Things, Stuff & Such

As I was about to pay for my lunch at Subway I noticed that one of my dollar bills had something stamped on it.  It was “www.wheresgeorge.com“ stamped in red on the front of the bill.  It has been a long time since I have come across one of these on a bill.  What the site does is let you enter serial numbers of any denomination of currency you have into their database.  Then you put it back in to circulation and wait for someone else to find that bill and enter it’s serial number.  Usually, you mark the bill in some way so the next person knows to enter the serial number on the website.  I just write on mine but you can buy a stamp from the website’s store if you want.  I can’t see spending money for this endevor but to each his own.  It is kind of fun, if you get a hit on a bill, to see where it has been.  You can see the tracking report for the bill I just came across here.

Syria called me earlier in a fustrated mood.  “I need to vent.” she said right off the bat.  It seems our youngest is very picky about his jeans.  He did not want to go to school today because his pants didn’t fit right and “his ankles were showing.”  Aaron is very much in to skateboarding and like to dress in that style: very long jeans that get freyed at the ends because he is walking on them half the time.  At first I didn’t understand just how frustrated she was.  I thought she was just going to tell me about whatever had happened and we would talk about it.  As she went on I could hear in her voice that she was genuinely fustrated.  The more she talked about it the angrier she seemed to get.  I offered up a “I understand” and “I’ve had to do the same thing, too” to let her know I empathize with her.  I could tell, though, that she didn’t need me to empathize; she just wanted to say it out loud to someone.  Every parent gets that way from time to time.  Then she said that she had gotten back to work and had to go.  Then she was gone.  She wasn’t rude about it, just in a slightly excited state.  I was left with the feeling of “what just happened?”  I was over as quickly as it began.

Aaron, if you read this… please take better care of your clothes.  Your mother and I work hard for the money.  So hard for it, honey.  We work hard for the money, so you’d better treat them right.  (chorus)

And for the love of monkeys… wash your hair!

If you don’t read this don’t worry.  I will be talking to you about it very soon .

Today I am thirty-five years old. I was talking to my mother last night and she mentioned that when I was born I was 7 pounds and something and that everyone there said I was the best looking baby in the nursery. I fully believe that I was seven pounds.

She also told me that my younger brother came out at nine pounds, one ounce. He was the biggest baby in the nursery. The woman next to her in the hospital room had the record with a nine pound baby until my brother arrived.

But that was thirty-five years ago and I haven’t been the cutest anything in a long time.

I share a birthday with a co-worker. She calls me her ‘birthday buddy’ and we get each other funny cards and maybe some cheap thing as a joke. This year I gave her a card with cartoon pirates that mooned her when she opened it. She gave me a funny card with a birthday magnet in it.

Everyone wished me a happy birthday today which was nice. Some people teased me while most were sincere wishes. My favorite “Happy Birthday” came from a woman in a different department. I was walking by her station with one of the supervisors who told everyone it was my birthday. So the woman says happy birthday to me and makes like she is going to give me a spanking. I said to her “Okay” and turned around an put my hands on the counter. She proceeded to wack away and counting. As she got into the twenties she ask how old I was. “Keep going, I’ll let you know when to stop.” I said to her. At twenty seven she switched hands. At thirty-three I was deciding if I should stop her at thirty-five or not. The office is almost all women so I had a crowd of women watching me get spanked. I am usually a shy person but you just don’t turn down something like that from an attractive woman. Trust me, I now speak from experience.

Scott and Aaron called to wish me a happy birthday before they went to school which was sweet. I could tell that it was their mother’s idea to call first thing because they both sounded like they had just gotten out of bed. And it is because they had. It would have been just as nice to hear from them after school but it did help to start my day off nicely. They got me a hat for my birthday and a card. I got the had a couple of days ago and the card should be here any day.

I got a few cards from friends which is always nice. Phillip-Morris sent me a Marlboro ashtray which was thoughtfull of them(NOT). My parents got me a cool Hallmark sound card with the Star Wars theme music. I’ve seen the commercial for it several times. It is the one where a woman and a man are sitting in a restaurant and she hands the card to Chewbacca and he gives it to the guy. You can see the commercial here if you haven’t already. I thougt it was geektastic. I gave a bunch of the Hallmark sound cards for Christmas and everyone seemed to like them. I still have a few left over to use next Christmas.

I also got severl automated emails from some of the forums I am a member of.

Hello ROMbler,
We at Treonauts | Treo Forum would like to wish you a happy birthday today!

Hello ceu3,
We at mp3dreaming would like to wish you a happy birthday today!

