I love Bloop!

OK... time to coin a term.

"Bloop"... as in "Bloop, Bloop, Bloop"... the sound a TiVo makes when it's fast forwarding through all of those crappy commercials.

I loving having Bloop. And I'm very sad when I have no Bloop but have a commercial staring me in the face.

I'm even more sad when I'm in real life and I have no Bloop.

Bloop.

hehe

~J

Tracking me...

More and more people are worried that governments and private corporations will soon have the ability to electronically track you for every moment you're breathing. Satellites already have the ability to read newspapers from space... all it takes now is the ability to quickly locate a specific person.

Are you going to knowingly agree, then, to have something on you that will make that location possible?

No?

Are you sure?

Well... let's check, shall we?

Do you have credit cards? Do you use them? I'm guessing that folks do so at least once per day on average. That card can give an exact street address the moment you use it. (Whether you're talking about a generic Visa or MC, or whether you are using store-specific cards like a JCPenny card or a Sears card, it's all the same.)

No credit cards you say? OK, how about an ATM card? Same situation there.

OK, so somehow you live "off the grid" (as was most recently stated on the TV show "Committed") and pay for everything in cash? You think you're clean then?

Hmmm... what about loyalty cards? You know what I'm talking about. The Kroger Plus Card, the Food Lion MVP card, the Suncoast Replay card, the Eddie Bauer "explorer" card... again, every time you use it, someone, somewhere, knows where you are and what you're up to.

Alright... so let's just assume you don't have any credit cards or loyalty cards at all...

Do you have a car? Have you taken it for service recently? Did you notice that JiffyLube knows your car and you... and the last time you came around for an oil change?

You didn't? OK, what about calling for pizza? Didn't Dominos or Pizza Hut call you by name when you spoke with them? Didn't they already know where you lived?

No? Really? Wow... I'm impressed.

Alrighty. What about a phone? Do you have a cell phone? You DO? Game over. And here we reach what I really wanted to talk about... my new PHONE! :)

Yeah, I finally got the v710. It's cooler than I thought. But it has a pretty scary feature. It allows you to enable its own internal GPS system. If it's so enabled, and you call 911, they can remotely flip on the system and instantly know where you are (even if they didn't have the time to triangulate your signal - which is already a possibility for non GPS phones).

But hey... I already have credit cards, loyalty cards, my car, and I order enough pizza to support a small country. So this feature shouldn't scare me too much.

Promises, Promises isn't just the name of a Naked Eyes tune

Man I really hate when someone tells me that they're going to do something and then fails to live up to their promise. I hate it even more when it's something that's created excitement and a bit of longing.

Ok, so I was at the mall on Saturday. I talked with this manager of a cellphone store who told me that he could get me a new cell phone that I wanted... but that he had to work his connections with the distributor to get it. I was supposed to call him on Monday to make it happen.

I called on Monday... and he told me that the phone would be there on Wednesday. I am now excited and I work on convincing Tina that I really need the phone (not that there was much convincing to do as my current phone has been on a Peruvian Death March for several months now). But all in all, I'm excited that I'm going to get this new phone.

So I call on Wednesday. Phone's not there (I had asked for 2 of them so that Tina could get one, too, so when the distributor told the manager that he only had one, the manager didn't get the one). But the manager tells me that he'll get in touch with the distributor and call me back in an hour.

Three hours later, no calls. I call the store. Manager's gone home for the day. Store personnel have no clue what I'm talking about, but they give me the manager's cell number. I call it. He's not there and I leave a message.

But by this point, it's now 3.5 hours after I was supposed to get a call back, I'm probably not going to get the phone today... and since I'm going out of town for the weekend, I won't see it until Monday.

Bummer.

But I really hate it when people lie to me.

Um, I said 81, not 18!

It's friggin' cold out there!

When I moved to NC from Indiana about 6 years ago, one of the reasons for the move (besides being bored with the midwest) was the fact that each winter became a trial of how to survive in the great white north. It's friggin' cold, eh? Hozer.

