.   Some of the people had somehow acquired live crawfish and were letting them walk around on the tables.  It was cool watching the kids admire them. 

This is one that I saw just walking around later in the day.  Wouldn't it be wild if some got off in the sewers of Birmingham and in a few years we could have crawfish taking over the sewers?

The music was pretty good later on in the day.  The first two or three bands were ho hum and didn't crank my tractor but it picked up with Cory Smith and got better as the night went on.  Flo-Rida wasn't bad on the one song I like of his but it was monotonous otherwise. Cory Smith was new to me and I liked his show except for the language.  There were too many kids there to be flinging cussing around so.  Gavin DeGraw had a nice polished show and played a lot of familiar tunes.  The real surprise for me was Fergie who I had no real interest in seeing.  She had the usual rappy crappy stuff that I expected but she also covered some rock hits such a barracuda and did them very nicely.

Overall it was a nice day out but I learned that you need cash at these things.  Not one place was set up for credit cards and that is about the only way I travel any more so I was seriously on the low side of cash as everything was WAY overpriced.  I should have done like my daughter and her friend and bought a juice drink.  They got free refills on them so that was a pretty good deal.  I don't mind walking around with a stupid looking drink glass if I'm going to get a free refill!  It looks like it would have been pretty good tasting too.  I may go back someday but will definitely bring more cash and get there later.  Eating crawfish is nice but you don't need a whole day to do it justice.

Mother's Day is soon!

The Crawfish boil

Today we are going to the Schaeffer Crawfish Boil and it is raining cats and dogs at the moment.  I'm hoping that by this afternoon when it kicks off that the rain will be past.  They won't allow cameras at the place so I won't be able to share any pictures from the event.  I mainly want to eat a lot of crawfish and hope that some of the bands are worth hearing.  All the good bands were last night but since I worked Thursday night I don't think I could have stayed up for it plus my wife wants to see Fergie who is on tonight.  I don't know any of the other acts but maybe I'll find some I like.

JUST STOP RAINING!!

Finally!

So, I finally decided to do a little more than the plain old banner. Of course, I'm not happy with it but I never am. boo hoo. I imagine I'll get better at it as I go along. I haven't decided if I want to tweak the art to fit the CSS or tweak the CSS to fit the art. Right now I've tweaked the art to fit the CSS. I don't have time to mess with it right now so it will just have to do warts and all.

Kirk out!

A new blog is born!

My wife is a wonderful cook who has wanted to attend culinary school for some time now. She starts tomorrow and I suggested that a blog would be a nice way to capture the events so that she can share with friends and family. I can't wait. Like I said, she already is a great cook so I expect her to ramp it up. I made her a cute little characature of her to go on her site.

Check it out often as I intend to help her keep it updated regularly.



Kirk out!

Grumble Time

There are several ads that get played WAY too much that just make me sick but two raise my hackles the most:

1. LIPOZINE: It's a weight loss miracle so says the very assuring lady with the annoying hand gestures.  It's from the terribly bogus sounding "Obesity Research Institute" and proven to work via major double-blind studies.  Several statements in the ad should flag suspicion.  They claim that 70 percent of all weight lost is PURE BODY FAT.  I would hope that 100 percent of my weight loss is pure body fat.  I don't want to lose any muscle, bone or gray matter thank you.  The other tip off is that "Lipozine is not available in pharmacies or drug stores".  This is where legitimate products are found.  I don't know anyone personally who has fallen for their pitch but you can go over to lipozene.blogspot.com and read about those who have.
2. Free Credit Report Dot Com.  Yes they have a catchy tune and funny commercials but how can something "FREE" pay for all these commercials?  The math does not add up and your clue is in the very fast spoken tag at the end.  It's so fast I don't know what it requires but you can bet it equals your money.  It is probably for a credit monitoring service that is not a bad thing to have.  My beef is call it what it is and don't scam someone into thinking they are getting a free credit report and then doing the bait-and-switch.  There is a place where you can get a truly free credit report but it is at AnnualCreditReport.com   There you can get, once per year, the reports from all the major credit reporting agencies.  This does not tell you your FICO score or update you when changes to your score are made.  Oddly enough a site called myfico.com offers this service for a fee as do probably many more including the Free-credit-report singers. If a blow by blow of your credit score is important to you for whatever reason it might be well worth it.