Hello ROMbler,
We at HowardForums: Your Mobile Phone Community & Resource would like to wish you a happy birthday today!

Hello ROMbler,
We at AcidStudioz (Forum Community for Everything) would like to wish you a happy birthday today!

Can you feel the warmth of the messages? Doesn’t it make ya feel special? It’s nice when someone takes the time you schedule an automatically generated form message, don’t you agree? I don’t even remember what that last one was. Forums are nice places usually with good people sharing information.

I have no plans to celibrate my birthday. I have to work late anyway so it’s fine. I know there are a couple of people I could call to do something with but I’d rather let it slide on by (except for the spanking, that is).

The web is full of polls, surveys and personality quizzes. You can find a poll on almost any topic imaginable. Some gauge public opinion while others are stupid. Then there are personality quizzes. These claim to reveal your truest potential in everything from leadership to how good you may be in bed (I have been told I am good in bed – mainly because I stay on my side and don’t hog the covers). Somewhere in the middle (perhaps leaning a bit more toward silly than social) is the Superhero Personality Quiz.

I gave it a try and here are the results:

You are Superman

Superman 75% Green Lantern 75% Spider-Man 75% The Flash 55% Catwoman 55% Iron Man 50% Supergirl 48% Robin 43% Hulk 40% Batman 30% Wonder Woman 18%

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

Am I going to run out and buy a spandex suit and cape? No.
Am I going to put this on a t-shirt? Maybe.

I was a little disappointed that it didn’t come up as Spider-man. He was (and still is) my favorite superhero. Spider-man did tie with Superman but something in the pole (read: something about ME) put Superman on top. I have to say that I am glad Wonder Woman was all the way at the bottom.

Speaking of my personality, the boys’ mother told me the other day that in one of my recient blog entries I came across as “a grumpy old man.” She was referring to an entry about traffic accidents that I see in front of a high school on many mornings. I realize I rant a lot in this blog but I don’t see myself as “grumpy” or “old”. “Man” does fit perfectly, though. The “old” part is not true but stung the most. Maybe it is because tomorrow is my 35th birthday.

Holy Geeze! Seeing the number 35 typed like that didn’t help me feel any better about getting older.

The boys were off from school all last week due to weather.  I guess the issue was ice and getting busses to the rual areas.  The temps up there for last week ranged from below zero one night to highs around 32 during the day.  I spoke to them several times during the week and each day they were home they hoped they would get the next day off.  As it turned out, they did!  Today, however, they were allowed to return.  I know they enjoyed the week off but they also know they have to make the days up at the end of the year.  It’s bitter sweet, to be sure.

Apparently, as the days off went on chores were not getting done and by the middle of the week the boys had decided to go to a friend’s house without doing their chores first.  Because of that, they were told that they could not go anywhere Thursday.  Wednesday Syria slipped on the ice in her driveway.  Apparently, all the kids in the house (Scott, Aaron and a friend) stuck thier heads out the door to see what happened.  Aaron was the only one to come and help his mother up.  After helping her he asked “Now that I helped you up do I still have to stay home tommorrow?”

On Saturday they went to a Monster Truck show at a local venue.  The top word they used to describe it was “loud”.  They had a good time and got to see a robot dynosaur ‘eat’ a car.  That’s about all the information I could extract from them.  Everything else was, “it was okay”.

Saturday I didn’t do much since I wasn’t feeling well.  By the evening I needed to get out of the house so I took a drive to an auto parts store.  I wanted to get some wire loom to protect the 4 gage wire now running through my engine (for the most part it was an excuse to get out of the house).  Then I hit Wal-mart to kill time before going back.  Sunday I felt better and went to the new Bass Pro store with a friend.  That place is huge.  If I ever want to become more of an outdoor person I know where to get the gear.

My drive home takes me through the contruction of an over pass where the three lane road funnels down to two lanes.  I always take the middle lane to avoid having to merge left from the right lane.  There are concrete baracades lining the right side of the road that close in gradually to merge the far right lane into the middle.  During rush hour it is a natural bottle neck but most people know it and stay out of the right lane.  Last night I worked until about 7:00pm so there wasn’t much traffic on the drive home.  As I approached the construction zone there was an SUV about 4 car lenghts ahead of me in my lane and nothing behind me for twenty yards or so.  Along comes this small white car in the right lane (the one that ends very soon).  He zips by me and I think he is going to pull between me and the SUV in front of me.  Well, he doesn’t.  He decides that he’s going to pass both of us before he has to merge.  I hear his engine rev and he’s even with the SUV now.  Only problem is that the concrete baracades are forcing him into the SUV.  The white car slams his brakes, tires smoking and the SUV swerves left.  Fortuneately, there are no other vehicles around.  I hit my brakes to keep my distance from this idiot.  The SUV, now ahead of the car came back in his lane and the white car was now directly in front of me – where he should have been in the first place. 

