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Saturday, November 11 2006, 2:02 AM

It seems that I don't ever take the time to post anymore. I'm sitting here on the floor in this hallway of a hotel in Indianapolis typing this because I'm bored out of my mind, and Bob is asleep already in the hotel room. Since I'm not tired, I'm out here.

I'm down here for my buddy Andre's wedding. It rained like crazy coming down here, and there were some wind gusts that probably could have blown me off the road if I wasn't paying attention. Good thing I got the new wipers on my car the other day...

Now onto news... First off, I came up with names for my cats. I liked my dad's suggestion of Marshall for the black cat, since he's always sleeping up on my Marshall 4x12 speaker cabinet. Running with the cool guitar equipment names, I called the gray cat Mesa, in honor of Mesa amplification. Now I have to get used to calling the cats by those names.

I also had a follow-up appointment with Dr. Doshi on Wednesday. He said everything was looking good, and my vision tests showed I was seeing a "fuzzy 20/20" with my righteye, which is pretty damned good. I guess that equates to being able to see the 20/20 line with significant effort, as opposed to seeing it at a quick glance. I don't ever remember seeing 20/20 with my right eye even before the problems started occuring, so that's something to be happy about. In a related note, I was able to get a pretty good sampling of night-time driving this evening with the associated headlight glare. It still gives me problems, but it doesn't seem to be as bad as it was.

cats friends indianapolis righteye roadtrips

Wednesday, September 06 2006, 11:13 AM

I had a good holiday weekend. I took it easy friday night, and just hung about in the apartment. Saturday afternoon I headed down to Andre's in Indianapolis. He was having a get-together for the holiday weekend, and probably his last before he bows out of bachelor-dom officially. We took it easy Saturday night and played some pool and watched football while enjoying some tasty cold keg-dispensed beverages.

Sunday was party day, and we didn't waste any time, from my perspective anyway. I woke up at my customary 11-something AM, and beers were being dispensed in the 1pm hour. People started showing up around 3pm, and much merryment ensued. Lawn games were played, food was grilled, and good times were had. Also, thanks to some drinking game horseplay and hijinks, I can now truthfully say that I've had a beer poured on my head by an attractive girl, if that's ever a good thing.

In other news, the Gentoo install on my workstation is complete for the most part. I've still got some configuration to dink with, but that's best done for times of boredom. The X configuration I had working flawlessly before the reinstall full-out hardware lockups with the new install, so I had to start fresh. Not a horrible thing, but annoying. I've yet to get all the fun hardware acceleration working, so I'm stuck with slow-rendering graphics for the time being.

I'm also thinking that I need to make some time to try to take apart The Bolt and do some maintenance on it. After a few years of playing, the finish I put on the neck has started to get tacky and it has been rubbing away when I play it. There's a pretty good hole in the finish down near the end of the neck. I guess that's what I get for using plain furniture-grade varnish. Thing is, I doubt I'll be able to strip the finish that's there properly, so I may end up having to buy a new neck altogether and starting the process anew. I also want to redo the electronics in the guitar as well. It's only been running with one pickup for a while now, and I'd like to remedy that. I like the feeling of the Bolt a lot more than I do my Strat, but its tone is very one-dimensional with only one pickup.

friends gentoo guitar indianapolis linux roadtrips

Tuesday, April 11 2006, 11:45 AM

This past weekend the boys and I met up down in Columbus for a Red Wings game and some general debauchery. I met up with Chris, Darin, and Guy at Darin's house, then we made the journey down. It's not a bad trip really - only about 3.5 - 4 hours if you take out the stop for food. Andre and Jon each drove from their respective areas in about two hours. It's probabably about the most central place for us all to meet, which is cool.

