Monday, August 28, 2000

I Got The 3 Weeks Till I Move Blues

Lots of fun setting up all the new house details today. Well, ya can call it fun if ya want. Mostly it was an exploration into the various fees that will required to get stuff turned on. Bout $30 bucks to transfer phone service, $30 or $40 setup for for water, electricity in my name no charge! (bonus), gas $140 deposit... no that wasn't a misprint, $140 bucks just because I've never used gas service in Missouri before. Sheesh!

For Internet access, I talk the DSL people at SWBell. Yup they have it and yup they have a great deal for 40 bucks a month you get basic DSL with one IP and a user install kit to avoid nasty setup fees. Trouble is the basic setup has just that one IP. And... I already know that swbell has taken steps to prevent multiple PCs from being used with the single IP so no fancy routing tricks. No worries I say, their enhanced DSL has just what I need. But... (ya knew there was gonna be a but didn't ya) the Enhanced package with its glorious 5 static IPs doesn't have a free user install option. That means $150 install fee, $100 for some stupid GSP or SBCIS install and $99 for the equipment. That's a whopping $350 smack in the head. Ouch. Damn. Crap. Also, they can't even start the order till my phone is active there on Sept 15 and there's usually a 2 week wait once order. Mumble. 2 weeks with no access? Grrr. Ok moving on...

Cable has a deal on digital cable free install, $39 a month for the basic crap. No Food Network. No Iron Chef. I offered the sales guy extra cash if he could get me the Food Network. He paused a bit but said he couldnt do it. For some idiotic reason, digital cable, the savior of Americans, the 'makes sense' choice can't deliver one freaking channel on request. Why not? Why can't their high tech fancy systems delivery any damn channel that pokes its head of the sand? Are they stupid? Are there Fing cable channel lobbyists storming the halls of cable comapnies forcing them to offer only their BS? Are their secret cabals of Cable Nazi's forcing us to watch only what they want us to watch? Faced with little choice, I ordered the basic digital package anyway. I had the sales guy place a note on my account requesting the Food Network and see that the note gets to his supervisor. Mumble... It took me a few hours and the soundwall of my friends to realize that "Hey, it's a rent house. Emphasis on house. You can get a dish." So tomorrow I cancel the digital cable order and prepare to get a dish setup. I'm gonna watch the damn channels I want to watch and you can't stop me! Blarg!

My rant muscle is tired. Time for a nap.

posted by Jeff Gatlin 8/28/2000 10:47:07 PM

Saturday, August 26, 2000

It's Saturday Morning

In the spirit of sleepy Saturday mornings, I posted my dream in my journal instead of in the dream closet. Click click click... ok fixed it.

In honor of Steph and Dave running off to Chicago, I watched Stargate on DVD. I thought it was pretty good and a great example of how things must have been back in Egypt. I wish they would make more of these dramatic historical films. Heh.

For some reason or another, I actually had to flip this DVD over to watch the whole film. That's the first one I have come across that does that. Wonder why, older technology or lazy developers?

Speaking of lazy developers, I have to talk myself into cleaning up. Sooner or later I'm gonna have to start packing, so the less trash I have to pack the better. Onwards...

posted by Jeff Gatlin 8/26/2000 9:28:38 AM

Tuesday, August 22, 2000

Mondays Nights Get Funny

I've never been a big football fan. I went to all the games in high school (I was in the band), same for college games. I even went to a homecoming dressed as Captain Rebel (a goofy super hero outfit with a rebel flag as a cape). I've even looked forward to Super Bowl parties. But none of it was really for the football. Sports just aren't my thing.

But now, I am almost guaranteed to become a Monday Night Football regular all because of the fact that Dennis Miller has joined ABC as one of the announcers. What can I say, I grok the guy. Plus I'll get vitamin style supplement of football action, which is surely lying dormant in one of my inactive male genes, somewhere.

Speaking of funny, the review of KISS Psycho Circus by Old Man Murray is a must read. It is the funniest thing I've read in a long time.

Got the first truckload of cash for our rent house (thanks big D) so we can start forming the balls and tossing em. I hope we have an accurate pitcher. J

-Jeffg

posted by Jeff Gatlin 8/22/2000 10:02:08 AM

Sunday, August 20, 2000

Isn't Web Stuff Fun?

Well I've finally got a handle on this new design. Making layouts is a big hairy pain. But, programming the results to do nifty things is fun. Thus I have a nice template that will display most every page I want in the same basic setup. Way cool. Plus, I didn't have to make a million copies to do it. Even cooler.

I'm really looking forward to the move to the new place. Not looking forward to paying up the wazoo though. Fun and no fun all in a delicate balance. Is'nt life annoying uh er nifty? -Jeffg

posted by Jeff Gatlin 8/20/2000 5:53:13 PM

Friday, August 18, 2000

Home Sweet... uh how much?