Film Credit Found!

This kind of weird.  I did this pilot for ABC a long time ago(1995) that was for a proposed television show that was going to be a crime re-enactment type of show that I think was being filmed under the working title "Interrotron".  I could be wrong about it supposing to be a series but did find out that I have a credit under the British Film Institute web site for a film called "ERROL MORRIS INTERROTRON STORIES: DIGGING UP THE PAST".  They really don't have anything on me there but at least I have a credit.  The same movie is listed in the IMDB but they don't list any of the actors.  Even Afemo Omilami, who played the lead in this was not even listed in the IMDB.  I knew at the time that Afemo was destined to do well,  He was good.  I didn't know at the time that he was already a seasoned film veteran but it figures.  He has done a lot of movies that I saw and kept thinking, "I know that guy".  For once, I was right.  I just wish that IMDB had the credits for the actors on its site.

Testing out the Windows Live Writer

OK,  I figure one of the problems with my not posting enough is that it is somewhat of a pain to have to log into my site and write something.  Blah Blah Blah woe is me.  So I see this nice offline editor that has spell check and all and the ability to send to multiple blogs without me actually logging on to them.  I like that notion.

Offline editing and spell check	Nice
Not having to log in to an account	Nice

blackblack gum

mmm, blackblack gum. hi-technical excellent taste and flavor. It says so on the package. Actually it tastes very bitter after just a few minutes.

Closing out 2007 II

The final post of 2007 (post mortem actually) is Christmas.


My wife put together what I think is the prettiest tree we've had yet. For several years she has been making these Christmas balls. She buys these clear glass balls and puts a little of different colors inside them and swirl them around until she gets what she is looking for. She has accumulated a pretty good collection of them, enough to use ONLY them and some crystal ornaments that we have been collecting, including some I brought back from the Germany trip.

This is a cool gift from my Son Kris that he sent from Germany.

He says this guy did this pretty much while he was standing there watching. It's a little bit wood burning and a little bit air-brush and a little conventional painting. Kris said he was FAST. The guy says he tries to not think when he's painting because it slows him up and doesn't look as good. Check him out at The Magic Flame. I also received on of those wooden artists posing figures that he has on his opening page. I've always used various action figures in the past and they do great but I have just always wanted one.

Closing out 2007

Several things have gone on since I last posted. I could not get ANY of the tree companies that buy lumber to even call me back. I know who NOT to call whenever I need several acres of timber cut. I did get Allen Tree Service to come out and they guy gave me a good day rate since I had so many trees. The short story is that I was VERY satisfied and would recommend them to anyone needing trees cut. I had them cut as many trees as they could plus some trimming of the ones I didn't want completly removed in two days time. Even after that I still have more trees than any of my neighbors. I had a LOT of trees. I think the lot looks a little better and I feel a little safer when the wind whips up.

This is the cool Cherry Picker they used. It could reach about 75 feet out and get to the high limbs and top out the trees before they brought it down.

This is SOME of the logs that they took away from the house. I wish I could have had them milled and dried because I could have built a HUGE addition with that much lumber. They filled that truck completely up.

You might think that I destroyed my yard but believe me; I still have a ton of trees.

This is a recent morning shot of the back yard.