After we all arrived and got situated in our suites, we sat around and shot the shit for a while, enjoyed some frosty beverages, and watched some bad TV. After a while we got bored and decided to head out and see some of the night life. We walked around for a while and stopped at a brew-pub, mostly due to the diuretic nature of the beer we had already partaken in. We each had a drink, but quickly decided to take off because the place was dead and the beer wasn't that good. After a while, we found the place we were looking for, a local dive called the Char Bar. Before we left, Andre called down to the receptionist asking for a good local dive bar, and that was her recommendation. A good recommendation it was. The place was very relaxed, and the staff behind the personable. We had a few rounds there before closing time, then took off. The walk back was interesting as well. Andre and I decided to have a sumo match in a patch of lawn in front of some sort of office building. I relied on my agility (which isn't saying much) to best Dre in the first round, but he pancaked me pretty good in the second. I think we gave up after that. The match must have made Andre feel spry, because he decided to jog all the way back to the hotel. The rest of us didn't follow his lead.

The next morning we had scheduled some golfing at a local course, and that came far sooner than I would have liked. It wasn't the picture perfect day for golf. It was sunny, but the wind was roaring on top of about 45 degree temperatures. It was pretty chilly. In addition, there were no trees on the course (!!), so there was nothing to knock down the wind. Rumor has it that the course was built on an old landfill, which might explain some things. After a while, the wind and chill caught up with us, and we took off after nine holes, even though we paid for 18.

A few of us napped for some of the afternoon, which was very much needed. After our slumber, we got ready and headed over to the WIngs game. We were the stereotypical visiting fans, totally decked out in Wings garb. Our section was up in nosebleed, and there were a lot of other Wings fans up there as well. The Wings pulled out a close victory, 4-2. (The fourth goal was on an empty net with about three seconds left, which makes it seem a bit less close.) We had some good fun with the locals shouting insults after the game, but it was expected and taken in stride.

After the game, we headed back over to the Char Bar. It was much more lively after the game than it was the previous night. We spent a good amount of time there and had at least 7 or 8 rounds of beer. We took a decent amount of ribbing from the locals, but nobody was out of hand. I actually recieved a free shot from a guy I was talking to at the bar while waiting for a round. Apparently his feeling is that it's good for the sport to treat the travelling fans as well as possible while they're on the road supporting their teams. I can completely agree with that one. He sat down and talked with the rest of us for a while a bit later in the night, and he seemed like a very cool fellow - very passionate about hockey. There was even an instance of conversation with random attractive females, which was made easier because they were picking on my Wings jersey. I had to defend my honor! A good night all in all.

The next day we parted company, after at least 20 minutes of being "those guys" while trying to figure out the bill at the reception desk. For a group of six engineering/science types, we sure do suck at basic stuff like figuring out a bill. The drive back was quiet for the most part. Chris and Darin were pretty worse for the wear, and they slept for most of the trip back while Guy and I talked music.

Pictures are up in the gallery.

columbus friends golf redwings roadtrips

Sunday, March 05 2006, 11:41 PM

I suppose I'm well overdue for a post, considering that it's been almost a month. I would say that I haven't been up to much, which was my standard M.O. for a while, but I don't think that's been the case lately.

First off, my eye still sucks. I had an appointment with the cataract specialist a week or so ago. He didn't tell me much I hadn't yet heard, but the ball is rolling now. I have a mild cataract in my right eye, which doesn't sound that bad, but it will continue to get worse as time progresses. As a result, I'm going to have it removed. This will likely be some time in May, but the time isn't set yet.

I learned some more details about the aftermath of the procedure as well. Once my natural lens has been removed and replaced with an artificial lens, I will lose the ability to focus up close with my right eye, so I'll need to wear reading glasses in order for my right eye to be useful for any kind of detailed vision. I'm just hoping that removing the cataract will help restore some of the clarity I had before, even if there are floaters. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

I've also been on the road a bit over the past month. A couple weekends back, I went down to Indianapolis with the crew to visit Andre and celebrate his engagement. Congrats big man! As always, his party was a blast, with much drunken merryment being had by all.