So I moved somewhere that I was told you could play golf 11 months out of the year... where I would probably never need my ski jacket again... a place where, when people refer to toboggans, they're talking about hats, not sleds... a place where I would have to DRIVE to see snow.

Riiiiiiiiight.

In the last several years, there's been an uncanny cold snap down here. Not to sound arrogant, but I think the cold followed me as I moved. Because I've needed my ski jacket (the one rated well enough to keep sherpas warm while they scale Everest) every year I've been here! And yes, it really is only 18 degrees (F) outside.

So, if anyone has a direct line to the weather folks, please get them to turn up the thermostat. Thanks. :)

Convincing someone that I'm going to write...

So I told you that I was going to write. But I didn't. If you know me, you can harp at me.

But such is life.

My life is consumed with work... and TiVo. Someone should've invented this YEARS ago. I've wasted a lot of time over the years trying to record shows that were of interest. Now, I just say whether I like certain types of shows and BAM, it automatically records them.

OK, so anyone remember that "as seen on TV" remote control with the dials that would supposedly work with any VCR? You just dialed in the time to turn on and off the recorder and wow... no more manuals and blinking 12's. Sayonara, suckers!

Hehe... god, I love this device. You can ignore all of the crap you never wanted to watch anyways and simply focus on the stuff you did. And my god, if you need to walk the dog, tinkle, or even get some work done in the middle of your show, all ya' gotta' do is hit the big yellow pause button.

But hey, if that wasn't good enough, now there's TiVoToGo. Simply transfer what you've recorded on your TiVo to your computer and play it whenever. The only limitation is the size of the harddrive on your laptop.

Now all we need to do is wait another few months until someone develops an iPod-based media player. Then you can transfer your shows to your iPod and watch them there. If I could develop software, I'd be rich. :)

Been Busy!

Yeah, yeah, yeah... I've been gone awhile. But I've been busy.

Work, wedding stuff, more job stuff, ran for JC president (lost), etc.

But it's been fun. I've gone to Disney again (finally broke down and bought a season's pass - for if you go only 8 times in a year, it pays for itself)... and we're going another time in about 2 weeks.

All my time these days is spent working, Turkey Shooting (no, not shooting turkeys www.raleighjaycees.com for more info) and Haunted Housing (www.jchauntedhouse.com). I guess I have a pretty limited life... but that's ok. After the TS and HH are done, it'll be back to HOBY (www.hobync.org) for me.

But I really promise to write more.

Really.

I swear.

I HATE moving!

So I'm homeless at the moment. All my crap is in storage with the exception of my car, dog and computer (ok, and a few clothing items, too).

But it's the PROCESS that I hate. I think it's because I've done it too many times.

Starting from birth here are the moves that have involved 2 weeks or more in a given location:

1. Moved from home for unwed mothers (come on... it WAS the 70s) to Adoption Agency.
2. Adoption Agency to my parents home.
3. Parents first home to Texas (Dad had to do basic training).
4. Texas to Germany for Dad's Army assignment in Frankfurt.
5. Frankfurt back to US (Flossmoor, IL).
6. Flossmoor to Valparaiso, IN.
7. Valparaiso to summer camp in WI.
8. Valparaiso to summer camp in MI. (4 times)
9. Valparaiso to private school in Bath, Maine.
10. Bath to home at the end of the school year.
11. Valparaiso to military school in Mexico, Missouri.
12. Mexico to home at the end of the school year.
13. Valparaiso to summer camp in Indiana.
14. Valparaiso to military school again.
15. Mexico to home when I was dismissed from military school (interesting story... ask me sometime).
16. Valparaiso to summer camp in Indiana.
17. Valparaiso to summer camp in Indiana. (yes, again... three summers in a row)
18. Reverse move... I stayed in Valpo for college... my parents moved to Northfield, Illinois.
19. Valpo to Michigan summer camp to work for summer between Freshman and Sophomore years.
20. Valpo to Indiana summer camp to work for summer between Sophomore and Junior years.
21. Valpo fraternity house to Valpo dorm.
22. Valpo dorm to first apartment.
23. First apartment to second apartment (1.5 years later).
24. Second apartment to NC (3 years after that).
25. NC extended stay hotel to NC apartment.
26. NC apartment back to Chicago for work.
27. Chicago to NC when work and personal life conflicted.
28. NC apartment to NC house.
29. NC house to NC homelessness.