It's official. We are approved on the new rent house. The clock is now ticking on the cash ball machine. What will happen next... who will be discovered... and what's up with this guy?

Laters, -Jeffg

posted by Jeff Gatlin 8/18/2000 3:43:12 PM

Wednesday, August 16, 2000

The Lighter Side of Life

Forces exist in the world that cause tension, grief and stress. And then there are other forces... like this.

A smile can save the world when it's given.

posted by Jeff Gatlin 8/16/2000 10:00:41 PM

Tuesday, August 15, 2000

The Motion of Wheels

I think it's safe to say I am a pretty easy going guy. I know exactly what I can do and know how to find out how to do the stuff I cannot. Shit happens? Deal with it and move on. I've never accomplished a thing while screaming or pitching a fit, but I've accomplished plenty being cool, calm and focused.

Here's the thing. Steph and I say, "Let's move somewhere bigger." We think, "If we get a really big place and snag Dave we'll save some bucks." We look around. Lots of places, none just right. We see the days going by quickly. We see the lease renewal date approaching. We find a rent house and schedule an appointment to see it. We see it the same day that we have to tell apartments we are leaving. We see the place. It's got alot of space, bedrooms are a bit smallish, but kitchen is big, and it has two living rooms (two!), a two car garage and a big backyard. OK, we liked it so we start the paper work to apply. We find out about all the money that will be needed and when. We don't blink. We go tell the apartments we plan to vacate. Apartment lady was awfully friendly, suspicious? Nah. We go gather the first bits of cash molding it into the appropriate forms and deliver it. Cool. We visit Suz unannounced cause we're closeby. She and we survive. We get back to office (much cooler than outside) and begin planning on how to acquire massive cash to make it all work.

So what's the big deal? Money makes great wad balls. Cash ball one was required immediately. Cash ball two (which is like really big) is due 7 days after application approval. Cash ball 3 is smaller but goes along with cash ball 2 to keep the place for a month while we finish out our current lease. Cash ball 4 is due mid September when we have to start moving in. By end of September, we are out of old apartment and in new place.

So what's the big deal? Timing is a delicate art. We should know about our application in a few days. Now that we have filed our intent to vacate, each hour it becomes more and more irrevocable, meaning they could rent out our place and we HAVE to vacate whether we get the new place or not. Anything else? Oh yeah, cash balls. To make cash balls, ya have to have cash. Cash is not something I normally keep in the freezer. So there is alot of hoop jumping to be done to acquire cash for cash balls. Let's not even get into the fact that we won't have a freezer until we create cash ball 5, which fortunately can be of our own recipe and dinner date.

Time to panic? Well... maybe later. There's plenty of little cash balls that will start making their presense known and I think I'll save my panic for one of the really stupid one that no one in their right mind would flip out over. Least that way I'll get some satisfaction from the looks of the normals.

Enough babble, Jagged Alliance 2 is calling. -Jeffg

posted by Jeff Gatlin 8/15/2000 8:13:36 PM

Monday, August 14, 2000

Ah the Weekend

Lots of fun and goofin off this weekend. Played some Jyhad (the Vampire the Masquerade card game) with a few friends. Went bowling later that evening. Managed to ruin my hand in the process. By midnight I could not get my wallet out of my pants without great pain. Fortunately, this went away after a good nights sleep. Good ol muscles.

Sunday was clean the fridge day. Steph did most of the tossing and I did the hauling. Good combo as we finished up quickly. Went and peeked at a possible rent house that we'll be getting a better look at Tuesday. It's a 4 bedroom place, but didn't look to awful huge. If it ain't got the space, it won't have us in it. ALso it's way the hell far away from work at least as far as I am used to. A 15 to 20 minute drive in compared to a 5 minute (2 miles) that I've got now. If I'm lucky she'll have more places to view some that are closer if I am really lucky.

Scattered sporadically throughout the weekend and for the last couple of weeks I've been playing Jagged Alliance 2. This is a fantastic tactical turn-based combat game. I love this frickin game. The thing that makes it for me is that you choose your team of mercenaries from a large list each with their own personalities talents and quirks. Some mercs like working with some, some don't and will day so when you least expect it. If I had a chance to do a single player game, this is the game I would want to influence me the most when making character options and fleshing out the groups. Awesome game and yet another great example that you don't need to use every freaking graphical trick in the book to make a good game.

It's late, and Ripley just flames the queens eggs. Gotta run. -Jeffg

posted by Jeff Gatlin 8/14/2000 12:34:17 AM

Monday, August 7, 2000

Discipline, the Body and Pain

I started walking fairly regularly several months ago. It was still winter when I started, every night was damnable cold and every return home I was a frozen yet sweating hulk. Why did I do this? In the name of better health and at the time I was drawn into a sport known as airsoft. No need to explain the sport, all ya need to know is it involves running around with heavy gear in the wilderness. So, with proper ok's from my doc I start walkin to improve my heath because after my first game I knew that if I wear myself out just walking to the starting point, the game is gonna be hard on me.