This weekend we all met up down in Cincinnati for Jon's birthday. It was also a great time. We hit up Skyline chili and had some cheese-laden dirty eats. After that, the 5 guys (Jon, Andre, Chris, Darin, and myself) reverted back to the 5th grade and played some street football. It was a ton of fun, even if it highlighted how out of shape we all are. After we caught our breath, we headed down to the Hofbrauhaus in Newport, Kentucky. The beer was flowing, and we had a great time. We will definitely have to go back there again. After our beer, we headed over to the Rock Bottom brewery and had some delicious food and drink. I think it was all too much for me really, and I ended up passing out on Jon's couch by midnight or so, while everyone else was playing pictionary and other board games. The rest of the crew rousted early... far too early for my liking, but there wasn't much I could do. Oh well I guess.

cincinnati friends indianapolis righteye roadtrips

Sunday, August 07 2005, 11:37 PM

I guess it's been a while since I've posted something meaningful. I've recieved some questions on the nature of the last post, but if I haven't told you, you're not destined to know. Let it rest. I was pretty much drunk when I posted it, but that doesn't take away from the meaning.

I guess I've been keeping myself busy for the most part. I've been slowly infiltrating my new residence. My room is mostly squared away, and it's quite different for me not to have a computer in my room. There's been a computer of some form in my bedroom for like, 8 years now. It's actually quiet and cool in my bedroom now. It's rather hard to believe. Who knows... now that I've forced the computers out of my room, a female might enter! Well, with my luck, probably not. But I guess I can hope. I've got a few more boxes worth of stuff to make homes for, but it's mostly stuff like spare bedding, so it's nothing critical at this point.

Last weekend was the annual LaRouche-land canoe trip up on the Rifle River. As usual, it was a great time. There was a much smaller contingent of people there this year, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. There were a lot less of the peripheral folk that come up with the family, which is good in my eyes. Some of the people that came up in the past were no good. Most of the crew was there - Jon + Michelle, Chris + Lana, Andre, Thomann, Guy + Ana... The Phils were strong in attendance. We all got pretty ripped the first night, Andre and Jonny T. especially. They didn't sleep at all, and kept most of the camp up all night. I slept in the van, so I didn't hear a thing, but there was quite a lot of negative feelings towards those two when I woke up. It passed, and everybody had a good time canoeing. The weather couldn't have been better, but the river could have been a little warmer. We didn't really do much of anything except pass out from exhaustion after the trip down the river. All in all, it was a good time.

I put together a decent-sized list of things to get done this weekend, and I made a pretty good dent in them. I've still gotta get out to the Pontiac dealership sometime this week. There are a couple dealerships in my parents area that are offering pull-aheads on any GMAC lease, so I can get out of my current lease without any penalty if I get a new lease. This is quite good, since I've got around 500 miles left on my current lease, and it expires in February. The math isn't too good on that one. I'll definitely be taking advantage of that offer and get myself into a new ride. I'm looking pretty hard at a G6, perhaps a G6 GT(P) if I can afford it. We'll see within the next week or two, after I take a test drive or two.

canoeing friends grandam ramblings roadtrips

Tuesday, June 21 2005, 1:39 PM

I had another eye exam this morning with Dr. Saxe, and he says he sees good improvement, although I don't really see much difference. My eyesight is up to 20/25 in the right eye, but I think that's kind of misleading. With my left eye I'm able to pick off the 20/20 line at a glance, but I have to strain for seconds at a time to see the lines with my right eye. The leakage has slowed, and he says most of the swelling inside my eye has gone. I guess that's good news, even though I don't really see it with my own eye.

I had a good time this weekend down with Jon and Michelle in Cincy. We caught a Reds game saturday night and watched the new Batman movie on sunday. Batman gets two thumbs up from all three of us. The plot and action were all great, and it was kinda neat because you didn't have a clear idea of who the bad guy really was until the very end. There were a few 'bad' guys throughout the movie, but arch-enemy super villan type wasn't revealed until the end. I plan on seeing it again soon. Very few movies get that from me.

I've got a few pictures from the trip up in the gallery, along with some others that I hadn't posted yet. It seems that I took more pictures of their cats than anything else. What can I say, they were cute!

cincinnati movies reviews righteye roadtrips

Saturday, June 18 2005, 3:05 AM

Yep, I'm posting from Cincinnati tonight. I'm down here visiting Jon and Michelle, and pilfering one of their neighbor's wireless connection. That's what they get for leaving it open! For those that are curious, I'm in this general area. This area is actually a bit more scenic than the rest of Ohio. The last 30 miles or so of the highway portion of the drive have hills and woods and stuff, whereas the first portion of the drive has nothing but effing Corn Fields. At least I didn't smell that pig farm that I've noticed before on previous trips through Ohio on I-75. That stench makes rotten eggs seem downright fragrant.