Wow. I've moved almost one time for every year that I've been alive. I should really stop doing this. I have a good idea that I'll be moving again in the relatively near future - becoming UNhomeless is my goal. :)

Feed the homeless here:

:)

NewJob

This is a crazy world.

From no job, to contract job, to self-job, to new job... the whole experience has been an adventure.

Have you seen the Monster.com commercials where they all end with "Today's the Day?" Well, I searched monster.com for MONTHS looking for jobs. I went on dozens of interviews, received some offers and then I got a call from a recruiter saying that she'd found my resume on Monster.

I got the job. I took the job. I started the job. So now, I guess I can say that Monster.com is why I have a job. Wow.

And just when I think things are going to settle down, I get ANOTHER job call. Another recruiter found my resume on Monster.com. How weird is that? So I turn down this second job because I already now HAVE a job. When it rains, it pours.

But I guess I shouldn't even PARTIALLY complain, because I'm now employed and things are starting to all come together. But I really wish it would've happened just a bit faster. :)

I have to look back through my calendar to see all that I've been doing in the last few weeks. Suffice it to say that I've been all over the place (did you know that you CAN, in fact, land an airplane in 40 mph crosswinds... and that when emesis is "deposited" on a plane, that the replace the seat and seatbelt?).

Anyways, the bulk of my days are consumed with trying to hawk raffle tickets for HOBY-NC's Vette Raffle. I can't believe we're actually doing it. But we are... and when I got an e-mail from the Sacramento, CA's DA's office, I almost lost my mind.

Apparently, the raffle is illegal under California law... and since I'd advertised it in a way directed at California residents, I was violating the law. I don't really think that's true. Neither does the HOBY-NC lawyer. But I don't feel like contesting the issue... so I withdrew our ads in California.

What a pain in the butt. :)

I've got to write more about the job search... sorry if that's boring... but it's really unbelievable.

There has been a position posted for this area (first cool thing) doing what I do (second cool thing). It pays pretty well (third cool thing) and it's been open for awhile, too (fourth cool thing).

So I applied through a search firm. And then I started to find "similar" jobs from other recruiters in this area. But they weren't exactly the same. So I wasn't sure whether to apply to all of them or not (you can't usually apply for the same job through two recruiters - it just doesn't look good to the employers) because I didn't know where they were.

One of the recruiters was initially really interested in me. Then she told me that she was going to submit me. And then she dropped off the face of the planet. Oh well.

So I talked with another recruiter. SHE also thought I was a match. She fell off the face of the planet.

And then I talked with yet another. SHE thought I was a match. She said she was going to submit me. I called her again today. She said she did, but didn't know the results and regardless was going to submit me again with additional information just to get me in the door to talk with the hiring manager.

Let's recap. One (apparent) job. THREE recruiters. ZERO follow through on their part. Which is interesting considering that they will make about 30% of my starting salary just for getting me hired. Not a bad days' income for doing almost nothing (since I was finding THEM).

Pisses me off!

Oh well, I just do what I do. :)

Tina and I went to see Duke play Valparaiso University (my alma matter) in basketball at Cameron last night.

Want to guess who won?

90-something to 50-something.

It was a slaughter. But we had fun there anyways! I received lots of stares as I was wearing a maroon Valpo sweatshirt. :) Next year they're playing at the United Center in Chicago. So Tina will look out of place in a Duke sweatshirt. Heh.

OK... time to get back to invitations. We have to address the INNER envelopes now, then put everything inside. Then lick, stick and send 'em away.

I was raised on McDonald's, Burger King and Domino's Pizza. I LOVE fast food... not just the fact that I think it tastes good to me (given my finiky food behavior), but that it's just easy to get and I don't have to prepare it.