So, that was last night.  This morning there was yet another three car accident in front of the High School.  Same situation: three cars rearended each other just after a traffic light.  I forget how many that is this year.  I’ve blogged about most of them with, maybe, a couple exceptions.  What is interesting to me is the consistancy.  The same situation at the same location.  And, it is always high school kids driving.  I don’t see adults standing by their wrecks.

I got an email from Syria this moring telling me that the boys were home from school again today due to the cold.  She told me the high temp today will be eight degrees.  This moring it was -5.  Holy frozen extremities!  Monday they were off for the holiday and Tuesday and Wednesday due to weather.  I called the house on my lunch break and talked to Aaron.  He’s pretty happy.  Scott was over at Alex’s house so, I couldn’t talk to him.

Saturday moring I helped my mother go thru the kitchen and get rid of some items that have not been used in a long time then organize what was left.  It only took about an hour and after seeing how much better it made the kitchen look I decided to tackle my room.  It was in need of a purge and organization.  I cleaned out five grocery bags full of junk that was cluttering my room.  I also organized everything.  Now all my compter parts and cables and video and audio cables are organized and easy to find.  Boxes and plastic drawers are labled and put away.  We will see how long it lasts

Sunday I had a friend help me finaly run a power cable from my car’s battery to the trunk so I can get moving on my carputer project.  It turned out to be pretty easy once someone who knew what they were doing got involved.  We ran the wire thru an existing opening in the firewall and under the carpet, through the kickplate, behind the back seat (which we removed) and thru a nice big opening to the trunk.  We inserted a fuse about 12 inches from the battery.  I left the fuse out for now – it shouldn’t be installed until I have everything hooked up at the other end.  Once he did that I was set to run the rest of the wires myself. After he helped me with that I took a look at an old computer he had that he wants to use to run wireless video surveillance cameras around his home with.  The pc was an old 1GHz pentium that POSTed to one long beep and no video.  I told him he would be better off getting something newer than trying to fix this one.  We took a run to Best Buy to see what they had but decided he’d get a better price online.  It will be an interesting project to get running.  Once he buys a pc I told him I’d help him get it set up.

Saturday night I stopped at the Mobil station to get gas and some soda.  When I brought my stuff up to the counter the clerk was talking on his cell phone.  Actually, he was mostly listening.  I could make out a woman’s voice on the other end.  It was rather loud, either he cranked up the volume on his phone or she’s just a loud talker.  I could clearly make out most of what she was saying.  Without looking at me the clerk scanned my twelve pack of Dr. Pepper and hit what I assume was the ‘total’ button on the register.  Then, with the phone still to his ear and the woman still chatting away he looked at me and gave me my total.  “Sorry, Pal” I thought to myself.  “This transaction may require a little more of your attention.”  I looked him in the eye and asked for a pack of Marlboro Lights.  He could tell I was irritated.  He said, “Hold on” into the phone and put it down.  I payed for my stuff and before I got my change in my pocket he was back on the phone and I could hear the woman talking away again. Where is the work ethic.  Why is it okay to be on a personal call WHILE helping a cutomer?!  This is far from the first time I’ve run into this.  It annoys me every time I see it.  And I see it alot.

Monday was a holiday so I was off work.  I played it lazy in the morning.  Around 10:30 i pulled my car into the empty grage to run some of the other cables I need for my carputer project.  They all went quickly as I now know where all the pass thru points are.  I ran another smaller wire (18 gage) along side the 4 gage power cable to use as a remote turn on switch.  Eventually it will connect to one of the wires that get power when the key is turned.  I also ran a long VGA and USB cable down the other side of my car for the touchscreen display.  Now that I am over the hump of getting power to my set up I am can move along at my own pace.  I am not 100% sure how I am going to run my set up.  There are many options and each has it’s own benifits and drawbacks.

I talked to the boys on Sunday night.  They had Monday off from school so they were both spending the night at Alex’s house.  They both sounded like they were happy and doing fine.  I had said to Aaron to tell Alex I said hello.  Instead he put Alex on the phone.  I said “Hi” and Alex said “Hi”, not really understanding why he was put on the phone with me.