Welp summer is here, my interest in the game has dropped, I've got a Tokyo Marui AK-47 Electric Airsof Rifle for sale ($350 or nice new 19inch monitor, what a bargain!), and still I have a need to stay healthy. So did I keep walkin? Nope, I let it slide as the temperature got warmer.

So for no reason other than gooberism, with Steph and Dave outa town, I think to myself heck, I gotta go feed Dave's lizard, why not walk there, I need the workout. This is at about 11pm by the way. So I waddle off on my journey. Oh hey I'll be responsible and take out the trash with me. I drop the trash in our local bin and head out away from my apt. I notice a couple of female apartment dwellers just arriving as I leave the trash been. I am immediately paranoid, not that they are up to no good, but that they might think that I am. Blah usual paranoia blow it off. As I continue, I can see police lights over on the highway, someone pulled over no doubt. I get out of my section and cross the street and I am already feeling the excersion after no more than a quarter of a mile. With limbs a bit tight (next time stretch, heck I got a whole book on it) I continue down the sidewalk. A cop car comes rolling in and passes me. They don't stop and niether do I, though I do give them a deliverate and curious look as they pass. Strolling on by I reach the lot near Dave's place, intentionally not looking back. Is that a car somewhere behind me?

I walk casually as I can with my legs saying what the heck did you just do and turn into Dave's place. Stumble a bit as I open it up and enter, close and lock the door (habit). Hit the light and drop on Dave's couch to rest. I look down and there's Dave's FAMAS (that's a completely realistic looking assult rifle to those not in the know) laying right there in plain view on the living room floor. I think, if the cops followed me now and come a knockin, I'm screwed. So I spend the next 5 or 10 minutes breathin on Dave's couch, trying to come up with polite but quick ways to say, "Good evening officer, what can I help you with and by the way that's a plastic BB gun, not a deadly assault rifle over there just behind me." I didn't think of anything shorter than that but did come up with several ugly gunplay situations that I hope never to have to experience. Lizard fed, lights off and back home, no cops to be seen. Oh well.

I did return home and the walk kicked my ass. So naturally, two days later I decide to go bowling with friends. Bowling? Physical Activity? Damn straight and let me tell ya I wasn't sure I was gonna finish my last game. Bout the 3rd to last ball my left calf was saying "CRAP!" and my right hand was saying "Remember that time you pulled your wrists water skiing?" and my fingertips were already saying "WTF!" The funny part? I won a free game for nailing a strike when a yellow pin came up as the head pin right after the lights went out and the bowling alley turned into discoland. I take it as a hint from the universe that I should keep up the activity without taking those 2 to 3 month breaks.

So befalls a man who destroys himself turning a mere human body into a quivering stiff and sore collection of muscle and bone? Well, he takes up cryptography of course! I got introduced to this bit of secret code over the weekend. It's a fun bit of decoding, I'm no where near done but I did get the first part after wasting a few hours trying to code a decoder in java ( I just don't know the language well enough) and then finally using Excel which in all likelyhood was infinitely harder to use for this purpose, but I know how to use it's commands. I probably could have pumped it out in GSL easily, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Oh well, I call it all fun.

Thats it, maybe I'll get Steph's publisher friends to publish this huge entry as a novella. -Jeffg

posted by Jeff Gatlin 8/7/2000 12:52:02 AM

Tuesday, August 1, 2000

New Stuff is Always Cool

First up, a query. If you have to break up a fist fight between a man and a woman, do you:

Pull away the Man		Pull away the Woman
Pros	Cons	Pros	Cons
Socially acceptable	Usually bigger than the woman	Usually smaller than the man	Socially less acceptable
That male bonding thing	Usually stronger than the woman	Usually weaker than the man	That sexual harassment can of worms
No grudges that a beer can't fix	Sudden redirected anger might result in trip to hospital	Even an enraged woman in your arms is a plus	The grudge factory can lie dormant for years

Now that that's out of the way, new stuff! One of my favorite activities is exploring new things. Anything that I have not tried, have not done, have not read about, heard about or know anything about is pretty cool. This doesn't apply to everything. I certainly don't want to explore the backdoor secrets of the meat or poultry industries, nor do I want to spend a lot of time researching new diseases. But I can say with at least a reasonable accuracy that new things are interesting.

Wow, that turned out to be pretty dull. I've really got to start getting more specific. Oh well, perhaps I'll get into WWF or something.

-Jeffg

posted by Jeff Gatlin 8/1/2000 10:06:43 AM