But the truth is that I should eat healthier meals. And Tina's been encouraging me to cut back on the calories - since my lazy butt has been on a couch for a lot of the last few months. :)

So I went to the grocery store to find something that would be fairly quick and easy to prepare to encourage better eating habits. I found the Healthy Choice bowls in the freezer section - more specifically, a Chicken & Rice bowl which was just perfect. I bought them by the boatload. I LOVED these meals.

Well, one day, I could no longer find them in the closest grocery store. I had to go online to find where else they were stocked. Visiting about 10 other stores in the Raleigh area, I cleaned out every one I could find. But the very next time I went back, there weren't any in stock anywhere.

OK. Don't panic. Go to the customer service desk and ask them if they have any in the back. No, none in the back. Alright, can you special order them? Sure. No problem. How long til they arrive? No clue. Fine, I'll just check back later.

For three consecutive weeks, I would call to check to see if they were in. Nope. Never. Sorry. So at this point, I was getting REALLY worried, as I only had 1 or 2 left! I was going to have to eat out more often if I lost my bowls.

I decided to call the manufacturer. I wanted to know where they recommended that I get them. Wanna' guess what happened? Oh yeah.... they were DISCONTINUED!!! I couldn't believe it. Apparently, the Chicken & Rice bowl wasn't very popular. I was crushed. Because now I was FORCED to eat out again!

But as usual, Tina came to the rescue. She told me to go and pick something else out at the store. After several failed attempts, I think I might have found another meal I like. Woo hoo! Can you guys tell McDonald's that I won't be around much?

(Note: This is a cross-over blogisode - meaning that it's the same post here as on the Wedblog with minor differences. Thanks for playing along.)

Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!

I'm tired of addressing wedding invitations.

My fingers feel like they're going to fall off. But at least the outside envelopes are done, now to do the insides.

What's that you say? Why am I doing it by hand? What possessed me to grab a caligraphy pen and hand-write 200 or so invitations?

Well, I'm a sadist, really. And I'm cheap. An addressing service (yes, folks, there are people paid to address envelopes) will do it for about $1.50/envelope. This includes the outer envelope - the one with:

Mr. and Mrs. Full-first-name-middle-name-last-name
Fully spelled out street address
Fully spelled out city, state and zipcode

And the inner envelope:

First name of each adult on the first line
First name of each child on the second line

But as I'm only done with the outer envelopes, I still have to repeat the process with the inners. Sound simple? Sure. Simple for me? Of course not.

First we had to order the invitations - you can read about some of that adventure on our WedBlog. We paid a little extra so the envelopes would arrive sooner than everything else (with the idea being that I would actually get started addressing them sooner. I tried.

I say, "I tried," because my first few envelopes were done with a caligraphy marker... and without me knowing that I was supposed to be doing the full-name-no-abbreviation thing apparently required by formal southern tradition. OH, and I had wanted to do the caligraphy in purple. Apparently, only black is the allowed color. Oops.

So first was a trip to get black caligraphy markers. I came back, did a few envelopes and Tina then informed me (after an hour of addressing) that while these were fine for my friends, it wasn't going to work for her family. I realized that this meant that I was doing it wrong for everyone and was going to have to go back to the store.

See, the marker has a wide tip. I needed to see if there was a smaller version. I found two more black caligraphy markers and returned home to discover that nope, they're the same size. Which meant that I just wasn't going to be able to use markers for this. I was going to have to (insert dramatic pause here)... buy a real caligraphy pen. (I also had to get a "light box" - a little translucent table with a nightlight installed under it - so that I could project guidelines drawn on a piece of paper inserted into the envelopes. This way, it appears that I'm really great at making letters of equal height and in a straight line.)

Three guesses on who doesn't know the first thing about caligraphy pens but had to learn quickly while standing in the aisle of the store! :)

Yes, I found what I thought I wanted, went home and opened the box. These pens aren't the $2 bizillion pens that they used to use for nice writing. They're idiot-proof pens for people like me. I followed the directions to insert the ink cartridge, attach the right "nib" and tried to start the ink flow.