This week has been a good one for me. The project load at work was lighter, which is a good thing. The project was kinda delayed on the other end, not mine. I was kinda mad though, I was told to be ready for the monday launch, and when I emailed the other folks to find out what the status was, they were like "oh yah, we'll release sometime in the next three weeks." And I worked the whole weekend before trying to polish things up for monday. Grrrr.

I also hung out with Megan a few times this week. We hit up the bar, watched some movies, and played guitars together. I don't care what she says, her voice is great! I have an admiration for anyone who can play and sing at the same time, because I can't. I can shout over choruses, but that's about it. She did her best to distract me while I was playing too, and well, she was successful! I guess I need my full concentration when I play. Bad musical abominations happen when I lose focus. I guess they're only slightly worse than my normal musical abominations though.

cincinnati guitar projects ramblings roadtrips work

Sunday, March 13 2005, 8:40 PM

There's really only one word to describe my current state - tired. I'm on another midnight rotation, and I've worked over 70 hours in the past week. We're doing things a bit differently this time - instead of the two weeks of 12am-8am, we're doing one of 8pm-4am then one of 12am-8am. Well, Greg (roommate/coworker) was on his second week of midnights when I started my 8pm-4am's, and he was sick as a dog for the first two days of that, so I just sent him home both days. He had a fever of around 103°F, so he had no business being at work. I found other reasons over the next few days to be at work far longer than I wanted to be, and it's just sucked the life out of me..... and I've got another week to go. :-(

Last weekend was cool though - I caught a ride with Darin and Lisa to visit with Jon and Michelle at their new house near Cincinnati. Andre braved his cat allergies and made the trip as well. Jon and Michelle have quite the house down there - it just goes to show that the dollar goes a lot farther once you get out of southeast Michigan. We went to downtown Cinci and walked around for a while, just kinda wandering around before we went out for Jon's birthday dinner. The women insisted that we go into places like Tiffany's, but then got all offended when we wanted to go into the Hustler store we stumbled across... oh well. That place looked shady anyways. We also got to enjoy some Skyline Chili - a gift that keeps on giving... Giving lower intestinal problems that is. It was tasty, but wow. More cheese than any human should eat! All in all I had a great time, dispite the gastrointestinal discomfort.

cincinnati friends roadtrips work

Thursday, August 05 2004, 10:28 PM

It's been a while since my latest "real" post, which is mostly because I've been in the process of moving to the new place and getting settled into it. Well, I'm moved and mostly settled in, and so far it's pretty sweet. My room is significantly smaller than the room at the other place, but that's no big deal. I'm good at compacting all of my belongings into a small area, so no worries there. The main portion of the house is pretty much set as well, but Greg and Carl are still moving their stuff into place.

Last weekend I was down in Indianapolis for another one of Andre's shindigs, and it was a blast. We went out on the town friday night for some debauchery, and then closed the night off with some Jimmy Johns. Jon and I were masters of beirut on saturday, playing 12 games and only losing 2. We were both in rare form, and it was great. We both paid for it the next day though. I felt like ass for most of the day, although not as bad as I felt as a result of the first indy trip, where I could barely sit upright without being nauseous.

I bought Doom 3 yesterday... I don't want to sound too much like a fanboy here, but the game is fucking sweet. The lighting is simply amazing, the graphics are crisp and lifelike, and overall the game is straight-up scary. I've caught myself hopping out of the chair a few times when some piece of evil sneaks up on me and starts attacking. Crazy shit. If you've got a decent computer, check this one out.

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Monday, March 29 2004, 10:35 PM

The pictures from the Indy trip the other weekend have been uploaded, and I finished out commenting on the pre-existing pics that hadn't been labelled yet. Exciting.

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