My Trees Hate Me

I've always loved trees. I like camping and hiking and climbing in trees but for some reason some of the trees in my yard hate me. To the point of actually trying to kill me. Yesterday my wife and I were cleaning out the garage so that we could park a car we had just bought a day and a half before. My truck was parked in it's usual spot in front of the garage door that I can't park it in because there is no room in the garage and the new car was in front of the space we were trying to clean out so we could park it inside. Our CRV was originally in front of the gate leading to the back yard but I moved it back about fifteen feet so I could try to snag a small limb that was dangling from a tree. That done, I went back to cleaning out the garage; throwing stuff away and piling others over on "my side" of the garage. When I went to get some things out of the back seat of the CRV I heard a large cracking noise that had me fuddled. I pulled my head out of the car and turned around just in time to see a tree fall a few short feet from me and smack onto the trunk and quarter panel of our new car that we've only had a day and a half.
As I took the scene in with a considerable amount of disbelief I noticed that the tree had also yanked the power and phone lines from the side of the house damaging my trim work. The power was still dangling from some fasteners that were a few feet down from the one that got yanked out and the phone line was completely on the ground. The cable wire was unharmed.
I was kind of in a state of shock but we started calling insurance and utility companies immediately. The power company had a guy over in about twenty minutes and it only took him about twenty to repair it. He was a real nice guy too. The phone company said they were backed up and might not have someone over until late the next day. In the mean time I started cutting up the tree and moving it to the street. Twenty minutes later a truck pulls up and gathers it up with this cool scoop that could pick up about fifteen logs in one bite. This guy was so good he even used the scoop to pick up a pile of pinestraw I had swept up beside the pile of logs. As soon as this guy leaves the phone company truck pulls up and fixes my phone line. If it were not for the big dent in the trunk and quarter panel of my car and the big holes and cracks in my trim on the house. No one would ever know that the trees had just tried to kill me. What I can't believe is that through all of this I and my wife did not think of running inside to get the camera and shooting of some pictures. I guess because I asked the insurance lady if we needed pictures and she said no. Pictures just left my mind completely.

I don't know why the trees hate me. This is the second tree in three months that tried to crush my cars. Lightening was a major player in that one.

I have decided it is time to get tough with the trees. I've called a few timber companies and see if they can come BUY some of the thirty odd tall pines that are in my yard. Or at least defray the cost of getting rid of them.

Jessica's Photos

Ok, I'm back and I had a little more time to look for some of the photos I was talking bout earlier.

I liked this one because I think she did a great job isolating the various elements of the photo that she wanted to keep in their original colors.

Of course this is just fun stuff for her right now but I want to give her all the support she needs to step it up if she wants to. For starters, I'm waiting for Leopard to hit the shelves and as soon as that is done I'm going to finally get a MAC. I've been working with PCs since the days of 8088s and have used them for all my art and music projects. I think a MAC is now in order if for nothing else so she and I can get comfortable with both environments.

This and That

I was supposed to go to work last night but I got a call yesterday about an hour before I was supposed to go to bed asking me to do an audition today so I decided to take the night off. I have a ton of vacation that I'm going to have to get in before the end of the year anyway. I slept the best that I could in my messed up sleep pattern condition but four am found me wide awake so I went down and did some yoga for about an hour. I don't usually do that sort of thing but it was about all I was up to and thought "yoga won't kill me". I found out pretty quick that yoga is a LOT tougher than it looks and I feel pretty good after doing it. I may have to figure out a way to incorporate more of it into my day. So here I am waiting on my daughter Jessica to get ready for school so I can get her there. Her school has these "zero period" classes that start before first period so riding the bus is out of the question. Speaking of Jessica, She has been doing some cool stuff with our new camera and Paint Shop Pro. Maybe some other software, I don't know, but I like the stuff she is doing. I was going to post a few here but I can't find the darn things. I'll have to figure out where she put them. We have twent gazillion photos and pieces of art on the PC so it gets a little tough to find what you're looking for if you don't know what it is called.
Any, I have to run. Time to get her to school.

Fast food Sign sore

After checking out my cuz-in-law Mark's blog Jabberous, I was reminded of the one thing that really stuck in my craw while on my recent trip to Germany; Fast food signs towering over the landscape spoiling the view. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against fast food or expanding capitalism, I'm just against forty foot tall signs screamin' it. Most of the part of Germany I was in was very quaint and "villiagy" with cobbleston streets so narrow that an SUV would have NO chance of getting through. Then BAM! big old obnoxious fast food signs. You'd think the cities would have made them make an effort to blend in with the rest of the area.

There now, I have that off my chest.

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