Hmmmm... no ink flowing. I wrote with a down-stroke, an up-stroke, a side-to-side stroke. No flow. I tried a damp paper towel to help siphon the ink down the nip (this is a real suggestion made on the instruction sheet... I didn't just make it up myself). No flow. I tried shaking the pen. No flow. Finally, I shook the pen in sharp downward motions (like I was 'resetting' a thermometer) and then used the paper towel method. Flow.

Now I started addressing. It's an amazing thing to see how small I can get the letters with a real pen.

And today, two weeks after I started (and LONG after the rest of the invitations arrived thus showing us that we wasted a bit of cash on the envelope rush order), the outer envelopes are complete. But only because I did 80 of them yesterday.

So my fingers feel like they're going to shrivel up and fall off.

I had an interesting day yesterday.

I love my car. What I love most is that my car has a bunch of cool gadgetry that makes my driving experience better than farfegnugen. But every once and awhile, some of that cool gadgetry goes Inspector Gadget on me.

The other day was my remote door locks. I have a nifty little feature called Passive Keyless Entry, PKE for short. PKE "senses" the presence of the keyfob and unlocks the door(s) when you approach and then locks the doors when you turn off the car, close the door and walk away.

The fob also has buttons for unlocking/locking the doors and popping the rear hatch. I realized things weren't working the day I turned off the car, pulled the keys out of the ignition and the doors locked me in and then the hatch popped open. Taking the car to the dealer, I found that I had a VERY expensive problem or an even MORE expensive alternative. So luckily for me, I just had the VERY expensive issue.

After a week or so, the car was ready to go. The keyfobs were reprogrammed to the car and the mechanic demonstrated that everything worked as it should... and that my rear hatch shouldn't pop as I'm driving down the highway. Of course, two days later, Tina needed to get in the passenger side of the car and we realized that the passenger door didn't unlock with the driver's door - which it used to do up to this point.

Tina feels like I'm not attentive as a result... and I'm pissed because I felt that the repair folks didn't do their job and I was taking the heat. I grabbed the car's manual, checked the appropriate pages, and saw how there were three PKE settings: Off, Driver's Door Only, Both Doors. I followed the instructions to change the settings to Both Doors. But it didn't work. Nor did it work the next dozen times I tried. Now you've got the background to understand what happened next.

As luck would have it, a lot of my interviewing trips were coming up, so I didn't have time to take it back to the dealer until yesterday. When I talked with the mechanic again, his response was "the car doesn't do that..." and "it's not something I can set up for you...". I pulled out the manual again, showed him where it said it was an easy setting to change.

After a half-hour of talking with other folks there who were supposedly "experts" on this particular vehicle, it was time to call Second Level Support from the Auto Manufacturer because no one there supposedly knew that the PKE system could unlock both doors. After ANOTHER half-hour, we found that there were a few possibilities... most likely it was a short between the ignition and the remote system receiver that was replaced during those expensive repairs. Of course, the only way to prove it was to rip open the dash board and test the wire. So I decided to live with the idea that the system only unlocks the one door for the moment.

But my favorite quote of the day came as I was getting back into the car to go home. The mechanic was smiling, joking about the extent to which they'd have to go to test that one piece of wire. And then, still smiling, he says "you're the only one who wants that setting... everyone else wants us to turn it off so that only one door unlocks...".

And I drove off... but wait a minute, didn't we start this adventure by him telling me that such a setting doesn't exist?

Not much to really talk about these days.

Job hunting is always a trip. I wonder why people post jobs that a)don't exist or b)don't have all the NECESSARY qualifications listed.

The house is still for sale. I've had a LOT of showings. I just keep waiting for a real buyer.

Hunting for jobs is NOT fun. I don't care whether you're looking for an hourly position or a salaried job. Sending out resumes, making cold calls... whatever you're doing, rejections are derigeur. And they're going to come in by the boatload. If you want more, come get some from me. :)

So I'm innocently sitting at my computer the other day and I get an e-mail from Tina. It is a challenge to me to take a "political candidate" test to see who matches up with my personal beliefs. [Quick background note: Tina's pretty far Republican. I'm not. She's also politically inclined. I'm not.]

She taunts me with the idea that Joe Lieberman is actually in the top three of her list. She's doing this to prove to me that I don't know what the various candidates really stand for - and she's right. My test is abysmal. Al Sharpton is the 100% match with my views. Scary. I guess I'll be voting "independent" come November.

In other news, we're going on a double-date with Carmen tomorrow night. She's taking US out with the gift certificate we got her as a Christmas present. That's pretty good return on investment - get to hang out with our friends AND get dinner for free. Cha-ching!

Oh, and house sale news... apparently the person who wants my house is a total home buying newbie. She's completely skittish and doesn't really want to negotiate. But what she has been told to get is $3,000 in closing costs. After about 5 back & forth offers and counteroffers, I finally gave an ultimatum tonight. I'm tired of dealing with this. If she doesn't want the house, that's fine. I'm tired of playing around with her. She is either going to have to pay for it or go find someplace for free (which is apparently what she feels she deserves as a new home buyer). Hehe.

And I got another job offer. In yet another town somewhere other than Raleigh. This is getting out of hand. Why can't someone let me stay here?

Not much happened today except that I made 100 phone calls for HOBY. Each school in North Carolina is invited to send one student to participate in this leadership weekend. But we don't hear from all of them, so we try to followup with them to see if they're going to send anyone. Thus the calls.

It took me three hours or so to do it. My fingers were sore from the dialing. And I got pretty tired of asking to speak with the guidance counselor, too.

And when I wasn't on the phone with a school, I was receiving calls about jobs and about selling my house. You'd better make an offer fast, or the house is going to be gone. :)

I am all for going out and having a good time, but I'm stumped as to why it costs more to go out on a Friday night than a Sunday afternoon.

When I returned from Detroit on Friday night, I mentioned that I wanted to go to Kanki for dinner. It's the nicest Japanese Steak House in Raleigh - and dinner for two starts around $50. Tina was tired and I wasn't doing too well either (still in a suit from the interview). So we talked for a few moments and decided that a Sunday afternoon date would be better.

So we woke up this morning and planned out our date day. We would go to lunch at Kanki, hang around the mall (where the restaurant is) for a little while to kill some time, then go to a matinee showing of Big Fish.

By the end of the afternoon, we'd spent just over $40. Woo hoo! But I still don't understand why it was so much cheaper.

Lunch: $28.00
Snacks purchased at Target rather than the theatre: $1.25
Movie tickets: $11.00
Total: $40.25

So our advice to people who want to do a lot with a little? Stay at home on Friday night, go out on Sunday afternoon. :)

Life can be incredibly unfair at times.

I'm hunting for a new job. I've had interviews all over the country - Atlanta, Los Angeles, Nashville, Washington DC, San Antonio, New York and I've got another one in Detroit tomorrow. Until yesterday, the jobs I get aren't ones I want... the jobs I want aren't ones I get. But all that changed in an instant when I got the job offer of my dreams at a salary higher than I've ever been offered before. But I can't take it because even at that salary, I can't afford to live in the location of the job. They're not willing to let me telecommute (which is something that's possible given what I do), so I'm stuck, because while it APPEARS to be a lot of money, it's really less than what I made here. How's that for bad karma?

Oh well... I keep looking. Maybe something new will come along.

But we finally made it out of the neighborhood yesterday. And as suspected, only my neighborhood still had ice on the streets. The people who live on the road that connects my neighborhood to the main city street have parked their vehicles on the street. They apparently don't care that as a result, the street scrapers can't get by and clear MY block.

But folks are still getting into accidents out there, sliding around on the pavement. I just don't get it. You'd think that even if people were totally unfamiliar with icy roads, it would only take ONE ice storm for them to learn that cars don't have traction on ice. Even four-wheel drive vehicles don't have traction when there's NO tractable surface available for ANY of the wheels to touch.

Unfortunately, they don't. So people die. Sad, really.

Anyways, I have another house showing today. Maybe these people will buy it - no train, ya' know.